Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [10]
The conversation had already been too exotic for anything to surprise her now. But that statement came close. “What kind of something?”
“I don’t know.” His eyes flickered and seemed to lose focus. “Read the accounts about the aftermath in the Severin Valley. For years after the explosion, people have claimed they’ve seen things in the woods. Lights, apparitions. There were reports of horses and dogs showing signs of restlessness.”
Kim felt embarrassed for him, and he saw it.
“They abandoned the town,” he persisted. “They left.”
“They abandoned it because the explosion weakened a dam. The dam was too expensive to repair so the authorities just encouraged everyone to move out. Anyway people had bad memories.”
“They took down the dam,” said Sheyel, “because everyone was leaving. Kim, I’ve been there. There is something loose up there.”
She listened to the air currents circulating through the room. “Did you ever see anything, Sheyel?”
“I’ve felt it. Go look for yourself. After dark. Do that much. It’s all I ask.”
“Sheyel—”
“But don’t go alone.”
2
We may never know what really happened at Mount Hope. Those who maintain that a secret government project hidden on the slopes went terribly awry on that April night have to explain how a government notoriously unable to keep any kind of secret could have kept this one for so many years. The theory that the area was struck by a micro black hole seems equally indefensible until someone proves that such an exotic object can even exist. As to the antimatter explanation, the board, after exhaustive investigation, can find no conceivable source. For now, at least, the cause of the Mount Hope event cannot be satisfactorily explained.
—Report of the Conciliar Commission, March 3, 584
In effect, Kim and her charges, a combination of commentators, contributors, and political heavyweights, were afloat in the void at relatively close range to Alpha Maxim. They were seated in four rows of armchairs, some sipping coffee or fruit juice, one or two pushed back as if it might be possible to fall. The sun’s glare was muted. Its apparent size was about twice that of Helios at noon.
Two clocks, positioned among the stars, counted down to ignition.
Kim, in the rear, was doing a play-by-play. “The LK6 is now two minutes from making its jump into the solar core. When it does, it will try to materialize in an area already densely packed with matter.” Canon Woodbridge, seated up front, was talking on a phone while he watched.
“This alone would be enough to create a massive explosion. But the LK6 is loaded with a cargo of antimatter. The reaction will be enough to destabilize the star.”
Beside her, a technician signaled that the operation was still on schedule.
“We have a report from the McCollum that the last crewmembers have left the Trent, and that they have begun to pull away.”
One of the observers wanted to know about safety margins. How long would it take before the shock wave hit the Trent?
“There’s no danger to any of the personnel. They’ll be gone long before the first effects of the nova reach their former location. Incidentally, the Trent won’t be destroyed by the shock wave. The light will get there first, and that’ll be quite enough.”
Could she explain?
“A nova puts out a lot of photons. Think of a near-solid wall moving at lightspeed.”
The clock produced a string of zeroes.
“Insertion is complete,” she said.
“Kim.” It was the representative of a corporation that almost routinely underwrote Institute activities. “How long will it be before we start to see the first effects?”
“That’s a gray area, Ann. To be honest, we have no idea.”
There were skeptics among the witnesses, some who believed that the Institute had overreached, that blowing up a star was simply beyond human capability. Several, she knew, would have been pleased to see the effort fail. Some did not like the Institute; some did not like its director. Others were simply uncomfortable at the prospect of human beings wielding that kind of power. Woodbridge