Raj Mehta, shouldered through the crowd and said, “We have a meeting room set up, if you’d come with me?” His eyes darted up at the saucer hanging overhead, “Why is it up there?”
“Um, we don’t have patent protection yet.”
He frowned, “How long can it stay up there? Should I be posting guards to keep people out from under it?”
“Post guards if you want, but it should be able to stay up there for years.”
Mehta gave the saucer another startled glance.
As they walked to the meeting room, Tiona waved General Cooper closer to her. In a low tone she said, “We’ve been doing this in such a public fashion because we’re hoping that General Harding won’t attack us if we have the eyes of the world on us. I’ve been planning to announce what he’s been doing, but it sounds like you’re trying to say he’s a bit of a loose cannon and he’s back in control now?”
“Yes Ma’am,” Cooper said emphatically. “I won’t ask you not to disclose his activities, but obviously it would save our country significant embarrassment if that were not a major part of your presentation.”
She frowned, “How did you find out what he was doing?”
Cooper gave a perplexed shrug, “Some hacker genius. Not only shut Harding down by blocking his anti-satellite command-and-control computers, but notified everyone up the chain of command above Harding about what he was doing. Hacked into their AIs to send them the message in the middle of the freaking night. Even woke up the President! The NSA’s having conniptions! He hacked them too and they can’t figure out how he did it.” Cooper turned a curious frown on Tiona, “You know programmers with those kinds of skills?!”
Tiona put a bewildered look on her face and shook her head. Her thoughts though, said loud and clear, Dad!
***
After several grueling hours of public relations jawing, explaining the thrusters and the saucer, though not how they worked, Nolan felt like a third wheel, or maybe one extra photon in the output of the sun. Occasionally someone would catch him off to the side and whisper a few questions at him, but even then their eyes would be focused back on Tiona. NASA had happily provided Nolan and Tiona with dark blue, NASA logoed, coveralls when they had asked if they could clean up before the media circus. She looked stunning in the formfitting coverall, even though it hadn’t been designed with a sexy look in mind.
Having a beautiful young woman answering questions about her new invention, especially one that was about to turn the world on its ear, had resulted in a media frenzy. More and more media people had shown up as word got out. They crowded into the room until it became a fire hazard. Then the new ones tried to start over on questions Tiona had already answered.
She steadfastly refused to go over old ground.
When Tiona and Nolan left the media conference, they were immediately set upon by NASA scientists. They subsequently spent several more hours helping the scientists understand how their world and humanity’s relationship with the solar system had just changed.
General Cooper and several of his staff members attended both meetings, though Nolan saw Cooper sending his people out repeatedly, presumably to communicate with the military. When Tiona finally called a halt to the scientific meeting and shed the last of the scientists trying to buttonhole her, Cooper fell in beside her. “A word on your way back out to the saucer?”
“Sure, but I’ve got to go to the bathroom first.”
That done, as Tiona and Nolan walked out towards the saucer Cooper said, “I’ve intervened with the FAA on your behalf. When you are ready to leave, please have your AI contact Houston Hobby’s air controllers. They are expecting your call and will clear you for a vertical takeoff to 70,000 feet. Once above 70,000 feet, since there’s no traffic, you can fly to North Carolina without guidance. In that area you can contact the Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Their controllers are also expecting a call and will guide you back down to UNC… Or do you want to go to your home in Raleigh?”
“Oh! I’ve forgotten all about my parents!” She turned a considering eye on General Cooper, “They’ve been hiding out from your people. Do I have some kind of guarantee that they’re safe now?”
Cooper turned to one of his aides, “Please tell the President that Ms. Gettnor is ready for her call now.” Cooper turned back to Tiona, “The President wishes to personally convey her apology to you, and to Mr. Marlowe, Dr. Eisner, your parents and all relatives who’ve been disturbed by General Harding.”
Tiona’s eyes had widened at this announcement, but they widened further when her AI said, “You have a call from the President of the United States.”
She accepted the call, at which point an AI said, “Just to make you aware, this conference call includes Dr. Eisner and his wife, Nolan Marlowe and his parents, and Tiona Gettnor. We have tried to reach your parents, Dr. and Mrs. Gettnor, but have been unsuccessful.” Tiona saw Nolan looking wide-eyed as well. They were asked to wait for a second, and then heard the confident alto tones of President Miles. She said, “I would like to thank all of you for taking my call. What has happened to you over the past couple of days under the direction and command of General Harding was unconscionable. It is an embarrassment to your nation and my administration. Even worse than the embarrassment, has been the risk to the lives of the people in the new spacecraft, not only when it was fired upon, but when they felt safer traveling into deep space in a minimally tested vehicle than they did in returning to their country. You have my apology, and the apology of your country. I hope that you will be reassured by the fact that General Harding has been arrested and remanded to military authority for trial. I also wish to reassure you that you have nothing further to fear from your country.”
By then, Nolan, Tiona, the general, his aides, and a gaggle of hopeful scientists had reached the saucer. Everyone on the call seemed much relieved and thanked the president for her assurances. President Miles asked them all to allow her to arrange a White House visit, then disconnected.
As Tiona called the saucer back down to the ground from where it had been suspended in the air, General Cooper said, “I hope you’ll also consider the potential for your invention to be weaponized. I’m not trying to tell you what to do with it, just asking you to think about how dangerous it could be in the hands of terrorists. I will stand ready to provide advice and consultation on how such dangers could be minimized.” He stepped back and rendered them a respectful salute. “Thank you for bringing a new age to our world,” he said in a heartfelt manner.
Someone had taken the ladders away so Tiona had to tell the saucer’s AI to tip it up so that the back deck would be low enough to step onto. Before they boarded, Sophie stepped out of the crowd and gave Nolan and Tiona a fierce hug. “Thank you for rescuing my guys… and for taking me along,” she croaked.
For a few minutes Tiona was busy talking to air traffic controllers and directing the saucer up to 70,000 feet. She also contacted her dad to let her parents know about President Miles’ message so they could go home.
Nolan watched her handling these tasks with a longing ache. Over the past few days of intensive interaction he’d found himself drawn to her… oh so, so much more strongly than he had been over the past half a year in the lab. He tried to tell himself that it was a simple infatuation with what she’d accomplished and how good she looked when she wasn’t dressing to hide it.
The overwhelming attraction he felt right now had to be just because she looked so magnificent in that jumpsuit, didn’t it? Something he could get over.
The AI announced that they had reached 70,000 feet and were started for North Carolina. Tiona relaxed back in her seat and closed her eyes for a moment. Then they opened and turned on Nolan. They were twinkling, he realized.
“Hey,” she said, “remember when Sophie was floating away out there?”
Nolan nodded.
“I was pretty panicked… but you kept it together!” She shook her head wonderingly, “Calmly giving directions like it was no
big deal? That was amazing.”
Tiona got up out of her seat and stepped over to Nolan’s side. After a moment she lowered herself into his lap. “You know how you kind of bared your soul last night in Galveston Harbor?”
Nolan nodded again.
“I didn’t know what to say. I’ve always been with bad boys. The kind that mothers don’t approve of. Talented drunks like Ronnie Winters and other hard-living, wild-eyed jerks and troublemakers.” She winked at Nolan, “Having a good looking, intelligent, nice guy who buys me lunches and says nice things, even expressing his admiration? I haven’t really known how to handle that. No experience, you see. But I’ve been filled with respect after the way you handled that little crisis with Sophie. It turns out you aren’t just a pretty face that buys me lunch…” Her eyes misted, “I’ve been thinking about you a lot,” she said with feeling.
She tilted her head and leaned in for a kiss.
After a minute she drew back and looked him in the eye again. “I like the way you kiss.” She sighed and rested her head comfortably in the crook of his neck, “I’d have to be crazy to let you get away.”
The End
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Author’s Afterword
This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I have always been partial to science fiction that posed a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be scientifically possible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t thought to be possible. Then you ask, what if something (such as faster than light travel) were possible, how might that change our world?
This story poses several “what ifs?” First, you need to know that the “reactionless drive” a staple of science fiction—in which thrust is generated without expelling matter in accordance with Newton’s laws—is thought to be an impossibility that contravenes the known laws of physics. The presence of “dark matter” however, is the most widely accepted explanation for the “galactic rotation problem.” One of the most common hypotheses regarding dark matter is that it consists of WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles. By this theory untold billions of WIMPs are pouring through your body every second, but because they don’t interact with normal matter we are simply unaware of them. But, what if we did discover a means for interacting with dark matter? Especially if we could forcefully accelerate it, then we would have what would appear to us to be a “reactionless drive.” It wouldn’t actually be reactionless, it would act more like the prop on a boat or an airplane, pushing or pulling your spacecraft through the dark matter. Even more fascinating, several groups, including NASA, have tested devices that seem to generate a little thrust without expelling matter. These include the EmDrive by Roger Shawyer and the Cannae Drive by Guido Fetta. Despite the fact that they have been measured to generate small amounts of thrust, they have still been thought to be “pseudoscience” because they do not fit within the known laws of physics. But, what if they actually accelerate dark matter to produce their thrust?
The second “what if” is more of an amusing conjecture. What if the thrust generated by a reactionless dark matter propulsion system was subject to severe eddy currents at any sharp corners? That would mean that the system would necessarily be circular, and as “form follows function” the flying saucers of pulp fiction might turn out to be the best possible design for a craft based on such a thruster.
The third “what if” has to do with how such an apparently reactionless drive would change our world. It is a fact of physics that a rocket can barely go fast enough to explore the near reaches of our solar system (much less the stars) because it can’t carry enough fuel to expel sufficient quantities to reach adequate speeds. If we didn’t have to expel material to go places according to Newton’s laws, the solar system would suddenly be within reach and mining the asteroids for their incredible wealth would become a relatively simple engineering problem.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Nora Dahners, Gail Gilman, Elene Trull, Allen Dietz, Hamilton Elliott, Kat Lind, Kerry McIntyre, and Abiola Streete, each of whom significantly improved this story.
Tiona_a sequel to Vaz Page 29