The most dangerous game

Note:this is a science-fiction piece and, as such, the science in it is entirely bogus... kind of. 
I admit, some things are plausible but, in general, this is to be considered way less reliable than Wikipedia.

If you do not heed this advise, and get an F in physics, it is not my fault.


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 "I wll be back friday night. I hope you' ll have made up your mind, by then" - And off she went, in her outlandish red leather outfit.

Mika Wolffe lazily strode out of the bed - their bed?

She was the last in a list of women that Santhippe had managed to woe.

Mika knew that most of them, really, had some kind of professional interest, in accepting the attentions of the powerful alien.

She wasn't any different from the others... the corporation she worked for was trying to obtain a contract for the new SSO shuttles, and Xanthippe was the unofficial - yet very real - head of the technical commission charged with evaluating the various proposal.

So, she had been encouraged by her chief, the ineffable Louis Legrange, to be receptive to the avances of the dark skinned woman from Beta Dragonis.

Career-wise, Mika suspected, it was not going to be really a brilliant move.

The  mind inside the most powerful biological body in the whole Solar System had proven itself as unbending as her flesh, and none of Mika's suggestions had swayed Xhanthippe from finding the  proposal of Legrange et Cie unworthy of, even, the grants for preliminary research that were bestowed, usually, on everybody.

Usually...

Nobody knew for sure the name of the small bureaucrat that had convinced  Xeios - the less fixated on the "non interference" rule, among the aliens residing on Earth , in fact she interfered a lot, mostly with young women - to lend her technical expertise to the process of building a system-wide space force, able to take over the maintenance of the solar shield from the Anipos robots that carried it on now.

What everybody now knows is that "Lady X" has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of every misstep ever made, in trying to re-colonize space, in the forty-three human civilizations present in the nearby one hundred and  fifty parsecs.

So far, seven "innovative" proposals from seldom aerospace enterprises had been found to be, really, rehashed, second rate failed projects, from this or that alien civilization, scavenged from the bottom of the Polyversity theses repository.

Legrange et cie had scrounged its proposal out of Yamatogawa's University, in the Cygnus constellation.

When Xanthippe recognized it, she had passed an afternoon teasing Mika over the idiocy of her bosses.

Mika had seen then  the writing on the walls... Louis Legrange would have attributed to her incompetence the failure of their bid. She would have been fired, or worse... and then Xhanthippe made her that absurd offer. Not so absurd, after all.

- "So, she is going to reject our project? damn! - Have you explained her how important is for you, that our company obtain those grants? - Apparently, you were not as smart a choice as I thought" -

Louis continued for a while, virtually monologuing. Mika was really going to be Louis' scapegoat.

The old man was pathologically unable to admit his own mistakes, which had become one of the weak points of the company, over time.

The day after, Mika left her job and opened Wolffe Aerospace, with financial backings from some misterious entity contacted by Xanthippe.

Mika couldn't get any of Legrange top officials to leave the company and join her so, by the end of the second month, when the bureaucratic minutiae of setting up the society were almost finished, she was already convinced that she had made her worst mistake ever. Almost  convinced.

Then their mysterious shadow investor required a meeting, and she really knew that she had made it.

On September the 13th, they already were in the reunion room when Mika and her assistant, Andrea Lawrence, entered it.

They were all women - Mika expected her financial backers to be the usual bunch of old white males, trying to hide their identities.

She expected to be called on her inability to sway technical capital out of her former employers.

She didn't expect to find five almost identical women, waiting for her. The quintuplet were all vaguely Asian looking petites, with black hair and pearl-white skin, of slightly varying ages.

Each wore a different combination of dak grey or green clothes, and were chatting amicably among themselves, till they saw Mika.

Mika exposed briskly the enterprise situation, and expected an uproar when they would understand the stall the company was in. None of it happened.

"You could not convince any of Legrange top technicians to join this company? Better."

"Better?"

"All Legrange has is run of the mill rocket technology. Crap. We have something better


And indeed they had it - a "chromodynamics tensor" spring.

"Colour" force is one of the four fundamental forces that keep the universe together [(or three, if one subscribes to a strict interpretation of electro-weak theory and, so, considered electromagnetism and weak nuclear force variations of the same field)].

Contrarily to gravity or electromagnetism, its intensity didn't decrease with the square of the distance, but rather it intensified, like a tensed spring.

Their plan was to first use the Spring to lift the components of a heavy space station well beyond the geosynchronous orbit, by hooking up the Moon, then use the station as the centrifugal counterweights of a immaterial tensor, along whom "lifters" with payloads would climb or descend, the latters releasing nearly the same energy as the one required by the climbing ones.

Some of the energy could arrive, also, from stealing angular momentum from the planet, but they had decided against , as it could fasten-up the Earth tidal-locking process with the Moon (which, however fastened, would still require some hundred thousand years or more, but it seemed to be an issue for her investors, so Mika decided to keep this for herself).

Their data seemed to indicate that the "spring" was a conservative field of a kind - beyond a remarkably low amount of losses inside the system, energy would be mostly converted from one ordinate, low entropy form to another - namely, from electricity to the potential and/or kinetic energy of the payloads.

The old dream of the Space elevator, that had seemed lost when carbon nanotubes had been declared illegal to use in structures, for their carcinogenic features, revived by an immaterial, immensely strong tether.

- " Even if it works..."

- "It works" - the oldest midget spoke with an air of absolute certainty, that Mika almost envied.

- "Even if it works, the initial investment would be huge."

- "Not really, about a couple hundred million dollars. Then, once it is operative, it would easily pay for itself and for its expansion." - This was the youngest one.

- "If it works, we could rake in billions from investors in a matter of days" - it was true, Mika knew it. No matter how little people cared about space nowadays, after that  it had been demonstrated that it was a dead end, this was game-changing stuff.

- "We have an investor that could back up the whole initial deployment stage, but we rather avoid involve 'it' any more. If we could get above board financial backing for the initial development and deployment, it would be much better."

- "is it possible to make a demonstration?"

- "A small scale proof of concept is already available. However, organizing such a demonstration is beyond our skills, which is why we have decided to agree to Ms. Xeyos proposal, and fund the creation of this enterprise."

- "You needed a PR? You could just hire someone. There was no need to mount a corporation."

- "We have no intention of ever becoming known to the great public - the great, visionary, single  entrepreneur with a revolutionary technological gizmo is a much beloved rhetoric figure in USA mythology. We rather have one, leading a company, and keep a low profile."

- "Your role is to act as such an entrepreneur, for the external world. If you do manage to get the necessary funding for the project, independently from our investor, you will be one."

- "Do not worry - you would not be the first great industrialist who became a household name exploiting tech concepts created by others - Edison did not invent bulb lamps, nor  Bell the telephones, but they developed those concept into something functional and reliable, and sold them to the world."

- "It is time that space travel becomes safe and cheap, and you may be the one to bring this into reality."

Mika was pretty sure that she knew what was going on, now

- "This is undisclosed alien technology, right? And you, you are the clones' harem that the Betan is rumoured to have, stashed in some place where journalists hardly dare to look. "

-"You may be correct, although, you understand what this means..."

Undisclosed alien technology, the kind whose principles could not be found in the great net - Mika was pretty sure that there was some law against possession of it, though the Anipos didn't favour the old concept of "Born Secret" - if you rediscovered some ancient, alien,  secret design, you could use it anyway.  As long as it was REDISCOVERED, and not just copied.

The source of the tech could be only one - Xanthippe - and this was her way to provide for her - what were these girls, for Xeyos? Lovers, wives... daughters? - harem, when she would finally go back to the stars and to whatever Hell she came from.

Mika was pretty sure of what that meant - "Things must be kept under silence, and your presence must be painted out of the table".

-"Indeed. You must find a suitable physics professor, to whom can be safely attributed the concept invention, and start your press campaign to let this be known to the specialists, then a systematic study of the results and, at last, you will present the first 'systematic' proof of concept".

It took Mika a year, to organize the outing of the "chromodynamics spring" to the scientific and technical communities.

Professor John Dahl of the Edinburgh University was the pompous has-been that she elected as the "inventor", but he could not make head or tail of the mathematics in the connection between electroweak theory and chromodynamics that the machine, evidently, exploited and that the clones' documentation illustrated at length.
      
As any old professor with a mind dulled down by age and delusions would, Dahl did the brightest thing and passed the issue to his most mathematically endowed assistant, a young Iranian girl that was completing her Ph.D. A precious beauty with dark hair and black eyes  that went by the name of Taraneh Farahani.

She managed to crack it and reverse-discover a credible way to come up with the thing, in just two months. Mika could not help but think that the girl had earned her probable Nobel price - in those ten-twenty years it usually takes, to the Swedish Academy of Science, to recognize a breakthrough as one.

Dahl seemed happy to fade in the background, behind his pupil, and only co-signed the paper that Farahani, finally,  presented to Nature, in which she described her "discovery".

Mika immediately assumed the young Iranian and Dahl, to "develop" their idea into a proof of concept - which she had already shown to the two scientists, of course -  and other technicians, to lay out plans on how to use it.

She let filter out of her laboratories, in a sapient way, news of a neck-breaking pace of improvements in the technology, alimenting an ever-increasing buzz.

When she let out that a Orbital elevator was her final goal, the SSO commission decided to take a hiatus, and to  request a public demonstration of the tech, before assigning the funds for the new transporter.

Mika was already satisfied with her ruse, when she read an article by Farahani and one of her junior colleagues, discussing the possibility of using the "chromodynamics tensors" to produce a new type of fusion reactor, conceptually similar to the old inertial confinement systems that had been investigated  before the ITER based tokamaks became the industry standard.

The new fusion generators could be immensely more compact, down to the size of a typical car's engine or less... Mika hadn't thought about that appliation, and it ade her positively nervous. The world tended to become dangerous, when one promised compact fusion generators.

Luckily, the two brilliant minus-habens hadn't pushed the envelope too much, as they noted that, if possible, it could require years to fine.tune the tensors behaviour to create such a machine.

When finally Wolffe organized the proof-of-concept presentation, she was forced to rent a hall in a great convention centre, given the number of persons that worked her up to get invited.

The presence of two USAF colonels was a bit unnerving, and Mika was glad that the company was incorporated in Ireland and had its research laboratories there and in Scotland.

In other words, the USA and their fastidious "Born Secret" doctrine couldn't step in and hide her great achievement.

The presentation was brief... a car was entered in the middle of the stage, a small "tensor creator"  was placed upon its top, and an AA battery was, very theatrically, inserted in the tensor's battery slot.

Slowly, very slowly and gently, the car started to be lifted  up of its wheels, with these screeching on the parquet as their track footprint changed in response to their  suspensions travelling down.

Mika started describing what was happening

- "As you can see, this tensor generator is alimented with an AA, 1.5volts  Alkalyne high-energy battery. That kind of battery contains about 9360 Joules - it is not very much but, fully converted into potential energy, it is enough to lift this   1500 kg car about 63 cm, or 25 inches. Of course, given the output curve of the battery, it can't really lift it above one fooot and a half in about five minutes, then it slowly gains other two inches, in some hours, before starting to lose height again, as the battery output goes below the internal dispersion of the tensor generator. Do you have any question?"

- "Isn't this just some electromagnetic trick?·Like those hover-boards?"

- "An electromagnet lifting 1500 kg would be pretty easy to spot... I suppose some of the presents has carried with himself a compass, precisely to check how much deflection of Earth magnetic field this system produces. I think that they will be able to confirm that the electromagnetic emissions of our tensor generator are very reduced, comparable to those of every system with a similar power consumption - incidentally, I can already tell you that in the 'steady phase', it is about 50mW."

Mika saw one of the Colonels taking out of his ordnance jacket's pocket a small gizmo - she supposed, something a bit more sophisticated than a simple  compass - and checking whatever the handheld apparatus was reading, Then he and his companions were back at looking at her, with a strange light in their eyes.

She decided to address an important point, before continuing the presentation...

- "This is not an Anti-Gravity system - not material as it may be, there is in fact a force thread connecting the tensor generator to that structural beam up there. If you comes near to it, you can hear a small sound and , when I place my hand here, I feel a small breeze  - it is because the tensor accelerates the molecules of air that it encounters between the generator and the beam receiver up there. This is where most of the energy is, actually, dispersed - which is the reason why we propose, in the long term a regime,  to use a floating lower dock station, kept at about five thousand meters of height, to cut in half the energy dispersion"

And to a 1/1000th the problems of national jurisdiction, as the geometry of the system imposed that the docking stations were in equatorial regions - even in 22th century, few of the countries at latitude 0 were the kind of stable democracies that one tends to associate to proper use of extraordinary assets.

She rather had two or three stations floating above the middle of the Oceans, under U.N. jurisdiction, thanks.

- "Also, this is the reason why we have not distributed small tensor generators to each of the presents, as we initially thought to do"

She took a small plastic tray, from her podium, and passed it above the tensor generator.

The immaterial thread cut though it effortlessly, and the severed half of the tray fell on the , though the car lost almost imperceptibly height.  

 - "Its immaterial thread is, also, the most efficient cutting implement known to man, requiring little more energy than that stored in the chemical bindings on the sides of the cut material."

Mika thought at the poor researcher that had inadvertently discovered that property of the tensor - the cut was so clean that the hospital had managed to reattach his forearm with little after-effects, but they had been obscenely lucky that it was just that. Morse so when, she thoughts, it was an almost obvious effect of having anything a hundredth the thickness of a human hair, able to withstand thousand of tons of tension

The colonels' gazes were virtually shining, now... though, she realized, not nearly as much as the Japanese of Toyota, in the first row.

Mika could understand why... in their proofs, the tensor proved able to cut carbon-nano-tubes reinforced plastics without dispersing any carbon-tube.

CNTRP was the holy graal of super-light electric car construction, but had been shelved because even small amounts of dispersed nanotubes could reach the lungs and generate adenocarcinomas.  The tensor could cut, drill and machine the composite without producing any nefarious particle.

The presentation continued, but Mika knew that the tensor was already sold.

When the company's stock went finally on the marke, they racked in four billion dollars in a week.

It was a lot more than the needed to  start the orbital elevator project, but Mika decided to also exploit the other applications  of the technology, with a compact tensor-receiver "super-saw"  that soon became the standard cutting tool in many industrial endeavours, usually mounted on robotic arms.

Mika's company was a "one trick pony", but it was revealing itself one hell of a trick, and she could not see  the end of it.

She only needed to put to rest the Betan Bitch and her harem, to be the sole owner of her little  Empire.

She made her move, an internal hostile acquisition, the very day the first piece of the Elevator went in position.

The SSO had become already obsolete, by that single act, so the U.N. plan for taking over the Solar Shield maintenance had to be redesigned...

She was sure that the billions of dollars, originally intended for those, would soon found a way to reach her company.

She went to bed, sure that she had win, and her life was to be marvellous.

When she woke up, she was tied  to the bed.   In front of her, the older of the Betan's Harem was looking at her, puzzled.

- "We weren't any kind of bother, to you - why getting rid of us?"

- "Your connection to the Betan... they would find out, some day, that the company was using stolen alien technology, and I would lose everything"

- "I see... it makes some sense or, it would, if the tensor WAS alien technology. I am sure that in some corner of the galaxy, someone has invented it, but it was all our stuff."

- "Nice the cutting tools variants but, be sure, when the compact fusion reactor will arrive, it will be a smash hit."

- "Are those possible, too?"

- "Give Farahani a bit more space and a couple of years, and she will pull those through, too".

- "How?"

- "How we passed your state-of -the art security system, or how we disabled those poor guys at the doors?"

- "Does it matters?"

- "What are you going to do?" -  she feared the answer... this woman was a psychopath, evidently.

- "I? Nothing. My job was just to carry your replacement in and getting you out. From now on, it is not my concern."

- "Replacement?"

- "We need a Mika Wolffe, great visionary Entrepreneur and now sole owner of Wolffe Aerospace, to continue her job and her efforts toward the colonization of space" - a long sigh interrupted her -  "in case something happen to the solar shield before the arctic methane re-sequestration project m,manages to get rid of the excess of it in the atmosphere."

- "The Anipos have discovered that there was no cheap FTL on sight, so, any problem we may have is going to be our problem, soon - Earth does not justify its costs, they only use as as test terrain, for their 'Betanization Social Assault' techniques and as a dumping ground for the worst apparatchik that their bureaucracy creates".   

- "Humanity must go back to space, at least in-system... possibly, thinking that it has done all by herself."

- "I thought that you were just trying to make some bucks, like everybody."

- "I see... well, you have a place in the grand scheme of things - unfortunately, you proved to be a little snake, in the end. It is not a problem - we just replaced you with a better clone."

- "You cloned me? How?Why? When?"

- "Before your birth, to have some spares in case you turned out well, your mother was a sterile woman whom was offered a way around her infertility problems."

- "What?"

-"You were the 'human society anchor', you seven sister were all grown up by us... I must say, they all turned out better than you - some limited surgery to adjust those details that are a product of hazard, like fingerprints, or life's events, and each one of them can take your place."

The door in the room opened, and another of the short Asian women entered the room that, Mika saw, was not her one, at home.

One by one, the furnitures disappeared - holographic projections? - and the real walls became visible.

They were all white tiles, tightly spaced.

Only one thing remained in the room, apart her bed - a steel tray, with... tools of some kind, under withe sheets.

The second midget went to it, and removed the issues, showing... Mika didn't know the name for any of it, she just started crying.

- "You know, I kind of envy you. You are truly human, you can feel everything, emotions, pleasure, pain. Me and my sisters, we are a bit different - I cannot feel pain, for example. My sister, here, Exe... can completely shut-down her emotions."

Mika tried to strap her bondages, but she realized these were too strong - nothing human could break them.

- "Of course, Exe is a short for Executioner" - the older midget grimaced - "Not a nice middle name and, I  assure you, out of the job, when she allows herself to be normal, she is an enchanting person."

- "You are monsters, all of you!"

- "Indeed, we are. Now, I have to go... If I had to see what she is going to do to you, I would be traumatized for the rest of my life , I could never see her with the affection that she deserves because, unlike her, I cannot forget totally what happens while in altered state. Sorry that our relationship has come to this, but it is your fault. You tried to cheat at the game."

The younger carried the tray near the bed, while the older midget hastened her departure

- "Sayonara, it's been a pleasure meeting you again, albeit in such shameful circumstances."

The younger looked at her, with a blank expression, then soke - plainly

- "I must say this to you: if you manage to like it, I will be obliged to spare your life. If you do not, I  will continue with the established scenario, till your death. Have you understand?"

Mika spat on her face

- "Do your worst, ass-hole! I am not scared by you and your psycho-bitch character!"

Executioner cleaned the spit with the back of her hand, looked at the prisoner calmly, then reached to a scalpel in the tray, and proceeded to cut away Mika's gown, leaving her naked and still bound to the bed frame.

Executioner then reached Mika's right nipple with her hand, and squeezed it so hard that Mika blacked out.

It went downhill from there, for four days, till Mika finally died.

Executioner cleaned herself thoroughly, with a liberal application of acetylene lamps fire, then exited the room, naked.

She watched as the room - really, a cubic cellular module - was lifted by a big robot and carried to the plasma fusion implant, where  120000k gases would dissolve it way beyond any human mean of detection, and the vapours would then be re-condensed and distilled into base elements that would, finally, be assembled in another module.

Half an hour after, Exe was back in her civilian clothing, and out of her "Function State".

She didn't remember anything of her last five days, and wondered - as always - why she, of all her sisters,  had to be the one with such disturbing amnesias.
The she went home, where she argued with her sisters, again, about having a child of her own - she thought that it would be good for her, they disagreed, tension rose and hard words fled - the usual.

As always when she had these long amnesiac episodes, before finally falling asleep - in her bed - she cried.

Half a world away, the new Mika Wolffe continued to play the great game - without cheating, this time.