by M J Kendrick
By Christmas, Carlton had established a viable carbon-silica composite that worked as it should. It had taken him far longer to find the correct combination, and he ended up running eighty-seven trials and experiments before he achieved a 72 percent transition ratio. He would never have been able to complete his experiments if it hadn’t been for Calisto’s iridium, for which he was eternally grateful. He was now ready for his next stage.
Lucy had been dancing on air for the past few months, which had spilled over to a renewed enthusiasm in her studies. She had forged ahead, and her results had reflected her natural ability to absorb vast amounts of knowledge.
All of the Smarties continued to live up to their names in their respective fields, and the boys’ nerdlab projects had all come on in leaps and bounds.
Anton’s flat laser was working well as he continued to improve its performance with every modification.
Haru had been working on “growing” microcircuit boards using Carlton’s nanotechnology so that it could be laminated into casings and used in between panels, negating the need for any wiring. Miles had been perfecting his sheet material composite formula and was making good progress, and Per had been redrawing the now very complex design for his aircraft.
It was two days before the Christmas break, and all but William had finished their last lectures and exams. The girls had already left for home, but the boys had all stayed to make the most of the time they had to continue with their projects in the nerdlab. They would all depart for the holidays in three days.
Carlton was at his bench going through his data, double checking that he hadn’t missed anything. His concentration was broken by Miles, who tapped on his open door and, leaning against the frame, said, “Carlton, do you need this anymore? I’m low on steel and could use it.”
Carlton looked up at Miles. He was wearing his usual grubby overalls, suggesting he was about to start melting another concoction in his furnace. He was holding the smaller ingot sample housing that Carlton had made. It was still bolted together.
Carlton saw the housing and immediately said, “No, of course, use it by all means.”
Miles smiled and said, “Thanks, bud,” and turned to leave. Just then, a realization flashed through Carlton’s mind in an instant. He had never removed the irradiated sample that he used for his second tests. It was still in there!
“Hang on a sec, Miles,” he shouted. Miles stopped and turned back to face him as Carlton leaped out of his chair and, with shaking hands, took the housing from Miles, saying, “I think I left a sample inside it.”
He placed the housing on his bench and began unscrewing the eight recessed allen bolts used to clamp the two halves together. When he lifted the top half off, it revealed the shiny sample he had painstakingly removed from the original block. He leaned back in his chair and looked up to the ceiling and said, “Thank you, god.”
Miles, looking totally confused, said, “Now are you done with it?”
Carlton jumped up and handed him the steel blocks.
“Yes, yes,” he said eagerly, “thank you, Miles, thank you very much.”
Miles turned and left with the blocks, shrugging his shoulders.
“We aim to please,” he said, and he returned to his furnace.
Carlton sat at his bench, staring at the small sample. He had completely forgotten about it, and he thanked fate for that. Had he remembered, it would have been recycled along with the main block long ago. He momentarily worried about whether the sample was technically still Omni’s—no doubt it was—but what was now sitting in front of him represented a massive leap forward in his program for refining and honing the discovery, and as far as everyone was concerned, this piece never existed. He decided to treat it as a gift horse.
It would have been a year before Quantum would be up and running to the point where he would be able to grow and irradiate a sample of his own. This forgotten sample meant he could start his experiments straight away and complete a sizeable amount of R&D ahead of that, leaving only the production and final development of any working prototypes to be Quantum’s first priority.
He would start as soon as the holidays were over.
***
Carlton arrived home to a quiet house. His parents were both at work and wouldn’t be back for a few hours, so he showered and relaxed in his loft lab. It wasn’t long before he was asleep, only to be awoken three hours later by the happy, excited screams of his mother as she ran up to see him.
“I saw Comet in the drive,” she said, hugging him tightly.
“Yeh, I got here a couple of hours ago, must’ve dozed off.”
“I’m so glad you made it home. Your father and I were worried you wouldn’t be able to come,” said Jean, wiping away a tear.
“I wouldn’t miss Christmas, Mom, it’s the best,” said Carlton cheerily. “Besides, I’m already going to have to miss next year’s teddy bears picnic because of finals.”
Jean smiled. “That’s the price you pay for being so brilliant. Come on, your father will be home soon, let’s go down and get some dinner on the go, and you can tell me all about Lucy!”
Carlton rolled his eyes mockingly.
“Well that didn’t take long to surface,” he muttered and followed his mother downstairs.
David soon arrived and met Carlton with an equally affectionate, if not bone-crushing, man hug.
When they were all sitting around the table, Carlton filled them in on MIT and Lucy. They were clearly pleased on both counts, and when Jean had finished playfully cross-examining him about Lucy in particular, Carlton asked how things were at the labs.
Jean looked at David, who immediately answered, “Oh, just the same, nothing new.”
Carlton felt a flush of cold sweat rush over him—he knew his parents. They were never this dismissive about the labs. He suddenly felt isolated. Something was wrong, things must have changed, and that worried him. It couldn’t be the discovery. He was sure of that; it was to do with them. He quickly played along.
“That’s great,” he said, skipping on.
“What’s the plan for tomorrow? I noticed we haven’t got a tree yet?”
Jean said, “No, we were waiting for you. We thought we could maybe go to the tree farm together and pick one out.”
“Which one?” asked Carlton. “Aren’t there two?”
“Oh, we’ll figure that out in the morning,” said David. “Anybody up for watching the game?”
The rest of the evening was taken up with football talk and updates on the Smarties until at 10:30 David and Jean announced that it was way past their bedtime and they all retired for the night.
As Carlton lay in his bed, he knew things weren’t right. His parents never went to bed that early, especially when it was Christmas or when he was home, and not having a tree by now was unheard of. He would wait until he was sure they were alone tomorrow to confront them.
***
The next morning the normal breakfast antics had returned as the relaxed family joked and teased each other. By ten, they had all wrapped up warm and were on their way out to find a tree.
As they entered the first tree farm, David began slowly driving up and down the rows and rows of trees only to drive out the other side and move on to the second, larger tree farm where he repeated his search. Carlton knew they had passed plenty of suitable trees and began to think that his father was looking for a secluded area, perhaps away from prying eyes.
After about half an hour, they found themselves tucked away between some dense firs. David and Jean leaped out of the SUV, and David silently put his forefinger on his lips to indicate to Carlton not to speak. They walked on for a few minutes until David stopped and, with Jean by his side, turned to face Carlton.
Carlton looked cautiously around and said, “All right, Dad, Mom, how bad is it?”
Jean looked up at David with an “I told you he would get it” expression.
David said, “It’s bad, son. We’re sure we’re being followed all the time. Work at bo
th the labs has become intolerable. They’ve put new people in that are military. Most of us are being squeezed out. We are constantly questioned about our research, and both of us have been asked to collate everything we know about the breakthrough science that we’ve developed. It’s got to the point that we feel very uncomfortable and have to be extra cautious. We’ve even been warned in no uncertain terms about talking to anyone about our work, even you.”
Carlton didn’t look phased, which surprised David and Jean.
“I had my own suspicions that were confirmed when we were at the lakes last summer,” said Carlton.
“Last summer?” said David showing confusion. “How? Even we didn’t know until a couple of months later, so what alerted you? Why didn’t you say something?”
Carlton paused and looked around.
“How safe are we here?” he asked quietly.
Jean raised one eyebrow, and with an intense face she said, “We’ll be fine for about an hour, then we need to show ourselves with a tree, but until then we’re out of anyone’s sight and earshot.”
Carlton decided to bring them in on the discovery and his intentions. He covered everything as quickly as he could, only leaving out the time-consuming explanations of his experiments as he knew they would figure that out.
As he finished, he said, “That’s why I’ve had to be extra vigilant and have been purposely looking for any coincidences or unusual attention. The enormity of what this represents means I mustn’t take any chances in order to safeguard the discovery.”
David and Jean had joined the “open-mouthed, stunned into silence” brigade at hearing what Carlton had to say.
Jean eventually said, “That explains why you picked up on everything so quickly.”
David put his hand on Carlton’s shoulder.
“Look, son,” he said reassuringly, “nobody can understand the importance and significance of your discovery any more than your mother and me. We’re glad you’re taking the route you have by keeping it separate, away and secret from anything here. Make sure it stays that way. You have our full support and always will, but don’t wait to see how we might feel about any decision you face, promise us to just do it. Follow your heart, and above all else, you must never speak of this openly again to us, the risk is too high. And don’t worry, we’ve become very good at reading between the lines whenever you FaceTime home. Now we had better find a tree pronto before we’re missed.”
Ten minutes later, the SUV was pulling out of the tree farm with a beautiful fir strapped to the roof.
***
The rest of the Christmas holiday was packed with fun, and they all enjoyed being together.
Carlton had been under strict instructions not to buy his parents gifts this year which, although made him feel a little guilty, also left him relieved, as finding the time to go shopping and money had been an issue. Clearly, that wasn’t the case for his parents, who had made a point of spoiling Carlton with far too many gifts of clothes, gadgets, a camera, just about everything.
As Carlton said his goodbyes and was sitting in Comet about to depart back to Wakefield, David handed him an envelope.
Carlton took the envelope and looked at his father.
David said, “Now, before you say anything, it’s just a little something to help you out up at MIT. We know you need it. Open it later.”
Carlton put the envelope in his pocket and gratefully said, “Thanks Dad, Mom, you’re the best.”
Only when Carlton had returned to the house and unpacked did he open the envelope. Inside was a small handwritten note saying “Follow your dreams” and a check for $100,000.
Chapter Twenty-One
The Smarties had decided to take a break from the intensity of their studies. In the three weeks since returning back from the Christmas break, they had all seen their schedules become saturated and their workload dramatically increased.
They knew that they were all being pushed purposely hard by the professors at MIT, and they also knew that their own rapid progress was the primary cause.
MIT very much wanted to prove that by isolating the gifted Smarties into their own separate stream, they could introduce the system for genius level students on a permanent basis.
The Smarties, of course, moaned to each other about how much they had to do but all admitted that it did make them feel somewhat special.
The girls could see the pressure everyone was under and had taken it upon themselves to break the monotony by cooking a special South African-themed meal. The Smarties were all ordered to stop for the evening and unwind. No one objected, grateful for the break.
Calisto had brought back a selection of South African wines from her recent trip home, and Lucy suggested the South African evening.
Calisto thought it was a fantastic idea. She was always happy to educate people about her fabulous homeland and with Lucy’s help they prepared a selection of traditional South African dishes that had joined the wines in impressively adorning the table that was now surrounded by a drooling pack of hungry boys.
“What’s this one again?” said Anton pointing to a large tasty looking circular sausage that he had his eye on.
“It’s called boerewors. It’s really good, but you’ll have to wait. There’s still a few more dishes to come yet.”
Lucy cleared a space and placed a steaming hot bowl on to a mat in the center of the table to a chorus of, “Mmmms.”
“This one’s called bobotie,” said Lucy. “It’s a traditional Cape Malay dish... See, I’ve been paying attention.”
Calisto brought the last two dishes over. Some fragrant yellow rice and a vegetable relish called chakalaka, which caused an immediate onslaught of jokes and singing from the boys.
As they all sat down and started to sample Calisto’s wines, the Smarties began to relax more, and the usual teasing and fun soon took over and continued until after midnight.
Every morsel of food had been eaten, and everyone agreed that it was one of the best nights they’d had at the house and eagerly agreed to make it a Smartie tradition, with Haru up next in four weeks’ time.
The kitchen resembled a bomb site. Lucy, Carlton, and William volunteered to clear up, and the tired but grateful Smarties left them to it, and all went off to their rooms. Once everything had been done, they sat back down at the table. They wanted to catch up with each other and with the other Smarties not around, this was a good opportunity.
“I’m ready to start the next phase of experiments,” said Carlton, “but at the moment I just can’t find the time. I think my first opportunity will be over spring break.”
William nodded, “We’re all flat out. We really need you to complete your tests before we can move on.”
Carlton agreed, “I plan to stay here over the spring break and work in the nerdlab. Things back home are a bit fraught; Mom and Dad are really worried about what’s going on in their labs with all the government people poking around, and I don’t feel safe doing anything with the discovery. Anyway, I’ve a good agenda worked out and should be able to get everything covered better from here.
“If I leave the deep analysis and concentrate on the experiments, I can quickly home in on the areas showing the most promise. In the meantime, I’ve been seriously thinking about Quantum and where to look, location wise. What we need is a large area that has room for a series of labs and a decent workshop. I was thinking about maybe looking for an out-of-the-way, rundown machine shop.”
“There are plenty of abandoned rundown airfields all across the U.S. I’m sure there would be some suitable hangar-type buildings that might work,” said Lucy.
“Yes, that could definitely work,” said Carlton eagerly, “and thanks to my parents I should have enough money. Although any property we get is going to need some serious refurbishment to make it suitable, and that can be costly.”
“If we look for smaller disused private airfields, we would stand a better chance of getting something affordable, especially if it’s tucked a
way off the beaten track somewhere,” said William. “I can start a search over the spring break to see both what’s available and what might become available. If we can identify any that haven’t been advertised and make a direct approach to the owner, it will help keep things out of the public eye. The less awareness about Quantum, the better.”
Carlton gave a very quick glance at Lucy. “See if there is one with a small hangar, it may be useful.”
William nodded, “Leave it with me.”
They went to bed feeling a growing excitement. They would soon have a major stepping stone covered to start Quantum on its path.
***
The week before spring break was stacked with exams. Carlton had barely seen any of the Smarties since their themed dinner, and, by the time he had defended his last dissertation, they had all drifted off home one by one as soon as they had finished.
Carlton was alone in the house and clear of any studies. He’d had to solely concentrate on his MIT work and keep his thoughts of his discovery from clouding his mind.
With a clear agenda and a Smartie-free nerdlab, he was able to refocus on the progression of his experiments. Carlton had raided his hobby collection and brought all of his rare earth metals back with him to Wakefield after the Christmas break, and with Calisto’s iridium, he would have enough to mix his own alloys.
For eight days Carlton worked relentlessly on the alloys and eventually he had managed to finalize a list of three suitable mixes. With the composite lens, the introduction of carbon had been a major factor in increasing the efficiency of the molecular bonding.
If he could replicate that at the alloy mixing stage, then, with a little magnesium, the carbon atoms should act like a flux, increasing directional flow. If he was right then a much thinner layer of lens composite would be all that was needed to create a marked increase in efficiency of the exerted force.
Carlton would use his ultrahigh pressure chamber under extreme heat for the process, which would take around thirty hours. He decided to start that experiment first and let it run its course while he worked on setting up his nano tube growing platforms.