Radiation Hazard (The Stasis Stories #3) Read online

  Seba said, “Big on the ends and thin in the middle, so you can use those fat ends to apply tremendous pressure to the skinny middle, right?”

  “Yeah. They’d like a specimen that has two plates at least as big as the three by six-inch testing specimen you’ve already provided, joined by a meter-long wire that’s as thin as you can make it.”

  “That’s about one millimeter.”

  Art said, “Yeah. Then they need one more three by six plate. They’ll load it in bending by holding it up on the two ends and pushing down in the middle with the third plate. They feel sure they can find it’s flexural limits with that setup.”

  “We’d love to know if it has limits. If you’ll promise to tell us what you find, we’ll be happy to make you a test-specimen like that.”

  “Will do,” Art said. He translated the measurements in his mind. Seba doesn’t think we can break a forty-inch-long wire, that’s only 1/25th of an inch thick?! He blinked, remembering that the wire wouldn’t be made out of metal, it’d be some kind of disruption in the space-time continuum. He laughed, The guys at the lab are gonna be chapped if they can’t break it.

  Chapter Five

  Los Angeles—An undisclosed source at Space-Gen claims that the company is testing a new material called “Stade” that it’s hoping to use to build its next-generation of rocket engines. If the claims are true, this new material isn’t a mere incremental improvement, but something that’s far lighter, much more heat tolerant, and many times stronger than current alloys. It’s also rumored that it isn’t a metallic alloy at all. Space-Gen is apparently hoping to build not just their engines, but much of the rest of their new rockets out of it, suggesting that the costs for the material aren’t prohibitive.

  The source says the material is coming from a company out of Charlottesville, Virginia. This would suggest that it might have been discovered by someone at the University of Virginia, however, queries submitted to the University President’s office have not brought any replies. A search of the scientific literature has not found any recent publications on new materials from the University. No patents have been granted for such a material either.

  Thus far everything is shrouded in mystery, but if the claims are correct, such a material could significantly change engineering as a whole, not just in aerospace endeavors.

  Arya was waiting to be seated at Bistro Valentin. Kaem was supposed to meet her there but hadn’t shown up yet. She checked her watch then chastised herself. He’s only two minutes late! No reason to get upset yet! Besides, she reminded herself, my happiness does not depend on Kaem Seba. It wouldn’t be a big deal if he never showed at all.

  He’d very gently confronted her about the friction between them. She’d excused herself with complaints about his attempts to spend money they didn’t have. He’d reassured her that she was in charge of the financial health of the company and reminded her he couldn’t spend anything she didn’t authorize. Despite his reassurances, she’d found herself irritated with him. But when she’d searched down deep inside, she’d realized what she truly felt was jealous of Lee… and her amazing eyes… and the time she spent with Kaem… and her technical nature which was closer to Kaem’s. And this is in spite of the fact that I’m constantly telling myself Kaem’s not the man for me. That even if he’s overcome my mother’s theoretical objections—or perhaps because of that—he just can’t be the right man for me.

  The door opened and Kaem stepped inside. When his eyes lit on Arya, a broad smile broke across his face and a warm feeling engulfed her. He came over and sat next to her. “Should I check-in, or did you already do it?”

  “Done,” she said. “I organize everything else for you, don’t I?”

  “You do, and I appreciate it.”

  His recognition made her feel good. But also irritated. Am I so desperate for his approval? she wondered.

  They engaged in small talk, thankfully devoid of any of Kaem’s terrible jokes. However, once they were seated and had placed their orders, he turned serious. “I’d really like to get my gene therapy before the end of summer. I’m hoping you can help me figure out whether it’s possible.”

  “Oh,” she said, suddenly flooded with anxiety. “Is it dangerous?”

  He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, apparently having thought better of whatever he’d been going to say.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I, um… was about to make one of my stupid jokes. Sorry. It’s not supposed to be terribly dangerous, except to my wallet. It’ll be devastating to my finances. Of course, it’s not completely safe either. Things could go wrong.” He fished in a pocket and pulled out a jump drive. Holding it out, he said, “One of the things I wanted to tell you tonight is how I’ve set things up for you guys to go on if I don’t make it.”

  Arya felt as if someone had pulled the rug out from under her. A cramp developed in her throat and tears flooded her eyes. “Kaem…” she choked out. She swallowed then managed to say, “No!”

  He got out of his chair, knelt beside hers, and stretched his arms out around her, though he made no contact. “Sorry, I didn’t realize this was going to affect you so… strongly. Can I give you a hug?”

  Head down, Arya nodded jerkily.

  Kaem’s arms drew her in. He said, “Hey. I could be killed in a car wreck too. I’m just trying to make sure Staze goes on in case anything happens to me.”

  Arya tried to say something, but the spasm in her throat hadn’t let up.

  Their waiter stopped by. “Are you guys okay?” he asked concernedly.

  Arya felt Kaem nod. He said, “Give us a minute, please.”

  He stayed on one knee, holding her until she felt her throat relax. She ventured the words, “I’m sorry.” To her relief, they came out audibly.

  He squeezed. “Don’t be sorry. We’ve been through a lot together. I’m planning for us to go through a lot more.”

  She sniffed and swiped at her nose, “Was that thing about dying in a car wreck supposed to make me feel better?”

  “I thought that… wait, did you just make another joke?!”

  She nodded and lifted her napkin to her eyes. Under its cover, she snorted a little laugh “It was almost as bad as one of your jokes.”

  “Nothing could be as bad as one of mine, could it?”

  He was still kneeling beside her. She found herself reaching around him and pulling him in for a hug of her own. A moment later, embarrassed, she let go and said, “You can sit in your chair now.”

  “I kinda like it here.”

  “Please. People are staring.”

  “I don’t care what they’re doing.” He drew back, looked into her eyes, said, “On second thought…” and quickly scrambled into his chair.

  Though she didn’t want to talk about it, he quickly explained how, if Kaem died, Arya would need to install the app from the thumb drive on a computer. Then she’d need to contact his sister Bana and, if she agreed and answered some questions only Bana would know the answers to, the app would open and give them access to documentation on how the stazers worked. He said, “If I were you, I’d want to maintain the fiction of Mr. X so people don’t try to force you to disclose how it works.”

  “Um,” Arya wiggling the thumb drive, “what if I lose this?”

  “Make some copies and put them in safe places.”

  She studied the drive, “What’s to keep someone from hacking into it?”

  He shrugged. “It’s using my special encryption. Somebody might be able to do it, but it stood up to Martin Aero’s quantum processor so I think it’s pretty safe. Even so, I’d keep them in safe places and use labels that don’t sound exciting. ‘Recipes,’ or something like that. The actual app’s in a folder labeled ‘recipes’ that has a bunch of actual recipes in it. The app’s named “Recipe analyzer.”

  Putting the drive in her purse, she said, “That labeling scheme’s probably better protection than the encryption.”

  Placing his hand on his heart,
Kaem said, “I’m wounded.”

  She snorted and grinned at him, “You are not.”

  “So far, everything’s been about you tonight. Can we move on to my concerns?”

  “Go ahead.”

  He lowered his voice, “My gene therapy’s could cost six hundred thousand.”

  “Oh,” she said, wide-eyed. “And you don’t have it?”

  He shook his head, “You remember that after withholding you paid me about $766,000? But my dad’s lymphoma treatment cost almost $300,000 and I’ve foolishly spent some more of the money. I’m about a hundred and fifty thousand short.”

  She said, “We just got four million from Space-Gen for the test engine Lee stazed them.”

  “Which Staze needs so it can buy the land Gunnar found.”

  Arya grimaced, “We’re back to buying your toxic land?”

  Kaem studied her a moment, “We said our company was going to do good for the world.”

  “No one’s going to buy that land,” Arya said. “You can get it after we get our next our chunk of income.”

  “And if someone does buy it?”

  “I’m sure there’ll be other toxic land you can buy.”

  “Not in an almost perfect location for our space launch facility. Buying this land’s going to let us kill two birds with one stone.”

  “We’ve got corporate taxes too, you know,” Arya said. “I’ve already paid a million for this year and was planning to set aside another million of that Space-Gen money to pay taxes for the rest of the year.”

  Kaem sighed. “Arya…”

  When he said nothing more, she rolled her eyes, “What?” She sounded abrupt, even to herself. I just finished crying because I was worried about him and now I’m treating him like he’s an antagonist.

  Kaem said slowly, “I was hoping to talk to Arya the entrepreneur. The woman who kicks ass and takes names. The one who’d tell me about possible solutions, not enumerate all the problems.”

  “You want me to get us a loan.”

  Kaem nodded. “A short term one. Unless you’ve got a better idea?”

  “One of the best things about Staze, from my viewpoint, was that its sales would bring in so much money I wouldn’t have to leverage anything.”

  “And it will. Someday.”

  “Do you have any idea how hard it is for a young woman of color, fresh out of college, to get a substantial business loan?”

  Kaem gave her a round-eyed look. “You don’t think they might discriminate against you, do you?!”

  “Hah. Very funny. Wait till I tell them our CEO’s black.”

  Kaem frowned, “We don’t know what race Mr. X belongs to.” He brightened, “You could use that to your advantage. If they get up the courage to ask what color he is, ask them why it matters.”

  “They don’t have to say they aren’t giving us the loan because they don’t know what color our imaginary CEO is. All they have to do is not give us a loan. And if we insist on knowing why, they could always tell us it’s because our CEO’s a figment of our imagination.”

  Kaem grinned. “Take Gunnar when you apply for the loan. Act like he’s in charge and you’re just the assistant.”

  “You want me to trick them?”

  Kaem nodded eagerly. “Can I come and watch?”

  Arya rolled her eyes. “Seems like I should’ve taken that drama class after all.” She looked out the window. “I’ll do it. Someday I’ll be able to whine about how we couldn’t get loans when we started out.”

  Their food arrived. Once they’d gotten it settled, she reached out and put her hand on his. “Go ahead and schedule your treatment. I’ll work out the money end of it somehow.”

  Kaem’s eyes widened gratifyingly. “You will?”

  She nodded.

  “What if you can’t get the loan?”

  “What’re you worried about? You told me to ‘kick ass and take names,’ right?”

  He sighed but nodded. “If it doesn’t work out, I can always cancel the treatment.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You asked me to fix this and I will.” She thought of the $190,000 she still had from her share of their first payment. Even if I have to take it out of my own account. Even if I have to get a loan from Gunnar. Or my parents. It’ll be worth it to get Kaem the treatment he wants and needs.

  Kaem gave her his thanks. The expression of relief on his face made all her worries worthwhile.

  They shared an Uber home. As he got out at his new apartment building, he said, “Remember, don’t use the real estate agent we talked to when we were there. She wouldn’t go the extra mile for us. I think because she thought I was too young, but Lee thought she was kind of prejudiced.”

  As he walked away, Arya thought sourly, It would’ve been nice to finish the evening without hearing Lee’s name. She sighed, My unreasonable jealousy is not Lee’s fault.

  Riding in the Uber to her place she wondered what was going to happen with publicity. After the news story came out, Space-Gen had called to ask if they could divulge the source of their Stade and she’d told them they could. She’d been thinking it would bring them business and help them improve their bottom line. But it could also bring a firestorm of attention that might divert us from our current projects…

  ***

  His office having received a number of queries about the company in Charlottesville supplying Space-Gen with materials, UVA President William Morton had his people trying to find out more about it. He sighed. “Let’s at least search the recent local news for start-ups. I guess we’re about as sure as we can be that Space-Gen’s new substance isn’t coming from anyone at the U. But I don’t want to look clueless when I’m asked who developed it. I assume it’s coming from some local business, but I’m worried the owner might be an alum. I’d like to congratulate him and look as if I’m on top of things.”

  His secretary, Eloise, thought, It’d be nice if he even considered the possibility the owner might be a woman. She said, “How about if I call Space-Gen and ask who’s selling it to them?”

  Morton’s eyebrows rose, “Great idea! Do that.”

  Eloise smiled and said, “Thanks.” But was thinking, I don’t know why he thinks it’s so surprising that I’d have a good idea now and then.

  As soon as she got back to her desk, Eloise called Space-Gen’s PR office. “Hi, I hear Space-Gen’s getting the material for its new engines from a Virginia company. Do you have its name and address?”

  “Oh, sorry. I don’t know if we’re allowed to disclose that information yet. Let me check.” Eloise heard the sounds of hold music.

  It was a significant hold, Eloise estimated three minutes. The man came back on. “We’ve just been authorized to release the information.” He lowered his voice as if speaking confidentially about a secret of great importance, “You’re the first person we’ve given it to. The company’s called Staze. They’re located in Charlottesville, Virginia.”

  That’s a name for a company? Eloise thought, thinking it bizarre. “Spelled S-T-A-Y-S?”

  “Oh, no,” the man said as if amused. “Sorry. I haven’t thought about how it sounds. It’s S-T-A-Z-E.”

  That’s not much better, she thought. “Thank you. Do you have an address and phone number?”

  “Sorry, no. I’d imagine you can find it on the web though.”

  “Okaay,” Eloise said, drawing the word out to indicate her disapproval.

  “You’re welcome,” the man said curtly, obviously dissatisfied with her lack of gratitude for what he’d considered a juicy tidbit.

  Disconnecting the call, Eloise turned to her computer, asking its AI to bring up information on Staze. It found a Texas family that seemed to have died out in the 1900s and a weird definition in the Urban Dictionary. And it found Staze.com.

  When Eloise went to Staze.com, she found a very spare website. The landing page described it as a company that’d created a new material it was supplying to others. Bizarrely, a big section of the page was a list of techn
ical specifications for the substance. They meant nothing to her and weren’t explained or compared to other materials.

  A second page listed some personnel. Eloise almost laughed when she saw that the CEO was listed as “anonymous.” There was a CTO, a CFO, and a Technical Advisor. No phone number. No address. This is the most amateurish thing I’ve ever seen! she thought.

  She did a search for the CFO, an Arya Vaii. The only one she found in Virginia was a student at UVA who was a business major. Oh, she graduated in May. Kind of embarrassing that one of our business grads would incorporate using such a low-class website.

  Kaem Seba, the CTO, who apparently had something to do with the development of the product… was still a student! A rising senior for God’s sake! Could Space-Gen be unaware? she wondered. Doesn’t a major aerospace company do due diligence in checking the bona fides of the companies they’re working with?

  At least the Technical Advisor, Gunnar Schmidt, didn’t look wet behind the ears. On the other hand, he looked old enough to retire. Eloise found him elsewhere on the net because he’d owned a “fabrication business” in Charlottesville for decades, though it didn’t look like a going concern. Maybe he is retired?

  The website listed some “shared employees,” one each with Space-Gen and with GLI.

  Below that were listed two “legal consultants.”

  There weren’t any other web pages on the site!

  Deciding she didn’t want to tell Morton what she’d found until she’d learned a little more, Eloise called a friend of hers who worked as an administrative assistant for some of the Materials Science and Engineering faculty. A few minutes later she was talking to Michelle Carter, one of the junior faculty who had happened to be in her office. She explained who she was and that President Morton had asked her to research a new Charlottesville company partially staffed by UVA alums and students. “It’s supposedly selling a new material Space-Gen is considering for use in their rocket engines. I was hoping you could give us an opinion on how important that material’s going to be?”