Renegade World: Future Past (14 page)

“I have one other related item.” The avatar Simon paused
and looked down the table. “Time travel should be considered a grievous offense
against God. I ask that we add it to our list of offenses against God.”

“Anyone opposed?” asked Peter.

Jacobus raised his hand. “I’m not opposed, but why should
we believe it could ever happen?”

“You heard the audio of the sinner Geoffry,” said Simon.
“He certainly believes it’s possible.”

Though few of them believed it was worth adding to the
list, it wasn't worth arguing about, so it was agreed to add time travel to the
list.

D
r. Lieber and his son drove into the parking lot of New
Age Energy. Geoffrey and Miguel’s ATVs were the only vehicles in the lot, not a
surprise given it was Saturday. There were only four other employees other than
Geoffry and Miguel, and none of them had access to the concrete domed research
building.

As the two walked up to the steel door of the research
building, it slid open for them. Dr. Lieber watched the handle-less door slowly
slide open. “Miguel said it would take a bunker buster to break in here.
Looking at the thickness of that door, he might not be exaggerating too much.”
The door was a meter thick, and while its steel skin looked tough, the inner
core was tougher.

The door closed, and they faced another door. Ben grinned as
he reached up and touched the ceiling. “Eric might feel a little claustrophobic
here.” The chamber was two meters high by two meters wide by two meters deep.
Cameras and other sensors were embedded in the ceiling and walls. Ben had
warned his father that they would have a five-minute wait in the chamber.

The inner door, also a meter thick, finally slid back a
meter into the thick wall.  The research building was designed to be a very secure
building. Besides Miguel and Geoffry, only Rebeka Lee, Ben Lieber, and Dr.
Lieber had access and only after thorough scans.

As they walked through the warehouse portion of the
building, a door automatically slid open to the lab area where Miguel waited. He
shook their hands. “Gentlemen, follow me.” As they walked, he pointed out a
number of partially finished experiments that he was working on.  “Over there,
new components for the ATVs, my cars, and my bikes. And over here, my
lightweight hardened body armor and my ultra-lightweight soft body armor. It’s
all cool stuff and fun, though not commercially profitable in the near future.”

They walked to the back of the lab area and into a large closet.
What appeared to be a pillar at the back of the closet slid
upwards two meters. Miguel motioned Ben and Dr. Lieber to enter. “It's too tight for three.”
Elevator, descend and return after they get off.
He watched as the two were lowered.

After the elevator descended twenty meters into the subterranean complex that
held the commercial experiments, Ben and his father got off. “Very James Bond,” said Ben.

His father smiled. “That's exactly what I told Miguel the first time I came down.”

No one besides the five of them knew about the subterranean
complex beneath the building much less the compact fusion reactor.  The
windmills and the kinetic energy storage, while returning them a reasonable
ROI, were, for the most part, camouflage for the output of the reactor, which
they usually limited to four megawatts because of the lack of fuel. Its maximum
output was forty megawatts.

After Miguel stepped out of the elevator, they joined Geoffry in a small conference
room. After Geoffry shook hands, and they sat down, Dr. Lieber got right down
to business. “Geoffry, is DS1 still on schedule?”

“Yes, Dr. Lieber, it is.”

“And you still believe that your revised estimates are
correct?”

“I’m ninety-eight percent sure that we can achieve seventeen
percent of light speed in six months and maintain it for another six months
before we cut power to the engine.”

“And still have enough power for maneuvering and data
gathering?”

“The instruments and laser should have enough power for at
least twenty years, assuming only a moderate amount of power is needed for
maneuvering.”

“And assuming that the reactor doesn’t blow up and assuming
the ship can avoid catastrophic or even significant collisions.”  Miguel
grinned. “And assuming that aliens don’t fire phasers or disruptors at it.”

Geoffry rolled his eyes. “I think DS1 has a better chance
of surviving twenty years than your DS2 and DS3 clouds.”  Miguel’s tiny probes
made up the bulk of the DS1 payload. Each cloud contained fifty thousand
probes. Able to accelerate to nearly sixty percent of light speed, the first
cloud, DS2, would be released outside of Neptune’s orbit. The DS3 probe cloud
would ride longer depending on in-flight data.

“I’m not sure I’d wager a bet either way. Sure, DS1 is
better shielded to survive strikes that would wipe out one of my probes, but a
probe is more maneuverable, and even if only ten percent of one cloud survives,
it still can perform as we require.” Miguel grinned again. “Besides, an alien
ship won’t even notice the probes. They’ll just look like space dust.”

Ben and Dr. Lieber had a few more technical questions before
they discussed financial issues. Just over a half hour later, Ben and Dr.
Lieber departed. Neither Geoffry nor Miguel had mentioned the alien technology
that sat in the chamber below them. Although it looked like a gate, Geoffrey
and Miguel hadn’t figured out how it worked yet. Even when they got the reactor
online three months ago, they still didn’t have enough power. It powered on but
sucked their kinetic storage units dry without doing anything before it powered
down. They agreed to put further efforts on hold until after the launch.

“I
think the verbiage your staff put together for the
earnings report will be fine. Anything else, Eric?”

Eric looked at his watch, one of the two employees of ANT
who wore a watch. Dr. Lieber was the other. Everyone else simply asked their
implant for the time. “No. That’s it. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t
think it’s too conservative.”

“I think it’s just right. We’ll beat expectations for the
quarter, and if the analysts or pundits want to bleat on about slowing future
growth, let them. If they drive the stock down, we’ll buy more back.” Ben stood
up and patted Eric’s shoulder. Good work, and thanks for coming in. I still
enjoy meeting face to face once in a while.”

“Me too. The 3D imaging for virtual meetings, amazing as it
is, is still not the same.” He slid his hand over Ben’s conference table as he
scanned the walls, looking for the cameras, but not spotting them.

Eric stood up. “I’ll see you here bright and early for the
earnings call.” He closed the door on his way out.

Ben paced around the table as he stretched his neck.
Anything else I need to take care of before I head out?

Karl Hunter called while you were meeting with Mr.
Carlson. He said it was urgent.

OK. Connect me.

What’s up, Karl?

Have you got fifteen minutes, Ben?

Sure, what’s up?

I’ll be right there.

He continued to pace as he waited for Karl.
It can’t be
good news if Karl wants to talk with me in person.

A few minutes later, the door opened, and Karl came in. He
put his finger to his lips and took a small device out of his pocket.  Keeping
it pointed it at the wall, he walked around the perimeter of the office and
then said, “Your office is clean.”

“Was there a breach?”

“The AIs detected a breach in the conference room.”

“What kind of breach?”

“A probe, less than the size of a small pin, drilled
through the conference room window and dropped into the carpet.”

“When?”

“Fifty minutes ago. No one was in the conference room.”

“How did it get through the window?”

“It was fired from an air gun. The velocity and mass were
so low that the sensors couldn’t distinguish it from the rain hitting the
window. Once it stuck in the window, it managed to drill its way through.
Ingenious but scary.”

“And it’s still there?”

“Yes. We thought you might want to use it to put out
disinformation.”

“Any idea who’s behind this?”

“We know that the probe was fired by Anton Boris Karlov, otherwise
known as Boian Ambrosia. We thought we were rid of him. As you already know, he
and his two associates had us under surveillance for four days. They appeared
to be independent contractors working for the government, but the AI’s don’t
believe the government has this kind of tech. We’ll know more when we pull the
probe into the lab and dissect it.”

“OK. We’ll move my meeting in here tomorrow. Brief Geoffry,
Miguel, and Rebeka Lee. Have them create a meeting about something of no value.
As the meeting ends, tell Geoffry and Miguel to start arguing about competing
technologies for space travel. Have them let it slip that DS1 is fission
powered and that the real destination is Mars.”

“Got it.”

N
aami dreamed. In her dream, she was surrounded by Brenda
and seven of her brothers and male cousins.

Brenda glared at her. “You think you’re something special.”

“Everyone is special is their own way.”

“You’re wrong. You ain’t special at all. You’re nothin’ but
a little black bitch.”

Naami giggled. “Are you referring to my skin color or my
ancestry? My skin is really more caramel-colored than black, and even though
I’m proud of my African ancestry, if you want to insult me, you should really
call me a Kraut since half of my ancestors were German and less than a quarter
of my ancestors came from Africa.”

“Screw you, you’re still a nigger.”

“If my skin were as light as yours, would you still call me
a nigger?”

“Damn right!”

“How would you even know?”

“I’d know.”

“How?”

“By the way you look.”

“What if I looked like you?”

“You couldn’t.”

“Maybe not me, but many Americans have at least one African
ancestor, and even they don’t know.”

Naami woke up from her dream and sat up.
Abraham, why do
people dream the things they do?

There are many views about dreams. How long an answer do
you want?

Two hundred words or less.

Famed psychologist Carl Jung believed dreams are a way
for the brain to compensate for events that occur in when a person is awake. So
a person who experiences unhappiness in their waking life may have blissful
dreams to prevent the person’s spirit from plummeting into despair, but a
person who is successful may have dreams of failure or tragedy to compensate
for feelings of invincibility and power.

Similarly, other psychologists suggest that dreams are directed
by particular emotions like fear and envy or emotional responses such as stress
and worry. Their thinking is that varying emotions cause new material to be
constantly "weaved" into the memory of the dreamer in ways that help
the dreamer cope with stress and trauma.

Abraham, wouldn’t recent events affect emotions?

Most likely. I don’t have emotions, and I don’t exactly dream,
but your mother wrote a lot of code that mimics dreams, so when you sleep, I
not only organize the hard data based on the events of the day, but I speculate
about effects of the events, both probable and improbable. That process is not
much different from some scientists’ views of brain activity during sleep. They
believe the brain continues to process issues of concern and constantly attempts
to come up with answers and solutions.

Maybe my dreams try to predict the future. I wonder what
I would look like if my skin were light.

Naami, you should try to go back to sleep.

She lay back down.
Good night, Abraham. I’m going to
dream improbable dreams.

N
aami, wake up. It is 7:00.

Another ten minutes?

You need to get up right now if you want to be on time
for school.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes.
I’m starved.
She put
her feet on the floor, rubbed her eyes again, and stood up facing her mirror.
She blinked and rubbed her skin.
Abraham, I don’t think I’m going to school
today.

N
ew Mexico Medical Research Institute. How can I help
you?

Appointments.

Thank you. Transferring.

Appointments.

I need to make an appointment to see Dr. Shemesh.

Dr. Shemesh is not taking any new—

My daughter and I have seen Dr. Shemesh before.

Is this for you or your daughter?

Both.

I’ll need your universal— Wow, you must have a super-fast implant. Anita and Naamah Schmidt, correct?

Dr. Shemesh is usually booked out several months… Wow, I
can get you both in tomorrow. That’s amazing.

We’ll take it. What times?

Early. 7:30 and 8:00 AM. Are you sure you can make it?

Yes. Book us.

OK. 7:30 and 8:00 it is.

Thank you. We’ll be there.

S
amael waved through a window of the house, one of
several he owned. This one was on his estate, located just outside Sibiu,
Romania. The young topless brunette, leaning against the side of his pool,
waved back. She was one of hundreds of beautiful human women whose company he
had enjoyed since coming to Earth.

He had first explored this area in 106 CE after Trajan's Roman
army defeated the army of Dacia's ruler, Decebalus. At Lilith’s command, he had
joined one of the Roman auxiliary units during that war. As a spy, he had
provided intelligence to Decebalus, but it had not been sufficient to prevent
the Romans from winning the war. Off and on for the next two centuries, he had
recruited Goths and Carpi, inciting them to wage war against the Romans.