Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) (3 page)

When Norris finished his lecture and had offered make up discussions for his missed lectures—which were
,
of course
,
also
available on video—he turned to find Belle Donovan
standing behind him again.
The pretty platinum blond girl’s grades were
destroying the curve in
the class
this
semester just
like she had
during the first
semester. This
,
despite her missing many
more
of the classes
during the run up to the comet’s expected impact,
even before his own absence. He smiled, “Yes, Ms. Donovan?”

She looked seriously at him, “I’m wondering what types of precautions we might want to take before landing on an extraterrestrial planet? You know, to prevent contamination of that planet with materials and organisms from Earth… and vice versa.”

Taken aback by the question Norris said, “I don’t think we really need to worry about that issue Ms. Donovan. We’ve
almost certainly
already contaminated Mars with Earth organisms from
some of
the many scientific missions sent there. Probably even more so with the mission sent there recently by D5R because the transit time of that little rocket was short enough that it seems
quite
plausible that
microorganisms on their little rocket could have survived the trip. However, aside from Mars, there seems little reason to believe that Earth organisms would have
any
chance of survival on the other planets in
the
solar system due to
those planets’
inimical environments. And, anything that
could
survive on the other planets seems unlikely to survive on Earth.”

“But what about planets in other solar systems? Ones that were more Earthlike than the ones in our solar system?”

Norris snorted, “That would be a different matter wouldn’t it. But there’s no point worrying about it in any real sense. There is no way that we can reach them, they’re light years away and if you haven’t
yet
considered
just
how far away the nearest stars are, you
should
.”

“Well, but hypothetically?”

Norris
sighed at her persistence
. “
‘
Hypothetically
,’
we shouldn’t worry about it. Ain’t gonna happen. If it did, we should sterilize everything we send there and shouldn’t let anything from there return
to us
here.”

“Not even if we sterilize everything that comes back?”

“How would we know that what came back would be killed by the sterilization methods we use? The organisms there might not be susceptible to the same techniques that work on Earth organisms.”

She frowned, “How would we figure out whether or not they
were
susceptible?”

“
Miss
Donovan! I don’t have time to waste on such ridiculous hypotheticals. If we
were
about to make contact I’d be willing to spend time thinking about them.”

“Are there any scientists in the triangle interested in these types of questions?”

Exasperated
he said
, “You’re like a little yappy dog that’s sunk its teeth into a sock, you know? Just won’t let go even though someone’s picked you up and
is carrying you around
dangling from it
?
” He sighed, “In short, th
e answer is ‘no.’ No one else in
the area is interested in other planetary systems. It’s my field of research and I’m as expert as you’re going to find, but I’m
not
interested in hypotheticals that have no conceivable application.”

“OK,” she said, beginning to turn away. Then she turned back, “At the beginning of class you said you’d like to meet the people from D5R. Would you like me to arrange for you to be introduced to some of them? I have a friend that works there.”

Norris’ eyes snapped back to hers, “Ell Donsaii?”

Donovan looked panicked for a moment, then said, “You could probably meet her. Would you like a tour of D5R?”

“Absolutely!”

“Tomorrow?”

“You seem pretty sure you can work this out? Are you sure Ms. Donsaii will be there tomorrow?”

“Yes sir. Would nine O’clock be OK? Or do you have a class then?”

***

“What happened to
the talor
?”
Syrdian asked.

“I attacked it while it was attacking you.”

“You didn’t! No one
would attack a talor! No one
has
ever
killed a talor.”

Dex lifted hi
e
s wings in a shrug, amazed himrself
,
but not knowing how to refute Syrdian’s argument.

“If someone
were
to kill a talor, it certainly wouldn’t be
you
.”

Dex lifted wings in another shrug.

“Qes,” Syrdian called, resuming hies trek to the woods. Over hies shoulder Syrdian said. “What are these threads
on my wing
?”

A couple of wing beats moved Dex closer and hie began walking parallel but just
behind-right
to
Syrdian. “The talor stood on your right wing and its hind claws ripped your wing membrane.”

“What!” Syrdian stopped and unfurled the right wing to look at it again. “It’s just scratched! It isn’t ripped!”

“It
was
ripped. I sewed it back together
with
fiberlin
the way
I do
my
leatherwork.”

Syrdian’s eyes flashed wide with panic and focused on the largest rip. Hie moaned.
A quiver flashed through hies wings and hie sank to the ground.
For a moment
Dex thought Syrdian would lose consciousness again, not unreasonable upon the thought of never flying again.

Then Qes called from the forest verge, “Syrdian! Is that you?”

Syrdian’s eyes widened and hie rose back up, “Qes! I’m right here!”

“Where
’s
the talor?” Qes said leaning out and peering about.

Dex could not help but admire Qes.
Tall
,
h
andsome Qes with the golden yellow wings.
Not as beautiful as Syrdian but close. However,
the
Qes
that
Dex knew
always acted as if hie were bold.
Hie didn’t appear bold now
, standing between the boles of two trees
,
darting hies head
this way and that
looking
for the talor.

“The talor is dead!” Syrdian said beginning to run toward Qes.

“Dead?” Qes said, “What happened to it?”
Rather than move out from the trees to meet Syrdian,
Qes waited
where hie stood
.

Syrdian reached Qes and threw arms and wings around himr.

***

Wilson Daster walked to Donsaii’s office with some trepidation. Now that his eponymous comet had been disposed of he’d developed a—he hoped irrational—fear that he would be let go as superfluous. Donsaii had claimed that they needed someone with his forensic accounting skills but he couldn’t imagine what for? D5R had divided itself into three organizations, none of which were very large. Apparently they were all funded by a venture capital organization of some type and, Daster thought, th
at
VC group
must
have
an
accounting firm checking up on things?

So, now that his comet was dealt with, and there didn’t really seem like there
should
be a need for someone with his talents in an organization like this, he worried that she was going to tell him that he was no longer needed. “Yes, Ms. Donsaii?” he said stopping outside her door.

Ell raised her eyebrows, “‘Ms. Donsaii?’ I thought you were calling me ‘Ell’?”

Wilson
ducked his head, surprised again to be so intimidated by someone so much younger than he was. “Uh, sorry, Ell. You asked to see me?”

She grinned, “Yeah, come on in and close the door, please?”

Daster’s heart sank. He stepped in and closed the door that rumor said was always open. Probably
closed
when she was giving bad news, he guessed. He sat and raised his eyebrows attentively.

“I want to tell you some stuff that no one here knows, not even my good friends. I need you to reassure me of your complete discretion. This stuff needs to stay between just you and me. Is that OK?”

He nodded, spirits rising. This didn’t sound like the prelude to a firing, though he had no idea what it might
preface
?
On the other hand, why would she tell
him
secrets?

“I want to warn you that I consider your agreement, as recorded by our AIs, to be an enforceable contract?” She raised her eyebrows questioningly.

“Yes Ma’am. I agree.”

“OK, I’d like you to pop the chip out of your AI (Artificial Intelligence) headband so that the only recording of our conversation going forward will be on my AI. It’s much more secure than yours.”

Raising his eyebrows, Daster pulled off his AI and popped the PGR chip out of the back. Laying them on the desk he looked up at Ell expectantly.

“OK, first thing for you to understand before you start investigating our finances is that the ‘investors’ that are supporting D5R and the companies splitting from
D5R
are essentially myself and the employees of D5R
.
Those employees, like
yourself,
all
have shares accruing from their employment.”

“Wait! Where’s all the money coming from? What you’re describing is like a snake eating its own tail. You can’t finance an organization like this from the paychecks paid to the employees!”

“I have a lot of money.” Ell said quietly.

“From endorsements?” Daster said, thinking to himself,
they’re spending millions, endorsements can’t possibly pay for that!

“From the PGR chips.”

Daster’s eyes dropped to the chip he’d just pulled out of his AI headband. “I know they’re based on your paper, but…”

“I patented the chip technology too.”

Daster’s eyebrows went up again, “So you’re getting royalties?”

She nodded.

“And
you’re
the majority shareholder in D5R and subsidiaries?”

She shrugged, “99% owner at present.”

Daster stared at her while he tried to process this. Could she possibly be telling the truth?
Of course she is, I’ve seen what she did with the comet. There
probably
isn’t anything she
can’t
do if she puts her mind to it.
After a moment he
said
brilliantly, “Uh, OK.”

“I’m telling you this so you’ll understand that you’re actually working for me, not some nebulous ‘board.’ I want you to examine
all
the financial arrangements and expenditures
,
etcetera
,
for D5R and its sub companies. I even want you to examine my personal finances and the outcomes of my charitable donations. Because I believe in incentives, you get 10% of any misappropriated monies that are recovered.”

Daster sank back in his chair. “Just how much money are the PGR chips paying you?”

“You’re going to be seeing all
of
those figures yourself pretty soon. But, it’s
a minimum of
2.1 billion dollars per year.”

My God, no wonder she can afford to finance D5R!

***

Bridget met Professor Norris at D5Rs entry. “Hello, Dr. Norris. You’re here for a tour and to meet with Ms. Donsaii?”

“Yes please, I would greatly appreciate that. Will Ms. Donovan be with us?”

Bridget tried not to go cross eyed over Norris’ reference to Ell’s alter ego. Ell had set her down last night and explained the Belle Donovan alter ego
,
asking
her to play the part of Belle’s “friend” that worked at D5R
. As such she
would take him on a tour and introduce him to Ell as “Ell.” Brightly, she said, “Nope, Belle doesn’t work here, though she does know Ms. Donsaii. I work here though and she asked
m
e to take you around and introduce you to Ms. Donsaii, if that’s OK?”