Comet! (an Ell Donsaii story #5 ) (10 page)

“I don’t have answers for you gentlemen, but ‘chang
es they are a comin.’
And they a
re
big
changes. Some business
es
will be started to take down power lines and pull up pipes, selling the metal.
L
ocal distribution and shipping
businesses will be shut down
while the nationals expand to sell directly to the consumer
.” Her eyes flashed over the screen
at each of the participants
, “Your country, gentlemen, will
need
your wisdom to try to minimize the upheavals these changes will cause because the ‘cheese has
definitely
been moved.’”

Suddenly pale,
Bayless looked at the Presidential Science Advisor
“Chip?”
he said
querulously
. “This is
bullshit
, right?”

Dr. Horton bit his lip and slowly shook his head. He was torn between wanting to laugh at Bayless’ sudden loss of bluster, and horror as
Horton
himself
considered
some of the upheavals he hadn’t previously
contemplated
. “Sorry Jim, I’m afraid not.”

Appearing shaken to
the
co
re, Bayless said, “My God! We’ve got to
prevent the release of these damned ‘ports’?
Make ‘em illegal or something?
”

“Well, that’s why
President Teller asked us to have this meeting. My first suggestion is that we ask Ms. Donsaii what
she
thinks we can do?”

Bayless sat up, “Why are we asking this, this, child! Why isn’t the
CEO
of
‘
D5R
’
here to brief us on these problems?”

Patiently
Horton said, “Jim… She
is
the CEO.
And
the one that developed the theory they’re based on. I’ll pretty much guarantee that no one else has given this more thought than she has and I suggest
that
we all
listen
to what she has to say.” He
said
, “Ms. Donsaii?”

Ell cleared her throat, “Well, I think Secretary Bayless has the right of it in one sense. Not to prevent release of the technology.
It will get out
no matter what
...
t
oo many people know about it
. And t
hough it will result in
short term
economic disruption
, it
will provide
tremendous
long term
benefit
s
to humanity
. However, you may be wise to slow its release in order to distribute the changes over time
. A rise in sea level say,
rather than a tsunami.
This will allow companies to adjust slowly,
so that
employees in
newly
superfluous industries
can
‘age out’ rather than losing their jobs
.
Also it will provide opportunities for
some
laid off
employees to find work
,
at least temporarily
,
in the recovery of
infrastructure
materials such as piping that
are
no longer needed.
As local distributors cut employees, national companies will be hiring.
”

Dr. Horton looked at her in some surprise, “Would your investors really agree to slowing the release? That would
significantly
cut into their profits.”

Ell smiled, “Our investors aren’t motivated by the
‘
god of profit
’
alone, Dr. Horton. Though I expect they
would
appreciate
an extension of the patent in compensation for slow
ing the
release
of the technology
?”

Horton’s brows rose, “I don’t know whether that can be arranged, but we can certainly look into it.”

“Another reason to extend the patent would be the potential for harm from this technology. Like any other tech, bad people could do bad things with it.”

Horton’s
eyes widened
,
thinking
,
the other shoe’s dropping!
he said,
“For instance?”

“For instance, porting flammables to locations and setting them off. Small cheap rocket attacks over great distances.
Illicit drug trade would be
much
easier.
”

“And having D5R maintain its patent rights would help that how?”

“Well, D5R’s offshoot
‘
Portal Technology
’
is
committed to
manufacturing
ports that are resistant to such uses.”

“How?”

“If possible I would prefer not to describe
the
proposed
methodologies. For obvious reasons, the more closely held such secret
s
are
, the harder
they
would
be to overcome.
However, a
ttempts to prevent such uses
probably
cannot be
completely
successful even if kept secret.
”

For a minute it looked like Horton would protest that the people participating in th
is
conference could be trusted
,
but then he cleared his throat and
said
instead, “What’s to keep bad guys from taking ports apart, reverse engineering them and making ones that
aren’t con
strained?”

Ell grinned, “Dexin,
” she waggled her eyebrows, “
a
s you know it is
almost impossible
to remove electronics from
the new metal embedded epoxies
such as
Dexin without destroying the
electronics in the process
. The electronics that maintain the fields for a port are very complex and, if you don’t understand the theory, it’s almost impossible to tell which electronics are necessary for the port and which are
actually
resisting terrorism.”

Horton nodded, “And the theory is pretty hard to understand…”

Ell grinned, “So I’ve been told.”

When Horton called an end to the meeting Bayless shut down his video and cancelled his next meeting. Putting his head in his hands he pondered this disaster, its ramifications for the country he loved and the annoying
girl
that was shoving it down the
ir
throats. How dare she wave a finger at him as if to tell
him
to shut up!
He needed to put a stop to this!

***

Waiting for class to start Ell was watching her HUD as Allan scrolled rapidly through information on Tau Ceti.
About 11 light years away and spectrally similar to the Sun
,
Tau Ceti
had long held interest as a possible nearby location for earthlike planets. It was known for having a particularly large “debris disk” so there was concern that
,
even if it did have an earthlike planet, advanced life couldn’t develop because of a likely high frequency of
cometary
extinction
impacts
. Though large gas giant planets had been ruled out, whether or not there
actually
were E
arth sized or smaller planets remained in dispute. There was some evidence for them from recent studies but it was weak.
Probably any
planets
that were present were smaller than Earth.

Someone thumped down in the seat next to her. She looked up, “Hi Gordon!”

“Hey, yourself.” He looked a little down.

“Somebody shoot your dog?”

“Nah, you just got my hopes up about your crazy aunt.”

Ell grinned, “
Yeah.
She must be completely nuts. She said to forward this to your AI.”

Gordon looked up at his HUD and saw a deposit for $30,000
. He leapt to his feet and looked down wide eyed at Ell, “Seriously!?”

Ell shrugged, “I told you she was crazy.”

“Do I need to sign some kind of agreement?”

“Nope. She liked the terms you outlined when we spoke on Wednesday and kept a copy of our conversation as a ‘contract.’ If those terms are still OK with you?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Freakin’ awesome!” Gordon pumped a fist.
“I gotta tell the guys! Thanks!” He turned and ran up the stairs toward the back of the classroom.

Ell called after him, “Send me your tour schedule?”

“Sure!” he said as he slammed out the door.

Ell sat
back in her chair
, somewhat disappointed, though she
wasn’t sure
what more she had expected?

Professor Norris
came in and her class started.

***

Secretary of Transportation Bayless looked up as his secretary buzzed. She said, “Administrator Overstreet is here Secretary.”

“Send her in.” Bayless got up and stepped around his desk, “Hi Cindy.”

“Hey Jim. What’s so urgent?
” She frowned,
“
I had to cancel two meetings to make it over here.”

“Yeah. Sorry. We’ve got a serious problem
with
a
diabolical
genie
that needs to be stuffed
back in its bottle.”

Overstreet
raised an eyebrow. This wasn’t the first time Bayless had gotten a twist in his underwear
over something
.
“What’s the problem?”

“You remember that gymnast from a few years back? Ellen Donsaii?”

“Yes, though
I thought
her first name was just ‘Ell.’”

Bayless shrugged,
“
Ell.
Are you aware that she’s being credited with saving the Space Station a
couple months
back?”

Overstreet’s eyebrows ascended, “
Sure
.
” She
seemed
surprised that Bayless hadn’t know
n
about
it
.

“Really.” Bayless sounded offended. “
I mean, come on!
She’s cute and I’ll grant that she’s a good gymnast but get serious. Saving the Space Station?
! She’s practically a teenager! Obviously someone else saved the Station and they’re assigning credit to her for some unknown reason. Probably just to have a famous and pretty face on it.”

Overstreet frowned, “She works for a space launch company
doesn’t she
?”

“No… well kinda. Apparently they’ve developed some kind of ‘trans-dimensional’ pipeline. It lets them fuel small rockets that can thereby fly into space. Then they just delivered oxygen to the Station through one of their ‘pipelines.’”

Overstreet had an “A ha” moment. Bayless had called her because of her role as Administrator of the “Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration” or PHMSA. She frowned, “Do they really call them ‘trans-dimensional pipelines?’”

“No, no.
They
call them ‘ports.’ But they function like pipelines
,
just without the pipe between the two ends.
”

“
Honestly Jim, t
his sounds ridiculous!
Are you sure
someone’s
not pulling your leg?
Have you actually seen these things in action?”

“No, but Horton convened a meeting of half the Cabinet with this jumped up teenager and
he
certainly seems to be a true believer.”

Overstreet leaned back in her chair rubbing her chin. “And you think we should get involved because?”

Bayless spoke as if he were lecturing a child, “My God Cindy! These ‘ports’ can be used to transport hazardous materials and any idiot or terrorist will be able to buy one if we don’t get this in control pronto! Even if we discount the terrorists wreaking havoc with them, imagine what’s going to happen to the economy when all the pipeline companies suddenly go broke!”