Jack and Donner spent the day after the meeting driving to nearby Cascade to take the toll road up Pikes Peak. Jack took the wheel manually once they started up the mountain. The drive up was a leisurely tour through a thick forest for the first twenty-five minutes then, almost immediately, the trees retreated from the roadside and the view became spectacular.
The road fell away on one side or the other, sometimes with just a foot or so of rocky curb. The ground was a light green for another five or ten minutes until it turned into a dirt and rock-strewn landscape. The side of the road disappeared into empty space.
Pike's Peak is a lonely mountain with no companion mountains to disguise its sheer height of fourteen thousand feet or block the tremendous views. After almost forty-five minutes they pulled into the parking lot at the peak. Patches of snow were on the ground and there were flurries, it was summer. The temperature was in the thirties, some fifty degrees colder than at the base of the mountain. Donner was glad his dad had brought him a coat.
The snow was not continuous and sometimes the sun would break through the clouds to light the view. Donner and his dad found a spot where they could eat the lunch they had packed.
After his dad distributed the food Donner said, “Dad can I ask you something?”
“What is it son?”
“Well Colonel Allen said what I had found was important and that they would follow up on it right?”
“That's right son.”
“But after all the praise he gave me, he still didn't tell me what he thought it meant. Do you have any idea?”
“I think that Colonel Allen wasn't at liberty to tell us what he was thinking Donner.”
“Oh, I know that. But I still wonder why it is so important, don't you?”
“Yes, I do. I will tell you what I think but it may not turn out to be right. I think that the message you intercepted came from a geosynchronous space platform that Space Command is responsible for.”
“But there isn't any evidence for that.”
“I know. That's why I said I could be wrong. But I think this is a platform that became operational very recently and it may be that Space Command just wants to get it set up and working before announcing anything to the public. That would be the smart way to militarize space, a fait accompli.”
“Militarize space!” exclaimed Donner. “I thought there were international agreements against that.”
“No, nothing binding, just some understandings. That's what makes it imperative to Space Command that the platform be operational and permanent before the public is told.”
“So, one day there isn't and then the next day there is a military space platform, get used to it,” said Donner.
“That's the way they hoped to do it. But I think what you discovered is that it is not as secret a plan as Space Command thought.”
“You mean the spy on the platform.”
“That's right. Well, let's finish eating and get some photos for mom, then we start back down. The trip down may be even more interesting than the trip up.”
“Okay,” said Donner. “One more thing dad.”
“Yes?”
“This kind of thing is why you moved us to the mountains isn't it?”
“Yes, it is Donner,” said Jack. “I don't like surprises.”
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