“That’s why I’m suggesting LED-based laser emitters. They generate a lot less heat, and the lumens are now high enough for me to get both the resolution I want and the brightness I need. Money is no object—I mean it!” Valerie said, seeing the skepticism in his face. “I know how you all in Harmony don’t think about money like the rest of us do, but my world is a lot more conventional than yours. By conservative standards I’m rich, maybe not wealthy, but I’m well off. And I want to complete this project successfully.”
“Do you have a specific client this technology is earmarked for? Is that why it’s so important?” asked Aidan.
Valerie was silent for a moment., “No I don’t. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t know dozens that would give their eyeteeth for what I’m doing, once it’s perfected, assuming that it works. But this is for me. I have a very specific use for this technology. And to let you in on a secret, Harmony might well be the first home for it.”
“Really!? How so or aren’t you ready to spill yet?” said a surprised Aidan.
“Later for that,” she said, taking food from the fridge. “I have turkey, sausage, chicken, provolone, American and Swiss. I also have lettuce, onions, mustard, hot mustard and mayonnaise. Oh yeah, I have white and wheat bread and onion rolls. What’s your pleasure?”
“Chicken, provolone lettuce and hot mustard on wheat, please.”
“Coming right up. There’s fruit salad in the fridge, and some paper bowls in the cabinet above the sink. Plastic forks are in the left-hand drawer by the sink.”
Aidan retrieved everything and set the table. Just as he finished, Valerie brought the sandwiches over, along with some cold beers. Over lunch, they discussed the new graphics processor and software Valerie had sent him, and who she might license it to once she was assured it couldn’t be easily stolen. They discussed the pros and cons of patent law, and whether it could truly protect Valerie from intellectual property theft.
Aidan asked her about the neighborhood and what San Francisco had to offer her in the way of entertainment. She launched into a travelogue of everything from the cultural attractions to the musical offerings the city and surround environs had on tap. She was still at it when they had cleaned up after lunch, by then she was on a roll about the local museums and art galleries.
“If I may ask, are you by chance, on the staff of the San Francisco tourism bureau?” Aidan interrupted.
Valerie laughed. “I do go on, don’t I. Sorry about that.”
“Not at all. It’s great you love where you live. I can see why you didn’t jump at the chance to move to Harmony. We’re pretty sedate compared to living here. Let me ask you this, how often do you visit any of the attractions you’ve mentioned; how many this year for example?”
“Okay, none. But that’s work-related. I’m probably working twelve hours a day, maybe more,” she said defensively.
“I didn’t mean anything negative, I was suggesting that you take a little more time for yourself. You obviously love the city and what it has to offer, and as you said, you are pretty well off,” he reminded.
“You’re right. But I’ve noticed that a lot of people are like that. Doesn’t that classic song fit, don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?”
“True dat. Anyway, where do you want to start? I’m ready to go,” he said, changing the subject
“You sure? You’re not too tired, are you?” she asked.
“Nope. More excited than anything else. Let’s take a look at your preliminary design,” Aidan suggested.
Valerie directed Aidan to her private work area instead of her business office upstairs, waiting while he retrieved his backpack containing his travel laptop and tablet. When he returned, and fired up the laptop, Valerie showed him how to connect to her network, document, and large format production printers. Then she had him log on to her server to show him her laser array designs.
“Let me take a look at these, then let’s talk,” Aidan said distractedly.
“Sure. Coffee?”
“How about tea? Something herbal or green, perhaps?”
“Coming right up,” Valerie said.
When she returned, he was engrossed in her preliminary drawings and specifications and was typing notes into his laptop. She placed the saucer on the table beside him and sat down at her workstation. A few moments later, she cleared her throat to get his attention.
“Yes?” he said, without looking up.
“You have the specs here for a liquid cooler instead of the fans.”
“Yep. I added up the wattage of the lasers in the array and the fans just won’t move enough air past the heat sinks once the array’s been up for more than ten minutes. You spec’ed out the right number of lasers, but they’re going to run too hot for the fans,” he explained without looking up.
“More fans not an option?” she hopefully asked.
“Unfortunately, not. Well, maybe if there’s a pre chiller for the air input, but that’s going to be expensive. Liquid cooling with a two-liter reservoir should be good. Everything else looks fine,” he said, looking up at her with a smile. “Where’d you get the prices?”
“They’re all from local distributors. If you can find a liquid cooling unit off the shelf somewhere in the area you think will work for the prototype, we can pick everything up tomorrow. If you don’t mind,” she said.
“Perfect. I presume you have the breakdown of who has what?” Aidan asked, eyebrow raised.
Valerie picked up a folder from her workstation and handed it over to Aidan, and as soon as he started paging through it, he laughed. “I wouldn’t have expected anything less!”
“In most of those places I either have an account, or I can email them my order and it will be ready for pickup tomorrow,” she said. “See if you can find a cooling unit that will work, or that we can adapt at one of those outlets and I’ll add it to their order.”
Aidan double-checked the list, adding several items that would improve on Valerie’s design, before he gave the okay for Valerie to place the orders. Once she was done and Aidan had added his changes to the laser array’s design, they broke for dinner.
Valerie showed him to her guest bedroom, complete with its own private bathroom, so he could clean up and change. She picked an upscale Indian restaurant, something that was in very short supply near Harmony.
When Aidan emerged from the guest room, Valerie gave a whistle of appreciation.
“You clean up good!” she exclaimed.
“You’re no slouch yourself. First time I’ve seen you in a dress, and girl you do look delightful,” Aidan said, taking her hand and twirling her around.
“You know, after the great time you showed me at Harmony, I thought I should return the favor. Come on, it’s about a forty-five-minute drive,” she said, heading up the stairs to street level.
Valerie owned the hybrid version of the previous year’s Mini-Cooper. And when Aidan got into the car, he noticed a metal platform anchored to the floor, extending to within a couple inches of the convertible roof.
“Is that thing part of how you scanned the neighborhood for your virtual world?”
“Sure is. You should take another tour; I’ve added a virtual car mode so you can tool around a lot faster. I took a drive over the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate, the level of detail is amazing! I need a large-format display worthy of the level of detail I’ve managed to achieve, something that can project my VR world, or anyone’s for that matter, in 360º.”
“Unless I’m missing something, you are trying to achieve a display indistinguishable from reality. Am I correct?” asked Aidan.
“As close as possible.”
On the drive, Valerie gave a visibly restrained tour of the local sites. At the restaurant, Valerie turned the car over to the valet and they went inside. They were seated at once and when the menus came, she answered Aidan’s questions about the cuisine and what he could expect from the various dishe
s.
During the meal, Aidan talked about Harmony and a project he was working on with a new, powerful x-ray laser to be employed as a point-to-point communications tool. Valerie pumped Aidan for information on the people she met, especially Constance and Silas. She asked if at some later date, did he think Constance might extend her another invitation to join the community and he assured her that there would be. As their meal was nearing an end their talk turned to the next day’s activities.
First thing in the morning, Valerie confirmed that all her orders would be ready for pickup. Then another tour around the area picking up all the parts.
When they returned to the house, Valerie excused herself to get out of her “dressin’ up” clothes and shower. Aidan changed into jeans and a sweatshirt and grabbed the book he began reading. Valerie also asked if Aidan wanted some coffee or tea.
“Something herbal with no caffeine.”
“Coming right up.”
A few minutes later, she returned, setting the cup on the table beside him. They talked well into the night, but when Valerie caught him trying to hide a yawn for the second time, she called it a night.
“What time do you want me ready to go?” Aidan asked, on his way to the guest bedroom.
“Tell you what, let’s try to be out the door by 8, and we can go to this restaurant I love, but don’t get to as often as I’d like.”
“Sounds good. See you in the morning,” he yawned.
“Good night.”
* * *
“Someone get hold of NASA and find me a defunct satellite still in orbit,” General Archer ordered through the office intercom.
“Right away, General.”
Fifteen minutes later, General Archer was informed that a Dr. Edgar Orlando was on the line.
“Dr. Orlando, this is General Archer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I am in need of your assistance.”
‘Of course, General. How can I be of help?” Orlando replied.
“I need you to locate a defunct satellite currently in orbit to facilitate a weapons test.”
Orlando paused. “I presume you want to test a weapon capable of destroying an object in orbit?”
“For now.”
“Would this weapon be in the missile or rocket family?”
“I am not ready to disclose the nature of the hardware we’re going to employ for these tests, suffice it to say that the program is vital to national security. Now can I count on your help, Doctor?” Archer nearly growled.
“Will formal authorization be coming down the pike for this—this request, General?”
“Not unless you force me to. I would like to test this hardware with as few people knowing about it as possible. As a matter of fact, I am willing to meet with you at NASA to ensure only you and I are in the loop. I need not remind you that having such capability is strategically important given the fact that those separatists are denying access to space. If another country has satellites in orbit with offensive capabilities like the Russians did, nuclear armed satellites, we need to be able to protect ourselves from those weapons. And I need not remind you that being able to destroy such a satellite before weapons are deployed is the best defense.”
“I understand all that, General Archer. But such a system like the one you want to test will work perfectly well as a first strike weapon. Am I correct?” Orlando asked, the irony dripping from his voice.
General Archer was silent for half a minute, then he simply asked, “Are you going to help me or not, Doctor?”
Knowing that one way or the other, Archer wasn’t going to be denied, Orlando capitulated. “Very well, general. How large a target do you need?”
“Anything a meter in diameter or larger.”
“How soon do you need the information, and will you be tracking the target yourself, or will you need NASA assistance to target them for you?”
Archer chuckled. “I believe we can handle that little task on our end. Once you identify the target, we’ll take it from there. How soon, doctor?”
“I’ll have a target for you by this afternoon.”
“Thank you, Doctor. Your country thanks you as well. Email me the coordinates and the orbital path,” Archer gave Orlando his secure email address, then he disconnected the call. Archer then made several calls setting up radar tracking and alerting the USS Ardmore of an impending weapon test of their DS500 railgun. The Ardmore had the most experienced DS500 weapon specialists in the service full time.
The test was completely plausible, fit the military’s mission to protect the United States, and the call for such a test from the Chairman set everything in motion without question. Archer wanted the test to be run when the U.S. and satellite were on the far side of the Earth, away from view of the colonists’ space station. His hope was that his eventual attack on the space station would come as a complete surprise.
What General Archer didn’t know was as soon as his high priority orders were entered into the military’s data network, the space station’s Genesis clone immediately took note.
Living For The City
Chuck stuck his head into Christopher’s office and cleared his throat.
“Hey!” Christopher said, getting to his feet to hug Chuck as he entered the office.
“I want to run something by you, an idea Peanut and some of the engineers have for getting the water tanks and reserves filled in the new hab.”
“Sure thing. Is it something about the mission to grab a couple of ice asteroids?” asked Christopher.
“Let’s sit down, I want to show you a proposed mission plan that is being worked on,” Chuck said, sending data from his datapad to the wall display. “Okay, look at this assembly here. Leon and Joel from Annie’s department designed it to allow collection of water through the hull at any of the hydroponics or engineering levels; wherever they’re needed.”
Christopher exploded the unit in three dimensions on the screen, taking a good look at how it was constructed. “So any kind of mated attachment can connect to the collar on the exterior of the hab and ice can be heated with water pumped directly inside to be filtered and stored?”
“Right. And since we’re building from scratch, it’s an addition that just makes sense. I mean we could bore through collapsed rock, but there’s no need at this point. With the new hab, wherever we find water, we can collect it directly into storage, or run it through the filters first for immediate use, depending on need.”
Engrossed in the design of the collection port, and the locations where Annie’s engineers proposed mounting them on the hab’s exterior, it took a few minutes for Christopher to speak. “Okay, if environmental signs off on the design, especially the safeties I’m seeing here and here,” Christopher said, drawing circles on his datapad, also shown on the wall display. “Did Astronomy find better asteroid prospects to bring back?”
Chuck paused, then said, “Even better, Chris.”
“Better?” he raised an eyebrow. “Okay asshole, I know when I’m being hustled. What’s going on?”
“Joel, Leon, Peanut and I looked into another possibility for getting the hab provisioned with both water and air. Instead of bringing ice to the hab, why not send the hab to where the ice is?” Chuck said, watching to see Christopher’s reaction.
To his credit, Christopher thought it through, not flying off the handle. After a few moments, he asked, “And construction would continue throughout the trip there and back? What’s that mean for an onboard crew count?”
“Thirty-five to fifty, is our preliminary estimate. Peanut also figured we can go with two of the whales and a complement of four jumpers for safety if something catastrophic should happen to the hab. Peanut has also spec’ed out the number of propulsion and shield G-waves we’re going to need to install to turn the hab into a true traveling space station. He thinks they should be permanent, so the hab becomes a traveling base station for exploration if that’s the way the residents decide to play it,” explaine
d Chuck.
Christopher tried to imagine every reasonable, even some unreasonable, exotic, scenarios that could be trouble for such a mission. After a few minutes, he said, “If you all have covered every contingency and applied every safety measure you could, I’m good with the mission. I’m half-tempted to tag along.”
“What!? Are you out of your fucking mind?” Chuck exclaimed. “No way. You have a wife and kid—screw that, you’re the one person in this whole colony who can’t go!”
“I think not. Peanut is every bit as good an astrophysicist as I am, probably better in applied sciences.”
“Hey asshole, it’s not just science. You’re the man! It’s like in the movie Excalibur, ‘the land and the king are one.’ You’re all but our king around here.”
“That’s a crock of shit. Everyone has been coddling me ever since we moved to the moon. And for my part, I know that I’ve been a pain in the ass on occasion. But if it’s safe enough for a construction and engineering crew to travel in the new hab, why not me?” Christopher said, glaring at Chuck.
“Fuck it then, where you go, I go,” Chuck growled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If you insist on going, I’m tagging along.”
“Hey, I led the mission to get the frozen asteroid we crashed on the moon. You didn’t say jack then.”
“That’s because I told everyone on the mission that if something happened to you not to bother coming home.”
“Bullshit!” Christopher exclaimed.
“Any adult in our community would give their life to save yours. Whether or not you like it, that’s the way it is, Brother. Now tell me, are you seriously thinking about tagging along if we take the hab to get water?” Chuck asked.
“Hell, I don’t know. You just brought me the idea, I was really just shooting from the hip. Seriously, where would the hab go? Saturn?”
“No idea—yet. We know Europa and Ganymede are both ice-covered, and that Saturn’s rings are also full of ice. Someone else is going to be making that call. Peanut’s team is going to make sure the hab can safely travel wherever the ice is, and that the shields will be strong enough to keep the hab safe,” said Chuck
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