The Lands of Inchoate 3: The Planet Within

By Edward J. Fisher

The author has had three careers. He was in the United States Air Force for 21 years and worked at Cape Canaveral at the beginning of the Apollo Era, the Pentagon as a strategic analyst and the Air Force Institute of Technology as a professor of quantitative analysis. He then taught about the use of computer applications in large organizations at Central Michigan University for 24 years and is a Professor Emeritus. During these 45 years he wrote and presented numerous technical papers, articles and presentations. Now he is an author: this is his sixth book of fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450013680

Edward J. Fisher

The author has had three careers. He was in the United States Air Force for twenty-one years and worked at Cape Canaveral at the beginning of the Apollo Era, the Pentagon as a strategic analyst and the Air Force Institute of Technology as a professor of quantitative analysis. He then taught about the use of computer applications in large organizations at Central Michigan University for twenty-four years and is a professor emeritus. During these forty-five years, he wrote and presented numerous technical papers, articles, and presentations. Now he is an author. This is his sixth book of fiction.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Two elements of the cover are based on photographs from the National Aeronautical and Space Administration Web site. While all characters in this book are fictional, the following three individuals have given the author permission to use their names. They are Jennifer Robison, Rick Blessen, and their son Johnathon.

PREFACE

Those of you who have braved the first two segments of this story, The Lands of Inchoate: the Now Time and The Lands of Inchoate 2: the Before Time, may go on to the prologue. However, if you have forgotten what day it is on Inchoate or how to make change for a purchase there, you might want to continue here.

Many things happened to many characters in those earlier pieces of the saga, and you must read the books to find out who went where and why.

If you insist on reading this portion of the story, regardless of how much you know, there are a number of useful appendices at the end. You will find out how the dates are set, how many bronze coins equal a silver one, and what a Progenitor or travalink is.

Inchoate (in-KO-8) is a planet made of dark matter. Scientists believe that the universe is about 75-percent dark matter and dark energy. Dark matter and our real matter don’t interact very much, but do share energy spectra. This leads to all kinds of things that can happen when Inchoate passes through or into the Earth, or other regular matter.

The planet is one-sixth the scale of Earth. The people there use the metric system, but the reader must realize that a kilometer on Inchoate is like six kilometers here. A volume of an object one cubic meter on Earth would only be 1/216 of that on Inchoate. Since the laws of physics would apply to both places, this means that the amount of energy needed to move a scaled Inchoate object would be greatly reduced.

Some creatures from Earth fell through a passage between the worlds. Thus, on Inchoate, many birds, rodents, and reptiles seem six times their size on the surface of Earth. We assume that the Higgs bosons that account for the mass of atoms have been reduced as well.

I hope you enjoy the story.

PROLOGUE

My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—

It gives a lovely lighti

                             —Edna St. Vincent Millay

If the world’s scientists are correct, we live in a multiverse. Because of our senses, we believe we experience only one. This could be an illusion; every time we make a decision and carry out an action that changes an outcome, we may be slipping from one universe to another. We may never know. From my own experiences, I have made decisions that have changed my life. For example, I fortunately asked a wonderful lady to become my bride. She accepted and my life has been much better than if she had refused.

Inchoate is a curious place with wondrous creatures, sentients, and places. The people who live there lead lives, make decisions, and change outcomes; theirs may be a multiverse of dark matter and energy. In our first visit, Inchoate was in a satellite in orbit around the Sirius star system. The inhabitants did not know how they had gotten there until their scientists uncovered clues, tested hypotheses, and took nearly a thousand years to figure it out. By then it was almost too late; their precious world was in a deadly war, and the stars and giant planets of that system were about to swallow them up.

In the second chronicle of Inchoate, we learned how these peculiar people behaved when their planet was within the Earth. The Progenitors, visitors from a distant star system, had come to the planet to build a travalink, a wonderful device that helped them move quickly from one part of the galaxy to another. A terrible accident at the northwestern end of the travalink cascaded into a massive exodus of the whole planet, their civilization, and their manhole covers in a great data stream that delivered them to Sirius.

In this volume, we find out whether or not they make a successful return to Earth.

I am a storyteller and must concentrate fully on the details, so do not tell me your name, how old you are, or where you live, or I might forget important facts. Before we begin, I am giving you a scallop shell, some dental floss, and a pocket mirror. Don’t lose them.

CHAPTER ONE

CIRCLING SIRIUS

I would have thee gone;

And yet no further than a wanton’s bird

Who lets it hop a little from her hand

Like a poor prisoner is his twisted gyves,

And with a silk thread plucks it back again,

So loving-jealous of his libertyii.

                                         —William Shakespeare

One Journey’s End

An hour after the Master of the Inchoate Polytechnic Institute had been assassinated, his replacement, Sylva Sylvaram, now the 101st to hold the title, called the other ten Progenitors to his old suite. He would move to the Master’s quarters after it had been cleared of his predecessor’s personal possessions, which were few. Those of importance would be kept as part of history. The rest would be destroyed.

He was in as close to a state of shock as was possible for one of his species. The Progenitors were from another sector in the galaxy, and were incredibly intelligent, strong, agile, very tall, with large almond shaped eyes of emerald, azure, or tangerine, had complexions of various shades of gray, and remarkably good teeth.

A little over an hour before, the Master had been telling the great audience of the conference held after the war had ended—how Madeleine Hilarious, Queen of Sudlandt, had bravely helped the North by secretly passing vital information before and during the conflict, and that she would lead her country with fairness and fidelity. From the darkened balcony came a terrible dart that exploded ferociously within the Master’s chest, causing near calamity among those gathered in the large auditorium.

Now he was Sylva Sylvaram, and he had to think quickly how to handle the panicking crowd. In a loud clear voice, he commanded silence and order, and all who heard him obeyed. He then told the crowd to leave quietly and quickly. They followed the order.

The Progenitors had come to Inchoate long ago to build a travalink, a method of moving great distances from one star system to another. They tried not to interfere with the natives of the planet, but they were often asked for assistance, and they gave it. Their advice was not always followed, which led to new problems and more advice. Things had now come to a point where they had to save the planet and all on it to save the travalink.

Sylvaram began the meeting. You know why you are here. Are any of you currently companions? A couple to his left and another to his right held up their hands.

The two on the left were Alice Springs, a subatomic physicist, and Mason Banetree, the head of the chemistry department. The other couple was Eagre Sojourner, professor of literature, and Hue Loxodonta, the director of the travalink group.

Sylvaram keenly looked from one couple to the other. Springs’s background in physics would meld with Banetree’s in chemistry; both had sound, scientific, and serene minds. Sojourner read too far afield in her endless search for perfect masterpieces and for all her searching had found only three. Loxodonta would be needed throughout the preparation for the flight from Sirius. Springs and Banetree will conceive a male fetus, bring him to term, and see to his upbringing. Sojourner and Loxodonta will be the child’s guardians and help with the care and education of the boy.

All knew there were always to be twelve Progenitors on Inchoate, and that this was the only way to ensure the continuity of the group. Sojourner and Loxodonta joined the chosen parents and wished them well and would help with any task to make the path as smooth as possible. Alice and Mason thanked them and confessed they would have done the same if the others had been chosen.

The process would be hygienic and without pain: the best of Alice’s eggs and the best of Mason’s sperms would be combined in an incubator. The process would take four months and the boy would be as perfect as the others; all Progenitors were faultless. Because of another major problem, the process would not begin until much later.

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The Progenitors’ Dilemma

Eight of the Progenitors left Sylvaram’s suite. Lady Lælia Evanescence, the new provost of the Polytek (as most referred to the Institute), and Asma Caprice, who had become the general director under Lady Evanescence’s guidance, remained seated before Sylvaram. They stayed together several hours, sorting out the tangle of things they had to do.

Sylvaram was lanky, with muscles like supple serpents. His hair was short and of a gray much darker than his skin and complimented his dark tangerine eyes. He always seemed friendly and remembered everything in minute detail. He was a highly qualified detective, master of disguise, a magician, and a shape shifter. He was a worthy Master of the Polytek.

Lady Evanescence was stately and very striking. Her large emerald eyes were brilliant, and she wore her hair long and luxurious, cascading over her scalp to her back like a waterfall of light. Her hair seemed to change in shade and color to match her clothing and the lighting. She had a sonorous voice and a memory even more detailed than Sylva’s. She could bring to the moment, not only who said what to whom, but where they were and what they wore. Her recollection could be used as evidence in a court of law. She too was a shape shifter and could be two places at the same time.

Asma Caprice was thoughtful, always musing as if to solve a problem. A bit shorter than Lælia, she was just as arresting. Her pale azure eyes caught every detail before her. She chose to keep her fine copper hair short in a pageboy close to her head, with simple curls that flipped up under her delicate ears. A master of detail, she could multitask a dozen projects at once. She had a number of other capabilities, as we will see as the story progresses.

Sylva said there would, of course, be a proper somber but simple ceremony commemorating the late Master. The next day would be declared as one to remember this great leader. He would be quietly cremated within the Polytek. His ashes would be placed in an urn standard for his rank and put to rest in the peaceful Crypt of the Progenitors in a serene wooded glen within the vast walls of the institute.

Queen Hilarious was to be crowned as sovereign of Sudlandt on the 19th of 9Month, 965 AST. The ceremony would be open to the public in the central park of Dolphene. There would be bright lights, bands, cheers, dancing and singing, and lots of food and beverages. The final event would, of course, be an extravagant display of fireworks. Hopefully that would cheer the public and put them in a mood for the more pressing and anguished days to follow.

Sylvaram instructed Ms. Caprice to insure that the trains that had brought dignitaries to the conference were ready to leave Dolphene as soon as was practical. These leaders that had attended the conference had to prepare their citizens for the great cataclysm that was soon to be upon them.

Two years earlier, astronomers from the Polytek had detected a most alarming stellar event soon to occur: Inchoate, the dark matter world within an uninhabited satellite of the Sirius system, was in grave danger. The stars and three giant planets of the system would soon line up in such a way as to pull the satellite and Inchoate out of orbit and perhaps into the nearer star. Clearly, the scientists had to ascertain their prediction and offer a solution.

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The Dangers Ahead

Time is not continuous. At magnifications large enough to observe subatomic particles, minute intervals of time are separated, one from another, by a true vacuum, the absence of everything. To move through time, an object at one instant must wink out of existence and wink in at the nearest interval of time. The gap between two successive intervals is much smaller than Planck’s constant, the value of which is approximately 6.626 × 10-34 joule-seconds. Tiny but essential. Here chaos lurks. Any changes to the object, such as velocity or mass, must occur within the time segments.

Further, space is full of tachyons. These subatomic particles move faster than the speed of light, in microscopic orbits. At such speeds, a tachyon’s mass is real and positive. On losing energy, a tachyon accelerates. The faster it travels, the less energy it has.

When an object passes through a field of tachyons, it causes some tachyons to accelerate, and others to decelerate, leaving a distinct wake in the field until another object zips through the same field, replacing the earlier wake with its own. In deepest space, where few things move, the wake can leave a fingerprint that something winking this way came. The fingerprint affirms where the object was in the past and when. In the regions between stars an object may leave a trail of time crumbs, telling from whence it came to where it went. The space-time continuum is a complex masterpiece.

The scientists of the Polytek sent probe rockets out to