Carrier Wave
By Robert Lynch
“Communications lag has been a limiting factor of human expansion since we first began to form groups.” Harry Dougle, CEO of Commtech, told the camera. “Since the development of hyperdrive, we have been able to expand our civilisation across many stars, but delayed communication has stunted the growth of the colonies. Not having access to the Cloud has kept the colonies years behind Earth in development and slowed the number of colonies we can sustain.”
Behind Harry was a massive cyclotron-like device that encircled the entire moon. Blue lights moved west-to-east behind Harry. The lights served no practical purpose but were meant to simulate the fast-moving particles moving inside the huge construction.
“Today we solve that problem for all time.” Harry continued. “By using subspace as a carrier wave, Commtech will connect us like never before! Not only will the colonies have high-speed access to the Cloud, but so will all ships in hyperspace. Welcome to a new dawn!”
Harry hit the start button for the machine.
In testing smaller models of the technology, the instability caused in the local area was absorbed by the system. Commtech’s generator was a million times larger than any of the tests. Unable to handle the stress of the vibration, subspace collapsed.
The highway leading to millions of worlds shattered. Where before it was possible to travel millions of light-years, now no ship could travel beyond light speed.
The moon, being the centre of the disturbance, exploded. Not a typical explosion, spacetime for a light-year in radius ripped into pieces smaller than an electron across, which destabilised the atoms of the solar system. The unstable atom components were each in their own new universe. The instability of one universe created a curvature that resulted in an imbalance of matter over antimatter. AS that universe expanded in size, the difference eventually resulted in star formation, planets, even life walking on some of those planets. On one such planet intelligent life evolved, who soon began travelling to other stars.
Communication between these far-ranging distances was a huge problem. One person had an idea. What if they could use subspace itself as a carrier wave?
END