“Dale! This certainly is a surprise.”
“Yeah. I know. I’m… sorry for not reaching out sooner. Thanks for taking my call.”
“Nonsense. I know it can take some time to get into the swing of things. There’s a lot to wrap your head around. Especially when it comes to the Committee, and all the… politics that come with it.”
“Thanks. Listen, I wanted to talk to you personally about something my team has been working on. Wanted to get your perspective on this. You’ve… lived in this world for longer than I’ve been alive.”
“Of course! I’m honored. What have you got?”
“It’s an energy system.”
“Using our friends’ technology?”
“Ideas taken from it, of course, but an accomplishment of our own. It takes the atomic twist principle and layers it and applies it to gathering and converting ambient energy — sound, heat, vibrations — into usable power. Electricity.”
“Well, congratulations are in order! Very good. Efficient, I imagine, if you’re using the twist. That’s a nice little discovery right there.”
“It’s… beyond efficient. Our tests are showing that it could solve everything.”
“Well, what do you mean by that?”
“It’s very scalable. A unit that costs a few thousand dollars to make and install could provide power for several city blocks… indefinitely. No fuel. No waste. Using the waste of other processes for fuel, really.”
“I see. And you’re considering going to market.”
“Of course, sort of. But…”
“Yes?”
“You’ve already done it.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Your group. Farsoom. You’ve invented this, or something like it.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I don’t have any evidence, but… you have to have. An energy application is one of the most obvious uses for the materials that we’ve all had access to, even with the technologies we’ve had since the eighties, at least. You had to have used it to develop something similar. You can’t not have done it.”
“Ha, you’ve got me there. Yes. We developed our first viable free energy system in 1985.”
“So in light of that I wanted your perspective on… steps forward. You had to have had a reason to not release it. Would we be at risk of violating the Interstitial Terms if we launched?”
“Violating the — oh, no, no, not at all, as long as you’re not charging for flying saucer rides, they don’t care what you do. It’s why they gave it to us in the first place. The Terms only apply to tech directly from them — their ships, their weapons, their systems. Derivative tech is all over the place; we’ve all been pumping it out for years. Stealth fighter, microchips, space-age materials, you name it.”
“So then… why not go to market?”
“Launch? A free energy system? You’re joking, right?”
“… No.”
“Making a free energy system is a rite of passage, a gateway to the real advances, the fun stuff. When you pass that, you begin to understand how much you don’t know, and that’s when the frontiers of discovery really open up.”
“But —”
“Come on, Dale, your people are smart enough to invent free energy. Surely you’ve got people smart enough to figure out how important it is to keep it a secret.”
“I can definitely see the potential for bad actors to repurpose this for —”
“No no, the national security, international relations thing will sort itself out. Equilibrium and all that. What was that word you just said? Before that.”
“… Market.”
“Market. You start giving away energy, that’s a massive disruption — think a Babel-scale disruption, the linguistic revolution, because there’s this whole new dimension, literally, that you’re opening up to everybody. You know why everyone’s switching to subscription services.”
“Yeah. Long-term business model.”
“Subscriptions keep you relevant, keep people depending on you. We both know disruption’s good, but only if you’re the one profiting off of it. You don’t want people to just buy your product once and they never need you again.”
“So… so you made it and then, what, just mothballed it all?”
“Eh, wouldn’t say mothballed. Repurposed. We’re using it in our facilities, of course. And then used our advances on that side of things to inform other research. Enough to keep us rolling at an inconspicuous pace.”
“And you’d say I should do the same.”
“All I’d say is, you should be careful of whose industry you disrupt, because the ones who are using a subscription model for energy have an awful lot of power, no pun intended. Might be worth your while, in a very big way, to make them aware of what you have and make it clear that you’re on their side.”
“You mean hold them hostage.”
“Don’t go putting words in my mouth. I said what I said. Ha, you’re like your grandfather, you know that?”
“Thanks?”
“Yes, that’s a very good thing. I’m sure you’ll see the smart move on this one. Was there anything else?”
“No. Thank you. Thanks for your time. I do appreciate it.”
“You ever need anything, you just call me, alright?”
“Right. Thanks.”
“Take care, Dale.”
“You too, sir.”
Dale hits the End Call button and raises his head. He makes eye contact with everyone else in the room, one by one: leaders of Anodyne, Lampeter, Halberd, Vaile; other members of the Committee. A notable absence is Richard Fitzgerald, head of Farsoom.
Dale asks them, “Do you believe me now?”
Hello hello!
This is just a reminder that The Interstice is a work of fiction, of course.
Don’t worry, not every episode is about Dale; the anthologization is going to take off pretty soon. I get bored if I write about the same person for too long.
It snowed here in DC for like 30 seconds yesterday and I saw it and it was great. Hope you’re enjoying the weather wherever you are! Keep reading weird things, and see you next week.
:: Jaer