22 Meeting Again (1/2)
”Can we possibly transform plants and animals the same way we did ourselves?” Esmere, one of the horticulturists, asked Ivan after inspecting the immediate surroundings and finding a lack of wheat or any other staple grain.
”Unfortunately not. Plant cells replicate in a different method than animal ones. They also require a type of sunlight that isn't present in subspace. There are several other reasons, but they were the main ones.” Ivan had previously asked this to Mazur, so he already knew it wasn't possible.
”Animals are also impossible. The transformation requires a firm will, while animals are especially prone to fear. Perhaps some of the more aggressive animals would succeed, like lions, but common livestock would naturally perish. We need to find replacements amongst the beasts and plants in the fourth dimension. I understand this will be difficult and may take time, but we will find them.”
Esmere sighed as if expecting the answer, but continued her task of examining the local plants. Some of them were found to bear fruit, which as long as was tested to be safe, would be an extra ingredient in their diet.
Ivan was bored as everything was now dependant on everyone else doing their part, so he walked over to Mazur and the scientists and asked, ”How are the plans for our development?”
”We have most the technological knowledge needed, so other than a few early steps of creating structures and industrial machinery, we can get started,” Mazur's whiskers twitched slightly, the only outward sign of his anticipation. ”The greatest hurdles will be turning these three-dimensional equipment into four-dimensional ones, researching a new energy source, and expanding from what we previously considered to be a technological limit of some machines.”
”What was our limit?” Ivan was slightly confused.
”Before, we could only create a two-dimensional pictures on a piece of paper, but if it is made from four-dimensional materials, we are capable of creating true three-dimensional pictures on it. Because of this, a printing press was previously at its limit for printing and the technology that it contained. Now, an entire new world of possibilities is open to what it can print.”
”And this is just one piece of equipment,” Ivan nodded his head in understanding.
”Exactly, we will first reproduce some of these devices, while others need to be improved just to function to our needs.”
Ivan, Iris and Valeria ended up joining the craftsmen who were felling several trees, slowly carving them up into usable strips of wood with extremely dense bone blades. Iris' natural charm ended up distracted both the single men and even those who had a family back on the planet, so Ivan could only have her forage for fruits with Valeria, who also acted as her guard.
The trees quickly turned into uneven planks due to no proper equipment to cut them, but the craftsmen still managed to use them to start making large huts in the surroundings.
Even though there was no concept of day and night in subspace, nor could they measure time without any clocks, Ivan and the others like to consider it in times of 24 hour days according to body clock and sleeping cycle.
Half a day passed when the first seven hunting groups returned excitedly with several different loose or broken up minerals along with the carcasses of hunted beasts.
Progress happened a little bit every day, but all these small pieces added up into an enormous amount of work over a month.
Bog iron was first harvested and forged into iron tools, far stronger than anything Ivan or the others had anticipated. But soon large veins of magnetite were found later which provided a constant source of Iron. Clay brick furnaces constantly burned blue flames and would excite the magnetite, melting it down into iron ore.
A large problem occurred as Iron ore was refined from the magnetite. It was discovered that no natural gasses existed in subspace, cutting out a portion of the periodic table. Not even Mazur could understand this at the time, as any gas would naturally transform into energy and disperse throughout subspace as if it couldn't sustain itself as a gas.
”A lot of products require gasses,” Ivan sighed heavily as he discussed the problem with Mazur. ”If we don't have them that will be a major setback on our plans.”
Mazur was thinking about this problem deeply as he scribbled complicated three-dimensional equations and hypothesis onto the sheets of paper that were beginning to fill the room. His dedication to science had astounded Ivan more than once, and it showed the reason why he was called the smartest person in the galaxy.
”It isn't that these gasses can't sustain themselves, four-dimensional matter is so stable that it probably doesn't even have a half-life. Nuclear weapons, unstable isotopes, even radiation itself is non-existent amongst this matter. I need to be able to build a four-dimensional microscope to confirm this, so it is only based off naked observational data at the moment.”
”What can we do then?”
”We need to adapt to a new form of energy. Conductivity seems impractical, and even heat itself is non-existent. The universal energy in subspace is the only option at the moment, but I haven't yet figured out how to harness it. The river is the purest form of this energy, it also acts as a state of storage in which we can interact with. We just can't tap into the raw energy that it is made from.”
”So, how long will it take you to harness this energy?”