Chapter 15
“God, I'm going out of my ruddy mind,” Carl blurted out,” this is getting to me!”
They had been flitting about on their 500 light year jumps now for four days. It was the longest drag he had ever experienced.
“George!” He shouted.
“Yes Carl, what can I do for you?” Their voice replied, as casual as you like. You couldn't tell that for the last 4 days he had been on a continuous labour task of jump and check without stop.
“Give me a couple of answers to questions I have been bugging over ever since we first arrived at the Junction.” Carl began.” First you said that the inertia-less jumping was carried out by reducing our mass to zero.”
“Correct.” George commented.
“Well, even I know that mass is a storage of energy and you can't get rid of energy without using it up. Then, when you've used it up you have created more atoms of other substances, the same mass. So how can you send the atoms to zero mass?”
“Your observations are entirely correct and have an acceptance, obviously, not only with Earth Physicists but also with the Yil,” said George,” the way the Yil discovered the zero mass phenomena was in the creation, or annihilation, of atoms. As the atom was being turned into anti-matter, for this was where the discovery was made, the negative charge followed the near form of the sine wave. The high peak was the negative charge or normal atom, the low peak was the positive charge, the positron or anti matter. As the atom passed through the centre wave position, neither negative nor positive, there came a waveform frequency. It was found that at this point the atom and more specifically the nucleus passed into a zero mass condition. It is to that position that all the atoms are placed when we jump.” George finished, as if it was over, straightforward.
“Oh, very nice George,” said Carl,” I follow what you say but how do we get to this central point?”
“Ah,” George hesitated,” let me explain it this way,” he continued,” imagine that just one wave-frequency at this centre point is a piece of glass-fibre strand, one strand ten millimetres long. Now imagine a ball of five hundred millimetres in diameter manufactured, solid, from these ten millimetre single strands, that is the complex of wave-frequencies produced at the zero point. The Yil scientists developed an encompassing blanket, we call it the shield, and into this shield these hundreds of millions of frequencies were fed, to be transmitted into every object contained within the net of the shield. The power required to carry out this procedure is enormous. When these frequencies are transmitted, all objects inside the net are changed to the zero position. That is what happens, and is happening right now, during our 'jumping'.” Finished George.
“Do you mean we are changed halfway to anti-matter?” Asked an astounded Pat, who had been quietly listening to George’s dialogue, and appeared to become more and more attentive as the monologue continued.
“That is quite correct Pat.” George replied.
“It's possible that the system malfunctioned when the original Shadow crew went anti-matter prior to hitting Earth then?” Carl queried.
“I am afraid that is a distinct possibility Carl, however, all the records of that event do not report any malfunction of the zero mass conversion procedure.” George assured them.
“You said that the records were all over the place though.” Said Pat.
“That is also correct,” George agreed,” I fear we will never know the complete truth of their misfortune.”
“You've got to be quick to record all those frequencies, just as the atom is being annihilated,” said Carl,” how was that done George?”
“Of that I do not have the answer, I only have the basic principle of the conversion, it is no secret, the secret is how to recognise and re-transmit those multiplicity of frequencies, all at the correct strength and wave position. That is the Yil secret that ordinary machine minds like mine do not hold.” Answered George.
“Thanks George,” Carl said,” in fact you have answered both of my queries. The second one was going to do with our personal drive modules. I now see why the module interfaces with the shield. It can only operate through the shield. A good safety device. What is the power source, by the way?”
“It is a crystal device that is limitless in its absorption and release of energy. It is without resistance and has no limit - that the Yil could find, in its ability to retain any form of energy. It's like a bottomless pit, anything goes in and can be withdrawn at will, with no complex effort. In fact the whole structure of Shadow and the Terminals have crystal dust in their makeup, so the whole is a well spread vault of power. That is why the hull is impervious to virtually all attacks of power or radiation, even without the shield in operation.” George supplied.
Carl was only just beginning to realise what giants of engineering talent and invention the Yil were. Limitless power, virtually limitless protection, no wonder their little wrist power modules were so powerful, as were their shields. Any radiation or energy discharge to hit the shield was simply channelled into the crystal for further use.
“So what's the power that drives us on these jumps, at such a high speed, non Einsteinium, how's that for technical talk?” Pat asked.
“As I mentioned before we left the Terminal. Even the Yil do not know what the jump-drive is, they only know how to control it and supply the limitless power it requires.” Answered George.
Carl remembered him saying that they had 'lost' a lot of people during the experimentation of the 'effect'.
“I thought we could talk about all that stuff for a couple of days, but it seems to have been covered now,” said Carl,” one other thing you could answer. When we were on the Karv ship and you had access to their computer banks,” he continued, interest rising again,” did you see how their photon cutter worked?”
“Yes, I have the full specifications.” George answered.
“I wondered, at the time, how photons could be used as a cutting source, they are virtually mass-less aren't they George?”
“Yes Carl, but it is not the mass that does the cutting, it would appear to be the power and volume of photons and the speed they travel that does the work.” George supplied.
“Ok George,” Carl continued,” is there any way we could build a couple, or more, to be the size of our Tanglers?”
“Let me study the materials and circuits, convert them to our understanding and give you an answer. This will take some time.” George assured him.
George was right. Two meal periods later he woke Carl from his day, or was it space, dreaming.
“Carl, we have the capability to manufacture the cutter you require, to any size, if we use the Junction facilities, I do not have the necessary materials here. However, we could make a start on the wrist sized cases and sub-components right now, would you like to see my design?”
“Certainly would,” Pat interjected,” put it on the main windscreen.”
There displayed was a layered diagram of the photon cutter, wrist sized, and it was an absolute mass of components.
“Where would the cutter beam come from?” Carl asked.
“We would use the tangle web nozzle and the sighting would be a normal Hud layout, directed by a dart-board type layout with the bulls eye where the cutter would strike.” George explained.
“What sort of power would it have?” Pat asked.
“At one thousand kilometres it could drill a hole ten millimetres in diameter through rock one hundred kilometres in diameter in l millisecond. Powerful enough?” Came George’s reply.
“Bloody hell, that's definitely lethal.” Said Pat.
“Can it be unfocussed into a fan or does it stay at that ten millimetres?” Carl asked George.
“You would be able to take it from one millimetre parallel, up to a 90 degree cone, those are the two limits, also you can adjust power from hot to hole,” George advised them,” the problem came in powering the device. The Karv used basic electricity, which is very difficult to handle from the crystal,
I had to convert the whole system to be able to accept the crystal's pure energy, not electricity at all.”
“That's great,” said Carl,” what can be started on now?”
“The cases and component boards mainly,” George replied,” the major components will have to be manufactured at a Junction, I only carry stock replacements on board. Would you like to supervise the mice as they form the materials?”
“Yeah, bring the little sods up here and I'll keep my eye on their progress.” Pat affirmed.
About five minutes later three mice came out of the 'mouse-hole' with a stack of sheets of material. It was the same composite that the walls and panels were made of, the universally frequency conductive material.
A work surface swung down from the wall and all the materials were spread out.
The mice dived in.
“Stop, stop, who gave you bloody permission to start.” Said Pat, pointing at the mice, who backed off and hovered half a metre from the work surface.” Now which mouse is doing which bit?”
The mice, one by one, hovered over to the screen and waited beside the individual cases and boards they were going to be responsible for.
“Right, you, you can start now and don't work too bloody fast, I'm going to watch you little buggers to make sure you does the job proper, see?” Said Pat.
The first mouse had moved to its specified piece and had begun.
“Ok, the rest of you's can start, but take it slow.” Pat reiterated.
Both Pat and Carl moved their faces down really close to the working manipulators of the mice and they could see many minor arms and fingers at work on each of their main arms. There were little cutters, which appeared to be lasers, minute drills, millers cutting weird patterns, holes appearing. It was all go.
Pat looked up and had a look at the screen and all the different cases and boards that were to be made. As he did that, two of the mice changed places and carried on working.
“Hey, what's this,” said Pat as he turned back,” I'm bloody sure you two weren't working there a minute ago. Have they changed places Carl?”
“Can't say I've noticed it.” He lied, very convincingly.
Obviously the mice were going to muck Pat about. When Carl looked again, another mouse popped out of the mouse-hole and got stuck into the work.
“Here, there's more here than when we started, isn't there Carl?” Asked Pat.
“Don't think so, can't say I noticed a change.” He fibbed again.
“I've a feelin these little sods are trying to muck me about. Just you watch out, you'll all go onto half rations if you bugger about.”
Carl had to leave, he could see Pat was going to have his work cut out keeping track of that lot of imps.
“What's this,” came Pats' voice,” who made this bloody ten pence piece? Own up you little sods. George, who did it…”
“Did what Pat?” Came George’s innocent voice.
“Course, you're in on it too!” Came Pat's disgusted reply.” Right no more muckin about, Aagh - who's tied me foot to the bloody chair?”
One of the mice had put a metal strap around Pat's ankle and the chair leg, this was going to be bedlam, Carl could see that.
In amongst all the messing around that they were giving Pat, the required parts were taking shape.
George informed Carl that the various weird designs had something to do with wave-guides and the like. Carl thanked him for his most useful information and continued with the drink he had obtained. The screen was displaying the progress being made with the parts and he was given enlargements, as seen from the mouse point of view, of what was going on. Much easier watching from there than actually watching, on-the-job.
“Stop cutting holes in the table you sod.” Came the ever active Pat, trying unsuccessfully to control the mice. He had about ten of them now, whether he'd noticed that fact Carl was not sure, but they were all beavering away.
Carl had become used to all Shadow tasks being carried out in minutes, so he was most surprised they were still at it when he decided to take a nap, it was well past 10 Earth-night time, they still kept that sequence.
Imagine Carl's further surprise when, at 8.30 the next morning, he found the mice still at work on the photon cutters, not 'obstructed' by Pat any longer.
“This is taking longer than I expected George,” he commented, over breakfast and a cup of coffee,” any problems?”
“No Carl, the milling and co-ordinates on the wave guides are absolutely critical. No errors have been made up to now but it is an exact science, one molecule error and the whole pattern is disturbed and would require hundreds of extra components to correct, that is why they must be machined precisely.”
“How much more to be done on these pieces?” Carl asked.
“About another ten hours and the task will be complete. The other components can then be manufactured when we arrive at a Terminal.” George advised him.
“Where is the Terminal you refer to?” He asked.” Near here?”
“Not near here at all I am afraid,” George replied,” we will need a ten minute jump to cover the distance. It is not in the observable Universe we are at present situated in.”
“That's a long way.” Carl agreed.
“Indeed it is.”
“What's the progress on our grid search so far?” He asked, knowing the answer really, any contact of any sort would have been relayed to them immediately.
“As you most probably suspect, I have no helpful information for you, all quiet. We have thirty hours to go to complete the entire grid,” George was his calm self as usual,” I am gathering very useful mapping details though.”
Pat turned up about an hour later, he looked absolutely knackered.
“That was a hard night, I had to give up in the end, the sods were sending me cross-eyed.” He explained.
They spent the last thirty hours waiting and hoping, and listening to music.
The photon-cutter parts were completed and vacuum sealed in metal envelopes,” to stop the rats from getting at them,” as George put it. The parts themselves were pure artwork, patterns and grooves, shines, glitters and matt areas, welded brackets and bosses, small and large straight tubes and areas that were more holes than metal, thousands of minute holes. One area was a layer of twenty thin sheets of metal, as far as Carl could estimate, so thin you could nearly see straight through them. This was where a mass of crystal components were to be positioned, a little like the plates in a battery.
“We have finished the grid pattern and there were no contacts.” George informed them.
“Right, thanks George,” said Carl,” on to a Terminal Pat?”
“Make a break from this, that's for sure.” He agreed.
“To the Terminal George, right now.”