New Title 1 (28 page)

The table was quiet. Calvin, the next most scientifically-literate person in the room after Dr. Silver, and probably more than Aaron, was the first to speak: “You’ve got to be kidding.”

Reya piped up next. “What the hell did all that mean?”

And finally, Julian: “Are you talking about what I think you’re talking about?”

“Which is what?” Reya asked anyone in the room to clarify.

“Matter-energy transporters,” Calvin said plainly.

“Transporters?” Reya said so loudly her voice almost broke. “
Brane-Boy stuff
?”

In response, Aaron threw his hands up. “See?
This
is why we were keeping it quiet! We
knew
there’d be this reaction! But the fact of the matter is, we’re making significant progress on it!”

“You are?” Julian gaped. “Dr. Silver?”

“Yes,” she nodded, shrugging as if it was really no big deal. “And yes, by the way, that’s what the test-bed was for. We’ve managed to break down the components of the test-bed, and reassemble it at another location… then to return it to its original location, intact.”

“But that’s just the beginning,” Aaron added. “You may not realize it, but if we can translate an object into a communications stream… we can potentially store that stream, make copies of it, and recreate it whenever we need to! All we’d need is the raw atomic material to assemble from! And the same system would allow us to break down and more completely recycle our used and waste elements, making all of Verdant more efficient—”

“We’re wasting valuable resources,” Reya complained, “on Brane-Boy transporters.”

“Julian, there’s something else,” Aaron went on. “This might have defensive implications, as well. Think about it: If we can use it to transport a physical object from one place to another, we might be able to send out objects that will prematurely detonate incoming missiles.” He thought about what he had just said a minute more. “Why, we might even be able to send—”

“
Hold on!
” Reya shouted. “We’re not going to ‘send’ anything anywhere!”

“No, we’re not,” Julian agreed before Aaron could go on. He had also picked up on what Aaron was about to suggest: That this transport system might be able to send bombs and missiles of its own. Sometimes, he reflected, Aaron seemed to allow his analytical mind simply outrun his practical mind, like a child intent on eating every piece of candy in a store at once. And in front of an American diplomat… he looked over at Kris Fawkes. Any moment, he expected her to leave the room, for the express purpose of immediately contacting President Lambert and describing to him this potential threat to national security… which, after all, was her job to do.

To his surprise, Kris remained seated, and levelly returned his gaze. It took Julian only a moment to realize the significance of that.

He turned to his Coo. “Aaron, Dr. Silver, there might be potential in this… transporter thing. But we simply don’t have the time to explore it now. As of this moment,
it’s over
. Understand?” Dr. Silver remained silent. Aaron started to speak, but a look from Julian cowed him. “Then take Dr. Rios’ research, and get busy making a workable prototype of his defensive system. Go with them, Dr. Rios, and call in any and every resource and staff you need, on my direct authorization.
Go.
”

Calvin was on his feet first, followed by Aaron, then Dr. Silver. Together, they hurried out of the conference room, closing the door behind them, leaving Julian, Reya and Kris in the room. Their symbolic positions at the table were clear, Reya seated to Julian’s left, Kris seated on the far end of the table from them both.

Julian turned to Reya. “Reya, I’ll join you in CnC shortly.”

Reya looked to Julian, then to Kris, and back. She reflected that, a few days ago, she might have been glad to see her commander showing interest in getting Kris alone for a moment. But this wasn’t the moment she envisioned. Slowly, she rose from her chair, and vacated the room without a backward glance.

When the door closed, Kris stood up. Slowly she walked around the table towards Julian, who also stood as she approached. Julian started to speak, but Kris started before him.

“I may have mentioned,” she said, “that I’m a Verdant resident. As such, I have a vested interest in the well-being of this satellite… my home.” She stopped next to Julian, and casually leaned against the edge of the conference table, leaving her looking up at Julian. “I am also highly trained in the ability to… understand people. It is my personal and professional opinion that you would not take an offensive stance against the United States of America without direct provocation, and that you would not allow offensive weapons to be developed on Verdant. You do this out of a sense of honor and righteousness, and because you do not want Verdant to be considered an enemy or aggressor.

“I want you to know,” Kris continued, “that I understand what you are doing. I’m on your side… we’re on the same side,” she amended. She then reached out and put a hand on Julian’s arm. “And I would consider it part of my sense of honor and righteousness to keep you informed of any and all actions taken by the United States government that might undermine your efforts. I want you to understand what I am doing, as well.”

Her eyes bored up into Julian’s, who returned her gaze evenly. She could see something deep in there, a spark of… a desire for…
openness
, perhaps? But before she could nail it down, a look of skepticism seemed to slide over it, masking it away, and Julian said, “It would be a good idea for both of us if you went to your President and made your report, Miss Fawkes.”

After a moment, Kris allowed her hand to slip down from Julian’s arm, which was like sliding off of granite. Then she stood up, bringing her eyes almost level to Julian’s, and nodded. Without another word, she proceeded across the room, opened the door, and left the conference room. She left the door open, making it easy for Julian to listen to her receding footsteps down the corridor.

Calvin, Aaron and Dr. Silver arrived in a common area of the sciences section where Silver, along the way over, had called all section heads and ordered them to assemble. The room, the size of a large cafeteria (and, in fact, was often used as an eating hall), was now full of section and department heads, their project leaders, and some of their assistants.

Calvin was almost surprised to see so many of Dr. Silver’s people assembled in one place… it made for an impressive show of scientific force. Sometimes it was good to see how much of a body the sciences represented on Verdant, it helped to dispel the occasional feeling that the sciences were sometimes neglected. At the same time, he almost wished he could not be seen by so many of them. Thanks to his research, quite a lot of them were going to have to abandon their existing projects for new ones. Some of them were sure not to be happy about it, and enough people here knew about Calvin’s work to know exactly who they could blame for it. He just hoped they wouldn’t be too hard on him, and band together for the cause of protecting Verdant, as opposed to assigning blame for their work woes.

Chiu was there at the common area entrance as they walked up, and fell in step beside Silver, on the opposite side of her from Aaron, leaving Calvin trailing behind them all. “Everyone’s here, with the exceptions of Harris and Bligh, who’re still locked in the clean room until thirteen-hundred.”

“That’s okay,” Dr. Silver nodded. “We’ll make do without them.”

“I’ll address the troops, if you don’t mind,” Aaron announced, and found a chair to stand on so he could be seen by everyone in the room. Dr. Silver moved to a point beside him, and Chiu stood beside her. Calvin loitered a few paces away, trying not to look too conspicuous (as well as a former video celebrity could). While they waited for Aaron to get everyone’s attention, and the conversation level in the room to die down, Silver leaned over and spoke to Chiu in a voice pitched for only him to hear. After a moment, Chiu nodded, looked about the room, then moved off into the crowd. Chiu’s absence managed to make Calvin even more conspicuous, and after the fact registered on him, he simply sighed and accepted his fate.

“Everyone,” Aaron finally started, “it’s no secret that we’re in the middle of a crisis right now. Things are serious on many of the other satellites, and there’s a great concern that they could spread to Verdant. Therefore, Ceo Lenz has ordered us to table all existing projects and devote our full resources on producing a working prototype of a defensive system for the satellite.”

There was the expected rumble of upset scientists and engineers around the room, and Aaron allowed it a few seconds to take its course, before holding up a hand to silence the crowd. “We all realize this is going to jeopardize projects, and be an inconvenience for just about everyone here. However, we must devote ourselves to the safety of our friends and loved ones on Verdant. And we don’t have the time to debate, discuss or negotiate it. Doctor Silver is preparing assignments for you and your sections, so coordinate with her and her assistant, Mr. Chiu. Let’s get this done, and hopefully soon, this crisis will be over, and we can all get back to our regularly-scheduled jobs,” he said, attempting a bit of levity with his last words, which largely fell flat. “Thank you,” he concluded, and stepped down amid a growing volume of grumblings and confused questions.

While Aaron confronted a few of the engineers and scientists, doing his best to placate them in their state of disappointment or frustration, Dr. Silver stood near the table, taking each department head in turn and assigning projects based on the notes she had from Calvin’s research. She motioned Calvin over to her side, and asked him questions about various areas, in order to find out where he had made reasonable progress, and where he was still lacking in enough information to proceed, and making assignments to her staff accordingly. Calvin noticed a few of the scientists and engineers taking honest interest and outright enthusiasm in their new assignments, especially after Calvin or Dr. Silver explained the purpose of the assignment. Others seemed to reflect doubt, displeasure or outright hostility—a few of them threw angry glances at Calvin—and he was glad to see Silver giving major parts of the assignments to very few of those people.

But overall, he was very impressed at the way Silver handled her charges, issuing orders, asking Calvin for clarifications, and knowing how to speak to each person in turn to get the best possible response from them, and send them on their way. In his video production days, Calvin had been known as an amiable, easy-going guy to work for or with, and he had cultivated that “nice guy” persona to his advantage. Jacqueline Silver, easily as photogenic as he was, could have gone far with such a friendly and easy-going personality… but in contrast to him, she was very calculating and businesslike, emotionless and balanced… listening to her was like listening to a teacher reading off an English assignment. All the same, she seemed to have the same command and respect of her people that Calvin had ever had, and as much control of her situation and her surroundings. Calvin almost had the sense that, as she spoke to this engineer in front of her, she was aware of the scientist exactly eleven people back in line, and already knew exactly what she would be saying to them when it was their turn.

As assignments were handed out, some of the personnel assembled into sub-groups in the common area, before heading off to their respective sections. There were a number of such groups left when Dr. Silver had finished issuing assignments. She then turned to Calvin as she examined her datapad. “Doctor, I’m concerned about my people in lab twenty… they’ll be working out optimum field emitter placements?”

Calvin looked at her pad, and the notes she had taken. “Yes, I remember.”

“I’m not sure they understand the intent behind the polarity flow intersections, and that could result in emitters that won’t hold their shape under load. I’d appreciate it if you could go down and walk through it with them, to make sure they’re thinking in the right direction.”

“Of course,” Calvin nodded. “Lab twenty?” Silver nodded, and he headed off in that direction.

Dr. Silver waited until Calvin was out of site of the common area, before turning about and finding Chiu in the room. She nodded to him, and in response, he signaled another scientist in the common area, who approached Silver. Another engineer was also approaching Silver, ostensively with a question, but Chiu intercepted him and allowed the other scientist to approach Silver alone.

“Valeria,” Silver greeted her when she was close by.

“Yes, Jacqueline… you have an assignment for me?”

“I do,” she said, turning her datapad so Valeria could read it. “First of all, I need you to make sure your coordinate calculations are recorded in the database before we back it up.”

“Already done, ma’am.”

“Good. Then I want you to get started on these new amplification equations, here. I’ll send them to your lab directly. Concentrate on finding the R-Phi and H-sub-Y variables, the rest is pretty much satisfactory.”

Valeria looked at the equations as Silver spoke to her. After a moment, her brows knitted. “Pardon me, but these look like they’re part of the freight test-bed project. But we’re tabling that, right?”

“Yes, we are,” Silver replied. “However, after examining the equations, I believe there are some parallels here that will apply to the defensive system.”

“Where? I don’t see—”

“We’ll have to table that discussion for later, as well,” Silver cut her off. “No time right now. Trust me, we can still put this to good use. So get started on solving those variables.”

Valeria looked at the equations again, still frowning… then up at Dr. Silver. Silver returned her confused look with one of expectation. Finally, Valeria said, “Yes, ma’am,” nodded slightly, and moved off.

Silver spoke to a few more of her charges, including the engineer Chiu had held up, before discovering that the bulk of the workers were gone. Chiu had noted the same thing, and now appeared by her side. “Aaron’s already heading back to CnC,” he told her.