America 2040 - The Return by Evan Innes

Author:Evan Innes
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2012-07-29T07:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

Paul Warden was tired. He had been working with Harry Shaw for weeks, and that man was a workaholic who never needed rest. Even Max, who was a monomaniac himself, had stopped trying to keep up with Shaw. Now and then he’d just grunt and walk away, and if you wanted to know where he was, all you had to do was go to the thermatent he shared with Grace, and there he’d be, in his uniform, sleeping so soundly that it took drastic action to awaken him.

Fortunately, the hard work had not been without reward. Warden had rigged a sun gun based on the Eeperan design, powered it with plain old electricity, jazzed it up a bit with some Earth-type microtechnology, and had come up with a weapon that was more deadly and of longer range than the original. The Eeperan secret was in two heavy magnetic arrays that gathered electrons and compacted them inside a force field until the temperature was hotter than the surface of a sun, and then directed that charged energy like an invisible lightning bolt with total accuracy. Warden’s adaptation of the sun gun would be a splendid addition to the armaments of a ship, where there was a power source.

Harry and Max, meanwhile, were agreed on a method of getting inside the protective shell of the Eeperan power source. Some basic, totally safe experiments had hinted at the nature of the device. They had discovered a series of highly polished metallic mirrors that directed sunlight down into the power room. The power plant was now known to operate by utilizing solar energy, and as a result, when sunlight was blocked from it for a period of four days—much longer than any natural cloud cover would ever have blocked the sun in a site like the river valley—the lights began to dim both inside the pyramid and in the city. It was evident that, in addition to converting sunlight directly into energy, the plant also had a means of storing energy. That, Harry felt, was going to be very interesting indeed.

Max and Harry agreed that the danger of unleashing unpredictable energy would be lessened if the power were bled from the plant by blocking sunlight until there was no output—that is, until all the lights were out. For the residents of the city to be notified that there would be a power outage, the regular patrols were ordered to spread the news. There was, of course, some grumbling and a formal protest from the city’s officials.

For the sake of safety it would also be necessary to evacuate the pyramid. Paul Warden didn’t mind that at all. He had been too exhausted lately to have had much chance to pursue his courtship of Evangeline. She and Grace probably could use a break from their seemingly endless translation tasks. He suggested that the three of them hop over to Hamilton City for a rest. It would also be a fine opportunity for Evangeline to consult with Egyptologist Dr.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.