Caltraps of Time (12 page)

Only the more active and enterprising workers such as the sea-farmers, and the higher brainworkers, had more freedom of movement, space, and occupation, and more choice of food. Naverson, at Direct Parameter Control, was one of those. Whether it was the undoubted genius with which he had started (he was a postgraduate of dazzling promise in the late 1960s) or the stimulating effect of the accident, or that of the cerebral pummelling he had sustained at the glossopsychic centre where they had imprinted in him understanding of the language, or all three, his examiners found him really capable of appreciating all the relevant advances from ad 1972 to 2346 in subatomic, subelemparticle (quarkic), subquark and hyposubquark physics. He discovered that the glossopsychophysiologist (who naturally knew nothing outside his own sphere) had been wrong in attributing his time-shunt merely to subquark events — it could not be due to anything grosser than hypo-subquark phenomena ... The little old man he never saw again; he was, in effect, nightwatchman at the old accelerator, nowadays automated.

Most of Naverson’s new colleagues, in any case, came equally fresh to the ideas of Direct Parameter Control, or DPC as it was coming to be known. A formal introductory oration, or Pip (i.e.
Pep)
as it was called, ran somewhat as follows:

‘Now, sports, DPC takes over where complex gross physical control too costly or too imperfect. Momently we feel our way, but expect expand into many subdepartments. Statistical assemblages normally poor fields, molecular operations good, genetic material best; organisms and small living groups fair. Usual attack via subquark domain. “Direct” misnomer. Shunting quarkwise, subquarkwise, affects parameters. Each sub-department to have four hyposubdeps: Parameter Assessment, Research, Application, Public Relations. In practice many of you will work in several. General questions?’

In a few months Naverson found himself assigned to the budding subdep. of Ageing Control (AC, ‘Adjung Kindrurw’). His role finally settled into that of a researcher, with excursions into Application and PR.

‘See,’ he was explaining to a friendly pubhealth man two years later, ‘geriatrics failed, unable increase life expectancy over 18 per cent, active life over 12 per cent. Direct parameters now target. Relevant parameters in ageing show in three quasi-dimensions as variety of helix. Organism enters at conception on broad base, spirals upward on time axis at constant gradient, and inward as on a cone/dome towards literal
point
of death, on slope peculiar to itself

‘Why spiral, why not straight line?’

‘Straight line no end. Cyclic returns of the spiral correspond cyclic effects of internal/external environment, for instance annual. Comparative circumference-length corresponds comparative subjective and physiological time.’

‘You mean, long long hours of infancy?’

‘Exact. Childhood hours pass like adult weeks, years flash by more and more swift towards old age, healing-times meanwhile lengthen; hence spiral inward, circumference shortens. At zero diameter zero circumference, healing infinitely slow, subjective time infinitely swift, death ... Width of individual’s life’s base and general slope of cone go with genus, species, variety, genes. Also affected by conception-environment, gestation, radiation, disease, accident. Mild radiation shrinks diameter, disease tilts cone in domewise, accident pushes dome in nattish; recovery swells it out. Cylinder up time-axis would mean immortality!’

‘How 22nd Century would have welcomed this!’

‘Yes, you mean when computers assessed individuals’ health factors yearly, produced graphs and per-cent chances different death-causes different years ahead?’

‘Exact. Tense cigarette-smoker aged twenty, for instance, given choice 5 per cent chance die senility at age eighty, 25 per cent death lung-cancer age sixty, 30 per cent bronchial fifty, 25 per cent coronary forty, 10 per cent gastric cancer thirty-five, or 5 per cent vehicle accident twenty-five. Panics, suicides, druggery.’

‘Now seek directly affect viability, prolong life, cheat computer!’

‘What classes personnel?’

‘Managers, directors, government chiefs. Later top brain-workers?’

‘How attack?’

‘Three possible: widen cone-base, steepen cone-side, flatten spiral pitch. First trying widen cone-base (conception); small animals. Subquark-wise. Subradiate parental gonads. Hope ready selected managerial-caste parents in year.’

What percentage time-increase?’

‘First 10 per cent age increase? Hope later cumulative 5 per cent increase each generation from single dose, if trick find-able.’

‘Useless
general
population, longer life unendurable!’

In any case it was not to be. Research on the cone-base method produced feeble flies, overgrown tadpoles, foetus-like mice, sub-infantile baby monkeys after long gestations. The mouse-mothers and monkey parents that survived the pregnancies neglected their offspring; those grew up socially twisted, and lived their 110 per cent life-spans a misery to themselves and a torment to their mates.

Builth, now head of the subdep’s Research branch, was switched to cone-angle steepening, on which the Parameter-Assessment boys had now a full picture. Five years later he had the answer in the subquark domain: a tiny transmitter of subquarkons embedded in the pituitary as early as convenient, which would send its infinitesimal products through the organism and in a few weeks, it was expected, would affect genes and somatic plasm of every cell in the body, after which the transmitter was left in to function for life. No cumulative effect on later generations was possible this way, however.

Unfortunately they found that in 40 per cent of higher-animal experiments a psychopathic personality was induced if the transmitter was implanted in infancy. Implantation in adult life gave rise to mosaic effects, so that some cells persisted in ageing normally, and in up to 30 per cent of higher-animal individuals tried, these mosaics reduced the organism by its middle age to a distressing degree of malfunctioning, of which fits and cancers were only two of many manifestations.

‘Sports,’ said Naverson Builth formally to his research team, ‘now must try parameter three: helix gradient. DPC’s Director agreed switch our PA sports to gradient month ago.’

‘But this means hypo-sub!’ called out Eck.

‘Exact! hypo-subquark transoscillation necessary basis ... No harm start these lines now, sharpen our tools against Parameter-Assessment verdict day.’

Two years later the PA boys came up with the answer: all the known physical world was subject to the same pitch or ‘gradient’, the natural rate of time. Its connexion with entropy was complex, but the basic rate was fixed.

It took eleven more years, years in which Naverson lived, slept, and ate helix-gradientry, before his hypo-subdep found their answer:
infra
-hypo-subquark shunts were the only hope, for the fundamental structure of time lay in the i-h-s-q domain. Some amazing things came to light as a result of their researches. Mank Showk (Domenico Zhukov) was chatting to Naverson one day.

‘Sole reason we cannot see/hear Past is, recession-velocity
c,
therefore its signals undergo transfinite redshift, arrive with zero energy.’

‘What about Future?’

‘Not in being. Continuous creation of Time, expansion from zero-volume Present. Or conversely, Present advances into Future with velocity
c.
’

‘Explain: whither?’

‘Fourth space dimension. A moment eight and a half minutes ago is one astro-unit away along fourth dimension. A moment one year ago is one light year away along it.’

‘Then we shall never explore Future or Past?’

‘Not on supra-i-h-s-q levels. Not on any practical level probably, and not at all without fifty years’ grind.’

‘And no professional motive or money in present world conditions.’

In fourteen further years, with Naverson now in greying middle age, the solution was found, after a fashion: the experimental rats, surrounded by the palladium coils, were pushed into a 0.01 per cent natter gradient, as assessed by computer ... They simply vanished; they ceased to intersect with the rest of the known universe except instantaneously, and therefore imperceptibly ...

‘Flatch!’ called the Director on the visiphone to his opposite number in Population. ‘Our AC sports have hit a Wunkun for you.’ A Wunkun was the current term for a rewarding disaster, an ill wind that blew somebody good, an ugly duckling that was somebody’s golden-egg-laying swan. The name derived from the name of the head of the century-old expedition round Venus that had shattered half the planet’s surface, destroying itself in the process, and in so doing had made the planet landable-on and ultimately habitable.

‘Out with; I’m suicidal now: Earth’s only three generations from standing room. Riots, virus-epidemics increasing monthly. Like the 21st-century crash, but no solution this time.’

‘Visit, please: security.’

‘Right; in fifteen minutes till forty-five minutes convenient?’

‘Make twenty till sixty.’

‘Non-poss. Twenty till fifty?’

‘Right.’

When Flatch Bemp (i.e. Flotsham Bassompied) landed from Sahara, the DPC Director, Kulf (pronounced Kulluf) Gren (i.e. Kinloch Grattan) had a shot of lysergibenzedrine ready for him. ‘Now,’ said he, ‘I call Nevzen Bewce, dedicated man — he explains quick.’

Naverson Builth appeared in the secure internal visiphone screen.

‘Nev, this Flatch Bemp, Director Population.’

Naverson nodded, a subservient greeting in those days. Flatch twitched his left eyebrow.

‘Population may have use, your gimmick. Explain it.’

Naverson explained that, depending on the degree of shunt, any gradient desired could be given to the organism.

‘Steeper, too?’ asked Flatch.

‘Steeper too — ages
quicker,
flatter slower.’

‘How many gradients total?’

‘Infinite. Only limitations precision of infra-hypo-subquark gadgetry operation.’

‘In practice?’

‘Say 105 flatterwise, 108 steeperwise. Technically possible also produce zero gradient or negative gradient, respectively eternal life and regression to infancy (backward time), humanly pointless. 105 flatter but positive.’

Flatch spread his hands outwards, an outrageously extravagant gesture in that crammed and pressed world, but warranted by the moment and encouraged by his boost from the 1-b shot.

‘Eureka! How apply shunt?’

‘Chamber of coils. Any age.’

‘Size limit? Get in several together?’

‘Say 70 metres cube; 34 times 104 cubic metres.’

‘Get crowd in then?’

‘Possibly. Tell you in year perhaps.’

‘Eurekest! Select families from volunteers, promise lebensraum, shunt off; divide world population by 105 at least! Extend top privileges to all here, heaven on earth!’

A vast grin spread round his face ...

‘Understand, moment security, silence, death penalty.’

‘Rest of team?’

‘Temporary silence to lower echelons. Eh, Kulf?’

‘Right. You are Project X now. To remain here, Flatch?’

‘Exact, best remain here, channel to me via you, Kulf.’

‘Right.’

~ * ~

It took two years to establish the intra-coil limits. They worked on elephants and on sequoias (complete with roots), also on families of zoo bears, and goats (most land animals were in zoos or labs, except farm animals too precious to waste). The practical limit proved to be a 97-metre-diameter sphere. The gradient-density limit worked out at 10
⁵
x 2 channels for the flatter gradients, and over 10
⁷
for the steeper ones. Flatch Bemp found ethical objections to sending people into a gradient with a shorter life-span, and again to extending the life-span beyond 300 years (besides, how many would ever volunteer for outside these limits?). So he was obliged to be content with the least flat of the flatter gradients, which meant under 10
⁴
channels. Still, to propose to divide the world’s present population by nearly ten thousand was to give it a glimpse of hope.

‘If we can take them at that rate!’ murmured Naverson.

‘Does Flatch know what we’ll send into?’ twanged Mank.

‘Fowp’s best theoretician. He and Eck say each gradient manifestation same multigrade reality, gross physical world same in each. Just ensure good population density shot in, enough specialists, hydroponic equipment, soil bacteria cultures, ultrasonic crumblers, algae, fish-spawn — build up civilization in three generations.’

‘Fully voluntary basis, Kulf,’ said Flatch two rooms away; ‘we’ll appeal world-wide time-gradient emigration. Plenty volunteers, tough pioneers, independents, claustrophobes, crowd-haters. Ask full details. Computers assess potentialities, eliminate misfits, compose suitable shunt-manifolds, balanced gradient-populations. Details to include preferred life-span — of juveniles: parents to fit in or stay behind. Can’t give a tenner, a twentier and a fiftier same gradient and expect all three live same length!’ He chuckled fatuously.

Linked batteries of computer complexes worked out time-logistics and densities so as to give the minimum of hardship. Meantime Naverson’s boys (he was now in charge of the whole subdep X) had built a series of Shunters, one for each desired gradient. Human bulk transport was easy and they preferred not to disperse the project at this stage; besides, the emergent migrants were best concentrated in one spot whence they could fan outward and where they could hold pioneer councils.