Chapter 8

Eventually, I was going to have to take engineers for a ride and show them what the Emily V could really do, but, first, I had to impress the paper pushers. Hopefully, at least some of them would have a smattering of engineering background so that they could appreciate what was going on.

It was near the end of the half hour time limit I had set when a small group of men came out of the building and walked my way. There were six of them, and two were men who had not been at the meeting. The new comers introduced themselves, and I was delighted to meet them. Maybe, I had misjudged NASA all along! One was Jeff Barstow, Chief Engineer for Propellants, and the other was Hank Emerson, Chief Engineer for Life Support Systems.

I asked them to be seated and to buckle up, not because they would need the seat belts for normal flying, but they would need them when we went into zero gravity. Two of the non-engineers looked shocked at that statement, "zero gravity" sounded damned ominous.

I told them that I was going to leave cloaking off the whole time so that we could be followed by tracking stations. I turned on the gravity shield and the artificial gravity, and they immediately felt the effects of 0.75 g. I deliberately had not told them to expect that, so the sudden loss of weight, though not disturbing, was certainly discernible.

The helicopters had backed off enough to give me vertical room, so we were ready to take off. I told my passengers that we were going to 100,000 feet at maximum acceleration, so they should watch the viewing screens. I said, "We are going NOW!" and I flipped the switch.

We took off like the proverbial turpentined cat, straight up. Of course, there was no feeling of acceleration, so when I stopped us at 100,000 feet, one of the engineers commented, "That was the finest computer simulation I have ever seen."

"That was no computer simulation. We are at 100,000 feet. It did take us three minutes to get here, but I only have one small rocket engine installed on this prototype. I know you find that hard to believe, so I am going to reduce the gravity effect to zero, but I'll do it gradually, so it won't be such a shock to your systems."

As I cranked back on the gravity, I could see eyes getting bigger as they realized what was happening. I had cut the artificial gravity to zero and shifted the louvers on the gravity shield to 100% closed. The result was a little bit of gravity from space pulling us up, but that only added to the sensations. "Gentlemen, I forgot to include barf-bags, so I am going to return the gravity before anyone gets sick. I'm sorry if I have made anybody uncomfortable."

I returned us to 0.75 g, and everybody looked a lot more comfortable. "OK, now we are locked onto the center of the Earth, so that we cannot pitch or yaw. That is a characteristic of the gravity shield. It makes no difference to the artificial gravity, except that we could feel up to 7 g if I really cranked the power up. I'm not going to do that, I just wanted you to know the range of possibilities.

"I will take us up to the International Space Station purely as a demonstration, but we will not be able to dock, since I don't have the proper mating connection. A trip to the moon would take about four hours, and we am not equipped with enough oxygen for that long a trip, so I must beg off for now. However, I am sure that y'all have seen the pictures of the little excursion my family and I made on Saturday night, so you should believe me when I say that it is possible."

I had the coordinates of the current position of the ISS programmed into the guidance computer, a laptop, so I just gave piloting control to it, and away we went. This was going to be a trip of about seven minutes, so I had time to answer some questions. I almost laughed when I found that everybody was so stunned that there were no questions at this point. I knew that there would be a multitude of questions later, some of which I couldn't answer, either because I didn't know the answer or because they went into more detail on the artificial gravity and gravity shield than I wanted to answer at that time.

We made a couple of passes around the ISS and then had to back off because a Russian supply rocket was coming in. I went to manual control and backed far enough away so the passengers could see the rocket dock. After that, I made a couple of more loops around the station before turning for Houston.

I asked if there was anything else they would like to see before returning to Houston, but nobody had any ideas. I returned to my original landing spot in the parking lot and turned the systems off. They were all shocked at the return to normal gravity, but that was the last reinforcing point I wanted to make before they left.

I left the ship long enough to let everybody out. We stood around talking for a few minutes, and I gave everybody the number of a cell phone I had just bought for the purpose. This was going to be my business phone for the time being. I told them that I would give them up to a week to digest what they had seen and experienced, then, if they were not interested, I was going to visit the European Space Agency. After that, I was going to Russia, China, and India to see if there was any interest there. I said that I eventually planned to visit all of those places and any others that looked interesting, but I was not going to allow the technology to be used for warlike purposes. I closed with the statement, "Gentlemen, my plan is to go to Mars within two years; I hope that NASA will go with me."

I loved that startled look I got from the engineers. It, alone, was worth today's trip. "Now, if you will stand back a few feet, I will be returning home. Good day, and I hope to hear from you before the week is out." I got back into Emily V and took off. I turned on the cloaking device at 50,000 feet and scooted for home.

It was late on Thursday of that same week that I got a call on my business cell phone from NASA. They wanted me to return to Houston for a big meeting with the highest of the higher ups to discuss several factors, including a mission to Mars. They also suggested that I bring along my corporate lawyers so that we could be sure of keeping everything legal. I gave them a tentative OK, but I said that I would have to call back to set a specific time and date.

Mr. Holmes was back from work by then, so I asked him if he could recommend a good lawyer to take to the meeting. As a matter of fact, he could. He had a golfing buddy who was a semi-retired corporate lawyer who was looking for something he could do on a part-time basis. Mr. Holmes promised to talk to his friend tomorrow and try to set up a meeting. That was great, I couldn't ask for better service.

The next day at noon, I got a call to meet Mr. Holmes and the lawyer for lunch. This would let us meet each other and size each other up. That sounded good to me, so I put on my best slacks and matching shirt. I wore a sport coat, but I did not wear a tie. I used Jenny's clunker to get to the meeting. Dammit, I was going to have to get a "corporate" vehicle, probably a crew cab pickup truck. Jenny went with me, since she was as important to me as was space flight. Besides, her judgment of people was much better than mine.

We showed up at the restaurant and the first thing Jenny said was, "Uncle Bert, I am so glad to see you again!" That settled it as far as I was concerned, if Jenny liked him, he was hired.

Herbert O'Conner said, "Jenny, I didn't realize that you were involved in this scheme. It will be wonderful to work with you again." Well, it looked like Uncle Bert was on board, we just had to take care of the formalities. "As usual, good old Joe Holmes, here, has been keeping secrets from me. You have grown into a lovely young lady. Seeing you is enough to make me wish that I was 50 years younger."

"Well, I'm happy to say that you wouldn't have a chance. I am tightly bound to my boyfriend, here, Derek Hawkins. I am seriously considering becoming Mrs. Hawkins any time now, but he doesn't know that yet. That's how I keep him on a string!" Everybody, even me, laughed at that, though I did give Jenny a startled stare. She just grinned and squeezed my hand.