Read Online Overture (Earth Song) by Mark Wandrey - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Mark Wandrey
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if he would have sounded any more mature either.
He thanked his assistant and got up to stretch his legs. Once again it was nearly noon and he was going on eight hours straight without a break. He took a bite from a sandwich lying on the workbench, grimacing as he chewed. He washed it down with some hours-cold coffee and walked out.
The compound, or Portal City (as some of the scientists had taken to calling it) now held twelve semi-permanent structures, a trio of trailers containing powerful scientific apparatus and a varying number of buses that served as bunkhouses for the personnel. Osgood called a fifty-foot long motor home parked a short distance away his temporary home. He was one of only two people in Portal City with personal accommodations. The other being the disagreeable NSA director Volant.
He maneuvered around a few of the buildings and came within view of the central structure. The twenty-meter wide spraycrete dome was painted a neutral brown and built low so as not to draw attention from a distance. There was only one exit but dozens of cables and hoses emerged in different places where they lead to the various trailers surrounding the dome. And inside was the reason they were all here.
As he made his way to the dome entrance he recalled the story they fed to the press. An incredibly valuable satellite had landed in, of all places, Central Park. It was supposed to be nuclear powered and the government was carefully recovering the dangerous fuel elements. The New York media not only bought the story and all the inconvenience that went with shutting down access across the park, they practically fell all over themselves thanking the government for saving them from a radiation induced hell. It was amazing what people would believe, even with a complete lack of supporting evidence.
“ As if a satellite could crash into Central Park without fifty thousand people seeing it,” he laughed as he reached the door. The entrance to the dome was an airlock that had originally been kept closed against possible contaminations. Except for the small amount of radiation leakage, there had proved to be no danger. In total radiation exposure it was more dangerous to stand in front of a television set for a year. The guard stopped him and examined his ID. The door was propped open, but security was tough. The guard was dressed in a conservative suit but the bulge of a sub machine gun under his coat was unmistakable. Osgood found himself more threatened by the street-dressed agents with their hidden weapons than he had by the camouflaged and openly armed FBI.
“ You can go in, Dr. Osgood.”
The scientist nodded and stepped over the door frame. The decontamination area was lined with yellow biochemical suits and steam spray booths. He was grateful they'd moved past the stage of needing the cumbersome and time consuming suits, to explore the Portal.
The inside airlock door stood open and he stepped through. The inside was brightly lit from all directions. The pearly white Portal dais stood in the center of the dome surrounded by scientific instruments and researchers (the work went non-stop around the clock). By the looks of the current instruments they were using, this was another materials analysis run.
A pair of men was working with a five hundred kilowatt laser flown in last night. It had charged off city utilities all night until it was ready to be used to try cutting a sample. Darkened black glass shields surrounded the work area and still flashes rebounded from the walls bright enough to make him squint. After a minute, the light stopped flashing and the men came from behind the shield, opening their reflective face shields and shaking their heads in disbelief.
“ No luck?” he asked.
“ Dr. Osgood? Not really your area of interest, is it?”
“ No, I usually keep to the pure physics of the problem. This cursed thing is defying all attempts to make any progress. I would give all I have to get at the insides
He thanked his assistant and got up to stretch his legs. Once again it was nearly noon and he was going on eight hours straight without a break. He took a bite from a sandwich lying on the workbench, grimacing as he chewed. He washed it down with some hours-cold coffee and walked out.
The compound, or Portal City (as some of the scientists had taken to calling it) now held twelve semi-permanent structures, a trio of trailers containing powerful scientific apparatus and a varying number of buses that served as bunkhouses for the personnel. Osgood called a fifty-foot long motor home parked a short distance away his temporary home. He was one of only two people in Portal City with personal accommodations. The other being the disagreeable NSA director Volant.
He maneuvered around a few of the buildings and came within view of the central structure. The twenty-meter wide spraycrete dome was painted a neutral brown and built low so as not to draw attention from a distance. There was only one exit but dozens of cables and hoses emerged in different places where they lead to the various trailers surrounding the dome. And inside was the reason they were all here.
As he made his way to the dome entrance he recalled the story they fed to the press. An incredibly valuable satellite had landed in, of all places, Central Park. It was supposed to be nuclear powered and the government was carefully recovering the dangerous fuel elements. The New York media not only bought the story and all the inconvenience that went with shutting down access across the park, they practically fell all over themselves thanking the government for saving them from a radiation induced hell. It was amazing what people would believe, even with a complete lack of supporting evidence.
“ As if a satellite could crash into Central Park without fifty thousand people seeing it,” he laughed as he reached the door. The entrance to the dome was an airlock that had originally been kept closed against possible contaminations. Except for the small amount of radiation leakage, there had proved to be no danger. In total radiation exposure it was more dangerous to stand in front of a television set for a year. The guard stopped him and examined his ID. The door was propped open, but security was tough. The guard was dressed in a conservative suit but the bulge of a sub machine gun under his coat was unmistakable. Osgood found himself more threatened by the street-dressed agents with their hidden weapons than he had by the camouflaged and openly armed FBI.
“ You can go in, Dr. Osgood.”
The scientist nodded and stepped over the door frame. The decontamination area was lined with yellow biochemical suits and steam spray booths. He was grateful they'd moved past the stage of needing the cumbersome and time consuming suits, to explore the Portal.
The inside airlock door stood open and he stepped through. The inside was brightly lit from all directions. The pearly white Portal dais stood in the center of the dome surrounded by scientific instruments and researchers (the work went non-stop around the clock). By the looks of the current instruments they were using, this was another materials analysis run.
A pair of men was working with a five hundred kilowatt laser flown in last night. It had charged off city utilities all night until it was ready to be used to try cutting a sample. Darkened black glass shields surrounded the work area and still flashes rebounded from the walls bright enough to make him squint. After a minute, the light stopped flashing and the men came from behind the shield, opening their reflective face shields and shaking their heads in disbelief.
“ No luck?” he asked.
“ Dr. Osgood? Not really your area of interest, is it?”
“ No, I usually keep to the pure physics of the problem. This cursed thing is defying all attempts to make any progress. I would give all I have to get at the insides
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