Folding Time (eBook)

Jack had stepped through the door onto a space station 10,000 light years away, circling his home planet, Earth. Admittedly, it was a new, updated Earth, but from 400 klicks, it did not look very different. It seemed greener and the air clearer than he remembered. He realized in that instant the magnitude of what his mission had accomplished. A huge piece of the galaxy had been opened for exploration in just the few days since the mission had been completed. They were heroes. De was the latest in a series of heroes like Jen and Marie who had made the mission successful despite long odds.

Things looked normal at the space station. It was just a larger version of the Meadow that was somehow different in shape from the Meadow that took them 10,000 years into the future. This Meadow was nothing more than a transfer station. It had exploded in activity since the connection of eight wormholes from the eight Meadows—the ships that had successfully completed their missions. Personnel and equipment were transferring to and from the “outer Meadows.” In a few short days, those outer meadows would disconnect from those wormholes and begin their exploration. They were being supplied with new wormhole connectors. After they departed for exploration, the wormholes on the Earth’s side would be disconnected so that ships, all called Meadows, could freely travel to and from the inner ring. There were thirty Meadows in nearby orbit waiting for that disconnect so they could make that trip. Some of them were specially designed to be transfer stations in the “Inner Ring.” They were going to replace the outer Meadows, which were leaving to explore their respective solar systems. Others were uncrewed. They could each accelerate at 6 gravities, reach near-light speed in about sixty days, and decelerate in roughly the same period. They would be on one- to two-year missions to spread the net of exploration opportunities accessible with the new wormhole connectors they carried. They were to operate in the inner ring, where the solar systems were close to one another, often less than a light year apart.

Jack was suffering; he was second-guessing his decision already. Jack had spent seven wonderful and exciting years with Jen. He was sure that he loved her. She wanted him to explore the solar system with her. Yet Jack had spent the last seven years feeling like a fish out of water. He was a paleontologist—one of the very best in the world. In fact, he’s now probably the only one in the world. He had been employed by the American Museum of Natural History in New York to find the “Big One.” He was minding his own business digging for bones in Wyoming when he was sucked into a vortex of circumstance that caused him to be 10,000 years in the future. What was he doing in outer space? He had played second fiddle to Jenna and pretty much everyone else for seven years. He needed four to six months to finish his dig, reestablish his own identity, and get his head screwed on straight.

Jen was more understanding than he expected. She did not get angry; they would talk every day and visit after a month or two. It was hard to wrap his head around the idea that even though there were 10,000 light years separating them, with the use of wormholes, they were only a few hours apart. If he could get another wormhole box, she could spend nights with him under the stars like she did before. Wishful thinking.

Jen was on Meadow Twenty-Two in a system called “Alpha,” greeting the new team. Part of the seven-year crew, De, Ian, and Ruth reunited, bringing their mechanical ability, creativity, and medical expertise. Anton, from the Russian Meadow, had joined them as an engineer in particle physics and resident genius. Astra Zee from New Earth was recommended by the science minister for having extraordinary—and apparently inherent—linguistic skills. She was instrumental in communicating with all of the alien species that had communicated with Earth in the last few years. The science minister admitted that no one was quite sure how, but communicate, she did.

Mocol Gen from New Earth was raised in an obscure archipelago in what had been known as the South Pacific. He was incredibly attuned to the feelings, emotions, and desires of anyone he met. He was said to also be “in tune with the whole eco-system.” Jen would come to call him an “empath.” Jen hoped he could bring the calming influence that Katie brought on the voyage from Old Earth to New Earth. Little could anyone suspect the scope of his future contributions. His skills were likely being understated.

Kennix Lai was a synthetic scientist from the Chinese Meadow. Her doctorate was in Xenobiology. She was joining us because we had a water-covered planet in the habitable zone. The chance of life there was significantly greater when compared to the other Meadows’ opportunities. She was a quiet person and difficult to get to know. It was hard to guess how she would fit in with the rest of the team.

With the new team in place, Jen was like a kid in a candy store. She wanted to get started but didn’t know where to go first. There were dozens of moons around the planet they were orbiting. She guessed that a quick survey of them should be the first order of business. There were several that looked like good prospects—not for life, but perhaps for the other critical materials for which they were searching.

Jen was too busy and excited to focus on it much, but she was disappointed. She tried not to be hurt by Jack’s decision. She was arguably one of the two or three greatest living human astrophysicists. She had previously been selected by future humankind utilizing 10,000-year-old information to pilot an impossible mission across time and space. This mission was a success. She was now being offered the most extraordinary opportunity of any astrophysicist’s lifetime. She was brought here to do this. She wondered why Jack needed to be “digging in the dirt.” Sometimes, irrationally, she wanted to stamp her feet and yell, “This is really important, and I need you here.” Rationally, she knew that right now his slot was probably better filled by someone with more relevant skills.

EARTH

Marie along with Gaia—the celebrated first baby born in Space—were always first, so they were first to transfer. They arrived at the Science Institute, which was in a city of about 1.6 million people in a place on Earth that used to be called Bolivia. Marie learned that “Tolica” was the largest city now on Earth. She had asked to go where she could learn the most about the computer activities of society, and where there were good schools for Gaia. In Tolica, they spoke a version of “Spanglish.” Gaia became fluent in about two days; it took Marie a little longer. It seemed there were four major languages spoken in the four cities of over 500,000 on the planet.

Marie, with her six-year-old daughter in tow, arrived at the Central Computation Center called the “CCC.” It was a hero’s welcome. Everyone there was in awe of the technological magic Marie had performed. Her story was already legendary. Even before she arrived, her changes to the computer architecture of the Meadows’ operating systems had been incorporated universally on the planet. Those changes increased the productivity of computer operations worldwide by more than 30%. Marie’s scrambling to save the mission had upgraded the operating system to accommodate a mapping system for course guidance. She had done that on the fly, with a system she barely understood. Everyone thought that she walked on water. Marie was pleased, but a little embarrassed by all the attention. She chuckled to herself, “If they only knew the upgrade was built on a twenty-first century video game.”

Alan and Katie went to Nordgaard, a city of seven hundred thousand people that was the hub of life sciences activity and advanced university studies for Earth. It was in what had been Eastern Russia on Old Earth. It was one of 30+ cities Earth-wide that was connected by wormhole stations. The language of Nordgaard was Inuit-based with a little Russian mixed in. Alan and Katie used translating devices. Learning the local language was going to take a while. Still, it did not stop Katie from ministering to the needs of any who were needy. This is just what Katie does.

New Earth was a very different place from the old Earth. All long-distance distribution was executed by wormhole. A normal day for a resident of Tolica might be a doctor’s appointment in Nordgaard followed by a stop at the beach and to buy some freshly caught fish for dinner in Damodo—a city of 750 thousand people focused on fishing, tourism, and mining. Damodo sat on the ruins of what was once Sydney, Australia.

The only other large city on Earth was Watabli, which was in what was central Africa. It was the major supplier of raw materials for the rest of the planet. The bulk of the rest of the New Earth population lived in or near small cities focused on fishing, farming, manufacturing, or mining. There were twenty-plus cities that dotted the former US heartland, Ukraine, and Brazil, all connected by wormholes. Everyone and everything could get to almost anywhere on the planet within a few hours.

De got dubbed as a hero of the planet due to his success on the voyage here, when he made the wormhole boxes work at great distance. As a result, the galaxy was now Earth’s oyster. He had also participated in saving the Australian Mission.

De and the...