Light Speed Limit

I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for that colony ship that appeared out of nowhere.

I was on my route to Teta-Zeta, crossing a low-velocity, high-traffic area of the Belt. I knew I shouldn’t engage the Z-engines to cut cut my trip in half. I knew but I did it anyways.

The main risk of high light-speed is running into another object at the same place and time. The chances are minimal, but collisions at light speed can be deadly.

I decided to take my chances and set the Z-engines to 99% light speed.

Of course minutes after the jump the ship console detected an obstacle. A slow colony ship was on our path. You don’t know how big a colony ship can be until you see the Nihva Cyneac. This ship was enormous.

My ship was a Blaze’ocaster from 3045. A vintage beauty a hundred times smaller than the colony ship. I could not change course fast enough to avoid impact. I turned off the Z-engines and pulled the de-accelerometer. The goddess wasn’t on my side that day because my circuit board exploded and I crashed into the ship.

When I opened my eyes I was surprised to be alive. Maybe the goddess was listening after all. The sense of relief transformed into panic as soon as I saw the blue and red flares coming from behind me. An ugly face appeared in my monitor. I turned on the speaker and faked a smile.

“I’m sorry agent. I really didn’t know I was speeding.”