Лю Цысинь - Of Ants and Dinosaurs

‘We did it!’ Field Marshal Jolie shouted excitedly as the world map flashed red on her screen. ‘The dinosaur world has been crippled. Their information systems have been comprehensively disrupted. All of their cities have lost power, all of their roads have been blocked by vehicles disabled by mine-grains, and fires are spreading widely and rapidly.’ Her antennae were vibrating at speed now as she enumerated the Federation’s successes. ‘Operation Decapitate has neutralised 4 million leading lights of the dinosaur world, and the ruling bodies of the Gondwanan Empire and the Laurasian Republic have ceased to exist. The two great powers have been paralysed and dinosaur society is in chaos.’

‘And this is just the start,’ added Kachika. ‘Dinosaur cities are already having problems with their water supplies, and their food stocks will soon run out. That will be the tipping point. Vast herds of dinosaurs will flee the cities, but with no functioning cars and with all the roads blocked, they will be unable to evacuate in time. Given their voracious appetites, at least half the population will starve to death before they find food. Their high-tech society will be in tatters. The dinosaur world is regressing to a primitive, pre-industrial era even as we speak.’

‘What is the status of their nuclear-weapons systems?’ someone asked.

‘As expected, all of the dinosaurs’ nuclear weapons, including their intercontinental missiles and strategic bombers, have been reduced to scrap metal by our mine-grains,’ replied Jolie. ‘There have been no nuclear accidents and no cases of nuclear contamination.’

‘Excellent! This is truly a momentous occasion,’ Kachika said. ‘Now we just need to wait for the dinosaur world to destroy itself.’

Their celebratory mood was short-lived, however. A secretary ant now reported that Professor Joya had returned and was requesting an urgent meeting with Kachika and Jolie.

The weary chief scientist had barely made it through the command-centre door before Kachika launched into an angry tirade. ‘Professor, you betrayed the great cause of the Ant Federation at its most crucial moment. There will be serious consequences for your actions.’

‘When you hear what I have to tell you,’ replied Joya coldly, ‘it will be quite clear which of us is the most deserving of censure for their… actions .’

‘Why did you go and see the Emperor of Gondwana?’ asked Jolie.

‘To learn the truth about Luna and Leviathan.’

This immediately dampened the ants’ high spirits. All eyes – and parts of eyes – were now trained on the professor.

Joya scanned the assembled company. ‘So, does anyone here know what antimatter is?’

Every ant but Kachika remained silent.

‘I know a little,’ the supreme consul said. ‘Antimatter is a material that dinosaur physicists have theorised may exist. They say that its subatomic particles have the opposite electric charge to the matter in our world: its electrons carry a positive charge and its protons carry a negative charge. It’s purported to be a quantum mirror-image of the matter in our world.’

‘Yes, your definition is right. But the existence of antimatter is not merely theoretical,’ Joya said. ‘As a result of their extensive cosmological studies, the dinosaurs have proved that antimatter does exist.’ She tapped an impatient foot. ‘Surely someone else here has heard more about it?’

Field Marshal Jolie now chipped in. ‘I heard that as soon as antimatter comes into contact with the matter in our world, the combined mass of the two materials is converted into energy.’

‘Correct!’ said Joya, dipping her antennae. ‘That process is called annihilation.’ She was in full pedagogic mode now. ‘When your all-powerful nuclear warheads detonate, only a fraction of 1 per cent of their mass is converted into energy, but the mass–energy conversion rate in matter–antimatter collisions is 100 per cent! It should therefore be evident to you all’ – she glared meaningfully at Kachika – ‘that there are things even more terrible than nuclear weapons. Per unit mass, the energy released by matter–antimatter annihilation is two to three orders of magnitude greater than that released by a nuclear bomb.’

‘But what does this have to do with Luna and Leviathan?’

‘Bear with me and I will tell you.’ Jolie began striding up and down, confident now that she had the undivided attention of every ant in the room. ‘Recently some of us were talking about the new sun that suddenly appeared in the night sky of the Southern Hemisphere three years ago. An event that few of us will ever forget, am I right?’

A shiver of acknowledgement rippled through her audience.

‘Dinosaur astronomers observed that the flash we experienced here on Earth originated from a small celestial body that had entered the solar system with a comet’s trajectory. The object was less than thirty kilometres in diameter, seemingly a mere sliver of rock floating in space. But when they launched probes to observe it close up, they discovered that the celestial body was made of antimatter! While passing through the asteroid belt, it had collided with a meteoroid. The meteoroid and the antimatter were mutually annihilated, releasing a tremendous amount of energy and producing the flash we saw. The Gondwanans and the Laurasians arrived at this conclusion simultaneously, but it’s what they discovered next that’s of most significance to all of us here on Earth…’

This was turning into a long and tortuous explanation, but the ants were nothing if not well versed in obedient attentiveness. They didn’t even fidget.

‘The annihilation had blasted a large hole in the antimatter body, scattering many antimatter fragments of varying sizes through space. Dinosaur astronomers quickly located several of these fragments, which apparently were not difficult to spot. In the asteroid belt, particles of solar wind were annihilated by the antimatter particles, giving the surfaces of the fragments a peculiar glow, and this intensified as they approached the sun.’

The professor stopped pacing to and fro, lingered for a couple of nanoseconds, and then said, ‘Knowing the dinosaurs as we do, some of you may be anticipating what it is I’m about to say next. Would anyone care to tell me what that is?’

Field Marshal Jolie waggled her feelers tentatively but decided not to share her thoughts publicly. The rest of the ants just waited patiently for the professor to enlighten them.

Joya duly resumed her account. ‘This all happened at the height of the arms race between Gondwana and Laurasia. Consequently, both great dinosaur powers came up with a plan – plans that turned out to be identical, and completely insane. Independent of each other, the two powers both decided that they would collect some of the antimatter debris, bring it back to Earth and use it to create a super-weapon far more powerful than any nuclear bomb, in order to deter the other side—’

‘Wait a minute,’ said Kachika, interrupting Joya. ‘There’s an obvious flaw in the logic of that plan. If antimatter is annihilated on contact with matter, how did they store it and bring it back to Earth?’

‘Good question.’ Joya nodded. ‘The dinosaur astronomers discovered that anti-iron made up a substantial proportion of the celestial body. The debris they located in space was also made of anti-iron. Like ordinary iron, anti-iron can be affected by magnetic fields. This provided a potential solution to the storage problem. It made it possible for the dinosaurs to create a vacuum chamber and apply a powerful magnetic field to safely confine the antimatter to the centre of the chamber, preventing it from touching the interior walls. This would enable them to store, transport and deploy the antimatter. Of course, this was only a theoretical solution. To use such a container to bring the antimatter back to Earth would be an extraordinarily mad and dangerous endeavour. But, as we well know, dinosaurs are mad by nature, and their desire for global hegemony invariably trumps all other concerns. So they actually went ahead with it!’