Foundation

by M J Kendrick

Music added to the carnival atmosphere, all topped off with a host of fairground stalls and several impressive-looking rides, including Dodgems.

  By the time David, Jean, and Carlton arrived, everything was in full swing. They were overcome with the delightful sounds of laughter and children, and their pace subconsciously quickened as they eagerly approached and joined in with the throng.

  Jean’s excitement showed as she took in the incredible sight. “Oh my god, isn’t that Lydia Janovich over there with a man?”

  David didn’t need to look. He could already smell her overpowering perfume wafting over.

  “Yup, that’ll be her.” He glanced over to see the back of the tall, lean-looking younger man as the pair walked away to talk to some of her friends. “Holy crap, that’s not what I would have expected.”

  Jean dug him sharply in the ribs. “Now, now, play nice. Come on, let’s get the honors out of the way first. There’s Guy and Professor Stanton. We’ll say hello. Oh no, that’s that Leon Whittaker, the Omni board guy, with them.”

  David grinned. “Now, now, play nice,” he said with sarcasm, and they made their way over to the small group.

  Leon turned at their approach. “Aah, Dr. Reese, and who’s this handsome young man?”

  Jean was a little taken aback at Leon’s warm welcome.

  “I’m David.”

  Jean smiled and made no effort to hide another sharp dig to David’s ribs as she said, “This is baby Carlton.”

  Leon was clearly enamored of Carlton’s gurgling, as he openly admired their pride and joy.

  After a few moments of light-hearted talk, Jean’s view of Leon had changed. As he said his goodbyes and left, she saw there was a human side to the man, much more so than had been apparent when she had first met him at Omni. Leaving the professor and Guy to talk, and with their duties done, they politely excused themselves and walked off, quietly giggling.

  David was the first to spot Jean’s team, which was easily the largest group with all the partners, husbands, wives, and children in tow. David’s smaller team had already joined up with them and was working their way slowly around, laughing and joking with their fellow scientists and their families. It was a wonderful sight.

  As soon as they entered the group, there was an immediate swarm of very pretty, almost unrecognizable female scientists crowding around Carlton and straight away the “oohs” and “aahs” erupted.

  David rolled his eyes, and, spying Rose and Tom propping up the closest bar, he sidled his way backward out of the group in their direction to grab a beer. Jean briefly caught his eye and smiled and returned to relishing the non-work related attention.

  Just before four, Susan darted over to Melanie, who was holding Carlton. She and Jean were laughing and relaying stories of their misspent youth to each other. The look of sheer glee beaming across Susan’s face meant only one thing to them... Gossip!

  Susan wedged herself closely in between the two, and, barely able to contain herself, said, “You’ll never guess who I’ve just seen kissing Sandy, and I don’t mean peck on the cheek type kiss but a full-on tongue job.” By now, half of the lab were listening in. Gossip radar was always on high alert at events like these.

  “You mean our Sandy, as in Dr. Sandra Teller ‘Sandy?’” came a slurred voice from somewhere in the group.

  “Who... who... where... who... where . . .” they all said at once. Susan slowly pointed a finger and said, “Don’t look now, but over there.”

  Fourteen heads immediately shot around at lightning speed to where Susan had pointed to see Daniel and Sandy in each other’s arms, only to suddenly break off as the loud outbreak of screeches and cheers drew their attention. The whoops, wolf whistles, and shouts of “Get a room” only increased the now very crimson color of their faces as they both realized they’d been busted!

  The girls gradually returned to their jovialities. Melanie smiled and just said, “Well, that’s one question answered!”

  The teddy bear’s picnic was a great success and went on into the small hours before the last guests contentedly headed home.

  Chapter Ten

  It was just a few days before Christmas, and many of the staff at both ACR and the farm had scattered themselves across the country to join their families for the festivities. The few complete families that had remained either lived in or around town.

  Gainesville had originally been the epitome of a small, sleepy, Midwest town in southwest Ohio. It was a little off of the beaten track but had great charm which had been carefully preserved.

  Over the years, since Omni had acquired the farm and the site for ACR, the town had grown and was now a thriving community with new schools, stores, coffee shops, and a small hospital run by Omni. Needless to say, over 95 percent of the residents were either farm or ACR scientists and their families. Housing had been sympathetically planned around the town, and everyone loved being there.

  David and Jean had managed to cheerily decorate their home with masses of decorations and Christmas lights, much to the delight of Carlton, who had just started to gingerly toddle around. He was also clearly mumbling his first Mmmamas and Dadadas, which was always followed by an outbreak of chuckles.

  Jean always knew that Carlton was going to be a little spoilt with all of the attention he got from her girls, which was reflected by the mountain of presents stacked in the corner of the lounge. It would seem that all of the staff in the lab had been out Christmas shopping just for Carlton.

  Of Jean’s original team, only Susan had remained in town.

  She was spending Christmas with her fiancé, Simon, and they relished the thought of being on their own. She and Jean would be keeping an eye on things at the lab during the holidays and would use that time to further the stasis pod side project with a little more comfort and freedom knowing they were alone in the lab and “storage area” that Daniel had arranged.

  The new area was a small, unused lab that was right next door to the main lab, and, with some minor modifications involving sealing up the front and adding a few walls, it had offered the perfect solution, a genuine storage area and a secluded workspace for them.

  Daniel had managed to section off the rear third, which was actually L-shaped and lent itself perfectly to their needs.

  To anybody entering, it was just another storeroom with shelving units containing equipment and consumables that could be accessed by all from a new door leading into and forming part of the main lab. Access to their secret area was from behind Jean’s desk, where an alcove had been created for her personal use and was home to a concealed door that was recessed and completely out of sight.

  They had already managed to produce a preliminary mockup of the stasis pod, which was changing constantly as various components and “plumbing” were added, altered, or rerouted. Wiring was running up and down the framed shell in neat looms and dangled to the floor of the revolving and rotating frame that held it in place during construction, giving them free access to all points.

  Jean wanted to use the time they had to loosely install several mockup management control units, some of which were awkward shapes. She would also work on the design of the internal backup systems and controls, as the stasis pod would eventually need to have a standalone capability to function should there ever be any interruption to the main feeds.

  Jean was happy with the progress, even though she recognized it would be a matter of years before the stasis pod would be considered finished.

  Meanwhile, work on phase two had been underway for a while and was ticking along smoothly. The teams had jelled well together, and a routine had been established.

  ***

  David’s lab was just starting to produce. The teething problems around the complex integration of the various stages had all but been ironed out, and the entire operation was idling along almost as if it was on autopilot. It would remain this way for several months until the full spectrum of tests had been completed.

  Up to this point, they had concentrat
ed on producing the plethora of samples needed for each of the test stages. A task made even more difficult by the constant stoppages and adjustments that occurred almost by the hour. Nevertheless, enough material was produced to fulfill every agency’s needs, and, under armed guard, each portfolio of sampling materials and been dispatched for their trials, which would be a brutal program of destruction.

  David had a section of completed tether adorning his desk, which he admired at every opportunity.

  This was the very first completed section of full tether. It was just five inches in diameter and about a foot in length.

  Bar, with some difficulty, had secretly laser cut the ends to slope at 45 percent and mounted the sample on a polished wooden plinth, which the team had presented to a delighted David on his recent thirty-fifth birthday.

  Construction of the underground loading bay was gathering pace and provided a constant din of machinery and jackhammers twenty-four hours a day. The excavation and use of heavy machinery would see that things would remain that way for the next six months, but, for now, it was just plain annoying as there wasn’t a great workload for David and his team to take their minds off the noise, at least not until the trails were completed and signed off.

  Only then would production kick into full operational mode and their time would be taken up with producing and testing a constant supply of RMIs ready for use.

  David had thought about beginning RMI production ahead of the sign-off but held back, just on the off chance that there was a failure in any of the tests. He felt confident that wouldn’t be the case, as their own tests had shown positive results. But there were some tests that they themselves just couldn’t do. The trials that needed to be completed in Earth’s orbit being one.

  The tests that they had carried out were still very comprehensive, though, and showed that they, on the face of it, had very much exceeded specifications.

  The biggest and most surprising area being in the tensile strength of the triple-walled nano tubes and filaments that were grown from the RMIs. The current norm had generally been accepted as around one hundred times the strength of steel. Their specification called for 150 times the strength of steel, and they actually achieved 890 times the strength of steel.

  But even with the impressive testing machinery that they had access to at the farm, and, for that matter, anywhere within Omni, they had topped out at the “chord” stage, being unable to achieve failure. David now often wondered how the powers to be would ever be able to test the next level, which was the “cable” stage, let alone the completed full diameter, final tether samples.

  If their own powerful testing equipment was insufficient to break even the component parts of the tether, David suspected the government would probably have to resort to harnessing atomic levels of power to find the tether’s breaking point, which was crucial to approving the project. That meant delays while they devised a method.

  He knew Omni shared his frustrations, and they would do what they could to expedite the issue, but with the sign of remaining firmly in the hands of the government, there wasn’t a great deal he or they could do except wait.

  ***

  It was ten months before David finally received the official sign-off on the tether, and, once again, they found themselves running to catch up. The only reason testing had taken as long as it had was exactly as David had surmised. They were unable to compromise the full sample’s integrity.

  They finally had to resort to what was referred to as a “planet-busting nuclear ram” setup, which, rather like in a tug of war, used opposing nuclear detonations to fracture and pull the tether apart. The huge rams that contained the massive explosions and guided the blast force had to be constructed just for the test and carried out deep underground, much to every nuclear-capable nation’s consternations.

  The political fallout for breaching the international ban on underground testing would, no doubt, continue for quite a while.

  ***

  Trent wiped the steam off the mirror as he shaved and looked at his angry reflection. Lydia had left early for work, while he had pretended to be asleep to avoid her early morning attention. He was growing more and more frustrated. Things were not going well. Lydia hadn’t provided him with any useful intel for a while now, and her constant demands were irritating him.

  As soon as she’d left, he had called the general with his update. The general was less than pleased. His lack of information wasn't doing him any favors. Trent had known the phone call would be difficult, but he still used it to explain the reasons for his lack of news, as he had done time and time again to the general—there’d been little going on at the farm while the scientists had been waiting for approval.

  It didn’t matter, though. It was becoming clear to him that the general was being pushed, and after being told to just “get on with it,” he’d started to wonder if the general was in someone’s back pocket, because he was again being asked to find out more about David Reese, which to him usually meant there was a bigger plan in play that he was being kept in the dark about.

  He was being played.

  He felt his rage grow. He didn’t like that. He didn’t like it at all, for that matter. He didn’t much like the general either, and if the general was on the take, then he wanted some too, especially with what he had to put up with.

  Clenching his jaw, he vigorously rinsed his foam-packed razor in the basin in a show of anger, splashing the warm water over the sides, and thought about having to yet again talk to Lydia about David. Her admiration for the man grated on him every time she spoke about him.

  Gritting his teeth, he wiped the mirror again, and with sneering contempt on his face, sarcastically mouthed to himself, “Dr. Reese this... Dr. Reese that... Oh, Dr. Reese is so wonderful.”

  He threw his towel on the floor and kicked it to the side. “Let her clean up. It’s her place, anyway,” he said to himself as he glanced at the dirty basin full of his beard. Grinning, he quickly dressed, grabbed his car keys and jacket. Still angry, he took one last look around, happy there was nothing of his left behind, he said out loud, “Right then, let’s find out what the general’s really up to.”

  ***

  With the subterranean loading bay virtually complete, and the addition of ten nano specialists on David’s team to run and monitor the machinery, full production finally began.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jean’s project had been progressing well, and they were supplying Omni with regular positive results. The live trials had surpassed all expectations, and they were steadily working their way up the food chain. The positive results of the first two years of the phase two program meant that every staff member had “inherited” a menagerie of pets as the species tests rolled on, causing the lab to frequently have various little animals popping up from behind equipment that had either escaped or had been adopted by the girls.

  Jean often brought Carlton in to visit and play with the animals, much to everybody’s delight. Carlton was definitely a very bright child. He was curious and talkative and was never too shy to ask little questions. He also felt very much at ease in the labs and looked at ACR as a second home, as did most of the other children at the popular and ever-growing crèche. The possibility of building a school on the grounds had often been discussed, and, when the questionnaires that had been sent to the parents of the crèche children outlining the concept were distributed, they had all been instantly completed and returned with a unanimous yes, along with several excellent ideas.

  As a result, Guy, with the full backing of Omni, had subsequently put together an educational program that was second to none. A full educational complex to be known simply as Rosewood was thus approved and was to be constructed, with the current crèche being relocated to become part of the new educational facility. For Jean and David, this was excellent timing, as Carlton we be the perfect age to start his schooling.

  It was a typical breakfast at the Reese household, Jean pouring coffee and cereals whilst try
ing not to burn the toast and chatting to David about her project. David was sorting out the never-ending needs of their son.

  “Yes, Carlton, I know it has six thrusters, but why don’t we put Captain Galaxy’s rocket over there until after breakfast?” David said, making Jean smile.

  “Okay, Daddy,” said Carlton reluctantly, “but you know he has to eat too.”

  Carlton removed his rocket and carefully placed it on the countertop.

  “And you’d better take off that laser gun from your belt at the same time, or did you plan to incinerate the toast even more?”

  Jean looked down at David and raised her left eyebrow. “That’s enough of that, you two.”

  Just then the phone rang.

  David shouted, “. . . And we’re off!”

  Carlton erupted in laughter. This was one of his favorite parts of breakfast. The phone always rang. Everybody always wanted to talk to his mom and dad. He looked at his mom as she answered, “Yes, this is she.”

  “Yippee,” announced David. “I win today.”

  Carlton sat at the table. They always made a game of guessing which one of his parents would be called first.

  “Okay, bye.” Jean hung up and joined them at the table. “That was your Miss Janovich. I’m to join Guy in Professor Stanton’s office before going to the lab.”

  “I like Professor Stanton,” piped up Carlton, chewing a mouthful of toast as he wiggled his legs back and forth under the table. “He’s funny.”

  “Hmmm, I wonder what that’s all about?” said David.

  Jean shrugged her shoulders, “Guess I’ll find out soon enough. Carlton, will you please stop shaking the table!”

  Carlton stopped chewing and wiggling, and with exaggeratedly wide eyes, pouted his bottom lip whilst trying to bury a smile.

  David and Jean burst out laughing, and they all tucked into their cereals.

  Jean entered Professor Stanton’s office only to be met with dour faces. Along with Guy and the professor, Oliver Bryson was there. Tall and well built, he was standing in his favored bolt upright stance, which betrayed his Special Forces background. Jean had met him previously on her trip to Omni’s headquarters in DC when he was with Leon Whittaker. Oliver Bryson was Omni’s head of security.