Chapter 84

Boreala

From the viewing balcony of the main tower Teal'c looked out over the city below and the ocean surrounding it. So much had changed during his time with the Tauri. The offer to become the military commander of the Borealis expedition had flattered him greatly. Looking down at his digital camouflage uniform he smiled at his newly received military rank. Going directly to the President to plead the case for giving the Jaffa an officer's commission in the Air Force O'Neill had secured his immediate induction into the service and promotion to Colonel. Being called sir was something Teal'c did not covet though, and insisted he be addressed by name by all those under his command. Walking back indoors Teal'c grimaced at the one portion of his new position he did not enjoy; paperwork.

Vis Uban

Eli's time with Janus was a blur of activity. The genius Janus displayed in even the simplest of things amazed the young man. For several weeks Eli had reviewed the notes and diagrams Janus had presented to him. The mathematics behind the proposal was incredibly complex. Days of computer simulation done only to show Eli that it truly would work as planned had reaffirmed in his mind that he truly was working with one of the greatest minds in history.

"You see, Arcturus only failed because the unquantifiable was not taken into account. It wasn't a break down in science that led to this failure. It was simply lack of understanding of principles never encountered before" stated Janus.

"The answer to this can't be this simple" argued Eli.

"But it is my friend. The exotic particles encountered when the device is in use are created and destroyed out of the vacuum where we withdraw the vacuum energy. These particles are always created out of the vacuum in particle-antiparticle pairs, which shortly annihilate one another and disappear. However these particles and antiparticles interact with others before disappearing, and that process can be mapped using Feynman diagrams as you called them. Being that the vacuum energy travels in waves as do the particles and antiparticles a quantum harmonic oscillator comes into play. It follows that the energy and momentum flux in this wave field only become significant at short wavelengths and at the time of the original experiment our directional coupler technology was woefully inadequate. This has been rectified" explained Janus.

"And with the harmonic oscillator and directional field coupler working in tandem the energy released by the creation and destruction of exotic particles actually as the protective field around the device! Now I get it" exclaimed Eli triumphantly.

"I knew you would understand. During my time on Atlantis if I could have only had you as a member of the High Council just imagine the things I could have achieved. We would have won the war with the Wraith" sighed Janus.

"Even though I see that this will work I don't know if my government will ever approve of our building it. McKay blew up a solar system and that's not the type of thing they'll overlook" replied Eli.

"Eli, you underestimate the innate human need for more. More powerful sh.i.p.s, unlimited energy, these are things they will want. You can give a man more food than he can eat in a lifetime and human nature dictates he will always want a bit more. Trust me when I say that they will eagerly allow you to go through with this project" assured Janus.

"You said after this is done you and I will be moving on to more intriguing projects. I fail to see how anything more intriguing than unlimited energy is possible" replied Eli.

"Have faith my boy" said Janus.

"Care to give me a hint just what that might be" asked Eli.

"Gladly, but I ask that it go no further than you and I" stated Janus.

"Ok, anything, just tell me" exclaimed Eli.

"The stargate is an amazing device. You can easily grow accustomed to it and overlook its potential in other areas. Since its invention my people constantly found oddities in the execution of its duties. If a wormhole passes through a solar flare time travel is the accidental result. If a worm hole intersects with a tear in space time via a black hole travel to parallel realities can be achieved. It was these realities that started my thoughts on this project. What if you could develop a way of utilizing the gate network to travel between other realities? Think about the doors that would open and the possibilities that suddenly crop up" smiled Janus.

"You would never be short of materials again. Mine one world and when whatever you were after is gone you simply go to another reality and mine it all over again. Is it even possible" asked Eli.

"I believe it is. Put all that out of your mind. Let's focus on Arcturus for now. Once we've shown them this works your people will gladly let you pursue any project you please" finished Janus.