MINDLYFT (COMPLETE)

CHAPTER 30

In the following weeks things got surreal. I found myself working side-by-side with Hinka, Knowles and JennaBerry One again, back at Sea of Tranquility, MoonCorp headquarters. Mr. Bannon called in on occasion too and I had full access to Wizard's main terminal. Along with daily HoloCalls with Jimmy and Ollie, we had a truly creative work team, and we started getting results.

The earlier plan devised by Wizard and myself, to create a three dimensional barrier reef of gravitational particles that protected the earth from solar blasts, turned out to be the best solution. I also worked with Nash who'd voluntarily returned to GutterVille. There wasn't any way to reverse the virus we'd sent but we could disable it. Human nature took care of the rest. Within a month more than eighty percent of the population returned to the ThinkingCaps. Life was too easy wearing them, and once they started, the caps were too addictive to stop. It was difficult to watch our little revolution devolve and crumble. Especially hard for Nash.

My reunion with JennyBerry One was awkward at first but here diligence and good ideas helped the project move a lot faster than it would have otherwise. We tried to keep the bureaucracy to a minimum and Knowles proved just as efficient at this as he had been at implementing it. I half expected Dimples to cool on Knowles now that she had guaranteed citizen status, but it turns out she was really into him. I didn't understand it at all, but I guess I'd have to accept the fact that there were more differences between us that would continue to emerge. We had most of the same genes, but they didn't always activate in the same way, and environmental factors played a huge role.

Aside from Dimples having her own view on who was worth loving she also had her own opinions on professional credibility and problem solving. Turns out the solution proposed by our much detested colleague, Dr. Bootlicker, the one proposing a series of smaller shields to defend against an asteroid, was worth pulling out of the trash bin. While our gravitational ripple would be effective against the Sun's most powerful solar tornados, there was a more constant stream of less powerful, but still damaging solar ejections, and Bootlicker's shield proposal would be effective against those. It would also be the start of a larger plan to shield the earth from global killer asteroids. With Mr. Bannon's help we'd started layering what might have been considered imperfect half-solutions on top of one another, creating a series of earth defense measures, that while individually limited, in whole presented a formidable defensive capability.

Knowles put up furious objections to much of what we built, perhaps at the prodding of Hinka, who dragged her feet throughout the process. Whether she really believed in the formulaic rigidity of implementing engineering workarounds or whether she couldn't stand me and Dimples getting the credit for it I can't be certain.

"These defense systems remain untested and Wizard still calculates a thirty percent chance of failure," said Hinka in one of our now weekly meetings with Mr. Bannon. "I don't think the Committee wants to be held responsible for a flawed product. There could be lawsuits not to mention real destruction to the earth if one of these links fails."

"Done is better than perfect," said Ollie in response. "We can keep working on it." Then he barked three times, as if he couldn't stop himself.

"That which is not worth doing is not worth doing well," chimed in Wizard, somewhat inappropriately.

"It's good enough," said Dimples. "Like Ollie said, we'll keep improving on it, but at least we have momentum. Otherwise we'd have twiddled our thumbs with analysis paralysis for two decades and be nowhere."

It was enough to change Knowles' mind but Hinka just sulked silently. Mr. Bannon was on our side now and that was what counted. When the first solar tornado erupted our shield worked and I was given a number of job offers from MoonCorp and several other MeglaCorps. All promising to let me work on my own terms.