The Quantum Connection

'Ha! It's a Dyson sphere! The little Gray bastards are building a Dyson sphere,' Anson answered.

'A Dyson sphere?' Anne Marie asked.

Mike, download all information on a Dyson sphere to Tatiana and me. 

Okay, Steven. 

'I see!' Tatiana said as she assimilated the data Mike downloaded to us. I had a similar reaction.

'Annie, my dear, a Dyson sphere is a thing named after the physicist Freeman Dyson since it was his idea. I think he got the idea from an old science fiction novel called The Star Maker by a fellow named Olaf Stapledon. We need to get this book on our reading list.' Anson began explaining the concept. 'But it was Dyson who really did the first scientific analysis of the concept and he figured that an advanced civilization, like these Gray fellows here, could build a giant hollow sphere around a star and live on the inside of the sphere. Since the sphere would then be a closed system around the sun it would basically capture all the energy from that sun on the sphere's interior surface and in turn supply all the energy that civilization would ever need. There are other unique properties of the sphere as well, such as camouflaging your entire star system and civilization—well, except for in the infrared. And a lot of other stuff like the immense amount of real estate that you would create for your civilization to live on. Think of how much surface area there would be on the inside of a shell two AUs in radius. That's huge! You know, come to think of it, I bet these Gray guys could implement that cloaking technology on the sphere and completely hide themselves away. I bet they could bleed the excess infrared energy right off into the quantum vacuum energy fluctuations without any violations of a global entropy equation. Second law of thermodynamics then wouldn't be a factor. Hmm . . . one has to wonder how they plan to keep it in place and stable. Perhaps they will only build a Ringworld like Niven's book. I wonder . . .' Anson looked on in wonder at the construction process and continued to mumble and whistle to himself.

The aliens flew us in closer to the largest portion of the unfinished Dyson sphere or ring or whatever it would eventually be. As we approached the surface it became more and more obvious how large this ring structure was. The surface looked infinite from nearby and it wasn't even more than a percent or so complete. A civilization that can travel at a million times faster than the speed of light and that can construct such a huge undertaking must think of creatures like us humans as nothing more than insects. We imagined that we had something that would scare them. I began to think we had been wrong. Something, anything, that would scare these aliens must be . . . SCARY!

We landed on a high-rise portion of the ring that must have been a half of a degree out of the ecliptic plane and it was more than a hundred kilometers above the bottom surface of the ring. The aliens set us down gently and then that childlike voice came through the communications system.

'Earthlings, you can now lower your warp field as we have you captured in a confinement bubble of our own. We will not harm you as long as you show no signs of intent to harm us in any way. Be warned that we will not hesitate to remove you from the hive in an instant if you indicate such hostility.'

'Mike,' Tabitha said, 'lower the warp field.'

'The field is down, Tabitha.'

'Okay. You heard the man. NO SIGNS OF HOSTILITY. Y'ALL GOT IT!' Tabitha warned us and then repeated the announcement over the ship's intercom to the remaining part of the crew.

'How do you want to proceed, Mom?' Anne Marie asked. She must have been a bit scared because I had never heard her call her mother anything other than General while on duty.

Tabitha smiled at her oldest daughter. 'We do this slow and cautious. Only those who volunteer to go will go. Nobody has to, and we won't think any more or less of anybody who wishes to stay here. All volunteers to accompany me to meet the alien leaders raise their hand.' Tabitha sighed a breath of relief when all of the hands went up.

'Very good, Al, Sara, and Annie, thanks for volunteering but I want you three to stay here as our backup in case we need you . . .'

'But Mom . . .'

'Lieutenant Ames, that is an order and it is not up for further discussion. You are in command of the Phoenix upon my leave,' Tabitha ordered. Al and Sara were none too happy about the idea either, but it appeared there was nothing they could do about it. She made no attempt to keep Tatiana and me from going. First of all, she needed us and our special abilities to communicate with Mike and Mikhail. Besides that, she couldn't have stopped us from going if she had wanted to. Fortunately, it didn't come to that. I was going to find out what the Grays want with my wife and the hundreds of thousands of other humans back on Earth who were isolatees. And I owed the Gray sons of bitches some payback for making me crazy for nearly four years of my life.

CHAPTER 21

We stepped out of the payload bay of the Phoenix onto the top of the high-rise building we had landed on and there we were met by a sea of little Grays. I counted forty of them. The first five were distinguished by a slight orange and brown random spotting, almost like freckles, on their faces. The one in the lead was holding some sort of device in his hand. The device was about the size of a credit card and was making no noise or light—yet the little freckle-faced alien was paying close attention to it.

Mike, what is that thing doing? 

What thing, Steven? 

The little credit-card-shaped thing in the lead Gray's hand. 

Steven! My sensors pick up an Infrastructure pinging like I have never detected before. The fluctuations are directed at us all but they are focusing and concentrating on Tatiana! 

Tatiana, look out! Mike and I thought to her simultaneously.

A beam of white-and-blue light flung from the card and flowed like a fluid toward Tatiana. Mike's early detection gave her just enough time to turn on her personal warp bubble armor. The blue light surrounded her and engulfed her in a millisecond, and formed a complete ball of swirling blue-and-white light around her warp bubble. The ball shrunk almost infinitely fast into a tiny singular point and then it vanished even from my eyesight it was so small. And then . . . as fast as it had occurred . . . it was gone. She was gone!