The Krone Experiment

'But suppose our goal was not high temperature, but just high density — very high density. It is true that I cannot see how to reach densities where self-gravity plays a role and a black hole becomes feasible. I can, however, imagine a few tricks in principle to keep the temperature relatively low even as the density rises.'

He unlaced his fingers and gestured with open palms.

'I'm sorry to be so long-winded. What I am trying to say is that our technology is moving even now in a direction where such a thing becomes imaginable. Technological and scientific advances are growing exponentially. Who knows what comes next?'

Zicek looked around the confines of the small room, eyeing his colleagues.

'Are you inviting us to conclude,' asked Fletcher in a voice of deliberate calm, 'that, while we cannot now do such a thing, perhaps a society only somewhat advanced from ours could?'

'Never mind a very advanced society,' put in Noldt more excitedly.

'Oh, hold on,' said Leems disgustedly. 'Granted, Vlad, we're inventing a cornucopia of implosion machinery. There is still an immense jump to making black holes. Just because we've launched a space probe out of the solar system doesn't mean that intergalactic space travel will be possible for us or for any advanced civilizations which might be out there. Sometimes practical limits can erect just as solid a barrier as physical impossibility. You damn well can't strike a match on a wet cake of soap. I still find the whole black hole business preposterous.'

'Perhaps you're right, Harvey,' admitted Zicek, 'but I feel we should not jump to a conclusion either way. No one has really thought seriously about how hard or how easy making a black hole might be if one really tried. I'm just saying such a dung may be possible. Our knowledge of the behaviour of matter at only slightly greater than nuclear density is very sparse.'

'Well, what we don't know, we can't use to reach any conclusions,' said Leems, still sounding disgusted.

'Of course, of course,' placated Zicek. He addressed himself to Phillips again. 'My thoughts in this direction lead me to one concrete suggestion you may want to consider.'

'Yes, what is that?' inquired Phillips.

'We have discussed bringing in other experts to help us deal with the particulars of this problem, earl suggested Humphreys,' he waved towards Fletcher. 'I think we should consider more carefully this question of how such a flung might be made. One person comes to mind who would be uniquely qualified in terms of both experience and creative insight.'

'I'll bet you're thinking of Paul Krone,' said Runyan.

'Yes, in fact, I was,' replied Zicek.

Isaacs looked up sharply at this reference. He had heard of Paul Krone, and he was not the kind of man Isaacs would be keen to bring into this effort. Not exactly stable. Leems made clear where he stood.

'That horse's ass? Surely you don't want to set that bull loose in this china shop?'

'You're being unfair,' Zicek replied tensely. 'I know there are people jealous of Paul's successes because they don't understand his methods, but he has great insight which could serve us well and he's currently deeply involved in these questions.'

'Jealous?' Leems waved a hand in dismissal. 'He can't even keep a job. Half his ideas are fantasy — sheer gibberish. And who knows what other troubles he would bring.'

Isaacs thought Leems probably was jealous. Krone had worked his way through a couple of universities, private industry and various government labs, a maverick always on the move, but he had a midas touch. A dozen times during his career he had started a little company on the side, working on some development or other. If the idea worked. Krone would keep a controlling interest, but turn the company over to professional managers and never look back. The scientists he worked with were always suspicious because he made so much money. Businessmen couldn't understand how he could throw it all over and go back to tinkering in some laboratory or doodling equations.

Krone was a man of great appetites as well as great talent. There had been some trouble getting him a security clearance for one government consulting job, and the case had come to Isaacs's attention informally through an acquaintance with the FBI. There had been questions of drugs and women, a year or two ago he had taken up with an expatriate Russian of all things, and legal entanglements concerning the proprietary rights to some of his developments. In looking over the file, Isaacs had been amazed to see the number of well-known companies, three of them on the Fortune 500, that Krone controlled, directly or indirectly.

Runyan laughed to take the sting out of Leems's words. 'C'mon, Harvey. It's true Paul can be hard to take when he starts ranting. There's no question he's a raving egomaniac with a penchant for hiding his ideas until he can spring them on the world. And maybe half his ideas are nonsense, but half of them have some real insight, and half of a lot is a lot.'

He addressed himself to Phillips.

'It strikes me someone like Krone who's familiar with both theoretical physics and engineering developments might be useful to us.'

Runyan turned to Zicek.

'What's he doing now? Didn't I hear he was consulting at Los Alamos ?'

'That's right. He started another company and has a consulting contract' with the Lab to explore just these developments I was describing — laser implosion, relativistic beams — both experimentally and theoretically. That's why I thought he would have a general grasp of the situation which would be useful to us.'

Isaacs saw there might be some merit to the arguments Zicek and Runyan made, but his sympathies were more with Leems. He spoke up. 'I wonder whether the questions Dr Zicek raises, and perhaps Dr Krone's involvement, might be of secondary importance just now. It seems that our critical task is to confirm or deny Dr Runyan's suggestion. I would like to ask Dr Gantt whether he has considered the requirements of the proposed experiment. I'm sure your seismology lab at Caltech is well equipped, but I wonder whether you will need any help which my agency or some other government agency can provide?'

'I've not had time to plan any details,' replied Gantt.

'We'll want to go someplace which is seismically inactive — away from the California fault system, perhaps Arizona. I might use some help with transportation and some support equipment. I'd like to use an on-site minicomputer for analysis. I have one, but it's cumbersome to move.' Isaacs nodded. 'We can help with that.'

Gantt continued, 'We must, of course, know where to look. From Dr Danielson's present data it appears that the activity comes near the surface at about twelve-hundred— mile intervals. The trick is to be in the right place at the right time. You've said you can predict the surface location at any particular instant to within a kilometre or so.' He looked towards Danielson for confirmation, and the young woman nodded.

'With updated sonar data, we should be able to do better than that,' she said.

Gantt turned to Runyan. 'What gravitational perturbation did you estimate for a distance of a kilometre, Alex?'

'That should give you a fluctuation of a part in a million,' replied Runyan.

'We can do that,' asserted Gantt.

'I'm going to be busy with things in Washington ,' Isaacs said, 'but I'd like to have someone on the site with you. Would you mind if Dr Danielson joined you?'

'Not at all,' Gantt replied. 'I think her knowledge of the background to this situation could prove most useful.' He smiled at the young woman and got a brief appreciative one in return.