by Jack L Knapp
“You a betting man, Pete? Some might think you could never get the new ship design to work. Not to mention a space train using modular barges.”
“Point. I’ll give you a hundred, Chuck. What odds?”
“Odds, Pete? Get serious!”
#
The old ranch house was lonely. Lina was on her way to Australia; she and her doctor had jointly decided that she should go now or wait until after the babies were born. The house seemed double empty without Lina.
Chuck opened a beer, then changed his mind. Pouring it down the sink, he put the bottle in the trash and grabbed his hat, then clipped the Sig-Sauer .380 to his belt; rattlesnakes had moved into the area, now that no one lived full-time at the ranch. Chuck followed the path leading to the small cemetery a quarter mile from the house. His grandparents were buried there, as were Mel’s ashes. None of his relatives had wanted to make the decision, so Panit had made it for them and Chuck had seen to interring Mel’s remains. Hopefully, this would be the last grave in the tiny hilltop cemetery.
Chuck pulled a couple of weeds, then looked beyond the graves. Was it really necessary to come here? Morty, Mary Ellen, and Mel lived on in his memories. This deserted hillock was no more than a place where bodies could be disposed of. But he couldn’t make up his mind. What would Morty have thought of the idea? Would he have wanted Chuck to visit their graves?
Finally, still undecided, he headed back to the house. This time he drank a beer, then another, moodily waiting for the sun to go down. The silent house waited, empty, lonely.
It was past midnight before Chuck went inside.
#
Frenchy got back to Rovaniemi late Friday and managed to catch Pete before he left for the weekend. “If you’re not in too much of a hurry, I’ve got a bottle of Lagavulin that needs tasting.”
The two sipped the scotch and Pete mentioned that Chuck had been there, but that he was now back in Texas.
“Pete, shouldn’t Chuck be here? If he talked to you, wouldn’t it make sense for him to be here too?”
“Why, Frenchy? Chuck’s a pilot, he’s not an engineer. You tell me what you want, I’ll tell you if it’s doable. Let’s keep the working group small, okay?”
“Okay, then. I’ve got another ship for you to work on.”
“One of the guys will do it, but probably not me. I’m pretty busy, working up Chuck’s latest brainstorm. Or maybe Chuck’s folly. Is this another cargo hauler?”
“Yes, and no. I want you to design a flying saucer.”
“First question, why? What does the saucer shape have to do with hauling cargo to the moon?”
“Not to the moon, Pete. We’re going interplanetary.”
Pete shook his head. “Not with fuel cells, you’re not. Okay, you could do it, but you’d be in free fall all the way. You can’t carry enough fuel to boost that far, not at one gee or even a quarter of a gee, not and make it back. You thinking of hanging refueling stations out there in interplanetary space? You’ll need bigger solar arrays as you get further away from the sun.”
“No, this is different. Have you ever heard of SMR’s, small modular reactors?”
“Sure, Los Alamos worked up a couple of designs, but they won’t sell them. A number of private companies are working on this too, they got a lot of their design information from Los Alamos, but the last I heard no one had a working model.”
“I may have another source, Pete. Keep it under your hat, okay?”
“Why not? I wouldn’t want my guys to think I was crazier than I am. Design a ship around a power system that you don’t have yet, that’s reasonably crazy. I can gin up a few ideas, but how much weight does this saucer have to lift? How big are the reactors? Do you have performance specs, anything at all? Even how much power the SMRs are supposed to produce?”
“I’ll let you know as soon as I have the specs, Pete. Get a few ideas down on paper so you won’t have to waste time when the reactors are available. Maybe think of a one-reactor design and another that’s big enough to need more than one. Morty always wanted three for reliability.”
“Would the one-reactor version need to be saucer-shaped?”
“No, the saucer was Morty’s idea. He wrote up a prospect sheet, back when I thought we could get reactors from Los Alamos.”
“I’ll find it if it’s in the records. Thanks for the scotch, and I’ll give you a call when I’ve got something worth talking about.”
Pete nodded to Frenchy, then left the office. He was a good engineer and a better supervisor, a combination that was unfortunately rare. Maybe that was why he could afford to be prickly toward his nominal boss. Frenchy grinned after him, then left to put out a few fires of his own. It was amazing how many things went wrong when he was out of the office!
#
Wolfgang Albrecht found Will at his desk, working on the stack of papers that seemed never to shrink. Even in the age of computers, paper ruled.
“Got a minute, Will?”
“Sure, Wolfgang. Want a cup of coffee? I just made a fresh pot.”
“Thank you, yes. I wish you’d try European coffees, Will. Yours are quite strong.”
“Maybe I will. I can always stock a few pounds for when you visit. What’s on your mind? Is there a problem with Gypsy?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Mikhail saw something strange, and I wanted to ask you about it.”
“Strange?” Will asked, pouring himself a coffee. “Strange how?”
“Have you ever seen a faint glow around the nose of Farside?”
“No, never. I’ve only flown her a few times, so if it’s not very strong I might have missed it. But Chuck would have seen it, and he hasn’t said anything.”
“The only time we noticed it was just before we dropped off that second Japanese shipment. Could it have something to do with radiation?”
“I don’t know. I suppose we could find out. Feel like flying a water run to the stations and topping their tanks off? You could take a close look, see if you spot this mysterious glow when you’re hauling something that’s not radioactive.” Will paused, thinking.
“If the glow is faint, you might have seen it because you were out beyond lunar orbit. It’s pretty dark out there, you don’t even get much reflection from the Earth since you’re above the plane of the ecliptic. If something’s going on with the ship, that would make it easier to see. There’s a kind of glow, Cherenkov radiation it’s called, in the pools where they cool the reactor rods. But that only happens when there’s a lot of radiation. Your hair isn’t falling out, is it?”
“Don’t joke. I’m worried, I don’t know what this is. It might even be my imagination.”
“There’s nothing radioactive about the impellers, and you said he saw the glow where the impellers are. The larger ones are aft by the wing roots, the smaller attitude control impellers are in the nose. It can’t be the radar, that’s not radioactive either, and you wouldn’t see anything near the stern. Didn’t some of the early Apollo and Gemini missions mention lights?”
“I don’t remember, maybe it happened during the shuttle flights. I’d have to check. There’s another possibility, but I’d have to run that through the engineering staff. They might have an idea.”
“Is it dangerous? Do you think it’s something that could endanger Gypsy?”
“I doubt it. You’ve made two long flights with no problems. Any computer glitches?”
“Nein...ah, no. They function as they’re supposed to. The impellers too, even the cabin controls work as they should. Flying Gypsy is quite comfortable. But I don’t understand this glow, and things I don’t understand worry me.”
“That’s understandable, Wolfgang. Look, would you rather I flew the next mission? I’ll see if Chuck’s available to copilot.”
“No, I think it better that he fly off our wing. Let him photograph the glow. Perhaps it is nothing. We might be imagining things. The cargo, it is dangerous. The Japanese admitted that the first cargo was more radioactive than it
should have been. Would you like to fly the water replenishment mission?”
“I think I should. Just to be sure. If you don’t mind?”
“Then I will fly as copilot. I can evaluate how well you function as commander this time!”
Chapter Five
Lina reached for her phone as the agent announced that the aircraft was boarding. Frenchy answered on the second ring. She inched forward while carrying on the conversation.
“Dad, I’m off to Brisbane. I’m not sure...” Lina’s voice was soft.
“I think Chuck’s right, honey. The only thing keeping you safe is that the opposition isn’t looking for you. You have to expect that sooner or later they’ll find you. Think of the babies.”
“I know. If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d be with Chuck.”
“You’d have a hard time keeping up, the way he gets around.”
“Yeah, I noticed that,” Lina said dryly. “They’re about to take my ticket, so I have to go.”
“First class, right?”
“Right, I need the room. The twins have a habit of kicking at the wrong time! Anyway, there was one more thing I wanted to ask. Did you finalize that sale?”
“I did. The power plant sold, and that means we’re almost out of New Mexico. The factory is closed and the ranch has only a caretaker crew. They’ll watch the buildings, make sure vandals don’t damage anything. I’m trying to sell the factory, but so far no serious buyers. I don’t know, I may decide to just keep the old ranch. Taxes are low, so it’s not a drain on resources. But the power plant was sold. I paid off the last of our debt with the cash, but I decided to keep the stock we acquired in the sale for the time being. We’re a minority stockholder, but if more comes on the market, I’ll see what I can do. Speaking of stock, Sol’s got a nasty shock coming if I ever get enough leverage to gain control of his board of directors. I’ve quietly picked up a considerable number of shares, and I’ll only need another five percent to call a meeting of the board and kick his sorry ass out.”
“My, you do hold a grudge, don’t you? I’ve got to go, dad, I’ll call you when I’m settled.”
“Enjoy Brisbane, Lina. Look around for property, but don’t jump too soon. Make sure it’s what you want.”
“I will, dad. Bye.”
Lina closed the connection and hurried down the long boarding tunnel, the last first-class passenger to board.
#
Will unlocked the controls, then began the power-up checklist. Wolfgang watched, following his own checklist.
“Radios, Wolfgang?”
“Stand by. Gypsy to Farside, radio check.”
“Five by five, Wolfgang, I’m picking you up through the satellite relay network. On station and waiting.”
“Copy on station, Chuck. Checkout is almost finished, we’ll launch in about two minutes. Say fuel status.”
“Topped off, Wolfgang. I detoured by Station One while I was waiting.”
“We won’t need to refuel. Pete said that since we were off on a joyride, we might as well put auxiliary fuel and oxy tanks in the bay. Plenty of room since we’re not carrying cargo, not even water. We decided it wasn’t necessary. Will wants to boost at two gees, see how Gypsy handles with most of the weight aft.”
“Copy two gees. We’re in orbit, waiting.”
“Roger. Gypsy out.”
Will’s takeoff bore little resemblance to his usual practice. As soon as Gypsy’s nose approached vertical, he added power. The big ship responded, heading directly for orbit. Farside was now behind the Earth. Will intended to be in position by the time she came around again.
“Farside, Gypsy. Chuck, be prepared to break orbit and boost, I’m not slowing down. We’ll go out past the satellite belt, get out where we can see what’s going on. I’ll have the cameras recording by the time you’re in position. I’m picking you up on radar but I don’t see anything unusual. Okay, I’ve got you visually, but I’m not picking up a glow.”
“No glow, understood. Well, maybe it’s only Gypsy. We’re wearing electronic dosimeters and we’ve got film badges as backup. The Geiger counter is recording, sound is off. We’ll find out how much radiation we picked up after we land.”
“Copy dosimeters and Geiger counter, Gypsy same.”
“Sounds good, Will. Okay, I’ve got you on visual, and you’re definitely showing a blue glow. It’s faint around the nose, but it seems to flow back along the fuselage until it reaches the aft impeller section. It’s a lot brighter there. My impellers are spooling up, reverse thrust, speed is dropping, holding orbit with the impellers...rotating ship...okay, we’re heading for you. Intercept course, estimate half an hour. Will...wait one...okay, I’ve got that same blue glow. Right now I’m at two and a half gee thrust and I can see the glow clearly. I’ll see what I can get from the camera display. I’ll also get a video record to compare with yours. Recommend we reduce thrust.”
“Roger, Chuck, reducing thrust. Coming to one gee...okay, I’m at one gee. What do you see?”
“The glow is still there, Will. Check your Geiger counter output, if you would. If we’re picking up radiation, our space careers just got cut permanently short.”
“Roger. Wolfgang’s checking now. Wait one.” The radio emitted only the usual faint hiss of background noise.
“Chuck, Wolfgang’s looking at the readout. We’re getting less radiation, not more.”
“Less radiation? That’s a surprise. I’d say we’ve got the information we wanted, it’s not just Gypsy and it has nothing to do with the cargo. Are you ready to head back?”
“Right, where to you want to land?
“I’ll meet you in Finland. Farside out.”
“Gypsy out.”
Will changed course and headed down, passing through the upper atmosphere over the western Baltic Sea.
The radio clicked as the satellite tone opened the circuit. “Gypsy, Farside.”
“Gypsy here. Problems, Chuck?”
“No. I asked Pete to meet us. He suggested Dolph would be more likely to know what’s going on, so he’s coming too. Dolph’s the theoretician, but Pete will be the guy that has to design a fix if we need one. They should get there about as soon as we ground in Reykjavik.”
“That’s fast. They were lucky getting a flight.”
“They didn’t. Grasshopper is operational, she just finished her shakedown cruise.”
“Wow, three ships in one place! Morty would have been proud. First time?”
“I think so. Diverting to Iceland at this time. Beware of Grasshopper, they’ll be coming in and they may be a bit later than Pete said. I think they’ll be down before we get there, but no use taking chances.”
“I try not to, Chuck. Gypsy out.”
“Farside out.”
#
The camera recordings had just finished their second playback. The men were watching the monitor as playback began for the third time.
Pete was worried. “I don’t like this. We don’t know what’s going on. I don’t have any ideas at this point. That’s why I brought Dolph, I wanted to hear what he had to say before I finalized any of the new designs.”
Chuck and Will had brought their copilots to the meeting. Wolfgang doodled on a pad in front of him, Frodo watched as Dolph opened his laptop computer.
“What’s that, Dolph? I don’t recognize the model.”
“It’s new, first one off the production line. One of Intel’s divisions produced it and the manager let me borrow it. I had to promise him a ride to space.”
“Unusual?” asked Frodo.
“About as unusual as your name, Frodo. Frodo Baggett...your parents had a sense of humor! Anyway, this one has the new firmware. The CPU is part of the first quantum-based chipset.”
“Fuck you, Dolph, I told you to knock off the jokes about my name! My mom was still woozy after the delivery and I think the old man was drunk. By the time she found out, the name was registered. She got even, though. He had a set of Tolkien first editions. She put
the lot in the fireplace and burned them. The old man was fit to be tied!”
“I would have been, too. I’d probably have divorced her.”
“He did. Anyway, you’ve got a new computer. Faster?”
“Oh, yes. It’s the fastest laptop in existence and it has the computing power of a minicomp.”
“You’re not talking about a personal PC, right?”
“No, the workstation mini. It seems like all I have to do is hit the enter key and the answer is already there. Scary. Anyway, Will, I may have an idea. I looked at the Geiger counter’s log. You had impellers on when you went through the Van Allen belts, but there was no increase in radiation. The only time radiation increased was while you were in zero gee, turning the ship to head for home. The only conclusion I see is that the blue glow acts like a radiation shield.”
“I expected we’d need better shielding on the moon, but I thought the ship’s hull provided enough protection for space flight.”
“Yes, and no. The hull stops the particulate radiation, the alpha and beta particles, but that’s all. There’s some x-ray and gamma getting through. Pete, that’s something for your guys to work on.”
“I’ll look into it, Dolph. But what is that glow?”
“Best I can figure, Pete, it’s a thin plasma. I doubt there’s much total heat involved, but there’s more than enough electrical charge to capture or deflect charged particles. They’re probably what’s causing the glow. There appears to be two fields being generated by the impellers and they join together aft of the crew cabin. Chuck, you can answer this if you would. I’m told the impellers actually grip the fabric of space””
“In a sense, but Einstein might not agree. Grandpa told me about his theory, that space is filled with a matrix of interlocking gravitational and electromagnetic fields. He said the impellers try to push the fields, and since that’s not possible, the impellers are forced to move by reaction. The matrix fills all of space, so it can’t be moved, but objects can move through it. They become part of the matrix in the same way that solar wind particles or comets do.”