Eric Flint - Threshold

The fact that many of the people involved were his friends just made it easier. Maddie consulted her notes. "Walter Keldering is requesting another meeting with you. Probably wants to try to push for more U.S. direct access to the research." "Of course he is." Nicholas sighed. "I suppose you'll have to set one up. I don't have any reason to antagonize the United States, even if I'm going to have to once more refuse him special privileges-whatever justification he's come up with this time." Nicholas' hopes had been that whoever was sent to replace Madeline would be a pure political yes-man, someone who just did exactly as he was told. Keldering was political, but unfortunately was very competent indeed. The former CIA operative had not attempted any bluster or bullying, as might have been expected from the current administration's attitude. Instead, he seemed to be almost infinitely inventive at finding legal and practical arguments that would lead to preferential treatment of the United States with respect to any new discoveries in the alien bases. Even Maddie had more than once voiced a grudging respect for Keldering's unfailingly polite, doggedly resourceful approach. Privately, Nicholas suspected part of Madeline Fathom was actually pleased with the situation; she enjoyed having an adversary who might occasionally test her steel. For Nicholas himself, however, Keldering was just an annoyance. "Put him down for an appointment in a week or so." "Yes, sir. On the positive side, the finalized cooperative agreements with Ares have arrived and the Ares board of directors just signed all of them. Once you countersign, all our arrangements will be in place." "Good." "Let's see… America's got the second engine built and tested forNike and is building two more forAthena. Europe's keeping tight lips on theOdin. They're making some major design changes, and I think what they're planning is something more suited for outer-system exploration. Based on preliminary hints and the fact that they've hired a number of people in a couple of related specialties, Jackie Secord and Dr. Gupta have both told me they suspectOdin will be designed to use a mass-beam drive as well as the NERVA rocket and standard electric ion drives."

She glanced at Nicholas to see if he understood. Nicholas nodded.

"Ions or small particles fired at the ship, which catches them, probably magnetically, thus transferring the momentum directly without need for using fuel. Very power hungry, however, yes?" "I think they're also planning on attempting solar powersats to run the thing.

Do it far enough away from Earth to be no particular danger or nuisance, and once you've proven the reliability you can also then market the satellites to supply energy. We'll have to keep a close eye on them. Japan's well along in the construction ofAmaterasu, and current buzz is that they're planning to also build a real orbital colony. This has been a perennial favorite of Japan's space enthusiasts, so that's no real surprise. "China, unfortunately, had their engine go bad-you heard about all that. I think what's going to happen there is that the U.S. will apologize, promise to repair the thing at no cost, and probably sell them or give them another engine eventually. It'll still slow down China's deployment significantly, probably putting them last in terms of getting a functional reusable interplanetary craft going. They may benefit to some small extent from watching other people's mistakes along the way, but overall it's a bad break for them. "India's moving forward with the creation of the space elevator. They've named the project Meru, by the way, after Mount Meru, the legendary world pillar in Hindu mythology. Preliminary calculations show that their proposed design will come in under a thousand tons total mass. Modifying the NERVA reactor to act as a power generator-not the best design if you start from scratch, but having the reactor already up in the sky counts for something-they'll have plenty of power for dragging cargo up and down and keeping a station above the world running. You asked me about anchoring the thing down last time-something I didn't know much about-so I checked into it. The design they're using doesn't really require much anchoring force-about as much as the designed transport capability, actually. They're going to be splitting the base and anchoring it to several nearby ships, so it doesn't have a single simple point of failure. Time to completion, about another year." "One year?" Nicholas sat up straighter. "That seems awfully fast!" "Apparently it's within reason. And building up its capacity will be built into the design. In a few more years they'll be able to send a thousand tons per week up or down. With the IRI and Ares having first call on much of that capacity, we will be a lot more comfortable. And after you made sure Ares got a cheap shipment"-she gave him a grateful smile on behalf of Joe and his friends-"they'll definitely make it long enough to survive the crisis." "Which means we're missing just one element-how are we going to get the stuff from geosynch orbit around Earth to here?"

Nicholas said. "Slingshot?" He was referring to the fact that if one placed a load farther out than geosynch, one could literally let it "fly out" like a slingshot, propelled in essence by the Earth's rotation, just like a real sling spun about someone's head.

"Possible-and, onceMeru is fully operational, I'm sure they'll be building some orbital slingshots anyway. But usingMeru itself as a slingshot is limited by a lot of factors of timing and relative position between Earth and Mars. Some packages could be shipped up with their own little electric drives-once you're in geosynch, it's a lot easier to get elsewhere-but that'd cut down on the actual cargo arriving here and make it alot more expensive. We really do need our own ship." "Well?" She grinned. "Bruce Irwin's willing to be the captain and pilot if we get one built. As you know, Jackie Secord's already offered to run the engineering side, and she's keeping the reactor-engine assembly maintained now. Pricing on the standardNike or Phobos Station habitat ring segments, though, is totally out of our league, even if we could get them to slow down their build schedule to supply us." "We really do need something like that, though, don't we?"

Maddie nodded. "Anything much less than one-third g as constant living conditions will cause a lot of health problems. In fact, I'd really feel more comfortable if we could push that up, and on some of the new ships likeOdin they might well. They'll have more time and luxury for crew selection, so they won't have to worry about spin disorientation as much." "Does Ares have a solution in mind?" This was one of the major reasons for establishing cooperation between the IRI and its closest neighbor. They were, as India had already recognized, the only talent pool of space-qualified experts who were not currently committed to a specific country's space program. "Since the full agreements haven't been signed, I can't officially say anything, but Joe told me to tell you 'Damn straight we do.' If it's what I think, it will work, too." Nicholas leaned back slowly. "Then get me those originals pronto, so I can sign them. Let's get to work!"

Chapter 5 "I can't believe this," said the national security advisor. "First Fathom turncoats, and now the U.N. is going to steal a march on us. You want to explain this particular mess, General?" Ken Hathaway kept his expression respectfully neutral. Despite his dislike for the current administration, he had no intention of torpedoing his own career as the first and, currently, only military commander of a major space vessel. "I wouldn't describe this as a mess, sir. There are actually some advantages for us in this situation." Jensen looked at him incredulously. "You-along with my other analysts-assured me that there really wasn't a chance that the IRI would be able to build a ship around that engine. You all told me they'd probably just use it as a portable power source, or maybe a Mars-to-Phobos transport. And now Walter tells me that they're about six months from launching their own version ofNike!" Ken issued a chuckle, which he hoped looked spontaneous. He'd planned this sort of reaction, and Jensen had obliged him with precisely the kind of line he'd been hoping for. The national security advisor's face darkened. "Would you like to tell me what you find amusing, General?" "Sorry, no disrespect meant, it was just… You haven't seen the thing. Saying they were ready to launch their own version ofNike… Sir, that's like saying Huck Finn was launching his own version ofOld Ironsides when he pushed his raft into the river." Jensen slowly leaned back, the anger shifting toward a hard speculation. "Go on. Are you saying they're not really making an interplanetary vessel?" "Well… No, sir. They are, in one sense. I mean, their shipdoes have a real nuclear engine on it, and that can sure push it around the solar system. But… Here, look at it." Ken sent a command to the White House network, which acknowledged he had authorization to trigger image presentations, and the far wall lit up with a picture ofNobel, the interplanetary vessel Glendale was having constructed. Jensen snorted. There were a few other grunts or chuckles around the table. TheNobel looked very little likeNike. Both had a central hub where the main engine sat, and other parts about four hundred and fifty feet from that center which would serve as living quarters. But where theNike was a shining vessel, an integral structure of smooth components and clear functionality, Nobel was… Clunky, Ken thought, was probably the most charitable term you could use. "They've had to make do with whatever they could get," he said. "They don't have manufacturing capability of their own, and all the aerospace resources we have-all the aerospace resources any country has, for that matter-are tied up in building our own ships and bases. So they had to go to the one group of people who can somehow manage space construction and who don't have their own ship-Ares. But Ares doesn't have the money or the manufacturing capability to crank out things likeNike' s habitat sections. So what do they have?