Colonel Law took his place at a long blue table within a
presentation room at the Developmental Aerospace Research Think-Thank. A few
other men sat along the table’s length waiting patiently for the demonstration
to begin, one of which was General Hague, an elderly officer, to whom Law was
being groomed to replace.
A tall, thin blond man was hunched over the controls of a
magna-screen embedded in the opposing wall. He made a few quick adjustments
then stretched and looked over his stern brass audience. He adjusted his suit
collar and stepped in the center of the room, hands behind his back. “Gentleman,
as some of you may know, my name is Samuel Carter. I run and oversee
experiments involving space propulsion here at DART,” the man began with a calm
steadfast visage. “We have made some interesting discoveries in the past year
that may revolutionize space flight.” He turned and gestured to the
magna-screen which adjusted its magnetic lines to collect the metal shavings
between its films, forming pictures and characters; an old photograph of a man in
his early sixties with brown parted hair materialized.
“This is Roger Penrose who studied physics a century ago.
He studied gravity in conjunction with quantum mechanics where most physicists
ignored gravity at such a small scale,” Carter explained. “We have been looking
into his ideas concerning small atomic particles, gravity and the potential
forms that these particles have. Now,” he paused, sweeping his electric blue
eyes over his audience, “Penrose believed that we all have infinite potential
duplicates exist and that gravity is what keeps all those potential states from
being in multiple places at the same time.
“Lately, we have been developing ways of creating and
nullifying gravitons on a small scale for use on our seeder ships to reduce
mass and prevent muscle atrophy in zero-g. Our experiments involving
neutralization of all gravitons on a specific object have been astounding.”
Carter turned and nodded at the screen which shifted to
show a clip of a small automated probe. It sat motionless for a few moments
until the table, air and wall behind it began to bend as though some unseen
hand was tugging at the fabric of space like putty. The probe was suddenly at
the other end of the table.
“What you have just seen is a shift, a slip, of this
probe from one place to another. We have used cameras with the highest FPS we
have and slowed the recording to a rate where we can view the passage of light,
and the slip still appears instantaneous.” He turned back to his audience many
of whom wore frowns and stroked their chins; military types were often not up
to speed on their physics, something Law did his best to try to verse himself, moderately
at least.
Carter summarized, “We have discovered a means of
faster-than-light travel. In fact, speed is not even a factor, we have
discovered instantaneous travel.”
The men at the table shifted in their seats, many wide-eyed.
Law blinked and his hard face compounded the stress lines across his forehead
as he considered the possibilities.
“How is this possible?” Carter continued. “What we have
done is remove the restraints on time and space. By doing so, we can access the
potential state of anything from a person to a seeder ship. We can unlock that
potential, bring it into reality and leap across the stars. Imagine the looks
on the crews of the seeder ships already sent to Grindious-C when they arrive
finding the planet already colonized and awaiting their arrival. We can spread
across the cosmos with no restrictions on speed!”
Carter smiled watching the generals and admirals muttering
to one another of possible applications.
General Hague spoke up, “How close is this experiment to
implementation?”
“With your approval, we can send a probe to Grindious-C.
If successful, I see no reason to begin sending men,” Carter answered.
There was a barrage of questions: How much funding would
be needed, then manpower, materials and equipment? Then Law raised his gritty
yet monotone voice, “What happened to the first probe in that video?”
Carter blinked not quite expecting the question. He
calculated something in his mind and answered, “In order to maintain balance in
the universe, if something is added, something must be taken away, just like an
electron temporarily borrowing energy, or virtual particles blipping in and out
of existence. As the potential probe is brought into existence, it must be
replaced with the original.”
“What happens to the original?”
“The potential and the original are fundamentally the
exact same thing, just in a different position. The probe is potentially at
Gridious-C, we just make that potential reality, by doing so, we make the
reality of the probe here on Earth only a potential.”
Other questions interrupted Laws’ further inquires. He
sat and watched as Carter received all the support he would need to make human
colonies in space a reality.
* * *
Perry’s head jerked to the side and his cheek sizzled
with heat as the palm of his partner, Helen cracked through the air.
“Ouch!”
She blurted a barrage of angry opinions in his face so
quickly, he barely realized what she was saying. He managed to catch that he
was too engrossed in silly ideas, didn’t stay in reality and talked too much
attention to his projects at the labs, although, in a less polite manner. She
stormed out of the restaurant pulling up her coat and holding her chin high as
she departed.
Perry was glad that she hadn’t decided to throw food at
him, like last time. He sighed and nodded apologies to other patrons sitting
around him.
He knew how this would play out, he would go home apologize,
get a second ear-full, sleep on the couch and be forced into an entire weekend
of shopping for useless knick-knacks at expensive designer stores. And he knew
full well who was going to pay for everything.
He looked down at his meal and decided to finish before
paying the check. No point in wasting good food, not with all the starving
people on Earth.
He hated how Helen flaunted their money; her obsession
with interior design was so wasteful. The money could easily go to the starving
masses living right here in the city, but she had to keep up with her rich
friends. Perry wondered why he was with her, but knew he feared being alone.
He finished up his meal, stayed for another drink, trying
to build up the nerve to go home, and finally paid the bill. He walked out into
the street trying not to catch the eyes of a beggar sitting huddled on top of a
sewage vent, warmed by the rising heat from the decaying refuse below.
Earth’s population had swelled in the last hundred years;
unemployment was atrocious, famine among the lower class was common place and
there was little hope for the future. The underclass of humanity’s only hope
was to be boarded onto seeder ships and seek out a new world. The project had
been popular last century, but the populace had become bored with the idea, plus
those vessels wouldn’t reach their destination for another two hundred years; anyone
who ventured would be put into deep freeze until arrival and awake on a new
world, all the while knowing that everything and everyone they cherished on
Earth would be long since dead and gone. Perry knew that the time scale
involved was why no one wanted to go anymore; better to die with loved ones than
leave without hope of ever seeing them again.
Perry rounded the corner of the restaurant to where his
car had been parked and remembered that Helen had taken the keys. He was in for
a long walk home.
On his way, Perry let his mind wonder to his work at the
DART facilities north of the city where he typically did work on hibernation
systems for seeder ships. The idea was to make them habitable for the long
journeys so people didn’t have to sleep for hundreds of years, but the idea was
controversial since several life spans would pass between lift off and arrival.
But lately, he had been peeking through the archives and found some compelling
notes, now twenty-five years old, detailing the experiments of a Doctor Carter.
That was what had angered Helen in the restaurant; Perry had been rambling
nervously about a meeting with a top military executive concerning the
implications of those notes.
He wished Helen would understand the potential here. If
he could reopen experimentation, it could solve many of Earth’s problems.
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