The Salvation War: Pantheocide. Part Forty One Up

[Stuart]

Camp Martinsyde, Phelan Plain, Hell

Times had certainly changed. The couch even had cupholders built into its arms and controls built into the rests allowed the occupants to tailor it to their own satisfaction. It even had a massage system built into the seat padding. Quite a change from the first couch she had used, one that had been hastily kludged together and surrounded by extemporized equipment. Looking fondly at her new work station, kitten settled herself down and started putting on her headset. Beside her, the operators started to warm up the equipment.

"You know the drill, kitten? We have to open a portal large enough to allow the transit of a V-150 armored car and a YWH-531 personnel carrier but no larger. We want to be able to shut this one down after we've finished with it."

The fact that kitten knew what a V-150 and a YWH-531looked like was another change. There had been a time when she'd known none of this. Now, she savored her new knowledge. "How large is the unit going through?"

"A full regiment with a battalion of artillery attached. The first of three groups, the other two will be moving later as the occupation takes hold. We've only got one sensitive to lock in on down there so there'll be a gap while he relocates. Ready to get started, kitten?"

"Any time you're ready." kitten relaxed and tried to make her mind go blank. In the background, she could feel the electronics warming up and emitting the carrier wave signal, the dummy load as the operators called it. When given the word, she would start searching for the sensitive in the region designated. As soon as she found him, the equipment would measure and digitize the characteristics of the signal she was sending and receiving, then duplicate it. Once that was done, it would transmit that signal, with enormously boosted power so that a portal would open up. No human, not even a Nephilim, could produce the power necessary to open a portal but the computerized equipment could. All she would have to do was to hold the contact so that the situation remained stable. Even that was becoming unnecessary now, the most advanced systems could maintain a portal without the services of a sensitive. Provided it was driven through from Hellside of course. Driving one through from Earthside was different.

That was something kitten remembered, the tearing pain that had gone with punching portals through from Earthside. It had felt as if somebody had had a giant rake inside her head and had been scrambling her brains with it. The weeks when she had been the only sensitive capable of opening and maintaining an Earthside portal had been terrible and it had only been the thought of the people the other side depending on her that had kept her going. To show for it, she had a small cabinet in the apartment she and Dani shared. One that had an international collection of medals in it, topped by a simple strip of pale blue silk with five stars. Dani had told her that getting The Medal implied she was in the armed services, but she didn't know if that was true or not. Anyway, those days were gone. Punching a portal through from hellside was almost a pleasant experience, like standing in a fast-flowing stream of water. An Earthside punch was still uncomfortable, reminiscent of standing too close to an open fire, but it was no longer agonizing.

"As soon as we get the word that the sensitive and equipment is in place, we'll be moving. Can we get you and Dani anything?"

"Some ginseng tea would be nice." As usual, Dani spoke for her.

"Coming right up. The Chinese sent some over for you, absolutely the best. Apparently it's the same one that the Politbureau drinks."

Sangkhlaburi, Nong-Lu province, Thai-Myanmar Border

For the last five days, Sangkhlaburi had had the communal feeling that it was sitting on top of a smoking volcano, waiting for the inevitable explosion. When the Burmese troops had crossed the border and headed for Kanchanaburi, all the wise heads in the village had nodded and assumed that Sangkhlaburi would be next, opening up a second front, one that led to Ayuthya and then to Bangkok. Some of the more nervous citizens had started to leave, heading north or east, away from the invading Burmese. Others had started to take whatever arms they could find and had dug crude fortifications around the town. As it became obvious that Third Army wasn't moving to intercept the invaders, heads had begun to nod knowingly. This had happened before when the Burmese invaded. Everybody knew the story of Ban Rachan, the village that had held out against the invaders even though they had been deserted by the Army and the Government. Ban Rachan had held for months, buying time for the defense, even though it had done little good in the end.

Then the situation had changed. Matichon, the national tabloid newspaper, had run a cartoon of a dragon bursting into Third Army Headquarters, breathing fire and sending the indolent occupants of the headquarters running for their lives. Third Army had suddenly started moving, sending two of its regiments to stop the Burmese advance, then a newly-arrived cavalry division to help drive it back. Sitting up here in the north, Sangkhlaburi had watched the battle unfold. The wise heads in the town had said that this would bring no good, with the invasion stopped at one point, the Myanmar Army would try somewhere else. And where else than Three Pagodas Pass, the opening in the hills that was the traditional invasion route?

But, the invasion hadn't happened. Which only meant that it hadn't happened yet. The townspeople had kept building their improvised defenses and searched the town for more ammunition for their shotguns and rifles. And they had waited. Today, it seemed like the time they had expected and dreaded was coming for they could hear the traditional whup-whup-whup noise of a helicopter's rotors.

The four AH-1 Cobras burst over Sangkhlaburi, swerving around the end of the ridgeline they had used to mask their approach and flying over the center of the town, as if daring any enemies to open fire. At first the people below stayed silent but that only lasted until they saw the red-white-blue markings on the fuselage of the helicopters. They were Thai, and they meant the Army had arrived. The gunships prowled over the town, swinging their noses backwards and forwards as they hunted for their prey. Two started up the road that led over the Three Pagoda Pass where they were finally challenged by bursts of automatic rifle fire from the Myanmarese border post. One helicopter went to hover, its nose seeking backwards and forwards for a second, before its stub-wings erupted into flame as the Cobra discharged a salvo of unguided rockets. The gunfire from the ground stopped abruptly as the border post was obliterated (due to the inaccuracy of unguided rockets, the helicopter took the Thai border post out as well, but fortunately the two Border Police officers there guessed was about to happen and had abandoned their post in a great hurry when their Myanmar counterparts opened fire).

With Sangkhlaburi apparently cold, the next wave of helicopters, UH-60 Blackhawks were already landing in the town streets, disgorging the better part of an infantry battalion. The troops were actually part of Third Army's rapid reaction force and had been flown up direct from Kanchanaburi. As they spread out and secured the town, a third group of helicopters landed just north of the built-up area. One of them was a big Russian Mi-17I and it started unloading the equipment and personnel necessary to open a portal to Hell.

This was the third time the team had gone through this performance in the field and by now their routine was smoother and slicker. The equipment was laid out, the portable diesel generators on their skids positioned and the portal-generators assembled. Within 45 minutes, less than half the time taken during their first effort at Kanchanaburi three days earlier, the black ellipse opened up and a long column of military vehicles started to move through. The mechanized infantry was first through the portal, the platoons emerging, assembling and then setting off to take up pre-determined positions in defense of the town and the pass above it. They were followed by the armored cars of the light armor battalions that started to assemble west of the town for their lunge along the main road that would, eventually, take them to Moulmein. Finally, the artillery battalion, towed 105mm howitzers, emerged and started to position themselves to support the rest of the regiment.

"Well done!" Colonel Thanas reached down to shake the hand of the young man relaxing on the couch.

"No problem Sir, its easy when the punch comes through from the other side. Have you got all your vehicles through?"

"Not quite. Supply trucks and rear echelon still to come through. As soon as they're through, we'll need to move to the next location to open a gate for the next regiment. Then, its off to the top of the pass for the third."

DIMO(N) Briefing Room, Pentagon, Arlington V.A.

"You're drunk."

Dr Surlethe's comment was half serious, half joking. Nevertheless, Dr. Kuroneko looked blearily up at him before taking another gulp out of a tumbler full of whisky. "So would you be if you'd been thinking what I've been thinking."

"And what part of trans-dimensional mathematics with special relevance to Netherworlds had brought on this display of inebriation." On reflection, Surlethe decided that inebriation was not a bad idea. It seemed as if it had been a long time since he'd been able to relax. More than 18 months in fact, ever since The Message had arrived and the Salvation War had started. He went over to the bar and got himself a drink, noticing with distaste that Red Label was the only Johnnie Walker it had in stock. By the time he'd got back, the level in Kuroneko's glass had dropped notably.

"The bit that says we're all doomed."

"You think we're going to lose this war? Surlethe was slightly shocked.

"No, course not. We'll find a way into Heaven soon enough, and when we do we'll blow the place apart. They've had it up there and we've had it down here, just going to take a bit more time for us that's all."

"How much more?"

"A few billion years give or take a decade or so." Kuroneko made a visible effort to pull himself together. "You know we live in an expanding universe right? Well, one of the theories of cosmology is that our universe will keep on expanding until it's in a state of heart death, when all the stars and planets are dead and there's just an even distribution of energy everywhere."

"So I've heard. Do you believe that?"

"Probably not. But doesn’t matter. When we're in that state, then the universe starts contracting again and it keeps on contracting until it forms a singoor. . . . strinlari . . . . a point. Then it all blows up in another big bang. But now we've found the Hell dimensions and guess what, its contracting. And our early figures suggest that the whole Hell domemshun is contracting at the same rate as ours is expanding. Don't you see?"

Surlethe leaned back in his seat and shook his head.

"It's obvious. If all this is true, then our dimension and the hell dimension are opposed pairs. We expand until we reach heat-death and then start to collapse. At that exact moment, the hell dimension finishes its contraction and has the big bang, starting its expansion. That's when we're like Hell, all living in bubbleworlds, they're like us, living on planets. And so it goes on forever and ever. Just going backwards and forwards, pointless, planless, without purpose. And if that thought doesn’t make you want to get drunk, I don’t know what will."

"Why? We'll all be dead by . . . . Oh, I see what you mean. We have no idea how long creatures in the hell dimension live do we? We could be alive up there, for an eternity. We're not doomed at all though. Now we know we can make portals, we could skip from one to the other and become eternal. Just like the gods we once believed in."

"Excuse me, might I join in?" Norman Baines was standing behind them.

"Sure, pull up a pew. We're just screwing the inscrutable." Surlethe finished off his glass and got a replacement.

"So I heard. You've seen this of course." Baines produced a black-and-white disk from his pocket, the circle divided by an S-shaped line that saw one half starting off at nothing and swelling out while the other collapsed the opposite way. One half was black, the other white and at the fullest point of each half was a small circle of the opposite color.

"Sure, its the Ying-Yang symbol. Hippies loved it." And that comment ages me he thought.

"Well, I was listening to Dr. Kuroneko and what he was saying made me think of this. Look, if we hold it so the dividing line is vertical, then turn it through 180 degrees, it shows exactly what he's been saying. One half forming and growing, then collapsing while the other does the same but in reverse phase. And the dots are the portals joining the two." He put the disk on the table and started turn it backwards and forwards.

"He's right you know. It does illustrate what you've been saying."

Kuroneko finished his drink. "Makes you wonder of the old Chinese philosophers had this whole thing worked out, doesn’t it."

"Taoist, but here's a funny thing. The same symbol, its called a Tajitsu by the way, crops up a lot of places. For example, one of the Roman Legions used the same symbol and it predates the Taoist version by a couple of centuries or more. It's believed some of Alexander's units used it as well. So did the Thebans. And there's stories that it turned up in ancient Egypt. Suppose the Tajitsu isn’t just a mystical symbol but is a descendent of something that was handed down from ancient civilizations to tell us what the universe is really like?"

Surlethe thought about that for a long, long time. Finally he looked at Baines. "I really wish you hadn’t said that. Now I want to get drunk."

Council Chamber, Yamantau, Russia

"There is a major problem coming up, one that I believe this Council must address."

The speaker looked around at the fifteen council members. Not all were physically present, but those that weren't were on great viewscreens that lined the walls. Whether present as flesh-and-blood or electronic imagery, they all nodded. "Proceed."

Doctor Samuel drew breath to deliver the bad news. "We have an impending energy crunch. The fact is that with what amounts to every army in the world fully mobilized and conducting military operations, they're burning a mass of diesel fuel. It doesn’t matter whether its peace-keeping operations in Hell or the fighting going on in Thailand or the war that's about to start in Korea, they all cost fuel. It doesn’t end there. Every factory on Earth is running flat out on triple-shifts, those that can are producing munitions ad those that can't are making up for the facilities that have been converted to war production.

"We can't change that. We're still replacing the munitions we expended in the Curb Stomp War."

"I know, but it takes energy and that means fuel. We're shifting to nuclear power as fast as we can, but rebuilding the infrastructure takes time and building the plans takes more energy. We're behind the curve and that situation is becoming terminal. Put simply, we've been pumping and refining oil so fast, we're damaging the fields and the refineries are in desperate need of repair and renovation. That could get worse, we're entering hurricane season and that means the weather attacks could start again. Refinery capacity was critical before the war started, now its far beyond that. We need more refineries and more oil resources. The former we can build if we're given the go-ahead, but actually finding more oil reserves. Well, to give you an idea, the current levels of unexploited oil reserves are higher than at any time in recorded history, the figures are in Platt's Oilgram, but they’re still not enough."

"There may be a solution to this." The spotlights switched to another figure standing in front of the great horseshoe of desks. "I'm Coogler, one of the geologists working in Hell. Do you all recognize this?"

He held up a bottle containing a black solid. The Council looked at it, shaking their heads.

"Well, you've all heard of the Lava River in Hell. The one we're pulling our dead out of. Well, that was always a bit odd because if it was real lava, there wouldn’t be any bodies. They'd be flash-vaporized. So, we had a closer look at that river and it turns out, it wasn't lava at all. It's a mix of what amounts to a very heavy crude oil with extremely light fractions. It’s really strange from a geological point of view, in some ways, it’s a bit like shale oil but don’t push that comparison too far. Human crude is a mixture of fractions as well, some heavy, some light, some in between. Hell crude has nothing in between, its all either very light or very heavy. When it comes out of the ground, the light factions vaporize and burn, giving the appearance of a river of fire.

"So, the injuries our dead received are a mix of the burns from the hot, plasticized crude, that runs at around sixty to seventy degrees Celsius by the way, and the burning gases above it. Now, if we can trap and channel that stream at source, we can recover the light fractions for use as natural gas while we can build refineries in Hell to crack the super-heavy fraction and give us everything else we need. Or we can build the refineries here on Earth. But, given the volume coming out in the Lava River, there must be a lot of this stuff in Hell, the whole place is probably oil-rich."

Putin nodded and there was a whispered exchange between the members of the council, those present on the screens giving their contribution by means of earpieces worn by the members. Eventually, Putin banged his gavel on the table. "Engineer Coogler, get together with Doctor Samuel and thrash out a scheme to exploit these new resources. Take whatever technical staff you need. Now, to the next item on today's agenda. What progress has been made with hunting down and killing Yahweh?"

[tim31]

And in one fell swoop, our heroes defeat Peak Oil.

Drive a man to drink, that will

[Darth Wong]

Hey, new chapter! Nice to see that the Thai/Burma war effort is progressing nicely.

PS. The current cosmology doesn't exactly call for the universe to collapse into a singularity once it reaches heat death. Most models call for it to sort of drift apart into an endless, formless void, dead for all eternity because there is no more useful energy. So the bubble universes will collapse until they become some kind of singularity, while the real universe will expand until it becomes a vast and empty nothingness. Hence the yin/yang opposites, but not exactly in balance.

PPS. Perhaps the bubble universes are destined to eventually collapse into a singularity which then erupts into a new open-form universe like ours. When our universe is rendered worthless and is left behind by all life, we would populate the new universe, which would in turn have its own bubble universes, and the cycle is endless

[Rahvin]

PS. The current cosmology doesn't exactly call for the universe to collapse into a singularity once it reaches heat death. Most models call for it to sort of drift apart into an endless, formless void, dead for all eternity because there is no more useful energy. So the bubble universes will collapse until they become some kind of singularity, while the real universe will expand until it becomes a vast and empty nothingness. Hence the yin/yang opposites, but not exactly in balance.

PPS. Perhaps the bubble universes are destined to eventually collapse into a singularity which then erupts into a new open-form universe like ours. When our universe is rendered worthless and is left behind by all life, we would populate the new universe, which would in turn have its own bubble universes, and the cycle is endless

Maybe the Earth/Hell pair occupy the same extra-dimensional "space," such that the total "space" occupied by both dimensions must be conserved? When Hell experiences a Big Bang, the expansion of that part of the pair applies "pressure" to the Earth dimension, reversing expansion and beginning contraction so that the entire cycle repeats?

[tim31]

How would that tie in with interdimensional portal mechanics?

All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.

[Baughn]

That much is an inevitable consequence of the universe (meaning the complete multiverse) has a finite maximum state space, which can't be increased.

I don't think very many people are worried, though. Perhaps they should be.

[Buritot]

It was nice to read a more laid back chapter.

I'm weeping for our environment. By the end of the war we will have an as of yet immeasurable but by all means endless supply of oil. Just thinking of the effects this will have on air pollution, global warming et al. makes me feel guilty.

I'm sorry I can't provide any insights to the portal discussion - I'm neither this versed in physics nor do I know the right words.
In my comprehension the universe theory by Kuroneko is still lacking, though. It neatly explains energy gradients between universes. I suppose background radiation would be a very good indicator. It still doesn't touch on the baldricks and angels notion of a higher level for their afterlife. It might by purely belief but I doubt it. Albeit... imagine you're a baldrick an undisclosed time ago. There is this gate some puny pink creatures fall out. And there is this place you can visit only by magic, settled by the same puny pink creatures. Now imagine your surprise of recognising a particularly pretty puny pink creature you had fun with and ate falling shortly after out of that strange gate. The wheels (if they've been invented yet) in your mind start moving. Some time later you come to the conclusion the puny pink creatures die and come back in your home world. You think it's not fair, they coming back and you not - but, halt! You haven't died. You don't know for sure so you assume the same concept applies to you, too. You tell your friends. And a few years later the bully Satan proclaims he knows this and the way to get to the next stage is to provide energy, for example by torturing hew-mon.
And Satan is laughing up his sleeve, having finally found some idiot way to keep his people occupied. (nice little tangent, eyh?)
The puny pink creatures may not necessarily have been pink at all - after all that adaptation evolved later in H. Sapiens. And I still want to talk to Adam.

Also, Hell and Heaven have neither night nor seasons.

Will Luga mention some horribly gruesome details about Hell on TV? Say... shrimp-sized snacks? I assume she is being monitored and her shows are not covered live but I'm hoping for some public outcry.
Thinking on it, it may even be kind of easy to get that past the radar. Assume the motto of the show for the day is fast food. Let her just mention there has been an incredible rise in finger food in the last thirty to fourty years, insert a joke to it being the same on Earth, and let it stay with that. Someone on the internet will make the connections between her (former) eating habits and the date for sure. The rumour will simmer for some time and at an interview-session (maybe live on radio) she will have an interviewer/caller who asks on that.

I'm trying to figure something out. First I take the idea of the 3-dimensional edge of a portal. I also guess energy supplementation to open a portal isn't instant - it starts at some point and increases until the portal is opened and reaches is desired size.
Therefore the portals would have their own expulsive field for matter sharing the same place as the portal.

As an example: I open a portal in a tube. If I increase the portal diameter to a value higher than the diameter of the tube the tube would crack open. The parts of the tube "in touch" with the portals edge would be thrust out.

One conclusion is the ground below any portal one is able to drive through is compressed. Furthermore there is space between the portal (event) horizon and the ground.

As an afterthought, what supplies the energy for the expulsive force? I suppose the caster / casting apparatus.

Maybe the Earth/Hell pair occupy the same extra-dimensional "space," such that the total "space" occupied by both dimensions must be conserved? When Hell experiences a Big Bang, the expansion of that part of the pair applies "pressure" to the Earth dimension, reversing expansion and beginning contraction so that the entire cycle repeats?

Hm. I doubt it works that way, at least completely. Both bubble universes have significant less energy compared to our universe. Why? If our universe had the size of Heaven or Hell it would be rather hot in general, probably in terms of breaking atomic bonds hot. Again, I'm no astrophysicist, I hardly know anything about the matter (no pun intended). The Big Bang pressure from their universe would hardly leave an impression on ours (now it was ). If there is, however, a sufficient amount of bubble universes "at the rim" of our universe I have no complaints.

Another thing - how did kitten establish contact with Tucker and the other cells? Was he a sensible? Or are otherwise sensibles only required on the other side for portals?
Furthermore kitten (and I assume most other sensibles as well) was able to hone in on persons without knowing their location. Was there any need to mention the location of the sensible in Thailand for her? I had the impression once she had a feel/soul signature for the person she contacted she could contact them whenever she felt like it (given both were in different universes).
Or are all Zombies sensible by default? (There certainly is need for an official or in-universe term for the undead. The yellow press probably provided one already.)

Also this whole telepathy thing implies a certain philosophical concept to be true - reality is absolute. If reality is formed by perception than there would have been no way to ensure what I perceive as blue would be the same with another person. If I stand correct in this universe this is not true. There is only one blue, no matter how I perceive it. That is an interesting and in my opinion frightening and exhilarating thought all the same.

PS: I have only a newtonian and relativistic understanding of astrophysics. Most of the advanced stuff I'm making up as I go and how it feel to me / what I assume is logical. If I'm wrong, teach me. I will listen. (unless you're wrong )

PPS: The angelic smiley ( ) is oddly appropriate for this fic.
Spoiler

Please shoot me the next time I write two and a half hours on one post. At least I regularly previewed and didn't write it in vain. Stupid logoffs.

[Gogyra]

There's no need for a portal to cut into the ground when it's opened. It could just deform to fit the shape of the ground.

[Buritot]

There's no need for a portal to cut into the ground when it's opened. It could just deform to fit the shape of the ground.

Why?
The perfect shape is circular, why should that change? It all depends on the force of its lock. If the portals local connection is more enforced than the ground can withstand...

[JN1]

Excellent, we've found a new source of oil. Hopefully that should keep the world going for a long while.
Is the switch towards nuclear power causing problems with the Green movement?

[Shroom Man 777]

I love the fact that Putin is now Big Bossman at Y-Mountain and is always on about killing Yahweh.

So I think he should get to kill Yahweh personally.

[Baughn]

I'd be extremely surprised if adding nuclear isn't causing trouble with the greens, madmen that they are.

Even so, a simple get the facts campaign would suffice to fix that, given the political will that obviously exists in this universe; nuclear power - especially the more advanced reactors, eg. thorium/molten salt and so on - is a lot cleaner than anything else around.

I can imagine the posters now..

"Nuclear power is safe, clean and takes little space. Oil comes from hell. Literally."

[Samuel]

Well, given the amount the climate has been screwed up, we will probably have to evacuate Bangladesh. Oh well- it was just a matter of time. You can't live forever on a delta.

And the greens will probably love nukes as an alternative to the really dirty oil that we get from hell.

[Junghalli]

Also this whole telepathy thing implies a certain philosophical concept to be true - reality is absolute. If reality is formed by perception than there would have been no way to ensure what I perceive as blue would be the same with another person. If I stand correct in this universe this is not true. There is only one blue, no matter how I perceive it. That is an interesting and in my opinion frightening and exhilarating thought all the same.

Two humans can reliably see the same color as blue because they have the same eye and brain structures that percieve color, and we all learn what blue is by having people indicate to us that objects of that color are blue. On the other hand a hypothetical creature that has a differently structured eye from us might see blue as, say, light grey. Things can be dependent on perception while still allowing for broad common ground.

[Ryan Thunder]

Also this whole telepathy thing implies a certain philosophical concept to be true - reality is absolute. If reality is formed by perception than there would have been no way to ensure what I perceive as blue would be the same with another person. If I stand correct in this universe this is not true. There is only one blue, no matter how I perceive it. That is an interesting and in my opinion frightening and exhilarating thought all the same.

Two humans can reliably see the same color as blue because they have the same eye and brain structures that percieve color, and we all learn what blue is by having people indicate to us that objects of that color are blue. On the other hand a hypothetical creature that has a differently structured eye from us might see blue as, say, light grey. Things can be dependent on perception while still allowing for broad common ground.

No, two humans can reliably see the same colour as blue because regardless of what they may see in their head, the object has been described to them as blue. It doesn't matter that what I see as blue might appear to another guy the same way that I see red. He's still going to be referring to it as blue.

Unless you were trying to say something else.

[Junghalli]

No, two humans can reliably see the same colour as blue because regardless of what they may see in their head, the object has been described to them as blue. It doesn't matter that what I see as blue might appear to another guy the same way that I see red. He's still going to be referring to it as blue.

Depends. That only works if the same number of colors are percieved, just with the spectrum shifted. Red-green colorblind people realize there's something "wrong" with their vision, because what other people keep referring to as "red" and "green" they see as the same color.

[Simon_Jester]

It was nice to read a more laid back chapter.

I'm weeping for our environment. By the end of the war we will have an as of yet immeasurable but by all means endless supply of oil. Just thinking of the effects this will have on air pollution, global warming et al. makes me feel guilty.

Shifting heavy industry to Hell might be a good idea where possible; that would take some of the load off. If you have to have coal-fired power plants, you might as well have them somewhere where the air quality already stinks.

The puny pink creatures may not necessarily have been pink at all - after all that adaptation evolved later in H. Sapiens. And I still want to talk to Adam.

If I got the details right, he probably got killed in the B-1 strike on Satan's palace. Which is a real pity.

Hm. I doubt it works that way, at least completely. Both bubble universes have significant less energy compared to our universe. Why? If our universe had the size of Heaven or Hell it would be rather hot in general, probably in terms of breaking atomic bonds hot.

This is true partly because our universe has vastly more particles than Heaven or Hell. The density of matter in the bubble universes is much higher than in the sidereal universe (ours). But if you tried to take all the particles in the observed sidereal universe and cram them into a bubble universe, it wouldn't be easy. The universe hasn't been that small since at most a few minutes* after the Big Bang, and trying to pack so many particles into so little space requires you to heat them up if you don't want them to collapse.

But today, the universe has expanded enormously compared to that initial high density plasma. The mean temperature of particles in our universe is 3 K, except where something freakish like a fusion reaction is going on to generate extra heat. Whereas in the bubble universes, the mean temperature is around 300 K- average particle energies are something like a hundred times higher, not counting specific local heat sources such as stars and boiling lava pits.

So the bubble universes have a much higher density of matter and a much higher mean temperature.

*I think; I'm too lazy to go digging through my copy of Hartle to find the equations that would let me nail down the point at which the volume that now makes up the observable universe was on the order of 10 to 20 thousand kilometers across. I very much doubt it took more than a few minutes after the Big Bang for this threshold to be passed.
_________

Another thing - how did kitten establish contact with Tucker and the other cells? Was he a sensible? Or are otherwise sensibles only required on the other side for portals?
Furthermore kitten (and I assume most other sensibles as well) was able to hone in on persons without knowing their location. Was there any need to mention the location of the sensible in Thailand for her? I had the impression once she had a feel/soul signature for the person she contacted she could contact them whenever she felt like it (given both were in different universes).
Or are all Zombies sensible by default? (There certainly is need for an official or in-universe term for the undead. The yellow press probably provided one already.)

The undead are sensitive by default; this was confirmed when kitten tried to contact Stephen Jay Gould. I suggest you check the relevant chapters of Armageddon if you want more details.
__________

Also this whole telepathy thing implies a certain philosophical concept to be true - reality is absolute. If reality is formed by perception than there would have been no way to ensure what I perceive as blue would be the same with another person. If I stand correct in this universe this is not true. There is only one blue, no matter how I perceive it. That is an interesting and in my opinion frightening and exhilarating thought all the same.

Well of course there's only one blue; it's the light between ~440 to 490 nanometers...
__________

Well, given the amount the climate has been screwed up, we will probably have to evacuate Bangladesh. Oh well- it was just a matter of time. You can't live forever on a delta.

And the greens will probably love nukes as an alternative to the really dirty oil that we get from hell.

I wonder if uranium and/or thorium are available in quantity in Hell. Having a higher proportion of radioactives deep underground might explain why geological activity in Hell is supercharged (and why the place stays warm).

[Ryan Thunder]

No, two humans can reliably see the same colour as blue because regardless of what they may see in their head, the object has been described to them as blue. It doesn't matter that what I see as blue might appear to another guy the same way that I see red. He's still going to be referring to it as blue.

Depends. That only works if the same number of colors are percieved, just with the spectrum shifted. Red-green colorblind people realize there's something "wrong" with their vision, because what other people keep referring to as "red" and "green" they see as the same color.

Ah, now I see what you were getting at.

[bcoogler]

"I'm Coogler, one of the geologists working in Hell. Do you all recognize this?"

Woo Hoo! I've gone to Hell and back!

LOL! Hey Stuart, you totally freaked out my son. I'm at work, and I receive a text message. "Part 22 is up. You're now a geologist." Coogler is unusual enough that we just don't ever expect to run across it, unless you live in South Carolina I suppose.

~ Non sequitur ~

Is Walter Cronkite going to begin reporting from Hell on the war effort? Seems like it's just the sort of thing he would do.

[Samuel]

Is Walter Cronkite going to begin reporting from Hell on the war effort? Seems like it's just the sort of thing he would do.

He isn't dead yet in universe.

I wonder if uranium and/or thorium are available in quantity in Hell. Having a higher proportion of radioactives deep underground might explain why geological activity in Hell is supercharged (and why the place stays warm).

Probably not. For starters there is the problem of what "deep underground" means in Hell. Dig deep enough and you come out the otherside... somewhere. Also, the bubble universe aspect takes care of the temperature. I don't see any supercharged activity besides the volcanoes, but Earth has those and they aren't caused by the isotopes near the surface.

[Beowulf]

No, two humans can reliably see the same colour as blue because regardless of what they may see in their head, the object has been described to them as blue. It doesn't matter that what I see as blue might appear to another guy the same way that I see red. He's still going to be referring to it as blue.

Depends. That only works if the same number of colors are percieved, just with the spectrum shifted. Red-green colorblind people realize there's something "wrong" with their vision, because what other people keep referring to as "red" and "green" they see as the same color.

Well, depends on the severity of the color blindness. I'm red green color blind, and can fairly reliably distinguish betweeen most red and green objects. I can reliably tell my boss's Mustang is red, and the grass is green (except when it's dead). On the other hand, I can reliably fail a plate test.

[Junghalli]

Also, the bubble universe aspect takes care of the temperature.

If the heat is a result of the contraction of the universe shouldn't it be evenly distributed throughout Hell, instead of being mostly concentrated in the "interior"?

[Baughn]

Yes; yes, it should. That's one of my major issues with the idea; the only way you get temperature differences is when the system starts out with energy differences, and they haven't gotten around to going away yet.

For that reason, the bubble universe simply cannot be an extremely old universe; considering its tiny size and apparent lack of fusion reactions, in fact, it must be considerably younger than ours.

But that same lack poses further problems. The bubble universe is too small to have a sun, much less multiple stars; we know that. So where the heck did all the complex atoms come from?

Lacking fusion reactions, you never get beyond hydrogen. Lacking stars (or the equivalent), you never get beyond helium, and you can only get to helium if the local equivalent of a big bang has high enough energy density to permit fusion; again, that's a size problem, since if it did it'd still be that hot. And, oh yeah, lacking supernovas you never get atoms heavier than iron; normal stellar fusion simply doesn't permit that.

So where did all the dirt come from? ;_;

[Samuel]

It screams intentional design. I wonder where they got a terrestrial world to chew up or the bubble. I know that if it had any former inhabitants they are probably going to end up dead from the process mostly due to being in the way of whoever is making the change.

[Pelranius]

Minor nitpick: Isn't the designation YW-551H instead of "YWH-551"?

I just wonder how much oil there has to be in the pits so that it hasn't all burned out already (at least the more flammable portions, such as the 'light' compositions)?