Moving Mars (38 page)

Ill have to, wont I?

Yes.

Then I suppose Im prepared for it.

Youre angry.

Not with you specifically, I said.

Leander unharnessed himself and stood. Im going forward for a better view, he said. We ignored him. He shrugged and took a seat out of earshot.

Thats not what I meant. Youre angry about our giving you so much responsibility.

Yes.

I wish we could have avoided it.

You wanted to change the universe, Charles.

I wanted to understand. All right, I wanted to change it. But I didnt want to make you responsible.

Thanks for nothing.

Charles drew back and looked away, hurt and irritated. The slate rested on his lap. Please be fair, Casseia.

You know, I said, fairness far from my thoughts at the moment, it was you who scuttled our first initiative on Earth. You Olympians. You made everybody so very nervous You put us under so much pressureand we did not even understand what you were planning.

Planning? He chuckled. We didnt know ourselves. Apparently the implications were more clear to people on Earth than they were to us.

Maybe, I said. Did you think you could do all this in a vacuum?

He shook his head. Vacuum?

Ethics, Charles.

Oh Ethics. His face reddened. Casseia, now youre being very unfair.

Dust unfairness. Do you know what this is going to do to us?

What kind of decision could I make? To back away from knowledge? Casseia, Ive tried to be as ethical and straightforward as I can. Our whole group has stuck with very high standards.

Thats why you worked for Cailetet.

They arewerehardly villains. As soon as Achmed Crown Niger came on board, we prepared to close up shop. And Cailetet actually helped us. With a push from Earth. Crown Niger was less concerned with what we could offer him than with satisfying his bosses on Earth.

You left when they cut funding.

We told them nothing even before that.

I smiled. Are you sure they dont have your results locked away somewhere? Before Crown Niger?

Its possible. But if they look over that material, they wont have a clue about what weve discovered since. It will be very misleading. We explored a lot of blind canyons, Casseia. Earth is still chasing up blind canyons.

For a few seconds, I had nothing to say. Then my anger collapsed and I shivered. Charles, arent you frightened?

He considered cautiously, looking at me. No, he said. Youve put our house in order, Casseiaor its on its way to being put in order. A responsible government

In its infancy, uncoordinated and frail and new. We dont even know whether the interim government can flow smoothly into an elected government. We havent tried it out yet, Charles.

Well, he said. I have faith in you.

In Mars? I asked, wrapping my arms around myself to control my shivering. He reached out to touch me and I gave him a withering glare. He pulled his hand back. Charles, youre giving us the power to destroy our enemies, and we dont know who our enemies are. Earth has very subtle means of persuading us and all youre offering is a sledge hammer!

Much more than that, Charles said softly. Huge supplies of power, remote control of resources. We are limited in significant ways, but that doesnt mean we cant defend ourselves against almost anything.

By threat, perhaps. You can convert matter to antimatter. Remotely. From a very great distance. With pinpoint accuracy.

He nodded.

We could fry Earths cities. Youve brought back the horror of the twentieth century.

He grimaced. Thats melodramatic, he said.

Do you think Freechild Dauble would have hesitated to abuse such power?

Charles said, I know that you will use it wisely. We would not have told you if I thought otherwise.

For a moment, I was speechless. I waved my hands and finally pointed a finger at him, not knowing whether to laugh or scream. My God, Charles, Im glad I made such an impression on you! Maybe I am a saint. But what about those who come afterfor generations?

Long before then, everybody will know. There will be a balance. Look, Casseia, this is irrelevant

I dont see that, I muttered.

Its irrelevant because the knowledge is here and it wont go away. His face fell into an expression of weariness. There is no peace, no end to the new and frightening in this life.

I bit my tongue to keep from saying, Philosophy comes late, Charles.

I know, he continued. Ive thought about this for years. What happens if we complete the theory, I asked myself, and find a way to get into the Bell Continuum. To manipulate descriptors. We all worried about it.

Leander came back and sat, looking between us. Do we have any agreement? he asked.

I laughed weakly and shook my head. Bad dreams, I said.

Charles said, O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

We think of that quote a lot, Leander said, settling into his seat. The universe is bounded in a nutshell. Distance and time mean nothing, except as variations in descriptors. Knowing that, we could be kings of infinite space.

And the bad dreams?

Leanders expression abruptly grew stern, even sad. Charles put me up front because I look the part and because bureaucrats respond to me better. That doesnt mean I can be circumspect all the time. Were in this together, Miss Majumdar. You can stand on your high mountain and accuse us of naivetnd intellectual hubris and tell us nothing we havent pondered a thousand times in private.

Dont assume, Stephen, Charles said. Casseia isnt so simplistic.

Leander controlled himself with visible effort, smiled brightly and falsely, and said, Sorry. I happen to think that focusing on bad dreams points to a lack of imagination.

Why didnt the President come with you? Charles asked. This should have taken precedent.

Theres a major problem. If she doesnt solve it, the cloth might unravel, and there will be no constitutional government to decide what to do with your work. She trusts me to tell her what happens.

Shes afraid, isnt she? Charles said.

I sniffed.

I saw it in her eyes, Charles said. Shes human-scale. Shes not comfortable with this kind of immensity.

I nodded. Perhaps.

What about you? Can you overcome your fear and look with a childs eyes?

Dont expect too much, too soon, Charles, I said.

The test area had been equipped with a temporary shelter for twenty people, built by arbeiters the day before. Four of the OlympiansLeander, Charles, Chinjia, and Roycewere present, Chinjia and Royce having flown in even before the shelter was finished to prepare their apparatus.

The landscape around the site was as barren as I remembered from vids seen in areological studies in second form. Melas Doras had none of the drama of the sulci, none of the color of Sinai, no fossils, no minerals

An hour after we arrived, the scientists we had chosen to witness the demonstration flew in on yet another shuttle. Ulrich Zenger and Jay Casares were avid supporters of the constitution, with impeccable academic credentials. They were professors of theoretical physics from the University of Icaria, an independent research school funded by six BMs. We were introduced in the shelter, and Charles immediately briefed them on the experiment.

The test bed itself lay beneath an unpressurized tent-dome. In suits, Charles, Chinjia, Royce, Zenger, Casares and I walked from the shelter to the dome. Charles removed a cylinder of pure hydrogen prepared and delivered by Zenger and Casares, and carefully placed it in a sling hanging from the apex of the dome. Zenger and Royce then brought forward a neutron counter and other equipment. Arbeiters recorded the preparations on vid.

What are we doing to see? Casares asked Charles as the final arrangements were made.

Youve studied our theory papers, and you understand what we claim weve done? Charles asked in turn.

Casares nodded.

Are you convinced?

Casares shook his head. Its fascinating, but I resist switching paradigms.

Is there any way your hydrogen-filled cylinder can produce energy?

In its present state, no, Casares said.

Were going to make it produce a great deal of energy.

We returned to the shelter, removed our suits, and joined Leander and Zenger in the equipment room. Here, once again, waited a broad steel table and the white thinker with no affiliation. Several small black boxes were connected to the thinker by optical cables.

Leander asked the thinker whether all the equipment was working properly. It replied, in a young mans voice, that all was well.

Charles sat on a stool beside the table. Our thinker provides an interface with a Quantum Logic thinker, also contained within the box. Both were grown on Mars, by Martians.

Who? Zenger asked, clearly interested in this development.

Myself, Leander said, and Danny Pincher. At Tharsis Research University.

This by itself is worth the trip, Zenger said. If the thinkers are stable and productive.

Theyre dedicated and not very powerful, Leander said. Danny and I are growing better ones now. Weve probably violated several laws by building them the way we have, but we needed QL control of the apparatus, and we exhausted all legal means of procuring a QL thinker.

Zenger nodded. Please go on, he said.

Some of our work was inspired by a pretty famous scientific mystery. Weve all studied the Ice Pit accident. That was almost fifty years ago. A Lunar scientist named William Pierce tried to reduce the temperature of a small sample of copper atoms to absolute zero. He succeeded, with disastrous consequences. Pierce and his wife were killed. One observer managed to escape, but he was badly injured. The Ice Pit cavern became an incomprehensible void.

Zenger seemed unimpressed. So what are you going to do with our hydrogen? he asked. Send it to Wonderland?

Weve never duplicated his experiment, Casares said. Its never been proven that absolute zero was reached. Something else may have happened.

We know that zero temperature was achieved, Charles said.

Zenger turned down his lips and thumped his fingers on the arm of his chair. How do you know?

No details for now, Leander said.

Were going to convert some of the hydrogen in the cylinder to mirror matter, Charles said. The reaction between normal hydrogen and mirror hydrogen will produce neutrons, gamma rays, and heat.

Lets do it, Casares said impatiently.

Charles sat beside the thinker. A control panel was projected above the white box. The thinker is fixing the descriptor coordinates for the sample, he said. The descriptors do not use absolute measures or coordinates. Every space-time descriptor is relative to the descriptors of the observer. In some ways, that makes our job easier. When weve located our sample, we can confirm by querying other descriptors, which will tell us what the sample is made of And well know were tweaking what we want to tweak.

You wont tell us how its done, Zenger said, pointing to the apparatus. But youre doing it, whatever it is, remotely Whats your maximum distance?

Thats not going to be discussed today, either, Leander said. Sorry.

Zenger turned to me, grim-faced. We cant make an evaluation if we dont have enough information.

Weve asked the group not to reveal certain facts, I said.

Zenger drew his chin back and shook his head. Youve called us in to give expert testimony, but by keeping us ignorant, you might as well impress a couple of chimpanzees.

Casares was less prickly. Lets see what there is to see, he said. If you produce energy from our sample, we have something interesting. We can debate secrets later.

Part of me had hoped for more drama. There was expectation in that little room, curiosity, skepticismbut very little drama. Charles did not try for emotional effect. Instead, he worked quickly and quietly with Leander. Both passed instructions to the thinker, and we were invited to observe.

The display above the thinker projected a 3-D diagram of the cylinder, filled with colors showing temperature gradients. The cylinder, Charles explained, was still cooling to the ambient temperature, about minus sixty degrees Celsius. The gas within churned slowly.

Charge is conserved, of course, Leander said. We cant convert charged particles except in pairs with particles of the exact opposite charge. Neutral atoms and molecules are ideal. The descriptors distinguishing mirror matter and matter are tied to other descriptors describing a particles spin and time component. We have to access these linked descriptors all at once. The result is a conversion that violates no physical laws. But since matter will meet with mirror matter, energy will be released.

And how do you change the descriptors? Casares asked.

Charles grinned almost shyly. Im sorry. Cant say just yet.

Zenger said, So what is there to evaluate? You might show us a splendid magic trick. Everything could be rigged

We hope you trust our reputations enough to accept that what you see is legitimate, Leander said.

We cant pass judgment without evaluating the theory behind the effect, Casares said, folding his arms. Science is about reproducible results. If only one group has done the work and gotten results, it isnt science. What Ive heard so far isnt encouraging.

Charles looked between us, clearly frustrated. Id just as soon tell you all there is, but for obvious reasons, its up to Vice President Majumdar.

I felt completely out of my element, but I could not afford to be indecisive. Key parts of the theory must be kept confidential, I said.

Charles held out his hands, What can I do?

Zenger and Casares shook their heads. Zenger finally waved his fingers as if dismissing me, but said, All right. I dont like it, but show us what there is to see, and well argue details later.

Thank you, Charles said. He nodded to Leander. Lets project the sample as our thinker sees it.

Leander touched the insubstantial control panel. A surface of peaks and valleys appeared, arrows dancing from peak to peak and finally settling on one, which promptly grew. A small red cube appeared, and within the cube, blue lines sketched the cylinder. Again the cylinder filled with colors, and within the colors, flashing numbers and Greek letters moved like bottled flies.

The QL thinker evaluates the sample, Charles said. Everything is in the hands of the thinker now. We should see energy produced within the sample in a few seconds.

We looked out the window; the suspended cylinder, beneath the dome, was not visible except in a vid projection. The room filled with a whine and distinct clicks and growls and howls. Atoms of matter and mirror matter meeting, Chinjia explained, adjusting the sound. Theyre bouncing around within the cylinder. The cylinders heating up, and Her finger traced a new graph on the display. Heres gamma ray production. We expect about ten percent efficiency, and of course some interaction with the bottle Neutron flux now.

So far, weve created about a trillion molecules of mirror hydrogen, Charles said. The reaction has produced about fifty-four joules.

That should be enough, Zenger said. There seems to be heat and neutrons.

Charles told Leander to stop the experiment. Leander touched the control panel and the red cube and graph disappeared.

Weve thought of ways to increase efficiency, Charles said. We can convert half of the molecules in the cylinder to mirror matter in a shape that interlocks with the normal hydrogen. The ambiplasma pressure will push fleeing molecules and particles into optimum configuration for further interaction. Ninety percent destruction would occur. But that would vaporize the cylinder and part of the apparatus and dome.

Zenger nodded. To the extent that we can make any judgments, it seems youve done something interesting.

Charles said, Well have an arbeiter remove the cylinder and put it in the back of the lab. You can examine it remotely.

Zenger said, I assume we cant take it with us?

All heads turned to me. It should stay here, I said.

Very exciting indeed, Zenger said flatly.

An arbeiter moved the cylinder to an isolation box at the rear of the lab. While Zenger and Casares looked it over, muttering quietly to themselves, Charles sat across from me in the dining booth. I forked through an uninspired bowl of nano food.

Bit of a letdown? he asked.

Not at all, I said, looking up with what I hoped was calm dignity. I didnt expect Trinity.

He smiled briefly. Youve been reading history, too. Mind if I eat with you?

I shook my head. He returned with his own bowl. I was nearly finished, but clearly, he wanted to talk.

Do you still resent what weve done? he asked.

Ive never resented any of this, I said.

No, he said, suspending his tone between statement and question. Its only going to get more stressful.

You said that years ago.

Was I right? he asked.

You were right.

He tasted the paste, made a face and dropped his fork into the bowl. Not the best, he said. Its a tradition. Scientists on Mars must eat stale nanofood. Something to do with creativity. Remember the terrible wine at TrHaut Mc? Im still sorry about that.

The wine, I clarified.

Not just the wine.

I leaned my head to one side, determined to avoid the subject, and pulled out my slate. Do you have any other demonstrations? This one

Isnt going to impress politicians. I know. We can vaporize Olympus Mons if you wish.

For a moment, I couldnt tell whether he was joking. That would be mature, I said.

Charles laughed and toyed with his bowl, tipping it with a finger. We can do a lot more. As Stephen said on the way here, we can build a super-efficient, high-acceleration mirror matter drive, better than the best Earth can make. We can install it in a standard Solar System liner and zip around like hornets. Make a planetary tour in months instead of decades. With a fully equipped engineering plant, we could put it all together in sixty or seventy days.

A ship like that would be very bright, visible across the Solar System, I said. How about something that wont upset Earth?