“So whoever launched that fleet used our own ships against us?”
“Our ships and other planets. All they had to do was automate them and install spin-two drives if needed. So the resources were much fewer than it seems.”
“I bet you're right Pearce,” said the Captain. “It makes perfect sense now.”
“Everything makes sense Bridge except for the role of the other Anais. Where she came from and what she was doing on Earth. I suspect it was something to do with the Dhalkans and the Core working together.”
“The Dhalkans were behind it you think?”
“But who was behind the Dhalkans?” asked Anais.
Just then another head appeared in the door.
“Can I join the party?”
“Edgar,” said Anais. “Come in I'm so happy to see you.”
Pearce started to rise.
“Don't trouble yourself Dr. Rawlings. I can walk to you just fine.”
Edgar was walking without assistance.
“I see Edgar. You look completely recovered.”
“Well Dr. Rawlings except for a little frostbite I didn't have to forego any food so I wasn't in the shape you folks were in.”
“Edgar before we ask you about your adventure there's one thing I want to know,” said Anais.
“Yes ma'am?”
“After all this time and all we've been through I don't think Pearce and I know your whole name.”
“You know you may be right. I don't remember telling you. Well my last name is Burroughs and my middle name is ...”
“Hold it Edgar let me guess,” said Pearce. “Your middle name is Rice.”
Edgar looked completely surprised.
“That's right Dr. Rawlings. How did you know? I don't think anyone has ever come close to guessing my middle name. Even when I give them the initial.”
Pearce started to say something but Anais interrupted.
“Dr. Rawlings reads very, very, very old science fiction books Edgar.”
“You do Dr. Rawlings?”
“He does,” said Anais interrupting again. “A waste of a perfectly good mind.”
AFTERWord
The science and technology of the wormhole generator (and such extensions as the wormhole weapon or Mach's Barrier) was developed in my novels Mach's Metric, Mach's Mission and Mach's Legacy. Elias Mach quoted in the front matter is a main character in the series.
The work of the physicist Kip Thorne and his book The Science of Interstellar and the book by James F. Woodward called Making Starships and Stargates were particularly useful in designing the generator and visualizing a wormhole mouth.
The Spin-Two drive was developed from the wormhole drive by the robot and protege of Elias Mach, Dagmar Mach in my novel Spin-Two. The novels Robot Planet and The Lattice Of Space used the spin-two drive extensively and can be considered followups to Spin-Two.
The books Quantum Space by Jim Baggot and Einstein's Unfinished Revolution by Lee Smolin held many of the ideas for the spin-two drive. Dr. Smolin's book provided the impetus for the drive when he described non-local links (a result of Loop Quantum Gravity) as appearing to look like narrow wormholes. It was natural then to use such links since I had already designed a wormhole drive that could access them.
As explained in my last novel Time Wars the idea for Quantum Temporal Dynamics was borrowed from an interview with physicist Martin Bujowald:
In some versions of quantum gravity, time itself would be quantized, meaning it would be made from discrete units, which would be the fundamental period of time. It would be as if the universe contained an underlying field that sets the minimum tick rate for everything inside of it, sort of like the famous Higgs field that gives rise to the Higgs boson particle which lends other particles mass. But for this universal clock, "instead of providing mass, it provides time," said Bojowald.
And now a word about extrapolating science and society into the future.
This story is said to take place some seven hundred years in the future. Yet the humans in it speak and act much the same as today. They also interact with everyday technology in much the same way. They are also very not cyberpunk. Why?
Let's take just one area, their speech. When you think of the English used in the Canterbury Tales (written approximately seven hundred years ago) and compare it to today's there is quite a difference. Sometimes an unbridgeable difference without the help of scholarship.
So the choice is to complicate the language enough to indicate a change and maybe provide an interpretation dictionary or write in today's English except for a few words, mostly related to science and technology. I've actually seen an attempt at transforming the language to represent a future dialect and while I admire the skill and effort I found it a bit tedious to read (okay, I gave up). So I chose the later, that is write in today's English.
I also did this with everyday technology only introducing enough advancement to give a taste of the future (maybe a hundred years hence?).
However, with the science I think such a gulf of time as hundreds of years may be necessary before we see such science with a sense of wonder.
Next in the Future Chron Universe
Frozen Time
Because of the Time Wars fought in the space around Earth the underlying system of local and non-local links that makes up spacetime had been damaged. It was now impossible to use the spin-two drive to open those links and access orbit and the rest of the Solar System.
Space access services had fallen back on the rocket ship as the primary way to reach orbit from Earth's surface.
Now strange starships had appeared above the spaceports scattered around the world and placed them in an impenetrable bubble of frozen time.
But a young boy held the key to accessing space. The key that Earth so desperately needed.
Hard Science Fiction – Old School.
The Standard Model in the Future Chron Universe
To accommodate Quantum Temporal Dynamics the Standard Model of Particle Physics had to be extended for the first time in hundreds of years.
Three scalar bosons were added filling in the remaining empty rows. These particles mediate the ticking of time in the universe. The chron particle is the time particle and creates and manifests the temporal displacement which causes the time field. It is similar to the Higgs particle which represents the field that causes particles to manifest mass. At first it was thought to be the only particle needed in the theory but the mathematics demanded two more very heavy particles.
The new particles were found and called the chron- (chron-minus) and chron+ (chron-plus) particles. It was also found that an excess of chron- particles in an iso-bubble (that is a spherical space devoid of most quantum fields) could cause a slowing of time. Likewise, an excess of chron+ particles in an iso-bubble could create a speeding up of time.
Soon it was realized that if time was a quantum field then the time dimension could be separated from the space dimensions. This was also shown (in the book Time Wars) and created an Anti-de Sitter space which is a degenerate solution of General Relativity.
The updated Standard Model with particle parameters is shown on the next page.
Other books and stories by this author
The Future Chron Universe
Short Stories
Open Space Series
Open Space
The Old World
Insurrect
Second Beam
All For One – Coming Soon
One For All – Coming Soon
Shotgun – Coming Soon
Novellas
From The Earth Series
Whatsoever You Do
War Through The Pines
Vigilance
To Tend And Watch Over
Union
Circle Of Retribution
Freedom From Want
Break Up
Kuiper Station
The Cloud
First Interstellar
To The Stars Series
>
First One Hundred
First Dark Ages
Second One Hundred
Second Dark Ages
The Path Of The Long March
Novellas – Collections:
From The Earth V-1 (Volume 1):
Whatsoever You Do
War Through The Pines
Vigilance
To Tend And Watch Over
Union
From The Earth V-2 (Volume 2):
Circle of Retribution
Freedom From Want
Break Up
Kuiper Station
The Cloud
First Interstellar
From The Earth Complete
(All eleven original stories and timeline)
(Out Of Print)
To The Stars V-1 (Volume 1)
(All five original stories)
(Out Of Print)
Novels:
Mach Series:
Mach's Metric
Mach's Mission
Mach's Legacy
Spin-Two Series:
Spin-Two
Robot Planet
The Lattice Of Space
Other Novels
Time Wars
Time's End
Frozen Time – Coming Soon
Novels – Collections:
Mach's Metric Complete
(All three Mach novels)
Hardback Only
Spin-Two Complete
(All three Spin-Two novels)
Out Of Print
Recommended Reading Order
2032 – Whatsoever You Do – Novella
2044 – War Through The Pines – Novella
2071 – Vigilance – Novella
2081 – To Tend And Watch Over – Novella
2090 – Union – Novella
2140 – Circle Of Retribution – Novella
2153 – Freedom From Want – Novella
2165 – Breakup – Novella
2230 – Kuiper Station – Novella
2328 – The Cloud – Novella
2340 – First Interstellar – Novella
2390 – Mach's Metric – Novel
2394 – Mach's Mission – Novel
2396 – Open Space – Short Story
2396 – The Old World – Short Story
2396 – Insurrect – Short Story
2396 – Second Beam – Short Story
2396 – One For All – Short Story – Coming Soon
2396 – All For One – Short Story – Coming Soon
2396 – Shotgun – Short Story – Coming Soon
2396 – TBD – Short Story – Coming Soon
2396 – TBD – Short Story – Coming Soon
2396 – TBD – Short Story – Coming Soon
2400 – First One Hundred – Novella
2405 – First Dark Ages – Novella
2459 – Second One Hundred – Novella
2485 – Second Dark Ages – Novella
2490 – The Path Of The Long March – Novella
2499 – Mach's Legacy – Novel
2600 – Spin Two – Novel
2605 – Robot Planet – Novel
2610 – The Lattice Of Space – Novel
2700 – Time Wars – Novel
2755 – Time's End – Novel
2790 – Frozen Time – Novel – Coming Soon
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
D.W. Patterson lives in the USA with his beautiful wife Sarah. He studied physics and read classic science fiction in college and then worked for many years as an electronic design engineer.
Now he's trying to write stories like the ones he once loved. Hard Science Fiction – Old School.
Time's End: A Future Chron Novel (Future Chron Universe Book 34) Page 22
