Chapter 13

The day following our return from Texas, with, thankfully, Stephanie safely back home, the six of us met in Hastings study. For the better part of an hour, he grilled us about what went on in that hangar in Texas. Our people had already done some preliminary assessment of the data we retrieved on paper and on the hard disks from the computers we raided, and a huge picture of global conspiracy was beginning to emerge, all of it centered around oil and war.

It seems that the growing shortage of oil was creating a windfall opportunity for arms manufacturers, reconstruction industries, and the oil industry, and they were going to milk it for all it was worth. For most of the rest of the day, we discussed possible solutions from every angle, including Sun, Jun, Mei, Wei and I infiltrating each of the involved companies, countries and governments and sabotaging their efforts.

For the last half hour or so of the discussion, Steve Hastings sat behind his desk, lost in thought, and speaking only when addressed directly.

Finally, in the middle of a heated discussion about ways and means, he said, "Listen. I have an idea, but I'm not going to say anything until I've discussed it with some other people. In the meantime, I'm going to need the tightest security you can come up with for me, my family, and my CTO. Can you do that?"

Our link was abuzz with speculation, but the G-girls and I affirmed that we could keep a lid on anything that came up.

"Good. We never got around to hiring you formally, Darren, so I appreciate you agreeing to help with this." Hastings said.

"If you could experience what the six of us have here, Mr. Hastings," I replied, "you'd understand how little choice I have, or want, in the matter. What these ladies are into, I'm into, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

I always knew Steve Hastings was a smart guy, but I never really knew just HOW smart he was until this came up. While the girls and I speculated on how to bring down a global conspiracy, Hastings got busy doing the one thing that such a conspiracy could not survive. He wouldn't tell us what it was at first, but suddenly there was a flurry of activity at his company. Bob, the CTO, and a new guy, suddenly became a priority for us when it came to security. The new guy was a friend of Bob's from college, and just as much of a geek, but, as we learned, a few months into his employment, he was to be the salvation of our country, its economy, and the entire planet.

At Hasting's behest we wrapped a security blanket around Bob and Gene (the new guy) so tight that even we didn't know what they were working on until they went to test the prototype. Even that was done indoors, in a huge hangar that Hastings rented at Moffet field. We had to rent it for a week so that the girls and I could go over it for bugs, sensors, explosive devices, etc. We swept the place with a fine-toothed comb using both our mental abilities and the tried and true detectors of the G-girls' trade. Some of the bugs we found had to have been cold-war era stuff, while others were more modern. NASA thanked us afterward when we piled all the electronics we had found on the administrator's desk. Apparently, they had suspected that someone was spying on them, but never realized just how many there were. We didn't have the heart to tell them that many of those bugs had to have been planted by US agencies.

Once the place was clear, we took turns in four-hour shifts of two, patrolling inside and out, invisible, and not just on the ground. Hastings felt this was so important that he even gave permission for Stephanie to join us, provided that she promise not to try to take matters into her own hands if she found anyone snooping around who shouldn't be. With Steph partnered with Mei, we could work three shifts, allowing the four not on shift to sleep and eat.

We also had the expected compliment of visible security people stationed around the place, inside the closed roof, and on top of the hangar. The ability to levitate helped us tremendously, both in sweeping the place and in patrolling and making sure the other guards remained alert.

The big day came and it was kind of a disappointment. A tractor trailer rig, driven by one of the trusted Gemini people, drove through the hangar door and parked. The Gemini driver got out, unlocked the trailer's loading door and left. When only Hastings, Bob, and Sun were left inside the hangar, Bob opened the loading door at the back of the trailer and operated the controls to extend and lower a ramp. The rest of us watched through Sun's eyes as, from inside the trailer a Hummer rolled down the ramp. This was one of the original Hummvee's, like those used by the military. It was much quieter than the behemoths normally are, but otherwise appeared to be a normal, commercial grade Hummvee. We continued our patrols outside and in, watching through the eyes of whoever had the watch inside the hangar during each shift, as Gene, who was driving, put the Hummer through its paces for seven hours. A series of forward and reverse motions, full throttle runs, extended steady speed runs, climbing obstacles, and basically doing all the things the rugged vehicles were originally designed for. The performance was impressive, but I'd seen and driven Hummers most of my military career, and saw nothing out of the ordinary, other than the exceptional quietness of its engine.

An hour before our lease on the hangar was up, the vehicle rolled smoothly back into the trailer, the ramp disappeared, and the G-girls and I rode the rig back to the company facility, keeping on the alert for anyone who might have designs on its contents.

It wasn't until later that evening that Hastings, accompanied by his two techno-geeks, explained what we had seen.

"So, what did you think?" He asked of no one in particular.

I shrugged. "It was quiet. Didn't seem to struggle quite as much on some of the obstacles as the ones I'm used to. Why? What's this Hummer got to do with your plan?"

Hastings smiled that little smile I had come to expect when he had a surprise to spring on us.

"That Hummer was running on electricity." He said.

"That's quite a battery." Wei, who with her sister was the most technical among us, said. "No recharge the whole seven hours."

"Actually," Hastings was still smiling, "the battery was being recharged continuously."

"How?!" This from Mei, who shared her sister's penchant for paraphernalia.

"By a unit very much like this." Bob answered, sweeping the drape off of something round and metallic, about the size of a basketball, that was surrounded by tubes and wires. "A microfusion reactor. It produced the energy that generated the electricity for the battery and wheel motors."

"Fusion?" I asked. "Isn't it pretty dangerous to have a fusion reactor running around loose like that?"

"Actually," Bob's new pal spoke up, "one of the secrets to this reactor is the containment field. It keeps radioactive particles within the reactor. Another secret is the heating and cooling. Scientists have for years searched for a way to generate cold fusion using metals such as Palladium and Titanium as catalysts. We have bypassed all that by generating plasma in such minute quantities that the unit that heats the gasses need only be as big as your thumb. We have also eliminated the need to generate Tritium from Lithium by going to a Deuterium-Deuterium reaction. This also eliminates many of the sources of excess radiation."

"What do you use for fuel?" A little to my surprise, this came from Stephanie.

"At present, any liquid with sufficient hydrogen content," Gene lectured, "including gasoline, diesel fuel, water, and a number of other readily available substances. A gallon of gas would power this for a very long time. The only reason we're restricted to liquids is that we haven't had time to work out the mechanics of the separation process for non-liquids. That will happen within the year. Deuterium is produced from the hydrogen, after it is separated from other chemicals in the fuel by a proprietary process within the reactor."

"What about safety?" Mei asked.

"The containment field ensures against radiation leakage and because it's integral with the fusion process, provides a fail-safe mechanism to prevent uncontained reactions." Gene paused for breath. "If the reactor is damaged, the field collapses instantly and reaction ceases in nanoseconds. It is possible for microscopic quantities of plasma to escape as the field collapses, but the amount is so small that it would cool before it could do any serious damage."

Stephanie clearly had an interest in this subject. "But what about waste? Won't there be radioactive byproducts?" She asked.

"That's one of the unique features of this approach." The scientist replied. "The sole byproduct of this fusion reaction is Helium. There can be chemical byproducts but those are collected in waste containers. Many are useful for other purposes, so on the whole the actual waste from a power plant like this is miniscule."

"Is it scalable?" This from Hastings himself. I suspected he knew the answer, but wanted Gene to tell us.

"This kind of power plant can be built in sizes that will power everything from a motorcycle to a medium-sized factory." The scientist took the bait. "When used to generate electricity, multiple units can be used to generate as much power as needed."

"It must be very expensive..." Stephanie commented.

"Because of its simplicity, even without the economies of scale that could be achieved with mass production, the entire power train for this vehicle cost less in materials and labor than its original drive train." Bob fielded that one. "In production, it would reduce the cost of most vehicles by an estimated 40 percent, and the total cost of ownership by approximately eighty four percent."

"What if it runs out of fuel?" Jun asked.

"Tow truck owners whose trucks use these power plants will have special restart connectors." Bob continued. "After adding a few ounces of fuel to the stalled vehicle, they simply need to supply enough power to sustain the containment field until the vehicle's own reaction restarts. Which reminds me: When not in use, the power plant 'idles' producing just enough power to sustain its containment field."