by Bob Blanton
“At least for us,” Natalia said.
“Where do you want me to send your money?” Kal asked. “Or do you want cash?”
“Give mine to Jennie Marsters on Rarotonga,” Catie said. “She keeps track of everyone and helps out anyone who’s struggling.”
“Oh yeah, I remember her,” Natalia said. “You can give her my money, too.”
“You two are the most generous con women I know,” Kal said.
Liz was standing in the corner with her feet hooked under the bar on the bulkhead to keep her in place. She was laughing so hard that she was having trouble staying in place. “I’d like to get in on those lessons, too,” she said.
“Sure, the more, the merrier,” Catie said. “Besides, I owe you.” Catie was referring to all the throws she’d endured from Liz while she was being trained in martial arts. She reflexively rubbed her butt.
“Just remember, we still have training sessions,” Liz threatened.
“I’ll remember.”
◆ ◆ ◆
On Tuesday, it was time for the twins to go home. Natalia had been quick to volunteer to take them. She was taking a vacation, and taking the twins home gave her an extra two days planetside to prep. She and her boyfriend Paul were going to spend a week on the Mea Huli, and she was anxious to get some time aboard the yacht to learn its systems before he showed up.
“Bye, you two,” Catie said. “It’s been fun; I’ll talk to your mom about having you come back again next month.”
“Thanks,” the twins said. “We like it up here. We wish Mummy would move here.”
“Maybe she will once we get more people up here,” Catie said. She hoped she didn’t just mess up Dr. Sharmila’s life; the twins could be persistent when they wanted something.
“Yeah!”
“Now, behave yourself and pay attention to Natalia,” Catie admonished them.
“Or else!” Natalia growled, which just elicited giggles from the twins.
“Hello, Catie,” Jason said as he walked up next to her.
“Hi, Jason,” Catie replied. “Are you flying the Fox down?”
“Yes, I’m still qualifying on the water landings, so this is my only way to fly down,” Jason replied.
“Oh, how are they?” Catie asked. “I haven’t made one in an Oryx yet.”
“How did you let that happen?” Jason asked.
“I’ve been too busy,” Catie said. “I’ll do my quals on my next trip down.”
“I hear you’ve had practice,” Jason said.
Catie laughed, “It was by necessity. That’s what gave us the idea.”
“Anyway, they’re pretty easy, a runway that’s as wide as the ocean is hard to miss. Just need to get the nose angle right, so you don’t bounce,” Jason said. “Are you seeing those two off?”
“Yes, they’ve been here a little over a week, I’m ready for a break.”
“Now you know how a mother feels,” Jason said.
“I guess I do,” Catie said. “Anyway, how’s Annie?”
“She’s doing great. She really likes the job you gave her.”
“She must be doing it well,” Catie said. “I haven’t heard any complaints from the pilots.”
“You know Annie, she can sweet-talk anyone into anything,” Jason said.
“You should know,” Catie said with a laugh.
“Ah, my plane has arrived,” Jason said. “I should go and get things ready; Annie demands a pretty fast turnaround on these flights.”
“Good for her,” Catie called out as Jason started to the gate. He tussled the hair on each of the twins and gave Natalia a fist bump as he went by.
The Lynx unloaded quicker than usual since all but three of the passengers were experienced in microgravity. By the time Jason had made it to the gate, most of the passengers were making their way from the docking ring into the hub. Catie waved to the twins one more time before she joined the queue heading to the hub. She thought about jumping over to the next gate to avoid the wait, but the line was moving fast, so she just relaxed.
“Hello, are you Catie McCormack?” asked a woman’s voice from behind her.
Catie turned around to see who it was; the woman was dressed in a custom ship suit with a pine tree logo on it. It was very sharp, and Catie noticed that the woman looked pretty sharp herself.
“Yes, I am,” Catie said. She noticed that Morgan had appeared out of nowhere and was now standing next to the woman.
“I’m Cassandra Crespo,” the woman said, extending her hand.
Catie shook hands with her, and now that she was a bit closer, she could see that the logo on the shipsuit was for the Four Seasons hotel. They had just opened a hotel in Delphi City the previous month.
“Pleased to meet you, Cassandra. I see you’re from the Four Seasons; how is the hotel doing?”
“We are booked solid already,” Cassandra said. “And call me Cassy.”
“Sure, Cassy, I’m glad to hear that you’re booked. We hope that we’ll see more people visiting Delphi City and the Cook Islands. Are you up for a tour, or are you visiting someone?”
“I’m up for a tour of sorts,” Cassandra said. “I’m working on a pitch to my boss; I think we should open a hotel up here.”
“That would be great,” Catie said. “I can show you around a bit if you want, but it’s pretty simple. We have the three rings: the outer one is one gravity, the middle one is three-quarters gravity, and the inner one is half gravity. Other than that, everything is the same.”
“What about microgravity?” Cassandra asked.
“We don’t have much space in microgravity,” Catie said. “It’s hard for me to imagine anyone wanting to stay there.”
“Maybe not stay there, but getting to experience it,” Cassandra said.
“That would be easy. We have an obstacle course in the hub’s microgravity space. We use it for training people how to work without gravity, and to use their exosuits to maneuver. We could come up with a few rooms, but space there is a premium.”
“The obstacle course would be great if we could have access.”
“We have a reservation system for it; I can take you up there if you want.”
“I’d like that, but later. Is there anything else unique to being on a space station?”
“Other than the gravity variations, it’s kind of like being on a cruise ship,” Catie said. “Except we don’t have a swimming pool. The environment is totally controlled, so air is always fresh, temperature is always kept at twenty-two degrees C and forty-five percent humidity. Seventy-two Fahrenheit,” Catie converted it as soon as she saw Cassandra trying to do it in her head.
“Can you keep your room warmer if you want?”
“You can increase it by two degrees Fahrenheit up or down, but that’s it. It’s actually very comfortable, no drafts, and with the humidity controlled, it doesn’t feel too warm or too cold. Even my mom thinks it’s great, and she’s always cold.”
Chapter 13
Board Meeting – Feb 3rd
“This meeting will come to order,” Marc said as he sat down at the table. He gave everyone a few minutes to get settled. “First order of business, Liz, please bring everyone up to date on our pirate deterrent.”
“With Catie’s help, we’ve come up with a design modification for the Foxes, which will give them hover capability,” Liz said.
“Hover, as in helicopter or vertical takeoff?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“As in helicopter,” Liz replied. “They’re not quite as agile as a helicopter, but they can transition smoothly between hover and jet acceleration; you just have to deal with the wings’ resistance to your vertical movement.”
“That means we can station one on a freighter and deal with any pirates who decide to show up,” Kal said.
“Exactly,” Liz said. “I’m sure they will be surprised, although we could just put a helicopter on the ship.”
“We could,” Blake said. “But I like the range of the Hover Fox bet
ter. It gives us a lot more options.”
“Let’s go with the Hover Foxes. Now, moving on,” Marc said. “Sam, where are we with our Chinese friends?”
“They’re ready. They would like to start with twelve reactors instead of just the one,” Samantha said. “They think that the activities in North Korea show their commitment.”
“So they’ve prepped twelve of their power plants?” Marc asked.
“Yes, they want to start out by taking care of all of the ones around Beijing. They started right after their scientists approved the design last month.”
“Okay, does anyone have concerns?”
“You’re going to send a strong signal to the rest of the world,” Admiral Michaels said.
“Yes, get your head out of the sand or get left behind,” Blake said.
“Yes, but it’s going to beg Russia or the U.S. to step in and make a move,” the admiral said.
“Russia is already making a move,” Marc said. “We might as well force the issue while we’re alerted for it.”
“It will at least ensure that the entire world is watching,” the admiral said. “I’d suggest an announcement at the UN.”
“That’s something to think about,” Samantha said. “We could reiterate our offer to the other nations as well as provide more details on our solar panels and your diesel clover.”
“Is Margaret ready?”
“I’ll have her write a speech; that will tell you if she’s ready.”
“Okay,” Marc said. “Anything else?”
“Yes, on a lighter note, The Four Seasons wants to open a hotel here on Delphi Station.”
“They do?”
“Yes, apparently Cassandra was impressed with her tour and was able to convince her bosses that it would be worthwhile. It’s actually not that much of an investment, just shipping furniture up here and staff. The rest of the infrastructure is in place.”
“I don’t have any issue,” Marc said as he looked around the table. “Seems like nobody else does either, so give them the okay.”
“Done.”
“Fred, I hear we’ve started more manufacturing,” Marc said.
“Yes. We’ve started manufacturing solar cells last week and are ramping up as fast as we can. We have also started manufacturing the comm chips using the integrated circuit manufacturing plant that Vancouver Tech put in. Next week, we’ll start manufacturing the memory circuits and processing units Catie has on order to expand ADI’s capacity up here.”
“That is excellent news,” Marc said. “That should free up printer time for our other projects. How are the facilities down in the city coming along?”
“We’re set up to handle about fifty percent of the solar cells we manufacture. Catie’s process improvements got ahead of us to the benefit of the Chinese, but we’ll ramp things up quickly. We’ll soon be throttled by labor in Delphi City,” Fred said.
“What should we do about that?” Marc asked.
“They’re manufacturing jobs,” Samantha said. “People typically don’t move for that kind of work, especially halfway around the world. As we discussed before, we can locate assembly plants in other countries, or we can try to stimulate immigration, I think that would mean more refugees.”
“We could automate more,” Fred said.
“I’d rather not go there,” Marc said. “We have the Chinese as a relief valve for our excess capacity; let’s see what we can do to attract more workers. If it doesn’t work out to our satisfaction, we’ll start up a satellite plant in one of our target countries.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Fred said.
“Kal, anything we need to cover on security?”
“We’re still practicing with Zulu team,” Kal said. “I’m waiting to see how the Hover Fox impacts our pirate situation.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“How could you let this happen?” the president demanded of Secretary Palmero.
“We have no control over Delphi,” Secretary Palmero replied. “You’ve refused to allow me to make any overtures to them. That left the door open for China.”
“Don’t you dare try and make this my fault!” the president yelled.
“I’m not saying anyone is at fault,” Secretary Palmero said.
“Twelve reactors in the next six months and three hundred over the next two years!” the president said.
“They did offer to provide them to any other nation that wants them,” Secretary Palmero said. “It seems that the limiting factor is converting an existing power plant or building a new one.”
“And what is this diesel algae?” the president asked.
“They’re giving that away,” Director Lassiter said. “It is a plant that produces diesel fuel. It is more efficient than growing corn to make ethanol, and the fuel is better suited to the economies of developing nations.”
“They have everyone praising their efforts to reverse climate change,” General Wilson said.
“There is no such thing as climate change!”
“Sir, it doesn’t matter what we think,” Walter Meadows, the president’s chief of staff said. “Over seventy-five percent of the American population believes that it is a problem. And every major country besides Russia and the U.S. is demanding action.”
“Let them wreck their economies,” the president said.
“With these changes from Delphi, we’re going to see dramatic changes that will reduce CO2 emissions. Any country that gets on board early is likely to see benefits to its economy. If we wait too long, we’re going to be at a disadvantage,” Secretary of Commerce Mayhew said.
“How is that?” the president asked.
“The cost of energy is going to dramatically decline in any country that installs fusion reactors and actively converts and expands their solar power systems to the MacKenzie Discoveries design,” the secretary said. “That will dramatically improve the quality of life for their citizens as well as give their industries a competitive edge over countries that are still using fossil fuels.”
“Why? The cost of fossil fuels should plummet if you’re right about all that,” the president said.
“That is true, but bottom line, you still have to transport it to your power plants. The difference in transportation costs is enough to give the fusion reactors a big edge, even if oil were free,” Secretary Mayhew said.
“And we will get increasing pressure from our population to convert,” Meadows said. “The issues around air quality and the cost will be too much for them to ignore.”
“I want more options!” the president said. “Now, go find some!”
Chapter 14
More Pirates
Catie was nervous as she sat in the control tower at the airport and watched Liz prepare to test their new Hover Fox. “You’re clear for takeoff,” she announced over the comm.
“Rotating engines now,” Liz said. “Scoop open, fan at ten percent.”
“Are the gyroscopes spun up?” Catie asked.
“Gyroscopes at one hundred percent,” Liz replied.
“Then you should get off the ground,” Catie teased.
“Fan at forty percent, engines at ten percent,” Liz announced.
“Your landing gear is uncompressing,” Catie said as she saw the Fox lift up a few inches and reduce the load on its landing gear.
“Fan at sixty percent, engines at fifteen.”
“You’re off the deck!” Catie yelled.
“Fan at eighty percent,” Liz said. “I’m getting forward momentum!”
Catie watched the Fox drift down the runway. It took her a moment to figure out why. “Your flaps,” she called out. “The wings are pushing air as you rise.”
“Adjusting flaps,” Liz called out. “Stabilizing position.”
“Let’s see if you can change your direction,” Catie said.
“Rotating to the right. Now to the left,” Liz said. “That was a bit sluggish.”
“ADI, can you analyze that?” Catie asked.
“Y
es, Cer Catie,” ADI said. “I have made an adjustment to the controls to compensate.”
“Trying again,” Liz said. “Right, now left. Much better. Thank you, ADI.”
“Of course,” ADI replied.
“Try some forward thrust,” Catie said.
“Forward thrust,” Liz said.
Catie watched as the Fox accelerated down the runway. “I’ve got you at five knots,” she announced.
“Okay, giving it some more thrust,” Liz said.
“Fifteen knots! . . . Twenty knots! . . . Thirty knots!” Catie read off the velocity indicator.
“Slowing down,” Liz said.
“Not by much, you’re not,” Catie said.
“Using the flaps to slow me down,” Liz announced. “That works okay, not as good as a real helicopter, but not bad.”
“Alright, set her down, and we’ll review the data,” Catie said.
“I was going to do a transition to full flight mode,” Liz said.
“After we review the data,” Catie said. “We need to make sure that the flap controls are properly integrated with the rest of the flight systems; we didn’t use them in our simulation.”
“You’re right,” Liz said. “Setting her down now.”
Liz maneuvered to the center of the runway and set it down. Then she taxied off the runway and into the hangar they were using for their mods. Catie met her in the hangar.
“Great job!” Catie yelled. “How did it feel?”
“She’s going to do just fine,” Liz exclaimed.
“Okay, ADI’s integrating the flaps into the controls. We’ll be ready to run simulations in an hour,” Catie said. “I think we should run them on both versions, make any adjustments tonight, and then do another test flight tomorrow. We can have the crew check her out for any damage or shifts in the systems tonight.”
“Good plan,” Liz said. “Let’s go have some lunch, then we can run the simulations.”
◆ ◆ ◆
The afternoon of the following day, after successfully testing the Hover Fox, Liz was ready to test the Hover Fox with the gravity drives.
“Ready for launch,” Liz announced over the comm.
“You’re clear for takeoff,” Catie replied.
