April

by Mackey Chandler

  MILITARY ENTRY WILL BE RESISTED WITH LETHAL FORCE - NO FURTHER WARNING. M3 MILITIA.

  They probably wouldn't believe it anymore than the other, she thought, but took a pix of it with her helmet camera and sent it to Jon also. Maybe she just didn't understand this psychological warfare stuff crap.

  * * *

  Jeff was extremely nervous with his new step mother. He wanted very much to get her approval and was worried about not knowing what her culture might consider offensive. They were working together to load her precious material in the quarter scale machine at the Lewis family dockage. It was a little harder to do in zero G, but worth it, because they would test it outside and know immediately if this scale worked and they could mount this unit on the Happy Lewis and move on to the other three. It made it all the harder his dad was not there, to help them get to know each other. He was off with the other owners of the Rock and all the friends and well regarded people they invited, to consider what they could do to hold on to their investment.

  He was famous now for his broadcast on BBC. But they had yet to see if it would translate into actual support for a open schism with USNA authority. Jeff went on and on, prefacing everything he said with Nam-Kah with so many qualifications and apologies, that his normal quick and to the point manner was gone. Finally she laid her hand on his arm, making him start he was so jumpy. "Do you dislike me Jeff?" she asked, but without any tone of unhappiness in her voice.

  "God, no. I don't even know you," he blurted out.

  "And I don't know you," she agreed, "but how shall I ever, if you're terrified of me?"

  He smiled a little bit and nodded. "But you'll tell me if I do something that makes you unhappy? So we can fix it instead of letting it get between us?"

  "I promise. No silent resentments or evasions. Now, just talk to me normal, like you would your father or your friends. OK?"

  "OK," he agreed and visibly took a deep breath and tried to relax. "Have you wandered what would happen if you could precipitate the same field collapse your device produces along a line, in a plane configuration instead, or as the spherical collapse of a volume? I'm wondering if there aren't some parallels for describing the matrix in Maxwell's equations. Now visualize this," he said, preparing to elaborate, his eyes getting a far away dreamy look and smiling for a change.

  So this is normal? Nam-Kah thought. Domestic life is going to be interesting in the Singh household, she concluded. Very interesting indeed.

  * * *

  Aboard the Cincinnati Art listened carefully to his commander's briefing as they approach docking at M3. He thought the man a pompous ass, but he was forty-six years old and every bit as hard and quick as Art, or any of the men in his squad. He liked to run the guys into the dirt in training, refusing to even look back, to see how many had dropped out. He'd like to get a DNA sample of the old boy some time. There were times he'd swear the man had nonhuman genome. Proof of it would strip him of his citizenship. But then he looked like he was on steroids too and they all had drug tests weekly, so he couldn't be.

  He must be one of those fellows whose body was obliging and pumped out the steroids he needed just naturally, probably his genome was legal too, Art decided, with a small twinge of jealousy. The commander would be taking the first insertion, from the normal dockage on the South hub. After he had a secured area in sufficient depth into pressure, Art would take the second squad of twelve through and spearhead a drive for the Holiday Inn, to pick up the package waiting for them. He would take the hotel manager off away from his squad and dispose of him quietly and bring the man's bag back to the shuttle.

  Only after the bag was securely onboard the shuttle would stand off - Art was not thrilled about that part of the plan - and the two squads would move to find and arrest the list they had, with photos of each person attached. Somewhere along the line he was looking for some personal payback too. He still resented the booby trap on his first recon. They also had a detailed layered map of the station loaded in their helmet displays and still pix they could bring up, of how many of the corridors and rooms should look. Earthside he was used to using a robot for point and surveillance, but here they were of no use until they were in the spun up section and then far enough out spin the robot had at least half of its normal weight for traction. Maybe later after they had control they'd haul a few in to patrol the outer corridors. Nobody had developed a zero G fighting robot yet. But he also didn't really have a squad member skilled and trained at being forward point, since a machine took that position in their training.

  He'd put Francisco out there. He was a poor boy from Mexico City, mean as hell and the nobody in the squad liked him very well. Nobody would hate Art if the slick caught it. Life in the Ciudad sounded like it would have prepared him for an urban style of combat anyway.

  * * *

  Jeff looked at Nam-Kah. "I think we'll have this buttoned up in about 15 minutes. Why don't we finish in our suits, so we can start pumping down the room to take it outside? Are you comfortable working in a suit?"

  "I worked for three years on the Moon. I'm used to a Moon style suit, but I'm familiar with vacuum work in general and the safety aspects."

  "Super, lets seal up. You check me close, because I'm not as experienced in a suit."

  The final assembly was just bolting things back together, which they had needed removed to fill the central mechanism. The machine was improved from the original Nam-Kah had made in one important way. It had sufficient cooling it could cycle at tenth second intervals as a 100% duty cycle. They were bolting servo motors and cables back on. You could point it very much like the laser arm. The ships navigational computer could orient it at a point in space, from the radar data, or from GPS data they could point at a specific location on the earth's surface, or they could just look through the telescope and simply see where it was pointing. The optics were the weakest link. The telescope was a reflector with a half meter active surface mirror controlled by a nano mechanical elements. The individual sub-mirrors on its surface were smaller than the wavelength it was focusing so it should give theoretical perfection.

  The software was trained to look for patterns and sort them out, so that after you had looked at a scene for a few seconds it would actually sharpen up. The lines drawn on a parking lot would get clear and the edge of a highway would become distinct, but it also tried to impose patterns even if there were none and you still had to recognize the filtering effect. You got a posterized effect where you could look at the surface of the ocean and after awhile something like sand dunes got a strange marbled look that wasn't really there, as the software struggled to impose a pattern.

  After everything was bolted up Jeff ran a diagnostic on his pad, cabled to the control computer on the machine. It moved reliably in three dimensions. They checked the pressure and they had about five minutes before they wanted to crack the hatch open. Jeff went over and was checking his latest batch of foils, running in the nanoboxes.

  "Still no thoughts what really makes this work?"

  "What can I say? We're like Becquerel, looking at the exposed photographic film. We know there is a phenomenon, but we don't understand the underlying mechanism. We haven't even named it yet you know. I guess X-effect, would be as appropriate as X-rays were. But we can use it even if we don't understand it. It gives us a big head start on the Earthies, who don't even know about the effect we are working with. Who knows how long we will have it to ourselves?"

  "I don't know. Have you published anything at all which would give them a lead?

  She shook her head no.

  "Then we better not for awhile, until we have some other hedges to maintain our political independence. I'm influenced by my father's dislike of politics," he admitted, "but I don't see we have much else but a few technical tricks as a lever. The Happy Lewis was very successful and lucky. But independence won't work based one tiny warship. They're going to need a demonstration of this, before they will talk seriously to us you know, don't you?" he asked.


  "Oh yes. I've been thinking about targeting. After we test it and get it mounted in the Happy Lewis, we need to see what we have archived off the net for targeting. First order of business is anything which can reach us here. Space planes, launch facilities, anti-sat systems."

  "Eddie says he'll have a ship ready to carry a projector too. It won't have the legs of the Happy, but it will be ready to use as fast as Dave can prepare it."

  "Good, we're going to need it. He can upgrade it when it can sit idle that long."

  "Easy says they have anti-sat systems on all the aircraft carriers, even the little submersible ones, which only carry a half dozen planes and some of the surface ships with extensive air defense, as well as some of the attack subs."

  "Well at least it's a military target." She said looking pained. "I'm afraid we'll need to punch a grid through any of the aerospace shops building spacecraft. We can give them a few hours notice before we do it. It's not like they can roll it out and fly it away when it is half built. But the hangers at Edwards, the Cape and Groom Lake, we gotta smoke without warning, or they will fly the stuff away to other parts of the world. The less we have to hit USNA bases in other countries the better. Not that they have many bases left abroad. It's not like a few years ago when they were everywhere."

  "Heather is an excellent data searcher. I'd suggest getting her started on a target list. There was something else I wanted to ask. If we don't have any losses loading these machines you'll have a small quantity of fluid left over. Do you think I could run an experiment with it I've been thinking about?" he asked her, trying to sound casual.

  "I don't see any problem with that. After we're past this rush talk to me about it. Pressure is down. Let's get it out there and try it." They posted a paper vacuum notice on the corridor lock port, to back up the readouts, an extra safety step Happy insisted on when using his cubic and opened both doors of the coffin lock in the outer bulkhead. Two of Dave's men at the scooter outside came in and started taking all the nuts off the perimeter of the wall and boxing them for later. They were old style untreated studs and nuts, messy with chalky vacuum anti-seize and they wore thin disposable over-gloves for the mess, but none of them were seized surprisingly. The whole plate was eventually loose and the experienced workers eased it to the side and fastened it down over an adjoining cubic.

  Very few of the owners ever removed an outer bulkhead so they didn't have to worry about someone crowding their work space. Two neighbors had consented to allow them to use their outside surface, so the Happy Lewis was turned around over the adjoining cubic. A pretty brave thing to do, considering what a know target the Happy Lewis was now. They had asked in person so there could be no record of it on the com system, to incriminate the neighbors if there should be retribution down the road.

  They eased the gravitational projector up and over the edge, to mount temporarily on the outer hull. It was not terribly massive. Only about two hundred kilograms, but the mechanics moved it with easy patience. This sort of work was where Easy had gotten his nick name. Moving massive girders and plates, he was known to the other workers for repeating - "Easy, easy, easy as you go there." He liked to tell people in a hurry, he never took time off to grow new fingers, because he was careful and not in a rush moving things in zero G. The crew immediately started extending the white camouflage tarp and frame over the exposed hole.

  When the machine was bolted down it was nothing very special to look at. It sort of resembled a miniature industrial assembly robot. They curled back the edge of the camouflage tarp, to give them a view of the sky. Jeff attached his pad and aimed at an empty piece of the sky as they had agreed. He made the image from the telescope come on the screen to double check it was clear.

  It was aimed at space between two upright metal channels which were temporarily clamped to the hull, like the projector itself. At his nod two of Dave's guys lifted a small plate of outer hull, like the one they had unbolted to open the room. It was only about two hundred millimeters square and mounted on two tubes along the edges. They positioned it between the uprights and clamped the tubes to them so it was right in front of the business end of the projector.

  "I've done this before," Nam-Kah reminded him. "Your turn today if you'd like."

  "OK," he accepted. For a moment he didn't know what to say. Then he spoke in the suit radio with the power turned low, as they kept them for privacy and said, "Heads up. Live fire test taking place. Fire in the hole." He pushed the enter key on his pad to actuate it. The plate had a hole in the middle, faster than the eye could see the process. It was about twenty centimeters in diameter with the curled edge away from the projector. The uprights holding it gave a jerk and the entire cantilevered frame visibly vibrated for a few seconds. But not with as much force as you'd expect from anything which could punch a hole in this sturdy a plate. Jeff was sure it would move as much if he just hit it with a half-kilo hand hammer. The projector itself however had not moved enough in recoil for Jeff to feel, although he was holding on to its frame with his left hand.

  Nam Kah eased over and had to stop and untangle her safety line from around her leg. She had an even smaller section of plate in her hand which was the cut-out piece of hull they had accidentally punched a hole in on ISSII. The holes looked as close to identical as they could tell by eye. "The mass of active material in the core is only a quarter but the effect seems the same," Nam-Kah said in a slow thoughtful tone. They looked at each other with the bright look of discovery and said simultaneously, "Quantum phenomena," and then laughed at themselves.

  Chapter 30

  April scrubbed until she was raw. She'd never thought she'd feel clean again. She didn't have any more suit liners, but she put on the sheerest tights under soft cotton shorts and a long sleeved cotton t-shirt turned inside out, so the seams couldn't rub. It would do to go back in the p-suit, which she felt certain she'd need to do soon. She wasn't ready to be locked inside the suit again right now.

  First she called up Jon and asked if they had cut com to Earth, knowing they were going to be attacked. He assured her the radio room had their own router set up, with one of his men physically protecting it and making sure no traffic was passing to Earth that might harm them. There would be very limited bandwidth through their own firewall, until Eddie and a couple helpers were satisfied no data miners were running in their system.

  Confident she was safe to talk openly on local com, she called her grandpa and asked about the ship. He was sitting in the pilot's seat and reported no space activity outside at all. They had a full load again of fuel and reactive mass. A new cask of heavy water also.

  He'd learned Jeff was so worried about having enough deuterium, he had set a separator up to mine the station's water supply, until they could get supplied from the moon. They'd learned from their flight and the new stocks of consumables was improved. They had more first aid items, almost a minisurgery and better food and spares. They were even configuring a set of real acceleration couches for the rear space, which could be taken in or out. She was glad to hear it all.

  She had never owned any material thing before, with the sort of attachment she was forming with the ship and she hung up happy to know it was serviced and started rolling up her suit to bring along. She intended to keep it close, if she had to rush to the ship. She wanted to rest but her dad was meeting with the other investors and she intended to go along with him. He might object, but she was going to be there if she had to force her way into the room at gunpoint.

  * * *

  Dave was at the Happy Lewis with April's grandpa in his namesake, working on a panel which would go in the overhead in front of the laser and bulge down into the cabin. Happy didn't like what it did to the cabin, but having been briefed by Jeff what it would do he accepted it. The bulge was going to house one of the projectors the Singhs were building. Some of the final details were unresolved, but the basic wiring for the servos and the base plate design were set already, no matter what size container was finalized for the quan
tum fluid. They would be able to bolt it down, plug it in power and computer access and test it as soon as it was delivered.

  Dave was talking to him as he worked about outfitting another scooter Eddie had bought as quickly as they could, with an improved plasma drive and another of the projectors so they would not be ruined if one ship was destroyed. Jeff had given his tentative Okay on that, as long as he could come to terms with Eddie over licensing and safeguarding the technology. This led to a discussion of fitting some charges so the crew could destroy the vessel if it was damaged beyond recovery and had to be abandoned.

  Jeff coming in and hearing the idea agreed, but he offered one of his charged accumulators so the ship would be completely vaporized with nothing to analyze after the explosion. In the end they agreed it would be set from the control panel, with provisions to plug in a dead man's switch. The decision left them sobered and there wasn't much light hearted chatter after such a sobering vision.

  Jeff privately concluded he had to make sure nobody was going to crack open these devices and steal the technology even if a crew surrendered. Not that he was going to keep the booby-traps a secret. It was just none of them realized how diabolically effective he could make them. In fact he concluded he really needed a redundant system to destroy them if need be, from outside too. Something others didn't control. Well, some of the hammers he was already building in his head would serve for that too. If they were a little heavy handed he'd have a hard time feeling sorry for a thief.

  * * *

  The USNA Heavy Shuttle Cincinnati was approaching M3 with some caution. N.A. Space Command had informed the crew in vague terms, about the battle with the Chinese which had happened earlier and how the exhaust plume of the Happy Lewis was seen near M3. There were multiple engine emissions of the sort her drive created in the area of the station. They refused to speculate if it meant there were other space craft like her there. Not elaborating on either statement when pressed.