Thomas Aquinas, Explorer of the galaxy

by Rico, J. Luis

  “Entering “inside space” as it has come to be known is difficult to set up as one can imagine. Relativistic speeds. Exotic matter. Captured black holes. It is an engineering task unique in our species’ history that we have mastered this technology.”

  “Exiting “inside space” is simple enough in theory. Extend antennae outside the bubble of the normal universe containing the ship. Force the bubble to grow. Force the bubble into its own divide by zero mathematical trap. We do this with telescoping antennae that protrude kilometers from the ship and touch each other forcing the space time bubble to collapse upon itself. A Mobius strip-shaped antenna that suddenly terminates and collapses the strip is typically used. It takes a mathematical absurdity to exit the universe; it takes another to rejoin it.”

  Brother Lewis resumes the lectern. He scans his notes to ensure he hasn’t missed anything before he continues.

  “Entering inside space and exiting inside space allows us to traverse incredible distances. This is the technology that has allowed the Catholic faith to reach 1073 systems and extend the arms reach of mankind nearly 1,250 light years from the Sol system.”

  “Forcing space time fabric holes is difficult engineering and extremely difficult in practice to perfect. We have been at this for over 400 years and we continue to refine the various aspects of the engineering. Safety is increased incrementally. We recently used to lose one in seventy-three crews. In the beginning, we lost every ship.”

  “For thirty long years, we lost crew after crew after precious crew into the bowels of the black holes we harnessed without effect. Seven manned ships perished, taking with them hundreds of precious souls. Then, it worked. Not well, but it worked. We got the margins to one in nine ships lost. That was good enough to begin expanding into the spiral arm.”

  “Travel in side space is controlled by timing, entry velocity and mass. The direction is set when the ship enters the Bubble universe. The distance covered is determined using a formula. Entrance speed in fractions of C, multiplied by time, in milliseconds, multiplied by the Mass of the ship. There are some refinements to the math, including speed in and across the line of sight upon entry. These need to be known to predict where the ship will re-enter the universe. Think of it as navigation. Similar to navigation on sailing ships of old.”

  “An hour in side space at .35C will result in 16.16 light years traveled for a medium-sized interstellar ship.”

  “We can travel to the furthest reaches of humanity, 1250 light years distance in 73.5 hours in side space. Assuming a .5C entrance velocity and a one Kilometer length Pope John Paul class ship in mass.”

  “Since mass increases the distance traveled in side space, modern space ships are massive. Many incorporate hulls built of iron/nickel asteroids. Often, the ships themselves are made from solid metal asteroids. We are engineering systems that have much lower initial and entry velocities but are more massive. The sweet spot has yet to be identified. At some point, the ships will be too large and moving too slow to enter the side space universe bubble before it collapses. Perhaps someone in this class will solve the engineering puzzle to the betterment of mankind. Perhaps, Sister Jones.”

  A very young, very skinny, very dark skinned girl in the front row grins ear to ear at the mention of her name. Her tunic, scapular, and cowl adds to her bulk, but she is very clearly the smallest student in the class. Her notes cover the pages in front of her. Her short hand notes are cryptic. She is using an old fashioned wooden pencil. She is clearly very eager. She tries to hide her smile from the classroom's attention now. She is clearly uncomfortable.

  Brother Lewis has much hope for Sister Jones. She is the brightest in the class by testing and comes well recommended from the Franciscans at her primary school.

  He hopes she will flower into something truly great under the tutelage of himself and the other Professors at University. Catholic University is easily the best Engineering University in the galaxy. Brother Lewis has spent almost his entire adult life here. From his days as an undergrad and student athlete, he transferred to Catholic University for his Masters work, followed by internships and post-grad work, he has toiled in academic obscurity while he finished his first doctorate thesis, then his second, then his third.

  For twelve long years, he has gradually moved the marker of engineering knowledge forward in his own unique way. Trading access to the galaxy class resources of the University laboratories and supercomputers, in reward for teaching classes and mentoring young engineering students.

  Brother Lewis is quite probably the most capable engineering mind of his generation. His first thesis was on the specific control of frequency shifted Hawking radiation fields. Specifically, the concept of using harmonics of the higher end and lower power frequencies versus the higher power first order frequencies to contain and manipulate black hole event horizons.

  His research and proofs have resulted in a much safer Hawking propulsion methods using much smaller, lighter, and lower power hardware requirements. In fact, modern designs yet to be implemented based upon Brother Lewis’ design will reduce the length of stellar ships by 60 or more percent. There will soon be no need for a kilometers long ship. Most of that length is required for the power generation using contained black holes and hundreds of meters of carefully crafted glass bowls.

  The bowls that are used to reflect and shape Hawking radiation fields. Like virtual steerable electro mechanical beams, they shape the fields of Hawking radiation. Field after field overlapping to refine the captured black hole location. To trap it into an exact position. A position well known enough to ram the ship through a rip in the space time fabric created by the black hole when it hiccups after a near strike of exotic matter. An exact location to a hundred million decimal places.

  Brother Lewis’ harmonics research has resulted in the 75% size reduction of the glass bowls and reduced the power needed by 98%. Assembly lines in high orbit around the Earth, Mars, and several planets in nearby solar systems have been retooled to use the newer and more efficient hardware and processes. The first ships using the new technology are still a Sol system year or more away from launching, but they promise to ring in a new epoch in the age of man, as we can send more and more starships to more and more star systems, more quickly, efficiently, and much cheaper than ever before. It should result in 12-20 times the numbers of ships reaching that many more systems. It is nothing less than a miraculous advancement in the diaspora of Catholics and man into the unknown reaches of their galaxy.

  Brother Lewis begins pacing the classroom again. His tassel swinging to the timing of his steps.

  “Now we can harness quantum entanglement to communicate instantaneously. We can create space time rips or bubbles to travel dozens or hundreds of light years in mere years. Humankind has begun in earnest to populate the stars as the book of Genesis has commanded.”

  “What next?”

  Class ends abruptly to coincide with the timing of the 10 AM liturgy.

  The Catholic University combines the monastic style of early Christian monasticism with the Scholarly pursuits more common to the Franciscan order. Brother Lewis is only marginally a Franciscan himself. He and many others in the advanced physics department are, in fact, Bernardines. They style themselves in the manner of an educator of modern physics and economics, much the same as Saint Bernadine of Sienna was an educator in 16th century Italy before he became vicar-general of the Franciscan order.

  The Bernadines at Catholic University maintain a Holy wooden box of Saint Bernadine of Sienna’s possessions. One small wooden cross with a home spun twine necklace, fragments of a rough home spun robe, three feet of hemp rope, and a small tassel made of leather strips. Their tradition is rich in iconography as well. Two famous original paintings of the Saint hang in the rectory. A well-made oil and egg tempera painting thought to be made within two years of the Saint’s death and made with a copy of the Saint’s death mask. The other, an ash on wood original of unknown provenance, but dated to the correct
time period is maintained as well.

  Brother Lewis, as is often the case, is late for the liturgy. Father Mario has already begun and is reading from the Roman Missal. This morning is a typical build up liturgy. It will build upon others in the days to follow on the way to the feast of feasts of Easter in ten days’ time. Father Mario is both literal and robotic in his delivery of the oratory.

  Brother Lewis chuckles to himself that he can, and in fact often does, time father Mario’s delivery. Father Mario is consistently within 45 seconds of 40 minutes. Plus or minus 45 seconds. Never does he deviate more or less. He is predictable. Like the steady, predictable decay of a radioactive isotope.

  Brother Lewis kneels. As do the students he shares the pew row with. His bulk both visibly and audibly strains the wooden kneeler.

  All of the male students wear modern slacks and shirts. Traditional clothing. All the females wear the more traditional tunic and scapulars. On the far end of the pew Brother Lewis shares, the Abbess of the University kneels with her bony hands grasping a well-worn string of prayer beads firmly.

  Abbess Joan Van Der Nehh. This aged and powerful Nun commands the thousands of female staff and students. Those who have taken sacred vows and those who have not. The Abbess also is the most skilled Economics Professor in the galaxy and teaches several classes. The favorite of students and staff alike is the History and Economics of space flight.

  Chapter Two

  Sister Jones

  The Year 2420 George Washington Public School, Virginia, North America

  The George Washington Public School is nominally secular. It is a traditional state funded school in a normal school district. That’s where normal ends, however. For over one hundred years the school has operated under the management of a series of Catholic Bishops drawn from the Catholic American Diocese of Alexandria Virginia. No prayers or liturgy is conducted on the school grounds. The school is adjacent to the Old Town Alexandria Catholic Church of Saint Paul however. Students are encouraged to attend morning mass, afternoon liturgy and evening mass. As a practical matter, they all do, willingly. Students are encouraged to take communion, as a practical matter they all do.

  The state of Virginia and the Alexandria school district have had a century long relationship with the Catholic Church and the Bishop of Northern Virginia, to run George Washington High and a few other schools under some very firm conditions.

  One. The school will maintain a minimum curriculum equal to the State mandated one. Two. The Bishop will have oversight of a school board elected from the student’s parents and guardians. Three. The Alexandria, school district may decide to place students in the school that are deemed “Special needs” or “learning disabled.”

  As a practical matter, the school district uses George Washington and the other Catholic Church managed public schools as a relief valve to dump special needs and handicapped children on the Catholic Church to avoid financial responsibility for them. They do this to the point that the George Washington school classes are the most crowded in the state and the students are the neediest and are overwhelmingly extremely handicapped physically, mentally or emotionally.

  The mother church knows this. The mother church accepts this and embraces it.

  Bishop Louis and his talented staff of Franciscan monks and Theresienne sisters, instructors, nurses and doctors embrace the challenge that each unique handicapped student brings. Through dedicated attention and endless support and love they bring the best out of the worst and neediest. Routinely they manage to bring extreme autistic students into the mainstream and allow them to not only manage their own affairs, but they flourish and achieve greatness.

  Physically handicapped students are afforded the best and most expensive treatment and augmentation as well. This is where the school and the Church really excel. Students receive the best care possible and cost is no option. The Catholic Church is flourishing in space and monies are nearly unlimited in the material wealth of the Galaxy. The Church is spending it, in George Washington High School and millions of other schools, hospitals and orphanages Galaxy wide.

  State of the art medical and psychiatric care are available for the students. Students unable to walk due to birth defects or accident are nursed to health and either receive treatment that allows them mobility on their own or they are equipped with mobility devices. Various powered chairs and even exoskeletons that afford mobility are common. Nano technology is often used to regrow bones or strengthen them. Muscles are rebuilt or strengthened. Ligaments and tendons are replaced or regrown.

  Mentally handicapped students receive the best care and treatment from a large cadre of skilled Doctors, Phycologists, therapists and nurses. Chemical imbalances are treated medically. Damaged nerve tissues and brains are treated with the most advanced technologies. Cases previously deemed irreversible or permanently vegetative are often afforded a partial or complete recovery. Parents all over the Sol system arrange for their needy children to receive care under the auspices of the school and the many Catholic charities that the Bishop of Alexandria manages.

  George Washington is a world class educational facility as well.

  Students participate in a well-balanced, traditional educational experience heavily augmented with technology where appropriate. Teen aged students who missed out on their primary education due to physical or mental incapacity are bootstrapped into advanced subjects using RNA encoded and advanced hypniotic learning techniques. Many of these bootstrap techniques have been developed in the mother Church to aid the many colony ships and their crews. Allowing gravity well engineers to learn and master advanced techniques and technologies on other parts of the colony ship for instance. Or allowing hydroponic engineers to learn how to pilot kilometers long colony ships and master side space math. This diversity of training is needed for a small population colony ship.

  These advanced learning techniques also allow underperforming students to catch up quickly to a modern curriculum.

  Agnes Grace Jones was such a student. At age three her family were all tragically killed due to carbon dioxide build up in the family shelter. The same poisonous gas left Agnes severely mentally handicapped. Her long term institutionalism and neglect as a child left her completely socially underdeveloped and autistic. At age ten Agnes was discovered in a group home suffering horribly. Catholic missionaries were able to convince local tribal elders to allow them to transfer her from their village in Ayene, Equatorial Guinea to North America, Virginia and the care of the Catholic Church. Agnes began her rehabilitation.

  Agnes initially received treatment for the damage done to her brain tissue from the poison gas. One third of her brain mass was atrophied and isolated from the rest of the brain mass and physically damaged. Doctors induced coma in the child and over the course of three weeks used Nano bots to clean out damaged tissue and stimulate growth in the various veins and her internal brain structures. Growth factors were introduced into the patient. Damaged brain volume was quickly replaced with new tissue. The isolated brain sections were completely restored and the new pathways began to form. The new brain tissue requires “training” but it begins to add to Agnes’s mental capability quickly.

  Before Agnes is removed from her medically induced coma, RNA learning techniques are used to bootstrap her cognitive function. A complete primary school education is introduced into the patient over a course of six additional weeks. A bootstrap is typically used where it is medically necessary or a crew necessity. Traditional learning techniques are generally preferred to manufactured memory learning techniques due to the tendency to add to a patient’s anxiety, it may stress other mental conditions as well. Imagine waking from a long sleep and having access to memories that you know you did not experience firsthand. It can be traumatic to the psyche. There is also the worry of overloading the base complexity that a human mind can assimilate. Humans have been known to assimilate three or four complex RNA learning bootstraps when necessitated by extreme need. Most of the patients receiving f
ive or more end up neurotic, or worse. Many kill themselves at their first opportunity.

  Agnes is removed from her coma. Over a course of months she is gradually exposed to more and more activity and eventually to other students. Slowly she begins to assimilate the RNA learning and develops the ability to recall foreign memories and knowledge. By her twelfth birthday, she is measured at an exceptional intelligence level, but still unable to function at all socially. Her deeply rooted autistic characteristics persist and are dominant. For the next year until her thirteenth birthday the sisters and other talented staff will spend time with her continuously. From waking moment to sleeping moment she is surrounded by positive influences and constant encouragement. The staff call this “deep love and attention.” Agnes is given access to a learning terminal as well. It sits unused and ignored in her room.

  Days after her thirteenth birthday Theresienne sister Plyler uses Agnes learning terminal to play music while they interact in her room. The two take turns reading from the vast volume of Catholic encyclicals, a large paper bound book. The terminal plays various up tempo songs and Gregorian chants while they read and interact.