by Bob Blanton
“The coal miners would love you,” Liz said. “The polysteel process readily adapts to using coal instead of petroleum. And, let me bring up my notes; Dr. Zelbar and Dr. McGenty both have agreed that the process would do an excellent job of siphoning off all the bad stuff you find in coal in useful, environmentally sound ways.
“Basically, you make a slurry out of the coal so you can feed it into the plasma field. The nitrogen would be extracted and either stored as liquid nitrogen for sale or simply released, no nitrous oxides. Of course, we’ve already dealt with the CO2 question; all the carbon goes into the polysteel, so just oxygen is released. Same with sulfur, sulfuric acid is recovered for sale. Mercury will be collected; it can be sold or sequestered. I guess there’s a good market for the stuff, but this process might saturate the market.”
“We really need to address the energy problem before that, don’t we?” Samantha asked.
“It would drive up the price of coal, but is that a problem?” Blake asked.
“It is for developing countries; they’ll be burning more coal and having to pay more for it,” Samantha said.
“On that note, how are your nuclear boys doing?” Marc asked.
“It’s only been a month,” Liz said. “They’ve got a basic design. I’ve been steering them toward ADI’s designers to take care of the details, so she’s been able to move them along quickly. But they still need to finalize it and then actually build the thing.” ADI’s designers is how they covered up the fact that ADI did much of the design under Catie’s direction, everyone assumed they were contracting out the work. Only a select few knew the full truth about ADI.
“How long?”
“ADI says three months.”
“Licensing the polysteel process is pretty straightforward,” Marc said. “We’d probably have a lot of license violations since once the process is out, it can be reverse-engineered. But I’m okay with that. How would we go about licensing the fusion reactor?”
“The secret to the sustained reaction seems to be in how well you can feed the fuel in and balance the plasma field. They’ve only managed it when ADI was controlling it. Maybe that’s our lever.”
“Yeah, we could release the design, but keep the plasma field and fuel-feed controller proprietary,” Catie said. “Make it like your dispensary. Any tampering, and it shuts the reactor down and fuses into a block.”
“But can we make a controller that doesn’t require ADI to manage it?”
“Sure, the problem is speed. When we can make the computer chips in space, we can get the speed and density we need, then it’s just programming. You could almost do it with about twenty comm units,” Catie said.
“Okay, do you want to work on that?” Marc looked at Catie.
“I can help with it,” Catie said. “A lot of it will be ordering manufacturing equipment for integrated circuits. We have to lift them to the station and set up the lab. Are we going to be able to hire experienced technicians?”
“Fred, do you want to take care of setting up the IC factory?” Marc asked.
“Sounds more interesting than the schedule and order management,” Fred said.
“Good, it’s yours with Catie as support,” Marc said. “So what about hiring skilled technicians?”
“I would bet we can recruit pretty well,” Samantha said. “A three-month rotation into space and big dollars sounds like a pretty good deal. Especially for technologists.”
“We might even be able to shorten the rotation time,” Blake said. “Add some passenger seats to the Oryx like we did when we all went up to watch the hub being extruded. Then just carry them up and down with all the cargo.”
“What about licensing the jet engines?” Fred asked, bringing the discussion back to the original thread.
“I’d like to be more comfortable with our situation before we give up that edge,” Marc said.
“I agree,” Kal seconded.
“Maybe we can use the nuclear fusion reactor as a lever to reduce tensions,” Liz said.
“Just removing the competition for oil will help a lot. Countries are desperate to guarantee their energy sources, which causes a lot of the tension,” Samantha said.
“Okay, keep thinking about it. I’d like us prepared to have the conversation with Admiral Michaels once he’s here,” Marc said. “Back to work people.”
Chapter 18
Family Reunion
“Hey, Mommy,” Catie said as she hugged her mother.
“Hello, Sweetie,” Linda said as she hugged Catie back and kissed her forehead. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“No way was I letting someone else pick you up.”
Catie turned to her grandparents and gave them a hug, too. “Hi, Grandma, Grandpa.”
“Hello, Love,” her grandmother whispered in her ear as she hugged her and gave her a kiss.
“Hey, Uncle Conner,” Catie gave her uncle a quick wave. He waved back then put his hand back into his pocket and leaned back against the wall. He looked totally bored.
Marc gave Linda a quick peck on the cheek and hugged her parents.
“This is Zane,” Linda introduced her boyfriend.
“Hello,” Marc said as he shook Zane’s hand.
“Our other guest should be here, momentarily,” Marc said as he looked around for the admiral and his family. He was looking right at Admiral Michaels for several seconds before he realized the man in the Hawaiian shirt, shorts, sandals, sunglasses, and a ball cap was the admiral. His wife was dressed in a flowing Hawaiian dress, and the two kids matched their parents in style.
Marc gave his head a shake at the absurdity of the picture. “Here they are now. Hello, Paul, it’s been a while,” Marc said as he and the admiral shook hands.
“Marc, I’d like you to meet my wife, Pam, my son, David, and my daughter, Sophia.”
“I’m pleased to meet all of you. Why don’t we head to the plane and we can finish introductions there?” Marc said. He signaled to Natalia who had the baggage cart, and she grabbed their luggage and piled it onto the cart.
The admiral gave a quick nod of agreement and steered his family behind Marc and his group.
As they made their way across the terminal, Catie fell in step with the admiral’s daughter, Sophia. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Sophia said. Her tone indicated that she was not pleased with her current situation.
“How was San Diego?”
“We just landed, Dad changed clothes into that ridiculous outfit, and we took a taxi down here. Now we’re getting onto another long flight.”
“It won’t be that long,” Catie said. “Only one-and-a-half hours, and there’ll be plenty of room on the plane.”
Sophia looked at Catie like she had two heads. “It’s farther than Hawaii.”
“Yeah, Hawaii would only be forty-five minutes, you’ll see.”
“Sure,” Sophia said with disdain.
They entered the general aviation area of Rodriguez International. Marc led them to gate five, where they exited the door and onto the tarmac.
“Oh joy,” Sophia said. “A small jet.”
Catie shook her head and grinned. “Just wait.”
“Which seats do we have?” Sophia asked.
“Open seating.”
“Double joy.”
Marc led the group up the ramp and onto the plane. As Catie and Sophia made their way up the ramp, Jenny greeted Catie with a hug. “So, you’re not flying us back?”
“No,” Catie said. “Daddy says I’m supposed to play hostess. This is Sophia.”
“Sophia, I’m Jenny. Let me know if there’s anything you need to make your flight more comfortable.”
“You know the flight attendant?” Sophia asked Catie in a whisper, she was clearly surprised by the personal greeting.
“Sure, she works for us,” Catie said as she steered Sophia around the corner into the aisle of the plane.
Sophia gasped, “What is this?” She was shocked to see the luxurious leather seats and
spacious spacing.
“This is a Lynx,” Catie said. “I like to sit in the back.”
“Really?”
“Well, I really prefer to sit in the very front, but Dad said I couldn’t fly on the way back.”
“You mean that wasn’t a joke,” Sophia said. “You can really fly this thing?”
“Yeah, I had to let Liz land it, but I flew us here,” Catie said. “It’s a new plane, and we had to get special permission from the Mexican government to fly it. But they thought it would be cool to be the first North American country to have the Lynx land in one of their airports.”
“Why would they care?”
“Because it’s the first passenger jet to be able to go Mach four,” Catie said.
“Mach four? That means four times the speed of sound, right?”
“Yep. We’ll be at Delphi City in less than two hours.”
“Wow,” Sophia said as she sat in her seat. “With these seats, I wouldn’t care if it took longer.”
“Aren’t you excited about going to Delphi City?”
“I don’t know. A floating city seems kind of weird. What can you do there?”
“We have three restaurants, a few nice stores for shopping, a few public parks, the condos all have a swimming pool, and soon we’ll have our own beach, but don’t tell anyone that, it’s a secret.”
“Wow, that sounds kind of insane,” Sophia said. “Cool insane,” she quickly added when she saw Catie’s face fall. “How could you fit all that in a floating city?”
“It’s over one mile by one mile,” Catie said. “Uncle Blake is going to add the three quadrants around the center so we can add the beach. He’s mainly working on the second section now. We had to hurry so we would have a long enough runway for the Oryxes to take off.”
“You have an airport?”
“Just a runway in the city,” Catie said. “We have a big airport that we keep away from the city so we don’t get the noise from it. We use it for the big jets and cargo flights.”
“This might be more exciting than I thought,” Sophia said. “What’s the internet like there?”
“We have the best,” Catie said. “We have one-gigabyte speed at the condos, and we get all the Netflix material and Hulu, plus all the US channels.”
“How do you get all the US channels, are you using a proxy?”
“No, MacKenzie Discoveries pays for all the content access,” Catie said. “It keeps everybody happy.”
Natalia came through the door from the cargo bay; she patted Catie on the shoulder as she sat down in the seat across the aisle from Catie and Sophia.
“What’s up with her?”
“Oh, that’s Nattie, she’s my bodyguard. Actually, she’s acting as the bodyguard for both me and Dad.”
“You need a bodyguard?” Sophia gasped.
“Some people think I do,” Catie said. “But Nattie’s cool.”
“Everybody, please buckle in,” Jennie said. “We’ll be taxiing for takeoff in one minute. We should be airborne right after that. Our flight time to Delphi City will be one hour and twenty-five minutes.”
After they took off, Jenny came back and started taking orders from everybody.
“Do you want anything to eat?” Catie asked.
“I’m starving,” Sophia said. “We didn’t get anything on the flight out except a sandwich that was so horrible I couldn’t eat it.”
“Well I hope our sandwiches are better, we have a chicken breast sandwich and a tuna melt. We also have salads.”
“Oh, a chicken breast sandwich sounds great.”
Natalia got up, “Do you want anything, Cat?”
“No, I’m good,” Catie said. “I’ll just wait for dinner tonight.”
Natalia turned to the back of the plane and the galley. She pulled out a sandwich from the heated bag, she added a bag of chips and a bottle of water and brought it to Sophia. “Here you go, Miss, Jenny will be by to ask about drinks.”
“Thank you,” Sophia said. “Your bodyguard plays flight attendant too?” she whispered to Catie.
“Not usually, she must have been worried you’d start nibbling on me,” Catie said.
Natalia looked up at Jenny who signaled to her what she needed up front. The McGennis crew was fine since they were on West coast time, but it was 8:00 P.M. for the admiral’s family, and they hadn’t gotten much to eat on the way out. Natalia went back to the galley and got two tuna melts and salad and carried them forward for Jenny. Jenny finished getting the drink orders, and everyone settled down.
“Where do you go to school?” Sophia asked.
“I homeschool,” Catie said. “We have a small school in the city. It’s growing, so you can choose that or homeschooling; what grade are you in?”
“I’m going to start the ninth grade when school starts.”
Catie used her specs and looked up how big the ninth-grade class was. “We have six students in the ninth grade,” she said. “Two boys and four girls.”
“How did you know that?”
“I looked it up,” Catie said, pointing to her specs. “They’re like Google Glasses but better.”
“Oh, can I get a pair?”
“Sure, I’ll set you up tomorrow,” Catie said. “Will your brother want a pair?”
“Oh yeah, but let me get mine first. He always gets the new tech first because he’s older.”
“Sure, we won’t say anything,” Catie flicked her eyes up and looked up some additional info. “You’re scheduled to go through the orientation on Monday. They’ll talk about the specs then. So, I’ll come by tomorrow around noon and set you up. Then you’ll be able to lord it over him all weekend.”
“What, you don’t get up until noon?” Sophia said, teasing Catie.
“Actually, I’m getting up at seven o’clock tomorrow. I have a test flight to do.”
Marc had been listening in on Catie’s conversation with half an ear, but when he heard her mention the test flight, he turned around, “Catie!”
“What! It was scheduled weeks ago, before we knew about this,” Catie said.
“You have guests,” Marc said.
“Daddy!”
“Well.”
“What if I move the flight up to 06:00, I’ll be back by 08:30 then.”
Marc just nodded his head and sighed.
“What’s a test flight?” Sophia asked.
“We have a new Oryx that just finishing up its preflight,” Catie said. “Tomorrow is its first actual flight. We’ll take it up and make sure it handles correctly, that everything works.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Not really, we’ve already run through almost all the tests in the wind tunnel and on the runway. This is just to verify things at actual altitude and at higher speeds than the wind tunnel can produce.”
“How fast does it go?”
“Really fast,” Catie said. “Faster than a Lynx.”
“That’s so cool. When did you learn to fly?”
“I learned last summer, but my friend, Fred, and my Uncle Blake ran me through all the formal stuff this winter, so I’m actually certified. But I have to have a certified pilot with me whenever I fly anywhere except Delphi City, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand since I’m only thirteen. You have to be sixteen to have a real license.”
“You can’t be just thirteen,” Sophia said.
“Well, I’ll be fourteen in November.”
“This is amazing, I can’t believe you do all this stuff. When do you have time for school?”
“That’s what’s nice about homeschooling. I can fit my studies in between my other stuff. I don’t watch very much TV or stuff, so I manage it.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Catie knocked on the Michaels’ door at 09:00 the next morning. Mrs. Michaels answered the door, “Good morning, Catie, what can I do for you?”
“How are you feeling this morning?” Catie asked.
“I’m doing just fine; those pills they gave us last night
worked wonders. I slept like a baby and woke up this morning, just like normal. No jet lag or anything. The admiral’s down at the gym doing his usual workout. Now, what can I do for you?”
“I came by to see Sophia. I’ve got her specs for her.”
“Sophia’s not feeling too well this morning,” Mrs. Michaels said. “And please call me Pam.”
“Is it Catie?” Sophia called from the kitchen.
“Yes, honey, it is.”
Sophia came out of the kitchen, wearing a bathrobe. “Hi Catie, come on in.”
Mrs. Michaels opened the door wider and invited Catie in. Catie walked over to Sophia and gave her a small hug. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just cramps,” Sophia said.
“You should eat bananas,” Catie said.
Sophia looked at Catie with a grimace. “Not those kinds of cramps, dummy, cramps.”
“Oh,” Catie exclaimed, feeling embarrassed. “Sorry.”
Mrs. Michaels patted Catie, “It’s okay; you probably don’t get them yet.”
“Oh, most of the women here decide not to,” Catie said.
“What do you mean decide not to,” Sophia said. “It’s not like you have a choice.”
“Oh, but we do. The doctor can give you a shot, and you don’t ever get them,” Catie said.
“What if you want to get pregnant?” Mrs. Michaels asked.
“You go to the doctor, and she gives you another shot, and you have two weeks to get pregnant,” Catie said. “They’ll explain all about this at the orientation on Monday.”
Sophia groaned, “Do I have to wait for the orientation?”
“Not really. You just have to go to the clinic,” Catie said.
“But it’s too late, Honey,” Mrs. Michaels said. “You’re already having your period. Hormones can’t change that.”
“Oh, but Dr. Metra can take care of that too. I heard her explain it to another woman once. She just does some kind of localized blood thinning, and it’s all over in an hour.”
“Get dressed, Honey,” Mrs. Michaels said. “This is going to make this ridiculous trip worthwhile. How do we get to the clinic?”
“I’ll take you,” Catie said. “Do you want me to make an appointment for Sophia? It’ll save time.”
“Please make two appointments,” Mrs. Michaels said.
