Aspirations: A Near Future Sci-Fi Thriller

by Randal Sloan

  Miranda gave her a sincere smile. “You know I will take you up on that. I plan to do these lunches as often as I can. Probably not every week, unfortunately. But as often as I can.”

  Andrea reached over to the dessert menu. “Ok, now for the really tough one. What do you want for dessert?”

  “Oh, that one is easy. The chocolate brownie with ice cream,” Miranda laughed, “and extra chocolate on top.”

  Andrea sighed. “Ohh! Me too. Of course, unlike you, I’ll be having to work it off the rest of the week. But some sacrifices are worth it.”

  A little later, two very happy young ladies were cleaning the last of the chocolate out of their dessert trays. Not a bad way to end a lunch!

  #

  After lunch, Miranda stopped in Julie’s office long enough to change her appearance back to Julie. Then she went down to the little chapel. There she met with the chaplain, an older man with white hair, whose hair was obviously a sign of his wisdom because he had a number of insights for her. After listening to her story of her fight against the Organization and the specific fight against the warlord, Brother Andrew, as he called himself, was able to relate to her from his perspective. As a retired Army chaplain, he had dealt with many soldiers who had struggled with the same issues. He reminded her that in everything that mattered, she was a soldier too. After talking a while, he said a prayer with her and reminded her that she could talk to him any time. He also suggested that she attend the morning devotionals that he gave every weekday morning. Julie agreed that she would do that whenever she was able.

  Julie returned to her office in a much more somber mood, but pushed herself to work into the late afternoon. Finally, she gave in to her restlessness, calling Emily on her VR to tell her she was ready. A little later they were at the hospital visiting Zeke. They stayed only a few minutes, the hospital a little more than Julie could handle that day.

  Heading off to the cottage where they were spending the night, Julie ordered a pizza delivery while Emily drove. The pizza and some old sappy VR movies got them into the night. Julie was quite nervous about the next day so it was good to have Emily to talk it over with.

  Finally the two settled in for the night, the next morning requiring an early start. Even Julie was able to stop earlier, her wide open brain as tired as the rest of her. She did have some strange dreams that night, one of them of a tunnel in space.

  #

  The next morning, Ted, Carla, Miranda and Emily headed out to the Space Tech launch facility. They were in a large SUV with a driver, a security man upfront, and two other vehicles accompanying them. The girls were laughing about something and Ted had a feeling he was in for trouble. He had already heard something to the effect, “Julie wouldn’t be able to get away with that, but the two of us will,” and then a big laugh. Carla laughed at him when he winced.

  “Thank you for inviting me. I’ve always wanted to get out into space. I guess you’ve already fulfilled one of my dreams. Stuff like this, and I may have to forget about taking it slow.”

  “Sorry, I should have saved this till later, but Julie needs to get this done as soon as possible. We only have a few days until Zeke is supposed to be awakening from his coma, and we have to be there.”

  “I’m good. This is just amazing.” Carla glanced into the back where the girls were huddled together laughing about something. She tried to ask her question in a very low voice. “What happened to Miranda? She’s even faster and stronger than before. Can you talk about it?”

  “I can hear you,” Miranda told her from the back. “Go ahead and tell her, Uncle Ted. I suspect I’m going to be seeing her around a lot, and I trust her to know the truth. Then you can tell her that the last thing she wants to do is try to whisper around me. That tells me something is up, and I just can’t resist listening.” She laughed at that and the two started back on whatever it was they were talking about.

  “We don’t have time to talk about it in detail, but I will tell you the basics,” Ted began. In the back, Miranda smiled. She really liked Carla, and it would be easier if Carla heard it from her uncle.

  After several more minutes riding in their little caravan, they pulled into the gate to the launch facility, where they were given a quick pass through. It wasn’t much longer before they were boarding the shuttle and queuing up for their launch.

  Although she appeared excited, Ted could tell that Carla was a little nervous, so he sat close and spoke to her quietly, “Compared to your flight aboard the military version of the X-plane, this will actually be tame. Our shuttles take off like an airplane and use the lift from their wings to get a head start on the space flight. They burn pure hydrogen, a very efficient fuel with zero pollutants. Unlike the old twentieth century Space Shuttles, they refuel at the space station and fly back down in a powered flight.”

  By this time, their flight was beginning, and once they were in motion, all Ted saw in Carla was pure excitement. Another awesome reason to like the girl.

  #

  A little later, the Space Tech shuttle docked with the space station. Four unusual passengers exited the shuttle. The regulars on board the station immediately recognized Ted, who while not a regular visitor to the station, still came aboard fairly often. They looked carefully at his companions, a lady and two teenage girls.

  Ted explained it all to the cargo master who also was in charge of logging visitors. “This is Carla Davis, a very good friend of mine, and Miranda Summerlin, a cousin of mine with her friend Emily Caldwell. The girls attend Space Academy and wanted a chance to see the space station.”

  With that explanation, the regulars went about their business. Even the man who was a spy for the Organization, only included a short line in his report. “Ted with a girlfriend and two students. Nothing else to report.” His report was promptly ignored.

  “We’re going to go look around a little while.” Miranda had her innocent girl routine down. “Why don’t you and Carla go spend some time on the observation deck. I’m sure she would love the view from there.” Then she was off with a big smirk.

  “She’s right about that. You will love the view. But it’s low gravity so you’ll have to hold tight to me.”

  “Loving it already,” Carla told him, grabbing his arm and holding tightly. “And on the way, you can explain the very good friend thing,” she told him with a laugh.

  Ted didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He knew he was way out of his depth. He would have to do better the next time.

  #

  An hour later, the four transferred to the shuttle headed out to the research station. Ted easily explained his party to the man who maintained the passenger list to the research shuttle. Ted had instituted that additional security measure when his brother had disappeared. If they had a record of the shuttle passengers, they would have at least known if he was on board.

  “We’re taking the girls out to the research station. They have an experiment for school, so I arranged for them to go there to work on it. I figured I better stay with them to keep an eye on them and my girlfriend has never seen it either.” He didn’t miss the subtle “Better” on Miranda’s lips or the happy look on Carla’s face. He didn’t have to learn the same lesson twice.

  Ted took the group on a tour of the research ship when they arrived. Miranda was able to slip away after a few minutes, stopping off in the lab area they had been assigned on the ship to make the change to Julie. Using her enhanced hearing to check that the coast was clear, she was soon on her way to one of the conference rooms on the ship.

  Julie had scheduled a meeting with the secondary support team on the original drive test. They had all assumed she would attend by VR, so they were taken completely by surprise when she popped into their meeting in person. But when Julie explained what she was looking for, in their excitement they forgot to ask about how she had gotten there. When she pulled up the specs for the tests she wanted, they all began to look at them in detail. “We should be ready in a couple of hours if you want,” t
he leader of the team told her.

  “Perfect,” she told him. “We will be reaching the area near the R4 point where The Annette started the test about then. That’s all assuming the distortion has remained in orbit around the R4 point just like the mass objects have. If that assumption is wrong, the distortion is two months behind us in the earth’s orbit, and we will never be able to get there.”

  The lead tech nodded. “Your assumption seems sound to me. A gravitational distortion should be affected by the gravitational effects of the local system. Of course, even if it is true, at some point the distortion will get far enough from the R4 point to break free, and we will lose the track at that point. Hopefully, we will get enough data to assist you in your search.”

  “Thank you guys. See you in a couple of hours.”

  #

  Julie went straight from the meeting to the control room of the ship. “Course set and ready?” she asked the lead tech.

  “Course plotted, ma’am,” he answered in surprise. He had received his orders to plot the course but he had no idea Julie was aboard. Although he plotted the course as a check, the actual flight of the craft would be done by the Space Tech AI on the ship. It was a very advanced AI, one of the most advanced in existence, even for Space Tech.

  “Take us out, standard acceleration profile,” she told him, strapping herself in to the command chair that normally remained open unless they were underway. “Let me know when we reach the target coordinates.”

  The tech nodded and went about the business of getting them underway, sending out the standard two minute acceleration warning, and verifying everything was secure on the ship. At the correct time, the AI initiated the launch with the crew quietly going about their tasks.

  Their voyage there was uneventful. As they neared the target coordinates, Julie VR’d the propulsion team.

  The leader answered for the team, his excitement obvious. “Yes, we are ready. We are all quite sure that this is going to work, and will be very excited to see the results.”

  Julie smiled at his excitement. It was rather contagious. “Let me know the instant you detect anything,” she told them. “It won’t take long for us to fly past the anomaly if we are at all off the exact trajectory.”

  “Yes ma’am. I just want to say that I hope very much that you’re right and this works. I have several friends that were on board The Annette. I still haven’t given up hope, although it’s stretched pretty thin by now.” He disconnected from the call.

  “I hope I’m right, too.” Julie whispered quietly. She had kept a strong face on with the search and deep down she believed she was right, but she had her doubts too. She really wanted to see her father again. Maybe she would know soon; they should be able to detect something in the next few minutes.

  Julie finally admitted to herself she was really nervous. They needed to get this right. If it didn’t work, she didn’t have any idea what she could do to find them. Suddenly her VR station lit up. “It’s working! I’ve sent the AI a tiny modification to our course, but you were really close to the correct one. I’m streaming the data to you now.”

  “Thanks, I’m getting it. I’ll let you know if I need anything else.” Julie absentmindedly signed off. She was really intent on the data. “Oh my what a trail,” she thought. She could almost see it in her head, so she set the AI to translating the data into a visible picture of the course they were traveling. She then saw the gravity effect displayed like a tunnel surrounding the ship. The tunnel she had seen in her dream last night! This is where they went off schedule, multi-g acceleration, what is that? Suddenly, it was as if the sides of the tunnel blurred and changed color. A very dark blue. Julie stared in disbelief. What she was seeing didn’t look good. It had to be the point where they started to lose control of the drive. The sides of the tunnel turned a darker and darker blue until finally it faded into black.

  Julie’s VR lit up again. “That’s it, ma’am. We’ve lost it. Hopefully this will be enough for you to figure it out.”

  “I hope so too. Thanks for all your help.”

  “You just find them. That’s all the thanks we need,” was the quiet response as he broke the connection.

  I hope so. I certainly hope so. Julie didn’t dare say that one out loud. But speaking out loud to the lead tech, Julie told him. “That’s it. We have all our data. Take us back to the R4 point.” Speaking louder so the whole control center could hear her, she said. “Thank you all for your help. Hopefully what we gathered today will be of great value.”

  Julie spent the entire trip back deep in thought. With the data she had seen, and with the vision her brain had put together, Julie believed she could rebuild the drive safely, making changes to handle the log scale, the feedback loop, and now she just needed to figure out the effects of the field on space. Before they reached the R4 point, she sent the drives team directions to start building components to her specifications.

  In her specs, she left a space holder for what she called the power unit. They wouldn’t have a clue about what that meant, but they would build the rest. She hoped with Zeke’s help she would fill in the blanks to that space holder by the time they were ready.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Another Awakening

  Zeke Caldwell gradually became awake, struggling to open his eyes. He remembered a big explosion and then nothing after that. As his eyes adjusted to the light in the room, he saw Miranda and Doctor Ted looking rather anxiously at him. “Are you ok? How is your head?” the doctor asked him.

  Zeke struggled a moment and his voice came out as a croak. He tried again, this time a little better. “Ok,” he said. “The head only hurts a little. Why are you two here?”

  “You have been in a coma for several weeks,” Doctor Ted answered. “You have been given nanites, just like Miranda. You’re telling me you are only experiencing moderate head pain?” Zeke nodded. Ted didn’t know what to think of that, very much unlike Miranda when she first awakened with severe, almost debilitating head pain. He wondered if the accidental “enhancement” to her nanites had something to do with that.

  “What about your memory?” the doctor asked.

  Zeke looked at them. “I can remember us working in the lab and that man came in. The only thing I could think to do was to set the system into overload. What happened after that?”

  Miranda gave him a huge smile. “You saved me, at great risk to yourself.” She reached out to touch his arm. They were both surprised by a sudden shock. The monitoring equipment registered a huge spike in Zeke’s nanite readings and Miranda’s too, obviously triggered by her touch. They stared at each other in total disbelief, but when she did not release his arm, the feeling subsided.

  “What just happened?” Doctor Ted asked them both, his concern for the two of them obvious. At least the nanite readings had stabilized for the moment, but they were at a much higher level than he expected to continue to see.

  “Some kind of shock,” the two said at the same time. Miranda laughed and sat down in the chair beside the bed. She did not turn loose of his arm. “It’s fine now,” she said.

  “Well, sit there while I check both of you,” Doctor Ted said a little impatiently. He had not expected this.

  While her uncle was doing that, Miranda explained the situation with their nanites. “You actually have an extract of my nanites, but I have to warn you of one thing. Something happened to my nanites because of the explosion. The nanites are much more powerful than they were before. As soon as you get better, we will get you to look at the data that we have on them. I have my theories, but you can tell me what you think.”

  She looked at Zeke intently. “You will have to learn to control your movements before you will be able to do basic things.” She demonstrated with her free arm, which moved in a blur. “Otherwise, your movements will be too fast and out of control. I promise that I will help you.”

  Zeke could only stare. It was a lot to take in, Miranda knew. She gave him a big smile. “You’ve go
t to get better quickly,” she told him. “I am going to need your help with the prototype power unit that we are building from the results of our project.”

  “You are going to be rich!” she went on. She explained about their patent application. “Space Tech has already submitted the patent. Together we have ninety percent.”

  “Ok, I guess your nanites are ok. I’m going to call Emily and your parents in to see you,” Doctor Ted told Zeke. “Just stay where you are,” he told Miranda. “And neither of you move.” Neither of his patients dared make a move, although at the moment neither had a desire to move from where they were.

  Shortly afterwards, Doctor Ted returned with Zeke’s family. They had obviously been waiting to come as soon as the doctor came to get them. They were very excited to see Zeke awake, but they were somewhat nervous around him too. Doctor Ted told them, “As you can tell, Zeke is alert and can talk with you, but we are still working to determine his physical condition. So I can only let you stay for a few minutes.”

  They all talked for a few minutes with Zeke explaining that he felt pretty good but really, really weak. That was what they had decided to use to explain his physical situation. When the doctor pointed to his watch, they each carefully gave Zeke a hug.

  “I will walk with you to the waiting room,” Doctor Ted told the family, and led them out the door, talking with them as he went. “Miranda is here because Zeke has been treated with the same nanites as her. I am using a monitor on her nanites to help me understand Zeke’s. While you guys are in the waiting room, you should get Emily to explain the basics of how the nanites work. Since she has spent a lot of time with Miranda, she has learned a lot about them. If you have detailed questions that she can’t answer, write them down. We can discuss them the next time I see you. I will provide you an update as soon as I know more, but I can tell you everything looks good right now.”