The Far Side
Page 85
“Several of the Emoran bioweapons bit their enemies, but nothing killed them all. Chemicals were also successful, but there too, they were unable to kill all of them.
“The Emorans prepared a series of final redoubts. They destroyed all of their off-world connections and the hundred million survivors retreated to their fortresses.
“They had done incredible things; literally working until they dropped, then getting up and doing it again and again. They developed energy screens proof against even nuclear weapons. They developed lasers and particle beam weapons; it was all futile. There were too many enemies.
“About ten years ago, a passing starship saw the energy releases and came to investigate. They were a people called ‘Clinons.’ These were nice people, human like the Emorans. They gave the Emorans a lot of information about space, space propulsion systems and the whole nine yards.
“The Emorans decided that prudence was the better part of valor and that there were hundreds of uninhabited, but habitable, planets within a few hundred light years of Emora. They moved everyone into three last redoubts, defended as best as they could.”
The speaker paused and gave a short laugh. “I know, this sounds like a science fiction space opera. Well, you wait -- you haven’t heard anything yet!
“The Emorans worked night and day for the last decade; two of their last fortresses fell. They were almost ready to go when they detected my Far Side door. I walked through that door and about a hundred guys hit me from every side. However, I had an unbeatable alibi -- I was human and not a bug.
“They had reason to be afraid -- the Clinons had warned them of another insect race abroad in the universe. That other race had attacked the Clinon home world and had promptly kicked the Clinons off of it.
“The Clinons had developed an advanced space program before they learned about Far Side doors. They were about another four hundred years ahead of the Emorans, particularly when it came to Far Side door technology.
“The Clinons are logical, rational, and virtually unable to take a joke. They were the ones who actually had developed most of the cool Far Side door technology -- but it didn’t matter. Their enemies were maybe another hundred years further ahead of them.
“The Clinons don’t waste time with fluff -- they’d met the same sort of bugs that the Emorans had, a few years before, and had eradicated that attack and closed the Far Side door that had let them gain admission. The new attack however, had overwhelmed them. The Clinons had simple terms to describe their enemies. The insect race that the Clinons couldn’t hold they called the ‘big insects’ and the one the Emoran’s couldn’t stop were the ‘little insects.’ Not terribly original, but descriptive.
“The big insects, the ‘playa-dho’ as the Clinon’s called them, had all sorts of things that Clinon’s didn’t. The playa-dho could create Far Side doors where they wished, once they were on a planet. They could suppress Far Side doors and above all, they could find them, whether or not they were still open.
“Far Side doors leave, call it a ‘dimple’ or ‘scar,’ in space-time. The playa-dho could find such a location, open the door and invade the other side. The scars do fade over time, but it takes a year or so for them to do so. You can also ‘reset’ the local quantum universe by exploding a large enough nuclear weapon close to the scar.
“The playa-dho are considered a far more dangerous enemy than the playa-rho, the ‘little bugs.’
“For humanity, it’s not a good combination. The playa-dho don’t poach from the playa-rho, but they feel perfectly free to have a go at someone who throws out the little bugs. The Emorans were set to explode a planet-buster bomb at the site of their last fortress -- after they were well on their way. Playa-rho have no space-based technology and seem to have no interest in developing it, so they won’t be able to pursue, while if the Playa-dho show up, they’ll simply find a new asteroid belt and no Far Side door scars.
“The Emorans plan on orbiting a series of satellites as soon as they set up shop on their new home that will suppress any Far Side door on the planet. They’ve decided that it’s too unsafe, and they’ll use starships to communicate with other people.”
Sedgewyck’s image went into more depth about the various battles between the Emorans, the Clinons and the two bug species.
Finally his image held up the computer. “They have given me virtually everything in their technology base. In here is space travel, including going modestly faster than light. There are energy sources in here that make a nuclear weapon look like a fire spark. There is information about the culture and history of hundreds of other races and their technology. There is medical information that will almost certainly mean a cure for all cancer and other diseases, including the autoimmune diseases. Gene treatments are described that affect aging a hundred fold.”
The computer screen went back to waves breaking on the shore.
“That’s it,” Dale Sedgewyck told them. “There are also primers for their language and computational devices that can analyze a few hours of conversation and start rendering real time translations. And, as a cool feature, it translates in a way so that the other person hears your voice and you hear theirs.”
Kris’ mind raced, dancing over topics and ideas at the speed Dale Sedgewyck had spoken of a few minutes before -- faster than light.
She looked at General Briggs, who looked, for the first time since she’d met him, indecisive.
He saw her regard and laughed. “What? I’m not entitled to a little skepticism? I’m alternating wanting to jump for joy and then I’m afraid it’s all a hoax.”
Marjorie Briggs was more forthright. “I don’t care if it’s a hoax. I was here; I saw the projection that computer put up. Even if everything else is a hoax, that technology alone is worth billions. So yeah, I think it’s time to call in some heavy hitters from all of our technical and scientific departments. We can have Mr. Sedgewyck print up some of this technical data and they can go over it.”
She turned to Dale Sedgewyck. “Does your computer print?”
“Not directly. But it can interface to any wireless printer we have, and for that matter, to any number of printers at once, and print up anything you need. It does all of the translation, data conversion, and format conversion on the fly.”
Marjorie looked at her husband. “I don’t know how long it will take to set this up, Tom. We probably could use some outside talent...”
“We need to give Andie and Linda Walsh time to get back from Arvala,” Kris interjected.
“Four days as I recall?” Marjorie Briggs asked.
“Yes, call it five to be safe.”
“And today is Tuesday. How about next Monday? We invite as many people as we can get.”
“What if it’s a hoax?” General Briggs reminded her.
“We can get some of our people to look it over between now and then, and cancel if need be. Yes, we’ll look stupid and we’d have egg on our faces -- but this is too important not to take the chance.”
“Yes,” Kris agreed vehemently.
“Mr. Sedgewyck, how large can these screens be?” General Briggs asked him.
“If I make sure the water reservoir is filled, we could probably power a screen the size of a drive-in movie screen for five or six days, without needing a refill.”
“Christ!” the general exclaimed. “Okay Monday next, eight AM in the auditorium. We’ll go over some of the high points as a group, and then have break-out sessions with preprinted material, and Mr. Sedgewyck available as needed. Does that sound right?”
Everyone agreed that it did.
* * *
Kris wasn’t sure when she dialed the number of the Far Side door on the site of Andie’s house in LA if she was excited or scared or both.
The conversation was brief. “I can’t talk about it on the phone, Andie, but you have to come. Some guy found the Holy Grail of the SGC teams.”
“An advanced race ready to trade technology at a price we can afford?”
“There’s that old saying about Greeks and gifts...”
“Andie, if you want to learn how to make a Far Side door that opens any place you want, you’ll want to be here as early as possible. Before next Monday morning at eight. Linda can finally get her explanation of how Far Side doors work. I was looking at it a while ago. It’s all quantum stuff that I don’t pretend to understand.”
“Well, how does it work?” Andie demanded.
“The fusor magnetic field is like a coin-sorting machine. It swirls quantum data over all of reality, until it finally finds a matching data set. And get this, Andie. If you think about a destination hard enough -- that’s where you go. And if you’re a little vague on where you want to go, well, then you really do get pot luck. Or have multiple people hoping for different things, like we had back at the sound stage.”
There was conversation in the background that Kris couldn’t make out, but Andie came back a second later. “Linda says she needs to see the math.”
“Be here by Monday and you both can see the math.”
“We’ll be there, then.”
* * *
Sure enough, Andie arrived on Sunday afternoon, after a record-setting trip down from Arvala and then a quick hop across the country. Kris hugged her and shook Linda’s hand. Andie eyed Kathy Sharp. “You look familiar.”
“She’s Pete’s sister, she’s Ezra’s replacement. You weren’t at the rookery last weekend, when I took her on a tour.”
Andie nodded, but it was clear her real interest was elsewhere. “Just what is this about?”
Kris explained what Dale Sedgewyck had brought with him. Andie listen patiently for a few minutes and then shook her head. “Kris, that guy’s putting you on. No one would be that altruistic to just give that all away.”
Kris grinned. “You have no idea.” She turned and walked over to her desk, where there was a stack of manila folders. “What’s your poison? Cosmology? God? How to build a Far Side door that goes where you want to go, assuming you really want to go there?”
“And that stack is what?” Linda Walsh asked. The stack was nearly two feet thick.
“Executive summaries of most of what Sedgewyck brought back, plus in depth data on some of the simpler topics.”
“Give me the one on how Far Side doors work,” Linda asked.
Kris laughed and picked the one off the top. “I had a feeling...” she said as she handed it over. It wasn’t possible for Andie to look over Linda’s shoulder, so Andie held the papers.
It took a page before Andie was reduced to turning the pages when Linda asked her to. Linda got up to page five before she sighed. “I need to sit down and spend weeks at this.”
“It’s a fake, right?” Andie asked, a little angry.
Linda shook her head. “If he’s faked the math, he’s a greater genius than any mathematician before him. In fact, all of the mathematicians before him combined. I’d say this is earth-shaking, but then it’s literally true. Unless I’m reading the math entirely wrong, there’s are two full dimensions of quantum mechanics we didn’t even know were there. I can see the first clearly enough; it’s brilliant work, simply brilliant. The second part is so non-intuitive I get all twisted up just thinking about it. Andie, we have too many preconceptions about reality. It’s going to take a while to work past those.”
She turned around and put her arms around Andie’s waist and pulled her close, the folder going behind Andie’s back. “Sweetie, do you believe in God?”
“Of course not!”
“Well, sweetie, neither did I. Do you know what’s on the second page? A mathematical proof that God exists and that he created man in his own image.”
“How could you possibly prove that with math?” Andie demanded vehemently.
“Because, sweetie, God wanted people who were advanced enough to understand that there is a God. Do you want to know why you went to Arvala?”
“If you tell me God wanted it, I swear, I’ll spit in your face.”
“Not exactly, Andie. You went there because you very much wanted to find a place exactly like Arvala. Where you would find people in dire straits, in desperate need of the kind of help you could offer them. Sweetie, quantum theory is a lot more complicated than anyone ever thought! All sorts of things we never suspected might be related, are.”
“Andie,” Kris interrupted. “You need to take your time and get used to this. Tomorrow is going to be wowser, so I’m told. My father is coming, the President is coming; everybody who is anyone is coming.
“Right now I want you two to put away quantum theory and read another folder.” With that Kris went back to her desk and picked up the next folder on the stack and proffered it to Andie. It was the one on the Emorans, the playa-rho and the playa-dho. It didn’t take long before Andie was furious.
“How could you? The government will use this to shut us down!”
“No, you need to keep reading,” Kris told her patiently.
“The hell you say! If these bugs are out there, exploring at random will surely bring them here!”
“Yes, but if you read further you can see that there are a couple of ways to avoid exploring at random, and to protect ourselves against the bugs.”
“You were always a soft touch, Kris,” Andie said bitterly. “You’re going to let them gut the Far Side doors!”
Behind her, Linda spoke softly. “Andie, why don’t you turn the page, please?”
Andie turned and handed the folder to Linda and stomped off to Kris’s window and looked out at the blossoming of spring. “I can’t believe you support this, Kris. I just can’t! Doesn’t our friendship mean anything? How could you fall for this fucking bullshit?”
Kris grinned at her friend who seemed to be back in full form.
“Fall for what, Andie?
“Don’t you understand what you’ve done? You developed the Otto Schulz fusor. With that you gave mankind all the cheap power it could use. There are better ways over there in that stack of paper, but if you’d done nothing else, that would have left your mark permanently on the human race.
“But, that wasn’t all you did, Andie. You created Far Side doors and you found Arvala on the other side. Arvala, Andie, is your idea of heaven, even if you don’t care to admit it. Arvala has myriad challenges, a world larger than our own, and just happens to be mostly unexplored. And when that’s in hand, hanging overhead is another challenge on another world as large, and I’m certain, just as much of a challenge.
“And, if that’s not all...”
“I’ve given humanity enemies that could wipe us out in no time.”
“They could, but Andie, that stack of paper -- based entirely on your work with Far Side doors, is the kryptonite for bugs. There are ways in that stack to shut down Far Side doors without using nuclear weapons. There are means to shut down any Far Side door on the planet except the ones you want to keep open. Nobody, and I mean nobody, would be able to open one without your personal permission.”
Linda spoke up. “Listen to her, sweetie. In the last few years there has been a lot of speculation about what level conscious thought takes place on -- some people thought it might happen on the quantum level. Andie, those people are right. Our thoughts can and do affect the universe in profound ways that not even these Emorans fully understood.”
“Do we have to give up Arvala?” Andie demanded.
“No, of course not,” Kris told her. “In fact, it will be safe now, because we can scotch all but our own Far Side doors. And Andie -- get this. You can build a Far Side door a few feet away from the one you have, think how nice it would be if it opened in Arvala itself instead of the rookery? Just go to the right place, and not have to mess with that long trip.”
“You’re shitting me! That’s impossible!”
“No, sweetie,” Linda told her. “She’s telling the truth.”
“Andie, that’s a tall stack of paper over there. All of tha
t, Andie, is the result of the Otto Schulz fusors. Space travel, Andie. We’ll have faster than light space ships in a few years. Weapons. Wow! You have no idea! Weapons that you could use to carve your name on the moon, in letters tall enough to be read from on Earth! Immortality, Andie, you’ve given us lifespans as long as we want. And something particularly important to you Andie -- the end of cancer.
“In five years, no one will be dying of cancer. I wish it had come in time to save Otto, Andie, but it’s coming. Millions of mothers and daughters, fathers and sons aren’t going to lose their loved-ones to cancer anymore.”
“It’s true?” Andie asked, sounding stunned.
“It’s as certain as dozens of top scientists who’ve done nothing now for days but look over that stack of paper can be, Andie. You’ve given us not only this universe, but so many other universes that we can’t begin to understand the scale.”
Linda Walsh looked up from her reading, sounding a little distracted. “The number of universes in this reality is a fixed number, albeit a very, very large number. You did it, sweetie! You did it! From here on out, it’s all gravy!”
Andie looked at her friend and suddenly smiled. “As to the number of universes, my love, you know I never sweat the small stuff.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gina Marie was born in Texas, raised in Arizona and worked in IT consulting until she retired after the Y2K kerfluffle. Then, being footloose and fancy free, she opted to try her luck in film school. She gave that a whirl and returned to her beloved desert. Now she thinks she’s a writer. Most of her English teachers despaired, but she has finally learned where periods go, sprinkles commas profusely through her work; although semicolon usage still eludes her.