by Alex Scarrow
OMNIPEDIA:
[Human Universe open source digital encyclopedia]
Article: Ellie Quin - Sub-space Resonance
In the mid-twentieth century mathematicians discovered that the five different Superstring Theories being discussed were in fact one, but appeared to be five thanks to minor discrepancies caused by an unseen and, at that time, undiscovered phenomenon. It had been widely accepted for some time back then that ten spatial dimensions could be mathematically calculated. The discrepancies in Superstring Theory could be explained only by hypothesizing the existence of an eleventh.
Today we know that to be true, and it is this dimension that is used as a transmission medium for Sub-space Resonance signals. This is the process of exciting cunarks through the eleventh spatial dimension; a process that requires an inordinate amount of energy. The result is a vibration that can travel any distance instantly and be recorded and decoded at the other end.
Since its discovery eight hundred years ago, Sub-space Resonance has only ever been used sparingly by a few of the most senior executives of the most powerful corporations in Human Space. It was also used on extremely rare occasions by the Administration to relay matters of utmost urgency.
To understand the amount of energy involved in having a short Sub-space conversation, it would take the energy required to propel a battle cruiser at maximum speed for one year to transmit a five second message. Thus, as a mode of communication, it was then, and still is now, highly uneconomical. But, perhaps even more importantly, it is a very insecure communication medium. You see a Sub-space Resonance wave never diminishes. The wave, or as it is often described, the echo of the wave, will exist forever once it is formed. This being the case, it would be possible, hypothetically (with an almost infinite supply of energy to hand) to surf through the oceans of naturally occurring resonance wave frequencies today and hear snatched moments of conversations held over the last eight hundred years. Many such conversations being held between the wealthy and the powerful, the rulers and the power-brokers of the last millennium, and every one of these conversations about matters of paramount, history-altering importance. These conversations would have been held briefly with no time for courtesy or small-talk; brief exchanges of facts, information, and decisions made.
The ether of the eleventh dimension must be a historian’s treasure trove.
It is known that around the time that Ellie Quin left her home for New Haven, the eminent Genetic scientist, Dr Edward Mason was killed in an unfortunate accident. In the aftermath of his death a very disturbing discovery was made aboard the Laboratory facility of the Department of Genetic Analysis. A discovery so profoundly disturbing that records show a Sub-space Resonance communication was made between two senior members of the Administration, in different parts of the galaxy, only two days after the death of Dr Mason. Understandably there are no records of what was said, but the timing of one such event so soon after the death of Dr Mason can only lead a curious mind to assume the dead man was the subject of the conversation.
Somewhere, vibrating on a string of particle matter, exist the echoes of that conversation made many hundreds of years ago. We can only guess at what was said in this conversation…
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CHAPTER 14
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….Who knows about this?
Only ourselves on the ruling committee, and the man who worked as Dr Mason’s assistant, Rowan Brown. He’s the one who made the discovery.
Has he been taken care of?
Rowan Brown has been dealt with.
Why do you think Mason has done this? He was one of us.
He had concerns.
This could destroy us all, the Administration, order…everything. If this child is out there, it could already be happening.
Yes, we need to move quickly, but discreetly. I have arranged for someone we can trust to go to Pacifica, to study Mason’s notes. If this…creature has been released, he will find it.
He’s good?
The best we have.
Give him any resources he needs. Anything at all…
He knows he has absolute authority to act on our behalf in this matter.
How long do you think we have to find it?
It is impossible to say. It could be years, it could be days. It might even be that Mason never got round to releasing it….that it was merely a fantasy of his.
And we’re certain Mason is dead?
There was no body of course. His shuttle disintegrated on entry. In fact, no bodies were found. It is reasonable to assume he is dead.
But we can’t be certain.
No, quite.
Mason was insane.
I agree……
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CHAPTER 15
The stay at the Oxxon refinery was for one night only.
Ellie would have liked to have stayed much longer to give her time to explore the extraordinary surroundings of the accommodation building and the enormous towering nuclear powered converters. The accommodation building looked like a large cluster of dark-grey cubic crystals that had grown over time to overlay and bisect each other. It was a chaotic construction of much larger, old-fashioned reinforced steel habi-cubes that had been bolted together over a hundred years ago, and expanded upon over time.
Inside it was a labyrinth.
There were many areas of the building that had been abandoned and were now no longer used and reminded her of the remains of an old weather station not too far from home that she, Ted and Shona had explored many times with their Dad. Although there were nearly a hundred people living up here, at its peak the complex had housed nearly five hundred, and it had expanded piece-meal to accommodate them over the years. Now that the refinery was approaching the last few decades of its usefulness, the team of engineers, technicians and support staff was being reduced. As they retired, or died of old age, there were few new people hired. Gradually, through natural processes, the head count was being whittled down.
Ellie had been surprised to find a few of the engineers had their families living with them, and had spent some of the evening talking with a couple of girls of Shona’s age.
She agreed with Aaron to keep things simple and pass herself off as his younger sister. Both girls assumed, being Aaron’s sister, that she lived in New Haven and quizzed her endlessly for details of the place. She had found herself easily concocting fabricated answers to all of their questions. Most of her knowledge about New Haven was gleaned from the toob, and she guiltily described the city with eyes closed, recalling scenes from the various dramas and soaps she’d watched over the years. Both girls spent the evening lapping up every detail hungrily, and had whimpered pitifully when their father had called them to bed. Ellie felt sorry for them as she bid them farewell. It seemed likely that the two girls, and the dozen other children living up at the refinery, would spend the majority of their natural lives there, only having the chance to move away when their parents retired or sought other employment, or perhaps even died. She hoped that at least some of them would have the opportunity to leave the refinery before they were middle-aged.
Aaron spent the evening ticking off the supplies with the Quartermaster as they were unloaded from his shuttle’s freight bay. It took five hours before they were through.
They were each allocated a visitor’s bedroom, a small tidy and spartan space with little more than a bunk and a washroom. Ellie spent a full hour enjoying the hot-water spray-pod.
Early the next morning, they had a breakfast in the refinery’s canteen and Ellie caught a glimpse through the canteen window of the two girls making their way across the snow between buildings, wrapped up in thick coats and gloves. There was a small school unit that had once taught much larger classes with a dedicated teaching staff, now one or two of the mothers were fulfilling that role for the remaining children. She guessed both girls were on their way to
this make-do school. She waved a couple of times hoping to catch their attention, but decided it would be best if they didn’t see her once more, and trigger another explosion of tears. She felt terribly sorry for them, their lives anchored to this place for perpetuity.
They were in the air shortly afterward and heading south. By the time the light was fading from the sky and dusk was approaching, Aaron had decided to treat Ellie and had put the shuttle down gently onto the ice. He handed her a spare coat of his that swamped her completely. They both took O2 masks with them as a precaution and then Aaron led her through the back of the cabin into the freight hold and outside via a ramp down onto the ice.
As she stepped off the metal of the ramp she felt a crisp surface of ice break and crumble beneath her boots. Her feet sank slightly into tightly packed powder-snow.
‘Ohh, this is so wonderful!’ she cried. She sucked in a mouthful of air, savoring the icy coldness of it inside her. She held her breath for a while. It was dense, oxygen rich.
‘I bet you’ve never sampled O2 that pure, eh?’
Ellie shook her head and then let her breath out. She immediately giggled with surprise and delight at the cloud of condensation billowing out of her nostrils.
‘I’m a dragon, look!’ she said, doing it again.
Aaron laughed at her.
He bent down and with his big gloves he scooped up a handful of snow, patted it into a loose ball and threw it with unintended accuracy at her head. It smacked on her forehead between her eyes and showered her face.
‘Ow!’ she yelped stunned and upset by the impact. Her face wrinkled with hurt and indignation. ‘Why did you go and do that?’
‘Snowball fight? Remember I mentioned that?’ he answered defensively. ‘That’s what you do…you pat snow into balls and you throw them at each other.’
Ellie looked down at the snow, confused. ‘Why?’
‘It’s a game,’ he added to be sure she understood.
‘Oh, I see. All right.’ She reached down and grabbed a handful and molded it into a ball and then threw it gingerly towards him. It disintegrated mid-air and merely sprayed Aaron with a fine dusting of snow.
‘Useless!’ he laughed. ‘You gotta’ pack it tight, so it lasts the flight.’
Ellie scooped up another handful and squeezed it hard, the snow fusing into hard ice between her hands. She squared up before Aaron. ‘Right then, I’m armed and dangerous.’
‘Oh I’m so-o-o scared,’ he quivered.
The ice-ball thudded against the right side of his head and he felt his ear throb with pain. ‘Okay, I think you got the idea there.’
They spent a good hour skirmishing in and around the shuttle’s landing gear, and despite the intense exertion neither of them once felt the need to draw a breath from their masks. Later on, when Aaron found he barely had the strength to stand let alone duck and dodge, he showed Ellie how a single small snowball could be rolled along the ground to quickly produce a much larger snow-boulder. Both of them were soon grunting and straining, rolling a misshapen ball four feet in diameter.
As the last light of day faded from the sky and the golden sash and the stars gradually appeared above, they put the finishing touches on a crudely constructed snowman.
‘There you go,’ he said proudly. ‘Let’s call him George.’
Ellie nodded and examined their work. ‘Not bad. Doesn’t look much like a man though.’
‘I wonder how many more of these will be made before it’s all gone.’
Ellie looked at him. ‘It’s really going to melt? All of it?’
‘Yup. The denser atmosphere will trap the solar heat on the surface. Harpers Reach is going to become a much warmer planet before they’re done up here,’ he said gesturing northwards towards the refineries.
‘Shame.’
‘That’s the way it is, Ellie. You can’t stop it happening, all you can do is make sure you get out there and see the wilderness and enjoy it before the rabble arrive.’
‘Instead of doing what I’m doing? Heading for New Haven?’
Aaron shrugged. ‘If that’s what you still want to do. But why don’t you set your sights higher? See if you can find a way off this fregging planet, go and find some world that’s just been colonized, eh? Another wilderness.’
Ellie nodded. ‘I’d like to do that some day.’
‘Good,’ he replied, ‘I’d hate to see that crappy city swallow you up forever. Come on then girl, we better start south. Time is money.’
As they headed back up the ramp, Ellie turned around in the doorway of the freight hold to survey the pristine white landscape one last time.
Beautiful.
CHAPTER 16
The next days passed far too quickly for Ellie. She had grown, if not comfortable, then at least accustomed to, the simple routine aboard Lisa. As they drew nearer to New Haven she became agitated. The city felt like it might be a daunting experience for her after the stuffy, womb-like security of Aaron’s shuttle.
Ellie decided to contact Mum and Dad as soon as she arrived at the city, just to reassure them that no harm had come to her. By now, she guessed, they might have suspected she had eloped with Sean and contacted his family. In turn, his father might have been able to get a message through to him on the army freight ship and he undoubtedly would have come clean and told them that she had been intent on getting to the city. She wondered if Sean was already in a cryogen sleep and the Freezer on its way to the next planet. If so, then there would be no way they could contact him for quite some time to find out what he knew of Ellie’s plans. Whatever information her parents had by now, she knew they would be utterly desperate with worry.
She cried quietly for a while, well away from Aaron. She knew he would see those tears as a sign that she was having second thoughts about going into the city and decide that enough was enough and take her home regardless. She was crying for Mum and Dad, for the pain she had caused them over the last few days; the pain she was causing them even now, and would continue to cause them until they received that call from her and found out she was alright.
I’m so sorry Dad, Mum.
She was going to call as soon as she could.
As soon as they landed.
*
Towards late afternoon on the fourth day heading south, Aaron had grown sullen and quiet. Ellie in turn felt nervous. They were due to arrive at New Haven that evening, only a few hours away. As the city drew nearer she felt her ambitious resolve to enter the city on her own weaken, ever so slightly.
Aaron pointed out of the window to his left. ‘Colonial plot 452? That’s where your home is?’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s just a few hours in that direction. You sure you don’t want me to detour? It’s not that far out of my way.’
Ellie bit her lip, a small part of her, growing by the minute, wanted to say yes.
‘No,’ she answered quietly.
He shrugged. Ellie had shown him her citizenship papers and education certificates the day after she’d woken up. She was twenty, and was, according to the laws of Harpers Reach, no longer a minor. ‘I guess I can’t force you then. Although I’m sure you know what I think about all this,’ he said reproachfully.
‘I know.’
The pair of them sat in silence as the shuttle rumbled onwards.
‘Listen, when we get there, I’ll let you sleep here, in the shuttle, tonight. But I’m heading out tomorrow with another delivery.’
‘How long will that one take?’
‘It’s several runs between Harvest City and the Oxxon refineries. Probably three weeks in total.’
She felt a shudder of anxiety ripple through her. Three weeks…on my own. She had been hoping he would be around whilst she attempted to settle into the city somewhere, perhaps even had an apartment that he kept that she could rent from him until she found her own place.
‘Uh…right.’
‘We’ll only be able to set down in the short-stay loading zone of the port
. That’s outside the city limits.’
‘Is that outside the dome?’
‘Yeah. You’ll need to go through Processing before they let you inside.’
‘Processing?’
Aaron turned to face her. ‘Their immigration procedure; you’ll be given a medical, they’ll want to see your papers and they’ll want to take a gene-swab. It’s a complete pain in the ass and it’ll probably take you a few hours.’
‘Can you go with me?’ she asked.
‘Sorry, I can’t. It’s for first-time arrivals only,’ he replied. ‘You sure you still want to go into New Haven?’
Ellie nodded uncertainly. ‘I can’t turn back now,’ she added weakly.
‘Sure you can. If you think the city isn’t for you. No-one’s going to blame you or laugh at you if you change your mind now. Trust me, the place is a crap-hole. I only go there because business takes me there. You want me to turn Lisa around right now and take you home…that’s fine by me.’
She remained silent, imagining a tearful homecoming, then some shouting, anger, disappointment from her parents. And after that was all over, finally a return to the stifling routine she had been enduring all her life. But it would be even worse than it was before, wouldn’t it? Much worse. This time her dream to run away to the city would be spent. This time she’d know for certain that she was there for the rest of her life.
‘Listen, Ellie. When we dock, stay overnight on the shuttle okay? Spend the night thinking about it. I mean re-e-eally thinking about it. If you want to go home tomorrow, I’ll take you home.’
‘Can we stay in touch if I go in?’ she asked.
‘You better had. I’ll want to know you’re doing okay in there.’
That made the decision a little easier for her. She had enough money in her bag perhaps to rent a room for several weeks. If things went really badly for her inside, then Aaron would be back in three weeks time and perhaps then she’d decide to go home. But at least she would have tried it out.
‘If it’s okay with you, I’ll stay over tonight then.’
