Of Ants and Dinosaurs

17 The Ultimate Deterrent

‘We did it!’ Field Marshal Jolie shouted excitedly as the world map flashed red on her screen. ‘The dinosaur world has been crippled. Their information systems have been comprehensively disrupted. All of their cities have lost power, all of their roads have been blocked by vehicles disabled by mine-grains, and fires are spreading widely and rapidly.’ Her antennae were vibrating at speed now as she enumerated the Federation’s successes. ‘Operation Decapitate has neutralised 4 million leading lights of the dinosaur world, and the ruling bodies of the Gondwanan Empire and the Laurasian Republic have ceased to exist. The two great powers have been paralysed and dinosaur society is in chaos.’

‘And this is just the start,’ added Kachika. ‘Dinosaur cities are already having problems with their water supplies, and their food stocks will soon run out. That will be the tipping point. Vast herds of dinosaurs will flee the cities, but with no functioning cars and with all the roads blocked, they will be unable to evacuate in time. Given their voracious appetites, at least half the population will starve to death before they find food. Their high-tech society will be in tatters. The dinosaur world is regressing to a primitive, pre-industrial era even as we speak.’

‘What is the status of their nuclear-weapons systems?’ someone asked.

‘As expected, all of the dinosaurs’ nuclear weapons, including their intercontinental missiles and strategic bombers, have been reduced to scrap metal by our mine-grains,’ replied Jolie. ‘There have been no nuclear accidents and no cases of nuclear contamination.’

‘Excellent! This is truly a momentous occasion,’ Kachika said. ‘Now we just need to wait for the dinosaur world to destroy itself.’

Their celebratory mood was short-lived, however. A secretary ant now reported that Professor Joya had returned and was requesting an urgent meeting with Kachika and Jolie.

The weary chief scientist had barely made it through the command-centre door before Kachika launched into an angry tirade. ‘Professor, you betrayed the great cause of the Ant Federation at its most crucial moment. There will be serious consequences for your actions.’

‘When you hear what I have to tell you,’ replied Joya coldly, ‘it will be quite clear which of us is the most deserving of censure for their… actions.’

‘Why did you go and see the Emperor of Gondwana?’ asked Jolie.

‘To learn the truth about Luna and Leviathan.’

This immediately dampened the ants’ high spirits. All eyes – and parts of eyes – were now trained on the professor.

Joya scanned the assembled company. ‘So, does anyone here know what antimatter is?’

Every ant but Kachika remained silent.

‘I know a little,’ the supreme consul said. ‘Antimatter is a material that dinosaur physicists have theorised may exist. They say that its subatomic particles have the opposite electric charge to the matter in our world: its electrons carry a positive charge and its protons carry a negative charge. It’s purported to be a quantum mirror-image of the matter in our world.’

‘Yes, your definition is right. But the existence of antimatter is not merely theoretical,’ Joya said. ‘As a result of their extensive cosmological studies, the dinosaurs have proved that antimatter does exist.’ She tapped an impatient foot. ‘Surely someone else here has heard more about it?’

Field Marshal Jolie now chipped in. ‘I heard that as soon as antimatter comes into contact with the matter in our world, the combined mass of the two materials is converted into energy.’

‘Correct!’ said Joya, dipping her antennae. ‘That process is called annihilation.’ She was in full pedagogic mode now. ‘When your all-powerful nuclear warheads detonate, only a fraction of 1 per cent of their mass is converted into energy, but the mass–energy conversion rate in matter–antimatter collisions is 100 per cent! It should therefore be evident to you all’ – she glared meaningfully at Kachika – ‘that there are things even more terrible than nuclear weapons. Per unit mass, the energy released by matter–antimatter annihilation is two to three orders of magnitude greater than that released by a nuclear bomb.’

‘But what does this have to do with Luna and Leviathan?’

‘Bear with me and I will tell you.’ Jolie began striding up and down, confident now that she had the undivided attention of every ant in the room. ‘Recently some of us were talking about the new sun that suddenly appeared in the night sky of the Southern Hemisphere three years ago. An event that few of us will ever forget, am I right?’

A shiver of acknowledgement rippled through her audience.

‘Dinosaur astronomers observed that the flash we experienced here on Earth originated from a small celestial body that had entered the solar system with a comet’s trajectory. The object was less than thirty kilometres in diameter, seemingly a mere sliver of rock floating in space. But when they launched probes to observe it close up, they discovered that the celestial body was made of antimatter! While passing through the asteroid belt, it had collided with a meteoroid. The meteoroid and the antimatter were mutually annihilated, releasing a tremendous amount of energy and producing the flash we saw. The Gondwanans and the Laurasians arrived at this conclusion simultaneously, but it’s what they discovered next that’s of most significance to all of us here on Earth…’

This was turning into a long and tortuous explanation, but the ants were nothing if not well versed in obedient attentiveness. They didn’t even fidget.

‘The annihilation had blasted a large hole in the antimatter body, scattering many antimatter fragments of varying sizes through space. Dinosaur astronomers quickly located several of these fragments, which apparently were not difficult to spot. In the asteroid belt, particles of solar wind were annihilated by the antimatter particles, giving the surfaces of the fragments a peculiar glow, and this intensified as they approached the sun.’

The professor stopped pacing to and fro, lingered for a couple of nanoseconds, and then said, ‘Knowing the dinosaurs as we do, some of you may be anticipating what it is I’m about to say next. Would anyone care to tell me what that is?’

Field Marshal Jolie waggled her feelers tentatively but decided not to share her thoughts publicly. The rest of the ants just waited patiently for the professor to enlighten them.

Joya duly resumed her account. ‘This all happened at the height of the arms race between Gondwana and Laurasia. Consequently, both great dinosaur powers came up with a plan – plans that turned out to be identical, and completely insane. Independent of each other, the two powers both decided that they would collect some of the antimatter debris, bring it back to Earth and use it to create a super-weapon far more powerful than any nuclear bomb, in order to deter the other side—’

‘Wait a minute,’ said Kachika, interrupting Joya. ‘There’s an obvious flaw in the logic of that plan. If antimatter is annihilated on contact with matter, how did they store it and bring it back to Earth?’

‘Good question.’ Joya nodded. ‘The dinosaur astronomers discovered that anti-iron made up a substantial proportion of the celestial body. The debris they located in space was also made of anti-iron. Like ordinary iron, anti-iron can be affected by magnetic fields. This provided a potential solution to the storage problem. It made it possible for the dinosaurs to create a vacuum chamber and apply a powerful magnetic field to safely confine the antimatter to the centre of the chamber, preventing it from touching the interior walls. This would enable them to store, transport and deploy the antimatter. Of course, this was only a theoretical solution. To use such a container to bring the antimatter back to Earth would be an extraordinarily mad and dangerous endeavour. But, as we well know, dinosaurs are mad by nature, and their desire for global hegemony invariably trumps all other concerns. So they actually went ahead with it!’

This rather too literal bombshell came as a genuine shock to the ants, and there was an anxious stirring in the room. Even their in-depth knowledge of dinosaur behaviour could not have predicted such craziness.

‘It was the Gondwanan Empire that took the first step into the abyss. They built a magnetic confinement vessel comprised of a hollow sphere, split that in two and affixed the hemispheres to the mechanical arms of a spaceship. The spaceship then crept up on the antimatter fragment, slowly and with extreme caution, and trapped it between the two hemispheres. As soon as the hemispheres closed, a magnetic field generated by a superconductor was activated, confining the fragment to the centre of the sphere. The spaceship then flew back to Earth.

‘Had the Laurasian Republic known about this plan, they undoubtedly would have dispatched armed spaceships to intercept the Gondwanan transporter in space. But it was well on its way by the time they found out about it, and intercepting it at that point would have caused the fragment to annihilate in Earth’s atmosphere. The fragment weighed forty-five tonnes and its annihilation would have converted ninety tonnes of matter into pure energy. The resulting explosion would have wiped out life on Earth. Naturally, the Laurasians did not wish to perish alongside the Gondwanans, so they looked on helplessly as the spaceship splashed down in the ocean.’

Hearing some mutterings from the floor, Joya stiffened her antennae and requested that the other ants sit tight until she’d told them all she knew. ‘There is more to say, I’m afraid – quite a bit more, actually – and it won’t be easy listening. So, if there are no objections, I’ll just get on with it and then we can have a discussion once I’m done. Are there any objections?’

There were not.

‘Subsequent events escalated the madness to crisis point. After the Gondwanan spaceship landed, the containment vessel was transferred to a cargo ship. The name of the cargo ship was Leviathan and the dinosaurs came to call the antimatter fragment it carried by that name as well. The ship did not return to Gondwana but instead sailed for Laurasia, destined for the republic’s largest port!

‘Laurasia didn’t dare attack this ship of doom. They had no choice but to let it continue on its way, and when it did finally arrive, it might as well have been sailing into an empty harbour for all the resistance it met. Once Leviathan had docked, the dinosaurs abandoned ship and returned to Gondwana by helicopter, leaving their explosive load anchored in Laurasian waters.

‘The Laurasian dinosaurs treated Leviathan as if it were a bad-tempered deity. They didn’t dare disturb it in any way, because they knew the Gondwanan Empire could remotely deactivate the magnetic field at any time, causing the antimatter fragment to annihilate. If that happened, the entire world would be fireballed, and the first to go would be Laurasia, reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye by the flames of a lethal sun.’

Joya was looking and sounding extremely tired now, unsurprising given the stress of her encounter with the Gondwanans and the huge burden of responsibility she’d been bearing as the keeper of this Earth-shattering news. But a burden shared was a burden halved, so she ploughed on, keen to give Supreme Consul Kachika all the details she’d need in order to decide what to do next.

‘This was truly the darkest day in the history of the Laurasian Republic. The Gondwanan Empire now had the reins of life on Earth firmly in its grasp and it grew increasingly wild and unrestrained, making claim after claim on Laurasia’s territory and repeatedly ordering the Republic to get rid of its nuclear arsenal.

‘Needless to say, this lopsided state of affairs did not last long. Just one month after Gondwana’s Operation Leviathan, Laurasia responded in kind. Using similar technology, they collected a second antimatter fragment from space, brought it back to Earth and gave the empire a taste of its own medicine. They loaded their antimatter onto a cargo ship called Luna and sailed it into Gondwana’s largest port. And so balance was restored in the dinosaur world. A balance born of the ultimate deterrent, a deterrent that pushed Earth to the brink of destruction.’

‘It’s so unfortunate that we knew nothing about all this,’ muttered Field Marshal Jolie.

‘Yes indeed,’ replied the professor. ‘To avoid a global panic, operations Leviathan and Luna were carried out in absolute secrecy. Even in the dinosaur world, only a very few knew the exact details. Both teams designed their systems so that they could be maintained without ant involvement. A great deal of money was spent on ensuring that the equipment was super reliable, and the containment systems were built using replaceable modules. As a result, the Ant Federation knew nothing about it until today.’

Joya’s account shook every ant in the command centre to the core. The mood in the room had plummeted. Where previously the ants had been celebrating a great victory over the dinosaurs, they were now staring into a terrifying hellhole.

‘This is beyond madness – it’s depraved!’ Kachika cried. ‘An ultimate-deterrence strategy predicated on the total destruction of the world renders all political and military considerations meaningless. It’s an abomination.’

Field Marshal Jolie tossed her head contemptuously. ‘Is this not, Professor, an inevitable consequence of the very curiosity, imagination and creativity you so admire in the dinosaurs?’

‘Let us stick to the matter in question,’ replied Joya, unperturbed by Jolie’s snideness. ‘The world is in grave danger and we should be focusing on that.’

Kachika began to formulate a plan. ‘At least we know that those two fragments of antimatter are still intact and untouched in their magnetic containment vessels. The destruction of the world is therefore not an inevitability.’ She glanced over at Jolie. ‘Do you agree, Field Marshal?’

The field marshal dipped her antennae. ‘I do. This sort of operation is on a par with a nuclear-missile strike. It will have been designed with an extremely complex system of security locks. The command to detonate the antimatter will only be valid if issued by a dinosaur at the highest level, and the dinosaurs with that degree of authority will certainly have been eliminated by now. Therefore, the order will never be given. Regarding malfunctions or breaks in the chain of command, those won’t be a problem either. The slightest anomaly will send the system into lockdown.’

Kachika turned to the professor. ‘How long can the magnetic fields within the containment vessels be maintained?’

‘For a considerable period,’ Joya replied. ‘The magnetic fields are produced by a circulating current in a superconductor, which decays very slowly. In addition, Leviathan and Luna are both equipped with nuclear batteries capable of supplying power for a long time, so the systems can replenish the charge lost without outside interference. According to the dinosaurs, the confining magnetic fields can be maintained for at least twenty years.’

‘Then it’s obvious what we should do,’ Kachika said firmly. ‘We must immediately find Luna and Leviathan, build shields around the containment vessels and insulate them from all external electromagnetic signals, thereby eliminating the possibility of a signal from the outside world detonating either weapon.’

‘And then,’ said Field Marshal Jolie, ‘we must think of a way to launch the vessels into space. Although it will be difficult, we have time on our side. With the spaceships and rockets the dinosaurs left behind, we should be able to do it.’

Now that victory was potentially in their sights once more, the ants broke into animated discussion about operational details.

But Professor Joya was having none of it. ‘If we follow the supreme consul’s plan, Earth is doomed,’ she said.

The ants turned to stare at her, incomprehension on every face.

‘This concerns the command-loss timers mentioned by Dodomi and Dadaeus in the recording,’ Joya said. ‘In the beginning, the two dinosaur powers controlled Leviathan and Luna exactly as we’d expect. Signal stations on their own soil were kept on standby, the idea being that the moment one country was attacked, a remote-control signal would go out from the victim’s station, detonating the antimatter in the attacker’s harbour. But both sides soon realised that there was a flaw in this system. Let us consider this hypothetical scenario: Laurasia suddenly launches a conventional nuclear strike against Gondwana – I use the term “conventional” advisedly, as that is what nuclear weapons are nowadays. With lightning speed, the Laurasians bring overwhelming force to bear on the entirety of Gondwana’s territory, with Gondwana’s command-and-control sites particularly hard hit. Before Gondwana can respond, it sinks into a state of paralysis much like the state it finds itself in now. It cannot detonate Leviathan. Furthermore, Laurasia will have anyway taken certain measures to prevent the detonation signal from ever reaching Leviathan – with strong jamming, for instance – thereby increasing the republic’s chance of victory.

‘To stop this sort of pre-emptive-attack scenario from becoming a reality, the two dinosaur powers, almost simultaneously, put Leviathan and Luna into a new standby mode. This was the so-called command-loss timer. From then on, the two signal stations would no longer transmit a detonation command to the antimatter containment vessel. They would do the opposite. The command they now transmitted stopped the vessel from detonating. Each vessel was set to permanently count down to detonation, and only when it received the interrupt signal from its own side would it interrupt the current countdown and start over, until it received the next interrupt signal. And so on. Those interrupt signals were sent in person by the Laurasian president and the Gondwanan emperor. That way, if either side were to be crippled by a pre-emptive strike, the interrupt signal would not be sent, and the container vessel would detonate the antimatter. This standby mode made a pre-emptive strike tantamount to suicide, as the enemy’s continued existence was now a prerequisite for each country’s own survival. The significant drawback, of course, was that this placed the Earth in greater danger than ever. The command-loss timer is the maddest – or in the supreme consul’s words, the most depraved – deterrence strategy ever conceived.’

A suffocating quiet blanketed the room until eventually Kachika responded. There was an unsteady fluctuation in the intensity of her pheromones. ‘In other words, Leviathan and Luna are standing by for the next interrupt signal right now?’

Joya dipped her antennae. ‘Two signals that may never come.’

‘Meaning that the signal stations in Gondwana and Laurasia have already been destroyed by our mine-grains?’ said Jolie.

‘Indeed. Emperor Dadaeus told me the locations of both the Gondwanan station and the Laurasian station. After I returned, I searched for them in the Operation Disconnect database. Because their purpose was unclear to us, we planted only a small number of mines in their communications equipment. Thirty-five mine-grains in the Gondwanan signal station, thirty-six in the Laurasian station, severing a total of seventy-one wires. That number might seem low, but it was enough to completely disable the signal-transmission equipment in both stations.’

‘How long is each countdown?’

‘Sixty-six hours, or about three days. Both the Laurasian and Gondwanan countdown timers begin nearly simultaneously, and the interrupt signal is usually sent about twenty-two hours after the countdown starts. The current countdown started twenty hours ago. We still have two days.’

‘Why is the countdown so long?’ asked Kachika. ‘Surely one or two hours would have been more sensible. In this set-up, if one side launched a crippling strike as soon as the other side reset its timer, they would still have almost three days to dispose of the other antimatter containment vessel by sending it back into space.’

‘The containment vessels and the ships which house them are inextricably linked,’ said Joya. ‘Any attempt to separate the two would result in the shutdown of the confining magnetic field and the detonation of the antimatter. Perhaps with concerted effort over an extended period the vessel could be safely detached from the ship and launched back into space, but two or three days would not be sufficient. Dadaeus did talk to me about the time-lag. Mad as the dinosaurs were, in this matter it seems they were uncharacteristically careful. They designed the countdown so that, in the event of something unforeseen and relatively innocuous preventing the sending of the signal, there would be time to deal with the situation. They were primarily concerned about sabotage by ants, apparently. With due cause, of course.’

‘If we knew the exact content of the interrupt signals, we could build our own transmitter and continually reset Leviathan and Luna’s countdowns.’

‘The problem is that we don’t have that information, and we have no way of finding it out. The dinosaurs did not advise me of the signals’ contents, only that they were long, complicated passwords that changed every time they were sent. The passwords’ algorithms were stored in the signal stations’ computers. I doubt any dinosaur alive knows them.’

‘So the signals can only be sent by the signal stations?’

‘I presume so.’

Kachika’s decision came swiftly. ‘Then we must repair the stations as quickly as possible.’