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Stories from the Verse
A Dozen Verses
Chapter 116: Kondor 294
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Slade 289
Upon arriving at the British Telephone building, Kondor was summoned to see C. Entering the office, he took the wingback chair to the right, and waited patiently as C scrawled an approval over a dozen sheets of paper. The older man then looked up and smiled.
“Well done, Captain Kondor. We retrieved half of the cold fusion devices and the Chinese plans for using them.”
“Half? Also, if I may, what were the plans?”
“Hmmm, well, it seems that the thieves took half to another location. No, we don’t know where that is yet, but we will, I hope, soon. The Chinese are considering plans for building small, moveable lasers that can reach orbit and knock out satellites. The U.S. Fifth Fleet is already at risk, and rising risk, from Chinese land-based missiles. Take away the American GPS system, and they could be in real trouble.”
Kondor thanked C for his explanation of global tactics, and received his next mission. He was to go back to Doctor Albert and continue to assist him. This did not bother Kondor as he could still sense Zeke, and the cold fusion experiments were interesting. Arriving at Brackett Laboratory in Imperial College in Kensington in London, he went to the floor and the cold fusion lab. The doctor was in, as was his daughter Deirdre, who asked about Zeke.
“He’s on another mission,” he said, and she excused herself from the office. The doctor looked up at Kondor, and pursed his lips.
“I feel as if I ought to apologize, but on the other hand, that I ought not. Perhaps I should explain. The government stole the information from the Chinese, and I did some figuring and got a somewhat useful start, and I feared that the government would steal it from me and give it to some of my competitors at Oxford or Cambridge, or even MIT. So I hid my success, hoping to get something better to prove I should keep this.”
He frowned.
“This led to you risking your life, for which I am sorry.”
Kondor thought about the partial apology, and then stuck his hand out to shake.
“I understand, doctor.” The two men shook, and then the doctor, visibly changing the subject and trying to make it up to Kondor, asked if he would like to understand the process. Kondor agreed, and the doctor retrieved a small whiteboard which he put on his desk. With rapid strokes, he began to write out an algebraic equation. Turning the board to Kondor, he gave him the wipe-off marker. Kondor struggled a bit, running through the equation, but more was left.
The doctor wiped the board, and rewrote the last bit. Kondor took it from there, and filled the board again. Still, more was left. He glanced at the doctor with a question of ‘what’s this?’ on his face.
“Could you solve this with calculus?”
Kondor considered. Calculus could be considered an advanced form of algebra, but it worked as one moved smoothly down to a limit. 1 over X always moved closer and closer and closer to zero. 1 over 2 was .5. 1 over 3 was .33 repeating. 1 over 4 was .25. The answer was always closer to zero. Once one got close enough to zero or whatever the target limit was, one called it good enough, and an answer, and moved on.
Calculus discerned a pattern, followed it exactly. This would be called smooth or continuous. It enabled one to leap to the end, but looking at the numbers for this equation, he saw no such pattern available.
This algebraic equation did not move smoothly to zero. He was sure that it would move to zero, but it wandered all over the place first. He shook his head to the doctor’s question. Calculus was not the tool for this job. However, he was not sure typical algebra was either. He had no idea of how many boards of equations he would have to do to find the answer.
“Maybe we could do this with a computer for algebra? That is, if it's not an infinite sequence?”
“The answer is not infinite, but it is huge. I think. I don’t know because I used a different technique.”
Kondor smiled. The prospect of filling white boards with numbers for the next year had dampened his usual calm to match the rain plopping on the building in the usual English weather.
“It's a trick the physicists passed on to the mathematicians. It's called Perturbation Theory.” He restarted with the first equation for cold fusion, and then began to point out areas in the sequence of answers that Kondor had already figured out, and the doctor had written on a separate sheet of paper along with a much larger, or at least lengthier, number that shared its root with Kondor’s number.
“This,” he pointed to some numbers he circled, “can be solved to this, and this,” to another group of circled numbers “to this, and--” he went on to circle more numbers, and solve them. “Thus we solve blocks and parts of the sequence, and this gives us a general move toward zero, even if not one we can use calculus for. It's more approximate than calculus which is more approximate than algebra.”
“But it is a close enough place to start. Which is what you did with your first cold fusion device, and what--never mind.” He had been about to mention Merlin to the doctor but Merlin was probably not a good person to mention. The doctor noted his slight bumble, but let it go.
“Yes, quite. And my other cold fusion devices have allowed me to run in four probability spaces for answers, and to tune those answers up and down as I have a stable platform. We’re getting closer. I had nine probable areas, and I have, or my team has, eliminated three of them, and tightened two of the others greatly. This gives us more information which we can plug into our equation to refine the math, and then run the math to use it to refine the experiment.”
“A virtuous cycle.” Kondor murmured.
“Just so. Are you ready to get back to work?”
“Indeed, doctor. I look forward to it.” Kondor shared a grin with the doctor before both headed back to the lab next door where the two assistants greeted him with cheers before going back to work on rebuilding a cold fusion generator. Kondor and the doctor started on building another one as the lab had space for four, and with the one unhidden now in use, and the two others stolen, they were down one.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #533: Characters Traveling. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
