Wanted

by Laurence E. Dahners

  Ell nodded, “I hope we don’t have to use that design. My armored underwear would shrink a moderate amount when I inflated it. It’d take some more work to design it so it wound up the right size.” She picked up each of the plates and tried to bend them. At a quarter inch thick and inflated with two atmospheres of pressure or 30PSI they were surprisingly stiff though she could still bend them a little. She laid one on a gap between two tables and pulled out a knife with a six inch blade. Placing the point on the plate right over the gap she pushed down on the knife. When nothing happened, she turned to Gary and said, “Despite knowing the numbers, it just seems impossible that this filmy looking stuff can resist being punctured like this!” She leaned much harder on it. Though the knife didn’t penetrate, the plate bowed quite a bit down into the gap.

  Gary said, “Looks like you’ve got your armor.”

  Ell shook her head, “The way it’s bowing into the gap there under the pressure of a knife, I think it would deform too much if a bullet hit it. If this stuff stopped the bullet, but only after it made a crater about six inches deep into me, I don’t think I’d be very happy. Allan, inflate to 40 atmospheres.”

  The plates didn’t visibly change much, though the third one ripped slowly up to form a lumpy ball. Ell laid the fourth one on the gap between the tables and pressed hard with the knife. This time no bowing was visible. She leaned on it even harder, then pulled the knife back and stabbed down into the gap. The knife point actually bounced off and skittered across its surface. Ell turned to Gary, “This is some amazing stuff you’re making here Gar’.”

  He stared at the plate he had in his hands and strained unsuccessfully to bend it. He slowly said, “You knew these would be hard as steel at high inflation pressures?”

  “Yeah, think back to when you’ve bumped up against the walls of the habitat. Those’re only inflated to 15 PSI and the Vectran they’re made out of is much stretchier than graphene but they still feel like concrete when you hit them.”

  Gary said, “I know what you meant before. I can read the numbers and do the math, but it’s really hard to reconcile those numbers that seem so imaginary with what graphene can actually do in reality,”

  Ell said musingly, “Yeah.” She shrugged, “Luckily, the perforations I made in the Styrofoam for my armored underwear are the same size as the holes in the fourth plate so it should be fine. Please go ahead and graphene coat it for me as well as the other items in that bag. I’d also like a few graphene balloons, eight feet in diameter. Do I need to get you Styrofoam molds for them, or do you have a way to make them and I just need to get you the ports?”

  “We have a process to make balloons in half meter increments. Would some 2.5 meter balloons be close enough?”

  “Sure, I’ll send you some ports.”

  Gary tilted his head, “We’ve got ports.”

  “I need them to be a certain size. Besides, I’ve already got the other ends of these ports hooked up to pressure.” She didn’t mention the fact that she’d actually coated the outer surface of the disks of the ports with quantum entangled particles to make a “port that surrounded the port.”

  “OK,” Gary said somewhat dubiously, then grinned, “let me take you to look at your hoverbike.”

  Ell’s eyes widened as they entered the next room. She turned to stare at the grinning Gary, “It looks like it’s made out of cellophane!”

  Gary laughed, “Yeah, as you know we had a lot of trouble. We finally started casting the parts out of unfoamed polystyrene which is transparent and pretty stiff. The graphend coating gives it that smoky look. It already has the driveshaft ports you gave us built into it, so all you have to do is extend the driveshafts and it’ll be ready to fly.”

  Ell squatted down beside it to look at it more carefully. She could see the drums for her graphene lifting cables right through the body of the bike. The helmets and other stuff I put in the compartment under the seat are going to be the most visible part of this thing! The bike wasn’t exactly invisible, any more than any other semiclear plastic object was invisible. Even clear plastic objects are visible due to light refraction differences, especially at corners and edges. But it was kinda hard to see its details. She could see the large fairings that she’d designed to let it fly faster even with a passenger. Even better, the ultrathin graphend would produce a much lower radar profile than her carbon fiber hoverbike. She reached out and picked it up. Even knowing it would be light, she still felt startled at just how easy it was to lift. Her surprised look gave her away and Gary grinned, “Pretty amazing huh? If it weren’t so big, you could put it in your backpack and carry it around with you.”

  Ell stared at Gary, then down at the number four plate of rigidly inflated graphene she still had in her left hand. Then at the bike.

  Gary said, “No! You can’t be thinking what I’m thinking?”

  Ell quirked a grin at him, “I think I’ve got another project for you.”

  Gary turned to stare at the hoverbike, tilting his head querulously, “An inflatable hoverbike?”

  “Well, not everything could be inflatable, but at least the frame, fans and ducts.”

  “That’s pretty much the whole damn thing, except for the motors, wherever you’re keeping them!” Gary shook his head and blew out a long sigh. “I can see I’m gonna have to hire a lot more people, just to keep you happy.”

  Ell rolled her eyes, “Gary, Gary, Gary. You’re gonna have to hire a lot of people just to count the money you’re gonna make selling inflatable graphene objects.”

  Gary’s eyes widened, “Such as?”

  Ell grinned at him, “You start thinking about it. Imagine you’re camping. You find a nice place to set up your tent—pish, tent! I mean your inflatable cabin.” She winked, “I’ll bring you some Styrofoam objects to coat.” She picked up the hoverbike and said, “Meanwhile, if you’ll open the door, I’ll carry this one outside and send it home.”

  A couple of minutes later Ell and Gary watched the glassy looking hoverbike whisper off the ground, then shoot rapidly up into the sky until it had faded from sight. Ell turned to Gary, “By the way, I’ve hired you some of that help you’ve been demanding.”

  Gary turned to her with a puzzled look, “Help I’ve been demanding?”

  “Yeah, you know. How you’re ‘gonna have to hire a lot of people just to keep me happy?’”

  “You mean, what I just said a few minutes ago?”

  “Yep.” Ell waved and a very young looking Indian woman got out of a Ford Focus and started walking their way.”

  Gary gave Ell a sidelong glance, “She was with you when you arrived. You are not going to tell me that she’s in response to my saying I’m gonna have to hire people.”

  “Sure, she is. I can predict the future you know.”

  He stared at her another moment, “You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could, but I think you’re just pulling my leg with a lucky coincidence.”

  Ell gave him a sly grin, “Dr. Pace, please meet Viveka Janu, girl genius. She’s only just turned twenty, but already graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology with a degree in Chemical Engineering. We just now got her a work visa and brought her over to help you figure out your allotrope synthesis issues.”

  The pretty young woman stared at Gary’s shoes, seeming very shy, but somehow, he already liked her. “Hello, Ms. Janu. Let’s get you inside and figure out how you can help us.”

  ***

  Allan said, “You have a call from the House Majority Leader Mary Hoyt.”

  “Wait, are you talking about the House of Representatives?” Ell asked, a little embarrassed that she didn’t know who Mary Hoyt was.

  “Yes.”

  “United States House of Representatives?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did she find me?”

  “She called your listed number.”

  “Do I get many calls on that number?”

  “Hundreds per day. Almost none of them meet the screening s
tandards you set for your public number four years ago.”

  Ell raised her eyebrows in bemusement, “OK, feed me data about her on my HUD and put her through… Hello Congresswoman Hoyt?”

  “Hello Dr. Donsaii.” A picture and description of Mary Hoyt flicked up on Ell’s HUD. “I’m calling on behalf of some of the Congressional leadership. We’ve spoken to President Stockton and obtained her agreement ‘in principle’ to the opening of a dialog with you.”

  “Yes?” Ell said, trying to keep the suspicion out of her voice.

  “Though you are certainly a polarizing individual and obviously President Stockton feels you are a danger to society, many, many members of congress see you as a hero and want desperately to reach an accommodation. I’m hoping to arrange a quiet meeting where we could discuss amnesty and the possibility of some sort of compromise regarding ET contact and your means for access to the stars. I must confess that I’m completely in agreement with you regarding the competence of the Committee for Extraterrestrial Affairs.”

  Feeling a frisson of hope, Ell said, “OK. What did you have in mind?”

  “For now, just to get an agreement in principle to meet. If we have that, I’ll work out a safe location and get back to you as to when and where.”

  “OK,” Ell said. She still felt worried about any meeting with the government. Without a pardon or amnesty prior to the meeting how could she be sure it wasn’t a ruse to recapture her? Although she felt relatively sure she could escape again, should she put the baby into a situation that might call for strenuous activity? At five months pregnant she was feeling thick in the middle and slow moving. Well, I can at least see what they arrange. She thought for a moment. In case this goes ahead I’d better get Gary to make me some armored underwear that’ll fit around my bigger stomach.

  ***

  Greenland—A project sponsored by Portal Tech is harvesting melt-water from the glaciers on Greenland. The river of freshwater running out from under the glaciers pours into a large bank of ports just before it would meet the sea and become saltwater. The water is then ported to drought locations all over the world.

  Some have asked why they aren’t trying to “green the Sahara” or other deserts around the world. The Portal Tech spokesperson says they don’t want to get into the controversy that would surely arise regarding the damage such a strategy would produce in delicate desert ecologies. However, “salvaging crops, and farmers’ livelihoods, all while preventing a drought from turning into a famine; those seem to be goals worth striving for.”

  Of note, in underdeveloped regions the water is being provided gratis by Portal Tech.

  AJ said, “We’ve returned samples from hundreds of locations on Juno. Our geological consultant says none of the minerals are at all remarkable.”

  Ben glanced at Rob Braun, then back at AJ and Carter, “And what about the crater?”

  Carter said, “It’s surprisingly deep, but even better, it has a huge crevice at the bottom. The crevice alone would hold hundreds of millions of metric tons of radioactive waste. We’ve posted a claim on Juno, like we did the asteroid we’re currently mining and some of the other asteroids we think we might want to mine in the future.

  Rob said, “The French say that their crusher is working fine and reducing their vitrified radioactive material down to fragments under five centimeters. They’ve bought some waldoes and trained people to run them. All we have to do is provide them an eight inch port to put under the funnel and they can start pouring their waste through.”

  AJ said, “I think they’ve been planning to pour it through the port in a dry state though, right?”

  Rob nodded.

  “If they wet it prior to crushing, it would limit formation of radioactive dust at the facility. Then they should add more water, cooled to just above freezing to make it into a slush. Something they can still pump at a fast rate so we won’t burn so much power holding the port open, ‘cause a port that size consumes about 350 kilowatts. Then when the slush appears at the port on Juno, it should freeze quickly into a large mass instead of flying around. That way we can keep different types of waste localized to different areas in the crevice.”

  “Isn’t the water going to vaporize when it hits vacuum?”

  “That’s why we want it to be really cold before it arrives. In fact if it actually froze in the final section of the pipe before it goes through the port so it arrived on Juno as ice, that would be great.”

  Rob rubbed his chin, “I think you’re right, but we should have them make up a test slush for us to make trial runs through a two inch port so we can make sure everything works OK.”

  AJ said, “Why don’t we make up a nonradioactive test slush here in our lab and try sending it. Safer than practicing with radioactives.”

  There were nods all around and the meeting broke up.

  ***

  Gary glanced up from his conversation when he felt a presence behind him. Looking back he saw Ell holding another big plastic bag. “Hey Raquel.” He blinked a moment, deciding that she really was thick around the middle. She must be pregnant. “Your stuff is in that same room. You can head back and look at it; I’ll be there in just a sec.”

  When Gary had freed himself up from his conversation and arrived back in the back room, the door was latched. He blinked, but just after he’d jiggled the knob, Ell opened the door. “Sorry Gar’, I was putting on my sexy new underwear.”

  He winked at her, “Did it fit over the baby?”

  She narrowed an eye at him, “You’d better be glad I’m actually pregnant buster.”

  He looked unrepentant, “Come on, I didn’t say anything last time when I thought you just looked a little thick around the middle. This time I had had time to give it serious thought and felt certain the increase in your glowing beauty came from the presence of a little one.”

  Ell grinned back at him, “You really know how to lay it on thick. How come you aren’t married already?”

  He waved a dismissing hand, “Women want bad boys, not nice men like me. Besides, all other women pale in comparison to a couple of pizza dates I had a few years back.”

  Ell looked down at the floor, “If I’d known I was going to be standing in a huge puddle of bullhockey I’d have worn my boots! Or at least shorter pants.” Ell looked back up at him, a big grin on her face.

  Intense longing very evident in his eyes, Gary quietly said, “Seriously Raquel, I envy Shan with every fiber of my being.” He stammered a little, “I-i-if he ever gives you any trouble, remember I’m dying to be your backup plan.”

  Eyes round, Ell touched his arm, “That’s… very sweet Gary. I’ll keep it in mind, but Shan and I are getting along great.” After a long pause, she stepped back, “Wanna see my underwear in action?”

  Gary grinned and bounced his eyebrows, “Do I?!”

  Ell shook her head, “Men! You know what I mean! Allan, inflate left forearm to one atmosphere.”

  With a “pfft” her long sleeve t-shirt stiffened and stretched out a little around the forearm. She moved her arm around a bit and thumped her forearm with the knuckles of her other hand. “Increase to two atmospheres, now to four,” she continued rapping it, “go to, ten… twenty… forty.”

  Concerned, Gary said, “Raquel, what happens if the little graphene tethers from the inner to the outer layer of a section fail. Remember how the test plates blew up to become round? At the pressures you’re using that could crush your arm, or whatever part of you is covered.”

  “Yeah,” she said, mind obviously elsewhere as she reached in her big plastic bag, felt around a bit and pulled out a policeman’s nightstick. “Allan is set to vent the pressure instantly if significant flow begins after the initial inflation.” She whacked her forearm with the nightstick, gently, then harder and finally hard enough to break the nightstick. She grinned at Gary and raised an eyebrow, “You make good armor Gar’… Allan, inflate all the non-joint sections to one atmosphere.”

  A bigger pfft and the rest
of her clothing swelled a little except over her shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles. The oversized graphene collar slowly rose out of the neck of her shirt to envelop her head like one of the cones they put on dogs to keep them from chewing at themselves. “How’s Viveka working out?” Ell asked while this was happening.

  The cone, gray, but moderately transparent, left her visible to him and he assumed let her see out just as well. “Your Ms. Janu is amazing. Smart as a whip, just not very assertive.” He tilted his head as he stared at Ell, “You aren’t going to protect the top of your head?”

  “Well, you’re right, if someone gets above me and shoots down, I’ll be in trouble.” She turned again to dig in the bag, “So I need you to coat these for me,” she said, handing him some thin Styrofoam skullcaps. “They’ll go under my wigs.”

  Gary could see that the skullcaps would cover the parts of her head that hair normally did. “Are they custom fit to your head?”

  “Yep, and I’m counting on them gripping my skull when they’re inflated so they’ll keep my wigs on without adhesive or clips. ‘Two birds with one stone, so to speak.’”

  “What about your joints?”

  “Ah, well let’s try that out,” she said flexing and extending her left elbow. “Allan inflate left elbow, all sections.”

  Her arm practically snapped out straight at the elbow as it puffed up a little. Gary could see her straining to bend it. She turned to him and raised an eyebrow, “Insta-splint, or, insta-straight jacket. The military and the prison systems are going to love these… Allan, deflate the elbow interstices.” Ell began to bend her elbow again but it didn’t seem to work very well, “Gary,” she said, pulling up on the wrist of her long sleeve T-shirt, “help me get this shirt up to where we can look at my elbow.”

  Together, they slid it up. Gary could see that some sections of the elbow were inflated now, but others weren’t, leaving them flexible. As Ell flexed and extended the elbow, the inflated plates bumped into one another, then shifted up over one another. They looked like they were pinching her skin as they did so. “Hmmm,” Ell said musingly. “Looks like the joints will have to be intelligent.”