This post was inspired by a writing prompt in the Worldbuilding Community - Worldbuilding Prompt #1089 - Theoretically the best weapon
It's also a callback or a kind of sequel to a story I wrote ages ago.... Worldbuilding Prompt #618 - Advanced Weaponry and Mad Science
Enjoy !
Image by Peace,love,happiness from Pixabay
"Pridemaster, the Co-Ordinator has arrived."
The slave made the announcement with the correct degree of servile deference. Pridemaster Growal shook his mane, acknowledging his guest and demonstrating his superiority. His species had become the dominant faction in Slaver society since the abject failure of the Avians offensive against the Imperial enemy.
Growal couldn't help feeling uneasy when the Einheriar Co-Ordinator rolled in. The machine was a smooth vertical cylinder on tracks, a reflective silver blankness with a humanoid-shaped face in matt aluminium colour on it's front below the domed top of the cylinder. It was accompanied by a pair of attendant machines, of a similar design but slightly smaller and without the mockery of a face. How could Growal sense respect and fear on something that showed no emotion ?
"Greetings Pridemaster Growal," it stated in a toneless voice, "We understand you have something of interest to demonstrate to us."
Growal nodded his great head. "Yes. We have a thing called a chronoscope..."
"Yes, we are aware of such devices," the Einheriar interrupted. It's tone continued to be even, but somehow still managed to convey impatience.
The Pridemaster shook himself with a hint of anger. "Then you will know it is a device allowing us to look back in time. As a microscope sees the small and a horoscope tells the future, a chronoscope sees the past. Academic Raha here will explain what he saw."
A subsidiary Slaver stepped forward, his hunched posture and smaller mane indicating his place in the pecking order. Or rather, the pride. Only the idiot Avians with their silly beaks had a pecking order.
"We managed to pierce the jamming of the Imperial Scum, and were able to view and record an event that took place approximately six months ago. The enemy appear to have executed one of their most brilliant weapons scientists right as he was on the cusp of a significant breakthrough."
The Co-Ordinator sat silent, waiting for more information to be forthcoming.
Unnerved by the silence, Raha continued. "There is no sound on the recording, but it appears that this scientist had found a way to make a weapon we considered to be no more than a thought experiment, a theoretical possibility."
"Interesting. Go on," the Einheriar prompted, it's lack of emotion conveying no interest whatsoever. The metal face moved smoothly to deliver the words, but it was a purely plastic mechanical flow, there were no actual muscles involved.
Raha half-bowed in acknowledgement. "As I'm sure you know, Tachyons control time, and by exceeding the speed of light can create effects that are to all intents and purposes instantaneous. Baryons, on the other hand, control matter and it's states. Despite their inferiority to us, the Imperial scientist's notes indicate that altering the baryons and spinning the tachyons enables them to create an exact copy of a universe instantly. The difference is that it is anti-matter. The resulting cancellation creates a universe-scale catastrophe, converting all the matter in that universe to pure energy and collapsing that particular plane or dimension."
This time, a quiet ticking could be heard from the Co-Ordinator. A symptom of a problem so complex that it had been stunned into deep thought. Then it spoke.
"If the cancellation releases a large quantity of energy, where does the energy go once there is no universe to contain it ?"
Raha thought, then his face took on a worried expression, his mane drooping. "Oh. Oh dear. Yes... well I guess it has to go somewhere. All that energy but no universe for it to live in. I expect it would tunnel through to an adjacent plane or dimension."
"And then what ?"
"Oh. It would repeat the process, converting to anti-matter again. Oh. Oh dear...."
"Correct," the machine said with grim finality. "The process would continue, destroying one universe after another in an accelerating spiral of destruction. Perhaps you should calculate how long it would be before every universe, every plane and every dimension was destroyed by this process."
Raha wrung his clawed hands together. His distress made it obvious that he hadn't thought through the destructive power of this previously theoretical weapon.
The Einheriar spun on it's tracks. "We Einheriar were created to destroy hostile life forms. We consider all life forms not in direct alignment with our interests to be hostile. However not even the Einheriar would consider making such a weapon. You are requested to wipe this data, in order to prevent it falling into the wrong hands, claws, tentacles or flippers."
With that, the machine trundled out of the laboratory.
What neither Pridemaster Growal or Academic Raha saw was that as soon as the door slid closed, the Co-Ordinator extended a probe to the subsidiary to it's left.
It was sending a message back to it's headquarters, silently. The message read;
Unit AFG36&26-CO to Base. Destroy Leran System immediately. Use a captured Imperial Nova Missile to make it appear as enemy action, then ensure Einheriar are the first rescue ships to arrive at the location. They must eliminate every surviving entity and fully destroy all data repositories. This includes the data repositories held by Unit AFG36&26-CO. No backup will be transmitted.