Cycle of Stars

by D. W. Patterson

  “Yes? What's changed?”

  “They want a quote to pull all wormhole weapons and substitute laser cannons.”

  “Really? That means they have a new enemy.”

  “Sir?”

  “Without the jump-ships the old enemies are out of reach, they are no longer a threat. That means the new enemy is within reach.”

  “You mean?”

  “Without the jump-ships there is going to be a shortage of needed resources for the Union and there is only one other place to get them that is within reach.”

  “Galla?”

  Dr. Payne shook his head as they made their way to the boardroom to a meeting of the directors.

  “So you're telling us John, that the government of the Adowa Union is preparing for war?”

  “I'm telling you Mustafa, that the government of the Union and old Menelik himself is extremely concerned about the situation and its consequences. They could be facing a rebellious citizenry when critical shortages from the disruption of trade caused by the failure of the wormhole drive becomes apparent.”

  “So instead of marshaling forces and trying to solve the problem, they are going to fight over the scraps of civilization. And when those are gone what are they going to do?”

  “Believe me I agree with you Mustafa but as CEO of a company employing a hundred thousand people I'm also sympathetic to President Menelik's position. As a leader your first concern is the people you are leading. It is a luxury to be able to worry about the welfare of all humankind.

  “However, having said that I want to start a high-level, highly funded program in the company to find a way out of our present difficulties. Kemal will head up the program and he is authorized to draft anyone necessary and use any resources necessary to find a solution to the problem.”

  “But John that could bankrupt the Corporation,” said one of the directors.

  “Haira we are bankrupt if we don't get those drives working. It's only a question of time.”

  5

  The Dnoces System had six planets and an asteroid belt. None of the planets was habitable and so the system was settled mostly by space habitats. Dag was bound for the largest of those habitats, the Kabania. A twenty-kilometer radius, two-hundred kilometer length cylindrical habitat that could accommodate up to two-hundred fifty million persons but was currently only half full.

  The Adowa One was decelerating into the Dnoces System. Radio contact had been established and the fusion ship was approaching the habitat for docking. Dag was watching the approach on his Emmie. The ship was nearing one endcap of the huge habitat.

  At first he was not impressed with the size of the habitat until the ship had closed the distance and was maneuvering for final docking. As the ship got closer Dag came to realize just how much bigger this habitat was compared to those he was familiar with back in the Centauri System. Doing some quick calculations he decided that the huge habitat had sixteen times the habitable surface area of his home habitat. He became curious to see inside.

  In the middle of the endcap where the ship had docked, there was no rotation. The passengers and crew had to strap into seats provided on a conveyor like belt which moved them from the ship's docking port to the elevators that would take them to the floor of the habitat. In the zero-g, the passengers were assisted by hospitality workers from the conveyor into the elevator for the long ride down the endcap.

  Around the five-hundred meter radius flat washer shaped docking port was a concentric ring, still now, but when the elevator was filled with passengers it would speed up to match the rotation rate of the habitat, about point-two rotations per minute. Once at the proper rotation speed the elevator, which was now rotating with respect to the docking port but stationary with the rest of the habitat, would be inserted onto the superconducting tramway which would lower it to the habitat's floor, the huge cylinder's outer wall.

  Once on the tramway, Dag couldn't take his eyes away from the wallscreen which showed a view down the axis of the cylinder. There he saw what looked like an endless vista. Close up were trees and buildings. Farther away there looked to be something like the tall buildings of a city. Still farther away the cylinder seemed to washout even as it was closing upon itself. He had never been in a cylinder where endcap to endcap couldn't be viewed even if somewhat hazily. It was glorious and impossible at the same time that men could have created such a thing.

  Because the Dnoces System was a stopover on a highly traveled space lane it had a quite diverse population. It also had some social complexity of which Dag was not quite aware. Whatever Kabania's social quirks Dag would have to learn to work within them, he had no choice. It would take over two-hundred years at full speed for a fourth-generation fusion ship to take him to the Kaffa system from Adowa if such a sustained effort could even be maintained over the length of time that would be required, which was highly improbable.

  As the elevator approached the floor of the habitat the endcap gradually merged from vertical to horizontal. The all axis seats automatically adjusted to keep their occupants level.

  When the elevator stopped the door on what had been the ceiling opened and Dag soon walked out into the interior of Kabania Habitat.

  At first he was confused. Having never lived on a planet the scale of the habitat was difficult to judge. There was no sense of being in space, the world felt solid.

  A sense of permanence. I know intellectually this is man-made but it feels organic.

  Dag eventually became aware that he was standing in the way of the rest of the passengers as they tried to exit the elevator. He moved to one side.

  Eventually, Ally came out of the elevator and stood beside him.

  “Pretty amazing?” she said.

  At first he didn't respond but then said, “What? Oh hi Dr. Mekur. It's stupendous. For one who has never lived on a planet's surface I can tell you I've never seen anything like it. You can't appreciate the feeling of openness from pictures or reading.”

  “Well for one who has lived on the surface of a planet I can tell you I've never seen anything like it either and it's pretty awe-inspiring.”

  “I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it.”

  “Sure you will if you are here long enough.”

  “Yeah long enough, I wonder how long it will be.”

  “That depends on what you physicists come up with.”

  “Yeah, I need to get started and see if the University of Kabania has a place for me.”

  “Well, I'm going to Beiluit City also. So why don't we ride together?”

  “Great Miss,” said Dag wondering if she had changed her mind about his theory.

  They made their way to the Endcap Depot. There they bought tickets and boarded an electric bound for Beiluit City. During the ride they discussed their pasts. Ally had grown up in the Epsilon Eridani system on a planet. Because of the planet's thin atmosphere and large temperature swings, most of her life had been spent underground. When it came time to go to college she had traveled to Adowa to go to school at Sahata Tech, a very highly regarded school of science and engineering. After graduating with a doctorate she had started making the run between Centauri and Kaffa on the Adowa One.

  “You don't mind the tight quarters Miss?” asked Dag.

  “No. They're no tighter than where I grew up.”

  “Of course.”

  Dag then told Ally about his background. Generated in a space habitat circling the star Centauri B he had first worked with Burgess Mach before her marriage as a detective team. Then after her marriage to Dr. Mach, Dag had worked with him on his wormhole research. After Dr. Mach's death, he had worked with his great-great-granddaughter Emmy Gibbs who was also a physicist. After all that time, he decided he liked physics and had attained an undergraduate degree and graduate degree at Centauri University, the first robot ever to do so, and now he was here.

  Ally was quite impressed with such a resume.

  “What attracted you to physics?”

  “I thought at first
physics was about the truth,” he said.

  “It's not?”

  “No not in the way I thought Miss. Not in the sense of ultimate truths. It's more about answers really. Answers to well-formed questions.”

  Ally was intrigued, “You mean questions that haven't a philosophical bent?”

  “I guess so Miss. I like how it all fits together. How it meshes. But I no longer think of it as providing existential answers.”

  “Funny. That may have changed with the jump-ship problem.”

  Dag looked at her a moment.

  “I hadn't thought about it like that but you may be right.”

  The University of Kabania was more of an engineering school than a school of science. But it was a degree-granting institution in the sciences and Dag didn't have much trouble finding an appointment teaching. He soon found himself among theorists and experimentalists who were just as interested in the jump-ship problem as he was.

  “I'm not sure I follow you, Dr. Mach,” said the Department of Physics head, Dr. Chandra. “You believe this is an opportunity to test LQG, but how?”

  Dr. Chandra and others were listening to Dag's proposal.

  “I'm sorry Dr. Chandra. I've obviously failed to think through my proposal careful enough.

  “To recap. As I stated I believe the failure of the wormhole drive is caused by a change in the nature of spacetime itself. If we look at spacetime from the viewpoint of LQG the quantization allows us to think of it as an assemblage of tiny loops much like a woven cloth. I propose that the size of those loops may affect the value of dark energy and therefore the cosmological constant.

  “The change in the value of dark energy affects the amount of quantum activity at the level where tiny wormhole mouths pop in and out of existence.”

  “The quantum menagerie,” said someone.

  “Exactly. And without an abundance of wormhole mouths in that menagerie the drive cannot find and extract and blow up one to macro size.”

  “Okay, let's say you have a point. How do you propose to test your hypothesis.”

  Dag took a moment, he knew what he said now would make or break his proposal.

  “Well I think what we can do to get the drives working again is to first pack the target space with energy. This should provide the energy needed to get the sub-space churning again and repopulate the menagerie. In other words, we should see an adequate supply of wormhole mouths popping in and out of existence so that the drive should then be able to operate.”

  “But,” said Dr. Kangia, a General Relativity expert, “as you know Dr. Mach, it has proven to be disastrous to concentrate too much energy at a point in spacetime. It leads to a destructive breakdown in its structure. The resulting atomization of spacetime spreads as a sphere from that point at the speed of light destroying any mass it encounters before it dissipates.”

  Dag wanted to be respectful but had to correct the older physicist's thinking.

  “You are correct Dr. Kangia. But if what I think has happened to the underlying spacetime is true we will only be energizing it to its normal level. So there should be no more danger than usual from the operation of the drive.”

  “Perhaps Dr. Mach. But I think it will be a risky undertaking.”

  “Yes, but we will minimize the risk as much as possible. And I'm not real sure we have an alternative at this time. This habitat, as well as most others, rely on the jump-ships for trade and transportation. We will be feeling the effects of its failure soon I'm afraid.”

  Leaving the meeting Dag wondered if they were resistant to his idea because they thought it wrong or because it came from a robot?

  6

  Dag didn't spend time thinking about the opposition he had met but quickly started planning a mission for a fusion ship to test his ideas. He was soon convinced that the power reserves as they existed could not provide the energy needed to test his idea. They would have to be modified and their energy density upgraded. He realized that Ally Mekur would be the one to consult. As an engineer on a fusion ship, she would have a better idea of what was possible. She had seemed more reasonable the last time they talked.

  “That's quite a jump in capability Dr. Mach.”

  “You think so Dr. Mekur? Do you think it's even possible? And please call me Dag. When I worked with Burgess Mach she always called me by my first name.”

  “I don't know. All the money and support it will take just to test what is still only a theory. It basically will affect the isotopic reservoir, I estimate its capacity will have to be increased by fifty percent.”

  Dag could tell she was still dismissive of his ideas and wanted to leave it at that but he continued anyway because he thought it was in everyone's best interest.

  “Well if I can find the money would you and the other engineers be able to make the modifications Miss?”

  “Of course its engineering not speculation.”

  Dag noticed the deprecating tone but continued.

  “How about shifting the frequency of operation of the wormhole drive when heating the sub-space region before we extract a wormhole mouth, do you think that is possible? It would be a lot more effective.”

  “Well I'm not a drive expert but I don't know of any reason that the frequency could not be shifted. We will just have to rebuild the voltage source.”

  “Good then, if you will help me write up those technical parts of the proposal it would be greatly appreciated.”

  “Well I don't know if I want to Dr. Mach. That would amount to an endorsement of your speculations.”

  “Okay Miss, I'll see if I can make other arrangements.”

  After a moment of awkwardness, he excused himself.

  Dag worked on the proposal for a week before presenting it at a mini-symposium Dr. Chandra had planned.

  “First I want to say how much I appreciate my discussions with Dr. Ally Mekur.”

  Ally was in the audience, invited by Dag, and was surprised by the mention. She hoped he wasn't just trying to spread the blame.

  Dag continued, first presenting his theory and buttressing it with calculations. He then presented the modifications a wormhole drive would require to test his theory. He closed with a timeline he believed could lead to a quick test.

  Dr. Chandra rose and moved to the podium thanking Dag for his presentation.

  “Now that Dr. Mach has given us this outline I say that we pursue this project. Does everyone agree?”

  Hearing nothing he continued, “And I think we should choose one of our best and brightest to head up the project. I would like to appoint Dr. Kangia for this role. I think we all agree that he has the necessary skills to accomplish the goal. Dr. Kangia if you please.”

  Ally looked immediately at Dag. Dag was surprised but silent. The old professor slowly made his way to the podium and announced that he would be assembling a team to assist him. The symposium then broke up.

  Out in the hall Ally and Dag walked away. He was still quiet.

  Ally felt sorry for him.

  “It seems they've taken the project away from you Dr. Mach. I'm sorry, you are obviously the most qualified to see it through.”

  “You mean you don't think it just crazy speculation Miss?”

  “Well it's still speculative until proven otherwise but I think that from your talk you've put in the time to justify the speculation.”

  “Thank you,” he said quietly.

  Ally could tell he was sincere in his appreciation.

  He continued, “I guess I can understand Dr. Chandra wanting someone more experienced to head it up. After all, Dr. Kangia has been here a long time he certainly should know the ropes, so to speak. I'm just a recent PhD and a stranger at that.”

  “Dr. Kangia doesn't strike me as a practical person. I don't think he brings anything to a leadership role in the project. It's simply prejudice Dr. Mach. Prejudice against you as a robot. You have more drive than Kangia. And that's what's needed to see it through.”

  “You think it's prejudice Miss? B
ut they accepted me into the department.”

  “As a low-level instructor sure. But now you are vying for a highly visible research program. Now the prejudice emerges.”

  She paused a moment.

  “Besides it's your idea.”

  Dag thought about what she was saying but couldn't see anything he could do about it.

  “Because it's my idea I'm willing to work for Dr. Kangia or anyone else that will see it through Miss.”

  Ally started to object but kept silent.

  Things weren't going well.

  Dag was working twenty hours a day between his teaching duties and the project. But that still wasn't enough to keep it on schedule and Dr. Kangia wasn't up to managing all the necessary resources. The old professor's schedule usually had him at the university most mornings, he was then accustomed to retiring to his home for an afternoon nap. So any problems requiring his decision had to wait until the following day. It was not the way to run such a large project efficiently.

  Because of the poor management, many of the project's component development teams were devolving into chaos.

  “She shouldn't be allowed to oversee the reservoir refit,” said Martin Simmings, a drive physicist talking about Ally. “She is a fusion engineer, not a drive engineer.”

  “Now Martin,” said the head of the team, Dr. Adamu. “Dr. Mekur is a trained physicist as well as a ship's engineer. I think her background is well suited to the task she has been assigned.”

  “I don't care. She is not qualified. And I'm not the only one that thinks so,” said Simmings as he stormed out of Adamu's office.

  The following day Ally was called into Adamu's office.

  “Dr. Mekur, thank you for coming.”

  “Yes Dr. Adamu, what may I do for you?”

  “Well I've been thinking that as the project is going along so well that it might be time to reassign some personnel and I would like for you to serve as our liaison to the other teams.”