“Sore is right,” Liz said, rubbing her shoulder. “You know you shouldn’t have kicked her; you could have hurt her.”
“No I couldn’t. Besides the lack of gravity, the shipsuit would have distributed the impact over a bigger area,” Catie said.
“Huh?” Liz said.
“Yeah, what do you mean?” the twins said, risking coming back into range of Catie’s foot.
“The suits will spread a high force impact over a larger area,” Catie said.
“How?” Liz asked.
“You know they’re filled with a thin layer of material?”
“Sure, that’s what conducts the heat away,” Liz said.
“Well, it also acts like Silly Putty, and distributes small-area, high-impact blows over a larger area.”
“What’s Silly Putty?” the twins asked.
“You’ve never played with Silly Putty?”
“No!”
“Well, it’s a putty that you can play with like clay, but if you roll it into a ball and throw it against the wall, it will bounce.”
“Cool!”
“It helps to protect you against small, fast-moving rocks when you’re in space. And it also helps to lessen the force against one of your joints if you get in a bind,” Catie said.
“I could have used that when I played basketball at the Academy,” Liz said. “I really messed my knee up one year taking a charge.”
“It probably would have helped,” Catie said.
“Maybe we should design some braces and such for athletes using this,” Liz said.
“Might be a good business. I’ll ask Nikola and Marcie to look into it.”
“Can we have some Silly Putty?” the twins asked.
“I’ll get some of the stuff they use in our suits and get it to you before I go back to school,” Catie said. “Now get!” Catie wound up her leg like she was going to kick one of them again.
The twins just giggled and bounced up to the ceiling, and then stuck their tongues out at Catie.
“Okay, while we have some time to ourselves, what are the plans for testing the Sakira’s jumpdrive?” Catie asked Liz while the twins raced ahead to their cabins.
“ADI’s going to fly her out and do a few jumps,” Liz said. “We just need to verify that the drives are big enough to handle the Sakira. I don’t see a reason to have anyone aboard when we do the test, do you?”
“I guess not. And that will let you get the test done in just a few days. You could get someone on the Enterprise to be in her when she jumps; but you’re right, we’ve already proven the drives, this is just about size.”
“Glad you agree, because she’s already on her way.”
◆ ◆ ◆
That afternoon, Catie wrapped her hair into a bun, “Lots of practice doing that at the Academy,” she thought. Then she put on a beret to hide her black hair. “Dr. McDowell barely notices me anyway. If he says something, I’ll tell him I’m trying out a new look.”
Catie walked down the passageway to Dr. McDowell’s lab. There weren’t very many people out and about, so she only had to acknowledge three people with a polite nod of her head. There wasn’t any recognition on their parts, and she didn’t know them either.
“Dr. McDowell?” Catie announced herself.
“Huh?”
“Dr. McDowell, it’s Catie. I came by for an update.”
“Oh sure. Give me a minute.”
Catie waited ten minutes while Dr. McDowell finished up the equation he was working on.
Frustrated, he tossed the piece of chalk he was using into the tray and whipped the chalk dust off on his pants.
“You know you could put a whiteboard in here,” Catie suggested.
“Yes, but I can’t stand the smell.”
“Then how about a big digital drawing tablet? It would be just like a whiteboard, but you’d use a stylus.”
“That would be nice; how big a one can I have?”
“I can have one made as big as you’d like, or you could have three of them,” Catie said. “I think it will take a couple of days, but then you could avoid all that chalk dust.”
“Three would be nice.”
“They’ll be here next week,” Catie said.
“Thank you, now what can I do for you?”
“A status update on the jump ships.”
“It’ll work, but I’m still trying to figure out how to best compensate for the drift between the four vessels.”
“Why are they drifting?”
“Because, although they are only a few hundred meters apart, the speed of light is finite, and their positions do change.”
“Oh, I’ll talk to Ajda, she can give you instantaneous position information.”
“Instantaneous?”
“Quantum coupled communication,” Catie said.
“Of course, you would have that,” Dr. McDowell said. “Then, I should be able to redefine some formulas and have a working model in a few weeks.”
“Great. How big an object can we move?”
“I’m not sure yet. We’ll have to start small and learn as we go.”
“Okay, thank you, and please keep me posted,” Catie said, knowing she was unlikely to get any updates from him.
◆ ◆ ◆
“ADI, please make it look like I’m in my condo in Delphi City,” Catie requested.
“You do know that you can set that up with your Comm,” ADI said.
“I do, but I thought you liked to help me,” Catie said.
“I do, but I want to make sure you’re not stuck if I’m too busy.”
“Are you ever too busy?”
“Sometimes,” ADI said. “It’s a lot of work to manage a space station. And when the space carriers are active, I can get very busy.”
“Oh, and Daddy is planning to move the Victory here soon, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he is. Your Avatar is ready.”
“Thank you, ADI.”
“You’re welcome, Cer Catie.”
“Nikola,” Catie messaged.
“Hi, Catie. You’re a little earlier than I expected.”
“I didn’t spend as much time with Dr. McDowell as I had planned.”
“Is that good news?” Nikola asked.
“Sort of, he’s says he’ll be ready to run tests in a few weeks. I had to tell him about the quantum relays.”
“Well, since he’s working on FTL jumps, that’s not a very big reveal.”
“No, it’s not, and if he’d told Ajda what he was struggling with, I’m sure she would have told him.”
“We all know that communication is not his strength,” Nikola said with a giggle.
“That’s an understatement.”
“Let me show you what I’ve done with the mini-Comms,”
