Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike

By Wesley Allison

From the 180,000 acre campus of Maxxim Industries, fourteen year old girl genius and inventor Astrid Maxxim works alongside her father, Dr. Roger Maxxim, on projects to make the world a better place. Her latest invention is a flying scooter—the hoverbike. Is it the target of an international spy ring, or are they after secret Project RG-7, or Astrid herself? Astrid has something bigger on her mind though—high school. There’s a field trip coming, and the Spring Fling is right around the corner... And does Toby like her as much as she likes him?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wesley Allison
• Release date: Nov 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465714572

Wesley Allison

At the age of nine, Wesley Allison discovered a love of reading in an old box of Tom Swift Jr. books. He graduated to John Carter and Tarzan and retains a fondness the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs to this day. From there, it was Heinlein and Bradbury, C.S. Lewis and C.S. Forester, many, many others, and finally Richard Adam’s Shardik and Watership Down. He started writing his own stories as he worked his way through college. Today Wes is the author of more than thirty science-fiction and fantasy books, including the popular His Robot Girlfriend. He has taught English and American History for the past 29 years in Southern Nevada where he lives with his lovely wife Victoria, and his two grown children Rebecca and John.For more information about the author and upcoming books, visit http://wesleyallison.com.Books by Wesley Allison:Princess of AmatharHis Robot GirlfriendHis Robot WifeHis Robot Wife: Patience is a VirtueHis Robot Girlfriend: CharityHis Robot Wife: A Great Deal of PatienceHis Robot Wife: Patience Under FireEaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven PrincessEaglethorpe Buxton and the SorceressThe Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe BuxtonEaglethorpe Buxton and... Something about Frost GiantsThe Sorceress and the Dragon 0: BrechalonThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 1: The Voyage of the MinotaurThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 2: The Dark and Forbidding LandThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 3: The Drache GirlThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 4: The Young SorceressThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 5: The Two DragonsThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 6: The Sorceress and her LoversThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 7: The Price of MagicThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 8: A Plague of WizardsThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 9: The Dragon's ChoiceThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 10: For King and CountryKanana: The Jungle GirlTesla’s StepdaughtersWomen of PowerBlood TradeNova DancerThe Destroyer ReturnsAstrid Maxxim and her Amazing HoverbikeAstrid Maxxim and her Undersea DomeAstrid Maxxim and the Antarctic ExpeditionAstrid Maxxim and her Hypersonic Space PlaneAstrid Maxxim and the Electric Racecar ChallengeAstrid Maxxim and the Mystery of Dolphin IslandAstrid Maxxim and her High-Rise Air Purifier

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Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike

By Wesley Allison

Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike

Copyright © 2011 by Wesley M. Allison

Smashwords Edition

Revision 5-25-19

All Rights Reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Cover art by: Shaed Studios, shaedstudios.com

ISBN: 978-1-4657-1457-2

For My Students

Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike

By Wesley Allison

Chapter One: The Hoverdisk Failure

Help! Help! We’re all going to die!

Stop it, Dad, said Astrid Maxxim as she steered her father’s car.

Somebody save me! For the love of Mergatroid, save me!

Stop it, Dad.

Oh, the horror! Oh, the humanity!

I’ve already stopped, Dad. The car is parked. It’s right between the yellow lines.

It’s really over? asked Dr. Roger Maxxim, peering out the car windshield at the massive Research and Development Department building in front of them. I’m still alive?

You are so very funny, said Astrid. You should have been a comedian instead of a mad scientist.

I’m an inventor, said her father, as they both climbed out of the car. I am an inventor just like your grandfather and your great-grandfather and your great-great-grandfather. And you will be too.

I already am.

Yes you are.

They were parked in Dr. Maxxim’s personal parking space next to the R&D building, a half-mile wide, fourteen-story structure that dominated the northwest corner of the Maxxim Industries campus. The campus, sprawling across 180,000 acres of the American southwest, featured machine shops, office buildings, factories, power plants, and its own airport. It was here, where for the past forty-two years, thousands of Maxxim products had been developed and produced, making the Maxxim family very wealthy and making the world a better place in which to live.

Dr. Roger Maxxim was a tall man whose brown hair was only just beginning to show a touch of grey at his temples. He wore a pair of sturdy glasses, behind which were creases that could more honestly be called laugh lines than wrinkles.

Dr. Maxxim’s daughter Astrid was startlingly cute, with shoulder length strawberry blonde hair and very large blue eyes. At five foot five, she was exactly in the middle of her class when they arranged themselves by height for their class picture, which still made her four inches shorter than her mother. Like her father, she wore a white lab coat over her street clothes.

You see, said Astrid. Look at that parking job. That’s just about as good as a person could get.

It’s pretty good, her father agreed.

It’s good enough that I should be able to drive all the time.

I let you drive as much as possible, Astrid.

I could drive a lot more, if I had my own car.

Astrid, the minimum driving age in this state is eighteen, replied her father. You know this. You also know that you have only just turned fourteen.

But Dad, I could just drive here at Maxxim Industries. It takes forever to get around here. I wouldn’t drive anywhere else. Honest.

No, her father said. In the first place, Astrid, it’s against the rules. In the second place, what would I say to all the other people who work here and are parents of fourteen-year-olds? And in the third place, your mother would kill me, so that’s really all the places that I need.

The two Maxxims stepped through the revolving door and into the steel and glass lobby of the building, stopped at the security desk to have their ID badges scanned, and then took the glass elevator up to the fourteenth floor. Directly across from the elevator was the desk of office manager Flora Purcell. As Astrid and her father walked by, she jumped to her feet.

Before you go into your lab, Dr. Maxxim, there’s something you need to know, she said.

Yes, Flora?

The boss is in there and she doesn’t seem like she’s in a good mood.

Well, we can’t put it off, can we? he replied. We might just as well face the music now as later.

Astrid followed her father through the door into his private lab. The 20,000 square foot workspace was divided into chemical, biological, robotics, and engineering work areas. Just inside the door, in a small lounge, that had been created by forming several plush chairs and couches into a semicircle, waited a tall blond woman in a sharp black business suit. She held a clipboard to her chest and tapped her foot impatiently.

Good afternoon, Boss said Dr. Maxxim. Astrid and I just went out for lunch.

Your hover disc was a huge waste of time and resources, the woman said without preamble.

Nonsense. It’s twice as efficient as my father’s original design from 1956.

It only lifts seventy pounds and it uses up a J46 lithium battery in less than five minutes.

Exactly, replied Dr. Maxxim with a satisfied smile. And the original could only lift thirty pounds and had to use all thirty pounds for wet cell car batteries.

I was hoping that six or eight of them could be harnessed to lift an army tank, or at least a Hum-vee, she said.

Oh my. I never promised anything like that, Boss.

What am I supposed to do with a hoverdisk that only lifts seventy pounds and only flies for five minutes?

Perhaps we could sell it as a toy? suggested Dr. Maxxim.

The Maxxim Toy Division brought in $764 million last quarter.

That’s a lot of money.

Your research and development costs for the same period were $822 million, she said.

My new battery might make Dad’s hoverdisk more valuable, said Astrid. It’s going to be ten times as efficient as any battery currently available.

And you, said the woman, turning to look at the girl. I knew it was a mistake to let your father build you your own lab next to his. Your playing with batteries has already cost us $357,000 and now I have almost $200,000 in invoices for something called… she looked at her clipboard. Project RG-7?

I can’t tell you anything about that yet, said Astrid. It’s still top secret.

Top Secret! I’m the Chairman and CEO of Maxxim Industries!

Sorry, said Astrid, with a shrug.

There you go, Boss, said Dr. Maxxim. Now, run along. We have to get back to work. We only have one day in the lab this weekend.

Fine, I’m going, but you haven’t heard the last of this. She stepped very close to Dr. Maxxim and looked him in the eyes. And if you don’t stop calling me ‘Boss,’ you’ll be sleeping on the couch.

Yes, Boss.

Astrid, see that both you and your father are on time for dinner. I’m tired of eating by myself.

Okay, Mom. We’ll be on time.

Wait till she sees my next project, Dr. Maxxim told his daughter when his wife had left. It’s going to be amazing.

What is it?

Can’t tell you. It’s top secret.

Very funny, said Astrid. Seriously.

Seriously.

Seriously what?

Seriously, it’s top secret, said her father. It’s a little something I’m whipping up for DARPA.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration? Well, she’ll be happy about that, said Astrid. The government always pays its R&D costs up front.

Astrid left her father and walked down the corridor to her own lab. It was exactly half the size of her father’s but was set up in the same configuration with most of the same equipment. She went right over to the battery test, where her new invention was powering a small motor beneath a series of heat lamps. She pressed her face against the safety class and read the gauges. Two hundred degrees Celsius, far hotter than any place a battery would be used, at least on Earth, and her little power cell was still going strong.

Hey, mad scientist! called a voice behind her.

Four kids her age, two boys and two girls, had just entered the lab. Valerie Diaz and Denise Brown were Astrid’s best friends. Denise had long blond hair and green eyes, and was a little on the skinny side, while Valerie was a few inches shorter with beautiful dark hair and brown eyes. Toby Bundersmith had lived next door to Astrid since she was born and was, at least in Astrid’s opinion, everything that could be good about a boy, with a tall muscular body, brown bangs just above his hazel eyes, and a broad smile. Christopher Harris was Toby’s best friend. He was tall, with chocolate brown skin and black hair. He was quiet but had the highest grades of anyone at school, with the exception of Astrid. All four kids had a parent who worked for Maxxim Industries—in Christopher’s case, two parents.

Why are you wasting your time watching that test? asked Denise. I thought you said it was going to keep going until at least Tuesday.

I hope it does. I was just checking.

We’re going over to my house to go swimming, said Toby. Are you coming?

I’m supposed to remind Dad to be on time for dinner…

Mrs. Purcell can remind him, said Denise. "And you can call him just to make sure.