The Eons-Lost Orphan

by Laer Carroll

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  Jane had a full seven days off around Christmas Day. She spent it at home reacquainting herself with her Porsche, her family (in which she included Natalia), and her quintet. That last was spent the day after Christmas in Santa Monica where the five had made a home which included a modest recording studio.

  The day of Christmas was at her home. In the morning there was present opening which included the Kuznetsov's several grandchildren and their three biological children. Jane was popular with the children, being nearer their size and apparent age than anyone else. It was usual to see one or two lounging on her or (in the case of the three-year old) being carried. As she'd proved the nights before she was very good at telling spooky stories.

  Lunch was a long affair which dribbled off into a pool party. Jane retired finally in the early afternoon after being "surprised" one last time by stealthy children who pushed her into the water.

  Dried off and in jeans and a tee she and her father got together in his office. He was lying on the couch on one side of the room, she slouched in a big easy chair cater-corner to it. To one side the dim gleam of the dance studio was visible through the second doorway of the office. On other side of his desk the three giant computer screens showed swirling abstract images.

  When Jane had entered she'd put a small computer chip on his desk then retired to the easy chair.

  He raised his eyebrows as he lounged on his couch, a mildly laced fruit drink on the floor beside him.

  "That's the only copy of some research I did. I made it on a computer disconnected from any other, then wiped it so well not even I could reconstruct it. I've discovered something revolutionary."

  "Even more than your decabattery, I'd guess. You made no secret of it."

  "Deca was a minor revolution. THAT is a major one. Basically, I discovered how to project a field which will turn non-magnetic material magnetic."

  She took a sip of her Dr. Pepper Upper to let that sink in. For a couple of minutes he stared toward the ceiling while he worked his way through some of the consequences of the discovery.

  "How?"

  "As a rest between times working on Deca and Innumeracy I began looking into magnetism and how it is generated naturally and mechanically. Looking at a quantum level, not the macro level. I began to notice discrepancies between theory and practice. Very tiny ones, right at the edge of observation error, on the order of one in a million. Most people would just assume they were errors. My math intuition insisted they were not.

  "I created a simple apparatus to test my guess, and discovered almost by accident this effect."

  "What's its range?"

  "Depends partly on the size and shape of the projector and the power put into it. A few feet at most. Field generation scales up but drops off. Not even house-sized projectors can go beyond that. Assuming the scaling formula is accurate.

  "I can create either a positive or negative field, which means--"

  He sat up, eyes alight, then lay back down. "Hover boards!"

  "Marty McFly flies again!"

  The "Back to the Future" series with star Michael J. Fox had been a favorite of both of them.

  "Maybe even hover skates eventually. But certainly hover bikes, hover cars, hover tanks, hover land and water boats, and maybe even hover land and water ships."

  "How destructive is this effect?"

  "Some, but not nearly as much as other ways to levitate objects. That area requires a lot more research than I was able give it. At a guess, this should let us have both on-highway and on-ground hover craft. And over-water craft.

  "There is one area that I'm most excited about. Propulsion."

  She sipped more of her drink to let him work matters through.

  "If you can induce magnetism in air--"

  "And you can."

  "--you can use this to pull or push air to create a jet. Or better yet, pull air into the front of an engine AND push it out the back. Maybe in successive stages."

  "Right. Further research is required, but I'd guess we could end up with air flow at or beyond supersonic speeds."

  "An impressive jet. On the ground level this could become a tool able to ablate rock or buildings or--" He grimaced.

  "Ugh." She made a face too. "Yeah, I thought of that too: people."

  She went on.

  "This is going to revolutionize air travel. Induced-magnetism jets are much cooler than thermal-powered jets, much more efficient, destroys much less complex hydrocarbons, and cheaper. At least after the usual ramp-up costs of research and development."

  "And you, future astronaut, want to avoid getting credit for this development. This is why I assume you are giving me this data and this presentation. Why?"

  "I've found that celebrity has its downsides. The taller you stand, the more you become a target. Not only of malicious people, but also wrong-headed well-meaning people."

  He chuckled. "So you want your Dad to become a target instead. Gee, thanks, daughter."

  She laughed then sobered. "You can weather it better than I can. You have a stronger professional position, are shielded by CalTech, and have already overcome controversy twice.

  "And I-- Already I'm a double celebrity about to become a triple celebrity with Deca and Innumeracy. That's enough fame."

  "Oh, don't worry. This is going to be so much fun. Especially when I bring 'my' research to my colleagues at Tech. The cries of horror and joy are going to be SO loud."

  Chapter 15 - USAF Academy - Year 2

  Second Semester - Part 1

  Jane got back to the Academy on the 27th. She had much she wanted to get done before the post-New Year return to regular class work. She'd need all of her "staff" who were still willing to play the staff game and anyone else she could convince to help her with her new project: investigate the induced-magnetism phenomenon and build demonstration devices based on it.

  She texted the four members of her core group to meet her in the cafeteria at 5:00 the next day. She knew they'd be in town by then and hoped they'd all show up. They did.

  Everyone got their food and retired to a round table in the farthest part of the room. She let them talk about their holiday stays at their homes and shared her own experiences.

  Eating done and drinks freshened they looked at her expectantly.

  "From now on all we discuss must remain confidential, at least till about the end of the year. Everyone cool with that?"

  Kate said, "I am, Boss. As long as it's nothing criminal. Or dangerous."

  Jane grinned. "Thanks, Exec, for reminding me of that little point. Yes, I swear that the worse we're going to do is bend a few bureaucratic rules."

  She looked around at all of them and everyone nodded.

  "Good. Now, you know who my father is, I'm pretty sure. Twice Nobel-nominated and once for the math Nobel, the Fields. He's invented something which will eventually become the core of an industrial revolution.

  "He's working with CalTech to secure a patent. It being granted is about as sure as anything can be. It's one of the top universities in the world and its faculty has contributed a ton of high-tech inventions to the commercial sector. The patent part of the legal department is really good, and one of the reasons CalTech continues with it super facilities is the money brought in from licensing.

  "Dad has agreed for me to develop some demonstration devices based on his invention. We can work with the Academy's Public Information Department to showcase each device. They do this a lot to keep the Academy in the eye of the public and especially the Congress, who approve our budget. All the NCAA games our athletes participate in aren't just for our PE development, as just one example."

  She took a sip of her drink and gazed at her crew. They seemed to understand so far.

  "We have to do two major somewhat contradictory tasks. Keep the details of the technology secret, and publicize the devices and their potential benefits."

  Riku/Ricky said, "Clear so far, Boss. Now quit teasing us. What is this big invention?"r />
  Jane went into much the same briefing she'd given her father. They were impressed at the implications of the induced-mag tech. All of her staff were bright knowledgeable people who were near to graduating from a high-tech university. They well understood the ramifications of the induced-mag tech, perhaps better than she did.

  Nicole said, "This is going to be tricky legally, your dad working with CalTech on the rights, and us working with Academy facilities. We need to get with our legal people so they can coordinate with Tech's legal people."

  Jane made a note via her vear on a to-do list for the induced-magnetism project. So did the other cadets.

  Ricky said, "Induced magnetism is such a clumsy term. We need something shorter and snappier. Like indie mag, indu mag, only better."

  For several minutes they tried out several variations, using words from Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit as a prefix to "magnetism."

  Klaus suddenly started waving a hand. "Shut up everybody. I've got something...

  "'Induced' is close. But the induction could be from physical contact, and that's not what we've got. Ours is induction from a distance... Distance... Telephone. Telegraph. That's it. Telemagnetic!"

  Nicole said, "Not very pretty... Not bad, though. I mean, I use that ugly term maglev without urping. I suppose I can live with telemag."

  Ricky said, "So we could say a motorbike using telemag levitation was a telemaglev device."

  Nicole said, "By the same process we could call repulsion and attraction...telmagpush and telemagpull. Ugh, no..."

  Jane interrupted. "OK. Telemag it is. As for extensions to the term, table that for later. I want to talk about what showcase device or devices we want to create. I've already created one. It's not very dramatic to look at. Come on."

  She led them the three blocks away to the building housing the lab which she had shared with three other students. They'd finished their projects and surrendered their keys. Jane had kept hers and signed out the room for one more semester with the proviso that she'd need all four lab positions.

  Inside she unlocked her personal locker and drew out a small quad copter. Each of the four propellers on the X-shaped device had been replaced with a short leg ending in a black round foot of metal. Pointing at them Jane said, "These are permanent magnets. They are turned so their bottom is a south magnetic pole. It could have easily been the opposite end which is a north magnetic pole."

  She pointed at a fist-sized cube mounted where the usual remotely controllable camera would be.

  "This is the inducer, or projector, or whatever we eventually call it."

  She set the quad on the floor where it rested on the short legs.

  "That's it?" said Ricky. "You weren't kidding that it doesn't look showy."

  Jane took from the locker a drone controller and suspended it by straps on her front. It was a usual arrangement which let a drone flyer use both hands on the controller.

  "The controller normally turns on and off the camera and swivels it to point at what the pilot wants to see or record. Now it does the same thing to the inducer."

  She stepped back from the quad. "Get behind me."

  They did so but to the sides to keep the little machine in sight. She flipped a couple of switches. A tiny green light came on atop the quad. Without a sound it rose six inches to float in the air.

  "It really works," whispered Klaus.

  They stood silently looking at the first device to use a process which would completely transform their planet.

  Nicole stirred after a minute or so.

  "How long will it stay up?"

  "As long as the power lasts to the inducer. It uses little juice, so maybe five days or so."

  There was another minute of silence as everyone digested the information.

  "What happens to the floor below the legs?"

  "The same thing if a permanent magnet was set atop it."

  "So," said Klaus. "Not much unless you ramped up the projector to increase the magnetic field strength to high values. How high can it go?"

  "Pretty high but I don't know. Further research is needed."

  "What happens if someone gets in the way of the inducer and its target?"

  Jane grinned. "Nothing. The effect only happens near the target object. I designed it that way."

  This was met with silence. Jane's grin wilted. She'd said more than she should have.

  "So," said Nicole. "You know entirely too much about this effect and how to tailor it. I think it's your invention, not your father's. The proof of that is right there."

  Jane could think of nothing to say.

  "I imagine," Kate said, "that Jane talks a lot with her dad."

  "No," Nicole said, "she talks with too much authority. So what happened this last semester is that she astounded the math world, invented a super-duper battery, and came up with physical theory decades more advanced than that of current science."

  Nicole and the others stared at her for long moments.

  Then Ricky said, "Well, nobody's perfect."

  After a startled moment everyone burst into laughter.

  Klaus said, "We all knew Jane was special. Now we know just how special.

  "I for one am not interested in standing around contemplating her awesomeness. Let's get on with this. How do we make this thing move around instead of float there?"

  She took off the remote and handed it to Klaus. He donned it and adjusted the straps so expertly it was obvious this or similar controllers were familiar to him.

  "Use the joy stick to move the magnetic spot on the floor. The quad will follow it. IF you don't move the spot too fast. The quad can chase it only so fast. Move the spot too far too fast and the quad will drop."

  Klaus gingerly tilted the little knobbed stick beneath his hand forward. The quad silently moved away from him. Soon he had the device flying about the room in increasingly complex paths. Once he moved the magnetic spot too fast and the quad fell to the floor.

  Nicole and Ricky tried out the controller. Neither was a quad enthusiast and soon passed the controller on. When it got to Kate she waved it away.

  "All of this impressive to us because we understand how revolutionary a quad is that uses a totally new kind of propulsion. But if we want to impress the general public we need a more catchy demonstration."

  "DO we want to impress the general public?" Klaus wanted to know. "Right here this will impress thousands of technologically sophisticated companies. There are dozens of applications. Floating forklifts are just one. Less need be concerned about flat uncluttered floors. Stretchers that work on a battlefield.

  "I take it back: hundreds of applications."

  Kate answered him: "Impress everybody and we impress the tech companies. We can do both with one demo device."

  Jane had taken back the neglected controller in Ricky's hand, powered it and the quad off, and stowed them back into her locker. Then she pulled the several rolling ergonomic chairs in the lab into a circle. Nicole moved and helped her.

  Done, Jane and Nicole flopped into two of the chairs and the other three joined them.

  "Jane?" asked Kate.

  She shrugged. "I'm just listening right now."

  Ricky had an opinion. "I always wanted a car that I could fly anywhere: over water, up rivers, across desert, through wilderness. So I think as a demonstrator we should make up one. We could buy a junker and replace its wheels with maglev projectors."

  He turned to Jane. "How hard is it to make those?"

  "I made this one in three hours on a lab 3D printer."

  "So three hours PLUS design time. How fast is that?"

  "A few hours tops for me. Once I figured out the basic design I could customize it. Maybe an hour to design a car's inducers. All day to print out four car-sized ones."

  "We could use a commercial 3D printer or a bigger one here at the Academy."

  "Negative," said Kate. "Security has got to be tight on any tech details that would let someone steal this process. You know there is
going to be industrial espionage. Especially by the Chinese who might use extreme methods."

  At that Jane's robot woke to full alertness and Jane became Jane+Robot for a few seconds. Then she relaxed back into her warm self.

  "Kate's right. I will buy us a high-end industrial 3D printer. I have plenty of resources."

  Ricky said, "Translation: she's fucking rich."

  "Oh, yeah," said Nicole. "I forgot you're the 'Requiem' composer."

  "Plus she's got a rich dad. Who WANTS us to publicize this process."

  They chatted a while about making a maglev car but decided on something more modest: a maglev dune buggy. A second-hand one might be be bought somewhere in Colorado.

  A quick web search shot down that idea. They went back to the car idea.

  "A dune buggy is just a fancy Volkswagen bug," said Klaus. "There must be plenty of old ones around, maybe junked."

  Ricky disagreed. Too much work for too few people to disassemble and reassemble one of those. They went back to a passed-over idea: a golf cart.

  Klaus hated the idea. "A putt-putt box won't impress anyone."

  Ricky grinned. "Sure it will. Put a pointy nose on it. Replace the top with a trapezoidal one. Put some fins and wings on it--"

  "Whoa, cowboy," said Nicole. "No fins. No wings. No suggestion of an aircraft or rocket. Just something a little fancy which people can imagine using to drive around town on the streets but off the highway. Or around a back pasture or anywhere over rough terrain."

  "I like it," said Jane. "Somebody do a web search for used ones within a hundred miles."

  Colorado Springs had two shops which sold golf carts. The more expensive ones sold for upward of $10,000. The low end sold for $2,000.

  "Look up used ones for sale."

  They found three for under $500. "Anyone of those would do," said Jane. "Any better idea?"

  There were none. Nicole volunteered to investigate and offer to buy any of those, provided Ricky would go along with her and give her advice.

  The time was past 9:00 and two of them had only arrived back at the Academy that day. Jane adjourned.