A Distant Star: How Humanity Gets to the Stars

© 2020 Raymond Hardcastle. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/11/2020

ISBN: 978-1-7283-6013-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-6012-6 (e)

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A step by step hard science fiction adventure of the way humanity can find a way to other star systems starting from the 21st Century in the midst of the coming apocalypse.

To dream the impossible dream,

To fight the unbeatable foe,

To bear with unbearable sorrow

To run where the brave dare not go;

To right the unrightable wrong.

To love, pure and chaste, from afar,

To try, when your arms are too weary,

To reach the unreachable star!

(From Cervantes; Man of La Mancha)

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1    Baby Steps

Earth-21st Century

Jimmy’s Journey

Cave Antics

Mission Control

Lessons Learned

Continuing Education

Sally’s Song

Sweet Scholarships

Love Blooms

If You Can’t Beat ‘em

Enlightenment

Herding Cows

Shoveling It

Chapter 2    Just Business

Power to the Right People

Managing The Looming Apocalypse

Organizing Chaos

Staffing The Future

Directing the Effort

Controlling to Results

China Moves

Russia Reacts

Moving on Up

Low Earth Orbit

Advancing Earth Systems

Push and Pull

Taking The Prime Locations

American Solar

Going Too Far

Chapter 3    Space People

Earth Orbit

The Spinning Donut

Up, Up and Away

Continental Divide

United Nations Expands

Sclerotic West

The Apocalypse Arrives

The Winter Wall

Apocalypse Sidestep

Moon Base Alpha

Distant Middle Kingdom

A Chinese Tire

Far Rodina

Cylindrical Factories

Moon Base Beta

Chapter 4    Planet Settlers

Going Somewhere

Universal STEMs

Fight for the Future

Space Drives

L-3 Rendezvous

Mars Awaits

The Phobians

Mars Mishap

Mars Recycler

Along the Aldrin Trail

On the Red Planet

UN Phobia

Mars Town

Aldrin Cycler

Life on Mars

The Water Mine

Renewed Hope

Chapter 5    Asteroid Approach

Outreach

Belters

Ceres Mining

Mars Two

Unicrats Rule

Chinese Torus Culture

Unicrat Pressure

Ceres Mining Corp

Cold Mountain

United Asteroid Belt

Tug Teens

Earthly Ties

Ceres HQ

Far Out Mission

Mission to Troy

Shiny Trojan Rocks

Green Belt

Chapter 6    Earthly Ties

Manned Mission

Mashing the Gas Giants

Helen Springs a Leak

Laying on the Mash

Picking Up the Pace

MASH Dancing

MASH Rush

Native Martians

Return to the Source

Trojan Wars

Space Patrol

Space Academy

Crystallizing Research

Belter Alliance Mission to Saturn

Eager Young Bloods

MASH ish Research

Hunting Crystals

Chapter 7    Hunting NEO

Far and Wide

Unicrat Navy

The Church of Universal Souls

Mars Fights Back

Belters Escape

Jupiter Advances

Neo Near Jupiter

MASHie

Saturn Escapade

Crime Goes Along

Chemistry Rules

Ceres Central

Navy Rules

Fuller Gravity

Saturn Rising

The Falcon Swoops

Many Sided Jupiter

Chapter 8    The Jupiter Hedgehog

The Electric Rhombi

Booster Shot

Boomtown Ceres

Weapons for the Navy

Saturn Redo

Jumping Hedgehogs

The JupiterBug

Saturn Speed Run

Jupiter Shipyard

Jupiter Firefly

Fire Flys

Spiking the Belt

Chapter 9    The Falcon and The Firefly

Firefly

Alcubierre Rules

The Giant Gas Station

Saturn Gas Station

Trouble in Troy

Uranus

Deep Blue Giant

Ceres Space Farm

Farm Board

Chapter 10    Birth of a Space Navy

Ceres Shipyard

Alliance Prep

Kuiper Belt and KBO’s

Jupiter Ascendant

Naughty Plans

Achieving FTL

Tightening the Belt

Asset Forfiture

Farming Space

Ceres Naval Forces

To Boldly Go

Chapter 11    Defending Jupiter

Gas Giant Developments

Ceres Defense

Payback’s a Bitch

Fighting Farmers

In the Kuiper Belt

Ceres Farming

Two Notches in the Belt

Deep Space-Beyond the Kuiper Belt

Looking for a Hole in Space

Mars Redux

Romeo and Juliette

Chapter 12    Shifting Stars

Seeking a Hole in Space

Twin Brats

Warped Briefing

Going Long

Upping the Navy

Juliette Goes Wide

Romeo Goes Far

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Romeo and Juliette at the Gate

Saturn Upset

Chapter 13    The Star Gate

Gate Key

Major Discovery

A Major Show

Ajax and Odysseus

Saturn Habitat

Chalawan Star Gate

South Gate

Ceres Shipyards

Jupiter Bees

Birth of Bees

Chalawan Challenge

Busy Belters

Chapter 14    Exploring Chalawan

Into the Breach

Bees in the Belt

Reluctant Virginus

Here be Dragons

Supiter

Rocky Start

Roaming in Chalawan

Hot Rocks

Dulcinea Down the Rabbit Hole

Wunderland Revisited

Supiter Up Close and Personal

Dragon Hunt

Juliette’s Balcony

Firefly Away

Romeo Roams

Bees In The Belt

Snow Queen’s Children

Chapter 15    Exploring Virginus

Icy Virginus

Gathering at the Gate

This Old Fort

Mysterious Oz

Down to the Waterless Sea

Snowy Planet

Wundering in a Strange Land

Off To See The Wizard

The Wonder at the Gate

Dulcinea in Search of Windmills

Digging Oz

Dulcinea’s Trip

Magnetic Wizard

Tripping Over the Answer

Distant Star Characters

PREFACE

So why did I write this book? Well, as a life-long science fiction fan I wasn’t satisfied with the fare offered. Sure, there are a lot of good Sci-Fi books and authors, but many go too far and many not far enough. There must be limits; boundary conditions if you will. Without limits it is just fantasy. You might as well read Alice in Wonderland (one of my favorite books). If you don’t push the limits of current science, you don’t get anywhere. The best sci-fi books either assume some already developed advanced technology or often obtain some from an advanced alien civilization. I appreciate that we aren’t there yet. But in my view, that’s cheating. I’m an incurable optimist. We humans can do this.

You can probably infer where I come from by reading this book. Before my teens, I grew up in orphanages and foster home-farms. As a teen I took the opportunities presented by working for anyone who would pay me so I could help support the family a little. In Junior high I was told by a school advisor I could never go to College; our family was too poor. He put me in Vocational-Technical Machine Shop classes so I could learn a trade. I joined the Navy at 17 and got a look at the wider world while practicing my ‘trade’. After being discharged (honorably) I continued working in my trade with either two jobs or one job and part-time college. After nine years I graduated with a BS in Physics and an MBA. That paragraph may explain why I’m unimpressed by the privileged elite.

My big sister said to include that in the Preface. My little sister says I’ve always been a Space Cadet. They’re both in their 80’s now, so I’d better get this done for them.

I planned this book to be Hard-Sci-Fi. Take advantage of science, but push it. I could have called it Ad Astra (to the stars), but that was already taken. I do shamelessly borrow some from the National Space Society’s magazine of that name. I’m sure they don’t mind.

I wrote the different stages that could be taken to get to the stars in such a way that anybody could pick it up and write interesting stories for each scenario. I pictured maybe a murder mystery on the Russian Cylinders. Or maybe Chinese Romeo and Juliette on the Torus. Land grabs on the moon might be interesting. A struggling colony on Mars or Asteroid feuds in the Belt could be thrilling. This book is wide open to all of that and more. You are invited to steal. Just please stay within the boundaries; it’s more interesting that way.

I tried to stay within the boundaries of real science that I’m aware of. But I’m sure a real scientist can find plenty to criticize. I cordially invite them to do better.

By the way: There really was a California University that eliminated Electrical Engineering on the very same day they created LGBT Studies. Einstein did predict gravitons and that they could be refracted. He did conclude that the Sun had a focal point at 550 AU’s. He didn’t know about all the hundreds of billions of galaxies we now know exist.

Albert Einstein did most of his best work early in the 20th Century. His Theories of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics got him Nobel Prizes and a life-time of work. He proved mathematically that it would be impossible to exceed the speed of light or even get close. That made people realize humanity would never reach even the closest stars in a human lifetime. Many gave up. Miguel Alcubierre did not.

Alcubierre, a young Mexican theoretical physicist, took up the challenge. He showed a mathematical solution that demonstrated if you moved the Space-Time Continuum, you’d have the same effect as if you yourself moved faster than light. Some likened it to a bubble in space with the Time-Space Continuum being destroyed in front of you and being replaced behind you. Well, sort of. Of course, that’s never been done, so I used it to whiz around the Solar System. But that still wouldn’t be good enough to get to the Stars. We’d need something more.

A couple of my favorite authors have their characters travel between stars via a ‘tramway’ or Star Gate. I wondered how that could be possible. Alcubierre shows how Faster Than Light (FTL) travel might be possible, but how about Star Gates?

Einstein again might have provided an answer. He was intrigued by Quantum Entanglement – spooky action at a distance. That is where if two particles are created together they are forever entangled. What is done to one is also done to the other at the same time no matter how far apart they are. Of course, that was with sub-atomic particles. But why wouldn’t it work with larger constructs? They just needed to be created together.

Then I thought to combine Alcubierre’s FTL, Einstein’s Gravitons, the Sun focus at 550 AU’s and Quantum entanglement to get the interstellar ‘tramway’ or Star Gate that we need. I’m sure established science will make mincemeat of the idea. But remember, this is science fiction.

CHAPTER 1

Baby Steps

Earth-21st Century

To Jimmy Smothers it was a day like many others recently. It was the worst of times and it was the best of times. He read that somewhere. Probably in one of the Liberal Arts classes that he needed to take to graduate. It was apt now.

He graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. But there were no jobs for Electrical Engineers. He was lucky to graduate at all. The Electrical Engineering Department was eliminated to make room for the new LGBT Studies Department. He still couldn’t believe that actually happened.

Now he needed to find a job in his field. Trouble was that all the big electrical generating systems were shutting down. Coal fired power plants were shutting down as environmental disasters. Hydroelectric dams were being torn down to save the fish. Nuclear power plants were closed because people feared a nuclear explosion, even though that wasn’t possible and no one had been killed or even injured in America from nuclear power. Natural gas fueled plants were on the defensive because the enviros were claiming cracking caused earthquakes. Wind Turbines were too noisy and killed critters. The only thing left was Solar Power and there would never be enough of them to satisfy demand for developed countries, let alone developing countries.

All the Electrical Engineering jobs in the Solar Power field were taken by refugees from the closed down power plants. The demand for those jobs exceeded supply and salaries had plummeted. Jimmy couldn’t get a job there unless he was willing to become a solar panel technician working at minimum-wage. That was basically a glorified maid dusting off the panels located in the High Desert. He took the job.

Looking at the good side of things, he worked close to where he lived on his Grandfather’s farm. He could walk there in less than an hour or get a ride from Ernie Lopez his boyhood friend. Ernie lived and worked on the farm as a ranch hand and mechanic. Ernie never thought college education was worth the time and expense. Jimmy was beginning to believe he was right.

A lot of the farms in the area were lying fallow. The farm water rations had been cut so much that only the crops that used little water could be grown. Since that was the case for all the local farmers, the market was flooded with the low-water crops and they received the lowest price. Sally Freeman explained this as a simple case of Supply and Demand.

Sally was Jimmy’s girlfriend and had a degree in economics. She worked at the County Tax Assessors Office and was well aware of the plight of local farmers. Sally and Jimmy had grown up in similar circumstances and understood each other.

Jimmy’s Journey

When Jimmy’s father came back from the war he was an alcoholic. That’s putting too good a face on it. George Smothers was a drunk who spent any money he got his hands on to buy booze. Jimmy’s mother tried her best to make ends meet at minimum wage jobs with two kids to feed. Jimmy’s 11 year old big sister April baby sat and 8 year old Jimmy got a paper route to help. When the Church ladies noticed on their visits to the Smothers household that they had little food, groceries would be found on the Smothers’ doorstep.

The men in the church would canvas the bars until they found George Smothers. The men would sober him up, make him presentable and find him a job to help support his family. In spite of their support, he invariably would fall off the wagon. He went from truck driver to taxi driver to bus driver to Security Guard and lost every job. They got him a lead in another town and asked him to take his wife along to garner sympathy.

Unbeknownst to his wife Jenny, George was drunk when they started out. His wife noticed and got angry enough to make him pull over and let her drive. Unfortunately that just made George angry enough to immediately pull over and off the high bridge above the Monalea River. Other motorists ran down the embankment and tried to save Jenny’s life. She had been thrown out of the car and died at the scene, but not before she told them what happened. George was still in the car and drowned in the river. That left the Smothers children instant orphans.

The church took April into one of their orphanages where she thrived. The local Community Children’s Assistance Bureau, decided the orphanage was not suitable for Jimmy and took over his care. The bureaucrats had little interest in Jimmy’s long term care and just shunted him from foster home to foster home. His paternal grandparents had already passed away. It took a while before some interested church lady located his maternal grandpa Johnson who was more than happy to take Jimmy in on their farm in California.

Jimmy had been taught to read by his big sister before he entered kindergarten. He loved to read and excelled at the rural one-room school near his grandfather’s farm. He could jump grades just by paying attention when the teacher moved to an upper grade. He had a natural knack for math and was a history buff. His teachers and grandparents were impressed. With his easy confidence, he had many friends in school. He used to sit behind Barbara Lassiter and tie her braids together. When she complained, he would help her with her homework. Barbara was pretty and smart and loved to tease the boys; especially Jimmy. With his blond hair and blue eyes, all the girls thought he was the cutest.

Ernie Lopez, whose father worked at the Johnson Farm, became Jimmy’s best friend. Ernie practically lived at the farm and often stayed over. Jimmy and Ernie’s physical adventures kept them both physically fit. Ernie would challenge Jimmy at sports and Jimmy would challenge Ernie at academics which kept them together right through High School. The two became as close as brothers ever could be.

Cave Antics

The two boys were intrigued by the spring at the base of the hills at the eastern most extent of the farm. They wondered where the water was coming from. One summer after several years of drought they could see a low passage heading into the hill from the spring. With flashlights in hand they crawled into the cave. They crawled through two inches of cold water in a two foot high passage. After a hundred feet the passage opened up and they could stand. They saw that further explorations were stopped by a deep clear pool. Their flashlights were getting dim and they were getting cold so they turned around and crawled back out to warm welcome sunshine.

When the two preteen explorers returned to the farm they were greeted by Ernie’s dad. He saw how wet and muddy the boys were and knew where they had been. He told them that exploring that cave could be dangerous for the untrained. If they ever wanted to explore the cave he insisted they take experienced cavers with them. They would need hardhats, three sources of light and warmer clothes. Mr. Lopez knew people in the caving community that would be willing to explore the cave and show them how to do it safely.

The next Saturday three people showed up at the farm and greeted Mr. Lopez like long lost friends. The three arrived in a decrepit old 4WD. They were a motley crew of indeterminate age. Paul Bemus was tall and skinny. Jenny Fisher was petit, but obviously fit. George Steiner was short and built like a weightlifter. They were all old caving friends of Mr. Lopez before he was married and had family obligations. Mr. Lopez had told them about the cave and his two adventurers. The three were intrigued by a virgin cave on the Johnson farm and wanted to explore it. They would take the two boys along and keep them safe.

Mission Control

The three cavers brought along extra gear for the boys. After outfitting them, the five headed for the cave entrance. When they got to the low entrance the cavers noted it was blowing air. George explained to the boys that blowing air indicated an extensive cave. The air pressure was trying to equalize between the inside of the cave with constant volume and temperature with the changing temperature and pressure outside the cave. He said this was explained by the Universal Gas Law. The boys were impressed and even more eager to explore the cave.

Ernie wanted to go in first, but was stopped by Paul who said Jenny would go first. She was more experienced and if the boys would fit, she would. George would go next because he was most likely to get stuck. If he did get stuck, Jenny could push from inside and they could pull from outside. Paul explained that caving was a team sport. They needed to work together and rely on each other to complete the mission. The boys thought that Paul was the leader but soon learned there really was no leader. Whoever had the right skills would lead. Jenny was obviously best in tight passages, so she led into the crawl.

With much effort and wriggling and grunting, George got through as well. The boys followed easily and Paul brought up the rear. There wasn’t much room on the ledge at the end of the crawl and George and Jenny were half in the water holding on to a ledge. George seemed nonplussed at being in the pool and explained the pool served as a reservoir for the spring. He pointed to peculiar cave formations on the walls that he said could only form underwater. He said that meant the pool sometimes filled up completely and that the small passage they saw across the pool probably led to a lot more cave heading upwards.

The boys wanted to swim across the pool and explore further. Paul cautioned that they wanted to be more careful and rig a hand line. They would need the hand line to help get across the pool and guide them on their way out. It was way too easy to get disoriented and lost in a cave. They had to remember the passages. The way to do that was by regularly looking back as you went forward so you could recognize the way out. Passageways would look a lot different on the way out.

George reached into the pack he had dragged through the crawl and pulled out a ten meter (35 ft.) long and one inch wide flat nylon webbing. He said he was wearing Patagonia under his coveralls which would protect him from the cold water. Paul would tie one end of the webbing to a formation on this side of the pool. George would swim across the pool and tie the other end of the webbing to any convenient thing he found there. If he could rig it high enough, the others could pull themselves across and stay mostly dry.

After George swam across and rigged the webbing above the pool, the group followed. They found the passage on the other side was large enough for them to duck walk; except for long tall Paul who had to crawl on his knees. This winding passage gradually opened up after about 40 yards (45 meters) into a large room with a muddy floor and passages going up to the left and down to the right.

The right and down passage looked muddy and uninviting so they went up to the left. The passage was high but narrow. It led to an intersection with two slowly ascending nicely rounded dry avenues.

George explained: These were old abandoned phreatic passages developed when this part of the cave was at or below the water table. The narrow passage leading to them is along a natural fault that drained these two connected to the lower chamber that formed under water. As the valley floor dropped the water table dropped also and drained the cave.

Jenny said: At least that what he thinks.

Lessons Learned

While this conversation was going on, Paul was climbing up to another side passage. The climb was obviously too difficult for normal people. The two boys realized that Paul’s particular specialty was climbing. He had the long spindly body of a spider. Paul reported the passage continued but they’d have to leave it for another trip when they were better equipped. He still wanted to check out the descending passage to the right into the muddy room. Jenny and George groaned and turned around to go back down.

When they got to the intersection Paul extracted another long webbing and tied it around his waist a couple of times in what he called a bowline on a coil. He gave the other end to George who braced himself against a boulder and a stalagmite on the cavern floor. George put the line around his waist guiding it with his right hand and able to brake it against his body with his left.

Paul called: On belay.

Belay on George responded.

Paul called: Climbing.

Climb George responded.

The two boys were impressed by the team work of the two cavers. They were learning a lot from this caving trip.

Paul gradually worked his way down the mud tube for about 20 ft (6 meters). When he got to the bottom he called back that he was in a small room that was normally a sump. He saw passage continuing and heading back up on the other side. He untied himself and called for Jenny to come down. George explained that you never caved alone. He pulled the line up and Jenny got on belay. They went through the same routine and Jenny joined Paul in the small muddy room.

Paul boosted Jenny up to the muddy upward trending passage. She reported that it went and she felt strong air movement through the constricted passage. George whooped: It goes.

Paul and Jenny got back on rope and climbed back up. They reported that the room below was definitely a sump under normal non-drought times. Normally the cave behind it was inaccessible. Since it was moving a lot of air, there was a lot of virgin cave back there.

George said: This is what cavers live for; to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Jenny said: With apologies to Star Trek.

Jimmy and Ernie were getting a better feel for caver interactions as well as applied science.

Their trip out of the cave was uneventful, time consuming, wet and muddy. The boys were surprised when they finally exited the cave by how low the sun was. Their ten hour trip seemed to go by so fast. They knew they had to go back and explore beyond the mud sump. The others sensed that and cautioned them not to go into the cave with less than four cavers all with hardhats and three sources of light. Paul said: We don’t want to haul your lifeless bodies out of this cave. It floods, and more cavers die from flooding than any other cause.

Jenny said: Don’t do it.

George said: Not without us.

Continuing Education

After their caving adventure the boys were enthused to learn more. Jimmy dove into science and Ernie dove into the ocean. Ernie figured they’d eventually need to dive a sump to fully explore what they now considered their cave. He was going to sign them up for SCUBA lessons. Jimmy read all he could on cave diving and quickly learned it was the world’s most dangerous sport. They would need to train extensively before they were ready to do a dive into the sump. Luckily, the ocean was not too far away and they could get experience there.

It took a year of working odd jobs to afford the SCUBA lessons and the SCUBA gear. Ernie washed cars and Jimmy shined shoes at the Country Club. They would trade off if they got bored. Shoe shining was more lucrative, but car washing was more fun.

A year later they got their dive licenses and became the youngest SCUBA divers in the state. Ernie’s dad made sure they never took their SCUBA gear into the cave. They became experienced beach divers and went about twice a month. They kept in touch with Paul, Jenny, and George hoping to explore their cave again. Unfortunately it rained hard that winter and the cave flooded. George said they’d have to wait for the water level to drop. The entrance crawl was too tight for SCUBA.

The two boys decided to use their new found skills to impress girls on the beach. They got really good at plucking abalone off the rocks and catching lobsters out of their dens. Most of the lobsters they caught that way were too small and they had to let them go. They soon learned to expand their diving to nights when the more mature lobster were out and about. They figured that was good practice for their eventual caving. They learned to check each other thoroughly before the dive and never to panic.

Grandpa Johnson and Mr. Lopez were impressed with the boys growing maturity. They were especially glad they found something that challenged them and kept them away from teenage trouble.

Their High School Principal and the School Board got Jimmy a scholarship to the local Community College. Jimmy’s Academic Advisor told him that if he did well in spite of most Community College students not getting to a degree, he could be admitted to a four-year College or University with advanced standing as a Junior. He took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and scored in the 90th percentile.

Ernie wasn’t interested in college. He joined the Navy ‘To see the World’. After Boot Camp in the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Ernie was designated a Machinists Mate Apprentice and assigned to the Engine Room of an Aircraft Carrier in San Diego Bay. He never saw anything so big. It took Ernie six months before he dared wander outside the tight circle of Berthing Quarters, Head (toilet and showers), duty station, and mess hall. If he asked for directions from another sailor he was likely to be sent to Officer’s Country and be accosted by Marine guards. He eventually learned the ship and that the B-girls in the Far East were easy at relieving you of your pay. But he did get to see a good part of the World while Jimmy was in College.

Sally’s Song

While Jimmy Smothers was putting together a new life in California, Sally Freeman was starting from nothing to work her way up in the world. She was born to mixed race teenage parents who didn’t have the resources to start a family. When her mother went to an abortion clinic six months into the pregnancy, she was advised to have the baby and the clinic would find it a good home. Sally’s mother already cared about the life growing inside her and agreed to give the baby up to the Catholic Church. When Sally was born, the sisters took her away immediately before Sally and her mother could bond.

Sally grew up in the strict confines of the Catholic Orphanage. They fed, clothed, sheltered and educated her, but couldn’t repress her rebellious nature. The nun teachers said she asked too many questions. That was how she learned. Unanswered questions got researched in the public library. She didn’t bother telling the nuns they were full of it. The nuns had rulers and there were no more lessons to be learned in the second smack on the knuckles with a wooden ruler. The Sisters hated math, so she excelled at it. They loved History, but had it all wrong. Science was a mystery to the nuns; akin to magic.

The Sisters never discriminated about the color of her milk-chocolate skin. By the time Sally was a teenager she excelled at gymnastics and math. Sally showed absolutely no interest in Religious Dogma and there was little interest in their Midwestern town for a pretty mixed race gymnast. The Mother Superior knew someone in Central California who would take this rebellious teenager off her hands.

Maybe Sally Freeman didn’t consider herself an Affirmative Action Candidate, the University System did. They needed Sally to apply to their quota or as the University phrased it: their Goal. The University offered her a four-year scholarship and a place on their top-rated gymnastics team. She chose Economics as her Major. She could make good use of her math skills in a Major that had a decent chance for her to earn a decent living.

Sweet Scholarships

Even though Jimmy was admitted to the University as a Junior, he still had to attend Freshman Orientation. Trying not to get to too bored listening to the University President drone on with his obviously canned speech, he spent his time people watching trying to guess where the other students came from. Most were obviously urban and suburban teens wearing the latest fashions and haircuts. Few could be described as country hicks or orphans like him. He did notice a pretty petit milk-chocolate girl who seemed to be focused on the speech and didn’t fit the mold.

After the Freshman Orientation speech, the new students signed up for classes and were expected to participate in some intramural athletic endeavor. Jimmy signed up for Track and Field. It took no talent to run and less risk of serious injury. He wasn’t tall enough at 5'8'' for basketball and not big enough for football. Track would help keep him fit and wouldn’t interfere with his Engineering studies.

One rainy day, when the track team couldn’t run outdoors, they were running on the indoor track at the same time the gymnastic team was practicing in the large gym. Jimmy was surprisingly leading halfway through the 1500 meter practice run. He noticed the pretty little chocolate girl going through her routine. Damn she was good. That inspired him to speed up as he approached her end of the gym. This time she was setting up for the vault. As Jimmy got close she took off running, did a handstand on the horse, over rotated, and back pedaled right into Jimmy. They both fell down, looked at each other, smiled, and simultaneously said: Sorry.

He said: That’s all right, I wasn’t doing all that well as the rest of the field passed by them.

She said: Yes you were. I noticed you were leading.

He responded: I noticed you too. What you do is really amazing.

She also noticed they were still touching at the same moment he did. He quickly helped her up saying: We need to get back to work.

Then she said: And what are you doing after this?

Jimmy smiled and said hopefully: Perhaps meeting you at the Library?

She said: Good. I’m Sally Freeman.

He responded: Hi. I’m Jimmy Smothers. I’m pleased to run into you.

They both laughed and returned to their practices with occasional glances and smiles.

Love Blooms

They met at the Library and talked in the lobby for hours. She thought he was a freshman because she noticed him at the Orientation. He explained his advanced placement. She didn’t think he was lower class because he went to a Community College. He obviously didn’t think she was low class either. With their similar backgrounds, they had a lot in common. Both of them thought they were well matched even though she was a half foot shorter.

It wasn’t long before they knew each other’s class schedules and were together all the time. Both of them lived in the Dorms and had no privacy. That meant no hanky-panky. They would have steamed up the car windows if either of them had a car. Jimmy told her they could hold out until he graduated. Neither one believed that. Walks back to her dorm before curfew and stolen kisses in the dark would have to suffice. Jimmy would often walk back to his dorm stiff-legged.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, Grandpa Johnson was in trouble. The farm wasn’t harvesting enough salable produce to pay off the debts and taxes. There wasn’t enough full-time work for Ernie’s dad. Grandpa Johnson reluctantly sold off some of his acreage to developers. The developers knew the farmers were in trouble and could buy their land cheap. Many of the farmers believed it was the land investors who were behind the environmental regulations that were depriving them of their water rations. They didn’t have the political clout to stop them.

During Spring Break, Jimmy spent a week at the farm. He helped with the planting as little as there was of salable low water content crops. The farm was down to less than 40% of their allotment before the ‘save the fishes’ movement. It was ironic that the environmental political movement arose in the urban areas who complained most about the high price of food. Grandpa Johnson told Jimmy that the way things were going, there wouldn’t be any farm left for Jimmy to inherit. By summer break they would hope to have better prospects. Jimmy returned to school determined to get his degree and find a good job to help support the farm.

While Jimmy was at the farm, Sally was competing in a Midwestern gymnastics championship. As a freshman she wasn’t given a permanent position on the team, only as a substitute should one of the varsity gymnasts get injured. As luck would have it, one of her classmates in the All Around did get injured on the vault and still needed to compete in Floor Exercises. Sally’s strongest skill was the Floor Exercise. The coach chose Sally to fill in for her injured teammate. The coach knew she was good. This was proved out when Sally scored third overall and saved the team from ignoble defeat. She became a hero and a firm team member.

Jimmy and Sally exchanged Spring Break stories when they got back to school. Jimmy was elated at Sally’s success and she was sad about the news from the farm. Sally said she’d take on a special project under Professor Merrick to study Farm Economics. The Professor was entranced by Sally and was old enough to be her grandfather. He was no threat, but had a lot of connections with the Farm Bureau.

By the time of Summer Break, Sally had a lot of leads pointing to Bay Area Billionaires supporting several environmental groups and planting their adherents in the Agricultural Bureau. She didn’t have enough evidence to prove anything, but there was plenty of circumstantial evidence. It wouldn’t matter anyway because the Attorney General was in the pocket of the Billionaires. There didn’t appear to be anything they could do. She told all this to Jimmy when they took the Summer Break together on the Johnson farm.

If You Can’t Beat ‘em

Since Grandma Johnson passed away and their kids started their own families elsewhere, Jimmy’s grandfather just rattled around in the large farmhouse. Jimmy had his own room and Grandpa made sure Sally had her own room as far from Jimmy’s as possible. Grandpa Johnson wasn’t unaware of the attraction the two young people had for each other. He thought it prudent he kept them apart so his church lady girlfriend wouldn’t get the vapors.

One evening, soon after Sally and Jimmy got settled, Sally showed her findings to Grandpa Johnson. He wasn’t surprised about the bureaucrat’s duplicity, but was by the support they had from the Bay Area Billionaires. Jimmy could see them doing it for money, but they already had more than they could spend. Grandpa Johnson explained this isn’t about money, it’s about power. The two major motivators in life he explained are Money and Power. If you have Power, you can get Money. If you have Money, you can get Power. This is power over other people’s lives. They can tell you what you can and cannot do.

Grandpa Johnson said: I can’t see them risking their wealth just to ruin us farmers though.

Sally said she might have an answer. She said: Every product or Industry has a lifespan. Successful enterprises need to keep reinventing themselves. These Billionaires never made anything. They drive commodity prices down in one field, and then up in another. Then they buy low and sell high reaping profits. They keep doing that, especially with currencies. If you are unscrupulous enough you can become a Billionaire in short order. They are probably sending land values down so they can buy it cheap. But who would buy it? Environmental regulations would never change, at least not quickly.

They thought about that for a while until Jimmy had an idea. He asked: What if they don’t need environmental regulations to be reduced? Perhaps they are planning a new industry?

Sally said: That might be it. The real vast fortunes are accumulated in new industries.

Grandpa Johnson asked: Why would they do that? They have more money than they could ever spend.

Sally said: These people will never have enough. They worry someone else will have more.

Grandpa Johnson said: It appears not to bother them who is hurt in the process.

Sally replied: Apparently not.

While they talked, Jimmy was thinking of something he heard in the Electrical Engineering Department. He interjected: This may explain the rumor that the University is going to shut down the Electrical Engineering Department. They have been deemphasizing Alternating Current Power Generation. Big power companies like Nuclear, Hydroelectric, Coal, Oil, and even Gas are falling out of favor and more emphasis is being placed on Direct Current from Solar. If they can buy the land cheap, they can carpet the valley with solar panels.

Grandpa Johnson observed: But Solar Panels generate Direct Current which can only go about 100 meters before it needs to be refreshed. I suppose they can invert to AC if they are going to supply the big cities.

Sally said: What will they do for power at night?

Jimmy responded: They can store it electrically or chemically. They can use DC power to heat water into steam and run turbines. Or they could split the water into Hydrogen and Oxygen which they can burn at night to heat water into steam and run a generator. There are many other ways to store electricity and convert it from DC to AC. A bigger problem is losses due to the atmosphere and clouds. And the fact they need power for the panels to track the sun. They will have a lot of losses, but it’s doable.

Grandpa interjected: I see where this must ultimately go; into space. Sun 24 hours a day beamed down to mountain tops via microwave. I saw that on the Discovery Channel.

Jimmy says: I wonder if they’ve planned that far. It does seem inevitable though.

Grandpa Johnson says: We can’t beat them. Maybe we should join them. Sell them the rest of the farm for a piece of the action.