Free The Pyramid Builders by Saxon Andrew Page B

to go, the lower the weight of the ship. The slower, let’s say a hundred miles an hour instead of a hundred miles a second, you just add weight. I’ve already written the modifications that need to be done to the system and sent them to Dr. Morrison.”
    Jillian stared at Dolly and saw Jeff shaking his head next to her. “Dolly, we don’t pay you enough.”
    “I know. However, I’m charging you an extra twenty million for the diagram.”
    Chris burst out laughing, and Jillian shook her head, “Send the bill to Arnold. I’m sure he’ll be more than willing to pay it.”
    “I will, but you’ll need to be careful if you use that device to go light speed for an extended time.”
    “Why?”
    “Jillian, you know Einstein’s relativity factor and what happens when you get too close to the absolute speed of light.”
    Jillian’s face suddenly had a troubled expression, “Time dilation.”
    “Exactly. You go really close to light speed and more than a hundred years could pass in less than a minute on board the ship. If you get extremely close to light speed, more than a million years could pass.”
    Chris looked at Dolly and said, “That degree of dilation would only happen when you get within a hundred miles a second of light speed.”
    “I know. I’ve designed the control on the rheostat to only take the ship up to three quarters light speed. You would have to manually change the settings to go faster.”
    “Why would we want to go faster?”
    Dolly shook her head, “Someone or something is going to attack us. I don’t want to limit you with the tools you have to use to escape them.”
    “If we have to go that fast, we’ll not get back until centuries after the attack happens.”
    “True, but you’ll at least arrive alive.”
    Jillian didn’t like hearing that, and she noticed Chris felt the same.
    Thursday arrived, and Jillian watched as Chris worked on the Cheops’s navigation system. She waited a few moments and said, “Is tonight your dance night?”
    Chris stopped working and sighed, “Yes, but I’m not going.”
    “Why not?”
    “I can’t bear seeing those I’m leaving. I won’t be able to dance out there,” He nodded at the ceiling, “so I might as well get used to it.”
    Jillian stared at him and said, “Then it looks like you’ll have to do it here.”
    “What?”
    “I’ve ordered your special blend and Bob will have it here by tonight. You really shouldn’t stop a longstanding tradition. It could lead to bad luck.”
    Chris stared at her saying nothing.
    “Yes, I’ll be your partner again.”
    “Why, Jillian? I know you don’t like me or anything that I represent.”
    Jillian smiled, “That’s true but…” she paused as Chris furrowed his brow, “…you are a great dancer.”
    Chris started laughing and said, “Thank you, but tonight I won’t need the brew.” Jillian stared at him. “I don’t want to miss just how beautiful you are.” Chris turned back to the board and continued his work. Jillian felt something warm in her heart, and also went back to work.
    Dolly looked at the translation she had completed and shook her head. She had hoped that she would find something in it that would offer some hope of survival, but it only scared her more. She put the document into a super-point display and hit her communicator, “I have completed the translation and I was wondering if those of you involved in the project might want to view it before I send it to the government.”
    Jillian looked at Chris and saw him nod at her, “Yes, I know we do. When will you be ready?”
    “It’s ready now, Jillian.”
    “Contact Arnold Gordon and let him know what’s going on. We’ll finish up here and be there in about an hour with the ship’s engineers.”
    “What about the rest of the team?”
    “I would rather share it with the command team first. Unless you think there’s nothing in it that would cause a problem.”
    “Better make it just the Command Team.”
    Jillian