Transmat World: Chapter 28
Deep space, approximately 1 billion miles from Harbinger, 5:03 A.M., Wednesday, December 8, 2145 A.D.
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Vince was on the beach in Mexico. He and Maria were saving Laura Dunworth from drowning, but the scene was frozen. Maria had been replaced by a dolphin with arms and the tail split into legs instead of a fin. The feet, if they were feet, hid beneath the water. Laura’s arm stuck out of the surf with fingers spread as if to say “Hi.” Flecks of foam hung suspended in the air. The sky was a cloudless blue and the sun bright without heat.
“Please forgive the previous clumsy attempts at contact. You are a difficult entity to find and keep track of, Vince Miller,” said the dolphin.
“I suspected someone was trying. So the post-docs from MIT were right about the Transmat-induced memory recalls. Who are you? You’re not going to tell me, ‘Thanks for all the fish’ are you?”
“No, and my name is … ” the dolphin emitted a series of sounds reminiscent of a Chinese string band, “but you may call me ‘Sam.’ I am a legal ambassador from a parallel universe. I don’t look like a dolphin, but it is an image you may be more comfortable with than reality. The universe I inhabit is being drained of energy by your Transmat devices among other transgressions. I was sent to request you refrain from their use or change the quantum entanglement frequency so that another parallel universe is a source of power. Otherwise, there could be dire consequences.”
“Why are you so sure it is our universe? How about the universe next door? I hear their physical constants aren’t quite right and they are behind on the rent. It could be them.”
“When someone uses a Transmat the energy is transferred into your universe from ours. Human thoughts and emotions bleed over in synchronous exchange and are broadcast throughout our universe. These signals are detected by receptor organs in our brains. We find these thought patterns and emotions quite distasteful. It is a common opinion we will all be insane before our physical universe is destroyed, but I digress. These signals pointed back to a small enough group of universes for us to sample each one until we isolated yours. The big job was finding the one entity that could actually do something about the problem. The development of a Transmat-induced communication capability cost a million times the equivalent of your Manhattan Project.”
“And what power source are you using to communicate with me?”
“We use your universe for that energy,” said the dolphin.
“What are the dire consequences? Being shanghaied and threatened every time I make a Transmat trip?”
“More dire than that.”
“And how long before our energy drain destroys your universe?” asked Vince.
“At the current rate, less than a billion of your years,” said the dolphin.
“I guess we better get crackin’,” said Vince.
“To be jocund about the demise of a universe is not considered polite among my galactic tribe.”
“If I change the quantum entanglement frequency, how do I know the new universe won’t have irked tenants with an even more direct approach than your culture’s?”
“There are more universes than stars in your galaxy. You will find one to suit your needs. I am not authorized to give you technology, but I can say you have the basic tools to investigate a parallel universe for yourself.”
“How do I know that what you are telling me is true? This could be the inter-universe equivalent of a practical joke.”
“You only have to look at the stakes involved to make a decision. If you agree to help us, your corporate ledger tally suffers a temporary setback; and if you don’t, your Solar System is destroyed.”
“That is dire. Since you put it like that, I will make the changes. It may take a few months to find all the current Transmats and update them, but it’s ying for yang. Your client must agree not to use devices that will drain our universe of its energy.”
“I am legally empowered to make that agreement, but the time frame you refer to is unacceptable. We have studied this issue. Transmat activity can be minimized within a week and all Transmats modified to the proper quantum entanglement frequency before they are put back into service.”
The dolphin creature did not blink, or glance away, or give any other sign he might be joking about this.
“Now you’re the one being jocular,” said Vince, trying to stay calm and keep the desperation out of his voice. “There is no way it can be done in that time frame. I’m not even on Earth right now. It will take a massive recall. I’ll be depending on other humans to come through on turning their Transmats in for adjustments, and that is after I figure out how to change the frequency.”
“In that case, I will give you two weeks. Three-dimensional moving holograms of this conversation will serve as a binding agreement. A copy will be given to both parties and a bonus to you for your successful cooperation. Apologies for the disturbing memory replay of your father’s death. It was not intentional.”
“Three weeks for 95% compliance,” said Vince, but the entity was already dissolving into a matrix of colored 3D blocks and fading from view.
“O … Th … eeks,” was the static-plagued reply as the dolphin-shaped mouth faded from view, leaving freeze-framed waves and a seagull with its mouth open, about to snatch a fish from the water, forever frustrated from breakfast.
In the most infintesimal fraction of a second Vince found himself back on the bridge of See Lurchin’.
“Flying flavors of fuck!” said Enrique.
“Uh-oh,” said Maria.
“Status,” requested Vince.
“Six tubes signaling damage. All other systems nominal except for an anomalous signal being broadcast,” said Enrique in a surprised tone.
“Cancel that signal. It could be a tracking signal left by our hitchhiker.”
The Harbinger of Light and Justice was a levitating jewel a billion miles to starboard.
“Weren’t we over there a flipping nanosecond ago?” inquired Julie pointing to the solar-system-sized space ship.
“We’re further away than when we first came aboard the See Lurchin’,” added Ernesto.
“We obviously ran into something the ship did not like,” said Vince.
“Worse than that, Boss,” said Enrique. “I received a scheduled time synch from Earth. We’ve been gone for 34 hours.”
“A day and a half? Shit. Okay, we’ve got high-speed video of that time period. Let’s take a look and find out what happened.”
“Could be a big problem,” said Maria.
“Why?” said Vince.
“The video for those 34 hours is less than a tenth of a second long,” said Maria.
“Play back in real time starting ten seconds before the event,” said Vince.
The ten seconds approaching Spoke Seven showed the skirmish with silver balloons popping up and confetti falling, strikemechs reduced to component pieces by missile hits. The last few hundredths of a second were a blur, so they slowed them down — way down. Only then did images of the spherical cavity and Maxlux appear.
“In that tenth of a second we transport to the inside of a spherical structure with several levels where we smack some alien creature, probably kill it, and then jump away when one of our porcupine needles detects an obstruction,” said Vince.
“I think it has something to do with the silver balloons,” said Ernesto. “They appear so quickly; it leads me to believe they are some kind of force field, a capture device with a trip wire.”
“You’re saying we spent 34 hours inside one of those things and no time passed?” asked Maria.
“If that is the case, perhaps this capture device clipped some of the tubes,” said Ookie. “You can check the beginning of that sliver of video to see if any tubes were damaged after we were released but before we contacted that unfortunate being inside the structure.”
“Which means something was quick enough to clip them off without activating the automatic jump mechanism or setting off alarms,” said Vince. “If that is the case, I would like to obtain one of those devices for study.”
“Not only is it quick, it preserved our momentum from the time it captured us until it was turned off,” said Ernesto.
“Let’s see that video feed again,” said Vince.
Knowing what to look for, they assessed the damage quickly.
An electronic roll call of all 7,500 tubular appendages revealed fourteen clean-clipped tubes. Six tubes with jagged ends were from the later impact. Now aware of it, they could see the unobtrusive blank spots on the OLED screen covering the inside of the ship.
“First we must repair the damaged tubes,” said Vince.
Enrique pushed a button and smaller diameter tubes capped with cameras and inside-out, sampling Transmats telescoped out through the hollow centers of damaged tubes to take their place.
“Done,” said Enrique.
“Let’s try to sleep for a few hours,” said Vince. “After all, except for a nap, we’ve been up for nearly sixty-seven hours. After that, we go back to Fat Boy and keep a look-out for silver balloons.”
Vince sat awake and alert, watching his crew’s blissfull sleep. That’s why he didn’t tell them about meeting an emissary from another universe with threats of mass destruction. He did not want to burden them with that right now.
He did not know whether to start back to Earth right then or keep on with the mission. It looked more and more like this artifact had something to do with the Hit. It might prove just as deadly to mankind in the long run as the fish people of parallel universe “X.” It represented a more real, tangible threat, but it was a dozen or so light years away. It had, however, been in the neighborhood thousands of years. That was time enough for small ships with powerful gravity propulsion systems to be in the Solar System wreaking havoc.
He decided they would spend another day exploring Fat Boy. If they did not find anything enlightening, they would head back with at least a week and a half to shut down all Transmats and change their quantum entanglement frequencies, whatever in God’s name that was.
Dad, I wish you were here now. I could really use your help.
