TW05 The Nautilus Sanction NEW Read Free Page B

chronocircuitry within the device clocked the
    “surplus” energy of the explosion—that which was not needed to do the job—through an Einstein-Rosen Bridge via transponder link to an on-line ERG. In the case of a nine-megaton grenade, 90 percent of the explosion’s energy could be clocked to the Orion Nebula, safely out of harm’s way. Or, more to the point, to where it could safely do no harm. Nevertheless, the remaining energy would be equal to the blast that had destroyed Hiroshima, and the thought of carrying such power in his pocket was enough to make Lucas break out in a sweat. The blast he had set off on his last mission was nowhere near as powerful, but its results had been frightening just the same. Lucas had caught some residual radiation, though not enough to cause any more damage than prolonged exposure to the sun during a beach vacation in St. Croix. Yet, somewhere in the Orion Nebula at that instant, there had been one whale of a big bang. All Lucas had done was use an infinitesimal part of it.
    As the upshot of that flash of insight on that research scientist’s part, the brains in the Army think tanks suddenly realized the obvious possibilities for further temporal-military applications of those same principles. Even while the warp grenades were being perfected, the Temporal Army research scientists at Heinlein University on Dyson were already constructing the prototype temporal transponders to replace the chronoplates. Utilizing the same Einstein-Rosen Generators that provided power for utilities, they made some inspired modifications (the plans for which were immediately classified Top Secret) to enable the power drawn through time and space to provide the energy for travel through time and space via temporal transponders designed on the micro-molecular or particle level. Each soldier of the First Division, chosen as the first to be issued what the commandos quickly nicknamed “warp discs,” now wore a temporal transponder on his wrist. If necessary, the warp disc could be taken off its bracelet and worn on a neck chain, camouflaged as some other piece of jewelry or hidden somewhere on one’s person. Now, instead of a bulky chronoplate and flexible, bimetallic border circuits, all it took to transport a man of approximately six feet and two hundred pounds through time was a wafer-thin transponder disc no larger than an ancient twenty-five-cent piece. The transponders were made correspondingly larger according to their purpose, hence their classification designations. Lucas wore a P-1 disc. An entire battalion of soldiers could be teleported via a field provided by a T-25, a disc no more than eight inches in diameter. The actual power dilator, or ERG, could be anywhere—at Pendleton Base or even in ancient Mesopotamia. Theoretically, since the power supply was limitless to all intents and purposes, the entire planet could be teleported elsewhere with a large enough temporal transponder, though that was a possibility no one seriously entertained. Soldiers joked about it, but the laughter always had a slightly strained note to it. On that scope, it was just a bit too weird to even think about.
    Every soldier of the First Division had been issued an “Eyes Only” Top Secret manual to scan, or rather, they had been given access to the data under top security conditions. Lucas had studied his while actually under armed guard. It did not escape his notice, or anyone else’s for that matter, that the research scientist in Ordnance who had started the whole thing was never named. All attempts at discovering his or her identity were summarily discouraged in no uncertain terms. Finn had made a comment that the poor bastard was probably hiding under a rock somewhere, terrified out of his wits.
    The comment had been flippant, but it brought to mind immediately the fate of Albrecht Mensinger, who committed suicide when he realized the full implications of his work in refining the chronoplate.
    Now, those