The Weave

“Did you know that if you were able to throw a toaster into the sun that the metal in it would cause the sun to supernova?” I pressed my face against the cold glass of the car window and watched the expanse of stars glittering in the velvet darkness overhead. No matter how fast I went the stars always stayed in one place.

“Shut up, nerdly!” Caleb kicked the back of the passenger seat.

“Mom, he's kicking my seat again!”

“Boys, enough! Be quiet, or I swear I will slice both of you.” Mom was already well past exasperated when they finally stopped for gas.

We knew exactly where we were headed this time, but if nothing else it would be a disaster just like every other time we took one of these trips. Mom shook her gloves out of her coat pocket and buttoned her coat against the chill.

“You three want anything? It's our last stop until we get to Aunt Lil's place.”

“Can I have a Sprite?”

“Can I have a hotdog and some nachos?”

“Can I get a nudie magazine?”

“Yes, maybe, and for God sakes ew! Quit asking for that.”

“See. I told you she hates hotdogs.” Caleb shouted.

“She was talking to you asshat.” Denny started before he clasped his hands over his mouth.

“Dennis Mitchell! You will be getting soap for that mouth of yours.” Mom poked her head through the front door just to give him a deep scowl.

“But Janey says it all the time.” He whined.

“Janey is also much older than you. If you want to argue with me I will put you in the back seat again. Am I understood?” Mom's voice rose to a volume unfit for human ears, especially so for the confines of the car. Denny folded his arms and pursed his lips. He understood, but he was none too happy about it. I snapped my headphones back over my ears to drown out the noise and closed my eyes.

Lately the satellite radio station I'd been listening to had some really strange people talking over the music. Sometimes the people talked to me too, but I didn't dare respond. Mom would be back soon enough and if she heard me talking to my iPod she would probably think I was crazy. She was already stressed enough having to move suddenly to get away from the thing that showed up in the city near our apartment complex.

Me and my best friend went down to the dump where this thing was just to get a good look at it. It didn't look like much  more than a vague ripple wavering over the trash heap, nothing near as dangerous as the scientists on the news made it sound. Mom was furious when she found out we went out to go look at it. I was grounded all the way up until it came time to move so I never got another good look at it. A part of me really wanted to know exactly what that thing was and why it was too. The news said it was an anomaly of time and space, like a tear that sucked people in. No one knew where they went, but the voices in my headphones told me we were all trapped in it.

“Lt. Manning, please advise.”

My eyes snapped open and I tried to understand the scene around me. Under my fingertips a panel glowed.

“Who?” I replied slowly. I didn't understand where I was for a moment. I was supposed to be in the car waiting patiently for a Sprite, and maybe a gas station hot dog.

“Are you okay, sir?”

A man wearing a stiff white collared coat waved his hand in front of my face.

“Yeah, I'm just--” Slow recollection faded back in. This had been happening quite a bit lately since I was jettisoned through the Weave before the start of the Lucky Star mission. I often found myself somewhere else as someone else, usually the girl with the two brothers and the single mom. I felt kindred for the family. It was nothing like my own upbringing yet it felt warm and lively.

“We are nearing Waypoint Alpha643. The Nav crew is asking for a full stop to pick up some more supplies to fix the fusion drive.”

“We are already behind schedule. Tell them we will make a soft stop on our way by but no dicking around the port station.”

“Understood, Lieutenant.” The man I finally recognized as Captain Haines snapped a salute and turned on his heels before exiting the bridge.

“You know this is gonna start an uproar with the Navs, right?” A voice echoed through my headset.

“You think so?” I was an excellent Lieutenant but I really had no sense when it came to people.

“You can't just go balls out from get to go. People need breaks, and sleep, and some need something to keep the pressure of all this from breaking them down.” The voice through the headphones was tinny and distant, unknown, but had a musical quality to it. Had I been anyone else, doing anything else, I could have fallen in love with just that voice alone.

“If we stop here we will be behind schedule.”

“Just take a jet through the M41 sector.”

“It's off route.”

“Then have Nav fudge the logs. Tell them it's the price they will have to pay for a night's leave.”

“That could work.”

“Look at that! The ever honorable Lt. Manning is finally loosening up.”

“I think you might be teasing me.”

“Not yet, Lieutenant. You know, I just so happen to be heading to Alpha643 myself. Maybe we could catch a few dri--”

“I must politely decline. Changing Nav logs is one thing, but leaving my ship mid-mission is a high crime.” Something tugged at me. I felt almost human for a moment. I thought about how nice it would be to finally meet the mysterious voice in the headset. I laughed a little at myself. What was I thinking? I wasn't some young buck out to rut; I was in charge of a full blown military unit.

“What a shame, but you must do what you must do. If you get lonely I will be at the bar.” The headset went silent.

I was suddenly very lonely. Whoever this person was that somehow managed to stumbled on this closed communication channel had been online with him for nearly 2 weeks.

I called Captain Haines back in and briefed him on the change of plans. I then met with the head of the Nav department about changing the logs to accommodate the shortcut through the M41 sector.

I decided to catch a little sleep but it didn't last long before I was awake again. I hadn't been getting near enough sleep lately. Every time I closed my eyes I recalled the sensation of sailing through the Weave, the hurtling sensation of trying to right myself. In space there is no up, or down. You just are. For some of us lucky souls the vertigo in space is a real pisser. I flexed my hands and a sudden cold chill washed over me. These weren't my hands at all. These hands were ancient, cracked with callouses. I looked around at my surroundings. It was dark and cluttered with stacks of newspapers so high the whole room was a labyrinth of trash. A cat roused from my lap and gave a claws out yawn before hopping down and disappearing into the maze. A communicator chimed somewhere in the disaster so I shouted to answer instead of trying to find the headset.

“Dad, thank God you're okay. Look, I know you're still mad at me, but you've gotta listen to what I say. You have to get out of there. It isn't safe.”

“This again? I'm going to hang up. Call me when you're ready to give this up.”

“No, Dad, wait. This isn't about the apartment this time. Something bad is happening there. You need to get out.”

I sighed and wished I had that headset so I could satisfy my annoyance with physically hanging up. I had lived here for nearly twenty years and I wasn't about to move. Boyd was just trying to get me into a home anyway.

“You'll say anything to get me out of here won't you?”

I had stopped going outside some time ago after Julia died and the solitary life suited me just fine. I was content just waiting here with Mr. Fluff to die. My life was over anyway.

“Please, just listen. There is this thing, I don't know how to explain it. It's like time and space is sick, and it's killing people. They're calling it the Weave."

“Boyd, come on. You couldn't come up with anything more believable? I get it, you're smart, but you can come up with some really silly lies.”

“Dad, Pl-”

“Hang up.”

“Command not found.”

“End call”

“Command not found.”

“Dammit, STOP”

“Comm-”

I was stuck listening to Boyd ramble about some kind of anomaly floating around snatching people. I had to admit it was a good story, good enough that had I still been writing I would have been glad to use it for one of my own books. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to drag out the old laptop and maybe pound out a short story or two if my hands could keep up. Boyd rambled for another few minutes. I figured if I just sat silently he would assume the connection dropped. Mr. Fluff meowed at my feet and I shushed him, effectively ending my bluff.

“I know you're there, Dad. Wait, Selia, Daddy's on the comm with grandpa.”

“Grandpa? Hi, Grandpa.”

“Hi, sweetie.” Selia was my only reason for ever wanting to leave the confines of my home.

“Daddy says you're gonna come live with us, is this for real?” I heard the excitement in her voice and felt a lump in my throat. I didn't want to lie to her, but maybe a short visit wouldn't hurt.

“Just a visit, okay.” I heard Boyd's audible sigh of relief in the background. If a visit would make his incessant badgering stop for a while maybe it was time. I wasn't getting any younger anyway.

“Oh, guess what, grandpa. I learned a new thing today. Did you know that if you throw a toaster into the sun and it makes it in, it could make a big boom and essplode? I don't know what a toaster is, but it sounds dangerous.”

My head itched. I heard this very fact not long ago, but I was in a car with my mom, and two brothers. Wait. That didn't sound right. I am a lieutenant on the Lucky Star, or maybe a retired novelist living in squalor above the midtown bakery with my cat. I am all of these things, and none of them. We are I, and I am many, trapped in the Weave between time and space. I drift as we, watching a sea of stars scattered across the velvet dark of space.

No matter how fast we go the stars always stay in the same place as if even they are trapped in an ellipse outside of existence.