Dark Matter (37 page)

George was deep in his own thoughts, but he noticed that Jane, who was sitting next to him, was rubbing the tip of her nose with her left index finger, a sure sign that she was thinking deeply about something.

'Penny for them?'  He asked.

It took Jane a couple of moments to realise that George had asked her a question.

'Hmmm?'  She replied, 'Oh penny for them.  Sorry.  I was just thinking about John Deeth.  I'm not sure how he is going to react to all this.'

'What particularly is troubling you?'  George asked, all too aware now that Jane was really concerned.

'I'm worried he might expose us.'

'Then we would have to kill him.' 

Jane looked at George, her face ashen. 
Oh my god, I've totally misjudged George!  What do I do now?

George looked at Jane, the worry clear on her face.  He grinned at her.  Then he laughed.

'You bastard!'  She yelled at George punching his arm.  'You really had me going there!'

George kept chuckling as he spoke.  'Sorry but you had gotten yourself too wound up.  Why shouldn't John join us?  I'm sure he will have no love for the Sunarr, why should he?  Besides we don't have to blurt it straight out, we can build up to it, gauge his reactions.'

'I guess you're right.  I'm glad you will be with me.'  She added, realising that George wasn't going to abandon her.

'Of course I'll be with you.  We're a team aren't we?'

10:50               23 December  [10:50  23 December GMT]

Research Laboratory, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.

John read the communication from Research Angel.  It informed him that someone was coming to see him and that they should be given full knowledge of his work and his full cooperation, it also provided some very useful technical feedback on his research. 
Nothing I couldn't have discovered for myself,
he assured himself.
It does save me some considerable time.  Time I can invest in other areas.

Although he didn't like giving someone else access to his work, he liked the idea of losing his funding even less.  He hoped prayed even, that it wouldn't be a fellow researcher, however he couldn't imagine anyone else understanding or caring about his research. 
Research scientists can be an awkward bunch.  Nosey.  Critical.  A real pain in the backside. 

It couldn't have come at a worse time either.  The vice-chancellor had informed him that the Sunarr were interested in his research. 
The Sunarr.
 
A technically advanced race and they are interested in my research
...

The approach by the Sunarr was an interesting development.  He had kept abreast of their activities, as much as he could, through the news.  He had never yet met one, nor communicated with them.  So out of the billions of people on Earth they had somehow heard of him and wanted to assist him in his research.  John was not easily flattered, but he had to admit to himself that on this occasion he was.  His normal concerns of privacy and authority over his work somehow didn’t seem to matter that much, reasoning that an advance race would be enlightened, free of the jealousies that corrupted mankind.  He had also started to daydream about their equipment. 

He imagined a room, not dissimilar in its dimensions to his own lab, but painted in the purest white, the work surfaces and consoles a pleasant cream colour in slight contrast to the walls.  No windows, the only way in through a multi-stage airlock, the air filters removing even the smallest contaminant.  The room would be entirely shielded against electro-magnetism, radiation and every other conceivable intrusion.  Even a humble compass would not work, as the Earth’s magnetism would fail to penetrate the room.  The only physical presence would be gravity, but this also could be negated at the flick of a switch.  The consoles would provide access to the Sunarr main computer, so advanced that it would have its own intelligence.  Every scientific device required would be on hand, including a particle accelerator that would sit on one of the work surfaces, the nearest human equivalent being twenty-seven kilometres in circumference.  He looked around his own lab again, state of the art felt it like an antique.

His mind came back to the present and the impending arrival of his ‘guests’.  Usually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, today he had made an effort.  Not much of an effort he admitted to himself, slacks, a shirt and a tie hanging loosely around his neck that he had bought so long ago he had forgotten where or when. 
At least it wasn’t my novelty tie
, he thought reassuring himself.  His novelty tie still hung in his cupboard, Marilyn Monroe, with her skirt blowing up, her hands hiding her privacy.

There was a knock at his door.  He looked at his watch,
it’s time
, he thought.  He walked to the door and opened it, holding his breath slightly.  He blinked.  He blinked again.  The image was still there.

‘Oh Hi Jane…..’ he searched his mind furiously for the man’s name.  'George!  Hi, look, it’s great to see you both but I have an appointment with…..someone about now.  Could we get together later?’

‘No need John,’ Jane replied, her smile as enchanting as ever, ‘you’re meeting is with us.  I believe you were notified of it by your Research Angel?’

‘I…err…yes, I was.’  John’s mind was quietly doing back flips trying to assimilate the information.

‘Good.  Shall we come in then?  Or better yet, how about we take you to lunch?’ 

‘Yes, of course!’  John grabbed his coat and headed out of the door.  They went with John’s preference for the Castle Inn. The walk, although relatively short, had given John a thirst; one he intended quenching with the fine real ales the pub offered.  They took their drinks through the bar and onto the lower terrace, so John could smoke whilst they talked.  The terrace was empty, the lunchtime trade still over an hour away.

Jane, ever the journalist, asked John to update them with what he knew.  This took him two pints, although the first disappeared quickly.  Jane hardly interrupted, making furious notes as John talked, putting a star next to the things she wanted to return to.  Once he had finished, Jane looked at her notes,
that’s a lot of stars
, she thought. 
OK Jane
, she tried to settle her thoughts;
first things first, establish where he stands
.  The four stars written next to the line saying “involvement of the Sunarr” was the place to start she decided.

'Tell me what you know of the Sunarr.'  She asked John.

The smile had gone now, he noticed.  Jane's tone was even, but the emphasis challenging, threatening even.  He had seen this side of her in Group Therapy in the clinic and that hadn't been pleasant. 

John took another sip of his beer, cleared his throat and paused, waiting for the right words to form themselves.

'I only know what I have heard from the news.'  He began, 'They are, apparently, here to help us develop; they are negotiating with most of the governments of the world.  They have heard of my research, although I don't how, and are willing to help me.  That's it really; I don't know what else I can tell you.'

Jane looked at John.  
Can I trust you John
? 
Can I really trust you?
 
You've never lied to me, whenever you didn't want to answer a question you subtly, professionally changed the subject.  You are still being honest aren't you?  The problem is you just don't know what's going on.
  Jane decided to tell him, just about the Sunarr first and then see from there.  John was silent whilst Jane spoke, after ten minutes she had finished, John finally spoke.

'So it's just about the Gold then?'  He said.

'It would appear so, yes.'  Jane replied.

'Well that confirms it for me then.'  John said, unable to keep the self-satisfaction out of his voice.

'Confirms what exactly?'  Jane could sense there was more he had to tell them,
this wasn't how it was supposed to be, he was supposed to have told us everything he knew up front.

'How they got here, what they want with our Gold, my research and why my lab blew up.  It all makes sense now.'  John finished his beer with a couple of gulps.  'Who’s ready for a refill?' 

John had that look in his eyes that Jane had seen before. 
He's not going anywhere,
she reasoned to herself,
let him get another pint.

John returned with another round of drinks, which he distributed before sitting back down.  He took the head off his pint and set it back down, flashing Jane his own rather engaging smile.  He was feeling very pleased with himself.

'So where was I?'  John asked more by way of gauging how much attention the two of them had been paying rather than actually needing reminding of where he had left off.

'You were going to tell us what, exactly, has been confirmed, as far as you are concerned.'  George had lowered his voice upon entering the conversation and emphasised his words to make it clear that he was becoming bored and slightly irritated listening to John expound his greatness.  Unfortunately, for George, not only did John take this as a challenge to rise to, he had just had his greatness confirmed. 

'Yes.  Yes I was.'  John agreed, taking yet another sip of his beer.  'My working theory on what caused the lab explosion is that it wasn't the components or the experiment itself.  No.  It's what the experiment unexpectedly found.  What I found.'  He added for emphasis.  'You see, the shape and type of the explosion, if you could call it that, was characteristic of an impact explosion.  Like a cannonball hitting a wall.  It makes a hole in the wall, leaving the surrounding wall intact, just like the damage to my machine.  The cannonball and debris would continue forward, damaging anything else in its path, until the amount of energy expended was equivalent to the amount when fired.  Again, this is the pattern I recorded from the explosion.  The problem was that the amount of energy released was so large, and the cannonball, if you will, had to have been so small that it was completely outside of known physics.'

'How far outside?'  George asked, now genuinely curious.

'Like a three year old trying to study a PhD.’ John said offhandedly.

'So what has this got to do with the Sunarr's interest in Gold?'  Jane asked.

'Don't you see?  Something extremely small, travelling extremely fast with an exceptionally large mass for its size and speed, impacted with one of the Gold atoms in my experiment and caused the explosion.  This particle must be naturally occurring throughout space.  If you built a ship capable of capturing those particles like wind in a sail...’

'Then you would have a means to travel in space without the need for engines or fuel.'  Finished George, finally getting it.

'And that would be good would it?'  Jane asked, slightly at sea with all this.

'Essential.'  George replied, 'Correct me if I'm wrong.'  He said to John, 'The distances involved in travelling anywhere in space are huge, the speed necessary to get there in anything like a useful time frame are theoretically impossible, many times the speed of light.  To build a ship capable of powered flight would mean building something the size of our own moon to accommodate the engines and all the fuel.  In short, without a giant leap forward we are going nowhere.  However if the universe has its own particle winds travelling many times the speed of light, and we could build the right sails......then the only power we would need is for heat, light and steering.  That is manageable even with current means.'

'And that,’ interjected John, not wishing to have all his thunder stolen, 'is why the Sunarr want our Gold.  It’s what the spaceships sails are made of.  No Gold, no space travel.'

Now it was out in the open for all to see.  John Deeth had discovered, independently, the means necessary for mankind to travel in space.  He had also discovered, inadvertently, the Sunarr's interest in Earth. 

'Shit.'  Jane said, 'But why Earth?  Surely other planets must have Gold, isn't it everywhere?'

             
John shook his head as he replied.  'No, not by any means.  Gold wasn't formed in the Big Bang; it like the other heavier elements was formed in stars.  Now obviously you cannot mine a star, there's no point anyway because it’s not there now.  As our solar system formed, the heavier elements settled away from the centre, the Sun is roughly 92 to 94% Hydrogen, the rest mostly Helium.  No, the places to look for Gold now are planets.  I would surmise that only certain stars formed in the right way to produce Gold and therefore our planet is likely to be much more abundant in Gold than would be the average.  Also,’ he paused for another sip of beer whilst processing his thoughts, 'in my experiment I was getting a decreasing return as the EM energy went up.  I would conclude that there must be some matter conversion taking place and so you would need more Gold to replenish your sails.'

John sat back, full of self-satisfaction,
If this doesn't get me a Nobel...

Jane looked at John, then at George.  George nodded in silent agreement with Jane, knowing what she was thinking. 
We need to have John on board and he needs to know what is at stake.