December 31st, 2032

The trip to Colorado Springs took just over two hours. I arrived at the headquarters of Portal Inc and stepped out of the CV-22 just west of Stovetop Mountain. The outside wasn’t much to look at. There was a small landing pad for aircraft this size or smaller with a small office above the surface. Using the nanites I’d created an elevator shaft that went straight down half a mile to a base that looked a lot like the Umbrella Corporations layout in the original Resident Evil.

I walked into the building, used my ID pass to enter, and went through a solid titanium door that led to the elevator. When I was halfway down the passage to the Elevator I turned to the left wall. Immediately a 3-meter-wide portal opened, and I stepped through to my office in the command center down below. So much easier than taking the elevator for a 10-minute ride, I thought. I stepped to my desk and tapped the intercom: “Amanda, I’m in, any issues to speak of?”

Amanda Sifford was one of the engineers I’d paid to retrain from one of the companies I’d acquired which had been full of dead beats was now his number 2. After reviewing her file I’d noticed something about her and decided to bring her on board. That had been eight years ago and there was no other person on Earth I trusted more than her. Six months ago, I’d brought her up to speed on what I was really doing and what I was attempting to create. She’d thought it was just “science fiction bullshit!” Her words. That was until I’d made my offer, which included a seven-digit salary. She’d wanted to know what she was agreeing to so I had her sign an NDA, then took her to a door she knew led to a closet. Thor had opened a portal to Trappist-1e for us.

She’d looked through the portal and thought it was a trick until I led her through to the surface of Trappist-1e under the dome of habitat 000001e where Clarence and friends were being welcomed to their new home right now. Amanda had experienced a mild panic attack from being so far from Earth and had been truly scared. Nanites had not been incorporated into her at that time, though she’d accepted them soon after when the benefits became known to her, and she’d been given clearance to issue orders and requests to Thor.

I had picked Amanda up and immediately stepped back through the portal to Earth. Holding her close, I’d had Thor open a different portal to one of the many offices I had scattered throughout the world. The one I stepped into was in Paris. I had carried Amanda to the balcony and placed her in a chair where she could hear the people and traffic 10 stories below with the Eiffel Tower off in the distance.

“So far away from everything,” she’d said

“Can’t talk here, ears, but yes,” I’d responded. “Are you okay?” I’d asked.

“Yes, I’m better now,” She’d responded. They’d sat on the balcony making small talk for about a half-hour before portaling back to the office.

Since then Amanda had been my 2nd in command and was completely loyal to me and what I was trying to do, though she hadn’t made it back to Trappist-1e yet. I was sure once I had the infrastructure set up and all the technologies were tried and true she’d be able to handle leaving Earth as long as she knew she could return. I expected that such mental hang-ups would be common in the early days. I kind of hoped such hang-ups would help convert those individuals I would have to punish so I could turn them back into stellar citizens of the new world.

Amanda’s voice came across the intercom: “None that I can think of our semi-sentient prototype,” their nickname for Thor when others were around, “has cataloged. We are still on schedule for the demonstration. Four primary news networks are here to witness the test. They seemed unimpressed by the Elevator ride down,” she said with a slight laugh.

“I’m sure we will be able to meet their expectations and their trip back to their networks should go a lot quicker,” I said as I walked towards the door to exit my office.

“Little do they know. You should have heard them complain about having to take a bus and carry all their equipment. Thor let me watch them while he was monitoring them,” Amanda said.

I walked out of the office while Amanda was talking to address her directly. “I’m going to head down to the scrub room. Is the Pentagon official here?” I asked.

“Yes, Admiral Ainsworth is in the observation room,” she said.

“Good, I’ll stop and talk to him before I head in.” With that, I walked down to the observation room which had a large 6-inch sheet of transparent aluminum that looked onto the testing room. There were four Aluminum boxes spaced out to the sides of the center of the room. When I faced the observation room, they’d be at the 10, 11, 1, and 2 o’clock positions- two to my left, two to my right. They were part of the surprise. On the wall opposite the observation window were four giant monitors. Each news network present was represented, their news fields being played simultaneously, though the sound was low and being played in the observation room. I walked into the observation room. All eyes turned to me as I said, “Good evening everyone, do we have a show for you tonight. First, though, I need to speak with Admiral Ainsworth privately.” Holding the door, I waited for the Admiral to put his drink down, stand from the chair he’d been sitting in and make his way over. The Admiral didn’t rush, nor did he tarry. He seemed to take the exact amount of time that would be socially appropriate to make his way over and out of the room. Letting the door close, I led the Admiral to a door and stepped through into a room with 1/6th the gravity of the hallway I’d just left. As the Admiral stepped through he froze and turned to look behind him at an empty wall.

“What is the meaning of this, Mr. Bennard?” the Admiral asked angrily.

“Calm down, Admiral. You and I are both in an observation room on the Moon. We’re perfectly safe. Come on over here and I’ll show you,” I said pointing to a window with light shining through.

The Admiral, trying to minimize his momentum, went into the air in a little hop as he slowly walked over to a window that looked out onto the surface of the moon. Directly below him was a crater filled with mirrors. At eye level was a tarp that went off into the distance that had an image of the unblemished lunar surface on it. Any telescopes looking towards the moon would only see the top of that tarp and a rock formation this window was hidden under. The tarp held the image of the crater below it empty. A look of wonder crossed the Admirals face and he asked, “So you were successful?”

Instead of answering his question I escorted the Admiral over to a table with two chairs, “Admiral Ainsworth. Earlier today an assassin tried to kill me in my home in Alamogordo and then an American-made satellite shot a supposedly theoretical hypervelocity missile from orbit at that residence as I left it to make my way to Colorado Springs on my CV-22. While I’m sure the US government had nothing to do with the Assassin, I’m also quite sure that the US government is wondering where their satellite went and what happened to the missile that was launched. Also, why no more shots were taken as I made my way to Colorado Springs,” I said.

“You are of course correct, we detected the object entering Earth’s orbit and we were concerned that foul play was afoot, but we had no way of…” The Admiral stated as I cut him off.

“Admiral, I have just escorted you to the Moon. I’m sure you are now realizing that some changes are about to happen on the world stage,” I said in a measured tone.

“And that is exactly why the US Government is so concerned. Other governments might look at this technology as a weapon that could be used against them by the US,” the admiral replied.

“Angel Fire was a weapon, now it’s a paperweight. My technology could be a weapon, especially when directed to be by me. Trust me when I say there is absolutely nothing, and I do mean nothing, that the United States of America, needs to fear from any other superpower or nation on Earth,” I stated with conviction.

“You can’t say that. There is absolutely no way that you can know that” the admiral declared.

“Admiral, I’ve read your profile. As I understand it, you were a mathematician and a physicist with top marks at MIT before you entered service, yes?” I asked.

“Yes,” the Admiral replied

“You’re also an Admiral which means to me, and many others, that you are highly intelligent and capable, as well as focused. While you were in the military, I’m sure you fell behind in your knowledge of theoretical physics, but I’m also sure that you kept up with the big theories like Quantum Entanglement, Nanotechnology, compression space drives, specifically what the estimated energy cost would be to actually turn on a compression drive or open a wormhole through space” I said questioningly as I paused to let the Admiral think about what I’d said before I continued, “So my question to you now, one scientist to another, how am I powering my portals? The US Government has kept a very good eye on all nuclear output on Earth. How am I powering the device, which most assuredly exists as we are both sitting on the moon looking over a crater filled with a bunch of mirrors that are to be utilized as a publicity stunt?

I watched as The Admiral’s face went through many configurations as thoughts raced through his mind trying to puzzle out the answer. Eventually, he looked at Jonathan and said, “Unless you’re an alien from another world, I have absolutely no idea.”

“Not an Alien, as I’m sure you know. I was born in Clovis, New Mexico. I have two parents living up the good life on my lottery winnings from a decade back. No, in order to meet the energy requirements I needed to be able to build and create at will. I successfully designed and created nanotech that can operate at the subatomic level,” I stated in a calm voice.

“That’s not possible,” the admirals stated as if he was stating an immutable fact.

“I’ll admit there were some hurdles, but eventually I was successful. Would you like a demonstration?” I asked.

“Yes,” the Admiral stated simply.

“Evidence, then,” I said, paused for a second then continued. “Please pull out your cell phone and a pen. When you’re ready, start recording the pen with your phone.”

The Admiral pulled out his pen, aimed his phone at it, and started recording. I ordered the nanites in the pen to remake themselves out of solid gold. When it was done, the admiral stopped the recording and looked at me with wonder, then fear. “There are nanites roaming free here?” the Admiral asked.

“There are free Nanites just about everywhere on the Earth, this moon, and almost every planetary body within 100 light-years of us,” I told the Admiral truthfully.

“Do you know what you’ve done?” The admiral asked fearfully

“Yes, Admiral, I’m about to free the Human race from the threat of thermonuclear war or any other cataclysmic event. By the way, Yellowstone was building up for an eruption again. The nanites have redirected the magma flow to the middle of the Pacific.” I stated matter-of-factly.

The admiral, a scientist by nature, puzzled through what he’d witnessed and asked another question. “How long have your nanites been loose in the world?”

“Just under a year. Your next question would obviously be why didn’t I do more, to which I will simply reference the orbital attack earlier today and the attempted assassination while I say, I wasn’t ready yet. The nanites were necessary for Portal Inc to succeed after all and the systems I’ve set up couldn’t have been put in place without the portal network I’ve created. I’m sure you can understand the logistics of putting all this together and keeping it a secret?”

The admiral nodded, “I can understand that, but aren’t you playing God with the rest of Humanity?”

I lifted a finger as I made each point;

“If by playing God, you mean developing a system by which humans will not be able to participate in global conflict like the Television series Revolution from 2012.”

“Ending world hunger by being able to create food and water from nothing,”

“Removing all plastic and toxic substances from the oceans,”

“Removing the need for prisons as all criminals are now monitored 24/7 and if they commit a felony they are automatically shunted to a facility on another planet where they receive the same benefits of living on Earth, except if they’re not good in this case, they never come back here.”

“Made it possible for anyone everywhere to have exactly what everyone else has.”

Repaired every road, bridge, and building on planet earth being used as a shelter and converted any ruins, not of significant historical value.”

“Removed all trash and waste products from the streets and countryside.”

“Made it possible for anyone to eat anything they want as the nanites can replicate anything they have mapped.”

“Not to mention the applications for health benefits. I’m sure I don’t need to cut open my hand and show you that the nanites in my system will prevent blood loss and immediately close and heal the wound, do I? Remember some of the theoretical papers that have been published in scientific journals were written by me. I wrote those to prepare some minds for what is coming. I do, however, know human nature and I know that the enemies of the United States are not going to take kindly to the revelations that are coming and would most likely react poorly to all the revelations I’ve shown you.”

“Poorly?” the Admiral said sarcastically. “World War III would be a light response,” the admiral said, then asked, “Why are you showing me this?”

“Because, Admiral, the nanites are not on the list of my big reveal. In fact, it would probably be better if that specific bit of technology is only known to you for now. What I need from you is for you to head back to the Pentagon through a portal and let the President know that The United States is safe and will remain so, no matter what any other Nation tries to do after my presentation. I’m sure the next 24 hours are going to be busy but please inform the President that I will be available to talk with him whenever he wishes. Simply have him ask for a meeting.”

“But how will you know he wants to speak with you?” The Admiral asked.

Smiling, I continued, “Quantum Entanglement. All the Nanites are connected to a network monitored and controlled by a semi-sentient program that constantly monitors everything it can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell, if they could taste or smell of course. If the President asks to meet, I will know.”

Admiral Ainsworth stood. “I believe I’ve taken up enough of your time. I should be going if you need me to talk with The President before you get started.”

Nodding, I stood and offered my hand which Admiral Ainsworth shook. “Good luck Admiral, I hope to talk to you soon.” Issuing a command, two portals opened: one back to Colorado Springs for me, the other to the Admirals office at the Pentagon.