The Far Side (99 page)

“The reason Andie Schulz and Kris Boyle went to where they went is because Andie Schulz so very much wanted to find an exciting planet to have the adventure of a lifetime.  I went to where I went because I was dreaming of finding a planet with scientists who understand things a whole lot better than we do.

“I went to a planet the natives call ‘Emora.’  In the records here are some pictures of the planet from days long ago; I use one as a sort of poster -- they don’t understand the concept of a screensaver.  It was quite lovely; it’s what the planet used to look like.

“Two hundred of their years ago, about that many for us, they discovered Far Side doors.  Like us, they weren’t sure at first what was happening.  To make matters worse, their work on quantum theory lagged ours, so it was even more difficult for them to make sense of what was going on.

“Two hundred years is an eye blink in the cosmos, compared to the lifespan of universe.  And considering that Far Side doors are what the Emorans called ‘variant’ they have access to a great deal of what we call reality.  As huge as our universe is, reality is that cubed and then cubed a couple of more times.  The number of universes, to the best of their calculation is 2.4 times ten to the 314 millionth power -- That’s a lot universes.

“Who knows how the quantum universes work?  They don’t seem to make rhyme or reason.  On Earth we have the saying, ‘bad news comes in threes.’  That’s actually not a bad observation and reflects an underlying quantum reality that I can’t explain, but the Emorans could -- after a fashion.

“In the first hundred years of research the Emorans found the usual variety of worlds.  Some boring, some more exciting that a single person can possibly imagine and most somewhere in between.  They found more than a thousand inhabited worlds and had created a brisk commerce; information exchange and a number of other things that saw their knowledge of the universe soar into the stratosphere.

“The Emorans were moderately altruistic and had envisioned themselves one day going into space and becoming a member of a league of like-minded worlds.  They found what they were looking for.

“Then, without warning, one day there were frantic calls from a research center on an island, where Far Side door researchers had long before met their first few interstellar ‘neighbors’ -- not that neighbor has much meaning with Far Side doors.

“Those calls were for help.  Something was coming out of the Far Side door to one of their newer trading partners.  The invaders were insect-like, animals about the size of German shepherd -- and they were hungry.

“They were also technically sophisticated, having weapons nearly on a par with those of the Emorans.  Reluctantly, the Emoran government approved a nuclear strike on the affected Far Side door.”

“I’m told that we would call such an event a ‘meeting engagement.’  The insects were in the process of bringing jet fighters through, fighters optimized to fit through a Far Side door, just as the Emorans launched a single bomber with a dozen escorts to do the deed.

“The battle lasted a year; I kid you not.  The first attack failed, but they killed dozens of their enemy’s fighters, far more than they lost.  The obvious thing to do was to regroup and attack more strongly.

“Which they did, but as I said, those insects aren’t stupid!  In a month instead of using bombers, they were using standoff missiles; they finally had to stop or the Emorans would have rendered their entire planet uninhabitable.

“They tried ICBMs, they tried soldiers -- nothing worked.  At the end of that first year, virtually the entire Emoran military had been exterminated, plus there had been about ten million civilian casualties.

“They couldn’t sustain the initial attacks on several levels, and they were forced to let their enemies dig in.

“The Emorans switched to chemical and biological weapons.  The insects retaliated with a massive raid on one of their Far Side doors to the Emoran’s richest trading partner.  A few of the insects survived to get through, but the door was destroyed in the fighting.  The Emorans assume that their friends survived.  They realized that the insects could detect Far Side doors, so they started working on being able to do that themselves, and that knowledge gave their research a tremendous boost.

For the next fifty years the Emorans were forced steadily back.  Bug landings were made on continents, and no matter how hard people fought, the insects were just that -- insects.  They didn’t seem to care about dying if they could advance even an inch or kill an Emoran.

“Several of the Emoran bioweapons bit their enemies, but nothing killed them all.  Chemicals were also successful, but there too, they were unable to kill all of them.

“The Emorans prepared a series of final redoubts.  They destroyed all of their off-world connections and the hundred million survivors retreated to their fortresses.

“They had done incredible things; literally working until they dropped, then getting up and doing it again and again.  They developed energy screens proof against even nuclear weapons.  They developed lasers and particle beam weapons; it was all futile.  There were too many enemies.

“About ten years ago, a passing starship saw the energy releases and came to investigate.  They were a people called ‘Clinons.’  These were nice people, human like the Emorans.  They gave the Emorans a lot of information about space, space propulsion systems and the whole nine yards.

“The Emorans decided that prudence was the better part of valor and that there were hundreds of uninhabited, but habitable, planets within a few hundred light years of Emora.  They moved everyone into three last redoubts, defended as best as they could.”

The speaker paused and gave a short laugh.  “I know, this sounds like a science fiction space opera.  Well, you wait -- you haven’t heard anything yet!

“The Emorans worked night and day for the last decade; two of their last fortresses fell.  They were almost ready to go when they detected my Far Side door.  I walked through that door and about a hundred guys hit me from every side.  However, I had an unbeatable alibi -- I was human and not a bug.

“They had reason to be afraid -- the Clinons had warned them of another insect race abroad in the universe.  That other race had attacked the Clinon home world and had promptly kicked the Clinons off of it.

“The Clinons had developed an advanced space program before they learned about Far Side doors.  They were about another four hundred years ahead of the Emorans, particularly when it came to Far Side door technology.

“The Clinons are logical, rational, and virtually unable to take a joke.  They were the ones who actually had developed most of the cool Far Side door technology -- but it didn’t matter.  Their enemies were maybe another hundred years further ahead of them.

“The Clinons don’t waste time with fluff -- they’d met the same sort of bugs that the Emorans had, a few years before, and had eradicated that attack and closed the Far Side door that had let them gain admission.  The new attack however, had overwhelmed them.  The Clinons had simple terms to describe their enemies.  The insect race that the Clinons couldn’t hold they called the ‘big insects’ and the one the Emoran’s couldn’t stop were the ‘little insects.’  Not terribly original, but descriptive.

“The big insects, the ‘playa-dho’ as the Clinon’s called them, had all sorts of things that Clinon’s didn’t.  The playa-dho could create Far Side doors where they wished, once they were on a planet.  They could suppress Far Side doors and above all, they could find them, whether or not they were still open.

“Far Side doors leave, call it a ‘dimple’ or ‘scar,’ in space-time.  The playa-dho could find such a location, open the door and invade the other side.  The scars do fade over time, but it takes a year or so for them to do so.  You can also ‘reset’ the local quantum universe by exploding a large enough nuclear weapon close to the scar.

“The playa-dho are considered a far more dangerous enemy than the playa-rho, the ‘little bugs.’

“For humanity, it’s not a good combination.  The playa-dho don’t poach from the playa-rho, but they feel perfectly free to have a go at someone who throws out the little bugs.  The Emorans were set to explode a planet-buster bomb at the site of their last fortress -- after they were well on their way.  Playa-rho have no space-based technology and seem to have no interest in developing it, so they won’t be able to pursue, while if the Playa-dho show up, they’ll simply find a new asteroid belt and no Far Side door scars.

“The Emorans plan on orbiting a series of satellites as soon as they set up shop on their new home that will suppress any Far Side door on the planet.  They’ve decided that it’s too unsafe, and they’ll use starships to communicate with other people.”

Sedgewyck’s image went into more depth about the various battles between the Emorans, the Clinons and the two bug species.

Finally his image held up the computer.  “They have given me virtually everything in their technology base.  In here is space travel, including going modestly faster than light.  There are energy sources in here that make a nuclear weapon look like a fire spark.  There is information about the culture and history of hundreds of other races and their technology.  There is medical information that will almost certainly mean a cure for all cancer and other diseases, including the autoimmune diseases.  Gene treatments are described that affect aging a hundred fold.”

The computer screen went back to waves breaking on the shore.

“That’s it,” Dale Sedgewyck told them.  “There are also primers for their language and computational devices that can analyze a few hours of conversation and start rendering real time translations.  And, as a cool feature, it translates in a way so that the other person hears your voice and you hear theirs.”

Kris’ mind raced, dancing over topics and ideas at the speed Dale Sedgewyck had spoken of a few minutes before -- faster than light.

She looked at General Briggs, who looked, for the first time since she’d met him, indecisive.

He saw her regard and laughed.  “What?  I’m not entitled to a little skepticism?  I’m alternating wanting to jump for joy and then I’m afraid it’s all a hoax.”

Marjorie Briggs was more forthright.  “I don’t care if it’s a hoax.  I was here; I saw the projection that computer put up.  Even if everything else is a hoax, that technology alone is worth billions.  So yeah, I think it’s time to call in some heavy hitters from all of our technical and scientific departments.  We can have Mr. Sedgewyck print up some of this technical data and they can go over it.”

She turned to Dale Sedgewyck.  “Does your computer print?”

“Not directly.  But it can interface to any wireless printer we have, and for that matter, to any number of printers at once, and print up anything you need.  It does all of the translation, data conversion, and format conversion on the fly.”

Marjorie looked at her husband.  “I don’t know how long it will take to set this up, Tom.  We probably could use some outside talent...”

“We need to give Andie and Linda Walsh time to get back from Arvala,” Kris interjected.

“Four days as I recall?” Marjorie Briggs asked.

“Yes, call it five to be safe.”

“And today is Tuesday.  How about next Monday?  We invite as many people as we can get.”

“What if it’s a hoax?” General Briggs reminded her.

“We can get some of our people to look it over between now and then, and cancel if need be.  Yes, we’ll look stupid and we’d have egg on our faces -- but this is too important not to take the chance.”

“Yes,” Kris agreed vehemently.

“Mr. Sedgewyck, how large can these screens be?” General Briggs asked him.

“If I make sure the water reservoir is filled, we could probably power a screen the size of a drive-in movie screen for five or six days, without needing a refill.”

“Christ!” the general exclaimed.  “Okay Monday next, eight AM in the auditorium.  We’ll go over some of the high points as a group, and then have break-out sessions with preprinted material, and Mr. Sedgewyck available as needed.  Does that sound right?”

Everyone agreed that it did.

* * *

Kris wasn’t sure when she dialed the number of the Far Side door on the site of Andie’s house in LA if she was excited or scared or both.

The conversation was brief.  “I can’t talk about it on the phone, Andie, but you have to come.  Some guy found the Holy Grail of the SGC teams.”

“An advanced race ready to trade technology at a price we can afford?”

“Free is a very good price,” Kris rejoined.

“There’s that old saying about Greeks and gifts...”

“Andie, if you want to learn how to make a Far Side door that opens any place you want, you’ll want to be here as early as possible.  Before next Monday morning at eight.  Linda can finally get her explanation of how Far Side doors work.  I was looking at it a while ago.  It’s all quantum stuff that I don’t pretend to understand.”

“Well, how does it work?” Andie demanded.

“The fusor magnetic field is like a coin-sorting machine.  It swirls quantum data over all of reality, until it finally finds a matching data set.  And get this, Andie.  If you think about a destination hard enough -- that’s where you go.  And if you’re a little vague on where you want to go, well, then you really do get pot luck.  Or have multiple people hoping for different things, like we had back at the sound stage.”