The Ship: The New Frontiers Series, Book One

by Jack L Knapp

  “The up-front issue is money, since you’re self-financing the project. In order for me to run multiple crews, the initial payment has to be enough for me to pay my subs. Think of it this way, you’re essentially hiring more than one company, my company, the architect’s, the subcontractors, and all of us need to be paid. We need up-front money to buy supplies and hire people, and I have to provide that from what you pay me. There will be additional draws as completion points are met, and I’ll need money at each stage before I can move on. Even if there are hold-backs to ensure quality, the money will have to be available to put in escrow. The contract will include payment schedules, and meeting those is your responsibility. So long as the money’s there when it’s due, the rest is my responsibility. Fair enough?”

  “Fair enough. We’ve got a deal.”

  #

  Frenchy’s home sold within a month and Will auctioned off his Picasso. Other investors put in additional money. The total was more than Frenchy expected, so he called John and approved using multiple crews. The first crews showed up the following Monday.

  The need for immediate electrical power caused the first contract modification. Frenchy approved adding a power house. Under the modified plan, the power house would be completed first, then generators and the main electrical distribution box would be installed as soon as they were available. John rented portable generators for the building crews as an interim measure. Three large fuel tanks were installed on concrete pads near the power building. This area had its own branch road for fuel deliveries.

  The second building added was a hangar, located several hundred yards away from the rest of the complex. Frenchy realized that locking their only impeller-equipped craft in the truck’s cargo box was not secure enough. The Bedstead would go in the hangar as soon as it was ready. In the meantime, someone would stay in the warehouse each night. Instead of relying on the building’s external locks, the watchman secured the doors from the inside. Most often, the watchman was Chuck or his assistant Mel; the other employees had families who expected them home at night. Chuck had not yet met anyone he wanted to settle down with, and Mel was divorced. An upstairs room was converted to a temporary bedroom by adding a bunk, a refrigerator, microwave, and a small television.

  #

  The factory site was transformed during the next three months. The road was repaired, concrete foundations poured, parking areas graded flat, and fences built. The water treatment plants were finished, then work on the first three buildings began.

  The ranch’s feeder operation had begun shutting down. As calves were sold to the dairies, no new ones were bought. This freed up employees, but they weren’t laid off. The foreman assigned excess people to ride the range near the factory site. It was simple enough; load two horses in the trailer, add a bale of hay and a bag of grain in the front compartment, then send a rider to a line shack that was located five miles from the new plant. A relief rider went out every three days to replace the man at the line shack. The horsemen soon became a familiar site around the construction zone. The construction workers saw them, and gossiped. In the way of things, the rumors spread and the idly curious stayed away.

  Wells were drilled and pumps installed early in the preparation phase. The tanker trucks would need water to sprinkle around the site as well as for wetting the poured concrete to prevent cracking. Sprinkling reduced the amount of dust in the air. Water was furnished to tanker trucks by an overhead pipe; a truck pulled in, the driver opened the tank’s top hatch, filled the tank, then drove away.

  The remaining output from the pumps was sent to the treatment plant, outside the fence in its own small building. From there it was piped to the rest of the complex. Waste water drained away to the sewage plant, then the treated water was injected via wells back into the ground. This minimized the factory’s impact on scarce ground water. Other businesses had pioneered the approach, so county officials soon approved the system for Frenchy’s factory. Treated and dried sludge from the sewage plant would eventually be distributed around the ranch, enriching the poor soil. Unlike city sludge, this would contain no contaminating heavy metals.

  The power house soon held five large diesel generators. FEMA had bought them new, used them to power the trailer parks housing victims of Hurricane Katrina, then warehoused the units. The generators were eventually declared surplus and listed for disposal. Frenchy’s purchasing agent bid on the lot, and soon the generators were on their way to New Mexico.

  Morty found they required little more than inspecting the engines for leaks, changing filters, oil, and topping off the radiator coolant, then function-testing the generators. Each was connected to a load bank consisting of huge resistor coils and cooling fans, then run for an hour at their rated 150kw capacity. Inspections finished, the generators were emplaced in the power building.

  Fuel was supplied to the power building via an underground pipe from the elevated fuel tanks that led to a distribution manifold. From there, it went directly to the generators. The arrangement was flexible; a generator could be shut down for maintenance while others continued providing power to the factory campus. The system prevented electrical power interruptions, important because the buildings were all-electric, including the heating sytem.

  #

  The hangar had a rear personnel door facing the other buildings and a second one alongside the garage-style rollup door. The latter pair faced the open prairie, meaning that no one working on the factory building ever got a look inside the hangar. A single-lane dirt road led from the main complex that hadn’t been used since the hangar was completed. Dust had drifted over the tracks left by the construction equipment. The apparently-unused building attracted no attention, and the separate chain-link fence isolating it from the main campus discouraged snooping. A single locked gate, on the side of the fence facing the main complex, boasted a large No Admittance sign.

  Inside the hangar, most of the space consisted of a large open bay. The Bedstead and the larger unit planned as its replacement could easily fit inside the bay. Separate rooms off the main bay contained a small workshop, a break room with such creature comforts as were available, and a bathroom. The break room had a tiny kitchen, a pair of tables with four chairs each, and two convertible couches. The bathroom contained a toilet, lavatory, and shower.

  Frenchy telephoned Chuck as soon as he’d inspected the hangar building and accepted it. That night, Chuck and Mel remained at the warehouse when the others went home. Just before midnight, Chuck drove the truck outside and waited while Mel locked the rear door and the gate. A few minutes later, they left on their way to the new factory.

  Chuck drove into Tucumcari that afternoon, fueled the truck, then parked. He wanted to arrive on-site after the construction people had gone. Mel snoozed on the front seat and Chuck slept in the back, stretched out on the rear deck of the Bedstead. Four hours later they got coffee and sandwiches at the truck stop, then headed for the factory site.

  They arrived shortly after midnight. After parking the truck on the county road, Chuck powered up the Bedstead. Mel, seated on the rear deck, held on to the pilot’s seat during the short trip to the hangar. Chuck kept the craft at a hover while Mel unlocked the personnel entry and opened the rollup door. He climbed back on and Chuck flew him back to the truck. Mel drove the truck away as Chuck eased the Bedstead into the hangar, its new home. He closed and locked the rollup door, then bedded down on one of the convertible couches.

  Mel refueled the truck after reaching Tucumcari, then slept the rest of the night. Next morning he drove to the warehouse, parked the truck inside, then caught a ride back to the factory with Morty.

  #

  Chuck and Mel flew the Bedstead at night, after the construction people had gone. During the day, they worked in the hangar, building a much larger frame. This second unit would be a supplement to the Bedstead. A heavier duty machine, it would have space for four of the big battery packs, although the number installed would depend on how much power was needed
for a flight. This unit, Bedstead II officially, ‘California King’ unofficially, would be large enough to test the aviation impellers when they became available.

  The aviation model impellers would at some point be added to an airplane as an auxiliary propulsion system. After testing and certification, this would become the first aircraft licensed to use S-T Impellers for propulsion. Impeller-only aircraft systems would have to wait; the FAA would want a considerable amount of usage data before they’d approve such a radical idea.

  Meanwhile, Morty intended to have a space-capable craft ready even while aircraft testing was underway. He wanted enough of a head start before the secret leaked that it would take competitors years to catch up, even if they figured out how the impellers worked.

  #

  Standard construction lights illuminated the main complex each night after sunset, although the crews had gone by that time. The lights were for the benefit of the on-site security force. Two operators also remained on site, taking turns to run the power plant. One generator was always kept running to supply power to the security lighting and the hangar building, while others could be added to the grid as necessary. The operators lived comfortably in one of two large trailer that had been brought to the site. Chuck and Mel remained in the hangar building during the week, and one occupied the second trailer on weekends while the other took some time off. More-permanent housing would become available after the complex was finished.

  #

  The factory building was finally ready for limited use, although work continued. Chuck went back to the old warehouse building to take charge of moving the equipment to the new location. The operation took place after dark, in the hope that any watcher wouldn’t realize it was happening until the convoy had gone.

  Security was tighter than usual. Cars sat silent and unmoving at each end of the street that fronted the property, while another waited in the alley behind the warehouse fence.

  Inside the building the electric forklift whirred, loading equipment. The first truck pulled away from the old warehouse building after midnight and waited in the street. Another truck was waiting; it moved into position as soon as the first had gone, backing up until the trailer’s rear hatch was nestled within inches of the factory’s rollup door. The building was lighted, though not as brightly as when the shop equipment was in use. Still, the reduced lighting presented no problem. The big forklift spun around and trundled to the first piece of equipment, strapped on dunnage to make handling easier. The forklift driver slipped the forks into gaps and lifted, then transported the big lathe to the truck’s open rear door. As soon as the forklift lowered the machine and backed away, two men used pallet jacks to lift it and move it to the front of the semitrailer. By the time they finished strapping the lathe in place, the forklift was back with a milling machine. The work continued until the trailer was loaded, then its rollup door was lowered and secured. A lead seal went into place beside the locks used to secure the two sides of the door and a crimping tool locked the seal in place. It wouldn’t secure the door, but it would show whether any attempt had been made to access the cargo before the tractor-trailer rig reached its destination in northeastern New Mexico.

  Grinders, 3-D printer/fabricators, and the rest of the equipment went into trailers. The leased forklift was left behind for the time being. Chuck supervised locking the building, leaving on the low lighting that was normal when the crew left for the day. The security vehicles joined the waiting convoy, one car in front, the other vehicles following behind.

  Chuck took a last look around the deserted warehouse, then climbed into the right front seat of the lead vehicle. The small convoy pulled away shortly before sunrise.

  #

  Two men were looking at the factory complex that now occupied what had been scrubby rangeland only a few short months before. “It’s big, I’ll say that. Somehow, Frenchy, after all the talking you did, I expected it would take longer.”

  “It cost me more than I wanted to spend, Morty, but you’d be surprised how greasing a few palms can speed things up. Even so, the water system still isn’t quite right. The contractor thinks sand has moved in and plugged the holes in the lower well casing. I’ve got crews drilling additional wells, but getting the permits for those was expensive. I ended up hiring a guy who’s the brother in law of a county commissioner. The man who put in the water reclamation system is related to another commissioner and also to one of the bigwigs in the county road department. I figure at least ten percent of the money went into the pockets of county officials.”

  “Frenchy, you didn’t do that yourself, did you?”

  “Oh, hell, no, Morty. I hired a lawyer, and his law firm knew someone who knew the right palms to grease. I even had to pay for a publicity company to come up with reasons why the county commission should fast-track everything. Maybe it was worth it. I expect we could have gotten everything done without the bribes...make that campaign contributions...but it would have taken at least a year longer, probably twice that long. But the buildings are finished, most of them. We can add other space by extending the factory building as needed. The new power lines from the grid won’t be in place for six months, so we’ll make do with generators until we get commercial power. I’m also thinking about putting in our own green-power plant. There’s plenty of room on the ranch, so I checked out the costs. I could start with a photovoltaic system and maybe one or two wind turbines, plenty for powering the factory site, and later on I could expand and sell excess power to the grid using that line the power company is putting in.

  “The PV plant won’t come on line for about a year and a half and getting wind turbines up and running will likely take even longer. We’ll start by operating on our own diesel power, switch to commercial power when it’s available, then go to our own green system later on. We’ll use commercial power as first backup and the generators as emergency backup, or maybe use them to power one of the marine systems when it’s built.”

  “Sounds like you’ve thought of everything, Frenchy.”

  “Not me. The contractor did most of it, after I told him what we needed. I thought the increased security we’d gain from moving faster was important enough to spend the money. Speaking of spending money, it’s important that we begin manufacturing impellers just as soon as possible. Time is not on our side.”

  “About security, Frenchy; the more people we hire, the greater the chance there will be a leak.”

  “I learned my lesson at the old factory, Morty. You’ve seen the fence around the campus, and that’s only part of the story. Most of the employees won’t have any idea of what we’re doing. Later on, when we begin modifying aircraft with impeller systems, they’ll know, but they still won’t know how the impellers work. Only the engineers on your crew will know that, and they have stock in the company as an incentive to keep their mouths shut. As for snoopers, I’ve got ranch people on horseback patrolling outside the fence, the security company has people making irregular foot patrols on that dirt road around the site, and the gate house is manned. The guards can add barriers on the road if needed, to keep people from entering the site. They work rotating shifts, with two constantly on duty. Others can be called in when needed.”

  “Where did you find all these people, Frenchy?”

  “I didn’t, I hired a security company. They usually work for the government, but that’s on hold for now. They’re happy to work for private companies. Some of the men working here were in the Middle East before they got this assignment. The guards secure the factory campus, the company runs the overall operation, and I check often enough to make sure they do.”

  “Sounds good, Frenchy. When does the convoy get here?”

  “Probably about four this afternoon, Morty. Chuck will get them here as soon as possible. Bolting down the equipment, hooking up power, leveling and making sure everything is ready, that’s going to take a few more days. I expect we’ll be in limited operation by next Monday.”

  “Frenchy, you’ve do
ne wonders. I didn’t really believe we’d start turning out impellers this quick.”

  “You too, Morty. You’ve done wonders yourself, working with the engineering staff. Most of them are in awe of you, you know.”

  “Huh. Well, I’m in awe of Nikolai Tesla. Now there was a smart man!”

  #

  A police cruiser arrived at the scene within five minutes of the call to 9-1-1. The driver reported their location at the scene, then followed his partner. An ambulance pulled up less than a minute later and was directed to where the victim lay. Other patrol vehicles followed, including an Albuquerque Fire Department ambulance with one of the city’s on-duty paramedic teams.

  Officers strung crime scene tape around the area while others took charge of traffic control and waited for the detective team to arrive. A sheriff’s department vehicle and a state police car also joined the force, followed ten minutes later by a campus police car. The area was lit by the blue and red flashing lights from the emergency vehicles. Finally, one of the paramedics sought out the Albuquerque PD lieutenant who’d arrive to take charge of the crime scene.

  “Another one, lieutenant. Another student, but this one’s different, maybe. I don’t think it happened here.”

  “Wait one.” The lieutenant called to a sergeant, who came over and joined the conversation. “Doc thinks this one was a drop-off. Take a couple of officers and see if you can find tracks. Forensics will be here soon, so if you find tire tracks or anything else, have their investigators make a cast. Get me lots of photos and keep in mind that I’ve had a hard day already. Find me something nice, maybe the perp’s driver’s license.”

  “Lieutenant, you’ve been out in the sun too long. But I’ll find anything there is to find. What do we do about that TV crew?”

  “Usual drill. No comment, investigation is proceeding, results are expected. Pass that on to the public affairs officer, let him brief the press. He’s done it before, he knows what to say.”