The Ripple in Space-Time: Free City Book 1 (The Free City Series) (9 page)

Jana studied the others with
dismay.

Her gifted assistant Erik seemed
to have suffered some sort of breakdown; his terror-stricken eyes leapt around
with swirling incomprehension. A chubby teenage intern stared pleadingly at
her; the poor fellow had arrived at the Lab about a week before the
catastrophe. The last of the miserable lot was Ramesh, a haphazardly grad
student who had helped out with her research. He grinned briefly in recognition
as he was pulled roughly past her.

The old pirate prodded the
shackled newcomers into a tight group around Jana.

Boz appeared at the hatchway and
nodded to Gristle,
“
It
’
s ready.
”

The Captain rubbed his chin
hesitantly before operating several switches on the control panel. An alarm
sounded for several seconds before a faint whirring pervaded the
Butin Belle
.

When a green indicator flashed,
Captain Gristle looked up at the hapless hostages,
“
With that task complete, we can get on with other misdoings.
”
He surveyed the tattered group.
“
I hope that the cruise has been
a pleasant one.
”

“
Well....
”
Ramesh started.

Jana shook her head in alarm and
he stifled any further comment.

Gristle glared at the man before
continuing,
“
You are now slaves and you will be treated as such.
Misbehavior on your part will result in torture or death.
”
He balled his fist and struck Ramesh hard in the stomach.

The young man doubled over in
agony.

The others watched in horrified
silence.

“
Shortly,
”
Gristle continued,
“
you will be transferred onto the
Xenon Lightning
where you will
beginning producing several items required by our employer.
”

Bosco chuckled cynically at the
hatchway.

The Captain stared ominously at
Jana,
“
I expect nothing less than your full cooperation.
”

17. News Item: New speed standard
announced

Dateline: 6th of July, 2445; Free City, Earth

With spacecraft speeds climbing
ever higher and a confusing hodgepodge of systems to measure that velocity
still persisting from the early days of space travel, The Free City Standards
Committee has announced a new and definitive benchmark for indicating
spacecraft speeds.

Upon the hoped for universal
adoption of the standard, gone forever will be such arcane and archaic
nomenclature such as kilometers per second, knots, parsecs per year or even the
ancient miles per hour still used in the backwaters of the Outer Reaches.

After years of exhaustive study
and no small amount of machinations, the Committee announced that the standard
of spacecraft speed measurement will be Astronomical Units per year or more
simply AU/yr.

Some variation of Astronomical
Units have been used by Astronomers since the time of the ancient Greeks.
Nearly all young students of the sciences in Free City know that an
Astronomical Unit is the approximate mean distance from the Sun to the Earth,
or a little less than 150 million kilometers.

The new system easily accommodates
the leisurely lunar escape velocity of 0.8 AU/yr, the customary traveling speed
of most space freighters at about 16 AU/yr and the blistering velocities of the
newest fast interceptors of over 45 AU/yr.

If approved by the Warlord
Syndicate and the Free City Spacecraft Authority, the new standard will take
full effect by the 9th of April 2450.

18. The ripple
“
There
’
s one,
”
Dr. Carla Stuhr pointed to the dappled and brightly colored image on
the monitor.

Lev nodded,
“
OK, I see it.
”

In the dimly lit basement
workroom, both Ryo and Keira strained to detect the indistinguishable
irregularity.

Finally the old Investigator
shrugged,
“
You got me, what are we looking for here?
”

“
Now I lost it,
”
Carla admitted sheepishly. The
fledgling Gravitational Astronomer adjusted the sensitivity and the image
exploded into a chaotic mosaic of vivid specks. She gently manipulated the controls
until the countless colored dots merged into larger irregular splotches.

“
There, that
’
s better.
”
The tall brown haired scientist turned to the visitors in triumph, “I
bumped into Lev several days ago and he mentioned that he was helping out with
your investigation of the Lab disaster.
”

“
I told Dr. Stuhr that we weren
’
t having much luck tracking down the pirates who were apparently at the
Lab just before the explosion,
”
Lev interjected.

Carla laughed girlishly,
“
It seems so strange when you call me Dr. Stuhr, sweetie.
”

Lev blushed.

“
How is it that you two know each other?
”
Ryo asked.

Keira rubbed her forehead in
distaste at the nauseatingly flirtatious pair.

Carla grinned,
“
We dated for awhile, then I moved in with him for about six months. It wasn
’
t particularly serious.
”

“
Why am I not surprised,
”
Keira muttered
to herself.

Lev kissed Carla
’
s cheek;
“
She finally traded me in for someone else.
”

Ryo spent several seconds studying
each of the three young people in room,
“
Alright then; back to the matter
at hand. Please explain the significance of the abstract art on the screen, Dr.
Stuhr.
”

“
What we’re looking at is an enhanced false color image of
gravitational waves propagating through the Solar System.
”

Keira grimaced,
“
Gravitational waves?
”

“
The physics involved is really complicated,
”
Lev admitted.
“
Mmm, you need to know something
about Space-Time for this to make any sense.
”

“
That
’
s true,
”
Carla nodded,
“
I
’
d forgotten that
most people have never heard of it.
”

Ryo and Keira shared the same
befuddled look.

Lev smiled,
“
It
’
s not that bad, Albert Einstein was remarkably good at
using simple analogies to explain parts of the theories of relativity. So
imagine a bed sheet pulled tightly over a frame.
”

Ryo tipped his head slightly and
Keira frowned.

“
This could be an overly simplified two-dimensional version
of four-dimensional Space-Time. If we place an object like a bowling ball on
the fabric, the mass of the object bends the sheet just as a star or a planet
‘
bends
’
Space-Time.
”

“
I suppose that makes sense,
”
the old
Investigator stroked his chin.

“
A small object like a asteroid barely bends the fabric,
”
Lev continued,
“
a really massive star creates a
significant distortion that extends far beyond. Gravity is the bending or
warping of Space-Time.
”

“
What does this have to do with gravitational waves?
”
Keira scowled.

“
So far, in the sheet analogy,
”
Carla chuckled,
“
our bowling ball is at rest. Out there in the Universe,
everything is moving.
”

“
This is my favorite part,
”
Lev grinned.
“
If I nudge the bowling ball and it rolls around on our tightly stretched
sheet, it bends the fabric around it as it moves causing distinctive waves or
ripples that effect anything that is nearby. If it passes near a smaller ball,
the little guy will fall into orbit around the bigger one. The same thing
happens in space with stars, planets and moons; even galaxies. Moving objects
with mass cause ripples in Space-Time that we can detect as gravitational
waves.
”

Ryo slowly smiled,
“
OK, I see how that works.
”

“
For centuries,
”
Carla tapped idly at colorful
image on the display screen,
“
we knew that gravitational waves
existed, but they are so faint that we couldn’t detect them.”

“Just in the last thirty years,
”
Lev interjected,
“
the University finally developed
a really good Gravitational Observatory satellite which peers down from way
above the center of the Solar System. The equipment in the Astronomy Lab
filters out the nearly overpowering gravitational waves from the sun, the
planets and all of the larger moons, leaving just the small and really strange
stuff that zips about through space.
”

Carla smiled in triumph,
“
That
’
s what I work with as the junior researcher for the Solar
System Gravitational Anomalies Project.
”

Ryo shook his head in confusion,
“
I still have no idea of how this connects to our investigation.
”

“
I
’
m sorry,
”
Carla apologized,
“
Lev has a way of knocking me off
track. As we just talked about with the sheet analogy, when mass moves through
Space-Time it causes a distortion or bending that we see here as a ripple; the
higher the mass and speed, the bigger the ripple or wave. Currently our
research group is looking at the high speed and high mass exosolar particles
that constantly stream through the Solar System.
”

Lev interrupted the Astronomer,
“
Tiny fast moving bits of really heavy junk that get spit out of big
stars when they explode.
”

Keira squinted at the brightly
colored screen,
“
Is there much of that stuff whizzing around?
”

“
There are always some massive particles. If a star
supernovas in our section of the galaxy, the constant trickle turns into a
torrent for a few weeks.
”
Carla
’
s fingers glided over the speckled screen,
“
We can
’
t detect high speed electrons or muons, mainly because
their mass is so low, but we can spot nearly anything else, especially if it is
moving at more than a couple of kilometers per second.

Ryo scrutinized the image,
“
What
’
s that little trail?
”

Dr. Stuhr glanced at the monitor,
“Judging by the color and the slight curve of the tracing, I
’
d guess it
’
s most likely a few alpha particles that are zipping along
at about a third of the speed of light. We can request a detailed velocity and
mass analysis if you want to know for sure.
”

“
I think we
’
re OK,
”
Ryo smiled at the scientist.
“
What is it that you found for
us, Ms Stuhr?
”

“
Ah, I recorded a peculiar observation about a month ago,
”
Carla summoned a new image to the screen,
“
I was right in the middle of a transitional metal ion study at the time,
so I saved it for future scrutiny.
”

A fuzzy and slowly moving group of
a few sparkling yellow and orange specks produced a noticeable wrinkling of the
surrounding gray and brown mottled background on the display.

“
This is not normal,
”
she assured them.
“
None of the other researchers has ever seen anything like it. The tight grouping
of the dots and the relatively slow speed suggests that this is a spacecraft
carrying a small quantity of unusually dense material.
”

“
Maybe it
’
s a bulk freighter loaded with
Uranium?
”
Keira wondered.

“
It seems to be a much smaller ship with just a tiny amount
of stuff onboard that
’
s really heavy.
”

Lev tapped at the brightly
shimmering cloud on the screen,
“
What
’
s the density of these little guys, Carla?
”

She toggled the controls to freeze
the image and several numbers appeared next to the splotches.
“
This one has a density of about 32,000 grams per cubic centimeter and is
moving along at 120 kilometers per second.
”

“
Wow!
”
Lev exclaimed.
“
I recall that Uranium is only about 19 grams per cubic centimeter.
”

“
What is this then?
”
Ryo pondered.

“
Could it be a cluster of mini black holes?
”
Lev guessed.

“
No, that would be so rare as to be unheard of,
”
Carla concluded,
“
even the smallest black hole
would warp Space-Time much more than these things. The gravitational effects
upon everything in the Solar System would also be quite noticeable. This is
something else.”

“Neutron-degenerate matter maybe,”
Lev asked hopefully.

“Neutron what?” Keira asked.

“The super compact material that
makes up Neutron stars, and no it’s considerably less condensed than that.”
Carla made several calculations and frowned, “The density of this particular
speck here works out to be roughly equivalent a grain of sand with a mass of a
bowling ball.”

“So it’s probably some really
weird super heavy ordinary matter,” Lev nodded.

Ryo squinted at the fuzzy image,
“I believe that’s what they were cooking up at the Ultra Energy Lab.”

“Exactly,” Carla smiled, “that’s
why I thought you’d be interested in this information.”

“Where was this load of strange
and possibly stolen cargo headed?” the old Investigator asked.

“Unfortunately we only captured a
few hours of observations weeks ago and we haven’t seen anything since, perhaps
because they’ve stopped moving; I’d guess the Asteroid Belt in the vicinity of
Lutetia.” She tapped her fingertip against her forehead, “But they could be as
far away as Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids at this point.”

“Thanks, it’s not much to go on,”
Ryo sighed.

The warble of a communication
device interrupted the group discussion. Lev stared at his display in disbelief.

“What is it?” Keira asked in
concern.

“It must be a joke,” Lev frowned,
“although I’m not sure who would be this cruel.”

Ryo gently twisted the taciturn
man
’
s hand around and slowly read the short message aloud,
“
LEV...I...ON...BU...BEL, MA.
”

Lev squinted his now misty eyes.
“
It
’
s my mom,
”
he stared at the tiny screen
with growing resolve,
“
she
’
s still alive!”

Ryo pried the device from the man
and methodically checked the particulars of the cryptic dispatch, “It was sent
about twenty-five minutes ago from an unidentified source somewhere near the
boundary of the Outer Reaches.”