by D F Capps
“Buddha? OB1? Hellcat? Anyone, this is Jink, come in.”
The momentary silence caused her mind to jump to the worst-case outcome—that everyone had crashed.
“Jink,” Buddha said. “Where did you go? I blinked and you were gone.”
Did it really happen that fast? she wondered. When she pulled up, had she disappeared in the blink of an eye?
“Status check. Everyone report in with your position and condition,” Diane said.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. This was crazy!
“I’ve got them on the screen,” Ryan said. “Everyone’s still in the air.”
Diane sighed in relief.
“Buddha reporting. I’m east of the base. I crossed over three mountain ridges before I realized I was going too fast. Hovering now. Craft and crew are good.”
Three mountain ridges? She was shocked.
“OB1 reporting. I’m outside our operating range, approximately two hundred and fifty miles from the base. Craft and crew are good.”
She shook her head. This was incredible.
“Mad dog reporting. Also out of bounds to the south. Craft and crew good.”
Diane checked the list in her mind. So far no word from Hellcat.
“Hellcat. Check in. Hellcat, do you copy?”
The pause seemed to last forever.
“Roger, Jink. Craft sustained some damage. Cracked canopy. Crew good. My craft started dropping in altitude. Sluggish response. Flew through a danged tree. Still airborne, but limited control. Working my way back to base.”
Diane closed her eyes momentarily and breathed out. At least no one died, she thought.
“I’ve got Hellcat on the screen,” Ryan said. “She’s fifty miles north of the base, moving slow, altitude low.”
This was not the joyous experience she had anticipated. This was frightening.
“Rally around Hellcat,” Diane said. She bumped the thruster slightly higher and angled to Hellcat’s location.
Diane and Buddha arrived together. Mad Dog escorted Hellcat low and slow over the rolling hills. OB1 and Silver slipped in behind them a few minutes later.
“How you doin’ Hellcat?” Diane asked as calmly as she could. At least her voice didn’t sound as shook up as she felt.
“I think I can get this thing back to the base,” Hellcat replied.
Diane looked at the terrain below them. “You could set it down here.”
There were open spots with nothing but sand down there.
“Not giving up,” Hellcat said. “Goin’ to fly this baby all the way home.”
Diane smiled. That’s the Hellcat I know, she thought. Pilots and their egos wouldn’t admit any kind of weakness. “Roger that.”
The approach to the flight deck was slow and careful.
“Let Hellcat go in first,” Diane said.
The blast door to the flight deck was standing open, ready for them to enter.
“Negative,” Hellcat responded. “If I screw this up, none of you is going to have a place to land. I go in last.”
She’s right, Diane thought. “Roger that.”
Diane swooped into the flight deck, hovered momentarily over the vertical shaft and dropped down to the hangar deck. She deployed the landing struts and set down in her assigned position. Ryan opened the canopy and shut the craft down. In just over a minute, four more craft were resting in place. They bolted from their crafts and crowded into the elevator, repeatedly punching the button for the flight deck.
As the elevator door opened, Hollis stood there, arms wide. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said. “The access blast door is closed. You can’t go in there.”
Closed? “Why can’t we go in?” Diane demanded.
Hollis shook his head. “The Element 115 drive system on your craft produces antimatter. If the magnetic containment tube breaks, the result will be nothing short of a nuclear level detonation.”
Diane had read about the antimatter section in the fighter craft manual, but it just didn’t seem that dangerous at the time.
“Hellcat?” Clay asked.
He seemed to be on the verge of panic.
Hollis held his hands out in front of them, palms forward to stop them. “I have a landing officer in there from Ceti Research. He’s guiding her through the process. If this goes sideways, it’s going to take out the entire flight deck and part of the mountain.”
Diane’s shoulders slumped. She took a small step back. “Does she know that?”
Hollis lowered his arms. “I believe so, yes,” he said. “I ordered her to land on the ground. She won’t do it. She’s determined to bring her craft into the flight deck.”
Of course she is, Diane thought. I would be, too.
“Did you tell her it could blow up?”
Hollis looked her in the eyes. “I did.”
Clay slumped against the wall.
“The guy from Ceti Research is the best there is,” Hollis said to Clay. “You have to have faith.”
Diane looked at Hollis, then at Clay
What’s going on? she wondered. What am I missing? Clay and Helen don’t even like each other.
* * *
Hellcat struggled to keep the craft steady. It drifted down. She pulled back gently on the control stick. No response. She pulled back a little more, only to have the craft surge upward, well above the entrance to the flight deck. I’m not going to let this thing defeat me, she thought. Landing on the ground might be safer, but it’ll make me look weak. I can’t tolerate that.
A man wearing a headset and a bright yellow vest walked to the center of the stone flight deck.
“Hellcat, my name is Steve. Can you hear me?”
She was angry enough without someone interfering.
“Yes, I can,” she said in a frustrated tone. “What are you doing? I need to get in there. You’re in my way.”
She glanced to each side to see if there was enough room to go around him.
“I’m from Ceti Research, Hellcat, I’ve helped pilots in damaged craft land safely. I’m here to help you bring your craft in. This will be just like a carrier landing.”
Like a carrier landing? “Swell,” she said sarcastically. “I was Air Force. I’ve never been anywhere near a carrier.”
She was already shaken up from flying through a tree. This wasn’t helping.
“It’s okay. I’ll lead you through the whole thing. Remain as calm as you can.”
Calm? She thought. You’ve got to be kidding.
“Yeah, right,” she replied. Her heart pounded in her temples, her breath was ragged, and her hands were shaking. Remain calm? she thought. Sorry, buddy, this is about as calm as it’s going to get.
Steve held out two flashlight type things with glowing red extensions on them.
“When I raise the lights like this . . .” He held the lights up at an angle above his head. “I want you to pull back on the control stick. It means you’re too low and you need to increase your altitude. Down, like this, means for you to move down.” He lowered the lights, angling out to the floor. “Lights wide apart, like they are now, means you are too far out. You’ll need to move forward. The closer you get, the more I’ll move the lights together. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, sure,” she replied, anything but certain of the outcome.
“You can set it down on the ground, or you can pull the ejection levers. Either way is fine with me,” Steve said.
Hellcat shook her head. “I’ve come all this way, I’m not quitting now.”
“Okay,” Steve said. “Slide your thruster control back down a tiny bit. Your craft will start to drop. Compensate by pulling back on the stick.”
Hellcat nudged the thruster control back. Her craft started dropping to the ground. She pulled back on the stick. Her craft was still dropping, so she pulled back more. The fighter slowed its descent, so she pulled back even more. Finally it stabilized. She was a hundred feet below the flight deck, still well above the ground at the base of the mo
untain.
“You’re doing great,” Steve said. “With lower thrust, the response of your craft will be even more sluggish, but the fast jerking should stop. Pull back on the control stick a little more.”
Hellcat pulled back more. Her craft drifted from side to side. She tried to compensate, but the response was aggravatingly slow. Then her craft started to rise.
“Good, good,” Steve said. “Keep coming up. I want you to go above the entrance to the flight deck by about thirty feet. You are about fifty feet out from the entrance, which is good.”
“Should I deploy the landing pods now?” Hellcat asked, still trying to slow her breathing down.
“No,” Steve said. “Don’t worry about the landing pods. I want you to land this thing on its belly. You understand?”
Hellcat closed her eyes. “Belly landing. Got it.” She opened her eyes, hands still shaking badly. “I don’t know how steady I can hold this thing. My hands are shaking.”
“That’s fine,” Steve said. “With the thruster this low it won’t matter. Can you see me now?”
She looked up. Steve was standing on the edge of the flight deck, his red lights raised at an angle above his head.
“Yes, I see you.”
She was beginning to trust him. He sounded confident, like he knew what he was doing.
“Good. Continue up. When my lights are straight out to the side, I want you to nudge the stick forward until you hover in place, okay?”
“Okay,” she said. She took a deep breath and breathed out slowly, trying to calm her jangled nerves.
“Okay, good,” Steve said. His lights were straight out to the side. She could just see him over the forward slope of the front of her craft, standing on the edge of the flight deck below her.
“I need you to keep your eyes on me. Nothing else. Just me. You understand?”
She glanced around the flight deck embedded in the side of the stone cliff.
“Just you,” Hellcat repeated.
Somehow the deck seemed so much smaller than it did before.
“Just listen for a minute. I’m going to have you nudge the thruster control forward, just a hair, and push the control stick forward at the same time. That should move your craft forward. Then I want you to follow my lights, moving the control stick forward and back as I lower and raise the lights, respectively. I will guide your craft into the flight deck. Once you’re inside, I’ll lower my lights and cross them, like this . . .” He swung the lights down, crossing them by his knees. “You got it?”
“I got it,” she said. She reconsidered setting her craft down on the ground, but that seemed too much like admitting defeat.
Steve returned the lights to the horizontal position. “Okay. Nudge the thruster and watch me!”
Hellcat barely touched the thruster control and encouraged the control stick forward. Her craft slipped forward, dropping too fast.
“Watch me!” Steve shouted.
She moved the stick as she followed his movements. He raised the lights, lowered them, then raised them again. She was drifting into the flight deck. Steve shuffled backward fast, raising and lowering the lights. She followed his lead, fully in sync with his movements. The bright sunlight in the cockpit dimmed dramatically as she entered the shadow of the enclosed area. She couldn’t see Steve anymore, but the red lights stood out against the darker background. The red lights moved rapidly down and crossed. She jammed the thruster control into the off position. Her craft thumped on the stone flight deck, slid toward the back wall, and turned as it came to a stop.
“Perfect!” Steve shouted. “Shut everything down and open the canopy.”
He really didn’t need to tell her that. Her RIO was already halfway through the procedure before he heard the directions. The two of them climbed out of the cockpit, removed their helmets, and looked the damaged craft over. The leading edge had a dent in it from the tree she had cut in half. The crack in the canopy ran from just right of center all the way back to the hinges. Beyond that, it didn’t look too bad.
The round blast door opened and her teammates rushed in.
“You made it!” Diane said. “I thought you should have landed out on the open ground.”
Hellcat looked at Diane calmly. “Why walk when you have a ride?” She and her RIO walked nonchalantly to the elevator.
“Debriefing room—ten minutes,” Hollis said as he stormed down the hall.
* * *
“I told you to take everything very slow,” Hollis said, barely containing his anger.
“When you’ve been flying at eighty percent thrust in the simulator, ten percent is very slow,” Obers said.
“I didn’t expect the feeling of weightlessness during acceleration,” Zadanski said. The others nodded in agreement. “It’s more distracting than I could have imagined. All of our reactions are based on the physical feelings of movement in regular aircraft. That no longer applies. It’s like we have to learn to fly all over again.”
Hollis closed his eyes momentarily, shook his head, and breathed out. “All right, all right,” he said, gradually calming down. “That is a function of the anti-gravity drive system. I know this is all new to you. If we have to take time for you to learn how to fly these things from the beginning, then that’s what we’ll do. You’re going to have to get used to this, people, and soon. We’re running out of time.”
Zadanski nodded. “We’re well aware of that, sir. We’ll get it done.”
Hollis shook his head. More delays, he thought. How much longer before it’s simply too late?
“We still have a lot of construction workers,” Catalano said. “How long before the base is completed?”
Hollis looked at her. Maybe a change in subject matter was in order.
“Several weeks, I’m afraid. Our Seabees are very good, but it all still takes time. The particle beam cannon defense system has been a priority, so you are going to have to forgo some of your creature comforts for a while longer.”
Zadanski seemed uneasy in her chair. “Are the defense cannons the same as we have in our fighter craft?”
Hollis grinned. “Would you like to see for yourselves?” He stood and waved them out the door. Zadanski and the rest of the flight crew followed Hollis down a hall to several staircases. They climbed one set of stairs after another until they reached a long hallway. He led them into the first short hall on the left and through a blast door.
The chamber was fan-shaped with a small hole to the outside near the top of the narrow section of the room. The particle beam cannon was approximately three feet in diameter and twenty feet long. It was mounted on a hydraulically driven swivel platform which could raise or lower the cannon, keeping the end of the barrel located right in front of the hole.
“Holy cow,” Atkinson said.
That had also been Hollis’s reaction when he saw the cannons for the first time at Ceti Research several months ago.
“The effective range of the particle beam cannons on your fighter craft is about three miles. These can destroy anything within two hundred miles and damage objects out to three hundred miles. There are forty-two cannons embedded in the mountain, providing a full hemisphere of protection for the base. The gunners will be joining us this weekend.”
Clay Obers stepped forward and touched the cannon. “I thought the main defense of the base was its secret location.”
Hollis walked next to the cannon. “It is, from people on the ground, but it’s not going to take that long for the Zetas to figure out where we are. After that we’re going to have a real battle on our hands.”
Zadanski stepped forward. “I assume the targeting systems are IFF equipped?”
Hollis nodded. “All cannons are equipped with identification, friend or foe systems. We’re still working on keeping them secure from Zeta Grey mind control. The electronic systems are fully protected. It’s the operators that concern me. For that, we’ll have to wait and see.”
* * *
“So what happened
to it?” Helen asked.
Theo turned to face her on the flight deck as his crew dismantled Hellcat’s fighter craft.
He raised his eyebrows. “I’m not sure. Did it start acting unusual before you hit the tree?”
Helen put her hands on her hips. “Is this a woman driver thing?” she asked sarcastically.
Theo started to laugh. “No,” he said. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I just need to know if the command module was malfunctioning.”
Helen looked at her damaged craft. “I don’t know what usual is supposed to be. I was inflight for less than a minute before my unfortunate encounter with . . .”
Theo looked at her. “Was the craft responding to the controls the way you expected?”
“No,” she said. “It would drop and I would have to correct for it. Then it would be fine for a while, then it would speed up on its own.”
Theo nodded. “Steve, make sure the entire control module is replaced, and check the wiring to the gravity wave coils.”
He turned to face her. “Anything else you can think of?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Everything kind of went into the crapper after that.”
Theo looked at Steve working on the damaged craft.
“We’ll have you back in the air again, soon. I’m sorry you had so much trouble with it.”
Hellcat turned and walked away, feeling discouraged.
Later in the day the other five pilots flew out for slow-speed maneuvers, getting used to how it felt to fly weightless. All Hellcat and her RIO could do was watch the repairs progressing on her craft. She watched in heartbreaking isolation as the other pilots returned.
Finally, her craft was back together and she joined her teammates for the next trip out into the air. At the slower speeds she was able to adapt to the weightlessness. Soon her old reactions and moves were adapting to the new conditions.
She tried a higher speed in formation with her squadron. It felt good. She was adjusting to the craft’s performance. It felt so good to get her confidence back.
