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Slateman was mad. Here he had just given Dr. Dreyer a contract to study their problem, and now he finds that Dreyer was talking to the press. Well, he would fix that. If Dreyer wanted the support of the Space Force for his research, he would have to get a top-secret clearance, and that would put an end to talking with the press.
Mark was surprised to find a Colonel Mitchell in his office when he finished class. The man could barely fit in the small chair in front of Mark's desk. Mark felt cramped with the man in the office.
After introducing himself, the colonel said, “Dr. Dreyer, as a condition of granting you a research budget, we need you to obtain a top-secret clearance and abide by all the requirements and restrictions of such a clearance.”
“Can you tell me those requirements and restrictions, Colonel?”
The colonel explained the requirements to Mark.
“You mean I cannot publish or even discuss the research I will be doing?”
“Not exactly, Dr. Dreyer; you will be able to publish any findings that clear the security guidelines as determined by my office.”
“Your office then will have complete say about what I publish while I'm working on this project?”
“That is correct, Dr. Dreyer.”
“Publication is more than about establishing priority, Colonel; it's also about establishing the science. One paper supports other papers.”
“Yes Dr. Dreyer, we understand that, and we will try not to restrict you except when we determine that it is a case of national security. After all, you are working for the national interest.”
“Okay Colonel, let me think it over, and I will let you know. Thank you for your time.”
“We hope to be able to work with you, Dr. Dreyer,” said the colonel, rising and leaving.
A few days later the colonel was in General Slateman's office.
“He turned us down?” asked the general.
“That's right, sir, he doesn't think he can work under such secrecy,” said the colonel.
“So much for patriotism,” said the general. “Well, there are other scientists who are willing and able to do the job.”
“Yes sir,” said the colonel.
Two months later, Leonard Post's editor called him into his office.
“Sit down Leo,” he said. “I just got off the phone with the publisher. He's going to bow to Universal Space
Lines and print a retraction; he wants you to write it.”
“Me? I'm supposed to call myself a liar in public. Are you crazy?”
When his editor said nothing, Leonard continued, “Never.”
“That's your final answer?” asked the editor.
“Yeah, it is,” said Post.
“Okay, then I've been instructed to ask for your resignation,” said the editor.
Seeing that Post was about to explode again, he continued, “Or I will fire you.”
“Okay Cliff, fire me,” said Leonard, getting up and walking out.
Lieutenant Spinrad had been working on the spin-two drive since the meeting with the captain, and he was getting nowhere.
“I don't know Truman,” said Lieutenant Beigan, “this space is just too different.”
“But the spin-two drive is fundamentally a wormhole drive, and that works off the Mach effect, Moshe,”
said Spinrad.
“Yes, so since the Mach effect accounts for the inertia of masses, the fundamental question is why is inertia different in the bulk?” said Beigan.
“Well, we know that there are no natural masses in the bulk,” said Spinrad.
“And the Mach effect argues that the inertia of an object is caused by all the other masses in the universe, what Ernst Mach called the universal mass,” said Beigan.
“So, it's impossible to get the spin-two drive working in this space,” said Spinrad.
“As we were taught at the academy,” said Beigan.
“Still, the captain's not going to like it,” said Spinrad. “What else can we do?”
“The only space drive that will work in the bulk is the boundary drive,” said Beigan.
“But it failed; that's how we ended up trapped here, the spacetime void ruptured,” said Spinrad.
“Yes, I agree,” said Beigan. “And no one has ever dropped a spacetime void in the bulk and re-established it, but that's what we have to do to get out of here.”
“What about the front shield, frozen in that spacetime?” asked Spinrad.
“If we can establish a void that will enclose that area also, I believe it will sever the link with the bulk and we can move the whole thing,” said Beigan.
“I don't see why, but you're right, it appears to be the only way we'll get out of here,” said Spinrad. “But we already tried and failed to establish a void, so what do we do?”
“Let's run a simulation with the best numbers we have on this space and the frozen spacetime spheroid and see what happens,” said Beigan.
They ran their simulation with the ship's Ems, which were AIs patterned after real human brains, using the best data they had with some guesstimates thrown in. The results were hopeful but sobering.
“It can be done,” said Spinrad. “But look at the energy requirements.”
“Yeah, the isotopic reserves are too drained to run the laser at those power levels long enough to expand any Calabi-Yau manifold, even if we can find one” said Beigan.
“We'll have to get the fusion engine going, and charge the reserves, and use them and the engine at the same time, to meet those energy needs,” said Spinrad.
The two carefully went through a startup sequence and, in the end, failed to get the fusion engine to start.
“Why?” asked Beigan.
“There is no reason I can think of, this space shouldn't affect the engine enough to prevent startup, Moshe.”
They both sat staring at the screens, which displayed the data from the failed start.
“What is that?” asked Spinrad, pointing at one of the screens.
“What? I don't see anything,” said Beigan, looking where Spinrad was pointing.
“The neutron flux has an asymmetry,” said Spinrad.
“Where?” asked Beigan.
“There,” said Spinrad, placing his fingertip against the screen.
“It can't be,” said Beigan.
“But it is,” said Spinrad.
“We can't initiate fusion with that kind of flux,” said Beigan.
“We'll have to figure out what's causing it,” said Spinrad.
“You know that means a complete diagnostic, don't you?” said Beigan.
“Yeah,” was all Spinrad said while bringing up the entire forty-two volumes of engine manuals.
Mark Dreyer was disappointed that he wouldn't be getting the support he needed to research the physics of the bulk, but he would find some other way to get the data. He was sitting in his office at the university, thinking about what he could do next.
Mark knew that most ships that traversed the bulk on their way to other branes had the ideal data collection device aboard: an SCR, a gravitational wave detector small enough to carry aboard a spaceship but sensitive enough to rival the huge gravity wave interferometers on Earth and in space.
The device could collect the data from gravitational waves as the ships traveled through the bulk, even from within a spacetime void, because the walls of the void vibrated from the gravitational stresses encountered. Essentially, “seeing” from inside the void by reconstructing the surrounding bulk space from ripples of gravity. Mark would set up a website to collect the data and send out requests to the boundary drive companies.
Several of the companies replied that their data was proprietary and could not be shared, but several agreed. One of those was, surprisingly, Universal Space Lines, USP.
“I hope you are right about this Lainey,” said the CEO of USP from behind his huge desk.
Lainey was in the CEO's office explaining why she urged the company to cooperate with Dr. Dreyer.
“I think that it will show the public we have nothing to hide, Jack,” she said. “The problem with legal proceedings is that they will take too long, and by the time they're finished, any retraction, like from Post's editor, will probably just be lost on the general public.”
“But what if this data proves this guy's hypothesis?” asked the CEO.
“Then we get credit for discovery, not blame for covering it up, and then we manage those results,” she said.
“Okay,” he said. “But I want you to keep up with his research; if it looks like he is going to prove his thesis,
I want to know immediately so that we can 'manage' the results, as you say.”
“Of course, Jack.”
Mark was to meet with the representative of USP that afternoon in his office. If everything went well, he would begin receiving data from their SCR detectors almost immediately. The department secretary brought the visitor to his office.
“Ms. Johnson,” Mark said, “please come in and sit down.”
Lainey entered the office and looked around; typical professor's abode, she thought, papers and books stacked on most of the available surfaces, including the floor. And hardly big enough to turn around in.
Mark had cleaned his office for an hour before the meeting, hoping to show his visitor how important her company's data was to his research. He began by explaining how he would use the data for his research.
“As you probably know, Ms. Johnson, my hypothesis is that the physics of the bulk is sufficiently different to the physics we know, that we could be causing structural changes there with the increase in boundary drive flights.”
“Yes, I understand, Dr. Dreyer, unfortunately the media took your hypothesis to mean that these changes could be detrimental, not only to the bulk space but to our space. That is what the company wants to find out; we will not bury our head in the sand. This is why we hope to support your efforts.”
“That's excellent, Ms. Johnson, and let me assure you that if I do discover anything detrimental to bulk space, or our space, I will want to work with the company to mitigate those effects, if at all possible.”
“That's good to hear Dr. Dreyer. I think that we are just about set to sign an agreement with you but for one thing.”
“What's that?”
“We would like a chance to get brief but timely reports on the research. I myself will review those reports, maybe meeting with you on occasion to make sure I understand. You see, after the news articles, we wish not to be caught by surprise again.”
“But you won't interfere with the direction of the research?” he asked.
“Not at all; that's your job, ours is to provide the data and prepare the company for the results.”
“I see no reason I can't send you regular reports, and we can meet to discuss them on occasion if you wish,” he said.
“Very well, Dr. Dreyer, I will leave our contract with you; please read and sign if you agree. It just makes explicit what we've discussed.”
“Yes, I'll just need to show this to some people here at the university. I'll get it back to you as soon as possible,” he said.