C James

Chas has sure made clear that she'd like to help Jake find some, er, relaxation. Poor Jake; he can't go out for sports at school, because they don't have a car-theft team. Jake is indeed feeling the pressure, in more ways than one. Here's something to think about; we haven't yet seen what Jake is like with guys. Poor Jake... He had to have a mental kitten massacre, and he still couldn't stand up. He's lucky he didn't send those pics... He and Corey are 17, so that would make those pics a major felony. Yep, Jake knows how to boost cars, and pick locks. All the procedures described in the story are quite real. Jake is indeed a survivor. He's had to be. He took up his criminal ways as a way to get out to the mess with his folks, but in some ways, he's his own worst enemy. Corey, though, keeps him grounded, and for that, JAke needs Corey. Lol! Yep, plenty of pool parties! BTW, I'm surprised that no one has zapped me over the bullets staying in, yet? Contrary to TV and movies, that's actually standard procedure in a case like this. Thanks!!! CJ

Wonderful theories and comments! Thanks!!! Hrmm! I'm really in a bind regarding what I can and cannot say. Let's just say that chapter 31, "Standing into Danger" will answer many questions as to some of what is going on. The next couple of chapters hold a lot of explicit revelations. As for chapter 30, there were, as Wildone said, a lot of details, and the Devil is indeed in the details. The final e-mail to Jim rather neatly fingered Sergent Pierson as the leaker. As mentioned in the narration, Gonzales believes it. But, we now know that the leaker is Detective Alfred. CJ

Thanks you, Altimexis, for a wonderful read! I very much enjoyed it, and I especially appreciated your attention to physical reality regarding tech. I was surprised that anyone considered this political... I don't see it that way at all. In fact, it seemed very non-political to me, because what little political description there was seemed solidly grounded in fact. I only saw two things that might be construed as slightly political (but also unavoidable, and no reason to avoid them). One is regarding China's corruption, and that is exceedingly well grounded in fact. The other is approaching the UN, which I felt would be a reasonable assumption for an Alien to make under the circumstances. I also liked the innovate plot twists, such as the biowar for a space battle. Thanks, Altimexis.

I'd just like to adress some E-mail I've received, in case anyone else is thinking along the same lines. I't's been suggested that my mentions of the Southern Ocean and its difficulties are a "copy cat" based on the rescue of Abby Sunderland (A teenager doing a solo circumnavigation) there. This is not true; I wrote chapters 29 and 30 quite some time ago, and in fact, 29 was posted before the emergency in the Southern Ocean. Goats cannot count, but nor can they time travel, so therefor my posting of 29 prior to real-world events proves I'm not taking the Southern Ocean issue from the recent news. CJ

She's safe, which is great... but it could have very easily been far worse. The storm she was in was not bad, by Southern Ocean standards. I'm waiting to see where the boat ends up...

All I can say is... stop staring!

Trevor does indeed have a perilous voyage ahead, and remember, though he's ammended the issue somewhat with purchases, he's equipped for charter cruising in tropical waters, not single-handing across one of the most difficult stretches of ocean on earth. That Southenr Ocean area mentioned, BTW, is not fictional... the south Indian Ocean is nasty, as seen lately by the dismasting and rescue of Abby Sunderland. Crossing the Atlantic at the latitude of the Azores is nothing compared to that... Actually, he's planning it well; his route is far more conservative that Sunderland's, and he's planning on waiting for weather windows and also crossing in the Austral spring, not winter. But, Trevor has something else going for him; he's in one of my stories, and we all know that nothing bad ever happens in my stories.

Wow, thanks!!!! This was my first try at sci-fi, and it was fun to write. I very nearly did blow the science though... I had to do a re-write when i realized that imparted velocity from centripetal force is not the apparent G but the angular momentum. Ooops. I'm just glad I caught that in time. I did cut some corners, otherwise the story would have been larger and mostly tech explanations. I was also, due to SWS (Stupid Writer Syndrome)on a very tight timeframe; I had procrastinated and left this way too late (had Graeme not prodded me, it would have never been written), and wrote it mainly over the course of limited spare time over a 48 hour period. Fortunately, I knew most of the tech, but I still had to do the calculations for how many feet per second would be needed to raise a perigee by a given number of miles, etc. This won't be my last sci-fi.. I had way too much fun writing it. @ Altimexis: yep, the suits, as described, are much akin to today's. I felt that was realistic, becuase the story mentions that the company cut a lot of corners, so they'd go with the cheapest things available. There's one glaring problem with the elastic confinement space suit; the shape of the human body. It would work great if humans were speherical, but on an object with varying curvatures and alternating concave and convex surfaces, you'd have varying pressures. For example, in a concave area, such as the armpits, the pressure differential would force the armpit out to meet the suit. You'd need variably-tensioned elastic as well as cavity fillers, and that would require a very complex and custom design for each astronaut. Right now, the only thing that needs to be custom are the gloves. My guess is that the current constant-volume-joint design suit will be with us for quite some time. You might be right about the low-power transmitters, but I've used a cell phone from a mountain peak when the nearest cell tower was 40 miles away. It was line-of-sight so vastly increased the range. Given a receiver dish at the ground stations, a transmitter the size of a cell phone could work just fine. (though, of course, it would only be line of sight, and so rather intermittent). I was thinking more along the lines of a receiver dish in GEO for the relay. Would they go wifi? I hope not, that sounds like a terrible idea to me. One of the big EVA risks is an astronaut floating away at a few FPS, and you'd need comms in such a case, and they'd be out of any local net range in a few minutes. You're right about checking all the escape pods first, but... that assumes they had enough personnel with the skills to do so simultaneously. Due to the corner-cutting, it was shown that they likely did not. I should have made that clearer. As for landing in the Gulf, they wanted to be in range of helicopter recovery. Landing mid-ocean would have been very bad indeed. That, incidentally, is why Apollo 13 didn't do the "Super fast return" abort option; jettisoning the dead service module and running the LEM's decent engine until the tanks ran dry when they were ready for the earth-return burn. The big argument against it; they'd have ended up in the South Atlantic, where the Navy had no ships at that time, in 48 hours. That was judged far too risky, so they went with a slower return, even though, at that time, they had no idea how to make the consumables last that long. As an example, look at the recent rescue of Abby Sunderland (there are some threads abotu this in this forum) from the Southern Ocean. Had a fishing bout not been nearby, they estimated a week to get to her for anything more than an overflight. Sure, they capsules in my story could have delayed re-entry by a few miniutes and plopped down off the US East Coast, but that takes precise timing or they're out of range. In the gulf, geography and oil platforms allow helicopter access to all of it. Anyway, That was my argument, but the biggest reason was I needed it for the story. Thanks!!! CJ

I thought it was "Goats cannot count."? Or maybe both?

I know I have threads to catch up and reply to here, and I've read them, but my internet connection keeps cutting out. I've lost three replies already, due to dropouts before I can hit "send". I managed to get the chapter up, but not the announcment, yet. Thanks you one and all for the posts, and I'll get this internet issue sorted out and reply ASAP. My appologies to those waiting for replies to posts or PM's. I'll get replies out soon as I can, hopefully within a day. CJ

What you endured is something many of us fear; and out of the blue catastrophic crash. But then, you had to make the decision of your life. And you did. The decision to lose a part of yourself... that took courage. You then had to fight your way back, regaining your life one bit at a time. You have been through so much, and you persevered. Well done, Steve, you're an inspiration, and someone I am very proud to know. CJ

I agree with Graeme; an Alien masquerading as an autistic is a fascinating concept... ideal, really, on many levels. I found the lightning strike to be shocking. Thanks WL, for a very original and thought provoking read.

I like the dilemma this raises. Thanks Mark, for a good and thought-provoking story.

Red raises a good point; dropping supplies would be near impossible because there is no way for her to retrieve anything from the sea (she can't maneuver). Looks like the current charter is a long range air freight plane. The plane and fishing boat should be arriving any miniute now. The nearest runway to the location is on Rodreguez island, about 1500 miles to the NW. The only closer inhabited islands are Amsterdam, about 200 miles NE, but it has a research station and no runway. The same is true of the Kergulian Islands about 400 miles to the SSW of the rescue. Some of the press coverage makes me roll my eyes... For example, one report is referring to the PC-3 Orions as "jets". Another is suggesting that the fishing boat can drop Abby off on St. Paul island, as it's the closest at 200 miles away (a bit problematic; it's uninhabited). I guess reporters don't know how to use Google. LoL. I don't think its fair for the Australians to have to foot the bill for what they've done. In Arizona and some other places in the US, you get hit with a bill for your rescue if you're doing anything adventurous.

I wish they would say what kind of a plane it is... At that range, there are very few aircraft that can do it. Maybe another run by the Qantas jet?

Very good indeed, and the final line was perfect!!! Sacred cows are indeed plentiful these days, in so many aspects of life.

An interesting development... There was a reality TV show about the family in the works. I find that disturbing, given the extremely perilous move of going deep in the Southern Ocean in winter. (or very late fall, to be exact)

Getting her aboard the fishing ship won't be easy in heavy seas, and there's the matter of what to do with her boat. My guess is they'll have to try to sink it (it's a hazzard to navigation), but if it has foam flotation tanks, that won't be easy. Multiple incompatible version of events are sadly the norm for a fast-breaking news story like this. The issue of her parents is an interesting one... Personally, I see nothing at all wrong with letting a teen circumnavigate, PROVIDED they are properly equipped, advised, and have extensive experiance. Sadly, I do not believe that to be the case here. The boat, Wild Eyes, and open 40, was extensively modified to make it capable of a solo non-stop around the world sail. That entailed major changes and additions to electrical and mechanical systems. However, Abby set out on her voyage with NO shakedown cruise at all. As a result, she had to put in to Ensenada, MExico, for extensive reworking of her electrical system, and Cape Town South Africa (thus ending the "unasisted" part of her attempt) due to autopilot issues. It is sadly common for solo circumnavigators to buy a boat, refit it, and then sail off on their attempt, and thus run into problems. These issues could, in most cases, be brought to light with a three day shakedown cruise. Abby, like her brother (who completed a solo circumnavigation a year ago) had zero solo long range experiance before setting out, and in both cases, there was no serious shakedown cruise. The other issue I have is with her route. Her route planning (we've seen some of how this is done in Circumnavigation) is done for her, by a team that includes her parents. Why on earth anyone would think it is a good idea for her to be below 40 south in June (about the worst month, the southern ocean tends to have its worst storms in late fall, which it is down there) is beyond me. A far more prudent move would have been to wait in South Africa, or even Rodreguez, for a weather window; a chance to cross when the westerlies were further north. This is basically what Trevor was advised to do in chapter 29 of Circumnavigation. So, while I think it is fine for a teen to Circumnavigate solo, I do have major issues with the preparations and routing. I suspect they were racing the clock so she'd still be young enough to claim the unofficial record when she completed the trip, and that's not a supportable motive IMHO. For the SAR opps, the problem in this case was distance (approx 2400 miles each way). A C-130 would have been good, but the issue is range; a C-130 would not have had enough fuel to fly out to her position and return (and there is nowhere else it could have landed within 200o miles). Air-to-air refueling would be an option, if the Australians had any air to air refueling tankers in operation, which they currently don't. Theoretically, they could have rigged a buddy transfer from one C-130 to another, but that would have been risky as hell. They do have P-3 Orions (anti-sub and maritime patrol aircraft) that do have the range, but they are slow, and we don't know if they had one in the area. So, to get there the fastest (they had to get there in daylight), the airliner was the best option IMHO. That airliner, even though carrying just a few people and no cargo, only had a max two hour loiter time over her position, and that would be reduced further by their need to descend at her location (which they did). I fully agree that adventurers need to take more responsibility, and accept adverse consequences. There was a major debate over this when a yacht, part of the Vendee around the world race, overturned in this area a few years back. It took an Australian Friggate 5 days to reach the boat and save the sailor, who was inside. It put a lot of AU navy lives at risk (those seas are bad enough that even US Navy Aircraft Carriers avoid them) both from the seas, and getting the guy out. Incidentally, the Vendee around the world race, a yearly event, has a 4.5% fatality rate for participants.

I loved this story... And, although I know Graeme's work and thus expect a brilliant, unexpected twist at the end, that took me by surprise (when Adam was revealed). The first time I read the story, a few things seemed incongruous to me (such as arguing personal issues in the face of imminent danger) but make perfect sense once you know what is actually going on. This was a very well thought out and constructed story, with multiple levels of meaning to many aspects (such as the objection to impersonal pronouns). The physiology of Iswirl, as well as his alienness, is very well portrayed. He comes across as very alien, as he should. Well done, Graeme! CJ

I loved it! Jerry's mix of being beyond his years on some ways, yet cloistered in others, is intriguing, and makes him a fascinating character. Myr, it is very hard to write a sci fi short story set in a specific "universe" and have it read well for someone unfamiliar with the original. But, you have done so. I've yet to read Psionic corps, but this story read just fine to me. Well done! CJ

On behalf of G.A, I'd like to thank Graeme for this superb anthology, and for doing all the many tasks he did to make this possible. I'd also like to thank Joe and Steph for their technical help. I have also heard that Tarin, Corvus, Renee Stevens, Nephylim and Cia helped other authors, and thus helped make this anthology possible. Thanks also to the participating authors and their editors and betas. Thank you one and all. CJ

Fast update: The Qantas jet found her, made radio contact; she's alive, her boat upright and dismasted. She still has about two days before help can arrive, but it looks like she'll survive. (the weather is easing) Now comes the grilling: why the hell did whomever did her course planning route her through the Southern Ocean in June?!?! She was below 40S... in winter, in the southern ocean... that's a bad, bad place to be. HH5, thanks for the links... Edit: Graeme, thank you for spotting this and for the links

The Qantas plane is reported to be on decent now... something in the next hour they should know more. At most, they can spot her and communicate via VHF (assuming she has a working radio handset). Spotting her visually will be difficult, even with the exact location known; the weather conditions are very poor. I've been reading some threads on some yachters boards, including posts by the guy who was the last to talk with her. All they have is speculation at this time, but one of the two EPIRBs triggered is on her survival suit. Her latest position is 40.513s 74.457e per the coast guard (at least one of the two active EPIRBs is GPS-enabled). There is some speculation, coming from her father, that the keel tore loose and the boat is overturned. I have no idea what the basis for that is, but it has happened before. It is probably the best chance unless the boat is upright; the keel of a boat like Wild Eyes has about 7000 pounds of lead weight in it... with all that weight, an overturned boat can soon sink. If the boat has overturned and the keel is gone or there are flotation tanks intact, there will be livable space inside. a yachtsman parcipating in a round-the-world race capsized not too far from there a few years ago, and lived for (as I recall) two weeks inside the overturned hull. One complicating factor; if the hull is made of carbon (and it may be) then the EPIRBS would not be heard from inside. (carbon is conductive and blocks radio waves). However, they are still being heard. My hope is that the boat is upright but dismasted. That poor kid, all alone, thousands of miles from anywhere. I hope she's okay.

Thanks Graeme! That position is different from my estimate; I placed her 550 miles NNE of Amsterdam island, but she's apparently only 90 miles WSW (I think that plot is more accurate than what I had). Amsterdam has a research station and about 20 scientists, but it does not have a harbor, so it is unlikly that they have anything more than a skiff and could not reach her. Abby originally set out on a solo unassisted attempt; that means non-stop (and she was trying to be the youngest ever to do it). However, she had to pull into Cape Town due to problems with her autopilot (quite common) and thus abandoned the solo unassisted attempt weeks ago. She was continuing on, however, with her solo attempt. The rules state that you must equal or exceed the circumference of the earth at the equator, and also cross a line of latitude antipodal to your departure point. (so, if you sail from a port that's 25 degrees south, you must reach 25 degrees north). Abbey Sunderland sailed from Southern California, so she'd met the latitude requirements before rounding Cape Horn. All she has are the distance requirements, plus reaching her starting point. Abby Sunderland and Wild Eyes were in at least 70 MPH (almost hurricane force) winds and very heavy seas. A few months ago, Jessica Watson, who completed a solo unassisted circumnavigation, suffered seven knockdowns in that stretch. (A knockdown is when the boat heels hard over, so that the mast is parallel to or oven touching the water.) We'll know more when the Qantas search plane does the overflight in a few hours. They'll be able to find the beacon; one is GPS enabled (like what Trevor is described as having on Atlantis).

Here's a map showing her route and location... The nearest inhabited land is Rodreguez island, about 1500 miles northwest. She's about 550 miles north by northeast of Amsterdam island, but there's only a small weather and research station there. There is no possibility of a helicopter reaching her. There are estimates that a nearby boat might reach her in 40 hours, but the bad weather will be an issue. My guess; a knockdown followed by capsize. Her boat, Wild Eyes, was in very heavy seas, running 40 foot, and was having engine trouble. (It's a sailboat, but in heavy weather an engine is often used.) In a storm like that, a large or even a rogue wave is a major danger. She's right in the heart of the vast empty expanse mentioned in 29; far from land. OKAY, I can't link the image, so I'll link the LA times story; the map is about halfway down the page.