LightShip - Image courtesy of Thomas Budach

Outracing Light

Our lightship shudders.

Fighting the helm, I collapse the warp bubble, dropping us into normal space. A neon haze wrecks visibility.

"Where are we?"

Juice works the nav. "Hard to say."

"Try infrared; without a fix, we'll lose this race."

He adjusts, spinning the resulting star field like a beachball.

"You undershot, Ben. We're on track, in a nebula one parsec short." He reads coordinates.

Compensating for my error, I reactivate the Alcubierre Drive.

We exit warp six hours later, bathed in the rays of five suns. The comm chimes.

"Welcome to New Canaan, gentlemen. You're the first to arrive."

© 2018 by Duncan Cary Palmer

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~FIN~

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