Chapter 8

“Wow!” was all I could say at the grainy blue dot on the screen on the wall.

“That’s all you can say?” Odin demanded.

I shrugged, and she cackled.

“HD 70642 C, we just discovered it, looking at a distance of 1au from the star.”

“It’s blue.”

“It has liquid water, and a 22% oxygen atmosphere.”

“How far away?”

“96 light years from Earth.”

“How come we can see it at that distance? This is inferred by measuring the star wiggle distance.”

“Yeah, that’s actually just a picture of Earth taken with Super Hubble 2.”

I laughed at the joke he played on me, “So is there a planet or not?”

“There is a planet, it’s at 1au, the star is a near twin of Sol, and it masses within 2% of Earth. If you want a picture you’ll either have to fly there, or build Tyr’s planetary Telescope.”

“Do we have a design for the telescope yet?”

“Yes, a preliminary design. Tyr is working on it, said something about using pearls at the focal points to merge images.”

“Ooh. That’s an interesting idea,” I told him.

He nodded, “Yeah, combining all the light from thirty 100 meter mirrors to a single high density photoreceptor. No need to combine images electronically.”

“What about feeding the images into several imaging devices at once, all scanning different frequencies?”

“That’s possible. Tyr mainly wants to set up the collection on Proxib, and the imaging and processing here on the station.”

“Proxib?” I asked.

“Proxima B, we shortened it. There was a vote. I liked Proximab, but the others said it sounded like a medication.”

“I wasn’t offered a ballot,” I stated.

“You weren’t here that day,” he hedged.

“Odin, I’m always here. There’s a Me in this chair 24/7 even when there’s a Me sleeping in my room in Hab2, there’s a Me here in Exploration Command.”

She sighed, “The vote actually happened on Mars. Everybody has a copy there except Isis, and the girls. Tyr and Set built a tiki bar in one of the greenhouses that wasn’t being used. We’ve been using that as a spot to get away, relax and chat about what everybody is doing. It came up then.”

“Proxib sounds fine, and I don’t mind a bar on Mars, at least it’s secure. I also don’t mind you guys having your own space where you can unwind out of sight of the boss,” I told her.

“The others will be relieved to hear it. You are welcome to join.”

I shook my head, “It’s not necessary. I’m not lonely, and it’s not like I don’t get the logic of it. Does Valkyrie attend?”

“Sometimes, but she’s not a regular.”

“It’s a shame you don’t have Nora and Em, they are geniuses, and I’m sure they could provide all sorts of helpful comments on projects we are working on. They’ve been responsible for some of my best ideas.”

“I heard about the super tall wind turbine.”

“They helped me not start something big in the wrong spot, that’s for sure,” I said.

She just giggled.

“What?” I asked.

“You are so American still. ‘That’s for sure?’ sounds so weird when you say it.”

“I am what I am, it is what it is, and I do what I do,” was my response. She just giggled more.

Adele had quickly pursued the available wind turbine site, but ended up purchasing control of the company, buying out enough investors who were eager to finally see a return on a 15 year old investment. We had 8 locations total, with five ready to go. I churned out the turbine towers and blades, at the sizes the permits were for, and a crew from GE was installing them. They were very excited about the possibilities, and had completely overtaken the design work on the super turbine. They were pretty sure with the weight difference, plus a few minor tweaks, their 13 megawatt generator would soon be a 16 megawatt generator. The most difficult part was making sure the foundations would hold up the structure.

With the completion of the factories for Pilatus and Piaggio we had excess capacity that was getting fully used internally. Three solar panel factories, a giant super capacitor factory that had tripled in size, twice, as more orders came in. A second of similar size was already being planned and a location being looked for. When GE discovered we planned to install capacitors in the towers of the first five new turbines to load balance, Adele had to put a third factory on the to do list.

While I regretted that she wasn’t suitable for membership in the brotherhood, I hoped that in thirty years she might be. Once she got the drive of conquest and money out of her system, she might be an excellent member.

In New York, Robert was wandering around the backyard of the Brooklyn Heights property. Uncle Greg had been absolutely correct, it was a magnificent view. I turned to the architect, “How do you make that,” I asked pointing at the rear brick wall with tiny windows, “Bring this view inside?”

He pulled open his portfolio, and showed me the drawings. The entire rear of the building extended out to floor to ceiling glass, including an additional floor set on the existing roof, but set back so it was invisible from the street. The garden was enclosed in a greenhouse structure that extended the length of the back yard, right up to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

I flipped to a second view that showed the greenhouse roof opening, creating a glass walled garden, exposing the lap pool to direct sun. The lap pool extended into the house at basement level, as the first floor and street level were at a different height than the rear. Many New York basements were originally at ground level, but improvements, subways, drainage, and other construction all raised the street level, turning the ground floor into a basement and the second floor into the new first floor. Some old buildings even had two basements because of this.

I flipped thru the pages, looking at the layout, adults lounge space and roof garden at the top, home office and guest bedroom, then master suite, and nursery, then two bedrooms, ground floor had the entry, formal sitting room, and kitchen, with an indoor/outdoor eating area spilling into the backyard. The basement housed the mechanicals, and a family room with a home theater.