Project Prometheus

Laura Harris' father, Reggie, said it shouldn't exist. With over twenty-five percent unemployment and high crime, nobody wanted to live in Flinton, Michigan.

Laura graduated at the top of her class from Michigan State University. With her new Mechanical Engineering degree, and her near perfect grade point average, it wasn't long before Laura was interviewing companies wooing her to join their ranks. Although it wasn't the highest paying offer she received, she jumped at the chance to join the Air Force's new Space Force organization. She was leaving Flinton to work in Space Force R&D.

Laura loved aerospace. Her heart soared watching the documentary of the space shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center. Laura wept at the audacious achievement to slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of God. The space shuttle Atlantis could be seen behind the screen after the documentary ended. She could barely speak, she was so moved. While holding back tears, she said, “Dad, look at that! Look at what we did as a nation!”

The Air Force assigned her to the famous Area 51 in Nevada! Although everyone thinks the Air Force stores crashed spaceship parts and alien remains at Area 51, she knew they tested many of the great aircraft like the SR-71 and the U-2 spy planes. Laura fell back on her bed and smiled and thought, I'm going to build spacecraft and fighter jets!

“You want me to survey all the buildings here at at the facility that have openings greater than six square feet?” Laura asked her boss.

“Come on Laura, this is a great assignment. It will give you the chance to learn the facility.”

“Why would anyone make a building without an opening greater than six square feet? There wouldn't be a door.”

Laura thought to herself, four years, top of my class, nearly perfect GPA, Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance (one of the highest clearances you can get obtained through background investigation that included a polygraph examination) and my first big assignment–look for buildings with openings. You got to be kidding me.

After two days of going from building to building, she saw a fenced facility near the end of the flight line. She found the gated facility unlocked, so she entered and saw a hexagonal shaped building with a single steel door that looked like a hatch on a ship. Narrow shaded slot-like windows spanned horizontally at eye level on each of the walls.

How strange! What was this building used for? It looks like they built it to protect someone watching a nuclear bomb explode on the flight line.

She unlatched the steel hatch doorway to the hexagonal building and peered in. Shelves lined each of the thick walls from the bottom of the building to the top. A brown box occupied the floor in one corner. Someone had wrapped the box in brown paper as though they intended to mail it, but it contained no markings.

Do I open it? Her clearance training taught her how to handle classified information, but this box clearly displayed no classification control markings. Why not open it?

Laura ripped the brown paper off. She looked over her shoulder and then she thought, why, I'm not doing anything wrong.

A brown cover binder containing hundreds of pages laid in the box among packing peanuts. The cover read Prometheus As-Built and Testing.

Laura spent the next few hours reading the contents of the binder folder. It described how to build and test a nuclear powered generator the size of a push lawn mower. You only needed two kilograms of unenriched, raw uranium ore and you can power a small city! I can buy a dozen test samples of uranium ore on eBay for under three-hundred dollars! How can this pass the law of conservation of mass?

Laura packaged the box up with the brown paper wrapping, set it in the same place she found it, and left with the binder under her arm. She wanted to study the binder more, but her boss assigned her more responsibility and her job consumed more of her spare time.

Laura visited her family over the Christmas break and she brought the binder thinking she might study it during her visit. After Laura returned to work, Laura's mom, Jocelyn, found the binder and called her.

“Ugh, I forgot to pack it! Well, I don't need it for work. Let Dad look at it. You said he needed something to do.”

Reggie examined the materials in the binder. “Jocelyn, I'm gonna fix the utility problem for us and everyone else.”

“What utility problem?”

“The fact we have to pay for electricity.”

After a few months of toiling over the plans and seeking help from friends to fabricate the parts, Reggie assembled the Prometheus generator in the basement of the eleven story building in which they lived. Too many times, the power had gone out, leaving Reggie and his neighbors cold and inconvenienced. Reggie stood over his Prometheus and contemplated what to do next. It might blow up. It shouldn't. This other guy, Jerry Mallack, as it states in the plans, built and tested one. I built and tested each part according to the plans.

Reggie flipped the emergency kill-switch and pushed the button to start Prometheus. After the embedded chip computer that controlled the generator completed its start up processes, the Prometheus made a thunk sound Reggie felt in his chest. It hummed with a high pitch like a floor buffer machine and it emanated a mysterious blue glow.

All checks passed. It's ready for prime time! According to the plans, this should power this building for 18.7 years.

Reggie called his electrician friend, Walter, to come over and hook up the generator after the power went out. A flip of the large knife switch and Prometheus powered the building effortlessly without a change in sound or heat output.

The generator made Reggie the building hero. Reggie addressed some residents' concerns about the use of nuclear power. He purchased a radiation detector and mounted it to a wall in the room with Prometheus. Anyone could see the radiation level at anytime. If the levels exceeded a safe threshold, an alarm would sound.

After a year or two, the power company contacted the city housing administrator, Alan Wess, asking if he still had residence living in Richard Manor, the eleven story building near downtown Flinton.

“Yeah, it's at full capacity. Oddly, I got a waiting list of people wanting in.”

“Well, nobody is using any power.”

Alan met Brian, the power company engineer, at Richard Manor. Brian looked in amazement and horror at the Prometheus humming in the basement of Richard Manor.

“Alan, I've never seen anything like this. Someone disconnected the power feed and hooked up this, uh, generator. It must have a nuclear energy source judging by the radiation meter on the wall.”

Alan sprinted from the building.

Brian caught up to Alan in the parking lot and assured him that the radiation meter showed safe radiation levels.

“We need to get rid of that thing.” Alan called 9-1-1 and a police officer arrived. He was not sure what should be done or that he should do anything.

“What's the big deal?” Brian asked. “It's been running for at least a year without issue. Judging by the radiation meter on the wall, there's nothing dangerous happening here. This generator is truly remarkable as a matter of fact.” I need to meet the guy who made this. Brian snapped some pictures of it on his cell phone.

Alan calmed down and decided he did everything he needed to shift blame to someone else if things went wrong. Everyone left soon thereafter, but two days later a special unit of the Air Force showed up in four Humvee trucks. They shut the Prometheus down and hauled it away. Many residents exited their apartments to see why the power went off.

The Air Force team commander saw Hazel in the hallway and asked her who made the generator.

“Reggie made it. We haven't been without power for over a year. It's been wonderful. Is something wrong?”

“Yes, ma'am. We need to see Reggie right away.”

Hazel showed them to Reggie's apartment. The members of the Air Force team bashed Reggie's door in and rushed into the apartment with guns drawn.

“What are you doing?” Hazel asked the commander.

“Ma'am, you need to return to your apartment.”

Hazel heard glass and doors being smashed. She heard Jocelyn scream.

“No, I will not return to my apartment. I know what you are.” Hazel turned away and screamed, “Help! Help! They're kidnapping Reggie!”

Hazel continued to call for help. Doors began to open and people looked out in the hallway to see a man handcuffed with a bag over his head being dragged down the hallway by the soldiers.

Jocelyn ran into the hallway. Her face was bloody. “That's Reggie! They're abducting my Reggie! Stop them!”

The polite commander became very assertive and demanded, “Everyone get back in your apartments or we will arrest you too.”

“No!” Hazel yelled back.

The Air Force soldier back handed Hazel knocking her to the ground. He pulled his handgun out and pointed it at everyone in the hallway and yelled, “Who's next?”

Word spread quickly through the building about Reggie's arrest and the way the soldier hit Hazel. Many were afraid, but a few remembered what Reggie had done for them. Some considered the morality of this action and stood near the Humvee trucks.

An old man blocked the soldiers' path. He looked at the commander and asked, “Many years ago, this country sent my friends and I to kill people who did to their population what you're doing now. I know Reggie and he's no enemy of the state. What business do you have treating him this way?”

“Old man, this isn't your fight or your war. Get out of the way or we will be forced to shoot.”

“Son, what kind of oath did you take to be a soldier? Does this look like you're defending the Constitution? I didn't bleed so that thugs like you could kick innocent people's doors in and haul them away. You will release Reggie right now and we will let you go peacefully.”

The commander smiled and asked, “Really, you're going to let us leave peacefully? You and who's army?”

The old man smiled and said, “Look around, dumb-ass. I'm glad I never had to share a fox hole with you.”

People stood around the Humvee trucks and the soldiers as far as the eyes could see. Many people carried baseball bats, hockey sticks, and rifles. The commander looked around and turned white. He yelled, “Release him!”

“Let me help you out. Think about what master you serve that tells you to arrest an old man who helped the people of his community. Consider who gave you this intelligence and think about your oath as a soldier. Right now, you're the enemy of the USA.”

The old man walked over to Reggie as the soldiers drove off while the crowd jeered at them.

“You Okay?”

“Yeah, I'll survive. Thanks Otis.”

“It's the least I could do. They took your generator, though.”

Reggie started laughing.

Otis smiled and asked, "What?"

“I guess they don't know about the seven other generators powering apartment buildings around Flinton. I have three more units waiting to be installed. I'll just put another one back in this building. Let them come take them.”

Both men laughed.