shallow angle of about 30 degrees at about seven in the morning of June 30, 1908. As a matter of fact, it passed a little less than five hundred miles directly under this very spot as it grazed the outer core and then exited the Earth in the North Atlantic about a thousand miles off the coast of Nova Scotia. It created a huge steam geyser on its way out as witnessed by several ships at seven in the evening, their time, a half a world apart. The torsional energy left in the wake of this antimatter bullet is still spinning in the core of the Earth. In effect, the molten core and magnetic field are still reacting to this torsional wave. That is where the gravity anomalies are coming from and what is causing the left hand twist on all of the satellites in orbit. You see, Captain, Space Command has a desire to find an explanation for the orbital shifts. All we have is a theory. These experiments will validate our mathematical models.”
“I appreciate your candor in discussing this topic with me, Dr. Timken. But I do have a question. Why wouldn’t this antimatter be annihilated instantaneously when it interacted with the Earth’s atmosphere, let alone be able to pass through thousands of mile of dense rock and magma and stay intact? Also, I assume that there is enough matter in the form of space dust and solar wind material to interact with the antimatter long before it even reached the Earth.”
“You are a very bright young man, Captain. The antimatter was protected by being wrapped within the wake of a torsional shockwave. No matter could penetrate this plasma flux. The explosive damage done by the Tunguska event was purely kinetic. That’s not meant to imply that other damage or effects were not felt. The wake left behind is still present after eighty years not to mention other strange after effects.”
“What other strange effects do you mean?”
“Sorry, Comrade, I’m not that inebriated.”
“I’m sorry, but I find it kind of strange that just off the east coast of the U.S. in 1908, you have the equivalent of a 20 megaton nuke going off with very little notice. I assume the slug had the same effect coming out as it did going in. Wouldn’t there have been tidal waves, shockwaves, blinding flashes of light? There had to be hundreds of ships out to sea.”
“Captain, I am very fond of the American saying, how do you say, you know what happens when you assume? It makes an ass out of you and me. When the antimatter slug passed out of the Earth it was traveling from higher to lower density material reducing the torsional energy, with the seawater being mostly constant density material. The torsional wave sliced through it like butter with very little kinetic energy transfer. I would assume that the surface geyser phenomena reported by several ships at the time would have been quite impressive. These ships were hundreds of miles away; however, they reported seeing a mile wide steam cloud rocket miles into the sky.”
“Now look who is assuming.”
“Very well, Captain, it is getting late. We have much work to do in the morning. Could I get someone to help me get my colleague up to his room?” Dr. Rapp was slumped over in his chair under the dart board at the end of the bar. He was oblivious to the incoming darts passing only a couple of feet over his head.
The alarm clock rang at 0630 hours. Dave thought that the alarm clock was amongst the worst inventions in the world. They fell somewhere on his list between nerve gas and disco. After all, it wasn’t natural to send an audio shock through your nervous system to wake you out of a perfectly good REM sleep. This was especially true after kicking back a few shots of vodka. It would be much better to wake up naturally by a stream of warm sunshine on your face. Oh yeah, right. He was above the Arctic Circle. The sun had been up already, for a good couple of months now. Luckily, there wasn’t much to a vodka hangover. After a quick shower and shave, he suited up in his cotton fatigues and headed down for breakfast. He was going to have to request a flight suit from Colorado Springs. With this much static electricity floating around the complex the last thing you wanted to wear was all cotton. However, he wasn’t officially on flying status, even though he probably logged more flying time than half the F-16 pilots he knew. The zipper-suited sun gods were quite protective of their flight suit status and took a dim view of desk jockeys wearing their holy garb.
He was surprised to see Rapp and Timken finishing their breakfasts. They looked no worse for wear. Olga was behind the grill ready to custom make any omelet imaginable. Dave thought he’d throw her a challenge. “How about a western style omelet?” She gave him a wink and said, “Sure thing, Tex.” She was definitely in a flirty mood this morning. He was beginning to wonder what he did in the bar last night that he couldn’t remember.
After pouring himself a cup of thick black coffee, he sat down at the table with Vince, Rapp, and Timken.
Vince greeted him, “Good morning, Captain. We were just going over today’s schedule. My crew is lowering the instruments out of the supply warehouse and down to the snowcats now.” Rapp said, “We should have all five gravity meters down-hole by this evening and start calibration in the morning. Hopefully, we’ll get our first readings by tomorrow afternoon.”
Dave took a sip of coffee and commented, “You’re not wasting any time are you?”
“We plan on taking advantage of the good weather. They are forecasting some gusty winds on Friday. If you will excuse us, Captain, we are going to move out with the equipment.”
Vince spoke up, “We’ll give you a couple hours to get the equipment unpacked, wired up, and then we’ll be out there to bug you.” Dave said, “I assure you I’ll stay out from under foot. I know you are on a tight schedule.” To this Rapp replied, “You are more than welcome anytime in the Apple Orchard. You saved the day with your brilliant power transfer solution.”
“Oh, you mean the jump start I gave you guys. It pays to grow up in the Midwest. I’ve got to catch up on some paperwork this morning and tend to some of my own equipment installations. We have a K-band satellite antenna to install to support shuttle operations.”
The professors excused themselves as Olga walked over to the table with Dave’s omelet and a freshly made peach Danish pastry. In a cute Danish accent Olga mentioned, “The pastry is from my grandmother’s recipe book. The omelet I learned from watching Graham Kerr on TV. I hope you enjoy them both. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No, I am fine. Thank you, Olga. I really appreciate the hospitality.” Olga smiled and strode off into the kitchen.
Vince said, “I think she kind of likes you, Captain. I told her to take good care of you.”
Dave smiled and said, “Thanks. But being the only female within three hundred miles she can afford to flirt with any guy she wants. I assure you I intend to keep things very professional out here. I don’t need any more complications than I have.”
To this Vince said, “I’m sure her intentions are honorable. She is a great cook. I’ll talk to her if you wish.”
Dave replied, “No, don’t do that. No need to embarrass her. Now, let’s run up to the communications room. I’ve got to check on some measurements and verify rack space availability for some of the K-band equipment to be fitted. I need to meet with your Com technicians, too. They will be instrumental in installing the equipment. I’ve also got to figure out how to install the antenna. I noticed you have a satellite TV reception antenna installed outside. That’s not on any of the as-built drawings.”
Vince responded, “Yeah. We bought that with our bar proceeds. Got it pointed pretty low to the horizon to pick up on a European satellite TV station.”
Dave answered, “Well, if your guys can rig that system up to watch the European boob tube, I’m sure a simple K-band set up will be no problem. We just have to tie it in with the tropo-feed back to the States.”
Vince asked, “Why in the world do you need to use this site as a shuttle telemetry and downlink station? Why not use Thule or Sonde?”
Dave replied, “Oh, to be sure that they are being fitted up, too. All the DEW (distant early warning) line sites are being equipped with the K-band capability. The military logic is this. When the shuttles come arching up over the poles in the lowest part of their orbit, they can flash down link their communications,