Leaving Earth Vol. 1 (Leaving Earth Omnibus)

by Kaal Alexander Rosser

  Stew was silently thinking, now, too.

  'You just said something important, Stew.'

  'It was just a re-iteration of our state. Didn't even think you were listening.'

  'Half. I think the answer was in there.'

  'Just the problem.'

  'I'll have to think about it,' said Grum, slowly.

  'Just don't take seven and a half million years over it!'

  The thought that Stew had already spoken the solution aloud to him, but that he could not remember it had bugged Grum for several days. Grum's irritability – and the fact that it was somewhat directed towards Stew's unintentional obtuseness – was obviously bugging Stew. They had taken to working the problem separately, so the early morning breakfast call from Stew was unexpected.

  'There is nothing between creation and containment…' Stew said without preamble as soon as Grum answered.

  '…except whizzing round in circles…' Grum said in a tone of revelation while Vann gazed quizzically over her toast at him.

  'So all we need to do…'

  'Is keep 'em whizzing…'

  'I'm going to work on it as soon as I get in.'

  'Go for it. I'll see you soon. Join me in my office.'

  'Right!' Stew hung up.

  'What was that all about?' asked Vann.

  'We may have had a breakthrough on recombination, well…' Grum corrected himself, '…not exactly recombination, but scalable yields.'

  'Oh, that's brilliant! When can we have them?'

  'Vann! We've just had the idea! Give us some time to work out how to actually do it, please.'

  'OK, sorry. But you know we need the big generators for the major programmes.'

  'I know, but this idea won't affect the Nevada Facility for ages, if ever. It might mean a whole new plant. It certainly won't speed up getting the third collider online.'

  'So, no use to me, then?'

  'Not in the short term, no. But in the long term it will be crucial, I think.'

  'I won't tell Hank, then. I'll leave it for you to announce when you've worked it out.'

  'Thanks. That's appreciated. I've had enough of rumours getting in the way of reality for one year.'

  'I know. Well, eat up. You've got science to do, and I am going to drop Ju off in daycare on my way in.'

  'You sure? I don't mind…'

  'No. You get in to this thing. It's the most excited I've seen you in ages.'

  'Thank you. I love you.'

  'Love you, too. Now get on.' Vann smiled at him as he bolted the last of his toast and swigged down the coffee before dashing for the door.

  Grum had spoken to Hank and Vann later that week about the orbital platforms and the USSMC Moon Base. While the emergency power requirements for the orbitals were best served by smaller generators, the main power needed the big Nevada-class pods. UMB would require several fully-populated Nevada pods for their emergency power and they wanted one as soon as possible to use in the lunar facility that was the construction HQ for UMB proper — news to Grum.

  Back in his office, working with Stew on the in-flight combination problem, Grum was sidetracked by the thought of how long it would take to produce even the emergency power requirements for the Space Division's programmes, let alone main power for anything. It would take years at the current rate, without the technology that he and Stew were trying to solve.

  One of the biggest problems was that to get the kind of fine control he thought was needed you required your particles to be "stuck" in the deceleration assembly without appreciable decelerating much. Then somehow they had to keep the antimatter from annihilating whilst adding more to the deceleration rig.

  Grum's only solution so far was to have an absolutely enormous staging toroid which took feeds from the colliders and kept the antimatter moving almost as fast as they were going in the accelerators, until they reached some maximum physical amount. Then flush that toroid into a series of relatively normal decelerators, and then into a larger version of the containment stage that Nevada had.

  The single biggest issue with that was the fine tuning was down to the level where — over the distance he thought was necessary — the effect of gravity became unworkable. He had wracked his brains trying to think of how on earth he could get it to work.

  Grum jumped up.

  'Frith and Inle!'

  'What? It looks like a eureka moment.'

  'There is no way on earth this will work!'

  'That doesn't… sound… like… Oh.'

  'Indeed!'

  'For crying out loud! It was staring at us the whole time!'

  'No way on earth! But that's okay, because we'll take it to the bloody moon!'

  Chapter 16

  "SO all we need to do… / Is keep 'em whizzing…" Grum reflected. That had been over seven months ago and there seemed to still be an appreciable amount of work to put "all they need to do" into a practicable design. They were close, though.

  Things were improving generally, too. The review period for most of the major Space projects was closing, and Vann had been instrumental in getting the designs up to scratch. Grum was extremely proud of his wife's achievements, even as he worked hard on his own.

  In addition to producing generators for Hank, Nevada had managed to turn out several million sample units for Medical, and for wider commercial testing. Orders, and more importantly — from the board's perspective — positive cash-flow, was starting to come into Core Power as a Division.

  That situation relieved a lot of the negativity that Grum's Division had experienced over the year. Most of the board were now coming round to the idea that if Nevada could be brought up to full strength with the third collider, things could be made even better. It was beginning to look as if permission would be given to go ahead with the preparations for bringing "A" online.

  What Grum had not dared to tell anyone was what he and Stew were privately working on.

  Based on the premise of getting detailed power requirements and design details for UMB, Grum had finagled the construction plans out of Hank.

  It was a huge undertaking, and one thing jumped out at Grum. UMB did not actually need antimatter generators at all, except during the construction phase. Main power was going to be delivered by something termed UMBRA: the UMB Reactor Assembly. This was to be a suite of fourth and fifth generation nuclear power plants, not just one, dotted around the moon in various craters.

  This was important news to Grum and Stew, because what they were planning would require that kind of available power, and if USSMC were already committed to that level of investment — along with whatever international treaties and negotiations had been involved — then it would, perhaps, be possible to get their projects added to the mix.

  The generation capacity already planned was enough to power several small cities — a fact which interested Grum in itself — and their requirements for this enormous antimatter production facility would need only one quarter the energy of one of those cities. Surely it had to be doable.

  He had been reviewing the situation and the information they had for most of the day. To Grum's mind the time had come to expand the audience slightly beyond just himself and Stew. Vann knew some of it, of course, but he was certain that she had not mentioned anything to Hank. If Amy knew, she was safely ensconced in writing up her doctoral thesis, so there was no danger there. The next step had to be telling Hank, but Grum was nervous about it. Hank was an unknown with this kind of secret information and Grum had nothing to go by on how well Hank would keep quiet.

  Or did he?

  Hank had been very sparing with information about his old Chief Engineer, and he had managed the design review of all those projects with a minimum of fuss, considering the scale of the task.

  Perhaps Grum was being too cautious. In any case, he would need Hank's backing to get this idea passed at the board level, and it would be a bad idea to spring it on him at the same time as everyone else. The same held true for the CEO, Kelvin. But he wanted to t
ell Kelvin about this when he was in a position to consolidate the information needed to go in front of the board, not before.

  Decided on the course of action, Grum sent a message to Hank and cc'd both Vann and Stew, asking for a meeting to discuss a sensitive idea.

  Stew rang through inside of thirty seconds. 'Are you nuts?'

  'We have to tell him, Stew…'

  'Oh, I know that. That's not it. Steve Branch is still working there… Oh, I've come round to your way of thinking on him. He's a sound bloke, but still…'

  'No, you're right. I'll make sure the meeting is away from Space Division rooms. Oh, and speaking of Hank… He's calling. Gotta go.' Grum hung up on Stew and answered Hank. 'Hi, Hank.'

  'Hey, Grum. OK. What is it? Is there some new bad news? I remember the last time you and Vann had a meeting with me, and this time you're bringing your right-hand man along, too! Could make a guy nervous.'

  Grum laughed. 'Nah, Hank. This, if anything, I hope will be good news. How're you fixed for time?'

  'For you, I can make time. But there isn't much left of the day. I guess we could wrap up here and let the meeting run as long as it needs…'

  'I've got a better idea, Hank. Do you play pool?'

  'Famed for it, son! Don't get much chance to get a cue out round here, though.'

  'Stew knows a place. Shall we take an early one? A drink at the bar, then pool and snacks?'

  'Grand plan. I'll let my partner know I'll be a bit late and smelling of beer.'

  'We could open it up…'

  'Naw. He'd be bored by the business talk. Besides, he's not all that great shakes at pool.'

  'Fair enough, then. Downstairs in twenty?'

  'As you say. I'll just bring Vann straight along with me.'

  'Perfect. See you there.'

  Grum called Stew back.

  'Yeah-lo,' said Stew. 'What's the verdict?'

  'Down to the bar. Drinks in twenty, on me, then pool, beer and snacks.'

  'Vann coming?'

  'Yep. I'll have to call the baby-sitter to get an extra couple of hours, but yeah.'

  'That'll be a first.' Stew hung up and Grum realised that it was true. Aside from when they were first dating — when a casual, after-work drink was the thing — Vann had not been part of the drinks-time that he and Stew did to wind down every so often. Since Ju had come along, and then with the separate moves to New York, there had not really been much of a chance for going out. Even today, it would not have been possible if he and Vann had not decided that for both of them to be effective in their roles, they would need extended child care into the early evening.

  It would probably be a good idea to organise a couple more extended evenings for just the two of them to go out and do something.

  This time it was Vann who newly experienced the VP tab and conversation centred around that until they had finished their drinks.

  'It's only a couple of blocks away, shall we just walk it?' asked Stew.

  'Stew, it's absolutely tipping it down out there, let's get a taxi and a quick one, here,' said Grum bringing out his phone for the taxi app.

  Before Grum could give his key to Stew, Hank had walked behind the ramp and started pouring the same drinks as the last round, waving Grum's objections aside.

  They made small talk while they drank until the taxi arrived.

  The journey was a pre-set in Grum's app, these days, so the taxi just went straight to the place.

  'I've been here!' said Hank, running into the bar from the downpour. 'I didn't know they had pool.'

  'It's round back,' said Grum. 'Stew found it a while ago.'

  'So this is where you hide out to get away from me,' Vann said, archly.

  Grum did not dignify that with a response, but headed to the bar, beckoning them to follow. 'I don't know what you will want here.'

  'I'll have what Stew's having,' said Vann. She usually did. It had been one of the things they had found out early in their dating. Vann liked the same kind of dark and slightly sweeter ales that Stew preferred.

  'I'll have my usual, Grum.' Hank had been consistent in his whiskey and soda.

  Stew just pointed to the bottle of porter.

  'OK. Go get set up, I'll bring the drinks over.'

  The group were discussing the minutiae of the rules when he arrived with the drinks.

  '…And no double on the eight ball. None of us need that, I think.'

  'Sounds like you've got it sorted,' said Grum, settling the drinks on a nearby table. 'Doubles, is it? Space versus Core Power, or what?'

  'Nope. VPs versus the people who actually do the work,' said Vann.

  Grum shared a long-suffering look with Hank. 'Ever the way of it. No loyalty.'

  'Tell me about it,' said Hank, picking a cue from the rack.

  Stew got his trust coin from his pocket, looked meaningfully at Hank, and flipped it.

  'Tails!' called Hank, as Stew slapped the coin onto the back of his other hand. 'You guys toss an actual coin?' Hank murmured out of the side of his mouth to Grum.

  Grum shrugged. 'It's a tradition, or an old charter, or something.'

  'Tails it is,' said Stew, showing the coin. 'Your choice.'

  Hank elected to break, and showed that his talk about having played had not been idle chatter. Although Grum wanted to get to the meat of the meeting, he decided to let everyone settle into the game first and get the next drink in before starting to talk about the plan. Everyone would need to be relaxed for that.

  Stew was clearly tense, missing shots he would usually have potted with ease. Normally, that would have handed the game to Grum, but he was not up to scratch himself.

  Hank and Grum won the game on the eight, and Vann went to get the next round in while Grum racked up. He took the opportunity of the pause to start the conversation with Hank.

  'Things are getting better all round.'

  'Absolutely. I wouldn't put it past the next board meeting to approve Nevada coming up to full strength. And with our programmes getting back up to full speed — as well as the Mars shuttle progressing — I can tell you that we'll need all the generators you can produce.'

  'We'll have to give some time to other Divisions, Hank. Medical, for example.'

  'Oh, sure.' Hank paused to look between Grum and Stew, who was standing ready to break. 'Is that what you wanted to tell me? That you all would have to give some Nevada love to other Divisions? Well, I knew that, but I thought you said this would count as good news.'

  'Well, yes…' Grum was interrupted by Vann returning with the tray of drinks. 'Thanks, love.'

  'You're welcome,' she said, and nodded at Stew to break.

  'OK,' said Grum, regathering his thoughts. 'It's like this. You know how we've been working since the start to increase antimatter yield, or combine yields?'

  'I thought that was impossible,' said Hank, and took a sip of his drink, narrowing his eyes.

  Grum approached the table to take his shot, and Stew picked up the tale, talking over Grum's head. 'It is, with the original facility. Completely impossible.'

  'With the original facility.' Hank emphasised the salient word immediately.

  No slouch, him, thought Grum and winced as he narrowly missed the pot. He stood away from the table and turned back to face Hank, to make way for Vann to take her shot. 'That's right. We think we have worked out a way to do increase the yields to make larger generators. But we need to build an entirely new plant to do it.'

  He heard Vann swear under her breath as she, too, missed potting. No-one is potting anything. We're all way too tense.

  'But where?' Hank asked, reasonably as he approached the table for his shot. 'The site in Nevada took a lot of selecting and negotiating with the military and state government. You've already got the best place.' Hank finished his sentence as he bent down to line up his shot.

  'We were thinking…' Grum paused, watching Hank draw back to shoot, '…the moon.' I'm a bastard. What am I?

  On reflection, it was a good thing t
hat Hank had been aiming to put some top on the cueball, otherwise there would probably have been a rip in the baize. As it was, the worst that happened was that the tip struck the cueball higher up — and more forcefully — than intended. It ricocheted off an object ball on the cushion, and launched straight at Stew's groin. Fortunately, Stew turned enough that the ball hit his hip rather than anything more painful.

  'Are you crazy?' Hank staggered slightly away from the table and sought for a seat. 'You're serious, aren't you?'

  'Very.' Grum realised that Vann was staring at him, mouth agape. Ah, he thought, I hadn't told her the bit about the moon. 'You see, the size and design of the facility needed to do this… Well. The magnitude of gravity becomes a factor.'

  'Why not Mars while you're at it? We'll have the shuttle going there in a few years.' Hank was regaining his composure, if not his sense of credulity.

  'I figured that the moon was a better first step. The Mars ones can't be as big.' Now Stew was staring at him, as well. Oh, yeah. Forgot to tell Stew about the Mars idea. Whoops.

  'Absolutely certifiable!'

  'It's the only way, Hank. You in?'

  'Grum, you just knocked my socks off! Your wife and right-hand man are both standing there like they don't know what's going on, and you! You're standing there like you're the only sane man in the room! What the hell am I supposed to make of that?'

  'How about we make an opportunity?'

  'What exactly is it you want to do?' asked Hank after a long swig of his drink.

  Grum motioned to Stew, indicating refills, and Stew hastily complied. The pool game was forgotten, and Grum sat on the chair opposite Hank, outlining the plan he and Stew had devised.

  Hank calmed down as he listened, though at several points he shook his head in disbelief.

  'Do you have any idea what this will cost. What a facility like that will cost to build on the moon?' asked Hank when Grum had finished.

  'I know the costs of Nevada very well, and I know the UMB and UMBRA costs, so I do know the scale of the figures were talking about. If you're asking me for a complete costing, then no.'