The Ripple in Space-Time: Free City Book 1 (The Free City Series) by S F Chapman Page B

Seiran ’ s speed, stealth and formidable
armaments, he hoped to locate and seize the Butin Belle undetected.
    Now at last they were underway.
The powerful engines were quickly pushing the sleek craft away from Earth
towards the Lutetia sector of the Asteroid Belt twenty days away.
    Keira engaged the autopilot, “ There ’ s not much to do now, I ’ m afraid. ”
    “ Ah, but there is, ” Ryo chortled, “ if we are to succeed and hopefully avoid a most painful death at the
hands of the pirates, we need to familiarize ourselves with several vital areas
of knowledge. ”
    He turned to Lev, “ I want you to carefully study all available information about the Butin
Belle . Hopefully you can discover some weaknesses that could be exploited
in its capture. ”
    The young man winced at the
burdensome mandate.
    Keira smirked wryly at Lev ’ s misfortune.
    “ You, young lady, ” Ryo directed in his most
paternal voice, “ will spend all of your spare time learning the capabilities
of the Seiran , paying close attention to weaponry and maneuvering
abilities. We don ’ t want to be figuring out how to operate the ordnance while
the pirates are shooting at us. ”
    She nodded ruefully.
    “ With Lev ’ s help, ” Ryo added, “ I hope to learn as much as possible about the Tau Atoms
that were being produced at the Lunar Lab. ”
    The Seiran's speed indictor
was rapidly approaching the craft ’ s maximum velocity.
    • • •
    Dimitri Verhovnyi could restrain
himself no longer.
    He snickered triumphantly at his
superb little secret. With one swift and decisive strike all of humanity would
know and fear his name.
    The Warlord of the Outer Reaches
had been preparing his brutal vengeance against his arrogant half-brother for
years and now its fulfill was less than a week away.
    He strutted around his chamber in
search of some diversion.
    Dimitri idly surveyed several
routine reports detailing mining outputs but they seemed so trivial compared to
his shrewd plan.
    Perhaps an early meal would relax
him.
    “ GIRL! ” he bellowed.
    His tremulous parlormaid appeared
at the door, “ Yes Master? ”
    He leered contemptuously at the
pathetic little sprite; he resolved to replace her in the coming months with
two or three more pleasing slave girls. “Bring me my supper now!”
    She nodded in distress at his command
before hurrying off.
    • • •
    “ Alright, I think I understand this now, ” Ryo frowned as he stared at Lev. “ Everything around us is made of ‘ Electron Atoms ’ or energy. ”
    “ Right, ” Lev nodded. “ The oxygen in the air, the gold in the banks and the calcium in your
bones; these are all made of atoms that are composed of only three parts:
electrons and the two lightest quarks which are called up and down .
There ’ s some force particles and perhaps some neutrinos, but we ’ ll ignore them. ”
    The old Investigator scratched is
head in confusion, “ I seem to remember something about protons and neutrons in
atoms, how do they fit into this mess? ”
    The younger man smiled, “Protons
and neutrons are made of up and down quarks. A proton ’ s got two ups and one down . A neutron has two downs and one up . ”
    “ OK. What about those unusual Tau Atoms that your mom was
putting together at the Lunar Ultra Energy Lab? ”
    “ That is what earned her a Nobel Prize, ” Lev smiled. “ Long ago, a few much heavier atoms were put together using
two much more massive quarks called charm and strange . ”
    Ryo laughed, “ Who came up with these odd names? ”
    “ I don ’ t remember, but Physicist often
have a peculiar sense of humor regarding subatomic particles. Other than the
much greater mass, a charm quark is essentially identical to an up quark and strange is identical to down . Instead of electrons
spinning around the atom, scientists added the identical but much more massive
muons; hence the name Mu Atoms. Amazingly, we can bash these parts together and
make many types of atoms that are