Intrigued, Maria eagerly awaited the co-ordinates. An opportunity to capture an ancient alien satellite thought to be over 10,000 years old and study the technology of that time did not come up every day. She was hoping to learn how many alien tribes occupied this planet way back then. However, when looking deep into Presha’s facial expression she knew that there was a giant ‘but’ coming. Sure enough, again Presha lowered her eyes and meekly said,
“But, ------”
Maria sucked in a gulp of disappointed air and waited for the bad news.
“As soon as the laser beam struck the satellite’s hull, solar panels on both sides spread out. Clearly it was amassing power for a maneuver. When we programed your miniature satellite for an approach, somehow it surprisingly shot into a higher orbit and disappeared from view. Clearly it is still active and has stealth technology.”
Perplexed, Maria looked to Santo but got only an equally surprised expression. Returning to the Presha image, she said,
“Are you telling me that you lost it again?
“Yes, sorry to report such a failure.”
Maria then asked,
“As it shot away, was our satellite not able to keep up with it?”
“No, again I am ashamed to report the failure.”
Astonished and certainly disappointed, Maria asked,
“And the Nano-technology in our Nazarene satellite could not relocate it again?”
“No Professor. By the time we could enter a tracking program it was gone. It must have incorporated some kind of an anti-detection technology and that was the last we saw of it. It was certainly not something expected from an ancient satellite. We tried for hours but finally had to admit our failure.”
There were frowns all around. Presha for her perceived failure, Maria for losing a golden opportunity and Santo because he had gone into deep thought. Although not sticking his head into the projecting beam, he asked Presha,
“Was there an indication of the power source used to move it?”
Not clear on the purpose of the question, Presha softly replied,
“I have sent you the pictures and on them you will see there are thrusters located under the hull.”
Maria turned from the image and faced Santo.
“Why is that important to you?”
He ignored the question and asked another.
“In the short time that you encountered it, were you able to record an orbit trajectory?”
“Yes, although only a short orbiting path. That information has also been sent to you.”
Confused, Maria asked Santo,
“Why did you ask her about the location of the thrusters? Is there some importance to their placement on the satellite?”
“Yes, I think so. Clearly this thing has been in a steady north south polar orbit for thousands of years. Its ability to move like that implies it needs thrusters to correct a failing orbit and avoid detection. Maybe it only has the ability to alter its height but not modify its orbiting path.”
Suddenly Maria caught on to his reasoning, pointed a stabbing finger at him and interjected,
“That’s why you asked about the trajectory. You are thinking that although it can maneuver up or down, it is still on the same orbiting path.”
He nodded and she added,
“Boy, sometimes my little soldier boy surprises me.”
He hated that pet name and communicated it with a scornful look. Recognizing her error, that there were other ears in the room, she reached over and consoled him with a pat on his hand. The intended pacification didn’t work. Somewhat wounded, nevertheless he got back on track and said,
“Solar panels for energy are not exactly an advanced science.”
She agreed but contributed,
“No, but we have to remember this satellite has been up there for thousands of years. Maybe it was a current technology at that time.”
He had to agree. Who knows what really happened on this planet that far back in history. He asked,
“So, how are you going to handle this?”
After a deep thought Maria said,
“Well it has been in orbit for thousands of years so let’s assume that it did not disappear permanently. I will send Presha’s information to our satellite laboratory in Switzerland and see what they can make of it.”
She then turned from Santo, faced Presha’s image and said,
“In the meantime, I will send you command codes for another satellite. Place both a thousand miles apart in a geo-synchronize orbit and project a laser web screen between them. Hopefully all we have to do is wait for the elusive Black Knight to travel through the screen and trigger an alarm.”
Santo cut in,
“Let’s hope it stays on that orbiting trajectory.”
She was then reminded of some legends telling how the black bird spread its wings and flew off into the horizon.
Suddenly Presha perked up and said,
“That would be most helpful. If something passes through the scan we will be able to calculate for a new orbit path.”
“Good. I’ll approve more financing for a continuation of your task. As always, keep up the good work and us informed.”
Her last words were to the computer,
“End transmission.”
Looking to Santo, she managed to glean some success from the report.
“Well, at least we now know that there really is such a thing as an ancient satellite up there and I really want it.”
Recognizing that the conference was over, Santo got up and said,
“I’m hungry.”
Maria gulped the last of her coffee and followed Santo out of the conference room and up the grand staircase to the kitchen.
Chapter 6
On their way to the kitchen and finally something to eat, Santo asked,
“How much do you think extending that search will cost?”
Almost in a flippant manner, she said,
“It doesn’t really matter. Our resources are unlimited so she will get whatever it takes. First thing in the morning, I’ll go see Ming-Lo and have her infiltrate the Russian secret military black budget accounts and transfer a few million into ours. Their Black Budget accounting is so complicated and guarded with secret military spending that one department doesn’t know one account from the other. Add paranoia to that and they will never figure it out.”
She then added,
“At least they haven’t yet.”
As they entered the kitchen, Santo said,
“You make it sound easy, like it’s one of our personal bank accounts.”
“Every account in the world is our personal bank account. With our super computers there is no code on earth that Ming-Lo cannot break into. Besides, I hate military black budgets. As far as I am concerned, its money that should be allocated to helping the people and not put aside to build bombs.”
When entering the kitchen, both were suddenly besieged with the pleasant aroma of Bulgarian Goulash. Belle was already seated and eagerly waiting for her parents to dig in. As the parents sat, Santo whispered to Maria,
“Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
She playfully responded,
“Just keep an eye on your personal bank account buster.”
Staying within the tease, he faked surprise and said,
“I have a personal bank account?”
Belle, not knowing the context of her parent’s conversation looked to her dad and proudly announced,
“I have one too.”
True to Maria’s insistence that there be no ‘shop talk’ over dinner, the conversation, as usual was all about Belle and her day at school. Although her private tutors all claimed that she was brilliant, perhaps even bordering on genius, apparently she was not as excited about her scholarly achievements as her parents. Now eleven years old, although learning three languages at once, advanced sciences and mathematics she still somehow thought school was boring. She hated that the tedious subject of school was the main topic of con
versation over the dinner table.
After a few bland answers to ‘how was school today’, Maria was the first to notice Belle’s despondent airs. Understanding that school was now on a one month holiday, and Belle hated school, she should be in a better mood. She asked,
“School is out for the month and you don’t seem happy about it. What’s the matter honey?”
A gloomy Belle explained,
“Robert and I discovered a cave in the seaside cliffs on our property overlooking the Black Sea. We were going to spend all of our time exploring it. As it turned out my language tutor gave me a massive holiday assignment that will take up most of the time. Robert has one too.”
Trying hard to show an expression of sorry, both parents breathed a silent sigh of relief. Belle and Robert got into enough mischief together without adding a potentially dangerous cave exploration to the list. Maria asked,
“What’s the assignment? Maybe you and Robert can work on it together. That might be fun, right?”
After a shoulder shrug that needed no interpretation, Belle said,
“I’m being punished for learning Bulgarian and being really good at it. Now I have to do a paper on the history of the whole ancient country.”
Although Maria felt her pain, suddenly Santo got an idea and perked alert. However, Maria’s edict about not talking shop at the dinner table prevented discussing it right now. Still, the more he thought about it, the better his plan sounded. Maria saw his expression, understood something had just click and asked,
“Okay, what’s going on in that mind of yours?”
Because it also needed her permission, he produced a devious smile and said,
“How about if we talk about it after dinner?”
At that, she understood it was business, as it always seemed to be with him.”
While it wasn’t always possible, after dinner both parents made great efforts to sit in the family room and talk about whatever House of the Nazarene subject came up. Maria referred to it as ‘their time’.
Even though she was not pleased hearing his seemingly radical idea, it would help Belle considerably in her dreaded Bulgarian history assignment. Plus, Santo’s concern was something she had never thought of. Now she wanted to know as well. She said,
“Very well, you can ask her but I want full assurances that it is a safe thing for her to do.”
His reply seemed to have appeased her somewhat.
“It’s research in the King’s Royal Library. What could possibly go wrong in a dusty old library?”
After a slow nod, she pressed a link on her bracelet and said,
“Honey, would you come down to the family room for a minute.
A minute later a sheepish Belle shuffled down the stairs and into the family room. It was clear by her guilty expression that she was concerned and therefore took hesitant steps. Before coming into earshot, Maria whispered to Santo,
“Look at that guilty expression. She thinks we caught her in some kind of mischief.”
Then, as it were an afterthought, she looked to Santo and asked,
“Have we?”
After a shrug of shoulders, he replied,
“Who knows?”
As she got closer, a reassuring smile from both parents did nothing to erase a look of guilt. Maria patted the cushion between them and said,
“Come and sit here. We have something to ask you.”
After sitting, feeling the pressure of both parents on both shoulders, she was just about to explain that no damage was done, they didn’t get caught and it was all Robert’s idea anyway when Santo said,
“I was just asking your mom for a list of reliable Nazarene secret agents that are adept at reading ancient Bulgarian manuscripts. The only problem is that the current language is different than the ancient language and we don’t know anybody we can trust to interpret it.”
Desperate to wiggle out of the spot she thought she was in, Belle eagerly changed the subject.
“Back then, the language was written in what they referred to as Old Church Slavic.”
Genuinely surprised, Maria asked,
“How do you know that? Do you read old church Slavic?”
“Yes, it was part of my punishment for being brilliant in that language.”
As an afterthought she added,
“I should have kept my mouth shut and dummied down my so-called genius with languages. Now my school vacation will be filled with researching and writing a paper on this country’s history.”
Maria patted Belle on the knee and continued to lure her into their trap.
“There, there honey. I’m sure you will survive.”
As if just an innocent voiced thought, Santo added to the trap by saying,
“In the meantime I still need a trusted spy who can read the old language.”
Belle was no fool. She had been conned into doing her parent’s bidding far too many times. She sensed a trap and decided this was a good time to keep her mouth shut. Maria, looked straight ahead and asked Santo,
“What would that spy’s assignment entail? Is danger involved?”
Staying aloof, he answered,
“Yes, some but mostly it would be exciting detective work. I need somebody who can discreetly get into King Rhymen’s palace and access the Royal Library.”
Maria continued to play the co-conspirator.
“That sounds exciting. What are you looking for?”
“I have always been suspicious why the Vatican attacked the old Rhymen kingdom. I was told that it was just to loot the treasury but now I’m not so sure. I suspect there was another reason, that they might have been after something else. At that time there were many other wealthy kingdoms the Vatican could have plundered but they only raided this one. Why? I became even more suspicious when learning there was an old Anunnaki obelisk right here on this property, practically right next door to this manor. Why was it there? Was there a secret connection between the ancient alien Anunnaki and the old kingdom that the Vatican knew about? I want answers.”
Belle’s ears perked at the words ‘secret project’ and ‘trusted agent’. Suddenly that sounded better than boring homework. The trap tightened when Maria added,
“And I want to know why this mansion was once called Witch of the Manor. Who the heck did the ancient king marry anyway?”
Santo added,
“That’s a good question. But we still need to find somebody brave enough to get into the library and can read old history books.”
Belle’s only excuse for falling into the trap was that it was well orchestrated and deceitful. Seeing a way to get out of doing homework for the holidays, she perked alert and joyfully announced,
“I can read ancient Church Slavic. I could do that.”
Maria again patted her knee and said,
“No dear. It’s too dangerous.”
Santo pretended to ponder the offer and finally said,
“I suppose we could talk to the king and ask if our daughter could research Bulgarian history in his library where she could secretly research the real reason for that invasion. I could make it sound like a favour to the House.”
“I still don’t know. I suppose that a secret agent gathering confidential information might sound exciting but it still sounds like there might be an element of danger to it.”
Santo said,
“We could equip her with a spy camera and wire her for satellite location and sound. As long as she has to research Bulgarian history anyway, it would be a perfect cover. She might be perfect for the job.”
The trap tightened and sprung. Belle jumped up, faced both conspirators and excitedly announced,
“I can so do that. I’d be perfect for it.”
Both parents slowly nodded and Santo said,
“I suppose if it is okay with your mother, you and I can do a little training and preparation for a couple of days.”
Pleased that she now had an exciting project for the holiday, Belle bounced up stairs to her
room. She couldn’t wait to tell Robert about her secret project for the House of the Nazarene. In the middle of ascending the stairs she stopped and looked back down into the family room just in time to see mom and dad congratulating each other with a slapping high five.
Too excited to understand the nefarious reason, she continued bounding up the stairs. It would have been a different story if she had heard her mother say,
“And that’s how you get your daughter to do homework.”
Santo wondered if she had ever used that trick on him. A second thought prevailed, of course she had. Strangely there was no shame or guilt in tricking her daughter into doing her school assignment. Over the years, both parents had learned many devious parenting skills.
Chapter 7
That night, Maia, was tired from the long day. A Viking funeral and visit to Switzerland to see the newest addition to the House of the Nazarene was taxing. She lay in bed exhausted. Because Kirk was now Second in Command of House Security but still with Jessika and their baby, it was left to Santo to carry out night security activation procedures. It was for this reason Maria was alone and trying to stay awake for his return to her side. However, eventually it was a valiant battle lost to the powerful onslaught of sleep. When Santo eventually returned to the bedroom she never felt the bed covers move or a kiss goodnight on the cheek.
Early the next morning, letting Santo sleep, she snuck out of bed, dressed and made a dash for the kitchen, rather for the coffee. For years, it had been Maria’s pleasure to get up and make breakfast for Belle and get her off to school. That, and for the various times each parent got up, it was an impossible task for the kitchen staff to have breakfast ready for them. Often all Maria wanted for breakfast was a coffee. More often, Santo was still sleeping or out on an early mission. Lunch time as a family unit was also practically impossible. It was for that reason Albina only had to be in the kitchen for supper. This time, because Maria had a full itinerary for the day, a couple of fast cups of coffee and toast served as breakfast.
The Noah Satellite Page 3
