Immortal Suicide: A Fight Across Time And Space

by Simon Bown

  “Yes of course.” Barton replied.

  “Which part of America are you from? I cannot place the accent.” Lucy asked.

  “I have travelled a lot my accent is somewhat coloured by many years in many different places.” Barton said.

  “Is this your first time in England Mr Hartshorn?”

  “Yes it is and please, call me Barton.”

  Lucy led the way up the stairs to the first floor. “Will you be talking about gravity amplification in great detail today?” Lucy asked.

  Barton smiled as he replied. “Well basically my lecture will be concerned with interstellar travel but I will touch on gravity amplification.” He said.

  Lucy knew the lecture would be very interesting and she found herself worrying that Barton’s research had already surpassed her own. Could Barton have a functioning gravity generator like hers? How strange, she thought, that her ego would show its head and she would worry more about whether she was first to open a rift in space-time. Science after all should be about truth and the advancement of mankind, not the advancement of the individual. Lucy had developed her gravity amplification theory completely alone and the chance to discuss what she had achieved with someone capable of appreciation was very appealing.

  She decided to keep quiet for the time being. “Gravity amplification is my area of interest. I am looking forward to what you have to say. It’s so rare we have a guest who is so open minded in this field.”

  “Thank you Lucy.” Barton replied. “Gravity amplification is an exotic theory in its infancy, I will only be talking in generalisations today.”

  They reached professor Purcell’s office. Lucy knocked and waited to be invited in.

  “Enter.” Newton Purcell called out in a slightly annoyed tone.

  Lucy opened the door to the small dark room. Shafts of sunlight speared the smoke from Newton’s pipe creating shafts of dull grey light. Well-worn books filled tall bookcases to the ceiling and reinforced the room’s imposing, claustrophobic character.

  Newton Purcell sat behind his desk with a book on his lap. His old lab coat more cream coloured than white was too tight around his large waist. The pipe hanging from his lips emitted a dense unsavoury smoke.

  Lucy and Barton waited a long, uncertain moment.

  Newton looked over his glasses. “Take a seat,” he said, sounding annoyed. He didn’t get up to shake Barton’s hand. Newton always tried to give the impression of authority and status even though he didn’t really have any. “Ah. Mr Hartshorn. Did you have a nice flight?” He asked.

  Lucy was embarrassed by Newton’s attempt at a louder, deeper voice.

  Barton sat down in one of the leather chairs and shot Lucy a puzzled glance, as she continued standing. “The flight was fine thank you professor Newton,” he said.

  Newton tapped his pipe upside down into the ashtray and used a paperclip to scrape out the remaining tobacco. “Cup of tea?” He asked.

  “Yes, thank you.” Barton replied.

  “Lucy, two cups of tea please.” Newton said.

  Lucy turned to a tray at the side of the room and prepared two cups of tea. She passed one to Barton and one to Newton who took a sip, grimaced and scowled at Lucy.

  Newton relaxed into his chair and talked to Barton with condescension as he would a failing student. “These theories on space travel and gravity amplification have all the students fascinated, but I can’t see what all the fuss is about myself. Personally I feel the whole idea is science fiction and a waste of valuable research funds. I would appreciate it if you would stick to the curriculum this afternoon as I outlined it in my letter.”

  Lucy felt the familiar sinking feeling she had suffered too many times at the hands of Newton and his superiority act.

  Barton replied seemingly oblivious to Newton’s arrogance. “I have theorised a method of amplifying gravity and will be making my first tests when I return to my own resources. I will be discussing this a little in the lecture later.”

  Newton smiled and shook his head. “But surely the enormous amount of power needed to amplify gravity is prohibitive. Even to start experimenting you would need a whole power station to yourself.” Newton sipped his tea confident his statement had dismissed Barton.

  “I believe I have overcome that particular problem. A small reactor utilising a matter-anti matter reaction would provide the required power,” replied Barton confidently.

  Lucy felt a rising heat across her face as she blushed. She was sure she was the only person to construct a reactor of this design. Her theory was unique. She blurted out without thinking. “Where would you get that idea? I haven’t told anyone.”

  Newton was quite annoyed at his assistant’s interruption. “Haven’t told anyone what?”

  Lucy felt embarrassed and quickly left the room, slamming the door behind her.

  Newton looked at Barton and smiled. “Don’t pay any attention to her, she is only my assistant.”

  Five minutes later Lucy was in the physics lecture hall preparing the equipment Barton needed for his demonstrations. The Victorian building began life as an expensive private school for children of wealthy west London parents. At one time only the richest families could afford to send their offspring to these grand halls of learning. Time and a lack of investment had reduced the building to a shadow of its former self. The layers of peeling paint on the woodwork had, over time, sealed windows and caused doors to be more and more difficult to close. The large classrooms suffered dark liquid stains on the ceiling and smelled very slightly of damp. Long, dark corridors were painted in the same prison green as the classrooms. Hopeless makeshift repairs and the crumbling exterior ensured the structure possessed a dilapidated appearance.

  The lunch bell rang and soon the students filled the chairs around the large semi-circular hall. The floorboards creaked loudly protesting the weight of the young men and women that made up the physics departments’ student body. Strong beams of sunlight cut down from the ceiling windows illuminating the dust thrown up by the student’s entrance.

  Guest lecturers tended not to attract high numbers of students. Today was an exception. Many of the undergraduates arrived early and a small number had skipped lunch just to be sure of a good seat. The subject matter had caused quite a wave of excitement when it had been announced. Gravity amplification had the aura of science fiction about it and to understand the theories carried a certain status among the students. Every one of them dreamed of solving all the theoretical problems and inventing an interstellar gravity drive.

  Lucy watched the lecture hall fill with little interest, her mind raced over what might become apparent this afternoon. Until now she was certain her work was beyond any other scientist on the planet. The short conversation between Newton and Barton Hartshorn proved that she might be wrong and not be the first to build a working gravity generator. She poured some hot chocolate into a cup and swallowed the contents in one mouthful.

  Newton Purcell entered the lecture hall and stepped onto the lectern. He switched on the microphone and addressed the students in his dull monotone. “As you know our guest lecturer may spend a small amount of his time today on the unproven, implausible theories surrounding gravity amplification. I would like to remind you this is not part of your course work and you should not make any notes. I will not expect you to waste your time writing anything on the subject. Now would you please welcome our guest today Dr Barton Hartshorn.” Newton shook Barton’s hand and walked straight out of the lecture hall, his hope of showing contempt was entirely missed by all.

  The lecture hall remained silent as Barton stepped onto the lectern. He looked around the hall leisurely taking in all the faces before finally meeting Lucy’s nervous gaze. Barton began his lecture with the basic principles of gravity amplification and the possibilities if the process was successful.

  Lucy relaxed as she followed these simple ideas; occasionally she brought out a piece of equipment or played a small piece of video to aid the demonstrations.
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  Barton then moved onto more specific areas of theory. “Within a heavy enough element the electron’s gravity type extends beyond the shell of the atom and so can be accessed and amplified. When this gravity field is intensified to a large enough degree we can manipulate the fabric of space.”

  Lucy was well aware of these basic rules but was anxious for the lecture to progress on to the more advanced theories.

  Barton continued in a very matter of fact tone. “But how can we generate enough power to amplify gravity? Well as luck would have it we can use the same heavy element.”

  Lucy was staring at Barton, this was getting closer to her work. She pulled her handkerchief from her pocket and wiped her forehead. It was then she realised her teeth were clamped together.

  Barton turned to the blackboard and sketched a basic reaction chamber similar to Lucy’s but lacking certain fail-safes she had built in during her experiments.

  It was then Lucy realised Barton hadn’t even begun to build a reactor. A tremendous sense of relief flowed through her body. This meant she was probably the first person to progress as far as she had. Her breathing returned to normal and her teeth were no longer in danger of solidifying under the pressure.

  “In the reactor the element is bombarded with protons.” Barton continued. “Over a short period of time the protons slot into the atoms. When the element reaches a critical point it radiates anti-matter. What is needed is an environment where the anti-matter can come into contact with matter and so produce a reaction.”

  The students gasped.

  Barton knew he would get this reaction. A student close to the front of the hall raised his hand. Barton smiled at him. “You have a question?” He asked.

  He got to his feet. “Yes. I’m sorry to interrupt but when matter and anti-matter make contact you have a total annihilation reaction, even a tiny amount of material would produce an explosion one thousand times more powerful than a nuclear bomb. How could anyone ever control that much energy?”

  A murmur of agreement circled the hall as the students quickly consulted each other.

  Lucy’s belief that these students could never understand the theories behind gravity amplification was confirmed. This minor problem of anti-matter containment had them stopped in their tracks.

  Barton raised his hands to quiet the hall. “Yes it is true, when matter comes into contact with anti-matter the reaction is probably the most energetic we can currently theorise. That is why the amount of material used is on the atomic scale, preferably the hydrogen atom. When this hydrogen atom reacts violently with a one hundred percent matter to energy conversion the amount of energy released can be controlled using electromagnets.”

  A ripple of mumbling chased through the students, the idea of electromagnets was beyond them.

  Lucy rocked backwards and forwards on the balls of her feet with her hands behind her back. She was elated by the confirmation that she was indeed the first to build the reactor and produce a fracture in space-time. She became aware of Barton looking at her and smiling. Not a smile of pleasure but an odd excited, insightful smile, as if something had been confirmed. This left Lucy feeling exposed, she was confused and slightly worried. Something in the back of her mind hinted that Barton knew more about Lucy than he had made apparent. She dismissed the feeling as a ridiculous insecurity and returned his attention to the room.

  Barton continued. “When this much energy is used to amplify gravity and said gravity is focussed using an electromagnetic lens, a manipulation of the fabric of space can be achieved.”

  A mixture of students raised their hands. Barton indicated giving way to a student close to the back.

  “How would you control this manipulation to gain usable results? He asked.

  Lucy watched the proceedings with a calm, contented air, quietly confident in her own superiority.

  “Well unfortunately I haven’t got that far in our experiments. If we had I’m sure you would have heard about it. If I may just state my own personal hypothesis? The electromagnets need to be properly calibrated on a graded scale. The polarisation can then be adjusted in very precise increments.” Barton replied quickly.

  For an instant the world stopped for Lucy. She was shocked to the core that this most basic of ideas had passed her by. She was always looking for a complicated solution to a problem, never considering the obvious. Adjust the polarisation! How could she have been so blind? Her excitement seemed to be tugging at her sleeve as if physically pulling her back to the basement to power up her reactor. Of course the theory would have to be worked through but that was something she would look forward to. Ideas focussed in her mind. If only she had a pencil and some paper right now she could quickly resolve the problem. Lucy had become so immersed in her thoughts she had lost track of the lecture. One phrase jerked him back to the immediate.

  “Time travel?” Barton made no attempt to hide his amusement. “Well the speed with which time passes is relative and according to Einstein can be altered by a large enough gravity field, such as a black hole. I don’t think we could amplify gravity to such a degree. Of course if we did it would probably crush the very planet the reactor was sitting on.” Barton was pleased the question had been asked and smiled.

  Once again discussion resounded throughout the hall, only quietening as Barton pointed to a student intent on asking a question.

  “But if you could manipulate the fabric of space to a high enough degree time travel is theoretically possible isn’t it?” He asked.

  Barton was obviously losing his patience. “Yes, but considering the forces in question could destroy a planet it is not worth even going down that avenue of investigation.” He said.

  Lucy was beside herself with pleasure. A man who didn’t consider the problem worth investigating had given her a lead to solving her main difficulty. Her delight broke through her introverted nature and sprang out of her mouth as a sudden burst of laughter. The hall collapsed into a deathly silence, all eyes were upon Lucy.

  Barton turned to him, bemused. “You have something to say?” He asked.

  Lucy shook her head and quickly centred her gaze on the floor. The rising heat of her blush coloured her face. The student population thought her strange enough but this should propel her even further into notoriety.

  Barton took a moment to be sure there would be no more interruptions. “Now if I may proceed?” Barton quickly surveyed the hall. “As we would be able to manipulate, that is bend the fabric of space, so we would be able to travel great distances in a very short period of time. The distance between point A and point B is a straight line, unless of course you can control the fabric of space and bring point B to point A and simply step across. Once you are at point B you switch off your gravity generator and point A snaps back to its original position.” Barton was explaining the most basic of gravity drive space travel but still the hall was silent. “When one really begins to think of the possibilities available to us from this technology we realise there are many uses if we would just let our minds make that leap of the imagination.”

  The lecture continued but held little or no interest for Lucy. Her desperate need to rush back to her small basement was her only thought. The remaining discussion of basic gravity theories enthralled the young audience to a degree that was only matched by Lucy’s boredom.

  After the students had left the hall Barton walked over to Lucy and shook her hand. “Thank you for your help this afternoon. You know we are always looking for talented people at the university back home, you are welcome to apply.”

  Lucy tried not to sound too condescending. “I don’t think so Mr Hartshorn, my own interests in gravity theories lead me in another direction.”

  Barton smiled and shook her hand once more. “Well you know where I am if you change your mind.”

  SUTTON COURTNEY

  (Three years earlier)

  Sutton Courtney was very pleased to be leading such a high profile project at the end of her career. It was something of a
n irony that she had achieved the kind of recognition she had worked towards for so long just as she was about to retire. However high profile the construction of the ship building facility at Hapne had been it couldn’t compare to this, her final endeavour. Specialists from all over the Amalgam were called in to theorise the best way of solving the problem and Sutton found her invitation a tremendous compliment.

  A piece of an exotic material had impacted the planet Kurts and caused massive planetary upheaval. Boulder sized pieces of debris, thrown up from the initial strike point had rained down over the entire hemisphere. Ripples of tectonic shock had circled the world and brought disaster and tsunami to much of the planets coast bound population.

  After an enthusiastic amateur had worked out that the object that caused the impact was not a meteor or small asteroid but a particle of the super dense material neutronium the Amalgam central scientific assembly became very interested. As the fragment had such a high density it had been sinking through the magma towards the core of the planet and certain catastrophe. The lethal ball of matter had to be removed.

  Sutton’s only problem was the peculiar and downright rude so-called genius Carlton Husthwaite. His idea to swallow the particle in a wormhole and eject it in deep space was considered the only proposition that would work. She had put up with his socially inept, arrogant behaviour for the last twelve weeks and couldn’t wait for the job to be completed. And even though failure would mean disaster secretly she hoped they would not be successful and show Carlton Husthwaite he was not the genius he thought he was. Council members from the Amalgam central chamber attended the final days trying to get their name associated with Carlton and gain some reflected glory. And now here she was chairing the senior engineering meeting, surrounded by annoying journalists and politicians. As if things weren’t bad enough they wanted her to give Carlton a public thank you.

  Carlton entered the room and stood behind Suttons’ chair. The smell of his tobacco swamped her and she held her breath to try and avoid the foul odour. All the cameras turned to him and the council members struggled to be in the picture as he addressed the room. “I’m happy to have you all here today to witness the first use of wormhole technology inside a planet. The neutronium particle will be removed to a safe distance and put out of harm’s way.”