There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 29

"We never plan that far ahead mom. We take things as they become available to us."

"Showers, and bed, my mind has taken all it can of you two today."

"You are a multi-millionaire. Relax, and try to enjoy it."

"I will try."

**********************

141. Visions

My family; from Jennifer to Holden, were standing in front of 'The Best Luck 1', when she exited the SUV. Our normally reserved agents hovered around her, like bees in a field of honeysuckle. Jeff had to tell most of them to return to their posts, while others carried her cameras and other equipment. I nearly laughed, when Jeff took her arm, and put it through his. He explained to her he was going to lead her through the system of bear traps meant to keep any unwanted guests away from the spacecraft."

Gray leaned over to me and said, "Are you sure she is almost 70 years old?"

That statement earned him an elbow to his ribs from Delicious.

"Keep it in your pants Grayson, or I will delight in cutting it off."

Teddy said to my fiery daughter, "No do, more baby come."

"I know sweetheart, it was just a figure of speech."

"More flies sugar, then vingar."

"Banilla ice cream, chocolate syrup."

"Everyone?"

"I love you Teddy."

"Love my mommy."

As they cleared the bear trap area, I stepped forward, with Jennifer at my side.

"Miss Welch, it is truly an honor for me to meet you. This is my wife Jennifer."

"Doctor Luck, Jennifer, please call me Raquel, and the pleasure is all mine. That is a stunning machine behind you."

"If you are talking about the line of people behind me, you are correct. They were the driving force that helped me build this wonderful Spacecraft. 150 scientists, and laboratory specialists, in our main building, deserve a great deal of credit. We are approaching 900 patents over the eight year span we have been building The Good Luck 1.

I will introduce you to them, but there will not be a test afterwards. Two names will stick in your mind, because they have begun designing 'The Best Luck 2.' It will dwarf anything that has ever flown before. It will be 1000 feet in diameter, and will be the first spacecraft to carry paying passengers, on a 10 year, round-trip flight to the stars, and return to earth safely. Let me introduce you to everyone now."

I started with Delicious, and told Raquel about her Magnetic Drive Engines.

I proceeded to Gordon and told her how he cracked the code to make Nuclear Fusion Power Plants easy to start, without using high energy microwave pulses to start the reactors, and how they would work for six to 8 generations, without leaving any nuclear waste behind, or needing any major overhaul.

Raquel recorded every word for her upcoming article, and was suitably impressed by everyone. However, when I reached Richard, Holden, and Spaceship 2, her jaw nearly hit the floor.

"Doctor Luck, are you telling me that your 6 and 11-year-old sons are smart enough to design, and build the second spacecraft and it will be ready to fly around the universe, in 10 years, at approximately the same time NASA will be sending Orion to Mars?"

"I don't want you to put my boys names into your article. It is privileged information. If it gets out, they will never have a life of their own. Both of my sons have tested out of high school already. We will not bother them with any college degrees. They are not necessary for the work they are doing.

My attorney, Rod Laver, will protect them, and their privacy, like a rabid dog. Anyone breaching their privacy will find themselves in court, for the rest of their natural lives."

"I have received your message loud and clear Doctor. Their names will not be associated with your next spacecraft, in my article."

"Would you like to begin your tour of the inside of the spacecraft?"

"I have been waiting for this day, since you first gave me permission to come here. Where do we start?"

"We start in the elevator, of course."

****************

When we've reached the second floor, security was waiting with our flight suits at the ready. Our names were emblazoned on the left side of our chests.

They helped Miss Welch put hers on first. It was a little snug around her chest, but it would do.

Newton was excited, when he put his on. Teddy went ballistic, when she saw hers. On the left side was her name, and on the right, it said, "Commander." It was the only pink flight suit we had made.

Flight crew qualified members wore sky-blue. Scientists wore gray, electricians wore bright orange, and so on. It wasn't that we were expecting trouble, while we were in flight, but color-coding everyone made it easy to understand why someone was in a particular area of the ship.

We brought Raquel up to level 5, explained what was there, and told her she could take pictures of everything. Since she was not allowed to have her crew with her, we were volunteered as her pack animals.

I never knew what it took to be a great photographer. I thought you picked up the camera, focused through the lens, and pushed the button. I was so wrong.

She gave Newton a light meter, and told him where to stand. She asked him for the reading on the meter. She changed either the camera or the lens, and took several shots of the same scene. She took a different camera, and a different lens, and did the same thing without moving one square inch. I had no idea why, and I didn't ask, because I did not want to show my ignorance.

After an hour, we moved down to level four. This floor was for our sleeping quarters, cooking area, and arboretum. We tried to arrange this area as a family area, and a gathering place, '10 Forward' for you Star Trek fans. 123 of our patents existed, because of this floor.

In the private dwellings, the walls, floors, and ceilings were designed to absorb sound, as sponges absorb water. Instead of convex roofs over our rooms, we designed concave roofs, with baffles, to have to sound bounce down into the room, and to get lost among the baffles.

Again, Raquel took pictures from every direction, and angle. She took many pictures while lying on the floor, and hundreds of others, while standing on Gray's shoulders.

She was so limber, quick, and active, he asked, "Are you really going to be 70?"

Delicious was so angry with him, she turned red. She began moving towards him, raising her hand as she went.

Teddy pulled on her ear. "No hit daddy. Be nice."

"Baby, you never ask a lady her age. It's against the rules."

"Who say?"

"Am I going to lose another argument to you?"

"Love my mommy."

"Love my Teddy."

"I know."

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"I know."

"No banilla ice cream, chocolate syrup."

"Stay up night, talk in box."

"Teddy, you are as obstinate as I am."

"Grow tall like daddy, mouth like mommy."

"We are going to have such fun with that. I hope we don't kill each other."

"I help mommy, mommy help me. Be fine."

**************************

Raquel asked, "Did that baby just have a conversation with her mother?"

"This is off the record. Teddy has been talking since a few days after she was born. Her language skills were very simplistic back then. Now they are much improved. There are many other things she can do. However, the most important one is she will be the first officer on our Spacecraft. That is not an honorary title. It has been decreed that she will take over for me, when I die. I just got over a very serious battle with pancreatic cancer. At this moment, I am in remission. It may never come back, and it may come back at any time. Every member of our crew is aware that she will be the second in command while I am alive, and the captain after I pass away."

"Who told you that she has to take over for you when you pass away?"

"Let me say that I had a dream, and a higher authority ordered me to do it."

"Can I print that statement?"

"Sure, everyone's been calling me crazy most of my life. This will prove to them that they are correct."

*********************

As soon as we were standing on the third floor, she picked up a camera and began to focus in on a restricted area. I stood in front of her to block her view.

"Raquel, you cannot take close-up pictures of the computers, or the workstations. Everything there is off limits to you, because it is all proprietary.

What you can do is take long distance shots of that area, and we will vet those pictures to verify that even magnified nothing can be taken off of them. From the airshaft back, there are only a few proprietary items, and we will point them out to you as we go."

These were the pictures she wanted desperately, and we had just taken them away from her. However, I was not going to give away eight years of hard work, and many of our patents for a photo array in December's magazines.

**********************

We were back at level 2.

"Raquel, if it doesn't belong any place else on the ship it comes here. This floor is for storage. Everything is locked down, tighter then a drum. As you can see, it is stacked from ceiling to floor. We don't know if or when we will ever be able to resupply. We have to take everything we can with us, and hope for the best. Starting on December 20th, we will begin loading 505,000 gallons of pure water into the exterior shell of the spacecraft. This will do two things for us. It will protect us from spaces' harmful radiation, and provide us with our water, for drinking and our other needs. No water will be wasted. It will be constantly recycled through a tertiary recycling system located on the first floor. Each person will be restricted to 22 ounces of drinking water per day, starting with day one. All of us may as well get used to it as soon as we start our trip into space."

I had no clue what she found so interesting about photographing supplies, but I don't believe she missed one isle, or one item of food, including Gray's freezers. He stood in front of them proudly.

Finally, we made it down to the first floor, our engineering section, and as she was setting up the kids began to complain.

Holden said, "Mom, I'm hungry, can we get something to eat please?"

Richard joined in, and a half second later so did Newton.

Teddy said, "No banilla ice cream, chocolate syrup; no eat."

Delicious blew a huge burst of air against Teddy's belly.

"Good, you're beginning to look like a balloon."

Teddy laughed, "Not."

Jennifer said, "We will take the children who want to eat to a restaurant. Those who wish to stay with Miss Welch can. We will meet up at home later."

"Thank you dear, I don't want to rush her. Whenever she's finished, we will escort her off the property; give her the credentials for Christmas Day, and part company."

She whispered into my ear, "I want to look like her when I am 70."

"You will be more beautiful than she is when you are 90 years old."

"Flatterer."

"Telling the truth is not flattery. I love you Jen, I always will."

"You son of a bitch, I have never been more positive of anything in my entire life."

"Get out of here, before I fuck you on the floor in front of everyone."

"You promised Holden an advanced education in sex. Now is as good a time as any."

"If we go to the fourth floor, we may never leave it."

"The children are hungry. They have to be fed first. When you get home, we can take care of the other thing."

"You should be happy you are wearing a flight suit, and not a skirt. Get out of here my love, I can smell you."

"What about that bulge going down your leg Even?"

"Jennifer feed the children."

"Spoiled sport."

I smacked her on her rump, kissed her, and took her to our children.

"Mommy's ready to take you to get something to eat."

I looked at Teddy and said, "Chicken will be good today. If you eat it all, and some French fries, mommy will get you banilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and cherries on top."

"Mommy say no."

"Grandpa say yes."

Teddy looked at her mother with questioning eyes.

"Okay, banilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and cherries on top, but you have to eat your chicken first."

The little redhead reached her arms out to me, and I took her from her mother. She kissed me on my mouth and said, "Good Captain."

I replied, "Good second officer."

She beamed with pride and kissed me again.

"Much to learn from Captain."

"Much to learn from second officer."

"Hungry must eat chicken."

"Wonderful second officer, go with mommy. Grow up big and strong like daddy"

She kissed me again, and I gave her back to Delicious. They were off to destroy a restaurant.

Raquel said, "You love your wife very much."

"Yes I do."

"How can you possibly leave her here, and go on a journey from which you will never return?"

"Initially, we were all supposed to go. However, two of my children, were afraid, and didn't want to go. Jennifer and I discussed it. She couldn't leave the children, without at least one parent to guide them as they grew up. She made the decision to stay with them, which broke both our hearts. She was supposed to be the captain of this ship. I was supposed be down in the engineering section. That's what I am; I am an engineer, and a scientist. Jennifer studied for years to become the Captain of The Best Luck 1. Everyone else spent years studying for their own positions. They elected me to be Captain."

We proceeded down to the first floor, and it took her breath away.

"Please tell me I can take pictures of everything that's down here."

"Yes you can, but some of it you have to take from a distance. I will tell you which ones. Do you want to see the nuclear engine first?"

"Is it safe?"

"I would not offer to show it to you if it wasn't safe. It's in a containment unit, and it's not like the nuclear fission plants around the world. This is my son, Gordon's, invention and there are so many patents on what you are about to see, there are too many to count. Come with me."

"It looks so small, how fast will it let you go?"

"Why don't you tell her Gordon?"

"Miss Welch, this little fusion engine will let us attain speeds between six and eight times the speed of light. In Star Trek terms, Warp 6 to 8."

"It's not possible to go faster than the speed of light. Every reputable scientist says so. Einstein said so, and no one has proved him wrong."

"My sister has proven that Newton's laws of physics are wrong. This ship has flown twice under its own power without the use of a propeller, jet engines, or rockets. The only thing we used was her 'Magnetic Drive Engines.' You can go to Houston, and ask them to show you the pictures of their aircraft following us while we were in flight. I doubt that they will show them to you, because they will be embarrassed. They have nothing like it, and they are so far behind our technology they will never admitted to the public."

"Why won't they ask to see what you're doing here?"

"The reason is very simple, and very complex. Congressman will cut off their funding. That's the answer to both questions. We are building our machine for about $330 Billion. We are coming in $20 Billion under budget. Orion and the rocket they are building to send it to Mars is a $1 trillion boondoggle. Do you know how many friends of Congressman are making money off of this new system they are building? Look at all the Congressional districts, which are making money, because of each of these Congressman? Look at Boeing, Lockheed, Martin Marietta, ITT, Northrup, IBM and every other company that has its hand out to get a piece of that $1 trillion. They would cut the legs off anyone at NASA who walked over here and found a way to send 70 people into space for $350 Billion. How long did it take the astronauts to get to the moon?"

"It took them nearly 3 days to get there, why?"

"Once we clear Earth's atmosphere at approximately 28,000 miles per hour, and we are only using Delicious 'Magnetic Drive Engines'. We will pass the moon in 12 seconds. 58 minutes later, we will pass Mars. That is when we will extend this 'little engine', and begin warming it up. When it's ready, we will increase its output incrementally. We will pass Jupiter doing .9 light speed. As we pass Neptune, we will be doing .98 light speed. At some point between Neptune and Uranus, we will have passed through light speed, and continue increasing at a regular rate. The only thing keeping us from going faster is the gravitational pull of the earth. Once we pass heliopause, the only thing that will keep us from going faster than 6 to 8 times the speed of light is the maximum output of this tiny engine.

Everything I've said to you is true. All the telemetry will be sent back to earth in real time. We have something in the works now, which may shock the world, as we know. It's one of my little brother's ideas, and if we can get it done in time, we will install it onto the ship, as the patents are brought to Washington. My development of the fusion engine was extraordinary. If his comes to fruition, it will change everything you know, and believe forever."

"What is it with your family? You are all geniuses in your own right."

"You have to look at our parents. No one talks about our mother, but she is where it all begins. We are loved from the second we are created, and what no one realizes, is she is as smart as my father is. In our household she is not overshadowed by him, she is his equal. The conversations between them are breathtaking. They always allow us to listen in, or to join them by asking questions. You can't help but learn from them, if you're listening to them all the time. My brothers will tell you the same thing. It's like listening to a physics lecture every time we have dinner."

Everyone knows my father, and they all call him crazy. All of them should all be as crazy as my father is. Dad is a billionaire, because of the things he invents, while his scientist friends are struggling along on a salary at some educational institution. He has more patents to his name than any top scientist in the world. That was before he was talked into building The Good Luck 1. The spacecraft was not his idea. It was an idea that came about when I was 3 years old. We were downstairs in my dads Idaho Springs laboratory, when my sister, Delicious, made a remark about her Magnetic Drive Engines. My dad looked at her and said, "What do you want to do baby, build a flying saucer in the backyard?"

Our attorney, Rod Laver, said, "Even stop this, you're scaring me. The four of you have enough talent to do it, and people are going to think you're all crazy."

"The conversation continued, and names of Patti, and Laura Valentino, Harold Chase were brought up, because of their computer expertise. Dycke Schneider was added to the list, because of his engineering background, and his factories in the United States. A friend of my fathers', who helped him with his first patent, was also added to the list early on, Celeste Mesner. At that time, she was the 13th wealthiest person in the world. We were determined that every piece of equipment made for our ship would be made in the United States.

Everything was built here, except for one thing. Sony provided the external cameras, and the internal viewing screens. No one in the United States manufactures these items to Sony's standards.

I won't bore you with the rest of the stuff he went through, like getting the $350 billion to build this spacecraft; however, due to his prominence in the scientific community, it was easy for him to do."

"Easy my ass, it was only when William Zabo was added to our list of investors, the other 13 members join up to help us build this marvelous machine. No one puts $20 to $30 billion into a project that could fail, without seeing who else is going to be on the board of directors. It was Williams' presence that made everyone feel comfortable enough to join in this project."