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  Wide-eyed, she said, “Hello,” in return. He had the impression that she was pretty shy.

  “Sorry about using your pasture, we were just looking for a quiet place to try out our flycycle. I hope you don’t mind.”

  The girl had a finger in the corner of her mouth. She shook her head, saying nothing.

  Nolan said, “Okay, we’ll be going then.” He lifted the handlebars and floated up into the air.

  “Wait!” The girl said.

  Nolan turned back toward her, “Yes?”

  “Can I… ride it?”

  Nolan glanced back at Tiona, “Probably, but it isn’t mine.” He indicated Tiona with a tilt of his head, “We need to ask her. You want to ride your horse over there and we’ll see what she says?”

  “Okay!” the girl said, vaulting lightly into the saddle.

  Nolan led the way on the flycycle and the girl trotted along beside him. When he explained the girl’s request, Tiona rolled her eyes. “We can’t put her on a piece of untested technology like this!”

  Seeing the flash of disappointment in the girl’s eyes, Nolan persisted. “Have your AI lock it to an altitude of no more than two feet and a speed of no more than ten miles an hour. With those parameters, it would hardly be more dangerous than riding that horse.”

  Suddenly the girl said, “Are you Tiona Gettnor? The one who rescued the astronauts?”

  Tiona nodded. Nolan thought he saw her attitude softening.

  “Can I get your autograph?!” the girl asked breathlessly.

  Although Tiona agreed, no one had a writing implement. However, Tiona agreed to mail her an autograph and the girl did get a restricted ride on the flycycle. Nolan had his AI film it and sent the girl’s AI a copy of the video.

  As they drove back to town, Nolan turned to Tiona, “Hey, I’ll bet a harness with thrust discs distributed around it could be pretty useful moving around in weightless environments.”

  Tiona looked at him for a moment, “Great idea, you want to design something to fit over our skin suits?”

  ***

  Kathy’s work AI spoke in her ear, “You have a call from a Rachel Hammersmith who says she represents Gettnor Space Industries.”

  Kathy felt a little nervous, she’d first heard of Gettnor Space Industries when she’d gotten an email from Hammersmith. She’d been in her job long enough that she knew almost all the aerospace companies and, having never heard of GSI, she’d trashed the email. She sighed, “Pull up anything you can find on Ms. Hammersmith and Gettnor Space Industries. Tell her that I’m on another call and will be a minute.” Kathy represented the final filter before Gunny Pasha, Boeing’s Chief Technical Officer, and she didn’t want to let a call through from some unknown. However, it would be even worse if she blocked contact from someone that Pasha wanted to hear from.

  Kathy’s screen flickered, then filled with what appeared to be recently put up and fairly scanty information about this “Gettnor Space Industries.” She asked her AI to put up a map of their website and saw to her astonishment that there were only about twenty pages, nothing like the enormous web-maps she saw at established aerospace companies. It made her think of someone’s personal website. One of the GSI pages was about this Rachel Hammersmith, who, Kathy was astonished to see, had worked for a venture capital firm until just a few weeks ago! On their website, GSI claimed to be developing the technology responsible for the rescue of the astronauts that had been all over the news not long ago.

  Kathy decided that it just didn’t seem possible that some new fly-by-night company would have anything significant to offer Boeing. Speaking to her AI, she said, “Put her on… Hello Ms. Hammersmith, this is Kathy Bigelow, Mr. Pasha’s assistant. How can I help you?” She used a cool and distant tone, trying to set the stage for putting Hammersmith off.

  “Thank you for taking my call. We’d like to discuss the possibility of licensing GSI’s thruster technology for use within the Earth’s atmosphere. I’m assuming that as CTO, Mr. Pasha is the right person to contact. If not, I hope you’ll help me get in touch with the right people?”

  These were the kind of decisions that gave Kathy ulcers. She said, “Mr. Pasha’s a very busy man. Perhaps you could send me an email with some details about your technology?”

  In a pleasant tone that still managed to be cool enough to express Hammersmith’s irritation, the woman said, “Perhaps you would be kind enough to read one of the four emails I’ve already sent? GSI is an American company and would prefer to sell this commercial aircraft technology to Boeing. However, I’ve already begun reaching out to manufacturers of military aircraft like General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, and Northrop. They may want to go into the commercial aircraft business as Boeing’s competitors if they get the technological edge that thrusters will give them. If those American companies aren’t interested, I suppose I’ll have to contact Airbus. You know how to reach me.”

  To her astonishment, Kathy’s AI told her that Hammersmith had disconnected the call! “Bring up any previous emails from Hammersmith,” she said.

  Over the next few minutes, Kathy read through Hammersmith’s previous emails. She had apparently deleted them without noticing their content. They all seemed to have the same material which consisted of a number of outlandish claims for this supposedly new technology. Nervously hoping he didn’t bite her head off, she said, “AI, please see if Mr. Pasha will speak to me.”

  A few moments later, Pasha’s voice came over her earphone, “What?”

  “Um, are you interested in this thruster technology that was used in rescuing the astronauts? A company claiming to represent it is trying to reach you.”

  “Oh, yeah!” By the sound of his voice, Pasha seemed quite interested. “Didn’t you get my message about setting up an appointment with the Chancellor at the University of North Carolina? They’re the ones that invented it. Supposedly the Chancellor himself is handling the negotiations.”

  Kathy’s eyes darted to her screen and she saw a new message from Pasha in the upper left-hand corner. “Uh, yes sir. I didn’t realize it was about the thruster technology. I’ll get on it right away.”

  “See if you can arrange for me to fly out there with a couple of the engineers to look at their saucer and any other tech demonstrations they might be able to provide.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Kathy worked on the contact with UNC for the next couple of hours. She didn’t actually speak to the Chancellor, but someone in the Chancellor’s office told her that the University didn’t actually have the saucer in its possession at present. The guy claimed they were working on setting up some tech demonstrations, but that it might be a few months. Confused, Kathy asked where the saucer was. Her heart skipped a beat when the man said that the working model had actually been built by a Dr. Gettnor who didn’t work for the University and that he still had it in his possession. Spelling it out, Kathy asked, “Is that G-E-T-T-N-O-R?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I thought the technology belonged to the University?”

  “Well, seventy percent to the University and thirty percent to Dr. Gettnor. Both UNC and Dr. Gettnor have the right to license the technology. Um, at present Dr. Gettnor and the University don’t exactly agree on the best way to do that.”

  Kathy found herself calling the woman from GSI again. “Hello Ms. Hammersmith, Mr. Pasha has asked me to look into the thruster technology and it would appear that it was invented at the University of North Carolina. Are you representing them?”

  “No, UNC does own seventy percent of the royalty stream from the technology. However it was invented by Dr. Gettnor and his daughter Tiona Gettnor while she was a grad student at the University, working in Dr. Eisner’s laboratory. That’s the basis for the University’s ownership of their share. The University and Dr. Gettnor both have the right to develop the technology as long as they each pay royalties to the other. Dr. Gettnor is exercising that right by forming GSI. Dr. Gettnor’s son, Dante Gettnor, is the CEO
and his daughter Tiona is the CTO for our company, thus its name, ‘Gettnor Space Industries.’”

  After a pause to come to grips with the concept of a family-owned aerospace industry, Kathy said, “And why wouldn’t Boeing want to work with the University, rather than the minor shareholders?”

  “Well, a minor problem in working with the University is that they don’t actually know how the technology works. We believe that they have some people working on it and they might, in fact, figure it out, but at present they wouldn’t be able to tell you how to actually build a thruster.” Hammersmith paused, then said, “Making a thruster is not exactly intuitive. Even if you have a general idea of how they’re supposed to work, which the University does, it might take anywhere from a few days to many years to luck upon methods which resulted in the fabrication of actual functioning thrusters.”

  Kathy was pondering just how to explain the situation with the thruster technology to Mr. Pasha when he called, “Kathy, did you get me an appointment at UNC yet?”

  Kathy hesitantly explained the issues of the shared patent and GSI’s possession of the technical know-how. “Would you like me to set up a meeting with GSI?”

  “Yes! ASAP!”

  “You have meetings scheduled pretty densely for the next few days, do you want me to shoot for next week?”

  “Evidently you weren’t listening when I said ASAP! Boeing doesn’t have any more pressing issue than the license of this technology. Any other appointments can be scheduled around this one. If they want to meet tonight, we’ll hop on the company jet and be in North Carolina in about six hours.”

  “Yes sir.”

  As Pasha left his office to go down for lunch, Kathy stopped him, “The GSI people will be here at 1 o’clock.”

  Startled, Pasha said, “They were already here in Seattle?”

  “No sir. Apparently they’re flying out here in their spacecraft. She said it’ll take them about forty minutes to get here. I’ve canceled all of your afternoon appointments.”

  “Holy shit!” Pasha said, a stunned look on his face. “Um, call Lennox and Miller. Tell them each to bring a couple of bright young engineers with them…” He frowned, “Where are we meeting them?”

  “They’re going to land at Paine Field. I told them you’d meet them there since you’d want to look at the spacecraft.”

  Pasha glanced up at his HUD to check the time. “Damn, I’d better just grab a sandwich on my way there. Tell Lennox and Miller to meet me downstairs, either in the cafeteria or at the exit. Arrange a couple of cars to pick us up and take us over to the airfield.”

  Pasha, Lennox, Miller, and the four young engineers managed to arrive over at Boeing’s Paine Field a few minutes before 1 o’clock. Kathy had connected Pasha to the control tower there and the tower confirmed that the saucer was expected. Pasha told them to have it park right in front of the main building. As they stood inside watching the airfield, Pasha told the others what little he knew about GSI and the thruster technology.

  Pasha looked out at the runway again, “Dammit, I’m going to be pretty pissed if this is all some kind of hoax. It’s hard to believe they could get here from North Carolina in forty minutes.”

  One of Miller’s young men spoke briefly to his AI, then said, “Whoa! They’d have to go about Mach five to do that.” He shook his head, “That’s a little hard to believe. Even if they’ve got engines that’ll push them that fast, how are they coming up with a skin for their bird that’ll take that kind of heat?”

  Feeling even more irritated that he hadn’t considered the utter implausibility of such a trip, Pasha glanced back out at the runways, hoping against hope that he might see the saucer coming in for a landing despite the impossibility of it all.

  One of the other young engineers said, “Remember, it’s a spacecraft. Maybe it’s going exo-atmospheric?” As he said this, something occulted Pasha’s view, descending from above. For a moment, he thought it was something being lowered by a construction crane.

  It was the damned saucer, looking just like it had on the news!

  Pasha mentally kicked himself, wondering why he’d been watching the runways when he’d seen the video clip of the saucer’s vertical landing in Houston. He pushed the door open as the saucer came to rest about twenty yards from the door of the building.

  A small door on the back of the saucer opened inward and three people climbed out onto the deck of the saucer. He wondered how they were going to get down since the deck was pretty high, but then the saucer tilted slowly on its base so that the deck came down somewhat lower. The three people still had to hop down a substantial distance to get off of it. They started his way. To his annoyance, they all looked very young. They didn’t send a senior representative out to meet Boeing’s CTO?!

  The young woman stepped forward and put her hand out, “Hello Mr. Pasha, I’m Rachel Hammersmith.” She turned to indicate the two young men with her, “This is Dante Gettnor and Landon Archer. Thank you for meeting with us. Would you like to start with a tour or ride in the saucer?” she asked, waving at the saucer with one hand.

  Pasha suddenly remembered that, whether the people meeting with him were senior or not, they were in possession of some of the most advanced technology on the planet. Politely he said, “Thank you very much. We’d greatly appreciate a tour.”

  It turned out there wasn’t room in the saucer for all seven of them, so they had to take turns. Pasha was in the first group. He found himself a little put off by the fit and finish of the cabin. It seemed a little bit industrial. Hammersmith managed to remind him that this was a prototype that, nonetheless, had flown out to the asteroid and back. It might be rough, but it was fully functional.

  While the others were in the cabin for their tour, he had a few minutes to talk to Gettnor. The young man was self-deprecating, “Yeah, I lucked out by being related to my father and sister, they’re the ones who invented the technology. Since I’m the one in the family with a business degree, they’ve appointed me as GSI’s CEO. My dad acts as a technical advisor and my sister’s the CTO.”

  Pasha felt a little put off to be talking to a kid who’d been put in charge of the family business. On the other hand, he reminded himself that Boeing just needed a license to the technology which GSI demonstrably had possession of. Dealing with a wet behind the ears kid might get them a considerably better deal. He narrowed his eyes and tried to sound skeptical, “Why would Boeing be interested in space technology? After all, we build aircraft.”

  Irritatingly, the Gettnor kid gave him a knowing grin, “Now, we both know that Boeing has been dabbling in space technology since long before I was born. Besides,” he glanced over at one of the jets parked there at the airfield, “the engines in that jet over there are now obsolete.”

  Pasha felt a little shiver run over him. He hadn’t considered that the thrusters might replace jet engines, but outwardly he kept a calm demeanor and simply shrugged. “Boeing doesn’t build jet engines, we purchase them.”

  That didn’t seem to worry Gettnor. Still grinning, he said, “Let me point you toward the future.” He paused as a jet took off from the nearby runway, then pointed toward it as the noise level fell to the point that he could be heard again. “No one’s going to want your aircraft if they’re pushed around by noisy, polluting jet engines anymore. They’ll not only want you to build all new aircraft with thrusters, but they’ll want you to take the engines out of your existing aircraft and install thrusters in them.” He lifted an eyebrow at Pasha and said, “You need to ask yourself, ‘Does Boeing want that retrofit business? Or does Boeing want somebody else to retrofit all of its existing aircraft?”

  Pasha blinked. He hadn’t paid any attention to how much noise the saucer had made when it landed. He’d been inside the building when it came down and inside the saucer for his little test flight. He glanced toward the saucer. “The thrusters are quiet?”

  “They’re running right now, holding the saucer just off the ground. All you can hea
r is a quiet thrumming noise when they’re pushing the saucer at one G. They do thunder a little if they’re generating 5G’s, but inside the atmosphere almost all the noise in the saucer is wind noise.” The saucer lifted silently into the air for the second group’s demo flight. Gettnor jerked a thumb at the parked jet aircraft he’d glanced at earlier. “Here’s another look at the future. Planes with wings are obsolete.”

  Pasha stared at the young man as his mind ran in circles for a moment. Then he breathed, “Because a saucer can carry more passengers, but takes up less space when you park it?”

  Gettnor nodded, “And, because saucers are vertical takeoff craft there’s no need for a huge airfield. They can take off and land in something like a parking deck downtown. People will be making what you now consider ‘short-hop flights’ in their own flying cars. Long flights like the one we just made from North Carolina will be in sub orbital saucers. For a while medium flights will be made in jets that have been retrofitted with thrusters.” He paused and looked Pasha in the eye for a moment, then said, “Your industry is about to change in ways that are hard to imagine. The question is whether you want to lead those changes, or whether you want to get crushed by them as they roll past your company.”

  Trying not to look too much like a deer caught in the headlights, Pasha waved toward the building and said, “Let’s go back inside.” As they moved toward the building he continued, “Why are you making them into saucers? Just inspired by the old sci-fi movies?”

  Gettnor smiled and gave a tiny shrug, “Physics. Thruster efficiency goes way down if they have corners on them, so they work best if they’re constructed in circular shapes.” He looked up at a screen on one of the walls and said, “Let me see if my AI can throw up a possible design on that big screen there.” He spoke quietly to his AI for a moment, then the big screen flickered and a drawing of a very thick saucer appeared on it. Gettnor said, “This is a concept drawing for a twenty-four meter diameter, double decker saucer. Now, the biggest 747 you guys ever made had an interior cabin area of 450 square meters. Each deck of a twenty-four meter saucer would have 450 square meters, so each deck you added would increase the interior volume like you’d tacked on another 747. You could build them four decks high if you wanted. It’s hard to imagine needing something that big, but I suspect that once this technology markedly lowers the cost of travel there’ll be a lot more demand. One of these could hover to load from the side of a building in the middle of New York, lift away silently, reach sub orbital altitudes in ten minutes, fly around the world and land in Australia in just a little more than an hour.”