lot of room; we should store more water and dried foods in here? Better put Cynthia and Liz to work on that.”
“That’ll be a good exercise for them and keep them busy for a few days,” Sandi agreed.
“How is everyone holding up?”
“Not too bad, we have our moments. Everyone is cognizant and looking out for each other, it provides a good check and balance.”
“Sandi, I need to fire you as my Chief of Staff.”
“Gee Alex; you really know how to sweet talk a girl.”
Alex chuckled. “I need you to coordinate with your USDA counterparts to get our grain storage under control. The corn, wheat, rice, oats, soy bean, and livestock feeds we have in storage needs updating. In addition, we need the headcount on cattle, chickens, hogs, turkeys, and sheep. On top of that you’ve got your seed germination factory at the other location to attend to as well.”
“That last one is the big one. I have two of my colleagues from UC Davis, who’ve agreed to be my assistants they’re driving here tomorrow. So, any ideas on who my replacement will be?”
“I need someone who is driven and won’t take guff from anybody, in other words a clone of you.”
“How about Elena?”
“Excellent suggestion. She’s definitely a Type A personality. Okay, let’s go convince her. Do you know where she is now?”
“Last time I saw her she and Andrade were heading to their suite to feed the baby.”
Alex and Sandi knocked on the Kolna’s door and waited. Andrade answered the door and welcomed Alex in with a strong handshake.
“Alex, it’s so good to have you back with us again. We’re all eager to get on with what needs to be done. Now that you’re here we can concentrate on you and Sandi’s implementation plans.”
“Andrade, thank you, and yes we will get to work on the many tasks before us, but first where is that godson of mine?”
Elena had just finished feeding the baby and was changing his diaper. When Elena emerged from the bedroom Alex hugged Elena and asked if he could hold his godson, Alexander. After admiring the baby and some small talk between the four of them Alex got down to business. He described Sandi’s duties that she had assumed as her major role in the post event survival strategy.
“This means I need to appoint a new Chief of Staff, a no nonsense, takes no bull from anybody, and gets the job done person. Elena I was hoping you would accept the position?”
“Are you kidding, it would be an honor to serve as your Chief of Staff, but I’ll need someone to help with Alexander.”
“Not to worry, there are two professional nannies on their way here right now. One will be permanently assigned to you,” Sandi said.
“Then I’m ready when you are.”
“But first, when it’s just you and I, it’s Alex. Around the staff and military people you can call me General. Andrade I’m assigning you to Ted Jeffers as his Deputy Director for Internal Security. You’ll report to him for your assignments.”
“Alex, thank you, I look forward to working with Ted.”
Professor Kumar sat in his office at Cal Tech, shaking his head while reviewing the latest spectrometer readings of comet Sedna/Kern. It was becoming increasingly apparent that due to the internal structure of the core the comet would definitely break into several pieces. More ominous and frightening was the presence of several large iron ore bodies not previously detected moving in unison with the main core. These asteroid-like bodies wouldn’t burn up in the atmosphere and would add significantly to the level of destruction all across Europe and Asia. There was also concern about the possibility of above ground explosions, similar to the one in Russia in the early nineteen hundreds. The spectrometer and geology readings for the leading edge of the comet pointed to mixtures of frozen gas and rock. It was a recipe for a midair explosion where atmospheric pressure and heat combined to tear the formations apart. There was no way to predict where or even how many of these events would occur; but one thing he knew for certain…there would be many.
He made a conscious decision not to inform Alex of the latest findings since there was nothing that could be done about it anyway…why raise the level of angst for everyone? Professor Kumar decided to wait one more month to relocate from Cal Tech to his assigned survival facility at Nellis Air Force Base. This allowed him to run a few more reports using the university’s powerful computers to update the comet’s status, which in turn could help to predict impact scenarios more accurately. His wife and two children would join him at least thirty days before impact. At the moment they were overseas visiting relatives in India for a few months.
Pete arrived to assist the physicians in assembling the mobile hospital. What he observed was mass confusion reigning.
“Hey guys, why don’t you go clean your stethoscopes or something; let me and the Seals get this thing up for you. It’ll go a lot quicker and actually work when we’re finished,” Pete joked.
“Well, I never,” Carrie feigned insult.
“That’s not what I heard,” Dr. Fortune quipped.
“You just shut up Kellen.”
“Hey, any of you docs play bridge?” Specialist Ferguson asked.
“Yes, I do and so does Janice,” Dr. Marks replied.
“Great, we can start a round robin tournament as soon as everybody gets settled in, are you interested?” Ferguson said.
“Sounds great, just let us know when,” Dr. Janice Compton replied.
“Hey Pete, I’m Dr. Linda Chan, I’m the dentist. Do you know if there is a dental chair set up in this mobile hospital?” she asked hopefully.
“As a matter of fact I do. There’s a two chair dental set up, and if you give me a couple of days to uncrate everything, you can inventory it and see what else you might need,” Pete responded.
“How hard is it to get equipment requests ok’d by the General? You seem to know him pretty well right?”
“Dr. Chan, if you say ‘I need’, his response is, go get it, or get it done. Expense is not an issue, his main concern is performance. General Hanken wants to give his people every opportunity to succeed, cost is secondary to that.”
“Wow, that’s a switch, where’s he been all this time?”
“Right under our noses young lady. While we were wasting our time on those knuckle head foot draggers in Washington, he was right here waiting to be tapped on the shoulder. Thank God he’s in charge. You’re going to get to witness a brilliant strategist, a fantastic motivator, and a genuinely honest person. Something this country hasn’t seen in a very long time.”
“Yeah, and it looks like he came at just the right time, when we needed him and his leadership the most.”
The next day Curt called Alex from Dallas to go over the details of the new system. It had video teleconferencing capability through the satellite
