Disc (8 page)

“OMG!” Dante grinned at her, “You just called them saucers!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m acquiescing to the fact that you philistines are going to call them saucers no matter what.”

Dante gave a little frown, “What do you mean, ‘at least at first?’ You explained last night that the
big
differences are with long flights where you can get suborbital. It’s not all that much better to fly a saucer on short flights since they’d need to go through the atmosphere, right?”

Tiona shrugged, “Flying them in the saucer would be better for the planet than flying them in a jet, if for no other reason than that you wouldn’t be burning any fossil fuels. But, as a businessman, it’d once again be better because you won’t be burning expensive jet fuel. Power from a fusion plant is
way
cheaper, but it can’t push a jet.” She got a distant look in her eyes, “wait a minute. For short flights you’d like an aerodynamic shape for your craft since it won’t be getting outside the atmosphere. I’ll bet you could take existing commercial jets and remove the engines. Put thrusters in the back of the main cabin and in the engine nacelles and keep flying the jet bodies using a fusion plant for power. Cheaper, less pollution… and less industrial waste because you’d be reusing/recycling.”

Dante stared at her, “Freakin’-A,” he whispered, “it isn’t just going to be the airlines that hate us; aircraft manufacturers are goin’ to hate us too.”

Tiona eyed him, “Just like you may want to lease saucers to the existing airlines, you might want to have them manufactured by Boeing and its competitors.”

Dante gave her a sour look, “You’re talking about spoiling all my fun. How am I going to go into the business of world domination if I let other people play in my sandbox?”

She lifted an eyebrow, “You go into the business of solar system domination. You build the spaceships, the space stations, the hotels on the moon and Mars, and found Interplanetary Spacelines. Leave the world to the peons.”

Dante broke into a full belly laugh, “I’ll never again accuse
you
of thinking small!”

Dante paused at a chime from his AI, “You’ve got a call from the HR department at Axel VC.”

“I’ll take it… Hello.”

“Mr. Gettnor?”

“Yes.”

“I’m calling from HR to let you know that you’ve been terminated from your position at Axel VC. You may come in tomorrow morning, any time after eight to pick up your personal effects. Stop at the security desk and someone will escort you to your desk.”

Dante gave a little giggle at the absurdity of it all, “Okay, I’ll try to make it.”

Tiona gave him a questioning look.

“You’re not gonna believe this…” He explained what was going on.

Tiona gave him a sly grin, “I’ve got a little idea for you…”

***

Sophie Bautista, Zack White, and Ralph Abbott were in another meeting with NASA brass. They’d been in one yesterday until Zack and Ralph had demanded that they be allowed to rest. They still hadn’t acclimatized to a full gravity field. Today the brass had started the meeting with a couple of stretchers in the room for the astronauts to lie down on.

Some of the questions they were being asked were so pointed that you might think the saucer was a
problem
rather than a salvation of the space program. “Ms. Bautista,” one of the men by the name of Jacobson asked, an edge in his voice, “I’d like to ask just what sorts of navigational aids and orbital computational hardware and software was available on this… this, ‘spacecraft?’”

“Um, Dr. Gettnor uploaded Kadoma’s orbit to the saucer’s AI, so we knew where we were trying to go. He said that near Earth the AI used GPS data to determine the position of the saucer. He told us that once we were far enough out that we couldn’t use GPS anymore, the saucer’s AI could compute position fairly accurately from the position of the stars and planets in its cameras. It also computed position from the distance signal transmitted by NASA’s Space-NAV satellite in combination with x-ray signals from several pulsars. As I understand it, it piggybacked onto ‘X-NAV.’”

“An AI? Are you saying that it was just a commercially-available high-end computer with AI software installed on it?”

“Um, yes sir, I believe so.”

Jacobson sounded aghast. “Not radiation hardened?! Surely you know that commercially available high-end electronic equipment has a significantly shortened lifespan in the radiation environment out there?”

“Um, yes sir, but the saucer goes fast enough that we wouldn’t be out there very long. Besides, the AI is redundant.”

Jacobson blinked, “Redundant?”

“Yes sir, there are two more AIs on board in case one fails.”

He rolled his eyes, “Also standard, commercially-available I suppose.”

“I expect so sir.”

“So, without any more thought than that, you set off into deep space in a home built spacecraft, using a commercially-available AI for navigation?! Have you any idea of the kind of precision navigation and orbital calculation that’s required to reach an asteroid?!”

“Um, yes sir, I
am
a couple of years into astronaut training after all, but I must point out some…”

The man interrupted, “You put the lives of yourself, two civilians, and astronauts Abbot and White at risk! Going out in untested equipment and navigating practically by the seat of your pants!”

“Um, excuse me,” Ralph Abbott said, “I’d like to point out that Zack and I were essentially dead if she
didn’t
come after us. She
hardly
put our lives at risk.”

“She could have come to us for authorization of this flight. We could have done some testing of the craft, then placed experienced astronauts on board with proper navigation equipment!”

Zack White raised himself onto one elbow, “If you’ve heard the real, ‘non-official’ story about why they flew the mission, you’d know they’d
tried
to talk to people here at NASA, but got blown off. Besides, if she’d tried to run it through official channels, we’d have been
dead
before you assholes untwisted your shorts!”

“Mr. White,” Jacobson said shaking his head patiently, “I know you’re distraught after the experience you’ve been through, but you must realize that what she did was exceedingly dangerous. It’s incredibly lucky she actually managed a transfer orbit with such primitive equipment!”

Sophie’d had enough, “I’d like to point out that we
could
have flown there by the seat of our pants!” She pointed a finger at Jacobson, “
You’re
stuck in the old frame of reference where there’s no fuel to spare, where a
perfect
transfer orbit is necessary to even have a chance. That saucer had so much power that we could just drive around out there
looking
for Kadoma, as long as we had some vague idea where to look.”

“What if you hadn’t found it?!”

“Well then, we could’ve just flown back to earth and
asked for directions
!” Her eyes flashed, “With so much acceleration it’s more like going out in your car to look for a grocery store than it is any kind of high precision navigation and orbital transfer exercise.”

The man looked like he might have a stroke. He raised an admonishing finger, but then Sophie got a chime from her AI, “You have a call from Nolan Marlowe.” She raised a halting hand at Jacobson, saying “I’ll take it.”

Jacobson said, “
You’ll
tell whoever it is to call you back!”

Sophie raised an eyebrow at him as she said, “Hello Nolan, how’s the saucer? Did you get it home in one piece?” She knew that no one in NASA would want to antagonize the people with the saucers. Her nemesis did indeed shut up and look attentive.

In Sophie’s ear, Nolan laughed, “Hey Sophie. Yeah we got it home in one piece. I wanted to say thank you so much for all your help.”

“So what can I do for you guys?”

“Well, Tiona wants to take a trip to the moon and Mars before we turn the saucer over to NASA. We’d love for you to go with us. You think you could help us rustle up some spacesuits and a couple of experienced astronauts to keep us from making any dumb mistakes? We probably need training in the suits or something.”

A grin split Sophie’s face from ear to ear, “I’ll see what I can do,” she said, eyeing Jacobson. “Some people here at NASA can be pretty small minded and bureaucratic, but I’ll bet we can talk them into it… If not, I’m pretty sure we can find some retired astronauts to help. One of the guys I’m thinking of doesn’t like NASA’s vacuum suits and has been working on his own version. Can I get back to you?”

“Sure, anytime.”

“What was that about?” Jacobson asked suspiciously.

Sophie raised an eyebrow, “A moon mission… and a Mars mission. You think NASA wants to play a part in them?”

Zack barked a laugh, “You bet your ass they do. And Jacobson, if
you
don’t think NASA wants to be a part of it, we’ll just talk to somebody above your pay grade…”

***

Fred Yount’s AI said, “I have Ms. Tiona Gettnor on the line.”

Fred sighed in relief. He’d tried all afternoon yesterday and had been trying ever since he got in to work this morning to reach her or her brother. Neither one had responded to messages. Just a few minutes ago the big men themselves, managing partners Wallace and Anderson, had stopped by his office
together
to ask him if he’d met with Dante Gettnor yet. Unfortunately, all he could claim was that he was still working on it. He’d tried Tiona’s father, Vaz Gettnor, but Gettnor’s AI had only said that Fred should speak to Tiona or Dante. Fred had also tried Dr. Eisner and the other student on the project, a Nolan Marlowe, but their AIs had only taken messages while informing him that their owners were currently swamped with messages.

Fred actually had managed to speak to Chancellor Carver after his uncle had interceded with the Chancellor on his behalf. That conversation had been strange, filled with soft wording about how the University
might
need venture capital or assistance in negotiating with the aerospace industry
depending
on some issues regarding the intellectual property. Though Fred had tried to find out what the IP issues were, Carver hadn’t been forthcoming.

Fred eagerly told his AI, “I’ll take the call! Ms. Gettnor?”

“Yes?” She sounded, like she looked, alarmingly young.

“Oh, I’m
so
glad I finally reached you! I work with your brother Dante down here at Axel VC. Our managing partners are very eager to see if we can assist you and the University in negotiating with the aerospace industry on your new spacecraft, or, even better, capitalizing you and providing management assistance if you decide to form your own company.”

“Hmm,” she said, “the University and my father both have the right to commercialize this intellectual property as long as either entity pays the agreed-upon royalties to the other. We Gettnors
are
planning to commercialize it. I’m not quite sure what the University intends to do, but I suspect they will be letting us commercialize it and they’ll just collect royalties from us. We and UNC aren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye on things at present.”

Fred’s head practically swam. Typically universities
owned
the intellectual property of the people working or studying there, so he hadn’t expected to hear that someone else had the right to commercialize the IP. He’d thought that he’d be working with Eisner and the Gettnors while they commercialized it, but that the University would be in control. His connection with Carver could have been huge in that circumstance, but she seemed to be saying Carver wouldn’t influence things as they lay. He bulled ahead, saying cheerfully, “That’s great! That’s great, we’d like to help in any way we can. Dante’s been a valued employee and we’d love to work with you folks in any fashion we can.”

“Well…” she trailed off as if thinking, “Dante’s the business person in our family and we’re looking to him to organize that part of the enterprise. Have you talked to him yet?”

“Um, no, I’ve been trying to reach him, but he took yesterday off. I suspect that he wanted the time to come to grips with the possibilities engendered by your new technology. He hasn’t gotten to work yet this morning either.”

“Yeaahh…” she stretched the word out, “that’s probably because you
fired
him…” She let the little silence stretch while Fred desperately tried to think of something,
anything
to say, then continued in a falsely cheerful voice, “But I’m pretty sure he’s going to be in there this morning. Someone called him and told him that if he got security to escort him, he could pick up his personal items. Maybe you could talk to him then?” She disconnected before Fred’s gibbering mind could come up with anything he could say to assuage the damage.

For a minute Fred sat with his head in his hands,
that bitch Terry hadn’t canceled his order with HR! Either that or those stupid sons of bitches down in HR screwed it up!
“Terry!” Fred bellowed, stepping to the door of his office, “did you tell HR not to fire…” He broke off when he saw Dante Gettnor standing there at Terry’s desk. “Hi Dante, are you feeling better?”