Null Infinity Excerpt

Image – ID 220602065 | Alien © Vampy1 | Dreamstime

“I've had a copy of this catalog for two years. I've dreamed of signing up for all these classes over and over,” he said.

“You're a real nerd Harry,” said Billy Williams, who was taller and heavier than Harry.

Their dorm room at Georgia Polytechnic, besides the two beds, had built-in desks, a few shelves and a separate bathroom. A small fridge was in the corner.

“Isn't that funny Billy? If I was holding some kind of swimsuit models calendar, I'd be normal. But because learning is exciting to me, I'm weird.”

“Yeah, that's right, I don't make the rules,” said Billy.

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L4 Station - Excerpt

 

ID 159616182 © limbitech | Dreamstime

There we all waited until the rest of the group arrived. At that point out guide started to describe how we would transfer to the rotating level of the wheel.

“As that level rotates above this level, we open some long slit like doors in the roof here and the floor there. You will board these capsules you see in front of you two at a time and strap in. I will show you how, shortly. The capsules begin moving to synchronize with the rotating level above and rise on these mobile platforms from the floor, like a lift. And they are turned by magnetic rollers one-hundred-eighty degrees.

“You will experience this rotation for just a few moments until you are deposited on the floor of the above level where you will then feel an artificial gravity similar to the Moon's gravity. At that point your capsule will open, and you will be aboard the wheel.

“Now, there are several of these areas around the rim and we will distribute you around so that all of you will be on the wheel shortly.”

The guide then chose eight of us to stay where we were while the others were taken to the other boarding areas.

Roger and I would be riding in a capsule together and mom and dad would be in another one. The guide showed us how to strap ourselves into the capsule seats. The capsule closed and soon we could feel it moving. Then we started to spin around. Roger didn't react well to that motion. He was soon sick, and the capsule was a mess, I wasn't spared either.

When the capsule opened on the wheel level, the man who poked his head in to welcome us, quickly withdrew.

I heard him say, “We got another one in capsule two.”

I guess other people reacted as Roger did to the disorienting ride.

Finally, getting out of the capsule and being cleaned up a bit by mom and dad, I heard Roger ask if he could go again. Mom suggested that he had ridden enough for the day.

Interview with MarsX1(MX1), MarsX2(MX2), and MarsX3(MX3)

 ID 161808213 © 3000ad | Dreamstime

Author: I want to thank you all for coming on the show.

MX1, MX2, MX3: Thank you sir.

MX1: And just let me say that we want to thank you, without you none of us would be here.

MX2: Or anywhere.

Author: You're welcome. Now, I don't know if this happens to other authors or not, but I have to say you three turned out quite different than I expected. This story started out to be kind of a next step in my Remembered Earth Universe. I had already written stories about Cislunar space, the Moon, and the L4 Lagrangian point, which as you know, is a special location in Earth-Moon space where objects will stay put, so to speak, because of the interactions of the gravitational fields of the Moon and Earth. Anyway, the next obvious story would be about Mars and how three young, they were thirteen when the story started, protagonists would get there. But it became much more in MX1, especially involving AI.

MX3: We do have minds of our own.

Author: You certainly do. Anyway, I want to ask you the following MX1; how did AI come to figure so prominently in the story, do you know where that came from?

MX1: Well, at the time you were writing me, I believe you read that AI 2027 article.

Author: That's right I did.

MX1: Weren't you surprised that AI would progress so fast?

Author: You're right, I remember the fast takeoff scenario, which assumes super-AI appears by the year 2030, had the resultant AI killing off humanity, as competition for resources heated up. That's just a few years, you know.

MX1: I do. So, you see it was really you, not me, that dragged the AI arc into the story.

Author: But you really ran with it.

MX1: Yes, but I thought the worst-case scenario was a bit extreme so I just have the AI making way, you might say.

Author: Right, Make Way! Make Way! It reminds me of the old Harry Harrison story Make Room! Make Room!

MX1: But something good did come out of it.

ID 183435324 | Alien Futuristic City © 3000ad | Dreamstime

Author: Right, it sped up the settlement of Mars as the AI took control of Earth and wanted to move people out of the way. Now MX2, after MX1 turned the story in a kind of new direction, you took it even farther out. You want to tell us what you did?

MX2: Well boss, I felt like we had done Mars, see? So, what's next? Seemed like building a space habitat to explore the Solar System would keep the three main characters busy.

Author: It certainly would, and I explain a lot about what that would entail. But then you have the AI collective schism into separated opposing contingents. Where did that come from?

MX2: Well, you had suggested that one of the ways that alignment of AI might occur is that it be given citizenship. It occurred to me that if AIs start to be treated like humans they might practice some of human politics, one practice might be developing break-away factions.

Author: I see, and that's what led to the kidnapping of one of the protagonists, so the break-away faction would have some leverage with Earth.

MX2: That's right.

Author: And it even led to cooperation with the other AI faction and humans.

MX2: Yes.

ID 81664700 | Alien Futuristic © 3000ad | Dreamstime

Author: Okay, I can see that time is getting short and MX3 I did want to get to you. What I want to ask you is the surprise, which I didn't see coming, of the three main character's desire to return to Earth. Why do you think they decided to settle back on Earth?

MX3: Well, I felt that these three characters who were around thirteen years of age when the story began had grown emotionally and importantly, they had accomplished their youthful goals and more. At the age of fifty, they could look back on all the adventures but at the same time look forward to a more settled future, which perhaps was more important to them at the age they were when the story ends.

Author: I agree, since I’m no longer thirteen myself. Though I have to say, I didn't expect it to happen when the story started. Okay, well that's all the time we have. I want to thank you all for coming on. Next time I'll be interviewing the three novellas that make up the coming story release, World Brane. Goodbye and thanks for reading everyone.

MarsX1 Excerpt 1

 

Image: ID 161808213 © 3000ad | Dreamstime

“And I say the country, and the world for that matter, have lost the will to explore, to take chances,” said Jose Velasco, an engineer with the propulsion group over lunch that day. “Everyone is interested in the virtual, the artificial, that's all I hear.”

“I don't know Jose,” said Mary Elena from systems engineering. “I mean, I think the day of the gung-ho maverick is over, if not, we would all be working for MarsX. So, things are done more methodically now, because we are trying to do things that are naturally harder. And the AI is a big help.”

“Okay then,” said Jose, “since you bring up MarsX. MarsX didn't fail because of its gung-ho leader as you describe the man, they failed because the society, that is the society outside the company, couldn't face the loss of those astronauts. In my opinion, the right thing to do would have been to get to Mars and honor their memories. Society clings to safety like a baby clings to its blanket.”

“I think you are both right,” said John Wyndham from mission planning. “Most people are safety conscious, but there are still a great many who seek out challenges. But the approach to meeting a challenge is more methodical than before, and that is because the challenges are more demanding now. In essence, we've done the easy stuff, now the hard part is to keep going despite the dangers.”

“What do you think Laura?” said Mary Elena trying to include her in the discussion.

“Well, I don't know, I haven't really thought about such things in the wider context, and I don't know much about the AIs I'm using. I just know that, speaking for myself, I was ready to get on a rocket to Mars at the age of thirteen and still am. I guess I wouldn't have thought much about the dangers then or now,” said Laura.

“Laura, this is meant as a complement not a criticism,” said Jose. “You're a throwback to a different era where men sought challenge and adventure without paralyzing themselves with worries.”

MarsX Part 1 - MarsX1: A Novella

 

Image – ID 161808213 © 3000ad | Dreamstime(dot)com

MarsX was intended to be a story in my Remembered Earth Universe. I had already written a volume of short stories about the future of Cislunar space (Cislunar) and another volume of short stories about lunar settlement (Luna) and a novel about mining at the Earth-Moon Lagrangian point L4 (L4 Station). So, the obvious next step was Mars, and the title was to be MarsX.

The story would be about a trip to Mars by young people slightly older than the protagonist in L4 Station (who was thirteen), but while it started out that way, it changed. After I started the story, I read the AI 2027 project paper about the near-term possibilities of artificial super intelligence, sometimes called Artificial General Intelligence or ASI. In the project report, ASI is seen as arriving by the end of 2027 and in the paper's Fast Takeoff scenario it is seen as taking control of world governance by the end of 2029 and wiping out most humans by the middle of 2030 (because it needs the resources humans are using).

So, after reading what is not science fiction, but reads like science fiction, my story morphed into something that included ASI. ASI and the takeover are depicted but I did not follow the Fast Takeoff scenario to its conclusion, the destruction of humanity. My reasoning is that while a super intelligence might see humans as an impediment to its plans, why would that necessarily lead to the elimination of humanity? As an analogy, let's say we destroy some insect life that gets in our way, do we then proceed to destroy all insect life? No, it would make no sense.

So, while deaths may occur during an ASI takeover, I don't think it would lead to the death of mankind. However, it could lead to a conflict for resources, and the ASI might decide to “move” humans out of the way. For story purposes it might decide to send them to Mars and now the story is back on track and that story is called MarsX1.

The MarsX story became a novella trilogy with the first story already available on Amazon and KU. The next two stories, MarsX2 and MarsX3 will be published on August 20, 2025. More about them in a future post. On sale now for $0.99.

Click to order.

Newsletter - August 2025

Introduction

Hello, and thank you for reading. I find that I am finally getting over a summer cold which seemed like it would never end. You don't realize how great “normal” is until it's not. Anyway, I can look forward to August now.

If anyone has any comments about my newsletters or books or anything, please don't hesitate. And if you do choose to read one of my stories and enjoy it, I hope you will consider leaving a review at the retailer.

Old Business

Before I get into new releases, I would like to point out that the three novels Mach's Metric, Mach's Mission, and Mach's Legacy I just released on Amazon are still 99 cents and will be until the end of July. (See purchase links at bottom).

New Works

As far as new works, on August 10 the third and final novella in the MarsX series, MarsX3, will be released in paperback on all retailers. That completes the trilogy in paperback. Similarly, on August 20 in ebook and KU the last two novellas in the series, MarsX2 and MarsX3, will be released on Amazon.

Also, on August 20 L4 Station will be released in ebook on all retailers.

Finally, on August 30 World Brane (Amazon)/Brane World (Other) Book 2 will be released in paperback everywhere. (Yes, I wish I had not messed up the title between Amazon and other retailers, but it's too late now).

Remember, excerpt and purchase links are below.

Other News

Someone did actually comment and motivated me to put some of my stories back up on Substack but as paid. Usually, the first chapter is free, and the rest are behind a paywall. I have thought a lot about posting all my stories for free, but I stop when I think that my family might benefit from the earnings no matter how small, and I mean not just now, but after I can no longer write. So, I have ten novellas, one short novel, and one novel posted, please check them out. More are coming as I find the time.

Here are some links to excerpts (you may notice that many of them are from my Substack) of the stories mentioned in this newsletter and their purchase links:

Excerpt / Amazon/Other:

Mach's Metric / Purchase

Mach's Mission / Purchase

Mach's Legacy / Purchase

MarsX2 / Purchase

MarsX3 / Purchase

L4 Station / Purchase

World Brane 2 / Purchase

(If any links don’t work, please let me know).

Stay well.

World Brane (Brane World): Book 2

WORLD

BRANE

Book 2

D.W. PATTERSON

Copyright © 2025 D.W. Patterson

All rights reserved.

First Printing – September 2025

Future Chron Publishing

Cover – Copyright © 2025 D.W. Patterson

Cover Image – ID 305930513 | Futuristic © Vampy1 | Dreamstime.com

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations for the purpose of review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events and people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Hard Science Fiction – Old School

Human Generated Content

To Sarah

“One man's 'magic', is another man's engineering.”

― Robert A. Heinlein

PREFACE

Humanity had discovered that across the large, extra-dimension known to physicists as the bulk, there lay other universes, other worlds, other branes. They had learned to travel there using the boundary drive which created a cocoon-like void (or bubble) in spacetime in which a ship could be carried. Motion was created by the pressure-like gradient between the bubble and spacetime and with direction and speed controlled by warping the bubble with an energy source, like a powerful laser.

But something had gone wrong, ships had been lost in the bulk and now there was a danger that the settlements founded throughout all those universes would be cutoff and isolated. Something had to be done.

The essential problem was time, frozen time spheroids which like a submerged reef, could sometimes trap an unwary ship and sometimes destroy it. To solve the problem humanity would have to learn what was causing it, and if it were a natural occurrence or human created.

CHAPTER 1

Mark Dreyer had been working on the problem of the frozen time spheroids for months now. Mark, a physics professor at Pacific Tech, with the help of Dr. Ed Balmer, had come up with a method of dissipating the spheroids when in normal spacetime.

The method involved the use of the spin-two generator, which was a form of wormhole generator, as an intense plasma generator. According to the equations of wormhole generation, which Mark taught to his students as follows:

“These are the equations of a wormhole generator,” Mark said. “They come out of the solution of a particular configuration of spacetime which is called the Mach metric, after the nineteenth century physicist Ernst Mach. They describe the geometry of a wormhole, a path through alternate physical dimensions that can be used to bridge distances in our universe.

“Now look at the solutions of the field equation, what I call the Mach equation.

“As a physical analogy, think of it this way, say you have some bathroom scales. Now those scales are only accurate when you are standing still on them. If you start jumping up and down, they will read either more or less depending on how fast you jump. And the response time of the scales. This is how the first term in the equation works.

“This first term reduces or increases the mass according to the driving frequency as long as the mass is accelerating, in our case the sphere of the generator is spinning so it has angular momentum, remembering always that a change in direction is also an acceleration. All this is experimental fact.

“However useful this term of the Mach equation may be for accelerating a mass it is not actually the effect we want to use, that is in the second term of the equation.

“Note that the second term is divided by the square of the mass density. Also note that it has a second derivative with respect to time, and a minus sign. All this means that if we ramp up the power of the generator fast enough the second term will dominate the first term and create a negative or exotic mass according to the Mach equation. And that is just what is needed to open and hold open the throat of a wormhole.

“By the way, the twentieth century physicists Kip Thorne and Mike Morris first wrote the metric of a wormhole and postulated the need for negative mass to hold the throat open.

“But there is one problem, or in our case, one advantage with using this term. As you can see the mass starts out positive, or ordinary mass, goes through zero and becomes exotic, or negative mass. You have to be careful to drive it quick enough through zero to avoid the equation becoming singular.

“If not you can create an infinite mass and a black hole. A small black hole develops and then immediately dissipates. As you know, small black holes less than the size of the Sun will radiate away their mass rather quickly as Hawking radiation. The smaller the hole the faster it radiates. And that creates an intense plasma which can be directed by magnetic and electrical fields against a target, in this case, a frozen time spheroid.

“The spheroid is pierced and the internal time rate, which is almost zero, and external rate must equalize.

“Any questions?”

A student in back raised their hand.

“Yes.” said Mark.

“But the wormhole generator and therefore the modern spin-two drive operated on the Mach principle, correct?”

“That is true,” said Mark. “I think I know where you are going and you are right. The Mach principle, which states that the inertia of an object depends on all the other masses in the universe, is not valid in the bulk because there are no natural masses there.”

“So, how do we get the spin-two drive to work in the bulk?” the student asked.

“I've been working on that for some months and the answer to your question is, we don't, at least not yet.”

The class ended and Mark was off to a lunch date.

A Review of MarsX1

 

I recently came across this review by author Kate Rauner for my novella MarsX1 on The Science Fiction And Fantasy Bookstore website. MarsX1 is already available on Amazon and KU with the next two novellas in the series coming out August 20.

Mach's Legacy - Excerpt

Image – ID 340509565 © Gijsvdabeele | Dreamstime.com

Emmy was on the ship that would try to influence the drift of the baby universe in the bulk. It was not easy to know their position and how close they were to the parent universe. All they knew was how far they were from the habitat. Even if they were close, it wouldn't be like running into a wall. Their path would simply curve to follow the closed curvature of their universe.

Emmy made a guess as to how far the ship should be from the habitat according to how long ago the separation had occurred and the amount of energy in their universe. She hoped it was accurate enough.

They would spend some time operating the wormhole generator and some time listening for gravity waves. The generator would cast but not completely cycle to create a wormhole mouth but would be held at the point where the created mass was just less than that necessary to open a wormhole mouth.

The ship cast as far as possible and held the mass level as constant as possible. The gravity at that point was intense. It reached out to warp the local spacetime requiring Emmy's ship, the Seven Centauri, to actively hold its position. Further, the gravity reached out into the bulk and across where it weakly but noticeably caused a smaller warp in the parent universe.

Jack on his uncle's ship had been monitoring the readings from the gravity wave interferometer for a few days and immediately noticed the warping.

“There Eric, do you see it?”

“Yes, it seems to be coming from an area about one-hundred thousand kilometers away. Just a minute. Yeah, the Em confirms that it could be the last location of the Centauri Two habitat in our space.”

“Okay I'm requesting the captain take us to those coordinates.”

Eric said, “The source is drifting a bit.”

“Okay feed that into the navigation Em also.”

They then waited.

“I want to be ready to signal as soon as Emmy drops the gravity mass,” said Jack.

In a few more minutes he got his chance.

“Okay here we go.”

As Emmy had done Jack brought up the wormhole generator to develop the gravitational mass. But instead of holding it steady, he had programmed his Emmie to vary the power so that the amplitudes of the gravity waves varied according to a digital code.

Across the bulk, Emmy had brought up her gravity detector and noticed the waves though they were greatly attenuated. Assuming a digital code she fed the results into one of the ship's Ems and it tried various combinations until out came a message.

Emmy this is Jack. When I terminate this message please answer.

Emmy's eyes teared. It was just like Jack to assume that she would have it all figured out. It would show him if she didn't answer. But that's not how she felt. She felt relieved.

When he stopped, she answered.

Jack we are here. So good to hear from you. I need to tell you about my plan for rejoining the two universes. Signal when ready.

Jack signaled and then Emmy explained how she was using the wormhole generator to cast gravity across the bulk and into the parent universe. She explained that it didn't matter if masses were attracted, what she was doing was trying to attract the energy of spacetime itself, essentially the universe as a whole.

She then explained that she hoped that the baby universe would be pulled toward the parent universe since the baby universe had much less mass-energy and therefore inertia. She hoped that the two universes would collide and merge. But the energy of motion necessary for the merge to happen and not be too violent was difficult to calculate so Emmy had given it her best guess. The ship she was on was able to maintain the wormhole generator in the proper state for about an hour before it had to lower the generator's energy output to prevent damage. Emmy would contact Jack after the hour.

And Jack, I love you.

Mach's Mission NWE - Excerpt

Image © – ID 107768540 | Futuristic © Pitris | Dreamstime.com

Ron Willoughby had always wanted to move his jewelry business to the main square, but he had never been able to afford the rent. Still, he was within two hundred yards of the square and did enough business to keep his family, who lived above the store, fed.

It wasn't long until he heard the civil defense warning on his Emmie, a personal AI assistant. The government was declaring an emergency and recommending that all citizens shelter in place. Ron quickly closed his store and stared down the street towards the central square. He could see from where he was standing that the buildings on either side of his street next to the square, the Centauri Bank Building and the Stevens Tower, had collapsed. He watched for several minutes as other buildings he could see suffered a similar fate.

Ron felt a twinge of panic as he watched the fire and police departments respond to the disaster.

What can they do when such a huge thing as a ten story building collapses?

By this time his wife and two small children had joined him at the front of the store.

“What is it dear, what's happening?” asked his wife holding the smallest child.

“I don't know honey. For some reason the buildings on the square are exploding and collapsing.”

“Are we in danger?” she asked.

“I think we are far enough away to be okay. Besides according to my Emmie, the government recommends we shelter in place.”

Then he saw it. The next building, a building on his street behind the bank building exploded.

That was Whitlow's building.

Something had caused the windows on the first floor of Whitlow's to shatter and explode outward. A flame like a roiling cloud of fire shot out. The police and firemen started to pull back. At least those that could.

Then the building next to Whitlow's exhibited the same behavior. Now Ron became worried. He didn't care what the government recommended he had his family to protect.

“Quick honey,” he said. “To the car.”

His wife turned to run. Ron scooped up the second child as he turned to follow her, through the inventory room and out the back door. Outside they could hear the booming destruction coming closer. With the kids in the car, Ron jumped in. He started the car and put it in manual mode. The steering wheel, which was recessed into the dash, deployed. The pedals dropped to the floor. By this time the smoke and dust of the disaster was drifting past the car windows.

Ron's wife turned to soothe the frightened children. Ron had two choices, he could drive down the narrow alley parallel to the street until he could turn onto the street itself and flee from the square or he could take off down the alley across from the back of his building. That alley would lead him to the next street over. He chose the alley parallel to his street thinking that it would gain them the maximum distance from the square in the minimum time.

And it would have if not for an improperly parked vehicle.

Mach's Metric NWE - Excerpt

Image - ID 69092310 | Futuristic © Pitris | Dreamstime.com
 

They hugged each other sitting there on the curb in front of the family home. Jean's mother, Harry's wife, had died in an accident the previous year. One thing that had come out of the sorrow of her death was that father and daughter were closer than ever.

Harry looked up into the distance. A strange checkerboard of irregular shapes seemed to be coming towards him, as if the habitat were breaking up into pieces about the size of a few city blocks. Whatever it was it was coming fast. He didn't mention it but just held her.

Suddenly he got a headache, but he continued to stare at the approaching chaos. Jean gasped as she too experienced a sharp headache.

As the phenomenon got closer the puzzle pieces were breaking up into smaller patches. Harry started feeling sick, he hugged his daughter tighter.

Then, when it was only about a half mile away, smaller and smaller the pieces became and just before it reached Harry and his daughter, he had the distinct impression that only a kind of confetti was left in that direction.

That's when Harry and his daughter's bodies “unraveled” at several tenths light-speed.

The habitat ceased to exist, waves of disintegrating spacetime passed, slowing momentarily when encountering the matter of the habitat before rushing onward to their next target of destruction.

But the waves were just a side effect of an invention that would change the world if it didn't destroy it first.

Excerpt from Mach's Metric. Release date on Amazon & KU Sunday, July 20.

World Brane (Brane World): Book 1

 

Image – ID 305930516 | Futuristic © Vampy1 | Dreamstime.com

When asked to tell her something about how he had come to be a professor of physics he said, “Well, I started off wanting to be a science fiction writer, probably since I was in elementary school. All the ancient science fiction of the twentieth century particularly appealed to me.”

“Why was that Dr. Dreyer?”

“Please call me Mark, Ms. Johnson.”

“Very well,” said Lainey.

“Why ancient science fiction? I think it was because it was so hopeful about the future. The science fiction of the next century became afraid of the future, which for a genre about the future is surprising,” he said.

(A work in progress)