“On that day, all that mattered to me were the numbers and what I could do to reduce them. Now, with time to think about my actions, I have trouble getting past the thought that I decided who would live and who would die. I may be a military officer, but I have never fired a weapon at anyone; what happened in Beijing sits heavily on my mind. I ask that you forgive my decision.”
Admiral Jacks had left the stage and taken a side aisle seat next to Doctor Balistra. He leaned his head closer to hers, “There’s nothing wrong with his mind. He knows that the Chinese take very kindly to humble heroes, and this forum gives Chiang an opportunity to look supremely gracious. Besides, Chiang wouldn’t dare do anything other than bestow forgiveness with the entire world watching.”
The President of China rose to his feet and returned Josiah’s bow. He spoke slowly so that the interpreters would not miss any of his words, “I stood on a peak near to where the Hahn-Wright Station had crashed two days before. It was getting dark and I turned to look upon the lights of Beijing in the distance. I am not a religious man, but I thanked whatever Gods or forces in the universe for their grace in not allowing this thing to happen such a small distance further south.”
Chiang’s eyes were still pointed at Josiah but, now, lost their focus, “Two weeks later I received a report from your government, and I returned to that peak. This time, I had the screaming atmosphere and the sound of your ship breaking apart to fill my head, and I saw that there were no Gods here. I looked at the lights of Beijing and knew that they were there because of one man.”
President Chiang bowed deeply, “Your request for forgiveness is denied; no forgiveness is needed. You are a Hero of the Chinese People and always will be.”
The applause from the audience and around the world rivaled what was given to Josiah. Admiral Jacks joined in the clapping and loudly said to Balistra, “That old horse thief really knows his audience, smooth as ever.”
A few minutes later, things were quiet again, and Josiah sat on the stool trying to think of what to say next; the cane in his hand gave him the most obvious idea, “I’ve still got a lot of aches and pains, but I can walk now. Doctor Balistra--,” another idea hit him, “Doctor Balistra, where are you?” Some people near the front of the audience pointed to the side, and Josiah found her sitting next to Admiral Jacks. “Doctor, stand up.” He waved a hand and coaxed her to her feet, “I’m pretty sure that most of the world knows Doctor Anita Balistra by now; she is the head of my medical team. Stay standing Doc.” He looked down at the near front center of the audience and found his Mother, “Mom, stand up. Come on, up, up.” When she was, finally, on her feet, he looked back at the general audience, “This is my Mother, Grace, but most of the world probably knows that too.” He looked back down at them and moved a pointing finger back and forth between them, “You two now have something uniquely in common with each other; both of you had the job of putting me together.”
The laughter surprised Josiah even though he was expecting it. When it died down, he kept sweeping his finger between them, “In my Mother’s case, she had the Master Plan to work from and could eat lunch while the work went on. In the Doc’s case, she only had pictures to work from and everyone breathing down her neck.” More laughter! “I suppose the award for difficulty will have to go to Doctor Balistra.”
His Mother cut off the beginning laughter, “I don’t think so, Josey, you were almost five kilos when you were born.”
He had to wipe tears from his own eyes and was glad he had not fallen off the stool. It looked like laughter was the ticket and he had a couple of more ideas.
He scanned the screens and waved a hand across them, “Are the people from the Navel Survival Systems R&D Department here today?”
A few seconds later, there was movement on one of the right-hand screens. A voice feed from that screen declared, “Yes, Commander, Captain Fredeman and his people are here.”
He could see several people stand up in the large group on the screen, “Captain Fredeman, I realize I’m a bit late in getting back to you regarding that survival suit I was checking for you, but something came up…or down, actually.” He had to wait a moment for the laughter, “Several systems kept me from dying on impact, but your suit kept me alive until I was found. Therefore, I would like to inform you now that I approve of your design.” Laughter and applause caused the grinning Captain to bow his thanks.
As his eyes left the screen they swept past Doctor Balistra again, and another comedic scenario popped into his head, “Doctor Balistra, I almost forgot to tell you the bad news.”
She got a concerned look and mouthed the word “What?” at him.
“Well, during the time I have been here, my parents have become good friends with you and your team and very familiar with your work. My Father took me aside the other day and advised me to never invite you and your people to one of our company picnic cook-outs; he is afraid that your group will ruin the mood of the day by standing around and arguing about how fast you thought you could get the steaks back on their hooves.”
The response to that was the best yet; he noticed that even the notoriously stiff President Chiang was laughing after the joke had been translated.
He was starting to feel a little tired, but the bow that Captain Fredeman had taken gave him an idea; there were other people that needed to take a bow.
He looked at the, finally silent, but still smiling audience and groups on the screens, “All of you out there have seen the vids of what happened. They all show just one person on Kaleidoscope.” He took a deep breath as he looked around, “That…is not, strictly, true.”
He waited for the murmuring to stop, “Kaleidoscope was the only one of its kind. It required the talents of a long line of skilled and dedicated people to create. I have been informed that there was no other vessel in existence anywhere that could have done what Kaleidoscope did.”
He got off the stool, stepped to the edge of the stage, and raised his arms, “Out there, among you, are the people that created Kaleidoscope over the years. I want all of those people to stand up now, no matter where you are. If it is possible, I want you to stand up and tell everyone around you that you helped create Kaleidoscope. I don’t care if you worked on the plumbing or painted the hull.”
He could feel a heat building in him as the aches and pains vanished. He saw people start to rise on several of the screens, and Eddie, Jeremiah, and Andy stood in front of him in the auditorium, “Every one of you had your hand on my shoulder while I pushed Kaleidoscope past the breaking point. You people made that breaking point high enough to save millions of lives.”
One of the screens showed a large assembly at the Navel Academy. He reached his left hand toward it, “Fran, are you there? Fran Woleneski at the Navel Academy, are you there?”
Slowly, reluctantly, the petite blonde stood up. She was in her second year at the Academy and showed the stripes of a Cadet Company Lieutenant. She was sitting only three rows back from the Academy Commanding Officer and his staff. They got a surprised look when they saw him talking to one of the cadets; there was no reason they would have been overly familiar with her past service record.
Josiah kept his left arm pointing at her while he addressed the world, “This is Francis Woleneski. Prior to being selected to attend the Navel Academy she spent four years in the enlisted ranks. Petty Officer First-Class Francis Woleneski was the systems integrator on Kaleidoscope.”
Josiah lowered his arm and interlaced his fingers, “Fran.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Have you seen the raw dump from the maintenance recorder?”
She twitched a nervous look at the line of officers that had all turned to look at her. No one except the investigation team and a few people with high-level connections had seen the data from that one recorder, and they all knew it.
“Yes, sir.”
“Evaluation, please.”
Now she looked both nervous and embarrassed. With no way out, she braced to attention a
nd dropped into her lecturer mode that Josiah had seen several times.
“Sir, the data indicates that the drive coils were pushed to 58.1 percent above their original rated limits and 76 percent above programmed limiter levels. Synchronization lock error remained under one percent until thirty seconds prior to impact when structural damage forced a wave harmonic override. Harmonic distortion due to hull flex was compensated for by integrator routines and kept under 10 percent during the remainder of the event. There was no indication of dropout or cross-link errors due to extreme power level settings.”
“Who was it that integrated the system that produced the performance you just described and saved millions of lives?”
Her eyes were wide and wet, “It…it was I, sir.”
Softly, he said, “You always knew I’d do something like that, didn’t you?”
Someone had handed her a tissue to dry her eyes. She finished dabbing and presented him with a strained smile, “Sir, Kaleidoscope was something that should have never existed. I always lived in fear of the day when something would fail or someone would make a simple mistake that would be magnified into a major disaster by the overpowered and mismatched systems. When the true nature of the Beijing Incident became known, I was a near basket case for a week.” Fran waved her hands over the cadets and officers around her, “Everyone here thought I had snapped; I never told anyone that I had given you the instrument of your death. It was only when we were assured that you would live that I was able to get back to normal.”
“Fran.”
“Yes, sir.”
“In the end, history will only be kind to Kaleidoscope.”
He pointed at the rest of the standing people, “September eighth last was your day, and I thank you all for being there with me. Good day to you all.”
Fatigue was closing in on him now; he retrieved the cane from where it leaned against the stool and headed offstage while the thunder of applause rose around him.
Admiral Jacks was waiting for him and grinning broadly, “I am impressed; there was laughter, tears, and pride. You kept it short and left them wanting more, which is what I hear you’re supposed to do.”
PROPOSITION
By the time they had walked back to his suite, he was really dragging. Captain Beltozi was there with an older couple that Josiah had never seen before. Josiah sat down before he fell down.
Admiral Jacks apparently knew them, “Josiah West, this is Doctor Axel Weissman and his wife Doctor Ruth Weissman; I have no idea why they are here, but SECNAV told me to expect them.”
They were both in their sixties or better, slim and nearly as tall as Nora. He shook hands with them from his sitting position, “Sorry to sit down like this, but that walk was the longest one I’ve had in months, and my hips are screaming.”
They took seats across from him while Doctor Balistra got him something to wash down the pill she had just handed him. Ruth Weissman spoke first, “That is quite alright Commander; we are well aware of your circumstance.”
Her English was precise with an accent that had Palestine-Hebrew written all over it. Josiah waved a hand at them, “I’ve got a load of doctors around here; is this going to be a psych evaluation?”
Axel Weissman smiled, “No, no, Commander. We are not those kinds of doctors. I am a theoretical physicist and Ruth is a gravitational applications mathematician. We need a pilot.”
That was right to the point, “There are plenty of pilots around. I’m a very good one when I’m flying, but just because I’ve lived through more crashes than most does not seem to be a reason for you to seek my services. How many ships have you got to crash?”
They both smiled and looked at each other. Josiah got the impression that he had just tripped over an inside joke. Ruth took over, “No, Commander, we are in the process of constructing a ship that we have no desire to have crashed. What brought us here are your extensive and unique qualifications and the way you have demonstrated your ability to solve problems under pressure. You have, on two occasions, demonstrated a depth of understanding of the vessel you were piloting that allowed you to make a correct decision that saved lives. We are in the first stages of building a ship that is the first of its kind; we need the best pilot in the world.”
“Well…that certainly is flattering. What kind of ship is it?”
Again there was that exchanged look. Axel Weissman put his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, “Commander West, how would you like to go faster than light?”
END
Josiah West 1: Kaleidoscope Page 16
