Starfire Page 27

“How indeed,” Clark said, “but you still haven’t told me exactly how—”

  “Yes, sorry. The containment field. You see, a great deal of violent energy has to be released to get the harmonic reaction going at this kind of rate. That means a massive amount of radiation. Anyway, the key is to get a shield up around the core plasma chamber to contain the radiation. The trouble is, the reaction has to power the shield itself—it was the chicken and the egg problem, you see.”

  “I would nod my head if I could.”

  She frowned sympathetically. “Right—that’s so awful. For you to see a dream realized just as you were injured.”

  “Never mind about me. Tell me more.”

  For the first time, Jackie realized she was being surrounded by quiet people in lab coats. They were recording her voice and jotting down notes. She shrugged. That’s why she was here, after all. Maybe they’d send her home after they’d gotten what they wanted.

  “The answer was simple enough. I didn’t just switch the system on. Instead, I ramped it up in power very gently. I think the drive controls had a function like that built into the system all along, but maybe it was burned out or damaged. Once I controlled the power, very carefully monitoring the process and ramping up the power to the containment field even as I increased the input—well, it worked. I wouldn’t suggest anyone turn it off again, however. I was lucky.”

  “How’d you keep it from becoming unstable?” asked a tall, spare man in glasses.

  “I didn’t have a way to manage that. I just kept torqueing it up slowly, making adjustments. It’s kind of like building a fire up from twigs. If you just dump all the wood on at once, it kills it.”

  “Or burns the house down,” commented a large, sour-faced woman. “You were rash, and you got lucky. You could have fried us all.”

  Jackie was about to say something defensive when Clark intervened.

  “She did what none of you have had the guts to do. She lit the fire—and controlled it.”

  “She could have blown us all up,” huffed the woman.

  “But she didn’t. As Mark Twain was fond of saying, ‘necessity is the mother of taking chances.’”

  Jackie smiled, and she knew Clark was right. They all were. She’d taken a big risk without consent or approval. The other scientists weren’t terribly happy to have her bathe in glory, a newcomer showing them up. But that didn’t matter. They’d study her technique and perfect it in time.

  What did matter was that they now had a working star drive. A system that could lift a heavy mass into space, exerting a level of steady force no engine in mankind’s history had ever gotten close to. And she, Jackie Linscott, was the one who’d done it.

  “I have a proposal,” Clark said, watching her. “We’re going to call this process of ramping up the drive the Linscott Process.”

  There were a few shaking heads, but no one openly objected.

  “Can we get you out of here now, sir?” an EMT begged. “You might need surgery.”

  “Yes, by all means.”

  They lifted him as gently as they could and carried him around to the back of the chamber where the infirmary waited. It had an operating room and medical people on staff. They were usually bored—but not today.

  Jackie turned toward Brandt who was now surrounded by guards, Perez among them. He didn’t seem to care much. He was still staring at the floating spaceship.

  “I didn’t think it would really fly,” he said.

  Jackie got the impression he’d said this more than once.

  “Brandt,” she said, “you helped make this happen, you know.”

  “How?”

  “I went for broke when you left. I knew you might be killed—or Clark. Someone was going to be injured, I could see it in your eyes. So I took a risk. I figured that if the ship flew, it might diffuse all of this.”

  He looked at her oddly. “But—what if it had blown up or something?”

  “Then we might have all died,” Jackie said. “Certainly, I would have.”

  Brandt suddenly smiled. “I like that,” he said. “You’ve got balls, Linscott. I have to give you that. Guts, the real deal. Go for it, roll the dice, win or lose.”

  Jackie’s answering smile was flickering and uncertain. She didn’t like this description, especially since it was true in some ways. She had taken a crazy risk. Inside, she knew this wasn’t just because she’d wanted to help Brandt and Jenna. She’d wanted to figure out the answer. She’d rolled the dice, as he said, and they’d all gotten lucky.

  After making sure his daughter was safe, Brandt stepped toward the ramp. A dozen gun barrels, shock-sticks and unsmiling men rose up to meet him.

  “I thought you wanted me in on this,” Brandt said.

  “You’re not going anywhere, Brandt,” said the guard captain. “You’re out of here. We’ve suffered your bullshit for a week now, but we don’t have to any longer. Clark is going under anesthesia, and that leaves me in charge.”

  Brandt’s face darkened, and Jackie thought he might try something again. He was as bullheaded as they came. She’d never met a man more willing to get into a fight. It was both admirable and irritating.

  “Look, Brandt,” she said in a reasonable tone, “how about you let them take you wherever they want, and I’ll get Jenna?”

  “What? Why?”

  “Don’t you think she’d like to see the ship flying? After all she’s been through today, that might get her mind back onto pleasant things.”

  Brandt calmed down. He nodded. “Okay. Put me in a cell, boys, if that’s what you want. I’ll allow it. Just make sure Jackie takes good care of Jenna.”

  They scoffed and marched Brandt back down the corridor toward the nearest cell. Jackie noted that despite their cavalier attitude, they treated him with great respect and never touched him. Once they had the lion in the cell, they were visibly relieved.

  She went to Jenna’s cell and coaxed her out. Like a hand-fed park squirrel, the girl finally came out when she was told the ship was floating in the chamber under its own power.

  Jenna squealed aloud at the sight. She rushed to the ship, which hovered just within her reach. She opened the main hatch with a touch. That was necessary quite often. The ship closed itself automatically, every ten minutes or so, as if timing out If someone wasn’t present who could open the hatch—well, anyone caught inside might starve to death. Likewise, anyone on the outside was never getting in.

  A press of flapping lab coats followed Jenna and Dr. Linscott aboard. They asked the girl softly if she could trouble herself to open the lower hatch. When she did so, they rushed down to measure, prod and photograph every detail of Jackie’s containment field.

  The cowl she’d pulled back was still open. Under it was a shimmering egg of opalescence about the size of a park bench. A thousand colors twisted and chased one another over the milky surface like an oily film.

  “It’s fully exposed,” said the large woman who’d been the most skeptical of the bunch. “We’ve got to be taking in a lethal dose of rads right now!”

  The rest looked worried, but Jackie pointed out the Geiger counters. They were barely pinging above normal background levels.

  “It’s safe, as far as I can tell,” she said. “In fact, the number of rems of exposure we’re getting inside the ship has decreased since I brought up the shielding. I think the drive is meant to operate with the shield on all the time, even when the ship is idling.”

  “Pure speculation,” said the tall, spare man. But they all moved in a more relaxed fashion nonetheless.

  Jackie had faced professional jealousy before. She was accustomed to it. When a new member joined a high-pressured technical team, they were often welcomed—but only superficially. It took years to become friends with these people. They eventually would warm up—most of them, anyway. They just weren’t people-oriented.

  Diffidently, they closed the cowl over the luminescent field. Inside, incredible powers were being released in a steady stream. Jacki
e seriously hoped no one ever disrupted that field while they were in flight. The results may well turn out to be catastrophic.

  In flight, she thought. Now, where had that thought come from? She was going home, wasn’t she? That’s what she really wanted. To run on the beach again. To live her quiet little life in relative obscurity.

  Wasn’t that what she wanted?

  Chapter 45

  Nevada Desert

  Day

  Sandeep arrived two days after the ship first lifted off and began floating. News of the success had spread across the black ops community. Even those who didn’t know precisely what was going on out there in the scorching desert knew that a significant breakthrough had been made.

  Clayworth had dispatched him immediately. He’d grimaced at the idea, but taken the assignment with his traditional aplomb.

  “Excellent, Dr. Clayworth. Yes, of course. I’d be glad to.”

  He heard himself saying these things into his cellphone, and he regretted the words even as they slid out of his throat. When he’d awakened in the base infirmary—the one that was above ground—he’d sworn to himself he was going to quit. Brandt was crazy, and Clark was crazier. Clayworth could have them both. He’d almost been killed on a technicality, and that was just too much for anyone to bear.

  But he hadn’t quit. Instead, he’d left the base and headed back to Washington, taking his time to convalesce. His left clavicle was broken, and he had plenty of contusions and a badly swollen eye.

  Clayworth hadn’t complained about his leave of absence. Instead, she’d praised him. She was fond of calling him a “trooper”, and he supposed she was thinking of times like this when she said that. He sometimes became angry and resolute in his work, but always, always, he found himself crawling back to serve his masters. In a quiet, private way, he hated himself for this weakness.

  Was he a cretin, he asked himself as he packed his bags and left his empty home once again. Or perhaps it was worse—could he merely be a creature of habit? He wasn’t sure, but he did know he didn’t like to change things about his life. Not even if they were clearly in need of changing.

  And so he flew back out into that godforsaken desert and drove up from Vegas to Area 51. The men at the gates weren’t amused by his jokes about their previous encounter, and they did everything but strip-search him this time. They even dug into the spare tire compartment and opened his bags. A gusting wind plucked at his luggage, causing a single blue and red striped tie of his to blow away. The guards didn’t go after it, and Sandeep would be damned if he would. The last he saw of it, mumbling curses as he drove through the gates toward the main complex, it was a flapping strip of cloth on the razor-wire fencing.

  The first hint he had that things had changed in this remote outpost came as he reached the big hangar. Major Clark didn’t come out to meet him. This both surprised and concerned Sandeep. He’d understood that the man had been injured, but how badly?

  “Agent Grewal,” said the uniformed man who greeted him, thrusting out a hand.

  “Just call me Sandeep, Colonel,” Sandeep said. “Everyone does.”

  The big man nodded and they shook hands. “Well sir—Sandeep—I’m the base commander. I’m in charge of everything you see topside.” He made a sweeping gesture, indicating the white sands, the blowing wind, the numerous buildings and fences. “But you’re not interested in me, I understand. You’re going below.”

  “That’s right.”

  The colonel nodded and led the way into the gloom of the hangar behind him. It was the only building on the base that stood empty.

  “I can’t go down there myself,” the base commander said. “Not cleared for it. A funny thing, isn’t it? A man not being cleared for part of his own base?”

  “We all have our crosses to bear.”

  The colonel gave him an odd look, then went on in a pleasant tone. “The people down there know you, so I’m sending you down alone. Frankly, I’m happy to have someone new in charge at last. Clark always did give off a strange vibe.”

  Sandeep appeared to be startled. “What? What did you say about me being in charge?”

  The colonel shrugged. “That’s how I understand it. I’m running the test facility up here, and you’re running the freaky stuff down below. The base has always had two commanders, you know about that, right? Did you really think they’d give you command of the entire base? This is an air force post, man. You’re an agent.”

  “No, no, that’s not what I meant, I…” Sandeep trailed off, his mind whirling. Clayworth had ordered him out here to render aid to Major Clark. He’d been injured somehow, that was all she’d said. Sandeep was supposed to help keep the group working in an orderly fashion to finish the project. He’d never been told he was going to run this damned place.

  By the time he was stepping off the elevator alone on Gamma Level, he was almost sick with worry. This place—it was a black hole for scientists. People came, but they rarely left. Not until their careers ended or they were packed off to parts unknown.

  He traversed the long corridor and crossed the no-man’s land of gas-emitting holes. The final door slid open, letting him inside the cavern beyond.

  He was greeted there by no one but an unsmiling guardsman who demanded to see his identification, even though the man knew him fairly well.

  Sandeep put up with this indignity stoically, but when it was done, he was in for a surprise. The man thrust out his hand.

  Sandeep shook it absently.

  “Good to have you aboard, sir,” the man said. “Really, I mean that. We’re all glad to see someone new taking up the reins down here. The previous management—well sir, I don’t need to tell you—”

  “No,” Sandeep interrupted, “you don’t.”

  The man shut up with a curt nod, but didn’t seem upset. Sandeep moved to pass him, but froze in mid-step.

  “Sergeant?” he asked softly.

  “Yes sir?”

  “Is that ship—is it floating?”

  “Yes sir. Absolutely. They did it, those crazy eggheads. I thought for sure they’d killed us all. But hot damn—there it is! Flying. Doesn’t do anything else, sir. Not yet, anyway. It just floats there about a foot off the ground all day long. And it’s colder in here now, you feel that? I thought it was cold and weird before, but I didn’t know anything.”

  Sandeep waved to the guard and walked slowly toward the back offices. He was in shock. Clark down and out? The ship flying under its own power? Special Agent Sandeep Grewal, declared the new project leader? Clayworth rarely bothered to brief him on nonessentials, but really, this was too much.

  He spoke to a few bureaucrats, where his worst fears were realized. He was indeed in charge of this place as of today. Major Clark had operated it for a decade, but he was disabled now—possibly permanently.

  “May I see him?” Sandeep asked.

  The medical people exchanged furtive glances. Sandeep frowned, knowing they were withholding details from him. As the new director, he was annoyed.

  “If there’s something that you need to tell me—”

  “No sir,” said the closest bureaucrat, a prim woman with glasses like goggles and a tiny, tight mouth. “There’s nothing we can say publicly. But it would be best that you don’t visit with Major Clark at this time.”

  “Are his injuries that severe?”

  “They were life-threatening, sir.”

  “My God. How did it happen? Did the ship lift off and injure him in a release of energy?”

  Another furtive exchange of glances occurred. Internally, Sandeep sighed. These people were so accustomed to keeping secrets they seemed to fail to understand he was now their commander.

  “Agent Grewal,” said the one with the thick glasses. He thought about correcting her, but decided against it. “Sir, you need to address the project staff. They’ve become unruly without Clark’s leadership.”

  Suddenly, Sandeep thought he understood the situation. This woman was loyal to Clark. She did
n’t like her new boss. He would have to win her over.

  He gave her his brightest smile, letting teeth show. “An excellent suggestion. Would you accompany me? We’ll gather the team leaders together immediately.”

  She was flustered but did as he asked.

  Sandeep rubbed his hands together as he met them all in the newly set up null-G training facility. Suits and wire harnesses were everywhere, lining the walls. The scientists were poking at them uncertainly.

  In the classic fashion of managers that don’t quite know what they’re managing yet, Sandeep started by having everyone introduce themselves. The only stranger was a security man, Dr. Edwin Goody. Sandeep shook hands with him as warmly as he could and would have moved on, but Edwin touched his elbow.

  “A quick word, sir?”

  “Certainly,” Sandeep said. “What is it, Edwin?”

  Edwin lowered his voice, but his words were still startling. “This place is grade A bullshit, sir,” he said, gathering stares from those around him. “If you don’t mind my saying.”

  “Uh…”

  “Agent Grewal? Commander?” Dr. Tanaka asked, intervening. “You have to understand, we’ve been through a lot. We were up at Lab 126 when it was attacked.”

  “Indeed? That is impressive. I understand there were—casualties.”

  “The lab was all but wiped out,” Dr. Tanaka assured him. “Edwin here took out the killers, both of them.”

  Sandeep glanced at Edwin. He didn’t look dangerous, but things like that could be deceiving. He made a note of the report, as he found Edwin interesting. His file had listed him as a medical doctor, former military and a security specialist. A rare combination. He nodded to Tanaka. “Please, continue.”

  “Well, when we got here after all that, this madman named Clark locked us into cells. Can you believe that?”

  Sandeep cleared his throat. He was aware of Clark’s habits. The upper management hadn’t always agreed with his tactics to enforce loyalty and order among his staff members, but they’d gone along with it due to the undeniable results. People who came to this base rarely left, and they worked long, diligent hours. Sandeep thought it was all due to Clark’s carefully planned manipulations.