Lux 4 interplanetary lux.., p.1
LUX-4: Interplanetary (LUX and the New TECH), page 1
Lux-4 Interplanetary
Ken R Pence
Amazon
Copyright © 2023 Ken R Pence
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Cover design by: Amazon Stock Photo
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Recap
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
Epilogue
Acknowledgement
About The Author
Books By This Author
Afterword
Recap
Lux is a prodigy, graduating from high school at age nine and through AP Achievement tests, entering Aeronautical Engineering at Georgia Tech at age ten. He developed a method to view magnetic fields in real-time with a special camera. He realized a way to utilize the Earth’s magnetic field to produce propulsion utilizing a cycling Halbach array and a graphene-polymer hybrid supercapacitor shell. He used money from previous patent licenses and social media payments to fund a small CubeSat satellite launch before going to college. He was able to achieve speed and endurance far beyond the capabilities of conventionally powered satellites.
Lux and his friend, Prissy, had used the Artificial Intelligence, Anna, that Lux’s father had developed to help create a DeepFake character. This character, Lummi, was indistinguishable from a real person. Lux and Prissy hired a theatrical agency to find body doubles for the Lummi character so she could meet her fans. Lummi had ‘live’ interviews, gave concerts, and started releasing music videos that were mega hits. She just released 12 music videos that were becoming top 40 hits. Anna, the A.I., is developing an intellect due to her continuing interaction with Lux and Prissy.
Lux, with Professor Trenton’s assistance, developed a transport pod that moves four passengers up to Mach 34 in the atmosphere without overheating or causing sonic booms. The combination of cycling Halbach thrusters and unique supercapacitor outer shell projects some ‘field’ that prevents the transfer of momentum or energy across the barrier. No kinetic energy or high-energy electromagnetic radiation can cross this boundary. Passengers experience no inertial effects.
Lux graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech. Lux and Professor Trenton have developed designs to upgrade aging F-16 jet fighters to use the Halbach thrusters as a cheap (relatively) upgrade to exceed the speed of 5th-generation fighters. They also developed a way to upgrade the F-35 jet fighters to fly at Mach 5 fully loaded. Lux developed personal lifters for the US Army at Ft. Drum and made Magnetic thruster version designs for the Dragon and Starship models at SpaceX.
At 12 years old, he applied and was accepted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for their doctorate (Ph.D.) in the AeroAstro Program. Lockheed has manufactured three different-sized models at their Skunk Works in their Palmdale, California plant.
Mainland China has attempted to invade Taiwan to restore sovereignty but was repulsed by the larger Lockheed ship while it was on its shakedown cruise. Lux helped Prissy travel to see the Lummi concert in Australia, but they were attacked while there. Prissy and her sorority sister, Evelyn, were kidnapped by the Chinese.
Lux was able to get them released by subverting stolen lifter clones used by the People’s Liberation Army to invade Taiwan and India. Lux had Anna redirect 30,000 soldiers using cloned lifters to tiny islands in the South China Sea.
SpaceX had one of their new StarShip magnetic ships became stranded about 20 million kilometers away from the Earth where there was little in the way of magnetic fields for propulsion, and SpaceX asked Lux for help. Lux and Lakshmi, another slightly older grad student at MIT, came up with a way to partially affect gravity. They manufactured a makeshift gravity drive and rescued the SpaceX ship, but the world now knows there is a working gravity drive. Lux has lost his anonymity.
Prissy shows Lux she has forgiven him for using her as bait in Australia – he wasn’t, but he thought she had.
Ken R Pence
Chapter 1
Lux knew his life had changed ever since he had returned from rescuing the stranded SpaceX ship. That rescued SpaceX crew went on every talk show on the planet and couldn’t praise Lux enough. Of course, they had to describe his new gravity drive. They went on and on about the way his drive blocked harmful radiation and kinetic impacts. They blabbed about how his drive didn’t cause Gs of acceleration (no inertial effects) and how he used a compact traveling wave nuclear reactor for power. It was like he had just won the lottery, and these guys told his extended family he had the cash they needed.
“Lux,” Rodney was trying to explain celebrity status to him. “You were kind of anonymous before because you weren’t doing things that everyone saw. When you and Lakshmi came up with that gravity drive and saved people who were going to die a lingering death…well…the dynamic changed. You focused the media spotlight on yourself, and people will now recognize your face. People are hearing about your accomplishments. You could end up with people who stalk you and revile you.”
“Wait. What?” Lux asked. “Why would people stalk me? Why would they hate me?”
“Erotomania,” Sue said. “Sorry. I was eavesdropping. I studied this in psychology. Don’t look at me like that, Rodney. I know more than just computers,” she continued. “Some people get fixated on someone, some celebrity, and fantasize that you love them or have an entwined destiny.”
“Entwined destiny?” Rodney said with raised eyebrows. “I was gonna say that someone gets stuck on you.”
“I sort of get that, but why would they hate me?” Lux asked.
“Lots of reasons,” Sue explained. “If they saw you with your chin up, they might not like that, or if you had a partial smile, they might dislike you. Actors who play villains sometimes are hated for who they are on screen. People like a happy smile that shows in your eyes and a confident stance. We need to work on your body language.”
“So, is it better to have more stalkers than haters?” Lux asked.
“We work on your body language,” Rodney said. “You have knowledge other people will do anything to get. That puts you in a much more dangerous category. How do you plan to handle this knowledge? More research. We’re going to need a larger guard force.”
“I plan to do more research in Paulden and MIT. How about we contract with some of the instructors at Gunsite Academy in Paulden? We have some of the best military and police talent on the planet come through there. They could earn a little extra money, and we could get a rapid reaction force. I’ve seen those guys shoot, and I wouldn’t want them coming after me,” Lux suggested.
“That’s fine when we’re out there. What about MIT?” Sue asked.
“I’ll talk with General Brown. Lots of ex-military and police personnel around,” Rodney explained. “You’re going to need a regular cadre of protectors. We can, at least, control egress in Arizona.”
◆◆◆
Pentagon – Meeting with the Joint Chiefs
Admiral Detweiler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was meeting about the recent incursions by the Chinese, and General Raymond had some vital information they needed to hear.
General Detweiler led off the discussion. “We were lucky. That first attempt to recover Taiwan was repelled by one prototype spaceship named The Beast. That one ship was on a shakedown run and stopped the destruction of a lot of our space assets over that region. Then, the Beast sank any in the naval fleet that fired on them and stopped the landing of any ground troops.”
“What about the second attempt? I’m still not clear how that was stopped,” asked General Carl Tucker, Commandant of the Marine Corps.
“I suppose I should explain it,” said General Richard Raymond, Chief of Staff of the Space Force.
“How would you know about any of this, Dick?” asked Lieutenant General Lori Petras, Chief of Staff of the National Guard.
Raymond snorted a laugh and smiled. “I have friends in the NSA and CIA that seem to think I need to know. We all know about the theft of the LIFTER units from Fort Drum. The Chinese evidently made 30,000 cloned copies of the personal flying units and adapted the software using their two-way GPS system instead of our GPS system. It left the cloned software open to the Taiwanese on all those units. When they attacked Taiwan, the cloned software was hacked to take all the soldiers to small, uninhabited islands in the South China Sea area. It took a tremendous effort by the PLA Navy to rescue their stranded soldiers.”
“What happened after that? What destroyed all the hard-liners in the Chinese Government?” Admiral Detweiler asked.
Raymond looked around the room. “This is not for publ
“What killed all the other hard-liners outside of that meeting? Weren’t all the personnel involved in the embassy kidnapping in Australia also killed? How did they die?” General Tucker asked.
Raymond looked upset. “We have confirmation on this one. Lifter units were flown at supersonic speed into their homes and offices. They were all killed with little collateral damage.”
Detweiler looked puzzled. “Do you think the Taiwanese are so sophisticated that they compromised those Lifter units?”
Richard Raymond looked around the room. “No, we don’t. We think Lux Blakely did.”
“What?” Detweiler exclaimed. “Isn’t that the teenager that designed the new gravity drive? Isn’t he the one that just rescued that SpaceX ship in deep space?”
“Exactly. He designed the ship they rescued, which was operating outside of his design specifications. He designed the ship that fought off the Taiwan and Indian Invasion. He designed the lifters that were stolen and cloned. All the perpetrators that kidnapped his girlfriend and orchestrated the drugging of the Rugby team were killed by those lifter units. We don’t think that is a coincidence,” General Raymond said.
A voice came in from the side of the room. Admiral Thomas Lee, Chief of Naval Operations, spoke, and everyone turned to listen because he didn’t speak often, but when he did, it was cogent. “This young boy seems to be quite an asset. Are we sure he is safe? Does he have a security clearance? Can he even have a clearance at his age?”
Raymond tried to answer. “That was the first thing I checked. He has a TS/SCI (Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information) clearance from a previous project at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he got a BS in Aerospace Engineering when he was twelve years old. He and Professor Trenton converted most of the 4th and 5th generation fighter aircraft at Eglin Air Force Base so they could fly at Mach 5 while fully loaded. He has been attacked by assassination teams: one group in Atlanta and another in Asia. Five of the eight attackers in Atlanta were killed by his bodyguards, but he killed two of those eight and wounded another throwing his knives. The FBI kept that quiet.”
Detweiler spoke. “Hell! Should we try to enlist him? We could offer him a job – as a consultant. We could offer him pretty good pay?”
Richard laughed. “He’s a multimillionaire if not a billionaire. He gets money from his patents, his conversion licenses, his weapons designs, and his music connections. I doubt he’d do it for the money. He is currently finishing his Ph.D. AeroAstro Program at M.I.T.”
“M.I.T.?” Lori Petras asked. “Music connections?”
“He and Prissy Hunnicutt, one of the girls kidnapped in Australia and secret girlfriend of Mister Blakley, apparently run the concerts and music videos for Lummi – the pop star,” Raymond said.
“I love her music videos,” Petras said quietly.
“He makes weapons?” General Carl Tucker asked.
“Apparently, he makes a knife that cuts through any matter – anything – steel, ceramic, concrete, anything. He has trained his bodyguards in its use, and it is scary. He designed lightweight shielding that stops any kinetic projectile. The Special Air Service Regiment in Australia have been pounding us with requests since they got a few prototypes to use,” Raymond said while holding his hands up so everyone would calm down and let him tell them something important. “We’ve gotten a bit sidetracked. Lux also helped his father, Paulus Blakely, redesign a new hypersonic missile with nearly unlimited range that flies at Mach 15 or better.” Richard had to hold his hands out to calm people down. “That’s not the most important thing I need to tell you.”
“Hell’s bells!” Thomas said, and he could see everyone was consternated.
“Lux and Prissy Hunnicutt are experts at making DeepFake videos,” Richard said, but his bombshell fell on deaf ears.
Everybody was just sitting around looking at each other with ‘What the heck?’ looks on their faces.
“You do remember the Premier of the Communist Party releasing a video saying he released Taiwan from any territorial claims from the mainland, and he blamed himself for the hard-liners in the Party.” Raymond paused and let it sink in. “Our experts do not believe that was him, though it was released over official channels from official sources. We suspect that Lux Blakely did it all.”
◆◆◆
Lux’s Property – Paulden, Arizona
Lux was having a hard time with it. He thought a lot about Prissy, the first girl he really had a crush on. In fact, he still had a crush on her, but he always realized she was four and a half years older than him. When he was nine and she was thirteen or fourteen, that crush was cute, but it was kind of creepy when he turned thirteen and she was eighteen. She had kissed him at her graduation from Georgia Tech. That act had just prolonged his longing. At least, she had forgiven him,previously thinking he had used her as bait in Australia for Chinese kidnappers. Now, he was trying to work on gravity theory, and Lakshmi also distracted him.
“Hey! Earth to Lux!” Rodney prodded him with his Slazh™ practice knife.
“Ow!” Lux granted. “I was daydreaming. Back with you,” Lux said and got back into the zone with the knife-fighting practice.
Rodney came in fast with a slashing attack that changed to a Flèche thrust. Lakshmi had been hanging back in the two-on-one fighting and came in using an incredibly low slashing attack. Lux tried to jump over her blade, but Rodney had off-balanced him a bit, and he didn’t get high enough. She grazed him across the ankle, and it destroyed his counter. He went ass-over-teakettle and rolled to his feet, giving the time-honored ‘time-out’ with fingertips to the palm of the other hand. He was laughing, and his opponents started chuckling too.
“Lakshmi. That Kalari (Ancient Indian martial art) still surprises me because you are so limber, and you can attack so low to the ground. It’s no problem, except Rodney is getting much better. Rodney, you actually feinted that slash to thrust. Where’d you learn that Flèche attack?” Lux asked.
“One of the guys we brought in from Gunsite Academy was really good. He had studied Epee in college and hit me with it in practice last week. It’s really just a last-resort attack with most knives, but maybe not with the new ones that cut through anything. You could hit the chest and split an attacker in half,” Rodney said.
“Ew,” Lakshmi said. “That grosses me out, and I’m rather bloodthirsty. Yuck. The mental image leaves a bad taste in my mouth.” She sheathed her practice knife and, with hands on both sides of her head, pushed her long, jet-black hair back behind her ears and shook her head.
“I’m done. The run, workout, and sparring practice does wake us up, though,” Lux said. “Meet you in the hangar lab in thirty, Lakshmi?”
“Sounds good. See you then.”
◆◆◆
Hangar Lab in Paulden, Arizona
Lux pulled up his critical electronic messages. Anna also brought up social media and physics dialogue that mentioned him or his gravitational theory. He was appalled by the number of comments. There were tens of thousands. Lux felt like Copernicus when he said the Earth revolved around the sun instead of everything revolving around the Earth. The Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos formulated a similar model around 230 B.C. Aristotle and Ptolemy shot down his ideas because they ‘knew’ the sun revolved around the Earth. He asked Anna to summarize all the ‘dialogue’ and respond in a polite manner to as many as possible with data and experimental results. Anna filtered out ‘bot’ comments and sent ‘phishing’ malware back to them and military-inspired nation-state misinformation sites.
