Jack Arcalon

Connections


   "Today, I have an extraordinary announcement to make.
  We have finally found the universe's missing matter.
  It's . . . nothing!
  The universe is filled with small areas so empty they don't even contain space.
  One-meter-wide bubbles with NOTHING inside!
  The bubbles contain zero energy, causing them to be repelled by everything else. Most migrated out to intergalactic space long ago.
  Objects attempting to enter such a bubble instantly emerge inverted from the other side: your basic antipode mapping. Like a four-dimensional lens, they become mirrored. Their constituent atoms are not flipped."

  With a flourish, the spokesperson pulled a sheet off a framework.
  It seemed empty, until the assembled reporters noticed the lens-like distortion on the wall behind the hollow frame. A gasp arose from the audience.
  It was less than empty.
  The spokesperson reached in, taking care to keep his hand level.
  There was another gasp as his hand smoothly vanished at the wrist. It reappeared one meter away, wriggling upside-down in midair. He now had two left hands.
  There was some resistance as the sphere's curvature stretched his sinews, and his fingers felt numb.
  It took some effort to pull the hand back.

  "Many solid objects won't pass through the sphere," the spokesperson continued, "as they would have to be somewhat compressed. Soft tissue has no problems, however."

  A plastic sheet began to slide through, emerging in midair as a large bubble that refused to budge further. It slid back easily enough.

  "A question:" a journalist said, "where did you find this thing?"

  "Two years ago, by coincidence or luck, it passed directly through Flight 964 over the Gulf of Mexico, causing the airliner's cabin to depressurize. A passenger was inverted in his seat and he died without regaining consciousness. 'Spotwelded' circles in the fuselage and cabin floor reveal the sphere was originally a flexible disk capable of avoiding rigid obstacles. The collision then 'inflated' it.
  A remote submersible found it on the seabed, where it stood out against the white sand. The sphere was already covered with a thin layer of organic molecules crossing back and forth many times, twisted almost beyond recognition."

  Through a microscope, the messy mass looked like moss.

  "This is where it gets interesting. The geometry of the chemical reactions takes a while to stabilize, but then . . ."

  Zooming in by atomic force microscope, they saw the unmistakable spiral pattern of DNA.





The best hard SF novel ever written: Infinite Thunder by Jack Arcalon.
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