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This is something I just thought of and asked Mike to help me with. It is an ongoing story :) we did this all in chat and i edited it a bit.

Nuance

We are flying around in space and our radio is acting weird. We isolate the signal and get an odd message. Then we go back to decipher it. It is a message from far in space. They give us directions to get somewhere. It’s a strange way to go but we go and we get jerked around like a mouse by a cat by odd forces pushing and pulling us at incredible speed. There we see a spaceport and we go on from there.

It is said, and it is true that just before we are born, a cavern angel puts his finger to our lips and says, "Hush, don't tell what you know." This is why we are born with a cleft in our upper lips and remembering nothing of where we came from.

--Roderick MacLeish, Prince Ombra

Jack and Kris sit inside the Nuance as they wait for the countdown

Jack says, "Hydrogen/Oxygen engine checks out. Thrust vectoring at 100%."

Kris says, "navigation system ready to go"

Kris says, "in other words all systems go!"

Kris laughs

Jack laughs

Kris presses button

Jack says, "Beginning pre-ignition startup sequence."

Kris says, "We are ready to go HQ"

You’re free to go."

Jack says, "We are go for launch HQ.... throttles at 100%

*Ship rumbles as it takes off from the 45 degree launch pad*

Jack says, "Ready as I'll ever be." <g>

Kris sighs heavily

Kris says, "Well lets get this on! "

Jack says, "Commander, we are clear of Luna base, assuming course for sub-orbital Mars space station...."

Kris says, "good. ETA?"

HQ says, "Nuance, are you there"

Kris says, "yes we are"

Jack says, "Hour and a half at full throttle"

HQ says, "please keep lines open"

Kris says, "aye"

Kris says, "then we have quite a bit of time"

<<We have that technology where we don’t float by now>>

<<Artificial gravity, thank god, I hated zero g. lol>>

Kris says, "So jack ... I never got to ask. How was that blind date I set up for you go last week? Carrie had plenty to say about you!"

Jack says, "It was fun. Talkative girl, but then again she is your friend. "

Kris giggles almost uncontrollably until remembering every word is being heard by hundreds back in HQ

Kris says, "oh no one can EVER beat me in talking! So do you like her? Is there another date for when we get back?"

Jack keeps his mic turn off.

Jack says, "Yeah, I think there just might be."

Kris smiles and says, "good. I am sure she can't wait and u cant be lonely for the rest of your life...it isn’t good"

Jack smiles back and says, "I know."

Kris says, "I wonder if we can get any signals from the Mir..." Kris presses buttons to expand the receiver span and says, "Carrie just might be the woman of your dreams...your soul mate” Kris looks at the output screen then says, "ah nothing interesting unless we want to hear weather forecasts for 3 years from now"

Jack says, "Let's try a Hubble feed Kris"

Kris nods and proceeds to do so

Jack says, "Anything interesting?"

Kris says, "just a few random radio waves from the various space ports and waves that escaped earth"

Jack says, "ETA to stellar asteroid belt 12 minutes 32 seconds"

Kris says, "ok should we slow down or can you handle her?"

Jack says, "I think I can get us through @ full throttle"

Kris says, "and you could also turn a 90 degree turn going 190 on the hubbercraft when we were 10"

Jack chuckels and says, "Ok, so I scratched the paint a little that time, no big deal."

Kris says, "I feel into the ditch jack! Oh you were fine! You were fine enough to laugh at me!"

Jack grins evilly and says, "Told you should have strapped in."

Kris says, "and you know your friend broke it the time before it was My turn"

Jack winks and says, "oh I did? Well I'm glad I got the holopics of that"

Kris says, "I got the scar” Kris laughs and suddenly says, "whoa we are approaching hope u fly this thing better than the hubbercraft. I am strapping in this time too” Kris pulls straps over herself

Jack laughs and says, "Just for that........... Engaging auxiliary booster."

Kris says, "jack remember we are among the few to first fly this thing. It may have kinks we don’t know about"

Jack does a snap roll left to evade an asteroid then snap rolls back right before leveling off. Then he says, "Yes mother." he sticks out his tongue and continues, "Disengaging aux. booster"

Kris hangs on for dear life reminding herself he was awarded best pilot in the APL 5 years in a role

<<APL Astronomical Pilot League>>

Jack grins and says, "Really I think you'd be used to this kind of thing by now."

Kris says, "not with you cuz” Suddenly she sees something out the view screen and shouts, "WATCH OUT!"

Nuance misses large boulder sized asteroid by a mere second

Jack says, "Where did that come from?!! Throttles back to 30% and turning to investigate it."

Kris says, "oh I don’t know! What on earth is an asteroid doing in the middle of an asteroid belt! We should send someone to clean this place up"

Jack says, "Switching on floodlights. Haha, very funny Kris. Now that wasn't there a second ago, something's up"

Kris says, "we weren’t paying attn. the radar should have record of it let me check" Kris looks thru radar history and looks worried and says, "jack you're right. It popped out of nowhere. HQ are you there?"

HQ says, "Yes"

Kris says, "we have an unusual occurrence...an asteroid appeared out of nowhere"

HQ says, "asteroids don’t appear out of nowhere...maybe you should pay attention to your sensors?"

Kris says, "Jack turn on your mic"

Kris says, "I checked the radar history it popped up. It wasn’t there. Nothing like it around and then poof wala there it is"

Jack keys his mic

HQ says, "Send me the telemetry"

Kris says, "Jack are we clear the asteroid belt"

Jack says, "We're clear. Should we go back and investigate"

Kris says, "no all stop for now"

HQ says, "Belay the last. Go back. I want information"

Kris says, "uploading files to HQ's main server now. Aye"

Jack looks at Kris....

HQ waits impatiently for files to finish downloading

Jack comes about and sets off into the asteroid belt at 30% Throttle

I don’t want injuries"

<, Well hey we are thousands of miles away even a ADSL cant get done fast>>

HQ scans the downloaded data

Kris giggles

<30% is kind of slow>

Kris says, "jack I am going to expand the sensors as far as they can go. All stop when we get to the edge"

Jack says, "Gotcha Commander."

Kris says, "u know I hate it when u call me that pilot"

HQ says, "Ladies and gentlemen. Can we get to work? This is not social hour"

Kris says, "just killing a bit of seconds before we get there mam"

HQ says, "Humor me and just get to work"

Jack looks over at Kris and says, "You spotted that asteroid yet?"

Kris looks at scannings and says, "You know. Its not here. Are you sure we weren’t just seeing things, but its here in the radar. Nothing remotely close to it"

Jack says, "Try an X-ray scan"

Kris pushes a few buttons

Jack says, "Got anything unusual?"

HQ Twy rolls her eyes and wonders how she got stuck with these two

Kris says, "look"

Jack looks down at the console and keys his mic and says, "HQ, we're getting a rather unusual concentration of gamma ray radiation."

HQ says, "Source?"

Jack says, "Not sure, but if I was a betting man I think I know what's causing it. Kris, try pinpointing the source, see if we can find it."

Kris says, "aye" Kris presses buttons and pensively looks at the screen. Kris eyes open wide as she looks at jack and says, "it's coming from where we almost hit the invisible asteroid"

HQ says, "Might I remind you...asteroids are not invisible"

Kris says a bit sharply, "mam may I remind you that radars don’t lie"

HQ says, "You can remind me all you want, but until you find out what the problem is I will consider your radars to be slightly damaged"

Kris says, "This is a new ship. You talk to your people who designed such a system"

" I intend to"

Kris says, "I fear nothing. We need to investigate this. Jack? Why so quite?"

HQ laughs mirthlessly and says, "Oh you fear plenty"

Jack says while not keying in his mic so the others cannot hear, "Always enjoy a good cat fight." He grins slyly.

Kris makes a face glad the video isn’t on and turns jack's earpiece up loud and yells, "JACK!"

Jack says, "Kris, bring up the LIDAR.... it's more precise than RADAR. The short range limitations don't matter"

Kris does so and shakes head looking. And then says, "Can you make sense of this?"

Jack looks down and says, "It looks like it's picking some sort of Phantom signal."

Kris says, "yea but how could that occur"

Jack says, "I don’t know... Phantom signals are very rare on LIDAR...." Jack switches from LIDAR to FLIR and says, "Kris. Look at this. The infrared is picking something up. Looks like a manufactured structure of some sort, ship, base, who knows..."

Kris looks and says, "there isn’t one in that direction and the stars are different see, it’s like someone placed a map over ours. Jammed our radar"

HQ waits impatiently for them to come up w/ some real answers

Jack keys his mic and says, "I'm moving into position where the asteroid appeared HQ."

HQ says, "Excellent. Give me feedback ASAP"

Kris says, "aye"

Jack slowly moves the ship into position

Kris keeps sensors up. Kris says, "jack look. There are lines appearing as we get closer"

HQ says, "Kris, can you give me more on these lines?"

HQ says, "Can you get any more info?"

Kris says, "going in the direction of the structure. There is a particular area. The edge of this "map" begins where the edge of the galaxy stops in our records. It goes further of course but we haven’t mapped that. Until now. Someone gave us a map"

HQ says, "Interesting. What else can you gather?"

Kris says, "not much else. Unless."

HQ says, "unless????"

Kris looks up to jack and says, "Want to go treasure hunting?"

Jack says, Kris...... what do you think, should we investigate that structure or check out that discrepancy you found?

Kris says, I want to follow these lines and see where they lead. Jack says, Understood.....

Jack pushes throttles forward

HQ says, “I don’t think so!”

Kris says, “we can understand this more.....we will turn back if any problems occur”

Kris shuts off communication

Jack looks over at Kris......

Kris says, “oh your rubbing off on me jack but this has got me really curious”

Jack says, “Looks like I'm not the only one with a rebellious streak”

Kris says, “where do u think I got it from?”

Jack says, “We're low on fuel, better make this quick or we won't be able to make it to Station M-06 (Mars, 6th station built)”

Kris says, “just the first few stretches to see why they chose the course”

Jack says, “We're clear of the asteroid belt following along one of the "lines"”

Kris says, “well there isn’t any obstacles for miles....why start here?”

Jack says, “Perhaps it's interstellar in scale”

Kris says, “hhmmm follow a bit further....”

Jack looks at the fuel meters nervously

Kris says, “we will make it....we can stop by Mir for more”

Jack says, “We've still got enough fuel to make M-06 but only if we make it quick.....”

Kris says, “ok well....we cant find much out....we can go get more fuel and come back , and put in a petition to put a fuel station here so we can fill up and go further”

An alarm sounds and Jack says, “I’m getting something coming at us on motion sensor, collision warnings are going off..... but vids don't pick anything up........”

Kris says, “Well go by sensors and dodge!”

Jack moves the controls around trying to avoid a collision

Kris says, “We better turn back now”

Jack says, “I can't, some sort of artificial gravity well.”

Kris says, “Break away”

Jack says, “I'm trying Kris........ the engines don't have enough power. I'm even kicking in any thrusters that might help, whatever it is it's strong”

Kris says, “Are we moving faster?”

Jack shakes his head in disgust and says “we're barely crawling away”

Kris says, “darn all fuel will be gone...we'll be stranded”

Jack says, “Our inertia systems are showing us moving sideways at about 87 km/s”

Kris says, “side ways?” and looks at map

Jack says, “Apparently the gravity well is moving, or so I'd guess”

Kris says, “cuz we are turned sideways on the line”

Jack says, “You're right, the g-well is following that goofy line”

Kris says, “and taking us…do gravity wells get stronger as they get longer?”

Jack says, “I'm powering down engines no sense in wasting fuel”

Kris says, “good idea”

Jack says, “Kris..... check sensors, anything weird going on out there? “

Kris opens all sensor frequencies. And says, “nothing on RADAR, LIDAR, FLIR, or even video or plain audio” After a moment she says, “wait…there is a strange force.....there are rays where it is but no source”

Jack says, “What's up Kris?”

Kris says, “solar winds? but no star for millions of miles…oh no! it couldn’t be a black hole could it! wait....did u ever study about the theory of wormholes?”

Jack says, “Yeah.....”

Kris says, “well I think either this isn’t a wormhole or there are a few flaws in their theory”

Jack says, “I'm checking out the FLIR, but I'm turning us so it looks at the gravity well....... just a hunch”

Kris says, “ok”

Jack says, “Kris............ it's that structure..... whatever it is it's doing this..... try to get a signal to HQ”

Kris says, “let me know what u come up with…no its not”

Kris says, “See its trajectory is going this way....but the new satellite somehow is a magnet and well we ran into it I guess. whoever was supposed to receive this signal is going to be in a fit when he doesn’t get it…jack is there anyway we can pull out of this? no telling where we are going and how long it will take to get back....if we can come back at all!”

Jack says, “Not in it's current state Kris”

Kris says, “jack look” as she looks out view screen as ship appears. she says, "it's so.....weird

Jack says, “My lord that's bigger than Mir”

Nuance slows a bit

Kris stares at it as a communications signal comes in. Kris looks at jack and gulps Jack reaches down and switches the speaker on

The ship says, “ Unknown vessel you are in the territory of the Federated Republic”

Jack says, “this is the Terran space module Nuance, we come in peace.”

Kris says, “you pulled us here” Kris winces remembering that pact.....whenever if ever come into contact with alien always say we come in peace and says. “I am flight commander Kris Derman” Kris nods to jack

The ship says, “ Terran space module?? Prepare your vessel for seizure...... it has been illegal for Terran's to have spacecraft for 20 of your years......”

Kris says, “we are from the Earth Space Association and I don’t think so”

Jack looks at Kris puzzled

Kris shrugs

Kris says, “Identify yourself”

The answer is, “I am Viceroy S'ertanik”

Kris says, “and your rank of command with what company?”

He sound indignant as he answers, “My rank is Viceroy.......... of the Federated Republic. And you are under arrest for illegal possession of a spacecraft.

Kris says, “Ok....for one thing does this LOOK like a vessel you own? and also we are not under any ordinance to obey you....we are out of your jurisdiction”

Kris looks at jack and shrugs nearly laughing and mouths "who are these people?"

Viceroy answers, “The human race is a slave race to the Federated Republic, and attempts to defy us are punishable by death.”

Kris says, “uh no we eliminated that long ago. if you hadn’t noticed are not from here”

Jack says, “Um, Kris..... I get the distinct feeling we aren't in Kansas anymore”

Kris mutes their side

Kris says, “how much fuel do we have. as long as we avoid that wormhole maybe we can run”

Jack says, “We're down to about 49% fuel Kris”

Kris says, “That wormhole only goes one way anyway.....”

Kris looks at sensors

Kris says, “Think we can hide on that planet?”

Jack says, “That gravity well is completely gone”

Jack pushes throttles full forward and makes toward Pluto

S`ertanik says, “Terran vessel...... power down you engines immediately!!!”

Kris flips it on

Kris says, “Bite me!”

Jack laughs

S`ertanik says, “Very well, I will once we capture you. Now power down engines or prepare to be fired upon”

Kris says, “I didn’t sleep well last night and the day before I lost my favorite necklace and I am not in the mood to put up with some alien crap! especially one who thinks I am his slave......oooohhh no I don’t think so!”

Jack says, “They're pursuing Kris.....”

Kris says, “Let them I know beyond a doubt we'll be caught but not without a fight and a chase fire at em..no wiat ..that’s my job.”

Kris fires tansy lasers at huge ship

S`ertanik laughs

S`ertanik says, “And what exactly was that weak little blast supposed to do?”

Kris says, “darn out of laser power”

Jack says, “Deploying solar panels”

Kris says, “put a scratch on that ugly ship of yours”

S`ertanik says, “Very well....... “ They hear him yell at someone on his ship, “ Fire!!!”

Jack shakes

Kris says, “Oh crap”

Jack says, “What in the............”

Jack checks some instruments

Kris says, “too bad they are still working on shield technology”

Jack says, “They just hit us with some sort of particle weapons. I've lost some maneuverability, but we're ok for the most part.. I'm going to try something Kris.......... I'm going to head toward the Asteroid belt, might be our only chance”

Kris says, “its beyond out navigation sensors....do u have any idea how far out we are?”

Jack says, “We're within visual range of Uranus....... if we stretch our fuel we might make it”

Kris says, “Do it!”

Jack says, “Hold on, I'm going to do something that does NOT conform with publish specs and is strictly against regs...........”

Kris says, “What’s that?”

Jack ships shakes and Jack forces a full, forced 180 out of it

Jack says, “Snap 180's are supposed to be too much for most space frames to handle but I think this one will”

Kris says, “Well it apparently just did”

Jack shoots past the alien ship headed toward the asteroid belt

Nuance, a SB-42 spacecraft

Near future, say 2027

Characters in mid 20s and are cousins

I am Kris the Flight Commander of the Nuance and this is Jack the Pilot

Earth Space Association

Last Updated: 10-22-99

Lori Cox

Michael Saylor

Mike McCulley is adapting this into a Novel