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Leonard Post knew something was up. He had tried to get a response out of General Slateman's office, with no luck. But he was determined, so he took a flight to the general's space force base and camped out at the entrance guard house. He started doing reports from that location which started to get coverage from other news media.
General Slateman got a call from the Secretary of the Air Force. He was told by the secretary to make
Post go away. Slateman decided to see Post and try to get him to leave.
“Sit down Mr. Post,” said the general from behind his desk.
“Thank you for seeing me general. I suppose you know why I am here.”
“I assume you want a story about the Liberator,” said the general.
“That's right, sir, we know it's in orbit around the Moon, but we don't know why it hasn't returned to the Space Force's docks in orbit around the Earth.”
“Okay, I'm going to give you a summary,” said the general. “The Liberator did run into trouble in the bulk; she lost her void and came to a halt. As you probably know, no large, manned ship has ever traveled the bulk that way, though some small research vessels have.
“So, it seems what happened is that there was a power problem. They couldn't get the fusion engine running and the isotopic reserves were too drained to establish a new spacetime void. Therefore, they couldn't continue.”
“Excuse me general, what caused the fusion engine to fail?”
“We are not sure; the engineers onboard the ship believe it has something to do with the space they were in. However, they were able to work around the problem and get the engine started. A spacetime void was formed and they were able to get back.”
“How did they start the engine, sir?” asked Post.
“I will get you some information on that from the crew themselves,” said the general.
“Okay general, just a couple more questions. Why are they in orbit around the Moon instead of the Earth?”
“Standard safety precaution, until the ship has been gone over completely, it wouldn't be prudent to bring it into a crowded orbital space. The Liberator will return to Earth orbit as soon as it has been re-qualified.”
“Okay sir, now, have you heard from the Avenger?”
“No, there is still no word from the Avenger.”
“So, it is probably lost, and the crew is dead,” said Post.
“I didn't say that,” said the general. “It's still officially overdue.”
Post wasn't sure the general had been completely forthcoming, but it was a seemingly accurate description of what had happened. He remained skeptical but would wait until he got the report the general promised before pushing for more.
Mark had been mesmerized at the sight of the somewhat opaque surface of what they were calling a frozen time spheroid. So far, the best detector of the phenomenon was a super-sensitive SCR gravity detector. It seemed that even though it looked frozen in the visible wavelengths, there was a slight “trembling” internally which was generating slight but detectable gravitational waves. Mark discussed it with the scientists and technicians onsite.
“Yes, we have found a general increase in the amplitude with increasing frequency up to the limits of the detector,” said Dr. Ed Balmer, a physicist.
“Have you tried to increase the range of the detector by pressurizing or depressurizing?” asked Mark.
“Why would we do that?” asked Balmer. “We've obviously found a detectable frequency range with our present setup.”
“Yes, but it would map the density of this region better if we swept the frequencies of detection and it might link to some research I am already doing about objects in the bulk.”
“What research?” asked Balmer.
Mark told them about his research on the material body he had followed in the bulk.
“And you think this body was disintegrating because of the bulk space?” asked Balmer.
“Something was causing the gravitational wave readings to change in such a way that it looked like disintegration. I can show you my data,” said Mark.
“Let's go back to the break room and get some coffee,” said Balmer. “We can discuss more there and get out of the technicians' way.”
Maneuvering down the long spine of the ship until they were almost back to the crew wheel they came to one of the crew lounges. Inside, they got a packaged coffee and picked a table. The table and chairs were attached. A bar could be lowered across the lap to hold the occupant in place if they desired.
After they sat down, Mark explained a bit more about his research and his preliminary conclusions.
Balmer was listening carefully when he suddenly became animated.
“Wait a minute, if what you say is true, we should be seeing the same thing here in the frozen spacetime spheroid,” he said.
“You mean, you think we will see the disintegration process here?” asked Mark.
“Why not.” said Balmer.
“Well, then we have a potential problem,” said Mark.
“Yeah, the part of the ship trapped in that frozen time could be disintegrating.”
“That part which marks the boundary of the spheroid could shear if it moves separately from the ship,” said Mark.
“Right,” said Balmer. “The ship shouldn't fire any of its rockets, even for station keeping until we can determine the condition of the metal at that boundary.”
“And everyone aboard needs to be prepared for an emergency at all times,” said Mark.
“Okay, we need to see the acting captain and have him issue the necessary orders,” said Balmer.
It hadn't turned out exactly as General Slateman expected. Not Post, he had gone away, for a while anyway, it was Dr. Dreyer. He had sent the general a preliminary report and had warned him about the danger the ship was facing. It was worse than the general expected. He was in his office talking to Lieutenant Sayers.
“If Dr. Dreyer and Dr. Balmer are right,” said the general. “This could be a disaster, not only for the ship but also for the Space Force. We've been assuring people that there is nothing wrong with using the bulk as a transportation medium, but maybe we've been wrong all along.”
“Sir, there is no proof yet of what Dr. Dreyer is concerned, I think we just wait and make sure there are no other ships in the vicinity of the Liberator, then if something does happen, we can manage the problem.”
“I hope you are right lieutenant; the Secretary is not going to like what I have to tell him,” said the general.
The general was right; the Secretary of the Air Force didn't like what he was hearing. First that reporter and now this news, the problem wasn't going away, it wasn't even improving. But that was before it got worse.
Someone had leaked the story to Post. He immediately promoted it and it was picked up by almost all media. The ship USSF Liberator which had returned from the bulk was in orbit around the Moon and was a “disaster waiting to happen,” as Post put it in his newscast. He also didn't miss the chance to link the ship's danger to travel in the bulk. He concluded that even if humanity wasn't damaging the extra-dimension, it might be too dangerous to travel through.
The Secretary of the Air Force had exploded in a late-night conference call. He was threatening everyone on the line with discharge or court martial, including General Slateman. He ended by giving them all one week to change the narrative.
The following day in the general's office, he was making his own threats to his adjutant and other officers.
He demanded to know who had leaked the story to the media and he assured them if that person was in his office, their life was over.
The person was in the office and decided at that time that they needed to become a public whistle blower to protect their retirement pension. Lieutenant Sayers called Leonard Post that night and the next day they met for an interview which established Sayers as the informer.
It was the following day that the general heard about the interview and became so angry he couldn't speak. By this time Sayers had removed himself from the general's presence and was working through an attorney to protect himself from court martial. The result was that all the efforts that had been made to keep the story under wraps, fell apart under the public scrutiny and all involved were looked upon as untrustworthy. This was particularly true of United Space Lines and by association, Dr. Dreyer.
Mark began to receive notice from the companies that were sharing bulk data with him that they would be terminating their association. They all had clauses in the agreements that allowed for termination under reputational damage. Soon, only United Space was still sending data, although that was liable to end as they started to face government scrutiny and lawsuits from environmental groups.
Mark had returned from the ship to his university. He was surprised to find that the other professors in the department took offense to his association with the companies that were using the bulk. They felt that the commercial use was causing damage, and they felt that scientific research was the only legitimate use of the bulk. Mark found that most of his colleagues didn't wish to discuss the situation with him, they had already made up their minds.
After a few days Lainey came to see him, she also had some bad news.
“It's good to see you again Lainey.”
“You too Mark, I only wish it were under better circumstances.”
She continued, “But because of the notoriety generated by these news reports, the company is going to have to suspend our agreement, we will no longer share our bulk data with your research.”
“Well, I'm sorry things have come to this,” said Mark. “But I hope you and the company know that I had nothing to do with that news story.”
“We know Mark, we know where the leak came from and have no grievance against you.”
“That's more than I can say for my colleagues, for some reason they seem to think I'm helping destroy the integrity of the bulk. And I'm just trying to discover the truth; I have no agenda.”
“They are probably just jealous Mark. You came up with an ingenious way to use data that was just waiting to be used. Any one of them could have done the same, if they had been as clever.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But it doesn't matter, I have enough data to finish my research. I will still send a copy to you and the company before I publish.”
“We appreciate that. Now, the last time I was here, you took me out to eat. This time I propose to take you out if you are willing.”
“Of course, I would love to, Lainey.”
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