Chapter 38

By morning I had most of the patterns roughed out. I stayed with the equipment as the new men came in for the next shift. The night shift personnel did not want to leave. I used a hand grinder and then a sand paper disk on one to smooth the rough edges.

More of my prints went to men that would hand make the cams and crankshafts that I wanted.

We made some cores and I threw most out till I had more than enough good ones. The production machinery could not be used because that was what was making all the money. I took a crane and a heavy weight and pressed the sand in a series of drags, then another pattern was pressed into the copes. The cores were placed in the drag and the crane carefully lifted the copes and placed them on the drags.

The furnaces were checked and I found that they did not check on the quality of the iron they made very much. It was sometimes very hard and brittle and other times much too soft.

When metal was to be poured into a large ladle, I picked up some extra copper and gauging it correctly, threw it into the empty vessel. White hot metal was poured into it and then the container was placed on a fork truck. The ladle of molten iron came to the flasks.

I had found where the supplies were stored a thick ceramic disk perforated with many small holes. This went into the top of the mould and a handful of inoculant went on top. I turned a gear driven wheel and molten iron poured into a basin then down a hole in the top of the cope dissolving the easily destroyed inoculant. The resulting mixture was filtered by the ceramic disk. Flames and smoke came out the other holes as gases and water vapour escaped from the sand.

Break time soon came and the men shared their lunches with me. I was cleaner than them but still very dirty. After the short break the heads were cast and allowed to cool.

Spark plugs, valves, springs rocker arms, lifters, distributor, carburetors and clutch assemblies were stock items that I could use. The intake and the exhaust manifolds I chose were from engines that the company made here, as were the bearing caps. I only had to form an adapter on the intake so that it would connect correctly. The connecting rod were from a heavier truck but could be whittled down after the engine had been tested. The pistons were from a different model car too and the manager was sent out to purchase three complete sets of each from a supplier.

I slept on a bench in a locker room after washing. In a few hours I got up and broke open the flasks, allowing the red hot sand and casting to emerge. A hook on a chain dragged the castings away and I allowed them to cool naturally. I left to find something to eat and ordered in some food from a local restaurant. I treated the men working with me to a hearty meal.

When we were finished the heads had cooled enough that I could work on them. The tooling did not last long but I was in a hurry. After one was done the machinists did the others.

The rough blocks were now cool and I put them on a large boring mill and used my eye to align the cutters. I took the least time course and was finished a block in an hour. I did the next one as well while the machinist worked with hand tools to polish the cylinder bores. The last block was left as a raw casting to show the company executives. I could see in the future the computer doing much of the job a man was now doing. The problem that would arise then was to want to do with that man. Most I was sorry to see would have to find jobs elsewhere.

We fitted the crank into place and put the bearings on with the caps and torqued them down. They had to be released and the bearings scraped until it fit perfectly. The connecting rods were put on a surface grinder and a hundred thousandth of a inch taken of both sides. These were attached to the pistons and the rods to the crank. The assembled heads were installed with a slightly modified gasket. The men were very intrigued because the head had two camshafts instead of the one and that was in the block.

The intake went on next and then the carburetor onto that. I allowed others to install the distributor while a man familiar with sheet metal made an oil pan for us. I was all done and turned the distributor where it would work best. This was easy when I could see inside the engine. A muffler from a gas lift truck was welded to a flange and this went onto the exhaust manifold

In a large room I hooked up a hose to the cooling system and allowed the water to flow through the engine and out to a drain. The starter was connected to the ring gear. A can of gasoline fed the carburetor from a few feet above the engine.

We went out to eat again to everybody's discomfort even if I was paying. The engine was ready and everybody wanted to see how it worked. At seven o'clock, an hour early Mr. Hanabusa came back and found us sitting down. After a polite greeting he said, "What have you accomplished Sir Shawn?"

"Bring your car around and we will use your battery to find out. I have not tried to start it yet." This was very surprising because he did not think we could have done that much.

Booster cables came out and I hooked them up except one end. The gas was allowed to flow into the carburetor. Two separate wires went to the coil. "There is only a small muffler so the engine should be noisy." I brought the last clamp to the frame and pulled it away again. "Anybody want to bet that it doesn't start or run smooth?" The cable came close again and then pulled away. "Is there anybody that wants to back up for safety?" Still no takers and after a very long twenty seconds I grounded the clamp on the block. The starter turned the flywheel and after just two complete turns it started and I removed the connection.

I adjusted the carburetor and over the noise said, "This engine will give close to the rated horsepower I told you about. There are many more improvements and they will surpass my figures. We will change the intake manifold and throw the carburetor away. You will need forged cranks and a much stronger transmission. For its class it will win all races it enters.

"I would like to make a plaque to be hung in the main lobby of the head office. On it will be the names of everyone that helped me make this engine."

I shut the engine off and continued, "I have completed the first part of my deal and I will draw up all the prints necessary. This engine should be studied carefully and then put on display to show the world what your people here will be able to do."

There was a lot of pride behind me and I knew that if they were asked to help again I would get the utmost help they could give.

I took another shower and Mr. Hanabusa drove me home. On the way I talked to my wives then said to him. I will have to give your company more assistance than I thought. Do not hire more people. I will make machines that will throw people out of work and I do not want that to happen. We will expand very quickly but your employees will be able to handle the increased work. This is possible because they will be using their minds more than their backs."

"How is your engine better than ours? They look very similar."

"Check the iron in the cylinders and you will find it harder and able to last many more years than even the North American blocks. The angle of the cylinders as well as the way the crank and cams were cut all effect the efficiency and the power produced. You will be able to prove this with the engine I gave you. I will provide a design for the new manifold where fuel will be injected into the engine. This will be similar to the way a diesel works. Let your engineers test out what I design and hear from them what the improvements actually are."

In the next three days I supplied the drawings for the three different engines together with all their related parts. The generator was removed and I used a three phase alternator in its place because it would generate more power at low speeds. The water pump was altered to get a larger longer lasting bearing. The transmission was placed beside the engine and both would be used to power only the front wheels. Next came the remainder of the drivetrain. There was an easy way to even remove the starter motor but this would require the computer to find the best firing sequence. I tried to retrain all of the standard parts I could. The car was made a bit wider to give more room and also allow the mechanic easier access for any maintenance in later years.

The body was formed of galvanized steel that would take the salt and corrosion much better. This would also allow me to cut back on the thickness of the metal. The glass and seats were of necessity made radically different. I had found a way of strengthening glass in London and planned to use this to help keep the car safer. In a front-end collision I had the engine and transmission break away easier and go underneath the automobile. Seatbelts were only an option but I made these similar to what a fighter pilot would use and made special locks that had a pendulum. With a jerk or a sudden stop would cause the belt to lock almost instantly but give freedom of movement till that time. A bit of advertising would have to be used to let the driver know he was stepping into a performance vehicle and needed the same protection as a fighter pilot.

Remembering Sally I mounted a bracket where a child seat could be fastened. One of my own companies would manufacture these seats. The brakes could be improved and I did. I could not find a good way of allowing them to not lock up in a panic stop. Many people were killed because they could not steer out of the way.

The electric car was completed too with a radically altered motor. The electronic drive and the power cell were placed in the vehicle but not in detail. They would have to give me the first ten percent before the secrets of the electric car would be fully divulged.

In the interval, Rhodesia was again in the news. There had been an aborted coup after a group of large landowners and some industrialists decided that the government had gone too far in helping the blacks. The government had acted ruthlessly and many of the conspirators were now dead. I could see this as a sharp departure from their methodical liberalization of their laws. There could now possibly be interracial marriages. Black children were going to school now but as yet were in native only classes. The straw that broke the proverbial camel's back was when a town by the name of Mount Darwin near the border of Mozambique had elected a native to the position of city councillor.

Perhaps now would be a good time to start my own assistance. I placed a call to Vila Pery in Mozambique. After the phone rang four times it was picked up. Chessa said, "Hello." I replied in Portuguese the same way and told her who was calling.

"Shawn," she said excitedly. "It has been such a long time. How are you doing. I see your name mentioned many times in the newspapers."

"I am doing very well. How is Dimuna doing. I imagine she has had a few boyfriends since I was there."

She laughed loudly and said, "Yes she has. You were right to say she took after me."

We talked for a few minutes then I asked, "Is your husband close-by?"

"No, he is out at one of his meetings. He has been different since you were here. He is still very set on his goals but is not against the whites so much. I think it was a good decision that you helped him come to." She told me when he was going to be home and I mentally added another two hours and promised to call then.

The structural members in the aircraft that I had taken to near space had been made from a special fibre made of polymerized carbon. There were problems with the material but it did have fantastic strength that I didn't have to augment. The strength was so great that I knew I could make an elevator into space to make a cheap if slow method of gaining access.

The trouble with making a cable three hundred and fifty miles or longer, was minimal but the fact that it would be strung from a platform orbiting the earth and the other end mounted to another floating platform were horrendous. I could not lift that amount of cable easily and the platform that it had to be hung from needed mass to keep it in position above the same spot all the time.

I called Ethiopia and just had Brihan contact one of my hidden locations and make some large spools of filament with the specifications I wanted. She talked for quite a while and said that Demeku was now taking different classes and was coming along fine. Shumetie was in the other room with Benyam playing a game. The boys were called out and I talked to them for a few minutes and I could even hear in Shumetie's voice that he was happier here.

When I hung up I knew that it would be a long process to make all the fibre. Right after they finished this shipment they would have to make more lengths to add to the one that would be hanging from orbit.

Here in Japan I drove to a machine shop I owned. Inside I worked on different metals to make a set of rollers that would grip the carbon fibre enough to lift itself. The motor would come from Ethiopia as would the solar panels. The bottom would be a different type of panel for it would have to intercept energy from a land based laser beam that would give it supplementary power. The basic unit would have to remain here until I had a chance to put the additional parts on it and begin testing.

I had time before the phone call and gathered all the information about the re-entry vehicle I would need in my mind. The modified B-47 was strong but suffered from the effects of the heat when re-entering the majority of earth's atmosphere. Titanium would be a light material to use but would suffer under the high heat. There were metals that I could use that would take the heat much better but were very heavy. The best that I could think of that a normal human could use would be a ceramic outer covering.

My engines could be mounted far back and small canards in the front would give stability. During re-entry the engines could be folded inside the body or disposed of to fall to the earth later. I settled with a skirt that would come out and cover the folded away engines and just protect them from the high heat. Rockets on the wings would suffice for control and even thrust to change orbits. A simpler machine without air breathing engines and the ceramic coating could be used in space but would have to remain there.

As usual I retained my plans because I could not work on them full time now. I picked up the phone and called General Mobutu. The man picked up the phone on the second ring and we said our hellos. This took about ten minutes as we caught up on old news and things that were not very sensitive because we both knew that his or my phone lines would be tapped if they went through other countries.

"I have a job for you that will make an honest man of you. It involves you securing some of my installations from sabotage and espionage. It will be in the open in Rhodesia and the country will give you pardon for any past wrongs. They are changing and I have to give them something substantial that will keep them from falling back to their old ways."

He asked vague questions and I just asked him to go to Ethiopia and talk to me from there. I had the use of the satellites and they could not be breached by any other company or government on earth. He had heard of my satellite system and was intrigued especially in the business he was in.

Since it was still daylight in Addis Ababa I picked up the computer and sent the data over. A unit there would print what I had just sent and when the General came he would be given the large package of paper to read.

I was able to get three hours sleep and was up to make breakfast for my family.

The day was going to be hot and also promised to be hectic too. The large earthmoving trucks I wanted were completely assembled now. The smaller one had only six wheels on three axles but the box was large enough to handle five hundred tons of rock. I made the box a specific size because people would put as much into it as the box would hold. If lighter soils were put on then they would have to be satisfied with fifty tons less or so.

The larger truck with eight wheels on four axles could carry seven hundred tones but was more difficult to steer so I had to make the two front axles both do this job.

They had been made at the ship yards because of the presence of the cranes that were used on the old ships that were made before. Reporters and construction people from all over the world were coming to see what we had made this time.

The show was going to start at noon but there were crowds around the yards as soon as the trucks had been exposed. We had a very high shed with a gigantic door to match to build them in. Morie got into the smaller truck and fired up the diesel engine. The noise reverberated through the building and his co-pilot sat in one of the four bucket seats in the cab. Behind them was a fridge, sink and even a stove to allow the people to work without stopping.

Sally was very excited and her mother had to take her to the bathroom. I had carried her up the high ladder to the deck with the cab. She sat in the truck that had seat belts but since its top speed was only eighteen miles an hour empty there was little need of them. After giving her a kiss I left her in the care of her 'Grampie' and went down to the ground to talk with the men that had worked hard building these two trucks.

With the systems warmed up Morie drove the huge truck outside and sounded the loud horn to the crowd waiting. The large dump body started to raise and I could see with my eye that Sally was the one making this happen. When the top edge was a little over ninety feet in the air Sally sounded the horn and Morie drove forward a hundred feet or so.

Morie came out on the wide deck and held Sally up for all the world to see. The girl was frightened by being so high but knew that her 'Grampie' would not allow her to be hurt. The men in the yard then the crowd clapped their hands. Morie went back inside the cab and the dump box was lowered. It was then driven to an out of the way corner and backed into position. The various television monitors and cameras mounted on the truck showed him exactly where he was at all times.

I called all the workers over and had them climb the truck and pose with Morie and Sally for pictures. The scene was so good that I knew I would have to paint this in oils for the main entrance of our yard.

Once the workers descended, Morie started down the ladder and then Sally was encouraged to go with him. He stayed behind her all the time so if she fell it would only be into his body. When he made it to the ground he reached up and helped Sally to the ground. The girl was no fool and wanted him to carry her. Morie knew who was the boss and carried her in his arm as he accepted accolades from the workers.

More photos were taken beside the truck so that the massive tires could be shown. Morie called me over and I had to have my picture taken too but it had to be with the rest of the people that helped bring this to a reality.

At the appropriate time for the presentation Morie drove the larger vehicle out. The truck was just as high but the box was longer. In the cab were most of the potential buyers. Some sat in the comfortable seats or stood on the large deck around the cab. Even more hung onto the chain around the external deck to see the earth almost thirty feet below them. I was in the vehicle with them telling everything that Morie was doing. The speed was the same because I used a larger engine to drive this much larger vehicle.

They loved the comforts of home and tested out the shower and the toilet but only from a distance. I jokingly said that it was an expensive motorhome to buy." A large diesel motorhome would get about seven miles to the gallon. This truck got fourteen American gallons to the mile.

The men had a turn at driving the vehicle and even a few reporters did too. Everybody raved about the feeling of power and how quiet the cab was. One of my better radios was playing soft music throughout and it could always be heard throughout the test. The hot day proved to be a boon as the air conditioning functioned flawlessly, even most American autos did not have this luxury.

That afternoon the smaller truck travelled up the beach to the cement plant almost thirty miles away. When it arrived a newly arrived ship loaded the truck. We could all see the plimsoll line rise as the limestone left the ship and fell into the truck box. There was quite a bit of time taken even if the conveyors were very fast. They inspected the cement plant itself. We used a special dry method of making cement and all the gases and dust were effectively captured. I showed them where things detrimental to the environment were safely burnt. A generating station made use of the hot gases and the final product leaving the plant was a dirty water. Even the cake left when the water evaporated was put back into the mix. The tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide produced from breaking down the stone and the by-products of combustion were captured. This was compressed and sold. Chemical plants used it for their processes. I used it for the many fire extinguishers and half was sold as dry ice.

The truck was finally full and the engine roared loudly as it started gently up the hill. The driver was cautious and took his time with the incline which was fairly steep, but the truck did not slow much. All the spectators were impressed again. The truck was driven back down the incline and the ship began using the standard conveyor to feed the plant. The truck was not needed here and was just here to demonstrate its power and ease of use. For many hours the loaded truck went up and down the long incline to the shore. I was the last to drive and told them, "Since you gentlemen are only trainees, you could only use the lower settings. I flipped a switch that gave me full power and I almost flew up to the plant.

One of our own men used the installed cameras and backed the truck up. The rest of us got out and watched the front lip of the box climbed far into the air and then lower again. As the truck parked the men walked up to the pile of stone and could see how high it really was in human terms.

In the hotel that night I negotiated for the sale and delivery of fifty three of the smaller units and a dozen of the larger units.

Six of the vehicles were destined for Indonesia and I could send them on the empty tanker heading out. The next day I started to call in the sub-contractors and gave them the good news.

Morie was quite pleased too. He had no real link to the trucks other than the yard I used was half his. Mary happily said how Sally could not sleep that night because she was still excited about her driving the giant machine.

Because of the order I purchased more engines, generators and negotiated with shops to machine the very large steel castings that I would need. Prices dropped a little because of the quantity and also because they had already made up the jigs for the first two units.

Things looked good enough to dig another of my underground facilities. They worked even better three days later and the long high speed belt was much shorter because the two trucks were used to carry the soil away. As many people come to see the digging as did to see the trucks perform. We had rain but this time I had sloped the land better to keep the water further away from the edge. The steel was put in and then the utilities till finally the two crossing track sections were added. Again this time I made large areas instead of the small ones because I wanted the rooms to attract more people.

Another crew paid by our consortium drove a boring machine that was fourteen feet in diameter. The earth and stone removed went on a conveyor to be dumped further back. My lasers here were used to keep the long lines straight and to meet up with matching tunnels with very little misalignment. Steel and concrete were being constantly put in and finished. We were making so much headway that I suggested that we make a larger unit and bore a tunnel from our island of Honshu north to Hokkaido or south to Shikoku and Kyushu. Apparently this was a dream that had always been in their minds but had not ever had too much work done on it. The bridges worked but a train was the preferred method of transport and the electric one was even better.

They wanted me to drop everything to start on this and I had to dissuade them until I had a better chance to evaluate the situation. If this did work then I could dig under the English Channel and then do some similar work in Scandinavia. Digging through the Alps or the Rockies was also a possibility.

My phone started to beep and I took it out just after the meeting. General Mobutu was on my phone system and his face came readily to me. "Hello General. It is good to see your face again. I assume that you have read the sheets I sent to you."

"I did and I had to take a while to think of the good and the bad of this deal. Are you really offering me the job of head of security?"

"Yes but in Europe and Africa. Japan is too far away as yet and so is the upper portion of our proposed space station. When we can speed up flight then those other areas will be under your authority as well. The pay is only adequate but the prestige should bolster your career. There are many things to learn that you never knew existed before but I am sure you can make up for lost time."

"I want the job," he said, "but I don't know if I can handle it."

"You will have to do as I do and learn as you carry on. There are men here that have been on the other side of the law that now work honestly for me. They may give you some insight into how a criminal may act and allow you to find a counter strategy. You will get a phone like the one you are carrying. I may be reached at almost any time if it is important. Your phone though will have booby traps in it. If you make a mistake it can blow up in your hand."

"I am used to that kind of security. What about all the other things I have been involved in?"

"Oh you mean the military overthrow of Mozambique and Zaire. Well you can still plot but you can't do anything without my ok. I don't like the people either but we can't have wholesale killing. The people running the country are corrupt but at least they have an idea how to guide the populous."

"I will take the job then."

"Good I will talk to the people in Rhodesia to see if there is any problem. If there is we will shift to Mozambique and make the platform there." We talked a bit more and I got Ayana to give him the special phone and a detector for microphones. We would have to talk further when there were not as many people around.

I sent a computer document to Addis Ababa and had security send it by currier to Salisbury but only after Mobutu read it. If things worked well then our space station was ready to become a reality.

We excavated for more of the first type of track/business/home complex. We had found a few ways to speed the process up and things started to move much faster here. One new trench did hook up to the second of my complexes but the security was not needed as strongly in this location.

The boring machine was very fast but not fast enough to do all I wanted so I put the order in for another machine. When the bad weather came I wanted us to be as dry as possible. The storm sewers led to the bay and I put sensors all along it to find any source of contamination and take the people responsible for any illegal dumping to court.

Large sanitary sewer pipes were leading to a waste disposal area. I built the best plant I could in this instance. A very large area had covered settling ponds and all the waste was collected and stored. The methane gas coming off was hastened by the new variety of microbes I introduced. This gas was sold to some of my companies. When natural gas could be shipped in I would distribute it to the city for everybody to use as the piping was already in place.

Rhodesia gave their ok to let Mobutu take the job I offered. Soon after he was shedding much of his old responsibilities and taking on new ones.

Rhodesia shared a common border with Zambia and the line went through the 175 mile long Lake Kariba. This was part of the Zambezi River system and ended up at Victoria Falls. I had exclusive rights to a few square miles of the lake for my company for a period of just under a hundred years. The cost was minimal to make sure I put my business here, paid taxes and employed the locals. I had been there only once and knew that I had to gain access to the lake for supplies and for cargoes heading up. This meant a commercial airport, hotels and all the infrastructure that comes with a low budget space venture. This would be the earth terminus to my sky cable.

My engineers got a small job designing a floating platform that would take all the storms that lashed the lake, provide the ability to defend itself and take on cargos. I wanted to see what they could come up with on their own.

Months before I had personally contacted the aircraft companies and offered to give them a chance to come and witness the take off and hopefully the landing of my modified ship. Now with the change in plans, I would be forced to take a different cargo aloft. The start of the space station needed many things and I could not take it all up at one time. The B-47 nicknamed 'Sally' was altered a bit to get some of the tiles placed on the leading edges and on the underside of the fuselage and the wings.