Read Rocket! An Ell Donsaii story #4) for Free Online

trying to appear blasé about the surprisingly large salary figure, shrugged. “Sure, I’d like to hear more.”
    Nancy stood, “OK, let’s go find her.” She grinned at Roger as if she had a mysterious secret. Roger followed her down the hall. She stopped at another office. The door had another paper sign, this one saying “CEO-CFO-CSO-etcetera.” Nancy grinned back at Roger, “Not here.” Nancy winked, “She hardly ever is.” She turned and led Roger back the other way and out into an industrial space with a scattering of people around it. Roger’s head swiveled every which way trying to take it all in. Large crates labeled with the names of scientific research instruments lined one wall. Men in coveralls were mounting one of the large stainless steel tables onto vibration isolation supports. A group heaved one of the large boxes up onto one of the tables that already had isolation supports, evidently preparing to open it. Nancy, just in front of Roger said, “Ms. Donsaii? I have Dr. Emmerit here.”
    Electric tingles ran up the back of Roger’s neck and prickled in his scalp as his head swiveled around to see Ell standing there with a small group. Grinning at him unrepentantly! “Ell?!”
    “Hey Roger! What do you think of our little setup here?”
    “Ell!” He turned his head to see Nancy grinning at him too. The rest of the little group looked puzzled.
    Ell held up a finger. “Hold on a sec’ Roger. Let me finish up here so I can talk to you without being pressed to come back to this issue.” She turned back to the group she’d been with when Roger came up.
    Nancy said, “Can I get you a coffee Roger?” She looked at him with an innocent twinkle in her eyes.
    Roger snorted, “You had this all set up didn’t you?”
    “Well, Ms. Donsaii had mentioned that she knew you and hoped you’d apply for the position. The coffee machine’s over here.”
    Ell came up as Nancy handed Roger a cup of coffee. “Hey Rog’” she was still grinning ear to ear.
    “Hey yourself! What is all this?”
    “You’re not gonna believe this! You know how my theory predicts that quantum entanglement works because the entangled molecules are connected through a very tiny 5dimension?”
    Roger nodded.
    “So that when something happens to one of the molecules, effects are seen at the other member of the entangled pair instantaneously, at least as near as we can tell?”
    Roger nodded again.
    “Well, it turns out that you can arrange entangled molecules in tiny circles and energize the area surrounded by them. When the energization field is correct, a physical opening appears through the 5dimension like a little wormhole connecting the two rings!”
    “What?!” Roger felt a sensation like an electric shock in his scalp and his head swam a little as if he had been physically stunned.
    “Yeah. The holes I’ve made so far are microscopic. Some rich investors set D5R up to see if we can make them bigger.” Ell put a hand to the side of her mouth and lifted an eyebrow as she stage whispered, “Investors are crazy! Kinda put me in charge!”
    Roger swayed slightly, “A, a, a… wormhole… that stuff can pass through?”
    “Well, just gas and water so far, but, yeah. You wanna help us work on it?”
     

Chapter Three
     
    Washington D.C.—NASA has come under some heat for depending too much on ILX Corporation’s Vulcan 5 rocket launch vehicle. Critics say the excitement over the Vulcan 5’s potential to launch larger payloads at significantly lower cost was unwisely allowed to disrupt the commercial space flight industry. Without prospects for future launch contracts, several of the companies that had been providing satellite launch and service to the Space Station have been shuttered. However, due to the repeated failures of the Vulcan 5 during actual launches NASA has been placed in the unenviable position of trying to resuscitate some of the companies that it let wither…”
     
    “Holy crap! What a mess!”