The Rising(65)

Fear. Of facing an actual threat, at least within the realm of statistical probability, for the first time.

“I think you need to better explain whatever it was that bumped back,” said the fifth member of the Janus board, his voice grid dancing in the center of Donati’s screen.

“I would if I could, sir,” Donati told him. “But I’ve got to back up a bit more first. Laboratory Z was dedicated to finding more expeditious ways of exploring the universe.”

“And by ‘expeditious,’” Center interjected, “you mean—”

“Practical, given the limitations of space travel eighteen years ago as well as now. By the time Laboratory Z became operational, the logistics of mounting even a Mars mission were incredibly daunting. If travel to a planet within our own solar system was deemed infeasible, what did that say about the prospects of traveling light-years to reach new and potentially habitable worlds? My question is rhetorical because the answer was and is obvious. Working in conjunction with officials and scientists at both Goddard and JPL, Laboratory Z’s purpose was to explore alternative means of space travel.”

“Your report goes into some detail about wormholes,” said the lone female, still in the top right corner of the screen.

“Because, ma’am, that’s where we’d made the greatest degree of progress. Simply speaking, a wormhole is a postulated method, within the general theory of relativity, of moving from one point in space to another without crossing the space between. Picture a typical sheet of paper. Laid flat, to go from the bottom to the top you’d have to travel eleven and a half inches. But fold the paper in half and the top and bottom portions become connected with virtually no space between them. The overarching principle of a wormhole is to displace massive amounts of energy to create the same effect in space along the time-space continuum. To effectively shrink the distance of travel from light-years to distances of time and space that would be quantitatively comparable to the Gemini and Apollo flights to the moon.”

“But we can’t even approach or envision such technology now,” Top Left started, “never mind eighteen years ago.”

“Approach, sir, no, but we can envision anything. It’s what makes us scientists. And envisioning what is deemed currently impossible has defined NASA since the beginning.”

“You’re not saying you actually constructed a wormhole at Laboratory Z, are you?” asked the new voice perched in the center.

“We started, as we always do, with models. Miniature re-creations and simulations of what we’re actually striving to accomplish. It’s the way pretty much all of NASA’s greatest achievements have begun. And you are most correct in your assumption that we didn’t have the technology then or now to fold space over to create a wormhole. Let me explain how you’d build a wormhole if you had absolutely everything you needed to turn theory into practice. First, a disclaimer: Although Einstein’s theory of relativity forbids objects to move faster than light within space-time, it is known that space-time itself can be warped and distorted. It takes an enormous amount of matter or energy to create such distortions, but such distortions are possible, at least theoretically.

“So if the sky was literally the limit, you’d collect a whole bunch of super-dense matter, such as matter from a neutron star, enough to construct a ring the size of the Earth’s orbit around the sun. Then you’d build another ring where you want the other end of your wormhole. Next, just charge ’em up to some incredible voltage, and spin both of them up to near the speed of light. Of course, we weren’t capable of doing any of that back at Laboratory Z, but we were able to construct what was in essence a particle accelerator to at least mimic the effects and experiment with the possibilities. Even then we lacked the ability to generate enough energy to go through the door from the point of origin to the destination, but our particle accelerator proved able to build that door and approximate the aggregate amount of energy it would take to fashion at least one side of the doorway.”

“I don’t believe I understand the distinction,” said Bottom Left.

“Building a wormhole, folding space, essentially creates a tunnel, a void in space—actually, between space—that in the theoretical realm makes traversing impossible distances possible. Call it a bridge through space. We were able to figure out how to simulate that void and enter the space bridge, but not achieve the means to actually travel through it.”

“Without elaborating, though,” inserted the new voice in the center, “your report indicates that Laboratory Z’s destruction was directly related to hostile action from beyond our universe, this alien invasion you’re hinting at now. That would seem to be a contradiction, a discrepancy at the very least.”

“Not at all, sir. The key is the pattern of seismic-type events following an elementarily narrow, even microscopically contained, line of the Earth’s curvature. Eighteen years ago I uncovered this pattern but didn’t, couldn’t, grasp exactly what it meant.”

“Which was?” two of the voices asked at the same time.

“Someone had honed in on the precise coordinates of our bridge, essentially followed the directions we provided in quantum space. The pattern of events, I believe now, was emblematic of them breaking through, folding space over from the other side to complete that bridge and erect a tunnel through space.”