Warping effects
WARPING EFFECTS / CH. 1:A DELAYED CONVERSATION
MARS UNIVERSITY, 2295, TUESOL, DECEMBER 5TH.
Heather Findhorn-Bunting, final year student at Mars University, had been biding her time, waiting for exactly the right time to talk to her professor, Boris Gravity-Master about... well, if she'd been feeling brutal, changing his name. It was exam time. With closest approach on the 2nd of April, the official tourist season was between the third of January and about the twentieth of April, but it had been stretched longer than normal to include a Martian Christmas for the lucky (or rather, rich) ones who landed that early. That meant student accommodation was supposed to be half-empty by Christmas, and all students needed to be gone by the end of the first week of January. The graduation ceremony had been set years ago to be on the second of January, which had made more sense before the transports had decided to run early. Which all meant it was time to revise, study, memorise and for the professors, mark exams. It was not time to talk about challenging the status quo. But still, as was her habit when she had time, when Heather passed Boris' office door she checked if the data crystal she'd carried in her pocket for a year should go through that doorway for a little chat with her 'uncle Boris'. It looked like the time was now. Finally! Revision for her last exam could wait; she knew enough to get good marks anyway, she didn't really need to aim for a hundred percent. She knocked on his door.
“Professor? Could I have an hour or two of your time?”
“Just an hour or two, Heather?” Boris Gravitymaster asked, “don't tell me there's something our star student's not sure about getting top marks in?”
“I hope that'll be enough,” Heather said. “And it's not about the exams, it's more of a side project, really.” A side project for the past dozen years, but a side-project nonetheless.
“A side project?” he asked.
“Yes, professor. Well, maybe a thesis topic, too.”
“You don't think, perhaps, you ought to have been revising for tomorrow's exam?” he asked, faintly amused. He was a bit surprised that Heather was showing signs of what he thought of as self-administered distraction therapy, but an hour or two seemed quite a big request.
“It's, err, something that I've been working on a while, Professor,” she admitted, “I've just been waiting for the right time to ask.”
He looked steadily at her, wondering on what scale the day before her final exam was the right time. He also wondered why she wasn't meeting his eyes and why this usually bold young woman was being so hesitant. Not to mention hiding her thoughts.
“What's the topic?” he probed.
“Urm, I've been doing some thinking about what most people call the antigravity drive.” His magnum opus.
“Properly called a graviton deflector,” he said automatically, and was shocked to see her half-suppressed but violent reaction against the name.
“It's not doing that,” she said, adding, to her own shock, “It can't be.”
Drawing a breath, and having said that much, she ploughed on. “the total graviton flux out in the far Kuiper belt just isn't strong enough to explain the thrust results.”
“Well, the results are a bit anomalous,” Boris agreed, “but...”
She'd started, so she was going to finish, “And if it were interfering with gravitons, there'd be an effect on other objects nearby. Let alone inside the hull. Every analysis I've seen that says otherwise is flawed.”
“Including mine?”
“Yes, uncle. Sorry.”
“Have you done any revision at all?”
She looked confused to his eyes, and said. “Yes, lots. Oh! You think this is something I've just started working on?”
He looked at her, the coin beginning to drop, “When did you start working on it?”
“Urm,” she blushed a little, “Mum tells me I was upset when I was four or five, because I couldn't see any gravy-trees. Ruth suggested I wait with telling you until I could show you what's really there.”
“And fifteen years later you can?”
“Yes, I can,” she said with a quiet confidence. He didn't doubt her abilities one iota, though he would be checking her maths carefully.
“And your gift actually lets you see gravitons?”
“They're very faint most of the time, and greenish-grey.”
“Most of the time?”
“I looked at a live video link from a telescope once, and there was a bright greenish-grey spot on it in othersight; I asked what they were pointing at and they said they were looking for signs of a black hole there.”
“Did you tell them they were pointing at the right spot?”
“They weren't, not quite. But they worked that out.”
“Have you looked at your work with other-sight?”
“Not really. It seems too much like cheating and that's not what it's for. I want it tested by peer-review, not by spiritual gift.”
“Then publish it, please, Heather. I'm dying to know what you've worked out. But don't let me see it before you publish. Hathie and me are taking the family to Atlantis right after marking finals is over, and there's far too much to do and think about without the temptation of writing a reply to your work.”
“It's too complicated to publish in just one paper. I don't actually know how to publish it, professor.”
“What does your father say?”
“He says gravitation isn't really his field. Ha ha, very funny. But he also says he can't see any mistakes in my maths, and what I do with it is up to me. Otherwise... he's been calling it my thesis since I was fifteen and jokes that all I need is a table of contents and a title page. At least, I hope he's joking.”
“How long is it?”
“Text plus equations? Two hundred and twenty thousand seven hundred and forty six characters last time I checked. Not quite my birthday, but the digits were close enough that I remember it.”
“Hmm. Thirty to forty thousand words. And in it you consider other's work and argued with each one in turn?”
“Yes.”
“And then reached your own conclusions?”
“Yes. And then I suggest some tests of the theory.”
“It sounds like a thesis. Did you follow your father's advice and give it a title page and table of contents?”
“Yes, professor,” Heather admitted meekly.
“Good. Then rather than just talking to me, let's go talk to the academic dean. It's his call.”
“What is?”
“Whether we let you submit it as a doctoral thesis now, or make the academic world wait another few years before you hand it in and possibly lose you to the Atlantis academy in the process. You always were looking rather like you were biting your tongue during my lectures.”
“Sorry, uncle Boris. It wasn't time to say anything, but you were doing a lot of speculation.”
“And it's time to tell me that now?”
“So I understand my gift to be saying.”
“So, let's go show your work to the dean.”
A thought occurred to Heather. Her work was full of secrets of the deep she'd taken an oath to protect. “But... has he sworn the oath? It's all about drive equations and field-mixing.”
“Ah. I don't believe he has. And that rather limits the circulation of who can check it, doesn't it?” Boris thought about it for a while. “Allow me to discuss this with some others will you?”
“Of course! You still don't want to see it?”
“I'm dying with curiosity. But I also need to sleep and if you put that forty thousand word bombshell into my hands then I won't, will I?”
“I guess not. I could give you a thirty second summary, if you like.”
“Please don't tempt me, Heather. It'd just make me want to read the whole thing.”
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FINDHORN-BUNTING RESIDENCE, 4PM
“Hi mum! I just had a talk with uncle Boris!”
“Oh?” Alice looked up. “The talk?”
“Yes. Well, sort of. He's curious, but too busy to let himself read it, but I told him it wasn't gravitons. He was a bit surprised I could see them. I think he was going to get the academic dean to admit me for an instant PhD, which is too silly, but then I reminded him it was full of drive equations and he's going to think about who can check it.”
“Hmm. I have my suspicions young lady, about what might be in your future.”
“Oh?” Heather said, with her best attempt at feigning nonchalance.
“Tea, the odd exam to fill your spare time, and lots of nervous walking up and down.”
“Oh, yes.” Heather said, coming down from cloud nine. “Exams.”
“You're not worried are you?”
“No... it just seems like this ought to be bigger.”
“You've been waiting for it for a long time. What's going to fill your spare time now? Any other burning questions you need to solve?”
“One or two. Like...” she noticed she was walking up and down. “why do I always walk up and down when I'm thinking?”
“It's just a bad habit you picked up. On the other hand, it's probably healthier than some other options. Why don't you go for a swim?”
“Urm... because of impending teatime and exams tomorrow?”
“Tea can wait, love, and using up some energy might help you sleep. You can do some revision before bed if you feel you have to.”
“And you want the carpet to survive?”
“It's lasted this long, Heather. But I do have to write this report.”
“Sorry, mum. Do you happen to know...” Heather had several interests in life outside physics: for example compost of course, since she was Martian; swimming and when she got the chance, wind-surfing on the ever-deepening Argyre lake. But the most interesting of all at the moment was called Jay Durrel-Peebles.
“It just so happens that Jay called by thirty minutes ago saying he had a few things to do on his way but that he was heading in the general direction of the new pool, and he'd love some help making sure there are no lurkers after closing time.” The new pool had been constructed to cater to Mer preferences, and had a number of nooks and crannies that made it more natural-looking but which had been used by people trying to prolong their swim well past closing time. Jay was on a rota of volunteers who helped make sure the pool was genuinely empty of people before the high-powered pumps that helped clean the pool turned on and made swimming dangerous.
“Oh, I should have remembered he was on duty this evening! You don't mind me lending him a hand?”
“Not at all, Heather,” Alice said, smiling.
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FINDHORN-BUNTING RESIDENCE, 4.30PM
[Hathie? Have you heard from Boris?] Alice asked her friend.
[Your Heather's been working on something the last decade and a half, I hear.]
[Yes. Simon and I didn't expect it to go as far as it has, of course, before she spoke to Boris.]
[His graviton-deflector doesn't repel gravitons?]
[Apparently not. And apparently he was very good at not being curious about what she wrote.]
[Ha!] Hathellah replied [He just knows that he's got a fixed timetable and too much to do in it already. He's already asked me if we could postpone our Atlantis trip so he can dare to learn more.]
[You said no, I presume?]
[Indeed. Rather firmly. What are Heather's plans for the future, do you know?]
[A week ago it was to get past exams, and then work out if she wants to visit Earth for a while, which used to be her plan, or stay here and get much more serious with Jay.]
[Oh, right. So that's not so serious yet?]
[They seek out each other's company, but that's about as far as it goes. Well... I think he's keeping things cautious, and Simon says not to get too excited.]
[So if Boris suggested the right place to present her work is at the Atlantis academy...]
[You think he might?]
[Yes. And either we have the space, or there's going to be a half-empty Albatross going straight to Atlantis in a couple of weeks. Would she go?]
[An invitation to present to the Academy? I expect young Jay's suspicions that she's flying too high for him to catch are about to be proven entirely right.]
[Alice... just how dramatic are her findings, do you have any idea?]
[I don't know, Hathie, not for certain. But I've heard her and Simon saying things like 'Boris should have realised you can't cheat Newton without cheating Einstein too' and 'generating a big enough bubble of space-time to put a ship in'.]
[Bubbles of space-time?]
[Apparently.]
[Hmm. What do they mean about cheating Einstein?]
[They mean that possibly — but more study needed — faster than light travel before Heather's retirement.]
[That's impossible!]
[Not, apparently, as impossible as making gravitons accelerate you at ten gee without affecting anything else around you.]
[Oh. So it's a case of your genius says my genius is wrong?]
[No. More a case of my genius says your genius got it entirely right with his chair and then started doing something more confusing without realising it when he turned up the power or whatever he did.]
[Oh.{Pride} I guess I can cope with Boris coming up with something cleverer than he thought he was coming up with.]
[You really think he's going to get her that invitation?]
[He doesn't need to ask anyone, Alice. As a member he can issue it himself. So can I, actually. Consider Heather invited, we'll work out who actually issues the invitation later.]
[Any chance her proud family members can get spectator's seats?]
[Certainly. We don't have enough space for all of you though.]
[I think I might take Ruth up on her promise of a trip home, then. Assuming I can persuade my government.]
[I'll talk to Karella, it might be good politics to invite someone from your side to listen in.]
[How big is the academy chamber? I don't want all the academics pushed out by the curious.]
[I'll ask Boris.]
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ATLANTIS, MONDAY 18TH DECEMBER, 2295.
As was the practice in the Atlantis academy, food, milling around and conversation came first. That way, everyone had the opportunity to clear their minds of 'I must talk to...' demands and concentrate on the presentation. This was great for people who knew each other, but Heather found herself a stranger in the middle of a crowd of strangers. Even her parents were deep in conversation with some people they'd met on Mars when she'd been a baby. Of course, they'd all said how she'd grown and other such inanities, but then they'd got down to reminding each other of other people, who she didn't remember. Heather drifted over to the buffet table, trying to decide which of the deserts she'd like.
Matthew saw the girl separate from the group where he assumed her parents were - some of the people in the group were vaguely familiar but he couldn't think of a context to put them in, let alone names — and looking somewhat bored, she moved in the general direction of the deserts. He'd noticed her earlier, of course, while waiting for this fascinating lecture. In fact, he'd been following her progress during this first hour of the academy meeting with quiet interest. She wasn't Mer, he was sure of that — she didn't have the muscularity of a Mer warrior — but she wore a Mer knife in her belt, and in greeting some of the Mer, he'd seen her do some steps from a Mer dance. So.. her parents knew lots of people, both on the diplomatic side and the scientific side, and she didn't, other than the Mer. Had her parents retired from diplomatic circles and entered science? He hadn't heard of anyone doing that. Had she lived in Atlantis earlier in her life? She was a puzzle; a very attractive one.
Her black hair was in an elegant and complicated style he didn't recognise, and having seen his sisters' hair get shorter when it was plaited he was quite sure that when loose her hair would reach her waist. She wore an embroidered white blouse and a skirt of a rich iridescent green fabric in an unusual pattern, which seemed to have several deep pockets. Had she designed it herself? Her clothes fitted her perfectly but had a unique, quirkiness about them that suggested they hadn't come from any design computer. Her face was as attractive as the rest of her, and amazingly he'd seen her give no sign of recognising him when he'd been handing out drinks earlier. And he'd overheard her tell Emilia Knife-teacher that she'd been praying for her in her recent sickness, and Emilia's reply had made it clear that she considered the strange girl a Christian. Matthew felt that was quite conclusive, since Emilia didn't make that sort of mistake. So... a pretty — very pretty — Christian girl with no knowledge of who he was and lots of unique things about her. That put her into the category of people he definitely wanted to strike up a conversation with.
“A difficult choice isn't it?” a young man, maybe a year or two older than Heather said to her.
“Yes. I expect they're all too sweet,” Heather said.
“Too sweet?” he asked, taken aback.
“I grew up without much sugar in cakes,” she said. “Neither mum nor dad use much.” She waved towards the knot of people from whom she'd come.
“Oh,” he said, He wasn't sure what else he could say without giving offence. And he certainly didn't want to do that. Glancing in the direction she pointed, and not seeing anyone he recognised other than Lara Knifetongue, he asked “You're here with your parents?”
“Yes,” Heather said, “You too?”
“No, I'm studying here,” he said. “it's an international study programme thing.”
“Oh! That's quite an opportunity!”
Matthew didn't hear any thoughts from her, and wasn't sure if she was faking it or was genuinely interested. From her bored expression earlier, and the way she hadn't talked to any of the scientists, he guessed it was false.
“Yeah, it's not bad,” he feigned boredom, “but now I have a wonderful opportunity to sit through a lecture I'm probably not going to understand by some genius from Mars.”
Heather looked at him for a while before answering.
“Your highness, could you please tell me why you lied just now? You're not ashamed of looking forward to a lecture are you?”
“Sorry,” he said, and hung his head in shame. “Not ashamed of looking forward to it, but deeply ashamed of lying. I guess I just assumed you weren't looking forward to it at all, and was sort of trying to sympathise.”
“Hmm. And now why don't you tell me the whole truth?”
“And I was pretty surprised you hadn't recognised me, and thought, wow, I could have a normal conversation with a pretty girl and without lots of 'highnesses' and so on getting in the way.”
“If it's any comfort, I didn't recognise you until you decided to lie.”
“You're a thought-hearer too?” he asked.
Heather smiled secretively, “Now how should I understand that question? A thought-hearer as well as what? Interested in physics? Pretty? Or are you dropping state secrets into conversations with someone from you don't know where or even what her name is?”
“Err...” he said, and was saved from answering further by Boris standing on his chair and calling the meeting to order. His highness prince Matthew of the Restored Kingdom turned bright red in embarrassment when Heather went to stand by Boris to be introduced. Boris spoke about how long he'd known her and her early interest in quantum physics, and Heather's mind wandered.
Prince Matthew glowed and was interested in physics, which was certainly more than she could say about Jay. Not that Jay was even very interested in her now, either.
That day, back on Mars, when Heather had been full of joy at having spoken to Boris, she'd spotted Jay deep in conversation. She'd guessed the situation at first glance, and her othersight had confirmed it. There was already more of a connection between him and the girl he was talking to than there'd ever been between him and Heather. It had hurt, but she'd had her doubts about it working out between them, and it certainly made the choice of coming here much easier. And now here she was, in the oldest scientific institute on the planet! Thinking of boys. Get a grip, Heather, she scolded herself, just in time to hear Boris turn the floor over to her.
She respectfully gave her presentation of the problems with Boris's analysis of what was happening at high-thrust, and others' too. Since most of the authors were in her audience, respectful disagreement had seemed the best policy. Then she gave her own solution to the issue, outlined how it might be verified, and then dwelt for a minute on the possible implications of her work. If the 'anti-gravity drive' was really generating a localised bubble of space-time around part of the field generator, as her analysis of the available data showed must be happening, then might there not be a way of expanding that bubble so it encompassed the whole ship? Could such a bubble be controlled? Might someone work out how to use this as a method of transport?
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The question and answer time went on for twice as long as her presentation, and Heather had the distinct impression that her answers had met with approval.
And then Boris suggested that her treatment of the issue demonstrated that whether the testing of her ideas proved them right or not, she'd demonstrated she had the qualities the Academy sought for its members. Ten minutes later, Heather found herself being voted in as a member of the academy, and then listened in growing shock to all the rights that membership of the academy granted her. They included the fact that she'd just been given a rolling research grant, laboratory space, and food and accommodation whenever she was in the city.
Stunned, she thanked the assembled Academy, and hugged her parents. Soon, a long line of people queued up to add their congratulations. “Congratulations, academician,” prince Matthew said. Adding the accusation “you said you were here with your parents!”
“They're with me, I'm with them, it's a symmetrical relationship, isn't it?” she grinned at his discomfort.
“Sorry. I really covered myself in glory, didn't I? But your work's fascinating! And the implications! Wow!”
“Possible implications,” Heather corrected.
“Will you stay in Atlantis?” he asked.
“I really don't know. On the one hand, I've just been handed my ideal job. On the other hand, even just waving my hands around is hard...”
“So you don't like the gravity?”
“I'm told you can get used to it, eventually. But Mars is home. Not to mention it being a better place to start than here if you want to find somewhere it's moderately safe to rip holes in the universe.”
“Ah, yes,”
“But on yet another other hand, the only place I'm going to get hold of the toys to do that is here, so I need to think about it. Maybe I'll have to commute or something.”
“If I may be very bold, I don't think I'd have an enormous problem convincing my parents that I could occasionally play taxi-driver in the family peace-submarine for our ambassador to Mars's beautiful daughter.”
“Well! Boldness of such magnitude in only our second conversation! Good job I don't have a boyfriend or he'd be getting worried that you're winding up to ask me out.”
“I am, I guess,”
“And yet we hardly know each other! Mer attitudes seem to have been rubbing off on you.”
“Sorry, its presumptuous of me. Too fast.”
“I grew up on Mars, risky is normal. O.K.”
“O.K.? Really?”
“You're a Christian, I'm a Christian. You don't normally lie to people, you're genuinely interested in a long-term relationship, I need a guide to this city, and I imagine we'll be seeing quite a lot of each other if we're both going to be at the academy. Plus your grandfather's still in good health as is your father, so worries about how to match my research career and your impending monarchy can be put off into the distant future. So OK, I'll be entirely Martian and take a risk.”
“How do you know all those things about me?”
“I'll tell you soon. Hello again Emilia. And Matthew, I didn't see you earlier!” She gave them both whole-hearted hugs.
“I slipped in just as Boris was introducing you,” Ruth's father said.
“You always were one to cause fireworks, Heather,” Emilia said, “But I think you've surpassed your record today. Congratulations on both counts.”
“Thank you,” Heather blushed.
“So, are you going to introduce us Heather? I don't think I recognise this young royal,” Emilia said.
“Emilia Knifeteacher, Matthew Booksaver, allow me to introduce his royal highness prince Matthew of the Restored Kingdom. Your highness, Emilia and Matthew are the honoured parents of Ruth Mars-speaker, ambassador of Atlantis to Mars. I've known them since I was about five, when Emilia taught me the basics of disemboweling sharks and the other womanly arts.” Dropping to a whisper she added “as well as better control of my othersight.”
“I'm always happy to meet another Matthew,” the prince said, shaking Matthew's hand then also dropping his voice asked “but can you explain what you mean by 'othersight'?”
Emilia guided him to a corner of the room and said “Boris carefully avoided saying that what started your new girlfriend here on her quest to upset the world of physics was that like me she can see things that are hidden to most people. It's not the same as the Gift, but it's related. Like who's related to whom, where a lost child went, things like that, or in the case of her research, where there aren't any gravitons doing strange things.”
“Not to mention who's royalty or has drunk potion, or in some cases both,”
Heather added, glancing at Matthew, who was in the last category, “not to mention that you're bursting with curiosity, among other things, and that the best door for you to use is that one over there and then to the right. I won't vanish, I promise.”
Emilia laughed quietly, as the prince took the hint and left for the public facilities. “Heather, did you need to do that to him?”
“I think so. I want some verification. I'm not imagining things from wishful thinking, am I, Emilia?”
“No, dear, you're not imagining things,” Emilia confirmed.
“Heather?” her father asked quietly coming over, “Were you planning to keep your new relationship a secret from your mother?”
“No, Dad. It's going to be a bit complicated and I'd love her advice.”
“Good. Does he know how brightly he glows for you yet?”
“No, Dad. He doesn't even know for certain we can share thoughts yet.”
“You'd better shade your eyes when he learns that, Simon,” Emilia said.
“And Heather had better learn to be as careful about sharing state secrets as she has been about sharing her research,” Simon pointed out.
“I'd spotted it of course,” Emilia said, “but point taken.”
“I'm not just on a rebound from Jay, am I Dad?”
“No, Heather. I was pretty sure you were never going to be more than friends with Jay. Anything more there was wishful thinking. I've no such qualms about your young prince though.”
[Can I join you, or is it private?] Alice asked.
[Please do.] Simon said [And think to Heather on your way.]
[Heather, why's your father telling me to think to you?]
[Because I've just been asked out by prince Matthew, and neither Dad nor Emilia think I'm imagining what I'm getting hints of.]
[Which are?]
[Wedding bells eventually, mum.]
[Oh really? OK if I pass on the gossip to Mystery?]
[You don't think Matthew might want to tell his parents in person rather than via Mystery?]
[I'll be ever so ever so subtle, don't worry.] Alice said. [Mystery? Sorry for interrupting, there's a chance Matthew has something he wants tell you.]
[What's he done now?] Mystery Voice, also known as princess Eliza thought.
[I'm saying no more,]
[Alice! What?]
[Ask him yourself, woman.] Alice thought back.
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Matthew was just about to enter the room when he heard his mother's voice. [Matthew, why have I just been told to contact you?]
[Mum! {joy} Can I really fall in love this quickly?]
[Never underestimate the power of hormones. Tell me more?]
[She's beautiful, she's clever, very clever. Just overturned the theory of the anti-gravity drive, actually, and been voted as a full member of the academy here. My age, I think. I found myself asking her out and she agreed. Thought-hearer, I think. We haven't been alone long enough to talk about that. But she has something a bit like the gift but it works on things, even gravitons, apparently.]
[Hold on, you're talking about a seer?]
[Yes.]
[I didn't know there were more that five in the solar system. Does this rare young lady have a name?]
[Heather.]
[Heather Findhorn-Bunting?]
[Yes.]
[Well, that explains her reticence.]
[Whose?]
[The person who told me to call you, of course. Heather's a lovely girl, I've spoken to her on occasions when her mother's been busy.]
[So she is a thought-hearer?] Matthew asked.
[Of course she is, all seers are. Did she seem hesitant about agreeing to go out?]
[Not really. She was surprised Mer attitudes had rubbed off on me and said she'd take a risk like any Martian. She said something like we could put off worrying about questions about how to match her research career and my impending monarchy until the distant future.]
[So.. you'd say she sees you being second in line to the throne as a challenge, not a plus?]
[So she said, I've no reason to doubt her.]
[I'm not surprised. Go hold her hand, will you?]
[What, just like that? In public?]
[Depends how strongly you feel about her, doesn't it?]
[Urm. I think I'll go hold her hand.]
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“Hi again, Heather,” Matthew said.
“Matthew, meet my parents,” Heather said, offering him her ungloved hand. [Dad is a seer too, so he saw.] She thought to him.
[No secrets then?]
[Oh, plenty, but not about how we feel.]
[How do we feel?]
[Happy. Let's not analyse further yet.]
“Hello, Matthew.” Alice said and then thought to him, [I hope you don't mind me getting Mystery Voice to call you.]
[{surprise}] was all Matthew could think.
[You can't hide much from mum without asking her to tread carefully.] Heather added.
[Hello Alice, Heather.] Eliza thought.
[Hello Mystery,] Heather thought. [It wasn't my idea, honest.]
[But you jumped at it?]
[He glows awfully brightly, maam.]
[Meaning what exactly?]
Heather broke hands from Matthew, [Meaning, and please don't tell him this, Mystery, that I was ignoring what I'd been told when I was thinking that a boy I knew on Mars was a marriage prospect. I saw him as nice and kind and stable, but he didn't glow. But I saw he was meant for someone else before I left Mars. It shouldn't have hurt, because I shouldn't have got my hopes up. But I'd ignored that he didn't glow, so it did hurt. But, because I'd accepted reality, I came here — I might not have otherwise. And then, there I was, minding my own business at the desert bar, and up came Matthew, trying to make conversation and then tried to sympathise with me about having to sit through a boring lecture from some genius from Mars, and bubbling with excitement about the subject material, but feigning disinterest because he thought I'd been dragged here by my parents, like some other diplomat's kids. And I could see he wasn't comfortable lying, but something made him want to strike up a good rapport with me. And he was glowing. Am I making sense?]
[You're saying that Matthew glowing makes him a marriage prospect?]
[Yes. So I challenged him about lying, and he was really apologetic and glowed more and more and more. It's not my imagination — Emilia and Dad have confirmed we glow for each other. But I'm not holding his hand at the moment because I don't scare Matthew by talking marriage already. As far as I know it's not certain just... quite possible. Before you ask, it's not just mutual interest, I've seen that before. It's not even him deciding I'd make a good wife. There was a boy in the C.U. who reached that conclusion last year.]
[But you weren't interested?]
[Not really. He was nice enough, but he was going back to Earth to work in the family business. I didn't see it working out at all.]
[But you do with Matthew?]
[I don't quite know how, maam, but yes. A big difference is I see God's blessing on our relationship. Matthew suggested he could play taxi driver for me, before asking me out. It might be possible, with God's blessing it must be possible. Also... I've made my shocking contribution to science. I don't know if I've got a massively big role in what comes next. That isn't a new thought, by the way. I finished working on it a year ago, and haven't worked on it since. Others could take it further without me. I'd like to be involved, but I don't have to be now. What I'm saying is physics is fun, but responsibilities comes first.]
[I think I understand what you're saying.]
[{embarrassment}Sorry, my thoughts weren't very well organised.]
[It obviously wasn't scripted. Would you say that you were popular at university?]
[Not especially.]
[I'm just thinking you seem to have had more experience with young men flinging themselves at you than I'd have expected.]
[Well, there's the famous parents and friends aspect, and the top of the class aspect, and the 'studying top secret stuff' aspect, but mostly there's the risk-taking Martians aspect. Risk taking is sort of a permanent feature of the culture.]
[True. OK, onto other stuff. Your studying top-secret stuff is an interesting challenge, isn't it? You're under oath not to pass on what you've discovered, is that right? Like Matthew?]
[Except to others who've taken a similar oath. And not to use it in any way without explicit the agreement of the Mer and the Mars Council.]
[But the results you presented there are now just under Mer law?]
[The Mer Academy has agreed to the summary I presented today as being under the same restriction. In other words the Academy won't grant permission to use it without Mars Council permission.]
[But you yourself have no say in it?]
[Under Mer and Mars law, if I design something, I get an inventor's fee, but I can't veto a use of it I don't like.]
[So the Mer Council and Mars Council can veto a use, but you can't? What about your other nationality?]
[Ooops. Their Majesties can't veto yet. I wouldn't be opposed to adding that sort of restriction to my full write-up and future research. Sorry that it didn't occur to me, but it should have.]
[And that sort of restriction would be accepted by the members of the Academy?]
[It would be accepted by me, and the Academy has just voted me a full member. Shall I ask Boris what he thinks?]
[Please. I don't pretend to understand what the implications of your work might include, but Matthew was impressed, at least.]
[Be impressed, Mystery,] Alice chipped in. [It might include faster than light travel.]
[Not this decade, mum,]
[I seem to remember hearing that people wondered what the use of planes were when they were first invented,] Eliza thought [I think we definitely don't want Heather to forget that no matter where she's been educated, she's got links to here as well as Mars.]
[Increasingly strong ones,] Heather said.
[But it does raise the issue of sponsorship, Mystery.] Alice pointed out [If Heather's research is carried out with Mer engineering support which is probably non-negotiable unless you're going to tie her hands, and with Mer equipment and on a Mer salary from Atlantis, then I can see our claim to her future work getting ever smaller, no matter how much we love her.]
[Your point is well made, Alice, and I'll pass it on. Any ideas what it's going to cost, eventually?]
[No.] Alice replied.
[All the way to a working FTL drive? I can make some qualitative guesses.] Heather thought.
[Go ahead.]
[This is going to be a new technological leap, like rocketry or controlled fusion was, only with new areas of physics involved, too.] Heather said. [If I'm right, which of course isn't proven yet, it'll take a team of researchers, over the next several decades, making a series of incremental steps. Assuming I get proven right, then first there'll need a series of remote-controlled space-probes, some of which which are probably going to just break, others will probably explode in a mess of sub-atomic particles and some might even turn into micro-black holes as the fabric of the universe resists being turned inside out or as something breaks at the wrong moment or the probe gets ripped apart by the forces involved not being perfectly balanced. That's just to make a larger bubble of space-time, rather than the microscopic ones that I think Boris is using at the moment. It'd be great to have some way of measuring how big the bubble is, of course, and that needs inventing too. I wouldn't be at all surprised if enormous power surges, maybe from globs of antimatter, are needed to power the start up of the field, which will make things exciting too. Eventually I hope we'd be able to reliably enclose a small probe in folded space. Then, there will need to be investigation of how to drive the thing through space, and then how to navigate it. Having one work so we can get results back and see what it sees, would help, of course. For propulsion I'm pretty sure there's a front loading of lots of theoretical work, and add another couple of decades research for that and the testing phase, during which process I'd guess that a fair number of the rather expensive test-probes might head off in totally the wrong direction faster than we can record and vanish. Once we can make a little robot hop from one side of the solar system to another so fast that we'll need multiple teams of observers and someone with the gift to help us keep track of the thing, we can start sending it out to take photos of Voyager or Barnard's star or something like that. Then it'll need to be scaled up for some very brave test-pilots to risk their lives in. And then the God-given human desire to explore can take over and we can find out if God's actually made other creatures on other planets, or if his gospel is only for this little corner of creation.]
[Hmm,] Eliza thought [You've been thinking of this a while then, I guess.]
[Just since I worked out about the bubbles, a couple of years ago.]
[And you really think these bubbles can break the speed of light?]
[It's an old result that drops out of the equations of relativity. If you can make a bubble of space-time, then nothing can beat light-speed inside it, but there's no known theoretical limit on how fast the bubble can travel relative to normal space. Of course, there might be unknown limits. Who knows?]
[But you do think there's a real risk you might make a black hole?]
[I'm guessing. I strongly believe that Boris's antigravity device is bending space-time enough to enclose some space into a bubble, and that's where he's getting the thrust. I don't know that we can make that bubble big enough to enclose something, but I do know that if you put any amount of mass or energy in a single point — a singularity — you get a black hole. I don't know how it might be possible to separate a bubble from the universe without ending up with a singularity somewhere along the line. Or if we actually need to. I don't want one, you understand, but...]
[But you don't want to try it in in your bedroom, or even a lab in an isolated crater on Mars, just in case.] Eliza prompted.
[Exactly. I'd want to do it somewhere out on the edge of explored space and where if something nasty gets created accidentally it is already on it's way out of the solar system.]
[So I can tell his Majesty that if you'll at least want very long-term access to an Albatross or Guillemot, salaries for a team of top physicists and engineers, and somewhere to think dangerous thoughts.]
[Yes. And I'm not used to Earth gravity. All these stairs in Atlantis are hard work. I think I can stick it out for a while, but....]
[At least part-time on Mars makes more sense for your bones and joints to get used to the idea of high gravity, I understand. And you also want some time to get to know Matthew.]
[I do.] Heather agreed.
[Not to mention your future relatives, and an introduction to some security arrangements if you really expect to marry him.]
[Gulp. Yes, security arrangements are going to be a big thing in my future aren't they?]
[Anyway, I've taken enough of your time. Go get to know my son, Heather. Mystery Voice's real name is still a class epsilon state secret, by the way, try not to think it. Just keep on calling me Mystery to Matthew.]
“Gulp,” Heather said, audibly.
“Something scary?” Matthew asked.
“Mystery has just let me in on a class epsilon state secret, as well as giving me a job to do. Would you like to come along?”
“Where to?”
“To see if I can convince Boris Gravitymaster that morally speaking, research carried out at home — i.e. the embassy — ought to give your grandfather some sort of veto rights, just like research carried out at the university of Mars gives the Mars Council veto rights.”
“Oooh, sounds like an interesting discussion, shall we get ambassadorial support?”
“Mum, did you hear that?” Heather felt justified to interrupt her parents' conversation.
“Yes, dear. I ought to have thought of that years ago. Let's get Harry involved too.”
“And afterwards can I have a not-many steps tour of Atlantis?” Heather asked.
“Certainly! It'll be my pleasure.”
----------------------------------------
KARELLA'S HOME, ATLANTIS, TUESDAY 19TH DECEMBER
“Your Majesty,” Heather curtsied. “Thank you for your time.”
“I've heard a lot of good things about your presentation, Heather. Both sociologically as well as the science. Let's be honest, I was never a student of physics, so there's normally not much point in me attending the Academy. But I understand Mystery has been raising some issues regarding veto-rights, and the like.”
“Yes, your majesty,” Heather confirmed.
“Would you like to state the situation as you see it?”
“The entire situation?”
“Why not?”
“The Mer have given students at Mars University access to secrets of the deep, on the condition that the students don't pass on that knowledge but use it in approved projects, for instance the terraforming project. The Mars Council has a stake in the sum of knowledge, through research and engineering by university-supported staff that have pushed the forcefield research into new directions. I thus swore an oath which protects the rights of the Mer and of Mars to not have the knowledge made possible by the policies of their governments perverted to non-peaceful means or commercial exploitation to the disadvantage of either. My research so far has been largely unconnected to the Mars forcefield research, but Mars has a veto on and commercial control of the application of my work as presented yesterday. Mystery pointed out that's a little odd, since my research has been done at home, effectively supported by the Restored Kingdom, and not in any way as part of a university course. Yes, I could show the problems with models I learned about because I was on that university course, but it was mostly extra reading, not course material and I could have equally learned of it in the same way prince Matthew has, studying here. So, Mystery feels the Restored Kingdom should likewise have a commercial interest and veto on applications of my work, and rather regrets that neither mother nor I thought of it before I spoke last night, and hopes that we can get it sorted out quickly before my full treatment of the matter is distributed.”
“Tell me about the potential applications of your work, please.”
“If I'm right, then an immediate application is Boris was wrong and there is no theoretical limit on the maximum acceleration that the so-called antigravity drive can deliver, and the reason the drives fail when asked to deliver more is structural, nothing more. That has implications in cargo delivery to the outer solar system, for example, not to mention emergency aid. I'm sure those have a commercial value to insurance companies and deep space astronauts along with the terraforming project. Longer term, then assuming I'm right, the fields the antigravity drive develop could be perverted into a black hole generator or used for a faster-than-light drive. Unfortunately, I have a gut feeling that black-holes are going to be much easier than faster-than-light travel.”
“That science can be perverted is a sad fact. Look how long it took to make fusion reactors compared to bombs, but generating a black hole sounds rather a scary thing.”
“Yes. I've told Mystery that I'd certainly want any test-runs to be in deep space and on a one-way trip out of the solar system whenever the field generators are turned on. If it works they can always be caught again. I'd also want to have a blanket ban any deliberate generation of black holes, no matter what some maniac thinks of them as a power source, waste disposal system, or research project.”
“But knowing the dangers, you still want to build a faster-than-light drive.”
“Yes.”
“You don't think it's too dangerous?”
“Your Majesty, I invite you to look at my memory of what I saw as I was reading my Bible the morning after I came to realise that F.T.L. travel might be possible.”
Karella raised her eye-brows, but accepted the invitation. She saw the verse in Heather's Bible. She saw also that the verse was part of a reading scheme, not in any way picked by Heather. She further saw Heather's remembered surprise at the text, the sense that it wasn't for her specifically, but that she had to play her part.
“To all creation?” Karella exclaimed, “In the context of faster than light travel?”
“Quite a task, isn't it?”
“Yes. Quite a risky undertaking.”
“Good job I know where there's a planet full of risk-takers, a strong Christian Union at the university and some trustworthy guardians of peace. It'll take a while to get the FTL drive going; decades probably.”
“Where do you think the Restored Kingdom features in this?”
“Did you hear about Prince Matthew asking me out?”
“Ah, of course. Emilia did mention it. Just that marriage connection then?”
“I don't think so. What I've noticed is that everything important in the past few decades seems to be connecting back there for some reason. Even Russia's new peaceful outlook.”
“Oh?” Karella raised an eyebrow. “I thought that was mainly our doing.”
“But the Kingdom was the first to give support to Russia on Mars, and Svetlana told me that seeing the friendship and trust that Sue and Amos showed Yelena broke down a lot of distrust in her. Plus that our Security people had passed on some hints to Yelena to keep her secret identity safe. Maybe I'm just feeling patriotic, but...”
“No, you're right. Even in the Beautiful Peninsula regime change, which rather upset Mystery at the time. So... in terms of connections within connections... have you met Sarah yet?”
“Sarah?” Heather wondered which Sarah.
“Make a point of jumping at the chance if you get one, that's my advice....”
Karella smiled enigmatically. “You may tell Mystery that I agree. You're a real dual national, unlike most on Mars, and it makes sense for both of your homes to have equal status. You'll need a Christian-Union full of risk takers, as you said, so let's not simply exclude Mars. And of course you already know Svetlana; It might be worth thinking of a role for that empire. Maybe their outer system observatory as some kind of testing centre?”
“Oh! Well, if they don't mind...”
“Astronomers mind the chance of pointing all their fancy detectors at someone bending space-time? Somehow I doubt mind will come into it.”
“Good point.”
“Do you mind if I share your verse among the gifted?”
“Not at all,” Heather said.
“Any comments, Boris? You've been very quiet.”
“I thought my star student has been doing fine without me, Karella.”
“What do you think about her downplaying the role of your course in her thinking.”
“She spent most of her time in my course alternating between biting her tongue and pointing out errors in my formulae, Karella. Once or twice I spotted her actually writing something down, but it wasn't often. I'm pretty sure she'd read most of the course books by the end of the third week.”
“They were very helpful,” Heather said.
“And now the course needs re-writing before next term,” Boris added.
“Maybe,” Heather said. “I'm not sure. I think if I were a book author I'd like some definite proof that the young theoretician has got it right.”
“At the very least my lecture notes do.” Boris said.
“I told Ruth there weren't any gravitons involved when I was four, uncle Boris, another year won't hurt much.”
“Oh, thanks, rub my nose in it,” Boris said.
“I think what Heather's trying to say, Boris, is make sure you've got firm evidence before you re-write anything,” Karella said.
“Hmm. You've got some predictions written up, I take it?”
“Chapters nine to eleven, yes.”
“Karella, please make her stop.”
“Stop what, Boris?”
“Making me drool with anticipation. How long will it take to get the Mars Council's agreement on this extra clause?”
“Depends on how convincing your letter is to them, Boris.”
“Me?”
“You're the official university representative, after all.”
“OK. I'll get writing. Any test equipment needed, Heather?”
“Yes.”
“Anything we don't have on Mars?”
“Not sure,” Heather said, non-committally.
“Why not?”
“Because I don't know exactly what dangerous toys there might be in that underground store-room you get to after you go through the security gate and turn left rather than go into the reactor building. All I know is I wasn't allowed to touch anything when I was six or eight, and there were an awful lot of dangerous things in there back then.”
“What do you need?”
“The sort of thing you probably don't admit to sneaking out of Atlantis in front of your monarch, uncle Boris.”
“Oh,”
“Boris?” Karella asked dangerously.
“Research purposes only, your majesty.”
“Is it still there?” Heather asked.
“Is what still there?” Karella asked.
“Nothing there aren't enough of here in Atlantis, your majesty.” Heather said, giving Boris another chance at answering.
“Do I need to remind you two that I could just lift the idea from your skulls?” Karella asked.
“Of course not, your empress-ness,” Boris said. “I'd been wondering about the stability of the antimatter batteries as they reach depletion, and I had a nice safe testing ground, so I ran a few tests.”
“Hmmm. And you didn't think I ought to be consulted?”
“I discussed it with some others at the Academy. We felt that it was perfectly OK, but some people might find it worrying to think I was concerned about them. We didn't want to add to your worries, beloved monarch.”
“Hmmm. Very smoothly deflected. And are they stable?”
“Perfectly,” Boris said and then turned to Heather “Why do you want an antimatter battery for testing your bubbles?”
“Because I don't want to bless the solar system's military with a gamma-ray laser capable of dismantling atomic nuclei, but one method is to do interferometry of a powerful gamma-ray light source, ideally a point source, very close to the field generators.”
“You want to throw antimatter around as a light source?” Boris asked.
“I'm open to other suggestions. My calculations say that ideally I'd have a photon energy in the giga-electron volts range, from as close to a point source as is possible, a bit closer to the bulk of the generator than the field spikes are, and a perfectly reflecting cone about a centimeter away. That way we could do some real-time detecting of the bubbles coming and going. Like I say, a gamma-ray laser could do it, assuming we could fire the thing through some kind of hole in the generator, and had some kind of sub-atomic lens or pinhole to shoot it through, and assuming that lens didn't get blasted into vapor by the disintegrator beam.”
“Don't look at me,” Karella said to Boris. “All I understood is that she's thought about this and decided antimatter is safer, heaven help the pair of you. Just don't tell me when you're planning to wander the streets of the city carrying some more of the defused bombs under your arm, Boris, that way I'll sleep better.”
“Did that ban on storing antimatter ever get passed by the United Nations?” Boris asked.
“No one is allowed to store antimatter for any military purpose, including self-defence. For peaceful purposes, it is allowed as a fusion initiator in a device where the total energy value of the antimatter is less than the fusion energy generated in one hour of normal operation of the device.”
“So the antimatter batteries are banned,” Heather said.
“The antimatter batteries are a banned technology on Earth, in the sense that no one except us is allowed to have control of one and Atlantis is not allowed to recharge them or make more.”
“But Mars hasn't banned them?” Heather asked.
“According to Ruth, someone suggested to the Mars Council that they might want to use them for something some day, for instance deep-space research, and they were convinced.”
“Oh good,” Heather declared.
“Its a risk which Mars has decided to accept. The ambassador of the Federal Kingdom said that not being worried about the military risks showed 'Mars was committed to a different path, with ethnic or national differences put aside and a planet-wide government that the United Nations had only ever dreamed of.' Personally I think that was a hint that China, India, and Russia ought to stop assuming their people would continue to obey instructions from home.”
“Probably,” Boris agreed.
Heather focussed on another aspect. “A different path indeed. Mars might reach the stars; I'm relatively sure it's going to take a lot of energy to make a bubble of space around a spacecraft. And no, I don't know if that energy might ever be recovered or if it ends up as a nasty surprise for someone's sensitive telescope.”
“Lots to investigate, isn't there?” Boris said, enthusiastically.
“Well, Academicians, I won't keep you,” Karella said, “Boris, you need to go and convince the Mars Council to let the Restored Kingdom play their role, and Heather, I understand you've got yourself an invitation at the palace there.”
“So I hear, yes.” Heather said, not sure if she was nervous or excited.
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