Mach's Metric

by D. W. Patterson

  Going over the different areas it was a few minutes before Roy yelled, “Hey here's something.”

  “What you got,” said Elias.

  “You won't believe it Elias. It's none of the ships you suspected. It's a Terran Federation cruiser, the TS-21E.”

  “You're right Roy I wasn't expecting that.”

  “What does it mean Elias.”

  “I think it means that someone other than Starway and StarPath have been experimenting with extended wormhole jumps.”

  Back on the shuttle, Elias was talking to Arn as Roy and Steve got ready to take off.

  “Yeah Arn a Terran cruiser, not what I was expecting at all. It would seem the Terran Federation has been experimenting to see if they can increase their jump capabilities.”

  “How about the crew Elias?”

  “No crew aboard Arn. I believe it was crewed by AIs only.”

  “So no loss of life, no wondering why their loved ones hadn't returned from the mission. Easier to cover up an accident.”

  “Yeah Arn. Something went wrong with the jump and caused the mission to be lost.”

  “I wish we could get this information back to the Centauri System but they've quit answering any queries we send them Elias. I would guess that the Federation is behind it.”

  “I hope Burgess is alright,” said Elias.

  “I'm sure Dag is taking good care of her. But what do we do now?”

  “Well I suggest that we get out my entanglement detector and see if we can trace any more of these missions.”

  “But I thought that a reservoir would balance out any loss of entanglement Elias? Won't the detector be useless?”

  “No. The broken entanglement never balances exactly Arn. I can use a sensitivity setting that will allow me to track the path of any ship jumping through a wormhole.”

  “Okay Elias as soon as you get aboard we'll see what we can find.”

  Chapter 15

  The Starway 1 was underway. Tracking the trail of broken entanglement left by a wormhole jumping ship that had crashed in the Eridani System.

  Elias and Al were in the command center. Elias was monitoring his Casimir device.

  “Something doesn't make sense about these readings Al.”

  “What is it Elias?”

  “The quantity of broken entanglements I'm reading is . . .”

  Just then a large pop was heard. Elias' device emitted a large cloud of acrid smelling smoke. He quickly killed the power.

  “What happened Elias?”

  “Well as I was about to say. The entanglement readings were off the scale. You see I replaced the front end with a more sensitive detector. I expected it to be difficult to pick up the path. But as you've just seen, it's not difficult at all.”

  “Can you fix your device?”

  “Yeah, I'll just swap out the front end with the regular electronics and be back in operation.”

  While Elias was working on his device Al gave a shout.

  “Elias! Something's not right with the ship.”

  Before Elias could respond they found themselves in a vibrating, shaking, pitching fusion ship.

  “Al, kill the engines!”

  “I did Elias.”

  Arn was on Elias' Emmie asking what was happening.

  “We don't know Arn!” yelled Elias from across the room. “Just hang on.”

  Besides the violent movements, there was a sound from outside the ship which sounded like a huge wind storm.

  There's no sound in space, thought Elias.

  “Elias,” said Al. “The attitude rockets are firing like mad. The Emmies are having a hard time maintaining trim.”

  “No choice,” Elias yelled back. “We'll just have to ride it out.”

  What seemed to take an hour but was only a few minutes was finally over. The sound was gone as quickly as it had started. The ship settled down. The immediate danger was over.

  Al looked at Elias.

  “Al, find out where we are.”

  “Navigation is working on it, I don't know why it is taking so long.”

  Finally, the navigational Emmie was able to determine the ship's location.

  Al read it off.

  “It looks like we are thirty light-years from where we were Elias. Along the same vector. That would put us some forty light-years from Earth.”

  Elias didn't respond.

  The men were meeting over a meal after inspecting the ship and systems.

  “Anyone find anything that needs immediate attention?” asked Arn.

  “Well besides the need to replace anything that wasn't nailed down,” said the doctor. “It appears that all the food and medical supplies came through the incident without too much harm.”

  “Yeah but the attitude rockets are not in such good shape,” said Roy. “Arn we are going to have to refuel them soon.”

  “I can imagine,” said Arn. “I'd shake the hand of the ship's Emmies in appreciation, if they had hands. For right now can we use the electrolysis rig to refuel from our water supply?”

  “Yeah,” said Roy. “But we'll have to start rationing water until we find some more.”

  “I bet Eridani had water comets,” said Steve.

  “No doubt,” said Arn. “Which brings us to the question that is uppermost in my mind anyway. Elias I hate to put you on the spot but do you have any idea what happened to us?”

  “Well I know this,” said Elias. “The readings of broken entanglement I was getting just before the incident were off the scale.”

  “That's right,” said Al. “It blew up his detector.”

  “Can you fix it Elias?” asked Arn.

  “Yeah. As strong as the readings are I can just use my usual front end without the added sensitivity.

  “But getting back to your first question. Consider the following. One, we were on the trail of a wormhole ship making an extended jump. Two, I surprisingly found the local entanglement readings much higher than I expected. Three, I think you all heard some kind of sound from outside the ship?”

  They all nodded.

  “There is no sound in empty space, right?”

  Again they nodded yes.

  “So obviously we weren't in empty space.”

  “How could that be?” asked Buck.

  “Well here is my hypothesis but I warn you it may change as I incorporate more knowledge. I believe we were caught in the backwash of a wormhole traveling ship.”

  “You're kidding,” said Roy.

  “No, I'm serious. Look, imagine you are back on Earth, you all know about airline travel, at least you've seen it in a vid?”

  They all nodded.

  “Now imagine you are walking down the runway and a large plane is taking off. As it blows past, you are swept along. Depending on the size and speed and number of the planes, the power of the wind will vary. Now imagine one plane after another passing you, the wind gets more and more powerful and you are swept along faster and faster.”

  “But Elias we aren't in the wormhole dimension, how can it possibly be affecting us?” asked Arn.

  “That is a good question Arn which will take some thinking and maybe research. I've always said there's more to wormhole physics than we know and I think we are about to learn something new.”

  With that, the men finished their meals and retired, the end of a long eventful day.

  The next day Elias began modifying his Casimir device to see if it could probe the wormhole dimension. He was going on the theory that though that dimension was not visibly detectable from normal space, it was leaking a detectable signal into normal space. Like a buried power cable could be detected with the proper meter.

  He knew that as a three-dimensional object can cast a two-dimensional shadow, so a four-dimensional object might cast a detectable three-dimensional “shadow”. However he theorized, he decided the wormhole dimension should be detectable. If only he could figure out how to build a detector.

  Arn had different concerns. The ship needed to be p
ut into an orbit around the new star, a star similar to the Sun which they had finally identified as WISE 0735, so that the isotopics could be recharged. But before he could do that the fuel supply for the attitude rockets and the water supply needed to be refurbished. That would take a large supply of hydrogen and oxygen. So the first task was to find a comet or asteroid or other body with enough water so that the electrolysis unit could create the fuel for the attitude rockets and the water for the men.

  Al and Steve were given the task of finding such a body in this new system.

  In a couple of weeks, fueling had begun. They had found a non-active comet in the system and after rendezvous, bots were placed on its surface to mine for water. It wasn't long until enough liquid hydrogen and oxygen were obtained from the water through electrolysis. It was now time to dive into the inner part of the system and recharge the wormhole generator's isotopics.

  Arn was in the workroom that had become Elias' lab. Elias was still working on a way to detect the wormhole dimension and therefore the path of the AI piloted ships.

  “Elias I've wanted to ask you for some time. The sound we heard, I don't understand? You've never mentioned it before.”

  “Well it was pretty theoretical until just recently and I wasn't sure that even I believed what the math was telling me.

  “First Arn, I should explain that the wormhole dimension is like a fourth spatial dimension and sound in four dimensions propagates differently than in three dimensions.

  “Now the tension that exists at what might be called the walls of the wormhole where the repulsive gravity of the exotic matter must balance all the attractive forces of the ordinary matter and energy of the transporting object, is immense. This tension results in vibrational modes at all frequencies including the audible. Sound waves in the four-dimensional wormhole reflect and double back on themselves like ripples in a pond. And like those ripples restricted in their travel, as they would be in the wormhole, they can reinforce and become quite large or loud.

  “All that is to say that the wormhole is “singing”, so to speak, and some of that song is at frequencies we can hear. Some of this energy, I'll call it shadow energy, is radiated or leaked away as gravitational energy into our normal dimension. That energy impinging on our hull set up sound waves as the hull of the ship vibrated in sympathy, particularly at the audible frequencies.”

  “I see,” said Arn. “So any time we get close to an active wormhole we'll actually be able to hear it.”

  “That's right. And remember we weren't only close enough to hear it we had our three-dimensional momentum affected. And we experienced what is called the frame-dragging effect of the gravity from that tremendous concentration of energy.”

  “All this is getting a bit too much for me to follow Elias.”

  “I know Arn but hang in there it will soon make sense.”

  “Well anyway Elias I just wanted to let you know that we're ready to head for WISE 0735 shortly to recharge the isotopics and when finished we'll be ready to go wormhole hunting.”

  “Good Arn, I hope to have my detector ready by the time the isotopics recharge.”

  Elias had settled on the design of his detector. Based on its entanglement function the new capability could detect what Elias had come to think of as the wormhole's shadow in normal spacetime.

  The wormhole's shadow was the region of ordinary spacetime in which the dynamical effects of the wormhole could be felt by an object. In the case of the Starway 1, it was the dragging of the ship's reference frame which propelled it from Epsilon Eridani to WISE 0735 in a matter of minutes. Unlike travel in the wormhole dimension which was almost instantaneous to human subjective time, this frame-dragging was something new. Essentially the ship's frame of reference was dragged along by the ship or ships traversing the wormhole. That is why even though the Starway 1 was displaced some thirty light-years in a few minutes it did not break the laws of physics because it never exceeded the speed of light in its local reference frame.

  Chapter 16

  Burgess and her attorney had put in a motion for her to be released from house arrest but the Committee on Public Safety had ruled Burgess was a danger to society. She would be kept under arrest for the indefinite future.

  She was meeting with her attorney and Dag in her home.

  “I'm sorry Burgess,” said her attorney William Hatchet. “Under ordinary circumstances I see no reason our motion would be denied by the court. But these are no longer ordinary circumstances.

  “COPS has almost unchecked powers when a situation is cast as a public safety concern. And many situations are being cast that way even when they aren't safety threats.”

  “We've lost our freedoms Bill. And I don't believe we are any safer for it.”

  “They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.”

  “What is that Dag?” asked Burgess.

  “A quote Miss from a long-dead partisan of freedom named Benjamin Franklin.”

  “Too bad we don't have someone like that now,” Hatchet said.

  “We do,” said Burgess. “Elias.”

  It was a few days later and the doctor was leaving Burgess' room. He stopped to speak with Dag.

  “She's fine Dag and it's just as she suspected.”

  “A child sir?”

  “Yes Dag she is pregnant with twins, I would say a couple of months now. No special orders for her care. I'll be back in a few days to see how she is progressing.”

  “Thank you sir.”

  He followed the doctor to the door and closed it behind him.

  “Well Dag,” said Burgess coming out of her room. “We will soon have a couple more mouths to feed. I've got some people to tell.”

  “Yes Miss.”

  Even pregnant Burgess kept up her campaign, not only protesting her detention but also Elias' conviction. Two attorneys were now working with her.

  Richard Philips was the attorney working Elias' case.

  “Any progress Richard?” asked Burgess as they sat down at her table.

  “No ma'am not yet. I've got my law Emmies putting forth motions to dismiss but so far either the court has not ruled on them or they've ruled against them. But this is somewhat a number's game as the Emmies' flood the court with motions. And our appeal is moving forward. If we can get the case reopened and into an appeals court I think we would really have a chance to make some progress for Elias.”

  A few days later the doctor was back. He had examined Burgess and was discussing his findings with Dag.

  “She's fine physically Dag but I think that emotionally she's having a hard time coping without Elias. Is there any chance to get a message to him?”

  “I don't know sir. I will check into it.”

  “Okay, keep me informed.”

  After the doctor had left Dag went to Burgess' door and knocked.

  “Yes?”

  “Miss do you need anything?”

  The door opened.

  “I'm fine Dag.”

  “I see.”

  When Dag didn't continue Burgess prompted him for his thoughts.

  “What's up Dag? Something bothering you?”

  “Well Miss the doctor suggested that you were emotionally distraught over not being able to contact Elias.”

  “He did?”

  “Yes Miss.”

  “I don't know where he got that idea. I'm not going to do anything that would put Elias in danger or lead to his rearrest.”

  “That's what I thought Miss. I think the doctor was fishing for any information that might lead to the location of Elias.”

  Burgess looked surprised but then turned serious.

  “Dag will you dismiss this doctor for me? I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself until the babies arrive.”

  “Yes Miss.”

  Elias thought he had his detector working but he had found nothing in the past several days.

  “You think something's wrong with it Elias?�
� asked Al who was in the command center also.

  “I don't think so Al. All I did was adjust the sensitivity. It could be that we haven't had any ships for the past few days.”

  “I wonder Elias. Who and why are they sending ships out this far?”

  “That's something we still have to determine. I doubt it is for research though. It must have a more practical purpose.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Why else would it be kept secret?”

  “Yeah I see what you mean.”

  A few minutes passed in quiet then Elias' detector got a reading.

  “Al I've got something.”

  “Okay pass it through to the navigational Emmie and we'll see if we can track it.”

  Both men watched the wallscreen as the ship came around slowly so as not to cause undue forces since the crew wheel was spinning.

  “Command this is Arn. Are we changing heading?”

  “Yes Arn,” responded Al. “Elias has picked up a signal and we are vectoring to that location.”

  “Very well, I'm on my way.”

  Arn had entered the command center.

  “Can you tell how far Elias?”

  “Well if the source is comparable to last time I'd say about three days at our present velocity.”

  Arn thought a moment.

  “So about four-tenths of an AU.”

  They had been traveling for four days and Arn and Bucky were discussing the situation over a meal.

  “Elias said the strength of the signal is already greater than last time Arn and growing.”

  “But there is no telling how much longer?”

  “Well I've been using the observatory to scout the direction we are heading and I think I've found a planet ahead.”

  “Can you tell anything about it Bucky?”

  “Not yet Arn. It may be another day, two at the most and I should be able to make out a disk.”

  “Okay I think we should go into deceleration to prepare for a rendezvous. It's most probable that this planet is our destination.”

  It was less than a day later that the planet's disk was able to be resolved. From the distance, Bucky estimated that the planet they were headed for was about nine-tenths the size of Earth.