Free Comet! (an Ell Donsaii story #5 ) by Laurence Dahners

down to 20 days . Well, it would cut it down that much if we are able get our accuracy down to an average “ miss ” of 10 percent of the total distance of the trip. ” She tilted her head, “ We may be able to get more accurate than that. Anyway, it’s worth working on , I think. Remember , once that first rocket gets there it could be carrying the other end of a dual ended port and we could then send more objects and devices to that location instantly and accurately .”
    Roger had a far away look as he said, “Oh yeah.”
    After a long pause of dreamy distance staring, Roger said, “Hey, I forgot to tell you that our bee results are in.”
    Emma looked quizzically at Roger , “Bee results? ”
    “We put a group of worker bees through ports to determine if passing through a port was bad for your health. We know it ’s painful to go through a port ‘cause Ell and I have both put fingers through a port , but we don’t know if it does permanent damage. So about a month ago we put some worker bees through ports because they only live about 4 weeks. That way we could see if it shortened their life span.” He paused expectantly.
    Finally Ell said exasperatedly , “Well?”
    “Nope.”
    “’Nope’ what?! It didn’t shorten their lifespan? Or, ‘nope’ you aren’t answering?”
    “Nope.”
    Ell glared at him.
    “It didn’t shorten their lifespan.” He grinned. “ Actually , the ones that had been through the port lived an average of a half day longer. That difference isn’t statistically significant but it certainly didn’t shorten their lives. Pretty cool, huh?!”
    Emma thought to herself that he looked really cute when he was happy…
     
     
    ***
     
    On the Space Station Dave Slager spoke to his AI, “Call Ell Donsaii.”
    After a momentary pause Ell came on, “Hi Dr. Slager.”
    “Hi yourself, I thought you were going to call me Dave?”
    “Hi Dr. Dave.”
    Slager snorted. “OK, so that’s how it is huh?”
    “Yes sir. What can we do for you guys?”
    “ Houston just let me know that they’ve made up a bunch of our ‘space’ food into packages that’ll fit through five centimeter ports. I’m calling on their behalf to find out where they should send them?”
    “Hah, I’ve been looking for an excuse to visit Houston . Tell them to hold on to it and I’ll pick it up.”
    “Pick it up?”
    “Yeah, now I won’t feel guilty about taking the company Lear Jet down there ‘cause I can bring your food back to send through.” Her brow furrowed, “Actually, maybe I should take our ends of the Space Station’s ports down to Houston and then they could supply you directly?”
    “What, no more of Jose’s amazing fruit-urritos?”
    “Well, ” Ell grinned at him, “ I hear they make pretty good burritos in Houston . You’ll just have to teach them about fruit-urritos.”
    Resignedly Slager sighed , “I knew it was too good to last.”
     
    ***
     
    Wilson Daster turned to his wife with a sick looking expression on his face. “I don’t like these trajectories, Em.”
    “What? A re you still thinking your comet might hit us?”
    “Well… that’s what I keep getting.”
    She frowned, “Are you sure it will?”
    “Gods no! I’m just an amateur, feeding numbers into a program that my AI runs for me. But I think I’m doing it right.”
    “Wouldn’t the people at Kitt Peak and NASA be keeping an eye on it too?”
    “Well, for God’s sake — I sure hope so!”
    “Well, don’t you think they’d be telling us then?”
    “I… don’t… know? What if they’re afraid of inciting panic?”
    “Oh, come on. Wil, don’t you think you’re overreacting ... at least some?”
    “Em, it would… it would wipe out civilization at the very least. Probably no humans would survive.”
    She shrugged. “Yeah, but didn’t you tell me that , even though you were getting it as a possibility , it still wasn’t likely?”
    “Yeah, the numbers I get are about 5-20 percent, but still …