Dimensional Theory and Technology
Dr. Hans Kreller, a 36-year-old scientist with a PhD, stood in silent admiration, his hands pressed firm to the rim of the smooth, circular balcony. A hundred feet beneath him, the machines hummed to the song they had finally written. It had taken three hundred years, but Dimensional Theory and Technology Corporation had produced the technology to jump between dimensions.
Kreller's first jump was, for him, the experience of a hundred lifetimes. To say that it was breathtaking would belie the very roots of dimensional travel. He had burst through a barrier that it seemed could not be broken. And yet, understating the sheer awe of his experience, as Kreller was wont to do, he had declared that it was "merely the next step in the evolution of human technology and thought."
The cat was out of the bag. Every citizen of the IPR who had access to a radio tower input cable knew about it. All that remained was for Dr. Kreller to officially reveal it, and for the new technology to be implemented properly. Humanity now had the ability to travel in a higher dimension, to "jump up" at the beginning of a journey and "jump down" at the end. A ship equipped with a dimensional drive could travel many times faster than the speed of light.
The great mechanized assembly line was churning out the first dimensional engine that was certain to function properly. DTT Corp. had burned seven prototypes before settling upon their final design, the model in which Kreller himself had jumped. When he returned from the last of the three required tests and got out of the module, he had pretended to be convulsing and delirious. It was quite a scare for the younger interns, but none of them passed out until Kreller stood up and said, "We must alter the hamburger condiments of the mechanism."
The cheering of the crowd had gotten loud enough that Kreller could hear it as a faint hum overwhelming that of the machines. Over 4 million people now lived on Mars, and it seemed they were all watching and waiting in the vast open space around the DTT headquarters. Over the last thousand years, humans had been braving the long voyages of space. Many explorers used cryogenic stasis to maintain themselves as the ship's autopilot took them to faraway planets and moons. Some created huge ships that could support a continuing population for thousands of years, and blasted off into the unknown. Within two centuries of the start of the second millennium, Mars had been colonized, and terraforming had slowly begun to take root. Earth's moon received human settlements almost instantly. Through careful timing, humans had minimized the travel distance between Mars and the farther planets, but after a thousand years of conquering pieces of the void, there had been far more terrible deaths than glorious victories. As Dr. Hans Kreller reflected on the bravery and spirit of the old pioneers, he turned to see two men walking toward him.
"Dr. Kreller! It's time. They're waiting for you out there."
Dr. Kreller waved them off. As they shrugged and turned to leave, he took one last backward glance at the machines humming away below him. A mist of sparks flew up and enveloped the entire assembly line, and the first dimensional engine ever built came rolling through as the fire slowly settled down and died. Kreller climbed a ladder to the speech chamber. It was magnificent - a glass elliptical room with an environment suitable for human comfort, from which the entire crowd could see him and hear him speak. As he stood at the podium, which was at the focal point nearest the crowd, the cheering began to fade, and they all waited on his words. When it was completely silent, he began.
"Ladies, gentlemen, citizens of Mars! For the last thousand years, the bravery of the human spirit has been forging the solar system into an interplanetary republic! Your very presence here today is the result of a great victory in mankind's battle with the unforgiving void! But have you ever wondered what it would be like to explore not just our nine planets, but the rest of the galaxy as well? Today, I give to you that ability!"
The dimensional engine rolled out of the manufacturing plant and came into view of the entire audience as it was lifted on a pedestal. It looked like a chrome-silver stovepipe hat, and on its front were a hundred controls. Inside the covering lay a machine with two million circuits, a network of microcomputers built into one larger device. Kreller's eighth prototype popped up from the floor below him and a projection screen came down from the ceiling as the crowd watched in anticipation.
"With this engine, we can travel light years in a matter of hours! We have the power to jump between dimensions, and we can now explore the galaxy with ease! I will demonstrate for you the power of this new technology. The screen behind me has been attached to a dimensional communication device. Sound that is received will be broadcast loud and clear through the sphere for you all to hear. Oh yeah.
I will now make a jump back to Earth and record myself on the dimensional communicator. You will see me standing in front of the IPR capitol building in only a few minutes."
With that, Dr. Kreller stepped into his module and initiated the jump. The module physically disappeared before the eye could register it, but a dynamic electric-blue silhouette was left behind. More riveting still was the feed on the dimensional communicator. The swirling energies had such vibrancy that it seemed the entire sphere would explode from mere visual contact with them. Those energies dominated the screen for approximately 46 seconds, then the silhouette disappeared and the feed was displaying the module and Dr. Kreller again. Kreller stepped out of the module and pointed the communicator at the IPR building.
"Well, people of Mars, here I am now on Earth. You see there the capitol building of our government. I arrived here in a little under a minute, as you noticed. I put a call in to the government earlier, told them to keep the grass clear of people. I think I killed a few frogs when I materialized here - I hope the environmentalists don't come after me.
To further demonstrate the versatility of this device, I will remain here as I answer all questions you might have. I will be able to hear you across the dimensional communicator, so ask all the questions you want answered, and I will teach you all the things I know. One at a time, please."
"Dr. Kreller. I'm an undergrad studying biology. Can you tell me what effects dimensional travel may have on the human body?"
"Well, in all the tests we ran on myself and a few others, we determined that there are no adverse effects, either immediate or prolonged. We did not continue observation outside a two-week period, which I believe is standard protocol to ensure safety. I did pick up a mild allergy to some pollen somewhere along the line."
"Heh, thank you very much, Dr. Kreller."
"No problem. Next question?"
"Dr. Kreller, I'm a student of engineering. I just wanna know...how? How did you design this dimensional engine?"
Dr. Kreller pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his brow and forehead with it. "Wow. That's a pretty involved question. I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell you that my full report on the design, technical concepts, mathematics, and test results of this engine is being made available to the public domain as we speak. By tomorrow, you should be able to pick up a copy of it via Internet, libraries, college science departments, and any other access within the intellectual universe. I believe that will answer your design questions."
"Can you tell me at least why it is shaped like a stovepipe hat?"
Dr. Kreller adopted a voice in much the same manner of the 20th and 21st century comedian Robin Williams and said, "I'm a scientist. I can do stuff like that and get away with it. Any other questions?"
"Yes. I am a military officer in the Third Martian Infantry Corps. I wanted to know if you intend to allow the military to use your invention."
"Hmm. Now there's an interesting question. Humanity has come together as one race and conquered all but the farthest planets of our solar system, even before the dimensional engine was an inkling of a dream. What could the military possibly need with this device? When you can answer that, tell your superiors I'll of course be speaking with them privately later. Are there any more questions? ...no? All right, thank you all for coming out and watching my demonstration. Remember, my report will be available soon for all of you to read on your own time. Good day and peace to you all!"
Dr. Kreller turned off the communicator, and the screen was turned off and pulled up back at DTT's Mars headquarters. The crowd began filing out slowly, like layers being peeled off a grapefruit. The people at DTT knew Kreller was attending to his business, so they went about their own without worry or question.
Kreller arrived fifteen minutes later on Io, the primary moon of Jupiter. He materialized inside an atmosphere chamber. Once he emerged, he put on an atmosphere suit and left the dome. The colony on Io was relatively recent. It had only been in operation for the last fifty years. Kreller headed towards a space dock that he had drawn up the blueprints for. DTT Corp. workers had been to Io frequently for the past two weeks, and they'd started the process of putting a dimensional engine into a large spaceship. Io had been colonized by an ecosystemic ship rather than a cryostatic bay; the ship would easily support the change. Thirty generations had lived in the ship that had set out for Io 600 years before the colony was established. That ship was named the Omega Dream, and she would soon fly again.
Kreller looked her over from top to bottom. She was truly an amazing craft. A dome 10 miles in radius that held all that was required for an ecosystem. There were forests more breathtaking than any that remained on Earth. Shining rivers weaved through the soil on the ground level of the Omega Dream, and the entire system was designed to allow a small group of humans to remain in space for thousands of generations.
The DTT techs came out of the ship in atmosphere suits and reported to Dr. Kreller that they had successfully installed the engine and that the Omega Dream was ready to fly. Kreller nodded thanks to the techs, handed over their pay for the job, and got on board.
Most of the citizens of Io were on board as well. The colony had been in operation for fifty years, and precious few of the people saw an advantage in the dead moon over the living, breathing colony they had traveled in for centuries. Fifty years ago, they had been forced to land on that moon when a solar wind reached their location. Launching from Io again was an impossibility - the Omega Dream had been built in space, and was not designed to break gravity. So they had stayed for all that time. Io was just another rock in space, and they all rejoiced when Dr. Kreller came and said they could leave.
With the dimensional engine, the citizens of the Omega Dream could finally achieve the dream they all had in their hearts when they first set out, the dream that had been passed from father to son to grandson - to find alien races, develop a galactic presence, and explore the universe. When Dr. Kreller came on board, he brought with him the co-ordinates of a region of space from which they had picked up on signals that had traveled through space until they reached Earth. The order was given at once. Once everyone was on board, the Omega Dream would leave for uncharted space.
The call was put out to the farthest fringes of the colony. All those able-bodied souls who remained on Io came running with the disabled and infirm on their backs. There was hooting and hollering floating through the thin atmosphere of Io as the exodus began. Within half an hour, all the people had been taken onto the Omega Dream, and the co-ordinates had been programmed. The dimensional engine kicked into gear, and the Omega Dream vanished in one place to re-appear two Earth hours later in another. It was the place from which they had tracked the signals. Once they returned to normal space, Dr. Kreller returned command of the ship to its captain, a young man by the name of Andrew McKinley. He nodded to Dr. Kreller, but instead of returning to the pilot seat, he put on an atmosphere suit and jumped out an airlock. No sooner had he done this than his right foot hit the ground and flew up in the air, taking his leg with it and causing him to fly high above the surface, upside down. He shouted out in confusion and shock while the crew and passengers of the ship roared with laughter until their sides split. He somersaulted several times, in slow-motion style due to the atmospheric conditions, and finally came down like a deflating balloon. When he landed, he bounced a few more times and landed face down in the spongy soil. He got up, brushed himself off, and looked up to see a huge, looming planet in the sky. He blinked in disbelief a few times and then let all his anguish out in one long yell.
"JESUS CHRIST! NOT ANOTHER MOON!!"