The President had arranged for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, his National Security Advisor, and his Chief of Staff to be read into this Presidential Level “Eyes Only” science brief. He needed counsel and advice from his trusted circle on what technology they should pursue and how they could employ it in the war.
All four men arrived by helicopter from the White House and went through several security checkpoints before they arrived at the 44th floor of the HIVE, which was the secured Science Division (SD) floor. This floor and the one above it is where DARPA had some of their greatest secret projects being worked on. Away from the prying eyes of the public, and with extremely limited access to their floors (let alone the HIVE itself), their work was truly clandestine.
As the President walked up to the final checkpoint, he saw Professor Michael Rickenbacker, the Director of Special Projects. “Professor, it’s good to see you. I hope you have some good news for us today,” said the President as he shook his hand.
Smiling at the President, Rickenbacker replied, “I see you brought some people with you for this briefing. Are you sure you want to loop them into this?” he asked, a bit skeptical of the guests.
“Yes, I believe it is time for some additional people to be brought into the ‘circle of trust.’ I need their counsel and advice, and more importantly, I need their perspective for how we can implement these new technologies to help us win the war.”
After leading everyone into a small briefing room, the professor sighed for a moment as he turned down the lights and activated the holographic image display unit at the center of the table. “The information and programs I am about to discuss with you are highly secretive. There are less than a few hundred people who even know about the main project, and less than five people who know about all of the projects combined. We did this for secretive purposes, but also to ensure we had no bleed-over between projects.”
“The first project we are going to talk about is a technology called ‘EmDrive.’” said the professor to the four men in the room. “Have any of you heard of it before?”
The Secretary of Defense looked around the room first before answering, “I believe you are talking about a power or thrust source that uses a resonant cavity to produce thrust without propellant. Correct?”
“That is partially right, yes. We are essentially talking about electromagnetic propulsion; using an EmDrive device, we make an object float, change directions and accelerate or decelerate very quickly. If built into an aircraft, the pilot would activate its engine and then the plane would start to hover or float; as power would be applied to the engines, the aircraft would begin to move in any direction. Using several directional engine ports, the aircraft would be able to climb, descend, accelerate or stop in seconds. Seeing the puzzled look on their faces, the professor brought up the image of a very advanced and futuristic looking fighter aircraft.
“This fighter we are calling the F41 Archangels, leverages an EmDrive propulsion system. It burns no fossil fuels, and does not emit the type of heat a standard fighter does. It can start, stop and turn on a dime and accelerate to speeds of Mach 10,” the professor said with a smile on his face.
“Essentially you have created a scramjet technology that needs no external fuel source and has one heck of steering system, right?” asked Erik Jordan, the Secretary of Defense, skepticism in his voice.
The professor smiled at Mr. Jordan and said, “That is exactly what it can do. But it can do much more than that. We can incorporate this same type of propulsion essentially into virtually all of our current aircraft and increase their speed and maneuverability tenfold. The implications for this technology, just in the transportation sector alone, is amazing. We can also incorporate this into our space program, which is where we would see the greatest advancements,” Professor Rickenbacker explained. He didn’t get to talk about what he did very often, so he could not hide his delight. His face beamed with an almost devilish grin.
General Branson broke into the discussion. He wanted to talk further about the space implementations of this technology. “How else could this be used.?” he asked.
“Right now, the Allies (and the world in general) lack a certain type of resource that can really only be found from asteroids or other types of space rocks. The specific material, Veldspar, has been found in abundance on the Moon. When it is refined down, it creates a specialized material call Tritium4, which is what we use in our armor for the Pershings and Razorbacks. Presently, we are creating a synthetic version of this material, but it is costly, time consuming, and resource intensive. This had not been a problem in the past, because we never needed it in the quantities that we presently find ourselves requiring.” Bringing up a new slide deck with charts and images, Professor Rickenbacker proceeded to show everyone their solution to this problem.
“Mr. President, one thing I would like to gain from you today is your approval to move forward with Operation Pegasus, which is DARPA’s and the AFC’s lunar mining operation,” he requested.
Examining the information, the President asked, “Bring us up to speed on that project again and I will give you a decision. This is going to require a reallocation of some valuable resources, so I would appreciate some input from everyone.”
Changing some images, the Professor began, “Operation Pegasus is a lunar mining operation that, frankly, we have been developing for decades. We continue to update it if there is a significant technology change that could make it a reality or lower the costs. The EmDrive and the Angelic power source have made this operation a truly cost effective reality. Leveraging the EmDrive, the travel time from Earth to the Moon would be cut down to two days. That includes taking off and landing on both surfaces.”
The National Security Advisor broke in to ask, “Excuse me, you said Angelic power source? Can you tell us more about this?”
“Yes, I call it Angelic as the power source is nothing short of amazing. It’s essentially a cold fusion reactor. I will discuss the reactor in greater detail in a short bit, if we can continue on with Pegasus.” He did not wait for permission, but quickly continued.
Showing an image of a space craft, he explained, “What we propose is to build a multipurpose ship to initiate the operation. The vessel you are looking at is what we are calling the Hulk. It’s 5,100 feet in length, 400 feet in height and 300 feet in width.” The National Security Advisor let out a short whistle, saying, “That’s a big ship to construct. Are you proposing to build that in space or here on Earth?”
“We would build the ship here on Earth. Because the ship would use the EmDrive, it would be able to power itself into space without any problem, and return back to Earth if needed. The intent of this ship is to essentially build a self-contained mining operation. Building the ship would be broken down into several operations. The first would be the cargo bay. This section would carry the equipment and vehicles needed to start the mission. It would also carry with it the equipment needed to build a small modular building and two bio-domes. The modular building would be 200 feet by 800 feet, with an eight-foot ceiling. Connected to this central building would be two bio-domes on either side. The bio-domes would be used to grow food and start to establish some initial food production to support and sustain a permanent outpost. This modular building would be expanded with additional bio-domes, which we would incorporate with each successive transport load from the Earth to the Moon.” Rickenbacker showed a short video of the process he had just explained.