Chapter 15

After finishing a recent repair job, Alexander decided to take a break and head down to the terminal to order some supplies as a few of his printer materials were running low. And maybe check his merchant account to see how much money his patent had earned him.When he checked his account, he was surprised to see a message waiting for him.

Hello Mr. Kane,

You don't know me but a mutual Captain friend told me of your improvements. I was skeptical until I checked out your work myself and I must say, impressive.

Before I gush too much, let me introduce myself. My name is Dr. Nova Lund. I run a research institute out past the rim. We study all sorts of theoretical science, but our focus is primarily on improving the speed of travel between stars.

I know there are the hypergates, and humanity has the Alcubierre drive, although you may just know it as the warp or bubble drive. The first is hardly understood and the second is centuries old. Each has its limitations.

We want to break those limitations! This is why we would like to offer you a position within our group. I know this may seem sudden, and it is, but your talents would fit our organization perfectly. We have a lot of theories, but we need someone capable of turning those theories into reality. I think you're just the person to make that happen.

Even if this offer doesn't interest you, here is my personal comm number. If you ever wish to chat about science or other matters, please reach out to me. Those of us who still wish to push the boundaries of science grow fewer every year. We must stick together!

Thank you for your time, Dr. Nova Lund.

Alexander would have done a slow blink if he had eyes. Lund certainly was right, this offer was kind of out of nowhere. And while interesting, he didn't know who this person was, let alone if he could trust them. From the letter, he had a pretty good guess as to who this mutual friend was. The only people that knew of his work were Captain Daniel and his crew. And the few people who had purchased his design improvements. Also… what the hell was a hypergate?

As he perused the net for information about these gates, he thought more about the Doctor's letter. Of course, Alexander knew of faster-than-light capabilities. You didn't build an interstellar empire without the ability to travel faster than light. And he had worked on or near enough ships to see they weren't doing that with their thrusters. He just hadn't known the specifics of how they accomplished this feat. Like the grav-plating, technical manuals for advanced tech like that were way out of his price range.

Although now that he knew, maybe he shouldn't be surprised. He had memories of this Alcubierre drive, and that it was theoretically possible from back when he was human, just not any specifics on the research about it. Usually, the only thing keeping something from going from theoretical to practical was a technological breakthrough of some sort. It was good to know humanity had figured that out. His fragmented memories of Earth didn't paint a very bright picture of humanity's chances of survival from back then.

The hypergate information was likely locked behind a similarly expensive paywall. Except he hadn't even known to look for information on the technology. Most of the information he had purchased focused on human history, recent history specifically. Which is why he had missed this important footnote.

Hypergates were not available in human history archives because humanity hadn't built them. Aliens being real was another revelation. But he didn't have the credits to go diving into that subject at the moment.

As he perused the available documents on hypergates, he realized humanity had stumbled across the structures only forty years after first leaving the Sol system. There were multitudes of research papers written about the objects. But there were no technical documents for purchase. At first, he thought they might be top secret or something, but then why leave the research papers for anyone to purchase?

He purchased a few of these papers and studied them. Funnily enough, one paper was from Dr. Lund. Unfortunately, even the doctor could only speculate on who made them and how they worked. Some seemed to think the shican, a race of feline-like aliens, had built them. However, the other papers rejected this notion because the technology didn't match anything the shicans possessed.

So not only were aliens real, but humanity had encountered at least one species. Alexander really wished he had unlimited credits and time so he could scratch that itch to know more. But he didn't so he quickly moved on.

The leading theory on the hypergates seemed to be they somehow either folded space or created a wormhole between two points. Nobody was quite sure, and the governments that had taken residence in those systems with hypergates, which acted like major hubs for humanity, had strictly forbidden anyone from doing anything that might damage or disable the unknown technology.

It made sense to Alexander. If he controlled a major trade hub, he would want to protect that at all costs. And the fact that nobody knew how to make or fix these hypergates, meant they would lose everything if they stopped working.

Thankfully, he didn't control an entire system, so his opinion was quite different. Alexander certainly wouldn't trust some unknown technology, at least until he knew how to repair it if it broke. Probably not even then until he could recreate it from scratch. Another fact that seemed to get glossed over by most of these papers, but not Lund's, was the fact that the three gates just so happened to be placed in human habitable systems. And they were all within fifteen light years from Earth, yet Sol didn't have a gate.

According to Lund, that clearly showed a preference from whoever built them to avoid humanity even though they were likely very similar to us. The aliens that built the gates probably wouldn't be too thrilled if they found out humanity had coopted them for their own use. Assuming they were still around. There was no evidence to suggest they were.

But that was something way above Alexander's pay grade. He was more interested in the technology behind these hypergates, but nobody had ever risked taking a gate apart for study so there wasn't anything to learn. He sighed. Considering the comments in the research paper, this was probably why Lund was so hell-bent on finding alternatives.

Although even if humanity lost access to these gates, they wouldn't lose much. Travel would certainly be slower to key systems, but it was on the order of months instead of days. It wasn't like it would cause the STO to come crumbling apart. Some systems may struggle if they aren't self-sufficient, but any system with a habitable planet that couldn't sustain itself was probably doomed eventually anyway.

A shift like that may even see humanity enter the next technological revolution. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that.

While it was interesting to postulate the possibilities, Alexander needed to get back to work. He quickly placed his order and headed back to his shop, but not before sending a quick response to Dr. Nova Lund.

Thank you for the kind offer, Dr. Lund, but my current situation necessitates that I remain where I am. However, I would like to take you up on your offer to discuss further scientific theory if you are amenable.

Alexander.

When Alexander returned to his shop, he found a rather bashful Yulia talking with an older lady holding what looked like a toaster. Well, he didn't specify what he would fix.

"Greetings, I hope I didn't make you wait too long."

The woman turned to him and gave him a motherly smile. "Nonsense, Dear. I was just having a nice chat with this lovely young lady here."

Alexander held out his hand, and the woman took it without hesitation. "I'm Alexander. And if she forgot to introduce herself, that is Yulia."

"Yulia? What a lovely name," she winked at the girl, making Yulia smile and blush while turning away. "You can call me Eva. I was told you fix things?"

"That I do," he said opening his door and gesturing for them to come inside.

"OH!" Eva said in surprise as Yulia raced past her to get to her stool.

Alexander chuckled, making his avatar do the same. "Don't mind her. She likes to watch me work as well as study."

"And her parents don't mind?" the older woman whispered. Not that Yulia would have heard her. She was already fixated on the mechanical puzzle Alexander had built for her today.

"She's a ward of the station," Alexander replied sadly.

"Aw, poor child. If I was a decade younger, I might consider adopting, but I'm lucky if I have a few years left in these old bones," she stated simply.

Alexander wasn't going to challenge her assessment, but she hadn't felt weak when they shook. Her grip was firm and calloused. It reminded him more of the workers who brought him items to fix rather than an old granny.

"So, what have you brought me today?"

The woman turned to him and held out the item with a smile that seemed to drive away any melancholy. He had to check his memories for a moment to make sure magic wasn't a thing. Nope, sure wasn't.

"Toaster elements up and died on me."

His first guess was accurate, it was a toaster. He wouldn't make any money on it, but he would fix it all the same.

As he worked to disassemble the device, the woman chatted with him. He didn't mind. He had grown fond of chatting with Yulia so more people to talk to was infinitely better. That being said, the woman sounded a bit lonely.

She kept trying to get him to come over to dinner. He politely refused, not wanting to bring up his cover story.

She switched to talking about her time as a first mate aboard a ship. Then she asked him about himself.

Although Alexander didn't mind, it got a bit uncomfortable since he didn't have much to talk about. So he gave her vague answers until finally telling her that he was essentially trapped in a box that kept him alive. Technically true.

The woman didn't even bat an eye at that, although she did give him a pat on the arm in sympathy.

Alexander told her how he met Yulia. The woman laughed lightly at that. "Children can get up to all sorts of things. Why, I practically raised the Captain's son. I swear if there were something that boy could break, he would find it." seaʀᴄh thё novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"That's cause boys are doo-doo heads," Yulia chimed in happily. She had just finished her puzzle and the little mechanical frog was hopping about the desk.

Eva laughed. "I won't argue with you on that, child."

A few minutes later, Alexander finished reassembling the toaster. "All done," he said, pushing the device across the counter.

"Thank you, Dear. How much do I owe ya?"

"It's on the house, Eva. Call it thanks for the wonderful stories."

She shook her head. "That wouldn't be right. Work deserves pay." She pulled out a credit chip and set it on the table.

Alexander went to hand it back to her, but she gave him a disapproving frown that made him feel like some misbehaving child. "I won't take no for an answer."

"…Um… Thank you, Eva."

Her frown turned back into a smile. "You are welcome, Alexander. And it was wonderful meeting you. You as well Yulia."

The girl turned bashful again.

The woman gave one last wave before walking out with her repaired toaster.

After Eva left, he turned to Yulia. "How come you were acting so withdrawn?"

She shrugged. "Dunno."

He sighed internally but left it at that.