The Far Side Read Online Free PDF Page B

cameras, computers and half the tools used on the set.  Sure, I know a few things about them.”
    “Why would two batteries go dead in the same place within a few hours of each other?”
    “The most common reason is that they are exposed to a great deal of heat in storage.  But even then, they take a while to degrade.  Two would most likely be a coincidence.”
    “Andie, Kit is my father’s technical guy.  He fixes the electronics on the set.  They even let him work on the camera electronics.”
    Most civilians wouldn’t know just how rare that was.
    “So, a fuckin’ hotshot genius, right?”
    “Well, I don’t go around having intimate relations with the smart people I know... for that matter, not even the dumb bunnies I know.  But I’m not stupid,” Kit said evenly.
    “Well, come here, hotshot, let’s see what kind of stones you got.”
    Kris was stunned when Andie headed for her room.  Kris brought up the rear again, just that it was a much longer parade.
    Andie stood in her door.  “Okay, hotshot.  Two guesses this time.”
    “Jeez!  You built a fusor in your closet?”  He laughed.  “Excuse me, you built a fucking fusor in your fucking closet?”
    Kris had never seen the look that filled Andie’s eyes.  She had no idea what emotion was going through her friend’s mind, none at all.
    “Yeah, I built a fucking Bussard EXL fusor in my fucking closet.”
    “Good grief!”  He walked closer and looked at it.  “Wow!  Does it work?”
    “Yeah, it works.  It works damn good.  You fuckin’ better be able to keep your fuckin’ mouth shut or I’ll fuckin’ cap ya!”
    Kit laughed and looked at Kris.  “You’ve told her what happens to someone on a movie who gets talking?”  He glanced at Andie for a second, and then back to Kris.
    “Let me guess, this a high school science fair project.”
    “Fuck off!  Of fuckin’ course!  I started Friday, got stuck and pissed off.  I fuckin’ got back on course.  This is what I got today.  Now I’ve got a fuckin’ problem.”
    He laughed. “Let me guess, you’re Andy90 on the bulletin board and you haven’t been back since 9 AM Saturday morning.”
    “I got too fuckin’ much on my plate.  I thought it was a fuckin’ scam.”
    “Thirty people replied to your description of your problems.  You had the vacuum pump hooked up backwards.”
    Andie reddened, causing Kris to laugh.  “You hooked it up backwards?”
    “Conceptual error,” Andie muttered.  “I figured that out and I figured out the other problem and started messing around.  That’s when I realized that those descriptions about how it was never going to break even were the straight shit.  I’d already read about Bussard’s work, so I spent the rest of the weekend changing this and that.”
    Kit looked at her.  “You started when?”
    “Friday after school.  Three day weekend and the old man spent the entire fucking weekend at the bar.”
    “That’s... incredible.  Most people take months.  And then more months fiddling around with it.  You’ve got fusion?”
    “Sure, I got neutrons Saturday by noon.  But so fuckin’ what?  If I’d made enough neutrons to be useful, I’d be fuckin’ glowing in the dark.  So I switched to boron and hydrogen.”
    He whistled and repeated his question, “And you’re getting fusion?”
    “Yeah.  I tweaked this and that.  None of that pissant 13KV shit.  I built a little Van de Graaff that puts out 750 KV.”
    Kris could see the gleam of interest in Kit’s eyes.  She wanted to laugh.  To see two people of Andie’s caliber meeting was an experience to behold.
    “What kind of current you getting out?”
    Andie closed down.  “A lot.”
    “What’s a lot?”
    “A great deal.”
    “Volts and amps, girl!  What did you get?”
    “I made some changes, okay?  I twisted this and that.”
    “What?” he demanded.
    “I ran it for an hour Saturday evening.  240 volts at 200 amps.”
    Kris did the math.