Generational Ships.
By TimeTraveller-1900.
-8-
"How many are there?" Carter asked.
"Computer has picked up 30 of them, Alan," Dashka Kano replied. "Computer didn't detect them, aside from a strange energy reading. Then they just appeared in front of us."
"How did they do that?" Helena asked as she took in the view on the monitor screen. There were ships there, alien ships, large and spherical with rings that glowed with power surrounding them.
"That's the thing, Doctor Russell," David picked up from his twin sister, "Computer said, and this is hard to believe, they were travelling faster than the speed of light!" There was a breathy note in his voice as if he were struggling to read what he had just found out.
"Faster than light? How do they do that?" Simmonds asked.
"I think it has something to do with the rings surrounding their hulls. Do you see those glowing rings that are spinning around the hulls? In 1994, a scientist called Miguel Alcubierre came up with a loophole to Einstein's theory of relativity. A warp drive. A ship sits in the middle of it, and the warp drive contracts space right in front of the ship, while expanding it from behind. The ship rides on the surf, but it doesn't physically travel faster than light," Victor explained, not looking at the others and seeing their looks but spending it just…examining the ships.
They were closer now. It was clear the ships were enormous and they weren't entirely spherical, but more ovoid. As they moved closer to the travelling moon, they could see a number of smaller rings built into their bodies.
"Commander, the ships are sending a message; it's beyond the understanding of our systems," Sandra said.
"Send a message back; they might be able to translate it," Simmonds barked before Koenig could even say a word, although the same thing was largely on the tip of his tongue. Koenig shot a glare towards Simmonds, but he caught the cool, calculating look in Simmonds's eyes, and he realised the political animal who had survived so long on Alpha through sheer damn luck had a plan in mind. It wasn't hard for Koenig to see what he had in mind.
Simmonds wanted to contact the aliens and try to find something to negotiate the free sale of the warp technology, some kind of exchange, although what it was, Koenig couldn't imagine.
Suddenly, the monitor screen changed, and a voice came from the speakers.
"Hello? Moonbase Alpha. Is that the correct terminology? We are telepaths. We do not communicate like this! We had to hack your computer and discover how you communicate, so we could communicate with you."
Koenig nodded. "I am Commander John Koenig. Who are you?"
"We are the Xeeeeleee. However we do not have names as you do, Commander; we know each other by telepathic communication."
"I…see," John exchanged a look with Victor, who looked intrigued.
Simmonds stepped forward. "Xeeeeleeee, I am Commissioner Simmonds. How do you travel faster than light?"
"Simmonds!" John hissed.
Simmonds waved him into silence before the aliens replied. "We harnessed the power of exotic matter, as you call it. Only we discovered how to use the higher dimensions to exploit it to warp space."
"So, there is a way of using exotic matter? Scientists on Earth, especially in our time, only considered it theoretical, we didn't know if it could exist or not," Victor said.
"Exotic matter cannot exist in nature. It only exists in the higher dimensions."
"How did you discover the higher dimensions?"
The aliens were silent for a moment, and then they replied. "We discovered them more by accident than design, we discovered them after exploring quantum teleportation."
"What? You were able to discover how to exploit quantum teleportation?" Victor breathed. He had heard of quantum teleportation and knew the technical principles were stored in Computer, but he didn't know it could do that.
"Yes. Are you familiar with it?"
"Only the basics."
"It is an easy science to exploit."
"What?" Simmonds jumped on this. "What is quantum teleportation? How come we've never used it?" He demanded.
Victor sighed, guessing correctly where Simmonds' one-track mind was going. Simmonds had never cared about the wonders of the universe that had been unlocked for them since Breakaway. Victor did miss Earth, of course he did, but he was a realist. He genuinely believed they could and would never see their world again, that was why he had given up hope of that ridiculous Earthbound fantasy ever working.
Simmonds, on the other hand, knew he was useless. He was not a scientist, or a specialist in astrophysics. His work was politics. And that only worked on Earth.
"Quantum teleportation. It's a technique for transferring quantum information across space, from one sender to another. But it can't be sent faster than light, but there are theories quantum entanglement can interact between particles over a distance. That's the long and the short of it, but I've never heard of it being used for something like this and because nobody knows what would happen when you're teleported, whether you can transfer memories and experiences from one sender to the next, or if you are actually you, I never thought of it as a good enough to try to get us back to Earth, as you'd like it, Commissioner," Victor finished, contemptuously.
Simmonds was stunned.
Victor used that to address the aliens. "But you were able to use it? How?"
"The phenomenon you refer to is quantum entanglement; the particles interact with each other using quantum state wormholes. They cause the expansion of the universe."
Victor's eyes popped open. He knew enough about the theory to know scientists had believed a phenomenon called dark matter was responsible for the expansion of the universe; hearing it was down to wormholes just opened new ideas and possibilities for him. But before he could open his mouth, ask a question, for anything…the Xeeeleee spoke, "We know of your predicament," the alien said, speaking the word strangely as if unable to pronounce it, "we can help you."