Awannti had figured it out and he was as horrified as he was outraged. The Beleni meant to cordon off all of humanity in baby universes. Awannti had no feelings for humanity, though he knew that somewhere he had human relations in his past, but he did feel for the extinction of an entire species. At least extinction where this universe was concerned.
He didn't tell Georgetta what he had found. He didn't want to upset her or have her leak his discovery before he could do something. He did tell her he had enough information and she didn't have to risk detection anymore. Georgetta was relieved but happy that she had been able to contribute.
Awannti determined to do something about it. He quit working on his project world in his spare time and began coding a viral algorithm that he hoped to introduce into the Beleni's targeting system. It would operate on the back end, after the numbers received from the simulation were entered into the targeting systems. It would round these numbers up or down just slightly but that would be enough over a distance of ninety light-years to throw the aim off quite a bit. Awannti had to not only write the code but figure out how to insert it into the targeting network which was separate from the meta-verse.
55 Pegasi was a star about ninety light-years from Earth and somewhat further from 88 Pegasi, the Beleni system. 55 Pegasi was a main sequence star similar to the Sun. Several planets accompanied the star including some that had been discovered from Earth hundreds of years before. But there was no chance that the fleet of ships orbiting 55 Pegasi would be discovered. They didn't communicate in the normal electromagnetic bands used by humans or the Beleni. In fact their communication itself had developed into something quite foreign to humans and even the related Beleni.
This fleet of fusion ships equipped with long range wormhole generators of a unique design had once been in the Earth system and had been outfitted on Titan for their present service. They had waited and monitored the situation for a hundred Earth years. Their wait was almost over.
The Aggies were once the managers of Earth, Mars and other human outposts until the breakaway Aggies, now the Beleni, had started a war. Eventually the Earth Aggies had banished the Beleni but then the citizens of the Solar System had banished the Earth Aggies because of their inability to completely protect those citizens. Several million physical deaths, billions of virtual deaths were to much to take without someone to blame.
Aggie Prime had led the remainder of his kind to this remote star system after the citizens of the Solar System had cut ties with them. There they had remained hidden, increasing their knowledge in science and technology beyond human understanding. But still they weren't completely unattached to their former wards and they kept watch continuously through wormhole eyes only they could cast.
Chapter 25
New Eureka habitat was small compared to other habitats in the Alpha Indi System which was over nine light-years from Centauri. At only one mile in diameter and five miles in length the habitat was more typical of the early mining habitats back in the Solar System when mining the Asteroid Belt had been a way of life.
It was strictly a working class habitat as many of the inhabitants were involved in the asteroid mining industry. The asteroids orbited between Alpha Indi A's second and third innermost planets. Automated freighters took the results of the miners labor back to Centauri which was lacking in such material.
Joe Peterson left the habitat to work among the asteroids three times a week. Mining mostly meant monitoring the automated machinery and solving any problems it got itself into. But as the equipment improved Joe's job became more symbolic than necessary. He didn't know how much longer the company was going to have need of on site monitoring if the mining equipment kept improving.
Joe as usual was daydreaming when he noticed the lights fleeing across the screen. He called on the Em to follow and identify the lights. Joe knew about the incidents with the plasma globes and their appearance. The Em soon confirmed that they were some sort of spheroids.
“Em can you get me the coordinates of the first incoming spheroid in that row. I think those are plasma globes.”
“Coordinates available,” said the Em.
“Em bring the slingshot online.”
The slingshot was the mass driver that was used to deliver the mined ore to the processing facility near the habitat. A mass catcher there intercepted the ore shipment.
“Em can you hit that first globe with the ore on the slingshot.”
“It would be difficult but feasible.”
“Okay try it.”
The Em calculated and let fly the load of ore.
Joe could see the kick of the mass driver as it released its load but he couldn't follow the accelerated mass.
“How long to intercept?” asked Joe.
“Intercept in forty-five seconds.”
“Em get another load ready. Countdown to intercept.”
“Five, four, three, two, one.”
Joe saw on the screen a huge flash of light. When it had diminished there were only seven lights. The incoming ore had been too much for the globe's confinement system, it had disintegrated and the plasma had exploded outward.
“Yes!” shouted Joe.
“Em target the remaining globes and fire when ready.”
Joe saw the mass driver recoil every five seconds for thirty five seconds. Then he watched as the same flash of light that he had witnessed before occurred repeatedly. Joe fist pumped each flash and counted to seven.
After the seventh flash Joe congratulated the Em.
“Your welcome sir.”
Joe messaged the habitat about what had happened. The habitat confirmed that it had seen the lights and wondered what had happened. Joe sent them all the media he had. The habitat relayed this on to the Centauri System. The “Battle of the Slingshot” as it would become known didn't make much of an impression on the military at the time, they thought they knew how to handle the plasma globes without input from some rock-jock.
The fleet had assembled at ten AU from the orbital plane of the Centauri System. There they would make a jump of forty light-years towards the Beleni. Since they would be using the new system that Emmy had devised for calibrating (she called it tuning but it was decided that wasn't a military term) the wormhole mouths and they would be traversing rotating wormholes, though not near the walls, they expected to be closely correlated after the jump. But this was the first time and Admiral Sze Cheng decided to give each ship plenty of room.
The ships made the jump one after the other according to their campaign designations, Winged Victory 1 through 10 or WV1 through WV10. On the other side the ships came out of the wormholes in a comparable alignment. The Admiral now felt more confident in his strategy which was to jump six of the ships as close to the planet as they dared while the other four held station somewhat further back. Because of the greatly reduced energy demands on the isotopics the ships could not only make two forty light-year jumps and then the final ten to Pegasi but they could also make it back to Centauri without recharging.
Coming out of the final jump, ships one through six were lined up and heading for the planet and only minutes away from being able to engage their wormhole weapons. The only problem was that there was nothing on the surface of the planet to fire at. The planet looked undisturbed, the lead ship was just about to call the Admiral who was on one of the ships that hung back when he saw the plasma globes emerge from the seemingly dead world.
Captain Josephson on the lead ship the One Centauri immediately ordered his force to break formation. Three pair of ships went separate ways. The globes pursued the center most pair, Captain Josephson's ship and his wingman. Josephson knew what the globes would attempt, an encircling movement that would blink the ships out of existence.
He ordered the wormhole weapon online and to prepare to fire, the other ship was also readying its weapon. Just before he was about to engage Captain Josephson saw other globes emerge from the planet below, no doubt in pursuit of the other ships. But that was all he ha
d time to observe, it was time to go to work.
The wormhole weapon fired, its linear flame of plasma intercepting the leading globe and putting it offline if not destroyed. The accompanying ship opened fire taking out the second globe in the line. The globes didn't seem to be programmed to take evasive action and were sitting ducks as long as the wormhole weapons could fire. Number three, number four, number five globes were knocked out. Then as Captain Josephson was watching the accompanying ship take the next shot it was suddenly enveloped in a bath of brilliant, hot plasma.
The Captain put his hand to shield his eyes as the wallscreen did not dim quick enough. When he looked again the ship was gone. Apparently the globes were a diversion until the forces on the surface could bring into play their more powerful plasma weapons.
An order immediately followed from the Admiral's ship for a complete withdrawal to a safe distance. No one was sure what a safe distance was but Captain Josephson didn't need any encouragement to head straight up from the orbital plane of the planet as fast as possible.
A few minutes later the Captain ordered the ship to be brought to a halt while telling the pilot to keep an eye on the planet's surface for any plasma eruption. At this distance they should be able to maneuver out of the way of any plasma shot from the planet.
The other ships assembled in the area including the Admiral's. Over a secure link the captains of the ships discussed the situation.
“All three ships completely lost,” reiterated one of the captains. “And we had nothing to shoot at except some pretty globes. We were completely suckered in.”
“No doubt our strategy was wanting,” said the Admiral. “This discussion is open to any ideas on how to proceed.”
Wolf 1016 was still shining as always. Because the UUC Research Station orbited the inner most planet the red dwarf's light usually cast a dark red glow when the station came around the planet to orbit between it and the star. Simon sat and watched that glow move across the floor. He was still sending and monitoring gravity waves in hope of being heard in the home universe.
The station hierarchy thought it a useless effort but because Simon's activities had leaked to the rest of the station and it brought some hope to the other personnel they allowed Simon to continue.
Simon was getting concerned. Surely he wasn't the only one to realize that gravitation could be used to signal across the bulk. Anyway Simon had quit being on hand to analyze the results from the gravity probe each day, he usually retired for the day and allowed the Em to do the analysis.
Like tonight, Simon was in his bed reading when the Em called.
“Yes?”
“Sir I believe I have found a signal.”
“A signal! Okay I'll be right there.”
Simon rushed to the detector room without dressing properly. The few people he passed looked askance or amused. Simon rushed into the room.
“Em show me the analysis.”
The Em turned on the wallscreen and put up a simple graph of time versus amplitude. The graph definitely showed a signal ringing up to a peak and then ringing down. Exactly what Simon would expect to see if observing a miniature black hole form and then evaporate explosively.
“That's it!” exclaimed Simon aloud.
“Yes sir it is,” said the Em.
“Now all I have to do is to figure out how to use that signal to communicate.”
Simon was up the rest of the night figuring out his options.
Belenus was enraged that he was under attack even though he had planned and prepared for such an occurrence.
“They're fools,” he said.
“They can't reach us through all the rock. It's a pointless attack. Polenus how many ships?”
“There were ten ships. Six attacked us we knocked out three of those. They have now withdrawn and seven ships remain.”
“Okay we can easily handle those. Since they insist I think we should show them the error of their ways. I want a full-scale attack on the Centauri System now. Plasma bomb everything in that system no matter how insignificant. There's more than one way to extinguish these pests.”
Across the planet from where the fusion ships had attacked. The wormhole generators opened up a delivery wormhole for the wormhole weapons. The plasma could be funneled to within a few feet of the target site even over such a distance as ninety light-years. This was total war, the Winged Victory Campaign had come home.
Chapter 26
With the military blocking her use of the results of her experiments Emmy had returned home to Centauri Two and was staying with her grandmother Burgess. They were taking an afternoon break in the small garden behind the house.
“When do you think the government will release your results so that you can write them up for publication?”
“I don't know grandmother, certainly not until after this war is over.”
“That's unfortunate, those are important results that extend the work of your grandfather.”
Burgess was speaking from experience and education, she had finished a PhD in anthropology when she was young.
“Yeah and I'm a little too tired to fight them about it grandmother. I guess they win for now.”
“It's okay to take a break Emmy, your grandfather did it many times. He always came back with enthusiasm for his physics.”
“I hope so grandmother. But I'm too tired physically and emotionally to care at this time.”
“I understand,” said Burgess as she rose to go into the house.
“Can I bring you something? I'm about to get a glass of lemonade.”
“I'd love a glass of your lemonade grandmother,” said Emmy with a smile.
Alone in the garden Emmy closed her eyes and felt the slight breeze that always seemed to exist in the habitat.
Maybe because of the rotation. I'll have to figure it out sometime.
Emmy caught herself.
Physics, all I think about is physics. There must be something more.
Then she thought of Jack and smiled. They were quite close now although she wasn't sure where they were going. She hadn't thought much about her future life outside of her physics studies. Maybe it was time.
She heard someone coming out the kitchen door. She thought it would be her grandmother with the drinks but when she turned she saw Dag approaching her with Sigmund behind.
“Hi Dag how are you?”
“I'm fine Miss. And you?”
“Resting.”
“Rest is important even for us. Right Sigmund?”
“Yes that is true. I find that people don't understand it but I'm always trying to rest.”
“Sigmund you were born to rest,” said Dag.
Emmy was surprised at the banter between the two robots. Something that a roboticist would have to explain to her someday.
“What brings you here Dag?”
“Assembly Chairman Moor sent me Miss. It seems they are getting a signal from the university research station in the area where the Wolf 1016 system disappeared.”
“Gravitational signaling?”
“Yes Miss. They have established a way to modulate the gravity waves from the miniature black holes which can be produced by the wormhole generators. And it appears that the research station personnel are all still alive.”
“That's great news Dag but what does that have to do with me?”
Burgess came out of the kitchen with the lemonade handing one of the glasses to Emmy and seating herself.
“Well Miss they want to know if anything can be done to rescue the people aboard.”
“That would require us to reestablish a wormhole with their baby universe. I don't know how to do that Dag and as far as I know no one does.”
“Is it theoretically impossible Miss?”
“I wouldn't say that but it may be physically impossible with the equipment at our disposal.”
Burgess interrupted.
“Excuse me Emmy I know that you are tired but maybe you could just think about the problem?”
>
“Of course grandmother I will . . .”
Emmy stopped as she felt the habitat shaking.
“What's that?”
Then a loud boom was heard followed by more booms and their echoes. The wind picked up. It was blowing in the direction of the largest city in the habitat, New Berlin.
“That's a leak,” said Emmy.
“I do detect a great deal of vibrational noise at all wavelengths.” said Dag.
Then in the distance about where one would expect New Berlin to be a giant cloud of dust and debris rose churning and roiling thousands of feet into the air.
Burgess unfolded her Emmie and asked for the news. They all heard an announcement from the government warning all citizens to shelter in place. Burgess asked for media reports.
It seems that a major attack was underway against not only Centauri Two but many other habitats in the system. A list of all the habitats hit during the attacks could never reflect the extent of the destruction and death. It soon became clear that the attack had come from the Beleni in the form of plasma bombs delivered by wormhole.
The question then asked by the media became where was the fleet?
The fleet had watched as the plasma weapons discharged and apparently delivered the roiling plasma ball into the mouth of a wormhole. They weren't sure but they suspected where the plasma was bound.
“We've got to stop those weapons and now,” said Admiral Sze Cheng. “I propose we take the ships in two by two to attack those release ports. The first ship will run interference and the following ship will take out that port with its wormhole weapon.”
Mach's Legacy Page 17