Time's End: A Future Chron Novel (Future Chron Universe Book 34)

by D. W. Patterson

  The test started, the ship accelerated, the bubble was spun up into the slightly flattened spheroid needed to slow time inside it. It seemed to be working. Data from inside the crew wheel confirmed that the slow down in time was happening. The Ems were being affected although they operated at such a fast speed that the delays were measured in microseconds only.

  After several minutes of flight it was time to try to separate from the spheroid. The Ems in the crew wheel were signaled. The ship started to vector hard to starboard. Rawlings was watching a wallscreen in the forward control room. He saw the wheel emerge from the cloud-like spheroid. More and more of the wheel appeared, faster and faster until the entire wheel was in view.

  Communication with the Ems in the crew wheel confirmed that no unusual gravitational effects had occurred. No unusual stress or anything out of the ordinary. Their rate of time had also returned to normal. Rawlings then tried to find the spheroid on the wallscreen. He saw it like a bright cloud in the light of the Sun quickly moving away from the ship and seeming to soften around the edges. It was dissipating gradually.

  Could it have been a success?

  Rawlings didn't dare admit everything went right until a report on the test was generated but he was hopeful.

  Chapter 5

  From The PopSci Encyclic

  2700 A.D. Edition

  The Spin-Two drive is based on the wormhole drive. Spin-Two is a reference to the particle of gravity, the graviton, although spin one-half particles (fermions) are more important to the drives operation. To develop the Spin-Two drive Dr. Dagmar Mach used the wormhole drive's ability to cast exotic mass-energy into nonlocal links. The cast energy causes fermionic particles, particles with one-half quantum spin, to flip their spin (say from up to down). The nonlocal partners to these fermions, entangled particles in other words, assume the opposite spin state. By modulating the mass-energy, a pulse can travel down the nonlocal link at a frequency determined by the Spin-Two drive.

  Using the drives ability to create pulsating “bubbles” of negative mass-energy a ship inserted into the nonlocal link is and pushed along to the far end. Once the ship enters the link the drive shuts down and the decaying pulses eventually allow the link to “relax” to its original state. By that time the ship has already emerged at the nonlocal destination. The link portals now decay completely and the nonlocal tunnel resumes its microscopic size.

  The advantages of the Spin-Two drive over the wormhole drive are many. Because the Spin-Two drive is only opening an already existing mini-wormhole like link the exotic mass-energy needed is one-tenth that of a wormhole drive which must force the wormhole open from beginning to end in the wormhole dimension. Another advantage is that the nonlocal links are by definition usually connecting regions of space that are far removed. Jumps of a thousand light-years are common compared to the forty light-year jumps possible with the wormhole drive. In fact there is no limit to the jump distance but because the distribution of jump lengths follow a Gaussian distribution very long links are harder to find in the quantum foam and therefore it takes a longer and longer time to make very long jumps.

  Pearce was back from the tests. He hadn't felt this optimistic in quite some time. Then he heard the results of Dr. Eiffel's tests.

  “I'm afraid so Dr. Rawlings. It will be impossible for members of the crew to pass through a fully involved spheroid. It appears to be a problem with the difference in time between the inside and outside of the spheroid. To a human body its like hitting a wall, they were immediately unconscious.”

  “That doesn't mean we can't fly it. It just means that the crew and passengers will have to stay where they are during the flight.”

  “Maybe, what about emergencies? A particle storm for instance? The passengers couldn't reach the safe rooms installed behind the forward shield.”

  “Dump the bubble as we did. It won't add but a few minutes to any response to an emergency.”

  “You're not thinking straight. To dump the bubble the way you did it in your test will achieve the same results as a human walking through the spheroid's wall. The only difference is the wall is moving instead of the people. You see?”

  Pearce realized she was right. The bubble wall would sweep through the crew wheel when it was dumped. It would be like everyone being slammed into a wall. It would be disastrous.

  “I knew it,” he said to himself.

  That was it. There didn't seem to be any safe way to use the effects of Quantum Temporal Dynamics to benefit human transport.

  Anyway Pearce felt like he had done all he could do. He could continue to study QTD and look for ways around the problem but first he had to make practical arrangements. Dr. Eiffel would be closing the lab down and leaving Pan-Universe, he had no job and nowhere to stay.

  The news of the failure of Dr. Eiffel's efforts had a chilling effect on the rest of the companies in the race. Knowing Eiffel's expertise and the fact she was calling it quits, the smaller start-ups failed almost immediately as the funding dried up. The larger companies either canceled their programs are reduced its priority and funding to the point where nothing much was expected. Until someone came up with a new way to commercialize it the great race to monetize QTD was over.

  “I do not believe that I am made of the stuff which constitutes heroes, because, in all of the hundreds of instances that my voluntary acts have placed me face to face with death, I cannot recall a single one where any alternative step to that I took occurred to me until many hours later.”

  “That's me, I'm not made of the stuff of heroes,” thought Pearce Rawlings as he put down his Emmie.

  I'm not even made of the stuff that's employable.

  Pearce had been unemployed for months. It was the day before he was to be evicted from his apartment on the edge of the Atlanta Tower Complex that an offer came through. Rather an old friend from college days came through. He had a site on the network that taught physics to high school and college students. Pearce had inquired about a job and now one was offered, the job of Physics Resource Officer. The pay wasn't much but it would keep a roof over his head for now. He accepted immediately and asked if he could receive his first month's salary by transfer. His friend agreed, Pearce would not be homeless.

  He soon found out his responsibilities as two dozen physics and math tutors bombarded him with requests for assistance. He became absorbed in creating problem sets and simulations to explain some corner of physics successfully. It was physics so the job wasn't all bad. The pay however was. Enough to keep going but not enough to get ahead.

  It was the way the universities cut their costs, professors publishing papers but never visiting a classroom while graduate students taught what they didn't understand to students who had to find a tutor to learn what they weren't learning in class. And students and parents didn't want to pay much for tutoring after all they had paid to the universities.

  After a few months Pearce had put aside the failures of his research program with Dr. Eiffel, then he received a message from a technician that had worked on her team.

  Dr. Rawlings, my name is James Littel, I worked on Dr. Eiffel's test team. I have come into possession of the following documents. I have been unable to locate Dr. Eiffel. There seems to be a discrepancy between these test results and the team's final report.

  I leave them with you, not knowing anything else to do.

  Thank you,

  James Littel

  Pearce looked at the attachment. It looked like an actual test document. As he made his way through the numbers and the results he saw the discrepancy. These results in no way could be interpreted as a failure. Though some of the personnel passing through the spheroid's wall did have momentary disorientation. None came anywhere near having dire health consequences. If what Pearce was looking at was indeed the results of Dr. Eiffel's test then her final report had the wrong data. Someone had sabotaged the test.

  Boy, I don't want to go through this again.

  But if these were the real re
sults then the world should know. The tests needed to at least be run again. He tried to get in touch with Dr. Eiffel but failed. She seemed to have disappeared. Who could he tell?

  “I don't know Pearce. To bring this up again before the board. They might take my head off.”

  Pearce was talking to one of his old professors who now worked as Head of Research for Galactic Transport.

  “I know Dave. But if there is something wrong with Dr. Eiffel's final report then we have the solution to the transportation problem. If these newly discovered results are true we know everything we need to implement the slow down of time using QTD. It would be a satisfying ending to all the work that's been done it would also be a fitting tribute to those that died trying to make this into a reality Dave.”

  “Of course.”

  Dave Reynolds did present the news to the board of Galactic Transport. Some were not happy to have the issue brought up again. But enough were intrigued with the presentation that they agreed to allow a small-scale test to be conducted. They were adamant that no one be placed in harm's way though. Reynolds agreed.

  “But Dave, someone has to be placed in harm's way. The test is all about how the wall affects human beings. Without human volunteers breaching the wall there is not a test.”

  “Well it's with sensors or it's no test.”

  “Okay,” relented Pearce.

  The test was going well. The bubble, twenty feet in diameter had been spun up into a thin-walled, slightly-flattened spheroid in the large lab Galactic Transport maintained. Some small six-legged robots about the size of dogs had been outfitted with the necessary sensors and were walking back and forth through the wall of the spheroid which was surrounded by scaffolding and crosswalks that penetrated its periphery.

  Pearce was watching from the control room as the technicians put the robots through their paces and logged the results. Everything seemed a success.

  But it won't mean anything until a person walks through that wall.

  Pearce slowly moved toward the door of the control room. He carefully worked his way around to the other side of the test bay. He couldn't be seen from the control room unless someone noticed him on the monitors which showed all sides of the spheroid. Then he heard the intercom from the control room open and someone yell at him to stop.

  Now or never.

  Pearce walked as casual as he could up to and through the wall of the spheroid. A few moments later he emerged on the other side in clear view of the control room. They had already started to scram the test by slowing down and dispersing the spheroid but he had made it.

  “Pearce,” yelled Dr. Reynolds from inside the control room. “What in hell are you doing?”

  Pearce smiled broadly and said in a normal voice, “I'm making history.”

  Then he passed out.

  “That's right,” said Dave Reynolds. “It had nothing to do with the spheroid. He was weak from a viral infection and not eating properly.”

  “Are you sure Dr. Reynolds?”

  “That's what the doctor at the hospital told me when I phoned to ask about Dr. Rawlings.”

  “I see. So it had nothing to do with the spheroid?”

  “That's right boss.”

  “Okay but Dr. Rawlings does no more work for the company, understand? He's a loose wheel, he could just as well have sunk the project.”

  “But it was his idea.”

  “I don't care. Give him a lump sum for his efforts and keep him away from here.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good then we can start planning to introduce our version of the QTD effect for travel. And I think the first thing we need to do is name it. You know, something that is not threatening or too nerdy.”

  “How about Time Saver Travel,” said a board member.

  “Yeah, something like that, the boys in marketing will eventually come up with something from our suggestions.”

  The meeting continued for an hour as everyone tried to come up with a name.

  Pearce woke up in a hospital bed with an IV in his arm. Soon a nurse walked in.

  “Good day Mr. Rawlings, how do you feel?”

  “I'm not sure. Okay I think. What happened?”

  “You passed out.”

  “Why?”

  “You have a viral infection. You haven't been taking very good care of yourself have you?”

  “I guess not. So nothing serious?”

  “No, not as long as you start taking care of yourself a bit better.”

  “When can I get out?”

  “The doctor will be around this afternoon. If you eat a hearty lunch he'll probably release you.”

  “Don't worry,” said Pearce.

  As the hours passed Pearce began to wonder why he hadn't heard from Dave. He started to get worried.

  It was nearly three o'clock when the doctor came around and told Pearce he could leave the hospital. Pearce was ready to go but he wasn't enthusiastic. Dave still hadn't called.

  Chapter 6

  From The PopSci Encyclic

  2700 A.D. Edition

  Emulated brains (also known as Emmies when in personal assistant devices), were the first form of artificial intelligence created. The first Em dates from the late twenty-first century.

  Ems are created by scanning a human brain and loading the resultant data into a computer. At first the scanning of the brain required the person to be recently deceased. Eventually a way to scan the brain of a living person was developed.

  Once the Em is in a computer it can bud (that is recreate or copy itself) as many times as it deems necessary to accomplish the task it has undertaken. Whole families of Ems exist to do certain tasks. Hiring out as experts; such as maintaining a power plant, a space habitat's environment, a lightsail's trim, or powering a personal assistant Emmie, Ems can support themselves and the other members of their family.

  Pearce never heard from his friend Dave. Instead he received a letter that informed him his services were no longer necessary and upon signing a separation agreement he would receive a bonus of one year's salary.

  I was never employed, I never had a salary.

  Pearce shook his head. If he signed the agreement it would be a lot of money compared to what he had now but it would mean no recognition for his efforts. Everything he had done would be subsumed by the corporation.

  Oh well, I need money more than fame.

  He digitally signed the agreement and sent it back along with his account information.

  They probably don't even know I wasn't actually on the payroll. Now what?

  Pearce didn't have an answer to the question. He just continued with his teacher support job. The “big” check arrived and relieved him somewhat of his money worries. He made some inquiries but learned no more than James Littel. He still wondered what had happened to Dr. Eiffel. How and why had she disappeared?

  Galactic Transport brought out their Time Saver service. They would either sell or lease the technology to other companies. Companies providing freight transportation in system were among the first customers. These sometimes months-long voyages hadn't changed much for hundreds of years. The time technology was a revolution for the industry.

  As more and more freight companies became interested. Galactic Transport soon had competitors. But competition leading to lower costs is not the same as innovation leading to lower costs. Some of the new competitors tried new methods and technologies. There were no standards.

  “Okay, gentlemen if I may have your attention please.”

  Aboard the Cosmic Traveler, a fusion-powered freighter shuttling between Earth and the Titan colony the Captain was going through his pre-flight speech. Advising his thirty-man crew about safety precautions while at the same time telling them they should have no concerns.

  “With the new Insta-Drive it will take longer for me to finish my speech than for most of us to subjectively reach Titan.”

  The crew cheered.

  “Well maybe a little longer,” said the Captain finis
hing his talk.

  Then the ship got underway. The bubble around the crew wheel was created and spun up. Inside the thin-walled spheroid time began to slow down. The Captain and his men in the front control room soon lost contact with anyone inside the spheroid except for the Ems who reported that the time dilation had reached the desired maximum. From here on the crew inside the crew wheel would be isolated in time until the spheroid was shed.

  The flight out past Jupiter went without incident as the two-man piloting crew rotated out every eight hours. Except for the skin prickling that occurred as the crew penetrated the bubble of time nothing unusual was noticed. The Captain surveyed the ship and finding everything in order contacted Titan through a comm-link. Comm-links bypass the speed of light delay of ordinary radio transmission. He reported the ship should arrive on schedule.

  That was the last radio transmission ever heard from the Cosmic Traveler.

  “They found it,” said Pearce's old friend and boss Sundar Ambanyi. They were reviewing Pearce's latest physics modules.

  “Found what?” said Pearce.

  “The ship that disappeared last month.”

  “The Cosmic Traveler?”

  “Yeah that one.”

  “What's it say.”

  “It says that the ship broke up. It says that the crew wheel has been found but not the forward command or fusion engines.”

  “What about the crew?”

  “There's nothing about them, it just says that the investigation continues.”