Severed

By Daniel J Lyons

After exhausting planet Earth, humanity has moved out to live "on the stars."

With your closest neighbor lightyears away, the "on the stars" lifestyle guarantees a level of privacy unmatched in human history. But even ultimate privacy doesn't need to come at a cost when modern technology can instantly whisk you back to civilization.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel J. Lyons III
• Release date: Dec 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781735595719

Daniel J Lyons

Daniel J. Lyons is a life-long fan of science fiction and fantasy, especially Star Trek and the works of Isaac Asimov, who grew up along the east coast of the U.S. as a Navy brat before settling in Massachusetts. He started writing fan fiction in high school then earned a degree in journalism with a minor in creative writing before unexpectedly focusing on a career as an IT professional, eventually specializing in web and mobile communication.He can be found on the web at DansFormers.info.

Book preview

Prologue

It’s all fake! Brian Masters, CEO of Prosperity Portal Systems, shouted as he tossed a portable screen back at his Director of Prosperity Station Security. He turned and stormed out of the room and down the corridor. Myer Giancana, the currently frustrated director, caught the screen after a few fumbles, then followed the CEO.

This company was built on the slogan ‘Live on the stars without compromise’, Masters continued, as he noticed Giancana approaching. I’m not going to start compromising now.

Sir, this isn’t about compromise, it’s about security, Giancana replied, as he caught up with the CEO. All I’m asking is to publish an alert and authorize some inspections.

And panic the investors?! Masters said, sneering, not even glancing back.

Sir, Giancana struggled to maintain his composure, investors will be more panicked if anything happens to the station.

"This station has over fifty thousand police officers and the Navy’s walking distance from your office! Masters’ anger propelled him faster down the corridor. Hell, we even built them custom docking bays to make sure that there would be a scout and a patrol ship here at all times! No third-rate group of troglodytes are a threat to this station!"

Sir, this is not the first credible threat…

"It’s not credible. Masters spun around and thumped a finger into Giancana’s chest to enunciate his next few words. That’s my point!"

Respectfully, sir, all reports indicate that this Reunite Humanity is targeting—

Reunite Humanity, Masters scoffed. Our Portals unite us more than any other point in human history!

Giancana pressed on with a concerned look. Sir, there are clear indications that they are attempting to acquire weapons—

"This station is larger than any planetary capital! Masters replied, his face turning red. No protest club is going to be able to gather enough weapons to do more than embarrass themselves! This matter is closed. If you bring it up again, you’d better pack all your shit first!"

Masters stormed off.

Giancana closed his eyes for a moment, wiped spittle off his face, then turned and headed back to his office.

Prosperity Station had been constructed using the profits from the corporation’s first commercial success—their standardized Door and mount system.

Doors were a personal version of the Portal—a transportation technology that passes an artificial wormhole through an entangled quantum tunnel to allow for instantaneous travel between the two endpoints that make up a full set. The two variations had enabled humanity to fulfill its long-held dream of expanding into the stars.

The station had been carefully positioned close, but not too close, to an unused Portal at the far edge of the poorly regulated H sector.

H sector, known today as the Harvard sector, was the last of the ten First Wave sectors to get up and running, its founding delayed repeatedly by technical failures aboard the automated ship carrying its first Portal. Despite half a century head start, H sector was barely established when the first Second Wave sector was founded.

The early sector government was so eager to recover lost time that they purchased more Portals for internal expansion than they had available settlers.

Taking advantage of their desperation, Prosperity created the concept of a corporate zone, which would have the benefits of a system government, including their own spacecraft registration office, but none of the obligations, like funding Naval ships.

During negotiations, Prosperity agreed to establish a local government on the station in exchange for the zone border being placed just short of the Portal. Since the Portal would be officially located outside the new corporate zone, it would continue to be maintained by the sector government. The maintenance costs, the corporation promised, would be offset by the increased traffic.

The new station was modular in design, with each section complete with its own independent systems. Each module was split into three levels: factory and industrial space at the base, the middle set aside for Prosperity’s next big idea, and the top containing a modern city.

After humanity took their Doors into space, the concept of a city changed dramatically. In a reaction to the cramped living conditions on the declining home-world and early expansions within the solar system, very few people actually lived in cities (or at any single location for that matter), preferring to have ample personal space surrounding them. Where older cities had apartments, modern cities had small commuter units, which were often barely larger than the Door mount they were built around. These commuter units eventually became known as Locations and gave a widely spread humanity back a sense of community.

As part of their new station, Prosperity decided to expand on that Location concept and turn their middle decks into what they referred to as a Collection.

These Collection levels were filled with a variety of differently-sized Locations that could meet any budget—from luxury units with actual bedrooms, to tiny, closet-sized units along the outer cold-wall of the station. Most Locations fell somewhere in the middle, including a standard Door mount, sockets for communication Conduits (a Prosperity standardization of the original quantum tunnel implementation), and a delivery chute.

Over the centuries, many new modules had been added, and the oldest modules had been replaced, allowing the station to grow to an unprecedented size. The Collection levels of now housed millions of individual Locations, with Doors connecting to every sector of human space.

As the local government was given more authority to foster the appearance of an independent operation, the Prosperity Station Corporate Security office had consequently lost staff and influence. By the time Myer Giancana took over, his position had devolved into little more than a liaison between the corporation, local police, and the Space Defense Alliance Navy.

When Giancana arrived at the security office, he found his second-in-command (and only other member of station corporate security), Joanna Henry, standing just inside the door looking concerned.

Was that as bad as it sounded? she asked, as Giancana tossed his screen onto his desk. The screen landed hard, slid off the far side, then clattered on the floor.

Worse, Giancana said, as he angrily pulled out his chair. A loud crunch announced the demise of his much-abused screen. "The man’s so pigheaded that he can’t, no won’t, see anything beyond the quarterly balance sheet!" He dropped bonelessly into his chair, ignoring a more subdued selection of crunches.

Henry sat in the guest chair opposite her boss. Is there anything we can do?

Without Master’s approval? Giancana said, in a defeated tone. Not a thing. The best we can do is stay on our toes and hope whatever’s coming will be manageable.

Chapter One

The quarterback paused, cocked back her arm, and scanned the field while two opposing players converged on her position. Her arm snapped forward, the ball arced towards the end zone, then the screen went blank.

A moment later, no signal appeared across the screen beneath an animation of a shrugging squirrel.

Aaaaug! Violette Hamilton looked up from where she was sprawled across the sofa. The feed cut out!

Across the room, Violette’s father, Eric Hamilton, was shaking his screen. I was in the middle of grocery shopping!

Both screens flashed red with an incoming override communication from Dianne Hamilton, the captain (also mother and wife respectively) of the PCV Hamilton where they resided. The feeds just went offline, and support is not responding. Can one of you pop through the Door and see what’s going on?

I’ll do it, Violette shouted, as she rushed out of the room. You know Dad’s useless with tech!

Violette ran into the foyer and, without pausing, punched the Pad on the left side of the Door’s frame. The Door blurted a response and, caught by surprise, Violette bounced off the blank and unyielding back of the Door’s frame.

Sagged! she shouted, pinwheeling her arms in an attempt to recover her balance.

Language! her father said, chastising her from just outside the room as she finally crashed to the floor.

The Door didn’t open! She pointed at it accusingly as her father entered the room.

The Door’s frame looked much like an old-fashioned doorframe (although the left side of the frame was much wider to accommodate the control Pad) but without a physical door and with a lightly padded grey panel covering the opening from the back.

The Pad, which Violette hadn’t thought to glance at before this point, was currently configured as a raised red triangle on a grey background. Normally the variable surface of the Pad oscillated between two states: a raised blue disk indicating that the Door was open and a green version of the disk that indicated it was closed but ready.

After her father helped her up, Violette flipped out a small panel located just above the Pad—then yelped as a drenk fell out, spread its wings, and flew loudly towards the doorway.

Eric swatted at the insect. It bounced off his fingertips and disappeared into the corridor. I thought we got rid of those pests!

They returned their attention to the Door and the status screen built into the back of the newly opened panel.

Status report, Violette ordered.

The screen lit up. In large white letters on a red background, it displayed:

Portal disabled - Unsafe conditions detected at terminus

Please contact technical support

Technical support, Violette said.

The Door blurted again, and the message changed to:

Communication failure - Channel sync did not respond

Please contact technical support

Thanks, she grumbled.

Eric lifted his left arm and tapped his plain black wristband, which chirped softly then projected an image of a middle-aged redheaded woman in the air above his forearm.

No go here, he told his wife’s image. The Door’s fully busted.

Now pacing the room, Violette was aggressively tapping a control panel projected onto her forearm by her own wristband, a two-tone whistle sounding in response to each tap. "I can’t get anything!"

Violette, suddenly realizing that she was tapping controls like someone her parent’s age, quickly moved on to shouting commands at her wrist instead.

Ignoring his daughter, Eric continued. What if we can’t get the Door open?

A look of concern crossed the image of his wife’s face. I’ll be right there.

Dad, grab a wipe out of the cabinet, Violette said, swiping closed the control panel on her forearm and moving back towards the Door at the back of the narrow foyer. I want to clean the contacts.

Violette started to release the first of four clamps on the outside corners of the Door, which held it securely in the mounting port built into the wall. As she released the clamp, the status screen went dark and the raised triangle smoothed out, fading to the same grey as the rest of the Pad’s surface.

Help me with this, she said, grabbing her side of the Door.

Her father tucked the container of wipes he just retrieved from a cabinet under his arm, then grabbed the opposite side. After a firm pull, the Door frame came away from the mounting port. They carefully leaned the Door against the cabinets that covered the fore side of the room.

Along the left edge of the newly exposed recession in the wall were two round sockets, a blue one near the midpoint, just behind where the Pad had been, and a red one just above the bottom.

Here. Her father handed her a moist wipe from the container.

Thanks. Violette carefully wiped out the blue socket. Okay, let’s put it back.

They both took hold of the Door again, carefully lining up ridges in the mount with matching indents built into the sides of the Door frame. Once it was properly aligned, they pushed hard until there were several loud clicks.

Let’s fasten the clamps and reboot it, Eric said, as he reached up to fasten the top clamp on his side.

After Violette snapped the last clamp back into place, a yellow disk raised up out of the Pad. A moment later, the Door blurted. The disk turned red and reshaped itself into a triangle.

Violette sighed. Let’s try the Conduits and see if we have better luck.

Her father pulled another wipe from the container and joined her at a panel at the midpoint of the aft wall of the room.

The panel contained six sockets arranged in three columns. Populating the left two columns were the family’s four Conduits.

The Conduits were six-inch-long cylinders, each containing one end of an entangled quantum tunnel. On the inner end of each conduit was a standardized plug, which had been inserted into the wall panel. Common to each Conduit was a small round data port and a status light, both positioned side-by-side across the middle of their flat outer end. Two of the Conduits