When he walked into the bay, no one was around. The dull silver gleaming spacecraft sat in the middle of the hanger. It wasn’t a shock to him any longer. He had seen all nine of them during his exploration. He was also convinced that a weapon was being built on the "non-existent" Level–10, even though he had no solid proof. Too many people that he had talked to had made innuendos about a secret project that Dr. Gimbel was working on. He had tried to locate Dr. Gimbel or any member of his team, but no one seemed to know where he was.
He considered asking Devin straight out, but decided it would not be one of his best moves. He would wait until their paths crossed and he had more evidence. He was just about to leave when the door to one of the isolation booths opened and Lynn Yurris stepped out.
“Hey, Dr. Yuriss,” he shouted from across the bay. She started running toward him and when she reached him she threw her arms around him and planted a kiss on his lips. He froze. What in the world had he done to be worthy of this?
She pulled back, took his face in both her hands and said, “You are a genius. You were right. I can’t believe it. Sixty years of work. Do you know what this means? I mean…my God. Sixty years of work solved with a passing comment. You are a brilliant,” she said, speaking rapidly and excitedly.
“Hold it, slow down. I appreciate all the accolades but what did I do?” he asked.
“What did you do? You solved the problem of flux-induced gravitation. It works. I just did it,” she said.
She was bubbling over with excitement.
“I don’t get it. What did I do exactly?” he asked.
She hugged him again, “You solved the missing piece of the puzzle. Everyone was going in the wrong direction all these years and here you come along and bam, send me down another path. But this time it is the right path,” she said, holding both of his hands in hers.
“Lynn. I’m just a plain guy, not a scientist. You need to tell me what happened,” he said.
“This is great, just great; do you remember the other day when you said that maybe the problem was that hot spots occurred when we started it up? You said maybe the core was touching in different places. Maybe it needed more space.”
“And I'm guessing from your reaction, that it was correct?”
“It was brilliant. Yes. I had it milled down just a fraction. Just enough to let it ride on an air cushion. It worked. I have had it up to one hundred percent power and it is totally stable. It just sits there and hums. It’s incredible,” she said.
“Congratulations. That is quite an accomplishment. You just might become famous from this,” he said.
“Me? You should share the credit as well. We would have still been trying to shove the core in tighter if you hadn’t come along,” she said, squeezing his hands.
“No. You’re wrong about the credit. You are the one who made it work. Hell, I didn’t even know what you were really talking about,” Raymond said.
“You didn’t have to do anything else. That was enough. You removed the trees so I could see the forest. That sir is what I call brilliant,” she said.
“So now what?”
“I need to get my team in here to validate the test. I need to let General Devin know as well. This is a huge breakthrough. I don’t know if you understand what this means. Heck, I’m not sure I even understand what it means. It is so earthshaking,” she said letting go of his hands for the first time since she ran to him.
“Devin is here someplace. I rode up in the elevator with him. Do you want me to locate him while you round up your people?”
“That would be great. Don’t tell him what it’s about if you can help it. I want to see the look on his face when it goes above seventy-five percent,” she said and started toward the opposite bay exit.
“You’re brilliant,” she yelled across the bay, the words echoing off the walls. He gave her a little shrug.
It didn’t take long to locate General Devin. He was in the security center watching various monitors.
Raymond stuck his head in the door and said, “General, do you have a minute? I think you might be interested in something.”
“Yes. I can spare some time if you feel it’s important,” the general replied.
He looked at the monitors and saw one labeled Level–9. It was on. Another one was next to it without a level number on it. He knew this wasn’t the time to say anything.
It was always going to be tense between the two men. Eller had been around long enough to know that some people just don’t mesh and there is little that can be done about it. He wasn’t going to spend any time worrying about it. The general walked along side of him to Bay-1 but said nothing. When they got there, Lynn and her staff were standing by the isolation booth.
“General,” she said, extending her hand.
He quickly shook it, “So what have you got?”
“Why don’t you suit up and join me in the booth?” she asked.
“Is it necessary?”
“Just a precautionary measure. I think it will be worth the effort,” she said.
