There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 18

Doctor Rubin walked in the room with reams of paper in his hands.

"Doctor Luck, I have the results of all your exams. Is there anyone here you want to leave the room, while I tell you the results."

"I think you should leave the room Gordon."

"The only way you're getting me out of this room dad is by putting a gun to my head and pulling the trigger."

"I guess that answers your question Doctor. Let me have it."

Jennifer grasped my left hand and squeezed tight. Delicious had my right hand, and her other hand around Gordon's shoulder.

"It is Pancreatic Cancer, Stage One. That is bad news and good news. It has been caught very early and it is operable. As good as I am at cancer operations I suggest you get someone better for this type of operation. It is extremely technically oriented, with a long healing time. As you heal, you will go through a course of radiation therapy and chemotherapy. You are looking at a period of one year from beginning to end. If it works, you will be cured; if it doesn't, longevity rate is approximately five years."

"I can't be away from work for one year, I'm building a spaceship."

Delicious said, "Dad, my work is done. I can take over your administrative duties, and help wherever else is necessary. You have to take care of your health; otherwise you will never see the Beach Ball take off."

Jennifer asked, "Doctor what hospital has the highest success rate for this type of operation?"

"That's easy, MD Anderson Hospital, in Houston Texas. It is the best in the world. If it's being used today, they invented it. They are absolutely the top of the line, and they are close by."

Before I could say a word, Jennifer said, "Doctor could you set up an appointment for him. If I have to drag him there, he will be there. I'm not losing my husband."

"Why is it the woman is always stronger than the man?"

"The woman has more to lose."

***********************

William Silver, the Vice President of the United States sent his resignation to the President via courier. He didn't want to be beaten up, and abused by the press corps by showing up in Washington. He just wanted to disappear."

His cohort from 'Advanced Algorithms', Jim Pierce, had a 60 acre estate in the hills outside San Diego. He stayed there secretly.

During the years he was in elected office, and Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, he funneled billions of dollars of military business to Advanced Algorithms. It became mutually advantageous for the excess cash flow from the dealings of their secret enterprise to be funneled out of the country, into offshore business accounts, and moved in odd amounts, to other companies under the guise of purchases and payments. It had worked flawlessly for 25 years, making them both exceedingly wealthy.

Now the vice president had an enemy, an enemy who had cost him the presidency of the United States, William Zabo. He may not have done it himself, but it was his son who caused him to react the way he did.

It should have been the biggest kick off of any presidential campaign ever; $50 million. William Zabo had given him excellent advice on the banking system, and the military industrial complex giving away closely guarded secrets. Exposing those who were doing it, and putting them in jail within six months of his inauguration would have made the people and the Congress stand up and take notice that he was not going to take any nonsense from anyone. This was going to be a reform presidency, with a strong military, and a strong economy, and he would crush anyone who got in his way.

Now all his dreams were shattered because of a little boy and a firework explosion. The Secret Service determined that a truck carrying fireworks for a nighttime display caught fire, and set off the contents in its bed. The local sheriff's department and Highway Patrol filed similar reports after going over the truck and his property thoroughly.

He was laughing stock of the entire world. The Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, and Iranians were showing pictures of him holding Patrick in front of him and telling the world that all Americans were like their Vice President, so afraid of fireworks; he had to protect himself by putting a child in front of him.

Somehow he was going to get even. He could never get his name back, he could never get back into politics, but he could always get richer. Maybe he could kidnap the kid and hold him for $50 million in ransom. No the number might ring too many bells. $100 million in ransom sounds better. I'm going to kill the kid anyhow, what difference does it make. I'll let this furor die down for a while and then I'll make my move. I'll find out all about Mister Zabo and see how many of his plans I can ruin first."

*******************

82. Cultures

Trailer loads of exquisite Sony equipment arrived at the N.E.S.T., along with their diminutive installers. They were small for two reasons: they had to fit between the first and second wall to install the cameras, and their hands had to be tiny to thread the wires through millimeter size conduits without stripping the wires bare and causing a short in the line that could possibly start a fire.

On the inside of the ship, by the second wall, electrical technicians would check each camera as it was installed to be sure it was working properly. If it did it would be tied in to the grid, signed off on his paperwork, and entered into the computer at the end of the day by his supervisor.

This turned out to be the easy part. The hard part was getting started. Although the people from Sony were told there could be no metal components on their cameras, each installation kit came with metal screws nuts and fasteners.

Gray thanked God Even was in the hospital, because he would've had a stroke when he saw this. He sent the installers to their hotel and told them not to come back to the site until this problem was solved. Then he made a phone call to Dycke Schneider and sent him pictures of the assembly kits.

Dycke was very calm about the entire thing.

"Are they out of their fucking minds? They want to puncture holes in the exterior skin of a spacecraft. No wonder they never invented the wheel. I'll be out there, with a crew, in seven hours."

Gray looked at his phone and again was thankful Even was in the hospital. He had never seen or heard Dycke raise his voice before. He was always calm and authoritative, never hyper or given to outbursts. He made these graphene and carbon fiber materials to specific tolerances and no one was going to put a hole into it, without Dycke shooting them first.

7 ½ hours later Dick stormed into the N.E.S.T.

Gray said jokingly, "You're late."

"Traffic."

"Traffic; on our highway?"

"No it was raining in Charleston. We had to wait on the ground to take off. Payne was pissed."

"She's here too?"

"Do you think she would miss a chance to fly her pink airplane, and get away from Zoie?"

"Why do I have a feeling Zoie is going to be one of your picks?"

"Zoie is going to be our first and second pick."

"You wouldn't know what to do without her."

"You're wrong; we would find something to do without her."

"You think you have problems, I just found out my five-year-old broke into my wife's coded computer. He broke through her firewall, worked through her password, and fixed some of her work. We thought he was going to be a normal child, and we were very happy about it. I brought him to work this morning and let him work on Big Blue for two hours. I didn't even have to tell him how to work on it, he already knew. I'm glad I have to take him with me, otherwise this world is in trouble."

"I'll trade you one Zoie for one Newton."

"I don't believe Delicious would go for that trade. As a matter of fact neither would I. Between the likes of Gordon, and Newton, we are facing 'A Brave New World', and it frightens me."

"You really think it's going to get that bad? The youth of the world is going to take over?"

"You were 17 when you began making your empire, Celeste was 16, Patti was 17, Harold Chase was 20, Even was 20. Two of you had a head start because of money and brains, the other three because of brains. That should tell you something about the youth of this world, and they are starting out younger every generation."

"Next you going to tell me they're going to come out of the womb with a computer in the hands."

"Not in their hands Dycke, it's already going to be in their heads."

"Now you're frightening me Gray, where is Even?"

"Even is in the hospital. He has Stage One Pancreatic Cancer. He is being transferred to MD Anderson Hospital. It is supposed to be the best in the world for this type of cancer. It is operable, but it is supposed to be a bitch of an operation. He could be away from here for as much as a year. Work will continue as fast as we can. Delicious will take over his administrative duties. I will try to find someone to help me take up the slack where Even was working. Noone in this world works, and thinks like Even Luck. I will do my best, and whoever I bring in will have to be of the highest quality.

All the principles will be notified tomorrow morning; Even insisted on it. If anyone wants to withdraw from our group at this point it's fine. We can't refund their money because it's already been spent. He will not have to put in any more money, and he will not share in any more patents.

So far we have 327 patents, and 17 more pending. All of our principles will be rich beyond their wildest imaginations. What you have now will be pocket change in a few years.

Think of a fighter aircraft the size of a B-52, with no humans inside it, weighing less than a Boeing 757. It will be able to fly at Mach 6 or above, and carry no fuel. It would carry and armament package in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, with a range of infinity. They would constantly be on patrol, at altitudes unattainable by ground to air missiles. It's going to scare the shit out of every enemy of ours for eternity.

What country would dare go up against that airplane? Two of them would rule the skies over the entire world, and 20 of our people own that patents, not only on the fibers to build the aircraft but the engines that make it fly, the control surfaces, and the ability to make it stop on a dime."

"Gray can I see the problem were facing now please, you sold me on the airplanes."

"I'm sorry Dycke; Gordon and I did the airplane in our spare time."

"You two guys are dangerous together. Let's see what Sony came up with. Come on guys let's figure this problem out in a hurry."

25 minutes later Dycke's engineers said, "We think we got it boss. We will have to take it to the factory and test it in the vacuum chamber but it should work just fine."

"Are you going to tell me about it, or are you going to leave me in the dark as usual?"

"We will tell you if you give us a raise."

"If you don't tell me, you're fired."

"Why do you always win that argument?"

"Because I pay you too much already."

"The cameras lens is three quarters of an inch wide so that's the hole we have to put the camera through. On the outside of the craft we will put a graphene/carbon fiber spacer, 3/4 inch x 1 inch by 1/16 inch first. We fit the camera lens through it and slide it into the spacecraft using the same chemical we use to form the fiber mat for the G/CF. They will adhere to the spacecraft, when we heat-treat it to 167 degrees. No one will ever notice it; they will just see the camera lens. On the inside of the craft we will fit another 3/4 inch x 1 inch x 1/16 inch spacer using the same procedure, and put a 1 inch x 1 1/2 inch x 1/16 inch mat over that for extra security with a tiny hole for the wires to come through. As we heat the fibers to 167 degrees they will enclose the area around the wires and you have an airtight seal. You can use our people on the outside, the Japanese in the middle, and the electricians outside wall two to make the installation go faster. It should take about a day to train them how to do this procedure properly."

"Okay, I'll give you all five percent raise if it works, and you take a five percent decrease in salary if it doesn't."

"Will you take a five percent decrease in salary if it works?"

"Do you know how much I make?"

"No."

"In that case I will take a five percent decrease in salary if it works."

"Boss, you are a pain in the ass."

"How long have you worked to me now Joe?"

"Since I got out of college, which is 23 years ago."

"I must be a terrible boss to keep you around that long."

"Yes sir, that's why I am vested in the company."

Dycke pushed number one on his cell phone, and Payne answered.

"What do you want twerp?"

"I want to go home."

"Zoie's at home, I want to spend the night here."

"Where are you?"

"I'm in a suite at the Hilton."

"Did your rent rooms for the guys?"

"The flight crew is all snuggled in bed. Six rooms are reserved for your techies. I am waiting for my husband."

"Get naked woman, I'm on my way."

"Men we are spending the night in Austin. We're staying at the Hilton; charge everything to your rooms. Have fun, check with the desk for our departure time. Otherwise we'll leave you here, and you can swim home."

Gray said, "Even is more fun to work with than you are."

"That's because Even is Crazy, and I'm not."

"He is the most brilliant Crazy person you will ever know."

"I couldn't agree with you more."

*******************

The test did not go well. Air leaked through like a sieve and the engineers were at a loss to explain it.

Then an intern asked, "Is it coming through the camera?"

At first the engineers thought he was crazy, but as they checked the airflow leaving the inside of the vessel and exiting into the vacuum chamber, it was the right answer.

The 'O' ring, the lens was pressed up against to keep it stable could not withstand the force of zero gravity outside, and 1G inside. It failed. The fix was easy once they found the problem. They had to seal every opening on the back of the camera making it airtight. As soon as there was no air pressure pushing against the lens from the 1G side, the 'O' ring remained in its neutral position, and no air escaped.

Keeping the cameras cool was not a problem. The lens would be exposed to the subzero temperatures of space, and would cool the other elements inside. Temperatures ranging from -200 degrees Celsius, while they were still close to Earth, and descending to the lowest possible temperature in the universe, 2.7 degrees Kelvin, as they entered the deepest portion of the Interstellar Medium.

The Graphene/Carbon Fiber plant went into rush production for the needed parts. Two weeks later, the parts were in Temple Texas ready for installation.

It was hard to impress upon the Japanese installers that speed was not as important as perfection. One mistake and everyone died. The instructors kept telling them this over and over again, while they trained them about the heating of the materials to 167 degrees.

"Don't heat the materials to 164 degrees and not to 170 degrees. Heat them to 167 degrees exactly. That is what the optical lenses are for. Believe what they are telling you, and use them every time you heat the materials. We don't want to send back a message to Earth saying, "Sony's equipment caused a fire, and the ship is about to explode because of it. It would bring shame upon you and upon your company."

The Japanese understand the word shame. It is an anathema to them. They would walk 100 miles out of their way to avoid it.

The work on the cameras began on July 27. Using Sony's estimate it should be done by September 30 of next year; Gordon's 16^th birthday.

Gray thought, "What a birthday present that would be."

Then he thought, "God, I feel rudderless without Even. I've got to get to work before I start pitying myself."

********************

"You two go back to work. We can't afford to have the three of us away from the project at one time. Gray will go out of his mind without someone to guide him. Gordon you have to start uploading the star charts onto the Exascale computers. There's a lot of work to be done, and your one person short for a long time."

"No dad, we may have a replacement already."

"Who did you get?"

"We're keeping it in the family; it's Newton."

"Newton, Delicious what's going on?"

"I just found out today dad. My son has been pulling the wool over my eyes. Apparently, when I leave him with the babysitter he pretends to take a nap. While she watches television, he breaks into my room. He has been able to bypass my firewall, my password, and my coding. Gordon told me he even fixed some errors he found in my computations. He fixed errors in MY COMPUTATIONS. If I wasn't here, I would be beating the crap out of that little shit, because I don't make errors."

Jen kissed me. "There is the wonderful little mother we all know and love, isn't it dear."

"Shut up mom. Gray took that little prick to work today and sat him down at a Big Blue terminal. He was going to show Newton how to work it, but Newt pushed his hands away and started working on it by himself. I'm sorry to tell you this but my husband thinks we have another Gordon on our hands. Newt sat at the terminal for almost 2 hours. He started changing the energy calculations for my Ion/H2 engines. I'm going to kill that kid."

I laughed at my daughter, and it felt wonderful. I hadn't laughed in days, and it brought a sense of normalcy back into my life.

"Are you beginning to see how I felt when I met you, my darling daughter?"

"Don't you start on me, dad. I'll do the operation on you for free."

"That's very kind of you, because I don't have insurance."

"You make sure each of us has insurance, and you don't carry insurance?"

"I was healthy until I met you. Then I had to run away, because someone broke into my computer. I met another woman, who I married and has given me two lovely children plus one she brought with her. I took a trip up to the northernmost reaches of the United States to get rid of you, only to find out instead of being my niece, you are my daughter. It ruined my entire day. I couldn't leave you stranded without parental guidance, so I decided to come home and straighten you out. On the way back, I got into a small airplane. It flies into a storm, the engines die, and we pull a maneuver that the second woman in my life told me about while flying to Fairbanks. I told the pilot, "Why don't we hit those trees with the tale of the aircraft instead of the nose?"

He said, "Boy that sounds like fun."

So like the woman on the plane said, we smacked the tail of the aircraft into some tall trees, and the nose of the airplane slides down to the ground. Guess what, I am still healthy. I build a cart, pull the pilot 40 miles up to a big house, and meet this beautiful woman again. They take me and the pilot to the hospital and I am still healthy. I didn't get sick until I got back to you little girl. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Mom can I beat the shit out of him?"

"No, that story was so full of shit I think he's empty. Take your brother home; hand him over to Montgomarie and tell her to put him back on his schedule for training and work. Then you are going to have to figure out what to do between Newt, and your administrative duties.

If Newt is as good as Gray thinks he is we are going to need another administrator in house. Even do you know anyone who would take the job over for you on a temporary basis?"

"I know who would do it best, but I don't know if he is available."

"Give me his name and I'll call him."