Chapter 29

Chuck was away for most of the next month, working at Morty’s old ranch, now his, during the week and returning to the factory each Friday afternoon. Chuck used the Twin to commute. Will flew with him as copilot Sunday evenings, then took the Twin back to the factory. He flew to the ranch on Friday afternoons to bring Chuck back to the plant.

A team of four lived at the ranch full time. Working in the afternoons, after they’d finished the day’s work on the photovoltaic array, they rebuilt Morty’s original rabbit-chaser, then improved it. They began by swapping the front steerable bicycle wheel for the steering gear and front axle from a junked Ford roadster, then switched out the rear axle with the rear one from a front-wheel-drive Chevrolet. The original plywood frame had proved unable to handle the loads, so that too had vanished.

The new body had begun life as a Volkswagen microbus. Two impellers had been added inside the cabin’s middle and the battery packs to run them now filled the rear of the bus, where the engine had been originally. The engineers now used the strange little vehicle to commute back and forth to Clovis and Roswell on weekends. Chuck shook his head when he first saw the contraption. Remind me never again to leave engineers with too much time on their hands!

Chuck’s weekends were spent flying the big spacecraft and improving his relationship with Lina. Most of his flights now were in the left seat, with Lina as copilot. She was not yet licensed, but it no longer seemed to matter. Three weeks after beginning this arduous schedule, Chuck and Lina flew the ship to orbit, remaining there for more than an hour. No new checks or experiments were conducted, at least not officially, and no log entry took place during that time. Lina answered a question by explaining they had practiced operating in zero-gee conditions. This answer raised a couple of eyebrows, but since the flight went off without a hitch, no more was said. Chuck and Lina ignored the few grins and the rare, almost-quiet comment about a ‘200-mile-high club’.

The photovoltaic system, finished, now powered the ranch and the cavern.

The microbus was locked away in the old barn, after the batteries and impellers were removed, and they were in turn moved inside the cavern for storage. The following morning, Chuck flew the engineers who’d built the PV plant to Clovis, where they caught flights to other locations; they were on vacation, the first in a year for some of the men. Chuck flew back to the plant and reported the job finished to Frenchy. In celebration, Frenchy invited Chuck, Lina, Will, Mel, and the newly-hired Dolph Petterson out to dinner at the Cattle Baron Steak House in Roswell, where he’d reserved one of their smaller rooms. Chuck wondered what the new man did and why Frenchy had invited him along, but it was Frenchy’s money, so he didn’t comment.

The steaks were excellent, perfectly cooked, and drinks were replenished quickly. The party soon relaxed and conversation flowed freely. Chuck noticed that Dolph had little to say; perhaps it was because he was new, not yet part of the team who’d worked so hard for so long to get as far as they had. But Frenchy spotted the look, and understood. “You’re probably wondering about Dolph,” he said. “He’s the new head of the Plans and Projects division.”

“I didn’t know we had one,” Will said. “What does this division do?”

“Pretty much what Dolph wants,” Frenchy revealed. “So far, he’s still the only one assigned to it.”

“Frenchy, I thought we were doing our own plans!” Chuck protested. “We talked about this before! Except for the opposition you and Will experienced, the only thing that slowed us down was lack of money, and now you’re spending what we don’t yet have on a division we don’ t need? No offense, Dolph, I’m just trying to understand.”

“Not an issue, Chuck. I wanted to call it the Department of Philosophy, but Frenchy wouldn’t let me. He said that would sound weird, so we settled on Plans and Projects.”

“So why do we need this, Frenchy?”

“Let’s let Dolph tell us about it, Chuck. I think you’ll understand then.”

“I’m not here to develop your device, Chuck,” Dolph explained. “I’ve got other ideas. Part of it has to do with the company’s future, part of it has to do with earning money. You pointed out that the company needs money, a lot of it, to finish the projects you’re already working on. Let’s start with your insistence on secrecy, then talk about how that affects your finances. I’ll ask questions, you tell me what you think. Socrates invented this, but it’s the best system I know of for people to educate themselves.”

“Okay, I’ll start with the secrecy,” Chuck agreed. “My grandfather understood that if we want to make a lot of money doing this, we need to get to space first. Not just a one time, short trip, but actually start working out there. Not like the space station, they’re like lab rats in a can except that the can’s in space. As for money, if DARPA ever gets their collective butts in gear, our money problems are over.”

“Chuck, how long has it taken and how much money has the company spent so far developing your invention?”

“Well, it’s mostly grandpa’s invention. I helped and I gave him a few ideas in the beginning, but it was always his. As to how much money, we’ve spent millions. I don’t know how many, maybe Frenchy does.”

“Ben has the exact figures,” said Frenchy. “But you’re right, we’ve spent millions and so far, we’ve only earned back a few hundred thousand from our marine operations.”

“Just so,” said Dolph. “And now you’re hoping a government agency will fund your future activities. You’re handing them control over your product.”

“No, we’re keeping that in-house. We’ve only talked leasing with them.”

“When you only have one customer, you’re at that customer’s mercy! I’ve got a better idea. You mentioned leasing; why?”

“It gets the impeller system going and lets us keep control. Impeller driven planes, ships, submarines, maybe those landing craft too, we expect to earn millions from those.”

“Who are you going to hire to operate the craft? Where are you going to find the mechanics and repairmen you’ll need? Frenchy has described what it takes to build a device in general terms, but control is at least as important. What about hackers? Can someone slip malware into your computers?”

“Not possible,” said Chuck. “The computers aren’t online.”

“But where do the computers get their programming? Don’t tell me you hand-program each of the computers that control your machines.”

“No, we use ... damn. The original computer is online, the one I used. I’ve got an anti-virus program, but that’s only as good as the virus definitions.”

“Right. You need to record a master file on a separate hard disk drive, make sure it has no surprises in the program, then lock it in a vault. Use it only to create other programs, record them on thumb drives or whatever, then use those to program the new computers as you install them. And you’re correct, never connect those computers to any sort of remote system.

“Second, let’s talk about government money, which also has to do with your security idea. I agree that you shouldn’t give away information on how to create the drives, but if you lease them to anyone, especially the government, they’ll soon know all there is to know. From there, someone will insist on a competitor getting the information. Governments hate monopolies, unless they’re getting paid not to.”

“So how do we stop this, Dolph?”

“Don’t lease anything, don’t rent it, don’t sell it. Keep everything in-house. That means you’re going to have to shut down your New Mexico plant and move your operation offshore. Maybe the Cayman Islands, maybe find your own island or even build one.”

“You don’t think small, do you? Build our own island?” said Will.

“If you put yourself at the mercy of any nation, then that nation controls your future. Maybe not immediately, but the option is always available if they decide to go that route. Only if you own your own extra-national country are you really in charge of your own future.”

“Dolph, you sound like some sort of anarchist,” said Mel.

“No, I’m simply being a realist. You might be able to buy a national government, but the temptation is always there to stop taking your golden eggs and go directly to the goose. Governments change, folks; the official that offers you sanctuary today may die or be deposed. As soon as the US government understands just how powerful this revolutionary system of yours is, they’ll take control of it.”

Silence fell what people thought about Dolph’s comments.

“You mentioned money, Dolph,” said Frenchy. “Most of our funds are tied up in what we’re already doing, the factory, the generating station, and the test units. You’re suggesting we abandon those things?”