by Saxon Andrew
“We have to, Dolly. Fortunately the new lens and additional power will make a tremendous difference in their effectiveness.”
Hemon leaned back, “How will they make a difference?”
“The current beam that is used by our ships is narrow. It’s only fifty yards wide at fifty miles. It has to be tightly focused to maintain its power. With the new reactors we can now make the beam a mile wide and not lose any power. It should actually be three times more powerful at fifty miles than our current beam. We can make the changes on the Jukebox and have it ready to go in three weeks.”
“Make it happen, George. I suspect things are going to go bad quickly.”
“Just make sure our contractors don’t slow us up.”
Chris looked into Jillian’s eyes and smiled. The sun was setting in New Zealand, and it was deep red as it touched the horizon. “This has been a wonderful honeymoon. I hate for it to end.”
“It never will, Love. It’ll feel just like this wherever we are.”
Chris sighed and reached over to her chair. He took her hand in his and squeezed it gently. He thought about the whirlwind wedding and the time since. He needed the time to get his feet back on the ground. He turned and said, “Dolly says we need to come assist them with the Jukebox. Are you ready to get back to work?”
Jillian smiled, “Perhaps after I finish with you tonight. I’ll be ready to leave in the morning.”
“I wonder if I’ll be able to go.”
“I hope not.”
Chris smiled, life was good.
Chapter Fifteen
They arrived at the construction yard the next morning and walked into their new ship. As they passed the engine room they heard George yell at the top of his voice, “You’ve got to be kidding me. What idiot changed the top chamber on this reactor?”
They heard from the other reactor room, “I did, and who’s asking?”
George stormed out of the reactor room, smiled as he nodded to Chris and Jillian as he went into the other reactor room, then yelled, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? A lot of time went into that design. Now you’ve put us behind schedule.”
A young woman stood up from behind the reactor where she was directing the efforts of six engineers. She had on thick black rimmed safety glasses and an engineer’s coveralls. Her hard hat was resting on the top of her glasses. She was about five foot seven but looked strikingly plain. The oversize hard hat made her look like a child. She looked at George and put her hands on her hips, “I know you’re supposed to be this super smart genius, but you’re not up to date on what makes reactors function optimally. So why don’t you just go back to your drawing board and leave the work to those of us that are.”
George turned red and glared at the woman, biting his tongue. This contractor was going to have to go.
She continued, “Are you aware that the energy collection chamber at the top of the reactor must not be angled greater than thirty degrees for it to send its maximum pressure? With the pressure of these super reactors, that angle really should be less than twenty degrees. Heat would build up during continuous use of weapons if it were more. The one you designed had a curve with a forty degree angle.”
George’s expression underwent several rapid changes. It went from anger to surprise to a faraway look. The woman watched him, wondering what he was thinking. “You’re right. I didn’t follow the charge through the complete cycle. What’s the angle of the new chamber?”
“It’s eight degrees.”
“There will not be resistance to the charge at that angle. How are you delivering the charge to the external beams?”
“I’m following your design.”
“Well, if the principles of energy transfer remain constant, there are several severe changes in direction through the conduits.”
“I noticed that, but my expertise lies in getting the energy out of the reactor.”
George thought a moment and asked, “Right now we’re using one reactor for the weapons and one for the force field. If we changed it so that the reactor on one side of the ship worked the weapons on that side, could we combine the two for the force field and decrease the angle in the top chamber even more?”
“Do you have the diagrams with you?”
“They’re over here. Come take a look.”
The young woman followed George to the other room and said, “By the way, my name is Meisa Adi.”
George stopped and looked at her, “Doctor Meisa Adi?”
“Yes.”
“I read your Nobel Prize winning discovery on fusion. I was highly impressed with your observation about how to control the heat.”
Meisa smiled, “Most of the committee members didn’t understand that part of the paper.”
“I understand why. Keeping the heat away from the sides of the container using force fields is not something easily grasped. Have you considered using gravity to suspend the reaction?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you know we’re using gravity to make our ships faster, right?’
“Yes.”
“Well, if you charged the fuel in the reactor with a positive gravity charge it would push away from anything with mass. Since the walls of the reactor are lined with huge quantities of lead, it should move away from the walls.”
Meisa thought a moment and said, “We need to stop work on these reactors.”
“Why?”
“I’ve got a fusion reactor design that will operate if we can contain the heat away from the walls. We can make these two reactors use fusion, if what you just suggested actually works.”
George yelled at the top of his voice, “Everyone, stop what you’re doing!” The workers all looked up and George said, “You have the day off with pay; report back tomorrow at noon.”
Chris and Jillian stuck their head in the door and George smiled, “It’s so good to see you again. However, we’ve gotta go. See ya later.” George pulled Meisa out by the hand and said, “Where is this reactor?”
“It’s back in Fiji.”
As they moved down the gangplank George asked, “Is it ready to trial?”
“All except for the containment.”
George activated his communicator and yelled, “Dolly, send me a fast ship and a gravity gun now!”
“Why?”
“Meisa may have an entire new energy source for our reactors. Get it moving, Sis.”
Meisa was running as hard as she could to keep up with George but felt her excitement at the possibility of seeing her dream come to life.
Dolly ordered the ship and smiled. George had found Meisa. It had taken her two weeks to find her and get her in the project. Now let’s see what happens.
George jumped in the ship and Meisa followed him. He turned to her and asked, “Is the reactor a full working model?”
“Yes, and the two on the ship are identical.”
“Identical?”
“Well, you know they are going to have to contain a very hot reaction; much hotter than a normal reactor.”
“Yes.”
“Well, your sister felt after reading my paper that my reactor designs should handle the increased heat better than any other design.”
George smiled and said, “Meisa, let’s go make history.”
Meisa removed her large black rimmed safety glasses, took off her hardhat, and let her long black hair tumble down. She smiled and said, “Let’s do just that.”
George took a good look at the woman beside him and noticed her for the first time. She was incredible. His face turned red, and he turned to the ship’s controls. “We’ll be there in ten minutes. Hang on.”
Meisa buckled in and looked at George as he started activating his control board. He wasn’t nearly the stuffed shirt she thought him to be. Most men as good looking as him were full of themselves. He was as excited as she was at the prospect of achieving a fusion reaction. She looked out the window and wondered if he was a good kisser. Perhaps she would find out.
George lifted the ship and looked out the window, but all he saw was the face of an olive skinned beauty with beautiful eyes. He turned red and tried to control his embarrassment. He just didn’t know how to act around women, especially one this pretty.
Jeff sat with Dolly and watched as she went through the messages she received. Jeff watched her smile as she read an update on the Jukebox. “What are you up to, Dolly? I know that smile.”
“Oh, nothing.”
“Dahllllyyyy...”
“Well, the Jukebox’s completion has been delayed ten days. George and Meisa have successfully created a fusion reactor and are going to convert the Jukebox to fusion. This increases the power of the defense systems tenfold.”
“Where did this Meisa come from?”
Dolly looked at Jeff and tilted her head away from him, “Are you accusing me of something?”
“Yes, I am.”
Dolly laughed out loud, “Boy, you’re good!”
“Tell me.”
“I want George to be as happy as we are, so I decided to try and find a good match for him.”
“And?”
“Well, you know she’ll have to be smart, so I went to the Nobel Prize winner’s list and sorted for intelligence and age. I got ten names in the right age group. Meisa topped the list in intelligence. I pulled up a picture of her. Want to see her?”
“I’ve seen her working on the ship. She looks kinda plain and mousey. No one would give her a second look and that includes George.”
“Then you really haven’t seen her. Want another look?”
“What do you mean, I’ve seen her every day in my security checks and I’m the one that processed her file.”
Dolly lifted her tablet and pulled up the photo tab, “She’s really quite adorable.”
Jeff looked at the picture and did a double take, “That’s not the Meisa Aki I’ve seen. Where did you get this picture?”
“I used our defense satellites to take it when she was with her family on the beach in Fiji a few months back. She was working on a reactor at the time, and I followed her to the beach.” Dolly looked at Jeff’s expression and said, “Stop drooling. You’re mine.”
Jeff looked at the picture of a young woman who was beautiful enough to be beauty pageant winner, “You say she’s brilliant.”
“Right up there with the best.”
“Well, she could be a beauty queen if she wanted. She’s incredible. But Dolly, I promise you, that woman in that picture is not the contractor working on the Jukebox. I’ve scanned her with my security system and that’s not the picture on file. Matter of fact, no picture on file looks like that. I suppose she could hide a lot under the baggy coveralls she wears but this is surprising.”
“She’s not like me. She doesn’t like to show off her beauty and goes to great lengths to hide it. She wears those large black rimmed safety glasses and bulky coveralls to hide. She keeps her hair under her hardhat. I think she doesn’t want her beauty to be the reason she’s successful. You ought to have seen the sack she wore to the Nobel Prize acceptance. She is the same person.”
Jeff laughed, “Neither of you have to try to show off. You’re beautiful naturally.”
Dolly kissed him on the nose, “You’re biased.”
“No I’m not, and you know how beautiful you are.”
“I know, but a woman never tires of hearing it. Especially from the man she loves. Meisa just doesn’t enjoy hearing it…yet.”
Ten days later George and Meisa were sitting on the floor in the second reactor room listening to it hum. It was just after midnight and they had gotten it operating two hours earlier, checked it out with the control systems, and saw everything was working perfectly. They both had on their work coveralls, safety glasses, and hardhats. They were tired from the long hard hours put in making the conversion.
George had his back up against the reactor felling the slight vibration and he said, “This one purrs like a kitten. Meisa, you’ll get another Nobel Prize for this.”
“No, George, we will get a Nobel Prize for this. This wouldn’t have happened without you.”
“I’m too tired to argue, but I won’t allow you to include me. This wouldn’t have been a possibility without your taking the initiative to make changes to my plans. You did the hard part, I just fired a gun. This belongs to only you.”
Meisa lowered her head and smiled, “You should get something for what you’ve done.”
George looked at her, “I’ve actually had more fun working on this with you than I’ve had in a very long time. This has been a blast. That’s thanks enough.”
Meisa smiled and took off her hardhat and glasses. She unzipped her coverall and dropped it to the floor. She was wearing a tight pair of cut off jean shorts and a Melbourne Hard Rock tee shirt that looked like it was painted on. She walked over and sat by George, put her arms around his neck, and kissed him hard. He was shocked, but then got into the kiss. Meisa smiled thinking, he is a great kisser.
George felt his heart beat faster than it ever had, and then it came alive. He’d take her kiss over a Nobel Prize any day. The second kiss was even better than the first.
Dolly came in early the next morning and found them asleep at the base of the humming reactor. Meisa was in George’s arms with her head on his shoulder sleeping soundly. George’s face was as relaxed as she had ever seen it. Dolly quietly went out and canceled construction until eleven o’clock. She sat in a chair outside the ship humming, “If I didn’t have a dime….”
Two weeks later, Chris and Jillian boarded the Jukebox and found George and Meisa sitting at temporary consoles on the bridge. The Jukebox was the gem of the fleet, and was twice as large as the Cheops. The front of the bridge had a huge display that could be changed to five different views. At that moment it was a window showing what was in front of the ship. The smaller two displays on each side of the center one showed the ship’s position relative to all nearby objects and the status of the ship’s various systems.
George smiled and stood, “Welcome aboard. Have you finished your training on the systems?”
Jillian came forward and hugged George, “Yes, we have. Are you going with us on the initial trial run?”
“Yes, Meisa and I are going to make sure you’re familiar with all the systems at your disposal. The design of this ship is different from all the other ships you’ve flown.”
Chris looked at his control panel, “What’s the biggest difference, George?”
“Most of the systems are now voice controlled. The computer is keyed to your voices and will recognize when you give it a command.”
“I read about that in the training manuals, but I’m a little concerned that we might say something in error that could cause a problem.”
Meisa smiled and said, “Let’s give it a try. Do this. Say, “I want to turn the force field on.”
Chris stared at her and shrugged, “I want to turn the force field on.”
Meisa looked at the status board and said, “Notice, it did not come on. Now, picture an enemy ship coming toward you and you want the force field on. Just say, “force field.”
Chris envisioned an enemy ship coming at them and he said, “Force field!” The force field immediately came on.
George said, “The computer knows the difference and the longer it hears your conversations the better it will become.” George looked at Jillian and smiled, “We’ve also discovered something else that you’re going to like.”
“What is that?”
“If you jump into Sierra Space with the force field at full power, you will not leave an energy trail. You can’t be followed.”
Chris looked at him and furrowed his brow, “Why is that?”
“The trail that a ship leaves in Sierra Space is actually just the energy that leaks as the ship travels. The force field is now strong enough so that no energy escapes through it. We’ve also discovered that our communication systems cannot be traced. The signal we sent actually f
ills all Sierra Space instantaneously. We’ve had to put an encryption on each ship with an ID so that all communications are not being received by all ships. You can tune in to the ships which have had their IDs loaded in. All you need do is say, ‘Contact’ and the ship’s name you wish to communicate with.”
Chris looked at Jillian and then turned to the two engineers, “So we can’t be traced back to Earth?”
“We don’t think so.”
“Is the ship fully armed and ready for combat operations?”
Meisa looked up quickly, “Yes, why do you ask?”
“Bear with me just a moment. Tell me about the missiles we are now carrying.”
“The fusion missile is something that Meisa developed. She put a small fusion reactor in the head of each missile. When the missile is launched, a laser will start the fusion reaction and contain it in the warhead. We didn’t need to use heavy shielding because the force field will protect the ship that fires it. However, it will deliver an explosion upon impact that is devastating.”
“Will it get through a force field?”
“Probably not. But it could knock the force field out. We have also slaved the beam computer system to the missile’s guidance system, and the ship can be told to clear the field.”
“What happens then?”
“The beam will target the force field where the missile is going to strike. It will hit a tenth of a second before the missile and knock a hole in it for the missile to fly through.”
“What if the beams are being used to defend the ship?”
Meisa said, “It doesn’t matter. The beams will automatically target any attackers and fire a beam for the missile to penetrate without stopping its defense of the ship. The beams are capable of continuous fire.”
“We have eight beams, right?”
“Yes; two on the top, bottom, and sides.”
Meisa looked at Chris, “You still haven’t told me why you want to know if the systems were live.”
Jillian looked at the main display and punched a control on her board. The main display showed a picture of the huge energy trails out in open space between galaxies, “Have you seen this?”
George and Meisa nodded.
