“Permanent physical interface complete, command control stands ready, Pilot Sylvia Onyx.” said Luna, now knowing every aspect of Sylvia’s life.

            “Permanent!” she yelled, in a shrieking voice, as she desperately pulled at the laces, in an attempt to remove them from her skin, with no results. “Damn it, this is not what I wanted on my birthday. Luna, explain connection!”

            “Permanent DNA interface, it is required to survive inter-dimensional travel.”

            “Inter-dimensional travel… who said I was going anywhere,” said Sylvia, trying not to panic, but feeling that things were getting way out of control. “Luna, I need to see outside of the ship… and run system diagnostics, please.”

“Attempting to activate visual acuities… Guidance system and spatial gravitational charts corrupted. Propulsion systems, Anti-proton drive… ready, slipstream drive ready. Defense system, dimensional dilation active, Anti-proton lasers ready. Life support systems, atmospheric condition stable. Warning!!! Unable to comply with visual acuities, internal dimensional configuration not aligned with external dimension, shall I apply adjustments to correct for drift?” asked Luna.

            Sylvia sat there for a moment, thinking. “Oh, what the hell, what do I have to lose at this point? Luna, yes… align dimensional drift,” she said, feeling confident in her decision, even though she had no idea what Luna was referring to.

            “Correction completed, activating visual acuities.”

            Slowly, Sylvia could see the outside of the ship through her mind’s eye, but like before, no one was moving, everything was frozen in place, “Luna, defense system active, how?”

            “Defense system, dimensional dilation, inhibits movement of any objects within one AU, excluding Pilot Sylvia Onyx and Luna.”

            “Cool, I get it, it stops time for everything outside the ship except for me,” she said. “Deactivate defense system… and refer to Pilot as Sylvia.”

            “Defense system deactivated, Sylvia.”

            It was like taking a movie off pause, everyone seemed to come back to life. She could now see and hear the others in the hangar. “Where did she go? She disappeared,” said Aden, in shock.

            “Look here lab rat, if this is some kind of game!” yelled General Troy, pointing a gun at Aden, acting as if he would take pleasure in killing him.

            “Debra, Jason, Mark, anyone got anything?” yelled Aden.

            Everyone nodded their heads no. “I can see you’re not going to accomplish my mission. Men… stand ready, fire on my command,” ordered General Troy. “We’re going to crack this egg open, with… or without you!”

            “Are you out of your mind?” yelled Debra, now moving toward the General. “You have no idea what would happen, you could kill us all!”

            “I have been given command authority from the president to handle the situation with deadly force if need be! And it appears to me as if you have lost control,” said General Troy. “Men… Ready… aim….”

            “Luna, what happens if he fires?” asked Sylvia.

            “Defense system is intuitive; resulting in anti-proton lasers destroying all objects within this confined area.”

            “Oh shit, Luna, access outside communication,” said Sylvia, knowing she had to do something.

            “General, this is Sylvia Onyx, you must stop, the ship is set to retaliate with deadly force,” she yelled.

            The General quickly grabbed Debra by the back of the neck and pointed his gun at her head. “Remove yourself from the ship… or I will terminate this lab rat!” yelled General Troy, tightening his finger on the trigger. “You have until the count of ten: One… two… three…”

            “Think, think… Okay, I’m coming out,” said Sylvia. “Luna, open the door and reactivate dimensional dilation on my command.”

            “Affirmative….”

            A hatch appeared to everyone in the hangar. “Mark did… you… see… that?” asked Jason, with a shocked look on his face.

            Sylvia stepped out, everyone gasped for air, now seeing her as never before. Even the General stepped back, letting go of Debra, but still pointing his gun at her head. “Oh my, what in the world are you wearing, Sylvia?” asked Debra.

            Sylvia was now standing in the hatch in full view of everyone. “It’s not decoration… it’s now a permanent part of me. I am now, and will always be, part of this ship, until my dying day.”

            “Exit the ship… immediately!” ordered General Troy, stepping further back from Debra.

            “I would like to, but as you can see, it wouldn’t make a difference, I’m now part of the ship.”

            “Last warning, lab rat!” he yelled. “I will not be denied my prize!”

            Right at that moment, Sylvia came to the conclusion that this standoff would never end. “Luna, activate dimensional dilation,” yelled Sylvia, just as General Troy pulled the trigger.

            “Command accepted” said Luna, freezing the bullet within inches of Debra’s head.

            Sylvia stood there looking at everyone frozen in place, then she slowly stepped down from the ship; her outlook was one of indifference, like knowing the unknown. In a state of euphoria, not being concerned about her friends, and knowing that she has the power to change everything she sees; sadness was no longer a part of her thoughts. She walked up to Debra moving around her as to get every angle, the bullet was just inches from killing her. Sylvia reached out, trying to push the bullet out of its path, but was unable to do so. “Luna… I am unable to change this objects trajectory?”

            “Dimensional dilation is fixed, thus, movement within the area is impossible,” said Luna.

Sylvia walked back over to the ship and slowly climbed back up, as each step was a journey that could not be avoided. Now standing at the opening, “Can the life form known as Debra avoid termination?”

“No, termination is inevitable,” said Luna.

            Sylvia glanced down. “Terminate defenses.”

            “Command accepted.”

            Sylvia knew she could not keep everything frozen in time indefinitely. She also knew changing this reality would be impossible, so regardless, this had to play out, and Debra’s death was ultimately unavoidable.

Bang…

 The shot rang out as Debra’s skull shattered into a million pieces, her lifeless body now tumbling to the floor. “COME DOWN NOW! Or shall I repeat this action again, and again, until you comply?” yelled general Troy laughing, as he limped over to the rest of her friends, now being held by the General’s henchmen.

            Sylvia entered the ship and sat in her seat, ignoring all of the shots ringing out from her friends being killed one at a time. “I am ordering you to exit the ship… NOW!” yelled the General furiously, pointing the gun at Aden’s head.

 

            “Sylvia, stay in the ship, he can go straight to hel…”

Bang…

 

The last shot rang out, killing Aden. “Luna, resume original course,” said Sylvia, knowing that she would not find the answer to her question here.

            “Course confirmed, slipstream drive engaging,” said Luna, as the ship slowly faded out in a misshapen fashion. The ship is now being held between dimensions, as if it were a ghost ship to General Troy. She could see him running out of the building, as his men started to fire on the ship, “Leave now or you will be destroyed, this is your only warning! Luna wait two minutes and then engage anti-proton drive,” she said. Two minutes later, the blast of the propulsion systems devastated the entire mountain, and the General’s men with it.

 

 

Chapter Five – The Journey

 

 

            “Well, it appears as if I’m going to have some time on my hands, Luna,” she said, realizing that collecting as much information as possible would gain her some advantage when it came to returning to her world. “What happened to the last pilot?”

            “Luna was programed on Umon, to acquire a pilot.”

            “Who programed you?”

            “DC defense on Ondra….”

            Sylvia had no idea what it all meant, but nevertheless it was long ago. “I take it you never made it there due to the corruption of your spatial gravitational charts,” said Sylvia. “Luna, explain reason for the second seat on the bridge?”

            “Navigators position aboard Luna.”

            “Dose navigator require DNA match.”

            “Affirmative… DNA interface is required to survive inter-dimensional travel, but integration is not permanent for navigator.”

            “Good, all we have to do is get to Umon and find you a new pilot, fix my problem and put things back to normal, simple enough,” said Sylvia, ignoring the fact that her condition was permanent.

            “Negative…, once a DNA match for pilot is complete, no other match can be made for the same position.”

            Still ignoring Luna’s response, “Wait… how long ago did you crash-land on my planet?” asked Sylvia, with apparent selective hearing.

            “Approximately two hundred of your solar years have passed.”

            “What!” she said. “Luna is there any destination on your gravitational chart that is still accurate… and ETA?” asked Sylvia, glancing around at her new environment.

            “Tibbeus,” said Luna. “Arrival time, nineteen of your solar days.”

            “Nineteen days!” she said in shock “Luna, I seem to be having problems with receiving any visual input.”

            “Light is non-reflective at present velocity, visual input would be impossible.”

            “Talk about flying in the dark, Luna, what’s in the other rooms?” asked Sylvia, looking behind her.

            “Right door access is pilot and navigator’s quarters, left door access is the propulsion systems and computer control bay.”

“Luna, function of propulsion systems?”

“Slipstream drive, maintains ships stability between dimensional rifts. Anti-proton drive allows LS out of slipstream, and FLT in slipstream.”

“I take it you mean Light Speed as LS, and Faster Than Light as FTL.”

“Affirmative… Sylvia.”   

“In other words, this ship is blazingly fast!” said Sylvia.

            She stood up feeling the need to check out the aft rooms. Then this odd feeling of being in a game show crossed her mind. “What’s behind door number one?” she thought, smiling for the first time on her birthday. She opened the crew’s door first, slowly peering in before entering. “Wow!”

The first thing she noticed was the size of the room. “Luna, how is it possible that this room is so large?”

            “The ship maintains an extended physical dimension.”

            Sylvia proceeded to enter the room; she was shocked to find it empty. “Luna, where is everything?”

            “Crew’s room is controlled by cerebral cortex matter reassignment.”

            “Cerebral cortex matter reassignment?” asked Sylvia. “Oh, I get, I think it… and it appears. Is that correct, Luna?”

“Affirmative… Sylvia.”

Sylvia imagined a bed and it appeared off to one corner, then a table and it appeared off to the other corner, with food on it. “Wow, now I’m impressed,” she thought, as everything disappeared. She left the room and entered the engine room. Like the first room, this one was also huge, but in the center of the room was a round glowing glass sphere filled with moving blue plasma with a tube extending from the center of the sphere, reaching up to the celling where it split off into two, and then extending down both sides of the walls and into the floor. The blue plasma seemed to be circulating throughout. “Luna, explain what I am looking at?”