It should surprise exactly nobody to learn that Maynard was enthusiastic about the tests and he immediately appointed nearly half the minions to the task.
The unfortunate side effect of that was that I had to work with nearly a hundred other people as well.
Not something I was keen on, but I would survive it. For a while.
Regardless of my ‘eagerness’ to work in the big group, it was something that had to be done. At least in the beginning. When we had the basics figured out, I could leave all the boring iterations of the same experiment with minor variations to the minions.
Don’t get me wrong, I had nothing against working in a team with others. In virtual reality that is. The problem here was that I needed to be in the room together with all of them, and the sheer number of them. Nonetheless, I would survive it.
But as it was, I needed to be present on this fine Monday, May 27th, to at least start the proceedings.
The thing that I did not expect, though in retrospect I should have, was that Maynard let me explain what we would be trying to do and the basics of the experiments.
I was, honestly, a bit nervous, when I greeted the minions.
“Good morning. I am sure you are all wondering why Dr. Price has pulled you all from whichever project you were working on. To answer that, he did it on my request.
To fulfill a request from Mr. Walker I need to develop a sensor system that can ascertain the molecular composition of objects from a distance.”
When a few of them began to look a bit confused, I shook my head and continued:
“And no, a simple spectrometric analysis will not do it. That only tells us what the surface is made out of. I need to look several meters deep.
I tried to adapt the GRT technology of medical scanners to this purpose. Until I remembered how the GRT works in the first place.
In the end, I put the work into the Seeberger Equation to find an alternative based on similar principles.
That worked fine until I ran into a bit of a problem. I reached a point where there were just too many variables without any values to continue.
Now there are generally two ways to go around that problem. The first is good old experimentation to find the values for those variables, and the second is trying to find the values somewhere in the Seeberger Equation.
I certainly won’t go the second route, so congratulations, you are all drafted to experiment on this technology.”
One of the minions, a man in his mid-30s of indeterminate ancestry spoke up.
“Uh…, sorry Dr. DuClare, but if I may ask, why do you so categorically refuse to find the values you need in the Seeberger Equation?”
I closed my eyes for a moment before I answered.
“Have you any basic understanding of the Seeberger Equation, Dr. Lopez?”
He had the decency to at least look embarrassed when he answered:
“Uh… I think I am nearly at the point where I understand how Q-links work.”
I could only smile mildly at that.
“That is no reason to be ashamed. As far as I know, there are only four people farther than you, and that includes me and the Phantom. But that is not what I was going for.”
I took a moment to think about how to explain the problem as clearly as possible. Then, after a deep breath, I nodded to myself and continued:
“Imagine the Seeberger Equation as the ocean. All the oceans of the world. You, and all the others who are at that point, are at the beach. You can see the ocean. You can smell it. Sometimes the surf hauls a few drops to you.
When I figured out how the Q-links work, I dipped my toes into the water. When I created the new grav coils, I got my feet wet. The neutron trap meant I was getting into it to my ankles, and finally, this new endeavor is me getting in halfway up to my knees.
But I am still pretty much on the beach as well.”
I took another deep breath.
“Now it is true, somewhere in the bowels of the Equation, we will find the values of the unknown variables we need. The problem is that it might be on the very next step into the water, or it might be anywhere else in the ocean.
The ground of Challenger Deep, or maybe it is somewhere in the Great Barrier Reef, or the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, or somewhere else entirely.
Searching for those values could take a day, a week, or decades, and we can’t even begin to estimate how long.
That means it is time for experimental physics to do its job and give us empirical data to at least narrow it down.”
Another of the minions, an Asian middle-aged woman named Virginia Fan asked confused:
“But… that will only be an approximation of the real numbers. How does that help us to get the real values?”
Fortunately, Maynard answered that question.
“We, or rather Dr. DuClare, has the best computer humanity has ever built doing the math on this. Even a rough approximation is enough of a starting point for Warden to narrow it down and arrive at the real values eventually.
Right now, we have nothing to start with though, so we need to have empirical data.”
Maynard took a step forward, and addressed the room:
“Now, are there any further questions about why we will do these tests? Or can we proceed to what we will experiment with?”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
After the ensuing silence went on long enough to be sure that no more questions were forthcoming, he nodded and turned to me:
“So… then why don’t you explain to them what you want to find out, Dr. DuClare?”
What a nice and in no way backstabbing way to put me on the spot…
Ok, fine, technically, it was my job.
I took a deep breath and then began explaining the project:
“Essentially, what we are trying to find out is how to measure gravity…”
I was, somewhat rudely, interrupted by Dr. Edwards, a Physicist.
“But… we already know how to measure gravity.”
I sighed while lifting an eyebrow.
“Sadly, you are wrong. What we know is how to measure the effects of gravity. It is telling that the unit for ‘gravity’ is in reality one for acceleration. We can infer the strength of gravity, to some extent, and we can detect the pure existence of gravity waves, but nothing more.
No, what we are trying to figure out is how to detect and measure gravity itself.”
That only served to make Dr. Edwards frown harder.
“But… why? What will we gain from measuring gravity directly that we don’t already get from measuring its effects?”
“Disregarding the pure quest for knowledge? You tell me, is there something that we suspect exists that only interacts with the rest of the universe through gravity?”
When I hinted about Dark Matter, he opened his eyes wide in astonishment, but I was not finished.
“Or maybe by measuring the gravity directly, we can get an approximation of the mass distributed in a certain region, like for example a solar system?
But in the end… what I am actually looking for is how matter resonates with induced gravity waves, similar to a GRT.”
One of the lab assistants, Ms. Burke, seemed a bit confused.
“But… don’t we already have the GRT? And if we can’t measure gravity directly, how do they work?”
“Current GRTs work by sending three gravity pulses perpendicular to each other into an object to induce a tiny electromagnetic pulse, which can be measured by the sensors around the object.
And therein lies the problem. To get three grav pulses perpendicular to each other, we have to surround the object with the grav coils.
If my calculations are even close to correct, we should be able to use just one or two gravity pulses to induce resonance in an object and measure this resonance directly.”
The young woman still seemed confused.
“But… what will we get from that? We already have the GRT. They work fine, and they have become relatively cheap.”
“What we will gain, as I have already mentioned, is the ability to scan objects from a distance. I can not yet predict the range we could get, this is one of the unknown variables we need to find out, but it should be measured in hundreds, maybe even thousands of kilometers. I am sure you can imagine some uses for something like that.”
That was greeted with agreeing murmurs from the crowd and after a few seconds with no new questions, I continued:
“Now, the Seeberger Equation, and the work I have already put into this tells me that certain materials will, especially hexagonal crystals, react to gravity inside their receiving radius by generating a small, but distinctive electromagnetic emission. A stable electromagnetic emission at that.”
I looked into several confused faces, and after a few seconds, Dr. Lopez tentatively raised his hand.
“Uh… sorry, but that can’t be right. Humanity has tested hundreds, if not thousands of hexagonal crystals to hell and back. If they would react in this way to gravity, we would already know that.”
I chuckled softly.
“You are right. We know a plethora of hexagonal crystals. But… they are all three-dimensional ones. What we need are five-dimensional ones. And so far, nobody has ever even seen one of those, much less tested them.
I had Warden calculate five-dimensional hexagonal crystals, and so far she has found nearly 2000 of them, from a simple five-D variant of Lonsdaleite to a complicated compound made out of carbon, hydrogen, iron, lead, and uranium with more than 36 atoms per molecule.
And she is not yet done, though she has slowed down considerably by now.”
Maynard took this opportunity to elaborate on the issue a bit.
“I know, the number seems insanely high, but it is not that bad really. We have enough people here to do several tests at the same time, and we have more than enough assistance from bots and VIs to allow everybody here to run a few of the tests simultaneously.”
He was, of course, right. Heck, I could, in theory, do all the experiments ‘on my own’ in a couple of months, if I seriously wanted to. Maybe three at the outset. But now it was time to continue the setup.
“the basic experiment setup consists of a mount for the crystal, with three 100 Keppler coils in a triangle configuration around it.
The coils are programmed to send a focused beam of five g at the target we want to scan. The target itself is a 25kg block of osmium. At least for the early experiments. Later we will change it out for various other materials and composites.
In the first phase, the goal is to find good configurations of sensors on the crystals.
The second phase will be ranking the various crystals that we managed to sense gravity with on their sensitivity to it.
The third phase will be to refine the configuration for the sensors.
The fourth phase will be creating a database of how the elements, and their isotopes, will show up on the sensors.
The fifth phase will be creating a working prototype for a functional gravity scanner.
After that, we will give it to the engineers to make into a fully fletched-out piece of equipment, though I will probably do some of that myself.”
Maynard moved forward towards a table in front of us, while a bot brought in the boxes that I knew would contain the first crystals, and addressed the scientists:
“Now, these are the first batch of crystals. We have decided on using 15cm long crystals with a diameter of 6cm. We think the final product will be significantly smaller, but this size will make it easier for us to work with them.”
Having said that, he reached into the box and began pulling out the first crystal, only to stop the moment the object in his hands was fully visible.
Honestly, I could not fault him for that, as I, myself was equally transfixed by the sight. Remotely I heard several gasps from the crowd as well.
What Maynard had in his hands was… insane.
He had grabbed the crystal on the top, the pure carbon example. It should have been a mostly transparent, vaguely brownish, utterly boring six-sided crystal, as that was essentially Lonsdaleite translated into the fifth dimension.
It was not. Neither transparent, nor brownish, and for sure not boring.
The inside of this crystal was a swirling kaleidoscope of colors and light, ever-shifting, almost hypnotic.
Despite this explosion of light, the surface of the crystal was a black so deep and dark, that it literally seemed to drink in the surrounding light. It made the famous super black pigments like Vanta-black seem gray in comparison.
And yes, I know that is a contradiction. That it should not be possible. Nonetheless, that was what I was seeing, what everybody in the room saw. It was unbelievably beautiful. It was an eerie beauty though. Otherworldly.
Some of you, those who had the opportunity to see it in person might notice that I essentially described DuClareite.
That is no coincidence, as that was exactly what it was, the first time any human laid eyes on it.
And before somebody argues, no, I was not consulted about that name, nor am I particularly happy about it. It was decided without me, mostly by Marcel and Michael.
Now, why did I emphasize that those who’ve seen DuClareite in person might recognize it? Because for some arcane reason, this eerie beauty was only visible in person.
Any camera, a picture, a video, even a CCTV, and it was just a deeply black crystal. Not quite as boring as Lonsdaleite, but not exciting in any way.
The exception to that was cybernetic eyes. Though they were for all purposes cameras as well, they still conveyed the full effect.
That gives me an idea, maybe this crystal was psionically active and projected the effect directly into the heads of the observers?
But back to the story. The thing was that this crystal held the attention of all present people for several seconds, maybe even a minute before Maynard broke free of his fascination and put it on the table.
The other 19 crystals in the box he pulled out were also quite mesmerizing, though not to the same extent as the pure carbon.
It still took us nearly half an hour before we could even think about getting along with the job and setting up the experiments.
After we had overcome the effect of the crystals though, everything started to work as planned.
I did not think that it would take more than a week to get a working prototype of a gravity scanner.
It was just a matter of time now.