by Randal Sloan
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Julie had reconfigured the meeting room to be a little more formal for their group today. She had removed the podium for one thing. She had a small table and four chairs brought in instead. She also had arranged for a formal tea service to be set up on the table. Sitting at the little table and sipping tea, Julie and Xiu very quickly went through the small official ceremony whereby Julie on behalf of Space Tech officially accepted the Chinese envoy; Zeke and Doctor Hollingsworth stood as witnesses.
James thought he had gotten it back together again until he saw the Chinese envoy. She looks just like Nicole! That nearly made him cry. He and his daughter no longer spoke to each other, and it was all because of his foolishness. When they learned they were unable to have children, James and his wife had adopted privately, traveling all the way to Hong Kong to meet with a Chinese woman who was forced to put her young daughter up for adoption. They had raised their daughter like any other American girl, but they never tried to withhold the information of her heritage from her.
His daughter was now attending Space Academy, all on a scholarship she had earned entirely on her own merit, and she refused to answer any of his calls. When I get back to earth again, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get back in her life. I know I can’t undo the things I’ve done in the past, but we have to find a foundation to deal with the future.
It had been bad enough for James to deal with the fact that Julie was very near his daughter’s age, and despite Julie’s current circumstances, at times he still saw the teenage girl in her. The one he remembered from his interview two years ago. If Julie had been able to go to the Space Academy like she had originally intended to do before the terrorist attack, she and his daughter might well have been classmates. And now this new girl, so much like Nicole that she could have easily been her older sister. James had barely managed to hide his look of surprise when he saw her.
To cope with the current situation, he put on his professional mask. The one he wore as a professor, but had let slip that one time with such disastrous consequences. He had known the girl was too young for him, but he had fallen for her anyway. His marriage had already been beyond saving, but his adopted daughter still had blamed him for destroying their family. Of course, it all had been made worse by the disappearance of her adopted mother, who left in a fit of pique after an argument and had never returned.
As soon as the ceremony was over and the media people had completed their work, Julie had the tea service removed and two more chairs set up. “Come sit with us,” she told Zeke and the Professor.
Finally managing to regain his composure, James graciously accepted her invitation, sitting beside the new envoy as Zeke sat down beside Julie. He inclined his head to the Chinese envoy who returned it with a smile and a half bow.
As soon as they were all settled, Julie opened up a large VR interface display so they all could see. “Now that we have that over with, let me show you why I invited the two of you here.” She had her VR show the area of space around the R4 point. “This is the area of space where my father’s ship was testing the early, early version of the new propulsion system. I have a modified version of it in use on my little corvette ship that you all are quite familiar with by now.”
Julie touched a virtual icon and a multicolor artifact appeared on the display. It looked a lot like a semitransparent tunnel that moved across the area.
“This is a simulated visual representation of the disturbance left in the subspace fabric by their operation of the drive. More importantly, I was able to calculate the parameters of their movement. What is interesting is what happens here, where they engaged the drive at the ten percent power level.” The virtual display changed suddenly from the pleasant brightly colored tunnel moving across straight in space to a more twisted artifact with much darker colors in it.
“Because they did not have any systems in place to handle either the logarithmic scale or the feedback loop the drive generates, they lost control of the ship, turning it into the equivalent of a runaway train. They would have been experiencing high g acceleration and it wouldn’t have been possible to move enough even to reach the abort button on their consoles.” As they watched, the tunnel became more and more twisted and the colors grew darker and darker. Finally it faded away into the black of space. “This is the point where I was no longer able to follow their path when we visited the area a few weeks ago. However, I have the specs for their systems, so I was able to determine when their power systems should have tripped due to overload. Soon enough that I believe the g forces produced would not have exceeded a survivable level.”
“Using an AI and some rather advanced math, I was able to determine that their ship was basically no longer traveling within the constraints of our universe. I still couldn’t figure out what had happened to them until someone very important to me mentioned time, and then suddenly it all fit together. I had not included the time component in my calculations. Besides moving at an extreme rate of speed, their ship skipped forward in time several months. That is why we have not heard anything from them.”
Julie gave them a moment to digest that information. She waited until she saw the light of understanding in the eyes of both envoys. She knew most people had assumed her father’s ship was lost after all the time that had passed with no radio signal and no sign anywhere of the missing ship. She hadn’t tried to explain the real situation in detail to the public because of how confusing it would have been to them.
“With the information I have, I was able to determine when they should reappear in our universe and time stream. That time is approximately one month from now. In that time, I intend to equip our second research ship with the new, safe drive that I have designed and used in our corvette ships, and I’m going to go get them when they arrive back in our space.”
Zeke smiled at the other two, who appeared to be in total shock at the revelations. “It’s a little hard to get your heads wrapped around unless you’re a math genius like Julie here. But to me it means two things. We have quite a bit to do in a short period of time to get the other ship’s drives operational, and secondly, the one no one has really figured out yet, is that our solar system is about to get a lot smaller and maybe someday the stars a lot closer too.”
Julie picked back up with that. “As envoys of your respective countries, I assume you’ll wish to travel with us when we’re able to travel safely in our latter stages of testing, and again when we go to meet my father. I am hereby making that opportunity available to both of you.”
“As an unabashed science geek, I am totally sold.” James said with a gleam in his eyes. “You can count me in.”
“Me, too,” Xiu said, her own excitement obvious. “This is an amazing opportunity to be part of history in the making. Everyone else is going to be very sorry they missed out on it.”
Julie couldn’t hold back her smile. “Yes, I believe when they look back on it, your country is going to be very glad they assigned you to be their envoy. We sort of inherited James, not that I’m not fond of him already, but your country had the vision to take this step forward on their own. Everyone else is going to wish they had representation, but I think that by the time they all realize that, it will be too late.”
“Next week we’ll be completing the installation and preliminary testing. If the testing goes as I think it will, by sometime the week after we’ll be ready to make our maiden voyage in the updated ship. As you can guess, I intend to go visit the approximate area where I believe the ship will arrive back in our universe. I am able to calculate almost exactly when they will return, but even tiny inaccuracies in the data leave an almost ten percent error on the determination of where they will be.”
“The plan is to travel to the area, complete a detailed survey to determine if there are any navigational hazards, and set up a detection grid so that we can find them when they return to our time stream. It’s quite the distance away from here by conventional methods of travel, but for us, it will only be a
few hours away. Then we’ll return here to await their call at the proper time. Only if I still do not receive a call will I plan to go back to do a grid by grid search to look for them.”
“Now that my fiancée has totally psyched you out, I can tell you a couple of other things all of this means to you besides the pure adventure.” Zeke took over the VR and replaced the view of space with a graphical display of crystal lattices showing carbon atoms. “The Professor already has a head start on this due to the documentary he has been working on, so I suspect he recognizes the materials represented in the VR.
“Unfortunately for the Professor, we’ve only given him the teaser tour. He’s going to have to redo his documentary, because we’ve taken it several steps further. Using our current technologies of advanced 3D printing in combination with my new AI control systems, Space Tech has developed a number of processes with carbon based materials that we believe will revolutionize much of what we will build in the future. Graphene, lonsdaleite and carbon nanotubes are some of the possibilities. We’re talking extremely lightweight and strong materials.
“As I’m sure you’ll recognize, there’s a huge market for these materials that hasn’t been opened up before now due to the cost. Construction materials from homes to bridges, cars with less than half the weight of current vehicles but safer due to the stronger materials, airplanes that fly twice as far on the same amount of fuel, that’s just to name a few. With the new AI-based 3D printers, the sky’s the limit. Not only will the cost be much lower than before, it should be competitive with the cost of most other materials.
“With the advent of the new drives, we soon will have the ability to harvest carbon from within the solar system, and that will enable us to jump into fast forward. We estimate one year or so before we can start full-scale production.
“We’ve prepared a few sample products that we’re making available for your review in a nearby conference room. We’ll also have staff available by appointment to answer any questions you might have.”
Julie saw the eagerness in their eyes. She took the baton up again. “We didn’t want you to be bored while waiting for me to finish the testing. Just to give you an idea of what we’ll be able to do, Zeke will instruct the AI to construct any reasonably sized sample object that you request after your initial review, so be thinking about that. To produce it, we’ll only need to be able to describe it to the computer and then feed the material to the 3D printer.
“I’ll also tell you this. In a short time, we’ll be announcing this to everyone and we’re going to open a new section of the station that will be available for everyone to view. Among other things, we’ll be negotiating for trading partners to distribute these materials. Because your two countries have each been willing to provide us with a Special Envoy, however, we’re giving you an advanced opportunity to see this before anyone else.”
Julie laughed at their expressions. “Zeke, you’d better take them to that room and show them now. I can see that I’ve lost them for the moment. But once I have that new drive ready to go, I’ll be stealing them back with their thoughts of adventure and exploration.”
“Don’t worry,” Zeke told her. “I’ll be right there with them when you’re ready to go.” Julie wasn’t the only one that dreamed of exploring the universe.
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Julie decided the situation was safe enough on earth so that those who wanted to return could. She sent a VR to all her family and friends to let them know. “Based upon all the feedback Space Tech Intelligence has provided me, we believe it’s now safe for anyone who needs to get back to your homes and jobs. We’ll keep an eye on things, so stay in touch just in case something else develops.”
Julie called her former roommate and friend Emily directly. “Hey, Em,” she said to Emily when she answered. “I’ve been neglecting my roomie. Do you want to spend some time together tonight before you rush back to school? We haven’t been able to do anything together lately.”
Emily’s eyes immediately lit up. “Yeah, it’s been rather boring the last day or so. I knew you were busy, so I didn’t want to bother you. Plus, I’m really missing Thomas and the band.”
Julie smiled at her friend. “I can’t help with the Thomas issue, but I can provide you with a shoulder to cry on if you need it. I can offer one other bit of incentive. We have a new vendor that’s going to be opening up on the station soon and he’s come up with a pretty good space pizza. I bet I can persuade him to provide us with a sample.”
Emily didn’t need a second incentive. “You’ve got it. Let me finish up this paper I’m working on for school and I’ll come over in a few. I’ve got a few things that I’ve been dying to talk about with you.”
True to her word, Emily arrived at Julie’s door in short order. She had one of those smiles of hers that told Julie she was up to something. Julie had to at least try to pin her down. “Hey, Em, what’s up?” she asked, after giving her a big hug.
Fortunately for Julie, this time that was what Emily was waiting for. “Caitlyn and I have been talking about how boring everything is up here. You know how good a job she did decorating your office at the Corp HQ back down on earth. Caitlyn doesn’t really have that much to do, even with all of your galavanting around up here, and we thought she could take a look at fixing things up a little.”
“So what is it you want to do?” Julie had to ask.
“Uncle Ted is willing to keep an eye on her, so we won’t even bother you with the details. Really, both the offices and the hab module need a little something and it looks like you’re going to be staying up here for a while. We just need your ok to start on it and your blessing to talk to the Space Station Design Department.”
Julie tried to figure out her friend’s angle on this one. The last time she had turned Emily loose on her office had been when Emily had slipped Caitlyn in to do the work. Caitlyn had been her nemesis when she attended the Space Academy as Miranda, and Emily had completely surprised Julie when she’d brought Caitlyn in to decorate Julie’s office as a sort of penance. That one worked out ok, even with the big surprise. What can she possibly do this time? I guess it doesn’t matter. Em has never gone wrong with anything she’s done for me.
“Ok, Em, I don’t know what you’re scheming this time, but I’m going to be keeping an eye on you two. I’m pretty good at getting stuff out of Uncle Ted, so don’t think you’ll pull one on me this time. So go for it.” She tried to give Emily her glare, the one she used to peel paint.
Luckily for Emily, the pizza man came about that time. Scarfing down her pizza that was indeed quite good, Emily was able to distract Julie with stories about some of the things happening at school, giving her all the latest gossip on some of the students from school that she knew Julie would know.
Emily’s strategy worked perfectly. She didn’t have to tell her that her scheme involved just a little more than working on the offices and the main habitation module. She and Caitlyn, along with Carla and with the blessings of Uncle Ted, were going to be working on a family module for Julie and Zeke. It would be needed soon, as they intended to have it ready as soon as Julie had the wedding. Her own honeymoon suite, and their future home.
Long term, Carla was already planning stuff like schools and labs, recreational areas, and even a central park area. Ted had been the one to suggest it, although he hadn’t realized just what he had started. He probably had meant only to distract Carla while they were all stuck in that conference room after Julie had taken out the Organization camp. Well, it had worked to distract all of them.
Emily wanted to keep some of it as a surprise for Julie. Luckily for her, Julie couldn’t resist thinking about her old life from before everything had gotten so complicated. Emily had been there when Julie thought she was the girl Miranda. That was when they had shared a room at the Space Academy. Emily had been with her through all the changes afterward, and she still was the only one other than the First Lady that knew about the mental connection that existed between Julie and
Zeke. She also knew about the prophetic words the First Lady had given Julie regarding her future daughter, one of the reasons Emily firmly believed the family module was so important.
So after the talk about their friends from school, they did have some rather serious discussions about their possible future, with Emily managing to avoid talking about the planned module. They ended their time together talking about the upcoming wedding, since Emily was going to be the maid of honor. For the first time though, Julie felt like maybe there really would be a wedding.
CHAPTER FOUR
Giving Back a Little
While they sipped their morning coffee, Julie broached a subject with Zeke that had been on her mind the last day or so. “I think we need to find a way to balance a little of what we did with all the destruction that we caused. I want to do something for just the sake of doing something I feel good about.”
Zeke smiled sadly. “Although you know as well as I do that you’ve already done a tremendous amount for good, I agree in principle with the idea. What do you have in mind?”
“I’ve been thinking this a lot, but I want your thoughts on it. A few weeks ago, I made Tim a promise that I would bring his little brother Brian up here on the space station. I need your help to make that happen and to help me work on my long term goals regarding Brian’s condition. Tim is like a brother to me, so that makes Brian family too, doesn’t it?”
Zeke had known about her promise to help Brian; he had just forgotten about it with all that was going on. “I guess so. I’ve sort of kept up with your research on Brian’s condition. What I understand is that Brian has an extremely rare affliction that affects the development of his bones. I assume we still don’t know the reason why Brian’s bones lack the strength of normal bones?” At Julie’s affirmation, he went on. “As I understand it, even the slightest pressure can cause them to break.”
