Delphi Challenge

by Bob Blanton

  “It’s your dollar,” Jamie said.

  “Darn right it is, now get on over here,” John said. He smiled at Liz. “My nephew, he can be a bit slow at times.”

  Liz and John chatted about the ship while they waited for Jamie to show up. It took him five minutes to get there.

  John pointed to the lower door of the cargo pod. He’d had Liz open it while they waited on Jamie. “Put a few sacks of that feed into this here thing.”

  “What the hell is that thing?” Jamie asked. “I was ready to turn around and call the Sheriff, but then I saw you and figured it must be okay.”

  “It’s the cargo pod we’ll be loading our grain in; that thing on top is the spaceship they’ll be using to lift it up. Now get to moving that feed.”

  Jamie hefted a bag of feed onto his shoulder and started toward the cargo pod. “You helping?”

  “No, I’m an old man, I can’t afford to strain myself on minor tasks like this.”

  Jamie rolled his eyes, but didn’t make a comment. “How many bags?”

  “Four.”

  Jamie dropped the bag he was carrying into the pod, then he quickly shifted three more bags.

  “Okay, how much does your ship say that weighs?” John asked.

  “Paul, what weight are you reading?” Liz asked the Skylifter pilot.

  “Ninety kilos.”

  “Just under two hundred pounds,” Liz said.

  “That’s pretty good. Ask him how much it weighs now,” John said as he stepped into the pod.

  “Somebody just added another one hundred and ten kilos,” Paul said.

  “He says you weigh two hundred forty-four pounds,” Liz said.

  “Yep, with my boots on,” John said. “You want to start filling ‘er up?”

  “We should agree on a price first,” Liz said.

  “Oh, you think so?” John said with a smile. “Okay, come on up to the house and I’ll give you a cup of coffee, and we can talk turkey.”

  Liz followed John up to his house. He led her to the kitchen, where he poured them both a cup of coffee. He grabbed the newspaper and looked up the prices being offered for corn at the various silos and mills.

  “Damn electric cars!” John said. “It’s really hurting the price of corn. I put those silos in so I could hold onto some and try to catch a better price. But the price keeps going down. Chinese have been buying some, but it’s not helping the price much.”

  “Well, we’re hoping to open a new market,” Liz said. “How much corn do you have in those silos?”

  “More’n you’re going to be able to put in that there pod.”

  “We have more pods.”

  “Oh, interesting. Well, let’s talk price. Right now, corn is selling at one hundred ten dollars a ton. But I was hoping to get more, that’s why I’ve still got it.”

  Liz knew that corn was actually trading at one hundred five dollars a ton at this time, but she didn’t bring it up. “Well, we save you the cost of having to ship it to the railroad or the mill.”

  “Yep, you would at that,” John said. “How much corn are you looking for?”

  “We could use anywhere between five hundred and six hundred thousand tons.”

  “Yee howdy! That’s a lot of corn. I’ve got about one hundred fifty thousand tons, but there are some other farmers around here that are holding some.”

  “The price?” Liz prompted.

  “Well, if’n you’re buying that much, the price will go up.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Sure it will.”

  “Tell you what, I’ll pay you one twenty per ton,” Liz said. “And if things go well, I’ll be back next year to buy that much again. What do you say?”

  “I say you’ve got a deal.”

  “Let’s go and start loading it up,” Liz said.

  “Sure.” John led Liz back outside. He was on his phone, calling Jamie. “Jamie, get some boys over here and set up our conveyor. We’re going to be loading all our corn into that there pod.”

  “It won’t all fit.”

  “I know! They’ll bring another pod when that one’s full. Now get to it.” John paused and looked at Liz. “You know, that lifter thing of yours should be able to help my friend Harry out. He’s got some corn he would be selling. But right now, he’s got his new tractor stuck in a bog. We’ve been trying to pull it out, but it’s stuck real good.”

  “I’m sure we wouldn’t have any problem lifting it out,” Liz said.

  John pulled out an iPhone and called his friend. “Hey, Harry, that tractor of yours still stuck?”

  “Yes, are you calling to laugh at me some more?” Harry snapped back.

  “No! I’m over at my place selling my corn. They brought a cargo hauler that can lift that tractor out of that bog.”

  “No semi-truck is going to be strong enough to pull it out. Yours and Jake’s tractors couldn’t, and they’re both stronger than any semi-truck.”

  “It’s not a semi-truck, it’s some kind of spaceship. Just meet us over by the bog, and we’ll get your tractor out.”

  “A spaceship?!”

  “Just be there!” John yelled into his phone. “Now, can you give me a ride in that thing? I never even seen a spaceship, much less rode in one.”

  “No problem,” Liz said. “Paul, can you land Popeye? We’ve got a short errand to run.” They’d named the Skylifter Popeye, since it was over-muscled like the comic character.

  “Copy, I’ll be landing it in just a minute. Where are we going?”

  “Just about five miles to the west,” John said.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Harry was staring at the Skylifter when they landed next to his truck. “You weren’t lying when you said it was a spaceship.”

  “Yep, and this thing carries a cargo box that’s bigger than it is. Quite a sight to see the two connected. Now let’s get that tractor of yours out of this bog.”

  It only took twenty minutes to hook the chains that were already secured around the tractor onto the Skylifter. Then Paul eased the Skylifter up and slowly pulled the tractor out of the bog. Once they had disconnected the tractor, he set the Skylifter back down.

  “Oh, looky there, it’s sinking,” John said, pointing out the fact that the Skylifter had sunk in about two feet.

  “Yep, this ground is useless. I’ve been draining it for two years, ever since my Pa left it to me,” Harry said. “It still holds water. I dug a well to help drain it, but it’s so boggy that I’m not sure it’ll ever finish draining.”

  “How much does that ship weigh?” John asked.

  “About twenty thousand tons,” Liz answered.

  “Couldn’t you use it to compress that bog? It wouldn’t get stuck, would it?”

  “Now hold up a minute. I haven’t even paid her for getting the tractor out. I can’t afford to pay for that big ship to do that.”

  “There’s no charge for getting the tractor out,” Liz said. “And I’d be interested in seeing what it would do to the bog. If you’re game, we’ll see.”

  “You sure it won’t get stuck?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then I’m a might curious too,” Harry said.

  “Paul, can you work the Skylifter around that bog and see if you can compress it, so the water is easier to drain?”

  “It’s your ship. Who’s going to clean it?” Paul asked.

  “I’ve got a big steam cleaner I use on my tractors,” John said. “We’ll take care of the cleaning.”

  “Paul, go for it, let’s see how good your piloting skills are.”

  The three of them leaned up against Harry’s pickup while they watched Paul work his way around the bog. Within an hour, he’d compressed the ground so much that he had turned the bog into a pond. It was about a meter deep and five hundred meters on a side.

  “We can compress it even more if you like,” Liz said.

  “We don’t want to keep you,” Harry said. “And I don’t think having that thing just sit there will do
much more.”

  “Oh, but it can push downward,” Liz said. “The same way it pushes down to fly up, it can push up to go down.”

  “I don’t understand none of that, but if you’re willing, let’s see it.”

  “Paul.”

  “I heard, I’ll take care of it,” Paul answered.

  It only took him another thirty minutes to make the pond another half meter deep.

  “Now that’s nice,” Harry said.

  “Hey, you going to drain it, or are you going to keep it like that?” John asked.

  “I’m thinking I should get some trout and release them. It’ll make a nice fishing hole,” Harry said.

  Liz sent Marc a video of them compressing the swampy land, figuring he might want to do the same on Artemis.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Liz had Marta join her when she went to Ukraine to buy wheat. Marta was the Russian mercenary who had joined the Delphi Defense Forces after she had been injured and captured when she and her team had tried to seize Delphi City just after they had declared independence. She spoke Ukrainian as well as Russian and English.

  Between Marta and ADI, they had identified the best region to shop for wheat, now Liz just needed to make a deal.

  “I know you, you were here during war,” Mr. Kolisnyk, the head of the local farmers said. He was pointing at Liz.

  “Yes, I was here during that incident,” Liz said.

  “Why you call it incident, it was war,” Mr. Kolisnyk said.

  “Yes, it was a war,” Liz agreed.

  “So why you bring Russian with you? We no like Russians in Ukraine.”

  “Marta is a friend and she helped us during the fighting,” Liz said.

  “If you say, then I not spit on her.”

  “Please don’t,” Liz said. She was pretty sure Marta would gut him if he spat on her.

  “Okey dokey. Now we have much wheat. So how much do you want to buy?”

  “We need six or seven hundred thousand tons,” Liz said.

  Mr. Kolisnyk gulped, then he started to laugh. “You make joke.”

  “No, that’s how much we need.”

  “Then you are Uri’s best friend. We have much wheat; Uri make you special deal. Come.”

  Liz followed Uri Kolisnyk over to his truck. “Come ride with me to my office, your Russian friend, she can ride too.”

  “This is a nice truck.”

  “Yes, new hybrid,” Uri said. “I buy so I not use much gas. Price go down, stick it to the Russians.”

  Liz laughed, “Do you think you’re making that much of a difference?”

  “Not me, all farmers changing to new fuel cells with plug-in technology, for tractors too. Now Ukraine has more oil than it needs. Good for our economy, bad for Russian economy.”

  “You sure hold a grudge.”

  “My son, he say look forward not back. But I lose friends in war, so you forgive me if I look to side and find way to stick it to Russia.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Liz spent three days in Ukraine with Uri, getting the wheat they needed. With his help, not only did they get a good price, but he coordinated with all the farmers so that a group of them would bring it to a central location, eliminating the need to move a partially filled pod.

  But when it came to soybeans, it was a different story. Since it was before the harvest in the southern hemisphere and well after it in the northern hemisphere, there were hardly any soybeans to be found.

  “Catie, I’m going nuts trying to find enough soybeans. We’re having to ferry a cargo pod all over the country to get a little here, a little there,” Liz said.

  “They did say as much as we could get, just get what you can and make up the difference with corn,” Catie said.

  Three days later, the Dutchman was ready to head out to Paraxea.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Sail ho!”

  “Where away?!” Miranda demanded.

  “Off the starboard bow!” the lookout replied.

  “Mayhew, what do you think?”

  “We’re on opposing tacks, heading toward the same patch of water,” Mayhew said.

  “And?”

  “I don’t know. We’re still twenty miles from the city, it’ll come down to the wind.”

  “Then we had better find the best wind!”

  “Sally has the best eyesight,” Mayhew said. “Send her up, tell her we need to know where the dark patches of water are.”

  “Sally!”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  They had just tacked away from the other schooner when Catie came up on deck.

  “So we have a real competition now,” Catie said to Miranda and Mayhew.

  “Yes,” Mayhew said. “We sent Sally up to look for better wind.”

  “We’re only about fifteen miles from Delphi City, will the wind make that much difference?” Catie asked.

  “It will make all the difference,” Mayhew said. “If we only knew which direction it was blowing over by the city.”

  “How would that help?”

  “We can set up our tacks so that we have the best wind and the longest reach to the city. We’ll be screwed if we have to tack an extra time to make it into port.”

  “Oh, then tell Sally to look for an Oryx. They always land into the wind if they can.”

  “But that’s not always true,” Miranda said.

  “Sure, they avoid flying over the city, but if we get the angle of their landings, we can figure out the wind direction, or at least narrow down the range,” Catie said.

  “Sally! Give us the direction of the next Oryx that’s heading into Delphi City!”

  “Aye-aye!”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  It was ten minutes before Sally spotted an Oryx lined up for a landing. She called down the direction.

  Catie sketched out a map, “See, here’s the city. The airport rotates around this island that’s out about a kilometer. So, if it’s oriented like this, that means the plane is landing directly into the wind. There’s plenty of room to adjust for the wind at this angle, so it must be head on.”

  “Are you sure?” Mayhew asked. “That’s twenty degrees off of the normal wind direction.”

  “Absolutely,” Catie said.

  “Then that will give us an advantage; if the other schooner doesn’t know about the wind change, they’ll come in on the wrong tack.”

  “Keep your fingers crossed and set us up,” Miranda ordered.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  The Delphi Princess had already established herself in the best position before the other schooner figured out that the wind by Delphi City was shifted from normal. The Princess was beating up toward the city’s pier on a straight line, and they would be able to cross the finish line without tacking.

  “Yay!” the cry went up as everyone realized they had the other schooner beat.

  “Sail ho!” Sally yelled.

  “Where away?”

  “At the dock!”

  “Shit, someone beat us back,” Mayhew cursed.

  “Keep your wits about you! All we can do now is keep going,” Miranda yelled. “We’re racing that schooner over there, nothing we can do about the one in port already.”

  Miranda went about the ship keeping everyone focused on the task at hand. The crew was depressed, but with her encouragement they refocused on their immediate competition and rallied.

  “Alright!” Miranda exclaimed as they crossed the finish line. “I’m proud of all of you. Now, let’s bring the Princess into port like the proud lady she is.”

  “How did that ship beat us back?” Catie messaged ADI.

  “It circled Oeno Island, instead of Duice,” ADI said.

  “What? You had to go around all four islands!” Catie said.

  “They thought Oeno was Duice, so they thought they had made it around all four. The navigator was confused.”

  “So they’re disqualified?”

  “I believe so,” ADI said.

  �
�Who was the navigator?”

  “Cadet Jamison.”

  Chapter 5

  Back to School

  “Land, I thought we’d never make it back,” Julie yelled as she knelt down and kissed the dock.

  “Cadet Delacroix, mind your decorum,” Miranda hissed.

  “Sorry, ma’am. Kind of forgot about the Academy and all that.”

  “It’s okay, I’m pretty happy to be off that ship and onto something more solid, even if it is floating.”

  Commandant Lewis was waiting to greet the Princess and her crew.

  “Congratulations,” Commandant Lewis said as Miranda walked up and saluted her.

  “Thank you, ma’am. We’re happy to be back, just wish we could have won,” Miranda said. “But we did our best. I had a great crew.”

  “Oh, but you did win,” Commandant Lewis said.

  “How?” Miranda asked, pointing to the other schooner.

  “They messed up their navigation and cut the course short.”

  “Did you hear that! We won!” Miranda yelled.

  “Cadet, mind your decorum,” Commandant Lewis whispered.

  “Sorry, ma’am.”

  “You have two days to celebrate before classes start. Have fun.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Yvette, what ship were you on?” Catie asked when they finally met up in their dorm room.

  “The first one back,” Yvette said.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry, what happened?”

  “That idiot Jamison screwed up the navigation. Several of us tried to tell him and the captain that he was wrong, but, No! they couldn’t be wrong. And because they both went to the Citadel, they wouldn’t listen to anyone else.”

  “You’re lucky that they didn’t make you go back and actually circle the Pitcairn Islands.”

  “Oh, gawd, don’t say such a thing, someone might hear you and think it’s a good idea. It was bad enough having to spend two weeks on the schooner.”

  “But you survived.”

  “Yes, after breaking four fingernails, getting a rash on my derrière, and ruining my hands.”

  “What did Jamison say afterward?”

  “Nothing, but most of the guys have started calling him Hasty Pudding.”

  “Hasty Pudding?”

  “A euphemism for a guy who always finishes early,” Yvette said with a wink.