Peggy Sue (The T'aafhal Inheritance) Read Free Page A

platform.”
    Elena had not planned on attending the Melbourne Astrophysical conference but she knew there was still some travel money in her research budget. And getting an Australian visitor’s visa for such events could be accomplished via the Internet. Come on, girl! She chided herself, this is a sign. Seize the day! “Yes, I am going to attend the conference. I will look for you there, Dr. Gupta.” 
    “Excellent! I look forward to talking with you then. Good bye.”
    “Arrivederci!” What a timely happenstance! Even a temporary position for a semester or two would be a welcome break from her normal schedule. And even if the job does not work out, a trip to Australia was just what she needed to erase her gloomy mood. Italian immigrants arrived down under in large numbers during the decades immediately following World War II, and were now the fifth largest ethnic group in Australia. Melbourne in particular attracted many immigrants and as a result, Lygon Street now boasted the biggest selection of Italian restaurants and cafes of anywhere in Australia. In Melbourne, she could leave home and never feel homesick.
    Happily humming to herself, Elena grabbed her bag and headed out of the Department, stopping by the administrative secretary’s office to arrange reservations for the trip. Then she headed home to begin packing. Walking past the ancient walls of the Specola, across the arched stone bridge from the Ponte dell’ Osservatorio to the Piazza Accedemia Delia to wait for a shuttle bus back to her apartment, her conspicuously short dress attracted admiring glances from a number of men—both students and older. Elena didn’t even notice them.
     
    Parker’s Station, The Australian Outback
    Rajiv Gupta ended his call to Dr. Piscopia and turned to face his colleagues. Among them were Dr. Yuki Saito, astrophysicist and formerly an astronaut on the International Space Station, Dieter Schmitt, a brilliant if somewhat eccentric chemist, and most importantly, TK Parker, the money and driving force behind the whole enterprise. They were in the ranch house of Parker’s Station, a gigantic cattle ranch located in the Australian Outback.
    Australian cattle ranches, called stations, are by far the largest in the world. In fact, some Australian stations are bigger than entire countries. Anna Creek Station, well known as the biggest Australian cattle ranch, covers 6,000,000 acres in the Outback of South Australia. By comparison, the biggest American ranch is the famous King Ranch, located in south Texas between Corpus Christi and Brownsville. It claims only 825,000 acres. That a Texas billionaire had to come to Australia to buy a really big ranch was a matter of considerable mirth locally.
    The Australian style of farming cattle is also very different from that used in America and other places around the world. The Outback is so dry and the vegetation so sparse that large amounts of land are needed to support enough cattle for the economics to work. Because the areas involved are so large, Australian cattle are essentially “free range.” Meaning they are basically wild animals, often being born and growing up without ever seeing a human. Raised on grass and rarely given any chemical supplements, Australians claim their beef is the best in the world.
    Arguments between Texans and Aussies over whose beef is best aside, the main attraction of Parker’s Station was its privacy. Life on any station is isolated, with the nearest neighbors often a full day’s drive away. Most contact with the outside world is by radio and the mail planes that also deliver supplies to the widely scattered station houses. Even medical emergencies are handled by the RFDS, the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
    This lack of outside contact was exactly what TK Parker had in mind when he bought his station in the Outback. TK was less interested in raising cattle than he was in building a small fleet of space shuttles to complement his spaceship. In the