Space Eater by David Langford Read Free Book Online Page B

laboratory we have sent three messenger satellites into orbit around Beta Corvi II. We have constructed a functioning space station concealed at the L2 point of that planet-moon system. And once our specialist effort has arrived we expect no trouble in dispatching the, ah, manned mission.”
    “The way Birch said it, ‘dispatching’ sounds like about the right word,” I said. I was even less happy now than I’d been. This was a long way from Force polish and efficiency: but maybe you shouldn’t expect it from research equipment...
    “Now who’s making funny jokes?” said Wui. “See there—that’s the 1.9-centimeter hole of such fame in story and song. We’ve fixed it vertically because one big worry’s always been that the far gate would intersect a sun. If that happens, we hope there’ll just be a blast of radiation straight up ... see the cables strung up there? Cut them and everything shuts down. My God, though, think of how it would look from outside, you’re sitting there in the Fens and this, this sunbeam comes out of the earth like a geyser, solid light straight up into the sky. Probably blind you, of course; but just think of it. What a sight.”
    Corman said, “Is this really relevant?”
    “It is not,” said Ellan. “There is no question of that happening. We have a short-range gate permanently operational at the far station; this one is tuned to it and aligns at once when adequate power input is supplied.”
    (I had a picture of Ellan with all her proud speeches bottled up for years because nobody new was ever cleared to hear this stuff. Now we were getting the full blast -- ) Wui snickered. “Yes, that’s right, you have to change trains now. This is the main line, takes you 162
    light-years; the last few million kilometers you go by branch line. All seems one trip, of course.”
    “That’s not very clear,” I said, liking it still less.
    Wui stuck his fingers into his hair, rasped them through his beard, and tried again. “Look. This system here is a power eater—all the energy corrections for stellar and orbital motion show up as extra power drain here. We can’t afford to keep it turned on, but if we turn it off we lose contact and have hell’s own job synchronizing with a given spot at the other end. We’d never have hit the right solar system in the first place if they weren’t fiddling with MT and biasing the far gate their way.”
    “The mathematical expression is perhaps more clear than the verbal—“ began Ellan. Wui shushed her and carried on. “Now we’ve worked through our long-range gate and put a short-range one on the far side. Low power drain, nearly zero in fact: just two MT portals connecting a couple of places with the same gravity potential and something like, what did I say, a few million kilometers apart. (There are reasons not to let them get too close together.) Now we’ve no problems: this MT here operates on the same wavelength, as you might say but Cathy wouldn’t, as the one we’ve hung out there. Turn this one on and there’s an instantaneous link between portal A here and portal B out there—that’s this MT
    system. And all the time portal C out there is joined to portal D also out there. And the AB anomaly is tuned to CD; B and C go into synchronization. And so what we pump in here goes instantly ABCD and pops out where we want it to go.”
    “How about if you drew us a picture now,” I suggested.
    “I don’t think that’s needed,” Corman said. “Instant transit from here to there, you say. No unfortunate side effects except to the passengers.”
    Wui licked his lips ghoulishly. “Yes, right on. When we can offer first-class travel with waitress service and all mod cons we’ll do just that. Meanwhile ... we call this route ‘second class.’ Probably not funny.”
    By this time something had started turning over in my own head. I know I don’t always think too fast outside skill areas like combat and weaponry, but usually I get