A New World
Copyright© 2026 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 9: US Cabinet Meeting
White House
Washington DC, USA
Early Afternoon, Wednesday, May 19, 1999
President Clarke usually arrived at Cabinet meetings just before the scheduled time. For this meeting, he was early. He looked forward to finding out if what he suspected was true about the boys. He remembered that the twins had easily found the most Easter eggs at the White House Easter festivity. When their father had told them that they could each only keep one egg, they each had immediately chosen an egg. They hadn’t shaken or weighed the eggs. They each knew which one they wanted. Then they had deliberately chosen which egg to give to each of the other children. It looked like they knew what the eggs had in them. He had wondered about their behavior a number of times in the past month.
Senior Agent Bruce Maclaren escorted Jess, Will, Leslie, Tom, Rob, Kim, and the three young boys into the conference room. The adults of the family were surprised at the number of people there. It was going to be a full cabinet meeting along with a few generals and others. The children knew how many people were there and looked forward to performing for such a large group.
Kim turned to her father. “Did John Harvey brief this many people when he spoke to Prime Minister Blake?”
The President had heard her. “Prime Minister Blake indicated that he had had a much smaller group when your brother-in-law spoke to him. He suggested both to me and earlier to Prime Minister Hunt that a large meeting would be useful.”
Jess looked at the people waiting to hear what they had to say and then at his grandsons. “If I had known that the meeting was to be so large, I might have asked that the boys meet with a smaller group. Well, things are set and they don’t seem to mind the attention.”
Chief of Staff Brad Henley made the introductions.
President Clark looked around the room. “I had originally asked for a meeting to discuss the AJ Power Generator. Its implications for the US and the world need to be understood so that we can plan for less disruptive changes in how we do things. Jess Maclaren early this morning mentioned that there was a related development to discuss at the same time. This I agreed to. Today, you are all aware that his family was responsible for the rescue of my daughter Claire. There are questions regarding that event that need to be answered. Jess requested that they supply that information at this meeting also, but he needed his three grandsons present at the start of this meeting for the explanation. I had met the boys at the White House Easter celebration. They had intrigued me at that time, so I agreed. So with that background, I will turn this first portion of the meeting over to Jess Maclaren.”
“Thank you, President Clarke. That was enough of a buildup, so now for our demonstration.” He turns to Jason. “Jason, behind that door at the other end of the room, is there anyone just beyond it?” Jess asked.
“There are two men standing to either side of the door. There are two women and a man sitting beyond them.”
A number of people started to speak, but Jess raised his hand. “Jerome, are there any guns beyond the door?”
He replies, “The two men by the door have pistols, and there are some rifles farther away. Like Dad keeps his guns.”
The room is hushed as Jess turns to Eric. “Who has guns in this room?”
Eric glances around. “The three men and the women standing up have pistols.” He looked around the room again. Then he pointed to a woman at the other end of the table. “She has one, but it isn’t metal.”
President Clarke looked at the CIA Director. “Margaret, you know that only the Secret Service is to be armed.” He shook his head. He had had this discussion before with her. It looked like she had gotten a plastic gun to carry to the White House. The Secret Service had drawn their weapons. She smiled at the boys. She carefully pulled up her skirt and took the gun out with just two fingers of her off hand. She handed it over to an agent.
Bruce was impressed. That was how they had set up the take-down. They must have used the radios to relay the information from the boys. Without thinking, he asks, “How did they know where Claire was?”
The president smiled at Agent Maclaren asking a question. Bruce Maclaren caught on real fast. He is a good man to have in an unusual situation. I expect that more of those types of situations would be showing up. He indicated for Jess to go ahead and answer.
Will is the one to answer the agent’s questions. “Yes, the boys were how we got the information we used to rescue Miss Clarke. Jason remembered her from meeting her here at Easter. When the news was showing a picture of the embassy and saying that she was there, he was saying “No, No, No”. When we questioned him, he said that she was with three men from the house behind us and they were heading back our way. They are the unsung heroes of the rescue. I believe that it would be better to keep it that way.”
The president had started clapping. Soon everyone in the room was. Yes, thought President Clarke, this is something that shouldn’t be made public. This is the only recognition that these boys would get for some time.
John Hauffman, the Nation Science Adviser, asked a question, “What type of range do they have?”
“The demonstration was only to show how we knew to set up to rescue Claire Clarke. Obviously, we couldn’t call the police with this type of information. I considered that with the information that the boys could provide that we could safely rescue her. I feel the most important consideration isn’t the abilities and training that enabled us to perform the rescue, but how it was that we were in the right place at the right time. This was the second time that I was placed in a position to do God’s work.” Will surveyed the room where the implication of his statement caused a buzz.
Margaret O’Reilly had had a couple of times as a field agent that she could only attribute her survival to God. She had read the complete report on Will and several other family members. She asked, “The Falklands was the other time.”
Will faced her, “Yes.” He continued. “Rob and Kim should escort their boys to the rest of the family and then return. In the meantime, I will give a summary of how we used the intelligence.”
The President directed one of the agents to escort them.
Will gave an outline of the take-down. There were a few questions but the President cut it short when Rob returned.
“Where is your wife?” President Clarke asked.
“My daughter woke up, and Kim had to attend to her. Mrs. Clarke told me to go back to the meeting and tell you that Kim would be along later.”
“Well, the boss has spoken,” laughed President Clarke. Everyone joined in. It was no secret that theirs was a marriage of equals.
Will summarized the family’s position. “The boys are too young to directly support any activity that you might be contemplating.” He looked around the room. “We would like to explore what they can do but at the same time let them grow up like other boys. We would be willing to share the findings with the three governments, but Rob and Kim want to remain in charge of their children’s lives.” He and the President looked around the room.
“That sounds reasonable to me. Continue.” President Clarke could tell that Will wasn’t finished.
“Rob and Kim will be relocating to Texas. We believe that they can be better protected there. They’ll be working for the family.” He paused. “The incident today has put our family in danger of reprisal from those who ordered the attacks. We need the help of the US government in ensuring our protection. We will also be asking the same from the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia.”
“That is what governments are meant to do for their citizens. The US will work with the United Kingdom and Australia to guarantee your safety. I personally have reason to come down hard on these terrorists. We can set up discussions about this outside this meeting. Agent Maclaren, I would like you to handle this.”
“Sir, that is above my grade level. I’m willing to participate, but such an assignment calls for a more senior agent.”
“I will see that your grade level matches this assignment. Your handling on the incident today leads me to believe that you are ready for more responsibility.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Now, Jess.” The president chuckled. “There are too many Maclarens to be saying Mr. Maclaren. I believe that you have other important revelations for us.”
“Mr. President, the AJ Power Generator will cause a revolution by freeing man from many of the negatives of previous methods of generating power. However, as revolutionary as it is, Alice and I only came up with the idea because of her prior discovery. We needed a means to prove that idea, and a better power source was needed.”
There was a flurry of questions asking about this other discovery. Jess kept quiet until the President had restored order.
“OK, Jess, you have our undivided attention.” President Clarke had several conflicting emotions and thoughts about what he was finding out about this family.
Before Jess could speak, Sue Clarke led Kim with baby Alice into the room.
“Sorry for the interruption. Every time that Kim tried to leave the baby, she started to cry. She was so quiet when Kim held her that I felt that we could risk bringing her to the meeting. Kim insisted that I accompany her. She said that she wanted me to hear what was said.”
Vice President Algernon DeSang was very annoyed by all the irregularities that had been going on. “A baby doesn’t belong...” He cut off in mid-sentence as he fixed his attention on the baby. He relaxed. “Let me get you a chair, Susan.” He rose and placed a chair between the President and himself.
Will looked around the room and then looked at his cousin who had also just surveyed the room. Jess nodded. Will thought. It was not only I that noticed what Alice was doing to everyone in the room. She was not just lying there in her mother’s arms. Jess also could feel her exuding a calming influence over everyone. Ah! President Clarke and his wife noticed it also. He again noticed them communicating without words.
Sue Clarke walked over to the chair. She smiled at the Vice President. “Thank you, Al.”
Kim had taken her seat beside her husband.
President Clarke wondered what amazing thing he would see next. Al DeSang, though he had been my vice president for both terms, had never had more than a professional relationship with him or his family. To have him offer a chair to Sue and stand up and bring it over to her ranked as one of the biggest surprises of the day. The three boys were amazing, but he expected that their sister would be the one to watch. Well, I need to get this meeting going again. He looked out over the table. What was Margaret doing by the baby? She was a spinster wedded to her job. She looked more like a great aunt the way she looked at the baby. Enough. Back to business. “Margaret, we need to proceed.”
She looked up sheepishly. “Sorry, Sir.” She returned to her chair.
President Clarke thought. OK, that is definitely the biggest surprise of the day. Probably of my life. She has been contentious with me in every meeting that we ever had. Now she says “Sorry, Sir” and means it.
“Jess, I believe that you were going to explain what it was that required you and your wife to come up with the AJ Power Generator.”
“We needed the power to open a window into another world. Some of you might remember Alice’s Theory of Adjacent Worlds. Worlds close to Earth but not through space and time. A theory met almost universally by skepticism or worse. After a few weeks in the press, you heard no more about it. Some thought that she had slunk off after the criticism that she had gotten. She had not. She had presented her paper at the conference, but we knew beforehand that the mathematics wouldn’t be understood. The press conference after the presentation is the only time that she spoke about it in public. Reporters hounded her, but we knew that wasn’t the way to convince people. We knew that the only way was to show them a new world. Therefore, from the start we planned for Alice to present the theory fully knowing how her colleges would react. We then went off to prove her theory.” He paused as he relived the memory of what happened Monday. “Alice died Monday when water from another world poured over her and the equipment. She was electrocuted.” He paused again, ready for the questions that he knew would come.
“What proof do you have that there is another world?” John Hauffman, the National Science Advisor, asked.
“Video and what looks to be a fish. It is the file named ‘First Try’ in the video directory.” He passed two DVDs to the president, who passed one to Hauffman. He handed the other to Henley and indicated that he wanted to see it.
Jess pointed to Kim. “My daughter is Doctor Kimberley Reynolds of the National Human Genome Research Institute. She was going to go into work tomorrow to analyze the DNA of the fish from the sample that we had brought. We had planned to have her present her findings to you on Friday.”
“How do we know that the fish or any of the other life on this other world has DNA? If it does, how do we know that we don’t have to be concerned about diseases from this world?” Asked Vice President DeSang.
“That was something that had us concerned from the beginning. There were many diseases carried back and forth when Earth was explored. What diseases might we find on another planet?” He took a short pause, and then continued before another question could be asked.
“A few months ago, Kim told us of something that she had observed at work. It took Alice three days to come up with an explanation. I will let Kim tell you what she saw.”
“I was observing a sample of bacteria under a microscope. Suddenly there was another organism there among the ones that I was observing. I repeatedly replayed the video of the observation, but it had appeared out of nowhere. On one frame, it wasn’t there and on the next, it was. I analyzed its DNA and found that the DNA was similar to what we would expect for a similar organism in this world. In fact, I identified it as a common organism found throughout the world. I couldn’t figure out how it had appeared.” She nodded to her father.
He continued. “We knew that to open a window into another world, the larger a window was, the more power that was required. Alice now looked at what was required for extremely small windows. Her equations showed that the energy was also extremely small. Something as small as a cell could cross over anytime that the conditions were right.
“What conditions?” asked the President.
“We don’t know. We expect that they are extremely rare or Kim wouldn’t have been the first to report it. But it means that single-cell organisms and other life have been exchanged between the worlds all along.”
“That could be, but I would recommend a cautious approach.” Hauffman asked.
“Yes, we found out Monday that there were three dangerous ones we hadn’t anticipated. On the first world, we lost a temperature probe when the window size fluctuated and cut the cord.” Jess replied.
“First world?” DeSang had read the discussions on Alice’s Adjacent World Theory. All of them had been about a single world.
“Yes, there are multiple worlds.” Jess looked around the room of people that were intently paying attention to everything he said. “Alice had calculated initial settings for four worlds. She died when we opened the window to the third new world. For the first world, we observed only an ocean. Sea level was close to Earth’s sea level. The air through the window was very cold. Alice put the outdoor probe from a thermometer through the window and measured -2°C. The probe wire was hanging across the edge of the window. The cord was cut when the window fluctuated. It would seem that we have a method to cut anything. We closed the window while a clamp held a piece of metal at an angle in the window. The cut was mirror-smooth and not hot. The edge was extremely sharp. On the second world, we viewed dirt that appeared to be a couple of feet underground. We took a sample but figured to move the equipment to the second floor to view that world after we got back from visiting our new granddaughter.”
Mary Clarke saw that talking about his wife bothered Jess, but not to the extent that she would expect after seeing how close his family was. She would have to look into it. She needed to learn more about this family.”
“What of the fourth world?” asked the President?
“We started to check that out later after the equipment had been repaired. But we realized in going over Alice’s notes that she had had symbols in her doodles by each of the settings.” Jess paused. “Alice had included the symbol for fire by the fourth set of co-ordinates, just as she had the other three symbols, air, earth, and water. She had drawn the Greek symbols for the classical elements, fire, earth, air, and water. Since we had seen air at the first window, earth at the second, and water at the third, we wondered what type of fire we might see at the fourth window. We opted to believe the second worst possibility. The first, a star, wouldn’t meet the criteria of a planet similar to our own. The next worst possibility was a volcano. If the window opened into a volcano on this other world, we would have no way to protect ourselves.”
President Clarke realized that what Jess was telling was true but that he was leaving something out.
“Sir, I have the video ready.” Henley said.
“Good, dim the lights.” The President said.
They watched Alice and Jess as they opened the first two windows. They heard and saw their excitement. When they opened the window to the third world, they saw Alice’s death and Jess’s action to revive his wife. The video cut off at that point.
Kim had not seen the video; her mother’s death had started to upset her until Alice’s calming influence again came into play. Sue Clarke had heard Kim as she reacted to her mother’s death. She had turned and seen her calm down in seconds as she looked at her daughter. Kim smiled now. Sue did not understand what had happened, but something had allowed Kim to accept her mother’s death.
The lights went back up.
Jess continued his presentation. “After Alice’s death, we realized that we needed help in exploring these new worlds. The family had planned to explore from three areas: Scotland, Texas, and Queensland. We had developed the equipment that we thought we would need with companies owned by our relatives. Smyth-Industries, Trail Drive International, and Macphater Mining Equipment are privately held companies, so they didn’t have to make public announcements about what we were doing. Texas Instruments was the only public company that had a major interest in what we were developing. All they knew about was the controller for the AJ Power Generator that they were building. Rob and I designed the controller for the AJ Power Generator so that they would also control the opening of a window. TI knew about the first use but not about the second. In licensing the controllers, I put in a requirement that S-I, TDI, and MME would have priority on purchasing the controllers. They had preliminary information about what the controller could do and have been designing equipment to use it for months. Some of this equipment had applications here on Earth as well as exploring new worlds. I believe that TDI’s presentation to the military may have been one of the factors leading to this meeting.
President Clarke nodded. “Yes, between a compact power source that required no fuel and the ATVs that made no noise and didn’t need to be refueled, you caught our attention. Why haven’t you built any larger vehicles? Wouldn’t larger vehicles be useful on these other worlds? What if you met hostile natives?”
“We cannot open up a large window. The power necessary to do that increases very substantially for windows past the size we are planning to use. To open up a window big enough to let a truck drive through would take more power than the largest nuclear reactor. Looking at the power requirement curve, we decided to live with the limitation. Therefore, there will be no driving between worlds. MME is experienced in moving material in the cramped conditions found in mines. They designed equipment to move material through the windows. We will assemble large items on the other side. Assembling larger vehicles requires more work than is needed for initial exploring. We felt it would be easier to open a window at a new location than build vehicles to move items on the other side. We have a good transportation infrastructure on Earth. We needed to explore before we decide to add some on the other side.”
“Your choice of transportation for exploring makes sense. Why were you planning to keep the new worlds secret?” President Clarke asked.
“To be the first there. To go where no man has gone before. Remember the reception Alice’s presentation received. We also wanted to have solid proof, but not everyone disbelieved Alice. A couple spoke up, but others kept silent. I expect that Russia, China, India, and other countries have people looking into this. I am surprised that the US hasn’t been experimenting in this.”
“No, we don’t have any research in this.” President Clarke replied.
Margaret O’Reilly spoke up. “Excuse me, sir. That isn’t exactly correct. The CIA has a project as well as other agencies. There are also three university experiments and a few private organizations. I can also confirm government-funded experiments in the countries mentioned as well as a few others. Most of the Western countries also have university and private projects that are looking into it. None of them has made any progress. Funding hasn’t been easily available, but I believe the biggest problem to be that no one understands the mathematics. They are all trying to use Dame Alice’s presentation as a cookbook to work it out.”
“Why haven’t I been briefed on this?” The President was upset that he hadn’t been told about the projects.
“It’s a lot of different people working on small budgets. The research on pyramids is two to three times as large. Both are theories that most people don’t believe.” O’Reilly replied.
“Pyramids?” President Clarke looked at Jess.
“We aren’t into that.” Jess laughed. Everybody got a chuckle out of that. “Word of what happened Monday will get out. I see all these projects getting more money, and mathematicians will look over Alice’s equations with the knowledge that they are correct. We should expect others to be opening windows this year.”
“What do you see the government’s role being in exploring new worlds?” President Clarke asked.
“The same as what we had discussed when we talked about the boys. The government should be there to protect the people. First, we need exploration, which will identify the safe places to open windows. We envision a database with information about each of these worlds. Initially, it would only be a co-operative venture between the three governments. Eventually, it would be open to anyone.”
“But you expect the knowledge about these windows to other worlds to get out soon. How can we keep this secret?” Al DeSang asked.
“The common assumption is that there is only one world. Doctor Solomon White presented that interpretation in the article that he wrote on the Adjacent World Theory. Every enquiry that Alice ever got in the past couple of years made that same assumption.” Jess answered.
“So, we could just mention one world when the information gets out.” Al considers the implications of that. “That would help to keep knowledge of the other three worlds secret.”