Well, my body pieces seem to be all here, especially my royal costume, thank the Sovereign.
Please, Your Highness, I have my dignity to preserve. That would have been shoddy workmanship to lose any part of you! I wouldn't be much of a protector if I let that happen. Roby chuckled again. As to your second question of where we are, I have initially scanned our whereabouts, and can only say where we are not. The plant life here certainly falls within the standard of chlorophyll-based vegetation. However, there are species here not found on any planet known to the Star Empire of Arista. I need more data. When I can obtain a sighting of the night sky, I can scan the star patterns above and look for known constellations. Hopefully that will help.
Roby paused. As for your last question of how far did we Teleport, I'm… afraid we traveled very far.
Lassandra held her breath a moment. Did we leave the galaxy?
The AI paused again. I can't say for certain yet. I don't know. As you are aware, hyperspace has energy bands of ever increasing frequency. The higher frequency, the faster you travel.
Right, the star princess agreed. And the reason we don't use the higher frequencies for hyperspace travel is that we aren't able to devise a ship that can generate a quarteron field strong enough to avoid being ripped apart by those higher frequencies.
Correct. Now, according to my scans, the impetus the Nullilizer gave us caused us to hit some hyperspace frequencies so high, not only has no ship has ever attempted it, but no one on public record has even hypothesized building a ship that could. For that matter, the frequency we hit was so high I could not even measure it. I almost wonder whether we were even in hyperspace at all.
She asked apprehensively, What else could there be if it wasn't hyperspace? Look, let's just assume it was hyperspace, and stick to the Teleport theory. Now, with frequencies that high, how far do you think we've Teleported?
Roby's sub-vocal voice was subdued, and slightly hesitant. Let me put it this way. Even if they could build a ship to travel it, which I doubt is possible to our science at the present, such a ship would likely take a lifetime—or many lifetimes—to reach us. If a sailing ship on the sea is our analogy, a hurricane wind would be a gentle wafting breeze by comparison to the speed of the winds by which we traveled. The wind we caught would not be merely supersonic, but hypersonic in speed and strength. I'm sorry, Lassandra, but I don't know yet how fast we were going nor how long we were gone. Given our previous conversation, it seemed only minutes, but time is much more variable than you realize. It might have been only seconds. As to how far, we could be—theoretically—clear across half the known universe.
She sat down hard, stunned and without strength. Oh… no…. You mean we can never go home? You mean, that traitor killed my parents and gets away with it? That he wins?
Tears came in salty streams.
The AI observed her as she wept softly this time. He let her cry; he could think of nothing he could say or do could help. So, instead, he busied himself with certain anomalies he'd detected in his scans of her. He'd told her the readings were fuzzy. That should not be. Not to his scans!
The bereft star princess remembered her father's kind face and his comforting strong arms that wrapped protectively around her in his loving embrace. She remembered the scratchy stubble of his beard late in the day and his favorite cologne, how it was so masculine, so him. Matters of state never so preoccupied him that he could not attend to his daughter, his only child. He was so strong and brave, even leaping to her mother's defense when he knew the Nullilizer was going to kill them both. It was that strength, that nobility, which made her feel safe. She could always go to him when she was lonely or frightened, and he would make everything better. Only, now she couldn't go to him, and he couldn't make things better.
She recalled her mother's laughter and smile, and her sheer love of life. It was that quality that made her father fall in love with her mother. Lassandra loved it when her mother in laughter would pounce on her when the princess was a child, and hug and kiss her and made a wonderful fuss over her. Her mother had helped Lassandra make the change through puberty into becoming a woman. She loved her mother despite a silly plan she devised for Lassandra to marry and have 169 babies, one for each member planet in the Star Empire. Lassandra loved her so much! Only, now she was gone too. Lassandra would gladly have tried to have those 169 babies if she could but have her mother back.
Arista itself was gone too, lost somewhere on the other side of the universe. She remembered the palace, the gardens, the grand ballroom galas and stately dances, and yes, the lessons on matters of state and on the throne she would one day inherit. She remembered, too, her hopes and dreams of meeting a handsome prince suitable to rule the empire beside her, and the two of them being swept away in love for each other. The dreams, the memories, and the hopes. All gone now, all of it gone, just dust and ashes.
A long while later, when the light of day began fading, she finally cried herself empty.
Princess Lassandra, Your Highness, I am sorry for your loss, but we must speak. There are some anomalies I detected earlier in my scans of you.
She wiped the saltiness from her face as best she could, blew her nose, and put on a brave smile. "So tell me about the anomalies," she said aloud.
You recall I told you my scans of you were fuzzy?
"Yes?"
I have determined why. The mystery of what exactly happened in the moment of the Teleport deepens.
"And…?" she prompted him.
The reason for the fuzziness is that you are not merely an interlaced mix of your human particles and my quarteron matrix. There's a third element to the blend.
"Meaning what?" she asked, uneasy at his reluctance to come to the point.
I hate to make firm conclusions yet, but it appears you also, in addition to being infused with quarterons, have been infused with Nullilizer energy.
"What!" she exclaimed in alarm. "Am I going to disintegrate after all?"
The AI said soothingly, No, no. Your readings are stable and in balance. Quite the contrary, I have a conjecture about it that may prove very interesting.
She took a breath to calm herself. "Will you please stop circumnavigating the known universe and get to the point?"
The point is this: As best we know, Nullilizer energy disperses you into hyperspace, whereas your merger with my matrix enabled you to emerge back out of hyperspace. It's just a hypothesis, a guess, really, but because of the infusion of Nullilizer energy, and your link to hyperspace, you may be able to enter hyperspace at will, survive, and return at will. This is extraordinary, and no theory in my data bank even comes close to speculating such a thing. To put it even simpler, you may be able to Teleport yourself, perhaps even all the way back home to Arista.
The news stunned her. "You're sure of this?"
No, I am afraid not. It's just a hypothesis. We would need much more data. Just because you actually survived an once-in-a-lifetime and an as-of-then yet unproven Teleport theory, doesn't mean we should attempt yet another unproven theory until we know more. Or as the human saying goes, let's not press our luck.
She sighed and gave a weak smile, wondering if she would ever truly smile again. Daddy. Mother. She felt dull and almost hopeless inside, but put on a strained brave smile and said, "I guess I am all right, then. We can investigate this world with at least the hope that I might be able one day to get back to Arista and bring justice on the head of Gorgun the traitor and avenge my parents. For the moment it appears I am going to be here a while, so I need to find a way to blend in. The people here at least look human." She sighed and stirred herself. "But, where to start?" She tapped her chin pensively.
If I might suggest…?