The Factory
“I flew my ship over to the Cascadia and surrendered” I said “I spent two years in “De-briefing” and then they conscripted me into the Peacekeepers.”
“Wow!” Dallas said ” a bonafied war hero!”
” Nothing heroic about war. Just a bunch of people getting killed because someone up the food chain is having a spat with someone else up the food chain.”
“Your military training will be of great use to us.” The librarian said.
“I’m listening”
A 3Dmap materialized in front of her showing several galaxies. she gestured and one galaxy moved in exploding in to millions of starts. Two stars at opposite ends of the galaxy blinked in different colors.
“There are several gates in this galaxy, all which lead to this one. We track all of them, and receive diagnostic information from them constantly.” She zoomed into one of the blinking dots.
” One of the gateways is not responding” she said ” The library and the local gate are curious as to why. We have sent several drones, but none have returned.”
“What would you like me to do?”
” We want you to go to the location and do some reconnaissance.”
” How? You said the gate at that end is broken, and I don’t think the captain will give me permission to take his ship. Even with the Spoop drives light hopping ability, It would probably take several thousand years to get there.”
“We can build a ship to your specifications. We can equip it with the same transfer engine as a gate, but an autonomous one. It will be tethered to this gate, but we can “throw” you at the other gates location. Travel time would be seven to nine of your daily cycles”
” It took us years to build our ship” I said “How long will it take you?”
“When will you be ready to go?” she asked smiling. she gestured down the hallway where a panel slid in leading to another room
We climbed aboard a small transport and proceeded to fly down into the bowels of the Library.
“We have several manufacturing areas on the Library” she said ” We harvest raw material from this system and use it to create anything we need.”
I was too dumbfounded by the view to say anything coherent, and all that came out of Dallas was a squeak. every corner we turned brought in a new astounding view.
We finally we came around a solid part of the ship into a massive open structure.
“This is the factory.” the librarian said, “We can build your ship here.”
“Holy shite!” I said ” My flabber is truly gasted!”
Dallas squeaked again
There was what looked like a small particle floating in space. The librarian piloted us over there. It turned out to be the size of the Spengler. We floated inside and dropped gently to the floor. The front of the ship dissolved and we walked towards a console overlooking the factory.
“Which one of you wants to design the ship?”
“ME!” Dallas yelled immediately. “OH!!! PICK ME!”
He was waving his arms around like he wanted to be on someones sports team.
” You know how to design a ship?” I asked one eyebrow raising.
” Of course! Who doesn’t?”
” Well I know that I don’t. I don’t even know how they work, so have at ‘er.”
He walked towards the console. “What do I do?”
A panel opened and there was what looked like a tub of orange jelly underneath it.
” Picture the ships design in your mind and put your hands into the link gel” she said.
Dallas closed his eyes stood that way for a moment, then stuck his hands in. Nothing happened for a almost a minute, then lights started coming on all over the console.
“The system is calibrating” The librarian said, then she shut her eyes for a moment. ” Good,” she said opening her eyes. “A good choice. The library has found documentation and schematics on the Spengler’s data core. We can proceed. ”
Below us the factory came to life. Bits and pieces flowed throw the spaces of other bits and pieces, and things began to interlock. Rapidly a ship was being built right in front of our eyes.
“This will take about two of your cycles” she said “Shall I take you back to the others so that you may prepare for the journey?”
Alice
“I don’t like this idea,” Alice said “Why you?”
“Mostly because of my years in the military doing covert recon I guess” I was throwing clothing into a bag. “That and the fact that I’m expendable.”
“I still don’t like it” I imagined her stamping her foot in frustration. “I don’t trust that twelve foot tart any further than I can throw her!”
” Am I detecting a hint of jealousy here?”
” If I had hands, I’d be slapping you into next week!” She said ” You just like her because she walks around naked and has boobs the size of your incredibly fat head!”
“Yep…Jealous” I said zipping up the bag. “I’m only gone for a week or two. You can live without me that long can’t you?”
she was silent for a moment.
“I don’t want to” she said quietly.
I didn’t have a response to that.
Suddenly the captain was on the comm ” Mr McDougall, It seems your ship is ready.”
I met up with Dallas and we grabbed the same shuttle as before and the library guided it down to the factory. Dallas was as jumpy as a hyper sugared toddler.
“This is going to be great!” he said, I had my doubts.
We rounded the last corner and floated into the factory space, and there it was in all it’s splendor.
“Whats with the “NCC 1701 G” on the top?”
“That’s for authenticity” He said. There were tears of joy in his eyes.
