[This is a chapter from my latest novel, a sequel to The Fall of Doc Future and Skybreaker’s Call. The start is here, and links to my other work here. It can be read on its own, but contains spoilers for those two books. I try to post new chapters about every two weeks, and the next one is planned for around August 30th. I sometimes post short stories and vignettes on off weeks ]

Previous: Chapter 26

“Flicker, I don’t know if I can,” said Journeyman, a little desperately. "I just don’t have the math.“

They were in the living room of her apartment, which was attached like an afterthought to her much larger workshop. It was filled with the mix of tidiness and clutter you got when you lived alone, had robots do all the cleaning, and didn’t really care about appearances as long as you could find things.

Flicker frowned. "I know you’re good at topology, and you set up those numerical simulations for quantitative magic analysis, so I thought–”

“Okay, look. I’m smart, but not close to you or Doc. I never finished high school, let alone college, so everything I picked up is spotty. Yeah, I can handle basic calculus, and recognize differential equations well enough to tell a computer to solve the ones that have clear solutions without screwing up. Usually. But get into non-linear stuff or weird boundary conditions, or anything that uses those matrix things with extra tentacles that eat vectors–”

“You mean tensors?”

“Yeah, those. I’m lost as soon as they show up. So I can understand qualitatively when you or Doc talk about general relativity, but I’ve looked at that equation with the bold italic capital letters with multiple greek subscripts that mean sixteen things at once, and all I could do was shake my head. It seems easy to you because you use it all the time–heck, you need it to keep your clocks in sync whenever you run to the store to get a snack.”

“I have the Database do that,” she said. "But you’re right–I need general and special relativity to correct for visual distortion any time I really push, so I’m used to it.“

"And that’s where Ashil starts.” Journeyman took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair, then replaced it. "So, yeah, I can ‘seek the dragon’s wisdom’–but that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to understand it.“

Flicker scowled. "That makes sense. Damn it. DASI?”

“Yes, Flicker?” replied DASI, from the workstation speakers.

“Can you put together an emergency short course for Journeyman, focusing on the essential background he’ll need to comprehend Ashil’s portal theory?”

“I can, but it will require time and dedication on his part.”

“That, I can manage,” he said.

“I don’t know how much time we’re going to have,” said Flicker. "Is there anything magical you can use to speed things up, like the Comfy Chair?“

The Comfy Chair was an overstuffed armchair in Journeyman’s library that he used to aid concentration by magically suppressing distractions. It worked, but wasn’t healthy to use without unignorable reminders to eat and sleep.

"Hmm. Well, there is a tome I’ve used as a sympathetic magic focus to pick up some of the physics I do know, but the spell makes it just as easy to learn wrong things as right ones. I guess DASI can handle the sanity checks.”

“Wait, is that 'Gravitation’? I saw it on your shelf–that’s why I thought you knew GR.”

“Yeah, that’s the book, and no, I haven’t read it. The hell with the equations and words, I couldn’t even understand the pictures. Makes a great focus, though.”

Flicker thought for a moment. "Two of the authors are still alive. I’ve met one of them, he’s interested in portals, he’s a good teacher, and he owes me a favor. Would having him as an on-call tutor help?“

"Uh, probably. But–”

“DASI? Call him. Tell him a superhero needs to learn general relativity in a big hurry to help me save the world.”

“Done. He is currently in the middle of a lecture. I left an appropriate message.”

“Thanks,” said Flicker, as Journeyman sighed. "What’s wrong?“

"Just… I’m going to be grouchy and a pain to be around while I’m doing this. I hope you–”

“Mike, I understand. Doc used to get that way all the time trying to gather experimental data with probability manipulation hosing his statistics. Do the best you can, and call me when you want a break–I’ll be fine.”

“Okay. Which part of your mother’s cryptic advice are you going to try to figure out first?”

“I’m going to dump all of it on Doc and see what he says. I think this is just the sort of thing that used to trigger their fights, and he’s familiar with the way she uses language. DASI? Leave a message for Doc–I know he’s in a meeting on the embassy ship. Mark it high importance, medium urgency.”

“Done.”

“And while I wait, I’m going to take another look at Ashil’s stuff myself. Who knows, I might end up being able to help you help me.”

*****

“You are being unhelpful,” said Ezerin, the chief Grs'thnk xenosocial analyst. “You ridiculed my model earlier, and now suddenly you approve of it?”

“There wasn’t anything wrong with your model,” said Elder Trig. "I was making fun of how you modified it. It was a fine model, until you decided to change it.“

Doc could not criticize the Grs'thnk aid mission for wasting his time–their policy meetings weren’t boring, even for him. There were about a dozen people at the table, but several of them had selective privacy screens up, blurring their images and letting them have private side conversations instead of watching the main fight.

And there was usually a fight. The Grs'thnk method was similar to a Socratic one: Meetings were for getting disagreements and misunderstandings out in the open and thrashing them out. Lectures could be handled remotely and individually.

"Of course I changed it! The initial version predicted at least four human wars that didn’t happen! If I didn’t modify–”

“Yes, but why did it kick out wars that didn’t happen? In reality, there was only one, or maybe two, depending on how you count that 'Lost Years’ conflict,” Trig nodded to Doc. "But your model wasn’t wrong; this clever human fellow here was finessing things–with some subtle help from others–to stop them.“

"How?” Ezerin looked at Doc skeptically.

“We’re still discussing that. But he wasn’t able to eliminate the causes of those wars–two of them are still waiting to happen. So a change in equilibrium, or a significant external disturbance–like our aid program–and people are going to want to start shooting at each other. That’s what your new model is missing.”

“But–”

Doc’s communicator beeped, and he pulled his goggles on and activated his privacy screen. He didn’t need to go to a separate room–the Auditors were now satisfied that DASI would play nice with Grs'thnk communications security.

“Yes?”

“Hi,” said Flicker. “I have a big problem. Golden Valkyrie just–”

Doc listened as Flicker described her own rather more momentous meeting, paying attention to Golden Valkyrie’s phrasing. Flicker was right–the exact words were crucial.

“Won’t break or can’t break?” he asked after she finished.

“Won’t break.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. What do you make of the 'realm of ice, more than any frost giant has ever dreamed of, held steady by firm hands’ thing?”

Doc thought for a moment. "Europa. It has to be. Plenty of ice, and it’s the middle moon of a 4:2:1 resonance. The firm hands are Jupiter’s gravity and the other moons.“

"How sure are you?”

“Absolutely. There are other possibilities if you stretch things–but not any other obvious ones. Golden Valkyrie would know you’d ask me, and if I were wrong, she’d try something else instead.”

“Okay. I see it’s really flat, and the depth of the ice plus the ocean is more than a hundred klicks. Looks like a good place for very high energy running around without permanently hurting anything.”

“How much easier is it for you to entropy dump to water? You moved out before we finished those tests.”

“A lot. Journeyman thinks it’s because my entropy dumping uses sympathetic magic and the human body is mostly water. My range is a lot farther too.”

“Yeah, that’s really pointing towards high energy–and possibly something that would be destabilizing elsewhere. I’m going to have to think about this a bit. How is Journeyman handling it?”

“He’s scared he doesn’t have the background to learn Ashil’s portal physics in time. DASI’s helping.”

“Good. And remember Ashil isn’t done yet–it will get easier. I’ll move looking at her latest stuff up on my priority list, I might be able to help. Talk tonight when I get back?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Flicker paused. “How are– No, that can wait. Take care.”

“You too.”

*****

Back to Antarctica to think. Flicker looked out over the white landscape. All that ice, and it’s not enough. Or not in the right place.

She considered Doc’s comment about obviousness. Golden Valkyrie could see the future–so if the clear answer was wrong, she’d have found some way to warn against it.

Flicker could move something without touching it, if it fit inside her inertial damping reach of about ten centimeters. She almost never did, because she didn’t have the fine control to keep the gradients from tearing it apart if she needed to move it fast, and if not, what was the point?

And she could couple directly to spacetime–she’d used that to tear apart the Topaz Realm during one of her dissociative identity episodes.

Everything was pointing the same way. There was something she could hold in her hand that wouldn’t break and would make a fine weapon. That was so nontrivial to store safely that she would definitely need Journeyman’s help.

She knew what Skybreaker’s Spear was.

Now she just had to figure out how to handcraft a black hole.

Next: Chapter 28

