The Search for FTL

by Ted Iverson

  With that, they all exploded into laughter. Even Ty couldn’t control himself. He looked at Alec and thought, Right time, right place, still. Ty stood, brushed himself off, and led everyone into the kitchen, bowing as he passed each one. Yes, a good laugh is what they needed, because the rest of the day surely would not be as pleasant.

  As the meal wound down, Uncle Nate broke the silence: “So, Ty, I understand you’ll be speaking for the family later on today. How are you doing?”

  Ty, who had been unusually quiet, replied, “Okay, I guess. I have a good start on my speech, but it’s really tough. I’ve got to try to cover all of our feelings, assure our employees around the globe that all will continue normally, and make sure the vendors don’t panic. In addition, we have to let the public know that Space Tech isn’t going anywhere. We will continue to provide pioneering inventions for the good of all mankind. That’s all. No pressure to deliver a good speech, you know. Look, I’m not trying to come across like a smart-aleck. I’m just really struggling with some things in my speech.” He never looked up from his plate. Now he shoveled in some pancakes. A muffled “I’m sorry everyone” followed.

  Uncle Nate, who was seated beside him, put his hand on Ty’s shoulder. Ty looked up and saw the compassion in his uncle’s eyes. “Son, I’m not your dad, and I’m not trying to be, but he felt that you were the right person to do this and, personally, I believe in his feelings. Your father was rarely wrong when it came to character judgment. I—we,” he motioned around the table, “know that you will do us proud, and that your words will touch us all and fill everyone with assurance. If you need more time to think about this, we can delay the speech.”

  “Thanks, everyone, for your support, but we really can’t wait to do this; too much at stake. If for no other reason, we need to speak now to reassure the employees that things will continue. If there is anything I learned from Dad, it’s that you need to keep your employees informed, trained, and happy. This is an important time for this corporation and keeping them informed is my number one priority. Today, we’re going to find where our future lies; and where our future lies, so lies the future of our employees. I won’t leave them in the dark.”

  Aunt Peggy shot a look at her husband and he nodded in response. Turning to Ty he said, “Ty, you are your father’s son. I am so very proud of you. If the conversation at this table is any indication of Space Tech’s future, I, for one, will be very proud of where it is headed. That is, of course, unless you all decide not to keep your uncle on.” He chuckled a little. Nate scanned the boys. He could see he brought a little smile to the faces of his nephews. It was a nice moment in an otherwise somber meal.

  Alec pushed his chair back. “Let’s help Aunt Peggy clean up here. Ty, go on, you’ve got your work cut out for you; we’ve got it here.”

  “Thanks, Alec. I’ll be upstairs working.” With that, Ty headed down the hall leading to the stairs.

  As Alec, Orion, and Zach cleared the table, Peggy leaned over to Nate and whispered, “These boys have big shoes to fill, no matter what, and we’ll need to always be available for them.”

  He grabbed her hand tenderly and whispered back, “And we will be.”

  Ty now had a good grasp on what he wanted to say. Now that he’d gotten through the opening part, things were flowing nicely. Still, he thought, this is only half the battle; I still have to get up and deliver this in front of millions of people. His stomach churned at the thought. Pushing aside the feeling, he continued to write.

  When they were done with the clean-up, Alec, Orion, and Zach gathered out on the deck. Zach took a deep breath and realized that the brisk April air was so much cleaner smelling than the recycled air at the Lab. He’d almost forgotten what a breeze felt like; it was refreshing. He took several deep breaths to clear his mind. “Okay, guys, where do we start?”

  “I would normally say ‘at the beginning,’” Orion said, “but I’m not sure we’ve got one here. It should’ve been easier than this: we finish school, learn our positions in Space Tech, and we take over when Mom and Dad eventually retired. Now, bam! Here we are. I’m trying to cope with this, but I’m afraid I’m really not doing so well.”

  Alec calmly broke in: “Look, guys, not one of us here is having an easy time with this. I too have demons to deal with. There are some things that I never really told Dad, things he needed to hear, and my chance is gone. My point is, and we’ve all heard it before, this is what they would have wanted: for us to take charge, do what needs to be done. Act now, grieve later.” He took a long, deep breath, brought his eyes up from the ground, and looked his brothers square in the face. “It’s clear to me what we do now,” he said, a certainty in his voice.

  Orion asked, “Well then? Tell us, Alec. Get us on the right track.”

  Alec went straight to the point. “You all already know what needs to be done. We all do. We find out what is in the wills and we take it hour-by-hour, day-by-day. Zach, you know what your role is in Space Tech. As do you, Orion. You guys will have to operate and run the Luna base on the moon and the Orbital Lab, continue research and development. Ty will have to keep an eye on the day–to-day operation down here and handle all the public relations items. Everyone else is in place. Uncle Nate’s got the money situation well in hand. Granted, it’ll be on-the-job training for you guys, but that shouldn’t be anything new to you.”

  Zach glared at Alec. “You make it sound so easy, but you’re not even going to be around,”

  “Zach, I told you, I’m not going anywhere soon. I will be here as long as I need to be. I have a feeling that I might be here longer than I want.”

  Orion could tell from Alec’s tone that he suspected something that he was unwilling to tell them. He wanted so badly to ask Alec why he’d watched the holorecording so many times last night, but he held himself in check. Alec would tell them when he was ready; that was his way.

  Feeling they should move on with their little meeting, Orion asked, “Alec, do you think we should call for an official investigation by Space Tech? You know, form some sort of committee?”

  “I had thought of that, but it won’t be up to me. Whichever one of you gets appointed CEO will have to make that decision. If you were asking my opinion, I would appoint a committee, but keep it under wraps. I have to admit that, from what I’ve seen, it appears to be nothing more than an accident, but I never take the ‘what appears to be’ seriously. There is always the chance that it was something else. If it were to be something, then I wouldn’t want outside interference or opinions for distractions.”

  Orion now had his answer. Although his older brother didn’t come right out and say it, he was sure Alec must suspect something. But there was no time to dwell on that. They needed to leave soon if they were to get to Space Tech as Alec had wanted. Orion had to admit it would be nice to take a good look around. With school and all, he’d not done that for a while and he missed the everyday hustle and bustle that came with working there. He also knew that eventually, probably sooner than later, he’d be leaving for the space station and that Zach would be going with him. “Well, guys, we should round up Ty and Uncle Nate and head over to corporate. We’ve a lot to do.”

  Zach and Orion were heading out of the room when Alec piped up, “I’ll be right down. I have a few things I need to gather up from my room.” When he reached his room, he closed the door, took out the holodisc, and quickly set up his portable player once more. He popped in the disc and forwarded it to the senator’s speech. As he stared intently at the image, his face became strained and his brows furrowed. Then he frowned and shut off the player, packed it up, and shoved the disc back into his pocket. He punched a number into the holopad. The static-marred image of an older, rotund man appeared.

  “Ed,” Alec spoke quietly, “I need you to check something out…”

  They were now nearing Space Tech. The four brothers had decided to use a remote, less-traveled entrance in order to avoid the press and the crowds they knew would be waiting.
Uncle Nate had opted to drive separately and had taken the direct route in order to act as a diversion. After turning off onto the private drive, the boys passed through a densely wooded area and entered a large open field. The field led into a massive windmill farm that provided power for Space Tech. They could now see their destination in the distance.

  Zach cleared his throat. Taking one hand off the wheel, he motioned to his brothers, directing their attention to the left. They looked just in time to see a large vessel lifting off one of the mag rails. Moments later, their hover and the ground rumbled as the vessel’s plasmat engines kicked in. Zach could never get enough of that sound; his heart raced. No matter how awesome that sight is, the ride is a whole lot better, Zach thought. The ship was quickly out of sight, punching a hole through the clouds, leaving only a trail of plasma matter and dust.

  They were nearing corporate fast. Soon, there would be no time for dreaming. Zach began to breathe heavily.

  Alec nudged him. “Take it easy, little brother; it’s alright.”

  No matter how hard he tried, Zach couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed—even knowing that Alec was going to be with them for a while. He’d hoped Alec would join them for good. Taking a very deep and slow breath, he mustered, “Thanks,” though he wasn’t sure he meant it.

  As they closed in on the rear entrance, Zach tapped some numbers on a pad next to his controls, and a large gate swung open. As they passed through, they saw another gate open in front of them even as the one behind closed.

  Ty didn’t remember this. He did remember looking out of his father’s office window and seeing the windmills and the woods in the distance, but not the gates. He chided himself. This seemed so trivial a thing to be thinking of at this time. Here he and his brothers were about to listen to their parents’ wills. This was reality, the here, the now, and it was scaring him to death. He felt that Alec had laid a huge burden on him even though he knew Alec wasn’t at fault. It was, after all, Dad’s request and that of the board members.

  Zach took the hover through a series of sharp turns at high speed. His brothers held on tightly to anything they could grab. As he came racing up to the entrance, a large door opened slowly. The three passengers threw their hands up to cover their faces, as if bracing for the crash. It never happened. Entering at full throttle, Zach somehow managed to bring the hover to a slow stop inside one of the parking garage stalls.

  The gull wing doors opened slowly, and the brothers piled out of the hover, happy to be alive. Their driver exited and saw them looking at him with the usual Are-you-nuts? look. They were ready to give him the riot act, but Zach put up his hand in a don’t-go-there gesture. “You all survived, didn’t you? Shall we?” he added, gesturing toward the doors that would lead them into Space Tech and an uncertain future. Shaking their heads at their insane little brother, the boys headed for the building.

  Chapter Three

  The heavy steel doors to Space Tech slid open quickly. They hurried through and, as fast as the doors had opened, they shut. The sound of their meeting echoed through the lower-level hallway. The boys turned to look. As they did, a heavy metal gate came streaming down from the ceiling, colliding with the floor, making an even louder echo; this was followed by whirring and clicking as latches locked the gate into place. They all realized that security had gotten a lot tighter since they had last visited. They continued down the hall and ended up facing one more access gate. Mounted on the left wall was a small rectangular depression, the outline of a hand embossed onto its bottom.

  “It’s a VGID device,” Zach said aloud. “I tried to tell Dad that the retina scanner Orion and I designed would be better, but he apparently disagreed.”

  Ty was the first to approach. He submerged his hand into the recessed box filled with a bluish substance. It made a slow ripple. A computer-generated voice responded. “Ty Bindl. Identity confirmed,”

  As Ty removed his hand, the bluish goop seemed to drip slowly off and disappear into thin air leaving his hand completely dry. He brought his hand up to his face and examined it in disbelief, surprised it wasn’t dripping everywhere.

  Noticing Ty’s dismay, Zach jumped in with an explanation. “It’s not a real liquid, Ty, just a virtual liquid. Cool, huh?”

  Dropping his hand, Ty started to step back, but before he could move an inch, the computer-generated voice spoke again: “Please step to the X on the floor in front of the gate.”

  Ty looked over at Zach, who just shrugged his shoulders. Ty stepped on the X, and a small sphere cascaded rapidly down from the ceiling. Its center held a small circular screen. Ty jumped slightly as a blue laser light streamed out in a vertical line and quickly ran across his face.

  The scan completed, the sphere retracted back into the ceiling as rapidly as it had descended. The computer voice spoke again: “Identity confirmed. Welcome, Mr. Ty Bindl. You may enter now.” With that, the gate slid open and the brothers walked through.

  Zach smiled. A low “Well, I’ll be” was all he could say as he shook his head. He gave a quick point of the finger toward himself as if saying, “It’s all me, my idea!”

  His brothers grinned and rolled their eyes.

  Orion looked at Alec. “Alec, doesn’t so much security seem a bit much? Where did it all come from? It never used to be like this. I know we don’t use the lower entrance enough to know how long it’s been here, but all this?” He motioned at the gates with his arm.

  Alec nodded in agreement. “You’re right, of course. Have you noticed the multiple security cameras that seem to overlap each other? All tiny fiber optics.” He pointed toward the ceiling at the screens that covered tiny lenses, lenses that would never be seen unless you were specifically looking for them. “And every door now has a VGID device. No need for security guards down here. Makes you wonder what Dad had installed to fend you off if you did manage to breech security checks and get inside. I’m not sure I’d want to be the one to find out.”

  Zach poked Orion in the arm and whispered, “I think I know what would await them.”

  Orion looked at him, eyebrows raised.

  “I’ve been gone from here…oh, maybe, five or six months,” Zach said, “but last time I was down here none of this was here, guys. This has got me pretty spooked. Alec, does this pique your curiosity? ‘Cause it sure has my attention.”

  “I’ll admit it seems they were being very careful about who came in. But remember, we’re only on the lower level. Maybe they didn’t want to pay for security guards down here; this would surely save money in the long run. I want to look at the entire place before I make any guesses though. Remember, they were obviously getting ready to launch the StarDancer, and they surely wouldn’t want any information leaking out. Look, we didn’t even know they were preparing to launch.” He was hoping this answer would suffice. In the back of his mind, though, too many things didn’t feel right. He wasn’t going to show it; he just couldn’t. His brothers soon would be burdened with great responsibilities. It would be his job to stay in the background, protect them, and find out what might really have happened.

  They arrived at the end of the corridor and stood in front of the elevator. Zach placed his open hand into another VGID device and, once again, the familiar voice spoke: “Identity confirmed: Zachary Bindl. Enter lift.”

  Zach’s eyes widened momentarily. “Dad was really the only one who called me Zachary anymore.” His voice cracked a bit. He led the way into the lift. “Which floor now, Alec?”

  “Lobby, please, and make it snappy, but no tip.” This brought a chuckle from them all.

  As they reached the lobby, the door slid open and the four men stepped out to an impressive sight. The lobby was bright, most of its lighting coming from enormous circular skylights above. The multitude of flora growing here was not only pleasing to the eye, but gave off a delightful aroma as well. Spread about the lobby were plush chairs and couches, as well as a fair amount of small decorative tables filled with brochures and magazines. It all gav
e a welcome impression to the visitors. The Bindls stood there for a moment, reflecting on how people came from around the globe to see the birthplace of so many of the wonderful inventions they’d witnessed on the holonet.

  The lobby itself was circular, with hallways branching out from its perimeter. One led to a museum that showcased not only Space Tech’s inventions, but also inventions from every corner of the world and from every time period. Another hallway led to the great planetarium, where the seats actually became free of gravity while visitors sat in them watching the shows. A third hall went to an area of lecture halls and classrooms. Lining the walls of each of these hallways were photos and portraits from every era.

  The brothers stood in front of the array of elevators and looked out at the main entrance. Exiting that way led one out onto the roadway that traveled around the great complex. The lift array, which they now stood in front of, led to upper and lower levels, which housed the corporate offices, research libraries, and many labs. The four young men just stood there in a daze, trying to soak it all in. It was hard to believe that all this would soon be theirs.

  People scurried in all directions. These, though, were not the numerous sightseers and visitors that Space Tech was used to hosting. The complex had been closed to non-workers since the accident. These were employees, keeping the company running—a tall order considering the circumstances. Ty was warmed by the dedication the corporation had garnered from its employees, who continued their work in this time of crisis. Theirs would be a heavy burden to bear. It was brought home to him again just how important his first speech would be. He drew a deep and heavyhearted breath. If his brothers were feeling anything like he was, this could be a difficult transition. He remembered bits of what Alec had said: “the face of the company” and “I told them you were the man.” He’d just have to put aside his grief for now and lead the transition. Drawing one more deep breath, he cleared his mind and drew strength from within, from his deceased parents.