Even in her first year, you could see her personality developing. Tricia was curious about everything, she had to be involved in everything, and in her young mind, it was only appropriate she be in the center of everyone’s attention. Will and Evelyn were at a loss as to where her precocious personality came from, they were both so reserved, and neither of them cared for the spotlight their positions forced onto them.
Staffing the new ships with military personnel had thinned out the population on the Titan affording the Inman family more space for expansion. Their newly enlarged three bedroom two bath home was the same size as other families in the fleet received as their families grew.
The basic space allotment allowed one room for parents and one room for up to three children of the same sex. VIP’s were offered larger than normal spaces if they needed it, but Will and Evelyn chose the standard size suite, it was all they needed. The new home did have one extra room where Evelyn and Will could work on critical projects without having to add more working hours away from their growing family.
Each living space included a kitchen with attached dining room, a living room, a bathroom off of the master bedroom and a centralized bathroom for the children. Couples could arrange the space any way they chose if they chose a larger dining room and a smaller family room they scheduled a time for a tradesperson to make the adjustments to the modular living space systems making up their home.
The matter synthesizers and 3D printing systems made short work of furnishing and equipping a home. Ordering furniture or kitchen appliances required two days advanced notice, but the process was painless. The person ordering the item went onto the fleets Intranet, selected the item they wanted, chose the configuration and submitted it. Within two days the item was transported to the closest arrival bay and delivered right to their suite, much like the old post office system back on earth but with the except the mail delivery was done by robots running overhead the catwalk hallway system.
The education system the fleet used was a modified version of the one used one earth called Potential Vocation System or PVS. PVS was somewhat successful on earth and earlier on the orbiter. Soon after the fleet set out on her historic journey, educators began to focus a student’s education on his or her passion. Identifying one's passion is something which is not possible for every student at every age. Passion for a career direction starts showing up as students are exposed to and learn more about what different careers might be like by actually doing things.
Finding the right career path meant assigning students to work with adults in all sectors of the workforce. Because of the increased life span, educators and students could be integrated into the workforce and given high levels of attention.
What educators discovered is that every student is gifted, smart and driven. The education system had failed many children in history past because it failed to cultivate the amazing genius inside every human. The drive inside of a human comes alive when they are achieving things they are well equipped and love to do.
Computers and robots fulfilled menial tasks, and humans performed critical functions requiring specific skills, attitudes, and intellect. It was this fleet-wide policy which kept people engaged in what they loved doing.
It was through this educational system the science and engineering teams grew with new and motivated talent who naturally engaged with the mentors with which they loved working.
Several of these young geniuses on Bennett’s team achieved one of the more significant breakthroughs in the history of the fleet as they were finally able to successfully reverse engineer the power systems taken from the Silirc ship long ago. Fresh eyes and minds were not hindered by what they knew and not having to unlearn something gave them the distinct advantage needed to crack the code in the Silirc power systems.
The almost unlimited power of the crystal based power supplies made shortening the firing interval of the hopper drives a matter of advancing the art. Projections suggested the new power systems would shorten the Hopper Drive firing intervals to a level which would make intergalactic travel a practical reality. The new increases in speed meant the fleet would begin exploring the Andromeda galaxy within five years.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit;
Genius hits a target no one else can see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
Chapter Nine – Genius of the Young
T he modifications bridge officers had recommended made things much easier to manage the fleet. Balancing work and home life were difficult given the demands placed on the Inmans. Will Inman and Evelyn Reeder were keenly aware of the need to do a better job of time management. In some ways, the extended life span took away some of the urgency often associated with getting important things done.
Will entered his living space to happy faces and a frustrated wife as Evelyn came up and gave him a dutiful kiss on the lips, stared into his eyes and told him “you forgot to meet with those new young scientists who just earned their doctorates. You must make time, I have gone over their research and what they are discovering is groundbreaking stuff you need to review. I think what they are doing could revolutionize human space travel.”
“I meet with these kids all the time; they have always got ideas about things we cannot do without and it ends up consuming lots of time and energy” retorted Inman. “I know they were your students, are their ideas groundbreaking or are you just trying to get them a break?”
“These kids are like none of the other doctoral candidates I have ever had. Not only do they get the science, but they have also advanced it beyond what we ever dreamed. You must meet with them; I believe they are a big part of our future.”
“How many of them are there.”
“The team consists of six, but three of them are not just smart, they are beyond smart, they have intuitive smarts, they know things no one should know, things just connect in their minds, and they come up with ideas which are highly theoretical but realistic. Will, they need access to real world lab time, to work with the systems we have in place now to test and adjust theories. I promised not to dilute the content with my ideas about what they are working on; they want you to hear it from them. Please comlink them and set up a time to see them, contact Joseph Blume; he is the team lead.”
“Jewish?”
“One of them is Jewish, what does that matter. These kids are brilliant. They all have as close to photographic minds as I believe is possible. All three of them are beyond amazing mathematicians, and all three of them know more about the shell drives and FTL theory than anyone else I have ever met. It seems to be second nature to them, and they have some discoveries you need to consider. Trust me; you will give them full access to lab and engineering resources.”
“That good, ok” replied Inman.
“Joseph Blume” Inman paged through his comlink.
“Yes sir, this is Joseph” he replied.
“Joseph, can you collect your team and meet me in the bridge conference room please?” Inman requested.
“Now?” queried Joseph.
“As soon as you can get everyone together, notify me when you are ready, I am in the suite next to the conference room, and I will walk over as soon as you let me know you are ready.”
“Ok sir, I will get right on it.”
Will entered the conference room to the smiles of six very young students; none of them could have been over sixteen.
“Which one of you is Joseph?”
“I am sir” responded a thin, smiling young man.
“Please introduce yourselves and give me a thirty-second brief of your education, your age, and the ship you live on and who your parents are.”
One by one each member of the team recited his or her background.
Under the circumstances, Inman felt it was only right to give this young team a little background on himself. It seemed so natural to spend more than a few minutes talking about Evelyn Reeder and her accomplishments, but he came alive when he had a chance to talk about his two children.
/> Inman was impressed with the level of maturity in this group; the oldest of the group was twenty years old, a shy but stunningly beautiful redhead very deliberate in her communication.
“Evelyn tells me you guys have something important to tell me about, I want to hear what you have to say, but remember, I am a military leader, not a scientist, I do not speak your lingo so make sure it is in English.”
“English is the only language any of us speak sir” came Joseph’s reply.
Inman broke out laughing aloud; everyone else forced a nervous laugh as they looked around the room to see if anyone else figured out how this was so funny to the commander.
“Just keep it simple” Inman requested.
“Yes sir, we will try” Joseph started.
“Sir, we have been working on three projects. The simplest one is a sensor array which would give us some visibility beyond our current limited capability; the second one is a method of detecting ships within many light-years of our location and the ability to track them. Our third is the most important of the three, we have developed a theoretical model which we believe will allow us to move objects to another place and point in time” reported Joseph.
Inman was stunned. If the introduction had not been through Evelyn, he would have dismissed them all on the spot.
“Ok, first, I have had our brightest and best working on the sensor array issue with hopes of detecting other species for many years, and they have come up empty. Secondly, I have never even heard of anyone speaking of time travel in a serious conversation before. If Evelyn had not introduced me to you, I would have dismissed you all as a bunch of fun loving kids.”
“We understand sir, but we have the math and the lab results which lead us to believe our theories are viable and two of them are easy and fast to implement. As soon as we can implement them, we will be able to start the calibration of the dimensional time travel device. Time travel will not come quickly, but we believe it is very possible.”
“Explain in layman’s terms, the best you can, how time travel will work.”
“We have been experimenting with the different dimensions Doctor Bennett has exposed in his work with the shell generators. As you know we use one of the dimensions, he has discovered to port things from one place to another. We have cataloged the physical attributes of four of the other dimensions, and one of them is remarkable. We call this dimension the Bennett dimension.”
“Very fitting” complemented Inman.
“We have discovered this dimension is different from the porting dimension we use for the TRay weapon and to port short distances. This new dimension is present everywhere in the entire universe. In other words moving something with this new dimension between one point and another point is instantaneous no matter what the distance no matter what the location. We believe this dimension will allow us to send and retrieve array probes, or anything else for that matter to and from any location we want.”
“How sure are you and how big of an object can you send?”
“Power requirements limit how large the item can be, but an array size object is very possible. We can build what we call an array jukebox which will load, send, retrieve and process the data in microseconds; it can give us the visibility we need to keep us safe.”
“Yes, but what does this have to do with time travel?”
“Commander Inman, I want to let Elizabeth Murphy. Elizabeth discovered the time travel dimension; I would like her to explain how it works” requested Joseph.
“Hello, Elizabeth,” Inman remarked.
“Hello, sir. The time dimension works much like the Bennett Dimension. The difference is we can calibrate it to send objects to different places and different times” explained Murphy.
“Joseph said it was going to take longer to get this one working?”
“Yes sir, we know how to activate it, but we do not know how to calibrate it. In our limited lab, we were able to send small objects somewhere and some place in time, but we have not been able to figure out how the math works to determine where they will end up and how to get them back.”
“How will giving you more resources help you calibrate the process?”
“The Location is easy to set; it works just like the Bennett dimension settings. The time dimension, however, is controlled by something like the light aperture in a camera except with precision to a million decimal points. The time setting will require us to launch probes, lots of probes. Once the probes start appearing in the location we send them, we can figure out the calibration and build time travel devices equipped with shell generators which we can send into the future or the past” explained Murphy.
“How big do the shell generators have to be?”
“The shell generators are necessary because we need to be able to access the dimension within the shell, it does not have to be large, and the body armor shell will work fine. Even with the shell, it will take powerful crystal power packs to support the round trip.”
“Ok, so I am starting to get the picture, you need unrestricted access to manufacturing engineering, supplies and resources to find out if this stuff will work?” queried Inman.
“Not to see if it will work commander, just to build and calibrate it” corrected Joseph.
“You seem pretty sure” retorted Inman.
“It is all just a matter of resources at this point sir.”
“Let’s back up a little; you said three things” queried Inman.
“Yes sir, the third is more of a byproduct of the others” replied Joseph. “We will be able to send a sensor array into the future to our point of arrival or the point of arrival of an alien ship to detect their intent, kind of like an introduction before it ever really happens.”
“Amazing, I will clear it with Bennett and Reeder, you will have complete access starting tomorrow to all you need to make it happen. We will make this a fleet-wide priority; you are now on the clock!” Inman smiled.
“Sir, what are the priorities,” asked Joseph.
“The sensor arrays are something we need right away, we are flying in the blind out here, and we need to be able to know more about where we are going. Can you start work on everything simultaneously?”
“Yes sir but the time travel calibration will require the use of at least a shuttle to retrieve probes as they appear. When we get done with the sensor jukebox, we will know when we have to pick them up. It also means we will have to be at a full stop for at least a year while we calibrate everything.”
“Ok, when you are ready to start the calibration we can set up camp on a safe planet for the time you need to make things happen.”
“Perfect!” piped Elizabeth as her excitement got the best of her.
“Thank you, all” offered Inman, “your team's contributions will impact all of our futures, save lives and improve our standard of living considerably.”
“One last thing” Inman interjected, “what about the time paradox everyone has always warned about?”
“We will be experimenting with the cause and effect paradox as we calibrate the system, and once we have a better grasp on just what the effects are we will provide a complete report” replied Murphy.
“At this point, we are moving ahead with the assumption we cannot do anything in the past which would alter our future. We believe there will have to be strict guidelines in place as to what interaction with the past can take place, if any” explained Murphy. “Everything we do in the past at this point would be observed for educational purposes only, correct history books and who knows what else” explained Joseph Blume.
“I assume you are all graduated and have been enlisted in military service” Inman queried.
“Yes sir, all of us except Bo Stockman Jr. Bo’s induction date is next week.”
“That’s right Bo; you just graduated yesterday, we are all very proud of you, your mom and your dad were brimming at the ceremony, it was a joy to watch you grow up into such a fine young man. How does your dad feel about you going into
science, you obviously have the mind for it” queried Inman.
“They are most interested in the upcoming wedding” explained Bo, “Elizabeth and I are planning on getting married next month.”
“This is your Elizabeth!”
“Yes, sir.”
“It’s about time I got to meet her; you never bring her around when Evelyn and I visit your parents.”
“It’s my fault” replied Elizabeth, “School was all consuming.”
“She completed three doctorates simultaneously” offered Bo Jr.
“Three, why three at the same time Elizabeth?” queried Inman.
“All three disciplines were important in the development of the time dimension. Working with your wife and Dr. Bennett and Dr. Cerro made it easy to accomplish, they are beyond amazing” replied Elizabeth.
“Same thing she says about all of you and congratulations to both of you, we are proud of both of you and your accomplishments” offered Inman.
“Thank you, sir” both of them replied.
“Joseph, I expect weekly updates, and in-person updates whenever you have any issues you need me for or with significant breakthroughs. I will set my Comlink to allow you to contact me directly.”
On the way out the door, young Bo and Elizabeth exchanged glances, and she nodded toward the Commander which caused Bo to stop in his tracks.
“Sir, can Elisabeth and I speak to you about something personal?” queried the young Bo Stockman.
“Of course” replied Inman.
“Sir, Elizabeth parents have both passed on, her mother died on a shuttle in battle, and her father was killed in an accident while inspecting the construction of UB6,” Bo said with an empathetic inflection in his voice.
“Sir, I have been so busy with school I have not made as many friends as I would have liked to, the only adults I know are Bo’s parents, and it does not seem right to ask Mr. Stockman to give me away. Would you consider giving me away sir” Elizabeth said in a soft, shy tone?
Battle Group Titan: Beyond Warp ((Battle Group Titan Series Vol 1)) Page 11