Disc (10 page)

Raj snorted, “Okay, I grant your point.” He leaned back in his chair to think about it a little bit, “This is NASA though. We’ll have to at least convene a committee to discuss this and try to come up with the safest way to do it. Are they going to make another one, so it could go along as a spare in case of a breakdown?”

Sophie’s grin became a wide smile, “Yeah, they
are
building another one and they’d apparently like to sell that one to NASA too. It’s bigger, more of a workhorse, where the first one was kind of a touring car.”

“A workhorse? How much bigger?”

“A 500 ton, fifty meter diameter saucer! That’s over 20,000 square feet! It’ll generate 8 million pounds of thrust if you push it hard. Probably safer to run it at 4 million pounds, but even that’s one hell of a lot! It’ll be able to lift big things to orbit and move asteroids around with impunity… well, small ones anyway. Tiona suggested that their first official mission for us could be the final modification of Kadoma’s trajectory to put it into Earth orbit.”

Raj sagged back in his chair, mind whirling with the implications. He gave Sophie a weak grin, “We’d better do whatever it takes to make them happy. NASA
wants
that thing!” After a moment he frowned, “Are they going to modify Kadoma’s trajectory for free?”

“Um, no sir. They said they’d charge us 50 million for it.”

“50 million!”

“That’s only about half of what it would have cost you just to
launch
the vehicle you
were
going to capture it with. You’ll still be way under budget.”

Raj looked at her for a moment, then gave her an abashed grin, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

***

Tiona’s AI said, “You’ve got a call from the President.”

“President of what?”

“President of the United States.”

“Oh! Put her on… Hello?”

As Tiona expected, someone said, “Please hold for the President.”

Tiona kept pondering her design for a personal flyer while she waited. A few minutes later she heard President Miles’ voice, “Hi Ms. Gettnor, my staff has been trying to arrange a White House visit for those of you who developed your spacecraft and rescued astronauts Abbot and White. I know you haven’t received a call as yet, but that’s because my people started with your father and his AI told them to speak to you instead. Since I was never able to apologize to him after the incident with General Harding, I thought he was probably still angry about it and tried to call him directly. I was
also
referred on to you. Is he upset? Not a Democrat? Is there anything I can do?”

Tiona stifled a giggle, “I don’t think so ma’am. It’s just that… my father’s not a social person. He’s not antisocial, more…
non
social. Although we haven’t talked about it, I’m pretty sure he’s not at all upset about what happened anymore. In his world it would be a problem that cropped up and that he’s already solved, not one he worries about anymore.”

“He solved?”

“Yes ma’am, well, mostly him. You know, in the sense that he notified General Harding’s superiors, up to and including you, about what the general was doing as well as helping us get out to Kadoma so we could obtain publicity… I’m pretty sure once Harding was shut down my dad pretty much forgot about the whole issue so he could go back to thinking about things he cares about.”

Sounding incredulous, President Miles asked, “Your dad is the one who broke into everyone’s AIs and told us what was happening?”

“Um, yes ma’am, I thought you guys knew that.”

“Is… he also the one who broke into the NSA’s system and put up the banners on their computers telling everyone that General Harding was engaged in illegal activities?”

“Uh, probably?” Tiona said, uncertainly. She had begun to wonder whether she should admit to what her father had done.

“I thought your dad was a physicist?”

“Um, he is. But, he’s also
really
good at programming. My mom, who worked as a programmer her whole career, says he’s a programming
wunderkind
.”

The president laughed softly, “You wouldn’t believe the consternation that’s overcome the NSA. Since none of the highly capable outside hackers would have had any interest in what Harding was doing, the NSA’s been assuming that the only person who could have done it would have been one of their own. They’ve been witch hunting to figure out who it was. Both to give them a commendation
and
to know who is able to do things like that. They’ve been embarrassed because they can’t even trace the intervention and because none of their people have stepped forward.” She laughed again, “Now they’re going to be trying to hire your dad!”

“Oh, I don’t think he’ll work for
anyone
else.”

Sounding curious, the President said, “Who’s he working for now?”

“Himself, he
hates
having anyone else tell him what to do.”

“Hmm, and I guess the thruster technology will bring in enough money that he
won’t
have to work for anyone else. Do you think if, during his visit to the White House, I
personally
asked him to consult with the NSA he might be willing to do it?”

“Oh, no ma’am. He won’t come to the White House. It’s hard to get him to leave the house. And it’s pretty much impossible to get him to work on something he’s not interested in. Sorry.”

“Really?!”

“I’ll ask him ma’am, but I know what the answer’s going to be. He’s, uh, really
very
different from most people.”

“Huh, and yet, he’s been able to play a major role in understanding the thrusters, as well as out-program the NSA?”

“And come up with the new fusion power plants, yes ma’am.”

“Those are his?” The president said, doubtfully.

“Yes ma’am,
really
good at physics and programming, but
astonishingly
bad with social interactions.”

***

When Tiona entered the basement, her dad was working on a device the size of a small microwave with a six inch by eight foot closed pipe attached to it. To her surprise he looked up. Seeing her, he smiled, “Hi Tiona.”

“Hi Dad, what’cha workin’ on?”

“The low-power fusion device,” he said, turning his attention back to the mechanism laid out on his bench. “It looks like this one generates a little over 300 kilowatts before it starts producing enough sidechain neutrons to worry about.”

Tiona resisted the temptation to talk to him about the generator. “I got a call from the President.”

“Yeah, I got a call from her too,” Vaz said, sounding a little irritated. His eyes dropped back down to the fusion device and he stuck a screwdriver into it.

“Dad!” Tiona said, trying to sound exasperated rather than accepting of his idiosyncrasies. “She’s the
President of the United States
! You should’ve at least taken her call instead of just forwarding it to me.”

“Didn’t want to talk to her,” Vaz said, sounding sullen.

“Why not?”

“Afraid she’d want me to…” he trailed off.

“Want you to do what?”

“I don’t know. Something... something I didn’t want to do.”

Tiona stifled the urge to laugh, “Still, she’s the President. You should’ve at least talked to her. She wanted to invite you to the White House for a celebration of the invention of the thrusters and our spacecraft’s mission to rescue the astronauts.”

“I
knew
she’d want me to do something I didn’t want to do.
You’re
a lot better at telling people “no” without making them mad than I am.”

Tiona sighed, “You’re sure? Visiting the White House is quite the honor.”

“Not interested,” Vaz said, sounding bored with the topic. He picked up a thermos sized device with a spray of cables coming out of one end, “I finished the thirty kilowatt fusion generator for your personal flyer.” He held it out to her, looking uncomfortable, “I’ll have my AI send yours the specs, what the labels on the cables indicate, and how the control circuits work.”

“This is great!” Tiona said hefting the cylinder. “It’s a lot smaller than I thought it would be.” She studied her dad for a moment. Unusually, he was continuing to look in her general direction rather than immediately going back to his previous task. It looked like he really wanted to say something. “Is there anything else?”

“Um, yeah. I’ve been thinking a lot about…” he slowed and stopped.

“About what?”

“Well, uh, a personal flyer could be pretty dangerous…” As if in a rush, he suddenly continued, “I’ve worked out some programming blocks in my head that I think could keep you safer while you’re riding it. You, uh, probably already worked that out for yourself, but if you’d like some help when you get to that part…?”

Tiona stepped around and gave him a hug. He woodenly held still for it. She said, “Of course Dad. I’d love to have your help with anything that keeps me safe. I know you’re really good at programming.”

“Okay,” he said. Looking discombobulated he turned back to his 300 kW fusor.

Grinning at his discomfort, Tiona turned to the side of the lab where she’d been accumulating parts for her “flycycle” as she thought of it. She’d made up a pair of nine inch discs that she planned to mount side by side. The rider would sit on a bicycle seat with the side-by-side discs just behind her. A little ways in front would be a twelve inch disc and some handlebars to hang on to. With thirty kilowatts of power, the three discs should lift 380 pounds. Carrying no more than Tiona’s weight, the flycycle should be pretty nimble.

Tiona went back to her dad’s screens to work on the design for the flycycle frame. Thinking about designs, she turned to Vaz, “Dad, when we were precipitating membranes in the big saucer out at Costa and Sons, Pete Costa, one of the “sons” talked to me about his ideas for radiation shielding. He’s thinking ahead to when the saucers might spend a long time out there, mining big asteroids or exploring various planets.”

Vaz had turned to look at Tiona expressionlessly. He didn’t make any comments or pose any questions, so Tiona continued, “In deep space you’re mostly shielding against positively charged particles like protons from the solar wind and high-energy heavy nuclei in the form of cosmic rays. Materials containing a lot of hydrogen
water
like water or hydrocarbons make for pretty good shields. He wants to put a layer of water around the living quarters because it could be used for drinking or broken down for oxygen to breathe if you needed it. You could even fill the airlock with it between uses to improve the shielding in that region.” Tiona paused to see what her dad thought.

Vaz blinked a couple of times, then said, “I was thinking active shielding since the fusion reactors give us a lot more power than we need.” He paused and spoke to his AI for a second, then looked up at a screen which had just displayed a new set of diagrams. “This is the design I’ve come up with so far. It uses coils that’ll superconduct once they get out into the low temperatures of space as long as they’re shaded and mounted on radiators. The coils will generate a magnetic field, which, combined with an electrostatic shield, should deflect solar protons and high-energy cosmic ray particles.” His eyes flicked to Tiona for a second, then returned to his diagrams, “I designed it as an add-on instead of building it into the saucer because it’s all based on theoretical work. We don’t actually know if it’ll work. Redesigning and reworking it is going to be a lot easier if we can work on it without having to dismantle the big saucer.”

“Oh, that looks a lot smaller and lighter than the passive water shield I was talking about.”

“Yeah, but it may not work. You shouldn’t throw away the passive design.”

***

Nolan’s car pulled up and parked on the street in front of the Gettnors’ house in Raleigh. He found himself feeling nervous. He hadn’t seen Tiona for days now, though they’d called back and forth. He’d had plenty of time, but he knew she was really busy.

But now, they were going to spend some time together, and it was mostly because of his desire to play astronaut. The fact that she was willing to take time to do it made him feel loved, but he wondered if she might be about to change her mind. He found himself thinking that surely she wouldn’t stick with him.

He laughed at himself a little as he got his suitcase out of the back; in days gone by he would have thought that his prospects for significant royalties on the multilayered graphene might have made him a prize catch for women. However, if there was anyone in the world who wouldn’t care about his impending riches, it would be Tiona.

With some trepidation he approached the door. The house AI said, “Come in Mr. Marlowe, Tiona is expecting…”

The AI cut off as the door slammed open, Tiona took two flying steps across the porch and launched herself into his arms. Hugging him hard, she sniffed and whispered in his ear, “Some kind of boyfriend you are, I haven’t seen you for days!” She leaned back to look at him with gleaming, flashing eyes, “I was expecting more attention from you after that mushy talk in the saucer last week!” She leaned forward for a kiss.