It was an hour later that he had the results. He met the Captain and Burgess in the mess hall.
“Captain I don't see a clear signature of a wormhole mouth at this location. There seems to be signs of a mouth beginning to form but being interrupted by what my Casimir device detects as disrupted space. The readings are very small but valid for the incident if it took place when and where we believe,” said Elias.
“So you think that the Starway ship never fully engaged its wormhole generator?” asked the Captain.
“That would be a good deduction,” said Elias.
“Then what happened Elias?” asked Burgess.
“Well Burgess I will be able to tell you more about that when we get to the location where the StarPath ship was supposed to have used its enhanced generator. Captain could we leave right away?”
“Yes Elias, I think we already have a course plotted. We will travel without wormhole assistance just as you wished.”
“Yes Captain I want to map as much of the space between here and there as possible. The breakdown of entanglement which my instrument can measure should be an important clue.”
It would take somewhat over ten hours at two-tenths light-speed to reach the reported location of the StarPath ship. Elias was taking measurements and analyzing them all the way.
Though the entanglement showed that they were getting closer to the origin of the disruption the readings even at the StarPath ship's supposed test location still didn't clearly show a peak.
“I think Captain,” said Elias, “that we should proceed from here directly back towards the Centauri System. The heading that the StarPath ship would have taken to get here.”
“But Elias,” said Captain Murray, “they would have been using the wormhole drive to get to this point. What do you expect to find?”
“I don't know Captain, I'm just following where the trail leads.”
“Very well, we'll be underway shortly.”
Once the ship started the Casimir device showed a continuous decrease in entanglements. For almost seven hours the trend continued until it nulled and started in the other direction. Elias marked the spot, ten AU from where the StarPath ship was supposed to have been, ninety AU from the Centauri System. The disruption had started here and spread, all the destruction in the Centauri System, loss of life, maybe even the destruction of the Starway ship had emanated from this point. It looked to be was just the opposite of what the StarPath Corporation had claimed.
Elias had finished his research late and went straight to his and Burgess' quarters.
“It had to be the StarPath ship,” said Elias to Burgess.
“Are you sure Elias?”
“I'm sure the disruption came from this point in space. I'm sure we are on the same heading as the StarPath ship. If they stopped ten AU short of the one-hundred AU quarantine limit, then it was them.”
“And they had motivation,” said Burgess. “To be the first to engage the wormhole generator and report back to corporate they would have to come up short because we know they were two hours behind the Starway ship.”
“But the telemetry data show that they engaged the generator at one-hundred AU and two hours behind the Starway ship. Just the right distance and time for a spacetime disruption to reach them if the Starway 6 had caused it.”
“Except for one thing Elias, that's assuming the telemetry data hasn't been altered.”
Elias looked startled.
“Burgess that would be against the law.”
Burgess smiled.
“Honey I was a detective on a few cases, people do try to alter the facts to cover their culpability. It's human nature Elias.”
Elias was about to respond when the ship's alarm stopped him.
“This is the Captain prepare for wormhole jump.”
Elias looked at Burgess. They were in their room in the wheel section of the ship which was spinning and providing about four-tenths Earth gravity.
“Let's sit down honey.”
He put his arm around Burgess and led her to the padded bench against the wall.
The ship shuddered as if an explosion had gone off. A few seconds later there was another shudder. Shortly after Burgess and Elias were both unconscious.
Elias awoke alone on the bed. He turned but Burgess was not there. He immediately reached for his Emmie but it wasn't on the side table where he usually placed it before bed. He was alarmed and confused.
He thought. Last thing he remembered was he and Burgess sitting down on the wall bench. He looked at the bench, there was his Emmie.
Elias got up to get his Emmie. As he approached the bench he noticed a blood stain. He grabbed his Emmie.
“Captain Murray, this is Elias Mach. What has happened? Where is my wife?”
There was no answer. Elias started for the door.
“Dag, Dag can you hear me?”
“Elias, this is Dag I am in the infirmary with Burgess please come as soon as possible.”
Elias almost collided with the opening door as he hurried through.
Elias arrived at the infirmary on the same floor of the wheel section. There were more people there than he expected. And in one corner were beds and mobile gurneys with white sheets drawn over their occupants. Elias noticed Dag.
“Dag,” he said as he walked up to the robot. “What's happened? How is Burgess? I saw blood on the bench.”
“Burgess is fine Elias, however I'm afraid she had a miscarriage during the wormhole traverse.”
Elias was stunned for a moment.
“How Dag, how?”
“Unknown sir. But there were other casualties. Nearly half the crew including the Captain have been lost. Burgess is the only one affected physically that survived.”
“What about the ship is it in any immediate danger?”
“The ship is in no immediate danger however there is one thing you should know.”
“What's that Dag?”
“The ship according to the navigational system has jumped over twelve light-years. We are closest to the star system Epsilon Eridani.”
“How is that possible?” asked Elias.
“I have not yet confirmed but I have a hypothesis. Did you feel the ship shudder just as we were entering the wormhole mouth?”
“Yes, twice.”
“I think we were being fired upon by a Solar Federation cruiser. On the second shot the wormhole weapon's energy merged with the energy of casting the far wormhole mouth boosting the jump.”
“Well that would explain how we got the extra distance out of the wormhole generator. But I am surprised it was a Solar Federation vessel. Does that also explain why so many of the crew died and why Burgess miscarried?”
“No I don't think the amount of energy explains the deaths. I think we encountered something in the traverse that was deadly for humans, at least certain humans.”
“What a mess,” said Elias. “But there is one thing I don't understand. Why were we fired upon.”
“I believe it was because the Captain decided not to turn you over for arrest.”
Elias looked shocked and disturbed.
“All this was my fault,” he said quietly.
“I'm alright honey,” said Burgess who had been listening quietly to the other two.
“But you could have been killed. I should have never allowed you to come. It's all my fault.”
Dag had finally allowed Burgess to leave the infirmary after being overly cautious. She and Elias were back in their quarters. Elias had been apologizing since they had left the infirmary.
“Elias you have got to get a grip. You didn't allow me to come along, I made the decision. You didn't order the jump that caused my miscarriage. And you didn't make the decision to fire on this ship which provided the energy to make the long jump.”
Elias looked a bit relieved.
“So you don't blame me?” he asked sheepishly.
“Honey you have never made a selfish decision in your life. Don't start now.”
<
br /> “What do you mean?” he asked with surprise.
“I mean you have a job to do, to get this ship and its crew and Dag and your wife back home safely. And I don't think this self-doubt is going to help get the job done. Do you?”
“You're right honey.”
He took her in his arms.
Once Elias had gotten his balance he began to think about how to get the ship back to Centauri.
Working with the first officer they developed a plan. First, to make an inventory of what they had to work with. Second, they would enter the Eridani System and recharge the isotopic energy reservoir before trying a test jump. Isotopic energy elements were similar to capacitors except that the atomic nucleus stored the energy with a consequent increase in energy of several orders of magnitude. Recharging the isotopics with the fusion engine was possible but led to depletion of the fuel stores, especially the Helium 3 which was always a scarce resource.
Next if the test jump worked Elias would have to figure out a way to get them back. But that wouldn't be easy considering the next nearest star system, the Sirius System, was a distance of over seven point eight-six light-years from the Eridani System. And the ship was designed to only make a six light-year jump.
But first things first. With all the stores Captain Murray had judiciously loaded the ship with they wouldn't have any food problems for six months with the reduced head count.
Twelve of the twenty crew members had come through the traversal unscathed. So there were fourteen mouths to feed including Burgess and Elias.
The isotopic energy reservoir feeding the wormhole generator was completely drained. Elias' first job would be to refurbish them and get them ready to be recharged by the central star of the Epsilon Eridani System.
The ship was well automated so there wasn't a problem running it with a skeleton crew. Only if a system went off-line and had to be operated manually would there be trouble.
Burgess volunteered to help Elias with the reconditioning of the isotopics. They were located in three rooms on the outside deck of the wheel. On top of this deck was mounted the Mach device layers which created the wormhole.
At point-four Earth gravity the outer deck of the wheel was actually a downward climb from the personnel deck. “Reconditioning” the isotopics was really just a visual check for anything damaged or loose. They came to the first power reservoir room.
“The thing is Burgess we need to get a maximum jump out of the wormhole generator to be close enough to Sirius to finish the journey by fusion rocket.”
“And once we get to Sirius we'll be able to jump home?” asked Burgess.
“Yes once we get to Sirius it's a short jump to WISE 0855, then Luhman 16 and then Centauri.”
“But the wormhole jump to Sirius is beyond a safe jump distance?”
“Yeah we'll have to finish off the approximately point-four light-years with the fusion rocket.”
“How long will that take?”
“A little over two years, seven-hundred twenty-eight days to be exact.”
“But Elias we don't have enough provisions for that long.”
“I know, I will have to come up with a way to recharge the isotopics with the fusion motors so that we can make another small jump afterwards. But one thing that will help is to bring online all the replacement isotopics available.”
“What will that do?” asked Burgess.
“It should increase the energy available to the wormhole generator about ten percent which will increase the range by about ten percent or about point-six light-year.”
“But that's still too short isn't it?”
“Yeah, I've got to increase the efficiency of the wormhole generator by another twenty percent to get us in reasonable range of Sirius so that it is a short journey by fusion rocket.”
“That seems like a long string of ifs. Can you do it Elias?”
“I'll be honest with you honey, I don't know.”
Chapter 6
Wormhole Physics 101 by Dr. Elias Mach
Copyright 2393 C.E. - Chapter 7, Page 223
Wormhole Generator Design
The design of a wormhole generator is very much a materials problem. The Mach device is made up of three layers, each with its own special characteristics. The innermost layer provides a solid support for the outer layers and contains the material which supplies the negative mass or exotic mass needed to open a wormhole mouth.
The next layer is the actuator layer which drives the Mach effect in the outer layer and is usually made of a PZT (lead-zirconium-titanate) composite. A large voltage is supplied to this layer and driven with a sinusoidal signal.
The outer layer, the Mach layer, is made from a material with a large capacity for internal energy changes. And when it is driven by a quickly ramping voltage applied to the actuator layer it will shield the innermost layer from the universal mass.
The final essential element for designing a wormhole generator is that the layers should be in acceleration. In the case of a spaceship this is usually accomplished by applying the layers to the crew wheel which provides acceleration through rotation, always remembering that a change in direction is also an acceleration.
The long jump of Elias' ship, Starway 7, had caused another disruption but a weak one. Although the disruption had destroyed the Solar Federation vessel, the effect on the habitats was minimum, some slight shaking but no major damage.
This last incident, coming so soon after the original, surprised the habitat's citizens and it wasn't long until the cause and prevention of more disruptions became the only focus of public discourse. The public demanded answers and assurances that the governments were unable to give.
In the resulting environment of blame and knee-jerk reaction many of the officials of the habitats ended up under a cloud of suspicion. The Solar Federation also became a target for ridicule when its ship never returned from the mission to arrest Elias. The ship was suspected to be the cause of the latest disruption.
Something had to be done, safety was paramount, new leadership was needed. Into this turmoil came Hugh Mason. Coming from Earth to the Centauri System to represent the Terran Federation (a political organization representing mostly the Earth, Moon, Mars and Hadar habitat). He knew what to do.
The governments had to take control of the use of the wormhole drive for the safety of all he said.
“No longer can the governments sit back and allow the commercial sector to recklessly exploit this technology,” said Mason finishing up his speech before the Council of the Hadar habitat.
“We have a responsibility and a right to control this technology to protect citizens that depend on us. To do otherwise is to shirk this responsibility. I for one, with the backing of the leadership of the Terran Federation do not intend to ignore my responsibility to the citizens of the Centauri habitats. Thank you.”
There started a smattering of applause which evolved into a roar.
“I heard he gave a great speech,” said Mark Sachs.
“Yes he told the people what they wanted to hear if you call that greatness,” said Arn Strombecker who had been called in by Mark Sachs to discuss the situation.
“If the government takes control of generator usage then I expect we are out of business, that is if the trial doesn't do us in,” said Sachs.
“How's the trial going?”
“Lots of lawyer maneuvering right now. Having Elias on the loose isn't allowing a court date to be set.”
“Poor Elias,” said Arn. “Give the world such a wonderful invention and you are rewarded with a slap in the face because others won't take responsibility for their selfish actions.”
“What others?” asked Sachs.
“I think we all know StarPath caused the original spacetime disruption and I'd be willing to bet that Elias has the proof by now. That is why they had to make their move and criminalize him so that he would be discredited in the eyes of the public.”
“It's easy to accuse but hard to prove otherwise
,” said Sachs with resignation in his voice.
“Well I for one don't think that the Terran Federation or any government will be able to control the generator and provide complete safety in return and I'll tell you something else Mark. I cannot believe that the people of the Centauri habitats are going to turn over their futures to such a person as Mr. Mason, just so they can have the perception of safety.”
Within a month the Centauri habitats Hadar, New Hope, Centauri Two and many other smaller ones had voted in a digital referendum to setup an umbrella organization consisting of the Terran Federation and the habitat governments for the express purpose of regulating wormhole generator use.
First Officer James Tiberius had brought Starway 7 into the Epsilon Eridani system to recharge the isotopics. Epsilon Eridani was a main sequence star smaller than the Sun with a resulting orange hue. They would need a week or two orbiting at seven-tenths AU to completely recharge.
The makeup of the Eridani system had been known for hundreds of years but this was the first time that humans would see it close up.
It was known that the system had two asteroid belts, one at three AU and another at twenty AU. Two planets were also suspected, the one at about three and a half AU was expected to be one and a half times the size of Jupiter and was known as Epsilon Eridani b. The other at forty AU was thought to be a tenth the size of Jupiter and was known as Epsilon Eridani c. Outside forty AU there was thought to be a dust disk to one-hundred AU. But all of this had never been confirmed.
“I think you should Burgess,” said Elias. “Helping Dag establish the particulars of the Eridani system in the time we are here would be a great contribution to science.”
“I guess so Elias, but I know very little of how to do these observations.”
“Dag knows all that's needed.”
“I suppose you are right Elias. How long do you think we will be in orbit?”
“It will take at least a week, maybe two to recharge the isotopics.”
“Do you think you will have the physics of the jump worked out by then?”
Mach's Metric Page 4