* * *
In another similar dimension, a graduate is starting his first day at work for UMC, Universal Mining Corporation. Deiter Fischer had been working on his father’s trawler since he was 10, helping the ship’s Engineer fix and maintain the engines. Deiter always had an aptitude for mechanics – always fixing things that had broken at his parents house, he always seemed to know a way to make things work again, even if sometimes they looked a little odd when he’d finished, robbing parts from other household objects.
Fischer was not a boffin just yet however, he studied things in real life rather than books, and never went to school, learning everything either at home or on a large ship, at sea for days on end, taught by his father and the other crew members. He knew how machines worked, because he’d stripped them down and fixed them for years, having never read about them, except for maintenance manuals and parts lists.
Father knew, his mechanical expert son, at 16, would have to study with real books eventually, to get a place at university, so he could then get a ‘proper’ job if the trawling industry declined any further. The ship’s Engineer had a degree qualification, as required by maritime law, so between him and Captain Fischer, they knew what the entry requirements were for Deiter to study Mechanical and Electronic Engineering at university. So Fischer senior and the ship’s Engineer put together a crash course in Mathematics, Electronics and Physics, booking Deiter onto the Berlin University entrance exam in 12 month’s time, plus a resit place 3 months later, just in case.
Deiter was a quick learner, since he could ‘feel’ how things should be in the real world. He seemed to understand quicker than most, how theory was used to describe practice, and soon found himself explaining in his head the theories he’d learned, applying them to what he knew already about machines. Of course, he breezed the entrance exam first time, one of the few students who enter university with an expert level of practical knowledge, and only a basic level of theory, so university would transform his ability to design machines from a solid base.
When he graduated with his double first after 4 years, he was a year younger than his peers. Deiter’s lecturers described his expertise in design as ‘astonishing’. It seemed that his new theoretical range had turned this former engineering expert into a genius. He had been advised to apply for a research post at Hong Kong University, who were designing the first machines to drill commercially on Mars, at the time the biggest engineering program on Earth. The project was funded by UMC and the Chinese government. UMC was soon to become the Interplanetary Mining Corporation (IPMC) and he would be employed by them directly to become a doctor of mechanical and electrical engineering, and their Head of Division by the age of 35.
Deiter had designed his first “Fischer – Mark 0” drilling machine for Mars, nuclear powered, using qubit computer control and a cut down version of the sensor array derived from the IRISS surveying spacecraft. A clever machine, but you had to drop it near ‘interesting’ deposits of ore, and let the machine guide itself to find what it could. The machine was designed myopic, due to it’s limited computer power, only able to process a blurred composition of material ahead, so was fairly inefficient compared to what Deiter was to design. Only six Mark 0 machines were deployed in the end, and though they were not disasters in terms of productivity, they did not lose too much money and IPMC were able to fund another round of design and deployment for the next generation machines.
Advances in electronics, helped by the materials Mark Zeros recovered from Mars, gave Deiter the tools he needed to create a machine leagues ahead. His Mark 5 used an x-qubit computer with component-growth technology, so the machine could add brain power on demand, using nano-wafers, with the benefit of exponential computing power – the first machine to surpass human levels of intelligence.
With the added processing capacity, Fischer was able to add the full sensor array of IRISS, but limited to a 50 kilometer radius, to reduce the likelihood of confusion, a sensor that could identify every atom and molecule in front of it, and digitise them. The big boost to transform Fischer machines was the use of bit-power components. These quantum-sized electronic components took their electrical power directly from the surroundings, by stealing electrons, using a quantum heat pump. When linked together in large numbers, they produced enough electrical power to drive the entire machine, forever, as long as there was some heat in the environment.
The final piece of the puzzle was the invention of Quantinium. A material derived from rare earth elements that was able to push elementary particles into another dimension. When machined into drilling tips, the quantum-jump material was able to disrupt and shorten the bonds between atoms, by selectively ‘vanishing’ some of the strings holding matter together. This allowed Mark 5s to drill quicker and separate valuable ore from the muck, for further processing on the surface.
Two hundred Mark 5s were deployed throughout Hellas Crater on Mars and, although immensely profitable, the post processing of valuable ore, on the Martial surface, to recover the precious elements, presented IPMC with a physical limit, of what they could send back to Earth. The consumer demand for new bit-power electronics and the pressing environmental need to draw power from the Earth’s plentifully hot environment, pushed IPMC to develop the “Fischer – Mark 10” drill, to directly cut and process the valuable ore 100 times quicker than the Mark 5s.
Fischer was a genius in his own right, but adept at using other cutting-edge technology to enhance his genius. He was a giant standing on the shoulders of giants, to develop a truly astonishing piece of engineering. This massive leap forward in productivity, using Quantinium drill tips and filter grids, which would allow processing speeds of 100 meters per hour, but this came with a hidden price, and no one, including Fischer anticipated it.
The Mark 5s used Quantinium, but the quantum-jumps they caused had no noticable effect on other dimensions, because nature was just able to compensate for these transfers of complex energy strings. Mark 10s however, were making a big impression and with 49 machines already deployed, they were starting to cause unexpected events, building quantum-tension rapidly on Mars and Earth. Everyone thought quantum-jump was a free lunch, so they didn’t put any effort into the effects, until nature made them.
IPMC were commissioning their 50th Mark 10 machine on Mars, Jes and Megan were up there as key players, the most experienced engineers they had. All the bosses had arrived in their hotels near Jiuquan Space Centre, China to witness the 50th release, including the superstar, Deiter Fischer. The planned, live video conference, would use the new dimension-relay transmission technology, developed by IPMC – a spin off from Mark 5 and Quantinium was the ability to store data (x-digital video) to the ‘information field’ (which resides in an adjacent dimension) using specific string frequencies and then to retrieve that data, at any other location instantaneously.
Jes and Megan expected to finish commissioning Mark within the next 24 hours, having a few more tests to run through before letting the drill loose on his own to dig up the planet like his 49 compatriots. The final stage was to bore another 400 meters of ore, and check Mark’s Quantinium grid was still perfectly aligned with the actual and expected production figures, to within a tenth of a gram.
Jes instructs Mark to begin his first run, “OK Mark, this is the last 400 meters before we make a live TV show out of you, speak to your father, then we’ll leave you to enjoy yourself for the next few decades, so let’s make it a good one. Proceed when ready,” said Jes, trying to encourage the machine, even though this wasn’t necessary.
“Yes, Sir, I am ready to go,” so Mark continues, “all systems nominal, REBO (rare-earth-bearing ore) dead ahead, proximity clear, proceed OK, complete power up and go,” Mark sets off digging a new tunnel, but after 10 meters he shudders to a grinding halt.
Jes and Megan feel a slight rumble all around them and stare at Mark, who is hissing and steaming away, but powering down. Looking at each other Jes says to Megan, “Did you feel that?”
>
“Yes, like a mild Mars tremor,” replies Megan, “and Mark has Emergency Stopped.”
Both stare at the roof for loose and falling rocks, then slowly walk to Mark nearby, “What happened Mark?” asks Jes.
Mark’s virtual display jumps out and he begins his report, “I seem to have just lost half a second on my timer, right before I stopped and during the quake, confirmed by Earth and Mars beacons, plus the communications are now down. Since I cannot explain these anomalies as yet, so I have Emergency Stopped. I am thinking hard, to resolve these issues, Sir.”
“Half a second is not a showstopper, nor is a downed radio and a tiny shake, so keep analysing and in the meantime, let’s get back to the last 390 meters of drilling, right now Mark,” asserts Jes.
“Yes, Sir, will do,” replies Mark and begins his run again.
Megan taps Jes on the shoulder, “I’ve lost my signal with Mars Base too, how about you?”
“Yes, mine is saying ‘No Signal’ at the moment,” replies Jes and continues, “let’s get the next few hours sorted, but protocol says we must contact Mars Base every 8 hours, by then, we may be finished. At the end of this shift, I’ll finish off here and you start the trudge back to Pod 16 and make the phone call in 8 hours, there’s a hard-line from there you can use.”
As Mark 10 concludes his test drilling at high speed, on Earth someone is looking at his performance with incredulity…
…An operator is looking at two giant screens side-by-side, showing a complex series of tunnels just under the Martian surface – like a maze of interconnected plumbing, and beckons his supervisor to come over:…
To be continued in Quantinium II…
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