The Great Escape, Part 2

Yesterday we saw MINIMCOM carve out a vertical tunnel that reached the very top of the cave. In fact, Rei could look up and see stars. But the tunnel was way too large for Rei climb. We know that eventually, in the world of Rome's Revolution, MINIMCOM's whoosh/pop snap tunnels became a staple for sending people and things from one place to another in an instant. But this is before.

Rei was familiar enough with science fiction and old television shows that he just went ahead and called it MINIMCOM's transporter in honor of Star Trek: The Original Series.



Well, there is always a first time for everything and here it is:

     “It is not for you to climb up,” MINIMCOM said in Rei’s mind. “I just wanted to make sure that I did not intermix your atoms with those of the rocks.”
     “That’s big of you. So how am I going to get out of here?”
     “Stand in the middle of the rubble and look up,” replied MINIMCOM. “And whatever you do, make sure you keep your hands by your sides at all times. I am ready.”
     “Ready for what?” Rei asked.
     “Just step up and look up,” ordered MINIMCOM cryptically.
     Rei did as he was told and climbed up the pile of rocks. He craned his neck. Directly over Rei’s head and coming down the shaft was a dark circle, blotting out the stars where they tried to enter into its midst.
     As it came closer and closer, Rei thought, “What is that?”
     MINIMCOM replied, “You are aware of the normal mode of PPT transport, where we create a static PPT tunnel and move the object through it?”
     “Yes.”
     “Well, this is the opposite. I am having the object, you, stand still and I will move the PPT tunnel through you.”
     “Oy,” was all Rei said and he closed his eyes. His stomach felt a little queasy but when he opened his eyes again, he was standing on top of the bluff, overlooking the glade. Behind him was a gaping hole in the rock. Sixty meters below him were the three squabbling men.
     He laughed to himself. “That is one hell of a parlor trick, MINIMCOM” he said out loud.
     “As I said, practice makes perfect,” replied MINIMCOM.
     “How’d you come up with that?” Rei thought to himself.
     “It is all your fault, actually,” said MINIMCOM in Rei’s head.
     “How is it my fault?” Rei thought to himself.
     “When you took us flying to the surface when we first got here, you forced me to figure out how to modulate a PPT tunnel to absorb the angular momentum of a 7000 tonne Ark traveling at a substantial relative velocity to a second location essentially at a dead stop. I actually had to move the tunnel in synchrony with the mass so that the relative position at the other end remained stationary. Otherwise it would have emerged as just so much metallic vapor.”
     “What’s that got to do with this then?”
     “Once I figured out how to make a moving PPT tunnel with the target stationary, I extrapolated on how to do it point-to-point. It is essentially the same principle. I was not exactly sure it would work, though. It was more theoretical. The simulations were sound but there is sometimes a small difference between theory and practice. Witness my slight problem with your room back at the settlement.”
     “How do you get a PPT tunnel to stay stable in the gravity well? I thought you couldn’t do that.”
     “That is correct. You cannot. I simply build one tunnel after the next in femto-seconds. I place each subsequent one immediately adjacent to the one that is collapsing displaced by the offset introduced so that they effectively connect. I determined that if I sequenced them properly, they would probably act as a continuous tunnel for the purposes of moving atoms.”
     “What do you mean probably?”
     “I mean exactly that. I had not gathered sufficient proof that it would actually work.”
     “Is this is the first time you tried it with a real object? Are you saying I was your guinea pig?”
     “I ran over 7000 simulations,” MINIMCOM said indignantly. “It worked, did it not?”
     Rei patted his chest, his thighs, his knees. “All here, I think, so I guess it did.”

There was nothing whoosh-y or pop-y about this first time. But as MINIMCOM got better and better at it, he was able to instantiate the tunnel and remove so fast that the sound of air rushing in and out became audible, hence the whoosh and pop.