Uplift (12 page)

“Good idea General. I’ll try to get it done yesterday if we have a deal with the zero point generators,” I said.

Stephens went on. “My people all tell me they work just fine, and I will authorize this myself. These generators cost just a fraction of my fuel budget, but it will piss off many of the folks that sell us fuel.”

“No doubt about that sir. We’re on it,” and I ducked out of his office. Shit. We’d have to really move on this one. Corey. Can we really make supercapacitors that will charge almost immediately, but keep a charge for a good period of time?

Ah. Should be no problem. I’m surprised I didn’t think about it. Even I have blind spots. Supercapacitors can take a charge in a few seconds, and the ones I can help design will make all the weapons much lighter.

That’s going to require a lot of retraining for people because shooters automatically adjust to the weight of the weapon. The railgun will have more kick because it will be lighter… so we’ll have to redesign the recoil buffer on those too.

I didn’t think of that either, Corey said.

It the difference of actually using weapons, and designing them – it’s where me being human will help you.

Glad I found something useful you could do (chuckle), thought Corey.

Very funny…

****

Hamilton came to me with the latest reports on the zero point modules.

“What is it Hamilton?” I asked as he said that’s how he wanted to be called by friends instead of ‘Tony’.

He sat there a minute, and saw my bodyguards were out of earshot, and he canted his head a bit to the side, and back a bit while squinting slightly. “You’ve had a lot of the quick training we’re all getting, but it isn’t the same for you.” He said – it wasn’t a question. “You’re getting a continuous feed of information aren’t you?” Again – the question was rhetorical. “How, and why? We’ve been together almost from the get-go on this, and I want to know where we’re headed. All our predictions look pretty grim. There will be massive fighting, and deaths – soldiers, and civilian populations due to these ‘innovations’ we are introducing. No one man – not DaVinci, not Tesla, not Musk introduced so much so soon. Trust me,” he said running out of steam.

“I can’t…yes I have access to quick learning with technology above current levels…I just need you to back me up because its going to get really weird pretty soon when we start to accelerate the tech improvements,” I said.

“…like the supercapacitor?” he asked.

“No. We had supercapacitors – all we are introducing there is an incremental innovation. The power supplies are the first radical innovation.”

“What about invisibility?” he asked.

“We’d been messing around with meta-material, and OLED projections for years – I guess the shield technology, and invisibility are jumping ahead fifty years. When we jump ahead a thousand years, or more is when it’s going to get weird,” I said in the most candid admission I’d ever made.

“So what we’re doing is just warming up the pan before we get it hot, and jump into it…” he said.

“Pretty much,” I said. “I’ll explain more pretty soon…as soon as the zero point modules power modules are being introduced world wide.”

That seemed to placate him for the moment, but he sent me a report from his wrist MemDex, and wanted my comments. It was detailing how the supercapacitors had worked even better than we thought, and the soldiers liked the adaptations. They all kept their old hydrocarbon units for now in case no zero point module was available for charging, but really liked the lightweight of the supercapacitors. They were even able to get the same number of shots with either system. Taking five pounds off their back meant they could cover more territory easier, and resupply wouldn’t be as critical now.

  People’s Liberation Army HQ – Beijing, China

Shàngjiàng (General) Zhang Wei of the People’s Liberation Army, General Armaments Department was disturbed. The Americans were frustrating him on every turn. It wasn’t enough that China had ‘liberated’ Taiwan before our current internal troubles. The technology of the West was far outstripping China’s own. These pulse guns, and railguns threw everything out of balance. It was shaming to admit we could not duplicate their shield abilities – our shields were weaker, and they could not be adapted to become invisible nor allow the user to move while the shield is on…and now this report.

His intelligence team had seen demonstrations of power generating devices that are cheap, and can produce 25kW of power indefinitely. The Americans have put these plans on the Net for anyone to use…and they work. How can we face this deluge of new technology? The ministers are demanding I produce these miracles at less cost. Now…an envoy from this company that produces these wonders wishes to meet with me. They will demand cost increases for the new generators I am sure. I must remain calm. “Show them in?” I tell my aide, and bid him leave afterward…sure that he has listening devices littered around my office.

The two pale Americans that came in fit the stereotypical pale skinned giant with perfect teeth, and running shoes.

“Colonel General Zhang Wei. I am very pleased to meet you,” said the first man with reddish hair, and freckles.

“Greetings. You are with AcuMint?” the general said now a bit chagrined that he had sent away his aide that spoke better English.

“I am sorry. My name is Stewart Avery, and this is James Cowan. We work for Richard Patterson. He said he worked with you briefly in Indonesia when he was working with Sigma Max.”

“Oh. Lieutenant Patterson. He is a good man, but I thought he was dying of cancer.”

“Not now general. He looks about thirty years old. He’s the one that has come up with many of these ideas. He wanted you to have a sample of his newest products, but we left them in the van in the parking lot because there was so much equipment.”

“I do know the man,” the general said, but disbelieved it was the same one that had invented all this technology. How could he still be alive – ah – he has unlimited funds now, and wants me to give him more. “He wants to sell me more products at three times his manufacturing cost again,” the general said sternly.

“No. No. Sir. James here speaks almost fluent Mandarin. We were sent here, on indefinite loan, to help you start manufacture of these new products. Could you send some people to bring the equipment here so we can demonstrate it for you? It’s in the gray van.”

“More weapons?” the general asked. Why didn’t this Avery person have the man Cowan speak in Mandarin – stupid Americans, he thought as he walked to the double doors of his office, and threw them open. He saw his aide listening to a small device. “You’ve been listening. Go get some people, and bring that equipment here.” The man started to deny listening, but the General yelled, “Now!”

The aide ran down the corridor, and in five minutes came with five other soldiers struggling with many cases, and boxes. Evidently the van was filled to the brim. The general motioned them to put it all in his office. They did so, and tried to look calm, and at ease, but they were sweating through their uniforms.

The general told them that would be all – they saluted, and left though the aide stayed.

“It will be easier to hear from in here – stay,” he said in Mandarin with obvious disgust. He turned to the westerners.

“What have got for me?” he asked.

They opened the largest crate by folding down the sides. It looked simply like a huge plastic cube with huge insulators.

General Zhang Wei was not about to ask the purpose of the device – he would let them blurt it out.

“This is for your next desalinization project, or to replace the system in Shanghai.” Avery said proudly.

“We have a system that does that already. It supplies the whole population there,” the general said. “We already produce fresh water, and that device is too small.”

“This device doesn’t produce fresh water. I am sorry to give that impression. This device produces electricity to power the plant. This device produces 500 megawatts of electricity. You would use a bank of them. Mister Patterson says you could increase output to six million cubic meters of fresh water per day with these,” Avery said.

“How much does Mister Patterson want for these? Millions?” the general was able to sound sarcastic.

“This device costs about $2,500 to manufacture. I have plans here for this device, but I’m not sure the Chinese is perfect. We’re here to work out any problem,” Avery said.

The aide spoke up. “Surely you mean 500 kilowatts, and not megawatts Mister Avery. What does this use for fuel?”

“These use zero point energy, and we’ve never had one fail. The output is megawatts. We have a gigawatt one at home, but we have problems with the transmission lines, and insulators so this is our largest one so far that is utterly reliable,” Avery said.

“Kilowatts?” asked the aide.

“兆瓦不会千瓦。六台设备会产生三个亿千瓦的大型淡水厂。” said Cowan. “Megawatts. I told him six devices would produce three gigawatts of power for the huge fresh water plant they were considering.”

“You will help us build these generators? At what cost?” the general asked.

“Sir. Our boss, Mister Patterson ordered us to help you any way we could…we have much more to show you. None of this costs you anything. Mister Patterson said that it would be destabilizing to not have these devices distributed everywhere. The US doesn’t have the manufacturing capacity. Your environmental problems will get better if your electricity costs drop. You can manufacture small ones for your people, and vehicles. That would give you more money to spend on infrastructure – roads, bridges, and dams.”

“This will be very disruptive everywhere,” said the aide.

“Yes, but cheap power will relieve much of your current internal stresses,” Avery said.

“What else do you have for us?” said the general knowing that adopting this technology would be like opening Pandora’s box.

“Here are the plans on paper, and electronically for all different sizes. This contains our basic research on how these work – we don’t understand everything, but we hope to understand more by sharing with you.”

Avery continued, “This is probably more important – this is a learning interface,” he said, and held up a wired net shaped to fit over a head. It was wired to a small box. This stimulates learning – we’ve got topics for physics, chemistry, mathematics, material science, and energy production. These are just the basic education ones too.”

“They only work in English I suppose,” said the aide sarcastically.

The general was annoyed that his aide had spoken, but it mirrored his own thoughts.

“No. I thought so too, but this works with any person – in any language. You remember the lessons in whatever language is native to you, or near native.”

“That is impossible,” said the aide.

“Since it happens – it may be possible…” Cowan said. “The learning programs are easy to duplicate also. We will make several of the machines available to you with plans to make more. We have plans for devices to record any other training programs you want to record, and distribute.”

The two men demonstrated a few other devices that were impressive, but not on the scale of the eternal free power supply, and teaching device. The general told his aide to see to their lodging, but held him back as they were leaving.

“I trust these people as much as I trust a hedge fund manager. Make sure all this is triple checked. You are with the intelligence branch – I’ve known since you were assigned. Watch them, and I want to know everything this Richard Patterson does,” The general ordered.

“We’re trying,” said the aide.

“Try harder,” the general said menacingly.

AcuMint Headquarters – Cary, North Carolina

Richard Patterson, and Corey were discussing the developments.

I think the zero point modules are getting made worldwide. It looks like they will transform many industries.

You mean to say that they are making half the industries obsolete. There have been labor riots all over China, India, South America, Africa, Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, …

…and the Middle East is on fire – again. I’m not thinking about any of that right now. My body has been changing, and I haven’t been with a woman in quite some time – years. I’m feeling the effects. Every time a woman walks by now I smell their scent – it’s driving me mad.

Part of your upgrade I expect. Your nanites have been busy, and you haven’t integrated all your new abilities. Try to see across the lab – how fine is your vision?

I can read the serial numbers on the equipment tags.

Walk into the test range.

I walked into the dark test range, and the light came on.

Turn the lights off.

“Lights off,” I said, and the lights dimmed, but normally that would have destroyed my night vision, but mine adapted almost instantaneously, and I could see dimly around me.

Now I want you to try something. Close your eyes for a second, and then, open them looking for heat – think infrared
.