Chapter 10

“Brigadier, why don’t you step over to my office with me? Adele has everything handled here.”

I stepped outside, and sat in one of our now enclosed electric golf carts and drove him directly to the office building. He didn’t say anything until I invited him to sit on the couch in my office.

“Is this secure? Have you swept for bugs?”

“This floor is swept daily, and is access limited. Whatever you want to say, you can do so freely.”

“Why was this technology not offered previously?”

“It’s not mine. It still isn’t. Because of contacts I have, Zukunft Zuerst was put in charge of the distribution, but that’s it. The funds from leasing them will be going into an environmental mitigation fund, to purchase equipment for communities around the world to improve their sanitation and environmental impact. The ongoing funds from the sale of power will fund the management of the division handling it, all profits are required to go to a non profit educational and research fund.

“We really need to understand this technology, that’s what those funds will be used for. By we, I mean everybody on Earth.”

“Combined with your molecular construction technology, and unlimited power we are looking at a seismic shift in the economy. If you can make anything you want, why bother buying anything?”

“Everybody has a video camera on their phone, and can make any movie they want to, but the global box office revenue in 2019 was still 42 billion. Just because people can, doesn’t mean that they will. The molecular assemblers are not for sale, and when they are, they will be hundreds of billions of francs each. The day when everyone has one at home is not even an economic reality on planets that have had the tech for thousands of years.”

“One of the biggest worries among our working group on disruptive technology at the DDPS is that they will be weaponized.”

“That’s a concern for me too, I’ve got a new version of the device thanks to the Dominion. It’s much more efficient, so I can do more with fewer machines. That makes security easier as well.”

“We are aware, and would like to invite you to move your production location to a secure bunker.”

“I’ll have to talk about it with Adele and Donald, but is this a invite, or an order?”

“A simple request to consider for now. The DDPS continues to assist in external security at your three locations.”

“Thank you for that, in case no one had said it recently.”

“It’s not the most difficult of jobs, but the international implications with the break-ins in July were not fun.”

“I don’t know, holding the prisoners until after the inauguration like Iran did would have been fun.”

“We have very different ideas of fun. Are there any new weapons technologies you want to offer the military again?”

“Just the original man portable gigawatt laser weapons, and the automated radar controlled anti aircraft weapons. I do think that you and Adele were right. If it comes to an attack, I can probably call on Guardian for help.”

“What would he do?”

“I have no idea. I’m sure it would be impressive.”

“Is Guardian a threat?” he asked seriously.

“If he was, we would have no defense. From what I’ve learned he is an immortal, invulnerable, and stupendously powerful individual. That he’s picked the name Guardian is the best sign that he can be trusted.”

“It’s definitely a name, not a title?”

“With his species names are titles, but titles are not names.” I held up a hand to forestall him, “Titles are bestowed, names are chosen. Assignments are given, and they pick a name for that job. The name becomes the title of the being doing the job.”

“What are his species called?”

“They don’t have one that they are all known by. Sometimes they are called Kempu, but that’s actually a much older mercurial race with similar abilities. Their people stopped being worried about identity and titles a few billion years ago. Now they mostly just enjoy life.”

“He’s doing this for fun?” he asked, surprised.

“Is there a better reason to do anything? I’ve got an idea of how long you can tell he’s been around, he eats cosmic radiation, why don’t you check how long it’s been since the detectors on Earth have stopped working. It would have started in one area, then spread as he expanded his kitchen.”

“I’ll do that. If you could also have a prototype anti missile laser system for us to review sometime this year we would appreciate it.”

“It’s going to be lots more expensive than the new fighter jets the DDPS wants.”

“Fighters are too easy to turn offensive, your laser system is truly a defensive weapon.”

“Unless you are using it on airliners inside and outside your borders.”

“That’s an awful idea.”

“Park it on a hill, so it can point down, and you could burn everything from there to the horizon. There’s no such thing as a defensive only weapon, even a wall has an economic impact for everyone who has to go around.”

“Do you have a suggestion then?”

“Buy Balene UAV’s from Piaggio. Equip them with radar systems, and data sharing. Use them to secure the airspace and the borders. Then with good eyes, you can deploy three mobile laser batteries and expect to take down everything hostile.”

“Why three?”

“You’ll want as much over the horizon visibility as possible, so two on mountains, one east, one west, the third protecting the lowlands and the cities. If somebody starts tossing nukes, distance counts.”

“Equip all the Balene with radar, creating an AWACS?”

“Yes, but don’t ever turn on more than one at a time, and move them around. The reason you don’t want fixed radar is that it can be targeted by preprogrammed cruise missiles. Mobile radar has to be taken out before they can take out fixed laser defense batteries.

“Balene is a much better option for a country like Switzerland than satellite coverage would be, and with FLIR attachments it can be very useful for search and rescue. A good data management program and you could have live surveillance coverage of the entire country 24/7.”