Kinsella (Kinsella Universe Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

you and Mr. Chang have any place at this table is because you suggested changing the orientation of the point-gravity source.”
    Stan let his hand drop.  “So what?”
    He missed seeing Johnny Chang staring at the moon.  He missed the two graduate students staring in the same direction.
    “So what?  Mr. Benko, point your hand to the south again.”
    He saw everyone was looking in that direction, but didn’t understand what they were seeing and shrugged, doing as he was told.
    Stephanie Kinsella stepped close to Stan and took his hand in hers and lifted it to point at the moon.  “Tell me, Mr. Benko, the best angle for the point gravity source to be directed?”
    Stan was beyond thought, beyond reason.  “The moon?  Are you crazy?  We get fifty-eight lousy centimeters a second acceleration!  Six percent of what you need to lift something off the ground!  The moon?  You’re insane!”
    Stephanie Kinsella turned to Johnny Chang.  “How long will the propane fuel the go-cart turbine?”
    “Two hours, just about,” Johnny said, never taking his eyes off the sky.
    “It can’t lift itself from the ground,” Stan said rudely, emphasizing each word, “it can’t even manage anything beyond a slow walk!”
    Stephanie Kinsella turned to Anna Sanchez.  “Miss Sanchez, an acceleration of fifty-eight centimeters per second, for a burn of two hours duration, what is the delta V?”
    “More than four kilometers per second,” the young woman said, without bothering to check her calculator or PDA.
    “Mr. Benko, Mr. Chang.  You will go prepare your paper.  I will see that it’s published.  You will have precedence for everything you’ve discovered.”  She lifted her hand and pointed at the moon.  “If you include that, Mr. Benko, I’ll break every bone in your body.  Each and every bone.”
    She turned and stalked away, followed by her graduate students.
    Stan Benko watched them walk away, then turned to his friend.  “The arrogance of that bitch is simply... beyond belief.”
    “Stan, you don’t like her.  I understand that.  You need to understand some things.  She figured this out the first day.  There’s been nothing we’ve done since the pizza party day that’s surprised her.  She did the math long ago and knew what was going on.
    “You’re worried about precedence?  Stan, she’s bent over backwards, every step of the way, to make sure we get it.  How many times has she told us to do the math?  How many times did she listen to our reports and ask us if we had any changes?  Hell, you know we didn’t have any changes!  We lucked out, Stan.  We found something remarkable!  And we don’t have the wit to understand it.  We still don’t.”
    He waved at the go-cart, sitting in the hangar.  “That’s the future, Stan.  We don’t understand it much, but we’ve had a little hand in making it happen.  Stan, she could have taken it all away from us that first day... but she hasn’t.  Think about that.”
    “So, what are we supposed to do?”
    Johnny shrugged.  “It’s not a nice feeling knowing that you’re in water too deep for you to swim in.  Stan, we’re in water over our head.  We were kids, gosh wow, about physics.  We weren’t going to get a doctorate unless we hit the jackpot.  Well, we hit the jackpot.  It’s time for us to write our paper and gracefully accept that the ball is now in someone else’s court.”

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 3 — Discovery
     
    Captain John Gilly was one of a solid phalanx of worker bees in the White House who arrived before seven in the morning.  Most of the early birds were eager beavers, eager to impress the boss, but in John Gilly’s case he simply wanted to get an early start on the overnight intelligence reports from around the world.  That, and his phone didn’t ring very often until later in the morning.
    This was a Monday morning and eager beavers or not, some of his fellow early birds were dragging their