by Paul Reaver
*****
As he and John had discussed, Mark built the high-performance car along the lines of Indy 500 cars. The sleek vehicle was extremely lightweight due to its unique modified carbon-fiber body panels. It’s powerful engine made it capable of a top speed of just over 300 miles per hour; the top speed for most Indy cars was less than 250 miles per hour. Mark’s biggest hurdle was keeping the car on the ground with its light weight and high speed. He ended up having to include several aerodynamic modifications in the car’s design. But the car was thrilling to drive! They had to borrow a nearby racetrack and ensure that no one was there so they could do their speed tests with the car. They brought their mini-team for support and security, and John was there to watch. After Mark had driven the vehicle several laps around the track to get the feel of it, he gradually took it up to its maximum speed. It was almost a blur to watch. After Mark had finished a few more laps, he pulled the car over, took off his helmet, and handed it to John. “Your turn,” he said, smiling.
“What?” asked John. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Not at all,” said Mark. “You’ve supported this project, you’ve given me a lot of help, and trust me, John, you’ve got to drive this thing. I’ve never driven anything like it. Don’t go for the top speed, and don’t go any faster than your comfort level allows. But get in there and drive it. We’ve had a suit made especially for you.” Mark turned around to one of the crew and took a racing suit from him. He handed it to John. “Here you go,” he said. “Let me help you put it on.”
John put the suit on and, with a little help, sat down in the car. “Make sure you feel comfortable with how your legs feel and how your feet fit the pedals and let me know if the seat needs to be adjusted. Make sure the lap belt and criss-cross shoulder harness fit snug but not uncomfortably so. This is kind of like being strapped into a space capsule.”
They got John situated, and Mark said, “In essence, this is not any different from the other hydrogen car that you drive all the time. But it’s a lot faster. Take it up to 75 or so, and get the feel of the car for a few laps. Then gradually increase the speed while staying in your comfort zone. If you feel like you’re going too fast for comfort, back off. If 150 miles per hour is as fast as you want to go, then make that your limit. Just because I’ve driven it over 300 miles per hour, that doesn’t mean you have to. Remember, I’ve got the experience.”
Mark had spent some time as an Indy car driver in his younger years. He was a back-up driver and didn’t spend a lot of time behind the wheel during races. But he did spend a lot of time behind the wheel when training to drive the car, in case he did have to take over for the main driver. So he did, in fact, have experience.
John gave a thumbs-up sign and a smile to Mark and pressed the accelerator gently. Like the other hydrogen car he drove, it took off and accelerated smoothly. He nudged it up to 75 miles per hour as Mark had suggested, and felt completely comfortable. He took it up to 100, then 125, and finally, 150. The banked turns of the track made the car feel comfortable to drive and control. After a couple of laps, he took the car up to 200 miles per hour, slowly but surely. And he knew this was the edge of his comfort zone. So he went several laps at this speed, taking in the thrill of the ride, and using the scientific part of his mind, he evaluated the different aspects of the way the car drove. It was smooth, and it held its speed without effort. The car felt entirely under his control, and he did not notice any disturbance in the aerodynamics of the vehicle. Mark had done a superb job in creating this car. After a few more laps, he slowed down and stopped in the pit.
“Wow! All I can say is ‘fantastic!’,” said John, after removing his helmet. “You absolutely outdid yourself with this car, Mark! It’s so smooth, and I never had a hint of losing control, even when I went over 200 miles per hour.”
“Thanks, boss!” said Mark, smiling as usual. “It sure is fun to drive, isn’t it?”
“It sure is,” said John. “I can’t thank you enough for allowing me the opportunity to drive it.”
“Well, the way I figure it, this car would not be sitting here right now if it hadn’t been for you.”
“Just doing my job,” said John, smiling back.
Chapter 12
John had talked to Mark about how the hydrogen converter would work in an atmosphere that had a lower percentage of hydrogen than Earth did. Mark told him that the process would be the same; it was a matter of tweaking a few things and making the converter larger to process more hydrogen at a time. That was the answer that John wanted to hear, because that meant they could use the converter in almost any atmosphere that had a significant percentage of hydrogen. However, since using quantum physics with the process of pulling hydrogen from the atmosphere, “significant” could mean that the actual percentage of hydrogen in the atmosphere could be very small, just as it is on Earth.
Since Mark had virtually completed the car project, although there would always be the striving for improvement and occasional changes, the time and effort put into its development would now decrease by a large margin. Therefore, he had found himself more immersed in Joanne’s and Abigail’s projects for the last year per John’s request to do so. Both projects interested him, so he enjoyed working on them, and he felt as though he had made significant contributions to each.
“How’s it going?” asked John after entering Mark’s lab.
“Well, I think the hydrogen project peaked when you drove the Indy car,” said Mark, smiling as usual. “As far as my work with Joanne and Abigail goes, I think we are getting ready to wrap up both projects for the main first stage. But since each of them is the team lead for their projects, I think we should include them in any discussions we have regarding the progress of each.”
“Sounds good,” said John. “Do you have a few minutes to visit with them?”
“Sure,” said Mark.
They made their way to Joanne’s lab. She looked up as they walked in.
“Hi guys,” she said. “Is this a social visit?” She smiled.
“I guess you could call it that,” said John, smiling back, “as long as the visit includes a discussion about the antigravity project.” John looked around Joanne’s lab. What a difference there was from a year ago. At that time, she was working in a small area on a single workbench. Now the lab, which was a large area of approximately 150 feet by 100 feet with a 90-foot ceiling, was full of equipment in various stages of completion.
“I’m pretty social about my work with the right people,” she said. “Has Mark brought you up to date on our progress?”
“No, he said he felt like that was your opportunity since you are the project lead,” said John.
Joanne made a glance toward Mark, which revealed her appreciation. “Well, let’s recap what has transpired since I started this project,” she said. “You check in pretty regularly, so you keep abreast of my progress, but we’ve had a significant advance since you were last here a week ago or so.”
“I’m all ears,” said John.
“Well, as you know, we made our breakthrough when we were able to block gravity’s pull at the quantum level. This blocking was a weak force when we first discovered it. Still, once we realized that gravity, like light, is made up of both particles and waves, we were able to interfere with gravity’s pull with gravitons by using other particles. I don’t need to go into how this process works; you’re already familiar with it.
“As I said, this interference was a weak force when we first found it, but by increasing the density of the interfering particles, the power increased. As the interfering effect increased, the strength of gravity decreased. This is all at the quantum level, and while we don’t entirely know how the processes work, we have theories on how they do work. Max supplied me with a cold fusion unit, which was a huge help! It gave me the power I need to work with larger objects. Right now, we are working with a 2000 pound object, making it float by negating the gravity that holds it down. By varying the interfering force,
we can make it lift slowly or quite rapidly. When we were experimenting with varying the interfering effect, we almost raised the object through the ceiling! Well, not really. But the process reacted more quickly than I expected on one occasion. Fortunately, I have good reflexes and caught it in time by lowering the antigravity force before it elevated too far.
“Everything we have up to this point is built for a laboratory environment. To use it in the real world for a real purpose, we’d have to modify the controls and environment to be suitable for that purpose. But we’re ready to make great strides forward at this point. I must say that Mark’s help has been integral; his experience with quantum physics from his work on the hydrogen pump gave us essential information we have needed to work with the gravity project to have progressed this far.”
Mark said, “The knowledge I gained from creating the car’s ability to use quantum mechanics for pulling hydrogen from the atmosphere was a big help; the application of the quantum theories is quite similar. However, I must say that I had a bit of a lucky break that connected the dots for me and gave us the breakthrough that we needed.”
This meant a lot to John, whose goal was to integrate his teams’ various projects into the singular project of space travel. This project appeared to be ready; as Joanne had said, it would have to be modified to fit the need. He needed to follow up with the other active projects to gauge their progress so that he could develop a timeline for integrating all of the devices, which he would base on the method of integration.
“I find it amazing that all of our team members seem to have a lot of moments of serendipity,” said John. “In reality, I don’t think that most of these moments are serendipity; I think that it is simply the talent of the team members that are making these breakthroughs possible.”
“Well thanks, John,” said Joanne. “I appreciate the compliment, but I think that Mark’s help was the key to producing such positive results.”
“And likewise,” said Mark. “The thoughts and progress seemed to flow almost effortlessly when we were working on the project together. I think kudos are due for you since your management brought us together on this.”
“While I appreciate the sentiment,” said John, “I’m going to diplomatically sidestep that compliment, as it would take the credit away from the work you two have done, and the credit is firmly due to the two of you. Mark, are you ready to pay a visit to Abigail?”
There was a slight pause, as Mark and Joanne were thinking the same thoughts, which were the same thoughts that all of John’s team members often had. He was a great boss. They all knew that they would not have been nearly as successful as they had been if it were not for John’s help and management style, yet he would never take credit, and it wasn’t false humility. It’s just the way he was.
“Sure,” said Mark. “Right with you.”
Chapter 13
Though John usually visited Max next on his rounds, today Abigail was next so that he, Mark, and Abigail could have an informal meeting. John and Mark entered her lab, and she looked up at them and smiled. They both smiled back and walked over to where she was.
“What’s new?” asked John.
“Well, the invisibility project has progressed to the point where I can hide just about anything you want,“ she said, grinning from ear-to-ear.
John laughed and said, “Well, that’s good to know.”
“Mark and I have perfected the bending of the light waves to handle any shape and size. Well, any size within reason, that is,” she said. “I know that you said there would be military applications for the results of this project. We can hide any airplane, ship on the water, and maybe most importantly for a military application, we can hide people. We can also hide almost anything in between. I wanted you to know I couldn’t have achieved all of this without Mark’s help.”
John said, “Congratulations on a fine piece of work to both of you. I know you probably have some odds and ends to finish up with on this project, but I’d like to ask you both to work with Jose on the teleportation project to finish it up. Can you fit that in your schedule?”
“You bet,” said Abigail. “That project sounds exciting.”
“Looking forward to that!” echoed Mark.
“Well, again, thanks for a great effort with great results,” said John.
“You’re welcome,” Abigail said. “I’ll check in with Jose this afternoon.”
Mark said, “Glad to be of service, boss! I’ll also get with Jose this afternoon so the three of us can talk.”
“Great!” said John. “Thanks again.” He turned and left the lab.
Chapter 14
As it worked out today, Max’s lab was next on John’s list of places to visit. Max had achieved early success with cold fusion and had continued to perfect it until it was ready for use in the real world. John also checked this item off from his mental list of projects that were nearly ready to be implemented, at least in the beta stage.
Max was not in his lab. John assumed he was in Roberta’s lab since he was assisting her with the nanotechnology project. He headed in that direction.
Once there, he saw the two of them huddled over a console, having an animated discussion. They hadn’t noticed that he’d entered the lab. As he got closer, he heard Roberta saying, “You’re right, the program worked.”
John cleared his throat and said, “Well, the boss always likes to hear that things are working properly.” They both jumped a little, as John had startled them. But he was smiling, and once they realized what he’d said, they were smiling back.
“I’d certainly appreciate it if you’d bring me up to date,” said John.
“Well, you know that we were able to program nanites to repair damaged equipment,” said Roberta. “Of course, normally when equipment is damaged, you need to have the parts to repair it and someone with the technical knowledge to do the repair. We have programmed our nanites to rebuild the damaged parts in equipment on command. What a thrill that was when we first got it working! Now we have made it a normal thing. It saves time and money, and if you are working with a piece of equipment that is some distance away, possibly in a remote or inhospitable location, you don’t have to send someone to repair it. This is true if a small part inside a large machine is damaged; we don’t even have to replace the part – the nanites will do that for us. The real advantage is when a large piece of equipment suffers extensive damage. Usually, one of two things happens: you either have to replace all of the damaged parts, or you have to replace the entire piece of equipment. We have created computer programs that work with stored design algorithms that can direct nanites to do whatever it takes to repair any piece of equipment, no matter how extensive the damage or how large the machine is. I know you are aware of most of this, I’m recapping so I can brief you on the next step that we have completed,” said Roberta.
“The tour de force is that we can now build a piece of equipment from scratch using nanites with a computer that has the equipment’s design stored in memory. So, we’re beyond just repairing equipment – we can now build it from scratch. Again, if you have a need like this in a remote location, you don’t have to order or build the equipment and ship it where it’s needed. We can have it built on site.”
“Wow,” said John. “That’s quite an achievement! So this is functional now?”
“Yes,” said Roberta. “Watch this.”
She made some entries on a keyboard and pressed a couple of buttons. She could have accomplished the same information by communicating with the computer using brainwaves, as all of John’s team members had access to that technology now. However, for this simple task, it would have been overkill. On the bench in front of her was a clear cube-shaped enclosure approximately three feet on a side. There was a piece of equipment beside it with a tube attached to the transparent cabinet. Once Roberta had finished her input on the computer, tiny bits of what looked like metal chips went through the tube from the piece of equipment into the enclosure. The flakes
were floating through the tunnel, and settling on the bottom of the cabinet. Obviously, these were the nanites. Because of their small size, it was not evident that there were many more nanites entering the enclosure than could be seen. This was because many of them were so tiny as to be virtually invisible. As they watched, a small piece of equipment about the size of a deck of cards began to form. The device was not featureless; there were distinct parts that made up the device. After about 10 minutes, a green light illuminated on the piece of equipment that had supplied the nanites. Roberta removed the small device from the enclosure and said, “If we had this part go bad or malfunction, we would not have to order another one or keep spares in stock for replacement. We would build another one. Let me show you.”
She walked over to a rather large machine a few feet away. She flipped a switch, and a light next to it that was previously green now turned red. Reaching up to the side of the machine, she removed a part by sliding it out. It appeared to be the twin of the item that the nanites had manufactured. Roberta inserted it, flipped the switch back the other way, and the light turned green.
“If you had a robot capable of replacing parts at a remote location, you would not need a person there to do what I just did,” Roberta said. “But as I said before, this precludes having to order parts or keep spares on hand. Depending on the situation, we would not have to remove the part; we could repair it in place.”
“That’s amazing,” said John.
“Well, we thought so,” said Roberta, smiling. Max was grinning, too. “We have some fine-tuning to do, which will take a little while. But other than that, we are good to go with this project.”
John checked off another item on his mental checklist for project results that would be useful or even essential for the space program he envisioned. He had mentally wrestled with the idea of telling the teams about his idea for a spacecraft and orienting the projects in that direction. But if he did that, he might steer the projects away from creating results that had more far-reaching applications. As long as he saw that the teams were advancing in their projects in a way that he could incorporate into his space program, he saw no reason to spill the beans. But if all the teams were doing as well as these first two teams, he would have to tell them soon. A key component of any project like the ones his teams were working on was doing the “fine-tuning,” as Roberta had said. He wanted to allow them to do this before getting side-tracked with the spacecraft idea.