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would be
a revolution, not having to carry around a phone nor having to hook
into a screen for visual and communicating faster than light. How
much do you think they'll cost? For that matter, how long will a
charge last?
Russell grinned. With all the companies competing, and as simple as
the concept is now that we understand it they should cost a lot less
than phones do. As far as the power source goes, I ve suggested
inductive body heat. Shucks, they could even be implanted. Then you
wouldn t even need to remember to carry them, or take them off at
night for sleeping or, um, other things. He ran his hands up and
down Donna s shapely thigh. She leaned against him with her eyes
closed, awake, but not taking part in the conversation.
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Amazing. How do they work? Rez should have known better than to
ask that question. I hadn t bothered, knowing there was no way I
would understand the theory.
Why don t we just say that we didn t understand the properties of
the photon nearly as well as we thought we did. That same
misunderstanding is going to give us faster than light travel within a
year or two.
I m more interested in how this is going to affect the Fourth
Worlders, Rez said.
To start with, phones will soon be as obsolete as a twentieth-century
computer. I suspect someone will come up with the idea of
distributing them free to the needy. That will open up the web to the
Fourth Worlders at last. I can only hope once they are on the web,
they ll make some use of the educational opportunities. Public schools
will snap the phones up, too; as a result, education will get better,
even with the miserable funding you see now. And, oh, I don t know,
there are so many possibilities. It will take time for the changes,
though. Don t expect results overnight.
Rez beamed a grateful smile in Russell s direction. I don t know why
we can t. Just getting those poor folks into the web is a big step in the
right direction, if for no other reason than the availability of cheap
entertainment. That may put a stop to a lot of drug use.
Let s hope so. At any rate, changes are coming.
I m not as much of an idealist as Rez. I confess that I was much more
interested in the prospects of interstellar travel. Russ, you said the
new computers would be cheap. How about FTL? Will it cost enough
that it will have to be a government program?
Nope, it shouldn t. Oh, I m sure some governments will get involved,
but so should a lot of private investors. The best thing about it is that
takeoff can be arranged from earth. No gravity well to fight. Then, too,
think of all the raw materials available in the asteroids or on the
moons of the heavy planets.
Wait a minute, I said. I thought we were talking about FTL.
We are. Saturn, Sirius, the center of the galaxy, or a whole new
galaxy. There shouldn t be any limitations. He grinned like a three-
year-old with a bright, shiny new toy to play with.
That called for another drink. If what he was saying turned out to be
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true... I stared up at the ceiling, my mind already in outer space,
imagining some incredible adventures as I soared to new worlds in
my trusty ship. Rez recognized my expression. It was the same one I
often wore after reading or watching a good science fiction program.
Come back to earth, Ms. Star Trek. He shook his head at me.
Haven t you had enough adventures lately?
He had something there. Did I really want to go out into space,
exploring new worlds and possibly fighting for my life against some
ten-eyed monstrosity? Now that fiction was turning into fact, I didn t
know if I really had the guts to go first. But if not first, maybe later. To
have the opportunity to find out what was out there in the galaxy
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