Farther than Dreams

"Farther than Dreams" is included as prelude No. 17 in The Juno Contingency (novel).

## Teaser

A base of industrial era scientists works to develop wonder weapons to defeat an invading force that hopes to purge technology.

## Plot

### 1. The Huts

On the second moon of a gas giant, war is being waged by a primitivist Horde that preaches that the planet's frequent earthquakes and natural disasters are being caused by the growing influence of science. They believe these natural disasters are building to a religious trial that will destroy the world unless it is cleansed of technology. Against this Horde is a waning number of early industrial city-states fighting for survival.

Usethanie is an astronomer working in one major industrial island-state. Because the Horde is assaulting their home island, Usethanie is transferred from her observatory—whose work has no practical effect—to a government lab developing technology for the war effort. The lab is in the mountains at the interior of the island, and work is organized among various huts.

The base's commanding General assigns Usethanie to work with a metallurgist, Sev. Sev is young and friendly, and he excitedly introduces her to his work on a newly discovered ore. It appears to have almost no weight, but when he smashes a sample of it, flecks fly upwards against gravity. Sev explains their theory that the ore is a mix of particles with positive and negative mass. He believes if they could separate and harness enough of the negative-mass particles only, then they could use it to build a flying fortress that would terrify and repulse the Horde.

Usethanie starts work in the materials science lab, which is difficult labor with delicate equipment still in its infancy. The days are spent performing experiments, collecting samples of minerals, and building new tools. At night the scientists and engineers review the day's results and iterate on the designs for the flying fortress they're charged with building. The General leaves the Huts frequently to visit the capital, bearing new prototypes to use on the battlefield, and bringing back news of how the last weapons fared on the frontlines.

After a long, tense day in the lab, Usethanie accidentally breaks some equipment and she and Sev have an argument. Usethanie storms out, and after sunset Sev goes to find her to make peace. He sees her moongazing with a telescope and sketchpad. Usethanie describes her work used to be to chart the surfaces of the gas giant's other moons, which are clearly visible when at closest approach.

She shows Sev her sketches of the other major moons, of which theirs is the second. The first moon orbits closest to the gas giant and is subject to intense tidal forces, making it heavily volcanically active and covered in lava flows. The fourth moon orbits much farther away and appears to be a dead rocky world without an atmosphere. But the third moon, Reia, is a serene forest world that orbits not much beyond their own. Because of the greater distance from the gas giant, Reia is less geologically active and has more hospitable conditions. The moon is currently at its closest approach, and Sev marvels at its detail through the telescope. Usethanie laments that they will only ever be able to observe such worlds from afar.

### 2. Sev's Paradox

After their work proceeds, Sev introduces Usethanie to a paradox in his work. Using special scales, he has constructed pellets of exactly balanced positive- and negative-mass ore. He expects that, if he gets the balance exactly right, the rock will hover indefinitely in space. Yet, no matter how precise he is, the rock always seems to drift upwards by a few centimeters per second. If he adds back more positive mass to attempt to balance this drift out, it works for a while but the rock always eventually drifts towards the ceiling.

With Usethanie's astronomy background she immediately sees through this paradox. With positive and negative mass balanced exactly, the pellet will feel no gravitational attraction to their world and will shoot off on a tangent into space. So what looks like the pellet drifting upwards is in reality their planet's own surface curving away from underneath it. She does some quick calculations to show that, at their latitude, the planet's surface will recede at several centimeters a second—the same rate Sev observes in his paradox. This effect of the planet's curvature also increases with time, meaning the rock will always drift upwards no matter how much Sev attempts to correct for it. Sev is fascinated by an astronomical explanation to his paradox.

The next week the General conveys news of the fall of their major northern port. While the loss is a shock, the Huts are soon bolstered by the arrival of the nautical researchers who were evacuated from there. Among them Usethanie meets Dr. Sous, who was developing primitive submarine technology. While the Horde's navy overwhelms them in sailing ships, Sous had built small sapper submarines that managed to sink a few much larger vessels. In his new hut, Sous continues his research on developing more resilient electrolysis machines to split water into breathable oxygen, plus more efficient carbon dioxide–absorbing minerals to allow his sappers crews to stay submerged longer.

Sev and Usethanie continue to work on their experiments to isolate more negative-mass ore. Sev develops an electrification experiment, but Usethanie spots some flaws in its setup. After correcting them, they electrify a small rock with a sufficiently high voltage, which unexpectedly aligns all the particles to the negative-mass variant of the ore. The rock suddenly behaves as if it is in anti-gravity, flying up and bouncing along the ceiling.

The scientists are ecstatic and several huts retool to producing this pure levitating ore, dubbed "levitite." News of the breakthrough spreads around the camp and many arrive to lend a hand in scaling out the electrification process. After working all night, several labs are producing kilos of levitite every hour, and the designers are quickly envisioning applications for it.

### 3. The Flying Fortress

When the General arrives the next day, Sev rushes to demonstrate the levitite to him, but the General appears unaffected by the discovery. He declares it's all too little too late: the Horde is mere days away from sacking their capital, and all of the "wonder weapons" the Huts have produced have barely blunted its progress. Sev vows that they can complete the flying fortress in time to field against the attackers, and that they will arrange a show of force with incendiary bombs and fireworks to dazzle and stupefy the Horde.

Sev and Usethanie work feverishly on the flying fortress. They seal large quantities of levitite inside armored metal panels that have net negative mass, meaning they must be fastened down lest they fly into the sky. They weld these into a large base, then install military equipment atop to build a floating attack platform. The General points out that, even if the positive and negative mass is precisely balanced, all the flying fortress will be able to do is float. Sev proposes adding a small hot air balloon to regulate ballast, but Usethanie instead proposes a regulator of levitite. She builds a mobile electrification rig that can convert a mass of ore back and forth between its positive and negative masses, so as to control the craft's "gravity buoyancy." Other scientists start building air foils and control surfaces, but admit it will be very difficult to control the fortress.

One night everyone is awoken by sounds of alarm and finds that part of the Horde is attacking the gates. Usethanie, after only hearing about the Horde as a distant threat, is horrified to see it in reality. The base's small garrison is being overwhelmed, so Sev and the lab workers launch their prototype fortress. The platform rises to a great height carrying a complement of soldiers, and they use ropes to keep it from flying off into space. The soldiers lob missiles and detonate explosions from the platform, which scares off the attackers.

The next day the General arrives with a small complement of soldiers. He announces that the Capital has already fallen to a surprise attack, and the base staff is despondent. Even as Sev reports on the success of the flying fortress, the General admits that nothing can hold back the Horde now. Sev proposes that they flee the island to another of their allies with this new technology. The General informs them that all of their allies have already fallen, but the government suppressed news of this in order to avert defeatism.

After news of the rout, many flee into the island's interior to escape the Horde. The General convenes a council of those who remain to decide their course. Some argue to transform the craft into a flying machine in order to escape, but Sev notes it will take weeks to develop and master even rudimentary control surfaces. Others advocate for burning down the Huts, to prevent any of their research from falling into enemy hands. Usethanie, however, surprises everyone with the preposterous suggestion that they turn the platform into a spaceship.

### 4. The Moonship

Usethanie explains that, while it is impractical to develop airfoils and propulsion to drive the ship through an atmosphere, the levitite regulators they've built already give it a way to propel itself through space. Usethanie suggests that Reia is close enough that they can plot a course and transport some survivors there. Unless someone can escape the Horde, she fears that the whole world will fall into a dark age and that science and technology will be lost forever.

The General cautiously asks for more details. Usethanie suggests they can weld all of their levitite panels into a hollow shell, to proof it against the vacuum of space. From Dr. Sous' work on submersibles, they can equip the ship with one ton of water and electrolysis machines in order to produce breathable air, and one ton of mineral scrubbers to remove the carbon dioxide. With sufficient positive gravity buoyancy they can launch themselves into space, then accelerate to achieve a velocity of a few kilometers a second. Since it is currently 300,000 kilometers to Reia, it may only take a week or two to cross the distance. Then they can use the levitite regulators to control their descent and land on the planet.

Everyone devolves into frantic discussion. Many question Usethanie about her plan, incredulous that it can work, so she makes serious calculations to prove it. Gradually their din is drowned out by the sound of metalwork and welding outside, and they emerge to find Sev has already begun welding the levitite panels together in the fashion Usethanie suggested. The General and many others wordlessly join the effort.

For the next day work proceeds desperately on the new "moonship." Dr. Sous calculates the provisions the ship needs for the journey, and collects seeds and food staples. Usethanie and the other astronomers begin charting the course to take and how the ship will regulate its gravity buoyancy. With limited computational powers, they realize they will have to pilot the ship by dead reckoning, and use Reia's gravity to first attract the ship under a positive-mass regimen, then arrest the ship's descent under a negative-mass regimen. Meanwhile the General dispatches troops to guard the winding mountain road up to the Huts to delay the Horde's advance.

The ship's airtight shell is completed, and they add navigation portholes and two redundant hatches. The General also convenes another council to settle the question of who should go. Preliminary estimates say the moonship can transport only a dozen people, so they settle on a ratio of five men to seven women. The journey is perilous, and there is no guarantee that people will even be able to survive on Reia, so those who go are drawn by lots from volunteers. The only exception the General grants is to Usethanie, guaranteeing her a spot if she wishes. Sev is also among those chosen by the lottery.

*Read the conclusion on Amazon*.