Invaders (a sequel to Vaz, Tiona and Disc) (11 page)

Dragging out his best hangdog expression, Eldon said, “I will. And I want you to know that you have my humblest apologies for the assumptions I made about your company…”

***

Pasadena, California — The Near Earth Object Program at JPL reports that a relatively large object became visible near the sun yesterday. Although it is expected to miss the Earth by a wide margin at present, by very preliminary observations it appears to be following an elliptical orbit which would bring it out beyond the Earth’s orbit, thus qualifying it as a Near Earth Object (NEO) that could be of concern in the future. So far there is no explanation for why this large NEO hasn’t been observed previously. It appears to have sustained a perihelion quite close to the sun, in the range that would be expected to destroy a comet, so it is unlikely that it’s a comet which wasn’t detected on its way in from deep space. The fact that any object survived such a close approach to the sun is difficult to explain, unless it was much larger on approach, but such a hypothesis makes it even more difficult to explain why this particular asteroid or comet was not seen before it approached the sun. JPLs current conjecture is that some heating event drastically altered its trajectory on the other side of the sun which would mean that its incoming path was much different than they have calculated from its current movements. The NEO Program expects to have more information and better explanations after they have been able to follow the NEO’s orbital parameters longer and bring better observational resources to bear.

It was a substantial walk over to the Gettnors’ and Harlan was enjoying strolling along with his wife and daughter. Lisanne had called to invite them over to look at the safety harness, talk about the fly-board and have dinner. Harlan couldn’t help but wonder what Mr. Gettnor would be like. It was hard to believe that they’d been neighbors for so long, that Harlan had farmed their land and mowed their lawn, and that Lisanne and Clarice were fast friends; but that he’d never met Lisanne’s husband. Apparently, Clarice had never met him either. And, Gettnor wasn’t just rich, he must just be rolling in it.
I hope he’s not a pompous asshole,
Harlan thought.

It made Harlan feel a little uncomfortable to think that Reven had met the man, apparently all by herself.

Reven looked up at Harlan and said, “Dad?” When Harlan had nodded, she continued, “I think I should warn you that Mr. Gettnor is… really different.”

Clarice said, “Um, Reven. He’s got a PhD. You should be calling him Dr. Gettnor.”

Embarrassed, Reven put her hand over her mouth, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that.” She turned to her dad, “PhD or not dad, he’s still a seriously weird guy.”

Feeling glad that the thing about the PhD had come up before he’d stuck his own foot in his mouth, Harlan said, “Yeah, your mom told me. He doesn’t really like being around people.” Harlan turned to Clarice, “Do you think I should keep a certain distance away from him?”

Clarice shrugged, “I don’t know, remember, I haven’t met him either. I guess Reven knows him a lot better than either of us,” she said eyeing her daughter. “What do you think?”

Reven said, “I only met him the one time. I don’t think you need to stay a certain distance from him, but he doesn’t have any hair.”

Clarice frowned, “A lot of men lose their hair as they get older…”

Reven interrupted, “I
know
that! But
he
doesn’t have eyebrows… Or any hair on his arms or his hands.” She quirked her lips, “And he never looks you in the eye.” Reven tilted her head, “But still, I think he’s a nice guy… just… different.”

Harlan narrowed his eyes as Lisanne led them out to the Grandy’s old barn.
I’ve got to start thinking of it as the Gettnors’ barn, I guess,
he thought. The barn looked changed somehow, a lot better than it had back when it belonged to old man Grandy. The same, but different. Harlan was trying to figure out if they’d done more than just put a new coat of paint on it, but then Lisanne opened the small side door and Harlan saw that they’d poured a concrete floor! Grandy’s barn had had a dirt floor, which was a reasonable choice with all the animals that had lived in it. Grandy had practiced “compost bedding” by adding bedding material to the floor periodically so that the deeper layers composted to produce heat in the winter.

Of course, there weren’t any animals in the barn now that it belonged to the Gettnors. The interior walls had been finished and he saw air conditioning ducts suspended above. Even though Reven had told him that Gettnor kept the famous first flying saucer in the barn, Harlan still felt a little awed to see it sitting there.

Lisanne called out, “Vaz, the Davises are here.”

Harlan looked around for Lisanne’s husband without seeing him for a moment, but then a completely bald man appeared from behind some equipment. He walked with an odd clumping gait, towing a crash test dummy that had on an oversized sombrero. Since the dummy’s feet weren’t touching the floor, Harlan’s eyes naturally looked up, trying to see what it might be suspended from. The dummy had on something that looked a little like a parachute harness, which at first Harlan thought must be suspending the dummy, but he almost immediately realized the harness didn’t have any upward tension on it. Then he realized that the sombrero on the dummy’s head was one of the thrust discs. Presumably, the hat was holding the dummy up.

Without looking at anyone Gettnor said, “Lisanne said you’d want to see the safety harness in action, so I’ve put one on this dummy.”

Speaking patiently, as if this was something she had to do a lot, Lisanne said, “Vaz, let’s at least introduce everyone first. This is Harlan and Clarice Davis. You’ve already met their daughter Reven.” Lisanne then indicated Vaz to the Davises, “My husband Vaz Gettnor who, as you can see, is quite focused on getting his demonstration going.”

Harlan stepped forward to shake the man’s hand, thinking that his poorly fitting clothes added to his oddness. Eyeing them, Harlan decided that they were just oversized not particularly unusual. Gettnor’s grip was light though his hand felt hard, not soft. Harlan said, “Hi Dr. Gettnor, it’s an honor to finally get to meet you.”

Harlan had the impression that the tiny twitch in Gettnor’s face expressed a little dubiousness over Harlan’s expression that it was an honor. However, at this point Gettnor pulled his eyes up to briefly look at Harlan’s face, though not quite his eyes. He turned his gaze briefly on Clarice, then Reven, then rather mechanically said, “I’m pleased to meet all of you.” His eyes dropped back down and his left hand tugged the dummy a little farther forward. “Are you ready to watch a demonstration of the safety harness?”

Harlan said, “Sure.” The others apparently also nodded because without anything further Gettnor turned and violently shoved the dummy toward a large set of shelves loaded with various tools and equipment.

The dummy flew more rapidly toward the shelves than Harlan would have expected anyone to be able to push a test manikin that should weigh as much as a full grown man. Harlan stepped toward the impending collision, reacting unthinkingly to the possibility that he might be able to catch some of the stuff about to be knocked off the shelves. However, as the dummy neared the shelves it suddenly pivoted, apparently pulled into that orientation by the large disc on the back of its harness. The disc appeared to be tugging hard in the opposite direction. The dummy rapidly slowed, coming to a halt a few inches short of the shelves. Gettnor said, “As you can see, the radar discs on the safety harness recognized the impending collision. They activated the thrust discs on the harness to decelerate the test dummy and prevent the impact.”

Gettnor spoke a few more words in a low tone, evidently to his AI. The dummy began lifting slowly up into the air and moving out into the middle of the barn where the ceiling was quite high. Gettnor spoke again, “Now we’ll test the harness’s ability to prevent injury from a fall.” The test dummy had nearly reached the highest point in the barn when Gettnor quietly said something again. The dummy suddenly fell, much as if someone had cut strings suspending it.

This time, Harlan unconsciously stepped
away
from the impending impact, sure that pieces were going to explode outward from the dummy when it struck the floor. Instead, as it neared the floor, the big disc on its back jerked upwards, this time slowing the dummy’s plunge toward the concrete surface. Once again, the dummy came to a halt about 12 inches up, then gradually settled down onto the floor.

Without looking at anyone, Gettnor said, “Are there any other tests you’d like to perform?”

No one said anything for a moment, Harlan thought they were all as surprised as he’d been. The silence stretched but then Harlan broke it himself, “I’d like to put on the harness and try to crash into something myself.”

Eyes still on the floor, Vaz slowly shook his head. “I’ve tried that myself. If you run at a wall, your own sense of self-preservation slows you down when you’re getting close. The AI in the harness can tell you’re not going to hit hard enough to hurt yourself, so it never activates.”

Harlan felt a little frustrated, but Reven said, “What if we held a sheet up for Dad to run at? He should be able to run full speed right at it, knowing that it won’t hurt if he hits it, but the radar will show a big object that he’s about to run into and the AI should stop him.”

Gettnor smiled, “That would work! Lisanne, can you get a sheet while I help Mr. Davis put on the harness?”

It turned out that “helping him put on the harness” meant giving him advice rather than actually doing it. Harlan had the impression that Gettnor would have been uncomfortable actually touching him. As Harlan was a big man, he had to let out a few straps, but he still managed to be in the harness by the time Lisanne returned with a sheet.

Soon, Lisanne and Clarice were standing and holding up the sheet by the corners. As Harlan contemplated running at it, he asked them to fold it double horizontally. “I’d like to be able to see over the top so I can tell I’m not going to hit something on the other side. I’d also like the bottom to be up off the ground so it won’t tangle my feet.

Gettnor looked at the arrangement with some puzzlement, “You don’t need to worry about it. You won’t reach the sheet unless you go slowly enough the AI doesn’t try to stop you.”

“Yeah,” Harlan said with a little laugh, “but the whole reason we’re doing this is because I can’t convince myself it’s really going to work, right?”

“Okay,” Gettnor said dubiously. It sounded suspiciously like he thought Harlan was a little out of touch with reality.

Harlan lined up the ladies so that there was a clear area behind them in which to stop after he’d gone through the sheet. He stepped back about 25 paces, then charged at the sheet.

Somehow, despite the fact that rationally he knew that this was exactly what
should
happen, he still felt immensely surprised when the harness suddenly bit into him as he neared the sheet. It slowed him from a full tilt run to a near standstill, then eased off allowing him to move forward and slowly walk through the sheet. Behind him, Reven clapped her hands together and excitedly said, “Can I try it?”

Gettnor said, “Why?” but everyone else seemed to think it was a good idea.

Soon Reven had been fitted with the harness and she took her turn charging at the sheet barrier. Once it had stopped her, she said, “That’s so cool!”

“Do you want to try the fly-board now?” Gettnor said, still seeming puzzled by her wish to hurtle at sheets.

“Oh!” Reven said eagerly, “Do you already have a working model?”

Gettnor turned, “Just the basic one we sketched out when you were here before.” He stumped across the room toward a large workbench.

Reven squeaked when she saw beyond him to what lay on the bench. She ran past Gettnor to stare hungrily at the board lying there. Harlan had been expecting something like a wooden board with a couple of the discs stuck on the ends to serve as a proof of concept. Instead they saw exactly what Reven had described Gettnor laying out with his CAD program. A seven inch wide board which looked to be a couple of inches thick. At each end it had circular 10 inch wide areas that presumably contained the bigger discs.

It didn’t look sexy like something a design artist would have created, but it certainly didn’t look like something cobbled together in someone’s garage. It looked like it had been machined out of a block of aluminum. The top of the deck fit seamlessly into the rest of the board with discrete screws hidden in the deck’s traction ridges.

“This is
so
awesome!” Reven breathed. “Is this just a model? Or will this one actually fly?”

Gettnor said, “It’ll fly, it just needs to be linked to your AI. Ask your AI to link to ‘Fly-board 1’ and give it this password.” He called out a long alphanumeric string.

Reven’s eyes widened, “That’s some password!”

Gettnor looked a little offended, “There’s not much point in having a password if it’s easy to figure out…” but Reven was already mumbling to her AI, telling it to use the password Gettnor had just given.

Harlan watched uncomfortably as Reven prepared to actually
use
the fly-board. He’d thought they were coming over to look at the safety equipment and check out the tentative
design
for a fly-board. Finding a finished fly-board, all ready for Reven to get on and try it out had confounded him. He kept trying to think of a reason why she shouldn’t get on it, but Gettnor had proven the safety harness. If she was ever going to get on a fly-board he couldn’t come up with a reason why it shouldn’t be now.