Two Stones and One Bird

[R3VOLV360]

CAMBRIDGE - Today marks a great day in science as Dr. Brian Cairns has, after many years of research, discovered a method that makes today's current optic technology seem obsolete.
The answer, he claimed, was to merely look back to the past. With current optics, no one was looking back at the power of cables. With a clever alloy and some...

A middle aged bespectacled man sighed and put the paper down. "Guess it was going to be published soon enough. Ah well, nothing great can be done without fame following. How sad a world."
The man sat in his chair overlooking the $10 mil view from his new penthouse in Central District, New London.
A butler walked in, "Sir, Captain Brett is on line one, shall I put him through?"
"Please do, Gerard, I need some real company."
A phone was brought to the man's side. He picked up the receiver. "Well look who's the big shot here!" A rowdy voice said over the phone. "I just read about your find in the news, Brian! Great work, chap."
"Thank you, Lance. It's not really a find, more of a -"
"Hey, I have a plan! Come down to the pub with me, I've got something interesting to tell you!"
"What? Go to the pub!? I'll be swamped!"
"Not where I'm planning on going!" Brett gave Cairns the directions and after some idle chatter hung up.

"$500 mil credits?? You've gotta be kidding me!" (that sentence said with much profane punctuation).
"Well most of it will probably be taxed and I've already spent a fair bit" Cairns told Brett at a rather cheap underground pub.
"So how much is left?"
"About 100." Cairns said matter-of-factly. Brett spat out his drink.
"You spent $400 million credits in less than a week?! How did you manage that! Did you decide to buy an entire city?"
"Not quite"
"Ha, I wonder where our paths would've taken us if we hadn't grown up together, old mate. Here's to you spending like a Libertainite!" Brett downed his drink.
"Libertanian, I believe," Cairns took a sip.

- A few weeks later -
"Lance! Lance! Can you hear me?"
"Huh... Brian...? It's 3 in the morning. Im tired.
"My research is flawed! I've been looking through it for the past hours and I've found that the cables won't actually work as expected, Lance! I'm ruined!"
"Calm down, Brian. What's this sudden care about your fame?"
"It's not that. Do you know what they do to scientists like me who make these grave errors? They laugh them, Lance! They'll laugh at me!"
"You're being hysterical, Brian. Calm down."
"I am calm! I even have a plan to regain my soon to be lost respect."
"And what would that be, Doctor?"
"Aliens!"
Brett was silent for a while and then said, "Huh?"
"That's right, it was all a sham, the Rhienland war of 800. It was actually aliens that controlled the military and attacked Liberty! They still live though, and learning how to rid the world of them would be the greatest contribution to all science!"
"Brian, you're tired. Go to sleep." Brett hung up.

- A few days later at the local pub -
"So tell me about these aliens, Brian," Brett said, sipping away a beer.
"I thought you didn't care about them? They probably don't exist anyway," Cairns said.
"You seemed pretty convinced a few nights ago."
"Well the stories say that..." Cairns told Brett what he knew of the Nomads "... and so this Edison Trent sent the aliens all back to where they came from or destroyed them or something. No one is too sure."
"Ok, but what do you want to do with these 'Nomads'," Brett asked.
"Study them! They are a cause for a lot of grief, or are supposed to be. I've spoken to my one IMG friend who works in the Edge Worlds recently and he claims they the do indeed exist and he has sighted them once before."
"Oh really, when?"
"Yesterday, he's quit his job now after they killed the colleagues he was traveling with."
"So these things are actually existent and a threat? Well count me in, Doctor."
"But I thought you didn't want to come? Aren't you going to settle down with Lisa?"
Brett went quiet, "She left me a week ago. She said she couldn't handle the fact that every time I leave the planet it might be the last time I see her. And the Bretonian Police isn't the most lucrative of jobs either. You know me, Brian, I can't just sit still in one place too long anyway. And besides who else would fly you around?"
"I knew I could rely on you Lance! The Euclides will be ready to leave in two days!"
"What?! The Euclides? You've prepared everything?"
"You think I don't know you, Lance? It's been about 32 years since we met. The Euclides is my miner friend's old ship. He said he won't need it anymore so I bought it off of him with what little money I had left."
"Alright, so, er, what do I need to get?"
"Well you can inspect the ship when it arrives tomorrow morning, I suppose. See what all we need ordered and the crew and all that. Oh, and you'll need a fancy hat that says 'Captain' on it."
"Brian, I have mentioned that you are an absolute nut?"
"Many times, my friend, many times."

- Some time later -

CAMBRIDGE - The tremendous impact that Dr. Brian Cairns' ultra-cables have made in commerce and industry has been unparalleled.... Independent analysts have commented that they thought they had found a large problem, but upon further inspection they found that the readings were actually so high, they seemed low and essentially wrong..... When Dr. Cairns was approached for comment on how he knew it would work, it was found that he could not be found. Some claim he had left the planet, in search of new research.