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Authors: Ken Pence

Tags: #Science Fiction - Adventure, #Space Opera

Uplift (10 page)

BOOK: Uplift
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“How in the world did you come up with this invention?” a female lieutenant general asked from the back.

Lieutenant General Petras from Louisiana, Corey supplied. She was over Camp Shelby, and is now stationed at Sandia.

“Ah ha. A question from Sandia National Labs… General. It was an accident. It is a spinoff of the way we vaporize the hydrocarbons in the stun pistol, pulse rifle, and rail gun. We use the same power, and twist an electromagnetic field out of phase with this dimension – that is why you saw a shimmer around me. I didn’t know I couldn’t do it because I haven’t had a classical education. It leaves me free to think outside the box because I never learned what the box was. I just studied on the side.”

Corey, I thought. I’m in trouble here. Make sure I have search records showing how I’ve been learning about these field topics, and searching the joint chiefs, and their histories. How did I find out about her being at Sandia?

Done. You found out about her because a social media notice from her sister Helena. You took two online courses: one from University of Washington, and University of Michigan.

“Where did you find out I was posted to Sandia? That is classified,” General Petras said angrily. “Who is feeding you information right now?”

“Sorry General. When I was researching you people I found a woman named Helena complaining on social media that her sister couldn’t come to her wedding in Baton Rouge because her sister, the Army general, had just moved to Sandia National Labs in New Mexico. I did use the sophisticated search words: ‘female general Joint Chiefs’ to find out this classified information,” I saw I hit the nail on the head with that statement. The general had a dark complexion, but you could she her blush. She sat down, but I knew she’d check up on me.

“I have one more thing to demonstrate. Mister Wordley should be downrange now, and set up.” I pointed to the direction, and the audience once more pulled up their binoculars. He is about 1,000 meters from our position. “Tell me if he is waving anything.”

General Clanton spoke up. “He seems to be waving a little American flag, and drinking a beer – another beer. He seems to be on his third, but my view is a little distorted.”

“Do you feel comfortable if some artillery, and mortar rounds are fired to impact a point 1,000 meters from our position?” I asked.

“Of course,” they all said, and looked at each other. “You don’t mean our people will be firing at Mister Wordley do you?”

“Certainly not. They’ll be firing at the old Bradley Fighting Vehicle next to him. He has a beach cabana to keep the sun off, and he can handle quite a few beers.”

“Isn’t he afraid?” General Petras asked.

“He has a huge life insurance policy from my company. He told me his three ex-wives would be ecstatic if he were to be killed,” I said, and all the men chuckled.

Sergeant Major Pinchon began giving out earplugs, and polarized goggles, and indicated to put them on. He then checked to see if Wordley was still waving the flag, saw he was, looked at me, and got the nod. Pinchon took his radio, and said, “Fire at the designated coordinates. Fire for effect. Fire.”

The artillery, and mortar rounds starting whistling by though none came overhead. No one wanted a short round to hit even near the Joint Chiefs. The cacophony, and flashes were spectacular, but nothing touched anywhere near the little beach cabana tarp, or neither the Bradley fighting vehicle nor Mister Wordley. After a bit it became monotonous so I indicated to the sergeant major to cut it off, and he radioed a ceasefire.

“Does anyone see my employee down there. He’ll do anything to get a sick day,” I said.

“He just hoisted a fourth beer it looks like he’s vigorously waving his flag…special meaning?”

“Yes sir. It means he needs to pee, and can he come back up here. Would someone like to drive down, and see the area, and gave an old soldier a ride back up here?”

General Petras indicated that she, and her aide would do the honor, and they jumped into a vehicle, and were off before you could spit.

“I don’t want you to cover anything while everyone isn’t here,” General Peters said, “Would you mind joining us for dinner this evening. I think I have a million questions I’d like to ask you as I’m sure others do.”

“I’d be delighted sir. I wanted to tell you about a few other devices, and ask your opinions. I have five companies besides AcuMint. They represent totally different fields of research…research to support naval operations, and air operations.”

“Sounds like you are going to cost us tons in research money,” General Peters remarked. “Seventy percent of the cost of any project is spent in the concept, and design stages.”

“I intend to let our allies, and adversaries fund my research for that portion,” I said, and Peters guffawed.

“That’s a good one,” he said. “I may quote you on that.”

Our concept, and development costs are much less when we are just modifying existing designs – n’est pas, Corey thought
, and I chuckled.

I saw that Wordley had been corralled by General Petras, and was likely to get branded later in the evening, as he was a known single male not currently in the armed forces with a lessor rank – fair game.

 

 

TEST TEAM

 

The dinner with the Joint Chiefs led to more meetings across the country. The Navy Admirals were very interested in the shield technology. I explained that currently it could be deployed to protect any of their ships from even tactical nuclear blasts, but didn’t know if all their sensor technology would work through it – I told them my costs to produce the devices, and only wanted ten percent above my costs installed. They thought I was kidding because it was so inexpensive. They immediately placed an order from their joint travel funds budget, and ordered installation on every ship from carriers to fast intercept craft. We named that spinoff company BlueWaterDef.

The Commandant of the Marines wanted armor for every Marine as did the Army – who was I to say no. That spinoff company got named BlackArmour, because that’s what the soldier had described it to each other. We did make it in camo colors too. Corey suggested a tweaking of the field that weakened the field a lot, but allowed the user to walk while it was on. A side effect of the weakened field was that the field would last ten hours of continuous use, or days of intermittent use between charges.

 

****

 

Let me describe when Hamilton, and I went to see the Marine Corps commandant wearing our BlackArmour:

“Commandant. A mister Richard Patterson, and Hamilton Withers are here to see you about an issue with the BlackArmour. Do you wish to see them – they don’t have an appointment? I’m not sure how they got this far,” the aide said.

“Jeremy. They never need an appointment. Show them in,” the general said.

We walked in wearing our armor, and carrying a third set that was sized to fit the General.

“Welcome. Problems with your armor?”

“No sir. Thank you for seeing us,” I said as we shook hands. “Simply a change I want your people to have.”

The general sighed. “How much will THIS change cost us? You know we’ve spent hundreds of millions on the armor so far.”

“Yes sir. This is only a software upgrade, but we wanted your blessing before you gave it to your people. It will change how you deploy, how you conduct operations in general. I’m not sure how best to employ its use, but you will see it first,” I said.

“Have at it Lieutenant,” he said, and that was the highest praise I had ever heard from the man because he was acknowledging that I was a soldier, and not just some businessman. Those words meant more to me than a Congressional Medal of Honor.

Hamilton, and I pressed the, button on our suit, and held it for ten seconds – it lessened the strength of the protective field, but bent the light around us so you saw through us from whatever angle you were looking. I changed the light exactly 180 degrees from whatever angle you viewed us at.

The general yelled, “God damn! Jeremy. Get in here!”

The door burst open, and his aide came in with his .45 leveled. “Sir. What is it? Are you in danger? Where did the two men go?”

“Thank you Jeremy. Good job son. At ease – go away son…now!” the general commanded.

“You sure sir?” the aide asked still shook up.

“I’m fine son. Just needed a second opinion to make sure I wasn’t going insane,” the general said. “I want my sergeant major here yesterday. Get him – don’t care what he’s doing…now. Jeremy…now son.”

“Yes sir. Of course sir,” Jeremy said as he scanned the room for the missing visitors, and backed out a severely perplexed man.

“Can you hear me?” the general asked, and we returned to visibility. “How much will THIS feature cost us? We have to have it.”

“General. This is just a software upgrade, and then hold the on switch for ten seconds instead of momentarily. It will work for the Navy ships also if you can get me an appointment with those folks – they resist immediate appointments.”

“The frickin’ fools,” the commandant said. “I’ll get you in to see them. Just tell me where, and when, and I’ll have them crawling to meet you. I’m not vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs for no reason – most of the time its those swabbies…no aspersion to the Navy.”

“Certainly not sir. Here is the jump drive. Copy this, and then just plug it into the USB port on the suits under the left armpit, and wait for a tone, and you’re done. Takes about twenty seconds.”

“One jump drive?” he asked.

“Sir. Here is a box of five hundred. It only works on US suits – ‘fraid that with the foreign suits it does nothing except load software that lets us track their location through GPS – I thought that might be handy when they steal a few of these jump drives.”

“You are a Marine at heart aren’t you,” the general said. “Oorah,” he said as he pulled out a drawer, and pulled out three glasses, and some VERY good Scotch. We toasted the health of the Marines, the Navy, the Army, and even – the Air Force. We got shit faced, and chauffeured back to the airport.

 

                                       
****

 

It galled when an admiral of the Joint Chiefs was forced by the Commandant of the Marines to make an appointment with Richard Patterson. He didn’t like civilians, and Patterson in particular. He did it anyway, and they were onboard the USS Zumwalt.

“What is this big deal that the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has twisted my arm so I’ll see you. You’ve already made hundreds of millions from the Navy. Are you wanting more money?” the Admiral asked.

“No Admiral. I just need a moment of your time,” I said.

“How much will this cost us? You have already made millions from the Navy,” he said.

“Nothing of the sort Admiral. I need you to insert this jump drive into the support post for the field device next to you – hold it until you hear a tone,” I said.

“You got me here to do this…I’m pissed,” the admiral said, “You’ve worn out your welcome with me. This had better be good. What do you want me to do?”

“Insert this jump drive into the USB port on the Zumwalt field support pole. Wait for a tone, and then pull it out,” I said.

“You want ME to do that when any rating could do that?”

“Yes sir. I also want you to keep radio communications with the shore as you do so,” I said.

“You are SO in trouble,” he said.

“Usually,” I said.

He inserted the jump drive, and there was a short tone from the system. “What now?” he said.

“Hold the on, button for ten seconds while talking with your contacts on shore,” I said.

He grumbled, but did so.

“Where’d your ship go?” came the radio reply.

“What do you mean?” asked the admiral.

“Admiral. The Zumwalt just disappeared. It isn’t visible, and doesn’t show up on radar.”

The admiral looked at me.

“It’s just a software upgrade. No cost. The Navy is going to fuck with the heads of the Chinese – oh – and by the way – this upgrade doesn’t work with the field units I sold them. Am I STILL persona non grata with you?” I asked.

“We are going to get so wasted,” he said, and we did. God. The Navy can really do that well, I thought, and Corey agreed. Wow. Glad I had upgrades ‘cause the drinking would kill me.

 

 

 

Now Richard, Corey thought.

Now what? I thought.

Now we move to Stage II
.

…and what would that be, pray tell.

You have enough money, and influence to begin the second phase of the uplift plan.

I don’t even have the armor, and weapons contracts with the military.

Ah, but you do, just now. General Alexander, and Peters just got the appropriations they needed to equip all military with your armor, the new base, vehicle field equipment, and all the rifles.

BOOK: Uplift
12.83Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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