Chapter 23

Jerry excitedly said, "Let's turn that on its side to see if it floats on your desk?"

"Great idea but my computer is inside. We have to wait until it is attached to the sides for that."

"Why can't you turn a computer?"

"That is the other part of the project. Last year Mr Ramsey put a magnet on his desk and then put a large piece of Bristol board on it. He sprinkled iron filings on that."

Sam said, "I remember that. The metal followed the lines of force instead of just spreading out evenly."

"A similar effect is happening here. The crystals have these lines of force. Some kinds can be used to make a simple computer. If you have something like mould or fungus that has a lot of iron in it, it will grow the way the iron filings grew when they were dropped over a magnet. The mould in this case grows along the lines of force in the crystals. Do you guys want to see inside?" I smiled at this so they would not get upset. They had to learn but not be frightened.

Betts smile looked fake but she said, "I want to see."

"Matt can I remove your external power for a while?"

"I have reserves for thirteen days."

"Good, I have to deactivate the field, buddy."

"Betts pull that box out of the outlet behind you."

She did as I asked and slowly the field collapsed. We hurried over and Wendy said, "It smells funny."

"The mould needs a warm damp climate just like a greenhouse. The small veins that carry water and nutrients have the minerals in the walls of the tiny tubes."

Jerry said, "It looks like a piece of mouldy bread with some small pieces of yellow or brown glass."

"It isn't much to see. Crystals get added to those small dints in the ceramic. The ones I have here would fall out if I turned the box now. The fungus grows to cover the sides of the box and the thin fibres follow the lines of force. The crystals in the USB devices or even our glasses will use similar lines of force to talk to this computer the way a computer talks to the modem."

Jerry said, "You have a good computer why do you need this thing?"

"It is a project to make. You built a few model cars before."

"That was when I was a kid."

"Jerry, you are as old as me. I helped you and it was fun. If we did another it would be fun. It would be fun in twenty years if we are together."

Jerry did smile now and said, "Ya, you're right."

"Well since everybody had a look let's close up the box so the computer can grow. I have an idea. Let's give the computer a name and not 'Mouldy'. Everybody gets a vote though."

We were joking about names when I called Elaine, Shirley and Ashleigh into my room. Ashleigh said, "What's so funny?"

Jerry answered, "Wally is making a computer out of crystals and fungus that I saw on bread. He said it will work. He does have something neat though.

Jerry looked at me and I looked at him. I said, "You explain it."

"Those crystals Betts put into us were special. There are other special ones in the computers to allow us to talk to each other. Anyway some guys at the academy want us to learn about something new that has not been in magazines yet. It's like the shield around the Enterprise but it's not clear."

Ashleigh said, "Show me."

Jerry did as he was asked and Ashleigh said, "Neat."

The other two tried it too but saw nothing that odd about it. They knew next to nothing about physics. I got the munchkins and Paul and they said neat too. Betts dropped the shield and the internal portion of the computer was far from being inspiring.

Paul said, "The guy that was talking to me said your computer will really work."

"I hope so."

After supper Sam and Chuck saw the computer and didn't think much of it. The shield they were smart enough to pick up on. Chuck said, "Can we make a suit that uses these crystals? It'd be like armour. People couldn't hit us."

"The bullets would still knock you over. We are too small. I don't think I can make pieces that work together very well. I can make a shield like the Romans had. They can wear one on their back too. We can try I guess if you guys want to spend your time helping."

"Sure, it'd be fun."

Three weeks into the new year, Caputo presented us with a counter offer for all of Cosner. The minority owners were outvoted by the majority and it was agreed to sell out. Nadac had attended the meeting with a probe and said there was not that much opposition. Apparently all of Mastti's e-money had disappeared. The Columbians were thought to have done it and Caputo was a second choice. The account actually netted us 436 million. We had scammed another criminal organisation into buying part of the Mastti empire without Mastti knowing he sold it.

The employees had been talked to by our lawyers and other representatives. They would stay on in their present positions with the exception of only 37 people. They had been involved with Caputo's scams. We would keep them and watch but they were not even trustworthy for that.

Caputo wanted a quick closing but we wanted to see the books. We also wanted the employees but ones we could trust. Foster, the parent organisation had replied that our price was far too low. It didn't look like even the 15.5 was going to work so we withdrew our offer.

By the end of January we knew the liabilities as well as the assets and adjusted our offer for Cosner. Some of the accounting was so subtle that Nadac had to find the problems and inform our people. Similar situations were found with the shipping companies. Again our offer was dropped to fit with the current status.

I made two dozen drones. The best went to Nadac in trade for the first one we had kept. We had one each now plus a few spares. The guys patrolled Toronto and went as far as the burnt out trailer and the well. Reconnaissance was now old hat.

We built shields out of coat hangers and crystals. An attack on us would come from this dimension so three crystals were all that were needed. An addition benefit was that the shield was transparent in this case. Because of its size I had to use twenty one of them. The coat hangers stiffened up except for the portion that extended through the shield that we had to hold onto. It was the stiffening of adjacent sections that made a segmented suit hard to make.

The shield was not that efficient. Rocks could be thrown through it if they were massive enough. Steel rods did the same thing. Bullets we figured would go through even easier.

Chuck wanted more density and the shield was made smaller and smaller to make it stronger. A spherical shape was tried. This triggered the ideas of a ship using the shield again. Nadac supplied information about cosmic and gamma ray penetration and their hopes fell for extended stays in space.

Science fiction was popular with our gang. Wendy almost peed herself when she saw a ship float out into space through a shield that kept the atmosphere in the ship. We were all watching the movie when she said, "Did you see that?"

It took a second for Shirley to say, "We have to see how much air it leaks and see how much power we need to push a solid object that size through the screen."

Pop was sitting with us and smiled, "You guys building a Star Destroyer?"

Paul said, "Not that big. We have to keep the costs down. Chuck and Jerry used up all the coat hangers and we needed to get more."

Pop laughed and almost spilt his coffee. Mom smiled and reached out to touch.

Patricia said, "Don't laugh Dad. It is going to be way bigger than this house."

"What is going to make it move, Princess?"

"I don't know yet. Reaction mass is out. We feel that we can phase shift between the dimensions to get supra light. The actual speed would be dependent on mass and the availability of Utram."

"No photon torpedoes or dilithium?"

I was now worried. I had no idea that Nadac had released this information. I looked around and saw that most of the others were not surprised. They too must have been introduced to this information already. To stop it now would look odd and I hoped that Patricia's age would make it look like a child's story she had seen.

"Daddy, we are not children. We use supra light missile. Our energy weapons all work in the upper dimensions for range and power."

"Well Princess, I stand corrected. I didn't think the photon torpedoes would be obsolete so soon."

Mom said to Pop, "You're a lagging behind technologically. We will have to take a refresher course in weapons."

Patricia said, "We will try to get you enrolled but you guys may be too old."

Now it was our turn to laugh.

Sandy was our current guard. She had laughed just as hard as we did but she was also younger. She said, "What is this Utram you were talking about?"

"Oh that old stuff. It is a synthetic atom that undergoes primary fission then the three major sections themselves undergo more fission. For the most part, only stable isotopes are produced. The energy produced is used to drive in inertial compensator as well as the temporal one. The main drives take less power than the two compensators. The reactor is much smaller and lighter than the one using antimatter."

"Do you know how to fly that ship?"

"I take ship handling but a computer has to do that. There are just too many things that have to happen at the right moment. I still have trouble with astrogating and bringing a ship to orbit. My head is not developed enough yet to handle all the mathematics."

"Grade four students don't usually have to know all that."

"Wally said I have to learn mathematics. We're doing that. Vectors are easy. It's when we get into calculus that we are having problems. Algebra is hard too and we have to know a lot more about that before we can handle calculus properly."

All the adults were interested now. Mom said, "You are doing algebra and calculus now?"

"Mostly algebra. The calculus was thrown in to show a shortcut."

"A shortcut to what?"

"To get to orbit with the least fuel then between here and the other planets. Did you know how long it takes just to get to Mars or Venus?"

"Where did you learn all this, Honey?"

"On the computer."

Mom looked at me and said, "Aren't you pushing things too fast, Wally?"

"The website dispenses knowledge. Patricia is sucking it up at her pace not mine. She finds mathematics interesting. If she is forced to master multiplication and division to learn about flying to Mars, then I think that is beneficial. I would even promote it in school."

"That may be good but I'll talk to her teacher about it."

Patricia said, "She doesn't even know how to change orbit. I tried to teach her but she wasn't interested."

Pop said, "Does Liza and Erin know how to do this too?"

"Erin is not as good as me yet."

"And Liza?"

"She is better than me. She wants to be the pilot."

"Not the captain?"

"That's too hard." Patricia looked at me and said, "Wally would have to be the Captain. He knows lots of math but he has to know a lot more."

"He already knows a lot, Princess. Show me this website."

"Nadac, Pop wants to see the site. No mention was made of live intervention."

Nadac didn't answer as usual. Patricia ran to get her computer. She put it in her father's lap and turned it on. It booted up fast and this made me cringe. Nadac's programming was very efficient. Patricia was in the right program almost immediately.

"George, go to last bookmark."

The last lesson came up. Pop said, "You have voice recognition, Princess?"

"Of course. We aren't in the stone age anymore."

"Show me what you do."

Text was on the screen and both of them read it. When Patricia finished the screen she said, "George, next page." The screen scrolled and she read a bit more. "George, question one; x y over b equals the square root of v squared over c squared equals... mmmm... one point five."

An obviously mechanical voice said, "Mass increase at that velocity is correct. What is the dimensional distortion when viewed from an observer at rest?"

Mom said, "What is the machine talking about?"

Bert said proudly, "Our little girl is just working on the change of mass when a ship has attained a relativistic velocity. Einstein must be in simple steps. George has to be the code word for the voice recognition to begin processing."

"Daddy, you said that word. Now it wonders what I said."

"Sorry Princess."

"Einstein? Relativity?" Mom said.

I had not looked around but Liza, Erin and Paul brought out their computers. Paul climbed into Mom's lap though he was older. Mom didn't seem to mind. They fired up their machines and showed their stuff. Liza sat between Sandy and her mother so she could show what she was doing.

In a moment Sandy said, "What is that flashing icon for?"

Liza said, "The guys are online. They talk a lot about sports or to their girlfriends but they want to build our spaceship."

"Wi-Fi that far?"

"Ours can. Chuck says we are going at supra light speeds now but he can't prove it."

"And he was using all the coat hangers?"

"Ya, he made neat shields but they were not strong enough. Sam used a plastic garbage can lid. It was better but heavier too."

"You guys are certainly creative. I worry about my son Willy. He's sitting around all day watching television or playing computer games."

"We play games too. We fight Betty and Erica on the moon. We usually have to be defence because the weapons have too much mass even though they don't weigh much. Paul is good with his missile battery. He has a good feeling for the mathematics. We don't use too many kinetic weapons now. Distortional weapons are better. They rip an enemy into pieces when they are pushed into other dimensions."

"You can't use a calculator from inside the game?"

"Our suit computers are supposed to break down a lot. We have to use our minds. We are using heavy duty lasers now to dig a deeper base and put in more automatic weapons. We need better drones too. Betty and Erica shoot them out and then we can't see what's happening."

"Do they use drones too."

"We all have to use them or we get killed."

"Do you shoot theirs down too?"

"All the time."

"Put some at ground level with a lot of explosives nearby. When you see them coming then you can trigger the blast and get them."

"Paul thought of that already. Now they use drones on the ground to look for ultrawave communications."

The conversations went on and the movie was forgotten. I turned the television off and got my own computer out. We could at least hide out in the open now. This gave me an opportunity to give June one of the computer's openly but she would be encouraged to learn what she now took in school. She had lots of homework and the voice recognition helped a bit.

Near six PM on Sunday I got a phone call from Sam. "Wally," he said excitedly. "Greg is being beat up at the range by three guys. It looks serious. They are not playing around."

I didn't have to look. Sam was worried and he already made a decision by calling me. "You are closer. Get Jerry and Chuck. Don't go in if you are going to get hurt unless it looks serious for Greg. I'll get right over there."

"I'll try my best Cap."

"I know you will."

I intercepted the signals coming from Sam's remote and saw what was happening. All the guys were a lot bigger than Greg. He was just on the ground in a ball being kicked by all three.

I hurried out of the room thinking as I went. I needed transportation and more troops were good. Gail was not here at the moment and this meant I needed Mom and Pop. Wilcox was here but this should be done by us. Greg needed to see that he had friends and he needed it now. Blooding my troops came to mind as well. I felt ashamed of the idea but it had merit.

Pop was sitting in a chair reading. "Pop will you give Betts... Wendy and I a lift. A friend is hurt and may need a lift to the hospital."

"Who is it?"

"Greg."

"Let's go."

Mom looked worried. She didn't stop us but she got up. I hurried to Betts room and said, "Scramble. Greg is being beaten by three guys at the old rubber factory."

She said nothing but jumped off the bed. In a moment Wendy was doing the same thing. Erica would come too but she and Gail were out shopping for groceries.

We were dressed as quick as we could. I raised the garage door and gave Paul the job of making sure it closed after we left.

Mom got in the front seat beside Pop and the three of us took the next seat. I gave directions as we went but I continued to monitor the beating.

I wanted to urge Pop to go faster. But had to say, "He's laying in the snow and bleeding. I don't think he is conscious."

Mom said, "How do you know?"

"Sam just phoned me. He saw the beating and is running to help Greg."

Wendy said, "Who are they?"

"I don't know. Three males, sixteen to eighteen."

We got as close as we could. The girls bailed out of the van as soon as we could. Mom and then Pop were running behind us to get into the property through the broken chain link gate. Running was not hard as it was but the girls were faster than me.

Wendy yelled out ahead of her, "Leave him alone you fuckin' assholes."

A figure on the ground got another kick as the three guys looked to see who was coming. When they saw the girls, they acted like wolves and blocked their prey from the girls.

Betts got there first and didn't slow down. She attacked the largest one first. She hit the guy hard with her feet. She was not in balance and Kazuyoshi would not be happy.

Wendy was next and used a different technique. She struck her opponent with her hand and then grabbed his coat and flipped him over her hip. With the guy on the ground, the side of her fist came down and pulped the guy's nose. The third guy reached in and grabbed Wendy's hair and dragged her off balance.

Wendy fell but her leg went out in a sweep but didn't quite knock the guy over. Bett's opponent growled as he ran head down at her. I was close but I stopped and watched. Pop was almost beside me when is put out my hand to stop him. He wanted to go forward and I said, "Wait, watch."

"But..."

Betts dropped to the ground before her attacker. I heard Mom scream behind us. The opponent though was propelled over Betts. She had hold of the hood on his coat. The guy did a somersault and landed on his back. Betts did a curl herself and pulped the guy's nose like Wendy did.

Wendy's second opponent tried to box with her. He had no ability that I could see and Wendy was blocking his blows and delivering two of her own.

Betts got up and looked for opponents. She like me stopped to watch though I saw that she desperately wanted to get in there and do damage. Women are vicious at the best of times.

Wendy got tired of the guy. He was groggy now and she moved in and kneed the guy in the nuts. When he fell Wendy kicked the guy in his face. Mom called out, "Wendy..." but the foot had already struck.

I hurried to Greg now. Betts stayed to watch for an attack. I checked for broken bones and saw none. Greg was unconscious.

"Pop carry him to the van. I'll stay to see that these guys get up."

Mom said, "By yourself?"

"They were softened up considerably. I won't have problems. Chuck is almost here now."

On cue, Chuck and Jerry came running with Sam just behind. Pop had already picked up Greg. He and Mom hurried back to the car. I said to Betts and Wendy, "You did a good job. Sensei Kazuyoshi would say you were sloppy but you were lucky this time. Go with Greg and tell him that he's out of harm's way. The guys were stay here to make sure these assholes make it to someplace safe."

The girls were still breathing deeply from their exertions. They gave me a smile and Wendy gave Chuck a better one then she went to him and kissed him like an Amazon would. Chuck just stood stunned when they ran off.

Sam said, "What happened?"

"I got Pop to drive us here. The girls are faster and got to these guys before I did. They were doing pretty well on their own and I got Pop and then Mom to observe. The fight itself was simple but the girls have to tell you. It was their fight not mine."

Sam said, "What are we doing with these guys?"

"Help them get home."

"I'd leave them here. They probably won't die."

"I know but we have to assist."

I used clean snow to wash away blood. The cold would keep down the swelling. I used my cell to call two cabs. The first one came and I gave the driver more than enough money to drop the guys off at the hospital.

Chuck said, "What do we do now?"

"We just wait. We will learn what happened later. Let's just work on The Beagle until we find out."

The second took us to Sam's house. Paul was phoned and given a short version of what happened. We'd have a lot of hyper kids when we got back.

Sam's dad, Will, met us in his shop. He was a nice guy and greeted us when we came in. "You guys building more of your spaceship?"

"Dad, it is mainly suborbital. It isn't intended for space. It won't even have the power to get to the moon quick enough."

I was not concerned about this talk now. We were kids and building dreams. They didn't believe us anyway. The guys had been given subtle clues and even a course on antigravity. A skateboard using this principle was fantastic. The wheels didn't quite touch the ground but looked like they did. The wheels kept the unit balanced though when we shifted our weight. It was like floating on the puck used in an air hockey game. All the troops were believers but told not to mention the board to others for fear that it would be investigated.

The guys ordered their own steel, welding rods and paid for the gas they used when they cut. It was fun to see girls over here wearing coveralls and grinding edges so they fit well. Sam's father taught welding and cutting now and chuckled to see the kids making a big toy even if it was expensive in his estimation. He was not worried because Sam only put in his share.

The ship was made of an inch and a half angle iron frame. It was the length of a station wagon and nearly as wide. We studied Star Trek episodes and movies to make a shuttle like they had. A two part windscreen from a large truck gave us a forward view. A car battery provided power for a fan and lights when the ship was closed up. Four small single seats and the back bench seat from a minivan came from Jerry's father's wrecking yard with the rest.

Fourteen gage mild steel sheets would cover the ship and carpeting would be put inside to keep the noise down as well as insulate from the cold of high altitudes. The hatch was the hardest to make and Will worked with us to make this. The metal ship would normally leak air but the shield would retain one atmosphere of pressure easy.

The guys thought I just ordered the crystals and only Betts and Erica knew that I had to process them too. None of the crystals were installed yet but the craft would need crystals of all kinds and in large numbers. The shield would have to be for all five dimensions but in a special configuration to make the entire ship invisible. The antigravity units had to be placed even on the top in case we inverted. We would need to right ourselves quickly.

Antigravity could propel us the same way a person walked. It was really a controlled fall. This was too slow and I wanted an engine to assist. We would now have to stay subsonic because we had no way of negating the sonic boom without more equipment. A computer would have to balance the forces on us and I didn't trust the earth manufactured variety. My own laptop would do until I made one.

There were lots of details to handle. The younger ones worked with us too. They had to learn how to cut, weld and grind.

Will said, "How long are you going to use up my floor space before you take this out into the snow?"

I said, "I'll get it transferred to my place."

"You going to fly it there?" he said with a smile.

"We haven't got the ok yet from Star Fleet Command."

With an even bigger smile he said, "I can help you get a truck."

"Thanks Mr Lockhart but we can manage ok. This craft is far from being certified to fly. This is just a trainer. The next one will have inertial dampeners, a full range ultrawave, more seating and more comfortable too. We need to have an air and water recycling unit and a synthesizer for food."

"No airlock?"

"That is old technology. The field can be weakened over the hatch. If the internal pressure is not that high we could walk through the shield but it is not easy."

"I should have thought about that."

"That's ok you haven't had the training we have."

We were only working for a half hour more when the phone rang. Betts said, "Hi Wally. Greg's doing ok. They took him into emergency right away. The guys we fought came in later. They almost left again when they saw us. Did we do all that to them?"

"You sure did. We only used some snow to clean them up and then put them into a cab."

"They look like they got hit by a truck and I am glad we did it."

"Don't get too cocky. The police may be involved yet and the boys didn't know how to fight."

"There were five of us that saw them beating Greg so if the police come they will be charged."

"You attacked when they stopped. They would have gone back to kicking him but the courts may not see it that way."

"Our case would still be stronger. Anyway, I love you and Wendy wants to talk to her man."

"I love you too, bye."

While Chuck talked to Wendy, Will asked, "What happened?"

"We found three guys all older than us beating up a friend of ours. Betts and Wendy went in and taught the guys a lesson. Pop and Mom took the girls and Greg to the hospital. We weren't going to leave the trash to die in the snow so the four of us here called a cab and sent it to the hospital too. The two groups met there."

"Wendy and Betty are not that big and they're girls."

"They take the same training in self defence that we take. This time that training may have saved Greg's life or perhaps from a worse beating. The next time it could save our own lives."

"How old were the guys?"

"At a guess I would say about seventeen."

"And two girls cleaned their clocks?"

"They sure did."

"You didn't do anything?"

"I am only a poor guy. I get involved in that and I could get hurt."

Will laughed so hard he had to hold onto our ship to stand up. "I'll take it that the girls didn't need help?"

"Nope."

"And I thought that they were so sweet."

Chuck said, "I'll let Wendy know that."

There was not that much we could do so far on the ship. I investigated all the welds with my 'eye' and repaired those that failed the inspection. The crystals of all kinds would go into a framework of steel pipe that was mounted to the flange of the angle iron inside the ship. Small holes in the pipe allowed the crystals to be placed and held in place. A growth similar to the computer substrate would link all the crystals for power and control. The fungus would live in steel pipe that would be welded to the angle iron too. This was used to protect the organism. A spray foam insulation would have to be used to retain heat. A special generator would provide a current to flow through the walls of the pipes. This resistance heating would keep the organism alive. If we lost air, then not only would we die but the organism too. We planned on making our next unit a sealed series of pipes much like the atmosphere inside Matt or our new computer christened Hal.

An alternative plan was to use pipe instead of angle iron for construction. This would work better but our welding would be more difficult as well as our cutting at other than ninety degrees. After some tests we planned on getting a fabricating shop to build a larger unit out of aircraft aluminium like the props used in the movie. This is what we were going to claim anyway. Suits would be have to be build too. Getting them to flex would be difficult because we were trying to think up our own ideas. The Aristis had suits for a very long time and armour for the same period. We looked clumsy but all of this was to learn and to prepare for later movements.

It was getting late and Sam's dad drove us all home. He did a lot more for us now because we were always polite and acted like gentlemen.

The family wanted to know what happened. Erica was quite worried and she should have phoned so she would know more. An hour later the rest got home. Mom and Pop were upset but Betts just signalled us to go to bed without saying anything other than Greg was staying overnight and would be alright.

Wilcox was appraised of the situation and now he asked questions about why we didn't call the police. I lied and said that it just looked like a squabble and not a serious fight. Betts added, "We only found out how bad it was when we saw the guys kicking Greg when he was on the ground."