Distortion

The room grew quiet as Andrew Garner, the director of INASA stood up and cleared his throat. “OK Miller, you’ve got a the floor, what do we know?”

A balding man in his forties with glasses and a white shirt, tie askew, stood up and addressed the room, focusing on Garner. “Not much. We know the Distortion Rig’s power output dipped for a micro-second during transfer. We know that the Lincoln did not arrive at the remote DR. We know it has never happened before, not even during the short range testing phase of the project. We’ve had a total of five scheduled data packet transfers since the glitch so the Rig is working fine now. Technical is running down the problem now and they’ll have a report for us in a few days. They’re not sure what caused the dip, but they’ve assured me they can replicate it precisely. That’s good news.”

“Why is that good news?” Asked Garner.

“Because they think the Lincoln is intact, sir. They’re running the numbers right now and they want to intentionally cause the malfunction in a controlled test. We know that duration equals distance - we’ve always known that. It’s how we placed the remote DR. They believe that the power dip acted the same as an intentional power cut. Because it dipped and didn’t cut entirely when the power rose back up to normal levels the remote Rig detected a transfer but nothing was there. Because the Lincoln had already dropped out of distortion during the dip.”

“Ok, let’s say that’s the case. How do we get them back?”

“They want to run several in system tests to determine if the power dips are as consistent as intentional power cuts – they want to know if duration still equals distance in that scenario. If it does, then we may be able to determine where along the path the Lincoln dropped out. As far as getting them back… there’s only one option and I don’t think it will work. If duration still equals distance, then we can replicate the process precisely – or at least precisely enough. The only way to get them back would be to build another DR and send it through to them. The DR is one-way only. The problem with that is obvious: I don’t think we can. The Distortion Rigs are some of the most expensive construction projects the earth has ever taken on. Even if we had the resources to build another one right now, by the time we finished construction the crew and passengers of the Lincoln would be long dead. It took 28 years to build the second remote rig.”

The silence in the room deepened. Garner sat down and leaned back in his chair. “So… they’re lost? Do we need to start notifying families? We need to know what our options are.”

“Right. If they did drop out as Technical suspects, then they are alive and functional. They’re just stuck. The Distortion Ship class was constructed with only orbital maneuverability in mind. They don’t have the fuel to achieve any significant velocity, and even if they did – why? They’re in the middle of empty space. I don’t think there’s any way to get them here or to their destination right now. But we can keep them alive. We can improve their circumstances.”

“How?”

“If we can dial in the power dips and correlate them with distance we can send probes. Probes with food, water, fuel, equipment, medical supplies - anything we can think of. The Lincoln was outfitted with about a week’s worth of supplies for the passengers and crew. It’s been nine days since the attempt, so if they began rationing at the outset, then they should be OK. If we start sending supplies along their route – assuming they kept their relative velocity – they can pick them up like bread crumbs along the way.”

Stokes, lead of resources, cleared her throat. “For how long?”

“I’m sorry?”

“For how long? How long do we send these supplies… and to what end?”

“Well...”, Miller frowned, “forever. I mean, if they are there and alive… they’ll be there for… well for thousands of years. I don’t know if you’re grasping the distances we’re talking about here. They are literally in empty space between galaxies. We can help them sustain themselves. We can even send surplus ships, empty hulls with just life support. They’d be able to create a somewhat self-sustaining environment with the right equipment and instructions. It isn’t ideal and right now communication is one way. We’ll have no idea if it is working or even if they are alive. Technical has some ideas for smaller scale Distortion Rigs but we’re years away from the testing phase. If we opt to fast track that research we may be able to create a DR small enough to send one person back at a time, but even fast tracking we’re talking billions of dollars and at minimum ten years.”

“Ten years?” Stokes choked. “When will you have a solid estimate for the funding required to produce the small scale DR?”

“It will be a few months before we can nail it down, but I want to mention that it wouldn’t be without long term returnspractical aspect. If we opt for the small scale DR, we’ll obviously have to make a twin unit here – it would essentially be the same as the colonization Distortion Rigs. Research and development will cost close to what building another large scale rig would, but we’d then have a remote inter-galactic outpost. There is a lot of science to be done in an environment like that.”

“Right,” Stokes said, “but if we cut our loses and presume them MIA, it costs us nothing, correct?”

“Well, not nothing...”, Saims, director of public relations said, “there’s going to be a public back-lash. Questions about safety, etc.”

“Of course, but there’s a practical aspect that needs to be addressed. How much is the potential science to be done in inter-galactic space going to be worth? Will it be enough to off-set the cost of potentially endless probes and the development of this theoretical small-scale DR? We don’t even know if these people are alive. We could be sending millions of dollars of supply probes into empty space for sentiment.”

Miller sighed. “I can’t speak to that. All of this is theoretical. You’re absolutely right Stokes. They may not be alive. As I’ve said, we’ll have no way of knowing for at least ten years. If Technical can get the small-scale DR functional, and if they predict the path Lincoln took and if they can time the dips correctly and if Lincoln can pick up the probes in time…this equation is almost all variables. If we invest the funding in sending periodic probes for ten years and there’s no one alive to receive the small-scale DR, then we’ve wasted all those funds and set back the current colonization efforts by years. It is a risk, a significant one.”

Garner stood up. “OK, I think we have the information we need to make a decision. Miller, thank you. People, let’s recess and reconvene in say… three hours. Have your arguments ready and we’ll decide what to do from there.”