Troy Rising 1 - Live Free or Die (27 page)

“How about me?” Nathan asked. “You can do my job better than I can with your plants. One
thing about this whole thing is I'm feeling sort of... redundant. And, you're right, I can
do this from earth. I've seen space. It's cool. It's big. The stars are great. I want to
find better asteroids to melt and I think I can do that better earth side.”

“I'll put you and Bryan off when we get back,” Tyler said. “Probably over Bryan's
screaming objections. We'll get you both plants. Well... I'm going to require a contract
extension since they're expensive as hell. And I can't do your job better because my
plants only know to pull up the information I know. You know about minor planetary bodies.
With plants you'll just be ten times the functionality.”

“And what do
I
have to do to pay for them?” Dr. Chu asked.

“Do you one better,” Tyler said. “Pick one or two of your more open minded grad students
who are willing to rent their souls to an evil corporation for, say, five years. I'll send
all of you to Glalkod for plants
and
put you through school again. When you get back, I'll fund any research you wish to do as
long as I can use you as the center of a think-tank. But I don't think we're going to be
able to replicate Glatun tech any time soon. We're going to have to build based on not
only Glatun theory but human imagination and practice. This is, compared to Glatun
methods, a relatively low-energy, low-cost, method of orbital mining. I've looked up the
relative reports and done the math. If we were using Glatun techniques we'd have burned
through three times as much fuel as we've used for this amount of metal. Even if you
include boosting the mirrors which I take as a capital cost. They're not going to take
much maintenance.”

“Speaking of which,” Steve said. “What have we gotten?”

“Seventy-five hundred metric tons of iron,” Nathan said. “Six hundred of nickel.
Twenty-two of aluminum, of which we plan on using two to make the big mirror. Seven and a
half of copper. And about two hundred kilograms of various high value metals including
gold, platinum group, lots of osmium comparatively, and silver.”

“Damn,” Steve said, whistling.

“It didn't actually pay for this trip,” Tyler said. “But as an applied science project it
was very successful. Especially given the low metal content of the asteroid. Now we have
to figure out how to pay for this ship on an ongoing basis and keep
doing
it. One reason to get, frankly, the grunts up here instead of you guys is that it's time
to take that step. It's time to get people off the mud ball and up in space. And this is
how we're going to
pay
for it.”

“This is going to be interesting,” Dr. Foster said.

All four tugs were positioned alongside the spinning ball of nearly pure silica. There was
still some admixture but it was pretty pure. Pure enough for a decent mirror.

The problem was, it was spinning very much like spinning a ball of yarn. As long as there
were multiple vectors to the spin, the ball would never spin out into a plate to make the
mirror. And it was going to be a
big
mirror. Even with the blown off volatiles and extracted 'other', the ball was still
nineteen million cubic meters, a sphere three hundred and thirty-one meters in diameter.
The resulting mirror, depending on the thickness they eventually got, was going to be
about seven thousand meters in diameter and able to pump nearly a million watts of
sunlight.

That all assumed they could get it down to a precisely single vector of spin. And even
then they were going to have to 'push' it up to a higher speed on that vector to get the
mirror to spin out. Last problem was that if they spun it too hard, it was liable to break
up into a thousand spinning pieces of glass.

It was a tricky problem.

“Before we do this,” Tyler said. “Is there any way we can use the array to help? I'd like
to cut down on fuel costs.”

A Gorku tanker had dropped by earlier in the week and tanked up the
Monkey Business
. The price tag had caused Tyler to nearly have a screaming fit. Pure He3 cost like
crazy
. And even with the efficiency of the conversion plants, they were using a lot of He3.
Somewhere down Tyler's 'space-stuff to-do' list was a refinery around Jupiter. And not
far
down the list.

“Well, not that I can think of,” Dr. Foster said. “We can use the BDA to put some photon
pressure on the eyeball. But it's a zero sum game. Actually, a losing game. Because we're
having to recharge the BDA capacitor as it is. So the net energy is a loss.”

“It's even losing heat,” Dr. Bell said. “It's pretty pure silica in amorphous state. The
SAPL tends to go right through it.”

“Well, here we go,” Dr. Foster said. “Engaging tractor on
Paws Two
and
Four
...”

“Huh,” Steve said, rubbing his chin.

“'Huh' at a time like this is not a helpful comment, Astro,” Tyler said. “ 'Huh' is right
up there with oops.”

“I was just thinking about the eyeball,” Steve said. “It sort of looks like a gemstone.”

And it did. The silica ball was an immense blob of glass with only the slightest trace of
color. And most of that was from diffraction of the laser that was keeping it warmed.

“It is,” Dr. Bell said. “It's the biggest damned almost quartz crystal anybody has ever
seen. If we just let it cool it
would
be the biggest damned quartz crystal anybody has ever seen.”

“Be fun to carve it into a skull,” Tyler said with a chuckle.

“I was just thinking,” Steve said. “The separators pull stuff apart practically at the
atomic level then stick it back together using gravity and heat. If we just took the
monatomic aluminum and a bunch of oxygen...”

“Add enough heat and you've got the biggest sapphire in the universe,” Dr. Bell said,
excitedly. “Speaking of a really good material for mirrors.”

“We'll take transparent aluminum under advisement,” Tyler said. “What's the status?”

“I've attached
One
and
Three
,” Dr. Foster said. “This is something that the comp has done before. Based on the results
we have so far, it says the secondary rotation should be out in about an hour. You
don't
want to know how much fuel it's going to use.”

“An hour is better than I'd expected,” Tyler said. “I hate waiting.”

***

“And all the secondary motion is out,” Dr. Foster said. “We now have a ball spinning in a
flat plane.”

“More like an expanding disk,” Nathan said. “It's already starting to expand.”

“Hit it with the full SAPL,” Tyler said. “You'll need to...”

“Run the laser over it carefully,” Dr. Bell said. “Or we'll get tumbling again. Full
SAPL... on.”

“And that's got it,” Dr. Foster said. “We're not even going to need more spin to it.”

That was apparent on the view screen. With the additional thermal energy the already
molten glass was becoming less viscous and quickly shifting from a blob to a very definite
disk. And as the edges spread out and the rotational velocity increased the 'pull' on the
glass got stronger and stronger.

“Do we have any clue if this is going to hold together?” Tyler asked. “I'm starting to
worry that when the rotational momentum gets high enough it'll just pull apart.”

“I'll slow it with
Two
and
Four
,” Dr. Foster said. “They're in the best position.”

Slowing the disk caused the center to start to flatten out but the expansion was still
increasing.

“We can... shape this,” Tyler said. “Like a potter shapes a pot. Use
Two
and
Four
to apply some pressors to the outside edge. See what happens. Carefully, mind you. Also
we'll want to be careful with the SAPL. Both deconfliction and to not heat it too high or
too low.”

Over the course of the next two hours they played with the glob of glass, forming various
shapes on the basic concept of a disk but never letting it get too large.

“Okay,” Tyler said. “This was a good exercise but it is costing fuel like crazy. Let's
just expand it. Carefully.”

“Applying more SAPL,” Dr. Bell said.

“Expansion rate of one meter radius per minute,” Dr. Foster said. “Rotational momentum
increasing... More SAPL to the center, less to the edges.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Dr. Bell said. “Inner thirty percent only.”

“Need to bring it out some more,” Steve said. “You're getting a bulge along the middle
section.”

“Rotational velocity now two hundred kilometers per hour. We're pulling some serious G at
the edges.”

“More SAPL to the axis,” Dr. Bell said. “And the bulge is going... going... gone... Full
SAPL sweep...”

“Radius now two hundred and twenty hundred meters,” Dr. Foster said. “Rotational velocity
two hundred and thirty... Expansion of three meters per minute. I'm getting some wobble.”

“Damping it out,” the computer said. “
Paws
adjusted to manage wobble.”

“Cut the SAPL,” Tyler said. “That's what's causing it to wobble.”

“If we cut the SAPL it's going to cool,” Dr. Bell said.

“Not fast,” Tyler said. “It's in full sunshine. Hell, as big and thin as its getting,
solar wind may be causing some of the wobble. We need this thing
straight
or this was an exercise in futility.”

“It's going to be straight,” Dr. Foster said. “But I think we cut the SAPL just in time.
Look at it.”

The disk was now expanding at an enormous rate, getting thinner and thinner.

“Come on, baby,” Dr. Bell said. “Hold together.”

“Withdraw the
Paws
,” Tyler said. “We don't want them perturbing the material.”

“Damn,” Dr. Foster said.

The center of the disk had separated and the spinning glass was rapidly turning into a
shape like a spare tire.

“Damnit,” Dr. Bell said. “Sorry. I probably applied too much laser.”

“What now?” Dr. Foster said.

“Leave it,” Tyler said, disgustedly. “If we can figure out how to get out the now enormous
rotation, we can melt it again and try again when we've got a better feel for doing this.”

“Cut it,” Steve said. “I mean, you might want to back up just in case and not be in the
way if it comes apart totally. But if you cut it, it turns from a rapidly spinning disk
into a less rapidly spinning cylinder. The longer it gets under
those
conditions, the
slower
it's going to spin. And it's going to be easier, less energy intensive, for the tugs to
slow it.”

“Just cut it?” Tyler said.

“If we can,” Dr. Bell said. “It's pretty transparent.”

“Never know until you try,” Steve said. “Scrape the outsides first, though.”

“Get off more of the impurities?” Dr. Foster said. “Good idea. Heavy metal contamination
on the edges
might
have been the deciding factor in its failure. Modeling this is...”

“Hell with modeling,” Tyler said. “The Right Stuff's right. We'll cut it, damp the spin,
melt the sucker and start over. Next time, though, with lower rotation and more control of
the expansion rate. Dr. Bell, I believe you are the SAPL man.”

“We want to make sure there's complete deconfliction,” Steve said. “It's going to snap
open. It's possible it's cooled enough it's no longer completely amorphous. And even if it
is, there's going to be enormous acceleration effects as it expands. That's where the
potential energy of the spin is going to dump.”

“So we don't want to be in the way,” Tyler said. “Got it. Comp, get the
Paws
and the
Monkey
at least one hundred thousand clicks away. Far enough, you think?”

“Far enough,” Steve said.

“We need to keep it hot,” Tyler said. “Keep the SAPL on it at thirty percent power. What's
its temp?”

“Fourteen twenty C,” Dr. Foster said. “It peaked at two thousand.”

“Keep it at least twelve hundred,” Tyler said. “Fourteen is probably about right for now.
Viscosity neither too high nor too low. Just right. When we're all in position, we'll cut
that sucker and see what happens.”

***

Moving the ships was a short matter. But then they figured out that they'd need the BDA
array further back as well. That was both for safety reasons and because it was going to
need to follow the now rapidly spinning ring of glass, keeping the beam on one point on
its surface. So the tugs were sent to pick up and reposition the mirrors. The mirrors
could, technically, do that on their own. If Tyler had wanted to wait.

“Okay, comp,” Tyler said. “You've got this, right?”

“To the limits of system accuracy,” the computer said. “The satellite packs on the Big
Distributed Array mirrors are not terribly precise. I cannot guarantee continuous power on
one spot.”

“And if it gets diffused the whole thing is going to tumble,” Dr. Foster said.

“Like I said,” Tyler said. “We'll see what happens. Computer, you have my permission to
fire.”

“Firing,” the computer said.

The crystal ring had hardly been visible against the star background. It was optically
extremely pure. When the SAPL hit it, though, it flashed into light.

“That is really pretty,” Dr. Bell said. “I hope we're recording this. Because it's really
pretty.”

The ring was a blaze of glory for a moment as the full power of the SAPL attempted to
follow its rapidly spinning path and then.

“Separation,” the
Monkey
said.

“Whoa,” Steve said. “And ouch.”

The flashing ring had, indeed, separated. At a hundred different places. Shards of crystal
were now flying away in every direction.

“Comp,” Tyler said. “Can you track all of that?”

“Yes,” the computer said. “The pieces that are large enough to be a major hazard. And
there are some that we simply
should
pick up. But most of the rotational velocity was expended by material which is now in
retrograde solar orbit. No great danger. Others have been kicked into higher orbit and are
headed for outer system worlds or towards the VLA. The material twisted as it broke. At
least one piece, one hundred meters long and four meters wide, is headed for your home
world. It will arrive in... seventy three years and ten days.”