Comet! (an Ell Donsaii story #5 ) (4 page)

“Well…” Roger petered out, evidently not having considered that Ell might not
understand
the depth
of his feelings.

“Besides, Phil hasn’t stated his intentions either and he’s a long ways away…
And
, he’s a friend,
even if you
were
my boyfriend
I should get to hug
him
!”

“If I were? Can I be?”

“Hah!
Not a chance!
Not acting like this you can’t!
Getting drunk, passing out, moping around with a hangover. I don’t like version
2.0
of Roger. I like
d
version 1.0
way better
.”

Roger blushed a little and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “You don’t like me?”

“Well, I liked Roger 1.0
if you can reboot to that version
.
But
,
I’m not sure I’m ready to settle down. I’m only nineteen you know?” She elbowed him
and whispered conspiratorially
, “
Remember,
Grandmother Emmerit thinks I’m
much
too young for you.”

He looked over at her. She was grinning impishly. He said, “But
…
I’m
crazy
about you. I
want
you to feel the same about me!”

Ell
stared
at him seriously
for a long time. Then, quietly she said
, “Before Dad died, I complained to him that the other kids didn’t like me… You know what he said?”

“What?”

He said
, “
T
h
at,
if I wanted the other kids to like me,
I
needed to
be
more
likeable
.”

Roger frowned, “So I
...
need to
…
‘sweep you off your feet’ or something like that?”

“Sure,
something
like that. But you’ll probably need to be patient too. I
agree with your grandmother.
I’m too young to settle down yet. So for a while you’re going to need to be my boyfriend but maybe not my exclusive boyfriend. Do you think you can hack
that?
”

He stared at her. “How would
you
feel if I was going out with other girls?”

She shrugged, “OK,” she wrinkled her nose, “maybe they’d
smooth off some of those rough edges you’ve been displaying here the past day or so?”

Roger closed his eyes a moment.
Would I be able to stand it? Yes! It isn’t that she already loves someone else. It’s that I need to
earn
her love.
He opened his eyes and grinned at her. “Maybe they could give me
the
‘sweeping off feet’
practice I apparently need?”

Ell put her hand over his on the armrest, “Yeah! That’s more like the Roger 1.0
that
I used to know.”
She leaned back and frowned, “But, no breaking other girls’ hearts! I don’t like
mean
boys either.”

He sat up straighter and said, “So, tell me about your ‘or’ from before?”

“OK,” Ell said, looking at him intently, “I’m figuring that if most of our D5R team is breaking off to build businesses based on what we’ve
already
done with ports,
we
need a new team that can focus on what
new
things
we can do. Not on building businesses out of
what we’ve already figured out, but on new research to see if there’s anything else we can do? I’m hoping you’ll join
that
team?”

“Sure!
What are we going to work on
?”

“
Whatever grabs our interest, but for sure
your research on whether we can send living beings somewhere?”

Roger’s eyebrows jumped up, “Oh!
Yeah
, we
do
need to keep working on that.”

Ell grinned, “I have a few other ideas too.”

Roger rolled his eyes, “I’ll
just
bet.”

Kitt’s Peak National Observatory
,
Arizona
—
The Observatory confirmed the discovery of a new comet by amateur astronomer
Wilson Daster
.
Though
the comet
is not very large, i
nitial observations
suggest
that this comet
will
pass fairly close to Earth so it
should put on
quite
a sho
w
when
it
does
…

The D5R charter landed and taxied to the terminal at the RDU airport. People got off in good spirits. Ell thought about making an announcement to everyone about the formation of the new companies but decided to wait until their
first
day back at work on Friday. Sitting in the back of the plane with Roger she was one of the last ones off. As she walked down the jetway she felt like something was odd or different from usual.
Is there something different about the
jet
way for charter flights?
She wondered.
The lights in the terminal seem really bright.
Then Ell stepped out into the terminal and suddenly the difference and the lights responsible for it became blindingly obvious.

Video crews with high intensity lights surrounded the gate. Ell blinked and shaded her eyes.
I knew they’d find us, just not this soon!

Reporters began calling, “Ms. Donsaii, Ms. Donsaii! Please?! How was the Space
Station?
What are your plans for…” They waved their hands and stuck microphones in her face.

Ell stopped, closed her eyes a moment, then opened them and smiled. “Yes, I’ll answer a few questions.”
She passed her bag to
Roger
and
asked
him to go on ahead.

Andrew Bilstock watched the young strawberry blond move over to one side trailing all of the reporters. She wore jeans and a t-shirt with running shoes.
The t-shirt said “E=MC
2
” across the front. He considered. One would expect her to look
plain
and ordinary in such typical
everyday
clothes
. Clothes
like
hundreds of other travelers wore
right here in this
very
airport. She should look rumpled after a plane flight
. Yet, somehow the plain clothing looked stunning on her.
She looked fresh as a model just made up for a photo shoot.
He would have sworn she was wearing high heels if he hadn’t seen the shoes for himself. She moved gracefully and turned to face the cameras again saying, “I’ll take one question from each of you.” She pointed at Sherry Simson, one of the reporters in the front, “Yes?”

Bilstock winced when the young reporter asked, “
Is it true that you’
re the same Ell Donsaii who won four gold medals in the
Olympics three years ago?”

If Donsaii thought it was stupid question she didn’t show it. She m
erely smiled and said, “Yes
,
”
as
she
pointed to another reporter.

“We understand that you have developed a significantly cheaper means to
‘
launch to orbit.
’
Is this new technology related to the recently developed
PGR
chips
? Th
os
e chips are
said to be based on the paper you published in
Nature
.
”

“Yes, the two technologies are both based on that paper and
on
the mathematics described in it… Next?”

“Wait, wait!” the second reporter exclaimed, “I have a followup. Did…”

Donsaii shook her head. Still smiling, she
waggled
a finger at him,
“
One question
each
please
. M
ake ‘em good.” She pointed to the next reporter.

“The
PGR
chips have caused
tremendous
upheaval in the communication industry, can we assume that something similar
might
happen in the satellite launch business?”

“Well, certainly there will be changes. As it becomes easier and less expensive to get into space
,
the number of businesses that will benefit from a presence in orbit will increase exponentially.
However,
I
expect that
you are
actually
concerned that
the current space launch industry
could
be facing stiff competition
from
this
revolutionary new technology
?
Please rest assured that President Teller has already begun taking steps to ensure that those companies will be able to license the new tec
hnology
from D5R
and continue to compete
on a relatively level playing field
.
Next?
”

“Do you favor
Vice
President
Mansfield
or Senator Flood in the
coming
Presidential
election?”

“Oh, I
won’t
comment on political issues.
I’m sure that
each
candidate
plans
do the very best they can for our country
,
each according to his own perspective
.”

The questions went on for quite a while and Donsaii let each reporter ask a
single
question as promised. When all of them had had an opportunity she said
brightly
, “Thank you for your attention and interest,” and slipped out of the lit area. A milling gaggle of reporters and videographers followed her through the terminal but, without seeming to hurry, she
quickly
left them behind.
By jogging occasionally
Bilstock managed to
follow closely enough to see her slip into a car in front of the terminal and pull away. He noted with surprise that she’d been alone in a Ford Focus. Somehow he’d expected her to take a limo or drive some exotic car.
Oh well,
I guess
just because you’re famous
it
doesn’t necessarily
follow that
you’re filthy rich,
he thought.

***

Kitt’s Peak National Observatory, Arizona
—
The Observatory
reported today that the new comet discovered by Wilson Daster had actually been independently reported a few minutes earlier by another amateur astronomer, James Hearth,
thus leading to a name change. Further orbital data
analysis
continues to
suggest
that c
omet Hearth-Daster
will
pass fairly close to Earth
,
putting on quite a display in
our
skies
…

Ell walked back to her house from the horse barn where she’d been working out with Steve
and several other of her security team. She saw Amy’s car parked outside and found Amy in the kitchen unpacking groceries. “Hey, how are things?”

“I’m thinking you haven’t been out to the road yet?”

“No, why?”

“There’s a bunch of
gawkers and reporters
out there.”

Ell closed her eyes and tilted her head back a moment, then quietly said, “Damn!”

“I didn’t think you’d be happy.”

“No
,
but I was afraid of this.”
Ell
turned to stare out the window. The driveway was long
and curving
but she could see
parts of
several vehicles
through the trees
. “Allan,” she said to her AI, “please ask Steve not to leave, I’ll be
back
out to talk to him.
” She turned back to Amy, “Do you think they’re going to be a problem?”