The Orthogonal Galaxy (34 page)

On the night before the
design review, Maril slept tolerably well, all things considered.
But on his commute down Interstate 210, Maril’s thoughts were
focused only on the details of the design review. Did Physon get
the remainder of data from the particle tunnel? Had he remembered
to ask Kelcey to print the handouts for the presentation? Did the
final simulations finish up overnight? His cell phone rang several
times on the way into the office with all sorts of issues he’d have
to solve as quickly as possible.

Problem number one
occurred at 6:03. “Maril, the simulations are still a couple of
hours away.”

“
Ok, then let’s adjust the
agenda accordingly.”

At 6:12, the following
detail was announced. “The techs are telling me we may have a
problem running the demo in the wind tunnel.”

“
Well, those things
happen. Just set up a flat panel display in the auditorium, in case
we need to do a computer demo instead.”

Perhaps most importantly
was the call that he answered at 6:27. “Don’t forget your tux at
the cleaner’s. The party is tomorrow night. You know I’ve been
looking forward to this all summer.”

“
No problem, honey. It’s
just around the corner from the office, so I’ll have Kelcey pick it
up before her lunch break.”

Finishing up another call
as he entered into his office at 6:45, he thought to himself, “You
know, maybe I should just get one of those ear-implants.” His phone
even had one of those new terabyte holographic drives where all of
his favorite music and talk show broadcasts were stored.

Pocketing his cell phone,
Kelcey handed him five other urgent messages that had come in that
morning, briefed him on the agenda and catering for the design
review, and presented him with a stack of handouts of the
presentation. “I really need to give this girl a raise,” Maril
reminded himself for the umpteenth time as he sat down at his desk
and made the final preparations for the review.

…

The auditorium was packed
like never before. While Maril had met nearly all of the scientists
present, he’d never seen so many of them at one time. He was
surprised to see experts from nearly every other NASA site in the
country. Johnson, Kennedy, Ames, Langley, Dryden, and Goddard were
all represented. From Washington, there were policy makers and
worse yet—finance committee members. He was not told that the
finance committee would be represented, but he also didn’t know
that it was simply coincident with their visit to his father,
Ballard Scoville, just the day before.

He was pleased to see that
most of the 200-member team on site had come to aid or simply
provide moral support to Maril’s team throughout the day.
Electrical, mechanical, chemical, computer and aerospace engineers
were all represented in an effort to convey to the bigwigs that the
project was well staffed.

At precisely 8:00 AM,
while most were still enjoying the fruits, muffins, juices and
coffee that was constantly replenished on the counter in the back
of the auditorium, Maril began his introduction.

“
Ladies and gentlemen,
thank you for your attendance here today. I recognize the distance
that many of you have traveled for this important review, and I am
confident that you will leave here at the end of the day with all
of the data that you will need to confirm that this project is
making great progress and that all of your questions will be
answered satisfactorily.”

Maril took just a few
minutes to bring his team onto the stage, introduce each member by
name, and list the various credentials which they bring to the
team. Pausing to allow the team to return to their seats in the
front row, Maril then used his remote control to lower the lights,
draw the curtains from the back of the stage, and bring the
projector to life.

“
As you are all aware,
Star Transport is slated for an intra-stellar flight mission in the
third quarter of next year. It is intended to journey towards the
outer reaches of the solar system and will then race back to the
center of our solar system, passing within just one tenth of an
astronomical unit—or eight million miles—of the surface of the sun.
The Star Shield that my team is working on will be thoroughly
tested in three phases of this flight.

“
The first test comprises
the asteroid belt, lying between Mars and Jupiter. We know much
about the asteroid belt, and the materials of which it is
comprised. We believe that this will be an easy maneuver for the
shield to handle, because of the low distribution of asteroids. Our
computer scientists have developed a set of algorithms that can
quickly process magnetic field data in order to detect the presence
of an asteroid and steer clear of it. We believe that with these
algorithms, Star Transport will be able to navigate through the
asteroid belt at Warp 0.68. That’s nearly 204 million meters per
second.

“
The second phase—the
Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud—proves to be much trickier. While we
have discovered much recently about the Oort Cloud, we still can
only theorize about its density at its outer boundary. As such,
we’re not convinced about the speed at which we’ll be able to
approach solar systems with similar clouds. However, this is
typically a trivial matter, because it is commonly agreed that the
amount of time traversing through such clouds is minimal compared
to the time required to travel between star systems. At this point,
the conjecture is that the inner portion of the cloud—believed to
be denser—will only be maneuverable to Warp 0.25, whereas the outer
portion of the cloud should allow the vehicle to reach speeds of
Warp 0.45. Calculations show that such speeds would allow us to
traverse the cloud in about two to three months. Of course, we will
continue to explore these assumptions as astronomers around the
world continue to map out the cloud. Obviously, we’d like to do
better than to keep our fine astronauts tied up in our own solar
system for so long. We’d be much happier getting them through the
cloud in just a few weeks at most.”

“
Now, while the first two
phases are involved in large body avoidance, the final test phase
will prove out fine particle and heat tolerance. By traveling close
to the sun, the Shield will be prone to vast quantities of high
speed gases and dust emanating from the sun. It will also test its
ability to withstand the higher temperatures within this region. To
make the test even more problematic, Star Transport is expected to
approach the sun at a speed of Warp 0.75. The speed of the craft,
coupled with the speed of the solar particles will accurately
simulate the effects on the Shield of particles approaching speeds
that, for all intents and purposes, would be the same as traveling
at the speed of light.”

At this last comment,
several of the visitors inched forward on their seats in
suspenseful recognition of the meaning of Maril’s words. If such a
test could prove successful, then the more perplexing problems of
Warp Speed travel would be solved. Both large object avoidance and
small particle tolerance could be checked off of the list for
interstellar travel. For some, the realization that such a test was
literally just around the corner gave them chills.

…

While a litany of design
reviews were held throughout the day, none were more important or
more impressive than the one demonstrated in the the particle
tunnel. There analysts could see the impact of small high-speed
particles on the shield. Maril was on hand personally, as he felt
that this was the most critical aspect of his part of the project:
to make sure that the vehicle and astronauts were adequately
protected from unavoidable high-speed impacts.

“
Gentlemen,” began Maril
confidently. “I’d like to walk you down a timeline of our efforts
on the Star Shield project here today. First, if I can direct your
attention to the video monitors, we’ll demonstrate our early
materials experiments, where we studied the effects of
high-particle impact on a flat, square piece of material three
millimeters thick.”

Maril then demonstrated a
parade of materials, where he placed no fewer than twenty different
three-millimeter thick sheets into the particle tunnel and revealed
the effect. He showed the frustrations that were encountered when
they marched through sheet after sheet that didn’t make the grade.
One was too susceptible to penetration. Another was simply too
heavy to measure up to the vehicle specifications. Other materials
were too brittle, not malleable enough, more susceptible to
radiation, or had lower melting points.

“
Now, if I can draw your
attention one last time to the video monitors,” announced Maril.
Everyone turned their heads away from the speaker and back to the
video display. Maril was able to convey that a particular metal
hybrid composite was able to deflect all particles up to five
millimeters in diameter at speeds of Warp 0.3—the maximum speed the
technology allowed at the time, even though the sheet itself was
only three millimeters thick.

“
Gentlemen, I think the
results speak for themselves. In this ultra-lightweight composite
material, we have a very durable material to use as the outer skin
of our Shield.”

“
Mr. Scoville,” called out
a reviewer formally, “this experiment only convinces me that we
will be safe at Warp 0.3. How can we be sure that this material
will work up to Warp 1.0?”

“
Excellent question.”
Maril was prepared for this. “What you are seeing is the effect on
a flat sheet, where particles are allowed to strike the surface at
precisely ninety degrees. As reviewers are gathering in the wind
tunnel presently, my team is demonstrating to them the novel
aerodynamic shape of the shield, which will guarantee that no
particle strike any part of the shield at an angle greater than
sixty degrees. Our calculations prove that this would equate to a
particle tunnel speed-up factor of 2.5.” “But that’s still not good
enough, Mr. Scoville,” scowled the critic. “If we only need the
vehicle to travel at Warp 0.75 that would be fine. But the
specification is clear. Warp 1.0”

“
Yes, indeed,” Maril did
his best not to get irritated by the pessimism of his visitor.
Besides, these were the types of questions that needed to be asked
in order to find any holes in critical assumptions which could
jeopardize the project or the mission. “Keep in mind that this is
just the skin. We also have shield impact response sensing software
that will ensure that we prevent damage to the shield or vehicle
under high-impact events. For more than 99.99% of the time, the
vehicle will be able to travel at Warp 1.0. However, when traveling
through high-dust regions, such as the Kuiper Belt or Oort Clouds,
the drive will be reduced sufficiently in these less frequent
scenarios.”

Maril had already put the
arguments of the reviewer to rest, but added one more detail to
ensure that any doubts be eliminated in full. “For those nastier
space objects that are in the gray area—for example, anything that
may be larger than a pea, and smaller than a beach ball—these
cannot be detected with the avoidance software, these will be
pulverized by the electronic disintegration mechanism layer which
is placed just underneath the skin. These electronic pulses will
radiate through the skin and break up these types of objects before
they reach the skin. Our simulations show that at Warp 1.0, such
disintegration will sufficiently break down these objects before
they reach a distance of ten centimeters from the
shield.”

Question after question,
Maril did all that he could to convince the reviewers that this
most critical piece of the puzzle was ready for prime time. Now, he
just needed to convince his subconscience in order to avoid all of
those annoying nightmares he was having.

…

Ya Ming was a young
aerospace engineer taking on her first responsibility as a team
lead. Maril Scoville was impressed with the CalTech graduate turned
JPL employee when he met her eight years earlier. He had been
impressed enough with her work that he invited her on the Star
Shield team as a team contributor. When the shield design lead left
his post with NASA for a corporate engineering position, Maril felt
that Ming was a perfect fit for the job. Had he seen her efforts
during the wind tunnel portion of the design review, he would’ve
been confirmed in his promotion of her.

“
NASA fellows,” she began,
“I thank you for your presence here in the wind tunnel today. As I
make my presentation to you, please feel free to interrupt to ask
any questions that you may have.”

Ming appeared confident
enough in front of the panel of reviewers, but inside she was quite
nervous about her first major design review presentation. She
didn’t know if she was more nervous about the presence of all of
the senior visiting authorities, or whether it was the fact that
the director of JPL, Dr. Rawson Cornell, was there as well. Maril
thought that it would be useful for Cornell to attend, in case Ming
needed any help or support during the review.

Ming continued, “Before we
fire up the demonstration in the wind tunnel, I would like to begin
with a brief presentation.” Ming gestured to a projector screen,
where her computer presentation was already queued up.

“
On this first slide,” she
noted, “you’ll see the cone-like shape of the Star Shield. We have
taken measures to minimize the angle of approach of particles
impinging on the shield. The design is such that 90% of particles
will approach the shield at an angle less than 23.5%. Computer
models show that most particles of reasonable size will glance off
of the shield without harm at this sharp angle.”