Verron_Birth of a Nation

by Douglas Varnell

  This plant required no humans to operate in a hazardous environment; it was completely automated and run by droids and robots. There were dozens of them going about their jobs without any notice of the two humans strolling around in bright white EV suits. The reactor was like nothing either of them had ever seen. Zimuel was familiar with the antimatter reactor that had been around for millennia and had seen several generations of advancements and design changes over the years. Paul knew very little at all about reactors other than a little he had read about Liquid-Metal Fast-Burn Breeder Reactors and Fast-neutron Breeder Reactors. It was all over his head. He knew that an Earth reactor could produce 1600mw of power per unit. He was not sure how a unit was measured but before he could ask, Lucy said, “Antimatter is capable to exceeding that number by 100 times, whitematter will exceed the capability of antimatter by 1000 times.” Zimuel received the same neurological input and was shaking his head in amazement. A moment later a robot unlike anything Paul or Zimuel had ever seen approached them. It stood about 6 feet tall and was remarkably human in the way it moved and looked. It was made of a dull-gray metal alloy, had what appeared to be IR sensing red colored eyes and a very good vocabulary spoken in Xhondarian. He spoke to them saying, “I have been commanded by Lucy to show Master Verron what we do here. Please follow me and do not touch anything.” The robot led them from the main reactor room and into a staging area for an assembly line. Small amounts of thick white fluid was being carefully measured into drops no larger than a pinhead. At the next stage they were then being placed into a small tube about the size of a watch battery, they were then sealed and put in a small box. These were then placed in a larger carton in quantities of 50. The larger cartons were stacked on a pallet and then removed to a pallet storage area. Paul asked, “What are these supposed to do.” Lucy answered, “The battery you are looking at is a white-matter battery. It is capable of powering a photon cannon operating system for 100 years. It could power a hand help light devise for its lifetime. That is the battery we are making today. Tomorrow they will make the next size battery, which is about an inch square and holds a measure of white matter three times that of what you’ve just seen. It is capable of powering the drive system on a transport for 20 years or providing power to a five room home for 50 years, providing power to cook, heat, cool and light that home. Larger ones are being used to replace the antimatter in modified Xhondarian ships. They offer increased performance in powering the drive systems, antigravity systems, weapons systems and navigational computers. Once the whitematter reactors are in place they will run an estimated 1000 years. That same material when used in a 100mm missile like you fired earlier would have three times the destructive power as the antimatter missile you used.

  Paul and Zimuel looked at each other and asked the robot. “Have you been manufacturing in this plant for the past 300 years?” The robot answered, “Affirmative” Paul shook his head and asked, “Where are you storing all this stuff?” The robot answered very precisely, “We have built new storage facilities under the original facilities and are planning to begin construction on a new one in approximately 243 days. It should be ready for use in 540 days. At current production rates the other storage facilities will be full in exactly 539 days.”

  As Paul was escorted through the manufacturing facility to view the inventory in the storage area, he had a wild idea of how to use this technology in a more conventional weapon. Paul asked, “Just how volatile is this material?” The robot answered, “A drop spilled onto the floor is harmless. Even dropping one of the batteries will cause no damage. The batteries are sealed in special alloy steel that can withstand a plasma blaster and not explode. However, a sealed drop of white-matter the size of a pinhead if struck with an impact of 6 to 9 tons will yield a total destruction equal to a four foot radius.” “Six to nine tons is a lot of force.” Paul replied. Zimuel interjected, “Not at all. A 40 ounce hammer struck against a steel surface will yield anywhere from 12-18 tons of force: E=MV squared – divided by 2. It’s a very old formula; I’m surprised you didn’t learn it in school.” Paul shrugged and replied, “I can tell you that Einstein came up with E=MC2 but that doesn’t mean I know what it means. It’s enough to know that I can make it go boom without a detonator.” They were escorted into the closest warehouse and Paul could see that the Droids had been very busy. Not only were there cases of batteries of almost every size, there were also warheads of various and numerous sizes ready to be placed on a missile or some other form of projectile and there were rows and rows of 50mm, 100mm and 200mm FTL missiles. Paul asked the robot, “How many storage areas do you have?” After seeing all that was in just this one warehouse, he was shocked by the answer, “It is a slow process and we have only been working one 12 hour shift. It takes approximately 50 years to fill a storage area and we now have six. Each storage area is precisely the same size and contains precisely the same inventory.” Paul thought a moment and spoke aloud, “Lucy, why don’t you tell these guys to take a few days off. I doubt they will miss the paycheck and for now, I believe we have enough whitematter inventory to last a good long while. Have them maintain the enrichment reactors and other equipment, but after today, I want them to take a break. Also, prepare me an inventory of just what we have here and at the missile storage facility.” He turned to Zimuel asking, “Have you seen enough?” He indicated with a nod and they turned and exited the facility. Going back out they had to reverse the security process. The decontamination chamber even did a search for any possible stolen whitematter. Back in the ship and preparing to go, Zimuel told Paul, “I know the next stop is the ship yard. Once we go there I’ll never be able to get you out” Paul smiled his best Who Me smile again, but agreed. Zimuel informed Paul, “We have enough time for one more stop so why don’t we check out the area where the oil fields are supposed to be. I can’t understand why Illinasos bothered to exploit the planets fossil fuels. We use very little of them on Xhondar and it’s obvious they don’t use them here. What’s the point?” Paul knew exactly what he would like to do with it, but just couldn’t figure out how. He said, “Let’s go see for ourselves.”

  Paul spared Zimuel the knuckle whitening trip back through the mountains. The narrow valley had such steep slopes surrounding it that Paul decided to simply let the antigravity drive lift him straight up until he was clear of the surrounding mountains. The view was spectacular as he hovered at 50,000 feet. He could see Mt. Alene, Ada and Ola behind him, the bay southwest of him and mountains as far as the eye could see to the west. He followed the Robert’s Range for a couple hundred miles appreciating the spectacular view of lakes, glaciers, lush green valleys, rivers and streams by the hundreds, waterfalls, and all kinds of unusual rock formations. Soon he needed to change headings and turned southwest away from the Robert’s Range. There were still smaller mountains that reminded him of the Alps and one range was very much like the Appalachian Mountains. At Mach 6 it didn’t take him long to reach the coordinates that had been given by Lucy. He had traveled about 3000 miles and the terrain changed drastically to rolling hills and open grass covered plains. There were stretches of heavily wooded areas along the river valleys and streams, but the open areas of grasslands were as wide as the whole state of Montana in places. As he reached the edge of the grass plains, the terrain dropped off into a large flat valley a big as Texas. In fact, it sort of reminded Paul of Texas from the few times he had driven through. The biggest difference was that it was flatter and greener. There were small trees along narrow rivers and creeks, small lakes everywhere; almost like Minnesota. He could see large herds of some kind of antelope/elk/cow like creatures roaming the grasslands below. Then he hit the closest thing to a desert Verron had. An area not much bigger than Georgia, was encircled by short ridges about a thousand feet high. There was not a lake, a river or a stream to be seen. There were puny little bushes and short brown scrub grass covering the ground. Then in the middle of it all he spotted thousands of oil pumps sitting idle for miles in every directi
on. He then saw a tall structure across the valley and angled toward it. He overflew hundreds of larger than normal oil storage tanks as he drew closer to what he by now determined to be a refinery.

  He couldn’t understand all this expense for something hardly used anymore and asked, “Lucy, what in the world was he planning to do with all this oil?” She didn’t hesitate a moment with a perfectly logical explanation, answering, “There are several other planets in the universe who still actively use fossil fuels for power. Without exception, they will all run out in the next two to three centuries. Illinasos seemed to have a real sense for what would happen in the future. Everything on Verron was designed to prepare for what that future may bring. Some would call him a pessimist, war monger or doomsday fanatic, I knew him to be a man with a clear vision of this universe. This one field is estimated to have over 1800 billion barrels of oil. There are several locations on Verron that have been determined to have as much or more. Illinasos was preparing to export some of this oil to the Manzordian Star Cluster before he died; no doubt by now they are either rationing their oil or moved to another energy source. They are not advanced enough to be nuclear. I would estimate them after these 300 years to be approximately where Earth was in the 1930s. Verron is in very good position to help a lot of people and make a lot of money.” He nodded toward the refinery and asked, “What about that?” Lucy replied, “That is a prototype refinery that has only been used so far to produce 250,000 barrels per day for the one year it operated. It’s all in the oil tanks. The refinery has a maximum capacity of 1.2 million barrels per day. It is faster, smaller and more efficient than any other known refinery. It has also been used to produce some of the chemicals that have been needed here to make plastics and other petroleum based products. Like the genetically specific herbicide I plan to formulate for you later today.” Paul did a little math in his head but had no idea what production rates for oil were, or what current oil prices and gasoline prices were back on Earth, but he did know that he could make a huge impact on the world market and maybe put OPEC in its proper place and get even richer along the way. He suddenly felt ashamed of seeing dollar signs everywhere when he already had so much. Lucy spoke to him gently through his neurological connection, “It’s going to take a lot of money to build a new nation, a new army and fight a very long war.” Paul all of a sudden had a reality check of what this was all about. It wasn’t about him; it was about God’s plan to use him to protect the universe. All of a sudden he felt very small and helpless and overwhelmed by the task ahead. He didn’t even bother to land at the refineries landing pad. As he turned toward home he did notice housing units and the beginning of a small town. Some of it was still under construction when they started dying. He imagined that when it was finished it would be a nice little town of about 30 to 40 thousand. He’d seen enough for the day. It was time to go home. Home; this really was his home now. Paul knew he had come much too far to ever turn back, nor would he ever want to.

  Paul and Zimuel had ended their day about 5000 miles from Mountain City. He climbed to an altitude of 20,000 feet and made the trip in just over 30 minutes. As he reversed his thrusters coming over the bay for a final approach to Mountain City, he couldn’t help but circle back for a closer look at the incredible water fall flowing into the bay. From his higher vantage point flying over, he could see that the mile wide river that fed the falls started as multiple smaller rivers that began high in the Robert’s Range. The range was so vast that it literally spanned the entire continent from coast to coast and fed hundreds of rivers and streams along the way. After a closer look, he determined that the waterfall was just a little over one mile wide and 1400 feet high. He wasn’t certain if it was bigger than anything on Earth, but it was bigger than anything he had seen. The Sun shining through the spray from the falls created a perpetual rainbow. He thought for a moment about naming it Rainbow Falls but knew there was already one of those. He pondered the idea a moment and instead named it Alicia Falls. He liked the sound of it and it would make his friend back on Earth, named Alicia, very happy. He didn’t even have to say a word to Lucy as he heard her say, “Alicia Falls; it has a nice sound to it. Crystal River, Alicia Falls, next you must come up with a name for this bay.” Paul quickly responded, “Sabrina Bay; how’s that sound? Are you keeping track of all the stuff I’m naming, ‘cause I will probably get busy, forget, and name it all over again.” Zimuel smiled since he knew Paul didn’t realize he was talking out loud. He looked like a crazy man talking to himself. He said, “I don’t know about Lucy, but so far I think you’ve done real well with the names.

  Tlase was entering the hanger from the stairwell below as Paul was landing the Destroyer. He realized that she had probably been down there the entire time they were gone, over 14 hours. He thought that this would take some getting used too. He had been up for 16 hours and still had 20 hours of day left. He couldn’t imagine sleeping more than eight of it away, so he still had12 more hours to get stuff done. He decided that after dinner he would check out the pool and the workout room. Zimuel was talking a mile a minute telling Tlase about the things that had happened during the day and then suddenly he realized that she had some exciting things she had discovered as well. He quickly told her, “I’m sorry to talk your ears off my dear, I promise that as soon as we find something to eat you will have my undivided attention.” Paul reached inside the Destroyer and pulled out the container holding the chunk of demented vine. “What are we going to do with this?” Lucy answered for all three to here, “If it is satisfactory to you, I will use a techno-droid and the laboratory on the lower level to formulate a genetically enhanced demented vine killer.” A small droid no more than 3 feet tall rolled out from someplace along the hanger wall and retrieved the box from Paul. It quickly scooted away and disappeared into its hidey-hole. Paul shook his head and asked, “I’m starved, what do you guys want to eat?”

  They took the elevator up to the mansion and immediately went to the kitchen. None of them saw a thing that they really wanted to eat so Paul finally declared, “This is ridiculous. I own a food warehouse that ships daily to Xhondar I through a gateway. Why don’t we just go grocery shopping? The food on this planet may be nutritious but it’s worse than Xhondar I for taste; no offense.” They did the best they could to determine what time it was back on Earth. They laid out their various watches on the kitchen table. Paul’s Timex – Ironman, Zimuel’s Xhondarian watch and last of all one of the 36 hour Verron watches. Paul said, “Thank God for cheap digital watches. It appears to be 11:45 PM on a Friday night at the warehouse. We should be able to move around unnoticed at this time of night. Security doesn’t normally patrol the inside of the building. They’re mostly concerned with the outside perimeter.” A short while later the three of them were walking down the warehouse rows of Certified Grocers. By the time they had finished, they had a pallet jack loaded with Digiorno Pizza, a variety of Stouffers Dinners, bags of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, over 100 pounds of potatoes, fresh lettuce, a dozen tomatoes, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, a case of Le Sueur Peas, an entire deli sized Boars Head, Ovengold Roasted Breast of Turkey, Kraft Mayonnaise, a large variety of frozen veggies, Sourdough Bread and of course Diet Coke for Paul and Diet Dr. Pepper for Tlase and Zimuel. Paul had Lucy take care of paying for the groceries and adjusting the inventories. That evening they ate two Digiorno Meat Lover’s Pizzas, a whole box of Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies and washed down with their favorite beverage.

  While eating Tlase had their undivided attention as she revealed some of the things she found in the laboratory. Not everything was a pharmaceutical or chemical breakthrough; there were several new medical devices that were very interesting as well. Tlase couldn’t wait to tell them, but was torn between her first ever pizza and her new information. Trying not to talk with her mouth full, she began, “The discovery yesterday wasn’t just a lab test. The upgrades to the nanotechnology chemicals are now ready to be used and all the materials are readily availabl
e to begin replacing existing inventories. On Verron there is not a very large supply of the old material, in fact, Illinasos had already made the changes required to the tanks and controls and was more than 75% complete in the changing over to the new chemicals when the virus hit. The new solution is warehoused downstairs. This is going to radically change Verron’s ability to regenerate, rejuvenate and enhance; the system is far better than the one on Xhondar I. I also discovered a new device called Rapid Repair. Paul smiled and said, “It sounds like the tire repair kit they put in new cars because they’re too cheap to put in a spare.” They both looked at Paul as if they had no idea what he was talking about. He shrugged and added, “Sorry; Earth thing. Keep going.” “Anyway Rapid Repair is a whitematter powered healing wand about 8 inches long and about an inch in diameter. I watched the video footage on it. A man with a very deep cut on his arm, you could actually see the bone, was lying on a treatment table. The lab tech took the wand and started at one end of the cut, holding it about ¼ of an inch from the wound. He gently squeezed the wound together as he slowly moved the wand along the cut. As I watched, the cut began to close and heal from the inside out. When the lab tech was finished there was not only no more cut, there wasn’t even a scar. Now I know we can heal cuts like this in the regeneration tanks, but think of the implications. I also watched another film with a man who had been impaled when he fell on a steel rod while constructing one of the residential units. The rod had penetrated his stomach region. Once again the lab tech used the wand and again the wound began to heal from the inside out. With this wand, a Paramedic or Army medic can administer wound care right on the spot. Most people who die from wounds do so because of the delay in treatment. Now they no longer have to wait. The thing is unbelievable, and there are two cases of them downstairs in storage; fifty per case.