The Oort Federation, page 32
Kimberly stopped talking, but her anxiety was apparent on her face and in her body posture. Say Yes! she whispered to herself, Say Yes! Say Yes! Say Yes! as she got to her feet, approached him, and kissed him deeply, pressing her body to his. She felt the tension leave his body as he kissed her back. She pulled away to see a broad smile of acceptance on his face. She stood and took his hand.
“Let’s go do it!” she said, excitement filling her voice.
Two weeks later, under the dome in the Federation Assembly Chamber with the expanse of the Milky Way splashed overhead, before the assembled representatives of the entire Solar System, the Honorable (and younger appearing) Federation Chairman John Butler exchanged troths with Kimberly Deveraux, who had never appeared more beautiful and vibrant.
Immediately following the gala reception, Federation Chairman John Butler and his First Lady stepped through a portal into the Boss’s office on Frohlic.
FROHLIC—OFFICE OF THE BOSS
John Butler stepped through the portal holding Kimberly’s hand, not knowing quite what to expect. The expansive office was utilitarian, with a large desk holding an array of electronic devices, a comfortable chair behind the desk, and several overstuffed chairs scattered around the carpeted floor.
John recognized the Boss sitting behind the desk from holoimages eThorpe had sent him. Gloalorn stood to the Boss’s right, his lips strongly pursed—the Asterian equivalent of a big grin. The Boss rose to his feet and held out his right hand. Obviously, Butler thought, Gloalorn has coached him in human greetings. He shook the proffered hand. The Boss turned to Kimberly.
Kimberly smiled, took his hand, and said in properly accented Frohlican, “I am pleased to meet you.”
The Boss indicated chairs, and they both sat. Gloalorn spoke to the Boss.
“Chairman Butler does not speak Frohlican, so I will translate.” He turned to Butler. “I will translate between you and the Boss.”
“Welcome to Frohlic,” the Boss said.
“Thank you for inviting me.”
“I regret the initial disturbances between our peoples when your starships first arrived. We simply didn’t know what to expect and anticipated the worst.”
Gloalorn spoke quietly with the Boss and then turned to Butler. “I told him that I would explain to you what happened when Masin and I arrived.” Gloalorn then related to Butler and Kimberly what he and Arcah had experienced when they attempted to contact Rogan and Frohlic.
“Your commander, eThorpe, appears to be an excellent, even-tempered officer—unlike my moon base commander.”
“I understand,” Butler said, “that you and he have reached an accommodation, and that Adrhun Gloalorn now functions as a welcome addition to your staff.”
“Indeed! Adrhun has been educating me on the differences between Frolic’s government and yours. Neither he nor I understand the Roganians, but we see many parallels between you and us. His strongest argument seems to be that our stable and enduring system has held our culture back, especially when compared to yours. I am astonished to see how far humans have progressed in only three hundred years.”
“Adrhun tells me that you have a dissident problem and that they have connected with Isidor Orlov.”
“That seems to be true, but Adrhun has told me about his experiences with Orlov. This man appears to be dangerous and definitely not under your control.”
“That’s a big difference between your world and ours. Like the Roganians, our people are free to come and go as they wish, to follow their own goals, so long as they don’t inhibit the same freedom for other members of our society. The government steps in when that happens, but not until then.”
“That seems chaotic.”
“It is sometimes, but it works well for us. eThorpe is addressing the Orlov problem. I will do what I can to keep things from escalating. By the way—eThorpe is not one of my commanders. He is his own master, entirely. The fleet is his; the crews are his, although I did supply him with some security personnel in case he needed them. My and Kimberly’s presence here today is courtesy of eThorpe. He thought your people and ours would benefit by you and I meeting, getting to know one another somewhat, and even establishing the beginnings of a peaceful cooperation between our peoples.”
“From the short time we have been together,” the Boss said, “he appears to have been correct.” He pursed his lips. “Would you be available to speak to my advisory council?”
“I would.”
“Now?”
Butler looked at Kimberly, who nodded with a smile. “This is what you do,” she said quietly.
The address went well. Kimberly and Butler sat at one end of a long, oval table next to the Boss. The advisors filled the rest of the table. Kimberly didn’t speak at first, but at least half the time was filled with questions from the Frohlican men and women who seemed eager to learn more about humans and their way of life. The females recognized in Kimberly someone who saw the world more as they did and so directed some of their questions to her. Kimberly’s answering them in Frohlican was a big hit.
At the state dinner that followed the address, Kimberly found herself much more at the center of attention than Butler. Butler didn’t seem to care, so Kimberly basked in the attention. When I made my commitment to John, Kimberly thought, I really didn’t consider the range of things it appears we will be undertaking. She let her thoughts drift back. I was a budding journalist across the hall from Daphne—my deepest love until John. Then Thorpe landed in our laps. She fast-forwarded to the present. And now here I am, First Lady of the Solar System, at a state dinner with my John, honoring the most significant foreign head of state in all of human history. She shook her head in amazement and crinkled her nose. Then she sighed and slipped her hand into Butler’s.
The Boss and Butler came to their feet. Kimberly and the rest of the guests rose. As they crowded around the human couple, Kimberly thought, This might just work out after all. She rose on her toes and kissed Butler’s cheek.
Kimberly felt something soft against her leg. She looked down to find Maxter doing his best to catch her attention.
“Come here, Big Boy,” she said as she picked him up.
With nearly human squeals of delight, the Frohlican women recognized Maxter for what he was, a beloved pet. They passed the purring feline around the group, several asking how they might obtain one for themselves.
“Cats are probably the most independent creatures on our homeworld,” Kimberly explained. “You don’t own them; they own you. Now that Maxter has met you ladies, he’s certain to come for a visit from time to time. He already knows virtually every interesting portal in the Solar System. The path here was new. That’s why he’s here. I’m certain you will see him again.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
ROGAN—GENERALLY
Thorpe and Braxton once again found themselves working closely together. Their mission was to gain a working understanding of Rogan and its bewildering culture. Thorpe, in particular, had struck up a friendship with Holon Mavik.
Humans tended to look alike to Roganians, but Mavik had been around humans for enough time now to distinguish easily between them.
“What’s with you and Braxton?” he asked Thorpe. “Are you two twins?”
With the door wide open, Thorpe commenced explaining the entire upload phenomenon to Mavik. He finished by stating, “The process upended our entire culture. Living space became a real issue. Braxton and I terraformed the fourth planet in our system, Mars. Then, people stopped having children—no need to replace yourself if you will live forever. It changed everything. People are willing to take larger risks—after all, death isn’t permanent anymore. We’re still discovering the implications.”
Mavik took Thorpe and Braxton on a tour of various areas of Rogan. From Braxton’s perspective, it was not at all obvious how things got done on Rogan.
“I can see this automated factory,” Braxton said, “but what triggers demand?”
“Some triggers are self-evident,” Mavik said. “Food, for instance. Food prep is automatic, based upon the desires of the individual making the request. Global computer networks constantly analyze food consumption, requests, food types, and myriad other factors surrounding food consumption. Automated factories respond to changing needs so that the pipelines are always sufficiently full to meet demands. The same principle applies to anything else, clothing, shoes, footballs…everything anyone might want or need.
“We don’t buy and sell; we simply order and receive what we need or want, and the system supplies. Roganians fill their time doing whatever they wish to do. Everyone receives an education that gives each individual everything that person needs to become whatever that person wishes. This has resulted in remarkable scientific and engineering advances, breathtaking art, great literature, beautiful music—things everybody can enjoy. This has also resulted in astonishing athletic accomplishments.”
“Speaking for myself,” Braxton said, “it’s going to take a while before I understand how it all works together. What really causes me to stumble is that no one here owns anything. Somehow, Roganians seem to have rid themselves of the need to possess property.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Mavik said. “We don’t own land, buildings, equipment, factories, and so on. We happily own books we like, music we enjoy, anything that makes us feel good. The thing is that if you want it, you can get it without effort. Things like this are simply part of living. Effort is more part of the creation process like researching a scientific oddity, composing or playing music, writing a book, creating a sculpture, running a race. Roganians put a lot of effort into these things.”
“Can we discuss uploads some more?” Mavik asked.
“As I explained earlier,” Thorpe answered, “our first uploads were an integral part of ServerSky. That’s something Rogan never developed.”
“We have a planet-wide electronic web,” Mavik said.
“Right, but that doesn’t get you off-planet into the Aster system generally. You need a substantial backbone to carry the underlying network, and you need to establish a secure storage area to hold the electronic uploads until they are needed. Furthermore, you’ll need large-scale facilities to generate new bodies as necessary. It’s a huge thing that took Daphne and Kimberly years to assemble.
“It’s pretty obvious to me that this should be your first focus. Everything else stands on the shoulders of this achievement. I’ll assign a team to work with your people. We’ll introduce you to our Nanocosm. Your people should be able to figure a way to integrate it with your automated systems. In fact, I suspect we’ll have a lot of give and take here. Once you have Roganian Nanocosms running, the rest will follow easier.”
During the rapid mutual education process between humans Thorpe and Braxton and Roganian Mavik, Orlov found his way back to the Aster inner system and regrouped. He was still disoriented from the repeated stasis hits. Neither he nor the Academician really understood what had happened, but it was painfully obvious that the only reason he was still alive was his former dealings with Nelson and his Oort.
“We must do something drastic to move forward,” Orlov told Borisovich. “Rally our people at the Asteroid Belt rendezvous point so we can put together a plan that can succeed.”
When he had assembled his small fleet, Orlov gathered his technical people on Sergei Krikalyov. The Academician addressed them.
“I have a full spectrum recording of the signal that put our ship into stasis. The signal rides on the radar beam that acts as a carrier. You people put your full resources on this problem and discover how it works. Remember, we know it works, so an answer lies somewhere in this signal.”
Orlov took over. “We do not have the facilities to do this work here. We need the full capability of our home labs. I am taking Sergei Krikalyov along with the Academician and you people back to the Solar System. I want you to find out what you can during our six-day journey, and be ready to find the full answer as soon as possible after we arrive.”
A half-hour later, UZ Sergei Krikalyov warped out of her Asteroid Belt orbit for the Sol.
ROGAN—TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGE
“We have been working on something we would like to show you,” Mavik said to Sally and Brad. “It’s part of a moon of one of our gas giants. We can take one of our ships, but if we use one of yours, your uploads can accompany us.”
“Let’s use the Scott,” Sally said to Brad. “That way, eSally can participate directly.”
Three hours later, Sally plugged eSally’s matrix into the Scott’s console, and Mavik, along with two of his engineers, stepped into Scott’s lounge via Damvet Station and Ad Astra. Minutes later, Brad instructed Mother to take Scott to Difecta, the fifth moon of the gas giant orbiting just beyond Aster’s Asteroid Belt, presently on the opposite side of Aster.
Moments later, Scott was orbiting 500 kilometers above the rugged surface of Difecta.
“We’re being painted by radar,” Mother announced.
“Here are the coordinates for the landing field,” Mavik said. “They include a password to prevent our being hit with a stasis field.”
Brad fed the coordinates to Mother. Mother maneuvered Scott until she hovered three kilometers above a five-kilometer-square flattened area with several Asterian double-saucer-shaped ships parked along one side.
“We continue to be under radar observation,” Mother said.
“Set her down near that cluster of ships,” Mavik said. “The entrance is a short walk.”
Sally held up two hyper-disks. “Are you okay with a portal to Scott and another to Ad Astra?”
“I believe that means that no matter where Scott or Ad Astra are, these portals will be a direct connection?” Mavik asked.
“Exactly, at least within the Aster system,” Sally said.
“We have learned an English term from your engineers. It’s a no-brainer.” Mavik’s comment was in Roganian, but he spoke no-brainer in English.
The entire party aboard Scott followed a spacesuited Mavik out the lock, across the tarmac, and into a lock that doubled as an elevator. eSally and eBrad piggybacked along by tying into Sally’s and Brad’s Links.
The elevator dropped five kilometers, disgorging the passengers into a large one-atmosphere chamber filled with administrative and electronic control equipment. Mavik introduced the project director.
“A hundred kilometers below us, our robots hollowed out a large cavern that encompasses the core of Difecta. We lined the cavern with Q-carbon and then created a three-kilometer in diameter mini-black hole filling most of the hollowed-out space. We draw off power with a scaled-up version of our starship mechanism.”
Sally called up her Link, running the numbers the director had just given her. “See this, Brad?” she asked. “This thing can supply the entire power requirements of our Solar System…from here, eighty-four lightyears away.”
“Or,” Brad added, “it could power a whole bunch of MERT Drives headed in all kinds of directions.”
Sally activated one of her hyper-disks. “Can you join us, Thorpe?”
Thorpe stepped through the portal and smiled at Mavik. Sally briefly explained what lay below them.
“This MBH,” Thorpe said, looking directly at Mavik, “could be immeasurably valuable to Roganians and humans as together we explore the universe around us.” He stood quietly in obvious thought. “The only real drawback I can see is if Rogan alone or humans alone control this monster. Even then, it’s just hypothetical. If we were out there,” he waved his hands overhead, “and you were running the MBH, you could cut us off. Same thing the other way, of course.”
“The solution is obvious to me,” Mavik said. “We do these things together—here and out there.” He waved his hands overhead.
Thorpe grinned at him. “By us, I presume you mean the L2 Group. You’ve explained to me clearly that on Rogan, nobody speaks for anyone else without specific permission.” He chuckled. “Tell you what…I would be happy sharing these things with any Roganian group or mix.”
It did not take Roganian researchers long to duplicate Sally’s and Brad’s Casimir effects. Working together with Phoenix engineers, the Roganians built a working model and then scaled it up to full size.
While the Casimir engineers worked on reproducing wormholes, another group addressed the electronic switching that controlled the jump interval.
Sally walked them through the circuitry she and Brad had developed, and demonstrated the apparent ten picosecond barrier they had come up against.
One of the researchers brought up a chart on her Link equivalent. “Look at this,” she said, pointing to one section.
Because the symbolic language was unfamiliar to Sally, at first, she missed it. After her Link processed the information, she found herself looking at a form of lanthanum decahydride that was superconducting at room temperature under a modest amount of pressure.
“Brad, what happens if we built the jump-interval circuit with this?” she asked.
He passed the question on to the Roganian team. Several hours later, they produced a circuit that generated a jump interval of one picosecond, fully ten times faster than before.
One of the technicians mused, “That makes a trip between our suns just eleven hours—compared to four days fourteen hours at ten picoseconds.”
“Do you think we can shorten the jump interval to one femtosecond?” Sally asked.
“Why?” her counterpart wanted to know.
“If we wanted to travel to the Andromeda galaxy,” eSally mused, “that’s a million lightyears—even at one picosecond, it would take fifteen years. At one femtosecond, it would take only five and a half days.” She giggled.
