There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 32

Note: All persons in this novel are fictitious. If you are looking for a great deal of explicit sexual activity, this story is not for you. Those scenes that are included will be evocative rather than just for the sake of sex itself. This story is for your reading pleasure. Its length is undetermined at this time, because I do not know where my mind will take me along the way. I hope you will stay with me during this journey until it reaches its inevitable conclusion.

153. The Countdown Begins

(Post-Thanksgiving – 26 days to launch)

Babies created a new problem for us to solve, and I couldn't complain because I was one of the culprits. I ordered Doctor Finch to quit his job at the hospital, and join our team in the main building. He was put in charge of getting us all the needs for babies, not just for now, but also for the next twenty years, in freeze-dried or powdered forms. His purview did not include just food, but ways for them to sleep, without using cribs, exercise equipment, changing tables, and one-piece clothing. His major problem was time, and it was extremely limited.

Initially his eyes rolled back in his head, until he realized there would be a maximum of thirty-five women who were going to be on the trip with us. He made up a list of forty-three questions, everything from medical equipment to baby diapers and asked me for some computer time.

"How much time do you need Doctor?"

"About ninety minutes, maybe a little bit more."

I smiled at him. "How would you like all of this done and half a second?"

"I'm not going to ask you how you are going to do it Even, I just want to see it done."

I took him to my station and introduced them to my Exascale computer. I scanned his questions in, and asked him to push the Begin button.

His finger had not released the button, when the printer started screaming the answers.

I took his questions off the scanner, reached down, and pulled almost 50 sheets of paper out of my bin.

Finch joked with me as he was reading the first medical answer.

"I think it missed a period Doctor Luck. What the hell is that thing?"

"It's a computer that will help us from running into any space rocks while we fly through the Kuiper belt, and into outer space. If you realize the speed we will be flying at, even this computer may not be fast enough to keep us out of harm's way. Our people at the University of Chicago may have an update on the computer chips before we leave. If they do, the speed of this computer will be quadrupled, and we will need it, if we decide to fly through a White Hole."

"If I start asking you questions like what is a White Hole, we will be here all day and into next year."

"It has taken us over eight years to get to this point Doctor, and you have just stepped into the building. You have a long learning curve ahead of you before you step onto the bridge and know what you're doing."

"If you don't mind, I'll stay in the infirmary. I'll be more comfortable down there."

"The answer to that is, "No." You are going to be training new doctors. Our Doctor is going to be training as a flight engineer, and then eventually as a captain. We only have a limited amount of people, and we are going to die off a little at a time. Everyone must have multiple skills drilled into them. We are going to have only one plumber onboard. He is going to have to train many more in that skill. If he was to die, either naturally or by accident and no one else knew what to do, we would all be up shits creek."

"Very well put Captain. I guess there will be no leisure time on board this flight."

"There will be plenty of leisure time, but there will be a lot of learning going on at the same time. We don't want boredom to set in among the people flying with us. We want everyone happy and productive. Everyone flying with us is very well educated, and motivated. No one came just look out the windows, which we have none. There are computer screens everywhere so they can see the stars, but that will get old quickly. People are used to working. Gordon would go crazy sitting at his station on the flight deck all day knowing the computer was doing everything, and all he was doing was watching dials and lights. He wants to invent, he wants to use his brain, just as you and I do. You trained to be a plastic surgeon. You better retrain yourself to be a brain surgeon Doctor, because on this ship the two major injuries you are going to deal with are to the head and spine."

"I'm going to need a lot of books to study from in order to do that Doctor Luck."

"Books are not allowed on this ship because they are flammable. Anything and everything you want to know about the human body is stored in our computers.

We are quadruple redundant. If our number one computer goes off-line, the number two computer comes online instantly. It is always running, and feeding off the primary computer. It knows exactly what is going on, so there is no shortfall anywhere in the ship. If there is a fault in the number one computer, and it goes off-line, the number two takes control automatically. Computer number three computer comes online. It uploads everything that number two is doing and adds it to its memory banks. The number four moves into the number three position goes into the ready position, and does a self-diagnostic to make sure it's working properly. When the number one computer is fixed, it goes into the number four, or rest position and does a self-diagnostic to see if anything else needs to be repaired that wasn't caught by our technicians.

These Exascale Computers won't be available to the public for a generation. At that time, our people at the Argonne National Laboratory's at the University of Chicago will have come up with something so far advanced, these computers will be obsolete."

"Sounds like an amazing set up Doctor."

"It is Doctor; I set it up that way."

***********************

William Zabo Junior, and Patrick Zabo arrived in Temple, under heavy security. I had never seen William cry openly, but he did when he saw his namesake. He purposely distanced himself from his oldest son for fear of retribution some people might take out on him, and then sent Patrick to him because of the same fears.

Jemma held him for what seemed like an hour, because of the little time she was able to spend with him as he grew into a man. She was very proud of what he had become, and how much he resembled his father.

Jemma smacked her 38-year-old son on the arm and asked him, "Why aren't you married, I'm waiting for grandchildren."

Young William replied, "I've been looking for someone as beautiful as my mother, and everyone I've dated has been found wanting."

"Don't you lie to me, you're like your father. You have 1000 women chasing you, and you haven't decided which one you like best."

"I wish I had the time for that problem mom. My business takes up eight days of my week, and I rarely have the time to rest."

"I believe that will end while you are here. I think that's why your father recalled you, at least I hope so."

"I can't believe you're pregnant mom."

"You can't believe it, how about me? I'm in my middle 60s, and when the doctor told me I was pregnant, I knew it was a joke until she showed me the heartbeat on the monitor. I wanted to kill your father, but neither of us thought it was possible because of our ages. Your dad is an amazing man, and you take after him."

"Thank you mom that is a great compliment coming from you."

"Where did Patrick disappear to?"

"He's over there, I'll get him."

"Mom would like to see you Pat."

"William, this is Newton. We were best friends before I went away."

"Newton, it's a pleasure meeting you."

"It's wonderful meeting you too William. It seems Patrick learned a lot while he was away."

"When you're in a different country, you have to learn their ways. If you don't, you're like a little fish in a tank full of sharks."

"That doesn't sound like fun."

"It's not, that's why you have to learn fast, and be hard during your negotiations. If you're not, people will take advantage of you, even your friends. They will think you are soft, and they will not respect you. The Chinese people value tradition, and respect above all other things. I'm sorry we cannot talk longer, but I have to bring Patrick to his mother."

"Maybe we can continue talking later. I would like that."

"It will be fine with me Newton."

Patrick greeted his mother much like his brother did.

"I missed you so much mom. I don't know why they wouldn't let me call you more often."

"It was to keep you safe honey. There were people out there looking for you and your brother. China was the hardest place for them to get to you. If you used the telephone they could track you to within a mile or so of where you really were, and that would have made it easier for them to find you. Believe me I missed you as much as you missed me, and now believe it or not, you are going to have another brother or sister very soon."

"You're kidding, aren't you a little old to be pregnant?"

"Yes I am, but your father didn't think so, and here I go again."

"That is too much mom."

"Tell me about it, he makes me laugh all the time. Wait until you see the spaceship. It's finished, and it will take off on Christmas afternoon. We will watch it take off, and you will know that your father was very important in having that happen."

"How long have you been married to dad now?"

"We've been married for 43 years."

"Wow, that's a very long time. I read in the magazines we get in China that movie stars get married and divorced every other year."

"You're correct Patrick. They don't marry for love, as your father and I did. They marry for lust, and once that sex appeal wears off, they get a divorce and look for another pretty face to marry. They have enough money to do whatever they want to, and it keeps them in the public eye."

"Dad and you have a lot of money, why didn't you divorce?"

"When we married, we were deeply in love, and still are. I don't think our love for each other will ever die."

"You're damn right it won't die; look at that behind on your mother, there's not another one in the world like it."

"If your bones wouldn't break when I hit you, you would be laying on the floor. How dare you talk about me like that in front of our son?"

William Junior said, "I told you mom, I'm looking for a woman exactly like you, and that's one part of you I can't find."

"Junior, you're not too old to be spanked."

"Mom, I can outrun you."

"Do you see what you started William. I will take it out on you in bed tonight."

"Oh no, not that, anything but that."

"Liar."

"Why don't you take your sons to see the spacecraft tomorrow? I've seen it often enough. I'll start knitting booties."

"Mom, you know how to knit?"

"Not really, I just keep the knitting needles sharp so I can jab your father as he goes by me."

"I have the blood marks to prove it boys. Tomorrow when you come with me, I'll show you the next century, and the man who built it."

***********************

I received a call from William who asked me to meet him at the Good Luck with Richard, Holden, and if possible, Newton and Teddy the next morning at 10 AM. When he told me why I told him I would wear clean clothes.

He laughed, and said, "Don't you dare, I may not recognize you."

It seemed William always got the last word in our conversations."

At home that evening, William explained to his namesake that he was retiring from all his businesses, and that Junior was now in control of 80% of them. Jemma was in control of the other 20%. When the time came and Patrick came of age he was to receive 29% of Junior's major holdings. He wanted them to maintain a relationship as a corporate powerhouse. There was only one thing he demanded of his son. Whenever it came to pass that Even Luck's children began to build the new spacecraft, their Corporation would invest a minimum of $35 billion, or higher if the patents coming from it warranted more investments.

Junior balked at this request. "Dad space adventurism is a bottomless pit. You put money in and you never see it again."

"Junior come here and let me show you something."

William opened a large ledger and placed it on his desk. Junior sat beside him and waited for his father to explain what he was looking at.

"On day one I invested $20 billion. As you can see on the graph, at the beginning it was a straight line down for three years. Then we hit gold. You know of Even Luck's son, Gordon?"

"Of course, he was the 15-year-old who invented the process of nuclear fusion."

"As I said, we struck gold. After that, it seemed our scientists made breakthroughs week after week in patentable areas. We started withholding them from the public until we knew their real value. When top-tier companies from Germany, France, Austria and England came pounding on our door, the US companies could not sit on their hands any longer. They came pounding on our doors also. Look at the graph for the next year. It wiped out all our losses for the first three years. After that the graph never went down again. We had people begging to become part of our board of directors, but there are only 20 of us on the board, and we weren't letting go, because we knew what we had. In the past six years, since we broke even, my net worth has grown by $300 billion."

"Did you just say $300 billion dad. How are you hiding that from the government?"

"I'm not, I'm declaring every penny of it, through my 8604 corporations."

"Dad you are a sneaky bastard."

"I am not, I paid over $160 million in taxes on that money."

"Don't make me tell you how sorry I feel for you dad."

"It's not my loss, it's yours. That money was supposed to go to you."

"Now you are making me feel bad. I could have bought another yacht."

"I didn't know you had one."

"I don't."

"Back to business, in order to avoid death taxes, I have already signed over everything to you, and your mother. The attorneys will be here before Christmas for you to sign everything. The people you will meet here are as straight and honest as anyone you will meet in the world. They are scientist, and if you give them enough money to perform their science, they will make you more money than you have ever dreamed of.

However, the two brightest ones, and the leaders of the next program, the Good Luck 2, are 11 and 6 years old. They have their guardians set up. One is an attorney, and the other is his wife. They are both wonderful people, but don't mess with the attorney, because you will lose. I don't care if you bring half of Wall Street's lawyers down here against him, you will lose. He will guard those boys with his life, because he promised Even Luck he would. He would stop a freight train if he had to in order to protect those boys.

The boys have already finished the engineering floor, and are working on the second floor of the spacecraft. It is nearly completed."

"How large is the second spacecraft going to be? I understand this one is relatively small."

"If you call six times the size of the Space Shuttle small, then Even's spaceship is small. Spaceship 2 is going to be 1000 feet in circumference."

"How large did you say?"

"Junior, you're going to have to have your hearing checked. There are a lot of things you are going to see and hear in the next few weeks that are going to astound you. You are going to have to listen carefully the first time. Spaceship 2 is going to be 1000 feet in circumference. It is estimated to take 10 years to build, and when it takes off, it will leave on a 10 year journey, and return. It will be carrying the first group of paying passengers. They will be mostly millionaires, because space travel is going to be expensive. There will also be a lottery for people who can't afford that amount of money, but they will have to prove they make less than a certain amount of money to enter the raffle. Everything is already in the planning stage except to know who is going to be the chief executive officer, the members of the board, and how many board members are going to be on it. This venture cost us $340 billion. Number 2 will probably come in in excess of $1 trillion because of its size.

However, look at it this way, we are launching our first ship December 25, with a minimum of 60 people on board. The government won't be sending anyone into deep space for minimum of four more years, and that is if there space launch system continues to go perfectly. They haven't even tested their rocket yet, and they are betting that it will work the first time, and every time thereafter. We know about the reliability of hydrogen/oxygen propelled rockets. We watched those people die in front of our eyes. It was horrifying. For their sake I hope it works, but they won't get off the ground until 2022. That's seven years from now. If they find one flaw, just one, you can add a year to that. Then they will send four people on a journey to Mars, which will take four years. Two years after they launch, we will be launching Spaceship 2, with 800 people on board, to the outer reaches of space. We will pass that vehicle before they get to Mars. We can even rescue them if they are in trouble."

"Why dad, why won't they listen to you?"

"We can sit here and talk for ages about why, but the simple case is, big companies own the Congress and the Senate. They will never let it happen, because we can do things much cheaper, and faster than they can."

I'm tired son, and Jemma has threatened me with my life. I'm going to bed before she realizes I'm missing. I'll see you early in the morning, and I will show you the Good Luck 1."

"Good night dad."

"Good night son. You turned into a fine young man. Make your brother into one also."

"I will."

**********************

The next morning we were all there waiting for them. The two Williams stepped out of the car and walked the leisurely towards us. Patrick on the other hand towards Newton.

Newton was horrified, and yelled, "Patrick stop."

It was too late, Patrick disappeared. William Junior raced to see what happened to his brother, and was amazed when he saw Newton jump and disappear also. Then he heard laughter coming from the bottom of the bear pit.

"I tried to warn you, but you didn't listen to me."

"What is this thing?"

"It's just something to stop criminals from getting to the spaceship."

"It's very soft."

William Senior said, "Are you having fun down there Patrick?"

"Yes dad, this is cool."

"Well I'm glad you didn't break your neck, but would you come up here so we can go inside the spacecraft please?"

The agents put a ladder down, and one at a time the boys climbed up. Junior backed up to give them space to brush off the sand, and beat sugar that clung to them, when Jim yelled, "Don't move."

Again, it was a half second too late. Junior's heels were over the edge of the bear trap behind him. He lost his balance, and fell into the bottom looking like a snow angel.

William looked down at him and asked, "Were you that jealous of your younger brother?"

Patrick pulled on his father's sleeve.

"Monkey see, monkey do dad."

Junior yelled up, "I'm never going to let you beat me in chess again."

"I was being easy on you letting you win every now and again."

"I'm going to give you such a beating when I get up there."

"Boys, if you're going to play in the sandbox all day let me know and I'll go sit in the shade."

Junior climbed up the ladder, and ruffled Patrick's hair. "I'm going to get you for that, just remember it."

Jim yelled, "No one moves without a guide."

We made it across with no further incidences, and the introductions began.

William started making them formally, and I ordered him to stop it.