Odenshi didn’t lie. Rodney and the others survived the jump. The experience however left a lot to be desired. NPWT or Neutrino Pulse Wave Translation had become so common that most people stopped thinking about what a miracle it was to instantaneously jump from one side of the galaxy to the other. Early accidents stopped no one from exploiting the technology to move vast distances in the blink of an eye.
Once the curvature of space problem was understood, stages were built to maximize transfer capacity. The transfer stations on Earths surface moved small groups. The orbital platforms could shift self sustaining starships. But the colony ships? They jumped from the edge of the solar systems. Each of these stages had one thing in common. Objects were mostly static when they transferred.
Scientists had taken it as a given fact of that neutrinos barely interacted with regular matter. It wasn’t until Stephen Ming and Karl Gregoire built the first Lepton field inducer that they learned otherwise. It turned out neutrino’s did not interact with particles, but they did strongly interact with quantum fields, specifically the fermonic fields that contain most of quantum waves that make up what we commonly call, “matter”. Scientists had known before the turn of the millenium that most of what people considered solid, was empty space, and that empty space did not infact contain things, but little tiny waves, like ripples in the water. The atomic model of electrons, protons, and neutrons, gave way to electrons (at least one thing stayed the same), up quarks and down quarks. Eventually these discrete particles gave way to the idea that they are in fact ripples, little “packets” of energy on the background waves of the universe. The idea that you could remove every single particle from a volume of space (in layman’s terms create a vacuum) and still measure the background fluxuations of these universal, ubiquitous fields, was ground breaking. In short every “thing” we thought of as solid, was little more than a ripple, like a wave on the ocean. And just like that wave on the ocean, every wave was made of the same ocean. All the properties of every wave… same ocean.
Ming and Gregoire’s genius discovery was that while everyone was concerned with impacting the waves, they learned you could impact the ocean directly. And just like everything else in quantum mechanics, the results of “poking” the ocean, the underlying wave of all reality, were counter intuitive. If you “stretched” the field - pulling it tight, like smoothing a sheet, the wrinkles (or ripples, or waves, or particles) would disappear… only to reappear somewhere else. Instantaneously. Ass Gregoire explained it at the Royal Institute, “The brillig slithy neutrinos gimble the wabes, resulting in a mimsy borogove like translation of the mome outgrabe.”. Essentially, a Lepton Field Inducer (LFI) could induce the neutrino’s into distorting the underlying Fermonic and Bosonic fields causing all the wavelets (electron and quark) in a given region of space to spontaneously appear somewhere else. The closest thing to an explaination Ming could offer was, this. “Tugging the sheet causes the entire collection of particles to quantum tunnel en masse.” It was an extraordinary result, made even more so by the fact that the quantum tunneling could be made predictable. Depending upon the intensity, spin, and level of interaction - it seemed that the LFI could rewrite the x,y,z coordinates of the quantum mechanical waves.
The strange part was that at an individual particle level, the translations were entirely unpredictable. However, en masse, strong nuclear forces seemed to come into play, and “like a crowd rushing to a Queen Concert in the park” the particles all jumped, or tunnelled, or translated together, to the same new location. In fact, neither Ming nor Gregoire, nor any other physicst had been able to demonstrate that the particles disappeared all together. They always appeared… somewhere else. Even if that somewhere else happened to be very, very far away.
A clever engineer by the name of Simon Drudge was the first to create a practical application of the LFI, and to everyone’s great disappointment he did not make a faster than light drive. Using a different approach, Drudge used a complex alloy of rare metals rotating in a ring to generate a weak Lepton Field Inducer which had the novel effect of not flatting the underlying quantum waves but of trying to twist them. This “torsion”, or twisting effected the particles in a new way - it pushed them perpendicular to the axis of rotation. Thus was born the Torsion drive. Once the T-ring was spun up to sufficient velocity and maintained there by super cooled magnets, a small force applied to the axis of rotation, caused the ring and the thing containing it to jet off in the other direction. The big surprise with the Torsion drive was that the higgs field was maintained, mass remained constant, only the conservation of energy appeared to be violently and thoroughly violated. (Drudge theorized that the energy was being “robbed” from another part of the galaxy, in much the same way that flatting the fields causes particles to “leap”, twisting “pulled” energy - however that theory is still hotly contested, and an equally passionate group of physists claim that the twisting is simply released energy stored in the fabric of field, or is pulling the excess energy from the dark matter, dark energy fields that permiate space time.).
The bottom line for industrialists was that the drive acted like any conventional propulsion system, but exponentially more cost effectively. Legendary physicist Aranya “raya” Keeratikun designed the first practical application of the Torsion drive, which achieved a ten thousand to one improvement in energy efficiency. She explained, “It is like the leap from internal combustion drive to electric drive. With internal combustion you lost a lot of efficiency going from burning gas, to a crank shaft, through a transmission, to gears that eventually turned a wheel. In addition, combustion motors must spin up to very high rotations per minute (RPM) to achieve maximum power output. This consumes (and wastes) enormous amounts of energy and creates lag while you wait for the motor to spin up. Electric drives in contrast have the motor directly mounted to the wheel. What’s more you have maximum power at zero RPM. The Torsion drive is like that - maximum thrust on the frame of the vessel, from a stand still, with the added advantage that you are tapping a virtually unlimited reserve of energy.”. A Torsion drive didn’t so much consume energy as release it.
Torsion drives were part of the vessel being moved. Neutrino Pulse Wave Translation however was something you did to the vessel. The discovery of effective NPWT came as the result of an accident. An explosion in the Helsinki Fermionics lab launched ¼ of the building into orbit. While this day is not celebrated (for obvious reasons) as a break through moment in transportation physics, several important lessons were learned. First, don’t conduct NWPT experiments on Earth. Second, the NWPT can also effect the strong nuclear forces effectively nullifying them for a short period of time. While the core of the lab building translated in its entirety, leaving two floors of scientists, administrators, two grant writers and four people from the marketing department suddenly and unexpectedly exposed to explosive decompression - the edges of the building quite literally dissolved. The strong force between the quantum particles behaved as if it had been nullified and the quantum and electrical particles simply “drifted away” from each other, turning into particle dust.
Later analysis revealed that the “dissolution effect” followed the curvature of space. A Neutrino Pulse Wave acted like a sound wave in the underlying quantum fields. It could be aimed, at a region of space, and its effects occurred perpendicular to the curvature of space. A NPWT based transportation would never be a piece of equipment inside a ship - it would be something you did to a ship, and further advancements in LFI technology allowed the NPWT to become extremely precise and contained.
While there are many questions this technology introduced, there was one core one that few people tested for obvious reasons. What happened if you fired a neutrino wave pulse at a torsion ring while it was active? In other words, what happened if you tried to flatten quantum fields while they were being twisted?
Rodney and the rest of the crew of the Dawn Treader were living through that experience. Another quirk of the vorpal blade that is torsion drive neutrino pulse wave interaction is that the rotation inverts. In other words, instead of the ring spinning around inside of the Dawn Treader, the Dawn Treader spun around outside what was now a “stationary” ring. Nearly the entire rotational momentum of the ring, spun up to a fraction of the speed of light rippled through the ship trying to tear it apart.
Very little of this was going through Rodney’s mind as he tried not to vomit. His ship was trying to break itself apart. The unexpected transfer of rotational force energy seemed to fracture into three parts as the ship spun on three axis at once. This unfortunate situation most likely saved them as it significantly reduced the total energy of any single axis of rotation and an enormous amount of energy was released as light. Odenshi’s unexpected jump violated the one core law of faster than light travel. Never jump with the torsion drive engaged. Like any licensed pilot, Rodney was aware of this law, and he knew the consequences in theory, but living through it was worse than he could have imagined.
To anyone watching, the arrival of the Dawn Treader would have looked like an atomic explosion in a vacuum. The energy from the instantaneous transfer of energy from the Torsion ring to the ship could not be perfectly efficient so the wasted energy dissipated as light through the venting rings. What appeared as the birth of a tiny star was followed by a misshapen frisbee tumbling and spinning like a broken toy. Strangely ice crystals scattered in every direction followed by a mixture of charged gasses that lit up the region of space around the Dawn Treader like a holiday nebula. It was beautiful, crazy, and insanely dangerous.
Neither was it subtle.
With no nanites to stabilize his system, Rodney found himself struggling to reach the control panel. Damn it. It seemed like all his augments were offline, or replaced. His vision was turning red. He needed to recycle the computer before they were crushed by the gee forces of their spinning. He felt like he was being pulled apart and flattened at the same time - like a ginger bread man being pin rolled and pulled by a mad baker.
He was vaguely aware that alarms were sounding through out the ship. Tony was waving at him. Rodney pushed with all of his will to reach the control panel and initiate the emergency protocol. Stabilize for jump. Of course there would be no jump, but the default safety protocol was to stop all movement leading up to a jump. Everyone knew you didn’t move during a jump. Everyone except Odenshi apparently. Fucking AI, they probably did it all the time. Of course it wouldn’t be a problem for them.
Rodney’s vision blurred red just as he started to feel the pressure begin to let up. He sagged back into his seat. He didn’t know if he should curl into a ball, or spread out. The straps on his harness bit into his skin. Without his nanites, Rodney could not believe the pain he was feeling. It was everywhere. Was it the removal of the nanites that hurt? Or the crushing pressure of the ships complex rotation?
Rodney’s vision cleared and some of the alarms lowered their volume then stopped all together. He felt dizzy as hell, but the ship came slowly, firmly, under control. The whole process probably took less than two minutes, but to Rodney felt like an eternity. The ship might have been able to stabilize faster, but the unlike Odenshi, the ships computers had safe guards made sure it could not do anything that would harm the human occupants. Rodney remembered stories of early military cruisers killing their crew trying to save them with overly aggressive maneuvers. Jumping while moving was not the only way to induce “the spins”, it was just the stupidest and easiest to avoid.
“Holy fucking shit,” Tony, despite having his full complement of nanites, looked worse for the wear.
Anil sagged in his chair. “Let’s never, ever do that again.”
“Agreed,” Rodney unclasped his harness and tried to sit up, then sagged back into his seat.
Tony seemed the least effected by the turbulent exchange, but he was still looking woozy. He gave a low whistle. “Wow”
“What is it?” Anil made a tentative step to get out of his chair, then finished the move.
“We shed 90% of our real velocity in that transition,” Tony explained. “I didn’t know that was possible.”
“It’s not supposed to be,” Anil walked to Tony’s engineering console and looked over his shoulder. “Damn, we did. How did they do that?”
Rodney didn’t dare shake his head. “Fucking magic, that’s how.”
“I’m going to run a diagnostic,” Tony said.
“It looks like we’ve got some inbound coms,” Anil announced. “Proxima Caelum Licensing Authority is hailing us.”
“I’m not surprised with an entry like that,” Rodney said.
“We should take a minute to discuss who’s authority we will be docking under,” Anil interjected.
“This is my ship, why wouldn’t it be under my authority?” Rodney asked. He was finally starting to feel better. That and getting irritated helped him focus.
“Yes, but I’m I’m in the middle of an active investigation.”
“So am I.”
“I think you will find my clearance is higher.”
Rodney was about to argue when Tony interrupted. “Uh, it looks like our clearance is already set,”
“What?” Rodney forced himself to get up. He walked, dragging his left leg, over to Tony’s console.
Tony pointed at the display. “We’re on official consignment from the Nexus.”
Now Anil gave a whistle. “I’ve never seen a clearance that high before.”
Rodney stared at it. “I’ve only seen it once.” What the hell was Odenshi up to?
Tony punched the button which played the automated message from Cross Roads Traffic Control, “You are cleared to land at Earth Section Platform. Please Proceed.”
Rodney looked out the front window of the starship. The ship had brought stopped the rotating, but they were pointing away from the planet, staring out into space. Rodney returned to his chair and checked the readouts.
“Anthony, is it safe to re-engage the torsion drive?”
“Just a sec. Yeah, believe it or not all green. I’m getting some low level alerts from the garage, I think some containers broke free, and I wouldn’t eat anything from the fridge - something about that jump liquified everything in the food compartments.”
“I can sympathize. That’s how my innards feel,” Anil added.
“Spin up the drive, I’m going to rotate us back into alignment with our momentum,” Rodney grabbed the control stick. The moment the device detected his dna signature it activated. Using traditional fuel thusters, the Dawn Treader slowly and carefully turned to face the planet they were head toward.
Proxima Caelum, aka Cross Roads was a class M planet. Earthlike in every way, it matched Earths mass and gravity to within 97.5%. This planet however held a significantly higher population. Whereas Earth had the one great orbital platform, Cross Roads had 12, one for each planetary sector. Home to nearly 80 billion sentient beings, Cross Roads was literally, spiritually, and figuratively the center of the galactic federal union. The green and blue planet with its white clouds was similar, and yet radically different from Earth.
Tony let out an audible gasp when the planet fully rotated into view.
“First time here?” Anil asked.
“First time anywhere,” Tony admitted.
“You work on the orbital platform and you haven’t been out of the system?” Anil sounded surprised.
“Tony’s a hard worker. Besides, he’s saving up for his own ship. Hard to save money if you’re paying for jumps on everyone elses boat.”
Anil nodded appreciatively. “I admire your tenacity. I am not sure I could have resisted the tempation.”
Rodney added, “He thought he would see more when he took a job with me.”
“Rodney doesn’t travel much,” Tony explained, sounding a little disappionted.
“Not any more,” Rodney
Anil shot Rodney a inquisitive glance, but Rodney ignored it.
“We have docking clearance from Humanity Platform,” Tony informed Rodney.
“I see it,” Rodney wasn’t actually steering the ship as much as he was using the control to tell the navigation system what target he wanted. Somethings could still be communicated most effectively with hand movements.
“They have also notified us that we will be assigned housing on berth.”
“Oh, and look at that!” Anil chipped in. “We have an invitation from the Governor.”
Rodney raised and eye brow. “I don’t think I’ve ever had an invite from the Governor.”
Rodney directed the Dawn Treader toward the open queue at the orbital platform. The elevator would take them directly to the surface.
“We are instructed to head directly to the Governors Mansion upon arrival,” Tony added.
“So it is not as much of an invitation as a mandate.”
“Maybe that high level clearance is more of a liability than a blessing,” Rodney mused.
“We shall see,” Anil mused.