Лю Цысинь - Of Ants and Dinosaurs

This rather too literal bombshell came as a genuine shock to the ants, and there was an anxious stirring in the room. Even their in-depth knowledge of dinosaur behaviour could not have predicted such craziness.

‘It was the Gondwanan Empire that took the first step into the abyss. They built a magnetic confinement vessel comprised of a hollow sphere, split that in two and affixed the hemispheres to the mechanical arms of a spaceship. The spaceship then crept up on the antimatter fragment, slowly and with extreme caution, and trapped it between the two hemispheres. As soon as the hemispheres closed, a magnetic field generated by a superconductor was activated, confining the fragment to the centre of the sphere. The spaceship then flew back to Earth.

‘Had the Laurasian Republic known about this plan, they undoubtedly would have dispatched armed spaceships to intercept the Gondwanan transporter in space. But it was well on its way by the time they found out about it, and intercepting it at that point would have caused the fragment to annihilate in Earth’s atmosphere. The fragment weighed forty-five tonnes and its annihilation would have converted ninety tonnes of matter into pure energy. The resulting explosion would have wiped out life on Earth. Naturally, the Laurasians did not wish to perish alongside the Gondwanans, so they looked on helplessly as the spaceship splashed down in the ocean.’

Hearing some mutterings from the floor, Joya stiffened her antennae and requested that the other ants sit tight until she’d told them all she knew. ‘There is more to say, I’m afraid – quite a bit more, actually – and it won’t be easy listening. So, if there are no objections, I’ll just get on with it and then we can have a discussion once I’m done. Are there any objections?’

There were not.

‘Subsequent events escalated the madness to crisis point. After the Gondwanan spaceship landed, the containment vessel was transferred to a cargo ship. The name of the cargo ship was Leviathan and the dinosaurs came to call the antimatter fragment it carried by that name as well. The ship did not return to Gondwana but instead sailed for Laurasia, destined for the republic’s largest port!

‘Laurasia didn’t dare attack this ship of doom. They had no choice but to let it continue on its way, and when it did finally arrive, it might as well have been sailing into an empty harbour for all the resistance it met. Once Leviathan had docked, the dinosaurs abandoned ship and returned to Gondwana by helicopter, leaving their explosive load anchored in Laurasian waters.

‘The Laurasian dinosaurs treated Leviathan as if it were a bad-tempered deity. They didn’t dare disturb it in any way, because they knew the Gondwanan Empire could remotely deactivate the magnetic field at any time, causing the antimatter fragment to annihilate. If that happened, the entire world would be fireballed, and the first to go would be Laurasia, reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye by the flames of a lethal sun.’

Joya was looking and sounding extremely tired now, unsurprising given the stress of her encounter with the Gondwanans and the huge burden of responsibility she’d been bearing as the keeper of this Earth-shattering news. But a burden shared was a burden halved, so she ploughed on, keen to give Supreme Consul Kachika all the details she’d need in order to decide what to do next.

‘This was truly the darkest day in the history of the Laurasian Republic. The Gondwanan Empire now had the reins of life on Earth firmly in its grasp and it grew increasingly wild and unrestrained, making claim after claim on Laurasia’s territory and repeatedly ordering the Republic to get rid of its nuclear arsenal.

‘Needless to say, this lopsided state of affairs did not last long. Just one month after Gondwana’s Operation Leviathan, Laurasia responded in kind. Using similar technology, they collected a second antimatter fragment from space, brought it back to Earth and gave the empire a taste of its own medicine. They loaded their antimatter onto a cargo ship called Luna and sailed it into Gondwana’s largest port. And so balance was restored in the dinosaur world. A balance born of the ultimate deterrent, a deterrent that pushed Earth to the brink of destruction.’

‘It’s so unfortunate that we knew nothing about all this,’ muttered Field Marshal Jolie.

‘Yes indeed,’ replied the professor. ‘To avoid a global panic, operations Leviathan and Luna were carried out in absolute secrecy. Even in the dinosaur world, only a very few knew the exact details. Both teams designed their systems so that they could be maintained without ant involvement. A great deal of money was spent on ensuring that the equipment was super reliable, and the containment systems were built using replaceable modules. As a result, the Ant Federation knew nothing about it until today.’

Joya’s account shook every ant in the command centre to the core. The mood in the room had plummeted. Where previously the ants had been celebrating a great victory over the dinosaurs, they were now staring into a terrifying hellhole.

‘This is beyond madness – it’s depraved!’ Kachika cried. ‘An ultimate-deterrence strategy predicated on the total destruction of the world renders all political and military considerations meaningless. It’s an abomination.’

Field Marshal Jolie tossed her head contemptuously. ‘Is this not, Professor, an inevitable consequence of the very curiosity, imagination and creativity you so admire in the dinosaurs?’

‘Let us stick to the matter in question,’ replied Joya, unperturbed by Jolie’s snideness. ‘The world is in grave danger and we should be focusing on that.’

Kachika began to formulate a plan. ‘At least we know that those two fragments of antimatter are still intact and untouched in their magnetic containment vessels. The destruction of the world is therefore not an inevitability.’ She glanced over at Jolie. ‘Do you agree, Field Marshal?’

The field marshal dipped her antennae. ‘I do. This sort of operation is on a par with a nuclear-missile strike. It will have been designed with an extremely complex system of security locks. The command to detonate the antimatter will only be valid if issued by a dinosaur at the highest level, and the dinosaurs with that degree of authority will certainly have been eliminated by now. Therefore, the order will never be given. Regarding malfunctions or breaks in the chain of command, those won’t be a problem either. The slightest anomaly will send the system into lockdown.’

Kachika turned to the professor. ‘How long can the magnetic fields within the containment vessels be maintained?’

‘For a considerable period,’ Joya replied. ‘The magnetic fields are produced by a circulating current in a superconductor, which decays very slowly. In addition, Leviathan and Luna are both equipped with nuclear batteries capable of supplying power for a long time, so the systems can replenish the charge lost without outside interference. According to the dinosaurs, the confining magnetic fields can be maintained for at least twenty years.’

‘Then it’s obvious what we should do,’ Kachika said firmly. ‘We must immediately find Luna and Leviathan, build shields around the containment vessels and insulate them from all external electromagnetic signals, thereby eliminating the possibility of a signal from the outside world detonating either weapon.’

‘And then,’ said Field Marshal Jolie, ‘we must think of a way to launch the vessels into space. Although it will be difficult, we have time on our side. With the spaceships and rockets the dinosaurs left behind, we should be able to do it.’

Now that victory was potentially in their sights once more, the ants broke into animated discussion about operational details.