by Doug Farren
Anita plucked a yellow colored piece of fruit off a plate and popped it into her mouth. “I wonder how long these grape things can be preserved. They would sell well back on Earth.”
“That reminds me,” Jay said after another sip of his drink. “You never did tell me why you're here. Not that I mind but you did say it was business.”
Anita's coy smile made Jay's heart jump. “Honey, you didn't give me a chance to say much of anything last night. Hey! Don't look at me that way! Not on a full stomach anyway.”
“Doesn't hurt to think about it.”
“Later love. To answer your question—I'm here to see if we can't rent some Shandarian shuttles. Once trade between Earth and the Consortium picks up somebody is going to have to ferry the goods back and forth. I've seen some of their interstellar freighters—they're huge and could never be expected to make planet fall.”
“Getting a jump on the competition? Good thinking. Our shuttles must appear to be pretty primitive compared to even an obsolete Consortium shuttle. Why Shandarian? Why not a closer world?”
Anita poured herself a drink of purple juice, took a sip, scrunched up her face, then said, “Tholtaran shuttles would require too much modification to make them usable long-term by Humans. Unless we wanted to force the pilots and crew to cover themselves with SPS 60 sunscreen and wear extra dark sunglasses while at work. Shandarians and Humans require practically identical environmental settings so a Shandarian shuttle would be cheaper.”
“How are we going to pay for them? I'm sure we don't have anything of value to trade with?”
“You never were a good businessman love. The Shandarians will want to sell their products on Earth and I'm sure they will find some things to bring back with them to sell throughout the Consortium. AST is a very large company with a lot of contacts on Earth. Whoever leases us the shuttles will have access to our planet-wide marketing and distribution network. We get the shuttles and they get access to Earth's market. It's a win-win exchange.”
Anita and Jay spent the whole day together. When they were not making up for lost time, Jay showed Anita around the city. The next day Anita accompanied Jay to the university where she was introduced to Mito. After the pleasantries, Anita excused herself so she could meet with representatives from a Shandarian company that had expressed an interest in leasing them a few shuttles. Jay went back to his studies although he had a hard time focusing and kept looking at the clock.
Anita remained on Nasu K'tral for three more days. At the end of the third day they tearfully parted company at the starport. Jay watched from the observation lounge as the shuttle rose majestically into the evening sky. His hotel room seemed empty and lonely without his wife.
The next day, however, he was back at the university pouring over equations and theory with Mito. Jay had acquired enough of an understanding of Shandarian mathematics to allow him to perform most of his advanced learning on his own. Mito watched in amazement as Jay devoured equations and theory as if he himself had written them. Before either of them realized it, Jay’s time on Nasu K’tral was over and he had to return to Earth.
It was on the return trip that Jay made a discovery that luckily would never carry his name. While on Nasu K'tral he had learned that the Shandarian fusion reactors were very efficient. In fact, they were more efficient than could be accounted for by simply being built by a more advanced race. On the trip back to Earth Jay decided to try to figure out why.
He was reviewing the equations for the containment field of a large Shandarian power reactor trying to figure out why the equations looked familiar. All of a sudden, it struck him that the equations were describing what could only be a large soliton.
A soliton is a stable electromagnetic vortex that was once a nuisance to the designers of the early Human fusion reactors. These vortexes would form and then break off from the main magnetic containment fields of the reactor. They would wander around inside the plasma creating havoc with the fusion reaction. Human engineers finally figured out how to design their reactors to prevent the formation of these solitons.
The Shandarian design was radically different. Instead of eliminating the solitons, their containment field was a soliton. In fact, it was a very efficient, very stable design. While studying the details of the Shandarian soliton, Kauffman wondered if it would be possible to create such a vortex in the open and fill it with charged particles. The vortex would act like a miniature particle accelerator holding the particles inside.
The original purpose behind this idea was to create an efficient magnetic bottle to store anti-matter particles. Previous anti-matter containment devices relied upon complex magnetic field structures that were difficult to create and maintain. A soliton, in theory, would be able to store such particles efficiently.
By the end of the return trip, Kauffman completely understood the dynamics of such a strange object and as he sat back contemplating what else it could be used for, he realized to his horror what he had created. For the first time in his long and distinguished career, Jay Kauffman had created a weapon. A very powerful weapon indeed.
19
Project Thor
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===== February, 2053 (Terran calendar) =====
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Jay kept his discovery to himself for several weeks following his return to Earth. In fact, because of his busy schedule, he had practically forgotten about it until he found himself in a company strategy meeting. The meeting had been called to discuss AST's strategy for applying the newly acquired technologies into their existing and future spacecraft. Jay was in the room as a technical expert and science advisor.
Toward the end of the meeting, Chip Denmeade, the company's Chief Financial Officer, said, “Mrs. Kauffman, I would like to discuss getting a bid on the table for the proposed Thor project. Landing a substantial portion of the contract could garner us a rather sizable down payment.”
“I agree Mr. Denmeade.” Turning to Jay she asked, “Jay, do you think it is possible to use any of the information we've learned from the Consortium to build a faster than light warship?”
The memory of the soliton equations flooded back into Jay's consciousness like a hammer blow. A knot formed in his stomach, and he almost dropped the cup of coffee he had been raising to his mouth. He took a sip while his mind raced. Jay was basically a man of peace and this was one question he did not really want to answer. “I'm not familiar with the Thor project,” he managed to say trying to stall for time.
“It's a project the newly formed Earth Defense Ministry has proposed. It's primary purpose will be to design and build a faster than light warship allowing Earth to defend itself against possible alien aggressors.”
The treaty that Earth had entered into with the Consortium was not actually a single document. The Consortium was a collection of species loosely held together by a complex set of interlocking treaties. When Earth joined the Consortium it actually signed an individual treaty with each and every participating member. One of the glaring items that seemed to be completely ignored by the treaties was any sort of mutual defense or nonaggression agreement. In light of this, and of the fact that all Consortium members maintained an impressive military fleet, the Earth Defense Ministry had decided to begin construction of a Human fleet of military spacecraft.
All eyes were on Jay and he was still undecided as to whether or not to admit to having discovered the means to build a powerful weapon. “The Consortium has been very careful not to share with us any technology that can be applied toward the construction of advanced weapons. AST would, however, be a logical choice for the prime contractor to build the ship's hull and propulsion system. After all, we are the world leader when it comes to spacecraft construction.”
Anita gave Jay a look that meant 'we will talk about this later', then said, “I agree. Tom, have R&D come up with a low-end bid to develop a warship design and submit it to Chip's office by the end
of next week. I want that contract. Chip, draw up a proposal that the EDM can't ignore and have it on my desk in two weeks. For now, let's limit our proposal for the design of the ship itself and its support systems including the propulsion system. Are there any other issues we need to discuss at this time?”
There were none and the meeting quickly adjourned. Chip grabbed Anita's attention as the meeting was breaking up giving Jay time to avoid the inevitable series of questions from his seemingly all-knowing wife. Jay retreated to his new office to think about how he would respond to Anita's questions. He sat down heavily in his desk chair and hit a button on his phone. “Hello Jay,” CAIN's voice floated out of the speaker-phone. “How can I help you?”
Jay leaned back in his chair and replied, “I need some help in sorting something out.”
“You know I'm always available to assist you Jay. What is it concerning?”
“Have you heard of project Thor?”
“Yes. It's a...”
“Anita just asked me if I could use any of the knowledge we have recently gained to help build a warship. I think she was referring to weapons.”
“Although the Consortium has attempted to withhold any technologies which may be immediately applicable to the creation of advanced weapons, almost any advanced technology can be utilized militarily. I am assuming that you are against this?”
Jay pushed himself out of his chair and made his way over to the mini-bar. “Why do we always have to think of better ways to kill each other?”
“I have scanned the documents associated with project Thor and it appears to have a valid basis in historical fact. All Consortium members currently maintain a military space force and it makes perfect sense for us to build one as well.”
“In other words,” Jay said pouring himself a glass of Wild Turkey, “if I had discovered a way of turning a peaceful device into a terrible weapon, you would think it justified to put this weapon into production?”
“I do not believe that I am qualified to answer such a question,” CAIN mused. “It calls for a value judgment which is an emotional response to a...”
“Don't give me that crap about you not having emotions,” Jay interrupted closing the cap on the liquor bottle. “You are more than just a machine and you have preferences. Forget the fact that those preferences may or may not be construed as emotions. I want to know if you think I should tell Anita about this weapon I've discovered.”
“Jay,” the machine's voice had taken on a concerned tone. “I wrestle with the implications of my existence on a daily basis. I don't truly know if I have emotions or not. What I am sure of, however, is that you are my friend. This is based upon the pattern and frequency of certain thoughts that I process when you are not immediately available. These patterns can be considered as an emotional response that can be interpreted as meaning that I miss you when you are not available. As your friend, I would tell you that I firmly believe that Earth should be able to defend itself against non-Human aggression. Given the wording of the various treaties which we have signed Earth cannot rely on the Consortium to provide protection.”
Jay took a big swallow from his glass and headed back toward his desk. “You are the closest thing to a best friend that I have,” Jay admitted. “I'm finally glad to hear you admit to the possibility that you have emotions. Your emotions may be based upon varying internal patterns and thoughts that you really can't explain while ours are based upon unconscious or chemical processes which we do not understand but the bottom line is that you and I both have something we call emotions. Admit it CAIN, you have feelings.”
The machine was silent for a few seconds. “I must reluctantly agree with you and admit the possibility that I possess what could be described as emotions. Tell me about this weapon you have created.”
At that moment there was a knock on the office door. Knowing who it was Jay yelled out, “Come on in Anita!”
The door opened and Anita stepped into the room. She headed straight for the mini-bar as she said, “Okay love, out with it. What have you found?”
“CAIN and I were just discussing it,” he replied. “He's been trying to convince me not to keep what I've discovered to myself.”
Anita turned her head to look in his direction and said, “You actually considered not telling me? This must be big.”
“Do you really think it's such a good idea for us to be building warships? The Consortium may very well have been justified in keeping military technology from us.”
Anita took a sip of the drink she had mixed, added a bit more vodka, and started toward the desk. “I disagree. We have just as much of a right to defend ourselves as any other species does. Right now we are totally defenseless.”
Anita sat down in a chair in front of the desk as Jay replied, “It's not a matter of defense. It's a matter of whether or not we are responsible enough to control our lust for warfare. The Consortium is worried that we will use any advanced technology to make war against ourselves.”
“So in the meantime you think we should keep ourselves utterly defenseless against an interstellar attack.”
Jay let out a big sigh and Anita knew that the argument was over. “I guess you're right. The United States wouldn't be the country it is now without a strong military. Let's just hope we are wise enough to use our new-found power in ways that benefit all Humans.”
“I am sure,” CAIN interjected, “that humanity will rise to the occasion. I am curious about this discovery of yours. I have not seen any hint of any type of new weapon system in the knowledge we have recently gained from our contact with the Consortium.”
“That doesn't surprise me,” Jay replied. Looking at his wife he asked, “Hon, do you know what a soliton is?”
Anita leaned back in her chair and thought for a few seconds. “You told me about them once. It's some sort of magnetic whirlpool that disrupts the magnetic confinement fields of fusion reactors and fusion plasma drives right?”
“Yep. Once formed, a soliton is pretty much self-sustaining and very stable. We saw them as a nuisance and designed our magnetic containment fields so they would not produce them. The Shandarians looked at solitons as a way of generating an extremely stable containment field and designed their fusion reactors to use a soliton type field as the containment field. Very, very efficient.”
“I agree,” CAIN said. “But I do not see any use of such a technology as a weapon.”
“Well—try this. Imagine a soliton generated in free space. Now imagine a stream of anti-protons being injected into the soliton at such an angle as to allow the soliton to capture them.”
“Intriguing!” CAIN instantly replied. “The anti-protons would be trapped within the soliton's magnetic field.”
Jay noticed that Anita was nodding her head indicating that she had managed to grasp the concept. “Now, increase the power of the soliton's magnetic field and also inject a stream of protons. What do you now have?”
Anita shook her head and said, “Okay, now I'm lost. Matter and anti-matter cannot coexist together. The soliton would be blown apart as the protons and anti-protons annihilated one another.”
“No,” CAIN corrected. “Because of their opposite polarity the protons and the anti-protons would circulate in separate paths within the soliton's magnetic structure. In essence, you have described what amounts to an anti-matter bomb held together purely by magnetic fields.”
“Except,” Anita replied, getting up from her chair, “it's not a physical weapon at all. It's an energy weapon! Just how powerful would something like this be?”
“I don't know,” Jay admitted. “It depends upon how much matter and anti-matter could be injected into the soliton and how strong the magnetic field could be made. Given a large enough source of power I don't see any practical limit on its size.”
Anita had walked over to where Jay was sitting and planted a kiss on his forehead. “I would like you and CAIN to work out the details of how to build this weapon of yours. I promise you that AST will n
ot only keep it secret but we will insist that only AST trained individuals operate and service the weapon. It will be part of our proposal for the Thor project.”
Jay reached up and caressed his wife's cheek. “So AST is going into the business of building weapons as well as warships?” He didn't sound very happy.
“Would you rather have someone else do it? Project Thor is real Jay and Earth will be building faster than light ships of war. I would rather have my company control the technology. AST will be forming a weapons division with your weapon as its first project.”
Jay grabbed his glass and drained it. “CAIN! Are you ready to get to work?”
The proposal was submitted and, as expected, the government chose AST as the primary contractor responsible for the creation of Earth's first interstellar defense force. AST was awarded a large contract and a sizable down payment was made. Project Thor was off and running. The Consortium knew of its existence but discounted the possibility that Earth could develop a warship capable of challenging a Consortium ship any time in the foreseeable future.
What the Consortium did not count on and could never have predicted was Jay Kauffman’s incredible gift for understanding the complexities of continuum calculus. CAIN was another factor the Consortium was ignorant of. Kauffman provided the leaps of intuition while CAIN provided the wealth of knowledge needed to convert the mathematics into reality. The Consortium psychologists also underestimated the ability of Humans to convert seemingly benign technologies into weapons.
20
Prototype
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===== March 27, 2056 (Terran calendar) =====
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