Neither Dover nor Franklin could not see a thing, not even each other, and wherever they had been transported, there were no energy emissions and not a speckle of visible light or the familiar crackle of their communicators. Then more out of frustration than and without uttering a word Franklin made what was tantamount to a rhetorical thought, if there is such a thing, by focusing a questioning thought at Dover.

"Buddy, where the fuck are we?"

And was surprised when receiving a response to his thoughts, which he had not expected, as they were in effect nothing more than wishful thinking. The response was the sound of Dover replying, his voice echoed inside Franklin's mind, just as it had during skin-suit training and when they were working on Giganteas.

"Well, Fran it appears we have been fed another load of ISO Tech's space crap."

It was becoming obvious that there was more to their new skinsuits and that they had not been told the whole truth about the nature of their skinsuit's new coms implant. Neither Dover nor Fran was short on technical knowledge after the years of experience they had gathered fixing random technical problems on the hop. After an extended period of consideration, they evolved what they thought was the most logical conclusion, and decided the new comms must be an advanced form of neuro telepathic link. They had drawn this conclusion based on the fact the comms enabled them to communicate without using any conventional RF, in what would appear to be a net zero environment. They did not have time to be shocked, although they were getting over-excited about their ability to chat without the usual radio or vibration interference, to which they were accustomed, and simultaneously asked each other the same question.

"Why in God's name did we not realise we were doing this before?"

After a brief period of contemplation, Dover was the one to reply.

"It's probably too early to speculate on that as neither of us has a clue how it works, or even if it was meant to work in this fashion."

"I'll tell you what buddy, I think it only works when we are consciously directing thoughts at each other."

"What makes you say that Fran?"

"Well, did you hear me thinking before I asked you, where the fuck are we?"

"Ah, now I'm getting your drift, no I never, there was only a deafening silence.

Not that it matters much right now as we still have no idea if that was part of the plan."

"You're right it doesn't matter, but I'm grateful that we can talk, and to know that I'm not alone inside this black bubble if that's what it is."

"Well let's hope they were right about these skinsuits' survivability capabilities, but more importantly pray that this is part of some master plan as I don't fancy spending the next six weeks locked away in the dark, just to end up dead!"

"Well, don't fret Fran, at least it will be painless, and stay positive we've survived worse predicaments and had chicken shit to eat."

Fran could not help but let out an ironic laugh, to which Dover responded with a characteristically deep resonant chortle. The irony reduced any anxiety they felt, as did the knowledge that they could also hear each other's laughter. There was no way of telling, but it seemed like their chatter went on for hours, before they started making each other yawn, causing Fran to joke about his wife's after-dinner comments about their symbiotic behaviour, to which Dover replied.

"Well Fran, if you have any dreams of a sexual nature, make sure you leave me out, I'm not keen on sharing a bed with you and Melody."

"What makes you think I'd be dreaming of Melody."

"Oh, come on buddy you're the one who's constantly boasting that you and Melody, make music in bed and I'm sure it's not guitar strings you were stroking."

They both laughed loudly, but soon they were snoring, like a couple of runaway trains, and to do so they must have shared an inner confidence of their rescue.

Salvenza had sufficient knowledge of Oscar Zillion's spacecraft to know they were incapable of transporting people in the numbers required to the edge of the solar system and beyond. The numbers were nothing more than elementary math and the physics were basic and quite simply could not be changed. For example, theoretically, the shortest distance they would have to travel one way was circa 0.5 Ly, so discounting any other factors it would take a current sub-light ship somewhere in the order of nine to twelve solar months, allowing for the two months of acceleration and deceleration required to protect our human physiology from being squashed to a pulp like a tomato by inertia. Even so, at face value, it appears feasible, but ISO would need to employ a fleet of fully equipped ships over a thousand strong, to deliver and service less than one per cent of the millions of people, currently reported as operationally deployed in the Rock Zone and beyond by the CCC's Employee Register.

The twins desperately needed to get Econtos Zillion to get his brainchild working so they could gather the evidence required first-hand, which was essential if they were going to support their theory that Oscar's Tech Teams had developed a means of deploying the workforce by employing Quantum Fluidity. This was a concept that had been banned by Earth Law long before the Corporation Control Centre (CCC) was established to decide interstellar law. The idea involved the manufacture of completely fluid living organisms a process which was considered reprehensible and a flagrant breach of human rights, which if flawed might well evolve posing a future threat to humanity.

However, the twins had no choice but to play the long game, for what they had planned was not something that could be done in a hurry, and they were constantly having to play cat and mouse with Oscar and his sophisticated network of spies, and with the rewards, he was able to offer, even the most trusted team members were subject to temptation.

Oscar's spies were very thorough and had discovered that ZPT were reworking centuries-old quantum theories, in what was an attempt to create a means of instantaneous point-to-point interstellar travel, which if successful would allow his competitors to expose his wrongdoings, whatever they may be. So, to buy themselves time, they used counterespionage to spread rumours that their technology was founded on the use of the existing IOS outposts as the known points in space required, knowing that if Oscar took the bait, that rather than start a war of attrition, he would set about using litigation at the CCC to thwart their plan.

This gave their own counter-espionage plans time to mature, the young recruits they had so carefully selected and nurtured had matured and were now fully active or dormant sleepers waiting for an opportunity to perform their tasks. Malina Angle was among the first to mature and had become one of the key players, becoming one of Oscar's Tech Team Leaders. However, even Malinga's knowledge was limited as he had deliberately ensured his Tech Teams were cellular in structure, only those employed in the cell had a full or often only a partial understanding of their team's objectives and progress. It was the success of this cellular structure which explained why the twins had been unable to establish how Oscar was facilitating his interstellar travel.

The cellular technique was just as effective as it had been for terrorist groups in previous centuries, so the twins chose to adopt it within their organisation. One of the cells formed was tasked with the development of advanced stealth technologies and their endeavours led to the creation of a new form of ceramic biomolecular nanotechnology, capable of merging with its environment, without leaving any form of identifiable signature. Its discovery had come about by accident while they were evaluating nanobots performing a seamless self-repair, it was so effective that the area under repair disappeared and only remained detectable because the nanobots had retained external communication with the research team. This was a happy accident and a relief, which was nicknamed the Serendipity Factor and led to the practice of mandatory encoding of all future nanobot technology. Although this would lead to its use in more clandestine projects, the original reasoning behind the biomolecular technology research was the possibility of merging it with human biomaterial to perform subcutaneous and seamless operations on the human body, without the need for an external incision and the consequential risk of collateral damage which was inherent when making an incision in a patient as was the risk of introducing infection.

It was an extremely odd out-of-body experience, for Dover and Franklin would have thought they were dreaming if they had not been able to communicate with each other and share the bizarre moment when they woke and found themselves sitting across the table from an extremely attractive young lady. They were in a mess hall, filled with dozens of people all of whom were oblivious to their presence apart from the young lady sitting across the table. They did not appreciate it at first, but neither had spoken a word, for they were communicating in the same fashion as they did in the void, but it soon became obvious, when the young lady introduced herself.

"Hello, it's nice to make your acquaintance, my name is Francesca Charles, and I've been assigned as your concierge."

Franklin with his usual quick wit was the first to respond to the sound of her voice, which like theirs echoed in their heads.

"You mean, like you are gonna clean our boots and things?"

Dover could not help but laugh, but although Francesca smiled she was not particularly amused and sensing her lack of amusement Dover interjected.

"Well, it's nice to meet you too Francesca, but where exactly are we and how the hell did we get here?"

Francesca, peered at Franklin, whilst replying to Dover.

"Thank you for asking Dover, the reason I've been assigned as your concierge is to answer questions like those, not to clean your boots. It may only be a rumour, but it is said, that you should be capable of doing simple tasks like that yourselves."

Dover realised instantly that she knew who they were and had them at a disadvantage, but only had time to think he liked the young woman because it would appear she had balls, before Franklin, stuck out a size thirteen boot and asked.

"Hang on a minute did I hear correctly; did you say that your surname is Franklin?"

Before answering the young lady's stern face began to crack and broke into a warm and slightly cocky smile.

"Yes, and that's partly why I've been assigned to you guys, but not for what you might think of as the obvious reason!"

"Well then lassie, why don't you start there, we have a whole load of questions for you."

Putting aside their brashness, Francesca could not help but be impressed by how easily they adapted to the surprise of waking in an alien environment, although she anticipated that might not last once she revealed the truth.

Total Words: 1887

Rolling Total: 17270

Footnote: Please note any relationship to current science is purely the result of an over-active imagination.