CHAPTER 4

Nate Drummond stormed into the office of Drumdat CEO Alban Moceri. “What the hell is going on, Al?”

“Sorry, Nate, what is going on?”

Alban’s expression told Nate everything he needed to know. He hasn’t heard. Nate sighed. “Come with me. The president is making the announcement shortly.”

The CEO rose and followed him to the executive boardroom. Nate hit the switch turning on the full wall screen, grabbed the remote, and switched to one of the news stations. Plopping down into his usual chair reserved for him as President of the Drumdat Energy Corporation, he waved at Alban to sit. “Make yourself comfortable; you’re in for a shock.”

Alban approached a wall cabinet and withdrew a bottle of scotch and two glasses. “If I’m in for a shock, it might be best to brace for it. Single? Or a double?”

“Double, no ice.”

“You sure? You know what your doctor said.”

“Screw the doctor. Pour the drink.”

Alban made the cocktails and handed one to Nate. He settled back into the soft leather seat and focused on the screen.

The White House press room showed on the television, with the press secretary trying to hush the room. “Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States.”

“Hail to the Chief” began, and President Samuel Davidson made his way to the podium. “Good afternoon, everyone. I trust you’ve all received your briefing notes. This is a historic moment for America. We are sending a manned mission to Mars. Not since the heady days of the Apollo missions and the Space Race, has such an event defined our nation. We are a nation of explorers, of pathfinders, of leaders into new worlds. We discovered our country. We conquered the moon. And now we dare to go to another planet.”

The reporters began to clamor for attention. The president held up his hands for calm and then pointed to a woman in the front row, probably one of his favorites. “Yes, Susan.”

“Mr. President, Congress has…”

“Call me Sammy. You know how I prefer to be called Sammy. Although I’m the president, I still like to think of myself as one of you. I don’t want any title making you forget that.”

Always with Sammy. What a smug bastard he is. No respect for the office.

“Uh, oh, yes…Sammy. As I was saying, Congress has already severely cut your funding on a number of your initiatives, including NASA’s. How do you intend to fund such a program? How did the mission get approved in the first place?”

The president sported one of his toothy grins then chuckled for a moment. “Notwithstanding the financial concerns of Congress, NASA has always operated with some leeway. As long as there is no budget shortfall, amendments to its programs have been commonplace.”

A different reporter jumped up. “But Mr. Pres…I mean, Sammy. My sources tell me it would run many billions of dollars to mount such an ambitious program. Surely, there isn’t enough cost cutting going on at NASA to make this happen?”

“I have the assurances of the NASA Administrator Bartholomew Higginbottom that he fully intends to operate within the budget set for him.

“But Sammy—”

The president held up his hand. “Ladies and gentlemen, please. This is not a debate, but an announcement. All of your questions will be answered in due time. For now, allow me to introduce the team of astronauts who will be the first to set foot on another planet.”

Three men and a woman dressed in silver and blue NASA uniforms entered the room. The president introduced each by name but by then, Nate wasn’t really listening anymore. As numerous cameras flashed and the reporters crowded in, he hit the mute button and turned to Alban. “So what do you think?”

Al took a moment as if collecting his thoughts. “If he can pull it off, it’ll get him a second term.”

“Oh, he’ll pull it off, alright, but at our expense. I wondered why the second habitat platform had not been deployed to the moon yet. Our investment return in nuclear fusion energy is going to be set way back. We’ve been funding the development of Moon Base Alpha on the condition of earning the mining rights for the Helium 3. Hell, those platforms were bought and paid for with our dollars! He can’t do this! Get our legal department on the matter right away. Those are our platforms.”

“Not right now, they aren’t. I remember the contract, Nate. We agreed NASA would have exclusive use of the platforms for ten years. Ownership will only revert to us after that time.”

“Yeah, but that was on the moon, not Mars. How the hell are we going to use it on Mars to get Helium 3 from the moon? We already have three new reactors under construction across America. One habitat on the moon won’t provide the housing we need to get production of Helium 3 up to the capacity necessary to feed the reactors. We’re going to lose billions…billions!”

Alban got up and put away the scotch. “I’ll get to work on it right away. But something tells me we’re going to lose this one. In the meantime, I’d halt production of those reactors until we get some answers. I suggest you pay the president a personal visit. Your campaign contributions alone should entitle you to a few moments of his time. And calm down; the doctor gave you explicit orders about that. I’m a lawyer, not a medic. I don’t know CPR if you go into cardiac arrest.”

“Okay, I’ll calm down, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the president get away with this. I’ll go see him. You get to work on the legal end. We’ll squeeze the bastard from both sides.”

As Alban left the room, Nate hit the mute button once again and returned the sound to normal. The president posed between the four astronauts, with that same big toothy grin on his face. “I only wish I could be going with them. What a sight to see. And with the lower gravity, I bet I’d be able to beat my old time in the forty yard dash.”

A chorus of laughter filled the room, then the president shook hands with the astronauts and left. Nate watched for a few minutes more as the reporter summed up the events. “A startling announcement here today. With Congress breathing down his back on fiscal issues, one can only wonder how the president intends to pull this one off.”

He turned the program off. “Yeah, I wonder.” 

CHAPTER 5

Akihiko Fujiyoshi looked at the online memo with some trepidation. A summons to his NASA boss’s office. Cuts were happening everywhere. Would he would be next?

No sense in keeping the old man waiting.

He picked up his com-pad and made his way into the private office of the program director. “You wanted to see me, Bruce?”

Bruce looked up from behind his desk and motioned toward the one free chair not covered in files. “Sit down, Aki. We need to talk.”

He went over to the chair and discovered it was occupied by a number of files. “Where did you want me to put these?”

Aki watched with amusement as Bruce looked round the room several times. Every counter and inch of desk space was covered with files. Bruce finally waved toward the floor. “Sorry about that. Bart has me doing everything in hard copy. Something about keeping a proper set of books. Just put them anywhere.”

Aki picked up the pile and dropped it on the carpet next to him. “Seriously, you need to eliminate some of this stuff. Can’t you save it all in the system?”

“Everything is. I guess Bart’s old school, likes to have hard copies around. But enough of that. We’re not here to talk about the state of my office. Obviously, you’ve heard about the cuts. You’re smart, Aki, real smart. I would hate to lose a good man like you. Your knowledge of spatial and quantum mechanics, I suspect, is second to none, including my own. So I’ve come up with a solution.”

“A solution?”

“Yes. Plain and simple, I’m going to lend you out. Of course, you still belong to us, but you’ll be working for them.”

“Them, as in who, sir?”

Bruce chuckled and leaned back in his chair. “CERN, of course. Those knuckleheads in the European Organization for Nuclear Research have been messing around with that big hunk of junk for twenty-five years now. The stupid thing’s broken down more times than I can count.”

Aki blinked and gave his head a quick little shake. “The Large Hadron Collider? I thought I read somewhere they were shelving the project.”

“You did, and they aren’t. It’s just what they’re telling the European Union to get them off their backs. The thing’s a money pit. So they’re going back to basics—redefining what the universe is made up of, coming up with a new equation for everything, and then starting the project again when they’re ready.”

“So how do I fit in?”

“Bottom line, they’re paying NASA a pretty penny for your services. They want every top quantum mechanics guy in the field. As a NASA employee, you will still have complete access to our database. Help them solve the ultimate equation. Who knows? Maybe you’ll come up with the answer, get published, be famous.”

Bruce handed Aki a folder. “Here’s the documentation on your transfer. We’ve made hotel arrangements for you until you can get settled. Provided you’re willing to go. You can turn this down, but I can’t make any promises that you’ll stay here.”

Aki opened the folder and scanned through the few pages inside. “It doesn’t sound like I have a lot of choices. My old professor always told me I could come to work for him, but as an assistant the pay would be a step backward. I suppose I could scour the job market first, but you probably want an answer sooner than that.”

“It’s not me who wants the answer, Aki. It’s those guys over there. They’re under pressure. Personally, I don’t think dark energy exists. Otherwise, they would have found it by now.”

“I guess I’ll take the transfer. It says here I’m on loan for five years. Hopefully, I’ll make some progress where they couldn’t. I have my own hypothesis.”

They both rose and Bruce took his hand to shake it. “Don’t worry. You’re the smartest guy I ever met. You’ll figure it out. And don’t let all those highbrows over there give you a hard time about being so young. You don’t need a big mass of grey curly hair on the top of your head to be considered knowledgeable in quantum mechanics. I wish you the best of luck, Aki. God knows, you’ll need it.”

He started to leave then stopped at the door to look back once more. “That’s exactly who they’re trying to find.”