Table of Contents
Copyright
Author’s Note
Preprologue
Prologue
Part One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Part Two
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Epilogue
Author’s Afterword
Acknowledgements
Rocket!
An Ell Donsaii story #4
By
Laurence E Dahners
Copyright 2012 Laurence E Dahners
Kindle Edition
Author’s Note
Though this book can “stand alone” it will be much easier to understand if read as part of the series including “Quicker (an Ell Donsaii story),” “Smarter (an Ell Donsaii story #2)” and “Lieutenant (an Ell Donsaii story #3).” I have minimized repetition of explanations that would be redundant to the first two books in order to provide a better reading experience for those of you who are reading the series.
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.
Preprologue
Allan Donsaii was an unusually gifted quarterback. He was widely recognized to be startling strong and was a phenomenally accurate passer. During his college career he finished two full seasons without any interceptions and two games with 100 percent completions. Unfortunately, he was never drafted because the pro teams felt he was too small.
Kristen Taylor captained her college soccer team and was extraordinarily quick. She rarely played a game without a “steal” and usually had many.
Allan and Kristen dated more and more seriously throughout college and married at the end of their senior year. Their friends kidded them that they were only marrying so that they could start their own sports dynasty.
Their daughter Ell did have Kristen’s quickness, magnified by Allan’s strength and accuracy. The child also had a new mutation affecting the myelin sheaths surrounding her nerves. This mutation produced nerve transmission speeds that were nearly double those of normal neurons. Nerve impulse transmissions being faster, she had much quicker reflexes. Yet the new myelin sheath was also thinner, allowing more axons, and therefore more neurons, to be packed into the same sized skull. These two factors resulted in a brain which had more neurons, though it wasn’t larger and a more rapid processing speed, akin to a computer with a smaller scale CPU architecture that enables faster processor speeds.
Most importantly, under the influence of adrenalin in a “fight or flight” situation, her nerves would transmit even more rapidly than their normally phenomenal speed.
Much more rapidly…
Prologue
Boston—PGR Comm, a privately held company in Boston MA, announced today the initial public sale of a new communications “chip.” These chips have apparently already been in use by the US military services. The chips come in pairs, said to be “quantum entangled” and are purported to allow instantaneous communication between one chip and its mate over very large distances at extremely low cost. It is alleged that such communication is uninterruptible, uninterceptable, undetectable, and requires no infrastructure. The company claims that these chips will revolutionize communications. If such claims are substantiated the chips will certainly alter…
The Friday night before Thanksgiving Phil Zabrisk walked into the Gold Rush and looked around for Jason Daventa. He and Jason had been buddies since basic training at the Air Force Academy and were meeting there for a night out on the town in the big city of Denver. It had been a while since they’d last gone out together because Phil, to his own surprise, hadn’t really been in the mood to chase other women.
He hadn’t felt like it since that Thanksgiving weekend nearly a year ago when he’d helped foil Ell Donsaii’s attempted kidnapping. After the kidnapping he’d tried to tell her how important she was to him and she’d seemed to respond. He could close his eyes and remember the “thank you” kiss she’d given him. But he’d rarely seen her since then. She’d driven up to Seymore Johnson AFB to see him for a day over his Christmas break when he’d been home visiting his parents. Then he’d driven down to visit her at her mother’s home in Morehead City a day later. In January she’d gone to Officer Training and been assigned to Nellis AFB. He’d hoped to visit her in Las Vegas over his summer break but that hadn’t worked out. He’d kinda hoped that she’d hop over to Colorado Springs and visit him but that hadn’t happened either. Now it had been nearly a year and he’d only seen her that one day at Christmas time. Gradually he’d developed the feeling that he’d better get on with his life. She’d been a lieutenant for almost a year now, while Phil still had more than half a year to go at the Academy before he’d get his own bars. It seemed silly to wait around for her. It was even crazier to think that she’d wait around for him.
So when Jason called and suggested they go out on the town, he’d decided that it was time to get back in the swing of things. He looked around The Gold Rush and saw Jason sitting in a booth. Not a good tactical base for chasing women, Jason, he thought to himself as he started that way. A booth impairs your mobility. As he approached Jason and could see deeper into the booth he saw Joy Denson sitting next to him. Joy and Jason had been an item back in their Doolie year but hadn’t been together for quite a while now. Damn! If they’re getting back together tonight, and are dragging me along as a “third wheel” I’m gonna be pissed! Phil rolled his eyes and stepped up next to the booth. Belatedly, he noticed that someone was sitting on the bench seat across from Jason and Joy.
Ell! Gorgeous as ever!
Stunned, Phil found himself grinning vacuously at Ell’s trademark crooked smile. Then he realized that Joy and Jason were laughing at the silly look on his face and turned to glare at them. “You guys kept this a secret?!”
Ell grinned up at his Norse God good looks and giggled, “Are you gonna sit down and give me hug? Or am I gonna have to climb up there to get one?”
Phil dropped to the bench beside Ell and threw his arms around her, Hmpf, she feels good! He drew back, leaving one arm around her shoulders, “Man! It’s great to see you! I’d just been thinking how it’d been a long time! How is life up there in exalted lieutenant land?”
Joy laughed, “Lieutenant!? Boy are you behind the times! She’s been a captain for whole days now!”
Ell looked sharply at Joy, “How did you know about that?”
Smugly, Joy said, “I have my ways.”
Phil and Jason goggled, “Captain?” Phil asked.
Eyes sparkling, Joy grinned, “It seems that President Teller has been up to some of his old tricks. Let’s see,” she looked musingly up at the ceiling. “I believe a certain someone may have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom as well as being promoted two ranks, the maximum possible in ‘peacetime’?” She waggled her eyebrows at the two men. “If you guys knew how to keep your ear to the ground, you too could be aware of such things.”
Phil turned to stare at Ell, “Really?!”
She shrugged, looking uncomfortable, “Yeah, but they’re letting me out of the rest of my military commitment so the promotion doesn’t really matter.”
A stunned pause followed, then Phil said, “What’d you do?!”
Ell looked uncomfortable and shrugged minutely again. “I let them use some of my chips…” she trailed off.
Joy grinned, “What the indomitable Captain Donsaii means to say, is
that she single handedly staved off a war in the Western Pacific.”
Jason turned to stare at Joy, “You mean that “Fleet Exercise” of the PRC’s really was an invasion that was turned back? I’ve heard people claiming that, but…”
“Yep! A certain someone got in their way.” Joy chortled.
“Joy!” Ell said blushing brightly, “I didn’t stop them! All I did was help solve some of the comm problems we were having after the Chinese shot down our satellites!”
Joy snorted, “Yep, that’s all she did…” Joy raised her eyes to the ceiling. “Holy crap! Isn’t that enough?”
Phil lifted his arm off Ell’s shoulders, “Holy crap is right! My arm’s on fire just touching such a hot commodity.”
Ell grinned up at him and grabbed his hand, pulling his arm back down onto her shoulders, “Hey, a girl needs her hugs, the least you can do is keep your arm around me until you have a few blisters.” She tilted her head and frowned seriously. “But really, it wasn’t that big a deal. It just happened that some communication chips I came up with last fall could substitute for the lost satellite comm. Joy makes it sound like I went over there and stopped the PRC myself!”
Phil rolled his eyes, “So, tell us, what did happen then?”
Ell was saved by the waiter who stepped up to the table then, asking, “Can I get you some drinks while you look over the menus?”
However, once their orders had been placed, they dragged the story of what had happened out of her, including the story of her PGR chips, their quantum entanglement and instantaneous communication capabilities. At every turn, a flabbergasted Phil heard her describe her accomplishments as if anyone else could have done the same if they’d simply been lucky like she had. She played her role down and asked them not to make a big deal of it, especially in view of the fact that the President wanted public acceptance of the fiction that the PRC had only been undertaking a “training exercise.”
Eventually Ell managed to deflect attention from herself by using the tactic of asking them what their own plans were. Jason had applied to med school. Ell gave him a high five. “Hey, I didn’t know you were that kind of student!”
He lifted his chin, “I have been forced to hide my light under a bushel so you bourgeois individuals would accept me into your circle.” He raised an eyebrow aristocratically and held up his beer mug.
Phil said, “Put your pinky out when you lift that beer, Mr. Academic!”
Joy chortled, “You were worried that you were too ‘smart’ to hang out with Donsaii!? That’s a good one!”
Ell turned to her, “What about you, Joy?”
Joy shrugged, “I applied to flight school. I think I’ve got a pretty good shot at being accepted ‘cause my vision’s 20/20, hearing’s good and my reaction time is better than average. Like everyone else I’m dreaming of being selected for fighter aviation but there aren’t all that many slots now that UAVs are doing so much. I’m trying not to set my hopes too high.”
“When do you find out?”
“After Christmas.”
Ell turned back to Jason, “When do you find out about med school?”
“Sometime Spring semester.”
Ell looked up at Phil, “What are your plans big guy?”
Phil shrugged, “I’ve been applying for astronaut training. I may be screwed though. They recently reduced the height limit to 6’ 3” when they took the R20 capsules out of service. I’m 6’ 3” plus a half. They have so many good applicants that they probably won’t overlook that extra half inch. If so, I’ll try for aviation I guess.”
Phil sounded pretty depressed about it to Ell. “Aren’t they talking about a bigger launch vehicle?”
Phil shrugged, “Yeah, but if I were running things, I probably wouldn’t take on an oversized astronaut trainee in the ‘hope’ that we’d have a bigger vehicle by the time he was trained.”
Joy said, “Have you tried slouching for the measurements?”
Phil frowned, “My height is all over the Academy documentation!”
Joy shrugged, “Just say they inflated your height to make you look bigger on the wrestling programs, then slouch when they measure you. I can change my height a couple inches by standing up straight or slouching.”
Phil gazed at her musingly a moment, “That’s what I like about you Joy. Your mind is soooo devious.” His eyes sparkled.
“Think nothing of it,” she grinned, “Actually, I’m just trying to reduce the competition for my aviation slot.”
After finishing their meal they went out bar hopping. Ell ordered a Coke and for a moment Phil started to chide her, then he remembered that she was only nineteen. She leaned up against a rail next to him as they looked out over the crowd in the Roost. “Astronaut huh?”
Phil shrugged, “Yeah,” he looked mildly embarrassed, “always been a dream.”
She smiled up at him, “What do you want to do up there?”
He smiled, “Be weightless, fly a spaceship, go to the moon—if we ever go back, cowboy up an asteroid or two and bring them back to earth orbit for space resources.” Come back down to earth and brag about it.” He waggled his eyebrows and grinned, “Have pretty girls like you go all googly eyed over me. You name it; I’ve dreamed about it.”
Ell raised an eyebrow, “But I’m already all googly eyed over you.” She frowned, “How many googly eyed girls you shootin’ for anyway?”
Phil stared at her a few moments, eyes darting from place to place about her delicate features, then he said huskily, “If it were you… one would be enough.”
Ell got a little frog in her throat, then said huskily, “You do say the nicest things lately Mr. Zabrisk.”
Their “moment” was broken when a soprano voice said, “Phil! I haven’t seen you in ages!” A blond girl threw her arms around him for a big hug.
Phil’s eyes widened in alarm at Ell but he said, “Uh, hi Cathy. Good to see you.” After a moment he disentangled himself but, after Cathy had moved on, he and Ell never regained the closeness of the moment they’d had.
Part One
Chapter One
Boston—PGR Comm admitted today that their new communications chip technology is based on a physics paper published in Nature last year by Ell Donsaii, the young gymnast who stunned the sports world two years ago, receiving three “10’s” and four gold medals in the Olympic gymnastic competition…
Chancellor Joseph Kellet surveyed the room. To his relief their “anonymous” donor had apparently not arrived as yet. He saw that the Chair of the UNC Department of Physics as well as her Vice Chair were present as the donor had requested. His own assistant and a couple of the Vice Chancellors were there also. He walked over to check on the refreshments and noticed that a good deal of the ice had melted. He turned to the pretty brunette student who had been examining the refreshments and said, “Would you mind refilling the ice? There’s an ice machine out that door.” He pointed her in the right direction.
She grinned at him, saying “Yes sir,” and picking up the large glass bowl.
He turned to his Executive Vice Chancellor and said, “Hi Mary, any word on when the donor is going to arrive?” She was looking after the girl with the ice with a horrified expression
Mary said, “I think you may have just sent her for ice…”
“What!!!”
“Mary darted a glance at the door, just closing behind the young, brunette woman, “I’m not sure, but I’d been wondering when the donor might arrive myself. Then I found myself looking at that girl. She came in the main door and didn’t seem to know her way around. She doesn’t work in our offices. She can’t be the actual donor, but she may be a representative.”
“Oh my God!” Kellet turned and stared, “She looks like a teenager! Are you sure?”
Mary said, “Of course I’m not sure! But we don’t know anything about the donor and I know everyone else here!”
Kellet started for the door he’d sent the young woman through. As he opened it he found the
young woman standing on the other side holding the newly filled bowl of ice. She grinned at him and breezed through the door he was holding open. He reached for the bowl of ice.
She smiled sunnily and sailed by him to the refreshment table.
Kellet followed, nervously attempting to reach out and assist with the bowl. Embarrassed, he realized that everyone in the room was staring at him.
She set the bowl down, scooped up some ice and put it in a glass which she handed to the Chancellor. She filled a second glass for herself. “Coke?” she asked smiling at him sunnily.
“Uhh… ginger ale.”
She poured ginger ale for him and a Coke for herself, then raised her glass to him. When he touched his to hers she winked, “Yes, Chancellor Kellet, as you’re probably realizing, I am your donor’s representative.”
Mortified, Kellet said, “I am so, so sorry! I thought you were one of the student interns we have in our offices from time to time.”
Still grinning she winked at him and whispered, “I could tell.”
A few nervous titters broke out among the nearby people in the room who had been watching the interaction with the fascination reserved for a slow motion train wreck. But then Ell turned to the room with a broad smile. “Hello folks, I’m Raquel Blandon and I represent your ‘anonymous’ donor. Please call me ‘Raquel.’ I’ve met Chancellor Kellet here, but I’d like to meet the rest of you before we talk about the donation I’m planning to make here today?”
She passed among them shaking everyone’s hands. It was obvious from her comments that she had researched everyone in the room and already knew their backgrounds. When they were all seated, she smiled at them again and said, “So far you are aware that I’m representing the donor of a substantial sum of money to the University. To clarify, it is expected to be approximately 115 million dollars per year for ten to twenty years.”
Rocket! An Ell Donsaii story 4 Page 1