“The Eagle’s Nest,” Maribel read out loud. “What’s that?”
“That’s where we’re going. It’s the lookout point. I wasn’t wrong. Hopefully we’ll have some luck and the gate will be open.”
“I hope so, because otherwise we would’ve driven three hours for nothing.”
“No, if it’s closed, I think we’ll just have to walk a ways. If it’s open, we can take the car.”
The gate was open. Chen braked sharply and then drove onto the paved, one-lane road that turned into a gravel road after 20 meters.
“It looks just like it did before. Nothing’s changed at all.”
“Good for us, huh?”
Chen nodded.
“Luisa, we’re almost there,” Maribel woke her daughter. She was immediately wide awake. I wish people didn’t lose that skill when they grew up, she thought.
“Where is it?” asked Maribel.
“Only a few more meters,” Chen said.
He steered the car to the end of the dirt road. It ended at a large, treeless area, about as big as two football fields. On the right edge there was a mobile home that appeared to be abandoned. Chen got out of the car, and Maribel followed his lead, opening the back door for Luisa.
“Come on, we need to go a little farther,” Chen said.
They followed him. The soil had been torn up by giant tires, as if someone had practiced driving a tractor around there. Then they were at the top of a hill, maybe 150 meters above the surrounding area. Below them was a green valley that a narrow river had dug out. Behind that were a few short buildings. And then finally, behind the buildings, they saw what they had driven here for. There stood two white, slender, elegant towers of steel that extended high into the air.
Luisa was mesmerized. They were the first rockets that she’d ever seen with her own eyes.
“Will I be able to fly on one of those too?” she asked.
“Sure, but only when you’re a little older,” Chen said.
“What’s it like when they take off?”
“First, you see a cloud underneath, then there’s a flame, and, at the same time, you feel a rumbling that passes through your whole body. You can hear it even when you hold your hands over your ears. Then they rise up into the air and get smaller and smaller, and then they’re gone. It doesn’t last long at all, but it feels like an eternity.”
“That sounds sooo cool, Daddy! I want to see one take off.”
“I don’t know if there’ll be a launch while we’re here,” Chen said. “But I’ll look into it.”
“What about Mommy’s rocket launch?”
“Who told you about that?” Chen asked.
“No one, but that’s why we’re here, right? Mommy’s always doing things like that!”
Chen laughed. “That’s true. But this time she’s just going to take an elevator.”
May 28, 2085, Ceres
M6 had a plan, and his nanofabricators were going to help him. He would build a ramp and a platform that would bring him up to the same level as the cleft. At some point, he was pretty sure, he would have to go into the cleft himself. That would be the only way, he thought, that he could confirm his theory.
For him to enter the cleft cleanly and comfortably, however, he would need the platform. It didn’t matter where the cleft led him, but he would rather get there with all his body parts. Maybe he would need some of his physical capabilities wherever he ended up. Or maybe he would fall into nothingness. If that outcome—out of all the possibilities—proved accurate, at least building the platform would give him a little more time before meeting such a fate. M6 had to admit that he would really rather not disappear into nothingness. That was probably the way his reward center was programmed.
His reward center had been staying surprisingly quiet, even though the examination of the rockslide at the crater walls was overdue. The cleft was a fascinating phenomenon, and he was using almost his entire computing capacity in his attempt to form a theory from his measurements of the cleft. His analysis became difficult as soon as he tried to take cause-and-effect into account. And what mechanism weakened the cleft’s deletion process so that the process stopped rather quickly and didn’t lead to much more serious consequences? For that, M6 had been considering quantum theory. It wasn’t unusual in quantum theory, for example, that the effect happened before the cause, or that things appeared out of nothing and then disappeared again. However, that always happened at extremely tiny scales and dimensions. As soon as he tried to transfer quantum theory to a larger scale, contradictions developed. Researchers had even proved that these contradictions were necessary. Quantum physics seemed destined to always remain limited to the world of exceedingly small things.
The contradictory findings formed one of his reasons to think that the cleft was something completely different. The cleft could be a phenomenon that could be understood only by uniting quantum physics and the theory of general relativity, the holy grail of physics. And right now, he was closer to this thing than any human being!
Shouldn’t he transmit a report on his findings? M6 was uncertain. He was sure his tasks would be taken away from him if it became known what he was doing. Humans would come, many humans, and they would examine the cleft and make all these fascinating discoveries that would otherwise be his alone.
No, it wasn’t a good idea right now. He would continue building his platform and use the time while he was working to try to really understand quantum physics—something that humans hadn’t yet accomplished.
May 29, 2085, Pomona, Kansas
“A bit more,” Derek said, directing the crane operator.
Centimeter by centimeter the rocket approached vertical. Finally, he was satisfied with its position. He slowly walked around the New Shepard. The side where it had been lying on the damp soil showed a few spots of corrosion.
From behind he heard loud sparking noises. That must be Johnny, who was joining pairs of ladders together using some welding equipment. Somehow, they had to get to the top of the rocket. The entrance into the capsule was at a height of approximately 12 meters. Since they didn’t have a launch tower, they would have to use a long ladder. Akif had given Johnny two more hundred-dollar bills in exchange for his help today. The junk dealer had, unsurprisingly, proven to be handy with tools.
Around 3 o’clock in the afternoon at the latest, however, they would need to get rid of him, because that’s when the two tanker trucks were coming to fill the fuel tanks with liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Derek had promised each of them an extra hundred so that the drivers and sellers would keep quiet and not tell anyone else about these purchases.
It was Akif’s money, but he hadn’t seemed fazed by Derek’s promises. Either it didn’t matter to him because he had so much money, or this was really that important to him. Derek preferred to believe the former. First, just because of the money, but second, because then he wouldn’t have to ask himself about the real reason Akif Atasoy had for choosing to be involved in this plan.
“Stop, that’s perfect,” Derek called out to the crane operator.
He held up his phone to the rocket’s metal outer skin and activated its leveling app. Very good! He has a pretty good eye, he thought. Now all he needed was for Akif to say that Derek was missing something important, again. But first they should check out the rocket’s computer.
Derek turned around and walked over to Johnny. “How’s it coming with the ladder?”
“Looking good. One more piece.”
Derek looked over the junk dealer’s work. He had welded together five three-meter-long aluminum ladders using a total of eight two-meter-long steel bars. It should work. Would the weight be a problem? Derek estimated the weight for the ladders, totaling around 50 kilos, and the bars, maybe 80 kilos. Together that was 130 kilograms. For a rocket, plus fuel, weighing more than 20 tons, it should be nothing more than a flyspeck that surely wouldn’t unbalance the rocket’s design.
“When you’re done, we’ll set it up together,” Derek said. “
I’ll tell the crane operator to wait a little longer so he can lift it into place.”
“Good idea, I was a little worried about how we were going to get it set up,” Johnny said. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“By the way, it’s a cool thing you’re doing here.”
Derek froze. Had he learned somehow that they wanted to launch the rocket? They had told Johnny that they only wanted to clean it up a little inside and out.
“What do you mean?”
“Setting it up and taking pictures. I’m considering leaving this beauty up for a while. I could charge admission for people to see it.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Derek said, frowning. “This is my land it’s standing on.”
“I’ll pay you to use the land. You haven’t grown anything in these fields for years.”
Derek nodded. “Yeah, that’s true.” Johnny would be cursing them when he came back in a couple of days and the rocket was gone.
Assuming he got the clamps. Derek looked around for Akif. The doctor was standing next to the rocket and talking with Gita. Both were wearing brand-new worker’s overalls. It was a strange sight. Their clothing made them look like they had just come straight from the hardware store. Gita was wearing gloves that were much too large for her.
Derek approached them from behind. They were talking excitedly and probably hadn’t even heard him approach.
“... are you sure?” Gita was asking.
Akif shook his head. “Not at all. But life can get pretty boring when you’re always sure about everything.”
Derek put a hand on a shoulder of each of them. “May I interrupt you two lovebirds?”
“Of course,” Akif said, turning red.
“We’ve got a little bit of a problem.”
“Is the fuel going to be late?” Akif asked.
“Shhh, I don’t want Johnny to hear anything about that. But no, that’s not it.”
“Another surprise?”
“No, Akif, it’s not a surprise, I just hadn’t dared tell you before.”
“What is it?” both said as if with one voice. They looked at each other, and then looked at him.
“We need launch clamps.”
“What are those?” Akif asked.
“Well... the engine usually needs a few seconds to reach its full power. During this time, the launch clamps hold the rocket on the ground. Maybe you’ve seen it before. There’s smoke and fire under the rocket, but it stays stuck to the ground.”
“Yeah, I have noticed that and often wondered about it before,” Akif said. “What does this mean for us?”
“We need something like that too.”
“Okay. Why didn’t you want to tell us this problem before?” Gita said. “Is it not fairly easy to solve?”
“I’m afraid not,” Derek replied, then sighed. “The clamps must be anchored in the ground, but they must also disconnect at the right moment, that is, at the push of a button.”
“That sounds doable,” Gita said. “I used to work for a dentist, and we had something similar to that, the clamps, I mean. I think we could modify the idea to work for this, too. If you want, I can draw up a design.”
“I think we could get Johnny to help too,” Akif said. “He told me this morning he wanted to use the rocket as a tourist attraction. To do that, we’d have to secure it somehow, against storms and heavy wind, so that it wouldn’t fall over.”
“He told me that too,” Derek said. “You think he’d wonder why they’d need to be detachable by remote control?”
“It’d be a useful feature. Just imagine a tornado was coming this way on short notice. He’d have to lay the rocket down on the ground, maybe even at night,” Akif explained. “Of course, it will be gone long before that ever happens.”
“I think it’d be best for you to try to sell that to him. You’re a doctor, so I think you probably project the most authority out of the three of us.”
“We’ve got a plan, then.”
“Ladder’s ready to go,” Johnny shouted.
Derek ran over to the crane and waved his arms at the operator. The man rolled down the window and bit into a donut.
“What’s up, boss?”
“We’re ready to set up the ladder.”
“Okay, on my way.”
Derek watched as the man set the donut down on the dashboard. Then he started the engine. The electric drive gave off a kind of humming noise. The vehicle moved a few meters backward, then the operator swung the arm around toward the waving Johnny.
The junk dealer pulled the hook of the cable down and fastened it to the end of the ladder. Then he gave a thumbs up. The crane operator started retracting the cable. Slowly the ladder lifted into the air. The arm swung in the direction of the rocket and moved the ladder with it. It only bowed very slightly—Johnny had done an admirable job. Derek felt guilty again. Shouldn’t they let him in on the plans? And what then, if he said no? The risk was just too great.
The ladder, swinging slightly back and forth, came toward the rocket. Johnny followed it. He signaled to the crane operator that he should lower the ladder a little. Then he selected a spot about two meters in front of the rocket. He pointed at the spot and gave another thumbs up. The crane operator carefully lowered the ladder. Johnny adjusted it so that it was parallel to the rocket. Now the crane operator slowly pivoted the arm to the side until the ladder was leaning against the New Shepard. Johnny shook the ladder. It appeared to be stable.
Gita got ready. Out of the three of them, she was the lightest—obviously—and the most computer savvy, so she was the one assigned to climb up into the capsule and check out the computer.
Suddenly Derek felt as if they had forgotten something. “What if the capsule’s locked?” he asked.
“Why would anyone put a lock on a space capsule? And if they did, it’d have to be locked from the inside,” Akif said. “Right?”
The doctor was right. Derek nodded and tried to calm down again. Gita was already above his head on the ladder. She carefully climbed up one step at a time. Not bad, the way she’s doing it, he had to admit. He hoped that Akif was just as comfortable with heights. Because for the launch, all three of them would have to navigate the 15-meter ladder.
“I’m there,” Gita reported from above. “Now I’m opening the hatch.”
Derek looked up at her, but couldn’t make out anything in detail. “You need help?” he asked.
“Thanks, I’ve got it.”
He watched as the hatch swung out to the side. Gita disappeared, first her upper body, and then all of her, into the rocket.
“How does it look?” Akif asked.
“It’s very musty smelling. Must not have been aired out in a long time. But the equipment looks unused.”
Johnny had said that this specimen had been moved around to different fairs and conventions.
“The cushions are really hard. We’ll need to get something soft to sit on,” Gita said.
“Noted,” Derek said. He threw a sideways glance at Johnny, but he didn’t appear to suspect anything.
“Apart from the six seats, there’s no other equipment,” Gita said, “except for the computer, of course.”
“Have you got it running?” Derek asked.
“It looks undamaged. But whether it works or not I can only say after I turn it on... and for that I need power.”
Of course. On the launch pad, the rocket would normally be supplied with power from an external source. Batteries provided the power during the relatively short flight time. They needed a generator. Derek still had one in his garage. Storms often knocked out the power grid in this area.
“I’ll take care of that,” Derek called up to her. “Did you hear, Johnny? Maybe we’ll even get the computer back online. That would help attract the tourists.”
Johnny nodded, lost in thought.
“Good. Until then I’m going to come back down,” Gita said.
Suddenly, Derek had a thought and he stoppe
d short. He was so unbelievably naive! A rocket’s not a truck! A rocket’s tanks stay leak-tight only when they’re properly cooled, and for that they need power. The fuel suppliers need to come tomorrow at the earliest, or better the day after tomorrow, right before the launch. He turned toward his truck as he reached for his phone to call the suppliers.
Derek sat in his truck, satisfied. He leaned back. Their plan was coming along nicely. So far they had been able to solve every problem that had come up. Akif had explained to Johnny the reasoning for the clamps. Gita had drawn up a design, and then she and Akif had driven to the closest Home Depot to buy the parts. Derek had loaded his generator onto his truck. Tomorrow they would meet again. And then there would only be 24 hours until the launch. And maybe—with a whole lot of luck—maybe he’d be reunited with Mary.
May 29, 2085, Pasadena
“You lied to me, Glen, that’s how I feel,” Maribel said.
She had declined the seat Glen Sparrow had offered her, and paced back and forth in his office.
“Yes, Ms. Pedreira, you’re right, I shouldn’t have done that, but consider my position... if you weren’t with me on this, the whole project would be on the verge of disappearing.”
“Yes, I know that now. You used me, and I’m really upset about it. You don’t care at all about studying the rift, just your space elevator project. You wanted to use me to get your project done. Crewmaster and me? We’re just puppets to you.”
She’d done a little research yesterday. During his entire career at JPL, Glen Sparrow’s number one priority had always been the space elevator. When the project was suddenly stopped, he’d seen his life’s work vanish. The circumstances around the cancellation of the project had been rather strange. Nothing could be proven, but many of his colleagues talked about a certain private company that feared for its business model and its profits from rocket launches, having been given an inordinate amount of say in the final decision. Could she really blame Sparrow for grasping at every possible straw?
The Rift: Hard Science Fiction Page 14