by Ken Pence
“Okay. Okay. When and where for this demo?” Philips asked neutrally. Drucker told him and he replied, “I’ll try to be there.” Damned right I’ll be there. If he could cut into the low-sulfur coal and petro cartels, he would be rich or dead. Rich was the better sort. He’d see about backing these kids privately to get into their other ideas.
Across the city at the University, Tod and Joel had had some problem getting the kinks worked out of deuterium flow for their fusion plant but now work was going apace and their prototype was almost ready. The bitchin’ part of the alien belt power mechanism was figuring where all the wiring went though parts were huge compared to modern components. It was fairly straightforward after it was diagrammed and Tod had puzzled out a theory about WHY it worked.
It diagrammed easily but it took some skull sweat before they figured how the power supply could be adjusted to produce different current and voltage. Power output of the old belt seemed naively constructed, limited by a shortsighted design. Slight modification and a magnetohydrodynamic design using neodymium, iron, boron magnets with strong Halbach arrays seemed capable of producing tremendous amounts of DC current. The new power supply should be small and would produce huge amounts of electricity. But the power supply was not the portion of the alien belt that produced the stressed space field. That portion was going to be separate reverse engineering nightmare.
John was working with Susan on the material make-up of the power supply housing in the side of the warehouse the university had turned over to the students as a place to work on their 'power supply' project. John was a quiet kid who was the brunt of a lot of the group's jokes 'cause he was so serious. Several members of the team had even mentioned their loathing for chemical engineering though they did have to accede to the heady mathematics it took to do anything progressive in the field. John took it all in stride and would take all their crap and lie in wait mentally. He'd be at the edge of a group that was discussing this or that and would very quietly interject him into the discussion with a question or comment that would simply stun them or crack them up. He got the nickname, 'one liner'. John was a sought after commodity at discussions of late since he would often bring up ideas that hadn't occurred to other members of the team.
Susan was describing the problem of having a power housing inside a hull. The hull would be surrounded by intense magnetic fields that would be generated. "John. I can't figure ought any way we can build a hull without costing b-zillions. It's not like this stuff is just lying around."
"Is that a rhetorical question?" John asked with an amused eyebrow raised.
"You know I'm serious. I have to figure out how to get a ship built with table scraps. Andrew is full of it if he thinks..."
"Fuel storage tanks," John said cutting off her tirade.
"What? No, no John. I'm talking about a ship hull and how to make it compatible with the power supply we're building...not fuel tanks. It can’t be metallic."
"Fiber-ply fuel storage tanks," John said quietly for effect.
Susan started to give him some grief when her eyes got wide. "Humongous, non-metallic, tough as hell, lasts forever, never used because of regulations...fuel storage tanks...like the ones right next to the campus that they have been trying to get rid of since...forever. Why didn't I think of that?" Susan said and gave John a very thorough hug. "You're a genius."
He breathed in Susan's sweet smell and sighed, "Yep..."
It didn't take the team long to check out the huge cylinders. They were charcoal black cylinders ten (10) meters in diameter and twenty-five (25) meters long. They had been made for above ground chemical storage but new safety regulations had banned their use after a terrorist incident at a storage facility in Texas. These had been slated for installation but got 'stored' when the legislation was passed. Desiree tracked down the owner and after some judicious bargaining; bought the tanks for pocket change. The one codicil was that they had to take all ten (10) off the site before the end of the month -- ten more days.
Desiree's dad got the tanks moved. He owned several construction companies and his daughter could talk him, or about any man, into any bit of mischief. The university officials were outraged about putting the tanks anywhere on the sprawling campus until Desiree's dad came through again and reminded them of the generous, generous endowments he had given the university over the last ten years...some lean years. The team realized where Desiree had gotten her bargaining skills. Andrew placated the Synthesist School with promises of their low cost, non-polluting power plant. Andrew failed to mention that the small units he planned would enable people to be independent of utility companies... a scary idea for many if they had known.
Susan and Joel, the mechanical gurus, came up with a cool design for the "Wildcat" as they came to call it after the school team. Four cylinders would be in a square, with the fifth cylinder in the middle like the five dots on dice. Five additional cylinders would be attached end on end with the first five. They would be assembled and launched horizontally as there would be no ‘down’ when the field was active. The difficult part was alignment during assembly. They were easily attached together with special carbon fiber-aramid ply-board and bonding agents. Tod said it was like gluing model airplanes...only bigger.
Joel had made a detailed computer model of the hull and the team could then pull up and manipulate any detail before they lifted a finger on the actual cylinders. The biggest problem was cutting the stuff. The team would be covered with black residue from the hydra-jet and thermo-lance they used to cut the portals and poke holes for wiring. The strips of fiber-ply to hold the tanks together were carbon fiber, rigid strips covered with an aramid based laminate. It only took a week to rough out the basic hull. When they had finished the rough-in – the team started the wiring and layout designs to fit what they had laid out. It was like building a house. The outside shell went up fast and the basic wiring, ventilation and plumbing went in next. Many internal arrangements had to redone because the computer model didn’t work out well in actuality. Kind of an 'ass backward' way of doing it but the computer models did give them the working basis for all their calculations of volume and structure.
The project started to attract some other teams and onlookers since the project had taken on a rather grand proportion. Andrew had a working meeting because the questions and faculty attention was beginning to erode the manic efficiency of the team.
"Suggestions?" Andrew addressed the group.
John raised a palm, "Need to schedule a demo with a power plant. We can block off the view of the hull with an opaque fence."
"We need a fence anyway. I've had tons of folks coming over when Joel and I were working on this sucker," Steve said.
Susan looked concerned so Andrew nodded to her, “Something the matter with that?"
Susan hesitated, "I talked with Drucker, the Dean of the Synthesist School, yesterday. He's hedging about continued support and wonders why these power supplies have to be so big. I don't know how much longer we can keep up the fiction of the 'Wildcat' being a small independent power plant. I told Drucker that the power plant was smaller, much smaller but we were putting it in a low-cost, sealed test structure to monitor environmental impact these power plants will make. I told them we have to look for any volatile organics or carbon emissions or radiation or heat pollution. We have to make sure we don’t get blindsided by an environmental issue didn’t we? He agreed with me and thought we were being very through. He thinks that it will cost most of our development budget to build one plant...and he thinks that's reasonable."
John quipped, “Wait 'til he finds out that these power plants are probably going to be inexpensive to make or what we intend to do with some of them. He'll have a duck."
Andrew worked on this part of the project, while the others were busy doing their work. It wasn't long before Tod came to Andrew and announced that he and Joel were ready for a private demonstration.
As Andrew was standing in the lab awaiting the results, Tod strolled
up to him and said, "It was embarrassing in its simplicity. If you had the catalyst, anybody could have built it. Hell, the maintenance man could have made a copy. Well...probably not James Watt. There is some heavy skull work in producing the design, but if you've got that, it's a cinch to actually build."
"Well, fire it up and we'll see what it'll do," Andrew said physically drained from his work.
As Tod and Joel started the power plant, there was a slight hum that could be heard and as the power was gradually increased, the load indicators showed the output. They were not far from the lowest settings when Tod shut it off.
"Why did you stop?" Andrew asked. "We were just getting started."
"We were already at the limit that our recording equipment could stand,” Joel answered. "We ran the unit at higher output for an entire three days last week with a heavy load to test continuous use."
"What kind of load could you put on this if it is that powerful."
Joel acted sheepish.
"Well?" Andrew asked getting suspicious.
"We tapped into the engineering substation and dumped power back into the Rural Galino grid. We put out so much power that the aerospace and engineering schools are going to have a negative utility charge for a few days," Joel said.
"Great, three days surplus energy is great. This is super," Andrew exclaimed.
"You don't understand," Joel said blushing. "Not three days." John gritted his teeth. "A year’s worth of power for those schools was dumped back into the grid."
"A year!" You pumped a year's worth of electricity back into the grid in three days!"
"Yep...but it burnt out a couple of transformers and couplings." There was a long pause. "We didn't have anywhere to dump all that amperage. None of the loads we had would have done zip. We didn't even have it at full output. It worked real well."
"Whoa Joel. This is really good timing for us. Drucker has been hounding me for a demo for the school since Fiscal has been hounding him about all the expense. What do you think?"
"We can knock it out -- no problem," Tod said. Joel nodded assent.
"Can we tailor the demo to show something that puts out about ten kilowatts at 20 amps? I want it to almost power a modern house in the US. They will jerk it out of our hands for sure if I show it could power a town on a regular basis and not just for a short-term emergency. They think it will be some clunky, little prototype."
Joel looked at Tod. "Yep. I can rig the output to show the lowest range of power production and pin the fuel flow, like a governor on an engine. When do we need it?"
"You tell me...the sooner the better," Andrew grinned big time.
Joel looked back at Tod. "Thursday morning ought to give us plenty of time working out any bugs. We'll run the demo a few times to see if we can get it working."
"I'll call Drucker and tell him to bring the other weenies. Nine o'clock at the engineering lab next to the student union on Thursday... okay?"
"Fine," Tod said. "We'll even clean up."
Andrew slapped them both on the on the shoulders and hurried out to meet with the rest of the Team. He told them about the demo and they cheered, clapped and whistled. He cut short the celebration with more assignments. They transferred the assignments through their Mem-dex connection.
"Look it over and be prepared to give me the PERT updates in the morning. Dress is professional...Steve...professional." Andrew caught Steve's look of disdain. "Clean pullover then. Keep this info to yourselves but if any of you have any utility stocks...dump 'em. Keep off the Net and social networks. Get some sleep... if you have time..."
Everybody laughed and held up their Mem-Dexs and looked at each other. "Right..." they said in unison and laughed again.
The workshop near the mechanical engineering lab was set up for the demo. They had gotten an old refrigerator, a 5 HP electric motor, Steve's screen, a portable heater and some lights to power for the demo.
The team had trickled in pretty early. Steve was still bitching about his screen being appropriated.
"Whose idea was it to bring my screen?" Steve asked.
John rolled his head to the side and grinned at him.
Susan walked over to Andrew and squeezed his arm with a smile of reassurance. Andrew appreciated it and smiled back. Desiree looked stunning and Tod sidled over to her like a bee to a flower. Fran and Ling stayed a little back and Joel rushed around checking all the connections as the invited members from the university strolled in like regal lords.
Drucker made the introductions of the students and got several names of the students correct, mainly Desiree, Andrew, and Tod. He botched the rest and Andrew took over and explained the specialty of each of his team. Then Drucker turned to introduce the four visitors he had brought with him.
"This is Frank Weston from Fiscal Affairs, Linnette Thompson from Legal, Leman Fredericks you know from the Synthesist School and Brad Philips. I know my students will bedazzle you with their prowess. We are proud of their accomplishments here," Drucker said.
"Nice to meet you all. I know most of you but who do you represent Mister Philips? I'm not sure but you look very familiar," Andrew said.
Philips looked at Drucker and then straight into Andrew's gaze. "I'm an old alumnus and I have an interest in ideas that might aid utilities."
The word 'utilities' rang a bell with Andrew. "PG&E. I knew I knew you from somewhere. You were the guy who pulled PG&E out of the red." Andrew turned to Drucker who looked a little squeamish. "I explained that there would be no outsiders."
"I assure you that Mister Philips is tight lipped and vital to the continued funding of this project. He will stay if you plan to keep this project running."
"I don't like surprises, Mister Drucker, but I came prepared. Susan..."
Susan handed Andrew a stack of papers, which he then passed over to Drucker.
"What's this Williams? We already have a contract with you through the University," Drucker said obviously affronted.
"Non-disclosure agreement for Mister Phillips," Andrew responded. "Sorry...but we feel it's necessary."
"He doesn’t have to sign anything," Drucker said and looked at Linnette, who took the papers and began to scan them.
"No sign...no demo," Andrew said and the team looked scared because they knew there would be hell to pay. Susan thought that they might be kicked out of school but Andrew had persevered.
Drucker was furious and started to sputter but Linnette Thompson pulled him back before he said something in anger and the visitors had a little heated, huddle discussion for a minute or two. The team couldn't tell what they were saying but Linnette Thompson, the lawyer, was obviously a voice of reason trying to calm Drucker. Philips kind of’ sat back with an amused smirk. The huddle suddenly got quiet. All the heads turned toward Philips, who cocked his head and did a shrug and he began signing the agreement.
Andrew let out a long sigh and Susan covertly reached up and gave his upper arm a quick squeeze.
Drucker turned around after taking the signed copy from Phillips and shoved the papers at Andrew. "This better be good... Williams."
Andrew turned it over to Tod who started lying his ass off. He started talking about the failings in quantum mechanics and electron valence and about a new process similar to the older fuel cells to produce electricity. Thompson's and Weston's eyes glazed over pretty quickly when he started into particle theory but Philips looked like he was listening. Drucker still looked pissed and Andrew knew he had an enemy for the near term. Leman Fredericks acted puzzled at first but began to get an incredulous look. He didn't look like he was falling for this bullshit so Andrew stepped in.
"Let's go ahead and show you what this does and go into the more technical details later. Joel?" Andrew motioned to Joel and the visitors eyes refocused. They leaned a little closer as Joel flipped the switch and the motor, the refrigerator, the heater, and the lights came on. Andrew nodded to Steve, who held up his Mem-Dex, cleared his hand from the wireless port, and turned the viewscreen
to a local news channel.
"Please feel free to look this over but please don't touch anything on the power supply."
Philips and Fredericks came over to examine the power supply and the heavy leads coming out of the unit. Joel handed them an amp meter, which they held near the output cables.
"Twenty amps," Fredericks said. "What's the maximum output this unit will do? No noise? May I touch the casing? Why such heavy output cables?"
"I'm not sure about max output yet," Tod said honestly for once. “Sure. Go ahead and touch it but stay away from the output leads. We used that cable because it was laying around in a lab.”
Fredericks touched the outer casing and sucked in breath through his teeth. “Room temp. How do you do that little trick?”
"What does it use for fuel?" Philips asked. "You got in a little over my head with the technical stuff."
Tod looked at Andrew who nodded. Tod turned back to Philips. "It uses deuterium."
"Why, that's cheap. What process does it use? How many moving parts? How long will these units last?" Philips blurted. “How much does this unit weigh? Kilowatt peak output? How long will the deuterium supply last?”
Andrew coughed and shook his head, no. "The deuterium is inexpensive. I can't tell you other than it is very involved process. The only moving parts are the control switches and we'll replace them with solid state soon. We don't know how long it will last. This one weighs about 27 kilos and puts out at least 10 kilowatts."
Philips turned around with an absolute gleam in his eyes and shook Tod's, Andrew's, and Joel's hands and waved to the rest of the team who were edging a little closer themselves. Most of them hadn't seen it work either. "You kids have done a wonderful job. Drucker! I've seen enough. This is wonderful stuff. Have to go now. Keep it up. Wonderful stuff," he said and gathered up the university people and headed out the door.
