by E. N. Abel
''We need to make a stand.''
''What do you mean?''
''Well, we have to make it absolutely clear that the anti-gravitational technology is not only a new toy for the industry or the wealthy ones, but that it's far more.''
''How do you want to go about it?''
After a moment of hesitation Mike looked up: ''As I said, we need to make a stand. Teach them a lesson - and a decisive one. Prepare Alternative Plan B-4.''
''Plan B-4 ... wait, what's ...,'' Ellie quickly scanned the huge paper sheet with the project's plan summary, hanging on the opposite wall. ''Oh my God!'' She sat up straight. As a daughter from an infamous Donegal IRA family, she wasn't unaccustomed to violence, but this ... ''No, Mike, no, you can't be serious!''
''I am. It'll cure 'em forever.''
Ellie gazed at him a few seconds, then pleaded: ''Mike, what if that goes wrong? If this swings out of control? Christ, the whole planet could be doomed!''
''Not if we keep the intervals short enough, baby, not if we keep them short enough.'' He turned towards his computer and tried to reach the keyboard, but with his girl on his lap and in his arms, he was unable to reach it.
Ellie turned, snatched his mouse and started a program, entered numbers, clicked again and leaned back against him, waiting, watching. It took nearly two minutes, then she looked up and stated: ''Thirteen nanoseconds at full blast, Mike. Absolute Max. Results in a field category four - like you wanted.''
''Good.'' Mike patted her hip. ''Let's prepare it.''
''I hope you know what you're doing!'' Ellie crossed herself. ''The Lord be with us.''
Chapter 12
Geneva/CERN
Monday, 25.10.2016
A cloud of white smoke drifted from Whitewater's cigar slowly up to the ceiling of Kaiser's office. It was illuminated by several floor and desk lamps and bathed in a warm, cosy light. There was a contemplative quietness. Both men watched the exquisite Cognac climb up in their balloon glasses, vapourising slowly and spreading its fine aroma throughout the room, mixing with the cigar's odour. The analysis of the destroyed laboratory was lying on the table, together with a photo of the culprit. Both untouched, but the men knew what the paper said, and that was not encouraging: the primary cause of the destruction cannot be determined with an acceptable degree of certainty.
''Where did the energy come from?'' Kaiser said, sounding exasperated. ''I mean, where did that tiny thing get enough juice to create such a massive implosion?''
Whitewater puffed and nodded towards the document. ''Our colleagues have no idea.''
''And you?''
''A hunch, at most.''
''So?
''That forsaken box must have inhaled the X-rays, collected and stored them somehow, then converted the whole load in one stroke to ... well, whatever. Maybe gravity, maybe something else - I don't know.'' He sighed. ''See, we know that the box was made from metal, and whatever it housed, it was densely packed. So you need a lot of X-rays to get through the encasement. The test team acted prudently by starting low and increasing the X-ray dosage step by step. Initially the screen showed nothing, so they increased the output more and more, until ...''
'' ... the box had collected enough, you mean?''
''Yes.''
''That raises the next question: how do you store X-rays?''
''To be honest, I have no bloody clue. But one thing is for sure: we can't convert X-rays to anything else but heat - not to electricity, not to kinetic energy and certainly not to gravity. As to heat: we hammered that box with massive X-ray doses, but it didn't warm up a single degree ... Ralf, the two of us are among the finest high energy physicists on the planet, and I tell you: what that little box has done is way beyond our current scientific abilities.''
''And if we can't do it ...''
''Nobody on Earth can.''
''Until now.''
''Until now,'' Whitewater agreed.
Both men fell silent again and sipped their Cognacs. After a while Whitewater spoke up again.
''You know, this little box really sticks it to us: it literally proves that gravitation can be created artificially - even by that miniature machine,'' he pointed at the report, ''and also demonstrates that we have gaping holes in our electromagnetic field theory.'' He shook his head.
''One of our most-proven theories.'' The director of CERN nodded slowly. Scratching his forehead he added: ''Makes me wonder what else these guys have in stock for us.''
Chapter 13
Geneva/CERN
Monday, 31.10.2016
Mondays.
Ralf Kaiser despised them, even more so since Monday two weeks ago, but today he didn't even have the luxury to indulge in his mood. The steering committee was expected to arrive in an hour - after that it would be in God's hands. He had to hold a conference of course, explain what had happened, at least the known facts, then the perspectives and the price demanded. In the end it would not be his decision, but that was no real comfort.
The future of Mankind in the hands of twelve men and women, all politicians at heart, of questionable background and character, placed on this prestigious institution's board for political reasons. And only one recognised capacity among them, an older female biologist nicknamed Lone Wolf and long-time board member of the British Royal Society, who fought a holy war against all kinds of impostors and who had destroyed a number of careers.
Oh well.
After the meeting he'd herd them to the new test area, where his people would be waiting. A small presentation had been prepared to give the illustrious audience a real-world demonstration of zero-gravity applications, like pushing a sixteen ton freight container with a bare hand. Or levitating a person at ten meters.
Chapter 14
Spangdahlem
Monday, 31.10.2016
''Mike, the remaining grav generator has been switched on. Energy level rising rapidly - passing five Megawatt, six, seven ...'' Ellie read the numbers off her computer screen. She looked up: ''You know, this new tracing software is simply outstanding, George's team really outdid themselves.'' She turned back. ''Now it's ten.''
''The board has arrived, baby. Kaiser has gathered his troops and is demonstrating the abilities of his new toy to his peers ... wow, look at those readings - he must have given his tech blokes access to the fusion reactor.''
''Now what?''
''We wait until their demonstration is over. Then, when they shut down the grav generator ...''
It took half an hour of waiting, until Ellie said: ''Level is falling. What now?''
''Count to ... six.''
''Bist du sicher?'' she asked in German.
''Ja, Liebes.''
One long look, then Ellie started counting.
''One.'' - Mike's fingers flew over the keyboard, then hit ENTER.
''Two.'' - A quantum transmission unit already built into Stardust's hull awoke to life.
''Three.'' - Energy levels in the transmission unit jumped to operating status.
''Four.'' - A highly compressed quantum impulse rushed out of the transmitter's antenna, reached the receiver in Geneva in zero time.
''Five.'' - The receiver in CERN's grav generator caught the quantum signal, decoded it and reacted faster than thought.
Invisible to the illustrious watchers, it kicked the generator into overload. As a result, a microscopic gravity well came into being - a deep-black dot right over the antigrav's focus above the pad. The generator gulped up electricity from its input channel at a frightening rate, transformed it on the fly to its gravitational equivalent and dumped that into the gravity well. A tiny singularity - a microscopic rip in the fabric of space-time - developed, opened, then - after a single picosecond - collapsed. As a result space bulged: a gravitational shock wave rushed outwards.
''Six.''
''Boom!'' Her friend leaned back.
Chapter 15
Geneva/CERN
Monday, 31.10.2016
The demonstration had run perfectl
y. Then, right at the moment when the chief technician tried to shut the test installation down, it happened.
The assembled board gasped collectively as a little, unbelievably dark spot appeared in the center above the test pad, about three feet above ground. Lightning fast, it changed from a black dot to something very different, dark, malicious and sinister, rendering the watching audience immobile. Then the room's orientation seemed to invert, confusing the inner sense of up and down, switching between bottoms up and bottoms down, then back again - four, five times; as if a giant's hand had grabbed a doll and twisted it upside down a few times. One heartbeat - and it was over. Everybody gasped, grabbed for support but remained frozen otherwise. Nothing happened for a few moments. Then an outcry of a single male voice ripped Kaiser out of his trance, far enough to hit the emergency stop button on the control panel. The connection from CERN's fusion reactor to the grav generator was interrupted at once and the gravity field over the pad collapsed. Everything looked like before.
Two minutes of shocked silence followed, nobody moved. Finally Kaiser turned to his chief technician: ''What the hell was that?''
The physicist - awakening from a dreamlike state - frantically started checking his scales and screens. It took him a short while, then he turned to his boss: ''I think ... I think we've been hijacked, sir ...''
''What?''
''Someone took over the control of the energy flow. There was a massive surge the last second before ... it ... happened - over five hundred Gigawatt!'' Shaking his head he continued: ''I had no idea that our power plant is able to deliver that much ...''
''And that caused ... what?''
''Looked like a gateway to hell to me ... sir.''
From the side an astrophysicist interjected: ''Excuse me Director, I might be able to offer an explanation.''
''Please continue ...''
''It was a breach in space-time. What we saw was a rip in the structure of space. Well, at least the optical equivalent of it.''
''A rip in ... but how could that happen?''
''Someone took over the controls and opened the valves, so to speak - just like the chief technician has stated.'' The astrophysicist considered his next words carefully: ''The obvious conclusion is that this generator can do far more than to manipulate the density of a gravitational field. It clearly has the ability to produce a singularity in space and open a door to ... I don't know where.''
An irritated voice shouted inquiringly: ''Singularity?''
The scientist turned to the asking board member, a woman: ''A black hole, Madam. You do know what a black hole is?''
Collective gasps sounded up: ''Oh my God!'' - ''Christ Almighty!'' - ''Fucking hell!''
''But a very tiny, very unstable one.'' Whitewater's voice easily penetrated the uproar . ''It collapsed immediately. The dot started to shrink and lose colour before the director hit the stop button - I'm positive a closer examination of our telemetric data will provide the proof of that.''
''What makes you so sure?'' another of the board members demanded angrily.
''We are still here ...'' was the laconic answer, delivered with a shrug.
Again a few moments passed, then a third board member placed the question of the day: ''What the hell does all that mean?''
This time Kaiser spoke up: ''Someone just demonstrated to us - with quite some force, I might add - that this device is far more than a convenient cargo mover. If I'm not too mistaken, we have just witnessed the dawn of a new age.''
The board, still shocked by the experience, stared at their director. When the full truth of his words hit them, their eyes went blank in fear.
Chapter 16
Spangdahlem
Monday, 31.10.2016
Ellie watched her man closely.
After a moment of consideration Mike stated: ''I think it's time for Step Three.'' Turning to his computer, he typed in a short command sequence. Text lines were scrolling rapidly on his screen: connecting to dark-star-1 ... connection established ... message transmitting ... transmission successful ... message forwarded ... disconnected. It took just a heartbeat. ''Email away ... well, Dr Kaiser, the ball's in your court again.''
A well-built woman with short auburn hair rushed through the door, startling the two. It was Maggie MacEllister, a Scottish astronomer from Marlene's team, and she was waving a standard data pad at them.
''Mike, Ellie, you wouldn't believe what has just happened. Our brand new subspace tracking system caught a grav blip, from its characteristics an artificial one - right here on Earth!''
Ellie looked knowingly at Mike, but said nothing.
Mike stayed cool: ''What, when, where, what size?''
''A gravitational singularity, just a few moments ago, about two, three minutes. The location finder is still working, but it was definitely on Earth. And the amount: the tracker classed it as cat-four: unstable micro-breach.''
Again a silent look was traded.
''What else do you know?'' Ellie asked.
Maggie viewed her data pad: ''It says here: interval time thirteen nanoseconds, energy peak around five hundred gigawatt.'' She looked up: ''God, who on Earth can provide so much power in such a short time?''
''CERN.'' Marlene had arrived, waving her own pad. ''In Geneva. They have a working fusion reactor.'' Looking at Mike she added: ''We pinned the location down to two meters.'' She paused, watched Mike casting a quick smile to Ellie, then she put her arms akimbo: ''That was you!''
Ellie laughed out loud. Looking like a doll or not - nobody ever had accused Marlene of being anyone's fool.
''Good job, ladies,'' Mike grinned. ''Such a precise result without any warning. Congrats.''
''What did you do?'' Marlene demanded angrily.
''Slipped 'em a dud, Michael did,'' Ellie said laconically in her thickest Donegal accent and laughed.
''You ... bombed them with a black hole?'' Marlene translated, unbelieving.
Maggie was a little slower understanding the exchange and squealed in horror.
''Course not,'' Mike replied, ''just put a bogey into a class-four antigrav we sent them as a bait. Dumb fucks had to fry a class-one we sent them last week - despite our warnings about X-raying. I had to send them a massive No-No.'' He looked at Maggie: ''You do know we need some antimatter, don't you?''
Maggie nodded soberly.
''Well, they have it - or can produce it - and this is the way to get it. They'll take us seriously now, ... dickheads - and be more careful with our stuff, too.''
Marlene just shook her head. ''Unbelievable. A singularity! That must have scared the shit out of them.''
''There could be casualties ...'' Maggie pointed out.
''Naaah, don't think so. What was the output of the well?'' Mike radiated a confidence he didn't really feel: who could know how stupid CERN's personnel really was? And black holes tended to be quite dangerous things by nature anyway.
Marlene and Maggie both checked their data pad, then Maggie answered: ''Oscillating shock wave of two-and-a-half graviton, for one second.''
''See, just roughed them up a bit.'' Mike concluded dryly. ''Case fucking closed.''
''God,'' Maggie sighed. ''Dropping a black hole on them, just to warn them off! I sure wouldn't want to see Mike getting seriously pissed.''
''God,'' Marlene added, imitating Maggie's tone, ''I sure wouldn't want Mike to get pissed at me.''
That caused general laughter.
Suddenly an angry male voice outside rose above the usual murmur and screamed at the top of his voice: ''Shut it the fuck off ! Fucking morons! Am I invisible or what? Didn't you tits-for-brains see me working on the scaffolding?!''
The four looked up and saw a man floating in mid-air, just above the sphere's crest, waving a spray pistol. Marlene pointed towards him: ''Hey, that's Chris, Krzysztof Kowalczyk from Structural ... so Engines has started their preliminary tests.''
'Where are they getting their energy from?'' Maggie wondered.
Ellie turned to her
: ''You hear the big diesel power generators outside? Three units. They produce about three hundred and fifty Kilowatt each. Enough for some air-surfing, not enough for the more serious stuff.''
Marlene, still watching Chris float, remarked dryly: ''Nice butt on that guy. Anyway, it looks like our own antigrav units work just fine.''
''Yep,'' Mike was clearly amused, ''just needs a little fine-tuning.'' He watched a cursing Krzysztof sinking to the floor, then turned to the others. ''How about lunch?''
Chapter 17
Geneva/CERN
Monday, 31.10.2016
The distinguished group of visitors - unhurt but badly rattled - had needed additional and more detailed explanations and, after calming down, gone through a complete medical check in CERN's campus hospital. One or two big cognacs in the scientists' club later had everyone sufficiently convinced that nobody had been contaminated, poisoned, exposed to nuclear radiation or otherwise hurt. They had come to accept that someone had scared the wits out of everybody - with an unknown hyper-technology, just to deliver a dramatic warning.
This experience had drastically changed their view of the gains and danger from the newly arrived technology, but in the end scared nobody off. Upon parting they had instructed Kaiser, director of their choosing, to investigate the incident in-depth and furthermore, to proceed at his own discretion. Their final words had mostly been hollow phrases, but the underlying message was clear: Get that technology at any costs!
While Dr Kaiser had been occupied with his guests, a quickly assembled task force of top experts had been formed. Headed by Professor Whitewater and equipped with a work order best described as find out what the hell has happened, they had already started the investigation process.