Timemaster

by Robert L. Forward

"Where is that?" asked Randy, awed.

  "We do not know," replied Elena. "It is obviously near center of globular cluster, but computer has not made match yet. Could be near cluster, could be far cluster."

  "How far away from Earth have you been?" asked Randy.

  "Very far," said Elena. She put up the next image. The screen was almost black except for some faint wisps of light spread out over the distant background. "Very strange place, this one. No stars at all. We have to take one-hour exposure to see anything. All we see is galaxies, very far distant. But computer was able to find match."

  "Where is it?" asked Randy, now excited.

  "Is center of Boötes Void," said Elena solemnly. "We suspect Boötes Void caused by cloud of primordial negative matter that push primordial positive matter out to spherical surface of void. There, positive matter collect into galaxies of stars which we can see. Negative matter does not form into stars."

  "A region of negative matter," mused Randy. "That's probably the original home of the Silverhairs."

  "And home to lots of other negmatter life-forms besides Silverhairs," interjected Steve.

  "How do you know?" asked Randy. He turned to look at Elena. "Have you seen any evidence of other life-forms?"

  "No," replied Elena, also looking puzzled. She turned to Steve. "We have seen nothing. Why you think there are other life-forms?"

  "Because the Silverhairs are intelligent," said Steve. "Not very intelligent, I admit, but more intelligent than most animals. The only reason a plantlike creature like the Silverhair would ever evolve intelligence would be if it had a predator and needed intelligence to escape that predator. Ergo, there is at least one more negmatter life-form, and probably many of them."

  "Perhaps," replied Elena, thinking over what Steve had said, "but why haven't we seen any?"

  "Probably because the predators haven't learned to use wormholes," replied Steve.

  "Steve may have something there," said Randy. "I remember Kip Carlton saying a Silverhair is like an octopus backed into an amphora in a Mediterranean shipwreck. How much would we know about the life-forms on Earth if our only view of Earth was an occasional look out through the bottleneck of an amphora in the hold of a wrecked ship at the bottom of the Mediterranean? Once in a while we might be lucky enough to see a shark swim by, but the shark certainly can't get through the neck of the amphora to visit us, even if the octopus can."

  "Negmatter sharks!" exclaimed Andrew with a grimace. "I certainly wouldn't like to meet one."

  "We will keep open the link to the Boötes Void to see if we can spot any other creatures," said Elena.

  "How far away is the Boötes Void, anyway?" asked Randy.

  "Distance to Boötes is substantial fraction of distance across entire universe," said Elena.

  "Y'know," mused Randy, looking at Andrew, "maybe we don't need to make interstellar spacecraft. If we could use Elena's technique to open up a warpgate with the right bend in it, we could pop out almost anywhere in the entire universe."

  "Nice try, Randy," said Steve with a condescending sneer, "but no biscuit. The Silverhair at the other end is moving with respect to the Silverhair in orbit around Earth. An object entering one mouth nearly at rest with the rest of the universe exits the other mouth having high kinetic energy and momentum. Compensating for that change in energy and momentum puts a terrific internal strain on the Silverhair. The larger the diameter of the wormhole and the higher the differential velocity, the less mass it can pass without collapsing. At the high velocities encountered when warping over interstellar distances, the Silverhair is just barely able to pass a small TV camera a few millimeters across. Humans are out of the question."

  "Is there any way around the problem?" asked Randy.

  "Actually, the problem is not supposed to be there. There is nothing known in the Einstein General Theory of Relativity that would lead one to suspect such an effect. In general relativity theory, the throat of a wormhole does not know, and in fact has no way of knowing, whether or not the two mouths of the wormhole are, in the long-way-around geometry, moving with respect to each other. What these experiments with the Silverhair are telling us is that the Einstein theory is not the last word in space-time-gravity theories. There must be something else that needs to be added to general relativity, that somehow globally takes into account the existence and topology of the rest of the universe. Personally, I suspect it has something to do with a theory of inertia."

  "Theory of inertia?" said Randy, bewildered. "Never heard of it."

  "That's not surprising," replied Steve. "There is no theory of inertia ... yet. But I'm working on it now that I know there must be one." His mustache twitched. "In the meantime, we are stuck with the fact that if the ends of the wormhole have significant relative velocity, the Silverhair can't open more than a few millimeters. That's enough to send a laser comm beam through, but not people. Once you start off on a ship, you are stuck on that ship until you bring it to a halt with respect to the Silverhair mouth back in the solar system."

  "Damn!" Randy said in exasperation. "I guess we'll just have to do it the hard way." He leaned back in his special chair. "All right, Andrew, tell me more about the design for the good ship Rosita."

  "Well," started Andrew, "because Rosita will have a built-in warpgate connection back to Earth, it will be an interstellar vehicle unlike any imagined before—even in science fiction. The old 'twin paradox' situation just doesn't apply to these ships. In the past, if you made a ten-light-year journey, even if you could travel at the speed of light, it would take a minimum of ten Earth years to travel there and ten Earth years to travel back or send a message back. In either case, Earth would not learn what you found there for a minimum of twenty years—twice as many years of time as light-years of distance."

  "With the warpgate, we can cut that in half," said Randy. "The spaceship, carrying one end of the warpgate, only has to go one way. Once there, you open up the warpgate, and Earth instantly knows what you found."

  "It's better than that, Randy," interjected Steve. "The Earth shares in the astronaut's time dilation. Once the spacecraft gets up to speed, where the time-slowing factor gets large, then the spaceship can travel many light-years of distance in just one year of ship proper time. For example, if the spacecraft pulls thirty gees and gets to, say, ninety-nine-point-five percent of the speed of light in a hurry, then the time-slowing factor is ten to one. The ship would cover ten light-years in one year ship time. When the astronaut uses the warpgate to return home, he will find he has been gone only one year Earth time, yet in that one year, he has opened up a warpgate to a point ten light-years distant."

  "Like traveling at ten times the speed of light," said Randy, impressed.

  "I'm afraid Rosita is not going to let you travel faster than the speed of light, literally or figuratively," said Andrew. "We have a live Silverhair aboard that wasn't designed to take gees, and then there is the radiation hazard from moving through the interstellar gas and dust."

  "Radiation hazard?" asked Randy.

  "A hydrogen atom moving at relativistic speeds is a deadly high-energy particle," Steve explained. "Even if you could turn it aside with magnetic fields so it doesn't burn a hole through you, it would emit a burst of bremsstrahlung X rays that would do almost as good a job of frying you all over."

  "We will be working hard on the radiation shielding problem," said Andrew. "But I'm afraid that the design speed of Rosita will be limited by the radiation hazard to eighty percent of the speed of light, while the design acceleration will be one gee. We can push both limits, but one leads to increased risk to your health, and the other leads to increased risk that we could lose control of the Silverhair, with drastic consequences for the Silverhair, Rosita, and you, when the negative matter of the Silverhair contacts the sides of the containment vessel in the hold."

  "What is the trip time to Alpha Centauri, then?" asked Randy.

  "From takeoff to warpback—five years," said Andrew. "But it's better
than the thirteen years it would have taken to make a round trip at one gee the old way."

  "Five years ..." repeated Randy. He sighed heavily. "Rose isn't going to like it."

  RANDY had avoided attending the trial. It had been getting enough publicity from the newspapers, and if he were visible to the newspapers, then the headlines—rich brats in "slaver" courtroom brawl—would start again.

  Oscar Barkham was creating enough headlines all by himself. He staged a news conference every day after the court session was recessed, as celebrity after celebrity paraded up to the witness stand to condemn Randy and the Reinhold Astroengineering Company for making slaves of the Silverhairs. As a result, Oscar's ruggedly handsome face was now seen daily around the world on television.

  Oscar had latched onto the very popular Animal Rescue Front in order to make a public comeback after his ZED-flashback debacle on the Nancy Queen show. Oscar now basked in the media attention and the daily close association and new friendships with video, music, and publishing superstars. Memberships in the Animal Rescue Front increased dramatically. The increase in donations, however, was nowhere near sufficient to pay the hefty appearance fees of the superstars. Oscar covered those costs.

  After two weeks of depositions, the Animal Rescue Front completed its arguments, and it was now time for Reinhold Astroengineering Company to present its side of the case. Randy had chosen Red Hurley, recently retired senator from New Jersey, as his attorney.

  "I'd like to be in the courtroom," said Randy. "But I won't come if you think it will be detrimental to our case."

  "Since this is a patent court," said Senator Hurley, "and the case is decided by the judge, not a jury, having you there would show the judge that you think the case is important."

  "It won't be for long, anyway," said Randy.

  "No, it won't," said Senator Hurley, smiling. "Your idea for our first witness was most surprising when you first suggested it, but I think it was a stroke of genius. I remember what a fool you made of him at that Congressional hearing on the Terravator. He'll never forgive you for that. Was he mad! And still is."

  "Mad, hell," said Randy. "That guy's crazy!"

  "He'll be even madder once I finish with him on the witness stand," said Red. "If things work as we planned, we won't need the rest of the expert witnesses we've lined up."

  When Randy's small form walked into the courtroom, passed through the gate, and sat down at the defendant's table, a cloud of hisses and mutterings billowed up behind him as the spectators recognized the diminutive body. Randy sat in a special chair that Senator Hurley had arranged for him, and soon was raised up to where he could put his arms comfortably on top of the table. Before he rested his arms, he took a packet out of his jacket pocket, ripped it open, and removed a wiping paper soaked in cleaner. After cleaning his hands, he wiped the top of the table. Depositing the spent wiper in a nearby trash basket, he put his arms on the now-clean table, interlocked his fingers, and sat quiet and motionless. Soon the noises from the spectators dwindled to muffled whispers.

  The judge entered, sat down, and picked up the docket from her bench.

  "We will now hear the arguments by the defendant, Reinhold Astroengineering Company," said the judge, looking over her half-lens reading glasses at the defendant's table.

  Senator Hurley got up from behind the table and walked up to the bench.

  "Our first witness will be the president of the Animal Rescue Front," said Senator Hurley. "Will Mr. Oscar Barkham please take the stand."

  Randy could see the judge's eyebrows raise when she heard the name; then her jaw cocked to one side as she considered the ploy and obviously thought it a good one. The noise from the spectators' area grew as a confused Oscar Barkham had a hurried conference with the bevy of lawyers at the plaintiff's table.

  The judge gaveled the courtroom into silence as a reluctant Oscar Barkham took the stand and was sworn in. Senator Hurley came close to the witness stand and gave Oscar a disarming smile.

  "This is really a very simple case, Mr. Barkham," started Senator Hurley. "My client maintains that the Silverhairs are plants and subject to protection under the new Standardized International Patent Law provisions—"

  "Some protection!" blurted Oscar. "Slavery is more like it!"

  Senator Hurley ignored the outburst and continued, "—while your organization maintains that the Silverhairs are wild animals obtained directly from nature without genetic manipulation, and therefore cannot be patented."

  "They are intelligent, sensitive ... caring animals," said Oscar. Remembering some phrases from the pamphlets and press handouts the Animal Rescue Front had generated for the case, he went on. "They deserve a better life than slavery to serve a brutish master who tortures them with tissue-damaging probes to make them serve his will"—Oscar turned to look at Randy—"and satisfy his base desire to dominate large animals to compensate for his diminutive stature!"

  Randy nearly exploded at the remark, but kept his temper under control. The judge spoke out tiredly.

  "In the future the witness shall confine his remarks to direct responses to questions put by counsel," she said.

  "Now," said Senator Hurley, "let us come to an agreement on a description of a Silverhair."

  "It's an animal!" persisted Oscar.

  Senator Hurley didn't look to the judge for help, but simply ignored Oscar's remark and went on. "Please answer yes or no. A Silverhair is a living object, is it not?"

  "Yes ..." said Oscar slowly, suspecting a trap.

  "A single Silverhair consists of a central body that branches out into many hundreds of tendrils all similar in structure, although differing in length and diameter."

  "Yes," replied Oscar.

  "A Silverhair reproduces by bifurcation of an existing Silverhair."

  "So do simple animals!" blurted Oscar.

  "Yes or no," said Senator Hurley.

  "Yes," admitted Oscar.

  "All Silverhairs are interconnected through warps in space-time."

  "Yes," said Oscar. "That's why they are being enslaved by Reinhold Astroengineering Company." Senator Hurley ignored the outburst.

  "The original Silverhair was found floating in space, and neither it nor any of its dozens of budded replicas have shown any signs of locomotion."

  "Yes ... but oysters don't move either."

  "A Silverhair eats rocks and prefers iron, especially iron atoms from a plasma gun," said Senator Hurley.

  "Yes."

  "The Silverhair can detect light with its tendrils."

  "Yes!" said Oscar, now feeling more confident. "And detect radio waves."

  "I was coming to that," said Senator Hurley. "The Silverhair can both detect and transmit radio waves with its tendrils."

  "Yes!"

  "In fact, using its radio-wave detection and transmission ability, a Silverhair can communicate with humans."

  "Yes!" said Oscar, feeling pleased with the turn of the questions.

  "The level of communication, however, is limited to single words and simple concepts," said Senator Hurley.

  "Yes ..." said Oscar reluctantly, still looking for a trap.

  "Now," said Senator Hurley, changing tack. "All living objects are either plants or animals, is that not so?"

  "Yes," said Oscar. "And the Silverhair is an animal."

  "The witness is warned," said the judge. "He is to confine his future remarks to direct responses to questions by counsel. If he does not, he will be found in contempt of court." Oscar was now under great strain. Randy saw the ZED-flashback attack coming, but most of the rest of the people in the courtroom missed it, including the judge and even Senator Hurley, who was busy looking at his notes and not watching the witness. Oscar went into a trance, his body moving in slow motion while his eyes darted wildly around the courtroom, as if he were a trapped wild animal looking for some way to escape.

  "Both plants and animals are sensitive to light," read Senator Hurley from his notes. "But animals have complex seeing orga
ns called eyes, while plants have no eyes and sense light with their leaves and body. Is that true? Yes or no."

  Oscar didn't answer.

  "The witness will answer the question," said the judge, clearly annoyed.

  Fortunately for Oscar, the attack didn't last long. He had heard the question and figured out the correct answer, but had avoided responding since his slurred, lowered voice would have been a direct giveaway. He finally came back to normal.

  "Y-e-s," he said slowly.

  "Both plants and animals eat food. But animals eat by ingesting living or formerly living food made of complex molecules into their gut, while plants eat by absorbing simple elements like iron or compounds like minerals through their skin."

  "Yes," Oscar murmured reluctantly.

  "Now let me read you the scientific definitions of plant and animal taken from the Encyclopaedia Britannica," said Senator Hurley. "After I have read the definitions, I will ask you a simple question." He consulted his notes again.

  "An animal is a living organism that ingests complex organic material into a gut to obtain energy and raw materials for growth and maintenance of its body. It has a highly differentiated structure, with many different and separate organs for processing food, sensing the environment, and locomotion. It propagates by sexual reproduction." He shifted to another piece of paper.

  "A plant is a living organism that absorbs simple minerals plus energy through its surface to make complex molecules used for growth and maintenance of its body. It has a relatively simple cellular structure, with no separate organs for processing food, sensing the environment, or locomotion. It can reproduce either by sexual reproduction, buds, runners, or shoots." Senator Hurley lowered his notes and looked at Oscar, who was staring furiously at him.

  "Now, Mr. Barkham. Is the Silverhair a plant or an animal?"

  "But they're intelligent creatures!" yelled Oscar.

  Senator Hurley lifted his two sheets of notes and looked at them in mock bewilderment. "There is no mention of intelligence in either of these two scientific definitions," he said. He lowered the notes and advanced on the witness stand.