“How the hell did that happen?” Ralph said.
“This must be why it always has to be connected to an electrical load,” I said. “Now help me get down from here.”
The workers moved two work benches over, and Ed placed the ladder on top of the benches. Ed climbed up and guided my legs down until I was securely on the ladder. I was still shaking as I stepped on the floor.
“I gotta tell you,” Ed said. “That’s the damnedest thing I ever saw.”
“Me, too,” Ralph added.
“Okay,” I said looking around, “let’s try it again, this time hooked up to the electrical load.”
We reassembled the crank system and hooked the large wires to an eight foot by eight foot board Ralph had set up with rows of incandescent light bulbs mounted on it. As Ralph started cranking again, the light bulbs started to glow. This time there was only a small amount of static electricity we could feel around the generator. It started picking up speed and stabilized with all of the light bulbs shining brightly.
“How much power is it generating?” I asked.
Ralph looked at the lights. “Just over seven kilowatts,” he said. “It works!”
Everyone cheered.
“How long will it keep generating electricity?” Ralph asked.
“Between six and seven years,” I replied. “Then we recharge the magnets and it’s good for another six to seven years.”
“Damn,” Ralph said.
“You want to stop it,” I said, “just short out the output wires.”
“Is there a scale around where we can weigh this thing while it’s running?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Ralph said, “there’s one about a half mile from here.”
“Then let’s go,” I replied.
Ralph led the procession. Four of us carried the generator and eight others carried the large panel with the lights mounted on it. The scale was an antique, with triple bars and movable weights on it. We set the generator down on the scale and set everything up. The generator weighed in at 87 pounds.
“Okay,” I said to Ralph, “start cranking.”
As the generator started coming up to speed, the scale shifted with a clunk. The generator was weighing less. Once it came up to operating speed, we moved the weights on the scale. It balanced at 56.5 pounds.
“That’s more than a third of its weight,” Tia observed. “How can that happen? Weight doesn’t just disappear.”
“What happens if we remove some of the electrical load?” I asked.
Ralph walked over to the electric light bulb panel and disconnected a bank of lights. The remaining lights started glowing even brighter and we could hear the generator pick up speed. The old scale clunked again. When we rebalanced the scale the new weight was 43 pounds.
“This is crazy,” Tia said. “Now it’s less than half its original weight. What the hell is going on?”
“Okay,” I said, “shut it down. Let’s try something.”
Ralph shorted out the output wires and the generator came to a rapid halt.
“Will it run upside down?” I asked.
“I don’t see why not,” Ralph replied.
We turned the generator over and checked the weight again. We were back at 87 pounds. Ralph reconnected the remaining bank of light bulbs.
“Start cranking,” I said.
Ralph turned the crank and the generator started running on its own. The old scale clunked again, but this time in the other direction. When we rebalanced the scale it showed the generator weight at 117.5 pounds.
“It’s heavier,” Tia said. “How can that be?”
“It’s directional,” I replied. “The weight isn’t disappearing. The generator is producing an energy field that’s shifting the effect of the weight. That’s what we were feeling the first time this thing ran.”
“Like static electricity?” Tia asked.
“Yes,” I replied, “that must have been an anti-gravitational field.”
“Could you use this to make something fly?” Tia asked.
“Sure looks like it to me,” I replied. “But how would you control it?”
Tia looked at me. “That’s going to take some thought,” she said.
Later Ed came over to me and whispered.
“I’ve been watching Saltzman,” he said. “He has a communication device. I’ve used one before in the SEALs. It’s a burst transmitter, almost impossible to detect.”
“You think he’s communicating with his submarine?” I asked.
“The burst transmitter doesn’t have that kind of power or range,” Ed replied. “He’s not alone. There’s a covert team working with him somewhere within ten miles of here.”
“How much about us do you think he knows?” I asked.
“He doesn’t seem to know I was a SEAL.” Ed replied, “I haven’t said anything about it to him. He seems more interested in John and what is being done to rebuild our civilization.”
“Do you think he’s connected to the DIA?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” Ed replied. “As a SEAL, I did quite a bit of work for the DIA. If he was a part of the DIA, he should have recognized me, and he hasn’t.”
“So, regular Navy?”
“That would be my guess.”
“Can you let John know about the support team without tipping our hand to Saltzman?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
We moved the generator back to the Phoenix Super Magnet Cooperative, set everything back up and let the generator run through the night and into the next day. When I checked for heat buildup I got the shock of my life. The generator was stone cold and so was the air around it. The static electric field the generator produced still bothered me. I picked up a volt meter and held one probe on the bottom of the generator and moved the other probe toward the top. An electric arc jumped from the top of the generator to the probe with a loud snap. The electric discharge also swept through my arms and across my chest, knocking me down to the floor.
Tia and Ralph rushed over to help me get back up to my feet. I was shaking and my arms still felt numb from the shock.
“Carl, are you okay?” Tia asked.
“I think so,” I replied. “That’s a lot of power we could be using. Ralph, can you make some copper plates to collect that energy from the top and the bottom?”
“Sure,” Ralph said. “Is it AC or DC?”
“My guess is that it’s Direct Current,” I said. “Let’s connect the plates to some light bulbs and see how much power we’re dealing with here.”
Ralph shut the generator down and made the copper plates. Once everything was hooked up we restarted the generator.
“It’s Direct Current alright,” Ralph said. “Power level is about one and a half kilowatts, which brings our total to over eight and a half kilowatts. But how do we combine the AC and DC components?”
“John will know somebody who can do that,” I replied.
Ed and I talked privately with Ralph about being able to talk with John over the radio. Ed and John had a code word system in place, so he was the one to make the radio update with John. Dave Saltzman hung around closely, watching everything, including our radio reports to John. As Ed talked with John over the radio, I listened to see if I could pick up on any hidden message. I couldn’t. It all seemed so natural and had an easy flow to it. Saltzman didn’t seem to notice anything, either.
Ralph shut the generator down and was in the middle of hooking it up to power the factory. Saltzman was intent on the generator installation, so Ed and I had a few minutes to talk privately.
“Did you get the message to John?” I asked.
“Oh yeah,” Ed replied, “in fact, he had already been notified by the robot’s head about the burst transmissions. He even knows where the covert team is located and when they communicate with the Navy.”