Comet! Read online

  ***

  Joe was giving this project until the end of the week then telling his boss it was impossible. All but one of the other newsies had given up. It had seemed a dream job at first. Follow a gorgeous girl around and video her. Hopefully catch her in a few youthful indiscretions to put up on the net. But all Donsaii did was drive to work and back home. There’d seemed to be some hope when she’d gone out dancing that one night, but since then...nothing.

  His eyes widened. That’s her Focus! It was coming down the driveway out of D5R in the middle of the day! “Follow that car,” he said to his AI. The Focus turned left, away from her little farm. Finally, something out of the routine!

  The two newsies followed her to the General Aviation terminal at the RDU airport where she parked in the lot. The two paparazzi leapt out of their cars and got a little video of her walking into the terminal, bag in hand. Then some more video as she walked out to a Lear Jet with the D5R logo on the tail. Joe kicked the fence in frustration as they watched the little jet take off. Damn! Could her life be any more boring?

  ***

  Phil walked out of the training facility. He’d just spent the day immersed in the neutral buoyancy pool pretending he was weightless. It was interesting but frustrating. The water resisted every motion and wasn’t anything like the actual weightless experience he’d had on the Station. He’d even confronted the instructor with the fact that getting to orbit was about to get so easy and cheap that it would make more sense to practice weightlessness in space where you actually were weightless! The instructor had looked a little cross-eyed over the prospect and Phil felt bad when he realized that he’d just told the man that the job he’d been doing for decades was about to become obsolete.

  Someone behind him shouted in a high pitched, excited voice, “Is that Philip Zabrisk?!” He had just begun to turn when Ell landed on his back with a huge thump. Phil staggered a few steps.

  “Astronaut Phillip Zabrisk?!” She whispered in his ear, giving him goose bumps. “I’m just all googly eyed!”

  “Ell!” Phil gasped laughing. “Are you crazy? Attacking an ex wrestler? I coulda slammed you to the floor!”

  She climbed down off of him. “You would not have done that!” She sniffed, “I woulda had to hit you with my purse.” She arched an eyebrow at him.

  Phil drew back in mock horror, hands in the air in surrender, “No! No! Not the purse!”

  She grinned and put an arm around his back, pulling him to her as they started walking again. “I’m taking my mostest favoritest astronaut to dinner at Antica Osteria. I’ve got a friend who claims it’s got the world’s best Italian food.”

  Happily, Phil put his arm over her shoulder, “Wherever you want Ma’am, just keep the purse in its holster. And keep the safety on. Please?”

  At the restaurant the Maitre d’s eyes widened when he recognized Ell. But otherwise he remained unfazed. As they walked to the back of the restaurant Ell saw Mary and Steve from her security detail already eating. She checked the time on her HUD, she was a little later than they’d expected. Mary’s voice whispered in Ell’s ear through her AI, “The food here is awesome!”

  Once they were seated, Phil ordered a beer and Ell a Coke. The waitress had dropped off a basket of bread when she took their drink orders. As soon as she left Ell poured some olive oil on her plate and pulled out a piece of bread. “So, how’s training?” She took a big bite and dipped the bread again. Her eyes widened, “This bread is great!” she mumbled around the mouthful.

  Phil picked up the oil and poured some on his plate then added a little balsamic. “It’s fun, and eye opening, and hard, and I really like it. Some of it is a silly waste though.”

  Ell swallowed the last of her piece of bread. Digging out another one she said, “Waste?”

  “Well they have us practicing all kinds of stuff in a ‘simulated weightlessness’ pool when a friend of mine has made it cheap enough to just go out to space to practice.” Phil watched her tear the new piece of dark bread in half and dip it in the oil. “Easy there lady, back away from the bread. You’ve got to save some room for the meal you know?”

  Ell grinned up at him, “You have eaten with me before, right?”

  He stared a moment, “Oh yeah,” he said dryly, “I forgot that your stomach went half way down your left leg. Eat up.”

  Her mouth full, she nodded. She swallowed and said, “I will. But that took the edge off. Maybe I can slow down for a little conversation now. You know I don’t think D5R is using Amelia all that much right now. Maybe we should loan her to NASA for training and transport?”

  Phil’s eyes widened, “Amelia’s the modified Lear Jet?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Can you get them to specify that a certain astronaut must go on every flight?”

  “Preferential treatment amongst the astronaut corps? Surely you jest, sir?”

  The waiter stopped to take their order and Ell asked for spaghetti Bolognese. Phil stared a moment, “You come to the ‘worlds greatest Italian restaurant’ and order spaghetti?”

  Ell winked, “’World’s greatest spaghetti.’ You’ll be sorry if you don’t order it too. I’ll let you taste it and you’ll be jealous…”

  ***

  Ell and Phil stood in line for breakfast at the Buffalo Grill in Houston. Phil had eaten there before and recommended it highly. The bleached older lady just in front of them in the line talked constantly at the man with her. The man limited his conversation to an occasional grunt. From the sidelobe of her conversation Ell and Phil learned that Las Alamedas was just as good as the Buffalo Grill for breakfast, that the new Batman movie couldn’t hold a candle to the old ones and that she really wanted to go on a cruise of the Alaska coast. Suddenly the woman’s eye caught on Ell.

  “Oh my!” She put her hand to her chest, then reached out and put it on Ell’s arm. “You look ever so much like that Ell Donsaii that’s been in the news!”

  Phil’s eyes widened, but in a deep southern accent Ell calmly said, “Ya know, Ah get that a lot.”

  “Why, you could get a job as her double or something!”

  Ell pursed her lips thoughtfully, “Do ya thank she needs one?”

  Phil made a choking sound and when Ell turned to look at him was quite red in the face. Ell patted him on the back.

  The lady said, “Are you all right son?”

  Breakfast was just as awesome as Phil had promised but before Ell finished her hash browns Allan spoke in her ear. She knew it must be important for Allan to interrupt her with Phil so she sighed. “Yes?”

  “A ‘Bradford Mullins’ has arrived at the security gate for D5R with documents from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, demanding to be allowed to enter and inspect the D5R facilities.”

  “That’s a government agency?”

  “It’s a branch of the US Department of Transportation. It is charged with regulating pipelines and the transport of hazardous materials. He is claiming that D5R’s ports are a form of ‘pipeline’ and that they are being used to transport hazardous materials.”

  Ell rolled her eyes as she recognized the hand of the irritated Secretary Bayless. Her eye caught on Steve’s and she lifted a finger and made a circle with it to indicate their imminent departure. “OK, have them check with the PMHSA administration to be sure he’s legit and that they really sent him out there and then let him in. Have Roger and Fred escort him around, slowly. I’m on my way back. Call Aaron Fortis and ask him to honor our retainer by getting over to D5R to look at the situation.” She turned sad eyes on Phil, stood, pecked him on the cheek and said, “Sorry, gotta go.”

  “What!” He stretched a hand out at her retreating back.

  ***

  The Lear Jet pulled up to the General Aviation terminal in Raleigh. Ell waved to her security team and got off. They would get off with the aircrew later so that casual observers wouldn’t see her traveling with a team of protectors. Barrett, Dan and Randy were already there
near the terminal, ready to follow her car.

  When Ell walked into D5R she got the impression that all her people looked slightly furtive, as if they had been caught doing naughty. Ben Stavos saw her and walked quickly over, saying, “I assume you’ve heard?”

  “I’ve heard that someone’s here from the Department of Transportation, yes. I haven’t heard what he’s actually doing?”

  “He claims that our ports are ‘pipelines’ and that we haven’t submitted the proper paperwork to have them approved. He’s demanding that all active ports be shut off immediately and that we stop making them until we’ve been approved to do so!”

  Ell sighed. “Yeah, I heard that part from Mr. Fortis, our legal counsel. But what has Mullins been physically doing here at D5R?”

  “Acting like a jerk. Trying to make everyone here feel like criminals. ‘Inspecting’ our facilities. Questioning people about whether we’ve ever had a ‘spill.’ Demanding to know why we didn’t submit form ‘X’ or notify the department of ‘Y…’ He’s a very hostile dude.”

  Ell’s shoulders slumped as her eyes wandered around the big room where people appeared to be dispiritedly going about tasks they usually undertook with enthusiasm. She hated dealing with confrontational people. It was hard to stay out of her “zone” when people like that were “in her face” and that made it even harder to speak to them pleasantly. She looked back over at Stavos, “Do you know where he is now?”

  “He’s in the little conference room with Fortis. We can hear them yelling at each other occasionally.” He grinned, “Much better than having him out here yelling at our people.”

  Ell took a deep breath, “Well I guess I’d better go stick my head in.”

  Stavos put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, “Hope it doesn’t get chewed off.”

  Ell knocked gently on the door, then pushed it open.

  A rumpled, aggressive looking redheaded man with buzz cut hair turned flashing eyes her way, “We didn’t tell you to…” he started angrily, then his eyes traveled up and down her body. In a nicer tone he said, “Honey, we don’t need anything right now. But get a message out to your damned CEO that I want her ass in here as soon as she arrives.”

  Breathing deeply to calm herself, Ell entered the room and sat as Fortis said, “Ms. Donsaii here is the CEO.”

  Mullins eyes widened momentarily as they flashed back over to Ell, then they narrowed as they tracked back to Fortis. “I don’t need to talk to some pretty ‘face of the company.’ I want to talk to whoever’s actually in charge here!” he ground out.

  Fortis leaned back and grinned. “Ms. Donsaii is in charge. She invented the technology. She’s been made CEO by the investors. If you want to talk to the ‘Boss,’ here she is.”

  Mullins sighed, leaned back in his chair, turned his eyes to the ceiling and said, “OK, if that’s the way you want to play it.” He turned to Ell, “Sweetheart, your company is breaking all kinds of rules. I’ve explained this to Mr. Fortis here. You will cease and desist from the manufacturing of your ‘trans-dimensional’ pipelines and from the transport of hazardous materials through existing pipelines. You may submit applications to have such pipelines authorized,” fat chance Mullins thought to himself, “and submit applications for permits to transport hazardous materials, but you will cease and desist until such applications have been approved. Do you understand?”

  Fortis took a breath in order to protest but Ell laid a hand on his arm, stilling him. She turned to Mullins and smiled, “I’d like to ask some questions?”

  “Sure.” Mullins sat back with a smirk. He enjoyed having this beautiful young woman in a tight spot and hoped she would try to influence him somehow.

  “How long does it normally take to process these applications?”

  “As long as it takes.”

  “How long on average.”

  He shrugged, “A few weeks.”

  “My understanding is that you do not regulate pipelines within our own facilities, only those that transport externally?”

  Grudgingly, “Yes,” He raised an eyebrow, “and sales of pipes to other entities.”

  “Nor do you regulate private property piping?”

  He grimaced, “No.”

  “We are supporting NASA by supplying the Space Station through ports. Are you requiring that we cut off the Space Station’s supplies?”

  “No Secretary Bayless has specified that you may continue to provide ‘trans-dimensional’ pipes to the Station. There doesn’t appear to be much risk to hazmat spills in space and the benefits outweigh those risks.”

  “Thank you, we’ll make the applications as required by law.” Fortis leaned forward, about to protest but Ell again stilled him with a hand on his arm.

  Mullins, who’d been relishing the prospect of a good fight, was disappointed by her acquiescence. For a moment he tried to think of additional demands to make in hopes of encountering further resistance, but eventually realizing he couldn’t think of any he shrugged, rose and began putting on his coat. “I’ll be coming back for unannounced inspections,” he said warningly.

  After they’d escorted Mullins from the building Fortis turned to Ell. “I can seek an injunction or something. It is ridiculous on the face of it to call your ports ‘trans-dimensional pipelines,’ for God’s sake, there aren’t any pipes!”

  Ell tilted her head in thought, “No, it’s all right. They do have the potential for danger so the government is going to have a need to regulate them. Just as well let them use an agency they’ve already got rather than insisting that they form a new one. However, I feel sure this is simply the tip of the iceberg.”

  Fortis frowned, “What iceberg?”

  “James Bayless, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, is vehemently opposed to the release of this technology because of the economic upheavals it will cause. I’m sure he directed PHMSA to send Mullins down here to shut us down. I would imagine that it will be nearly impossible for us to get approvals for our applications.”

  Fortis lifted an eyebrow, “Even more reason to seek an injunction and work to have someone else regulate us if we must be regulated.”

  Ell shrugged, “I’d rather do it right. Hire counsel with expertise in these matters. I’ll have our admin people start on preparing our applications but we want counsel to ensure that we submit bulletproof applications that they can’t reject.”

  “They can always reject. A reason can always be found.”

  “Yeah. But then when we go up the chain we’ll have done our part and it will be obvious that we’re being stonewalled for other reasons.”

  “OK.” Fortis said dubiously. “I’ll get on it.”

  Chapter Five

  Emily stepped out onto the balcony and looked up to find her husband peering into his telescope. “Wilson? What are you doing up there at this hour?”

  “Hey Em,” he said despondently, “I’m trying to check everything to be sure I haven’t miscalibrated somehow.”

  “I thought you did everything remotely, even looking through your telescope?”

  “I do. But the numbers keep coming up the same so I’m checking manually to be sure I don’t have some of the digital equipment a little off kilter.”

  “Is that possible? I thought you calibrated to known stars.”

  “Yeah,” he sighed, “I do. I’m grasping at straws here.”

  “Have you told Kitt Peak or NASA what you’re finding?”

  “Yeah, they just tell me they’re ‘looking into it.’”

  Emily chewed her lip, “And you think they’re stonewalling you?”

  “Yeah, something like that. Burying their heads in the sand? Not actually checking my findings ‘cause I’m just an amateur? Trying to keep it a secret to avoid panic? I don’t know.”

  “You want me to start buying canned food and putting it in the basement?”

  There was a long pause as Daster thought. “I guess. But if this thing hits, having some food socked away probably won’t
help. Even if it hits a long way away it’ll create something like a nuclear winter from all the dust that gets thrown up. We’ll probably freeze to death before we starve.”

  “What should we do?”

  “Launch nuclear warheads at it. Try to deflect it from its orbit. The sooner they do it, the more likely it is to work which is why I’m in such a panic to get something started.”

  “Oh,” Emily said. She thought of her husband as some kind of genius, but certainly an… obsessive genius. Could he really be right about this? Or is this just another one of his obsessions? Like the damn telescope in the first place. Sometimes she thought he loved it more than he did her. Should I tell him to threaten to go public? Surely that would get a response out of them! But what an embarrassment if it turns out he’s wrong! And a horror if he starts a panic. Like shouting fire in a crowded theater, except it’d be the entire world in a panic. “Well, I’ll look into getting some canned goods anyway. I think I’ll look at some survivalist sites on the web.” She turned and went in to bed shaking her head. Her husband... brilliant or crazy?

  ***

  Roger and Ell were dropped off by his car at the Medical School. She’d slumped low in his passenger seat as they left Quantum Research and the one paparazzo still following her after months of “boring” hadn’t seen her go. In the cooler weather of early October she was wearing a ball cap which covered her strawberry blond hair. She hoped that helped disguise her some too.

  They walked to the Neuroscience Research Building through the crisp morning air. Despite the hat one wide eyed student recognized Ell and turned to watch her climb the stairs. Inside Roger led the way to Dr. Bynewicz’ lab and knocked on the door.