Ascendancy: A Near Future Sci-Fi Thriller

by Randal Sloan

  Julie led the way out the docking port that led to the ship, the other two following close behind. Their new guest seemed quite anxious to see everything. “Welcome aboard my little ship, Doctor Hollingsworth. This is Zeke Caldwell, my fiancé. Zeke watched you on the broadcast yesterday and we are both glad that you agreed to accompany us to report on our news conference today.”

  James shook Zeke’s hand. “Please, call me Professor. Everyone does, except for one person who seems to have trouble doing it.” He pointedly looked at Julie.

  “Ok, you got me, Professor. I promise I’ll do better,” Julie told him.

  Julie could tell that the Professor was distracted trying to look at everything, so she started waking the ship up. It immediately responded to her touch; everything was keyed to her biometrics and didn’t require anything else. As the displays became active, that gave him even more things to look at.

  Leaving the AI to do its work, Julie continued their conversation. “Professor, Zeke was quite impressed with your knowledge and how well you handled the situation yesterday.”

  The Professor finally stopped looking around, his reporter side asserting itself. He turned toward Zeke to address him directly. “I know you’ve been there with her in all of this. Maybe later we can talk a little, and you can tell me about yourself.”

  Zeke smiled at him. “There’s not much to tell. I was really boring until I met Julie and got involved in her crazy world, but I’ll be glad to talk with you any time you want.”

  While she was prepping for launch, Julie briefly explained how the ship propulsion system worked. By the time she finished, Zeke’s eyes were glazing over, but the Professor seemed to understand most of what she was talking about.

  Zeke finally had to admit defeat. “You two science types eat up this stuff. Give me a Chaotic Core any day and I can talk for hours, but this astrophysics stuff, you pretty much lose me after the first sentence.”

  James laughed. “Inventing the Chaotic Core is going to be the key to the worldwide adoption of AI’s. The idea of using Chaos Theory to design an AI system is in of itself innovative but the actual implementation has been beyond anyone’s grasp. So I think you can be forgiven for not being into this high science geek stuff.”

  Zeke turned to Julie. “I’m liking this guy more and more. Can we keep him?”

  They all laughed. Their conversation was interrupted by the AI, which announced, “All systems are ready.”

  “Choose a station and have a seat. I told the AI to configure all of them to allow you to observe the flight.” Julie told them.

  While they were doing that, Julie called the station control room using the ship’s com. “Space Tech Station, this is Aspirations, preparing for departure.”

  “Aspirations, you may undock at your earliest convenience.”

  Glancing to be sure both her passengers were set, Julie announced over the com, “Undocking now.”

  “Good luck and Godspeed, Aspirations.”

  Julie tapped the Undock icon on her console. The little ship smoothly slid out of the dock. Speaking to the two, she said, “You might want to strap in. I’m going to punch it as soon as we’re clear of the station. We’ve got a date with a breakfast and some really good coffee.”

  As they moved to follow her instructions, Zeke asked her, “Just how fast are we going to go? Tim told me about the trip back the other day when I got shot. I don’t think I want to go that fast again while conscious.”

  “Nothing like that. Although a good cup of coffee is right up there, it’s nothing like the incentive to get my fiancé back alive.”

  “You were shot?” the Professor asked, giving Zeke an incredulous look. Zeke showed no sign of even a modest injury.

  “Yes, in the attack on the Organization’s space station. One of the men there was working undercover for us, but he went crazy apparently. He tried to drug and kidnap Julie at gunpoint. I was able to disable him; unfortunately, in the process his gun went off, causing me to get hit.”

  Julie reached over and gently touched Zeke’s arm, smiling at him. “He’s saved me three times now. I’ve promised him as soon as we go get my father next month, I’m going to marry him so he’ll quit trying to impress me. I got it the first time.”

  “I think there’s quite a story there. But you said you’re going to go get your father? I didn’t think anyone knew where he was.”

  “It’s more like when, since the where doesn’t matter so much with the new drives. They were testing the first version of the propulsion system we have onboard this ship, but they lost control of the feedback loop. They were pulled out of the physical universe and transported in space and time. I’ve calculated approximately when and where they are going to reappear. What matters to us is that it’s just over one month from now. Since this ship is too small to carry all the people onboard their ship, I’m planning to convert Space Tech’s other research ship to use the same propulsion system as this ship. That way we can go get them and bring them home.”

  “Wow! If you need someone to go along and report the story, I’d like to be the one to do it,” the Professor said. He was hooked already.

  Julie couldn’t hide her smile. Especially since that fit in exactly with her plans. “Your seat is reserved then, sir. Zeke and I have been talking about needing someone who will accurately record the events taking place for the history books. We believe you could be the one to do that if you choose.”

  “I’m your man. Unfortunately for my career, I’m honest to a fault, which doesn’t always go over so well with my news editors, like when they want me to exaggerate a story to make it more interesting or even invent one that isn’t even true to make headlines for them.”

  That got a smile from both Julie and Zeke. “Professor, I don’t think you will need to exaggerate or invent anything with us,” Julie told him. “I don’t know why it had to be us, but the two of us seem to be at the center of a number of world-changing events. Sometimes I wish I could still be that out-of-touch young girl you interviewed a couple of years ago, who didn’t have a clue about any of this.” She looked at Zeke and smiled. “Then I think about Zeke and what we have, and suddenly it’s not so important.”

  While they had been talking, they had quickly moved away from the space station. Despite what she had said earlier, Julie really wasn’t in a big hurry. As she keyed their destination into the AI, she explained the flight plan to the professor, putting up a VR display so that they could all see their course.

  “I’m going to let the AI do most of the flying so I can talk about our flight. Because the new drive system doesn’t require fuel, being powered completely by the new power units, I’m able to disregard the necessity of conserving fuel to choose our flight path. Traditional space vehicles, including our Space Tech shuttles, are limited by the amount of fuel they can carry. Eventually we’ll convert our shuttles to use the new propulsion system, but that’s going to take a few months.

  “What that means for our flight plan is that, instead of the traditional landing where the friction of the atmosphere is used to bleed speed off, we are able to use the drives to drop our speed, bringing the ship into the atmosphere until we’re low enough that there’s enough air to allow us to fly like an airplane would. That greatly reduces our flight time.”

  Julie spoke her instructions to the AI. “AI, initiate landing sequence to the designated coordinates, verbal confirmations, please.”

  The AI immediately responded, “Acknowledged. Initial deceleration will begin in five seconds.”

  The Professor had unconsciously braced for the effects of their deceleration, but when nothing happened, he looked at Julie in surprise.

  Julie couldn’t help but laugh. “Professor, remember that I told you that because of how the drives work, we’re not entirely part of the physical universe. One of the side effects of that is that normal inertia does not apply except when we’re making extreme moves, none of which will happen under an AI controlled landing. As Zeke ment
ioned, during the flight after his injury I was desperately flying the ship at its extreme limits, causing my passengers to experience considerable g forces at the time. Luckily for Zeke, he doesn’t remember.”

  “Very lucky,” Zeke murmured. He went on to explain to James. “Julie is a natural pilot who can do things you wouldn’t believe in flying this ship. As she just said, she was flying entirely on instinct and at the edge of the ship’s capabilities. The two men who were onboard the ship with her, both experienced Special Forces, told me it was a wild ride. That gives you just an idea of how fast she was flying and maneuvering.”

  The Professor didn’t have to think very hard about that one. “I’m quite content to enjoy this very mild AI controlled flight, thank you very much.”

  Their conversation was interrupted when the AI announced. “Beginning atmospheric flight. Switching to rocket thrusters.”

  Once again Julie explained, “Our wings are beginning to give us lift so that our flight will begin to take on the characteristics of normal aircraft. Soon it will begin to feel like we are flying in an airplane.” She pointed to the display where their path was designated by a blue line. “As the AI just told you, it shut down the new propulsion system and is using our rocket thrusters the same way a normal aircraft would use its jet engine. That’s because I’m still trying to figure out how to get the drive to work in the thicker atmosphere. It should be theoretically possible to wrap the fields tightly enough to the ship that the air will not interfere with the drive’s operation, but I’ve been unable to get the math worked out. As you can easily understand, that would make this ship even better. At this point we’re somewhat range limited since we’re now using fuel. For this flight, we do have enough fuel to land and take off again with plenty of reserve.”

  Julie indicated their flight path. “Speaking of landing, it won’t be very long.” Julie placed her headset back on, using the radio to speak to the small control tower at the President’s private airfield. They had been granted permission in advance to land there, so after a short conversation, Julie switched the ship to manual and brought them in for a smooth landing. When they had come here before to negotiate the release of the new power systems and AI’s, they had been in the X-plane and Julie had just been a passenger. Size-wise her new ship was a little bigger than the X-plane, but the airfield had been expanded enough to allow Air Force One to land so the landing strip was plenty big enough for her ship to land.

  Julie, Zeke and James quickly passed through the security checkpoint, where they were met by Doctor Jim Vincent, the President’s Science Advisor. Doctor Vincent had been there the time before when Julie and Zeke came to the estate. “I’m here to take charge of Doctor Hollingsworth.” Pointing to their waiting escort, he told them, “I believe you two know the way to the breakfast room.”

  “We do and we’ll see you in a little while, Professor. I’ll try to save you some pastries, although Zeke and Jim here nearly ate all of them the last time.”

  James just laughed at that. “I believe you're exaggerating — the First Lady's breakfast table is quite legendary for the quantity and quality of food it holds.”

  “You just can’t pull anything over on this one, Zeke. You’ll have to eat double now so I don’t look so bad.”

  “Well, I do need to eat extra, don’t I? Doctor’s orders.” They all laughed at that, although Julie was the only one who knew the details.

  With their pair of secret servicemen in tow, Julie and Zeke hurried along toward the room where they had eaten breakfast before. Someday Julie wanted to be able to take her time and see their beautiful home. Maybe today after breakfast and coffee, which reminded her. “I’m ready for a most excellent cup of coffee,” Julie told Zeke.

  “Me too. I know you already had at least one before we left.” Zeke knew his fiancée a little too well sometimes.

  “Just the one we shared, just like you.” Julie did love her coffee, but she had seen Zeke with a cup on numerous occasions.

  “Guilty as charged. Someone has gotten me addicted to the stuff.”

  Julie just laughed. If that was the worst thing he had picked up from her, he was doing alright.

  It didn’t take them long to reach the breakfast dining room. As before, the room was laid out with the food and drinks on one side of the room and a beautifully decorated table in the balcony area overlooking the estate gardens. The gardens were especially beautiful to Julie today, with their combination of greenery, flowers and water features. That helped put things in a little more perspective, something she needed right now.

  #

  The First Lady was waiting for them and came over to give Julie a hug. “I’m so glad you could come today. I really enjoyed the time the two of us had together last time.”

  “I did too. Having you to talk to about my mother really helped me. I still miss her so much. I thought taking out the Organization would make me feel better, but I still miss her just as much.”

  “No, revenge never makes up for your loss, and it never completely satisfies. But removing that evil group was necessary, something you have done rather admirably, I might add, although you’ve made my husband work extra hard these last couple of days.”

  “Yes, I’m sorry about that. It was necessary. And we need to get this worked out now, while we have someone like your husband to work with.”

  Julie wasn’t sure of the ramifications, but she’d had a very strong premonition regarding what would happen if she had waited for his successor to come to office. Her premonition had not been good; bad enough that she had foreseen having to launch an attack against her own country, something she was loath to do. She was a loyal and patriotic US citizen, but she would do what she had to do if it came to that.

  The First Lady sighed. Who knew what she had foreseen? “Enough business. Ed will be here shortly. Help yourself to the food and go get your coffee.” As if she knew what Julie was thinking, she went on, “Yes, it is Kinza coffee. That’s the only coffee I drink nowadays since someone introduced me to it.”

  “Great! I brought you some more of my special blend.” Julie gave her the bag with its pretty ribbon.

  The First Lady quickly sent it back with her staff. “We’ll have some of that later,” she said. “I’ve still not quite gotten the blend to match yours. You’ll have to tell me the secret someday.”

  About the time Julie and Zeke reached the table with their coffee, the President came in. Julie could have sworn that the two choreographed their breakfasts, because that’s exactly what had happened the last time they were there.

  “Great! You guys are just getting started.” He shook hands with both of them and pointed to their seats. “Please be seated and enjoy the food.”

  After everyone was settled and had sampled the food, the President pointed to the First Lady’s coffee cup. ”My wife constantly raves about your coffee from Kinza. It’s a good thing we have worked out a pretty good relationship with the new leaders of that country. Otherwise, we probably would have had to take them over by now just to get coffee from there.”

  The First Lady laughed, touching him lightly on the arm. “No, we would have just had to buy it from Julie at two hundred percent profit. She’s had them eating out of her hand for months now.”

  “Not just them. Despite everything that’s happened, I suspect the whole world will soon be hers. Public opinion went from everyone demanding immediate action to everyone telling us to find a way to work with her. Politically it’s not that clear yet, but where their constituents go, you can bet the politicians will follow.”

  The President turned to Julie. “Where did you get that jewel of a reporter? He had just the right level of knowledge and understanding to explain the situation for the viewers to understand. I know the two of you spoke from the heart, but you couldn’t have choreographed a more perfect press conference.”

  “We call him the Professor. He was the only media person we had available on the station at the time. He was there doing a docum
entary on our new and future materials that Space Tech is going to be bringing to the market soon. Zeke tells me it had to be karma that brought him there.”

  “Well, I bet you have a hundred or more on the station now.”

  “Probably, although they have to pass a thorough vetting process before we let them come on board the station. But the Professor’s seat on the first row is permanently assigned to him.”

  The President smiled at his wife. “Sorry, dear, I think I’ve already broken your rule of no business at the breakfast table. I’ll try to behave. But I have to ask one more thing. Zeke, I was surprised to see you here today. My wife led me to believe that you would be injured in the raid on the Organization space station, yet you are here without any sign of injury.”

  Zeke had been worried this would come up in their conversation. He hadn’t told Julie about his VR call from the First Lady before they staged the attack on the space station. Lady Catherine had warned him of the need to protect Julie at all times, but he had known she wasn’t telling him everything. She had obviously seen in her vision the attempted kidnapping of Julie by the mole in the Organization and the results of Zeke’s move to prevent it. He didn’t tell Julie because he was determined to be there to protect her, knowing she would object to him being there if she knew.

  Apparently Julie was the only one that didn’t know about the vision. He already knew what Julie was going to ask, but first he answered the President’s question. “Yes, I did receive an injury but I’m ok.” He turned toward his fiancée. “I might have received a certain call a few days ago before we went over to the Organization space station. I might have been warned to make sure we had our systems in control of the station, and that I needed to stay close to you. For reasons I felt at the time, I chose not to tell you any of this.”