“The portals,” Dane said. “Could they be curves that cross time and space?”
“It is possible,” Ahana admitted, “that the portals are some effect of the manipulation of the force of gravity at levels we cannot comprehend. Einstein proposed, in his general theory of relativity, that space and time are united in a single, four-dimensional geometry consisting of three space dimensions and one time dimension. This geometry is called space-time, and particles move from point to point as time progresses along curves called world lines. If there were no force of gravity, then the particle lines would be straight, but gravity causes the curvatures.”
Dane looked out the plane’s window. All he could see was water so he knew they were still a distance out from San Diego. He felt very isolated contemplating trying to take a war to an entity that could control forces the best minds of his timeline were still struggling to understand.
Ahana continued. “Einstein proposed that gravity’s effete should not be represented as the deviation of a world line from straightness, as it would be for an electrical force. Gravitation changes the most natural world lines and thereby curves the geometry of space-time. In a curved geometry, such as the two-dimensional surface of the earth, there are no straight lines. Instead, there are special curves called geodesics, an example of which are great circles around the earth. These special curves are at each point as straight as possible, and they are the most natural lines in a curved geometry. The effect of gravity is to influence the geodesics in space-time. Near sources of gravitation the space is strongly curved and the geodesics behave less and less like those in flat, uncurved space-time.
The problem is that even using our most modern technology we still find it very difficult to test these theories with experiments and observations. But Einstein’s theory has passed all tests that have been made so far. Einstein’s theory of gravity revolutionized twentieth-century physics.
“Following it another important advancement that took place was quantum theory, which states that physical interactions, or the exchange of energy, cannot be made arbitrarily small. There is a minimum interaction that comes in a packet called the quantum of an interaction. For electromagnetism the quantum is called the photon. Gravity has also been quantized. We call a quantum of gravitational energy a graviton.
“What scientists have been searching for lately is the T-O-E-the theory of everything in which all four of the fundamental forces are just different aspects of the same single universal force. We have made some progress unifying electromagnetism and weak nuclear forces and strong nuclear forces. But gravity, with its complex math and geometry has been more difficult to unify.”
“But it will happen,” Dane said.
Ahana nodded. “I would assume so. If we have the time,”
“1 think the Shadow either is a timeline that is also in the future,” Dane said, “or a timeline that advanced much more quickly in the field of physics than us.”
“It is most likely,” Ahana said.
Dane could see land ahead, the shoreline of California. He had a little better understanding of the big picture of what they were involved in, but he knew theory would do them little good.
The plane banked and swooped down toward a military airfield on an island just off of San Diego. Dane could see the warships in the harbor, then he closed his eyes and began to search outward with his mind. He dimly felt the plane touchdown and the deceleration as they went down the runway.
“Do you feel it?” Dane asked Earhart, opening his eyes.
Earhart shook her head. “What?”
“There’s a gate nearby,” Dane said.
Ahana was looking at her computers. One of them was linked to a portable muonic detector that could pick up activity in the immediate area. “We’re not picking up anything.”
“There’s one close by,” Dane said. “But it’s different than the other gates. I don’t get the bad feeling I’ve always had in the past when I got close to a gate.”
The door to the plane opened and two military policemen escorted them without a word to a waiting car. They drove from the airfield toward the waterfront. Dane noted the armed guards at the doors to the building they pulled up to and knew they weren’t rent-a-cops, but professionals. That, in combination with the other obvious security measures around the facility, told him that whatever the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center was working on was highly classified. Dr. Martsen led the way through the gates, Foreman having called ahead and gotten them authorized access.
The facility was located inside the Naval Base in San Diego and Dane felt strange to be on a military post after so many years as a civilian. Two guards escorted them to a typically drab three-story military building next to the harbor.
While the exterior was unimpressive, the inside was a totally different matter. Martsen led them along a white-painted corridor to a pair of steel doors that slid open when she placed her eyes against a retina scan. They entered an elevator and it descended, taking them below sea level in a matter of seconds. They remained still for a few seconds as air was pumped in.
“We’re equalizing pressure,” Martsen said. “We’re down forty feet, deep enough so that our work can’t be observed by satellites. We need to equalize the pressure — well, you’ll see.”
When the doors opened once more, Dane took one step, then halted, staring about in amazement. The facility was a melding of air and water, with clear glass tunnels crisscrossing the room and there were several open places in the floor that gave access to the water below — the reason the atmosphere needed to be pressurized. There were about fifteen humans in the room, doing various things, and a half dozen dolphins, either in the tubes or at the access points.
However, what caught everyone’s attention was in the center of the complex. There were two large, clear, vertical tubes. A man in a white coat stood next to them giving · some idea of the dimensions. One was about fourteen feet high by six in diameter. The other eight feet high by four in diameter. In both there was a thick-looking, greenish liquid inside. And floating inside the larger tube was a dolphin covered with a black body suit. Various lines and leads went to the creature’s body. The dolphin’s head was totally enclosed in an oversize black helmet out of which ran several tubes and wires. The dolphin floated freely, back slightly hunched over. In the other tube there was a human, also wearing a black suit and with head covered by a black helmet. Numerous wires ran from the tubes to a console between them.
A tall black man in navy whites walked up to greet them. “Dr. Mansen,” he said, acknowledging her. Then he turned to Dane, Ahana, and Earhart. “I’m Commander Talbot. Welcome to Dream Land.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“He comes.”
Lincoln turned in surprise to his wife next to him in the carriage. “Who?”
“Lee. He’s coming. And he’s bringing the terrible storm of death with him.” She looked at her husband. “It’s coming. As the voice told it would. This summer.”
The carriage was bringing them back from dinner with a group of generals at the War Department. Lincoln could smell raw sewage, the odor of Washington in the summer. To his left, along the Mall, were rows and rows of tents. Soldiers. Just arrived from New York. Via the Baltimore railroad. In both cities, the soldiers had been attacked by mobs. The eastern cities were boiling over with resentment at the draft. Which the rich could buy their way out of for three hundred dollars. Lincoln had fought against the practice and lost. There were simply too many rich contributors to Congress who did not want their sons sent · into the cauldron of battle.