Visions of the Future by Joe Haldeman, David Brin, Greg Bear, Kevin J. Anderson, Ben Bova, Hugh Howey, Robert Sawyer, Ray Kurzweil, Martin Rees Page B

slam, a game invented by the base’s notorious circle of card players. And she was a better engineer than card player. If she had triple-checked his plane, it was in good shape.
    Jessa surveyed the Glint. “The fusion rockets will get you off planet.” She slanted a gaze at him. “You can use the inversion engine once you’re in orbit. You got positron fuel.”
    “I don’t know, Zaub. Positrons for a plane?” He grinned his challenge. “It’ll never work.”
    “Like hell, Kelly boy.” She banged her palm on the Glint’s hull. “We used EM fields to suspend the fuel in a canister. You fire the thrusters, a defect in the fields leaks positrons into the beambox, same as in a starship.”
    Even after his briefing, Kelric had trouble imagining the plane carrying an inversion selector and beambox. The wheel-shaped selector culled electrons out of the cosmic ray flux in space, letting only those with highest energies enter the mirrored beambox. Once inside, the electrons annihilated with positrons, creating ultra high energy photons that reflected out the thrusters.
    “Just as long as it does what it’s supposed to do,” he said.
    Jessa peered at him. “You really think it has a problem?”
    Did he? “I’ll only be carrying a hundred kilograms of positrons.”
    “That’s more than you need. It’s not like you’re going anywhere.” She shrugged. “Hell, one gram of positrons makes a million billion billion annihilations. That’s a lot of push.”
    “I suppose.” He tilted his head towards the Glint. “So you really think she can reach one percent of light speed?”
    “Should,” Jessa said. “We don’t have enough data at higher velocities to know for sure.”
    Interesting. “You mean you don’t know its top speed?”
    Jessa scowled at him. “Don’t even think it.”
    He regarded her innocently. “Think what?”
    “You be careful with my plane.”
    He laughed amiably. “I’m going to wreak havoc on it.”
    “Very funny.” Her voice quieted. “You be careful with Kelric, too.”
    “Hell, he’ll be fine. He’s only an idiot when reporters interview him.”
    “I’m not joking.” Jessa shook her head. “People look at you, they see big and quiet. They don’t think you feel. They don’t think you think.”
    He shifted his weight. “It doesn’t bother me.”
    “Kelric, listen.” She came over to him. “You’re smarter than all of them put together. And you feel. Too much. You keep thinking and feeling and locking it up. It will eat holes in your heart.”
    Where the hell had that come from? “I’m fine.”
    Jessa put her hands on her hips. “Only one dumb thing I’ve ever seen you do. And that’s agreeing to take up this plane. Schuldman had no right to push you into this mission.”
    “He didn’t push me. I volunteered.”
    “Yeah, right.” She poked her finger at his chest. “I want my plane back in one piece.”
    “It’s not your plane, Zaub.”
    “Just remember what I said.”
    He did his best to look reassuring. “All right.”
    “Good.” She paused awkwardly. “Good luck.”
    Kelric smiled. “Thanks.”
    After Jessa left, Kelric climbed into the cockpit and ran more tests. He put the computer through every one of its routines and it answered without a glitch.
    Although the Glint could take off vertically, today Kelric tested it on the runway. After Tyrson gave him clearance, he sped down the asphalt and soared into the air, exulting in acceleration pushing him against his seat. He loved that sensation of speed.
    As he shot higher into the sky, the world of Diesha spread out on his screens in a desolate landscape of sunrise colors. He accelerated steadily and the Glint answered like an extension of his own body. The wings folded back against the fuselage, cutting drag and preparing for the supersonic shock wave. Mach 1, Mach 2, Mach 4. Finally he hit the speed where the computer had developed jitters during his last flight.
    “Glint One Eight to Control,”