Tank Farm Dynamo

6

The face on the screen was flushed and angry. In the dimness of Arnold Deck Control Room, I could tell the man was upset.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Rutter?”

I had made Pacifica wait for fifteen minutes while the control crew made a show of looking for me, then appeared, to look back at Bahnz with an expression of beatific innocence.

“What seems to be the problem, Colonel?”

“You know damned well what the problem is!” the man shouted. “Colombo Station is under acceleration!”

“So? I told you over dinner to have your crew check their inertial units. You knew that meant we would be maneuvering.”

“But you’re thrusting at two microgees! Your aluminum engines can’t push five thousand tons that hard!”

I shrugged.

“And anyway, we can’t find your thrust exhaust! We look for a rocket trail, and find nothing but a slight electron cloud spreading from A Deck!”

“Nu?” I shrugged again. “Colonel, you force me to conclude that we are not using our aluminum engines. It is curious, no?”

Bahnz looked as if he wanted some nails to chew—threepenny, at least. Behind him I could see the crew of Pacifica, crouched over their instruments in order to stay out of his way.

“Rutter, I don’t know what you’re up to, but we can see from here that your entire solar cell array has been turned sunward. You have no use for that kind of power! Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Or do I come back up there and make myself insufferable until you do?”

My respect for Bahnz rose two notches. He might be an SOB, but he knew how to get his way. “Oh, there won’t be any need for that.” I laughed.

“You see, Colonel, we need all that solar power to drive our new motor.”

“Motor? What motor?”

“The motor that’s enabling us to raise our orbit without spending a bit of mass—no oxygen, not even a shred of aluminum. It’s the motor that’s going to make it possible for us to pull a profit next year, Colonel, even under the terms of the present contract.”

Bahnz stared at me. “A motor?”

“The biggest motor there is, my dear fellow. It’s called the Earth.”

He blinked, his mind obviously struggling to figure out what I meant.

“Have a good trip, Colonel,” I said. “And any time you’re in the neighborhood, do stop by for a Slingshot.”

“Rutter!”

I turned away and launched myself toward the window at the far end of the control room.

“RUTTER!”

The voice faded behind me as I drifted up to the crystal port. Outside, the big, ugly tanks lay like roc eggs in a row, waiting to be hatched. I could almost envision it. They’d someday transform themselves into great birds of space. And our grandchildren would ride their offspring to the stars.

Bright silvery cables seemed to stretch all the way to the huge blue globe overhead. And I know, now, that they did indeed anchor us to the Earth… an Earth that does not end at a surface of mountain and plain and water, nor with the ocean of air, but continues outward in strong fingers of force, caressing her children still.

Right now those tethers were carrying over a hundred amps of current from B Deck to A. There, electrons were sprayed out into space by an array of small, sharp cathodes.

We could have used the forward process to extract energy from our orbital momentum. I had told Emily Testa earlier today that that would solve nothing. Our problem was to increase our momentum.

Current in a wire, passing through a magnetic field… You could run a dynamo that way, or a motor. With more solar power than we’ll ever need, we can shove the current through the cables against the electromotive force, feeding energy to the Earth, and to our orbit.

A solar-powered motor, turning once per orbit, our Tank Farm rises without shedding an ounce of precious mass.

I smiled as I looked out on the fleecy clouds of home and the tanks in a row, like presents waiting to be opened. I felt Susan come up beside me. “Pacifica’s gone,” she said, grinning. “And our acceleration’s climbed to three microgees, Ralph.”

I nodded. “Have Don ease back a bit for now. We don’t want to push the motor too hard on its first day. I’ll check in later.”

“Where are you going?”

I caught a rung by the hatch. “I’m going to go unwind by spending some time puttering in my garden.”

Susan shook her head and muttered “Yuck” under her breath.

I pretended I didn’t hear.