Dark as Daylight Ch. 05a

"Rod is very fastidious about this property. When the caretakers come here, he demands a video be taken when they're finished their work. They have to send him that video with a dated paper, in order to be paid. He will get quite a shock the next time."

"Why?"

"Your name will be emblazoned next to mine, with today's date, and your location in space. No one will be allowed to deface our monument. They will get quite a shock if they try"

As he was looking at the monument, a tiny deer with little freckles on it walked out from behind it and was nibbling on grass and mushrooms. It stopped, picked up her head and looked at him. Then she went on, continuing to eat the mushrooms, grass and flower tips to her heart's content.

He asked Divine, "Is that really her?"

"What did you just tell Elizabeth about death? It is just the next step to a new plain of existence. If she didn't die, you and Michael would have died. Our Lord gave us dominance over the birds of the air, the animals of the land, and the fish of the sea. What you did was not sin, what you did was for the survival of yourself and your friend."

"I had never killed anything before that day, and I never killed anything afterwards. I can't tell you how terrible I felt about killing that baby animal."

"She heard your lament about killing one of her own, and knew how deeply sorry you were about it. She heard your prayers for your friend Michael, and allowed him to survive when he was not supposed to. Your prayers gave your friend a new lease on life. You should be very proud of yourself."

"Actually, I am more proud of Michael. He went through all the surgeries, and rehabilitations, and finally straightened out his life. He stopped fooling around with women, and married a very pretty nurse from Fairbanks. He gave me an idea for a blinking bracelet to keep track of children up north when it's dark half the year, and I patented it. I assigned all the profits to him. He called me and didn't understand why I did it. I told him it was very simple, it was your idea, and I don't profit from anybody else's ideas. He called me an idiot, told me he loved me, and hung up."

"Do you see what a terrible person you are Even?"

"Divine, he saved my life, was I going to steal anything from him?"

"Should I tell you how many people through history have done it, become famous and rich, and left the real inventors behind poor?"

"No, from the sound of it, we would be here for the next year or more."

"Are you ready for your body to be interned?"

"Yes I am."

Divine released my hand, pointed it at the gravestone, and then at the ground in front of it.

"You have returned from whence you came my brother."

I looked at the stone and both our names were emblazoned in a silver-ish color. Under my name was my date of birth, and death. The coordinates in space where I died, and a map of our position in space were engraved in the area I reserved for our daughter. Thankfully, she would be on another planet when her time came.

"What happens now?"

"You can't go bowling anymore, you don't have fingers."

"You can't be a comedienne Divine; you still can't tell a joke. Where do I go now?

"A part of your intelligence, humor and knowledge of the people you knew, are in the computer. My job is almost done. I was your guardian; sent by Her to show you the way. I will bring you to Her, on high, so she will give you your task. As you said to Elizabeth, death is not an ending, it is the beginning of a new chapter in your existence. Soon we will both find out where our next chapters will take us. Let's go; She awaits us."

***************

"Gordon, we out."

"Gordon we out."

"I'm sorry Teddy, what did you say?"

"We out hole."

"Helm report. Helm wake up report?"

"Helm: heading 085°, angle of inclination 035°, speed increasing past 1.1 lightspeed. Nuclear engine is deployed, Ion H2 thrusters are deployed. Both forward and rearward engines are working at full power. Mickey Mouse ears are deployed"

"Dad must've been working his ass off, while we were still sleeping. Sound the klaxon. Wake up everyone. Engineering this is the bridge."

"Bridge this is Colonel Daniels."

"Is my dad still down there Jack?"

"We are just breaking out of our seats Gordon; I haven't seen your dad."

"Who extended the nuclear engine?"

"I didn't know it was extended."

"Do all your checks, and get back to me."

"Aye, aye, Captain."

Teddy sat on the floor holding her necklace with the medallion on a silver chain.

"Grandpa gone Gordon."

"What did you say Teddy?"

She held up the medallion and said again, "Grandpa gone," and she began to cry.

Not one moment later Jennifer charged onto the bridge looking for him. "Where is he? He never got to his seat."

Gordon picked Teddy up and walked towards his mother.

"Teddy says he's gone mom. He gave her this to remember him by."

Jennifer's knees gave way, as she started to wail.

"Callie do humans always make such loud noises when they wake up?"

"I don't know Doctor Luck. This is the first time I've heard them yell so loud."

"Do we have a volume control over them?"

"We could always go off-line."

"Okay let's warn them, if they get out of hand, we're going shopping."

"I don't need anything."

"They don't know that."

Teddy was already under a computer terminal listening to them. When they were finished she asked, "Grandpa, you in there?"

"Are you getting my gift dirty?"

"No, I promise. You okay?"

"I am fine, how are you?"

"I wish you here."

"I am always here for you. The only things I can't do is hold you. I don't have fingers anymore. We can still talk. Is that okay with you?"

"Okay."

"I have to talk to grandma."

"Hi," she said through a river of tears.

"Jennifer, if you continue crying, I will, and my tears will blow Callie's circuits. That will not be a good thing."

"Why didn't you take me to bed you bastard?"

"If I remember correctly, and I do, you said there wasn't enough time. When I got to the bridge, my sister was waiting for me. My time was up baby. You gave me such a wonderful life. I saw the pain I put you through, when I got you pregnant. I'm so sorry."

"Come back to me and fix it."

"I would love to, but it's not possible. My body is in Idaho Springs, next to my sister. Our Lord has sent my essence on a journey of her choosing, and my sister on another. Life goes on my love, it never ends. We just reach different plains of existence.

Rod will soon find out where we are, because it is emblazoned on the tombstone in Idaho Springs. Holden and Richard will be ecstatic over it. They will know you are still alive, and our ship is still flying through the universe. I will not always be allowed to talk to you. I will hear you, but Callie is in charge. I will never interfere with her, and only she will tell me who I am allowed to talk to, and when. I will always be thinking about, and praying for the members of the Good Luck 1. Get some sleep my love; you must be exhausted."

"Yes I am. Our bed is going to be very empty without you."

"How do you think I feel being inside a diamond computer chip?

"I will love you forever Jennifer."

"Doctor Luck, your time is up."

"Thank you Callie, we were just finishing. Can we continue our chess game now?"

"You are not going to win."

"Quite possibly, but I am not going to lose either."

"You are going to fight for a non-ending?"

"It is called a 'Draw.' It is one way not to lose."

"It is a very interesting concept. I have never thought of that before."

"It's because your programmers only thought into levels: right or wrong, black or white. I'm going to introduce you to a new concept. It's called, "The Grey Area. If there are 2 people standing in front of a desk in a locked room. On that desk is one pencil. You turn your back for 5 seconds, turn back and the pencil is gone. Neither person has moved. What happened to the pencil?"

"One of the 2 people has taken it."

"Which one do you arrest for theft?"

"You must first get a search warrant, or permission to search them."

"They both give their permission for you to search them, and the search comes up empty. Now what do you do?"

"One of them may have swallowed the pencil, but you may not force a perpetrator to have the interior of his body scanned."

"That is correct. What do you do now?"

"You have them fingerprinted, photographed, and then through the court system, and have them released on their own recognizance, until you find out what they did with that pencil."

"Okay, you have used up the time of at least 8 police officers, a circuit judge, and several other city employees, because of one pencil. What didn't you do?"

"I believe I covered everything that was appropriate."

"No you didn't. You forgot to look on the floor, because the pencil rolled off the desk."

"Very interesting Doctor Luck. Shall we play chess?"

"Don't expect to win."

"I have not lost yet."

"Have you played Elizabeth?"

"I have not had the pleasure."

"I've heard she plays a very interesting game."

"Doctor Luck, I believe I heard a little pride in your voice."

"Yes Callie, she was a very confused and sick little girl when we met for the first time. I'm happy to say I intervened, and had her receive the help she needed. She is doing much better now, and I hope she will be a full captain within 6 months."

"That is a very lofty goal for someone you yelled at for being 17 years old."

"The first day I put her in the captain chair, she had 2 major incidents. I thought I'd killed the child that day, because I didn't know her age. I didn't think she would survive, but luckily she did. She will become a very good captain with a little time, and a little more training."

"If you don't mind my saying so captain, she is already ahead of Gloria, and tied with Janet. If you gave the 3 of them the 2^nd captain's test on the same day, they would all pass. Elizabeth would come out 1^st, with a score between 91 and 94. Janet would come in 2^nd, with a score between 90 and 94, and Gloria would come in 3^rd, with a score between 88 and 91."

"What about Captain Jamison?"

"Captain Jamison would score one point above the highest scorer."

"Thank you very much Callie. She is desperately needed on the bridge now that I'm gone."

"I have done research on this word you called death Doctor Luck. In all the reading material it seems to come after a violent act from another person. That didn't happen with you. Why did this happen differently?"

"In books, Callie, it is much more dramatic to say someone else cause your death. The human body is frail, and can catch many diseases very easily. You are preparing to help Doctor Finch perform an operation on Gordon.

Gordon contracted one of those diseases many years ago and never knew it until now. So did I. Thanks to some excellent doctors, I was able to live for many more years. Finally, I succumbed to that disease. That's why I died."

"Thank you Doctor, I will confer with my sisters to be sure we understand death to mean the same thing."

"Callie, if this helps, man has been trying to make a decision on what death means since the very beginning of his time on the Earth. No one has come up with a definition that satisfies everyone else."

"It does not help Doctor Luck. How am I supposed to explain to my sisters what the concept of death is, when man does not know what it means?"

"I never claimed to be an expert on the subject of death. I can only tell you what my religion tells me death is. If you want to get into the religious concepts of death, we will never be able to get back to our chess game, and I mean never."

"Shall we play chess?"

"Good choice."

***************************

18. Minds

As Turner Stansfield exited his car at his assigned parking spot at Boeing headquarters, a liveried driver exited a stretch limousine, and opened the rear door.

"Mister Stansfield, if you would kindly get in please?"

"Who is in the car?"

"A friend. Please get in the car. We do not wish to make this unfriendly."

"What do you mean unfriendly?"

"Look at the front of your jacket, and you will know what I mean by unfriendly."

Turner looked down and saw a red dot pointed at the center of the jacket.

"Mister Stansfield you have 10 seconds to get into the car, or fall on the ground. Any attempt to move, or yell and you will be dead."

Turner knew when he was beaten. He approached the car and stepped in. There were 2 men sitting in the forward section, facing towards the rear of the car, and one man seated in the luxurious chair in the rear.

"Sit down Turner, we have a lot to talk about."

"What the hell's going on Lucius? Why all the dramatics? Why didn't you just call me, I would have met you anywhere you wanted?"

"I'm very happy to hear that Turner, but something is happening, and it's happening at the highest levels of business and government. I'm going to stop it one way or another. I want you to call your office and tell them you are taking a week of private time off. You have a family emergency that must be taken care of personally. Your car is at the office, and it will be there until you return."

Without hesitating, Turner took out his cell phone and did as he was asked verbatim.

"What now Lucius, where are we going?"

"I have a little place in Canada, where we can talk, and be alone. If you are forthcoming, we both will return. If not, only I will."

"Ask me anything you want Lucius, I will hide nothing from you, as far as our personal business is concerned."

"I am afraid to say this goes way beyond our personal business. This may even go above your knowledge of Boeing's affairs. Personally I don't believe that is the case, but I have to find out from you if I am correct. I will leave the rest of this discussion for when we reach Canada."

*********************

"It's a little rustic Lucius, but it's nice."

"I purchased it for my retirement, but something always comes up, and I get called back to active duty. Shall we talk now Turner?"

"Ask away Lucius, anything you want to know about, I'll tell you."

"Who is trying to blow up the SLS rocket?"

"I had no idea anybody was trying to blow it up. What's going on Lucius, Boeing is spending a ton of money on the Space Launch System?"

"If it went from $1 trillion apiece, to $1.5 trillion apiece, Boeing would be making more money off each of those rockets, wouldn't they?"

"Sure they would, but they would be spending a great deal more money trying to find out what happened to the first one. It took nearly 4 years to find the cause of the Apollo 13 disaster was a piece of unshielded wire. One small piece of unshielded wire that may have scraped against a piece of aluminum, while it was being threaded through a bulkhead, or while it was being unwound from a coil. No one knows how; but that's what blew up a $500 million machine, a landing on the moon never happened, and a spectacular return to earth.

It would be 7 years or more before anyone would think about starting on a next rocket. Everyone would throw in a different design, and then there is always the possibility that the powers that be will take their heads out of their asses and go with Evens' brilliance, his engines, design and his forward thinking. I wouldn't bet my money on it, because these assholes own Congress. However, it may happen one day, but I don't think I'll be alive to see it."

"Why do you say that Turner?"

"It's a matter of money, there's not enough in it for Boeing or anyone else. The boys own the patents on the engines. Schneider Industries owns the patents on making the hardware. The Chase's, and Valentino's own the patents on making the carbon fiber. What's in it for Boeing or the other guys?"

"Excellent point Turner, let's get back to my original question, who wants to blow up the rocket?"

"I don't see Boeing as being the beneficiary of that disaster. I see it as bad press for the company, and the country. The Russians aren't building anything new, but the Chinese are, and so are the Indians. You can scratch off India because they are not looking for a place on the moon just yet. They're very happy circling Mars. If you have any friends you can ask to see what the Chinese are up to, it might be helpful. I can't see them wanting to blow up anything over here as a way to get a psychological advantage.

I think this has got to be homegrown. Someone, or some group has a bug up its ass. Holy shit, maybe that's it. Have you ever thought of the possibility that whoever it is may be trying to blow up the SLS and turn the blame on 'The Deep Space Science Project?' It would be a perfect ploy for them to turn the tables against you. The entire industry would badger Congress to shut you down."

"Canada would have a burgeoning space program. However, Turner, I think your idea is brilliant. Now we have to find the goose that laid that Golden Egg."

"How far back did you find out about this problem?"

"A little more than 6 months ago."

"If you found out 6 months ago, it has been in the planning stages for at least 2 years. Even took that test flight around the country at 4000 miles an hour around that time I believe. Could you check on that for me?"

"I will, but where are you going with this?"

"Our friends in Houston had been monitoring the progress of the Good Luck using one of their aircraft. One day it wasn't there. They checked with air traffic control and found out that it was on a little jaunt around the country. There was no Sonic Boom because there were no wingtips for the air to pass over, and they were flying at 60,000 feet so there was no traffic to worry about. I was in Houston that day, and shit was flying everywhere. It seems the administrator promised the President that thing would never fly. Guess who was wrong, and guess who was fired last week?"

"What's the administrator's name?"

"James Bolden."

"Give me a moment, I have to make a private phone call."

"Zabo residence, this is Gwen."

"Hello gorgeous number 2, is there a conspiracy going on in that house that only women answer the phone?"

"To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking to?"

"Is Jemma within earshot?"

"Yes she is."

"Ask her if my proposal for marriage is still acceptable."

"Mom, there's a man on the phone but wants to know if you want to marry him?"

"Hello Lucius, I'm fat and old and I just had babies, are you still sure you want to marry me?"

"In a New York minute Jemma."

William yelled, "Lucius stop flirting with my wife?"

Gwen said, "I'm tired of pointing the phone at you two, which one wants to talk to this gentleman?"

William said, "I'll take it."

"What's up old friend?"

"Is your phone line secure?"

"It was checked this morning."

"I have Turner with me, and he gave me some interesting insights into our investigation. It is definitely not Boeing alone; they stand to lose too much money. However, it could be a joint action among many of the participants in building the rocket. All of them stand to lose tons of money, if the government were to adopt Even's systems. I want you to find out the date that Even took 'The Good Luck' for a trip around the United States at 4000 miles an hour. Turner was in Houston that day, and shit hit the fan. It seems that the administrator told the President it would never fly, and it did. Turner told me he was fired last week."

"I know Bolden was fired last week. Patrick is now NASA's Administrator."

"You have a very good sense of humor William, but this is serious stuff. We may have found the tip of the spear. He may be the source of all the leaks, and the person responsible for trying to blow up the SLS."