did that, you might as well as kill her too. Sir, this has been my dream my entire life. Andie said it as well, and I’m sure Kris believes the same thing. This is our holy grail, sir. We want to go out there. Like Heinlein said, the Earth is too small a basket to hold all our eggs. I don’t even know if you could succeed, sir, but even if you did, you would have effectively killed her.”
Oliver Boyle looked at the young man steadily.
“Then, sir, there are the other implications. And there, sir, the risk is every bit as great.”
“What other implications?”
“Sir, with this technology, in a couple of years you could go down to Home Depot or Wal-Mart and buy a fusion generator for a few thousand dollars that would power this studio for decades for a few dollars of fuel. This will disrupt every power market in the world. You’re talking probably trillions of dollars of investments that will go up in smoke in a decade. Sir, people kill each other over scraps of bread. For this kind of money? Kris and Andie would be worth huge amounts of money to a lot of people if they were dead.
“We’re talking about putting hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people out of work, eliminating not only their jobs, but their entire livelihood. They would be like the carriage and buggy whip makers were in 1900. Bleak prospects, sir. Very bleak.
“The national security implications of this are immense as well, and again, that’s just from the power aspect of this.”
“What about radioactive byproducts, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases?” Oliver asked, trying to temporize.
“There are no radioactive byproducts to speak of. The process produces alpha particles, which are technically radiation, but a sheet of paper will stop an alpha particle. Moreover, these alpha particles have an electric charge. It’s a trivial thing to capture that charge. The fuel is boron and simple hydrogen. Boron isn’t the most common element, but it’s common enough, and creating boron ions is another trivial exercise. Sir, Andie got her boron by rinsing borax soap and filtering out the grit, then grinding it in a mortar and pestle and then zapping it with an electric charge.
“Sir, Andie stopped when she got the information she wanted to and didn’t research further. The government has restarted Bussard’s research. I don’t honestly know what she’s done differently, but I don’t think it was a cosmic leap... it’s very possible someone else will come up with this tomorrow.
“Quite literally, Andie is a billionaire or even a trillionaire if she can get this to market. She’s a nice girl, sir, even if foul-mouthed. She’ll want to share this with Kris.”
“And you,” Oliver noted.
“And me, and I’ll tell you true that that’s part of the reason I’m here. A small part, but part of it.
“Someone is going to do this, sir. It’s too simple.”
“And going into another dimension?”
“Sir, all I have is speculation. I have no idea what’s happening. Andie says she created the doorway before she created the strong magnetic field. I got the impression, sir, that she’s an empiric researcher who makes up things on the fly. She may be misremembering or trying to obscure how it works. It doesn’t matter -- it needs to be researched.”
“So, fine... she can give her notes -- such as they are -- to competent researchers and they can go ahead with it.”
“Do that, sir, and you will muddy the precedence for all time. Not to mention once again, sir, that it is likely if you do that, your daughter will never speak to you again.”
“If she’s dead, I can’t speak to her either. I know which side of that equation I’m in favor of!”
“Sir, if you let her have her head, she may or may not die. But if you try to stop her, she will never talk to you again. Moreover, sir, just how old is your daughter?”
That brought up Oliver
Oliver Boyle looked at the young man steadily.
“Then, sir, there are the other implications. And there, sir, the risk is every bit as great.”
“What other implications?”
“Sir, with this technology, in a couple of years you could go down to Home Depot or Wal-Mart and buy a fusion generator for a few thousand dollars that would power this studio for decades for a few dollars of fuel. This will disrupt every power market in the world. You’re talking probably trillions of dollars of investments that will go up in smoke in a decade. Sir, people kill each other over scraps of bread. For this kind of money? Kris and Andie would be worth huge amounts of money to a lot of people if they were dead.
“We’re talking about putting hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people out of work, eliminating not only their jobs, but their entire livelihood. They would be like the carriage and buggy whip makers were in 1900. Bleak prospects, sir. Very bleak.
“The national security implications of this are immense as well, and again, that’s just from the power aspect of this.”
“What about radioactive byproducts, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases?” Oliver asked, trying to temporize.
“There are no radioactive byproducts to speak of. The process produces alpha particles, which are technically radiation, but a sheet of paper will stop an alpha particle. Moreover, these alpha particles have an electric charge. It’s a trivial thing to capture that charge. The fuel is boron and simple hydrogen. Boron isn’t the most common element, but it’s common enough, and creating boron ions is another trivial exercise. Sir, Andie got her boron by rinsing borax soap and filtering out the grit, then grinding it in a mortar and pestle and then zapping it with an electric charge.
“Sir, Andie stopped when she got the information she wanted to and didn’t research further. The government has restarted Bussard’s research. I don’t honestly know what she’s done differently, but I don’t think it was a cosmic leap... it’s very possible someone else will come up with this tomorrow.
“Quite literally, Andie is a billionaire or even a trillionaire if she can get this to market. She’s a nice girl, sir, even if foul-mouthed. She’ll want to share this with Kris.”
“And you,” Oliver noted.
“And me, and I’ll tell you true that that’s part of the reason I’m here. A small part, but part of it.
“Someone is going to do this, sir. It’s too simple.”
“And going into another dimension?”
“Sir, all I have is speculation. I have no idea what’s happening. Andie says she created the doorway before she created the strong magnetic field. I got the impression, sir, that she’s an empiric researcher who makes up things on the fly. She may be misremembering or trying to obscure how it works. It doesn’t matter -- it needs to be researched.”
“So, fine... she can give her notes -- such as they are -- to competent researchers and they can go ahead with it.”
“Do that, sir, and you will muddy the precedence for all time. Not to mention once again, sir, that it is likely if you do that, your daughter will never speak to you again.”
“If she’s dead, I can’t speak to her either. I know which side of that equation I’m in favor of!”
“Sir, if you let her have her head, she may or may not die. But if you try to stop her, she will never talk to you again. Moreover, sir, just how old is your daughter?”
That brought up Oliver
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