SLINGSHOT, page 36
part #1 of The Starchild Saga Series
Lansing landed astride the rail with a look of total astonishment on his face. A reinforcing band was just ahead of him. He reached down to the blast shield, grabbed the fallen vial, and began fumbling with the two vials. As Dybo watched Lansing’s contorted face, he suddenly realized that it really was the same guy. You sonofabitch…all you did was dye your hair and grow a beard. Apparently frustrated by his attempts to open the vials, Lansing placed both in his left hand and tried to snap off their tops against the edge of the reinforcing band. Realizing this was the critical moment, Dybo threw himself against Lansing. Lansing dropped the still-sealed vials onto the blast shield and fell back against the rail, gripping Dybo with a death grip. The force of Dybo’s impact slid them along the rail. Dybo grabbed the rail with both arms, as he felt himself sliding off, forcing himself to ignore the stabbing pain in his upper right arm. He slid down, angling from the rail so that only his clenched fingers atop the rail kept him from plunging to Earth. Lansing slid off the rail on the other side, clawing for Dybo’s arms as he did so. For a moment, Dybo’s clenched fingers were holding both their weights as Lansing tried to crawl up Dybo’s body with his legs. Dybo twisted and turned, willing his gloved fingers to remain clenched, and finally shook off Lansing’s legs. That did it. Lansing lost his tenuous grip on the rail, and in an instant, Neil Lansing, a.k.a. Lars Watson, was tumbling through the rarified atmosphere toward the ocean eighty kilometers below.
Dybo slowly inched his way back along the rail until he could place his feet on the blast shield. Carefully he moved away from the opening, and then leaned down to retrieve the vials. “Boss,” he said into the circuit, “I’m in trouble. I’m going to need some help out here.” And he collapsed on the blast shield.
∞
While Lansing and Dybo were outside, Alex moved off to a far window by himself and gazed out into the star-studded sky above him. Mabel had already discussed with him what the next project would be. She asked him if he would like to build the first tethered sling ever constructed, out past geosynchronous orbit, positioned to catch capsules from Slingshot, and send them on their way to the Moon, Mars, or the Asteroid Belt beyond. He had agreed before she completed her sentence. He gazed into the distance and shuddered as a wave of emotion swept through his body. It was a project that dwarfed Slingshot, and he would make it happen. He turned to see Margo and Klaus across the main deck in a loving embrace that broadcast their intentions. Clearly, Margo had finally chosen. She opened her eyes and looked back at Alex. She mouthed the words, I’m sorry, and then she closed her eyes and kissed Klaus again.
Alex felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned to find Lori standing behind him. She had seen his silent exchange with Margo, and lifted herself up on tiptoe to kiss Alex deep and long. “You’re not going to ignore me this time,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. Then she laughed. “Don’t worry, Alex, I’m not ready for marriage either!”
At that moment, he heard Dybo’s call for help.
∞
Terrified out of his wits, Lars Watson struggled to gain control of his fall. He knew his suit had a chute. He had intended to jump anyway as soon as he spread the gel, but that obviously was not going to happen. He seemed unable to get control of his fall, and after several minutes of tumbling, he was completely disoriented. He had no sensation of weight or falling. The world about him seemed to be spinning and lurching in a way that began to make him sick. Then he felt a slight tug, and he began to stabilize. He knew he was way too high yet for chute deployment. He turned and looked over his shoulder, to see two pieces of chute trailing behind him, acting like a stabilizer.
With a great shock, Watson realized that he was looking at the pieces of his chute. Apparently, Dybo had cut the chute when he lunged at him with his utility knife. It took another several seconds for reality to sink in.
Then Watson began to scream…and he screamed…and screamed…and screamed…
PYONGYANG– DPRK (NORTH KOREA)
G
eneral Jon Yong-nam sat at his desk contemplating the information he had just received over his encrypted Link. His EI people had been taken by the feds, the fool Watson was dead, and Slingshot was up and running. His first action was to sever and completely erase any residual connections between himself and Radler’s outfit. Next, he moved several million dollars from the offshore numbered account assigned to EI into a numbered account that he could access whenever he wished. Then he closed the EI account and wiped out any record of its existence.
When the General was certain that his actions had gone into effect, he punched a secret code into his link. Moments later, an image coalesced over his desk, an image of a man dressed in dark robes, turbaned, with greying hair and a long, full beard.
“Your Grace,” the General spoke in English.
The somber image of the newly self-appointed Caliph nodded, acknowledging the General’s presence.
“Is the Persian Caliphate ready to discuss the terms for delivery of five hundred intercontinental ballistic missiles?” General Jon Yong-nam asked quietly.
AFTERWORD
NEAR BAKER ISLAND—SUBMERGED ON WAMPUS
M
argo had just watched Klaus leave to handle a problem with the Western Complex OTEC system. She and he had already made plans with Mabel Fitzwinters to join a second LLI launch loop in the early planning stages. It was slated for construction along the equator in the mid-Atlantic, on floating islands unlike anything ever before attempted. Klaus was to be the engineer in charge, and she had the underwater construction, as with Slingshot. Before they left, Margo insisted on one more dive to visit Amelia at her resting place on the ocean floor off Baker Island.
Margo dropped through the water column in Wampus, followed by George and his pals as deep as they could dive. Then she continued by herself, homing on the beacon she had left on the wreck. She reached the bottom and established a hover about twenty meters above the seafloor. She approached the Electra with infinite care, so as not to raise any silt. One last time she looked through the shattered windscreen at the physical remains of her heroine, and let a tear trickle down her cheek. Farewell, my love, she whispered, farewell!
NEAR BAKER ISLAND—ABOARD RV AMELIA E
S
ometime later, Wampus was back in the cradle under the A-frame on RV Amelia E. Jeff Carver, the new skipper, manned the controls. Pearl Wells, now the lead diver at the Western Complex, tied down the submersible. Suddenly, Pearl pointed to George and his pals cavorting about a kilometer off the stern. Margo signaled to Carver, who gunned the research vessel, and several minutes later, they drifted alongside George and his friends who were pushing something toward the ship.
“Do you see what I see, Girl?” Pearl asked in astonishment.
Carver stepped out of the pilot house. “That be some food fer thinkin’ bout,” he said, a wide smile splitting his black Jamaican face.
Margo could hardly believe her eyes. Floating on the surface was a space suit—a space suit with intact helmet, with a body inside. She grabbed a pike and pushed at the suit. It was limp, and bent in ways that a human could not possibly bend. She looked more closely at the bearded face inside the helmet, and realized with a start that it was Neil Lansing—Lars Watson as everyone now knew. He appeared to have hit the water nearly horizontally, and broken every bone in his body. Margo realized that he probably was fully conscious until the very last second. She shuddered as she considered the likelihood.
Using the pike, she pulled Watson’s suited body to the divers’ ramp at the vessel’s stern. “Hold onto him, Pearl,” she said as she reached down and twisted the helmet halfway to the left.
A putrid odor wafted up from the collar as she removed the helmet. She held her breath, and indicated to Pearl to push the body beneath the waves. In a moment, Watson’s remains disappeared below the surface. Carver made a log entry describing what had happened, and Margo handed him the helmet.
He got the Amelia E underway, and headed back to Baker, with George and friends cavorting in the wake.
AMELIA EARHART SKYPORT
T
he next day found Margo by herself, standing on the main deck of Amelia Earhart Skyport. She had requested, and received, permission to ascend entirely by herself. She unwrapped a package she had brought with her—a holograph she had taken the day before of Amelia Earhart’s Electra sitting upright in magnificent isolation on the ocean floor. She mounted it to the bulkhead and stepped back to look at her handiwork.
“Farewell, my love,” she whispered quietly, and then added almost as an afterthought, “Ad astra!”
∞∞∞
Hyperchess
Hyperchess is a chess player’s game. The word Hyperchess is a contraction of the two words hyperspace and chess. Hyperspace, as any reader of science fiction knows, is a characteristic of space often employed in science fiction to effect faster-than-light travel from one point to another, sometimes viewed as another dimension or a parallel universe. Hyperchess incorporates this other-dimensional concept into the game of chess. In chess, all moves are on the chessboard in the physical universe occupied by the pieces. In Hyperchess, however, every move is either through “hyperspace” or into the “parallel dimension.” This dramatically changes how the game is played, and produces an entirely set of new strategies.
Hyperchess Rules
Equipment
No special equipment is needed to play Hyperchess. The game can be set up two ways. The more expansive, visual approach uses one set of pieces and two stacked boards oriented the same way, stacked with sufficient room between the boards to move the pieces. The game can be played on one board, however, by using two distinctly different sets of pieces (ideally shaped the same, but with contrasting colors, e.g., black and red opposes white and blue), and four clear glass tumblers sufficiently tall to be placed upside down over any of the pieces. Any method of distinguishing between U and L-pieces works. Clear plastic thimbles placed on a piece can designate it as a U-piece, or even a bit of modeling clay. Anything at all that distinguishes U from L-pieces and does not interfere with the game will work.
Notation and Piece Movement
Positional designation. To understand positional designation, visualize the two stacked boards. Pieces on the upper board are U-pieces. Pieces on the lower board are L-pieces. For single-board play, pieces belonging to one set (e.g., the black and white set) are U-pieces, and pieces belonging to the other set (i.e., red and blue) are L-pieces. Every piece carries its traditional notation followed by “[u]” or “[l]” (e.g., P[u], meaning an upper pawn, or KB[l], meaning a lower king-bishop).
Starting Positions. “White” pieces start in their traditional positions as U-pieces. “Black” pieces start in their traditional positions as L-pieces.
The Fade. During the course of play, any piece except the knight can fade from one board to the other by moving to the same square on the other board, so that its positional designation changes. Such a move is notated by an italicized lower-case letter “f” between the old and the new positional designation (e.g., P[u] f [l] indicates P[u] fades to become P[l]).
The Transit. The traditional chess move for pieces other than a knight is replaced by a transit. A transit is defined as a fade followed by the traditional move for the piece followed by another fade. When transiting, a piece fades to the other board, makes whatever authorized move it can, and fades back to the original board—in effect, it transits through hyperspace. If the square on which a piece lands is occupied by an enemy piece, that piece is captured. A transit is notated exactly like traditional chess, except that each piece always carries its positional designation (e.g., P[u] to Q4[u] or P[l] to P3[l]).
Note that when playing on a single board, a transiting piece can pass through any piece with the same positional designation, and it can only capture a piece with the same positional designation.
The Jump. The knight’s move combines the fade and transit into a single move—the jump. The knight makes its traditional chess move, but fades either at the beginning or at the end of the move (but fades only once), so it always ends up on the opposite board. As in traditional chess, a knight can pass through any piece, but its destination square must be unoccupied or occupied by an enemy piece that it captures. A jump is notated exactly like traditional chess, except that the knight always carries its positional designation (e.g., Kn[u] to R3[l] or Kn[l] to QB3[u]).
The Cage. A consequence of jumping a knight is that it can end up in the square above or below any piece from either side. When this happens, that other piece is caged. A caged piece other than a knight cannot be moved. When playing on a single board, a cage is indicated by placing the tumbler upside down over the caged piece, and placing the caging knight on top of the tumbler. A caged piece other than a knight cannot move until either the caging knight moves or is captured. A caged piece can only be captured by the other knight.
Capturing. Capturing is the same as in traditional chess. An opposing piece is captured when it occupies the ending destination of a piece, after a transit or a jump (but not a fade).
Check, Mate & Stalemate. These are the same as in traditional chess. Note, however, that a king can fade out of a check, unless the destination square is guarded. A guarded square is a potential terminal position of any opposing piece that is not caged. A king can be caged by either side. A caged king checked by an opposing knight is mated unless the checking knight can be captured. It can only be mated by the other knight, and is held in the cage until the caging knight is either captured (by an opposing knight only) or moves.
Special Situations
Castling. As in traditional chess, castling pieces may not move through guarded squares.
En passant. En passant is as in traditional chess, but happens following the transit rules.
Knight color-dependence. A knight always jumps to the opposite board. As a consequence, it is restricted to the square color of its origin square on its origin board and the opposite square color on the other board. It can only cage pieces of the opposite square color on the origin board and the same square color on the other board (e.g., the white QKn is initially a U-piece on a white square; it can cage only black-square U-pieces and white-square L-pieces).
Bishop color-dependence. A white-square bishop is restricted to the white squares on both levels, and a black-square bishop is restricted to the black squares on both levels as in traditional chess. As a consequence, no matter what level a bishop occupies, it retains its square-color dependence.
Discovered check. As in traditional chess, a discovered check happens when moving one piece exposes the opposite king to attack from another piece. In Hyperchess, when the square occupied by a king is guarded by a caged piece, the king is not in check, but when the caging knight moves (and thus removes the cage), the king is then in check by the released piece.
Opening play. Unlike traditional chess, any major piece can be transited into play without first moving a pawn. One possibility is to transit a major piece forward on the first move, and fade it to a guarded position on the next move. In this way, it threatens the opposing second line. To avoid capture, the opposing side will be forced to fade a major piece or fade a pawn into the attacking transit lane. No opening strategies have been developed yet, so the field is wide open.
Communicate with the inventor.
If you enjoy HyperchessTM, and especially if you discover strong strategies, please email the inventor with your information to hyperchess@argee.net. In time, the inventor will distribute a periodic email newsletter containing these developing strategies. Join the newsletter list by sending an email to the above address.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
D
r. Robert G. Williscroft is a retired submarine officer, deep-sea and saturation diver, scientist, author, and a lifelong adventurer. He spent 22 months underwater, a year in the equatorial Pacific, three years in the Arctic ice pack, and a year at the Geographic South Pole. He holds degrees in Marine Physics and Meteorology and a doctorate for developing a system to protect SCUBA divers in contaminated water. A prolific author of both non-fiction, Cold War thrillers, and hard science fiction, he lives in Centennial, Colorado.
Dr. Williscroft is a member of Colorado Author’s League, Independent Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Authors, Science Fiction Writers of America, Libertarian Futurist Society, Los Angeles Adventurers’ Club, Mensa, Military Officer’s Association, American Legion, and the NRA, and now spends most of his time writing his next book, speaking to various regional groups, and hanging out with the girl of his dreams, Jill, and her two cats.
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