Lifter: Proton Field #2

by Laurence Dahners

  Mark blinked. Is she saying she already killed Massoud? Or maybe she just checked on him and saw that he’d died falling off the mountain?

  Linda shook her head, “No. I don’t want them dead. I want them turned over to the Philippine authorities.” She shrugged, “From what I’ve heard, being in the hands of the Filipinos may be worse than death, but that’ll be on their conscience, not mine.”

  A range of emotions from furious hate to pathetic horror seemed to pass over Penny’s face before she gave a sharp nod and said, “I feel the same.”

  “Okay,” Nina said. She stood and looked over at the pilot guy, Vinn, “You’ve told the anti-kidnapping task force where they are?”

  Vinn nodded.

  Mark turned to Ellen, “What happened to the Abus? From the very little we could see in the dark, it looked like some giant was tossing them off the side of the mountain.”

  Ellen twisted her lips as if she weren’t quite certain what to say, then said, “Well, the one up front did run into Brock there, and he kinda qualifies as a giant. But for the rest of them, it was the same thing that lets us fly. Same thing that lifted you up into the air. It’s called a proton field and it pulls on the hydrogen molecules in your body. To fly, we set up a proton field above you and it pulls you up into the air…” Ellen paused, as if she didn’t want to go any further.

  Myr, the slender young woman who’d rescued Penny, said, “If we put up a proton field off to one side of you, it’ll pull you sideways just as easily as it does up.”

  Mark fixed the young woman with a disbelieving frown. A moment later, she grinned and pulled a large flashlight looking device out of the pocket on her camo pants. The flashlight had a cord going to her backpack. She pointed it to one side of Mark and pushed a button. Mark had somehow been expecting light to shoot out of it, despite the fact that it didn’t really have a glass lens on the front of it. Instead, a sudden force jerked him off to that side. The pull was gone as soon as it came and he only stumbled a step, but he could imagine what it would’ve been like if it’d kept pulling. And what it would have been like to get jerked like that on a narrow path along a steep hillside. “Oh,” he said, trying to act blasé. “How’s that work?” His eyes narrowed, “Hey, your wrist can’t be strong enough to pull on me that hard…”

  Ellen gave a little laugh, “Give it a rest brother. It’s going to take quite a while to explain all this new tech to you.” She looked him up and down, “You look like you’ve lost some weight. You still partial to PB&J sandwiches?”

  “Oh, yeah!”

  As Ellen was opening the peanut butter, Linda stepped closer and said, “You’re Mark’s sister?”

  Ellen nodded.

  Linda focused intently on her, “And… you’re the one who rescued us?”

  “Oh, no!” Ellen said, “I helped, but Ardis and especially Nina were the driving force. And of course, we couldn’t have done it without Brock,” she waved around, “or Myr or Vinn or Arlan Miller who owns Miller Tech and let us use the spacecraft.”

  Linda stepped forward and gently put her arms around Ellen. Leaning her head against Ellen’s, she said in a raspy voice, “You’ve saved my life, and I’ll be grateful to you for the remainder of it. Thank you.”

  When she stepped back, Mark saw tears streaming down Linda’s face. From the look on Ellen’s face, she was unable to say anything because of a painful frog in her own throat. Linda stepped next to Ardis and repeated the hug and essentially the same sentiments. Then to Nina, where she said, “When I first met you, I was jealous of your beauty. Then, when your escape was successful, I was jealous of your luck. I’m ashamed to admit that for the past few days I’ve pictured you at home celebrating with your family, never dreaming that you’d be so selfless as to stay here in the Philippines working toward our rescue.” She leaned away from the embrace she’d been giving Nina, and said with a wry smile, “It turns out that you deserve your beauty and I can wish you nothing but the best in life.”

  As Linda continued around the room, she left Nina and each of the others in tears. It was a moving, emotional and cathartic experience for both the rescued and the rescuer.

  Feeling ashamed that Linda had had to show him how to truly thank the people who’d saved him, Mark started around the room himself and was followed by Greg and Penny.

  It was quite some time before there was a dry eye in the spacecraft’s cabin.

  ******

  After some discussion, the group had decided that it would be best if the kidnapping victims flew commercial back to the states. It was painful to consider taking flights that’d take nearly 24 hours when MT-1 could get them back in one, but explaining how they’d gotten back in the country without passing through customs seemed like it could be problematic the next time they wanted to leave. They also wanted to avoid associating themselves with the spacecraft at a time when the government was at odds with Miller Tech. It seemed better to avoid any links making it evident that the ship had been in the Philippines uninvited.

  After learning that an office of the Philippines anti-kidnapping task force in Davao had their passports and personal baggage, Nina, Mark, Penny, Linda, and Greg were dropped off near a taxi stand just before dawn to begin the long trek home.

  Now the five people left in MT-1 were debating what to do since they, or at least the spacecraft, couldn’t return to the US and Myr, Vinn and Ellen didn’t even have their passports. They’d been floating various plans for getting someone to bring them their passports in Mexico. Ellen said, “I’ll bet that, even if we get our passports, there’ll be a problem returning to the country if the passport wasn’t stamped as leaving the country?”

  “Oh, is that against the rules?”

  Ellen shrugged, “I don’t know, and I really don’t know how to find out before it turns into a problem at the border.”

  Myr said, “We could just have MT-1 drop us off on the coast somewhere and fly in with our backpacks.”

  Vinn shook his head, “They’d see the spacecraft coming down on radar and come out to meet us.”

  “Drop us in Mexico and we fly ourselves over the border?”

  Myr said, “I just got a secure message from Dr. Miller. Even though it’s supposed to be secure, what he said’s pretty cryptic… As if he suspects that DIA or MSA or somebody like that might be able to break the encryption.”

  “What do you think he wants?” Vinn asked.

  “I’m pretty sure what he’s trying to do is tell us that the second spacecraft’s ready to fly even though it might not be completely finished.”

  “Oh, I can see why he wouldn’t want them to find that out.”

  Myr said, “I think he wants us to get it out of Kansas City before the government realizes that we actually have more than one and tries to confiscate it.”

  “Where would we put it? I thought Canada wouldn’t agree to us parking it with them?”

  Myr shrugged, “If it flies, and it’s airtight, we could park it in orbit.”

  Ellen tilted her head, “What if space command flies a mission up there to claim it?”

  Vinn shook his head, “Can’t happen. First of all, it’d take them months to organize a space-launch that could get up to it. Second, our airlocks won’t connect to theirs, so, even if they got out there, there’d be no way for them to get aboard. If they used a breaching charge to enter through the hull, they still wouldn’t have a way to get it back down to earth unless we gave them passwords for the AI.”

  Myr mused, “Maybe Randy could fly it up to LEO and we could go pick him up?” She shrugged, “Or, if worst came to worst, MT-1 could drop one of us over Kansas City with a flyer.”

  “We could,” Vinn said, “they’ll probably scramble jets when they see us coming in to drop someone off by flyer, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t fire missiles at us. We could come straight down at just under the speed of sound which would take six minutes. Drop someone with a flyer off at 10,000 feet and go back up at the same speed. Unless they h
ave fighter aircraft already in the air nearby, they shouldn’t be able to get there in time. Even if they did, they’d have a hard time catching the spacecraft and I’d expect them to be so focused on it that they wouldn’t notice the weak radar return from the person we dropped off.” He shrugged, “Especially since that person could come down in an atypical fashion for aircraft and they shouldn’t even consider the possibility of a person with a backpack flyer.”

  Myr sighed, “So far we are persona non grata with our home country and Canada. Though I suspect the issue with Canada is because our government’s leaning on them. The Philippines also wouldn’t like it if they knew that we’d visited without permission. We need to start making friends with some countries!”

  Vinn grinned and lifted an eyebrow, “How about Tahiti?”

  Myr turned to look thoughtfully at him for a moment. “I’ll bet you thought you were making a joke, but it might not be a bad idea. Well, not Tahiti I don’t think. I’m pretty sure that to some extent it’s part of France, though they may have declared independence and I just haven’t heard about it. But I think if we’re going to go join some island nation it ought to be someplace that really thinks of itself as independent.”

  Vinn said, “I think we’re overthinking this. I’m realizing we could get home by having the spacecraft come down from space, drop us off at 10,000 feet and shoot back up. I think parking our spaceships in orbit will keep them much safer than parking them in a country that might get grabby.”

  “Who’s going to stay with the spaceship up there in LEO?”

  Vinn shrugged, “Nobody. It’s fully capable of remote flight. When we want it back, and it’s safe to do so, we just call it down. Same thing with sending the other one up. Nobody needs to go with it.”

  “Oh…”

  ******

  As she rode her lifter down out of the dusky Kansas sky, Myr contemplated their return home. Their first attempt had involved coming in toward the West Coast at an altitude of 40,000 feet, like an airliner. They’d hoped that perhaps the FAA would identify them by their transponder and, because they had permission for some test flights, there wouldn’t be any problems. However, evidently either the DIA or Space Command were tapped into the system. Aircraft had been scrambled to come out and meet them.

  Vinn had taken them back up to space and vectored towards Canada. Over the Dakotas he’d cut back towards Kansas City. He thought that some fighter aircraft might have been scrambled from the Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, but nothing had gotten close before MT-1 got down to 10,000 feet where all five of them jumped out with their flyers. MT-1 was back up in space and heading for low Earth orbit before any of them got down to the ground. Before Vinn went home, he was going to send MT-2 up to LEO as well.

  Myr landed beside her car where she’d left it in the parking lot near Miller Tech’s spacecraft hanger. Her understanding from Arlan Miller’s messages suggested that any work that had been underway to build further spacecraft was on hold for now.

  She’d just gotten in her car and told it to take her home when her AI said, “You have a call from your mother.”

  “I’ll take it… Hi Mom, what’s up?”

  Myr immediately recognized stress in her mother’s voice, “Are you still in the Philippines?”

  “No, I just got back to Bonner Springs. I should be home in about ten more minutes. Do you need me to come to your place instead?”

  “No, I’ve got Connor in the emergency room. He’s developed… he’s developed congestive heart failure rather suddenly. They’re admitting him to see if he can be stabilized. They’ve put him on ACE inhibitors but they don’t seem to be helping very much.” Carol’s voice broke, then she whispered, “Can you come sit with us?”

  Though her heart was in her throat, Myr forced a brave tone into her voice and said, “I’m on my way, I’m sure he’s gonna be fine.” As she signed off, she thought to herself, “He’s gonna be fine?!” That’s the best I could do? She had a heartrending feeling that it wasn’t going to be fine. I haven’t even thought about the heart pumping project with Watanabe for weeks now! What if it’s too late?! She spoke to her AI, “Try to connect me to Dr. Watanabe.” I’ll bet he isn’t available this late in the evening, she thought miserably.

  Then Watanabe’s voice came in her ear, “Ms. Sevii! It’s so good to hear from you. Do you need something?”

  Hoping her terror wouldn’t be apparent in her voice, Myr said, “My brother. You remember that he has muscular dystrophy?”

  “Oh yes. A terrible disease. Has something happened?”

  “He’s developed congestive heart failure. I’m feeling terrible that I haven’t kept working on our idea to help weak hearts with a proton field. Of course, now that it may be too late, I’m desperately trying to play catch-up. Can you tell me if you’ve made any progress since we last talked?”

  “Ah, of course.” He paused for a moment and Myr had the feeling that he was gathering his thoughts. “I’ve been working with Randy Saenz, your engineer.”

  Myr’s mind bumped over that statement for a second, because Randy wasn’t actually an engineer. However, he was so good with technical stuff, and especially with building devices, that almost everyone who talked to him for very long assumed he was. Actually, he’s better than several of the actual engineers we’ve got, she thought, then forced her mind back onto track as Watanabe continued. “With his help, we’ve developed a ‘compressor,’ as we’ve been calling it, that squeezes the right amount of blood to the correct degree of compression. He’s working on a way to use servos to move the field generator back and forth on the chest wall to accommodate the changes in the position of the heart when the person moves around. However, I’ve begun to realize that, since the heart needs the most help when the patient’s sitting or standing—because then it has to pump blood up to the brain—it may be that simply positioning the generator in the correct location to compress the heart when the patient’s upright might be sufficient for many patients.”

  “Oh!” Myr said, the word almost bursting out of her in her relief. “That’s wonderful! Have you tried it on pigs yet?”

  “Yes, they seem to tolerate it very well. It hasn’t done any apparent damage to their hearts or blood…” He paused, then continued, “Of course, we can’t ask a pig whether it’s uncomfortable. Perhaps the edges of the field put some pressure on the wall of the heart that might cause discomfort?”

  “Do you have one I could borrow to try out on my brother?”

  There was a moment of silence, then Watanabe, seemingly ignoring Myr’s question, said, “I’ve also had another idea. We could avoid these issues with a surgical procedure in which we placed a balloon inside a non-stretchy bag around the heart. The balloon could be inflated with fluid connected via a tube to a separate chamber attached to the chest wall so that it would be stationary. That stationary location would allow a proton field generator on the outside of the chest wall to squeeze and release pressure inside the chamber, thus deflating and inflating the balloon next to the heart. This would apply and release pressure on the heart, helping it pump in a similar fashion to the way chest compressions pump the heart during CPR.”

  Myr blinked, “That’d be wonderful, but I need something for my brother now. Do you have one I could pick up?”

  Uncertainly, Watanabe said, “We don’t have approval for use in humans.”

  “I don’t care, my brother’s life may be on the line.”

  “Um, positioning it correctly using the ultrasound that’s built into it… it’s partly automated, but could require some understanding by the person setting it up.”

  “You could explain it to me when I picked it up, couldn’t you?”

  Suddenly a decisive tone returned to Watanabe’s voice, “I’ll get one and meet you at the hospital.”

  “I don’t want you to get into trouble,” Myr said, even though she desperately wanted his help.

  “Which hospital is it?” Watanabe asked, ignoring her effor
t to give him an out.

  When Myr entered his room, she was terrified by Connor’s doughy, pasty, listless appearance. “Hey there monkey boy,” she said quietly.

  Connor’s eyes opened to slits and a faint smile appeared on his face. “Hey big sister. You rescue… those people… in the Philippines?”

  Myr tore her eyes away and looked up at the monitors over the bed, wondering what all the squiggly lines, numbers and colors might mean. Giving up, she looked back down at Connor, feeling touched that he was asking about the kidnap victims when he was so sick himself. “Yep. Now, what can I do for you?”

  “Space,” he said.

  Myr frowned, “Space?”

  “Yeah… less stress… on the heart… up there.”

  Myr snorted, “Not very many doctors either.”

  “Don’t need ‘em… up there… wanna go.”

  Realizing he was serious gave Myr pause. Of course, this would happen when we have no access to the spacecraft. “I’ll have to see what I can do,” she said hesitantly. Her eyes roved around the bed. She realized she didn’t see his proton field generator. “Hey, where’s your antigravity machine?”

  Carol answered for him. “The nurses didn’t want it in here for fear it might mess up their equipment. It isn’t approved hospital equipment or even UL listed.”

  “But wouldn’t it help him breathe?”

  Unhappily, Carol shrugged, “They said they’d hook him up to CPAP if he needed it.”

  “But…” Myr said, turning her eyes back to Connor, “then he couldn’t talk. The proton field helps you breathe, doesn’t it? And use your hands?”

  Looking weary, Connor said, “That’s what… I said. Will you… hook me up? Mom’s afraid.”

  Myr had been looking around. She saw his little vest pack sitting in the corner. Next to it, Connor’s hydrogen recharger was plugged in. They electrolyzed water then concentrated the hydrogen in a proton field for use in lift packs. Gratefully, she saw her mother had remembered to fill it with water. Myr picked it up and carried it over to Connor’s bed. Carol unhappily said, “Myr…”