Chapter 19

“I am Doctor Franco Aldini. And you?”

“I know you...” said Alan. “Professor at MIT+ (Mars Institute of Technology), I was in your theoretical geometry class.”

“Yes, and you? Do I know you?” asked the professor.

“I doubt it, there were a hundred students in that lecture hall. I am Colonel Alan Scarlett of the Western Alliance...”

“Scarlett, Alan B. of ... Bradbury Canal, am I right? I knew your parents ... terrible tragedy. That was when I was still a doctoral candidate, but I would sit in on your father’s lectures just to bask in the brilliance of his logic.”

“I never got to hear his lectures; I was ten when my family was killed.”

“In spite of being deprived of your parents wisdom you have become successful Naval officer. And here you are,” said Dr. Aldini. “Why are you here?”

“Because you’re here. Why are you here doctor?”

“I do not know...” the old man muttered. “I built a device and it worked. Winston Scarver brings me here and tells me to make my device more powerful. It does exactly what it was designed to do, how could it be more powerful?”

“And what does your device do, Doctor Aldini.”

“It generates a field that makes any object placed inside that field...” he looked from face to face, excitement glowed on the old man’s face. “ ... stop!”

“It makes things stop...” said Eris.

Alan thought about what Aldini said and rolled his eyes upward. “Oh my god,” he muttered.

“See? He gets it!” said Aldini with a grin.

“I don’t get it,” said Eileen.

“Stop?” asked Eris. “As in Stop, stop?”

“Si!” said Franco Aldini. “Complete and total stop.”

“Holy shit!” cried Eris. “What is the relative velocity of something in that field?”

Alan was trying to run calculations through his head. “Million? Million two miles per hour?”

“Much more than that,” grinned the old man.

“I still don’t get it,” said Eileen.

“I think I do,” said Terry Wilcutt, a hot young navigator turned pilot. “Say you’re on earth and this coffee cup comes to a stop. The earth is spinning at one thousand forty miles per hour, so this coffee cup would appear to fly off at over a thousand miles per hour. Am I right doctor?”

“Si,” said Franco Aldini. “But that is just the start.”

Terry closed his eyes and thought, “You’re right. There’s more.”

“The earth circles the sun at 66,667 MPH,” said Alan. “And the sun moves forward at 43,000 MPH. The sun orbits the milky way at 483,000 MPH, the Milky Way orbits the universe at 1,300,000 miles per hour.”

“That’s about 1,900,000 miles per hour, 530 miles per second,” said Terry.

“That’s right!” said Dr. Aldini. “I had built a demonstration where a billiard ball would enter the field and punch a hole in two inch thick steel, and a wall.”

“Billiard ball?” asked Alan. “Every shot-up ship we’ve found had a fifty seven millimeter hole through it. That’s the size of a billiard ball.”

“Winston Scarver, he has no imagination,” muttered Dr. Aldini. “I used a billiard ball as an example. He somehow believes that is the primary bullet.”

“Did Winston Scarver make steel billiard balls?” asked Alan.

“Si,” Dr. Aldini nodded sadly. “My device, it was not to be used like this!”

“Doctor how was it supposed to be used?” demanded Eileen.

Dr. Aldini paused for a long time. “Research?” he shrugged.

A scooter soon departed the Rocking Bird Mine carrying a very nervous Dr. Franco Aldini in a poor fitting environment suit, while the half dozen Berserkers (including Eris) scoured the mine, looking for bits and fragments of Franco’s work. A second scooter remained outside the mine entrance and soon was loaded down with computers and filing cabinets full of notes. Dr. Aldini liked to work on paper and Plexigraph boards.

Deep in one of the shafts they found in a side chamber a dentist’s office with an antique chair, an antique work stand with lights and lines for water and air, and an antique dental x-ray machine. “Grab that!” said Eris.

“Why? The damn thing is bolted to the floor,” complained Navigator Gene Trinh.

Eris was looking over Alan’s shoulder at the notes he was leafing through. “That’s the device.”

“He told me that Winston has the only device out on his ship,” said Eileen.

Alan compared the dental x-ray to the notes they discovered. “He clearly lied.” He turned to Eris and said, “What else do you suggest taking?”