Chapter 392

Jeff held the door open to the building in front of Ship, then followed Ada and Charlotte through. As soon as the door closed and they had walked a few feet, they were in snow again.

“Every time I see this ... building it just seems weird,” Ada said as she unconsciously took Jeff’s hand while trying to look behind her. “It looks so real from the outside. I mean, you actually held the door open for us, but when I look back, there’s just open snow, the Escalade sitting there, the parking lot farther back, then the Retreat. How can it be so real, yet not be there?”

Jeff smiled at her. “I think it was Arthur C. Clarke who said that ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’.”

“I just can’t seem to fathom it. I...”

“If the building bothers you, wait until you see Ship’s range,” he said with a chuckle while reaching to take Charlotte’s hand as well. “Come on, Ladies. I hope you will get a kick out of this.”

While walking up the ramp, he went on, “I’ve spent a lot of time playing around with my TK, and after ... well, a couple of mishaps, shall we say, my Clan Queen suggested that I move my experiments with TK to Ship. Not only would there be less damage to the Retreat, but Ship can ‘protect me from myself’,” he quoted his mate with a grin.

After they stepped through Ship’s hatch and hung their coats up, she greeted them before Jeff told her, “We need to use your firing range.”

“Yes, My Prime.”

“This way,” he said as he led them down a corridor.

After a little way, Ada glanced at Jeff as he walked between the women. “Okay. I think I know what you’re talking about, but to be sure, just what is TK?”

But Charlotte answered, instead. “I saw a program about it on TV. TK stands for telekinesis. Right, Jeff?” When he agreed, she went on, “But it is just speculation and it has never been reliably proven, at least that was the end result of the investigation I saw on that particular program. Oh, several people have supposedly seen or done it, but no one could do it when the investigators set up their equipment.“

There was a slight hesitation before Charlotte hastily went on, “But... several of your wives have mentioned it as if it’s real. They say that you even put up Christmas decorations on the outside of the Retreat with it – way up high. So ... I have to believe them. And there is that building out there,” she said, waving her hand toward where she thought the building was. “After seeing that, I can believe anything.”

“Well, I still have only a faint idea what TK is,” Ada admitted.

“It suppose to be moving things with your mind,” Charlotte told her mother.

“Oh, my goodness. That’s what I thought. Can you really do that?” she asked Jeff.

“Come on,” the Prime said, refusing to answer them, but instead, encouraged them down another corridor. “You’re making a mountain out of a mole hill. It’s just something I do – well, make that something I’m learning to do. It’s no big deal.”

Ada chuckled nervously. “He’s saying that as we’re walking through an invisible ship that talks to us.”

They finally stopped at another of the strange doorways that Jeff called hatches. “Uh, ladies, you have to remember that this is a dimensional ship.”

“You’ve mentioned that before,” Charlotte remarked, “but I confess. I have no real idea what you mean. I assume from some of the things I’ve heard you say, that Ship can travel between the dimensions – whatever they are. I vaguely remember something one of the instructors said in a math class about possible other dimensions. Something about a proof that at least nine other dimensions exists – at least mathematically. Is that what you mean?”

Jeff smiled at her. “In a way. There are many dimensions, and they exist physically as well as mathematically, and yes, Ship can travel between them and use them in other ways, as well, but what I’m referring to now is a bit different. Uh ... I needed someplace where I could test my TK. Test it while pushing a steel ball at a very high velocity – an appreciable percentage of the speed of light. Diana was exaggerating about blowing up mountains, but it does ... tear up the countryside a bit too much to do around the retreat.”

“It tears up the countryside too much in all those mountains covered in nothing but snow?” Charlotte repeated as she looked first at her mom, then Jeff.

“Uh, just imagine a giant bubble from another dimension, and within that bubble is a planet that’s on the other side of that hatch,” he said, nodding. “There’s no animal life on the planet at all, just plants, but it has an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere in the right proportions to sustain human life. A perfect place to do my tests. And, well, Ship even puts a force field between me and what the balls strike, in case things get out of hand.”

“But surely there can’t really be another planet behind that door or hatch, or whatever you call it?” Ada halfway asked. “I suppose you mean like on Star Trek, where they had a room they called a holodeck. Something like that, right?”

But Jeff was shaking his head as he grinned. “No fake. No holograph, although she is certainly capable of something like the show depicted, but Ladies, this is real. It really is another planet in another dimension.”

“So, you’re saying that Ship is going to take us to another planet ... in some other dimension?” a doubtful Ada worried, her voice a bit strained.

Jeff showed no expression, but just returned, “That’s it in a nutshell, except that we don’t have to go anywhere other than stepping through that hatch. Ship doesn’t leave Earth.”

“But we do when we go through that hatch?” Charlotte said with obvious doubt.

Jeff’s grin got bigger. “Ready to go to another world?”

“I’m not sure that...” And at Jeff’s mental command, Ship opened the hatch and a blast of hot, dry air hit them.

“Let’s go, Ladies,” he said as he grabbed their hands and took them through, both of the women sucking in a quick breath at the odd feeling as they crossed the threshold.

“Oh ... my ... goodness,” both said as they stopped to stare.

“The colors are so ... strange,” Ada whispered.

Charlotte motioned to the low foliage just in front of them. “And look at the plants and those leaves – if those things are leaves.”

“And the smell. Nothing bad, but ... strange,” Ada very quietly said. Then as she looked up, “Oh, my goodness. The sun looks enormous and it has a blue cast.”

“So you believe now?” Jeff asked them.

“It would take a fool to think this is Earth,” Ada adamantly replied.

“Absolutely,” Charlotte agreed.

With a thought to Ship, a small table appeared just in front of them with boxes containing various sizes of steel balls sitting on its surface. “My ammo,” he said with a chuckle.

“So, you’re not going to use the balls on your belt?” Ada asked.

“Actually, they’re the same as in the box here,” Jeff said, motioning to the box of half-inch steel balls. “I spent a good bit of time polishing the ones on my belt until they have a mirror surface. That gives more credence to them just being decorative. But they’re anything but that.”

“Oh, shit,” both women said in unison as one of the balls lifted from its box and stationed itself in the air a couple of feet in front of Jeff’s face.

Pointing, “See that peak there?” he asked. “The darker one with that little zigzag right at the top. I think it’s rock that’s partially eroded. Ship tells me it’s three point six miles away. I’m going to start out by pushing the ball at a few thousand miles per hour. It won’t be launched like a bullet is fired from a gun, but rather pushed all the way to the target, but very gently.”

He mentally asked Ship for a one-way shield in case he misjudged.

“In place,” she assured him.

There was a high-pitched sound that quickly faded into the distance, accompanied by a puff of dust from the highest pinnacle of the peak a heartbeat later.

“Wow,” Charlotte said as both women looked at Jeff.

“Now, let’s do it with the same size ball at one-tenth light speed.”

Another ball dutifully drifted out of the box and stationed itself in front of Jeff. This time, there was a flash of light and a rolling clap of thunder. The peak exploded into a cloud of debris with a dust cloud suddenly obscuring the area. When the wind blew the dust away, the pinnacle was no longer there.

“I think I believe now,” Ada whispered as she continued to stare at the area where the peak had stood.

“So, that’s why you’re a Prime?” Charlotte asked.

“Well, no,” Jeff started, worrying that they thought he had been bragging. “It’s really no big deal.”

“It is one of the attributes of a Prime,” Ship said, startling the women. “Primes have powers beyond what an Alpha has, and some in my dimension have had the ability to move objects with their minds, but no Prime recorded in my database has ever succeeded in what you have just witnessed. And ... you must understand; he was gently pushing the balls. We have decided to keep the speed of his missiles down to less than half light speed. There is a possibility that, under the proper circumstances, the ball, or the plasma it becomes, might compress the air in front of it enough to create nuclear fusion.”

“Fusion? As in a nuclear bomb?” Ada asked.

“Well,” Jeff replied, “along those lines, at least. We’re not positive because it has never been done before – at least on Earth, but there’s a possibility that something could happen, particularly since I’m pushing the air as well as the ball – pushing it and compressing it all the way to the target. At the very least, a lot of heat is produced. And with enough speed and a large enough object, that heat might well reach temperatures similar to the surface of the sun.”

Charlotte looked thoughtful for a moment, before, “But in space, you could push a ball at just about any speed you wished?”

“Well, no. It would still be relative, and the speed of light is an absolute, so pushing it at the speed of light is not possible. It would take an infinite amount of energy to do so, but I could probably push it at a good percentage of light speed, though.”

“How fast can you fire those balls? I don’t mean their speed, but rather how many of them could you fire off in a few seconds?”

Jeff grinned back at her. “I could easily throw the whole box at one time, or several dozen in just a few seconds. I’ve never tried.”

Charlotte chuckled. “I’m not an engineer, but I do have a minor in math. Even I know that would make one heck of a weapon in space, not to mention what that box of balls could do here on Earth – with you pushing them, of course,” she finished with a grin. “Like having artillery on your belt, huh?”

“‘Here on Earth?’” he quoted with a grin.

Charlotte blushed. “Well, you know what I mean.”

“My Prime, we should try out your ‘artillery’ on an asteroid or two,” Ship suggested.

“But I have to see it to have a chance at hitting it. You could destroy it long before I was even in range,” Jeff insisted.

Ship responded with, “Perhaps,” but it was obvious she had other ideas.

“First, though,” Jeff insisted, “I need to practice more. And yeah, I did hit that peak, but I miss a good half of the time.”

“But I thought you guided it with your mind?” Charlotte wondered aloud.

“I do, but that’s the problem. The time lapse between when I began to push the ball and when it hits is so short that I can’t correct the ball’s course. Basically, if I don’t have it lined up perfectly, it misses before I can react. If it’s going relatively slowly like the first one, I can alter its course when I realize it is going to miss. But as I push the speed up, I just don’t have enough time to react.”

Charlotte’s smile grew larger. “And the answer to that is...”

“Yeah, I know – practice.”

Charlotte smiled at the Prime again. “Can I come watch?”

“Make that we,” Ada inserted.

“Well, that would be rather boring for you two, but what if I began teaching you to fire a pulse rifle while you’re here?”

The women looked at each other, before Ada answered for both of them. “Well, I saw some odd looking rifles that your team was carrying when you came to get me. Were those pulse rifles?”

“Yep,” he answered. “Fortunately, we didn’t have to use them. Not much chance of confusing them with a normal rifle once you shoot someone with one, and the sound is distinctly different, too.”

“I would love to learn,” both women said at precisely the same time, yet again, then turned to stare at each other.

The Prison Planet

Morales stood eyeing the stand of pine trees as he mentally selected the ones he thought would work for his wall. They were a little too big at the ground, but if he started the cut about three feet up, he thought he could get fifteen-foot sections that were fairly consistent in size.