“Paul, you have accomplished the impossible in the past three days. What has been done here will change science and the world as we know it.”
“Thanks, AG, but the light just came on in my head. We forgot one of the most basic laws of physics – ‘a body in motion tends to stay in motion’!”
Paul then typed away feverishly at the AIMI console for a few minutes. “AIMI are my calculations correct?”
“Yes, they are, Paul, and I concur with your assessment.”
“Ok, AG, watch this. Standby with read-outs, AIMI.”
“Standing by, Paul.”
Paul Christian then modulated the Quantum drive from dynamic to static, no deceleration, vibration or even a bump.“Velocity at ninety percent of the speed of light and holding; power levels increasing, now at forty and climbing; all systems green.”
“Outstanding, AIMI, just outstanding!”
Paul went back to programming, and once again his fingers looked like they were racing each other. With affection, he patted AIMI and then launched off the chair and gave AG a big bear hug. “Damn, AG, we are going to pull this off, I knew it could be done!”
“I hate to sound more foolish than I already do, but what are you talking about?”
“AG, it’s so simple. As we approach Jupiter and its gravitational influence, we will be at about ninety-five percent of power. We will then channel Jupiter’s gravity through the Quantum drive. As we sling around Jupiter, we will bring the Quantum up to full power and attempt to generate a Quantum singularity as we accelerate past the speed of light - in theory.”
“I’m speechless, but I’m with you, Paul. Let’s go for it!”
“AG, we have less than ten minutes to wait to see if theory will become reality.”
“Houston, have you received the data that we transmitted?”
“Yes, we have, and everybody feels the same way. We are speechless, but with you. Good luck, Dad!”
As Paul Christian checked and rechecked his calculations, checked, and double-checked all of the Alpha systems, primary, secondary, and backup, the ship’s chronometer was counting down. It read five minutes to Jupiter gravity interface. AG had been sending additional data to NASA, who had been working around the clock with MIT, Cal Tech, and the Rand Corporation.
“As we figured, Paul, we are on our own. No one, I mean nobody, on the planet, using the most powerful computers ever built can give us any help. So, Paul, how does it feel to be the smartest man on the planet?”
“AG, remember that question that has been asked of many who preceded us?”
“What question is that, Paul?”
“You know, AG, ‘How do you feel about going up?’”
“Oh yeah, I remember. I’m going into space with a million parts all built by the lowest bidder. How do you think I feel?”
“Yes, that’s the one. You will be happy to know I did not go with the cheapest vendors.”
“Paul, the Alpha is an amazing piece of technology. I know I keep asking the same question, but how did you conceive, let alone, achieve all this?”
“AG, I’m sure you have figured out by now that I do play it pretty close to the vest. When I departed Oregon Meadows Airpark, I knew it was going to be for the space station. I also knew the capability of the Quantum drive and the Alpha; I was just not sure about my own ability to put it all together. I know I have been given a gift. I don’t know the why part of the equation, but I do know somehow that events have occurred as they should have, as they were destined to. I just don’t know why. AG, in a few minutes we will surpass the speed of light, and we will do it safely. I feel it. I can almost see it. Call it a premonition. I will stake my life on it.”
“I think you mean our lives, huh?”
Paul looked intensely into AG’s eyes, “You are correct, AG, we don’t have to do this. We can slow down, coast around Jupiter on a sub-light trajectory and still be back in Earth orbit in time for dinner. We will not attempt this unless you are completely comfortable with the plan.”
AG smiled, gave Paul Christian two thumbs up, and said, “Warp speed, Captain!”
“AG, now you have been watching too much science fiction!”
“Paul, I am with you 100%. I could not be more ready. Let’s make history - again.”
The chronometer was down to minutes before the Jupiter gravitational interface, and Jupiter was growing larger in the window. Paul had programmed all the pertinent data into the auto-navigation system. They were maintaining ninety percent of light speed, and power levels were in excess of ninety-five percent power as well. If his calculations were correct, Jupiter’s gravity would accelerate the Alpha as they entered orbit short of LaGrange. At the calculated point, Jupiter’s gravity would begin to decelerate the Alpha and bring them into orbital capture. At that precise point, they would bring the Quantum drive on-line and up to full power. What would happen next would be like a rubber band that was fully stretched being cut - theoretically speaking.
The big unknown was what would happen at critical velocity, or that point in time and space when the Alpha would accelerate to faster-than-light speed.
Would they, in fact, create a local quantum singularity around the Alpha at that transition? Would Paul be able to control it by modulating the quantum field around the ship? Playing with gravity is one thing; using it to create a quantum slipstream is quite different. What they had done so far could be considered child’s play, compared to what they were going to attempt in a few minutes. Doctorate level Quantum Theory combined with advanced Astrophysics.
Paul voiced these concerns to AG. He started laughing - not a little chuckle, but a roaring belly laugh. “Paul, your journey began with Doctorate level Quantum Theory and advanced Astrophysics that were perhaps decades ahead of current theory, not to mention technology. What we are about to do is way past that, and borders on the limits of imagination.”
“Thanks again for your vote of confidence, AG. I will do my best not to disappoint you.”
Back on Earth, the President was about to receive another briefing.
“Mr. President, they are just about to enter the planet Jupiter’s orbit. As the Alpha slingshots around Jupiter they are going to attempt to break the speed-of-light barrier.”
“Do you think they can pull it off, Bob?”
“I wish I had an answer for you, Mr. President, but there are just too many unknowns.”
“Ok, Bob. What does your gut tell you?”
“I think they will be back in earth orbit tonight, if not this afternoon.”
“If I understand you, you are saying this ship is going to traverse nearly a billion miles in a few hours?”
“Mr. President, at their current velocity of ninety percent of light speed, they will be able to do that. If they are successful, it could be just a matter of minutes, or years relative to us here on Earth, if we follow Einstein’s reasoning. We will just have to wait and see. My money is on the Alpha.”
“Approaching Jupiter gravitational interface.”
“Thank you, AIMI. I concur. At maximum velocity, I will manually put the Quantum drive on line, and bring it up maximum power.”
“Structural integrity green; life support green; Quantum drive green; navigation green; communication green, with a factor of 26 seconds out and 44.1 minutes back.”
“Thank you, AIMI.”
At the moment the chronometer counted down to zero, the Alpha began to accelerate. AIMI called out the percentage of light speed. “Ninety-one percent, ninety-two, ninety-three, ninety-four, ninety-five.”
Once again, all AG could do was watch in amazement at the incredible celestial display. The largest planet in the solar system, the gas giant Jupiter, filled the front and side windows. Several of its moons were visible, too. He broke himself away to take readings and transmit his observations.
As the Alpha r
eached maximum velocity, and a split second before Jupiter’s gravity would seek to pull the Alpha into orbit, Paul modulated the Quantum drive from static to dynamic and brought it up to full power, using that very same gravity.
At Houston, twenty-six seconds later: “We are at ninety-five percent of light speed. Quantum drive is on-line and coming up to full power. All primary and secondary systems green. Power level ninety percent and holding. Ninety percent, ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine and holding at critical velocity. All systems green.”
The AIMI display mirrored Paul’s transmission - ninety-nine percent of light speed and holding. The flight deck camera view appeared normal. Then suddenly, the view disappeared. On the adjacent NASA screen - the AIMI data link - the countdown clock was counting up, five, six, seven seconds, and the velocity read-out went to one hundred percent of light speed. Once again the room was silent; then all the screens went blank.
Steve Christian’s face had the look of concern. Burt and John looked to Steve for reassurance. All the NASA personnel stared hopefully at the now blank screens.
Then the AIMI data link came alive. Two hundred percent of light speed and still accelerating at the rate of one percent per second.
The chronometer now displayed plus three minutes and climbing. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Then the following data link message came on screen. “The Alpha is accelerating in the Quantum slipstream. We are at QS 2, or twice the speed of light, and we are going to begin a slow power reduction on the Quantum drive at QS 3.”
Once again in Houston there were cheers, tears, hugs, handshakes, and a palpable sense of relief. The other chronometer displayed an Earth ETA of twenty-nine minutes.
As Paul and AG had accelerated past the speed of light, the star field seemed to glow and elongate, almost like a tunnel vision effect.
At Quantum Slipstream 3, Paul began to reduce power to the Quantum drive. In less than a minute, he had reduced the power to less than half. In a few more seconds the quantum drive was powered down to ten percent. The Alpha was still at QS 3.“Well, AG looks like she does not want to decelerate.”
Paul continued to power-down the Quantum drive. At one percent, the Alpha started to decelerate, but just barely. His calculations were correct. As they transitioned past light speed, the Quantum field generated by the drive system created a local Quantum singularity. Since they were still moving at the speed of light, the fabric of time and space were moving at them as well, albeit in a compressed fashion.
If one were to build a giant accordion that was a mile long when fully extended, and then compressed it to fifty feet, one would still be traversing one mile of accordion when walking through the material. The Quantum field-induced singularity compressed time and space in that same way. The big unknown was time. How much time had passed as they had approached and then exceeded the speed of light? They had lost all voice communications.
“AG, since our Quantum slipstream is being maintained by the Quantum drive, I’m going to modulate the size of the field to see if that destabilizes the Quantum slipstream enough to decelerate us out of slipstream and back to sub-light velocity. I’m not sure how much residual sub-light velocity we will have, and how much deceleration inertia will come into play. I will be standing by to bring the Quantum drive back up to whatever power level is needed to counteract that inertia. Thrusters are coming on line as a back-up as well.”
Paul selected ‘Quantum Field Metrics’ from the control display. The Alpha was still traveling at just under 3 times the speed of light or QS3 - Quantum slipstream 3, as he had designated it. He wondered whether to expand the field or reduce it?
Once again he had missed the obvious. They had achieved Quantum slipstream by a drive-induced singularity, a balanced Quantum field and critical sub-light velocity enabled by Jupiter’s gravity! It did not matter! If they expanded the field or reduced it, the effect should be the same - deceleration to sub-light velocity.
“Ok, AG here goes. Standby for Quantum field reduction and hopefully, if my numbers are right, deceleration to sub-light.”
The chronometer displayed less than 15 minutes to Earth. Paul had his left hand on the control switch that would reduce the size of the Quantum field, his right hand on the Quantum drive power control, which was similar to the thrust lever on the Boeings that he flew for Universal Airlines. Of course they had multiple engines. The Alpha had only one drive system, but it was considerably faster than any propulsion system ever operated, designed, or even conceived of on the planet Earth.
The inertial damper system did its job well. As Paul reduced the Quantum field in size, the slipstream destabilized, and while Paul and AG could sense the deceleration, it was perhaps due more to the visual star field returning to normal and the Alpha’s indicators showing that same deceleration. QS2, QS1, sub-light. At fifty percent of light speed, Paul brought the Quantum drive system up to about half power. As soon as the velocity had stabilized, he brought it back to its lowest setting in the dynamic mode.
With the Alpha now at sub-light velocity, the chronometer was now showing forty-two minutes back to Earth, considering a rapid deceleration about 1 million miles from the moon, probably closer to fifty minutes from docking back at the Freedom space station.
“AG, do you know what this means?”
“Now, there’s a loaded question, Paul! Do you mean to science, to the space program, or to the human race?”
“AG, I was thinking more in terms of the Alpha and the Quantum slipstream.”
AG looked puzzled.
“While it was useful, we did not need Jupiter’s gravity. Traveling faster than the speed of light was a function of the Quantum drive-created singularity leading to slipstream. It was a function of the velocity of the Alpha, the Quantum field and critical velocity!”
AG shook his head and queried, “I don’t understand?”
“Quite simple, AG. With a stable Quantum field, and critical velocity, or about ninety percent of light speed, all we have to do is bring Quantum power levels up to full. Worst case; perhaps fire the thrusters at the same time. In simple terms, the field, the speed, and an acceleration bump. The big question now is, how much time transpired during those few minutes traveling faster than the speed of light?”
“Paul, the ship’s chronometers seem to be working fine, and in real time, my watch matches the chronometer. Despite the fact that we exceeded the speed of light, time did not appear to have changed relative to us.”
Paul then sent a message, both text and voice. “The Alpha is now at sub-light velocity, ETA Freedom - forty-six minutes. We will commence final deceleration for Earth orbit interface in thirty-six minutes at 1936 GMT.”
All indications on board Alpha and the data linked through AIMI to NASA indicated the same thing that Paul had already come to realize. The flow of time on the Alpha had been the same as the flow of time on Earth. As they had approached the speed of light, the flow of time had been constant.
Paul had programmed AIMI via the auto path for a scheduled deceleration. That program was now underway. As the chronometer counted down to 1936 GMT, the velocity of the Alpha was less than one percent of light speed, still over 100,000 miles per minute, with one million miles to go.
A few short minutes later, the Earth’s only moon was becoming quite visible. The Alpha trajectory was close enough to use the moon’s gravity to reduce velocity for Earth orbit insertion. With the Quantum drive in static, and at 50,000 miles from Earth, Paul brought the thrusters on line, with less than three minutes to Earth orbit. Just like yesterday, the transition was seamless as the Alpha was captured by the gravity of the planet Earth into its orbit. In less than five minutes they would be docking with the Earth’s first permanent space station, Freedom.
“Houston, we are in Geo-sync orbit and are preparing to dock with Freedom at 1950 GMT.”
8
Things were beginning to
quiet down a bit in Houston. Steve, Burt, and John, as well as Paul‘s mother Louise, daughter Michelle and his brother Tony were still observing intently. The over-crowded room was almost back to its typical compliment of technicians and scientists. A man dressed in a military uniform handed the NASA director a note, which then was passed on to Steve Christian.
Although he was dressed in an Air Force uniform, the man was there on behalf of the Covert Operations Group. He was in direct communication with General Bellinger.
“Alpha, Houston. Understand docking in less than five minutes. We have a couple of requests for information concerning your return to Earth. They are being sent by data link now.”
“Freedom, Alpha. We are preparing to rendezvous with you. Requesting permission to dock.”
“Alpha, Freedom. I have been tracking you and show you on target for docking in 3 minutes. Welcome back, and well done, gentlemen. Did you bring that short Russian back with you?”
“Roger that, Freedom. He’s right here, ready to come home.”
“There goes my property value.”
Commander Jim Andrews, Paul, and AG all laughed. Paul took manual control for the docking.
“Houston, the Alpha has docked with Freedom. To answer your previous data link queries, I am planning on returning tomorrow at 1700 GMT, arriving at Oregon Meadows Airpark at 1745 GMT, 1145 AM Pacific Standard Time.”
“Paul, what can I say except, thank you for the journey of a lifetime - mine or anyone else’s in history.”
“Most welcome, AG. Thank you for all your help, and your friendship. I could not have done it without you.”
“Paul, I think you would have done just fine without me, but I am most honored by your affirmation.”
Paul and AG went to work gathering the samples, data, and pictures. AG was going to take some to the Freedom; others would stay on the Alpha for its journey home in less than twenty-four hours.
“AIMI, after a full system diagnostic check, all systems to standby mode. Rebalance the Quantum core intermix values for de-orbit and atmospheric flight.”
The Alpha Premonition: Book 1: A Gathering Storm Page 11