“Just call me Ted,” Ted Fellows said with a quick chuckle.
“That one I could have guessed,” Peter quipped back.
“Vic or Vicki is what most people call me. Usually Vic but I answer to either.”
“It’s nice to meet you all. I will warn you I am terrible with names so if I get your name wrong at first I apologize in advance. It takes me a while to connect the name with the face. If I get your name wrong, please just correct me.”
“Not to worry with this crew,” Ted chimed in.
They loaded all their gear and personal effects into several large trucks and the team members climbed into the van that Peter was driving. Barbara made sure she got into the front seat next to Peter. Susan was less than amused but didn’t let it show.
“So,” Barbara said, “what do you want us to call you?”
“Actually, Peter or Pete will do. I’m not very particular about that kind of thing.”
“Oh good. Some people get so stuffy once they put a Doctor in front of their names.”
Peter thought that he had better change the subject before she got much more personal. Obviously she didn’t realize that she could be offending half the people in the van. That, or else she didn’t care. Either way, it was time to move on to a different subject.
“We have a hanger set aside for your use. It is located right in the center of the other departments so that you and the other department folks can have quick access to one another. It all ends up in your lap at some time.”
“Boy, don’t we know it,” Vicki said.
“The equipment that you had sent down earlier has been installed per your instructions. I have electricians, carpenters and general hands standing by to help you set up this other equipment you just brought in,” Peter said.
“How far is the submarine from here?” Barbara asked.
“Technically it’s a DSV. It is down in New Port, Rhode Island, about a thirty-five minute flight by helicopter. We have four choppers assigned to us. We shuttle back and forth almost continuously. If we need more choppers they will be made available.”
“Boy they sure are giving us the red carpet treatment,” Ted commented.
“Yes they are. Listen, Doctor Long, I need to bring you up to speed on some new developments. Unfortunately they will directly affect your team. Once you get settled in we need to discuss the change in plans,” Peter said without looking over at her.
“Change in plans?” Doctor Motto said quickly, “Will it affect my installations?”
“I really don’t know. Doctor Long would be best suited to answer that after the briefing. I think it only fair to warn you that this is unlike any project you have ever worked on before. You will all have to improvise from time to time. We are breaking new ground here. I should also warn you that the rumor mill is alive and going strong. You would be better off not listening to what is being repeated. In short don’t believe all you hear. If you have a concern you should bring it directly to me or wait to hear it from official channels for the straight scoop,” Peter told them.
“Are you an official channel?” Barbara asked sweetly.
“In a word, yes. Admiral Marcus is in charge of the project but he has asked me to act as the onsite project manager.”
Peter knew he was going to have to be very careful with Barbara. She was on the prowl and it showed. He wondered what Susan was thinking.
“Here we are,” he said, pulling up in front of a huge hanger bay. The main door was down.
“The men assigned to unload and install your equipment are inside. Sergeant Keller is in charge of the detail. Once you get settled in I will take you to the housing area. You will each have your own apartment unless you want to team up. If anyone does, just let me know.”
“How far is the housing from here?” Ted asked.
“It’s in New Port. We have to helo back and forth. There is a phone number in each apartment that will connect you to transportation any time, day or night. It takes around thirty minutes from Otis to Goose Neck Cove. You get used to the helos real quick. Once we start installing the equipment it will be easier. The sub is only a few minutes away from the apartments.”
Sergeant Keller came out to meet them. Peter introduced them, getting every name right.
“Oh. I almost forgot. Here are your temporary PX passes for the base store,” Peter said.
“He means BX,” the Sergeant corrected, “This is an Air Force Base. We are just letting the Navy use it,” he kidded.
“BX it is. Now does anyone have any questions?”
“Yes. A few thousand but I guess they will have to wait until after your briefing,” BJ said.
“Okay then. Once you get acclimated here, Sergeant Keller will show you how to get to your quarters so you can get settled in. It would be better to let him know if any of you want to double up. He is in charge of living arrangements.”
“When do we get to see the....”
“Project,” Peter said, interrupting Doctor Motto quickly, “The name of the project is classified. We are never to mention it by name in front of any outside member. No offense Sergeant Keller.”
“None taken. I don’t want to know what you people are up to anyway. It’s too weird for me.”
“To answer your question Doctor Motto, I will be heading down to the site around 4:00 p.m. If any of you would like to go along I would be happy to show you around. Here are your security badges. You must wear them at all times. Not doing so will only cause you grief and endless red tape. Do yourself a favor and keep track of them. No badge will mean no access to the project. That goes for everyone including me. We are on their court so we will play by their rules. If any of you wants to strike out on your own you can do so by taking your badge and heading to the big red X over there,” he said, pointing to a clearing a few hundred yards in front of the hanger. Just as he was saying that a helicopter zoomed overhead and came to rest on the red X. Several people jumped out and walked stooped over from under the turning blades.
“That’s the spot. Just jump on and they will take you directly to the site. Same thing on the other end. Just hop on and they will bring you right back here. Any questions?”
“Do you really have to walk that way?”
“No. Not really. It’s sort of a knee jerk reaction to the spinning blades. Kind of one of those ‘it’s better to be safe than sorry’ things,” Sergeant Keller interjected.
“What about our equipment?”
“If you let me or one of the pilots know in advance they will provide any size chopper that you need. Just give them a couple hours’ notice for servicing and refueling. Okay, I need to get to work myself. Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be down at hanger L.
“I’ll get with you later for the briefing Doctor Long,” Peter said straight faced.
“Anytime,” she replied as seriously.
They really wanted to spend some time together but it would have to wait.
* * *
When Peter arrived at hanger L, his crew seemed to be in exceptionally good spirits.
“What gives? You guys have been like a convention of undertakers around here. What’s up?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t give me that ‘nothing’ stuff. I can see it on your faces. You’re up to something,” he said.
“Should we tell him?” one of the team members asked.
“Tell me what Ellie? Come clean. What’s going on?”
“Ellie! Don’t you dare tell him. You just wait and let Luke tell him.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll wait,” she said.
“You guys are something else,” Peter said with a sigh and sat down.
“He is on his way inbound. It won’t be long,” Ellie whispered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
- OTIS AIR FORCE BASE -
Luke had arranged to become a consultant. Actually he had very little to do with it. Peter, through Admiral Marcus had made all of the arrangements. All he had to do was make the requ
est. When he first told Liz about the possibility she didn’t seem to care much one way or the other. She thought it was probably some more of Peter's exaggerated talk. Now Luke was actually going. They argued, which was fast becoming their typical approach to everything anymore. It was an especially bitter fight and did little to help their failing marriage.
“How long is this for?” Liz demanded.
“I honestly don’t know. Thirty to ninety days is what Pete said. It just depends on how the project goes.”
“I don’t see why you feel you have to be the one to go and bail his butt out again. That’s all you ever do. Peter says jump and you jump.”
“Liz that is just not true. Besides, think of what the extra income will mean. We can sure use it. Our doctor bills are killing us.”
“Oh sure, blame everything on me.”
“Liz. I’m not blaming anything on you. It’s a simple fact. We are going broke with all the doctor bills. The extra income will be a big help.”
“How much is Peter making? I’ll bet it’s a lot more than what he is offering you.”
“Liz. What does that have to do with anything? I don’t know how much Peter makes and it isn’t important anyway. Peter is in charge of the whole project. He should be getting a lot more.”
“Oh sure. Take up for your precious Peter Ferris. I’m sure he will use your brains then take all the credit like always. And you; It’s pathetic how you tag along after him cleaning up his messes. Go on. Go to Peter. You’re of little help around here anyway.”
“Let it go Liz. You’re just running off at the mouth. Give it a rest, will ya?”
They continued to fight right up until the time Luke left. It was not a good parting and Luke was actually happy to be leaving Liz for the first time since they had been married. He was anxious to get to work with Peter again.
His unique background with NASA and his work with the probes gave him a fresh perspective on the problems Peter’s team was facing. It wasn’t long before he was changing the way they were approaching the navigational system problems.
* * *
“Peter. I’m telling you this will work. It may not solve all of the problems but I know it is the right direction.”
“Gee Luke. We have thousands of hours in this thing already. To stop and take off in a new direction is really a risk.”
“No it isn’t. The real risk is going on the way we are. Your people are headed down the wrong path,” Luke said passionately.
“You’re that sure?”
“Come on. This is Luke you are talking to. You know darn good and well I wouldn’t change directions if I wasn’t one hundred percent convinced.”
“Okay. Luke. It’s your call. If you say change directions, we’ll change directions. Tell me again what you think we need to do.”
Luke spent the next three hours going over his theory using the blackboard, paper and even the floor from time to time.
“I’m telling you Pete, if we use the same basic technology we used in designing the meteoroid detector sensor and coupling it with the Flux-gate magnetometer, it will give us the basic measurements we need to compute the image. Tie that in with the imaging polar meter and we can then start to modulate the image. Not only that, but in real time or so close to real time that you won’t know the difference. Nanosecond delays at the worst. Then all we have to do is compare that image to the TFR and we will have it,” Luke explained.
“And the TFR will work underwater?”
“Sure. Terrain Following Radar doesn’t care where it is. It worked in an almost total methane environment so I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work underwater.
“What about the magnification of the water?” Peter wanted to know.
“It’s not a problem. We can correct for that in several different ways. Getting the signal to bounce off the object and to create the image in a time frame we can live with is the most important obstacle to overcome. The water distortion is a piece of cake.”
“All right Luke. It’s your baby. I’ll call a team meeting and make the announcement. We’ll get some griping but I’ll handle it. You just get ready to start immediately. Get a list of materials you are going to need ready. I’ll get someone to round up the team,” Peter said.
“I have what I need right here,” Luke said handing Peter a long list.
Peter looked at his friend for a second then said, “Gee Luke. You could have at least given me the satisfaction of thinking I was in charge a little bit.”
“In your dreams, buddy boy,” Luke said hitting Peter on the arm.
That had been almost three weeks ago and now Peter and the rest of the team were sitting around in the expanse of hanger L waiting for Luke to show up.
* * *
“Hey, hey, the gangs all here,” Luke said entering the hanger.
“Okay, wise guy. What’s going on?” Peter asked.
“Why nothing. Why do you ask?” Luke said with a straight face.
“Just look at these guys. It’s sad. They couldn’t keep a secret if they had to. Don’t be so smug and tell me what’s going on.”
“Then sit down old buddy,” Luke suggested. Peter took a seat as directed.
“We did it.”
“We did?”
“You bet. I ran the test last night and except for a few minor adjustments the darn thing worked beautifully.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Without a hitch.”
“You’re putting me on. I know you’re good, almost as good as me, but you actually did it in thirty days? And it works?” Peter said amazed.
“I kid you not,” Luke informed him.
“How fast?”
“I ran it at twenty knots on the test model. It was incredible. I could zip right along and it was like flying VFR. I could see every image on the screen way before I had to make a course correction. The only problems I encountered were the human error kind.”
“Such as?” Peter asked.
“Zigged when I should have zagged. The computer will correct most of the errors once it is tied into the system. I’ll have the data ready for Dr. Long’s team once they get here.”
“They are here. They arrived today.”
“Most excellent,” Luke proclaimed.
“How big a test did you run?” Peter asked.
“Half scale. I have a few calculations and adjustments to make but we should be ready for a three quarters test sometime tomorrow.”
“This is really great news. This will put us back on schedule. Maybe even ahead of schedule. This is just wonderful, Luke.”
“Look. I don’t want to be an ‘I told you so,’ but........”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Look, this is a rare admission but it just could be, maybe, sort of, however rare it may seem....”
“YOU WERE WRONG,” they all shouted in unison and broke out laughing.
Peter acted as if he were crushed that they would think such a thing.
“I will never be the same,” he lamented.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
- THE WHITE HOUSE -
“You’re telling me that with all the money we pour into the military budget each year, you cannot locate, with any certainty, the source of the transmissions?” the President said in disbelief.
“Well sir. You must understand the bursts are only milliseconds long. The longest was just under one second long. The satellites can’t lock onto them that fast and get an exact location. It’s like someone yelling in a cave and trying to figure out exactly where it came from. In the dark, I might add.”
“That’s just great. Thirteen trillion in debt and we can’t even tell when someone is making a phone call in our own back yard.”
Everyone sat in silence. Once he was on a roll it was better to let him get off his chest.
“Any other cheery news?” he asked.
“The Russians have given up on their search for the missing bomber.”
“Did they find it?”
“No sir. Not as far as we could tell.”
“It’s comforting to know they are as inept as we seem to be,” the President said.
“We have learned that the ‘official’ reason listed is mechanical malfunction. They have demoted three of the maintenance workers. The ‘unofficial’, and most likely reason, is that the Blackjack Bomber had a UFO encounter.”
“That’s the typical Russian mentality. Demote some poor slob worker that they know didn’t have anything to do with it. Does every military operate the same way?” he said.
No one took the bait. He was in a foul mood. They all knew it was better to say as little as possible when he was like this.
“Would someone tell me what we do know?” he asked after an uncomfortable silence.
“Yes sir, Mr. President. We know that the transmissions are located in three general areas. According to both Doctors Long and Stineman, they came from Saturn’s moon, Titan, the Tonga Trench and around the Mariana Trench just prior to the recent incident. They have detected an increase in the transmission activity level. The pattern seems to be first an increase in transmission frequency, followed by an incident, then follow by additional transmissions. After that, the activity stops.”
“So an increase in activity indicates an unexplained incident is soon to follow. Then more transmissions follow. Knowing all of that we still can’t get any kind of accurate fix on them?”
“Sir, if we could predict when the increase was about to take place we could zero in a little closer.”
“We can’t even find them let alone predict anything. I don’t want to know after the incident, for Christ sake. We want to stop the damn things,” the President said slamming his hand on the table top.
“Sorry. By the time the incident is reported, it’s too late.”
“Tell me something I don’t know and don’t be sorry. Just figure out what we need to locate the source. I don’t want to wake up and find an alien in the White House. And if any of you are thinking that must have already happened this morning, I’ll fire your butt,” he said, smiling for the first time since the meeting had started.
“I hate to ask a dumb question, but has anyone figured out why just those areas?” the Secretary of Defense asked.
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