Anton Rubin sat slumped back in a revolving chair, gazing out his laboratory’s window aboard the Crayter Research Vessel Athena. With one hand he took a sip of the tea that helped to overcome the nausea hyperspace travel gave him, after which he quickly took a puff of pipe with the other hand, in order to erase the tea’s even more nauseating flavor. Anton placed the cup on a console and turned his chair towards the door as he heard approaching footsteps. When he saw who it was, he nodded in approval and took a note using an antiquated writing tool that rested on his lap. He then picked up a data pad, knocking over his tea cup in the process. Apparently not at all fazed by his mishap, he handed the data pad to the captain and looked at him closely to observe his reaction.
Captain Javelin stood holding the pad for a while, confused as so often when interacting with Anton. “Uhm… what do you want me to do with this?”
“What you want from me must be in there.” Anton answered in the assured and calm manner which was commonly interpreted as boredom by people in his surroundings. But he really focused his attention on little details that seemed totally unimportant to others.
“But… I haven’t even told you why I came to see you.”
“No, no, I definitely gave you this. So it must be what you want.”
The captain felt his temper, but he managed to calm himself partly thanks to the practice he had during years of dealing with the republic’s leading expert in Faster-Than-Light technology. “And what is it that you think I want?”
Anton and Lance looked at each other in silence for a few moments.
“What transmission?”
“I was monitoring our current location using a superluminal tunnel opening at Sabah Shipyard before we jumped to here, and saw myself give you the pad. Through that window.” Anton pointed behind himself with his thumb without taking his eyes off the captain. “So you must have come to see me because you wanted it.”
Lance knew to stay calm and factual in situations like these. “No, I didn’t want anything from it. I just came to tell you that you’ve been promoted.”
Anton raised an eyebrow. “How peculiar.” He looked down and started writing down a longer note.
The captain had long given up on trying to understand the antics of the Athena’s chief science officer and de facto commander, but sometimes curiosity had the better of him. “Did you also see yourself spill the tea?”
“Mmhmm.” Anton confirmed, still writing on his notepad, sucking on the pipe that rarely left his mouth.
“Then why didn’t you pay attention so it wouldn’t happen again?”
Anton looked up at the captain in astonishment. “Because that would have been paradoxical, of course. The consequences of changing the observed future could cause a rupture in the space time continuum, destroy the entire universe, or eliminate the offender from it.” They shared another moment of silence. “Or nothing at all happens. But I’m not taking any risks.”
The captain thought he had finally found an explanation for the strange compulsive disorders he observed in Dr Rubin regularly.
“Do I need to sign anything for it? On the pad, maybe?"
“No. But don’t you want to know what you’ve been promoted to?”
“Alright. Tell me. It probably explains me handing you the pad, even if you don’t know why.”
The captain felt his blood pressure rise again, but swallowed his anger and informed Rubin of his new duties as instructed.
“You are now scientific director of Sabah Research Section. The core upgrade is complete, and factories and experimental facilities are ready to be constructed. The Republic has decided to show the frogs a few new tricks. Our enhanced jump drives will be part of a new strategy that will crush them.”
Perplexed, Anton took the pipe out of his mouth and ruffled is eyebrows.
“Captain, what is this nonsense you’re telling me? I’m not a biologist. The hyperspace jumps have absolutely nothing to do with frog leaps. And why would you teach frogs anything, just to squash them afterwards? Furthermore, this has nothing at all to do with the data pad. Unless you want to use it to kill a frog, maybe? In that case I advise you use your boot instead of this fragile piece of equipment.”
Captain Javelin’s shoulders slumped as he closed his eyes. “NO! The Gauls! We call them…”
He was unable to finish before he was stopped by a never before seen display of excitement from Anton, who suddenly jumped up from his seat as if he had a eureka moment.
Anton began to pace around the lab pointing at the window.
“The planets! The stations! The suns! Their relative sizes and distances! Destroyed ships magically re-appearing! Gallia! The temporal inconsistencies!”
He grabbed the captain by the shoulders and shook him violently.
“The breeches of the spacetime continuum! They don’t destroy the universe! They won’t eliminate jumping ships! They just result in… tell me captain… do you understand? What do they result in?”
Anton walked to the window and tapped it in the direction of Sabah's newly constructed research section.
“I accept the promotion! We’ll need to do a lot of jumping and experimenting to prove my hypothesis. Too bad for the frogs, but do with them what you must. Their lives are a small price to pay, if it helps to understand everything that’s been going on since we got to Sirius!”
He shook his finger at the data pad.
“I promise you, we will get to the bottom of this!”
![[Image: nebo9Nl.png]](https://i.imgur.com/nebo9Nl.png)