“So where do we stand?” Sheila asked as another platter of sushi was delivered to their table.

“The last job gave us some breathing room. We didn’t fully achieve our mission but sixteen million should get us there excluding all of the hardware Jessie claims is needed,” Greg said as he helped himself to some sashimi.

“It is needed!” Jessie chirped. “We are talking about a complete virtual recreation of the White Star. This isn’t some VR game. This is the real deal, a true virtual model down to the nanogram and nanometer that will act exactly like the real thing down to the temperature of each wire and RPM of each rotor. That’s a pretty tall order. Add to that recreation of all of the AI’s and other control software plus standard intelligence and personality modeling of the security personnel and now it’s getting tricky. Top that with complete physics and hyperphysics modeling good enough to predict not only exactly how it will react but what the force and strains will be across a ship of that size? Fuck! Now it’s fun!” she babbled. “I mean we could cut a few corners but we could also blow up when we try to jump or wind up actually lost in space instead of kinda lost in space.”

“The lost in space part doesn’t concern me,” T’sunk’al said as he dipped some yellowfin into soy sauce, “I can probably get us out of that bind. The blowing up part doesn’t sound fun though.”

“Yeah, you are the lord of the void jump,” Gloria said as she sipped some sake, “You've jumped into and out of interstellar space more times than anyone else has many times over. How do you do it? Most people would have cashed in their chips by now.”

“By knowing hyperspace,” T’sunk’al chuckled as he went for the salmon, “Most navigators don’t really know hyperspace, not really. They are just equipment operators, no offense.”

“None taken. You are absolutely right.”

“You have to know hyperspace, embrace it,” T’sunk’al said buzzing quietly, “and to embrace hyperspace is to embrace madness. Void jumps are terrifying and terror makes people timid. It’s too easy to shrink back and blindly rely on ship’s readouts and what some computer tells you is the right thing to do. That won’t work. That will get you killed. You have to measure things yourself, by hand. You have to calculate things yourself, by hand. The answer you get will be wrong. Every instinct you have will tell you it’s wrong. The computer will tell you that it’s wrong. That right there is what kills the void jumper. They trust their fear and they trust the computer. Do that and you are dead. You trust your skill, your measurements, and your math, nothing else.”

“So what exactly kills you?” Eno asked. “I just know that a void jump equals never making it home again. They just keep missing?”

“Well, yeah,” T’sunk’al said sipping some tea, “That is one way to go. Someone just keeps jumping and jumping making the same mistakes over and over until the ship runs out of energy or the drive breaks but that’s not the only way. When you are jumping in and out of real space you aren’t just dealing with location. The whole universe is moving. You are moving when you go into hyperspace and you will be moving when you leave. A perfect jump would have absolutely no change in acceleration from beginning to end but no jump is perfect. That is why you hear a ship groan or you feel that weird lurch when you pop out. The ship and everyone and everything in it is catching back up to real space-time. Screw it up and that little lurch can be a few thousand g’s and everyone goes smush or that little groan is a spin or a twist that tears the ship apart.”

“Jesus,” Eno said.

“Of course there is another possible outcome,” T’sunk’al said with a chuckle, “There is also the distinct possibility that you could enter hyperspace and never leave at all. It would be just the same as running out of energy or starving but I think it adds a new level of dread to the whole thing. If you die outside of the universe what happens to your soul?”

“Ok. Now you are just fucking with us,” Greg said.

“Nope,” Gloria said as she knocked back some more sake, “That can happen. Probably won’t, but it can.”

“Shit," Sheila said between mouthfuls, "Ok. We want Jessie and T’sunk’al to be happy before we do this one.”

“But wait,” Roberts said as he grabbed the better part of a tuna roll, “Didn’t T’sunk’al say that computers were worthless?”

“I said that a normal navcomp can’t be trusted, not that computers are worthless,” T’sunk’al said around a mouthful of nigiri, “Most people don’t know what a navcomp really is. It is basically a very, very detailed database of star systems. It determines your exact location and velocity based on the known parameters of the system you are in. It then accesses it’s memory to get the exact location and velocity of your destination and then it uses a few boiled-down highly specialized equations that are completely dependent upon a lot of assumed information. The AI crunches down digital equivalents of what really aren’t digital equations and then converts all of that back into analog signals that the actual hyperdrive uses and then you go pop. As an added bonus both the star that you are leaving from and the one that you are going to both leave little dimples in space-time that make stopping, starting, and the math all that much easier. A void jump is completely outside of its normal operating parameters. All of them have an ‘emergency function’ that tries to compensate if it winds up in the void but it is woefully under equipped for it. I think they should just leave it out myself.”

“Yeah,” Jessie babbled, “to get a real true super duper hyperspatial navigation computer you would need one hell of a supercomputer. I don’t mean like Bunny’s home. I mean a real supercomputer, maybe one bigger than anything currently running, and then the software… Jesus… that would have to be one hell of an AI. It would be a monster before we even considered-”

“I’m gonna have to stop you there,” Sheila said waving a hand in front of Jessie. “My head’s already full. Are we going to actually have to make one of these super navcomps?”

“Oh fuck no!” Jessie chirped, “God no. Nothing nearly as much as all that. We just need to make a simulacrum of the White Star, a real live virtual recreation of the vessel perfect in all respects. With that we can do spatial and hyperspatial modeling and testing. It’s a completely different thing. It’s much easier and Bunny can do it with the right software all of which is easily obtainable.”

“Basically,” T’sunk’al said as he waved down the server for another order, “with Jessie’s dream machine we could easily test maneuvers and go into and out of hyperspace virtually before we do the real thing. It would also come in really handy during the actual job as well… I think… Jessie is kind of hard to follow but she says it will.”

“I still don’t see the difference,” Sheila said downing some more sake.

“It’s a huge difference,” T’sunk’al said buzzing happily, “The main difference between what Jessie and I envision and what you would consider a navigational computer is mainly that the hyperspatial physics in relation to space-time-”

“Ok. Stop. Just fucking stop,” Sheila said as she poured more sake, “The whole plan hinges on this working. T’sunk’al, Jessie can you do it?”

“Yeppers!” Jessie chirped. T’sunk’al nodded confidently.

“What do you need to make this happen?”

“Well,” Jessie said with a grin, “You know that thing, you know, the thing… The thing that I want…”

“You finally have an excuse that justifies us getting it don’t you?”

“Yup!” Jessie chirped with glee.

***

Dr. Slocum was giving a recent donor a tour of the advanced orbital observatory Farsight, the only remaining structure Aster University had intact following the Terran War. He normally hated catering to donors but he was really enjoying himself this time. Ms. Parker was fun, smart, and engaging.

The fact that she was drop dead gorgeous didn’t hurt either.

“And here it is, the Aster Supercomputer,” he said with pride. “When the Terran animals entered the system some very brave men and women lost their lives saving this wonder. As long as we have this,” he said as he lovingly stroked the case, “Aster University remains alive. All of our records, all of our research, all of our archives, everything… We were able to transfer it all to this miracle before the bombs fell,” he paused choked up with emotion, “They destroyed our campus but they did not destroy our spirit. Our spirit,” he said as he touched the case once more, “Our spirit is right here.”

“Amazing,” the woman said as she beheld the supercomputer, “And it’s so small. You would think that it would be huge.”

“It may be compact, but it is one of the most advanced quantum supercomputers in the Federation,” Dr. Slocum said proudly. “Pound for pound it outperforms most computational devices in the Federation and thus the entire galaxy. There is no way that the outdated Empire could produce something like this,” he said proudly, “and it goes without saying that those Terran animals couldn’t even come close. They probably couldn’t even figure out how to switch it on,” he laughed.

“No doubt,” the woman laughed.

“With this,” he said regarding the supercomputer fondly, “we have managed to remain operational and even continue classes. We have lost all of our classrooms but with this supercomputer we have been able to switch everything to online. All of our professors and students can interface with this and with VR it’s completely like a traditional setting,” he said proudly. “That’s not something to brag about in and of itself but the fact that we are able to do it with our entire university simultaneously as well as completely simulate all labs allowing our full range of classes is noteworthy. It’s a shame that we have to use this wonder for such mundane tasks but until we can rebuild our damaged infrastructure such things have become it’s primary function.” He turned to smile at his guest. “We are even donating capacity to other educational institutions across the system. Countless primary and secondary schools are able to operate in a virtual environment just as we are. Those Terran dogs just wasted their ammunition.”

“Just this one little thing does all that? Truly marvelous.” the woman said in an impressed voice.

“It does far more than that. It is also able to perform many essential tasks for the system’s government as well. As you are no doubt painfully aware the Terran bastards in their so called ‘infrastructure raids’ destroyed vital governmental systems at all levels. With this,” he stroked the supercomputer’s case with love, “we have greatly reduced the impact of the damage system wide. The entire system was able to transfer vital operations to this miracle. Communications, emergency services, space traffic control, law enforcement, as well as all normal operations of the system’s government are all hosted right here. Believe it or not after all of that we still have plenty of capacity to perform some of the research for which this thing was created.”

“Truly remarkable, doctor.”

“Thank you,” Dr. Slocum said preening with pride. “With this one machine we are able to keep the spirit of Aster University alive during these dark days while we rebuild and we are rebuilding thanks in no small part to generous donors like you, Ms. Parker.”

“Please doctor,” the woman smiled as she drew a tiny pistol from her pocket, “call me Gloria.”