A Tower in Space-Time (The Stasis Stories #5) Read online

  A Tower in Space-Time

  The Stasis Stories

  #5

  Laurence E Dahners

  Copyright 2020

  Laurence E Dahners

  Kindle Edition

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

  Author’s Note

  This is the fifth book of the Stasis Stories.

  Though this book can “stand alone” it’ll be much easier to understand if read as part of the series including:

  A Pause in Space-Time (The Stasis Stories #1)

  The Thunder of Engines (The Stasis Stories #2)

  Radiation Hazard (The Stasis Stories #3) and

  Halting the Reaper (The Stasis Stories #4)

  I’ve minimized the repetition of explanations that would be redundant to the earlier books in order to provide a better reading experience for those who are reading the series.

  Other Books and Series

  by Laurence E Dahners

  Series

  The Ell Donsaii series

  The Vaz series

  The Bonesetter series

  The Blindspot series

  The Proton Field series

  The Hyllis family series

  Single books (not in series)

  The Transmuter’s Daughter

  Six Bits

  Shy Kids Can Make Friends Too

  For the most up to date information go to:

  Laurence E Dahners website

  Or the Amazon Author page

  Table of Contents

  Other Books and Series

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  Author’s Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  Other Books and Series

  Prologue

  AP Charlottesville, Virginia—The University of Virginia Medical Center announced today that it has been saving lives with the stazing technology developed by Staze Incorporated, a new company based in Charlottesville. This technology allows them to put critical patients in “stasis,” a condition in which time is not passing. The patient stays in stasis until the doctors are prepared to treat the patient’s problem. This means, for instance, that a patient in cardiac arrest can be put “on ice” until appropriate specialists and equipment can be gathered to best deal with their condition.

  Their first patient was one of their own emergency physicians who had a stroke while on duty. The vascular interventional suites that administer life-saving treatments for stroke were already busy with other patients, so Dr. Gerald Horton put his colleague in stasis until the treatment unit was available. Horton said, “Actually, because we put our doctor in stasis while awaiting his scan, did the scan, then put him back in stasis while the scan was read and until the interventional suite was available, he probably had less ‘lived’ time between his stroke and his treatment than anyone in history. Since the amount of time the brain is without blood flow from a stroke strongly correlates with outcomes, this has resulted in what appears to be a markedly better result than usually transpires after a stroke as severe as he had.”

  Since that first use, the “stazer,” as it is called, has been used many times in conditions ranging from heart attack to traumatic blood loss. Dr. Horton says that they haven’t seen any adverse effects that can be attributed to stasis, though they are still planning animal studies to look for subtle changes.

  So far, the medical center only has one stazer which is kept in the emergency department. However, it has been transported to other wards of the hospital several times already. Dr. Horton says they are hoping to get more of the units. “I can see the day coming when stazers completely change the way we practice emergency medicine,” he says. “Patients will be put in stasis by the ambulance crew, stopping time until they arrive here in the ED. They will be unstazed briefly for an exam, blood draws and initiation of treatment with an IV, then restazed until we are ready to carry out x-rays and scans. Once the scans are completed, they will be restazed again and only unstazed when a team of specialists is ready to deal with their condition. I also anticipate that, eventually, complex treatment of critical patients will only be undertaken during the daylight hours, a time when appropriate, well-rested specialists can be assembled to deal with their problem.

  Horton says emergency physicians at other hospitals are already clamoring for access to this technology…

  Arya climbed the steps to Tandoori West, an Indian restaurant on the outskirts of Richmond. She’d arranged this date through a website called Select Singles. It served Indian Americans who were trying to navigate a middle ground between traditional arranged Indian marriages and the western tradition of dating in pursuit of love. The software supposedly served the role of the family in finding an appropriate mate according to some nebulous criteria. Unfortunately, she thought it evaluated your social status from your financial situation since it’d asked her to submit her annual earnings and current financials. She’d only provided them with her earnings since she’d officially started working full time at Staze at the beginning of the summer. She’d also given the balance in her checking account. She hadn't made them aware of her approximately nineteen percent stake in Staze—currently valued at about twenty million dollars.

  Unfortunately, the most “compatible” man Select Singles had found for her lived in Richmond, an hour and ten-minute drive from her apartment in Charlottesville. When Rajesh and she had decided to meet in person, she’d suggested they find a restaurant between Richmond and Charlottesville.

  His reply had said, “There probably aren’t any Indian restaurants in the small towns between here and there.” Then he’d suggested Tandoori West. It was indeed between his place and hers. About ten minutes from his apartment and an hour’s drive from hers.

  Her first, unsent, reply had been furious. After giving it a couple of hours, she’d revised it to a stiffly polite, “See you there at seven.”

  It wasn’t too bad, she thought of the drive now that it was over. She’d gotten a lot of work done during the Uber to Richmond and she could certainly afford it. She glanced through a side window into the waiting area and saw Rajesh, looking pretty much as advertised on the website. Just not as well put together, she thought.

  Telling her phone to release the Uber, she opened the door and stepped inside.

  Rajesh was focused on his phone and didn’t look up to see who’d come in.

  Arya said, “Rajesh?”

  He held up a finger for her to wait while he kept reading. Just when her fury was about to explode out of her, he looked up and said, “You’re late.”

  Arya stared at him a moment, thinking, I’m late as a form of petty revenge on you for choosing this place. She didn’t say it, instead, she arched an eyebrow and said, “It’s a long drive down here.”

  “Your app could’ve told you when to leave to be on time.”

  Arya was trying to compose a suitably icy reply when the hostess arrived, “Table for two?”

  Rajesh gave the young woman a curt nod and stood, turning toward the dining room.

  Arya said, “I’ll take a table for one.”

  Rajesh turned to stare at her, fury in his eyes. “You’ll what?!”

  “Take a table for one,” Arya said sweetly. “I find I don’t want to eat with you.”

  “That’s ridiculous!” he said seethingly. “
I leave my business early to go out with you, you’re late, and now you won’t even eat dinner?!”

  Continuing in her sweet tone, Arya said, “You make me drive an hour each way so you can be rude to me? I don’t think so.”

  The eyes of the hostess darted back and forth between them. “Um…”

  Arya let the girl off the hook by smiling and saying, “Can you see if you have a table for one available? I’m famished.”

  Rajesh turned and stormed out the door.

  Arya turned to look at the hostess again, a twinkle in her eye. “Or perhaps you could just let me sit at the table Rajesh reserved?” She winked, “I probably tip a lot better than he does anyway.”

  “Um, yes, Ma’am,” the hostess said. “If you’ll follow me?”

  Later, as she left, Arya thought, The food was good, but how many more disastrous dates am I going to have to go on?

  ***

  A man wearing a loose dark shirt and a baseball cap with the bill tipped low stepped out and glanced around the dimly lit shipping dock at Space-Gen’s Texas facility. Seeing no one, he stepped back into the hall and came back out a moment later. He was wheeling a hand truck with a large cardboard box. He pushed it over to the outgoing pile of UPS cartons, placing his box near the front.

  Head still down, he wheeled the hand truck back to where it came from.

  He threw away his gloves, shirt, windowpane glasses, and hat; each in the depths of a different trash receptacle. Then he slept the remainder of the night on the floor in one of the conference rooms.

  ***

  Having been chased out of the kitchen for meddling, Emmanuel looked around the living room of his and Sophia’s modest little home. He’d posted an announcement at Staze the week before Christmas, inviting those who weren’t able to be with their own families to come to dinner on Christmas Eve.

  Albrecht Kuncher, Staze’s new German bioengineer, was talking quietly with April Lee, the aerospace engineer Staze shared with Space Gen. She was occasionally glancing over at Kaem, who was deep in conversation with Felipe Torreo, a manufacturing engineer from Mexico.

  Emmanuel wandered over to his son, “You two aren’t talking business, are you? This is supposed to be a holiday.”

  They looked up. Both looked guilty. Torreo said, “I’m sorry Mr. Seba. I’ll admit I was taking advantage. It’s just that, at work, I don’t often get a chance to ask Kaem questions.”

  Emmanuel waved it away with a grin, “Oh, if you’re bothering him, that’s okay. I was afraid he was trying to make you work on your holiday.”

  “Hey…” Kaem said. “I’m your son, remember? You’re supposed to worry about me.”

  Bana leaned out of the kitchen, “Hey, lazy brother. We need you to hack up the turkey.”

  Saying, “We’re having a real turkey?!” Kaem quickly rose and headed for the kitchen.

  Emmanuel reflected on all their years in poverty. Years when a few slices of turkey were the best they’d been able to do toward joining the great American turkey-for-the-holidays tradition. He sat down next to Felipe, “What do you imagine your family back home in Mexico’s doing for Christmas?”

  Felipe grinned. “We celebrate Christmas starting on December 12th, so my family’s been celebrating for twelve days already. And there are a lot of days yet to go since it lasts until January 6th. The kids have been in processions called posadas and they’ve been breaking piñatas. People are eating their traditional tamales. I seriously miss it all, but I’m also excited to get to try some traditional American turkey.”

  Soon they were all sitting down at a big table laden with food. Bana asked, “Jeez, Kaem, did you carve this turkey with an ax or a chainsaw?”

  Kaem lifted his nose, “If you don’t like the way it’s carved, you don’t have to eat any of it.”

  “Oh, I’m gonna eat it! Trust me on that.”

  During the meal, Albrecht told them of the German Christmas tradition. Where he came from they usually had goose, the turkey, after all, being native to the Americas.

  After they’d eaten far too much, Sophia sat talking to Albrecht and Felipe about what it’d been like for her and Emmanuel back when they’d first come to the States. They were mostly swapping stories about the things that had been different from what they’d expected, coming from elsewhere.

  Emmanuel was sitting next to Bana while she was talking to Kaem. Lee was sitting on the other side of Kaem, eyes focused on Emmanuel’s son. Emmanuel knew that Lee and Kaem had gone out a couple of times and couldn’t help wondering what was going on between them now.

  Worrying that Lee felt left out, he got up and walked around to sit on the other side of her. “Your family lives in California?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said, giving him a quiet smile. “Outside of Oakland.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t fly home for the holidays.”

  “Yeah,” she sighed. “I screwed up and didn’t make a reservation in time. I’m having to fly out early tomorrow because Christmas day is when I could get a flight.”

  “Ah,” Emmanuel said, understanding. He was about to say something else, but his ear instead caught on his children’s conversation.

  “Thanks for sending me your grades for your first semester,” Kaem said. “I’m proud of you. Staze got a big payday, so I got a bonus. I know you’ve been frugal so far, but, as your Christmas present, I’m going to be able to send you some spending money for the next semester.”

  After all their years of fighting with one another, it warmed Emmanuel’s heart to see Bana throwing her arms around her brother. He could tell it’d affected Bana too because she was trying to wipe away tears without letting her brother notice them. Trying to tease him as she’d always done before, she said, “I know how you are. You just didn’t want to have to wrap a present.”

  Her hoarse voice gave away her true emotions though.

  Kaem gave a soft laugh. “You’ve caught me out. I hate wrapping gifts.”

  Emmanuel thought, That’s very nice, but I need to talk to Kaem about investing those bonuses for himself, now, while the money has time for compound growth. I don’t want him to be caught out poor when he gets older the way Sophia and I have been.

  ~~~

  Their father had gotten up to go into the kitchen for something when Bana said, “Hey, brother. You think we could spend some of your bonus on a family vacation of some kind?” Her voice got hoarse again. “Our family’s never had one…” she cleared her throat, “and now that Mom’s got a job, I think the three of you wage-earners should band together and take me somewhere.” She gave him a sly grin, “It just so happens that my Easter break’s the same time as UVA’s this year.”

  ***

  The neighborhood on the south side of Los Angeles was sketchy enough that the UPS delivery man looked both ways before getting out of his truck. As he wheeled the large box up the broken sidewalk to the porch, he pondered whether there’d been some mistake. It just seemed bizarre that Space-Gen would send a big package like this one to a private residence in such a run-down part of South LA.

  He settled it onto the porch, checked to be sure it wasn’t to be signed for, looked for a doorbell without seeing one, then knocked.

  He backed away so his camera would record the delivery, then turned and headed back down the sidewalk.

  ~~~

  Just two minutes after the UPS truck turned the corner, a panel van pulled in where it’d been parked. Two men got out of the back, one with a hand truck. Less than sixty seconds later they were loading the carton into the back of the van. As soon as they closed the back door, the van pulled away.

  The package had spent less than four minutes on the porch and less than eleven minutes in the neighborhood.

  Chapter One

  Vihan seemed pleasant enough, Arya thought. He lived in Lynchburg but had volunteered to make the hour drive up to Charlottesville to meet Arya. He apparently hadn’t even considered the possibility that she should drive to his town for dinne
r like her last date. They were eating at the Curry Chimney which had excellent food.

  Vihan had truly started his own business, rather than bragging about a business he’d ‘started’ and Arya later finding out he’d actually bought a turnkey franchise—the way one of her previous dates had.

  However, to her dislike, she hadn’t had to ask him about it, he’d made sure she knew of his success.

  “What exactly is it that you’re making?” she asked during a short break in his oration.

  “Archery supplies. Risers, limbs, cams, cables, bowstrings, sights, arrow rests, stabilizers, essentially anything you need for a compound bow. Assembled bows as well of course. Arrows, arrowheads, shafts, and fletching. Accessories like targets and quivers. There are a surprising number of products. For instance, we keep a huge variety of arrows in inventory.”

  Surprised, Arya said, “There are enough archery enthusiasts in Lynchburg to provide demand for all that?”

  “Oh, no.” He chuckled, “Not at all. We sell B2B all over the United States and in several other countries.”

  “By ‘B2B,’ you mean business to business?”

  Vihan nodded, “We did a little direct to consumer business when we were starting out, but it was a huge pain. We gave that up as soon as we could.” He launched into a description of the contracts he had with machine shops that turned out some of the parts, then a description of setting up his suppliers, and hiring people to undertake assembly. It went on and on.

  As a businesswoman, Arya found Vihan’s challenges and successes interesting for a while, but even she started to get bored after it’d gone on for forty minutes. Amazingly to her, Vihan had managed to finish his meal despite the way he’d incessantly talked. How did he do that? she wondered. You’d think I’d have gotten a few more words in while he chewed and swallowed.