Empire of Stars

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Empire of Stars Page 2

by D. W. Patterson


  “Do they know what caused the pulse?”

  “Not exactly but the authorities do know the epicenter. It turned out to be the lab that had opened, and kept open, that nonlocal link to the area near the Crab Nebula.”

  “How is that possible Dag? That lab is thousands of miles away.”

  “Apparently the energy was sufficient that it 'bounced' from ground to ionosphere around the world. Devastating some areas and skipping others.”

  “We were just talking about that when I was knocked out Dag.”

  “Now I'll use your theory of imagination Sigmund to conjecture what may have caused the pulse. I believe it was the AI, either the Earth faction or the Beleni or maybe the more mysterious recorder faction, in association with humans.”

  “What humans?”

  “Those from the two lost expeditions. Remember the wormhole jump-ships sent with settlers to what were then the recently discovered exoplanets in the Trila 4-568 system.”

  “I remember those,” said Sigmund. “The first had a problem with a rogue AI before losing contact. The expedition had reported that the stowaway AI had gone berserk resulting in the death of several crew members. Just how many deaths is unknown.

  “The other expedition had an even more bizarre experience. Something happened during wormhole boost placing most of the crew and colonists into a form of suspended animation. When the remaining crew tried to initiate wormhole transport back to base they were never heard from again.

  “Two fusion ships* and over two hundred souls disappeared without a trace. Efforts to find out what had happened were interrupted each time by a general disintegration of society. So-called Dark Ages by historians. The similarities between the two missions and their outcomes, at least what is known about the outcomes is intriguing.”

  “Very good Sigmund. Well I believe those humans made it somewhere either through happenstance or more likely as a direct result of actions taken by one of the AI factions. Eventually working together they created the incredible engineering marvel that the destroyed lab stumbled upon with its nonlocal link.

  “I believe through that nonlocal link from that engineering behemoth came the EMP that destroyed the lab and the surrounding area for hundreds of miles and then bounced from there to here and damaged you.”

  Sigmund with a thoughtful look was silent for a moment.

  “Well I have to say Dag you've taken my admonishment to use your imagination to heart.”

  Dag knew that Sigmund was needling him but he could also tell from Sigmund's hesitancy that what he had said had left an impression.

  3

  It didn't take the government long to ask Dag and Sigmund to suspend their drive work and investigate the recent disaster. That was fine with Dag, he had once been a detective.

  And Walker had arrived.

  An Em-based robot, like Dag, though perhaps a bit more advanced, Walker knew as much about the spin-two drive as Dag since he had worked with him during its development. And they both knew more than any human alive. The three were discussing the situation.

  “Aliens,” said Walker.

  “You're kidding of course,” said Dag.

  “Sir I do not kid. From what I know about this situation the most logical conclusion is that the lab had discovered an alien artifact. That is why the aliens destroyed the link and the lab. Most logical I think.”

  Dag was dumbfounded. An Em that believed in aliens.

  “Walker,” said Sigmund. “I find that a very interesting hypothesis. I've felt for some time now that we are overdue to find aliens. And as you say it fits the facts as we know them.”

  Again Dag was dumbfounded hearing Sigmund reverse himself with no real evidence.

  “Sigmund just a few days ago you were adamant that it wasn't aliens.”

  “Well Dag a fellow has to keep an open mind. After all, Walker makes a good case.”

  “A good case! It's all conjecture.”

  “Is he always so intransigent when presented with the facts Sigmund?”

  “As you probably know Walker, Dag use to be a hard-boiled detective. So you'll have to allow a little leeway. I'm afraid his years of sleuthing has left him a bit jaded.”

  “Ah, of course then. Well Dag let's just call my ah, conjecture tentative. We'll keep it in the backs of our minds as we gather the evidence, what say?”

  “Yes Walker that will be fine. Now let's come up with a plan.”

  The plan started with a visit to the area of the incident. A hypersonic airliner would take them to a working airport nearest the disaster. At two thousand miles and a continent away, it would take about an hour. From the airport, the three would take a chartered vertical takeoff jet along with a local government scientist for the final leg.

  Dag had brought along a portable quantum entanglement detector, a Casimir device*. It was a device based on the Casimir effect which could measure the existence of electromagnetic waves, even in a vacuum. The device featured two very close, conducting but uncharged parallel plates, which experienced an attractive force caused by the existence of more EM waves outside the plates than between them. This was a result of the requirement that the wavelength or a multiple of the wavelength of an electromagnetic wave had to “fit” between the plates.

  It had been learned with the wormhole drive that when an object is transported or teleported through a wormhole the net result is a weakening of the Casimir force. It is as if the number of electromagnetic waves has been diminished. This effect is a direct consequence of the “atomizing” of spacetime by the energy from the wormhole drive. In effect, spacetime is breaking down and affecting larger masses and longer wavelength EM waves first, all a result of the loss of entanglement* around the wormhole mouth.

  “I say Dag, why have you brought the detector?”

  “Well if this event was powerful enough to break the quantum entanglements of spacetime then the detector will serve as a kind of gauge on just how powerful it was.”

  “And that in turn will tell us the technological level of the aliens. Good thinking Dag.”

  Dag was becoming annoyed with Walker's one-track mind. He hadn't been that way when they first worked together. Maybe success was going to his head.

  “I remind you Walker we have no reason to believe it was aliens.”

  “Except that it satisfies Occam's Razor. It's by far the simplest hypothesis don't you think?”

  I'm beginning to wonder if you think very much Walker especially with this idiotic . . .

  “I think,” said Sigmund interrupting Dag's thoughts, “that it is an excellent hypothesis until proven otherwise. But we really should let the evidence lead us for now.”

  Dag picked up on what Sigmund had said.

  “Well said Sigmund, you agree of course Walker?”

  “Yes, yes, of course. I'm only thinking out loud, that's all.”

  Talking out loud maybe but thinking? I wouldn't call it . . .

  Once again Sigmund interrupted Dag's thoughts.

  “Still Dag if the detector does show a level of destruction that borders on the disintegration of spacetime. Wouldn't that be quite an advance over our current capabilities? I mean from over six-thousand light-years away?”

  “Probably Sigmund but don't forget humankind learned to create that kind of destruction also.”

  “Yes I know but not at such a distance.”

  “Well the link might have something to do with that.”

  “I remember reading about that,” said Walker. “They called it the atomization of space I believe. But of course, you two were there when it happened weren't you?”

  “Yes the first time was an accident,” said Dag. “It was caused by two wormhole ships casting the far mouth of their wormholes to the same coordinates. The concentration of energy in such a tiny area caused an abrupt breaking of entangled links like a balloon blow out. The disturbance spread from there, destroying several space habitats before it dissipated.”

  “Like a rock dropped in a po
nd,” said Sigmund. “That is where the old quarantine zone for operation of a wormhole drive came from, it was an attempt to limit the damage if such a thing happened again.”

  “And it did Sigmund. But of course, like everything else that humans do, politics prevented the quarantine limit from being set to a real safe limit like one-hundred AU. It would take too long to get there, complained the corporation types.”

  “That's true Dag but I've learned that you always take what humans are willing to give. You can come back later if you need more.”

  Walker spoke up before the discussion got further off track.

  “Well it's certainly fortunate that transport by nonlocal links doesn't take so much energy. Now there isn't any danger that a link can cause the atomization of space.”

  “That's true if you can find the link you need,” said Sigmund. “Why is that Dag? Why does it take so long to find nonlocal links the farther you want to transport?”

  Dag was silent for what seemed like an interminable time. Sigmund was just about to speak when he continued.

  “It appears that links follow a kind of power-law, called Lotka's Law, when it comes to their abundance or scarcity as related to the distances they bridge. The farther the distance the scarcer the nonlocal link. So a link that spans the distance this lab found is very rare.”

  The pilot informed his passengers that they would be landing soon.

  At the airport, the three robots departed the plane and soon found their next ride and their companion, Dr. Haile Zenawi.

  “Gentlemen,” said Dr. Zenawi. “I am pleased to meet you. I will be your guide during your stay in Girawa. I represent both the Girawan government and the Girawa Institute of Science. I myself am a meteorologist by training and I knew the area we are going to well, before the destruction that overtook it.”

  The three introduced themselves, then Dag spoke.

  “Dr. Zenawi we need to get as close to the epicenter of this phenomenon as possible. In your estimation how close will that be?”

  “I believe there is a quarantine zone around the lab's former location of several miles but I will ask the pilot to get as close as he sees fit. As you probably know there is quite a bit of weather being created by the remaining heat of the incident.”

  “Thank you Dr. Zenawi we appreciate all you can do.”

  This time they would walk a short distance across the tarmac to board the smaller jet.

  As Dag looked in the direction they were to fly he could see what looked like a line of clouds stretching across the horizon. Upon boarding the business-like aircraft, Dr. Zenawi went forward to speak with the pilot before taking his seat.

  “The pilot assures me he will get as close to the epicenter as he feels he can safely.”

  Dag again expressed his appreciation and soon they were lifting from the ground and heading toward the cloud bank he had seen. Once the plane had translated its vertical velocity to horizontal it was almost no time before they were in the thick gray clouds. Dag was too busy minding his entanglement detector to look but Sigmund provided a running commentary.

  “Roll clouds I think. A form of arcus cloud. They must form a concentric circle around ground zero. Ah we're out of that one, here comes another.”

  The plane cut through the storm cloud formations easily at first but soon the ride was rougher. The rain was now nonstop.

  “A bit unusual wouldn't you say Dr. Zenawi?”

  “I should say so Sigmund. I'll never get used to these clouds no matter how many times I fly through them. You know what's happening here is affecting the weather all over the planet. The energy to power all of this is tremendous and is just the waste heat from the incident.”

  “Fascinating,” said Walker.

  “I've got something,” said Dag. “Broken entanglements and increasing.”

  “We must be close to the epicenter by now,” said Dr. Zenawi. “I'll just go ask the pilot.”

  As he rose the craft dropped abruptly. Zenawi went flying and hit his head on the ceiling. As he fell in the aisle he was already unconscious.

  Sigmund could tell that the plane's forward motion had slowed and the engines were now thrusting in a vertical position with a screaming wail. Luckily they were only a few feet off the ground and descending slowly when the wings failed. Sigmund watched them fold and then rip from the plane with the engines still roaring. The plane hit the ground with a thud which was much less than Sigmund expected.

  4

  Outside the craft, the wind and rain were a continuous series of squalls. The sound was deafening inside also but the three were able to reduce their audio pickup to an acceptable level. From here on they would be using built-in RF transmitters to communicate.

  “Sigmund can you hear me?” said Dag.

  “Affirmative.”

  “Walker?”

  “Here.”

  “Good. Any damage to report?”

  Both robots responded in the negative. Dag left to see about the pilots.

  “Both gone,” he said upon returning.

  “Well what are we going to do now?” asked Walker.

  “I want to check my entanglement detector. Why don't you and Sigmund see to Dr. Zenawi and get him ready for transport.”

  “Are we going to try and walk out of here?”

  “Well we have a limited reservoir of power and I think we need to get out of this area before that runs down. Don't you?”

  “Yeah Dag, good thinking.”

  Well that makes one of us Walker.

  Walker and Sigmund had improvised a stretcher with one of the plane's seats. Placing Dr. Zenawi onto the seat and strapping him in they lifted the makeshift contraption and were ready.

  “Okay I'm going first,” said Dag. “I'm going to use the entanglement detector to find our way. We'll go in the direction away from broken entanglements. Are you two ready?”

  Sigmund and Walker nodded.

  “Okay here goes, stay close.”

  Dag opened the door and it was immediately blown from his hand and sailed away. The robots themselves were too heavy for the powerful wind to lift but making headway against it wasn't easy.

  They had walked a few hundred feet when out of the dark lashing rain a bright light appeared a few yards away and to their right. Dag was too busy watching the detector to notice but Sigmund and Walker both saw it and stopped.

  “Dag a light,” Sigmund radioed and with that, he started leading Walker to the area. Dag was slow to turn and see what was happening. Sigmund and Walker were in the vicinity of the light before he started towards them.

  “Wait Sigmund, we don't know . . .”

  Dag stopped as he saw Sigmund, Walker and the stretcher rotate as if swirling down a drain horizontally and then they were gone. By the time he reached the spot, there was nothing but the howling wind and rain. He called on the radio, nothing. Looking at his detector as almost an afterthought he saw a peak reading slowly subsiding. Whatever it was it was strong in broken entanglements.

  “Sigmund where are we?”

  “I don't know Walker.”

  In the dim light, they looked around themselves at a scene that seemed calm. Only it wasn't right. The terrain was a jumble of mismatched chunks of ground. A clump of trees like a specimen dug up by a giant shovel stood slightly askew on top of a rocky outcrop. The roots of the trees were seen dangling from the soil on each side of the bowl-shaped plot which must have been one-hundred feet across.

  As they turned their heads they noticed a pond settled into a bowl-like depression with the edges of the bowl high above their heads and the bottom resting in an expanse of sand. Everywhere they looked it was like a menagerie of landscape samples gathered by some giant gardener.

  “This is crazy Sigmund, what do we do?”

  “I guess we do as Dag said, we try to walk out of here.”

  They hadn't walked far when the horizon shimmered and a huge object protruded. It was coming directly at them and fast.

  “Quick Wal
ker follow me!”

  Sigmund took off with Walker trying to keep up which wasn't easy as he couldn't see where he stepped because of the stretcher.

  Audibly the intruding object had become a roar, sounding like a tornado. Then Walker fell. Sigmund was dragging him and Dr. Zenawi as fast as he could out of the way of the oncoming bowl, or whatever it was. They had just about cleared its path when the roaring stopped. Walker, lying prone, lifted himself and looked up the side of a sculpted rock cliff, its top was at least fifty feet above him.

  “Okay Walker get up it looks like it has stopped. Let's go.”

  Walker rose.

  “Sigmund don't you ever get perturbed?”

  “I did get disturbed once when my old owner brought surprise guests home with him. But he didn't do it again.”

  Walker and Sigmund walked in silence for a ways.

  “Sigmund what's happening? Do you know?”

  “Not really, Dag's the expert. But I think spacetime is disintegrating in this area.”

  “But I thought that would lead to atomization?”

  “Usually but in this case something is stopping it from reaching that level. It's kind of a macro effect instead of a micro effect.”

  It was a difficult walk. It would have been faster but the crazy quilt-like landscape forced them to go around many obstacles. Obstacles that didn't belong there but were nonetheless side by side.

  They had walked for hours.

  “Sigmund I'm getting an alert. I think the heat or something is affecting my power supply. It will run down soon.”

  “Hang in there Walker there's nothing we can do but keep walking. It's obvious this area doesn't extend too much further or someone would have already reported it.”

  Then Walker fell, the stretcher dragged the ground. Sigmund stopped and ran to Walker's form. Bending down he got a weak message over the radio.

 

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