Zero-Point Read online

  Colin nodded. He started to prepare to focus but stopped when he noticed that Alec was frowning.

  “It is unfortunate that we don’t have another stack of boulders on the other side of this gap,” Alec said.

  “Why is that?” asked Colin.

  “Remember what I taught you,” Alec lectured. “Dark energy is the background energy of the universe – everything emerges from dark energy. With the tricrystals in our medallions, yours and mine, we can reach out and collect dark energy. Then we can convert it into anything that we can completely visualize.”

  Colin nodded. “Yes, that is what you taught me. What does that have to do with needing another stack of rocks?”

  “When we make a transformation, the transformation scavenges an equivalent number of quarks from existing matter. The transformation on the far side of the bridge will have to use either the existing material, or the air molecules. That is why we get a big bang from inrushing air sometimes, when we don’t provide enough mass.”

  “So,” Colin said, puzzling out the logic behind Alec’s words, “you need a stack of rocks on the far side? To provide enough mass?”

  “Yes. That would make it easier.”

  Colin took that as permission, and quickly goaded his trogus forward. The animal took one step, leaped across the gap, and landed gracefully on the other side. Colin motioned for some of the riders to join him, and three others also mounted their trogus and jumped the gap. Alec shook his head in amazement.

  The people on the other side quickly had a small stack of boulders piled at the edge.

  “Now Colin, focus, and let the dark energy flow to me. This is straightforward, but a large task.”

  “Will it take very long?” Colin was impatient to get on with the quest instead of moving rocks around.

  “It will require a little time for me to perform it. If we weren’t so close to the zero-point, there would be no way to generate enough dark energy to do this in one step, but because we are so close, we should be able to focus enough dark energy to do it.”

  “Okay.”

  “Now, help me, and focus.”

  The two of them focused and Alec felt the dark energy through his medallion. He felt Colin focusing and felt the extra dark energy from Colin flowing to him. The flow of dark energy from Colin was only a fraction of the energy that Alec could generate, but the additional dark energy positioned on the other side of the gap made the task much easier.

  Colin’s effort started out strongly, but after a few moments Alec felt Colin’s energy flow start to wobble as the younger man started to lose his ability to focus. Alec simplified his imaginary image.

  “Release your focus, Colin.”

  Colin released his focus, just as the wobble started to create instabilities in the flow. Alec let the energy smooth out and then released his focus. An arched stone bridge formed over the gap and the pile of rocks were gone.

  Erin squealed with delight. “What a nice bridge!”

  Alec looked at his handiwork and nodded to Colin. “Good job Colin. That is the most dark energy that you have ever been able to generate.”

  Colin smiled with pleasure at the compliment.

  “One more task.” Alec motioned to some of the riders. “Pile a few smaller rocks along the outer edge of the bridge.” The riders quickly complied. “Are you game for one more thing?” Alec asked Colin.

  “I’ll try,” Colin said. He tried to focus, but couldn’t hold the focus long enough to produce a flow of dark energy.

  “All right,” Alec said. “Not surprising that you can’t maintain a focus for a while yet. Your mind is spent. When we built the bridge, you generated a lot more energy than you have ever done before. It takes your mind a while to recover.”

  Colin looked a little disappointed at his failure. “I tried.”

  “I know you did,” said Alec.

  “But you had no problem. You can handle much more dark energy than I can.”

  “Well, yes. I have been working at it longer than you have, and I have a better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that allow us to use it.”

  Colin let out an exasperated sigh.

  “You need to keep studying the material that I gave you until you master it,” Alec instructed his pupil. “It will make it much easier for you to manipulate dark energy into the form that you desire.”

  Colin sighed again. “Hydrogen and oxygen; molecules and densities; alloys and crystals and compounds. It seems so far from the real world.”

  “But it is the real world,” Alec replied. Focus. He looked at the bridge. A solid rock railing was on the outer edge of the bridge above the cliff line.

  Nice looking, but why did you want a railing? Erin thought to him.

  Industrial safety requirements, Alec thought back.

  Oh, arcane wizard reasons, Erin thought back. You’re just afraid you will fall off the edge.

  Rand directed the column to move forward, and the riders remounted and the drungs harnessed. The first few riders stepped gingerly onto the new bridge until they were sure that it was solid, then the other riders and carts moved across with no problems. Even the drungs seemed happy with the bridge.

  ✽✽✽

  About sundown they came to a flat spot and Rand called for a halt to make camp for the night. The next morning they were on their way. Erin rode in her customary place, towards the center of the band of forty riders. Rand was in the forward position, and Alec alternated between checking on the supply carts and riding with Erin.

  What do you sense? Alec thought to Erin.

  The dragon is still ahead of us, she thought back. And little Pome seems to be her target. We are headed in the right direction.

  Do they know they are in peril? Or that we are so near?

  I sent a scout ahead to warn them about the dragon, and let them know we are only a few hours away, she replied.

  It was early afternoon when they arrived at the outskirts of the village. Rand picked out a place for a camp in the forest beyond the village grain fields, and the riders soon moved about in their practiced manner, setting up camp and tethering their mounts. Alec directed the cart-masters setting up the supply area. Rand approached Erin, holding her royal standard.

  “We have notified the village, as you asked, Princess, and set up a place for you to meet with the village elders,” Rand told her.

  “Very good,” Erin answered. “Are they ready now?” Rand nodded, and the two of them, accompanied by two riders, walked briskly down the dirt path towards the village walls.

  A small knot of men stood under a large tree near the village gates. When they saw Erin’s standard, they turned towards her party.

  “Hail,” one of the men said, stepping forward. He was dressed in the rough clothes and drooping cap typical of the people who dwelled in this part of Theland, in the foothills near the Elf Mountains. None of the men smiled; most stood with arms crossed and one or two leaned on their wooden farm rakes.

  “Greetings, oh men of Pome,” Erin said, not sure how formal she should be. She could see immediately that the villagers were very upset.

  “Your messenger said a dragon was coming and we should flee. We knew a dragon was further away, across the valley. Many people have come from those little settlements to Pome, because we have the strongest walls in the valley,” the first man said. “But why do you think that the dragon is coming to Pome?”

  “And just where do you think we should go?” a second interjected, angrily. “We have no other place, besides this village.”

  Erin looked at the upset villagers. “There is a dragon in the area,” she said calmly. “Your Queen, Queen Therin, my mother, has sent us here to help you. We have come to find the dragon and run it off – slay it if necessary – to keep you safe.” The first man shifted uneasily, clearly not pleased with this news. Erin continued. “We sense that it may ravage your village. You may stay if you want, but your village wall will not stop the dragon. We cannot fight it inside your
village, and we cannot defend you if you stay in Pome. You should all leave Pome and camp in the woods until the dragon is gone and the danger has passed.” The village elders looked at each other, and three of them muttered quietly to each other. Then the leader spoke.

  “Princess, forgive our rudeness, but this news is very unexpected.” He cleared his throat. “We are farmers, not hunters, and are not accustomed to camping in these woods, which are full of beasts and dangers of other kinds.”

  “You are welcome to camp beside our camp,” Erin offered. “We will protect you.”

  “The woods are not safe,” the second man said angrily. “They are full of wargs and other dangers! Just last season, one of our children was attacked and carried off by a warg, taken back to its lair, and devoured by the warg pack. We fear the dark woods and are loath to enter unbidden and unprotected.” He sniffed and stepped back to his comrades, glaring at Erin and her riders.

  “I do not sense any wargs close by, but I will send out riders to make sure,” Erin said, trying to appease the man.

  The first man, evidently the leader of the elders, shook his head and spoke again, gesturing towards Erin’s campsite.

  “We value your offer of protection,” he said, “but you have picked a campsite that is far from water. If we must camp in these woods, we would prefer to be closer to the spring. Our drunglets and waterfowl will need water.”

  Erin met his gaze evenly. “We camped in a place that is easy to defend. You may camp with us, or camp close to the spring, but the hilly territory around the spring makes it harder for us to use our trogus if we need to fight to protect you.” She raised her arm, pointing to the mountains nearby. “I do not know for sure that the dragon is coming to Pome, but I can sense that it is close. It is in this area and is destroying villages along Theland’s border. I sense your village is its next target. You can stay or you can leave; all I can do is warn you.”

  “My Princess, we thank you for your warning. The most we humble elders can do is take your warning back to our people, and relay to them your offer of refuge at your campsite.”

  “The choice is yours,” Erin replied. She gestured to Rand, and the riders turned back down the path to their campsite.

  The Pome elders went back to their village frightened and angry. However, by the end of the long afternoon most of the residents of Pome had decided to evacuate and passed through the village gates in small groups, most following a trace through the woods to the spring. The availability of water overrode any other concerns. A few made their way to Erin’s camp, and, Erin was sure, a few decided to stay within the village walls.

  As the second moon rose in the late afternoon sky, Erin and two riders mounted their trogus and rode through the woods to inspect the villagers’ camp by the spring. As Erin had surmised, it was in a heavily-wooded area that would be difficult to defend. But over a hundred villagers had made their way there, busily setting up camp, small children and dogs running about the campsite and in the neighboring woods.

  While Erin and Rand checked on the Pome elders and the village camp, Alec was busy. Accompanied by Colin, he picked a large field covered in wheat stubble and measured its size. His apprentice wizards unloaded the supply cart and placed three pyramidal structures at precise locations. Alec was still carefully double-checking the locations when Erin returned.

  “What did you think of their camp?” he asked.

  “It is a long way from our camp, but it has adequate water and sanitation. It would be difficult for the dragon to attack the campers through the tall trees.”

  Alec looked at her. “What else? I see that you are troubled.”

  “My only concern is that I sensed others in the woods.”

  ✽✽✽

  By evening they were settled in their camp. The riders ate their evening meal, cleaned their equipment, and made final preparations for tomorrow’s encounter with the dragon – if they could find it. Erin, Alec, and Colin sat down to a quiet dinner. One advantage of being Princess was that her mother insisted that a cook accompany them to prepare decent meals.

  “Did the villagers settle down?” Colin asked. “I heard that they were quite upset when you told them they had to leave their houses.”

  Erin nodded, as she reached for another bite of meat. “Yes, I think so. Of course they did not want to be told to evacuate. But they were much calmer after our people swept the woods for wargs, especially the villagers who chose to camp by the spring.”

  “Did they find any?” Colin asked. “I’ve never seen a live warg; they have been hunted out around Freeland City.”

  “No, wargs, just a few axlets. They won’t hurt anybody.”

  “Better a warg than a dragon, I would think,” Alec muttered.

  The last embers flickered and glowed as the three continued to sit by the fire circle. “Tomorrow we will meet the dragon,” Colin said. “Why do the elves want to use it to terrorize us? The elves could live a prosperous and civilized life without trying to exploit us.”

  Erin sighed. “Civilization and savagery seem to be separated by only a thin line. Our society that we know in Theland is merely a veneer. What is good wood on top is only a thin layer away from the bad. Mother has battled her entire life to preserve and strengthen that cover. The elves seem to be perpetually trying to tear apart our civilization so they can brutally exploit and bully us.” She poked at the fire with a stick and a shower of embers shot up into the faint night breeze.

  “Are you ready to face the dragon?” Alec asked Colin.

  “Of course,” Colin said – though, Alec thought, without much conviction.

  “But I’ve never actually seen a dragon. How can it fly? I have heard that it is bigger than the biggest trogus, bigger than a giant drung – how can it possibly leave the land for the sky?”

  Alec laughed.

  Colin shrugged. “But how …”

  “How can it fly? Well, it is interesting – as a wizard, you can understand this. It does not fly like a bird. A bird’s flight is based on aerodynamics: the ability of its muscles and the shape of its wings. A dragon is a big storage vessel of dark energy. It draws out dark energy from the surrounding energy field and uses it to levitate in the air.” Colin nodded. He understood the power and mystery of dark energy.

  Alec continued, “The dragon can manipulate dark energy in many ways. Besides using dark energy to fly, it can use lines of energy like a force field, like we can with our medallions, or your sister can with her elf ring.”

  “So, why can’t you make a trogus that can fly like the dragon?” asked Colin.

  “Well theoretically, we could. In order to do it, we would have to completely visualize every tendon and nerve and vessel and muscle that we wanted inside the trogus wings, as well as their functions. It is harder in practice than it sounds.”

  “But you are a great wizard! You can do anything. You should make us some flying trogus,” said Colin. “Then we’d really have a good battle against the dragon!”

  “In truth, I can do very little. I am limited by my memory of physics, especially of material properties and chemistry. If I had access to the scientific literature from Earth, I could do things so much better.”

  “So why can’t we just chase down the dragon and chop its head off?”

  “I’m afraid it won’t be that simple,” Alec said, shaking his head. “As long as the dragon has enough dark energy stored inside itself, it will be able to heal itself just as quickly as we wound it. We have to either deplete its dark energy reserves or figure out how to make it use its dark energy against itself.”

  “A tall order.”

  “Yes. It won’t be easy,” Alec answered.

  Colin stood and yawned. “Well, one of the riders wants to help me prepare for our battle tomorrow. I don’t want to keep her waiting. I bid you good-night, Sis. Alec. Until tomorrow.”

  Erin and Alec remained by the fire. Erin leaned her head on his arm, and he covered her hand with his.

  “Wh
en I am queen, will I be able to do as well as Mother? How will I know what is right? Will I give our daughter a good land to govern when it is her turn to rule? I have never been afraid of fighting or even of death in battle, but the responsibility of leading my people frightens me.” Alec patted her hand, at a loss for an answer.

  Erin looked at the moons. Four of the five moons were now in the sky, slowly chasing each other in their perpetual nightly dance. The light of the stars shone dimly through the light of the moons. “My Great Wizard, it must be wonderful on your world. There is so much there, it seems that no one should ever have to be in need. In a place as rich as your home, there would be no need for greed or treachery. Everyone would have more than they need, and ruling would be very easy.” She looked up into his face, her eyes reflecting the light of the moons. “I wish we could visit your home one day.” She sighed. “But I understand it can never be. Your world is so far away that the light from it will never shine in our sky or see the nightly games of my moons.”

  Alec held her close to him. “I would like to show you where I came from, my Earth. But, this is my home now. You and I, and the children – this is our family. This land is my home.” He paused. “However, sometime I would like to visit my birth world again, just to see it – perhaps see my mother, if she is still alive, and maybe …” He trailed off.

  Erin finished his sentence for him: “And see if you have a daughter on that world, and find out how she is doing.”

  “Yes.” He stared into the embers for several minutes.

  “I would like for you to see Earth,” he said. “Once you figured out the differences and how to manage them, you would do well on my world. But it might not be as peaceful as you think. Unfortunately, greed still exists, even on Earth, and people try to bully and dominate others, just like here.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. In my world, we have a concept called ‘entropy.’ It is a rule that says that everything tends to move to a higher state of disorder. You might say, ‘lawlessness.’ Treating people right – fairly and without greed – requires a lot of order – a lot of rules – so it requires constant energy and exertion to maintain. Without constant effort, entropy allows bad to exist. The purpose of a good ruler is to provide the energy required to create good.”