Connection (20 page)

“Thank you professor. What are your areas of expertise? Which are your four?”

“Oh. Four is the minimum. My specialties were physics, engineering, manufacturing, economics, telecommunications, and spacecraft design. I was an early starter I suppose.”

“Do you have proof that you grew up on a alien planet and are, indeed, an alien to Earth?” Frasier asked. “Do you know what these are?” Frasier held up a sheaf of transparencies and films. They were covered with diagrams and notes.

“Those are the reports where Chief Latima and I were examined at UCLA, I am not sure if those letters stand for anything. That one – he pointed to two pages of film that showed anatomy – is where we were put in a ‘MRI’ device – a nuclear, magnetic resonance, imaging machine that shows internal structure by examining the changes in the spin of hydrogen atoms. It showed the differences in our body structure. I cannot read the DNA chart and don’t know what DNA means but it shows we are not your species.”

“Thank you professor. When did you meet Robert Kobe?” Frasier asked.

“I met him after he had been on LesMa for several weeks. I did get to examine his ship, Cassandra, on the day after his landing though. His ship is quite outstanding,” LeEck said.

“No further questions at this time, your honor,” Frasier said.

Taylor got up looking smug.

“Did you return to Earth with Robert Kobe?” asked Taylor.

“I did not ‘return’ to Earth since I had never been here but I did accompany Robert Kobe from Xale to Earth,” LeEck said.

“How long – in Earth hours did that trip take?” Taylor asked.

“It was just over two hours, according to Cassandra,” he answered.

“It didn’t take an Earth year?” Taylor said.

“It seemed to take only a short time,” LeEck said.

“How far did you travel?” he asked.

“Approximately twenty-plus light years,” he said.

“What is the name of your star? Spectral class?” Taylor asked.

“Your star is called Tulman on my planet. Isn’t that interesting? I was interested where Robert came from. I know where I’m from,” LeEck said.

“Do you know the spectral class and position of your star in the galaxy?” Taylor asked getting a bit frustrated.

“Certainly young man but the spectral classes on LesMa do not exactly correspond with Earth spectral classes – your people use a different scale and I am not familiar with all your scales. I haven’t had time to look up Earth names for my star. It would seem reasonable to change the Earth name for your star to Tulman…calling your planet ‘dirt’ seems odd to me. Also my coordinates are not the same as Earth coordinates – I haven’t had time yet to merge our data with Earth data,” LeEck said calmly.

“I am trying to find out which star system you came from…” Taylor said.

“I know you are young man. I’m afraid it’s beyond your grasp. Excuse me – I am unfamiliar with Earth physiology. Is your nose what they call a birth defect?” LeEck said and Taylor turned bright red – he looked like he was going to burst. The spectators started laughing out loud.

“Have you been talking with others witnesses?” He said through gritted teeth.

“No,” LeEck said. He had a subcutaneous communicator almost since his arrival – Robert had insisted. He had grown to enjoy his Dex on his arm and loved the way he could easily communicate with Cassandra. Her tip about bringing up Taylor’s nose had worked beautifully.

“No further questions at this time,” Taylor said dismissively.

“I call Professor Ali Kaku,” Frasier said as LeEck made his way out of the courtroom.

A very lithe, young lady with jet-black hair and a slight epicanthic fold in her eyes came forward, sat down, and was sworn in.

“What is your full name for the court?” he asked.

“Alexis Alyson Kaku,” the woman said.

“What is your current occupation?” Frasier asked.

“I am an associate professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,” she answered.

“What is your current area of research?” Frasier asked.

“Superluminal travel,” she responded.

“Would you define that for us?” he asked.

“Traveling faster than light – faster than 186,000 miles per second,” she answered.

“Which is the nearest star?” he asked.

“Proxima Centuri,” she answered.

“How long would it take light to go from here to the nearest star?” Frasier asked.

“Four point two four years,” she stated.

“Explain what you have discovered recently,” Frasier said but before Taylor could object, he said. “Only the parts about superluminal travel and in layman’s terms if you could.”

“Very well,” Alexis stated. “The research community used to think that going faster than light was impossible and would require an infinite amount of energy. I have recently been introduced to a way of distorting space so space is folded slightly and a ship surrounded by this folded space can go faster than light in normal space.”

“So…doctor. You theorize that humans possibly can go faster than light,” Frasier said.

“It is not just theoretical – I have done it myself. I have a forthcoming paper with Dr. Isa Watanabe in the Journal of Applied Physics. Doctor Watanabe and I have recently measured faster than light travel and the time dilation that occurs with faster than light travel,” Alexis Kaku stated.

There was a lot of media attention with the mention of proven faster-than-light travel. There were murmurings from the spectators.

“Can you estimate the time dilation with two hours of faster than light travel in a similar ship?”

“Yes,” she said answering without elaborating.

Frasier chuckled and elaborated on his question. “What time dilation duration would a ship experience in two hours at the velocity you traveled? How far would you travel in that time?”

“Objection,” Taylor said jumping to his feet. “He is asking for conjecture from the witness and she has not been certified as an expert witness.”

“Overruled,” the judge stated. “You may answer the question professor.”

“Realize that there are many factors that we don’t now yet,” she paused. “I calculated that there would have been about one year compression while you traveled approximately twenty light years,” Dr. Alexis Kaku stated.

There was a huge swell of murmuring from the gallery with the professor’s declaration. Up to now – Robert Kobe’s claim to have visited another star wasn’t deemed credible. Twlise was treated only as a beautiful, exotic model. Professor LeEck had peaked interest in the academic community but still was treated as a curiosity everywhere but in Sweden.

“No further questions,” Frasier said. “Your witness.”

Taylor got to his feet slower this time. Everyone could see that he was thinking hard. Everyone knew that Taylor, Wang, and Westin were whom you’d get to defend you if you were guilty as sin and Taylor was the ringleader.

“Miss Kaku,” Taylor started out. “Your so-called expertise in superluminal travel is all theoretical is it not?”

“No. I have practical experience in this travel. Some theories have been disproved recently and some supported,” she said.

“You are not a doctor are you,” Taylor said.

“Actually I am a PhD Mister Taylor. Some call me doctor. I don’t dissuade them,” Alexis said.

“So you are not a real doctor and you study theory without proof. Some would call that theology. Where is your proof Miss Kaku?” Taylor said.

“I have experienced superluminal travel,” she said.

“Did you do this travel with Mister Kobe?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“In his ship Cassandra?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“How did you view the outside world when in the ship?” he asked.

“Through viewscreens,” she stated.

“Could those viewscreens have displayed a view using sophisticated computer graphics by editing actual space probe videos? Is that possible Miss Kaku?” he said.

“I suppose it is possible,” she said.

“No further questions at this time your honor,” he said.

Frasier stood up. “I would like to clarify a few points on redirect with this witness if I may, your honor.”

The judge held out his hand as if he was saying ‘get on with it’ as Taylor glared.

Frasier walked forward a bit. “Do you have proof beyond the viewscreens data to base your belief in time dilation and superluminal travel?” he asked.

“I have data that supports that theory…yes,” she said.

“Would you detail a summary of that…support – if it isn’t too technical?” Frasier asked.

“Much of the data I recorded matched predictions of a bias drive system similar to the Acubierre Drive theory from 1994. Others theorists had predicted emergence from faster-than-light travel would kill the occupants and people near them. This was not the case as I was relieved to find out. This drive, interestingly enough, would not work without a quirk in the projection of the radiation shield. Further, the time dilation was exponential and you would go much further and faster the longer you kept the drive working. Also – the viewscreens represented real-time views from outside the ship when adjusted to frequencies we could see,” she said. “The adjusted views corresponded with actual conditions.”

“Why do you insist that you went faster-than-light when all you saw while on the ship was through the viewscreens?” he asked.

“Because when we landed on Mars and Titan the time stamps verified the data. It only took thirty minutes to fly to Titan and land on that moon of Saturn. The time stamps verified the time dilation. When we took off from Titan and landed on Mars we had much cleaner data points. I have the receipt from refueling on Mars if you would like the duplicate copy as evidence. It was very expensive to refuel there,” she said and handed the receipt to the clerk.

The gallery in the courtroom erupted as reporters scrambled to get outside and message their affiliates to get going on this story. ‘Go to Mars during your lunch hour’ was the wackiest headline but people got fired up for Kobe Industries stock – thirty-seven percent owned by Robert’s competitors now.

“Doctor Kaku. Do you use the term doctor when you introduce yourself?” he asked and Frasier looked over and saw Taylor and Wang lean forward.

“No. I’m a little embarrassed by it,” she said.

“Why is that?” Frasier asked. “I don’t want to embarrass you but the question has been raised.”

“I’m embarrassed because I graduated as a MD at twenty-one from Pritzker College of Medicine in Chicago and never did anything with it. I realized I didn’t want to be around sick people my whole life. I sort of believe in the Miss Manners rule that only medical doctors should call themselves doctors… because of the extra experience. That’s why I don’t dissuade anyone from calling me doctor since I have two doctorate level degrees and one is a MD,” she said. “My grandfather was Michio Kaku and he was pretty laid back about all this stuff I’m told.”

“Thank you Doctor Kaku. No further questions at this time. Doctor Taylor?”

“Not at this time your honor,” Taylor said.

The judge looked at his Dex and said, “You are dismissed for now Doctor Kaku. We shall adjourn for the day. Case resumes at nine am tomorrow morning unless we have some settlement before then.” The judge emphasized those last words to both parties and looked particularly long at the Taylor, Wang, and Westin before banging his gavel. Everyone in the court got up as the judge strode out his side door.