The Dark Energy Boogie

Kindred Propulsion Systems

In my soon-to-be published OldGuySci-Fi book of short stories titled GUT (it's about conscious micro biomes, of all things) there is a propulsion system that can accelerate and decelerate at huge G-forces.*

The Cube, a perfect geometric object, was at the center of a hairball of cilia waving around it. It approached the system, decelerating furiously from the edge of the speed of light. Ordinary visual observation of the Cube would not see the cilia.  They were displaced fractionally from the spacetime of the Cube, invisible except as a shadow in very hard x-ray.  They stroked and harvested the dark energy that is everywhere, waving their strands in synchrony with it’s chaotic flow.  Almost limitless energy could be captured by the cilia, and in this heavy deceleration, a great deal was being used.

So... the great mystery of Dark Energy, apparently countering gravity and pushing our universe apart from itself, becomes the much dreamed-for Infinite Free Energy Source that we can tap to scoot us around the galaxy.

This idea is - SURPRISE! - derivative, slightly adapted from the propulsion system of the SearchShip in A Reluctant God.

The ship was organic in shape and in the emotional impact it had on human observers. Poets and wags in the Dream Game described it as the head of an eyeless weasel with large, thorn-shaped horns growing from its nose, skull and neck, not the most flattering description, but once stated, the dominant one. The skin of the ship was platinum grey, with platinum’s ineffable depth. Not quite as large as the giant arks that plied the intra-empire lanes, it was still formidable. The ship’s keel was two kilometers and its nominal beam was 800 meters. The nine ‘thorns‘ averaged 600 meters, but were wildly different in size and not symmetrical. The shapes, size and placement of the horns hued to the spacial footprint of the highest power band in the mysterious spectrum of dark energy. The whole impact was of a large marine crustacean. Or a mutated spider. One expected the horns to writhe.

**

Until we actually find some dilithium in crystal form, my bet for starship juice is 

DARK ENERGY

Go on, Get 
A Reluctant God free e-BOOK HERE

For general mind bending, check out SeniorJuniorhttp://seniorjunior.blogspot.com, by much of the same author.



*The many human souls in the ship are not squished flat because they are "uploaded minds," and exist in really tough solid state storage.

** The spider web is another part of the story.