The Orthogonal Galaxy (40 page)

“
In fact, if any of you
leave here today thinking I’ve been restored to my senses, then you
clearly must be sleeping, because what I will suggest to you today
will certainly be the most radical idea that I have ever proposed.
I am not entirely convinced myself that it will work, but that is
why I have assembled you here today, to help me assess the
feasibility of such a notion or to follow up with studies of the
matter in greater detail at a later date.

“
Gentlemen, I propose to
send astronauts to the planet designated as ZB-5344-P1…”

In disbelief, some eyes
widened. Some rolled. Others widened and rolled. The first
realization of Zimmer’s proposal was met with a sense of
absurdity.

“…
Earth 2.”

With the common name used,
the remaining eyes narrowed skeptically.

“
This is preposterous,
Professor,” stated Henley, who was the first to feel defensive
against Zimmer for his resistance to funding the Yellow Beam
mission, and then for cutting critical requirements off of Zimmer’s
wish list. “ZB-5344 is 26000 light years away from here. Do you
intend to endow our astronauts with immortality to be able to live
for the hundreds of thousands of years that will be required to
travel there?”

Zimmer looked the NASA
director squarely and earnestly in the eye. “Dr. Henley, it will
not take that long.” Then looking up at the group at large, he
continued. “Remember, gentlemen, we live in a new age now. A couple
of months ago, Dr. Henley’s statement would have been absolutely
correct. It would have impossible to travel to the ZB-5344 star
system. But that was before the discovery of a superluminal object
traveling around our galaxy. But now, we have no limits on the
distances we can reasonably travel.”

“
But, Professor,” rebutted
Cornell. “Just because we have seen something travel faster than
the speed of light, doesn’t mean that we can ourselves. And it
certainly doesn’t mean that we will ever have the technology to do
so.”

“
Dr. Cornell,” responded
Zimmer cordially. “This discovery should enlighten us to explore
the possibility. The possibility for exploration becomes limitless
with that discovery. We need to break through the glass ceiling
that has been placed over humankind for its entire
existence—superluminal travel is possible, and I suggest we get
right to it.”

“
Professor?” called out
one of the congressmen. “The funding for such research—I just don’t
see where we’d come up with the money needed to fund that research,
especially if we really have no idea how long it will take to
create propulsion faster than the speed of light.”

“
I agree that funding will
be huge, but championing this cause will bring massive opportunity
to Southern California. Besides, if I am hearing correctly from
your constituents, they want to do everything in their power to
find out what Earth2 has in store. Everybody is curious about
whether there is life there, and whether that life is like us
or—”

“—
or more hostile,”
blurted out Gilroy. “Professor, in the few moments that I’ve had to
consider your proposal, so many insurmountable questions come to
mind. How do we get there? How can we build a machine robust enough
to handle traveling that fast? Mr. Scoville, you know better than
anyone the risks associated with space debris at near Warp speed!
Are you willing to put the lives at astronauts at risk with debris
hitting the Star Transport at rates much greater than the speed of
light? How do we know that human flesh won’t obliterate as it
approaches Warp speed? And then, perhaps we actually get there, but
then are captured and executed by a hostile species. How do you
find astronauts that would be willing to do this? You realize that
this won’t happen in your lifetime, Professor, don’t
you?”

“
Why not?” said Zimmer
skeptically.

“
Ever the optimist, you
are Professor, but this time, I think you’re over your head, and
you won’t even see it happen. I’m sorry, but this really is a waste
of our time, Carlton.”

“
Professor,” asked the
other congressman with much interest. “How do you propose we go
about such an effort of developing the technology to accomplish
this?”

“
First of all, I think
you’re all looking at it wrong,” answered Zimmer. “What I’ve been
considering is a much lower-tech approach then developing
warp-drive capability.”

With derision, Cornell
fired back. “A low-tech solution to one of the most profound
controversies of our day. What are you going to do? Chase the comet
and hitch a ride?”

Zimmer smiled and pointed
at the JPL director. “Yes! That’s exactly what I suggest we
do.”

Frustrated at this answer,
the JPL director turned his attention elsewhere. “Maril, do you
have any idea where Zimmer is going with this? Does this make any
sense to you?”

It was Maril Scoville’s
turn to stand and back up his father’s associate. Zimmer deferred
his position at the head of the table happily and moved back to the
corner of the room to watch Maril Scoville’s attempt to appease the
crowd.

Addressing his boss first,
he began. “Dr. Cornell, Professor Zimmer came to me just before
this meeting with his suggestion, and while I agree with him that
there are many questions that need to be answered, I actually like
his idea quite a bit, and I think, Gentlemen that the public will
be very interested in supporting all of us in our decision to move
forward with the proposal. It won’t cost hundreds of billions of
dollars, and it might just work.”

“
We’ve been working on the
Star Shield for nearly three years now—from concept to prototype.
We believe that we are building something practically impervious to
high-speed stellar debris.”

Henley was first in
probing this claim. “Mr. Scoville, as I understand it, your
requirements are for avoidance of large objects and tolerance of
small objects on the order of 1
c
. Is that right?”

“
That is correct, Dr.
Henley. In open space, we are immune to space debris up to the
speed of light.”

Henley’s voice increased
in volume and speed, indicating his intolerance of this discussion.
“But, we’re talking about 25000
c
. I don’t see how you can be
comfortable putting the lives of astronauts at such dire risk when
you aren’t building the shield to anything near to the type of
condition to which you plan on subjecting it.”

“
Sir,
with all due respect, we aren’t putting anybody’s life at risk yet.
We are only asking for the ability to review all of the details of
such a mission to determine its feasibility. Further, I expressed
this same doubt to Dr. Zimmer just before this meeting, and he
pointed out that we will not be traveling at
25000
c
in open
space. We will do it in the confines of a comet’s tail. That comet
will make a way through the vacuum of space and will eject all
debris that stands in its way. In that case, we need not worry
about debris coming head on, but rather we must focus the study on
the ability to receive bombardment from behind.”

“
I fail to see the
difference.”

“
The
difference is that we will accelerate gradually yet rapidly as we
enter the beam, ensuring that particles propel the Star Transport
to greater velocities while not impacting the shield at speeds
greater than 1
c
.
Professor Zimmer has calculated from data retrieved during the
study mission that while the center of the beam is traveling at
25000
c
, there is
an inversely proportional and linear relationship between the
velocity of particles in the beam and its distance from the center.
As long as the Star Transport penetrates the beam gradually, it
will be able to accelerate under the propulsion of the matter, but
it will not be subject to damage by it. It will be a perfectly
controlled environment that will balance the velocity of the
vehicle with its ability to penetrate the beam even farther, and
thereby gain even more velocity.”

“
Dr. Cornell, I appeal to
your judgment,” wavered Henley only slightly. “Tell me that this
isn’t the most ludicrous proposal. Tell me that this isn’t set for
certain failure. Tell me that it won’t be a suicide
mission.”

“
I can’t tell you any of
those things, sir,” Cornell said in response. “We will need to
study everything in greater detail. Nobody’s life is at risk if
we’re simply studying the possibilities.”

“
But we are risking our
taxpaying dollars.”

Zimmer stepped forward.
“Dr. Henley, Dr. Cornell, and Congressmen, let me assure you that
this is something that taxpayers want to see done with their money.
It is rather anti-climatic to find a parallel Earth and then not be
able to study it. Curiosity has got the better of your
constituents, and I think your leadership in this area would only
secure your job security.”

Zimmer saw that the
congressmen were weighing the statement and considering the fine
line they were walking between pleasing constituents and funding
programs with taxpaying dollars.

Henley did not look happy.
“Look, gentlemen, even if we do fund this program, Congress has
already allotted NASA a certain budget for this year. We will have
to cancel other programs. It’s not for these representatives to
decide.”

One congressman spoke
qualified this last statement. “At least not this year, but we
certainly could appeal for a larger budget for your organization
starting next year, if we believe the citizens of our districts
would find it valuable to do so.”

With his gaze fixed on the
ground in front of him, Henley paused thoughtfully for a several
quiet and tense moments. Eventually, his demeanor softened. “Ok, if
you think we can fund the research above our current budgetary
plans, then I guess we could produce the team to do the feasibility
research at least.”

Zimmer smiled almost
imperceptibly. The meeting had served its purpose, and he was
certain that research and planning for a mission to ZB-5344 was on
its way.

…

Before Zimmer had a chance
to realize it, autumn turned into winter and winter into spring. It
wasn’t difficult for seasonal changes to escape the recognition of
Southern Californians, since these changes only delivered slight
variations in precipitation and temperature. But for Zimmer, this
year was particular busy. Between his class instruction and
increased research activities, Zimmer’s year at CalTech flew
by.

As soon as ZB-5344-P1 had
been discovered, Zimmer put his Parallel Earth team to work
studying the entire ZB-5344 system. Even Zimmer was stunned to find
even more similarities between the Solar System and the ZB-5344
star system. Four other planets had been discovered that
approximated Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Venus in their
appearance, size, and orbits. The only thing the team had found
vastly different was the orbital plane of the ZB-5344 system. It
was oriented exactly 90 degrees different to the plane of our own
Solar System, leading Joram Anders to joke with the professor that
Zimmer still had work to do, considering that “you didn’t exactly
find a
parallel
Earth yet” and that it was “too bad he hadn’t been looking
for an
orthogonal
Earth all of these years.”

The team also spent a vast
amount of time probing the P1 planet itself. Searches for signs of
life—including detection of artificial light or electromagnetic
radiation—proved frustrating, but Zimmer was not taken aback by
this. Any studies of Earth2 dating 27000 years ago would also prove
useless. Geologically speaking, 27000 years isn’t much time, but if
Earth2 was on the verge of civilization, then 27000 years would
prove plenty of time for significant intellectual
advances.

As for Joram, Kath, and
Reyd, they continued studying the aftermath of the comet. They
continued to scour the data from the original Yellow Beam mission
and were also focusing on improved sets of data from a more
controlled second mission, where the USL had been relaying data for
several weeks as improved paddles were navigating the comet’s tail
with much greater control and were mapping out its cross-section.
The only problem with the second mission is that a significant
amount of time had elapsed, such that the quantity and velocity of
particles remaining this far behind in the tail were now reduced
significantly.

The team had ceased going
to Palomar altogether these days, and were studying and measuring
data in their lab on campus. They had made a couple of weekend
trips to Ames Research Center in Northern California. Ames was
tasked with studying the soil and debris samples returned from the
rescue mission to Mars, so the team had a chance to meet scientists
and engineers on the team and were able to get a first-hand glimpse
of some of the artifacts and the discoveries which were being
made.

Along with NASA’s efforts,
Zimmer and his research team were making great progress in
understanding the matter left behind from the comet. Hordes of
scientists around the world were jumping on the superluminal band
wagon as well, which was aiding the understanding of travel greater
than the speed of light, but nobody had yet stumbled onto any solid
theories about the exact mechanisms required to escape the
electromagnetic force, and thereby be enabled to travel faster than
light. This was a complicated problem, and physicists knew that
answers would take a long time to fully be understood. Some were
certain that we would need one more fly-by of the comet before we
could really understand superluminal travel. Outspoken opponents
went so far as to be a significant hindrance in Zimmer’s efforts in
getting a mission off to Earth2 during the next fly-by of the
comet.