The Great Escape Chapter 19, Part 1 of 6

The Great Escape
Chapter 19, Part 1 of 6

Meanwhile, while teaching astrophysical engineering at the Cemeteries Institute for Science, Danielle designed and manufactured a microwave air suit, which was a commercial success.

Ezra crash-landed on Samothea about four years ago. Wildchild, also called Samothea, and Tamar, also called Yael, rescued him from the sea. The Woodlander, Mariner, and Herder Tribes adopted him, giving him the duty of sleeping with those tribeswomen who wanted children. He now has thirty bedmates and more than thirty children. He cannot take bedmates from the Cloner, Farmer, and Miner tribes, who still practice cloning, to avoid a genetic bottleneck.

Yumi Takahashi stowed away on board Ezra's ship and now lives in Cloner City with her son, Hayate.

Danielle's communications probe to Samothea transmitted a message before it exploded. Ezra read the message on one of the emergency escape pods salvaged from his spaceship. It proved that a rescue mission would likely be sent.

Annela Ezra's first bedmate began to develop symptoms of a brain tumor. She was persuaded to enter the spare emergency escape pod and be put into suspended animation to await more visitors from space who might bring the hope of medical treatment.

"No, certainly not, Goldrick! And don't ask again!"

Danielle Goldrick was enjoying a friendly argument with her erstwhile boss, Stephen Oakeshott. Their exchange was somewhat surreal because Danielle was on Celetaris, and Stephen was 170 light-years away on Earth. There was a twenty-minute gap between their exchanges.

Danielle started the dispute by offering to pay Stephen back the money he gave her as a monthly stipend, now that she was supplementing her university income from sales of her microwave air-suit.

Stephen pretended to be insulted.

"The money I'm paying you, Goldrick, is to ensure you return to work for me when this academic whim is over. It rather defeats the purpose if you pay me back!"

So, Danielle moved on to her next offer:

"I'd like Oakeshott Industries to become the Earthside partner for my air-suit business and manufacture and sell the suits in the Homeworld markets. You know how lucrative that will be."

"I know nothing about air-suit technology," he replied, "and we're not a suitable company to market the product."

At least Stephen didn't pretend his business didn't need the money. Danielle knew that Oakeshott Industries was financially torrid because the Beltway Hyperspace Project, including her award-winning work on its hyperspace junctions, had finished. The Samothea Project had been on hold for more than a year, its signature motor subject to a legal dispute that progressed at glacial speed through the Japanese courts.

Thus, Danielle arrived at her third offer:

"Will you host the auction to find an Earthside manufacturer to produce the air-suits under license?" she asked. "And will you make a great commission for doing so?"

Stephen Oakeshott was a wily operator, but only later did he realize Danielle had maneuvered him into accepting an offer he might have rejected had she begun with it. At the time, however, he merely smiled and gratefully replied:

"All right, Goldrick, I'll organize the auction. But you must know that your ideal partner is the Nakatani Corporation. They could swallow up the entire production of your air-suits without missing a breath. You would make a fortune if you sold the license to them."

"I know," Danielle replied. "So, you'll have the pleasure - if someone from Nakatani foolishly comes to the auction - of telling him to get lost. I'm glad you're taking the job, Stephen.

Promise me you'll gouge the winner?"

Danielle's Ph.D. students, Rosa Silverstein and Li Qu Yuan, were awarded their Doctorates two years after Danielle moved to Celetaris, about four years after Ezra left for Samothea.

Their papers on the Samothea Project's technology caused a stir as the new theories of hyperspace travel percolated through the scientific community.

Li accepted a position at Caltech on a research team run by Jonathan Wright. They both remained essential members of the Samothea Project.

Rosa's boyfriend, Herman, stayed on Celetaris for further study under Dorothy Martlebury. The galaxy's foremost expert on programmable mathematics had extended her visit to the Celetaris Institute for Science for another four years, so convivial did she find the academic climate.

Rosa also remained on Celetaris. She told Herman she was staying for Danielle's sake, and she told Danielle she was staying for Herman's sake, but she stayed for her own sake. Rosa was gripped by an intriguing new problem, an original discovery she wasn't yet ready to reveal.

Danielle negotiated Rosa's post-doctorate position at the Institute based on their collaboration on the Samothea Project. She also used all her diplomatic skills to reconcile Professor Jankov with a second female staff member.

That sour old misogynist had slightly mellowed, now he was nearing retirement and would occasionally smile benevolently on the two women, Doctors Goldrick and Silverstein, whom he called 'the precious metals.'

After a month of intense work, Rosa revealed her discovery to Herman, who devised some clever additions. A fortnight later, she was ready to show Danielle what she and Herman had done so far.

The three sat in Danielle's office, halfway up The Vortex, the twisting plastic-glass tower in the middle of the Science Park that housed the physics department. It was a foggy winter morning. The suffused office lights reflected yellow on the glass walls, seeming to trap them in a prison cell.

Rosa projected a graph from her computer pad. It looked like an exaggerated mountain range, with prominent peaks at irregular points along the graph.

"This is the electromagnetic spectrum of the black-hole anomaly near Samothea," she explained, standing to point with a laser pen.

"I found a way to reverse-engineer the signal from the last three microseconds of communication between the traveler and the plume as the traveler veered off-course and crashed."

"Really? I didn't know that was possible," Danielle said. "That's an amazing result, Rosa, if it's correct."

Rosa flipped a document to Danielle's computer to show her working out. Danielle scanned over the pages of formulas and calculations. She was impressed.

"When did you do this?" Danielle asked.

"I started six weeks ago," Rosa said.

"Six weeks!" Danielle exclaimed. "Rosa! Why did you sit on these results for six weeks? We could have run analyses to find out why there's been no communication from Samothea for a hundred years! Why have all the ships and robot scouts sent there been lost? We might have learned what happened to Ezra's ship!"

"It's all here," Rosa said, flipping another document to Danielle's computer.

Danielle gave Rosa a significant look before concentrating on the document. Ten minutes later, she looked up again.

"It's official," she said. "I'm redundant."

"Redundant? Why?" Rosa asked.

"Because my student has surpassed me. This is brilliant work, Rosa. Now I can retire and put my feet up."

Rosa laughed, and Herman smiled, trying to imagine Danielle relaxing with her feet up.

"I'm sorry it's not good news, Danielle," Rosa said.

"All right," Danielle said. "Talk me through it."

Rosa pushed her dark-brown hair off her forehead and tucked the tresses behind her ears: a habitual gesture when she concentrated hard.

"After I resolved the spectrum, I recruited Herman. I showed him the graph, which has radiation spikes at specific frequencies. We wrote a program to discover what effect radiation at each spike would have on various objects, from circuit boards to chemical reactions, to living organisms."

"There are thousands of potential results, which we narrowed down to the most useful."

She highlighted three of the mountain peaks on the spectrum.

"These spikes in the graph are exactly the right frequency of x-rays to interfere with the laser-chip circuitry of the Navi-coms telemetry in hyperspace drives."

"I see," said Danielle. "Do you know the precise effect of the interference?"

"We do," Rosa said carefully, knowing exactly what it meant for Danielle. "Any hyperspace jump that ended in the vicinity of Samothea would be deflected by the cosmic rays toward the nearest gravitating object."

Danielle didn't want to think about Ezra crashing into a planet or a star, but the conclusion seemed inevitable. It was what had happened to the communications probe the Samothea Project sent a year ago - and doubtless, what had happened to all the vehicles sent to Samothea in the last century.

"In fact," Rosa continued, adding to the bad news, "when the star, Sothis, collapsed into a black hole about a hundred years ago, an electromagnetic pulse at these frequencies would probably have fried the circuitry of most electronic devices on Samothea and in nearby space."

Danielle nodded.

"So what about other peaks in the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums?" she asked, distracting herself by concentrating on the science.

It was Herman who answered.

"I've sorted the results into categories relevant to spaceships and Earth-like planets. These are the results for meteorology, biology, radio communications, hyperdrive motors, and electronics."

He flipped charts as he spoke, going too fast for Danielle to see the details, but she understood the gist quite clearly and noted which details to look into later.

"And what are your conclusions for meteorology?" she asked, intrigued.

"I believe the ultraviolet radiation affects the weather on Samothea, triggering cloud formation in the upper atmosphere."

"That's just speculation, though," Rosa interjected.

"A justified extrapolation from reasonably reliable data," Herman insisted in a slightly pained voice, putting a reluctant smile on Danielle's face.

"We've been arguing like this for days," Rosa explained. "Herman thinks the Samothea rain falls as hail or ice."

"Only in the temperate zones," he corrected: "in the tropical zone, rain falls as nearly frozen liquid water."

"What about electronics?" Danielle asked. "Would our air-suits work on Samothea?"

"Yes, absolutely," Rosa said with conviction. Now that we know the frequencies of X-rays, we can shield the micro-circuitry. We can even use high-frequency bursters to make radio communications."

"That's useful to know. Rosa, Herman: this is brilliant work. Will you write it up straight away?

There's an original paper in Rosa's discovery alone.

Please also send Hyper Star Japan a copy of your results. If they ever start working on our engine again, they'll need to calculate the fuel cost of the extra shielding.

"I will," Rosa assured her.

"Good," Danielle said. "So, what else have you found? Are all the rabbits albinos on Samothea?"

"No," Herman said. "There aren't any rabbits."

"What do you mean?" Danielle asked.

"There are thousands of biochemical processes that electromagnetic radiation at these frequencies can disrupt," he said, "and one of them is unique to mammals. It's an enzyme necessary for replicating the Y chromosome in mammals during meiosis."

"It's a what?" Danielle asked.

"I know only because I looked it up," Herman admitted, "but it stops mammals, and only mammals, from producing viable male sperm. Most probably, the mammals on Samothea died out generations ago, including people. Lemmings may be an exception," he added for completeness' sake, "because they have three sexes."

Danielle ignored the peculiar fact about lemmings.

"And is this result as speculative as the one about the weather?" she asked.

"It's all preliminary and tentative," Rosa replied, "but we think it's best to consider all the possibilities, but it does seem rather hopeless."

"I will never give up hope of finding Ezra," Danielle assured them. "He will have found a way to survive. However, this is extraordinary work, precisely what I expected from you two.

Keep it up, and let me know everything else you find."

On a warm autumn day in Cambridge, England, Stephen Oakeshott hosted an auction for the right to manufacture and sell Danielle's microwave air suits under license on Earth. The auction produced two surprises.

The first surprise was that the Nakatani Corporation sent a team from Japan to make live bids for the air-suit rights, as they were keen to buy a share in the technology. The second surprise was that Michio Nakatani himself led the bidding team.

Michio was now the Director of Leisure and Entertainment Technology for Nakatani Corporation. He was unaware that his company's Hyper Space Transportation department was in a legal dispute with Hyper Star Japan, a partner of Oakeshott Industries.

After the auction, Stephen was pleased to tell Michio Nakatani in person that his company's bid was rejected, even though it was the highest.

Michio was taken aback by Stephen's lack of business etiquette and his disbelief that his winning offer would fail. This made him curious and resentful.

"Mr. Oakeshott, Sir," Michio said with a bow, "this is an unusual procedure. I must insist on knowing why you have spurned my bid with so little ceremony."

"It's simple, Mr. Nakatani," Stephen said sternly. "Neither Danielle Goldrick nor I will deal with Nakatani Industries until your frivolous lawsuit regarding the Samothea Project engine is dropped."

Michio was now shocked. He bowed, asked Stephen if he wouldn't mind waiting, and went away to conduct an agitated conversation with his advisory team.

Stephen watched him keenly, seeing the young man's arrogance dissolve into embarrassment. Michio took out his communicator and spoke to someone vital because he bowed a few times as he remonstrated on the videophone—growing red-faced, either from shame or anger. A subdued and humble young man returned to speak to Stephen again, apparently intent on making things right.

"Mr. Oakeshott," Michio said, "I am a great admirer of the Samothea Project, and I did not know that Hyper Star Japan and Oakeshott Industries were partners. I have requested more information about the lawsuit, and if it is frivolous, as you say, then I will ensure it is dropped."

He seemed sincere. Stephen had to remind himself that this boy abandoned Yumi, apparently tricking her into going alone to Capella Spaceport so he could marry a different woman. He said:

"I do not doubt that a lucrative business deal is worth an outward show of contrition, Mr. Nakatani, but even if you drop the case, you will not have made amends for what you did to Miss Takahashi."

"Yumi! You know Yumi Takahashi? Do you know what happened to her?"

"Don't you?"


To be continued