Chapter 1 - The Escape Part 1

 "Gravity Well!", screamed the nav pilot, Kuangalia Usiku (Night Watch)  standing in the command room on the star frigate Uhuru Sasa  (Freedom Now).  The ship's designs in this era were unconventional.  Most starships would have a viewport where those who were piloting the craft could see. This was not the design of the current crop of starships that had the capacity to travel through the portals. The command center of the ships was found the center of the ship and with the large starship was a separate ship itself. Then, how could that see? A thousand years ago a great scientist invented raingear. These were nanoparticles that could literally see and could be interspersed into the graphene in which starships were covered for tens of thousands of years.  In essence, the ship could see in 3D and in 360 degrees all around the ship which gave the current fleet of ships many advantages in dodging the celestial hell in which they would have to travel. Back at the helm, there was panic. but it was too late. 

They should have been paying more attention to the starships surrounding and they would have if they were not in a firefight with Confederation Starcraft Carrier Asiyeonekana (Invincible). Two other smaller capital starships were acting as escorts to the star frigate Uhuru Sasa. They were the star ship (SS) Fiche (Incognito) and SS Simba (Lioness).  Those two ships were of the littoral start ship class and thereby smaller than the star frigate Uhuru Sasa. They were trying to protect the rare flank of the star frigate Uhuru Sasa and doing near the speed of light. There were several different speeds a starship could travel. One could, of course, travel at the speed of light, 1000 time the speed of light or hyperspace, 1000 time the speed of hyperspace or the quantum slipstream, or a yet to determine the speed which allow a starship to get from one of the Dark Galaxy, which was 100,000 light-years across, in one hour. Where did one go in that hour no one knows. TPs that were relatively close to each other also took an hour to get from one point to another. However,  starships traveling near the speed of light still got only to 0.91 light speed. This means that projectiles that could travel faster than that speed and come closer to the full speed of light, for example, 0.96 light speed can have a devastating effect.

Hitting a gravity well is no joke. Many starship travelers wore a holo-ball wristband.  When a  starship hits a gravity well the entire slows from the speed of light to the speed of sound in about 10 seconds.  Surprisingly, the exterior of the starship is not affected. One would think that the sheer decreasing speed would devastate a starship, but it does not.  It is anything that is not tied down inside that side that will undergo destruction which, depending on what is moving around, could destroy the ship. The holo-balls were like a balloon of hardening transparent light that pops open within a starship under entering the gravity well. The traveler was then inside of this ball to bounce around the internal space and if it comes to it survived the gravity well-devastated ship if it could.  The challenge was that it did not always work like it should. Sometimes the holo-ballon did not go off. When that happens that travelers had to be a scrap of the interior walls of that space. The death was gruesome. 

They star ship (SS) Fiche (Incognito) and SS Simba (Lioness).  crashed into each other and ended in a ball of fire as both ships as was tailing the star frigate Uhuru Sasa had veered into each other due to entering gravity well a slightly different times. The (SS) Fiche (Incognito)  was in front when from it back and not slowing fast enough crashed into the starship (SS) Fiche. Almost 22 people died.  Ten on the starship (SS) Fiche (Incognito) and twelve on the SS Simba (Lioness). If it was not for this accident most would have survived the deceleration from light speed to the speed of sound. 

The star frigate  Uhuru Sasa crew did not have time to contemplate what happened to their comrades. The holo-balloons burst around them to protect them. Ships were designed to accommodate this safety measure. The only exemption where the 1 to 4 passenger fighter starships. For those who have survived the deceleration the 10 second wait time seems to last forever.  You can begin to see items begin to move before the holo-ballon opens and then at time zero it began. The randomness of those protective device movements within the closed space could lead to many long-lasting effects such as those that are associated with a concussion. 

Confederation Starcraft Carrier Asiyeonekana (Invincible) though in battle with the star frigate  Uhuru Sasa was far enough away so as not to be caught in the gravity well.  Captain  Kwa Sauti standing in the massive starcraft carrier command center. The 2,000-foot long behemoth with a crew complement of 10,000 people slowed on Captain  Kwa Sauti's command in less than 10 seconds. This was a control slow and was not detectable by anyone on the Starcraft Carrier. The flat diamond shape Starcraft Carrier was a spectacular beauty against the celestial backdrop which surrounded the Starcraft Carrier. Its command center was buried deep within the bowels of the ship and was massive. There were three emergency means of transport within the Starcraft Carrier to the edges of the elongated diamond vessel to the sides and front command posts in case the seeing nanotech that was covering the starcraft carrier embedded into the graphene. The Captain of the  Starcraft Carrier Asiyeonekana was from the TP Mlima Mpya Wa Mbinguni (new celestial mountain). This was one of the few planets in this Dark Galaxy in which humans could inhabit. This planet was close to a star but have a gorge that transversed its equator. It was about 75 to 100 miles wide and its circumference was close to 12,000 miles and approximately 3 to 5 miles deep. The rest of the planet was cover with red iron ore that was either too hot or too cold depending on whether it was day or night. The human inhabits life in these rolling 1-mile spheres of which they were 100 of them that traverse the opposite direction to the rotation of the planet. The gorge was full of life and those living spheres never touch the floor of the gorge. Captain  Kwa Sauti looked at the star frigate  Uhuru Sasa on the immense floor-to-ceiling view screen crawling at the speed of sound. It is like it was not even moving. In the command center, there were no chairs. You had to stand.  The room was a beautiful black punctuated with individualize computer view screens for the 20 officers that occupied the command center.  The captain's viewscreen travels with him as he walked around from officer to officer depending on the need. 

Captain  Kwa Sauti, "Engage the tractor". "Yes sir. It is engaged." relied on Ensigned Mwezi Npya (New Moon). The crackle of the red lightning hand extended from the bow of the Confederation Starcraft Carrier Asiyeonekana and grab hold of the star frigate  Uhuru Sasa. The starship rocked and the 45  crew shook within the hallways and the command centers of the ship. They decided that they were not going to go out without a fight. They gathered in the hallway at the entrance of the starship. Once into the side of the  Starcraft Carrier, the side doors closed. There was no way out or was there. While the tug of the tractor beam was pulling the star frigate  Uhuru Sasa into the guts Prince Jua Lililochomoza (Rising Sun) was given instructions to his holo-droid (HD). Droids in this Dark Galaxy were just metal skeletons that had holographic projections that took on certain human attributes depending on their function.

Prince Jua press on his com that was located on his arm as he was being shaken like everyone else as the ship was being taken into the hull of the Starcraft Carrier. Prince Jua said into his com, "Aye Nyuki Cee (Aye Bee Cee). Come to my location." Immediately Aye Nyuki Cee (ABC) (ANC) was hiding in the engine room with Nne Zee Nifuri (four zee zero)(NZN). "Where do you think you are going?' snorted NZN. NZN looks like a 5-foot 10-inch black muscle building. His role was to protect ABC who was a data holo-droid. He looked like a nerdy black geek and his role was to collect and store data and interface into computers. ABC responds to NZN and his response is in the Khoisan languages use four clicking sounds; the Southern languages use a fifth, the “kiss” click." "I have been summoned by Prince Jau" muttered NZN, He started out of the recesses of the engine room moving towards the front of the beleaguered ship.   ABC went to grab him to prevent him from going and the usual NZN slipped from ABC grasping hands. He went to the hallway where men and women were running back and forth trying to find a way to break from the lightning hand of the tractor beam that was bringing the star frigate  Uhuru Sasa is the guts of the Confederation Starcraft Carrier Asiyeonekana. Prince Jau was standing near the storage hull at the bottom of the ship. NZN with ABC with his buff holographic self trifling behind ABC approach  Prince Jau in the dark and shaking storage hull. As they approach an android step out of the shadows.