The light over the Glass was green — the count-down timer having a bit over five minutes left before the next switch — so he just swiped his card again and stepped through. The card he used was also his military ID and a charge card; the charge for the transfer would be automatically debited from his bank through it. There was a website he could access where he could adjust the charge to the military, given that he had been recalled. But it really wasn’t worth the two bucks the trip was costing.

The exit at Newport News was in a recently constructed semi-secure building. The room was secured by a bored-looking guard who was there to prevent troublemakers and the unworthy from entering the base. Hell, there were people who just stepped through the wrong Glass.

Bill held up his card and gestured at the exit door to the room.

“Go ahead, Commander,” the guard said, nodding from behind the aliglass. “I got the word you were on the way. There’s a field car waiting for you.”

The “field car” was a golf cart driven by a warrant officer. Notably, Chief Warrant Officer Todd Miller, U.S. Navy SEALs. Bill slipped into the passenger seat and the SEAL pushed down the pedal, sending them deeper into the base at the cart’s maximum speed of slightly faster than a trot.

“What’s up, if you can say?” Bill asked.

“I dunno, sir,” Miller said. “I just got here, my own self. And got told to go pick you up. But Greg Townsend’s chairing the meet.”

“Admiral Townsend’s here?” Bill asked. Townsend was the commander of Norfolk Naval Base. As one of his “other duties” he was also the senior officer of the Vorpal Blade project. He was being bruted as the next commander of the operational arm of Space Command as soon as the Powers That Be went public with the Blade and turned it into the Space Navy.