Starplex

Of course, to get the ball rolling, there had to be one shortcut on-line at the outset that was not associated with any race — otherwise there'd be no location for the first emerging civilization to travel to with their shortcut. The initial shortcut — Shortcut Prime — was clearly a freehie, given by the shortcut makers. It was located in the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, within sight of the central black hole.

Earth's initial explorations of that sector had found no native life there, of course; the galactic core was far too radioactive for that.

At the beginning of the Commonwealth, there were only four active shortcuts — Tau Ceti, Rehbollo, Flatland, and Shortcut Prime. As more shortcuts were activated, the acceptable approach angles for each possible exit became smaller. After a dozen shortcuts were on-line, it became clear that to return to the Tau Ceti shortcut, one had to pierce the tachyon sphere surrounding another shortcut at about 115 degrees east longitude and 40 degrees north latitude. On Earth, that's close to Beijing, which gave rise to the "New Beijing" nickname for the colony on Silvanus, Tau Ceti's fourth planet.

When a ship touches the shortcut, the shortcut point expands — but only in two dimensions. It forms a hole in space perpendicular to the direction of the ship's travel. The hole's shape is the same as the cross-sectional profile of whatever part of the ship is passing through it. The opening is outlined in a violet ring of Soderstrom radiation, caused by tachyens spilling out around the edges and spontaneously translating into slower-than-light particles.

An observer looking at the shortcut from the front would see the ship disappearing into the violet-limned entrance.

Looking from the back, he or she would only see a black void blocking the background stars; the void would have the same silhouette as the disappearing object.

Once the ship is all the way through, the shortcut loses its height and width, collapsing back down to nothingness — awaiting the next galactic traveler .

Thor sounded the pretransfer alarm, five successively louder electronic drumbeats. Keith touched keys, and his number-two monitor switched to a split-screen mode. One side displayed normal space, in which the shortcut was invisible; the other, a computer simulation based on hyperspace scans, showing the shortcut as a bright white point on a green background surrounded by a glowing orange sphere of field lines.

"All right," said Keith. "Let's do it."

Thor operated controls. "As you say, boss."

Starplex closed the twenty kilometers between itself and the shortcut, and then it touched the point. The shortcut expanded to accommodate the ship's diamond-shaped profile, fiery purple lips matching the giant mothership's shape.

As Starplex passed through, the holographic bubble surrounding the bridge showed the two mismatched starfields, and the stormy discontinuity between hem that moved from bow to stern as they completed their passage. As soon as the ship was all the way through, the shortcut shrank back down to nothingness.

And there they were, in the Perseus Arm — two thirds of the way across the galaxy, and tens of thousands of light-years from any of the homeworlds.

"Shortcut passage was normal," said Thor. The tiny holegram of his face floating above the rim of Keith's workstation was lined up with the back of Thor's actual head, and the holographic mass of red hair blended into the real mane beyond, making his ax-blade features seem lost in a vast orange sea.

"Good work," said Keith. "Let's drop a marker buoy."

Thor nodded and pushed some keys. Although the shortcut stood out in hyperspace, if Starplex's hyper-radio equipment broke down, they'd have trouble finding it again.

The buoy, broadcasting on normal EM frequencies and containing its own hyperscope, would be their beacon home in that case.

Jag got up and pointed out the twinkling stars again; they were quite easy to see. Thor rotated the holographic bubble so that they appeared front and center, instead of off behind the observation gallery.

Lianne Karendaughter was leaning forward at her workstation, a delicate hand supporting her chin. "So what's causing the twinkling?" she said.

Behind her, Jag lifted all four shoulders in a Waldahud shrug. "It can't be atmospheric disturbances, of course," he said. "Spectrographs confirm that we're in a space-normal vacuum. But something is in between our ship and the background stars — something that is at least partially opaque and shifting."

"Perhaps a nonluminous nebula," said Thor.

"Or, if I may be allowed a suggestion, perhaps just a tract of dust," said Rhombus.

"I'd like to know how far away it is before I hazard 'a guess," said Jag.

Keith nodded. "Thor, shoot a comm laser at — at whatever it is/'

Thor's broad shoulders moved as he worked controls on either side of his workstation. "Firing."

Three digital counters appeared floating in the holographic display.