“Which creates the plasma field,” Tia responded.
I smiled at her and nodded. She looked stunned as she began grasping how the vimana worked.
“Oh, wow,” Ed said. “That means… “
“It means the Magnetic Effect Generator and resonant motors are only the first small steps into an amazing future,” I said. “And right now I’m very tired and sore. I can tell you all about it over breakfast. Right now I just want to spend some time with Tia.”
“Of course,” John said. “Till the morning then.”
Ed, Tia and I spent the next month traveling around the world delivering generator plans, generators, and where needed, radiation suits. Without oil supertankers and refineries the world needed a new source of energy and we were bringing it to everyone we could find. neodymium became the new international currency instead of oil. I looked out of the open space where new windows would be on the new capital building in Denver. The first trainload of food and supplies was arriving. With the distribution of generator retrofit packages for tractors, we were going to have enough food to get us through the winter. Bernie in Seattle had announced the first successful flight of an electric powered cargo plane with the first flight of an electric passenger plane planned for three months from now.
John had assumed control of the new government and had passed his test of character with the robot in Tibet. I doubt he even knew it was a test. For John it was just another opportunity to be of service to other people. I marveled at how fast things had changed. Grain silos had been located still full of corn, wheat, rye, barley and an array of beans and lentils. Meteorites had penetrated into the silos, but because of the low oxygen levels in the silos, very little of the food had burned.
It was a new world and I stood as the bridge between that new world and an ancient one that held so much promise for our future. I wondered how far we could actually go now that we were unfettered by a system of corruption and greed that had hung around our collective necks like a giant millstone. The new world was one of cooperation and sharing rather than competition and warfare. We had moved past the ‘me’ and into the ‘we’ and it filled my heart with joy.
The following morning I stood in John’s office and looked at myself in the mirror. This was the first time in over a year I had worn a suit. Tia came over and put her arm around me. I pulled her close to me as we looked at each other together in the mirror.
“You ready to do this?” I asked.
She turned her head toward me and smiled. “Yes, it’s time.”
John led the small procession up the gentle hill and into a secluded canyon. He was followed by Nancy, myself, Tia and Ed. A slender waterfall graced the small cove in the side of the canyon. Small green pine trees were growing and dozens of different wildflowers had taken root and bloomed. A chipmunk stood up and watched us from a safe distance.
“This is the place I had in mind,” John said.
We looked around. It was perfect.
“Okay, take your places,” John said.
Tia and I stood in front of John facing each other. Tia wore a beautiful white dress and I wore a light gray suit John had found for me. Nancy was by Tia’s side and Ed was next to me. John took a deep breath and began.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here today to witness the marriage of Carl Koenig and Tia Harkensen. The love they have shown for each other has grown throughout the past year and has matured into a beautiful partnership. I am overjoyed to give that loving partnership the official recognition it deserves.”
Ed held out his hand with the two rings in his palm. I took her ring and she took mine.
“Carl, do you take this woman, Tia Harkensen, to be your lawfully wedded wife from this day forward, to honor her, love her and cherish her for as long as you both shall live?”
“I do,” I said. I slid the ring onto her finger and looked into her eyes. She was about to cry.
“Tia, do you take this man, Carl Koenig, to be your lawfully wedded husband from this day forward, to honor him, love him and cherish him for as long as you both shall live?”
“I do,” she said as she slipped the ring on my finger. She looked at me as a small tear ran down her cheek.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” John said. “You may now kiss the bride.”
As Tia and I embraced and kissed my mind drifted back over the last year and a half.
“What?” she asked as she looked into my watery eyes.
“I just love you so much,” I said. “I couldn’t have imagined any of this before I found the robot’s head. Even then, I had no hope of anything resembling a normal life.”
She started laughing. “What makes you think this is anything approaching a normal life?”
“I know, I know,” I replied. “That’s not what I meant.”
She smiled at me, waiting patiently for me to try to put into words what I was feeling right now. How my world as a young hacker had turned into a nightmare, forced me into federal prison and to do horrible things just to survive. How a chance discovery in a warehouse had led me to John, Ed and finally to Tia, and how the meteor storm had almost ended life on earth. How Tia had helped transform me into the strong and courageous person I had become, into the guardian of the technology of a world long past, and a future that was just beginning. How could I find the words?
“I…” I was still searching for words that didn’t seem to be coming when she raised her hand and placed her index finger on my lips.
“You are my guardian, my hero, and the love of my life,” she said. “And that is more than enough.”
I paused and thought about what she had said. “It is, isn’t it,” I replied. “Then it’s time for us to begin our new life, in a new world, together.”
AUTHOR D F CAPPS
DF Capps is the author of Meteor Storm, a sci-fi thriller featuring new technologies and ancient history. Capps illustrates some of the ways technologies we currently have could be used and he mixes these new technologies with his fascination with ancient history and alternative Archaeology. For Capps mixing the new and uncharted with the old is an exciting and illuminating undertaking.
Capps attended Wayne State University for two years before joining the U.S. Navy. Later he was Honorably discharged from the Submarine Service and went to work as an electrician in the Machine Tool trade in the Detroit area. Capps was initially trained in electronics in the Navy and expanded his training to include Industrial Computer Control and computer programming. Due to the fluctuating automotive job market in the Detroit area, he developed his design skills in both mechanical design and electrical design. Capps has six U.S. Patents and won a national design competition in 1985.
As a former electrical and mechanical engineer, Capps draws upon his experience to create much of the technology in his novels. He has a keen interest in emerging energy sciences and in his quest for knowledge on this new technology, Capps developed the control system for an over-unity electrical generator and witnessed first-hand the capabilities of such developing technologies, "The day I made the measurements on a machine that was producing eight times the electrical energy that it was consuming was a life-altering experience. I saw for myself what could actually be done, even though it was against all of my electrical training. Since then I have questioned everything that is considered conventional knowledge and found it terribly lacking. We actually live in a world that functions at a very different level from what we perceive."