...And We Will Have Snow

Chapter 5-7: Sedna's Drone

Sedna sat the drone back down and sat up in her own chair. "You're kidding, right?"

Ray said, "Well, this one is running on batteries. They were designed to run on a little Sun Bottle. There's no room in there for much of a battery pack. In fact you and I moving it around have almost drained it."

Jack said, "We've been trying to track down the original power packs, or a new one like it that will fit. We think we got lucky. Sun Bottle technology was pretty primitive when the drones were made. It's come a long way."

"You've found someone who makes tiny ones?"

"Not exactly. But there's nothing very special about those old ones any more. Or very secret. So they've been declassified."

"And you bought one? Legally?"

"Sort of. They're still not sold commercially. But the people who supply the Sun Bottles for the Sun Domes can buy them. They just took a big shipment. And we have lots of friends there." Ray was grinning for both of them.

Sedna looked around the room. "We're happy for you and the drone, here. But what does that have to do with flying?"

Ray looked at Jack. Jack said, "Remember, whenever we take energy out of a Sun Bottle, an equal amount of energy escapes in the form of accelerated atoms of dark matter. It used to be that we had no control over where the dark matter went. It was a waste product, so no one cared where it went. They were glad it leaked out. They assumed it simply added an insignificant amount to the dark matter that must be streaming through us all the time.

"But now we can focus the reaction so it all goes in one direction. Sun Bottles are about to become the most efficient rocket motors ever invented."

At this point everyone present sat up and took notice.

"And you can install something like this in the drone here?"

"Sure."

"Care to tell the rest of us how you can do that?"

"Love to. It isn't even very technical. Originally the reaction was initiated by squirting a pulse of the hydrogen mixture in between two electrodes and turning on the current. That created a tiny sunburst going pretty much in all directions. But more recent R&D came up with a way to contour the electrode gap and squirt the mixture into it continuously. Do this right and the energy stream is concentrated in one direction. Reflection sends the beam around a series of photo converters until the energy is all turned into electric current that charges a battery. Meanwhile the dark matter shoots out the other way. Control the angle of the beam, and you control the direction of flight."

"And you can pack all that inside the drone's battery compartment? "

"Sure."

"What aren't you telling us?"

"Um, that we might be able to channel some of the plasma beam to come out of the drone's hands and feet?"

"Just like...?"

Sheepish nods.

"How soon? Skipping the plasma beams for now."

Very soon, it turned out. Jack and Ray got to do the initial testing, but in a few weeks Sedna had her flying drone to play with. Ray forgot to remind her that the wireless link from his QAR computer to the drone had limited range, and Jack had to take the speedboat on a search and rescue mission to fish it out of the Sound. But that was a minor incident.

"How far are you expecting to fly this thing?"

"As far as you can make it go."

Fortunately, QAR technology had been advancing too, and Ray was able to install a QAR link in the drone. Sedna's eyes lit up when he told her.

"This means my range is unlimited, right?"

"Well, yeah. As long as the Sun Bottle system can find some water."

"And instantaneous?"

"As instantaneous as the Q."

She hugged him. "Ray, you've done it again!"

"Um, exactly what have I done this time?"

"Didn't I tell you? So far we've been creating the World Dream using your QAR modeling. Now with the drone I can get actual visuals!"

"Uh, so, where exactly do you plan to go with it?"

"Everywhere!"