Deep Gate 9

Vansittaert liked showy settings, T'Shal thought. The meeting room was in a holo-simulation of a coral reef, sunlight falling in shafts through clear blue waters to illuminate the multi-coloured organic splendour of the coral organisms, the clouds of gaily coloured fish darting around them. The meeting room itself was a dome of clear crystal, enclosing a conference table made of a single polished block of fire opal. The holodeck arch looked drab in comparison. As the doors closed behind Vansittaert, he made a gesture, and the arch faded from view.

T'Shal watched the tall human stalk around the table until he reached his seat. The chairs were ornate, gilded wood and plush red velvet cushions; Vansittaert's chair had a slightly higher back than the others. The magnate himself was dressed in a plain grey suit, though. Everyone had chosen to wear neutral colours, T'Shal noticed - Vansittaert in grey, Shemosh in his simple white robe, herself and her assistant Tarul in black and white, the human Karabadian in a grey-checked suit and a white shirt - even his so-called assistant, Khokhlova, was wearing a tight-fitting black dress that reached nearly halfway to her knees. It was possible that everyone was reacting subconsciously against the overly decorative aspects of Vansittaert's holo-simulations.

"Let's begin, shall we?" Vansittaert smiled, and placed a PADD very precisely in front of him. "I think we'll find we've reached an exciting point in our researches. Perhaps we could begin with you, T'Shal?"

T'Shal raised one eyebrow. "My associate and I have satisfactorily arrived at proofs of our theorem concerning the triaxial hypothesis and resultant interactions with a Sokek object. I regard this as - gratifying - but I fail to see the reason for excitement."

"You're too modest, Professor," said Vansittaert. "You've successfully demonstrated that a Sokek object will respond to a psionic field. You've managed to set a cornerstone of our work in place." He beamed at her, the smile looking odd on his long face, as if his muscles were unused to that exercise.

"I would counsel caution in that interpretation of my results," said T'Shal. "The mathematics demonstrates that, according to the triaxial hypothesis, conditions in the virtual singularity of the Sokek object will react to the conditions of a superimposed psionic field. It would be overly optimistic to assume, from this, that the Sokek object could become... some sort of magical wishing device. No organic brain could conceivably generate a psi field of the required intensity, besides the obvious other practical difficulty."

"Ah," said Vansittaert, "but that's where Dr. Karabadian proves invaluable. Does it not?"

Karabadian's small eyes almost vanished when a smile crossed his fat face. "Very possibly so," he said, "very possibly. The potentialities are fascinating, truly fascinating. Are they not, my dear?" he added, turning towards Khokhlova.

"Indeed," she said, "fascinating."

"My dear Natalia is fascinated, as you can see," said Karabadian with a chuckle. "These hypothetical objects of Professor T'Shal's offer us a veritable cornucopia of possibilities."

"Properly speaking," said T'Shal, "the hypothetical object is not mine. It was first described mathematically by Academician Sokek, hence the name. His work -"

"Quite, quite," interrupted Karabadian. "Though that name, Sokek object, it is scarcely descriptive, no? The abandoned husk of a zero-mass black hole. An event horizon, with the mere shadow of a possibility of a singularity inside it - ah, but what we might do with such an entity! With no consuming force of gravity to suck information in, we can - in theory - encode whatever we wish on the event horizon. Writing in subspace waveforms on its cast-off skin! A veritably poetic concept."

"The practical point being," said Vansittaert, "that - according to the triaxial hypothesis - one could encode, for example, psi field amplifiers into the event horizon of the Sokek object."

"One could, one could. One could encode many things, were it not for the practical issue," said Karabadian.

"Ah, yes," said Vansittaert, "the practical issue. Shemosh?"

The Deltan's dark eyes gleamed as he looked up. He, too, had a PADD before him; he reached out and slid it towards T'Shal. "The preliminary results are very encouraging," he said. "We have experimental confirmation of a number of your preliminary hypotheses. I think we can now start to call it, definitively, the triaxial theory, rather than a mere hypothesis."

T'Shal brought her mental discipline to the forefront of her mind, caught and suppressed the emotional reaction. "The only way to obtain confirmation of my theoretical predictions," she said evenly, "would be to find and observe a Sokek object. Since these objects were believed to be entirely theoretical constructs, I am surprised that you have discovered one."

"We were... fortunate," said Shemosh with a faint smile. He pushed the PADD a little closer to T'Shal. She hesitated a moment, then picked it up.

"The Sokek object was believed to be entirely abstract," she said, as she read through the data scrolling across the PADD. "An exercise in theory only - assuming that a black hole did not undergo explosive disruption once Hawking radiation reduced its mass to a minimum limit, what properties might such an object have? A class of general solutions was proposed, of which the Sokek object was a member...." She stopped. She handed the PADD to Tarul.

"The Sokek object is compatible with the triaxial hypothesis of the interaction between spacetime, subspace, and psionic fields," said Shemosh. "This being the case, it has to have certain properties, which can be tested for in the list of anomalous objects known to galactic surveyors. We were fortunate enough to locate such an object."

"Indeed," said Vansittaert, "and our initial results look promising, most promising indeed. Congratulations, all of you." He rubbed his hands together.

"Initial results," said T'Shal. "This means that experimentation on the object has already commenced."

"Well, there was nothing to be gained from delay," said Vansittaert. "And look at what we've already achieved! An experimental confirmation of the triaxial hypothesis is a major step forward all by itself, don't you think, Professor T'Shal?"

"Assuming the results bear close inspection," said T'Shal. "I do not mean to cast aspersions on the competence of anyone involved, but proper peer review is necessary before any theories may be regarded as confirmed."

"Of course," said Shemosh. The faint smile never left the Deltan's mouth.

"But we can make progress, I think," said Vansittaert. "Let's forge ahead! By all means, let's follow the correct procedures, but -" the ill-fitting smile reappeared on his face "- I think we want to present our peers with something impressive to review."