A Thirteenth Hour Read online

  I raised my hands in protest and started to say “you don’t have to-”

  He put up a dismissive hand and cut me off “ever since you ran through that Lion pit with my toddler daughter in your arms this was inevitable for me as a choice. My God! Not a man in a million would do that! Maryland took your ‘fur ball’ Bandit for the day by the way.” That last comment was to let me know that the topic was now a closed issue as far as he was concerned.

  He finished the cocktail in his glass and I motioned to his glass and then poured him another one. When I returned to my seat and sat down I took a polite sip out of my own glass. He looked at me squarely after my sip of the very potent cocktail cleared my throat. “Dennis I need two favors. The two key issues in both cases are competence and trust. You, flatly speaking, ‘fit the bill.”

  I was amazed enough to break protocol and gulp at my cocktail. I took a sip after that so I could have an extra second to think. I said “can I ask what the favors are Charles(?)?”

  The President smiled at me warmly and said: “we’re halfway there now Dennis;” yes his famous lines from that famous speech! With, of course, the omission of my first name: “I have a project that is the top of my list. I know you wanted to return to college to pursue your PhD in Mathematics, but I have a way of helping you with that while your away. This project is completely secluded, but we have the best minds in mathematics working on this project. You’ll be gone for, about, two years; by the time you get back I’ve arranged for you to test for your PhD at Princeton! Fair enough.”

  I finished my drink while listening and then set the glass down. The President walked over and refilled my glass and topped his off; then he returned to his desk and again both leaned and sat on it.

  “You mentioned two favors sir. What’s the second one?”

  He bit his lip and then said “It’s Maryland. You’ve been teaching her advanced math since she was seven years old, and the truth is that she was very intelligent and inquisitive before you started. One of the project people read a paper she printed anonymously on the internet, and he thinks she might make the team. Her mother also wants her to be part of that team. This may mean Nobel prizes for every project team member and we feel she’s better off and safer with you, and with her as part of the project. If one of the Chief of Staffs’ security detail hadn’t shown one of the right people the internet address on which she posted her ‘paper;’ this, then, wouldn’t have come up.” He raised both hands, his glass in his left hand, above his sides in surrender.” He said “but it has come up.”

  I was shocked. I began “Sir-er Charles, I mean. I’m not sure that kind of seclusion is safe; when you’re sealed in, I know from experience, that is the best time to attack- when there’s a lack of reciprocal communication. We would be providing large amounts of time with plenty of attack opportunities I know that enemies of America look just for opportunities like this.”

  He said “pour,” with a serious voice. “I know but I may have a way around that. Remember that Secret Service stronghold you were in charge of devising. It was complete with a large mechanical and biological laboratories. As you’ll remember it was a stronghold for the Vice President in case of hostilities. They built it! We have a plan. It involves an Icebreaker and supplies that were flown in two weeks ago; under an Ice Station cover. Tomorrow we’re activating you as an Army reserve officer, Major General Henry, and we’re hiring you on as the man in charge, at that locality, of the project. The pay is 250 k a year. Maryland insists you bring Bandit, by the way.”

  “I want a team on call twenty four hours a day in the region! No debate!”

  The President said “I’m giving you five Secret Servicemen under the same conditions as you; their ranks will be, out of necessity, that of full colonel; as well as a special crew of a brand new Icebreaker. The team, on hold ‘for you’, I’ll ask the Vice President to arrange.”

  We, I was surprised to discover, drank until 4p.m. the next morning. Charles is a, as I already knew, very congenial host. My mind kept going back to the fact that he considered me family. His family went back to the pilgrims and prior to that royalty and some notable historic figures; that was classified knowledge though, but what the public did know was that his whole family had always been covered in money, and it was very old money. His one other child, a son was engaged to a Norwegian princess and her family stood at attention for him! I was lucky that the Secret Service agents had broken the boy, as I thought of him, of liking such things years ago.

  I left two days later with Maryland and Bandit.

  We flew into Antarctica “Ice Station” Mule4 by cargo aircraft. I had to draw on my skills as a “Green Beret” officer and had to review the list of supplies. I had added to those supplies on the cargo jet we came in on: pharmaceuticals, movie and music programs, liquor, miscellaneous computer programs, thousands of paper and ink textbooks, many fiction and non-fiction books, and a couple of retail outfits full stock and goods. They already had a lot of similar or the same goods but overstocking was not a problem for me “on my end.” I was concerned with the general state of mind of Mule4’s inhabitants. Isolation could be very hard on a person after only a couple weeks, and we would be gone for much longer.

  There was Bandit, Maryland and the five other security consultants, late of the Secret service, who stayed after we landed and the crew unloaded. It was up to us to do the initial opening up of the stronghold. We did that at my direction. I was already familiar with all the plans of Mule4. It took five hours to make the stronghold ready for accepting visitors. We hadn’t done everything that needed to be done, but I made sure that we pulled the cargo and stocked two of the armories. I also made sure we all had our pick of personal weapons. I gave Maryland a standard fifty caliber pistol and five clips of ammunition and I told her sternly “whenever you venture out of this stronghold have all that with you!” She would be six-teen next month, but I had taught her to shoot.

  We all found individual rooms near the communications center of the stronghold. That night Maryland cooked us a six course meal. Her mother had insisted that she had learned to cook. After that Maryland went to her room and watched movies on the stronghold computer list with Bandit, and the rest of us got together for drinks in one of the two of the strongholds five-thousand person capacity bars.

  I had made a list of rotating duty on the cargo jet coming over to the stronghold. I placed Cliff Wejin as my second in command of the stronghold. He was the man who had shown one of the project members the internet address of Maryland’s “paper” de mathematical. He was good at his job and he was the oldest of the five of them. I had a briefcase with their personnel files. I had put it in my locked file drawers in my room, the Vice President’s suite, but I had become sure of all of them on our way in. The suite had an extra emergency communications center. Per previous instructions I had turned off and sealed off the inter-global command center. It would now open only for the Vice President or the President. The extra communication center I was allowed by instructions to keep for operations. I had turned and closed off the communication center in such a way that it would open in 15 seconds at any of the six of us command. It would open after two hours at any other command.

  I had told the men, while we were drinking, that we always had to have an eye on Maryland. I reminded them that she was still a teenager and that meant trouble would attach to her like glue. The agreement they made with me was that she wouldn’t go outside the stronghold without one of us present. We would also keep manned communication watches at all times.

  The next day we staggered ourselves in three hour shifts on and off; with one of us always manning one of the two general communication sites in the stronghold. I had taken a “ready cell” device that relayed to our chosen communication site, and I had stayed up all “night” to make a sure that we were prepared to react in case of trouble. After giving stocking directions to everyone else, including Maryland; I
got five hours sleep and took a shower. I helped at the end of our preliminary stocking preparations, and everyone prepared to open and facilitate a berth for the Ice Breaker when it arrived; especially Maryland. I wanted all of us to be familiar with docking at berth procedures.

  You might think that I was too hard on Maryland, but knowledge of the stronghold by her might mean the difference of her safety and capture or death! I really didn’t expect any problems, but in the Secret Service you learn to consistently shave the odds in your own favor as routine procedure.

  After supper I told them that the Ice Breaker would be docking the next day at 7p.m. until then each of us would take turns manning the communication site and with our spare time sleep and put our rooms in order. I told Maryland firmly that Bandit was on twenty-four hour communications duty and to prepare an extra litter-box for him at the “com” site. She asked meekly “can I visit him?” I replied cheerfully “sure!”

  By the time the Ice Breaker arrived we were in the berthing cavern neatly dressed in polo shirts and jeans with matching green coveralls over our clothes. We stood in a neat line, Wejin was to my left, all seven of us with Maryland on the end while holding Bandit. We were on the dock next to the berth we had prepared for the Ice Breaker.

  After the Ice Breaker had been made “ship-shape,” and was “locked down:” the project members disembarked. There were two-hundred and sixty-three of them. Most of them were male, and only six of them were married couples.

  I was surprised to find that of the Ice Breakers crew, an even fifteen-hundred persons; a little under two-thirds were female. The oldest one of the female crew members was thirty-one. She was the First Officer.

  I looked very hard at her as she gave orders to the crew to disembark. She had long red hair cropped in a ponytail and a robust but thin body. I would say I was dizzy, but I felt no real disorientation. What I remember thinking was that I always thought I was: that I was a brunette man.

  The Captain and the First Officer disembarked last with her a little ahead of him while they exited using the gangway. He was, contrary to stereotype, smiling brightly; she also seemed serenely pleased at how well docking and disembarkation had gone. The Captain walked up to me and handed me a sealed file in a rubber pouch and said “these are your orders sir: complete with everyone’s personnel files.” He saluted me and I nodded as acknowledgement. The salute was his, the Captains, recognition that I was in command. The First Officer saluted me and I nodded to her and then she turned and saluted the Captain. When he returned her salute he said “dismissed”; she then reflexively completed saluting him after he rested his salute. She waited half a second then turned on her heal and smartly walked away.

  I was mildly impressed with how this part of our mission had gone. I realized also that their mission was a “feather in the cap” for any military officer or crewman’s’ military career. I had forgotten how much agony went along with each new military assignment. The Captain seemed genuinely nice and ingenuous about keeping our relationships friendly and at the least appropriately cordial. He seemed to be nice at first meeting, and I decided to be nice as well. “Well, Captain does two hours seem like enough time to stow your gear and grab a bite to eat? I’d like to review my orders before my crew and I meet with you.” He smiled like he had found a ten carat diamond in a field of four leaf clovers.

  “I’ve already eaten. Is there anything I or my First Officer can do to help in the meantime?”

  I reached into my overalls and pulled out of an inner pocket general habitat and also communication site plans. I said “you might have your First Officer set-up one communication site watch and move everyone else into their quarters. If she doesn’t mind she or one of your other officers can direct fully stocking the stronghold stores.”

  I was surprised to find that, as if by magic, she, his First Officer, had already appeared at my side. I handed him the paperwork and he handed it to her and said “make it so Lieutenant Commander!” She said “aye aye sir” saluted and was already gone.

  I told the Captain “I don’t run a dry ship; so bring some scotch and vodka from stores to my chambers on the port side to the berthing cavern as you leave. I’ll see you in two hours.” He saluted me and I nodded and said “we’ll dispense with salutes except for Fridays by my order. Just enough to keep discipline.” The Captain smiled broadly and said “aye aye sir!”

  I examined my orders while alone in my, the Vice Presidents’, quarters. It gave me everyone but my teams’ personnel files; including the project team’s files. I was surprised to find William Celebry’s file as the most senior ranked researcher on the project. I guess I had not recognized him. Many of the projects’ men who had disembarked had sported long beards. I supposed they had done that to lower any chance of recognition while they traveled as a group. It had also been ten years since I had last seen him; people’s features can change a lot in that amount of time. He was a bachelor still, and he had done some very significant work in his field!

  I saw, by my orders, that the project was trying to produce a new kind of energy. It was a brief description and I didn’t grasp the significance or relevance to such secrecy. I found two sets of duplicate communication codes, and I downloaded them into my computer. I gave one set of codes to Cliff Wejis for the First Officer to keep and download. I also downloaded my orders and the rest of the personnel files, with my orders, they were automatically dated, and I put the firmware in my locked files in my quarters. I then used my “ready cell” to talk to Cliffs “ready cell” and to tell him to please bring William Celebry back with him in an hour.

  During that hour I decided to form a small body of us to run the stronghold. My five guys and the Captain of the “Gaelic War” Ice Breaker seemed like my ideal Lieutenants to run the Mule4. The First Officer and a small crew of Officers from “Gaelic War” seemed to make an ideal “day to day” administration to conduct the normal business of Mule4. I made a mental note that one of us or one of the ships’ officers would always be on duty at the communication site. I made another mental note to include William in our group; if he had the maturity and desire to help. My last mental note on these matters was to make sure there were woman’s sides quarters, men’s side quarters, and married area quarters. The orders had explained that an effort had been made to equalize the ratio of men to women. I last thought I hoped that William had some Roger in him. It would make my job a lot easier! I also didn’t want to let my old friend Roger down.

  One of my five guys, Christopher “Chris”, brought us some persuto and a couple of different cheeses for us all to munch on. All eight of us were there. The Captain had shown forethought and brought two bottles of scotch, two bottles of vodka, and one extremely large bottle of twenty year old whiskey that was from his private stock; he told us that he had purchased it in Ireland two years before.

  I had held a discussion with William before we all gathered together in my quarters. He had impressed me as both mature and responsible. He had seen me when he had disembarked, but he had decided to wait to remake acquaintanceship. He did thank me again for his college money. He seemed to be very grateful for my earlier help.

  I started “I’m in charge of the stronghold! All of you are thirds in command except for Clifford Wejis; He’s my ‘second.’ William will head-up the project as well as being a ’third’ in command. He can pick two assistants to be under him. That’s his choice. “The Gaelic War’s” First Officer will head-up a crew of officers to be our administration for daily and special activities. All of us, except for William, and every one of “The Gaelic War” officers will stand continual watches of our one current communication site. It’s never not manned! An officer is always to be present; we have precious cargo that I’ll discuss after the meeting. Cliff will oversee communications with the assistance of “The Gaelic War” First Officer. When Cliff is unavailable she reports, on the matter of communications, to any one of us with the exception of Wi
lliam; he has very little experience performing communication watch activities; besides he’s filling two roles; so let’s all try to ‘lighten his load.”

  The captain, in a way, changed the topic. “My First Mate is a good officer. I sincerely doubt she’ll let you down.”

  I nodded and said “good;” then I changed the subject.

  “I usually start any first meeting with a recap of recent events affecting our jobs. This is a general overview and then a more specific review of the events and problems directly affecting us.” I looked at William: “could you conduct our overview for us? It doesn’t have to be perfect! Just synopsize general recent events and ‘bring us home’ by discussing your project.”

  He seemed a little ill at ease at the task. I poured him a gin, I had earlier pulled a bottle of gin, and vodka martini. He seemed, by body language, grateful for the pause created by my mixing a cocktail and he cleared his throat.

  “In the past fifteen years we have seen three major scientific/social changes that are each much more than milestones in history. We have seen inter-solar system expansion; hydrolysis, using water instead of petroleum as fuel; and the expansion of natural life span estimated to be over an additional six-hundred years.” William paused.

  He continued after a very small sip of his martini. “We have seemingly reached a societal level of what you might think of as metaphorical pot of gold. I and some of my colleagues disagreed four years ago. We have made incredible positive advances that are each alone like the scientific metaphorical ability to change lead to gold, but what does that matter if we destroy ourselves?” He paused again and was breathing hard. After eleven point four seconds he started again.