Delphi Alliance by Bob Blanton

Author:Bob Blanton [Blanton, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Delphi Publishing
Published: 2020-01-19T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Waiting and Waiting

“What’s up with the Russians?” Catie asked as she sat down to breakfast with her father, Uncle Blake, and Samantha the next day.

“It’s mostly been quiet,” Samantha said. “They made a few protests about the sudden disappearance of all their spy satellites.”

“What did we say?” Catie asked.

“We offered to go look for them if they would tell us where they were supposed to be,” Samantha said.

“How’s Meg doing?” Catie asked.

“She’s enjoying the job,” Samantha said. “Wasn’t too happy with Ambassador Lobanov’s threats, but he seems to have a lot less bluster lately.”

“What about the U.S.?”

“No real movement there. Admiral Michaels says that things are quiet, but there have been no overtures toward us.”

“What price are you going to ask for access to the fusion reactors?” Blake asked.

“Denuclearization,” Marc said.

“What about China?”

“Same thing; after the first twelve, we’ll start demanding a reciprocal level of denuclearization for each reactor, starting with their ballistic submarines,” Marc said.

“Do you expect a problem?” Catie asked.

“We’ve gotten positive signals from the ambassador,” Samantha said, “especially after that meteorite hit Iwaki Island. I think all the major powers got that message.”

“Good,” Catie said.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Gawd, another six days,” Catie said as she and Liz got ready for their run.

“It’s just six days,” Liz said. “Just keep doing what you would if there wasn’t some big asteroid that might be hiding a Paraxean fleet heading for Earth.”

“Oh, now that helps take my mind off of it.”

“There’s nothing to do but to keep doing what we’ve been doing. Did you hear that Blake is going to extrude another hub starting tomorrow?”

“Yeah, we talked about it. He wants more room to make space fighters, might as well make a hub while he’s at it. He’s only going to do the inside shell.”

“Then how’s he going to connect it to section one?”

“He’ll make the endcaps and the magnetic bearings. Later, when they do the outer hub, they’ll extrude it down around the inner hub, then extend the endcaps to lock it in place.”

“How many laps are we running?” Liz asked.

“Two,” Catie said. “Five-minute pace.” With the outer ring being one thousand meters in diameter, that meant they would be running 6.28 kilometers, just under four miles, in twenty minutes.

“I hear the twins are coming up tomorrow,” Liz said. “That should take your mind off of the waiting.”

“Or make it seem that much longer,” Catie said. She and Liz both laughed at that thought as they picked up their pace.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Hi, Sophia,” Catie said as she joined her at the table for lunch.

“Hi, Catie, where have you been?”

“I’ve been around, just busy.”

“You look antsy,” Sophia said. “Kind of like my father. Do you know why he’s so nervous lately?”

“I didn’t know he was.”

“Liar.”

“No, really,” Catie said. “Might be the stuff with the Russians. We’re all wondering if they’re going to behave themselves or start attacking our freighters again.”

“Why would they stop?”

“Because Daddy dropped them a note,” Catie said as she dropped a piece of ice from her glass onto the table.

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