Weave-jump

Meli’a blushed a deep red in response to Dustin’s question. “Umm. Well. Velca tradition would indicate that after mutual attraction had been confirmed by either a statement of intent or experimental evidence we should wait a period of days before repeating the test after which further activities would ensue. Human tradition on the other hand is very difficult to follow; I’ve watched multiple videos in the hopes of getting a clearer picture. But I don’t think we can delay the mission for you to meet my parents, the plumbing on board is under AI control and is fully fitted with repair systems so no manual repairs are likely, we’ve just left my home station and in any case it is a long time before the winter season on Velca prime, and I don’t believe there’s any food delivery vessels nearby.”

Dustin looked at his chief science officer for a moment, eyes flicking to her ears to see if she was trying to tell a joke. With a sigh, he sat down next to her. “You really have watched a lot of human videos on the subject of relationships haven’t you? That was quite a range of styles to be comparing; perhaps we should ignore anything we know about our own cultures and figure something out for ourselves?” He rubbed the back of his head and added “to tell the truth, I’ve never been particularly good at getting into relationships in the first place. My last girlfriend was introduced to me by people I know, and that didn’t last very long. And most of the ones before that were varying levels of disaster from clumsy to a we-can’t-visit-this-pub-again level of terrible.” Meli’a’s ears flickered as she smiled at him, before nodding. “Figuring it out would be good. Practical research in interspecies relationship formation within mixed human crews. I believe in that case, the correct human expression might be ‘your place or mine?’”

Before Dustin could reply however, a chime announced Sola was about to speak - causing both the Velca and the human to flinch backwards from each other as if they’d been caught doing something rude. “Captain, apologies for interrupting your debriefing of the chief science officer. We have just received word from system traffic control that there is an emergency requiring use of our predefined departure point and time. We have been asked to speed up our departure and rerouted. I have adjusted course, but I require you and the science officer on the bridge in five minutes to chart the course.” Even as the voice came through the speakers, Dustin could feel the vibrations as the engines were pushed into high gear - something they’d not done before due to wanting to give Earth a good show on departure, and being under Velca traffic control on arrival.

Meli’a’s ears flicked into “deep frustration” for a moment, before returning to neutral as she put a hand on Dustin’s knee. “Amusing accidental pun by the AI aside, I believe we should postpone experimentation until after you have conducted the first human-weave jump. While the mood was taking us in one direction, a clear indication of human potential is the more logical action for us to take. We are headed to Rabythion, correct? In that case, as you said before we’ll have a good amount of time in a bunk before arrival.” Dustin noted that she’d not said “in our bunks” even as she retrieved her hand and stood up; she was still clearly having a hard time trying to manage the different demands of her passion for humans - for him in particular it now seemed - and her professionalism as a Velca scientist. With whatever moment had been between them seeming to have passed for the time being however Dustin coughed and stood up alongside her. “Right. Jump first, other things later. Let’s head to the bridge.”

The bridge when the pair arrived was showing a rapidly approaching marker seemingly arbitrarily placed in the void of space. “Departure point closing Captain. Please access weave-jump controls from your chair.” Sola’s voice was softer here with her voice coming from the wider range of speakers on deck. Dustin stepped towards his chair, paused for a second and then turned back. “Carry on, Chief Science Officer” he said, at which the Velca nodded before heading to her own station. Sinking into the comfort of the captain’s chair, Dustin tapped at the built-in panel. Behind him, he heard the hiss as the weave-scan arms extended, one on either side of his head. “Let me know when we are at our destination, and activate galactic highlight for Rabythios please Sola. Weave-control locked and ready for activation.”

A moment later the ship gave the faintest of lurches as it came to a standstill, and the displays flickered to a dull gray, with only a single pulsing green dot on one side indicating the star that was their planned destination. Dustin glanced at Meli’a as he gave another order. “Raise weave-route hologram, show current planned routes.” His companion tapped her console, and holographic projectors illuminated a dashed line bouncing between a series of smaller green dots extending from Dustin’s chair to the target on the wall. “Current best projection, 8 jumps from Velca space Captain. All jumps are drop-in-drop-out so no system transit, but the engines will need to spin down and back up between jumps to avoid the risk of hull fatigue or failure.”

“Alright” Dustin said, gripping his chair tight with one hand and preparing to activate the weave-scan with the other. “Let’s see what this looks like to a human.” And with that, he pressed the button. At first, nothing happened - and then the world around him fell away leaving him floating in a hazy gray void. For a moment, he could see nothing besides the gray - and then it darkened to pitch black and he couldn’t see anything at all. Just as he was starting to worry that something had gone wrong and that he’d need to try and alert Meli’a to disconnect the weave-scan, light bloomed around him. At first one, then another, then a maze of interconnecting threads scanning out from his location. So many he couldn’t see them all - they merged into one another in pools of light.

Dustin’s head felt like it was on fire, but what little weave training he had been given kicked in; General Axworth’s voice echoing in his head. “As far as they’ll tell us, the weave reacts to your thoughts. How much you can see and where is linked to species, but if you focus on a destination point it’ll narrow down the threads to those that head the right way. Then it’s down to the navigator’s skill to figure out which one to take.” And so Dustin concentrated. At first, nothing happened - and then the lights began to dim as threads faded from his view until at last only a handful remained. One of these followed the path that Meli’a had brought up, one flickered in and out - Dustin had been warned about those by Re’x, they were dangerous routes that passed close to high gravitational masses - a handful zig-zagged around and were clearly worse than the route they already had - but one path… Dustin focused on that one thread intently. It became clearer, expanding until it filled his vision - and suddenly he found himself staring at the view screens again. “Weave-jump path locked. Warning, path is new and uncharted. Do you wish to deploy a drone?” Meli’a hit a button on her console, seemingly approving the launch as Sola confirmed that the drone was now jumping to test the path. The Velca scientist’s expression however was one of shock. Mouth open in the human style, ears straight up in the Velca style, she gaped at Dustin for a moment before shaking her head. Dustin raised an eyebrow quizzically, trying to work out the meaning of her sudden amazement. “A single jump from Velca Prime to Rabythion. That’s fantastic; it’ll clear up one of the conditions of the mission with our first jump, about finding new paths with a significant species or economic value. But more than that - the amount of paths on the terminal. You overflowed the buffers!”