Prelude to Extinction
Page 47
Kurt turned to him in shock, and said, “Jack, what’s going on?”
“Keep your eyes up there,” Jack said as he pointed to an upper limb. “They’ll be able to hear us again in a few more seconds. I’m sorry to put you in this position, but after the assassination attempt, I knew I had to do something. You two are about the only people I completely trust. I’m positive if I gave it to anyone in the government, it wouldn’t be long before I had some sort of accident.”
They stood in silence for a second before Jack said, “You can never speak of this again, OK?”
“Uh, yeah,” Kurt said softly.
“Also, if they ask, and I know they will, tell them I was pointing out a blue jay to you. Tell them I’m a bit of an idiot, and have a particular fondness of those birds or something.”
Kurt laughed as Jack casually took a quick look around. The two guards were making their way toward them, obviously confused about what was happening. To allay their suspicion, Jack said, “I think there’s an interesting nest over here,” and led Kurt and Nadya directly toward the man to their left. Confused by their approach he quickly backed off.
“So, now that we’ve had a breath of fresh air,” Jack said, “It’s time for the real reason I asked you here.”
Nadya looked to him quizzically.
“Despite my own situation, I have had some input in the distribution of Alpha’s knowledge. So far, we’ve set up a scientific and advanced education directorate which filters through the material, chapter-by-chapter, if you will. It decides how best to educate our scientific community. It’s almost like perpetual grad school. Now, though, it’s time to set up an engineering directorate. Its goal will be to try to apply what we’re learning and create usable results. From what we’ve found so far, it seems most of the initial applications will be related to space travel: propulsion, in particular.”
“Are you asking what I think you’re asking?” Nadya said with a smile.
Jack returned the grin and said, “Yes. You wouldn’t necessarily be leading the team, but the two of you would be senior members. Your experience in seeing Alpha’s tech in action, plus the well-known fact that the two of you played a lead role in building the Magellan made the idea an easy sell.”
Kurt looked to Nadya and said, “Well, I don’t know. I mean it sounds like there’ll be too many hours, loads of work. Not to mention the stress of dealing with the government…”
“As opposed to alien fighters and antimatter explosions?” Nadya said as she gave Kurt a light slap in the back of the head.
“Then the answer’s yes?” Jack asked unnecessarily.
“Will we be working with you?” Kurt asked.
“Not directly. But we will get to see each other more often,” he replied.
“When would we start?” Nadya asked.
“It’ll take another month to set the directorate up; so maybe just after the start of the new year.”
Kurt looked to Nadya once more, before saying, “I guess we’re in.”
“Thank you,” Jack said with sincerity that went well beyond appreciation for their accepting the job offer. Leading the way back down the path, he continued, “Why don’t we get some lunch. I know a nice little seafood spot not far from here.”
The Author:
Andreas Karpf is an experimental physicist with a life-long interest in the space program. An active research scientist who specializes in lasers and developing new spectroscopic techniques for detecting pollutants, he has written scientific news articles, published numerous research papers in scientific journals, and co-authored a small physics textbook. He enjoys a good space-opera, but lives for the hard sci-fi novel set in a plausible future that doesn’t get weighed down by too much technology – a story that takes one for a ride and dream about what may lie ahead for humanity. PRELUDE TO EXTINCTION embraces a realistic, speculative future to frame an adventure in which survival depends on appreciating both the advantages and limitations of being human.
PRELUDE TO EXTINCTION
Copyright © 2019 Andreas Karpf
No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.
Cover Art: Sean Vecchione and Andreas Karpf