Read 04. Birth of Flux and Anchor for Free Online Page B

doing the same.
    "Is it usually this busy, Ms. Wu?" he asked her.
    "Lisa, please. We all go by first names or nicknames around here. Too many doctors of this and that, too many fancy titles. About the only ones we call by family names or title are the military folks and His Nibs, of course. And if your first name's too common, we sometimes just use the last as a proper name. You are—Tobias, I think?"
    He winced. "Toby, please. I had to suffer through Tobias through all my grade-school years and I've never used it unless I had to. Meant to get it changed someday, but never got around to it."
    She smiled and nodded. The base itself was both impressive and totally unimpressive at one and the same time. It was a very plain, drab place, although quite large, with massive gray buildings against the gray sky, wide boulevards for the electric cart traffic, lots of folks in lab whites or utility olives, and a singularly ugly and unappealing kind of grass, the best thing that could be said about which was that it was a sickly green.
    What was impressive was that it was here at all, and that it hadn't been blasted out of the savage surface of Titan and domed but almost literally created out of thought by some good computers, a lot of hairy programming and applied physics, and a massive amount of bled-in Flux.
    She pointed out the various buildings, which had a prefabricated sameness to them. They were, in fact, prefabricated, as were all the man-made things he saw, not by Flux but in the old-fashioned way and trucked in here. These days they could do quite a bit more with it using Flux, but it was more trouble than it was worth considering that it was already here. The aesthetics of the place repelled him—early army camp— but, then, one of the reasons they'd hired him and many like him was to do something about that when the time came.
    "Those are dormitories over there," she told him, pointing to a tall building perhaps two square blocks around. "The accommodations aren't all that wonderful, I'm afraid, but you'll have a private room and a decent bed, desk, and a terminal in the room. You share the bathroom with whoever is next door, I fear. The second floor is a dining hall, where meals are served at all hours of the day and night. If you wish breakfast, there's a cafeteria area for it. Lunch, another, and also one each for supper and for just a tea. Over there in that building is a health club, swimming pool, sauna, whirlpool, and other such things. It's quite nice, but all the instructors seem to be army sergeants, so beware before you ask them to work out an exercise program for you."
    He chuckled. "I'll remember. Oh—I meant to ask. How did you pick me out of that crowd without a photograph?"
    She chuckled. "They told me to look for someone huge who appeared to be an advert for New Zealand wool."
    He felt suddenly provincial. It was true though. He was 188 centimeters tall and built solid as a rock, weighing in at a bit over 111 kilograms. He had dark red hair and a neatly trimmed reddish beard, and was given to wearing wool sweaters, slacks, and tough station boots, and his eyes were a steely blue. His face was blocky and square-jawed, and he knew he looked more rugged than handsome, but this hadn't been the first time he'd been teased about looking like a man in some advertising poster.
    "I'm originally from Singapore," she told him, "although I spent a great deal of time in Kenya and went to school there and I tend to think of that as home. No matter which one you choose, it's pretty far from here."
    He nodded, feeling a little far away from home himself.
    "Before we go up to the labs, I'm going to swing by and show you the master Flux Gate," she said. "It's like nothing you've ever seen before."
    Because of the physics involved, the Gate, which was the source of all this, was in the center of the enclave. It was enclosed by a high metal wall and its own entrance was guarded by armed military personnel. With a little