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The Perfect Circle by Tony Sadgrove

The Perfect Circle begins at the end and becomes the means to that end. In the early hours of one morning, the scientific showpiece, a massive state of the art research and demonstration centre, is obliterated by a fireball, taking Blyth Adamec, its founding head, with it. An enquiry is commissioned to explain this catastrophe.

Many years prior, a young metallurgist began to look for ways to improve the precision engineering of bores in metal. He turned to sub-atomic particle physics for a solution and discovered that by using intense electromagnetism operating at near absolute zero, he was able to reverse the spin of a target proton for a nanosecond. This discovery, when applied to other technologies changed the planet's way of life culminating in the abolition of war and nation state. The ramifications across the broad spectrum of civilization are discussed in the body of the novel as well as in section entitled 'Vignettes'.

The central thrust of the novel is on the application of this, and late developments, on the exploration of the universe. Controlled superluminary speeds are attained at the sub-atomic level which enables the scientists to cross vast distances in short time frames. This technique, the Clarion stream, is a stream of particles that have been doped to enable the collection and transmission of data. Even the most distant regions of the universe are accessible with the information only taking a year or so to be received.

This data is processed using a new technology called Visual Reconstruction. Three dimension, full colour, high definition images are converted into holograms and spectacular shows of stars, pulsars, supernovas and other phenomena are realised.

On one of these Clarion stream probes, an artificial construction is encountered. It is Voyager which had left its host solar system and was drifting in deep space. It is investigated in detail, its gold disc decoded, and its faint signal detected. This signal is boosted and traced back to its origin: Earth.

The Clarion stream is modified and two-way communication is established. At first it is sporadic and unreliable. Earth, and the other planet called 'Globe', receive each others data bases and begin to analyse the information. In the meantime, Globe designs and installs a more reliable system. Clone holograms are positioned in identical orbits and instant transmission of sound and vision become possible. A full scale joint live production launches this permanent link.

Blyth, however, was becoming dissatisfied with her administrative role and decides to initiate new research. She adapts VRT for use in forensics and microbiology. Crime scenes are reconstructed in hologram form using historical organic evidence; cellular, even neural activity can be viewed and manipulated in real time. One project she keeps to herself. She decides to test one of the basic law of physics: what would happen if a minute amount of matter, a doped proton, could leave the universe and enter the beyond. Her final experiment results in the destructive fireball and it is left to the enquiry panel to decipher what little information they could gather. Their conclusion is that she had, by accident, triggered a massive surge of energy which had fed back along the Clarion stream with destructive force.

Her successor was not so sure about these findings and was able to decode her encrypted password and access her most private scientific records. What he found that she had acted in a deliberate way, fully aware of the possible consequences. She had triggered a new 'Big Bang'; the birth of a new universe, and by so doing, condemned her own to entropic decay.