Michael Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction

115

Uup

Ununpentium

(?)

Uup, Uup, and Awaaaaaaay!

Element 115 may be, according to our more distinguished Internet cranks,

the key to understanding how the ultra-secret "Black World" builds

spacecraft capable of manipulating spacetime and gravity. As a superheavy

element, it generates its own gravity A field in addition to the gravity

B field native to all matter. Even though the gravity A wave extends only

infinitesimally beyond the perimeter of the atom, this is enough to give

us access to it?and once the gravity A wave is accessed, it can be

amplified just like any other electromagnetic wave.

When amplified and focused on the desired destination, the gravity A wave

will create the spacetime distortion required for practical interstellar

travel. Distant spaces can be brought into close proximity and the space

in between simply bypassed.

Ununpentium, hypermassive and yet far stabler than the lighter superheavy

elements, is the key to controlling these gravitational warp forces.

Amplifying ununpentium's gravity A field makes it possible to overcome

the sun's weaker but more pervasive gravity B field. An aircraft reactor

fueled with ununpentium would be capable of anti-gravity propulsion.

Can this actually be done? The answer is a resounding yes! In fact, the

B-2 stealth bomber is equipped with an electro-gravitic propulsion system

in addition to the conventional jets it retains for take-off and landing.

This explains why our Northrop B-2s cost an astonishing two billion

dollars apiece. Anti-gravity doesn't come cheap.

Obviously, such advanced technology is far beyond our current

technological capability. Where, then, did these engines come from?

Informed speculation is that they were copied from the crashed S4

spacecraft currently secretly held by the government at its Groom Lake

complex. This also explains how they obtained a ready supply of

ununpentium, an element that does not occur naturally on Earth, but may

well be plentiful in outer space, where the rules of physics are

different.

Are you following all this? Good. Now I've got a bridge I want to sell

you.

The End