Firstborn(Time Odyssey 3) - By Arthur C. Clarke Page 0,49
Eye.
PART 2 JOURNEYS 24: CLOSEST APPROACHES
A distorted image of the Liberator slid across the face of the Q-bomb, all lights blazing. Edna felt a stab of satisfaction. Mankind had come here with intent.
Their first pass at the Q-bomb was unpowered, a scouting run. At closest approach the ship shuddered, once, twice: the launch of two small probes, one injected into low orbit around the Q-bomb, and the other aimed squarely at its surface.
Then the smooth, mirrored landscape receded as the Liberator swept away.
They scrolled through their displays. No harm had come to the ship. The Q-bomb was no more massive than a small asteroidit had the density of leadand the ships trajectory was not deflected significantly by its gravity.
But we learned some things, John reported. Nothing we didnt expect. Its a sphere to well within the tolerances any human manufacturing process could manage. Then theres that usual anomalous geometry.
Pi equals three.
Yes. Our probe went into orbit around it. The bombs mass is so low that its a slow circuit, but the probe ought to stay with it all the way in from now on. And the lander is coming down
The ship shuddered, and Edna grabbed her seat. What the hell was that? Libby?
Gravity waves, Edna.
The pulse came from the Q-bomb, John said, tense, almost shouting. The lander. He replayed images of a gray hemisphere bursting from the flank of the Q-bomb, swallowing the lander, and then dissipating. It just ate it up. There was a sort of bubble. If Bill Carel is right, he said heavily, what we
just saw was the birth and death of a whole baby cosmos. A universe used as a weapon. He laughed, but without humor. Strewth, what are we dealing with here?
We know what were dealing with, Edna said evenly. Technology, thats all. And so far it hasnt done anything we wouldnt have expected. Hold it together, John.
He snapped, irritable, scared, I'm only human, for Christs sake.
Libby, are we ready for pass two?
All systems nominal, Edna. The flight plan calls for an engine fire thirty seconds from now. Do you need a countdown?
Look, just do it, John said tightly. Please check your restraints...
Bisesa walked slowly around the chamber in the ice. It was a rough sphere, and the Eye filled it. She looked up and saw her own distorted reflection, her head grotesque in the spacesuit helmet. She could feel there was something there. A presence, watching. Hello, boys, she murmured. Remember me?
Ellie, Alexei, Yuri, crowding with Myra into the chamber, exchanged excited, nervous glances. This is why we brought you here, Bisesa, Yuri said.
Okay. But what the hell is it doing here? All the Eyes in the solar system disappeared after the sunstorm.
I can answer that, said Ellie. The Eye has evidently been here since before the sunstormlong before. It is radiating high-energy particles in all directionsa radiation with a distinctive signature. Which is why I was brought in. I worked at the lunar alephtron. I am something of an authority on quantum black holes. I was thought a good candidate to study this thing...
It was the first time Ellie had spoken to Bisesa at any length. Her manner was odd; she spoke without eye contact, and with random smiles or frowns, and emphases in the wrong places. She was evidently the kind of individual whose high intelligence was founded on some complex psychological flaw. She reminded Bisesa of Eugene.
The lunar alephtron was mankinds most powerful particle accelerator. Its purpose was to probe the deep structure of matter by hurling particles against each other at speeds approaching that of light. We are able to reach densities of mass and energy exceeding the Planck densitythat is, when quantum mechanical effects overwhelm the fabric of spacetime.
Myra asked, And what happens then?
You make a black hole. A tiny one, more massive than any fundamental particle, but far smaller. It decays away almost immediately, giving off a shower of exotic particles.
Just like the Eyes radiation, Bisesa guessed. So what, Myra asked, have tiny black holes got to do with the Eye? We believe we live in a universe of many spatial dimensionsI mean, more than three, said Ellie.
Other spaces lie next to ours, so to speak, in the higher dimensions, like the pages in a book. More strictly its probably a warped compactification ofnever mind, never mind. These higher dimensions determine our fundamental physical laws, but they have no direct influence on our worldnot through electromagnetism, or nuclear forcessave through gravity.