Read The Ripple in Space-Time: Free City Book 1 (The Free City Series) for Free Online Page A

Fesai,
she was inexplicably interested in him. She studied him carefully as he gawked
at the dilapidated neighborhoods of Dublin. He had an extraordinary headful of
wayward black curls, far longer and less tidy than convention currently
allowed. His smooth and fluid movements contrasted with his stark and angular
features; not unlike a shark or a fast Interceptor spacecraft, she mused.
    His brief dossier had mentioned
his stalled efforts at obtaining a Doctorate Degree, minor use of herbal
hallucinogens and his regrettable tendency towards womanizing; definitely not
traits that Keira condoned, but there was some intriguing quality about him
that she couldn’t quite rationalize.
    “How are you doing back there?”
Ryo glanced in the rearview mirror.
    Keira smiled at the fatherly
Investigator, “I’m doing OK.” She shifted around and leaned forward, “I’ve got
a background question about the investigation. I’m afraid I don’t know much
about antimatter. I recall from High School that it has something to do with
energy storage, but that’s about it.”
    “You’re asking the wrong guy,” Ryo
laughed. “Fortunately we have one of the leading authorities on such things
right here with us.”
    He nudged the preoccupied younger
man.
    “Antimatter; OK, let me see if I
can explain it.” Lev stroked his chin for several seconds. “ Every subatomic particle with mass, and there are dozens, has an
essentially identical opposite called an anti-particle. It ’ s almost like a mirror image, I guess. ”
    Both Ryo and Keira nodded.
    “ Electrons have an opposite called anti-electrons, ” Lev continued, “ a few people still call them
positrons. Electrons and anti-electrons have reversed electrical charges;
negative for electrons and positive for anti-electrons. If they happen to
encounter each other, annihilation occurs and they are completely destroyed,
converting all of the mass of the two particles into energy in the form of gamma
rays. ”
    Keira frowned, “ What does that have to do with energy storage? ”
    Lev smiled, “ Since well before the Second Amero-Asian War nearly all energy storage
has used antimatter. But there have always been some big problems with handling
antimatter. Mainly because storing a bunch of charged anti-particles is
particularly difficult.”
    Ryo glanced at Lev as he
negotiated the potholed streets, “Why is that?”
    “It’s hard enough to keep the
little beasties in a vacuum container completely devoid of even the merest
trace of ordinary matter; anti-electrons all have the same electrical charge,
so they repeal each other. That and the electrical attraction of the surface
electrons on the inside of the container pull the anti-electrons to the walls
of the container and annihilation occurs.”
    “So a vacuum bottle filled with
antimatter will explode?” Keira asked in horror.
    “It could,” Lev chuckled, “but
there’s a clever trick that keeps that from happening.”
    “What?” Keira wondered.
    “Magnets, or at least magnetic
fields,” Lev smiled. “About four hundred years ago, scientists produced
anti-hydrogen for the first time, slowly over many years other anti-atoms were
fabricated. All were fairly difficult to store until anti-iron was created. It
could easily be indefinitely suspended in a vacuum container using magnets. The
same magnets are used to manipulate the anti-iron into a reaction vessel where
it is methodically pelted with single regular iron atoms to cause the release
of well-controlled amounts of energy. ”
    Lev swiveled around to face her, “ Now everything from electrical power plants to space freighters uses
some sort of antimatter-based power system. ”
    • • •
    The cross-town trip had taken
nearly an hour.
    “Force will be necessary here, ” Keira warned Ryo, “ probably blackmail as well, ” she added.
    Her eyebrows arched up as she
pointed surreptitiously to Lev while he stared out at the ramshackle
neighborhood.
    “ Don ’ t