Comet! (an Ell Donsaii story #5 ) (33 page)

He saw Donsaii walk by on her way to the machine shop area and found his eyes following her. He kept wondering why she wasn’t working as a model. What if Emily
decided
he’d taken this job because of his new boss’
s looks?

Donsaii came back out and sat down across from him, “What do you think? Found any holes in the plan so far?”

Daster shook his head. “No. There are things I’m worried about though.”

“Such as?”

“I’m afraid that if you scale up the impactors
the comet
will come apart. If it breaks up into just the five visible main fragments it might not be too bad but if it really comes apart, dealing with a lot of fragments could be pretty difficult.”

“Agreed. It would be cheaper to use a few very large impactors
,
but
I’m
thinking we’ll just keep going with the
five kilogram
ones so we don’t have to worry so much about it coming apart.”

“Another potential problem
is the gravitational stress that it will be subject to during perihelion. You do realize that our impactors are moving its
perihelion
a bit
closer to the sun don’t you?”

“Yes,
” Ell shrugged, “if anything
that should also help buy boiling off
even
more of the volatiles shouldn’t it?”

“Well boiling them off will make the nucleus smaller all right but perhaps more susceptible to disintegration?”

“Hmmm, we could
try
to perform all of our displacement after the comet rounds the sun I suppose, but then we
’d
have to hit it a lot harder to move it the same distance at the point it crosses Earth orbit.
Our
choices are to hit it gently now
and move
it closer to the sun
,
or hit it so hard later that it may break up from the impacts
.
I’m not sure… I think we should keep with the plan to hit it gently now. But, can you try to do what you can to model both scenarios and see if you come up with an obvious benefit to one versus the other?”

“Sure.
I’ll work on
that
a while.
”

“Once we’re confident that we’re doing everything we can to stop the comet we can talk about having you check over our finances, but, even though that’s your profession
,
it is definitely of secondary importance at present,
right
?”

Daster nodded and she moved off to talk to someone else.

He looked around the big room where many people seemed to be working on projects of one type or another. Nearby, Roger and Emma had their heads down over a screen, working on something. From where Daster sat he thought it was schematics for their rocket impactors. He noticed Emma look
ing
intensely
at Roger. He wondered if they were a couple and if that was against the rules of employment
here
.

Ell came to talk to Emma
,
but just when she’d begun
,
someone came over from the ‘Portal Technologies’ end of the room and said, “Ell, I just got a call from Mullins at PHMSA.”

Ell looked up, a furrow between her eyes, “Yes?”

“He said that we could sell the ports to
ILX
now. That we didn’t have to
wait for
the applications for them
to be made
or
to
get approval or anything?!”

Ell narrowed her eyes, “Really?”

“Yeah, these are the ports NASA has been having conniptions over. Demanding that we get them to them yesterday! I’m pretty sure NASA greased the skids on this
somehow
,
and it pisses me off.’ He grinned and raised an eyebrow, “I told Mullins that PHMSA
either
needed to approve everyone or no one
.
We
don’t believe in special favors.”

Ell stared intently at him a moment, then said, “No… I’m pretty sure I know what this is about and the skids really
d
id
need to be greased
for it. T
hey need ports
in the worst way
.”

“So! We tell them that they need
get all the rest
of the ports
approve
d
if they want us to ship these!”

Ell sighed, “I hear you Fred, but I’m pretty sure lives hang in the balance on this. If it were my life I wouldn’t want anyone playing petty politics.”

Fred gave her an exasperated look, “
Whose
life could depend on these ports? The Space Station is safe, we already fixed that. There
isn’t
anyone else up there in orbit!”

Enigmatically, Ell said, “I can’t tell you right now Fred. But, believe me, when you find out, you’ll be glad you didn’t hassle those folks.
Just
go ahead and release the ports to
ILX
.
”

“OK, you’re the boss.
” He said, letting his irritation show,
“
I still think
we
should get something out of it though.”

“We will Fred, we will.”

Fred turned and
strode
stiffly
back across the room while Ell looked pensively after him. She then resumed her conversation with Roger and Emma. After a bit she got up and came back over to
Wilson
. “How are you coming? Did you find any serious problems with hitting the comet as soon as we can?”

“No… but I’d like to keep thinking about it and running
more
calculations.”

“Any other issues?”

“Are you thinking that NASA is working on the comet problem? And
that’s
what they need ports for?”

Ell shrugged, “Pretty sure, yeah.”

“Doesn’t it piss you off that they haven’t even confided in you after all you’ve done for them?”

She rubbed her chin, “Kinda, but I think that they don’t want to start a panic and they’re afraid the more people that know, the harder it’ll be to keep the secret.
I’m
worried about it, so I can hardly blame them.”

“Seems like you’ve got a good plan to deal with the comet yourself. Why not hold up the ports so they’ll push on PHMSA for you?”

“Your comet is a problem that
humanity needs
more than one arrow in
its
quiver for. I’m not sure how
NASA’s
planning to deal with it but I don’t want
us
to fail and then
to
have set them up to fail too.”

“Huh.” Daster
said pensively, thinking that Donsaii was more of a saint than
he’d
ever be. His
eyes wandered into the distance
a moment,
then
stopped
on Emma staring at Roger. “Are Emma and Roger an item?”
he asked curiously.

Ell’s head snapped around to stare at Emma and Roger.
They were sitting very close and at the moment Ell looked
,
Emma had her eyes
turned
dreamily up
at Roger.
Roger
didn’t seem to have noticed. His eyes were still fixed on the screen they had laid out in front of them.

Suddenly it seemed
obvious
that Emma, at least, had a thing for Roger.
Ell felt
something clamp on her heart
.

To Daster she stammered, “I, I don’t know. Maybe? Sorry, I’ve got a meeting.”
Ell
stood and bolted from the room.

Once in her office she gasped
,
then
slouched
in her chair
and threw her head back to stare unseeingly at the ceiling.
Emma and Roger?
Or just Emma, with a crush on Roger? Was Emma trying to move in on Roger? Was this what Emma had been about to bring up back at top of
the Hill before Sam and Bridget
’s little drama had interrupted her
?
Has it been going on a long time and I’ve just been oblivious?!
Roger hadn’t asked
Ell
to go
out for a
while
,
but she hadn’t noticed with all that had been going on with the comet.
Mentally she brought herself up short,
Wait;
I’m the one who’s been putting Roger off. I as much as told him to go out with other girls and
‘
get some practice
’
a few months ago! And, at Top of the Hill, I told Emma I didn’t feel “that way” about him.

Ell shook her head
as if to clear it of all the confusion rushing through it.
Despite h
er desire for something stronger than she’d been feeling
, s
he’d thought of her love life as simple. She had two “kinda” boyfriends, neither one of which she thought she
really
loved. Both of whom she
liked a lot but
had certainly
thought she wouldn’t have any jealousy issues over.
Is what I’m feeling
—
jealousy?

She heard a knock on her door and realized she’d closed it. Probably the first time it had been closed since D5R had opened. Ell didn’t want to talk to anyone! She tried to say, “Just a minute,” but what came out around the frog in her throat was only a croak
. She tried again but as she said, “Just,” the door creaked open and Emma stood in the door.

Ell tried to smile at her but Emma stared at Ell as if horrified. “Oh, Ell! I’m so sorry!” Emma stepped into Ell’s office and shut the door.

Ell croaked, “What for?”

“For the way I feel about Roger. I could
feel
it
when
you saw it in my eyes. I’ve been trying to suppress it. But I know sometimes it leaks out… Don’t worry, Roger hasn’t noticed.” Emma chuckled mirthlessly.

Feeling like she was moving in molasses,
Ell stood and put her arms around her friend. “I’m sorry
too
. I’m acting like a jerk. I’ve told you that I don’t feel strongly about Roger and it’s obvious that you do.” She sniffled, “I don’t… don’t know why
I’m
crying. I have no
excuse for it
.” She
wiped her nose on her sleeve
, “Roger deserves better than
the way
I’ve been treating him. He’s tried hard to, to… make me fall for him but I haven’t
—
I’ve just
…
taken him for granted. He’s smart, and he’s cute, and funny and loyal and I haven’t responded to him like, like
—
I don’t know
—
like I should have. And
certainly
I have no reason, no reason at all
,
to stand between you and him and your happiness.”

Emma had tucked her head against Ell’s shoulder. Now she pulled it back and wiped her eye
s on
the back of a wrist. “You really don’t have to worry. I’ve been mooning over Roger for years and he’s never noticed.
It’s been worse here lately
,
but I’ll get over it.”

Ell pulled her head back to look Emma in the eye, “Do you remember what I was telling you at the Top of the Hill that night?”

Emma sniffed and shook her head.

“About the advice I’d gotten that men can be too timid to ask you out unless you make it obvious that you’re receptive to the idea? I don’t think you’ve made it obvious enough to Roger, heck
I
haven’t noticed and
I’m
a girl… I’m
supposed
to be in touch with these kinds of things.
..
” She mused this last
as much
to herself
as
to Emma
, wondering if she had something wrong with her own emotional senses
.
“Anyway, you don’t have to tell him you love him
or anything scary like that
. All you have to do is tell him you admire him. Once he knows you think he’s cool, his subconscious will do the rest.

Emma’s eyes widened, “You’re saying I should go after him?”

Ell nodded.

“But he’s your…
kinda, your…
boyfriend.”