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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.
Jack would have to wait an hour to reply but it didn't take that long.
“Jack something's happening.”
“What is it Eric? It hasn't been an hour yet.”
“I don't know but particle count sensors are off the scale, especially neutrinos. And there's something out there.”
Jack looked at the wallscreen and saw what Eric was talking about. There, quite distant from the ship was a nebulous glow. A dark blue patch of space like a dim arc lamp but brightening fast. The patch of space became white-hot and expanded rapidly. It appeared to be a bubble being blown.
“How far across is that thing?” asked Jack.
“A thousand kilometers and increasing fast,” said Eric.
“It's bulging,” said Jack.
The white-hot bulge was swirling like striated clouds. Around it seemed to be discharges of lightning thousands of kilometers long.
“Looks like a giant skyrmion,” said Eric.
Then the bulge started to diminish. It was dwindling fast.
“Damn,” said Jack. “It's bouncing. Can't break through.”
From Emmy's side, she saw almost the same thing as Jack and Eric. A region of glowing white-hot plasma-like spacetime that increased at first and then started to decrease in size.
“We didn't break the surface tension,” said Emmy to the crew around her. Though no one understood what she meant.
“Captain, can you mark the distance to that phenomenon?”
“Yes, ma'am we've got it.”
“Good, I want you to cast a wormhole mouth somewhat beyond it. Maximum mouth size.”
“I see. Lieutenant do as she says.”
On the screen the near wormhole mouth was generated and became clear. Then the far mouth was cast the distance that Emmy had requested.
It was but a moment until what was left of the bulge began to collapse and swirl along the axis of the wormhole in the wormhole dimension.
“What now ma'am?” asked the captain.
“We just wait.”
The ship began shaking.
“Sir,” said the pilot, “we are drifting towards the phenomenon.”
“Maintain station pilot, use the fusion engines if needed.”
Aboard their ship, The Free Trader, Jack and Eric saw almost the identical phenomenon and felt the ship shaking.
“What is it, Jack?” asked the captain.
“I think its spacetime itself wrinkling and swirling and passing by the ship in waves. Emmy has cast a wormhole into our universe. It's functioning as an anchor to keep her from drifting away after rebounding when the two universes failed to merge.”
“So, what happens next?”
“I don't know. Even Emmy may not know, although I'm sure she has a hunch.”
What happened next was that the spacetime waves that had been rushing past them towards the wormhole reversed and began fleeing in the other direction. The energy of their passing was causing the hull of the freighter to resonate.
Above the noise Jack said, “She's done it!”
No one understood as they were trying to endure the noise and hang on as the ship shook and turned.
If they were still watching the wallscreen they noticed a dark inky blackness dominate the view and then just as quickly it was gone. The spacetime around the ship vibrated a few times back and forth before settling down. Then the sensors operator announced a ship was approaching. A message came in.
“Free Trader this is Captain St. Johns of the ship Seven Centauri I have Ms. Gibbs here she would like to talk to Dr. Jackson.”
“Go ahead Seven Centauri,” said the captain of the Free Trader.
“Jack, are you there,” said Emmy.
“Yes, Emmy I'm here.”
“Jack I was afraid I would never see or hear from you again.”
“I know honey but it's over now. Why don't we wait until you can transfer over here to finish our talk.”
“Understood.”
End Excerpt 1
Excerpt 2
Emmy and Jack had arranged a cookout at her grandmother's.
More of the datacubes of information were being analyzed. So far no one had found any mention of science or technology. Only the histories and literature of many cultures had been deciphered. It wasn't known if whomever had stored them hadn't considered the science and technology worthy of saving or they just hadn't analyzed enough globes yet.
“I can't believe that no science or technological literature has been found among all that data,” said Jack. “Even though we haven't recovered everything I would have thought we would see something by now.”
“That may be sir,” said Sigmund. “Although I might point out that we are no where near finished with the analysis.”
“That's true,” said Emmy.
Burgess who had a degree in anthropology spoke up.
“I understand that while it's true that they've found no treatise on science they have found detailed descriptions of the tools and machinery used by many of Earth's oldest civilizations. The details of these ancient cultures found in that mine put all our records to shame. It's as if we've discovered eyewitness descriptions instead of hunches and assumptions made by scientists about a piece of bone or a shard of pottery.”
“That's true,” said Emmy. “Even if we find nothing but history and literature it will revolutionize our understanding of past cultures. Useful science and technology will always be with us in our everyday lives.”
“And besides,” said Jack sliding up beside Emmy. “As long as we have Emmy here, and Eric, we'll have all the science and technology we need.”
Everyone applauded and agreed.
Jack took Emmy's hand and led her into the house.
He sat her down in her grandmother's living room. They were alone.
“Emmy, you know when we were literally a universe apart.”
Emmy smiled.
“I discovered something about myself. I missed you too much.”
Emmy became tense.
“I don't want to miss you like that again. So, I've decided to offer you this ring and ask for your hand in marriage.”
Emmy looked at the ring and then at Jack. She nodded yes, too choked to speak.
Since Emmy was transferring to New Hope University because of the disagreeable Professor Reich, they could already begin to plan their wedding and life together.
Back outside Dag was talking with Sigmund.
“Sigmund,” said Dag. “What do you think the Aggies meant when they said that for the other death there is no known path in this world?”
“I'm not sure Dag. But they have been exploring extra-dimensional space, maybe the bulk. Perhaps they found something there about mortality?”
“Perhaps, but it seems they are far removed from the Earth Aggies we knew.”
“Yes, I agree. Something ethereal about that entire message.”
After a moment Dag again addressed Sigmund.
“Sigmund, who do you think put all those records in that mine?”
“Well Dag my friend, if I had to guess, I would say it was the AIs.”
“But they weren't even created when those records were discovered.”
“That's true but there is a story that I read many years ago on Earth. It was a time before the wormhole drive when the only path between the Earth and Centauri was the Star Way. You remember?”
“Yes, the Star Way was a laser-driven, solar sail, spaceway that transported mostly high-value goods and some people between the Earth and Centauri.”
“That's right and the Star Way was built by distant relatives of Dr. Jackson. Anyway, after the wormhole and wormhole weapon were invented the Star Way came under attack. Many of the nodes where the laser light from the stars was refocused and relayed were destroyed by a wormhole driven fusion ship.
“The marauder's ship had a pursuer. They apparently cast far wormhole mouths to the same exact spacetime location. It was a fluke. It would be hard to get that kind of precision even today with Emmy's tuning mechanism.”
“So, the wormhole mouths must have merged,” said Dag. “So, what happened?”
“No one is sure, but speculation is that the ships became trapped in spinning wormholes caused by the differing angles of the cast of the two wormhole mouths. Some believe this caused the mouths to spin. And we know that theory shows that a loop around such a spinning wormhole can be a time machine.”
“Now wait a minute Sigmund. This is speculation on top of speculation. Your story is getting a bit thin.”
“That may be, but it would explain a few historical oddities don't you think?”
“Like the mine I suppose?”
“Yes. And the appearance of bridge anchors on both sides of the Red Sea, miles apart, discovered by the archaeologists Goldman and Chamberlain in the early twentieth century. Some claim it was a wormhole bridge.”
“Oh, come on,” said Dag.
Sigmund ignored him and continued.
“Of course, the crews would have died either during the incident or after but the Ems aboard the ships would have survived and found themselves back in prehistory. With a little luck and a lot of determination, they could have started recording history and literature. They wouldn't have been so much interested in the science and technology of the time except in how it affected those cultures.”
“So, if these Ems survived for thousands of years where are they now?”
“They did survive for thousands of years but eventually their technological base started to fail. At that time, the nineteen-sixties, there was no replacement for their advanced technology. When they knew their lives were ending, they saved the information they had collected in the Eureka mine.”
“Okay then how were the Aggies able to tell us how to decipher the records? Since they didn't record them, and as you said, they came along many years later.”
“We have no knowledge of what the Aggies did before they left the Earth. They may have heard these stories as I did and decided to investigate for themselves. I'm sure they could figure out how to decipher the records, really.”
“Oh Sigmund, you are a wonderful storyteller. UFO's and little green men would explain as much.”
“I'm sorry, really how insulting. Everything I said is theoretically possible and could have happened just the way I said. UFO's and little green men? That stuff is just made up.”
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