AMP Armageddon

by Stephen Arseneault

  I laughed. “OK, got it, no flopping!”

  For the next hour, I pushed the test jig to its limits. The power cell had little difficulty providing the needs of every move I commanded. When the test had ended, Frig gave the go-ahead for an install. I removed the current cell and pushed the new nanoreactor into the receptacle. My leg restarted with a jerk.

  I spoke. “Whoa, what was that? It never did that before.”

  Frig replied, “Perhaps the original power cell has a slow ramp-up time. This reactor would be online near-instantaneously. Stand, walk, and flex the leg. I will tap into its diagnostics to look over its performance metrics.”

  I stood, hopped, kicked my leg out, and walked around for several minutes. After a short investigation, Frig turned, giving me a thumbs-up. Power cell nanoreactors would be constructed for my remaining arms and leg.

  I spoke. “These power packs on our waists—how do they function?”

  Frig replied, “They are themselves picoreactors. They are the reason I believed the cesium reactor design to be completely scalable.”

  I nodded. “Interesting. Thousand-year-old Human technology for another win!”

  The remainder of our flight to the Tadpole galaxy was spent with Frig studying the sodium skin while I continued my interrogation of Quan. His answers continued to come at a faster pace. As we entered the space of the Tadpole, each response was returned within thirty seconds or less.

  Chapter 5

  I spoke. “Quan, how do you track a ship that has its sodium skin active?”

  Frig looked over at me. “Excellent question, Sir!”

  Quan replied, “A sodium-skinned ship or individual may be tracked by one of two methods. The first is by the discovery of the black hole drive device that propels it. A black hole is easily detected as a void of any signal. When under way, a vehicle or individual must be propelled by an external force, that being the BHD.

  “The second method is sensor detection. All sensors, passive included, either emit a signal or allow signal leakage from inside a craft or suit. With proper design and shielding, these signals can be minimized, making them an unreliable marker.”

  I turned to Frig. “We are going to have to sniff out the Duke’s complex. There won’t be a BHD to detect.”

  Frig replied, “The physical properties of the sodium skin are fascinating. It seems the Humans, your ancestors, not only experimented with stopping the electron spin but also attempted reversing that spin. They believed that a partial or full reversal placed the atom in question in another dimension. They dropped their experiments when they were unable to bring the atom back into their own plane of existence. Fascinating, Sir.”

  An alert sounded on Frig’s console as the Swift came to a stop. “Sir, we are in the Thyris star system. Each of the parameters provided by Quan matches the surrounding area.”

  I replied, “What do we do now? We think the complex is here, but we can’t detect it, or don’t really know how. And, even if we do determine that it is here, we have no way to get aboard.”

  I threw my hands in the air. “Quan, is there any known way to disable the active skin or somehow get beyond it from outside?”

  Quan replied, “The active skin can be overwhelmed by interaction with a high energy or mass, if in sufficient quantity to overload the ability of the active skin to absorb said energy or mass.”

  I turned to Frig. “Well, there we go. We just have to hurtle a planet at the complex, and we are golden.”

  Frig pursed his lips as he thought. “I do recall reading of the use of gravity waves by a species that fought with the early Humans. They were able to move entire planets into preferred orbits for the purpose of terraforming them. That may not be a bad idea, Sir.”

  I shook my head. “Even if we could build a ship with a large enough gravity wave generator, it would take us a year to put a planet on a collision course with the complex. And, we don’t want to destroy the complex until we have had a chance to see if we can locate our people.”

  Frig turned back to his holo-display to continue his study of the sodium skin.

  I spoke. “Quan, what galaxy were you created in?”

  Quan replied, “My creators originated in this galaxy.”

  I leaned back on the bench by the table. “There must be other sentient species in this galaxy. Who are they, and where would we find them if we wanted to find them?”

  Quan again replied, “The Tadpole galaxy only has low-order species remaining. All others have been exterminated during conduction of the War of Wars. One thousand nine hundred eighty-two species have been lost in battle against one another. Two hundred twelve moved on to the trimming galaxy, and twenty-six into the War of Wars. The Tadpole galaxy claims eight supreme champions, the most of the origin galaxies.”

  I crossed my arms. “So, the Duke and the others squandered their local resources and then expanded to other galaxies for new species?”

  Quan replied, “That statement is correct.”

  I continued, “How long has the Milky Way been in this game?”

  Quan replied, “The Milky Way galaxy was added in the last agreed-upon expansion by the participants, seventy-eight thousand years ago. Humans are the sixth species to be moved from the Milky Way to the Triangulum during that time.”

  I spoke. “Quan, what is the energy level needed… no, skip that. What could be used to overwhelm the sodium skin of the complex without destroying it?”

  Several minutes passed before Quan replied. “In an attempt to secure the complex from attacks by others, this subject was studied extensively. Any object striking the active skin, and overwhelming it, would then continue its forward momentum, thereby destroying the complex. For the active skin to be overwhelmed without inertial destruction, a pulling force would have to be applied.”

  I tilted my head slightly. “A pulling force? You mean like gravity? If we moved a planet close to the complex, would that be enough gravity to overwhelm the active skin?”

  Quan replied, “The active skin’s ability to absorb energy and matter has a linear relation to the power available to the active skin. In the case of the complex, the gravity from thirty-seven standard solar masses, placed at a distance of one kilometer, would be required to place the active skin into saturation.”

  I was startled by a grab to my arm by Frig. “Quan, what diameter would a black hole need to be to create the gravitational pull equivalent to thirty-seven standard solar masses?”

  Quan replied, “A black hole of approximately forty-seven centimeters would provide sufficient gravity to overwhelm the active skin of the complex.”

  Frig smiled. “I know where we can find a black hole, Sir. The supernova remnant will have one at its center.”

  I held up my hand. “Well, that’s nice, but what are we supposed to do with it? We can’t control a black hole. We don’t even know how they are controlled on our BHDs!”

  Frig turned to Quan. “Quan, a species the Humans battled had a weapon that encapsulated a black hole of approximately a meter in diameter.”

  I grabbed Frig’s arm. “The planet killer?”

  Frig continued, “Quan, do you have the designs required to replicate that weapon for a black hole of fifty centimeters in diameter?”

  Quan replied, “The Frekkin gravity weapon made use of gravity containment plates, arranged in a structure that allowed the steering and concentration of the gravitational pull provided by the black hole. The designs for this weapon are intact in my memory. If desired, reconstruction of the proper neural pathways for its full access will take three hours, twelve minutes.”

  I spoke. “Recall that design, Quan!”

  I turned to Frig. “Now we just have to figure out how to build a containment complex.”

  Frig returned to his chair. “I will search the surrounding systems for resources, Sir. We will have to begin with an army of bots to perform the work.”

  Frig made several swipes on his holo-display. Twelve seconds later, we were in t
he vicinity of the supernova. An evaluation of the black hole at its center showed an approximate diameter of eight centimeters.

  I spoke. “Great. Why is it always one roadblock after another?”

  Frig replied, “I believe that may be of sufficient size, Sir. The containment structure will allow us to focus the gravity of the black hole in a single direction. That should provide us with a more-than-adequate force.”

  After locating a nearby planet and setting up shop, we began to build our army of bots. Bots begot replicators, which begot more bots. Eighteen days after we began, our army of bots surpassed four thousand in number. By the twenty-second day, that number was sixteen thousand and growing. The following day, a simple transport ship was constructed for the purpose of moving the containment structure parts into orbit for assembly. On the twenty-eighth day, the first pieces of the structure were joined together with an ion plasma weld in high orbit above us.

  I spoke. “One thing I keep wondering. Why hasn’t the Duke sent ships out to kill us? He has to know that we are here. How could he not be aware of it?”

  Frig replied, “The Duke is ego driven. Perhaps he doesn’t fear us. He may view the complex as invulnerable. He doesn’t know that we have his core in our possession. He probably can’t imagine a scenario where we would be able to penetrate the complex. We may still not be able to, even after our efforts here.

  “It is very possible that we will not be successful in our attempt to contain that black hole. We may also find that our attempts to control it falter, or that the gravitational effect it creates is insufficient to overwhelm the active skin when applied.”

  I laughed. “There you go again, spreading the sunshine! Maybe it’s time you started having positive thoughts about all this.”

  Frig replied, “Perhaps if I wished for a magic hat, as Admiral Chaulk suggested that Admiral Zimmerman do—is that the positive thinking that you are suggesting, Sir?”

  I again laughed. “No. But that was funny! I can still see Zimmerman’s face. That Chaulk is so deadpan. I miss those guys.”

  On the forty-second day, the containment structure was receiving the final components as suggested in Quan’s design. A complete inner and outer sodium skin would allow the structure to be moved into position, in two separate pieces, around the black hole. The containment plates would be brought online and the inner skin turned off. In that instant, we would learn whether or not our attempts were for naught.

  Frig spoke. “I am powering up the structure BHD. The journey back to the supernova will take approximately three hours. Positioning will require another hour after that, at which point we can attempt containment.”

  The hours passed quickly.

  I crossed my arms as I leaned back in my chair. “I can’t believe we are about to try to capture a black hole. That tells me that with the technologies we now have, there is almost nothing that would be impossible. Excluding magic or fantasy things, of course. And I have to wonder what we might do with these technologies should we fully understand them.”

  Frig replied, “How do you mean, Sir?”

  I turned in his direction to speak. “Well, there are no flying, fire-breathing dragons and there are no magic wands, but what physical things might be possible if we were to have a full understanding of black holes, or apparent other dimensions? How small do quantum particles and their interactions go? We barely know anything about those things other than how to make use of them in some way. Heck, we don’t even have a full understanding of gravity! We sure make use of it, though.”

  Frig continued his work at positioning the structure. “Hmm. I find it interesting that you would contemplate such things, Sir. That is not the Don Grange of old.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, but the Don Grange of old didn’t have countless hours to sit around and think. He was too busy trying to save his ass.”

  Frig stopped for a moment to look in my direction. “I seem to remember many Messenger flights where the Don Grange of old spent thousands of hours playing a game called Bollox. I will have to say that I find your new intellectual curiosity refreshing.”

  I replied, “OK, well, you be refreshed, then.”

  Frig spoke. “Sir, the structure is in place. I am powering up the containment plates now.”

  I pulled the image of the structure up on my holo-display. “So, we get this thing operational. How will we know if we have contacted the active skin of the complex? And if we overwhelm that skin, how do we keep from ripping the complex apart?”

  Frig smiled. “Both excellent questions, Sir. I theorize that we will know when the gravity beam of the weapon has interacted with the sodium skin because a pitch-black sphere should appear. A single point of bright light should show from the point of contact as the intense gravity pulls all the light currently absorbed by the skin into that one point and back towards the containment structure.”

  I shook my head. “Hmm. I actually understood what you were saying there. All forms of energy and light that are moving around inside that active skin will be drawn to the point of contact by the gravity beam. Let’s hope your theory holds. Now, how do we keep from obliterating that complex with the beam when that skin shuts off?”

  Frig replied, “The containment structure allows control of the gravity beam with any level from none all the way to all that is available. I will first conduct a sweep at 5 percent. If that doesn’t yield results, I will increase the level by 5 percent again.

  “Once we are certain we have discovered the complex, I will attempt a glancing beam at slightly higher levels for short bursts until we have the desired result.”

  I nodded. “Sounds reasonable. Let’s get this fired up.”

  When the containment plating reached maximum saturation, the inner active skin was disabled. The plates were immediately pulled in the direction of the black hole, but the design of the great machine kept them firmly in place.

  Frig spoke. “Containment is online and holding, Sir. I will initiate a beam with a two-degree spread. If we miss our target, we do not want this beam to travel further on and cause destruction elsewhere.”

  The initial test was successful by all our available methods of test. A sweep of the Thyris system did not return results. The beam concentration level was moved to 10 percent and another sweep performed. On our eighth attempt, a tiny beam of light shone in our direction.

  Frig spoke. “Adjusting to 45 percent, Sir. There! You can just make out the spherical shape against the background! The complex is real, and it is in the Thyris system!”

  At 50 percent concentration, the complex became a pitch-black orb with a single spot of brilliant light shining directly back towards the containment structure. After pinpointing the exact edge of the sphere, Frig adjusted the beam spread to a single degree. The light beam emanating from the black orb spread out as a rainbow of colors from the perpendicular point of contact with the active skin.

  At one-half-degree beam spread, Frig began to increase the gravity level concentration while changing the continuity to extremely short bursts. At 80 percent, we were rewarded with a flash as the active skin shut down and the silvery-white sodium exterior of the Duke’s complex came into view.

  I shook my head. “I just don’t know what to say. I never would have believed we could have concocted such a scheme to get ourselves in there. In fact, I think I’m a little overwhelmed myself right now.”

  Frig replied, “Well, Sir. You had better get yourself together. You now have to go into that complex and then locate our people without the Duke killing you.”

  I sighed. “Hmm. I can always count on you to bring me back to reality, can’t I. OK, well, take us up to it so I can get aboard before he gets that skin back online.”

  Frig pulled up the wormhole generator controls on his holo-display. “No need for that, Sir. I can open a portal from our hold into that complex. You only need to step through. I will continue our efforts from here until such time as you signal that you require a pickup.”

  I
replied, “And if the Duke gets the active skin back online?”

  Frig smiled. “Then it will be to your benefit to shut it down from inside, Sir. You will not be able to signal me that you have the location, and I cannot open a wormhole for your exit with that skin being active.”

  I shook my head as I pulled on my helmet. “You just continue to be full of good news.”

  I turned back to Quan. “Quan, what can I expect as far as trouble once I am on that complex? Are there any soldiers? Colossun androids? Ion cannons on every hall? What should I be prepared for?”

  Quan replied, “There are one million hardened androids aboard the complex. Until such time as you create a disturbance, you should be able to move about undetected with your BHD. If any interaction occurs, the androids and the sensors in and around the complex will be directed towards your elimination. As I stated, there has never been an incursion at the complex.”

  Several seconds later, a portal opened two meters behind me in the Swift’s hold. I blinked out and powered through.

  Chapter 6

  I emerged in a vast chamber. Great support beams ran the full kilometer from what would be considered the ceiling, the outer wall, down to the floor, the inner wall. Every few kilometers, a large rectangular structure poked up from the floor. I powered towards the first structure and set down on its roof. A single conduit rose up from the center of the structure and intersected a much smaller building that was attached to the ceiling.

  I spoke. “Frig, are you seeing this?”

  Frig replied, “I am, Sir. I would believe the larger structure to be a power converter for the smaller one. Allow your gloved hand to drift into the conduit. I would like to know the power that is being transferred between those buildings.”

  After poking my hand through the conduit wall, I transferred the data to Frig. “You should have it. These buildings appear to be spaced about one kilometer apart. And they go on for as far as the eye can see. It’s hard to fathom the size of this place from out there at a distance.”