America One: The Odyssey Begins

by T I WADE

  Jonesy agreed to 450 kilos of vacuum packed ground coffee in five-kilo bags, all the company had in fresh stock, and a Mercedes was sent to the coffee company.

  During the morning, they were shown the diamonds. Ryan had been right. If Maggie or Suzi ever wore their new rings and hit somebody, their skull would crack. The rings were beautiful and ugly at the same time. The diamonds were so large that they looked hideous, totally impractical. The company jeweler said that if they stayed overnight he could turn the two rings into beautiful necklaces. Jonesy agreed, adding that they could pay for any modifications. He had the company credit card, and there was no limit. He hoped VIN and Suzi wouldn’t mind the change. Maybe Suzi liked big junk!

  Willem Massink laughed. His company had done so much business with Astermine that anything they wanted would be a gift, even the hangar and the gas bill at the airport.

  Jonesy shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t used to living this way, and he was sure that whatever he and Maggie wanted was chump change compared to the company transactions. He asked the jeweler to do as much as his team could to beautify the two necklaces in a 24-hour time period. The two rings were rushed off.

  The six smaller rings were perfect. Each had three beautiful three-carat diamonds set into a double-band wedding ring, which made each ring an engagement ring and also a wedding ring. Three were white gold and three were made up with yellow gold.

  Maggie tried one on in white gold. It needed a slight adjustment, which would be done immediately. Maggie felt like she was shopping in Tiffany’s in New York. She remembered passing its windows when she was a little girl while on vacation with her parents.

  The large diamond to be given to the White house was beautiful. It was cradled in its own home, a special case made out of beautifully crafted red cherry wood. It looked like an oversized ring box, and opened like one. Maggie recalled the many rough diamonds of this size she had seen on DX2014, and her eyes sparkled as the fire from the newly polished diamond hit her face.

  The lid of the box was decorated with tiny chips of green emeralds and mostly white diamonds designed to look like the White House itself, surrounded by green gardens. It was certainly a beautiful gift.

  When the viewing was over, the diamonds were packed up in a special briefcase. Handcuffs linked the briefcase to Jonesy’s left wrist. He was given the keys, and they were driven back to the airport.

  The jet had been fuelled for its return flight and its interior cleaned like a hotel room. He placed the briefcase into a lockable compartment in the cockpit, locked the cockpit door, and helped carry in the aromatic bags of coffee, laying them around the interior of the aircraft out of their way, carefully distributing the weight. He, Willem, and the chauffeur were then asked to leave, so Maggie could feed Saturn.

  Twenty minutes later Jonesy locked the outer rear door to the aircraft and watched as two security guards closed and locked the hangar. The aircraft and diamonds were secure.

  For the rest of the day they were treated like visiting royalty. First they were taken to a five-star hotel where the diamond company had arranged for their accommodations in the Presidential Suite. Being uncomfortable in such luxury, they immediately asked for a tour around Amsterdam to take in the sights and do some shopping.

  Willem was fascinated to learn that Maggie and Jonesy were the actual astronauts who had retrieved the diamonds from the “moon”. The entire world, except for the president, believed the moon was where the diamond mining had occurred.

  Ryan had given them specific instructions regarding what they could and couldn’t say, and Willem learned more about life in space than the actual diamond mining.

  “Stop!” Jonesy blurted out upon seeing a fish market. The car pulled to the curb.

  “My father and I love Dutch herring, although my mother hates the smell. We’re going to visit then in Colorado on the way home. I tried that Russian stuff…”

  “Caviar?” suggested Willem.

  “Yes. I tried it on board the Russian space station we salvaged. It was horrible, but I really love herring, and so does my dad. And he likes that fancy Dutch beer in the bottles with the slip-off corks….”

  “Grolsch,” replied Willem.

  “That’s right. Can we get some of that? And my mom loves Dutch butter cookies… and…”

  “And so do I, Mr. Jones. And I want some of the best Dutch chocolate. They invented the stuff after all,” added Maggie.

  “They did?” asked Jonesy.

  “Partly right,” smiled Willem. “Around 1830, 1828 I think, if I can remember my Dutch history. Coenraad Van Houten was the first person in the world to patent a method for extracting the fat from cocoa beans and making powdered cocoa and cocoa butter. He wasn’t the only person to invent chocolate as we know it today, but he invented the “Dutch Process”, which treated chocolate paste with alkaline salts to remove the bitter taste. He made it possible to form the modern chocolate bar we have today.”

  “Good,” continued Maggie. “A great present for Suzi, a friend of ours currently up in space. I would like to get the biggest Dutch chocolate bar, or several, in Amsterdam, and a dozen tins of those Butter cookies. Jonesy, how tough are those Gulfstreams?”

  “Not as tough as the Dead Chicken, as you reminded me, but we could certainly get her off the ground with overweight of 5 to 10 percent. An extra 250 to 300 pounds would be fine, and I’m not giving up any coffee!”

  They had fun for the rest of the day as their car filled up until a second car was needed to carry their purchases.

  Willem, accustomed to escorting the company’s wealthy visitors to jewelry stores and up-scale boutiques, smiled when this couple asked to shop for fish, beer, cookies and chocolate. Of course, he knew where the best of everything Dutch was, and each piece of merchandise was weighed and recorded for the Americans before being placed in the “boot”, which Jonesy learned was the car’s trunk. Once the “boots” were filled, the back seat of the second Mercedes limousine began filling up.

  By midafternoon over 800 pounds of merchandise had been purchased, not only for Jonesy’s parents and Maggie, but for Ryan and the other crew members in space. Maggie had told Willem about the seven cubes of America One, what they grew, and that whatever they took up from Holland wouldn’t last very long.

  Several cases of Grolsch, heavy cases of herring cans, tins of butter cookies, and dozens of five-pound bars of chocolate returned to the company premises where the two vehicles would be kept in the private underground parking area overnight. Another Mercedes took them back to the hotel.

  Willem found this American pair to be very different. Neither had expressed any interest in luxurious items for themselves, apart from the diamond necklaces. It didn’t occur to him that trinkets would be of no use on their upcoming space odyssey.

  Dinner with Willem in the hotel that night was very interesting. The surprisingly small servings on their plates made Jonesy glad he wasn’t paying for it. The ambiance reminded him of one of his favorite movies, Crocodile Dundee. It certainly wasn’t U.S. Air Force style, but he enjoyed the Dutch beer and the delectable tiny courses that were served. Saturn was asleep in their room attended by a pediatric nurse the hotel had arranged for. Just after dessert, Maggie left the two men alone to enjoy a fine after-dinner drink. Jonesy asked for a glass of the finest vodka and was surprised to find out that it tasted no better than the stuff from Ivan. And the price!

  Early the next morning, after sleeping in the most comfortable bed he had ever tried, he got up to visit with his already wide-awake daughter who was making gurgling sounds in the crib.

  Three hours after breakfast, they were driven to the airport with Maggie wearing the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen. The two necklaces truly were stunning. The large diamonds were even more exquisite as pendants accented by smaller diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds.

  Jonesy was worried about her wearing it until Maggie told him that nobody would think the stones were real anyway.


  Willem was there to say goodbye. He had really enjoyed their company and hoped they would visit again. He knew they wouldn’t as they were leaving Earth for a long time, maybe forever.

  By this time the aircraft’s floor was covered with shopping bags. Maggie had even bought a dozen massive bars of Toblerone Swiss chocolate and a couple of bottles of Springbank Single Malt Scotch whiskey for Ryan in the airport’s small duty-free lounge, while Jonesy was left to perform pre-flight checks. Again they produced the official letters of diplomatic immunity the president had given them to enter and exit Europe.

  “So what’s the weight damage?” asked Maggie getting into the co-pilot’s seat. The aircraft was already outside the hangar, had been turned away from the doors and only Willem and the chauffeur were outside watching them.

  “Fuel is at maximum, cargo weight 2,500 pounds plus you, me and Saturn, and of course the few pounds of diamonds back there. I’d say we are at maximum weight plus 500 to 800 pounds, well within plus five percent of maximum load, taking in the fuel. Ground control has just given us an OK. We can start engines, so, co-pilot, get to work.”

  A few minutes later, having received permission from the control tower to proceed to the taxiway, they waved goodbye to the two men. Even though it was a small commercial airport it was still busy with small jets, and they were number five for takeoff when they reached the end of the taxiway.

  Jonesy gave her full thrust on both her engines and let the aircraft leave the ground gently. Gracefully and with ease, she headed up into the cloud base several hundred feet above the city.

  It was an eleven-hour flight into Denver, and Jonesy got permission to climb through 30,000 feet before putting her onto auto-pilot. He was already on Irish traffic control an hour later when he asked for clearance above 36,000 feet.

  Jonesy knew that most jets, even 747s, cannot climb to maximum cruising altitude until well into the flight, often around halfway. The weight of full tanks and a maximum load was felt by all jet aircraft until a good proportion of the fuel burned off.

  Since they were leaving at midday, the skies were quiet and, heading west, daylight would be extended a couple of hours with their arrival in Denver a few hours past nightfall. Jonesy hoped that the car rentals would still be open. Maggie would do the driving for the last stretch.

  Denver was dark and rainy when they flew in. They showed their letters of diplomacy, and as he had done in Holland, Jonesy showed a letter for each of them from the president asking for diplomatic transit.

  Then customs official asked them what they had on board, and he gave the woman a fourth letter from the U.S. president. No questions were asked. Washington had provided them with diplomatic immunity on both sides of the pond. Even Saturn Jones was a new U.S. diplomat.

  It had been a long day, and they rented the first car they were offered, a small Toyota Corolla at Avis. Fortunately, Maggie had remembered to bring her wallet with her driving license. As soon as they could transfer their personal belongings, two cases of herring, two cases of beer, a couple of the Toblerones, and extra baby clothes to the small car, she drove them out of the airport towards the dark mountains.

  Between them, they didn’t even have one suitcase, just an overnight bag. The jet was under military guard in a closed hangar with all the diamonds except, of course, the new, shiny wedding ring on Maggie’s finger and the fabulous necklace around her neck that she had fallen in love with.

  If VIN had been with them, he would have found Colonel Jones Senior to be a little more cordial to his son, but VIN wasn’t there.

  It must have been the reinstatement to Full Colonel or the mention of a granddaughter which made the old man get out of his rocker on the porch when the car’s headlights drew up. His mother came rushing out of the house and stopped when she saw that her son’s slim wife was so tall, as tall as her husband who was over six feet, and she was so pretty. Seeing the young lady getting the baby out of the crib from the back seat motivated her to continue.

  “Hi, Mom, Dad,” Jonesy said, coming around the front of the car. Jonesy’s mother immediately noticed that her husband had gotten out of his chair, something he didn’t do when their son came home.

  “John, dearest, it is so good to see you,” she said running up to him for a hug. He was also extremely thin, and she was glad she had spent time cooking, even though it was past dinner time.

  “Son!” stated his father, peering at the tall girl with a baby in her arms. He immediately noticed the wedding ring.

  “Mom, Dad, may I introduce to you my wife, Lieutenant Colonel Maggie Sinclair, now Jones, United States Air Force retired, and Saturn Jones, not yet old enough to enter the Academy.”

  “Colonel, huh! That makes three official colonels in the Jones family,” he responded, with respect in his eyes, as both parents held out their arms to their new daughter-in-law.

  “Maggie, call me Jenny, and this must be baby Saturn.”

  “Yes, she’s asleep and not very heavy,” Maggie replied handing Saturn over to her grandmother.

  Jenny held her granddaughter and was aware that a sensation of warmth and kinship washed over her as she welcomed her newly expanded family. She also noticed her husband held out his hand to his son for the first time she could remember.

  “Welcome home, Colonel,” his father stated proudly.

  “Ex-colonel, Dad, I’m now Chief Astronaut. I believe that’s my new rank. Same with Astronaut Maggie Jones here.”

  “What are you smoking these days, son? Are you going up into space? Both of you?”

  “Yes, Dad. We were married in space, but Saturn was born down here on Earth. See Maggie’s necklace and wedding ring? Both made of diamonds we got from a passing asteroid; part of the same one that hit in the Pacific.”

  This was a little too much information for the older Jones to grasp, and he needed to sit down in his chair to think about what his son had just said. An astronaut!

  Over a late dinner, after the “boot” of the rental had been emptied of gifts, the party relaxed getting to know one another, even father and son. It was hard for John senior to believe his son was an astronaut, but as Maggie recounted how they had met at this new space exploration company in Nevada, and how they had become a flight crew, he began to accept it.

  “You mean Astermine, that Richmond guy who got beat up by that now-dead useless president… Jenny and I both voted for?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Maggie replied. “Your son is his Chief Astronaut.”

  “You guys are flying those new shuttles of his into space, the ones we saw on television?”

  “Yes, Colonel Jones, that is your son’s new job, and mine.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Hold on. I have our paychecks in the cubby of the rental. Let me go and get them,” retorted Jonesy and headed out. He returned, gave the checks to his mother, and sat down. “We don’t need the money. We will be living in space for the next couple of years. There’s nothing to spend our money on up there, so Maggie and I want you to have these.”

  “Doesn’t Maggie have family?” Jenny asked.

  “My mother passed away a decade ago, and my father three years ago. I have no brothers or sisters. The air force was my family,” she replied.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Jenny replied, her husband nodding.

  “Well, she has a new family now. Us,” added Jonesy, and his mother smiled. There was silence until the meal ended.

  “What must we do with all that money you gave us?” she asked clearing away the plates, Maggie helping.

  “Take Dad on a cruise, a bloody long one,” Jonesy replied.

  “Can’t get rid of me that easily, son, but I’ve always wanted to cruise on the Queen Elizabeth, the old girl. I heard there is a new ship, Queen Elizabeth II. Now that you’ve brought my favorite herring and beer from Holland, I could be persuaded.”

  “That money will keep you aboard ship for at least several months. Go around the world, see the sights. You sh
ould have seen our room we had in Amsterdam. Too damn fancy for my liking,” Jonesy continued as the ladies returned.

  “Yesterday, after making the bank accept the check I did a little research, son,” his mother said. “Dad’s ship leaves Southampton in England in a week for an African cruise. If I remember, she stops at a dozen cities, ending in Perth or Sydney, Australia, I believe. It’s a full month cruise, and the most expensive.”

  “So?” Jonesy replied. “Book it. I’ll even see if the boss will allow me to fly you into London. I need some practice Earth flying.”

  “Are those real?” asked the older man looking at Maggie’s necklace.

  “Depends. What you are talking about?” she smiled. “All of me is real, Colonel. Ask young Saturn Jones.”

  “No, I mean those stones around your neck,” he replied not missing her remark.

  “Can’t be, the stones are so big. Even her wedding ring is far too fancy and the stones too large,” added her new mother-in-law.

  “No, Jenny, everything I have is real, even my husband. Believe me, I know,” replied Maggie simply.

  Must be worth a few a hundred thousand?” Jonesy’s father suggested. His face went very white, and both older people gulped when she told them the value of her necklace.

  “I picked it up on the asteroid myself. And, Colonel, this is a small one. Watch the news in a day or two. The diamond our boss is giving the president for the American people is a hundred times bigger.”

  “Mom, open the envelopes. They are our pay packets for the last two years. Maggie and I want you to deposit them into your bank account. Both are made out to Colonel Jones, so you shouldn’t have a problem. If you can’t spend all the money, we can when we get back.” His mother, still stunned about the necklace, was due for another shock.

  She put her hand to her mouth when she saw how much the first check was made out for. His father didn’t want to know, got up, said goodnight and headed off to bed.

  Jenny found her bottle of whiskey and went out on the porch with her son while Maggie fed Saturn.