by Bob Blanton
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Welcome Back
Chapter 2 Remember When
Chapter 3 Back in the Saddle
Chapter 4 Board Meeting – Nov 12th
Chapter 5 First Steps
Chapter 6 Birthday Girl
Chapter 7 Taking A Break
Chapter 8 Flying Lesson
Chapter 9 Board Meeting – Dec 3rd
Chapter 10 Treaty update
Chapter 11 Training Catie
Chapter 12 Paintball
Chapter 13 Board Meeting – Dec 17th
Chapter 14 Disclosure
Chapter 15 The Tour
Chapter 16 Christmas
Chapter 17 Nightmares
Chapter 18 Production Starts Up
Chapter 19 Board Meeting – Jan 7th
Chapter 20 The New Mayor
Chapter 21 Missing them
Chapter 22 Board Meeting – Jan 21st
Chapter 23 Linda Sends Help
Chapter 24 Soccer Friends
Chapter 25 Board Meeting – Feb 4th
Chapter 26 Spies on the Beach
Chapter 27 Board Meeting – Feb 18th
Chapter 28 Jungle Paintball
Chapter 29 Emergency Aid
Chapter 30 Pilot Training
Chapter 31 Board Meeting – March 4th
Chapter 32 Parts for All
Chapter 33 Design Review
Chapter 34 They’re awake
Chapter 35 Board Meeting – March 18th
Chapter 36 Take Down
Chapter 37 Board Meeting – April 1st
Chapter 38 Lynx Test Flights
Chapter 39 Board Meeting – April 15th
Afterword
Copyright © 2019 by Robert D. Blanton
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Printed in the United States of America First Printing, 2019. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
https://www.facebook.com/StarshipSakira/
Cover by Momir Borocki
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Chapter 1
Welcome Back
“Welcome back, Captain.”
Marc’s eyes fluttered open. “Dr. Metra.” Marc recognized the doctor from her image on the video messages she had left him. He was on the Sakira, or at least he assumed he was. It was the alien spaceship that he and his brother, Blake, had found five months ago.
“Ah good, you remember my name,” Dr. Metra said. “Tell me how you are feeling?”
“Pretty good,” Marc said. “What have you done?”
“You mean besides fix that stupid gunshot you gave yourself?”
“It was an accident.”
“Please, ADI might accept that from you since a Digital Intelligence doesn’t have any guile, but I know better. Now to answer your question, I repaired the damage to your intestines; took care of the entry and exit wounds. You had some cartilage damage to your right knee and your left shoulder; I suspect childhood sports. I took care of them as well as a few other minor injuries.”
She moved around to the other side of the bed Marc was lying on, her eyes flicked upward as she operated the HUD in the wraparound glasses she was wearing. “Then I noticed that you had a little plaque buildup in your arteries, that was easy to take care of. You also had a small buildup of plaque in your brain, nothing serious, but I took care of that as well; you should notice a slight improvement in your speed of recall. I also took care of the skin damage that exposure to the sun has done to you. You had some mild hormonal imbalance that comes with age that was causing you to have gray hair and a few other minor inconveniences that I took care of as well. Evolution didn’t seem to care anymore about your species once you had ample opportunity to procreate than it did mine. I also repaired some stress wear on other joints, especially in your left hand. And the lenses of your eyes were starting to stiffen. I treated that, as well. You have excellent vision, by the way. ”
Dr. Metra moved closer, leaned over,
and put her face up to Marc’s. “What I can’t treat, nor can I understand, is whatever it was that made you do something so stupid as to shoot yourself.”
“You’ll have to blame my daughter,” Marc said.
“Please! … Children may be trying, but they are never so trying as that!”
“That’s not what I meant. I promised her that I would get you out of stasis,” Marc said.
“And this was the best plan you could come up with? Why not simply wait for me to come out on schedule.”
“Well, that was going to take too long,” Marc said.
“It shouldn’t have been more than a few weeks, months at the most.”
“No, it was going to be thirty years,” Marc said.
“Thirty years,” Dr. Metra’s ears came forward, showing her surprise and shocking Marc.
Dr. Metra noticed the startled look, “Oh, you didn’t notice the ears before.”
“No, I didn’t,” Marc said. “I just noticed those ridges on the bridge of your nose, they make you look like a Bajoran.”
“A Bajoran?”
“It’s from a science fiction show, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” Marc said. “Except for the ears, you look like Major Kira.”
“Oh, I watched Star Trek,” Dr. Metra said. “I did like that Mr. Spock, he reminded me of my first husband.”
Marc laughed.
“So, you found the Sakira early,” Dr. Metra said.
“I guess you could say it was early. This is 2018.”
“Well, that explains the discrepancy in the schedule. But why did your daughter need me? Does she have a disease or condition I can treat?”
“No, not her, her great grandparents,” Marc said. “They have Alzheimer’s. She was querying ADI about the various medical treatments the Paraxeans have when she realized that you had a cure for it.”
“Very industrious of her. How old is your daughter?”
“She’s twelve; actually, she turns thirteen next month.”
“Well, I wish I could help her, but you should know that I must return to stasis now that you are well.”
“ADI.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“I am declaring that Dr. Metra is critical to my mission. She is not to return to stasis.”
“Yes, Captain. The doctor is now on active duty. Protocol no longer requires her to return to stasis.”
“You can do that?” Dr. Metra asked, very much surprised.
“Yes, as you can tell.”
“But you couldn’t bring me out of stasis?”
“No,” Marc said, “some other protocol prevented it.”
“I was aware of that. But I was not aware that the captain could change my status after I was out of stasis,” Dr. Metra said. “That puts a whole new spin on things.”
“Yes, it does.”
“I hope it doesn’t create any unintended consequences,” Dr. Metra said.
“ADI says we’re good.”
“Let’s hope she’s right.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Will she remember you?” Kal asked Blake. They were at the airport in Rarotonga waiting on the arrival of the lawyer Marc had hired.
“Hey, six foot four, handsome devil like me, how could she forget?” Blake said.
“She probably knew you back when your left side was the good side,” Kal said. “I don’t think your right side will hold up to that memory you’re cherishing.”
“You do remember that you still work for me,” Blake said.
“Sure, but only because I want to,” Kal said.
“Oh right, I forgot you’re now part of the idle rich. This is just a hobby for you.”
“Some hobby,” Kal said. “Hey, here they come.” Kal motioned to the passengers who were now coming down the stairs from the Boeing 777. It took a few minutes before they started coming through customs.
“What does she look like?” Kal asked.
“Blond, five-foot-six, generally gorgeous,” Blake said. “Didn’t you look up her profile?”
“Picture wasn’t all that great,” Kal said. “I think she wanted to look like a kick-ass lawyer, not a hot babe.”
“Marc says she is a kick-ass lawyer,” Blake said. “I think that’s her.”
The woman coming through immigration pulling a carryon waved to Blake.
“Must be,” Kal said.
Blake and Kal walked over to meet her halfway, “Ms. Newman?” Blake asked.
“Yes,” Samantha Newman said. “You’re Blake, right?”
“Yes, and this is Kal Kealoha, our head of security,” Blake said.
“Nice to meet you,” Samantha said. “Please call me Sam.”
“Are we waiting for more luggage?” Kal asked.
“No, I shipped the rest,” Samantha said. “It’ll be here in a couple of weeks; Marc said to travel light. Where is he by the way?”
“Off in Hawaii, last I heard,” Blake said. “He did tell you he wouldn’t be here, didn’t he?”
“He said he probably wouldn’t be here,” Samantha said.
“Well, I haven’t heard from him for a week, so who knows where he is. He left a bunch of stuff for you at the hotel, which means you’ll be busy right away,” Blake said.
“He is so thoughtful,” Samantha said.
◆ ◆ ◆
Blake gave Samantha the key to her room and the layout of the hotel and who was staying in each room. “I’ll see you in the office when you’re ready,” Blake said.
It was only fifteen minutes before Samantha made her way into the office. “How are the accommodations?” Blake asked.
“A bit rustic,” Samantha said.
“Sorry,” Blake said. “This was the nicest place we could find where we could get a big block of rooms.”
“Well, I’ll manage,” Samantha said. “So, where is my desk?”
“The one by the window,” Blake said. “This one’s Marc’s, I use it when I need one, but mostly I work out of my room.”
“Okay, so I have three files here,” Samantha said after she sat down and glanced through the stack of files on the desk. “Your corporate charter, the outline of the agreement he wants me to negotiate with the Cook Islands government, and some preliminary patent filings. Anything else I need to look at?”
“Marc asked me to find a hospital ship we could buy. We’re setting up a clinic here, and he wants to be able to start handling patients faster than we could build a clinic,” Blake said.
“Buy, would you consider leasing a ship?” Samantha asked.
“We’ll probably only need it for a year or so,” Blake said. “But it’ll likely need to be upgraded. I haven’t found any modern ones available in our time frame, but I didn’t look at leasing one.”
“We’ll probably be able to find a modern one for lease. There are several that get used in natural disasters when they are leased by the Red Cross or other relief organizations. I’ll check and let you know.”
“Here is your comm unit,” Blake said as he handed one to her. “If you’ll register your fingerprints with it, it will activate it. It will act as your computer, it’s a lot more powerful than it looks. The keyboard and display on your desk are linked to it already.”
“What about security?” Samantha asked.
“We have our own private network,” Blake said. “Your searches on the internet will be untraceable. The comm has an amazing voice-recognition system. It starts out almost perfect for normal commands, and it doesn’t take long to learn your accent and speech pattern. Most of us give our comms a name, that makes it easy for it to know we’re issuing a command. Just say ‘call’ and any of our names, and it’ll ring us up. Catie will set it up for you so you can replace your phone if you like. She’ll also show you how to use the earwig and these fancy glasses.”
“Looks like I have my work cut out for me,” Samantha said. “I’ll get started right away.”
“We usually eat at seven,” Blake said. “There’s a nice restaurant just down the street if you would like to join us. It will give you a chance to meet Liz and Catie.”
“Sounds fine,” Samantha said. “I probably will work here until then. I had a nap on the plane, so I should be able to stay awake past dinner.”
“Okay, I’ll stop by to pick you up,” Blake said.
Chapter 2
Remember When
As soon as Dr. Metra released Marc from medical, he sent her and the Sakira to the Cook Islands where he had set up base. ADI had made a fake identification for Dr. Metra that showed she was from Costa Rica. ADI had assured him and Dr. Metra that the documents were perfect and would have no trouble passing the scrutiny of the governments of the Cook Islands or New Zealand.
Marc had the LX9, the captain’s cutter from the Sakira, take him back to Honolulu. The LX9, or Lynx, as his daughter preferred to call it, made the trip underwater to avoid detection by Honolulu radar. It had to start the trip underwater anyway since the Sakira was under four hundred meters of water where it had been hiding for over thirty years. When they got to the small bay next to his hotel, he had ADI surface the Lynx so he could exit. He went into the cargo hold where his wave rider was. He’d used it to get to the Lynx five days ago; now he’d use it to get back to his hotel. It was dark, so nobody would notice the virtually invisible Lynx as it coasted along on the ocean surface.
Marc had ADI open the cargo hold, partially flooding it. He revved the wave rider up and shot out of the hold. The wave rider bounced hard as it caught a wave, but quickly righted itself. Marc rode it to the beach where he parked it. He’d have one of the cabana boys take care of it in the morning, but now he needed to get some rest. He had two busy weeks planned for himself. But first, he had to start the ball rolling with Catie’s great grandparents. As soon as he got back to the hotel, he called his ex-wife.
“Dr. McCormack please,” Marc asked the receptionist at Linda’s office. “Tell her it’s Marc.”
“Yes, Mr. McCormack,” the receptionist said. “One moment please, I’ll see if she’s available.”
“Marc, is everything okay?” Linda asked. “I haven’t heard from Catie or you for a few weeks.”
“Everything is fine,” Marc said. “We’ve been in Portugal and very busy.”
“Yes, I’ve noticed. You’ve been on the news, pretty impressive bringing that ship up.”
“It was exciting,” Marc said. “But we’ve left Portugal. Catie is back on Hawaiian Standard time now.”
“Back in Honolulu?”
“No, the Cook Islands actually, but same time zone.”
“Why are you in the Cook Islands?”
“It a long story, but back to why I called,” Marc said. “We’ve formed a business relationship with a doctor down there. She has a very promising treatment for Alzheimer’s.”
“Oh my god,” Linda gasped. “What do you mean by promising?”
“Nineteen out of twenty patients showed remarkable improvements. In fact, it was so remarkable that they all passed the cognitive test. Before the treatment, they were all in severe decline.”
“That is amazing,” Linda said as she shifted to doctor mode. “What kind of treatment and what are the risks?”
“Minimal to no risks,” Marc said. “I’ve actually had it myself, kind of proof that it’s safe. The treatment is a series of injections over a few weeks. Catie wants your grandparents to have the treatment. She’s the one who found the doctor.”
“That would be wonderful, but is it safe?” Linda asked. “I know you just said you took it, but long-term effects?”
“My mom’s the one who has to decide,” Linda said.
“We both know she’ll go with whatever you recommend.”
“I need to think about this,” Linda said.
“Think about it. I’ll be in San Diego tomorrow, then I’m flying to Boston. I hope that I’m flying back with your parents. There’s another Alzheimer’s victim there that I am going to offer the treatment to as well.”
“What does it cost?”
“It’s part of the trials, so it’s free, but you’ve seen the news, it doesn’t matter what it costs.”
“I guess you’re rich now, so it’s pocket change for you.”
“It would be pocket change for Catie as well,” Marc said.
“Oh, I didn’t realize that,” Linda said with surprise. “Come by tomorrow, and we’ll talk.”
The next day it only took a brief discussion before Linda decided that the treatment’s risks were worth it. Her grandparents were in their early eighties and in addition to Alzheimer’s, had several health issues that Marc said his doctor could treat. Besides, their quality of life was falling rapidly as the disease progressed. It seemed that almost any risk would be worth it. She called her office and told them she was going to be gone for a few weeks due to a family emergency. Then, she packed a bag and accompanied Marc to Boston.
◆ ◆ ◆
“I’m Marc McCormack,” Marc told the woman who answered the door. “I’m looking for Dr. Zelbar.”
“He’s my husband,” the woman answered. “What do you want?”
Mrs. Zelbar was an attractive woman; Marc estimated her age at early forties. He’d known that Dr. Zelbar had married one of his graduate students, but he hadn’t realized it had been that recent. If he recalled correctly, Dr. Zelbar would be around eighty years old now.
“I was one of his students about twelve years ago,” Marc said. “I was hoping I could talk to him and you.”
“He’s not really receiving visitors. He’s not feeling well.”