Chapter 2.2 - The Discovery (Part 2) V2.1
Five months later Scott, Mynah, and their new partner Mick Jones were working another long day in the lab. They had a dual track of simultaneously testing the nuts and bolts of the technology and prototype development. This wasn't the traditional way to field a new technology, but Fleet insisted on fast-tracking the vital artificial gravity system. Doctor Scott spent the majority of his efforts verifying the results and developing operating manuals for the new system. Mynah assisted her friend as required but found herself deeply involved with helping Mick get the Fleet standard prototype ready for mass production by General Atomics in San Diego.
"Okay Mynah, I'm all set here. Let's check those power-to-g field temperature specifications one more time. We'll go 0 to 110% power okay?"
Mynah checked her console one more time. "Ready here Mick. On my mark. Three, two, one, mark!"
The test run proceeded as planned. As the power level hit maximum Mynah said confidently, "okay Mick, 110% holding steady. 12.3g, 88 Amps."
Mick checked the instruments at his station. "Looks good. 66 degrees and heat flow of less than one thousand Joules per second, call it a thousand Watts. If I get the plumbing right on this, we should be able to use this waste energy to heat the entire ship. Definitely a win-win."
From her station, Mynah answered tiredly. "Still steady Mick, no feedback."
"Okay, let's run the unit at 100% for three more hours."
"Set." Came the response from the dark-haired engineer.
Scott entered the room from the other lab. He stood behind Mynah and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. She did not object to his touch.
"Looks good to me. Any issues with the prototype?"
Mynah smiled as she answered. "Everything is nominal, in fact, better than nominal. Mick is an amazing engineer. These last few weeks I have been watching him work. I think that there is probably nothing he can't fix or fabricate!"
"Great, he's definitely an asset to our team. Do you think he can handle it by himself for a few days?"
Mynah locked her light green eyes to Robert's. She gave him an uncharacteristically seductive smile. "Yeah, sure. What's up?"
Robert winked. "I'll fill you in later, it's all classified. We might have to make a little trip to settle a few technical conventions with one of my old friends in Zurich."
Mynah just nodded. "Okay, I'm in..."
Doctor Scott stepped over to Mick's station. "Mynah tells me that everything looks good here Mister Jones?"
Mick smiled broadly. "Indeed it is sir, one more test tomorrow and with your approval, I'll send the specs to HQ and with any luck, we should be off to GA for manufacturing within a week or two."
"Excellent, that should get Goldberg off my ass!"
Mick just shook his head and kept his opinion of his superior officer to himself.
Robert surveyed the results of the last two test runs on the main screen and asked. "Mick, what's the average heat energy flow from each panel?"
Mick checked his instruments and answered confidently. "Looks like sixty thousand Joules over the last minute at 100% rated power. Mynah and I figured it's about one thousand Watts equivalent at max planned power level."
Doctor Scott thought for a second and then asked the talented young Fleet officer. "Can your thermoelectric radiators handle that much flow?"
"You bet, way more than that. But we shouldn't ever run that high of a g field anyway..."
Robert nodded to himself silently. "Major Jones, I know that weight is always an issue with ship design; but, ah, due to potential, um, other improvements in future versions of the system, could you please ensure that the cooling system could be rated at say, 150% of current capacity?"
Mick winked. "Sure Doc. You'll fill me in when I have a need to know, right?"
Robert winked in response to his new friend without committing to anything. "Just between us girls Mister Jones..."
"Aye, sir!"
A few days later, as they powered down the equipment after another successful test run. Robert stepped over to Mynah's station and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. She momentarily touched her hand to his and then stood up. He looked at her, smiled and asked. "Um, got a minute. We need to talk about phase two."
Mynah nodded and gestured to Robert's office. Robert closed the door and they sat on the worn but comfortable black leather couch. Robert said. "AI, security level three."
The cold mechanical voice of the lab AI announced from an overhead speaker. "Acknowledged."
A few moments later, the window to the main lab shuttered, the door latched and all of the external comm and data systems were shut down. Robert poured two glasses of fresh orange juice handed one to Mynah and got down to business. "Mynah, it looks to me like we should be ready to start a few tests for phase two. Do you agree?"
Mynah sipped her drink and answered confidently. "Yes, I agree. Three extra g–plates are all fabbed up and tested. Mick is finishing up the mounting triad and power tuning system; should be ready for a test run early next week."
Scott nodded. "Yeah, Mick was asking a few questions I couldn't answer. We'll have to read him in on phase two before he figures it out for himself. But before we go live, I want to get the assistance of one of my old friends from grad school. He is in charge of the new European Laser Interferometer Gravity observatory at CERN. They're having a formal dedication ceremony next week and I think that we should attend."
She smiled. "We?"
Robert stared his juice for a moment. "Um, yeah, it'll kinda' be a working vacation. We'll take the tube to Zürich; I'll book us a couple of nice rooms at the conference center and after we take care of business we can play tourist a bit."
Mynah smiled and touched Robert's hand lightly. "I'd love to."
Early the following week, Robert had an auto-cab pick him up and then go directly to Mynah's apartment. She was waiting at the curbside with a small suitcase, carry-on bag and a long heavy coat over her arm. As Robert put her luggage in the back of the cab she said. "I checked the weather grid. Switzerland's idea of winter is little different than SoCal, it's their third coldest on record!"
Robert nodded. "I think it'll be a nice change from a constant sunny and 25C!"
Robert closed the door, tapped the engage key and the small hydrogen-powered cab pulled onto the auto-way and took them to the Los Angeles main international sub–shuttle terminal. The two friends didn't say much on the forty-minute ride from Pasadena to the passenger drop-off area. The main building had two stories above ground, and six underground levels. The lowest two levels were nearly a kilometer underground where the Vancouver, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and New York tubes terminated. The tunnels had been cut with fusion-powered boring machines and the walls were lined with a carbon composite material. The three superconducting tracks were spaced at 120-degree intervals to keep the cars exactly centered in the evacuated tubes. The Los Angeles to New York leg took 42 minutes from block to block. Upon exiting the windowless car, Mynah took Robert's hand and held it tightly. "Bobby, I really don't like these things you know, I'd much rather take something with a window!"
Robert shook his head in agreement. "Yeah, I know what you mean, but you sure can't beat the convenience."
The two Californians had a light snack and shared some wine while waiting to board the sub-shuttle to Paris. The small Café had a giant video board showing a live scene of the city above the deep underground station. As the AI announced the initial boarding call, Robert took Mynah's hand and said. "Two hours more Stygian darkness and we'll be in the City of Lights!"
Mynah smiled thinly and the two walked to the waiting shuttle. The eight-car train reached a maximum velocity of almost 5,000 kilometers an hour deep under the Atlantic but had to slow down to 100 kilometers per hour while transitioning the flexible section of the tube at the mid-Atlantic Ridge boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. Two hours and two minutes after leaving the New York station, Mynah and Robert exited the elevator into the cold winter morning. Robert and Mynah took a short walk around the streets of Paris. As the sun was trying to break through the fog, Robert said. "Not bad, less than five hours ago we were in sunny LA!"
"Yeah, can't beat the speed and convenience of the sub-shuttle, but the view is not so good. Maybe we should take a boat on the trip home!"
Robert answered quietly. "I'd like that, as long as I was with you..."
For the next leg of their journey, they took the so-called bullet train from Paris to Zürich. Robert paid a few extra Euros for the first class view car. Mynah smiled brightly and her mood was almost festive as they took in the scenery. "Bobby this is more like it! I much prefer the window and view."
Robert nodded in agreement but he was mostly watching his beautiful traveling companion and not the snow-covered Alps...
They collected their luggage, exited the main train station in Zürich and Robert's comm unit messaged that a car and driver were waiting on the lower concourse. As they followed the unit's directional commands, Robert commented to Mynah. "They still use a lot of human drivers here."
Mynah nodded. "Yeah, as I understand, it is part of the full employment program left over from the last century."
The uniformed driver met them and said in slightly accented English. "Doktor Scott, Ms. Mittal, Doktor Schmidt sends his regards."
Mynah again enjoyed the view on the 20-minute drive from the train station to the CERN conference center. Upon their arrival, they were greeted by a uniformed concierge. As he opened the electro-cab door, he said in perfect flawless, standard English. "Doctor Scott, your rooms are ready. Please follow me. Your luggage will be delivered."
Mynah was quite pleased as Robert took her hand and escorted her up the steps. She was his plus one after all.
As they checked into their adjoining rooms, Robert said to Mynah. "The mixer is in two hours, Rolf's note says it's casual dress. I'm going to rest my eyes for an hour so... Unless you want to do something else?"
"No. I'm good. Hey, knock on my door 15 minutes early okay?"
"Sure thing."
Mynah closed her door. She had seen the elegant/overdressed clientele as she and Robert had entered the luxurious conference center. She was sure that Doctor Schmidt was a great scientist but was not trusting his description of what casual dress meant. She keyed the vid screen to the main desk. She was pleased to see an attractive looking blonde woman answer the call. "Yes, Madam in what way can I be of assistance?"
Mynah said matter-of-factly. "I need something to wear. California's idea of casual will simply not work."
The young Swiss woman smiled as she took in the visage of the Olive skinned woman with black hair and incredible green eyes. "Yes, I see. If I may, please accept my recommendation to Monsieur Redux. He accepts walk-ins and should be able to meet your needs. His shop is located on the lower shopping level."
"Thank you so much."
Two hours and 10 minutes later, Robert lightly tapped on Mynah's door. He was wearing a fairly standard and boring but well fitting dark suit. She opened the door wearing a big smile and the latest in evening casual from Monsieur Redux.
All Robert could say was. "Um, wow."
Mynah pretended to fan her face with an imaginary fan. "I saw what they consider casual around here, so I got a little help from the locals. Cost me a couple week's salary, but by the look on your face it was worth it!"
Robert shook his head, took her hand and gently kissed her fingers. "Indeed!"
As the two Californians stepped into the crowded banquet room, Robert was greeted by several colleagues. Mynah was definitely right. While some of the older people were wearing the same things they wore to university lectures, the people she and Robert's age were much more stylish. Robert selected a couple of glasses of French Chardonnay from the human waiter and as he was handing Mynah her glass, a large man with an unkempt beard made his way through the crowd. He was holding the hand of an attractive and obviously pregnant blonde woman.
"Robert, willkommen it is so good to see you again!"
Robert shook the large man's hand. "Good to see you Rolf and you too Anne. Congratulations again. Number three yes?"
As the woman smiled and shook Robert's hand she looked at Rolf. "Ja und keine mehr!"
Before Robert could introduce Mynah, Rolf said. "And you Robert, you bring us a gorgeous Hollywood holo star."
Mynah was almost ready to be angry when Rolf continued. "Ms. Mittal, your advances in nanotechnology are amazing. Robert has told me much about your work together. It is my pleasure to finally meet you. Please let me introduce you to my lovely wife, Anne."
Mynah shook both of their hands, sipped her wine and paused a moment. "Thank you, Doctor Schmidt, Anne. I'm very pleased to meet you. Congratulations on the successful start of ELIGO. We look forward to working with you in the future."
For the rest of the evening, Mynah hardly left Robert's side. A couple of the more arrogant academicians initially dismissed her as eye candy until she explained that her on-going Doctoral dissertation involved nano-assemblers, heavy metal matrices and three other things that most of them didn't understand. Towards the end of the evening, Robert excused himself to speak to Rolf alone for ten minutes in a far corner of the room. After a few minutes, Robert came back to Mynah, put his hand on the small of her back, gave her a wink and whispered. "Rolf is on board. He doesn't exactly know what's up, but he promised to stay quiet."
Mynah nodded. "That's good. I'm not exactly sure myself..."
Robert gave her a conspiratorial wink. "I'll fill you in soon enough."
The next morning, Robert and Mynah received a personal tour of ELIGO from Rolf. The massive underground facility had two 10 kilometer long tunnels constructed at 90-degree angles to each other. Each was equipped with powerful and extremely precise argon lasers. They were designed to be able to measure the minutest fluctuation of local gravity fields or any disturbance in the gravitational fields of astronomical objects. It should, when fully calibrated be able to detect the perturbations of a planetary system, the core collapse of a star in a pre-nova phase and even the echo of the Big Bang at the beginning of the universe. As the tour concluded, Rolf offered to take Robert and Mynah out for dinner. Robert politely begged off the offer. "Thank you, Rolf, it's much appreciated but you should most definitely get home to Anne. Mynah and I have the afternoon tube from Paris and in the meantime, we would like to tour Zürich; just the two of us."
Rolf smiled and said with a wink, "Ja, I understand."