Operation InterstellarSmith, George O. (George Oliver)
Science
Operation Interstellar
Smith, George O. (George Oliver)
Interstellar communication -- Fiction; Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction
Somewhere five light years distant, Toby Morrow, one of his men, should
be waiting. He might have a bit of trouble finding the beacon with
his spacecraft receiver at that distance. Noise was bothersome stuff,
and the nature of the signal after crossing light years of space was
not often high enough to come in strong and clear on anything but the
specialized Survey Stations, where the input coils were immersed in
liquid air to cut the random thermal agitation of the electrons in the
wire.
Paul watched the clock and promptly at 0600 hours he snapped on the
Z-wave transmitter and receiver, clutched the microphone and tried to
think of something heroic to say. He gave up trying to be heroic after
a few seconds, and merely said: "Toby! Toby Morrow! Can you hear me?"
The Z-wave receiver was silent.
Paul tried again and again, calling until his throat was dry, wishing
ruefully that he had made a record to play into the transmitter. He
pondered on the uncertainty angle; he could not be sure that Toby
was observing the same set of conditions as he was, since they were
separated in time and space; very well separated by five light years,
in a universe that would not permit gross matter to exceed the speed of
light, but forced such high-velocity matter into a completely-enclosed
bubble of its own type of space.
It had been demonstrated that matter increases in mass as its
velocity rises, and the formula claims that the mass becomes infinite
as the velocity of light is reached. But space itself is warped
by mass, and as the velocity rises toward the speed of light the
mass increases until space is warped completely around it, creating
a special transitory space of its own. Tests had been made with
timed supervelocity missiles running toward an uninhabited, useless
planet. The missile in its own warp of space had passed through the
planet without making any fuss or mark on either the planet or the
missile. Then men had tried it. Obviously matter occupies space, but
specially-warped space did no more exist for real space than otherwise.
Only the law of equal and opposite reaction brought the ship back to
real space once the drive was cut. The potential energy caused by the
warping of space released once the power was withdrawn, and like a
spring tightly wound and then released, the whole condition returned to
its original state of inert stability.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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