Glass World (Undying Mercenaries Series Book 13) by B. V. Larson

Author:B. V. Larson [Larson, B. V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-19T22:00:00+00:00

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The imaginary project I’d dreamt up to work on with Natasha had to do with deep-link transmissions. I’d always wondered if they could be detected or even listened in on. In fact, I’d once made up a bullshit story about such a tracing device to get Centurion Toro, who worked for Claver, to help me escape Clone World.

The device had always been a mere figment to me, but I’d long believed it should be possible. Natasha jumped on the idea and, using my newfound high-level security clearance, she went right to work on it.

The next morning, we ate breakfast together in the mess hall. A lot of people tossed us glances. Women who I’d known intimately tended to watch with twisted-lip expressions of disgust. The men slapped each other and made jokes we couldn’t quite hear.

Neither Natasha nor I paid any attention. For my part, this was because I didn’t really care. On her side of the equation, Natasha didn’t seem to notice.

She was too engrossed in figuring out the problem I’d given her. To tap into deep-link transmissions… the thought was intoxicating to her. As she blathered on about quantum computers and in-phase photons on different planets, I daydreamed about a second night of passion. To my way of thinking, such a pleasant prospect was definitely in the cards if old McGill played them right.

“Last night was nice,” I said. “Really nice.”

“Yes… yes it was,” Natasha said, but she wasn’t even looking at me. Instead, she was studying her knapsack computer.

Techs like her weren’t limited to a personal tapper embedded in the forearm. Instead, they had larger more powerful machines they carried around in military-grade sacks which were usually slung over their backs.

“James… I want you to look at this transmission pattern and tell me if you see anything unusual.”

“Uh… okay.”

She showed me the display on her computer. It was backlit brightly, far more than any tapper ever was. Maybe that was because human skin could only echo out a muted level of light, and an honest screen could do much more.

On the display was a series of waveforms and stuff. “Looks like a puddle that someone threw a stone into.”

“Exactly,” she said, to my surprise. “That’s exactly right. This is an image of an intermediate object seen only in the form of a group-resonance.”

“Uh…”

“What I mean is, this is a planet showing some ripples due to the passage of a deep-link message.”

“What? How’s that possible? I thought deep-links weren’t actual transmissions. That two computers just studied aligned photons that were connected in some way over a great distance.”

“That’s right. Both ends of the aligned-photon connection change, and nothing else between them does—except for another set of aligned photons.”

“Huh?”

Natasha’s face took on a patient, but somewhat frustrated expression. That’s what usually happened to people who tried to explain astrophysics or similar subjects to me. “Listen, quantum communications involves connecting two points, making changes to one and then watching changes in the other—regardless of the distance between the two.”

“Right, I got that.

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