However the multi-jump method is time consuming as it usually takes days orbiting the central star for the isotopics to recharge. For a journey with several jumps this could add up to weeks or months of delay. The Wormhole Transport Network addresses this issue by establishing a long-jump wormhole between two destinations, keeping it operating and, through the use of General Relativistic frame-dragging, transporting a ship at a finite but large rate across that distance.
Earth was almost four light-years closer to Moses' Rod than the Centauri System. But the news of the dimming of the Rod reached the Centauri System almost immediately through the wormholes that were just for communications.
The loss of the Rod made about as much a splash as did the discovery that the Beleni had been found. Neither dominated the news as Emmy had expected. After a few headlines the interest had died down. Even her grandfather was having a problem getting the government to listen. Though people were living longer and there were still many like her grandfather that remembered the Aggie War, it seemed that those in power were too young to take it seriously. That period was in the history books now, not in the collective memory.
So life continued as usual and Emmy soon forgot about Moses' Rod as she pursued classes for her degree. She became interested in the problem of using long-jump wormholes directly instead of in conjunction with frame-dragging. She would investigate her grandfather's belief that a phase transition was the source of the limitation to direct use.
But how could she attack the problem? Through experiment, theory or simulation? She would discuss it with grandfather Elias.
“Well Emmy why don't you start with my theory, I'll give you the papers to read. Then see if you can extend it. For experimentation I suggest we talk with the WTN and see if we can get them to let us insert some test probes in their system. We can design the probe so that they can handle it just as they do the dummy shots they use to produce the frame-dragging effect while the wormhole is being operated. That way they should be more inclined to work with us.”
“Sounds good grandfather. I guess we'll need to get an engineer to work with us to create the probe?”
“Yes I'm sure we can find someone at the university to help out.”
After finishing her talk with her grandfather Emmy had done what she usually did when approaching a new project, she had surrounded herself with projections of books she wanted to use in her studies. Emmy would choose a projection to concentrate on while allowing her study Emmie to search out the phrases given to it through her research augmentation. The augmentation, or aug, was a small device usually wrapped around the users ear that once trained could convert thought into submissions to an Emmie.
Emmy wore her augs, she didn't believe in body implantation or adornment for that matter beyond a simple necklace or ring sometimes. Outside her study circle it would have appeared as if she was sitting on the floor of her room surrounded by ghostly images that she could move with the motion of a finger. The only concrete device was her writing screen, which she would record notes or equations on through the aug or with a small stylus, and a few paper books.
Emmy was flipping back and forth between the projected books and the notes, comments and highlights going into the study book she was creating when she froze as she twisted to look at a new projection.
That is strange, she thought.
Her Emmie, which sometimes suggested study books, had brought up a physics book on sound. The page showed a schematic of a standing wave which defined the wave pattern between the two fixed ends of a guitar string.
It acts like a phase change but it is ripples, ripples of spacetime that exhibit a standing wave pattern like a plucked guitar string and the fundamental tone/wavelength happens to be 7.5 light-years.
Emmy grabbed her writing screen and unrolled it. She did calculations as quickly as the Emmie could keep up. Within a half hour she had a rough outline which not only included standing waves and guitar strings from acoustics but also impedance matching and maximum power transfer from electrical engineering. She would soon have enough of a theory to show her grandfather.
When consulted Elias agreed with the direction she was taking and encouraged her to continue. He had found someone that might be willing to work with her on the electronics and they should meet as soon as possible. Emmy was pleased and agreed.
In the past commentators had dismissed the idea that there would exist much trade between space based settlements but this had been before the wormhole drive was introduced. It's effect on the cost of shipping and the transit time across distances measured in light-years was profound. Still any trade was made up of high cost and easy to transport goods. One of those goods was the helium-3 that was used in most of the fusion reactors generating power or driving spaceships. The WTN had greatly facilitated this trade. In many cases this trade had become critical to the economies of the star systems served.
Rich Bledsoe had been waiting for the day he would captain a fusion ship. And now he would live that day. The mission was the longest in the WTN, to Kapteyn's Star nearly twelve light-years away from Alpha Centauri. This was a resupply run for a scientific expedition studying one of the planets in the habitable zone of the red sub-dwarf star. Also aboard were four scientists who would be replacing some of those at Kapteyn's Star.
“Engineering reports ready Captain.”
“Okay Ms. Simpson undock and take us to fusion ignition.”
The big freighter, Centauri One, moved away from the Centauri Two habitat firing its reaction rockets. Within a few minutes the ship was in position and pointing to the WTN portal that would take it to Kapteyn's.
“Bring the fusion engines online Ms. Simpson.”
“Yes sir.”
The flow of helium-3 and deuterium increased quickly in the confinement area of the fusion rocket. In a magnetic field thousands of 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 one-hundred million degrees Kelvin, over six times greater than the core of the Sun, soon increased the thrust out of the magnetic nozzle and the big ship began to move.
“Okay Ms. Simpson, open her up.”
“Engine room, increase thrust.”
“Don,” yelled Chief Engineer Harris. “Report!”
“Sub-critical sir.”
“Okay open the hydrogen tank.”
Injecting hydrogen into the mix would again increase the exhaust thrust and the acceleration of the ship if it didn't destabilize the plasma containment.
The Chief Engineer looked at the fusion engineer who gave a thumbs up.
At maximum acceleration/deceleration it would take almost two weeks to reach the wormhole portal. During this time the crew wheel would not be rotating and the compartments, which were like pearls on a necklace, would be turned to take advantage of the acceleration which provided four-tenths Earth gravity. Most of the twenty-three man crew, except for the fusion engineers, could relax during this phase of the journey.
Captain Bledsoe was in his cabin when he received the call.
“Captain we are approaching the portal.”
“I'll be right there.”
Bledsoe had seen a portal many times in his career. They all looked similar. A generator station powered by a combination fusion and solar panel farm. All the support structures including a good-sized crew habitat, usually cylindrical in shape and spinning to provide some long term artificial gravity. And of course the wormhole mouth or portal cast some distance from the generator. Slightly off to the side was the dummy launcher which lobbed large and heavy balls of a metallic ore, provided by mining a local asteroid, at the portal. There they slowly entered and disappeared, providing the transport energy that eventually created the frame-dragging effect.
The wormhole's mouth itself was the most impressive object in the field of view. From the command deck of the Cent
auri One Bledsoe saw the now familiar sight.
Like a bubble in space, he thought.
The three-dimensional representation of the higher dimensional object indeed looked like a bubble to many or a crystal ball to others. The mouth at times was clear at other times opaque and cloudy. Around it was always the halo effect of distant starlight. It was at the same time beautiful, awe-inspiring and frightening because it was like nothing else in the world.
“Simpson to you have the vector that will put us in the shadow?”
“Yes sir.”
“Okay initiate transition.”
Transition meant the transitioning from ordinary space into frame-dragging space. The maneuver had to be done properly or the ship could miss the shadow or “bounce” off it. Ships had been damaged in the effort.
Transition also meant that Simpson would be using her augmented reality implant, her auggie, to communicate with the ship's Ems to manage the transition. Many navigators and other ship's personnel used the implants in their daily jobs. It wasn't required by the company but it did give those with implants a slight advantage over those without, at least during nominal operations.
The Centauri One approached slowly. The target area was just to the side and behind the wormhole mouth. The area looked like normal space but that was deceptive for the wormhole dimension lay there, a snare to the unsuspecting.
The bubble moved off to their left and behind them, then they could hear what sounded like the rushing of a wind.
“All stop,” yelled the Captain.
“Yes sir.”
The Captain activated his auggies to hear the noise and also follow the chatter of the navigation Ems.
Captain Bledsoe had heard that wind sound before, it was unmistakable, they were in the shadow of the wormhole. The power from the wormhole was dragging local spacetime along its dimensional length. The ship was now ensconced in that space and at rest. But that space was not at rest but being dragged by the energy of the objects being injected into the wormhole.
It had been explained to a younger Deck Officer Bledsoe by the Chief Engineer on his first ship.
“First Rich, you should know that the wormhole dimension is like a fourth spatial dimension and sound in four dimensions propagates differently than in three dimensions. It is generally stronger or louder.
“Now the tension that exists at the walls of the wormhole where the repulsive gravity of the exotic matter must balance all the attractive forces of the ordinary matter and energy of the transporting objects, is immense. This tension results in vibrational modes at all frequencies including the audible. Sound waves in the four dimensional wormhole reflect and double back on themselves like ripples in a pond. And like those ripples in the pond restricted in their travel, the ripples in a wormhole can reinforce and become quite large and loud.
“All that is to say that the wormhole is audible at frequencies we can hear. Some of this energy, called shadow energy, is radiated or leaked away as gravitational energy into our normal dimension. That energy impinging on a ship's hull sets up sound waves as the hull vibrates.”
“I see,” said Rich. “So any time we get close to an active wormhole we'll actually be able to hear it.”
“That's right. And remember we aren't only close enough to hear it we have our three dimensional momentum affected. And we experience what is called the frame-dragging effect of the gravity leakage from that tremendous concentration of energy.”
In those first ships the sound of the wormhole was so loud as to be uncomfortable. Now the ships hulls were insulated to dampen the sound, it was still there, but at a level that could be ignored. That's why many captains used auggie implants to hear the wormhole directly. With experience they could tell if their ship was in the proper position or not.
The effect of frame-dragging on the visual was just as noticeable. As the ship being dragged approached the speed of light the front view of the universe collapsed into a smaller and smaller cone. Then as the reference frame went superluminal the reverse happened, the cone began to enlarge but with everything reversed. Right became left and up became down. The faster the reference frame was dragged the wider this cone of light opened. It was possible to estimate the speed of the reference frame from the cone's behavior.
“Speed Ms. Simpson,” said the Captain.
“Ten-X and increasing rapidly sir,” said Simpson, meaning their velocity was ten times that of light in a universal frame of reference.
“Very well, keep me informed I'll be in my cabin.”
Bledsoe had been in his cabin laying down for about an hour when an emergency communication came through his auggies.
“Yes?” he said.
“Captain take a look at this.”
Without retinal implants he had to turn on his Emmie's screen which switched from a view of the command room and Simpson to somewhere outside the ship. To Bledsoe it appeared to be a view to the rear. And there was something very strange about it.
“Simpson what is that glow, that globe of light?”
“Sir as best as the Ems can tell it is a plasma globe. And sir it is moving toward the ship.”
“The ship can't stand something like that.”
“Yes sir. That globe of plasma has a temperature in the millions.”
“Okay start the fusion engines we've got to move, I'm on my way.”
By the time the Captain got to the bridge the plasma had almost reached the ship.
“Forward slow,” said Bledsoe.
The ship began to move. It was enough to keep the plasma globe at a distance but there wasn't much room to maneuver in the reference frame.
“Simpson we are going to have to exit the frame.”
“Yes sir but that's never been done at superluminal speeds.”
“We have no choice. If we stay here we will fry.”
“Yes sir.”
She increased the ship's speed in the local frame.
The dragging of a reference frame creates a kind of knot in spacetime. The only possible exits from this knot were directly behind or ahead where the knot was tied into the rest of the universe. This was the cone of light that “leaked” into the knots interior from the outside universe. But only the dead center of that cone was smooth enough for anything to survive the transit and even then it was a theoretical exit, it had never been tried.
“Sir the plasma globe is closing on us.”
“Increase speed.”
Bledsoe knew that would make it harder for Simpson and the navigation Ems to bring the ship through the exit safely but they had no choice.
“Speed increased, plasma globe holding steady.”
Minutes passed and then the ship was immersed in the blinding light of the exit. The hull groaned as the strong unbalanced gravity fields of the walls of the knot pulled at the ship. Alarms sounded as the radiation levels spiked.
Bledsoe felt as if his head was being pulled from his body as the ship began to rotate when it was caught in the swirl of spacetime. Then a loud boom as if the whole ship had been slapped by a giant hand and things went flying on the command deck.
When he woke Bledsoe could feel something wet on his forehead. He reached up too wipe it away, it was his own blood from a cut. Emergency lights had automatically activated. Others seemed to be recovering from the concussion of their emergence from the reference frame.
Bledsoe pulled himself up, “Simpson?”
“Yes sir?”
“Simpson where are we?”
“Just a moment sir.”
Bledsoe found a chair and sat down as he was feeling dizzy.
“Sir we are just over thirty-four hundred AU from the Centauri System.”
A hundred days, thought Bledsoe. A hundred days at top speed, if the fusion engines still work, if we have enough supplies of air, water and food. If we didn't get a lethal dose of radiation. Well we'll never know sitting here.
“Simpson plot a course back to Centauri. Ask the Chief to run a systems diagnostics an
d report. The sooner we start the sooner we'll be there.”
He rubbed the wound on his forehead.
“And ask the medic to come up here and stop this damn bleeding.”
Chapter 7
12/03/2094
The flight to the Eureka mining camp went without incident. Just two-hundred miles below the Arctic Circle the area was more devoid of trees than Redcliffe. The ground of the old landing strip was a granite gray. Glaciers had scraped the land into ridges or smooth areas like the one around the airstrip. Clear green-blue lakes dotted the area.
The helicopter pilot would remain behind in the office of the old mining company. Whitney, Joyce, Dr. Cole and his research student, Ernesto gathered up their supplies and headed for one of the buildings near the strip.
“Bears,” said Dr. Cole, as he unlocked the overhead door.
Inside the building were the Northwest Territories Geological equipment. Dr. Cole pointed to one of the ATVs.
“Ernesto why don't you get that one ready and I'll work on this one over here.”
Getting them ready consisted of pouring new gasoline from the cans they had brought with them into the drained gas tanks. Then starting them and taking them outside for a quick shakedown cruise. With their gear on the attached trailer they headed out southwest.
After two miles through the trees which were at once sparse and then copious they neared the north shore of a narrow lake. Dr. Cole driving the lead ATV now turned northwest on a smaller trail and within a couple of minutes they were at the mine which was simply set back into a small hillside.
The Geological Service had left string lighting, batteries with solar chargers and other implements outside the mine's entrance. Dr. Cole stopped before the opening. On a small table he called up the mapping utility on his computer and began to show the others what the Geological Service knew about the mine so far.
Mach's Legacy Page 4