The Heisenberg Corollary

by C H Duryea

  “I guess it works,” was all Zeke could say.

  “I wish we could say as much for the Frogger,” Harbinger said, staring at readouts on a monitor.

  “How bad is it?” Zeke asked—but he could already tell from the readouts.

  “Worse than we feared,” Harbinger answered. “We scorched the entire Tegmark array.”

  Zeke shot a questioning look to Augie.

  “If even one of the relays had survived,” he said, “I could replicate new ones once we found suitable materials. Now, sadly, I will be forced to fabricate the whole array from scratch.”

  “Well, we knew it was going to be bad,” Zeke said. “But did it work?”

  “It worked, Zeke,” Narissa’s voice crackled through the speaker as a new display flashed up on the navtank mirror. “Chronospatial positioning shows our insertion into Inverkethi space approximately T plus thirty-six hours from the time we left.”

  “Location?” Zeke asked. “Are we within range of the Tozzk base?”

  “Take a gander outside.”

  They swung around and looked out the ventral viewport. Before them was a wide, flat asteroid belt, forming an accretion disk around a huge and slowly rotating sphere that flashed intermittently with an intensity that hurt to look at.

  The hyperstack.

  “I’d call that in range,” Harbinger said.

  “Told you I knew where that hell-hole was,” Narissa said. “The Tozzk base is just outside the six-pack’s spatial distortion field. I’ll have it in visual range inside two hours.”

  “They haven’t spotted us yet?” Zeke asked.

  “We’re too far out to be distinguishable from all this floating rock. And we’re running cloaked. With any luck, they won’t even know we’re here until we put down.”

  “Just the same, don’t chance it. Hug the plane of the accretion disk until the last minute.”

  “Roger dodger.”

  They spent the following two hours prepping their equipment and themselves for something they had no idea how to prep for. A preliminary attack plan was worked out based on what they knew from their brief observations. As they drew closer, Harbinger was able to hack the Tozzk military network. With Qaant Yke’s help, he made sufficient sense of it to make some refinements.

  The base soon came into visual range. The crew gathered on the flight deck and watched as the scope of the Tozzk operation unfolded in the distance.

  The main complex incorporated several large asteroids linked in a vast web of girders and conduits. The central asteroid was clustered with structures, not the last of which was the massive circular artifact rising far above the surface and oriented like a magnifying glass towards the hyperstack. Below the structure, a huge spillway carved into the asteroid rock radiated away from the stack, like the blast channel of a launch pad. At the end of the channel opposite the ring structure stood a smaller structure resembling a satellite dish but much sturdier. Beyond, the hyperstack winked and surged chaotically, as energies burst forth from an infinitude of discrete facets.

  “Each of those discharges,” Narissa said, “is bleed-through from a different universe.”

  “The distortion field around the six-pack is brutal,” Harbinger said, glancing at his monitor readouts.

  “The Tozzk must have been using the stack to jump universes,” Zeke said. “Not many other races would be sturdy enough to withstand the twisted space-time surrounding it.”

  “The mathematics of that monster,” Narissa said, “is giving me a raging headache.”

  Zeke pointed at the huge upright ring. “What’s the deal with the monocle?”

  “It’s some kind of Laue lens,” Harbinger said, his fingers flying across his console board, “if I’m understanding this iconographic train wreck the Tozzk call language. See the reflective panels around the ring? They gather energy and focus it—like a magnifying glass. But it looks like the lens can be calibrated to collect energy from the six-pack, or direct energy into it.”

  “It’s designed to focus power emanating from the hyperstack,” Narissa said. “It can take the energetic output of any of those erupting nodes and direct it outward, where it would accumulate in that dish structure, or inward. Back into the stack, for transport to other continua. That’s its current calibration.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “She’s sure,” Augie answered.

  Zeke had to accept that. If Augie was sure that Narissa was sure, then it was for sure.

  “Bring us in closer,” Zeke said. “We have to figure out where they’re holding Vibeke.”

  “Already on that, boss,” Harbinger said, scanning rows of seemingly incomprehensible digital gibberish on his screen. “They’ve got her on ice. She’s— oh hells.”

  “What?” Zeke demanded.

  “She’s the guest of honor on a cargo pod scheduled for insertion into the six-pack.”

  “Into the metaspace,” Zeke said. He turned to Narissa. “You were right.”

  “Remind me to rub it in later,” Narissa said. “We gotta stop that cargo pod.”

  “Is the metaspace friendly to human life?” Harbinger asked.

  “Academic,” Zeke replied. “The chronospatial distortions surrounding the stack will kill her before she even gets there. Chuck, get back into their network and find the location of that pod.”

  “No need,” Narissa said. She pointed at the ring. “See it? In the center?”

  Zeke peered through the viewport. As the ring complex grew closer he could start to make out something floating in the space within the lens structure. It was a wide, flat platform with some kind of large articulated projector mounted on it.

  “The platform is held in place by gravitational repulsors located at regular intervals along the inner surface of the ring,” Narissa observed.

  “That platform looks big enough to put down on,” Zeke said. “Lay in a course—”

  “Negative, boss,” Harbinger said. “The energy the ring is drawing from the six-pack is generating a secondary distortion field around the lens itself. It’ll twist the Friendly Card into a Mobius loop if we get too close.”

  Something started moving on the inner edge of the ring. The trolley of a huge circular gantry crane swung lazily around the circle until it was perpendicular to the platform deck. Then a laser-like beam of brilliant energy erupted, connecting the platform to the gantry trolley, bisecting the great circle like the eye of a cat. Inside the beam, the outline of a small object could be seen.

  “The pod,” Augie said.

  “That explains how they got around the distortion field,” Harbinger said. “There must be an access from the ground inside the ring superstructure.”

  “Then that’s our way in,” Zeke said.

  “No,” Augie countered. “The microwaves coming off those projector arrays will cook us before we get halfway to the crane.”

  “You, maybe. But not me,” Zeke said. “I just absorbed the energy of a black hole. I think I can handle a few microwaves.”

  “You’re not going alone,” Augie insisted.

  “The point’s academic, guys,” Harbinger said. He had managed to bring up what looked like a basic schematic of the ring’s interior. “Even if we put down right next to it, we don’t have enough time to make our way to the top.”

  “If we can’t get to the platform, then—” Zeke rose out of his chair and stared at the ring. As his eyes traced the perimeter of the circle, an idea began to bubble in his brain.

  “Augie,” he said. “What would happen if two or three of the repulsors holding the platform in place suddenly went offline?”

  “That depends,” the engineer answered. “If the units are contiguous, I expect the platform would be thrust in the direction of the break in repulsion by the projectors on the other side. I know what you’re thinking, Zeke. It’s dangerous. With the size of the platform and the strength of the forces involved that would be one heck of a crash. If we want Vibeke in one piece, I’d advise against it.”<
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  “Chuck,” Zeke said, without answering Augie, “what’s the effective radius of that secondary distortion field around the ring?”

  Harbinger brought up another display, this one showing the ring, with concentric bands of different colors layered over it.

  “The field is spherical,” Harbinger said. “The radius is not that much larger than the ring itself.”

  Zeke crossed and took a closer look at the display. He put his finger on a spot just under the lens’ bottom edge, where the massive support stanchions gave way to the housing of a huge gear assembly at the structure’s neck. Just beneath the reach of the worst of the distortion fields, there was a small deck, about a hundred meters square.

  “Looks like a landing platform to me,” Zeke said.

  “Are you kidding?” Narissa asked, looking at a mirror display on her own console. “We can’t put down on that shingle!”

  “You’re right,” Zeke conceded. “The Friendly Card can’t land on it. But the Gold Bug can.”

  Twenty-Nine

  After arming themselves, heavily, from the weapons cache, Zeke and Qaant Yke descended to the hold and opened the Gold Bug’s docking module. Augie followed.

  “We were fortunate to survive the singularity fly-by, Zeke,” Augie argued. “Do you really want to tempt fate again with this plan of action?”

  “Leave fate to Qaant Yke here,” Zeke said as he toggled the power to the coupler release and put it in standby. “I’m putting my trust in what I do best! Qaant Yke, get down there and prep to disengage.”

  The hatch to the smaller ship slid open below, and Qaant Yke went down ahead.

  “Excuse me,” Augie pressed, “but since when has heroic derring-do been at the top of your skill set?”

  “Not heroics,” Zeke said, “physics. The fly-by yielded useful observational data. Enough to make some strong predictions.”

  “Your methods would never pass peer review!”

  Suddenly the ship lurched as a powerful blast lit the sky outside an adjacent viewport.

  “They’ve spotted us,” Narissa called out over the intercom.

  “Shut down the cloak and divert power to the shields,” Zeke answered. Then he turned to Augie. “We installed shields, right?”

  “Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?”

  Another explosion jolted the ship.

  “Listen,” Zeke said. “After we disengage, you have to put down and get out of the line of fire.”

  “And just wait for the Tozzk to find us?” Augie asked.

  “No.” Zeke toggled the intercom. “Chuck, can your new AI handle the Card’s defenses in our absence?”

  Harbinger’s face popped up on a nearby screen. “You insult me,” he said, “to suggest otherwise.”

  “I need the three of you to infiltrate the lens’ command center on the ground. Find a way to disable the array. Or just buy me enough time to get Vibeke off that platform.”

  “Negatory, boss,” Harbinger said. “I have the location of the Dodecahedron. It’s here. It’s close. We can’t let these walking rust heaps keep it. It’s my responsibly and it’s too dangerous for any of you. I have to go alone.”

  “You’re right,” Zeke said. “We gotta get it back if we can. I just don’t like the idea of all of us splitting up. Use the MindLink to stay in touch. They’ll be able to hear us on the conventional channels.”

  Harbinger hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Agreed.”

  “You too, Augie and Narissa.”

  Roger that, Narissa said, straight into Zeke’s head. We’ll buy you the time. But you should know that the lens array is calibrating for a node on the hyperstack that’ll hit proper orientation in seventeen minutes.

  Inward or outward? Zeke responded silently.

  Inward. They’re prepping for insertion.

  Did Chuck get that off the network?

  No—I can see it. That monstrosity is still making my teeth hurt.

  Zeke marveled briefly at the dedication of his team—this group of geeky contractors he had assembled so very long ago. He turned to Augie, who was holding the helmet to Zeke’s conduction suit. Watching his mentor nervously handling the helmet, he flashed suddenly to the morning of that last test at XARPA, when Augie had sauntered into his office, spinning his fedora around his finger. That seemed like another lifetime.

  “The gravitic distortions out there seem to permit the asteroid cluster to hold onto some kind of atmosphere. It should give the Bug’s wings a little to bite into, but not much. It’s breathable—sort of. But you better wear this anyway.”

  “Listen,” Zeke said, taking the helmet. “If I had known any of this was going to—”

  “Stow it,” Augie interrupted. “We both set out to solve the mysteries of the multiverse. You wanted to be out here as much as I did. If not more so.”

  The ship shook from another close blast.

  We can’t hold this position much longer, Narissa said over the MindLink. Zeke, you need to go now!

  I’m going, Zeke thought back.

  “Go,” Augie urged. “We’ll keep ‘em busy on the ground. You bring her back.”

  Zeke nodded, then dropped into the docking module.

  “Qaant Yke,” he called, “stand by for separation on my mark.”

  The nubby-shelled alien waited in the copilot’s seat, double-checking the dropship’s air supply, pressure, hull integrity and mechanical systems.

  “I’ve initiated the magnetic launch sequence,” he said. “Given the atmospheric conditions compounded by enemy hostilities, gaining the target platform will be difficult.”

  “As long as it’s not impossible,” Zeke said, strapping himself in.

  “No. We can reserve that for the return trip.”

  “One problem at a time. We just have to get there.”

  Tozzk snub fighters spotted, Narissa called over the MindLink. Zeke saw them—a cloud of boxy little one-man ships that looked like angry toasters, unleashing a storm of laser fire.

  Shields up as soon as we’re away, Zeke answered. Then put down someplace those fighters won’t get an easy shot at you!

  He pulled a release that freed a manual lever overhead.

  “Ready to do this?” Zeke asked.

  “I had assumed,” Qaant Yke answered, “that readiness would have been established before we enacted this foolhardy plan.”

  “Great to know I still have your unflagging confidence.”

  Zeke threw the lever and the mag launcher catapulted the Gold Bug into the open sky over the Tozzk complex.

  The little ship reeled wildly. The thin atmosphere combined with the effect the distortion field had over the local gravity made it a bumpy ride. He clamped his hands on the manual controls, fighting the gravitational eddies, downdrafts and updrafts, as he kept his bead on the tiny ledge jutting out from the neck of the lens structure. From here it looked no bigger than a microprocessor chip, and he wondered how he could even reach it, let alone put down on it. But he couldn’t afford to think about that. He just needed to keep the ledge dead ahead in the viewport and hope he was small enough to evade most of the enemy fire.

  Over the MindLink, he overheard the activity of the others as they landed the Friendly Card and prepared to take the offensive on the ground.

  Zeke, Narissa called, you got some heavy traffic coming at you.

  I know, Zeke thought back. I’m trying to not get hit by them!

  Not the fighters! Heavy cruiser—eight o’clock!

  Zeke couldn’t take this eyes off their target.

  “Qaant Yke!” he yelled. “What’s behind us?”

  The crustacean looked. “Tozzk cruiser. Smaller than the dreadnoughts. High probability it is a command ship. It is pursuing us.”

  “Will they overtake us before we make the ledge?”

  A large blast shook the Gold Bug.

  “Overtaking us will not be a tactical necessity for them,” Qaant Yke replied coolly.

  Three more blasts r
ipped the sky around them, and the Bug went into an uncontrollable roll and careened towards the lens structure. The alien landscape beyond the viewport spun like a pinwheel and Zeke was suddenly certain that they were about to be flattened against the side of the superstructure.

  But then another near miss jolted the spinning ship upward, above the ledge and towards the inner rim of the lens itself.

  Into the distortion field!

  They plowed through the field boundary and the Gold Bug wrenched and rippled like a reflection on water. Zeke’s insides felt as if they had flipped upside down and back again. He would have thrown up if he wasn’t so busy getting ready to die. Beyond the viewport, the space in front of them shimmered and wobbled, buffeting the ship.

  But then they were through, and the view before them cleared. The inside edge of the lens was coming at them fast. Zeke pulled up on the stick, but the Bug’s wings couldn’t bite enough air to give them any altitude. It was all he could do to level the craft out—before they hit.

  The ship skidded violently onto the concave, inner surface of the huge ring, sparks flying in its wake. Their momentum tore them through a series of instrumentation clusters before they came to a jarring halt.

  Zeke was dazed. He stared blankly through the viewport and saw the command ship veering away and dropping to a position out of his line of sight. He became aware that his MindLink was feeding him the sounds of a violent confrontation on the ground. Explosions, the hissing and grinding of Augie’s huge mech armor, and high energy weapons fire. He shook himself alert.

  Augie, Zeke broadcasted, what’s happening down there?

  Tozzk, Zeke! Augie mentally shouted back. Zillions of ‘em! Conventional projectiles are not worth a damn down here. Lasers just bounce off ‘em! Let’s see if enough plasma will burn ‘em down to slag!

  Narissa, Zeke called. Report!

  Through her MindLink feed, he heard what sounded like huge bursts of erupting power and the shrieking of tortured metal.

  Holding my own, Zeke, she answered. This moolite-plate armor is really something. The magic attack is really catching the Tozzk fighters off guard. I’m milking the surprise for all it’s worth! I just covered Chuck’s departure—he’s going after the Dodecahedron.