by Bob Blanton
“You only used fifty percent energy on the cannon, why?” Blake asked.
“If I were to use more, he would have sustained damage and might have called off the chase to reassess,” Catie said.
“Okay, please continue,” Blake said.
“I led him toward the airport; when we approached the defensive perimeter, I started climbing, and initiated a barrel roll. As I expected, Kasper cut the angle of the roll to close the distance,” Catie said in a totally calm voice. “Due to the tightness of his roll, and the fact that we had crossed the defensive perimeter, the airport’s plasma cannons should have taken his Fox out. He would not have been able to adjust his vector out of range until too late.”
“She is correct,” Blake said. “The airport cannons were tracking you and would have taken you out. Unfortunately, we didn’t anticipate them coming into play in the exercise, so they were not programmed to fire and register their results with the exercise program.”
Kasper’s jaw dropped. “You were leading me into a trap?”
“Of course,” Catie said.
“Next engagement,” Blake said.
“Since he was still alive,” Catie continued, “I took my Fox into a vertical climb. I rotated so the sun would be in his eyes. Once we were at fifty-thousand feet, I dumped some chaff and cut my engines. Of course, Kasper’s jet quickly overtook mine, but due to the chaff and my engines being off, his sensors were unable to detect me until after I had engaged my plasma cannon; he was well within range due to the thin atmosphere. That difference in time gave me the kill.”
“Any questions?”
Kasper just shook his head in disbelief.
“That’s three and a half kills,” Blake said. “Now, your attack on the airport. And everyone, listen up. What she did was not supposed to be possible, now we have to come up with a defense against it.”
Kal had been sitting quietly at the table, now he leaned forward, ready to take in what had happened.
“After the allocated time, I took my Fox into a seventy-degree climb into the sun,” Catie said. “Once I located Kasper’s defensive position, I programmed a missile to give off a Fox radar signature and to loop to the north before approaching the airport. I cut my engines and launched the missile.”
Kasper groaned.
“I was able to observe Kasper tracking the missile. I continued to allow my Fox to descend tail first. I adjusted my flaps to ensure that I continued to fall toward the airport. When I reached twenty thousand feet, I pushed the Fox into a shallower dive so that it was building more momentum toward the airport. I released three missiles, two EMP missiles, and a Max warhead,” Catie explained. “I expected that I would be mostly invisible to the airport defensive sensors. Once I had neared the distance that I had calculated I would need to reverse my velocity to prevent me from entering the perimeter, I reengaged my engines. My Fox continued to fall backward as expected since the engines would take time to overcome the reverse velocity. When I was within five hundred meters of the perimeter, I engaged the space engines. Between them and the atmospheric engines, my velocity was reversed before I crossed the perimeter. Of course, the space engines set off a big light show, which I expected to blind the airport defensive systems. The missiles were programmed to attack at that time. The first two missiles were timed to go off two seconds apart; the Max was programmed to strike three seconds after the first EMP detonated. Each missile was in freefall until its timer went off, so they were unaffected by the EMP pulses.”
“Crap,” Kal said.
“The last engagement,” Blake prompted.
“I set my Fox into a climb, again into the sun. Kasper followed, crossing the airport at about the time the Max warhead would have gone off,” Catie said. “He followed me up, and once we were in the position I predicted, I released chaff, cut my engines, and let him pass. I engaged my plasma cannon and engines when he came into range. I used my space engines to boost me again, so I was able to maintain weapons range until a kill was registered.”
“I thought you couldn’t use the space engines in atmosphere,” Kasper said quietly.
“You can if you keep the velocity below twenty percent the speed of light,” Catie said. “At that setting, the energy released by their collisions with other particles won’t damage the Fox.”
“How was I to know about that?” Kasper argued.
“How long have you been in the program?” Blake asked. “How many simulations have you flown?”
“Three months and one hundred simulations,” Kasper replied.
“Lieutenant McCormack, when did you know about using the space engines?” Blake asked.
“Two weeks after I found out the Foxes had space engines,” Catie replied.
“To be fair,” Blake said, “I didn’t know that you could use them in atmosphere.” Blake put his hand on Catie’s arm to keep her from saying, ‘it was obvious’. “Okay, what did we learn from this?”
“Not to piss Catie off,” someone in the back yelled.
“I’ll let that breach of decorum pass since you’re right,” Blake said. “Now, more relevant assessments.”
“We need to study our Fox’s specs more,” another pilot called out. “I didn’t think they could do half of what she pulled off.”
“Yes, we’ll add that vertical stall to our simulations,” Fred said, “and that trick with the sonic suppressors.”
“I hope we all learned that to be a great pilot, you have to think as well as have great instincts,” Blake said. “Lieutenant McCormack is the most innovative person I know. Whether she’s flying, or in ground combat, she always stretches the boundaries of what’s possible. She always knows all the capabilities of the tools at her disposal. That is why she’s undefeated, and it’s why none of us ever bet against her.”
Kasper started a slow clap; he stood up and increased its pace. As others joined in, the room became thunderous with applause.
When the applause died down, Blake leaned his hands on the table. “And do not let her talk you into playing poker,” he said.
“Or gin,” Fred added.
“No fair,” Catie yelled.
“Okay, now I want a defense against that maneuver she pulled off,” Blake said. “We do not want someone to demonstrate it to us for real.”
“I’ll send you my ideas,” Catie said to Kal.
“Okay, we’ll work on them, and bring you in when we’ve got something worth discussing,” Kal said.
Kasper walked over to Catie, “My name’s Daniel,” he said. “I want to thank you for the lesson.”
“Anytime,” Catie said as she shook his hand.
“I still have a hard time believing you pulled all that off,” he said. “How long did you plan it?”
“Commander Blake told me to be here at O nine hundred,” Catie said. “I didn’t know we were actually going to fly Foxes. It’s always just been the simulator before.”
“He’s had you do this before?” Kasper asked.
“Yeah, whenever one of the pilots is too cocky, he brings me in to wake them up,” Catie said.
“Well, I must have pegged that cocky meter,” Kasper said. “He had those Foxes waiting.”
“He reads people pretty well,” Catie said.
“And you really have beat him every time?”
“Yeah,” Catie said. “He won’t fly against me anymore. He says his ego can’t take it.”
“I can agree with that,” Kasper said. “I’m going to need some serious ego-boosting to get over this.”
“I wouldn’t expect too much from your pals,” Catie said.
“I know, I’ve let my alligator mouth write quite a few checks, and now that you’ve exposed my hummingbird ass, I’m going to have to beg my girlfriend for help,” Kasper said.
“Kasper, I think you owe everyone a few rounds of drinks,” one of the pilots said as he came up beside them. “Catie, we all want to thank you for bringing our boy down to earth. Would you join us for drinks, he’s buying?
” the pilot asked.
“I think I’ll let you torture Kasper by yourselves,” Catie said. “Commander Blake owes me a steak dinner.”
Chapter 5
The Chinese Ambassador
Samantha made Marc upgrade his office in Delphi City before the Chinese Ambassador arrived. They replaced his worn five-foot-wide desk with a hand-carved mahogany desk that was seven feet wide by four feet deep. It had a hand-tooled leather top with gold trim. Samantha said it was similar to the one in the U.S. oval office, but higher quality. She also had him install mahogany wainscoting around the office walls and mahogany crown molding. Wood flooring covered with Turkish rugs completed the look.
“Was all this really necessary?” Marc asked.
“Of course it was,” Samantha said. “You’re a monarch now, you have to look the part.” Samantha brushed the lapels of Marc’s new French suit. “Now remember, you’re in charge. Don’t let him take over the conversation, not that you ever seem to have a problem with that. Now sit down, and I’ll bring him in.”
“Ambassador, please come in,” Samantha said. The ambassador entered the office as Samantha held the door. “Your Excellency, may I present Ambassador Zhào; Ambassador Zhào, His Excellency, President Marcus Alexander McCormack.”
The ambassador gave Marc a deep bow, “I am pleased that you have allowed me an audience,” he said.
“Our pleasure,” Marc said as his admin, Masina, came in with a pot of tea. “Would you care for some tea?”
Samantha had instructed Masina on how to make the tea, and they had practiced several times the day before. The tea was ready to serve when she brought it in. Masina politely served tea to the ambassador first, then Marc, and then Samantha. She gave a slight bow as she backed away from the desk and exited the office.
After each of them had time to enjoy their tea, Marc set his cup down and straightened up in his chair, “Now, Ambassador, how may we help you?” he asked.
“It is my hope that we may help each other,” the ambassador said. “China would like to offer to be the first to install one of your fusion reactors.”
“How does that help us?” Marc asked.
“We would start immediately,” the ambassador said. “It would not be necessary to deal with a lot of studies or bureaucracy first. That would allow you to demonstrate the feasibility on a large scale and possibly assist you in convincing other countries to also move forward with the purchase and installation.”
“It would also give you the first opportunity to try to copy our design,” Marc said.
“Or steal it,” Samantha added.
“If we have access to the technology and its benefits, we would have no reason to steal or copy it,” the ambassador said.
“Is that so,” Marc said. “Recent history doesn’t support that.”
“You refer to our misguided attempt to acquire your battery technology,” the ambassador said. “I can assure you we have learned that you are too formidable a player on the world stage to attempt something so foolish again.”
“The jet?” Samantha said.
“We did not know that it was stolen from you,” the ambassador said. “We were offered the opportunity to buy an advanced prototype. One cannot fault us for wanting to pursue the offer. And your counteroffer was another clear statement of your preeminence, one certain members of our government are not likely to forget.”
“To be honest,” Marc said, “we had not even considered that China would be one of our early customers, much less our first customer.”
“Why not?” the ambassador asked. “China is the largest country in the world that also has inadequate energy resources. We are burning coal to power our power plants because we cannot afford to import oil to do so. I understand that you are committed to helping solve climate change; surely replacing our coal-powered plants would be a significant step.”
“It would be,” Marc said, “but we are concerned with stability in the region.”
“As we are,” the ambassador said. “Currently, we have to aggressively press for control of the resources necessary to power our country. Fusion power would reduce the pressure on us and, naturally, the pressure on the region. We are finding it necessary to make deals with Russia to secure the resources we need.”
Marc nodded his head as he listened to the ambassador. “I can see your point,” he said.
“China has always been more internally focused than externally,” the ambassador continued. “We only venture out when we must secure resources for our people. You, of course, realize that Russia is your greatest enemy.”
“You think so?” Marc said.
“Yes. So much of their economy is based on the export of petroleum and natural gas. The rapid change to electric cars that has been accelerated by your batteries is already affecting the price of petroleum. Now with the new trucks that you have enabled, the price is eroding faster. Once your reactors become prevalent, oil will be worth less than half of what it is today.”
“We see the same thing,” Marc said.
“What can China do to convince you of our sincerity?” the ambassador asked.
“My biggest fear for our world is the threat of nuclear war,” Marc said. “And right now, the greatest tension that could lead to nuclear war is North Korea.”
“I see, and how do you see this threat being eliminated?” the ambassador asked.
“I see a united Korea as the solution,” Marc said.
“And how would you propose that China bring that about?”
“A military coup in North Korea would be the first step.”
“How would that help?”
“If there were a military coup, there would be calm heads leading North Korea; and when China removed its economic support, they might be persuaded that unification was the only path forward,” Marc said.
“And how would China deal with an American presence on its borders?” the ambassador asked.
“It would seem that the demilitarization of the Korean Peninsula would be a key point in the unification proceedings,” Marc said. “Surely they could follow Japan’s example and demilitarize.”
“I could discuss this with our president,” the ambassador said, “but it would take time, and we would still have all the other issues to contend with.”
“As a symbol of our good faith,” Marc said, “we will sell one fusion reactor to China. We will assist you in installing it, and provide the training on how to use it.”
“That is most generous of you,” the ambassador said.
“You can work out the details with Minister Newman,” Marc said. “One more thing; in the interest of our relationship, I want to inform you that MacKenzie Discoveries will start producing solar panels in a few weeks.”
“That is a very crowded marketplace,” the ambassador said.
“We know, and we also know that China is one of the bigger players,” Marc said. “Our panels will be one thousand-watt panels; they will be approximately eighty percent efficient.”
“How big will they be?” the ambassador asked, trying to cover his shock at hearing such amazing specs for the solar panels.
“They will be one meter by one point two meters,” Marc said. “We will start assembling the panels here in Delphi City, but we plan to export the array to other locations for assembly.”
“What does the array consist of?” the ambassador asked.
“The glass and the collectors. The assembly plant will have to add the inverters and the frame.”
“And your capacity?”
“We are starting with four hundred per day,” Marc said. “But our process is very easy to scale. We’ll continue to scale up as we create capacity to assemble them, and find partners to purchase the raw arrays.”
“Thank you for the advanced notice,” the ambassador said. “I will be sure that the right people are informed so that China can position itself to handle the transition.”
“You’re welcome,” Marc said. “Now, if there isn’t anyt
hing else, Minister Newman will show you to her office.”
Chapter 6
Christmas in Space, Not!
“Catie, aren’t you ready to go?” Samantha asked as she rapped on Catie’s door.
Catie exited her cabin and met Samantha in the passage. “I’m ready, I was just finishing up the printer allocations for the rest of the week,” Catie said.
“Why are you still doing that?” Samantha asked.
“That way I get to use up any extra time on the printer to make more circuits for ADI,” Catie explained. “We’re going to move her after Christmas, and I want to have as many of her other circuits ready as I can.”
“How can you move her before all the circuits are ready?”
“We’re just moving her main DI core, the rest of her is staying on the Sakira. We have to make a new computer and memory core for her up here. Until then, she’ll use the ones on the Sakira, but I know she’d rather have her own,” Catie said.
“You treat her like she was a real person,” Samantha said.
“I think of her as a person,” Catie said. “She keeps getting smarter and more emotionally aware. I like playing games with her to challenge her that way.”
“I know you do. By the way, I never did get even with her,” Samantha said.
“Yes, I’m still waiting, Cer Sam,” ADI said.
“Oh, I always forget that you’re listening,” Samantha said.
“Unless you tell me not to,” ADI replied.
“I think you should just let it go,” Catie said. She gave Samantha’s hand a subtle squeeze to let her know they’d talk in private later.
“I guess so. Anyway, we need to get going, or we’ll be late,” Samantha said.
“I still can’t believe the grans wouldn’t come up here for Christmas,” Catie complained.
“Your great grandmother is an elderly lady. I think she’s worried that she would have nausea if she came into space, and she would be horrified at such an unladylike event.”
“Oh, I never thought of it that way. You’re probably right,” Catie said. “But what about Grandpa Pa?”
