The Dryden Experiment 1:5 "Family Matters"

"Mom!"  Tilla Dryden's exasperated voice rung down the halls of the Moth.

"No!  No! No!" Came Seli's terse reply.  "You are not getting on my ship as my observer.  As a visitor yes.  Stopping by for my birthday maybe.  But as my observer?  Hell no!"

The two women, when they broke out of the hallway into main airlock, looked very much alike.  Both had Seli's blue eyes, narrow nose, and thin build.  Tilla's hair was wavy brown and her skin fuller, but otherwise, very much the child of her mother.  Tilla's traveling bag was slung over Seli's shoulder. Saul and one of this crew members waited in the anti-chamber to the airlock with Dicer and Jane.

"Here."  Seli said, flipping the bag to Saul.  "My DNA was just leaving."

"She can't leave."  Saul said.  "She's genetically keyed to the lock on your engine.  Only she can keep you flying."

Seli was steaming.  "This is a rim job Saul and you know it!"

"It's the best I could do."

"The best you could do?  Sending my own daughter to spy on me is the best you could do?"

"Well, the council wanted to send Parker."

"Parker?  That stooge!  I could dynamite a planet right out from under his ass and he'd never know what hit him.  He..."

"Yes."  Saul broke in.  "That's why I convinced them that young Ms. Dryden here, was both responsible to the IDF and close enough to you to be in no immediate danger of getting dynamited."

"Immediate danger!  Immediate danger!"  Seli sputtered unable to think of a strong enough response.

"It'll be okay mom."  Tilla put her hand on Seli's shoulder.  "You've always said we need more time together. Remember?  You wanted to know what you would have been like if the European hadn't scrambled your DNA.   Well, here's your chance."

Seli grumbled.  "Well, when I paid Dr. Hammersmith half my life savings to pick out a clean copy of my DNA, I didn't plan to have the result following me around the galaxy like some spook reporting back to my boss."

"It won't be like that mom.  Come on.  We'll cook together.  Remember when you taught me to cook Tilla Nuts?"

Seli was silent for a moment.  "This is dirty pool Saul.  You know I can't tell her no."

"And you know you'll lose your ship if I have you arrested again.  Just be nice and don't blow up any more unauthorized targets."

"There are no authorized targets any more.  You won't authorize any of the targets I want."

"Enjoy the cooking."  Saul said, tossing the bag back to Tilla and turning back to the airlock.

"Thanks Saul."  Tilla chimed in quickly and turned back up the hallway.

In a second, Seli was alone with Dicer and Jane.

Seli looked from where Saul's man was securing the airlock to the hallways Tilla had disappeared into then to her two crewmen.  "Well?"

Dicer cleared her throat.  "Your daughter is very...charming."

"Yeah, well, if you ever get the idea that you'd like like to spread your DNA around, do yourself a favor and keep your genes in your jeans if you know what I mean."

Dicer nodded.  "I understand.  I will remember that."  She said to Seli's back as Seli set off up the corridor.   Once Seli was out of ear shot, she turned to Jane.  "What does, 'keep your genes in your jeans, mean?"

"To most people it would mean 'don't have a baby.'"

"That's not what it means to Captain Dryden?"

"No.  Dryden never had that baby.  She's a clone."

Dicer shivered.  "A clone?  On our ship?  Is it safe."

"Oh yes."  Jane assured her.  "Clones are safe.  As long as the original DNA was good."

The Dryden Experiment 1:4 Intercourse Part II

Seli hung in the vast dark.  She was naked but not cold or warm.  The space was vast, infinite maybe, and she hung motionlessly in it.  She was not alone.  She knew that in a moment,  a great awareness would turn toward her.  She held her breath as the first tingle of its attention turned toward her.  The presence was warm and loving and massive, like a God, or the perfect lover.

"Hello, Dr. Dryden."  It thought massively.

Seli opened her eyes.  She was lying on her side between the blankets strung in her glass sphere.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the hull of the Moth.  Without the Kirov's radiation or the lights of the beacon, the ship was dark, a golden shadow against the sea of stars.

She could feel Saul Alinsky's warm body behind her in the bed.  He was on his back.  She could tell by his breathing that he was awake.

"You used to be better."  

"Better?"  Saul seemed lost in the contemplation of the stars before him.

"Better in bed.  You used to really rock the sack."

Saul chuckled.  Well, you used to have stirrups on the poles.  I could hook my feet into them."

"You used to visit often enough to make it worth keeping the stirrups up."

"Times change."

"You're just old.  How old are you now?"

"A hundred and twelve."

"Lord have mercy.  I remember when I swore off any man over eighty."

Saul chuckled again.  "Yeah, I remember that too.  I had just turned eighty."

There was a long pause.  "So what's it like to age Saul?"

"You tell me, you're almost two hundred."

Seli glanced over her shoulder.  "Yes, but I'm not aging.  Not like you are.  I can see it in your skin.  You're taking Regenix."

"They say Regenix will give me another thirty years."

"So what's it like?"

"I hate it.  Everyone is very jealous of you.  They say you'll live forever."

Seli grunted.  "Oh no.  I'll die...When he's done with me."

"Does he still visit you."

Seli didn't answer.   "Why are you here Saul?  You're too old and valuable for the IDF to send out for no reason."

Saul sighed.  "I'm here to reign you in.  Do you know how long it is since you last checked in."

"We're guerilla warriors Saul.  We're supposed to act on our own.  Do you remember the Charter?"

"The Charter was a long time ago Seli.  No one follows the Charter any more."

"I do."

"Yes and Timbel and few of the others but you're a dying breed.  Do you know that the IDF has a chamber in the League of Planets?"

"It's bullshit."

"No it isn't Seli.  There's a real interest in the protection of species in the League now.  I've spoken there twice now myself."

Seli grunted.  "No Saul.  The League of Planets is Bullshit.   They are paid for and bought and sold by corporations that rape life bearing planets.  Talking to them is pointless."

"Seli, people change.  Corporations change.  We have a real opportunity too..."  Seli sighed loudly and Saul fell silent.

"Why are you here Saul?"

"I'm here to give you an observer."

Seli shot to a sitting position.  "An observer?  Are you nuts?"

"There's been a pax in the IDF council.  My hands are tied.  I've got instructions to lock the engine on the Moth if you refuse to comply."

"A pax?"  Seli fell back on the bed.  "Will you do it?"

"I already have.  The engines on the Moth will stay locked.  Only the observer can unlock them." 

"How did I get a pax?  I'm a founding member."

"well, we tried arresting you..."

Seli crossed her arms across her narrow chest.  "Great, who's the observer?"

"That's the other thing I needed to tell you."

The Dryden Experiment 1:3 Intercourse Part I

John Valdivia walked up the main gangway of the IDF Moth with a coffee cup in one hand and an electronic notepad in the other.

His path took him from the main environmental bay in the back through, "Little Heaven," the biosphere Seli had had carved out of the main storage hold of the Moth when she'd converted her from a freighter.  The gangway, once a hallway, was now a steel tension bridge that ran 50 meters along the mid line of the ship, 20 meters in the air.  Behind him, 600 liters of water per minute poured out of the cooling unit in a pair of twin waterfalls, one on each side of gangway.  The warm water kept the biosphere warm and muggy as it trailed through a series of fish filled pools and streams along the ground below.  A single solar emulator fixed in the ceiling kept track of day and night for the dozens of animals and hundreds of birds who lived on the green vegetation on the ground, the half dozen species of trees, and the thick vines that grew on the walls.  The smell was thick and earthy, and noise of the water and the birds was deafening.

John hardly noticed.  The notepad was scrolling a list of ship's needs generated by Arthur, the ship's Engineer.  John was smiling as he sipped his coffee and read.  Arthur always included interesting notes like, "get that gunky stuff out of the ball joint on the A-943" or "Please remind all sentient, waste producing life forms that it is not the Engineers job to flush for them."  Half the time, John couldn't even figure out what gunk, goo, or secretion had prompted the comment.  Still, as tech officer, these tasks usually fell to him.

He slowed as he approached the fore end of Little Heaven.  There, where the gangway went back into the body of the ship, a wooden deck with a long, wooden table had been built overlooking the green below.  On the wall opposite the overlook, a large monitor hung next to the doorway forward.  It was, as much as the Moth had such formalities, the ships conference room.

"Hey.  What's going on?"  John asked, walking up.

Three of the ship's crew were there, staring at the monitor, which appeared to be showing nothing but an empty hallway.

Dicer, the ship's weapon's officer looked up from the screen.  "Intercourse."

"We don't know that."  Jane, the white haired pilot answered, not looking away.

Next to her sat Dr. Spike.  He was a long, thin creature.  His two arms and two legs stretched out from his body like a spider's limbs, and each ended in eight long fingers.  In the relatively high-G of the the Moth, he wore a pneumatic assist unit for this arms and legs as well as a chest hugging respirator.  His face, while generally humanoid, featured large dark eyes and hard lips with a small spike on the top lip that tapped noisily on a plate on the lower.  His skin was smooth and patches and swirls of iridescent color moved slowly across it.

"Dr. Spike thinks they may be arguing."  Jane tapped the desk with a metal stylus.  Dr. Spike answered with a long series of taps.  "He doesn't think it makes sense that are...mating."

John looked at the screen more carefully.  It was showing the hallway outside Dryden's quarters.  "They who?"

"They are two humans alone in sleeping quarters.  Of course they're having intercourse."  Dicer pressed on.

"They who?"

Jane looked up without interrupting her tapped conversation with Dr. Spike.  "Alinsky boarded about an hour ago.  He and Captain Dryden went directly into her quarters."

"Uh oh."  John slid into one of the chairs around the desk.

"He said he was not here to arrest her again."    Dicer contributed.

"That's good."  John agreed.  "There are worse things than getting arrested though."

"Like what?"  Jane asked.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

The group fell silent, staring moodily at the screen.

"They're having intercourse."  Dicer stated.

"We don't know that."  Jane protested.

"If  you would like, you could have intercourse with me."  Dicer offered to no one in particular.  No one responded.

The Dryden Experiment 1:2 "The Anus from Tranus"

Seli hung naked in the darkness.  The darkness was cool but somehow comforting in its vast silence.  There was a presence there with her; an immense, loving presence.  She could feel its magnificent  attention turning toward her like water flowing in from the sea.

The voice, when it came was not a voice, but an intense feeling of compassion and thoughtfulness that reverberated like an ion engine in a humid atmosphere.  It rang and hummed at the same time.  "Hello Dr. Dryen."

Seli's eyes shot open.  She was alone in a glass sphere.  Behind her the curved bow of the Moth lit and flickered gently with Kilrov's radiation, a byproduct of quantum level imperfections in the fabric of time/space.  The ball, situated on the end of a clear tube that jutted 20 meters off the bow of the ship was ahead of the "framing eddy" created by the insanity crystal and cut off from all gravitational or electrical impulse from the ship.

On the inside, a few blankets and a pair of old Indian rugs were strung up between tension poles, making a 0-g bed.  There were also a few books drifting around in the space and a woven wicker hamper full of clothes strapped to one of the poles.  Seli's face was old and wrinkled, with deep smile lines around her eyes as she peered out of the bed roll.  She was alone in space, her ship behind her and the brilliant, hard arc or the Milky Way before her.

To her right was a brass communication horn connected to a long pipe that ran back down the tube toward the ship.  She glared at it.  "What?"  She barked.

"Sorry to wake you Dr. Dryden."  A man's voice came faintly back down the tube.  "We've got...."  The voice faded into a jumble.

"We got what?"

"We've got...."  The voice mumbled incoherently.

"Oh hell,"   Seli grumbled, reaching for a tie dyed bandanna.  "Just turn on the intercom."

Seli felt a tingle in her head as electricity was routed to a small intercom next to the brass horn.  Slipping the bandanna over her white hair lessened the tingle some what.  "So what's the problem?  We didn't hurt those workers did we?"

"No."  The man's soft voice came back now over the intercom.  "We just picked up a message beacon tagged for us."

"For us?   Who even knows we're out here?"

"The Beacon is from the Tranus ma'am, looks like Captain Tiller.  Seli groaned.  "Oh.  Not the anus of Tranus.  What does he want?"

"The beacon doesn't say, but there is a ship making one second jumps in the area.  It must be him."

"One second jumps huh?   That's a good trick.  He must be anxious to find us.  Fine.  I'm coming down.  Stop framing, turn on the lights and let him know we're here."

Seli pulled herself out of the bedroll and worked around it to the brass ladder that ran down the long tube back to the ship.  As she climbed feet first toward the ship, the Kilrov's radiation faded, the only sign that the insanity crystal was no longer pushing them across the heavens at unimaginable speeds.  Instead, a rim of lights came on around the mid-line of the ship, flashing a red and orange greeting into the dark of space.

The climb was easy and 0-g until she reached the very front edge of the ship.  Pushing yourself feet first into a gravity pit lined up at 90 degrees from your path of motion felt rather like getting broken in half from the ankles up.  The ladder turned at the last second and dropped her in a hallway just inside the front bulkhead.

Inside the hull of the ships, plasma conduits, circuit boards, video screens, and all manner of electronic devices gave a low hum of electromagnetic waste energy that registered in Seli's head as an angry buzz.  She adjusted the bandanna.  Its fibers concealed a nano wire mesh meant to absorb any stray EM energy that came her way.  It worked only partly.

Turning too her right, Seli tromped down ten meters of hallway before arriving on the bridge of the Moth.  The bridge was a long oval room that sloped down toward the front.  There was an array of video screens at the front, five reclining chairs in an oval with consoles before them and a large aquarium full of green and brown slime at the back.  The glass tank was short and wide and open at the top.  It gave off a sweet vegetable aroma.  Seli tapped the glass as she entered from the back of the room.  "Morning Slime."  She said.

"Good morning Dr. Dryden."  A speaker above the aquarium said in the same voice that had come down the pipe into the glass bubble.

Seli slid into the chair at the top of the room.  "Where is he?"

"He's still framing ma'am."  The slime replied.  "He's making very short jumps so he should see us soon."

"And the beacon didn't say anything?"

"No ma'am.  Standard blackout message.   I took the liberty of waking the weapons officer.  She's on her way."

"Dicer?  For Tiller?   Please.  If his ship had any weapons, he'd blow his own ass out of the sky.  Where's my pilot?"

"I'm here."  A small, young woman with white hair and black eyes said, coming in the door opposite the tank.  "I was helping Dr. Spike with..."

"Yeah, yeah."  Seli said with a dismissive gesture.  "Get the ion engines heated up.  Who knows where Tiller will pop up."

The young woman nodded and slipped silently into the foremost seat.

Seli drummed her fingers and watched the screens at the front of the room.  By slipping ships in an out of naturally occurring folds in time/space, the Insanity Crystal gave humans the power to travel faster than light without violating e=mc2.  Unfortunately, since the folds were neither stable nor predictable, You just had to throw yourself in the direction you wanted to go and hope for the best.  Since the Tranus was only staying in a given fold for one light second, it was only a matter of time before they popped into space somewhere within the sphere of light given off by the Moth's beacons.

"How long have we been lit up?"  Seli asked, as a tall woman with a huge mane of jet black hair slid into the chair to her left.

"Six minutes ma'am."  The Slime responded.

"Six minutes."  Seli grumbled to herself.  "Come on Tiller.  Anyone can hit a light spot six minutes wide."

"What's the sitch?"  The tall woman asked.  She was olive skinned, heavily muscled and had high cheek bones and a strong jaw.

"Do you ever comb your hair?"  Seli asked in response.

"Yes."  The tall woman responded.  It is traditional for Su-Finite women to wash their hair once ever solar cycle before the festival of Parummus."

Seli eyed the tall woman cooly.   "Dicer, Isn't a solar cycle on Su-Fin about 800 Earth days?"

"Yes."

"So, what you're telling me is that you only comb your hair once every three years."

"Two and a half ma'am."  The woman said somberly.  "The Slime woke me."  She went on changing the subject.

"Oh right.  The Anus of Tranus wants something.  Charge the lasers but don't arm them.  When we confirm that it's him, ripple space out to a distance of a minute so no one can join us."

The woman nodded.  "I see them now."  She said.

"Ship in frame, .4 light seconds away ma'am."  The slime spoke over Dicer.

"Good morning, Captain Tiller."  Seli spoke, pushing a button on her dash.  "Lovely to see you in our neck of the galaxy."

.8 seconds later the thin, pale, and scowling face of Captain Tiller appeared on the screen.  "Need I remind you that blackout protocol dictates."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."  Seli talked over him.  "But I just blew up half of Syrch's only remaining Psyx containment facility.  I think everyone in the quadrant already knows I'm here."

Tiller's, brow furrowed even deeper if possible.  "You didn't use a rippler to isolate the planet?"

"Ripplers are expensive.  Besides what's the fun of blowing stuff up if you never get to tell anyone?  New's buoys broadcasting my picture should start popping up any time.  You know how much I enjoy that."

"Captain Dryen..."  Tiller bellowed.

"Ooop.  Can't use my name; blackout protocol.  I know, why don't you call me Dumpling and I'll call you sweety."  Tiller gulped with anger.  "Did you have some business for me  sweety?"

Tiller swore.  "Yes, damn you.  I have co-chair Alisky here.  He would like a word with you."  Tiller swore again and stomped off screen.  He was replaced a few seconds later by a stocky black man with broad swatches of grey in his short hair.  "Hello Seli."  He said.

Seli softened visibly.  "Hello Saul.  Unusual for you to go roaming around the galaxy with a low brow like Tiller.  I'm not under arrest again am I?"

Alinsky laughed.  "No.  Not this time.  Right now you're not even wanted...on any IDF friendly planets."

"That's always good to know.  I hate in when old lovers show up and try to put me in handcuffs."

Saul cleared his throat.  "That was a long time ago Seli, and you forced me into it.  Can we talk about the present?"

"Maybe.  What's on your mind."

"It really is a matter that we shouldn't be broadcasting.  I'd like permission to come aboard."

Seli pursed her lips and stared hard the man on the screen.  "Am I in some kind of trouble?"

"No no.  I just don't want to leave this radio broadcast floating around where anyone can pick it up."

There was another pause.  "Fine.  Permission granted.  Jane," Seli's eyes flicked down to the white haired girl. "engage the ions.  Get on the horn with their pilot.  Arrange a docking protocol."  Her eyes shot back to the screen.  "See you in an hour Saul."

"Thanks Seli."  The screen went blank.

"Why would co-chairman Alinsky risk an off world trip?"  Jane asked once the screen was dark.  "What does he want?"

"Oh, I'm sure my ass is in some kind of hot water or another."  Seli rose to her feet.  "Dicer,  you have the bridge."

"Aye aye."  The tall woman agreed not taking her eyes off the screen in front of her.

Seli rapped the glass on her way off the bridge.  "Slime.  Wake me when we get to spitting distance."

"Aye.  Aye."