Near Future 1: Awakening (21 page)

Miranda dropped back into her stance and went back through her exercise, this time concentrating on going half speed. After a couple of seconds, it clicked and she fell into the new rhythm.

"Perfect," came the response from Andrea. "Now when I do a move, I want you to do the counter move at that same speed, and as you do a move, I want you to practice pulling back the strike to only hit at half power. Sometimes half power is all you want if you are trying to warn someone to back off. That is what you would have wanted to use when the soccer girls attacked you.

They practiced like that for several minutes, with Miranda beginning to feel like she was getting the hang of it. Sometimes she saw Andrea would fake one move and make another move. Other times she saw a move that was a combination of two.

Finally, Andrea called a halt. "Very good. Rest a few moments and then I want to try a quick round with you going all out. Based on what I have seen so far, I'm not sure even I can beat you, but you need to feel what it's like to go full contact. Of course, I haven't shown you everything I know either."

While resting, Miranda concentrated on her head. She didn't want to trigger more headaches. She held her hand out as a test, noting she was only a little shaky. She kept running the music through her head. Maybe she was finally getting control of it.

When they were ready, Andrea said, "Ok, try not to kill me. And if either of us needs to stop, just step back. Can you remember that when we are going wide open?"

Miranda nodded and dropped into her stance. They bowed to each other and then went full speed for the next couple of minutes. Miranda felt that she managed to land a couple of hits but Andrea was not able to get through her guard. Finally, Andrea made a move she had not seen, landing a hit that grazed the side of her head. That triggered something automatic in Miranda, because her next three moves were struck in a blur, causing Andrea to drop to her knees. Miranda immediately registered that she had once more done more than she meant to do. She dropped out of her stance, asking, "Are you alright?"

"Remember I said to try not to kill me." Andrea finally gasped out. "That last move that I got through to you with is illegal in competition, and that is why I wanted to show it to you. But those three you just threw? No one in competition I know could have blocked them, not even any of the men fighters I know. I expect the master level teachers could have, not that I know any of them."

"Unfortunately for you, but fortunately for everyone in competition, you need to keep a low profile. So you can't be out there showing this off. Not to mention that Doctor Ted would kill both of us for trying it. What I can do is discretely arrange for a couple of girls I know to meet us here in the next week or so and let you work out with them. And only the ones I trust completely."

Miranda easily agreed to the plan, so they decided to stop for the day. Miranda was thrilled that she had made it all the way through without triggering a headache. On the way back, Andrea took her by a sporting good's store where they picked up workout clothes for Miranda and a few items that Andrea pointed out they could use for training. They had to make do with fast food for their lunch this time.

#

At the end of the week, Miranda went to their first shooting competition, and since the whole team was able to do well, Miranda was able to shoot slightly above average to make sure they still won. As they continued to compete over the next several competitions, she had to occasionally push the limits to help her team, but most of the time not by very much. Finally, they travelled to a nearby school to compete for the area championship. Some of the other teams were pretty good, so she had to make several good shots at times to help them win. However, she kept it to what was needed to win. At the area competition, she and a few others competed in the demonstration sniper event, and she made sure she shot just a little better than the others. She caught the Sarge in a big smile when she made her last shot, what would have been the winning shot if it had been a real competition.

#

Jon Rupert had finally gotten the break he needed. His uncle, being the arrogant guy he was, had decided that he was going to personally move up to their new space station when it was brought online. They had now officially decided on the date and time for their dedication. Their little space station put together from an old station left over from the past was finally going to be operational, and they had decided they would dedicate it on the last day of the Space Tech stockholder meeting. In addition, the whole group of them were going to be there for it so they could send a VR out to the entire Organization declaring themselves to be on par with Space Tech. They were going to have regular meetings on the station to show it off to the world. Like the stupid thing compared to the real one, Space Tech Station. Without thievery and murder they would be nothing at all.

He had come up with a plan to remove the lot of them with a little help from his friends at Space Tech. He would get himself assigned on board the station. When the right time came, he would be able to get Space Tech to send an assault team to board the station, and let them take care of the whole group. Personally he didn't care if they arrested them or shot them all. Especially his uncle. He carefully prepared and sent the VR that would let Space Tech know of this future possibility. His chance of finally seeing a life away from here was finally getting a little closer.

CHAPTER TWELVE

New Plans

A terrorist attack on an oil facility off the Gulf coast of the US has led to another shortage of refined fuels in the US. Despite the growing numbers of electric cars, many gasoline-powered vehicles remain in use. The combination of the shortage, extreme cold weather requiring heavy heating fuel usage, and a major natural gas pipeline outage have all combined to spike energy costs in the US to all time highs. Many of the poor and elderly are saying that they are no longer able to pay their heating bills.

#

Their special project had been progressing, and they were finally ready for testing. Time for theory to meet the real world. If her theory was correct, they should see brief flashes of light in the test unit that would indicate the creation of linked pairs of particles across what she was calling the subspace fabric. The gravity detector should detect a tiny change in the suspended steel ball. Zeke's programming had moved extremely well and Miranda realized that he had almost created an AI interface.

Miranda still worried that she was missing something with her theory, a feeling that she couldn't get rid of, but she could not find anything wrong in their project or in the math she had done to back up her theory. If something was wrong, she expected to see nothing at all but a blank test screen.

Unable to find a good reason to postpone it any longer, it was time to go forward with the live test. Gradually increasing the power, everything started out exactly as expected, but suddenly the project began to pull in large amounts of power, so much so that the lights in the lab dimmed. Miranda slapped the shut-down button but the experiment gave a loud pop and smoke began pouring from it. Everything was ruined!

Miranda had noticed something strange in the readings at the last second just before the meltdown, and a new theory began to form in her head. What if the reason the experiment failed was that there was feedback into the electromagnetic field from the subspace fabric, a field being generated due to the antimatter being stimulated on the other side. If she was right, it would be potentially possible to use this feedback as a way to generate power at an extremely low cost. Of course, they were almost at the limit for their budget. She knew that more dollars would be needed than they would have available, unless she could get an exception from the instructor.

Miranda tried to explain what she was thinking to Zeke, but he quickly got lost in her explanation. He shrugged, "I will program whatever you need me to do to complete this. Just don't expect me to understand what we are doing."

Miranda easily convinced Zeke to go with her to request a budget increase. They didn't have any problem getting in to see Doctor Smith, the instructor over the projects. "There is definitely a flaw in the original design," she told him. "However, I think the flaw I found could be used as a power source, something the world could really use right now. We would like to get a budget exception to see if we could get that to work."

While she was talking, Doctor Smith had pulled up the budget numbers for their project. They were over 90% of the allotment each team had been given. Personally, he was very disappointed that their project didn't work. He had hoped to submit the project to the Space Tech Science Fair as a possible winner. Winning the prize money for scholarships for their department would have given him a big boast to his career. But throwing more money away would make him look bad, so he shook his head. "There's no way I can approve your request. One of the things we are trying to teach in this class is that you have to live within a budget. You just have to accept the fact that it didn't work."

Doctor Smith had heard from some of her other professors that she was killing the curve in all her classes. He figured she had book smarts, but this class was meant to be more real world. Aggravated at losing his chance for the big win, he still didn't dare give her the grade he wanted to do to punish her, afraid it would come under scrutiny if it was the only blemish on her record. So, he fell back on the rules set in place for this situation, although he could at least bump it down a little. Not that he was going to tell her that.

Giving her a fake smile, he went on, "Don't worry, I am quite impressed with what you two have attempted. Remember, you were told, the projects are not required to work, but the grade would be based on the level of work completed. This will not negatively impact your grade since you've done such advanced work. At this point, you have to accept it just didn't work. Sometimes that's the way it goes. Sometimes what looks like a good theory doesn't work out in the real world, and you have to learn to let it go."

Totally bummed, Miranda wasn't ready to give up yet. She would just have to do it without the professor's help. Taking a deep breath, she asked, "Is it ok if we continue to use the lab if we pay for the parts?"

"Sure, but the results won't affect your grade and the school will not assist in any way. You will be working totally on your own." Looking at the monetary amount they would have spent if they had been buying the parts, he didn't believe that there was any way they could get the money to buy more parts.

Miranda nodded. "Do you release us from our requirements for joint intellectual property?"

The instructor nodded. "I've so noted in your file. Since it doesn't work, I don't see any valid intellectual property to protect. It was a really good theory, although a little far-fetched. And I have to tell you, to get as far as you two did is darn impressive. If it had worked, I would have been submitting you for the Space Tech annual competition for science-based projects."

"Thank you for your time, sir." Miranda and Zeke together turned to leave.

As the two of them walked back toward the lab from the instructor's office, Miranda asked Zeke, "Would you be willing to continue to work on this if we can get the parts?"

"Sure, but how?" He had figured the quick no from the instructor was the end of it. How could they possibly get the parts?

Miranda gave him a smile and showed him her platinum purchase account on her pad. "This account is funded by the trust fund that I have, but I seldom use it. I have been receiving deposits monthly, but I don't have very many expenses. Everything here at the school is paid for by my scholarship. I can't think of anything I would rather spend this on than to finish what we have started with our project."

"Especially," she said, "if we actually get this to work, we may be able to sell it to someone such as Space Tech. Based upon the readings before it sizzled, we were seeing a huge negative energy field inside the subspace fabric. I believe it to be the ultimate source of what we are calling dark energy. I also believe we can siphon a tiny, tiny portion of that energy field off. We can then use that directly as an energy source. Since the modified project is based upon a completely different premise, we should only owe the school the minimal percentage for their portion of the intellectual property, since they are refusing to continue to support this project. That's why I insisted our instructor add it to our file. Who knows what Space Tech could do with it."

Miranda paused a minute and then looked up at Zeke in excitement. "Maybe they would even hire us to work on it!"

Zeke was beginning to pick up on her excitement, but he didn't know quite what to say. So he just held the door open to the lab for her, giving her a smile of encouragement.

Using the lab VR system, Miranda drew up a new diagram for the modified project, showing Zeke the changes he would have to make to the controller. She connected to the supplier's VR showroom, swiftly building the order for the parts. Although it was certainly a considerable amount of money, it was well within the amount she was willing to spend. She couldn't conceive of not following through with the modified system, because she was convinced that it would be successful. It, or some variation of it at least, since she was sure she didn't have all the details right. Hopefully the next little missed issue wouldn't be quite so destructive.

Miranda looked at Zeke for one final go-ahead. Smiling, he nodded his head. "It's your money," he said. "Besides, I'm having lots of fun programming this stuff now that I have the basic design done. Someday I'll have to get you to help me figure out where we could go with some of my programming ideas. I think it would be fun to try to build a real AI, only I believe we can find a way to make it function in the real world instead of the limited way we use them now. Plus this one would be the size that everyone could carry around with them. Just think, your own personal AI."

That got a raised eyebrow from Miranda. She sent out the order, telling Zeke, "All of this should be here when I get back from my trip with the shooting team to that third world country Kinza. We are booked to compete in the shooting competition there. A last minute change because they are trying to build up the number of events at the competition, plus our team did really well in the regional competition."