Lisanne said, “Just a minute, I’m getting a call from General Cooper. AI, please put the call on speaker so we can all hear. Hello General.”
Cooper’s image popped up on the wall screen and his voice came over the room speakers, “Hello Ms. Gettnor. I don’t know if you’ve seen the news yet, but something dramatic seems to have happened in North Korea. Their political and military systems seem to have collapsed and the people are revolting. We don’t know yet what that means for your husband and daughter, but late yesterday afternoon the president authorized a mission to go in and get them. The CIA feels fairly certain they’ve located the compound where Vaz and Tiona are being held. Although our team isn’t completely ready yet, we’re desperately trying to get ready to proceed with the mission while the North Koreans are off-balance. Sorry I don’t have much time to talk, I just wanted you to know that your government is doing what it can.”
“Um,” Lisanne said, “AI, cameras on. General, as you can see Vaz and Tiona are here. They got back about an hour and a half ago, so please don’t risk your men on a mission to rescue them.”
Cooper’s eyes goggled. “What?! How did… Dr. Gettnor, how did you get away?!”
Vaz said, “There was fighting in our compound. I called the saucer. An explosion broke down the wall of our prison. We ran out to the saucer and rode it home.”
Tiona coughed to suppress her reaction to the fact that this was the second time her father had used exactly the same explanation that they’d worked out upstairs. Word for word, he’d said the same thing to Lisanne, now to Cooper, and she suspected, would repeat himself to anyone else who asked.
Cooper pressed for details, “What started the fighting?”
Vaz shrugged.
“How did you call the saucer? Did the fighting start at a time when you actually had internet access? I know you were able to get on occasionally.”
“Yes, it happened while I had internet access,” Vaz said, hiding by omission the fact that he had internet access at all times by then.
As Cooper continued asking questions in an effort to understand, Vaz’s responses became curt and uninformative and he started to look sullen. Tiona took over for him, dissembling to the best of her ability and hoping her father was paying attention and would remember her responses.
“Well,” Cooper said as he brought the discussion to a close, “welcome home. Your country welcomes you and we’re greatly relieved to find you unharmed. I’ve got to call the president and give her the good news! I’m sure she’ll want us to hold a press conference, so I’ll call you back with the details for that.”
“No,” Vaz said.
“No, what?”
“No press conference. I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got work to do.”
Cooper gave a little laugh, “I guess I forgot who I was talking to, didn’t I? Yes sir, no press conference, no folderol, we’ll do our best to keep it quiet… Welcome home.” He broke the connection.
Tiona saw her mother eyeing Vaz like she often did when she thought her husband was covering something up. To distract, her Tiona walked over and gave her mother a big hug and said, “It’s great to be back home.” She pushed her mom back out to arm’s length and found that Lisanne’s eyes were glistening like her own. After another moment, she said, “I’d like to spend more time here with you but…” she winked, “I’ve got a boyfriend I haven’t seen for a long time that I need to go visit.
Lisanne nodded, feeling pretty choked up. Then her eyes widened a little as she remembered something, “Nolan’s supposed to come over this morning to work in the lab downstairs.”
The house AI interrupted to say, “Mr. Nolan Marlowe is approaching.”
Tiona said, “Let him in!” as she stepped back around the corner and put a finger to her lips. Seeing that her dad was still standing where he’d be visible as Nolan came down the entry hall, she grabbed Vaz by the elbow and tugged him out of the line of sight.
Vaz frowned, “What’re you doing?”
“Shhh!” Tiona hissed. “It’s going to be a surprise!”
They all heard the front door open, then Nolan’s footsteps coming down the entry hall. “He called out, “Ms. Gettnor?”
Tiona stepped out in front of him, hands on her hips, “Some kind of boyfriend you are! I’ve been home for a couple of hours now and you’re just now coming to visit?”
“‘T!’” Nolan gasped, looking like he’d been poleaxed. His hands reached out tentatively, as if he feared she might disappear.
Tiona threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around him and whispering fiercely in his ear, “You ready to take me to the moon?”
As Nolan nodded, and tears poured down his cheeks, he reflected that they might be the first couple in history where her question and his answer could be taken literally.
Epilogue
The White House, Washington, DC – President Miles announced today that the North Korean government of Kim Sung-Jong appears to have collapsed. Although initial reports had suggested that Kim Sung-Jong had died of a heart attack, subsequent reports have indicated that a large number of his most important political supporters have also died, thus suggesting a pattern of widespread assassination.
Political prisons have broken open and dissidents seem to be well on their way to overthrowing the established government. The mood of the people of North Korea is said to be buoyantly optimistic, though fears that another dictatorship will rear its head run close under the surface…
Though many leaders of other countries have expressed the opinion that they wish regime change could have been brought about by peaceful means, few are lamenting the overthrow of one of the most oppressive totalitarian governments in history. The abuses, deprivations, and outright tortures that the North Korean people have been subjected to are legendary…
Of note, scientists Vaz and Tiona Gettnor, who the United States had claimed were kidnapped by North Korean agents, have been returned to their home. Although a North Korean spokesman continues to claim that they were never held in his country, the Gettnors confirm that they were held in North Korea and forced to work on their thruster technology for that country. It’s not clear how they escaped and government officials are refusing to comment. The secrecy and timing of their rescue is fueling speculation that the CIA extracted them through some kind of covert mission…
Gary walked out of Fred Yount’s office suppressing an internal rage. Yount had always been an asshole, but ever since he’d gotten his ass in a crack for firing Dante Gettnor he’d been even worse. Gary would never have asked for his old job back here at Axel VC if he’d known how Yount was going to be riding him. It seemed like Yount was using Gary to work out all his hate for Gettnor.
Yount had just had him in the office berating him for the apparent impending failure of a startup that Gary hadn’t had anything to do with funding in the first place. Then Yount had likened Gary to a man who jumped off a healthy horse and onto a sick one in the middle of the stream. When GSI had faltered, in Yount’s mind Gary had apparently jumped back onto Axel VC and brought it some kind of bad karma.
In his funk, Gary at first didn’t hear John calling his name. “Gary!” John said again.
Gary turned, John pointed to the big screen over his desk. Lashing out with a little bit of his own anger, Gary said, “What?!” His eyes turned to the screen John was pointing at.
His heart sank.
The screen said, “Gettnors rescued from North Korea!”
***
Art Mullins’ secretary took the call from Rachel Hammersmith while suppressing a moue of distaste. The woman kept calling even though Mr. Mullins really didn’t want to talk to her. Pasting on a smile, she said, “Hello Ms. Hammersmith, what can I do for you?”
“I’ve got some news for Mr. Mullins, does he have a moment?”
“I’m afraid Mr. Mullins is very busy today, can I take a message?”
Hammersmith gave her a sly grin that bordered on triumphant, “Just let him kn
ow that the Gettnors have escaped from North Korea and we can begin fulfilling our contract with Ford for the thruster technology whenever he’s ready.”
“Oh!” Mullins secretary said, realizing that Mullins really would like to talk to Hammersmith about that. Rather than admit she’d been stonewalling, she said, “That’s wonderful news. I’ll let him know and I would expect you’ll be getting a call back shortly.” So shortly that it’ll be embarrassing if I tell him right away, the secretary thought, I’ll give it fifteen minutes…
***
Tiona opened the door to her dad’s basement. He turned and gave her a little smile, “Hi Tiona.”
About as effusive a greeting as you ever get from my father, she thought. She grinned as she remembered the frustration of the people from the CIA who’d come by to “debrief” them when they were talking to her father. First they’d tried to have him come up to Langley, but he’d refused and when they tried to force him, General Cooper had run interference for him. The investigators had talked at him for hours, but he’d provided nothing more than monosyllabic responses. There were no answers to how he’d gotten on the internet, how he’d sent messages to his wife, how he’d summoned the saucer, or what he’d actually done for the North Koreans.
He did tell them that all of his and Tiona’s data was still on their computers, but he utterly refused to tell them how it had been hidden and encrypted.
To assuage the government’s concern that the North Koreans might actually be in possession of thruster technology, it had fallen to Tiona to describe her father’s sleight-of-hand and mislabeling strategies. Between Vaz’s reticence and Tiona’s blithe prevarication, as well as the CIA’s complete inability to get the North Korean side of the story, their debriefers never caught a clue regarding the fact that her father had not just engineered an escape, but had destroyed the prison they’d been held in, the prisons that’d held North Korea’s political prisoners, and the entire government which had been oppressing them.
Tiona looked up at the screens her father’d been looking at when she came in, “What’re you working on?”
“A probe to go to Alpha Centauri.”
Tiona felt a prickle in her scalp, “Really?” she breathed. “How long would it take to get there?”
Vaz shrugged, “It depends on how dense dark matter is in interstellar space. If it’s dense enough to support two G’s of acceleration all the way there, the probe could get there in 4.88 years.” He paused and tilted his head a little, “Well, only 2.25 years would have passed for the probe, though what matters to us is how long it would seem to take for those of us back here on Earth.”
“What would it do when it got there?”
He frowned, “I’m not sure,” he said sounding uncertain. “I was thinking we should ask NASA. We could make it big enough to carry a lot of instruments. It could investigate any planets however they’d like them investigated, then return to us in less than ten years with the information.” He looked at her questioningly, “Do you think they’d rather go to a different star?”
“I don’t know, we’ll have to ask them.”
“Do you think they won’t want to work on a mission that would take ten years?”
Tiona laughed, “They’ve set up missions taking that long that didn’t even leave our solar system. I’m sure they’d love to send something to another star!” She chewed her lip for a moment, “Um, what about interstellar hydrogen? At that speed isn’t it going to cause a problem?”
Vaz blinked as if just remembering something. “Oh yeah,” he said, sounding sad. “Yeah, hitting even the two hydrogen atoms per cc you find in deep space at near light speed would generate way too much radiation. I don’t think that problem can really be overcome, but I was having a lot of fun designing the probe so I’ve just kept working. Do you have any ideas on how to block the radiation?”
Tiona shrugged, “Maybe you don’t have to block the radiation if we’re not sending people?”
“No,” he said, sounding disappointed. “It’d generate enough radiation to destroy all the electronics too.” He turned to look at the diagrams he had up on his screens, “I really should think more about whether there is some way to electromagnetically deflect the hydrogen before I waste any more time on the design.”
Then he shook his head disconsolately, “But, I’m afraid it won’t be possible.”
***
President Miles turned her gaze to Darby Alston, the director of the CIA, “Darby, I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but just what the hell do you think happened in North Korea?”
Alston pursed his lips, then said, “We really don’t know Ma’am. Hell, the North Koreans don’t really seem to have any idea what happened. What we do know is that Kim Sung-Jong and about 100 of his closest supporters died in the wee hours of the morning. This was quickly followed by a collapse of all of their military command and control communications, though no one seems to know what caused that either. Their political prisons were broken open by common, over the road, transport trucks that were driven through the fences and into the guard houses and barracks. Those prisoners and hordes of unknown dissidents quickly rose up to overthrow the government.” He nodded at General Cooper, “The compound where they were holding the Gettnors was apparently also involved in the revolt. The confusion there allowed the Gettnors’ saucer to land and retrieve them.”
Miles frowned, “Obviously Kim was assassinated along with his cadre. How was it done?”
Alston shrugged his shoulders, “None of our people are in any position to examine the bodies and no one there seems to know. There are rumors of poison, witches, aliens, the Russians, the Americans, and the Japanese, but really, no one has a clue.”
Miles lifted an eyebrow, “Aliens?”
Alston made a dismissive wave, “Rumors that many of the victims have three little burns on their chest or head, spaced out in a neat triangle. Small ritual fires that started somewhere in the houses of the victims, usually without burning the house down.” He snorted, “Flying pyramids, witches’ markings, it’s all a bunch of clueless guessing.”
“And some hacker took down the military communication system?” Miles asked.
Alston chewed a lip, “It seems like it was some kind of a virus that took down almost all of their military microprocessors. Not just communications, their tanks, trucks, helicopters, aircraft, and missiles, none of them would even work! Whatever did it resisted all of their efforts to reboot, sanitize, wipe and reinstall, or otherwise reset their systems. It must have been done by some hacker working for the dissidents though, because equipment in the Revolution’s control has started functioning again.” He shook his head, “There are rumors that the members of the Revolution don’t even have to do anything, the equipment just starts working again once they’ve arrived. Obviously, this can’t be true, but however it’s being done, it’s being kept very secret.”
As he listened to them talking, Cooper started thinking about how Vaz Gettnor had used the Internet to shut down General Harding. How the NSA spooks had found it almost impossible to believe that he’d done what he’d done to their computing systems without leaving any tracks. How his computer had data on it that the NSA couldn’t find. How, on that day that Cooper, Eisner, and Marlowe had visited to talk about weapons, that Gettnor had said, “anything can be a weapon.” For a little while, he considered bringing it up, but then he decided that he had absolutely no proof and that, if he mentioned it, everyone would just decide he was crazy.
One man couldn’t possibly overthrow a government without any help, right?
***
Tiona stepped down; then turned around to look back at Nolan. She held up a finger asking him to wait as she backed away. Then she crouched, boosted the lift on her flying harness and jumped high into the thin air above the dusty reddish-brown plain. Nolan stepped out of the airlock of the big saucer so he could track her with his AI’s video cameras.
As she slowly floated back down she s
aid, “Now that, was one giant leap for a woman and for womankind.” A minute or so later she landed lightly on the surface of Mars about thirty meters from Nolan. Even at that distance, he could see she had a huge grin on her face.
The End
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Author’s Afterword
This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I have always been partial to science fiction that posed a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be scientifically plausible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t thought to be possible. Then you ask, what if something (such as faster than light travel) were possible, how might that change our world?
This story poses several “what ifs?” First, as in “Tiona” it proposes a reactionless drive in which thrust is generated by accelerating dark matter to produce thrust. Then it asks “what if” we had such a reactionless drive, what effects would such technology have on our lives? It certainly would find more uses than just for spaceflight.
The second “what if” hearkens back to “Vaz.” What would it be like if the preeminent genius of our times was a socially impaired person on the autism spectrum? There are socially impaired geniuses out there somewhat like this, though none with the capabilities of a Vaz. How might such a person deal with being kidnapped, could he really take down a nation state? With “hacking wars” currently underway in our world it’s actually a little frightening to contemplate the possibility of a sociopath with the brilliance to do such things.
Disc Page 26