“Sure it’s not from you?” Everette asked.
All bodies exert gravity. Just as the Earth “pulls” a person down, the person’s body exerts gravitational effect on the Earth, pulling it ever so slightly “upwards.” Newton had demonstrated this with a couple of balls of lead and springs back in the 1800s.
The device Dr. Becker carried was essentially the same thing, a device for measuring gravity, if much much more accurate. But the very presence of the scientists was going to affect the measurements, much less the much larger mass of the boat.
“Quite,” Becker replied. “We’ll go out to a thousand meters, then check. If there’s still noticeable effect from the boat we may need to use a probe.”
“Okay, I’m going to admit to ignorance,” Miller said.
With the boat in “chill” mode, activity was discouraged. Most systems were shut down, the engines were shut down and people were encouraged to find a quiet place to sit and generate the minimum heat possible. In the meantime the silica heat sinks were extended from their tubes and folding heat vanes popped up, dissipating the maximum heat possible.
And it was very possible. The area that the boat currently rested in was at a temperature very close to absolute zero. Between the minor air and liquid leakage that was unavoidable with the Blade and the vanes on the heat sinks, the built-up waste heat was sucked out like a kid going at a milk shake.
In the meantime, it was a great time to talk. The crew and mission specialists took it as “off duty” time and Miller was dressed appropriately in one of his Hawaiian shirts and cargo shorts. He also was floating in midair and the shirt tended to ride up, showing a stomach that was roped with scars.
“Go,” Weaver said, taking a sip from his bulb of cola. He’d much prefer beer but the “Alliance” ships still had a regulation against it. He’d stayed in uniform precisely because it was a better outfit for microgravity.
“What’s the deal with gravity being different between the stars?” Miller asked.
“Bent space,” the Adar said, taking a sip of cola. Which in Weaver’s opinion was just unfair. Caffeine had an effect similar to alcohol on the Adar so Tchar was, for all practical purposes, having a beer.
“Which tells me exactly…” Miller said.
“Well, we’ve sort of gotten beyond Einstein’s theories at this point,” Bill said, “but they still sort of work to explain. First of all imagine a rubber sheet stretched off to infinity. Flexible and thin, like latex.”
“Got it,” Miller said.
“Big sheet of latex and more or less perfectly flat,” Bill continued. “Now, take a metal ball and set it on the sheet. What happens?”
“If it’s heavy enough it sinks in,” Miller said.
“Right,” Bill said. “But what happens to the sheet?”
“It gets sort of bulged down,” Miller said, frowning. “So?”
“That’s a planet,” Bill said. “Or a star or a galaxy if it’s a big enough sheet. And anything that gets close?”
“It sort of rolls down to the ball,” Miller said, nodding. “Okay, gravity makes sense. But what’s the thing with between stars… ?”
“What if the sheet isn’t actually flat?” Bill asked. “Say if there’s like air being blown up under it?”
“I don’t get that one,” Miller admitted.
“Near planets and even suns, the sheet acts as if it is flat,” Tchar said, taking another sip of cola. “But as you get away from that influence, it acts more as if it is… bulging up. There is inertial resistance throughout the interstellar space. This may be due to reduced interference with Lilarmaurg particle generation. Theoretically.”
“Lilar — What?”
“One of their scientists,” Bill replied. “Lilarmaurg particles are similar to what we refer to as zero point energy, but Lilarmaurg proved the existence of his particles while ZPEs are still debated. However, just because you know that a particle exists doesn’t mean you can do anything with it or even produce it. And even after seven years we’re still trying to get some merging in our two physics approaches. Anyway, there’s some indications that as you leave the solar regions there is sort of a hill you have to climb to get to the next solar region. And we’ve more or less proven that there’s a disturbed zone between the two regions.”
“Ten casualties proven,” Miller said. “So how’d we get so far off course?”
“Ain’t got a clue,” Bill admitted. “You’re going to have to ask Mimi that one.”
“Dimensional shift,” Mimi said. “Are you sure you want to talk about this now?”
“When you’re talking I can concentrate on something besides my stomach,” Miriam said.
“There are things you can take…” Mimi told her.
“I’ve got really bad reactions to most drugs,” Miriam said. “Dimensional shift.”
“There are multiple dimensions…”
“Ten according to the last thing I read on it,” Miriam said.
“Well, that depends on whose model you use. Dr. Weaver, Tuffy, and I could explain things better from eleven, but that is another story. I didn’t know you knew that much about topology and mathematical physics.” Mimi’s brow furrowed. “Do you have a doctorate in it?”
“I don’t even have a doctorate in linguistics,” Miriam said, chuckling. “But that’s because I can’t stand school. I just hate sitting in class. But I read all the time and can do tensor calculus in my head.”
“How many languages can you speak?” Mimi asked curiously.
“Thirty-seven fluently,” Miriam said. “About ten more enough to get around. I generally take about thirty minutes to get to that point. Admiral Avery said that I was the first person he’d ever met better at languages than he was. I picked up Adar in about two hours. I was working with a scientific translation team when I got asked to go on this mission. They were willing to take me even though I have… issues because if we do run into an alien species… Well, the Adar were trying hard to get translation going when we first met them but we still have translation problems both ways. A totally alien species, especially one that’s not as interested in communicating as the Adar… Dimensional shift.”
“There are ten known dimensions plus one for time and something like infinite universes,” Mimi continued. “Theoretically, it takes infinite power to enter either. But… Well, I’ve been in another universe and so has Dr. Weaver.”
“I don’t know him,” Miriam said.
“He’s the boat’s navigator,” Mimi said. “But he’s a doctor, too. Physics and some other stuff. We’ve both spent time out of, well, this universe. I don’t remember much about it but I recognized the effect. You have to shift dimensions to do that according to the theory. So we got pulled out of this universe into another dimension, maybe into another universe, then back in. Really, we could have ended up anywhere in the universe. Every point on the edge of a universe, theoretically, connects to every other point in an adjoining universe.”
“Knew that one, modified Higgs field, right? I have read one of your papers. I must have missed the eleventh dimension one,” Miriam said, nodding.
“So that’s the deal.” Mimi shrugged. She pushed herself gently across the compartment and pulled out a bulb of juice. “Want something to drink?”
“Don’t,” Miriam said, holding up her hand and looking away. “Just… don’t. You can have it, but try to keep the sucking sound down.”
Tuffy launched himself off the girl’s shoulder and landed expertly on the woman’s. Crawling up under her long hair he began rubbing at her neck.