by Jeff Dixon
“Who are you?” Kiran’s voice was still cold.
“Who am I?” The old man glanced to her and back to Hawk. “You already know. My name is Ollie Elsie. I’ve worked for the Walt Disney Company for the last fifty years. Started out in California on Walt’s team. Now I work here, in Mission: SPACE. Over the years, I’ve seen it all, heard it all, know it all, and forgotten most of what I knew. The code you typed was my name.”
“I think we figured that out.” Kiran rolled her eyes.
“My, my, my…you sure are a pleasant thing.” He scowled. “I can sure see I was right about you. You’re here because Hawk ain’t got no choice.”
Kiran crossed her arms. “Listen, I’ve heard about all that—”
Hawk cut her off. “Ollie, Farren told you there was a day that you needed to meet me. I’m going to assume there is an important reason for that. What might that reason be?”
“Of course it’s important. I’m figuring it’s why Farren got killed.” Ollie paused, looked at them both. “I guess you’re in a bit of trouble as well. Heard about the shooting on the train, somebody shot up the Haunted Mansion, big explosion over at the Studios…there seems to be danger in your world, Hawk.” Ollie now looked directly at Kiran. “Sometimes danger comes wrapped in an attractive package, don’t it?”
“Like I said, she is with me, you don’t need to worry about her,” Hawk reassured. He was trying to sound convincing, but the reality was that he wasn’t sure what Kiran was going to do…ever. She was more than capable of hurting Ollie if it was to her advantage. Hawk was going to have to be the buffer between the two of them.
“Not worried about me, worried about you.” Ollie nodded at Hawk. “But she’s here. That’s your problem, not mine. I’m supposed to tell you a story. You’ll know what to do with it when I’m done. That’s what Farren said.”
Kiran sat in the chair nearest to her with a huff. Her arms were still crossed in anger and irritation. Hawk tried to read her to see if her hostility was genuine or just her trying to manipulate the situation. Or perhaps the irritation was because she had never gotten the chance to try to charm Ollie, like she so often did when given the opportunity. Her demeanor amused Hawk, and he wanted to cheer the man for throwing her off her game. Hawk turned back toward Ollie, the old man looked to the screens and then once again refocused on him.
“Back in the fifties, scientist Wernher von Braun was frustrated at how passive the United States was at developing a space rocket program. Collier’s magazine had between three and four million readers each week at the time. They offered von Braun a chance to write a series of articles. When Ward Kimball, who was one of Walt’s Nine Old Men, read these articles, he was busy developing the space shows for the Disneyland television series. Ward didn’t know a lot about space travel, so he contacted von Braun to be a consultant. He jumped at the idea because he knew that getting to Americans through television was the best way to generate even more interest in space.
The say forty-two million viewers saw the show you are watching now, Man in Space, when it premiered in March 1955. In June of 1955, they decided to rerun the show, and when they did, President Eisenhower requested a copy to show to the Pentagon. The very same month, President Eisenhower announced that the US would launch a small unmanned earth-circling satellite. Space was now something the government was going to reach into.”
“So Walt Disney was a major influence in changing the way people viewed space exploration,” Hawk summarized.
“Yes, most people think of Walt, and they think of cartoons, movies, and theme parks. What they miss is that Walt Disney the man was a pioneer, an innovator, a genius, and a man whose influence changed the world. Walt understood he had this kind of influence, even though he was just a midwestern farm boy at heart. People of influence from all over the world came to Walt and wanted his help, his advice, and his direction. They recognized how powerful he was.”
“I have a copy of a newspaper from 1965,” Hawk said. “It was how I knew to come see you. Is that important?”
“Ah, you are good…just as good as Farren said.” Ollie smiled. “Of course it is important and is part of the story I’m telling you. The films Walt made influenced a lot of people, even top NASA officials, and had a huge impact on the American space program. Some news articles suggested that the United States turn over the space program to Disney, since Walt was a man who clearly had a plan and a vision for what we should be doing in space.
“In the mid-sixties, around 1965, some ten years after Man in Space aired, von Braun was still frustrated by the US government’s lack of enthusiasm about putting a man on the moon. So he called on his friend, Walt Disney. In a letter, von Braun invited Walt Disney and other key Disney people to tour the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. In April 1965, Walt Disney, along with his brother, Roy, as well as several WED Enterprise personnel, took some time to visit the three chief space centers at Houston, Cape Kennedy, and Huntsville, Alabama.”
“So that explains the headline of the Huntsville Times,” Hawk interjected.
“Right.” Ollie snapped his fingers. He laughed as he seemed to capture a thought before he continued. “I know you know a lot about Walt Disney, but there is something you didn’t know. Walt took time out between his looking around to fly a couple of spacecraft simulators.”
Hawk let out a low whistle.
Ollie nodded. “It happened in Texas. Walt climbed aboard and flew at NASA’s manned spacecraft center at Houston. He was sixty-three and he ‘flew’ a Gemini simulator to a successful space docking. If that wasn’t enough, then he ‘landed’ on the moon in a lunar excursion module…right after two pilots had just overshot the green-dot target area on a simulated moon.”
“You’re right, I never knew that.” Hawk was amazed.
“Without any previous experience, Walt had learned to operate and ‘fire’ the retro-rockets for capsule control. NASA wasn’t real sure they wanted Walt in their simulators—after all, pilots were having trouble getting it right. They were trying to impress Walt. Instead, Walt impressed them.” Almost as an afterthought, he snapped his fingers again. “A few months later, Walt would get a chance to take off from an aircraft carrier at sea. A massive catapult fired his plane over the waves. Walt was very busy the last couple of years of his life. Like I said, he was more than an entertainment king, he was a genius, and people of influence knew it.”
Kiran tapped her fingers on the counter. “So, does that story let you know what you’re supposed to do next, Hawk?”
Hawk thought for a moment. Nothing came to mind. He turned back to Ollie. “I love those stories. I never knew any of that about Walt, but if that is what Farren wanted you to tell me, I must have missed something…because I’m not real sure what I’m supposed to do with that information.”
“Well, I suppose that makes sense.” Ollie smiled at Hawk. “I had to tell you those stories so you could understand the important thing you need to hear.”
“I’m listening.” Hawk lowered his voice and leaned forward in his chair.
“In 1958, right here off the coast of Florida, the United States was in a tough spot. The Soviet Union had stunned the world by launching Sputnik into space and taking a huge lead in the space race. Wernher von Braun was given the green light to figure out how to get an American satellite into orbit, and just three months later, he did just that. He was able to convert a Redstone rocket and get it ready to launch a satellite into orbit. But…let’s just say that on that night, there were a number of things that happened.”
“A number of things?” Hawk repeated. “What things?”
“You have to remember that the world in 1958 wasn’t as connected as it is today. When they launched Explorer 1, the number of satellite-tracking stations were few and far between. So after the spacecraft disappeared over the horizon from Cape Canaveral that evening, there was essentially no way for von Braun to track it, to know if his satellite had been successfully placed in orb
it by the rocket he designed. He just had to wait until Explorer 1 had almost completely circled the entire world. There were a series of special radio receivers set up in the deserts just north of San Diego, California. If those receivers could pick up signals from Explorer 1, then they would know they had been successful.”
“That would have been tense.”
“I imagine it was.” Ollie chuckled softly. “The California signal, for the very carefully planned, preciously mapped out Explorer 1 trajectory around Earth was expected at about 12:30 a.m. on February 1, 1958. Slightly over an hour and a half after Explorer’s launch from Florida, the moment of truth arrived. It came and went…and they heard…nothing. Then came 12:31, 12:32…and still they heard nothing. Because of the way they calculated satellite orbits, when 12:33 came and there was still no signal, the entire team came to the conclusion that something had gone horribly wrong.”
“But it was only three minutes late, and this had never been done.”
“True.” Ollie nodded. “And that is what many people were thinking. Except for the ones like von Braun, who knew how it was supposed to have worked. They continued to wait, and by 12:41 a.m., it was all but certain. They were sure the rocket had simply burnt up and never made it into orbit.”
“But if I’m remembering correctly”—Hawk waved his hand—“and I know nothing of the history of this story, but I don’t ever recall hearing that Explorer 1 burnt up.”
“You’re right, that’s because it didn’t.”
“You just said.”
“Let me finish my story.” Ollie got up and paced the room. “Then, at 12:42 a.m., it showed up. Within the next thirty seconds, all four California stations picked up Explorer 1’s signals. The United States was in orbit…finally. The Space Race was back on. Explorer 1 had just been late.”
“But…why?” Hawk asked.
“Ah, that is the million-dollar question, now isn’t it?” Ollie stopped pacing. “Most concluded it was just late. After all, we had never done anything like this before. So while the United States celebrated this success—and it was a success—why it was late was explained away by saying that there had been some miscalculations, and this was such a new science that it was tough to figure out. But in the end, it had all worked.”
“Somehow, I think you might know why it was late.” Hawk was completely absorbed in the story Ollie was telling. He wiped away a bead of sweat that he felt run down the side of his face. “And that why is the point the of the story, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
“OK, you are killing me here.” Kiran shook her head. “You storytellers are all the same. Get to the point.”
Both men sighed. Ollie picked up the tale again. “Officially, they had made a slight error in their calculations. When you do the math on that slight error, you get six hundred additional feet per second. That’s just over four hundred miles per hour, and you gain an additional six hundred miles in height of the orbit.”
“That’s impressive, but where did it come from? The additional speed and height,” Hawk asked, finally seeing the questions Ollie had been driving at. “Are you saying that von Braun figured out some type of antigravity propulsion system? A way to go faster, higher, that somehow is based on how…well, I don’t even know what I’m asking.” Hawk shrugged.
“Well, it does appear that something happened that night to break Newton’s Laws of Gravity.” Ollie rubbed his hands together as if there was something else he couldn’t wait to share. “History is a funny and quirky thing. Sometimes the things we ought to notice, we don’t notice. Von Braun knew that what happened wasn’t because of the rocket he built. He knew something amazing had taken place. Immediately following the events surrounding the launch of Explorer 1, von Braun began writing a series of letters to other scientists not associated with the project, looking for a solution in alternative physics that might explain what happened to Explorer 1.”
“Did he ever find the answers?” Hawk scooted to the edge of his chair.
“I have no idea.” Hawk noticed that Ollie shifted his gaze toward Kiran ever so slightly as he answered.
“What do you mean, you have no idea?” Hawk was stunned.
“I don’t know, no one knows…to this day. All of the work von Braun did after that helped get America into space, and eventually his work helped get them to the moon, but whatever happened that night with Explorer 1 was swept into the dust of history.” Ollie now found a chair at the control station and took a seat. “Conspiracy theorists have said that he figured out how to use antigravity propulsion. Some suggested he had tapped into some type of alien technology. And others said he had discovered a source of power and energy that would revolutionize the world, solve all of our energy problems . . .”
“And if it was a source of power, then it could also be used to design a weapon that in the wrong hands could be used for control, destruction, or worse.” The idea made Hawk feel ill.
“Yes, very often the things that could be the most helpful can become the most harmful,” Ollie said glumly.
The same could be said of Kiran. But she was here, and there was no getting away from her at present.
“But what does this have to do with Walt Disney?” Hawk was trying to put the pieces together.
“Well, you already know that Walt and Wernher were friends. Von Braun was brilliant. At one point, he was asked who he thought was a genius, and he replied, Walt Disney.” Ollie waited a moment. “When the reporter laughed at the rocket scientist’s answer, he was quickly corrected when von Braun informed him that he and Walt had been talking about the space program, and Walt had asked him questions so sophisticated that not even NASA had thought to ask them before.”
“So von Braun shared the secrets of Explorer 1 with Walt?” Hawk thought he was beginning to understand.
“Let’s put it this way. Walt was connected to many people. He was involved in so many things that movers and shakers from around the world came to him for assistance. Walt was invited to help Wernher von Braun in 1965, but it wasn’t just about putting men on the moon. They spent a lot of time talking together, their meetings were private, and well…”
Things were now making sense to Hawk. “Von Braun trusted Walt with the most important discovery he had ever made. He believed that because Walt was a genius and visionary, he would know what to do with it, one day, when the time was right.”
“Wernher von Braun had already seen how power could corrupt and what evil men would do with power. He trusted Walt to come up with a plan for the future.” Ollie shook his head. “When Walt died, the secrets von Braun gave Walt died with him.”
All of the things that Farren had told him, that George had told him, and that even Kiran had told him now pressed in around him. Like magnets suddenly attracting one another in a chain reaction, things all started to click. Hawk had been told time and time again that he was Walt’s plan for the future. He still didn’t know what secrets Walt had been given, but he was the one chosen to protect and keep them safe for the future. He sat back in his chair. He wasn’t sure he wanted the responsibility. It was one thing to run the entertainment empire Walt and Roy had made. This was something entirely different. This had far bigger implications.
He looked across the room at Kiran. She was smiling. It wasn’t a pleasant smile; it was a satisfied smile. Hawk now knew what she had been hinting at earlier. She wanted Walt’s secrets, and this particular secret was huge. It was big enough that others would be willing to kill to attain it; and because she was sitting here with him, she now knew what the potential of this secret could be, even though neither of them had any idea what Wernher von Braun might have shared with Walt. The information Kiran was able to gain just reinforced what she already believed, that it was important with the potential to be revolutionary. However, the trade-off had been that Hawk had a chance to catch up and learn more about how massive the scope of Walt’s secrets could be. Kiran already had some sense of this, but Hawk realized that Kir
an had no concept of what the real value of the von Braun secret could really be. He didn’t either. Reassured that having Kiran with him had done minimal damage, he turned his thoughts back toward what Ollie had said.
She tapped her finger on the table, slowly, methodically, as she thought through what they had just heard. Turning her gaze toward Hawk, she asked, “So, what do we do now?”
CHAPTER FORTY - FOUR
One Day Ago
8:00 A.M.
We do nothing.” Hawk cleared his throat. “We do nothing at all.” “What does that mean?” Kiran raised an eyebrow.
“It means that whatever von Braun told Walt was big, it was important, and it may be a discovery that changes everything. There was a reason von Braun chose not to tell the world, there was a reason Walt chose not to tell the world, and since I don’t know what the secret is, I don’t want to know what it is…I don’t want the responsibility.” Hawk stood to his feet. “People have died because others value a secret they don’t even know more than they value human life. I don’t think anyone should know it.”
“You know, you may be right.” Ollie bowed his head. “But others do want it, and they are going to keep looking until they find it. With or without you. And chances are, they will find it…and then, well, who knows what might happen?”
“And what will I do with it once I find it?” Hawk rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke.
“The right thing, “ Ollie stated flatly. “You will do whatever you think you should do, the best thing to do, the thing Walt would have done. Hawk, you were chosen by Walt to do what is right. You are the only one who can make the call as to what needs to be done with the secret.”
“But this isn’t the only secret Walt had, is it?” Hawk looked out the window toward the staging area for the attraction. “This is just one of them. There are others, and there will always be others. Walt kept them a secret because he was trying to protect the people he loved. Who knows how many secrets there are to discover?”
