Image – ID 306032754 © Vampy1 | Dreamstime.com
Lainey Johnson had gotten the latest research report from Dr. Dreyer, and it was going to be trouble when picked up by the media. If he was correct, then travel in the bulk was not as safe as advertised, although how his results were modified if the ship remained ensconced in the spacetime void of the boundary drive was unknown; that was what she was hoping to find out by visiting him.
“Okay,” said Mark, “I haven't looked at that, but I can give you an educated guess.”
They were again in Dreyer's office at the university where even the windowsill held books and papers.
“That will be sufficient for now, Dr. Dreyer,” she said.
“Obviously, the spacetime void created by the boundary drive must offer some protection from the effect I am describing, because in all the years we've been using it, the problem hasn't shown up,” he said.
“However, though I believe the void offers some protection, I would say that even with it, a ship that stayed in the bulk for a long enough time could experience the problem.”
“How long? And can it be tested?” she asked.
“We could put a test ship in the bulk to see if there is an effect. How long would it take? A few months is my best guess,” he said.
“Okay Dr. Dreyer, why don't you put together a proposal for doing such a test, and I will take it up with the board for funding.”
“I will,” he said. “Send it to you?”
“That's right,” she said as she was rising to go.
“Oh, Ms. Johnson, I was wondering since it is lunchtime, if you would like to go over to the cafeteria and have lunch on me?”
“That's kind of you Dr. Dreyer, but I have some work to get done.”
For some reason, his obvious disappointment made her continue.
“But I suppose I could spare an hour for lunch; I do have to eat sometime,” she said.
“Great,” said Mark, a smile spreading. “It's just a short walk.”
The food was what Lainey expected, supposedly healthy, rather bland cuisine, but Dreyer was not.
When asked to tell her something about how he had come to be a professor of physics, he said, “Well, I started off wanting to be a science fiction writer, probably since I was in elementary school. All the ancient science fiction of the twentieth century particularly appealed to me.”
“Why was that Dr. Dreyer?”
“Please call me Mark, Ms. Johnson.”
“Very well,” she said.
“Why ancient science fiction? I think it was because it was so hopeful about the future. The science fiction of the next century became afraid of the future, which for a genre about the future is surprising,” he said.
“Did you ever write anything?” she asked.
“Yes I have, as a matter of fact; you can find it around under the name of M.K. Dreyer. But obviously, I'm not making a living at it; that's why I need this day job.”
“Well, it's quite a day job for a writer,” she said.
“Oh, there have been several writer-physicists,” he said. “My stuff actually uses the physics I know, in an extrapolated version, to provide the underpinning of many of the stories.”
“Would you say that your extrapolated physics would be something like what we are seeing with the bulk?” she asked.
“You mean would it make a good story?” he asked.
She nodded her head yes.
“I think it would make a fascinating story,” he said.
They continued discussing science fiction and then her interest in the law and other things, ending up walking across campus to her car, where they said goodbye.
“Thanks for coming, Ms. Johnson.”
“Call me Lainey,” she said before starting the car and backing out of the parking space. Mark watched her go before turning to go to his next class.
“Okay, here goes,” said Beigan.
As he started the fusion engine, he also manipulated the containment field of the plasma. The long cylindrical engine was designed to have one point in the plasma flow where the plasma was over-confined. The introduction of a large current, with the magnetic field surrounding it, down the axis of the plasma flow would cause that section to “pinch,” and in that pinch protons in the plasma would be forced close enough to each other to fuse and, in doing so, would release enough energy to heat the plasma to millions of degrees. Exiting and expanding through the magnetic nozzle, this plasma would act like a rocket exhaust and propel the ship forward.
Spinrad was watching the neutron detectors, which would spike when fusion occurred.
“There,” he said, pointing at the screen of his Emmie. “It's running Moshe.”
“Captain,” said Beigan over the comm, “we have fusion.”
“Very well, Mr. Beigan,” said the captain from the control room. “When can we start?”
“Give it an hour to charge the isotopics,” he said.
An hour later, after checking with Beigan, the captain turned to the shift helmsman and said, “Hit the coordinates.”
“Yes ma'am,” he said.
The ship moved through the bulk towards a point that seemed as common as all other points but was actually the boundary with ordinary spacetime. If the Liberator encountered that boundary at just the right point, the ship would sail through as if nothing were there, but if it missed by even a small amount, the boundary would emerge very real and solid and stop the ship, maybe damaging it.
The navigator began a countdown to boundary, and when he got to zero, the captain found herself gripping her chair tightly. But nothing happened, and she relaxed as they all did.
“Where are we navigator?” she asked.
“We are back in our brane, Captain,” he said.
Then she heard Spinrad calling.
“Captain, if you could hold it here a moment, Moshe and I will realign the engines for normal operation,” he said.
“How long, engineer?” she asked.
“Shouldn't take more than five minutes, ma'am,” he said.
“Very well,” she said.
“Helmsman, all stop,” she said.
“All stop, ma'am,” he repeated.
Then the captain got another call.
“Captain, this is Lieutenant Liu.”
“Go ahead, Lieutenant,” she said.
“We're up here in front just outside the forward control room, and there is something very strange. That phenomenon that injured Lieutenant Joseph, it still seems to be in place,” he said.
“Is it spreading?” she asked.
“No ma'am, not that we can tell,” he said.
“Okay, station a couple of personnel there and let me know if anything changes.”
“Yes ma'am,” he said.
Sher thought:
We're back home, and we've brought a visitor.
“The crew is okay?” asked General Slateman.
“Yes sir, except for Lieutenant Joseph; he lost a hand to the phenomenon,” said is adjutant.
“About that,” said the general, “what are we dealing with, lieutenant?”
“Sir, our scientists are looking into it now and don't know for sure, but they think it is an anomaly of time,” said the lieutenant.
“I don't understand,” said the general.
“I don't either sir, but it was explained to me that what we have is a sample of the bulk in which time is passing either very slowly or is stopped,” said his adjutant.
“When will they know more?” asked the general.
“They will give us another report in forty-eight hours, sir.”
“How dangerous is this phenomenon, lieutenant? Can it spread?” asked the general.
“Unknown, sir.”
But the government scientists knew nothing more two days later. The Liberator had been placed in an orbit around the Moon, the crew disembarked, from which it could be observed, and tests were run.
Finally, the general became impatient with the progress of the investigation and began to seek other input.
“Lieutenant, you remember that scientist whose work with the bulk we were going to sponsor?”
“Yes sir, Dr. Dreyer,” said Sayers.
“Right, I want you to get in touch with him. I want him in on this investigation. He's supposed to be the expert on the bulk, and since we supposedly have a sample of it stuck to one of our ships, I want him to figure out how to get rid of it,” said General Slateman.
“Yes sir.”
Mark was surprised that the military was contacting him again, after he had turned them down before, but he responded positively and was soon in General Slateman's office. Hearing about the incident on the Liberator, Mark's interest was aroused. He agreed to investigate if the government scientists would share their research with him. He even accepted the general's requirement of secrecy.
As he researched, Mark became curious enough about the phenomenon that he had the general arrange for him to be taken to the ship still in orbit around the Moon. Aboard a boundary drive ship, such a flight was no longer an ordeal but a simple, safe journey.
Mark boarded the ship at the military spaceport down the coast. It was a comfortable shuttle-like craft driven by ordinary rocket engines in orbit. But to get to orbit, the boundary drive was brought online. Once inside the spacetime void, the laser was used again to warp it in such a way that the ship would begin moving in the desired direction. For Mark, there was no sensation of acceleration because the ship was at rest in the void. Spacetime itself parted to allow the void to pass, like an air bubble in water floating upward.
The only sensation was the lack of gravity, and Mark had no trouble with it. The trip took about an hour and then, with the spacetime void dropped, the shuttle used its rockets to dock with the Liberator.
Mark transferred through the airlock and was soon being pulled down the long spine of the fusion ship by the conveyor-like people mover to which he was strapped. Soon he and some of the other scientists that met him were at the forward control room and within a few feet of the phenomenon.