Templar's Quest

73

Seven Research Laboratory

2015 hours

‘My father’s equation is a stunning scientific achievement,’ Dr Uhlemann continued, standing beside the chalkboard. ‘Unfortunately, he will never receive the credit and acclaim due him.’

Staring at the lengthy equation, Kate winced. For theoretical physicists, advanced mathematics was their window on to the world. For everyone else, her included, those elaborate, seemingly never-ending series of numerals, letters and symbols were like seeing ‘through a glass, darkly’.

‘This is a particularly elegant calculation,’ Dr Uhlemann remarked, using a piece of white chalk to underline a section of the equation. ‘Since your father is an astrophysicist, I assume that you’ve heard of frame dragging.’

The last comment caught Kate by surprise. Studying the equation with renewed interest, she nodded. ‘In fact, my father’s research involves the frame-dragging effect of black holes.’

‘Then you undoubtedly know that frame-dragging occurs when a rotating body, such as a planet or a black hole, drags the space–time continuum around itself.’

‘When I was a child, my father described it as swirling a bowling ball in a tub full of caramel, the bowling ball being the rotating body and the caramel, the space–time continuum.’ A silly but effective visual description.

‘That stirring up of space–time was first described by Einstein in his Theory of General Relativity. Amazingly, Einstein correctly predicted the effect eighty years before it was actually observed on X-ray astronomy satellites.’ Dr Uhlemann waved a blue-veined hand in the air. ‘But I digress. To get back on point: when frame-dragging occurs, if the twisting of space is strong enough, it will also twist time, producing a closed time-like curve.’

‘And once you have a CTC, you can travel backward in time.’ A split-second later, befuddled, Kate shook her head. ‘But that’s specific to black holes. How are you going to create a frame-dragging effect in a laboratory setting?’

Still holding the piece of chalk, Dr Uhlemann vigorously tapped the underlined equation. ‘This is the part of the equation where my father proved that a rotating beam of light could create the same frame-dragging gravitational effect as a rotating body. Using my father’s equations, our research team designed a tower of continuously rotating light beams, one stacked on top of another.’

Kate glanced at the hermetically sealed glass enclosure. ‘I’m having a really difficult time envisioning how that is going to turn into a rotating light tower which will then created a frame-dragging effect.’

Stepping away from the chalkboard, Dr Uhlemann walked over to a nearby computer console. A monster in the guise of an old-world gentleman, he held the back of an office chair, motioning for her to sit down. As she did, Kate recalled that Adolf Hitler reputedly had perfect Viennese manners.

‘Engineering a working prototype took years of research and development. At first, we thought optic fibres could be used to build a rotating light tower, but that proved a futile endeavour. We even briefly considered photonic crystals.’ As he spoke, Dr Uhlemann pecked on the keyboard, typing in what appeared to be a coded password. ‘We finally settled on a system of stacked lasers.’ Finished typing, he spun around in his chair and gestured to the four rectilinear columns set in the middle of the enclosure. ‘The prototype that you see before you was constructed using red laser lights. Each of the four columns is lined with twenty-five hundred diode lasers. Are you familiar with laser technology?’

Nodding, Kate said, ‘Most people are unaware that the word “laser” is actually an acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”.’

‘And what differentiates laser light from normal light –’ Dr Uhlemann picked up a pen-like laser from the computer console and flipped it on – ‘is that a laser projects a thin beam.’ He emphasized the point by shining the red beam of light around the laboratory. ‘A coherent beam of thin light is the key to creating the light tower. Allow me to demonstrate.’

With an air of heightened drama, he hit the ‘enter’ key. Instantly, ten thousand red laser lights switched on, swirling within the confines of the four black columns at a dizzying speed. It immediately put Kate in mind of a spectacular light show at a big-name rock concert. The only thing missing was the smoke machine and blaring guitar.

‘ Une tour de la lumière, as the French would say. Beautiful, isn’t it?’ Like a proud father, Dr Uhlemann stared at the six-foot-high blur of radiant red light.

‘Wow,’ Kate marvelled, grudgingly impressed. Shielding her eyes with her hand, she said, ‘Since light normally travels in a straight line, how did you get all of those laser lights to continuously swirl in the same direction?’

‘The mirrors embedded on the columns cause the light to swirl in a circular pattern. What you can’t see is that the rotating beams create a gravitational field which will produce a frame-dragging effect. The area inside the tower of light is where space is being twisted. Once we have a strong enough light energy, the twisted space will create a closed time-like curve. When that happens, any particle placed in the gravitational field will be dragged along the closed-time loop.’ Dr Uhlemann spoke with barely restrained emotion, his voice rising and falling, a verbal pendulum that increased momentum with each impassioned swing.

Getting up from his chair, Dr Uhlemann walked over to the enclosure. Pointing to the light tower, he said, ‘This CTC device was built with laser light. Once we have generated the Vril force, we will use the Vril to create what we call a vaser light.’

‘I assume that you’ll then reconfigure the CTC device, replacing the lasers with ten thousand vaser lights.’

The red light reflected eerily off Dr Uhlemann’s face, bathing him in a demonic glow. ‘Those ten thousand vasers will give us a coherent rotating swirl of high-frequency Vril light.’

Still shielding her eyes, Kate glanced at the enclosure. ‘Why can’t you just use laser lights to operate the CTC device?’

‘For the simple reason that a laser doesn’t have a high enough frequency to twist the space–time continuum,’ Dr Uhlemann informed her. ‘I’m sure you’re aware that Einstein won his Nobel Prize not for his Theory of General Relativity but for his work with the photoelectric effect.’

‘In which he proved that the higher the frequency of light, the greater maximum kinetic energy produced.’

‘Exactly so. When we replace the lasers with our specially designed vaser lights, the rotating light tower will have sufficient energy and torque to twist space. When the frame-dragging effect is strong enough, it will not only twist space, but it will create a closed time-like curve in the space–time continuum.’

‘But how are you going to send a human being through your closed-time loop?’ Having been a Trekker when she was a teenager, Kate envisioned the transporter chamber from the Star Trek television series.

‘At this stage in the research, it would be impossible to transport a human through the CTC device.’

Hearing that, Kate did a double-take at the red swirling lights. Bewildered, she asked the obvious: ‘Then what’s the point of all this?’

‘While it’s not possible at this stage to transport a human being, it is entirely possible to transmit information.’

‘So you’re – what? – going to send an email or fax through a closed time-like curve?’

‘Don’t be flip, my dear. It’s unbecoming,’ Dr Uhlemann snapped churlishly as he stepped over to the computer console and retook his seat. ‘Although we’ll be able to transmit information, we can’t utilize any technology that didn’t exist in the year 1940. Because of that constraint, we’re going to send radio signals through the closed-time loop. Which is why it’s more appropriate to refer to this –’ he gestured to the swirling red tower of light – ‘as a communication machine rather than a time machine.’

While her grasp of physics lacked his breadth, Kate understood enough to see the flaw in Dr Uhlemann’s design. ‘In order to transmit information backward into time, someone would have had to have built a communication machine in the past that can receive your transmission. Otherwise, you have nothing to send your information to.’

Dr Uhlemann smiled knowingly, as though he’d been anticipating her objection. ‘In December of 1940, my father designed and activated a receiver apparatus for that very purpose. The information we transmit through our CTC device will be received by the original Seven in 1940 on their receiver.’

‘Jeez, talk about thinking ahead,’ Kate murmured. Gnawing on her lower lip, she tried to come at the problem from a different angle. ‘But wouldn’t your father’s receiver have to be turned on and running right now in the twenty-first century?’ When Dr Uhlemann confirmed this with a nod, she then said, ‘If he turned on the receiver in 1940 and left it running, the battery to operate it would have drained decades ago. Rendering it useless.’

‘As I’ve told you before, Doctor Bauer, you need to start thinking outside the box.’ Insult delivered, he folded his arms over his chest. ‘Do you happen to know how the first telegraph wires were powered in the mid-nineteenth century?’

Actually, she did know the answer, Cædmon having mentioned it a few days earlier when they were at the Louvre. ‘An earth battery using telluric currents was utilized.’ No sooner were the words out of her mouth than the realization hit, like a broad-handed slap to the face. ‘The Seven manufactured an earth battery for their receiver, didn’t they?’

‘Ensuring that it will never run out of power. A simple, but ingenious, solution.’ Dr Uhlemann chuckled conceitedly, well aware that he was holding four aces in his hand. ‘The original Seven knew that it would be years, decades even, before a working CTC device could be designed and constructed. They had to find a means to keep a receiver fully charged and operational in perpetuity. Caching the receiver in the catacombs beneath Paris, they were able to directly tap into underground telluric currents.’

Kate glanced at the mathematical equation on the chalkboard. The ‘T’s had been crossed decades ago by the original Seven. All that remained was for their children to dot the ‘I’s.

‘Will you be able to have two-way radio communication with the original Seven?’

‘Alas, no. While our fathers will be able to receive our transmission, they won’t be able to reply. Nonetheless, they are anxiously awaiting the transmission.’ Blue eyes excitedly gleaming, he gestured to the glass enclosure. ‘This is our dream about to come to fruition. Knowing that our fathers are poised and ready to act, we have already put together a comprehensive information packet.’

Information. The ultimate weapon of mass destruction. Scientia potentia est.

‘Knowledge is power’ as Cædmon used to always say.

Soon, Dr Uhlemann and the Seven Research Foundation would be able to transmit to their fathers the ultimate war plan that would secure victory for the Third Reich.

The few bites of her dinner that she’d managed to eat began to congeal in her stomach.

Earlier, she’d wondered how Dr Uhlemann would use light to create a closed time-like curve. Now she knew.

She also now knew what was meant by the phrase ‘evil genius’.