Summoning her strength she opened the last door and this was the most normal. There was Kate in the kitchen cleaning up. This time Kate looked up and waved, smiled, then went back to cleaning dishes. Damn.
She sighed. She closed the bedroom door then returned through to the sitting and meals area. There was Kate drying up dishes.
“Captain Collins, I cannot imagine the possibility of you not looking in my bedrooms. I hope it satisfied your curiosity.”
She was shaking her head slowly, “It was an impressive demonstration. No sound though.”
Kate smiled, “Sure. I can do that but it takes more effort. Vision strangely enough is quite easy as it’s just a pin-prick wide connection between two spaces so the image is easily captured and copied. Sound needs a bigger connection and there’s more energy in making sound waves than just light.”
“Can you move between the spaces like that?”
Kate shook her head slowly, “I wish, but no, not as easily. What I can do is visualize what is at another space, feel the area, then move myself and limited amounts of what I’m carrying. Going naked doesn’t appeal.”
The motive for Kate telling her all this was still troubling her but she filed that away. The big issues as to how it was done still remained, still unanswered.
“Where does the energy come from to do all this. Sure, the images might have a small energy cost but it’s still an energy cost. I would have thought affecting me and the two marines running up the steps would take effort as we have a lot of mass and that’s one thing, affecting a marine platoon and a landing craft at a distance would be vastly different. How?”
That got a slight reaction, a momentarily hard look, then Kate relaxed.
“Few people ask that question. OK. You flick the switch on the wall and you turn on the light, right? On Bataan you use the throttles to control the turbines and the speed of the Bataan by some means. You convert a few ounces of movement into an energy release vastly out of proportion. OK?”
She nodded, “On the carrier USS Obama there’s two reactors putting out enough energy to power a large city, they’re controlled from a console smaller than this table with one hand. That’s simple. What you do is nothing like that!” She felt the indignity of the situation. All she could do was control things that controlled other things. Switches. Throttles. Radios. Whatever.
This Kate Smith was alluding to something else, she could feel it.
“You’ve made the leap. I can see it on your face,” Kate said. “There are two ways of dealing with space-time. We can brute force it like a collider, the Large Hadron for example which accelerates counter rotating beams of particles to near the speed of light and slams them together then we look at the result. That’s the brute force way.”
She nodded, that was how it worked.
“I do it differently. I use the energy in the fabric of space, flowing through it, and make it do the work for me. Every piece of space has energy passing through it, it’s that energy I control but don’t actually allow to pass through me. If it did pass through me, it would destroy me instantly. Like the bedroom with the sun you saw. If I allowed that connection to feed energy to me, my brain would be burned to a crisp in milliseconds. I provide very little myself, almost none. Like flicking a switch I control what that does, and it does all the work for me. This me that you see has a connection to space-time. I have some limited control over it, and I can use it for some gross effects if I’m careful.”
“If you’re not careful then, what happens?” That was an obvious and leading statement Kate made.
Kate smiled slightly, “Bad things. Watch,” and with that she held her hand out, cupped slightly and concentrated. Seconds later there was a snap and a pinprick small piece of harsh light shone a yard above, sitting in the air. Then, with a blink, it was gone with a pop.
“I asked, a terrible way of saying it but the best available, but I asked a small piece of space to fuse the atoms in that space. That happened with just one atom, then I let others bleed into that space and the process accelerated till it became visible. Then I dropped the connection to myself and it fell apart, the containment dissolved. Doing that on a large scale releases huge amounts of energy. Destroying a mountain, a city, a ship becomes far too easy and it’s something I’m very mindful of.”
The next question was simple, “How did you affect the Combat Talon and shut down the LCAC like you did? They’re hardened against EMP, you should not have been able to touch them.” Kate had done that, she was sure. The landing craft, air cushioned, had been disabled on the beach for hours. There was no other explanation and the Combat Talon and Pave Low were still sitting on her airstrip and not in communication.
That got a shrug. “I could have destroyed them with what you just saw. That would have been easier. Instead I shut down the ability of their system to control the engines and radios. They’re all electrical signals, electrons flowing through and vibrating in wires. If the electrons can’t move, can’t flow, can’t vibrate then they shut down and your systems stop working. Shorting them out, shorting the output of a generator is the same. I just create a conductive path through space and allow current to flow. The affect on a multi megawatt generator would be catastrophic.”
She was still struggling with motive. Something was not right, she could sense it.
“Kate,” she stopped in mid-question. Ah. She realized what it was, “Why are you telling me this? There’s no compulsion on you. You didn’t need to get me here. It’s clear you do things for a reason. What’s the reason?”
That got a slow smile, “Questions like that are the reason.” There was a moment of hesitation as Kate stared into her confused eyes, “Do you know what a thought cascade is?”
Yet again Kate derailed. It sounded like an evasion almost, but she’d follow along. “No. A cascade is like a deluge, a flood. A thought cascade would be the same but with thoughts.”
Kate nodded, “It is. Our minds take in information and store some of it, put it away for later and we can call on it. Then, at some later date we see or do something that brings all those old thoughts, old inputs, old ideas into focus and joins them together to produce something new. The cascade is when it happens as a flood. That’s me. My mind takes everything it has learned then looks for possibilities and projects that ahead, that’s my cascade. I can’t see the future, no one can, but I can make predictions and tilt things in my favor because of the cascades. For instance, I’ve thrown out comments you’ve latched onto and that’s driven the conversation. It’s no different with the future. We all affect it locally, but I do it with a growing influence base.”
She knew of that, “Like the President.” Getting a call from the president when at sea was a whole new experience and Kate must have caused that.
“Of course but there are always consequences to everything at many levels. It’s been called ‘The Law Of Unintended Consequences’ but I try very hard to control them. I set in motion those consequences with my call to him. He is now looking at you, wondering, why you? Are you special? Your visible presence in the Whitehouse and in other places has increased as a result. I caused it. I controlled it. It took one phone call and Captain Ruth Collins is on a number of minds.”
She shook her head, “It’s simple when you say it like that. It still doesn’t answer the question.”
Kate smiled slowly, “You’re still young, early forties. You’ve got a plum command and you’ll keep it for a few years then suffer a promotion and be dirt-side for much of the remainder your career.”
She knew those words were correct. How on earth would they occur to a fifteen year old on a remote island? If Kate did everything for a reason, and it looked like she did, why bother with herself then?
Kate was watching her closely. She continued, “I need influence to create what I want, to get what I want. I want you to be part of that.”
That surprised her. “Me? Why me?”
Kate smiled some more. “Honesty. Integrity. Can-do. S
trength. An ability to think before action and use information sensibly. Aggression, I identify with aggression. There are thousands out there like you. Most of the military. I haven’t met them, I’ve met you.” She got a smile for a few heartbeats. “I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to make sure you understand I am serious. Like I said, I could have avoided all this with a single cell call.”
All that didn’t change her concern. "Kate, what you are, what you've done is staggering. I'd call it, I'd call you, a weapon. I'd call you a serious threat."
That got a sober nod, "Of course I am. Imagine I made Bataan sail into a discontinuity in the fabric of space time and into the center of the sun. I’m not sure I could do it, but it is a possibility. Imagine if I made the electrical system of the whole ship short out causing total failure of all systems and burnout of the generators and wiring and that would be easy. Imagine if I initiated a fusion reaction under Bataan, that one is even easier. Those are gross effects of the same thing. I can feel, sense, almost touch Bataan from here. Have you any idea how draining that is, having that connection and having to deaden it else I get overloaded? Can you imagine what comes with that heightened awareness? I can sense, feel, connect with space and people around me and it’s a two edged thing. I feel the intrusion but I can also push back."
That still didn’t answer her question. “Kate, I understand you want a support network and with the president that’s huge already. But, again, why have you gone to all this trouble when a phone call would be all it would take to get me here with none of the other fiasco? You’ve got a grip on the president of some kind. No need for all the rest of this.”
The one word answer scared her; “Practice,” said Kate.
---oOo---
Statecraft
AK+3
She needed more people in her support network. That was the only reason she put up with this behavior.
She’d been sitting at school, minding her own business, then having these people thinking they could interrupt and behave as if the world belonged to them was unacceptable.
She stopped in mid mind-rant for a moment. ‘Oh dear’ she thought, ‘I behave exactly like that far too often.’
She really wished the Secret Service invested more heavily in deodorant and maybe some car cleaning products occasionally. The atmosphere from the sweat and bruised egos in the suburban she was sitting in left so much to be desired. Then, so did the way she’d been collected. Flashing their credentials, shouting at her, trying to dominate with line-backer lumps of muscle really didn’t impress, and when she’d ignored them, their indignation had been a pleasure.
The best thing was when they started to get physical. Her age was working so well for her, manhandling and collecting a minor from her school without any kind of arrest warrant or due-cause had so many things she could manipulate perceptions with. It was the gift that kept on giving. She’d seriously considered lisping just to rub it in.
So far she’d reamed them out and coming from her, little school girl her, had been even more difficult for them to swallow. Then she’d called their bosses big boss and he’d reamed them out which was even worse or better, depending on the perspective. She could almost feel the hatred aimed at her but they knew if they didn’t behave she’d make their lives a misery every time.
She was not going to even hint that the smell in the suburban annoyed her, showing any kind of discomfort would be a sign of weakness.
On arrival the vehicle was inspected closely, the agents identified themselves and her at the state department security gatehouse. Even though they were known, passes were checked. She didn’t move or acknowledge anything. They parked underground then Kate was flanked as they took the elevator to the lobby where she made their day complete.
She was presented with a form to fill out which she marginally did. Next of kin was her mother and alternate she put as "President Robert Young," and even gave his oval office switchboard number 'in case of emergency'. That caused a little consternation when it was checked. She ignored it.
The three agents with her smoothed over that small problem then through the security pillars she passed and of course they pinged. They always pinged it seemed, especially when she wanted them to. Carrying a tin flute in her bag would do it every time.
"Ma'am, we'll wand you and a female agent will give you a quick pat down then we can proceed."
Unfortunately that was not acceptable, not at all, and never would be.
She looked at the imposing bevvy of security staff with an annoyed glance, "No, not a chance, not going to happen. If that’s required then the meeting is canceled so I shall leave." She stood still, looking at them, waiting for the inevitable reaction.
Security 'flocked' to surround her and the intention was clear. Firstly was to control the situation, and secondly was to intimidate and then get compliance.
That was just not happening. At least, it didn’t happen the way they wanted it to.
"You will submit to that right now else we will place you into protective custody!"
She shook her head. "No you won't. I will leave. Get out of my way or face false imprisonment, assault and interfering with a minor charges. You realize I am a minor?" It was hard not to smile some times when she said that. What were they going to do? The logic in it was inescapable. Getting physical would just end so predictably.
She started to move but a security officer blocked her path. "Out of my way else I shall be forced to defend myself." She stood with her nose somewhat lower than the chest of the extremely large man who wasn’t moving.
The stand off lasted a few moments making the secret service agents wonder just how far it would go. Unfortunately it went a long way forward.
She closed her eyes for a few seconds while she focused her concentration. She felt around the area then she fount it, she knew they must have some kind of a duress system, some silent alarm.
The state department as did many major agencies maintained a 'ready team' anti terror force comprising a half dozen heavily armed security staff in protective gear. Other staff could join in, but might take time in a situation and may not even be armed. The ‘ready team’ was expected to deal decisively and quickly with lethal force to any serious threat.
Unfortunately then, and she tried not to show the effort in causing it to happen, somehow or other the 'duress alert system' was activated. That caused the ready team to leap to their feet then charge into action.
It took five seconds for the ready force to rush through the armored door, rush across the lobby then look for threat. Their sudden appearance caused a few muted shrieks, making heads turn toward their rushed approach.
All heads but one.
Kate stepped around the guard blocking her way, walked calmly back through the pillars then was crossing the floor when she was confronted by two men in riot gear carrying assault weapons. They blocked her path.
She looked at them, "Excuse me. Is there some problem?"
All she got back was was a shouted, "On the floor, NOW."
She shook her head. "Rude! No. I am leaving. I am fifteen, a school girl, I was invited here and you are treating me poorly so I’m leaving. Shoot me if you wish," so she stepped around them quickly and without a glance back walked out. The men raised their guns at the ready but were, basically, powerless. She posed no threat, she was small, blond, European and certainly no threat. The auto-doors hissed as she walked down the steps then started across the car park.
Still not looking back at all she kept moving, but she could feel the hysteria and anger behind her. Someone was not happy, and people thought she didn’t have a sense of humor.
The three secret service agents looked at each other, at the pandemonium in the lobby and at the retreating form. The leader, "AAAGGGHHH," she screamed and everyone heard. "I HAVE NEVER EVER SEEN A MORE DIFFICULT PERSON," she was screaming and close to coming unglued, jumping with fury. She realized she had little time. This girl would be gone soon, and to the President was most likely the n
ext place she was going to complain. That would be the living end.
"You two, call up to the Secretary Of State and get his OK to bring her through without a pat down, I'll run after her.”
---oOo---
Kate was neither happy nor upset. It was just another thing to get through and emotions wouldn’t change anything. It was just tiring and she could do without it. She was almost at the gatehouse when the woman Secret Service agent ran up behind her then was in front blocking her path.
"Ma'am, please come back. It seems we had different expectations about this. The Secretary Of State is waiting for you now."
Kate looked at the grown simmering in anger woman, trying to project the feeling of ‘sigh, I really am sick of this.’
She looked deep into the woman’s eyes and sighed slowly, then, "Very well but please, no more silliness." She turned and walked in silence with the woman agent. They were met at the entrance by security who handed her a 'Visitor' badge on a lanyard. She looked at it and then handed it straight back. "No thanks," and kept walking. Security looked at each other and at the still walking small form, and the glowering secret service agent, and wondered just what they had to do.
When the pillars pinged her she did not break stride. Security started to move but once glance from Kate, then from the Secret Service, dissuaded them of that 'silliness' as the Service was now thinking of it.
Into the lift, the went up to the top floor where she was first out and waited for the escorting agents. That should not have happened. They cordoned her in a loose box but she was so small and fast she moved around them and led.
It was demeaning they later thought. She ran rings around them. The agents walked as quickly as they could, caught up then presented to the assistant to SecState.
"Kate Smith for the Secretary," the lead agent said.
The Camper: First Contact and the Planet Tamer (The Stellar Universe Book 0) Page 7