0300 Book 2 - 10. Chapter 10: CERN-Higgs

Chapter 10: CERN-Higgs

That afternoon, George asked for some private time; he was scared. It was George’s first visit to my quarters since we’d moved the flag to the Charleston just the day before. Even the luxury of the quarters didn’t penetrate.

“George, something’s seriously the matter,” I said. I held out my arms, and he came to me for a hug.

“They’re going to destroy the world!” he said. “Look.”

It took only seconds for the story to unfold through the telepathic link. George, with the help of the other Geeks with Guns and some clever hacking by Danny and Tobor, had figured out what was going on at CERN-Higgs.

“Can they really do this?” I asked, after George finished.

“Not any more,” he said. “Tobor’s monitoring. We’ve—sabotaged is the only word for it—we’ve sabotaged their computer. It will not allow the collider to operate that way, but it will report data as if it were. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to fool them, though.”

“Good work, George. All of you. Make sure the team knows how good they did. I’ll tell them, later. Now, however, it’s time to kick butt.”

I sent a 372-word private message to Admiral Davis. He sent a single-word reply. “Yes.”

My next message was to my team planetside. A shuttle got them here in less than two hours. They were all excited, but Bobby, most of all. He ran to Danny, and hugged him, and showed him the new, Senior Cadet insignia on his collar.

Two hours after the GWG team arrived, another shuttlecraft docked. Three people from CERN-Higgs were escorted directly to my conference room. One was the guy I was supposed to have replaced, Captain Stoddard. Another was Dr. Hudson, the senior project scientist. The third person was Dr. Charles Adams, a postdoc from the Dirac Institute recently assigned to CERN-Higgs. The CERN-Higgs people probably knew something was wrong. At least, they knew something was urgent; they’d been invited to this meeting by armed Fleet Marines.

Seated at the table with them were the entire Flag Staff and all my Geeks with Guns Team.

I began the meeting. “A week ago, a rift opened in a universe we have named U-Long. A flight of 30 shuttlecraft, similar to ours, were pulled through that rift into a second universe we are calling U-Cal, after the California Liberation Army.

“The shuttlecraft were drawn to a battlefield where the government of the United States in U-Cal was crushing a rebellion. The California Liberation Army were those rebels; the government of the United States consisted of religious fundamentalists led by Reverends—”

Dr. Hudson interrupted. “We know all of this, and we have work to do, work that was put on hold by your summons. We—”

“Doctor, do not interrupt me, again.” I kept my voice level, but I bit off each word—and pushed. The man reddened, slightly, but kept his mouth shut.

“The Reverends had the upper hand on the battlefield. Their weapons were superior, their forces were larger.

“Captain Long, commander of the shuttlecraft from U-Long, assessed the situation, and joined his technologically superior forces with the rebels. After destroying the Reverends’ forces, the Long shuttles removed wounded from the battlefield.

“By that time, a rift had opened between U-Cal and our universe. Captain Long’s forces detected the hospital ship, USF Hope, and brought the wounded—and dead—there.

“The rift between our universe and U-Cal is still open and appears to be stable. The rift between U-Cal and U-Long no longer exists.

“The United Earth Space Fleet finds itself in a quandary. Since these rifts were created by CERN-Higgs illegally and in defiance of Fleet orders, we are responsible for both the people from U-Long and the people from U-Cal.

“Now, Dr. Hudson, you have the floor.”

Hudson and Stoddard had blanched when I said illegally and in defiance, however, Hudson managed to speak without outwardly revealing his feelings.

“Your charges are without merit and certainly cannot be proven. We did nothing illegal, and certainly have not violated orders. Now, if you have nothing more substantial than unfounded allegations . . . .” He stood.

“Dr. Hudson, you are under arrest. My guess is that the reason you are in such a hurry to get back is to remove traces of your illegal activities from the records of CERN-Higgs. It is too late. Your data dump contained everything needed to convict you. It shows that you operated the CERN-Higgs collider in a way that created the two rifts. You were under clear, unambiguous orders not to create such rifts.

“You will be tried in military court. You will pay the price of your perfidy.” I loved old-fashioned words. They had power that modern speech often lacked. “Captain Stoddard, you will accompany Dr. Hudson. Fleet Intelligence has questions for you.

“Dr. Hudson, before you are removed, I want you to know just who caught you. Sitting at this table are twelve Fleet Cadets and Ensigns.”

This was a risk, and would strain the veil; however, the boys deserved it.

“They range in age from 10 to 14. They are products of the Fleet School System. They found the proof in the data you sent us. They discovered what your next illegal operation was to be, and have thwarted it. Not only that, but they have found a way to take us where the project should have gone: controlled rift generation.

“Doctor Hudson, not only will you not get the Jefferson Prize you coveted, you will not even be remembered for what you did accomplish. These twelve boys will almost certainly share that prize, and they will receive the accolades.

“Ensign Stewart? Escort Doctor Hudson and Captain Stoddard to the flight deck; a squad of Marines is waiting to return them to Geneva.”

When Danny and his squad came back, I picked up the meeting.

“Not everyone has met the latest additions to the Flag Team. But you’ve seen what they can do. Guys, I am so proud of you I could bust. I was serious about recognition and prizes.

“What I’m going to say, now, however, must never leave this room. Are we agreed?” I looked from person to person, and got a nod (and read a commitment) from each one.

“Thank you. George, you put this together, you get to tell us.”

George stood and explained that the team had discovered not only what Hudson had done, but what he was planning. “He would have created a rift on Earth that would have connected to a star and allowed the nuclear furnace of the star to consume Earth. He was really going to do that, not because he was evil, but because he was stupid, and greedy, and thought that he could create star flight. He didn’t understand what he was doing, but was arrogant enough to think that he did. He thought the rift would open in the star’s Goldilocks Zone, but he forgot about the gravity well.”

The entire group was silent. Then, Kevin stood and walked to George. Kevin hugged George, said thank you, and stepped to the next boy on the Geeks team. Kevin was followed by Casey and, ultimately, the entire Flag staff.

If I had any doubts about my boys’ ability to integrate with the others, that display of emotion put them to rest.

I turned to Corey. “Captain Long, on behalf of the Fleet Council, our ruling body, I accept responsibility for bringing your people here and, therefore, for getting your people home.

“Colonel Stewart, on behalf of that same body, I accept responsibility for finding a home for you and your people in our universe, or returning you—suitably equipped for survival—to your universe.”

“Dr. Adams?” I addressed the third member of the CERN-Higgs group. The postdoc looked at me. He seemed oddly relaxed. “Dr. Adams, the records show that you were unaware of, and did not participate in the illegal activities. Your personnel records show that you have the qualifications to become senior scientist; you are hereby assigned that position. At some point, Fleet may assign a naval officer to command the project; until that happens, you are in charge of the entire project.

“Your first responsibility is to find a way to safely return the U-Long people to their universe. I’ve read a lot of the data. My team has read even more; they’ve filled me in. There are apparently a lot of universes out there. It will be critical to ensure that Corey and his people go to their home, and not one that’s close to it. Do you understand?”

The kid (he was just 16, and I think he was one of us who didn’t know it, yet) took it all in stride. “Yes, sir. I’ve been investigating the interleaving of universes, and understand what you mean. There could be a dozen, but not likely more than that, universes with a Corey Long. There could be more than one of those in which he disappeared on New Year’s Eve. There could be more than one F-U—I mean . . . .” He blushed.

The boys giggles set him at ease. “Sorry, that’s what we’ve been calling it. There could be more than one U-Cal and more than one U-Long. Sir, we’ll do all we can. I can’t promise more than that. Will your team be able to help? George showed me some of their work and, frankly, I’m not sure I can follow all of it.”

I nodded. “Of course.” Before my geeks could object to being sent back to Earth, I added. “That will have to be done remotely. Now that my boys are in space with me, they’re going to stay here.

“One more thing, Dr. Adams. There’s a CERN-Higgs team on the Isaac Newton. I don’t know if they were involved or influenced by Hudson. Please vet them, and replace anyone you think needs replacing.”

Corey and I spent a lot of time talking about what his people needed from us. The most critical was power for the shuttles. If they could power the shuttles, they could power their phasers and communicators, as well as the hand-held video games that some of the younger kids had brought. (They had iPads, too, but they were completely compatible with ours—including power. Interesting.)

Corey was, at first, reluctant to allow our techs (and the Geeks with Guns) access to the inner workings of the shuttles, the phasers, and the communicators. It was a grave situation, and it was gravity that solved the problem.

Corey wanted to see for himself that the rift over Charleston (the Charleston of the F-Universe) that led to his universe was no longer there. The instrument readings were not enough. I understood. He was a 14-year-old kid who was lost. He had 284 of his family, some as young as six, who were lost with him. There was a risk in taking him through the rift into the F-U and then to Charleston. I figured it was worth it, and asked Kevin and Casey to plan the mission. Naturally, Danny and George insisted on going along. We took Artie, too.

Corey strapped himself tightly into the jump seat behind Kevin; I took the one behind Casey. The instant we passed through the force field and into space, Corey gasped. “You’ve got artificial gravity in shuttlecraft?”

“Well, yeah,” Kevin said.

“But it takes . . . I mean . . . crap. I might as well tell you,” Corey said. “We don’t have artificial gravity in anything smaller than one of your cruisers. I thought because we had FTL drive we were so much more advanced than you. I guess I was wrong.

“I guess you can take one of our shuttles apart, now. There’s probably no secrets there that you can’t figure out. Oh, and a phaser, too.”

I nodded, and said, “Corey, I promise you that we’ll never use anything we learn to harm your people—those here, or those you left behind.”

Corey looked at me, and nodded. We had an understanding.

The reverse engineering of Corey’s shuttlecraft, phasers, and communicators was useful to us and to Corey. We had power technology that could be adapted to what the shuttles needed. However, after a series of tests, Corey agreed that it would be better if we adapted the shuttles to our power and artificial gravity. I got a promise from Corey that he would safeguard our technology, as we were safeguarding his, and that he’d never use it against us. It was a good bargain on both sides.

Oh, and there were enough clues in the shuttle and phaser technology for George and the Geeks to figure out how Corey’s universe did FTL.

* * * * *

Like most of the GWGs, Cameron had his own specialty. I called it, exegesis, which means the critical interpretation of a text, especially a scriptural text. The word had fallen out of use as had the scriptures of the various revealed religions, still, it was a good word, and I revived it when we understood what Cam could do. He had a photographic memory (as did most of the metas); however, he could compare a dozen or so texts or ideas at the same time, and identify and understand the differences among them. It was Cam’s talent that solved the question of why one universe was different from another.

He led a discussion among Artie, Corey, and himself. I sat in because I was fascinated. George observed so that he could relay to the rest of the GWGs.

“How many terms did Thomas Jefferson serve as President of the United States?” Cam asked.

“Huh? Uh, like one? Maybe two? Nobody served more than two until President Roosevelt.” That was Corey.

“Roosevelt? Who’s he?” And that was me. Okay, that was I.

“Hang on. I think we’re getting somewhere.” Cam shot me a I’ve got this under control so butt out look. Then, he realized what he’d done, and blushed furiously. I pushed love and a “you’re right, of course” thought.

It took a while, but he did figure it out. In our universe, U-3, Jefferson served five terms, and was responsible for bringing The Enlightenment to us—science, not superstition. Most of the prohibitions about sex were based in the three revealed religions, which pretty much died out except in small enclaves after that. When science got expensive, it ended up in the hands of the military—Fleet, which, by 1965 had established a government that encompassed all the world, except those enclaves.

In U-Long, Jefferson served two terms; Teddy Roosevelt was president in 1901. After the farm crisis and the beginning of the dust bowl; a scientist, Robert Millikan, was elected president in 1929. After that, almost every president was a scientist. They developed FTL star drive in 1968 and had colonies on five planets, as well as the former colonies of Endor and Rigel.

In U-Cal, Teddy Roosevelt was killed in a charge up San Juan hill; someone named Nehemiah Scudder was president in 1901, and served four terms. His son, Makepeace Scudder was elected after him, and took office in 1917. By the time of his death in 1950, the presidency was in the hands of a council of Reverends, who appointed someone chosen by divine inspiration after much prayer and meditation and, some said, murder.

“Sir? Shuttle with Fleet Command IFF is five minutes out. That’s Admiral Davis.” Captain Moultrie’s surprise was clear, although he didn’t lose his professionalism. “I wasn’t aware he was coming.”

Oops, I thought. The admiral’s on to us.