Rocket! An Ell Donsaii story #4) (2 page)

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.”

A stunned silence greeted this announcement. Chancellor Kellet said, “My goodness, that’s wonderful. May we know the name of the donor?”

She shook her head. “I am meeting with you because there are a few strings attached.” She grinned at the Chair of the Physics Department as she said, “Fifty percent of this money is to be spent on Physics, from buildings, to research, to hiring faculty, to special physics scholarships. Essentially, in-state students admitted to the Physics program are
all
to be able to attend UNC tuition free and out of state Physics students are to have very low tuition. This funding for faculty and research should enable you to make this one of the best, if not
the
very best Physics program in the country. One page summaries of physics research projects to be funded must be submitted to the donor for approval. Some recipients of the Physics scholarship slots
might
be specified by the donor. Finally, the donor wishes to remain anonymous. This last is very important—so important that attempts to determine who the donor is may result in a loss of this funding.”

They all stared at her in consternation. Finally the Chancellor said, “Um, we’ll just have the University’s attorneys write up an agreement…”

He paused at a minute shake of Ell’s head. She said, “You can readily access your AI’s (Artificial Intelligence’s) audio record of what I just specified. You will find that the first 115 million has been deposited anonymously into your public account in the past few minutes. I have ported you the website where Physics research proposals can be posted for approval.” She looked at the Physics Chair, You might warn your faculty that they
won’t
be funded they aren’t enthusiastically teaching their undergrad and grad students. Otherwise, there need not be any interaction between the University and the donor. The money will continue to arrive as long as the donor is satisfied that you are fulfilling the
spirit
, not just the letter of what I’ve laid out for you. No need for an agreement. Thank you for your attention.” Before anyone in the stunned room got enough of a grip to say anything she had slipped out the door.

***

Washington D.C.— Today the White House announced negotiations intended to reduce the disruption of the communication industry that has been caused by the quantum entangled chips introduced by PGR Comm. The stock markets have reacted violently as the capabilities of the new chips have become evident and this unrest…

Dave Slager looked around as a loud “bang” sounded behind him and a tremor ran through the Space Station. Slager closed his eyes. It was a micrometeorite strike. Sounded like a pretty big one. The station was “armored” with Kevlar padding to protect against strikes but the sound of this one had been different, as if it hit something that wasn’t armored?

Jim Sasson yelled, “I think it hit the CRV!”

Slager grimaced. Sasson was more excitable than the typical astronaut but everyone cut him some slack because he was such a genius. However, yelling that the meteorite had hit the Crew Return Vehicle which was intended to evacuate the space station scientists in case of an emergency? That seemed akin to yelling “fire” in a theater to Slager. Unfortunately, the CRV was one part of the Station that wasn’t covered in Kevlar, so Sasson may well be right.

About thirty minutes later Emil Taussan pulled himself into Slager’s area.

Slager looked at him with raised eyebrows.

Taussan shook his head, “I’ve inspected the interior of the CRV and it seems fine. No atmosphere leak. But I think Sasson’s right so I will suit up for an EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity or “spacewalk”) and inspect the exterior.”

Slager shrugged his shoulders, “OK, better safe than sorry.” He turned back to his work.

***

Washington D.C.—NASA announced today that a meteorite strike had damaged the rocket nozzle of the Crew Return Vehicle which serves as an “escape pod” for the International Space Station in case of emergency. NASA said they expected to be able to send up a replacement nozzle on the next supply ship. Apparently they believe that the nozzle can be replaced by an EVA mission.

Mary and Ell strolled together across the campus of NCSU in Raleigh.
Steve prowled about a hundred feet in front of them. As head of Ell’s security detail, Steve had agreed that having her walk with Mary made her look more like the other students and so was good “coloration.” He himself was “pretending” to be a grad student crossing campus on a similar course.

Ell nudged Mary, “Steve doesn’t do ‘oblivious grad student’ very well does he? He looks more like a panther searching for its next meal.”

Mary stifled a laugh, “It
is
difficult to make six foot two inches of solid muscle look like it spends most of its time musing in the library.”

Ell snickered, “I swear I can see the ghost of his old M-25 in his hands!” She paused, “Well, this is the Physics building. You guys could have some coffee in the little shop over there while I’m upstairs.”

Roger Emmerit fidgeted and slid a finger under the collar of his shirt. He seldom wore a tie and it was driving him crazy. Of course, his nerves might also have something to do with the fact that he was about to defend his thesis for his PhD.

Dr. Johnson and the other two professors on his committee had arrived and seated themselves in the front row of the small conference room. Dr. Johnson had insisted that he redo his experiments repeatedly when they failed to support classical theories in Physics. Then Roger had had to repeat and modify his experiments many more times, once he’d demonstrated that the results he was getting
were
compatible with the new math conventions and theories that Donsaii had published in Nature. For a while Roger had wondered whether Dr. Johnson would
ever
allow him to defend his thesis but as experiment after experiment agreed with Donsaii and failed to meet the predictions of classical theory Johnson had finally relented.

Several other people had gradually filtered in and seated themselves in the audience. More than he had expected. They registered mostly as blurs to Roger, though he assumed that some of his grad student friends were there. Johnson said, “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Roger turned to the big screen at the front of the room. He began to speak as his first images appeared on the screen. Forty minutes later by the clock and forever by his internal time sense he finished his presentation and asked for questions. An initial barrage of questions flowed over him. Some other faculty had shown up, having heard of Roger’s surprising results and their questions reflected their dubiousness regarding his results, or at least regarding his interpretation. Here Professor Johnson’s earlier attacks served him well, because he’d already heard
all
of their objections from Johnson and had done the experiments to show that their contentions were incorrect. The questions slowed and eventually trickled to a stop. Finally his committee asked that the room be cleared for their deliberations. Roger stepped outside with everyone else and his friends clustered around to shake his hand and wish him well.

Al and James promised to buy him a beer at West 87 no matter the results. Emma gave him a hug and whispered fiercely, “They’d
better
give you a pass.”

Jerry gave him a “bro” hug with a slap on the back and said, “Good luck. We Alpha Centaurians are on your side.” Everyone chuckled at Jerry’s old joke.

Roger looked around. A couple of more distant friends spoke among themselves. Suddenly he recognized a familiar posture in the slender girl leaning up against the wall with her hoodie up and hiding her face. “Ell?”

She turned and grinned at him as everyone else standing in the hall turned to stare. She pulled her hoodie back exposing her short reddish blond hair and crossed the distance to him in three strides, throwing her arms around him and hugging him fiercely.