Callisto 2.0, Susan English [i love reading .TXT] 📗

I can’t even remember everything that happened, but at one point, Aster was with me in the physics lab, running around on the conference table. Our notes were displayed, and she kept putting her nose on the geometric specifications for the probe’s warp drive, which, as you know, consists of two toroids, one at each end of the body of the probe.”

“Yeah.”

“Anyway, Aster poked her nose at the equations, then she started running on the surface of the conference table, leaving a trail of tiny glowing footprints. She retraced her steps over and over again. I kept looking at the pattern. At first, it just looked like a misshapen infinity symbol, and I thought maybe there’s an issue with our renormalization to eliminate infinities, dividing by zero and all that. You know that’s always a concern with theoretical physics.”

“Uh-huh,” Naomi said. Though, from the look on her face, it didn’t seem like she was as worried about renormalization as Hadley and I were.

I took a breath and continued. “But there aren’t any infinities in the geometric 176

equations. Then I realized I needed to visualize the figure she was tracing out in 3D!

And you’ll never guess what the pattern is.”

“What?” Naomi was staring at me intently.

“A double helix! It would have never occurred to me to try that geometry, but everything fell into place, and even in my dream, I was able to work out the equations.

With this configuration, the energy requirements are minimized, and even equipping a vessel the size of Shambhala with a warp drive would be totally feasible. When I woke up, I did a quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation, and if we installed a double-helix warp drive on each of the modules of Shambhala, we could easily produce the negative energy requirement using the power of the fusion reactors, with plenty of energy to spare.” I shook my head. “It was a weird dream. I don’t know why Aster didn’t float off the surface of the table in micro-g.”

“That’s the weird part?” said Naomi, laughing. “You’re daft, Calli.”

“What?” I looked up at her. “It didn’t make any sense.”

“What’s weird for me, and I know you don’t know much about mythology, but Asteria is the goddess of nighttime divinations.”

I shrugged, stroking Aster’s tiny head. “You’re right, I don’t know anything about that, but I do know in micro-g there’s no way a mouse could run around on a slick surface like the conference table.”

“Dear lord, woman, you’re unbelievable!” Naomi shook her head.

“But that’s why you love me.” I grinned.

“Ha!” She smacked me lightly on the shoulder, then reached over to pet Aster. “Oh hey, before I forget, remember those protests Simon mentioned?”

I sat up straighter. “Yeah. What was up with that?”

“Apparently, it was a big hoax, some weird publicity stunt. It’s been in the back of my mind, and just this morning I did an internet search. The protestors were hired actors, and supposedly someone wanted to hurt the Foundation, probably a man, or perhaps a group of men, who were disgruntled because they couldn’t work for Portal al Porvenir. The whole thing sort of faded away.”

“Huh. People are strange sometimes.”

“Uh-huh. Very odd.”

◆◆◆

With Aster’s “help,” and Hadley’s and my calculations, the engineering team could finally complete the warp drive for Soteria. Once finished, we planned to do a few test runs, to each of Elena’s planets, so we could deploy the bots and gather more data, feed two birds out of one hand, so to speak. Charm had already done several more reconnaissance missions by then, and, thanks to the bots, had gathered a wealth of information. Elena was beyond thrilled, but more data never hurt. And, if all went well, in a few weeks we would be ready to send the mice on the adventure of their lifetimes.

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I was a nervous wreck, just thinking about sending the mice. My primary concern was the Hawking radiation, but with the specialized ceramics created by Tanya and Jordyn, which the engineers had used to line the vessel, anything within Soteria should be protected.

After two successful test runs, and the highly sensitive sensor readings inside Soteria indicating that, if there was any Hawking radiation, the level was too low to be detected, Hadley and the engineering team were satisfied Soteria was perfectly safe. I insisted on a longer test, five days this time instead of a few hours, to be absolutely sure. There was no guarantee that something wouldn’t go wrong, but if the vessel could go for five whole days and come back with its interior free of Hawking radiation, I would be willing to send the mice.

◆◆◆

When Soteria returned from the five-day trial, and all the life-support data were good, it was time for a live mission. Naomi had chosen Asteria to be one of the travelers. I wanted to talk her out of it, but her reasoning was sound: Aster was not only the boldest and most adventurous of all the mice, she was also the calmest, and her mellowness influenced her sisters. Any mouse traveling with Aster would feel secure. The moment had come for the animal test, there was no getting around it—the first step in paving the way for the future of long-distance human space exploration.

“And besides,” Naomi had said, “Aster wants to go, I’m certain of it. It’s why she helped you with the calculation in your dream.”

“Yeah, okay, Naomi.” I rolled my eyes. But the truth was, despite all our successes, I was scared. I loved that tiny creature with all my heart.

We scheduled the launch for the following day. That night I couldn’t sleep, thinking about Soteria, the warp bubble, and everything that could go wrong. At four a.m. I finally gave up, crawled out of my sleeping bag, and found my way to Naomi’s lab. The mice had been fast asleep when I turned on the light, and they all looked at me, blinking.

I opened the condo and Aster jumped out, scrambling up my chest and snuggling against my neck. I laid down on the couch, fixing the strap across my waist, and asked Annie to turn off the lights. With Aster’s whiskers tickling my neck, I was finally able to drift off to sleep.

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