Rocket! An Ell Donsaii story #4)

by Dahners, Laurence

  “Oh, my goodness no! A mile is about my limit. I do some martial arts with the guys.” she said, nodding toward the other end of the porch where the majority of her security crew were sitting with their plates. “But I don’t get nearly as much exercise as I should.”

  Mary from Ell’s security team turned her head, “She may not get much exercise, but she kicks all our butts when we spar.”

  Ben glanced over at Steve. Six foot two inches of hard muscle Steve, looking like a big cat. “All? Even Steve?” he asked Mary.

  “Yeah, even Steve.” Mary grinned, “Really pisses him off to get beat by a girl.”

  Ben looked over at Ell, then, at Steve. He turned speculatively back to Mary. “Remind me not to pick a fight with her! Does she beat you guys with some kind of gymnastic moves?”

  “Not really. She’s just faster than anyone has a right to be.”

  Ben turned back to Ell, “Why do you need a security team Ell? Especially if none of them are as good as you are when it comes to hand to hand combat.”

  Ell shrugged. “I’ve been kidnapped a couple of times. Once they drugged me, once they Tasered me. These security guys are gonna rescue me if that ever happens again, right Mary?”

  Mary smiled, “You bet your bippy!”

  Ell said, “That’s a huge part of why I asked the President to suppress our role in the whole Space Station thing for now. I don’t want more notoriety bringing people like the Chinese down on my head.”

  Janey leapt down off Randy’s lap and ran up to Amy, “Mom, can we have ice cream now?”

  “Did you eat all of your salad?”

  “All but the tomatoes, you said I didn’t have to eat them.”

  Amy rolled her eyes, “OK.”

  Janey ran back to her brother, “Mikey! We can have ice cream now!”

  Roger rocked his chair back on its back legs. “Ell? What’s next for D5R? Now that you’ve conquered space?” He grinned at her.

  “Now that we’ve conquered low earth orbit you mean?”

  He shrugged, “Mostly you. And ‘low earth orbit’ is still space. What’s next?”

  Ell’s eyes swung to take in the researchers sitting nearby and she lifted her chin in a questioning gesture, “What do you guys think we should do next?”

  Fred said, “Well, so far we’ve only temporized the problem at the Space Station by providing them supplies. We need to figure out a way to get them back home. Or at least send them up a replacement nozzle for their Crew Recovery Vehicle.”

  Vivian said, “Why don’t we just send up a huge port and have them step through it to come back home?”

  Ben’s assistant John frowned, “What if going through a port isn’t good for you?”

  Roger said, “Check your displays.”

  Everyone looked up at their HUDs. Roger piped them video that showed a number of objects squiggling against a clear background. Ell frowned, “What are we looking at Roger?”

  “I put a drop of pond water that’d been through a port under the microscope.”

  “So?”

  “So, those are protozoans swimming around, looking perfectly healthy after a port transition.”

  “Hah! Cool, we need to try it with multicellular animals.”

  Roger reached in his pocket and pulled out a small vial, setting it on the table. He grinned, “Way ahead of you.”

  The group leaned forward. An ant was crawling around inside the vial. Ell said, “You put that ant through a port too?”

  “Yup, just stepped outside D5R and scooped him up.”

  “Worker ants are female.”

  Roger rolled his eyes, “Scooped her up. She was pretty excited after I dropped her through the port but seems fine now.”

  Ell said, “Cool! There is a small problem sending people through though.”

  Roger raised his brows at her.

  “You know that we’re powering the fields for the 10mm ports with about 300 watts?”

  Heads nodded.

  “Theoretically, the minimum would be about 248 watts for a 10mm port. The minimum energy requirements for a 1 meter diameter port—one meter would be big enough to send a human through lengthwise—would be four orders of magnitude larger or about 2 and half million watts. That’s the power consumption of 2000 homes, i.e. a small town.”

  Eyes were wide as they digested this.

  “Also, as Vivian noticed the other day, the ports draw a lot more power when we’re sending something through them to the Space Station. That’s because the station is about 230 miles high. That means that raising a kilogram up to the ISS means we have to add about… 1 kilowatt hour of electricity to provide that potential energy. And, the ISS is traveling somewhere around eight kilometers per second relative to us and so we have to inject about… 9 kilowatt hours to provide the kinetic energy. We may be getting a ‘free lunch’ in ‘crossing the distance’ but we don’t get a free lunch in changing the altitude or velocity. Sending a 70 kilogram person would require about 700 kilowatt hours to provide the potential and kinetic energy. That’s in addition to the 2.5 megawatts to hold the port open.”

  Roger whistled.

  Fred had narrowed his eyes at her, “Did you just calculate those energy requirements in your head?”

  Ell shrugged, “The kinetic energy formula is only one-half mass times velocity squared.”

  “In your head?”

  She shrugged again, “Yeah, really, it’s not that hard.”

  He snorted.

  Ell said, “And remember, there’d be some waste energy in the form of heat. That could make a port that size pretty hot to pass through. So even though a meter is a bigger port than you’d need to pass most people through lengthwise, the person would probably need to be protected by something to shield them from the heat. Person plus shielding may add up to a meter diameter.”

  Roger said, “Ouch, those are some pretty significant problems.” He grinned, “But they don’t sound insurmountable. If you don’t mind, tomorrow I’m going to try sending a mouse through a 50 mm port?”

  Ell said, “Oh yeah, I think that’s a great idea. Let’s figure out what the possibilities are. However, I think we’ll find that the energy costs to launch one of our rockets to orbit are quite a bit lower than the energy cost of a big port.”

  Braun said, “Ms. Donsaii, I know I’m kinda new to this group but I’d like to put in my two cents?”

  Ell grinned at him, “This whole group is pretty new Rob. We don’t stand much on precedence or ceremony. Tell us what your ‘rocket scientist’ brain is thinking?”

  “Well, I might be biased by my skill set, but I really want us to build a rocket that can move people, not just ports. We need to go to the Moon, and Mars, and, and Venus! We should start with little rockets like the ones we’ve been building. We can send them to those places with cameras and maybe some manipulator arms.”

  “Wow!” Ell grinned at him. “Rob, now you’re making it sound like you may believe the ports really do work?”

  He rolled his eyes, “Somebody rubbed my nose in it!”

  Ben said, “Don’t forget we’ve also got to visit the asteroids! Maybe bring one back to earth orbit for raw materials.”

  Ell looked around the group. “Well, I think those are great goals. However, I think we all need to recognize that none of you originally hired on to explore the universe. You hired on to build ports and despite some frustrations on the way to it, that goal’s been achieved.” She raised her eyebrows at the group. Ell saw a mixture of emotions crossing their faces, ranging from satisfaction to apprehension that she might be about to shut down the company.

  Suddenly Ben Stavos stood and raised his beer in the air, “Hell yeah we did! Gimme a hooah!”

  To Ell’s bemusement the rest of the crew she’d assembled at D5R came to their feet hoisting their own glasses and cheering.

  Fred Marsden said, “To the ball busters!”

  Ben said, “Back at you ring a dings!” Then he pointed his beer at Brian
Short, “and to Brian who had the real breakthrough idea!”

  Ell raised her Coke with the rest of them, cheering heartily.

  When the group had settled back down Ell said, “OK, next. You guys all hired on for a salary and hopefully for a chance to do some cool science.”

  Many of the group raised their glasses again.

  She continued, “How many of you read your contract carefully enough to know you’ve got some shares in D5R?” She tilted her head, “Or remember me telling you that?”

  Eyes widened and people looked at each other. Fred said, “We do?”

  “Hah! I knew it! None of you thought this ‘port stuff’ had a snowball’s chance did you? So you either didn’t read about your shares, or skimmed over that part of your contract. Or forgot what I said about it. Well, all of you have shares, so all of you should care about what we do with our intellectual property.” She raised her eyebrows at them. “Right? The way I see it, we have some choices. One, we could just license the technology to NASA or the highest bidder. Two, we could build our own company to explore space and do all the things Rob and Ben suggested a little bit ago. Three, we could explore a little ourselves, then license. What do you guys think?”

  There was a lot of looking at each other, staring at the ceiling and quickly whispered conversations. Fred said, “I think option one is ‘get rich quick.’ Option two is ‘get really rich slowly.’ Option three is in between. But hell, I want to be at the forefront of some of these explorations, I vote for number two with the option to go to three.”

  A tumultuous, “Hear, hear!” followed Fred’s assessment.

  Ell grinned at them, “OK, we keep it to ourselves for now. Next, do we expand to become a huge company that gets us out there into space fast, or do we stay small for at least a while?”

  After some occasionally vociferous discussion they decided to stay small for at least a while longer. They would just contract out the production of large components that they couldn’t make by themselves in the machine shop.

  ***

  John Clarkson closed his eyes and contemplated the best spin to put on the news. He always felt like he was walking on eggshells when he spoke to the Chairman of ILX. He opened his eyes and spoke to his AI, “Place a call to David Dennison.” He closed his eyes again while he waited.

  “What’s happened now?” Dennison’s gravelly voice demanded without preamble.

  “Good news Mr. Dennison. Someone has successfully resupplied the Space Station.”

  “Really?! That’s great!” Clarkson could almost hear the wheels turning. Initial relief that ILX wasn’t going to get slapped with wrongful death lawsuits by the astronauts families. Then suspicion regarding a possible competitor. Dennison was absolutely ruthless about competition. That had gotten him where he was and no one was going to change him. “Who?”

  Clarkson could hear the narrowed eyes in that “who?” He tried not to sigh. “No one seems to know at present sir. May have been some secret defense department launch?”

  “Find out. Our people at NASA need to…” Dennison ground to a stop before he said something on record about the people at NASA that were on ILX’s secret payroll. “Find out.”

  ***

  Sheila walked outside at 7:30 AM Monday and saw the “lunch on wheels” taco truck pulling up outside D5R as Jose had promised. She walked out to move the cones that she’d set out to keep anyone from parking right in front of the door. The truck pulled into the space she’d saved for it and a young man got out. “Jose?”

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  “I know it will take you a while to get set up but I’m hoping to take some samples and a couple of menus inside so people can place orders?”

  “Just a minute.” The man shuffled some papers and pulled out a small stack of menus, handing them to her.

  “Thanks. We’re still good on our agreement that you’ll put whatever ingredients in the burritos are requested?”

  “Oh, yes Ma’am, and I bought premium ingredients like you asked. You’re really going to pay double the menu prices?”

  “Yep, but that’s for steak and fresh tomatoes, not hamburger and tomato sauce etc. right?”

  “Sure, that’s why I got all the premium ingredients.”

  “OK.” She handed him a metal ring. “This ring is one and seven eighths inches in diameter. Everything you make has to fit through it, right?”

  “Ma’am, are you sure? The burritos’ll have too much tortilla and not enough filling. They’ll be better if I make ‘em bigger.”

  “Jose, we talked about this last night. They’ve got to fit through that ring because we have to pass them through a hole a tiny bit bigger than that. Tear your tortillas in half or something. We want good burritos but they have to fit!”

  “OK,” he said dubiously. She could tell he thought she was out of her mind, but the customer was always right, right? He tilted his head, “Are you feeding a prisoner or something through that hole?”

  “No!” she laughed, “But it’s a secret why we’re passing the burritos though the hole, OK?”

  Jose shrugged, “OK.”

  “Do you have the sample burritos like I asked?”

  “Just a minute.” He lifted a side panel that made an awning, slid open a window then walked around to the back of his truck and got in. He stepped up to the window and set out the ring and a couple of burritos. He tried squeezing one of the burritos into the ring but it was obviously too big. He sighed, “You’re sure you can’t make the hole bigger?”

  She rolled her eyes and nodded.

  “OK, just a sec.” He unrolled the burrito, scraped off some of the filling, tore a strip off the tortilla and rolled it up smaller. This time the ring slid over it. He laid it on a piece of paper and rolled it up, handing it to Sheila. “OK?”

  She picked up the ring and slid it over the burrito and paper. “Yep. I think your salsa is a little watery though. These shouldn’t be ‘sloppy’ at all, OK?”

  “OK,” he said, again sounding dubious. He took the two burritos back and put them in the microwave to warm them up. “They’re gonna want more to drink with dry burritos. I sure don’t have any cups that’ll fit through your ring.” Jose raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Hmmm, I’ll have to ask about drinks, but we may not be able to use them.” Sheila took the two burritos and headed back into D5R.

  Ell had been working out some issues with connecting the astronauts, through PGR Comm’s servers, to the rest of the net and world when Sheila came in with the two burritos and set them next to her. She glanced at them and then said, “Dr. Slager, I believe we have a treat for you. I’m going to activate one of the 5 cm ports and push something through to you.”

  Ell had Allen energize the port and she slid the burrito through it.

  Slager grabbed it as it floated out his end, noting the warmth. He unwrapped the end and the smell broke out into the module. “Whoa! A hot burrito?!”

  Taussan turned toward him, eyebrows lifted. “Really?”

  The second burrito floated out. Slager passed it to Taussan then took a bite of his, “Awesome!” he mumbled around a mouthful.

  Ell said, “We have a ‘taco truck’ outside D5R ready to make burritos to order for you astronauts as long as I’m right that you’re able to eat burritos when you’re weightless?” She picked up the menu, rolled it into a tube and slid it through the port too. “You can pick from the menu but the guy has agreed to roll up anything in a tortilla that you want him to.”

  Slager looked at the end of his burrito, “Whoa, fresh tomatoes in this! Awesome! It has been sooo long since we’ve had anything fresh!” He turned and bellowed to the Space Station in general. “Hey! A taco truck’s pulled up outside, come place your orders!”

  Sheila turned to the grinning Ell, “Jose is making the burritos a little ‘dry’ so that they won’t squirt or dribble juice out into the Station. He suggested that they would need more to drink with drier food. I can’t think of a way to make a
coke fit through this sized port though.”

  Ell frowned, “Ohhh, they don’t drink carbonated beverages in space anyway. Without gravity you can’t burp out the carbonation and all the little bubbles just travel through your intestines. Maybe lemonade?”

  A female voice in the background said, “Oh yeah! I’d love a fresh lemonade. Could you send a hose through and we could fill some drink bags with it?”

  Ell frowned, “Maybe? I’ll talk to the guy.”

  Ell went out to talk to Jose and after a bit she and Sheila came back in with his soda dispenser set up without its carbonation tank. It had a water line and a syrup dispenser that dispensed several different syrups for different flavors of soda. It also dispensed un-carbonated lemonade, limeade, several juices and tea. Sheila went back out to the truck with the astronauts’ burrito orders. Ell hooked up a water line and fed the dispenser nozzle through the port tube. The nozzle was a tight fit for the 50mm port. Ell shoved and wiggled it into the tube leading up to the actual port on her side. For a moment she thought she’d have to pull it back out and shave off some of the plastic but then it suddenly slipped through the port. Ell felt a burning, stinging sensation as the finger she’d had been pushing it with plunged momentarily into the port behind the dispenser. At first she thought her finger had struck something on the other side that had injured it. Then she realized that the finger had crossed the port interface into the Station and something about crossing the interface had caused the burning. When she pulled the finger back out it continued to burn for a moment, even though it looked completely normal. Ell shook the finger a few times as the burning sensation faded away. Hmmm, if it always feels like that to go through a port, it wouldn’t be very pleasant to travel that way, she thought. Maybe that’s why the ant was so excited?

  Roger had arrived and he, Ell, and Sheila watched the take from Slager’s AI video camera as the delighted astronauts filled drink bags with lemonade, OJ, tea and even one bag of flat Coke.

  Ell told Roger about the burning sensation when her finger had gone through the port momentarily and he said, “I put a mouse through a port like you suggested and he flopped around for a bit, then seemed pretty excited for another minute or two. He seems fine now though.”