by Laer Carroll
She looked at all 17 dossiers. All had problems. Only one would be a real problem. She flagged his records and had Robot swap out his assignment for another: a PLA Air Force captain who would be the commander of the base. She was a real go-getter and (because Jane had looked for such) had family in Huizhou, including a son going to the university there.
She sat in her chair and twirled it back in place.
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EXCERPT from Entertainment Channel 3 - All the Hot Gossip Before Anyone Else
"Angélique, you'll never guess where our favorite girl is!"
"I don't need to guess. I'm reading this off your teleprompter. But go ahead, my pretty little puppet. Earn your daily peso."
"Not pesos. I insist on gold French francs. Well, she is in China. The big bad southeast third which is on the outs with the current administration."
INTERSPERSED between the two hosts of the show: a photo of the smiling face of Jane Kuznetsov
"Gasp! What is darling Jane doing there?"
"The news release only says she is there for a 'mental health vacation and creative breather.' Perhaps her little white-hot brain had a meltdown."
"Or maybe she's on the outs with hunkie movie producer Phil. Yoo-hoo, Phil, I'm on the outs with my boyfriend. Let's get together."
INTERSPERSED between the two hosts of the show: a photo of Phil Newman on a tennis court swinging a racket at a tennis ball
<>
Jane had lunch with Zhang Jing on Thursday, the last day before she traveled to take up residence in Huizhou. It would be the last time, perhaps forever, that she would see the woman.
It was both a sad and a merry lunch. Afterward they shopped for clothing for Jane. Her companion had proclaimed that Jane needed a sophisticated Chinese to guide her with her wardrobe, one which would impress Chinese who had, of course, a superior sense of what was right about a woman's clothing.
The two spent more than two hours on a buying spree. The purchases would be sent via a concierge service to the hotel in Huizhou where Jane would be staying.
Their Goodbyes were on the edge of weepy.
<>
Friday morning early Jane left in a limousine for a helipad at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. With her was a young man who was ostensibly her luggage handler and general assistant but really was an intelligence agent to spy on her and keep her under control.
A military helicopter took off from the airport with the two aboard. At some 300 miles per hour it took only 20 minutes to reach Huiyang Air Base. As they began to settle onto the concrete in front of the main headquarters building Jane could see lined up in front of that edifice 17 women and men.
She got out and walked, head not bowed, underneath the helicopter blades toward her staff. Behind her, head definitely bowed, came her keeper with her one pull-along suitcase and military laptop.
As she neared the group the helicopter powered up and away from them. Its silenced blades were faint when Jane came to a halt.
" Zhù-yì!" came the Chinese command.
The party before her snapped to attention.
Jane saluted them and called them to At Ease in Chinese.
She looked them over. They might have looked sloppy before they came here. They did not now. This was the result of two days under the command of Captain Huang Ming-Zhu, a sturdy woman in her late thirties.
"You may not know who I am. I am Captain Jane Kuznetsov in the United States Air Force, in a section sometimes called the Space Force. I do research in threats to us from space. In support of that a few months ago I was on the Moon. We, my staff and I, came up with a form of 'warm fusion' several times as productive as the present form, and in a more compact form. Because of this we can send spacecraft to Mars and beyond much more rapidly.
"I am also a pilot. I can fly anything, from helicopters to transport vehicles to fighter aircraft to spacecraft. When I board a plane I become the plane. For this reason some pilots call me The Dragon. I am the deadliest enemy in the skies and in space.
"That sounds insane, doesn't it? Like bragging, doesn't it?
"In the months to come you will have a chance to decide for yourself if I'm a liar. Or not.
"What we're going to do here is build an aerospace plane able to easily and routinely travel to the space station. When we are done each of you will have a chance to travel in it. So don't make mistakes that will kill you!"
She paused to see the reaction. There wasn't much. All this was too new to them, especially those already caught up in their own troubles. She'd expected this. But she'd said information that they needed to know. In the months to come they would come back to it again and again.
"I gave you a command earlier, At Ease. That is the last command I will ever give you. I am not Chinese. I am not in your military. The commander here is Captain Huang. I've seen her record. I know she is one of the very best at what she does in the great People's Liberation Army. I have the utmost confidence in her. And every REQUEST I give is through her and can be countermanded by her."
Jane turned to speak to the woman, standing at the far right of the line of personnel.
"Captain, if you please, dismiss your command and join me in the headquarters conference room."
"Yes, Captain Kuznetsov."
She took three steps forward and faced the 16 women and men in the lineup.
"Atten-shun! Dismissed!"
The line of uniformed people broke up into a gaggle which went in several directions away from the Captain and Jane.
The two of them walked side by side into the glass double doors at the front of the headquarters building, a somewhat battered two-story building. Behind them trailed Jane's keeper pulling her suitcase behind him.
Inside there was a smell of paint. The room they entered had been spiffed up with a fresh coat of it. A reception desk stood near one wall of the room. Otherwise it was completely empty.
The officer led the way down the hall and up a set of stairs to the second floor. The stairs were metal and had been swept and washed but the rough black treads atop each stair step showed signs of wear. Down a hall which was also cleaned but needed refurbishing they went, to turn into an office. There was a desk for a receptionist. Behind it was an office with a window out onto the flight line. It was cleaned and had some minor signs of occupancy on its desk.
The Captain said, "The conference room is not ready. I apologize. It soon will be. This is your office." She gestured at it as she said that last.
"Is this the best office in the building?"
"Yes, Sir."
"I am not Sir to you. You are Sir to me. To you I am Jane, or Kuznetsov, or Hey You. Or Captain Kuznetsov when we are in public. I am your assistant in this task.
"This is your office. You are the commander. I will take whatever office you, or your facilities officer, assign me. I do need not much. Just a desk and chairs and such."
Captain Huang searched Jane's face with her eyes. Abruptly she nodded.
"Then in that case you can take the office beside me. I had planned to occupy it. It will do for you until you decide you need something else."
"Excellent."
Jane turned to her "assistant" and said, "Please take my belongings next door. Then return here."
Jane gestured at the desk in front of the flight-line window. Captain Huang went behind it and sat down. Jane sat in one of the three hard-backed chairs in front of the desk and waited for her keeper to return. She gestured to the chair to her right. The man sat in it.
"This first day I want to get to know the base and then settle in to my quarters. Are there golf cart runabouts here?"
"Five. Three actually work."
"Good. I'll take one and tour the base. Perhaps you'd like to join me."
A faint smile touched the Captain's face.
"There are only two seats in the runabouts."
"Then Wang here can ride in the back of the one we take. Or stay here if he chooses.
"Then if you please I'd
like to have dinner with you and your family and get to know them. I also want to be assured that you too are settled in properly and if we need to change anything about it."
"Here is only me and my husband and my youngest daughter. She is going to the University."
"I know. I picked you to command this effort and have read your dossier. The commander assigned was not suitable. Perfectly capable but not technically inclined. You on the other hand are."
Huang had a math degree from the Chinese version of the US Air Force Academy and two engineering degrees, gained over her long years of service.
"Then," said Huang as she stood, "Let's us be about it."
<>
As the three of them exited the building they were met by a bulky man in a fatigue uniform with the stripes of a Technical Sergeant on his arms. He saluted the Captain who returned the courtesy.
"The personnel are at work on their assigned tasks, Captain." He glanced at Jane but focused his attention on his military boss.
"Good, Sergeant. Is chow ordered?"
"It is, Sir. We'll break at 1100 in the mess hall, if it pleases you."
"Good. Carry on."
The officers exchanged salutes again and the sergeant hurried off.
At its peak period the base could have maintained 24 aircraft in fighting order. It had several buildings able to handle the mechanical, electronic, and fueling of that many. Most of them were completely empty, the equipment shipped out to other bases or junked.
There were three big barracks for on-base enlisted women and men and bigger apartments for bachelor officers. There was a mess hall, clinic, fire department, police station, commissary, and much more. There was an air traffic control tower.
Those buildings were near the headquarters building. Jane at least looked into every one of them.
The two runways extended for 7500 feet. One was wide enough for a single aircraft; this was the backup runway. Normally aircraft would use the four-planes-across main runway. All along the length of the two were occasional small sheds or tanks. She spared a glance at each, but she was most interested in the two aircraft storage pads.
There were two of those, one at each end of the runways off to the side with a taxiway from them to the runways. Each pad had four round "beds" for their aircraft. Each bed could park three fighter jets. On all sides except the entrance/exit were built-up berms planted with grass and trees.
Jane examined the easternmost then drove all the way to the other end of the runways to examine the western most. She had seen something in the satellite photos of the base which she wanted to examine.
There it was: a Chengdu J-20 fighter jet. It had two jet engines, two delta wings near its rear and two smaller canard wings forward just behind the pilots cockpit, which had seats for two personnel.
"You knew this was here, Captain Kuznetsov?"
"Saw it in the satellite photos of the base. I wasn't sure it was still here."
"Look!" said Wang, her assistant/keeper. He'd sat cross legged in the tiny bed of the trucklet which was their golf-cart-like transportation.
Underneath the nearest wing of the aircraft was a hunter's plastic tent. Neatly arranged around it were various boxes and drums. The grass off to each side of the pad had been mowed. Someone had made a residence here.
Her keeper jumped off the bed, stumbling a little as his cramped legs faltered, and began to walk quickly forward.
Jane got out and called out, "Wang! Hold up!"
He did not heed her. Jane yelled her best Marine-Corps-imitation command, "Wang halt your fucking ass! Or you will be back to Guangzhou before the day is out!"
The man froze.
Jane ignored him as she walked past him alongside the Captain.
Jane called out, "Hello? Anyone home?" at the entrance to the tent.
A light plastic door was part of the expensive tent. It was open. Jane and her companion could see that the inside was lit by two lines of bright ceiling lights. Seated at a table against the wall to their left and near the door a man was working on a laptop.
He turned a startled face toward the entrance. Jane could see a tall bookcase on the right-side wall behind him full of books and electronic media. Farther into the tent was a bed and at the far end a bathroom/toilet block that was standard with such tents.
"Hi," Jane said. "May we come in?"
"Oh, certainly, certainly."
He stood up, pushing his rolling ergo chair back against the bookshelf. He was 5' 7" and so Jane's height. He was athletically stocky and wore a jump suit like that of pilot's overalls. However, it had soccer-themed logos all over it.
Jane advanced to him with a hand held out. They shook.
"I'm Jane. This is Captain Huang. I advise her."
"I'm Colonel Liu, People's Liberation Army Air Force, retired. Would you like refreshments? They are limited but I can manage water and tea and some small sandwiches."
"No. We're due back at the mess hall in a half hour. May I ask what you're doing here?"
"Yes. I would like to know that, too" said Captain Huang. She stepped forward past Jane and give the stranger an abbreviated bow. It was returned.
"My home is near my wife's work--she's a physician at the Huizhou Municipal Central Hospital--but our daughter lives in one wing of our residence. HER daughters are yet too young to recognize personal space. I have them climbing all over me while I try to work."
He gestured at the laptop to his side. A glance showed that it was quite high end, well able to support the civilian vear the man was wearing on his head, its visor now up.
"So I make this my home away from home. I'm an economist. And Princess II inspires me."
He gestured up and to the side, obviously referring to the wing of the 70-foot long J-20 stealth jet. At not quite nine feet above them the wing allowed the eight-foot tall tent plenty of room while sheltering it from bad weather.
Inspiration struck Jane. Princess! This plane above her would fly again.
<>
The colonel was persuaded to join Jane and her companions at the mess hall. He took his laptop with him. The only irreplaceable item in the tent, he said.
He turned out to have commanded the air base. When it was abandoned he had retired.
"My wife was delighted. I spent entirely too many evenings here instead of with her. She said my job was worse than a mistress. Those would come and go, but the base never would."
Captain Huang, suspicious at first, had warmed to the Colonel. The man had a certain charm and he made light of his (former) great status above a lowly captain. The two were obviously of a type.
"Alas!" the Captain said, "My husband will surely make the same complaint to me."
"What is it you are doing here, Captain?"
All three plus Jane's keeper had gotten food from the generous banquet which the Tech Sergeant had ordered and seated themselves at a round table near one window. The view was partly obscured by dust plastered to the outside by several years of rain.
Jane told the man of her task: build an aerospace plane which could reach orbit in one flight and cruise the upper atmosphere for long periods of time. The man frowned.
"But you're American. And...you're a captain in their air force? How could you possibly do that? Have you...?"
"No. I've not defected. It's hard to explain. You see, I have extraordinary orders and freedom in my job. I--"
He sat back, his eyes growing wide and his mouth dropping slightly open.
"You're...you're The Dragon."
"Some call me that."
He leaned abruptly forward to shake her nearest hand, adding his other hand on the back of hers. He held it after long seconds of shaking it. Jane pried her hand loose.
"It is a great, great honor to be in your presence, Dragon. You have opened the skies to all fliers. Thank you. Thank you."
Jane smiled and took up her soft drink again.
"Yes. I am often impressed with my greatness. It is a great burden, all the recogniti
on I get wherever I go."
He barked a laugh and dug into his food.
"Tell me, Colonel. Is Princess flyable? And what is her ownership status?"
"Sadly, no. She will never fly again. She is just junk. The only reason why she was not sent to the junkyards is because I intervened."
"In that case, I am going to buy her. And make her fly again."
The Colonel looked doubtful.
"Can you get away with that? Why? How?"
"The legalities are complicated. If I returned her to your military flyable, even though she's obsolete, I would be in contravention of our laws and regulations. But if I own her, though she is here, I am innocent of illegalities. I'm sure some back home will argue against that. But I'm lucky to be a millionaire many times over and can afford much better lawyers than anyone might oppose me, even the government.
"As to why, I always use available equipment when I make test vehicles if at all possible. It already functions. I just make some small improvement or improvements. And how? I will replace the engines with induced magnetism air jets. And of course all other internal equipment. Your country keeps most of its dead aircraft intact. We can cannibalize much from them. Cheaply, as they are junk. What is not available we can substitute more modern equipment.
"Start getting yourself back to flying status, Colonel. We will need an experienced J-20 pilot to test our prototype."
<>
Much had to be done to carry out Jane's plan. But four months later she followed the Colonel up a ladder to sit in the rear cockpit on the stealth jet.
The air base in those four months had grown to more than 300 personnel. Temporary workers from the University added another 200+ transient workers. A full-time security detail from the PLAAF guarded the base day and night.
Princess II, named in Jane's mind after her own Princess aircraft back in the states, had a bright white paint job instead of the usual grey color. Atop each wing was an image of fairytale princess Cinderella, her body in a flaring blue ball gown, her blond hair up in a formal party do. On each side of its nose was the name PRINCESS II.
