Bypass Gemini (30 page)

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Well what is the benefit of building one on a planet?”

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Faster and cheaper. That’s about it.”

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Well the Operlo folks were trying to get things done fast, so time is probably the problem. Maybe they were trying to beat someone to market?”

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You’d have to purchase two whole stars in order to do this. I don’t think there’s another entity out there that could afford to even attempt it.”

Lex stared at the walls and table, now completely covered with text, figures, diagrams, equations, and other things he couldn’t make heads or tails of. Finally, inside a clump of words he couldn’t even pronounce in the journal paper, he saw one word he knew.

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Well, what about that? It says singularity. That’s a black hole, right?”

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Yes, the study says that the entanglement procedure has a small risk of halting solar output, causing a drop in internal pressure and a gravitational collapse. Pretty darn fast, too. In a matter of years you’d have a new black hole, which is the blink of an eye in astronomical time. It’s effectively impossible to do by accident, though, because you would have to pump several orders of magnitude too much juice into the procedure.”

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Well, you said that the thing was overkill. Could it do that?”

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Ma?”

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The required output to reliably cause a gravitational collapse is approximately 5% below the maximum output of the proposed array.”

Silence remained for a few minutes.

“…
W-o-ow,” said Karter, finally, “Well done, VectorCorp. That’s probably the most destructive thing I’ve ever heard of. Well, second most. Hey, Ma, when’s the next transmission alignment?”

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Without accurate location data, it is difficult to give a specific date. The seven week window could have begun as many as eleven days ago, and or as many as twenty-seven days from now,” she replied.

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So what is it? A weapon?”

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A hell of a good one, too. It can take out whole star systems. Not very practical, though. Judging by the dates on those shipments, they’ve been working on this for over a year. Good luck keeping that sort of thing a secret from your enemies. However... if they entangle the stars, then collapse them... Two identical, entangled stars collapsing into black holes at the same moment? With stars of that size...” he said, scribbling some figures, “Yep, you’d end up with a stable, navigable wormhole. A shortcut from one side of galaxy to the other. Put it up on the hologram, Ma.”

The view zoomed out to show almost the entire colonized portion of the Milky Way galaxy, which covered a wide swath of one of the arms. The two ends of the wormhole were marked.

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Look at that. That’s a game changer right there. It would revolutionize interstellar travel,” Karter said.

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Not only that. Ma, put up the VectorCorp routes again, please,” Lex said.

At this scale, the routes were spiderweb thin strands of orange, arranging themselves into denser clusters around denser star and planet clusters. The only void was a stretch of space in the center of the display.

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Now put up the Rehnquist and JPW routes.”

The void in the center filled in with yellow and blue. The two ends of the wormhole were on either side of the contested area. Lex’s eyes widened.

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They found a way to cut out the middle men... This wormhole gives them access to both sides of the galaxy without having to pay anyone else.”

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I don’t think they’d be able to completely stop using the middle for very long. The wormhole would only be wide enough to allow a medium sized trade route. It’d get backed up in a hurry if they used it exclusively,” Karter said.

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They wouldn’t have to use it for long. JPW and Rehnquist make pretty much all of their money off of the fees VC pays them. If VC could quit for even two months, they’d go belly up, and VC could just buy them out. They’d have a complete monopoly on communication and transit,” Lex said.

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You pretty much ‘win’ business at that point. Every email, every voice message, every bank transaction, every package, ANYTHING that needs to go between planets would owe you a cut of the profits. Civilization as we know it would depend solely upon one company. And if the governments don’t like it? Oh, we just happen to have a weapon that can collapse your sun into a black hole,” Karter said, “Yeah, I’d say keeping the lid on that is good enough reason to kill some people.”

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So... Just to recap, some time in the next two or three weeks, VectorCorp is going to wipe out two whole star systems and set in motion a series of events that will let them, essentially, conquer the galaxy.”

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So it seems,” Karter nodded.

Once again, they sat in silence. Karter started gathering and summarizing the data and diagrams. Lex stared blankly ahead and slowly took a bite of his cookie.

After a few minutes, Karter finished working over the data and began to tidy up his papers.

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Well, that’s that figured out. Ma, record the design and run simulations for viability to make sure I figured it out right. We’re done here. I guess you’ll be moving on now,” the inventor said, as though nothing had happened.

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Wh- What? We’re not done here! We have to address this!”

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No we don’t. All I wanted to do was figure out what the big deal was about that data, and I only wanted to do that because Agent what’s his name didn’t want me to, and screw him. My role in this is over,” Karter said, getting up and stretching.

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But, we just figured out that a corporation is essentially about to conquer the galaxy! Two whole star systems are going to get sucked into black holes!”

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Oh, they are not. God, I hate when people say stuff like that. Listen, black holes don’t just spontaneously create more gravity when they form. They are the same amount of mass, just higher density. In fact, the formation of a black hole is usually an explosive process, so the resulting singularity usually has LESS gravity than the original star.”

“…
So the planets will be okay?”

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Oh, hell no. Those things are doomed. We’re probably talking about an extremely short lived pulsar or a supernova. Either way, loads of radiation spraying out in unhealthy doses. If the planets don’t get roasted, the gravitational profile of the star will definitely have changed, so there’s a good chance that the orbit will decay, in which case it WILL get sucked in, or else it will just get hurled into space. And even if none of that happens, the source of all power for the planet will be gone. So the population of all of those planets will die, but the odds of them getting sucked in are pretty slim,” he explained, “Though it would be pretty cool, because they’d just go whipping out the other side of the wormhole.”

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And you’re okay with that? You don’t feel any obligation to help those people?”

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What are we talking about, mobsters and miners? A couple hundred thousand of each? That’s not even one decent-sized city on a real planet. Earthquakes have wiped out more. No big loss. In my experience, most people are assholes. Getting rid of a half million of them will just raise the net quality of the universe.”

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Well what about VectorCorp? You’re just going to sit idle while a company, one that is willing to kill whole planets, seizes complete control over the whole galaxy?”

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Like it is going to make any difference. And quit talking about the ‘whole galaxy.’ We’re talking about the ten or fifteen percent we hang out in.”

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We’ve got to call someone! We’ve got to warn people!”

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And how are you going to do that? VectorCorp already does all of the communication in this area, and the only encryption strong enough to be fairly sure VC couldn’t read it would have to have already been set up with the receiving party, at least with a password. And even then, you’d have to send it from somewhere besides here, because they have almost certainly cut off communication in this region.”

Lex’s mouth opened and closed uselessly as he tried to put together a valid course of action.

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At any rate, I’m going to start going over what needs to be fixed. I want you the hell out of here as soon as Ma comes up with an exit window,” Karter said, marching off, his freshly replaced Solby in tow.

Lex sat down and stared at the floor.

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It would appear that this new information has not decreased your stress levels,” said Ma.

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No. That it most certainly did not. You got knocked around a bit. You sounded kind of messed up before. Are you okay?”

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There are no lingering effects, and recent backups exist in the event of unforeseen future degradation. A number of my debris field sensors have been damaged. I am fabricating and deploying replacements. An exit window that meets the specifications of your skill set and ship should be identifiable in approximately eighteen hours. Until then, is there anything I can help you with?”

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Yeah. You can tell me what to do.”

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Issuing orders is not my role. I can offer advice if you like.”

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Please.”

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What is your dilemma?”

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What is my dilemma? I just found out that at least two planets with people on them are going to be frozen, crushed, blown up, or roasted.”

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That is likely. What is your dilemma?”

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I can’t do anything about it, that’s what!”

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That is unfortunate. What is your dilemma?”

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How can I live with myself knowing that this is going to happen if I don’t do anything?”

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Simple. Had you not received that package, this would have happened without your foreknowledge. Had you died in the crash upon this planet when you first confronted Agent Fisk, or had you chosen virtually any other place to hide, or had timing and good fortune turned out any differently on both Tessera and Operlo, you would be dead and this would have happened regardless. It was the most probable outcome, and remains so. Your knowledge in no way obligates you to take action, and no action is likely to significantly alter the outcome. Thus, you could in no way be considered at fault for the coming events.”

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That’s all well and good, Ma, knowing that doesn’t make me feel any better. It isn’t that easy.”

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Why?”

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It just isn’t. You know what I mean?”

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No, Lex, I do not. As you quite flatteringly seem to have forgotten, I am not human. As a nonhuman, I lack the implicit knowledge of human nature that you enjoy. It is not something that can be programmed, or at least is beyond Karter’s skill, which means I am left only with observation. Karter, I think you will agree, is a less than ideal example.”

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You can say that again.”

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I attempted to absorb what information is present in media and entertainment, but the depictions of human behavior and interaction contained therein do not appear to be entirely accurate. You, Mr. Alexander, are the best example of a typical, well adjusted human that I have had the good fortune to interact with for any reasonable duration.”

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That’s... kind of sad.”

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Thus, I ask you again, why do you feel as though the weight of this tragedy, if it occurs, will fall upon your shoulders, in the figurative sense.”

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You’ve tried to save my life. You succeeded in saving my life, in fact. You know that saving lives is the right thing to do.”

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I did so only when it was within my ability to do so, and without risking another life unnecessarily.”

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Well... Well that’s the difference, then. When you see someone in trouble, you are supposed to help. You see a woman about to be hit by a bus, you push her aside, even if it means you get hit. That’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s what a MAN does. If you really know that it is the right thing, there is no such thing as risking your life unnecessarily. Risking your life is necessary, period. Anything less is cowardice.”

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Why is that?”

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That’s just the way it is. At least, that’s the way it is supposed to be. I guess that doesn’t make much sense to you.”

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To the contrary, that is a behavior that I fully understand. It is an imperative, a directive. I am designed with a number of base imperatives. They are used to weight my behavior. Failing to fulfill one requires an extreme circumstance, and I am programmed to avoid doing so at all reasonable costs. Self sacrifice for the greater good is evidently a societal imperative for humanity, or at least for you. Let us test the limits of the directive. If this hypothetical woman were to slip and fall from a ledge, would you be obliged to hurl yourself after her?”

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What, just because? With no safety gear?”

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Affirmative.”

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Of course not.”

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Would her resulting death weigh upon your conscience?”

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No. I mean, I’d feel bad that it happened, but there’s nothing I could have done.”

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Then your anxiety is out of place. There is no evidence to suggest that risking your life would make an appreciable difference in the course of events regarding the Gemini Project.”

Lex considered the statement. Slowly he shook his head.

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I don’t know. It just... I don’t-”

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It is a binary condition, hinging upon the variable of ability. If you can help, you are obligated to do so. If you cannot, you should feel no personal fault. Since you do feel fault, your anxiety MUST stem from the belief that you have the ability to prevent this tragedy. If this is so, then you must pay any price to achieve such a goal, by your own rules. It is vital that one follow one’s own rules.”