Cha'Nara's Gift

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Whiz Kids

I sat Cha'Nara down in a seat and asked, "Pip, did you're father have a hard time remembering things like, like…Passwords or lists, stuff like that?" She thought hard, but shrugged and said, "N-No, not that I can think of, mother was always forgetting things…" "That's it!" I exclaimed, " There's probably something on the systems computer or somewhere in this thing with that password on it, we just have to find it." Cha"Nara's whole temperament changed, she immediately placed her fingers on the touchpad and started going through the computer files, I returned to the house to finish what I had been doing.

About an hour later Emily came over and sat down next to me, "We think we know what it will take to build a converter, and it looks like all the materials can be found here on earth, downside is that it's going to be large but won't be able to charge very fast, more like a trickle charger, but we will have a way to charge up the power cells. Oh, there's one more thing, something that I discovered about the engine." "Yeah, what is it?" Emily hesitated then cleared her throat, "Properly re-configured, that engine can become a time machine." I looked at Emily like she had bugs crawling out of her ears, "Say what?"

Emily rolled her eyes, "I'm pretty sure, apparently the Vagan's have the ability to fold space, that propulsion system is actually a modified time machine, if we can integrate GPS coordinates into the navigational computer conceivably, we could travel back in time and return to any location we program in."

It took a couple moments for Emily's information to sink in, "So Pip's unit could be used as a time machine to travel back in time, and return to our own time?" "It appears so, yes," replied Emily. "But first, we'll have to figure out a way to convert direct current into Plasmatic, or fluid energy Cha'Nara talks about," said Emily. I thought some more about the ramifications of all this, then said, "She's pretty sure she can help us build a converter, with materials found here on earth?" "Pretty sure" "Well, I guess our first order of business is to get with "Pip" and work out a design, get the materials together then build the damn thing." "You got it lover," replied Emily

Emily picks up the story

Deak seemed skeptical about Cha'Nara's spacecraft becoming a time machine, and even more over the chances of building a converter, but now that I have the ability to actually understand the Vagan language, and symbols it's just a matter of converting our mathematical figures and data into their data, I'm pretty sure we can do this thanks to the general application program that is part of the systems computer. Tomorrow morning, Cha'Nara and I well begin converting the data we will need to start moving ahead on this project, she's also going to show Deak how to build a small converter, but a small one is better than none.

One thing was obvious, we would need a large capacity direct voltage generator, I located an industrial supply house on the internet that carried generators, I ordered a 9000 watt generator with the proper wiring harness so we could rig up a converter to it. I had to be careful we were really going through our combined savings; we were going to have to start making it back real soon. Later, I sat down with "Pip" and Emily to figure out what our converter would require. We came away with a square metal box made of one inch thick steel lined with an insulating material (thick rubber) glass, copper, a thick copper coil, and a pump the circulate a mixture of saltwater, hydrogen, an inert gas such as Argon. This converter would also require a small computer to control the flow of this mixture and to regulate the power coming out of the converter. Some of these things, especially the box ,would have to be made by someone else, Mr. Carter told us of a local place that did custom work so once we finalized the design of the box and it's linings, I went to talk with them about our project.

I talked with the shop owner, who told me they could build it, glass and copper liners, everything we requested would be included, " It sure is the funniest damn thing, gonna be expensive, and we're going to require payment up front, but it will be right, guaranteed." I paid the guy out of our dwindling resources, "Be about a week, I'll call you when it's ready." I ordered other components our converter would need, we ended up driving clear to Denver for the gas and electronic parts, Pip created a program for the systems computer that would operate the whole thing, she claimed she wasn't a computer genius or anything like that, it was just common knowledge everyone knew.

While we were waiting for all the elements to come together, Emily and Pip worked hard converting our units of measurement into theirs, it required a lot of tedious work but Emily and Cha'Nara became a close team, Emily claimed Pip was telepathic and could read her mind, apparently it didn't work the other way, Emily wasn't a Vagan. Emily also told me, that during this time, they searched the whole computer system and could not find anything resembling a password, using Pip's craft as a time machine wouldn't require the navigational programs that were locked out, but Cha"Nara was starting to become more and more depressed about not being able to unlock those critical programs.

Emily picks up the story

Over the days and weeks, Cha"Nara and I became very close, almost to the point of sisters; I knew it was due to her "Vulcan mind-melds" as I called them. Every morning, Deak and I would run and do sit-ups and push-ups to stay in shape, eventually Cha'Nara joined us, she especially enjoyed the running, maybe it was because she was actually faster than us, and never seemed to get winded. Deak set up a chin-up bar in the barn, he could usually knock out twenty before he started slowing down, but Cha'Nara always did around forty, we figured it was something about her planets environment. Sometimes, it would be just Cha"Nara and I that would run, but She liked to do it without any clothes, just sneakers, it didn't bother me, but we only did it when dad and Deak weren't around.

Cha'Nara also told me quite a bit about her home world, girls became sexually active at ten, sometimes even earlier, there was an intense amount of s****l experimentation between that age and twenty, enhancements to both male and female s****l organs were not uncommon, but once a Vagan "came of age" at twenty, they were expected to have settled on their life's mate, and apparently it didn't matter if it was male or female, but at that point, all the fooling around came to a screeching halt. There was no divorce, period. Once you settled on you're mate, they were your partner for life. If one or the other died (which was rare) you could seek another mate, but only from a pool of Vagan's who were in the same boat as you.

I asked her if she had a boyfriend, "Yes, several," "I'll bet that makes for some interesting dates?" Cha'Nara told me about a club she and her dates like to go to, from her graphic descriptions, it sounded like "Club f**k" or a Roman orgy. "Everyone leaves very sore," giggled Cha'Nara, "I'll just bet they do" I thought. I talked to Cha"Nara about using her "Unit" for a time machine, it took a little time to explain what we wanted to use it for, but she didn't object, in fact she felt it was a good way to pay us back for all our help. Cha'Nara and my mom also became very good friends, when Deak and I were busy doing other things, she would help mom with the cleaning and general chores, one time mom commented to me, "I sure wish you could have been more like Cha'Nara," "Gee thanks, mom!"

Deak resumes

We finally accumulated everything we needed for our converter, with Mr. Carter's help, we slowly assembled this thing over three days, everything was checked and re-checked, the Hydrogen, Argon, and other ingredients were carefully added, the box was sealed, connections checked, we were good to go.

It was around 8:30 at night on a Tuesday, the weather had turned cold, as we entered the first days of Fall, Emily and I were just about out of money, this was a make or break effort. We rechecked everything; I fired up the generator, powered up the converter and…Waited. We each took a "watch" while the others got some sleep, by morning we could see no change in the power tube's color, we were almost ready to give up when Pip noticed a slight change in color, I increased voltage, and circulation to the box of the chemicals

After a period of about four hours the cylinder was noticeably greener, we were getting there. I had to shunt down the generator to add oil and gas, and told Emily we would get a couple back-up generators, one to keep charging while the other was down, and a spare. By 7:00 the next day, the cylinder was almost fully charged; Cha'Nara's instrumentation said the power cylinder was eighty percent charged. The next morning, it appeared to be completely charged. Once we realized the converter was working, Emily and I began to talk about how we would use the time machine to make money. Emily liked the idea of traveling into the future to find out what lottery numbers, sports teams, and race tracks were doing, then return to the present time to "Cash In" I took a more practical approach.

"Those are all moneymakers Emily, but they're only good for one shot, you end up attracting too much unwanted attention, and besides, if we travel into the future and find out what the winning horse race or lottery number is, we might be upsetting history. Think about it? If we "steal" someone else's lottery number, we change history, the person who is supposed to win it doesn't, and maybe things change for the worse for someone right on down the line, no, I've got a better idea, a little more dangerous, but we've been in dangerous spots before, and the best part is that nobody will be snooping on us or drawing attention to ourselves."

"So tell us already, what's your plan?" Complained Emily. "We simply go back to around 1877 or even 1880 in Colorado where we are now, BEFORE the famous gold strikes pick up just what we can find, no digging, and with what gold is going for on today's market we clean up, then with a little seed money, we build us a small town, and let the gold come to us, and not only that, think of all those antiques we can lay our hands on, guns, cowboy and Indian gear, plus anything else that sells for a fortune, haven't you been paying any attention to "Antiques Roadshow?" I haven't been watching it for my health. Ever see what stuff like that goes for?" "I see you're point lover, all right, we'll try it your way, then if it doesn't work out, we do it my way!" "Fair enough" I replied.

We took the re-charged power tube and prepared to install it back in the craft, before I could do that, I had to put the cradles back together, I had dismantled them to fabricate a similar cradle for the converter so we could charge it up according to what the video showed us. I was inserting a fastener back into the cradle mount when I accidentally dropped it "Goddammit!" I shouted, "Take it easy lover, it fell right down here let me get it." Emily got down on her knees and began to poke around. "What's taking so long down there?" "The damn thing rolled under this raised piece of decking, wait, there's something else under here," sounds of grunting could be heard. "What's the freaking problem?" I continued, "I found something else," Emily stood up handed me the fastener and held out what appeared to be a metallic card about the size of a credit card, she showed it to Pip who immediately squealed and grabbed the card from Emily's hand. She placed her fingertips on it and acted like she was reading something. She squealed again, and quickly sat down in the pilot's seat and placed her fingertips on the touchpad.

Suddenly lights that hadn't bee lit before came on, Pip started sobbing, with joy, Emily jumped into the front passenger seat and placed her fingertips on the pad, after a moment she uttered one of her favorite phrases, "Outfucking standing!…"We're in people, WE ARE UP!" She and Cha"Nara began to laugh and hug each other, I think I even saw a kiss. "Everything's gonna be Allright, Rocka-Bye, Rocka-Bye, Rocka-Bye!"