Mach's Legacy

by D. W. Patterson

  “Well hopefully we'll know soon and then we can put an estimate on just how much data is in this mine.”

  “Do you need any help Amos?”

  “No, this will take some time.”

  “Very well I'm going to do a little exploring of my own.”

  First Dr. Jefferson tried a visual inspection of the small globe. Under a small handheld magnifying glass he could see that the surface of the globe was almost smooth, but that occasionally what he thought was a ripple marred the surface. Observations were obviously subject to the angle of the light being used.

  Next he took his prepared patch probes and tried to secure them to the globe. It was strange as the patch stuck but seemed at times to be immersed in something. It seemed like it was almost floating. But the patches stayed which allowed him to clip his wires to them and hook them to the laser-based analyzer he had wheeled into the mine.

  Starting the analyzer he viewed the results on his computer. The lasers probed the surface of the sphere developing a 3D model on the computer. From there the lasers ramped up to penetrate into the interior. The diffraction tomography showed the interior of the globe to be made up of a huge cloud of particles of many shapes.

  Next the analyzer switched into spectroscopy mode and the lasers quickly created a spectrum of the particles. The only problem was that the computer could not match the spectrum. Dr. Jefferson was surprised. The spectroscopic analysis had never failed before.

  Anyway, he decided to move on with his research. Next he would try to readout any data stored inside the globe. He switched the analyzer to readout mode and the lasers fired at different frequencies and angles while the analyzer looked for a response.

  Shortly Dr. Jefferson could hear a buzz in the room. He couldn't tell where it was coming from until it got much louder. Then he knew it was coming from the globe. Suddenly his computer screen was filled with cascading columns of data flashing too quick for Amos to follow. He felt the warmth on his face. The globe was heating up just as Whitney had warned him. He reached to turn off the analyzer but before he could he heard a loud pop and felt something like a fist knocking him backward.

  Whitney was just down the hall and hearing the loud thud rushed into the room where she had left Dr. Jefferson. There was the smell of burned electronics and something else she couldn't quite place. She was soon joined by others.

  “Where's Dr. Jefferson?” asked one of the soldiers.

  “I don't know,” said Whitney, “he wasn't here when I arrived.”

  “Well check the other rooms.”

  The soldiers all left through the door outline while Whitney walked through the holowall to the room next door to find Dr. Jefferson on his back on the floor.

  She bent down.

  “Are you okay.”

  Dr. Jefferson looked at her and pointed at his ear.

  “I can't hear anything.”

  Whitney shook her head and mouthed her words again slowly.

  Dr. Jefferson understood her.

  “I think so.”

  “Get up?” she said making the motion to help him to his feet.

  “Yes,” he said.

  Whitney helped him up.

  He winced as he tried to straighten his body fully.

  “My back,” he said.

  Just then the Sergeant with a medic came through the door outline. They helped Dr. Jefferson out into the common area and laid him down on a makeshift bed.

  “Dr. Jefferson can you hear me?” said the medic.

  “A little.”

  “He'll be okay. He just needs some time.”

  “Sergeant let's check that room again,” said Whitney.

  “Come on soldier,” said the Sergeant.

  The two men and Whitney inspected the room carefully.

  “Sergeant,” said Whitney, “this indentation is missing a globe.”

  The Sergeant came over and looked.

  “Could it have exploded?” he asked.

  “I don't know. But nothing else seems to be missing. We should know more when Dr. Jefferson recovers.”

  The following day Whitney was visiting Amos in the makeshift infirmary.

  “It was the globe,” said Dr. Jefferson.

  “The missing globe is what caused the explosion?” said Whitney.

  “That's right.”

  “But they are so small and that explosion knocked a grown man, you, nearly twenty feet into the next room.”

  “Yes the energy concentration must be tremendous. When I accessed it with the analyzer there was a mismatch. The analyzer couldn't keep up with the torrent of data. It built up and exploded.”

  “But there are millions of those globes down there, their total energy must be . . .”

  “I figure somewhere in the ten's of kiloton range.”

  “That's a small atomic bomb.”

  Dr. Jefferson nodded his head.

  “We better tell the Canadian military. This find is going to have to be treated a lot more carefully.”

  Chapter 11

  Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science - Fusion Ships

  Fusion spaceships are the primary means of space transport in the 27th Century. The latest fourth-plus generation model is capable of a top velocity of two-tenths the speed of light.

  For long voyages most fusion ships have a rotating life-support wheel usually located a third of the way from the front of the vessel. The wheel section of a fusion ship provides the artificial gravity which makes the performance of most mundane everyday chores, such as eating, sleeping and cleaning, much easier to accomplish. It also provides for the health and muscle-tone of the crew although medical research has made that benefit redundant with new discoveries.

  The wheel sections of most fusion ships consist of the crew quarters or apartments on the second floor. This floor also includes a cafeteria, workout room, theater, and assembly area. The first floor, the outer part of the wheel, is used as an aeroponic's garden (a method of growing plants in which the roots are exposed and misted with water and nutrients) to grow food on long voyages. The third floor is usually where supplies and equipment are kept. Each level typically has over fifty-thousand square feet of floor space.

  At seven hundred feet in diameter and rotating at one point-eight revolutions a minute the artificial gravity created is about four-tenths Earth gravity. The outer surface of the big wheel is moving at over seventy kilometers per hour.

  Crew quarters are four hundred square feet, and seem even roomier than their square footage would suggest. Three rooms included a ten by twenty living room-kitchen, a ten by twelve bedroom and an eight by ten bathroom. The kitchen includes a small fridge and food processing center.

  At three thousand feet in length the fusion ships are some of the largest spaceships in existence. The spine of the ship is made of interlinked girders of a carbon composite that is strong but flexible. The composite is wrapped in a particle shield, inside of which is an x-ray shield. This design prevents most fast-moving interstellar particles from impacting the frame and weakening it over time. Closer to the fusion engines it also prevents any radiation damage. At the front is another massive particle shield to deflect particles when the ship is at speed. A magnetic field generator complements the particle shield by turning away charged particles.

  The fourth-plus generation ship's engines use the deuterium helium-3 fusion reaction. The advantage of this reaction is the large amount of energy it produces with an absence of neutrons. The lack of neutrons allow a much longer engine life due to the reduced materials damage and activation levels (radioactivity) when compared to other fusion reactions. In the fourth generation-plus engine the loss of efficiency to neutron and x-ray emissions is almost nil.

  Even though the fusion engines are aneutronic they still can give off some radiation, mostly in the form of various fast-moving particles or gamma rays. These collide with the reactor shielding leaving only soft x-rays. But even with this lesser radiation a crew member would not want to remain in
their vicinity too long.

  The tanks containing the deuterium oxide pellets are located at the back of the ship just in front of the engines on the left. The tanks containing helium-3 gas are similarly located on the right.

  During the four-tenths Earth gravity acceleration and deceleration phases of a journey the wheel section would not be spinning and the living quarters would be turned, like beads on a string, so that the applied force is in the proper direction.

  Isotopic energy storage is used on these ships. The atomic nucleus rather than chemical means provides the power. The resulting energy concentration is magnitudes greater than any previous system. Isotopic energy . . .

  In the note from Dr. Jackson about the bright flare coming from the rebel AI's star system he had wondered about the coincidence with the Centauri One incident. Emmy wondered too. After researching and discussing ball lightning with her grandfather she realized it could be possible to create a plasma globe just as the crew of the ship had claimed. But to transport it across tens of light years and with the accuracy to threaten a ship in a moving reference frame was astounding. Certainly an expertise greater than any one thought possible.

  Since her grandfather and she were just about to start their tests to create such a plasma using the skyrmion theory they would soon know what was possible.

  Captain Amy Bryson had made the Lalande 27084 run before. At thirty-five Amy was tall, angular and alert. She wore her sandy blonde hair short because she hadn't the time to fuss with it. Being the Captain of a wormhole drive fusion ship was a full time job, even in port; decision maker, problem solver and sometimes babysitter when there were passengers aboard was challenging, and she loved it.

  Her cargo this trip was some very well off tourists, some electronics and various other supplies for Lalande's habitat. At over ten light-years the star system was near the limits of the present day wormhole network. But it was a popular destination for tourists. For many of them it was the finish line of the Grand Tour. As the well-to-do a hundred years before had toured the Solar System and hundreds of years before that had toured Europe, now the six star systems making up the WTN were their destination. That was why the ship also carried some food and other stores, as the WTN star systems learned quickly how to cater to this new source of revenue.

  Presently Amy was having a discussion with one of the passengers. Roger Baskum was not only a tourist but also a board member of the corporation that owned Amy's ship, Star Traveler.

  “Do you think we'll see one of those globes on this trip Captain?”

  “I very much doubt it Mr. Baskum. None have appeared since the Centauri One incident.”

  “I suppose you are right,” said Baskum somewhat disappointed.

  “But let me ask you this Captain if you don't mind. The ship is highly automated, why then does it still need so many crew?”

  Here we go again, thought Amy.

  “Well Mr. Baskum it is true that the Star Traveler is one of the most automated ships ever built and as such the crew compliment has been cut in half from what a comparably sized, less automated ship would need. But I assure you those left are essential.”

  “But what do they do? From what I've seen there main job seems to be monitoring systems.”

  “That is true when the flight remains nominal. It is during emergencies, those unforeseen incidents that by definition cannot be planned for that the crew shows its worth.”

  “But couldn't we at least require augmentation of every crew member? In that way they could monitor and operate more than one the ship's systems. I believe other companies have such work rules.”

  “Yes Mr. Baskum that would be one way to reduce head count but augmentations don't work the way most people think, I should know I'm an auggie.”

  Amy paused to let that sink in before continuing.

  “You see while augmentations can absolutely allow you to respond quicker and multitask more they can also have a paralyzing effect. I've faced that in training simulations where my augs were overwhelming me with critical data. I had to learn how to focus or fail.

  “Actually an unaugmented human being can be an asset aboard a ship in an emergency. If they can be trained to focus without sensory overload, and I assure you all my crew have met that criteria, then they can actually perform their duties faster and more accurately than an augmented crew. You don't have to take my word for it, it's in the research journals.”

  “Oh I take your word for it Captain. I consider you the authority. You'll forgive me I hope, I'm just an old businessman trying to save a buck. But you've convinced me we are being frugal enough.”

  Just then Amy seemed to freeze.

  “Is there something wrong Captain?”

  Amy held up her hand.

  “I'm sorry Mr. Baskum I have to go to command immediately. Please return to your quarters we will talk later.”

  Entering command Amy saw on the wallscreen what she had hoped she wouldn't see. A shining globe occupying the reference frame with her ship.

  Emmy and her grandfather were finding out that the interlocking rings of magnetic force needed to create a skyrmion were easier to conceptualize than they were to create. After some premature attempts they were ready to try again. Using knowledge built up from years of fusion engineering and the magnetic plasma bottles used in that field they had developed a model of the skyrmion.

  Elias had the school's machining department create the model using room temperature superconducting conduits embedded in the substrate of a hollow sphere. At the bottom of the sphere a hole allowed a small amount of plasma to be injected into its center. This then would recreate the natural phenomena of ball lightning, they hoped.

  The sphere was mounted in Elias's rebuilt lab with the experiment's controls in the safety room. Elias started the experiment by powering up the current generators. These powerful generators would inject several hundred amps into the superconducting rings which would flow unimpeded until damped.

  Simulation had shown that the currents in the rings would produce magnetic fields of tens of Teslas which it was hoped would be shaped properly and be strong enough to confine the injected plasma.

  Elias touched the control Emmie's screen to inject the current into the rings. Even through the safety wall a thump was heard as the rings recoiled. Elias read off the magnetic field sensors.

  “Ten T, fifteen T, twenty T, twenty-five Tesla. Injecting plasma now.”

  On the screen they could see the sphere fill with light as the ionized carbon-dioxide glowed white. Elias was just about to turn and congratulate everyone for their hard work when the light in the sphere began to flicker. He turned back to his Emmie.

  Some kind of fluctuation in the magnetic field was being sensed. Then he heard someone say, look!

  On the screen it appeared that the ball of light was drifting outside the sphere anchoring the superconducting rings. It soon became apparent that the ball of plasma was separating from the sphere. In another moment it appeared to be drifting across the room. Elias could only watch as the ball of light proceeded to touch the lab's wall which exploded.

  The screen was overwhelmed by the brightness and shut off. They could feel and hear the explosion as the room shook. By the time the screen came back up everyone could see the large hole left in the reinforced concrete.

  Elias started to shut down the experiment by dumping the circulating currents into the capacitor banks but he noticed their weren't any readings from the magnetic field sensors or the current sensors. The ball of plasma must have taken the magnetic fields with it.

  “Well,” said Elias. “This is a new phenomena that we will have to study a bit more.”

  Emmy nodded in agreement.

  Captain Bryson immediately ordered the pilot to move the big fusion powered ship away from the approaching plasma globe. The ship began to pace the globe but that expediency could only last so long as the space they were in, the local reference frame, was limited in extent. Amy knew that the Centauri One had
escaped by driving through the center of the reference frame at one end. She also knew that it was a one in a million move that owed more to luck than to piloting skill. The small sliver of untwisted spacetime that marked the escape path was theoretically not much wider than a ship.

  She also knew that they were very close to Lalande's and would soon be leaving the reference frame.

  “Navigation how long to deframing?”

  “Point eight-two hours local time.”

  “Pilot how long to the reference frame boundary at this rate?”

  “Twenty-five minutes.”

  “Okay, let me know when we are within five minutes of that boundary.”

  If we can just maneuver around this thing once we can keep pace with it until the reference frame dissolves.

  Amy stayed in the control room watching the plasma globe on the wallscreen. It seemed neither to gain nor lose distance relative to the ship.

  Amy called the Chief Engineer.

  “Chief you want to get the data on this phenomena so that we might be able to understand it better?”

  “Yes ma'am. We are recording all readings.”

  She continued to watch the wallscreen. The globe seemed completely smooth except for an occasional off-white band rotating randomly below the surface.

  “Five minutes ma'am.”

  “Okay pilot I want you to use radar and move us as close to the frame's boundary layer with the wormhole as possible. I repeat as close as possible. Then reverse our course and maintain velocity at current speed.”

  “Yes ma'am.”

  “Chief open hull mics.”

  Immediately there was an intense noise like the rushing of a wind.

  “Turn that down.”

  The sound dropped to a level not much above the usual ship noise but it began increasing as they got closer and closer to the boundary.

  “Ma'am I believe I'm as close to the boundary as is safe,” announced the pilot.