Zero Point - Chapter 21

A Quantum Adventure

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CHAPTER 21

“Not again,” said Marta.

“I’m afraid so,” said John. “If we don’t, the General made it clear that they would take over the Institute and that we would have no say.”

“I can’t believe the government would do this,” said Marta.

“They can do whatever they want if they declare it in the security interests of the country,” said John.

Marta was silent, then said, “Do they know what happened?”

“They have no idea,” said John.

“Didn’t they investigate?” asked Marta.

“The General said there was nothing left, nothing that could provide a clue as to what went wrong,” said John.

“Well, that makes me a little nervous,” said Marta. “We have no idea what caused that tremendous explosion, but we do know that we are doing very similar pilot-wave experiments.”

“Yes, it’s unfortunate that the military wouldn’t allow them to publish anything about their experiments, it might have given us an idea of what went wrong,” said John.

“Well, it took a lot of energy to cause the explosion that destroyed an entire military base, so I think that we need to monitor our energy source, the Stelle-field, carefully. Something must have happened that coupled too much energy, too quickly from the field,” said Marta.

“You’re right, we’ll put one of the AIs on it with the responsibility of shutting down the experiment if it detects such a situation,” John said. “We will do the communications device first; it requires less energy and maybe we can get it in the field for the military relatively quickly since we already know how to build a prototype.”

“Agreed, with everyone focusing on one project we should be able to finish it faster,” said Marta.

It was only three weeks before John received a visit from the general.

“Sit down Dr. Carson,” said the general, again sitting behind the desk in the large troop carrier.

“Thank you, General, have you come for a progress report?”

“Not exactly, Dr. Carson. I’ve come to tell you that we may be losing the race. The Chinese intend to announce that they have a new method of communication which is more reliable, secure, faster, and more efficient than any other. Sound familiar?”

“You mean the Chinese have solved the sub-quantum communications problem, General.”

“That’s what I’m saying, sources say there is no doubt that they are doing pilot-wave communications,” said the general.

“We’re very close to a finished model ourselves, sir,” said John.

“That’s good Dr. Carson because I am going to need something right away, something concrete to show that we are still in this race,” said the general.

“We will work around the clock sir, to get something to you,” said John.

“Thank you, Dr. Carson, this country will be at a severe disadvantage if the Chinese and their allies can communicate without worry of interception. We need a transmitter and receiver that can force them to continue to use caution. It slows and delays any operations they may decide to launch against us.”

“I understand, sir,” said John.

“Goodbye Dr. Carson, and contact me as soon as you have something ready.”

John went back inside the building and found Marta. He told her about the meeting with the general.

“Well, fortunately sub-quantum communications doesn’t take much power so we can probably speed up the development without danger,” she said.

“Yes, he will have to wait for the transport device, the power required there is orders of magnitude more. It’s likely that they were trying to ramp up the transport device when that explosion that killed Dr. Brackett and Dr. Herbert happened,” said John.

Marta nodded in agreement and then they discussed how to speed up their development process to get a robust field device ready.

The quiet, somewhat sleepy institute that had been devoted to physics research had changed. There were now half a dozen senior researchers with many more at the associate level and dozens of postdocs, engineers and technicians. The head count was now over two hundred.

Half of those were working on the communications device. John and Marta split them up into three teams, each working an eight hour shift, so that development would continue around the clock. The heads of each team coordinated the work needing to be done. Every three weeks the teams rotated to a new schedule.

One evening John and Marta were coming down the hill to work an evening shift when they saw one of the postdocs standing in front of the building in the fading light.

“Samuel, how are you?” asked John.

“I was just getting some air Dr. Carson. Have you heard?”

“Heard what?”

“Something is happening in the Pacific near Taiwan, some think it’s a military strike by China,” he said.

“Really,” said John. “We should get inside and see if there is any more news.”

“Okay, I’ll be in, in a moment,” said Samuel.

John and Marta rushed inside. They heard what sounded like a news report coming from the coffee shop, they went in. The report was just finishing.

John saw Ray at a table, “Ray, what is happening?”

“No one knows for sure,” said Ray. “But the news organizations are reporting that there was an incident in Taiwan. Some think it an attack, some think it an industrial accident. Whatever it was, it was big.”

Just then Samuel came in and said, “Dr. Carson, you have a call.”

“Thank you,” said John, who headed for his office, with Marta right behind.

“Hello,” he said over his phone.

“Dr. Carson, this is General Allen, I’ll be there in two hours, wait for me.”

“Yes sir,” said John.

Then after a pause he said goodbye and put down the phone.

“What is it honey?” asked Marta.

“General Allen is coming, he will be here in two hours, I’m to wait for him.”

“That’s all he said?”

“Yeah, that’s it,” he said.

“It must be serious if the General is heading this way,” she said.

John nodded and was quiet a moment.

“Well, let’s get things set up, I’m sure the General is going to want to see our latest model,” said John.

John was right, the first thing the general asked was to see the latest work.

After showing General Allen the current state of the research they went to John’s office with Marta and the general’s adjutant.

“Okay Dr. Carson,” said the general, “I need you to transfer as many of these latest versions that you can to the Army Research labs in North Dakota.”

“We have three units completed, General,” said John.

“Very well, I will have someone here in the morning to pick them up,” said the general. “Now, what I want you to do is to put all your resources into a transport device.”

“General,” said Marta. “Do you believe anyone is fielding a transport device?”

“Well, most of what I know is classified, but no, not that I know of,” he said.

“Then I wonder sir, what could have caused this latest incident?” she asked.

“We believe it was their research into a Stelle-field power device that caused the incident,” he said.

“But those are being used everywhere,” said John.

“Yes, but no one has tried to increase the power output to a level that would make a weapon useful,” said the general.

“Oh,” said John.

“Yes,” said the general. “Every new invention is eventually weaponized in some way.”

“I guess you’re right,” said John.

They were all quiet a moment.

“Very well,” said the general rising from his chair. “You know what to do. I will be in touch.”

“Thank you General,” said John.

The general and the adjutant left the office.

John looked at Marta and said, “They know not what they do.”

“You mean turning the Stelle-field power device into a weapon,” she said.

“Yes, the power source is relatively unlimited, so a weapon of almost unlimited yield could be created. The only bottleneck would be the engineering of the coupling,” said John.

Marta seemed to be shocked.

“You mean,” she said, “after all our efforts to provide unlimited power, enhanced communications, and transport, all we accomplished was helping to build a weapon that could destroy all life in the world.”

“Our research wasn’t, and still isn’t, aimed at creating a destructive weapon, but to further science and provide benefits to mankind,” he said. “We are not, and never will, build a weapon.”

“But they can use our research to build a weapon,” she said.

“Yes, and we can’t prevent that, but we will make no direct contribution to such efforts. Once we build a safe transport device, we quit working for the government, even if it means losing the Institute,” he said.

“I guess it’s the only thing to do,” she said. “But I’m very close to walking away now.”

“Let’s take the rest of the day off,” he said.

She nodded in agreement.

“Just let me tell Ray we are leaving,” he said.

John and Marta left the Institute and walked up the hill to their house.

“Let me make some tea and let’s sit out back,” she said.

“Okay,” said John.

While Marta was making the tea John went out on the back patio and sat down. He stared up the hill at the pine trees, watching a flock of birds darting from tree to tree. Marta brought out the tea and sat down.

“I think that now that we have only one research program for the military, some of the others should go back to their previous research,” he said. “Like Stanley and his group.”

“Won’t the General object?” asked Marta.

“We have plenty of personnel to push the transport research forward twenty-four hours a day, anymore and they’ll just get into each other’s way,” said John.

Marta was quiet a moment, staring up the hill.

“John,” she said. “Do you think when we finish this project for the military we can avoid any such future work?”

“We can try, honey. Is it bothering you?”

“It always bothers me when I work for the military, remember what I told you about my postdoc experience,” she said.

“Yeah, I remember honey. I guess we can refuse, but they might make it difficult for us,” he said.

Marta was about to speak when a loud booming sound came from the front of the house and echoed up the hill.

“What was that?” asked John, jumping out of his chair.

“Thunder?” asked Marta.

Before John spoke again more but smaller blasts sounded and this time the direction was obvious.

“The lab,” he said as he turned and started to rush through the back door of the house. Marta was just behind him.

John continued out the front door of the house where he stopped to stare down at the lab building. The front of the building was intact but there was smoke coming from the back.

John rushed down the hill as fast as he could, sliding and almost falling a couple of times. Marta followed but slower and more deliberately.

John could hear the fire alarm sounding as he got to the parking lot. He continued running and made it through the front door. He saw Beth Moon, the laser operator.

“What happened Beth?”

“There was an explosion in the back lab, they were doing a transport experiment. I’m calling the fire department. The rest are trying to put out the fire and look for any injured,” she said.

Marta came through the door.

“Marta, help Beth get the emergency services here, will you,” said John before he took off toward the back of the building.