CHAPTER 20

There was some confusion in regards to the Japanese Starship. The more information that came in on it, the less anyone really understood what was happening. Dee, Vitosk, and her cousin Jess, all sat in one of the boardrooms of the Stockton plant. The room had teleconferencing equipment that was second to none. It had hidden speakers, microphones that were built in to table top computers, and a large video screen that was now getting put to good use.

Dee was actually amused that Vitosk was impressed with the conferencing center. He almost jumped out of his seat the first time he heard Jack’s voice coming out of the speakers. You would have thought the way he looked around for the source of the noise, that he were some kind of native chief who had just discovered the eternal flame with one can of eternal flame lighting fluid. Naturally, Dee and Jess were familiar with the room and acted as if this was business as usual. Dee supposed that it really was but, she couldn’t help but snicker.

The fact that Jack, Pete, and Harry were all talking to her from a crappy little PC cam that was hooked up to Harry’s laptop, was just icing on the cake. Their image looked just awful since PC cams were never meant to be blown up to the size of half a wall. They were also constantly shoving each other out of the way so they could see the pictures on the small PC screen. It was almost comical.

Even Director Rockmont and his people in Houston were in facilities that were completely inferior to what Dee was in. She was a little surprised by that. The Stockton plant was no where near as plush as the OK facilities in Tucson. You would have thought that at least NASA’s stuff would look space age. It didn’t. There was something just fundamentally wrong about that, at least too Dee.

“Here is the icing on the cake, kids,” Rockmont said as he waited for files to download to the other computers in the teleconference. “I now have it confirmed by the NSA too.” Dee watched the man in Houston looking off camera, probably at some kind of report, as he went on, “the Japanese crew isn’t even in space. They made a public appearance today, as scheduled. Anybody want to comment on this?”

Jess Greenway commented, “they’ve pulled a bait and switch on us. The real crew must have been moved silently aboard when we weren’t looking.”

“Mister Greenway,” Rockmont replied quickly to that, “not to put to fine a point on the matter. I have a report sitting on my desk, somewhere, that has a list of underwear color for everybody that’s been on that ship. There is no way they slipped anybody on it without us knowing about it.”

From Vandenberg, Jack asked, “is there anybody on it now?”

Rockmont replied, “no.”

Vitosk scratched his chin and asked, “do we have the projected telemetry of the vessel yet?”

“It’s in the file you’re downloading doctor,” Rockmont stated in response.

Jack’s blurry, and lagged, image grew as he got closer to the camera. He sounded like he was yelling into his microphone, “are you thinking what I am Yurgani?”

Dee was the one who replied, “Jack can you back away from your mic, please?”
Yurgani answered after Jack’s apology, “we’ll know when we have the projected telemetry.”

After they all had a chance to look it over, Yurgani sounded fairly positive, “they’re building up momentum. The starship will make several wide orbits around the Earth, getting further away each time. Eventually they’ll break the planets gravity with a slingshot maneuver that will give them greatly increased velocity. The crew will join the ship later. That way they can save on supplies.”

Dee was not so interested in all of that. While everyone else discussed timing issues, she was busy studying the pictures of the starship’s aft sections. She broke into the conversation with, “I don’t understand this. The ship is building up momentum by using ordinary chemical rockets for thrusters. I don’t even see anything on it that looks like a drive train. The mounts for it are still empty?”

That drew some heated debate until Yurgani had a chance to really study the pictures and comment, “the problem all of you are having is because you have assumed that the Japanese are going to use a propulsion system similar to the one we are developing here. It’s obvious from these pictures that they are not.”

That left everyone bewildered. Jack’s voice crackled over the speakers, “all right Yurgani. What do you know that we don’t?”

After calling up the appropriate images, Yurgani pointed out a series of devices that were attached to the hull, near the aft pylons, and around the radius of the ship. Rockmont commented, “Doctor Vitosk, our people are fairly certain this is going to be some kind of communications dish once it‘s fully extended. I don’t need to remind any of you about the communications problems once you get out there. We think the Japanese are going to use that device so they can actually hear transmissions, from Earth, further out.”

Vitosk was not really surprised that the engineers at NASA had concluded that. Working here in California had done nothing to dispel Yurgani’s opinion of engineers. They were, on average, an unimaginative, short sighted, and very linear thinking group of people. His present comrades carried the added handicap of being Americans. Their analysis of the Japanese starship was a perfect example of this.

The deficiency in communications was a problem that concerned the men in Houston. Once Hermes got out there it could radio back and Earth could hear it. The radio telescopes on Earth would have no problem picking up the signal and screening out the background noise of the universe. It would be a one way conversation however. Hermes simply could not carry a dish that was large enough too return the compliment. Because they had spent so much time trying to overcome this issue, and quite unsuccessfully Yurgani had noted, they assumed the Japanese were too.

For that reason alone they could not see what the device in question really was. Vitosk noted, “It is a dish Mister Rockmont. It is not for collecting radio waves. Several years ago our space program produced blue prints for a system almost identical to the one I am seeing here.”

Jack was snickering as he commented, “don’t tell me Vitosk. You guys stole it from the Japanese?”

Vitosk was quite indignant when he replied, “I didn’t bloody well ask them where they got it from Jack. The point is, that dish will be for the express purpose of harnessing the energy waves generated by a nuclear explosion.”

“Oh my god,” Dee’s eyes grew wide as she studied the pictures, “those pylons aren’t mounts. They’re fuel cells. This is a nuclear pulse engine!”

Rockmont quickly saw the implications and checked himself by asking, “Doctor Vitosk, am I correct in assuming that such a propulsion unit will be nowhere near as fast as the one we’re developing?”

Vitosk kept it simple, “Yes.”

Jack had already worked up some rough calculations in his mind. Like most engineers, he knew a thousand and one math formulas, and factoids, that were useless most of the time. They were golden in situations like this, “if I’m anywhere near right, and I’d like to think that I am, at best they’ll make velocities around a third the speed of light.”

That begged the question from Rockmont, “Doctor Brewer. By your current estimates, what kind of velocities are you anticipating from your propulsion unit.”

Dee was hesitant to answer. Knowing what the drive should be capable of was a far cry from knowing what it would really do. That was assuming, naturally, that they could make it work in the first place. It was now clear that the Japanese had failed to do so. Dee was so frustrated with it that she might have already scrapped this design, and started pursuing other angles, had it not been for Vitosk who insisted they stick with it.

The really maddening part of it all was that the Russian had not really explained the logic behind his recommendations. Dee was starting to think that Vitosk was a very controlling type. He must have liked keeping people in the dark until it was to his advantage to do otherwise. Now that she had worked with him, the meeting they had in the back of that truck started to make sense. Dee was now of the opinion that he was not concerned with security when he blindfolded his guests. He just liked letting them know he was in charge!

Even here on Dee’s home turf she had a very hard time keeping the man from completely taking over. Dee had been of a mind, more than once, to toss the guy out on his ear. What good was he? Sure he was a brilliant scientist but when it came to practical applications of the physical laws that he had proven, he was worthless. All he ever seemed to do was constantly remind Dee that she and her people were too stupid to understand his theories. What a pompous, arrogant, jerk!

The director of NASA still awaited an answer. Dee played it on the conservative side by pointing out, “it doesn’t matter what the drive is actually capable of Mister Rockmont. We’re limited to accelerations that would produce an equivalent of one gee on the crew.”

Rockmont rephrased the question, “that’s still significantly more thrust than their vessel is capable of, right?”

Dee replied but was not so confident, “it should be. My best guess would be that we could double their velocity. Maybe.”

Vitosk sounded very arrogant as he inserted, “Doctor I’ve already explained to you that…”

“Not now Doctor Vitosk,” Dee growled back with gritted teeth.

“All right people,” Rockmont said in a way that made it clear the conference was over. “I have to report to the President, personally, this evening. I’ll make sure he knows all of this. If you have any more recommendations send them to my office asap. I’m grabbing a flight in a couple of hours so make it quick.”