Andrew slapped him on the shoulder, and turned back to the room. “Now, if you wish, we offer the opportunity for all of you to experience the future of travel. If you have no objections, would you line up and walk through the far ring single file. If you will just allow a second between people you will be fine.”
To the credit of those in the room, all rose, lined up, and walked through the rings. Looks of amazement were on most of the faces as they emerged at the far end.
Admiral Craddock said, “Thank you, Moira and Andrew. Now if everyone will return to your seats, please.”
The officers all returned to their seats. Admiral Craddock waited for them to get settled and said, “This was just the first demonstration. We will put on a similar demonstration for the chiefs and crew. In two weeks time the ring will reach here from Tau Ceti. A number of probes will be sent through the rings to fine tune the settings and verify their safety. The Vigilant will be the first ship to make the passage to Tau Ceti and return. Then a single F-53 will make the round trip. That one will be followed by a two-ship formation flight through the rings. When they return, an entire flight will make the trip, followed by the entire squadron’s formation flight with and without the Vigilant through the ring. Provided all the tests are successful, we will recommend convening an admiralty board and determine if the system is ready for acquisition and deployment throughout GR space. We figure we can have twelve rings within the first year, twenty-four the next. We have plans for over 100 rings to connect all corners of the Republic within five years' time. Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your cooperation.”
LCDR Timmons stayed behind to confer with Admiral Craddock, releasing Kelly for the rest of the day. He wasn’t on duty this weekend, so he had the rest of the day and the next two for himself. Angie had squadron on-call duty all weekend. She was not in a good mood. He arranged to see her next weekend.
Kelly checked to see if there was any word on when Tammy would be coming in. The space-going dry dock was still four days out. It had some sort of engine problem and was coming in slower than expected. Kelly called Candy to see if she had plans for the weekend. Candy was ecstatic when he called. She was taking ownership of her air car that afternoon and invited him for its maiden flight. She told him to pack hiking clothes and walking shoes. Kelly happily accepted and arranged to meet her at her office.
Kelly went back to the ship, packed a bag, made sure his communicator was fully charged, and left for Candy’s office. He found her on the terminal at her desk. She looked up, saw him, and grinned from ear to ear. She logged off her terminal, threw the papers on her desktop into a drawer, grabbed a large duffle from the corner, and ran out the door, yelling, “Come on!”
Kelly quickly followed her out to the shuttle stop outside her office. A shuttle was waiting. They climbed in and Candy programmed it to take them to the air car dealer outside the main gate. Candy regaled him with all the features her air car had. She couldn’t wait to get behind the controls and take off.
The dealership was small. At the prices they charged, they didn’t sell enough to have a large inventory, but what was there was impressive. The dealer had all the agreements ready for her when she arrived. She quickly agreed and sealed the deal with her thumbprint and credit chit. The salesman expertly ran her through the operating procedures and checked her out in how the aircar worked. It was essentially as easy to operate as a base shuttle, albeit a hovering and flying shuttle. The aircar was equipped with full flight controls, but it had a fully automatic mode that most owners used. The computer actually flew the aircar and it wouldn’t allow an operator to do anything dangerous.
Kelly had to admit that the air car was beautiful. It was a deep blue, almost purple. The lines were sleek and it just dripped speed. It had wheels for ground operation like a car, but four thrusters on each corner gave it the ability to fly at an altitude up to 3000 meters. The cabin was large enough for four people and it could carry luggage for all of them for a long weekend. It was roomy and comfortable.
The salesman took Candy out for a quick flight to make sure she understood how to operate the air car. She went in a big circle around the dealership and came back. The salesman leapt out. Candy yelled at Kelly to get her bag and get in. Kelly grabbed her bag and hopped in. The bag was heavier than it looked and threw him off balance slightly.
Candy programmed the ship, activated the flight program and they were off.
Kelly asked, “Where are we going?”
“I’m going to show you my mountain.”
“Your mountain?”
“Remember I was thinking about building a house in the mountains? Well, I found the perfect site. It’s a ledge on the side of a mountain, a small meadow with a spring and a small waterfall. It’s going to cost me some credits to put a house there, because everything will need to be flown in. I’m looking at having a house prefabricated and brought in. That way will be cheaper, because they will have minimal work to do on site. Even with the cost of a hover ship to bring it in, it's cheaper than building it all on site. It will take us a few minutes to get there and the car is on autopilot. What shall we do to pass the time?”
Kelly considered this to be a rhetorical question, because she slid across the bench seat and into his arms before he could respond.
They eventually arrived in the vicinity of Candy’s property and the air car circled the spot, waiting for landing instructions. Kelly and Candy untangled and she told the air car where to land.
The property was everything that Candy had described. Those peculiar almost palm tree-looking trees covered the edges of the clearing. It had a spring with pure, crystal clear water. The waterfall was a mere trickle now, but Kelly could see how rain uphill of it would cause it to become spectacular. The ground was soft and covered with a short, soft grass. The real selling point had to be the view. The slope faced almost due south and had a breathtaking view of a large intermountain valley and a mountain range to the south. The property ended in a heart-stopping drop of about a kilometer to the start of the valley below.
Kelly turned around to see that Candy had pulled her duffle from the air car. She carried it over to near the stream and started pulling things out.
“Kelly, come over here and help me set this stuff up.”
Kelly walked over and she tossed a medium stuff bag his way. He opened it and extracted a tent and two sleeping bags with self-inflating pads. He made short work of the shelter, setting it up, and laying out the sleeping bags. Kelly looked up as Candy walked over with both of their duffles.
“Give me a minute to change out of these work clothes and we can explore a bit.”
Kelly replied, “I need to change, too. Hand me my bag.”
The two changed out of their clothes and into shirts, shorts, and hiking shoes. Kelly got changed first and Candy sent him to continue setting up camp. He looked in her duffle and found assorted camping supplies, dehydrated rations, a couple of bottles of wine, and a small cook stove. He also found a collapsible water container and a water purification device. Kelly went over to the spring and started filling the container. Candy walked over as he finished. She was wearing a mesh knit halter top and mesh shorts. They didn’t leave much to the imagination.
“Isn’t this place beautiful? Short of climbing up from below or down from above, there is no way to get here other than with an air car. I love the isolation.”
She walked Kelly over toward the center of the clearing and said, “This is where I want to site the house.”
She pulled a pocket terminal out, pushed a button and a holographic image of a house appeared.
“This is what I am looking at putting here.”
Kelly saw a roughly square house with wide eaves and open louvers for its external walls. A rectangular extension protruded from the front. The peaked roof had dormers on all four sides. The dormer above the front elevation had glass doors and a balcony over the rectangular extension. There was a cupola on the peak of the roof.