The Orthogonal Galaxy (39 page)

“—
Earth!”

21

With hands clasped behind
his back, Carlton Zimmer stood erect admiring the picture on the
wall in the black elliptical room. The Von Karman Bicentennial
Museum at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena was the most
impressive public display ever created by NASA. The brainchild of a
billionaire space explorer, the intent was to depict the purpose of
continued space exploration as it relates to discoveries that help
the human race understand the universe we live in. Fronting a
hundred million dollars to the effort, the museum quickly became
one of the most popular attractions in Southern
California.

While the main room of the
museum appeared to be perfectly circular, it was proportionally
accurate to the elliptical orbit of the Earth. It was nearly 320
feet long by 310 feet wide. The perimeter of the room contained
some digital and interactive displays containing images taken by
the moon-orbiting Kepler3 telescope. Exhibits scattered around the
room were situated as to replicate the locations of the orbits of
Venus and Mercury, with a bright globe light suspended from the
ceiling to represent the Sun. The black ceiling featured recessed
projection LED lighting which gave an appearance of a night sky,
accurately depicting the sky as it would appear over the JPL campus
at midnight on the Summer Solstice. Light intensity varied to
indicate stars with more or less apparent magnitude. Every attempt
at authenticity was made, including colors of red, yellow, pink,
and blue indicating differences in surface temperature and Doppler
shifting.

At this moment, Zimmer was
admiring the imagery of the Hourglass Nebula. Unlike most museum
visitors, however, who simply admire the conical orange circles of
emitting gas and the superheated blue center resembling the
piercing Eye of Providence for its visual impact, Zimmer’s
fascination was one of nostalgia. He reminisced over the intense
focus and studies that led to important discoveries about the
nature of stellar winds and solar radiation which improved the
safety of inner Solar System exploration.

The work on the Hourglass
prevented catastrophes similar to the doomed Mercury-S55 mission,
where critical navigational equipment was significantly impaired by
radical deviations in solar radiation. The inability of NASA and
the government to agree on the logistics, mechanics, and cost of a
rescue mission to save the astronauts resulted in a black eye for
NASA and a landslide loss for the President of the United
States. Instead, the astronauts survived on
rations for months while the spaceship trajectory was pulled into
an orbit around the Sun. The orbiting tomb was a symbol of failure
for nearly two decades before the orbit degraded sufficiently to
eventually melt and disintegrate the vehicle entirely.

Zimmer turned away from
the outer wall to look at some of the exhibits on the floor.
Appropriately, on the outer-most floor display, which represented
the orbit of Venus, his eye rested on a wrap-around folding panel
of Earth’s nearest sister planet. He remembered, as an adolescent,
watching the televised broadcasts of the first Venus landing by an
astronaut. Many robotic missions had already occurred on Venus, but
no astronaut had ever been. Public sentiment was mixed on the
excursion, considering that much had already been discovered about
Venus through the robotic and satellite missions to the planet, but
further, many worried about the violent heat and pressure of the
Venetian atmosphere. Could the astronauts’ spacesuits be designed
to protect against the massive atmospheric pressure of Venus?
Materials scientists were confident that the astronauts would be
able to move about and be safely protected even under the extreme
pressures of the dense atmosphere of Venus. Nevertheless, for many,
it seemed too risky to send humans to such a hostile environment
for so little benefit. But they were wrong.

An inadvertent discovery
had been made by physicians who studied the astronauts upon return
to the Earth. Physicals showed that heart and brain activity were
healthier and stronger in each astronaut compared to their
respective measured activity just prior to departure. Through
subsequent study, the cause had been shown to be the air that they
were breathing. Scrubbers on the Venetian surface module and the
astronauts’ space suits were designed to convert the carbon dioxide
into oxygen, but the atmosphere of Venus also contained trace
quantities of materials which did not exist in Earth’s atmosphere.
A particular combination of such materials was shown to produce the
desired effect. A medical treatment was devised from the discovery
which aided in a host of common maladies as well as severe
conditions.

While Zimmer didn’t have
many opportunities to come down to the museum, he always made a
concerted effort to visit any time he came to JPL for business.
With each rejuvenating visit, he felt like a child nearly a tenth
of his age as he recollected the various scenes. To him, the Von
Karman museum was like a hundred million dollar scrapbook of
memories that he would never have been able to afford on his own,
of course.

While lost in his
nostalgia, he was returned promptly to Earth by a gentle touch on
his right shoulder.

“
Ballard,” he said. “It
looks like you found me!”

“
I thought I might find
you here,” smiled the CalTech astronomy dean knowingly. “Like me, I
know that it’s hard not to stop at the museum when you’re in the
vicinity. You remember my son?”

Zimmer’s gaze was turned
in the direction indicated by Dean Scoville’s outstretched
hand.

“
Ah, yes,” nodded Zimmer
as he reached out and grabbed the firm hand of Maril Scoville. “How
long has it been? Three? Four years?”

“
Actually, Doctor Zimmer,
I think it’s been about six years?”

“
Six? Really?” Zimmer
shook his head and focused on one of the stars in the ceiling,
reaching for the memories that would help him set a correct
timeline. “Gosh, time does fly. How is your family—six years must
put your oldest child at about twelve now?”

“
Jenny is thirteen
actually, and she is quite the teenager.”

“
Thirteen. You know, I
just can’t picture it… she was just a wee little thing the last
time I saw her—I think that was at your father’s house.”

“
Well, the time has
certainly flown by for my wife and me as well.”

“
Ballard told me about
your wife’s award a few months ago. What an amazing honor. You must
congratulate her for me.”

“
Thank you, Professor.
I’ll be sure to extend your greetings to her.”

Ballard broke up the
pleasantries. “If you two are sufficiently caught up, I think we
only have about 45 minutes before the meeting. I thought it would
be good, Carlton, for you to give Maril a heads up on your
thoughts, so we can be better prepared for the meeting.”

“
Yes, and thank you,
Maril, for taking some extra time out of your schedule today. We
have a topic of discussion that I think you’ll find rather
fascinating.”

“
Why don’t we head over to
my office where we can be more comfortable? It’s just in the
adjacent building.”

With that, the three
retired from the blazing stars and nighttime setting of the museum
for the more glaring light of a misty morning fog that had settled
over the area. Zimmer squinted as he adjusted from the thousands of
imitation stars that were suddenly replaced by a gray circle of
light hovering over the haze.

…

“
Kelcey, please hold all
of my calls,” Maril requested as he walked briskly by his
secretary’s desk.

Recognizing his urgency,
Kelcey simply nodded and smiled as the group of scientists convened
their closed-door session in the program manager’s
office.

The three visited the coat
rack first where damp overcoats were hung to dry before being
seated around a small conference table.

Zimmer wasted no time.
“Tell me how the Star Shield project is going, Maril.”

“
We think it’s going very
well, Doctor Zimmer. We’re actually fabricating a prototype of the
shield right now for a test flight that should occur in August of
next year. We’ll put it through the wind tunnel and bombard it with
all sorts of nasty space debris at high-speed, hope that it doesn’t
even come close to scratching the surface, and then mount it to the
prototype vehicle for its flight towards the Sun.”

Something in Maril’s
delivery betrayed him. “And, so you think it will be able to handle
particle impact near to Warp speed?”

“
Oh, yes, yes we
do.”

Realizing that any doubts
or concerns were not being volunteered by the young scientist,
Zimmer grew more pointed in his interrogation. “So, what is your
top concern about the project?”

Not feeling a desire to be
frank, Maril said unconvincingly, “Well, to be frank, I’m just not
sure about the viability of the project?”

“
Oh?” said Zimmer
prompting for more information, while the older Scoville sat back
and watched the volley of questions and answers fly back and forth
over the desk.

“
I don’t get the
impression that the Star Drive team is making good progress on
their propulsion experiments. I think they’ve made way too many
trips to the drawing board to give me any warm and fuzzies about
their current status. So, what good is the effort of my team, if we
don’t have the rockets to propel the vehicle to high
speed?”

“
Well, in that case, I
guess you’d be over-designed, but at least you’ll know that the
shield will function perfectly at speeds lower than
specified.”

“
But, what’s the point?”
opened up Maril. “I mean, we put our blood, sweat, and tears into
this project for years, and to what end? For a slow craft? Or worse
yet… to get the plug pulled? The scenarios are bitterly
frustrating.”

Zimmer leaned back. “Well,
I’m here to offer you an exciting possibility that would end that
frustration once and for all, Mr. Scoville.”

Maril sat erect in his
chair with intense curiosity. “Go ahead… you’ve certainly got my
attention with that opening.”

“
Well, all this time,
you’ve been preparing to mount your shield to the front of the Star
Transport vehicle, right?”

“
Yes,”
the response from the scientist was measured. “Although, I guess it
would be more correct to say that it will be
molded
to the body of the vehicle.
It’s pretty much like a very thick skin that we will be growing
from the shell of the spacecraft.”

“
Well, I propose that we
put it on backwards!”

…

Carlton Zimmer stood from
his chair and approached the front of the room. He chose to be at
the end of the table, where he could better see all of the
attendees, and look each and every one in the eye. While the
astrophysicist was quickly regaining status and popularity for his
recent discoveries of the superluminal comet and the parallel
Earth, he knew that perhaps this hour would prove whether he still
had more to give to humanity—one more peak in a career of Himalayan
proportions.

He paused as he calculated
each participant quickly in a clockwise manner. To his left sat
Vurim Gilroy, the Mars Mission manager, effectively looking for a
new job, since any subsequent Martian efforts had been put on hold
at NASA. Then he saw Marrak Henley, the tight-fisted director of
NASA. He knew Henley would be his toughest sale, which is why he
had pulled some influence and invited a pair of Southern California
congressmen to the meeting, just in case Henley needed reminding
who his boss was. His eyes met the friendliest bodies in the
group—namely, Ballard and Maril Scoville, whose support he knew
would be invaluable. This high-powered group of eight was rounded
out by directory of JPL, Rawson Cornell, who sat next to Maril,
irritated with the fact that he was called to this secret meeting,
knowing nothing about its intent, while suspecting that his
subordinate had been better briefed than himself.

“
Gentlemen,” began Zimmer
serenely with his hands clasped in front of him. “First, let me
thank each of you for your attendance here today. I am well aware
that you know nothing of which I would like to address you but am
grateful that you have honored me with your attendance
anyway.

“
It is a particular honor,
considering that my views and opinions have not been held in the
highest regard lately. For years, I received ridicule for chasing
after a parallel Earth—the proverbial needle in the haystack. I was
severely reprimanded for heretically proposing that our yellow beam
was a superluminal comet. Often, my views and projects have been
simply too radical to accept. I have been called by peers and press
‘crazy’, ‘warped’, ‘irrelevant.’

“
Fortunately, for me,”
Zimmer said wiping his brow in a sign of relief, “some of the
criticism has been appeased. For my fortunate discoveries of late,
I have been restored to some degree of respect among my colleagues,
but don’t expect that to stop me from doing something foolish
again.” A few soft chuckles were heard in response to Zimmer’s
colorful delivery of the word ‘foolish’.