The Day Gravity Became Irrelevant
Page 34
“Miss Jaramillo.” Straightening up, Professor James took her by the elbow gently as they strolled the narrow hallway. “What you have to understand is that in just a few minutes we are going to completely change the entire world paradigm, but before we could do that we had to first change the world on a sociological scale so it would be suitable for such an upgrade. Think of what we did as a…a software patch for society.”
Something in what he said caused Jenna to stop in the hallway. “You mean you intend to change the world even MORE?”
“As I stated, what has occurred already was merely a patch, to fix a bug endemic to the system. Now we are ready to install the service pack, a complete upgrade, something that will alter humanity’s trajectory forever. We are about to roll out Humanity two-point-oh.” Unflappable, Professor James only raised a single eyebrow at her outburst.
“How exactly do you intend to do that?” Biting her tongue, Jenna decided to hear them out.
“C’mon and I’ll show you.” Grinning boyishly, Jack flicked his head down the hallway.
It was a short walk before they found themselves in what appeared to be the observation deck. Although her eyes were immediately drawn to the big, red button on a pedestal by the main window, it was what was beyond that captured her attention.
“We’re airborne?” She was incredulous as she watched the slow moving terrain outside.
“We have been for some time.” Professor James shrugged haplessly.
“I will take your surprise as praise for my piloting abilities.” Alexis spoke up over the intercom speaker by the nearest portal.
“Who is that?” It occurred to the former FBI agent that although she had spoken to Alexis several times, they had never actually met. “And more importantly, why is she flying away with me still onboard?”
“You mean you didn’t wanna come?” Jack asked, his voice dripping in skepticism.
“A girl likes to be asked, y’know.” Canting her head to one side, Jenna gave the brothers a grimace. “It’s subtle little details like that that make the difference between eloping and kidnapping.”
“Well, if it’ll make you feel any better, you can push the button.” Shrugging, Jack gestured to the pedestal that stood just a few feet away.
“I’m not pressing that thing until I know what it does.” Shaking her head, she politely declined.
“Nothing macabre.” Professor James frowned as he refuted her insinuations. “Pressing the button merely releases a worldwide file download.”
Nodding in unison, the brothers sought to convince her that the button was not dangerous.
Glancing back and forth between the two, Jenna gave an exasperated look before speaking again. “You’re gonna make me ask, aren’t you? Okay, what is in the file download?”
“Merely the secrets of gravitational disaffinity.” Jamie shrugged as if it were actually a small thing.
“But you gave that to the government, and they didn’t do anything with it. How will this download be any different?” she pointed out lucidly.
“Because these schematics include the steps to produce blue plasma, a key element in the process.” Professor James beamed as he replied. Clearly he was proud of the deception.
“We only sold them antigravity, not the power source.” Jack picked up where his brother left off. “It was all in the contract, including a clause that returned ownership of the technology to us if they violated any of their terms or tried to assassinate us with banned or prohibited weapons. We were very up-front about what we were selling them.”
“So since they violated the terms of the contract, we get to keep the cash and the patents and do with both as we please.” Jamie folded his arms confidently as he spoke.
“And we choose to gift this technology to the world.” Mimicking his brother, Jack also stood with his arms folded as he eyed Jenna.
“Why?” She seemed incredulous.
“You have seen what we have done with this technology, and that was just two brothers.” Jamie gestured between himself and Jack. “Imagine what could be done with this technology if it were crowd-sourced on a worldwide basis. The improvements would be quantum.”
“Y’see,” Jack started out, “if we introduced this as a commercial product, it would be a generation or more before this technology was mainstream. Capitalism likes to milk a product over the course of decades. But if we gift it worldwide, we could have Star Trek in twenty years.”
Her face showing a bemused look, Jenna glanced back and forth between the two men as her mind examined the theory. It only took a few seconds for her to see the first roadblock to what they were doing.
“But you are giving away a trillion dollars worth of technology. This’ll change the world and make people rich beyond comprehension, but you two won’t get a dime for it.”
There was the briefest of moment as Jack and Jamie exchanged a knowing look. Finally Jack broke the silence.
“Shall I?” A devious smile crossed Jack’s face.
“You may.” Giving a flourish with his hand, Professor James gestured for his older sibling explain.
“Y’see, this technology is powered by Blue Plasma which is made by holding silver atoms in a spallated state. During the last year we spent a billion dollars…” Jack paused as his brother leaned forward to interject.
“One billion, six hundred and forty thousand.” Giving a curt nod, Jamie allowed his brother to continue.
“…and purchased controlling interests in all of the biggest silver mines in the world. It’s sort of like buying a printer for your home computer; the real money doesn’t come from selling the printer, it comes from all the ink you gotta buy. Now we own the ink.” All smiles, Jack flashed her that easy smile of his.
“That’s all the button does?” Squinting at the brothers, she watched them for any signs of deception.
“Just the schematics,” Jack started out before changing direction. “Oh, and a really great little cat video.”
“The one with…?” Jamie pretended to bat at a ball until his brother nodded in agreement. Standing upright the savant wore a sheepish look. “I love that video; it makes me warm inside.”
“So?” Without actually saying what he was getting at, Jack’s eyes darted back and forth between Jenna and the big, red button.
Giving it a moment’s thought, she considered what would happen when the world got its collective hands on antigravity technology. Without a doubt, it would make the last year pale by comparison. But on the upside, nothing said she had to endure it all. After all, she was standing on the deck of a ship heading to the moon for an indeterminate amount of time. She could simply read about it in the news.
Slowly, a mischievous smile spread across her face as she felt the oddest thrill about it all. Reaching out she let her fingers unceremoniously poke the center of the big, red button. Immediately the switch lit up like a cherry to indicate it was now active. A few seconds passed and the button began to flash steadily.
“Download in progress.” Jamie testified as he watched the flashing light.
“Next stop; The Sea of Tranquility.” Jack smiled as he gestured to the sky visible through the windows. Beside him Jamie’s posture slumped a bit as he showed a toothy grin.
“M-o-o-n spells moon.” Country Jimmy gave a cackle at his own joke.
“That it does…that it does.” Jack agreed as he threw an arm around each of them. “I just can’t guarantee how they’ll spell it by the time we get back.”
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Glossary & References
Some internal illustrations created by Kyle Celaya, Esq.
The last anti-satellite weapon officially known to be in the US Government’s inventory was the ASM135 ASAT. The Air Force development program w
as ended by President Reagan in 1989
Real science was behind the ketchup bomb that Jack uses on the Burke brothers. https://www.thoughtco.com/ketchup-and-baking-soda-volcano-604097
Felgerkarb The term can be used interchangeably with the word bullshit. Taken from Battlestar Galactica.
PDFQ Pretty Damned Fucking Quick
ECM Electronic Counter Measures
The X15 was an experimental rocket plane that flew so high that 8 of its pilots were awarded Air Force astronaut wings. The plane also set an all-time speed record for a manned, winged, craft in level flight when it achieved mach 6.7! The science we gained from the X15 formed much of the basis for our technologies to build the Space Shuttle. Easily, the X15 was the coolest airplane of all time.
https://www.space.com/1465-nasa-15-pilots-awarded-astronaut-wings.html
Cover art by Danielle Johnston at dmj.design