New Title 1 (45 page)

Every now and then, Roy had the chance to peek inside the bay when the others parted enough to permit a view. But his view told him nothing. He had no idea what the two main objects, the rectangular assembly and the cable-infested globe, were supposed to do, and he couldn’t begin to imagine what the three new workstations were needed for. But just by the looks of it, the frightening number of interconnected modules throughout the bay, and the heavy-duty supporting beams being punched through his bulkheads and anchored to the ship’s very framework, he could tell it all meant business.

He became aware of a new group of voices, approaching from outside, and turned about. He immediately recognized Dr. Calvin Rios, and his eyes popped a bit as he came over to him and the man walking in with him.

“Dr. Rios? I’m Captain Roy Grand of the
Makalu
. It’s a pleasure to meet you! I loved
Universe Three
!”

Calvin accepted his hand graciously. “Nice to meet you, Captain. So, you’re the one who’s getting his ship outfitted to make history!”

Roy looked over his shoulder, and smiled. “I guess so. Trust me, I couldn’t tell you if all that stuff back there is going to fly me back to Earth, or make me ice cream.”

“No ice cream out of this, I’m afraid.” Everyone looked back at the bay, to see Dr. Silver step out. “I thought that was you I heard, Doctor.”

“How’s everything going down here?” Calvin asked.

“About as we expected, fortunately,” Silver replied. “The assembly is almost done, and we still have the translation calculations to nail down, but we expect to be ready for the test-flight in two more days. We’ve also had a few instances of people trying to sneak in here and get a better look at things, but Captain Grand and our security boys have managed to keep them out…” She paused when she saw the first of Pete’s camera crew stepping into the bays, and glanced at Calvin in confusion. “I thought you wouldn’t be down here until tomorrow?”

“That was the plan,” Pete admitted, and looked at Calvin.

Calvin, in turn, rolled his eyes apologetically. “My fault. Studio shooting wasn’t going well. We were hoping we could get some of our scenes done here now, so as not to waste the day. Can your people work as we record?”

“To an extent,” Dr. Silver replied. “But the idea was to keep anyone from seeing sensitive details of the equipment, wasn’t it?”

“It still is,” Calvin replied. “If you want to cover things up, Pete’s guys can clean it up in post.”

“Oh, thank you for telling me how to do my job,” Pete said sarcastically.

Calvin noted the remark, then added to Dr. Silver, “You can watch and make sure we don’t get into anything we shouldn’t. We’ll defer to you.”

Dr. Silver considered a moment, glancing back into the bay. Finally, she nodded. “All right. Let me get some things under wraps, first, all right?”

“Sure,” Calvin said, following her into the bay as Pete turned to converse with his remote crew. Calvin took in the bay, now looking like a miniature of the storage space that he had translated an entire satellite. “It scales down nicely, I see,” he commented. “The power requirements are a proportionate step-down from the large set-up, right?”

“Yes,” Dr. Silver confirmed. “Otherwise, we would have needed to figure out how to squeeze one of those gigacapacitors in here.” She turned and eyed Calvin appreciatively. “You seem to be getting a good grasp of the system, Doctor.”

“I’m doing my best,” Calvin smiled. Something occurred to him. “Like your adjustments to the GLIS. Very clean programming. We almost didn’t see it for what it was.”

Dr. Silver looked at Calvin. “I’m not following.”

“I think you under-estimated your nitrogen levels, though… they seem way too low. Or did you mean to start sooner, and work your way up to more suitable levels?”

There was a long pause as Dr. Silver regarded Calvin. Finally, she said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The GLIS doesn’t control any part of this process. Don’t you remember how it shut down over the inconsistencies in its time-coordinate subroutines?”

“No: I mean your use of the GLIS in advance to arrange and transfer the supplies you needed for your quantum system,” Calvin stated more than asked.

“Yes,” Dr. Silver replied.

“And,” he added, “for
other
supplies, too.”

Dr. Silver stared at Calvin for a moment, before she said: “
Nitrogen?
Dr. Rios, what are you getting at?”

Calvin started to respond, then stopped, reconsidering. He remembered how Ceo Lenz had asked her whether she had considered Verdant’s lower solar power intake before moving them to Mars, and she had reacted as if she had either not thought about it, or dismissed the issue. And if she hadn’t bothered about that… why expect her to have organized the hoarding of supplies?

But if she hadn’t… who had?

“Doctor,” he said presently, “I think I was making a false assumption. I apologize.”

“That’s all right,” Silver replied, but her face reflected her curiosity. It took her a moment before she finally turned about and started directing her people to cover up certain components of the quantum system.

~

“And here it is.”

Calvin said those words as he stepped into the bay, as if he’d only just arrived. The recording crew zoomed back to get more of the bay into view, then panned left until the largest components of the quantum translation system were in view. Calvin walked casually over to it, patting the spherical component gently as he went on.

“This is an appropriately scaled down version of the system that moved Verdant, but it does exactly the same job. Fortunately, the amount of energy needed to move individual craft is smaller by a few factors of magnitude, so we expect most spacecraft can be equipped with the Silver drive with only a minor boosting of their standard power output.

“As I described earlier,” he went on, pointedly ignoring Pete’s wide grin, and Dr. Silver’s rolling her eyes in mortification, “that power is processed by this specially-designed laser, and fired into the components inside the sphere. That creates the effect that moves the craft instantaneously, from one point to another. The system is primarily controlled by one workstation, with two others for subsystems monitoring. With this smaller system, the additional workstations needed to balance the incredible amounts of power needed to move Verdant aren’t needed here.”

Calvin gestured at a panel on the wall, just beyond a strut that bored right into the wall, which contained numerous cable and hose pass-throughs. “Through there is the main engine control bay, which required very little modification to accommodate the system, other than power rerouting and rebalancing. Considering the system’s sophistication, it is relatively easy to incorporate into existing systems, and just needs to be properly configured for the craft in order to function. Once we’re a bit more experienced with the installation procedure, we hope to be able to install the Silver drive into any type of ship we desire.”

“Cut,” Pete said, coming around the lead camera. Dr. Silver followed him. “That was better than the second one, Cal. We’ll go with that take.”

“Worked for me, too,” Calvin replied, glad that he had managed to get himself together enough to get some recording done.

“I’d like to know,” Dr. Silver said as she approached, “whose bright idea it was to call this the Silver drive?”

Calvin shrugged amiably. “I’d suggest you talk to Aaron… don’t look at me! Besides, why wouldn’t you want what will surely be the most fantastic invention of the twenty-third century named after you?”

“For one thing,” Dr. Silver replied, “because it’s not a drive! And for another, because it wasn’t my work alone. Half of my staff worked on it at one point or another… so did you, Dr. Rios. The credit shouldn’t be mine alone.”

“Well,” Pete asked, her, “what would you call it?”

Dr. Silver looked at Pete and said, “The Verdant system.”

~

On his way out of the
Makalu
, Calvin glanced back at the freighter, musing over the role such a nondescript craft would soon be playing in the future of human transportation. Pete and his crew were still finishing up and taking additional recordings, under Dr. Silver’s supervision, but Calvin was no longer needed, so Pete had let him go for the day.

As he headed for the lifts out of the bay, he noticed a rather attractive woman approaching him, and he slowed as she approached. “Excuse me,” she said, “You’re Doctor Calvin Rios, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am,” Calvin replied. “And you are?”

“Oh, I’m Emily,” the woman replied quickly. “I just wanted to come over to tell you that my daughter absolutely loved your show! I could even say that you helped inspire her to study the sciences when she starts college!”

“Well, that’s great! I’m sure you’re very proud.”

“Oh, yes, I am… and so grateful to men like you!” As she spoke, she reached into a severe-looking shoulder bag and pulled out a small workpad. Holding it out to Calvin, she said, “I wonder, could I get an autograph I could give to her? Her name is Karen. She would be so thrilled!”

“Glad to,” Calvin said as he took the pad and removed its stylus. “Karen, you said?”

“Yes, yes,” Emily smiled. She glanced over at the freighter he’d just exited. “They say around here that they’re installing that secret drive on that freighter… is that right?”

“Yes, they are,” Calvin replied as he finished a short dedication and signed it. He handed the pad to Emily, and when she reached out to take it, her hand wrapped around Calvin’s for a moment. Upon realizing what she’d done, she blushed, and smiled prettily as she took the pad back. Calvin felt he colored a bit, too, and smiled warmly back at her.

“Sorry,” Emily said. “Thank you
again
, thank you
so
much.” Then she smiled mischievously, stepped forward and leaned close to Calvin. Calvin, expecting a grateful peck on the cheek for the autograph, did not pull back from her advance. When their heads were only inches apart, she glanced back at the freighter, and whispered, “What does it
do
?”

“Huh?” Calvin said, leaning back in surprise.

“How does it
work
?” Emily asked. “The
drive
. Y’know, just between us. I mean, it’s not dangerous, is it? Is there radiation? Does it, I don’t know,
warp space
or something?” She gazed adoringly at Calvin, and took a hopeful step toward him. “
What
?”

“Sorry,” Calvin said, “but I can’t say—”

“Oh, come
on
, Doctor,” Emily said, wrapping a hand around his arm. “If Karen could tell her friends she knew something about it...!” She tightened her grip on his arm, as if to suggest that he’d be earning much more than gratitude… and certainly not from Emily’s daughter. “Just a
hint
! Please…”

“I’ve got to go,” Calvin said, managing a smile, and gently sliding his arm out of her clinging hand. “Late for dinner... with the wife,” he added self-consciously. “Really sorry about that. Say ‘Hi’ to Karen for me. ‘Bye!”

Calvin headed away at a slightly faster-than-normal gait, pointedly not looking back. The woman watched him go, and slowly, her posture and expression changed, abandoning the airs of a slightly-forward, excitable mother and shifting into the ramrod-erect stance of a career military officer. Col. Emily Stearns waited until Calvin was out of sight, then she stuffed the pad in her bag, and sniffed indifferently. “It was worth a shot,” she said to herself.

~

As Calvin stepped into his flat, he said, “I swear, sometimes autograph hounds surprise even me.” He closed the door behind him, and only then realized that likely no one had heard him. “Maria?”

After a few moments, he heard footsteps approaching, and Erin came around the corner. “Hi, Daddy!”

“Hi, hon,” Calvin smiled, giving her a hug. “Where’s your Mom? I don’t suppose she’s got dinner started.”

Erin looked past her father, then up at him. “She wasn’t with you?”

Calvin trudged into the North 9 clinic—he had already lost track of how many hospitals and clinics he had visited throughout the night—and searched, bleary-eyed, for the main desk. When he located it, he headed in that direction and unintentionally dropped his hands loudly on the desk when he reached it.

The receptionist, who had been busy at her workstation, looked up in surprise when he thumped onto her desk. “Oh! Are you all right?”

“I’m looking for my wife,” Calvin said. “Maria Rios. Someone I spoke to said there were a number of unidentified women here…”

The receptionist nodded, and one arm pointed down the corridor. “First door to the right, you can see it there.”

“Thank you,” Calvin mumbled, and moved on. He reached the door, which slid open upon his approach, and he stepped inside.

He found he was in a large room full of chairs, small tables, and status screens on the walls. There were literally scores of people in the room, sitting alone or in groups, waiting for he didn’t know what.

“Maria?” Calvin called out. Many people looked up at the sound of his voice, but no one responded. He began to move through the room, occasionally blinking hard to clear his sleepless eyes, and examined the people he passed.
What was a clinic doing with such a large waiting room?
A few of them seemed to recognize him, but other than an occasional “Dr. Rios?” no one else approached or otherwise spoke to him.

Abruptly, Calvin became aware of a hand on his arm. He spun around, hoping he’d found his wife. Instead, a man of perhaps thirty looked back at him. “You’re Dr. Rios, aren’t you? I heard from Janis that you’d called.”

“Does anyone here know about my wife?” Calvin asked, a trace of desperation escaping his voice.

“Doctor, sit down a minute,” the man urged him, and as he steered him into a chair, he nodded to someone. Calvin was reluctant, but he was also exhausted, and he could not resist as the man pushed him into the chair. “I’m Doctor Hall,” the man introduced himself. “We met a few years ago at a symposium, but I doubt you remember. We’ve been on the lookout for Mrs. Rios, ever since we heard. Unfortunately, we’re having a rash of incidents today, and it’s made identification of visitors difficult.” At that moment, someone came up to Dr. Hall with a small white cup, and handed it to him. Hall, in turn, handed the cup to Calvin. “Here, drink this. You’re exhausted.”