“He’s already been doing it!” Kate cut in, “But I think it’s worse than we imagine.”
“How can this shit get any worse?”
Kate looked at her squarely.
“Barnes has already paved the way for people to leave the Node… even called it a free choice. How hard do you think it will be to change a free choice into a collective exile?”
Cassidy had no words to counter Kate’s reasoning. There was no way to alert Danny, yet the deadline loomed. Cassidy felt a sense of determination reassert itself.
“We got two days before the Field changes,” Cassidy rose to her feet, “We have to find out what the hell we’re dealing with. I’ll talk to Trevor Pike -”
“Not Pike,” Kate interrupted, “Ask Marshall instead.”
“OK,” Cassidy turned to leave.
“Wait,” Kate called her back.
Cassidy could see that Kate was feeling awkward about something.
“Sorry… I should have thought,” Cassidy moved her chair aside and reached for Kate’s crutches, “Let me help.”
“It’s not that,” Kate’s awkward expression hadn’t changed, “I need to ask something of you.”
“Sure, what do you need?”
Although staring directly at her, Kate appeared lost in thought. A few seconds later, she seemed to regain focus.
“Cassidy, what I’m about to ask of you,” Kate’s eye-contact intensified, “It may be the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do.”
•
Cassidy entered the balcony area overlooking the Observation Deck just in time to see Gail Armstrong on her way out; a broad smile lighting up her face.
“Volatiles!” she beamed and swept past her.
“Er, totally,” Cassidy replied, then spotted Marshall Redings at a workstation, “Marshall, you got a sec?”
He nodded and waved her over. As she walked towards his workstation, he sat slightly more upright in his chair and she got the impression that he was trying to casually straighten the front of his baggy T-shirt.
“So, Gail seems happy,” she began.
Marshall smiled and glanced back towards the door.
“Oh, yeah… she’s finding out all sorts of fascinating stuff. The spectrograph plot…” he stopped himself mid-flow and shook his head, “Sorry… How can I help?”
“I feel kinda stupid for asking,” she lowered her voice, “I’m supposed to ‘liaise’ with everyone and update the Council. But people keep asking me stuff and… well… I don’t know the answers.”
“OK, about anything in particular?”
“Well, yeah. You know about the Field an’ shit, right? Sorry. Language Cassy,” she slapped herself lightly on the wrist, “I mean -”
“It’s fine,” he put her at ease, “What do you want to know?”
“Two days from now, when people leave, how does it, well… happen?”
“No problem,” Marshall smiled.
“Great. Phew!” Cassidy smiled for the first time since entering the room.
“Well basically,” Marshall began, “using the information we got from Doug Walker’s DRB slates we updated the Whitney-Graustein topology transform. When the time comes, we’ll instruct the Field topology to begin collapsing, but when the radius reaches the preset distance, we reactivate the Eversion point and establish a new Chronomagnetic Field with a smaller radius.”
Cassidy burst out laughing.
“Talk about sci-gasm!” she stifled her laugh, “Sorry, Marshall, but that was a mouthful. Can we do it again, but use smaller words?”
Marshall seemed flustered but then started laughing too.
“I guess I don’t get out much!”
“Me neither,” Cassidy tapped on the wall, “I’m getting coffee, you want one?”
“OK, thanks,” he left the workstation behind and followed her to the drinks dispenser on the nearby bench, “So, what’s the mood like out there?”
Cassidy set two cups on the bench and sighed.
“About what you’d expect really. Tense. Everybody’s watching their backs since… you know…”
“Yeah…”
Cassidy inserted the first cup into the dispenser and pushed the button. The machine began to click and bubble.
“The other day I saw something,” she said as the cup began to fill, “People have started wearing their Biomags under their clothes.”
“Makes sense,” Marshall nodded, “No-one can grab it off you…”
“I still wear mine around my neck,” she pointed to the Biomag hanging across her low-cut top, “Sends a clear message. You know? I’m not afraid?”
“I hadn’t thought of it like that,” he stared at her Biomag.
The machine clicked and she placed the steaming cup into his hands.
“I still can’t believe Beck’s gone,” she pushed the second cup into the dispenser, “I mean, such an uptight ass, but no-one should have to go out like that.”
“Bloody Novaphile,” Marshall added the casual-sounding curse word, “Exile’s too good for him.”
She hesitated for a moment, wondering what form her words would take as she spoke them, then pushed the button to begin filling her own cup.
“I think President Barnes makes a good point though,” she stared at the cup as the black liquid slowly replaced the air inside it, “We can’t keep on killing each other.”
“Well… I mean, yes, of course,” Marshall seemed to backpedal a little.
“And he’s not forcing anyone to stay,” she continued, “anyone can decide to leave. I think he’ll be a great leader.”
The machine clicked; its work was done.
She pulled her full cup from the dispenser and turned to Marshall.
“You’re staying, right?”
“You kidding?” Marshall raised his eyebrows, “We get to see the future! Of course I’m staying! You?”
“Looks like the two of us will be doing this together,” she raised her cup and bumped it into his, “The sooner we get started the better! Now, you were gonna explain how the Field stuff works…”
They took their coffees to the balcony overlooking the Observation Deck and sat down. The wall of seawater vibrating against the Field was now only a few inches high. In a few places, jabbing out from the surface of the water, were pieces of rusted steel; echoes of former buildings. The most permanent feature now was tangled in the remains of the old bridge; a driftwood tree that appeared to shiver in the receding water. The general consensus was that by the thirtieth day, the water would have departed, allowing the exiles to walk away from the Node on dry land.
“So, the people who choose to leave… They’ll be out there,” Cassidy pointed to the space beyond the observation window, “When the Field collapses, won’t it pass right through them.”
“That’s not a problem though, is it?” he said rhetorically, “The Biomags protect us from temporal shear during start up and shut down anyway.”
“How stupid am I?” Cassidy let out a small laugh, “Of course! But wouldn’t it be easier, to just stop the Node? You know, stop the vehicle, instead of jumping off it?”
“Ha!” Marshall laughed, “It doesn’t work quite like that, there’s no momentum change going on when the Field shrinks. It’ll be exactly like a start-up event, a bit of nausea maybe, but that’ll be it. Besides, keeping the Field active has certain advantages.”
“Like what?” Cassidy sipped at her coffee.
“Establishing the Field takes a lot of energy, but maintaining it is more efficient. If we don’t have to restart…”
“We save energy?”
“You got it,” he nodded, “Now, if we’re reading Doug’s solution correctly, although the radius will only shrink by about twelve metres, the volume of the transported sphere of matter will drop by half.”
“That can’t be right,” she frowned, “The Field’s… massive…”
“I know, seems wrong doesn’t it?” he agreed, “But that’s the math. It’s ‘cos of the
R-cubed factor.”
“Wow,” she shook her head but then looked puzzled, “Although…”
“What?”
“No, it’s probably just a dumb question.”
“No, go on,” he insisted, “What is it?”
“OK… If we shrink the Field,” she hesitated, “Wouldn’t that mean the Node has less air?”
“That’s not a dumb question at all,” he leaned forward, “and believe me, I’ve heard a few!”
“Well that’s a relief!” she laughed.
“The Node’s a sealed unit. We’re using a Sabatier reactor to…” Marshall stopped and rephrased, “we’re already carrying oxygen with us. But sandwiched between the Node and the Field, there’s tonnes of additional air. So, yes, we lose some air, but essentially it was just brought along for the ride in case we needed it.”
“OK, Marshall,” Cassidy smiled and brushed a stray pink hair out of her eyes, “The next time someone asks me what will happen in a few days, let me check if I’m getting this right.”
“Yep,” Marshall watched her over the rim of his cup.
“Those who want to leave, go out through the airlock, with their Biomags on, and wait in the area outside the Observation Deck. They don’t need any special oxygen masks?”
“Nope, the air out there’s only a month old!”
“OK, so they wait out there. The Field does the whole shrink thing, and then they’re back in normal time again.”
“In a nutshell,” he nodded.
“Certainly feels like it at times!” she looked at the Node’s walls, “At least we got the window…”
“Yep,” he looked out at the almost subliminal thunder storms, “the view out there’s gonna get a whole lot wilder.”
“Why?” she drank the rest of her coffee.
“Because of the…” he raised his eyebrows and couldn’t help smiling. He leaned closer and lowered his tone, clearly excited at a prospect, “We’re about to halve the transported volume of the Field, right?”
“Yes,” she frowned again.
“If we halve the volume,” said Marshall, “but still use the same available power, the equations rebalance.”
When she didn’t react, he tried a new approach.
“Our temporal gradient doubles,” he grinned, “We’re talking about a ratio of twenty-four hundred to one. Our journey takes half as long.”
She puckered her lips and whistled.
“Even after a month, we’ve not quite covered a century,” Marshall shook his head and pointed down at the Observation Deck’s clock, “At twenty-four hundred to one, we’d have covered that time in two weeks!”
Cassidy looked at the right-hand side of the display.
The date outside the Field read: ‘09APR2107’.
2107
9th April 2107
The ISS, enveloped by a Chronomagnetic Field, made its way back through the inner solar system.
Using multiple external cameras, Fai watched as the asteroid belt’s rocky band swept underneath the ISS and receded. She knew they would not encounter Mars during their return as it was diametric to their current position, on the opposite side of the Sun. She found it unfortunate that neither the outbound or inbound journeys had encompassed the opportunity to study it, but the route she’d calculated had been based around preserving the ISS.
Earth now loomed into view, its size noticeably increasing with each second. The faster passing of time outside the Field made a blur of its rotation. Continents, clouds and oceans existed only as coloured streaks rapidly circling the sphere.
She disengaged the 2400:1 Field surrounding the ISS, bringing to an end 14 days and 92 years of travel. The spinning-top Earth snapped back into its sedate rotation and its size appeared to become suddenly constant again. Her priority now was ensuring that she was caught by its gravity.
Referencing her original low-velocity orbital mechanics, she discovered that her trajectory had suffered a little drift. She traced the discrepancy back to their transit past Jupiter. Priming the conventional reaction thrusters, she compensated for the error and then placed the ISS into a new orbit.
She attempted to make contact with the orbital recording buoy she’d machine fabricated back in 2015. However, it gave no response; the buoy was either damaged or no longer in Earth orbit. Evidently the chaotic collisions surrounding the Siva impact event had been more violent than she’d expected. Fortunately, her other fabricator project was performing significantly better.
Using the three fabricators aboard the ISS, Fai had created a fourth.
With an inherent eye for detail, Fai’s design improvements had resulted in a mobile fabricator with greater specifications than its predecessors. ‘Number4’ had reconfigurable modularity, greater manufacturing precision and a manipulator arm for conducting physical work in the vacuum outside the ISS.
Originally the deployment of Number4 would have waited until the crew had completed their solar system round trip. However, when events near Jupiter had required her to revive some of the crew, she had taken advantage of the situation and sought Cathy’s assistance. Doing something that Fai could not achieve, she had called upon Cathy to use her human hands to clip together the three pieces comprising Number4.
Fai could see it was still working in the space between I.A.3 and I.A.4. The airlock itself was too badly damaged to repair but Number4 was recycling the material and using it to strengthen the gap in the otherwise intact Ring.
“I never thought I’d see it again,” Cathy was talking to her.
Cathy had been the last to re-enter hibernation following the Jupiter event but, true to her word, Fai had revived her again as soon as the Sabatier system was repaired and able to support life. Checking which microphone Cathy’s voice was coming from, she determined that she was in the cupola module overlooking Earth.
“You were aware of the trajectory discrepancy?” Fai replied and began preparing a set of questions that would ascertain how Cathy could be aware of a trajectory correction that had only just happened.
“What?” came Cathy’s voice.
“You thought that our trajectory would fail to intersect with Earth orbit?”
“No, Fai,” she heard Cathy’s short laugh, “Er… how can I explain it… Given the events that have happened, I thought it was unlikely that I’d survive to see this view again.”
“I see,” Fai realised, “It was an expression of compound low probability.”
“Something like that,” she replied, “What discrepancy were you talking about?”
“Our trajectory was altered during our passing of Jupiter.”
“I’m just looking at that now,” said Cathy.
Fai sent a query to the cupola monitor and determined that Cathy was again watching the video recording of the same period. From the time-stamp position within the file, she could tell she was studying the moments before Miles Benton had been expelled from the Ring airlock.
“At last count, you have reviewed this file seventy-two times.”
“I know what you’re getting at. Not enough sleep?”
“Yes, Cathy.”
“Yeah, well the hibernation unit still gives me nightmares.”
Fai knew she was referring to the metathene-induced, guided audio stimulation that she’d used to ensure the FLC crew’s compliance aboard the ISS.
“The nightmares persist because you have spent insufficient time within the unit for me to reverse the effects of the Pittman-Wild protocol. Mike and Lana show excellent progress. The reversal -”
“Your bastard father screwed with my mind,” Cathy explained again, “I think any residual loyalty I might have for him is pretty much reversed already. Can we just drop it? You didn’t know any better… I’ll be fine.”
She heard Cathy sigh and detected that she’d resumed playback.
Before their departure, Dr. Chen would spend large amounts of time watching the Earth through the cupola window. In contrast, after a brief inspection of her home planet,
Cathy had resumed watching a video clip. It was obviously important to her.
Fai loaded the whole video into memory, tracked the various forms that appeared within it and correlated the timings to her own event logs. She allowed several minutes to pass then spoke to her.
“My apologies for the interruption, Cathy, but what are you hoping to see?”
“Have you seen…” she stopped and apparently rephrased her question, “I don’t know how you’d even interpret the, er, visual information, but have you analysed this footage, Fai?”
“Yes, Cathy,” she replied.
From the video time-code, Fai could tell that Cathy had just watched the airlock blow out.
“I know this makes absolutely no sense, but every time I see this part, I find myself desperately trying to recall what Miles said about Valery. About how he knew that she’d killed Charles.”
“A contextual search has found only one reference to your stated parameters,” Fai accurately responded, “Location, Module Beta. Miles Benton states ‘I approached the problem from a human perspective’, does this answer your question, Cathy?”
Cathy snorted a short laugh, “I guess you’d need a human perspective to see why that’s funny.”
The video looped and she heard Cathy speak again.
“It’s bugging me that I’m missing something massive.”
Fai referenced the current video frame.
“Cathy, the item with the most mass is the gas giant, Jupiter. It is just entering the upper right of frame.”
“Most mass…” Cathy snorted a short laugh, “Human perspective or not, Fai, I’ve got to adm…”
To Fai, it always seemed odd that human speech patterns were so frequently interrupted by the arrival of a specific thought. Evidently Cathy had suddenly thought of something tangential but relevant.
“I’ve been looking at this all wrong…” Cathy seemed pleased with the fact there was a deficiency in her own analysis, “Or rather, I should have been looking at the most massive thing from a human perspective.”
“Please can you provide additional data to help me understand, Cathy?”
“I don’t think it’d do any good just yet. Have you begun reviving everyone?”
“No, Cathy. Number4 has just reported its completion of the repairs and I am still restoring oxygen levels within the Ring. The earliest possible time that I could begin reviving the remaining crew would be in twelve minutes and forty-one seconds.”
Boundary (Field Book 3) Page 31