Trade World Saga 1: Manual Interpretation (11 page)

"They already told me all they know," Desiree stated.

Andrew jerked around, incredulous at this side of Desiree he had never seen before. He knew Tod and Desiree had been serious for some time but he had seen her as delicate and passive.

"You don't think I just used those electrical cords just to tie them up, do you?" She said, obviously amused at Andrew's shock.

The police came fairly promptly which was unusual these days and questioned the two men who wouldn’t give them the time of day. Tod and Desiree were asked to go downtown and swear out warrants but they refused knowing how many wasted hours of their time would be used on the repeated continuances conjured up by defense attorneys in the criminal justice system. Heck, Tod thought, they’d be more likely to arrest us for our ‘innovative’ questioning techniques than they would keep the two for aggravated assault and attempted burglary. When the police had finished their non-productive questioning and removed the two after charging them with criminal trespassing. No witnesses had to go downtown for that charge since these two were definitely not students and campuses had enacted some pretty stiff trespassing laws with so many ‘incidents’ at universities over the years. The police carted them off and the rest of the team had drifted in by then.

Andrew began the discussion with the now assembled group. He told them of the rejection by the different universities and of the subsequent attack. Desiree related the information she had obtained adding that the university knew of their plans and the information had leaked. Someone, Andrew guessed Philips, had sent these two to obtain the prototype for though the university desperately wanted the fusion generator; they would have nothing to do with an ‘outer space suicide’ as they termed it. They appeared to be as fanatical at getting the prototype generator ,as they were adamant about sabotaging
any
space flight plans.

Andrew suggested that they ask for round-the-clock lookouts from the team to be placed in the lab and they should all continue with their research and development until he could get the final funding and support.

Susan suggested that he return to her apartment, where they revived through their mutual tenderness and love. It was two sleepless days of frustrating silence later that Andrew received a personal message on his MemDex.

Will arrive Tuesday with offer and possible assistance. Please accept no other offer until then. Bradford R. Kyger, W.D.A.

"What the hell does this mean? How did he get my filtered address? What's the W.D.A.? I've never heard of it, have you?" he said turning to Susan. They found no mention of Bradford Kyger on the Net and there were several thousand acronyms using WDA. Too much undefined information was the same as no information.

"No, probably some commercial interest monopoly. We really don't have much choice, do we? Maybe he'll have an offer we can use."

The Exploration Service interrogator had felt uneasy with the departure of the solo Tros named Rett. The whole interview had left something out. This Rett didn't seem to be a smuggler or exploiter and a homemade solo ship was extraordinary, in itself. His ship had been tiny and it was an unusual design but pretty fast. Why had he felt as if the Tros was not telling the truth, even under interrogation?

Trying to protect the innocents of this spiral arm was not his chore. His duty was to see that no advanced race interfered with trade or disrupted trade with a planet before his service was ready for that sanctioned trade to begin. So many worlds; it was impossible to visit all these backwaters.

At least we have all the home world information on this Rett. If any problems arise, I shall just dispatch the closest ship for eradication. Maybe I should head closer to that section of the spiral arm. No rush; careful acts are not hasty acts, the interrogator thought to himself.

Andrew was working on a field generator to hook to the fusion power supply when the enunciator chimed to indicate a visitor to his lab. Since Andrew was more cautious of late, he looked through the viewer and saw a neat man in his thirties with a briefcase.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Andrew said through the door speaker.

"My name is Brad Kyger. I sent you a message. Are you Williams? I was told he was here," the man said.

"Yes, that's me. Come on in," Andrew said warily though the door.

The man was a little short of two meters tall with short black hair and as the man walked in Andrew noted how erect and confident his stride seemed.

"What do you know about our project and why have you come? Andrew asked.

"I'll get right to the point. The World Government wants your assistance in the design of further power systems. Individual power systems like you propose will destabilize the world economy and threaten the peace of the world. I was sent here to negotiate a deal with you," the man stated and sat down and opened his briefcase.

"You want to suppress the fusion power supply system then," Andrew said sarcastically.

"Not at all. We, the world government, wish to mass produce your power supply at little more than cost. We would educate the population in its use and set up distribution to lessen the impact of sporadic production and distribution. Half the countries of the world don't have anything to power even if they had the generators. The other half would be destabilized; utility companies, airlines, automobile manufacturers. The participation of the World Government would give the credibility they need right now. I have seen your contract with the university and we have precedents that we can use to pay them off and still give them a small percentage."

"Temporarily destabilized, but increased energy abundance would also mean many new jobs -- new inventions. What do you know about our project? I will not help you unless I have a written guarantee for funding and assistance on this project,” Andrew stated. “Plus we have some other projects we want to finish also.”

"Well," the man continued, "I have a contract with me that shows clear cut guarantees and I'm empowered to make necessary deletions or additions."

As Andrew looked at the copy and began reading the contract, he was amazed at the depth of knowledge the World Government had concerning their spacecraft. How could they have gotten this information? The university must have been so panicked by his offer that they turned all of the information over to the World Government plus some information gathered on their own.

"Why is the World Government so anxious to help us when everyone else has an aversion to the thought of going into space?" Andrew asked, looking up from the contract.

Lieutenant Colonel Kyger didn't hesitate and said, "The World Government is in its infancy. A destabilizing influence like your power supply could set up the warring nations' syndrome again. We need a distraction and a positive focus. Right now, we want to aid in setting up a strong government and your fusion generators could be that factor. We are interested in how your team has managed all these technological advances in this backwater university. Your project could help us do focus the attention of the world, it seems. How did you come up with the designs?"

Andrew was affronted by the term backwater but figured it was essentially true for the University in the Arizona. "We keep control of our project. No exceptions," Andrew stated flatly, ignoring the implication the designs weren't their own work.

"I know you need a chemist. I am also a linguist of sorts. We don't want control of your project but we do require free access to all information gathered from it. This project isn't going to get far as it is set up now. We can give you the logistical support the university isn't willing to commit. We already have a verbal commitment from them to release you from their contract. You'll get credit for patents and ten per cent of the profits on any devices or techniques you come up with after expenses. The university gets some bragging rights. The power supplies alone ought to make your group wealthy, the university will be VERY well off too. For that reason, a condition for acceptance by the World Government is that they send someone along with your group if you are successful. It's in the contract; you just haven't read that far yet. That person, me, will also help to coordinate protection for you from hostile factions," the man said.

Andrew couldn't help liking this man with the infectious grin, but the contract was the best part. It looked legitimate. Everybody must know about this help. He knew that if this guy knew this much...the government leaks would simply get worse and worse until it was totally out of their hands. This contract might save the project if the team went for it.

"How many months will it take before you can complete another working model of your generator?" the man asked.

Well he doesn't know everything, thought Andrew. "We've already built one and are finishing installations on our ship."

Lieutenant Colonel Kyger looked shocked at this news but said nothing.

"What do your friends call you?" Andrew asked.

"Call me Brad," he said as they shook hands.

Andrew took Brad and the contract to meet the rest of the group. All seemed to accept him but they were still hurt by John's injury and Brad just reminded them of John's absence. They couldn't be too enthusiastic. Andrew related his concerns about Philips but Brad said he was aware of the problem.

Everything ran smoothly with the assistance of the World Government, using the university as a staging area. The components of the ship began to take shape under Andrew's guidance. Steve was in charge of assembling the ship's computer network and getting it running.

Brad had two separate incidents with intruders but dealt with them, and as was his way, never mentioned them to the group. Fran once heard him directing the dispatch of an interloper with a suppressed weapon firing from some unseen location. The assailant had been armed but never had a chance to use his weapon. Fran kept his secret and was drawn closer to Brad.

Susan figured out a material to bond the ship's outside and interior partitions. The material had been used previously to make boats and was a meld between a ceramic with an embedded carbon fiber. A simple framework was built and the material was sprayed on. It then cured rapidly. It was easy to work until it had completely cured. It gave the ungainly craft a more finished appearance.

The ship began to take on its finished shape as the outside shell was sprayed on and smoothed. The environmental systems had already been installed and the power supplies were being hooked in but Andrew still hadn't finished his field apparatus. Tod and Desiree had made headway with the field theory however.

Andrew finally made a device to produce a controlled field and was overcome with how simple it was. It's amazing, Andrew thought, how simple something seems after it was made. Hindsight comes easier than insight.

The team was able to produce full-scale fields, only weeks after their success with the control mechanisms. All they needed to do was install field generators on the ship for the ship to be flight worthy...well...theoretically flight worthy. The ship was prepared for its dry dock tests at the same time several manufacturing plants owned by the World Government began production of the fusion generators.

Up to this point, the ship had been relatively obscure, mentioned rarely or briefly on news programs. Now, as the World Government was pressing for introduction of its fusion generators, the ship became a focal point for publicity. Word dynamicists prepared press releases for emotional and psychological impact so the world's population would come to accept these achievements as their own. The safety, simplicity, and economy of the new fusion generators were demonstrated again, and again. Utility stocks plummeted and everyone scrambled to shift their energy sources to take cold fusion generators into account. Electric car manufacturers found that they could dump their heavy battery packs in favor of the new fusion generators. Factories churned out the generators and production couldn't come close to demand.

The ship and any expeditions it might make were portrayed as mankind's hope and determination for the future. The government was using the ship, whether it worked or not, as a rallying point to catch the imagination of a world that had turned inward after the decimation from the Viral B years before. The government wished to gain support while increasing the standard of living even in remote areas of the Earth. There were no idealistic motives; the government was served and the population benefited. The ship and all scientific advances related to it were simply timely and dramatic at this point in history. Some other focal point would have been used if the generator and the field mechanism had never been produced.

Only understanding the people at the time could explain how rapidly the generators and the ship could have been so widely accepted. People soon thought of the Wildcat as
Their
Ship
and pressed for its completion. The turmoil caused by the sudden cheap power source was portrayed as being the result from oil and transportation moguls and they were fairly accurate. Those corporations that had based their investments and power base on control of energy sources were devastated and floundering for balance. They had tried to stabilize their control by diversifying in all alternate energy production and research. They never guessed an alternative to all the known energy production methods would become available. The introduction of the new technology was so rapid that countries, corporations and individuals who were heavily invested in fossil fuels and large energy grids were still reeling.