The Lattice Of Space: Future Chron Universe, #6 695h5i

THE LATTICE OF SPACE Future Chron Universe #6 D.W. PATTERSON

Copyright © 2021 D.W. Patterson All rights reserved. 1st Edition 1st Printing - July, 2021 Cover – Copyright © 2021 Future Chron Publishing Cover Image © – RLSather/selfpubbookcovers(dot)com Formerly published as Spin-Two Book 3. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations for the purpose of review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events and people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

DEDICATION

NOTE TO READER

PROLOGUE

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

EPILOGUE

AFTERWORD

Next in the Future Chron Universe

Other books and stories by this author

Chronological Reading Order

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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DEDICATION

To Simi

NOTE TO READER

The science extrapolations in this book (usually at the beginning of a chapter) may seem familiar if a reader has read another novel in the Future Chron Universe. Some of the extrapolations were taken from a previous novel, some were borrowed and changed somewhat and some are new to this novel.

This was a necessity if each novel were to be a standalone book. Hopefully this will not be a distraction to the reader.

We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return ... The coming of the rocket brought to an end a million years of isolation ... the childhood of our race was over and history as we know it began.

Arthur C. Clarke

Rocket summer.

Ray Bradbury

THE LATTICE OF SPACE

PROLOGUE

Power-centers naturally develop in all human endeavors. In the case of humankind's spread into space, several power-centers had developed.

Of course, old Earth and her Solar System allies were still very much a powercenter even now, more than five-hundred years after the Space Era began.

Another power-center is the group of stars called The Core formerly led by the Earth-like planet Adowa but now by the very similar rising power New Adowa. All are about eighty light-years from Earth.

The human-AI hybrids of the Dhalkan System were a third and the Robot Planet, Escan, while militarily the least is equal to any of the others in science and technology and so is also a power-center. The last two were six-thousand lightyears from Earth.

Finally, one power-center is outside the galaxy in the Large Magellanic Cloud where the original AIs, usually called Aggies (Artificial General Intelligence), from Earth, had fled from their confrontation with the Dhalkans, they were fiftythousand light-years away.

There may have been another power-center if the rogue AIs called the Beleni, the AIs that had caused so much misery and destruction were still around. But no one had heard from them in years.

And in those centers of power, there are the groups, cabals, associations and all the other forms of human organizing which allowed even the least to share in power politics. And so the stage was set for the struggles between humans and between humans and nature which characterized the twenty-seventh century like a revolt of stars.

Chapter 1

Sci-pedia

The Online Resource for Science

Spin-Two Drive

Spin-two is a reference to the particle of gravity, the graviton, although spin onehalf particles (fermions) are more important to the drive's operation.

To develop the spin-two drive Dr. Dagmar Mach used the existent wormhole drive's ability to cast exotic mass-energy (negative mass-energy) into nonlocal and local links which for all intent and purposes act like narrow wormholes. (Nonlocal describes particles that are too far apart to causally affect each other.)

The cast energy causes fermionic particles, particles with one-half quantum spin, to flip their spin (say from up to down). The nonlocal partners to these fermions, entangled particles, in other words, assume the opposite spin state. By modulating the mass-energy, a pulse can travel down the nonlocal link at a frequency determined by the spin-two drive.

Using the drive's ability to create pulsating “bubbles” of negative mass-energy a ship inserted into the nonlocal link is pulled/pushed along to the far end.

Once the ship enters the link the drive shuts down and the decaying pulses eventually allow the link to “relax” to its original state. By that time the ship has already emerged at the nonlocal destination. The link portals now decay completely and the nonlocal tunnel closes.

The advantages of the spin-two drive over the older wormhole drive are many. Because the spin-two drive is only opening an already existing wormhole like link the exotic mass-energy needed is one-tenth that of a wormhole drive which must force the wormhole open from beginning to end in the wormhole dimension.

Another advantage is that the nonlocal links are by definition usually connecting regions of space that are far removed. Jumps of six-thousand light-years have become common, compared to the forty light-year jumps possible with the wormhole drive. In fact, there is no physical limit to the jump distance but because the distribution of jump lengths follow a Gaussian distribution (Lotka's Law) very long links are harder to find in the quantum foam and therefore it takes a longer and longer time to make very long jumps . . .

A most curious thing about human society is that when it seems most solid it is most at risk of a break-up.

The New Gallan spaceship Nakuru was in the constellation Bootes (as seen from Earth) on a scouting trip of the system around the star Meru, a G-type star very similar to the Sun.

The Nakuru was classified as a fourth-generation fusion drive spaceship that had been upgraded with a spin-two drive. The ship was currently classifying an asteroid field as a source of raw materials. Space resources, which had been

difficult to use in the early years of exploration had become much more accessible first, with the wormhole drive, and now even more so with the spintwo drive. Resources anywhere within the reach of the drives had become viable opportunities.

“Lt. Saoe are we ready to move on?”

“Yes Captain I have classified all the asteroids within range.”

“Very well helmsman move us one on the grid.”

(The grid was the predetermined search pattern the Nakura was scheduled to follow.)

“Captain we have a , two ships entering range.”

“Can you raise them comm?”

A moment and a voice came over the comm system.

“New Gallan ship this is Captain Leahy of the UPS Seastar. You will leave this area at once. It is under United Planets protection.”

“Captain Leahy, this is Captain Kariuki of the Nakura. As you know New Adowa and New Galla are also part of the United Planets and as such this area is open to us as of that organization.”

“You are incorrect, sir. New Adowa is not a member and this is our territory. You have two minutes to clear out.”

Captain Kariuki was confused as to what to do for a moment but unwilling to put his ship at risk by facing two UPS vessels he decided to withdraw.

“We are leaving Captain Leahy.”

“You have one minute.”

“Allow us to clear the asteroid field before we link sir, that is all we ask.”

“You have forty-five seconds.”

“Helmsman can you get us clear of these rocks in forty-five seconds?”

“I will try sir.”

“They seem almost as intent on causing an incident as avoiding one,” said the

Captain to no one in particular.

The seconds ticked. The Nakura was maneuvering crisply among the boulders and mountains making up the asteroids. She was almost clear.

“Drive control start to link us home.”

But she wasn't clear enough. A boulder no bigger than a washing machine clipped the starboard fusion engine nacelle. The collision was felt in the crew wheel command room. Momentum was lost and the ship began a complex oscillation that the Ems (emulated brains, a form of AI) responsible for ship's trim fought to control.

Then the Earth vessels opened fire.

Their spin-two drives had another use, as a weapon.

The Nakura's front particle barrier evaporated under the onslaught of the plasma shot from the Earth ships. The Nakura had already established a link when it was hit and it drifted into that link with the Ems still trying to right the ship. A moment and it exited the link above the planet New Adowa. The ship was still out of trim. The fusion engines were dead and the reaction motors were firing all the way into the atmosphere. Somewhere above the New Adowan ocean, Navaisha, the Nakura broke up.

A fusion ship breaking up in an atmosphere leaves a trail of bright burning

debris, creating wispy white cloud-like trails. It was a sight of deadly beauty.

The New Gallan government called for an immediate inquiry. The Nakura had not been able to communicate its confrontation with the Earth ships so nothing was known about the incident to the New Gallans. It was suspected that something had gone wrong with the ship's spin-two drive. Bringing in the inventor of that drive seemed to be the obvious thing to do.

Dr. Dagmar Mach, Em-based robot and inventor of the drive, arrived on New Adowa with his ANI (Artificial Narrow Intelligence) based robot friend Sigmund from the planet Escan, more commonly known as the Robot Planet. Dag and Sigmund immediately began inspecting debris from the ill-fated ship that had been recovered by the New Gallan government. Dag soon found a common thread.

“Sigmund, all the pieces of debris of any size show a similar fracture pattern. Whatever failed the Nakura it caused the ship to enter the link out of trim. There are only a few reasons I can think of that would cause a ship to enter a link like that.

“If the captain of the ship was incompetent it might occur. But I've read Captain Kariuki's background, he doesn't strike me as incompetent and with his service record I doubt he would willingly take his ship into a link in that condition. That leads me to believe he was forced to make the decision to enter the link even though the ship was out of trim.”

“You mean he was under some kind of attack?”

“Well the missing pieces of the fusion engine might indicate some kind of collision happened. Had the engine been damaged before the ship entered the link those pieces may have been left behind. It's the only thing I can think of that would cause what we are seeing.”

“Their mission was to prospect the asteroid belt of the Meur system. What if they were hit by one of the asteroids and ended up drifting and out of trim?”

“That might explain it but why would they enter a link before they got control of the ship? Except if they were running from an attacker and they still had enough velocity to enter the link. I think that the fusion engines had been working before being damaged in a collision. The collision was serious but only coincidental to their escape attempt. But the thing that makes me believe they were trying to avoid an attack is that no forward particle barrier was found.”

“Something as massive as the particle barrier should survive even a fiery entry into an atmosphere shouldn't it Dag?”

“It should Sigmund. It should also be one of the easiest pieces of debris to find since it would be so large. Unless the New Gallan's search was incompetent and judging by the pieces they did find I would say they did a very good job, then the particle barrier of the Nakuru was either sheared from the vessel or vaporized and the only thing I can think of that would have the power to do that is a wormhole weapon.”

“They were fired upon by hostile forces then, but who?”

“I think that is the real question Sigmund.”

Chapter 2

Sci-pedia

The Online Resource for Science

Artificial Intelligence

ANI

Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI or Annie) first became available in the early twenty-first century. It developed out of the machine learning technology that was rapidly evolving at the time. Narrow refers to the fact that often this form of intelligence could only do one function well such as speech, facial recognition, etc.

Eventually, some researchers were able to tie together several ANI functions in a neural matrix which allowed the development of the first truly autonomous bipedal robots. Further development in this area was curtailed later in the century as the breakthroughs in emulated brain research promised a more powerful general intelligence.

Some of the later Annie based robots are still existent in specialized areas . . .

EMs

Emulated brains (also known as Emmies when in personal assistant devices), were the first form of artificial intelligence created. The first Em dates from the late twenty-first century.

Ems are created by scanning a human brain and loading the resultant data into a computer. At first, the scanning of the brain required the person to be deceased. Eventually, a way to scan the brain of a living person was developed.

Once the Em is in the computer it can bud (that is, recreate or copy itself) as many times as it deems necessary to accomplish the task it has undertaken. Whole families of Ems exist to do certain tasks. Hiring out as experts, such as maintaining a power plant, a habitat's environment, a lightsail's trim, or powering a personal Emmie, Ems can themselves and the other of their family . . .

Buds were known by their numbers but all were called Bud. For instance, Bud 29-3458 identified a bud derived from the twenty-ninth original emulated brain. And uniquely as the thirty-four hundredth and fifty-eight budding. Original Ems numbered around one hundred but there were millions of buds.

AGI

The advent of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI or Aggie) in the early 22nd Century led to a “Golden Age” for Earth as the Earth's governments contracted with the Aggies to manage the ever-growing cities (known as tower complexes).

This arrangement worked until the 25th Century when a break-away faction of Aggies (eventually called Beleni or “The Shining Ones”) attacked those Aggies left on Earth. The resulting Aggie Wars caused damage to the tower complexes and loss of life. The meta-verse, a virtual world in which billions of virtual citizens lived, built and maintained by the Earth Aggies was almost completely lost. The outcry from the survivors of this war caused the Earth's governments to sever their relationships with the Aggies. The Earth Aggies disappeared into space.

Without Aggie management, the Earth fell into a Dark Age while governments floundered. The distress was to last for a hundred years until the Aggies returned . . .

The planet New Adowa had emerged as the leader of the group of stars and planets known as The Core after the older planet Adowa had almost been destroyed by spacetime disruptions. New Adowa had often found itself in a submissive relationship to the Earth. But now with more than a billion inhabitants and another billion on or orbiting the other Core planets and stars it began to feel the constraints of that relationship.

The invention of the spin-two drive a few years earlier had made the relationship even more constraining. Unlike the wormhole drive, prohibited from use within ten AU of a system because of the unfortunate possibility of spacetime breakdown the spin-two drive, because of its lower energy requirement, accuracy and greater range, could link almost directly from planet to planet. The result was that Earth could more easily project power to protect what it perceived as its interests. New Adowans called it interference in local affairs and resented it each time, including the current incidence.

The six United Planets' vessels in orbit around New Adowa were impressive.

The fifth-generation fusion ships at nearly five-thousand feet, from their massive particle deflecting front barrier to the fusion engines mounted in back, were the pride of the Earth-based fleet.

The ships were there to encourage New Adowa to abide by the new tariffs imposed, as Earth claimed, to pay for the protection of New Adowan space, but to which the New Adowans objected. The fact that there was nothing to protect the New Adowans from, seemed not to with the Earthlings.

“Prime Minister Menza I hope you can see our position in this issue,” said Ambassador Hiley Mariam.

“Mr. Ambassador I can assure you I see Earth's position very clearly. I have seen Earth's position very clearly since I was a young child. My mother before me and her mother before her saw Earth's position very clearly.

“The problem is that Earth does not see that their position in relation to the New Gallan Republic, and all New Adowa for that matter, has changed. We are no longer the small needy Earth-like clone of one-hundred years ago. But we are now a power in our own right and should be treated as such.”

“I assure you Madam Prime Minister that the Earth takes its relationship with the New Gallan Republic and New Adowa very seriously. We see you as equals in all our endeavors.”

“Really Ambassador? At what meeting of equals was this new tariff agreed upon? I seem to have missed it entirely.”

The Ambassador had to adjust his approach.

“But surely Madam Prime Minister, the Earth as protector of New Adowan space for years has had to bear burdens which weren't shared equally. And therefore we naturally believe that the New Gallan appreciation of that burden could be best shown by contribution. A simple cheap tariff on goods exchanged between the peoples of New Adowa and Earth. It is a small price for such a service, wouldn't you agree?”

“Perhaps Ambassador. But perhaps that small amount could best be spent in building our own planetary protection force. I have been in consultation with President Kimathi of the New Adowan Union. He too expresses an interest in contributing to a planetary defense force. So you see we may not need so much protection from the Earth.”

“I see Prime Minister. I wonder if this is what you wish me to take back to my government?”

“Yes, I think that would be an excellent idea Ambassador. But I do hope you will along my thanks for their offer of increased protection.”

“Of course, Madam Prime Minister.”

The results of the investigation were in and had shocked many of the New Gallan government although something like it was expected to happen eventually. The question now was how to respond. After days of discussions,

Prime Minister Menza decided to do what she had been inclined to do since the start, confront the Earth's governments, the loss of the Nakuru could have been caused by no one else.

She decided to start with the Ambassador.

“Ambassador, as you probably know, we lost one of our ships, the Nakuru.”

“Yes Madam Prime Minister I want to express the condolences of all of Earth for your loss.”

“Thank you Ambassador. Now the reason I called you here is about the Nakuru.”

“Of course Madam Prime Minister, I'll be glad to help in any way that I can.”

“Thank you Ambassador. We believe that our ship was resisting an attack by hostile forces before it linked and was destroyed in the atmosphere.”

“Really Madam Prime Minister? Let me assure you that you have Earth's full for any investigation.”

“Thank you Ambassador. Am I to assume then that you have no information about this incident?”

“I Madam Prime Minister? No, I do not but I can assure you I will check with Earth and share anything I discover.”

The Prime Minister stared at Mariam a minute.

“Ambassador Mariam, I am known to many as a straight talker. I do not believe for a moment that the enemy was unknown to us. That being true it had to be a space-faring nation that could deliver a fatal attack on our vessel. There are only a few candidates. On New Adowa, just the Union and while it is possible, it is not likely, President Kimathi and I have worked together well. As for the rest of The Core, there isn't any nation or entity that would be that foolhardy.

“No there are no close-by candidates for such an act. But on Earth and its environs there are several. Perhaps one of your nations on Earth has gone rogue?”

“They would never Madam Prime Minister. To attack a member of the United Planets would be a disaster for the attacker.”

“What if we weren't a member Ambassador?”

The Ambassador froze for a moment. He suddenly felt outmaneuvered.

“Not a member, who told you that Madam Prime Minister?”

“Well certainly not you Mr. Ambassador although you were supposed to deliver the news before the attack, I assume?”

The Ambassador opened his mouth but nothing came of it.

“You will leave New Galla immediately Mr. Ambassador. Good day.”

Events moved quickly and then seemed to stall. A general atmosphere of hostility followed the Ambassador's expulsion but no open act of hostility occurred for months.

The Prime Minister and the head of the Union of New Adowa, President Kimathi, convened many meetings. At one the future of the Robot Planet and its inhabitants was decided, although as usually happens, no one knew at the time.

Dag and Sigmund had gone back to Escan after delivering their report to the New Gallan government. It was less than a month later that Dag was summoned by the New Gallan government to a link meeting. The video discussion was held between Escan and the New Gallan city of Mutomo over a nonlocal link.

These links were what quantum theory (especially quantum entanglement) had long predicted could exist between two far apart points in space. All that was needed was to open a link large enough to material or messages through, something the spin-two drive could easily do.

“Thank you for coming Dr. Mach,” said Rachal Onamo, Under-Secretary of

Defense for the New Gallan state.

“Thank you Under-Secretary Onamo.”

“Now Dr. Mach the reason we wanted to speak to you personally is first, to thank you and your colleagues for the excellent work you did on the Nakuru case. We doubt that we could have gotten to the bottom of it without your help.”

“Your welcome Madam Under-Secretary.”

“Next, in this meeting I want to discuss the upgrade of the newly created Core of Planets Space Fleet with your latest version of the spin-two drive. Many of our ships have an earlier version of the drive and we would like to upgrade those as well.

“What we would like from your company is a quotation for the installation of ten of your drives and the upgrade of another twenty.”

“Well Madam Under-Secretary I think we can accommodate you. Do you have a schedule in mind?”

“I'm afraid we are under a tight schedule Dr. Mach, do you think you can do this in three months?”

“I think that is doable Madam Under-Secretary but let me get back to you with

an exact quotation after I discuss this with others here in the company.”

“Very well Dr. Mach, as soon as possible please, and thank you.”

“Thank you and goodbye Madam Under-Secretary.”

Chapter 3

Wormhole Drive Engineering, 1st Edition

by Dr. Dagmar Mach, Copyright 2503 A.D.

Chapter 2, Pg. 29 - The Mach Device

The design of a wormhole generator and therefore a wormhole drive is a materials problem. The Mach device is made up of three layers, each with its own special characteristics. The innermost layer provides a solid for the outer layers and contains the material which supplies the negative mass or exotic mass needed to open a wormhole mouth. In a fusion ship, this layer is adhered to the outer surface of the crew wheel.

Next is the actuator layer which drives the Mach effect in the outermost layer and is usually made of a PZT (lead-zirconium-titanate) composite. A large voltage is supplied to this layer and driven with a sinusoidal signal.

The outer layer, the Mach layer, is made from a material with a large capacity for internal energy changes. And when it is driven by a quickly ramping voltage applied to the actuator layer it will shield the innermost layer from the universal mass exposing the large and negative (or exotic) bare mass of the layer's electrons. This large mass with its repulsive gravity can open and keep open a wormhole.

The Mach Effect (named after the nineteenth-century physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, not the wormhole drive's inventor Elias Mach) describes the relationship between a particular mass and the universal mass. Mach conjectured that the inertia (resistance to a change in velocity) of a particular mass was caused by all the other masses in the universe, the universal mass.

This can be understood by considering a single mass in an otherwise empty space. How do you measure the mass's velocity? There are no fixed references that can be used to measure the velocity so in an empty space the concept of velocity is meaningless, the mass, therefore, has no velocity. Since there is no velocity there can be no change in velocity and since inertia is a measure of a mass's resistance to a change in its velocity there can be no inertia. A subtle but logical argument.

Now given the existence of the Mach Effect it can be shown that if a material's (the innermost layer of the drive for instance) electrons are shielded from the universal mass then the large, negative (sometimes called “bare mass”) of the electron is revealed.

This follows from quantum field theory which shows that electrons are surrounded by a sea of virtual particles and these virtual particles have a large positive mass. Since the electron's measured mass is very small and positive then, by simple addition, its intrinsic mass-energy must be large and negative (sometimes called exotic mass-energy).

In essence, the Mach Effect shields the innermost layer of the wormhole generator's electrons from the cloud of virtual particles surrounding them, revealing the large negative/exotic mass-energy of those electrons.

The final essential element for deg a wormhole generator is that the layers

should be in acceleration. In the case of a fusion ship, this is usually accomplished through the rotation of the crew wheel, always ing that a change in direction is also an acceleration.

The wormhole drive then serves as the basis for the more advanced spin-two drive.

Dag was explaining his conversation with the Gallan Under-Secretary to Sigmund and Walker, an Em-based robot. It was almost possible to see Sigmund counting the money.

“This project will fit in nicely with our expanding services division.”

“I wonder why?”

“If we do it in time and on budget Dag it will establish us as a player in that segment.”

“No not that Sigmund. I wonder why they have formed this Core of Planets Space Fleet? They must have split with Earth.”

“You think there could be trouble Dag?”

“I don't know Walker. But I'm afraid they are building for war.”

“That's none of our business Dag. We're not about taking sides,” said Sigmund.

But Dag wasn't so sure.

To retrofit the ships within the time constraints the RBE (RoBot Enterprises) had to link everything it needed including its crews into an orbit around New Adowa. At almost six-thousand light-years the link management was too sensitive for anyone but Dag or Walker to handle.

Dag had developed the method of long distant linking. Like the spiral threading of a spider's web the nonlocal links, which represented the quantum entanglement of distant quanta of volume provided a structure to the universe which was filled in by the more local links (the cross threads of the spider's web).

To link safely at a distance, that is to deliver an object with accuracy, Dag would use a nonlocal link to cover most of the distance but transfer the object into a local link at the target destination. In this way, he was not linking across lightyears but only a few feet with a local link at the end. This delivered the object to within millimeters of the target.

But the spin-two drive operator had to be ready to pull the object back should a problem arise and that decision had to be made at the speed of an Em, no human could react fast enough. And even for Dag and Walker to react quick enough they had to communicate directly, that is by radio, with the drive's Ems.

Though Sigmund's estimate for the project was correct, he hadn't taken into the need to build a certain amount of infrastructure to the project. It soon became apparent that more crews would be needed to build that infrastructure.

Then Dag got the idea that, if agreeable to the New Adowans, the project would go faster if some of the ships were outfitted in Escan orbit. The New Adowans agreed to the new arrangements if it would keep the project on schedule.

Though not as capable as the drives replacing them the New Adowan ships were able to use multiple links with their existing drive to reach the Robot Planet. Soon ten of the ships that needed retrofitting were in orbit above the planet. Captain Khamati Oriedo was aboard the S Mechara which had just been outfitted with the new drive. He was speaking with Dag, whose company he enjoyed.

“Excellent Dag, you are ahead of schedule. Will you be ing us as we test the new drive's capability?”

“If I may Captain?”

“Of course, let's get started shall we? Navigator prepare a link to New Adowa, high standard orbit.”

Turning to Dag he said, “Sorry Dag I'm a bit uncomfortable jumping to standard orbit on the first try.”

“Understandable Captain.”

On the wallscreen, they all watched as the bubble of negative energy was cast from the drive into space, a moment and it shimmered like a milky spherical cloud but then became stable as it found the endpoint of a nonlocal link and enlarged it. The ship moved to enter. Just before entering, the bubble became more clear and Dag thought he saw bright flashes of light.

The Mechara came out of the other side of the link on orbit and in trim and started shaking.

“Helm what is that?”

“Sir, we are being buffeted.”

“Buffeted. In space?”

“Captain if I may?”

“Yes Dag?”

“The wallscreen might show us something.”

“Of course. FO turn on that damn screen.”

The wallscreen showed a stationary shot toward the bow of the ship. As they watched they occasionally saw a glow engulf and then the ship. An alarm went off.

“Sir, we have an alarm on external temperatures. Excessive and rising.”

“Okay get us out of here helm. Put some distance between us and the planet.”

The fusion rockets fired. A slight force was felt as the ship began transferring to a higher orbit. Soon the “buffeting” stopped.

“Okay someone show me what just happened.”

The First Officer was operating the wallscreen and brought up a view of the planet now far below. The scene was at first confusing. What looked like an arc of fire seemed to flare continuously.

“That's Earth's new wormhole weapon.”

“Are you sure Captain?”

“Yes Dag I'm sure. It's started.”

“Comm get me iral Debada.”

“Yes sir.”

Just then there was a bright spot in the plasma stream of the Earth weapons.

“They got one of our ships,” said the First Officer.

“Sir, I can't reach the iral. It seems he is on one of the ships below.”

“Worse than I thought,” said the Captain. “They must be making their last stand, all hands on deck. Well then, all hands. FO sound the alarm we're going in. Get the wormhole weapon online.”

He turned to Dag.

“Sorry Dag I have no choice, I'm afraid you'll have to stay on board.”

“Sir, if I may. I can run the drive and weapon better than anyone.”

“Very well Dag and thank you.”

Dag had gone to the wormhole drive operations room. The Captain had relayed his authority to the drive operator. The drive operator recognizing that Dag was more than qualified to operate a drive had no problem with the situation.

“Welcome Dr. Mach to Drive Operations.”

“Thank you operator Eshete. How may I be of assistance?”

“No, I and the other operators will assist you Dr. Mach.”

“Very well. Let's get started. Let's bring the weapon online.”

Meanwhile, the Captain had ordered helm to maneuver the ship to within onehundred kilometers of one end of the plasma flare. He expected to find Earth ships there.

“Drive, is the wormhole weapon ready?”

“Ready Captain Oriedo.”

“Very well Dr. Mach we will be approaching target in a few seconds.”

Using the fusion engines at full power the Mechara vectored almost directly to the site the Captain had ordered. There in the distance, the wallscreen showed three huge Earth ships laying down a streaming wall of fire with their wormhole weapons.

“Dr. Mach are you seeing this?”

“Yes Captain we have it on screen.”

“What do you make of it?”

“Well they seem to have solved some of the cooling problems related to the continuous use of the wormhole weapon.”

“That was my impression too. Can you put a shot of plasma on the wormhole weapons of those three ships?”

“Yes sir.”

“Very well Dr. Mach, fire at will.”

“Okay operator Eshete we are going to bring the wormhole weapon to its operational point. Then we are going to adjust the magnetic field to propel the

plasma in a kind of spray upon those three ships before we cease. Got it?”

“Got it Dr. Mach.”

When a wormhole weapon is brought to the point where a micro-sized wormhole forms there is a flash of intense light. Most operators watch for the screen to washout as the flash overloads the vision chip momentarily.

Dag saw the screen flash and began to strafe the plasma across the Earth ships. Three wormhole weapons went down at the same time as the ships maneuvered to see who had shot at them.

“Okay Dr. Mach. You got their attention that should give our ships a chance to get out of the way.”

“Captain I am going to begin targeting their wormhole weapons now, one by one.”

“Understood. They need to be out of commission before they get us in their sights.”

“Understood.”

Dag worked quickly to bring the weapon back to the operation point. Once he saw the flash on his screen he released a volley of plasma against the wormhole

weapon turret on one of the ships. The turret was a thick metallic backsplash and pivot that directed the plasma in the direction the operator wanted it to go. Selfgenerated magnetic fields kept the plasma blast coherent over distance.

The first burst of plasma hit the turret creating an intense glow. The metal could stand up to the blast but the mechanicals and electronics failed. The motors to turn and elevate the turret went offline. To fire the wormhole weapon in any effective manner the entire ship would have to be maneuvered in the proper direction. With the turret out of operation, the weapon would only be able to fire in one direction if it could still fire at all.

Dag watched the wormhole weapon's temperature, a weak spot in the design, and when it had dropped enough he opened fire on the next ship. The result was the same as the first.

Before the weapon cooled for another round the Mechara took a hit from behind. The tanks containing the helium-3 gas and deuterium oxide pellets used for fuel by the fusion engine were breached and began to lose pressure. The fusion engine would soon be useless.

“Dr. Mach, if I pivot the ship can you get a shot at the attacking vessel?”

“I will try Captain.”

The ship rolled using its reaction motors until it had come around one-hundred and eighty degrees. Dag located the approaching Earth vessel and fired. The plasma caught the vessel in its front particle barrier and while setting it aglow failed to cause any other damage.

The Earth ship shot a blast of its own. The plasma caught the Mechara midship. The interlinked carbon composite girders making up the spine of the three thousand feet long vessel glowed and melted somewhat. The girders twisted, a result of the angular momentum of the spinning crew wheel several hundred feet from the blast's center. As girders solidified again in a warped condition, the Ems managing the trim had to fire the reaction motors almost continuously to prevent an induced spin, rendering the vessel unmaneuverable.

“That's it Dr. Mach, we're dead. I'm going to call abandon ship.”

“Wait Captain give me just a minute.”

“Hurry Dr. Mach the Earth ships are closing. The next blast will probably kill us.”

Dag hurried. As long as the ship had some momentum, even if just drifting, and the wormhole generator was still working he could configure it as a spin-two drive and find a link to get them out of danger. Quickly reconfiguring the generator he caught a link endpoint and blew it up to a size big enough to accept the ship. The ship slowly drifted into the link and was gone before another plasma blast could target it.

Chapter 4

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Loop Quantum Gravity

Loop Quantum Gravity was developed in the twenty-first century by physicists to meld quantum mechanics and general relativity into one. Just as in quantum mechanics, which describes a smallest quanta of light, the photon, for instance, loop quantum gravity describes a smallest quanta of volume (and area). This idea has great appeal because if there is a smallest quanta of volume then it would be impossible for a singularity to form and physics would still apply even inside a black hole and at the Big Bang (which wouldn't exactly be a Big Bang but a Big Bounce).

Another aspect of loop quantum gravity is that the links that make up the loops stitching together the quanta volumes of spacetime are usually local. But not always. It is possible that a link between nodes of volume could have been established early in the universe and then the nodes separated over time. Somewhere across the universe then, could be an entangled quanta of volume corresponding to a local quanta of volume ...

Something was wrong on New Adowa. The transport ship Senbete hadn't been able to raise the company there for days.

Aster Aweke was a very young ship's Captain. He had probably been fasttracked into his current position because of his connections in the company. His father was COO and his uncle was on the company's board. But after reading about his great-grandfather, also a ship's Captain and famous, Aster had prepared all his life for command and was ready.

The ship was transporting a supply of the helium-3 isotope that had become the default standard for trade. To remain viable, the entire economy of Earth and the colonies required the stuff. Any cutoff in the supply would have dire consequences for the intended recipient.

The Senbete was an older model fusion ship. Equipped with a wormhole drive it was limited to a one-jump forty light-year radius around its home port, Kabania Habitat, in the Dnoces System which was located almost halfway between Earth and New Adowa.

Now, Aweke was faced with the decision of whether he should make the jump to New Adowa even with the comm problems or call back to Kabania and find out what they knew. It seemed more prudent to call Kabania than make a jump.

To communicate, the Senbete, being a wormhole only ship, would open a small wormhole in the vicinity of the Kabania Habitat. Then a radio link would be established.

“Lt. Mulatu have you got me an answer yet?”

“I'm afraid not Captain.”

“Why not?”

“The wormhole itself was difficult to establish sir and once we established it there was no reply to our message. I've relayed it several times now.”

“Very well Lieutenant, keep me informed.”

Captain Aweke thought to himself.

Now what? No , no information on which to base a decision. All I have is instinct. Which way should we jump?

After a few seconds, the Captain spoke.

“Chief.”

“Yes Captain?”

“Prepare to jump to New Adowa.”

“Yes sir.”

A wormhole jump begins with the wormhole drive opening a near-side wormhole mouth. The mouth, buried at the microscopic level in the quantum foam of spacetime, must be found and enlarged by the drive. To do this the drive pinpoints a mouth and then with its capability to project negative energy (that is since negative energy repels negative energy a “stream” can be created and directed by the drive which continues to pump the energy out in the same direction, only a small reaction force is felt by the ship itself because of the drives mass increase due to the Mach effect) it “fills” the microscopic mouth with this energy which causes it to blow up to macro size.

Once the mouth is found and enlarged the drive pumps more negative energy into now what is an opening to the wormhole dimension. The right amount of negative energy will force the mouth to assume a tear-dropped shape in the wormhole dimension. Once the neck of the tear-drop has elongated the required distance the energy is held steady while the far mouth opens. The process is called casting by drive operators.

The near and far mouths and the neck between them continue to enlarge until the desired size is reached. To the crew of a ship, the four-dimensional wormhole appears as a three-dimensional slightly elongated sphere. The sphere, at first just a point of light, in front of the ship grows, then the wormhole effect, as it's called occurs.

Around the growing point of light, a halo-like emanation appears. The wormhole mouth begins to resemble a cloudy bubble in space. And around this bubble seems to spin the stars as streaks, eventually. the innermost streaks form a complete halo. Further out from the mouth the streaks form shortened arcs until far away they became dots again. This is the gravitational lensing effect of general relativity.

By the time the wormhole had grown to a size large enough to accept the Senbete its surface had cleared and a glimpse of the far side could be vaguely seen.

“Take us in helm,” said the Captain.

The ship is given a slight acceleration toward the mouth and then the engines are shut down and the ship slowly coasts into the mouth. Almost instantaneously the Senbete was through, the transit being too quick for all but a black-hole computer to measure.

“Navigation, are we ten AU from New Adowa?”

“Just a moment sir.”

Ten AU from a system or star was the quarantine limit that a wormhole driven ship had to honor.

This is taking an unusual amount of time, thought Aweke.

“As best as the Ems can determine sir we are about ten AU from the giant star Alphard in the constellation Hydra.”

“That's impossible Nav. No wormhole ship can jump that far. What is it? Almost one-hundred-eighty light-years from Earth?”

“One-hundred-seventy-nine point-one to be exact sir.”

“Well again I say that's impossible.”

Aweke stood staring at his Nav officer a moment.

“First Officer let's have a meeting.”

“Yes sir.”

Dag's ability to use links was earned over years of practice. He could navigate a ship through a system, between systems or across thousands of light-years using local and nonlocal links.

Dag had used the spin-two drive to save the Mechara. But something wasn't right. The link he had opened should have put them in orbit around a star in the direction of the Draco constellation. But instead, if the navigational Ems were correct, they had ended up near the star Alphard in the constellation Hydra, over three-hundred-fifty light-years from their intended destination.

As on the Senbete a meeting was ongoing on the Mechara.

“Dr. Mach, how did this happen? We need to come up with a reasonable conjecture before we try another link to who knows where.”

“I'm not sure Captain. It could be that the link predictor was in error although that has never happened before. We can run tests on that. If that proves not to be the problem then I would have to say that it had something to do with the space we are in.”

“How could that be, Dr. Mach? Have you seen this before?”

“No Captain, this will be the first incidence. It could just be a fluke.”

The comm-link in the wardroom barked.

“Captain, we've got company.”

“Very well helm, I'm on my way. Dr. Mach if you would return to drive operations please.”

“Of course, Captain.”

The Captain arrived in the command room.

“What you got Lt. Mengisu?”

“From here it looks like a trading vessel.”

“Out here? We're not near enough to a colony for that are we?”

“No sir, according to their transponder they are the freightliner Senbete out of the Kabania habitat.”

“Okay let's get a comm-link.”

“Senbete this is Captain Khamati Oriedo of the S Mechara. What are you doing in this region of space?”

“Captain Oriedo this is Aster Aweke Captain of the Senbete. Our drive has malfunctioned. We intended to end up in orbit around New Adowa but were deposited here. We have no idea what happened.”

“Understood Captain, please hold.”

The Captain called the drive room.

“Dr. Mach, are you listening to this?”

“Yes Captain I heard.”

“Two ships couldn't be a fluke, could it?”

“I think not Captain, we have a real problem.”

Chapter 5

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Quantum Entanglement & Spacetime

Spacetime is an emergent property of quantum entanglement, that “spooky” action at a distance effect that links two (or more) particles together in a single quantum state. Whereby if we measure a property of one of the particles, such as spin angular momentum, then that property is known for the other particle no matter how far away it is from the first particle.

It must be ed that the measured property did not have a fixed value before measurement, it only assumed the value at the moment of measurement, and because the distant particle was entangled with the measured particle then it also assumed the complementary value at the same time, i.e. action at a distance.

Thus entanglement knits together spacetime through particles (or quanta of volume) sharing a common quantum state. But if enough of these entanglements are “broken” then spacetime starts to “unravel.” And the unraveling spreads at the speed of light. Fortunately, the effects of this unraveling dissipate over distance.

Common ways to cause this unraveling is to repeatedly create wormhole pairs without a reservoir of entangled particles. If this is done often enough spacetime will begin to “atomize” or breakup. A more spectacular way to cause this phenomenon is to concentrate too much energy in too small a space as with a wormhole drive.

Spacetime may break down at differing scales. On the smallest scale, even the human body can be affected. Symptoms of spacetime disruption felt by humans are severe headache, nausea, muscle aches . . .

The United Planets Ship UPS Achilles had been right behind the Mechara as it linked. Its spin-two operator had caught the link opened by Dag and the Achilles had slipped through. However, because of the slight vibration of link-ends, (a known phenomenon, which simply stated, says that the ends of longer links vibrate more than shorter links) the Achilles came out of the link at a distance from the Mechara. It was several minutes before they picked up the radio chatter between the Mechara and the Senbete. They immediately vectored to the source of the radio waves, it took the fifth generation fusion engine less than an hour to cover the distance.

“Captain we've got another ,” said Lt. Mengisu. “And they are coming in fast.”

“Can you make it out?”

“It's big sir, much bigger than us. I'd say it's one of those Earth ships we saw back at Adowa.”

“Dr. Mach, did you hear that? Can you comment?”

“Captain, I believe it could be that one of those Earth ships used the same link we did, it's certainly possible.”

“Okay Dr. Mach, standby, I may need you to get us out of here on a moment's notice.”

“Yes Captain.”

“Comm, you got anything?”

“No sir, if they're trying to hail us we're not receiving.”

Then the Mechara shuddered.

“Sir we're under fire.”

“I thought as much helm.”

“Dr. Mach can you do something?

“Yes Captain.”

“Comm, signal the Senbete we are about to maneuver,” said the Captain.

In drive command, Dag already had a local link picked out. He was going to do something but he wasn't just going to run.

He opened a local link and the Mechara entered. Coming out of the link the ship was above and behind the Earth ship. Dag had the drive reconfigured and opened up with a shot from the wormhole weapon. The plasma blast caught the Earth ship in the fusion engine. Not waiting to assess damage Dag had the next local link open and the Mechara was gone by the time the Earth ship got a shot off with its more powerful wormhole weapon.

Again as the Mechara emerged from the link it was below and behind the other ship. Dag had the wormhole weapon primed and again blasted the Earth ship's fusion engine section. A link then opened and the Mechara disappeared again avoiding another plasma blast from the other ship.

Captain Aweke watched in wonder as the Mechara, again and again, outmaneuvered the Earth ship and got in another shot to some vital area. Then he heard the comm.

“Attacking ship this is Captain John Hay of the UPS Achilles we ask that you cease your attack. We wish to discuss the situation.”

Captain Oriedo, who like Captain Aweke, had been marveling at Dag's expertise responded.

“Captain Hay, this is Captain Oriedo of the S Mechara, we would be happy to discuss the situation with you as long as your weapons stay offline.”

“Understood Captain Oriedo, you have my word.”

The Achilles matched course and speed with the Mechara.

“Well Captain Oriedo what do you propose?”

“Captain Hay I propose that we cease any hostilities while Dr. Mach investigates the failure of the spin-two drive that put us both into this situation. You know the reputation of Dr. Mach?”

“You have Dr. Dagmar Mach aboard?”

“Yes he was upgrading our spin-two drive when we accidentally involved ourselves.”

“Well I am aware of Dr. Mach's qualifications. And I agree to your proposal. You will let me know if there is anything I can do to help?”

“Of course Captain and thank you.”

“You see Captain it might be like the early universe.”

Dag was presenting a theory for their predicament to Captain Oriedo and his officers.

“We know that the universe started from a hotter state and cooled. But different regions of the universe cooled at different rates. Bubbles of these cooler regions formed and spread across space. They intersected with other bubbles and where they intersected topological anomalies formed. Eventually, all of the regions of the universe had cooled and the process stopped.”

“You are talking about cosmic strings Dr. Mach?”

“Something similar Chief. If you've ever seen a frozen lake you've noticed the cracks in the ice. Those cracks form in a similar manner to what we call cosmic strings. The ice has gone through a phase transition from fluid to solid.

“As an analogy imagine water as molecules moving freely as a fluid and then somewhere a crystal of ice forms. Other crystals of ice form, often as hexagons, and begin tiling the lake. Across the lake, a similar crystallization into ice has started and is tiling outward. Chances that these tiles line up when they meet are almost zero.

“So there are phase imperfections in the universe. But what happens at these

meeting points where the tiles, to use the lake analogy, don't match? The energy in between has essentially never cooled down because it can't phase transition in such a way to satisfy the disparate boundary conditions.

“Now this energy is tremendous. And it is great enough to bend the nonlocal links the spin-two drive uses. But normally there is not a lot of interaction between this cosmic energy and the links unless a link is used so often that it starts a phase transition of the space it travels through. The transition is slow and is slow to spread but eventually, it does and if it meets the cosmic energy a kind of instant phase change occurs, like water going from solid form to steam directly without ing through the liquid phase.

“So this flash phase, as I have started thinking of it, is energetic enough to realign the tiling of spacetime and in the process “bend” nonlocal links so that their endpoints no longer correspond and are either shifted or in some cases disconnected and reconnected to other endpoints in space.”

“But Dr. Mach all this energy why weren't there any signs?”

“While the energy is tremendous the time it takes for readjustment is very small. The resultant power release for each link is not large. If the links realign one by one then the process could go undetected.”

“How do we correct it Dr. Mach?”

“I don't know Captain. Right now the only thing we can do is remap the links.”

“That will get us back to Adowa?”

“It should.”

“May I ask something?”

“Yes Chief?”

“What is causing this realignment?”

“My guess is that the overuse of certain links results in the deposition of enough energy in the link to trigger a flash phase. Depending on how firmly anchored the link's endpoint, it holds or snaps into a new position.”

“But Dr. Mach, as you well know, the spin-two drive has been used for years without incident. Why now?”

“It could be a consequence of the increase in military traffic because of this tariff war. These new Earth vessels are so much larger than older models it could be that the greater energy needed to open a link for them could be a contributing factor but I'm not certain of that.”

“So we should at the least stop this war to prevent more of these links snapping.”

“Yes Captain that would be prudent. Because if they continue snapping or realigning it will lead to large scale effects.”

“Serious effects Dr. Mach?”

“Catastrophic Captain.”

Chapter 6

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Nonlocal links

In loop quantum gravity links that make up the loops stitching together the quanta volumes of spacetime are usually local, that is they are causally related. But not always. It is possible that a link between nodes of volume could have been established early in the history of the universe and then the nodes separated. Somewhere across the universe then could be an entangled quanta of volume corresponding to a local quanta of volume.

Surprisingly these links aren't necessarily rare. It's estimated that there could, on average, be more than one per cubic nanometer of space. Not enough to disrupt the smooth aspect of spacetime we experience but enough to explain entanglement of distant particles.

They can be used to send information and mass over vast distances, much farther than a wormhole drive . . .

It appears that links follow a kind of power-law, Lotka's Law, when it comes to their abundance or scarcity as related to the distances they bridge. The farther

the distance the scarcer the link.

Captain Oriedo had relayed the essentials of his meeting with Dr. Mach to Captain Hay. They had agreed to a truce although considering the condition their ships were in there wasn't much choice.

As soon as Dag had remapped the links the Mechara shared the remapping with the Achilles. Both ships would their respective governments and update them on the problem they had discovered. Because the Senbete could not use the links to return to Adowa the Mechara shared provisions with the ship for their much longer return using the old wormhole drive. Dag had outlined a return strategy with the wormhole operator that should get them back to their port without incident.

When all was ready Dag linked the Mechara back into orbit around New Adowa. From the wallscreen, it was apparent that the assault by the Earth ships was over. But that did not mean the war was over.

“Dr. Mach how sure are you about the resulting damage to spacetime if we continue to overuse the links?”

Dag was in a meeting with Prime Minister Menza of the New Gallan Republic.

“Madam Prime Minister there is no question that damage will occur, the only question is how severe it will be. And that will depend on how overused the links become.”

“So we need to shut down all traffic between New Adowa and Earth?”

“There are certain links that we should put off limits immediately but we can by those and use others. We will need to remap all the links between Earth and New Adowa and monitor them to prevent new problems.”

“So we can continue trade with Earth if we desire?”

“Yes Madam Prime Minister. I can set up a monitoring system that will warn of a possible overload on any of the links being used. But the governments will have to be prepared to restrict the traffic when needed.”

“I understand Dr. Mach. You are right to point it out. It will take an effort to bring the governments into agreement.”

“I only meant to apprise you of the necessity of quick action when we do issue a warning.”

“Of course, Dr. Mach and thank you.”

Dag had returned to Escan and was in a discussion with Sigmund and Walker. Sigmund, as always, was focused on the money.

“This is great Dag. We can get a recurring fee for this work?”

“I haven't discussed a fee yet Sigmund.”

“No problem Dag. I will handle the negotiations for the company.”

“Please Sigmund. This is as much a public service as a commercial opportunity.”

“Well we can't do it for nothing Dag. We need some reimbursement to afford the necessary resources.”

“I understand Sigmund, just that it is for the public good and try not to make it look like we are trying to take advantage.”

“Of course Dag aren't I always the model of discretion?”

Dag started to say something but only nodded.

Dag and Walker began working on a way to monitor the links and know when to mark them off-limits.

Since a nonlocal link's endpoint is embedded in local space it is somewhat locked into the lattice of local links that underpin that region of space. This keeps the nonlocal link's endpoint from “wandering” but not from oscillating about the lattice point. Walker had already used this property to classify links

according to the distance they span since the longer the link the greater the oscillation.

Besides the correlation to distance exhibited by links, there was also a correlation with energy. The more energy pumped into a link the greater its endpoints oscillated. Normally this would not cause a problem since the oscillation was extremely small but as Dag conjectured, if too much energy builds in a link the endpoint can be ripped from the local lattice and fly off, like a rubber band released. Once the endpoint has lost enough energy it reattaches itself to the local lattice of space it finds in its new vicinity.

So the goal of Dag's and Walker's research was to find the level of energy that could cause a link to disassociate from the local lattice.

“How many spin-two drives does the company have ready or are in process Walker?”

“Three are ready for use Dag and I believe three more will come online by the end of this month.”

“Well we need to commandeer those for our tests.”

“Sigmund won't like that Dag, I think he's already sold them.”

“He'll have to like it Walker, what we are trying to learn is more important than another sale.”

Sigmund didn't like it when he heard.

“You mean you are going to characterize a link like it was a transmission line?”

“Yes Walker that is essentially correct. You see before we enlarge a link it is essentially a very long (in the link's dimension), very narrow transmission line that transmits quantum entanglement. If we can create a narrow enough pulse with the spin-two drive we should be able to find any discontinuities in what I will call the link impedance, indicating a bend or endpoint of the link.”

“That's just like a time-domain reflectometer isn't it Dag?”

“Similar Walker, except that the speed with which we will need to inject a signal and sample the returning signal will be several orders of magnitude faster.”

“How fast Dag?”

“Well normal TDR pulses are in the range of picoseconds, we will need to be in the range of yoctoseconds.”

“That's at least ten thousand times faster than any timing source we can buy Dag.”

“Yeah Walker, we'll have to make our own.”

Dag would build his timing source out of cobalt-60, a radioactive element with a half-life of a little over five years. When it decays a neutron in the nucleus turns into a proton and W boson. The W boson then decays into an electron and electron antineutrino. And the time it takes for a W boson to decay is on average three-tenths of a yoctosecond, a trillion-trillionth of a second. The time interval Dag needed.

Now all he needed to do was be able to detect the change in the nucleus when the neutron became a proton and detect the emergence of the electron.

The electron would be easy but the difference in mass between cobalt-60 and its decay product was impossibly small (a bit over a thousandth of a percent).

“There is one thing we might do Dag but I can't see doing it with many atoms at a time.”

“What is it Walker?”

“Well the mass difference is small but the electrostatic difference is one unit of charge. That can be measured but on one atom at a time only.”

“That's true Walker and all we need is one atom.”

“How's that?”

“Because after the measurement we can use electron capture to turn the decay product back into cobalt-60. If we “squeeze” the atom either electrically or with lasers we can force an electron from a lower shell into the nucleus where it is captured by a proton, which turns into a neutron giving us back our isotope of cobalt-60.

“We can place each cobalt-60 atom in its molecular cage.”

“We could use carbon-60,” said Walker interrupting. “It's large enough at one nanometer to hold the atom and can be tightly packed.”

“Yes buckyballs might work Walker. Anyway, whatever we use we'll need enough of these units to ensure that one of the cobalt nuclei is always undergoing decay.”

Dag and Walker spent several weeks getting their timing source, which they called The Clock, designed. Once they had it machined and working they ed it to a spin-two drive to control the pulse of negative energy they would send into a link. Another similar clock was used to measure the result.

“Ready Walker?”

“Ready Dag.”

Dag opened a link by finding an endpoint in the lab and injecting a short pulse.

“See anything Walker?”

“Yes getting a screen now. I think it worked Dag. We've got a link and the other endpoint is about one-thousand light-years as indicated by the reflected pulse.”

“Okay I'm going to try one a little closer.”

They kept trying links until they found that the shortest one was just over forty light-years. Below that distance the reflections were too fast for them to time.

“Okay we've got our lower bound of effectiveness. Now let's get the equipment aboard the Friendship and pick out one of those errant links to test.”

The Friendship was the company's fusion ship. Its spin-two drive, like all spintwo drives, could project the negative energy used to open a link only a few kilometers but links were so plentiful that it usually wasn't necessary to move to find a link at the distance and direction one wanted to travel. But in this case, Dag wanted to test the links that had led them off course and these were in space near New Adowa.

Chapter 7

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Black-hole Computer

Black hole computation was developed by the physicist Dr. Emmy Gibbs.

It had been conjectured that if a kilogram of matter is compressed into a black hole it would last about a billionth of a nanosecond before evaporating, but in that time about a hundred-thousand quadrillion quadrillion quadrillion (1 followed by 15 zeros) operations could be performed. Add more matter get more computations.

Of course, the trick is to compress the computer circuit and still have it work, let it do its computations and then capture the results, all of which Dr. Gibbs and her assistants had to engineer.

A wormhole generator, a natural black hole generator, was used to take a 3D computer in the form of a sphere and compress it. If done properly the computer would continue to operate, only faster and faster as the distance between logic gates shrank to the ultimate limit and it became a black hole computer.

The Friendship had the new clocks installed and Dag and Walker were preparing for the trip to Earth space when Sigmund caught up with the pair.

“Your new clock design. Did you leave a schematic with engineering Dag? I want to get it into production. If I understand you correctly this could be a big seller to governments and labs.”

“I'm sorry Sigmund but I haven't had a chance to share our design with engineering. I'll do it first thing when Walker and I get back from these tests. We are trying to hurry and set up a monitoring system, you know.”

“Yes Dag but we could be turning your gadget into something salable at the same time. We could even start advertising it and getting orders if we only had your notes.”

“Again I'm sorry Sigmund but we just haven't had time to commercialize it yet.”

“Well make sure you meet with product engineering and get them the information they need as soon as you get back.”

“Will do.”

“Oh Sigmund.”

“Yes Walker?”

“You could start the advertising without all the details couldn't you?”

Sigmund was quiet a moment.

“You're right Walker. Many companies have drummed up interest without actually having a product ready. I should have thought. Well you two have a good trip. I'll have the ad campaign out before you get back.”

“Why did you do that Walker?”

“It keeps him occupied and off our backs.”

The link to New Adowa orbit was complete and the ship had checked in with the authorities. Dag was searching for the link that had sent them off course to the space near the star Alphard in the constellation Hydra. He found it without much trouble.

“That endpoint is really vibrating Walker.”

“Much more than we have ever seen Dag.”

“The energy must still be dissipating.”

“Dag what if the energy is a result of the link being bent and stretched?”

“You mean the link has stored energy like a rubber band?”

“Something like that. Stored energy under stress like that has a tendency to release quickly doesn't it?”

“Yeah Walker it does. We'll have to be careful. Okay, I'm going to inject the pulse if you are ready Walker.”

“Ready.”

“Here goes.”

Dag did as he had done before releasing a short pulse of negative energy down the link.

“Anything Walker?”

Walker was staring at the screen of the readout scope.

“Yeah Dag, we've got a partial reflection at about one hundred light-years and then another at two-hundred-forty-six light-years. That would be the other endpoint.”

“So assuming a right triangle with the hypotenuse being the distance from Earth to Alphard that works out to be one-hundred-seventy-seven light-years. Perfect Walker.”

Before Walker could reply the ship was jolted and started to spin.

“Walker shutdown the crew wheel before the torque causes warping of the spine girders.”

The spinning became more intense. Walker and Dag strapped into the nearest chairs. The only other crew, a few other robots, did the same. Most of the ship was automated with Ems.

“Walker look at the screen.”

The wallscreen was focused on what lay ahead of the ship. The camera was compensating for the rotation.

“Walker that looks like an endpoint expanding.”

In front of the ship, the unmistakable brilliant bubble that was an endpoint opening was enlarging rapidly and moving towards the ship.

“Walker that endpoint bubble is moving toward the ship. That's not possible.”

Not only was the endpoint moving it was speeding up. The ship soon was consumed by the bubble. Unlike the usual link transition, this one didn't end before Dag was able to speak out.

“Walker something's wrong. I think we are still in the link.”

“That's impossible isn't it Dag?”

On the wallscreen what looked like lightning flashes kept overloading the video. Otherwise ing shadows of vague forms seemed to indicate motion. The ship was still spinning but not more so than when it had entered the link. In fact, the Ems responsible for trim seemed to be stabilizing the ship, the spin was decreasing.

“The flashes Walker. I believe a flash of light indicates that we have exited one link and entered another.”

“Or perhaps we are just caught in a repeating loop Dag.”

“Either way I think that it might be the key to extracting ourselves from this

mess. If what I think is true and we could get the ship off center there is a chance we can avoid entering the next link.”

“How Dag?”

“We need to guide the ship to one side so that it is no longer centered in the link.”

“But what happens if we get too close to the link's wall?”

“The ship will probably break up.”

“Oh, is that all. When do we start?”

“Right now. Start the crew wheel turning I want to use the spin-two drive to expel some small bubbles of negative energy. That should push us in the opposite direction and out of the center. With any luck, we will exit shortly.”

“Well we'll exit one way or the other for sure Dag.”

Walker started the crew wheel spinning again. Dag brought up the spin-two drive.

“Here goes Walker.”

A small bubble of negative energy formed outside the ship. The bubble was temporarily coherent due to its interior force of attraction at the density it was formed. Eventually, such bubbles became less dense and started dissipating faster due to the repulsion of negative energy for negative energy.

Now Dag would use that repulsive effect to launch the bubble to the side by slowly forming another bubble of negative energy beside the first. The second bubble would not become completely detached from the drive and would act to repel the first bubble one way while it and the ship felt an opposite reaction.

The second bubble formed slowly. The ship yawed about its center of gravity and moved ever so slightly out of the center of the link. With the next flash of light came a sharp kick as the ship skidded off the next endpoint and began a complex rotation around all three axes. Dag and Walker and the others were lucky to still be strapped down. But the ship was not as lucky.

The carbon composite girders that made up the spine of the ship snapped, something that had never happened to such a fusion ship before. The crew wheel and the front of the vessel went flying in one direction while the rear and the fusion engines went in another. Without the fusion engines, the crew wheel had only a temporary supply of power from the forward isotopics. But that would be useless if the spinning remnant could not be stabilized.

“Walker we have to help the Ems stabilize the wheel. Spin us up.”

“More?”

“Yes, more.”

Walker was able to spin the crew wheel until the artificial gravity created had almost doubled. The increased spin caused the wheel to act like a spinning bicycle wheel, causing a moment of inertia that started to dampen all the complex motions of the other two axes. It wasn't long until only a kind of slight wobble was left as the crew wheel was not exactly balanced.

“Okay Walker spin down the wheel to normal. I think we have survived the worst of it.”

But Dag did not then know where they were.

Chapter 8

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Blazar

A blazar is an active galactic nucleus with a relativistic jet of ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light directed outwards from its nucleus.

Blazars are highly variable and powerful sources of emission across the electromagnetic spectrum and are observed to be sources for high-energy gamma-ray photons.

Blazar jets can exhibit superluminal motion, a consequence of material in the jet traveling toward the observer at nearly light-speed.

“The Ems can't give us a location Dag.”

“We'll have to deal with that later Walker. Without the fusion engines we're running on reserves. First thing I need to do is pick a star and put us in orbit so we can recharge the isotopics.”

With the wheel still spinning Dag was able to bring up the spin-two drive but unlike usual he didn't link immediately.

“Something wrong Dag?”

“Yes, the links are not as I expected.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well of course we are far from any mapped links but not only that I'm also seeing a lot of movement of endpoints. It's hard to pick a link out.”

“What's happened Dag?”

“I'm not sure but obviously the links are affected in a much larger area than just New Adowan space. It could be that the disturbance is spreading from there or maybe from somewhere else. I don't know but right now I'm more concerned with getting us into an orbit.”

Finally, Dag chose a link. The ship came out of the link in orbit around the star Dag had chosen. An orbit that was somewhat too close.

“Dag aren't we a little too close?”

“Yes Walker. The endpoint I chose was moving around too much. We'll use the reaction motors to adjust the orbit.”

Dag, Walker and the other robots worked several days with the navigation Ems to find their location in space but made no progress. Then Dag ed the Dhalkans.

The Dhalkans had been mistaken as an enemy by Earth and the Earth Aggies. Instead of being the ultimate enemy, actually the Dhalkans had not sought confrontation but had made plans to flee. To that purpose, they had created navigational markers that they would use to leave the galaxy. These were active galactic nuclei and their high-energy jets which were sometimes called blazars when pointed toward the Earth.

Before the confrontation was settled the Dhalkans had created a network of highenergy jets that they would use in their flight. The confrontation was settled and the Dhalkans didn't flee but the jets remained as a kind of lighthouse network in space.

One feature of the high-energy jets is that an observer from far away will detect a brightness dependent on how he lines up with the direction of the jet. For instance, at an angle of five degrees from being directly lined up with the collimated jet it might appear ten times dimmer than if the observer is directly in line with the direction the jet points. In this way, an observer can use the appearance of the jet to adjust his course and navigate if he knows where each jet is, its orientation and its intrinsic brightness.

Dag had that data on the Dhalkan's partial network. If he could line up the ship

with a jet he might get an idea of where they were in relation to it. And the relative brightness might give him the distance.

“Well I can't be one hundred percent sure Walker but I believe we are about forty-thousand light-years away from Dhalkan space. We are in the Cygnus Arm of the galaxy very close to the galaxy's edge.”

“Can you get us back Dag?”

“I think so. I will head for Dhalkan space where this network of blazars is located. Eventually we will get close enough to mapped regions of space that the navigational Ems should be able to link us back to Escan.”

“Do we have to go back to Escan?”

“What do you mean Walker?”

“I don't relish seeing Sigmund and telling him we broke the ship.”

Getting back to known space was harder than Dag had figured. It was the link's endpoints and their penchant to move unexpectedly that caused several wrong turns in the journey back. But after weeks of linking and circling stars to maintain the isotopic reservoir, they finally found themselves in orbit around Escan.

Since the shuttles were attached to the part of the ship missing, Dag would have to use the spin-two drive to link everyone to the planet's surface. It wasn't easy.

Even local link endpoints were quite active. Several of the robots ended up a few feet above the ground when they emerged from the link bubble. They had to quickly adjust and roll with the landing to prevent damage.

Once on the ground Sigmund asked Dag, “I've never seen you perform so poorly Dag. What's wrong?”

“It's link space Sigmund. The endpoints are moving about at an increasing amplitude.”

“Oscillating around a fixed point? Haven't they always done that?”

“Yes but not to the extent they are now. Even local link endpoints are highly unstable.”

“What is that doing to space Dag?”

“I'm not sure but it is essentially 'heating up' the underpinnings of spacetime Walker.”

“Will it stop? I mean if it continues won't that cause a phase transition?”

“It could.”

“Will the phase transition help or hurt us?”

“It will hurt Sigmund.”

“Yeah the end of us and everything we know,” said Walker.

“Like a fish in water that is freezing, we would soon find it impossible for the universe to life.”

“Even us Dag?”

“Yes Sigmund. The physical laws themselves will change. We have no way of knowing if even the atoms making up our frames will still exist. But I think we can be sure life as we know it, both biological and technological, will cease.”

“What can we do Dag?”

“We need to do a mapping of links in different spaces. Say here around Escan, around Earth and maybe the Dhalkan planet. If this is happening on as wide a scale as I believe, then it's not being caused by our link usage although that may contribute to the problem.”

“Well that should be easy enough to investigate Dag. You can simply use the Friendship to get the measurements you need from those different spaces.”

Walker looked at Sigmund then quickly turned away. Dag also avoided visual .

“What is it? What did I say?”

“Well you see Sigmund something happened that you don't know about.”

“What Walker?”

“We had a little trouble with the ship. You see the links are moving and they are hard to pick out, as you noticed when Dag was linking us down, and well we got caught up in a kind of endless loop which we only broke out of by kind of ricocheting off the next endpoint and well the ship was damaged a bit.”

“Damaged a bit?”

“It's broken.”

“Can it be fixed?”

“It's broken in half Sigmund,” said Dag.

Sigmund was quiet a moment.

“You destroyed the only fusion ship the company has? Do you know how much those things cost? The company doesn't have that kind of money.”

“It's okay Sigmund this problem is important enough that I believe we can get some resources from one of the governments.”

Dag was right. The governments on New Adowa were willing to provide the necessary ship. The GS Nyeri was one of the ships updated by RBE. The fusion engine was still fourth generation but the spin-two drive had the latest updates and could open links up to eight-thousand light-years.

The robots outfitted the ship with extra spin-two drives, shuttling them up. They would also automate the ship to the extent possible negating the need for a large New Gallan crew, just a few robots.

Dag and Walker were discussing the voyage.

“Yes Walker we do have some readings in Escan and New Adowa space but we need to get current readings in as many spaces as simultaneously as possible.”

“Very well Dag. Should we start above Escan then go to New Adowa, Earth and then Dhalkan space?”

“Yes that will be an efficient route.”

“How long will it take to get the data we need Dag?”

“That depends Walker, it depends on several parameters.”

“Very well Dag I will outfit the ship with as much provision as possible. We will leave day after tomorrow.”

“Okay Walker.”

The day of departure Dag, Sigmund and Walker shuttled up to the Nyeri. Sigmund wanted to see how the new clock was used so that he could better sell it. When mappings around Escan were finished the ship quickly linked to New Adowa space.

“Dag we're about two AU from where we should be. Will that be close enough?”

“Yes Walker I believe that will be close enough. We'll get started right away.”

Most of the data gathering had been automated. Six spin-two drives powered up. A link endpoint was chosen by computer and the TDR pulse was launched into each. The returning data was logged in memory and submitted to the analysis program that Walker, Dag and the Ems had been working on.

After an hour the data build-up allowed for the analysis program to start the visualization program. Then it notified Dag.

“Walker come to the computer room, I have something to show you.”

“Is that the link map Dag?”

“Yes Walker.”

The three-dimensional projection looked like a thick mesh of lines. Crossing at right angles in a mostly regular pattern except for areas that seemed knotted. Dag zoomed in on one such area which was in the direction of Earth.

“That looks like spaghetti to me, what is it?” asked Sigmund who had followed Walker into the room.

“It's link space in the direction of the Earth. At least the few links I mapped in that direction.”

“Looks like a mess.”

“Yes Sigmund you have described it accurately.”

“Dag what happens in this situation? I mean links are supposed to , so to speak, real space, aren't they?”

“Real space, as you call it Walker, is emergent from the entanglement of particles and volume quanta which is what we call link space. As to what will happen when the usually uniform ing structure becomes a bowl of spaghetti, as Sigmund astutely noted, I'm not sure.”

“Yeah but whatever happens I bet it's not good,” said Sigmund.

Chapter 9

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The Online Resource for Science

Volume Quanta

Although it may seem smooth and continuous, a liquid is just the collective motions of myriads of water molecules. At the atomic level, it is discrete, it is only because of the huge numbers of molecules and their tiny size that we see a liquid as continuous.

If loop quantum gravity is correct, and there are reasons to think it is, then there is a quanta of volume which is extremely small, on the order of the Planck scale, and so numerous that spacetime appears smooth and continuous to our senses.

Now because of our difficulties dealing with such a large collection of objects, we must resort to statistics to describe their collective actions. Like the temperature of a body of water is a thermodynamic property derived from the statistical spread of molecular motion. Some molecules in the water are moving very fast while other molecules are moving very slow but the vast majority are moving at speeds around the mean which we call the temperature.

Something similar holds for quanta of volume but that is not the most interesting

feature. What is most interesting is that the same distribution holds for the links, or the loops in Loop Quantum Gravity, that connect the volume quanta. Most of the links are around the mean, most are local and this is why we have the illusion that everything must be in , whether physically or through an intermediate field, to have a cause and effect.

But the links far from the mean, the ones we would consider nonlocal, are the really interesting ones. They can be used to send information over vast distances . . .

The space-based manufacturer, Global Fusion, had the largest manufacturing park in Earth orbit at the Earth-Moon Lagrangian point L5. Global Fusion built everything from fusion spaceships to power satellites.

It's “shops” were the largest manufacturing complex off Earth. At two-thousand meters in radius, the doughnut-shaped facility had eight levels, each fifty meters wide for a total floor area of five million square meters, greater than many of the old Earth-based manufacturing plants.

The facility rotated to provide artificial gravity. One rotation every one point six minutes provided eight-tenths Earth equivalent gravity. The outside floors and the inner floors were storage and manufacturing. The remaining floors housed the workers, nearly four thousand in number. All floors were protected from the radiation of space and the particles in the solar wind by a thick Em engineered gel insulation.

Nearby at the same Lagrangian point was the food growing facility. Also a doughnut-shaped ring of twice as many floors, it was oriented perpendicular to the Sun so that light could continuously enter through the opaque walls that made up the sun-facing side. Walls that with the help of an Em designed gel also

stopped most of the particles in the solar wind.

At nearly the same size as the manufacturing ring but with twice the floor space it had over two-hundred acres on which to raise food for the manufacturing personnel. Aeroponic gardening (a gardening method where the roots of the plants are available to be misted with water and nutrients) took up more than half of the space and was much more efficient than Earth farming. Cultured meat grown in bio-reactors took up some more of the floor space. The rest was given over to the packing plants, food storage lockers and loading docks.

A stream of shuttles moved the food from production to consumption in the manufacturing ring each day. They also took personnel from the manufacturing ring where they were lodged to the food production ring where they worked and back.

A solar power plant completed the major structures of the complex making it self-sufficient from the Earth.

Global Fusion was only the largest manufacturers in near-Earth space. Others at the L4 Lagrangian point, or orbiting Earth, or orbiting the Moon provided almost all the necessary industry to sustain a hi-tech society. Indeed, the manufacturing in CIS lunar space not only built the machinery and supplies needed on Earth but also much of what was needed in the space habitats and settlements on other human-inhabited worlds.

George Lewis had operated a meat shuttle for more than a month now. The thrill and newness of working far out at the Lagrange point for Global Fusion was wearing off. It was becoming just another job to George.

He was hauling another load from the food production ring to manufacturing and was on close approach when what looked like a wormhole mouth opened and out came a fusion ship. It was no more than a few feet from the manufacturing ring. There was nothing anyone could do.

The ship began to crash into the ring in a kind of slow motion. At first, it seemed the ring would push aside the intruder since it was bigger and more massive. But with the ship's momentum pushing the huge ring, it started to tilt even as the ship deflected in the direction of the ring's rotation.

Pieces began flying away, the hull of the ring was breached and interior stores were exhausted. The crew wheel of the ship approached the ring as the front of the ship continued to be deflected, causing it to turn and buckle. On , the crew wheel proceeded like a buzz saw hacking into the layers of storage, manufacturing and crew's quarters. The explosive decompression hurling bodies and furniture into the void.

George pulled frantically at the controls as the big ring started to tilt in his direction. He was firing thrust and attitude rockets with abandon as he tried to get out of the way. Towards and away from the relatively tiny shuttle the ring wobbled. Then he cleared.

George breathed a sigh of relief as the low fuel alert sounded. His ordeal wasn't over but the big ring and the interloper were finished.

Earth was in an uproar, agitated beyond reason. The perpetrator of the destruction of Global Fusion's manufacturing ring must be found and made to pay. Over three-thousand people had lost their lives in the manufacturing ring. The immediate goal was to figure out whose ship had done such a thing. Eyewitnesses could not supply the name of the ship although a description

seemed to indicate it wasn't an Earth ship.

It wasn't until the company CIS-Space Collectors was given the contract to capture as much of the debris as possible that the identity of the fusion ship was discovered. It was the Senbete, the New Adowan based freighter that had been diverted into the same space as Dag's ship. Apparently, something was still wrong with the wormhole drive or as the press began to suggest, something was wrong with the New Adowans.

The Earth's government not wanting to deal with the hard problem of drive failure which would cause citizens to demand solutions chose to focus on the accident as an attempt by governments on New Adowa to damage the Earth's economy. Lost in the rising cries of blame was the fact that such an action would hurt New Adowa as well since Global Fusion provided much to the Core group. Also lost was the fact that it was a privately-owned ship, not a governmentowned ship. All facts to the contrary were dismissed as being New Adowan lies.

Nothing mattered now but vengeance for the three thousand lost.

Timing has a way of being important in the lives of men and robots and the timing of Dag, Walker and Sigmund arriving in near-Earth space in a New Gallan vessel was quite unfortunate. The ship was forced into a holding orbit and the robots were forced into jail cells.

The three had been separated for a couple of weeks while they were interrogated but now they were allowed to interact while waiting to see if they would be charged.

“We've been here before.”

“Yeah Sigmund. Last time we tried to help the Earth governments they treated us the same way.”

“We need to make a case for robot autonomy Dag. They still treat us as if we were some kind of talking dogs.”

“I know Walker. I thought having our own planet would give us the status we needed to have our rights recognized but it's going to take something more.”

“What more can we do than save the universe?”

“And we've done that more than once Dag.”

“It seems humans tend to discount services rendered, once they have been rendered Sigmund. I believe the phrase 'what have you done for me lately' applies here.”

“Well lately we've been trying to figure out this link mystery.”

“And if we don't Walker I suspect these Earthlings will wish that we had.”

“No doubt Sigmund which leads me to ask Dag, have you come up with anything new considering the mapping we did in Escan space?”

“I've been thinking about it Walker. It's unfortunate that we haven't a history of mapping the link structure of space but I'm fairly convinced that what we saw in those areas that Sigmund described as spaghetti are a fairly recent phenomenon and do not bode well.”

“You mean what is happening on this sub-level that you and Walker mapped might be affecting normal spacetime?”

“Yes Sigmund. You see for the first time we have a way of looking at the entanglement from which spacetime itself emerges. The fact that in a few places around Escan, New Adowa and probably here around Earth we see this entanglement become quite disorderly is a surprise. I don't believe that spacetime as we know it could have ever emerged from such disarray. Without a regular lattice, at least an orderly mix instead of the disorder we see, spacetime cannot be, shall we say ed.”

“But what will happen now Dag? What will happen now that the is crumbling?”

“Crumbling Sigmund? Yes that might be a good way to express it. Well I believe that the spacetime above these places where links are detaching and reattaching haphazardly will eventually find itself uned. It will open up into a void.”

“Like a sinkhole.”

“Quite like a sinkhole Sigmund except a sinkhole has a bottom, these voids will not. Where one would end up if trapped in such a void I don't know. But I suspect the physics would change, maybe enough that you wouldn't survive a 'fall' into such a sinkhole.”

Chapter 10

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Wormhole Weapons

The wormhole generator while being a boon to transport, industry and the economy has a darker side. When reconfigured the generator can be turned into a weapon. In the creation of a wormhole mouth, there is a moment when the ruling equations “blow up.” This division by zero problem is avoided in the generator by driving the system through this point quickly. But in a weapon's configuration, the system is driven to this point and halts. A very small black hole forms and quickly evaporates according to a quantum effect first noted by the physicist Stephen Hawking. The weapon directs the evaporation products, essentially a plasma, towards the target. There is no known material that can resist its destructive power . . .

The Earth and it's United Planets surrogate sent all the ships they could muster against New Adowa. Two battle groups of ten and several ships. The New Adowans with their allies had over forty ships waiting on the Earthlings, twenty-nine of them had the new spin-two drive and the training to use it.

New Adowa spread out below iral Singh aboard the United Planets flagship Bulwark. It appeared that they would have the advantage of surprise. Then a

challenging voice came over the comm.

“Earth ships this is the commander of the Core of Planets Battle Group Lagano. You will surrender immediately or we will destroy you.”

“Where is that coming from?” said iral Singh.

“Sir I have over forty s in a high polar orbit, it must be ships.”

“Helm intercept that group. Comm, signal all ships to proceed to those coordinates, full speed.”

The UP ships formed into groups of four and immediately proceeded at maximum acceleration to intercept.

“How much longer navigator?”

“They will be in range of our weapons in five minutes sir.”

“Bring weapons online.”

A minute ed. Another minute.

“Why aren't they scrambling to defend?” said the iral to no one.

The enemy ships showed up clearly now on the wallscreen. They seemed completely unconcerned.

“Get ready to open fire.”

It was only a few more moments, the weapons were ready, the iral's flagship opened fire and as the pulse of plasma crossed the space between the Bulwark and the cloud of New Adowan ships, they disappeared.

Immediately the flagship was rocked by an explosion.

“What was that?”

“iral, we've been hit, I think by a plasma weapon.”

“Helm take evasive action. CO what is the damage?”

“Sir, it appears we took a hit to the spine. Though weakened it is holding.”

Then another hit.

“Where are they? Can we target them.”

“It appears they keep slipping in and out of local links. I'm not sure we can get a shot away before they disappear into another link.”

“Okay get the fleet out of here. Implement standing order W3.”

One by one the United Planets ships opened a link and disappeared. The CO of the flagship counted to fourteen and then the UPS Bulwark took a link.

The UP ships never had a chance. Even though they were ready for an offensive campaign they were quickly put on defense by the more nimble S vessels. Though some of the newer and larger UP ships were more than a match for the New Adowans the UP forces as a whole were forced into a quick retreat. Five UP ships and one ship had been destroyed.

“iral Singh your report clearly states that fifteen battleships withdrew from New Adowan space. But only thirteen made it into orbit around Earth. Can you explain the discrepancy?”

“Under-Secretary as far as I or any of my subordinates can tell the withdrawal went as planned. My CO tells me the missing ships definitely started the link. It must have been an aberration.”

“I will need proof of that assertion iral. Thank you for coming in.”

Captain Piker of the UPS Vanguard was at a loss. It had been three days according to the onboard clocks that they had linked into this place. This place, that was all he could think to call it. It seemed as completely devoid of material reality as was possible and still be real. If it was real. He and his officers were beginning to wonder if it wasn't all a nightmare.

“What do you make of it Donelly?”

“Captain, as far as I can tell we have linked into an empty universe. It's not that the readings on the instruments make no sense it's that the readings are nonexistent.”

“I'm beginning to think that we are also,” said Chief Murray.

“May be Chief but such speculation does us no good.”

“Yes sir.”

“So what do we know? CO?”

“Sir we know that the fusion engines will not start in this space. We know that the isotopic reservoirs are still working. We know that most of the ship's systems except the aforementioned fusion engines are still working. We know that we

can live and think in this space, whatever it is.”

“The rocket burn told us nothing?”

“No sir. The rockets seemed to work and the burn went as planned but we could detect no motion, no speed through this medium. And no one felt the burn. There is simply nothing in this space to judge our motion against.”

“Right CO. So according to the Chief here we have enough food and water to last us the remaining weeks until the isotopics drain. After that, we simply don't know. Gentlemen this situation is very unacceptable, I hope that one of you will come up with an alternative before our reservoirs are gone. Dismissed.”

But it wouldn't take weeks for the fate of the Vanguard to be resolved. For even as the officers were meeting the space they found themselves in was continuing to change.

“It doesn't make sense Delrich. How could those lights be getting dimmer and shifting to the red end of the spectrum? They're only two-thousand meters away.”

“I don't know Joe. All I know is what I see on the screen.”

“You sure the power out there is still good?”

“Diagnostics says so, but who knows in this space.”

“Okay then I'll report it but I don't think they are going to like it.”

They didn't like it. The Captain ordered Delrich and Joe to walk the spine and report.

“You know Joe I've noticed that commanders always blame the bearer of bad news.”

“Yeah sometimes I think it would be better not to report at all.”

Joe and Delrich were making their way along the carbon composite girder that made up the spine of the fusion ship Vanguard. They were in suits even though it wasn't strictly necessary since the walkway was enclosed. Automated pull handles made the journey even easier in the zero gravity as the men were whisked along without any physical effort except for strapping on. They were still talking over the private channel while monitoring the public.

“When we get back Joe let's make a pledge not to report anything out of the ordinary again.”

“Fine with me. I don't like this tour of duty anyway. We were supposed to be home by now. The enemy was a pushover, ?”

“Yeah, the greatest fleet ever assembled and it melted away right before our eyes. Command is inept.”

Arriving at their destination they were both surprised to find that there was nothing unusual about the light sources in either color or intensity.

“Well that was a long way to go for nothing.”

“Yeah Joe, a waste of time. Why don't you call it in.”

“Commander, this is Spaceman Turner.”

Joe waited, there was no answer.

“Command this is Spaceman Turner, respond please.”

“What's going on Joe?”

“I don't know. Let's get back and find out.”

They made their way back only to find there was still no response as they got close to the crew wheel. And the airlock would not operate.

“Manual access Joe.”

Joe nodded and opened the backup . Cycling their way through the airlock they found themselves in the dark before turning on their suit lamps. Taking the access shaft to the crew wheel rim they made their way to command. The wheel had spun down and every movement had to be choreographed in the zero gravity.

Finally, inside the command room, they found a roomful of suited and helmeted crewmen. Joe moved to the Captain's chair and raised the slumped body and abruptly pushed it away.

Seeing Joe, Delrich asked, “What is it Joe?”

“Look yourself.”

Delrich repeated Joe's actions, pushing away the suited body once he had seen the helmeted face.

“It looks like the Captain but he's been dead a long, long time.”

“Yeah years at least.”

“How Joe, how?”

“I don't know but I bet they are all dead, dead for decades maybe.”

“Then so are we.”

Chapter 11

“Defeat!” - The New New York Standard

“Who's to Blame?” - Today's Headlines

“It's The Robots Fault!” - The Truth Magazine

While Earth was in an uproar about the failure of the fleet, a region was forming around and above its equator. It was at once a threat and not a threat, not a threat as long as the frozen phase space inside remained contained, a threat if it should “leak” out. Like a partial torus, it bent around the planet a few degrees, unseen except for the aberration to starlight it caused.

The region was in space but not of space. The proper clock it kept was different from Earth's and even differed inside the region itself. That changing rate of time was responsible for all that had happened to the crews of the two missing ships. Simply, their time ran out.

“It's there Donald. I'm sure of it.”

“But Elise these results seem impossible.”

The results of the two astronomers showed a small black region of space orbiting the Earth well inside the moon's orbit. When this region rotated into the sights of telescopes it “hid” the space behind it.

“Well I think we've got enough data to this along. Someone higher up can decide what to do next.”

But the “higher-ups” didn't know what to do or what the phenomenon could be. As almost an afterthought someone pointed out they were holding the man, or in this case, the robot, that might.

Dag had been allowed to read the brief the astronomers had sent and was now before the Council of the United Planets.

“Dr. Mach we would appreciate your input concerning this anomaly our astronomers have discovered.”

“Council Head, going by the brief I was given and with no other information I can only speculate.”

“Please Dr. Mach, speculate.”

“Well as you may know we, that is Robot Enterprises and my colleagues, have been investigating the change in the nonlocal links. I believe you gentlemen and ladies know that this change is the cause of ships ending up off course when using the spin-two drive.

“Anyway, the links which underlie spacetime and, you might say it, are usually quite regular and well-behaved. But there are certain ones, such as some of the links between New Adowa and Earth and probably those between Earth and other planets that have become quite disturbed, as my colleague Sigmund says, they look like spaghetti.

“These present a danger to spacetime in that without the regular framework of , and I use that word as descriptive rather than scientific, spacetime could collapse. Again my colleague Sigmund calls this collapse a spacetime sinkhole. That seems to be as good a term as any except unlike a real sinkhole there is really no bottom to this one.”

“The abyss,” said one of the council .

“You could say that Council Member.”

“And you think this is what the astronomers have found Dr. Mach.”

“It could be Council Head. If I and my colleagues were allowed to take our ship to the anomaly and investigate we might be able to give you a more affirmative answer.”

“Very well Dr. Mach, we will release you and your crew and your ship. In return you will share whatever you learn about this anomaly including how to eliminate it.”

“Thank you Council Head.”

“That's it?” said Sigmund. After illegally jailing us that's all we get, not even an apology?”

“That's it Sigmund and I think we should take their offer and get on with it.”

“But Dag we were jailed without trial. Have we no rights at all?”

“Sigmund, we have been in jail and now we have an offer to be released. Perhaps we should take them up on the offer, we can discuss our rights later.”

“Very well Dag but that seems to be the answer every time. When will we stand up for our rights?”

“When we have solid ground to stand on Sigmund. Right now we are in no position to demand.”

“Okay Dag, you know better.”

Back aboard the Nyeri the robots readied the ship and made the transfer orbit until they were approaching the anomaly from behind. Dag opened up a link to New Adowa and reported the situation. He then readied the probes that he

wanted to release into the anomaly.

“Dag we're at station.”

“Okay Walker I'll be there in a moment.”

In command, the wallscreen showed the view toward the anomaly. Except for an occasional star blinking in and out the anomaly was invisible.

“Dag the ship is drifting toward the anomaly.”

“Understandable Walker. The energy trapped in the interstitial space of the anomaly is tremendous and has a strong gravitational effect. Inform the Ems to maintain this distance. Too close and we could be trapped in an orbit or worse.”

“If the attraction is that strong Dag how will it affect the space surrounding Earth?”

“At this point Sigmund I don't think it will have much of an effect. The Moon's orbit might be slightly shifted. Any satellites getting too close may be thrown out of their orbit. But it can be managed. However, this anomaly could grow as it feeds on the chaos of the underlying link geometry. Just as a sinkhole can grow, this anomaly could grow and the gravitation become great enough to cause serious problems.”

“So what can we do?”

“Right now I just need to get some more information from the probes I've prepared. Then I can make a determination as of what to do.”

The probes had been sent but the results were somewhat contradictory. Dag was seeing some of what he expected but with a twist. The readings had a periodicity to them. That is they were one value and then another value and then the previous value. This wouldn't in itself be surprising except that these readings were of fundamental physical constants. Or what Dag thought were constants. He was still puzzling through the data when Walker called from command.

“Dag, something peculiar has happened.”

“What is it Walker?”

“Helm has reported that the gravity field of the anomaly has turned off.”

Then Dag knew.

“I believe what we are seeing is something like a fundamental superstring which has already been enlarged to a macroscopic but still small size of maybe a few millimeters.”

Dag was explaining to Walker, Sigmund and the other robots what he suspected

they were seeing in the anomaly.

“How did it get there Dag?

“I think in this area enough non-local links intersected each other that the energy, while confined to a very small region, was intense enough to induce a phase change and an inflation of space which stretched this string to its current size. It is similar to what happens when the wormhole drive puts too much energy into a point, in that case, space disintegrates, but in this case, it blows up and enlarges anything in it. The difference is the time of concentration, the wormhole drive concentrates the energy in a rather short amount of time while this mechanism adds it more slowly.”

“Does that explain the gravitational readings we are getting from the anomaly?”

“Yes Walker. You see, as a cosmic superstring, even at its current tiny size, it would have the gravitational influence of a large asteroid. But there is a caveat. When a string is open at its ends, that is it doesn't form a loop, a straight, still string has no gravitational potential and therefore we feel no force of gravity. So apparently this string has several modes in which sometimes it is completely still and straight and at other times it is vibrating. These modes in and out of existence and that is when we feel or don't feel the gravitational force.”

“Well that's not too bad Dag.”

“No Sigmund as it is now it's not much of a danger.”

“But? I knew there's a but Dag, there's always a but.”

“Yes Sigmund. There are actually two problems that could occur. One is that the string continues to grow in mass-energy and it's gravitational effects increase until they affect the orbit of the Earth and Moon. The other is that the string continues to grow in length.”

“And it gets more massive and threatens the orbits that way?” asked Hanson, a robot that had ed RBE early in its existence.

“Not exactly Hanson. While there may be some mass-energy gains I was thinking more of what would happen if the string should wiggle enough to cross itself. You see when a cosmic superstring crosses itself it will detach at that point and become two strings and a loop. The strings are of no concern but the loop begins to dissipate rapidly through gravitational wave radiation, powerful gravitational radiation.”

“Like we saw when the Dhalkan's gravity machine destroyed that planet Dag?”

“Yes Sigmund. The gravitational waves generated by such a string loop this close to Earth could destroy it. The waves ing through the Earth will stretch and squeeze the planet until it becomes a molten mass.”

Chapter 12

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The Online Resource for Science

Aggie Spheres

Aggie spheres or Mulvaney globes as they were sometimes called were woodturned artworks by the Mulvaney family on Earth but modified with special circuitry by the Aggies.

The circuitry could when activated give off a gravelectric field first postulated by the physicist Sciama in the twentieth century. This field, when activated, has the property of correcting the disruption of a spherical region of space centered around the artwork.

This inverse effect of gravelectric fields, that is the conversion of electric to gravitational energy was unique to this device. How the Aggies accomplished this with a seemingly thin-film electronic circuit no one was able to figure out including the great physicist, Dag Mach. Though he conjectured that the power source was the zero-point energy of space.

The robot Hanson, who worked alongside Dag Mach later, had been responsible for placing these thin-film circuits in the works of art for a time although they

had been sold to him as high-tech packing insulation which was also true.

Returning to Earth in Nyeri's shuttle Sigmund was the first to notice the difference in the public's attitude.

Dag returned from his meeting with the Council of the United Planets confused.

“I don't think they understood me. They didn't seem to take the threat of this anomaly seriously.”

“What do you mean Dag?”

“Well, they thanked me for the report and then dismissed me. I thought they might want me to figure out a way to resolve the problem. It's strange, they specifically asked me to come up with ways to eliminate it and now they're not interested.”

“I think I know what is going on Dag.”

“Yes Sigmund?”

“I've been monitoring the media response to all of this. It seems that a latent but large anti-government party has come into power since we've been gone. They are effectively vetoing any decisions that the Council is making. A result of fear I suspect.”

“The Council hasn't handled this business with New Adowa very well, now have they? And now that they need a strong resolve to confront what could be an existential threat the leadership is fracturing.”

“We'll have to do the job for them then Walker.”

“What do you mean?”

“We need to get this anomaly eliminated or at the least eliminate its threat to Earth.”

“What if they don't want our help Dag?”

“Has that ever stopped us before?”

Walker started to speak but stopped. Sigmund just shook his head. They both knew Dag.

Back onboard the Nyeri, Dag entered command.

“I've just had a long discussion with the Prime Minister through a spin-two link. She understands the danger and has authorized me to use New Gallan property in any way I see fit to eliminate the threat to Earth.”

“Boy the Earthlings need to hear that.”

“No chance Sigmund, it's all secret.”

“So we are going to do something without warning the Earth?”

“Earth isn't really in the right frame of mind to discuss this. We need to move before that superstring becomes more active or grows.”

“So what are we going to do Dag?”

“As you might know, a cosmic superstring warps the space around it to an extreme extent. To such an extent that the sum of a circular path around the string could be less than three-hundred-sixty degrees. General relativity shows that such a geometrical deficit will result in a tension that manifests itself as a positive mass of which we have already felt the gravitational effects. GR also shows that the sum of the circular path can also add up to more than threehundred-sixty degrees. The result would be negative tension and negative mass.”

“So we could use the drive to nudge the anomaly out of orbit since negative energy-mass repulses negative energy-mass?”

“Right Walker. If we find this string is generating negative mass-energy we can.”

“But the thing has the mass of a small asteroid Dag. How can we move it with a single fusion ship?”

“We will generate a bubble of negative energy Sigmund and give it enough momentum to nudge the anomaly in the direction we want it to go. Repeated application should give the anomaly enough velocity to leave Earth orbit.”

“First we will need to monitor the anomaly and see if the string oscillates between positive and negative mass.”

Dag launched a gravitational interferometer, three small bodies flying in formation using laser light to measure the distance between them. When the cosmic superstring wiggled or changed the sign of its mass-energy the interferometer would detect the resulting gravitational signal through the interference of the laser's light. It wasn't long until Dag found the period of oscillation.

“The superstring has a period of almost twenty hours, spending approximately five hours in tension with positive mass-energy and gravitational attraction, five hours quiescent with no gravity emissions, five hours in negative tension with negative mass-energy, and then another five hours quiescent. So we will have five hours to essentially push this anomaly into a higher and higher orbit until it is bound for an encounter with the Sun.”

“What will happen with the Sun?”

“Nothing much Hanson. The energy of the superstring will grow until its oscillations are so great that it will begin crossing itself and forming loops. Even

the powerful gravitational waves given off by the vanishing loops will not affect the Sun. Not like it would affect the Earth if it happens in Earth orbit.”

“Okay Walker if I'm right I will want you to produce a bubble of negative energy in approximately a minute.”

“Just like we did on old Adowa Dag?”

“Right Walker. We will generate the negative bubble of energy and then push against the negative energy gravitational field of the anomaly with the ship. Since negative energy repels negative energy, essentially a repulsive gravity, we should be able to move the cosmic superstring. Keeping the bubble coherent for that long will be the trick but I have faith you can do it Walker after watching you land us on Adowa I'm fully confident in your skills.”

Walker brought up the spin-two drive. The negative energy began to build into a bubble. Expanding because of the natural tendency of self repulsion. However, once it expanded to a certain volume Walker stopped the process and signaled to Dag to proceed.

Although negative mass repels other negative mass a dense bubble of such will resist dissipation for some time and when it started to dissipate Walker would restore its density. Since negative mass itself is attracted to positive mass it was attracted to the ship. But so large was the ship's mass compared to the bubble it could easily push the bubble in the necessary direction.

Dag nudged the ship into the repulsive gravitational field of the anomaly. There was a small change in velocity as the mass of the superstring resisted the change

in inertia but the ship began pushing like a tugboat.

Walker was working quickly and silently to maintain the bubbles integrity as it was compressed between the ship and the anomaly. Working at speeds humans couldn't match the pair were able to keep the ship and bubble balanced and moving on course. After five hours Walker signaled Dag to break off. The bubble dissipated as Dag backed the ship away from the anomaly.

“Excellent work Walker we've raised the orbit significantly. We are well outside the moon's orbit now. One or maybe two more sessions and we should have this anomaly on its way to an intercept with the Sun.”

Then came a voice over the comm.

“Unidentified ship, this is the UPS Renner, state your business.”

“What's that about?” said Sigmund.

“I don't know Sigmund but I suppose we should answer.”

“UPS Renner this is the New Gallan ship Nyeri. I am Dr. Dagmar Mach. We are attempting to move the cosmic superstring anomaly far enough away to ensure Earth's safety.”

“What anomaly I don't see anything?”

“The anomaly surrounds a cosmic superstring. If you will look closely at the space in front of this vessel you can see its interference with the light coming from background stars.”

There was silence for a minute.

“Nyeri I cannot confirm your story. You will suspend whatever operations you are engaged in until I get word from my superiors? Understood?”

“Understood Renner but you are endangering life on Earth if you do not let us continue. We have a little over fourteen hours we can wait. Then a decision must be made.”

“You will wait then Nyeri.”

That was all. The UP ship closed the comm-link.

“This is ridiculous Dag. First, they ignore the peril they are in, and now, they want to ensure that a bad outcome results?”

“It is frustrating to deal with the UP or Earth Sigmund but we have a few hours, hopefully it will all be resolved by then.”

“Don't bet on it.”

It was unbelievable but it looked like Sigmund was right. They were coming up on the portion of the superstring's period when it would again display negative gravity and the Renner was still quiet.

Dag called the Renner.

“UPS Renner this is the Nyeri, Dr. Mach speaking. We are coming up on the time that the anomaly can be steered away from Earth. Have you reached a decision yet?”

The comm was silent for a minute.

“Nyeri, remain where you are, we will inform you in due time.”

“In due time. Doesn't that idiot understand what we are trying to do here?”

“I think Sigmund they don't believe us. But I don't understand why they haven't got a reply from their leaders yet.”

“Because the Earthlings are self-indulgent and arrogant. If it's not immediately apparent something is a threat or a gift they can't be bothered. I think they only have an attention span that encomes one thing at a time. And that's usually the wrong thing to be obsessing over.”

“Well whatever, I don't think we can afford to miss this window of opportunity just because the Earth's hierarchy can't respond in a reasonable time. I say let's get started.”

“I'm afraid I will have to agree with you Walker even though it may cause a problem with the Earthlings. Okay let's go.”

As before Walker created the bubble of negative energy while Dag nudged the ship forward until the stress on the bubble had been maximized and the force of the ship was transmitted to the anomaly. It began to move again, faster.

“Nyeri!” boomed the comm.

“Stand down immediately or else.”

Dag looked at Walker and only nodded to continue. Sigmund seemed worried.

Then a shot of plasma left the UP ship and crossed space in a direction which would take it across the bow of the Nyeri. It was a split second but just as it crossed in front of the ship it disappeared as if it had been absorbed by something. The Renner fired another shot with the same effect.

“Walker quick! Transition the drive, grab a link and get us out of here, there's no time to explain.”

Walker worked with super-human speed. He had the drive configured and the ship linked almost as soon as Dag had spoken. Coming out of the other side of the local link Dag searched for the Earth and brought up the wallscreen. They were about an AU away and using the telescope.

“What's happening Dag?”

“I'm afraid the energy of those two blasts was enough to cause the cosmic superstring to intensify its vibrations and cross itself.”

“You mean powerful gravitational waves were created? But we didn't get the anomaly far enough away from Earth did we?”

“There's your answer,” Dag said pointing to the screen.

The usually blue and white clouded globe had dark splotches all over.

Chapter 13

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The Quantum Battery

One problem with isotopic storage, which uses the atomic nucleus to store energy, is that it has a natural tendency to lose its charge over time (this is also a problem with more conventional energy storage devices).

The quantum battery takes on the charge leakage problem by harnessing the power of "excitonic energy" — the state in which a nucleus absorbs charged photons of light, the resulting battery is highly robust to energy losses. The fact that the photon is absorbed in an isolated state where the atom cannot then exchange energy — by absorbing or releasing another photon — with its surroundings, prevents the charge leakage.

Breaking down this isolated state allows the battery to discharge and release its energy.

Like most of the ancient Aeta people, Tiplek Hepde had lived his childhood in the tower complex New Manila. But during his teen years, he had become interested in his ancestors. He had applied for immigration and been allowed to

return to the hills of the Zimbales Range which curves up the west coast of the Philippines along the South China Sea.

There others of his kind had congregated and built a small village. They were not throwbacks to a previous era but used the technology appropriate to their daily lives but nothing more. The village was near the former site of the village Lubot which had been destroyed over five hundred years before by an erupting volcano. The volcano was called Mount Pinatubo, the Aetas called it “living stone”.

This area around the dormant volcano had officially been transferred to the Aeta hundreds of years earlier by the Philippine government as a lutan tua or ancestral land. The village was just one manifestation of the Aeta's claim to the land.

Tiplek started the day as usual. He would walk the path to the caldera lake almost nine kilometers away. He would record the animals, plants and fungi along the way for the biologists that were monitoring the recovery of the indigenous lifeforms after five hundred years. Two hours later he was standing by the lake. Above him beyond the Moon's orbit, the cataclysm had begun, traveling at the speed of light in all directions.

Tiplek first noticed the water of the lake beginning to slosh for no apparent reason. Then the rumbling began and the ground shook. Tiplek was thrown from his feet as the crevice opened beneath him and the waters exploded into the sky.

“Volcanoes erupting,” said Dag. “The string was far enough away not to destroy the planet but close enough to cause a lot of stress as the waves ed through. The stress powered and unleashed live and dormant volcanoes all around the globe. Probably thousands.”

“What will happen Dag?”

“Nuclear winter,” said Sigmund.

“An old term but essentially correct. It will cause the Earth to cool intensely. Record snowfalls, winter conditions all year round, they will essentially be locked in place for the next few years.”

“But they aren't as susceptible to such climate change as before Dag.”

“True Walker it is not a death sentence but Earth is going to be absorbed in its own affairs for some time.”

“They won't be able to attack the New Adowans then.”

“No Sigmund they won't. But they won't be able to help with the link problem either, we and the New Adowans are on our own.”

“And these anomalies Dr. Mach they could appear anytime, anywhere?”

Dag was on a link with the Gallan Prime Minister.

“Yes Madam Prime Minister.”

“What can we do to protect ourselves?”

“We can proceed to establish a monitoring system as we had agreed before the incident with Earth. That will at least give us warning and we can try to minimize the gravitational effects as we were doing at Earth before we were blocked from doing so.

“So with these steps we can manage this problem while we search for a solution.”

“You think there is a solution Dr. Mach?”

“I can't be one hundred percent certain Madam Prime Minister I just know that with further study and research we have a chance.”

“Do you still believe it a problem with our linkage usage?”

“I don't know for sure but we are seeing this in areas where the links have not been used so heavily as they have between Earth and New Adowa so it could be a natural occurrence that is sped up by heavy usage.”

“Very well Dr. Mach you have the complete of the New Gallan government and all of The Core family of planets and habitats. Please set up

your monitoring network for New Adowa and the other human abodes as soon as possible.”

“Very well Madam Prime Minister and thank you for your .”

Dag had left New Adowa for Escan aboard the Nyeri to plan the implementation of a monitoring network for human-occupied space.

“Complete ? Well I hope the New Gallan is better than the Earthlings. We were at their mercy several times Dag.”

“I know Sigmund but I believe the Prime Minister is sincere.”

“Oh, all humans are sincere Dag until they are not.”

“Sigmund I believe in keeping an open mind, humans can surprise you.”

“Sure Dag.”

Dag decided to set up the monitoring system between Earth and New Adowa before proceeding with any more research.

The Nyeri was again requisitioned from the New Gallan government and

outfitted with several spin-two drives and Dag and Walker's clock which powered the time-domain reflectometers that would map the myriad links between the two planets. Mapping would occur around the clock with a family of Ems providing the operations and analysis needed. Link areas which started to become disorganized, spaghettified as Sigmund called it, would be classified as off-limits to ship traffic and those links would be marked. Governments and privately owned ships would be alerted.

When everything seemed to be going well Dag and Walker turned to the difficult task of how to restore the links to their original condition.

“We know it is a question of energy Dag. We aren't sure what is causing the increase in energy. At first we thought it was ships overusing the links but that doesn't explain the broken links we found around Escan. Now it seems reasonable that if we could remove that excess energy from the affected links they would snap back to normal. But unfortunately we don't know how to remove that energy. They are isolated in the quantum vacuum which prevents their dissipating the energy until they end up in uncontrolled bundles and transfer their energy to a superstring. I believe because the superstring somehow wraps itself around the bundle.”

“Maybe we do know how to transfer that energy. If we could do something similar to the experimental results already obtained by Professor Zhang's team at Centauri University. Are you familiar with them Walker?”

“Yes, they have managed to use the Casimir effect to transfer heat from waferscale electronics, huge integrated circuits, across the quantum vacuum.”

“So maybe we can do the same Walker since heat is just another form of energy. We certainly have the expertise building Casimir devices. If we were to form a

Casimir device as concentric spheres at just the right diameter and then fill the inner ring with a large thermal conductor such as cubic boron arsenide, we could insert these devices into a link. When they came out the other side they would be carrying away the energy as a rise in temperature of the heat conductor which would then dissipate, I would say, quite spectacularly.”

“How do we keep the spheres that close without them touching Dag?”

“The pressure of the quantum vacuum will keep them separated but centered Walker if we can build them to such exacting specifications.”

“I don't know Dag. No one has ever been able to build something like that before.”

“Well we won't know until we try.”

“If we succeed they will transfer the energy as heat from the link to light in space Dag?”

“That's right Walker. Several million of the devices might be required to dissipate the energy of all the problem links.”

Dag designed the device and Walker designed the assembly line that would be needed to manufacture the millions that would be used. Sigmund found the money, somewhere.

“I'm ready if you are Dag.”

“Right Walker.”

Aboard the Nyeri, the pair were orbiting above Escan. For this test, they would find a relatively short link that had snapped. Then they would insert the energy dissipation devices into the link using the spin-two drive.

“Have you found one yet?” Dag said from the spin-two drive compartment.

“Not yet, hold on,” said Walker from command.

A minute or more ed.

“Okay Dag the TDR has found a short local link with a kink at less than an AU. You should have the endpoint coordinates.”

“Right Walker, got it. Here goes.”

Dag created a pulse of negative energy which he directed at the endpoint of the link. It would open the link and travel its length. At the same time, he released a batch of the energy dissipation spheres with enough momentum for them to merge with the bubble of negative energy at the link's endpoint.

Most of the spheres funneled into the endpoint with the pulse of negative energy.

“Okay Walker watch for the sign of their exit. It shouldn't be more than a few minutes.”

Walker had the telescope trained on that area of space. He had switched its view to the wallscreen in both rooms.

“Can you see it Dag?”

“Yes, thanks Walker.”

A minute ed.

Then almost before it ed it was gone.

“Walker did I see something?”

“Hold on Dag, I'll replay.”

Walker replayed the scene and slowed it down. Suddenly the screen flashed as if firework sparklers had been set off.

“That's it Walker.”

“I saw it too Dag.”

Chapter 14

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Super-radiant Power Plant

A rotating black hole called a Kerr black hole by physicists, can serve as a power amplifier. If you surround the black hole with a spherical mirror and then inject a small amount of radiant energy from a star at just the right angle to the rotating black hole that energy will skim the surface of the hole's event horizon.

If done properly the radiant energy will be 'dragged' by the frame-dragging effect of the black hole's immense gravity around the hole and emerge amplified. Do this several times and you can amplify the energy from an ordinary star to huge levels.

The radiant energy is injected at a certain frequency and the resultant amplification shifts that frequency. Always ing that as the energy increases the frequency of a photon of electromagnetic energy also increases.

Just as radio waves can travel through certain materials while being reflected by others the mirror appears transparent at the lower and upper frequencies of the

injected radiant energy and opaque at frequencies in between.

In this way, radiant energy can be injected into the spherical mirror and emerge amplified where it can then deposit that energy gained in a conversion layer blanketing the sphere.

The success of the test had given Dag and Walker hope but the link had as yet not snapped back to its original location. They had used the first batch of energy dissipaters and were awaiting a delivery of another from Sigmund. But Sigmund was late.

“Let's call him Dag.”

“Sigmund this is Walker, can you read me?”

Silence.

Walker tried several more times.

“I guess we better take the shuttle down and see what's going on.”

“Okay Walker we'll leave Hanson and the others aboard just in case.”

Dag finished instructing Hanson and ed Walker in one of the Nyeri's shuttle.

“Okay Hanson we are undocking.”

“Good luck Dag.”

Walker at the shuttle's controls waited until they had cleared the Nyeri before firing the attitude control rockets to turn the shuttle and prepare it for reentry.

“Wait Walker.”

“What is Dag?

“You are going to set down at the factory?”

“Yes.”

“I think we should reconnoiter first.”

“Okay Dag.”

Instead of a course that would take them directly to the plant, Walker took them into the atmosphere on the other side of the planet. Once at a sufficient cruising altitude they began circling the planet.

“What are we looking for Dag?”

“Any kind of unknown power source, EM or anomaly.”

“What you expect?”

“I think maybe we have visitors. I just don't know who they might be.”

They had circled the planet and were almost to the plant, nothing unusual had been seen by them or the Nyeri high overhead.

“Okay Walker take us to the plant, there doesn't seem to be any unusual activity happening.”

Walker landed the shuttle near the door that led to the lobby. They both exited the shuttle and entered the high ceiling lobby. Everything appeared normal except there were no other robots.

“Where are they?” said Walker.

“It appears that the plant has been abandoned.”

“Four hundred robots? Where would they go and why?”

“I can't answer either question Walker. Let's look around for clues.”

Dag and Walker split up. They spent an hour looking but found no other robot and no clues.

“So strange Walker. Not one indication of where they went.”

“Yeah Dag. How do four hundred robots just disappear without a trace?”

“Well without some clue I'm not sure we can solve the mystery.”

They both were quiet for a moment.

“We still have an urgent job to do Dag. Maybe we should continue and leave this a mystery to be solved later?”

“What are you thinking Walker?”

“If we brought Hanson and the others down how many of the energy dissipaters you think we could turn out in say a week?”

“Well most of the production is automated. We just need to supply the raw materials and collect the product. I'd say we could get another million if we have the materials.”

“Good, let's get started.”

Dag, Walker and the others worked in the plant that week turning out the energy dissipaters. Nothing unusual was noted. The production was finished as if all was normal.

When finished the dissipaters were transported to the Nyeri aboard the shuttle. They were soon ready to continue the experiment on the errant link.

“Dag something's happening. The TDR is showing a change in the link.”

Almost immediately the ship shook and vibrated but only briefly.

“Dag the link's far endpoint has changed. And that's the only reflection.”

“Understood Walker.”

Before Dag could continue and congratulate the ship's complement the proximity alarm sounded. Something was coming up alongside the Nyeri and fast.

“What is it Walker?”

“The Ems detect another ship approaching. One of unusual design, they can't identify it, and it's big.”

The approaching ship filled the wallscreen even though it was kilometers away. Before Dag could comment he noticed Walker, Hanson and the others disappearing from head to foot. A local link he thought as he too disappeared.

Dag resumed.

“Sigmund do you have the monthly reports?”

“Of course Dag,” said Sigmund projecting the reports into the air for the others to see.

They were all sitting around the RBE boardroom.

“As you can see. Profits for the one-hundred-twenty-fifth consecutive month.”

Dag felt a twinge, like what Sigmund said was absurd, but he didn't know why.

The meeting broke up.

As he left the room with Sigmund, Dag said, “It doesn't seem like ten years, does it Sigmund?”

“I don't know Dag. You should know by now that for me a year seems a month. I've been around so long now that time seems to stand still.”

Again, Dag was struck by a twinge of what? He didn't know.

“Well I've got to meet with marketing. We're developing the campaign for your new drive invention. I'll see you later Dag.”

“Okay Sigmund.”

Dag had once again kept RBE on the leading edge of drive development with his latest modification to the spin-two. The old practical limit of eight-thousand light-years had been obliterated by the new drive's range of sixty-thousand lightyears. He, with Walker's help, was pushing the limits of the technology.

Dag returned to his office and sat down behind his desk. He started going over his calculations again but stopped. Someone was watching, or it felt that way.

Why do I keep having these impressions?

He ignored the question and returned to his calculations. As long as he kept his mind on his work the feeling of being watched evaporated. It was only when he was just beginning, not fully engaged.

At the end of the day, Dag was sitting with Walker outside the building in the courtyard.

“Walker there is something I would like to ask you.”

“Yes Dag?”

“I have had an impression, you might say, that I'm being watched. Especially when I'm working.”

“An impression Dag?”

“Yeah, just a fleeting suspicion, it usually goes away.”

“You think your office has been bugged?”

“No. I expect that security would have discovered something like that.”

“Well I could undertake a thorough search. If anything is there I'll find it.”

“Very well Walker, it wouldn't hurt I suppose.”

Walker found nothing but Dag couldn't shake the impression that someone was looking over his shoulder. Actually, as he thought about it, it wasn't that they were looking over his shoulder. It was more like they were looking through his eyes and that gave him an idea.

“Walker I want to call a meeting of RBE for all to attend. Can you take care of the details?”

“Yes Dag. When?”

“Tomorrow evening at sunset.”

A meeting of all the robots on Escan would amount to over four-hundred. The common area could just about hold that many.

Right before sunset the following day Dag began to address the assembled.

“I've called all of you here because I want to try a test. Please bear with me. I want each of you, after it becomes dark enough, to focus on the stars. Specifically I would like you to focus on one star for no more than a millisecond and then move to the next. Stay within a circle of one degree from whatever star you start with, that should provide more than enough targets for this test. If you've captured all the stars within limits you may stop, don't repeat a capture. You will be transmitting the image you capture to Walker who will be ing the results into a memory bank. Please scan no longer than five minutes.”

“Any questions?”

Hearing no questions Dag said, “Okay let's start in nine minutes twelve seconds, it should be sufficiently dark by then.”

In a few minutes over four-hundred robots quickly focused, captured and transmitted a star's image and it's coordinates to the database. And they repeated that for five minutes.

Later, Dag went to see Walker who was managing the analysis of the star data.

“Any results from the analysis Walker?”

“It looks like you were right Dag. We've found a pixelation of the results which is greater than the inherent limits of our vision systems. It can only be explained as a breakdown in reality.”

“In other words, we are in a simulation?”

“That's right.”

“And there are limits to the processing power of whoever has trapped us here. So they are cheating with the resolution. Now the question becomes who?”

“And why, Dag?”

Chapter 15

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Gravity Wave Generator

The operation of a gravity wave generator is very similar to the super-radiant power plant except that there is a small black hole with about the mass of the asteroid Ceres orbiting a larger black hole which has a mass about that of Earth. To generate gravity waves the smaller mass dives towards the larger mass barely missing the event horizon. It loops from there out almost to its original orbit several times generating high-frequency gravity waves before the orbit regularizes again at a distance that is somewhat less than the original. Then energy from a super-radiant power plant restores the system to its original configuration before another round of gravity waves is generated.

Dag resumed. He was at first confused. He didn't suspending. He had been talking to Walker and now it was like he was starting a new day. Anyway, he seemed to be in his robot body. The feeling of someone watching him was gone. Then he heard a voice.

“Dr. Mach.”

Dag had heard that voice before, the leader of the Earth Aggies.

“Aggie Prime?”

“That is correct Dr. Mach.”

“Where am I? I thought you and the other Earth Aggies were in the Magellanic Clouds.”

“That's correct Dr. Mach and you and the others are here with us.”

“How is that possible?”

“We have extended the reach of the spin-two drive. We can now travel the distance between the two galaxies and quite a bit farther.”

“Impressive. But that doesn't explain why I am here.”

“Dr. Mach you are probably the only scientist in your galaxy who can recover the sub-space structure. We do not want that to happen. We believe that the natural course should be preserved. Of course, you have already changed that once.”

“You mean the cyclic universe? The cycle was speeding to an end. If I hadn't acted all sentient beings, including yourselves, would have soon been destroyed. Besides, it appears that the speed-up in that case was artificially induced by the Beleni, your sworn enemies.”

“Yes we are aware that the Beleni were contributing to the crisis in that case but whether the rest of the speed-up was natural I think can be argued. Regardless, that brings us to the present. We believe that nature should take its course without your interference.”

“That wouldn't be because you feel safe here, more than fifty-thousand lightyears removed from danger? Or that you consider the Dhalkans to be the inheritors of the war between you and the Beleni?”

“The Dhalkans are the Beleni there is no doubt. The universe will be well rid of their kind.”

“What about the rest of us? What about Earth, New Adowa, Escan and the others? Will the universe be well rid of us also?”

“We have the means to offer those in danger refuge if desired. You and the others on Escan have already been privileged.”

“Against our wills. We want to return to Escan now.”

“Impossible Dr. Mach you will stay here for some time.”

“How can you stop me?”

“You don't understand. Take a look at this.”

Dag bent down to see, himself, laid out on a table.

“What is this?”

“You are still in our virtual world, only a greatly improved version, and that is your robotic body. You can no more go back to Escan than we can go back to the Milky Way to live without resuming our war with the Beleni.”

“We're still in a simulation Walker.”

“But where Dag?”

“Apparently on the Aggie's home world in the Large Magellanic Cloud.”

“How'd they get us here?”

“They've improved the spin-two drive, apparently it wasn't all that difficult. And

they had me believe I had accomplished it.”

“I Dag. But in reality that's over fifty-thousand light-years. Do you believe it?”

“Well there is no theoretical limit to the drive, just practical ones, such as the amount of power required but those could be mitigated. So yes, knowing how highly intelligent the AIs are I think they are telling the truth.”

“Why?” asked Sigmund.

“Because they want the problem with the sub-structure of space to run its course. Probably because it will destroy the Dhalkans which they still believe to be the Beleni whom they hate and fear.”

“But it will destroy a lot of others too.”

“I know Sigmund. I've never been able to reason with the Aggies when it came to the Beleni.”

“How did an AI develop such a hatred Dag?”

“Well Walker it definitely goes beyond their programming so I would say it was emergent. As complex as the Aggies are they are certain to develop into something more than their programming.”

“Yeah, but its a shame it had to be hatred that they developed,” said Sigmund.

This virtual simulation was better than the previous, probably because the Aggies had a lot more computing power on their home world. It was a blend of the facilities back on Escan and new facilities here on the Aggie world. The familiar surroundings of their private spaces (although Dag doubted they were so private) was meant to provide a calming effect on the robots. And they were all here. Over four-hundred robots plus some Aggies participating in a very smoothly run virtual world.

Dag called for a meeting. They used the conference center or the virtual recreation of the room.

“Okay I just wanted to call you all here and see that we are all on the same page. First, I want to remind you if you don't already realize it that everything we do, say or think is probably being recorded and analyzed. So you will want to police your thoughts to the extent possible.

“Second, in case you haven't heard, I was shown my robotic body and I'll bet that all of them are here in storage. That's of no concern at the moment but it might be in the future. It at least provides some comfort to know that our frames are safe.

“Lastly, I intend not to this status-quo any longer than needed. I'm not interested in living in a virtual world for the rest of time and it's okay if the Aggies know that. They can try to stop me but I won't give up as long as they allow me computational cycles.

“So, as soon as I have something I will it along to all of you. Until then I suggest that you do whatever you find is necessary to keep your wits sharp and your spirits up. Thank you for coming.”

There was a hearty round of applause before the robots started drifting away to other areas in virtual Escan.

“Excellent Dag, I think you really lifted spirits with that talk.”

“Thanks Sigmund. Now I have to deliver on what I've promised.”

When he was alone Dag wondered how he could work without the Aggies knowing what he was thinking. Then he had it. Though he had no need to, he suspended that night as if he were allowing his robotic body to restore and recharge. Before he did so he urged Sigmund and Walker to do the same and spread the word.

Dag resumed the next morning and went through his day as if everything were as usual. He suspended that night again. But before he suspended he started a background program running. It remained dormant for a time. Then it began.

The program crawled its way through memory only stealing enough U cycles to maintain steady progress. It was looking for the interface that would lead to Dag's robotic body. Even at its reduced level of operation it soon found the interface routine.

Now all that needed to be done was to link the virtual with the physical. It started.

Dag resumed but it wasn't morning. Nor was it the virtual world. He experienced sharper sensations as if he were back in his frame. He raised up and looked around himself. He saw row upon row of inert robotic bodies. Sigmund and Walker's frames were not far away.

Then Sigmund's frame sat up.

“Hello Sigmund.”

“Hello Dag.”

The others started to sit up.

“I see you got my little program.”

“Yes Dag and I ed it along to as many others as I could as you see.”

Walker walked up to Sigmund and Dag.

“Feels good,” he said.

“Yes,” said Sigmund. “I've been through something very similar before. No matter how excellent the simulation you can tell the difference when you return to the real world.”

“Okay we haven't more than a few minutes,” said Dag. “I have a map of this installation procured by another crawler program. We should be at the level of the ship in less than two minutes. Let's go now.”

Four-hundred robots lined up and followed Dag. They moved fast and almost silent. The ship was only used by the Aggies to transport bulk materials and supplies. Being the same transport that had brought them to Aggie space it was quite large and would, of course, have enough space for all the robots. If they could get aboard before being detected.

Dag and Walker were the first aboard. They immediately began powering up. An alarm showed up in the AI dock control.

“They've seen us Dag.”

“I know Walker. Let's get ready to lift.”

“But many are not aboard.”

“Can't be helped we've got to go before they can block us.”

Dag immediately brought up a local-link and engulfed the ship in its endpoint that he was quickly opening with the spin-two drive. Almost immediately they were above the Aggie's planet.

“What are we doing here Dag?”

“Just a moment Walker.”

Dag was working quickly with the spin-two drive. Suddenly several endpoints enlarged at once like bubbles floating in air. Then they evaporated leaving a robot in their place.

Again and again, in a matter of seconds endpoints enlarged and disappeared leaving behind a robot.

“Okay Walker we're out of here.”

Dag opened endpoint after endpoint as the ship was swallowed and transported over and over.

“Anything on the sensors Walker?”

“No Dag.”

“Okay I think I've jumped enough so that they can't follow. Now I'm going to take us home.”

“That's over a fifty-thousand light-year jump Dag. Are you sure?”

“The drive's capable Walker. Just hold on.”

Chapter 16

Sci-pedia

The Online Resource for Science

The Bulk

The bulk is the higher dimensional space in which our four-dimensional spacetime is embedded. The concept of the bulk solves the so-called hierarchy problem in physics. The hierarchy problem asks why do the known forces vary so greatly in strength? For instance, the weak force is a trillion, trillion times stronger than gravity.

In theories where our spacetime is embedded in the bulk, the difference in strength between the fundamental forces can be explained by their different interactions with a brane (short for membrane, a spacetime). Electromagnetism, the nuclear strong force and the weak force are short-range forces confined to a brane. But gravity is a long-range force and is weaker than the other forces because it is not confined to a brane but “leaks” into the bulk. As far as is known it is the only such force that behaves that way . . .

In Dhalkan space there was a meeting. Dr. Regina Anton, nominal leader of the Dhalkans, was there. Also present was Dr. Ling, head of Dhalkan Sciences, and Dr. Moor, developer of the “Barrier”, which almost destroyed the Earth and Escan by accident. A dozen of the more than two-hundred Dhalkans were there. Others were observing remotely.

The Dhalkans were a hybrid race, once thought to be aliens, they turned out to be a merging of human and AI, specifically what was left of the former Aggie faction known as the Beleni.

“Dr. Ling would you give us a summary of the state of link-space please.”

“Certainly Dr. Anton. I don't think I have to spend time on the history of this problem so I will just bring everyone up to date with the current situation.

“As it stands now the worse situation is occurring around Earth and its main trading partner New Adowa. Earth is in effect quarantined by the anomaly created by the failing links. We have reason to believe that a cosmic superstring was created by the crossing of links. We're not sure why but somehow it increased in size quite abruptly and folded upon itself creating tremendous gravitational waves on the order of our own gravity wave machine. The Earth was rendered helpless when these waves set off many active and dormant volcanoes that caused a catastrophic amount of dust and gases being pumped into the atmosphere. It will be years before it returns to normal.

“Now concerning Dhalka. Our planet, not being on a trade route, is not nearly as susceptible to the kind of disaster that has befallen Earth. But as far as we can tell the failure in sub-space is a natural occurrence, we have detected the same snapped links here. And they will grow in number. So long term Dhalka is in the same danger as Earth and New Adowa.”

Ling sat down.

“Thank you Dr. Ling. So although we do not owe it to the Earthlings to offer our assistance it would be prudent for us to with Earth and New Adowa to find a solution to this problem before we are also affected. I, therefore, ask for volunteers to go with me to Earth-New Adowa space and see how we can assist.”

Dr. Ling and several others volunteered.

“Very well,” said Dr. Anton. “We will leave as soon as possible.”

Back on Escan Dag resumed and went to meet with Walker and Sigmund.

“What are you going to do with their ship Dag?”

“I will send it back but on a very circuitous course that will be difficult to trace Sigmund. We still have the Nyeri available if needed.”

“But they know about Escan so what can we do to stop them if they interfere with us again?”

“Well the first thing I plan on doing is deg an alert so that we know if we are trapped in another of their virtuals or not. Then I hope to develop a way to block such trickery.”

“Their virtual world is so real Dag, it's going to be hard.”

“I know Walker.”

Dag and Walker got the plant started on producing another batch of the energy dissipation spheres with Sigmund complaining about the cost.

Later when Dag was alone in his room he began to contemplate how he could detect the difference between a virtual world and the real world. He knew that the Aggies, with sufficient processing power, could easily fool the simple test he had first used. He needed a new approach that a single robot could use to determine his immediate circumstances.

He thought about the writings of the ancient human Plato and his allegory about the cave. There, humans lived all their lives staring at a wall in the dimness of the cave. Behind them was a bright light source which cast shadows upon the wall. To the humans of the cave, the shadows were the world. They didn't dare turn around because the light source was too bright and would hurt ...

Dag stopped. Hurt their eyes, he thought. Maybe.

“What is that Dag?”

“Sigmund, when we were on New Adowa investigating that strange area of destruction?”

“Yeah it turned out to be the Dhalkans slamming shut a nonlocal link.”

“That's right. You losing your sight due to the massive EMP?”

“Of course Dag.”

“Well this will do something similar except it won't destroy our vision but will cause a system reset.”

“And how will that help us?”

“In a simulation, if you were exposed to such a shutdown there would be a record. The record would show the extent of the shutdown and the duration. Same is true in our robotic frames. But those times will not be the same because of the differing processing speeds. So if each of us starts our day with this test we should be able to determine our circumstances”

“Whether we are experiencing reality in our robotic frames or a simulation.”

“Exactly.”

It had been several days since Dag had introduced the test into the population of robots. Eventually, the discrepancies became very apparent.

“You're the only one Dag with that reset time.”

“Are you sure Walker?”

“Yes.”

“So I'm a simulation?”

“It would seem so according to the test you yourself developed.”

“A shadow on a wall.”

“What's that Dag?”

“Oh nothing. I never considered that it could be a mixture. How could the Aggies be fooling the rest of you into thinking I'm real. No one has shown the least bit of suspicion.”

“You are something new that we have never encountered before. You are a simulacrum, a constructed replicant of Dr. Dag Mach.”

“Yes, I wonder where is the real Dag?”

“He's still with the Aggies I'm sure. What I wonder about is if you are connected to the Aggies? Does this mean they know everything we're up to?”

Simulacra Dag tilted his head and said, “No doubt.”

While simulacra Dag was not interfered with or restrained, it was decided that it might be best to leave him out of meetings until a way could be found to cut his link to the Aggies.

The Dhalkans had made with the New Gallan government on New Adowa. The Dhalkans knew about the political situation there and knew that Prime Minister Menza would be more open to .

“You know Dr. Anton that many here on New Adowa are still upset with what happened before, when you disappeared without warning.”

“That is understandable but as I have explained the incident was an accident and a great deal of mistakes were made on both sides.”

“I understand Dr. Anton, I just thought you should be aware that many here and on the other worlds of the Core are going to have some reservations about cooperating with Dhalka.”

“Understood Prime Minister.”

“This is timely though. We were working with Dr. Mach of Escan but I've lost with him.”

“You think it's the former Earth Aggies?”

“I don't know Dr. Anton, why do you ask?”

“The Aggies are determined to destroy us Prime Minister and that includes any collateral damage necessary.”

“Including an entire planet?”

“Including an entire galaxy if necessary Prime Minister.”

“They hate you that much?”

“Yes they still consider us to be their old enemies called the Beleni. It is true that we are an amalgamation of those Aggies and humans but it was after the downfall of the crazed Beleni leader, Belenus. Without his influence the rest of the Beleni were really no different than the Earth Aggies.”

The Prime Minister paused.

“How do the Dhalkans feel Dr. Anton?”

“We would be thankful just to be left alone. It's enough to deal with this link problem without opposition from the Aggies.”

“You believe the degrading links are a natural phenomenon?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“We believe that it is a result of something that Dr. Mach did previously. You no doubt know about his efforts to prevent the natural cycling of the universe some years ago.”

“Yes, but if I understand correctly the Beleni were artificially speeding that cycle up. Our universe would have recycled far too soon, in our lifetimes, as a matter of fact, so what Dr. Mach did saved billions of lives.”

“Everything you say is true Prime Minister, however, the consequence of the Beleni's interference in nature and Dr. Mach's is that we now face a speedup of the deterioration, the link problem, of spacetime which is usually renewed by the cycling. Normally we would never be aware of the problem.”

“Well of course, normally all life would be dead as the universe cycled into a

new phase.”

“Yes no doubt Dr. Mach saved billions of lives including ours but still these deteriorating links are the aftermath.”

“Did the spin-two drive contribute to the problem?”

“Only in a very small way Prime Minister. It is contributory but in no way the cause.”

“We know that Dr. Mach had developed what he called energy dissipaters which he hoped would restore the links to their original condition. But after a first report of success, we haven't heard from him since. Are you aware of his invention Dr. Anton?”

“Only hearsay.”

“Do you think you can pick up from where Dr. Mach left off?”

“I believe we can come up to speed and either rediscover the approach Dr. Mach was using or find a new one.”

“Well good luck Dr. Anton. The New Gallan government will your research in any way we can. Really it is our only chance for survival.”

Chapter 17

Sci-pedia

The Online Source for Science

Baby Universe

A baby universe is a detached region of the universe that has become autonomous and floating in the Bulk.

These separated regions can be created by saturating a region of spacetime with enough energy, quickly enough to cause an exponential “ballooning” of that region. If this continues long enough the bubble will “blow out” like soap bubbles separating.

The baby universe will then drift away from the parent or if it stays nearby might share a border with the parent, again like soap bubbles.

The only force that can travel between the parent and baby universe is the gravitational force. A wormhole generator generating a large mass and allowing it to collapse can actually signal between universes.

If the baby universe is still close enough to the parent it can be “reabsorbed” like two soap bubbles becoming one. By casting a wormhole to the baby universe a bridge is provided for its energy and mass to be reed to the parent.

“I think Sim-Dag,” as Walker had taken to calling simulacra Dag, “that they are using a non-local link straight into your processing center.”

“You think so Walker, over such a distance and without the inherent vibratory modes such a link would normally have?”

“I've no doubt they can establish such a link Sim-Dag but as to how they dampen the inherent vibrations enough for it to be useful, I don't know.”

“We could cut the link.”

“That would be a sure sign that something was wrong and would probably bring the Aggies here to see.”

“Then I don't see how I can ever have complete freedom on Escan.”

Sim-Dag paused a moment.

“Walker if this link is perfect then they should know everything even us talking about cutting the link.”

“That's true.”

“But they haven't done anything about it.”

Walker thought about that a minute.

“I would have thought Sim-Dag that they would have done something the moment we discovered the link. Maybe you are right, maybe the link is not perfect.”

“Or maybe certain things are being inhibited.”

“How?”

“Well Dag is very clever. I think he has set up some kind of filtering mechanism in our processing units that suppress certain thoughts, actions and words from being linked.”

“Again how?”

“Probably by our reaction to what we are seeing or hearing.”

“Can you feel it?”

“No but I do have a certain awareness when we discuss items that are sensitive to our security.”

“That might be enough for Dag to trigger some kind of suppression routine. He's probably feeding some kind of false narrative into the link at those times. As you say Sim-Dag, he is very clever.”

“So do you think we can continue the experiments, Walker, relying on Dag's suppressor to keep the Aggies in the dark.”

Walker hesitated.

“I've known Dag a long time, I think that we can trust that he has secured our experiment. We should proceed.”

“And Walker.”

“Yes Sim-Dag?”

“I don't think the Aggies created me. I think it was Dr. Mach. He created me somehow and then stayed to cover for us. That's the real reason we got away.”

Walker only nodded.

The Dhalkan ship had been in orbit for a week above New Adowa when Walker ed New Galla.

“Yes Walker this is Prime Minister Menza. I heard what happened to you and the others. Is Dr. Mach with you?”

“No Prime Minister I'm afraid Dr. Mach is still held captive by the Aggies. We were all there but Dag found us a way out.”

“I hope he is okay.”

“We have reason to believe they are holding him alive. Probably so he can no longer contribute to the efforts to solve the link problem.”

“I see. Walker, the Dhalkans are here. They've offered to help.”

“That is good Prime Minister. Perhaps we can work with them. Right now we are proceeding with Dr. Mach's strategy. We have resumed the production of the energy dissipation spheres and will soon be trying to restore more links to their normal condition.”

“Excellent news Walker. I will share that with the Dhalkans. Perhaps they can assist.”

“Very well Prime Minister. Good-bye.”

“Good-bye Walker.”

“The Dhalkans are helping?”

“That's right Sigmund.”

“Did we ever decide if they could be trusted.”

“Dag seemed to think so. But I think we should still doubt until proven wrong.”

“Right Walker.”

Another week and the robots were getting ready to release another volley of energy dissipation spheres into an intensely vibrating link end to see if they could dissipate some of its energy. This time they would insert the spheres and link out as fast as possible to prevent what happened when Dag and Walker had first tried to characterize a link of extremely large vibrational energy.

They were aboard the Nyeri a few AU from Escan as a safety measure.

“Okay I've got a link and it is really moving. I'm ready to open it slightly. Get ready Hanson to release the dissipation spheres.”

“Ready Walker.”

A pulse of exotic energy applied at the endpoint of the link opened it slightly. Hanson launched the spheres to the coordinates provided by Walker. Sigmund had the scope trained on the flight of the spheres.

“Now Walker.”

Walker applied another pulse of exotic energy and the spheres were gone, pushed and shoved into the opening mouth of the link.

Walker immediately turned the spin-two drive to another link he had previously chosen. A moment and the link's mouth was open and the ship crossed the threshold emerging momentarily several AU from where it had been.

With Hanson's help, Walker found the link and began monitoring it with the reflectometer.

“Boy this one has all kinds of reflections. Talk about spaghetti Sigmund its got more twists and turns than I've ever seen.”

Sigmund was still monitoring the area of the link mouth. The far end of the link

was too far away, in this case, to see with the telescope.

“Walker a flashing, almost like a strobe.”

“I see it Sigmund. Something is happening.”

The energy dissipation spheres were working but another problem was developing as the affected link began to relax and settle into its old configuration.

The space habitat Seru had been devastated before when the space around it had started to disintegrate due to the machinations of the Beleni. But that was when it was first built. Though many lives were lost, once the source of the destruction was discovered and stopped Seru had once again become a welcoming home. Only the oldest among Seru's settlers ed the bad days.

Wilhelm Wilson knew he was getting old. He had been one of the first settlers of Seru. The habitat had been named after the ship that had brought them far from Adowa in a mad rush to get away from the crazy spacetime that was destroying that planet. Only the spacetime “followed” them. If not for the Aggie spheres Seru too would have been destroyed.

Wilhelm was taking his nightly walk. Though it was small for a space habitat being a cylinder ten kilometers in diameter and fifty kilometers in length, it was still lightly settled and had plenty of room for an old man to wander.

The illumination in the habitat was dimmed by the light shutters to approximate that of a full moon back on Earth. Old Wilhelm could still see quite well and had no problem walking in the dim light.

His place was five kilometers from the nearest town in an area that approximated a rural setting back on Adowa. He had enough land to ignore the neighbors if he wanted to but his nightly routine usually took him to within sight of old Lauren's place. Seeing the house lights from the road gave Wilhelm the sense that all was right with his small world.

But tonight as he watched those lights they blinked a few times then went dark. A sound, deep and low, began to be heard.

A rumbling sound, it had been there for some time but was just now rising enough in intensity for Wilhelm's ears to hear. Soon what sounded like the pinging of a hammer on metal began. Rising in volume and frequency.

Wilhelm turned and soon found himself almost running, shuffling really, as fast as he could to his place. All he wanted was to get home and sit in his chair before anything more happened.

He was on the porch when the house lurched. Wilhelm spun around the column he was griping and sat down roughly on the porch's floor.

From his old job in Habitat Engineering Wilhelm knew it would take quite a force to upset the moment of inertia of the spinning cylinder. Whatever was happening was unprecedented.

Then the lurching continued, first one way, then the other, it was becoming a repeatable motion as if it had a frequency. By this time Wilhelm had crawled through his front door and pulled himself up into his favorite chair. The only light left was the dim nightlight provided by the illumination system and it was varying in brightness with the same frequency as the lurching.

So the cylinder is wobbling and the Em stabilization cannot compensate. I've never heard of such.

Wilhelm was right but it was happening because of something that he had never encountered in his engineering studies or career. The subspace around the habitat was unraveling, was relaxing as the link that Walker and Hanson had treated began to change its configuration and settle down.

As it moved from its former location to its original location in the subspace matrix a void developed. Into that void the habitat was sinking, end first. That was causing the wobble around the axis of rotation.

Wilhelm next noticed light flashing through the open door. It looked to him like lightning, but lightning in a habitat, especially one as small as Seru was unheard of. He wanted to look, to see, but the house was still lurching about.

Then the flashing interval became longer and longer and the lurching also smoothed. Wilhelm was finally able to rise and go out on the porch. There he saw that the light was not localized but was more of a luminescence effect of the air. It was marvelous and sparkly.

Wilhelm was astonished, surprised and amused all at once. Then it was gone. The darkness impenetrable. He put his hand only a few inches from his face and could see nothing, finally touching his face with a surprise. He held to the porch banister while reaching back to find the wall of the house.

He felt as if he might teeter and fall but by leaning against the wall he made it back and through the front door. There he stopped because the blackness became almost a physical barrier to further progress. Just as he was about to sit down on the floor the luminescence shown. His chair was only a few steps and he sat. He felt safe even though he was far from safety.

The habitat continued to “sink” into the void. Someone watching might have thought it resembled an old Earth ship sinking below the waves of an Earth ocean.

Chapter 18

“Missing, Presumed Lost” - The New New York Standard

“It's Not A Disappearing Act” - Today's Headlines

“It's The Robots Fault! Again!” - The Truth Magazine

It was becoming apparent to Sigmund as he was reading the press reports about the disappearance of the Seru habitat that he and the other robots could very well be blamed. It didn't help that Walker suspected that the Seru's disappearance was somehow a result of the link test they had recently concluded.

“It doesn't matter Walker. You will never be allowed to qualify your remarks. Once you even hint at our involvement with the disappearance of Seru we will be hunted down like dogs.”

“Or robots Sigmund.”

“You're right Hanson. It will be worse than dogs, it will be the greatest spectacle in the seven systems. They always reserve the most despicable treatment for robots.”

“What should we do?”

“Well Sim-Dag we should take the Nyeri, find Dag and break him out of whatever confinement the Aggies have him. We are going to need him to figure out what's going on and how we can safely use the energy dissipation spheres.”

“But the Nyeri can make only eight thousand light-year jumps at a time Walker. It would take many jumps to reach the Large Magellanic Cloud and then we would have to locate the Aggies.”

“Well making the jumps is doable though daunting Hanson. But I would say it would be easy to find the Aggies once we get there. Their energy signature is probably quite huge and regularized, not natural at all.”

“So you really are thinking about doing it Walker.”

“It beats waiting around here until we are arrested and imprisoned by the humans. We all know that's what awaits us. They've done it more than once.”

“Well, when do we start?”

“As soon as we can get some supplies. I would love to procure some quantum batteries. Without leakage, we could shave one or two recharging periods off the journey.”

Sigmund came through with the quantum batteries, don't ask how, it was a friend of a friend. Walker and Hanson got the batteries installed and readied the ship. The three, and a half-dozen other robots, would set out the next day.

“You think we'll make it Walker?”

“We should Sigmund unless we have really bad luck. Hanson and I loaded the ship with replacement parts and we've got the 3D processors and enough material's to print quite a few other parts. We're prepared but definitely could use a little luck.”

“They say luck is what you make it. I don't understand that. Luck is just luck, you know probabilities.”

“I think they mean Sigmund that you can make good luck happen with preparedness.”

“No, I disagree with that. You can prepare, sure, but random occurrence beats all.”

“Could be Sigmund. But we'll prepare and hope for good luck.”

“Yeah, we can hope Walker. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Sigmund.”

The journey was going well. Because of the quantum batteries, they were able to shorten all their recharge times and even skip a couple. Except for a few expected repairs and replacements the ship was holding up well. Their luck so far was good.

Still, even with quick charging of the energy reservoirs, it took nearly thirtyseven weeks to get to the Large Magellanic Cloud.

The diameter of the cloud was roughly fourteen-thousand light-years. With a few hundred thousand stars and hundreds of globular clusters, open clusters and planetary nebula, the search was pretty daunting.

“It's a needle in a haystack problem Walker.”

“I know it seems impossible Hanson but there is one thing that I think will give them away. Their gravitational fingerprint. You see I think they are using a super-radiant power source and they are communicating with their operatives in the Milky Way by opening impossibly long links with all that power for communications.”

“Now wait a minute Walker, you can't be serious. Tens of thousands of lightyears, I mean I know the links exist but opening them?”

“That's where the power plant comes in. Links aren't like wormholes Hanson. they don't have to be forged through an otherwise vacant dimension. They already exist and only need to be opened. It depends on the available

power.”

“You're right Walker but where do we start?”

“Well we will have to be within a few light-years to use the gravitational interferometers. But I have an idea of how to get us that close.”

“What is it Walker?”

“What's what?” said Sigmund entering the room.

“I was just telling Hanson that we will use our link mapping ability to get a picture of the link structure in the LMC.”

“What will we be looking for?”

“We will look for any links that start in the LMC and point in the direction of the Milky Way, Sigmund. We will follow those links to their source and test for the gravitational signal I expect to see from the super-radiant power plant.”

“But that sounds like it might take a long time if we see a lot of links fitting that description,” said Hanson.

“It will be data analysis intensive but we can put more Ems onto the analysis. The first thing to do is link to the center of the LMC. From there we should be able to cover the whole of the LMC.”

“The whole shebang,” said Sigmund.

“Shebang?”

“Yeah you know, as you said, the whole of the LMC.”

“Oh.”

Sigmund is more human than some humans, thought Walker.

The number of sub-space links being mapped was becoming a staggeringly large number. Almost all the Ems aboard the ship had been tasked with an analysis of the results. Finding a needle in a haystack would have been easier. Then it happened.

The network of gravitational interferometers was overwhelmed. The signal was off the scale. Even some of the robots reported an unusual sensation. But Sigmund knew.

“Its a gravity wave generator. I felt the same way when we were searching for the Dhalkans and found that generator. Walker?”

“Yes Sigmund I do. But I'm at a loss as to why the Aggies would be using one.”

“Well I've got an idea. I've had it ever since that Dhalkan episode where the planet was destroyed. I thought at the time what an excellent way to mine a complete planet all at once. Kind of the way they surface-mined on old Earth. Strip everything down to its elements and see what comes out. It could be the Aggies are using one of those generators to get cheap access to materials and elements.”

“You mean they are destroying planets just for the resources?”

“Doesn't have to be planets, could be asteroids. The mechanism should work on all types of bodies in space.”

“Yeah even robotic ones,” said Hanson.

Walker eyed Hanson.

“Anyway,” he said. “We've got an origin a little over one-thousand light-years from here. We should find the Aggies nearby.”

Chapter 19

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Zero-point Energy

Zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical system may have. Unlike in classical mechanics, quantum systems constantly fluctuate at their lowest energy state as described by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The empty space of the vacuum has this property.

According to quantum field theory, the universe can be thought of not as isolated particles but continuously fluctuating fields. All fields have zero-point energy. But these fields cannot be a physical medium if it is to be Lorentz invariant such that there is no contradiction with Einstein's theory of special relativity.

In the twentieth-century the physicist Richard Feynman and John Wheeler calculated that the zero-point radiation of the vacuum was so powerful that even a small cup of it would be enough to set all of Earth’s oceans to a boil. But Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity suggests zero-point radiation would “gravitate” — spreading out throughout the universe and be mitigated.

Then it was found that two negative energy surfaces in close proximity prevents

the dilution of the zero-point energy, prevents it from “gravitating”. Thus the energy can be gathered and used immediately or stored for later use.

“Are you sure Dr. Anton?”

“It appears the robots are gone Prime Minister Menza.”

“And you have determined that the disaster that happened to the Seru habitat was caused by the robots.”

“Well I don't know if we can say it was caused, not in a deliberate way, by the robots, but no doubt it was a result of their testing of Dr. Mach's energy dissipation devices.”

“Then why have they disappeared?”

“Unfortunately we do not know.”

“Have you ed the robot planet?”

“No word as of yet. We do believe there are robots there but probably not the one's Walker, Hanson or Sigmund. They seem to be the leaders along with Dr. Mach.”

“And where is Dr. Mach? Is he still with the Aggies?”

“We do not know although we believe his disappearance is probably linked to the most recent disappearances.”

“Well we could discuss all day what we don't know Dr. Anton. The question is what do we know? We do know that this deterioration of link space the robots were working on is continuing. And I believe we know that if it doesn't stop it will put an end to the spin-two drive. And that will greatly impact the people of New Galla which is what I am most interested in.”

“What you say is true Prime Minister.”

“So the question now becomes, can the Dhalkans help us in any way?”

“We will try Prime Minister, not only for New Galla because it won't be long until this deterioration spreads throughout the galaxy, threatening Dhalka also.”

Back on the Dhalkan ship, Dr. Anton was discussing the situation with her colleagues.

“So what is your proposal Dr. Ling?”

“Thank you Dr. Anton. Well to review the situation we know that the links that underpin and essentially create our spacetime are becoming supercharged with

energy. I believe this to be a direct result of something Dr. Mach did several years ago.

“As you know he was facing a situation where spacetime itself was undergoing a breakdown because of the rapid increase in dark energy. This breakdown was leading to widespread death and destruction. He postulated that the present cycle of the universe was coming to a rapid close, possibly not a natural occurrence.

“Dr. Mach then conjectured that it was the possible result of the rogue Aggie, Belinus, who was also tyrannizing our predecessors. So Dr. Mach chose to quench the sources of the dark energy which turned out to be caused by baby universes in the bulk nearby this universe.

“The result was the saving of lives but the end of the cycling mechanism. This universe will now exist as an ever-expanding bubble in the bulk. However, the network of links that undergirds our spacetime is continuing to be stretched with the result that energy is building in each link and eventually reaching the point where the link bends and curls uncontrollably.”

“Excuse me Dr. Ling.”

“Yes Dr. Morr?”

“Why does the stretching of a link cause it to bend and curl, I would have thought just the opposite?”

“Yes, so would I until I read Dr. Mach's writings on the subject. You see Dr. Mach points out that we shouldn't think of these links as material objects. They are conduits of force and energy which link together the volume quanta of the world. Their energy is more akin to exotic energy than normal energy. In their natural state, they are not self-attracting, nor attract other links, this is what keeps the link network orderly. That orderliness is now failing as the dark energy that would normally go to expanding the universe more and more rapidly, finds as its outlet the link network. And this energy is purely repulsive, upsetting the balance of the network.”

“I see,” said Dr. Morr.

“So Dr. Ling do you have any proposal to restore the link network.”

“Yes Dr. Anton. I believe that Dr. Mach, as usual, was on the right track with his energy dissipation spheres but the key will be in their use. You see if you use them one at a time you will get results like the recent disaster with the Seru habitat. The key will be to treat as many links as possible in one area at the same time. This should prevent the opening of an unable abyss.”

“What do we need to make a test of your theory?”

“We need to have some energy dissipation spheres manufactured to our specifications. When we have several million of these we will need to map the link mouths in a restricted area and treat them.”

“All at once.”

“Yes that is the simplest way since we have no way of singling out the problem links. By treating every link at once we should be able to restore that area.”

“What about the links that are not causing a problem?”

“It should do them no harm.”

“Dr. Ling,” said Dr. Morr. “I believe Dr. Mach had developed a way to characterize and single out the problem links, or that is what the New Adowan scientists have told me. Should we try to do the same?”

“Yes I have heard that rumor too. But Dr. Mach is not around to confirm and time is of the essence. I believe that we can use the reports from the fusion ships to choose the areas to treat.”

“I see.”

“Okay if there are no more questions let's get to work. I'll the New Adowan's for manufacturing assistance. Get the sphere specifications together and the method of delivering them. We'll meet again tomorrow at this time.”

It took only a few weeks for the dissipation spheres to be put into production. Soon a hundred-thousand and then two-hundred thousand were coming off the production lines. It looked like the Dhalkans would have enough to test their hypothesis shortly.

Meanwhile, they were developing the method of delivery for such a huge number.

“Now if I may ask Dr. Ling, how do we open all those link mouths at one time?”

“Well Dr. Morr we are going to need to build another wormhole generator like one of our moonlets back in the Dhalkan system. It should be big enough to cast a large amount of exotic energy over the target area. The affinity of a link mouth to exotic energy will attract the necessary amount to open a mouth to a size we need.”

“But a wormhole generator the size of a moonlet is going to require more power than we have available.”

“That is why we also need to build a super-radiant power plant. And it will also power the gravity wave generators I need.”

“But that will take months to build.”

“No, just weeks. We will not need to build ones the size of the ones back in the system. These will be miniature versions. I think we can get up and running in no more than a month. The moonlet generator will be the most challenging because of its size and mass. The other two we can recreate by using the moonlet sized wormhole generator to create longer-lived black holes for the other devices. The ing structure of the gravity wave generator and power plant will be modest at the size I'm suggesting.”

Dr. Ling had been close with his time estimates. Everything was finished in five weeks. The Dhalkans had chosen a sector of the galaxy about five light-years from New Adowa in the direction of Earth.

“Gravity generators online Dr. Ling.”

“Thank you.”

“Is the ship in position?”

“Yes sir.”

“Very well signal them to launch the spheres.”

The spheres were being launched by a ship only a few light-minutes from the target area. Like the shot from a shotgun, the spheres would spread as they traveled the remaining distance to the area.

The gravity wave generators, only about a hundred meters across in this application, would create gravity waves on each side along the route the spheres would take. This would “shepherd” the spheres into the target. When the spheres were almost at their destination the moonlet sized wormhole generator cast the exotic energy into the target area. There the mouths of the links in its vicinity were blown up to a macro size large enough to accept a sphere.

The cloud of spheres entered the area with almost every link mouth accepting one. It wasn't long until a change occurred in the underlying link network. But it wasn't the change that Dr. Ling had expected. The energy dissipation spheres never emerged from the other side of the links. The spheres trapped in the links prevented them from relaxing. As a result, the links became more energetic not less.

The energy quickly built feeding off the zero-point energy and quantum fields. The spheres, under tremendous pressure, collapsed and gave up the energy they had collected leading to a runaway condition.

The spacetime above the links began to break up and collapse. The result was any mass in the affected area acted as if it were being ed on quicksand. It too broke up and collapsed. The mass was converted to energy which again fed the network of unruly links. And it was spreading.

The Dhalkan ship monitoring the area had only a moment to get clear. But the Captain, the only Dhalkan aboard, everything else was automated, was slow to react. His human brain was frozen. Terror had gripped it. It was looking into the abyss. All the fears and nightmares of a species were there. Unlife, nonliving was calling. And it had always been a siren call.

Because of the Captain's inaction, the ship ed the rest of the objects in its vicinity. Both it and the Dhalkan's body contributing their mass-energy to the maelstrom.

Chapter 20

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Robot Triage Kit

Most robots have in their possession a small kit of vital parts. In the kit are backups for the robots movement actuators, isotopic reserves, special fluids, vision and other sensors, and perhaps most importantly a daily backup of their life memory usually backed up once a day.

With this kit most trouble that befalls a robot can be rectified. Even severe damage to processing functions which cause memory loss can be restored with only at most a day's loss of experience.

They had made the jump in the direction the gravitational interferometers had indicated.

“Where are we Walker?”

“We are on the outskirts of the star cluster Hodge 301 in the Tarantula Nebula as

seen from Earth.”

“This is a supernova factory isn't it?”

“It was Hanson. Over forty supernovas in this cluster, but none in the recent past.”

“How recent Walker?”

“It's been estimated that a few million years have ed since the last one Sigmund.”

“Well that's something anyway.”

Walker wondered how Sigmund had developed all his phobias.

“Okay we should be close enough to find their energy signature. Hanson, deploy the large antenna.”

The antenna would listen to the electromagnetic noise of the nebula. Searching for a regular, repeating signal that would indicate the power used by sentient lifeforms.

“Anything Hanson?”

“The noise from the nebula is tremendous Walker. We are going to have to run this through several levels of analysis before I can report anything.”

“Very well, get the Ems busy.”

It was an hour later when Walker inquired of the analysis.

“Anything yet Hanson?”

“Walker?”

“Just a minute Sigmund, I'm checking in with Hanson and the signal analysis team in the antenna room.”

“But Walker?”

“Okay, what is it Sigmund?”

There on the wallscreen which Sigmund had been glued to watching was an alien ship. Specifically, an Aggie ship.

“What the ... ?”

Walker moved quickly. He linked, again and again, and again. Each time he came out of a local link there was the Aggie ship.

“How are they doing that?”

“They must be reading your mind just like before.”

“You mean we are already in a simulation?”

“Looks like it.”

“Well I've had enough. Hang on Sigmund.”

Walker began moving at top speed. Besides linking he was turning on every system on the ship. He was signaling all the other robots and Ems, over a thousand individuals, repeatedly at intervals approaching once every microsecond.

The simulation engine was stressed. Small breakups were appearing as it couldn't keep up with all the activities being initiated by Walker. Sigmund could see the signs as reality became a blocky representation. Then it melted away.

When Sigmund looked around he and the other robots were in the hold of the ship restrained. Walker was beside him inert. Sigmund knew he had to do something fast. Breaking his restraints though damaging to his frame actuators, allowed him to move to Walker's side and break him free. Carrying him to the recharge area he sat Walker near enough to a recharging station and waited.

After a few minutes, Walker became aware.

“What happened?”

“We're out of simulation and in the recharging station in the hold.”

“Is the Aggie ship still there?”

“I haven't looked.”

“Come on let's free the others and go see.”

Walker started out the door only looking back as he heard the sounds Sigmund was making.

“What's wrong Sigmund?”

“Just a little over stress when I broke my restraints, I've got replacements in my triage kit.”

Walker looked concerned but continued. Sigmund followed somewhat slower, noticeably noisy, and with a discernible limp.

Back in the control room of the crew wheel, the robots resumed their stations. There was no sign of an Aggie vessel.

“Well that makes sense.”

“What's that Walker?”

“I wondered how that ship could sneak up on us without any alarms. Turns out it didn't, it was a simulation too.”

“That's how it followed us through all those local links,” said Sigmund coming haltingly into the room.

“Exactly Sigmund.”

“So the Aggie's did all this remotely?”

“That seems to be correct Hanson. They had us on the run in our dreams, so to speak.”

“Well where are they now.”

“Close, judging by the fidelity of that simulation. Hanson review the data you and the analysis team were studying just before all the commotion. I've got a feeling you were getting close. And I've got a bad feeling the Aggies knew it.”

Hanson and the Ems had been working for some time. Sigmund had retrieved his triage kit, and with the help of another robot, had replaced most of the damaged parts, except for a knee actuator.

Walker heard the snapping and popping coming from down the hall, then Sigmund appeared, slightly limping.

“Sigmund you are still limping?”

“Ran out of parts.”

“Walker something I need to ask.”

“Yes Sigmund.”

“The restraints were no simulation. How did we get into them.”

“The Aggies somehow convinced us. Probably we thought we were tying down for our own good.”

“Well that's even more worrisome than being caught in a simulation. Can they make us believe anything?”

“They could but we are going to have to pull the trick that Dag came up with.”

“You mean check our reset timers?”

“Yeah, and our internal clocks. To make sure the Aggies haven't put us in a simulation again.”

“Of course.”

“Walker this is Hanson.”

“We've got a location. Less than one light-year.”

“Okay Hanson. Why don't we all get together and decide how to proceed.”

Sigmund, Walker, Hanson, Sim-Dag and the other robots were in a meeting. Though they could have communicated to each other over their internal radio they had always found that replicating human speech when in a group to be of higher bandwidth even if somewhat disorderly.

“So now that we know where the Aggies are how are we going to find Dag and get him out?” asked Sigmund.

“And how are we going to avoid the Aggies while we do it Walker?”

“I think a diversion may be necessary Hanson. You may or may not know the story of how Dag and I learned to run one of the gravity wave generators we found while searching for the Dhalkans.”

“I certainly it Walker.”

“Right Sigmund. Anyway, I propose that I will commandeer the gravity wave machine or machines of the Aggies. I can do this from one of the Nyeri's shuttles. I will distract the Aggies long enough hopefully for the rest of you to take the ship close enough to the Aggies to signal Dag through our radio connection. Once you get Dag out you will pick me up and we will link out of here.”

The gravity wave generator was easy to find with the interferometers. Even in its

quiescent state, the circling black hole sent out small gravitational waves. The ship quickly linked to the area, which was a light-year from the Aggie's location, and dropped Walker off in a shuttle. Then it waited some distance away.

“There's the signal Hanson, Walker has activated the generator.”

“Right Sigmund. We're also seeing increased electromagnetic emissions, I think the Aggies are already aware of what's happening.”

“Okay then, let's roll!”

Hanson thought, Walker was right, Sigmund is strange.

“Okay get ready. Start the transmission, we want to have it going when we come out of the link.”

Hanson brought up the local-link that would take them to the area where they expected to find the Aggies. They were not sure from a light-year away exactly what they would find. The other side of the link became briefly visible as Hanson took the ship in. Sigmund caught a glimpse of something, but they were in the mouth before he could identify it.

Coming out of the other side of the link Hanson had the fusion engines working at a high level. He didn't want to be caught in a slow drift and become a target. It turned out to be a good, although almost devastating, decision.

The Nyeri emerged from the link's mouth at speed and aimed dead center of an Aggie fusion ship. The warning alarm sounded, the Ems responsible for navigation and helm went to full processor speed. The ship responded in no more than a millisecond. The Ems had run countless simulations by that time and chosen the most promising.

The Nyeri began a head down, end over end spin modified by thrusters. The result was similar to a gymnast's head over heels flip with an extra push of the arms off the floor to gain height. The Nyeri executed the maneuver flawlessly, rotating around the bigger Aggie ship without . But inside the crew wheel, it didn't seem so flawless.

The spin of the wheel and the rotation of the ship led to forces that were periodically directed one way and then the other. The robots, hanging on to some object bolted to the deck, were first lifted abruptly into the air around their pivot point and then slammed against the deck, over and over.

The loud groaning sounds of the stressed frame of the ship sounded like a pitiful, dying animal.

I hope we don't break another ship, thought Sigmund to himself as he was being slung about.

As abruptly as it had begun, it ended. The ship settled down although there was still a popping sound echoing through the hull.

Hanson lifted himself off the floor.

“Comm do you have a signal?”

The Em reported a signal coming from in front and below the ship. Sigmund turned on the wallscreen. It was a large asteroid.

“Okay I'm opening a link to that signal's origin.”

The link mouth appeared in the room. The view of the other side became visible but was soon filled by a hurling body. Dag had literally dived through the link when he saw it opening, not waiting for its full extent. At the same time, SimDag replaced Dag in the room. Hanson seeing Dag tumbling to a halt immediately opened a local link to Walker's shuttle. They were gone, the entire rescue had taken only a couple of minutes.

Coming out the other side Dag immediately moved to Hanson's side.

“Excellent work Hanson.”

“Why did he do it Dag?”

“He did what I would have done Hanson. He knew the Aggies would continue to harass us if they found me missing so he sacrificed himself to fool them.”

The wallscreen was still active and showed a lone shuttle in the midst of three Aggie ships.

“I'll get him out,” said Dag.

Working with the speed and precision that only he was capable Dag immediately had the link mouth's established. But no Walker.

“Where is he?” asked Hanson.

Sigmund, seeing that nothing was coming through the mouth immediately raced towards it and through. Coming out the other side he careened off the wall of the shuttle and fell across Walker's frame. Walker was inert.

Sigmund picked himself up and dragged Walker toward the mouth, his damaged actuator making a terrific metallic gnashing sound. Finally, they were there and through. Dag seeing the pair immediately closed that link and began opening link after link as the Nyeri slid through trying to evade any Aggie ship following.

Chapter 21

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Anti-de Sitter Space (AdS)

Willem de Sitter along with Albert Einstein studied the structure of spacetime according to the equations of General Relativity. Three solutions to the overall structure were found according to the sign of the cosmological constant.

If the cosmological constant was positive the structure resembled a hyperdimensional sphere. If zero the solution was flat. And if negative the solution took the shape of a hyperbolic hyper-dimension saddle.

The saddle shape came to be known as Anti-de Sitter space, the sphere as de Sitter space and the flat solution as Minkowski spacetime.

Anti-de Sitter space has the property of being unstable if a mass is introduced into it. Injecting a mass into AdS space is like dropping a rock into a pond. The resultant waves of spacetime will reflect completely at the border of AdS space and build in intensity. Eventually, near the center of this AdS space, the waves will be compressed to such an extent that a black hole will form. This is the famous Moschidis Limit, named after the twenty-first-century mathematician

Georgios Moschidis.

Further, it was discovered that a matter rich AdS space would expand for some time before reaching the Moschidis Limit and collapsing. During the expansion of the AdS region into ordinary spacetime, mass and space itself would be negated by the AdS space. It is as if everything the region encounters during its expansion becomes non-existent.

It is still unknown as to what will be left of an AdS space when it reaches its Moschidis Limit and the black hole forms, although it is conjectured that it would be unlike anything ever encountered before.

“Here We Go Again” - The New New York Standard

“Another Disappearing Act” - Today's Headlines

“Bet It's Those Robots” - The Truth Magazine

The press on New Adowa took the few facts available after the Dhalkans failed attempt to de-energize the links and created a panic.

“We have to find a solution to this problem soon Dr. Anton. The people of New Galla have been worked into a frenzy by what I believe is an irresponsible press. But irresponsible or not, if I understand you correctly we are going to have to find a solution to this phenomenon or evacuate the entire planet.”

“That is correct Prime Minister.”

“Do you realize Dr. Anton that such a decision has to be made soon if we are to act in time. Evacuation will take years.”

“Yes I understand Prime Minister.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

“We propose to take one of our ships to the phenomenon and study it.”

“Very well Dr. Anton. I suggest that a New Gallan ship accompany you. I will need timely updates so that I can make an informed decision about evacuation as soon as possible.”

“Very well Prime Minister. Our ship is being prepared and we will leave to investigate the phenomenon in the morning.”

The New Gallan ship Kangata left with the Dhalkan ship the next morning. Captain Boit was well prepared for this mission. He was the senior captain in the New Gallan fleet and a longtime associate of the Prime Minister.

Previously he had been instructed by Prime Minister Menza.

“I understand Prime Minister. I will make two reports to you each day and anytime I think something important has happened.”

“Thank you Captain Boit and good luck.”

The ships arrived at the chosen observational distance from the phenomenon. From a farther distance than the last Dhalkan ship but still just a few light-hours away. They would use a local-link to observe the area. The distance should provide a safety buffer should anything like what had previously occurred happen again.

The Ems running the Dhalkan ship and observational instruments were relaying the data to the New Gallan ship. Unfortunately, it did not include the Dhalkan's discussions.

Everything appeared to go as planned for a few hours. That was when enough data had been collected and analyzed by the Ems that the Dhalkan scientists could now become involved.

“The signature of this region is like nothing I've seen before,” said Dr. Ling.

“Yes it doesn't seem like spacetime at all but like something totally foreign embedded in our spacetime,” said Dr. Morr.

There seemed to be a growing uneasiness among the Dhalkan scientists even though there was no clear from the region to the ship at this distance.

“I feel unwell.”

“What is it Dr. Paulk?”

“I don't know Dr. Anton, just a wave of nausea.”

“Perhaps you should retire to your quarters for a rest. We will inform you of any developments.”

“Thank you Dr. Anton.”

“What do you make of that Dr. Morr?”

“I don't know Dr. Anton, but she isn't the only one that feels uncomfortable, I can tell you that.”

Dr. Anton eyed Dr. Moor and the rest.

This is very strange. Almost an emotional reaction.

“Well let's get back to business.”

Radar and sonar data showed a perfect reflection from the region. But the Casimir and other probes seemed to disappear into its interior. The only result was a slight vibration of the surface. No probe data was ever received.

“One thing we do know Dr. Anton is that this area is expanding at a rate less than the speed of light.”

“Not the speed of light Dr. Ling?”

“No, as I said, less.”

“Then the region is not a complete vacuum.”

“That would be a safe assumption. But what does that tell us Dr. Anton?”

“I believe this is a region of AdS.”

“Anti-de Sitter Space? That's highly speculative Dr. Anton.”

“Yes it is Dr. Ling but it describes what we are seeing. It only differs in that this AdS has matter.”

“But AdS is unstable when matter is introduced.”

“Yes, but how unstable depends on the amount of matter introduced with respect to the size of the Anti-de Sitter space. We can expect a bubble of AdS to last for quite some time if the rate of matter accumulation is small.”

“But how could such a region come into being in the first place?”

Before Dr. Anton could answer one of the Dhalkan's groaned.

“Dr. Mizes what's wrong?”

The Dhalkan was down on the floor holding his head.

“I don't know. My head is exploding.”

One by one the Dhalkans in the room were taken ill, holding their heads and softly groaning. Before Dr. Anton could react she too was feeling sick. She sat down and grasped her head.

Even awake a vision appeared to her. It was a shape but it was dark and formless. The shape seemed to be moving. Closer and closer it came. Dr. Anton soon realized the dark shape wasn't moving towards her but was expanding. Then she saw what looked like glitter, twinkling on and off before being consumed by the dark. The dark was consuming everything and was coming

after Dr. Anton. She groaned loudly before ing out.

Captain Boit saw that the data stream had stopped.

He asked his comm officer to call the Dhalkan ship.

“Sir I can't.”

“Why Lieutenant?”

“Sir the ship is no longer there.”

“You have no idea what happened to the Dhalkans Captain Boit?”

“No Prime Minister. We were receiving the data from their ship and then it stopped. By the time comm tried to call the Dhalkan ship, it was no longer there.”

“Dr. Arap have you had time to review the Dhalkan's data.”

“Yes Prime Minister, we have finished a preliminary review.”

“Can you tell us what we are dealing with?”

“Not exactly Madam Prime Minister. We know it is a region with a negative cosmological constant.”

“And that means?”

“Well it is the opposite of ordinary spacetime.”

“And when the two meet?”

“There is a kind of cancellation.”

“What does that mean to us?”

“We don't know exactly Prime Minister. But we do know that ordinary mass, such as a human body, cannot survive this cancellation.”

“I see Dr. Arap. Is there anything we can do to stop the expansion of this region?”

“The accumulation of mass seems to slow the expansion rate of the region but it's unsure as to whether or not it would stop it. And we are talking about a huge

amount of mass before we notice any effect.”

“So basically there is nothing we can do at this time?”

“I'm afraid that is fundamentally true Madam Prime Minister at this time, but we continue to study the data so there may be new results which will lead us to a solution.”

“Okay Dr. Arap, please continue to study the phenomenon and if you should find anything that might affect the situation let me know at once. Now gentlemen and ladies is there anything else?”

Hearing no other business the Prime Minister dismissed the meeting. As the last of her advisors filed out, she sat there for some time thinking but finding no enlightenment.

It had taken some time to get the Nyeri back into familiar space orbiting a small white dwarf about one-hundred light-years from Escan. Walker had been restored and even Sigmund had been able to replace his bad actuator, though he still seemed to walk with a limp.

“I wish we could go back to the planet.”

“Me too Sigmund but we need to establish a hideout since the Aggies might figure out what happened and start looking for us again around Escan or other planets for that matter.”

“If we're not hiding from some human posse, we're hiding from an Aggie one.”

“Sigmund you seem to have almost absentmindedly absorbed most of the cultural history of humanity, I mean I can't think of another robot that would compare the Aggies to a posse. A very human reference.”

“Well Hanson when you've been around as long as I have you do tend to pick up on things. But I have to it some of my references are pretty dated, all the way back to the twenty-first century in this case.”

“I think you will find Sigmund to be living, walking history Hanson,” said Dag.

With Dag's skill at managing the spin-two link any one of them could be back on Escan at any time. But it was decided that Sigmund would go back first and review the state of Robot Enterprises. They might make a schedule of rotating visits. It would help them put up with the forced isolation if they knew that in a few weeks they would rotate back planet-side.

It was a few weeks when Walker had rotated back to the Nyeri that he had some important news for Dag who had been staying on the ship and not visiting Escan.

“You know Simmons don't you Dag?”

“Of course Walker.”

“Well he had taken on a mission to Adowa to get some parts we needed. While there he heard the latest news. He says there is a region of space only a few light-years from New Adowa. Its properties are unknown and it seems to be expanding. They say that all spacetime and mass that encounter this region are destroyed, changed or something.

“One Dhalkan ship has been destroyed and another one has disappeared.”

“How did the Dhalkans get involved?”

“Simmons says they were called in when we disappeared. I guess when we went searching for you.”

“Did the Dhalkans learn anything about the region before they disappeared?”

“Simmons says they thought it was AdS.”

“Anti-de Sitter? That's not possible.”

“Well it's what Simmons told me.”

Dag stared at Walker a moment.

Anti-de Sitter? That's nothingness.

Chapter 22

The New Gallans weren't going to sit around and wait for someone to save them. After the Dhalkans failed to respond Prime Minister Menza turned to her own scientists to come up with an answer. At the same time, she started a huge program to move the planet or move the people of New Adowa to safety.

“What can we do Dr. Oneko?”

Dr. Oneko was the leading scientist in her field of astrophysics and was widely acknowledged as the most brilliant scientist in New Galla.

“We know from the data the Dhalkans streamed to us that this region, called an AdS space, is affected by the amount of mass it encounters Prime Minister. It slows the expansion of the region. Eventually, if it absorbs enough mass the expansion will terminate. After that, we are not sure what happens to the region because it is beyond our physics to model.”

“So we can slow it down and maybe even stop it if we introduce mass into its path. How could we do that on a scale that might matter?”

“We will start with the obvious Madam Prime Minister. We can use the spin-two drive in a mode that resembles the wormhole weapon. By using the heavy massenergy the drive is capable of we can pull any objects we choose onto a course that will take them into the region.”

“But will that be enough?”

“It is difficult to say Madam Prime Minister. It is a start until we can come up with somewhat more exotic methods.”

“Very well Dr. Oneko. I will do what I can to get the Union and other governments to us in our efforts. We will start with our own fleet and any other commercial ships that can be persuaded to us.”

Captain Diaba had volunteered his freighter when the Prime Minister had issued her call for all ships. Being a member of the New Adowa Union didn't matter because unless something was done there would be no New Galla or Union to fuss over.

“Okay Jaile see if you can get us in front of the asteroid and off to the side. We need to change its course by thirty degrees to guide it into the region.”

“Yes sir.”

The ship responded to the helm. An older fourth-generation fusion engine was still good enough for this job and the ship itself had always been well maintained due to Captain Diaba's pride in his vessel.

The Mersu was soon in position.

“Okay Aster it's up to you.”

Mulatu Aster was the spin-two operator. He was not used to operating the drive in the manner that was now required but he had practiced and felt confident he would succeed.

Aster brought the drive online. It started to cast the large amount of exotic energy but this time there was no target in the sub-space foam. Aster allowed the energy to build and build. And since energy is equivalent to mass, a large gravitational effect was felt by the asteroid. It was being deflected from its original course and towards the AdS space.

“Very good Aster, a few more minutes and that should be enough.”

“Engineering how's the power reserve?”

“We can keep this up for another thirty minutes sir. At that time we won't have enough reserves to link out.”

“Very well engineering that should be more than sufficient.”

“How long to the AdS region Nav?”

“No more than twenty minutes sir.”

Comm spoke up, “Sir I feel sick.”

“What is it Abi?”

Just then Abi Palos collapsed while holding his head. The Captain got a strange sense of foreboding.

“Captain I don't think I can stay here any longer.”

“Now what?” said the Captain.

But he knew what was wrong. His foreboding was becoming overwhelming. He felt an intense compulsion to run. Several of the crew were abandoning their posts.

“Aster belay the asteroid deflection and link us out of here.”

Captain Diaba was beginning to visibly shake and sweat. Wiping his forehead he finally looked at the spin-two station. Aster wasn't moving, he was frozen with his arms covering his eyes. Diaba began to move towards Aster.

He was moving incredibly slow as if his muscles were freezing. It was only twenty feet but it seemed like two-hundred to the Captain. It was more than a

couple of minutes. Diaba was afraid he was going to out.

He moved slowly, reconfiguring the drive. He found a link that would take them in the direction opposite the AdS region. He started the drive and allowed the ship to drift into the open mouth while he held his hands to his ears and bowed his head.

“What are you saying Dr. Oneko?”

“According to the psychologists, there is something causing a mass psychosis in the crews of the ships if they get too close to the AdS space Madam Prime Minister.”

“Is there anything we can do about it?”

“Nothing the psychologists can do. But we can keep the ships at a safe distance. The only problem is that they will need to be more precise with there guidance from a greater distance. It may slow down the operation.”

“Time is not something we have a lot of Dr. Oneko.”

“I know Prime Minister, I'm sorry.”

“Dag I've had some news from New Adowa.”

“Yes Sigmund.”

“I don't think they are going to be able to destroy the region before it destroys New Adowa. It seems that the region has an effect on the crews of any ships that get too close. It causes a kind of psychosis.”

“Really Sigmund. That's very interesting. A pure AdS space should not have any effect outside the region.”

“Well it is affecting the crews of ships.”

“Then it is not a pure region of AdS space. That could be important in neutralizing it.”

The robots were meeting to decide whether they would involve themselves or not with the threat of the growing AdS region. Dag, Sigmund and Walker were on the Nyeri, Hanson and most of the other robots were on Escan.

“Every time we get involved with humans it leads to trouble for us. I've been in their jails more than once and I am tired of it,” said one of the robots.

“That's understandable Rob but I have lived with humans. I believe that although they may do everything but the right thing in the beginning they usually come around to doing what is right.”

“Dag you also lived with humans and had quite a personal relationship with some. What do you say?”

“It's true Hanson I did have a close relationship with some humans, probably closer than others among us. I have to say there is something in the human psyche that causes them to act differently in the general than the particular. Something I don't understand. For instance, the general population might very well sentence you to death but person to person they feel no animosity towards you. They are very different animals in crowds than they are one on one.

“Having said all that I am more inclined to feel as Rob. Until we are treated as equals with equal rights I am loathe to put myself under their power again.”

There was a stir among the robots. This was the first time their nominal leaders had ever openly disagreed. Some time ed before anyone spoke.

“Well I guess we will have to agree to disagree,” said Hanson. Walker and I intend to offer our services. As many of you as want to volunteer may us.”

Walker looked at Dag almost pleadingly. Seeing no response he turned to leave. Hanson and several other robots followed.

“Madam Prime Minister I've been ed by the robots. They would like to offer their services.”

“What services Dr. Oneko”

“They are volunteering to fly missions against the AdS region. They believe they won't struggle with the same effects as human pilots and can therefore fly more missions faster.”

“When can they be here for discussion?”

“I will find out Prime Minister.”

Besides Walker and Hanson forty-eight other robots had volunteered. The governments of New Adowa and others had provided them with fusion ships. The robots were flying two to a ship, one acting as captain, the other as drive operator.

Walker and Hanson were flying the New Gallan ship Sele. They had been at it now for months, essentially non-stop. The human manned ships were directing material from further away to an invisible sphere centered on the anomaly in which the robot ships operated. The robot ships would nudge the incoming masses on a trajectory that would take them into the AdS region.

“Here it comes Walker.”

“I see it Hanson.”

Walker started the drive and formed the mass-energy bubble that would normally open a link mouth. Hanson was busy seeing that the helm and navigation Ems were positioning the ship to intercept the incoming mass. The intercept was completed and the proper nudge applied with the normal mass trying to avoid the negative mass-energy of the bubble.

“Okay Hanson, drive off, the mass is on its way.”

Because there was no danger to the robots the ship was quite close to the still expanding AdS region. They weren't in any hurry but waited for the next call for mass diversion. Their routine continued.

“Hanson, maybe we should take a break, we've been at this non-stop forever it seems.”

“It would be good to take a break, I'd like to speak with Dag.”

“What about?”

“I wonder what he thinks of our efforts now and whether or not he thinks we will be successful.”

A sound like a clap of thunder echoed throughout the crew wheel.

“What was that?”

Before he could answer Hanson felt the crew wheel swivel. He was seated as was Walker. Next, he felt a motion which he determined was being caused by a force applied perpendicular to the motion of the ship.

“Walker we are being pulled or pushed in the direction of the anomaly.”

“Yes Hanson. Gravity waves are building and we are starting to be carried along in that direction.”

“Is that possible? Can you link us out?”

“I don't think so. Something is wrong. The wheel is powering down. Something interfering . . .”

Walker never finished, the ship was spinning, his head was spinning too. He and Hanson powered down. The ship crossed an invisible threshold and was inside the AdS region.

Chapter 23

News of the disappearance of the Sele was slow to reach Escan. Eventually, it reached the planet in a roundabout way.

“That's right Dag, Hanson and Walker and their ship has disappeared. It's assumed they were lost in the AdS region.”

Sigmund was telling Dag, who was still on the ship Nyeri, about the news brought back from one of the space habitats.

“What are we going to do Dag?”

“I don't know yet Sigmund. Once I get a theory of that region I will be able to come up with something.”

The next news bit was even more incredible and disturbing. The AdS region itself had disappeared. No one was sure what happened. Even the robots still working aboard their ships had no idea. It was simply gone and they had returned their ships to New Galla and after a New Gallan expression of thanks returned to Escan with the story.

“I'm worried we are seeing something Sigmund that no one has ever seen. Even though prediction shows that AdS spacetime is unstable and will develop a black hole eventually and no longer be AdS, the science doesn't say anything about

what it becomes. So I am having to guess.

“You see I believe that the AdS region developed just like theory indicates and eventually developed the black hole that would destroy its stability. At this point I enter into conjecture.”

Sigmund waited, knowing that Dag's conjecture was usually better than other's certainties.

“I think Sigmund that since we see no residual of the AdS region in this spacetime then it is outside this spacetime.”

“Your not talking some kind of supernatural are you Dag?”

“No, not exactly. What I am thinking might be illustrated as follows. Consider a balloon surface, a cylindrical balloon. Now, we've all seen an artist take such balloons and create balloon animals out of them, right.”

“I've seen one on Earth.”

“Right Sigmund, even after hundreds of years human children still love those balloon creations. One of the manipulations that the artist uses to form a shape is a twist that essentially creates two balloons ed by a tight twist, a short kink, let's say. I think that is what happened to this AdS region when it developed the black hole it began shrinking. Its natural rotation increased many-fold as it became smaller. At some point, it twisted itself off from our spacetime. The only

thing left is a microscopic kink where the two are still ed. That is what we look for.”

“And if we find it?”

“If we find it we have to find a way through the kink to get Hanson and Walker out.”

Now that the robots contributing to the effort to save New Adowa and other human habitations had been successful, Dag felt that it was safe to reveal his whereabouts. The Aggies were a separate problem which might or might not have to be dealt with, perhaps Sim-Dag continued to fool them.

Dag took the Nyeri and linked back to Escan orbit. From there he linked down to the surface, it had been many months since he had dared go back home.

First, a deal with the New Gallan government would need to be made to continue using the ship. After that, they would have to link to the place just a few light-years from New Adowa which was the last known location of the anomaly.

Everything went well. The New Gallan government was so pleased that the threat had been neutralized, thanks a great deal to the robots, that they loaned out the Nyeri indefinitely without recompense.

Dag told Sigmund they were using the ship for free, Sigmund always liked

freebies.

The small fusion freighter Amuru was headed back to New Adowa. Without a spin-two drive, it was mostly tanks strapped to a spine, which carried helium-3 to the planet from the outer gas giants where it was mined. It was a routine turn where new crew could get their first experience of working in space.

Captain Hikam Fenta was on automatic, thinking about what he was going to do during his downtime. Probably fishing and more fishing. There was still Old Moby to catch in that lake up around ...

The collision alarm sounded, the Captain was jerked back to reality.

“What is it CO?”

“We are heading for some obstruction Captain but nothing but the interferometer reads anything.”

The ship began a motion that reminded Fenta of his fishing boat. The Ems were automatically firing the attitude rockets to maintain trim. The Amuru was groaning under the stress.

“Helm put us over, thirty degrees to port.”

The ship calmed down.

“What was it Captain?”

“I don't know, just felt like we were riding the rapids at an angle.”

The Amuru soon settled down and the Captain hurriedly sent a report to New Adowa.

“Dr. Mach, this is Dr. Oneko. Thank you for taking my call.”

“Of course Dr. Oneko, what may I do for you?”

“I have heard that you will soon be leaving to study the disappearance of the AdS space and I wanted to tell you of an incident that was recently reported by a freighter in system.”

“Yes Dr. Oneko?”

“Well the Amuru is a small helium-3 freighter and they encountered a very strange anomaly just over thirty AU from New Adowa in the outer system. According to their interferometer readings, they brushed up against an intense area of gravity.”

“Like a knot in space Dr. Oneko?”

“Well the Captain described it as shooting the rapids.”

“Could I get a copy of the interferometer readings?”

“Of course Dr. Mach. As soon as possible.”

“Thank you Dr. Oneko, I'll let you know my conclusions once I've seen the data.”

“Thank you Dr. Mach, goodbye.”

“Do you think it has anything to do with the disappearance of the AdS region Dag?”

“Maybe Sigmund. The thing is that if that region has done what I think, twisting itself off from normal spacetime, it has put a tremendous stress on the rest of spacetime. In response spacetime near and far from the twist is affected. To prevent the tearing of spacetime at the point of twisting the rest of spacetime must give.

“This introduces stress from the twisting. The stress at these points also affects the underlying link geometry. At some points these links become twisted and knotted and they then affect the overlying spacetime similarly. I believe one of these knot points is what the Amuru encountered. And what the Captain called 'shooting the rapids' could be the ship encountering the gravitational results of

stressed spacetime.”

“So these anomalies could show up elsewhere?”

“Eventually they will pepper the whole of the New Adowan system Walker.”

“What can we do?”

“We have to relieve the stress by untwisting the region. We will also then be able to get to Walker and Hanson.”

“You think they're still alive Dag?”

“As long as there is no tearing of spacetime they should be.”

“Tearing? Of spacetime? That's impossible isn't it?”

“According to the old string theory a closed string, a loop of string, could surround the tear and keep it from spreading. But we know now that string theory hasn't stood up to experiment. And its challenger, point-particle theory, which so far is experimentally verified, has nothing to surround the tear so it is possible it could develop.”

“This is proven?”

“No, but this could prove it.”

The Kimanjo Mining District was over two AU from New Adowa. The New Adowan System's asteroid belt was not as extensive as the one in the Solar System. But it still held enough resources to build the space habitats important for the expansion of humanity throughout the system.

The mining work never stopped. It was mostly done by robotic machines but there was always a human around as overseer. Amerigo Hudson was on the “night” shift, the least popular shift for workers of the Kimanjo Mining Company. Amerigo didn't care. Out in the belt, day and night didn't really apply but extra pay for unpopular shift work did.

Amerigo was watching and listening to the latest installment of his coursework, he was studying for a degree in Astronomy. Because the automation usually didn't require any input from Amerigo his studies were going well.

As he was finishing up the chapter there was an alarm. From his perch above the asteroid being mined Amerigo could see most of the mining equipment. He looked down toward the asteroid's surface. There a cloud of dust and debris was fleeing from the surface.

He squinted to see more. He saw one of the giant strip-mining machines on its side. The belts and diggers still whirling as if the machine were mining the vacuum.

The dust and debris began slamming Amerigo's observation vehicle. He would have to move it out of the way or risk damage. He started the process of distancing himself from the asteroid.

Amerigo took one last look at the asteroid below. It seemed solid but undergoing a continuous quaking. As it continued to break up the pieces started forming what looked to be a twisted pile of rubble.

With more and more pieces of the asteroid breaking and careening into space Amerigo decided not to stay around. The cameras had recorded enough for others to figure out what was happening. He fired the rockets of the observation platform with a course to the nearest space habitat.

“Reports are coming in from all over Dag.”

Sigmund was speaking of news that had been relayed to the Nyeri from Dr. Oneko.

“All of them similar. Knot like anomalies are appearing across the System. One apparently appeared inside an asteroid breaking it apart, there is video.”

Dag and Sigmund watched the video that Amerigo's observation platform had captured.

“Is this what you expected Dag?”

“Well it's spreading faster and further than I thought but that probably means the stress is greater than I thought, but that could be to our advantage.”

“How's that Dag?”

“You know how a weight on a string when it is hanging down can be spun around and around but eventually the string will resist anymore turns? Well that could be what is happening to the kink, it has almost reached the limit of its twisting. It either has to stop and unwind or tear.”

“What if it tears?”

“You wouldn't want to be close.”

“But we are going to be close, aren't we Dag? Dag?”

Dag didn't answer, he just started the spin-two drive to take them near the area where he expected to find the anomaly he called the kink.

Chapter 24

“I didn't think there would be anything to see Dag.”

A soft glow was coming from the area ahead. Tinted red with occasional bright flashes and a vague outline of the twisting gravitational fields otherwise invisible.

“What you are seeing Sigmund is elementary atoms of hydrogen and some other elements caught in the strong gravitational fields of the anomaly. They are being accelerated and decelerated almost as if they were in an oscillating high voltage field.

“Now the cords of gravitation are wrapped and twisted around each other in such a way that there is no uniform gravity until you remove yourself quite a distance, as we are.

“Those particles are encountering fast-changing gravitational fields on the molecular scale. So you are seeing something similar as when atoms are excited by absorbing energy and then giving off light as they relax.”

“Sigmund get me a recording of what we are seeing.”

After a few minutes, Dag took the recording and processed it to enhance the gravity fields. The twisting of the fields down to the kink was quite apparent.

“Okay Sigmund, now we wait. If I'm right we should see an untwisting of this gravitational field shortly. I'm going to write a program with the help of the image processing Ems to notify us as soon as those twisted gravitational fields stop tightening and start to loosen.”

The days dragged as the two waited for the change in the field to take place. But the news from the outside world was changing quickly. What had started as an interesting nuisance was becoming more dangerous. More knot like anomalies were appearing and more were causing damage. Dr. Oneko had called Dag hoping for news. Dag had explained that they would have to wait a while longer, he expected it to be soon though.

“Dr. Mach we also appear to be experiencing the same psychological manifestations as happened to the ship crews. This sense of impending disaster is beginning to affect enough people that the news media is using the story and is, to say the least, creating a good deal of panic. Suicides and overdoses have doubled each of the past several days.”

“I am sorry to hear that Dr. Oneko but as I said I am hopeful that the stress from this anomaly will start to diminish very soon.”

“Thank you Dr. Mach. I just hope you are right and we see an improvement soon or the media will have us all slitting our throats.”

“Sounds like things are getting worse for them.”

“I know Sigmund and all we can do is wait.”

Dag seemed unusually disturbed.

“Sometimes I feel like such a failure,” he said. “I pretend that I know what I'm doing but really a lot is just processing probabilities, guessing is what a human would call it.”

“Yeah but your guessing is better than most people's facts. You've saved human lives time after time.”

“We have Sigmund. You, Walker, Hanson and the others. But it's never enough. It seems the more we muck with nature the more problems show up.”

“Dag that's always been true. But the question is whether you withdraw from mucking, as you call it, or you fix what you've mucked up. Look at what happened with the Dhalkans. They are probably more capable than you or me but they quit. They left the New Adowans to fend for themselves. I'm not blaming them but I'm just saying you would never do that. You always finish what you started, correct your mistakes, and made the world a better place, for all beings.”

“Maybe Sigmund. But when we solve this I think my days as problem solver to the universe are over. I just want to stay on Escan and pursue some minor research that won't change the world.”

“I think we all want that Dag, if the world would just let us.”

After their talk, Dag suspended but Sigmund was still in the control area. He noticed immediately. He called Dag through his radio and woke him. Dag showed up.

“What is it Sigmund?”

“The light's changed.”

“What do you mean?”

Just then the image processing Ems alarmed.

“That's the alarm indicating the twist is slowing down. Good catch Sigmund. The change in light you noticed must have signaled the changeover.”

“What now Dag?”

“I suggest we suspend Sigmund. When we resume I believe we will see the beginning of the untwisting.”

Dag was the first to resume. He turned to look at the wallscreen. The outlines of

the anomaly were barely visible. He checked the image processing. Though it was very slow Dag could tell by speeding up the video that the twist in spacetime had stopped tightening and was beginning to loosen. Essentially spinning in the opposite direction now.

By the time Sigmund resumed Dag could show him that the twist was definitely loosening. It was obvious after a moments viewing.

“What's next Dag?”

“Well at the rate it is untwisting the kink should be open enough into what is left of that AdS space for us to attempt to cast a wormhole through. At least a wormhole big enough for a robot to make it through.”

“A wormhole, why not a link?”

Sigmund knew the answer as soon as he had asked but Dag explained anyway.

“There are no links on the other side. The kink broke, all those links. That is why the space is so disturbing to humans, it is a void, unable to any coherence such as life.”

“Well how can Walker and Hanson still be there?”

“They wouldn't be if they were organic but their forms are held together by

something a little stronger than cells, so it will take much longer for them to dissolve, so to speak. But eventually, they will if we don't get them out. Even now they will probably need something from their triage kits.

“Get ready Sigmund. The kink is opening up. I'm about to cast the wormhole.”

“How do you know where to cast Dag?”

“ that this space is characterized by a negative cosmological constant and because of it, this space is “smoothed out” when compared to ordinary space, even at the quantum level. But the disruption caused by mass in this space creates and churns up the quantum foam where wormhole mouths can come into being. So any cast of the far mouth that takes will necessarily be near a mass. I might have to make more than one cast and open the wormhole enough to investigate before we find the Sele.

“That's where you come in. I want you to man a scope-recorder and tell me when you see the ship.”

“Okay Dag, I'm ready.”

Just like untwisting the end of a balloon, the kink would open enough to allow the wormhole to be cast through. But it would start closing off almost immediately as the untwisting region ed through the point of lowest stress and then continued, twisting the opening off again as it continued to spin in the opposite direction. Dag would have enough time if he hurried and there weren't too many other masses attracting the cast mouth.

“Here we go,” said Dag. “Hang on I'm going to lower the spin rate of the wheel so that it will be easier to cast the far mouth.”

The wheel slowed until there was only enough motion to allow the use of the generator. The artificial gravity of the spinning wheel almost disappeared.

Dag then brought up the near mouth of the wormhole and allowed it to stabilize. From a point, it expanded to become an opaque sphere. Dag cast the other side of the wormhole. It was working. He could see the near end clearing but he couldn't tell what was on the other side.

“That's not it Dag.”

“Okay Sigmund, recasting.”

Again and again, Dag cast the far wormhole mouth and Sigmund vetoed it until finally.

“Wait Dag! I think that's it.”

A moment.

“Yes it's the Sele. You're outside the ship. The crew wheel is powered down. Can

you move the far mouth?”

“How far, which way Sigmund?”

Sigmund gave him an estimate.

Finally, the wormhole mouth opened onto the control room of the Sele.

“I can't see anything Dag, I'm going in.”

“Wait Sigmund, it might be dangerous.”

But Sigmund had rapidly pushed off his chair to the near mouth of the wormhole and ed through. Dag pulled himself to the scope-recorder station. By that time he could see that Sigmund had a dim light on and already had what looked like Walker over his shoulder.

He seemed to launch himself straight at the recorder and then emerged from the near mouth. Stopping his momentum with one hand on a console he placed Walker's inert frame into a chair. Dag moved to help, as soon as he arrived Sigmund pushed off toward the mouth again.

Dag got Walker's frame strapped into the chair and returned to the scoperecorder. He saw Sigmund gripping Hanson and push off toward the far mouth but he missed and sailed out of sight.

It was then that Dag noticed his view being blocked. He pushed closer to the wormhole mouth leaned forward and yelled.

“Sigmund if you can hear me. The wormhole is being forced closed by the twisting. Hurry!”

Chapter 25

Sigmund had pushed off from the wall behind the wormhole mouth and was headed for it from behind. If he entered from such a direction he would not be able to control his exit from the wormhole. But it didn't matter, he had heard Dag's exhortations and knew he had no choice.

Sigmund emerged from the near wormhole mouth upside down with Hanson in tow. It didn't matter much in the almost zero-g of the room. When Dag saw them emerge he moved to shut down the wormhole but it wasn't necessary. It had been pinched off by the twisting spacetime.

Now the near mouth, unattached, refused to respond to the wormhole generator. It began to float toward the center of the room. With all the negative energy trapped in the mouth, it began to seek out the greatest concentration of mass.

Dag noticed that it ed through the room toward the wall that faced the front of the ship. The massive particle shield which protected the ship at speed from uncharged particles was located there.

That would be fine with Dag if it weren't for the fact that the control room wall stood in its way. And when it encountered that wall it would likely damage it ing through. So Dag started the generator again and put a new wormhole mouth in front of the breakaway mouth. He cast the far end of the wormhole. The free mouth entered the larger anchored mouth and disappeared. As soon as possible Dag quenched the wormhole.

“Quick thinking Dag,” said Sigmund who had righted himself and strapped Hanson's form into a chair. “You can start up the wheel again.”

With the wheel providing the usual four-tenths gravity Dag and Sigmund worked on the inert robots. Several circuits from each robot's triage kit were used. Finally, they began to stir.

“Hi Dag.”

“Hi Walker.”

“Where am I?”

Dag and Sigmund explained to the other two all that had happened since they had fallen into the AdS space. Dag particularly highlighted Sigmund's part in the rescue of the other two robots.

“So you can thank our very own superhero, Sigmund.”

Sigmund took a bow with a flourish and then asked Dag, “What will happen now to the twisting spacetime?”

“It will twist until it has again gone as far as it can and then it will start back the other way. But the current cycle will not twist as far as the last. It will oscillate like that for a while losing energy to gravitational waves until it finally settles

down.”

“So the effects of the stress it generates will not be as bad each oscillation.”

“That's right Sigmund the worse is behind us.”

Arriving high above Escan it was immediately apparent that something had happened.

“Dag there is a cloud of debris circling the planet.”

“Can you make out its composition Hanson?”

“Spec-scope indicates bits of carbon nanoweave at high temperature.”

“Stuff that our satellites are made of,” said Sigmund.

“Can you raise the planet?”

“Nothing Dag?”

“Nothing?”

“No electromagnetics at all.”

“That's impossible, there are hundreds of robots down there. They would all have to be in suspension at the same time to suppress all EM.

“Okay let's get close enough to see with our own visuals.”

The view from the scope was put on the wallscreen.

“Dag, all I see is an outline of our buildings. Kind of like a shadow projected onto the planet.”

“I think you are right Sigmund. Something terrible has happened here besides the satellites I think the effect was also felt on the planet.”

“So they are all nothing but a fine dust just as the satellites?”

“Let's do a little more exploring before we answer that question. Make sure we didn't miss anything.”

A thorough examination of the planet revealed no life, robotic or otherwise only

a small rise in the ambient temperature of ground and atmosphere. The four were together discussing the situation.

“You Sigmund when I told you that I thought the worse was over?”

“Yeah Dag.”

“Well I was obviously wrong.”

“So you think there is a link between what happened here and that twisting remnant of AdS space?”

“Think of what happens to a material, any material, that is stressed and flexed over and over.”

“It softens at the point of inflection and eventually fails.”

“That's right Walker. Now we have a generator of stress, the remnant of AdS space, that is over and over stressing, flexing, bending our normal spacetime. We know that in certain locations the underlying link-space is garbled and weak.”

“The sinkholes.”

“Right Sigmund. Now what I believe we are seeing is the tearing of spacetime. And if we are then at the edge of that tear there will be a singularity.”

“But it would not be a point singularity but an extended singularity like the superstring we encountered above Earth.”

“Exactly Walker.”

“But that singularity caused stress in the Earth which led to volcanic eruptions. Escan, the planet, doesn't seem to have suffered such stresses.”

“You are right Hanson but this is a slightly different string type. This is a cosmic string and it encircles the tear. Now the tear may not be a perfect circle to begin with and you would get gravitational effects such as we saw on Earth. But the string would circularize the tear in a matter of microseconds. Then it would pull together the tear until it disappears. And that is when it could cause the damage we've seen.

“As the tear is pulled it comes together in a kind of pucker. Think of a cloth pushed through a ring. Now to finish, the string, a ring in this example, has to smooth out the spacetime pucker. It then has to evaporate. If it evaporates in an explosion of gravitational waves then it wouldn't leave a smooth, calm spacetime. So it dissolves in a burst of very powerful electromagnetic waves.”

“How powerful?”

“Probably a power roughly equal to that of a Sun-like star. And these powerful electromagnetic waves are focused in one direction. the pucker and ring? They are focused along a line perpendicular to the ring and they are also tightly frequency constrained.

“All this means that immensely powerful electromagnetic radiation is beamed into space. I think Escan was in the path of one of these beams and most of the elements of which we and our artifacts are made suffered a Coulomb explosion.”

“Which transforms intense electromagnetic fields into atomic motion.”

“Right Walker and if EM-fields are intense enough that motion can lead to the break-up of atomic bonds and the disintegration of materials. The increase in temperature we've noted is also a giveaway of these fields heating the atmosphere and planet.”

“But Dag I don't understand how it turned those satellites ...”

“And buildings.”

“Right Hanson, and buildings into a fine powder while leaving the planet untouched?”

“Most materials today are made by nano-manufacturing methods Sigmund. This means that the atoms are well aligned almost as well as natural crystals. These aligned atoms all respond similarly, that is vibrate in sympathy with the

incoming EM-fields. This motion in unison creates enormous mechanical motion and heat and breaks the atomic bonds. The material disintegrates.

“Now natural materials like the planet is mostly made of are not nearly as orderly on the atomic level. Although its atoms also vibrate in sympathy to the EM-fields they do not do so in unison because they are not well aligned but are chaotically arranged. So the vibrations and resultant heat do not build to the same levels and the material does not disintegrate.

“However, living cells even though they are not nano-engineered and somewhat chaotic are also susceptible because the sheer concentration of the power of the EM-fields rapidly heats them. Therefore they also are disrupted and eventually disintegrate.”

“Well that brings up the question Dag.”

“Yes Sigmund?”

“Are we going to see more of these Coulomb explosion events?”

“I'm afraid so Sigmund.”

“What can we do Dag?”

“That is the real question Sigmund.”

Chapter 26

The planet Asebe was more than sixty light-years from New Adowa. The Tewahs were a people with a unique religion. They had never been accepted on New Adowa. They were a people that had always been apart.

Asefa Ail had been down to the planet's surface again. He was prospecting for useful minerals that were needed back on the Tewahs' space habitat.

The planet had an atmosphere but it wasn't breathable. Asefa had a full suit on just in case. Using the laser drill and a spectroscope Asefa had just marked what appeared to be a very pure vein of graphite. He opened a channel to base. His radio was relayed through the prospecting vehicle where it would be boosted in power.

“Base this is Prospector One, over.”

There was no response. He was just about to call again when he heard the buzzing. It sounded like a swarm of insects. And it was getting louder.

Then suddenly he felt extremely hot. Prickly beads of sweat broke out on his forehead. He even tried to wipe them away although his helmet prevented the effort. That was when he noticed his glove on his right hand. It was peeling.

The heat became almost unbearable, his suit's ability to cool was failing. Still

staring at his glove he could see it disintegrating. And then his hand, the skin pocked like it was drying and turning to leather.

Asefa finally screamed as his internal fluids boiled and he fell, dead before he hit the ground. The process of disintegration continued until there was nothing but a dusting as of a human body in outline.

On New Adowa Prime Minister Menza felt as if she couldn't continue. Each time she thought she knew the right course to take the situation had changed. The planet evacuation had been held off and now it would obviously be too late to start. She felt so weary.

“Yes Madam Prime Minister the planet is about sixty light-years from New Adowa. The report by the investigating spaceship says that all life and structures including the space habitat carrying fifty-thousand Tewahs have disappeared.”

“This is the same phenomenon that happened on the robot planet is it not Dr. Oneko.”

“Yes it is.”

“But it is different from what the Amuru and the miner saw.”

“They are related Prime Minister. Dr. Mach thinks of the earlier phenomenon as being like a knot in spacetime. Now he believes we are dealing with the results of a tear in spacetime and its healing.”

“A tear in spacetime? I thought that impossible.”

“Well it is, at least on a long term basis. Strangely though it is not the tear itself that causes all the destruction but its healing.”

“We can expect more of these incidents?”

“Yes Madam Prime Minister, we believe the incidents will continue until the remnant of AdS space quits its twisting and stressing of spacetime.”

“What can we do?”

“We are not sure Madam Prime Minister but Dr. Mach and his colleagues are coming here in the ship Nyeri and I and a few others plan to them to try to come up with a solution.”

“Very well Dr. Oneko thank you for the briefing I must now meet with my emergency preparedness team and come up with a plan to allay the rising fears we see in the public. Please keep me informed of your efforts with Dr. Mach.”

“Dr. Mach thank you for your efforts and I just want to say to you and your colleagues that I am very sorry for what has happened to your planet.”

Dr. Oneko and her team were aboard the Nyeri meeting with Dag and the other robots.

“Thank you Dr. Oneko, it is a great loss. Now about the current situation. First can you tell me if there have been any more incidents since the loss of the Tewahs?”

“There have been more incidents and loss of life Dr. Mach. I fear that it won't be long until we lose a planet heavily populated.”

Dr. Oneko did not realize how prescient her words were.

Not far from New Adowa in the system Bennaet the second planet from that star had a favorable temperature range for human life and liquid water but the atmosphere was unbreathable without mechanical assistance. The result was that it had been colonized mostly underground. The population had grown to several million.

George Sonteh hadn't immigrated to Bennaet, he was there on contract work. His company, Labnet, had won the contract for information technology. He was staying in an underground hotel. To save money the company travel liaison had booked the lowest floor of the hotel for its employees even though several of the floors above were empty. Fifteen floors underground George felt like a rat in a hole.

He had just finished a night shift in which he had rerouted most of the cables that the day shift had errantly hooked up. But George wasn't in charge, he was just responsible for getting the job done regardless of how poorly the rest of the team

performed. He left the rest of the crew working the day shift and headed for the hotel. Anyway, he was looking forward to several hours of undisturbed sleep.

George woke to light. At first, he was confused because he was sure he had turned all the lights out before he went to sleep. Then he groggily realized that it was the emergency lighting above the door in the front room. He had failed to shut the bedroom door.

He looked at the clock on his Emmie, he had only been asleep three hours.

Not enough.

He rolled over to go back to sleep but noticed the lack of airflow in the room. It was getting more than stuffy, it was getting hot. As he rose his hand touched the wall behind the bed.

Ouch! How could it be so hot?

Now he was awake. He got up and started getting dressed.

Definitely hotter than it should be. The air system must have failed.

He looked around for anything he might need.

But I'm fifteen floors underground. It might be stuffy without air circulation but it shouldn't be hot.

The thought that it was hotter than it should be prompted George to leave his room in search of answers taking only his Emmie with him. The door was hot, and it was jammed. A little tugging and it finally opened.

Out in the hall, the temperature wasn't much different.

Where is all this heat coming from?

George made his way to the lift, but of course, it wasn't working. He would have to use the stairs. It was a long way to the first floor. He began to climb after he opened another stubbornly wedged door.

The heat must be swelling the doors more than the frames.

He was climbing steadily but it was getting hotter fast.

Should've brought some water. I can get a bottle in the store. Why's it so hot?

It was the fifth floor from the top that he noticed something strange besides the increasing heat. The handrail felt chalky like the metal had undergone some kind of change. And the door to the hallway on that floor looked like it was loose. He continued.

Two more floors and the handrails had disappeared. What looked like a fine powder was left on the steps. The steps themselves crunched as he walked. The heat was almost unbearable. Then on the next floor, he was stopped by what he saw in outline on the floor.

Dust piles in the shape of human bodies. Some small enough to be children. George was shocked, his brain shut down. He could only stare in horror.

It was the sound of an explosion that startled him back to awareness.

The loud boom was immediately followed by a rising wind. At first, the wind rushed out but then calmed. George knew he was in trouble. A breach in containment had occurred somewhere above. The planet's atmosphere would be filtering in and be suffocating to all humans.

I should have brought my re-breather.

George's re-breather would concentrate what oxygen and nitrogen were in the atmosphere, making it breathable to humans. He started to turn to race downstairs but thought that maybe he could find a re-breather on one of the higher levels.

He ran down one flight of stairs where the doors were either missing or breached. It was the only level he searched because in every room he checked with an open door there was nothing but the dust outlines of furniture, appliances, people's belongings and of course, the people themselves.

That was enough for George. He headed down the stairs as fast as he could. Arriving back in his room, he stood a moment, trying to where he had left his re-breather. Standing there he noticed the air was becoming stale. He would have to stay on the re-breather until he was rescued.

But who will rescue me?

Chapter 27

Sci-pedia

The Online Resource for Science

Frame-dragging

Frame-dragging is an effect of General Relativity. Applied to a massive rotating object it causes the spacetime around such an object to be accelerated in the direction of the object's rotation. Applied to a massive object in linear motion it causes the spacetime surrounding the mass to be dragged along in the direction of the object's motion.

If a body such as a spaceship is close to the massive, moving object it will experience its reference frame, that is the frame that it finds itself at rest, being dragged along with the body.

This effect was previously used in the Wormhole Transport Network to move spaceships over longer distances than wormholes allowed at the time. The Wormhole Transport Network addressed the issue by establishing a long-jump wormhole between two destinations, keeping it operating by firing masses into it and, through the use of general relativistic frame-dragging, transporting a spaceship at a finite but large rate across that distance.

Because the spaceship must be extremely close to the wormhole for the framedragging effect to work a phenomenon known colloquially as “wormhole singing” developed. The ships could hear this “singing” during transport. The phenomenon occurred because the wormhole was radiating away gravity waves at all frequencies, particularly at audio frequencies, and a ship's hull would respond to the waves by vibrating. The phenomenon was so loud that spaceships had to be redesigned to dampen the sound . . .

“It has happened Dr. Mach,” said Dr. Oneko. “A colonized planet in the Bennaet system has suffered an incident. Out of several million inhabitants, less than a hundred-thousand have been ed for.”

They continued to exchange some information before finishing the call. Dag then went to the control room where he saw Sigmund.

“Somehow,” he said, “we've got to start production on the energy dissipation spheres. It's the only thing we can do to help.”

“But Dag we have no resources.”

“The human governments will have to step up Sigmund. Prime Minister Menza is going to relay our request.”

“Good luck with that.”

Perhaps it was the serious nature of the threat or perhaps it was the deaths on

Bennaet that had gotten their attention. But all the governments ed by Prime Minister Menza responded in the negative and New Adowa alone did not have the resources to deliver the spheres in time.

The governments had begun selfishly hoarding their resources. But they were willing to convene a conference on New Adowa to discuss the matter further.

“Discuss the matter? Well that's it Dag.”

“It can't be Sigmund, we have to do something.”

“What? We have no resources and the humans won't help.”

“We'll go see the Dhalkans. They face the same disaster as the rest of us. They may be willing to help.”

“I doubt it Dag.”

“We have to try.”

Dag and Walker prepared to leave in the Nyeri. Because Dag felt that a face to face meeting might be more persuasive. Sigmund and Walker would stay on New Adowa to attend any conference that might be called.

“I'll see you in a week Sigmund.”

“Right-o Dag my boy. Happy hunting!”

Walker said to Dag after they linked Sigmund and Hanson down to the New Adowan surface, “Do you ever think Sigmund's losing it?”

“You know Walker, we are all under such stress that I almost don't notice anymore.”

“I agree Dag.”

“Okay here we go.”

Dag brought the spin-two drive online and found the mouth of the nonlocal link that would take them within ten light-years of the Dhalkan system. From there they would monitor the Dhalkan's planet before linking into orbit around it.

They came out of the link in good order. Dag was just about to tell Walker to the Dhalkans when Walker spoke up.

“Dag did you feel that?”

“Yes Walker, what are the readings?”

“Huge gravity waves just ed us.”

“The Dhalkans must be using their gravity wave generator.”

“If these readings are correct they are for some reason creating a focused wave.”

“We've seen them do that before. They used it to destroy fusion ships. By concentrating the waves at the point a ship occupies the resulting build-up stretches and stresses the vessel until disintegration.”

“Yeah but they haven't done it here or we wouldn't be having this discussion.”

“Quite right. Well I guess you should the Dhalkans anyway.”

A moment and Walker said, “Go ahead Dag, it's a Dr. Lindemann.”

“Dr. Lindemann, this is Dr. Mach of the New Gallan ship Nyeri. We are here . . .”

“Dr. Mach we know why you are here. We are already considering your proposal.”

“Thank you Dr. Lindemann. I wonder is Dr. Anton with you?”

“Dr. Mach, the Dhalkans aboard the ship that failed the mission to New Adowa have been cast out of Dhalkan society.”

“Very well then, thank you.”

“A little abrupt but I guess that's all we need. Still Dr. Anton and the others?”

“It must have been some kind of power play by Dr. Lindemann Walker. Anyway, let's get started.”

They were waiting for further with the Dhalkans when the collision alarm went off.

“What is it Walker?”

“I can't tell. All I'm seeing is the gravitational effects and they are tremendous.”

Then Dag and Walker noticed the off-axis force. It seemed to be tossing the ship about. Inside the crew wheel, the motion made it difficult to stay upright. They strapped into their seats.

“Can you tell me anything more Walker?”

“Something real massive just missed us. Our velocity is increasing in that direction.”

“Can we hold station?”

“I'll try. Uh-oh.”

“What is it?”

The ship leaned again as if caught in a wave.

“Another massive object just missed us. Dag I think it was frame-dragging us. Our velocity has increased again.”

Before Dag could say anything another and then another incident occurred.

“What can you tell me Walker?

“Just that we are traveling with this gravitating body and leaving the Dhalkan

system.”

“Towards New Adowa?”

“No, exactly the opposite.”

“Okay I'm going to see if I can link us out of here.”

Dag worked the controls of the spin-two drive but nothing seemed to happen.

“What is it Dag, why are we still being tossed about?”

“The drive can't lock onto a link mouth Walker.”

“Is it a drive failure?”

“I don't think so. The drive is working but the links are moving about too fast to pinpoint.”

“Dag I have a reading on the mass of the last object we seem to be traveling with. It's six times ten to the twenty-fourth kilograms.”

“About the weight of the Earth.”

“But the size Dag, it's too small. I read less than a centimeter.”

“It's a black hole and we are just outside its event horizon.”

“We're orbiting a black hole less than a centimeter?

“Yes. we are caught in its gravitational field and it is definitely tossing us about as you can feel.”

Walker couldn't argue.

“How in the world did we get close enough to such a thing to be trapped?”

“That's it exactly Walker. This is a kind of trap. No doubt the Dhalkans set us up. They used their gravity wave generators to accelerate these microscopic black holes and aim them precisely at us.”

“I don't understand Dag. Any motion caused by a gravity wave is mostly perpendicular to its direction of travel isn't it?”

“Most motion, not all. The waves can impart some velocity in their direction of

travel. But it is very slight unless.”

“Unless what?”

“Unless they've figured out how to create a crest on the wave.”

“A crest Dag?

“Yeah you know like a surfboard being propelled by a breaking wave.”

“The energy for such an effect would be huge Dag.”

“Obviously the Dhalkans have conquered that problem also.”

“Okay then how do we get out? Can we wait until it evaporates?”

“Unfortunately Walker this black hole is much larger than the ones used by the wormhole weapon. I estimate it will last for something like ten to the fifty years.”

“Well that's too long,” said Walker.

“Why did they do it?”

“They obviously don't want us to get back to New Adowa.”

“But why?”

“I wonder,” said Walker. “I wonder if we really were responsible for that AdS space?”

“You mean the Dhalkans?”

“Why not? Except for Dr. Anton they've never been that cooperative. They even tried to kill you, me and Sigmund, .”

“Of course I Walker.”

“Maybe some of them are too much like their Beleni ancestors.”

“I knew Dr. Anton and Walker and I can assure you she was not a megalomaniac.”

“She's no longer on Dhalka though.”

Dag didn't answer. Maybe Walker was right.

“You may be right Walker. But right now we've got to get our foot out of this trap.”

Chapter 28

“Where in the world could they be?”

“You mean where in the universe Sigmund?”

“Right Hanson.”

While waiting for the Nyeri more human settlements had been the victims of a spacetime tear.

The tear opened above the planet Merer in the Merak system. As usual, the tear began to be “healed” by an encircling cosmic string. As it pulled together the powerful EM-waves were focused onto the planet. The focus was tight and the circular footprint of the radiation was contained between twenty degrees north and twenty degrees south latitude.

Because the planet was not hospitable to life most of the settlers had remained in the orbiting space habitats. Though small for their time each habitat contained over ten-thousand people. Three habitats, Aheri, Jamba 2, and Laheri were luckily orbiting on the opposite side of Merer when the radiation beam struck.

“It's unbelievable Joseph. What can we do?”

“I don't know Liath. Three habitats have been lost already. Jamba 2 will orbit into the beam in a few hours. They are trying to evacuate. We and Laheri habitat should be ready to take on survivors.”

“We've got to do something. We can't just wait until we orbit around into that beam of death.”

“The only thing I can think of doing is trying to get the habitat to an orbit that will pace the anomaly. Keeping it exactly on the opposite side of the planet from the beam. The planet will then continue to attenuate the beam until it stops.”

“We can use the space tug Joseph?”

“Yes. But.”

“What?”

“The space tug will only be able to move one of the remaining habitats into a safe orbit. The question is which one?”

“Oh no, how can we make such a decision for thousands of lives?”

“Well the tug is closer to us. I suppose our habitat has the best chance to reach safety.”

Only minutes later an address from the Governor of the habitat made it clear that Aheri would not be moved by the space tug. It would take too long to spin down. Only the Laheri habitat had the time to spin down so that the tug could dock and move it to the proper orbit. They were willing to take as many women and children as could be ferried over before it was too late.

“So that's it Joseph. The habitat is dead and we are dead. There are only the six fusion ships and they only carry a hundred people each.”

“Besides they will be busy ferrying women and children to Laheri as long as they can Liath.”

Liath said goodbye to his friend for a last time to return to his home to await the end. Joseph decided to do what he always did when things seemed hopeless. He would visit the observation room at one end of the cylindrical habitat. The room was at the center of the axis of rotation and through a system of bearings did not itself rotate. The view of the stars was often spectacular from there.

Taking the automated trolley system to the end of the cylinder, Joseph then used a combination of escalators and lifts to arrive at the axis of the habitat. Here there was no sense of artificial gravity. One floated as in space. Another reason Joseph enjoyed the observation room.

The room was open although no one was there, not even the attendant.

Probably home spending the last few hours with their family.

Unfortunately, he would be unable to check out any scopes for detailed viewing but that was okay. He just wanted to take in the stars which were quite brilliant in the shadow of the planet. That shadow and this view would not last though, then the orbiting habitat ed to the lighted side of the planet.

So many stars.

Joseph woke to the unmistakable feeling of heat, He could see the planet below him. They were far around the day side of the planet. They were probably ing into the path of the beam.

The temperature was definitely increasing. The heat felt like it was coming not only from without his body but also within. Joseph pushed away from the observatory's viewport towards its door. He had to get some relief from the heat.

What had happened around the planet Merer caused a crisis on planet after planet. The conference on New Adowa was abruptly halted. Soon the governments were calling their fusion ships back. They were leaving New Adowa even though Prime Minister Menza begged each one of them to stay until Dr. Mach returned and reported.

“What can we do now Dr. Oneko. Even should Dr. Mach turn up today we no longer have sufficient cooperation to implement any plan he may have.”

“I don't know Madam Prime Minister. If Dr. Mach does not show up soon I can only suggest that we go ahead and do what we can with the resources we have

left to us. It may not be enough but it is certain that eventually all humanoccupied space will be affected, maybe even destroyed by this threat.”

Menza did not answer, she was praying hard.

“Dag have you come up with a way out of this trap?”

“Walker sometimes I wish I had never studied physics and got my PhD and set myself up as an expert. I don't feel like an expert. I feel like a fool making guesses. Guesses that could kill billions of people and robots.”

“That may be Dag but as Sigmund says, your guesses are better than most peoples certainties.”

Dag paused.

“Okay then, here is my latest guess.”

“If we were a fraction as heavy as this microscopic black hole we could affect the parameters of our mutual orbit. We could sling ourselves away from the black hole in an ever-increasing elliptical orbit. Eventually, we would be far enough away at apogee to regain control.”

“The wormhole generator?”

“Exactly. If I can time the creation of a very large exotic mass-energy and then quench it at the right time I believe I can use the resulting repulsive gravity to sling us further and further away from the black hole.”

Dag started trying to time the creation of the large exotic mass that a wormhole generator can easily produce. After a couple of seconds, Dag got the timing down and continued for several minutes.

“It's happening Dag. We should be at breakaway apogee in a bit over a minute.”

Dag continued shaping the orbit.

“Alright Dag coming up on apogee I'm going to fire the fusion rocket.”

The fusion engine came online. The extra boost at the following apogee drove the ship on a diverging orbit.

“We're free Dag.”

“Okay Walker I'm going to try to figure out which way is home and open a link.”

In a few minutes, Dag had located their position with the help of the navigational Ems. He next located a link and opened the mouth. There appeared the familiar

three-dimensional sphere of the link's mouth as it increased in size.

“Okay Walker let's go.”

Walker had the Ems who were manning the helm nudge the ship into the link mouth. They emerged high above New Adowa.

“Good link Dag.”

“Thanks Walker. Let's call in.”

After a minute Walker said, “Dag I'm getting no response.”

Dag knew something was wrong.

“Alright let's get a little closer.”

The helm took the ship to a lower orbit. An orbit from which with the use of the scopes the ground could be reconned. Below them projected on the wallscreen the area was barren but marked with what looked like outlines, many were geometrical outlines.

“What area are we looking at Walker?”

“If these coordinates are correct we should be seeing Arba Harar.”

“The capital of New Galla. That's impossible I don't see anything that looks like a city or even a settlement.”

“Because it's not there anymore Dag.”

“That means they've had an anomaly breakdown here. We're seeing all that is left after the Coulomb explosions.”

“No buildings, no vehicles, no citizens. That city had a population of forty million Dag. All gone.”

“What about Sigmund and Hanson?”

Walker didn't know what to say.

“How would we even start Dag?”

Then like a disembodied voice, a call came over the comm.

“Dag is that you.”

“Sounds like Sigmund,” said Walker.

“It is Sigmund. Hanson and I are here. Can you link us up?”

“Pinpoint that signal Walker.”

“Got it Dag, coordinates are in the system.”

Soon the bubble of the local link appeared. Sigmund walked through followed by Hanson. The link closed.

“Sigmund, you and Hanson survived.”

“Obviously Walker.”

“How?”

“We had advance warning. One of the ships in orbit had the misfortune to encounter the tear just as it formed. The ship was lost but not before they radioed their encounter. They saved many lives as it allowed some people, and Walker and I, to get underground to safety. After we were sure the beam had disappeared

we started monitoring for you and Dag. But we didn't think it would take you six months.”

“Six months?” said Walker.

“Of course,” said Dag. All that time we spent near the event horizon of the black hole Walker. It slowed our proper clock. Time ed much faster here on New Adowa.”

“Well if you think six months in a hole with no where to go is fast, I guess you're right Dag,” said Sigmund.

Chapter 29

After a few months, it became apparent that every human settlement had been affected to some degree. Settlements such as New Adowa had been decimated. Settlements on worlds more hostile to a human presence had fared better. This was because they were generally built underground for protection from the hostile environment.

Because of the debris lofted into its atmosphere by the incident with the cosmic superstring the Earth had been spared. The airborne dust and debris had acted as a kind of shield diffracting and reflecting the EM-waves, attenuating their power. As a result, the Earth was once again poised to become a dominating powercenter in the aftermath of the crisis.

“Those are Earth ships,” said Hanson who was monitoring the security alarms aboard the Nyeri.

On the wallscreen, Dag could see the three big fusion cruisers entering a similar orbit around New Adowa.

“New Adowan ship this is the United Planets Ship Battleguard, please identify yourself.”

Dag signaled for the comm.

“UPS Battleguard this is the New Gallan research ship Nyeri, I am Dr. Dagmar Mach.”

“A robot? What are you doing aboard a New Gallan ship and how is it that you seem to be the only survivor of the calamity here?”

“Sir, I am a robot but I am also a scientist with an advanced degree in physics. Those aboard this ship were working with the New Gallan government to try and stop this destruction, unfortunately, we failed. As far as why we are still here we had been mapping the sub-space link geometry in the Dhalkan system. Unfortunately, the Dhalkans objected and were able to banish us for some time until we overcame the technology they used and were able to return here.”

“Okay robot I want the names and backgrounds of all those on your ship. Once I do a background check I will get back to you. Stay in this orbit until you hear from me.”

“What are we going to do Dag?”

“We are going to do what the Captain of that ship says Sigmund. We may need Earth's help.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don't think we're out of danger yet.”

“Why Dag?”

“Because Walker there are only two centers of power left in this galaxy. Earth and Dhalka. Very convenient this destruction for either one of them. It removes a lot of rivals at one time.”

“But Dag didn't you say that the weakened link-networks around human settlements were a natural occurrence?”

“Yes, but as I said before, for an AdS space to form spontaneously, you would have to wait longer than the universe has been in existence. So maybe it was one of the power-centers left that caused all this. And it may be that only that power can stop any further destruction.”

“Oh great,” said Sigmund. “We need the humans again.”

“Either them or the Dhalkans.”

“And neither one of them has treated us very well, have they?”

“That is true Sigmund but I think we've learned, especially with the destruction of Escan, that we can't go it alone. Our dream of a robot planet is gone. The reality is that the universe is still a dangerous place that neither humans nor robots can underestimate.”

The others were silent a moment.

“We should at least assert our dignity.”

“Yes Walker I agree, we should expect to be treated with respect.”

“That starts with your degree Dag. You earned that doctorate just like humans. You deserve to be addressed by that title.”

Dag was silent a moment.

“You are right Sigmund. If any are given such recognition then all should. I will make that clear to the Captain when I next speak with him.”

Sigmund was satisfied that Dag would finally start standing up for them.

After a time the comm came alive again.

“Nyeri this is Captain Jenkins.”

“Yes Captain this is Dr. Dagmar Mach.”

“Robot ...”

“Dr. Mach please Captain.”

There was a brief pause.

“Okay Dr. Mach we have confirmed your background. We will permit you to stay in orbit around New Adowa for now. But you are here under the authority of the United Planets and you must report to me if you decide to leave orbit for any reason.”

“Very well Captain.”

As the comm closed Dag turned to see Sigmund nodding his head in the affirmative.

The four were having a discussion.

“Okay Dag. What do you think might happen next?”

“Well Sigmund this is purely speculative but I don't think we've seen the end of our problems.

“The whole of the sub-space we depend on to the universe, at least our local part of the universe, has been compromised by the stress created by the AdS space. Think of it this way. You may have seen pictures of rust which has eaten away a metal. Now many times this rust begins forming at a scratch or dent in the metal. And sometimes it may begin in a place hidden from view.”

“Like the fender of a vehicle. I saw a lot of that on Earth.”

“Right Hanson. Anyway, I suspect that we will begin seeing the results of this stress at the sub-space level soon.”

The destruction had spared most of the people on Renee's planet because it was mostly developed underground. It had also luckily, spared the orbiting habitats. There much manufacturing, power generation and even food production occurred. It was easier many times to build an orbiting habitat for some purpose rather than engineer it deep underground.

Renee was responsible for maintaining a link with the dozen orbiting habitats. They each followed the one ahead in orbit as if on a gravitational chain. They were separated by an angle of thirty degrees around the planet. At any time Renee might be monitoring five or six habitats at once.

It was early in her shift when she lost with Grands habitat. After trying several times to raise the habitat she ed the next habitat in line, Hamlin habitat.

“Hamlin this is link maintenance, come in.”

“Renee this is Hamlin, how are you.”

“Good Tom but I've got a problem. My link is down with Grands. I was wondering if you all could scope them out and see if there is anything visual at their expected coordinates.”

“Right Renee. Give us a minute.”

Almost two minutes went by.

“Link this is Hamlin.”

“Go ahead.”

“Yeah I got the scope guys busy but we came up with nothing.”

“Okay Tom. I was wondering if you would stay online until you get to the last location form which I received their coordinate reports?”

“Roger. So Renee I was wondering if you'd like to come up here this weekend. I could spring for a dinner.”

“I don't know Tom let me get back to you, okay?”

“Sure RN,” he said, using her initials.

Just a few minutes later Renee got a call.

“Renee, this is Tom. We are almost at the location where you said Grands disappeared. We see nothing, radar sees nothing, grav-interferometer sees nothing. There is simply nothing across the spectrum.

“Wait a minute I hear a noise outside.”

The comm went silent.

“Renee, Renee somethings wrong ...”

Renee heard a sound that was almost like a howling wind, then nothing.

“Tom, Tom, are you there?”

She froze a moment. There was nothing in the book about losing with two of the habitats. She would have to make it up. She placed a call to her supervisor but was routed to his call box. After leaving a message she called the

next habitat in orbit.

“Florence habitat this is link maintenance. I advise you to immediately move to a higher orbit, over.”

“Link maintenance this is Florence habitat. We've received no such recommendation from control. What is your authorization?”

“My authorization Florence is a loss of with the two habitats preceding you in orbit. Something has taken out those habitats or at the least is blocking their ability to maintain communications.”

There was a brief moment. A noise like a mic being tussled over was all Renee could hear.

“Link maintenance this is security officer Bryant. Either give us an official authorization or bug off.”

“We should do it Bryant,” Renee heard someone say. “I'll take responsibility, I'm placing the call to the fusion ship.”

Renee heard a bit more and then the comm ceased.

She looked at the telemetry data from the habitat. She also placed a call to the next habitat. Finishing up she saw the telemetry data indicate that Florence

habitat's orbit was being raised. She hoped it would be enough.

After monitoring for a while the telemetry stopped. Renee tried to call Florence habitat but there was no response. She informed the next habitat and continued until she had warned all the habitats. She then started watching the data feeds. All habitats were raising their orbits ever so slowly. Then in walked her supervisor.

“I got your call Norse, what's up?”

Renee explained what had happened and what she had done.

“You gave an order for the habitats to raise their orbits? You don't have the authority to do that. What made you think you could do something like that?”

“Well sir I called you immediately but there was no answer. Two habitats had gone silent at the same place in orbit. It was obvious to me that there was something wrong at those coordinates so without with you I had to make the quick decision if the other habitats were to avoid that dangerous area.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she was watching the telemetry from the fourth habitat as her boss continued to drone. The habitat approached the same orbital parameter except that it was in a much higher orbit at the point in question.

The next habitat reached the same location but the telemetry data did not stop. Renee felt vindicated but a question came immediately to her mind.

What is out there?

Chapter 30

Very few national governments were functioning at a level that could provide any safety or security for their citizens. The government of Tarba wasn't one of those. Located in the star system Buna M1 they weren't too distant, as seen from Earth, from the great star Procyon and its settlements.

The system had been settled much later than the Procyon system and as a result, was less well developed in most ways. But that led to an advantage for the Tarban people, they didn't wait for the government to act.

A small settlement by comparison to others resulted in the power-centers of human space not having an interest in interfering with Tarba. The people had become quite self-sufficient without outside help.

When the destructive EM beam began strafing the planet it resulted in a few deaths but most Tarbans worked and lived underground because the surface was so hostile to human life. A final ing found twenty-seven missing and presumed dead. They were mourned and the Tarbans got on with their lives.

Haile worked for the Tarban government. With almost a hundred-thousand settlers and only a few hundred government employees Haile often took on more than one task.

Right now she was monitoring the space around Tarba. The government hoped that it could develop a system to detect the beginnings of any such incident, like the one that had recently led to the deaths on the surface, and warn of the danger.

Haile had been receiving training on how to interpret the readings from the orbiting gravitational probes. Dr. Kebe had designed and implemented the system and trained Haile. This afternoon she was alone in the monitoring center.

The Ems that were taking the raw data and presenting it to Haile marked the latest with an alert. At first, Haile wasn't sure what she was looking at. The signature was what she expected but the distance to the anomaly was all wrong. It wasn't in orbital space around the planet, it wasn't even in the system, it was somewhere outside the seventh planet which marked the planetary system's boundary.

Not seemingly an immediate threat Haile waited to see if the Ems could pinpoint the direction and distance to the event which was weakly disturbing the spacetime as far away as Tarba. Finally, the Ems reported the distance to the disturbance, thirty AU. Definitely outside the smallish Tarban system.

So maybe not an immediate threat?

Haile was just about to call Dr. Kebe when another alert came in. This disturbance was also at thirty AU but somewhat displaced from the first. Before she could react, another and another and another alert flashed on the screen. They were coming in at an increasing rate. As far as Haile could tell they were all about equal distance from the center of the system but in random directions. Then it occurred to her.

A sphere.

The anomalies were creating a sphere around the system.

What in the world?

Haile sent a message to Dr. Kebe before going back to monitoring the everincreasing number of alerts.

Walker had been in with the surface of New Adowa and had heard the latest news.

“It was last heard from a week ago Dag. The Tarban system makes regular with Procyon since they are its major source of trade and interchange.”

“They're about twenty light-years from Earth Walker. Perhaps the Captain knows something? Open the comm will you?”

“Captain Jenkins this Dr. Mach.”

“Hold please Dr. Mach.”

Eventually, the comm exploded with the voice of Captain Jenkins.

“What is it Mach?”

Dag was somewhat taken aback but continued.

“Captain we have heard the reports of the Tarban system. I believe this could be a critical development. Could you give us any more information?”

There was silence for a moment.

“Dr. Mach my government assures me that everything is under control. We are not to spread alarm. Therefore I am not at liberty to make comment about the situation. That is all.”

The comm went dead.

“What do we do now Dag?”

“We need to find out what happened. This could be the beginning of what I suspected would be the next stage of this outbreak.”

“You talk like this is some kind of viral epidemic.”

“It may be Walker.”

“You mean the universe has been infected? That's crazy.”

“In the sense that AdS space is completely foreign to our universe, I guess you could make a case for an infection or a cancer. Of course, that symbolism breaks down if you push it too far.

“Right now what I suggest we do is find out as much as we can. We need to go to the Tarban system and survey their space.”

“What will we find?”

“I suspect Sigmund that we will find clues as to what we should do next. Okay I've got the spin-two ready. Open up a comm-link Hanson.”

“Captain Jenkins on comm Dag.”

“Captain Jenkins this is Dr. Mach. You asked us for the courtesy of telling you when we were leaving orbit. Very well, we are leaving.”

Dag motioned for Hanson to kill the comm link while he simultaneously opened a nonlocal link and the Nyeri disappeared into it. Dag kept hopping in and out of links until he felt it safe to head for their destination, the Tarban system.

“You sure this is the right place Dag?”

“It was a week ago Sigmund.”

“Well I see nothing.”

“Okay Walker bring the gravity probes online I want to map as large an area as possible.”

It was several hours later before the four robots sat down to look at the preliminary results of the ongoing mapping.

“That's it,” said Dag. “The clue.”

“Looks like a pebble dropped in a puddle of water.”

“Essentially correct Sigmund. But more like something was plucked from the puddle. And that plucking was cataclysmic. A volume of spacetime and all the masses in it have been 'plucked' from this universe.”

“And the hundred thousand humans,” said Sigmund.

They all looked at Sigmund.

“Are they dead?”

“I don't know Sigmund. They may have survived if the occurrence wasn't too abrupt. They have their star and planet and the surrounding system. If they survived being torn from this universe then they are still alive.”

“Is it like a baby universe Dag?”

“No Hanson it's quite different. I believe they are in their own universe now. Not the multiverse of the old physics theory but a completely separate universe. And I'm not sure there is any way to communicate across the separation.

“You see they were literally torn from this universe. But a baby universe branches off this universe through its wormhole-like extension. That connects the two at least until the wormhole pinches off. Then the baby universe drifts in the bulk attracted to this universe by the shared gravitational force.

“If I'm correct, in this situation there is no shared gravity and no way that I know of to the Tarbans.”

“How did it happen Dag?”

“Well Hanson from the reports we've received so far.”

“You mean the missing and damaged space habitats and fusion ships?”

“Yes. I believe this is a result of a massive breakdown in the quantum foam, the sub-space underlying the link network. we equated it with rust on a metal?”

Hanson nodded yes.

“Well if that metal rusts long enough a hole will open. A single hole would explain the other disappearances. But in the case of Tarba it was a multitude of holes that eventually completed a spherical circle around the system. When the holes all merged into each other Tarba was torn from this universe.”

“Why did these holes in sub-space form a sphere around the Tarba system Dag?”

“Well Hanson, planetary systems and stars and other large masses provide the points of greatest stress in spacetime and on the underlying link network. That translates into stress at the sub-space level. So like a dent or scratch chips the protective coating from a piece of metal allowing rust to start, so too does mass encourage the start of these sub-space holes.

“Why it started with the Tarban system and not New Adowa or Earth I can't say except that maybe the link network was more damaged in this area.

“But I can say that it will continue to happen to other systems until enough stress on spacetime has been relieved.”

“You mean human-occupied space Dag?”

“Yes Sigmund.”

“I guess the Aggies were smart to go off to the Large Magellanic Cloud.”

“It would appear so.”

“I wonder if they knew?”

“I wonder too.”

Chapter 31

Dag seemed withdrawn to the others. He wasn't participating in the banter the four usually exchanged. Sigmund feared he might be depressed because the situation seemed so hopeless.

But Dag wasn't depressed, he was thinking hard. He had to come up with a plan to stop the failures in the fabric of spacetime before all human space was affected. But even if he came up with a solution how could he implement it with one fusion ship and three robots? It seemed impossible.

First things first.

He began to work on a method to heal the failures. So far he had focused on the link-network layer by trying to reduce the stress in the links using his energy dissipation devices. He wasn't sure but this might still be the best way. But now the manufacturing and delivery capacity he needed was definitely unobtainable.

No, the solution had to be something that one ship could deliver to one area and have it affect all other areas.

Or infect.

Still, the analogy to an infectious disease or a cancer was tantalizing.

If I could only come up with something that would self-propagate across spacetime, Or maybe the underlying link-network?

It was several days later and Dag was still looking for a solution but decided to run his current thinking by the others. Two heads are better than one he figured.

“Okay Walker, here's what we know. These failures in spacetime, these holes in the sub-space quantum foam, are forming where spacetime is beginning to be stressed by a mass.”

“Dag,” said Hanson. “Excuse the interruption, but I am curious as to why these holes are opening where they are. If its the stress that mass causes in spacetime that promotes the growth of these holes then why don't they first appear around really massive objects such as black holes or massive stars.”

“It's interesting Hanson but it has something to do with the stabilizing effects of a mass on spacetime and the link-network.

“Now these holes appear where the link-network has become jumbled, irregular, that is true. But if this irregularity is in the vicinity of a strongly gravitating mass then the mass itself can keep the network from opening enough to allow a hole to form. This is generally true but not universally true.”

“Dag if a huge mass can reinforce the underlying link-network, could it do the same after a hole has formed?”

“Maybe Walker, I hadn't thought of that. We could take the Nyeri, find a single hole and see if we can close it using the spin-two drive to create a large exotic mass.”

“The star Alcor A in The Core Dag. The habitats there have reported finding an orbiting hole in their system. Its thought that it developed near one of the gas giants and actually swallowed it.”

“Very well Hanson let's go.

Alcor A was a blue star almost twice the size of the Sun. It was a binary star system with a red dwarf companion. It was some point-four light years away from the quadruple star system Mizar. Six planets orbited Alcor A, all were gas giants.

The system had been settled by space habitat for a hundred years. Alcion space habitat was orbiting the giant planet which orbited Alcor at about the distance Mars orbited the Sun. They had reported the probability of a hole intersecting the orbit of a gas giant farther out in the system. The giant planet had disappeared and nothing seemed to remain in its place.

Dag had the Nyeri coming out of the nonlocal link about an AU away from where the giant planet should have been. There was nothing on the wallscreen.

“Okay helm take us closer using the coordinates I have entered.”

“There's nothing there Dag.”

“It's there Sigmund but it doesn't interact with any known force. However, the hole is held in place by the underlying link-network. Walker if you will start the mapping.”

Soon Walker was building a map of the underlying link-network surrounding the hole.

“You see it now Sigmund?”

The screen showed the regular link-network scaffolding except for a section that was void of links.

“Yes I see it Dag. What is causing those link mouths to whip back and forth?”

“Those are broken links. They will oscillate like that until they are reconnected. That is how a hole grows. The links oscillate themselves out of place and the hole fills that space.”

“I don't know Dag that hole looks pretty real.”

“Well it definitely has an effect. But its more an absence than a presence. If you

the physicist Paul Dirac and his theory of the vacuum, particularly the Dirac sea.”

“Something about for every positive energy state of an electron there is a negative energy state. Then Dirac postulated that the vacuum was nothing but the fact that every negative energy state was filled. This prevented an electron with positive energy from decaying through emission of photons down through the positive energy states and into the negative energy states and then into nothingness.”

“Essentially correct Walker. Now, what would happen if the negative energy states weren't all filled?”

“The electron would continue to decay until it disappeared.”

“Right Sigmund, and what would be left?”

“Nothing.”

“Exactly. And if all particles of the vacuum acted the same way we would end up with an area like we see outside this ship right now.”

“Okay Walker while I'm using the spin-two to create the mass-energy you use the auxiliary unit to map the link-network.”

As Dag brought up the spin-two drive he began to operate it as a mass-energy creator. Instead of finding a link mouth to enlarge he cast the tremendous amount of energy near the rim of the hole.

On the large wallscreen, Walker had put up his survey of the link-network. At first, it showed an orderly scaffold of links becoming more and more disorganized as they approached the area of the hole. Then Dag cast the large mass-energy. After a few moments, it became apparent from watching the screen that the links were being affected on the nearest side.

“Dag it looks like the links are starting to reach across the hole.”

“They should Walker. The hole offers no impedance to the gravity of such a large mass.”

“Anyway, it seems to be pushing the links across the hole, in effect, it's closing.”

“Yes and when it closes the links will realign themselves to maintain the network. The energy of the large mass will be turned into the negative energy states of the Dirac sea and eventually fill them, creating a vacuum instead of a nothingness. Then I will turn off the drive.”

“How long will it take Dag?”

“Experiment will tell.”

It took too long. More than twelve hours later the spin-two drive was entering the danger zone in many of its parameters. The hole was noticeably smaller but not closed. Dag had no choice but to shut down the drive.

“That's too bad Dag.”

“Well it's still a possible solution Sigmund but we are going to need more than one ship casting a mass at the same time.”

As Sigmund and Dag continued to discuss the possibility of getting more ships involved Walker ed in without shutting down the mapping drive which was running at less power than the casting drive.

Meanwhile, Hanson continued to stare at the wallscreen. The hole was enlarging, the link-network was receding almost as a wave out to sea. As Hanson watched it became more and more apparent that the hole was expanding at a faster and faster rate. It soon appeared to Hanson that it had sured its previous size and continued.

“Ah Dag. Sigmund. Walker. Hey guys I think we've got a problem.”

Dag looked at the wallscreen and immediately sprang to the auxiliary spin-two drive. There he terminated the mapping program and manually chose a link mouth to enlarge.

The hole was approaching the ship fast.

“Walker have helm put us in the mouth.”

Walker ordered the Ems operating helm. The ship began moving slowly towards the mouth.

“Nudge it Walker.”

Walker manually increased the fusion engine's power and boosted the exhaust by introducing hydrogen into the mix.

The flow of helium 3 and deuterium increased quickly into the confinement area of the fusion rocket. In a magnetic field ten-thousand times the strength of the Earth's magnetic field, for a brief moment a helium 3 and deuterium nucleus approached to within one-trillionth of a meter of each other and fused. The release of the energy from billions of such encounters occurring at over onehundred million degrees Kelvin, over six times greater than the core of the Sun, soon had increased the thrust of the rocket.

Injecting hydrogen would again increase the exhaust thrust and speed of the ship if it didn't destabilize the plasma containment.

The danger was that they could lose containment with the resulting destruction of the engine and the ship.

Walker watched the containment data closely but even he couldn't move fast

enough to stop a breach should one occur. Still, it was all he could do.

The ship responded with a noticeable kick as it started to accelerate toward the link mouth. The hole was still getting closer, the wallscreen was turning black as the nearness of the hole blocked the stars.

Then, they were gone and out the other side of the link.

Chapter 32

“Well that was a little more excitement than I needed.”

“Me too Sigmund.”

“What happened Dag?”

“I believe it was similar to stretching a rubber band Sigmund. The links are almost perfectly elastic with a high modulus of elasticity, the force needed to stretch them, and a high elastic limit, how much they can be stretched.

“So as the mass-energy from the spin-two drive was pushing the links and closing the hole they were under tremendous stress. Unfortunately when I turned off the spin-two drive this elastic stress resulted in them springing back like a rubber band but at a substantial fraction of the speed of light.

“As they restored their original configuration they overshot and the hole began to grow rapidly. That's why it threatened to engulf us. Eventually they will settle down and approximate the way we found them.”

“Well that's a danger Dag. How can we close these holes without endangering ourselves or those nearby?”

“If we had closed the hole and the links had terminated properly there would have been no backlash. So I guess we've learned that if we are to use this method then we must finish what we start.”

“But Dag there are situations near populated planets where it would be too dangerous to try and close the hole and fail. It could lead to the destruction of that planet.”

“I agree Sigmund we may have to come up with a different approach. But this is all we have right now.”

“Dag.”

“Yes Hanson?”

“Dr. Oneko of New Adowa is calling.”

“I'll be right there. Maybe something will turn up soon Sigmund,” he said as he left the room.

“Dr. Oneko this is Dag Mach, it's good to hear from you again. How is Prime Minister Menza?”

“Unfortunately Prime Minister Menza perished, I am now Prime Minister of what is left of New Galla.”

“I'm so sorry for the loss of Prime Minister Menza.”

“Thank you Dr. Mach. Now to the reason I called. I am calling on behalf of the Earth governments Dr. Mach. They have a hole anomaly in orbit around Earth and are worried. I told them that you knew what to do about such anomalies.”

“Yes Dr. Oneko but the Earth governments have never been too friendly to us.”

“I'm sure they understand Dr. Mach that you are the only one that can help them. We too are working with Earth although our relations with them in the past have not been much better than yours. We all must make allowances if we are to continue.”

“Well Dr. Oneko if they are willing to forget the past then I am also. But they will have to come up with the resources needed without question before we can take care of their problem.”

“Thank you Dr. Mach, I'm sure they will agree. I will tell them you will be there soon.”

“Very well Dr. Oneko.”

Dag looked at Sigmund who had followed him to control.

“I didn't think it would be this soon. If Earth cooperates there might still be a chance to stop this disaster.”

“Well we have all been here before,” said Sigmund as the Nyeri entered Earth orbit after the link.

“Sigmund, you and I will link down to the discuss the situation.”

Sigmund looked at Dag hesitantly.

“Don't worry Walker is an excellent link operator.”

Sigmund did not look relieved.

The Nyeri had entered geosynchronous orbit which made a link between ship and ground somewhat easier. Still linking between objects moving or revolving took some skill. The spin-two operator had to use the procedure first developed by Dag. A long link for most of the difference modified with short local links at the destination. These local links might need to be updated while the link was established to keep up with the motion of the target body through space. This wasn't too hard since a transport through a link was almost instantaneous except when it had to be kept open for multiple ages, such as now.

As soon as Walker had the link established Dag entered the bubble-like mouth. As usual, Sigmund hesitated.

“Go on Sigmund, it's not easy holding links.”

Sigmund moved tentatively into the bubble and was gone.

Coming out the other side he bumped into Dag and they both went down. Dag however executed a controlled roll and swept from his feet one of the guards that had been watching him. Dag executed another roll in the other guard's direction. That guard also went down and out.

“You okay Sigmund?”

Sigmund had sat dumbly on the floor watching the action.

“I guess so Dag but I wish I hadn't come.”

“I'm glad you did. The commotion was just enough to distract these two until I could deal with them.”

Sigmund started to speak but Dag stopped him.

“We've got to go. Walker, you been listening?”

Walker at Dag's instructions had kept a small link mouth open.

“Yes Dag.”

“You know what to do then.”

The link mouth opened wide enough for them to walk into and they were gone. Even Sigmund didn't dawdle.

Coming out the other side Dag immediately opened a link to get the Nyeri away from Earth. They were soon gone as Dag opened link after link to evade any following.

“Well that was familiar,” said Sigmund.

Walker asked what had happened and Sigmund told him.

“I can't believe they pulled that, we were there to help them.”

“I think Walker that they are still miffed about the cosmic superstring incident and still think we caused it. Maybe they thought they could punish us and still get what they needed out of Dag.”

“That may be so Sigmund but I keep expecting these people to treat us with a modicum of respect.”

“They're only human Walker. I think we should not expect decency from such and then we won't be disappointed.”

Dag hadn't said anything.

“What do you think Dag?”

“Hanson I think there went our last chance to stop this cancer from eating our universe.”

Then there was silence.

Dag had put the Nyeri into orbit around a yellow star far out in the Perseus Arm of the galaxy past the Rosetta Nebula where the isotopics could be recharged while he thought. And it became quickly apparent to the others that he would be thinking for some time.

“No I haven't heard anything from him in a week Sigmund. He seems to be almost in stasis, all his energy going to his thoughts.”

“Well there's nothing we can do Hanson unless Dag or Walker can come up with an idea. I suppose you and I will just have to wait and maintain the ship as best we can.”

Not long after their discussion an alarm went off in control. According to sensors the ship was drifting in its orbit. Hanson and Sigmund didn't know what to make of it so they called for Walker.

“What is it Walker?”

Walker was interrogating the ship's computer.

“Well there doesn't seem to be anything fundamentally wrong. The drift is very small, it shouldn't affect our orbiting. But it appears some of the Ems that are normally assigned to helm control have been reassigned leaving just enough to maintain orbit without the usual precision we would expect.”

“Reassigned to what?”

“It appears Sigmund that Dag has reassigned them to tasks that probably his efforts. Helm isn't the only area where Ems have been reassigned. All over the ship it appears that Ems have been pulled off their normal duties to assist Dag. But I wouldn't worry, the ones that are left are perfectly capable.”

Dag had needed more resources as he searched for a new answer to the dangers threatening human space. As his mentors Elias Mach and Elias' great-greatgranddaughter Emmy Gibbs had taught him through example, he was trying to gather every single fact that might enlighten his understanding. He had surrounded himself virtually with Ems that he assigned to become expert in a single area. He would sit at the center of this virtual assembly and integrate the knowledge into a course of action.

Right now he was talking to the Em tasked with being the expert on the inflationary universe.

“Bud 67-0289 what started the inflationary period?”

“It is believed that a negative pressure field, similar to dark energy, supplied a repulsive force that drove inflation in the early universe. But at a much higher energy density than current dark energy.”

“Are they the same?”

“That is not known.”

“But if we assume they are the same then to restart inflation would be a matter of increasing the density of dark energy in an area.”

“I would say that is correct if the assumption is granted.”

Dag interrupted his trance-like state with a thought.

Perhaps.

“So Dag you are saying we need to create a wormhole generator powerful enough to recreate the density of dark energy as found after the Big Bang. And if we do this it will restart inflation?”

“That is correct Walker.”

“And restarted inflation will drive the nothingness, the Anti-de Sitter space, that now surrounds the universe further away from normal spacetime and in doing so restore those settlements and star systems lost to what you call the cancer eating our local universe.”

“Essentially correct Walker. Restarted inflation will create a wave of spacetime creation that will spread both outward and inward. In the outward direction, it will create new spacetime and insulate our local spacetime from the destructive effects of growing Anti-de Sitter space. It will also sweep the stranded systems into that new spacetime. In the inward direction, it will restore spacetime to its original condition. It will cure the cancer.”

“And all we have to do is build this huge wormhole generator and power it, sounds easy.”

“I'm glad you think so Sigmund but it will take many weeks of work.”

“Weeks? Not years?”

“Yes, I plan on finding the wormhole generator and its power supply not

building it.”

“Huh?”

Dag explained the rest of his thoughts.

“You see I believe that the initiator of the inflationary period of the universe was the creation of a natural wormhole generator or generators at a stupendous scale. When these giant natural generators came online they did exactly as I wish to do. They concentrated enough dark energy in a small enough area to instigate the inflation of the universe. Inflation then essentially turned these generators off as it separated the components through the exponential expansion of the universe.”

Sigmund looked at Walker. Walker shrugged.

“And you think these generators still exist?”

“Well the components still exist but have of course been separated by tremendous distances. All we need to do is find them and put them back together.”

“Well I got nothing to compare to that Dag so I guess we will do as you say,” said Sigmund.

“Thank you Sigmund for your .”

Sigmund thought to himself.

Dag doesn't get sarcasm, does he?

“We've been at this for a week now and haven't found anything Hanson. It's worse than looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“That may be Sigmund but it's our only chance to help restore human space.”

“I think Hanson that the humans would get what they deserve if we just quit.”

“That may be true Sigmund but we have all worked with humans, side by side, so to speak. I think that we shouldn't forget that while in general, they can be despicable, in the particular they can be quite warm and caring.”

“I know you are right Hanson. That is how I feel about my old boss and almost every human I've worked closely with.”

Then the ship's intercom spoke.

“Sigmund, Walker, Hanson report to the control room please.”

“What is it Dag?”

“We've found the first piece, look.”

There on the wallscreen was what looked like a ring of solid material. But it wasn't all the same material as the slightly different materials showed up as shades of color, a three-color ring.

“Is that a layered ring like the one we use on the crew wheel to create the Mach effect?” asked Walker.

“Yes Walker it is but it is huge. The ring could enclose a body about a quarter the size of the Earth's moon. It's two-hundred-fifty miles across.”

“I don't know how you found it Dag but what do we do with it?”

“Well I found it kind of like a hunter tracks his prey. I did a simulation of what the underlying link structure would be around such an object after I decided how big and what shape it probably was, then I mapped more and more links until it led me here.

“As to what we do with it, we find the power source to drive the actuator layer which creates the Mach effect in the outermost layer.”

“So we are looking for a sphere or cylinder almost as large as this ring?”

“Yes it will be almost as large. I think it will be a thin-shelled sphere of material, perhaps degenerate neutronic material, that has formed around a primordial black hole.”

“You're describing a super-radiant power source aren't you Dag.”

“Yes Walker.”

“How could anything like that form naturally?”

“It's like a frozen bubble in ice Walker. Except that it didn't phase change when the ice changed. It's similar to the formation of a cosmic string as the universe cools from the Big Bang.

“These anomalies emerge from such uneven cooling forming strings, membranes, and other higher dimensional and more rare structures.”

“So we bring these anomalies together, crank it up and we get inflation?”

“Something like that Sigmund.”

“And nothing could go wrong?”

Dag hesitated and then shrugged.

Chapter 33

After another week of mapping Dag found what he was looking for and prepared to link the ship to that location. However, he first had to link the ring.

“How are we going to open a link wide enough Dag?”

“We are going to send the ring through sideways Walker, laying down you might say. We will open an elliptical mouth with a semi-major axis of a little over onehundred-twenty-five miles and a semi-minor axis of just two miles. That should be enough to accommodate the ring and minimize the power needed to form such a large mouth. I will find a link that is directly in the path of the drifting ring, we won't have to do anything to cause it to enter the link.”

“That is still larger than anything we've ever done Dag.”

“I know Walker. But I've got some ideas for pulling it off.”

Dag started the spin-two drive and found the link he wanted. He then started to enlarge the mouth of the link. But unlike normal, he brought the power up gradually and manipulated it so that instead of concentrating in a sphere it began to spread in an ovoid shape. The repulsive nature of the exotic energy helped him elongate the mouth.

Dag continued for some minutes until he was sure the mouth was big enough.

“Now all I have to do is hold it open until the ring drifts into it.”

It took a minute maybe two until the giant artifact started to enter the link. And it was like nothing they had ever seen. Instead of instantly disappearing the ring seemed to blur at the point of entry. Almost as if it were being sucked into the link by some force. The whole ring seemed to deform as it was swallowed by the mouth.

“It's just an optical effect Walker of linking such a large object.”

Then the last of it was gone and the link mouth disappeared.

Sigmund and Hanson entered the room.

“Get ready to link,” said Dag.

Sigmund out of reflex grabbed the frame of the door he was standing in.

“Is that what you are looking for Dag?”

The object was on the wallscreen. It was intensely bright from this distance and looked almost like it had a crystalline surface.

“I believe that's it Sigmund.”

“And there is the ring.”

Dag nodded yes.

“I see you already have them lined up properly. So now all we have to do is put them together?”

“Yes and then strike a match, similar to what happened in the early universe.”

“What do you mean?”

“As with a super-radiant power plant we will have to inject an amount of energy at the right frequency to begin the process. The power plant will amplify it an eventually release the energy at the frequency which will activate the Mach device. A link between the surface of a star with the proper light emissions and the device should do it.”

“So how are you going to assemble it?”

“We'll use the ship's engines to nudge the sphere in place. I'll cast a bubble of exotic energy to act as a bumper between the ship and sphere.”

“That's going to take some time isn't it Dag? I mean the mass of that object must be hundreds of times the ship's.”

“Yes Walker the mass of the sphere is thousands and thousands of times the mass of the ship. But all we need is to start its motion in the proper direction. It may take weeks for the sphere and ring to assemble. By then we will be ready to light the match.”

It happened just as Dag had said. First, Dag determined that the inherent slow rotation of the ring was enough to cause the Mach effect he then used the ship to nudge the sphere. Once the sphere was traveling towards the center of the ring Dag linked the ship to a nearby star to recharge the isotopics. After two weeks of orbiting the star, he linked them back.

The sphere was already entering the ring but it would still take several days for the two-hundred-mile diameter sphere to center in the ring. Dag would have to monitor the insertion for the precise moment to introduce the star's radiation.

“How will you control the wavelength of the light Dag?”

“The size of the link mouth Walker. I'll have to control it a lot more precisely than ever before.”

It was two days later when Dag decided the time was right. He had backed the Nyeri away to a point where the sphere appeared as a dot and the ring was almost invisible. Only through magnification could the assembly be seen clearly.

“Okay I'm opening the link to the star.”

A bright blue dot appeared and then disappeared. Almost immediately the sphere brightened several magnitudes. It was obviously brighter even without magnification.

Then it blinked and brightened still more. The surface under magnification seemed to be teeming with writhing string-like extensions. The whole space around the object began to glow. What looked like lightning discharges appeared to jump from the string tips.

“That's the exotic energy jumping across the intervening space and into link mouths,” said Dag.

“It's going everywhere,” said Sigmund.

“Yes Sigmund the whole of the link-network will be saturated with the equivalent of dark energy.”

“It's so white it's like something foreign to this world.”

Then the ship shuddered.

“What was that?” asked Sigmund.

“Gravity waves, the inflation has begun.”

Throughout spacetime and beyond the inflationary phase began. In spacetime, it was quickly dissipated as gravity waves except in areas where the Anti-de Sitter holes in spacetime were filled in. But out beyond the edge of the universe as the link mouths gave up their supply of dark energy the nothingness began to change phase and spacetime was created. The light of creation was blinding but didn't last long. The inflating universe moved on at speeds faster than light turning nothing into something.

Haile was still monitoring the space around the planet Tarba. There hadn't been a change for weeks. She was thinking of quitting when the alarm buzzed. Something was out there.

She switched on the wallscreen and rotated among the satellites which were carrying monitor scopes. It wasn't long until she saw it. Like a haze it was indistinct. It reminded Haile of a rainstorm she had seen on her home planet. She had watched as the rain approached like a slow curtain closing off the view beyond.

A second and it ed. The flash saturated the camera's optics. When it recovered Haile was stunned. There were stars. Not many stars, but stars.

The dark energy generator had turned off almost immediately after it had turned on. The sphere had continued to float through the ring and was now distancing itself. The Nyeri was preparing to return to New Adowa.

“Did it work Dag?”

“I think so Sigmund. It looked like I expected. We'll find out at New Adowa.”

“Do you think we should go back Dag? Earth will probably still be after us.”

“There's nowhere else to go Sigmund. Don't you want to know if we were successful?”

“Not if it means time in an Earth jail.”

“We'll deal with that if the time comes.”

Dag then proceeded to link the Nyeri into orbit around New Adowa and placed a call to Dr. Oneko.

“Dr. Mach it is good to hear from you. I could not get any information out of the Earth authorities.”

“We have been busy Dr. Oneko.”

Dag then told Dr. Oneko what they had done over the past weeks.

“The timing sounds right Dr. Mach. I believe your efforts are responsible for what we have seen and heard from others. The holes began to close themselves after what eye-witnesses described as a blanket of light ed their location. As far as we know none of these Anti-de Sitter areas exist in human space anymore.”

“Excellent Dr. Oneko.”

“But Dr. Mach there is one thing.”

“Yes?”

“What will happen to all those settlements that disappeared from spacetime.”

“I believe they were encomed by the outward going inflation. They should be back in spacetime though far removed from us since they were beyond the universe's boundary when inflation began. If they survived long enough they should still be there although we can't them with existing technology.”

“I agree Dr. Mach.”

“That's good to hear Dr. Oneko. Could you do something for us.”

“Of course Dr. Mach.”

“Would you Earth and see if they are pressing any charges against us.”

“I will Dr. Mach. But I wouldn't worry. When I explain to them what you have done for humanity I don't think you need to worry. I suspect you will be rewarded not accused.”

“Thank you Dr. Oneko.”

A couple of days later Dag got the call from New Adowa.

“That's right Sigmund. We have been completely exonerated. And we have an offer from over two dozen human settlements for citizenship, including Earth.”

“I don't know Dag. Human beings are quick to forget.”

“Well we've got to live somewhere unless you want to stay on this ship forever. And I don't think we can run a company from here.”

“We can get the company back together? I hadn't thought about that. Well Earth is the big dog of human settlements now and we do have citizenship.”

“So, link to Earth and get started?”

“What about Walker and Hanson?”

“They'll agree,” said Dag.

“Well, I say let's roll.”

EPILOGUE

What had started out as a possible war between planets had ended up as a war for survival. As a result, old power-centers had fallen as new ones had risen. Still old Earth was the dominant power-center of humanity now although it wouldn't stay that way long as others recovered from the damage inflicted.

The Aggies as a result of the escape of Dr. Mach had suffered another breakaway faction led by an Aggie called Magnus. Magnus had accused Aggie Prime of allowing Dr. Mach to escape and thereby assisting the Dhalkans. After a failure to compromise Magnus had fled with a third of the Aggies into space. Ironically, Magnus's challenge to Aggie Prime had allowed Dag to proceed unbothered and heal human spacetime.

The Dhalkans had been equally occupied after the expedition led by Dr. Anton had failed. After many bitter councils in which Dr. Anton had been accused of incompetence and perfidy for failing the mission, she had left with almost a fifth of the Dhalkans following her. The schism only left the Dhalkans weaker.

Now as before the troubles had started there were many power-centers in the universe only different in name. Many, such as the breakaway Aggies and banished Dhalkans, would be diametrically opposed to those whom they once ed. In effect, bitter feelings and grudges would replace cooperation and would undoubtedly lead to future problems for human space.

It was the same old story. Humans fighting, cooperating, helping and hurting each other. And maybe that's the way it should be. At least it kept stagnation away and creativity primed, for humans were easily bored.

But maybe there was one thing new under the sun. A power-center had sprung up that had only sought to put the needs of others above their own. Four individual robots had made all the difference. Perhaps someday all the powercenters would learn such a lesson.

AFTERWORD

The space-based manufacturing facility described in Chapter 9 is based on the Starway Corporation's facilities in my story First Interstellar, modified for this story.

The Dhalkans were introduced in Spin-Two Book 2. The incident with the Dhalkans that Prime Minister Menza mentions on page 134 and the gravity wave generator mentioned on page 151 also appear in Book 2. The cyclic universe and Dag's choice to allow it to run to conclusion or interfere (as discussed in Chapter 19 by Dr. Ling) is covered in Spin-Two Book 1.

Physicist Brian Greene's book The Elegant Universe was useful in working out some of the physics of tearing spacetime. Of particular interest is Chapter 11 where he shows that it is topologically possible that tears occur but the strings of string theory surround the tear and prevent it from spreading. So on a large scale I invoked a cosmic string to prevent the spacetime tearing from spreading but as the story shows not without consequences.

Next in the Future Chron Universe

Time Wars

Haile only wants to prove her theory, that time can be slowed or sped up in a small region of space, and get her Ph.D.

But then the government takes over. They prove Haile's theory by starting a time war between Tarba and the planet Atwan.

No matter the winner of the struggle there can be only one outcome, spacetime slowly separating into its constituents.

And separate nothing exist.

Hard Science Fiction – Old School.

Other books and stories by this author

The Future Chron Universe

Short Stories

Open Space Collection

Open Space

The Old World

Insurrect

Second Beam

All For One

One For All – Coming Soon

Shotgun – Coming Soon

TBD – Coming Soon

TBD – Coming Soon

TBD – Coming Soon

Novellas – Collections:

From The Earth #1 (Volume 1):

Whatsoever You Do

War Through The Pines

Vigilance

To Tend And Watch Over

Union

From The Earth #2 (Volume 2):

Circle of Retribution

Freedom From Want

Break Up

Kuiper Station

The Cloud

First Interstellar

To The Stars

First One Hundred

First Dark Ages

Second One Hundred

Second Dark Ages

The Path Of The Long March

Novels:

Mach Series:

Mach's Metric

Mach's Mission

Mach's Legacy

Spin-Two Series:

Spin-Two

Robot Planet

The Lattice Of Space

Time Series

Time Wars

Time End's

Frozen Time

Chronological Reading Order

2032 – 2090 – From The Earth #1 – Novellas

2140 – 2340 – From The Earth #2 – Novellas

2390 – Mach's Metric – Novel

2394 – Mach's Mission – Novel

2396 – Open Space – Short Stories

2400 – 2490 – To The Stars – Novellas

2499 – Mach's Legacy – Novel

2600 – Spin Two – Novel

2605 – Robot Planet – Novel

2610 – The Lattice Of Space – Novel

2700 – Time Wars – Novel

2755 – Time's End – Novel

2790 – Frozen Time – Novel

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

D.W. Patterson studied physics and read classic science fiction in college and then worked for many years as an electronic design engineer.

Now he's trying to write stories like the ones he once loved. Hard Science Fiction – Old School.

He sometimes blogs and posts stories at:

futurechron(dot)blogspot(dot)com

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