Article Six
By C. T. Christensen
Text copyright © 2015 Charles T. Christensen
All Rights Reserved
www.ourwriteplace.com
The Earth is a quiet and stable place now with a population of only around six hundred million. There are only five cities on the entire planet that have a population of one million or more; modern communication and transportation systems have eliminated the need for close proximity. There are resources in abundance for everyone with near total recycling and mining operations all over the solar system. Earth exports food and specialized technology to the rest of humanity out among the stars and receives their products in return. It can be said that the only problem Earth has now is how to hang on to its population; the pull of the exotic wonders of the universe has spread humanity far and wide since 2105.
As you descend from the mid-Pacific parking orbit to the Tampa Port Facility, you only have to look north as you start over the Gulf to see where it all began.
Forty-five kilometers north of Brownsville and five kilometers east of old highway 77 are the former grounds of the Harrison-Lake Energy Research Facility. It can be reached by air or the TEX12 cycle lane. By far, the most popular part of the exhibit is the emersion booths along the edge of the landscaped crater where the Isolator once stood. You enter one of the spherical booths and press the blue button next to the door. The transparency of the booth fades and dims to the darkness of that night 196 years ago.
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It is 12:01 AM on the 8th of August 2062; the only lights are those of the research facility, but there is the occasional flash of lightening in the distant clouds to the east. The 30 meter diameter ball of the Isolator sits on its single support structure like a golf ball; the ground before you is level on that night. Flood lights illuminate the Isolator and the wheeled stairway up which three people are climbing. An area of the booth to your left changes to the interior of the Isolator; an area to your right changes to the interior of the monitor building 500 meters away from the Isolator.
Within that cramped space that is the control room of the Isolator, Doctor Richard Lake, Doctor Elizabeth Wooley, and Arnold Bellman take their seats. The control room of the monitor building is crowded with military and government representatives that are here to watch the first step to the stars. Colonel Edna Salazar commands the monitoring operation.
“Okay, Dick, the hatch is sealed and the stairs are clear.”
“Thanks Edna. Arny, how are you doing?”
Arnold Bellman finished scanning the screens above his panel, “Accumulators are at 100 percent, batteries are charged, environmental systems are online, all thru-hulls are sealed, and we are ready to drop externals, Doc.”
“Liz, how about you?”
“AG system check is complete and is in stand-by mode. Circuit integrity check on the field generator is complete and ready to activate. Isolator control system is operating at 81 percent and holding. I believe we are ready to go, Richard.”
“Okay, Liz; Edna, we’re ready.”
“You have a go from here, Dick.”
“Alright, here we go; switching to internal power.”
Doctor Lake hit the switch that transferred power input to the internal battery systems. When a correct transfer was indicated, he reached for the next switch.
“Dropping the external hook-ups.”
Arny looked through the only thru-hull transparent port in the Isolator next to his panel to watch the external power cables drop away, “External connections are clear.” he confirmed.
“Lifting now.”
This command required a tap on the screen. It energized the lift ring that ran around the equator of the Isolator inside the hull. The anti-gravity effect lifted the Isolator 10 meters away from the ground support structure.
The purpose of this experiment was to test the feasibility of isolating a spaceship from the limitations of Einstienian space-time. The math that indicated this possibility was a spin-off from the work done to develop the anti-gravity system that now removed the Isolator from any contact with other physical structures. The theorist’s consensus agreed with computer modeling, the projected effect would be a loss of EM, and possibly, visual contact when the isolator field generator was activated.
Doctor Lake tapped on the screen again, “Dumping the accumulators.”
Arny’s post was nearest the inner bulkhead that housed the generator system, “Doc, I’m getting some odd visual distortions near the--”
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What happened at this point was estimated to be in the 100 kiloton range but lacked the thermal and radiation pulse and radioactive fallout of a classic nuclear event. The monitor building at 500 meters from the Isolator and the main Harrison-Lake campus at a distance of one kilometer were totally destroyed. The recordings that are presented in the emersion booths survived only because of the backup system in the third subbasement of the main building. Damage to surrounding communities drove the death toll to 652, and included 14 in a few of the taller buildings in Brownsville.
Further experimentation into anything that resembled isolation theory was banned from the surface of the Earth with great haste. It took six years to build an orbital facility and begin experiments at the Sun-Earth L5 point, and another 37 years and five lives before the first controllable use of the Harrison-Lake Isolator Drive was accomplished.
With the door now open, humanity exploded into the galaxy and found room and wealth beyond the wildest calculation. Thousands of Isolator ships were built and a thriving trade and transport system spread with the wave of humanity. Along the way, preconceptions fell away as no evidence of other intelligent life was found. Serious thought about what procedures would be followed at first contact faded into the giddy haze of exploration.
When a scout ship from the frontier planet Archer found them, expansion in that sector just . . . stopped.
Planet Archer - 3 June 2258 (Earth Standard) - 0852 hours (local)
Admiral Governor-General Wills Reynolds took the stairs two and sometimes three
