Chapter 2.4 - The Discovery (Part 4) V2.1
A few days after the steakhouse celebration, Robert called Mynah into his office and closed the door. He sat down on the old couch and gestured for her to join him. "Um, about the other night, I have been thinking a lot...people around here have been talking about us and..."
Mynah thought she knew what was coming next but managed to keep her composure.
Robert went on. "Mynah, um, I like and respect you as a colleague and find you to be a remarkably beautiful woman who also happens to be an engineering genius..."
Mynah stood up. "What, you don't think we can work together and have a relationship?"
Robert didn't say anything for a few seconds and then. "No!" He took her hands in his. "I, I'm really no good at this...I finally saw the light, the forest from the trees or whatever..."
She shook her head. "Bobby, if the choice is between us working together or us being together; I choose being together."
He smiled in agreement. "I'm sorry it took so long, what can I say, I am an idiot!...but I want you and I want us to do what we do together and if someone doesn't like it, to hell with them!"
To prove that she agreed; Ms. Mynah Mittal inappropriately and unprofessionally reached over and touched the face of her colleague and employer, Doctor Robert Scott. He responded with a willing kiss. Robert then turned off the AI surveillance systems, latched the door and the two made out like giggling high school kids for a few minutes. Their afternoon turned into an early dinner and late night...
The following Saturday morning, in his apartment Robert and Mynah awoke in each other's arms. The warm California sun was coming through the window, making the room feel even more comfortable.
They looked into each other's eyes for a few moments and Mynah broke the awkwardness by kissing him gently on the lips. "Good morning Bobby."
He smiled broadly and returned the kiss. "Yes, yes it is!"
Mynah slid out of the bed and stepped on to the terracotta tile floor and made her way to the en-suite. Robert could not help but admire the view. A few moments later, he heard the water in the shower come on. Mynah appeared in the doorway, put her hands on her bare hips and said softly. "Bobby, there is plenty of room in the shower, care to join me?"
Later on, that morning as they were sipping coffee on the patio in the small garden, Mynah reached over and squeezed Robert's hand. "Bobby, I know that we said that we were not going to talk about work or the project all weekend, but there is one question I have to ask."
Robert put his cup down and gave her a wary look. "Okay, go ahead ask away. I think that you have earned the right."
"Well, everything that we have done so far has worked almost exactly like you said it would, and just like you wrote in all those papers. You have never shown the slightest doubt. How can you be so sure about all of this?"
He squeezed her hand again. "Okay, I'll let you in on a little secret, a family secret. My grandmother Hiroko once told me that faster than light travel and artificial gravity were possible. She said that she had seen it work in person."
Mynah nodded thoughtfully. "Your grandmother Hiroko?"
Robert gave her a knowing smile and nodded in the affirmative.
Mynah then asked knowingly. "The Hiroko-McAdams Scott, the first governor of the Mars colony?"
Robert smiled broadly. "Yes, that's her. She and my grandfather James are both pretty remarkable people. They both received degrees in physics from Caltech, it kind of runs in the family you know. Grandfather James is the colony's chief engineer."
"And your grandmother told you that artificial gravity was possible when all of the so-called experts said that it wasn't?"
Robert nodded again. "Yes, when I was little before she left for Mars, we were on the roof deck of her home in San Francisco. It was a rare clear winter's night when we could actually see the stars. She pointed at the Milky Way and said softly. "Robert, it is a great big universe. There are stars beyond counting and a few of them even have people of a sort. If you want to visit some of it, you and your friends will need to invent a faster than light drive. Start with an artificial gravity field and just go from there. I've seen it Robert, and it is all possible. I also know you are the one to discover how."
I then asked her. "Where did you see all of these wonders Gram?"
She smiled at me and pointed to the stars. "Out there, somewhere in the deep dark on a Dyson Sphere."
Promptly at 0700 hours the following Monday morning, Mynah and Robert walked into the lab together holding hands. There were a few sideways glances from the civilian technicians. Mick just smiled to himself. A half an hour later at 0730 sharp, the grav plate team met in the lab conference room. The group included Mick Jones, Mynah, and three technicians. Doctor Scott started off. "Okay people, we have a big day today. Major Jones has to get the final specs sent to Fleet and we have an unplanned test to set up. As it turns out, we had a few anomalies that popped up during the communications test with CERN. So late last night, Ms. Mittal and I sketched together another test series. The details are all on your tablets. Please review the test plan and get to me with any questions you may have."
No one said anything. Doctor Scott then walked over to Mynah and reached for her hand. She gave him a hesitating look and then warmly took his hand and smiled. "If anyone wants to spread rumors about Ms. Mittal and me, I can assure you they are all true. It's all within the rules so get over it."
John, the lead electronics tech smiled and said. "It's okay Doc, and about time!"
Scott nodded simply. "Thanks, John. Okay, folks back to work; we have deadlines to meet."
Robert let go of Mynah's hand, looked at Mick and said, "Major Jones, can I see you in my office for a few minutes please?"
Mick gave him a puzzled look. "Yes, sir."
They got to the office and Scott closed the door. "Mick, I know that we have only been working together less than two years, but I sense that I can trust you."
"Yes, Doctor Scott I assure you that you can."
"Good, are you ready to send the final specs for the basic artificial gravity plate to Fleet this morning?"
"Yes, I was done yesterday afternoon but just wanted to sleep on it to make sure it was right 'fore I clicked send."
"Good man. Send them off as soon as you are ready."
"Okay, and what do you mean by basic?"
Scott smiled conspiratorially. "I'll fill you in later because as soon as you are ready, we'll start that second series of tests."
"I read the summary you sent, but don't quite understand..."
"Well, some anomalies in the comm tests with Doctor Schmidt at CERN, um, pointed out a flaw or I should say another possibility in the artificial gravity theory. I didn't put the next two, ah, uses for the Scott field in my dissertation, I had a hard enough time finding a sponsor as it was."
Mick nodded. "Go on Doc..."
"I will, but Mick, I have to ask you one question and trust me I already know the answer. Have you been spying on me for Captain Goldberg?"
With a wry smile, Mick answered truthfully. "Of course I have sir, that's how the game is played. You have a big NAA government contract paid for by Fleet, and they want inside information."
"Thanks, Mick, that's exactly what I surmised."
Mick then said. "Robert, if I may call you that?"
Dr. Scott nodded. "Go ahead."
"Robert, you and Mynah have discovered the most amazing thing since the integrated circuit or inertial laser fusion and I want to be part of it!"
"Okay."
"I have given progress reports on the gravity plate to Goldberg in accordance with my orders; I mean they are paying for everything after all, but I have said nothing of the communication test with CERN."
"Good, I will share our discovery with Fleet when we have verified and documented the results, but for now I want to keep all of this close hold."
Mick smiled. "Fair enough. It's another amazing discovery and I want to be part of this and everything else we are doing here!"
Robert made a decision. "Mick, welcome to the team. But let's just keep the, ah, um, results of the phase two communications tests and phase three in the family, okay?"
A wide-eyed Mick whispered. "Phase three?"
Robert shook his head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. After we're done with getting the phase one specs to Fleet, I'll let you in on what I think we have really discovered here..."
Mick smiled. "I'm in!" He held out his hand and they shook to seal the deal.
Robert pointed his eyes to the lab and said. "Just keep sending those innocuous progress reports to HQ, and leave the rest to me, okay?"
"Yes, sir, no problem, and one more thing if I may. Thanks for being straight about you and Ms. Mittal. She is an amazing woman if you had not said something today who knows I might have..."
"Thanks, Mick, I have been an idiot with a 180 science and 92 relationship IQ for too long."
Three days later, just before lunch, Mick and Mynah triple checked the final specs on what was officially designated as the Scott-Mittal Gravity Plate, Mark One and sent the manufacturing specifications to Fleet and General Atomics in San Diego. Doctor Scott then said to the team. "Okay, mission accomplished. John, you and the other technicians can take the rest the day off. We'll start up first thing Monday morning."
"Okay, Doc. Thanks and congratulations again."
With that, the three technicians smiled and left the lab. As the last one exited and the door closed, Doctor Scott pressed the lock key on his remote and armed the external security system. "Okay guys," he said to Mick and Mynah, "there's food in my office and we have things to talk about. We'll make this a working lunch."
The three got to Scott's office and found a nicely catered spread of Cal-Mex food. "Mynah, you and Mick are both engineers. Why don't you fill him in on what you, Rolf and I really discovered last week."
She smiled at her friend. "Okay Mick, do you remember your basic quantum mechanics?"
"Unfortunately yes. It took a bit of effort to get through that mess at the Academy, but somehow I managed."
Mynah smiled. "I know that you are selling yourself short. I saw the way you analyzed our work here. Back to the point, Robert has discovered..."
Robert smiled and interrupted his friend. "She means to say, Doctor Scott and Ms. Mittal have discovered..."
Mynah smiled and continued. "...That the quantum duality of waves and particles exist with gravitons just like the other elementary particles."
Mick was a little out of his league at this point and asked. "Okay, I get it so far, but how does this relate to the last test run with CERN?"
Robert brought up a data sheet on the wall monitor. "Mick, do you notice anything funny about those numbers?"
Mick analyzed the columns of numbers for a minute or so. "Um, just a list of the test messages, the date time group and send and receive times. What am I missing?"
"How long should it take, at the speed of light to get a message from here to Switzerland?"
Mick thought for a second or two. "Ahh, back of the bar napkin math says 8 over 300 so something like two one-hundredths of a second."
Scott laughed. "Close enough Mister Jones, now look at the data table again."
Mick stared at the numbers and finally saw what he was missing. "Holy shit, they were receiving almost instantaneously!"
Scott nodded, "not quite, but how does a hundred times the speed of light sound!"
Robert then gestured to Mynah who continued with her explanation. "Some of that old school string theory might just be right. Our initial results indicate that some of the gravity waves we used to send that communications test to the ELIGO detector at CERN may have been either virtual particles or, more likely used one of those 11 string dimensions to get to CERN at, get this 102.1c!"
"What?"
Robert smiled. "You got it, Mick. As of last week, we have FTL communications and there's a possibility, just a possibility that I might be able to combine the fields from multiple plates into an FTL drive field...Does some of this sound interesting?"
Mick stood up and almost knocked his plate onto the floor. He smiled and said. "So, that's the mysterious Phase three..."
A couple of weeks later, early on a Saturday morning, Mynah, Mick, and Robert set up an unusual triple gravity plate experiment. Mick shook his head and said. "Doc, I fabbed up the duralumin bracket and power supply just the way you drew up. But, I'm not getting this, why point the grav plates at each other?"
Doctor Scott put his hand on the small of Mynah's back. He smiled and said. "Mick, we'll make a physicist out of you one way or another." He then said to Mynah. "Okay, let's do a null test first. We'll set up the three gravity fields to make the waves from the Alpha plate meet the troughs from the Beta plate and so on."
"Okay, set."
Scott looked at down at his instrumentation and then said. "On my mark, three, two, one, mark!"
The test apparatus powered up, the overhead lights flickered momentarily. The three of them looked at the instruments and nothing else happened. Doctor Scott looked pleased. He powered down the unit. "Mynah, reverse the polarity of the Beta plate just as we planned."
She adjusted the settings on her control console. After a few minutes, she said, "Okay, ready here..."
Robert gestured to Mick who carefully placed an aluminum cylinder in the two-meter gap between the plates as a test object. "Okay Doc, ready here."
Robert nodded to Mynah and smiled. "Three, two, one, mark!"
Mynah activated the test sequence, the power hummed, the lab lights flickered and the cylinder immediately vanished into thin air.
Dr. Robert Scott looked to his colleagues, smiled and said. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem...and I think that it's a good one."
Mynah stood up, put her arm around Robert and said wistfully. "I think that it's going to be a busy next couple of years..."
Mick whistled. "Um, Doc, do you have any idea where tha' thing ended up?"
A few moments later at a distance of a few dozen light days away from the Pasadena laboratory, a small metallic object exited hyperspace and appeared at the inner edge of the Oort cloud.