Intergalactic

„This thing“, Dr. Scotcher welcomed them at the back entrance of the research building, „needs to get off the planet. Immediately.“

It was earliest morning. Only Chromatica B had barely begun to peek above the horizon, shining its crimson light over the city. It had still been dark when he had woken them up less than an hour ago and insisted that they come to get his lab results, right away.

He ushered them inside while he was talking, and then down a corridor to a service elevator.

„What’s the urgency?“, Twitch asked, rubbing the last bits of sleep out of his eyes.

„How well do you understand high-dimensional physics?“, was the response.

„Uh.“, Twitch grumbled, „The basics they teach in school, plus a year of hyperspace navigation in flight school.“

„So, basically nothing.“, the scientist concluded. „This way. Should be nobody in yet, but can’t be entirely certain.“ The other two followed them, not in the mood for many words.

They entered the elevator and Dr. Scotcher held his batch to a reader before punching the button for the 6th floor.

„In very simple terms,“, he began the way lectures usually start, „after humanity’s first contact with aliens, we quickly figured out that there were three more space dimensions, working much like the three we are used to, except that their coupling with the time dimension is different, which is what allows us to exceed the speed of light in our dimensions by transposing into what is generally called hyperspace.“, he said while the elevator rose upwards, then added in the voice of a professor leaving the really tricky part as homework: “I assume you know that much.“

„Yeah.“, Grubs mumbled, also still sleepy, „And the 4th to 6th dimensions are the source of what before the space age was called dark matter and dark energy. They interact with our three dimensions only via gravity. Oh and before time was thought to be the 4th dimension.“

„Yes, yes.“, Scotcher interrupted, as the elevator doors opened and he walked briskly down a hallway, waving the others to follow. „Now the 4th to 6th dimensions are something that we can just about understand. We have no senses to perceive them and, as one of the few intelligent races in the galaxy, no natural ability to interact with any of them. Even the Qyrl can reach into at least the 4th dimension!“, he said with a tone of exasperation.

„That’s why humans were late to discover FTL travel, yes we know. Don’t have to rub it in, that’s basic history.“

„Now“, Scotcher continued, ignoring Grubs’ remark, „the 7th and 8th dimension, they are an entirely different story. Only a few aliens have mastered them, and our scientific understanding of them can essentially be summed up as we have nothing but wild guesses. They might be Higgs condensates, but that like all other theories would defy our understanding of physics entirely. We can press buttons on machines built by aliens and something happens, but most of what seven dimensional machines do, well how I can put this? It is not that we don’t understand it. It violates our understanding. For all we know, it shouldn’t work. And don’t even get me started on dimension eight, even most of the aliens don’t get that one. Causality, locality, reality, even math appears to work differently.“

„Enough science-babble.“, Red interrupted, by now being awake and annoyed. „Tell us why this couldn’t wait until at least breakfast.“

„Here“, the scientist said, opening the door to his laboratory, „To the right is a room we can talk in.“

They piled into a small room adjacent to the laboratory itself, through an unusually thick doorway. The room had a small, square table with two chairs looking lost in the far corner, no windows and the cold and bright ceiling light common to all offices in the galaxy. The walls had an unusual pattern of diagonal squares, like a chain-link fence.

„Sweet.“, Twitch exclaimed, gave his smartwatch a glance and pursing his lips while nodding appreciatively. „A room-sized Faraday cage.“

„Yes“, Dr. Scotcher commented, „We use it for experiments sensitive to electro-magnetic interference. But most of the time it is empty. Anyways,“, he closed the door while speaking, „here’s what I found out about your item. Well, we found out. This was well beyond my own abilities and I had to call in a couple favors to get additional expertise working on it. Tell Yezz that’ll be reflected in the bill.“

He moved towards the table and pulled it out of the corner, the table legs screeching on the floor. He grabbed a small tablet from a pocket in his jacket and placed it on the table, pressing a button. Two seconds later, a holographic display formed above the tablet, barely visible in the bright light. Scotcher went back to the door and adjusted the ceiling lights until the hologram could be made out more clearly. It showed a cutaway of the hyperdrive core, with all the parts they were more or less familiar with. In addition, an animated translucent line of some thickness led away from it, upwards, fading out a small distance above the core itself. A little further along the now invisible line, a single question mark hung in the air.

„While this item is a fully functional hyper core, it is also something else. From what I have seen in the engineering work, it appears to be a prototype or one of a small batch production, maybe for field testing. The line you see is a projection, it doesn’t actually lead into any 3D dimension.“

„The seven-dimensional p…“, Twitch exclaimed, stopping himself.

Dr. Scotcher whirled around to him. „You knew about this?“

Twitch twisted nervously, avoiding the other man’s gaze. „Well“, he began, „Not exactly. We just…“, he shot Red a quick glance, and the captain picked up, continuing for him: „The Aerax billed us extra for a 7th dimension. That is all we know.“

The scientist sighed. „Could’ve saved me half a day of work if you told me. Oh well. Now, where was I? Ah yes, so there is a fragment of the device that is located in the 7th dimension. It is always there, like a part of the machine. It’s not a hyperdrive element or part of a dimensional shift. For lack of a better term, me and my colleagues have dubbed it a dimensional anchor.“

„And what does it do?“, Grubs asked, with a clear stress on the final word that managed to put his impatience into just one syllable.

Without a hint of embarrassment, Dr. Scotcher answered: „We don’t know for sure. Can’t even think of an experiment to find out definitely. All we have is a guess based on our observations and measurements.“

He left a short pause, either for effect or to sort his thoughts.

„It stabilizes the Higgs field around a high-dimensional object traveling through hyperspace, by locking in an arbitrary multi-dimensional space-time point and creating its own co-moving reference frame.“

„Right.“, Red said after another short pause, this one definitely for thoughts. „Now say that again in a language normal people understand.“

„It“, Dr. Scotcher began slowly, struggling for words, „could allow the Xylars or really anyone using it to cut through the Junkstorm. Or any of the other chaotic regions that provide a sanctuary to the human race.“

The silence was deafening as the crew took in the implications of this discovery.

„A weapon against humanity?“, Grubs finally wondered.

„Only as a side-effect, probably.“, Scotcher replied. „If we are right then its most likely purpose is to allow hyperspace travel right through such regions instead of around them. It could significantly speed up travel along some of the main trade routes in the galaxy. The details are in the full science report. Here is the data stick. Take it to Yezz, she will know someone who can explain it.“

„An innocent improvement to the aliens,“, Red said thoughtfully, „but an existential threat to even the meager place humans have in the galaxy. Not to mention the Xylars will want their research prototype back.“

„And“, Grubs added, „unless this one is unique, they have the means to come and get it.“

Scotcher nodded. „And now you understand why I want this thing off-planet, immediately. Endangering the entire Chromatica system is way outside my job description.“