Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4) (29 page)

Agnes smiled easily, looking almost friendly. “Well, we used your Higgs Field research to confine the stuff. The solid metal ball you call a Thorne globe is just the Tech stuff that produces the Higgs Field that actually contains our WIMP Dark Matter.” She looked over to Max, then back to Archie. “Turns out the Higgs Field has a non-baryonic counterpart that works the same for Dark Matter as it does for normal baryonic matter. The tubular control circuits that make up the pyramidal frame around the Thorne globe are what projects a gravitational field to one direction. Which causes that gravity locus to pull a spaceship toward it. Hence the gravity-pull drive term.” She shook her curly brown locks. “Anyway, accelerating Dark Matter to relativistic speeds will result in annihilating impacts. With energy outputs on the side. Which must be Dark Energy based on the equations of Einstein, Casimir, Planck and others. So how will you prevent these annihilation events from blowing up your accelerator?”

“And my ship with it,” Zhāng said sternly.

“Yeah, Archie, what’s the story?” Jack had wondered the same during Archie’s talk at the fleet battle conference where he laid out his plan to use the accelerator to produce Dark Energy from the lightspeed impact of Dark Matter particles into other Dark Matter particles. Max had just said ‘details, details’. Now maybe he would learn the answer.

Archibald pushed back his unruly hair, pulled at his already loose leotard collar, and licked his lips. “Well, theory says the Dark Energy produced by these Dark Matter collisions will go out in all directions. Similar to how Dark Energy now inflates the universe uniformly. But as we all know, inflation of our universe does not reduce the strength of the Dark Energy within it. Which means more DE must be coming from somewhere.” The man shrugged. “Perhaps the DE comes from a meta-field surrounding the brane of this universe. As in the water that surrounds every bubble within the ocean. That fits the multiverse concept of metareality.” Agnes raised her eyebrows, a minute sign of impatience with Archie’s meandering around the issue. Which reaction made Jack feel . . . linked to her. Anyone who felt as impatient with Archie’s circumlocutions as Jack did had to be a fine person. “But my equations, which Max has cross-checked, say these Dark Matter impacts will not cause an explosion. They
will
produce gamma rays, neutrinos and Dark Energy. At a ratio of one baryonic energy emission to every 100 Dark Energy emissions.” The man, clearly used to speaking in long monologues to younger students, looked around. Everyone watched him with expressions varying from puzzled to confused to impatient. “So. Producing Dark energy will unleash some gamma rays and neutrinos, but not in biological harmful amounts. Ninety-nine percent of the collision output will appear in the form of Dark Energy. Which even now permeates our universe at a density of 10
−30
grams per cubic centimeter. And it does not harm us now. Or do anything bad to normal baryonic matter like stars, planets and galaxies.”

Jack gave a sigh. “Archie, translate. How the fuck can you
direct
this Dark Energy output in one direction, versus universal dispersal?”

The man’s brown eyes scanned quickly all the faces at the table. He frowned. Then gave a loud “Oh. Isn’t it obvious? I will use the non-baryonic Higgs Field now used by Agnes’ people to confine Dark Matter to similarly confine Dark Energy. With a single output direction. Which is the end of the DE Projector. Wasn’t that clear?”

Jack closed his eyes. Around him came sighs. Plus a chuckle from Max. Who had to have known these details but had failed to inform his captain. He opened his eyelids and fixed on Zhāng. “Fleet Commander, it sounds to me as if it will be safe to install this accelerator on the hull of your ship, power it with your third fusion reactor, and let this DE Projector thingie do its job. Agreed?”

Zhāng nodded slowly, then gave him a worried look. “Must I have this . . . this professor aboard my
Nimitz
? While this Dark Energy Projector is working?”

Jack understood. Gareth had barely coped with having Archie and Matthias Binder on board his ship as the two converted the
Dragon’s
accelerator from neutral particle emissions to antineutron antimatter emission. He guessed that history had made its way to Zhāng. Whose professional manner now looked fragile. “Well, uh, yes. Professor Archibald has to be onboard your ship to monitor the Vesta accelerator’s functioning and output.” The woman winced. “But Archibald will be under the direct guidance of your Weaponry Chief!”

The woman who had organized the system-wide collaboration needed to produce the first colony starship gave him a resigned look. “As you command, Fleet Captain. There is a spare roomsuite in my officers’ quarters. Will that be suitable for you, Professor Wheeler?”

The man who had just held center stage explaining to everyone how he could produce something no one had ever created before now lifted his reddish-brown eyebrows, scanned them all with puzzled eyes, then gave Zhāng a quick nod. “Of course it will suffice, Fleet Commander Zhāng. I thank you for your future hospitality. I thank you even more for the opportunity to use your destroyer as the platform for my DE Projector.”

Agnes had been following all of Archie’s particle physics chatter with a knowing look. Even the mention of the man’s planned use of her modified Higgs Field had not made the woman react. Now, though, she showed a slight smile as she looked to Zhāng. “Fleet Commander, will there be a spare roomsuite for me? I wish to accompany my accelerator on this mission to the stars.” The shapely woman gave a quick shrug. “After all, what do I have to manage here, if my accelerator is elsewhere?”

Archie looked shocked. Then pleased. He blushed deeply. “Agnes, your assistance will be—”

“We have the room, Director Cumberland,” Zhāng said before Archie could make an obvious fool of himself. A twinkle in her eyes made Jack suspect she was aware of the semi-romance that the two geniuses had going for each other.

“Romance among the starways is so nice,” Max chuckled, then looked his way. “Jack, Archie and I can take apart and reassemble this accelerator around the hull of the
Nimitz
. We can make its output end into a DE Projector. Placed above the ship’s nose, similar to the particle beam emitter on the
Bismarck
. That will take at least seven days. Which gives us the time we need.”

Jack waited. The man said no more. Were Archie’s mannerisms infecting his buddy. “Out with it! Why do you
need
that amount of time. Other than for building the Dark Energy thingie?”

His Drive Engineer grinned, looked down at his grease-blackened hands, then up. The man’s thick black eyebrows lifted. His wrestler-wide shoulders bunched up as the man leaned forward. Humor glinted in his gray eyes. “Have you all forgotten? Ship captains Vigdis and Helena have spent the last two months traveling 240 light years to check out whether the Dakto or Usulungun Hunter systems are actually the home system of the Arbitor T-rex dinos. Yesterday I sent them an encrypted neutrino message with all the details on upgrading the settings and algorithms of their Alcubierre stardrives so it will give them a speed of 40 light years a day.” The man now beamed openly. “No doubt they’ve already dropped out of their Alcubierre space-time bubbles, made the changes while in deep space, and are now back in travel mode. I compute that each ship will require six more days to reach their target system. Versus the two more months it would have taken under the old speed parameters.”

Jack swallowed hard. He had not quite forgotten about Vigdis Sturludottir of the
Hawk
or Helena Antonov of the
Grizzly
. But things had been busy lately. Especially as Nikola’s belly grew with the growth of their baby. Max’s news
was
a big deal. “Wow, Max. Thank you!” He looked around the table, including Cumberland in his scan. “People, this means we will know if either of these Hunter systems is the Arbitor system! If one of them is, then after we test out the DE Projector on the Megurk system, we can head for the Arbitor home system! Where maybe we can teach them a lesson about why every species should be able to explore space!”

Cassie clapped her hands slowly. “Brother, that is indeed good news. So. If one of the systems that lies almost 500 light years away from Sol
is
the Arbitor system, we go there. If neither is their home, we go to the Megurk system, kill its Isolation Globe, make contact with a juvenile star system people,
then
come home to Sol to await the arrival of the Arbitor.” His youngest sister pushed back her long, blue-black hair. She gave a nod to Max, then looked to him. At 22 she was 16 years younger than Jack. But her determination level was the equal of Maureen’s. Who was watching this new development like a mother eagle. “Right, brother?”

“Right, sister.” Jack looked around the table. “Anyone have anything else to add to these matters?”

Max, Archibald, Cassie, and Nikola all shook their heads. Maureen leaned forward from her station at his right. “I do. Once we kill this Isolation Globe, contact some juvenile species and then defeat the Arbitor ship, may I take the lead in mounting an armed boarding of that ship? Never did like lizards. And that giant dino is the biggest one I’ve ever seen.” She let show a look that shocked Agnes, made Archibald frown and left Zhāng to comment.

“Sister Maureen, I applaud your focus on a final result. But I suspect my admiral would hope his Mars Marines could assist in this boarding assault,” the Asian woman said in a dry tone.

Maureen sat back and crossed arms under her breasts. Which while not needing a bra were part and parcel of the woman’s muscular physique. Jack saw her lips quirk a bit. “Zhāng, that’s fine with me. We might need armaments more powerful than my revolvers and Maureen’s laser rifle.”

Zhāng gave a quick nod. “Truth. I have seen the
Bismarck’s
Marines practice with a shoulder-mounted recoilless cannon. Shoots a three inch wide shell at just under 3,000 feet per second.” She looked to him. “Fleet Captain Jack, do you think that portable artillery piece will suffice to pierce the hides of those dinos?”

Jack shook his head admiringly. “Zhāng, Maureen, you two ladies could conquer a planet just by your two selves!” He gestured to his right. “Combat Commander Maureen will lead such a boarding. She can be assisted by your Mars Marines, led by Lieutenant Mabry. But I will be there right behind her! With my fellow ship captains. Minna, Ignacio, Akemi, Júlia, Aashman and Kasun stood by me in the First Sedna Battle. They saved my hide. I’m sure they can contribute to the conquest of the Arbitor ship.”

“Which,” Nikola said quickly, “we must first capture. Ladies, gentlemen, this lady needs to visit the facilities. Quickly!”

Laughter and the sound of scraping chairs filled the room as various people stood up, offered help or gestured in the direction of the auto-toilet. Jack stood and bowed to her. “Milady, please attend to your business. When you return, we will all head for our second stop.”

Agnes Cumberland had not risen. She twisted in her chair to catch his attention. “Fleet Captain Jack, what
is
your next stop? Here on Vesta?”

As Nikola walked quickly toward the slidedoor leading out of the conference room, Jack turned to the institute director. Whose sharp brown eyes had not missed one psychosocial element of the meeting. “To do what should be obvious by now. To visit the Assembly Hall of Vesta Central, there to ask its delegates to vote for a Declaration of War against the Arbitor dinos! Later I will ask the same of the Mathilde Citizens Council. And from the Familia Prime on Ceres Central. Then I’ll seek similar votes by the Mars and Moon authorities.” Max, who had stood as Nikola left, now walked over to stand at Jack’s side. As the man had done ever since the killing of their first shipmates on the comet 1992 QB1. “People, I led our first two trips into the stars because it needed to be done. But now that all humans have worked together to launch the colony ship
Humanity
, I no longer wish to be a  . . . a solo actor on behalf of everyone. While I do act as a
consul
, making war against social carnivores and peace with the Aliens of the Freedom Alliance, I want buy in. I want the people of Sol system to understand we are all united in this battle!”

Agnes clapped her hands loudly. Then she stood, bowed and looked up to him. “Fleet Captain Jack, I was impressed with your declaration of the need for all humans to fight for a principle. At the send-off event. But now . . . ” the woman paused. Archibald had stood up when she did. Now, the Brit physicist put a hand on her shoulder, a clear gesture of support and caring. The woman blinked quickly. “Now, I look forward to joining your fight in the depths of space. Being the director of this place had been fun. Mentally stimulating of course. But as your Max knows, there comes a time for every person to get out and push forward the cart of history. I will lend my shoulder to that pushing!”

Jack breathed fast, his heart hammering. He’d spoken before crowds of thousands, before Aliens who had never seen a human, before despots and dictators. But his time here, now, with these people, made it all worthwhile. He bowed to the woman who was giving so much to his efforts. “Director Agnes Cumberland, thank you! And when you board the
Nimitz
, please bring with you the flag of your home nation. If that be other than the Belter flag of Sol and its planets. I’m sure Captain Zhāng will be happy to add it to the many flags that adorn the outer hull of her ship.”