Singularity: Book Two of the StarCruiser Brilliant Series

by Rick Lakin

  Dr. Ami looked up. “Tayla, please contact Walter Reed Regen Facility. I’m sending a list of replacement tissue. I need an operating room and Dr. Bob Dashman if he is available.”

  “Yes, Doctor,” Tayla said.

  “Bring the patient out of anesthetic.”

  The senator opened her eyes. “Where am I?”

  “You’re aboard StarCruiser Brilliant,” Dr. Ami said. “We’re three minutes from Walter Reed. You’re in stable condition with three virtual valves. The abominable android saved your bacon again, a delicacy that you must avoid in the future.”

  “Thank you, Rob…Dr. Ami.” The senator offered her hand.

  Dr. Ami shook the Senator’s hand.

  “Captain, send the senator's family down to sickbay.”

  “On their way, Doctor.”

  Kalinda stood to lead them, but Jeff jumped up. “I'll show him,” he said.

  Anthen saw the look on Kalinda’s face as she came over to sit next to him. “You miss your mom?”

  “Yeah.”

  Mia met Chuck in sickbay. Jeff stayed at the door.

  “You may come in for just a moment,” Dr. Ami said.

  “Dr. Ami saved me…she saved both of us.”

  “That’s why they call it StarCruiser Brilliant,” Jeff said.

  “I guess it is,” the senator said.

  Ani and Dr. Ami prepared to transfer Senator Curtwell.

  On the bridge, “I’ve got the pad in sight,” David said.

  “Bring us in, pilot,” Jack glanced at his son.

  “Aye, sir.”

  There was a soft thump.

  “Engineer, lower the ramp,” Jack said. “Sickbay, we’re on the pad ready to transfer.”

  Walter Reed emergency room personnel came aboard and moved the senator off Brilliant.

  “Captain, I’ve got to finish this job, and you have an audience waiting,” Dr. Ami said. “Can you pick me up at four o'clock?”

  “The show must go on.”

  Dr. Ami followed the gurney into the hospital emergency room. An Army Doctor met her.

  “I’m Major Dan Halligan. What’s the status of the patient?”

  “Doctor,” Ami said, “the patient is in stable condition following a virtual triple bypass. There’s no indication of other heart damage. I asked for an operating room and put in an order for regenerated tissue. I want Bob Dashman to assist.”

  “We have the OR ready, and the tissue will be ready in an hour, but you do not have operating privileges in this hospital, and Dr. Dashman certainly does not assist.”

  Dr. Dashman walked up. “Dan, Dr. Ami has privileges. I vouch for her,” he said. “Ami, I hear you need an extra pair of hands. Welcome to Walter Reed. What the hell did you pull off in,” he looked at his watch, “the last twelve minutes.”

  “Hi, Bob,” Ami said. “She went into arrest on the platform. We were unable to revive her. I determined ninety percent blockage in three arteries. I made the virtual repairs on the way here and revived her less than six minutes after arrest.”

  “A virtual triple in less than three minutes,” Bob said. “I thought this lady hated you.”

  “She asked for me right before she arrested.”

  “We have OR Three waiting,” Bob said. “Regen will notify us. Let’s go to the virtual room and review the film. I’ve got to see this.”

  Aboard Brilliant, “Contact Potomac Tracon and ask if we can still perform over the National Mall.”

  “Captain, Potomac reports clearance to the mall. They report a large crowd is waiting.”

  “Very well. Pilot, raise ship and proceed to the National Mall.”

  “Captain,” Jennifer said. “Charlie Flight is still in the area.”

  “Charlie One,” Jack said. “We’ve got clearance to the National Mall. Would you care to join us?”

  “We’ll be right echelon with you, Brilliant,” Bluejacket said.

  “Very well, Charlie.”

  The three distinctive craft flew south low and slow.

  “How many News Copters are out there?” Jack asked.

  “We’ve been live on four local and three national networks since we departed Andrews,” Jennifer said.

  “I contracted three of them for Tovar and the AirShow Channel,” Navvy said.

  “Do you own that channel, Navvy?” Jack asked.

  “I picked up a twenty percent stake when Brilliant went public,” Navvy said. “So far, it has been a very lucrative investment for the studio.”

  “Tal’pa, are you the richest person on Earth?” Kalinda asked.

  “There might be others who are richer.”

  “K’da,” Jennifer said, “he’s the richest by a bunch.”

  “Captain, we’re over the National Mall,” David said.

  “Brilliant, Charlie Flight,” Bluejacket said. “We’re bingo fuel. It’s been an honor flying with you. Returning to base.”

  “Fly safe, Charlie,” Jack said. “Tayla, will the spectators hear your wonderful soundtrack.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Tayla said. “We’re wired into the built-in system.”

  “Very well,” Jack said. “Ops, indulge yourself.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  StarCruiser Brilliant then repeated the show they performed over Miramar. Displays showed the crowd below as well as the feed from the AirShow Channel.

  “One-minute remaining,” Jennifer said.

  “Make it good, Ops,”

  “We just happen to have a slam-bang finish, Captain.”

  Brilliant turned over the Lincoln Memorial and began a high-speed pass to the Capitol.

  “Engineer, release smoke.”

  The citizens on the mall saw the smoke release and then form the red, white, and blue words, “God Bless the USA.” Brilliant then framed the words with a rainbow as they exited the show area.

  “There must have been a million people on the mall watching,” Navvy said.

  “Don’t brag about crowd size,” Jack said. “That never goes well.”

  “That was a beautiful show, Brilliant,” Navvy said.

  “I know it’s two thousand miles away,” Jack said. “but I could do with a Double-double with onions right now.”

  “Captain,” Jennifer said, “they just opened an In-n-Out at the Chevy Chase Pavilion. Walter Reed is nearby.”

  “Phone the local constabulary and see if they can clear an area in the parking lot. We can wait for Dr. Ami's call, and the Star Squad can do selfies and autographs.”

  Tayla communicated with several people as Brilliant circled the Washington Monument.

  “Captain, Potomac TraCon clears us to Chevy Chase. Montgomery County PD is clearing a landing area, and In-n-Out is happy to cater our lunch.”

  “Maiara, will you prepare swag bags for the restaurant crew and the local PD?” Jack said. “Kalinda, can you go below and give her a hand.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Brilliant arrived over the Chevy Chase Pavilion and observed an area marked off with flares. A small crowd surrounded the area.

  “Pilot ground the ship.”

  David landed Brilliant in the empty area near the restaurant.

  “Engineer put the ship in standby and lower the ramp.”

  A police officer approached the ramp.

  “Escort the officer to the bridge,” Jack said.

  He came up the ladder with Kalinda.

  “I’m Lieutenant Patrick McClanahan. Welcome to Chevy Chase.”

  “Welcome aboard, officer. I’m Captain Jack Masing.” He introduced the rest of the crew.

  “Sir, I know that you have had a busy day, but you have fans out there, and they would like to meet you.”

  “We’re going to eat lunch and then the Star Squad is going to come down and do a meet and greet.”

  “Thanks, Captain.”

  The In-n-Out crew brought food aboard. They were happy to receive the souvenir bags and the tour.

  After lunch, Jennifer, David, Riley, Tayla
, and Kalinda exited the ship and spent the next forty-five minutes doing selfies and signing autographs.

  Jack, Navvy, and Anthen relaxed aboard Brilliant.

  “That hit the spot,” Jack said, “and we didn’t even have to wait in the drive-thru line.”

  “We weren’t able to give the president and her family a tour,” Navvy said.

  “You’ll just have to make a campaign contribution and get us another medal, dad,” Anthen said.

  At three-thirty the communicator sounded, “Brilliant, this is Dr. Ami. Can you pick us up at Walter Reed? Chuck and Jeff Rodriguez will fly back to San Diego. The senator's surgery was a success, and she is resting comfortably.”

  “Congratulations again, Doctor,” Jack said. “Give us fifteen minutes. Maiara, bring the crew aboard and ask the police to secure the perimeter.”

  “Aye aye, Captain.”

  Five minutes later, the crew was in place.

  “Ready to rock and roll,” David said.

  Pilot, raise the ship and do that 3D thing.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Brilliant wowed the Chevy Chase crowd one more time, stopped at Walter Reed, went ballistic over the continent, dropped off Jeff and Chuck at North Island, and then returned to Tovar Studios.

  “Engineer put the ship in shutdown mode and lower the ramp.”

  “Aye aye,” said Riley.

  “David,” Jennifer said, “we need to talk.”

  “I know,” he said. “No more milk runs.”

  40

  The following Wednesday, Attack of the Hoclarth Alliance shifted to location in the mountainous areas near Edgar Peak in the Mojave Desert.

  Jennifer sat in the top row center seat of the double-wide production trailer of the VirtualLocation40 system. When the filming was in progress, she shared the elevated top row with above-the-line personnel including producers and writers. She was acting as Second Unit Director for the final battle scene of Attack of the Hoclarth Alliance.

  Below Jennifer in the center seat was her personal assistant, Sami, who was the Technical Director for this shoot. Under Jennifer’s direction, Sami coordinated the other technicians on her row to turn the creative direction from Jennifer into the visual data recorded and sent to post-production. Because Sami was an android, she was able to control every recording device in the truck as well as each of the forty cell-phone sized cinedrones flying above the action, the ten head-mounted cameras on the actors, and the rolling robo-cams that would track all of the action from a low angle.

  To Sami’s right and left were Second Assistant Directors who were assigned a subset of the system that Sami controlled.

  In front of Sami's row was a large empty stage with a steveLearn system in the center that generated the multi-faceted visual fields for everyone. Personal flat displays were floating anywhere the operator chose with virtual monitors, text, and graphics quality controls visible only to the individual operator. In the center, the director could call 3D composite shots generated by up to six cameras at a time. Second assistants on the right and left could create separate composites.

  The Director of the film, James Ford, was Jennifer’s direct supervisor and was responsible for the conduct of the entire production. During filming tomorrow, he would sit in a control suite similar to this one where he would direct the cinematographers, the actors, the pilots, the sound technicians, the gaffers and the grips. Jim was sitting next to Jennifer going over final camera assignments.

  “Read down the list one more time,” Jim said.

  “Sami,” Jennifer said, “show me the rehearsal previews as I go.”

  The flat screens before separate operators disappeared for only Jennifer and Jim.

  “This is impressive, Jen,” Jim said.

  “Here’s Na’gan Xan’fer. He’s assigned drones one through four, robo one and a headcam.”

  Sami previewed a 3D image of the evil villain from rehearsal. Sami generated several tracking shots for Jim to sample.

  “Wow is all I can say,” Jim said.

  “David,” Jennifer said. “Five through eight, head and robo two.”

  Sami showed several tracks of David.

  “And you’re not locked into the tracks?”

  “No,” Jennifer said. “All we do tomorrow is collect data. The trackers will provide the shots to the editors before final post.”

  “Show me Patricia Garcia, the Hoclarth named Cax’andra,” Jim said.

  “Nine through twelve, head and robo three,” Jennifer said. The preview image appeared with several tracks.

  “And you have two drones each for the six minor actors?”

  “Yes,” Jennifer said. “Twenty-four drones flying and fourteen other cameras for the principal actors.”

  “And the other sixteen?”

  “Four each for the two group shots, four for establishing shots, and four as flying backups. Forty drones in all.”

  “Do we still have the coverage issue?” Jim asked.

  “Yes, still eighty percent per take, but you promised me three takes.” She pressed a button. “Jake, could you come in here?” She turned to Jim. “Jake is our AI software guru. I'll have him explain our fix.”

  Jake entered the trailer. “Yes, boss?”

  “This is Jim Ford, the director,” Jennifer said. “Could you explain our fix to camera coverage?”

  They shook hands. “Sir, you’re guaranteeing three takes?”

  He nodded. “Sure.”

  “Mathematically, the three takes give us ninety-two percent coverage,” Jake said. “We’ve done an AI software fix. The tracking editors will overlay problem shots and the artificial intelligence software will stitch them together to get a seamless take.”

  “As a rule,” Jim said, “editors don’t like to mix takes.”

  “I understand,” Jake said. “During training for the new tracking editor position, we have done hundreds of mix-takes for problem takes as well as good takes. The software matches motion, color correction and timing. We’ve had a ninety-eight percent success rate dealing with coverage problems.”

  “Jim, we’re still prototyping the VirtualLocation system on this film,” Jennifer said. “I think you’ll be happy with what comes out of this truck.”

  “So far I'm pleased with the shots you are getting,” Jim said. “My compliments to your crew.”

  The director left the truck. “He seems to be happy,” Jake said.

  “Jake…everyone in the truck,” Jennifer said, “we’re knocking it out of the park.”

  Navvy walked into the truck as she said that. “Are you patting yourselves on the back again, Jennifer?”

  “Sorry, grandpa.”

  “No, keep going,” he said. “The shots I’ve seen coming out of this truck are simply amazing.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Hello, Sami, it’s nice to see you out and about. Are there projectors in here?”

  “No, sir,” Sami said. “I’m a cyberian today.”

  “We’ve fabricated five units at JennaTech,” Jennifer said. “We’re getting the bugs out before the business trip next week.”

  “So, Sami can handle the forty cameras at one time?” Navvy asked. “I heard you've got six on David.”

  “Sir, I control sixty-three cameras if you include the head-mounted cameras and the rolling robo-cams,” Sami said. “But it's much simpler than that. The six on David operate as one camera focused on a point five feet in front of him.”

  “Right, nose room,” Navvy said. “I still don't get the single-camera theory.”

  “The six cameras are points on a hemisphere,” Jennifer said.

  “So, you don’t cross the line.”

  “Correct,” Jennifer said. “The cameras record data then the tracking editors create the desired tracking shots. A traveling shot can be created by programming the pan, tilt, truck, and zoom between as the camera tracks a curve between any two points within the sphere.”

  “No more dollies and cranes,” Navvy said.
“But your drones are fixed focus. You can’t do an optical zoom.”

  “Correct but they have three-hundred-twenty-thousand lines of resolution,” Jennifer said. “They can do a forty-to-one digital zoom for the 8K final print resolution.”

  “And then the computer graphics team adds the virtual actors.”

  “Nay nay,” Jennifer pressed the intercom. “Adam, are you available for a demo?”

  A three-dimensional Adam Teesmith appeared in the center of the steveLearn with the walls of the canyon behind him. The shot orbited around the yellow-eyed actor.

  “Of course,” Adam said. “How may I help? I love being a cyberian, by the way.”

  “Go to the center of the canyon, please,” Jennifer said. “Sami, do you have his location?”

  “Yes, I do,” Sami said. “Unit C is nearby.”

  “Fly Charlie and assign it to Adam.”

  “And the cameras are not moving.”

  “Correct,” Jennifer said. “The AI is interpolating the data and composing the shot.”

  “My granddaughter has outdone herself,” Navvy said.

  “Adam, take a jog down the canyon,” Jennifer said.

  “Okay,” Adam said.

  “Start with redrum and track counter-clockwise to a medium close-up.”

  As Adam ran down the canyon, the image showed a rear close-up from his knees to his heels.

  “Redrum?” Navvy said. “Garrett Brown’s Steadicam shot from The Shining.”

  The image revolved around the actor to a medium close-up.

  “Go around to a wide high-angle over-the-shoulder,” Jennifer said. “Continue the slow zoom out to the entire canyon. The camera system is moving for this sequence.”

  “Stunning,” Navvy said. “It would have taken ten tons of rolling stock and a crew of fifteen to get that shot. You’re going to put your Grandfather Sean and a lot of union members out of business. How are you going to market this?”

  “Once we get the bugs out, we’ll license the system to GGG,” Jennifer said. “He’ll still make out renting out the trucks and staffing them.”

  “As will you and your team,” Navvy said. “Congratulations and good luck.”

  Navvy exited as Jennifer continued her preparation hoping that her script and her effects would complement each other to produce the ending of a good film.