The Ship: The New Frontiers Series, Book One Read online

  “Couple of reasons. We’re going to need access to electrical power, preferably cheap electrical power, and we’ll need a work force. You can’t find the kind of people we’ll need on the farms and ranches. We’d have to bring people in, which would mean building roads. Eventually, I expect we’ll need thousands of people when we begin production. Starting a plant from scratch involves a lot more up-front expense. We hope to attract additional investors, maybe even go public later on, but we’ll need something more than a concept before that happens. We’ll need a fully-operational prototype at the very least.”

  “I didn’t expect all this, Frenchy. Instead of hiring all these department heads, why not just hire people to do the engineering and build the prototypes?”

  “Prototypes don’t bring sales, Morty. Will and I are planning to invest about ten million each in startup capital, and as our other investors buy in, the total commitment is expected to rise to at least 20 million. We can’t let that money just sit, it’s got to be earning income as soon as possible.”

  “I won’t be cuttin’ corners, Frenchy. Income, sure, but safety and reliability come first in my book. I ain’t sending anybody out into space until we’ve got a system that will not only take us out there but bring us home.”

  “I agree, Morty. But before we build a spacecraft, we’ll use Sneyd-Tesla Impellers to drive ships and airplanes. Both of those require licensing by government inspectors, so we’ll need to be very careful about what we tell them. We’ll show them that the drive works, then customers will sell themselves when they see what our ships and airplanes can do. As for a spaceship, full development will happen after we have the other systems operating. I don’t see why we can’t begin working on a prototype as time permits, a smaller one that will carry maybe ten people. I agree with your concerns about safety. The other systems I mentioned will generate usage data, and we’ll need that before we design the propulsion system for the full-size space ship.”

  “So what do we do until we get an assembly plant? We’ll need a shop so we can keep improving the impellers. The current version works pretty good, but right off hand, I know we can shrink the overall diameter and improve the mounting system. Chuck thinks he can upgrade the control system too.”

  “Actually, I’m glad you brought that up. One of our other investors owns a warehouse that’s not being used and he’s suggested that it be part of his investment. I think it would serve nicely as a place to put our shop while we work on those improvements.”

  #

  Bennett Downing was penciling in notes on a pad. He closed the pad and covered it with a cardboard marked Secret.

  “What’s this, Fowler?”

  “I’m not sure, sir. It appears to be a scan of a business card. We intercepted it, part of a routine system we use, but for some reason the computer highlighted it. I hoped you might know what’s going on. None of the techs know why it popped up. We checked the name and there’s a file on the guy, but he’s no terrorist. He’s just a harmless old crank.”

  “So why is there a file on him?”

  “The file dates back to the Clinton administration. He made a number of statements back then that sounded vaguely anti-American, or at least anti-government. He was pretty quiet during the Bush administration, then became more active after Obama’s election. He never advocated violence, and anyway he’s getting pretty old. The last entry before this had to do with a medical procedure he underwent, an angioplasty. Apparently his heart isn’t all that healthy. Anyway, he’s just a person of interest, lowest classification.”

  “So who did you pick up the scan from, Fowler?”

  Fowler pointed wordlessly to the cover page.

  “Why would a self-proclaimed inventor...does he have any patents? Peer reviewed articles in journals? Anyway, why would he approach an automotive manufacturer?”

  “To answer your first question, he holds no major patents. He has a few small ones for improved farming attachments, things that attach to a tractor. As for peer reviews, he submitted an article ten years ago that was rejected. Apparently he was looking at Nikola Tesla’s inventions, and the article dealt with one of those. Tesla mentioned a way of converting electricity to motion, but he never patented it. He also never built a prototype, and his usual practice was to build a prototype and submit that for patent protection. This leads me to believe the item he mentioned was only an idea. Tesla had a lot of those that never panned out. Anyway, the article Sneyd wrote said he was working on something similar, and the documentation for his proposed article had to do with his early results. The problem was that he wouldn’t say how he got the results, so no one would have been able to replicate his findings. There’s a note attached to the review that suggests Sneyd is suffering from paranoia. Since the reviewer is a physicist and mathematician, not a psychiatrist, that was never added to Sneyd’s profile.

  “Tesla never developed his invention beyond the concept stage, as far as anyone knows. It was an offshoot of his bladeless turbine work and Tesla never got to the prototype stage so it went nowhere. For that matter, he was never able to get the bladeless turbine to work either, not reliably. Maybe that’s why the computer kicked this out. There’s an active program that’s reexamining Tesla’s work to see if we can find other things worth developing. He suggested that lasers could be made to work, and he used a form of semi-active control to operate a boat remotely. It’s similar to what’s being done with drones. DARPA thinks there may be other ideas in Tesla’s notes that they’d be interested in. ”

  “I wasn’t aware of that. So what do you want to do about this intercept?”

  Downing drummed his fingers on the desk for a moment.

  “Update Sneyd’s file to include this. Take a look at the classification of that file too. Maybe its time to raise his classification a notch or two to show that we’re following what he’s doing. Let’s keep an eye on the situation. If it’s only a development similar to what he did with those farm implements, we can ignore it. Meantime, if he’s got something that a major manufacturer is interested in, that has economic implications. Keep an eye on them too.”

  The file was updated and the classification duly changed.

  The clerk who did the work was named S. Peter Tenno, and he had an unusual memory. He added this scrap of information to other tidbits he’d collected during the day.

  That night, he carefully wrote down things he thought might be of interest to his shadow employer on a sheet of copy paper. He used an ordinary ball-point pen to do this, printing the information carefully in block letters. The sheet of paper lay on a granite slab, a scrap he’d bought cheap from a company that made countertops. The highly polished offcut had been sliced out, creating an opening for a kitchen sink, before the countertop was delivered to the contractor. The offcut made an excellent writing surface and the pen left no impression on the granite.

  A digital photo of the note was encoded and the code became a snippet included in an innocuous email. As soon as it went out, the paper original was shredded, the shreds mixed in with others from gas, credit card, and electric statements.

  Mr. Tenno was a careful man. He lived within his salary, rarely even using a credit card. Most purchases were in cash. His Cayman Islands account grew year by year, and at some point Peter would resign from his agency job and visit the Cayman Islands. Eventually he planned to settle in Central America, where the Cayman account would permit him to live a much better lifestyle.

  He would have been offended to know that his report went not only to his Israeli employer but to another nation. The Israeli also expected to retire at some point, to a place where his illicit earnings would allow him to live in luxury.

  Chapter Seven

  The warehouse had not been used in some time.

  “More room than I expected, Morty.”

  “Yeah, it takes up at least half of the block. I wonder what they stored in all this space?”

  “No idea. Maybe they just drove the trucks in and parked them u
ntil they were ready to deliver whatever they were storing. The roof is good; I haven’t seen any sign of leaks.”

  “The place could use some paint, but I suppose that doesn’t matter. We’ll be moving out at some point anyway, as soon as Frenchy finds us a permanent home.”

  Morty and Chuck spent the first hour walking around the dusty building’s interior, making sure the heaters and the air conditioners worked, the water system was in good shape, and the toilets flushed. Morty found that the electrical system would need extensive modification. Each major piece of shop equipment would require a separate circuit breaker, just for starters. While he was doing his evaluation, Chuck explored the second floor. Offices would go there, above the noise and dust generated by the shop equipment. Finished, the two locked the building and drove to a restaurant for lunch.

  “This place will do until we get our own factory. I figure we lay out the ground floor in three areas, a large one for manufacturing, a smaller one for assembly, and the rear section by the loading docks for storage. We won’t need much assembly space in the beginning, not until we start mass-producing parts. What did you find upstairs?”

  “Plenty of room for offices, and a larger room we can use for meetings and a break room. No coffee or munchies in the shop area; too much chance of spilling something. I’ll reserve one of the offices as my workspace. I’ll need to set up a mini computer. The people that’ll be working on automation will need satellite stations, so the computer will need the capacity to handle those. You wanted to redesign the rotors too. If you’re going to shrink the mechanical parts like you mentioned, you’re going to have to increase the speed of rotation, maybe use full motor RPM to get the same amount of impulse. That means a redesign of the control system.”

  “I’d like to kick the speed even higher if we can, Chuck. The only reason for keeping rotation speed down in the first place was because the g-forces built up as soon as the main motor kicked in. The high-speed rotors will have to use thrust bearings to hold them in place, so that counts as a redesign too. Spinning faster increases the gee force, and the bearings we’ve been using won’t stand up to the increased stress. Not a serious problem, because high speed, permanently lubed and sealed bearings are available, but they’re also heavier. It’s just something to consider in the redesign. The ultimate limit to how fast we can rotate the main impeller shaft is the mechanical limits of the material we’re using. Electrically, the coils will probably work at least as well when the rotors spin faster, maybe even better.”

  “What shop machines are you going to want, Morty? Keep in mind that your shop area seems large, but when you begin putting in industrial machine tools they take up a lot of space. You’ve got to leave space for the workers to move around, too. That’s a safety consideration.”

  “I’ll have the same kind of shop I’ve got at home, and there’s plenty of room there.”

  “I wouldn’t say plenty, Morty. I thought it was pretty cramped.”

  “Oh, there’s room enough,” said Morty, “but I understand what you’re driving at. I’ve also got to leave room in the rear of the shop for a different kind of machine, 3-D printers. They make parts by adding material, not taking it away. One of the slowest parts of building the impeller is machining the rotors from blanks. I figure I can print the blanks, then refine the shape through machining. Some of the blanks may not have to be machined at all. While it seems slower at first, we’ll eventually get more production in less time. I can put at least a dozen printers in the back part of the shop and leave the front for the bigger machines, the lathes and mills and precision grinders. I won’t need as many, using the printers to produce blanks.”

  “If you say so,” Chuck replied. “How many computers will you need to drive those printers?”

  “I guess we’ll see when they start arriving. The machines might have their own built-in computer anyway, just input a program and let the printer go to work. We might not need a separate computer.”

  “What kind of supplies do you need for the printers? You’ll need whatever kind of feedstock they use, maybe several kinds. You might also need different nozzles.”

  “Yep, I mentioned a part of the warehouse where we could store supplies, and we can keep the printer supplies and different nozzles there. Anyway, I’ll talk to Frenchy later on, and as soon as he gives me the go-ahead I’ll start shopping. If I can find used machines, setting up the shop will go faster and we’ll save money. I might even be able to buy machines immediately. If I have to buy new equipment, I’ll probably have to order it, then wait until it’s built. Hardly anyone stocks the kind of big industrial machines I want, hoping to find a buyer. They cost too much and sales are too slow to justify having them stockpiled. A lot of what I want is build to order, and that can take weeks. Still, if the choice is wait around or try to work with something I can get immediately, I reckon I can work with what’s available.”

  “What about electric circuits? Does this place have three-phase capability?”

  “It does, although the power company might have to increase the capacity of what’s already installed. But that’s their problem, and anyway it’s the kind of thing they handle routinely. I’ll look at the manuals when machines start arriving, but I don’t think there’ll be a problem. It’s just straight industrial circuitry. We’ll have to add separate circuits for each machine, but from what I saw there’s plenty of capacity coming into the building. I’ll get electricians to do an in-depth inspection to make sure I didn’t miss anything, though, and they’ll set up the wiring.”

  “Morty, you’re looking forward to this, aren’t you?”

  “I am. About the people Frenchy’s hiring, the best way to get new people up to speed is to show them a working model. As soon as I’ve got the equipment ordered, you bring the Bedstead here. We’ll disassemble the impellers after showing the engineers what they can do, then let them start working on improvements. We’ll use the Bedstead to test new impellers, although the frame will need to be redesigned.”

  “We’ve both got stuff to do, then. What about operating funds?”

  “I’ll give Frenchy a call. I’ll start placing orders as soon as he puts money in the account.”

  “Don’t forget the upstairs. The offices will need a good cleaning and a coat of paint, plus furniture.”

  #

  The old warehouse went through a number of upgrades during the following weeks. Electricians spent a day inspecting the wiring, then wrote up preliminary work orders. They’d be back to run conduit and connect the machines when the shop equipment started arriving.

  Frenchy, deciding he wanted to be part of the operation, took charge of redesigning the upstairs. A large meeting room was set up near the head of the stairs, and the break area was across the hall from the meeting room. The rest of the space was divided into offices and two bathrooms, located adjacent to the break area.

  New people began arriving within the week. Morty decided where each engineer would best fit in, while Panit and Frenchy assigned people to the offices. Accounting was one of the first departments established; Morty and Chuck would henceforward place orders through purchasing, part of the accounting department. This in turn was headed up by a comptroller who worked with Frenchy, keeping him updated. Payroll was another necessary part of accounting, as was a section devoted to keeping track of taxes.

  Frenchy hired a pilot to fly Chuck to Andrews County Airport. Chuck rented a medium-duty truck with an enclosed cargo bay and drove it to the ranch, backing it in place at the front of Morty’s shop. The Bedstead had been partially disassembled after the earlier flight, in part so that the impellers could be inspected but also from an abundance of caution. Chuck would put it back together before loading it.

  Reassembling the craft took most of the following day. Chuck finally opened the workshop doors at dusk and slowly flew the Bedstead into the truck’s cargo bay. He strapped it in place, then locked the shop and the truck’s cargo door. He got a good night’s sleep in the ran
ch house, ate a bowl of cereal when he woke up, and was on the road at daybreak.

  The trip back took longer than expected, but Chuck catnapped in roadside parks and drove on as soon as he woke up, sustained by truck-stop coffee and sandwiches he bought when he stopped for fuel.

  #

  “You made good time, Chuck.”

  “It was a grind, Frenchy, no question about it, but I’ve dealt with worse.”

  “That’s right, your grandfather mentioned you’d been a soldier.”

  “Marine, Frenchy, Marine. We Marines are very picky about that.” The two chuckled.

  “That’s a rented truck, right?”

  “Right, we didn’t have the money to buy one, Frenchy. Why?”

  “We’re going to need our own, either one like that or a larger one. Why don’t you just park the truck inside the warehouse for now? Keep the Bedstead locked in the cargo bay. We’re still running background checks on a some of the new men, and there’s no need to reveal what we’re working on until later. Eventually, we’ll offer them stock in the company. I think that’s the best way to ensure their loyalty. Once we tell them what we have in mind, I don’t think they’ll be running to someone else with the story. They’ll have too much to lose.”

  “Sure, Frenchy. Security is important. If the secret gets out, even what’s involved in this first primitive device, we’re out of business. Oh, we could keep going, but as for exclusive rights to asteroids or maybe even claim a moon, forget it. Everybody and his brother would be out there, roosting on some piece of desirable real estate. Probably getting themselves killed in the process too. But developing the impellers is only the first step. We’re going to need a reliable source of electrical power for the spacecraft and we’re going to need better spacesuits than the kind NASA is using if we’re going to work in space. NASA’s suit is pretty primitive, you know. I think we can do better.”

  “That’s where I come in, Chuck. I’m invested in a small company that can build the suits. If you’ve got enough money, problems like suits and electrical power generation can be solved.”