Austin rubs his chin. “Interesting. Let’s say an advanced race discovered our Voyager 1 and sent us this countdown. What’s the meaning?”
Anil’s eyes widen. “Maybe they’re sharing information about the galaxy.”
Austin frowns. “Not necessarily. For all we know, it could be a hostile directive. They could be plotting to take over our planet.”
Beth shakes her head. “And give us a heads up? I don’t think so. The fact that they used ‘Johnny B. Goode’ means it’s some sort of acknowledgment.”
“What if it’s a message about energy?” Anil asks. “They realize there is intelligent life in the galaxy and they want to share what they’ve learned.”
Beth leans back. “Not a bad idea. Energy is the common denominator driving the universe. Space and matter are all a consequence of it.”
“I agree, Dr. Andrews. They’ve learned about our species from Voyager 1 and they’re trying to teach us about a natural power source.”
Austin laughs. “I wonder what they think about the human race. We should send them a picture of an oil barrel with the caption, ‘Here’s what runs our civilization.’”
Beth cocks her head. “If they found out we burn dead organic matter to fuel our society, they’ll take us off the smart species list.”
The door opens, and a breeze kicks up dust. Four Google employees enter the warehouse, pausing when they see their CEO.
Beth approaches them and guides them to the chairs. “Welcome, please have a seat.” More programmers trickle in and the room soon fills.
Austin gives up his chair and sits on a table. “It’s about time you all showed up.”
“I thought we were having a party,” Diego says. “Where are the hors d’oeuvres?”
“We’re here to work. You fell for the oldest trick in the book!”
Beth stands in the center of the circle. “Let’s get started.” She waits for them to settle. “We called you here today for an urgent meeting on Project Titan, which is now our company’s top priority. From now on, I will be personally involved in this endeavor.”
The team members steal glances at one another. Several programmers prepare their tablets to take notes.
“Starting today, our communications are confidential. You are not to discuss our findings with anyone outside this group. We will hold our team meetings in secret locations like this one.”
Diego raises his hand. “Is there some sort of urgency?”
Austin steps forward. “I’ll answer that. You should all be aware that external powers are threatening Google’s culture. We can’t take our safety and security for granted. The Information Tariffs might be a preview of what’s to come.”
Whispers break out along with expressions of concern.
Diego panics. “Could we lose our jobs?”
“No,” Beth says reassuringly, holding out her hands. “I will do everything I can to protect you. These circumstances will test our character and resolve but we must not cower in fear. Panic will embolden our enemies. Our best response is to collaborate and innovate. We win by doubling down on our core values.”
“What are these forces trying to accomplish?” Diego asks.
Beth looks down and paces the circle. “It’s a power grab. They think they can run Google better than we can.”
Kwame points. “It sounds like politics.”
Beth nods. “Yes, it is. Politics is universal at every company. There are always those who want to take over and assert their will.” She pauses. “Let me tell you a story. Once long ago, Austin and I worked on an effort called Project Bodi, our original prototype for the Google Vision smartglasses.”
Austin laughs. “That was almost forty years ago. None of you were alive back then!”
Diego nudges his neighbor as the tension in the room eases.
Beth continues. “Back then, no one believed that Augmented Reality smartglasses were feasible. People called it a pipedream and laughed us out of the room when we proposed it. I remember a board member, Ed Koch, who called us fools for trying to innovate. I later learned he tried to dismantle our department and take our resources for himself. Thankfully, we fought against him and persisted, eventually developing the core technologies in today’s smartglasses. Nothing came easy. It was an uphill battle.”
She points at Austin. “Back in 2029, I was the A.I. department’s youngest head and Austin was my twenty-something programmer fresh out of graduate school. It was he who made the key breakthroughs on Project Bodi.”
Diego applauds. “Dr. Sanders, you never told us this story!”
Austin smiles. “I haven’t thought about that in a long time.”
“We were innovative back then,” Beth proclaims, making firm eye contact with her employees. “Our CEO at the time, Shiv Patel, wrote a book called ‘Awaken the Power of Insight.’ I will send each of you a copy and I ask that you read it today. Shiv awakened our mind by showing us how to unlock innovation. He taught us how to harness insights from the subconscious mind, and we learned to liberate our creativity and reach our full potential.”
Austin acknowledges. “That’s true. Shiv’s book really helped me.”
“What did it teach you?” Diego asks. “How can we improve our minds?”
Austin hesitates. “…I have to think about it. It has been so long…”
“Innovation,” Beth interrupts, “doesn’t happen by chance. Every one of you can make pioneering breakthroughs and discoveries if you develop the connection with your subconscious mind. This is the core message of Shiv’s book.”
“That’s right,” Austin says. “I remember now. Shiv told us to leave our pride at the door and work together for a common purpose. Don’t allow the ego’s self-serving agenda to dominate your decision-making. Keep your focus on the results of your team. That’s what truly matters.”
“Exactly,” Beth says, “we must work together for the good of the company and, in this case, for the future of the world. There are tools you can use to unlock your mind’s innovation and we will discuss them later. For now, let’s turn our attention to Titan. Austin, tell us where we are with the project.”
He turns to a wall and beams an image from his smartglasses. “Happy to. Here are blueprints of a reactor from our colleagues at Transatomic. They helped us design a small-scale prototype. You can see here the inner fuel core containing deuterium and tritium surrounded by a zirconium shell.”
“Have you assembled it?” Beth asks.
“Yes, it’s ready thanks to Fei and Kwame. Our challenge is in heating the shell to 100 million degrees to trigger the fusion reaction, which will release clean energy just like the sun. Diego, why don’t you take it from here?”
Diego crosses his arms. “Sure. Our collaborators suggested we use an X-ray laser to heat the metal shell. Unfortunately, their calculations were wrong and we will never reach the threshold temperature that way.”
Beth throws her hands in the air. “That’s ridiculous! Didn’t someone check their calculations?”
The team is silent.
“Well, did they propose a different solution?”
“Yes, Dr. Andrews,” Diego says. “They suggested we anchor our device to a fission reactor—that is, use a nuclear power station to trigger fusion.”
Austin fidgets. “That will never happen. Besides, we’re running out of uranium and plutonium for our aging nuclear plants. We need something else to heat the outer zirconium shell, and that’s where Anil comes in.”
Anil nervously squirms as all eyes turn to him. As the junior programmer of the group, he rarely speaks at team meetings.
Austin extends a hand. “Anil, tell us about your idea.”
Anil balks. “…I think the solution is… gravitational radiation.”