Hi,
I wrote this a long time ago when the thread of conversation was
still going. I just found it in my files and thought I'd send it
in anyway. Hope you don't mind.
Scott
Black Globes, and Ships and Ceiling Wax and Cabbages and Kings.
The wind rose in a freezing scream that chilled even through
their battle dress as Boer and Zdeldi leapfrogged under cover up
the side of the mountain toward the rising white tornado that
emminated from the valley on the other side. The plume rose
hundreds of kilometers into the sky of Tool's World in a gigantic
mushroom cloud.
Boer was the first to reach the summit and he crawled the
last meter to prevent being sillouhetted at the mountain crest.
Zdeldi watched as the familliar Zhodani battle dress froze
scanning the valley below. "What is it?" he growled. The Aslan
from Darrian crawled the interveneing space and turned his battle
dress sensors on the jetting white plume.
Infra red signature was cold. Really cold. The plume read
out as a stream of liquid air vaporizing as it screamed up toward
orbit. Zdeldi scanned for the source of the jet but could detect
nothing. It rose as a perfectly round plume from the valley
below.
"Hloch, are you getting this?" called Boer over their
scrambled circuit.
In the G-Carrier, Hloch examined the pictures relayed by the
teams sensors, "Clear view, suggest you attempt psionic
penetration."
Zdeldi reflected on the fortune of serving in the Darrian
Navy Special Arm. His security clearance required that he be
psionically trained. Concentration, was difficult in the roaring
wind, but he suddenly was inside the mind of someone in there.
Two men, undoubtedly the ones the team had followed were arguing
with a third man in there who's mind Zdeldi could not touch.
Zdeldi looked through the mind of one of them and saw the bridge
of a ship.
"It's a ship." he announced quietly.
"Boer," called Hloch. "Use your clairvoyance and get a
picture of their bridge. I think I know what's going on...
Zdeldi, read Boer's mind and transmit the picture to me...."
Hloch looked at the strangely assembled crew as he briefed
them. Ael Yael, Imperials, Zhodani, Darrians, Vargr and Aslan
all united against a common but very powerful foe. "Ladies and
Gentlemen," he began, pointing to the picture of the white plume.
"What we are flying against is a black globe."
Confused faces in the audience looked at each other.
"A black globe is essentually a field which absorbs energy.
ALL energy: light, heat, radiation, kinetic, the strong and weak
forces of nuclei AND gravitational.
Now, some of you may or may not have heard of gravitons.
Gravitons are particles very like photons. Photons are pretty
easy to understand. An particle with a certain amount of energy
emmits a photon. This photon doesn't have mass, but it does have
energy. This little packet of energy strikes another particle
giving it more energy.
Right. Now gravitons are emmitted by particles with mass
and they are absorbed by other particles. This action pulls the
particle back toward the particle back toward the first one. The
farther you get away from those masses the fewer gravitons from
it you will intercept. Thus the 1/R squared relation; just like
photons.
The thing about gravitons is that they don't often effect
other particles: Very small cross section. That's why when you
stand on top of something you don't weigh any less. Most of the
gravitons pass right through what ever you stand on and a few
interact with you. You also emmit gravitons so any that do
interact with you won't be missed by anyone above you.
Now, I see Alaya shaking her head. Ok, so I've simplified
the quantum theory of gravity. Please remember that while Boer
here is a great teleport commando, he's had no formal scientific
training.
Ok, now the black globe absorbs not just the gravitons an
object of its size and mass would normally, but ALL of them that
would pass through it. A black globe in a gravitational well
will create a zone of zero gravity above it.
Thus, above the ship out there in the mountains is a pillar
of zero gravity. The atmosphere in this pillar has equal
potential energy therefore equal pressure. The air is drawn in
at the base and expands in the upper atmosphere. That is our
tornado.
However, the huge number of gravitons being absorbed by that
globe means one hell of a lot of energy. If you put a space
craft in the zero gravity zone all you would have to do is give
it a shove and it would just drift up to orbit. And with the
gale winds blowing you wouldn't even need to shove very hard.
THAT is the kind of energy that is absorbed by a black globe.
From the conversation Zdeldi overheard inside the ship we
know the energy influx is being used for crystal manufacture.
Those blasted crystals must be hard. The energy used to create
them is enormous.
All of this is irrelevent to our mission, but you need to
know what we're taking on. Back when I first started out as a
naval architect I worked on the 'Thunder Fox' class: black
globes. A number of us working on the project speculated on
black globes close to a planet surface. Testing and models said
that at tech level fifteen, you can't operate a globe below low
orbit. Obviously, these folks are operating at a very high
level. But even they must be under a strain. Absorbing all the
gravity, and sitting in what must be a rising lake of liquified
gasses condensed by the absolute zero black globe.
Now. That ship could be very easy to destroy. If we bring
the 'Alexandria's lasers to bear on it from orbit they might be
forced to raise the globe up full. Right now, according to the
densitometer readings, it's flickering at a rate of seventy three
percent so they are only absorbing a fraction of the energy that
they might be. If they absorbed the full force of gravitational
energy, they would undoubtedly overload their energy sinks and
blow the ship to tiny tiny pieces.
Problem: the 'Alexandria' being only a scoutship doesn't
have much firepower. And besides we need information. That ship
can answer a lot of questions.
The weapon we have best suited for the attack is psionics.
Telepathy and clairvoyance seem to work through the globe. This
may be because it is only flickering, but they might work even if
the globe is fully raised."
Hloch turned and looked his audience in the eye
"Suggestions?"
Boer scratched his beard as he considered the problem.
"Well, if we want to shut down the globe there are two ways I can
think of. One, we could try a scrambler mission, using
clairvoyance and telekinesis to operate the black globes
controls. Or, two a teleport commando operation to get inside
and shut it down. Problem is, I don't know a thing about globe
controls. I might blow the ship."
Ryke Poe spoke up, "I've operated globe equipped ships in
the IISS."
Zdeldi turned to the imperial scout. "You aren't psionic,
but if I act as a telepathic relay we can direct Boer and Alaya
and the other teleports what to do."
Alaya shook her head. "We don't know what how the globe is
going to effect psi ops. I would advise against trying to
teleport in without more information. I think the scrambler idea
is safer. Besides, if someone hit the wrong switch and the ship
does go up, at least our people won't be inside. Once the globe
is down, we send in the teleport troops and they let in the
rest...."
Scott Kellogg
PS. A while ago, someone accused the black globe of being a
perpetual motion machine. Well the answer to this is quite
simple: OF COURSE IT'S A PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINE!!!
By absorbing heat the way it does, it violates the third law of
thermodynamics so by definition is is a perpetual motion machine.
The projected heat death of the universe is 0.4 degrees kelvin
(or is it 4 degrees kelvin?) Anyway that is an amount of heat
that would be absorbed by the black globe.
Rob Dean says he doesn't like them. Frankly, I don't
either. That is why I am adamantly in favor of their absorbing
gravitational energy: It puts severe limits on what they can do!
Particle Man,
Particle Man,
Doin' the things a particle can!
What's he like?
It's not important.
Particle Man
Is he a dot?
Or is he a speck?
When he's underwater does he get wet?
Or does the water get
him instead?
Nobody knows.
Particle Man Particle Man, by They Might Be Giants
"Dr. Feynman, what exactly is a particle?"
"You know, I always wanted someone to ask me that. As far
as I can figure, it has a tendancy to exist!"
'And they shall beat their Hordes into plowshares...'