Halon-Seven (26 page)

She laughed and rolled her eyes. “It seems a little funny, explaining your idea
to you.
”

He had to admit it was amusing, but necessary. “Please, keep going. Keep in mind that when I discussed these things with Walter, we were speaking in the abstract. I was never aware of the project. I knew nothing about Meridian. So while you might credit me a solution, you’re being generous. All I ever did was brainstorm on matters I didn’t fully understand.”

She laughed. “Rather than entangle the entire contents of the platform at a sub-atomic level, the platform’s perimeter is wrapped in a laser field. Then photons that compose the field are entangled, and when the right signal is passed to the particles, the quantum bridge is engaged. The contents of the two platforms are instantly swapped!”

“Right!” Cyrus slapped a hand on the table and grinned. He now remembered the full extent of the conversation. “It would be like placing the contents of the platform in a box made of entangled photons. Rather than entangling every single atom on the platform, you just entangle the surface of a three dimensional box. Whatever’s inside the box just goes along for the ride. So you’re saying the power needed to entangle the perimeter field was less than that needed for the entire contents of the platform?”

Her jaw dropped at the thought. “By several orders of magnitude! I don’t recall the exact equation off hand, but the power requirement was a tiny fraction of the original implementation.”

Cyrus absently scratched the rough stubble of his jaw again.
Damn, that is something.
“So a nuclear reactor is no longer required?”

She waggled her hand.
Kind of yes, kind of no.
“That got us part of the way there. But the breakthrough solved a lot of safety concerns. Prior to that modification, the platforms channeled so much energy that there was no way to adequately prevent overload or safeguard against tampering. More simply put, there was just so much juice running through the hardware that any sort of malfunction could cause the device to go critical. The resulting damage could range anywhere from a massive EM discharge, to an explosion that could destroy a city block. No… Until we were able to limit the power requirements using your suggestion, the platform had no chance of leaving the research and development stage.”

She took another sip of wine and pursed her lips in thought for a moment. “We got the first prototype platforms online a couple of years ago, before the implementation of the laser field. As I explained, they had massive power requirements, so the two prototype platforms were drawing power directly from nuclear power stations. One on the East Coast, one on the West.”

“A couple of years ago?” Cyrus was confused. “You didn’t have your first operable prototype until a couple of years ago?” This didn’t match with what he read in the files from the vault.

She shook her head. These facts clearly troubled her as well. “No,” she said. “Prior to what we read tonight, I had no idea prototype platforms were built before the start of Meridian. We—the team, that is—were led to believe we were breaking entirely new ground.”

He nodded. “And now we know this project has been in the works, in one form or another, since the start of the twentieth century.”

“That part still blows my mind! I can’t imagine what sort of work they could’ve been doing with quantum teleportation as far back as the early nineteen hundreds.” She absently rubbed the corner of her eyes at the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. “The technology of that era? It would’ve been like cavemen trying to build a jet airliner!”

Cyrus laughed. He couldn’t argue that point. But according to Professor Meade’s documentation, scientists had been enamored with the prospect of this technology for more than a hundred years. And why not? The technology really would change the world. But what were the motivations of project leaders prior to Professor Meade? Certainly the tech would yield untold strategic value for the military. Even in the private sector, there were hundreds, maybe thousands of uses.

The number of ways to abuse the technology was also nearly limitless. It was becoming clear why Walter Meade considered the technology as disruptive as it was beneficial. While the advantages were great, so were the potential negative consequences. Flooding the market with the new technology could destroy financial markets virtually overnight. There were unavoidable consequences. Big oil concerns would collapse. Shipping companies would fail. There was potential for global economic disruption that would ultimately lead to the failure of banks, which in turn, would take entire markets along with them.

With this in mind, Meade had devised what he referred to as a progressive deployment strategy. He intended to put the technology in the hands of international shipping companies first. This would give those companies a chance to revise their business models and transition away from the ocean-going freighters and airliners used for international transport of goods. At the same time, this initial stage of deployment would allow the public to grow slowly comfortable with the idea of teleportation and the technology behind it. Meade anticipated a certain amount of pushback from the less progressive members of society. There would be those who questioned the safety of the technology, no matter how much testing was conducted or how many safety protocols were involved. By allowing shipping companies first access to the platforms, the technology would gain traction and support, as it was slowly rolled out for wider use.

In turn, the platforms would gradually be expanded into additional markets. They would be made available to governments around the world. This would yield tremendous economic advantages and further support and acceptance of the technology. For that to work, Meade believed it was critical for the technology to be made available to all United Nations members, not just favored nations. This provided everyone equal footing in the global arena and prevented any sort of arms race for technological superiority.

The next, and most important stage called for the deployment of Meridian technology more widely as a means of public transportation. The slow rollout and deployment was to take years. This would garner public acceptance of the technology, but it would also allow auto manufacturers, airlines, shipping companies, and the like to alter, revise, and update their compromised business models. The ultimate goal was the deployment of the Meridian platforms with a minimum of economic and social disruption.

From very early on, Walter Meade understood that Meridian was a veritable Pandora’s Box. It could be a boon to the world or it could cause untold harm. With a proper deployment plan, he believed he could bring the life-changing tool to the world, while minimizing negative consequences.

This was the crux of the problem for Cyrus. Corporations, militaries, nations—many, if not all, would be willing to kill everyone on the team if it allowed them solitary access to the technology. The first to possess it would have a decisive advantage over any and all competition. This meant the list of suspects interested in Meridian was virtually endless. Literally anyone could have been behind Meade’s death.

Reese continued her line of thought without realizing the rabbit hole into which Cyrus’s thinking had descended. “After our first successful test, one amazing unforeseen consequence became shockingly apparent—”

She had Cyrus’s full attention once again.

“Once the transport was complete, the platform discharged a staggering amount of power!”

“How staggering?”

Her eyes were absolutely glowing as she considered how best to phrase her reply. “The power discharged was 1 to 2 orders of magnitude greater than the power needed to initiate the transport.”

Cyrus was at a loss for words. All he could do was stare. It was the holy grail of modern science to develop a process of generating power, one that released more energy than was required to initiate the generating reaction. She was saying that such an energy release was a byproduct of the teleportation process? The implications of this were almost as earth-shattering as the teleportation technology itself. But by 1–2 orders of magnitude? That meant the power generated by the teleportation was 10–100 times greater than the power required to initiate transport.

He opened his mouth to speak but found no words. 10–100 times? He tried again but once again failed. This was truly unexpected.

“Okay,” he said, finally finding his voice. “What about negative side effects from the teleportation or the excess energy? Radiation? Volatility?”

Slowly, she shook her head. An enormous smile spreading across her face. “No radiation. Nothing unusual. It’s completely safe, so long as the excess energy is channeled into a capacitor of some kind, or grounded out. As I said, it was a completely unexpected result. Luckily, Walter was excessive when it came to grounding the test platforms. Following the first successful test, the excess energy was simply bled off into the earth.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes theatrically. “I make it sound like the first transport was a resounding success. That wasn’t exactly the case. The teleport completed without issue but the resulting power dump blew every fuse and relay in both platforms. It blacked out the grid for twenty square miles around the receiving device, too. But the results were worth the headache—the monitoring equipment failed, but the readings we got before that point were off the charts!”

“What’d you do to prevent the issue on subsequent tests?” Cyrus had a good idea when he asked the question, but he wanted to be sure.

“We worked on lots of ways to buffer the power. But they all fell short. There was just too much power coming out of the platform after transport. In the end, Walter came up with a better idea. He suggested we pipe the excess power back into the power grid. The amount of energy generated by a single transport was significant.

“We did some models and an exhaustive analysis. Once we have an array of platforms in regular use throughout the country, we’ll be able to do away with our reliance on nuclear power entirely. Actually, we’ll have a surplus of energy like we never imagined.”

Cyrus didn’t waste cycles contemplating further benefits from the new technology. The threats to the team were substantial. Everyone and their brother would kill for the cutting edge science whether it was ready for production or not. Secrecy was their only defense, and that secrecy was already compromised. There was one saving grace. Whoever knew about the project would want exclusive access to the technology. That meant the threat was contained. If he could eliminate the threat, the secret and the team would be safe again. But for how long?

“So every time we use a platform, a massive amount of power is fed back into the local power grid?” Cyrus wanted to make sure he understood the technology correctly.

“No,” she said simply. “It will be when the system goes online publicly. Walter decided not to feed the excess juice into the grid while we’re still in the testing stage. He was worried that someone might be able to locate the platforms by doing an assay of the nation’s power grid. He thought it would be only a matter of time before it caught someone’s attention. We’re talking about a lot of power…even with our limited number of platforms.”

This was Cyrus’s concern when Reese first mentioned pushing power back into the grid. It threatened their anonymity. He wasn’t entirely surprised that Meade had considered the issue before him.

“What about the need for a nuclear reactor? Did the laser field reduce the power requirements enough to power the device from a conventional source?”

She shook her head. “No, unfortunately. But Walter came up with a workaround. There is a component in each platform that functions as a buffer and a battery, essentially a capacitor. When the power is released immediately following a transport, it flows into the capacitor. It essentially acts as a battery, retaining a charge long enough to initiate subsequent transports without a need for a nuclear power source. And since it’s the receiving platform that has the power spike, each platform simply needs one initiating transport from a platform that is attached to a nuclear reactor, or has a stored charge of its own. After that, the network becomes self sustaining.

“But no power will be pushed back into the grid until we’re ready to take the system public.”

Cyrus considered all of this. It was remarkable. It was truly the stuff of science fiction made real. They were on the cusp of a very interesting time in human history. He couldn’t help but wonder how history might remember Professor Meade and his team. He wondered what part of history had yet to be written. Meade was already dead. Could he keep the rest of the team safe and protect Meridian until it could be released to the world?

Berton Springs, Colorado

Thursday, 7:35 am

Cyrus was sitting at the kitchen counter when Reese wandered in for her first coffee of the morning. She had on a gray tank top and a pair of gray sweat shorts. Both accentuated her trim figure. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail. He wondered how she could look so attractive having rolled straight out of bed.

When she noticed him looking, Reese smiled warmly. Was thinking about the kiss they shared just before heading to their rooms the night before. He hoped she was. The thought had crossed his mind more than once in the hour he’d been up and at work on his laptop.

“Good morning,” Reese said quietly and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I thought you might be in bed. Yesterday was a long day. Been up long?”

“Not long,” he said with a shake of his head. He nodded to his MacBook Pro. “I wanted to ask you about this. I took a look at the server cabinet downstairs. There’s a router and a modem but the modem isn’t uplinked to anything. I logged on to the Wi-Fi to see what would happen, and I’m actually getting access to the Web. Not only that, but it’s fast. Really fast!”

She had rounded the counter and was pouring herself a cup of coffee. Her smile brightened. “That’s something, isn’t it! It’s the same technology we use to connect the computers embedded in the platforms. We call it QDL—short for Quantum Data Link.”