It took two full days for Shahnaz to figure out what his intuition had been showing him. The problem was that books, and human brains, tended to work in two dimensions. Left and right, forward and back. Up and down were not factored in for the most part. Shahnaz had worked fairly hard during his pilot's training to break that habit. Most pilots did. But the instinct remained.
The universe flowed in three dimensions. Four if you included the constant growth and spin and movement of the planets, suns and galaxy through space. Every bit of mass in the universe was in motion, going not just left and right but up and down and dancing in graceful spirals around each other.
Shahnaz had been stunned as a young man when he realized that the galaxy waltzed.
Except certain sections of the galaxy moved at a quicker pace, driven by black holes and super-massive stars. Areas such as the brown dwarf were an example of that on a smaller scale. The thing he'd needed to remember, to see, was that all the worlds they were visiting or trying to visit danced the polka around a huge black hole that lay dark and quiet at the center of their little cluster of solar systems.
"You… have a very good computer system," Caelan said once Shahnaz had mapped everything out and put it up on the holographic display. "Most big star liners don't have 3D displays, especially not ones that you can show the movement with."
"Well, it was helpful as I worked on my understanding of the Wave drive," Shahnaz explained. He tapped his thumb against his bottom lip, curled inward on himself as he studied the display. "Off to the left we have Tasma and Melin. Beyond them is Grazzt and several heavier worlds. Then we have a gap, here," he indicated where the black hole lurked, "and begin more colonies on the far side. There is Tiamat, then Viridian below, Bassan above, Wittier on the far side and then far out beyond to the right we have Gensyn."
"And beyond the edge of your display is Gemini," Caelan agreed. "Everyone knows that, Shahnaz. I don't see what your point is. Gimme some more words to sus it out."
Shahnaz blinked at Caelan, brain stuttering for a second. "Sus?"
"You get the meaning," Caelan said. Xe flapped a hand at him. "Get on with it."
"Sus, all right, yes, well," Shahnaz said. "My point is that the files have a sort of sequence to them. Start farther out and work inwards, back towards Old Earth which would be somewhere near my hammock in this display."
"Along with the majority of the human colonies, yeah," Caelan agreed with a puzzled little frown. "So? That's logical. Build momentum, power, gather resources, strike only as you're ready to. So what?"
"This."
Shahnaz set the map into motion. It wasn't a fast movement. In fact, it was quite slow. The solar systems crept around the dark black hole but close to it, closer than most people liked to go, there was a solar system. Small, broken, just a husk of a brown dwarf sun and a single rocky planet that it had likely captured on its slow slide into the black hole.
Not a place that Shahnaz would ever have gone. Except for the fact that he had just gone there explicitly to use the mass of the black hole as a slingshot to get them to Viridian faster.
Caelan stared, slowly walking through the display until xe came to study the brown dwarf relative to the black hole.
"It… moves so fast," Caelan said. "What time scale is this? Centuries?"
"Weeks," Shahnaz said.
"What?" Caelan gaped at him. "But it's orbiting around the black hole in less than a week."
"It takes the brown dwarf and its planet six days to orbit the black hole," Shahnaz said. He frowned. "Notice it's path, Caelan. One could stay on that planet and go from Bassan to Gensyn in less time than it took to fly it conventionally."
Caelan bit xir lip, watching the brown dwarf orbit Bassan to Melin to Tasma, Viridian, Tiamat, Wittier, Gensyn and back to Bassan. Six days and a person on that planet, if properly shielded from the radiation that leaked off the brown dwarf and provided with food and drink, could be anywhere on either side of the gap.
"Are there other places like this?" Caelan whispered. Xir eyes were far too wide and xir fingers shook as xe stared at the display.
Shahnaz silently triggered the second display to come up, the one that had taken so long to construct. Every cluster of human colonies sat near-ish a black hole. There were similar gaps, some with orbiting star/planet systems and some without, everywhere. A lovely little chain of them that Shahnaz had calculated out and determined to be the long-gone remnants of a solar nursery from billions of years ago.
"Six days, transit three," Caelan murmured as xe traced the chain, "seven days, transit two, four days, three, transit one…"
"You can get from the outermost edges of the human sphere, Gemini, to the very heart, Old Earth, in twenty-six days," Shahnaz said, "without pushing your Wave very hard. And then you can go onwards and sweep through the entire human sphere in the same way in twenty-four days. If you know how to pilot without relying on the regular space lanes. If you're willing to risk the radiation and the gravity of the black holes."
"Someone willing to compile that module would risk it," Caelan said.
"Agreed," Shahnaz said. He sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. "I do not know if your Storm is the one who created these plans but xe clearly intended to keep those plans safe until later. And xe also did not care if you were harmed in the process of it."
Caelan nodded, arms wrapped around xir stomach. Xe looked sick, on the verge of throwing up, but xe didn't run for the bathroom. Instead, xe lifted xir chin and met Shahnaz's eyes with a level of confidence he wouldn't have been able to match in xir place.
"We need to go to Gensyn," Caelan said. "One of the biggest groups of Drathanni are on my home station, Shahnaz. I know most of them. And honestly? I trust them. I trust them not to screw us over on this. It's deep inside the Gensyn system so you'll be facing a lot more radiation than planned but we gotta get there."
"Then we will need a different ship," Shahnaz said.
He laughed, weak and regretful, as Caelan stared at him. It hurt to think of giving up his Blessed Prayer but it might not be necessary to do so. Maybe. It would take a bit of work, some careful effort and play acting while on Viridian, but if they were successful then they would have a ship with weapons enough to make Caelan happy and speed enough to get ahead of Storm who had to be lurking and waiting to see where Caelan was going to arrive.
"I hope you have a plan," Caelan said, shaking xir head.
"I do indeed," Shahnaz said. "I have… friends on Viridian. Well, I know them and I trust that they wish to have more of my money over time, not just in the moment. One is relatively trustworthy in the truest sense. The others will stay quiet for sufficient inducement but we will need to disguise ourselves somewhat. You are quite recognizable as am I. It would be better for us to play a different role once we get there."
"You're gonna make me play slave master, aren't you?" Caelan groaned. "Or slave."
"I am going to make you into a proper Dominant," Shahnaz said with a grin for Caelan's gagging noises. "And myself into a not so proper submissive. I think you'll do quite well at it. We will talk to my friend and then get his aid in procuring a ship that can take us to Gensyn without being noticed. Anything is available on Viridian with the proper attitude and sufficient money."
"Here's hoping that'll include weapons," Caelan said. Xe threw up xir hands and shrugged as if there was nothing else to be done. But xir eyes were warm and amused so it wasn't quite as bad as xe pretended.
Crafting the correct disguises took rather a lot of time. Shahnaz slowed their wave to grant them that time. Instead of three days to Viridian, it took four days. That placed the brown dwarf squarely on the Tasma side of the black hole. Two days until it rotated around to Viridian and then another three to striking range of Gensyn.
They would have to act fast.
Viridian was a beautiful world when seen from orbit. It had sparkling white clouds drifting over azure seas free of debris and trash. The land was generally green with heathy vegetation and the mountains topped with snow. The colonists had chosen to leave a deep mark on their world. Rather than leaving the native vegetation, they had swept everything away and terraformed the world as completely as possible. Very few locations had any native life or vegetation left.
It gave Viridian, the entire planet, the feeling of being a gigantic park. Everything was pruned and trimmed, even the so-called 'wild' forest preserves. Rather than institute a global government as most worlds had, Viridian's people had carved out territories for their many 'Masters' and 'Mistresses'. No one person ruled over Viridian. Instead it was a patchwork of provinces that owed allegiance to their specific Master.
Not quite the chaos that was Tiamat but certainly difficult for those from more centrally organized worlds to understand. Few people from the core worlds ever came to Viridian. It was considered too strange, too wild, and far too dangerous for 'civilized' people. Viridian had refused to join the Galactic Union, refusing all supervision and law from the other human colones.
Which, of course, was why he'd come exploring shortly after he got the Blessed Prayer. It had been a very educational year, one in which he learned a great deal about the many and varied ways that people could confuse sex with love and ownership. He'd been quite happy to leave afterwards though he made a point of returning every year or two to visit his friends for a day or two. Never more than a week. Their lifestyle was far too uncomfortable for Shahnaz to spend too much time around.
"I can't believe you're wearing hijab and a veil," Caelan murmured as they strode right past the Immigration officers who bowed politely and didn't slow them down at all.
"Of course I would," Shahnaz said. "It's appropriate."
It was their clothing that got them past the officers, not their behavior so much. Caelan was dressed in pure black from head to toe. Xir shirt was tight enough to show the swell of xir small breasts while the wide belt around xir waist mimicked a corset well enough to convey power to those born to Viridian's culture. That plus the black pants, fabric not leather as he had no black leather on the Blessed Prayer, were cut so tight as to show the powerful muscles in Caelan's thighs. As well as the swell of xir groin where xe wore an armored codpiece. No reason to risk damage, after all.
Shahnaz had taken the joke burqa and cut it into scarves that he used to create his hijab and veil. That was on top of his finest, most heavily embroidered kaftan and a pair of billowing pants, both in soft blues. He'd had Caelan put cuffs on his wrists, connected by a light chain that xe held in xir hand like a leash.
No Muslim submissive would wear a collar, of course, not where someone else could see it. That would be something to keep only for the submissive's master.
Combining their clothes with the float pads carrying the supplies they'd decided to bring and Caelan's assertive stride, well. Apparently it was enough to carry them through any challenges. Shahnaz didn't know if it would be enough to get them to Master Ayala Sumpter, he who ruled over the southern continent's biggest domain, but hopefully it would suffice.
At the very least, the message they'd sent ahead appeared to have gotten through. There was a car waiting for them, the flying variety, thankfully. Shahnaz would be grateful if he never had to ride in one of the ground transport versions ever again. The roads on Viridian were generally terrible. Most Masters and Mistresses saw little reason to maintain them as they traveled by air.
Master Ayala's home was half an hour's flight from the spaceport in a small valley filled with trees and gracefully landscaped gardens. The graceful white building loomed as the car approached. Four stories high and easily able to hold a thousand during parties, Master Ayala's home was something that Shahnaz always thought of as coming from a fairy tale. The many servants, all dressed in perfect white uniforms, helped in that illusion. As did the gentle music playing in the background.
"This… is creepy," Caelan murmured to Shahnaz as they were led to the library for their meeting with Master Ayala.
"Quite so," Shahnaz agreed. "Be careful not to acknowledge anyone other than Master Ayala, Caelan. You remember his face?"
"Yup," Caelan said. Xir shoulders stiffened a little as their heels came down just a hair harder on the marble floor. "I do. Hush. I think we're there."
They were. Shahnaz made himself breathe. Ayala would get them alone as quickly as possible. The difficulty would be if someone else was there with him. If they were lucky, Ayala would only have his lover-slaves with him. If not, well, Shahnaz would have to trust that Caelan could deal with whoever it was.