LASER
TRAP
Frank DiBianca Birmingham, Alabama
Laser Trap Iron Stream Fiction An imprint of Iron Stream Media 100 Missionary Ridge Birmingham, AL 35242 IronStreamMedia.com Copyright © 2022 by Frank DiBianca No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are all products of the author’s imagination or are used for fictional purposes. Any mentioned brand names, places, and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners, bear no association with the author or the publisher, and are used for fictional purposes only. Iron Stream Media serves its authors as they express their views, which may not express the views of the publisher. Library of Congress Control Number: 2022933934 Cover design by Jonathan Lewis / Jonlin Creative ISBN: 978-1-64526-368-5 (paperback) ISBN: 978-1-64526-369-2 (e-book) 1 2 3 4 5—26 25 24 23 22
Chapter 1 Friday, August 16
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hat’s wrong with that man?” J. J. “Eos” Puller growled to himself as he neared the parking lot on Alabama Avenue. He was frustrated and angry about being jerked away from his tour of university research seminars by his boss. And with under twenty-four hours’ notice, no less. Luckily, he’d finished his business at UNC-Chapel Hill, attending a public seminar on laser research before he left. Since he couldn’t get a flight reservation, he’d had to make the four-hour drive to their meeting place, a hiking trail in Fort Circle Park, in the DC area. He parked his rental car and walked to the specified meeting point inside the park. After rounding a turn in the trail, he spotted Darrel “Sirius” Holden sitting on a log by the side of the hiking path, smoking a cigar. Sirius looked up at the sound of Eos’s footsteps and greeted him with a slight twist of his hand. “How was the trip, J. J.?” “Not bad, Si, if you like driving alone for four hours in heavy traffic on I-85,” Eos answered, as he parked himself on the log and ran a tired hand through his dark hair. “Now that we’re absolutely isolated, maybe the CEO of StarWay Labs will condescend to tell his indentured servant about the meeting he had with the boys from the far side?” 3
Laser Trap Sirius reached inside his jacket and retrieved a metal flask. He handed it to Eos, who took a long swallow. “First, I want to hear what you found out in Chapel Hill, and then I’ll update you on some big breakthroughs in the Vibricity Project,” Sirius said. He took the flask back and drained it. Eos turned his body to face his boss directly. “I heard a colloquium at UNC on laser physics by a professor . . . W. W. Kensington. He’s studying the optical properties of doped yttrium oxide at temperatures near absolute zero.” “How many dopants?” “Only one.” “Dr. Powers is pretty clear we need three.” “I know, I know,” Eos said. “After the talk was over, I went up front and asked Kensington if he’d be interested in studying three, or at least two dopants. He said no.Too many possible combinations, and company-funded research wouldn’t help his career. The university wants federal grant money. So do the other universities I’ve been to so far.” Sirius groaned and shook his head. “Where else are you going?” “I plan to head to the West Coast next week for three stops.Two universities and a federally funded lab. Then I’ll fly to Virginia the following week to catch a laser seminar at Quincy University. They have a small project that uses laser beams in yttrium oxide. And get this—they use two dopants! Close to what Powers wants. Should be interesting.” A young man and woman jogged around the bend, and Sirius diverted the conversation to football until the pair had passed. “Look, J. J., you have to come up with something soon. Halsey Powers, our physics genius, has been on the money twice already. Do you know her biggest hit, the Xanadu 3-D digital device, has earned over 15 percent of the cumulative twenty-year income of StarWay Labs? “We had to borrow a bunch of patented electronic elements and some patented software, but who cares? The owners will never know. Halsey designed it for Asia Group Three, and they paid us forty million for it. We added a huge premium for the risk we were
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Frank DiBianca taking for the illegal components, and AGT paid it without a hiccup. We never found out what they use it for.” “Right. We shoot bullets in the air. Where they land—not our affair.” Sirius frowned. “All right, Shakespeare, let’s get back to Halsey and her Vibricity Project. That’s why you’re going to all these seminars.” “No kidding. I’ve heard most of her seminars at the lab over the past two years. She keeps telling us that crystals like yttrium oxide doped with three elements can create these vibricity zones that store energy. Right? And, if you run a laser beam through the crystal, the zones create more light, making the power of the beam increase big-time. Right?” “That’s what she says.” Sirius rubbed his hands together. “We’ve discussed all the, shall we say, benefits that arise.” “Yeah,” Eos interjected. “Blasting out tunnels, cutting metals, clearing trees and obstructions for road-building, laser-induced nuclear fusion. And dozens of other things that can help people.” “I’m interested in money,” Sirius exclaimed. “Big money, not people. We need lasers with huge power!” Sirius punched an arm skyward. “For things like military weapons. Antiballistic missile systems, anti-tank weapons, antipersonnel, destroying enemy buildings, you name it. Trillions spent on that. Another blockbuster--digging deeper oil wells. Crude oil production is another multitrillion dollar operation. “Look, J. J., business is business. If we can pull off this vibricity stuff, it will be our biggest coup ever.” “OK, I get it. But we have two nasty problems. One: Powers still doesn’t know how big the power increase is, and two: which elements make good dopants.Why have we been working on this for two years if she’s only eked out a speck of beam energy increase?” “That’s why we’re meeting like spooks in the woods,” Sirius snorted. “Halsey just made some theoretical breakthroughs in her vibricity model. Now she says the power increase can be up to a thousand times bigger, maybe ten thousand or more. She believes at least two of the best dopants should be lanthanide elements. There
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Laser Trap are only fourteen of these metals, so that reduces the number of possible combinations.” “That’s fantastic, Si!” “Now wait till you hear this. When I told some of our prospective overseas customers about this, even without divulging which elements, their mouths fell open. Vibricity lasers are going to give them access to power beyond anything they’ve seen before, and they’re ready to pay fantastic amounts. The highest offer so far is a hundred million dollars, if we meet their specs. “I’m counting on you, J. J., to find something. If you do, we’ll do whatever we need to get our hands on it. We go straight for the jugular vein!” Sirius stood and stomped on his cigar for emphasis. “That’s it for now.” Sirius put his hand on Eos’s shoulder as he gave him a devilish smile. “And to say thanks for the long drive, I’m going to take you to dinner. I know a French restaurant in DC with food and wine that will melt that frown right off your face.”
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