The Draco Tavern - Larry Niven [44]
“No.”
“I need a hint to a puzzle. How good are you with that thing?”
“A fascinating toy.”
“Have you had dealings with this entity?” I showed him the net address: He asked, “Do you have access to this entity?” He typed it on the screen: “It may be. Describe what you want of him.” “A matter of negotiations. Rick Schumann, why should I tell you more?” “ ‘ChinaRoger’ hasn’t dealt with aliens.” “You have had much experience. I have funds if you will act as a mediator,” said the Terminator Beaver. “I’ve done that,” I acknowledged. “How difficult is my task to be? Try to describe what you want of ‘chinaRoger.’ ” “I seek knowledge that would point to energy for industrial purposes.” Guessing, I asked, “Something to do with the missing mass?” “I wondered if you merely pretended to knowledge. Would you accept one-over-twelve-cubed of net profits from this process over the next thousand years?” I negotiated for half that, plus a modest thousand credits to be transferred at once. A bird in the hand, etc. The recording would serve as a contract if I brought these two together. I hadn’t decided on that. Either way, I expected no profit from this. Herman was getting recharged sparkers for his table. The Wheesthroo, the hairy guy, wanted an orange sherbet shake in odd proportions. I made that and Herman took it away. Teng had waited patiently. I asked him, “What do you want with this ‘Helmuthdip’?” “I want to know what he wants with me.” “What’s he say he wants?” “That’s complicated.” “I’m not busy.” “I thought he was just another astrophysicist. But, look, I’m Roger Teng-Hui. Any decent astrophysicist news who I am, and I’d know who he was. I don’t mind ‘Helmuthdip’ hiding his name. But he knows of research I’ve never heard of, and there are terms he didn’t know. That was funny. He wanted to talk about the expanding universe, but he didn’t know ‘Hubble constant.’ He knew ‘missing mass,’ but he didn’t know ‘Casimir effect.’ ” “I don’t either.” “Ah. Look, this is fascinating stuff—” He caught himself. “Even now. Rick, the current most interesting question in astrophysics is, what is the nature of the expansion of the universe? Will the universe expand to infinity, or will it collapse back to a point? Most astrophysicists would like to find just enough matter to make space flat. “Understand this picture? If the universe is too massive, it’ll expand for a while and then fall back into a reverse Big Bang. If there’s not enough mass, it’ll be expanding toward infinite volume. Right between, it expands to a finite limit. That’s flat space, right between infinite expansion and an eventual collapse, and it fits a cluster of theories built around an inflationary universe. How fast we’re expanding is the Hubble constant.” I did in fact understand him, but he didn’t wait to find that out, he just raced on. “Now, the right amount of matter to do that depends on how fast the galaxies are going away from each other ... the Hubble constant, right? The faster they’re flying apart, the more energetic the Big Bang explosion must have been, and the more mass it will take to pull everything to a stop. “The point is, none of the astronomers can find enough mass to do the job. Maybe we would have. Telescopes were getting better all the time, but then the Chirpsithra showed up—” “Is this what was going on at ‘Helmuthdip’s’ Web site?” “Yes. I thought he was an amateur at first. Brilliant amateur. I was intrigued. “The latest, most accurate measurement of the Hubble constant depends on Type 1A supernova explosions. Do you know how that works?” I shook my head. “Say you’ve got a bloated gas giant star losing mass to a white dwarf companion. The hot hydrogen gas rains down through an amazing gravity field, so it’s heated to tens of millions of degrees. When it gets dense enough, you get a fusion bomb, boom. “These Type 1A’s all resemble each other, and they can be recognized across huge distances. The universe is full of them. A Type 1A supernova