Chapter 15

I opened my eyes to the early afternoon sun, and finally dragged myself out of bed. Our love making had exhausted me, and had put Sandy right back to sleep, as well. Quickly showering, then going for coffee downstairs, I had a modified brunch. I knew what I had to do, so I headed to my study, to start making phone calls.

I checked in with my doctors, appraised them of my condition, and got the ok to head back to work. I called the base where I had done so much of my recent work, and where I had been missing for several important days of work.

I talked with them for a while, then talked with my office manager, for my legitimate stasis manufacturing project (under strict government supervision). I made arrangements to travel there by Vortex in an hour, and then stay on through, till the next day.

Then I made the call I had dreaded. To talk to the General who wanted his airplane laser, up and running. He had been notified about my injuries, and was not upset. He had received some of what he needed, from the group working in my department at the base. I was pleased to hear this; as I knew I would probably have to rely on him, both for funding, as well as government contracts. It didn’t matter too much, because even if I got caught using this information for non-sanctioned purposes, I wasn’t going to be around long enough to get court martialed.

I called my future father in law, and made sure he still knew how to turn his PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) on. We chatted for a bit, I told him I had proposed successfully, and thanked him for his help. I also asked him to have his wife come and stay with Sandy, tonight, while I was out of town. I thought he might join Cathy, and made sure he knew he was invited, too.

As I got off the phone with him, one of my bodyguards came to notify me that the Vortex was due to arrive in a few minutes. I grabbed my paperwork, the identification I would need, and headed to the back yard for transit.

I arrived at the big tent, and was surprised to find an electric golf cart (with driver), waiting for me. I slipped in, and the Vortex opened. My driver hit the accelerator, and we purred through. I didn’t know if the driver and car were now: standard procedure, if it was because of my injuries and hospital stay, or if they didn’t like the idea of me socializing with the Alphans anymore. Either way, I didn’t care too much. It didn’t matter much, either.

The golf cart passed thru the vortex into a large white tent. I went through security without even having to get out of the vehicle. As it exited the tent I discovered the base had changed over the past few days. A gigantic stasis tower stood at one side of the testing field. An even larger stasis box, sat next to it. I wondered what was happening, but figured it was probably part of Bruce’s work and experiments.

I made small talk with my driver. Finally, he explained (when he sensed that I didn’t understand), that he was now my official driver, and would take me anywhere I needed to go. He also explained that he had an armored humvee here at the base and an armored Lincoln Navigator at the house.

I spent a few moments getting to know Charles (as he liked to be called), as we made our way to my official office and research center. He parked the cart, as I headed to the door, and used my security pass to enter.

Standing next to the door, on the inside, were a couple of very large security MP’s. They checked my ID, and let me pass on to the secretary. She was a sweet little thing, with balls of brass. She saw me, and started going a mile a minute; about what meetings were scheduled at what time, and who was waiting to see me, and on and on. Finally I raised a hand, and she paused.

“Do you have an itinerary for me, today?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, handing over the packet stamped Top Secret. “You also need your encrypted cell phone for all base communications,” she added, handing over a sleek little phone.

That was the beginning of a new torrent, as she gave me my new pass keys to different sections of the office, and research facility. As I loaded up on items that I was supposed to have, Charles came in.

I nodded at him, and asked, “Charles, what’s your security clearance?”

“Same as yours, sir.”

“Are you also my unofficial bodyguard?”

“Partly. As needed, I will assign additional security to your entourage.”

“Great. I’m a celebrity with an entourage, now,” I said.

He looked at me funny, so I continued, “I hate being a celebrity.”

He nodded, in seeming agreement at how bad being a celebrity is.

“Charles, take my itinerary, and the rest of these pass keys. I’m putting you in charge of them. If your not going to be around, then I expect you to put your duly authorized (and security cleared) replacement, in charge of them.

“Now, I’m also going to ask you to keep me up on my itinerary. Make sure I arrive where I’m supposed to be, when I’m supposed to be there.”

I turned to the visibly shocked, and still silent secretary.

“You, are going to tell me what’s top priority right now, and then I’m going to go there. Anything else that I need, you can give to Charles, here. If he can’t take care of it, he’ll pass it on to me.”

“Captain Jones is waiting for you, in your office.”

“There, that’s great. Charles, do you know the way?” he nodded an affirmative, “Then lead on.”

I followed him through several more security checks, to an elevator. I expected that it would take us to the top floor, but I didn’t expect it to empty out right into a waiting room, for my office.

A new secretary greeted me, as did Bruce. He was sitting in a large leather chair, looking at some paperwork. He stood, and we shook hands. All I had with me were the papers that I had come in with, the cell phone I had been given, and my original identification and security badge. The badge was was clipped to my lapel and the rest shifted easily to the side for the handshake.

“Bruce, what’s up” I asked him, smiling.

“Lots of stuff. I’m here to get you up to speed on my side of the project, and to let you know what your guys have been up to.”

“Great! Let’s go sit and talk,” I said, motioning him through the doors to my office, that Charles held wide open for us.

I was immediately floored by the fact that my office was so huge. It took up most of this side of the top floor, with windows that overlooked the base and its surrounding hills in three directions. I sat on one large couch and Bruce sat on the one facing it. We both set down our papers down on the large coffee table between us. My secretary came in with a pot of coffee, and we both had a cup filled.

Relaxing on the couches we discussed the events that had been going on as well as where my team currently was. They had created a focusing mirror using a ‘Bruce provided’ carved stasis negative mold, to shape the concave surface of the mirror. Bruce also explained how they had been working on ‘bolt on’ tank armor to upgrade the tanks.

I showed him the bolt that my secret team had made, and explained its manufacture to him. He was impressed with the work, and I could see wheels turning inside his head. He then explained the large stasis tower I had noticed, It was a massive, carved stasis manufacturing complex.

He explained how they carving procedure worked, and how they had duplicated it, on a mass scale. They had a Vortex stationed to tap the massive amounts of liquid metallic hydrogen buried near the center of Jupiter. The large tower was hollow, then filled with the liquid metal. Once placed in stasis, it could be carved by giant arms that slid along the side, carving and cutting away the giant stasis block into hundreds of thousands of different objects.

“What do you do with the ‘trimmings’, the stuff left over?” I asked him.

He tossed a block at me, and I caught it as he explained.

“This is the basic size we divide the extras into. It has weight because a small portion of the metallic hydrogen is free inside. There is one other size fuel block. It’s one quarter of this one’s size.

“We’ve been building hydrogen fuel cells, that use these blocks as a fuel source. They release the hydrogen in only tiny bits at a time. Then they processes it to create electricity and exhaust the resulting water vapor. With no hydrogen bonding material and the hydrogen super compressed, that single cube holds close to a hundred thousand tons of hydrogen.”

I gawked at him, in shock. Then I asked him if he had any success using other mediums as a carving base like water.

“I’ve has some success, though limited, with salt water. The biggest success has come from using salt water as an insulating medium,” Bruce explained.

I looked at him, and he saw that I did not understand.

“We first make a stasis box to work with, to keep all the parts and the water in. Then we place in anything metal, but preferably something with a high iron content, like steel. Adding the salt water provides a secondary conducting medium, but it carves differently than an iron ore product. We can then simply carve away just the salt water. This leaves us with the original item, completely encased in stasis.”

“That’s great. You can use a similar procedure on large already fabricated objects.”

“Yup. In fact, I was thinking about you, so I made these,” he said, and handed me a small bag.