Warp Drive, Patent Pending, page 15
A door closed in the distance. Drath looked up and saw Glass walking in his direction.
“Are you thinking of following him, mate?”
“No, just wishing him good luck wherever he is.”
“Alive ya think?” Glass walked over and examined the loose power cable that hung from the ceiling. He held it, examining the cut end. It was cut smoothly as if a single blade effortlessly severed it. Earlier that week his experimental ship was attached to the end of the cable, but George had disappeared through the tunnel leaving it hanging.
“For a while, the ship has a little air but not enough power to go anywhere. You know that.”
“Did he think stranded in space was better than facing the charges against him?” Glass asked, dropping the cable and letting it swing.
“He didn’t know what to think.” Drath felt the same in many ways. He was having a bit of a hard time being cordial to Glass. There were so many unanswered questions. He knew that Glass had lied to him. He knew he had been told half truths. He wondered what else was being kept from him. Because he was being paid so well to work on his dream, the conflicts were ignored. But now the mental burden was almost too weighty to carry.
“Is the ship where the beacons went?” Glass asked.
“I checked earlier on that. The tunnel was still set for that location.” Drath said.
“Earth’s first deep space traveler,” Glass sighed.
And no one will ever know, Drath thought. He didn’t want to tell Glass the events of the week, and that he and Helen had answered the mystery of controlling the exit end of the tunnel. That would be explained in the morning meeting.
“There was no way I would have harmed him,” Glass said again. “He didn’t have to jump to such a conclusion and steal one of my ships.”
Drath heard sincerity in his voice but still didn’t believe him. His Aussie accent made him hard to read. Had he been led astray by it all along? Glass’s Aussie accent made him sound like your best buddy sometimes.
“I think he was mixed up,” Drath said, “with the loss of his daughter he was really confused.”
“Terrible thing,” Glass said.
“George told me she had been recovering. Her death was a real surprise to him.”
“It was a shame,” Glass added.
“He said that he had told her about Mother, and believed she was killed because she knew about your secret.” Drath didn’t think it mattered now how much he reveale. He wanted to see Glass’s reaction.
“Oh? I didn’t know that mate, that’s a bit extreme.” Glass said. His voice didn’t reveal anything to Drath. There was no revelation in his tone or poker tells on his face. Drath had gathered no insight of his true knowledge of the daughter’s death. “Maybe I should send a card.”
“What are you going to tell the family about him being missing?” Drath asked.
“I haven’t the foggiest. Does George have any family left?” Glass asked. “Maybe I’ll explain that he left the complex and we have no idea where he went.”
Drath thought it was a bad joke at first but slowly came to realize Glass was serious. It was more half truths and lies. It hardened his feelings even more against his employer.
Glass said goodnight and walked back to the door he had come from.
That was an odd meeting, Drath thought. Glass had never visited the lab while they worked, much less after hours. He wondered if Glass was concerned about the tunnel, the other ships or the possibility that George might fly back from the void.
Then it dawned on him that perhaps that was why he was there, sleepless in the middle of the night. Was he hoping that George would fly back from the void? He shook his head and chuckled at the thought. He’d love for it to happen. He’d love to pat the back of the world’s first deep space traveler.
More Tests
Helen and Drath walked into the meeting room and saw that Glass was there with his usual security man. The dark haired man with the expressionless face never said anything. He was just always at the side of Glass. Drath wondered if he really needed a bodyguard. Had someone made an attempt on his life before?
The Crypto Team was there too. Drath gave a glossy folder to Glass. He explained it was a big week and they had several breakthroughs. The other team only had a single sheet of paper that sat on the desk in front of the industrialist. He wadded the paper up and tossed it into a basket that sat in the corner of the room. “You guys can go now,” he said.” Try to get a handle on that key glyph and have something for me next week.” The three-man team stood and left the room without saying a word.
Drath remembered being in that position before. There had been many Friday morning meetings where they had nothing to report. Glass tolerated a few of them, but liked to hear that something is getting accomplished. He wanted to see results for his expenses. Drath realized the difference between academic research and corporate research was all in getting back some dollars.
Helen began, “After the unfortunate incident with George we looked at the warp tunnel as a two part system tuned to the same frequency. The outline of our assumption is on page three.” Helen went through the report in a practiced manner, explaining the major details of the experiments in basic terms. Ten minutes later she was finished and read the conclusions.
The room was silent for more than a few seconds as her words were processed. Glass looked up. “This is a remarkable turn of events. If I understand what you’re saying, we are about to revolutionize the logistics industry worldwide. Plus we have the aspect of space exploration to look into.”
Both the scientists nodded.
Drath stated the obvious. “The technology can be used locally as well as across deep space. We don't know what we'll find out there. But we can safely use it locally.”
“Your results show we can ship cargo worldwide instantly without ships, trains or planes.” Glass continued realizing the possibilities. “We have got a marketable service to offer the world. Have you tested the transportation of living animals yet?’ he asked.
“No,” Helen answered. “But considering the source of the technology was a ship, I don’t think that will be an issue.”
“Test on some inanimate cargo, biological items like fruit and vegetables, and maybe we can get some human volunteers later.” Glass had a wide smile on his face. “How many different warp tunnels can we create?” he asked.
Drath saw where he was going with his question. “We can create a unique frequency for every major city on the planet, and more. This is world-changing technology.”
“Yes,” Glass agreed. “This will need to be released slowly and carefully.” His mind was reeling, and his eyes were darting back and forth between them. The thoughts of its potential were beginning to come to him. “And, it will need to be a costly, an expensive service so as not to set the logistics industry on its end. Eventually, though, it will take over the long haul cargo industry completely,” he concluded.
“That’s some of the most powerful unions and companies in the world,” Drath commented. Glass may need that bodyguard, after all, he thought.
The next few days were a blur. They had relocated the receiving tunnel called negative-B, to another hanger. Helen manned that station while Drath stayed at the Positive-A end of the tunnel. They had constructed a platform that sat exactly at the edge of entrance on each end of the tunnel. Over the next few days, they sent hundreds of objects through the warp tunnel. They started with general cargo samples. Wooden, plastic, glass and metal objects passed through as easily as the paper plane. The objects were then sent for tests to see if there were any changes or effects from the trip through the bent space. Electronics and more complicated objects were sent next. Everything instantly came out of the negative-B end of the tunnel as soon as they entered the positive-A side. It was as the two sides were back to back. It wasn’t long before they were sending fruits and vegetables and even live plants through the tunnel. Everything was sent for tests to see if any ill effects were caused by the transport through bent space. In each and every case the tests came back normal. Eventually, they were sending caged rats and primates through the tunnel. Still, the tests showed no ill effects or changes.
More than once Drath thought about stepping through the frame and traveling to the other hanger to see Helen and give her a quick kiss. He missed working at her side. He missed hearing her soft singing as she worked on her computer. They were less than a mile apart, but the thought of surprising her always played on his mind. He knew it would be safe. Deep inside he knew that all the tests were unneeded. Aliens on another world had perfected the process long ago.
When the day came for human testing, two security men brought one inmate from the security housing building. It was not anyone that Drath had seen in the jail on the days that he had visited George. He didn’t seem to be forced into the experiment. In fact, he seemed eager to take part.
“So what’s happening here? Are you sending me into outer space or sometin’?” He was a short man, dark haired with brown eyes. His teeth were spotless and bright white with a big smile. His voice had a hard New Jersey accent.
“No nothing like that,” Drath answered. The security men were a few steps away, watching the process. “Did they tell you what we’re doing,” he asked.
“Na, not really sometin’ bout space travel experiments,” he said.
“You are here of your own free will?”
“Oh, sure. It’s Better than being locked up all day, and I got a contract saying if anything goes south, the ol’ lady will get a million bucks.”
“Don’t worry. Nothing will go south,” Drath assured him.
“Figures,” he said.
“What are you in for?” Drath asked. It sounded like prison talk from a movie when he said it. It didn’t sound natural.
The guy smiled a flash of his whites. “I pick up things. I’m kind of a souvenir collector of places I work. I figured they’ll never miss it. But they got hidden cameras everywhere here.”
“Right, they don’t trust anyone,” Drath added.
“Get a move on,” the security man commanded. “This isn’t happy hour.”
“Alright,” Drath said. “Just step up on the platform and walk through the darkness to the other side. There is a platform to receive you there.”
“That’s it?” the guy asked, “Where am I going?”
“A hanger down the road, not far,” Drath answered.
The little man waved goodbye and walked through the frame.
He had exited the Negative-B frame instantly, and Helen greeted him. She had a series of questions to ask, but all the answers boiled down him walking in one frame and out the other. It took no time. He felt no sensation of movement, temperature or pain. He didn’t see anything but the second hanger. It was like walking through a black curtain. The two security men on that end took him away to be tested at the medical building, but Helen knew that he would be fine.
They had completed their tests on the tunnel and were ready for their meeting with Glass. All the tests were positive. The tunnel caused no problems with anything that went through it. It was like passing through a doorway. All through the week, they had considered the potential that the technology had for the world. It would be an incredible step in shrinking the world. Cargo could instantly get from production facilities to distribution hubs on the other side of the country. Products made in Japan could be directly transported to the United States in seconds. People would be able to travel across oceans as if they were walking between rooms. The new world would be a much smaller place, and Glass would be in control of the technology that would make it happen.
Drath had his arm around Helen. She rested her head on his shoulder and fingered his chest hair. Her wild black head of curls covered much of his face, and he often puffed it out of his mouth during pillow talk. He didn’t complain. The feeling of her at his side made him feel complete again. It was a feeling he had not felt in many years, not since he was in California.
“Do you think all of the receiving platforms are manned?” Helen asked. Even naked in bed, work was in their conversations. It was the nature of the research center. All the people who worked there had one track minds. There was little else to discuss really.
“Probably,” Drath answered. “They would have to always be powered up to receive any ships coming through. We don’t know what happens to things that enter a one-sided tunnel.” Both of them thought of George and wondered if he had an exit to his tunnel.
“There must be hundreds of them all around the galaxy,” Helen said.
“Yes, maybe even more than the seven hundred and forty that was on Mother.”
“I wonder who runs them. Who built them?” Helen said as she cuddled in closer to Drath.
Both of them thought of the alien body in the security morgue and the photos that they saw of the alien on the ground around the location of the discovery of the ship. They didn’t talk about it, but both of them wondered what happened that day. They should have taken more time to get the details, but they were afraid of being discovered snooping. What would Glass do if he knew that they were nosing around in his security file room? What would he do if he knew they had seen the alien in the deep freeze?
“I wonder if they would hurt George when he came through,” Helen asked. “I hope not.”
“His ship was most likely set to the same setting that Mother was on. Anyway, the tunnel took him to the place just outside our solar system,” Drath assured her.
“But the ship was dead without being tethered to the hanger. He couldn’t go anywhere.”
“That may have been best for him,” Drath said. “A dead ship is not a threat to whoever was out there.”
Helen was silent, her sigh was long.
THE BIG MEETING
“This is a big day for us here at Glass Aviation,” Glass said as he paced across the front of the room. He was in a sharp suit, complete with a silk handkerchief in his breast pocket. Drath and Helen, as well as several other people were seated at the table. The security man was there, but he was in a chair at the rear of the room near the door. The door was closed and locked. “We are about to venture into a new endeavor that will change the world.”
The small crowd in the room looked around at each other. Drath didn’t know any of them. Planes had been coming in all week, and new faces were all around the complex. They looked eager to hear more. Drath thought he already knew what was coming.
“The secrets of warp technology have brought us more than just traveling light years at the blink of an eye. Our team here at Glass has gone beyond their goals and not only opened the galaxy to us they have opened the world to us.” The crowd looked confused. “With the warp tunnel technology that they have created, we now have the technology to travel instantly to any part of the world.”
There was a group gasp. Wide eyes darted to Drath and Helen who, unknowingly, were the heroes of the day. “We’ve met here today to announce a strategy on how best to market and deliver this technology to the world.” Glass began pointing out individuals, “Maggie Barnwell from corporate in Sydney, Cole, Bennett and Heath from our offices in New York, Los Angeles and Cocoa Florida.” Glass pointed to the research couple. “Drath and Helen Elizabeth from our research center here.” He paused with his hand in their direction. “These two are the ones who have fine tuned this new technology for us.” He changed sides of the table and continued introductions, “Kingman from DC, Mary Walsh from Glass Logistics, Frank from our Berlin office, Chancy from London and Tie Lee from our Japan office.” Everyone nodded as their name was mentioned.
“Maggie I’m going to let you start with what we discussed earlier.”
Maggie got to her feet. She wore a classic cut ladies business suit, dark gray with pearl buttons and accessories. A long string of large pearls draped from her neck. “Glass Aviation spends over six million dollars each year delivering products and transporting raw materials to and from our own production facilities. Our plan is to first install our new transportation technologies to cut that overhead. It will also allow us time to create and test a workable software platform to operate the hardware. Each facility represented here, and their related logistics hubs will have what we are calling a warp dock to receive and send materials to any other location. We’ve analyzed the cost of such a platform and considering the number of them needed we can see significant savings by year three.”
Glass took the floor. “Maggie will be working with one of the original researchers in designing a workable system. Helen Elizabeth will be reassigned to the Sydney office. She and Maggie will be heading there in a few weeks. Once our internal system is fully deployed and tested, they will focus on commercializing the process and marketing it to the government and eventually the general public.”
