While the graceful structures seemed to have no end, just to the right of the entrance, a towering black mass disrupted the land’s beautiful chemistry with the architecture. It was his former workplace: his theoretical physics and interstellar anomaly research facilities designed and constructed to pursue his vision.
Home.
No matter what taunting, snickering, or whispered lies he faced in the days and weeks to come, this moment was his.
A shout echoed across the grounds. “I knew I’d find you here!”
William Hunt strolled up; his long coat billowed in the winter winds.
“William! This place is magical, isn’t it? Pure exploratory research and development.”
“Don’t forget the endless funding, my friend!” William cheerily added. “Did you get Ilya?”
Bernard smirked. “Of course, he couldn’t resist.”
“Medina?”
“Yup.”
“Lovely,” William said, but his demeanor could just as easily indicate he’d successfully ordered lunch.
Bernard looked at him sharply. “My turn. Walk me through your escapades with Nawal.”
“I assume, Bernard, that it went exactly as you imagined minus the part where she hesitated. You do always underestimate my ability to sell.”
“Maybe so, old friend, but in the end, you never disappoint.”
“So, who’s left?”
“Lily Parsons and a military strategist. Ang and I are still arguing on the shortlist for that one. It’s not surprising that the expert furthest from our fields would be last.” His voice grew a bit tense. “I assume you’ll speak to Lily today?”
William looked displeased but said, “Yes.”
Bernard nodded. “I think that makes the most sense to avoid initial conflict. We should get her read on the mission as soon as possible. Where’s Angie setting us up? Did we get the hanger?”
“We did. Isaac’s there now with a few engineers. It’s incredible watching him work. He’s more brilliant than we ever were. And that’s saying something.”
Bernard winked. “He takes after his mother.”
They walked a path through small woods arriving at a second set of buildings designed for assembling and housing rocket ships. A massive structure connected the two facilities: a bridge overlaid the sky with architecture that ensnared even these dreamers.
En route to the entrance, four armed guards approached the two scientists. Realizing who they were, they broke off with a nod.
Other than that, though he saw many, Bernard reached the hangar entrance without interacting with any. It seemed they were willing to remain professional, for now.
Beyond the obsidian doors, a receptionist waited at a massive desk carved from a meteorite. Not recognizing her, Bernard assumed she was a recent hire. She eyed him with a mix of curiosity and preconceptions, no doubt trying to see how well he matched the office gossip.
“Dr. Hunt, good morning again, and good morning, Dr. Hubert. I’m Melanie. I have your badge right here. It will give you full access. I was also told to inform you that your personal items, vacuum stored since 2085, have been unboxed and placed in your old office. Ms. On saw to it personally.”
“Excellent.” Eager now, he grabbed the badge and moved through the next set of doors—William close behind. They walked through a long hallway, then badged through a sealed door marked AIRLOCK.
Bernard carefully felt for the NanoCube that rarely left his pocket, then put his keys, wallet, and phone in a locker. The two then ditched their jackets and donned white, cleanroom coveralls, caps, beard-covers, and booties. Once suited up, the airlock’s second door beeped and, on opening, released a burst of positive air pressure.
Isaac met him before the doors closed behind him. “Dad, you’re here! Isn’t this place incredible?”
He looked like a kid in a candy factory, of course. The tech Angelika had waiting for him was beyond anything he could have prepared himself for. There were Nanoblades to hand-cut any metal, full-scale holographic mapping projecting their concept work, while AI robots called Seymours1 stood ready with their predictive algorithms able to help construct… whatever it is you’re constructing.
Then there were the Halo Builders2; bleeding-edge 3D Printers that could not only use hundreds of materials, they levitated as they worked. Integrated with the Seymours they could build anything humans could in a fifth of the time. Called “toys,” they were unique to O.L., helping keep them ahead of companies like Iron Corp. and Space Oasis.
Isaac laughed out loud. “If Naomi and Howard could see me now!”
It hadn’t taken much to convince Kepler’s school board to grant his son a leave of absence. Angelika had even sent a hypersonic jet to retrieve him. Bernard thought it over the top, but she considered the boy’s time too precious to waste.
Much as Isaac was pleased with his work and how awed and envious all his classmates would be if they knew where he was, his thoughts turned briefly dark. Claiming he was meeting his family, he’d slipped away during a vacation weekend. He hated lying and didn’t know how long he could keep it up. It would only get harder, especially with the Explorer’s Cup approaching. Lisa, Chelsea, and Marcus certainly wouldn’t accept his absence from that—nor would he.
Hopefully, the public announcement of the mission wasn’t too far off. That would put an end to any charades.
At the sight of his former lead engineer, Bernard’s face lit up. “Fredrick!”
A close friend, Fredrick Johnson, and his family had defended Bernard throughout the CERN investigation at great cost. The man had been passed over for promotion twice. But, here he was, handpicked by Bernard as his personal project liaison for The Nomad.
“Bernard! I was just showing Isaac how to integrate the Seymour 4.0 and the Halo Builders. I have to tell you, the ingenuity of your design has held up spectacularly.”
“Now, let’s not get carried away. I only drew up the original schematic, not all this.”
“Never one for accolades, are you? Well, your boy takes after you. Within two days, he knew how to operate the duality of a Seymour and a Halo Builder. I have engineers three years-in who can’t grasp the symbiotic engineering.”
“I expected no less.” Bernard winked at his son. “Isaac, Fred, I’ll see you later.”
Transversing the gargantuan structure, he found his hair electrifying with excitement as he moved between facilities. Angelika waiting, he walked to the elevators leading to the offices. As the doors closed, a sense of deja vu came on strong. Muscle memory guided his hand as he punch-swiped his badge and pressed 9. As he ascended, a Carbon Based Lifeforms song played. As he passed the 7th floor, though, he remembered his office on the 8th.
He was already on memory lane; why not catch all the stops? And why rush to an office with an angry Angelika in it?
He slammed the button just in time. The opening doors presented the rare sight of O.L. employees caught completely off guard. Those who recognized him ducked into offices and conference rooms. The others just gawked.
Without a pause, he moved around one corner, then another—and there it was, the door to his old office… Darren’s right next to it. Unlocking the room in which he’d spent over a decade designing the impossible, he saw boxes all around: on the floor, atop the furniture. There’d be time to deal with that later.
On his way out, he touched the entrance to his fallen friend’s office. Feeling for the doorknob, he found it, incredibly, unlocked. Reverent, he pushed it open. It was exactly as he remembered: from the magnificent forest panorama offered by the floor to ceiling windows, to the stacks of aerospace books, to the Saturn V rocket model hanging gracefully from the ceiling. The open door provided just enough air to set it creaking.
He eyed the door between their offices. It was never closed. They perpetually walked back and forth, sharing and honing fantastical ideas. Once, they ordered maintenance to cut a hole in the wall so they didn’t have to waste time walking around the wall and t
hrough the hallway.
Touching. Angelika must have left it untouched as a memorial.
Right. She was waiting. Finally, he headed up to the monolithic structure housing her throne and navigated the clear glass entrance to her office.
It wasn’t like a science fiction story—it was one. The soaring ceiling high above the workshop floor engulfed the skies. Sitting atop everything like an Asgardian queen, Angelika screamed at some poor wretch on the phone.
“I DON’T CARE WHAT THAT SON OF A BITCH MARCUS TOLD YOU, WE CAN DO IT AND WE WILL!!”
When she hung up, Bernard bowed. “Afternoon to you, too, Angie. Who was that?”
He already knew the answer, but asked all the same.
“THAT LOWLY WRECK OF A HUMAN, RIC. HE JUST COST ME BILLIONS.”
“I think it’s closer to 700 million, but who’s counting?”
Her face contorted with fury. She chucked her comm at him. “YOU KNEW? YOU KNEW! WHAT THE HELL AM I?! THE LAST ONE TO THE GOD DAMN PARTY?!”
Thankfully, both he and the flip phone were unharmed.
“Angie, you really think I can sway his vote on a political decision? You only count it a loss because you have to wait. It’ll be fine. It’s not like Marcus can innovate during the next five years anyway. Space Oasis won’t have their core asset, Medina.”
That snapped her back to some semblance of reality. As if she hadn’t just been a raging, green monster, she nodded peacefully. “That does seem like a win-win for me, now, doesn’t it?”
Angelika screaming at Godric, Bernard calming her down, William nowhere to be found, busy solving the next impossible math equation… It was as if the last seven years had been wiped away.
“How was the jungle? Odin doing well?”
Angelika gave him a rare smile. “Oh, exploring, thinking he’s Indiana Jones. You know that one, don’t you? Early, maybe late, 20th century pop culture? Anyway, he took very little convincing. It was as if he knew it would happen eventually and had already decided.”
“Excellent. Fantastic work Angelika.”
“Thank you, Bernie. Are you going to talk to Lily today?”
“William and I decided it would be best if he made the initial approach.”
Bernard was wondering what that conversation would be like, when William barged in. “GUYS, highbay now!”
They both rolled their eyes. He had a reputation for making very minor breakthroughs feel like he’d just discovered a new God particle.
“Isaac and I finished the micro-water repulsion field! He found a complex wave generation sequence that intensifies the magnetic pulses without requiring additional energy! We can grow crops in zero g and not drown them!”
Now they were genuinely shocked. Sufficient food in space was a perennial problem. It had to be grown, for self-sustenance, but rather than drain in the absence of gravity, water pooled around the roots blocking oxygen-absorption. This new localized magnetic field would force the water from the roots. Even William thought this was a distant, future objective.
Bernard raced William back to the floor, shoved his way through some spare thrusters, and skidded around the wing to reach Isaac.
“Is it true? The magnetic energy required to move water is immense.”
“It was really William’s idea,” Isaac said. “We were talking about what it would be like if you could shrink small enough to walk across water; how powerful the attractive forces would be as long as the water remained laminar. I figured, if the magnetic field harmonics were stabilized, we could deploy it anywhere, even inside a root ball. I know some mathematical patterns that can spiralize the magnetic field lines like a braid. That way, the field is knotted without outward interference.”
Wildly impressed, Bernard shook his head. “Why I didn’t think of that is beyond me. The simplicity in your logic is beautiful. Brilliant.”
“Thanks Dad.” Isaac beamed. “For larger scale applications, it can also reduce the hardware needed for a railgun or, theoretically, fly someone through the air in a hollow magnetic channel.”
“I wish you and William were designing O.L. ships for me decades ago.”
Angelika bellowed from above. “Bernie, come back here!”
“Give me a moment!” He shouted back.
“William, did you get Aubree?” Bernard said, turning his focus back to William.
“It wasn’t easy, but I did. She’d do anything for me. You must have known that.”
“I was counting on it.”
“So, I’m another pawn in your game now?” William said.
“No. A bishop.” Bernard smiled.
They ascended back to Angelika. “Took you long enough…”
“Oh? I didn’t realize I still worked for you.”
Angelika shot him a look of cold fury but spoke with considerably more control. “I’d like to think, Bernard, that I’m above your games, that I do not wait for you.”
“Fair enough, Angie. What’s so important it couldn’t wait?”
“Our military crew member, the one who’ll ensure everyone’s safety.”
He balked. “Is it seriously all that much a crucial rush? What’s one human going to do if we encounter a hostile spacefaring race?”
“It’s not just about aliens, Bernie. You’re a group of civilians with very strong opinions. I want my assets protected.”
Bernard sized her up. What she said was true, but it wasn’t all she was thinking. This could well be the compromise Ilya predicted. Would Bernard accept an Outer Limits henchman on his ship? Not that it was a completely bad idea. They didn’t know what would or could happen, and her private security was the best.
Thoughts racing, he decided in a flash. “I want Conrad.”
She was a bit too pleased. “I heard you two bonded during Ilya’s extraction. He’s my choice too.”
“Huh. Was that why you sent him with me to fetch Ilya? Am I one step behind you, or are you forever catching up to me? I never can tell, Angie. ”
She stood and headed out, her last words fading softly. “And you never will.”
Bernard stayed returning to the floor and working alongside Isaac for hours. Using the existing skeleton design, they outfitted a digital ship with a Hubert drive, then father and son started the design for a Surface Exploration Vehicle3. Piece by piece, they created a pragmatic yet elegant shuttle that could fit four Nomad crew and land on a small planet or moon. As they prepped the full-scale holographic projector for a look, William ruined the blissful peace.
“Bernie, so…um…”
“What is it?”
“I talked to Lily. She agreed, but…”
Bernard knew his tactics far too well, and he wasn’t about to play coy about it. “Jesus, you told her I’d talk to her today, didn’t you, Bill?”
“Yes, I did. Like it or not, her father, our lifelong friend, died, and you chose to hate her for acting human in a time of utter despair. Casting her out is a stain on your… no, our lives. It’s time you faced it head-on.”
Bernard found himself appreciating Ilya all the more. Some situations were so hard, running made more sense. But even the oft-fugitive rebel understood the need for this mission. Even he wouldn’t let the past dictate the future this time.
With six years of pain palpitating his heart, Bernard left the highbay and headed toward the Nanotech lab. Aside from thoughts of Ilya, he found himself appreciating the vast layout of the campus. The thirty minute walk across the spectacular nine-square kilometer grounds gave him time to reflect on what he’d say to a woman who flat-out blamed him for the loss of her father.
Nanotech provided a hefty percentage of Outer Limits’ revenue; they’d spared no expense constructing the lab. From the entrance, he could see how the halls adapted to each individual’s mood shaping the colors and ambiance by reading the emotions of its occupants through nanofibers in the floors.
That alone could herald an ergonomic revolution, but he’d heard they were working on an upgrade that could cushion each
step.
And it’s based on my concepts. Lily must have found my hidden papers. Clever girl.
A cold, dispassionate voice emanated from the receptionist who looked and sounded like a machine. “Can I help you, Dr. Bernard Hubert?”
“Are you a Seymour?” He hoped so. He was eager to learn more about them.
“No. I am the Alchemist4, an eternal machine created to help humanity along their journey. Your presence coinciding with Dr. William Hunt’s recent visit indicates you are here to speak to Ms. Parsons. Our nanofloors have scanned your biometrics and determined that this has evoked stress in you.”
Bernard was a bit amused. “That is accurate.”
“Please have a seat. Would you care for coffee or tea while I inform Lily of your arrival?”
“Coffee, thank you.”
A curious device rose out from the floor and built (or so it seemed) a small coffee mug out of nanotech pieces of the front desk. When Bernard picked it up, a small service drone flew over and filled it with Jamaican dark-roast. Intriguing.
“Alchemist, how did you know?”
“You wrote my code, or so I am told. The algorithm on which my AI is based draws from all accessible data, so I can better serve you.”
Really? Have they forgotten what started The Darkness? This is far too advanced for O.L. to have developed without some major government oversight.
He’d have to give Angelika a stern talking-to before the Nomad launched. Dedicated humans started a nuclear war just to stop a rogue Chinese AI from fully awakening.
But before he could put too much thought into Angelika’s early Skynet problems, deeper in the halls, voices talking one to another grew swiftly loud. Until a woman appeared, hand outstretched. “Dr. Hubert, I’m Joanne, Lily’s lab technician and assistant. Please come this way. She’s waiting for you in her office.”
The Alchemist said farewell. “A pleasure meeting you, Dr. Hubert.”
They walked at a good pace. Joanne remained silent until Bernard spoke.
“If I am not mistaken, you’re a K.I.N.G as well—from your time at Kepler?”
She seemed unprepared for the compliment. “Correct. My sixth cycle. Unlike you, I only received it once. I found your accomplishments there fascinating.”
Beyond Kuiper: The Galactic Star Alliance Page 25
