Spinspace: The Space of Spins (The Metaspace Chronicles Book 2) (7 page)

Chapter 16

Nathan
: the delegation

"
כי אני יודע שיש לי התוכניות בשבילך," מצהיר יהוה, "מתכנן לשגשג אותך ולא לפגוע בך, מתכנן לתת לך תקווה ועתיד
."

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

– Jeremiah 29:11

They were clearing the table when the knocking of a fist striking the front door made everyone freeze.  He saw a look pass between his parents again.  Who could be coming out here at this time of night?

His father strode to the door and opened it. He must have  recognized the visitor because the held the door and stepped back.

Six men walked in the front door. When they removed their clothes Nathan gasped.  Every one of them was wearing a snow-white robe with a hood and and a star of David on the front with the number 36 in side it, sewn in golden thread.

“Brother Isaac,” said the eldest of them, “we need to speak with you.”

His father blinked.  “Follow me gentlemen.” They all filed into the study and Isaac closed the door.

Nathan wished he could be in there to listen.  He turned to his mother.  “They're like Father!  Are they miracle-workers too?”

“Yes, they're
Tzaddikim
.  But you already knew that from the robes.”

“Are there really only 36 of them?  Or is that just part of the symbol on their robes?  Why weren't we ever told about what Father does?”

His mother just looked at him.  “You didn't need to know.  We don't brag about him being one.  Our neighbors know him only as a farm owner, because we don't talk about it.”

“But why?”

“Nathan,” she said. “You must understand that New Israel has enemies.  In times of war the
Tzaddikim
are helpful, but that makes them a target for assassination.  So their identities are secret.”

“How did Father become one of them?  Will I be one, when I'm older?”

She shook her head at him.  “So many questions you have.  Membership in the
Tzaddikim
, from what I've heard, is only by invitation.  Sometimes their sons are asked to join, but simply being the son of a
Tzaddik
is no guarantee of following in his footsteps.”

Nathan frowned. “Well, I'll be one too, someday.”

Rebekah patted his head.  “Don't be in a hurry to plan your life.  Being a Tzaddik is not always easy on your father.”  She inclined her head toward the study door.  “Sometimes you even get visits from the Brethren at awkward times.  Beside, you're only sixteen.”

Reminded of the visitors, he tried not to fidget.  “What do you think they're talking about in there?”

“I have no idea,” she said.  “But if it's anything we need to know, I'm sure we'll find out soon.”

Chapter 17

Aria
: opposition research

“A beautiful woman delights the eye; a wise woman, the understanding; a pure one, the soul.”

– Minna Antrim

She supposed it was only inevitable that when they continued up the stairwell without the men Carolyn wanted to talk about them. “Have you known him long?”

“We more or less grew up together,” said Carolyn.  “His mother moved into the inn like ten years ago, after Lester's father died.”

“He never mentioned that,” said Aria.

“It must have been hard on him losing a father when he was only eight, but he doesn't like to talk about it.”  She paused to take a breath as they climbed up to another landing.  “He told me once that someday he was going to kill the Texan who did it, a big redheaded officer.”

Well, that explained why he acted that way during the prisoner escape.
  “He did.”

“What?”

“He killed him, a big redheaded Texas officer named Brutus.  Did it right there in the street in front of the building.”

She tried to imagine the Lester she knew doing something like that.  He had wanted to avenge his father's death, but... “How did he feel about it afterward?”

“I don't know,” Aria admitted.  “He hasn't talked to anybody about it.  From what I've heard, a lot of soldiers, the first time they kill someone in battle, have after-effects.  Even if it was someone who was about to kill
them
, there's usually some guilt once they get past the relief of surviving.”

“But he's just holding it all in.”

“Looks like it.”  Aria pulled open the door at the next landing. “This is the floor for the student rooms.”

She showed her the two rooms already redone for the use of students.  “You're the first student to arrive, so I guess you have your pick of rooms.”

Carolyn surprised her by picking the one farthest from the stairwell.  To Aria's eye it looked fairly bleak, with blank walls, simple carpet, a rough-hewn wooden bed  and the one narrow window, but the Inverness girl seemed not to notice.

“It's bigger than my room back home!” said Carolyn, setting her bag down by the bed.

“Well, to be fair, if any other female students show up soon, they'll probably be bunking in here with you until more rooms are renovated.  Do you have any questions?”

“Yes, actually. It's been a few hours since our last stop so...what do you do for, you know, the outhouse, this far above the street?”

“Oh, I'm so sorry, I forgot.”  Aria went to the side door that the girl had probably thought was a closet and showed her the bathroom.   It was fun watching Carolyn's eyes when she realized she didn't even have to leave her room to take care of personal business.  And when Aria showed her the flush toilet and the sink and tub and that she could get hot water just by turning a spigot, Carolyn was speechless with astonishment for a long seconds.

“No one back home has anything like this, not even at the Inn.  How do you do it?”

Aria grinned.  “Well, we
do
have a court wizard.  Xander set it all up with the swizzles to pull water from the cisterns and everflames to warm it on the way here.”

Caught by surprise, Carolyn, who had been holding her hand under the warm water streaming from the faucet, jerked her hand back with a yelp when the it got too hot.  Aria chuckled and showed her how to mix the hot and hold to get whatever temperature she wanted.

“I don't know what I expected, said Carolyn, “but this is like, more than I've seen even in large farmhouses back home.”

“You have to remember that the founder of the school has a lot of influence here these days.  Especially since he and Lester saved us from the Honcho's invasion,” Aria told her.  “Xander's an important man these days, and the school is a big deal to him. Since he's important, the school is important, and as our first student that makes you important too.”

“But I'm nobody, just a smith's daughter.”

“Not any more,” said Aria. “If you stay here and learn, you're going to be a wizard someday.  There are a lot of smiths in Rado, but only a couple of wizards.  You're joining a very small group of important people.”  She took a deep breath..  “If I wasn't being raised to be Governor someday I'd be doing the same thing.  But I can't.”

“But there's nothing more important than being the Governor!  That's the most important job of all.”

“Maybe.  But I'm in no hurry.  Why don't you take a few minutes to unpack and freshen up while I check on my gardens? Then we can go back down to Xander's floor and see what he and Lester are up to.”

Chapter 18

Lester
: a lesson in
spinspace

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

– Albert Einstein

Xander watched Carolyn go off with Aria to fix herself a place to live. “You did well there,” he said. “I would have talked to the smith himself, not his daughter.”

“Too old,” said Lester.  “He didn't grow up in a forge with an everflame.  Fortunately for Carolyn, he took over for a smith who did have one, so she grew up exposed to it.”

“But from what you described, she would never even have
touched
the everflame.”

“True.  She just operated his bellows.  I guess she must be exceptionally sensitive to the Gifts.”

“Indeed.”  Xander. “I confirm your own sensing, that she is capable. As I said, you did well there.  Name your reward.”

“I'd like a lesson in
spinspace
, please.”

“But you're still working on
pathspace
.”

And I expect I will continue to do so.  As you continue to exercise your
pathspace
,
spinspace
, and
tonespace
. But just as you are open to learning new spaces, so I am open to learning more than
pathspace
.”

Xander considered it.  “All right.  Have a seat.  I'll be right back.”  He went into his inner storeroom and emerged with a box of artifacts.

“The lessons from now on will have a recognizable form,” he said.  “First, I'll show you what
can
be done. Then I will try to teach you
how
.”

The first thing he set up looked like a potter's idea of a pet volcano: a black tapered cone, fat end down, and a circular stand with a spike sticking up.  Xander dropped the tapered cone over the spike and let it there. The outside of this artifact was black and striped with white.  He thought the white was circles until he saw it from above and realized it was all one white spiral that wound from a point on the circumference of the bottom all the way to the top.  A soon as Xander released it, the cone began to turn.

When the cone got up to its idling speed he saw the purpose behind the white spiral.  You couldn't see the motion of the black cone, but when it was turning the white spiral would climb or descend the cone to show the rate of rotation.  The cone, in other words, was a s
pinometer.

It is such an unlikely artifact that Lester has to ask “Where did you find that?”

“We didn't.  I had an artisan make this for me.  The only useful thing it does is provide a handy target for practicing your control of
spinspace
.”

“But I don't know anything about
spinspace
.”

“It's time to talk about it,” said Xander.  You remember what I said about
pathspace?
”

“That every point in space has paths passing through it that control the motion of matter and energy?  Yes.  Why?”

“Because now you have to step into a larger view of reality.  The
pathspace
you have learned is only one of many ways to think about space.  Each way has its own advantages.  From pathspace you have learned about invisibility and swizzles.  Now it is time to learn a new way.”

“What do you call the larger view of space that has all of these useful aspects to it?”

:”I call it
metaspace
,” said Xander.  The general term 'space' is already used to refer to simple, 3-dimensional coordinate space. Configuration space has also been used, to refer to the infinite number of ways space can be populated by objects.”

“I don't see the difference between coordinate space and Configuration space.”

“Let me give you an example,” said Xander.  “Suppose you froze time and wrote down the coordinates of every human being on the planet at that moment in time.  At that point you might say that the configuration space is the same as the coordinate space, other than the fact that you have chosen to highlight the coordinates of humans.”

“Sounds pretty much the same to me”, Lester agrees.

“But in reality,” Xander continued, “we have only defined a huge family of configuration spaces.  For example, add the coordinate of religion.  Immediately, there are an infinite number of variations possible in the configuration space. For example, we could have a planet full of Catholics, in which every one of the frozen humans is a member of that religion.  Or we could have a planet full of Buddhists.  For every major religion, you could imagine a configuration space in which every human belongs to that religion.”

“But that would be as meaningless as saying they all have red socks on,” said Lester.  “It doesn't add much information to the picture.”

“Correct,” said Xander.  “All of these one-religion configurations are trivial examples of a configuration including religion as a coordinate. They are just as trivial as saying everyone is wearing red socks or everyone has black hair.”

“So what's the point?  What does it add?”

“I said these were trivial examples,” said Xander.  “We could just as easily imagine non-trivial examples. If, for example, we changed the picture and imagined something more realistic, which differing geographical regions have different percentages of Catholic, Buddhist, etc. followers, then the additional coordinate begins to become more useful. If, for example, you see a boundary in which differing religions are popular on opposite sides of a border, then it is more likely that religious wars will occur between those countries.”

“You mean, like between Texas and its neighbors.”

“Yes. The more you understand the configurations possible in
metaspace
, the more you can predict and control the behavior of matter and energy in space.  For example, using only the part I call
pathspace
, you can make swizzles or go invisible.”

“And the more aspects of space I understand, the more I will have in my bag of tricks as a wizard.”

“Yes.  But since there are so many possibilities, I find it is usually more effective if the student trains on only one aspect at a time.  You have been training your ability in
pathspace
.  Now it is time to begin adding
spinspace
to your toolbox.”

“Are there lethal applications?”

“Yes,” said Xander.  “But let's not be in too much of a hurry to get to them, shall we?  It's good to be able to defend yourself, but I would prefer that killing not be the first thing that comes to mind.”

“All right.  I can see that.  What's the first thing I need to do?”

“The first thing you need to do is to work on adding the coordinate of spin to your configuration space.  Right now this spinometer has x,y, and z coordinates for you. But it isn't spinning yet.  You have to engage that part of your metaspace and learn how to manipulate it.”

“So teach me.  How do I go about doing that?”

Instead of answering, Xander took a square wooden board out of his box.  Its surface was marked with the familiar alternating checkers of black and white square.  In the center of each square was a tiny dimple.  Then he pulled a handful of tiny tops out of the box.  He set the bottom points of them into some of the dimples and spun them with his fingers to set them rotating.

Lester expected them to run down and fall as all tops did, but they didn't.  In fact, some of them seemed to spin a little faster.  He decided that Xander was stoking their
spinspace
.

“Imagine that all space is filled with tops,” said Xander.   “Not just the dimples on this board, but all the points in between, and all of the points above and below them.”

Lester tried, but that was an awful lot of spinning to imagine.

“Now for the hard part,” said Xander, as if what he had just described was too easy.  “Now shrink all of those tops down to nothing more than points.  In other words, imagine you are dealing with a space that has an x,y,x, and spin associated with every point in it.”

“That's pretty hard,” said Lester.

“I know it is,” said Xander.  “At first.  But the more you practice it, the easier it will get, as imagining pathspace was.”

“This space I am imagining,” said Lester, “sounds like the idea of
pathspace
with
spin
replacing the coordinate of
path
direction
.”

“Exactly,” said Xander.  “I have not asked you to imagine space plus path plus spin yet.  We have just swapped out path direction and replaced it with spin direction.  It is a little more complicated.”

“Why so,” said Lester, still imagining a space filled to the brim with spinning points.

“Well, you might suppose that it's of the same order of complexity, with the arrow of spin,” he gestured at the tops, “represented here by the direction their heads are pointing in.  But in fact, it is a little more complex, because while in
pathspace
you might imagine slowing down and heading back the other way, in spinspace the spins can actually flip while staying in the same place.”

He picked up one of the tops, halting it, and then turned it over and set the point of its “hat” into the dimple of the board.  A little leg now stuck up from the upward-pointing “bottom” of the top.  

He gave the inverted top a twist to start it spinning.   After a few seconds something remarkable happened.  The top blurred out horizontally and then recovered with its hat pointing back up again.  “Whereas in
pathspace
, a particle's momentum will keep  it moving forward until it hits something, in
spinspace
the direction of spin can be reversed without hitting anything.”

Lester looked at the now right side up top.  “But it didn't,” he noticed.  “The top is not upside down any more but it is still spinning in the same direction.”

“Yes and no.”  Xander held out his hands and curled his fingers letting his thumbs both point toward the ceiling. “Both of my hands now illustrate spins pointing 'up'. But the curling of my fingers goes in opposite directions. They used to be called 'clockwise' and 'counter-clockwise' because the way my left hand fingers curl is the same direction the hands move on an old-fashioned clock.”

Now he rotated his right hand so that his right thumb pointed down toward the floor.  “For convenience, we could just as well call these spin directions plus and minus, and stop referring to clocks.

“With particles, spin tends to be quantized, but we'll talk more about that later. For now you can imagine spin as a quantity that can be larger or smaller, and positive and negative.  The convenience of using  + and – to describe it is now you only need one hand.”

“All right,” said Lester.  “So we can imagine spinspace as the same as coordinate space, with the addition of a value of spin for every point in space that can be positive or negative.”

“Almost,” said Xander.   “But there is a bit more to it. On this board the only stable configurations are spin up or spin down.  In real space, however, there is no board to constrain motion, so in real space the spins can all be positive or negative or zero,
and
their spin axes can point in any direction in 3-space.”

He passed a hand over the tops and they all slowed to a stop and fell over on their squares.  “Now let's get back to the spinometer.  The first thing you have to learn is crude manipulation of spinspace. “

Lester tried to imagine reaching out and grabbing the cone to set it spinning.  This had no effect other than making it rock slightly on its support.

“You will need to remember how you solved the swizzle,” said Xander.  “I imagine your first efforts were like imagining pushing the air down the middle of a tube.”

“Yes,” said Lester.  “Didn't work.”

“But I imagine what did work was imagining the total pattern of the pathspace around the tube – part of which was the motion
outside
the tube.”

“Yes,” said Lester.  I finally got the pattern I wanted when I saw one of the guards at the prison blow a smoke ring.”

“Very good,” said Xander.  We must remember to use that image with the students.  For the spinometer, what I have found works better than imagining it twisting is to imagine all the spin you want distributed in the space around the cone, and then gathering all of that spin into the cone, like you are focusing it.”

“I don't understand,” said Lester.

Xander reached into the box again and came out holding a circular piece of glass in a metal rim with a handle.  “By now,” he said, “you may have learned how to manipulate light paths to do more than make yourself invisible.”

“Well, yes.  I learned how to use it to see though walls and  to make distant objects look closer.”

“Excellent.  The Ancients could do that without pathspace by using specially shaped pieces of matter to bend the pathspace for light.  This is a convex lens.  You can see how it can be used to magnify objects, to make them look closer.”  He held it over the top of the cone and moved it toward the cone and away from it.