The next day was Father’s Day, so Astrid got up early and made her dad breakfast. When she had fried a ham steak, toasted cinnamon raisin bread, and fried the eggs, she loaded the whole thing onto a tray, along with a tall glass of orange juice, and put it in the tiny square car of the dumbwaiter. Pulling the rope, she hefted it up to the second floor. Then running to the front of the house, she hurried up the stairs and into the seldom-used music room, where the dumbwaiter opened on the second floor. Then she carried the breakfast to the back of the house and knocked on her parents’ door.
“Come in,” said her father’s voice.
Astrid opened the door to find that he was already up, though still in his pajamas, and was making the bed. Astrid’s mother, as usual, was long gone.
“I made you breakfast in bed.”
“That was sweet.” He smiled.
“So… get back in bed.”
Dr. Maxxim looked at her for just a moment and then hopped back onto the bed, propping himself up on a pillow and crossing his legs at the ankles.
“That’s better. Here,” said Astrid, setting the tray on his lap.
“It looks delicious. Um, do you want me to use my fingers to eat?”
“Shoot!” shouted Astrid, and ran back out of the room. She was back in a minute with a fork and a knife. “Here you go. Now you can eat just like civilized people everywhere… except Japan, and China I guess, and most of Asia. Do you want chopsticks instead?”
Dr. Maxxim laughed. “No, I’ll make due with the fork.”
“Is it good?” asked Astrid as her father took a bite of ham.
“Delicious. Now what’s this I hear about a present?”
“Do you want it now or tonight?”
“Why? What’s tonight?”
“Um, we’re having dinner,” said Astrid. “Then Mom can see your present too.”
“Oh, all right.”
Astrid’s mother discouraged her from going to the lab on Sundays, but she often did so anyway. Since she was leaving the following day and would be gone for more than a month, Astrid thought her mother might not even mind if she popped in. She would take a quick look around and make sure she hadn’t left anything important undone. Zipping over the trees on her hoverbike, she crossed the Maxxim Industries campus and set down just outside the R&D building. No one was around, but a quick keycard swipe gave her access.
On the fourteenth floor, Astrid took stock of the experiments she had set up. There was nothing pressing and nothing much she could do with any of her current projects. Walking from one table to the other, she examined the space plane model, the offshoot of Project RG-7, the drawings of the electric car, and a stack of bagged ground Astridium for which she had found several environmental uses.
“Well, I guess everything will be fine until I get back,” she said to herself.
On the way out of the building, Astrid took the glass elevator down to the large atrium just inside the front door. She absentmindedly stopped to view a display of Maxxim Industries products, past and present. There were cameras and video recorders, radios and televisions, computers and personal digital assistants, board games and dolls.
“Dolls,” she said to herself, shaking her head.
Then she turned and ran back to the elevator, returning to her lab. She quickly looked at the four projects that she had examined before, but looked at them with an entirely different eye. Grabbing her digital tablet from her desk, she logged onto the bookstore and looked for a book on business. The first one she found was Business for Dummies, which she refused to purchase, but the second was a textbook for an advanced MBA course. She purchased it and waited 40 seconds for it to download. Sitting down in the plush desk chair, she read through the introductory chapter.
“Just as I thought,” she said. But she knew she had a lot more to learn. She determined that she would read the rest of the book during her evenings at the bottom of the world.
Switching to her contacts, she placed a call.
“Hello?” said a woman’s voice at the other end.
“May I speak to Maxwell Bauer please?”
“May I ask who’s calling?”
“Astrid Maxxim.”
“Astrid Maxxim, the girl inventor?”
“Um, yes.”
“Hold on please.”
A moment later, a rich baritone voice came over the speaker.
“Miss Maxxim, to what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Mr. Bauer, I was wondering if you would have time to meet with me.”
“Of course, of course. When? Will your parents be joining us?”
“No, it would just be me. I’m going to be out your way tomorrow evening. I could meet with you then or early the next morning, whichever is more convenient for you.”
“What time does your plane arrive?” he asked. “If it’s early enough, we could talk over dinner. My wife would be very excited to meet you. She’s practically jumping up and down right now.”
“The flight plan calls for us to reach LA at 4:00, but I could push it up a bit.”
“Push it… oh, I should have figured you wouldn’t fly commercial. No, four would be fine. I’ll have a car waiting for you at terminal one.”
“Great,” said Astrid. “See you then.”
As soon as she had hung up, she looked up a second number and dialed.
“Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Geophysics Division, how may I direct your call?” said a female voice.
“May I speak to Connor Brown?”
“Who may I say is calling?”
“It’s Astrid Maxxim.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Um, no.”
“One moment, please.”
Seconds later the line was picked up and a man’s voice said, “Hello, is this really Astrid Maxxim?”
“Um, yes.”
“Are you calling about my hoverbike? It was just delivered but I haven’t had the chance to try it out yet.”
“Oh, well I’m glad you got it,” said Astrid. “But that’s not why I’m calling. You are the Connor Brown who is the head of Antarctic research for New Zealand, aren’t you?”
“I am the Director of Operations, the organizational head.”
“Well good. I’ve discovered some data about an Antarctic expedition that was made in 1928 by my great-grandfather. Their records indicate they discovered something important beneath the ice, but I can’t find any record of what it was. Since the location is within New Zealand’s area of authority, I thought I would give you a call.”
“Hmm,” said Brown. “We don’t normally have any personnel on the continent during the winter, but we have this idiot… this movie director who is filming a documentary. Maybe this is something he can check into.”
“That’s great. I’ll send you copies of the maps and other information.”
A few minutes later, Astrid was back outside, astride her hoverbike, and strapping on her helmet. She felt the ground shake briefly like an earthquake. Then two seconds later there was a tremendous boom and one of the glass panes in the front of the R&D building shattered. She looked up to see a huge black cloud rising up into the air about five miles to the south. Astrid knew just where it came from too— the Maxxim rocket launch facility.
Starting up her hoverbike, she shot into the air and zoomed south. After having gone only about a mile over the undeveloped desert that made up most of the campus, she saw an access road ahead. A firetruck was parked there and a man was waving his arms toward her. She dropped down to stop beside him.
“No further, Miss Maxxim,” said the fireman, as others from his truck joined him. “We can’t let you or anyone else any closer. The fire is too dangerous.”
“There might be somebody injured,” said Astrid, looking past him at distant flames and a continuous pillar of black smoke.
“We have teams checking now, but there are no reports of anyone near the blast area. It appears to be the hydrogen fuel storage area.”
“The whole launch facility could be badly damaged,” she said.
Any other thoughts were pushed to the back of her mind when the cell phone in her pocket rang.
“Astrid?” It was her father’s voice. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Dad, but the rocket facility…”
“I heard. But facilities can be rebuilt. People can’t. I’m just glad you’re safe.”
Astrid agreed with her father’s priorities, but she also knew that the launch facility had cost billions of dollars to build, and that was a lot of money, no matter how you counted it.