Mach's Legacy

by D. W. Patterson

  And that was all. The gift was a translation database and nothing else. What was at first excitement over the ability to read the gift became disappointment.

  “Well that can't be all they meant us to do with it,” said Emmy.

  “I agree, I don't think they would have gone to the trouble if that was all,” said Jack.

  “Do you not think it obvious Miss that this is just practice for our translation device?” said Sigmund. “Obviously the real knowledge is in that mine on Earth.”

  “I think so too,” said Emmy. “We must go there immediately. Dag you have made all the arrangements?”

  “Yes Miss. I only need to give a date.”

  “Very well. Let's go as soon as possible.”

  Everyone working on the project except Eric was heading by wormhole ship to Earth. The night before they were to leave they got the news that the research station that Dr. Jackson had worked at in HR 383 had disappeared along with the moon and the planet HR 383c. Over six hundred people were missing. Jack was obviously upset but determined to continue.

  Everyone was surprised that this was Emmy's first trip aboard a wormhole ship. She who had been so involved with extending its range had never actually been out of the Centauri System. As usual except for the view of the mouth forming the trip was anti-climatic. It was over almost before it began. Emmy was as disappointed as most other travelers experiencing their first wormhole jump.

  Coming to Earth near the New York complex in North America Dag had arranged for them to take a small hypersonic the remaining two thousand miles into Redcliffe, Northwest Territories. The hypersonic would make the trip in less than half an hour. Both Emmy and Jack commented on the gravity. They were both struggling to overcome the twenty percent increase in gravity compared to the habitats.

  Coming into Redcliffe the hypersonic would have to set down on a snow packed runway. Ever since the climate had started getting colder Redcliffe stayed snowed in all but a few weeks in the summer and recently the snow had refused to completely melt even then.

  The port personnel struggled to get the deboarding stairs to the hypersonic. Emmy, Jack and the others had to walk across the packed snow to the terminal. The bitter cold had them shaking by the time they got inside.

  “We're going to have to buy warmer clothes,” said Jack.

  Emmy was too busy trying to keep her teeth from chattering to answer but she nodded her head vigorously. They shopped in the very expensive port store for warmer coats and boots which had built in thermal units.

  “I think the Assembly might balk at the expenses we are going to turn in,” said Jack.

  “Well its a nice coat and boots if we do have to buy them ourselves.”

  “Yeah but where are we going to wear them?”

  Emmy shrugged.

  While Emmy and Jack shopped Dag and Sigmund had loaded up their suitcases and equipment into the vehicle that would take them to the hotel.

  Hiram habitat was one of the smallest in the Centauri System with slightly more than fifty thousand people. It was one of the few torus shaped designs ever built. Its founder had been a disciple of the early habitat designers. Long before they could be built these designers created many different versions of which only a handful were ever realized.

  Anthony Hiram, a descendant of the builder, was habitat manager. From his office in the Hiram building Anthony could see Main Street which ran the entire length, six and a quarter miles, around the habitat. He often sat and watched the electrics on the street in the morning while he drank his coffee.

  Anthony felt the shaking. Standing and looking out his office window up and down the street as far as he could see he didn't notice anything unusual. Just then his Emmie alerted. It was his assistant John.

  “Yes John.”

  “Sir something is happening on the far side of the habitat.”

  “I need to know more than that John.”

  “Yes sir, as soon as possible.”

  The call terminated.

  “Emmie get me Jose Ramirez.”

  The image of a room came on the screen but no one was there.

  “Jose are you there?”

  Eventually Ramirez picked up his Emmie, he looked scared. He appeared to be putting on his emergency suit.

  “Mr. Hiram something awful is happening the habitat is splitting open.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Straight down Main Street the habitat is splitting in two. The atmosphere is holding somehow but I'm taking the precaution of my suit anyway.”

  “Jose it makes no sense.”

  A violent lurch hit Anthony throwing him against the window. He dropped his Emmie, the picture went blank.

  As he was against the window he looked down on the street. There just coming into view around the bending circle of the torus was the split. It was as Jose had said, the torus was splitting along its outer circumference but the trees on either side were not being blown about by the escaping air.

  How is that possible?

  As the rift came closer Anthony got to look out of the rift into space except it didn't feel like looking into space. It felt like looking into an inky blackness, more of a void than a space.

  Then as the rift raced toward him and past him in the direction that it came that black void seemed to be rising up and obscuring the opposite side. Anthony thought of storm clouds he had seen on Earth. The upwelling seemed like a thick black cloud with fine traces blown upward as it came. Then the blackness was just outside the window seemingly spilling into the office and dimming the office lights.

  No, the lights are really dimming.

  Anthony started to place a call to the power department although he dreaded what he would find.

  Even after two days to acclimate Emmy and Jack were feeling the higher gravity. After a short ride from the hotel back to the port they took a chartered copter the fifty miles northeast from Redcliffe to Eureka and the mine.

  The thick blanket of snow in the area had covered most of the single story buildings to their roof lines. The military had fought the encroaching whiteness by cutting entrances through the attics of single story buildings or adding an entrance to the second floor of taller buildings. Eureka was now more a military installation than a mining town.

  It wasn't long until they were in a tracked military vehicle heading for the mine entrance. Captain MacDonald was explaining that he and his men had dug out the mine entrance when they were first informed that some researchers were coming. However they had done nothing to heat the shaft that descended to the globe area. But, he continued, once they arrived at the bottom the temperature would be around twelve or thirteen Celsius.

  Arriving at the cave entrance Emmy, Jack, Dag and Sigmund had to walk a few feet through the arctic wind blast before climbing down the makeshift dig to the cave's entrance. The soldiers brought their trunks of equipment along. From there the party eventually made its way to the main room of the cave.

  There were enough detector shrouds for each of them to perform individual investigation. Before they started Emmy spoke.

  “Okay while we want to be systematic in gleaning the information in this cave we also want to work as quickly as possible. As all of you know we are looking for anything that is related to baby universes. We need to find out how to reconnect them to their parent universe, our universe, if it is in there. Our Emmies will monitor the incoming data in real-time and flag us if there is anything about this subject.

  “One other thing, remember everything we see is an illusion. I've read Dr. Howe's notebook. The doors and halls and rooms beyond are all a holographic projection. But the skyrmions are real. One other thing before you pass through any door or wall make sure that the illusion is not backed by a solid rock wall. Be careful, let's get to work.”

  To work the fifth hall a detector was given to a pair of soldiers and Emmy showed them how to use it. The team worked until late that day. The Captain urged them to finish and get back to Eureka before nightfall whe
n the temperature would drop quickly. Emmy and Jack didn't need to be encouraged they were worn out from standing against the heavy gravity. That night after a quick dinner they both went straight to their rooms.

  Just before dawn Emmy was awakened by a soldier.

  “Excuse me ma'am but the Captain wants to see you. I think you have an urgent message.”

  Emmy groggily looked at the soldier.

  “Now?”

  “Yes ma'am. Apparently it's urgent business.”

  “Very well I'll be there shortly.”

  “Thank you ma'am and I'm so sorry to have had to disturb you.”

  “That's okay soldier.”

  Emmy slowly rose and dressed. Even inside it wasn't that warm.

  “Thank you for coming so quickly Ms. Gibbs. I'm sorry to have to wake you but it seems there is some serious trouble in the Centauri System. Please read this.”

  Emmy read the message on the screen. It explained what had happened to Hiram habitat. It urged Emmy to return as soon as possible to help with the investigation.

  Emmy looked up from the screen.

  “Ma'am we've booked you on a flight to Centauri tonight. The copter will be ready to take you back to Thunder Bay, there one of our planes will fly you to the spaceport. You should pack what you need right away.”

  “But Captain I'm not sure I can do anything without the information in that cave.”

  “Well ma'am maybe so but you are the best expert we've got on this phenomena. Maybe Dr. Jackson can stay here and keep working. We'll provide all the support he needs including another team to replace you. If he finds anything he can notify you immediately through the wormhole.”

  “Maybe Captain, maybe,” said Emmy uncertainly.

  Chapter 29

  Wormhole Physics 101, 8th Edition, by Dr. Elias Mach

  Copyright 2540 C.E.- Chapter 5, Page 154

  Entanglement Reservoir

  Spacetime disruption is a phenomena related to the use of the wormhole generator.

  As shown in Chapter 3 spacetime is an emergent property that comes from the quantum entanglement of particles. But the transport of an object through a wormhole uses up this particle entanglement. In this sense it is much more like the teleportation of particles in which the particles must be entangled.

  The entanglement required to teleport/transport is “borrowed” from spacetime. When enough particles are transported the entanglement of spacetime can be weakened to the point that spacetime itself “atomizes” or breaks up. If we imagine the atomizing of spacetime to be similar to water turning into steam we see that a phase change has occurred.

  To turn steam into water you allow it to cool. To allow spacetime to self-heal you restore particle entanglement. To drive the phase change faster, with water you could use a condenser with a sufficient cold reservoir. Similarly to prevent a teleported/transported object from “heating” up spacetime a “reservoir” of entangled particles can be provided with the object. A quantum computer becomes the “condenser” and generates this reservoir of entanglement sufficient to offset the mass of the transported object.

  If the quantum computer is carried along with the object it also shortcuts the quantum requirement that the information for the entangled states be carried by a classical channel between the wormhole mouths, such as a radio channel. The information is in effect carried with the teleported/transported object.

  Emmy had cried when she left Jack. She thought he was somewhat disturbed also. Part of it no doubt was how tired she felt and facing this new challenge was asking a bit too much. But she also wondered if she and Jack weren't getting closer as a couple. Anyway the separation was hard to take.

  She read the rest of the details in the file sent from Centauri while aboard the wormhole ship as it boosted to the quarantine limit. The Hiram habitat had managed to get the information out before it had vanished. The habitat had come apart along its circumference, the same path followed by its main road.

  That's peculiar. I wonder why?

  Emmy settled back and thought. The road, that was the key. It was something she had read about when the globes had first appeared on Earth. By that time the incidental damage had been minimized because they were often following the roads.

  She wondered if that had happened in the Hiram habitat. Were these later globes marking a path? If they were what was it they were leaving behind that could cause these incidents?

  Emmy settled back and soon fell asleep.

  She awoke with a start as the wormhole ship was coming out of the jump. The wormhole jump, if not for her grandfather's invention of the entanglement reservoir, would be destroying the entanglement of spacetime. Particle entanglement was all important as spacetime emerged from the entanglement. And its destruction could result in the breakup of space. In this case the disruption would happen in normal space.

  But if a path of disrupted spacetime were closed upon itself what would happen?

  Emmy wasn't sure but she thought that the destruction of entanglement being a closed loop would result in not the disintegration of local spacetime but the creation of a baby universe separate from the parent universe. It would be kind of like a tire blowout.

  She would have to calculate to be sure.

  She hadn't quite finished her theory when the ship docked at the Centauri Two habitat.

  She made her way to her grandmother's house where she would stay. If there were any experiments that needed to be done she would do them in the nearby lab where she and her grandfather had worked.

  Her grandmother didn't greet her at the door which was unusual. Inside the house she called out. Soon a woman appeared.

  “I'm sorry you must be Emmy, I am Susan your grandmother's nurse.”

  “Grandmother's nurse?”

  “Oh you don't know. I'm afraid your grandmother had a minor stroke but she has almost fully recovered. Still she needs to rest as much as possible.”

  “Can I see her?”

  “Sure, let's just see if she is awake.”

  Peeking into her bedroom the nurse saw Burgess sitting up in bed reading. She opened the door further.

  “Mrs. Mach your granddaughter is here to see you.”

  “Oh Emmy come in.”

  Emmy entered the room. The nurse closed the door.

  “Grandmother I had no idea.”

  “Well it happened fairly quickly and I've been busy trying to recover and I know how busy you are so I was waiting to contact you.”

  “What happened grand?”

  “Oh nothing really. A temporary feeling of paralysis on one side. The doctor took care of it right away but said I should rest for awhile to insure full recovery.

  “But what has brought you back so soon Emmy? Did you finish on Earth?”

  “No the Assembly wanted me to come back. I left Jack, Dag and Sigmund on Earth to finish up.”

  “Have you heard about the Hiram habitat?” asked Emmy.

  “No, I've been out of the loop for a few days. But I did see something this morning about it disappearing. Is that it.”

  “Yes it vanished and there weren't any plasma globes involved. So the Assembly is worried and wants me to look into it.”

  “Well I know you well enough to know that you probably are developing a theory. Your grandfather always did.”

  Emmy smiled at the mention of her grandfather. She then told her grandmother about her theory.

  “So if it works the way I theorize we can patch it up, so to speak, with something similar to grandfather's entanglement reservoirs.”

  “And you can use his entanglement detector to find the trail of entanglement breaking that needs to be shored up.”

  “Exactly. The only thing is I don't know how the plasma globes left the trail of broken entanglements. We know that wormhole generators can cause a breakdown of entanglement if they concentrate to much energy at one spot. But I can't believe the globes can generate enough power to do it. So either they have capabilities we don't know about or th
ey are generating the disruption through a different mechanism than we understand. Perhaps Jack and the others will discover the secret.”

  “Emmy that brings up a question I've wanted to ask someone. The Aggies from Earth gave you the key to deciphering the data from the skyrmions. But the cave on Earth containing millions of similar skyrmions was discovered a hundred years before AGI. So . . .”

  “So how could the Aggies have the key to decoding all those spheres? I've been wondering that myself. But we do know that the mine was closed down over a hundred years before the spheres were discovered. So they could have been in that mine over two hundred years before Aggies existed. It's a real mystery and the Aggies gave us no hints.”

  “Well you'll figure it all out I'm sure. Just like Elias once you get all the facts in your head you'll come up with a testable hypothesis.”

  “I hope so grandmother.”

  Once settled in Emmy did what she did best, just think. But the problem with thinking is that it's just mechanical without inspiration. And inspiration takes its own time. So Emmy did as she usually did, reorganize.

  One of her favorite things to do was reorganize her paper book collection. Even though her Em could deliver upon request hundreds, if not thousands of years of human thought Emmy felt that each book was like opening a treasure chest. Each turn of the page a new adventure.

  While stacking her books in organized piles she knocked one of the piles over and an idea was born.

  Of course, our friend quantum mechanics.

  Emmy realized that the globes could be using the same method she used in her wormhole phase experiment. All the globes had to do was apply enough energy to put a patch of spacetime in a higher energy mode or false vacuum, but not so much energy to reach a stable state. Then it was only a question of time until quantum tunneling triggered that patch as well as surrounding patches into a new phase. If done correctly that new phase could preferentially be a baby universe.