The Oort Federation: To the Stars

Denver-Phoenix Complex

DENVER—PHOENIX COMPLEX“We’ve got something to show you,” Brad Kominsky said to Thorpe.

“Where?” Thorpe asked.

“Lab seven; I’ll meet you there.” Brad turned and left the office.

Thorpe didn’t need an office to work, but he found it convenient to meet with someone in a physical office from time to time. Not everyone on Earth was comfortable dealing with an ethereal tensor matrix. By appearing as a holoimage, Thorpe gave the impression that he was simply present through a Link. That was something everyone knew.

A few minutes later, Thorpe’s holoimage joined Sally and Brad in Lab 7. eSally and eBrad hung as holoimages above them, and Max crowded their legs, moving between the couple. A large, glass-sided tank rested on the table against the rear wall. Brad brought up a holoimage displaying an engineering drawing of the working model of a small steam engine. He nodded to Sally, who threw a switch on the wall.

The tank clouded slightly, causing light that penetrated to refract by frequency, giving a rainbow effect. A form began to grow inside the tank. Within five minutes, it was recognizable as the steam engine from the drawing. After ten minutes the process stopped; Brad removed the tank cover and retrieved the engine. He placed it on the workbench and attached it to a heat and water source he had placed there earlier. Within moments, the little engine started running, spinning a flywheel that would have been capable of doing work.

“It’s not three-D printing,” Thorpe said. “The inside is too intricate for that process.” He examined it closely. “Stainless steel, brass, moving piston, ball bearings, the works.” He looked at Sally and Brad. “Okay, how did you do it?”

Sally produced a holoimage of what looked like a beetle with four legs and two manipulators. “A nanobot,” she said. A scale appeared on the holoimage. The beetle was two hundred nanometers long and one hundred nanometers wide. “Millions of these,” she pointed to the holoimage, “built that.” She pointed to the steam engine, all the while hiding a smile with her hand.