“I am discovering some interesting things and I want to thank you again for giving me this opportunity. We are working on quantum entanglement and have discovered how to create atoms which are quantumly entangled. We are at the infancy stage and have only been able to create a few atoms at a time but it’s just a matter of time before we will be able to produce a large number of atoms which are quantumly entangled.”
“So when can I look forward to having an FTL communication device?”
“Whoa, that’s quite a bit down the road, but we should have one in a year or so.”
“Keep up the good work,” I said as I turned to walk out the door.
It took me a couple more hours to work my way through the science section. The engineering section had large rooms with high ceilings. It looked like they were working on all the possibilities for our anti-gravity drive. In front of me was a futuristic looking vehicle which was obviously going to get us into space. John Fleming, our lead engineer, was standing near the vehicle writing something on his tablet. “So, John, what is this thing?”
“It’s our space delivery vehicle prototype. It is already fully functional and we have tested it remotely with just the AI on board. How about we take a spin?”
“Is it safe?”
“Sure, there is nothing in it that can blow up and if the engine craps out, there is a recovery system that will bring us back to earth like a floating feather. So, what do you say?”
“Sure, what the heck, you only live once.”
As I approached the vehicle, a ramp extended from below. John and I walked up the ramp to a large cargo area. In the front of the cargo area was a hatch which I assumed led to the pilot cockpit. We went through the hatch and there were two people already sitting at their stations. “The station to the right is navigation and the left is our scanning module. Navigation is self-explanatory. The scanning station is able to see about 100 km in all directions on the surface and well over 1 million km once we are in space. It’s not likely that we will be seen, however, because the exterior is coated with the cloaking material that the science types developed. Have a seat there” as he pointed to a seat in front of a com screen. “You can talk to the ESSC – that stands for Earth Station Space Command. They will be in constant communication with us and the AI aboard. I’ll take the pilot seat. Ready?”
“Okay, so what do I do?”
“Contact ESSC and tell them we are requesting clearance to take off.”
“ESSC, this is – ah, what is this thing called?”
“We are SDV 1.”
“ESSC, this is SDV 1 requesting clearance for take-off.”
“SDV 1, you are cleared for take-off through launch tube one.”
John retracted the ramp and I heard a hiss when SDV 1 sealed. We slowly moved to a circular pad on the far end of the bay. When we were centered on the pad, it rose slowly to an opening in the ceiling and soon we were in a vertical shaft. The pad we were on sealed the bottom of the shaft.
“One of the things we discovered about the anti-grav drive is that it creates its own relativistic field. Being inside the vehicle, which is inside the field, keeps us from feeling any acceleration. It’s like the earth as it travels around the sun and rotates on its axis. We are inside it’s relativistic field and won’t get flung off into space due to the centripetal acceleration created by the earth as it rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun. So, once the engines “fire up”, so to speak, we will be in space in a few seconds. We will be accelerating at well over 100 g’s. So, hang on, here we go.”
I didn’t feel anything. The next thing I knew, the front view screen came to life and I was looking down on the earth.
“Navigation, what is our position and speed?” John asked.
“We are at 30,000 km and currently orbiting at 15,000 kph, sir.”
“Let’s do two orbits and then land back at ES. Navigation, increase our velocity to 200,000 kph and plot in the course. Execute when ready.”
“Course plotted in, executing now.”
John looked over at me and said, “At that speed, we will do a complete orbit in a little over an hour. We should be back on the ground in a couple of hours. By the way, meet our navigator, Paul Roberts and our Recon specialist is Pat Conroy.”
“Glad to meet you guys, I’m Jake Weiss.”
“We know who you are, sir,” Pat said with a smile.
“Can I unbuckle myself and walk around – or float around?” I asked, remembering the space movies I saw when I was a kid.
“Go ahead, but you will be walking, not floating. Inside SDV 1 we have set the gravity field created by our engine to just below earth standard. Go ahead and check out this baby.”
I unbuckled and walked out of the cockpit. There were several hatches to the side of the cargo bay. I looked into the first one and saw what looked like crew quarters with bunks for four people. The next hatch led to a short hallway which had two doors, one on each side. Opening one of the doors, I found what looked like a captain’s cabin. The other door led to a room with a table and chairs – some kind of conference room. Going back out into the bay, I opened the third hatch and found a galley. This ship is something else. It’s definitely light years ahead of anything the rest of the world has. They’re still sending their astronauts into space in tin cans.
“Time to buckle in boss, we will be re-entering the atmosphere in five minutes;” John said as he poked his head through the cockpit hatch.
In less than fifteen minutes we were back in the bay at Earth Station.
“You are doing some amazing stuff here John. This will bring us into our future.”
“We are going to be running SDV 1 through its paces for the next couple of weeks to work out any bugs. After that we will have ten more of these built. We are also designing a smaller version like a shuttle to carry a small number of people from place to place. The number of ships is going to outgrow the research ring fairly quickly. We need to build a separate ring for ESSC. I suggest that is be closer to the surface.”
“I’ll get with Barry later today and tell him to get with you about specs for the ESSC ring. Between the two of you, I’m sure that you can come up with a design that will meet our needs. You have done some awesome work, keep it up.”
I worked my way back to the elevator without stopping anywhere else. I could only wrap my head around one of these fantastic developments at a time. I will have to come down here again in a couple of days to see what else we have done to make science fiction a reality. Besides, I’m hungry and I hear that they are having my favorite – pizza – for lunch.
January 7th, 2112
At our morning meeting, we went over some of the advances made by our scientists and engineers. Maggie and I brought up the notion that we need to slow down the advances that the engineers get to work on so they can take full advantage of our new technologies. John, our lead engineer, was at the meeting for a short time and agreed with our assessment. At the end of the meeting, I suggested we get together for a bbq to get to know each other and our families better. We set it up for this coming Sunday afternoon.
Sunday was here sooner than I expected. I got to the end of the main tunnel and took the elevator up, this time to the residential ring. The party is at Mike’s place. I exited the elevator and entered the main atrium. It was a large area with a tall ceiling and the surface of the ceiling and walls was rough rock resembling a large cavern. This level of the residential area was reserved for the executive team which included myself, Mac, Maggie, Charlie and Mike. Mike’s place was to the right. Walking up to a nice ornately carved door, I gave it a knock.
I heard Mike’s voice through the door; “Come on in the door is open.” So I entered and found myself in a roomy home. Looking across the living room, I saw the sliding glass doors opening to the outside. The doors were open and Mike called me over to the grill where he was beginning to light it up in prep for the steaks.
“So how do you like your new digs?”
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br /> “It took a little getting used to but we are settled in now and Sarah has made it a home. She’s the greatest. On top of all the work she does in Intelligence, she still finds the time to do what she does to make this place somewhere to come to rest, relax and enjoy all the comforts of home.”
Most of our residential homes in this ring have an outdoor patio. Looking out over the landscape, I can barely make out the shimmer of the cloaking shield – but I know it is there, someone who didn’t would never notice. It was a nice autumn evening outside and the sun appeared bright red as it started to sink below the horizon. Someone looking from the outside would only see the continuous rocky terrain of the mountain. The cloak was developed just before we started on the residential ring and was quickly incorporated into this part of Earth Station so that our people would be able to be ‘outside’. Being in Earth Station with millions of tons of rock above you tended to be disconcerting after a while. The ability to see the sky gives you a sense of relief and calm.
“I brought some Corona, do you want one?”
“Sure, there are cut limes in the refrigerator.”
Walking over to the kitchen, Sarah was busy making potato salad. “How is everything Sarah?”
“This place is amazing. My job is so much more rewarding than working at CINCNORAD where I was in a cubicle and barely saw anyone else all day.”
“I’m glad you like it; anything you need just let me know.”
I grabbed the two beers, pushed the lime wedges down the necks of the bottles and headed back out to the patio. Nik was standing next to his father looking out at the sunset.
“Awesome view, isn’t it Nik?”
“It sure is.”
I had already talked with Mike about what I planned to talk to Nik about and he told me that it was Nik’s decision to make.
“Nik, I hear that you are graduating this year. Do you have any plans?”
“I’m really up in the air. My grades are good enough to get into college but I don’t have any idea what I want to do there.”
“I have a suggestion for you. How would you like to work at Earth Station?”
“Doing what?”
“This is where the fun part starts. They have just finished testing the prototype shuttle down in engineering and will be building five more. We need pilots. Would you be interested?”
“Wow, that sounds cool. Sign me up!”
“Let me finish so you know what you are in for before you decide. It will involve intensive classroom work so that you will learn all the ins and outs of the space vehicles, how they work, all the systems and capabilities as well as simulator time and actual flight time. We are running this training like a military school. Besides the training on the vehicles, you will have to maintain a high level of physical and mental shape. It won’t be easy and you need to master all of it before you ever get to fly for real.” Looking at Nik’s face I saw that he was partly somewhere else. “What are you thinking Nik?”
“You mean that these ships will go into space? I was just thinking how awesome that would be. If I could do that, it would definitely be worth all the hard work. So, like I said before, sign me up.”
“Meet me tomorrow at 3 in the afternoon and I will take you down to the research ring and introduce you to John Fleming, our lead engineer, and also to Paul Roberts, who besides being a navigator on our space vehicles, is the head of training for our crews.”
Mike looked at Nik with a stern face. “You know Nik, this will be the hardest thing you have ever done. If you go forward with this, I am not going to let you quit no matter how difficult it gets.”
“I know Dad, I won’t let you or mom down,” Nik said with a smile.
“Say, Mike, are you going to let those coals burn out or are we having raw steaks?”
Mike took a swig of his beer and plopped the steaks on the grill. “Hey honey,” he shouted into the kitchen, “the steaks will be ready in less than ten minutes. How’s it coming in there?”
“I’ll be ready. We are going to serve buffet style and all the trimmings are on the island counter in here.”
I walked into the Rec Room where the other guys were watching a football game on the 3D viewer, which was a flat area with the projection on its surface. It looked like you were in the stadium looking down on the field. Television has come a long way in the last fifty years.
“Dinner will be ready in five minutes. We are eating buffet style so you can get back to your game with your plates in hand. By the way, who’s playing?”
“Broncos vs the Seahawks,” Mac volunteered. “It’s been a while since either team was in contention but I’m a diehard Broncos fan and I hate the Seahawks unlike some other people in this room,” Mac said with a frown on his face.
“Steaks are ready!” I heard Mike shout from the patio.
“Alright get your asses up and get your food before it’s all gone.” I turned and walked into the kitchen grabbing a plate. “Everything looks delicious Sarah. We will have to do this more often.”
The others got their plates and went back to the Rec Room. I followed them to watch the game. They didn’t know it, but I’m a diehard Broncos fan myself.
….
Our meeting this morning was mostly housekeeping – tying up a bunch of loose ends. Barry also gave us an update on completing Earth Station. Our construction crew is beginning the last ring in Earth Station’s original design. It’s deeper than the research ring and more central to the compound. The most advanced computer system currently available will be the central part of this new construct. I have Charlie looking for computer scientists and programmers who will work there when it is finished. In reality, it will never be finished because our people will be improving on the capabilities of that computer system from day one.
For now, since there is only Earth Station, we are going to be putting all our eggs in one basket so to speak, but eventually we will have a mirror image of our computer system in all our locations. The plan is to have several locations off world. That’s pretty far down the road though, so for now it is just Earth Station.
I saw several other personnel walking toward our auditorium which is just down the tunnel from the office complex. We have a staff meeting for all the personnel on Earth Station. During the meeting, there will just be a skeleton crew on duty. Everyone from the dishwasher on up to the executive staff will be there.
I entered a side door which leads to the back of the stage. I pulled my tablet out of my pocket and looked at my notes. Not a whole lot to cover but many of the personnel are new and need to have their indoctrination completed.
As I stepped out onto the stage, I walked over to the podium and the room became quiet.
“I want to thank you for being prompt. It’s been almost 4 months now since Earth Station first opened. Some of you have been here since the beginning and a lot of this meeting will be old stuff for you. Bear with us. First the new. Our personnel director went on vacation several months ago to Baja. He liked it so much that he convinced our executive team to purchase a seaside resort. As a member of Earth Station, each year you will be entitled to spend two weeks, all expenses paid, at the resort. Don’t worry if you’re not the sun and sand type of person because we are in the process of purchasing several other locations where you can choose to spend your vacation time. A winter resort in Colorado will be available shortly – in time for this winter. Use your tablets to send a message to personnel requesting dates and the location you wish to go to.”
I looked around and some of them were already pulling out their tablets to book their dates. “As most of you know, our engineers have created space vehicles with some of our new technologies. Currently, these vehicles will only be used for Earth Station business but eventually some of them will be available to take you on vacation. So you can all be astronauts for a little while.” Applause erupted from the crowd. I let it go on for a few seconds and then raised my hands for quiet.
“That was the happy news, now on
with some other business. In the next two weeks, you all will be going through an annual security review. That’s nothing to worry about – unless you have something to worry about,” I said with a smirk. There were a couple of chuckles which petered out quickly.
“Additionally, we are putting together a team of pilots, navigators and recon specialists for our Space Command. The requirements and training will be rigorous. If you feel you are qualified, let personnel know and set up an interview.”
“As always, you are free to come and go from Earth Station. I would like to remind you that you are under constant surveillance wherever you are, as per the contract you signed when you came to work for us. The reason I am reminding you is because we have had several instances lately where some of you broke security while off station. Those involved have been talked to and have seen the error of their ways. We were able to patch up and reestablish security, however, that may not always be the case. Anymore infractions and you will be terminated and relocated to someplace that you won’t be a security risk. I suggest that you do not test us. If you have complaints, you can always contact one of the executive team and we will try to alleviate your concerns.”
At this point, it was dead quiet. “On the other hand, I have some really good news for all of you. Our executive team has authorized a 10% raise across the board.” Another round of applause, this time more robust, and a few people stood to show their appreciation.
“I also want to mention that we have completed the faith area of the residential ring and there are sections for each religion represented in our personnel. It will be open 24/7 making it available whenever you find the need. I would like to reiterate that we respect all religions and you are free to follow your faith without fear of persecution from anyone else here on Earth Station. The only thing that we will not tolerate is intolerance.”
“If you have any questions or concerns, please transmit them to the executive team. That’s it for now, so you can all get back to what you were doing. Oh by the way, it’s pizza for lunch in the cafeteria.” That elicited some cheering as they began to file out.
Earth Station (Station Series Book 1) Page 5
