Astrid Maxxim and the Mystery of Dolphin Island

By Wesley Allison

Genius girl inventor Astrid Maxxim is back! Called to the aid of her friend Océane Feuillée, Astrid leaves her friends and family to journey to an uncharted tropical paradise. Here she must use every ounce of her ingenuity to solve the mystery of Dolphin Island.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wesley Allison
• Release date: Mar 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370329199

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

Book preview

Astrid Maxxim and the Mystery of Dolphin Island

By Wesley Allison

Astrid Maxxim and the Mystery of Dolphin Island

Copyright © 2018 by Wesley M. Allison

Smashwords Edition

Revision 2-25-1810-21-20

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 are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Cover art by: Shaed Studios, shaedstudios.com

ISBN: 9781370329199

Dedication

For Vicki, Becky, and John

Patron

Darryl Schnell

To find out about how to be a Patron and support this author’s writing, visit:

www.patreon.com/wesleyallison

Astrid Maxxim and the Mystery of Dolphin Island

By Wesley Allison

Chapter One: A Call for Help

The space plane lurched violently. At first, flames were the only things that could be seen through the thick windows. Minutes later though, the flames dissipated, revealing blue skies.

Transferring control to manual, said Astrid. How does it feel?

Pretty sluggish, replied Toby. Is it always like this?

At this point, yes. It’s a lot like flying a brick until we’re ready to throttle up.

Astrid Maxxim was a startlingly cute girl of fifteen. Her shoulder-length strawberry blond hair set off her very large blue eyes. She sat in the copilot seat of the Constellation, the newest of her hypersonic space planes, as it blasted its way back into the Earth’s atmosphere. Toby Bundersmith occupied the pilot’s seat. Though it was difficult to tell in his spacesuit, he was tall and muscular. His brown hair hung down in bangs just above his hazel eyes. He turned and gave Astrid a nervous smile. While he was a skilled pilot, this shakedown flight was his first trip to space. Astrid, in addition to being a world-famous inventor, was already a veteran of three previous orbital flights.

Descending to ten miles altitude, she said. Prepare to throttle up.

Ready.

Throttle up to sixty percent power.

Roger, replied Toby, pushing the thrust control forward.

Houston, this is Constellation, said Astrid into her microphone.

There were a few seconds of static before a reply came through her headphones.

Constellation, Houston. Welcome home.

Thank you. Now that we’re safely back in the atmosphere, we’ll bid you farewell and switch over to Maxxim Tower.

Roger, Constellation. Happy landing.

We’re passing over Southern California, said Toby. It’ll be a few minutes before we’re ready to ask for a landing clearance.

That’s a fact, said Astrid, as she unfastened and then removed her helmet. Do you want some help with your helmet?

No, I’m going to leave it on, he said, and then a few seconds later, No, I want to take it off. As soon as you said something, my nose started itching like no tomorrow.

Astrid helped him remove it, stowing it, along with hers, in the appropriate compartment. Toby immediately scratched his nose with a gloved hand, before returning all his attention to the controls.

I pointed out that we had a few minutes, said Toby, to highlight the fact that we have a bit of time to talk.

What did you want to talk about?

My cousins are coming to town next week and I thought maybe you could help me plan some activities for them.

Event planning is not really my field of expertise, said Astrid, with an arched brow. Are you just asking me because I’m a girl?

No! Toby exclaimed. Absolutely not. I was asking… What I really should have asked… It would really be cool if they could take a flight into space.

I’m sure it would be cool for them, said Astrid. They’d probably think you were the best cousin ever. I’m afraid it can’t happen though. You remember all the training you’ve gone through, and even our passengers have six weeks of rigorous training before they fly on one of the space planes.

Yeah, said Toby. I guess I already knew the answer to that. I’m just getting worried that they’ll be bored. They live in Berlin and I live in a little town in the Southwestern U.S.

Maybe Jürgen and Sabine aren’t looking for a wild time. It seems to me that most Europeans visiting the states enjoy the great natural wonders we have here. Take a trip up to the Grand Canyon. Fly over to Mesa Verde and show them the Ancient Pueblo ruins.

I’m sure that would be great for Jürgen, he said. I’m worried about Sabine. She is really into the German nightlife. Maxxim City is going to seem really tame.

Well, if you have to, you can always fly them to L.A. You can take them to a disco and visit Disneyland on the same trip.

Well, that sounds pretty good. Does that mean I have free access to a Maxxim Industries plane?

A Starcraft 170 and all the fuel you can use.

I guess it pays to have a girlfriend who is the CEO of a major multinational corporation.

I’m just the co-CEO, said Astrid, and are we saying the B and G words?"

What? Boyfriend and girlfriend? I’m saying it. I say it all the time. My girlfriend Astrid. Astrid, my girlfriend.

Just then the space plane lurched.

Pay attention to the controls, boyfriend, said Astrid, climbing back into her seat."

I am. It was just a pocket of turbulence.

Maxxim Tower, Constellation, said Astrid into her microphone. Requesting a landing vector.

If I crashed us, said Toby, I’d be grounded for a month.

Only a month? asked Astrid with a grin.

Three hours later, the two were shooting over the desert floor on their hoverbikes, having had a complete medical checkup after landing. Astrid had invented the amazing hoverbike, building upon some of her father’s work, a little over a year earlier, and for a long time, she and her friends owned the only seven hoverbikes in the world. Now that Maxxim Industries had purchased the failing National Motors and turned its factories to producing the flying scooters, thousands of hoverbikes were being manufactured every day. In the previous month alone, Maxxim had sold almost 900,000 of them. Almost four million were zipping through the air in towns and cities around the world. And some, like these two, were flying above the wilderness.

The Maxxim Industries campus, sprawling across 180,000 acres of the American southwest, featured machine shops, office buildings, factories, power plants, and its own airport. Yet for all that, most of the land was undeveloped desert, filled with cacti and sagebrush, sandstone cliffs, and dry riverbeds.

I’ll be glad to get to my own bed, called Toby. I didn’t sleep very well in space.

I felt the same way the first time I flew, Astrid replied. This time I think it was the best sleep I’ve ever had.

What do you think about going to a movie tomorrow night?

On a Thursday? she laughed. You wild man!

Hey, there’s no school. It’s summer vacation and we’re young.

All right, she said, still smiling. What’s playing?

"An American in Paris."

I’ve never seen it before. Is it good?

It’s great, he replied. It has singing, dancing, Gene Kelly and a love triangle. I’ll pick you up at six thirty.

Okay then, she said. Here’s my stop.

Bye, he said, taking his hoverbike down toward his backyard.

Astrid flew down into her own backyard, skimming over the swimming pool, and setting down just in front of the pool house. Hopping off, she opened the door and pushed her vehicle inside, turning it off and then locking the pool house door. She walked in through the back door just as the sun was starting to hit the tops of the poplar trees that marked the boundary between the Maxxim and Bundersmith yards.

Did I miss dinner? she called from the empty kitchen.

We’ve just sat down, came her mother’s voice from the dining room.

Astrid stepped on through to find both her parents seated at the large wood dining table, along with personal chef Llywelya Pierce and the family’s assistant Sabrina Scacchi. There was a fifth place setting in front of Astrid’s chair.

Welcome back to Earth, said Astrid’s father.

Dr. Roger Maxxim was a distinguished-looking 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 well deserved laugh lines.

Thanks. Space travel must make me hungry. I’m starving.

Chef Pierce exchanged Astrid’s empty plate for one filled with roasted chicken, glazed carrots, and roasted brussels sprouts and then continued around the table, serving Astrid’s mother next.

Kate Maxxim looked very much like an older and taller version of Astrid. She was a very serious person, who sometimes came off as stern, but this evening looked very relaxed.

Hey, Mom, said Astrid. You look like you’ve had a good day.

I’ve had a wonderful day. I took the entire day off and went to the spa. A two-hour massage does wonders for the spirit.

Good for you. You weren’t wringing your hands about your only daughter flying through space at 17,000 miles per hour?

I’ve discovered Astrid, said her mother, "that when it comes to you and