by M. Alan Marr
The flight attendants always keep the interruptions to a minimum when the boys are working in the boardroom. Franz prepares a tray of small sandwiches, as has become the tradition for working lunches.
Steve arrives in the boardroom just as Milo and Annette are bringing in lunch. Today, Franz sends up a variety of hot sandwiches: grilled cheese on sourdough, chicken panini on ciabatta, and sliced filet mignon with horseradish mayonnaise on small Portuguese rolls.
As usual, both Dev and Chaz are sitting across the table, so their computer screens are blocked from the flight attendants’ view. Milo quietly leaves the tray on the table, and Annette freshens the beverage bar and prepares three fresh glasses of sparkling water. Everyone is hungry and digs right in. Once the flight attendants leave the room and close the doors, the real discussion begins in private.
“We found the place,” Chaz tells Steve, while pulling apart a gooey grilled cheese.
Steve raises his eyebrows. “Where at?” he says mid-bite into a sandwich.
Chaz motions to Dev for the honor of revealing their new home.
“North of Seattle,” Dev says.
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m not,” Dev says. “We found it while the plane was in for maintenance last month. It’s a large estate along the Pacific Coast. Ocean to the west, forest to the north, south, and east, and a comfortable distance between us and the naval base on Whidbey Island.”
“That’s great!” Steve beams. “You know, if anyone sees anything funny, they may just dismiss it as military traffic from the naval base.”
“That’s a very good point,” Dev says. “One that Chaz mentioned as well.”
“Who does it belong to?”
“Used to belong to a wealthy family in the timber business,” Chaz says.
“Do you have pictures?” Steve says. “Can I see it?”
Dev punches up the images on his laptop and sends them to the wall screen. “Lots of forest. Lots of rain, and a two-hour drive to Seattle. Huge house, as you can see, and pretty stable coastal land, despite the seismic proclivity in the region. The west wing of the house is nearly to a sheer cliff above the ocean.”
“Jesus, the timber business must be good,” Steve comments, marveling at the immensity of the house. “Why are they selling it?”
“Divorce,” Chaz says. “Apparently, the owner’s wood wasn’t limited to timber.”
“Huh?” Dev says. Steve and Chaz laugh at the pun.
“I’ll explain later,” Chaz says. “Anyway, we told our lawyers under no circumstances let this property get away. It took some negotiation, but we got it. It’s ours.”
“That’s great,” Steve says, then looks at the two sizable buildings near the main house. “What are those?”
“Garages,” Chaz says, with a grin. “The former owner was a car buff. Best part—those garages have no internal supports; they’re built like aircraft hangars. The interior space is completely wide open.”
“Why would they build a garage like that?”
“Door dings,” Chaz says. “If you’re a car fanatic, you want open space for them.”
“How many cars did the guy have?” Steve says incredulously.
“I don’t know, but each garage can comfortably hold forty cars.”
“Forty!”
“Yep. Ten across, four deep, with generous work space between them.”
“Oh, man, I bet his collection was a casualty of the divorce settlement.”
“The lawyers said they were all sold at auction,” Chaz confirms. “Every one.”
“Nasty divorce, I guess.”
Chaz adds one detail with a smile. “There’s also a helipad.”
“I guess that means you’re buying a helicopter?”
“Already did.” Chaz smiles and pulls out a photo. “Hughes 500D.”
“Right on.” Steve smiles back. “I’d love to learn to fly that.”
“I think we can make that happen. Dev wants to learn as well.”
Dev slides a hard copy photo of the garage interior to Steve. “Based on the internal dimensions of the structures, we can squeeze three fighters in each garage until the base structure arrives from Penthar.”
“What’s Penthar?” Steve says.
“Fifth planet in the Crown. It’s where our Fleet Constructs Division is located.”
“Cool. Wait, will your fighters fit through a garage door?”
“Of course not,” Chaz says. “We’re going to have two rollup hangar doors installed at the north ends of each garage.”
“We didn’t want to mention anything until the deal was complete,” Dev explains. “We just finished the conference call with the lawyers before Chaz called you. The estate is officially ours.”
Steve looks at Dev. “Do your lawyers know about you?”
“No,” Dev replies. “They’re just our legal counsel.”
“That house, by the way, is gigantic,” Chaz says. “You’ll all have quarters there for when you’re on duty.”
Steve looks at the house photos. “Wow. Is it furnished?”
“Not yet.” Chaz says. “We’re going to put Dev’s decorator on the case, since he knows what Dev likes.”
“Dev has good taste,” Steve says. “That’s going to cost a mint.”
Chaz laughs. “You can be sure of that.”
“What else has it got?”
“Olympic-size pool, tennis courts, stable, and a large staff house.”
“Man, that’s an awesome property,” Steve says, then turns to Dev. “Speaking of which, how will it work with the structure your guys are building?”
“I already sent a cable to the Commander of Constructs,” Dev says. “She’s going to have to make some adjustments, but I think this property will actually simplify her plan. Our structural engineers can drop down and cut directly into the side of the cliff, leaving the entire upper area of the property undisturbed.”
“Cut in the side? How?”
“Particle beams configured for geologic operations.”
“If they tunnel out the side of the cliff, won’t the house, like, collapse?”
Dev chuckles. “I think they’ll make a few calculations to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Chaz adds, “Then they’ll slide the entire structure in and secure it in place. Done, instant base.”
“Then,” Dev says, “assuming all goes to plan, we’ll move the fighters inside and we’ll be fully operational.”
Steve looks at the cliff. “How will the fighters be launched?”
“Assuming Commander Tan employs standard practice, it will be a rotational launch bay on the side of the cliff.”
“Won’t that launch bay look a little funny?”
“Chaz had the idea of disguising it with natural rock from the cliff face. Tidal currents and rock formations at the base of the cliff are turbulent in that area, so we don’t think there’ll be a lot of close-in boat traffic.”
Chaz looks at the profile view of the cliff and house and has an idea. “Hey . . . hey! Can they put in a sea door?”
“Sea door?” Dev says.
“Yeah. I mean, I know the gravity drives operate under water, but will the thrusters work if the fighters are submerged?”
“Of course, why?”
“Just a thought, but if we put in a sea door below the waterline, we could come and go very quietly . . . under water.”
Milo walks past the conference room door with a vase of flowers for the Owner’s Suite. He sees the three men looking at the large wall screen.
Dev waits a moment until Milo is clear. “A subsurface sea door with an elevation shaft to the hangar bay,” he says, while pointing at the screen image in a floor-to-ceiling motion. “That’s not a bad idea. If our primary launch and recovery area isn’t secure, we could come and go submerged.”
“We’ve been concerned with daytime operations. So far we’ve been lucky by launching at night. I’m sure we won’t always have that luxury. This would solve that problem.”<
br />
Dev adds, “We can use the relay buoy to track air and sea traffic.”
Steve is confused. “Relay buoy? Like in the water?”
“No, it’s a space buoy—I mean, it’s up in orbit.”
Chaz looks at Dev. “How would they open up a tunnel, though?”
“Depends. They can probably cut the vertical shaft after they bring in the base. If the tunnel’s a problem we can adjust the beam generators in one of the fighters and set them for cutting.”
Steve wonders, “If we have to depart underwater, how far away would we have to get before surfacing?”
“Sea level line of sight is twelve miles to the horizon,” Chaz says.
“How do you know that?” Steve says.
“I was a Naval officer.” Chaz adds, “As long as we surface out of sight, we can accelerate over open ocean before climbing to orbit.”
Steve looks at Dev. “And the water doesn’t jam up the engines?”
“There’s no moving parts in our engines. The plasma cycle will adjust for the increased density, but extracting energy from water is pretty easy.”
“Wow,” Steve says and looks around the cabin. “So, then, our flights of fancy . . . ”
“Will be coming to an end,” Dev says. “At least in present format.”
“Speaking of which, I’ve been meaning to ask about our flight plans,” Steve says. “Since leaving Everett it seems to me we’ve been flying all over the world for snacks.”
Chaz smiles. “You figured that out, huh?”
“I’ve just gotten to know you guys better.” Steve laughs. “There is a definite correlation between new destinations and meal services on this plane. I noticed our next destination is usually announced before dinner is served.”
Chaz laughs. “You’re right. We were pretty confident this was the property. But we didn’t want to sit idle while the lawyers hashed out the details, so I’ve been taking Dev to all my favorite places to eat.”
“And it’s important to keep you guys flying,” Dev adds, “to continue the team building.”
“We have a good team,” Steve confirms. “I’ve never worked with a better group of people.”
Dev motions outside the room. “Do you think they’re ready to take the next step?”
Steve thinks about this question carefully. “As a group, they’re still very curious about you guys. None of us have ever seen anyone so free with the purse strings. They suspect something’s going on, but obviously have no idea what. And they’re still having trouble buying Chaz’s story of family money. The idea of having millions but still working for the airlines is making them wonder if Dev isn’t your sugar daddy. Jen actually brought up the lottery.”
“She did?” Chaz says.
“Yes, but Matt was quick to point out that the chances of both meeting a rich guy and winning the lottery would be pretty slim.”
“Yeah, what are the odds?” Chaz says with a mock glare to Dev.
Dev changes the subject away from cheating on the lottery. “What about Harrison?”
“Harrison goes with the flow,” Steve says. “I think he’d be pretty pleased to know the truth.”
“And Matt?”
Steve shakes his head and laughs. “Matt is . . . too fabulous for one world. I think he’d be all too happy to get off this rock for a while.”
That leaves one big question.
“Jen,” Dev says plainly.
Steve takes a deep breath. “Jen is the wild card.”
“Yep,” Chaz says.
Steve continues. “I’m trying to give you guys accurate information on everyone, but I honestly don’t know how Jen will react. Subtlety isn’t really one of her strong suits, and as you already know, she has a tendency to react with sarcasm.”
“Sarcasm we can handle,” Dev says. “Besides, a visit to Bellerophon will fix that.”
Chaz laughs in agreement, earning a look of confusion from Steve.
“I don’t get it,” Steve says.
Dev explains, “Our military academy is on a moon orbiting one of the gas giants in our system. The gravity is almost two and a half times what you have here on Earth.”
“That’ll wipe the smirk off her face,” Chaz says.
“Yeah, literally.” Dev laughs.
“Is it dangerous?” Steve says, partly for Jen, but concerned for himself as well.
“No,” Dev replies. “It’s just . . . inconvenient. It takes some getting used to. But after a few weeks, your cells become fully conditioned to the heavy gravity, and you get over it.”
“Trust me,” Chaz says. “I’ve been there. It sucks.”
They sit back down at the table and continue talking.
“Listen,” Dev says, “I’m not willing to reveal Alabama until we know everyone is on board with this. Right now, only three people on Earth know about what’s in that lake, and we’re all in this room. I don’t want to lose that security.”
Chaz looks at Dev. “What do you want to do, then?”
“I was thinking we would relocate the ship and meet them somewhere else.”
Steve thinks about this. “Wait, how can we all fit in that fighter?”
“He doesn’t know about the other ship?” Chaz says.
Steve looks confused. “What other ship?”
Dev takes the cue. “In addition to the fighter, I have a Recon ship parked in the lake as well. Those ‘runway’ lights you saw in the water, that was it.”
Steve is dumbfounded. “How big is that ship?”
Chaz answers, “It’s about as long an MD80. Two decks, plus an observation room.”
“You’ve seen it?”
“I’ve flown it,” Chaz says. “And the fighter.”
“That’s so cool.”
Chaz thinks about the dilemma at hand. They have to approach the pilots, but they also have to maintain security just in case there’s a sudden panic or breakdown of trust. He can see it now: Sure, this is a great job, and, oh, by the way, your employer is from another planet and about to involve you in an interstellar war. This could have disaster written all over it.
A few options are kicked around the table. Chaz gets up and opens a fresh bottle of water and paces around the room, thinking. He stops at the large view screen showing their present position on the map of the Earth. Chaz looks at the screen and turns to Dev. “What about New Zealand?”
Steve is confused. “What about New Zealand?”
Chaz continues. “We can send them to the house for . . . I don’t know, a crew retreat. There’s plenty of privacy. It’s not very populated, and we’d have the whole South Pacific to cover our tracks.”
“You have a house there?” Steve says.
“Yeah.” Chaz turns to Dev. “What do you think?”
Dev thinks about it. “It’s certainly isolated. If they run away in horror, at least there won’t be many people around.”
“Great,” Chaz says with adequate facetiousness. Chaz glances out the corner beveled window and sees Annette and Milo straightening up the lounge. “Shit—”
“What?” Dev says.
“What are we going to do with the flight attendants?”
Dev, Steve, and Chaz all look out the tall, skinny corner window into the library and lounge. Annette happens to look toward the boardroom and sees three heads all looking at her. The guys realize they’ve been spotted and quickly get back to work.
Annette discreetly whispers to Milo, “What are they doing?”
“I think they look at-a you ass.”
“Oh, right, I’m sure,” Annette counters. “Maybe your ass.”
Milo twists half around. “Why? I gotta nice-a ass.”
“Maybe Steve switched teams.”
“I’m-a no think so, honey.” Milo laughs. “Capitano, he only like-a la donnas.”
Back in the boardroom, the flight attendant conundrum is a wrinkle that somehow everyone missed and is causing considerable consternation.
“They’ll know something is
up if we fly anywhere in this aircraft without them,” Steve says with certainty.
“Then we’ll just commercial you guys to New Zealand,” Chaz suggests.
Steve shakes his head. “The flight attendants will think they’re being punished or something. And that still doesn’t address the issue of how long we’ll be away. You said it would take several months.”
“Probably five,” Dev replies, then adds, “We could send the flight attendants on vacation.”
“For five months?” Steve says.
Dev recalls the cruise ship he and Chaz once visited. “What about sending them on a cruise?”
“A cruise?” Steve says, “That’s like two weeks.”
“Not a world cruise,” Chaz says with some promise. “We could ship them off for three solid months. It’s luxurious, it’s pampering, and it doesn’t involve an airplane.”
Steve shakes his head. “That still leaves two months after the fact.” He adds, “Besides, Annette’s not going to go on vacation without Harrison.”
Chaz thinks about it. “What about telling them the plane has to go back in for heavy maintenance and will be down for a few months?”
“The plane was just in for maintenance,” Dev says. “Plus, how would you get that past the pilots?”
“Steve and I can fly it up to Boeing.” Chaz thinks a moment before saying, “We could . . . I don’t know, have them gut the interior and redo it.”
“I like the interior,” Dev says.
“Okay . . . ” Chaz rubs his chin while thinking. “Here’s an option . . . it’s not ideal, though.”
“What?” Dev says.
Chaz makes an uncomfortable face. “Dissolve the whole operation.”
“What!” Steve gasps.
Chaz says, “No plane, no flight attendants.”
“No, no, no,” Steve says. “That’s a terrible option.”
“They’ll still get paid.”
Steve reacts hotly. “That’s not the point, Chaz! We just spent half a year together perfecting this mode of travel for you guys, and now you want to pull the plug?”
“No, I don’t! I’m just looking at all options.”
Steve backs down, but adds, “Annette’s still with Harrison, even if she’s unemployed. And you’d lose Jen for sure, because you promised her you’d never do that.”
Dev reads Steve’s sullen expression. “I don’t like that option, either.”