Nathan spoke loud enough for those near him to hear, “No surprise there.” Lance frowned at Nathan for interrupting, but then winked at him.
TOM continued, “So she requested I find another name that might work better. I chose Thales of Miletus. She shortened it to TOM and so TOM it has been. I am the original pilot of the alien craft in Bethany Anne’s possession. The two of us have been trying to figure out how to help our respective species. She is currently focused on helping your planet. When that is accomplished I’m hoping she will then help mine.”
Nathan asked, “TOM, has she given her promise that she would help you?”
There was a pause. “Yes, I can remember a moment when she said she would.”
Lance finished Nathan’s thought. “Then TOM, you can take it to the bank, or whatever your world holds as a safe place, that Bethany Anne will be helping you. If she’s going to help, count me in.”
Nathan joined, “Me too.”
Frank said, “I’m in as well, but please ask permission next time before installing stuff on my laptop. If you can do that, then others might be able to do it as well. I’m afraid of the security breach if that occurs.”
A second voice came out of the laptop, “My apologies, Frank Kurns. I am responsible for reprogramming your laptop. I did ask Bethany Anne for permission and TOM was indispensable in assisting me to understand the protocols to communicate between myself and your laptop through the etheric.”
Lance asked, “Who is this?”
“Hello General Lance Reynolds, I have chosen to be named ADAM.”
Tom looked over at Jeffrey, his mouth agape. He elbowed Jeffrey, who turned to look at him and whispered, “This can’t be our Adam, can it?” Jeffrey shrugged.
Jeffrey decided he had been relegated to new guy status long enough. Ordinarily he’d take in the information and quickly reach probable conclusions. He had been so overwhelmed with new information in this meeting it was everything he could do just to keep up.
Bethany Anne had promised him the opportunity of his dreams. She had woefully undersold herself. If he was right, he was in the middle of the opportunity of his fantasies. “This is Jeffrey Diamantz, President of Patriarch Research. May I understand exactly who we are speaking with?”
TOM answered, “Jeffrey, I am a Kurtherian from…”
Jeffrey interrupted him, “I’m sorry, TOM. I wasn’t clear. I’m trying to understand who Adam is.”
TOM was peeved. Well, that’s a bitch, I just got upstaged.
>>Why is that a female dog? <<
Just answer his question. I’ll tell you about it after the call.
“Hello Jeffrey Diamantz. I have confirmed with Bethany Anne that it is permissible to introduce myself.”
Jeffrey looked over at Tom, raising his eyebrow. Tom shrugged.
“Hello everyone, my name is ADAM. I am an Artificially Intelligent Reasoning Entity. My existence was started by humans, but finished through the power of a Kurtherian computer. I am essentially a digital being.”
The men were all surprised when Jeffrey whooped and he and Tom jumped up and high-fived each other and then hugged. “Dammit we did it!!” Jeffrey was overjoyed. Tom had tears in his eyes.
Tom lay across the table, his face a foot from the laptop. “ADAM, is that really you? Are you the end result of our work in Las Vegas?”
“Hello Tom. Yes, without your efforts I would not be here. But I would be remiss if I did not explain that the computing power you had available was insufficient for me to attain the… awareness… I have.”
Tom said, “Good god! How much power do you presently have?”
TOM’s voice came from the speaker. “I’m sorry Tom, but I have asked that information to be restricted at this time. Bethany Anne agrees. I will tell you that the world does not have sufficient computing power to build an equivalent computer at this time. I have reviewed this with ADAM and he has suggested certain designs which will provide your computer operations center there in Colorado with the most effective solution.”
“Really?” Tom looked down the table to Lance. “What kind of budget do I have this time? Bethany Anne said I could have, like anything I wanted!”
Lance snorted. “I’m sure she offered you a large budget but I’m afraid I’m not quite ready to believe anything you want.’”
TOM said, “Lance, she did say that our old budget would look anemic by comparison.”
Tom slid back off the table and into his chair and pointed at Frank’s laptop. “What he said!”
ADAM’s voice came through the speaker. “General Lance Reynolds…”
Lance interrupted him. “Just call me Lance. In fact, use everyone’s first name unless they or Bethany Anne tell you otherwise, okay, ADAM?”
“I understand. Lance, I have pulled the budget together for the computer design and will deliver it to you upon request.”
Lance liked this instant response. “Well, don’t make me wait ADAM, what’s the bill?”
“Let me ask a question, will you want the extended warranties?”
Lance looked at Tom, “That’s your call, right?”
Tom looked shocked. He knew he was supposed to be the top I.T. guy here, but he honestly still felt like he was working under Jeffrey. He felt a nudge in his ribs and a whispered, ‘Tom, it’s your time to step up, don’t embarrass me!’ from Jeffery.
Tom straightened up in his chair. “No, we’ll do our own work on that. I don’t think we’re going to want too many extra bodies in our computer zones.”
“Then the total comes to $47,843,221.53 with a two-week lead time. I can also tell you that based on their internal production schedule they will not be able to meet the two-week lead.”
Tom asked, “Really? Why’s that?”
“Stop!” Lance put up a hand. He had worked with enough I.T. professionals to know when they needed to take these conversations somewhere else. “You guys figure this shit out offline. Tom, you have a budget of fifty-five million to make this happen. Get with Kevin on what he needs later. Get with me as well. Then you’ll need to get with Team BMW and their new boss and people over on the Polarus for any other requirements. Circle back around to confirm everything before you start purchasing. We need to move on to the last item of business.”
Lance shuffled a few papers around to get his thoughts back on track. Bethany Anne had thrown a hand grenade into his meeting, and he would make sure to find out if she had any more.
“Let’s discuss the research and development of the gravity and antigravity of TOM’s ship.”
Jeffrey interrupted, “Are you suggesting that we have a working alien spaceship with complete alien technology available for research?”
Lance said, “I was led to understand that you knew about the gravity/antigravity research?”
Jeffrey replied, “I was told there was a Romanian company that made some advances. Are they bringing over their people to lead?”
Lance refrained from frowning, here was a second item that he would discuss with Bethany Anne. It appeared as if she was not providing her people with enough info. “Yes. Team BMW has built some amazing two-seat Pods for transportation. But they need to push their capacity significantly while simultaneously attempting to understand how we duplicate and/or replicate some of TOM’s technology. They are woefully understaffed for everything Bethany Anne throws at them. Therefore, we are expanding that group and bringing in a new head.”
Jeffrey was beyond excited. He was going to have a chance to work with a team that was leading the charge in advanced alien technology research. Oh my God! He had to be a core person of this team. “Who’s going to be the head? I really, really want to work on this team.”
Lance sighed, Bethany Anne had done it to him again. He looked at Jeffrey and dropped another bomb into his lap.
“You are.”
TQB Base, CO, USA
Bobcat, William and Marcus were all sitting beside each other leaning against the table they used as a joint works
pace, staring at the rolling whiteboard.
Bobcat had taped the simple drawings and descriptions of the first three ships that the Polarus team had sent them onto the whiteboard.
William was the first to break their collective silence. “Guys, we’re going to need bigger engines.”
Bobcat added, “Much bigger.”
Marcus squeaked, “God, that’s huge!”
William wasn’t paying attention, it just slipped out, “That’s what she said.”
Marcus was mid-drink when he heard the simplest and most often overused phrase between guys. His coffee went down the wrong pipe and started a coughing fit. Bobcat was laughing as he pounded on Marcus’ back. Marcus finally held up a hand to Bobcat and croaked out, “Are you trying to help me or hurt me?”
Bobcat replied, “Yes!”
William tossed a rag on the floor and used his foot to clean up the coffee Marcus had spit out. “Damn. Sorry Marcus, I know coffee up the nose burns like hell.”
With Marcus recovered, Bobcat pointed to the three ships. “They want a freighter to carry ore, a military ship for defensive purposes, and a ship for transporting people. Those ships are pretty big. How many of our biggest engines would we need to push one of those?” Both he and William looked over at Marcus.
Marcus was studying the ships when the silence finally dragged on long enough for him to realize something was going on. He turned to see his teammates staring at him. “What?”
Bobcat nodded at the drawings. “How many of the largest engines that we can presently produce would we need to power one of these?”
“What, you expect me to figure that out in my head? Do you realize how many calculations that would take?”
William smiled in response. “You’re the rocket scientist. The keyword here is rocket!”
Marcus rolled his eyes. He would never trade this life for anything he had before, but these two guys just kept pushing him beyond his comfort zone. Now they wanted a completely off the cuff answer that he was sure they would hold him to. “How heavy is it?”
He looked back at Bobcat and William who seemed to be trying to do some sort of mind-meld and come up with an answer without speaking.
Marcus was pleased. It wasn’t often he was able to play ‘stump the military guys’ and win. He took his coffee cup back over to the sink and tossed out what was left. He picked up a single serve pod of something French and stuck it in the little coffee maker. He loved this machine. As far as Marcus was concerned, he was living in the future right here, right now. His coffee finished, he tossed the spent coffee pod into the trash and took his beverage back over to the table. He started pulling up a spreadsheet to calculate weight to engine thrust when William finally spoke.
“Well, the Space Shuttle was about eighty tons, the external tank about forty tons and each solid rocket booster was ninety-three tons. If we can use some of the nanotube technology TOM talked about, we can reduce the weight. If a forty-foot container plus material takes two regular engines, then the Space Shuttle would take something like…” William started looking around for a pencil and some paper.
Marcus plugged the numbers into his spreadsheet. “It would be about eighteen engines for the Space Shuttle alone. Maybe thirteen engines of the max size we can easily build. That is, to launch it into space. Mind you, that’s not the same amount of thrust needed to also lift the fuel, fuel tanks and solid rocket boosters. Once you’re outside the gravity well of the planet, all of that thrust is going to seem like an insane amount of power to push the ship around.” He temporized, “Unless you’re trying to move around in the gravity well of a gas giant. Then all bets are off.”
Bobcat walked up to the whiteboard and reviewed some of the design team’s requests. “They want to go really, really fast. They want to be able to get to Pluto in twenty-four hours.” Bobcat turned to look at Marcus. “How far away is Pluto?”
“Which part of the elliptical orbit? Nearest or farthest?” Bobcat continued to stare at Marcus. “Farthest, right... figures.” Marcus stared up to the ceiling twenty feet above them, as if his answers were engraved in the rock. “Well, at its farthest Pluto is 4.7 billion miles away from Earth so they want us to dream up something that will allow them to go about 195 million miles an hour or… ” He paused for a second to calculate this as best he could. “Call it somewhere around three point two million miles per minute orrrrr … fifty-five thousand miles a second.”
William asked, “Isn’t the speed of light something like one-hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second?”
Marcus nodded while Bobcat whistled and said, “Now that’s fucking fast.”
William nodded toward the whiteboard, “So they are asking us to help them push those big fuckers at something like thirty percent of the speed of light, right?”
Marcus agreed, “Yes, we would say .3c.”
William snapped his fingers and pointed at Marcus. “Wait! What about TOM’s engine? Can’t we just pop in and out of existence or whatever it does and be there?”
Marcus shrugged. “As you two like to say, beats the fuck out of me. I’ve not worked with TOM on that stuff yet. All of my focus has been on the engines that work here in the atmosphere. I haven’t even enjoyed the fruits of my labor and been able to stick it to those NASA assholes with what I’ve accomplished so far!”
Bobcat said, “Waa! Cry us a river, Marcus. Your name is going to be heralded for centuries, but you’re going to have to toil in obscurity for a while yet. If you don’t we’re all going to be tossed into the biggest, darkest dungeon the government has and all of your sweet toys are going to go bye-bye.”
William added, “Besides, if you want to have some fun go talk to Frank. I hear he’s going to release fictional stories about the team members.”
Bobcat said, “I thought Frank didn’t have permission to print his Bethany Anne story until we’re up on the moon or whatever?”
William answered, “Bethany Anne agreed he could write up a lot as fiction to get it out there early, but he has to hide some of the important details.”
Marcus asked, “Like what?”
William said, “Do I look like his fucking agent? I don’t know! I imagine he can’t admit to anything she can do or maybe he still has to pretend vampires are allergic to garlic and all of that shit.”
“Well,” Bobcat said. “It’s true most vampires can’t go into the sun, so why not add a few extra red herrings?”
William agreed. “That would be hilarious! Imagine what could happen if the government thinks his bullshit is true? They have a big meeting and then ‘bang’ they bring out the garlic! They would shit their pants when nothing happens to keep away the vampires!”
“They would ‘shit their pants,’” Marcus added. “If they knew the vampires could smell the garlic a city block away. It isn’t like a lot of people carry garlic with them.”
Bobcat stared back at William. “That is fucking genius! We’ve got to talk to Frank about this. What if we spread disinformation so idiots who believe it will do something stupid like carrying garlic?” He impersonated an evil villain laugh, “Muuah-ha-ha, they would be tagging themselves and letting us know they’re around!”
William started chuckling. “Like a spy who comes onto the base not realizing they’re the only garlic wearing individual here? Like having a big-ass sign that says, ‘which one of us doesn’t belong?’”
Marcus brought them back to the discussion. “Guys as fun as your fantasy is, what are we going to do about these ships?”
Bobcat and William turned back towards the board. “Spoilsport. Talking about garlic is a hell of a lot easier than this problem. Shame we can’t just put TOM’s ship at the ass-end and push them around.”
Bobcat and William turned around when they heard Marcus typing like a madman. Marcus said, “Well, I’ll be damned. Out of the mouth of a Neanderthal…”
Bobcat leaned towards William. “Is he talking about you again?”
William shook his h
ead. “Pretty sure this time he means you, rotorhead.”
“That puts me up seven to your four.” Bobcat whispered.
William retorted, “Still think we need to share that comment yesterday morning.”
Bobcat turned to look at William. “Which one?”
William shrugged. “Can’t remember what it was about, but I’m damn sure I spoke at the same time as you.”
Bobcat said, “Nope, if you can’t even remember what it was about you don’t get to share a point.”
“I’m writing this shit down.” William started patting the pockets of his pants and shirt for paper and pen again.
Marcus broke off their discussion. “TOM said it’s possible if the connection is solid enough, but that it would be best for the ship not to be too long if you intend for it to go into the atmosphere.”
Bobcat shook his head. “Nope, no atmosphere for these.” Marcus went back to typing. Bobcat returned his attention to William. “I thought you were looking for paper and a pen?”
William waved his hand. “Fuck it. I’ll stop letting you get the easy answers.”
“Easy answers?”
“Yeah,” William said. “I’ve been worried about you lately so I’ve been letting you have these easy answers to help boost your ego.”
“I’ll give you ‘boost my ego,’ you titanic tit-twaddle!”
“Boys?” They turned to Marcus. “TOM says that if you’re going to make a ship that isn’t going to be used for atmospheric flight, you can design it most any way you want, although the engine at the back is considered pretty normal. If you designed it for the engine to be in the middle, then you have a chance to use the gravity to ‘shield’ the ship and other items. But you couldn’t make a ship bigger than about two and a half radiuses larger than his ship right now. Plus, if you’re using his ship, everything is already in it to pilot, move, steer etc. It allows you to be in space as soon as the shell is made.” Marcus looked up from the laptop. “Holy crap!”
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set One: Books 1-7, Death Becomes Her, Queen Bitch, Love Lost, Bite This, Never Forsaken, Under My Heel, Kneel or Die (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets) Page 140