Chapter 7
Dr. Jarrard held his hands on the worn steering wheel of his crusty Volvo wondering why someone, anyone, would make a fuss over him. Growing up, his mother barely took time other than to tell him to study more. She often said playing with friends was just a waste of time. “Theodore, those boys will be long gone when you are a professor at MIT.”
Well, she was right about the academic achievement part, but now he had neither friends nor the social skills to maintain relationships, and he hid behind the better-than-thou façade to protect himself from his loneliness.
As his brakes screeched, he parked in his assigned space and jerked open the door with vice grips attached to the broken door handle. Entering the Photon building, he flashed his ID to the overweight guard, walked through the metal detectors and headed towards the sturdy doorway to the classified laboratories.
“Afternoon, Dr. Jarrard,” welcomed the guard and, as usual, Jarrard said nothing.
Inside, Sally was hard at work attempting to integrate the industrial 3D printer with the Sentient editing software. She had determined they might be able to manipulate the images from the Sentient and use those photographs to “print” consumer products using 3D print technology.
She is a silly woman, Jarrard thought. Why doesn’t she stay focused on DIA’s number one project?
After a few moments, realizing Jarrard was looking over her shoulder, she brusquely walked over to her desk to get away from his snooping eyes. For more than two and a half years, Sally had been perfecting the ability of the Sentient imaging devices to peer deeper into living beings. Her objective was to distinguish DNA, but remarkably, the research yielded discoveries crossing into the realm of quantum physics. While her former co-worker and mentor, Dr. Benjamin Campbell, created the hypothesis behind her current work, Sally was the one who applied theory to practice — or as she liked to say: “Some people dream, I want to live the dream.” But today, this was not what she was working on.
Yesterday, she received an email from Shawn asking for help with a hologram he was crafting from images of Drake surfing the historic Kauai swell. Shawn needed her expertise to help produce a “Drake Powers” hologram in time for Surf Expo next week in San Diego. He said he had questions for her and included a link to a shared folder which held images he wanted her to see, which she opened, but for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why there were pictures of a Hawaiian bride and groom in the collection. Shawn never ceased to surprise her. As one of the most prominent and highly-paid international photographers, he always followed his heart.
Jarrard had followed Sally over to her work station and stood behind her again. “This is not science. You’re helping your boyfriend make a model for an advertising campaign. Isn’t the world crass enough?”
“TJ.” She knew this bugged the hell out him. “This is a practical application of my research and Deep Surf pays handsomely. We supply the Sentient to their number one photographer, who, yes, I used to date. In return, they provide us with other possible applications of the technology for consumer use. Deep Surf also contributes 32% of our funding — second only to the government. I would think you’d approve of our efforts to development commercial applications, rather than solely focusing on military intelligence.”
Jarrard knew this to be true, but said nonetheless, “It demeans your work and insults our professional integrity.”
“Okay, Mister Jarrard,” Sally mocked. “You’re developing laser-powered weapons which can incinerate an entire building in minutes. This is much nobler, I imagine?”
Jarrard jammed his hands deep into his lab coat and walked away.
A blinking light on the corner of Sally’s display signaled the video call she was expecting, and an icon with Shawn’s bronzed face filled the monitor. Sally clicked the end of his shiny red nose, and Shawn instantly appeared before her sitting at the large table in his Hawaiian studio.
“Sally, mi corozón! You ain’t ever going to believe what I’ve just seen, I mean, if I saw it at all! I’ve been hammering away since I messaged you, merging and compressing the images from the other day’s shoot. I’ve been using the hybrid software package you sent me and the fusion of the pictures, if you can still call them that, is moy loco.”
His eyes wandered past Sally and he barked, “What is that thing? Holy shit, I know what that is, seen it in one of my photography mags — a 3D weapons printer. Kick my sweet mother’s ass! Where did you get the big boy?”
“Deep Surf funded it. They asked me to play with it and see if I could produce any surfboards or clothing using the Sentient images. If successful, they could get out of the Indonesian sweat shops and start popping out 3D surfboards as well, but so far, it’s a no go — still fun to play with though!”
From behind, Jarrard sneered, “A swimwear company, nonsense!”
“Yo, Señor Jarrardo, el capitán of everything bitter and geeky, how goes it partner?” beckoned Shawn. Most people hated Jarrard, but Shawn thought he was a pisser, wrapped just tight enough to be interesting and a blast to dick around with.
“Hey Sally, love this groovy guy, but we need to speak beyond the snooping ears of TJ Dork Meister. Can you get him out of there?”
Getting the message and knowing Sally would drive him out anyway, Jarrard moved towards the exit. “Mr. Powers, do you wear, consume or drive anything that doesn’t have a logo on it?”
“You betcha — Fruit of the Looms! Hey, want to come over for lunch, I’ll make you a sandwich and you can eat my shorts?” Shawn laughed while Jarrard left in a huff.
Sally leaned in towards the screen and clicked on her headset for privacy. “Would you stop pissing him off? I have to work with the guy, and now he’s going to be snotty all day. Tell me, what do you think you’ve seen?”
“Sorry Sally, but he asks for it and honestly, I think he likes the attention. Shit, any attention is good attention for a guy like him.”
“Okay, maybe he does like your badgering in some weird way. Now show me what you’ve got. Very busy today working on a deadline for Defense.”
Shawn motioned to the storage device on his desk back in Hawaii. “Sal, started a massive file transfer to you about forty-five minutes ago. Even with your DIA hot-shit network links, it will take some time, but should pop in any minute. Take a look now, mi amor.”
Sally tapped a starburst icon on the toolbar beneath Shawn’s face. On the screen, a green bar had just about reached the end when suddenly pop and a folder appeared with an audio alert: “You’ve got Shawn!”
Geez, he is such an idiot sometimes, Sally thought.
“Sally, know you’re busy with your spy projects, but this is way too cool not to mess with. Move the largest file — the one called 6_14_DPHologramtest — to where you can open it in the program; hope I saved it right. When it loads, be sure no one is around, then release the data imaging array. It should work in somewhat the same way my hologram generator works. When it reaches completion, don’t be scared because it finishes with a grande bang. The way I processed and layered the images makes for a pretty dramatic release when it fully constructs. So get ready to be knocked on your cute little ass!”
Without further instruction, Sally looked around to make sure all was clear, and tapped the “run” button in the program window. At once, a hologram began to assemble on the small platform they used to view their images. Unlike Star Trek’s “beam me up, Scottie” transporter, this was more like a swirl of light, almost as if the imaging data particles were looking for their correct position.
As the hologram worked towards its full resolution, Shawn described what he thought was occurring in the only way he could. “Sally, it’s like the sand I watch blow across the beach on a windy day, rolling and bouncing until finding a perfect fit, interlocking into its predestined spot. That’s why sand dunes are so strong – the process of natural assembly makes the whole stronger than the sum of its parts. It’s as if the hologram particles you see there are looki
ng for their hardwired place in the structure. Not sure if that’s the best word for it though.”
Sally soon saw a three-dimensional Drake materialize with a whisper, upside down in the hollow part of a wave, and, although Shawn had warned her, she jumped backwards two feet when a loud bang filled the lab with a shudder she could only compare to a California tremor.
“Mother in heaven” Sally shrieked! “What was that? Did we knock out something in the apparatus?”
“Relax Sal, told you it was coming, now watch carefully. Look at Drake’s face.”
Sally peered closely at the real life replica of Drake. My God, even the water looks real, wet even. How did he do this? I’m the friggin’ scientist!
Moving her eyes to Drake’s face, she looked intently into his eyes. “Shawn, he looks like he is checking me out. This is too weird. I know he’s always looked me over in real life, but he never checked me out like this.”
“Sal, wait. Wait and keep looking at his face. Focus on Drake’s eyes now.”
Not a split second later, as she gazed into Drake’s eyes (which gave her the creepy feeling of being stalked) his eyes suddenly darted to the left and blinked a number of times, as if he was waking from a deep sleep.
Sally gasped, “Is this even possible?”
“Sally, ya see what I mean? I’m spooked and stoked all at the same time. What are we seeing? I still had about two hundred more images to layer in, but my software maxed out. What will happen after I add those into the mix?”
“I have no earthly idea Shawn. I don’t even know what to make of this. Is it an anomaly where we think we see movement where it can’t possibly be? This software was designed by Ben and when we last spoke he told me he upgraded the image array capability to fully optimize the hologram’s core particle base, but as brilliant as he is, I had no reason to expect anything so groundbreaking. Nor did I think he was hiding the possibility of such an astounding outcome.”
Sally took a breath. “Not that I need one, but this is as good of a reason as any to give Ben a visit. His lab is in Kauai, not far from you. Besides,” she said fast, “we have a lot to catch up on.” At the other end of the room, Jarrard leaned out from behind a column, furious that he couldn’t see what Sally just beheld. He silently fumed with the realization he didn’t have access to her research or files, but if he could count on anything, it was on the power of his manic determination; he promised himself to do whatever it took to find out what it was Sally and Shawn had just witnessed.