by S. M. Savoy
He hadn’t realized how tense Sara had been. Her state of unhappiness had been so constant that he’d thought it normal but now with her relaxing her hold, he felt the difference and it made him angry with himself that he’d done nothing to help her earlier. She glanced at him with worried eyes. The magic continued to swirl happily. It liked his anger. She didn’t. He made a dismissive gesture and she continued to speak with Amy, but the small worry remained. It would remain until his anger faded.
But he was okay with her small worry. He’d be more worried if she didn’t give a shit what he felt, and she knew he’d be angry that she was hurt. He just wished he could help her keep her own magic under control.
The thought distracted him from his anger. He was pondering his options, which were frustratingly limited, until the call ended.
He handed her an orange juice with a straw. “Want some fruit?” Without waiting for a reply, he handed her a small cup of melon.
The open screen by her knee showed images of her game level. “You’re sure you’re up to working?”
“My mind isn’t tired, just my body. And it isn’t really work either. We’re doing this for fun, remember? Amy and I are just finishing our game design. Our level is completely finished and in the hands of the programmers. Amy will oversee it for me.”
“Okay, just don’t overdo it.” He kissed her neck lightly. “I want you better soon.”
She smiled and reached for him. A matching smile on his face, he lifted her into his lap and cuddled her close, enjoying her happy contentment. His head resting on hers, they both dozed off.
* * *
Charlie returned to the academy to sleep in his room on Sunday. He’d been nervous leaving her, but she remained content with Joy’s company.
The commandant called Charlie into his office Monday morning. “I was sorry to hear your fiancé is so ill. I’m relieved it wasn’t another purposeful attempt to harm her. The panic attacks she suffers from are more understandable. This is the third attack I know of. Have there been others?”
Charlie hesitated.
“Never mind, it’s classified, I’m sure.” The commandant rose from his chair and paced. “I’ve requested more armed guards at your lab whenever she’s on campus. I have a responsibility to ensure the safety of the midshipmen and I’ve requested better security for all of you.” He paused a moment. “Sealed records, special orders, the privileges you receive here all indicate more goes on with you three than I’m told. Without revealing classified secrets, can you tell me how much of a danger you three pose to the rest of the student body?”
Charlie lifted his hands and bit his lip. Guilt was a ball of ice in his stomach.
The commandant nodded. “Is the threat to Doctor Mitchel and Doctor Simmons, and you’re all targets because you’re close friends, or are you yourselves targets individually?”
“We’re targets for ourselves,” Charlie said and offered no explanation, telling himself it was stupid to feel guilty. Telling the commander would make no difference at all. It could endanger them, but logic didn’t break apart that hunk of cold.
The commandant paced to his window and spoke with his back turned. “I’m aware, of course, that the three of you do exceedingly well in your classes and that you work in their lab with them. Are you holding back academically to fit in better here?”
“No, we aren’t as academically gifted as Oz and Sara are.”
“We can supply you with private classes and instruction if you need it,” the commandant persisted.
“We receive that at the lab,” Charlie assured him. “Our classes here suit us very well. Sara and Oz teach us too. We don’t have the...” He paused, looking for the right word. “Vision they do, but we can understand when they explain it to us.” Charlie paused again. “I can understand their equations and logic when they explain it to me, but I can’t envision it on my own. I doubt anyone but they could. They spend a lot of their time just thinking.”
The commandant turned to him smiling. “The great minds of their generation.”
“The great minds of this century. The things they think of are amazing. The things they make are incredible. What they’re trying to do is world changing.”
The commandant frowned and returned to his desk. “I’m aware of their security devices and their game. The computer Doctor Simmons makes is amazing, but not world changing.”
“I wish I could tell you what my, um, Sara does, but it’s classified. What she does— what she thinks— how she thinks, will change the world. I guarantee it.”
“If she lives long enough.” The commandant rose an eyebrow.
Charlie winced. “Yes. She’s learning as fast as she can, trying as hard as she can to bring her thoughts to practical use. The more success she has, the more danger she’s in, and she’s been pretty successful.”
The commandant sighed. “I’ll admit, I’ll be glad when you’re all someone else’s problem. Curiosity is killing me. I look out my window and see this new building bustling with activity. My midshipmen talk about the game and what Doctor Simmons can do with his computers, and I wonder what else you’re doing in there.”
Charlie lowered his gaze to his feet. “As soon as circumstances permit, and clearance is given, you’ll be the first person we tell. Sara would be thrilled to show you the game whenever you like. I’m sure we could get clearance to go over our security projects with you as well.”
The commandant laughed. “I’ll take you up on that. Is she well enough for visitors?”
“She is.”
“A visit from me won’t alarm her?”
Charlie smiled in relief. “Not at all. I warn you, she’ll talk your ear off. She’s not well enough to keep up with her contacts, but she’s well enough to think. She gets going on these really obscure points we have a hard time following. Her doctors will let her resume her calls next week. Trying to keep up with her thought process is exhausting. We all need a break.”
The commandant chuckled and dismissed Charlie.
* * *
Two days later the commandant visited the lab. Two armed guards in Marine uniforms ushered him in. Oz greeted him and gave him a tour, showing him the classrooms first.
“I’m teaching all the classes currently.” Oz gestured to a whiteboard in the front of the room. “Sara usually teaches theory and programming. I usually teach hardware.”
The commandant viewed the board a moment before turning to examine the desks. Each desk held a magnifying glass with an adjustable light clipped to it and small tools set neatly in a holder. “What are they making?”
“Their own wristcomps.” Oz flicked his wrist and opened a flatscreen. “I show them each component and they learn how to install it and test its function. In Sara’s class they learn how its programming works and how to make their own programs.” A tap of his fingers on his virtual keyboard changed the picture. “The midshipmen come up with ideas of their own too. Paul Hayden designed this.”
“What is it?” The commandant leaned forward, narrowing his eyes as he examined Oz’s screen.
Oz tapped the picture, and the device began moving. He tapped it again and it grew larger, making it easier to see. Another tap stopped the movement. The close-up showed fan blades embedded in cloudy blue glass laced with fine gold wires in an intricate pattern.
“When it’s finished, it’ll be an engine. Paul designed those blades and helped with the wiring. That first picture was its actual size. It will power a flying security device.” Oz opened another picture. “This too is its actual size.”
“It’s so small. What will it do?”
Oz opened another picture. “We’ll make it look like one of these.” He tapped the bugs on his screen. “It’ll fly or crawl and transmit or record video and audio signals. We’re making literal bugs.”
“How long is the battery life on something this small that can move around?”
“That wiring was the battery. We don�
�t call it that though because battery implies something that needs to be recharged or replaced— something that runs down. We call it a skein. Those skeins drawn in the energy and feed it to the engine. The skeins you saw there will provide enough power to move the bug continuously indefinitely. If the bug is squashed or stepped on or destroyed it would release the equivalent power of a strong static shock. You’d feel it, but it wouldn’t be enough power to actually harm anything.”
“You’re making these now?” The commandant said in astonishment.
His tone made laughter bubble up Oz’s throat, but he managed to keep his voice level when he said, “We have one prototype, yes, and we’ll make more soon. We’re working on making bigger skeins now to power bigger objects, specifically a car.”
“A car that wouldn’t need gas?”
“It wouldn’t need gas, but right now it would have to run constantly and the energy discharge in a crash would be dangerous. We have to work out those kinks.” Oz changed the picture again. “This is one of our security devices your midshipmen work on. We still just call it a buoy. It runs on a similar skein, but underwater. Captain Williams on the Truman is testing it for us. We add in features he wants, and we send it back. I can show you all its specs, your fully cleared. In general, it sees and hears underwater. It moves relatively slowly, twenty-five knots is about its top speed, but we should be able to significantly increase that once we master our version of a battery, what we call a source. It uses our computers and transmits data through the water to this receiver.”
Oz handed him another small black box. “That receiver decodes the information from the buoy and makes it available to anyone with access. We’re using our own satellite system now, which of course uses our computers and encryption.”
He changed the picture to show a satellite. They were crude devices. He hadn’t the time to rework them from scratch and had basically just modified existing technology, which seemed primitive to him. He saw the flaws, but he also saw the potential. It was like that with everything now and very distracting.
He hated to leave his lab because a simple trip for coffee could distract him with ideas for a better cappuccino machine for god’s sake.
The commandant clearing his throat brought his attention back to the conversation at hand. He and Brenda had installed the rest of the satellites, and he hoped it wouldn’t occur to the man to ask how they’d launched them. They now had three permanent satellites in orbit as well as more ADCs, which as far he knew no one except a few raid members knew about. He’d need to design something capable of launching a satellite though because someone was bound to wonder someday.
He typed a note to his Valory as he said, “Our wristcomps use our satellites as well. We can talk to anyone, anywhere.”
Oz showed the commandant every security device they had and were working on.
He finished the tour in Sara’s empty classroom. “We’re dedicated to security here. Part of security is identifying a threat, that’s what I do mostly. The other part is stopping it. That’s what Sara does.”
Explaining it so simply made him rethink his position on her air shield. She was concerned with stopping threats and perhaps it was better to let her have her way. He’d wanted the shield to reflect damage, but it would be easier to design it to just stop the attack. Besides, he could always do it later.
The mountain of ideas that lurked in the back of his brain grew daily. What was one more? he thought in a combination of amusement and annoyance.
Oz showed him the ray-gun test, which distracted his thoughts from the shields. It was a relief to let himself really ponder it as they spoke. This he could spend time on. It was one of their priorities.
He said, “That was our first attempt. We’re much better at it now. Our current goal is a shield of impenetrable photons around the vessel and we’re very close to success. The ray-gun could be used offensively, but we aren’t working on that right now. We’re only doing defensive designs. As you can imagine, our designs are highly classified. Sara is working on more than this, but I can’t mention any more.” Oz paused and gazed at the commandant thoughtfully as he tapped his fingers on her desk a moment. “Sara is a highly trained medical doctor.” He gestured for the commandant to leave the room, saying nothing else.
“I can’t show you Sara’s labs, but you’re welcome in mine or my classes any time.” Oz led the commandant into his main workspace. Tools and supplies lined the walls. Half-finished projects sat on the tables. Holographic screens flickered to life as they passed the tables and turned off when they reached a new table. A winged woman with white hair, wearing a lab jacket and a navy-blue skirt, flitted from table-to-table, offering sheaves of paper that Oz accepted or flicked away absently as they walked.
Magnifying glasses and microscopes sat on most benches although one bench held a motor taller than the commandant.
The commandant said, “These things you make here are amazing. The engines you make will be world changing. I’d like to attend classes and make my own computer.”
“Sure, you’re about sixteen hours behind the rest of this semester’s class. I’d be happy to catch you up to them or you could take the class next fall or winter.”
“When your friends graduate, will you leave, or will the classes continue?”
Oz liked to teach but the classes had the added benefit of pulling him from deep contemplation. He hated becoming mired in thought to the extent that it made normal interactions impossible, and the students helped with that. He wanted the classes to continue but hadn’t mentioned his concerns to anyone— not even Sara. She didn’t seem to have the same problems that he did shucking off work thoughts and he didn’t want to worry her or anyone else.
Besides, he was handling it fine, he assured himself.
“I’m training a few replacement teachers, so I assume they could continue, but I can’t say whether Sara and I will be here to teach. Midshipman First class Tillings and Frost as well as Midshipman Second Class Martins are taking extra lessons from both of us. They’ll be qualified to teach the basic concepts we do. Whether they’ll be assigned here, I have no idea. I’ve recommended them to teach here. They still need to learn from us, but we’ll be available for questions.”
The commandant laughed a bit. “These basic concepts of yours are pretty advanced stuff.”
“They are. They’re brilliant though and a pleasure to teach and work with. I have my eye on Midshipman Third Class Raines as well. I think he grasps the concepts and with more instruction could learn it well enough to teach others.”
Oz laughed a bit himself. “I’d love to look through your new applicants and see if any have the math and science skills we need.”
“I’ll arrange it,” the commandant said seriously. “Your criteria may be different from ours. We’ll seriously consider anyone you select. All candidates must pass all of our selection process though.”
Oz smiled. “We’re teaching some civilians as well. If they don’t get accepted by you, they might by us. Don’t worry, we won’t poach them. We have a service clause for our employees. We want to encourage military service, not discourage it.” Oz showed the commandant the hiring clause he was referring to. “If an applicant passes us, but not you, he could be hired, but if he passes us both, he couldn’t be until he served his full tour.”
An idea occurred to him as he examined the list and he typed another note to his Valory, this one marked urgent. His Valory immediately began flicking through the resumes, sorting them by his new criteria. He’d find himself a few apprentices. Intelligent people who could keep him grounded. People he liked and would want to speak with. He liked the cadets, but orders would take them from his lab. He needed a few people that he knew would be around.
The commandant nodded. “Speaking of being hired, Midshipman Hayes said I might visit with Doctor Mitchel and see the game they’re all working on.”
“I sure she’d like that.” Oz led him to the newl
y installed elevator to the second floor. “She’s still in our infirmary, but she’s well enough for visitors now. Don’t be alarmed at her lack of movement. She can call for help if she needs it. Liz has her hooked to an experimental security device which emits a blue glow. It’s the same device your midshipmen are testing. It isn’t harmful, it just identifies bioelectric surges. You might see that from her device. If she falls asleep while visiting that’s normal as well.”
Oz led him to Sara’s room and knocked lightly on the door. She welcomed them both with smiles. Oz kissed her cheek and her magic surrounded him briefly. His joined it then it dissipated. They were making no effort to control it. The happier Sara’s magic was the happier they all were.
Sara talked enthusiastically about the game, and Oz brought the commandant gear to try it.
Sara donned the glasses and gloves Oz handed her. “You can use my maps and visit the areas briefly to see them all, but without the VR frame you’ll have to use virtual legs like me.”
She laughed at the commandant’s amazement as he strolled through her level. She pointed out he could smell and interact with objects. Oz made notes as the commandant picked flowers, shook small trees, and opened doors and drawers in Sara’s small, virtual house. Finally, he took off the glasses.
“That was fun. I’m not much of a gamer, but I’d play that.”
“Try Monster Maze; it’s my favorite. I’ll play with you.” Sara started the game. “The goal is to get to the other end of the maze. Monsters hide inside, but we can avoid them by solving puzzles. Or we can run by and they’ll chase us. If they catch us, they send us back to the start. This game is super fun and a good work out in the VR gear. It’s still fun with a console but lacks the adrenaline rush of really running away. Paul’s working on a haunted mansion as well. I have it set for age eighteen, but you could set it for a three-year-old, the monsters would be cute and the puzzles age appropriate.”
