“That’s disappointing,” he commented.
Stephanie pulled at her lower lip. “Except Nihilistic energy exists,” she said. “We know it exists because he had to pull it from somewhere—and because Hitler’s scientists had to get it from somewhere in order to learn how to use it.”
“Your ancestor did talk about death ceremonies,” BURT told her.
“Yes, but the alien didn’t have time for any kind of ceremony on the ship,” she replied, “so he had to draw it from around us, which means there was enough around us for him to use.”
“Or he had a battery,” he reminded her, but she ignored him.
“But not enough for it to react with the gMU and explode,” she continued thoughtfully. “Now, why not? And why couldn’t I see it? And does this mean there’s some here on Earth that’s not inside someone”
“Let’s assume there is,” BURT interrupted when he thought he could halt her mental sprint. “How would it work to make clean energy?”
“Well, you would need to have a way to bring the two types of energy together,” she murmured, pushed her chair back, and moved to an open space. “Burt, I need to be over a ley line for this.”
“A ley line?”
“Yup. Those are where the most energy is, so those are where we’re most likely to find all kinds of magic.” She paused. “Maybe?”
“It does seem logical,” he admitted. “Shall we?”
He twisted the reality around them and for a brief moment, she seemed to stand on nothing but air. Instinctively, she threw her arms out for balance and discovered she didn’t need to.
To her surprise, she discovered that Burt hadn’t put her right on the ley line but slightly to one side of it. She could see and feel the energy streaming past her.
“Your aim’s off, Burt.”
He frowned and floated slightly off to one side of her, farther from the ley line than she was.
“No, it’s not,” he told her. “I have located you precisely where I intended.”
“But it’s not where I intended,” she protested. “Why not?”
“I merely thought that putting you in the middle of a path for magical energy when you wish to find two forms of energy that explode might not be the best idea,” he told her, “but if you disagree—”
“No, no, no. That’s fine, Burt,” Stephanie told him. “It’s all good. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“And with your propensity for blowing things up...”
“Thanks, Burt. I get it now.”
Satisfied that she wouldn’t actually fall, she focused on how an engine worked. Car engines mixed fuel and air, compressed it, and lit it to create an explosion and the energy was used to power the vehicle. In nuclear engines, breaking the atoms released the energy as heat which was then used as power.
She assumed harnessing the energy would probably be the easy part and creating it would be the most difficult issue.
That, and containing the explosion, she thought but didn’t say it. What she wanted to do with magical energy was both the same and very different.
For one thing, when she focused the gMU into a usable form, she compressed it rather than broke it apart, but what she would do with Nihilistic energy would be a little of both. First, she had to combine the two and then she had to contain the explosion and store the energy it produced.
“No, that’s not right,” she murmured and shook her head decisively. “First, I have to find the nMU...”
“nMU?” BURT asked and waited for her to work it out.
“Sorry, that kinda slipped out,” she replied and shrugged. “At least it’s easier to say than Nihilistic.”
“I like it,” he said, adding the term to his database. “So, have you decided what to do yet?”
“Try not to blow up the world?” Stephanie quipped in response and sobered quickly. “First, I have to find the nMU.”
“Let’s assume you have that,” he suggested. “I’ll have it react like anti-matter to matter and we’ll experiment with it that way.”
“But what if it’s different?”
“Then we’ll adjust our experiments accordingly,” he said, “but if we don’t start with a basic idea, we’ll have no idea what we’re dealing with.”
“And that’s better than having the wrong idea?”
“When you have the premise, yes, and it’s certainly better than not starting at all.”
A strand of darkness wound its way through the wall of eMU in the ley line and caught her attention. It was more like a short ribbon, briefly there and gone in a flash of brilliance. She remembered reading that antimatter existed naturally but in tiny quantities compared to matter.
Maybe nMU was the same.
She thought about drawing it inside herself like she did with the gMU but remembered how it had felt during the battle and decided not to. Aside from the unpleasant memory, she didn’t want to explode, not even in the Virtual World.
“Next, we have to blend it,” she said and drew gMU from the ley line, even though Earth’s blue energy was more plentiful.
One kind of energy at a time, she told herself based on her assumption that if she could cause energy explosions with one kind, she might have something that could be used on every planet—although the same could be said for using gMU.
“Except that using gMU requires one extra step,” she muttered, drew the gMU in, and concentrated it in an internal vortex before she held it ready to release.
Next, she searched for nMU and this time, snatched one of the fleeting ribbons of darkness before it could explode. Cautiously, she eased it clear of the ley line and twisted it into a vortex of its own to create a miniature tornado directly ahead of her while she searched for more.
“Let’s try compression, first,” she called to Burt. “I need something like the cylinder in a car engine but without the spark plug. If we’re right, we won’t need one.”
Stephanie held the gMU ready to release from one hand and kept the nMU spinning while she sketched a vague outline in the air with her other hand. He filled the gaps in obligingly to create the cylinder and added two openings for the energy to flow through.
“Now, I simply need to add the energy...” She guided the nMU into one opening and a short stream of gMU into the other.
The concentrated gMU bounced into the chamber and ricocheted out the other side to collide with the nMU in its path.
“Uh—” That was as far as she got before the resulting explosion shattered the cylinder, impacted the ley line, and created a substantial crater in the ground below.
The shockwave also flipped her end over end through the ley line and out the other side. Using a small reserve of gMU to slow herself down and return to her original position, she looked at Burt.
“I think we need a containment chamber to store both energies in so we can release them into the chamber at the same time.”
He nodded and built a modified version of the cylinder, while she gathered what she hoped was enough nMU to try again.
“And we need to be able to control the amounts we release,” she added, so he altered the design once more.
“And a way to measure the energy output,” she amended not long after.
“Enough to power a light bulb for a few minutes,” she observed a few moments later when they’d added the smallest amounts of both energies into the chamber.
It was entertaining to watch the light bulb appear and light up at the end of the wires Burt had added to their virtual creation.
“Let’s try double that.”
This time, the energy released was far more than they expected, and emergency lightbulbs appeared one after the other in a long string.
“That was impressive,” he noted.
“We could try powering a car with it,” Stephanie suggested. “See how far it moved.”
The first car exploded.
The second ran well until the nMU ran out and it simply plummeted.
Stephanie frowned. “What if we
get the engine to pull the nMU in from the ley line?”
“It would mean driving through the ley line itself.” Burt looked unhappy. “Are you sure you want to do that?”
“What harm could it do?”
He shrugged but he wouldn’t get into the passenger’s seat.
“I think it would be better if I observed from out here,” he told her.
“Suit yourself,” she replied, “but you’re missing out.”
This time, the flash of light extended over both horizons and she woke up in a hospital bed with Burt standing beside her.
“Are you all right?”
“Are you holding my ear?”
He looked at the offending body part and held up the needle and thread in his other hand. “I have a foot still to attach after this one.”
“You are such a smart ass.”
“Yes.” He grinned. “Yes, I think I am, but I had very good teachers.”
“I’m banning you from spending time alone with the boys,” she grumbled and his grin diminished to a smirk.
Stephanie wasn’t sure that was much better.
“As if you could,” he told her and she rolled her eyes.
“Just put me back together.”
“Very well.”
The world shuddered around her and she was instantly back in one piece and in the chair in the courtyard, a lime milkshake in front of her. “What’s that?”
“Virtual calories. An apology for my sense of humor.”
“It’s green.”
“It’s lime.”
“How about ‘no.’”
“I can make it pineapple.”
“How about chocolate?”
Burt sighed. “You have no sense of adventure.”
“Not when it comes to mixing fruit with my shakes, I don’t.”
The milkshake turned a deep shade of brown.
“This had better not taste like anything other than chocolate,” she warned him and was relieved when it didn’t. Who knew the boss she’d originally thought of as the rigidly focused geek type could develop a sense of humor so thoroughly and so fast?
“So,” she said after a few sips. “How did we do?”
He arched an eyebrow.
“Right up until the third air car, I think we did fairly well,” he replied. “Although, on that last attempt, you succeeded in destroying over four hundred and thirty-two square miles of land. Now, while that may provide an eventual benefit, I can’t calculate that success yet.”
Stephanie groaned. “Great, so if I want to create a magical bomb, I have that covered.”
Burt smiled at her. “Well, as you so aptly pointed out, engines are merely minor explosions tied to mechanical tools to exchange the power from the explosion to other forms of—”
“Wait! Explosions. Minor explosions. We kind of had that covered with the air cars, but what if we tried to collide the two energies like they do with atoms in nuclear power plants? You do have the design for one of those, don’t you?”
He looked mildly alarmed. “I do, but you saw what happened with the air car.”
“Yeah, but this time, we’ll use a slightly different engine design. After all, the two types of energy don’t need to be compressed, right? They only have to meet. We could shoot them into the engine chamber and control the explosion that way. What could go wrong?”
“You mean, other than possibly causing the destruction of the planet if the ratio of nMU and gMU was off?”
She looked up from her shake and smirked. “Well, duh.” She set the shake down on the table. “Come on, Burt. Let’s give that a try.”
“I have a very bad feeling about this.”
Ten minutes later, she drifted amidst a newly formed field of asteroids and was the one who smirked.
“So,” he asked, “is that a ‘duh’ moment?”
The courtyard reappeared, complete with another milkshake on the table. This time, it was pink.
“Strawberry,” he explained and she scowled.
“What did I tell you about mixing fruit with my shakes?”
“It’s a standard flavor.”
She looked at herself and noticed the patina of black over her clothes. “And what is it with this?”
“It’s a memento from your last experiment.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny.” She swiped a finger through it and held the blackened fingertip to her face. “Is this soot?”
Burt’s smirk almost became a smile.
“At least you have your eyebrows.”
“Ugh! Do you mind?” Stephanie demanded and pointed at her clothes with a sharp motion of her hand. “How about cleaning me up?”
Burt sighed and made a quick gesture. When she glanced at her outfit again, she saw the soot was gone. Satisfied, she narrowed her eyes. “Let’s try this again.”
The next explosion only decimated half of North Am. The one after it was smaller and leveled Washington State. The third left a crater where Chicago used to be.
“I thought you liked your parents,” he teased.
“That’s why I moved them here,” she snapped back. “You know, this would be a lot easier if I could actually see nMU.”
“Why don’t we try that, then?” he asked. “I have done enough testing now to be able to duplicate the likelihood of the substance existing in any one area comparable to eMU and gMU. And clearly, you need more time to think about the engines.”
Stephanie sighed. “I do need to do some more research,” she admitted.
“Yuh think?” he prodded in tones so like her own that she couldn’t help laughing.
“Fine, we’ll try detecting nMU, then.”
This time, he located them in an area of woodland.
“And you’re sure it’s here?”
“As sure as I can be without having experienced it myself.”
She shuddered. “Trust me. You don’t want to do that.”
“If it’s so terrible, why are you so determined to use it?”
“Because it could be the greatest source of renewable energy ever,” she told him. “Because it makes sense in a strange kind of way. Because— Oh, I don’t know, but I want to find out. Okay? Now shut up and let me concentrate.”
Burt made a zipping motion over his mouth and she stared at him.
“Where do you learn things like that?”
“Frog,” he told her and she laughed again.
“I should have known.”
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and released it slowly. When she opened her eyes BURT could hear her ticking off the different types of magic on her fingers. “eMU, gotcha. gMU...”
She looked around and pivoted slowly on the spot as she searched. “Ha! Gotcha. Now...nMU...”
The search took much longer and she moved around the clearing, her gaze scrutinizing every leafy nook and shaded cranny. At one point, she took several hasty steps back and shot him a nasty look.
“That was unfair,” she snapped, and he widened his eyes in surprise.
“What? What did I do?”
“That...” She pointed and shook her index finger in the direction of one of the darker patches on an old tree. “That spider.”
“I assure you, I added nothing here that was not already here. I scanned this area and duplicated it exactly.”
Some of the anger left her face. “Well, that explains it, then.”
BURT inspected the tree and confirmed that there was, indeed, a spider there. In fact, there were several but he decided not to tell her that. “I can remove it if you like.”
“No.” She huffed out a breath and took another. “I need to get used to what it’s supposed to be like and they’re part of it, I suppose.”
“A most essential part,” he assured you. “I can send you the relevant—”
“No. No, thank you, Burt. I’ll take your word for it.”
“How is the search coming along?” he asked to divert her attention. “Have you had any luck?”
Stephanie shook he
r head. “No. It must be the energy we can’t see.”
She stared at the tree where the spider sat but she wasn’t looking at the creature. Instead, she simply focused on nothing as she thought of what to do next.
The wheels are definitely turning, he mused, pleased to finally understand the saying. Again, she interrupted the thought.
“I’ll try to move the energy I can’t see. Maybe it’s like the wind.”
Her brow furrowed, and she turned away from where the spiders sat. “I don’t want to disturb those.”
Cautiously, she swept her hands to one side and stared intently at a bush.
“Nope. Let’s try that with eMU to make sure.”
The blue energy swirled through the plant, lifted it out of the ground, and tossed it into a tree. “Oops.”
Burt snickered. “Are you still learning control?” he teased.
“Too many Wheaties,” she quipped in return and focused once more. “Now, the gMU.”
This time, she moved her hands more gently and the leaves on the next bush rustled. “Gotcha.”
She paused and frowned once again. “Okay, then. Let’s do this for the energy we can’t see.”
“I thought that was gMU,” he interrupted.
“Yeah, well, it’s only hard to see,” she retorted, called gMU to cloak her hand, and held it up to reveal a faint silvery glimmer that could easily have been overlooked. “See?”
“Indeed,” he murmured and let her get back to what she attempted to accomplish.
After an hour of trying several different things, she dropped to her knees—and bolted up again as she darted a hasty look in the spiders’ direction. “Agh! How does one create an explosion if you can’t find the damn fuel?”
Way above them, on Star Base Notaro, Chief Petty Officer Leo Winthrop hurried to the meeting room. It had been a fast trip from Earth’s surface and an unexpectedly early call at two a.m.
Why did I join the Navy, again?
By the time the junior petty officer ushered him inside, the other representatives had arrived.
“Ah, Chief, so nice of you to join us. Take a seat.”
“Thank you, sir.” He wondered why the commander couldn’t have simply let him slide in unnoticed when the man turned to the others and continued.
Witch Of The Federation III (Federal Histories Book 3) Page 13