Daily morning briefings were a part of the team’s routine. Even those unfamiliar with the military-inspired practice soon began to look forward to the ritual. At least twice per week, Oscar would join the briefings from his Florida location. On the occasions when he appeared in the morning briefings by video link, the team could both hear the excitement in Oscar’s voice and see it plainly on his face. The construction of the warp drives was proceeding ahead of schedule. It was as if the element both Eli and John had the greatest theoretical concerns about was the least of their actual worries. Oscar had even done a fairly admirable job of teaching the team in Sidney some of the more rudimentary principles of how an electromagnetic, or warp, engine functioned. Oscar’s Florida-based team of rocket scientists definitely appeared to be on top of their game. Over the past several weeks, John had even allowed himself to relax a bit when it came to worrying about the progress of the engines.
The Ark would require two warp engines to propel it in space. After fourteen months of construction, the engines were nearing completion. John and Eli had flown out a handful of times in the past year to meet with Oscar and his team. Oscar’s knowledge of rocket science was outstanding, and the design and construction of the warp drive engines were
his brainchild. Arrangements to have the completed engines shipped to Nebraska were already underway. However, hurricane season was coming and that worried Oscar, Eli, and
John, who knew all too well the dangers.
The Atlantic hurricane season lasts for six months. It begins in June and ends as the month of November closes. Even with six months of possible peril, the chances of a major
tropical disturbance making landfall in Florida, even a merely glancing meteorological blow, is about a once-in-a-decade event. Oscar’s team was on pace to finish construction just as hurricane season would be starting. Getting the engines finished and away from the potential path of a hurricane looked as if it should occur both ahead of schedule and any weather-related danger. Unfortunately for the NOAH Institute, the meteorological reality of the earth’s impending demise decided it was time
to impose itself on the team’s best laid plans. As far back as reliable records of storms could be referenced, there hadn’t been any major Atlantic hurricanes prior to the calendar’s
flipping to May that struck Florida. June would typically be the absolute earliest in the year when the waters of the southern Atlantic and the Caribbean would become warm enough to allow a significant system to spin up and then to sustain such a storm. That impressive streak was about to come to a sudden, surprising, ill-timed end.
