Righteous Reign Page 5

  "Very good, Ensign - very good, indeed.' I acknowledge as I turn back to the rest of the class. 'The questions we're going to try to answer, after today are as follows. What motivated the formation of the OESA? What one man is responsible for our ability to travel interstellar space? What person is responsible for molding the OESA into the configuration employed today? Who is the current C and C of the OESA?

  ………………………………………………………………………

  Old Tom McCracken died in 2036, at the age of eighty-five. He worked for Edward 1, until he retired in 2032. By the time he passed, those people located in the former states of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and southern California had joined the Empire, voluntarily. Most had been living in anarchy. Some were getting by; but, others could not see a way to reorganize and lived in extreme poverty. Only a few isolated settlements had limited services. Most had some form of informal leadership – usually a greedy local tyrant. They began to investigate, when they heard stories. Most of these tales had been started by a group of agents sent out by the Empire to subtly spread the word. The goal was to gain the hearts and minds of those people - to conquer them peacefully. Several communities sent missions to Florida; which, returned with stories of full services, a national government and a good standard of living. One after the other, each of the seven states received a large mission from Florida. Each time, a couple of officials accompanied engineers, security specialists, teachers and doctors, on the state visit. Each visit was relaxed. No visiting member was restricted by the accompanying officials. They were allowed to travel, freely; and, speak their minds. The result of the campaign was that six of the seven regions requested membership in the Empire. New Mexico, the seventh, had to be coerced with a little peer pressure by the other joining states.

  The original format for the creation of the Empire was followed. The populated regions of each state were divided into districts containing about ninety thousand people. They elected representatives to go to the Assembly in Wildwood. On December 1, 2025, the Empire officially had two hundred eighty-five districts representing over twenty-five and a half million survivors.

  The original pattern for restoring services, government, education and business was followed in those regions. A year and a half after joining the Empire the seven former states boasted full services and a reasonable and rising standard of living. For its part, the Empire grew its military to one million twenty thousand; and, began restoring the old NASA facilities along that southern belt. It opened trade with regions that expressed any interest. It assisted the reestablishment of industry and business that had wilted or failed during the apocalypse. Some industries were much more heavily regulated. Food processing was severely restricted; in an attempt to attain inexpensive but healthy food choices. Trade always led to new inductees. By 2030, the name of the Empire had been changed, officially to the World Empire; as it controlled all the inhabited territory in the western hemisphere and sixty percent of the eastern hemisphere. This world government now had twelve hundred and thirty-four assemblymen representing six hundred seventeen districts around the globe. It's population base was now more than fifty-five million. Its military had grown to one and a half million. This was a figure that, the Secretary of Defense felt they could settle on, for quite a while. Though there were still over a billion people in the world not governed by the Empire, no others had recovered to the point where they could support a military of any consequence. The two largest regions outside its territorial boundaries were India and southern China; which housed most of the remaining survivors. Each of those would be a strain to absorb; unless the Empire enlisted all the rest of the remaining globe, first. Once the economy was big enough, it would be able to support each major induction, one at a time.

  Old Tom was already gone when Edward 1 was succeeded by Victoria 1 in late 2045. She inherited a realm in solid economic shape. It supported great scientific research in many fields; including a space program run by the renamed NASA. It had been called WEASA, since 2028. Edward had poured a lot of funds into restoring many of the old associated companies; so, their work could be continued; instead of, starting over. Amtel was the result of combining the two largest and most advanced microchip developers that existed before the Apocalypse. Old Tom had seen to their amalgamation and resurgence. It was his pet project of 2031. One of his greatest discoveries was a young scientist that he chose to head its research department. Tom liked to call Doctor William Black - Blackie. It grated on Bill; though, the old man used the nickname affectionately.

  Blackie was twenty-four and held an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and a master’s level graduate degree in computer systems sciences when, the world wide collapse led to the closing of his school. When the Empire re-opened Florida State, he registered achieving his PHD in the discipline just a year later. His thesis on artificial super intelligence was ground breaking. Associates and professors all agreed this man was the next Einstein. He was a visionary with a goal and the energy to achieve his ends. He fostered a design for an intelligent computer system he tagged CCAI.

  Blackie’s prototype was comprised of four microprocessor groups. Each processor ran two hundred fifty-six cores. Four processors comprise each group. Each of those assemblies had terabytes of very high-speed memory under its control. One group controlled input – output. One employed pure logic to solve problems. The third also used pure logic tempered with firmware and software algorithms that moderated the calculations with moral and ethical considerations. The fourth brought it all together, like the corpus callosum of the human brain; determining what weight should be given to each solution; and, melding them into one final one. Nearly half a billion lines of programming code gave the combined assembly near-human abilities to extrapolate and question, based on solutions. It would always try to take every solution to the next step. He called this system Corpus Callosum Artificial Intelligence; or, CCAI, for short.

  It took them nearly four years to debug and test the system; but, CCAI solved the first problem presented which was to describe gravity. Dr. Black was not looking for how its energy emanated or interacted; but, rather what makes it work the way it does. It was a revelation to a curious world. It was much simpler than imagined.

  From the mathematical solutions, cosmologists and astrophysicists developed a theory that "empty" space is dark matter - a fluid like dense medium composed of quark-like fermions, gluon-like bosons and Higgs-like bosons; along with dark energy. Since, no other analogues exist, like those in our normal phase, neither the weak or strong atomic forces exist. Dark matter exerts a negative gravity and negative mass. That field is responsible for the never ending expansion of space. Displaced dark matter leaves a deficiency in the field; creating what we perceive as gravity. The "big bang" was really a big conversion. An unknown disturbance caused an interaction between dark matter and dark energy igniting a chain reaction of particle transformation to the phase we detect today. In this phase, several new particles were possible; allowing for combinations generating the weak and strong nuclear forces. Wherever mass displaces dark matter; it creates gravity. The more mass – the greater the field; because more dark matter has been displaced. The shock wave of the conversion created the web-like pattern in dark matter we know, now; but, see like a negative photograph. The web is actually the regions of low concentration of dark matter and high gravitational force; and, the regions between the lattice work are dense regions of the particles.

  So, the team asked the CCAI to develop a system to generate artificial gravity. Though large and cumbersome, the device CCAI created worked. It was based on a method of generating relativistic mass; employing a massive multi-stream particle accelerator. By this time, Amtel was maintaining sustained profits and sales; as were other tech operations; restarted with Imperial assistance.

  Amtel added additional teams to prove other applications for CCAI. Physics, medical, aerospace, weapons, industrial, agricultu
ral, computer design and economic specialty versions were developed that incorporated hardware and software tuned to their specific disciplines. Much of the work built on that already started before the near apocalypse. The original team continued to work on miniaturizing and refining the CCAI concept, with the aid of the prototype. By the time they were done, the CCAI core, without peripherals, was the size of a baseball and could be powered for years by a single power cell designed by the prototype machine. With input and output devices, it could see, hear, smell, feel and talk. It mastered conversation; and, its command of optical character recognition allowed it to read.

  Lab based units were loaded with all the worlds knowledge; and, applications to use it in their specific fields. Operating systems were encoded with the logic to call and close each application's programming, as needed. Remote units employed compact versions of the same data base; but, all units could access central libraries remotely.

  The most shocking development was by a small robotic team that used the baseball sized generalized CCAI to power a lifelike robot that used carbon nanotube fibers, to develop muscle like power for its own limbs. It walked like a person. It talked like a person. It seemed self - aware. Maybe it really was a person. It even had a sense of humor.

  Now that I've laid the ground work – you’ll each find another handout on your pads. It will take you quickly through the next hundred years of the Empire which include the creation of the OESA and the development of interplanetary and interstellar space flight. Dismissed." I call out as I tapped my pad to transmit the handout; then, left the room as every rose to attention.

  Chapter 4 Rigil

  Sunday Jan 30, 2101

  "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." Albert Einstein

  The Empire’s road to Rigil was filled with discovery. We were in the fifty-sixth year of Victoria One's reign; and she had been a great leader. She maintained Edward's technique of governing at arm's length; but, had a way of getting legislators and councilors to push through what she wanted; while feeling like it was their idea, in the first place. She was viewed as a benign and benevolent leader; and the citizens of the Empire loved her. She had grown from a beautiful, sweet young woman, when she was crowned, to a beautiful sweet grandmother in 2101.

  Behind the scenes, she pushed territorial expansion, scientific advancement and economic development. In 2093, she welcomed more than sixty-six hundred representatives from India to the Legislative Assembly; bringing the total to forty thousand representing twenty thousand districts around the globe. The Earth was now under one government. Representatives cast votes electronically in a massive stadium-like complex with seating, services and computer voting interface at each station that; served the forty thousand members. Most made their arguments from their own station; but, representatives often had to wait, as long as, fifteen minutes for someone to come down on to the floor of the assembly to make an impassioned plea. A recess was often called to create the break needed to reposition legislators, during such emotional debates. But, it ran like clockwork. No one bunged up the works with regional concerns. The Emperor could just step in and overrule everyone. So, everyone cooperated.

  A great deal of support was sent WEASA's way in the first decade of Victoria's reign. And additional support was provided to outside companies that provided WEASA with technology. Not the least of these was AMTEL. As the years passed, Dr. Black would ask for government funds for the many space related projects he worked on. His lab was so prolific that, he always got what he wanted. Sometimes, he produced results that were proven but impractical; so, many times the work had to be turned over to another funded specialty lab to refine the application. At any rate, he used CCAI to develop artificial gravity, nanoparticle energy recycling, mobile fusion electric power generation, multi-phase / multi-layered ionic / magnetic shielding and a host of other systems and improvements that could be employed in space.

  Construction finished on the prototype gravity generator in 2040. Improvements continued; until 2042 when a control system using a CCIA could envelope and accelerate two thousand streams of five hundred thousand heavy baryons to near “C” around a one kilometer accelerator; generating a one and a half Earth gravity field within its confines.

  In 2043, WEASA built the first disc-shaped craft with the first gravity generator; and, fitted it with the latest Ion Propulsion System (IPE). A six-week round trip to Pluto proved the gravity generator; but, showed WEASA wasn’t ready for interstellar flight; since, that translates into ninety years to reach the closest star. Fitting the vessel with the new AAMP anti-matter propulsion system decreased the next Pluto trip to twenty-seven-and-a-half hours each way. It was fast; but, still meant a fifty year round trip to Alpha Centauri.

  "All this technology; and, we still can't get to the nearest star." Was Victoria's favorite crack every time a new mission did not achieve the required speeds.

  From 2040, the Empire began recording improvements in Earth’s weather. Temperatures were moderating; as, the glaciers began to retreat. In 2045, a program was instituted to explore and reopen territories, where possible; since, more than fifty-five million were now crammed into a small band along the southern end of the former United States. Similar densities existed over the entire globe. The program required a region to be fully rehabilitated before another was taken on.

  Black’s lab presented a plan to WEASA in early 2045 for a system, based on Casimir research, that would open a directed wormhole for a craft to use as a conduit for travel. A ship travelling at twenty percent light-speed within it would reach a destination in one two-thousandths of the time a ship travelling, to the same destination outside the vortex at the same speed, would do it. Travel time to Alpha Centauri and back would be reduced to under two days, plus exploration time. In June, a vessel with the AAMP engines was fitted with the device. It opened a wormhole and directed it to Alpha Centauri; entering it at point two of C. The crew shut down the device to close the worm hole, when they were nearly torn apart a few seconds later. In that time, they had travelled so far that, it took nearly twelve days to return in normal space.

  The Casimir Emitter was a major accomplishment itself; easily as complex as the gravity generator, or the Anti-Matter Pulse Engine. The final version employs two curved plates, like dish antenna; a smaller one mounted ahead of a larger one. Both of these thin covers are attached to substantial bowls that; incorporate radio frequency heating to maintain terphenyl-based heat transfer fluid to above its optimum pumping point of eleven degrees Celsius. The rear saucer emitting surface is mounted on its inside face; while its inner bowl overlay is on the rear exterior. When the emitter is activated, the heating radio frequency is increased along with the fluid pump rate to promptly elevate the plates to six hundred seventy-five degrees Celsius; as servos bring the bowl faces to within one nanometer of each other; producing a substantial buildup of exotic particles. Since the inner dish has a smaller diameter than the outer one, spill-over occurs into a magnetic field; that keeps the, supposed, tachyons from dissipating or evaporating into space. An RF generator, sequences coils along the central pole to accelerate and direct the focused particles to the desired point in space.

  After analysis the Black team came up with a sounder structural design; employing their tri-layer shielding to protect the vessel from the turbulence of the phenomena, among other forces. Along with the plan, they presented a timeline for assembly of two vessels; and, the construction of orbital assembly docks in the preliminary steps, prior to building them. The new designs incorporated a large enough footprint for a full field strength gravity generator and all the infrastructure for long period interstellar flights. Three years later, the two ships were a reality.

  Both ships could be seen, in orbit, as bright stars, from on the ground at night. At three hundred nineteen meters by one hundred eighty-five meters and four decks high, they were truly massive. They contained all the technological advantages developed by Black’s teams, using C
CIA, over the last few decades. The lower deck contained gravity generator, both fission and fusion reactors and power generators, both IPE and AAMP engines, water recycling, waste recycling, power distribution, ventilation and air recycling, shield generator power and magnetics and a web of magnetic shielded conduits that conducted particles from the accelerator to other areas requiring them.

  Deck two was all storage. The bow section held hundreds of upright twenty-meter-long cylinders of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, argon and methane gas; and the distribution systems to pump them where needed. The mid-section held banks and banks of freezers filled with frozen foods and rows of racking containing boxed and canned foods of all descriptions. The aft section held supplies for crew and ship; like clothing and spare parts.

  The deck above that one contained a mess hall and galley for two hundred. Aft of that, was a gymnasium and pool facility. The mid-section bore a sizable sickbay. The aft section had three sub-sections of living quarters.

  Deck four was divided between more living quarters, offices and the main navigation bridge. The deck plating above that was enclosed in transparent aluminum and held rows and rows of upright racks with plant boxes full of soil growing fresh foods they would need. Large areas of its surface were planted with fruit trees and grass; and in the aft portion an apiary, supported by two bee keepers, provided the technical knowledge to keep the plant life fertile and productive.