ASSOCIATION / CH. 16: KEPT SECRETS
7.30A.M. MONDAY 15TH JAN.
Zach put on his wrist unit, and saw he had a message from Zara, sent at two A.M. “Dear Zach “, he read, “'Needless secrets are silly' you said. I did know Sarah was rich. That was the guilty secret. Please tell her, I don't have her number. Hopefully I'll feel less guilty now about letting your unwitting lie pass, and can sleep. But I just don't know... did we start going out because of that? Hope it's not true. I love you.”
Zach felt like he'd had a blow to the stomach. Zara might have started going out with him just because of Sarah's wealth? No wonder she'd seemed a bit
preoccupied on the way to her house. He'd put it down to the nerves about what her parents would think. But, maybe it had been that, after all, she said she did love him. His mind went round in circles for a while, not knowing what to think. Then he called Sarah.
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7.45AM MONDAY 15TH JAN.
[Hello, Zara. Sarah here.]
[I'm sorry. I've probably hurt Zach and broken everything, haven't I?]
[Well, it might have been better to say it yesterday.] Sarah agreed.
[I was too scared. But I should have. I'm sorry.]
[Did you get enough sleep? Zach told me you sent the message to him at 2 A.M.]
[Not really. I couldn't sleep because of feeling guilty before sending it, and then bitterly regretted sending it as soon as I had, worrying about what Zach might think. I do love him.]
[How much time have you got before school?]
[Urm, I'm not finished getting ready yet, and I need to leave in about ten minutes. Why?]
[Zach asked me to tell you; he said he was over the moon last night, but he feels like your message made him crash to the ground.]
[{regretpainsadness} I've hurt him. I didn't want to.]
[He'd really like you to talk to a truthsayer, to get this sorted out. He's pretty worried about what this means about your future together.]
[Me too. But I don't know the truth! How can talking to a truthsayer help?]
[It depends how deeply you give me permission to look.]
[Oh! You'd do it? As deep as you can. I want to know and I want Zach to know.] Zara affirmed.
Sarah took that as a good sign. [From this distance, that's not very deep... how about I do what I can now, and then we meet up later?]
[Lunchtime? Or after school? That'd be excellent! And tell Zach whatever you find, I don't want him worrying needlessly.]
[Nor do I. So if what I find is reassuring I'll tell him that. If it's inconclusive then I'll let him know we're meeting at lunchtime. But no way am I'm going to give him a verbatim script of everything I find.]
[Oh, OK.]
[So, please think about why you want to still be going out with Zach next week.]
Sarah focussed on Zara's heart. Zara was surprised at the question, but of course she wanted to go out with him next week and the one after that ad-infinitum. She loved him, and wanted his arms around her. Especially now, when they were both feeling so bruised. Sarah also saw Zara couldn't imagine ever finding anyone she'd rather marry, and have to hug any time she wanted. Sarah also saw that Zara didn't want Sarah's money, since that wouldn't give her four or five babies.
[Zara, just so you know, I am not telling him how many babies you want.] Sarah thought to her [You might change your mind later.]
[{guilt} my mind wandered, didn't it? Sorry.]
[Your fantasies are getting ahead of themselves, certainly.] Sarah agreed.
[You'll tell Zach?]
[Some of what I saw. We'll look at your past at lunchtime. Where shall we meet?]
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[Zach? Are you walking or on your bike?]
[Hi, Sarah. Walking.]
[Then get out of the road, you numbskull. Zara will be devastated if you get run over.]
Zach's heart leapt at mention of Zara [The pavement was dug up...]
[Where you are now?]
[No.]
[Are you safe yet?]
[Yes, Sarah.]
[Good. Right, Zara and I are meeting for lunch at a café near her school. She said you discovered Brie and grape sandwiches there, so you should remember it.]
[I do.]
[Now, unsurprisingly, she's feeling like she needs a hug, and that's your assigned role, she also got even less sleep than you think. I'll find out more about what she was thinking when you started going out at lunch-time, but I'll tell you that when she thinks of the future she's not thinking about my money, she's thinking about marrying you and having you available to give hugs anytime she wants. My money would get her neither of those, so it's irrelevant. Just how she's going to manage twenty-four hour hug-access I've no idea, unless you both end up working at home, but never mind. Oh, she also has some other rather definite plans for your future together, but I'll leave them unspecified.]
[Not babies again? She said she really doesn't want to have just one or two, and hopes I won't mind... I get the jitters even thinking about whether I'm ready to answer that question.]
[Maybe she'll change her mind. But anyway, no matter how messy her thoughts were when you started your relationship, now I'd say she's thinking roughly normal teenage girl thoughts about you as her serious boyfriend.]
[And will you allow me to give her the hug that you've told me she wants?]
Sarah knew what her aunt would have said to that: [What, in the middle of a restaurant? Where's your sense of appropriate behaviour, young man? Are you planning to bring scandal and public censure on the girl you claim to love?]
[Urm, not really.]
[Good. I suggest you wait until you're walking her back to her school. Oh, by the way, I fully expect to be finished with her by the time you get there. So don't expect to eat at the café. We'll all just have a hot chocolate or something.]
[Oh. OK.]
[That ought to give you plenty of time to squash any rumours that she doesn't really have a boyfriend.]
[You think there might be?]
[Zach, I'd say that Zara needs reassuring that you forgive her for dropping that bombshell on you. I imagine that if there are any such rumours, then they'll hurt her more today than ever. Therefore, walking hand in hand to the gate of her school and a lingering farewell does not seem inappropriate to me, although of course her school regulations might not agree, I don't know.]
[You don't think it'll make her an object of public disgrace and censure?]
[Not unless you act inappropriately, or someone's really jealous.]
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12:30 PM MONDAY 15TH JAN.
“A hot chocolate, please.” Sarah ordered.
“Same here, please.” Zara added.
“Will you be paying separately, or jointly?” the waiter asked.
“I'll pay for both.” Sarah said firmly.
“You don't need to.” Zara protested as the waiter left.
“Actually, I think I do. Save your money for important things.”
“You don't consider hot chocolate important?” Zara asked, straight-faced.
“Very, in some circumstances.” [Can we start? I promised Zach I'd be finished before he gets here.]
[Oh. OK. Will it take long?]
[Not as long as the hot chocolate.]
[They're pretty fast.]
[Exactly.] Sarah said with a grin.
[Oh.]
[So, Zara, what made you decide to start going out with Zach?]
[I'm not really sure.]
Sarah focussed on Zara, found Zara's original memories and took a mental snapshot of what was in Zara's thoughts.
[No wonder.] Sarah thought, and warmed her hands on her cocoa, which had just arrived.
Zach had been a friend, a trusted friend, and the only boy she really felt was in that category. He'd been a sounding board to her on so many issues since they'd discovered they were both Christians. She hadn't wanted to loose that friendship, and from what she'd seen and heard, friendship didn't always survive breaking up. Also, he had that link to rich Sarah, who might be an important contact sometime. Zara hadn't wanted to risk that either. But, she did like Zach as a friend, and didn't the 'best friend who's a boy' at least suggest he was a good candidate for boyfriend? He was a Christian, he was nice, he was asking, and she couldn't actually imagine saying no, despite her misgivings. The context he'd asked it made her not sure how seriously he took going out: she'd been expressing her frustration at the way people called her the ice maiden just because she'd never been out with anyone. People at school were so shallow, sometimes, as though not accepting every offer made her incapable of feelings. It was rubbish, she knew; she'd felt attracted to some boys before, but they hadn't been Christians, so she'd fought to hide and ignore her feelings. Their thoughts were pretty horrible too, which helped. And most of the boys at her Church youth group were younger than her, and none had the power. Did any of that make her ice? Of course not, but it was frustrating. So, was Zach thinking 'let's just break one another's hearts for fun and the learning experience', or was he serious? She thought he was serious, but it was a risk. Did she want to take it? Zara had prayed about it, long and hard, and her reluctance to say no had grown into a desire to say yes.
Sarah looked at Zara's worried face. “Lovely friends you've got at your school. How did they get the idea you were icy?”
“Oh, someone said I was giving him the cold shoulder, and I guess with my eyes...”
“They decided it fitted?”
“I guess so. I didn't.”
“Did it work? I mean, you starting to go out with Zach?”
“No.” Zara laughed. “It couldn't: I didn't tell anyone.”
“Oh dear.”
“What?”
“I thought you would have, so this morning I suggested that he walk you to your school gates for a lingering goodbye.”
“That would... urm... wow.” Zara's mind worked quickly. “You think so?”
“Your parents know, and approve. His parents, ditto. It's not like you're going to do anything stupid, I assume. So, a little bit of hand-holding in public and you can say goodbye to that particular insult. Especially if you say something like, 'Oh, that's Zach, we've been falling in love for the past six months, that's one reason I didn't accept so and so, along with the fact he has bad breath', or something like that."
“But we haven't... have we?”
“You've known other boys for a longer time, but Zach became your best male friend, pretty quickly, didn't he?”
“Of course. I mean... we get on well, he's not that much younger than me, and...”
“And you think along the same lines on a number of different things.” Sarah stated for her. “So, you could say that, or you could say that you've known him a long time and he asked you out a couple of months ago.” [and as for using him as a contact to me, it was part of the reason you didn't want to say yes to him at first. So, I pronounce your love for him unsullied by finance from start to finish.] “Now, let me put you straight on something, Zara, so your thinking doesn't get confused about Zach. It's a well known fact that basing business deals on friendship is bad news: something suffers, either the business or the friendship. So, you've heard of Colin; I'll only invest on his recommendation, and not even on all of those. He deals with quite a lot of queries every month, and I only look at the ones he's approved or isn't sure about. If I tell him that I know the person he's going to be less likely to suggest something that's a bit risky, so that the friendship doesn't come under strain. So, in summary, knowing me personally is probably a disadvantage in terms of getting money for a risky business venture.”
“Oh. So my Dad's attitude...”
“Might work for a certain level of investor, who doesn't invest very often, not for me. Colin and his predecessor have invested in something like twenty to thirty companies a year on my behalf — there's a special pot of money that's been built up over the years for that sort of thing. Of course, if you're not asking for a business deal but advice, then knowing me might help. I expect I can find people to give you advice on most topics.”
“What about an emergency bail-out loan?” Zara asked, thinking of her Dad's problems.
Sarah pulled a face. “Most of those are bad news, caused by a total failure of management or planning somewhere. In the long term it's often better to shut up shop or sell up and walk away without pouring any more money into something that's not working. But... not always, it depends on the root cause. Take advice early enough to avoid that if you can.”
“Oh, I plan to.”
“Good.” Sarah checked where Zach was and thought [Speaking of advice, I suggest you briefly step out of the café about now. I'll guard your cup.]
[Zach?]
Sarah just smiled.
Zara didn't wait to put her coat on, but she didn't run either. That would might have caused a stir. Walking out of the door, she saw him, about a hundred metres away. It was mainly a residential street, with small gardens at the front of all the houses. Most had waist high hedges, or low walls, maybe a tree or two. Anyone looking out of their window would have seen a girl in her late teens, wearing nothing warmer than a school cardigan, look down the road, see someone, wave, start walking towards them and then run to meet them, with her dark hair streaming out behind her. She almost knocked him over with her embrace. “Sorry, for hurting you, Zach. I didn't want to, but I couldn't let the lie go. I love you.”
Her greeting had made that fairly clear, he said. “I love you too, Zara.” and it felt entirely natural to punctuate that with a kiss on her cheek.
“Come along in, it's cold.” She said, needlessly.
“So where's your coat?”
“Inside.” she admitted.
Not foolish enough to try to give her his coat entirely, he did undo the front and wrap her in one wing of it. It made a good excuse to hold her tight. She, in turn put her arm behind his back, with her hand on his shoulder. Her thumb touched his neck.
[Did Sarah tell you?] She asked silently.
[No. What did she see?]
[I did think of Sarah's money, but it was a reason to not go out with you, in case we ended up splitting up. So she pronounced my feelings for you totally unrelated to money. And then she clarified that knowing her won't help with that, anyway.]
[No?]
[Business is one thing, friends are another. She told me she won't lend without her lawyer's recommendation, and he invests in twenty or thirty companies a year for her — I didn't realise she was such a major investor.]
[That does sound a lot.]
[There's apparently a special pot set aside for that sort of thing. But if each one of those deals is about a million, and lasts something like five years, that's... that's a truly massive amount she's got wrapped up in venture capital.]
[You don't think they might be smaller amounts?]
[Maybe. I don't know. Somehow, I doubt any will be less than quarter of a million.]
As they reached the café's window, instinctively Zara dropped her arm.
“I saw that.” Sarah said to her when they sat down. “It looked like you felt guilty.”
Zara blushed. “Sorry.”
“So does that.” Sarah pointed out. “Zara, you are allowed to have your arm around him, as long as you don't trespass. Taking your own coat might have been a better idea though.”
“I didn't think.” Zara admitted.
“Hmm. I rather think that you were only thinking of getting your hug.”
“Thank you.” Zara acknowledged Sarah's engineering of that.
“Hot chocolate, Zach?” Sarah offered, as the waiter arrived. [I presume Zara's told you she's not been after you because of me?]
“Yes please.” [Yes. And that you invest in twenty to thirty companies a year, and she guesses that each deal is worth at least quarter of a million, probably more like one, and lasts five years, and the maths shocked us both.]
“I was always taught not to flaunt money. Sorry, Zara, for breaking that rule.”
“Thank you for trusting me with that information. It probably helps.”
“Really?”
“It helps me understand why you need to be careful.”
“My bank account has the potential to ruin a lot of friendships, if that's what you're thinking.”
“And as long as everyone knows that friends don't get special treatment...”
“Then the friendships can take care of themselves.”
“How does that apply to Martha?” Zach asked, “I mean, I presume you're going to support her?”
“I am, yes. Martha's one of the cousins, Zara, planning to be a long term missionary, once she's married her fiancé.” Sarah said, debating how much to say. “She didn't actually ask for financial support, but while I can't pray for everyone I support, I can certainly support everyone I pray for, and I agree with her that they need prayer support.”
“I presume you're not planning to meet all their needs yourself, though?” Zara asked.
“No! It's well known that for many people, there's a link between giving and feeling properly involved and so praying regularly. I don't want to deny their other supporters that, and I don't want to make Simon and Martha so dependant on me that they don't take raising supporters seriously. So, I've promised a set amount every month, I'm also supporting some of the mission's office expenses, and I've given written notice about what sort of events might make me change the numbers.”
“Can I ask? What sort of events?” Zara asked.
“Emergency, beyond their control sort of things.” Sarah said, “Like a church going through some kind of crisis which means they drop their support. Or if they just can't manage to get firm promises for the last few percent of their support quota and waiting for it would make them miss the start of term. In other words, I'm supporting, but I'm entirely opposed to the idea of them relying on me instead of God.”
“Oh, that sounds fair enough.” Zara said.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
“Next question.” Zach asked, somewhat hesitantly.
“Yes?”
“What do you think we should be doing with our lives?”
“Right now, I think you should be walking Zara to school, or you'll make her late. Longer term? Trust in the Lord, serve him whole-heartedly wherever you are and obey him if he calls you somewhere else. Also, think and pray about where your gifts, skills and abilities might be useful in His kingdom. That's always a good starting point.”
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[How did it go?] John asked, as Sarah started back to the Institute.
[I think it went very well indeed. No cause for concern at all, really. I'm not sure what's behind it, but they were more than normally curious about my support for Martha. Zach raised the issue, Zara asked a couple of smart questions, and then Zach asked for my thoughts about what they should be doing with their lives.]
[You think they're wondering about mission?]
[I've no idea, really. It certainly hasn't come up yet. I just found it noticeable.]
[So what did you tell them?]
[Think about where they could be useful, serve God where they are, and obey him if he calls.]
[Good general advice.]
[Zara's intent on becoming an architect as far as I can see. I can't really imagine a missionary role as an architect.]
[Or truthsayers.]
[No. Unless they use either or both skills as a tent-makers.]
[You're certain they've got a future together, then?] John asked.
[I can't really see why not, for all that it's early days.]
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SECRET GOVERNMENT BUNKER, A ROGUE STATE.
“Sir, my people have gone over the calculations many times. If the foolish imperialists do not alter their published plans, and our experts tell us they cannot, we have a perfect opportunity.”
“Tell me more.” the great leader demanded.
“There will be a long chemical burn from the comet interceptor, from orbit. The interceptor's plans are widely discussed, and the fuel matches that of the hydra missile, there will be no spectral difference. The foolish ones keep their launch detection satellites in strict pattern, they haven't deviated from them in years, our trackers have confirmed this. Their sensitive cameras that look for our launches will be pointed straight at the chemical burn from the interceptor. They will be blinded by the rocket. Not only that, but if we position the launcher correctly, then the entire duration of the hydra's launch phase will occur with the interceptor's burn directly between the hydra and the detection satellite. It will be like trying to see a candle on the other side of a bonfire.”
“But there are other satellites, surely?”
“Yes, great leader. They boast of their overlapping views, but it is not a hundred percent, only in the high nineties. The affected satellite will be directly above us, having such a clear view, normally, that they didn't consider it worth the extra expense. The others will be far from us, almost behind the earth, and we will outside of their field of view. To see the hydra's launch they would need to be turned away from their primary targets, which of course they will not do. And even if they did, at that distance and angle... we could claim we saw our neighbour launch, or that it is merely an optical effect, the reflection of the interceptor's rocket. There would be enough delay for doubt and for a successful decapitation strike on the worst of the capitalist imperialistic warmongers.”
“And the capitalist imperialists of the United Nations” the leader said the phrase with scorn, “will be shown to be as united as a flock of headless chickens.”
“And our agent-scientists who work undercover in other nations could plant warnings the day before, that they have seen parts of the rock ejected, and coming this way. There will be much confusion. There would not be enough evidence for retaliatory strikes.”
“Yes, yes, it is a good plan. Such a great opportunity! The hydra is ready, then?”
“I am promised that it will be ready for a test flight. It is a complex machine. The individual components have been tested, but even the imperialists know that a true firing is necessary for any complex weapons system. But with such a golden opportunity, I wish to recommend that warheads are loaded, not just weights.”
“We do have such a large stockpile against that time our enemies invade that not loading them seems a wasted launch, does it not? Yes, I agree.”
“Great leader, I have thought of another idea. I do not know if it is good.”
“Yes?”
“We could announce, even perform, a test of one of our short range missiles. If the launch detection satellite shows anything from that distance, it will not arouse any concern.”
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STAFF MEETING, 2PM, IHM MONDAY 15TH JAN.
Kate called the meeting to order.
“Who can guess the reason for this meeting?”
“Impact planning?” Horace suggested.
“Exactly. I presume that you've sent in the hazard notice to the planning authorities?”
“Yes. One fusion generator and associated plant under the flower-bed, extensive underground cellars which ought to be bomb-proof, but who knows, and the path of the tunnels, also supposed to be bomb-proof, with accompanying note about them being covered under the UN embargo, which I'm sure will raise a headache for someone.”
“Well, that's a problem they'll have to face. We can't have someone crashing through the tunnel roof just because they don't know it's there. Now, what about shifting non-essential stuff into the cellars? Horrace, you look like you've got a question?”
“What's non-essential for the next month? Do I really need to move stuff down and then bring it up again when something breaks?”
“Depends how long it'll take you, and how much you'll need.” Kate answered. “I suggest you put things into three or four categories, and shift the least likely to be needed down first. But don't you dare move the fire extinguishers in the first lot. Any other questions?”
“Worst case scenario... Do we assume all records are backed up off-site?” Will asked.
“Yes, they are. At least, all computerised ones.” Sarah confirmed.
“Ivan, can you report on your little research project?” Kate asked.
“Yes, Kate.” Ivan said. “As most of you know, down in the cellars we've got a ten megawatt fusion plant, half a megawatt of thermal generator, and a connection to the road deicing-network, into which we feed an average of five megawatts most winters. I've checked the specifications, and the heat exchanger we have is actually capable of accepting the full ten megawatts, but the city don't want to buy that much heat.” He took an excited breath. “As you might know, I've long been floating ideas about what we could do with that wasted capacity. But Kate has always said she couldn't justify the installation costs of an extra generator and of course you can't turn ten megawatts of heat into electricity without three megawatts of cooling capacity, even with the efficiency you get with a modern molten salt Stirling engine. But, let me show you some numbers.”
Excitedly he activated the screen. The first screen showed estimated costs for rebuilding various parts of the institute, it's infrastructure, outbuildings, and so on. “Based on the predictions from the dreams, we're only looking at the new wing, but unfortunately, that's where the computer is and if we lose the security system then bye-bye clients. Kate tells me that losing clients while we rebuild would mean that we're in trouble. The good news is that we can protect the computer room with some force-fields for this much. The generator has the capacity. That would save the computer, but we'd still need to rebuild. So, we'll call this the cost of preparing as little as possible. Installing the relevant forcefields inside the building will be messy and dusty and take a couple of weeks, so urm, we should have thought of these knock on effects earlier. Except, the good news is on this slide.”
The slide he came up with showed the costs of installing extra generating capacity and exterior forcefields. There were two amounts, depending on how much generating capacity was included. “As you can see, it's cheaper to install a bigger generator and some forcefields than rebuilding. We're reliably informed that the fields will hold. Also... there have recently been tests on a forcefield dome sitting on top of a horizontal field. They were encouraging but there were some problems, in that the field generators for the dome skidded off the horizontal field, and the dome then cut the wires to the sensors inside it, not to mention the power cables. I've just been in contact with relevant people and they're reporting the successful creation of a flanged dome, which today withstood an explosive blast bigger than the one we're expecting from the comet. It would probably earn them a lot of money, except that they're working for the army, so they probably get a medal and their choice of bunk-bed, or something like that. It's classified exactly how they do it, because of the military implications. Anyway, if we can give them the power, they're happy for us to be their first full sized test case. As a fall-back we can protect the main building with external forcefields as well. The flanged dome would protect all the buildings we've got.”
“Ivan,” Sarah asked, “can you tell us about the power budget? Would we need the bigger generator for the dome?”
“Either of the options I've listed would cope with both. Actually, just another five hundred kilowatts of capacity would do for just the walls, but the cost difference would be trivial, and Kate agreed it wasn't worth it. I thought it was interesting that when the crane-hire and everything else is taken into account we could actually install generators for the full capacity of the reactor for only five percent extra.”
“There's space? I thought we'd need a bigger generator hall?” John asked.
“There's been lots of progress in miniaturisation in the last few years, apparently. They would need to take out the current generator, to make space for the big one, but they'd buy it from us in since it's still a good one. That's included as a discount in the price, I should have said, sorry.”
“And installation time is really only a week and a half?” Horrace asked
“Apparently it's slack season around here at the moment. I think it's two weeks if we go for the big one, because of decommissioning the old one.”
“And you said the road network around here could cope with our reactor's full output? We wouldn't melt the pipes or anything?” Sarah asked, just checking.
“No question about it. We'd just be warming up the brine more than we do at the moment. There's a big pipe under the road outside, and there's a flow of something like half a cubic meter per second down it, which seems excessive to me, but I guess it stops it getting to freezing at the far end. Ten megawatts would only raise the temperature five degrees or so.”
“Thanks, Ivan.” Kate said. “So, is there any moral imperative or technical reason that we should keep our green-house undamaged while our neighbours' homes are reduced to rubble?”
There was a silence, until Kate asked “Putting it another way, what are the limits of the system, Ivan, if we had the reactor running on full?”
“I don't know, but I'll find out. They did say they couldn't make it work for the whole city, however much power they pushed into it. And obviously the bigger it is then the more likely the structure is to break. We're going to gain force from the blast wave as radius-squared, while the supporting flange is only growing proportionally to the radius. If we spread it too big then it'll start sinking into the ground enough to cause an internal over-pressure.”
“Acknowledged. But the area covered does need to be a perfect circle?” Kate asked.
Ivan paused. “Actually, no, as long as it's not concave anywhere. The ends do need to be circular, of course. Power goes up proportionally to the square of the length of the perimeter, so normally you'd make it circular, but yes, if we just covered the houses, with a half-sausage shape, that'd mean we're back to linearly increasing area. I wonder how hard it is to produce that emitter array. That might be a factor.”
“Can you find out?” Kate asked.
“Of course.”
“And since we've got all the rest of the infrastructure, does anyone object to me telling Ivan to get the big generator even if we can't use it for this? I do like the long-term security benefits of the area being drone-proof, like you were suggesting in the summer, Sarah, not to mention the option of installing other defensive measures if we ever need them.”
There weren't any.
“Someone's going to need to talk to the neighbours.” Janet pointed out.
“Yes, that's probably you and me. Ivan, I'm relying on you to get answers out of your military friends. If they're happy to have a sausage, covering civilian homes as well as us, then find out how many we can cover with the big generator. We'll talk to them, and see if anyone objects to their home surviving the impact. Also, can you please confirm with the generator people that we'd like the ten megawatt generator, fully operational by the end of this month.
“My pleasure!” Ivan said, rubbing his hands in glee.
“Ed,” Kate added “We're going to need to talk to the trustees about the budget for this. I've got spending authority, and we've got the money, but it's not exactly in the right budget. However, it'll still costs less than the repair bill for the old wing, so hopefully they'll agree.”
“You're going to tap into the ring-fenced investigation budget?” Ed asked, blanching.
“Yes. It all comes down to the computer and the security system. If we can't protect them, then we can't protect our clients and we might as well shut down the institute. Also, of course, I'd love to investigate how well a big forcefield transmits thoughts.”
“OK, Kate. You don't need to convince me.”
“Good. Oh, Ivan?”
“Yes, Kate?”
“Don't make any plans about asking for lightning generators or anything like that.”
“You wound me.” Ivan replied, scrapping that idea.
“She knows you.” Janet corrected with a smile. “But Kate, there was a proposal on your desk once for a liquid nitrogen generator. If I remember correctly at least part of the problem was the power consumption.”
Sara looked puzzled. “How much do you use? It's not that hard to make liquid nitrogen.”
“I remember the proposal.” Ivan said “But... I'm sure I worked it all out for liquid Helium. I remember being a bit surprised, since I didn't think we used it.”
“Where on earth...” Sarah started “Oh, you'd extract it from the reaction products? No, surely there's not enough.”
“Not really, we'd need to buy in the Helium as gas.”
“But I wasn't asking for Helium!” Janet exclaimed, “I was asking wouldn't it be cheaper to make our own liquid Nitrogen than to buy it in every week, since we've got the generator.”
“Oh, probably.” Ivan agreed. “Do you need oxygen-free Nitrogen or just liquid air?”
“Let's not get any more distracted, please.” Kate said. “Ivan, please find out how many neighbours we can protect from the impact. Will, could you please talk to the gardening team? We're going to need to open the flowerbed, and it's going to be a lot less messy if the soil is cleared away from the opening. Everyone... I predict a perfect opportunity to build relationships and muscles at the same time.”
“Build sore muscles.” John corrected. “I wonder how deep the frost is.”
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5PM. IHM MONDAY 15TH JAN.
“Kate?” Ivan knocked at her door.
“Yes, Ivan?”
“The contract from the generator people should be with you first thing tomorrow morning. Military people sucked their teeth, hummed and hah'd looked up some satellite images and said if we really had seven megawatts of electricity then we could probably get the whole street in. I said we couldn't turn off the computer, and they said, oh, five or six ought to do if we bring it up in stages, and it'd be a very good test. By which I think they meant that they weren't at all sure it'd work. I said that we hoped to have the power available by the end of the month and they said great, they'd be in touch.”
“I see. Do they need to clear this with anyone?”
“They've got approval. Apparently their majesties have just visited.”
“And they can get enough of this revolutionary new forcefield generator?”
“They claim it should be OK. I guess there's a very happy manufacturer somewhere. Oh, I didn't say....”
“Yes?”
“We're not going to be the only test. Their majesties were very impressed: they got a bigger scale test rigged up which protected a garden shed from a blast that ought to have smashed it flat. See news channels this evening. So, they're hoping to set these flanged forcefield domes up over power stations, hospitals, schools and so on. The university is too big for a single dome, but they're hoping to at least get a couple of domes up over their most critical buildings. The power grid is going to be glowing, I expect.”
“And it's on the news tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Wonderful!”
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9PM. IHM, LARGE CONFERENCE ROOM. MONDAY 15TH JAN.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank-you for coming at such short notice.” Kate started. “John, is everyone here?”
“Apologies received from numbers five and twenty-seven, otherwise, yes.” John reported.
“Wonderful! Now, I expect you're wondering why we've invited you here.”
“Something to do with these domes? The young lady asked us to watch the news.” one neighbour asked.
“Exactly. Now, I expect some of you know we used to have a big diesel generator under the flowerbeds. I know we used to get complaints about it being noisy when we tested it.” There were nods from the long-standing residents. “What you may not know is that, ohh, ten years ago, maybe, we replaced it with a fusion plant and generator. My predecessor made what everyone since has thought was a big mistake and ordered a fusion plant that was about ten times bigger than we needed, and that's why the roads near here stay nice and ice-free in winters — about the only time it runs at more than a tenth of capacity is when we're feeding heat into the deicing networks. The generator that the fusion plant fed was only a little one, so we couldn't do much else with the reactor. Generator sizes have shrunk, and we've now got space to put in a generator that'll actually cope with the full power from the fusion plant. Of course we don't want a great big cooling tower, so we'll only be able to use the system on full when we can put the residual heat into the deicing network.
“Now, you might wonder why I'm telling you all this. Well, it's because that fusion plant along with the new generator will let us put up a dome, well, actually more of a half-sausage, over the whole street. The force-field is experimental, it might not work, but we hope that the field will hold up and the impact will leave your homes undamaged. It does mean that if you agree to this, some soldiers will be trampling all over your gardens, and probably knocking down fences and the like, I'm not sure what exactly, in order to put the field generators in place. If someone doesn't agree, then it would mean that houses further from us can't be under the dome. This thing can't skip anyone. On the other hand, as I've said, if everyone agrees, then our friends in the army tell us that our new generator should be able to make a sausage shaped field over every house in the road. Any questions?”
“Did I understand you to say you'll be taking apart your fusion generator? That sounds scary!”
“Good question, and the answer is no. The fusion plant is separate from the generator. The fusion plant was delivered in one piece, and it will stay in one piece, and when it gets old they'll take it away in one piece. What they'll be doing is turning it off, turning off some valves, disconnecting the wires and the high temperature pipes from the old generator, lifting that out with a great big crane, taking it away and then connecting up a new on in its place.”
“What are the disadvantages to having this forcefield set up?”
Sarah answered that one, ticking off the points on her fingers: “If it works, then the rest of the city might hate you. Whether it works or not, then quite frankly I'd expect a one or two metre wide bit of your front and back gardens are going to be ripped up and churned into mud. Maybe even more. If it doesn't work, then potentially there's any number of things that might go wrong. Imagine hiding behind a big sheet of metal in a storm. Maybe the sheet protects you, or maybe it does even more damage to you. The force field might cut down trees that might have otherwise survived. It might drag your house somewhere, like a big sail, I really don't know. I can't think why, but there might be some kind of fire which wouldn't have happened without the forcefield there. You might get back after the impact and find that the shock-wave caused some kind of mud or even sewage flow between the outside and the inside of the sausage and you wish that all there was to clean up was some bricks. I'm sorry, I can't tell you how likely these are, I'm just making these up off the top of my head.” She shrugged “There's a lot of things that might happen. We think it's worth trying, their majesties thought it was worth trying for hospitals, schools and the like. But we're not aware of any of them having a ten megawatt generator in such a small facility.” She shrugged “They probably listened to more accountants than our previous director.”
“What happens after the impact?” Someone asked “Do we get our gardens back?”
“As far as I understand it, the field generator will remain military property, and we're just allowing them to test it around our buildings.”
Kate said, “So absolutely, we're not expecting it to stay. With the extra generating capacity we might be putting up some kind of semi-permanent forcefield, not anything that would keep out the rain or the bees, though, or the gardens would suffer. Or we might just talk to the electric company about buying some power from us in winter time.”
An elderly man who Sarah knew lived about four houses away asked “Am I right in thinking that your generator just drinks water and the problem for you is getting rid of the heat?”
“Well, it's a little more complicated than that, but pretty much.” Sarah said.
“Well, I for one would happily take some off your hands!” There was a chorus of agreement at the thought of free winter heating.
“That can be arranged.” Sarah said. “The problem is, sir, that pumping the heat around takes pumps which eat power, plus of course, by the time it's come out of the generator, it's not really very hot. We want it to not be very hot. Eventually, in any combined heat and power system you end up spending more energy pumping the heat around then you get in returns of efficiency. Plus of course it means lots of re-plumbing. I haven't done the maths, so I don't know if it would help us or not. But yes, we could supply you with some heat.”
“There's a problem though.” Kate chipped in. “We can't just grant general access to cooling circuit of the generator, that's a critical system.”
Sarah nodded. “We'd need to install a heat exchanger, so that if there was a problem, and say someone accidentally dug through the pipes half way down the street then that wouldn't mean that our generator suddenly died. And of course the best time to install such a heat exchanger is at the same time as the new generator. I don't know who'd pay.” Sarah looked to Kate.
“I terms of what comes out of the generator, sometimes it's quite hot, sometimes it's not much above room temperature, depending on what's running at the time. If you wanted that, so that sometimes you'd get free heat and other times you'd need your current heating, I've no objections to paying at least part of the costs for the exchanger, since it'd be to everyone's benefit. Actually, if we're able to sell spare electricity to the grid, it might even be relatively consistent warmth and it might be very much to our advantage, but we'll need to look at the numbers. Another option that I expect we'd be able to get is a similar system to what we have for our heating. In that, once the water's been heated as much as it can from the generator's cooling loop, it gets brought up to a consistent temperature with a bit of output from the reactor. At that point it starts costing us extra fuel, which does cost a lot more more than just tap water, I assure you. It would make it more useful as a main heat source, I expect and of course it would be more expensive. But anyway, on the assumption you're not asking us to re-plumb your houses, but just lay a couple of big pipes down the road with taps on them for every house, which you could then connect to, I think we can come up with some numbers. Now, would you, the residents of this street, like us to do that, or at least make enquiries? We've placed the order for the generator and they're coming out tomorrow to measure everything up, so we're talking about making the decision in a couple of days at most.”
“You're saying we'd need to have another meeting tomorrow or the next day?” a woman asked. “I afraid can't arrange that.”
“How about we send everyone a message about the options, once we find them out?” Jon suggested. “I don't think we know what anything costs at the moment, or if it's even possible in the space available.”
“I can get you a price for how much laying that sort of pipe will cost, it's my trade.” a man Sarah didn't recognise said. “But you'll need a big pump too, and expansion tanks, and all those good things. Costs are going to add up. Though not as much as a generator, I assume. And if the military sausage fails and the whole place is flattened, then that's just so much cash down the drain, isn't it?”
“I don't suppose you could hazard a guess on what a heat exchanger that would be capable of heating everyone's house would cost, could you?” Kate asked.
“Hmmm. I guess we've all got about twenty or thirty kilowatt heat-pumps, thirty houses in the road... nine hundred kilowatts, let's call that a thousand kW to allow for some losses. Hmmm, that's a pretty big one, maybe two metres tall, and this big.” He gestured with his hands. “I think I'd be able to find one for something like a thousand, fifteen hundred tops. Pump, pipes, and so on, roughly twice that, I'd guess.”
“Thank you.” Kate said. “But as you say, pumps and pipes aren't worth doing until we've survived the impact. I think I'd like to put them into the hands of a residents' committee or something, if that's OK. So, let's say the institute provides the heat exchanger, we're talking about a hundred per house for the infrastructure, plus the cost of connections to homes and any extra plumbing of course. So, assuming your homes have survived the impact , if you knew it would cost you at least a hundred plus pipes and plumbing to use our waste heat, would everyone be interested?”
Sarah added “Or if the Institute survives the impact but your homes don't would you be interested then?”
“If our homes don't survive,” the plumber-builder asked “you'd have no objections to us heating tents or shacks or even open-to-the-sky concrete with your heat?”
“None at all.” Kate replied.
“Then I'm in!” he declared “I was thinking it'll be a couple of months before it's warm enough to do much other than site preparation without running up a massive heating bill, even assuming the heat pump survives. If you can give me thirty kilowatts for a hundred plus some pipework...” he shook his head in wonder. “That'd be wonderful!”
“How likely is the institute to survive?” a lady in the front row asked.
“Very.” Kate replied. “The reactor room is protected by forcefields anyway -- it has to be by law. We're not particularly worried about the portion we're in now, it was built to withstand a nuclear blast. The newer portion was supposed to be too, but the builder was a bit of a cowboy and didn't do the reinforcing right, apparently. So, we're going to put in some simple forcefields to reinforce that, it still comes out to less than the cost of rebuilding, especially if you add in the cost of turning away customers.”
“So you're sitting pretty, here.” a man at the back said.
“Well, our workplace will survive, but none of us actually live here, you know? We're getting our boxes packed and waiting for the container to arrive.” Kate replied. “Is there anyone who doesn't want to be under the sausage? If not, then I think we've reached the end of this meeting, and I know I've still got packing to do.” Kate and Pete's container was due late on Friday. Sarah and John's on the following Monday.
It had been decided that the fastest way to load containers was for most people to load their own one. It would be parked outside their home for six hours, or eight hours during the night. During that time the occupants (if they were young and fit) would have to load everything, in the various sizes of boxes. For heavy items, such as pianos, a fork-lift was available for one hour of that time, moving from house to house in a neighbourhood.
The container-lorries would be busy for the next twenty-one days, day and night, making eleven thousand pickups and set-downs between them each day.
It had all been worked out with military precision, which was hardly surprising since the military logistics arm had been put in charge. The elderly or infirm had been instructed to register for special help — a large portion of the army had been assigned to help them and there were also volunteer teams, but of course, not everyone had registered, so there were several squads of soldiers on standby. Some couples were well organised and efficient and loaded their container quickly. Others were slow, and took too long. There was some flexibility in the system — it didn't really matter if a given container wasn't picked up on time and another was early; what mattered was that the lorries didn't get delayed, and that a backlog of containers didn't build up — there weren't very many spare trailers for moving the shipping containers around.
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10.30PM. MONDAY 15TH JAN.
“So, the institute's got lots of happy neighbours?” Pete asked.
“Indeed.” Kate agreed, “Though there were some who were a bit upset at the thought we could have been pumping heat to them for the last few years.”
“Well, yes, but if you'd offered, they probably wouldn't have wanted the disturbance, would they?”
“Probably not. But if the army are going to be taking a bulldozer through their lawns for the sausage anyway, then, well, priorities change.” Kate agreed.
“Of course. Like, right now we might normally be expected to have a priority of having a nice romantic meal for two and a night in, but actually we've got to pack.”
“Spoilsport.” Kate accused, then with a smile she added, “But, we do need to eat and rest sometime.”