Hometown

Towards the end of the previous century, the pioneers from New Mars found this moon in orbit around a gas giant which itself orbited a Sol class star. The space lane out from human territory was following a dimensional twist down the spiral arm towards galactic center, and it came close enough to this system to make for a good drop point. On the edge of the stellar gravity well a ship could transition safely enough to hard physics and glide on to the moon's traffic control net. Before they established any details like traffic control, they had to get the basic infrastructure up and running. The first thing you do is probe the moon geology to find a stable point, and then you insert a chunk of neutron star as a gravity anchor, so you can build up a unity field to give you one gee on the surface, and hold down the air bubble.

The good folk who did all this work had floated a government loan, and were determined to pay it off as quick as they could, for the sake of their children and grandchildren. Being from New Mars, they came from a culture where their own ancestors had done this kind of thing themselves, they were just following an established pattern of colonial success. When somebody asked them what name Lane Authority should put on the star chart for their new settlement, they said that since this was going to be their home town from now on, why not just call it that: Hometown.

The years went by and the human swarm kept pushing down the arm, traffic kept dropping off the Lane and swinging down to Hometown as a rest stop, repair facility, grocery store, beer bar, entertainment center, whatever would sell, whatever travelers buy. After fifty years the loan was paid off, and Hometown was a full-fledged Local Government Entity of the Confederation. The dark energy feed off the Lane provided the data link that kept them in sync with the rest of humanity, they ran their clocks on Greenwich Mean Time, just like everybody else, their environmental systems pumped out day and night and the four seasons and more or less random weather just like on New Mars, or on ten thousand other gravity tap air bubble settlements.

Central-Standard Lines entered into an agreement with Hometown Council, and built a direct connection station right above the bubble, so that now regular scheduled flights are available from Hometown to anywhere Central-Standard serves; lay-overs and restrictions may apply. The transit and room taxes from this arrangement provide a hefty chunk of the Entity annual budget. Taxes on water export are another income source; ships always seem to want more water. And the fuel facility has been another good profit-point; the Lines offering stable contracts. There is a decent amount of in-system production of minerals and petrochemicals, so local hard-space ships are always coming and going, paying taxes and fees.

It's all big enough now that there are four high schools and a college, a large sports-complex, a vibrant downtown night life on the weekends, and many of the usual civic and social organizations and societies common to the human culture. And of course over the years there has been the usual festering growth of an unsavory underworld and an ever increasing mass of lost generation bored rebellious youth; folks who do not appreciate as they should the sterling values their forefathers have sacrificed so much for to build up in their Hometown.

serendipity

is that what you call it? The Green administration that had come in through the last election had targeted the depressed rural counties with clean energy projects......our town got a company in from Brazil to help finance a factory making the clever gravity-tap generators that the kids in California had come up with......so when we got sliced off from the grid.....and from the rest of our old reality.....we at least had some way to get electricity. The factory couldn't sell their units to the emerging nations like they had been planning to do, since there wasn't any money any more to begin with.....and no more emerging nations either.....so they just went ahead and gave away the stock they had ready to go to the folks around here......We've got ours sitting out in the back yard......just yanked the city meter off the wall and wired the house up to the tap after the factory boys had calibrated it to the local deep gravity phase-shift, or whatever.....anyway, it works.....there's only one channel on the TV though, from the College.....and one radio station, from Public Safety......

But things could have been a hell of lot worse.....we could be reading by candle light I guess....as it is, most cooking gets done on a wood fire of some sort, since there isn't any natural gas flowing anymore, and an electric range draws down the tap pretty fast.....you have to be careful with your current flow.....most folks run the fridge first, and then go from there......no more central heat and air.....except at the hospital, where they have a whole big bank of units.....

And it's a good thing this county had some good breeding stock on a few of the close in farms......you take the engine and all out of a pick-up truck, and then it might be light enough for a team of horses to pull it out into the woods......so you can get firewood for the winter.....a lot of closed up old fireplaces got renovated around town.....

And I use a bit of wood keeping the still going......good thing my grandpa had left all that stuff in the big shed......whisky makes a pretty decent currency in a barter economy......

by the middle of the 21st century

consensus reality was under constant stress from the pressures introduced by accident when experiments in quantum physics got out of hand.....a lot of historians tend to blame the Chinese, since they did not heed the warnings from the CalTech Group which started the whole thing.....the folks in Pasadena had predicted that excessive "dark force" manipulation could lead to undesirable and dangerous consequences.....but with the state of anarchy that came after the fall of the ChiComs in 2132, there was nobody to police the radicals in the Chinese universities, and they still had vast resources at hand....

So the South China Group went hog wild with the new gravity wave technology, pushing things to the extreme......they were trying to achieve an anti-gravity engine, to seize the high ground by levitating industrial complexes to Earth orbit.....but the complications of messing around with basic constants were not fully understood at that point in space-time.....and so the China Accident came to pass.....

The space station they had been trying to lift to orbit was instead transported to another layer of the multiverse, along with a thousand or so hectares of the Chinese countryside.....all that was left to see was a big hole in the ground.....

The newscasters said "This is unreal!" And they were right, un-reality had been introduced into our environment.....the "dark matter" that underlies the consensus reality had shock waves running through it.....so everything started "shaking like a bowl full of jelly".....

One thing that happened was that a small town in South Carolina was whisked away to an alternate history......the moon and the stars and all were still there, and you could breath the air and drink the water.....and there were birds and flowers and trees.....but there were no other people they could find anywhere close by.....and no electrical grid, no radio waves.....nothing technological besides what that had with them.....batteries that would soon run out of juice, cars that would soon run out of gas......drugstores that would soon run out of drugs......no trucks bringing in foodstuffs....you starting to get the picture?

(to be continued)

down towards galactic center

aboard the liner Belle Epoch fives days out of Port Martini, about to cross over the line into Machine Space......

Baylor studied his image in the mirror, adjusting his cravat, and flicking away imagined specks from his nicely cut frock coat.....he switched off the mirror and picked up his silver-knobbed stick, and left his cabin in first class headed towards the Casino.....all about him is polished golden wood and gleaming brass.....thick red carpet, artificial gaslight, late Victorian style notes of the decor shading into Craftsman and art nouveau touches.....Management had found just the right note, he thought.....to convey a sense of Edwardian decadence and luxury......his fellow passengers all play the game to the hilt.....ladies with corseted waists and bustles twirling parasols, gentlemen striding in polished black boots, etc....

The Casino is a marvel, a more sophisticated venue for gaming cannot be imagined....all is spot on perfect in detail......Baylor glides blithely to his accustomed spot at the roulette .....smiles and nods greet him .....he obtains chips and places them .....the evening begins.....

Several decks deeper than Casino, in the mechanical bowels of the great starship, a stealth droid is creeping through access tubes, up to no good I'm sure......Management is not aware of it's purposes.....it is not even aware of it's presence, if the plan is going well.....

A couple light years off the starboard bow, a Machine Dominion corvette tracks the quantum sign of the droid.....it also tracks the sign of the silver knob on Baylor's walking stick....

Back on Casino deck, Baylor is raking in the chips......Management scowls somewhat.....

in the dawning

I look through the narrow tower window and look out over the mists rising off the glades below the castle.....a fairy maid somehow senses that I am up and about, and comes through the stone wall in the strange way of the folk here, offering me cider and cheese and bread for a breakfast.....actually, what they call "first breakfast"....a little something before the early morning romp over hill and dale which all here participate in....dashing about in the coolness of the morning.....a little later folk will assemble on a terrace for proper breakfast, with eggs and kippers and bacon and scones....."breakfast wine".....and exotic fruits with names I do not know.....

I will run and dance and sport with the younger folk of the castle through the hours until noon, when a more formal meal will be served in the Great Hall......here Grandfather will take me in hand, and on into the afternoon I will receive the instruction that I was brought here from Earth to garner....

I learn of the noumenal, which is unknowable......my life here is beyond strange, which is why I was brought here still young......

events of note

I must attempt to record some developments of importance as regards the relationship between this sphere of reality and the next one over.....for three generations, since the time of the Green Magus, there has been a portal open to another world which is much like ours, but which is different in certain crucial respects.....mainly, on the Other Side, the "powers-that-be" are of a strange nature.....here in our mundane reality we may think and talk about and perhaps pray to the "powers" .....but with little actual effect to our daily lives.....our reality continues rock-hard and thick with unchanging sameness, not varying with the whims of free thought and poetic fancy....but just over the Border things are more free..... Mind has more reign over Matter.....

My grandfather often crossed over to the other side, and when I was a child he would tell tales of what wonders could be found Over There....and when I was twelve years old he took me with him once across the Bridge of Stars......of course I could be burned alive as a heretic by the Temple if I asserted this memory of mine as the truth....but it did happen.....

My grandfather took my hand and we entered the cave under the hill where the bonfires were made on holy days.....soon we were lost in utter darkness, but my grand-sire and name-sake did not falter on the path....down and down we went into the heart of Earth....."the Way lies Within"......somehow, in seeming contradiction of common sense, deep below the ground we came to an open glade with the stars crowded above us in marvelous abundance.....one bright star at the zenith flamed large, and somehow seized upon us and drew us up and away and beyond the reality we were born into.....

Flying and falling through the cosmos, we sped towards a circle of stars.....and on and on we went.....finally, we plunged down through air and clouds to a fair wondrous land of strange beasts and shining gentle persons who welcomed us, and took us into their castles, and anointed us with rich oils, and garbed us in fine robes, and told us we were welcome and more.....

The Maestro's party

settled into the rooms of the inn according to their varying status.....the Maestro himself and his Clerk into an upstairs apartment of some comfort, considering the forsaken wild country they found themselves in......our guide and myself took a smaller but clean and cheery enough room looking out over the courtyard, where the guardsmen and the drovers were to be housed about in the lofts over the barns and stables ......our horses and pack-mules were being cared for and fed.....the innkeeper had sent a boy to the Fort, with a message for the River Captain....asking for permission to continue our journey deeper into the Forest Lands.....the Clerk scowled and muttered as he considered the dwindling contents of the treasure chest, wondering what sort of payment was customary for a score of outlanders wanting to cross the border into the realm of the Nine Princes......

The River Captain sat in his tower, listening to his informers describe the strangers who desired to pass through his jurisdiction and enter into the High Realm......He sent the boy back to the innkeeper with the word that the Judges would be consulted in this matter....they would cast their spells and read the omens.....perhaps in a day or two some answer could be made to the Maestro's request to proceed onwards.....

Back at the inn, we listened to this advisement with the stoic resolve we had learned to cloak ourselves with when dealing with the peculiar laws and restrictions of this ancient tribal society, far from the ordered and sanctified shores ruled by the True Empire.....two years ago I had thought these lands towards the sunset to be nothing but a myth or sailor's tale....but the Maestro had shown us in his scrolls the descriptions of these lands.....and thus far the facts had been found to accord with what was written in the histories.....weeks on the leaping waves of great Ocean had brought us to the Three Kingdoms of legend.....and the Lords of Mystical Orders on these far shores had recognized in the Maestro a kindred Sage, and expedited our progress through the complexities of custom in the Kingdoms, so that we after some time and expense and dogged travel were now at last on the verge of entering the fabled Elder Domain.....at least so we hoped.....what would the Judges rule? How much gold would they need to cast a favorable portent?

In his tower, the River Captain and the Senior Judge carefully opened an ornate and heavy bound chest, and took out from it a certain flat piece of slate.....the Judge took a stylus of gold and scribed characters in Eldrich on the surface of the slate.......he described in detail the party requesting permission to proceed upriver......two-hundred leagues to the North, these notations appeared suddenly upon the other half of the piece of slate, which rested on a table in the sanctum of the Priestess Queen of Orm......this worthy dame read the words, and sent a girl to inform the Serene Prince......

Three Rivers Town

At Falls Junction the Maestro had hired a local man called Jentro to act as our guide and translator to the next settlement of any importance upstream and inland....a place called Three Rivers Town....we arrived around noon in this village, after four nights on the fairly well-kept road which followed the river, we ever climbing gently upwards from the coastal plains now well behind us.....of course Hangar the Hungry and his fellow men-at-arms swiftly located a likely looking inn where we might obtain some victuals of better grade than what we had been consuming on the trail.......this was our hope, at any rate.....the smiling innkeeper sat us all at a long table with benches, much like at a country inn back home.....his daughters and nieces quickly passed around bowls of ale to our company, while Jentro began the negotiations with our host.....after a few moments of conversation in the harsh-sounding local tongue, our guide spoke to us in plain language, telling us that we were being offered fried ham-steaks, bread-and-butter, and "spice-jar salad".....and more ale, or "a strong purple wine", should we prefer.....the Maestro inquired into the nature of "spice-jar salad", and Jentro explained that beans, beets, nuts, carrots, "hard root", and what all were placed in a large clay jar with vinegar and spices and flavorings from the local forest and allowed to steep until a certain perfection of flavor was obtained.....he spoke highly of this concoction.....we saw that other patrons were swallowing all this with good relish, so the Maestro agreed to this menu, after Jentro had established the tariff in the jagged little silver bits which were the coin in this part of the wilderness.....

Reflection

Reflection, originally uploaded by 99%: "Meh".

the bars never close

along the Port Martini docks.....so I was sitting on a chrome and naugahyde stool staring across the cultured rosewood bar at myself in the mirror amidst exotic bottles of trans-galactic booze at 0300 GMT, on a Thursday morning.....in the glass I saw a girl come in through the swinging doors off the boardwalk.....she looked lost....spaced out....

She sits next to me, nursing a Bloody Mary, still pretty lost and spaced seeming.....her story is bizarre.....she says she was on a ship that drifted over into another dimension....where she was captured by ghosts.....but some old dude from the 19th century had helped her escape....so here she was on the Frontier, in Port Martini.....a place she had last visited forty years ago according to the calendar.....but she could only account for three years having elapsed in her time.....

"Well" says I "Must be some kind of space-time trans-dimensional glitch going on here, I reckon."

She rolls her eyes at me and gives me a smirk...."Yeh, I reckon." she says....

The juke-box continues to grind out country-western stuff, and some kind of martian polka music.....mixed sparingly with ship-hop.....

"The government says I'm entitled to a pension....." she takes another sip...."I have to wait for a decision from some board or other before I know the amount...."

"Oh yeh? that sounds cool.....where are you staying now?" I ask, becoming interested......

Loop-variable quantum spacetime

Loop-variable quantum spacetime, originally uploaded by Ethan Hein.

metaphysics

While the ghostly powers-that-be began somewhat complicated negotiations with the Chief, and, through him, with the Fleet.....Maria and I remained in the condo overlooking the park of repose. I tried to explain to her what I myself understood about the similarities and differences between the human experience, and the experience in the ghostly realm, or spiritual plane....

"You see" I began..."All beings that might be called living beings participate in the set of vibrations that constitute the life force.....biological beings accomplish the tuning in of the essential frequencies at a chemical level.....any given element in the human body, for example, can be expressed as a particular wave-length of the music of the spheres."

I pause as she knits her brow and then nods. "Go on" she says.

I take of sip of my brandy, and continue...."Elements build into molecules, and molecules build into chemical compounds, and these compounds build into muscle and bone and all the things that make up an animal body. They also build, of course, into brain tissue, and nerve tissue.....and at some point in the evolution of sentient beings they build into the structures that are complicated enough to participate in the quantum looping which is the basic feature of what we call intelligent life. Thus, your flesh-and-blood self can be seen as a sort of antenna which picks up the all pervasive underlying pulse of Awareness.... allowing our species to be self-aware.....and thus fall from Eden....."

She frowns briefly at this point, and then smiles as she catches the allusion....

"Here on this mostly non-material plane" I press on...."The music of the spheres is received by antennae composed of resonant wave-forms of various light elements operating under a different set of physical constants than we encounter on our own plane of existence. Thus ghostly life is more fluid than human life I suppose you could say.....in that we by pure acts of will cannot alter things outside of ourselves....we must use hands and tools to manipulate our surroundings. But, on this plane, a person can, at a quantum loop level, not merely receive, but also transmit with ease....changing things in a direct manner."

"Enough metaphysics for the moment?" I ask....

She seems lost in thought.....