Rj book 16 ebook first s.., p.1
RJ Book 16 ebook First Steps, page 1
The Richard Jackson Saga
Book 16: First Step
By Ed Nelson
Other books by Ed Nelson
The Richard Jackson Saga
Book 1 The Beginning
Bookv2 Schooldays
Book 3 Hollywood
Book 4 In the Movies
Book 5 Star to Deckhand
Book 6 Surfing Dude
Book 7 Third Time is a Charm
Book 8: Oxford University
Book 9: Cold War
Book 10: Taking Care of Business
Book 11: Interesting Times
Book: 12 Escape From Siberia
Book 13. Regicide
Book 14. What’s Under, Down Under?
Book 15: The Lunar Kingdom
Book 16: First Steps
Stand Alone Stories
Ever and Always
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my wife Carol for her support and help as my first reader and editor.
Thanks to my editors, Old Rotorhead, Ernest Bywater, Lonely Dad, and Antti.
In Memory of Ernest Bywater 1954-2022
A great Australian and good friend.
This fictional journey started with the Bellefontaine Ohio School class of 1962.
Quotation
“That’s the way it happened; give or take a lie or two.”
James Garner as Wyatt Earp describing the gunfight at the OK Corral in the movie Sunset.
Copyright © 2022
E. E. Nelson
All rights reserved
Eastern Shore Publishing
2331 West Del Webb Blvd.
Sun City Center, FL 33673
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
ISBN
978-1-953395-45-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 20229113
Table of Contents
The Richard Jackson Saga
Other books by Ed Nelson
Dedication
Quotation
Copyright © 2022
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Cast in Time
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 1
I had received a hand-delivered message that one of my teams had a possible lead on creating anti-gravity. Sending it by hand was the only safe way to the moon.
We had codes upon codes at this point, but we had groups like the secretive NSA working full-time to break our codes. There is no doubt that they could do this. Most people had never heard of this agency. The only reason I knew of them was an off comment made by a President.
I wasn’t even going to say which President. I didn’t think NSA was aware I even knew they existed, which is fine. The UK and China have agencies like that, but I don’t know their names. All I can do is act as though they exist and act appropriately.
Such a change from Hollywood actor to Head of State. Don’t they know it is not polite to read another person’s mail?
That reminded me I had to check up on our program to intercept all messages sent through earth satellites and a computer center on the moon to decrypt them. Yeah, I’m becoming a hypocrite.
Back to the anti-gravity, I made a quick trip to Earth to check up on May-ling. That was my Announced reason.
Upon landing on Earth at the launch center, I was approached by a supervisor I knew well.
“This way, Your Majesty, we have a conference room arranged for a briefing.”
“Thank you.”
Waiting in the room were two people I had met before. They were from Jackson Research. They were older, in their early thirties.
“Thank you for meeting with us, Your Majesty.”
“Forget the titles, and I’m Rick.”
They both relaxed their stiff posture at that. I suppose they had never met a King before.
“I’m Tom, the Division Manager, and this is John from the team which made the discovery. Rick, you sent a sample of exotic ore found in the asteroid belt. We had several teams working on them. John’s team came up with some curious results. John, would you share those with Rick?”
“Your, uh, Rick, We refined some of the sample and then made a thin coating out of it. We wanted to see how it would adhere to other substances. A one-meter square of steel was coated with the refined metal, which still has to be named.”
“We hadn’t tried to control its thickness at this point. Once the melted metal solidified, we ran several tests to see if the materials were bonded or if the ore would peel off easily. It didn’t want to separate at all.”
“We needed to bring the ore back to red hot before we could begin to scrape it off. Even that was a long and tedious process. A technician was assigned to heat the metal and use a chisel to remove the ore coating.”
“The technician went on his lunch break. He left a piece of test equipment on the workbench. He didn’t realize that the electric cord was in contact with the coated steel plate. Since the plate was hot, it melted the electric cord.”
“When the technician returned from lunch, the steel plate was now floating in the air. It had risen about six inches. The only thing restraining it was the electric wire which was now fused to the plate.”
“To say this caused a ruckus is putting it mildly.”
As he told me this, he opened a folder with black and white pictures of the steel plate in the air.
“Our team gathered and brainstormed on what to do next. We feared losing the anti-gravity effect forever if we changed anything. We gathered as much information as possible before trying anything as extreme as turning anything on and off.
I broke in, “That was well thought out. What did you find?”
“We measured everything as precisely as we could. We now measured the coating thickness, which was an uneven paint job. It averaged out as five mils, about what is used on automobiles.”
“Next was the electric current. It was DC, nothing irregular about it. We sent to the steel provider for the metallurgical breakdown of the steel used to form the plate.”
“Times, temperature, humidity, and even the phase of your moon were recorded.”
“You know it is not actually my moon, just a portion of it.”
“Oh, I thought it was all yours now.”
“It may come to that, but not yet. What other findings did you make?”
“We then started loading weights on the plate. It made no difference up to one thousand pounds. That was as high as we could with what we had available.”
“Next, we hot spliced a longer wire to the equipment cord. As soon as it was plugged in and the direct wire disconnected, the plate rose to the limit of the cord.”
“We then attached a rheostat to the circuit. When we varied the current, the plate would raise and lower. We found that a sharp increase in wattage caused the plate to move faster. We found that we could stabilize the plate’s height by keeping the wattage at 1500 watts. This was all done with the weights still in place.”
“What were your next steps?”
“It had been a long day, and we were mentally exhausted, so we locked the room and left it guarded by security.”
Tom said, “We also set up CCTV to record the plate all night and the doorway so we could tell if anyone tried to enter the room without authorization.”
“Good thinking.”
John continued, “After reviewing all the data and concluding that we had collected everything we could, our next step was to see if we could turn it completely off. That was almost a disaster.”
“What happened?”
“As I was reaching to unplug the ele
I was glad I did. She pointed out I was about to drop a thousand pounds of loose weights in the middle of the room.”
We unloaded the weights, thanking Anne many times along the way. I lowered the steel plate to within half an inch of the table. We were now recording everything on CCTV to show you the results. I left them under lock and key at the Research Center as I assume security on this project is very high.”
“As high and tight as it can be made. I need a list of everyone in the know currently. No one is to be added to the list without my say.”
“Okay, we will have to bring others into it eventually.”
“I understand, but we need to be careful. Just so you know, I intend to run a background check on everyone in the know. If they have a financial problem, it will be taken care of, and we will help them with anything we can. Desperation will make people do things they would never consider otherwise.”
I’m glad I read all those spy novels.
“What about someone with a gambling problem or something like that?”
“I’m certain they will enjoy their new job on the moon. Not imprisonment, but no opportunity to get in trouble. How many people are we talking about anyway?”
“There are six of us.”
“The odds are then that no one will have any problems that cause concern. We have to see where this goes, but all of you will be well rewarded.”
“We just got sidetracked. What happened when you turned the current off?”
“The plate came down with a thunk! It would have been a mess if those weights had been on it, and we might have been killed.”
“We must make certain that Anne gets a special reward.”
“Is a trip to the moon possible? That is all she talks about.”
“I think I can make that happen. Now you’re killing me, were you able to turn it back on, and did it work?”
John started to draw his answer out as a tease, but the look I gave changed his mind.
Almost as one word, it came out.
“I plugged it back in, and the plate returned to its position when we unplugged it.”
“It looks like we have anti-gravity. I have to give some thought as to what to do next. By the way, what was the technician who left his radio on?”
“Frank Evans.”
“The name of the ore is Evantonium.”
Chapter 2
I had just stepped out of the conference room when a thought hit me. I turned around before the others had even stood up. “We seem to have anti-gravity. What about gravity?”
From the blank looks I received; they didn’t understand.
“We can make things lighter. Can we make them heavier?”
Tom replied, “We have been so focused on anti-gravity that we haven’t given higher gravity a thought. I don’t see how that would be possible.”
“Have you tried anything simple like reversing the polarity of the current?”
“No.”
“Try that and see what happens. I suggest putting a small scale on the plate and a one-pound weight when you try it. Also, I think it is time to upgrade the safety of the testing. Separate rooms for the observers and the testbed. We dodged a bullet, thanks to Anne. Let’s don’t tempt fate again.”
“A new test suite is in the process of being set up as we speak.”
Another thought came to my mind.
“Do you think we could talk your crew into running all their tests on the moon in the near future? I’m certain that it is the only way to keep it secret. I would pay for everything, including moving families if needed.”
“Can I discuss it with my group?”
“Tom, I want everyone’s positive buy-in. As I said earlier, it isn’t imprisonment, but I would like to limit the spying opportunities until we have working models.”
“I will call a team meeting as soon as John and I get back to California.”
I asked John, “How would you feel about working on the moon?”
“I would have to discuss it with my wife. What would we do about schooling our two kids? They are in the first and fourth grades.”
“We already have a school set up, so that won’t be a problem. There is a fully staffed hospital on site.”
I chuckled as I added, “We don’t have much in the way of outdoor activities yet. But we do have a large play area inside the base. As an additional incentive, I will double everyone’s salary. My new Kingdom hasn’t instituted an income tax yet. There are no promises to the future, but any taxes wouldn’t be retroactive.”
Tom broke in, “Count me in.”
John spoke up right behind him, “Me too.”
“It looks like Anne’s trip to the moon became a tour group.”
Once more, we shook hands, and I departed. My next stop was to the Forbidden City to see my wife.
On the short flight to Beijing, I thought about the ramifications of controlling gravity. The possibilities were mind-boggling. I didn’t write anything down, maybe I was paranoid, but this had to be handled carefully.
Once at the palace, I went immediately to May-ling’s suite. I called it hers because I spent little time there. This was a sad state of events, but the reality was that we lived two different lives. I had no idea how this would work out in the long run.
I did know that I would make it work out. I loved her, and she would be the mother of my child.
She was waiting for me. We had two hours of personal time before any meetings. We used them wisely.
After our first frantic hour, we brought each other up to date on what we had done. Mostly administrative matters. When it came time for me to tell her about our advances in controlling gravity, I wrote a note asking if the room might be bugged.
She nodded yes.
We both needed a shower at that point, so I could whisper under the running water what had been discovered. She asked if she could share it at this time. I asked her not to until we knew for certain that it worked. We had just taken our first steps.
She was okay with that. It made me feel good. It was us against the world. Not just the world but the whole solar system!
When we were dressed for our meetings, her baby bump was noticeable. I loved to feel her belly, knowing a new life was growing there. Our new life.
A son would be wonderful, someone to teach how to be a man or play baseball. A daughter was a scary thought. I made a vow that I wouldn’t be wrapped around her finger. Right.
I pity the fool that would try to date my little girl.
May-ling’s maternity clothes were decorated with good luck charms in gold thread. She told me pictures were taken for the state media every time she appeared in a new outfit.
The Chinese people followed her pregnancy avidly. The rest of the world even showed some interest. A division of Mary’s company was coming out with a line of maternity clothes based on May-ling’s.
Mary’s new company had a different name, The Modern Woman, and had no direct link to her young lady’s clothing line. A connection might imply encouragement where it wasn’t needed!
Security guards escorted us when we left the suite, and May-ling had two secretaries vying for her attention on different issues.
Our first meeting was on the state of the new province of Siberia. I was there as a courtesy.
Things were advancing well.
The summer harvest was ready to start in their short growing season. Rye was doing particularly well, to the point that it could be exported. Other crops were making the Siberian sell sufficient. These were barley, wheat, buckwheat, and millet. Vegetables like peas, cabbage, turnips, carrots, onions, and garlic made for a decent diet.
The Tsars and the following communist governments had mismanaged agriculture badly. Now using crop rotation and tractor-drawn equipment, the land was productive. These tractors were the most expensive part of developing Siberia.
Butter production was one thing the Russians got right until their internal politics messed it up. This was now being revived and promised to be a great success.
There was some fur trapping going on, but it wasn’t encouraged. The Empress had decided the government would be neutral on the issue.
