Disc Page 8

  “Okay, here’s the deal.” Dante leaned forward and everyone else leaned in a little bit too. “My sister discovered this technology while working as a grad student in the UNC physics lab. She didn’t really know what she had until she told my dad about it. He went ape shit when he recognized the possibilities. Mostly it was my dad that built the saucer you’ve seen on the news, the one that went out to the asteroid.”

  Rachel narrowed her eyes at him, “Okay, but if it was invented at UNC, they’re going to have control of the IP. I repeat, did you get them to license it to you?”

  “Because my dad was a co-inventor, and he’s outside the UNC system, they share the rights. Either UNC or my dad can commercialize the technology, as long as they pay agreed-upon royalties to the other.”

  Rachel leaned back, looking doubtful, “So you guys are going to go head-to-head with UNC and whoever they license the tech to? I mean, they’re probably going to license it to some of the really big dogs in the business world and you guys are going to get splattered like a puddle on the highway.”

  Dante grinned at her, “That would be a problem, except no one at UNC really knows how to make the thrusters. Essentially they have the right to sell the technology, but not knowing how to make the technology, they don’t have much to sell. Therefore, we’re in the driver’s seat.”

  Rachel blinked a couple of times and looked around at the others, “So, what you’re telling me is that you’re in control of some really valuable IP, and instead of just licensing it to established aerospace industries, you’re going to try to start your own industry?”

  “We’re going to start our own industry, if you guys join me.”

  “Why not just license it to the established players?” Landon asked.

  “Oh, we are going to be licensing the thrusters… To all kinds of established players in various industries.” He grinned at them, “GSI’s about space and that’s where our party is. The established space industry players only launch things into low Earth orbit. Their IP and technology centers on the rockets that get you up there. For GSI, LEO’s like playing in the sandbox. We want to be the ones who explore the solar system, claim mineral rights in the asteroid belt, build bases on the moon, and transport people to other planets. We’re going to be like the people who crossed the oceans back in the thirteen and fourteen hundreds.”

  Landon looked around the table, seeing a lot of disbelieving looks on his friends’ faces. He frowned, “You’re going to be licensing the thrusters? What else are they good for besides getting to space?”

  Dante gave them a grin and reached into his bag. He pulled out a six inch disc, flipped a switch on it and placed it out over the middle of the table about six inches off the surface. There it sat, hanging in space as they all stared at it. He bumped it and it sailed lazily over the table toward Rachel, neither descending, nor ascending. It gave the impression it would have kept going forever if Rachel hadn’t reached up and grabbed it. Dante said, “Push down on it.”

  Everyone at the table saw Rachel’s eyebrows lift as she tried to push it down toward the table. She moved it down a little, but apparently it pushed right back up. She tried to lift it and it appeared to resist that motion as well.

  “My dad built that one with a little AI that tries to maintain altitude. Push it back out into the middle,” Dante said. Rachel did and Dante reached up and flipped a second switch on the top of the disc. He bumped it again like he had when he first pushed it toward Rachel. It went towards her a tiny bit, but then tilted one edge up and moved right back to where it had been. “Now the AI’s keeping it from moving horizontally too.”

  Gary said a little dismissively, “Toys?”

  Dante’s eyebrows went up as if he’d suddenly been struck with the idea. He said, “Sure, toys.” He grinned at Gary, “If I’d come to Axel VC last week with a toy this cool, you guys would have been all over me, trying to capitalize my startup. These’d sell like hot cakes and you know it! But,” he lifted an eyebrow, “imagine, if you would, a much bigger version of this disc hanging over a construction site… a construction site with no crane except the one hanging under the disc. Imagine versions about three feet in diameter lifting things weighing three quarters of a ton so workers could push them around that same construction site. Versions 6 feet in diameter lifting three tons. Imagine three four-foot discs under your car… You’d have the proverbial flying car!” He looked around the table at the other four, “We’ll be licensing to the small aircraft and auto industry to build flying cars, to the airlines to retrofit their planes because thrusters can push their airplanes around the skies without burning fuel or polluting the air. We will be licensing to Boeing, but not for them to make spacecraft. No, we’ll license to Boeing and Airbus, so they can build new planes using thruster technology for short hops and…” he waggled his eyebrows, “so they can build suborbital saucers.”

  The other four looked confused, Steve said, “Suborbital? What’s suborbital mean?”

  Dante lifted an eyebrow, “Once you get above the atmosphere, you can go really fast. Fast enough to go from here to Australia, a twenty-four hour flight on commercial jets, in just a little over an hour. Long-haul jet flights are history!”

  Landon looked around the table, seeing everyone else checking each other’s wide eyed reactions. Can this be true? Or has Dante gone completely off the deep end? He turned back to Dante. He spoke slowly, “And our role in this would be… what? Raising capital? Negotiating with Axel VC since you’re kinda on the outs there?”

  Dante grinned again, “Nah, I’m pissed at Axel VC, so I don’t want to work with them. Besides, how much capital do you think Axel could raise?”

  Gary said, “A couple hundred million, but then they could leverage outside money.”

  Dante leaned forward, “I’ve got access to billions,” he said quietly. “We shouldn’t have to go very deep into that, because early on we’ll start getting licensing fees for,” he winked at Gary, “toys… construction lifters, heavy transport lifters, personal flyers, short hop commercial aircraft modification, suborbital transportation and probably several other things we haven’t thought of yet. We’ll use those licensing fees to finance our space exploration. Then we’ll move on to low Earth orbital industry, asteroid mining, moon and Mars hotels, vacations in Saturn’s rings…”

  “Wait a minute!” Gary interrupted. “These sound like delusions of grandeur.” He shook his head, “You’re gonna have to show us some proof you can really do this stuff before we’re going to want to give up our careers to take a flying leap into the middle of all the smoke and mirrors you’re waving around. We’ve all heard about some manic-depressive dude, flying high in his manic phase, convincing everyone at a VC he’s hot shit when it’s just in his imagination!”

  Dante reached out and whacked the disc which had been so quietly floating over the table that they’d all pretty much forgotten about it. It swerved out of position about a foot, then tilted and shot back to where it had come from, immediately resuming its motionless station. “There’s your proof Gar’. And if you want more… read the damned news!” He sighed, “Sorry, I find it hard to believe, so I shouldn’t be surprised that you do too. If you think I’m imagining access to the money, look up my dad, Vaz Gettnor. That should convince you on that front. If you want proof of what thrusters can do, I’ll see if my sister might take us up for a ride in the saucer tonight or tomorrow.”

  Rachel leaned forward and lifted an eyebrow, “I’d like a ride,” she grinned excitedly, “not just in the saucer, but on GSI. Hell, not only is this a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity, but I’ve always harbored a secret dream of being an astronaut! If you’ve got anything for me to sign, get it out so I can apply my Joan Hancock. Then I’m heading back over to Axel VC to give them two weeks’ notice.”

  Everyone’s eyes had gone to Rachel, now they turned back to Dante. “Me too,” Landon said. Seconds later the others chorused versions of the same sentiment.

 
***

  Waiting for his next appointment, Raj Mehta stood, staring sightlessly out the window of his office. All of NASA had been in an uproar since the announcement of the new technology. Excitement over the possibilities represented by the tech had been tempered by dismay over the realization that many existing programs were now irrelevant. The Mars program had already soaked up enormous investments due to the extreme difficulty in just getting someone to Mars safely. All tentative plans had required astronaut radiation exposure levels that many people considered unacceptable. Returning the astronauts back to earth would require bleeding edge engineering. Now, the billions and billions of dollars earmarked for putting men on Mars just weren’t necessary.

  Those who were heavily invested in those programs weren’t happy.

  Raj had been the recipient of badgering, impassioned pleas, angry diatribes, and cold shoulders. Some demanded that the technology be suppressed, a stance that bewildered Raj, coming as it did from tech enthusiasts. Others insisted it be tightly controlled by NASA, apparently not recognizing all the other uses thrusters might find in this world. Mehta’s greatest fear was that NASA would be locked out. It wouldn’t be difficult for the inventors to restrict use to themselves or to the highest bidder, leaving NASA, once the world’s premier space agency, nothing but a footnote in history.

  Raj stood as Sophie Bautista entered his office. Smiling, he said, “Hello Ms. Bautista, my secretary said that you had some good news for us?” He had felt quite relieved at the way Bautista had handled herself in the press conferences after the asteroid rescue. She had displayed confidence and represented NASA well. Most importantly, he hoped she might have some influence over the disposition of the technology he’d just been worrying about.

  “Yes Mr. Mehta, I was contacted by Nolan Marlowe. He implied that they plan to turn the saucer over to NASA, though they do have some requests.”

  “Great!” Raj said, feeling a wash of relief come over him. “What kind of requests?”

  “They’re planning to go to the moon and Mars themselves first. They don’t want to just fly there, but to be able to get out and walk around, so they’d like us to fit them with some spacesuits.” If Sophie noticed the tightening of Mehta’s expression, she didn’t react. Instead, she continued, “They’d also like to take along a couple of experienced astronauts to, quotes, ‘keep them out of trouble,’” she said, marking the quotes by wiggling her fingers in the air.

  “That’s… that’s impossible!” Mehta exploded. “Ridiculously dangerous! They can’t just…” He ran down, suddenly realizing that they could do pretty much whatever they wanted. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, “obviously we can’t tell them what they can or can’t do, though I would certainly express my reservations about the safety of such an endeavor. What if their ship breaks down or someone gets injured?”

  Sophie gave him a little grin, “I believe the risk of the ship breaking down would be a lot less than it was with the Mars mission we were planning, wouldn’t it? In addition, one of the astronauts we send along could be a physician. Also, remember, they can get the injured person back to medical care here on earth way faster than any, and I mean any mission ever flown by NASA in the past.”

  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… nonsocial. 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 fo
r 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.”