‘Welcome to Corvus Prime,’ she said setting down her hand scanner to shake hands.
After Darla explained the current research being conducted and fielding a few questions, Mick stepped up and said, ‘And that concludes the tour. I hate to cut it short, but the wife and I have a honeymoon to finish.’
‘Oh yes, by all means, don’t let us hold you up. I’m sure that Anthony knows the way back,’ said Angelica. ‘Come along boys.’
Angelo had been looking over the various projects going on, and Dante had been chatting with an attractive young technician. They both turned and followed their mother out. The ambassador nodded, took Francesca’s arm and followed along.
Once the doors closed, Straus gathered Darla into his arms and held her for a moment, before saying, ‘Now I’m more than ready to go. How are you doing?’
‘I just finished working on the black box from the ship destroyed by the Starfish drone. There wasn’t much left of the recording, but an analysis of the casing showed that the energy beam was something like a plasma torch with a powerful alternating electric arc running through it. It literally cut the ship to pieces.’
Straus whistled softly and asked, ‘Can we counter that?’
‘Adjusting the shield frequency may provide twenty or thirty seconds of protection. The shield generators just don’t have the power to provide total protection,’ she said pointing out the numbers on the report.
‘Ok. I’ll get the chief started on making the modifications,’ said Straus as he forwarded the key information to him.
‘Think I’m ready to go then. My staff can... That’s odd... I could have sworn I set my hand scanner down here,’ said Darla looking around the lab. ‘Maybe one of the techs is using it.’
Darla asked a tech to track it down, then took Straus’s arm and let herself be led away. They headed for their quarters and repacked their suitcases. They then headed for the training Ninja in maintenance bay 2. Straus pulled out his comm device and punched a few buttons.
‘Tómas... Its Mick. We’re heading out now. ... Back to Switzerland. Apparently we own a chalet there, so we’re going to check it out and get in some more skiing. … Ha ha ha. Yeah thanks,’ said Straus who put the device in his pocket.
‘What was funny?’ asked Darla.
‘He said to have a good time, but to try not to break a leg.’
‘Nice. What was that about a chalet?’
‘Mayor Bachmann explained that it was a gift from the whole village. I’m not sure what to expect, but he said the rest of our wedding gifts have been moved there.’
‘Wow... I can’t wait to see it.’
‘There’s a helicopter service at the edge of town just down from the train station. He’s arranged for us to be able to land there.’
Forty minutes later they were landing at the heliport and there was a ground crew member that directed them to a parking area near the road. After shutting down and climbing out, they retrieved their luggage and several people walked over.
‘Mr. and Mrs. Strausser. Its such a pleasure to have you here. If you don’t mind we’ll be conducting tours of your ship.’
Straus suddenly realized why the helicopter business was so willing to have them park there, but didn’t see any harm in it.
‘That shouldn’t be a problem. Thank you for letting us park here. Just make sure to keep people at a safe distance. We wouldn’t want anyone getting radiation poisoning... delta rays from the DEP decay, you know.’
‘Uh... how far away is safe?’ asked the owner as he backed up a few feet.
‘Oh... what would you say sweetheart? Two or three meters?’
Darla hid a smile and said, ‘That should be safe enough.’
Once their conversation was finished they grabbed their luggage and headed for the road. Waiting for them at the curb was their sleigh driver from last time.
‘Walti... it's good to see you again,’ said Straus shaking his hand.
‘Good day, Herr Strausser... Frau Strausser. Good seeing you again also. Where are we going?’ asked Walti as he took their bags.
‘Apparently we have a chalet. The mayor said that he would meet us there,’ said Straus helping Darla in then climbing up himself.
‘Ja, ja. The Strausser ist one of our most popular tourist stops. Its on the other side of town,’ said Walti as he got the horses moving.
‘No such thing as a free lunch. This should be interesting,’ thought Straus. Seeing some of the smaller homes in town, he was expecting a one or two story home with little or no yard.
As they made their way through town people pointed and waved and those with cameras hurried to take photos. They played along and waved back.
‘I forgot that we were famous. Its kinda fun... and kinda not.’ said Straus.
‘Yes... I agree on both counts,’ said Darla who was waving to a little girl that was pointing and jumping up and down as she was holding an action figure in her other hand.
They wound through some of the crooked, narrow back streets that were mostly residential. They then proceeded up a road that climbed a low hill that commanded a beautiful overview of the village with the Matterhorn in the distance. Perched on the hill was a three story building surrounded by a low rock wall that served as a base for a wrought iron fence. There was a pedestrian gate in front and a larger rolling gate on the side leading to a garage.
The building was of similar size and construction as the ski lodge that was at the resort they skied previously. Straus didn’t see any other buildings in the immediate vicinity and was beginning to wonder if this might actually be it. Then he spotted the Mayor and several others standing outside the pedestrian gate. The gate was set in a stone archway.
As they pulled up he could see that on the left post was a bronze plaque that read “Strausser”. Embedded into the right post was a beautiful oval ceramic Coat of Arms that showed a knight’s helmet over crossed swords on a shield of red.
The sleigh came to a stop and after climbing out, Straus helped Darla out. The mayor stepped forward with a big smile.
‘Good Day, Herr Strausser. Welcome to your new home.’
‘This is... amazing. I wasn’t expecting anything so... grand. What is this here?’ said Straus pointing to the right post.
‘Why, that is your family crest. The Straussers have been in the area for nearly five hundred years.’
‘Really? ... I had no idea,’ said Mick looking at the detail.
‘Before we go in, we need a few photos of the presentation.’
The photographer came forward and directed them to stand in front of the gate. The photo was taken of the mayor handing them a framed certificate of ownership, and then one of him handing them the keys.
Once the photographer was done, Bachmann led the way into the house and said, ‘I must explain that this home belonged to one of the Middle Eastern Sheiks that for political reasons couldn’t be seen as being aligned with Corvus Prime because of competing energy interests. So he donated his holdings to the town, so that we could gift them to you.’
‘Was he the prince we met at the wedding?’ asked Darla.
‘Yes, that was he. The house is fully furnished and all expenses are paid from a Swiss account. Here are keys... and codes for the security... and this card is for charging your expenses to,’ said Bachmann handing over one item at a time.
‘We’ll need to arrange Thank You cards for our gifts,’ said Darla.
Straus nodded but only half-heard her as his eyes were exploring the room. Then turning to the Mayor he said, ‘Thank you very much Mr. Mayor. We look forward to spending time here.’
‘We will just leave you love birds alone then. Enjoy your stay,’ said the Mayor as he closed the door on his way out.
They spent the next several hours exploring the house and going through all the closets and cupboards. Straus checked out the garage and saw that they had their own electric vehicle. It looked like a Japanese micro-van with seating for four, or seating for two and
cargo. The difference being that it was electric, with all-wheel drive and snow tires.
‘How’s about we head down to a shop to pick up those Thank You cards, and have dinner out?’ asked Straus.
‘That sounds like...’ started Darla but her comm device signaled and after looking at it, she said, ‘Its Alan, I’d better take this... Hi Alan, what’s up? … Yes, I saw... What? … No, you’d better talk it over with Tómas. Let him handle it. … Ok, see you in a week.’
She put her device back in her pocket and looked up to Mick who had a curious look on his face, then she said, ‘Alan was able to trace that missing hand scanner down. Its sitting in the temporary Italian Embassy.’
‘Someone in the group lifted it?’
‘Apparently. You heard, I’m having him talk to Tómas about it.’
‘Well nothing we can do about it. Let’s head to town.’
They drove their electric van down into town and found the cards that Darla wanted. As they were walking passed a toy store, they noticed the display of Corvus action figures in the front window with a framed newspaper article of the wedding with their photo. Mick led them away before someone passing by had a chance to recognize them. They found a nice restaurant down the street and enjoyed dinner safely lost in the crowd.
The next day they concentrated on opening the rest of their wedding gifts, filling out the Thank You cards, and getting them mailed off. The following day, they hit the slopes at the same resort they tried the first time. The next day they went off to one of the other resorts in the area. After a half day of skiing they were enjoying lunch out on the deck in the sun.
‘Its so beautiful here,’ said Darla looking up at the Matterhorn.
‘I love it here. I can’t wait to see it in the Spring when everything turns green and the flowers begin to bloom,’ said Straus.
‘After looking at the postcards in the shops, I would have to agree with... uh oh,’ she said looking passed Mick.
Mick looked back over his shoulder and saw two familiar faces approaching and groaned inside, but in a pleasant voice said, ‘Inspector Schmidt, nice to see you again.’
‘I hate always being the harbinger of bad news, Herr Strausser. I really am a nice person,’ he said as he was shaking Mick’s hand.
Straus laughed and said, ‘I’m sure you are Inspector. I appreciate a man dedicated to his duties. Do I need to contact McKay?’
‘Yes, at your earliest convenience.’
‘Very well. Message delivered. We’ll just finish lunch and contact him from our chalet.’
‘Should you need my assistance with anything, please don’t hesitate to contact me,’ he said handing Mick his card.
After finishing lunch they made their way out of the ski resort and back to their chalet. Mick used a cable to plug his comm device into the older flat screen television and contacted the ambassador. Once the connection was made he set the device down, and he and Darla sat on the sofa.
‘McKay here.’
‘What’s up Mr. Ambassador. Please don’t tell me the drones have thrown another rock at us.’
‘Sorry to interrupt your honeymoon... again. No, this time it's two rocks. They’re coming in from the same region of space as the last one. Townsend and Hamilton have confirmed their trajectory.’
‘What’s the separation between the two?’ asked Darla.
‘Hold on. Let me conference them in,’ said McKay.
The screen displayed a photo of a sailboat under full sail with a message that read, “On hold. Please stand by.”
‘Two asteroids? After we deal with these two, we have to put a stop to this. We can’t let the drones tie down our resources while they’re out there gearing up for an attack.’
‘I’m afraid you’re right, and who knows... maybe next time it will be three... or four,’ said Darla.
Ambassador McKay came back on in split screen with Doctors Townsend and Hamilton each in their own corner.
‘Go ahead, Dr. Strausser,’ said McKay.
‘Thank you Mr. Ambassador. In regards to their trajectories, what is their separation?’
Dr. Townsend spoke up and said, ‘They’re only twelve hours apart. In about eight months the first will hit one side of the Earth, and as if that wasn’t enough... twelve hours later, the other one will hit the opposite side as the earth rotates into position.’
‘Any estimate on their sizes?’ asked Straus.
‘About the same as the last one. About three miles as near as we can figure from here,’ said Hamilton.
‘They’re designated as 2015HK3 and 2015HK4 and unless you can stop both of them, we’ll be in for a really bad Christmas this year.’
‘All right. We’ll get out there and assess the situation. Thank you gentlemen,’ said Straus as he cut the connection.
‘A few more hours won’t make that much difference. I say we use the rest of today to finish off this honeymoon,’ said Darla with a suggestive smile.
‘Mrs. Strausser? I like the way you think,’ said Mick as he let himself be led upstairs.
Later that day, after dinner, they were enjoying drinks in what they were calling the Library, because of it's many bookshelves. It also had a fully stocked bar, another large screen television with a couple of leather sofas and recliners, a fireplace, and a full-sized solid oak American Pool table.
Straus was barefoot and only wearing his pajama bottoms. He had set up a few pool balls and was practicing some shots. Darla was only wearing his pajama top with just a few of the lower buttons fastened. She was mixing them some drinks. He paused and backed away from the table just as she was bringing them over.
‘Hey... I just had a crazy idea.’
‘I love it when you say that,’ said Darla handing him his drink and giving him a kiss.
He set the billiard balls up with the blue number two at the far end and the yellow number one, and the cue ball at the close end.
‘Let’s say that the Earth is that blue ball and these are the two asteroids. What if we use them against each other like this?’
Straus hit the yellow ball and it slowly headed straight for the blue ball, then he hit the cue ball so that it impacted the yellow ball off-center. The balls were deflected to the left and right, leaving the blue ball untouched.
‘That’s brilliant. I’m not sure that the asteroids will be able to stand up to those kind of stresses, however it's worth taking a look at. We can start with some simulations.’
‘We do have the impact from the Amazon. That should give us some hardness data.’
‘Yes... it might. We need to get back out there and check for any signs of fracturing. I love your crazy ideas,’ she said as she was nuzzling into him.
He wrapped his arms around her and said, ‘Just keep saying that and we’re in for a long and happy marriage.’
Chapter 8
UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES
The next morning they locked up the chalet and had Walti take them back to the heliport. After signing a few autographs and posing for a few photos with the folks from the heliport, they took off and returned to the station. Once they arrived, they changed clothes and went right to work.
Straus called a meeting to discuss the situation. In attendance were Tómas, Bernie, Dr. Ames, and the Straussers. Mick explained the situation and outlined their plan, starting with gathering stress data from the first asteroid. Then he explained the ricochet idea.
‘Looking beyond this situation, we have to start thinking about what to do about the drones out there. We just can’t sit idly by and let them keep taking potshots at us,’ said Straus.
‘We don’t even know what’s out there,’ replied Tómas.
‘Exactly, and since we never heard back from the first probe we sent out there, we have to assume it was intercepted. We need intel, so here’s my idea. I’ll keep using the training Ninja. Alan, I’d like you to modify my old Ninja to hold extra DEP, then program it to go out there while cloaked. Have it gather what information it can, and ge
t back in one piece.’
‘Should be pretty straightforward,’ said Dr. Ames making notes.
‘As soon as it's ready send it on it's way. Hopefully we’ll have the information we need by the time we finish with these asteroids.’
‘I’ll get right on it,’ said Ames.
‘Bernie, as soon as we’ve taken a look at the first asteroid, I’m going to need two transports rigged for towing.’
‘Sure, you can use the Colorado and the new one, the Mackenzie. I also have Phoenix Flight Two, filled out with reserve pilots. McCormick has done a good job bringing them up to speed and getting them whipped into shape.’
Corvus Prime: Escalation Page 10
