A Voice in the Night

WEIGHING IN

Max gazed out at the cluster of distorted reflections that marked the long tubular wormhole and its entrance. “Horace,” he said, “you sure you want to do this?”

His face lit up. “Are you kidding? Do I want to be the first guy to cross over to another universe?”

“You really think it’s going to work?”

He laughed. “Who knows? Maybe it just opens up across the galaxy somewhere. Or runs into a brick wall. I’ll let you know when I get back.”

“You’re taking a substantial chance.”

“How many times are we going to go over this, pal?” Horace was a quiet, middle-aged guy, a physicist from the University of Maryland. He was short, about five-six, with usually amiable brown eyes that had recently acquired a substantial degree of intensity. If the two robot vehicles had gone through the wormhole and disappeared, what were his chances? But he was driven by the possibility of confirming a theory that had been fascinating physicists for almost three centuries. Maybe there really was a multiverse. And if so, what would they find in the cosmos next door?

Though he wouldn’t admit this, it was obvious he was enjoying the possibility that his name would go into the history books with Newton, Galileo, Einstein, Dickinson, and the others.

“What do you think happened to the first two missions?” Max asked. They’d been robot vehicles. They should have crossed over, spent a half hour looking around, and come back. They should have. But they were never heard from again.

Horace shrugged. “You want to play guessing games, Max? I’ll let you know when I find out. Maybe if it really leads into another reality, AI’s don’t work there.”

“That sounds spooky.”

“The laws of physics may be different. Listen, are we ready to go?” He’d backed off a bit, looking out at the black hole, which twisted the light coming in from nearby stars and constellations. The black hole, of course, was the reason the wormhole existed. Horace had tried to explain why that was so, but the equations were a bit too much for Max.

“Yes,” he said. “You’re sure now?”

“Of course. Eventually somebody’s going to have to do it.”

Max thought going with a human pilot was not a good idea. He glanced back at the physicist and delivered a quick smile. Normally, when someone is about to put his life on the line, you won’t see him hanging around with a look of smug satisfaction. Horace Alterr was an exception. “All right,” he said. “If you insist. Let’s get started.”

The failures, two and four years earlier, had resulted in reluctance by the World Space Authority to continue the project. But the multiverse issue was not something they could put aside forever. Consequently, they’d caved. Horace had argued that, whatever was happening, they needed a human pilot. “Send me,” he’d said. “You need somebody who can react to whatever’s going on.” And shuttles were expensive. He was their best bet, a specialist in black holes, who was also a licensed star pilot.

So they’d gone along with it. When Horace broke the news to Max, whom he’d known from an earlier mission, he had a hard time concealing the fact that he was almost delirious about becoming the first human being to leave the known universe. “Would you like to come along?” he’d added. “I can make it happen.”

No, no,” Max had said. “I’ll pass on that.”

Horace had visited several black holes over the past few years. But this would be his first encounter with the only known wormhole.

As they approached the entrance, Max took a better angle, braked until he had the Breckinridge effectively in drift mode, and shut the engines down. “Ready to go,” he said.

“Okay. Wish me luck.” He got out of his seat and started for the passenger cabin. “I’ll go below and get ready. Let me know when.”

He held up a hand to signal that he should wait. “Let the AI do the piloting in the wormhole.”

“Will do.”

“And stay in touch as long as you can.”

“Of course. And I’ll come right back. I won’t keep you in suspense.”

Max hated this. There were too many ways things could go wrong. One of the other two physicists on board, Jay McClelland, had pointed out that if they really succeeded in arriving in another universe, they had no guarantee that everything would work the same way. For example, the shuttle’s drive unit might not function.

“That sort of thing is possible,” Horace had said. “But it’s unlikely.”

He stopped in the passenger cabin to talk with Emily and Jay. They were not going with him, of course. Both were along simply to provide encouragement. Or, as Max suspected, the WSA was hoping they would talk Horace out of making the effort.

Officially they were listed as advisors. But they took every opportunity to try to dissuade him from following through on the mission. Horace was a major figure in the physics world, not so much because of his accomplishments, but due to his connections with money. He came from a wealthy family with influence around the globe. Consequently his presence brought in substantial contributions and support. And now the directors stood a good chance of losing him. They would undoubtedly have preferred that someone else take the risk. They could of course have simply said no, but that would have cost them Horace’s support.

There was more talk of good luck, and Emily asked if he was sure he wanted to proceed. “Who knows what’s out there?” she said. “Maybe a hostile civilization. Somebody who doesn’t like visitors.”

Horace laughed. “That’s unlikely, Emily. You know that as well as I do.”

“There are a lot of possibilities.”

“Listen, you guys take care. I’ll see you when I get back.”

Max got out of his chair and watched from the open doorway. “What do you think happened to the two shuttles?” asked Jay.

Horace sucked his lips. “I’d guess a natural phenomenon of some sort. That’s why we need me to react to the problem, if it turns up. I’ll let you know if I run into any evil aliens.”

They’d had the conversation several times. “What happens,” said Emily, “if the gate opens a half mile from a sun?”

“Listen, guys, I have to go.”

Max wondered if possibly it might open at the bottom of an ocean.

“Don’t do it,” said Emily.

Horace sighed. “You guys are starting to sound like the people back home.” He paused. “You sure nobody wants to come?”

They stood and looked at him and shook their heads. Then Horace grinned. “See you soon.” He proceeded down the ramp to the launch bay. Two minutes later he reported he was inside the shuttle.

Emily thought the whole idea was crazy. She didn’t have a personal link with Horace. Max thought the WSA had sent her along because she was persuasive and might be able to talk him out of it. Jay, on the other hand, was a lifetime friend who also had no interest in watching him sail off into the wormhole. He was about six feet, with a beard just beginning to show gray streaks. “He’s been in my life a long time,” he said. He had never before been on an interstellar. He’d admitted to Max that he wasn’t sure the artificial gravity would work for him, and that he’d possibly be sick throughout the flight. That hadn’t actually happened, but he had suffered a few bouts of vertigo.

The wormhole snaked across the sky, its outline formed of twisted reflections of stars and clusters. The entrance, the gateway, was about a dozen kilometers ahead. Max didn’t like missions with serious risks. He hated having anything to do with it. Ordinarily he’d have turned down the assignment. But Horace had asked him to come. Please. There’d been no way to refuse. So now he waited on the bridge feeling helpless. Then Rex, the AI, made his announcement: “Ready to go, Captain.”

He checked the launch bay to be certain everything was okay. Horace was seated inside the shuttle. Despite all pretense, he looked unsettled. The shuttle’s fuel was okay. Max checked through other routine details, satisfied himself they were ready to go, and started depressurization of the cargo bay, which also served as the launch area. He sat quietly watching Horace, who probably knew he was on display on the bridge.

“Looking forward to this,” he said. He continued, talking about how excited he was, admitting he was mildly nervous, and thanked all three of them for coming out here with him. When the preps were done, Max wished him luck again and opened the launch doors. “Clear to go, Champ.”

“On my way, Maximilian.”

The captain wanted to ask again whether he was certain about this. But he suspected if there was any chance of his backing out, a last doubt from Max would cancel it. His fingertip touched the launch button. He waited a few more seconds. And pressed it.

Emily and Jay came onto the bridge as the shuttle moved slowly toward the wormhole gateway. Max turned its navigation lights on. “Everything all right?” asked Jay.

Max nodded. “So far.”

Emily took the right hand seat while Jay leaned on the back of Max’s chair. They watched the shuttle’s lights dwindle in the night.

“This is seriously dumb,” said Jay. “I was hoping he’d figure that out.”

“He might have,” said Emily, “if we hadn’t kept telling him about it.” There was an accusatory tone and Jay’s face reddened. “I’m talking about us both,” she added.

Emily looked disconcerted. She had compact features, dark eyes, red hair, an expression that suggested she was expecting an unhappy result. It had been apparent from the moment she came on board that she’d expected Horace to accept her recommendations and back off. Now she made no effort to conceal her growing irritation.

The shuttle was approaching the scattering of twisted light that formed the gateway. And, finally, its own lights disappeared in the morass.

They all knew how everything was supposed to work. The shuttle would continue directly ahead through the wormhole until it reached the exit gate, which would be another tangle of light. When the vehicle got there, it would simply pass through and leave the wormhole. At that point radio connection with the shuttle would cease.

“Damn it,” said Jay. “This is crazy.”

“Let’s not give up yet,” said Max.

“You going to call him?” Jay asked, “before he leaves the tunnel?”

“Let’s give him a few minutes.”

“Are we sure,” Emily asked, “radio contact can be made from in there?”

“Yes. It’s never been a problem.”

“Pity we can’t talk to him after he crosses over,” said Jay. “That would simplify things.”

The radio blinked on. “Checking in,” Horace said.

“You okay?”

“So far. You want to take a look around?”

“Please.”

The control panel viewscreen lit up. Inside the wormhole, the distorted stars all seemed closer. Reflections of the shuttle were visible in two places, as if there were two shuttles, one on the starboard side, and one overhead in front of him.

“It looks pretty gloomy,” said Emily.

“Yeah.” Jay’s eyes looked empty. “This isn’t exactly a place for a night out.”

Max wanted to talk to him, to say something reassuring. But it was better to keep quiet.

“Should be out of here in a minute or two,” said Horace. “Jay?”

“I’m here.”

“Jay, if this doesn’t go well, tell everybody at home I was okay. That I was doing what I wanted.”

“There’s still time to shut down.”

Horace laughed. “How would I ever go home again if I did that?”

“We can come up with a story later.”

“You’re one of the great human beings of our time, Jay.”

“Please, Horace,” said Emily. “Stop while you can.”

They heard him make that squishy sound that he produced by rubbing his lips together. Then it was gone. He was gone.

Emily and Jay returned to the passenger cabin. Max sat for a few minutes, hoping Horace would come right back. When it didn’t happen he got out of his seat and turned the ship over to the AI. “Rex,” he said, “let us know if you hear anything.”

“Of course, Captain.”

Emily was holding back tears while telling Jay she was sorry she’d come. “This whole thing is a disaster.”

Jay was shaking his head. “I’ve never known him to fail at anything. If there’s a way to make this work, he’ll find it.”

Max took one of the seats. He’d have felt much better if either of them had shown any indication of thinking this would end happily. “As scary as this is,” said Jay, “I’d love to be part of the first mission to another universe.”

Emily nodded. “I hate to say this, but it’s something I’ve dreamt about my entire life. But when the opportunity came up, I ducked.”

That surprised Max. “They offered you a seat on the shuttle?”

“Oh no. Nothing like that. When they asked for volunteers, I just thought it was crazy. No way I was going to get into that. But I’d have liked to be able to tell people I’d applied but was passed over. If the AI’s couldn’t find their way home, I had no reason to think I’d be able to.”

“I didn’t know you were a pilot,” said Jay.

“I wasn’t. But I thought they might be willing to overlook that requirement and just include me as a technical specialist. The truth is I was afraid they’d do just that if I put my name in.”

They sat listening, waiting for Rex to say something. Gradually the silence grew deafening. “If you can enter a wormhole here,” Max asked, “is there any reason you guys can think of that would prohibit you from coming back through the gate?”

They looked at each other. Finally Emily took the question. “There is any number of possibilities. For example, the wormhole itself might not be a problem, but the physics of that universe could be different.”

“Different how?”

“We already talked about time moving at a different pace. Maybe six weeks would pass out here while Horace takes two minutes to turn the shuttle around.”

“Or,” said Jay, “electricity might not work.”

“That’s not possible, is it?” asked Max.

“Why not?”

“So you’re saying the AI’s might not have come back because the lights went out?”

“That could be exactly what happened,” said Emily. She checked the time. He’d been gone seven minutes.

Jay cleared his throat. “He told me he expected to be back right away, that he wouldn’t keep us waiting. He figured no less than fifteen or twenty minutes. A half-hour at most. He said if he was over there longer than that we should go home.”

“We’ll wait a minimum of three days,” said Max. “A week if we have to.” If he returned even later, he could contact the Aroica station. They could get assistance here in a couple of days.

They waited as the minutes lengthened to twelve.

And fifteen.

When they reached twenty, Jay suggested they should go after him. “It shouldn’t take this long.” That would be tricky. There wasn’t a backup vehicle. The shuttle had occupied the space that would ordinarily have held a lander. So Max’s only option, if they had to follow the shuttle, would be to use the starship and take everybody with him.

“Relax, Jay,” Emily said. “Anybody want a sandwich?”

Nobody. Neither did she. Max rarely drank, but he could have used some whiskey then. There was of course nothing like that in the storage lockers.

They were all watching their links as the first half hour dwindled to two minutes. When the time finally was gone, Jay lifted his head and closed his eyes. “I knew this was going to happen.”

“Let’s just be patient,” said Emily.

They’d discussed before what they would do if Horace, like the previous missions, simply disappeared into the night. He’d said he might get distracted, would maybe encounter something spectacular. But he’d assured them he wouldn’t stay more than thirty minutes. “I don’t want you guys getting hung up because of me. If this doesn’t go well, do not come after me. Under any circumstances.”

They sat listening to the silence for a second half hour. How Max would respond to this outcome had been at the forefront of his mind since he’d accepted the assignment six weeks earlier.

“This is not good,” said Emily.

Jay let them see that he agreed.

“Not much we can do,” Max said.

“So we wait three days?” asked Emily.

“Those are our guidelines. At least three days.”

“Max, if he’s not back in three days, he’s not coming back.”

“I think that’s the point.”

“If he’s in trouble, he needs us now, not over the weekend.”

Emily got up and left the cabin to get some coffee. Jay took a deep breath. “She’s right. We can’t afford to wait any longer. If we’re going to help him, we have to do it now.”

“Jay, you really want to go after him? We’re looking at a third failed mission. And we’ve no idea why.”

“Then we should find out.”

“We’ve been explicitly instructed not to do that.”

“I understand, Max. But Horace would never have gone off and left us over there.”

“I agree,” said Emily. She was standing behind them with her coffee.

“Okay,” Max said. It was, he thought, the dumbest decision he’d ever made. He went back to the bridge, where Emily joined him. Jay stayed in the passenger cabin. Max asked if they were both sure about this. They simply nodded. He told them to secure their belts, activated the engines, and started slowly toward the mashed light surrounding the gateway. He took a deep breath as they passed through into the tunnel. A reflection of the Breckinridge appeared high on their port side. He matched the velocity Horace had used and counted off nine minutes, two less than had passed before the shuttle had gone out though the exit.

“This is a much bigger vehicle,” Emily said. “That might help.”

“Maybe,” said Max, having no idea what she might be suggesting.

“Good luck to us,” said Jay.

The Breckinridge was barely moving. They passed through the wormhole, and approached the exit. Max saw a shadow fall over the ship’s prow. No, not a shadow. The prow was disappearing into darkness. Then the area housing the bridge followed, and the prow was back. But the surrounding lights were gone, replaced by a thin gray mist. “We’ve crossed over,” he said. “We’re on the other side.”

“What’s all the haze out there?” asked Jay.

Max turned on the radio. “Horace, you there? Answer up please.”

Emily broke in. “Stop us! Stop moving forward.”

Max applied the brakes.

“Okay. Stay where we are.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The mist. We don’t want to lose touch with the gate. Where the hell are the stars?”

They slowed to a stop and sat waiting, but there was still no reply from Horace. Not even any static.

“Horace? Can you hear me?”

“Ouch.” Jay’s voice, from the cabin, along with a thump.

“What happened?”

“I got out of my seat too soon. Bumped my head. I don’t think the artificial gravity’s working.”

The generator was on. But Max could feel his body pushing against the restraints. He looked through the door into the passenger cabin. Jay was off the deck, afloat, hanging onto the top of a chair. “You okay?” he asked.

Jay pulled himself down. “Yeah. I’m good. I was scared for a minute. I thought we’d lost power.”

“No, we’re okay. Gravity’s off. Probably got a loose coil or something. I’ll check when we have a minute.”

“Where’s the fog coming from?” asked Emily.

“Horace,” said Max. “Please respond. You there?” The silence was overwhelming. Jay was feeling the bump on the side of his head. “You sure you’re all right?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

There was nothing outside but mist. And the radio remained quiet. Not even any static. And no stars. Maybe they were inside a cloud. “All right, let’s see if we can find him.” Max activated the scanner and the screen lit up. “He can’t be far.”

“Let’s hope,” said Emily.

The scan came up empty. “That can’t be right,” said Max. “That covers every direction. There’s nothing out there. Not a damned thing.”

“But he’s only been here a half hour,” said Emily. “The shuttle doesn’t have a star drive, does it?”

“No.”

“But he’s gone,” said Jay.

A chill ran through Max. He turned the scanner off and then switched it back on, with the same result.

Jay looked scared. Probably they all did. “Max, somebody must have taken him.”

“Somebody with pretty good tech.”

Emily pushed back in her seat. “We still can’t see anything.”

“Not even the wormhole,” said Jay. “All we’ve got is mist everywhere.”

“Horace, please answer up.”

“He’s not here,” said Emily.

Slowly, carefully, he swung them around. When Rex informed him he’d completed a one-eighty he moved forward, again with extreme caution. He couldn’t see anything that indicated he was approaching the gate, and didn’t feel at ease until the prow began to disappear.

He took them through the wormhole and emerged back in the shadow of the black hole in a sky full of stars.

“I hate this,” said Emily. “What could have happened to him? What are we going to tell them when we get home?”

The gravity was back. But Jay was still hanging onto the back of Emily’s seat. “I’m wondering,” he said, “how I’m going to explain this to Horace’s son.”

“I didn’t know he had a family,” said Max.

“Just the son. Karl. He divorced years ago. I think his wife got tired that he was never home.”

“I can understand that.” Max needed a distraction. But nothing was going to be able to take his mind off Horace. “He’s not there,” he said. “He couldn’t have gotten outside the range of the scanner in a half hour.”

“Did you put the antigrav back on?” asked Jay.

“I never turned it off.”

“Somebody turned it back on.”

“I don’t think it’s the equipment,” said Emily.

Max looked down at her feet, placed securely on the deck. He released his belt and stood. Jay was right.

“It’s not the equipment,” Emily said again.

“What are we talking about?” said Max.

Emily was on her feet also. “We should go back.”

Jay looked horrified. “Why?”

“I think I know how to find him.”

“It’s simple enough,” she said, as Max turned them around. “There’s only one reasonable explanation for what happened.”

Jay held out his hands, signaling he had no idea. “I’m listening.”

“The rules are different in that universe.”

“You mean the laws of physics?” said Max.

“Yes.”

“I think we talked about that.”

“But we didn’t think it out. Why do you suppose the artificial gravity generator malfunctioned?”

“Ohhh,” said Jay. “I bet you’re right.”

Max, who wasn’t anxious to head back into a dangerous location, was losing patience. “One of you guys want to explain it to me?”

“The reason,” said Jay, “that the generator didn’t work was because the other universe doesn’t have gravity.”

“Wait, wait. That’s not possible, is it?”

“Not on this side of the gate.”

“Okay. So where does that take us?”

“Max,” said Emily, “speaking of the gate…”

They were getting close. They’d been moving slowly, but now Max reduced their velocity enough that someone on foot could have kept pace. “So what,” he asked, “does the lack of gravity have to do with anything?” Jay was about to respond when the pilot got it. “Oh, wait,” he said. “This has nothing to do with gravity directly. It’s physical laws. In this case,” he had to pause while he thought about it, “the speed of light is slower.”

“Correct,” said Emily. “Much slower. I’d bet it takes a while for a radio transmission to reach him.”

Max was looking out through the windows, juggling the numbers, when the prow started to disappear.

They arrived back on the other side. Max immediately halted their progress to avoid losing touch with the gate. “So we’re used to radio conversations that are pretty much instantaneous,” Emily said. “But if the transmissions travel at, say, fifty kilometers per second instead of three hundred thousand, even if he’s only a few thousand kilometers away, it would take almost six or seven minutes for a message to reach him, and just as long to get a reply.”

“Yes. And that’s probably what happened.”

“But why didn’t the scanner pick him up?”

“Same reason. Instead of a fraction of a second, it takes the scanning signal seven minutes or whatever to find him and just as long to bounce back. We didn’t wait long enough.”

The other side was still filled with the gray fog. But they were only seconds clear of the gate when Horace’s desperate voice erupted from the radio. “Where the hell did you guys go? Hello, Max. Where in God’s name are you?”

“We’re here, Horace. It’s okay.”

Again there was no response. Max’s natural reaction was to ask the question again. But he reminded himself to sit back and wait.

It took twenty-six minutes while their message traveled out to wherever Horace was adrift and his reply came back. It was twenty-six minutes full of nervousness, exasperation, and frustration.

“It’s a good thing,” Max told Emily, “you were with us.”

Horace tracked their transmissions back in and followed the Breckinridge through the gate into the wormhole and finally back out under a starry sky. Minutes later, he was on board.

“I got pretty thoroughly screwed up,” he said. “I expected to be able to see the gate. But all I got was the cloud. I thought all I had to do was get clear of that and I’d be able to see the wormhole.”

“Which would allow you to find the gate.”

“Right. I’m glad you guys figured it out.”

“You can thank Emily for that.”

“Thank you, Emily,” he said. “I knew all along you were the brains on this mission.” He grinned at Jay. “But I told you not to come after me.”

Jay laughed. “You don’t sound as if you’re mad at us.”

“No. I guess I was pretty dumb.” They were seated in the passenger cabin while the Breckinridge recharged. “But we didn’t get much of a look at our next door neighbor.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Emily.

Horace rolled his eyes. “How can you say that? We’ve been to another universe and we’ve only seen one cloud.”

“You’re not thinking, Horace. It has no gravity. That’s all that place is: a giant hydrogen cloud. With probably some helium. Come back in a few million years and they might have picked up a few atoms.”

Jay shrugged. “Not that it matters. If there’s no gravity, they’ll never have anything.”