Breakthrough (12 page)

“It’s possible,” acknowledged Clay.  “But I don’t think this was a trick.”

“And why is that?” shot back Stevas from the Pentagon.  “Why are you so sure this was not some deception?  Mr. Harding himself said that it’s not even possible, so it seems to me that some form of deception is the most logical conclusion here.”

“Well that’s true sir,” Clay replied, “except for a couple of problems.”

“Which are?” Stevas insisted.

“The disappearance of the examination table, not to mention the body that was lying on top of it.”

Stevas did not appreciate the sarcasm.  “Well can we be sure that the table is in fact missing?  You also said from your description that the man on the table and this Palin person looked very similar in appearance.”

“That is correct.”

“Isn’t it possible that some kind of illusion or trick might make it
seem
as though there were two people when in fact, there was only one?”

“I don’t
see what that would accomplish,” Langford said.  “If someone were in trouble, getting off the ship as an injured reporter would have been far easier than becoming a prisoner.  Besides, why would someone go to so much trouble to get onboard a research vessel?  To learn about some of our newly discovered oil deposits?”

“I agree,” added Leonard Bullman, the Army Chairman.  Bullman was
slender and had a quiet, thoughtful look about him.  “Why the elaborate deception or risk of life and limb just to get on a science vessel?”  He turned to look at Bruce Bishop, the Naval Chairman sitting next to him.  “Is there anything else on Emerson’s ship of any serious value?

Bishop shook his head.  “I spoke with Emerson an hour ago.  There is nothing with that kind of value aboard.  In fact, the majority of their data has not even been analyzed yet.”

“Which means,” said Langford, “that the only thing that changed on that ship by the time it left port…” he trailed off and looked at Clay.

“Was the dolphins,
” Clay finished.

“What’s this little piece of translation software worth?” asked Defense Secretary Miller.

Clay shook his head.  “Not much according to the team, bragging rights primarily.  Something worth winning a prize over but certainly not a lifetime in prison.”

Will Borger raised his hand on the screen and spoke.  “Uh, excuse me.”

Clay spoke up.  “Gentlemen, this is Will Borger and my colleague Steve Caesare.  They discovered the ring on the ocean bottom.  I asked them to join the call as they have come up with more information on it.  Go ahead, Will.”

The video window showing Borger and Caesare grew larger and moved to the middle of the screen.  “We uh, have analyzed this quite a bit more and it looks like this
ring is…moving.”

Most of the participants on the call looked confused.  Harding
however, looked intrigued.  “What do you mean?” He asked leaning forward.

“Well when we say moving, we actually mean spinning.  From my calculations
it looks to be making a full rotation every three minutes.  Given that this thing has a total circumference of about 47 miles, that means it is spinning at a speed of nearly 700 miles per hour.”

Everyone on the monitors
were suddenly speechless.  Harding’s mouth fell wide open.

22

“What did you just say?” said Miller.

Borger continued.  “The ring appears to be generating energy.”  He typed a few commands and his laptop screen appeared on the large monitors for everyone to see.  The picture showed an area of the ring.  “If we measure the light waves emanating from it, we can see a subtle shift in the Doppler which shows movement.  The change in wavelengths allows us to measure the speed.”

Nearly everyone on the call was still stunned.

“Will,” said Clay.  “What do you think this is?”

Borger shook his head.  “We’re really not sure.  My guess is some kind of power plant.”

“A power plant for what?” asked Stevas.

“I don’t know,” answered Borger.  “There are too many unknowns.  For instance, why is it underwater?  Why is it located so remotely?  How much power could it generate?  It would help if we could see whether something was situated in the middle, but the resolution is not clear enough.”  He shook his head.  “If it is a power plant, I’ve sure never seen one that spins like this.” 

“Let’s back up here,
” Miller interrupted.  “Obviously this thing is enormous.  What country is even capable of building something like this, and undetected?”

No one answered so Miller continued.  “What would it take if we built it?”

“Thousands of men and a decade at the minimum,” Borger answered.  “And that’s assuming we weren’t trying to keep it a secret.”

“A
nd that’s probably conservative,” added Harding.

“Okay so we have some secret group that’s b
een working on this for decades,” Stevas said.

Miller raised an eyebrow.  “Like who?”

“How the hell should I know?  From where I’m sitting the bigger question is not who built a giant power plant, but what is it for?”

“Maybe it’s supposed to change the water temperature, and
affect the weather or something,” Mason offered.

Stevas raised his hand in agreement.  “Right.  Maybe they want to cause a
hurricane or an earthquake.  Or sap our national power grid and shut us down.”  He folded his arms across his chest.  “I think we need to figure out what this thing does first.”

Miller looked at the screen.  “Dr. Harding?”

Harding frowned.  “Almost anything is theoretically possible given enough energy, but even if someone figured out how to create a hurricane or earthquake, there would be no way to control it.  Your hurricane could go south instead of north or east instead of west.”  He stared at the picture again.  “I cannot imagine this being intended for weather manipulation.”

“Fine,” Stevas barked.  “Then you tell us!”

Borger blinked a few times.  He swallowed hard.  “This…” he started shaking his head.  “This may sound crazy, but it reminds me of something a team of scientists are working on in Switzerland.”  He stared at his picture.  “They have been able to establish a space time relationship between two small objects.  This was also done using rings, but they were very small, and the relationship only existed for a fraction of a second.  It’s a long shot but there are several aspects that fit here.”

“What do you mean when you say
relationship?” asked Langford.

Borger did not answer.  He sat staring at the screen wondering if he should go on.  This was almost too crazy. 

“I think he means a tunnel,” answered Harding.

Langford
was confused.  “A tunnel?”

“A wormhole,
” said Borger. 

“What the hell is a wormhole?”

“A wormhole is a tunnel through time and space,” Harding explained.  “A theory from modern physics.”

“And the Swiss have done this?” asked Stevas.

“Not this,” Harding answered shaking his head.  “What Mr. Borger is referring to is a series of experiments carried out by the Swiss, but they did it only for a moment and it was less than a millionth of a millimeter long.  It also required an incredible amount of energy, equal to all of the electricity used by Switzerland in a year, compressed into less than a second.”

“And you think we’re looking at a giant version of this?”

“It’s conceivable,” Harding said slowly.  “In their experiment, the Swiss team found a harmonic relationship between the rings.  With enough energy and by spinning the rings, they connected at a harmonic level and made the tunnel possible.”  He scooted his chair closer to his monitor.  “Mr. Borger, can you enlarge this image?”  A moment later the picture zoomed in.  “One of the unique aspects of the experiment was that they had to spin the rings above the speed of sound to establish the harmonic connection.”

Langford
looked at Borger.  “How fast did you say this thing underwater is spinning?”

“Just under the speed of sound.”

“But the speed of sound is different in water than in air,” Harding pointed out.  He spoke as if he did not believe what he was saying but could not stop himself from working though the theorem.   “Sound travels over four times faster in water.  But then again, if sound is a variable then it’s possible that a wormhole would require less energy under the water, and therefore be the preferred place to have it.  But we would still be talking about a level of energy required that is far beyond anything we could manage.”

“You mean ‘we’ as in the United States?” asked Stevas.

“No,” said Harding.  “I mean ‘we’ as in human beings.”

A few people lowered their heads and mumbled an expletive.

Defense Secretary Miller took a deep breath.  “Are you telling us that this was not built by humans?”

“It’s a consideration.”

Miller could not believe what he was hearing.  “And you’re telling us we may have a giant wormhole under the ocean?”

“Maybe,
” Borger said.  “But even if we knew how to create that much energy, it doesn’t sound like we have the means of doing it.”

Harding nodded in agreement.  “He’s right.  Not even combining all of the power plants in the world could do it.  Which brings us back to the question of, if we are not able to power this thing let
alone build it, who is?”

“Or…if the power required is not here, where is it getting its power from?” Borger finished.

The men at the table looked back and forth at each other. 

“Okay hold on,
” said Miller. “Let’s back up.  Is there another explanation for this ring?  What else could it be?”

Harding cleared his throat.  “Well if
we
made it then its purpose should be limited to a few possibilities.  If we did not make it then it could be damn near anything.”

“Mr. Borger,” Miller continued.  “How sure are you about your data?”

“Pretty sure,” Borger replied.  “I can certainly be wrong but I have gone over these numbers several times.  Of course, there could be something else happening here that we can’t see.  In fact, it would almost have to be.  For example, maybe there is something inside.  Maybe this is not what it appears to be from our limited picture resolution.  Some of the basic assumptions I’m working off here could be wrong.  It’s just a matter of likelihood at this point.”

Clay spoke up and turned to
Langford.  “Sir, we need to get a better look at that thing.  At the very least, we need to find the Triton and see what else it recorded.”

Langford
nodded.  “Agreed.”

“Okay,” Stevas said, “until we get a closer look at this ring, we need to consider the worst case scenario here.  If it turns out to be something else then all the better.  If
on the other hand this is some kind of wormhole, what the hell are we going to do about it?”

“Well,” said
Langford.  “That should depend on what it’s for.”

“What it’s for?” said Stevas incredulously.  “It’s a
goddam tunnel.  What do
you
use tunnels for?”  He looked at Harding.  “Doctor is it just me or is the whole purpose of a tunnel to send something through it?  Could whoever built this bring something through?”

Harding nodded with a raised eyebrow.  “It’s possible.  We don’t know enough about its characteristics, but yes I would have to agree, that is a possibility.”

“Thank you,” Stevas said with satisfaction.  “So if it’s possible to send something through this wormhole, then I don’t know about everyone else but my worst case scenario is that whoever we’re dealing with either has sent something through it, or is
going
to.”

Everyone sat quietly contemplating Stevas’ s
uggestion.  After a long moment Langford spoke up.

“Well if this is a tunnel of some kind, it would certainly explain how someone was able to step onto one of our ships out of thin air.”  He motioned to the screen.  “Dr. Harding, is it possible that what Clay saw on the Pathfinder was a small person-size wormhole?”

“It’s possible,” he said shaking his head again, “but it is very hard to believe.  I mean the amount of technical advancement to do what we are talking about…if someone were able to create this ring, then presumably a very small tunnel wouldn’t be very difficult.  But we are making a
lot
of assumptions here.”

“Anyone have an
y other ideas or explanations?” Langford asked.

Borger shrugged.  “Nothing else that matches the circumstances.”  

“What do you mean?”

“I mean it seems to fit.  The power involved, the complexity, time to build.  Why it would appear to be hidden underwater. The energy and magnetic field distortion.  It seems to be the most reasonable idea. 
I also agree with Dr. Harding that if someone is able to build a big wormhole, they certainly would not have trouble making a small one.  I think the important thing to consider here is what we may already be thinking.  We may be dealing with someone vastly smarter than we are.”

Miller leaned forward and covered his face with his hands.  “I was afraid someone was going to say that
.  Dr. Wong,” he said turning back to the screen,  “you are our resident expert on astrobiology.  I presume you have been able to review the pictures and video of this Palin person?”

Professor Wong’s image filled the screen as he spoke.  In his early fifties, with glasses and very little gray hair, Wong’s reputation in the astronomical field was well known.  “Yes I have.”

“What is your opinion?”

“Meaning?” asked Wong.

“Meaning…” said Miller, “are we even talking about humans anymore?”

Wong frowned.  “Well…while it’s
feasible
that this ring may be a portal of some kind, I doubt this man Palin is an alien if that’s what we’re asking. Judging from his anatomy, including the patient x-rays from Dr. Kanna on the Pathfinder, they look far too human.”

“What do you mean too human?” asked Bullman the Army chief.

“Well let’s take some rather broad assumptions here.  Say we were dealing with an alien race that built this wormhole, and they are able to power it from somewhere else, potentially far away.  Their anatomy is simply not different enough,” Wong explained.  “The bottom line is that any life form developing on a different planet would have its own evolutionary path.  Another planet for instance would have wildly different environmental variables than Earth.  Maybe it’s smaller than Earth, maybe it’s hotter, maybe the days are shorter, maybe there is less water.  The fact is that with millions of small, even tiny differences between our environments there would be an infinite number of variations of physical form for them to evolve into.  So with an almost limitless amount of diversity, the odds of another race developing into near identical beings is…well, a mathematical impossibility.”

“An impossibility?”

Wong nodded.  “Damn near.”

Miller leaned back and sighed.  He then raised his hand to rub his eyes.  “Okay.
  So let me get this straight, we think we have a wormhole under the ocean, going somewhere we don’t know, requiring more energy that we can ever hope to produce, built by someone a lot smarter than us and they are
not
alien.”  He looked around the room and then at the screen.  “Have I missed anything?”

No one replied.

“Admiral Langford,” Miller suddenly leaned forward in his chair.  “We need more information and I’d like your team to get it.”

“Yes sir,
” Langford responded.

“We have an interrogator due to arrive at your location shortly.  Let’s see what we can find out from this captive Palin.  But we need to be careful here.  Dare I say that taking any action prematurely could be very dangerous?”  Miller looked around the room.  “Let’s reconvene in the morning when we hopefully know more.  Thank you
, everyone.”  With that he reached for the remote control on his conference room table and his window blinked out.

“Thank you gentlemen,
” Langford said.  “We’ll be in touch.”  He reached for his own controller and closed all of the calls except for Borger and Caesare.  Langford and Foster both stood up.

“Clay,” said
Langford, “Head back to the main base and get some sleep. “  He turned to Foster.  “Do you have a plane he can use?”