Delphi Exploration (Delphi in Space Book 7) Read online

  “Yeah, I kind of miss Sasha,” Kal said. “Then, I made the mistake of letting Marc make me an officer.”

  “A general no less,” Blake said. “That look on your face when he introduced you as General Kealoha was priceless.”

  “I was just getting used to being a colonel,” Kal said. “Then, all of a sudden, he just makes me a general. He didn’t say anything; he just introduced me as General Kealoha.”

  “Well, he couldn’t have that old American outrank you,” Blake said. The old general Blake was referring to was General McFarland. He was a veteran of the Iraq war, and since he was an expert in tank warfare, Admiral Michaels had brought him in to help with the Ukrainian situation that Delphi Nation had helped out with.

  “So, you really miss those days?”

  “Yeah, mainly I miss being able to just head out for a few days without having to check-in.”

  “You don’t have to check-in; ADI will let you know when you’re needed.”

  “Yeah, and that can get embarrassing,” Blake said. “I take my earwig out when I’m off the clock and rely on my specs. That way, when I take them off for some intimate time, I don’t have some other woman buzzing in my ear.”

  “I am not just some other woman!” ADI said.

  “See,” Blake said, pointing to his ear. “At least when your Comm starts buzzing, it makes sense to your date.”

  Kal started laughing. “You know once when I was in bed with Sasha, we were asleep, and ADI pinged me. I’m still half asleep, and I go, ‘yes, ADI,’ and then after ADI gave me the message, I go ‘thank you, ADI.’ I can tell you Sasha was not pleased to be called ADI. I had to make up a story about dreaming and say ADI was my aunt’s name.”

  “Did she believe you?”

  “Probably not. She’s a trained spy; she probably can detect a lie from a thousand meters.”

  “Yeah, I got myself into trouble with Ying Yu a few times, too.”

  “Hey, speaking of women, what’s the story with you and Jackie?” Kal asked.

  “I met her in Hawaii before we formed MacKenzies,” Blake said. “Actually, Catie set me up.”

  “What, Catie! What was she, twelve then?”

  “Yeah,” Blake laughed. “Jackie was a flight attendant; she escorted Catie to Hawaii. I guess they struck up a friendship. Catie told Jackie that I would take her and her friends out on the Mea Huli.”

  “So she took you up on it?”

  “Yep.”

  “And you didn’t think to invite your old friend Kal?”

  “We were going diving,” Blake said. “Back then, I didn’t know you could dive with your artificial legs.”

  “Still, I could have tended bar.”

  “Wouldn’t have done you any good. One of them was married, the other was a Navy Lieutenant, not your type.”

  “So, Jackie?”

  “Well, we hit it off, dated quite a bit until she had to go back to work.”

  “And now she mysteriously shows up on Catie’s jetliner project.”

  “Yeah, Catie remembered her when she was trying to come up with someone to run the flight services department.”

  “And?”

  “We’re dating again.”

  “Is it serious?”

  “Might be getting there,” Blake said. “I’ve got this mission coming up; after that, Jackie and I are going to try living together.”

  “Oh, really serious.”

  “Enough about me, what’s up with you? Do you have some sweet honey in Guatemala that I don’t know about?”

  “No. But I am dating the new events manager at the Four Seasons.”

  “I haven’t met her, what does she look like?”

  ADI put a series of pictures of Kal’s new flame up on Blake’s HUD.

  “Thanks, ADI. Hey, she is nice looking. And she must be pretty smart to be running events for the Four Seasons. Are you sure she’s not out of your league?”

  “If anyone is out of their league, it’s you,” Kal said.

  “You wish. Have you taken her out on the Mea Huli yet?”

  “No! It’s been reserved by someone for the last few months.”

  The Mea Huli was Marc’s 35-meter yacht. He let the MacKenzie board members use it whenever they wanted. They just had to reserve it. It only got used a few times a month. The problem was that they all seemed to have free time on the same days, so it was a competition to realize when you would be free and reserve it before someone else did.

  “Oh, I guess it has. I was going to use it this weekend, but I’m slammed with this mission prep. You want to take my slot? It’s all stocked up,” Blake said.

  “You bet! I take back all the things I said about you.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Sandra Bishop and Kal took an extra day off and headed out on the Mea Huli on Friday at ten o’clock.

  “Wow, when you said you could borrow a yacht, I didn’t realize you really meant a yacht,” Sandra said as they reached the Mea Huli’s slip at the Delphi City Marina.

  “It is nice, isn’t it?”

  “Do you know how to drive it?”

  “Yes, I’ve driven it a few times,” Kal said. “Now, let’s get on board and get out of here before someone else decides they should join us.”

  “You do have permission, don’t you?”

  “Yes, yes. But the owner’s brother is a real joker, so we should get out of here before he thinks up one.” Kal grabbed Sandra’s suitcase and carried it on board.

  “Are you sure everything we need is on board?”

  “Not really, but if we need something, we can stop in Rarotonga; that’d be safer. We can do a quick inventory after we set sail.” Kal motioned for one of the dock workers to cast off for him.

  “This is really nice,” Sandra said when she made it up to the sundeck where Kal was at the helm, finishing up the pre-sail check.

  “Was the galley stocked?”

  “Yes, we could stay out for a month with all the food down there. And there’s enough booze to throw a party every night.”

  “So he wasn’t yanking my chain.”

  “What?”

  “My friend. He told me it was stocked, but he’s so cheap that I wasn’t sure whether to believe him.”

  “He has a yacht like this, and he’s cheap?!”

  “It’s his brother’s yacht. But he could afford one. He’s generous about big things but cheap about the small stuff. He’d do anything to get you to buy the beer, but then he’ll donate a million bucks to the senior center on Rarotonga. I think it’s more of a competition thing for him.”

  “Sure, I can see that,” Sandra said.

  Kal gunned the Mea Huli’s engines as he cleared the slow zone. The Mea Huli’s slip was at the end, so it hadn’t taken long to clear the zone.

  “Do you want to drive it?” he asked Sandra.

  “Can I?”

  “Sure, you’d have to search for something out here to hit, so it’s the perfect place to learn.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  At two o’clock, Kal laid out a thin mat on the deck and got ready to lie in the sun.

  “Hey, who’s driving the boat?” Sandra asked as she came out on the front deck.

  “Autopilot,” Kal said.

  “Do you trust it?”

  “It’s an excellent autopilot,” Kal said.

  “I certainly am,” ADI said.

  Kal pressed on his earwig for eight seconds. It turned off and released itself so he could take it out. He slipped it into the pouch with his Comm and specs, and grabbed a regular pair of sunglasses to wear.

  ADI gunned the Mea Huli’s engines for a second to let Kal know he was a spoilsport.

  Kal stretched out in the sun. Sandra sat next to him and started to put suntan lotion on.

  “Do you want any?”

  “No, I’ll put some lotion on after I shower, when my skin wants the moisture. I’m good with the sun.”

  “I wish I had a natural tan like yours,” Sandra said.


  “Why don’t you ask the doctors to give you one?”

  “What?!”

  “Ask the doctors to adjust your melanin levels.”

  “They can do that?”

  “Yeah, it’s a new thing, but they can. Tell them Kal sent you and they’ll take care of you.”

  “Are you some kind of bigwig?”

  “No, but I know a few,” Kal said.

  “Who did you say owned this yacht?”

  “I didn’t, but it belongs to Marc.”

  “Not Marc McCormack, the president?” Sandra’s eyes went big as saucers.

  “Yeah, that one.”

  “So that makes you who?”

  “Just Kal, same guy I was a minute ago.”

  “Then, your friend must be Admiral Blake McCormack, the head of the Delphi Defense Force.”

  “Yep, that’s him.”

  “That also means that you must know Princess Catie.”

  “Catie, yeah. She doesn’t like the princess title. And we generally give her a hard time if she starts acting like one.”

  Sandra lay down with her head in the small of Kal’s back.

  “That means you must know all of the bigwigs.”

  “Well, in Delphi. Why are you so interested in all this?”

  “Well, since I know you, I’m assuming I’ll get an invitation to the next royal ball.”

  “If you play your cards right.”

  “My cards or my . . .”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Do you want the Hawaiian Rice or the Jamaican Jerk Chicken for dinner?” Kal asked.

  “The Hawaiian Rice,” Sandra said. “Does that mean you’re from Hawaii?”

  “Not necessarily. But I am. I grew up on the North Shore of Oahu.”

  “Is your family still there?”

  “Yes, my parents and my sister still live there. I’ve tried to convince my parents to move to Delphi City, but no dice.”

  “What about your sister?”

  “I think she’s going to move here next year. She still has a year of high school to finish.”

  “What does she want to do?”

  “She’s seventeen; she’s vacillating between being a teacher and being a fighter pilot.”

  “Kind of a wide spectrum there.”

  “I told you she was seventeen.”

  “Does it make any difference as to whether she comes here?”

  “I don’t think so. Delphi University will be open next year, so if she wants to be a teacher, she can go there. If she really wants to be a pilot, she can apply to Delphi Academy.”

  “Does she have the grades to get into the Academy?”

  “Surprisingly, yes she does.”

  “Why do you say surprisingly?”

  “My brother and I just barely graduated,” Kal said.

  “Obviously, you’re smarter than that.”

  “Well, surfing every morning before school probably didn’t help.”

  “Why would that make a difference?”

  “If the surf was good, we didn’t always make it to school,” Kal said wistfully. “So how about you, did you always want to be a business manager at a hotel?”

  “No. I wanted to be an Olympic Dressage Champion.”

  “And?”

  “I could never make it past Nationals.”

  “Why?”

  “Not enough money to buy a good enough horse, or at least that’s what I tell myself.”

  “Oh, I guess that is an expensive sport. What got you interested in riding?”

  “I grew up on a ranch in Wyoming. I’ve ridden horses all my life.”

  “Do you miss it?”

  “More than you could imagine.”

  “You could go riding on Rarotonga.”

  “When you’ve ridden really good horses, you can’t step down to the ones they have on Rarotonga,” Sandra said.

  “I’ll check with Catie, she might be willing to make one of the new parks a horse park,” Kal said. “She’ll bring in high quality horses. I’ll tell her to come to you for advice.”

  “Really?!”

  “Sure, it would probably be good for tourism, and you’re probably not the only one who misses horseback riding.”

  “Wow, a man who can cook, knows a princess, and can make a girl’s dream come true. You’re quite a catch.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Ma’am, you are relieved,” Commander Desjardins said.

  “I stand relieved,” Catie replied, concluding her part in the change of command ceremony for the Sakira. She was now no longer the captain of the Sakira; in fact, she was now just a passenger. “Good luck, Captain.”

  “Thank you.”

  Catie left the platform so that Captain Desjardins could give his welcoming address to his crew. She worked her way to the back of the hangar where she could see Liz.

  “Hey, Liz. Fancy meeting you here?”

  “I volunteered to fly this trip,” Liz said. “You know, it’s hard to keep all the Oryxes flying right now. So many of our pilots are on active duty, and most of the Oryx flights are for civilian flights for MacKenzies, so we have to use civilian pilots.”

  “That’s weird. Why are we keeping so many of them on active duty?” Catie asked.

  “They want to stay on active duty. With all the changes, Blake is trying to keep them all happy, and we really don’t have that many pilots after so many of them returned to their home countries. We have new pilots in training; they should be qualifying soon, and that will fix the shortage.”

  “I hope so. We’re going to need pilots for the jetliners soon,” Catie said.

  “We’ll be able to recruit them from the other airlines,” Liz said. “That’s where we’re getting most of the Oryx pilots we’re training.”

  “When do we leave?”

  “In two hours, are you ready?”

  “I guess so.”

  “Do you want to copilot on the way home.”

  “Why not.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Everyone loaded into the Lynx. The pilot flew the Lynx from the Sakira flight bay to the new station’s docking ring. Then everyone was able to transfer to the Oryx that was also attached to the docking ring, saving them from having to do an EVA to get into the Oryx. An Oryx was just too big to fit into the Sakira’s flight bay.

  “We need a small shuttle so we can fly it right into the Oryx cargo bay,” Catie said.

  “An Oryx isn’t really the right ship to be using for this,” Liz said. “We need a custom cargo hauler for this job.”

  “Oh, I’ve seen some designs in a couple of the science fiction books I’ve been reading. I’ve been thinking we could leverage one of those.”

  “You’re reading science fiction?”

  “Sure, science fiction writers are the only ones who are imagining the things we need now. The Paraxeans weren’t particularly inventive, and none of the civilizations that ADI has data on have done that much real space stuff, they’re all system bound.”

  “I guess that makes sense. So, what will this ship look like?”

  “It looks like a big fish skeleton, a big head and a tail, then between those, there’s a spine with ribs that allow you to attach a bunch of cargo modules. I don’t know why they always show the modules only on the bottom. I think they’re still stuck in gravity-based thinking,” Catie said. “We would put cargo pods in groups of four, two on top and two on bottom, all the way down the spine. And we could add a big, enclosed shuttle bay and an enclosed cargo bay as well. Engines and reactors in the rear section, although we might need to have a center section for the jumpdrive. I would have to work that out with Dr. McDowell.”

  “Apparently, you’ve already been thinking about this. Do you think you can make it work with the jumpdrive?” Liz asked.

  “Sure. We’ve characterized it, you just have to stay within the dimensions, and since it seems to be mass-independent, that’s perfect for hauling cargo. And this design works really well with the jumpdrive since the girth of the ship
is the critical dimension.”

  “We could open our own business,” Liz said.

  “We could. They said they want to diversify,” Catie said with a laugh.

  “Hey, I’m not joking; your father probably just made Fred a billionaire,” Liz said. She sounded a little jealous.

  “It was his idea,” Catie said.

  “And this one’s ours.”

  “Cool, partners then.”

  “Partners.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Stand by for push back,” Liz announced over the intercom. . . . “Pushing back.”

  They used the thrusters to move the Oryx out of the safety zone that surrounded the station; once they were far enough away, Liz announced, “Prepare for gravity.”

  “It looks nice,” Catie said as she looked at the station through the viewscreen.

  “It does,” Liz said, ignoring the tears on Catie’s face. “It’s always hard to leave your first big command.”

  “I guess so,” Catie said. “Well, on to bigger and better things, Partner.”

  “You’ve got it!”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “I think it’s time you take a day off,” Samantha said as she took Marc’s specs off and sat in his lap.

  “I take days off?”

  “No, I mean really take a day off. One where you don’t answer your Comm, or read your messages, where we lounge around and read books and talk to each other.”

  “Do you want to have someone come in and give us a massage?”

  “Oh, a couple’s massage, I like that.”

  “The Mookini sisters are available in an hour,” ADI announced over the house speaker.

  Marc looked as Samantha and raised his eyebrows.

  “Let’s do it.”

  “Book . . .”

  “I’ve booked them and canceled your three o’clock meeting,” ADI said.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, Captain.”

  “Now, what brought this on?” Marc asked.

  “I don’t know,” Samantha said. “Don’t you ever get tired of the grind? That feeling that you just have to keep pushing every minute.”

  “I do.”

  “Do you think we’ll ever get off of it?”

  “Do you want to take a break?”

  “I mean get off of it; not a vacation. Being in a place where you can go weeks without having to deal with an emergency.”

  “Is there such a place?”

  “There must be. I remember taking a six-week tour through Europe after college,” Samantha said. “It was great. We only had a Eurail pass; we stayed in youth hostels, ate when we felt like it.”