...And We Will Have Snow

Part 6: The Sea Shell

"This just in: NASA team in Houston reports success in testing their first DDM levitator. They say their Farm is ready, plans to pressurize their Can are moving forward, and they will be ready to test their Shell modifications as soon as the new thrusters are installed."

Bear and Sedna high-fived each other. Cern and Dema grinned at them. Tengri smiled and said, "Not exactly what we were going for, but maybe even better."

"Amazing. All these years using Sun Bottles, and it took this long to catch on that the dark matter they produce could be useful."

"I'll say. Excitement about DDM has gone viral. Private developers have already posted videos of flying cars."

"It turns out Indy cars have been secretly using directed dark matter engines for several years."

"Yeah, with the thrust directed downward to improve traction."

"The latest conspiracy theory is that a secret international automotive consortium has been suppressing production of levicars because of their vested interest in wheeled vehicles."

"Others are blaming it on highway construction and maintenance lobbies."

"Jack says it was way simpler than that. The engine developers really were automotive people. It was natural for their focus to be on improving traction. They had no interest in levitation. If it even occurred to them, their idea of control was wheels on the ground. Flying was outside their expertise."

"In any case, the cat's out of the bag and running wild."

"Thanks to Jack and Sedna—and Newt."

"Sedna, it looks like your World Dream has gone viral too."

"That's all Bear's fault. He showed it to Newt."

"I knew he was ready for it. He was already in love with you, so he was primed."

Sedna scowled. "He was in love with my drone."

Bear grinned at her. "Or maybe your Supergirl avatar. But once he experienced your World Dream, he totally got the idea of the Sun Dome as a seed of Gaia."

"Seed of Gaia?"

"His exact words. He envisions whole fleets of domes flying off into space to colonize other planets. And of course the QAR captured that response from him and rolled it into the background mix. When his teammates tried your dream they all picked right up on that."

Tengri said, "That much at least was according to plan. But I for one had not quite recognized that the New Ravens, or Ravens in general, tend to be the loners, the explorers, the frontiersmen. The World Dream offered them all sorts of new worlds to conquer."

"And not just other planets," added Dema.

"And not just flying domes, either," put in Cern. "The idea of using drone bodies is catching on fast, too."

"Right. The gamers finally realized there might be more exciting things to do with a drone than using it to beat up on someone else's drone with a sword."

"And you don't need a whole domeful of people to go with you."

"That's definitely Sedna's fault. All that flying around looking like Supergirl."

"But don't most people have to use radio controllers? That limits the flying range, doesn't it? I remember when Sedna dropped her drone in the Sound before she had the QAR link, because she went too far."

"That's true for a direct wireless link. There are ways to get around that with satellite links."

"But a surprising number of people can manage a QAR link once they've got the feel of it from Sedna's World Dream."

"And anyone who lives in a Dome has access to a QAR link."

"Almost every Sun Dome has at least one drone available now, too."

"Again thanks to Sedna."

"She wasn't really the first one to fly a drone, though. Jack told me lots of people were trying it. That's how he found out about it. But she did help spread the idea."

"She probably was the first to fly a drone into space."

"Now a lot of people are trying that, too. No one knows how many."

"Then Bear flew a drone to Haida Gwaii and left it with Xayna. When that story got out it helped spread the drone idea too."

"Yes, that's true. The idea of using a drone to have a physical presence when visiting in AR has become more attractive."

"So now drones are all the rage?"

"Red ones. The Chinese are flooding the market."

"And now they come fully assembled with a DDM system and a QAR link."

"What next?"