source would have been, and then accessed
really exist. Constant second-guessing of his
the fleet formation records to cross-match. At
perceptions was all that kept the world ratio-
the time of his approach, there had been only
nal.
one ship near the source of the strangely tex-
And yet this.
tured magnetic f ield. The Limpopo. It was
The alternative to second-guessing himself
over two hundred kilometers away, too far to
all night was to accept that the Expeditionary
make even a single observation. So close, yet
Force had found a way to send information
so far.
back in time. If that was true, the segregated
Belisarius retreated from the ship’s files and
flows of information in the research were de-
came out of savant.
signed to compartmentalize knowledge in or-
He peeled the incriminating patch from the
der to avoid causal violations. The researchers
back of his hand and closed it in his cupped
in Stream A in the year 2487 would never re-
f ingers. Current from his electroplaques
ceive the results of their own experiments
surged through a set of insulated carbon nan-
from 2498. Those results went to Stream B.
otubule wires that ran to his f ingertips. The
And likewise, the results of Stream B went to
patch shrivelled into a tiny pellet of ash. He
the past of Stream C, and so it went with each
slipped the pellet into a weakness in the seam
of the research streams. And every eleven
of the sleep bag and then crushed it to frag-
years, the cycle restarted.
ments for good measure.
It was ingenious. It was overwhelming. The
* * *
20
DEREK KÜNSKEN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
Chapter Six
Spotlights from the Mutapa shone on them,
In the morning, Belisarius was no closer to
sharp whites bleaching discolorations from
taking or refusing the job. Whether he failed
the arm and hands of his suit. Another war-
or succeeded, somebody, maybe a lot of some-
ship stood abeam of the Mutapa across sever-
bodies, was going to get killed. Probably
al kilometers of space. The major on one side
everyone in the Sixth Expeditionary Force,
and the MP on the other grabbed his upper
but maybe more. The Union had obviously al-
arms and leapt from the Mutapa. His stomach
ready committed; they were going to try this
lurched, and he swallowed a yelp as they ca-
with or without him. Real war was coming,
reened into the void.
not just the cold war they’d been living. He
No shuttle. No guide wire. No nothing.
did know the Puppets, as well as anyone not a
Iekanjika and the MP had jumped true. He’d
Puppet could. And he knew something of
been too startled to move as they jumped, and
wormholes. He couldn’t think of anyone who
he hadn’t spoiled their aim. He stayed rigid.
could help them better than he could, even if
Little pressures nudged him where the pair
he didn’t yet know how he would do it.
used cold gas jets to correct their course. It
An MP came and brought him to a room
would be minutes before they reached the
with vacuum suits webbed to the walls. Major
other warship. He f lew through space, only
Iekanjika was already suited up. “You want to
the scrunch of fabric on fabric where they
see the performance of the Expeditionary
held him making any noise beyond his own
Force,” she said. “I’ve gotten authorization to
shallow, quick breathing.
show you.”
What kind of people jumped between
Belisarius f lailed his way in zero-g to the
ships? He didn’t know of any service that re-
rack and took a suit that looked about his size.
quired this maneuver. He doubted they were
Without gravity, it took some time to put on,
out to impress him. They didn’t respect him
and the MP finished suiting up before Belisar-
enough for that. Maybe it was a new military
ius even had the pants on. When he needed
maneuver or a tactic born of austerity. Or
two hands to detach one of the buttons on his
maybe it was a tactic developed purely for its
shirt, he began spinning. This seemed to wear
unconventionality. The Sixth Expeditionary
down Iekanjika’s patience, and she f inally
Force carried new weapons and propulsion;
clapped a hand on his arm to steady him. He
why not bring new tactics to battle?
sheepishly put the button in an outside pocket
Play the player, not the cards.
of the vacuum suit and resumed dressing.
They closed on the other warship. Spot-
“I’ll be okay,” he said as the suit sucked tight
lights focused on them, tracking them toward
its seals.
a small bay ringed with pale lights. More
The three of them cycled through the air-
forces, more pressures, and then he was spin-
lock into hard vacuum. Inwardly, he slumped.
ning, pointing his feet at their destination. A
He loved the stars, but he hated space, and
strong magnetic field bloomed below them.
the deep black of the Universe opened with
“Bend your knees, Arjona, or you’ll break an
stomach-churning vastness. The Stubbs Pulsar
ankle,” Iekanjika said in his helmet radio.
a tenth of a light-year away touched Belisarius’
He did. The ship grew at an alarming speed.
muscles with faint magnetic f ingers. With
He knew they only carried the energy they’d
baseline human sight, he could see four thou-
used to jump, but instinct made fear tickle at
sand stars. Between those, emptiness yawned
his insides. And then the ship swallowed the
wide and endless. If he telescoped his ocular
inf inity of his vision, and their feet crashed
implants, he might see five times that number,
against the hull and stuck. His breathing
but the space between them would also mul-
rasped loud in his ears, and his knees wob-
tiply, bringing new, trackless voids into being.
bled.
The view tasted like the fugue: seeing all the
“Hell, Arjona!” Iekanjika said, shoving him
cosmos and not only knowing it to be a void,
into the airlock. “It’s like you’ve never been in
but being part of that void.
space before.”
He took the button from his pocket with
Belisarius’ face heated. They cycled through
gloved f ingers and let it drift free beside the
the airlock.
Mutapa in perfect stillness.
“This is the Jonglei,” she said to Belisarius as
THE QUANTUM MAGICIAN, PART I
21
ANALOG
he removed h
is helmet. “It’s a good warship,
fast they can induce one, how far they can go,
representative of the ships of the Expedi-
how fast they can transit, and how fast sys-
tionary Force.”
tems come online after emergence.”
They moved by hand to the bridge. Belisar-
Belisarius didn’t meet their eyes. In savant,
ius was slow, but had no mishaps. They met
meeting people’s eyes was like looking into a
Colonel Ruhindi, the commanding off icer of
box of puzzle pieces, making the pattern
the Jonglei, a woman in her late thirties with
recognition tendencies in his brain hyperac-
very dark skin and six horizontal scars on her
tive, facial expressions swirling into cycles of
forehead. The bridge loomed with weight, in-
false positives. The colonel’s fingers twitched,
congruously so in zero-g. Six coff in-sized ac-
and a thrumming resonated through the ship.
celeration chambers stood at angles to the
Gravity lurched on under their feet.
walls, with small, thick-glassed windows in
Belisarius’ brain, thirsty for logic and ab-
front of where the crew’s faces would be.
stractions, began chopping up the name Mu-
Ruhindi summoned a holographic display in
tapa. Encyclopedic implants fed him
the middle of the bridge. Belisarius stepped
information as fast as he could drink it. Muta-
clumsily in his magnetic boots and peered into
pa, a medieval kingdom founded by a prince
it.
of greater Zimbabwe. The Kingdom of Mutapa
“Can I see an external view?” he asked.
had soon outstripped its neighbors and even
The colonel’s fingers twitched, and the dis-
its parent nation. Powerful imagery. Powerful
play compressed, reducing the Jonglei to an
symbolism. He wished he could quantify it.
icon. Only one other ship showed in the dis-
The Union picked good names. Like
play: the Mutapa.
Omukama, a dynasty that had ruled Uganda
“Larger display, please,” he said. “The
until the nineteenth century. Not swept aside
whole Expeditionary Force.”
by modernity so much as carried along with it,
The colonel’s fingers moved and the center
the dynasty possessed powerful cultural
icons shrank, allowing new ones to appear at
weight even into the era of the formation of
the margins. On the left wing floated the com-
the Sub-Saharan Union. Naming a warship af-
mand cruiser Nhialic, with the Juba, the
ter a cultural capital made for powerful sym-
Gbudue, and the Batembuzi in formation, lit bolism. Powerful enough to die for? He didn’t
in orange. On the right wing in pale yellow, the
want them to die.
armored cruiser Limpopo, commanding the
How could he quantify the effect? There
Omukama, the Fashoda, and the Kampala. In ought to be an algebra for societies. He should
the center, the battleship Mutapa, attended by
make one. Cultural capital propelled the Ex-
the Jonglei, the Ngundeng, and the Pibor.
peditionary Force, imprinting personal identi-
A microcurrent from his electroplaques to
ty on its nationals. They wrapped themselves
his brain induced savantism. Subtleties of lan-
in their identity with a conf idence Belisarius
guage and emotional nuance melted in a hard
could only envy.
rain of geometric and mathematical under-
Ngundeng, the nineteenth-century Dinka
standing. Quantifying was easy, inviting. The
prophet. The Dinka had a creator god, Nhial-
feel of other people nearby prickled. They
ic. Batembuzi was a medieval empire circling
didn’t like him. Maybe they didn’t like him.
the Great Lakes region. Gbudue was a famous
The blizzard of geometric and numerical in-
Azande king of South Sudan whose name
sights buried qualitative, social cues.
meant to tear out a man’s intestines.
The Expeditionary Force in the hologram
Powerful imagery. Powerful symbolism.
became a web of momentum, distance, mass,
How had the Congregate missed it? The Union
and speed-of-light signals. The locations of the
ships had been carrying these names for
Limpopo, the Mutapa, and the button he’d
decades. It was mathematical. This was the
left floating in the vacuum formed a long, nar-
physics of people. The multiplication of emo-
row triangle. Numbers darted between his
tional and patriotic energy produced psycho-
thoughts. Two hundred and f ifty kilometers
logical momentum.
from the Limpopo to the Mutapa.
Iekanjika pushed him and he froze.
Hesitantly, he said, “I need to understand
“Take it or don’t take it, Arjona,” she repeat-
what your ships can do with wormholes: how
ed.
22
DEREK KÜNSKEN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
A timer. A digital timer. She held a digital
“Where do you want to jump?” Ruhindi said
timer. In her hand. Her hand was before him.
in very accented French.
He was in savant. Remember to be polite.
“How far can you go in the direction of
“Thank you,” he said. “I have a very sharp
galactic south?” he asked. The transit would
sense of time. I won’t need it. Thank you.”
answer him on both the distance and preci-
He didn’t meet her eyes. She was already
sion of the Expeditionary Force’s induced
moving away, shaking her head. Weight in-
wormholes.
creased.
Ruhindi issued more silent orders. Belisarius
“We’re running on your inflaton drive?” he
stepped forward in the awkward magnetic
asked.
boots. The external holographic displays
“Yes,” Iekanjika said.
shrank, and internal systems graphs appeared.
He felt no change in the magnetic f ield.
The Jonglei had extended its magnetic coils
That meant the drive didn’t interact with the
off the bow, and Belisarius could feel magnet-
electromagnetic force.
ism tugging, even deep within the ship. The
“We’re below half a gravity,” Belisarius said.
magnetic f ield rose to nine thousand Gauss.
“What can the drive do? Ten-g? Twenty-g?”
Ten thousand. Fourteen thousand. Twenty-
Military-grade f ission-propelled missiles
one thousand.
could sustain forty gravities of acceleration
Belisarius’ arms and chest tingled.
and still hit evasive targets.
Sixty thousand. One hundred thousand.
“Much more,” she said.
Two hundred and eighty thousand Gauss.
Enough to outrun a missile? Psychological
They had passed industrial and medical
momentum and fast ships didn’t matter; they
magnetic fi
eld strengths.
were just twelve ships. The Congregate had
At four hundred thousand Gauss, electro-
that many ships in a single squadron. The Con-
magnetism and gravity interacted in interest-
gregate had hundreds of squadrons. Math was
ing ways, and a properly targeted magnetic
comfortingly inescapable. And so much of the
f ield would cause spacetime itself to creak.
Expeditionary Force’s other technology was
The readings leveled at five hundred and fifty
half a century old. Sad. So sad for the Union.
thousand Gauss.
But it was what they wanted. Cultural mo-
In front of the ship, a pocket of spacetime
mentum propelled them.
bulged at right angles to the three dimensions
The Jonglei stopped accelerating and spun
of space. Semi-melted spacetime distended
one hundred and eighty degrees. Then the
like a questing pseudopod. The shape and fo-
gravity became crushing, and Belisarius’ knees
cus of the magnetic field pushed the tube of
trembled. He staggered against the wall. He
spacetime across dimensions accustomed to
tried not to black out. His savantism wavered
being curled. The questing f inger reached
as he lost focus. Iekanjika and Ruhindi stood,
down, around the intervening space, until a
laughing at him. His insides heated with anger.
narrow, unstable bridge reached a point far to
Not at them. At himself.
galactic south. Then the display greened. They
“This is just one and a half gravities, Ar-
had induced a wormhole.
jona,” Iekanjika said.
Now came the dangerous part. The six hun-
He didn’t want to lose the numbers. Muta-
dred meters of the Jonglei was packed with
pa to Limpopo. Coordinates. Time in seconds.
fusion and f ission power systems, as well as
Acceleration in gravities. Hold onto the coor-
the inflaton drive. Those moving parts had to
dinates. He sank to a sitting position against
still, because there was nothing natural about
the wall and held his head between his knees.
an induced wormhole. It was the proverbial
He didn’t care what they thought of him.
pencil balancing on its tip. Its difference in
After another 34.7 seconds, the crush
temperature from absolute zero was within
stopped. The thrumming stopped. Weight
the range of the uncertainty principle. Most in-
evaporated. The Jonglei had moved away
teractions with the environment would cause
Analog Science Fiction and Fact Page 6