The Wave
The Wave is an attribute of null-T. Every time a piece of material is sent through space with null-T two huge fountains of energy and material waste appear on the poles of the planet. They form the so called "Wave", an enormous kappa-field that appears simultaneously on both poles and moves towards the equator. This Wave looks like a kilometers high black wall with a thin line of blinding light on the crest and is deadly for any kind of living tissue it touches. The scientists name four types of Waves based on their specific characteristics.
Usually the Wave wears off on a half way to the equator. If not, special energy-absorbing machines called charybdis (after mythological Charybdis from Odyssey) are used to lower the potential energy of the Wave thus wearing it off. It is also known that the Wave can disappear itself any moment for no apparent reason.
In 2156 AD Rainbow was devastated by a Wave of a new type later called P-Wave (after Pagawa, one of the leading null-physicists of the time). Nearly all adults who happened to be on the planet (including all scientists), presumably, perished. The only spaceship at that time on the planet, Tariel II (generally piloted by Leonid Gorbovsky), was only capable of evacuating children. No further attempts to reinhabit Rainbow were undertaken..
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Read more about this topic: Rainbow (Noon Universe)
Famous quotes containing the word wave:
“Great Powers of falling wave and wind and windy fire,
With your harmonious choir
Encircle her I love and sing her into peace,
That my old care may cease....”
—William Butler Yeats (18651939)
“The city is loveliest when the sweet death racket begins. Her own life lived in defiance of nature, her electricity, her frigidaires, her soundproof walls, the glint of lacquered nails, the plumes that wave across the corrugated sky. Here in the coffin depths grow the everlasting flowers sent by telegraph.”
—Henry Miller (18911980)