"Why Kate?" he just had to ask. This request was really none of her business, none of this was in fact. Sure, she'd helped them and probably saved their asses but she was still just a civilian.
She smiled then opened the plastic bag and reached inside. Then she lifted out what looked like a severed head. A real one. He looked closely in the early light and it could only be one person. He jumped back and looked at her in surprise.
Her carrying around a severed head in a plastic bag was sort of spooky scary, but then with what he knew of her, not all that surprising. The big thing was that she was actually doing it! Talking about it, doing it, they were vastly different. She actually did it. Then, he wondered. How she had done it was hard to work out as Tangie always had people around him.
"I made Tangie a good offer. A really good offer as it turned out. Unfortunately he declined then tried very hard to kill me but as you see, I got in first!" She smiled at him.
He felt extreme nervousness. She’d done what his team could not, and done it when Tangie was both prepared and actively hunting anyone in the area.
"Actually,” she said, “you lot being hunted in the jungle helped, it drew most of his army away. I only had to deal with a few before we had our chat. Now," she said as she put the head back into the plastic bag, "I am going to talk to a few other people here, make them an offer and suggest that it’s a really good offer." She was nodding slowly. "The DDO and I have a history, so I'm sure with that little bit of information he can guess just what I'm up to." She smiled finally, "Maybe," she added with a twinkle in her eye.
---oOo---
Three days later sitting in the seventh floor office of the Hank Fellows the DDO, Deputy Director of Operations he looked around feeling slightly disoriented. He was in a 'normal place', an office, making him feel strange with the experiences of the jungle still fresh in his mind.
Their tasking mission debrief had been difficult. The team decided that they’d stick to the story and only reveal to the DDO what happened with Kate as after all, this was not their first encounter. Now, as he talked, the DDO sat on his seat leaning forward looking shocked, shaking his head from side to side, “Son of a bitch,” he said quietly when he got to the head and bag part.
“Sir,” he said, “you know her, she said there is a history.” He didn’t ask a direct question, it wasn’t his place and getting a straight answer in this place would be unusual anyway. With the CA and spooks in general the consensus was ’we bet your life’ was their mantra. Sometimes the Intel they got felt that way, guesswork and wishful thinking.
The DDO nodded slowly, “Yes. We did a job together a short while ago. The beheading thing happened then to.”
---oOo---
Hank decided that a walk in the local park with his wife Ginny would be the perfect way to spend the afternoon on a blissful weekend away from Langley. A leisurely walk, hand in hand with Ginny, taking the paths and talking was the goal. They could sit for a while, watch others, maybe watch the ducks being fed.
Plus, they were alone together, away from stress, from Ginny’s grade marking papers, and him away from the office. Away from the puzzle palace as he sometimes thought of it.
They'd been walking for an aimless hour when they rounded a corner that opened up to a wide open space with a few people on picnic blankets, a few walking, a few on scattered bench seats, a few playing ball.
They continued to walk quietly together, hand in hand as they chatted. Ginny was enjoying her teaching; "Hank, you know this years final year students are some of the best I've ever taught. They, as a group...." she faded out as she stopped walking dragging Hank backward slightly.
"Hank! It's Kate, over there with her dog." Ginny was pointing happily to the small girl she’d met a while ago.
He looked over and there she was not far away, lying on a picnic blanket reading a book with what looked like a large black dog stretched out beside her asleep in the sun laying on the blanket. He knew about her 'dog', he was not a dog. Not even remotely a dog in fact.
As they were standing there gawking, Kate looked up then smiled and waved cheerily. "Ginny, Hank, what an absolute pleasure and a surprise."
She was only a dozen yards away so they walked over. She put her book down, sat up, stood up then she gave them both a hug.
"What a lovely day for a walk. I really envy you both you know, married and enjoying yourselves like this on a beautiful Saturday afternoon."
Hank wasn’t fooled for an instant. Kate hated chance. The ‘Fates’ squealed in frustration when Kate Smith was involved.
Ginny was chuckling, "Kate you look pretty happy yourself, laying on your picnic blanket with your dog. He's a handsome boy, no collar though."
Right at that moment Kate’s 'dog' sat up then put his head on one side as if not hearing what was said properly.
Kate was chuckling also. "Ginny, please meet my boyfriend 'Cat' and no, as you can see, he really isn't a dog, he's so much better."
Ginny had her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. "Oh my," was all she could say when sitting in front of her was what looked like a really powerful looking panther looking her in the eye. Then he grinned, his eyes twinkled and he suddenly didn't look as threatening.
"Ginny, put your hand out. If he likes you, he'll come up for a cuddle."
Ginny was thinking that if he didn't like her, he'd take the hand off, but he did look happy enough and peaceful enough so she did. Cat sidled up slowly, ducked under the hand, leaned against her then she stroked him slowly. "He is a beautiful boy Kate," she had to say.
Kate dug into the picnic basket she had then dug out a Frisbee. "Any good with one of these Ginny?"
Ginny saw that Cat completely forgot her existence with the appearance of the Frisbee. It looked like this was a favorite. "Sure. Cat looks interested. Want to play?"
He sat with Kate on her blanket as Ginny threw the Frisbee for Cat. She was a great throw but Cat was as fast and agile as any animal could be. Quickly some teenagers got involved and it was a round-robin event with Cat chasing the Frisbee then even tossing it himself when he caught it.
"Kate, looks like you've been busy," he floated out.
She shrugged, "Me? Not abnormally so. Been here, been there, been around for a while," she evaded broadly.
"Tangie, Kate. We've not heard from him for a few days, or his army. Any ideas?" It was true. Tangie was 'missing in action' as far as they were able to determine. None of his army had been seen since she had been there. He knew Kate had his head in a bag somewhere, but the army was a different thing. They had evaporated or gone in some way.
"Hmm," she said, watching the game of Frisbee, "he must be keeping a low profile then," she was smiling slightly.
He shook his head, "Nope, this is beyond low profile. Its like his army doesn't exist any more," then he stopped, surprised at what he said then looked at her hard. It was noticed.
She nodded slowly, "I'm sure you're right on that," then clammed up.
"His army?" he asked, as that too was 'gone'.
"Yep," she said, "I'm thinking it was a comprehensive event."
Shit! She’d somehow disposed of the whole damn lot. As he thought that, she nodded slowly. Damn! He remembered the last time they’d interacted with her and she’d said those same words.
---oOo---
What Matters
Timeline AK+8
Professor Yamanto had been collaborating with professor Harrison for a dozen years. They shared a similar single minded drive but on divergent research topics.
He was focused on the understanding, use and control of gravity. For him it held the keys to the universe. His life’s goal was to be able to harness the fundamentals of the way the universe was built so that the control of gravity was possible. Professor Harrison with his mathematics had provided great assistance in his goal.
This day he was to expose the early part of his work for the first time. He wouldn't be exposing it all as it was incomplete and he was unsure if he
was correct in his assumptions and also, he admitted, he didn’t want to make it easy for others to surpass him. He was only doing this guest lecture as a favor to professor Harrison.
Today was also the first time he had presented to so many of his peers, many of whom were also investigating he was quite sure.
As he entered the lecture theater at the side he looked around, almost afraid. This was a significant event and if it went badly, his international standing would be damaged. He’d given this lecture already in a locked empty lecture hall in Japan so he was quietly confident it would go well.
He walked to the front then the talking stopped gradually. Every eye was on him as he scanned the audience looking for familiar faces. Right in the middle of the front row he got a smile. Professor Harrison he was pleased to see, and beside him it looked like his daughter. He wondered if she was a student because she was obviously young but with a penetrating stare. He could see she was intense, perhaps an honored student? He bowed to his friend then stood silently looking at the sea of faces.
"Good morning. Thank you for coming to this my first lecture on my work on matter. When I say matter and the way it sits in space," he trailed off.
He stopped. He took a piece of chalk out of his pocket. "This is now a rarity in our lives but it is very instructive. I hold this aloft. See, it is one piece, seemingly perfect. I drop it," which he did then it broke precisely as he expected, "It breaks into three pieces. Always three pieces when dropped as I did. The mystery of this phenomena at the atomic level is significant and poorly understood. Consider firstly the force of gravity. A first year student will compute the acceleration of this chalk as it passes through the air in this gravitational field. A little later that student will factor in air resistance that retards the falling body. A little later the student will be able to create general form equations that can be used, in any gravitational field, to compute all these effects."
He stopped for a few moments. "I have told you nothing!" he smiled. "May I ask you a question, what accelerates the matter? If you answer 'gravity' I will smile and ask you to define gravity and how it is generated, how it affects matter. You will stop and perhaps understand what I have being researching. Some of you will already know much about what I am now to show you and I would ask, please, if you can shed any new light on my work I would be most indebted. I am like a traveler along this road, making new discoveries as I pass."
He stopped for a few moments with his head down. "It is much easier to rehearse this lecture than to do!" With that he smiled and looked up. The audience was warming to him, he was 'very human'.
He went to the large whiteboard and using a red marker, drew a large circle. Then he used a black marker and drew a very small circle in the middle. "My red circle, vastly under-drawn is a large sun having a few hundreds of times the mass of our sun. This small circle, also shown poorly, is the black hole that results when gravitational collapse renders all the matter of the original sun into what we term as a singularity." He stopped and looked at the audience.
"We know much of this process. We can compute many things. We can predict if a sun is likely to go nova or supernova. We can compute the resulting energies and we can analyze much of the process. Our astronomers can view this process and each year we learn a little more." He stopped again.
"Please however join these two events. The supernova and my chalk breaking are the same problem for they are no different in so many ways. The release of energy of the supernova and the consumption of energy by the breaking of falling chalk are simple numbers, equations, that we can deal with right now. In an hour you would be comfortable with understanding those insignificant peripheral events. The real point is that in each event gravity is involved. In each we understand gravity by its effect on its surroundings and many say they understand it because an apple will fall when released from a tree branch. In each we cannot control the force, and in each as we gain understanding we realize we still have have understanding that is limited to viewing effects from a distance. In each we have atomic systems, atomic structures making molecular structures under the influence of gravity and in each we do not know how."
Over the next two hours he exposed much of his work. The mathematics was well known to many in the audience. He showed much of how he understood the fundamental building blocks of the universe, from the sub-atomic through to how the movement of galaxies actually could be made sense of. His mathematics were peerless and he doubted many in the audience would understand it, it dealt with abstractions.
At the end of his lecture he took questions. There were many and most probed where he was envisaging his research would take him. To those he said, “I believe that in the coming years my research will open an understanding of the fundamental nature of gravity. From there it’s control and creation may flow. From there the face of mankind will change.”
He spent a happy half hour defending many of his assertions and chasing down false-leads that were proposed. Finally it had come that he had shown rigorously that the basis for his work was sound.
After the questions finished and audience had finally left, after the hangers on who wanted a moment of his time had finally departed he noticed that only Professor Harrison and his much younger companion remained.
He felt surprise at being in the lecture theater alone, just the three of them after the near frenzy he had felt during the lecture and question time. He felt a great relief of tension that the lecture had gone well, been understood by some and his proofs had withstood much scrutiny and questioning.
With a feeling of relief he approached, "Professor Harrison, an honor," as he bowed slightly. John Harrison had worked with him for years. In fact the two collaborated closely. John Harrison had a ruthless and aggressive pure mathematical ability that was similar to his own. He was also not afraid to question, to challenge and to tear into anything until it was well known, as if by breaking a theory down to its components was the way to understanding. He respected Professor Harrison as he respected few others.
"Professor Yamanto, please meet doctor Kate Smith," which surprised him momentarily.
The small woman stood and extended a hand which he took then suddenly his world stopped for a moment. He felt an electric shock course through him but it only lasted for moments, even though they did seem to stretch. He looked into her eyes and felt himself being inspected from the inside.
She spoke slowly, clearly, carefully he thought.
"Professor, I am pleased to meet you. I am most keen to speak with you privately if I may," with which she looked at Professor Harrison.
He looked resigned, "Kate, Professor Yamanto, please excuse me," with which he turned angrily and left.
He looked at the petite young woman for time that seemed to stretch. She had an intensity about her. To be able to speak that way to professor Harrison was unusual, and to have him do as requested even more so.
"Professor Yamanto, I should like to show you some things that I wonder if you have considered. This first is intriguing."
He looked at her and wondered what she could possibly show him. He did not know of her in the close knit academic community and hadn’t seen any papers authored by her that he could remember.
"If we may professor," she said as she walked to the whiteboard. She took up a marker and then drew a quite complex diagram. "This sir, is a conventional thermonuclear fission weapon, gun type, but implosion type is no great leap of difficulty. Expected yield in the dozens of kilotons range," then she looked at him, challenging him.
"Doctor Smith, I am not a weapons scientist," with which she smiled.
"Neither am I sir. I am using this device as an illustration. Please, allow me to continue."
He nodded slowly. She was odd, he was thinking.
"Now sir," and she was very polite, "If we change the geometry thus," and she drew what looked to be a lens shaped structure.
He could see where this was going. It was abhorrent to him.
She continued on
brutally, confirming his fears, "Now we enclose this in lithium and use liquid hydrogen here," and she drew an enclosed sphere. She hesitated then confirmed his fears. "We are able to reduce the quantity of the fissionable material significantly, retard the neutrons, capture and reflect them back to feed the base reaction increasing efficiency exponentially for a few nanoseconds. The end result is at least three orders of magnitude of increased energy release and a reduction in byproducts." She smiled as she looked at him.
He was shaking his head. It was the last thing he wanted to be involved with. The absolute last.
"Sir if you wish I am happy to fabricate and submit models to you for verification."
He felt a moment of surprise then of horror that she would consider that. This could bring nuclear armaments into a whole new era, a far more easily achievable era when far less material was required and the devastation was increased significantly. His horror showed. He looked at her not comprehending, speechless.
"Sir, should I give this to our military do you think? They have no idea, it is all my own work and I have not shared it with anyone but you. What is your feeling sir?"
He stood shaking his head. "Doctor Smith this is abhorrent to me. It shows a means to destroy stability and to empower nations that should never ever have such things. I feel great horror!"
He stood there looking at her and she bowed deeply. "Sir. I have done this as an illustration. I shall not be releasing this information under any condition." She then rubbed out the drawings. “It is abhorrent to me also, a picture of a disaster.”
"Now sir, one more demonstration if you don't mind. This is far more instructive."
He looked at her. "Doctor Smith, I am not enjoying this experience and I may have to ask you to leave!" He felt anger, some revulsion, great disquiet at what she had done. However he did not know her motive. That occurred to him as he’d spoken.
She looked at him. "Sir, that will not help and in fact it would be a very bad thing. My next demonstration strikes to the heart of the matter, the heart of the problem. It is you sir."
The Camper: First Contact and the Planet Tamer (The Stellar Universe Book 0) Page 15
