“What exactly are you doing now?” Nance asked.
“Continuing my research, of course,” Jones said. “I have termed it Gravity Flux theory.”
“To what end?” Ben asked.
“I believe that if I could get my hands on hard data regarding gravitational forces at the highest levels, it might be possible to create a wormhole device.”
Ben sat back in his chair, considering the revelation of what Jones had said. A device that could make wormholes would make a powerful weapon.
“How would it work?” Ben asked.
“Are you fluent in theoretical astrophysics?” Jones asked.
“No,” Ben said. “But I’m guessing your device would create a small singularity?”
“That’s right,” Jones said. “Think of it as a temporary black hole. I would bend space together and fuse them so that a very short tunnel would separate two very distant places.”
“This is way over my head,” Kim said.
“I see why the military wanted your research stopped,” Ben said.
“What?” Kim asked. “I don’t get it.”
“It’s why the Confederacy is supporting your research,” Nance said.
“I hope you are wrong,” Jones said. “At the very least, I believe Gravity Flux could change the way we defend ourselves.”
“I still don’t see the military application,” Kim said.
“Think of it as a bomb that creates a black hole,” Ben said. “Drop that in the middle of the Imperium Fleet headquarters in the Celestial system.”
“Holy crap,” Kim said.
“It would be impossible to escape,” Nance said.
“And it would destroy anything,” Ben said. “Armor wouldn’t matter, shielding too. Capital ships, space stations, perhaps even planets.”
“Keep in mind we’re talking theory, not reality,” Jones said. “At least, not yet.”
“It would take a lot of power,” Ben said.
“No, that is a misconception,” Jones replied. “It would only require a very small amount of energy because the reaction would trigger a chain reaction. If set off in empty space, nothing would happen. If set off in a place where matter was abundant, it would feed itself. Remember, the compression of matter generates heat. And heat is energy.”
“What sort of places are you talking about?” Kim said. “Uninhabited planets?”
“In theory that would work, although creating a black hole in a system’s heliosphere would be incredibly reckless,” Jones pointed out. “And keep in mind, matter comes in various forms. A cloud of space debris would work. Or even a pocket of gas.”
“How would you navigate the process?” Nance said.
“I have some ideas. The math is incredibly complex, but I believe it can be done.”
“And we’re supposed to help you find out?” Ben asked.
“I believe so,” Jones said.
“I have data from the computers I can share,” Nance said. “Pressure on the hull, reaction of our systems to the black hole’s gravity.”
“And the coordinates?” Jones asked excitedly. “Tell me you have coordinates where you entered the black hole and where you came out in space.”
“Yes,” Nance said.
“Hold on,” Kim said. “Are we really doing this? I mean, don’t get me wrong, Professor, I respect your work, but if we pull this off, it could be bad.”
“Yes, that is very true,” Jones admitted. “But sometimes you have to make a blind jump to move forward. Isn’t that what you have done yourself?”
“We did what we had to do to survive,” Kim said. “And it was almost a disaster.”
“Yes, I understand,” Jones said. “But you are a good pilot, no? You piloted a ship down a black hole because of your skill and nerve. I assure you, Kim, I am a good scientist. I cannot predict how my research will change the galaxy, but I know enough to be certain that my work is safe.”
Ben could see the disbelief on Kim’s face, and he felt the exact same way. Only, he was also curious. There were other benefits to the research. Gravitational shields would be effective on both laser and physical munitions. Gravity capture could be used in rescue operations, as well as hauling matter through space. A gravity drill could mine resources from planets without the necessity to leave orbit. If correctly harnessed, it could theoretically be used to separate matter on an atomic level. Each known element was listed by atomic weight. A device that could fine-tune down to the atomic weight of a given substance could extract that element in its purest form.
The idea of being involved in creating technology that would radically improve the lives of every person in the galaxy was tempting. History might be written by the victors, but it was made by those willing to dare greatly and challenge the status quo.
“We really don’t have anything else going on,” Ben said.
“We don’t?” Kim asked.
“I’m saying, it’s in our best interest to stay off the grid for as long as possible,” Ben explained. “We have food and power to last a few months. I say we park the Echo somewhere and let Professor Jones do his work.”
“Even if his work is making a doomsday weapon that destroys all life as we know it?” Kim asked.
“That would never happen,” Jones said. “I would destroy my research if that were the result. I swear it.”
“We either help him,” Ben said, “or we come up with a safe place to drop him off.”
“Fine, I’ll start looking for a safe place,” Kim said.
“I’ll get the data,” Nance said.
“An auspicious beginning,” Jones said.
“Let’s just hope it’s not the beginning of the end,” Kim remarked.
Chapter 5
The first reported sighting was in, and Brigadier General Alicia Pershing was ready for it. A Kestrel class ship was reportedly on L-N-5 in the Leonidas system.
“It’s a mining world,” Major Le Croix said.
He was a tall man, broad shouldered, with artificial legs. As a captain, he was on the fast track for promotion after leading several black operations that were top secret. He had the trust of the officers above him and the daring to go into situations fraught with danger. Unfortunately, an explosion on Otto Three in the Turk system had blown off both his legs. He survived but was forced into administrative duties, his meteoric rise through the ranks brought to a sudden and permanent halt at major.
Pershing had brought Le Croix into her cabinet because of his experience and dedication. Special Operations was a world unto itself within the Imperium military, and Pershing distrusted outsiders or officers with no combat experience.
“What’s it doing there?” Pershing asked.
“Looks like it’s been there a long time,” Le Croix said. “Cargo hauler. I suppose it could leave atmo, but from the looks of her, I doubt she had in a long time.”
They were staring at large, digitally enhanced images of the ship. They could read Dust Dancer painted on the hull, which was dented and stained. Pershing agreed with her subordinate’s initial assessment, but they had to be sure. The Dust Dancer had the classic Kestrel shape, with no major upgrades or after-market enhancements.
“Run a computer analysis of these images against the ones from the video,” Pershing said. “We should have images from the Briggs system. I want to know if we’re chasing one ship, or if the rebels are using Kestrel class ships as icons of their lawless attacks on our vessels.”
“Right away, General,” Le Croix said.
Pershing was an astute judge of body language and nonverbal communication. She often found that peoples’ attitudes and intentions could be ascertained in the way they responded to direct orders. Le Croix was one of the good ones. He respected her and did his duty with none of the resentment or jealousy she sensed in other officers.
“There could be hundreds of these Kestrel class ships,” Pershing said. “If the rebels are smart, they’ll have us chasing our tails for months.”
“
They’re not that smart, in my opinion,” Le Croix said. “If they were, they’d have used a more common ship in their deception.”
Pershing hated the fact that she was forced to lie to her own people about what had really happened in the Brigton Battle and the fight in the Bannyan system. The official response was that the Imperium Fleet had lost no ships, and the rebellion was simply trying to rally support for their failing revolt. But Pershing knew better. Two ships had been lost. The only question in her mind was if the rumored Kestrel class ship that supposedly flew through a black hole, and the one that managed to defeat an Imperium battle cruiser, really the same. The answer to that question was crucial, and in her mind, the admiral general’s biggest mistake.
Of course, if they weren’t the same, then the ship in the Briggs system was almost certainly destroyed by the black hole that destroyed the Imperium cruiser. And if the Confederates were simply trying to capitalize on the rumor, things were not as bad off as they might otherwise be. Of course, they still had to deal with the fact that the Confederates had destroyed an Imperium space station, and in the process, a battle cruiser. It was probably just dumb luck, but she knew better than to underestimate an enemy. Even an uneducated rebel could have superb tactical instincts.
If the ships were indeed the same one from both battles, then the Imperium had a much bigger problem. In that case, whoever was crewing that ship not only had the highest piloting skills, but were smart too. Smart enough to find a way through a black hole, which to her knowledge had never been done before. And to lure an Imperium ship of the line into a well-conceived trap. Which meant that they were dealing with a dangerous enemy and that the admiral general was underestimating the rebellion.
She felt as if the Imperium were riddled with cancer. She couldn’t be sure, but it felt like the rebellion was growing, spreading through the galaxy like a sickness undetected, poisoning vital organs, and discretely slaying the unsuspecting host. The Imperium military needed a stronger stance. The rebellion needed to be rooted out and destroyed. Yet once again, she and her Spec Ops compatriots had been shackled by political strategies that would, in her opinion, hurt the Imperium in the end. But there was nothing she could do. Policies were made at the staff level, and as the highest-ranking Spec Ops officer, she would have to leave her beloved division to gain more power. She wasn’t ready for that, and feared that she might never be.
“No matches,” Le Croix said when the computer spat out its analysis.
“They aren’t the same,” Pershing said with a sense of relief.
“The ships in the Bannyan video and on Otto Three are not the same ship,” Le Croix said. “But the images from the Briggs system are too distorted to make a match.”
“So they could be the same, we just can’t tell?” Pershing asked.
“I think so, General.”
“We have to do more than guess,” Pershing said. “I want you on Brigton. Someone somewhere got decent images of that ship. We know they went into the atmosphere and were on the planet for a week. Someone saw it, and we have to know if we’re dealing with rebel disinformation or something else.”
“What do you mean?” Le Croix asked.
Pershing knew he wouldn’t question her orders without good reason. She turned toward him.
“Exactly what it sounds like,” she replied.
“You mean…the rumors are true?”
The shock on his face could not have been more evident if she’d suddenly slapped him hard. Pershing stepped close and whispered.
“We never speak of this,” she said. “But I know you understand the implications.”
“Yes, General,” Le Croix said, regaining his composure. “I’ll get to the Briggs system right away.”
“Use whatever resources you need, but be discreet,” Pershing said. “We can’t be seen giving this operation too much weight.”
“Of course,” Le Croix said.
“And don’t do any analysis outside of this command center. If they’re the same, we can’t risk that information falling into the rebellion’s hands. That sort of proof is exactly what they need to humiliate us.”
“I’ll be a ghost, General.”
“Good,” Pershing said. “I look forward to your return, Major.”
He snapped to attention and saluted. She returned the salute and watched him walk away. His mechanical legs worked almost as well as natural limbs, but she could just make out a slight hitch in his stride. Others might see it as swagger, but she saw it as weakness, a tiny crack in the armor of an otherwise flawless soldier. It was a tragedy, but there was still good to be made from the bad situation. And General Pershing was nothing if not efficient. She would use every tool in her arsenal to track down the Kestrel class ship, and then, one way or another, she would see it destroyed.
Chapter 6
It took six days for Jones to make a breakthrough. During that time Ben worked on side projects, designing an enhanced gravity generator using some of the professor’s notes on the subject of gravitational flux. The ship drifted in space, so far between systems they would never be found. And Kim nearly went crazy with boredom. She tried to stay busy preparing meals, working out, even reading. But to her, the ship was too quiet, too safe.
She had strong opinions about Forrest Remington Jones and his research, but by the time he made his breakthrough, after nearly a week of round-the-clock study and using the ship’s computers to run equations that made no sense to anyone else, she was ready for anything. It was hard not to wonder if the older man really was out of his mind. She feared he was working on an unsolvable problem, and the prospect of months and months of doing nothing while he worked in secret felt like a nightmare to Kim.
She was in her cabin, folding her small wardrobe of clothes after cleaning everything in her personal space and rearranging the furniture when her com-link beeped and Ben’s voice was heard.
“Everyone, meet us on the observation deck,” he said. “Professor Jones has an announcement.”
Kim couldn’t help but frown. She didn’t dislike the older man, but she wouldn’t be upset if they landed him somewhere and never saw him again. He was taking up too much of Ben’s time in her opinion. It was a constant irritation that side projects seemed to steal Ben’s attention away from her. She needed more of his time, especially with nothing else to do on the ship, but instead he was just as obsessed as the professor.
Kim left her cabin and followed Nance up the stairs. She heard Magnum’s heavy footsteps behind them. He had probably been in the recreation room with his weights. Kim didn’t mind working out, she could even put in a solid hour of hard exercise, but Magnum was like a man on fire. He worked out for hours at a time, usually twice a day, and the effort was showing. How he could get any bigger was a mystery to Kim, but he was and it made her wonder just how large a person could get.
They reached the observation deck where Ben had set up a display board. Jones was standing beside it with his hands behind his back, beaming in a gleeful manner. Kim slumped down into a chair thinking to herself that what she needed was a large mug of Chembrew ale to get her through whatever lecture the professor had planned.
“Good, we are all here,” Jones said. “I have good news. Excellent news, really. It’s astounding, and I couldn’t have done it without the data from your trip down the black hole.”
He turned and began drawing on the display board with an erasable marker. His sketch looked like a missile, but what it held wasn’t a warhead. Kim looked over at Ben who seemed to be dazzled by the older man.
“This,” Jones continued his talk as he drew, “is a gravity generator, only much smaller.”
“What good would that do?” Kim asked.
“That is an excellent question,” Jones said. “Most people think of gravity in only two ways. The pull of gravity produced by large celestial bodies such as planets or stars, and the generation of artificial gravity produced by electrical systems such as the one we are utilizing on this very ship. What
people don’t realize is that gravity is everywhere. It is what binds the entire universe together, and theoretically, it is what keeps time moving forward, but that is another lecture. For now, we must focus on gravity that is all around us.”
“Now, the gravity here, where we are, far between star systems, isn’t strong because it isn’t concentrated. No, it is spread out like tissue paper. You cannot feel it, and most sensors would not even register that it exists, but it is there. This device,” he said, pointing to his missile drawing, “is created to utilize it. There are three parts to this device, aside from the fuel that powers it through space. There is the gravity generator, the fissionable material that will begin the chain reaction that becomes a black hole, and the material that feeds that reaction until it reaches a point where it will continue growing on its own to form a stable wormhole.”
“Great,” Kim said. “Does this mean we get to do something besides sit around all day? I’m going out of my mind here.”
“We can’t just declare that we’ve solved the wormhole mystery,” Ben said. “Not until we test it.”
“Test it?” Nance said.
“That is correct,” Jones said. “We have passed the theoretical stage and need to begin testing our hypothesis.”
“Are you kidding me?” Kim said. “Let’s suppose you’re right. Let’s suppose you set off your doomsday device and get a gravitation flux chain reaction going. How will it ever stop? You could, theoretically,” she said the last word in a mocking imitation of Jones’s voice and diction, “start a chain reaction that destroys the entire universe.”
“No,” Jones said, completely unfazed by Kim’s mockery. “Black holes are incredibly destructive, but what many people fail to see is that they are stable. They are, actually, a self-regulating phenomenon. Powerful, yes, with, as you have experienced yourself, movement and a sense of structure, but entirely stable. Our device will create such a phenomenon.”
Gravity Flux: Kestrel Class Saga Book 3 Page 3