by Aer-ki Jyr
Phase 2 called for the creation of an anti-gravity engine that could enhance the repulsive force of the drive core, meaning that it would repel in greater force than its mass would otherwise have allowed. This, Jason had originally thought, would be infinitely more complex, but according to Paul it surprisingly hadn’t been, meaning that Star Force right now had a prototype anti-gravity engine that could lift more than its own weight…as well as modulate the force to balance out with the cargo weight to maintain altitude, as Paul had demonstrated with the prototype floating beside him.
“We should be able to enhance that number significantly with a few model revisions. The basics of the technology aren’t hard to grasp past this point, but our fabrication techniques are going to have to get smaller…on a nanite-like level. The drive cores on the V’kit’no’sat technology are so dense that we can’t analyze their components, so we’re stuck with working off blueprints. Ours is gigantic in comparison, so we’re going to have to scale our assembly down a lot before we can even think about building an effective gravity drive, but our Vtols’ engines should be able to be swapped out or at least augmented with what we have here…with a few tweaks.”
Again, Jason followed his friend’s line of thought almost as if it were him speaking the words. An anti-gravity engine and gravity drive were the same thing, technically speaking, but the term ‘gravity drive’ was most often used with starships, whereas anti-gravity was more of a surface term for craft that floated above the ground. In that case, the gravity drive would simply hold the craft aloft while providing occasional lift and descent, with the speed across ground of, say, a Mantis, being provided by convention engines.
In a starship the gravity drive was the propulsion…or most of it anyway. Lateral maneuvering would remain the purview of plasma or other thrust-based engines while linear acceleration away from a gravity well would be accomplished via the gravity drive. This meant that a starship leaving Earth for Mars could, if properly aligned on a ‘jumpline’ from the center of one planet to another, accelerate by forcing Earth’s gravity to push them away towards their target…coast…then push against Mars’ gravity to decelerate.
The calculations would be a headache, given that you also had to account for other gravitational forces from the Sun and other planets that would push you off that line, because the anti-gravity core would repel from all gravitational forces exerted on it, no matter how small. A phase 3 engine would have the ability to isolate individual gravity wells for propulsive use, but that was a whole other level above their tech rating at this point.
“Better yet,” Paul continued, “I had an idea on the way over on how to make use of limited phase 2 tech and it occurred to me that we might be able to employ it on some of our low gravity worlds to support an orbital tether, ala the Halo version.”
Jason’s jaw dropped. What Paul meant by an ‘orbital tether’ was an extremely tall tower reaching up into space whose farthest end would actually reach geosynchronous orbit. An elevator car could then, in theory, rise up the shaft and deliver cargo to orbit without having to use a dropship. The sheer number of miles of tower involved in building such a device was prohibitive, technologically speaking, even if they constructed the whole thing out of Herculium alloys, for there was no way to anchor the opposite end.
The otherwise rigid structure would bend from the planet’s rotation, tipping it sideways and ‘wrapping’ it around the planet in a spectacular crash, supposing of course you managed to erect one in the first place. Gravitationally locked moons, like Luna, had no rotational speed, which was why only one side of the planetoid was visible on Earth. The tiny differences in gravitational pull from the near side to the far side had, over time, slowed whatever rotation Luna had until it now matched up perfectly with its companion planet.
What rotation was attributed to Luna came from the fact that it was orbiting Earth and in doing so changed its orientation to the Sun as it maintained its orientation to the planet…which was what gave Luna its long day/night cycle. This did not produce a centrifugal force due to Earth’s gravity locking the moon in place, so in theory a orbital tether could work on Luna if you could get a structure stiff enough to support its own weight…which was extremely unlikely.
That gravitational locking, however, would also mean that no geosynch orbit could be achieved because the top of the tower wouldn’t be moving so any docking ships would still be falling down to the surface rather than floating. Rotation would cause the tower to crumple, no rotation would cause the ships to fall. Like the old cliché said, ‘Damned if you did, damned if you didn’t.’
But by placing anti-gravity engines along the mass, one could effectively lower the ‘weight’ of the tether, meaning less structurally sound materials could be used to create a similar length, or a greater length with stronger materials. Either way, a series of anti-gravity nodes along the tether could lift it enough to make the project feasible in gravitationally locked bodies.
As Jason’s mind raced he also realized that it might be able to work on the smaller rotating planets because a large anti-gravity anchor at the far end would keep the whole assembly taught in a straight line. Any tipping would mean the anchor had to travel closer to the surface, so the anchor would then repel up to the highest point which would preserve the straightest line possible.
“I know they’re a strategic weakness,” Paul continued, “but I think we’ve got to be able to find some location where they can be useful. I’ve also been thinking of using more flexible materials coupled with a powerful anti-grav anchor that could pull the tether up and out from a planet if it was broke in two rather than having the whole thing crash down. It’d depend where the break occurred, but it could minimize some of the damage. Anyway, just a thought. I’ll keep working out the bugs, but I think the Clans would be the best place to build an experimental version…on a mining planet without the surface facilities for us to smash if we mess it up.”
“I’m going to stick around Atlantis for a while and help move the project along through the conceptual phase. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If this works out like I think it will, we’ll have some new toys to play with shortly,” Paul finished with a smile before cutting the camera feed.
“No kidding,” Jason said, thinking through the possibilities. Anti-gravity technology employed on the surface was almost limitless in its applications, but if they could get a functional gravity drive on a starship then that would be the pinnacle game changer. Without having to rely on inertial thrust a starship would have an insane range, limited only by the power required to run the gravity drive.
The Bulma-class transports that the Clans currently used to access the outer zone had a huge fuel reserve onboard the size of a small lake because all that mass would be propelled out the engines over time in an equal and opposite reaction. The faster they could expel the material, the more thrust they would get out of it, but the basic principle held that the only way you could move through a vacuum was by throwing off bits of your ship in the opposite direction…and eventually you’d run out of pieces to throw.
That’s why Star Force had built up such an extensive refueling system and had been able to extend its transportation network far beyond what any other nation or corporation had managed on its own. Infrastructure was the way Star Force had combated the fuel limitations, but now their hands were going to be freed up and they’d be allowed to expand much, much further.
The outer zone was going to become next door, with the colonization rush spilling out to the soon to be easily accessible planets. Jason was glad the Clans had gotten a head start in colonizing the area, but there were still dozens of planets they hadn’t set foot on yet. They’d figured they had plenty of time to get around to them, given that it was the frontier of the system and hard to get to, but within a decade or so Davis’ people were going to be able to go where they liked without having to rely on the Clans.
And when that happened, other nations were going to want access as well
.
Jason chewed on his lip, thinking hard. The Clans had a lot of planning to do if they wanted to stay ahead of this, not to mention brainstorming ways to implement the new technology that would be coming down the pipe…and he knew Paul would find some way to make the orbital tethers a reality, he could sense it in his tone. Whenever they had a chance to take something from Halo or Star Wars and make it a reality they were almost compelled to do so.
Jason blinked, realizing that the anti-gravity engines meant that they could build Ghosts, Banshees, Phantoms, and other Halo hovering craft. More than that, a lot of the starships in Star Wars that took off and landed on planets, including Star Destroyers, were now technically possible to make. The idea of putting one of their battleships down on the surface of a planet was laughable in the past, but now they were going to have to rethink everything. Even the spaceport/dropship/starport ‘conduit to space’ that Davis had engineered as the linchpin of Star Force infrastructure could be going by the wayside.
Knowing that there was no way he was going to get a nap in now with his mind racing with ideas, Jason pulled up a blank datasheet and began organizing his thoughts, which he would share with Paul later…starting with a floating training turret that resembled Obi-wan’s orb from Star Wars IV.
9
February 2, 2198
Gary Brooks sat on a train with hundreds of other would be colonists looking out the windows at the snow-covered southern continent as it flashed by at more than 200 mph as they traveled from the port city of Nautilus out to one of Star Force’s ‘city-buildings’ where Gary and the others would begin their training and testing. If all went as planned, he’d be available for colonization allotments within a year’s time...two at max.
He’d arrived via cruise ship to the entertainment/resort city of Nautilus, which had become the planet’s #1 tourist destination since Star Force had built it 30 years ago and jumped ship upon arrival, cancelling his ticket for the return arc of the cruise after securing a slot in Project Exodus with a simple inquiry at the nearest Star Force information kiosk. He’d been politely directed through all the chaos that was the Star Force information network to the application process site that had been set aside for skilled individuals separate from the national quotas that Star Force used to choose who would be able to get in and who couldn’t.
Normally those national slots were chosen by the host country, filled by either lottery or graft…though Star Force quickly shut down any instances of the latter. The idea was to move a significant portion of the planet’s population offworld, not cater to the rich who had the luxury of buying living space. Gary had badly needed this vacation, but the prospect of returning to Philadelphia and his tiny apartment, surrounded by people at every turn with no room to breathe by yourself was untenable. He’d put up with it before because he had to, but now that he’d gotten away from it all for a couple of weeks he couldn’t bring himself to go back.
He’d considered moving to a rural area of Pennsylvania, or even another state, but those areas were quickly disappearing and his skill set demanded an urban environment, meaning he wasn’t likely to find a job out in what now amounted to the suburbs of the megacities unless he wanted to switch career fields.
He’d been tempted to, at times, but he had always been a neurosurgeon and he couldn’t see himself doing anything else so that meant he was stuck in the omnipresent urban jungle until the day it killed him…which didn’t feel so far off.
Gary had hoped that the application process would take into count his medical skills, as he’d heard rumors of previously, but it wasn’t until he got back the almost instantaneous confirmation that he allowed himself any glimmer of true hope, expecting to have it dashed like so many other times in the past.
Gary had urgently asked the attendant to confirm that his selection was valid, which the man did with a knowing smile on his face, tapping a few keys and bringing up a full readout of the candidate selection manifest and showing him where his name was now added and how to access his instructions for relocation.
The neurosurgeon had quickly recorded the information and scrambled off to pack up his things on the cruise ship, inform the deck manager that he was staying in port, contact his landlord and employer back in Philly to cancel his lease and submit his resignation, and get across the city to the processing center where flight after flight of inbound potential colonists were arriving. He mixed in with the hundreds of thousands of people milling about in what amounted to the largest airport on the planet until he found his assigned registration desk. From there he checked in and the Star Force staff quickly moved him through a security checkpoint into another portion of the facility.
He’d had to abandon most of his luggage there, able to only take with him a few pocketfuls of essential medication as his handlers insisted that everything he was going to need would be provided on site. It was disconcerting enough to have left so many personal items back in the states, but to board a train for a completely new destination with only the clothing on your back was quite another matter. It was both frightening and liberating as he watched the miles of Antarctica seemingly wash away his past life in a dizzying hurry as his train sped off to new horizons.
There wasn’t much scenery to break up the white expanse, only little bits of elevation here and there. If it hadn’t been for several rocky outcroppings it would have been hard to make a guess as to their speed, for compared to the huge facilities dotting the distant landscape they seemed to be moving very, very slowly.
The trick of the illusion became apparent as his train curved off at a branching point and headed for one of the giant cubes that was to be his city-building. The size didn’t fully register until its width spread out to cover the entire forward horizon, rising up into the sky higher than he could see from his window. Only after a very long period of expansion did the cube seem to scare the train into slowing down, with it creeping inside through one of many tiny holes at the very bottom of the exterior where several other trains dotted in and out like miniature snakes.
Gary rubbed the solid bracelet he wore around his left wrist. It had been permanently attached when he went through the security station and held all of his identification materials on an internal computer chip. He knew that without it he would be lost amongst the masses Star Force was recruiting, which made him glad that it didn’t have a latch that he could take it off with, no matter how much it was causing him to itch.
His train slid through a claustrophobic tunnel at remarkably high speed until it opened out into a long unloading area and came to a stop with all 52 cars opening up to waiting platforms. Gary stood immediately, but was forced to wait while the inner aisles cleared before he could nudge his way into the line leading out through the one and only exit his car had, which was opposite the side on which he sat.
Star Force personnel kept the line moving swiftly and soon Gary stepped outside and marveled at the size of the chamber that housed not only the entire length of his train, but what looked to be at least three other trains stretched out parallel to each other, all offloading would be colonists.
He couldn’t gawk for long because the line kept moving fast, with his train disappearing behind him before he got down off the wide platform and followed the line to another processing station where their wristbands were being scanned. Each person was then loaded into a tiny elevator and shot off to who knew where. Gary figured each one was going to a separate location, based on their skills, but he didn’t know for sure. When he got up to third in line he heard a woman complaining in what he thought was Spanish to the Star Force handler.
The man took the verbal assault in stride and calmly directed her into the elevator and shut the door on her shrilling voice, then sent her off through the transit system to where her tag required.
Gary was more patient, letting the man scan his wristband and enter the appropriate information before saying anything. “I hope you know where you’re sending me, young man.”
“It’s
my business to know,” he replied politely, then sealed Gary in. A moment later he felt his feet drop out from under him as the phone booth shaped pod descended to an interior track that then whisked him off at a reasonable pace elsewhere in the gigantic facility.
He couldn’t see anything, for the elevator had no windows, but there was a small diagram on the wall that tracked his progress with a long line that indicated where he was going and a small dot that showed where the elevator was at all times. To his eyes it was moving very slowly, but the slight ‘whirring’ sound outside suggested otherwise.
When his ride ended the doors opened to reveal more Star Force handlers, one of whom escorted him into some sort of a lounge with several dozen other people waiting, all of whom looked to be on the middle to upper end of society.
“Wait here until your personal attendant arrives, then they’ll show you to your quarters and get you set up with everything you need.”
“Thank you,” Gary said, taking a seat next to a woman half his age as she watched a newscast on a nearby wall monitor.
“Hello,” she greeted him, turning away almost as soon as she said the word.
“Hello,” he offered in return, sensing that she was merely being polite rather than wishing to strike up a conversation. Instead he focused on the newscast, trying to calm some of the agitation washing through his system.
Less than a minute later an attendant arrived and whisked one of the others away, followed by two more within the next thirty seconds, suggesting to Gary that he wouldn’t be sitting here for too long.
“On the technology front,” the newscaster said alongside a symbol that read ‘breaking news,’ “Star Force has just released a bombshell that analysts say will revolutionize the space industry. According to their reports, which we have no reason to doubt given their track record, they’ve succeeded in creating an artificial gravity device…and no, we’re not talking about centrifugal force or any other spinning contraption. We’re talking straight up sci-fi, walk on the ceiling type artificial gravity,” he said as the image cut to what was file footage provided by Star Force.
