CHAPTER 16

  “We’ll start from the top down,” Matt announced as we departed the flight deck. “Head Case isn’t a big ship, so it won’t take long. When we reach the lounge, I’ll fetch the paperwork and we can make everything official.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I replied, doing my best to ignore Ixy scurrying across the deck behind us. The clattering of her many legs served as a constant reminder that I had what amounted to a giant spider hugging my six. Spiders didn’t normally creep me out like they apparently did Alyssa, but then, Earth spiders didn’t weigh hundreds of pounds. “I’m especially interested in seeing the hyperdrive.”

  Matt glanced back at me, wrinkling his face. “We’ll have to check on that. Meg and Leo are working on repairs. That area might be off limits right now.”

  I didn’t let the minor disappointment temper the rest of my improving mood. “It’s not the end of the world if I don’t see it.”

  We boarded the elevator, which was already on our deck. Matt hit the button to send us up to Deck Seven. We arrived quickly, the doors opening out beneath the dome of the ship’s skull. Being what I imagined was the smallest deck on the ship, Seven didn’t have any bulkheads beyond the superstructure, leaving the outer plating bare across almost the entire area. As before, there were score marks in the metal, creating an interesting pattern along the overhead. Noticing how the lines passed from one bolted-on plate to another without interruption left me certain that either one of the crew members was in the midst of creating an artistic masterpiece, or the marks served a purpose I couldn’t yet fathom.

  “I probably don’t need to say it, but Deck Seven is where the Primary Control System is stored,” Matt explained. “Levi, say hello to our guests.”

  “Hello, Katzuo, T-bone, and All-red,” the AI replied.

  Matt smirked at her reply while glancing at Alyssa. “All-red? That’s an interesting username.”

  “If you’d seen her alternate X account, you’d understand,” Tyler replied before she could answer.

  It was just as well. She seemed shocked by Matt’s direct address, and she stumbled to find even simple words while her face made good on her callsign. “Oh. Uh… yeah.” She paused to glare at Tyler with dagger eyes. “My online personas are always redheads. So, All-red.”

  “Why not Ginger?” Matt followed up.

  I imagined that during the course of normal conversation with anyone who wasn’t Matt, such a question would have elicited a scathing reply. In his case, she just blushed harder. “Too common,” she replied simply. “Depending on the generation of the online creeper, you’re either from Gilligan’s Island, Dr. Who, or somehow related to Ed Sheeran.”

  Matt laughed. “Point made. I should have thought of that.”

  He said something else to her afterward, but I had stopped paying attention as my eyes settled on the PCS unit. A square black box as tall and wide as me, it had a number of thick cables spewing out from the base and vanishing into the deck and overhead, the appearance similar to what an octopus might look like in Minecraft. I almost laughed out loud picturing it with large eyes painted on the sides, and maybe wearing a top hat. A few flashing LEDs proved it was constantly crunching data at a rate I could barely imagine. “How many FLOPS does it do?” I asked.

  “Huh?” Matt replied.

  “FLOPS,” I repeated. “Floating Point Operations. How many does it do?”

  “He’s asking what Levi’s processing speed is,” Tyler translated from my geek-speak.

  “Oh.” Matt shrugged. “I have no idea. I can tell you this is an upgraded unit from the original. Levi, what’s your processing speed?”

  “Fifty-one point four exaFLOPS,” she replied.

  My jaw went slack. “Are you serious? That’s fifty times faster than the fastest supercomputer on Earth. And you’re tiny.”

  “Thank you. I’ve been trying to lose weight.”

  Tyler laughed. “I always wanted to hang on a starship with a snarky AI.”

  “I’m not snarky. My prior iteration weighed nearly two hundred kilograms more than this form, at twenty percent of the processing speed. It also had a very limited voice module. Would you like to hear me sing?”

  “Maybe later,” Tyler answered.

  “I think you’re amazing, Levi,” I said.

  “Thank you, Noah.”

  “Levi’s different subprocesses handle everything onboard, from the lighting to the targeting systems for the guns, to the hyperspace field compression calculations,” Matt said. “We wouldn’t be able to get along without her.”

  “And I wouldn’t exist without you,” Levi answered. “I believe that makes us even.”

  “It does,” Matt agreed. “Come on, I’ll show you Deck Six.” He turned for the elevator.

  “Before we go,” I said, freezing him in his tracks. “What’s the deal with the lines on the interior of the hull?”

  He turned his head my way, looking at me like I had asked him to solve the Riemann hypothesis. “That…uh…well…” He shook his head. “I’ll have to punt that question over to Ben. He can answer it a lot better than me. Sorry.”

  “No problem. I’ll ask Ben later.”

  Matt continued walking, but I sensed a shift in his demeanor like he had hoped I wouldn’t notice the lines. As if.

  “See you later, Levi,” I said, following Matt back toward the elevator, where Ixy had remained during the quick stop.

  “You don’t have to say goodbye, man,” Tyler said. “She’s the ship’s brain. She’s on every deck.”

  “Talk to you soon, Levi,” I added, just to needle him for the comment.

  We piled back into the elevator, which barely had to move to get us to Six. Again, we exited onto the deck while Ixy remained behind. I imagined she had no need for the tour. So why had she tagged along?

  The question was forgotten as the centerpiece of the deck caught my attention. “What is that?” I asked, rushing ahead of Tyler and Alyssa to feast my eyes on a metal cylinder positioned just below the PCS on the deck above. Looking through the tinted window, I stared at a blue-hued orb of pure energy hanging free in the center of the container.

  “That’s Head Case’s power source,” Matt replied. “A fusion reaction creates a miniature star within a magnetic containment field. Those two dark boxes on either side of the cylinder stabilize everything using the energy provided from the star. David built it.”

  “Who’s David?” I asked.

  “Ben’s brother-in-law. He’s a smart guy.”

  I looked from the mini-star to the two black boxes. They had been shoehorned into an available space between two other machines flanking the open floor plan. One I guessed was life support since it appeared to sit between a pair of ventilation pipes. The other three were harder to discern.

  “Deck Six is home to all of our critical systems. Power, gravity, life support. And the main engines.” He pointed behind me, so I whirled around, excited to see a pair of thick columns wrapped by wires, pipes, and tubes. Chunky terminals on the outer sides each sported a screen displaying flowing lines of numbers that only David would probably understand. The two columns deployed their pipes and wiring aft, where some vanished through the rear bulkhead and others disappeared into the deck. “The thrusters are fully external,” Matt explained. “The two mains are mounted outside and down at the inward curve of the skull. There are also two smaller thrusters at the base of the skull behind the hangar that help achieve tighter vectoring arcs.”

  “Fully external?” Tyler said. “How do you fix them when they break?”

  “Fortunately, they don’t break very often. If one does, someone needs to do an EVA to do the repair.”

  “You mean someone has to go outside and do a real spacewalk?”

  “With space suits and everything,” Matt confirmed.

  “I totally want to do that.”

  “We lost one of the thrusters in the attack, so I might be able to arrange it.”

  “Really? Don’t tease me.”

  “Consider it a token of good will for your inconvenience.”

  “Noah, do you want in on this?” Tyler asked.

  “Definitely,” I answered.

  “Ally?”

  “I’m game.” Her face suddenly pinched up. “I guess.”

  Matt laughed. “I’ll see what I can do. We just need⁠—“

  “—to wait for Ben,” I finished for him. “Got it.”

  “I thought you were co-owners?” Tyler asked. “Why does he need to approve everything?”

  “We are, but while he’s on board he’s in charge. That’s what we agreed to back when we bought Head Case. I’m usually in charge of ground ops.”

  “Ben said you’re from Earth, right?”

  “Yeah. Modesto, California.”

  “So how did you end up buying a starship?”

  “A real starship,” I added, the distinction important in my mind.

  “That’s a really long story,” Matt answered. “Maybe we’ll get into the details later. The point is, Ben and I are on the same page when it comes to chain-of-command. Seeing that he’s also my best friend, I’d never renege on that deal. Anyway, now that you’ve seen Six, let’s keep going.”

  We trailed him back to the elevator. He directed the cab to Deck Five, but when the doors opened, Ixy pushed me gently aside so she could exit.

  “Excussssse meeessss,” she said, exiting the elevator. I would have followed her out if Matt hadn’t grabbed my arm.

  “We’re not disembarking here,” he said.

  “But you didn’t show us the deck.”

  “Five doesn’t contain anything you need to see,” Matt replied. “Ixy’s web is in the front, along with a bunch of sand. I think Meg and Leo are working in the rear of the deck. We just stopped here so Ixy could get off.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Of course, I was disappointed not to see everything, but the PCS and the copy of Doc Ock’s Fusion Reactor had already set my world on fire.

  “Why is there sand on a starship?” Alyssa asked. “Do you have a beach in there, too?”

  Matt forced a chuckle. “It belonged to a prior owner. It’s a hassle to get it all out, and we don’t need the space, so we just left it there.”

  “Uh-huh,” she answered suspiciously. “What did the prior owner use it for?”

  “I honestly don’t know.”

  “I see.”

  “What, you don’t believe him?” Tyler asked.

  “I want to,” she answered, turning back to Matt. “But I feel like there’s a lot you aren’t telling us.”

  “You aren’t wrong,” Matt answered. “But I’m not under any obligation to tell you everything, and you have no right to expect it. You’re visitors here. Guests. We want you to have a great experience, but that doesn’t include prying into every facet of our operation and history.”

  “Ouch. Burn,” Tyler teased, putting up his hands in mock defense when Alyssa turned her daggers his way. “I was just joking with you.”

  “Sorry, Matt,” she said, returning her attention to her crush. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have pushed. I apologize.”

  He waved off the concession. “Don’t worry about it. I think that encounter with the other starship left us all a little on edge.”

  “You can say that again.”

  We reached Deck Four. We’d already seen the flight deck, but Matt brought us to the other side of the elevator to show us more of Head Case’s guts in the form of cables, pipes, wires, and large boxes that carried out various subtasks like waste filtration and assembly. After his response to Alyssa over the sand, I decided not to ask him about anything he mentioned. If he didn’t tell us up front, I figured either it wasn’t important, or he didn’t want us to know.

  We headed for Deck Three. Riding the elevator down, I noticed a strange tingling sensation like an electromagnetic charge that rippled through my entire body, leaving my arm hairs standing on end by the time the cab doors slid open. “Did you feel that?” I asked.

  “Feel what?” Tyler replied.

  “It was kind of like sticking my finger in a low-powered wall outlet,” I replied.

  “I didn’t feel anything,” Alyssa added.

  “Matt?” I asked.

  “Maybe you accumulated some static electricity from the carpeting.”

  “It went through my entire body,” I answered. “And I didn’t touch anything to cause a discharge.”

  He responded with a shrug. “We’ll come back to Three to go over the contract. I’m just showing you the level so you don’t worry about me skipping another deck.” He tapped the elevator controls, closing the cab doors again. Directing it to Deck Two, we descended once more. Thankfully, the shocking sensation didn’t recur.

  I had a sense that something was wrong the moment the elevator slowed to a stop, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. A glance at Matt suggested he had picked up on something, too. He tapped on the control panel as the cab doors slid open.

  “What’s on this deck?” Alyssa asked, glancing over at Matt while heading for the exit.

  Except the deck wasn’t there. Instead, what appeared to be a twenty-foot drop between the cab and the deck below.

  “Ally!” I cried, as she went to step out. Suddenly realizing her dilemma, she lost her balance, windmilling her arms to regain it. I lunged for her, my arm snaking around her waist. I threw my weight backward, pulling her with me, away from the edge. Matt caught us both before we could fall.

  “What the hell?” Allyssa cried. All four of us looked out through the open doors, the passageway in front of us looming larger than life in comparison to our heights.

  “Is it just me, or did we shrink?” Tyler asked.

  CHAPTER 17

  I stared wide-eyed at the impossibly huge corridor leading away from the elevator doors, my thoughts racing nearly as fast as when we plunged into the spacetime rift.

  "What the hell happened?" Tyler demanded.

  "I don't know." Matt's stunned expression morphed quickly into confused concern. He tapped his comm badge. "Meg? Leo? Something’s up with the elevator.”

  “Matt?” Meg replied. “What do you mean? You sound funny.”

  “We’re on Deck Two, but we’re still half-sized.”

  “Uh, that’s not good.”

  “Yeah, no kidding.”

  “Standby, I’ll check the system.”

  Matt glanced over at us. We were all looking back at him by now, confusion etched across our faces.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Tyler shrieked. “I’m freaking tiny, man!”

  “Don’t blow a gasket, Tee,” Matt replied. “The system’s designed to scale us down on Deck Three and back up again as we pass through. That didn’t happen. Meg will find out why and fix it.”

  Tyler laughed nervously. “I think we need a little more explanation on this one. You can’t just change a person’s size like you change your underwear.”

  Matt’s badge beeped. “Matt, access logs show the elevator’s supercapacitor is fully drained. It discharged as you passed from Deck Four to Deck Three.”

  “How is that possible?” Matt replied, holding up a hand toward us to keep us silent.

  “I’m not sure yet. You know my understanding of how the sigils work is relatively limited. Keep always said the self-contained unit in the lift didn’t need maintenance and wouldn’t use much power. I need to run additional diagnostics to figure out why that didn’t hold true.”

  "Sigils?" Tyler muttered into my ear. "This is getting weirder and weirder."

  “How could he be so wrong?” Matt responded. “The capacitor is supposed to have enough juice for hundreds of cycles. If it broke…” He shook his head. “I don’t even want to go there. Can you recharge the battery?”

  “It’s already recharging, and keeping it powered from the reactor shouldn’t be a problem. But it means a delay moving in or out of Deck Three.”

  “At least that’s just temporary,” Matt said, relief clear in his tone. “Can we add another capacitor?”

  “We don’t have any spares right now, but we can pick some up next time we go home. Anyway, that’s a hack, not a solution. For now, I recommend returning to Deck Three. Everything should be reset by the time you’re ready to head down to Deck Two.”

  “Copy that. Thanks, Meg.” Matt tapped his comm badge to end the call. He turned to the controls, directing the elevator back up to Three.

  “Two questions,” I said. “One, if the elevator cab is half-size in the shaft, how is it still functional? And two, what did Meg mean by sigils?”

  “The elevator uses gravitational control mechanisms to move through the shaft. Basically, unequal gravitational adjustment, pushing and pulling, from either end, with enough friction to hold it laterally in place. Sigils…” he trailed off with a sigh. “I know this doesn’t come close to the day you’ve had, Noah. But compared to how smoothly things usually run around here, we’re getting kicked in the teeth on this one.”

  The elevator slowed to a stop and I braced myself, unsure what awaited us. The doors whisked open, revealing Deck Three at proper scale, at least from our viewpoint. Allie bolted out, nearly bowling Matt over in her haste. I joined Tyler in scurrying after her, my thoughts still racing, trying to keep up with everything I had experienced in less than twenty-four hours. I tried to ignore the subconscious fear of my mental outcome once my mind grasped everything that had happened.

  Matt faced us wearing a look two parts apology, one part embarrassment. "I’m sorry this is happening to you. I know you're all pretty freaked out.”

  "No kidding!" Alyssa huffed. "I could have been hurt! We shrank! That's impossible!"

  “You’re actually still shrunk,” Matt said, wincing in anticipation of Ally’s continued panic. When she remained silent, he drew a deep breath, visibly centering himself. “Something's glitching, but you heard Meg. We just need to wait for the supercapacitor to recharge before moving off Deck Three. The scaling sigil should be fine in no time.”

  "Glitching?" Tyler challenged. "Elevators don't glitch people into midgets, Matt. That's not a software bug.”