“I’m okay, Jer,” Jarrod strained to say, still trying to catch his breath. “Do what these guys tell you. Your mom and dad are both fine.” He hoped Jer would catch his subtle message that Ryan was still at large and both his parents were trying to find him.
“Cut the bullshit, Professor,” Kilmer demanded. “Git yer arse movin’ and fire up the machine…Now!”
“I’ll need the laptop,” he said, looking at Starkovich. “But this isn’t a one- shot deal, Mr. Leader. You see, to levitate anything, you need to know certain parameters to generate the correct flow of gravitrons. I don’t expect you know what I mean, but I’m sure Mills here understands. How much core is available?” he asked, looking at Aldin.
“There’s five pounds in the generator right now, Professor,” Aldin replied, sheepishly, still frightened from the confrontation he had just witnessed.
“What’s your maximum electrical throughput?” Jarrod asked next, his mind switching to technical considerations for firing up the biggest gravitron accelerator he’d ever imagined.
“We’ve got 440 volts on a 300-amp circuit connected to the generator assembly, Professor Conrad,” Aldin replied.
“Wow…that much, huh?” Jarrod said, arching his eyebrows. That’s all I need to know. “What shall we levitate, then?” he asked, looking to Kilmer for direction.
“Ya tell me, Professor. What will five pounds of radioactive fuel lift?”
“How about we lift…that?” Jarrod said, pointing at Colt’s Humvee standing midway between the trailer and the center of the ware-house. The Humvee looked like it had just come off a battlefield. There were bullet-hole pockmarks over the entire shell of the vehicle and the front bumper was partially askew from ramming the concrete barrier at the entrance to the Livermore property. Jarrod figured this was the vehicle they used to steal the missing nuclear fuel.
“You’re kidding…right?” Colt exclaimed blown away that Jarrod was actually considering levitating the ten-ton Humvee.
“Kidding…no. Confident it’ll work…no. I’ve only done this under closely controlled lab conditions using grams of nuclear fuel in the core. This will be the biggest mass I’ve ever attempted to levitate,” he answered, careful to handicap his chances in case of failure. “But assuming you’ve assembled the device according to my specifications, the core you’ve provided should be capable of generating a flow of gravitrons enough to lift that vehicle. Since I have no empirical evidence to guarantee what the machine will do, however…personally, I’d get everyone as far back as possible.”
Jarrod intended to make the uncertainty of operating his machine grave enough that he would be left unguarded in the control console with Mills. True to his words, though, he really had no idea what to expect; stimulating the core with too much electrical force could theoretically start a nuclear chain reaction. A five-pound nuclear bomb of this size would be catastrophic to the entire Bay Area.
“Good oh, but no funny stuff, pally,” Kilmer groused. “R’member, I hold all the cards. How far back is safe?”
“Out of the state,” Jarrod said sarcastically, “but since I know you won’t fall for that, I would suggest you at least gather at the far end of the building. We lose control of the core containment, though, and this entire area will be contaminated. You won’t be far enough away if that happens.”
He turned his attention to his nephew once more. “Jeremiah, are you alright, son? We’re going to be okay…you hear me?”
“I’m fine, Uncle Jarrod. Don’t worry about me,” Jer replied confidently. “Let’s see you levitate the Humvee. That’ll be sweet,” he added, caught up in the momentous possibility of witnessing his uncle achieve history.
Jarrod grabbed his laptop from Starkovich and followed Aldin Mills to the collapsible steps mounted to the side of the trailer. Starkovich accompanied both men onto the platform of the trailer, standing guard over them as they initiated the start-up sequence of the antigravity machine. Mills entered the control console first and began powering up the various systems to actuate the machine. The console looked like it was designed for the Space Shuttle-dials, buttons, gauges, and switches covered the entire surface of the six-foot by three-foot control center. It looked to Jarrod as if Mills had followed his instructions to the letter, keeping the focal array in the direct center of the console to capture the operator’s undivided attention.
When all the systems were powered up, Mills began slowly turning an oversized orange knob, and the activator arm on the microwave dish started to move into position. It rose systematically from its prone position on the trailer to a height of about fifteen feet and then oriented toward the Humvee. Mills then used the camera located within the microwave dish to focus on the target, much like sighting a gun. The monitor at the center of the console had a crosshair superimposed upon the glass that Mills used to perfectly center the Humvee. With the target centered, he locked the actuating arm in place and a red blinking light on the console turned steadily green. The microwave dish would be beaming the gravitrons generated by the turbine directly at the center of the crosshairs.
These steps completed, Mills began the initiating sequence for powering up the gravitron generator. He input a series of coordinates and set a number of dials to account for the five-pound nuclear core with an electrical throughput of 440 volts and 300 amperes. He engaged another green dial marked “turbine” and slowly the generator came to life. It began spinning a u-joint coupling, converting the electrical impulse to a mechanical force, rotating the huge generator atop the trailer.
“Okay, Professor, it’s up to you…this is as far as your plans have taken me,” Mills shouted, looking over at Jarrod. “I know you don’t approve of my job here…but I hope you’ll appreciate I’ve completed your design without deviation. This machine is a veritable work of art, Professor Conrad. Be my guest,” he said, standing out of the way and bowing differentially to Jarrod as he entered the command module.
“Is there Wi-Fi available, or do I need a patch?” Jarrod asked, taking the opportunity to send Sarah and Ryan a message.
“Yeah, thanks to Dallas Weaver, we have Internet capability everywhere in the warehouse,” Mills replied enthusiastically.
“Perfect. I may need to interface the mainframe at Stanford; hopefully I have everything I need right here,” he said, keeping the ruse alive.
Jarrod opened the laptop and quickly entered the security password that protected against anyone but him accessing the program files. He then opened his Microsoft Outlook, which automatically uploaded email messages stored in his outbox-and his message to Sarah was on its way. Next he opened the sent file to verify it was delivered and deleted the message to make it difficult to trace. Fortunately the control panel shrouded by Plexiglas made it hard for Starkovich to see exactly what he was doing. Good thinking, Dr. Mills.
With the urgent email about Jer’s safety uploaded to Sarah, he turned his full attention to activation of the machine. He moved cautiously at first, making sure his laptop was turned away from Mills and Starkovich, both of whom continued to hover on the outside of the command module.
Jarrod made the interface between the machine’s computer and his laptop without difficulty, feeding input that would control the precise electrical force applied to the spinning five-pound nuclear core. As he did so, there was a slight change in pitch coming from the machine; it now emitted a low-decibel rumble rather than the higher-pitched hum that preceded his new input. Corresponding with the lower-pitched rumble, the entire trailer began to shudder slightly. Jarrod felt a sense of exhilaration upon realizing that the rumble and change in pitch meant that his antigravity machine was undoubtedly generating gravitrons for the very first time.
“Okay, boys, keep your eyes peeled on the Humvee,” Jarrod yelled excitedly over the din of the machine forcefully vibrating and spinning at full speed.