Breakthrough (Breakthrough, #1)

by Michael C. Grumley

Alison always imagined the bowels of a phone company to look like. Behind Lee and against the wall were several

stood a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, used for manually controlling any of the one-inch thick machines, even though it was something Lee rarely had to do anymore. With the myriad of systems

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By the time the last word rolled off his tongue, he realized he did not need an answer. He knew simply from the look on their faces. “Tell me it’s done.”

behind Chris and Alison. “All the variables have been identified. Look, if you add them

exact same number listed with the video positions, divided by three.” He clicked another button and brought up the system log. “And look at this; it says the last variable

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coming?” Lee smiled. “Uh…everyone.” “Fantastic.” Dubois turned and headed for the

maybe you can spare a few minutes…we’ll need someone to write us up a press release.” With that, he let the door close behind

sharp right, he made his way down the long white hallway of the Pentagon’s D ring. From the far end of the hall, Admiral Langford spotted Clay and broke off his conversation

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Clay.” The admiral was shorter by a couple inches but moved erect and with a sharpness that always made Clay feel he

years prior when Admiral Langford took over the department. He’d been under Langford

them. “Navigation system was working perfectly since the sub left port and then, all of the sudden, they’re fifteen miles off course.” Clay tried to keep up while flipping through several

miles further out.” Langford could see the problem taking hold in Clay’s head. Clay was one of the best analysts he’d

anything to him. “Sounds like that would rule out drift or cross currents. Might be something with the engines if it were one of the older subs, but

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six signals. Which means by now-”. “They’re all part of other sets.” Langford pulled out a security card and swiped it through the reader next to a metal door

and ran checks on them individually. Nothing.” Langford swung the large door open. “How was the trip?” “Short, sir.” “I’ll make

a large department and took a large part of the Pentagon’s second floor, rings A through

expectations. Next to legal and HR, the Navy’s technology group was small by comparison. Clay’s team was smaller still. Electronics and Signaling was a specialty that very few understood, let alone were interested in. Even the brass, who were often technology’s strongest advocates, did not really want to know how. They just wanted it to work. Clay’s E&S team often had to find out why a technology was not working, where the failure occurred and why. It required expert level knowledge in a wide variety of technologies including computer chip design, networking,

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act of diligence for the sake of being thorough. Wiring and insulation in these subs were meticulous. Rarely was the cabling ever found to be responsible. He pushed his chair back, finally shaking his head after a long moment. “Well, whatever it was, it wasn’t a solar flare, or a systems problem.” “Or wiring,” Caesare added, leaning against

thought to herself. You’d think you were the one on television. She was rarely nervous, if you could even call this nervousness. It was more excitement than anything else. Her

days after their press release went out. Previous announcements, albeit less exciting, had only been picked up by local papers.

screen, his words barely audible until Lee turned up the volume. “Here we go!” “…at the Miami City Aquarium where a

done there. Welcome, Dr. Dubois.” “Thank you, Matt.” Frank’s face filled the screen and both Chris and Lee let out a whoop. He looked good, comfortable on camera, much better than she would have. “Doctor, I have to say, this is really exciting.

not all that new, but the technology required for this approach was not available until very recently. We started with a small grant

his breath. “Stop it!” She blushed and stared back at the screen. Accepting compliments was not her strong point. Lewis continued on screen. “So tell me about this IMIS system.”

smaller individual computers, over a hundred in this case. This gives us processing power much greater than what we could achieve even with a super computer, and at a fraction of the cost.” “And what does IMIS mean?

basically yes. IMIS works by recording all of the recognizable sounds from our dolphins; all of their clicks, whistles, even postures. Once all of those have been captured in multiple scenarios, we then start the translation process using an advanced

work? I mean, how long will it take to make this kind of breakthrough?” “Well, the recording phase, or what we call phase one, has been completed. Now we’ve begun phase two, which is Translation, and that’s all computer. Unfortunately,

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the only species besides humans that are self-aware. For example, when you put a mirror in the tank, dolphins will actually look at themselves and even examine their bodies. They understand the connection and the fact that there is a world around them, so the depth of exchange possible here is staggering.” Lewis scooted forward slightly with genuine interest. “Let me ask you this, without knowing what level of translation might be possible, what at

generation to generation. We could be talking about a lineage, about a progressive cognition. That is culture!” The idea had not been lost on Lewis. He sat motionless for a moment before speaking. “Wow. That is really exciting.” He reached out his hand. “We wish you the best of luck and can’t wait to have you back.” “Thank you.” Frank smiled and shook. “Dr. Frank Dubois,” Lewis said, closing. “Director at the Miami City Aquarium.”

altitude. And at two hundred feet long, the Pathfinder was large, though still one of the smaller ships in the research fleet. He knew landing a helicopter of this size was going to be tight. The helicopter banked slightly and began a gradual descent. Clay relaxed and laid his head

climbing two flights of stairs, they opened a white steel door and stepped onto the bridge. Captain Emerson looked up as the two men stepped inside. Emerson grinned and extended his hand to Clay. “Clay, how the hell are you?” “Good, Rudy. How are things in paradise?” “Not bad. I don’t think I’ve

wide range of support operations including fueling, vehicles, ammunition, and supplies. Being part of the support system for the entire U.S Navy gave Emerson a deep insight into many things in which the military arm was involved. Clay shrugged. “Just some signal interference. We need to put it to bed so the Alabama can go back out. We lucked out that you were closest and have the new ROV onboard.” “Well, we’re certainly one

galley. “Coffee?” he asked, picking up a pot and selecting a mug from a neatly stacked pile. Nodding, they both accepted a cup in turn. “So, what kind of interference you guys having down here?” Clay shrugged. “Not entirely sure. Nothing too serious, probably just interference based on high iron in the soil. We need to get some samples for analysis.” He sipped from his mug. “We may have to come back out with an old sub and spot check if we don’t find something

the traditional designs of submarines, a sphere or globe maintained perfect pressure on all sides as it descended, in essence making the craft stronger the deeper it went. By designing the Triton around such a shape, it was able to reach deeper depths without special efforts to increase body strength required in older tube shapes. The tradeoff, of course, was speed. With more surface area meeting the water while it moved, Clay guessed that the Triton was likely twenty-five

versions. Even with that, we’ve had her down to forty-three hundred feet without a glitch. Pictures as clear as cable TV,” he said with a wink. “She’s a nice looking sub,” Caesare replied. Tay quickly wiped his forehead. “We still need to run some checks, but we should be ready to launch within about fifteen minutes or so. In the meantime, we have a pretty decent galley if you guys are hungry.” Clay put a hand on his stomach.

own mug. “I suspect we’re looking at an anomaly here, but we have to go by the book. We haven’t found anything wrong with the sub or the satellites which means a site survey. If we find the soil rich in iron or other minerals, we’ll need to file a report with a theory which means scientific testing and peer reviews. We may not have an answer for years.” Emerson nodded. “If it comes down to a theory, they’ll ship out the next day. Nothing more that can be done until more testing bears something

“Maybe it’s time we reversed our motto.” He leaned forward again and picked up his fork. “Don’t get me wrong though, there are still some interesting things happening in the research area. Hell, just our ability to probe deeper with better systems like this new Triton generates a fair amount of excitement. The level of detail we’re able to track has the Navy talking about fields of underwater sensors and the idea of developing a living map, all live data and changing as it happens…pretty amazing stuff.” “Sounds interesting.” Caesare emptied his water glass. “I wonder how much we’ll

said. “Well, like Clay, I had a science background before joining the SEALs.” The Captain nodded. “Well, I’m surprised we haven’t met before. This isn’t the first time Clay has hijacked one of my ships in the name of E&S.” “Yeah, well, the last time,” Clay mused, nodding at Caesare, “he was getting married…again.” “A girl in every port,