by Bob Blanton
“I don’t care about some shit-hole island nation,” the admiral said. “And I doubt very much that New Zealand cares that much either.”
“If you don’t care about us, then why are you attempting to seize us?”
“We are simply executing a seizure order from the IRS for the assets that you have illegally siphoned off from the United States and hidden there,” the admiral said.
Samantha got excited and spoke into her comm quietly. She carried on the conversation for a few minutes while Marc continued.
“Since when has the IRS used the Navy to conduct its seizures?”
“Since you ran off and hid in a foreign country and got yourself appointed mayor,” the admiral said.
“You have to know that we can’t allow you to violate our territorial waters,” Marc said, getting a thumbs up from Samantha.
“And what exactly are you going to do about it,” the admiral said. “That little stunt you pulled with your jets yesterday wasn’t all that impressive.”
“We are considering our options,” Marc said. “That little stunt as you call it was just a wakeup call. We would like to avoid any hostilities, but we will not allow you to violate our waters.”
The admiral laughed, “Well sonny, you’d best move that little boat of yours because I’m going to dock my ship right where it is, and I might crush it. And if any of your jets get close to my ship again, we’re going to shoot them down.”
“I doubt that Admiral,” Marc said. “We were by you before your ship even knew we were coming.”
“I’ve seen that trick of flying on the deck before; we won’t let it happen again.”
Catie started raising her fingers one by one as she counted down, “Five … four … three … two … one.”
The shockwave was deafening as Liz buzzed the bridge of the Carl Vinson.
“I’m sorry, Admiral, I couldn’t hear you over the noise of our jet. Did you manage to shoot it down? That was your Gatling gun I heard go off?”
“God damn it,” the admiral yelled at the captain.
The bridge was scrambling as they were tracking Liz as she went vertical after passing the bridge. “Shoot that thing down!”
“It’s already out of range. We couldn’t get a targeting solution in time to fire, the weapons officer announced.”
“What about our fighter screen?”
“Their jet is too fast, it was doing Mach five,” the radar technician reported. “And we can barely see it on the radar.”
“Admiral, is everything okay?” Marc’s voice came over the speaker system on the bridge.
“I am going to sink that blasted city of yours,” the admiral yelled.
“I would really suggest you consider other options besides starting a war. Congress won’t look kindly on you starting one without their approval.”
“The war will be over before Congress even knows about it!” the admiral yelled. “Now get that man off my comm system!”
“Perfect,” Samantha clapped her hands. “That will be playing on every news channel as their opening for the evening news.”
“You have those kinds of connections?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Pfft,” Samantha said. “All you need is the number of one reporter, then the feeding frenzy will start. We’ll give him an hour to simmer, then we’ll make the next call.”
Friday 12:28
Everybody took the hour break to go to the restroom and grab another drink. Blake and Kal opted for a beer.
When Marc saw Blake with his beer, he gave him a dirty look, “Hey, we’re just here for the entertainment,” Blake said. “This is Sam’s show.”
Marc smiled and gave a shrug. Blake was right, only he and Sam, and maybe the admiral, needed to be on their game, everyone else was just watching.
“Okay, ADI, please make the calls.”
“Captain, it’s the White House,” the communication officer on the bridge of the Carl Vinson said in a hushed tone.
“For the admiral, I assume,” the captain gave the comm officer a hard glare admonishing him for not announcing that critical piece of information.
“Yes sir.”
The yeoman was already heading to the admiral’s office. Thirty seconds later, the admiral was almost running as he came onto the bridge. He grabbed the phone, “Admiral Morris here.”
“Why are you calling me?” the president yelled into the phone.
“Mr. President, you called me, sir.”
“You called a meeting with me, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State,” the president yelled. “How dare you.”
Samantha nodded to Marc.
“No, gentlemen, I called you both,” Marc said. “I thought you might want to see the evening news. I think the report you’ll be interested in is on any of the major news channels. I’ll have my assistant put it up on your display, Admiral.”
ADI piped the news channel to one of the Carl Vinson’s tactical screens.
“Breaking news! Admiral Morris threatens to bomb Delphi City.” The news immediately showed the scene where Marc was asking the admiral if he was okay.
“How could you be so stupid,” the president’s voice rang out. “And where did that video come from!”
“I don’t know, but we’ll find out!” the admiral yelled.
“Sir, what is going on?” Secretary Palmero was heard saying. “How could you authorize such a mission?”
“Where are you now?” the president demanded.
“We are five hundred miles from Rarotonga,” the admiral said. “It will take us thirty-two hours to reach that floating city.”
“Now!” Marc said.
On the display showing the bridge, you could see a definite lurch as the Carl Vinson suddenly lost propulsion.
“I think you should revise that estimate,” Marc said.
“What the hell happened?” the admiral and the captain yelled together. The bridge crew was frantically checking status.
“Engineering reports we’ve lost our starboard shafts!”
“What happened?” the president yelled into the phone.
“We’ve lost some of our propulsion,” the admiral said.
“What does that do to the mission?”
“We cannot launch fighter jets, but we can still make it to the target.”
“Unless you lose the other two shafts,” Marc threatened.
“Sir, the Speaker of the House is on the phone,” someone announced, their voice could barely be heard over all the other noise on the channel. “And the Senate Leader is on the other line.”
“It seems the president has other matters to attend to,” Marc said.
Everyone could hear the president’s phone crashing against something. “Damn it, this is a mess.”
“Close the calls,” Marc ordered. “Okay, Sam, do you have what you need?”
“Yes. We’ll send that last video to the president,” Samantha said. “Then he can decide how he wants to play this out.”
Friday 17:00 EST
“Today the White House announced the firing of Admiral Morris, saying he had hoped to curry favor with the president by forcing Delphi City and MacKenzie Discoveries to share their jet engine design with the US military. The White House added that the video of the admiral that you saw here on the evening news was during a moment of frustration and anger and that in no way was the admiral intending to bomb Delphi City.”
“I guess we can rest for now,” Samantha said. “But we need to find a way to keep the Russians and the Chinese from doing something similar.”
“Well, at least we can take a break,” Marc said.
“Captain, North Korea has just launched a missile.”
Afterword
Thanks for reading Delphi Station!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the 2nd Book in the Delphi in Space series. The story continues in Delphi Nation -- coming soon. If you would like to join my newsletter group, click here, Delphi in Space. The newsletter provides interesting science
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Coming soon, Delpi Nation, the fourth book in the exciting new adventure series Delphi in Space. The McCormacks have been trying to keep a low profile so they can complete their plan to bring Earth to the club of spacefaring civilizations without creating a world war over the technology. But it’s hard to keep a low profile while building a space station, what with lifting all the material they need, designing new shuttles, and harnessing asteroids. Without any other choice, they go public.
Find out what is in store for them as the nations of Earth deal with the shocking technology and power that having the high ground of space means.
Cover by Momir Borocki
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