Princess Rescue Inc (2 page)

“So
why isn't this a government show sir?” the major asked quietly. The Colonel
flicked a glance over to the major and then back to the general.

The
bull necked general looked around to make sure there were no camera crews
inconveniently nearby. “Because no one but a nutcase billionaire believed it
was true or even possible. Or had the chops to get a team together to pull this
off.” He waved to indicate the room.

“So
why... Why didn't we come in and take over when he proved it worked?” the aide
asked clearly perplexed.

“Well,
first we're on a platform in international waters. Second, he invited us,” the
general sighed. “Believe me; we thought about it, many people talked about it,
way above my pay grade, when we finally realized he was telling the truth.
Hell, we didn't take him seriously till he made that damn
news
announcement!” Disgust was written all over the general's face and body
language.  “That live shot of a UAV going through the vortex by CNN got
our attention,” he snorted wryly. He'd seriously thought it was a hoax, a crock
of shit someone was going to call Ryans on. The net was alive with crap like
that after all. Most of the Pentagon had chocked it up to Hollywood special
effects until they had started getting hysterical calls from the Washington
elite. That had gotten them moving.

Not
soon enough though, he'd been a little put out that Ryans had help in the
senate arms committee. Pretty strong help, apparently, a couple of prominent
senators who should have known better had slapped a few hands. The military had
been firmly told to back off or there would be hell to pay. He scowled.
Apparently Ryans had been smart enough to buy the damn Senators and
Representatives off with campaign contributions. He shook his head, flexing his
jaw. He didn't need to break any more damn teeth over this. “By then all
thoughts of coming in and wrapping it up in an NSA blanket went out the window.
It's hard to do that with the media breathing down our necks.” He indicated the
camera crews nearby.

“Rather
impolite of us to show up in force and shut them down all live on national TV,”
the Colonel said dryly. Which had been another point, if the military came in
with force then other governments would raise holy hell. Keeping the site
neutral was therefore beneficial.

Of
course there was the other little matter of a back door warning from Ryans to
the movers and shakers in the beltway. Any attempt to take the platform by
force would force him to push the button and let the thing loose. And if
anything happened to him beforehand the platform self-destructed on its own.
Ryans and his damn AI. NSA had taken one look at his firewall and given up
right away. Ryans had physically firewalled the systems off from the net.

The
colonel nodded. “So the joint op?” Major Stark the general's aide de camp
asked. “Are you sure about the team?”

The
general shook his head again as he looked at his aide. “Winston, listen to me,
Perry's going. He's green, but  he's the best we have in the time
available. I'd send you but you've got a family and this is most likely a one
way trip,” the general answered. Colonel Richard's face scowled for a moment
before clearing.

The
major nodded. “Thank you sir. Andrea will thank you as well,” he said with a
note of relief in his voice. The general smiled. “So Perry is the exec and the
colonel here is in command sir?” the major asked.

“No,
it's complicated. He's in charge,” he growled. He waved to the billionaire
talking with the cameras. His subordinates turned to where he was waving and
then back to him in surprise.

“From
here sir?” the major asked in disbelief. He knew about the dangers of
micromanaging from a distance but knew better than to voice such concerns in
the present company. The general shook his head.

“Oh
no, we’re not having a repeat of NASA's micromanaging from a hundred thousand
miles away, no, he's going too. Or so he said,” he grimaced. “He's not about to
send his people into the unknown alone.” The general shook his head in grudging
amusement. “Got to admit the guy's got balls to spare.”

The
major snorted as he saw the impromptu news conference. “Yes sir. That he
does...”

<==={}------------>

The
he
in question was standing in front of the gate room wearing his shiny
Mylar protective wear. The vortex was enclosed in a series of powerful electromagnets
set up on each x,y, and z axis. Smaller electromagnets were embedded in the
walls to help contain the anomaly.

“We're
not sure where we're going, beyond it's an Earth like planet,” Ryans held up
his hands as the babble of questions from the reporters rose over the hum and
buzz of the machinery around them. Since he was six foot five he topped just
about everyone in the room.

“Please,
let me finish. We had plans to bring an astronomer but he had a last minute
change of heart. His alternate and their equipment were unavoidably delayed,”
he smiled a charming, thoroughly disarming smile. Most of them knew about the
customs crap he'd been going through and the storm that had added to the delay.
Reporters were covering that, giving the government a huge black eye over that
as well. “This is an international joint command effort thrown together at the
very last minute folks.”

“Why
go now? Shouldn't you know more?” someone in the back shouted.

“I'm
not... oh hell, yes, I was planning on answering that,” he said and then
grimaced. He ran his hand through his hair for a moment before answering. “The
reason is the window. The anomaly, wormhole, gate, whatever you want to call it
fluctuates with the Earth and Sun's gravitational and magnetic forces. In a couple
of hours it will expand to its largest diameter and we will be able to pass
through. Any mass passing through it changes it, making it oscillate more or
collapse in on itself for a period of time proportional to the mass of the
object. We're still figuring the math out. I've got a couple of poor man's
super computers crunching away. I know a couple of universities are trying
different approaches as well.”

“From
what we understand it's linked to the Earth's gravity and somehow linked to
solar activity, so there's some possible link to the Sun's gravity as well,” he
explained and then shrugged. “The wormhole, vortex, whatever, is too small for
much of the Earth to pass through it when it opens fortunately. But what we do
know is that when something
does
pass through it then it shrinks down to
damn near molecular size,” he said, using his fingers to approximate size.
“Dat's just a tad too small for me to fit through,” he said. The reporters
politely chuckled at that dig. He grimaced slightly.

“Which
pretty much rules out radio communications when we first cross over. So we will
be on our own when we get there,” he explained. He didn't bother explaining
that most of their equipment would have to be abandoned when they returned,
if
they returned. That part wasn't so well thought out.

He
waved to the back wall. “About a hundred meters that a way is a trio of rooms
filled with a poor man’s super computer network. We've got thousands of 
PC’s, raspberry pi microcomputers, and PS3's crunching at the data... and since
we've opened up to the international community they too have added their
resources.” He shrugged. There were already stories of grants and prizes funded
by Futuretech and other companies to crunch the data and get some worthwhile
answers. So far no one had come up with anything beyond tentative hypotheses
that had yet to be proven out. “We'll get answered when they do folks... If
we
can understand them.” He shook his head and smiled a little. “I've got a room
chock full of eggheads scratching their heads bald at this rate.” The group
chuckled at that.

“Call
it what you will, a space bridge, vortex, stargate, portal... wormhole,
whatever works. I frankly don't care...” he grimaced. “Okay I do care if some
bureaucrat or egghead tries to give it some acronym no one can say.” A few
people in the audience laughed at that.

<==={}------------>

He
explained that the wormhole was a pinpoint quantum singularity that was
attracted to objects of large mass and magnetic fields. It was also influenced
by large magnetic fields, such as the Earth's magnetic poles and the turbulent
solar activity from Earth's sun. The wormhole was first deduced after a
scientist noted it while using the CERN research facility, but it wasn't until
two years later that it was conclusively confirmed and mapped. “Obviously we're
not sure why it's here, why it's not on one of the larger planets. I'm sure
future generations of scientists will figure that part out,” he said. He gave a
Gaelic shrug as the reporters snorted. “Another question is how and why it
connects to another Earth class planet.”

He
smiled and blinked as the flashbulbs went off rapid fire. “That's right folks,
an Earth like planet. We sent a probe last month. It confirmed the presence of
air, water, and plants.” He held up a hand. Behind him a vid screen came to
life showing a scratchy video on another world. “Ladies and gentlemen we
present to you the first images from another Earth like world.” He smiled as
the murmur grew. “I'm looking forward to exploring it personally.”

That
set off another blinding flash of bulbs going off. He held up his hands to
forestall questions. “This is an opportunity to explore a new world. It's also
a possible gateway to establishing a bridgehead for mankind on another world,”
he hid a scowl. “Say what you will about exporting our bad habits, but folks,
we've got a lot of good ones too. We're going to do our best to make sure this
new world is kept as pristine as possible but also allowing us to use it as a
branch for mankind's next step,” he smiled.

“We're
growing up folks, trying out our wings for the first time and leaving the nest.
I for one think it's about time, but that's just the space fan in me,” he
smiled again; his right hand over his heart. He knew they were eating this up.
“I've got to get with the crew but you’re more than welcome to watch.” He waved
and walked over to the group getting ready to go.

“Boss,
solar storm is building. Tracking estimates an hour before the flare goes off,”
a female tech said coming over to him. He nodded and turned to the group. He
checked her time and nodded.

“All
right listen up,” he said turning to the techs. People turned to him, some were
techs, some were reporters but he was focusing on the team about to go through
the vortex with him. “We've got about an hour and eight minutes until the flare
pops and hits us. That's our window, that's the energy we'll need to transfer
everything we've got for the bridgehead. I want everyone to go through this
place and grab anything you want or need that you forgot about. The company
will reimburse anyone for materials,” he said and waved.

“Personally,
I want more toothpaste and a lot of coffee. A whole lot of coffee,” he growled.
“If I don't get it I'm going to be a royal bear every morning.” Several people
chuckled at that. The military contingent looked at each other. “Seriously
folks, you've got forty-five minutes to go, we'll strap it everywhere so
hustle.” He slapped his hands together and then made shooing motions. People
started talking and then scrambling. He grabbed a nearby tech.

“Boss?”
the tech asked confused.

He
leaned close to her to talk in her ear so she could hear him over the sudden
chaos of action around them. “I want you to poll the staff, get them to make a
list of what we take after we're gone and submit it to accounting. I want you
to get the staff to toss in anything they can think of that we'd need. Comfort
items. Grab every backup generator and fuel bladder and toss them on. Pull the
batteries but make sure they are sent along as well.” He waved to the trucks.
“We'll unload in base camp and sort it out there. We'll have plenty of time.”
Which was true? They'd have at least a year, possibly ten years before the
vortex stabilized enough to make a return trip.

Lieutenant
Colonel Richards came over scowling. The colonel was tall and imposing,
sporting a proper military grade haircut like Ryans' own. His temples and sides
were slightly silver, however. The man wasn't vain enough to use hair dye
apparently. “A moment Ryans,” he said gruffly. He gave the tech a look. She
made a moue and quietly retreated from his basilisk gaze.

“Yes,
Colonel?” Ryans asked, smiling politely as he turned his full attention on the
older man.

The
Colonel scowled, looking around the room. His people were looking at each
other, not sure what to do. The civilians were running back and forth with
materials. “We don't need to disrupt the team at this critical time.”

Ryans
cocked his head. “Actually, I was thinking that getting them to grab what they
can while they can would help...” The Colonel glared. “And it would keep them
busy,” Ryans finished with a small smile. The Colonel blinked then slowly
nodded. He didn't quiet smile in return, but there was approval in his eyes,
the first time he'd looked that way at Ryans. For a long time the Colonel had
acted like he had a stick up his rear.

“Good
point.”

Ryans
snorted. “I have my moments Colonel. I don't think we need them barfing in the
trash barrels because opening night jitters got the best of them. Once one of
them does it'll make the others follow.” He shook his head as the Colonel
chuckled grimly.