Starplex

“Well, luster quarks each mass about seven hundred and sixteen times what an electron does; that’s about eighteen percent more than an up or a down quark. So a luster atom has a little more mass, and therefore produces a little more gravity, than does a normal atom with a comparable number of nucleons. Damned if I know how these luster quarks interact chemically with each other, though.”

Jag was pacing back and forth. “All right,” he said. “All right—how about this? Let’s propose two more fundamental forces on top of the traditional four. Ever since the old Standard Model broke down, we’ve been looking for additional forces anyway. Say one force is long-range and repulsive—Cervantes and I already observed that one at work while trying to push pieces of the gravel together with tractor beams. The other force would be medium-range and attractive.

“What does that do for us?“ asked Delacorte.

“Well,” said Jag, “normal chemistry is the result of orbital overlap of electrons surrounding charged nuclei; there’s none of that going on here. But if the medium-range attractive force was stronger than the weak nuclear force, then it could act almost as ‘meta-charge,’ making possible a kind of ‘meta-chemistry.’ It could bind atoms without relying on electromagnetism to do so. Meanwhile, the long-range repulsive force would repel luster quarks from each other. It would only be overwhelmed by the quarks’ own gravity when enough mass density was present to force them together. It’s similar to gravity forcing electrons and protons together to make a neutron star despite the degeneracy pressure wanting to keep electrons out of each other’s orbitals.” He looked at Rissa. “This means we’ve got ‘meta-chemistry’ that can conduct possibly quite complex reactions at the molecular level, but at the macro levelluster matter can only clump together in world-sized masses whose own gravity is enough to overpower the repulsive force.”

Delacorte looked impressed. “If you can work out the mechanism of all that, you’ll win the Nobel or Kayf-Dukt for sure. It really is incredible—a whole different kind of matter that only interacts slightly with baryonic—”

“Pastark!” barked Jag. “By all the gods, do you know what this is?” His fur was whipping about like wheat in a high wind.

“Tell us,” said Rissa at last, irritated.

“We shouldn’t be calling it ‘luster matter,’ ” Jag said. “The stuff already has a perfectly good common name.” His two right eyes looked at Delacorte’s image and his two left at Rissa. “Dark matter!”

“Good God!” said Delacorte. “Good God, I think you’re right.” She shook her head in wonder. “Dark matter.”

“That it is,” said Jag. “It makes up the vast bulk of our universe, and until now we’ve never known what it was. This is the find of the century!” His four eyes closed, picturing the glory.

DELTA DRACONIS

“What was Saul Ben-Abraham like?” asked Glass.

Keith looked around the forest simulation, thinking of all the ways he could describe the man who had been his best friend. Tall. Boisterous. A guffaw that could be heard a kilometer away. A guy who could identify any song in three notes. A man who could drink more beer than anyone Keith had ever met—he must have had a bladder the size of Iceland. Finally, Keith settled on, “Hairy.”

“I beg your pardon?” said Glass.

“Saul had a great beard,” said Keith. “Covered most of his face. And he had this one giant eyebrow, like a chimp had laid its forearm across his head. The first time I ever saw him in shorts, I was amazed. The guy looked like sasquatch.”

“Sasquatch?”

“A mythical primate from my part of Earth. I still remember seeing him in shorts for the first time and saying, gee, Saul, you’ve got hairy legs. He let out that great laugh of his and said, ‘Yes—like a man.’ ” I said it was more like ten men.” Keith paused. “God, how I miss him. Friends like that, who mean that much to you, come along perhaps once in a lifetime.”

Glass was quiet for several seconds. “Yes,” he said at last. “I suppose that’s true.”

“Of course,” said Keith, “there was more to Saul than just a thick coat of fur. He was brilliant. The only person I’ve ever met who I thought might be brighter than him is Rissa. Saul was an astronomer. He’s the person who discovered the Tau Ceti shortcut, from its footprint in hyperspace. The guy should have won a Nobel prize for that… but they don’t like to award them posthumously.”

“I appreciate your loss,” said Glass. “It’s as if—oh, excuse me. My reckoner says I’ve got an incoming thought package. Will you excuse me for a little while?”