Utopia War

Chapter 19 - The Gauntlet (ii)

Hannibal sat in one of the three co-pilot's chairs inside the Appetent Centillion.1.1.1.1.1. All around him people and things he had no words to describe were having conversations in their minds they weren't bothering to include him in while they performed tasks he didn't understand.

In the chair just opposite him sat Hannibal's new best friend in the world. Or the galaxy, as his new contemporaries would say. He hadn't expected to be such fast friends with Dr. Circles when the Octopus's tank first hovered into his field of view, but he was finding his expectations less and less reliable.

"I still can't wrap my mind around the scale of all this," said Hannibal "How far away did you say the Proxima system was?"

<Approximately six and a half lightyears, give or take,> replied Dr. Cirlces.

"Right. Of course. Measurements in light and time. How silly of me."

<That's somewhere in the order of 61 trillion kilometers.>

"And we're going to travel that distance within our lifetimes?"

<Yes and no. Mostly no,> said Dr. Circles.

The Octopus loved to do this: cryptically answer a question so that Hannibal was forced to ask him to elaborate. For someone without a voice Dr. Cirlces sure loved to hear himself talk.

"How so?" he asked.

<It's like this,> signaled the Octopus.

He materialized a holographic piece of paper within his own tank. Two black dots appeared on the paper, on either end.

<These two points are quite far away,> he signaled.

The paper began to crumble itself, as though someone were crushing it into a ball in their hand.

<Now they are not.>

"I still don't understand."

<Let me try it another way,> signaled Dr. Circles, and the paper uncrumbled itself back into a pristine state <Imagine this piece of paper is a two dimensional plane. Now imagine a dot person who lived on this plane. The dot person can only move in 2 dimensions, but that's fine for moving about the 2d plane. If it wants to get from one end to the other it has to travel through the entire distance separating them. However, let's say that in the third dimension the plane is all crumbled up.>

The paper crumbled back into a ball.

<Which means the actual distance in three dimensions between the two points is much smaller. But the dot person can only move in two dimensions. All that space is still there.>

Dr. Circles uncrumbled the paper to show him.

<But if the dot person could jump between the points in the third dimension, it could make the trip in a fraction of the time.>

"Alright," said Hannibal "That much I can handle."

<Simple enough right? So here's where it gets complex. You'll have to imagine that all three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time are all a 2d plane. The metaphor serves well enough. We can move anywhere we want in three dimensions, while moving forward in time, but we have to travel the actual distance. However, the 4th dimension is crumbled up into a big metaphorical ball of paper. If you can take a short cut through the 5th dimension you can make a trip by covering a fraction of the actual distance.>

<Now 5th dimensional hyperspatial travel is useful, but it's finnicky. There's still an appreciable travel time and you have to find the right shortcuts. So,> he uncrumbled the paper again <Let's say now the paper is all five dimensions we've been discussing so far.>

"It's crumbled into a ball?"

<I see you're getting it. So when we're feeling fancy sometimes we take 6th dimensional short-cuts to connect points in the 5th dimension, in order to cut short our short-cuts. It's complicated and dangerous but fast, relatively speaking.>

"So we won't actually be travelling 61 trillion kilometers?"

<It's all relative, but from our perspective we won't be travelling so much as a light day.>

"And we're back to light and time. Thank you, Dr. Circles, I understood a lot of that."

Proxima's avatar suddenly disappeared, and Xiaolongnu came over to sit in the last remaining seat. Apparently the preparations were complete.

<We're going to be setting off soon,> signaled Appetent Centillion.1.1.1.1.1 <I'm opening up the ship's sensors to you.>

Hannibal's perceptions unfolded, like he had just gained a dozen new senses. He couldn't begin to interpret all the new information coming at him. He was himself still, sat in his chair, but at the same time he was the ship. Even more disconcerting is the totality of the electromagnetic spectrum began to represent itself to him as colors he had no words for and vague, instinctual feelings.

Hannibal had become aware of so many things at once it had the combined effect of being aware of nothing at all.

<And we're off,> said Appetent Centillion.1.1.1.1.1 <I'm going to try and beat LovesToEatMackerel to the rendez-vous spot. That'll drive him to distraction.>

And with that the ship went tearing off through the higher dimensions.