Rocket! An Ell Donsaii story #4) (5 page)

Nancy said, “Can I get you a coffee Roger?” She looked at him with an innocent twinkle in her eyes.

Roger snorted, “You had this all set up didn’t you?”

“Well, Ms. Donsaii had mentioned that she knew you and hoped you’d apply for the position. The coffee machine’s over here.”

Ell came up as Nancy handed Roger a cup of coffee. “Hey Rog’” she was still grinning ear to ear.

“Hey yourself! What
is
all this?”

“You’re not gonna believe this! You know how my theory predicts that quantum entanglement works because the entangled molecules are connected through a very tiny 5
dimension?”

Roger nodded.

“So that when something happens to one of the molecules, effects are seen at the other member of the entangled pair instantaneously, at least as near as we can tell?”

Roger nodded again.

“Well, it turns out that you can arrange entangled molecules in tiny circles and energize the area surrounded by them. When the energization field is correct, a physical opening appears through the 5
dimension like a little wormhole connecting the two rings!”

“What?!” Roger felt a sensation like an electric shock in his scalp and his head swam a little as if he had been physically stunned.

“Yeah. The holes I’ve made so far are microscopic. Some rich investors set D5R up to see if we can make them bigger.” Ell put a hand to the side of her mouth and lifted an eyebrow as she stage whispered, “Investors are crazy! Kinda put me in charge!”

Roger swayed slightly, “A, a, a… wormhole… that stuff can pass through?”

“Well, just gas and water so far, but, yeah. You wanna help us work on it?”

Chapter Three

Washington D.C.—NASA has come under some heat for depending too much on ILX Corporation’s Vulcan 5 rocket launch vehicle. Critics say the excitement over the Vulcan 5’s potential to launch larger payloads at significantly lower cost was unwisely allowed to disrupt the commercial space flight industry. Without prospects for future launch contracts, several of the companies that had been providing satellite launch and service to the Space Station have been shuttered. However, due to the repeated failures of the Vulcan 5 during actual launches NASA has been placed in the unenviable position of trying to resuscitate some of the companies that it let wither…”

“Holy crap! What a mess!” Dave Slager turned himself in place to face Emil Taussan who was running on the Space Station’s simulated weight bearing treadmill. “We should all have
known
that the figures for the Vulcan 5 were too good to be true!”

Emil shrugged. “But we all
wanted
them to be true.”

Slager grimaced, “You know we’re going to be on short rations up here pretty soon. None of the previous launch programs, Russian, European, or Japanese really have anything in the pipeline. ILX was supposed to keep one of their old launch vehicles ready until they were sure the Vulcan 5 was reliable, but I’ll bet they don’t
really
have one that they can send up quickly.”

Emil said, “If it gets too bad
surely
the Chinese would be willing to supply us.”

“Hah! Do you know that their capsules won’t even connect to our airlock? They’d have to work up an adapter and you know that nobody will even start on it until it’s almost too late.”

“What about India?”

“What about? They could get something up here I suppose, but their capsules are small and I’ll bet they don’t have the correct mechanisms to lock to our door either.”

“Maybe I should go evaluate the CRV’s rocket nozzle some more? Do you think there’s any chance we could repair it up here?”

“No chance at all, none, zippo. Even if we had equipment to weld it, the kind of weld we could make wouldn’t hold up to the heat the nozzle generates.”

***

Ed Candela looked up at a knock on his door. Mike Voight stood there looking grim. “How bad is it?”

Voight’s shoulders slumped. “Bad! ILX
says
they have a Vulcan 4 that they can launch in case of trouble but it turns out they don’t have any motors for it! They had been ‘planning to fit it with the new motors’ that they’ve been building for the Vulcan 5! ‘Didn’t want to waste money making any more of the inefficient Vulcan 4 motors!’”

Candela slammed a fist down on his desk, “Dammit!” He raised his eyes to the ceiling and slumped back in his chair. “How long to make more Vulcan 4 motors?”

Voight’s eyes rolled. “Six months! They repurposed the fabrication equipment to make the Vulcan 5 engines!”

Candela sighed and closed his eyes. “Please talk to the Chinese about whether they’d be willing to send a mission to the ISS. We’ll need to start
now
on building an adaptor to fit their capsule to the station. Then tell ILX we want them to try to send up another supply rocket using their existing Vulcan 5 after they’ve done what they can to stabilize the problem with their rocket motors. We’ve got to at least
supply
those guys up there somehow if we want them to last until we can get a mission up to retrieve them.”

***

Roger pulled his pecan pie out of the oven. Living in a family that owned a restaurant made Christmas dinner kind of weird. The Emmerit family tradition was that everyone made one dish. Some of the family made something exotic and new each holiday dinner. Some made something awful, for instance Aunt Gert’s fruitcake. Roger made pecan pie. He’d learned to make a pretty good one years ago and wasn’t interested enough in cooking to try to make something different each time. The doorbell rang as he carried it out to the big buffet the family was setting up. He went to pull the door open. “Well, hello Ms. Donsaii.” A smile threatened to crack his face, “How are you this evening?”

Ell grinned at him, “Well, I’m just fine Dr. Emmerit, thank you for asking.”

Roger grinned back, “Please allow me take that.” he took the covered dish she had in her hands. “And your coat?”

She handed him her coat too, then smirked at him. With both hands full, he wasn’t sure what to do next. Her eyes crinkled, “Perhaps I should take the dish back while you hang up my coat sir?”

Resignedly he said, “Perhaps so. Pray tell, what’s in the dish?”

“Mac and cheese. Probably not up to the standards of
your
family’s holiday meals, but it’s something I actually know how to make.”

“Oooohh,” Roger leaned close as he took it from her to put it on the buffet, “I love a good mac and cheese,” he said sotto voce, “people in my family feel they have to prove something by making things
too
fancy, if you know what I mean.”

Ell’s eyes sparkled and she raised her eyebrows, “I’m looking forward to
fancy
.”

From behind her Ell heard Roger’s Dad, “Is this the young lady you’ve invited Roger?”

Ell turned, “Hi Mr. Emmerit.”

His eyebrows rose, “Ms. Donsaii?”

“Yes sir.”

He darted an accusatory look at Roger, “Roger didn’t tell us he’d invited
you
to dinner, just kept referring to his ‘mysterious guest!’” Brows lowered, he said “I’ll have to have a word with him about keeping something like you a secret.”

Ell grinned at Roger, “Well, Mr. Emmerit, I’m probably mostly to blame. Ever since I was kidnapped last year I try to keep my intended whereabouts unknown if possible. He was probably respecting my wishes.” She winked, “I do think he could have told his own family though.”

“Well, my son is much too rude to offer you a drink but if you’ll come with me I’ll see to getting you a glass to hold.” He winked at Roger as he steered Ell toward the next room. He marveled at how pretty she was. Somehow, she looked even better than she did on video. “I know you and Roger were in grad school together a year ago, but then didn’t you go back in the military?”

“Yes sir, but I’m back out of the military again now. I’ve moved back to North Carolina…”

Bemused Ell looked around at the swirling menagerie of people pouring in to the Emmerit Christmas dinner. Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, grandkids and a boyfriend for one of the cousins. Ell had invited Roger to a quiet Christmas Eve dinner with her, her mom and her Gram the night before and he’d countered with an invitation to this veritable feast and celebration. The two dinners couldn’t have been more different.

Roger’s sister Shelly’s ebullient acorn had fallen closer to the Emmerit tree than the introverted Roger’s. To Ell’s amazement they’d drawn lots to determine who sat where at a huge table which consisted of sheets of plywood on sawhorses. The table had been dressed up with large tablecloths so that its lowly nature wasn’t evident. Ell had greatly enjoyed their small, quiet dinner the night before, but being with this huge, raucous and loving family felt very special too.

At the dinner Ell found herself seated across the table and several seats down from Roger. Roger was horrified to see that the lottery had placed Ell next to Roger’s Grandmother Emmerit, a notorious snoop. This indomitable lady turned to Ell and said, “And you’re Roger’s guest?”

“Yes Mrs. Emmerit, I’m Ell.”

She looked Ell over, frowning. “Aren’t you awfully young for him? How old are you?”

Ell grinned at her and then over at Roger who, appalled by his Grandmother’s directness, rolled his eyes. “Yes, Ma’am. I’m only nineteen. I
do
like older men though.” She winked at Roger.

“Roger,” his Grandmother said turning to him, “How old are you now?”

“Twenty nine Gramma.”

“My goodness, ten years. He’s robbing the cradle isn’t he? So tell me, what are you doing young lady? Are you in school? I hope Roger isn’t dating his students.”

Finding it refreshing to talk to someone who had no idea who she was, Ell said, “No Ma’am, I’ve finished school. I did meet Roger in school but I wasn’t his student.” Ell glanced back over at Roger and, as she did, realized that many of the people in their portion of the table were hanging on every word of the conversation. Some appeared appalled by the way Ell was being interrogated. Others were restraining their mirth at their Grandmother’s ruthless questioning of someone who was relatively famous.

While the rest of the family were pondering asking for an autograph, Roger’s grandmother, having no idea who Ell was, was disappointed that she’d apparently dropped out after high school.

“So you’re working then?”

“Yes Ma’am.

“What kind of work do you do?”

“I do research at D5R.”

“Really?” Grandmother Emmerit thought to herself that it was pretty uppity for a nineteen year old high school graduate to be claiming to be “doing research” herself.
But the girl is certainly beautiful, no need to wonder what Roger sees in her.
Surprising really, that a quiet boy like Roger would be with such a stunningly gorgeous young lady.
“What kind of research does D5R do?”

Wide eyed, Roger said, “Gramma…” but paused when Ell held up a hand in his direction.

“They’re trying to find useful applications for the fifth dimension that’s recently been discovered.”

“Fifth dimension?!” she said dubiously.

“Yes Ma’am, another company called PGR Comm is already making chips that use that fifth dimension to make communication devices.”

“Humpf. What do you do there?”

Eyes twinkling Ell said, “A little of this, a little of that. I really like working on the research but the company’s
very
new so I spend a lot more time setting stuff up than I do on actual research right now.”

“Gramma!” Ell heard the boy on the other side of Grandmother Emmerit whisper urgently to her. Mrs. Emmerit turned to him and Ell faintly heard him whisper, “That’s Ell Donsaii! The girl that won all the gymnastic gold medals in Olympics!”

Mrs. Emmerit turned back to eye Ell speculatively. “So you’re a gymnast, eh?”

“I was Ma’am. I don’t do gymnastics anymore.” Her eyes crinkled, I’m
much
too old for that now.”

The conversation moved on to other topics but it was apparent that Roger’s grandmother remained highly dubious of the suitability of a nineteen year old high school graduate for her grandson, the newly minted physics PhD.

When the main meal had been cleared and people had been served dessert Roger’s father dinged a spoon on a glass and the huge table fell quiet. He said, “OK time for announcements.” He turned to his immediate left. “April, I think you have an announcement?”

Roger’s young, blond, blue eyed cousin proudly said “I just got accepted to NC State.”

Everyone at the table clapped and then held their glasses up for a toast. “What are you going to major in?” one of the aunts asked.

One of the younger girls stage whispered, “Boys.”

Red faced April paused to glare at the whisperer, then said, “I don’t know. I’m starting in ‘general studies’ until I decide.”

The same whisperer, “I told you,
boys
.”

They went around the table, some of the older people passing with a professed, “Nothing to report.” However all the young people said something. Some had graduated. Some had new jobs, one had purchased a new boat for his fishing business. Two were engaged to marry.

When it came Roger’s turn he blushed and said, “I’ve completed my degree and got a job.”

Someone sang out, “And what degree did you get?”

Still blushing, “A PhD in Physics.”

“Woohoo! A toast to
Dr
. Emmerit.” After everyone had raised their glass, “Where’s your new job?”

“I just started work at D5Research in Research Triangle Park.”

At this Grandmother Emmerit turned to look suspiciously at Ell. Ell could tell she wanted to ask more questions but the announcements went on around the table. When it came her turn Grandmother Emmerit passed and they all looked at Ell. She widened her eyes and said, “Pass.”

“Oh, no, all the young people have to announce something!”

Ell looked up at the ceiling a moment, then raised her glass and said, “I really like Roger Emmerit?”