by Bob Blanton
“I know you couldn’t do it for the Oryxes,” Marc said. “I’ve picked 3.5 as a starting point based on making a big enough difference in travel time. I am hoping your guy will be able to figure the shock suppressors for us. That was one of the main reasons we hired him.”
Catie rolled her eyes, not bothering to try and correct her father. “Oh, right. He’s been busy, but I’ll follow up with him,” Catie said. “Do I get to run the program?”
“Do you think you have time?” Marc asked. He was smiling since he knew that Catie wouldn’t let anyone else run the program.
“I have plenty of time; I’m only working eight hours a day; besides, I should be finished with that job in two months,” Catie said. “I can get things rolling right away. We should be able to use what we learned on the Oryxes.”
“Okay, but this plan is to manufacture and fly the planes commercially, so there’s more involved,” Marc said. “We’ll focus on flights of over seven hours to start with and work our way down to three-hour flights as we ramp up.”
“That is ambitious; if you pull it off, the money you’ll make will be extraordinary; you’ll be looking at tens of billions per month, maybe even a hundred billion,” Dr. Hausmann said.
“That’s why we’re going for it,” Marc said. “Now, what do we need to make it happen?”
“That will take a lot of manufacturing space. I’d say two sections at least,” Blake said.
“Why don’t we add that to the airport,” Samantha suggested. “You’ll need a big runway to get those things in the air.”
“That’s going to be a bitch of a commute, and we’ll have to move quite a bit of freight between the city and the airport,” Fred said.
“Attach the airport to the city,” Samantha said. “If you do it off the northeast corner, you’ll be landing and taking off next to the city’s airport. I assume we could change that over to manufacturing if we can just ride a golf cart to the airport.”
“I’m not sure about that,” Blake said. “We kind of like being able to adjust the airport’s orientation, so you’re taking off into the wind.”
“How much rotation do you need?” Catie asked.
“We generally just move it plus or minus forty-five degrees,” Blake said. “Takes too long otherwise.”
“So, make the bridge rotate at one end,” Catie said. “We can put a trolley on the bridge to handle the traffic. Most of the heavy cargo will be coming directly to the airport, not through the city, so the trolley should be able to take care of cargo too. You can bring in a few big trucks to handle the rest.”
“That’s kind of scary,” Liz said. “If the airport shifts suddenly, you could have your bridge break.”
“Not if the bridge is soft coupled to the airport. Have it terminated on its own island, then have a few roads cross and overlap the airport; they don’t have to be attached on the airport end. When the airport is moving, stop traffic, just like a drawbridge,” Catie said.
“I think that will work,” Blake said. “I’ll draw it up and review it with Catie and some of our structural engineers.”
“How long?” Marc asked.
“If we’re going to convert the city airport to manufacturing, we can move the four quads we’ve just attached to the city to the airport and redirect the next four there as well. That means three months to have it attached and ready for buildings to go in. There will still be infrastructure work, but since it’s not residential, that can go on while we’re tooling up.”
“Okay. Next, Fred tells me we’re hitting material shortages for the exotic elements, especially the platinum group,” Marc said. “It seems we’ve consumed a large percentage of the world’s supply, and the extraction rate from the known mines won’t meet our demand. That, and prices are now going through the roof.”
“It sounds like you’re going to need to start mining asteroids,” Dr. Metra said. “Those elements are present, but they’re present only on a small percentage of asteroids and then only in small quantities.”
“Can we detect them?”
“Yes, but you have to be close to the asteroid to detect them, so it’s true prospecting as you people say.”
“Okay, Dr. Nikola, would you work with Catie, one of our miners, and ADI to come up with what it will take to launch a prospecting team to the asteroid belt. Fred, talk with our miners and figure out where we can get some more.”
“I would love to,” Dr. Nikola said.
Catie was almost bouncing in her seat, she was so excited. But then Marc turned to her and took the air out of her balloon when he said, “Catie, you will not be going on the prospecting expedition.”
Her face fell, “Why not?”
“You can’t do everything.”
“I don’t try to do everything!”
“That’s true,” Blake said. “She usually only tries to grab the fun and adventurous assignments.”
Catie stuck her tongue out at her uncle.
“Dr. Metra, how are your doctors and nurses doing?” Marc asked.
“We’ve sent out seven more teams so far; each team consists of sixteen nurses and four doctors,” Dr. Metra said. “Britain, France, Germany, Ukraine, Japan, Canada, and Singapore each have one team.
“As you suggested, we’re focusing on children’s hospitals and childhood diseases. As we get the logistics and the population shows that our people will be safe, we can expand the efforts,” Dr. Metra added.
“I’ve got publicists lined up to cover the most heartwarming of the cases,” Samantha said. “We should start getting some good press.”
“Kal, security?” Marc asked.
“We’ve got a team of eight covering each clinic. The doctors and nurses are all staying at a secure apartment complex close to the hospital. They’ve liaised with the local police, and we haven’t had any issues so far,” Kal said.
“Good. Now Blake, what’s the status of the Delphi Armed Forces?” Marc asked.
“Of the four thousand who have been loaned to us from the services of the various nations, we only see about twelve hundred that we think would be wise to keep. Most of them are crew, only two hundred pilots and twenty-three officers,” Blake said. “We have one hundred eighty pilots, twelve officers, and three hundred crew that are Delphinean. That is about one-third of what we need to staff one carrier.”
“That’s not good,” Marc said. “Sam, do you think the countries will allow us to keep the ones we want?”
“Not surprisingly, the ones we want coincide with the countries we are having the fewest issues with, that means everyone except the U.S., Russia, and China. Although to be fair, the Chinese haven’t been that much of a problem, but they mostly provided local support,” Samantha said. “So, odds are good.”
“Then Blake, why don’t you coordinate with Sam and Margaret to request long-term assignments for them.”
“Roger.”
“How do we grow our force?”
“We put in a real boot camp; we can use a section of the city airport for it, or better yet, we’ll carve out a section in the new airport,” Blake said. “We’ve set aside the section where we plan to house the Delphi Armed Forces Academy and Delphi University.”
“Armed Forces Academy?” Catie asked. She was shocked that she wasn’t aware of any plans for a university or an academy. “How did that get by me?” she thought.
“Surprise,” Blake said with a smile. “We’ve been playing with the idea since we got back. We just grabbed one of the open sections and set it aside while we consider if we want to move forward.”
“So, how long?” Marc asked.
“Six months to put in the buildings and infrastructure,” Blake said. “Admiral Michaels, Liz, and I are working out how to go forward. We’ve asked Dr. Nikola to join us to help with the academic part and what to do about the university. We need a university president and an academy commandant.”
“I’ve got someone in mind for the commandant,” Admiral Michaels said. “No idea about a
university president.”
Marc looked at Samantha.
“I’m on it,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll be able to find someone who wants to step up or sideways. We’re getting a reputation as a nice vacation destination, so someone will want to live in paradise.”
“Dr. Hausmann, do you have any questions?” Marc asked.
“I have lots of questions, but I need time to adjust to this reality. I’ll send them out, and if they can’t be answered by email, I’ll arrange the appropriate meetings. I do have one suggestion, though.”
“Sure, what is it?”
“You need a CFO for MacKenzie Discoveries. I’m reeling with what I have to deal with, and I can’t imagine how you’re keeping all the rest of the stuff straight. A CFO can take a big load off your plate,” Dr. Hausmann said.
“I’m on it,” Samantha said before Marc could turn to her.
“Then let’s call it a day,” Marc said. “Catie, Dr. Nikola, Dr. Metra, Liz, and Blake, can you stay behind for a short discussion?”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hey Kal,” Catie called out before he left the room.
“What’s up?” Kal asked.
“Have you heard of a place called Hooligans?”
“Sure, teenage bar down off of Apian Way.”
“A teenage bar, isn’t that illegal?” Liz said.
“I guess,” Kal said. “Our police chief briefed me on it last spring. She says she has an undercover agent there as a waitress. Place seems to keep everyone in line, and give the younger crowd a place to blow off steam, so they just keep an eye on it. Catie, have you been there?”
“I went on Friday,” Catie said. “It did seem to be a good environment.”
“Yeah, they keep drugs out of the place, price hard liquor through the roof, so most of the clientele stick to beer. I hear the food’s good too.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Catie, can we get an update on the new drive?” Marc asked after the door was closed, and the small group was alone.
“I was writing it up,” Catie said, “but here it is.
“We’ve managed to send our entire menagerie through at least two jumps,” Catie said. “The rats still run the maze as fast after the jump as they did before; the chihuahuas still play dead and roll over; as close as we can tell, the parrots still have the same vocabulary; and the two spider monkeys still get along and know all the commands they started out with.”
“Sounds pretty good,” Blake said.
“Yeah, so far. We sent half of them back here for examination by a vet and Dr. Metra. The other half is going through as many jumps as we can make in the next two weeks,” Catie added.
“What defines what can go through it?” Dr. Metra asked.
“It seems to be volume-based; girth being the most important dimension. Our tests haven’t identified any mass relationship. It will only work when the gravity flux is below ten picometers per second squared. If the gravity is higher than that, it does nothing.”
“You mean it won’t move you?” Blake asked.
“That’s right. The drives are running in opposition to each other, so you wouldn’t expect to go anywhere,” Catie said. “Also, the tests show that the wormhole will not open anywhere the flux is higher than one picometer per second squared, either; it bends and drops you wherever it bends to. We tried to have it drop a probe inside a small asteroid, and it did the same thing, bent around the asteroid, and dropped the probe off to the side. Also, it bends around any gravity well in its path. So, you have to plot the course you want to avoid them, or you end up way out in the middle of who knows where.”
“So, are we ready to start sending probes out to look for a solar system with a suitable planet for our Paraxean guests?” Marc asked.
“I’ve designed the probe, we can make as many as you ask for and start sending them out,” Catie said. “Two weeks to make the new probes, but they’re using up that material you mentioned earlier.”
“Make ten,” Marc said. “Start sending them out to the stars that are likely to have suitable planets as soon as you can. Avoid contact with any existing civilizations.”
“Of course,” Catie said. “What about building the scout ship?”
“Review the plans with Blake and Dr. Nikola. When they and ADI approve it, start building one,” Marc said. “Needless to say, all of this is top secret; nobody outside this room is to know anything we’ve discussed, except ADI, of course.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“What’s up with Catie?” Samantha asked Marc when he met her in his office after the meeting.
“What do you mean?” Marc asked.
“She looked a little peeved when she came out of the meeting.”
“I think she’s just frustrated that she’s not going to be involved in every big action plan; specifically, the project to grow our forces,” Marc said. “She’s usually the smartest person in the room, but she still hasn’t quite gotten used to the fact that experience can be more important than intelligence.”
“Well, she is a teenager; they all have that problem.”
“Tell me about it.”
Chapter 14
To-Do List
On Wednesday, after work, Catie flew up to the space station to confer with Dr. McDowell. He generally hated any kind of electronic communication; more likely he hated any type of communication; it was just that electronic communications were easy to avoid, just don’t answer the phone.
“Hello, Dr. McDowell,” Catie said as she entered his office. She stood there patiently while he continued to work on the problem he had on his whiteboard.
“Oh, hi, Catie,” Dr. McDowell finally said when he finished the step he was working on, two minutes later. While waiting, Catie had been trying to figure out what he was working on, but was unable to figure out the math.
“I have a problem that we’ve been waiting for you to work on, but we’ve all been distracted with the gravity drive and the jump drive work.”
“Yes, yes. I’m busy now,” Dr. McDowell said.
“Can you at least look at it? Maybe you can recommend someone else who can work on it for us.”
“Sure, if you promise to leave me alone after,” Dr. McDowell said.
“Sure, I always leave you alone, don’t I?”
“Harrumph, let me see what you have,” Dr. McDowell said as he turned to face Catie. “Did you do something with your hair?” he asked giving her a look. He hadn’t seen Catie since she’d changed her look.
“Yeah, I colored it.”
“Oh, that’s it. Now what do you have?”
“As you probably know, we have shock wave suppressors on the Lynxes and Foxes,” Catie said. “We tried to scale the design up for the Oryxes, but we couldn’t make it work. Nobody seems to understand the math.”
“I remember something about that from when I was working on my first PhD,” Dr. McDowell said. “They never got it to work that well.”
“Here’s what we have,” Catie said as she drew up a wire diagram of a Fox with the suppressors on it and added the equations that had been in the design documentation they had gotten from ADI. “Here’s the design for the Fox, and this is the design for the Lynx.” She quickly added the diagram and equations for the Lynx.
“And here’s what we tried for the Oryx, but it failed miserably,” Catie added.
Dr. McDowell went over the equations for a minute, making a few scratch marks over them.
“Failed miserably?” he asked.
“Yes, made things worse, messed up the aerodynamics something awful,” Catie said.
“I see, harrumph …”
Dr. McDowell just stood there looking at the equations and diagrams, after ten minutes, Catie started working on her notes for the meeting with the asteroid miners and Dr. Nicola.
It was two hours before Dr. McDowell did anything except breathe. Finally, he said, “Ah, I see your problem.”
“You do?”
“Yes, you’re treating the flow over the a
irframe like a laminar flow, but the suppressors are designed to make the flow turbulent, that’s the whole point. These equations are missing some pieces,” he said as he added some more variables to the equations. “It looks like the designers got close then dialed it in experimentally. Here, use these equations.”
“Can you give me the details for the Oryx?” Catie said. “That would allow us to quickly verify the equations and learn how to read them better.”
“Sure, sure,” Dr. McDowell said. “I already did it; here are the adjustments you need to make.”
“ADI?”
“Cer Catie, I have the equations and have entered the new numbers for the Oryx into the design. I can transmit a change order to the plant and have them add them to the one that is currently being manufactured.”
“Please do that,” Catie said. “Thank you, Dr. McDowell. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Peace and quiet,” Dr. McDowell said. “Oh, and I need bigger gravity drives to verify the scalability numbers we came up with.”
“They’re being built right now. It will take another three weeks to finish them,” Catie said.
“Good, good,” Dr. McDowell said as he walked back over to the other whiteboard.
“Bye,” Catie said. She left the room, not expecting him to even hear her.
◆ ◆ ◆
Catie knocked on Natalia’s cabin at six; she’d just had ADI verify that Natalia was home.
“Hello, can I help you?” Natalia said when she answered the door. She hadn’t recognized the name Keala Nakoa that had come up on her Comm.
“Wow, Nattie, you’ve lost weight, looking good,” Catie said. She had switched off the nanites that were modifying her voice, so she sounded like herself.
Natalia’s eyes went wide, “Catie?”
“Yep, Asteroids Are Us is needed for some consultation tomorrow. I wondered if you were up for it,” Catie said. Only a select few knew that Catie and Natalia had been on the first mission to retrieve asteroids and send them to Earth so they would have enough material to build the space station without having to lift it all from Earth’s surface.
“I would never have recognized you, what are you doing all in disguise?”
