The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda #1)(66)

Heather and Mark simultaneously raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll grant you they’re hotter than most.”

Mark plopped down on the end of Heather’s bed. “So what have you come up with?”

Heather started her usual pacing. “I finished reviewing all the data we got on our last trip out to the ship. As much as I hate to admit it, it turns out Mark is right. We do need to build both a subspace receiver and a subspace transmitter.”

“I keep telling you to listen when I speak,” Mark said.

“It’s not that we need it to receive a signal. But we’re going to want to put data on remote network lines, not just receive. For that we’ll need a focused subspace wave packet that will induce a signal in normal space. You can almost think of it as Faraday's induction principle applied across a subspace to normal space interface.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Jennifer.

“Would you mind saying that again in English?” said Mark. “Wait. Boil it down to the Cliff’s Notes version.”

Heather sighed. “It gives us an untraceable wiretap, almost as if we had a QT device installed on the far side. There are two problems, though,” she continued. “The transmitter is going to require a significant power source, capable of generating high-energy photons like hard x-rays or gamma rays.”

“Why?” asked Jennifer.

“It has to ring subspace hard enough to cross the subspace to normal space induction threshold. We need high energy for that kind of signal amplitude. I’m afraid that energy is going to have to come from the hard photons.”

“Well, then, we’re screwed,” said Mark. “Unless, of course, you know someone willing to sell us some plutonium.”

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about that too,” said Heather.

“How did I know that you were going to say that?”

“Cold fusion generates those energetic photons. I think we can build a cold fusion tank the size of an aquarium.”

Mark groaned. “And what, may I ask, is this likely to cost us?”

Heather shrugged. “I read that a physicist at Cal Tech built one in his basement for around ten thousand.”

Jennifer’s eyes widened. “Ten thousand dollars! Where are we going to come up with that kind of cash?”

“Relax. His apparatus was almost as big as my bedroom. Ours shouldn't cost more than two thousand.”

“And that helps, how?”

“I have over a thousand dollars in my checking account. I’m sure each of you has a few hundred saved up.”

Mark gasped. “You want us to personally fund this crazy scheme? I worked hard for that money. I’m saving up for a used car. No way I’m going into senior year without a car.”

Jennifer nodded. “I don’t know, Heather. I was wanting a new laptop. I only have seven hundred and thirty-seven dollars and twenty-two cents in my account.”

“Look, I know it’s not a pleasant idea. Do you think I want to spend all my savings on this little science project? I don’t. But you know what? I don’t think we have any choice. Right now we’re flying blind. We hope our little venture into cyberspace got the NSA people checking out the Rho Project, but we don’t know.”

Mark shook his head. “We can hack into the net again like last time.”

“I don’t want to risk it,” said Jennifer. “They almost caught us last time. My guess is that they would be on us quick.”

“Jen is right,” Heather said. “And we need to be able to hack into any remote network untraceably, even secure ones. The subspace receiver could even pick up signals on fiber-optic networks since light leaks energy into subspace the same as any other source.”

“Okay. I’m just not big on getting cooked by gamma rays.”

“If we were dealing with high levels of the fusion reaction, that might be a problem. We’ll only be producing and using low levels of gamma and x-ray flux. That means we’ll need to have some lead shielding around the tank, but not a lot. The main byproduct of the reaction will be hot water.”

Jennifer stood up. “I think it would be a good idea, though, to set up a little generator that uses the heat to generate electricity and feeds it back into the power for the house. That way if anyone looks at our setup, it just looks like a normal cold fusion experiment.”

“Makes sense,” said Mark, reluctantly. “We can’t be running back and forth to the ship all the time. That means we need to build this thing in our old workshop in the garage. With something like this, you can bet our dads will want to review our plans to ensure it’s safe.”

“You’re right,” said Heather. “I hadn’t thought about that.” She paused, rubbing her chin. “I know I can sell Dad on the idea if we pitch it right. And I think I know how to do that. This could be our entry into the national science competition for next year.”

“Our subspace receiver is going to be in a science contest?” Jennifer asked.

“Not the subspace receiver, just the cold fusion apparatus. The project would be to build a household cold fusion power supply. The gamma probe can be hidden in a small detector that we use to keep track of internal radiation and reaction levels. That way the subspace transmitter and receiver can be hooked to the power supply through an external connection and controlled from a laptop.”