Hermes - Prologue

"HALT!!!"

I ignored the screams of the security guards and sprinted down the corridor. Only two more turns and I would be at my ship.

"Max, prepare for an emergency undock," I said into my bracelet.

"Affirmative, sir," answered the synthetic voice of my ship AI.

I rounded the last corner and saw the airlock of my ship. The text "Unnamed" was displayed on a small screen above the door. I jumped the last two meters into the airlock and pressed my elbow on the "Close" button. I could hear the guards behind me, nearly at the last corner.

"Max!! Open the inner airlock, NOW!" I nearly screamed at the inner door.

The outer door was closing painfully slowly, and as I looked back, I could see the first guard rounding the corner and looking at me. He drew his weapon and took aim.

I pressed myself against the wall of the airlock so that the small protrusion would protect me from their weapons. Since I "upgraded" my airlock motors, the inner door was much faster to open, and after only two seconds, I could slip into the hangar of my ship. Again, I pressed the close button, and my modified door closed in less than a second, thanks to the pressurized cylinders I had installed.

Meanwhile, the outer door was nearly closed, but the guard started to type on the terminal on the side of the door.

"Max, commence emergency undock."

"Negative, sir, outer airlock door is not sealed, undock prohibited by protocol," Max responded.

I groaned, stupid protocols. "Protocol override, emergency undock," I said.

Max responded with "Neg~" then a bit of static followed by "Affirmative, releasing docking clamps."

One of my modifications, any normal ship AI was not able to overcome the limitation in their protocol, but I changed Max by adding a piece of software that would rewrite the protocol for that one command, if I used the keyword.

There was a short metallic clanking sound followed by a small shift in gravity as my own generator started up and we decoupled from the station.

"Undock completed, sir," said Max through the intercom.

"Set course away from the station, maximum acceleration, and engage the afterburners," I responded. Again, the gravity shifted a bit as the ship started to accelerate at a ludicrous speed. I walked to an empty crate in my storage bay and placed the basketball-sized core into the mold I had made for it. Not a perfect fit, but it will do.

"We are being hailed by the station, sir," came from Max just as I started walking to the cockpit.

"Put them on speaker," I said.

"TC-3385-1, return to your assigned dock and wait for further instruction or we will open fire," came from the speakers.

"I would rather not," I responded as I entered the cockpit, "since you would certainly arrest me."

I pressed a button on the coms display and ended the connection.

"How long till we leave the weapon range of the station, Max?" I asked.

"8.32 seconds, sir," Max responded.

"Alright, cool," I said, then looked at the energy monitor.

"Fusion reactor at 98% output," said the display in big red letters. My 'afterburner' modifications to the engines were one of my most useful add-ons to the ship.There is a regulation on how fast ships are allowed to accelerate, but it's only software. The engines themselves can handle much more than the regulation limit of 4g. By disabling the software limiter and installing bigger wires to the engines, I can get them to do 6g with nearly half my spare reactor power. The other half is used to counteract the effects of the acceleration with the artificial gravity unit, so that I don't get crushed.

And now I have an even better power source. I opened up the specifications of the prototype core and looked at the calculated sustained power output: 6 TW. 6 god damn terawatts. My somewhat new fusion reactor can barely hold 500 GW, and only if I have enough fuel, but the scientists at the station had developed a reactor that can run without fuel. Just plug it in and you got power. How they did that was beyond me, but the possibilities...

I decided to check back with Max about our escape.

"Hey Max, how are we standing?"

"We have left the weapons range of the station and are currently 105 kilometers away from the station, sir."

"Good, change course in a random direction away from the station for 1 second and then stop the engines and let us drift," I said.

"Affirmative, sir," Max responded.

At least I don't need to worry about their scanners, with the new paint coat, I can park 2 km in front of their sensor array and they would only see a small rock on their monitors.

I decided to return to the power core and run some tests.

Two hours later, I had tested everything as thoroughly as I could. There was no way for me to test the 6 TW output though.

"Max, reroute all essential systems to the backup power unit and shut down the main reactor," I instructed.

"Affirmative, sir ... systems rerouted, reactor shutdown initiated," Max responded.

Now it was time to install my new acquisition. I walked to one of the wall panels where the main power wires were routed and removed it. After I moved the new core into its "nest" near the now open wall, Max informed me that the fusion reactor was now offline. This meant that I could safely install the new core without risking electrocution.

After some low-temperature welding and rerouting of some other wires, the installation was complete. The new core was now connected to the main power system and, most importantly, the engines.

"Max, activate the new power core," I instructed.

"Affirmative, sir, activating new core," Max responded.

I watched as the lights on the control panel of the new core came to life.

After a short wait, Max informed me, "Core online, all parameters within specifications, sir."

"Perfect," I said to myself. "Max, reroute essential systems back to main power."

"Affirmative, sir ... systems rerouted," Max responded.

With a sense of anticipation, I walked back to the cockpit.

"Power up the engines and increase the afterburner limiter to 3 terawatts, Max. Let's see what this new core can handle," I instructed.

"Affirmative, engines online, limiter increased, sir," Max responded.

I sat back in my pilot chair and, as an extra precaution, put on my seatbelt.

"Alright, safety first... Max, shut the engines off if my bio signals indicate any problems or if I let the engines run for more than 30 seconds," I instructed.

"Affirmative, sir," Max responded.

With a sense of excitement, I pressed the button labeled "max Afterburner Acceleration."

For a split second, I was pulled back into my seat, until the gravity unit adjusted to the new force. The display read: Acceleration: 25G.

It was magnificent. I was flying faster than any human before. In theory, I could reach 90% of the speed of light in a bit more than five years. However, only ten seconds after I started, a loud bang followed by the view in the windows slowly rotating to the left pulled me back to reality.