Kepler was actually reminded of an ancient horror movie. Everything seemed so surreal. Beings that looked like them but lived in a gravastar? His head was spinning.
“So, plainly and concisely, please. What are you made of, and where are you from?” he asked.
“We’re made of dark matter,” replied Z. “And we traveled here inside the gravastar from the Virgo Supercluster, across the galactic bridge.”
“Fled is more like it,” said K.
“From whom?” asked Zhenyi.
“From the flood, of course.”
Kepler moved his telescopic thighs up and down. He’d asked for a short break. During the break he’d been leaning against the wall with his optical system deactivated. A thousand thoughts were racing through his head. He had no idea which one he should devote himself to first.
His fingertips tingled. That must be Zhenyi. He started up the data transfer.
“What do you think?” she asked via the secret channel.
“I’m afraid they might be telling the truth. No one could invent something like that.”
“That’s true. And if we keep questioning them, there’s sure to be more.”
“Should we maybe leave it?”
“No, dearest, it’s too late now. Come on, we’ll listen to the rest of this insane story.”
Zhenyi pulled on his hand. He restarted the optical system and followed her.
“So, the flood,” said Zhenyi. “What do you mean by that?”
“You must be aware that the universe is expanding,” said K.
“Sure, that’s the greatest problem of humanity.”
“Not just humanity. The universe is producing dark energy faster and faster, which drives space apart. Normal matter, which you’re made of, has already become very rare. Dark energy doesn’t distribute itself randomly or accidentally, but according to potentials. Like rain. If it rains for a long time, first the lakes and ponds fill up, and then the fields get flooded, starting with the low-lying ones. Our people don’t just live on dark energy, we’re made of it.”
“Then it must be getting better for you,” said Zhenyi.
“You’re seventy percent water. But you still prefer where you live to be dry.”
“True again.”
“Your home galaxy has the good fortune of lying somewhat out of the way of the main flow. And for a very long time, a large proportion of the newly generated dark energy has been flowing into the nearby Sculptor void. But that’s pretty much full now. It looks like the highlands are now under threat. The Local Group, where the Milky Way is located, is connected via the galactic bridge to the Virgo Cluster, a powerful source of dark energy. And now it’s coming across the bridge—which has turned into a canal—in a powerful flood toward the Milky Way.”
“That’s probably bad for you,” said Zhenyi, “but is it our problem?”
“Dark energy, might I remind you, is responsible for the expansion of the universe. The distances in the Milky Way will increase dramatically. The gravitational effects, which depend on proximity, will be weakened. At some point, the core of the galaxy will no longer be able to hold onto its stars. So, life in a solar system wouldn’t end immediately, but you’d all suddenly become very alone. And then comes the moment when the expansion of the universe is felt on the most micro level. First chemical bonds will break, then atomic nuclei, and finally the structure of elementary particles. But you won’t be around to experience that.”
“That’s in the cards for us anyway,” said Kepler.
“Some time trillions of years in the future, yes,” said K, “but not a few million.”
“If you’re asking for our help, then there must be something that can be done about it,” said Zhenyi.
“There is,” said K. “The dark matter has dug itself a kind of canal along the galactic bridge. If we destroy that, the torrent will flow in a different direction. The Milky Way will be saved. We’ll survive, and you’ll live longer.”
“You’re explaining that in such simple terms that there must be a catch.”
“There certainly is, Zhenyi. To destroy the canal, we’d need a couple of gigantic jets that we can aim directly at it. Your Gigadyson is the perfect weapon. If we damage it at the right places and at the right moment, we would be able to direct its jet quite effectively.”
“We’re supposed to destroy the structure that humanity is so proud of, and that would provide us with energy for billions of cycles,” Kepler confirmed.
“Correct,” said K. “And not only that. We need all of the quasar’s energy. Afterward it will only be a shadow of itself.”
“Do we have to decide right away, or will you give us ten minutes?” asked Zhenyi.
K gave a wry smile. Yes, his Zhenyi was just like that, too. Kepler laid a hand on his shoulder and K threw him a grateful glance.
“We can give you until tomorrow, I think.”
Cycle IC 5.3, unknown location
Kepler took Zhenyi’s hand, but she pulled it away.
“It doesn’t matter if they hear us,” she said. “We’re going to tell them our decision afterward anyway. If we’re going to help, then there has to be an end to the secrets between us.”
“Sure,” said Kepler. “And what do you think of their suggestion?”
“It’s so insane that it couldn’t have been invented.”
“So it must true?”
“That’s my gut feeling, and it’s usually right.”
“Remember it’s ourselves that we’re dealing with here. They know us. They know that if the story is unbelievable enough we’ll swallow it.”
“That’s true, too. It was very clever, producing those copies of us. And now?”
“We need a better basis for our decision. The fact that the story is insane isn’t enough.”
“There aren’t any obvious holes in it,” said Zhenyi. “We haven’t discovered any gravastars, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And we’ve known for a long time that dark energy and the expansion of the cosmos are real.”
“The day before yesterday, when everyone was still asleep, I measured the gravitational lensing effect of this alleged gravastar. The result was different from what you’d expect from a black hole. A gravastar didn’t occur to me, but it fits.”
“We could request another experiment,” Zhenyi suggested. “If a probe got close to the object, it would demonstrate different behavior near a gravastar than it would close to a black hole.”
Kepler had an idea. A fantastic idea that would go down in history. “Can I be the probe?”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to observe such an exotic object close up. I am an astronomer, after all.”
“I’m an astronomer too, but... it sounds far too dangerous to me. I don’t want to lose you because of something so stupid.”
“It’s not dangerous, it’s simple celestial mechanics. As long as I’m fast enough, the object can’t be dangerous to me. And there’s no event horizon around the shell for me to disappear behind.”
“But if you touch the shell, you’ll become part of the star, irretrievably.”
“I don’t need to touch it.”
“Please, Johannes, let’s just send a normal probe.”
“We’ll ask our kidnappers. If they think it’s dangerous too, then I’ll drop it.”
“Fine... If you must.”
Ha, he’d persuaded her! K, or rather the being that shared a biological body with a copy of his consciousness, would surely be on his side. How did that feel for K, having more than one consciousness in his head? Did he sometimes hear voices? Did his limbs move involuntarily? Like in the interior of the sphere, when his own legs no longer paid any heed to him and he was moved back into the shaft. Or the time before that, when he had lost all hope of being rescued, and some force had brought him back. He’d never seen anything. Had it been the beings made of dark energy, the ones they were now dealing with?
�
��Zhenyi, there’s something else that would tell us whether they’re speaking the truth.”
“Yeah?”
“Remember what happened in the interior of the sphere? Something rescued me. You all thought I had imagined it.”
“It still could be your imagination.”
“Believe me, I didn’t imagine drifting continuously further away from the inner surface. And then came this gentle force, as though someone was holding a soft cushion against my back.”
“Why would they rescue you?”
“Come on, there are loads of reasons to rescue me.”
“Of course, darling. Maybe because they already knew they’d need us.”
“But what do they need us for?”
“That’s a good question, one we should definitely ask them.”
“I thought of another question.”
“Then spit it out, Kepler.”
“I for one would like to see who we’re really dealing with. Not their disguise, but the beings themselves. They’re only the second form of intelligent non-human life we’ve come across.”
“You want to do what?”
K seemed completely unable to grasp the crazy idea they’d come up with. That he, Kepler, had come up with, but K didn’t know that, because Zhenyi was the one stating the conditions under which they’d cooperate. K looked uncertainly at Z.
“Can we allow that?” he asked.
“I don’t see any problem with it. What could go wrong?” Z mused.
“Yeah, what could go wrong with a speck of dust skimming over the skin of a giant?”
“If Kepler doesn’t come back, we’ll still have Zhenyi. That should be sufficient.”
Z was speaking remarkably candidly today. Did that mean he was expendable? She obviously didn’t have a very high opinion of him. And she was an exact reproduction of his girlfriend. Did that mean anything? No. Zhenyi had already said to him that she didn’t want to lose him. Could it be that feelings for another person were not so easy to copy?
“I accept the risk,” said Kepler with measured composure. “And Zhenyi will stay here, so it’s no risk to you.”
“Agreed,” said K. “Is that it, then?”
“No,” said Zhenyi. “We want to see you in your true form. That’s the only way to build trust. We don’t even know what you call yourselves. And we want to know exactly why you need us. It seems you’ve gotten along fine on your own so far.”
“That’s an easy question to answer,” said K. “The end is approaching must faster than we could have anticipated. We need your help in manipulating the Gigadyson.”
“But robots could have done that,” said Zhenyi.
“Please let me finish. It’s about the vast distances. The destruction of the Gigadyson has to be triggered at just the right moment, so that the eruption is effectively targeted at the dark energy and destroys it. It’s not easy to calculate that moment. We need a simulator that can calculate in just a few days, using up-to-date data, the point in time at which we need to implement the final manipulation. We don’t possess such a powerful computer. We’d need months for that.”
“If we could use the Terra computer... We’d have to convince one of the superintelligences there, one of the seven Arbiters,” Kepler suggested.
“That won’t work. Your old home planet is several thousand light-years away. The data would reach us far too late.”
“What about the Herbae?” asked Kepler.
“I don’t think they’re that far along yet,” said Zhenyi, “and Newton’s system is too far away.”
“Then we’ll have to bring one of the Arbiters here,” said Kepler. “Is there time for that?”
“Yes,” said K. “What’s important is that there aren’t more than a couple of days between the input and output of data. We have to work with the freshest data possible.”
“But no Arbiter has ever left the Earth,” said Zhenyi. “That’s part of the deal humanity made with them.”
“Maybe you could convince them, given the imminent fate of humanity,” said K.
“Probably not. That wouldn’t interest them,” said Kepler. “But it is an enormously interesting problem. I can’t think of a more interesting one. That might entice them.”
“Then could you make that journey, while Zhenyi assists us with the last of our preparations?” asked Z. Now she was putting her trust in him after all.
“Yes, as soon as I’m back from my flight around your gravastar,” Kepler replied.
“And after you’ve shown us your true form,” added Zhenyi.
“Then we should take a walk on the outer hull of the spaceship,” said K. “It would be too much effort in here.”
Kepler lifted his head. The blackness all around him was oppressive. Why didn’t he feel as free as he usually did when he went for a stroll in space? It must be the influence of the Gigadyson. They were still near it, and the light of the stars behind it was blocked by the immense structure. It made the cosmos seem strangely empty.
It could have been a vision of the future. If dark energy were to fill up the Milky Way, most stars would no longer be visible to the naked eye. Then maybe it would be time to live in a robot body permanently. The technology allowed him to observe the sky under powerful magnification, which would make the stars appear to return. On the other hand, he already missed Zhenyi’s touch on his skin. When would they be able to share a bed again?
“Kepler?” Zhenyi was calling him on the radio.
He turned around but couldn’t find her.
“I’m here, by the mast.”
Ah, he hadn’t noticed her metallic body against the struts of the radio mast. “And where are the others?” he asked.
“I doubt we can see them.”
“We’re behind you,” he heard K’s voice say.
Kepler turned around, and so did Zhenyi. There was nothing there. Then he felt pressure in the pit of his stomach. “Something is pushing me backward,” he said over the radio.
“That’s me,” replied a voice that sounded like his own.
“I can feel it too,” said Zhenyi.
“That’s me you can feel,” said Z.
“Does that mean you’re giving me a hug right now, or how should I interpret it?”
“No, my center of gravity is about two meters away from you. But I don’t have a clearly defined shape. If I relax, I can expand out to several light-years.”
“So you’re exerting yourself right now?”
“I am. Dark energy has a repellent effect. I have to pull myself together, literally, to occur as an individual like you. But the more I concentrate, the greater the effect I can have on a small scale. When I pushed Kepler back into the shaft that time, it almost cost me my life.”
“Oh, that was you! Then I have you to thank,” said Kepler.
“You’re welcome,” said Zhenyi’s voice. “That’s why we need your bodies. I’m envious of how easy it is for you to be physically defined objects.”
“We can’t help it, we’re just lucky our molecules are chemically bonded to each other,” Kepler said, sounding almost apologetic.
“You said you nearly died...?” asked Zhenyi.
“Yes. The rescue action cost me so much of my strength that I had to spend a long time recovering afterward. On the other hand, if I disperse myself too much in space, I could dissipate. Then I’d dissolve into the background noise of the dark energy.”
“Is that why the imminent flood is so dangerous to you?”
“Correct. The higher the overall level of dark energy, the more difficult it is for us to remain ourselves.”
It is insane what the universe came up with, thought Kepler. These strangers were like living sugar cubes that dissolved in too much liquid.
“So, is it just as exhausting for you to be inside the spaceship?” asked Zhenyi.
“That’s twice as exhausting. I have to really condense myself to fit through the doors, and if my strength was drained, I could even explode the ship. The
chemical bonds of its fundamental structure would break down if the space between the molecules expanded too much.”
These strangers obviously weren’t very compatible with normal, baryonic matter. Humanity was fortunate that they hadn’t arrived as enemies. They could tear apart anything that came close to them—spaceships, humans... even planets.
“Then why didn’t you just explode the Gigadyson by breaking down its walls?” asked Kepler.
“Exploding your structure wouldn’t be enough,” said K. “The energy has to flow in the right direction. But our technique, as you’ve seen for yourselves, functions in a similar way. Except that we’re only removing a meter from the surface.”
“Don’t you need an enormous amount of space if you both want to relax?” asked Zhenyi.
“Two don’t need any more space than one. We share the space,” replied her own voice.
“You permeate each other. How romantic.”
“It doesn’t feel like that. Other individuals appear to me as part of the cosmic background. I can only recognize them when they make themselves known.”
“And how do you communicate?”
“Using gravitational waves. They’re generated when I change the concentration of my body rapidly. Every form of energy, including dark energy, has a mass equivalent. Your theory of relativity is also valid in our realm. And when masses move, they create gravitational waves.”
“Then wouldn’t the movement of dark energy create negative gravity?” asked Zhenyi.
“There’s no such thing as negative gravity,” explained K. “The force that you’re feeling appears repellent to you, because the space in front of you is expanding. The distance between two bodies increases, and in your world, that looks like one body is repelling the other. But it’s not. Dark energy also has an attractive gravitational effect. It’s just that the effect of the expansion of space is much more obvious.”
“I always hated astrophysics,” said Zhenyi. “Astronomy is much clearer.”
“On the other hand, I love astrophysics,” said Kepler. “But, you said you communicate via gravitational waves—shouldn’t we be able to measure that?”
The Death of the Universe: Ghost Kingdom: Hard Science Fiction (Big Rip Book 2) Page 17