When he exited the bathroom, Joy had already turned down the covers.
“Don’t bother getting dressed, lie down,” she instructed.
Benjamin followed her directions. When he was comfortable, Joy lightly oiled her hands and started on his neck. Before he knew it, the tension was melting away and his breathing was slowing. Fifteen minutes later, he was asleep. Joy gently wiped the oil off his back and pulled the covers over them both. When she curled up next to him, Benjamin turned to spoon her in his sleep. She had checked with Ops before he arrived and set the alarm to wake them in plenty of time for him to get back to the hanger for the next day.
Don’t Let The Jones Get You Down
Over the last six decades, the colonists’ lifestyle had modified over time from an Earthly analogue to a true space community. The current water mission to Saturn’s rings was the second time water had been sought for the colony instead of filling up from Earth.
After the dustup from the last resupply mission to Earth, the colonists were reluctant to risk capture or death. The colony’s council had informally passed the edict that new materials and supplies were going to have to be procured in space, and unless there was something vital needed that was only available on Earth, it was time to cut the cord.
Because of the edict, the various departments responsible for construction and fabrication of durable goods for the colonists, modified or created manufacturing techniques using materials available in space or on moons.
Titan had several of the colony’s manufacturing specialists excited. Even without organic life discovered, the hydrocarbon compounds offered a whole new avenue for different chemical fabrication. And though the colony had no need for hydrocarbon compounds for combustion, they could be used in the lab. A number of the colonial chemists were extremely anxious to get hold of the mission’s samples to see just what kind of magic they could whip up, especially in the manufacture of plastic compounds. Plus, there were hundreds of bacteria that could feast on hydrocarbon compounds, bacteria that had use in a wide range of organic applications. Titan’s nearly unlimited supply of hydrocarbons would not be going to feed Earth’s insatiable combustion engine thirst. There was already talk of setting up a semi-permanent installation on Titan for the purpose of research and mining.
Benjamin made it to the hanger deck on time, though it took two cups of coffee with his hurried breakfast to clear the cobwebs from his head. Joy was up early enough to cook, a rare treat for Benjamin, and she got him to tell about wrangling the asteroid.
He and Everett climbed into their jumper with minimal conversation and once the hanger door opened, they headed directly to where they’d parked their asteroid to look it over before operations began. The plan was to ease the four asteroids close to the hab one-by-one, then secure each one with cables.
Benjamin and Everett were third in the rotation to bring their asteroid in. For safety, all four jumpers were positioned around the first inbound asteroid to ensure it did not slip out of control and to assist in gathering fragments should it crack or shatter.
Fortunately, the repositioning went well, and the Ops team securing the ice to the hab managed to attach the four asteroids in under six hours. Ops then rotated the hab in several directions, making sure they didn’t shift.
* * *
The activities around Saturn did not go unnoticed by the US military. The gravitational anomalies detector was America’s most heavily guarded secret, not even its closest allies knew of the device’s existence.
When the mission set off from the colony to Saturn, it was reported to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and to the President, included in their daily briefings. Measurements were taken of the gravitational displacement, both propulsion and internal gravity, and it wasn’t difficult to see that the object was at least as large as the original colony. This alone was the cause for serious consternation.
President Wilcox brought up the colonists’ presence around Saturn in the afternoon security briefing. “Okay, we have colonists obviously running missions around Saturn in addition to whatever they were doing in Iceland. Does anyone have any reasonable speculation for their operations in either location?”
After a moment of silence, Samuel Jensen, Deputy Director of the FBI spoke up. “Ma’am, we have—meaning all the departments—have looked at Iceland from every conceivable perspective, including investigating every US citizen visiting at the time, and have come up with nothing.”
Ash Norton from the CIA, seated next to Jensen, nodded, “We looked at every foreign national as well. Everyone checked out. Everyone who was checked into the country either left or is still there. No one disappeared. I would hesitate to speculate, but maybe one of their ships was in distress like the bird shot down in Iraq back when we discovered them.”
“Perhaps. And does anyone here think they’re doing anything but exploring out by Saturn?” asked Wilcox.
“Maybe setting up a space station, possibly for research?” one of the military aides offered.
“What are the chances that they will populate all the interesting planets and moons before we’re allowed back into space?” Wilcox asked the room. “It’s not going to be too hospitable out there if this embargo goes on much longer. According to our monitoring team, those colonists have run missions to Jupiter and now Saturn. And unless we figure out their gravity drive, they’re always going to run circles around us in space. It took half a trillion dollars for us to get a single ship out to their colony, a ship they destroyed with no more difficulty than snapping your fingers.”
“We’re going to always be playing second fiddle even when we do get back into space. We only have two space stations of our own parked in the LaGrange point waiting to return to close Earth orbit,” the President’s science advisor added.
“Madam President, where does the UN disarmament committee stand on the final member of the nuclear club divesting of their weapons?” asked CIA.
“No movement. They’re keeping the whole world out of space, but I refuse to have the United States be the one to put the screws to the Israelis. It’s going to have to be someone else this time,” the President said wearily.
* * *
When Aidan returned to Harmony there were a few changes. The dormitory’s construction was moving along, the two-story’s exterior was complete and interior walls, plumbing and electrical work was humming right along. Aidan insisted that fiber-optic cable be run to every unit to provide for the fastest network access possible.
Once he dropped off his bags at home, he went to see Constance to check in and catching up on the latest.
“Come in!” came the reply to Aidan’s knock.
Constance came from around her desk to give Aidan a heartfelt hug. “I thought we were losing you there,” she said, letting him go.
“You’re not getting off as lucky as that. Things took a little longer than we planned, but the work got done,” he replied.
“And?”
“And what?” he asked pretending not to know what she was asking.
“Okay, play it cool if you want. But know you’re not fooling anyone here. Silas even asked if you were considering moving to the West Coast.”
The look on Aidan’s face was priceless. “Get out! Did he really?”
“Well, he might have been mostly kidding. But a couple of your protégés I ran into asked when you were due back. In any case, I hope Valerie’s doing well. She due to visit anytime soon?”
“She did mention that she wants to visit for more than a few days next time she takes some time off. And we are getting along well, but I don’t see either of us relocating,” he explained.
“Remind her that my invitation was real, she would be more than welcome here. So, what were you working on? If you’re free to tell me.”
“We built a portable projector that can display across a whole room. It turns any enclosed space into a 360º super high definition display. I installed the early prototype
in the barn downstairs from the telescope, but I haven’t really opened it up for general use yet. I’ve got a couple of projects that I’m behind on, so that can wait.”
“No matter where you and Val are in your relationship, I’m selfishly asking to not screw things up because I really want her to decide to relocate here,” Constance said.
“I’ll do my best. I’m heading over to the data center to see what’s going on, then I want to get back to my x-ray laser.”
“That sounds great. When you’re caught up, let’s grab lunch or dinner. I want to hear about your current projects and where they stand.”
“It’s a date. Do you know where Silas might be? I didn’t want to call him, but just do a drive-by, letting him know I’m back. He was going to see about cooking up a plasma blend for the laser.”
“If I’m not mistaken, he said he was going over to the dorm building site to supervise the installation of the water pipes connected to the heat sink,” she replied.
“Great. I’ll catch you later,” he said as he left the room.
Aidan jumped on his bicycle and headed over the dorm construction site. Silas was supervising the laying of a twelve-inch pipe in a five-foot-deep trench. When Silas saw Aidan dismounting his bike, he waved him over.
“Welcome back, stranger.”
“Good to be back. How’s it coming?” Aidan inquired.
“This is the last run. It’s the return to the heat sink. If you look where they’re starting to cover the pipe, that insulation is amazingly efficient. Less than a degree of loss for the whole run—in both directions,” Silas said proudly.
‘That’s epic! How long before people can move in?”
“I’d say about six weeks. We’re starting at the far end and working this way in the framing out and such. Hey, thanks for suggesting the fiber taps in each unit, everyone’s going to benefit. Plus, with not having Wi-Fi in the building, being compensated with bandwidth that allows watching streaming video at all the highest resolutions available is going to be popular with the kids,” said Silas chuckling.
“Eliminating any EM pollution is just good policy. Other than the mobile telephone network, this entire community is like a broadcast black hole. Besides, you know how paranoid Constance is about our network security.”
“It’s about the only thing the kids here really complain about. Besides, with your upgrades to the cell tower software—thank you very much—at least no one can compromise our own network, even if they use their phones for look ups and such. By the way, I was able to work up the plasma chamber you’re going to need to pump the energy high enough and long enough to power the laser for several hours. We can look at the design tonight after dinner if you’re free,” suggested Silas.
“That’s fine. I can also show you the display unit I’ve been working on out west. It’s the bomb!”
“Can’t wait. I’ll meet you in the barn around eight.”
When Silas arrived at the barn, Aidan was finishing a cutout in the floor where he was relocating the VR stand in the center of the projection room.
“What’s with the hole?” asked Silas.
“I have a VR stand for the user and I wanted to install it permanently and at ground level instead of ten inches in the air,” explained Aidan.
“Need help?”
“Sure. Give me a second while I lay out the interface cable.”
Once the cable was repositioned, they loaded the platform on a four-wheel cart and wheeled it into the room. Silas held the platform vertically next to the hole while Aidan screwed in the cable, then they carefully laid the platform in the hole in the floor.
“Slick!” Aidan exclaimed. “Hang on while I fire up the system so I can calibrate the platform.”
Aidan went in the other room and powered up the projector and workstation, and when he returned, he was carrying the railing for the platform and two VR gloves. Silas helped install the safety railing while Aidan clamped it to the platform.
“There. Give me a minute to calibrate the platform and I’ll show you the demo.”
Aidan got on the platform and let down the railing, now encircling him on all sides. He pulled on the gloves, then brought up the system menu. He clicked on “platform calibration,” and when the system displayed arrows on the wall, Aidan “walked” in the direction of the arrows. After less than five minutes the system signaled it was ready for use.
Aidan lifted the rail and stepped out. “Go ahead, get in and I’ll start the demo.”
Once Silas was ready, Aidan turned off the overhead lights and brought up Valerie’s neighborhood, then said, “Go ahead, walk around.”
Silas took tentative steps on the platform and watched in amazement as the high definition display equipment smoothly scrolled the image. He walked down the virtual sidewalk, walking around corners as he toured the neighborhood around Valerie’s home.
“This is unbelievable!” Silas exclaimed. “She’s going to get a shitload of military contracts with this technology.”
“You think?”
“Hell yes. She’s going to bag millions, maybe even billions with this,” Silas assured. “Is this data—the neighborhood, I mean—resident here, or is it out west?”
“It’s on Val’s server. She’s got a proprietary compression algorithm that’s a mix of hardware and software,” replied Aidan.
“I can see where this technology is going to revolutionize distance observation. You think remote operating on patients was cool before, this is like being in the same room,” said Silas as he started jogging in place, watching the display keep right up with him. “You’d do well sticking with this woman. She’s going to be one extremely rich techie!”
“Not that I would do anything like marry for money, but she’s smart, has a great sense of humor, and admittedly she’s easy on the eyes. So far, we’re doing well together,” Aidan confessed as he watched Silas jog through the streets of San Francisco. “So, what’s up with the laser?”
“It’s done. All you must do is finish the modulation interface. You’re going analogue and digital, right?”
“Yes. The interface is computer controlled, coupled with an optical sensor in the telescope itself. That way I can use the computer to decode any signal it detects,” Aidan explained.
“Are you still determined to contact the colonists?”
“Yes. I’m hoping I can get those out in lunar orbit to respond.”
“What if they don’t have anything that detects in the x-ray band?” Silas asked still exploring the neighborhood.
“I was thinking about that. What if I start in the visible spectrum and tune the laser to higher and higher frequencies? They should see the trend and follow the signal into the x-ray band.”
“You’re assuming a lot there, young man. That’s a pretty flimsy chain of reasoning, especially thinking they’re inclined to talk to anyone down here after all this time and the embargo. What makes you think you’ll be getting an answer from them in the first place?”
“Just a hunch. Once I explain Harmony and barring our community duplicating their advances in gravitational research, we’re doing the same thing they did, but here on the ground. It’s a long shot, I know. But does that mean I shouldn’t try?”
Silas laughed. “Hell no! If people acted like that, we’d never make any advances at all.”
He slowed to a walk, then stopped, and told Aidan he was done. Aidan flicked one of the control gloves to bring up the control menu and logged off Valerie’s server. Then he powered down the system and cut the juice. The two then made their way out of the room, Silas leading them upstairs.
Once in the telescope turret, the laser was sitting in the corner, all sealed up. He also saw a mount was attached to the side of the telescope housing, presumably to accommodate the laser.
“You’ve been busy!” Aidan said looking over the exterior of the laser.
“Wasn’t hard. I didn’t exactly know what frequency you w
anted it tuned, but I installed controls to adjust frequency and power that can be controlled via computer interface,” Silas explained.
Silas took several protective covers off the laser assembly and gave Aidan a guided tour of the inner workings. He brought out schematics that detailed the digital inputs and data channels he had built into the laser’s interface to give an idea of what the unit expected from a computer. The two worked late into the night, adjourning to Aidan’s informal office to work on the programming needed to fully control the laser hardware. By the time they decided to knock off, Aidan had produced two sets of control software. One managed the frequency of the laser’s output and the other controlled the pulse modulation of the laser’s output.
On their way out of the barn, Aidan promised he would mount the laser on the telescope the next day. Once he was in bed, he couldn’t wait for morning so he could call Valerie to give her the good news about the progress made on the laser. The last thought he had before he fell asleep was to wonder what he would say to the colonists should they respond.
All Along The Watchtower
“The enormous amount of hype about this weather satellite launch is far outside the norm, Nate. What do you make of it?”
“Well, Madam President, I think everyone is hoping that the colonists, who no doubt monitor the doings down here, will allow the launch on humanitarian grounds.”
“I get that. But who is behind this? Who’s really controlling the agenda?”
“If I had to guess, I’m laying this at Archer’s feet. The general isn’t going to let you set the military agenda for the country no matter what. We must get someone on the inside to keep you informed. Now that’s going to be a bitch,” said Slade.
“I want all orders, operation plans, and deployments copied and sent to me for review.”
“Yes, Madam President, I’ll see that it’s done. Although, he’s bound to find out at some point,” warned Slade.
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