Interview from Full Circle with Mason Anderson (Transcript)

  Date: May 8th, 2028

  Location: CNN

  ANDERSON: "Senator, with tensions rising in East Asia, how would you see your administration handling Chinese aggression?"

  SENATOR TULSON: "The current administration has botched the diplomacy in the region. Taking a strong stance is good, but too much saber-rattling is going to be counter-productive. We should be looking at closer cooperation with the Chinese, particularly in light of our need to invest in space. The Chinese have had impressive advancements there, and we should be working together rather than butting heads. My administration will absolutely seek close ties with our existing allies in the region, especially Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines; but China has much to gain from our coming expansions into space. We are no longer competing with other nations when it comes to space. We all have to work together now."

  ANDERSON: "That has been an aggressive stance for you on the campaign trail and in the Senate. Would you consider it to be a primary reason behind your rapid rise in the polls?"

  SENATOR TULSON: "I think it's a major factor, yes. The current administration has failed the American people in many areas, including the economy and foreign affairs; but even before the Leap Day sighting, public enthusiasm for space development has been increasing. The Artemis Program, SpaceX's Mars mission, the replacement designs for the International Space Station -- the American people have not been this excited about space since the early days of the Apollo Program. Alien incursions simply increase the urgency, and the voters want a leader who will ensure we will not simply accept anyone kidnapping our citizens or those of our allies. That requires more space development. With SpinLaunch online and StarTran's new gravity drive, the future of space is brighter than ever -- but only if we can all recognize the need for it."

  ANDERSON: "How do you respond to your critics who say, especially in light of the current state of the economy, that we should focus on spending tax money closer to home?"

  SENATOR TULSON: "Tax dollars are only part of the funding for space; and all of that money, both public and private, gets spent here on Earth. No one's launching a rocket filled with dollar bills; and the legislation we're considering in Congress is going to benefit not just the United States, but the entire world."

  ANDERSON: "But you've also called for more of a military presence in space. How does that benefit anyone? Why should we be this provocative when the aliens didn't attack anyone?"

  SENATOR TULSON: "They did kidnap people."

  ANDERSON: "But they haven't fired a shot. We never saw any evidence of them being hostile. No one showed up dead, no death rays, no explosions. They might not even be armed."

  SENATOR TULSON: "All spaceships are inherently armed. Our own rockets go so fast that if an astronaut tossed a rock out a window, it would hit with more force than a tank. The alien ship demonstrated even more acceleration, with proportionally more power. They wouldn't need to fire missiles at us; they'd just need to dump their garbage at high speed."

  ANDERSON: "That's incredible."

  SENATOR TULSON: "The human mind isn't used to thinking at such scales, Mason. We're all going to have to get used to a much wider world now, or we'll get blindsided."

  ANDERSON: "But what if it's all a misunderstanding? What if they didn't intend any harm or didn't even realize what we are? If we come across as hostile, wouldn't we be throwing away our chance for peace?"

  SENATOR TULSON: "That's a common misconception, even in science fiction. The American people are a nation of immigrants, from all sorts of different cultures around the world. Because of that, we tend to have a cultural expectation that those who didn't know our culture get instantly forgiven. It's a good thing. It's how we grew the United States in the first place, helping immigrants come to our country and giving everyone a pathway to citizenship. We wouldn't have been able to form our own American culture, our unique melting pot, if we weren't forgiving and helped people assimilate. There's only one time in American history when we, today, condemn the foreigner for not knowing any better. That's the white Europeans who drove out, even sometimes exterminated, the Native populations."

  ANDERSON: "Some have made that comparison. That we are now in the position of the Native Americans, with the aliens playing the part of the Europeans.”

  SENATOR TULSON: “Yes, that's exactly it, except for one thing. These aliens have an advantage that the Europeans never had. The Native Americans weren't constantly sending out radio signals for over a century. The Europeans could have sat down with the Natives and corrected their assumptions by just talking and learning the local languages. The aliens, however, only have to listen. Every fault we lay at the feet of the first European colonists, we have to multiply for these aliens. Anything they wanted to know about our planet, they could have learned from the broadcasts we were already giving them."

  ANDERSON: "What if they still didn't understand? Who knows what an alien culture even looks like. Why should we respond with a military stance?"

  SENATOR TULSON: "I'm sure there will be many cultural misunderstandings going forward. That's a fact of life even between human cultures, much less between humans and aliens. But we know they were here. We know they observed us. They had to have learned our languages, our cultures, and even how we'd respond to this sort of thing. They have the advantage. They still chose to hide, to sneak around. We noticed them by accident. How long have they been here? What are they planning? When are they coming back? Are they the only alien species out there in the galaxy? No matter what we eventually learn, we must prepare. If nothing else, we have the opportunity to develop our own capabilities. Even if everything from here on out is peaceful, let's not meet them as a primitive species. Let's meet them as equals. Let us become a space-faring species, and reach out to touch the stars."

  

  Joshua Collins

  Date: May 9th, 2028

  Location: Texas A&M University, Texas, United States

  Joshua was walking back from class, still wearing his Navy uniform, when his phone started playing a jazzy New Orleans piece. He hurriedly shifted his small pile of notebooks to his other arm so he could answer it. "Hi, Nelle. What's up?"

  "The sky, and hopefully it stays there." Janelle sounded amused. "And Nelle? Really? A two-syllable name too much for you, white boy?"

  "What, we're not on a nickname basis anymore? Or are we supposed to start over, since the last time I saw you before Mnemosyne was when you were twelve and thought Taylor Swift was queen of the world?"

  "That was just a phase, and I was almost fourteen."

  "I thought Swifties called that an era." Josh dodged some other students on the sidewalk, then turned down another street to get to his dorm.

  "Can I call you Yewa, then?"

  "Sure. I've been called worse."

  Janelle paused. "By my mom, you mean."

  "Well, yes, but definitely not where I was going with that. How is she, anyway? We didn't really talk about your family when I was in Virginia."

  "You mean does she still go apeshit when she watches the news and thinks AI is demonic? Pretty much."

  "The mouth on you."

  "Hey, I'm an adult now. I swear. Besides, you're the sailor, aren't you?"

  "True. And I know she was still, um . . ." Josh searched for the right word. "Holding a grudge? I mean, you couldn't sign up to be a tester for Marsha until you were an adult, which means you couldn't get parental permission. But . . . I mean, she's still your mom. And I ate a lot of her food back when. How is she, really?"

  "Yeah." Janelle sighed. "She's . . . selective. Sort of a cafeteria Catholic in the other direction. Sorry, that's a Catholic who--"

  "Yeah, I know, Maw told me about them." Josh didn't really get it, of course. There were plenty of people at his own mom's non-denominational church that were pretty open about how they picked and chose what to believe in, so it wasn't like the Catholics had anything unique going on. "But I thought those were people who complained about things being too conservative."

  "You can jump off the bridge from both sides. She only likes what she agrees with, and it's all over the place. Pope Silvester is a heretic, guitars in church are evil, nuclear power is demonic, space lasers are being used to control hurricanes, that kind of thing. And you already knew about the transhumanist stuff. She's only gotten worse on that."

  "Oh." Josh winced. He still vividly remembered being told to leave Janelle's house and never set foot there again.

  Mrs. Thomas, Maw Gerty's youngest daughter, had somehow missed what her mother's implant was for. Sure, it was a medical device, which was how Mnemosyne had gotten FDA approval for human trials in the first place. And it really did keep Maw's disease in check, at least until recently. But the goal was always AGI development. Josh had thought that had been clear all along, but one day, while Josh was having dinner with Janelle's family, the topic had come up. Less than fifteen minutes later, he'd been out on the street. Four months after that, the Thomas family moved away. Mrs. Thomas refused to have any contact with any of them, even her own mother.

  "Yeah. I am so looking forward to college. Though I have a feeling that when I come home for the summer, she'll have gone full sedevacantist and joined an apocalyptic cult out of South America or something."

  "Set a what now?"

  "Sedevacanist. It's a fancy Catholic word for rejecting reality."

  "Oh."

  "Yeah. She's dead set on me getting a liberal arts degree from a nice Catholic college, but I don't have any scholarship offers from any of them. She keeps saying she'll pay for it, but I don't want her having any more control than she has to, y'know?"

  "Are there any Catholic colleges she'd approve of? She didn't seem to like the Catholic school you went to."

  "She looks for fault everywhere. Except herself, of course. Anyway, I don't have the same goals she does. If I'm going to take over the restaurant, I should get a degree in something that would be useful for that, don't you think?"

  "Cooking school?"

  "Bite your tongue. I don't need a school to tell me how to cook. I cook Cajun, Bayou, Southern, and Italian, not fancy-pants la-ti-da Frenchified gunk."

  "Italian?"

  "I like pasta. Don't worry, I'm not adding it to the menu at the restaurant or anything. But I could probably benefit from some business courses. Accounting. Maybe even a full degree in restaurant and hotel management."

  "You planning on opening a bed and breakfast?"

  "It's the name of the degree, dummy."

  Josh rounded the building he was passing and came into sight of Harrington Hall. "Sounds like you've got a good plan."

  "What about you? I was surprised you went Navy like your father. I know you didn't like how he was gone all the time."

  "That was years ago. I didn't get why he was gone. I thought he just didn't care. Plus, the Navy gives me the chance to do engineering stuff I can't easily get to work on as a civilian."

  "So is it going to be a career thing, or just a stop?"

  "I don't know. Things changed on Leap Day, y'know?" Josh sighed, checking his surroundings. He didn't mind talking to Janelle about it, but he didn't feel like broadcasting it to the whole campus. There were a bunch of students around, relaxing in the last days of cool Texas weather; some of them studying for their upcoming finals, most of them pretending to study. But the only person close to his path was a girl sitting on a bench watching a pick-up Frisbee game. "Honestly, I was just thinking I'd do a hitch, stay in for a few years, then move to the civilian sector. Probably something in robotics. Lots of opportunity for that, especially since a lot of Millennials and Zees didn't go into those fields. And I'd love aerospace robotics. There's a Texan company developing robots for 3D-printing Lunar and Martian habitats. Or there's HorizonX and their space development program. The Navy is arranging a summer internship, and I specifically requested one of those two."

  "Not StarTran?"

  "Oh, hell no." Josh chuckled. "They have some interesting engineering, sure, but I want to work on robotics. StarTran's just a propulsion company. Hey, I'm almost to my dorm. Want to vid-chat after I get changed?"

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  "What, out of your Navy uniform? But you look so snazzy."

  "Yeah, but I'm not going to--" Josh paused, as he realized there was a slight echo on her last sentence. No, not an echo . . .

  The girl watching the Frisbee game turned to look at him as he passed, her smile brilliant against her dark skin. "Nah, it's a good look on you," Janelle said into her phone, but loud enough to reach him on the sidewalk.

  "Janelle!" Josh stared at her. "Uh . . . when did you get here? And . . . why?"

  "About an hour ago." Janelle stood up, clearly pleased at surprising him. She was wearing jeans and a v-neck halter top fastened around her neck, which framed her slim form in a way Josh found distinctly distracting. "Got your dorm and class schedule from Marsha, which is cheatin', I admit, but totally worth it. As to why . . . I told you, I'm looking for a good college. And this one's got a few perks."

  "Uh. Like what?" Josh still felt a little blindsided, but he couldn't help wonder if she meant him. But no, that would be stupid. You don't move across the country just to go to the same university as some guy. Not outside a Hallmark movie, anyway. "It can't be the cafeteria food."

  "Well, for one thing, Mom went to the University of Texas, remember?"

  Josh burst out laughing. The rivalry between UT and Texas A&M was legendary. "Oh, I forgot she was a Longhorn."

  "Yep. So I'm visiting UT Austin on the same trip to make her happy, but I insisted on keeping my options open. She doesn't know you go here." She grinned up at Josh. "I know it was mean of me to not let you know ahead of time, but I just couldn't resist. I hope you don't have plans tonight?"

  "Nope." Well, Josh had had some plans, past tense, but nothing he felt bad about canceling. "Looking for a guide around town, then?"

  "I thought you'd never offer." She stepped closer to link her arm through his. "Tell me, sailor. What's a girl gotta do to get a drink around here?"

  Josh hoped he didn't look too eager. "We're both underage."

  "It's a college campus. I'm sure there's a boba place around here."

  "One or two." Josh smiled down at his childhood friend. "Let me drop off my bag, then we'll get going."

  "Just don't take off the uniform."

  Despite his college dating track record, Josh could occasionally take a hint.

  

  Carlos Perez

  Date: May 9th, 2028

  Location: StarTran Research and Testing Center, Martin County, TX

  Carlos ignored the first two knocks. He didn't have time for visitors. The third one, though, came way too close to breaking his concentration. "Go away! I'm busy!"

  "So am I," came Stan's voice. "You can spare a few minutes."

  "No, I can't!" Carlos switched to a different colored marker and began making a rough diagram next to the equations he'd already written.

  "I have chips and salsa."

  ". . . fine!" Carlos crossed to his office door and unlocked it. "But it better be Joe T.'s."

  Stan held up a bag of chips and a jar of Joe T. Garcia salsa. "It's almost like I know you, Carlos."

  "I brought the mild stuff for us mere mortals," James added, shouldering past Carlos.

  Arthur Isaacs held up a large plastic bottle and some disposable cups as he slipped by. ". . . Lemonade?"

  "What is this, a picnic or an intervention?" Carlos grumbled. He checked out in the hall, half-expecting someone else to be there. Finding no one, he closed the office door. "What do you all want?"

  "Well . . ." Stan popped open the jar of hot salsa. "You've been in here for a while."

  "So?"

  "After walking out on a meeting with HorizonX engineers on a preliminary design for installing a gravity sail on one of their rockets."

  "I wasn't needed for that." Carlos grabbed a large chip and dug into the salsa straight out of the jar. "They just need to get the housing stable enough to withstand the launch vibrations."

  "Still an engineering challenge." James opened the mild salsa, poured some into a paper bowl, and proceeded to lounge in one of the chairs not already occupied by loose papers. "You normally live for that kind of thing."

  "We did come up with a potential design," Arthur added. The young physicist looked excited. "The big problem is the power source, not the assembly itself. If we could use an RTG . . ."

  "Nuclear anything is a no-go." Stan glared at him. "The media would have a field day, and the EPA wouldn't let it even touch the launch pad."

  "Besides, it's not actually the power source." Carlos swallowed another bite. Dang, that stuff was good. "We simply didn't have anything ready for a manned spacecraft. We're moving too fast."

  "Crewed, Carlos," Stan corrected him. "We can't say 'manned' anymore."

  "That's why you're the one handling PR, Stan. I don't have time to keep up with changes to the dictionary on top of changes to quantum gravity. Besides, my abuela would hit me."

  "Your grandmother is all the way down in Venezuela and, unlike with you, her careless words have no influence on the media, investors, or grant proposals."

  "I'm still more scared of her than them. Or you. You make with the PC all you like. It's why I hired you."

  "Yeah, and I should have taken that job with Google instead. Then I wouldn't be babysitting a genius physicist and engineer, just programmers with a more reasonable level of insanity. But here I am."

  "And here I am, trying to do the impossible because now everyone wants me to do ten years' worth of development and testing in less than ten months. So if I'm locking myself in my office for the occasional afternoon, there's a reason and I don't want to be interrupted."

  "It's morning." James crunched a chip loudly.

  "What?" Carlos looked at his smart watch to see the time, but frowned as he realized it was out of battery. "Can't be--"

  "It's currently ten in the morning, Carlos. You've been in here all night. Security said you'd only left to use the bathroom."

  Carlos looked down at his salsa jar. No wonder he was hungry. "Huh. I didn't notice. I mean, I ran out of the snacks in my desk but . . ."

  "This is why I told you not to pick the windowless office. You lose track of time when you're on a project."

  "Okay. Well, um . . . thanks, then."

  Arthur was studying the whiteboard. "Uh . . . Carlos? Are you looking to increase the TN-BL levels?"

  "No. Well, yes. More like let them go up. See?" Carlos turned one of his computer monitors around to point it at Arthur. "I was looking over the LIGO data from both our Leap Day test and the alien craft, and comparing it to the alien craft design from Russia . . ."

  Stan cleared his throat. "Carlos. Before you do your genius stuff, can we handle a little business first?"

  Carlos didn't bother turning his head. "Isn't that your job? To handle it for me?"

  "I swear, if Google is still hiring . . ." Stan pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, sure, I'll pick your new interns for you, schedule your media appearances without consulting you, and I'll tell Irina you're too busy to call her back even though she's practically given us a blank check."

  "Oh, hell no." Carlos whirled on Stan. "No media appearances! And what interns? I don't remember agreeing to interns." He paused as his brain caught up. ". . . What did Irina want?"

  "Yes media appearances." Stan crossed his arms and scowled, though the thin man looked about as intimidating as a scarecrow. "Carlos, I'll make it as painless as possible, but you have to show up to a minimum of two events. One press conference, one fluff interview. I promise, no going into any studios or traveling. I've got a list of YouTubers as long as my arm who are begging for a walk-through. You pick three you're comfortable with, and I'll tell them to do a collaboration. One time, three different channels, lots of exposure but minimal effort on your part. Arthur will do most of the tour."

  "I will?" Arthur looked surprised. He scratched his beard nervously. "I'm not great on camera . . ."

  "You kidding?" James patted Arthur's arm. "I've seen you teach. You should have your own YouTube show."

  Stan ignored them. "And the press conference will be mostly science and tech journalism, and yes, I'll tell them they have to stay on point or they don't get answered. I'll handle most of the talking, so you'll just sit there and look smart."

  Carlos scowled, but couldn't find a reasonable objection. "Fine. You didn't answer my question about Irina, though."

  "Nope. You call her back yourself. It'll do you some good to be sociable."

  "Traitor. Why's she calling you, anyway? She has my number."

  "Is your phone charged?"

  Carlos glanced at his watch again to check, only to be reminded that it was dead. Which meant the phone itself probably was, too. ". . . maybe?"

  James grinned, clearly not fooled. "Did you even unblock her number?"

  "Yes?"

  Stan threw up his hands. "Of course you blocked her. Carlos, why did you block the granddaughter of our largest investor?"

  "I don't want to talk about it."

  "College incident." James waved lazily at Stan. "I'll give you the blow-by-blow later. It's a funny story."

  "Only from the sidelines." Carlos changed the subject, hoping that Stan would forget to ask about college. "Why do I need interns? What are they going to do, fetch the coffee? I don't have time for anyone who isn't up to speed, and if they're not working with me specifically why do I need to approve it?"

  "Okay, not quite interns like you're thinking," Stan admitted. "They're from NASA and the military. Astronauts, engineering specialists, that kind of thing. They want to get people trained up on how the gravity sail works, and fast. I can limit it to people with real space experience, but that's still --"

  "Not much point to that," Carlos interrupted. "This is just way too different. It's not a rocket. Space experience is nice, but it's not going to help in understanding how it works. And why do they need it, anyway? They don't need to be able to build a rocket to fly it."

  "Because it is different." James gestured at the whiteboard with his bowl. "They don't need to build it, yeah, but they need to know the principles to fly it in the first place. They go through lots of simulators on the ground before they launch, but there are no simulators for this. Hell, most people at NASA and the DOD don't think we should be betting on your sail. We had to fight to get them to agree to anything, remember? So NASA's willing to send three people, and DOD wants two. We get to approve their candidates. I already narrowed it down for you."

  Carlos shook his head. "I don't have time for that."

  "Just look at the shortlist. I emailed it to you right before we knocked."

  "Well, how was I supposed to see it, then?"

  "It's the third time I've sent it."

  "I'm surrounded by traitors." But Carlos still walked around his desk to access his account. "Fine. Look at me, I'm opening my email."

  Stan leaned over the desk to get a good look. "You really need to clear out your inbox."

  "Yes, Mom."

  "I'm serious! You have a ton of unread emails! And most of them from me, I see."

  "I trust you to handle things. Take it as a compliment."

  "I'm not sending you that stuff for my own health, Carlos. And certainly not because I think it's fun."

  "Don't bother, Stan," James told him. "He hates email. And social media. And basically anything that isn't work."

  "This is work."

  "Not to him."

  Stan groaned. "Remind me how you even successfully started this company in the first place?"

  "You. It's all you, Stan." Carlos continued scrolling through the documents James had forwarded him. "Now, why is this guy on here?"

  "He's flown more missions than--" Stan started to say.

  "Zero engineering background. Way too conventional. And he's a glory hound. Pass. What's the story on this guy? He's not even American."

  "RAF, yeah. He's both a pilot and a radar tech. Flown only one mission, but he's got a letter of recommendation from a Space Force general. And DOD put him on the list, which means they think he's good."

  "Sure, go with him. And this guy. And her, I recognize her name, she's an expert in space weather, really flexible mind. She might be able to help with the solar wind fluctuation problem." Carlos stopped on one profile. "Who's the kid? He even old enough to shave? Hell, he's not even out of college yet."

  "Yeah, James and I almost skipped him," Stan admitted. "But look at his employment history."

  "What are you-- Huh. Mnemosyne. As an undergrad?"

  "He also got awarded a contract for a robotics design for Space Force," James added. "Just the initial design, not the build, but still impressive. And you did say you wanted young, flexible minds."

  Carlos made a face. "Yeah, well, I wasn't thinking an undergrad. But okay, I'm curious. Mostly because someone thought he was good enough for the list. Does that count as NASA or DOD?"

  "DOD. He's a Navy midshipman."

  "So one more NASA choice, then. Uh . . . let's go with this guy. Three missions, two of them piloting a HorizonX Astro, and he's had doctoral work in orbital mechanics."

  "There. That wasn't so hard, was it?"

  Carlos ignored Stan and went back to his whiteboard. "Now, I've got to get back to work. I've been trying a new coil design, and I've got to figure out why the simulations keep coming out wrong before we can order new parts for the next build."

  "Which brings me to the next business item," Stan tried to interject. "The budget--"

  "Is whatever Irina says it is. Which is why I can afford to experiment with these new designs, but only if we get into the next manufacturing window for that company in Sweden. Which is why this is what I need to focus on, Stan."

  "Well, um . . ." Arthur hesitated. "I think the TN-BL calculation might be off. I was looking at the simulation data earlier and there's a discrepancy on the power curve projection."

  "Yes, I know, but I've been over that equation and--"

  "Line three, clause two is unfounded." James scooped more mild salsa with a chip. "You also missed an exponent on line two, but you still did the math like it was there, so that part's fine. But I'm still docking you points for it on your final grade."

  "What? No it's . . ." Carlos trailed off, going over the offending clause again. "Wait. How did I miss that?"

  "Because you are the genius physicist-engineer, Carlos, while I am the genius physicist-mathematician you should always come to when you have a math problem instead of staying up all night going cross-eyed because you think that you, personally, have to solve everything yourself?" James mock-toasted Carlos with his plastic cup of lemonade. "You've got a team here for a reason, my brother. Talk to people about it."

  "No, no, no -- not that. Yeah, I get it, I will issue a formal apology later. I mean this." Carlos circled the third line of the equation, feeling excited. "Wave functions. Quantum superposition. How do you fix a wave effect?" He drew a line through it. "You cancel it out!"

  James shook his head. "No, that's the sleep deprivation talking. Superposition doesn't cancel things. Both quantum states are true simultaneously, not . . ." Now it was his turn to trail off, squinting at the board. ". . . no, that's just a trick of math. You can make an equation say anything if you try hard enough."

  "Is this one of those nerd things I should just skip out on?" Stan asked, but then sighed. "I'm just talking to myself, aren't I."

  "Unless it describes reality," Carlos told James. He drew a red line through half the equation. "The whole concept is that we're reshaping gravity on a quantum level, and we're finding out that the gravity sail isn't really in line with the square-cube law, because of interference from larger gravity wells. That was obvious after our first space test. And the gravitational waves in the solar system shouldn't be very large. But we also tested the sail in a Lagrange point because we thought it would give stronger readings with less interference! That's the whole problem!" He slammed the heel of his hand against his forehead. "Stupid, stupid! Why couldn't I see that?"

  "Oh . . . I get it." Arthur started scribbling something on another part of the whiteboard. "Like this, right?"

  James paused in the act of biting into another chip. "Superposition. Oh. You don't mean the sail canceling it. But a Lagrange point doesn't completely cancel gravity, it just balances--"

  "No, of course not! It's the interaction of the sail in the Lagrange point, where the gravity of Earth and the sun are overlapping. They're superpositioned, and here we come along with a new superposition to add to the mix."

  "Hmm. Okay. And a quantized wave function can persist as long as it isn't interrupted by high-frequency noise. I see where you're going."

  Carlos ripped off the computer printout of his latest design that he'd taped to the whiteboard, then started a rough sketch of the sail projector itself using the whiteboard. "So if we adjust the output, we might be able to force a superposition that takes advantage of local gravity waves instead of canceling them!"

  Arthur was grinning. "Because if you match two waves at the same frequency and amplitude . . ."

  ". . . you get a bigger wave," Stan finished. He smirked as three surprised faces turned his way. "Oh, so now you pay attention to me. And come on, don't be so shocked. Drop off the quantum bullshit and that's just sixth-grade physics."

  Carlos frowned. "Yeah, I guess so. Not really, but close enough."

  "You'll still need to adjust fast enough to keep up with shifting gravity conditions as the craft moves through local space," James warned. "It takes days to get a LIGO reading, minimum."

  "Our data has already cut that time significantly," Arthur pointed out. "If we--"

  "We'd need it on the order of milliseconds at most, not--"

  "One problem at a time!" Carlos waved them into silence. "Still got that budget proposal handy, Stan?"

  Stan frowned. "Yes. Why?"

  "It's time for Irina to put her grandfather's checkbook where her mouth is, because I have a stupidly expensive idea."

  complete coincidence when it comes to choosing today to come back from hiatus.

  this forum thread, and suggest others yourself for people to check out. If the story is new to you, be sure to comment on it to say where you found it. I'd like to support more sci-fi authors on Royal Road.

  Curious Observer. There's a full schedule on the Discord with POVs listed for each chapter.

  not online today. It's basically a launch system that saves on propellant by using a sling to hurl it into the atmosphere. There's some argument over whether they can even make it work. Is Senator Tulson exaggerating? Is this another difference between our Earth and the alternate present of the story? Time will tell.

  REMINDER: At the request of the Royal Road mod team, all commentary about Earth politics and religion, even the fictional stuff, should go in my Discord server. I don't want to delete your comment, but the Discord is always open.