C H A P T E R      T E N
 
 
 
 

        "Orby One Quixote" - or "Starwind", its official name - was
taking good shape inside their hangar at Eagle-Joshua. The two-seat
jet-looking ship was nearly two-thirds done. Jess screwed the last
screw into the G-meter, fastening it to the panel, and Kit announced
to everyone in the hangar that it was time for the birthday party.
        Josh was 21. The big chocolate cake was rolled out and Kenja
popped out from inside after Kit's drum roll on an empty oil barrel,
Kenj covered with whip cream, cherries and chocolate drops. Hoo
wee! Well, everyone gave those two some private time after the
pictures, gift-giving and cake dispersement, and the rest of the
debaucherous revelry moved out onto the ramp, drenched in burning
desert sun.
        As usual, they layed out in chaise loungers, umbrellas or not,
or floated in their big above-ground pool, or played horseshoes or
tossed balls, copulated, or went flying in planes, ultralights or gliders.
Jess and Kit were already notorious for landing their gliders out
somewhere away from the ranch to get extra private time before the
tow plane showed up.
        The WPG had survived the coup with flying colors. All the
fuddermuckers were well contained, one way or another. The
seawater pipes were way ahead of schedule, some even running and
many more close to, the crews working around the clock. The
deserts and arid lands were all lotto'd off and people were settling.
The humanitarian missions had literally changed the world, and many
of the recipients were moved or were moving themselves to the "new
water" areas. The WPF was in complete command, taking out more
weapons every day and containing all the belligerence from the few
countries stupid enough to still be fighting, and Arn and the guys were
needing less and less money each month. Saddam had been deposed.
And disposed. See ya, you son of a bitch. The Talaban were gone
from power in Afghanistan. Yea. Milosevic and the other murdering
bastards were gone from Belgrade. (Ah, yes...writ in 1995!) The
Institute for the End of Violence - headquartered in Pari - had come
up with (Kit's) daily "quotient" - reporting the previous day's violence
level from everywhere in the world like relative humidity (or
humanity), and murder and violence had fallen to incredibly low
levels. The space development program was creating a world boom -
world GDP rising at over a 12 percent rate. All the first-year WPG
bonds were sold, and the stock markets were up 50 percent from
late June. Life was good. Life was amazingly good.
        Jess and Code were free as the wind. "Chrise, three months
work and you're king of the world," Jess razzed him as they floated
naked in the pool, laying on rafts, sucking mint juleps through their
straws.
        He would usually answer, "I became king when you decided
to come with me." But that afternoon he went with, "it was more
like four months...." Really out on the bough, was he. Truth be told,
he would think about where he was with Life and nothing seemed
real to him. Not Jessy with him, or still with him, not the WPG
alive and kicking, not the money, not the businesses or the mines.
Not nothing. But he kept waking up to it. And she was happy, and
that is all that mattered to him.
        Felecia was very happy with BR too. He had come fully on
board as their personal and corporate lawyer and president. In fact,
everyone around them was happy as hell. Elaine and Tom were
starting to fly the ships down from Rockhead and staying with the
guys more. And they would all sashay over to Truchas to help in the
mine and the other stuff. Jul and Ri would sashay right back over to
Cal-I-forn-I-A to visit. And they were all flying up to Alaska to help
with the winterizing and bringing more planes back.
        But Jess and Cody were always inseperable, no matter whom
or what tried to pry between. And they gave it away unknowingly,
despite their closest pards trying to hide it for them. They were -
or Jessica surely was - the "Deepheart" that Sundance had
mentioned in Paris, the stories getting all around. But no one with
harmful intent were finding out. Though those with that kind of
intent seemed so much fewer and farther away by those days. Even
their little Alaskan "town" was being called "Deepheart" by the close
friends, though Kit was awake enough to try to get "Jessica" to stick.
        The Wright Flyer project was the last to come South - flown
down in the Caribou by Amelia and Hank, followed by Frank and
Trev, Rachel and Doc Rob, Aileen and John and AD in the Goose,
and Wiley, Orville and the guys in the Beech 18. It was winter in
Alaska. And late September. There was just a skeleton crew to be
staying at Rockhead, under Yukon's tutelage. But there would still
be limited North Air winter operations for the folks.
        Days after flying back to "Jessy" (Joshua-Eagle), Wang - the
very Wang who had stopped the tanks at Tiananmen - came to
visit the ranch with Hon Ni, Jasmine and Sage, all on a world tour,
at Hua's request, to study the saltwater fish farming projects in the
newly-watered lands, the guys having a small operation there, though
Hon Ni and S&J just wanted to see the guys again, and vice versa,
and Wang wanted to meet the fellow heros. And, of course, that was
a party.
        Well, our guys were ungodly rico by the time the Gold ran out
at Truchas, though nowhere near Bill Gates, or any other billionaires,
for that matter. But it was still godly to them, and they were piling all
their borrowed-on-stock-equity money into the spaceship company.
O, our three in "Triumph Inc." crossed the quarter-billion threshold
together, but they weren't keeping all that close of track. They were
paying on their loans regularly and working their companies, still all
privately owned by them and their extending family, except for
North Air. Of course, there was the Gold up at Rockhead for next
season and the Silver at Truchas, though they would probably just
leave that, at least for some years, but they did suspect that Jess
might find something else in there before El Dorado was history.
        Ed called. "Jesus, Kit...you sure have been hard to get hold of."
        "Hay, Eddo...how've you been?!"
        "Just great, pal. You've made me a multi-millionaire, you know!
But, hay, I hear you have a spaceship company I want to invest in..."
and they talked on and they let Ed buy into the corp and invited him
out for a viz.
        Shoots for the movies came up on the agenda - to get their big
scenes in the can before Winter would show their breaths. They flew
to Sarajevo and aired around in the movie's DC 7 and "Lollypop"
after reuniting with Sara, Walt, Gena, Will, Mona, Sofi and all the
rest, Gabrielle and Julio "gittin' back" with everybody at the mission
and around the city, and that turned into another outrager. Sundance
was co-directing and co-producing with Jane, Joni, and Julio and got
hard pressed, almost, to get our guys to get some sleep so they could
fly and "act" in the morns.
        Jess got Ginny and Craig into the movie after convincing them
to fly over the "pond" in their new Citation X jet that Jess had bought
for them. And our heros reenacted the shoot-m-ups and the end of
the Bosnian war for the silver screen. The China stuff would be shot
in the Spring, though the crew couldn't wait to see Jess in her finest.
It was definitely going to be one for-real epic cinematic achievement.
        But, of course, the syllogistic given was the big Jessy concert in
Jevo at the end of the shoots, made into a CD, naturally, and video,
duh. She had some new songs she adlibbed lyrics to, quite the genius,
she was continually proving; and all proceeds were still dedicated to
the WPG humanitarian funds, some role model too. And they met
Caroline Kennedy.
        They stopped in Bari on the way back, then Copenhagen, where
they spent the night with Griddy and her beau, then flew over to
Moscow to say hay to Bori, then Beijing to see Hua and spent some
time in the hot tub. Then they took a short tour of the southern hemi -
Polynesia, Australia, Africa (buying some land at Kilimanjaro) to
South America. And home. Bottaboom and bought a bang.
        "Starwind" was going to be ready soon after their return, so it
was right to the simulator for our two. And Jessy's old white Jeep
showed up at the ranch, courtesy of Cincy, which kind of threw them
for a loop. So they called the phone number that Pute found and
thanked the ole suit, who kept asking how they got his number. He
gave them a little more information on the WPO chase and such,
though just kind of anecdotal stuff. And the guys invited him out.
        Pute located the pilot in Santa Fe - Bob - who had flown
"Romeo" out to "Nattyville", way back when for them, and had him
fly it back to Eagle, giving him a good ole tip, party and job. Then
they invited Jim, who had flown the Bonanza to Mexico and the
Navajo back, out for the same. Then Kit found nephew Dave and
got him signed up into the spaceship company. Then it was big
Dave, back in Taos, who Kit told that he had a million bucks for him
to start a car dealership or whatever he wanted to do with it, pay
them back when he felt like it deal. Then it was a small ranch for
Ronald. And another smaller one for Dusty. Then it was Jenny's,
Marty's and Donna's requests.

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