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

slide. She sighed, “At least you didn’t have one in the chamber. Please don’t walk around in here with guns in the future?” She raised her eyebrows.
    Fred and Brian both said, “No Ma’am,” then felt kind of embarrassed to be saying “ Ma’am ” to a 19 year old. They watched her gracefully walk away , their pulses gradually slowing .
    Brian drew a deep breath and cocked an eyebrow , “Well… Let’s set up a water jet shall we?”
    Suddenly Ell turned around and walked back to them. “A terrorist could have his buddy back home shove a sword through a port into someone on the airplane . Or pass a gun through a port . Maybe you should find a way to make sure that ports are picked up by security during boarding? Keep thinking, there’ll be other things to worry about.” She turned again and left in the same direction she’d been going originally .
     
    ***
     
    Joe was giving this project until the end of the week then telling his boss it was impossible. All but one of the other newsies had given up. It had seemed a dream job at first. Follow a gorgeous girl around and video her. Hopefully catch her in a few youthful indiscretions to put up on the net . But a ll Donsaii did was drive to work and back home. There’d seemed to be some hope when she’d gone out dancing that one night , but since then ... nothing.
    His eyes widened. That’s her Focus! It was coming down the driveway out of D5R in the middle of the day! “Follow that car,” he said to his AI. The Focus turned left, away from her little farm. Finally, something out of the routine!
    T he two newsies followed her to the General Aviation terminal at the RDU airp ort where she parked in the lot. The two paparazz i leapt out of their cars and got a little video of her walking into the terminal , bag in hand. T hen some more video as she walk ed out to a Lear Jet with the D5R logo on the tail . Joe kicked the fence in frustration as they watched the little jet take off. Damn! Could her life be any more boring?
     
    ***
     
    Phil walked out of the training facility. He’d just spent the day immersed in the neutral buoyancy pool pretending he was weightless. It was interesting but frustrating. The water resisted every motion and wasn’t anything like the actual weightless experience he’d had on the Station. He’d even confronted the instructor with the fact that getting to orbit was about to get so easy and cheap that it would make more sense to practice weightlessness in space where you actually were weightless! The instructor had looked a little cross-eyed over the prospect and Phil felt bad when he realized that he’d just told the man that the job he’d been doing for decades was about to become obsolete .
    Someone behind him shouted in a high pitched, excited voice, “Is that Philip Zabrisk ?!” He had just begun to turn when Ell landed on his back with a huge thump . Phil staggered a few steps.
    “ Astronaut Phillip Zabrisk?!” She whispered in his ear, giving him goose bumps. “I’m just all googly eyed !”
    “Ell!” Phil gasped laughing. “Are you crazy? Attacking an ex wrestler? I coulda slammed you to the floor!”
    She climbed down off of him. “You would not have done that!” She sniffed, “I woulda had to hit you with my purse.” She arched an eyebrow at him.
    Phil drew back in mock horror, hands in the air in surrender, “No! No! Not the purse!”
    She grinned and put an arm around his back, pulling him to her as they started walking again. “I’m taking my mostest favoritest astronaut to dinner at Antica Osteria . I’ve got a friend who claims it’s got the world’s best Italian food. ”
    Happily, Phil put his arm over her shoulder, “Wherever you want Ma’am, just keep the purse in its holster. And keep the safety on. Please?”
     
    At the restaurant the Maitre d’s eyes widened when he recognized Ell. But otherwise he remained unfazed. As they walked to the back of the restaurant Ell saw Mary and Steve