Chapter 245: (The Black Box) (1/2)

Herod kept pacing back and forth in his little digital space. He stalked across the wet sand, kicking pebbles and shells and tiny chunks of Lossglass back into the stormy ocean as he walked up and down the beach between two massive chunks of jagged rock that hid the cliffside beach from sight. He kept going over and over in his mind the problem.

They'd done something weird, those ancient scientists. They'd taken the particles they'd known about, taken the subatomic particles they had discovered, and somehow twisted them to do what they needed them to do to make the impossible happen.

He knew the information was all right there. That he had all the clues. He had all the information, he had all the data the ancients had possessed. Hell, he had MORE then they had possessed.

But like Victor told him, just because you have the lime, the stone, and the ash, doesn't mean you know how to make concrete that endures seawater. Sure, you know how to make modern Portland Concrete, but now make the older stuff that can even take a railgun round or two.

It was driving him crazy. He'd examined the repeater over and over and over. They had one that as soon as it was turned on it synched up and immediately started moving volumes of traffic. Whole petabytes a millisecond of data just streaming in and out.

But that was the problem.

He couldn't see what was streaming in and out. The data stream, whatever made it up, was as invisible to all of his instruments as radio waves were to the human eye. He knew it depended on large scale quark strange-matter on a bizarre frequency that should have made the artificially jammed together particles disintegrate, but no, it just made rapid pulses.

Herod had examined the unpowered repeater and found that the strange matter violated a basic law.

It didn't vibrate. At all. At room temperature there was no atomic movement. It was a lump of sub-atomic strange particles that just sat there like a lump.

In the powered one, it vibrated so fast Herod was surprised it didn't burst into flame and convert into radiation.

But despite the vibration being obvious by direct examination, there was no output from the vibration that he could detect.

Worse, and even weirder, is that the 'lumps' defied another basic rule: 'Observing the state of a sub-atomic particle changes its state' was completely ignored. Not matter who observed it, with what instruments, as many at once, the states never changed.

Herod kicked a chunk of seaweed hard enough to send it sailing over the virtual horizon.

What was that matter, why did it act the way it did? It was obvious that it was the transmitter/receiver, but transmitting and receiving what? Someone had suggested maybe the particles were paired, causing the other half of the pair to vibrate the same way.

Which meant it was glorified binary code.

It made sense, until Victor had pointed out that new repeaters could be manufactured, but that meant that it was not connected to a pair.

Herod had examined the manufacturing process for the repeaters, and all he got out of it was a headache. It used strange-matter production, which was bad enough, but when he looked up the SolNet archives on what exactly that matter was, all he got was scientific paper after scientific paper examining the clump and coming up with ”We have no clue.”

One paper was summed up with an ancient image macro of a weaselly looking man saying ”It Just Works” that the smug expression on the long dead man made Herod want to invent time travel just to go back and kick that man in his testicles.

Growling he pulled a comlink out of his pocket and dialed Victor's number.

”Yes?” Victor picked it up before it could even ring.

”Do you have a moment to talk?” Herod asked. ”Not one of your clones, you.”

”I'm in the lab. Here, you can rez into the hallway outside the lab and come in,” Victor said and closed the connection.

Herod dismissed the eVR scenery and appeared in the hallway, moving up to the door and touching it. When it opened Herod went in, still mulling over the problem.

What was the particle, what was the particle cluster, and why did it vibrate the way it did?

Herod was slightly surprised. The only version in the lab was the bearded one, who was sitting in a chair, staring at four stasis cubes. The room was slightly chilly and dimly lit, the light coming from actual emitters in the ceiling rather than light emitting nanites that made the illumination come from everywhere and nowhere.

”Come in, Herod,” Victor said slowly, his voice hushed.

Herod frowned as he went inside. When he got close enough to see what was inside the slightly tinted stasis cubes he stopped.

Two of the blocks held dogs, one held a gooboi nervous system with attendant organs, the last held what looked like a human-dog crossbreed.

”Where did you get those?” Herod asked, keeping his voice low.

”Another Black Box,” Victor said, leaning back in his chair and stroking his beard. ”They're part of why I'm in here.”

”Is there another team working on this like we're working on the SUDS system?” Herod asked.

”No. Just me,” Victor said. ”Almost all of me.”

”What's the hybrid? A biological sentient?” Herod asked.

”Allow me to introduce you to them,” Victor said. He pointed at the one on the far left. ”That is Rex. He's a Eukarya Animalia Chordata Mammalia Carnivora Canidae Canis lupus - Black labrador retriever, of the St. John's Water Dog line.”

He tapped the dataslate in front of him on the far left. ”He was owned by Molly Tibbert, of Lewiston, Washington State, United States of America. His owner, who was nine at the time, brought him in to be put in stasis when he showed initial symptoms. She cried as he was put into stasis normally used for astronauts.”

He pointed at the second one. ”That is Beau. Beau is Eukarya Animalia Chordata Mammalia Carnivora Canidae Canis lupusnobilis - Black Labrador retriever, of the St. John's Water Dog line.”

”Wait, nobilis?” Herod asked. ”Why nobilis?”

”Because he could talk. He's uplifted,” Victor sighed again. ”Our oldest friend, and the second species we uplifted. It was a little more difficult than the dolphins.”

Herod just stared. The dogs looked almost identical, Beau just missing white socks.

”His best friend was Kyle Lymner, of the city of Fulda, the country of Germany. Kyle was twelve and Beau was six when Beau started showing symptoms. Kyle's parents had him put in stasis in hopes that a cure would be found,” Victor continued. He tapped the dataslate. ”That was over eight thousand years ago. It was a vain hope.”

Victor pointed at the upright looking one. ”That's Lance Corporal Robert-44824 of the United States of America Marine Corps, he's a Eukarya Animalia Chordata Mammalia Carnivora Canidae Canis lupusnobilis erectus- black labrador retriever, of the St. John's Water Dog line. A K-9 Trooper AKA 'dog-boy' of the then current slang. Genetically altered to stand upright, talk, and have closer to human problem solving and intelligence. He was put in stasis upon confirmation that he was sick.”

”I've never even seen one,” Herod said. ”Why not?”

”If I was to remove him from stasis, he would be in great pain for a day to a day and a half and then would die in agony,” Victor said. ”He'd probably reach out to me for succor, in hopes I could heal him so that our time together would not end. He would love and trust me almost immediately, without reservation or hesitation, even though he's never met me before. Even as he is dying he will be worried about how I feel about his death.”