Free Overture (Earth Song) by Mark Wandrey

of this thing.”
    The laser scientist chuckled and took out a cigarette. He produced a nifty little laser lighter and lit the cigarette. “Dr. Osgood, if we ever got this thing opened up there’d probably be a significant percentage of the Eastern Seaboard missing.”
    Osgood looked over at the dais just as a technician stepped on the top step. The Portal in its sparkling brilliance popped into existence. He scratched his chin in contemplation. “What do you imagine is the power source at work here?”
    “ You were wondering if we had any luck? The answer is a resounding no. That’s the biggest portable high photon xenon laser in the western hemisphere. I’ve used that to cut through half a meter of tungsten carbide steel in under a second. Its cousin, based on a chemical configuration instead of electric, is mounted in five converted 747-200’s. They use them to shoot down ballistic missiles thousands of miles away. We fired a dozen pulses into the material on the dais of that Portal. Not only didn’t it leave a mark, it didn’t warm it up, it didn’t even reflect any of the coherent light.”
    “ None?” Osgood said incredulously.
    “ None.”
    “ If you had to guess, what do you think it’s made out of?”
    “ Neutronium?”
    “ Don’t be ridiculous,” Osgood grumbled at the incredulity.
    “ You said if I had to guess. The only problem with that theory is that if the Portal were made of neutronium it would weigh more than the planet. My other theory is this thing is pure energy.”
    “ What did you say?”
    “ I said I think this thing might be pure energy held into this shape by some kind of a force field.” Osgood could see the other two laser scientists nodding their heads in agreement. “It answers all the questions. Remember the weird energy emissions? You can’t keep a couple dozen cubic meters of pure energy contained without bleeding some random high energy particles. And add the fact that you can’t affect it in any way, well, if it’s just a force field you see here then no matter what you do, as long as it still has power, it will continue to refresh itself.”
    “ We’ve picked up a sort of radio signal in the terahertz band,” Osgood mumbled.
    “ Could well be the refresh rate of the force field. If my theory is right the only thing solid in there would be the brain, or computer controller. The Portal, when active, would have a nearly infinite power source from the dais itself.”
    “ Why make this thing of pure energy? What would require so much energy?”
    “ That’s another mystery; I don’t really have anything to add in solving that one.”
    Osgood and the laser scientists talked for a while as crews broke down the laser and carted it from the dome. None of the scientists liked working under the all-powerful eye of government agents, but they were too excited to care. “At least that jerk Volant isn’t here today,” one of the laser technicians said. As if conjuring a demon, the portly agent strode through the dome’s door.
    “ So what did the fucking laser beam do?” he demanded.
    “ Not a fucking thing,” replied the head laser scientist through exhaled smoke.
    “ I thought all you eggheads didn’t smoke?” he scowled at the insubordinate scientist.
    “ We laser jocks are an exception to the rule. The lasers are invisible to the naked eye, you see?” He’d removed his laser cigarette lighter and fiddled with it. Volant hadn’t noticed the movement but as the scientist took a puff and exhaled smoke toward Volant it revealed a flickering laser beam pointed squarely at his crotch. Volant looked up from the laser to the scientist with a laser-like look of his own. It had its effect and the man put his toy away. “Anyway, we failed to get any results whatsoever. Zero residual radiation, zero effect on the surface, zero reflection.”
    “ That doesn’t make any sense. Look at it; it’s reflecting all the light in this room.”
    “ That’s just regular