Quantum

by Tom Grace

  ‘Very funny, Max. You wanted that omelette burned, right?’

  ‘Something smells good,’ Dawson said appreciatively.

  ‘Hit the showers, guys. I’ll have my world-famous one-handed Mexican omelettes ready in five minutes.’

  Both Dawson and Gates snagged a slice of bacon before heading off to clean up.

  Kelsey glanced over at Nolan’s table and saw five places set. ‘Who else is dining with you and the guys?’

  ‘My dad and Lara Avvakum, the physicist I brought back from Moscow. She bunked down in one of my dad’s spare bedrooms last night. He called just before you arrived, and they should be over in a few minutes. You eat yet?’

  ‘I had a bagel before I drove over. You don’t have to make me anything, I’ll just steal some of your omelette.’

  ‘Fair enough, you can squeeze another chair in next to mine. Is Elli over at my grandparents’?’

  ‘Yes, they’re finalizing arrangements for the memorial service tomorrow. After all these years, she can finally lay Johann to rest knowing that he always loved her.’

  ‘I’ll bet that means more to her than the truth about what he did during the war, or even his notebooks.’

  ‘It does. Speaking of the notebooks, your father negotiated a deal on Elli’s behalf with the university. She’s granted MARC development rights to the intellectual property, and the notebooks themselves will eventually go to the library.’

  ‘What did my dad get for Elli in return?’

  ‘MARC paid her a nominal amount, one dollar, for the development rights.’

  ‘A buck? You’re kidding.’

  ‘No. Elli isn’t rich, but she has enough to live out the rest of her life in comfort, so she’s not interested in money. She wanted something else.’

  ‘What, then?’

  ‘A building. If Wolff’s notebooks turn out to be as valuable as we think they are, then the university stands to make a lot of money through the patents it’ll hold jointly with MARC. If that happens, then the university is to erect a new physics building and name it in Wolff’s honor.’

  Following their late-morning breakfast, Sean Kilkenny and Lara volunteered to clear the dishes as Nolan and Kelsey walked Dawson and Gates out to their waiting cab.

  ‘It’s a shame you guys can’t stick around longer,’ Nolan said.

  ‘That would be fun, but if Max and I don’t report back in, we’ll be listed as AWOL.’

  ‘Can the navy really do that to an admiral?’ Kelsey asked.

  ‘It’s not the navy we’re worried about,’ Gates answered. ‘It’s our wives.’

  ‘Yeah, well, be sure to give Marcy and Julia my best.’

  ‘Will do, Nolan.’

  ‘And guys’ – Nolan’s voice tightened with emotion –‘thanks for everything.’

  ‘Not necessary, Nolan,’ Dawson replied, ‘but you’re welcome.’

  ‘Anytime,’ Gates said as he clasped Kilkenny’s hand in his bearlike paw.

  Kelsey gave both the admiral and the chief a warm embrace, knowing she owed them her life.

  As the cab disappeared down the long gravel drive, Avvakum and Nolan’s father emerged from the barn.

  ‘Thanks for breakfast, Nolan,’ Sean said. ‘Now, I think it’s time you introduced Dr Avvakum to Ted Sandstrom.’

  On their way to the hospital, they stopped by the MARC building, where Nolan retrieved the latest output from Grin’s decoding program. Most of the first notebook was now deciphered, and Avvakum devoured each page as if it were a well-written novel.

  ‘Hi, Kelsey,’ Sandstrom said excitedly when she entered his room. ‘Nolan, how’s the shoulder?’

  ‘Fine, Ted. It just went pop. We’ve brought along someone I’d like you to meet.’ Nolan stepped away from the door. ‘Come on in, Lara.’

  Avvakum entered the sterile room nervously, her eyes aimed at the floor.

  ‘Ted, I’d like to introduce Dr Lara Avvakum, formerly of the Russian Academy of Sciences.’

  ‘Doctor,’ Sandstrom said, ‘pardon me if I don’t rise, but it is truly a pleasure to finally meet you.’

  Avvakum smiled slightly and looked up at Sandstrom. She didn’t flinch when she saw his injuries.

  ‘I don’t know what to say,’ Avvakum bubbled.

  ‘Well, I do,’ Sandstrom replied. ‘I understand that you sent Nolan the message that helped him recover my research.’

  ‘Da.’

  Sandstrom stared directly into her eyes. ‘Lara, in a sense you’ve saved my life. Thank you.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’

  ‘I understand you’ve had a chance to review my work?’ Sandstrom asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Avvakum replied.

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I think it’s beautiful. Your work has taken you to the very threshold of creation; I could envision the delicate balance of order and chaos.’

  ‘You see it the way I do,’ Sandstrom said, pleased that he’d found a kindred spirit.

  ‘Lara,’ Kelsey spoke, ‘why don’t you show him what we picked up at MARC.’

  Avvakum pulled out a thin sheaf of papers from her shoulder bag and handed them to Sandstrom. He studied the pages for a moment, baffled, then looked up at his visitors.

  ‘Are these from Wolff’s notebooks?’

  ‘Yes,’ Kilkenny replied. ‘We’re in the process of decrypting them.’

  ‘It looks like they’re in German. How soon before we can get a translation?’

  Kilkenny leaned up against the windowsill. ‘It’s funny you should ask that. Not only is Dr Avvakum a very competent scientist with a strong interest in quantum physics, she also happens to be multilingual. Two of the foreign languages in her repertoire are German and English. While you’re recuperating, MARC has hired Lara to translate the notebooks. She will, of course, pay you regular visits to report on what she’s learned. If those first few pages are any indication of what’s in the rest of the notebooks, you’re both in for some very interesting reading. Once you’re ready to restart your lab, I think you’ll find Lara to be a very capable collaborator.’

  Sandstrom looked at Kilkenny dubiously, knowing full well that he was being railroaded. Avvakum picked up on it immediately.

  ‘Dr Sandstrom, I know how important it is to have the right people working in your lab. All I ask is that you give me a chance to prove my worth to you. After studying your research notes, I want to work on this project more than anything else in the world.’

  ‘While she’s here, you might as well give her a shot,’ Nolan said.

  Sandstrom nodded, disappointed at his momentary bout of selfishness. ‘You’re absolutely right. I can’t do this alone; I’m going to need good help. You’re on the team, Lara. Heck, you and I are the team. So, from now on, call me Ted.’

  ‘Wonderful,’ Avvakum replied. ‘Would you like to know what is in the first notebook?’

  ‘Yes!’ Sandstrom said excitedly, handing her back the files.

  ‘I skimmed through them on our way over to see you. You are, of course, familiar with Maldacena’s work on M theory?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘I believe Wolff was pursuing a similar approach, and in the first notebook he’s developed it quite extensively.’

  ‘What do you mean by extensively?’

  ‘I think his approach may successfully unify the four primary forces of nature.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Kelsey asked.

  ‘A workable theory of everything,’ Sandstrom said slowly, his mind staggering with the possibility that someone could attain the physicist’s version of nirvana.

  ‘That’s what I am seeing in here,’ Avvakum said. ‘We won’t know if he actually put it all together and made it work until the rest of the notebooks are decoded, but what I see of his approach so far is absolutely brilliant. If Wolff’s theory works, he’ll be hailed as one of the greatest minds of all time.’

  70

  DEXTER, MICHIGAN

  August 4

  O
n an unusually cool, clear summer morning, Elli Vital wept quietly as Reverend Bothe of the Dexter Lutheran Church said a final prayer. In addition to Johann Wolff’s fiancée and the family of his friend Martin Kilkenny, the President of the University of Michigan and several members of the Department of Physics were present to pay their respects. Photographers and video crews kept a polite distance from the gravesite, their long telephoto lenses allowing them to get their pictures of the slain physicist’s memorial service.

  Bothe closed his prayer book and walked around to where Elli sat with Martin and Audrey Kilkenny. ‘Ms Vital, I just wanted to express my deepest sympathies to you.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Elli replied softly.

  Martin drew Bothe aside. ‘Reverend, you did a fine job. I appreciate your doing this for us, even though none of us are in your flock.’

  ‘When Father Walsh called and explained that Johann Wolff was a Lutheran, well, how could I refuse?’

  ‘Walsh’s right. You’re a good man, for a Lutheran.’

  Bothe laughed, and pumped Martin’s hand warmly, then walked back toward his car.

  ‘Nolan,’ Elli called out. ‘Could you give me a hand?’

  ‘Sure. I’ve still got one good one left.’

  Elli stood and slipped her left arm through Nolan’s right, bracing her elbow in his.

  ‘Kelsey, you don’t mind if I steal him away for a moment? I need to have a word with him.’

  ‘Just as long as you return him.’

  Elli led Nolan up to the headstone, where she paused for a moment. The marker bore both her name and Wolff’s. When death finally came for her, this was where she wanted to be laid to rest.

  ‘It’s a strange thing to see your own name on a grave marker,’ she said. ‘But reassuring, in a way.’

  They walked past a few more rows of headstones until they were well out of earshot of the small group of people milling around Wolff’s grave. Elli pulled her arm free and turned to face Nolan.

  ‘I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done for me, and for Johann.’

  ‘I’m just glad that both you and my grandparents lived to learn the truth.’

  ‘It is a comfort.’ Elli sighed, then held up her left hand. ‘On the night before he was murdered, Johann proposed to me and gave me this ring. It was a symbol of his promise to love me always. As you know, Johann and I never married. Now I am an old woman. This is an engagement ring, and nothing would please me more than to see it used for its intended purpose. Unfortunately, I have no children of my own to pass it on to. Kelsey and I went through quite an ordeal together, one that I was uncertain we would survive. I would like her to have this ring – I believe she would appreciate it on many levels – but it’s a gentleman’s place to offer such a gift.’

  Elli carefully slipped the ring from her finger and offered it to Nolan.

  Nolan eyed the gold band carefully. ‘Do you think Johann would mind?’

  ‘If your heart, your mind, and your soul support the promise of that ring, then I know he would be pleased.’

  Following dinner at Martin and Audrey’s house, Nolan and Kelsey took a walk down by the small spring-fed lake. The evening sky burned with an orange-red glow, and the lake’s surface mirrored the unearthly blaze. They walked side by side, each with an arm wrapped around the other’s back.

  ‘You know, Kelsey, I’ve been thinking about something.’

  ‘Yes,’ she said coyly.

  ‘When you and Elli were taken hostage, your kidnappers sent me a video clip to show that you both were unharmed.’

  ‘I remember,’ she replied, not at all sure where this was leading.

  ‘In that clip, I saw that you were wearing what I assumed was Elli’s ring.’ ‘I was hoping you’d notice.’

  ‘I knew you were trying to send me a message. Actually, you sent two.’

  ‘Two? What message did you get besides the obvious ‘I’ve got Elli’s ring, please get us out of here’ message?’

  ‘This one.’

  Nolan pulled away from Kelsey and turned to face her.

  ‘Kelsey, will you marry me?’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  Nolan pulled the ring Elli had given him from his pocket and held it in his fingertips. Kelsey held out her left hand, and he carefully slipped the band onto her ring finger. Then he wrapped his hand around hers.

  ‘When I saw this ring on your finger and thought about the very real possibility that I might lose you, I knew that when I got you back, I would ask you to marry me. I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?’

  Kelsey drew close and gently pressed her lips to his. She then withdrew, but only an inch.

  ‘Yes.’

  A Note to the Reader

  Johann Wolff’s vision of tiny, one-dimensional loops – filaments whose vibrations and oscillations define both matter and energy – is not the product of my imagination. String theory is a very real scientific frontier, one being explored by a handful of physicists in search of a better way to describe how the universe works. I am not ashamed to admit to possessing only a layman’s understanding of string theory. Fewer than a thousand scientists have waded into the depths of this young theory to explore its mysteries, and what they’ve found so far is both frighteningly complex and extraordinarily beautiful.

  To understand string theory, you need a little background. Isaac Newton observed apples falling and planets orbiting and set out to write a mathematical description of these actions. He didn’t have a clue how gravity worked, but he realized that it always worked the same way. The rules of gravity were too much for the math of Newton’s day, so he developed new techniques and laid the foundations for modern calculus.

  Newton’s description worked just fine until the 1800s, when scientists working with electricity and magnetism, both of which move very fast, discovered some problems. This troubling situation festered until the early 1900s, when Albert Einstein wrote a better theory of how gravity worked. In Einstein’s description, time could go fast or slow, the curved space of the universe was expanding, and energy and matter were intimately connected (E=mc2).

  Einstein’s description (general relativity) works very well for studying the big stuff: stars, galaxies, black holes, and the entire universe itself. Where it’s not so useful is where things get really small, deep inside the atom.

  Split an atom and you’ll find it’s made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Smashing these particles yields a collection of quarks, muons, and neutrinos. The rules for how these particles interact, forming what we experience as matter and energy, were painstakingly revealed by many physicists during the twentieth century. Collectively, these rules are known as quantum mechanics.

  Nearly all of the predictions made by general relativity and quantum mechanics have been proven with startling accuracy. The breakneck pace of technological advances during the past fifty years is, in part, a testament to the value of these two theories. There’s just one problem: as they are currently written, general relativity and quantum mechanics don’t mesh.

  In Hollywood, when movie moguls find a problem with the script, they call for a rewrite. The same is true in physics. String theory is a rewrite that seamlessly incorporates the rules of the big stuff and the small in a way that changes our understanding of how the universe works. And like the two systems it hopes to replace, string theory reveals some unexpected surprises.

  One facet of string theory that seems really out there is the idea that we live in an eleven-dimensional universe. We are accustomed to four dimensions: height, width, depth, and time. The rest of these dimensions are bundled in tightly with the strings, invisible to us yet the very cornerstone of everything. It is in these coiled dimensions that we may finally learn how the universe really works.

  Like Newton, the physicists pursuing string theory are pushing mathematics in new directions. Solving problems with three or four variables is tough enough for most of us – eleven variables is downri
ght frightening. Exploring the unknown has never been easy.

  In the next few decades, I am certain that several Nobel Prizes in physics and mathematics will be awarded for work tied to string theory. And once we develop a better understanding of how the universe works, the engineers will come in and begin applying this knowledge in new and innovative ways. For better or worse, discovery and exploitation go hand in hand – and that’s what Quantum is really all about.

  Tom Grace

  Read on for an exclusive extract of Tom Grace’s new novel Polar Quest, coming in Autumn 2010

  1

  JANUARY 22

  Tucson, Arizona

  The Ice Queen – a sexy Nordic blonde with pouty lips and ice blue eyes – gazed down at Kuhn. Her lusty smile and the mink bikini that barely contained her physical charms were warm reminders of his past. Like a Vargas pinup girl, she sat atop a globe that displayed her frozen domain: Antarctica.

  Kuhn ran his hand over the aircraft’s smooth aluminum skin, paying his respects. The patches on Kuhn’s weathered aviator jacket matched those on the aircraft: US NAVY VXE-6 SQUADRON. Beneath the side cockpit window, just above the rendered image of the Ice Queen, stenciled letters read:

  CDR GREGORY KUHN

  COMMANDING OFFICER

  For almost a quarter century, Kuhn had piloted XD-10, the Ice Queen. She was a Lockheed LC-130R, a variant of the venerable C-130 Hercules transport equipped with skis mounted to her fuselage so she could land on ice.

  As ungainly as she looked, the Hercules could actually fly and was designed to do one thing: lift heavy loads. Except for the cockpit, the fuselage of the Ice Queen was a cavern of empty space big enough to accommodate several large trucks. Ninety-eight feet in length, she sat low to the ground, like a cylindrical railroad car with a ramp in her tapered tail that folded down like a drawbridge. Her wings spanned 132 feet, and the Ice Queen used every inch of her lifting surface and every ounce of power from the four Allison T56 prop engines to propel her into the sky.