Chapter 2

“Give me a moment to locate and capture the other two,” I told Bossy.

“How will you do that?” she asked.

Adam projected a video of where Huey was hiding on the inside of my dome shaped helmet. I made a peace sign, and drew a circle in the air. I reached thru, grabbed him by the collar of his clothes, and pulled him thru, dropping him at her feet.

“I’m a master dimensional engineer,” I said with a big smile.

It took just a moment to find Dewey, he was running, so I drew a circle in the air above my head. Moments later he fell thru, into a circle of waiting officers.

“Perhaps later I can show you the list of our most wanted criminals.”

“For now, let’s head to my world and free the hijacked colonists.”

I drew a circle, and led her and three others thru a gate back to the ship. The return to full Earth gravity was mildly disorienting for a couple of seconds for me. For Bossy and her crew, it just about put them on their butts.

“Do you know where everything is?” I asked her.

“Yes, the stasis chamber is always in the center of the ship.”

“Oh? Why is that?” I asked, curiously.

“To protect the people inside from radiation and the vacuum of space,” she explained.

‘Adam, that sounds stupid. Can anybody open it up, and are they really in danger in there?’

“Urgomax use the pocket dimension primarily as a stasis chamber for the transport of citizens. It’s a technological process that uses discovered pocket universes. The device that opens the pocket never completely closes it, it has to feed it a constant stream of energy to keep it from collapsing.”

‘Why doesn’t it close completely?’

“Minor misunderstanding of the math resulted in flawed equipment. They don’t understand how to anchor a pocket universe, so they must keep it open so the doorway holds it in place. If they understood how to anchor the pocket, they could let it close completely.”

‘I thought that if the door was open then the interior conformed to the local universe.’

“It’s mostly shut, which is enough to cause the pocket to express its individual characteristics at 99%.”

‘So instead of a full time stop, it’s been a huge time slowdown?’

“A full time stop is an impossibility. Your food storage pocket has one second pass every billion years or so. They are only achieving about 1 million to 1, but that’s 1 second every 11.5 days.”

An unfamiliar Urgomax with bright iridescent red hair like plumage came stomping up, “Are you the creature that rescued us?”

“I am Samwise Gamgee Peregrin Took Atwood, Master dimensional engineer,” I said introducing myself, “When your captors landed on my world, I arranged for their transport and arrest by the authorities of your people.”

“I’m <untranslatable screeching> and I thank you. I understand you can create gates to other places?”

‘Call this one Scrooge,’ I told Adam.

“I offered your captors transport back for all of you in exchange for the ship. I understand it is damaged, and not capable of flying you to your destination.”

“If you make that where we were headed instead, then you’ve got yourself a deal.”

“I can place you there, but I’ll need a picture of the place to find it,” I told him.

“I’m sure we have that in the ship computers. I can leave you the ship, but we will need all our supplies. We were to be the first full colony construction team on the planet. Only explorers have been there previously.”

“I’ll want pictures so I can verify later that it was not the ship’s equipment that you took with you, but that’s fine. I know I can trust you, because you know I’ll be able to find you wherever in the universe you go.”

His four eyes went wide, “Yes, dimensional engineers do have a reputation.”

I put out a hand to shake, “Since we happen to be on my world, I suggest a legally binding hand shake.”

He thrust out his hand in imitation, I grabbed his, gave it a good pump, and let go, “Now by the customs and laws of my world, we have a deal.”

“Excellent, so where did we end up?”

“I’m not sure what you call it, but for us it’s just home, but sometimes it goes by Sol 3, or Earth.”

“Never heard of it. We were on our way to the colony. I don’t know where that is from here. Let me check on getting that picture for you.”

I took him a few moments to find a picture he wanted, which he displayed on a screen on the bridge. Along with a map, he pointed out where the ship was supposed to land, offload the construction equipment, and workers.

‘Adam, could I teleport the ship? I teleported my clothes previously.’

“I see no obstacle, especially if you are attached via the Orb,” he replied just to me.

Scrooge watched me as I talked silently with Adam, I pretended I was in thought.

“Ok Scrooge, better hold on to something,” I warned.

I reached out with my left hand, grabbing the bulkhead wall at the side of the bridge. Tiny needles pierced the thin membrane glove that disguised that my left hand and a good chunk of my arm was not flesh anymore. The bright brass colored material would be a certain giveaway.

I locked onto the ship, holding it perfectly still. I concentrated, reaching that zen connection where I was fully in tune with the bond and the Orb. A brief thought about where we needed to be, and the ship, everyone and everything inside, moved a few thousand light years.