by Ken Pence
Rett, who had to set aside his control section for the new stressed space field belt he was building, got up and went to the viewscreen to see who was interrupting him this time. Seeing a squad of heavily armed soldiers by his front gates did not upset him as it would other races, but the interruption to his work again was maddening. Rett simply turned on the stressed space field unit he and his colleagues had designed that was almost as strong as a battle cruiser-class Exploration Service ship. He then settled back to work on a new belt.
The Service officer fumed outside the gates to Rett's estate and ordered his troops back to the ship when he realized what he was faced with.
Bringing the ship down next to Rett's estate, the officer tried various types of the Service weapons against the field. When the ordinary weapons failed to penetrate and the ship's field was too weak to nullify Rett's defensive shield, the officer sat back in the control room chair and decided on a singly dangerous course of action. He ordered the field technicians to coordinate the phasing of the defensive field with the ship's own field. If the Tros stayed in character and did not suddenly change the field pattern, they could merge, ship and defensive field, and slowly pass through. If the Tros noticed them and changed the field pattern when they were part in and out of the field; they would be torn in two.
The ship's officers ordered his now cowering but obedient technicians to follow his commands. Only the extensive knowledge of the Tros allowed him to pursue this course depending on the Tros' belief in their superiority. Arrogance as a weapon, the officer mused. If I fail to enter and die it will be quicker than if I fall to find the coordinates from this Tros.
The ship drifted through the field and was only out-of-phase enough to cause momentary dizziness from the crew. Rett, true to form, was absorbed in his work.
The officer and a squad of troops found Rett still working. Sluggish in this heavier gravity, the officer placed Rett in restraints, and under guard, marched him back to the ship and placed him in detention. Still plenty of time to find the coordinates, the officer thought as he razed the estate Rett had controlled and set the ship on course to the place where Rett had first encountered the ES ship. Since the distance is great, I will have plenty of time to obtain the coordinates of the planet that this being, Rett, may have contaminated. It will save time to interrogate him on my ship rather than wait until he breaks at his home planet and then go to the coordinates.
Rett knew that his life would be forfeited if he were to give them all the details of his voyage; therefore, he was determined to remain silent as long as possible. What is the matter with a little culture contamination anyway? There wasn't any commerce in that area and the natives had nothing worth the travel to the primitive planet to trade anyway.
TEACHING TRADE
Andrew made a detailed language disk of Trade he had learned from the alien. Each of the group members went through the session with it and marveled at many of the new concepts. Many of the ideas were totally incomprehensible to the group. The novelty of the teaching aid wore off as members of the group absorbed more and more of the disks that Brad had made available from the World Government. Andrew absorbed more than any single member and the sobering effect on him was marked.
The strain was telling on Brad also since the nearer they approached to the flight trials, the more attacks on the project. A fear or xenophobia spread through the populations as word leaked out that many of the technological developments were alien in origin. Many thought that the ship should never leave the Earth. These people equated travel with death; as it had been when the virus had raged across the Earth with every planeload or boatload of refugees moved from country to country.
Brad became much more snappish as he completed the list of assignments Andrew had given him.
"Brad, I have another request," Andrew said quietly.
"What do you want now?" Brad said angrily.
"You sound like my old Mem-Dex when I need some computations," Andrew said suddenly very weary.
Brad let out a sigh, "Sorry, what do you need?"
"I want those Mem-Dexs that were designed for each member of the crew and I want you to distribute those new sets of suits as soon as we are ready for flight trials. We've delayed and delayed and we have to do it sometime." Andrew punched in a request for a ship diagram and pointed at two bare rooms on the display. "I want a medical bay put in here that will take a lot of punishment and I need a military surgical team of three or four; however many are in a team, to be trained. We’ll need the latest medical equipment for them also since we may be away for a while and we should have medical care available."
Brad didn't even argue anymore; he just said, "Fine. I'll send the orders now and let them select equipment for themselves. The new suits use new principles and we should easily find volunteers from the military."
The day for the first test flight approached rapidly. The plan was to have a partial crew to monitor. Many of the sensors did not work through the field and many critical components could not be monitored remotely. Andrew insisted that Susan was not to be included but she had evidently had been soliciting support for a time because the others were ready for him and wore him down with arguments. The crew consisted of Andrew (and Susan) to pilot, Steve to monitor electronics and communications, plus Tod and Joel for navigation and repairing the unexpected. Brad was along as the rep for the World Government. They weren’t letting anything happen without him along.
Joel stared the power supplies on low output and engaged the stressed space field. It grew in strength rapidly and was invisible to the naked eye. As soon as the field reached a low threshold, he notified the Captain. “Captain. Power supplies are nominal and everything is green.”
Andrew leaned forward and adjusted a control. The deck generators produced a hum as the ship floated off the ground. The ship seemed to sway gently on the displays but no motion was felt on the ship. “Everyone ready. In for penny…in for pound.” They could not hear the cheers for the onlookers outside but could see their excitement when they panned the exterior. “How about ten thousand meters? We’d be just as dead if this thing falls 100 meters but we’d have some time to lose consciousness from pressure loss.”
“Go for it,” Tod said and Susan nodded. To the people on the ground, the ship just disappeared. Those on the ship saw the display rapidly change ‘til they were level at 10,000 meters.
“We’re in controlled airspace still but not on any flight routes. Wonder how we show up on military sensors? Wonder if we show up at all?” Brad said.
Tod spoke out. “Pressure is fine. The ship is living up to plans so far. Space now? We have approvals to 300 kilometers today.”
Andrew nodded and gently touched the controls. The ship shot out to 300 kilometers. The navigation system auto-corrected to allow the ship to stay directly above the University. It was not a conventional stationary orbit because the stressed space field did not produce the effects an unpowered, gravity bound vehicle would face. The ship behaved well on gross adjustments of position but did poorly on small-scale corrections. The ship would overfly target points and recovering often required extensive corrections. It was like trying to thread a needle with poor eyesight…almost impossible. “Enough for today. We’ve got our work cut out us to refine the navigation controls. Tod. Do you see a way to do it?”
“Should be able deploy some different arrangement of field projectors. A day or two on that and Steve should be able to tweak the software to fix that end.”
“Okay. Also, we have some blind spots that we have to cover. We need overlapping coverage and better view adjustments. I want to be able to see everywhere on all planes. Navigation sensors seem to be acceptable on microwave. Want some weapons tests in and out of atmosphere over the next week. We ought to be able to fly several times a day. Brad. Everyone squared away. Let’s head back,” Andrew said. The flight down was uneventful though getting, exactly lined up at the takeoff point took a frustratingly long time with the imprecise controls
.
The onlookers cheered wildly when they landed.
Philip’s cell MemDex vibrated. “Yes. It worked. Went how high and stayed. How fast was it clocked? Okay up to 100,000 kilometers per hour in one of the flights but that was almost breathing on the acceleration control. They had trouble fine-tuning landings because they regularly overshoot. I imagine they’ll have that problems squared away by Friday. This group doesn’t let problems plague them for long.”
Andrew later went to Susan's living quarters and when she opened the door to admit him he said, "Hi there, sixty kilos of loveliness."
"That's about right, though I won't admit which way you're wrong," she said running her hand through her hair as she went and poured herself a drink.
"Are you rationing or can I have one too?" he inquired with a grin.
"Andy, I'm really tired. Why don't you come see me tomorrow," she said softly.
"I bring glad tidings and I want to share them with the woman I love," Andrew said as he reached and pulled her close to him. "I want you to be my first mate for the trip."
"Wait a second, I already am the second-in-command on this trip," Susan replied.
"I know that. I just asked you to marry me," Andrew admitted.
"Andy after years of visualizing a man on his knees to propose; I get a pun," she said as the weariness dropped off her face like a mask.
When they disentangled, Andrew said, "The medical team will be arriving tomorrow with an experimental surgical and treatment system that they were working on. By the way, I brought you an engagement present."
After a delightful frisk for the present, Andrew said, "It's outside the door on the left."
"You cad," she said as she went out the door with a grin and came in sliding a huge box in front of her. "What is in here, a small pony?" she inquired.
Andrew was silent as she tore into the tough bindings on the box.
"What in the world?" she said. "Oh, it's beautiful." She had picked up a silver Mem-Dex that was exquisite in its design. "What's the basic storage in it, so I can transfer memory cores?"
"Touch no cores in that one because it's ten times any Mem-Dex you ever had. It was designed especially for you. It's the culmination of all the research done on you up to last week. Any data you stored in your other Mem-Dex since last week you'll need to sync, of course. It has everything from metallic and crystalline phases to phase diagrams and a small 3D display screen and projector," Andrew boasted. "And I've got one for everyone else in the group but I don't want to get engaged to them. They even serve as communicators and have telemetry sensors built in.”
"What else is in this huge box?" Susan said and dug into the box and came out with an odd golden helmet. It was light as a feather and seemed to be made of some type of plastic. It was like a flattened globe with the back third of the helmet opaque. As Susan examined it further she exclaimed, "I know what this stuff is and this helmet must have cost a fortune."
"Darling, just thank Brad. Make sure to thank Brad," Andrew grinned as she pulled out the white suit. It was supple as silk but was much thicker. The suit was also incredibly light. It came with built-in boots, but gloves attached to special plastic brackets at each wrist. The left wrist had a clear panel in it so each person could see their Mem-Dex screen.
"Can I use this in the suit?" Susan asked and held up her new Mem-Dex. "It looks like it should fit under this clear panel but I don't see how it will work. Will the Rimloff speaker work inside there?"
"You can hear quite well. The suit takes some practice to get used to but you won’t understand why ‘til you try it on," Andrew replied."
Susan took the contents of the box and strode into the adjacent room to try on everything.
After many grunts from the next room, Andrew said, "Need any help? You know the backpack unit temporarily generates oxygen so there aren't any bulky tanks to wear. The biggest design problem with these suits, believe it or not, was in getting rid of excess heat and moisture and better ways of controlling bodily wastes. Of course they’re much more supple than the old EVA suits."
"Oh, that's how it works. That's fine," came Susan's voice quietly from the adjacent room.
"If all else fails, read those instruction booklets that came with the box," Andrew yelled. Shortly thereafter, he heard the snap of the helmet's static attraction seal.
In walked a dream. It had the obviously healthy body of a female though it had a golden helmet where its head would be.
"Hey, this feels like I'm not wearing anything. Can you hear me all right? I thought I'd sound like I was talking in a cave but it doesn't at all. Ooh, this is kinda sexy," she said and twirled about on one slender white boot. "Why does this suit feel like it's not touching the skin except the top of the shoulders, plus my hands and feet?"
"It isn’t except at critical points all over the body. The suit is self-sealing to small punctures. Also,” Andrew stated in his best, used car salesman voice, “it has electro-dynamic cloth that is controlled by embedded nano-sensors that can amplify your strength so the suit will near-instantly react to you straining to lift something and will assist you.”
“I heard a report on something like these suits that the military was testing a part of the soldiers’ personal protective equipment. They had sensors that would react to muscular activity and send a tiny current through the cloth that would contract like muscles,” Susan replied. “But how does it stay off the skin? I understand the current activated cloth bit – that’s been around for decades and is just now coming into its own.”
“It has some new combination air-flow and static repulsion that has been waiting for a mission. It stays just a bit off the skin to allow airflow and conditions the interior to the right humidity and temperature. If you think it was expensive to fit two for each crewmember; you would not believe what Brad said it actually cost," Andrew emphasized. "You should also be able to lift about fifty kilos without straining at all and the energy cost on the suit isn’t very great either. Let's see about taking it off," he said with a leer.
STRESSED SPACE FIELD
Tod, Steve and Susan cornered Brad the following afternoon.
“Well. We’ve finished the preliminary permeability tests. Really interesting stuff,” Tod said. “You want the details now?”
“Of course,” Andrew supplied with an exasperated sigh.
They moved to a small conference room and Tod turned on the projector of his new Mem-Dex. “I love this thing,” Tod said, indicating the Mem-Dex. “Thanks boss. We figured you were behind us getting all these gadgets.”
“No problem,” Andrew grinned. “What’s the bad news?”
“Not really bad news. Permeability really is a function of field strength. Look at this…we put a lot of different bars of material within the boundary of the field and increased the strength.” The bars of material looked a bit distorted at the intersection as an indicator on the lower right went from 0.01 to 2. At a reading, 0.6, the material had shown the first sign by getting “hazy” at the intersection. Above, 0.65, the material at the boundary layer just disappeared.
“Whoa,” Andrew said. “Any out-gassing? Trace gases? What materials did you test? What does the number indicate?”
“You mean the 0.6. That’s just 0.6 Tod,” Tod said with a grin. “Okay. Okay,” he said when he saw Andrew frown. “Just kidding...it’s a unit based on gravity and time differential…they’re related. The material begins to sublimate at 0.6 and at 0.635 any material just disappears. Yes. Like you guessed there is a little increase in hydrogen. The field strength number loosely relates to the differential between time rates and gravity compared to an Earth normal. The alien belt almost got up to 2.0. We’ve been able to get much higher readings.”
Susan jumped in to the discussion. “We tested everything we could get our hands on. Metals, ceramics, organic and inorganics, polymers, rare Earth elements…it dissolved them all at the same point. Evidently, that is where the molecular/nuclear bond dissolves matter. We stil
l can’t project it like the alien evidently did but this must be an adaptation of that effect.”
“What about radiation?” Andrew asked.
Tod jumped in again. “The fast neutron projector works through the field if it’s set at 0.6 or below and the laser will work for higher levels to visible light in the infrared or any visible light at much stronger levels. We haven’t quite mapped that all out but the higher the frequency the more energy dumped into our side of the field. You can punch a laser through as long as it isn’t x-ray – actually, anything above terahertz frequencies is blocked. Some microwaves could get through at lower field intensities but you can set it up so almost no radiation of any kind gets through.”
“Thanks team. Seems encouraging...let me know if we hit any real showstoppers,” Andrew said and headed back to his office.
Two days later, Andrew was helping the two man, one woman medical team in storing crates of their equipment in the bare rooms on board that were to fill out the ship's new medical bay. Most of the crew was on board preparing for the test flights. Andrew delegated Joel and Ling to show the newcomers around, as they had with many dignitaries before them.
Brad came running up to Andrew and pulled him aside by the arm. "The World Government just received an ultimatum from a coalition of previously unaligned nations."
"Talk sense Brad. The unaligned nations are just that; unaligned. They could hardly even agree on a standard unit of measure," Andrew said.
"Up 'til now, you mean. Those countries fear that we will use the ship against them and bring them under domination of the World Government. They are informed enough to know about all the help we've been given by the government. They have recovered several medium-range nuclear missiles that were listed as destroyed decades ago," Brad gasped.
"But they couldn't know about the ship's armament or governmental assistance, unless..." Andrew's voice trailed off.
