Comet! (an Ell Donsaii story #5 ) (8 page)

Roger looked at her curiously, “What’s the matter?”

“I forgot about the reporters! I can’t believe I made such a spectacle of myself with them trailing along!”

“A pretty impressive spectacle though. Nothing to be ashamed of
...
dancers everywhere are gonna be jealous.”

“Hah! You’re in these news stories too you know?”

“Oh!” He grinned sheepishly, embarrassed that he hadn’t realized that. He looked up at his HUD, “I hope they got my good side?”

***

Chapel Hill
,
North Carolina
—
Ms. Ell Donsaii
,
recently recognized for leading the team
at D5R
that saved the International Space Station during its crisis
,
let her hair down last night. She was seen “out on the town”
in
the
town
of
Chapel Hill
where she lives
. She was
with one of the other employees of D5R, a Roger Emmerit. We’ve acquired
some
amazing video (link) of her dancing at a local…

Steve knocked on Ell’s door as she
finished
breakfast Sunday morning. She let him in and set about making him some coffee.

“I thought you were going to bore the reporters to death?”

Ell blushed, “Yeah,
” She sighed
and sagged
,
“
I screwed up huh?”

“There are nine cars out by the gate this morning. Probably all hoping for another
‘
dance
’ like that one.”

Ell stared disconsolately at the water she was pouring into the coffee maker. “Sometimes I wonder why I can’t just do what I want!”

“Oh, you can. But there
will
be
publiciquences.”

“Publiciquences?”

“New word I just made up. ‘Publicity-consequences. Shows my amazing grasp of the situation, huh?”

Ell tilted her head. “How bad do you think the ‘publiciquences’ are going to be?”

He shrugged. “I think you’re going to have to be boring for a lot longer
now
if you want them to go away. Or you could just go ahead and lead an exciting life and get used to them dogging your steps.”

“I’ve been wondering…”

“What?” Steve asked, a little apprehensively.

“Nothing bad.” Ell put up her hands in mock surrender. “Just thinking that
maybe
I could go ahead and lead an exciting public life as ‘Ell’ and
use
my other identities for
a quieter
, more private life
.
I’ve signed up for a couple
more
classes at the ‘U’.
”

“OK,” Steve
looked up at the ceiling, then
sighed
resignedly, “let’s talk about strategies to make that work…”

***

Driving to work Monday, Allan said, “You have a call from Dr. Horton, the Presidential Science Advisor.”

“
Yes Dr.
Horton?”

“Hello Ms. Donsaii. The President has tasked me with setting up a meeting
between
you and his economic advisers about the effects your ‘portal’ technology
may have
on the economy?”

“Yes sir?”

“I’m thinking we could do it by video conference. Is there any time this week when you
couldn’t
do it?”

“I have class
es
Wednesday and Friday mornings
, eight to ten
. Otherwise I can move things around.”

“Class
es
?”

“Yes sir. I’m taking an Astronomy and a Biology class at UNC.”

“
Ms. Donsaii…
I swear you’ll never cease to amaze me. Why biology?”

“I’ve pretty much
minimized
biology
in my education so far. U
nderstanding it could have an
impact on putting living organisms through ports in the future.”

“Okaaay. Well, I’ll try to set up a meeting around those
classes
then.”

***

As far as Ell was concerned Monday was essentially wasted on meetings.

She met with Fred, Vivian and Brian and confirmed that D5R’s “anonymous investors” had agreed to a startup fund of twenty million dollars for their port building facility.

She had a similar meeting with Braun and Stavos
regarding
“
ET Resource
.
”

She attended several meetings of employees who were
leaving to go
with the new enterprises.

She and Roger held a smaller meeting with the employees who had decided to stay and do research with
“
Quantum Research
.” She was glad to see that not everyone was abandoning her for the
apparently
“sure thing” moneymakers. Especially gratifying, the best of their new machinists, a
young guy named
Manuel Garcia had decided to stay with her. Also, Sheila, who was doing an amaz
ing job of organizing the splitting of the
three
companies
had agreed to stay with Ell to
help
build her new enterprise.

Roger arranged a video conference with
Dr.
Bynewicz
,
a neurology researcher at the med school.
Bynewicz
was very interested in the phenomena of port induced seizures and
even more
excited to be funded to study them. However, to Ell’s disappointment, it would be several months before
any
animal research w
ould be approved by the appropriate review boards.

Roger showed up in Ell’s office. “Well, that didn’t take long.” He was grinning.

“What didn’t?”

“For Dr. Emily
Kenner
to take the bait of
Quantum Research
’s
targeted solicitation.” He lifted an eyebrow.

“Emma’s first name is Emily?”

“Ha, you didn’t think her real name was ‘Emma’ did you?”

Ell transfixed him with a glare, “I suppose you think that ‘Ell’ should be short for something like ‘Ellen’
or ‘Elinor?’
”

Roger put his hands up in mock surrender, “Oh no! Never would I dream such a thing!”

Ell sniffed and lifted her chin, “Are we interviewing her then?”

“Yep.” Roger grinned, “To avoid spoiling the surprise I’ve arranged for the interview to be at the Il Palio restaurant.”

Ell grinned, “When?”

“Tonight, seven, table in the back. See you there
at
6:50
?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

It wasn’t until late in the afternoon that
Ell got to
talk to Brian about the disk sprayer they were keeping at Quantum Research. After discussing it, Manuel assured her he could modify it to make her
new single ended ports.

All too soon she had to head home so she’d have time to do herself up as “Ellen.” Then, as she and Steve had worked out, she walked
over
to one of the houses she’d bought for her security team
. That particular house
backed up to
the woods of the farm. There s
he
slipped into
her little Chevy pickup truck
which
had been parked
there
by her security team. She
drove from there to the
Siena
to meet Emma.

Chapter
Three

Emma arrived at Il Palio and gave her name to the Maitre d’.

“Ah, yes Dr. Kenner. Your party is already at the table. Would you like to join them now?”

Emma checked the time on her HUD, worried that she was late but it read
6:59
. “Thank you, yes.”

As she followed the Maitre d’ through the restaurant she was surprised to see that Roger and Ell were in the same restaurant having dinner.
There was a momentary pang at the thought that they appeared to be getting along great. Emma had occasional fantasies about being there to comfort Roger if he and Ell broke up
—
or whatever you called it when you weren’t really boyfriend-girlfriend
—
she’d had a crush on Roger for years now.
Ell was disguised as “Ellen” which wasn’t too surprising considering how much she’d been in the news lately.
Once again
Emma
wondered if she should have asked them
about
the possibility of getting
a job
at D5R
? She’d certainly love to work on the kinds of things that
they were
working on. But she’
d decided that she shouldn’t presume on their friendship
...
at least unless she got to be
desperate
for a job
. She gave them a brief wave and resolved to make excuses to her hosts from
Quantum Research
to get a few minutes to walk over and talk to Ell and Roger
later
.

With some consternation she realized from the Maitre d’s trajectory that she was going to be seated quite close to Roger and Ell
.
That
seemed like it might be a little uncomfortable
...
a dinner
job
interview right next to
some friends that were
having a
romantic evening out
.

Then she realized that Roger and Ell were grinning unrepentantly at her. And the nearby tables were empty. She glanced back up at her HUD
...
she was meeting R.E. and E.D.!!! She’d thought it was weird that they’d only given their initials
...
it was a setup!

Emma stopped, hands on her hips, “You two?!”

Roger stood. Deadpan, he lifted an eyebrow and said, “Good evening
…
Dr. Kenner I presume?”

Emma and Ell broke out laughing. When it wound down Ell wiped a tear from her eye and said, “Roger, I had no idea you had such a flair for the dramatic!”

After ordering and explaining that D5R had become a holding company and split into three Roger said, “So we’d like you to join us in our research section.”

“Yes!
” Ell said,
“
We could really use someone like you
who has
a genius for electronic circuit creation ‘cause the fields we’re trying to create for the next phase are pretty weird.”

Emma looked back and forth at them, “And you guys are approved to do the hiring?”

Ell said, “Well it has to be approved by Human Resources still
, but
pretty much yeah. You’d start at $150,000/year plus shares like Roger did, though Roger’
s due for a raise,
”
she lifted an eyebrow at Roger.

Emma’s eyes widened.
“Wow, that’s pretty good.” Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not just getting them to pay me more because I’m your friend are you?”

Roger laughed, “When they offered me that much I just elevated my chin and figured
I
must be worth it. Haven’t you ever been told not to look a gift horse in the mouth?”

Emma grinned sheepishly, “
OK,
I retract my last question. What are “shares?”

Ell shrugged, “The investors want everyone to be ‘invested’ in the success of the company so every employee gets some shares
.
That
means that if the company makes a killing, you do too.”

“That’s great!” Emma said and leaned forward conspiratorially, “So tell me what kind of cool things we’re going to be trying to do?”

***

Ell got out of her car in her “Belle” disguise and started across campus to her astronomy class.
She was wearing her “not
too
fat” pants to put a little bulk on her hips
. They weren’t
as bad as her “Ell
en” disguise had been but s
he was hoping to distance her appearance from “Ell” somewhat
,
as well as to somewhat decrease the attention Belle’s looks had gotten her last semester.