Chapter 3

Time is a most marvelous thing, 'ticking' constantly, from one's cradle to one's grave. And it has only one way to go, at least as far as I know? But it is also something mold-able, not for you personally, but for all others you relate yourself to.

Put yourself on a very fast ship and presto, you now watch the universe accelerate. Your own time still 'ticks the same', but the universe's? It quickens, flowing into an effusion of time. And that was what Hyper was all about, making it possible to travel those vast distances keeping to a state of 'no time'. Allowing you to keep in touch with your, and all other's, time.

Without it every planet would have been as isolated islands in an unending ocean, with your spacecraft becoming a constant lonely explorer, at home nowhere. A Columbus you might say, as you never could foresee what would meet you, that next time you laid anchor at a planet, whatever its name, at Earth or at Alpha Centauri.

But being thrown out of Hyper? Your suits released at that very moment the ship broke the barrier between Hyper and sub space? That was a most delicate subject, as nothing was known of any such circumstances, no data existing. Considering the amount of shipwrecks there should have been some data accessible.

This fact intrigued many theorists, and from it there had come some tentative guesses, or hypotheses, as they were called. One predicted that the momentum created being in the 'break', as he called it, would tear apart any matter that was propelled with a speed differing from the ship's own.

Some others, calling him a nincompoop and his hypothesis sheer trumpery, explaining in ever so patient voices, that 'of course the suits will hold together, imperial technology after all, my good man... ', sneering as they did ever so discreetly. But, adding that the relative motion, relative the ships original, surely would translate into a velocity close to, or possibly at, light's own.

And it was there all sane men had to leave before all hell broke lose in the assembly hall, or university, or physics site, or ... Yes, they all call it a debate, but don't ever let them get anything heavier than their laser markers. And remember, lasers can kill.

Then there was that third faction, those theorists involved with portals. They wondered, well, some of them did, if it could be possible that those 'breaks' were what created a portal? All of the 'theories' made sense, though. In the first case the possible survivors from a ship failure would all be dead as they got torn into smithereens.

In the other case they would be alive, but at such a speed that nobody, not traveling at their velocity, would ever see them again. That as their sole destiny would be to see the universe die.

The last one, though, involving a portal, was the one offering some small hope. Then those unfortunates might survive, although somewhere else. But no one had ever come back from a portal claiming to be such a survivor. Still, most accepted the risks, statistically they were negligible.

The odds were greater that you would break you neck walking, than meeting your doom in a space accident. Well, at least if you read those Star Lines promoting ¨'A week in Shangrila, the planet of pleasure. Where yours deepest desires are our command. So you can't get her there, why not get her here?'

Yes, cloning was still illegal, but somehow the 'vacation planets', or 'pleasure colonies' as the Empire of Earth preferred to name them, were extempted. Of course they were not strictly colonies, every planet had its own legal system and its own ethical system. The distances were vast, and even if a ship could traverse it in almost 'no time' there was still the need for a safe sub light distance from each planet as you took off or arrived.

And cloning was fast becoming a problem on those planets that allowed it. Not only could you make copies of yourself, but of your neighbor too.

And what was worse, it made all ideas of equality into a lie. All in all it was a cancerous cyst, growing from within. Under the King's reign those practices had been banned, and at the time the King disappeared there had also been nervous talk about the King wanting to put an end to the indenture system.

But as it was, everything seemed to be allowed if you just had the clout to make it happen. The King's laws were still upheld, at least in theory, but with vast distances and money they could be relaxed, considerably, for the Crowns own 'pleasure planets'.