Lieutenant Read online

  The president began calling some of the senior officers to the podium to present them with Distinguished Service Medals for their roles in the crisis, finishing with Admiral Larsson. Because Distinguished Service Medals were typically given to Senior officers Ell wondered why she was there? Perhaps the President intended to speak to her about incorporating PGR chips into the military after the ceremony?

  Then, to her surprise, the President said, “Lieutenant Donsaii, if you’d approach the podium?”

  Platt’s eyes were wide as she watched the young Lieutenant gracefully rise and approach the President without apparent apprehension. Platt couldn’t know Ell was breathing with long slow inhalations just to try to stay out of the zone. Not just her cover girl looks and elegantly fitted uniform made her draw the eye but even her stride as she approached the podium demonstrated uncannily graceful coordination. It seemed as if she approached the President every day. The President said, “Lieutenant, I have two items for you. First, I hear through the grapevine that your junior rank served as a significant impediment during your attempts to accomplish some of the tasks recently set before you by your Commander in Chief. Therefore I would like to replace those single gold bars,” he opened a box, “with these paired silver ones.” The President displayed a set of Air Force captain’s bars to the room. “Now I understand that I haven’t promoted you far enough to have prevented some of the obstructionism you recently received at the hands of officers superior in rank to yourself,” he smiled, “however, apparently even the Commander in Chief is constrained from jumping an officer too many grades in a ‘time of peace.’”

  He turned back to the room, “I’m not sure everyone in the room is aware that this young lady is the one who developed the theory for and worked out the construction of the communication chips that saved our bacon when the satellites went down? But here she is, nineteen years old and in this past week, arguably the most important person in our world. Thus, Captain Donsaii, I’d like to add a medal to your collection of Presidentially awarded symbols of your Nation’s appreciation. It seems to me that your Medal of Honor is lonely.” He turned to the room, “Don’t you think it would look better with the Presidential Medal of Freedom accompanying it?” The room surged to its feet in applause as he lifted a medal out of its box and hung the ribbon around her neck. As he did so he said in a low voice, “Please stay here after the ceremony, I’d like to speak to you about how best to utilize your talents in the service of your country?”

  “Yes sir.”

  A session of hand shaking and congratulations all around followed. At some point Ell noticed that the President had left the room and wondered if she should have followed him but then a staffer came and guided her quietly away to the Oval Office. While she and Platt waited outside, Platt pinned on her Captain’s bars. Then Ell was admitted, though Platt was instructed to wait outside.

  President Teller and Secretary Amundsen were seated in comfortable chairs with another man Ell didn’t recognize. To her surprise they all rose to their feet when she entered. The President extended his hand and she shook it as he murmured, “Captain, so good of you to come.”

  Nonplussed, Ell thought to herself that he was acting as if she had a choice but to obey her “Commander in Chief.”

  Teller turned and said, “Of course you know Secretary Amundsen and perhaps you recognize my Science Advisor, Doctor Horton?”

  As Ell shook their hands Horton stared at the young woman, finding it difficult to reconcile this highly attractive, college freshman aged girl, with the Donsaii who’d turned physics upside down. He shook his head, reminding himself that beautiful women could be highly intelligent, bemused that the old stereotype was confounding him when he should know better.

  They all sat and a staffer brought coffee. When Ell didn’t want coffee he promptly produced a Coke per her request. President Teller steepled his fingers and looked at Ell over them, “Doctor Horton tells me that you are likely the most brilliant scientific mind since Albert Einstein and he has been chiding our military commanders” the President grinned at Amundsen, “for utilizing your incredible talent to fly UAVs.”

  Ell blushed, “I’m sure that’s not correct. I was simply very lucky to work out a math that manages to fit a 5th dimension to quantum results. Even luckier finding a physical means to build the PGR chips based on that math.”

  Horton laughed, “Maybe Einstein was lucky that E=MC worked out too?”

  Secretary Amundsen interjected, “I must say, I am embarrassed that we failed to recognize her potential despite her graduation from the Air Force Academy in only two years and her notification to us that we were entitled to royalty free use of her new PGR communication chips. Apparently, whoever received that notice did not recognize the chips’ value and simply filed the notice. Do you mind if I ask what kind of royalties you receive on that invention?”

  Quietly Ell said, “Two point one billion dollars.”

  The three men’s eyes widened. The science adviser said “You sold it for two billion dollars?!”

  Again quietly Ell said, “No sir, that’s the minimum annual royalty.”

  “My God!” the President said, also in a quiet voice. “How can it be worth so much?”

  “Sir, it should replace all forms of communication over the next one to two decades. It is far cheaper than laying fiberoptic cable, has much higher data rates than radio, is uninterruptible, uninterceptable and undetectable. I would strongly recommend that your administration give some thought to minimizing the economic upheaval this technology will cause in the communication industry as it supplants all broadcast radio, cell phone technology and hard wired communications.”

  President Teller’s eyes widened in alarm, then he grinned. “Crap! I’ve been thinking of you as a solution, turns out you’re another problem!”

  “Yes sir.” Ell said apologetically.

  The three men, some of the most powerful people in the world, looked at one another in a mixture of consternation and bemusement. The President narrowed his eyes at Ell, “You aren’t about to create even more upheaval with some other technology are you?”

  Abashedly, Ell said, “I’m afraid that appears to be likely, sir.”

  Dr. Horton exclaimed, “What kind of technology?!”

  “Sir, I only have a minimally functional prototype at present and it is unclear whether this technology can be matured sufficiently to be broadly useful but it will likely at least heavily impact current satellite technology. In view of current patent law, I’m sure you can understand why I wouldn’t want to fully divulge its nature without a non disclosure agreement in place?”

  Horton guffawed, then grinned at the other two men, “Someday I’m going to tell my grandkids about the day a nineteen year old told the President of the United States she wouldn’t talk to him unless he signed a Non Disclosure Agreement!”

  Teller shook his head ruefully, “Somehow I don’t think this will be the last interesting story you’ll have. Tell you what, Chip, you sign a non disclosure agreement with her, learn what it’s about and then decide if and when I need to know about it.

  “All that aside,” the President continued, “we still have the initial issue we set this meeting up to discuss. Captain Donsaii, it is my belief that your talents are wasted as a soldier. Do you agree?”

  Ell tilted her head, “Not wasted perhaps, but it is plausible that they could be utilized more fully.”

  This time Secretary Amundsen laughed, “Politely put. I suppose that my idea of setting you up with your own Air Force funded research lab wouldn’t be ‘full utilization’ either?”

  Ell slowly shook her head.

  The President said, “How would you suggest we use your talents? I believe you still owe some time on your military commitment?”

  “Yes sir, twenty one months.” She looked up at the ceiling a moment to collect her thoughts. “If I were you, I would again release me from active duty at present, like I was released to go to graduate school. You
could then hold the twenty one months that I owe in reserve against a time when you do need my talents, such as they may be, for a particular problem. In the meantime I would be free to continue my research at a more rapid pace; if I’m lucky, bringing more useful products to fruition. Like the PGR chips, such products will likely be disruptive in the short term, but helpful in the long run.”

  The three men looked at one another. Horton said, “And you do what? Set up your own private research lab somewhere?”

  “Yes sir, but I’d also like to go back to grad school. I have a yearning to be around brilliant people my own age. I’m hoping to work it out so that I still get to work on what I want to work on.”

  Horton barked a laugh, “I imagine you could, but what professor would take you as a graduate student? He or she wouldn’t be able to teach you anything.”

  “Oh no sir, I have much to learn from experienced investigators, though I take your point that they might not want someone with my notoriety assigned to them. But I was intending to use an alias anyway because I still fear the Chinese or others may make more attempts to kidnap me. With an alias and a disguise I hope to work with a group that will treat me like another researcher rather than as a weird kid who got lucky.”

  The meeting degenerated at that point as Ell had to explain the multiple kidnapping attempts made on her so far. Eventually President Teller sat back and said, “Well, we might not have recognized her talents, but it would appear that the PRC did!” He stood, “I’m late for my next meeting. My decision is that we shall release her from active duty pending a need for her services. Lean on the Witness Protection people to provide her with another identity as she’s requested and let her do what she does best, however she wants to do it. Make it happen gentlemen.”

  Horton shepherded Ell to an empty office where Platt again had to wait. Ell forwarded the non disclosure agreement she had obtained from Dr. Smythe to Horton. Allan had modified it to fit the current situation. Horton printed two copies and they both signed them. Then Horton said, “So tell me.”

  “Well you know that my math postulates a microscopic fifth dimension through which quantum entangled particles are attached to one another?”

  Horton nodded.

  “It appears that it might be possible to open a portal from one location in our universe to another location in our universe through that fifth dimension. I have some evidence that material objects can pass through such a portal.”

  Horton’s eyebrows climbed high, “I’d call ‘bullshit’ on that if it weren’t for the fact that I would have said the same thing about your PGR chips. Do you have any physical evidence that you can do this, or only theory?”

  “Yes sir, I’ve opened some microscopic holes through which gas and liquid have successfully traveled, but these are very preliminary experiments.”

  “My God!” Horton leaned back in his chair and cradled his head in his hands. “Are you thinking that people can travel through such portals?”

  “Sir, I have no idea as yet. The process does require a great deal of power to energize it and theory would predict that power requirements would increase exponentially with portal size. There may be side effects from the waste energy released in the area. These may make it impractical to transfer large objects or people. But I mentioned satellites earlier because an ability to transfer even small quantities of liquid or gas to an orbital facility could have a huge impact on space satellites or stations.”

  “Oh Geez!” Horton ran his hands through his hair. “Can you keep me up to date on developments with this?”

  Ell looked at him calmly, “Sir, I don’t believe that this kind of information can be trusted to email. If you’ll let me provide you with a PGR chip so I can be certain of the security of the communication?”

  Horton frowned, “Huh? Oh! You mean a chip for which you’d have the paired member so no one could intercept?”

  “Yes sir. Then I could send you an e-mail telling you that I had information for you. You could unplug your AI and attach the chip to your AI headband and we could have a secure conversation.”

  Horton’s eyebrows drew together, “OK… I can see I need to give more thought to the security implications of your chips.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Ell didn’t have her disguise or her security team in D.C. so she caught a military flight back to Nellis. She called Steve while in transit so her security team could meet her as usual when she left Nellis proper. “Steve, I have news too. I’ll be leaving Las Vegas so I’d like to meet with the team when I get back to talk to them about it?”

  “OK… Amy too?”

  “Oh, yes please.”

  Amy and all ten of Ell’s security team crowded the living room of Ell’s apartment. Amy had laid out corn chips, salsa and beers. Ell was initially pleased to see her team showing restraint regarding the beer but then noticed that their mood seemed somber? She tried teasing Barrett, “Big B, why is it that you always seem to be assigned in rotation with Mary? You and her going sweet on me?”

  Barrett stared at her somewhat apprehensively, “Uh, no Ma’am. It’s uh, just worked out that way. If it’s a problem I can ask Steve to work on rotating the assignments more?” He raised his eyebrows.

  Ell quickly said, “Sorry, no, no, I was just busting your chops a little.”

  Ell worried even more about what had them down. She pondered it a little. She wondered if she had some form of Asperger’s syndrome that she was so out of touch with what was bothering the folks she worked with. Or was it just normal boss-employee standoffishness? Finally she waved her hands to get the attention of the group, “So we’ve got some serious stuff to talk about.” Ell raised her eyebrows and the room fell silent. Everyone’s eyes had fixed on her. “I’ve been released temporarily from my commitment to the Air Force so I’ll be leaving Las Vegas. I’m not sure where I’ll be going but I expect that I’ll be heading back to North Carolina at least temporarily.” You could have cut through the silence with a knife, but you’d have had a hard time it was so thick. Ell’s heart sank, something was seriously wrong with her team.

  She cleared her throat, “Personally, I’m hoping that you’ll all be willing to come with me to wherever I wind up going, but of course that will be up to you. I’m concerned because many of you seem a little down? If there’s something I’m doing as your employer that’s leading to your unhappiness, please let me know. If you want to leave, we can work out some kind of severance package I’m sure…” They stared at her like deer in the headlights. Her voice broke at the end and she realized that she’d become very fond of them. Even though she rarely spoke to them in public so as to preserve the notion that they weren’t known to one another they spoke in her apartment. She had become so used to seeing them that their mere presence was comforting. She was going to feel terrible if a bunch of them quit…

  Then Randy did a little fist pump, “All right!” He turned and glared at Steve, “You had us all worried for nothing!”

  Ell turned to Steve who looked abashed, “Sorry Ms. Donsaii, I got the impression from your call that you were letting us all go and tried to let the group down easy by giving them some warning.” He dropped his gaze embarrassedly to the floor.

  Ell raised her hands to her cheeks, “Oh! Heck no! I love you guys! Especially it’s very comforting to know that you’re always there, ready to protect me! I worry that, about the time the Chinese finally stop hassling me, other groups will start giving me trouble!”

  A cheer went up in the room. Amy raised her glass, “A toast… To the best boss ever!”

  They all raised their glasses and Ell felt her anxiety melt away. The atmosphere became party like and Ell made it a point to go around and talk to each of her team one on one. Just before they broke up Ell buttonholed Steve and Amy and said, “I think we should go somewhere for a little R&R? Maybe Amy could reserve us a house on the beach in Florida for a week? A place where we could assume that no one would find me and we could relax together. I was re
ally worried about our morale there and feeling like I should have done something to boost morale a long time ago.”

  Steve rubbed his chin. “I’m a little worried that too casual a relationship might undermine their sense of duty to you. But, on the other hand, if they love you like they will if they get to spend much time with you, they might have even more motivation to do their utmost.”

  Ell rolled her eyes and grinned, “Well I don’t know about all that, but let’s try to set it up between now and Christmas. I hope to be busy again come January.”

  ***

  Nuñez and Chief Milton were looking up into the comm bay of one of the MQ-9s discussing the progress of refitting the UAVs with the PGR chips when they heard crisp footsteps approaching from behind. Nuñez glanced back, then to Milton’s surprise dropped his hands to his sides, came to attention and did an about face. As Milton turned, Nuñez fired off the sharpest salute Milton had ever seen him produce. Expecting to find a general behind him Milton was bemused to find Lieutenant, no Captain! Donsaii standing there, big grin on her face. He saluted too, trying to render his sharpest as well.

  Donsaii saluted back “Chief, Sarge,” she nodded to each man. “I believe you owe me a beer?” She smirked at them.

  “Yes Ma’am!” Milton’s normally taciturn face beamed. “Word is you saved our ass in the Pacific? That where those Captain’s bars came from?”

  “Yep,” she grinned, “‘unofficially.’ Couldn’t ‘a done it without you two. Thanks! I’m throwing a little party at The Flight Risk Friday at 1830 hrs in celebration, you able to buy me my beers then?

  “Yes Ma’am.” They replied in unison.