Though this book
can
“stand alone” it will be
much
easier to understand if read as part of the series including “Quicker (an Ell Donsaii story),” “Smarter (an Ell Donsaii story #2)” and “Lieutenant (an Ell Donsaii story #3).” I have minimized repetition of explanations that would be redundant to the first two books in order to provide a better reading experience for those of you who are reading the series.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

Preprologue

Allan Donsaii was an unusually gifted quarterback. He was widely recognized to be startling strong and was a phenomenally accurate passer. During his college career he finished two full seasons
without any
interceptions and two games with 100 percent completions. Unfortunately, he was never drafted because the pro teams felt he was too small.

Kristen Taylor captained her college soccer team and was extraordinarily quick. She rarely played a game without a “steal” and usually had many.

Allan and Kristen dated more and more seriously throughout college and married at the end of their senior year. Their friends kidded them that they were only marrying so that they could start their own sports dynasty.

Their daughter Ell did have Kristen’s quickness, magnified by Allan’s strength and accuracy. The child
also
had a new mutation affecting the myelin sheaths surrounding her nerves. This mutation produced nerve transmission speeds that were nearly double those of normal neurons. Nerve impulse transmissions being faster, she had
much
quicker reflexes. Yet the new myelin sheath was also thinner, allowing more axons, and therefore more neurons, to be packed into the same sized skull. These two factors resulted in a brain which had more neurons, though it wasn’t larger
and
a more rapid processing speed, akin to a computer with a smaller scale CPU architecture that enables faster processor speeds.

Most importantly, under the influence of adrenalin in a “fight or flight” situation, her nerves would transmit even more rapidly than their normally phenomenal speed.

Much
more rapidly…

Prologue

Boston—PGR Comm, a privately held company in Boston MA, announced today the initial public sale of a new communications “chip.” These chips have apparently already been in use by the US military services. The chips come in pairs, said to be “quantum entangled” and are purported to allow instantaneous communication between one chip and its mate over very large distances at extremely low cost. It is alleged that such communication is uninterruptible, uninterceptable, undetectable, and requires no infrastructure. The company claims that these chips will revolutionize communications. If such claims are substantiated the chips will certainly alter…

The Friday night before Thanksgiving Phil Zabrisk walked into the Gold Rush and looked around for Jason Daventa. He and Jason had been buddies since basic training at the Air Force Academy and were meeting there for a night out on the town in the big city of Denver. It had been a while since they’d last gone out together because Phil, to his own surprise, hadn’t really been in the mood to chase other women.

He hadn’t felt like it since that Thanksgiving weekend nearly a year ago when he’d helped foil Ell Donsaii’s attempted kidnapping. After the kidnapping he’d tried to tell her how important she was to him and she’d seemed to respond. He could close his eyes and remember the “thank you” kiss she’d given him. But he’d rarely seen her since then. She’d driven up to Seymore Johnson AFB to see him for a day over his Christmas break when he’d been home visiting his parents. Then he’d driven down to visit her at her mother’s home in Morehead City a day later. In January she’d gone to Officer Training and been assigned to Nellis AFB. He’d hoped to visit her in Las Vegas over his summer break but that hadn’t worked out. He’d kinda hoped that she’d hop over to Colorado Springs and visit him but that hadn’t happened either. Now it had been nearly a year and he’d only seen her that one day at Christmas time. Gradually he’d developed the feeling that he’d better get on with his life. She’d been a lieutenant for almost a year now, while Phil still had more than half a year to go at the Academy before he’d get his own bars. It seemed silly to wait around for her. It was even crazier to think that she’d wait around for him.

So when Jason called and suggested they go out on the town, he’d decided that it was time to get back in the swing of things. He looked around The Gold Rush and saw Jason sitting in a booth.
Not a good tactical base for chasing women, Jason,
he thought to himself as he started that way.
A booth impairs your mobility.
As he approached Jason and could see deeper into the booth he saw Joy Denson sitting next to him. Joy and Jason had been an item back in their Doolie year but hadn’t been together for quite a while now.
Damn! If they’re getting back together tonight, and are dragging me along as a “third wheel” I’m gonna be pissed!
Phil rolled his eyes and stepped up next to the booth. Belatedly, he noticed that someone was sitting on the bench seat across from Jason and Joy.

Ell! Gorgeous as ever!

Stunned, Phil found himself grinning vacuously at Ell’s trademark crooked smile. Then he realized that Joy and Jason were laughing at the silly look on his face and turned to glare at them. “You guys kept
this
a secret?!”

Ell grinned up at his Norse God good looks and giggled, “Are you gonna sit down and give me hug? Or am I gonna have to climb up
there
to get one?”

Phil dropped to the bench beside Ell and threw his arms around her,
Hmpf, she feels good!
He drew back, leaving one arm around her shoulders, “Man! It’s great to see you! I’d just been thinking how it’d been a long time! How is life up there in exalted lieutenant land?”

Joy laughed, “Lieutenant!? Boy are you behind the times! She’s been a captain for whole
days
now!”

Ell looked sharply at Joy, “How did you know about that?”

Smugly, Joy said, “I have my ways.”

Phil and Jason goggled, “Captain?” Phil asked.

Eyes sparkling, Joy grinned, “It seems that President Teller has been up to some of his old tricks. Let’s see,” she looked musingly up at the ceiling. “I believe a certain someone may have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom as well as being promoted two ranks, the maximum possible in ‘peacetime’?” She waggled her eyebrows at the two men. “If you guys knew how to keep your ear to the ground, you
too
could be aware of such things.”

Phil turned to stare at Ell, “Really?!”

She shrugged, looking uncomfortable, “Yeah, but they’re letting me out of the rest of my military commitment so the promotion doesn’t really matter.”

A stunned pause followed, then Phil said, “What’d you
do
?!”

Ell looked uncomfortable and shrugged minutely again. “I let them use some of my chips…” she trailed off.

Joy grinned, “What the indomitable
Captain
Donsaii means to say, is that she single handedly staved off a war in the Western Pacific.”

Jason turned to stare at Joy, “You mean that “Fleet Exercise” of the PRC’s really
was
an invasion that was turned back? I’ve heard people claiming that, but…”

“Yep! A certain
someone
got in their way.” Joy chortled.

“Joy!” Ell said blushing brightly, “
I
didn’t stop them! All I did was help solve some of the comm problems we were having after the Chinese shot down our satellites!”

Joy snorted, “Yep, that’s
all
she did…” Joy raised her eyes to the ceiling. “Holy crap! Isn’t that enough?”

Phil lifted his arm off Ell’s shoulders, “Holy crap is right! My arm’s on fire just touching such a hot commodity.”

Ell grinned up at him and grabbed his hand, pulling his arm back down onto her shoulders, “Hey, a girl needs her hugs, the least you can do is keep your arm around me until you have a few blisters.” She tilted her head and frowned seriously. “But really, it wasn’t that big a deal. It just happened that some communication chips I came up with last fall could substitute for the lost satellite comm. Joy makes it sound like I went over there and stopped the PRC myself!”

Phil rolled his eyes, “So, tell us, what
did
happen then?”

Ell was saved by the waiter who stepped up to the table then, asking, “Can I get you some drinks while you look over the menus?”

However, once their orders had been placed, they dragged the story of what had happened out of her, including the story of her PGR chips, their quantum entanglement and instantaneous communication capabilities. At every turn, a flabbergasted Phil heard her describe her accomplishments as if anyone else could have done the same if they’d simply been lucky like she had. She played her role down and asked them not to make a big deal of it, especially in view of the fact that the President wanted public acceptance of the fiction that the PRC had only been undertaking a “training exercise.”

Eventually Ell managed to deflect attention from herself by using the tactic of asking them what their own plans were. Jason had applied to med school. Ell gave him a high five. “Hey, I didn’t know you were that kind of student!”

He lifted his chin, “I have been forced to hide my light under a bushel so you bourgeois individuals would accept me into your circle.” He raised an eyebrow aristocratically and held up his beer mug.

Phil said, “Put your pinky out when you lift that beer, Mr. Academic!”

Joy chortled, “You were worried that you were too ‘smart’ to hang out with Donsaii!? That’s a good one!”

Ell turned to her, “What about you, Joy?”

Joy shrugged, “I applied to flight school. I think I’ve got a pretty good shot at being accepted ‘cause my vision’s 20/20, hearing’s good and my reaction time is better than average. Like everyone else I’m dreaming of being selected for fighter aviation but there aren’t all that many slots now that UAVs are doing so much. I’m trying not to set my hopes too high.”

“When do you find out?”

“After Christmas.”

Ell turned back to Jason, “When do you find out about med school?”

“Sometime Spring semester.”

Ell looked up at Phil, “What are your plans big guy?”

Phil shrugged, “I’ve been applying for astronaut training. I may be screwed though. They recently reduced the height limit to 6’ 3” when they took the R20 capsules out of service. I’m 6’ 3” plus a half. They have so many good applicants that they probably won’t overlook that extra half inch. If so, I’ll try for aviation I guess.”

Phil sounded pretty depressed about it to Ell. “Aren’t they talking about a bigger launch vehicle?”

Phil shrugged, “Yeah, but if I were running things, I probably wouldn’t take on an oversized astronaut trainee in the ‘hope’ that we’d have a bigger vehicle by the time he was trained.”

Joy said, “Have you tried slouching for the measurements?”

Phil frowned, “My height is all over the Academy documentation!”

BOOK: Rocket! An Ell Donsaii story #4)

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