Free Lone Star Renegades by Mark Wayne McGinnis Page B

important, rules of physics associated with string theory and quantum entanglement. Everything changed when one type of mass was no longer the same mass we had come to understand. What we as humans in the twenty-first century believed to be hard physical laws, in reality were only one subset of a much greater theory. Just as science has observed the wave-particle duality aspects of light, what Collin was coming to terms with was that mass had the same dual attributes, under certain re-creatable situations.
    Collin felt as though his head was going to explode. The more Orman spoke, the more Collin wanted to interrupt and have him go back and provide the basic principles behind the science—the barebones physics of it all. But he didn’t, and eventually he was able to piece enough of it together for a novice’s understanding of things. As the conversation moved to the ship’s engines, which Orman referred to as drives, Collin started to feel somewhat better. Sure, he was talking of things such as dark-matter containment pods and something called the special manifold construct … which apparently let the spaceship, and all space-faring vessels, travel within some kind of bubble or shield, where the rules of physics were not only taken advantage of, but used against one another to create an entirely new form of physics.
    For hours, Orman was incredibly patient and it now occurred to Collin that he was probably well aware of the teen’s ignorance of even the basics of space travel—the fundamental science behind it all. So why is he still helping? Why continue the ruse? The only thing Collin could come up with was the simple fact that, after several weeks of being stranded in this junk-metal hell, they’d made zero progress getting out of here. For some time, Cine had watched them back at the jetliner from a distance; maybe he had seen something in the Earth beings? Collin didn’t really know and, at this point, figured it didn’t much matter.
    “Can you show me the engines … the drives?”
    “There’s only one drive.” Orman stood. “Follow me.”
    Collin got up and saw Bubba getting to his feet as well. He’d totally forgotten about him being there. He’d been as quiet as a mouse, listening to them for hours without a single interruption.
    Once Orman exited the bridge, Bubba pulled Collin in close. “Man … I had no idea you were that smart. You’re like some kind of genius or something.”
    Collin thought Bubba was pulling his chain: rubbing in the fact that he was clueless about much of what the furry alien had spoken about. But he then realized Bubba was serious and replied, “Let’s just hope they think I’m as smart as you do.”
    Engineering spanned two levels and was reachable from both the upper and lower decks. Orman took them through the upper deck’s compartments, which were in somewhat better shape than the lower deck. The three of them entered Engineering, in the stern of the ship. This part of the craft was outright tidy compared to the rest. About the size of a modern-day Starbucks, both the compartment and sub-compartments had floor-to-ceiling technology.
    Collin spun around, taking it all in. If he was out of his element on the bridge, he was even more so here. Orman began speaking again:
    “The primary power plant for this vessel is, of course, here.” He gestured with a small clawed finger to a barrel-shaped section at the farthest back area of Engineering. “Like all antimatter drives, it’s always in a ready state. As you can see,” he stood up tall and pointed to a series of waving and fluctuating optical meters high above, “our output power levels for the anti-matter reactor are well within optimal range.”
    For the first time Bubba said something. “Sounds like a transmission problem to me.”
    Both Orman and Collin turned around to face him.
    “Well, it’s a drivetrain problem … If it’s not the engine, which clearly it’s not, it’s got to be another aspect of