Nodal Convergence (Cretaceous Station Book 1)

by Terrence Zavecz

  ‘In 1974 Stephen Hawking argued that due to quantum effects, black holes "evaporate" by a process now referred to as Hawking Radiation in which elementary particles, that is photons, electrons, quarks, gluons, are emitted. His calculations show that the smaller the size of the black hole, the faster the evaporation rate. Our own people have been drawn into the theory that internal to Jupiter there exists not a planet in formation but rather a small black hole.’

  ‘A GraviDynamics probe was then sent into the Red Spot itself with greater success. With only moderate radiation problems, the probe was able to navigate down into the storms. Transmissions from the probe reported that it had travelled a total distance of 620 million miles before we turned it about. That, my dear, is a distance of almost from here to the sun! Hang on, I’ll explain.’

  ‘We feared the violence of the external Jovian atmosphere so on the way in, the course of the probe was maintained near the center of the rapidly rotating red spot. On the return trip, we wanted to examine conditions near the boundary. Pulling the probe from the center path resulted in severe distortion of the communications signal. There was real concern that we would lose contact. We never fully restored full contact but the default programming on the probe terminated the mission and returned it. It was then recovered without further incident.’

  ‘Now here’s the key. After we recovered the probe, the internal log continued independent data gathering for an additional two days longer than the mission elapse time. The only explanation is that the probe returned from its mission with an additional two days of unexplained travel. A thorough analysis of mission data concluded that this behavior can only be explained if we model the Red Spot as a Tipler Cylinder. Let me explain further.’

  ‘In 1974, Francis Tipler theorized a spacetime universe containing a massive, infinitely long cylinder. Making the cylinder infinitely long simplifies the boundary conditions that the model would have to take into account. Spinning the cylinder along its longitudinal axis creates a frame-dragging effect. This frame-dragging effect warps spacetime in such a way that the light cones of objects in the cylinder's proximity become tilted.’

  ‘The Light Cone is a mathematical model that very neatly encodes this causal structure of Einstein's Spacetime. Each event in Spacetime has a double-cone attached to it, where the tip corresponds to the event itself. The upward-directed cone opens to enclose the directions pointing towards potential events to the future.’

  ‘The tipping of the light cones causes them to point backwards or forwards along the time axis. Incorporating a variant of Tipler’s equations into our drive models accounted for the two-day time differential of the probe. We had essentially discovered a time-travel machine with a clear control model to incorporate it into our drive equations. The one hitch of course is that the drive will not operate temporally outside the boundaries of the Tipler Cylinder that we know as the Red Spot of Jupiter.’

  ‘You will recall that our major goal is to be able to expand our drive’s capability to achieve faster than light speed. With the Red Spot, we now have a tool to take us through time so that we can measure the changes of the constants of our gravitonic radiation model. We sent additional probes into the Tipler Cylinder to measure its characteristics and discovered that the energy expenditure for travel to any point in time is not uniform or even linear.’

  ‘The model suggests that you can always return to your own entry point. As you move further from that temporal point, it rapidly gets harder and harder to exit. However, there are points in time downstream where its easy to exit and other stretches where you could not exit at all. The exit nodes vary in the amount of energy needed but their occurrence is periodic, recurring every 26 million years. Ah I see that I’ve touched on a sensitive point with you Ms. Wenford.’

  At this point Sara could not sit easy in her chair. David looked quite baffled, ‘OK would someone please help me get back on board? This is the most animated I’ve seen Sara since we got here. Just what am I missing?’

  Sara almost jumped at David, ‘Dinosaurs have been extinct for a little more than 65 million years when the great Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction occurred. That extinction is just one of many that have occurred in the long history of our planet. Don’t you see it? The period of 26 million years corresponds to the extinction cycle. I’d have thought you would have had this in your Naturalist courses somewhere. Life on Earth has undergone major extinctions for as far back as we can see in the fossil record. They vary in severity but they have a very strong cyclical period; 26 million years. Mr. Nolen, uh, Mark, would we be able to actually bring back a dinosaur?’

  ‘Exactly right Sara!’ Mark could see that he now had her attention. From here on out it would be easy. ‘… and no, we aren’t bringing the dinosaur to Sara, we are taking Sara to the dinosaur. It’s much cheaper to transport you.’

  ‘Seriously, it is easier for us to travel back 65 million years to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction than it is for me to travel back to visit Julius Caesar. If fact, it seems to be impossible to travel back to any time later than the Middle Miocene disturbance of 14 million years ago. For some reason we haven’t discovered yet, we also cannot go into the future.’

  ‘The gravitonic-time model that has evolved from all this rules out a lot of the paradox problems associated with time travel. There is no way you can go back a short jump and kill your grandfather. The concept of time-disturbance-generated parallel universes also falls apart. We see this in the basic gravitonic model. Gravity and time both exhibit the particle-wave duality.’

  ‘There are many published works under classic relativity that speculate that if you go back and change a point in the past, then a universe with an alternate history is created up-time. To use a classic science fiction theme, you go back and step on a butterfly while photographing a dinosaur and your own time and history change from that point on. Our models show that time isn’t like a billiard ball travelling across a table where you make a change in the time-path by striking another ball and two separate time-paths result. This would be a particle-like behavior for the time-stream.’

  ‘According to gravitonics, if you go back and change a point in history, it’s like putting a pebble in a stream. The time-stream will have a minor disturbance immediately around the pebble but there is no influence on the overall path of the stream. Time corrects itself. You would have to make major changes in the entire streambed to alter the full course of time.

  ‘The extinction event correlation is there. The greater the extinction, the easier it is for us to exit the Tipler Cylinder. The observation also suggests that these exits are each a point of a major disturbance in the so-called constants of the universe. That of course is the major focus of our mission. So travel to the Cretaceous extinction or the Triassic or late Devonian is relatively easy with the most recent event being the easiest to access.’

  The worry on Sara’s face was evident. ‘Do you really want to do this? I’m not sure I want to be there when some comet or asteroid crashes into the earth.’

  The smile never left Mark’s face, ‘No, we have control over that. Exit points are not narrow doors in time. For a small penalty in energy, we can land a few thousand years on either side of the event. The energy required varies from exit-to-exit and is not uniform on both sides of the event. We would actually like to know why. With any exit point, we should be able to land at a time that will allow us to safely visit or even set up a colony where our grandchildren could survive without fear of the event.’

  ‘I need to remind you that you are along to take advantage of the knowledge we can gain while we live and work at the base. We don’t really understand the problems that we might encounter with the local wildlife and environment. First and foremost you will be a critical advisor to our security team as is Doctor Pope.’

  ‘Our major mission objective will not be the flora and fauna of the Cretaceous. There’s not really any money in it. If we want to travel to the stars easily, we need to understa
nd if the universal constants such as the gravitational constant, Planks constant and the speed of light are true constants or slowly changing variables. In addition, since the equations don’t actually forbid the existence of alternate universes, we will attempt to learn more about the extinction event. The extinctions may actually be points in time where the stream splits to an alternate reality.’

  Mark could see that Sara is now very upset. ‘How much time and what resources will I have for my work? I’ll need to be able to travel for surveys. Observing live specimens will be completely different than attempting to understand them from a fossil record. I’ll be so inundated with new information that I won’t know what is significant and what can be ignored. We need a much larger team. For that matter, how much time do I have to prepare?’

  David had been a part of the GraviDynamics team for over three months so he didn’t feel the impact of all these sudden revelations. “Remember Sarah, I’m a naturalist and I understand big game behavior. I expect we will be spending quite a bit of time together. I can help in tracking and, if you want to get into it, live-trapping some of the specimens. We’ll have both facilities and manpower available for everything from data collation to specimen dissection.’

  ‘I recall your husband’s name is Paul? He’s already down in engineering becoming familiar with the robotics. We’ll be able to rely a lot on them for any heavy work and some of the finer specimen preparation tasks. I’m also told we’ll have full access to the analysis lab.’

  ‘David’s comments invite the question of timing.’ Mark cut in. ‘We will be leaving in two weeks. Let me explain.’

  ‘GraviDynamics is a private corporation. Our success lies in our ability to stay ahead of our competitors in a lucrative market. Faster than light travel and our understanding of gravitational sources promise both long term profits from colonization opportunities and short term sales of new products based on our core technology, the GraviDynamics engine. Fast communications, gravity control, visual camouflage and other products are developing from applications of this technology. Our walldisplay and this projector are two early examples. Barrier shielding for gases, as used in this projector, as well as larger masses will grow in capability as a result. These are opportunities that will profit our shareholders and all of mankind.’

  ‘We have been planning this expedition for several years now. The Tipler Cylinder requires us to pay a high penalty for the mass and volume we transport through it. It does not pay us to travel back in time for elemental mining or rare element shipping. So this trip can only be justified as a means of improving our basic physical knowledge of gravity to improve our models.’

  ‘You can thank or blame David for this opportunity to travel with us since he’s the one who lobbied for your participation. As for your work, I can’t envision any significant direct financial gain from learning about dinosaurs. So why do we need you?’

  ‘The problem we will encounter after we get there is one of logistics. We aren’t sure what the basic conditions of Jupiter and Europa will be in that time frame. It’s prohibitive for us to take or develop the basics we would need for life and research support on any extraterrestrial base. However, we lose nothing in accuracy by performing the studies on the friendly earth where water, food and easy movement are all present and greatly simplify our daily existence.’

  ‘One major concern we have is the wildlife. We considered going back to earlier times but travel to a pre-life environment greatly increases the cost and the number of environmental unknowns. We therefore contracted David to help. His duties will be to manage our security department; to keep us out of trouble with the locals. We don’t want to set up a research base on some migratory trail for example. We have also contracted the services of the BlackWave Corporation for security and David will be working closely with Colonel Daniel Drake on camp security.’

  ‘Security planning soon led David to the discovery that there was a lot about dinosaurs that he didn’t know. Sure, predators are predators no matter what the species but our simulations kept bumping into too many surprises. As a result, he convinced us we needed a good paleontologist and David wanted you.’

  ‘We plan on being on site for five years. We will return here in about a year. That’s about as close as we think we can safely place our return. You therefore will be reporting to David as a resource for our security team. I do not expect that David will need you full time. When you aren’t needed for security you can pursue your own pure-science studies. You will have a budget in terms of physical, computational and research resources. Weight restrictions for returning with samples will be strict. Anything you discover will be the property of GraviDynamics but you will receive full professional credit as well as bonus in preferred stock in the company for any significant discoveries. GraviDynamics will have the sole right to decide what we will release to the public. This of course is all part of the contract you signed earlier.’

  Mark motioned Sara’s attention back to the projector. ‘We’ll be taking 322 men, women and children as part of the project. This includes you as one of eighty-seven scientists. We will have fifteen children so your twins will have plenty of company. Your twins will continue their schooling as well as contribute time to the expedition when asked. The youngest dependent in the group is four years old and the trip should be very educational for all of them.’

  ‘After arrival, we will take a short time to survey and verify some anticipated changes in the Jupiter system and on the lunar south pole. This could yield information useful to future expeditions and will be important for our return home. I’m hoping that we will be able to quickly decide upon a good Cretaceous base site. We have three Hunter Recon shuttles available for initial exploration. The entire ship will eventually be landed so we won’t have to shuttle our equipment from orbit.’

  ‘At base camp, we will setup our own tooling centers. We also plan some low scale manufacturing to supply the needs of the station and the research. I do not anticipate a lack of raw materials. We will be making our own experimental apparatus on site to avoid the need of transport.’

  ‘This is the ship we’ll be using. Our most efficient use of volume would be to create a sphere. We will be hard-landing the ship so a flattened area on the top and bottom of the sphere provides both stable ground support as well as a raised landing area for aircraft and shuttles. Looks kinda like an old flying-saucer photo doesn’t it?’

  ‘I’m looking to you to come up with some initial recommendations for site-locations. You are our expert on this world’s layout and local climate variations. This will be an alien world so consider safety first and ease of base construction second. You’ll have five years at the base so don’t bias your selections by any scientific curiosities you may harbor. There will be plenty of time for your studies and side-trips.’

  ‘Most of all you will have to transform your thinking. You are making a transition from paleontologist to naturalist. Those bones you studied last year could soon rise up and step on you or eat you. You need to think of every last animal and plant as a threat.’

  ‘Unless you have any questions, I’ll leave you with David. I don’t think you’ll have any need for picks or shovels on this expedition but if you will need any special tools or reference material please assemble a list for my approval.’

  ‘David, would you please make sure she gets over to the dispensary after lunch and have Doctor Graeme set her up with a Hive Tab.’

  The last thing on Sara’s mind was lunch. Where do I start? Well, perhaps a good review of the newest publications of the Cretaceous Earth and it’s differing environments. Would it be possible to continue my research on dinosaur metabolism? Then it struck her, she would not have to infer dinosaur physiology from fossil castings, she could directly observe it. Think of the wealth of uncontestable information she would be able to gather and present! Then a dark cloud of realization again descended on her.

  What would this information do to her profession? What is the us
e of extracting fossils from the earth when a select few observers could view them as living, breathing creatures? A whole generation of paleontologists would soon have to become naturalists.

  References

  1. Spartak Poliakov, Oleg Poliakov, “Gravitonics is Electronics of the XXI Century”, New Energy technologies, Issue #4, July – August 2002. http://www.intalek.com/Index/Projects/Research/Poliakov.PDF

  2. Richard F. Gauthier, “FTL Quantum Models of the Photon and the Electron”, STAIF Conference 2007

  3. J. M. Wahr, M. T. Zuber, D. E. Smith, and J. I. Lunine, “Tides on Europa, and the thickness of Europa’s icy shell”, Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. III, 2006.

  4. Cynthia Phillips, Diane Richards. “High Tide on Europa”, AstoBiology magazine; http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/603/high-tide-on-europa

  5. http://www.windows2universe.org/jupiter/interior/J_evolution_contraction.html

  6. http://www.astronomy-education.com/index.php?page=74

  7. Hawking, S. W. (1974). "Black hole explosions?", Nature 248 (5443): 30 (Hawking Radiation)

  8. F.J.Tipler, “Rotating cylinders and the possibility of global causality violation”, Physical Review D, vol 9, issue 8 pp. 2203-2206 (1974)

  9. Anderson Institute, Tipler Cylinders http://www.andersoninstitute.com/tipler-cylinder.html

  10. The paleontology timeline scale with marked 26 million year is from Michael J. Benton, David A. T. Harper, Introduction to paleobiology and the fossil record, Wiley-Blackwell publishing

  11. TEA laser reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEA_laser

  GraviDynamics and Mark Nolen are of course fictional. Spartak and Oleg Poliakov are not. These two Russian scientists published a review of experimental work they had performed supporting the concept of microleptons or, as they preferred, uniquantums in 2000. The objective of the publication was to excite interest in the hope of garnering financial support for more experiments.