Mach's Legacy

by D. W. Patterson

  Emmy closed her eyes a moment. Jack reached out and squeezed her arm. She opened her eyes to look at him and then turned to face the Assembly Chairman.

  “Assembly Chairman Moor I will do whatever I can to help. However you should know that by now I could have finished my research and we might have direct access wormholes. We don't I think because there was a lack of political will. I must have your word that the government will support me in the face of all opposition and I expect we will have opposition.”

  “Ms. Gibbs our lack of support for your efforts was at a time when this government thought it had the solution to the problem, otherwise we would have never asked you to cease. Now it is apparent that we do not have a solution without your help. Essentially your goal and the government's are the same and as such you will have our unfailing support.”

  “Okay Assembly Chairman Moor, let's get started.”

  The Wolf 1016 UUC Research Station was almost self-sufficient when it was blinkered into its own baby universe along with the Wolf 1016 star system. The shock of what had happened was wearing off, the station's systems were still working and many were determined to continue with their research until something could be done. Although few were willing to accept Simon's version of what had happened to the stars, he was the only one who had any ideas.

  “Okay Simon so you want to use the wormhole transmitter to signal the home universe through gravity waves, is that the gist of your proposal?”

  “Yes Dr. Stimson. You see if I'm right about what happened we have been thrown into a baby universe that exists beside what I call the parent universe. We are essentially adrift in the higher-dimensional space called the bulk. But I figure we probably haven't drifted too far from the parent universe yet.

  “And though it is no doubt expanding, our universe's expansion is probably not that great since the globes could not impart a great deal of dark energy because of their size. You see that is their final action after cutting us out of the home universe by breaking the entanglements. They release their plasma of exotic matter whose repulsive force started our baby universe's expansion.

  “Now, the only force that can move between the two universes is the gravitational force. So I propose to use the wormhole generator we normally use for communications to signal the other universe through the gravitational effect. By casting the mouth as far as possible and allowing it to collapse the mass-energy should be great enough to generate gravitational waves. The effect is to transmit gravitationally between universes.”

  Dr. Stimson, a astronomer by training, looked to Dr. Tambe.

  “Well,” said Tambe. “I have to say that what Simon says is highly speculative and in many parts not even complete in theory but the core of it is correct. At the least it would make a good physics experiment.”

  “As long as the head engineer says we have the power to spare,” said Dr. Stimson. “But Simon if we can signal them then what if they are trying to signal us?”

  “Yes I have thought about that. We should deploy our gravimetric probe which can pick up gravity waves. There should be little background noise except for our signaling efforts which we should be able to filter out.”

  Stimson looked to Tambe who nodded his head.

  “Okay do it. As far as the others are concerned it will be just another physics experiment which Dr. Tambe will lead. Let's not get the others hopes up until we have something positive to report, understood?”

  Both men nodded.

  Emmy was back at work in the lab in New Hope habitat. The others such as Dag, Sigmund and Eric were also back. Jack dropped in whenever he could. Others had been replaced by new graduate students.

  She would start the experiment as she had before but instead of creating a black hole in the wormhole and crushing Eric's spherical computer she would create a baby universe which would look like a black hole to outside observers although it's radiation signature would be different.

  She created the near wormhole mouth. Eric's spherical computer which had been greatly reduced in size from the previous version was now introduced into the mouth. Around the computer Emmy, by manipulating the method they had always used to hold open a wormhole throat, exotic matter injection, now used the wormhole generator to create a sphere of exotic matter around the computer.

  Although this negative mass material would eventually expand the baby universe, by first including opposite electrical charges in it the electrostatic force could overcome the gravitational repulsive force and pull the material together. The results should shrink the computer sphere to dimensions that enabled its super fast calculations to begin.

  Since the baby universe was like a miniature black hole it could be detected as a real black hole by the gravitational effects on its surroundings. When Emmy saw this signal on her screen she cast the far wormhole mouth and the baby universe traversed the wormhole. This had to happen quickly before the baby universe pinched off from the ordinary universe and went its own way.

  Eric watched the screen that would show whether he had captured the data stream from his spherical computer in the holographic datacube. He scrolled through looking increasingly excited. There was something there. It would take analysis but he thought they had succeeded.

  There was much excitement that evening about the experimental run. Eric's preliminary analysis showed that the computer sphere had encountered a phase change almost three-quarters of the way to the far wormhole mouth, in the lab reference frame. It looked like the data could be used to tune the wormhole to eliminate the phase change.

  “We are close,” said Eric. “I think the next test will show us whether we can do it or not.”

  “I think we'll be successful,” said Jack. “Emmy is a pretty careful experimenter. She has a knack for getting what she wants out of an experiment.”

  “And her support team,” said Eric with a smile.

  “Quit it,” said Emmy. “You make me sound like a cross between a wizard and an ogre. I'm just a physicist, a physicist that is still learning the trade I remind you all.”

  “You will do it Miss,” said Sigmund. “I know it in my bones.”

  “Your bones?”

  “Figure of speech. But seriously I have been around humans for hundreds of years. I know the doers and the talkers. You're a doer Miss.”

  “Well thank you Sigmund for you support.”

  The following experiment was a failure. It had taken so long to match the wormhole mouths that apparently the baby universe had pinched off on its way through the wormhole's throat and was lost. Some kind of automatic tuning of the mouths would have to be developed to speed up the matching before the baby universe was lost. It was once again up to Eric and Emmy to come up with a solution.

  Eric was stumped. After days of effort there was no way with the electronics he had available to speed up the matching and get a match in time. However he looked at it he could only increase the matching time by a factor of ten which wasn't enough. The electronics simply needed more time to work.

  “I'm sorry Emmy I can't come up with a solution.”

  “Well you've sped up the matching some. Now if we could just extend the time our little universe exists before it pinches off. I've got an idea but it's highly speculative.”

  “What is it?”

  “There are indications in the literature that an object orbiting a spinning wormhole can experience either a speed up of time or a slow down depending on the direction of the spin and the objects orbit. It is a result of the same frame-dragging effect that we currently use in the wormhole transport network.

  “In this case the frame-dragging turns the time axis of the local frame in such a way that it points away from forward time and can even be turned backwards. You can create closed timelike loops in which you could even travel back in time although that may create causal anomalies which would destroy the loop.”

  “The grandfather paradox?”

  “Yes. Or instead of closing the loop you could open it and spiral the timeline
which would result in a slow down of time not a reversal. Which is what we want.

  “Now the question is what happens to an object traversing a wormhole from the inside?”

  Eric looked intrigued.

  “I was fooling with the equations last night and I think if we can send the baby universe on a spiral trajectory close to the walls of the wormhole as the wormhole spins we will get the same effect, a slow down or a speed up of time. Of course it is the slow down that we want. We simply choose the correct direction that the object orbits in relation to the wormhole spin.”

  “And you think this would work inside the wormhole also?”

  “I don't see why not. If it works at all and the inside and outside solutions are the same at the boundary condition which is the wall of the wormhole and we know what the outside solutions say. Of course, as I said, this is all highly speculative. Just because the math says it will work doesn't mean there is no physical prohibition.”

  “But it gives us a chance, doesn't it?”

  “Yes, a chance.”

  Emmy worked out a way to cause the wormhole to spin as it was being generated. It wasn't difficult as it was actually harder to create wormhole mouths that didn't spin. This had been noticed before especially in the wormhole transit network where wormholes were held open for a longer time.

  So once she knew which way the wormhole was spinning she could then send the baby universe down the wormhole near the wall. The spinning wall would drag it around in the spiral Emmy needed to slow down the local time. The evolution of the baby universe would slow down enough to allow it to reach the other end without pinching off.

  The experiment started. Emmy had injected the computer sphere and created the baby universe slightly off center of the mouth. The frame-dragging effect became apparent almost immediately. She then cast the far wormhole mouth and Eric's electronics adjusted the cast until the mouths were matched.

  Just as the experiment was to end Emmy heard the rumbling and shaking from the laboratory. Looking at the monitors on the wallscreen she noticed a shaking and a large amount of dust and debris down the hall where the lab had been extended for these experiments.

  The experiment ended and the shaking and noise stopped.

  Looking at the wallscreen Emmy noticed that there was a hole about the size of the expected far wormhole mouth. She wasn't sure why.

  Eric was too busy investigating the holographic datacube to respond to the unusual ending of the experiment. He was scrolling through the memory, there was data. The baby universe had not pinched off until after the experiment ended and the blackhole computer had still run fast enough to record its journey.

  Chapter 24

  Wormhole Physics 101, 9th Edition, by Dr. Elias Mach and Dr. Emmy Gibbs

  Copyright 2650 C.E.- Chapter 25, Page 677

  Long-Jump Wormholes

  Introduction to Chapter 25

  There are several ways to extend the reach of a wormhole. One is discussed in Appendix 1 where a wormhole ship enters the wormhole at speed.

  Another way to extend the reach of a wormhole is to spin the wormhole. The result, called a Teo-Shuzumi wormhole, requires less exotic matter than a non-spinning wormhole. This comes from the geometry and physically seems related to the angular momentum vector. The faster it spends the less exotic material is needed. The spin is opposed by the frame-dragging effect which provides a limit to how fast a wormhole can spin.

  Because of the reduced quantity of exotic matter required per unit length a longer wormhole can be supported. The only real limitation is how much energy can be used to cast the far mouth before causing a spacetime disruption.

  Upon reflection and further study Emmy realized that the equations of a spinning wormhole required less exotic matter and energy for a length of wormhole. In other words Emmy had used too much energy to cast the far wormhole mouth in the experiment. She had cast it through the wall of the lab. But it was a fortunate mistake because it could lead to increasingly longer wormholes for the same input of energy which was one of the requests of Assembly Chairman Moor.

  His other request that wormholes could be used directly was confirmed by the data Eric's electronics collected. There was no phase change to be found along the length of the wormhole. A full scale test was called for.

  Emmy reported her results and once again the military swooped in to take over management of the project. Emmy and Eric were kept on to advise the government scientists but everyone else was dismissed including Dr. Jackson.

  After three weeks of debriefing and a run through of the original experiment with Emmy and Eric in the control room they were dismissed from further participation with the thanks of the government for their services. There was only one problem, the research had been classified and neither Emmy or Eric would be able to use it to fulfill degree requirements.

  During the time it took for Emmy to run the experiment and turn control over to the government the Assembly's military had lost three more fusion ships. The fleet was now down to only six ships. One of these was selected for the full-scale test.

  Captain James Sullivan and Commander Neil Allen would fly the mission. The pair would make the wormhole jump to Kapetyn's Star and back. The ship didn't need much outfitting, mostly the algorithms for creating a spinning wormhole.

  The pair separated their ship from New Hope dock and accelerated and decelerated at ninety degrees to the orbital plane of the system. At maximum acceleration/deceleration it took about fourteen days to reach the ten AU quarantine limit. They prepared for the jump to Kapetyn's Star which was the longest jump in the wormhole network.

  “Ready Captain Sullivan?”

  “Ready Commander Allen.”

  “Initiate wormhole.”

  The small patch of light appeared in front of the ship. The light grew in intensity and size until it was larger than the crew wheel. At that point it seemed to crystallize into a sphere. But the interior of the sphere was streaked by brighter streaks than usual.

  “Looks different,” said Commander Allen.

  “Yeah. Beginning approach.”

  The Five Centauri approached the wormhole mouth. If the crew could have seen the mouth from the side they would have seen an oblong spheroid instead of the usual perfect sphere. The shape changed because of the mouth's rotation.

  The ship slowly approached the mouth and then was gone. It emerged above the plane of the Kapetyn system. The central star though a small red dwarf could easily be seen through magnification.

  “That looks like it,” said Sullivan.

  “Roger that.”

  “Course set for habitat.”

  “Wait Commander, where's the stars?”

  From Centauri it appeared that the ship had made the jump but then disappeared. It was soon apparent that Kapetyn's Star had disappeared also.

  The news media had a double headline of doom. Assembly Chairman Moorof course called for a meeting.

  “Admiral is it possible that they jumped into the baby universe from here?”

  “Assembly Chairman anything is possible. But the most probable scenario is that they jumped just before the system was blinkered.”

  “Can we be sure that the jump was successful?”

  “No, I gave you the most probable scenario but I can't guarantee it. There was not enough communications with the ship to determine where it came out of the wormhole, or if it came out of the wormhole.”

  “What do you mean, if it came out of the wormhole?”

  “I mean it was a test and it carried a measure of risk with it. So all we can really say is that this test of long-jump wormholes has failed.”

  “Failed? Admiral we have just lost the most populated node in the wormhole network. It is more than a failure it is a catastrophe. Why did we not receive a message from Kapetyn's indicating that they were under attack?”

  “It could be that the enemy has changed its tactics and Kapetyn's did not realize they were under attack until too late”

  �
�Oh, more good news.”

  Assembly Chairman Moor sagged in his chair.

  “So now they can take our territory without warning and without opposition. And we've lost more than half our fleet with no results to show the public.”

  “Assembly Chairman we have more ships coming online. These are commercial ships that we are converting. We also have other ships that are building but won't be ready immediately. As far as what we show the public, we ask for more volunteers and we try the long-jump again. We jump not to a star system but some arbitrary point in space where the ship is not likely to come under attack. We do this until we succeed and then we take the fight to the enemy, the Beleni.”

  “Well I have to say I am impressed with your spirit Admiral but I am not impressed with the results we've seen so far.”

  Assembly Chairman Moor pushed his mic away and leaned back in his chair as others of the Assembly continued the questioning. He was thinking it might be time to resign from his position as Assembly Chairman.

  The next test worked. A quickly planned follow on test found that at just under full power the jump was almost forty light-years. Including the jump back the fleet had the capability to engage the Beleni nearly ninety light-years away. But their wasn't much of a fleet left. Five of the original twelve fusion ships were still available. Another six commercial ships were being converted and upgraded with improved wormhole weapons added.

  The military wanted to send eight of these ships against the Beleni keeping three in reserve. But Assembly Chairman Moor vetoed that plan when Lalande 27074 was lost. The media continuously reported that this was the end of the wormhole network since there was only one node left. The loss of almost one-thousand lives was also a nightmare for the government. The fact that the attacks were now occurring without any notice had the Centauri public scared and calling for the Assembly's collective heads.

  The Admirals pushed back and the Assembly allowed them to keep one ship in reserve but insisted that all others fly against the enemy. The military planners knew it was more a public relations position than any strategy but they dealt with it the best they could. They would send ten ships but hold four at station over the Beleni planet while the other six attacked the infrastructure. The four ships could then be sent in as a second wave to mop up after the first wave.