Chapter 10

After Beth had wandered around Lander for a while longer the three friends returned to the laboratory and resumed their work. This time, however, Larry and Rachel had a star struck helper and they made sure there was no one else in the building and the doors were locked. Over the next week, Beth dropped all her ongoing projects and assigned them to her subordinates. She insisted on helping with the antigravity research from that point on. Of course, what she was mostly doing was learning the alien technology since the AG device was actually in existence. The additional help, however, did “speed up” the development. Much of the time the three friends were supposedly working on their research in AG they were actually in Lander studying or watching as the small reactor was removed from the salvaged shuttle. It was a smaller vessel than Lander, therefore the reactor was slightly smaller but it still could produce prodigious amounts of power. At full use, it, too, could last about 200 years before needing to be refueled.

Since Larry already knew the theory and design specifications for the antigravity device, the research basically centered on designing the device using earth metals and machinery. Of course, as stated earlier, most of the delay in developing the device was building a track record of failed attempts to muddy the waters in case they were ever investigated.

One day, almost a year after Beth first met Lander and had her first trip, they announced to the help that their research was successful. They had antigravity! While they were demonstrating the device to the assembled help Larry was describing it. All at once, he stopped and looked at the power meters. He made several notes and quickly moved to his computer where he spent nearly ten minutes doing computations.

At the end of his computation Larry rolled his desk chair back and almost screamed, “Damn it. This just won’t work.”

Beth looked at him in surprise and said, “What do you mean Larry. Of course it works. We can all see the test hovering over the workbench. If we increase power, reduce power or vector the drive the test subject moves higher, lower or to the side. How can you say it won’t work?”

“Look at the power readings. This damn device is a power hungry bastard. I am using almost 15 kilowatts an hour just to lift a device that weighs about a pound. If we wanted to lift, say, a vehicle, an automobile, we would have to use about 67,500 kilowatts an hour. None of the batteries we have can put out that amount of power for any time at all. They would all be drained in minutes. Hell, we can’t even get that weight to lift itself I bet. Of course, a smaller vehicle like a car or truck would only need battery power to get started, then the wind through the turbine would generate more than enough power to continue and recharge the batteries but as we scale up for an aircraft, we eventually reach a point where the weight of all the machinery, the aircraft itself and cargo are too great for the antigravity unit to move without an onboard power generator of high capacity, even if we drastically scale up the generating capacity.”

Rachel said, “But we have the device. Now all we need to do is find a power source that is light weight enough for a mobile device. We can use fixed power sources for lifting weights in a stationary environment.”

After a few minutes more discussion by the assembled researchers, everyone except Larry, Rachel and Beth returned to their own research cubical in a different building. The three friends continued to discuss the problem quietly as they each ran more computations. Finally, in exasperation, Larry threw down his notes and pushed his chair away from his terminal.

Lander took that time to say, “Larry, I am sorry you are so frustrated. You have run up against the same limitations our earlier researchers did. That is why we developed the small cold fusion reactors you find in almost all of our machinery that is powered by antigravity. My reactor is several times more efficient than the largest of your fixed fusion and fission reactors here on earth. You can develop your device, patent it, and use it as Rachel said for fixed installations with the power sources you now have. You can even use the device in smaller airborne vehicles because they can generate enough power to feed it and keep batteries charged. You cannot power any of the larger, heavier aircraft because of the weight to power ratio limitations.”

“Crap. No way around this limitation huh?”

“Not until the earth develops better reactors.”

“I don’t suppose”

Lander cut in before Larry could complete his sentence. He said, “NO Larry. Your world is not ready for the advanced nuclear physics I would have to teach you in order to develop and construct fusion reactors the size and efficiency of mine.”

By this point in Larry’s life, he had a company that rivaled the largest manufacturing conglomerate in the world. His company and its subsidiaries were producing the generators, electric motors, vehicles, and numerous other smaller consumer devices based on the technology he harvested from Lander’s equipment and databanks. Money was literally rolling in faster than he could spend it. He and his core engineers, even his earlier employees who signed up for the stock option and purchase available were some of, if not the richest persons in the world. Larry’s personal net worth exceeded that of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and the King of Saudi Arabia combined. He threw his mind and wealth into the development of a power source and distribution that would allow his antigravity device to power and lift huge weights.

Larry’s company was so well known for their innovations and developments that they had to constantly be on the lookout for espionage by commercial rivals and by foreign governments. Because of this, he had one of, if not the largest security detachments in the world. His security department was as well trained as the U.S. Secret Service, CIA, the KGB or Israel’s Mossad. In fact, he hired many of their agents away from them. Security was tighter at all his research and manufacturing facilities than at many defense plants and research facilities. His cyber security section was constantly fighting hacking attempts. In fact, almost all the serious research data and computers were not even connected to the Internet to help prevent espionage.

One day, after once again failing to find an answer to the power problem, Larry, Rachel, Beth and Tom were sitting around lamenting the failure of yet another test. All at once Beth looked up at Larry and said, “Larry why are we fighting this? Why don’t we just build a cold fusion reactor?”

“Well, obviously because we can’t. No one has ever been able to develop such a thing and even if they had, the damn thing would probably weigh too damn much to use.”

“Yes, here on earth, but,” her face developed an oops look. She quickly glanced at Tom then continued, “I mean why don’t we do some of the research along that line and see if we can find out how it’s done.”

Tom looked at his wife then at the other two in the room. They all had a scared look on their faces. Finally, something seemed to click with him. He stood up and walked away, then turned to face the three still sitting. He said, “I’ve thought your developments were weird for some time, almost from the first. You somehow managed to make so many intuitive leaps of knowledge I was amazed. Now, I think I see. Beth, you said, here on earth a moment ago. A lot of the things we have developed are just too different from things developed by other companies. You’re not from earth are you Larry? You’re slowly giving earth your technology aren’t you?”

Larry laughed and leaned back in his chair. “Boy, what science fiction book have you been reading Tom? You know I was born and raised right here, well, just across the line in Missouri. Hell, I look like you, I married and we have children. Man, what have you been smoking?”

“How do I know you’re human? Hell, Rachel and you could come from the same place or planet. Shit, maybe that’s why you seem to just know all these things while the rest of us have to struggle to learn about your inventions and follow your reasoning and development. Fuck, man, I’m outta here. We have to stop you now.”

Tom ran from the room leaving the other three sitting with shocked expressions on their faces. Fortunately, that shock didn’t last long. They jumped and tried to catch Tom but he was almost to his car by the time they got out the door.

Larry grabbed his phone and dialed security using the speed dial feature. He gave them instructions to stop Tom, restrain him, and bring him back to the research facility Larry normally used.

When an angry Tom was led back into the room he was pushed into a chair and secured into it. Larry looked at the guards and said, “Thanks. I appreciate this. If you would wait in the corridor please?”

The Sergeant in charge said, “Yes Sir.” He turned to leave and his partner followed.

Beth was crying. She tried to approach Tom and he shied away. She looked at Larry and whimpered, I’m so sorry Larry. I was just so frustrated I said something I shouldn’t have. Please, can you forgive me?”

Larry sighed and said, “Yeah, Beth. I suppose I should be surprised it’s taken this long for one of us to slip. But what are we going to do now? All I can think of is come clean with him. Then, there’s one more who can let something slip and get us in trouble.”

Tom yelled, “I knew it. You’re aliens!” He struggled harder against his restraints but escape was impossible. Finally, he looked up at the three friends once again. His face was red and he was breathing deeply, in danger of hyperventilating. He snarled, “You’ll never get away with this. We’ll catch you and stop you from taking over. You can’t fight billions of humans.”

Larry walked up and sat in front of Tom. He said, “Tom I know you’re angry, probably somewhat scared and hurt. We had no intention of causing you any physical or emotional pain. The security we had to work under is so tight we had no intention of even letting Beth know about some of the things you probably suspect. She became aware of our secret much as you have, except it was my big mouth that alerted her.

“As I said earlier, I am not, we are not aliens. Unfortunately, you were closer to the truth than you know. Several years ago there was a large meteor shower one night. Remember? A meteor, or what I initially thought was a meteor crashed down about 800 feet west of here. When I went to investigate, I found a small space ship, or a Lander, as it wants to be called. It crashed in the woods and was almost buried in the dirt. Of course, you know me. I checked it out, and then I just had to know how things I found worked. All these developments have stemmed from that ship but there are things that are restricted to us. Weapons or things that can be turned into weapons or used for war are foremost among those items. We are developing and releasing non-military items as rapidly as we can and still maintain the cover of us inventing them. Of course many of the items we build and release are not as efficient as those on the ship because we have to manufacture them using earth materials, manufacturing techniques, and metal alloys.”

Tom laughed and said, “Oh, yeah, you expect me to believe that you’re not an alien? No human could build all these things as fast as you are. I can see what you’re doing. You’re building up earth’s non-military technology so the planet will be more to your liking when you take over. You’re forgetting about our atomic and hydrogen bombs though. We’ll nuke you to hell if we have to.”

“Why not? Why won’t you believe that we are humans and are studying and releasing safe items to make life here better? You were willing to believe I was an alien. Wouldn’t it make more sense to just believe I found some alien technology and am learning about it then releasing it to the world?”

“No. Well, I’m not sure. Why didn’t you just call the Air Force and turn the ship over to them? That makes more sense to me. Besides, it was your duty as an American. We need that technology to keep our country safe. It is your duty to turn it over to the government.”

“Tom, think about it. They would have come in here and torn up my home and woods. They might even have arrested me or locked me up to keep me quiet. Hell, they might even have killed me. I mean, this was—NO, this is—BIG. Think about the panic that would set in if it were proven aliens did exist. Of course, I’m almost sure the government would keep this one quiet while they tried to steal all the technology, but what if it got out. The religious fanatics would have a field day. There would be panic in the streets all over the world. Thousands, maybe even millions would be killed or injured. This country might even be attacked in order to keep us from having the technology contained in this ship. On top of that, I wanted to know how the things I found worked. I’ll admit it. Part of the reason I kept the discovery secret was so I could learn the secrets and play with the new tech. But I AM doing the right thing. I am releasing the technology as fast as I can.”