Renegade World: Future Past (8 page)

Aaron saw Naami signal Rebeka Lee. The other woman was
older, about Rebeka Lee’s height, but darker with slightly narrower shoulders. 
Aaron wondered if the woman was Rebeka Lee's mother.

Mrs. Schmidt introduced them. “Mom, this is Aaron Lieber, Erica
Carlson, and her brother Thor. Her mom shook hands with each of them as they
were announced.

“You can all call me Gran Evangelista. I’ve heard so much
about you all.”

Thor looked surprised. As he turned to Naami, Mrs. Schmidt
said, “I believe you all know Rebeka Lee.” They all nodded and said hi.

Naami giggled. “You are a good basketball player, Thor.”

“Thank you.” He looked at the others. “When have you seen
me play?”

Naami giggled again. “I watch all your basketball practices.
I’m good at blending in. Aaron has never noticed me watching.”

Aaron stared at her briefly. “You’re the kid in the
baseball cap and sunglasses.”

She nodded and had Abraham send her thought.
No fair
consulting your AI. Does your AI have a name? Mine’s Abraham.

Leonardo,
came the reply.

She took Erica and Aaron’s hands and pulled them away with
Thor and Rebeka Lee following behind. “I want to introduce you to some of the
others.” She led them over to the group that included Mr. and Mrs. Carlson,
Miguel, and Geoffry. There were two others behind Mr. Carlson she couldn’t see.

She grabbed the arm of the thin, intense looking man and
grinned. “Ciao, Miguel.”  As Naami said their names, Miguel shook hands with
Aaron, Thor, and Erica. “And this is Geoffry.” Geoffry, darker and shorter than
Miguel, shook hands with them also.

Aaron was standing between two men. “Naami,” he put his
hand on the shoulder of the man to his right, “this is my dad, Ben.”

Naami shook his hand. “I’ve seen your picture. Your company
bought my parents’ company.”

He smiled. “One of their companies.”

Aaron said, “And this is my grandad, Dr. Larry Lieber.”

“Too formal, Aaron. Besides, Naami and I are old friends.”

“Really?”

Naami giggled. “Yes. I used to visit Doc Larry all the
time.”

Thor asked Miguel and Geoffry what they were working on. They
looked at each other before Miguel finally answered. “We’re finally going to
finish off our Ph.D.s.”

Geoffry added, “If I can keep Miguel out of the lab long
enough. Every time he goes in there, he comes out with a new idea for a
product.”

Mr. Carlson said, “That seems to be a good thing. You guys just
were awarded patents for several molecular machine technologies.”

 Miguel shrugged. “The patents for all the really good
stuff we worked on before are held by Thinking Technologies and Life Quality
Technologies.”

“And we can’t even talk about those.”  As he looked nervously
at Dr. Lieber, Geoffry added, “And for good reason.”

Abraham, is their lab next to Rebeka Lee’s farm, by the
windmills?

One minute. Let me check.

Exactly one minute later, Abraham came back with the answer
to her question and more.
Yes, the lab building is near the windmills. Rebeka
Lee and her cousin own the land with the windmills. The four of them jointly
own a company that owns the windmills, the building, and the electrical storage
farm.

How many windmills are there?

Twelve. They are connected to the grid and sell power to
other electric companies.

Do they sell a lot of power? Do they make a lot of
money?

I will check.

Rebeka Lee said, “And you guys are going to have to spend
some time beefing up your security.”

Miguel grinned at Rebeka Lee and then looked at the others.
“We’ve had a hacking contest for the past ten years. Rebeka Lee’s out for
revenge. We broke into one of her systems last year.”

“I’m going to get you this year.”

“Not likely.”

Aaron asked, “Can anyone else join your contest? I’ve read
a lot about hacking techniques.”

Rebeka Lee said, “Bring it on. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Abraham, will you teach me about computer hacking?

Yes, but I suspect all three of them are way out of our
league.

We’ll see about that, especially after I get my birthday
present. If we’re not in their league now, in a couple of years, and with our own
big brother…

Just then, Naami's mom brought out a large sheet cake with
chocolate frosting. Five candles burned in the center. Naami's dad started
singing happy birthday, and everyone else joined in. The lights flickered and
then came back on again.

“Don't worry,” called out Mrs. Schmidt, “Our backup system
has plenty of capacity.”

Miguel said, “They should install an in-line system. The
lights wouldn’t have even flickered.”

Naami, Miguel holds several patents for technology used
in kinetic energy storage devices used in many of the bigger in-line
residential systems.

Kinetic energy storage… like flywheels?

Yes. Do you want a detailed description?

Not at my party. Remind me later.

Geoffry replied to Miguel, “If we had gone nuclear like
China, no one would need a system at all.”

Miguel smirked. “Spoken like a true physicist.”

“You have to admit that China solved their power shortage
situation in during the 2030s mainly due to their nuclear plant building
program. Their air quality has improved every year since then too.”

“Yes, but we don't have to worry about a nuclear explosion
here like China does, or a level seven plant disaster like Chernobyl, or the
release of radioactive krypton like Three Mile Island.”

“Wouldn't happen with today's technologies,” rebutted
Geoffry. “Chernobyl and Three Mile Island used ancient technologies compared
with the fourth generation nuclear plants. Even the Chinese third generation
plants have never had an accident.”

Miguel laughed, “Right, as if we would ever know. Besides,
we don't have to worry about nuclear waste.”

“There are plenty of natural geological structures that
could be used for repositories especially after the waste is processed to
stabilize it into a form that won't react or degrade for thousands of years. Is
that perfectly safe? Heck no, but in a couple hundred years we can develop even
better solutions.”

The argument continued to see-saw back and forth becoming
more technical and even more heated. After that argument wound down, they began
arguing about the feasibility of time travel.

About a half hour later, the three teens said their
goodbyes to Naami and again wished her a happy birthday. “Thanks for coming to
my party. See you at the studio tomorrow.”

As they walked away, Thor said, “Well I don't know about
you guys, but I was over my head. That was a lot of super brainy people in one
room. It would really be cool if Geoffry is right.”

His sister gave him her usual skeptical look, head tilted
slightly to the right with her right eye half closed. “Time travel? Really?”

He responded by mimicking her, but with his tongue sticking
out. “Well. It would be cool.”

N
aami had tagged along with Aaron and Thor after their basketball
practice earlier in the day. She ate lunch with them and then shot free throws
with them, Aaron instructing her on proper form.

Aaron put the ball away. “OK, Naami. We promised you could
watch us if you kept all your questions until afterward.”

“Yes, I remember. I’ll let you focus.”

Thor’s weight room was in his basement. It had a weight
bench, a squat stand, some barbells and dumbbells, a bar for pull-ups, and an
adjustable-height platform for box jumps. He and Aaron used this equipment in the same routine
three days every week.

First, they each jumped from the floor onto the platform
twelve times. Then, they did three sets of power cleans followed by their
second set of jump-ups. Three sets of bench presses came next followed by the
third set of jump-ups. Aaron's AI tracked their heart rates and let them know
when to start the each set.

Naami didn’t ask any questions, but she watched carefully,
sometimes mimicking their movements.

After Thor finished his third set of dumbbell rows, he
toweled off his face. “Can we be done now?”

Aaron shot him a look and winked at Naami. “Just squats and
pull-ups left.”

“Well, at least I won't puke today.”

Yesterday had been a speed day. On speed day, they always
ran three sets of four 400-meter intervals, targeting a minute for each. After
the twelfth one, Thor had wobbled onto the grass, dropped to his hands and
knees, and vomited.

They went through their three sets of squats. Thor had
caught up to Aaron in the bench press, but Aaron could still squat more than
Thor.

Thor groaned and massaged his leg muscles. “I'm really
enjoying this…not!”

Naami got up. “Thanks for letting me watch you guys. I’ve
got some questions, but I’ll have to wait to ask them because I’ve got to go.”

Thor said, “See you. Can you find your way out?”

“Of course.”

Arron waved goodbye as Naami disappeared.

Thor continued massaging his legs silently for a minute and
wiped the sweat off his face. “I really enjoy our sparring sessions with Naami’s
dad. He is good.”

They had sparred three more times since the first night. A
couple of the other black belts had come the second night but had not joined in
again.

Aaron took a long drink of water. “It would be six of us if
Naami was tall enough to spar us.”

“And most of the kids her size are terrified of her even
though she has the best control in her class.”

“Where did you hear that?” asked Aaron.

“I talked with Steve Smith yesterday at the mall. He said
that the Wong twins were the only ones short enough to spar her who didn't
spend the whole time backing up and circling.”

Daniel and Sarah Wong were fearless eleven-year-old brown
belts who were probably still over a head taller than Naami.

“Did Steve say how she did against them?”

“He said she frustrated them. He said it seemed like she
knew what they were going to do before they did.”

Aaron immediately said, “Her dad seems to be able to do
that too.”

 
Maybe they are both clairsentient. Clairsentience is
one of the six human special functions mentioned in Buddhism. It refers to a
person who can feel the vibration of other people. Some say it is the ability
to ‘know’ information through ‘impressions,’ without having the experience of
seeing, hearing, or feeling first. A heightened form of what people call
intuition.
When Aaron didn't respond to that thought, Leonardo added,
Too
Sci-Fi?

“Her dad has years of experience,” Thor countered, “so I
don't think it’s quite the same.” He paused in thought. “I hope she doesn't
burn out. I'd like to see what she can do if she sticks with it.”

“Well, maybe if she gets involved in other things too, she
won't burn out.”

“Like what,” asked Thor.

“Like gymnastics. I'm going to take her to watch one of Mr.
Patterson's classes tomorrow.”

“Isn't he retired by now? I never really liked him.”

“He still teaches some, but his granddaughter teaches most
of the classes. You didn't like him because he told your mom that your
attention span wasn't long enough to follow directions.”

“Well, I was only five.”

“Naami's five.”

“Give me a break. She's like 99.99999 percentile.”

“Probably higher than that, and what percentile were you?”

“Well I was at least”— he laughed —“10
^th
percentile.”

Aaron laughed with him. “You've come a long way. You’re way
up to”— he smirked as he paused —“20
^th
percentile.

Thor threatened to throw a dumbbell at him.

C
amila drove Aaron and Naami to the gymnastics studio
that was located in an industrial park. It had always seemed like an odd
location to Aaron. As Camila dropped them off at the door, she said, “I should
come back in two hours, right?”

“If we’re not waiting outside, you can come in,” replied
Aaron.

“OK, ciao.” She waved as she drove off.

They walked into the building, unchanged since Aaron had
stopped taking lessons. It was one big room about 40 feet by 100 feet, and the
ceiling was about 30 feet high. It had areas for floor exercise, balance beams,
vaults, high bar, uneven bar, parallel bars and more.

Naami asked, “Why are the trampolines folded up?”

“Don't worry. They will set them up when they want to use
them.” He pointed up to a balcony. “Let's go up there and watch.” They walked
up the stairs to the small balcony that had three tiers with a dozen folding
chairs on each tier.

Two classes were just starting. Mr. Patterson started his
class, targeted at level four and five skills, in the floor exercise area.
There were eight girls in his class.

Mr. Patterson started his class with stretching and
warm-ups. They then worked on split leaps, back walkovers, cartwheels, round-offs,
and round-off back handsprings. Mr. Patterson spotted most of the girls on
their handsprings.

Naami thought to herself,
I can do all of this already.

The class moved on to the balance beams and then on to the
uneven bars. The girls worked on pullovers, front hip circles, mill circles,
and cast back hip circles.

 They then moved on to vaulting. Several of the girls did
simple straddle vaults. Most of them did front hand springs with Mr. Patterson
spotting them. Two girls did them without his help.

They finished with twenty minutes on the trampolines, which
only gave five minutes per girl. Most of them did front somersaults or back
somersaults. Some added a half twist. One girl did a lazy back, a three-quarter
backflip to the stomach. She did three more of them, and after her third one,
she went right into a back somersault. “I liked that,” giggled Naami as she
squirmed in her chair. The girl did a front drop right into a back somersault
with a half twist. Naami clapped her hands. “Ooh, that's even better.” The girl
then did a lazy back right into a back somersault with a half twist. Naami
started jumping up and down. “That was the best.”