by Bob Blanton
“Good, they have just fired across my bow again,” the captain said. “I am cutting my engines. Pray for us.”
“We will, Captain,” Marc said.
“Pirates are not known for sparing the crew,” Kal said. “What is he going to do?”
“They’ll take shelter in one of the containers,” Blake said.
“Okay, so now we wait.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Lieutenant Pike here,” the lieutenant called over the comm. “We have the freighter in sight.”
“Can you see the pirate vessel?” Blake asked.
“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant said.
“Where is it relative to the freighter?” Blake asked.
“About one hundred meters off the port side. They’ve sent a Zodiac to board the freighter. That freighter captain was smart, he didn’t just cut his engines, he cut the starboard one and left the port one going at about quarter speed; the freighter is going in a circle, but with it moving like that and with the rudder free it’s a bitch to board her.”
“Good, then fire a missile in front of the pirate vessel,” Blake ordered. “Max yield.”
“Yes, sir. That’ll get their attention,” the lieutenant said. “Missile away.”
“Do a sonic flyover of the freighter,” Blake ordered.
“Sonic flyover, roger,” the lieutenant said.
“Did any of the pirates get onto the ship?” Blake asked.
“We can’t tell,” the lieutenant said. “The Zodiac is heading back to their vessel.”
“Apparently they have some kind of cannon on that thing,” Blake said.
“They had a cannon,” Lieutenant Pike said. “Lieutenant Carrs took it out when they were aiming it at the freighter.”
“Saved me from having to issue the order,” Blake said. “Thank you, Lieutenant Carrs.”
“A pleasure, sir,” Lieutenant Carrs said. “My first time to use the plasma cannon in action.”
“She’s going to lord it over us for weeks, sir,” Lieutenant Pike said.
“Months,” Lieutenant Carrs said.
“We’ll see if we can give you a chance to use yours,” Blake said. “You did get to fire a missile.”
“Yes, sir, but standoff weapons don’t have the same feel,” Lieutenant Pike said.
“I know what you mean. What’s the status of the freighter?”
“Still going in circles, sir. We cannot see anyone on her, but I wouldn’t trust these pirates.”
“We aren’t,” Blake said. “We have a team coming.”
“How are they going to board her?” Lieutenant Carrs asked.
“Watch and learn,” Blake said.
“Apparently Catie’s stunt hasn’t gotten to the other pilots,” Kal whispered to Blake.
“Or they don’t see the application for this situation,” Blake whispered back.
◆ ◆ ◆
Catie’s Lynx arrived on the scene twenty minutes later.
“We’ve got a good breeze coming from the east,” Liz said as they flew over the freighter.
“Are you guys ready?” Catie asked over the comm. The main cabin of the Lynx had the two rows of front seats removed, and the bulkheads were extended from the floor to create a space where they could stand when the Lynx went vertical.
“We’re at the airlock; the inner door is open,” Sergeant Mathers reported. “You’re clear to go vertical.”
“Remember, you have to drop rapidly for the first eight meters, so you don’t get sucked into the engine intake,” Liz cautioned.
“We’re all well aware of that,” Sergeant Mathers said.
“Okay, going vertical,” Catie announced as she nosed the Lynx up. She kept nosing it up until it was at 60 degrees; there the stiff breeze against its wings was strong enough to keep the nose up. Catie tweaked the jet forward until it was hovering over the freighter.
“You are clear to go,” Liz announced.
Sergeant Mathers opened the second airlock door; he had tied a rope to it so that it wouldn’t get ripped from his hands as he allowed it to open up against the Lynx’s side. He patted the guy next to him on the helmet. That guy immediately backed out of the Lynx and let his body drop on the rappelling line. He swung toward the engines for a few meters, then his downward velocity took over, and his line became more vertical. He closed on the freighter’s deck quickly. Two meters before he reached the deck, he arrested his descent, slowing until his feet hit the deck. His knees bent as he released the line. The second man was already halfway down. The first man down brought his M4A1 up and scanned the area to cover for the next man coming down.
In one minute, there were six members of the incursion team on the deck of the freighter. “We’re good,” Sergeant Mathers announced. “Thanks for the ride.”
Catie leveled the Lynx and flew it into a pattern with the two Foxes.
“Neat trick,” Lieutenant Pike said.
Sergeant Mathers’ team quickly spread out and started to search the freighter. They reached the bridge without finding anyone. One of his team brought the engines back up to normal power and corrected the course.
“Stay here and watch the bridge; Jones, you stay and cover him,” Sergeant Mathers ordered. The four of them moved on to continue searching the ship. “We’ve got the freighter back on course,” he announced. “We haven’t seen any hostiles yet.”
“Copy,” Lieutenant Pike said. “We’re covering you as best we can; the pirate vessel is sitting five hundred meters off your port side.”
“Copy,” Sergeant Mathers said. He and his team continued to work their way through the ship.
“The ship is clear,” Sergeant Mathers said after his team had spent an hour searching.
“Call the crew out,” Kal said. “You are stuck on the ship until it docks. I’d like you to assume that there is a hostile hidden there somewhere and maintain a guard in the engine room and the bridge.”
“Yes, sir,” Sergeant Mathers said. “Jones, call the crew out.”
Jones used the ship’s PA system to announce, “Carmelita says all is clear. Come out.”
He made the announcement twice before one of the containers opened, and the crew and captain emerged. Sergeant Mathers immediately ran over to them. “I have two people on the bridge,” he informed the captain. “We’ll have one follow your engineer to the engine room. I’ve been ordered to stay with you and keep guard.”
“Thank you,” the captain said. “What about the pirates?”
“Our planes have them under guard,” Blake said. “They’re going keep them in place until the authorities show up.”
“Good, I would like to see these pirates hang,” the captain said.
KABOOM!
“What happened?” Sergeant Mathers asked.
“The pirates’ boat blew up,” Lieutenant Pike said.
“Any survivors?” Blake asked.
“Searching,” Lieutenant said, “but I doubt it.”
“Keep looking, I’d like to be able to interrogate one,” Blake ordered.
“Yes, sir.”
“We’ll send relief for you guys in six hours,” Blake said. “Until then, I want you to protect the freighter. I’m not sure what kind of pirates these are.”
“Copy that,” Lieutenant Pike said.
“Catie, come on back,” Blake ordered.
“On our way,” Catie acknowledged.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hi Sam,” Catie said. “Are you heading to the meeting?”
“Yes,” Samantha said. “I was in the ladies’ room; those four are really going at it.”
“Those four?” Liz asked.
“Blake, Kal, the admiral, and Marc,” Samantha said. “They’re just going in circles.”
“I assume Daddy thinks it the Russians,” Catie said.
“Yes, he was suspecting the Americans as well until the boat blew up,” Samantha said. She opened the door for Catie and Liz to precede her into the room.
“The woman of the h
our!” Blake called out as Catie walked in.
“Just doing my part,” Catie said as she blushed a little. “What have you guys figured out?”
“Not much,” Marc said. “There were no survivors from the explosion.”
“That’s too bad,” Liz said. “We could have learned a lot if one had made it. I’m sure a survivor would have been willing to talk after they blew the ship up under him.”
“Did the freighter captain recognize the accent?” Catie asked.
“They weren’t using any verbal communication,” Blake said. “Just the two cannon shots across the bow.”
“Do you really think there’s one of them still on the freighter?” Catie asked.
“I wouldn’t bet against it,” Kal said. “Their Zodiac was against the hull when the Foxes showed up. Someone could have climbed up before they got there.”
“He’s got to be feeling lonely right now,” Samantha said.
“Let’s talk about what’s next. Kal’s guys have the freighter under control,” Marc said.
“What do you think they were after?” Liz asked.
“I’m assuming the solar cells,” Marc said. “We have twenty containers on that ship.”
“Are you sure they were after them?” Samantha asked. “That ship was carrying over five thousand containers.”
“Yes, but most of them are carrying raw material heading to China. I think it’s too big of a coincidence that the first ship we send with solar cells is attacked by the most advanced pirates anyone has seen in the last ten years,” Marc said.
“Okay, so say that’s what they were after, what do we expect them to do next?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“To answer that, we need to know who they were,” Blake said.
“The Russians,” Catie and Marc said together.
“Why?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Because they don’t want the Chinese to gain the fusion technology or to become more energy independent,” Marc said.
“Why would the fusion agreement have anything to do with the attack?” the admiral asked.
“It would be logical to assume that we were shipping parts for the reactor on the ship, it would have been easy to coordinate,” Samantha said.
“We are shipping parts of the reactor on that ship,” Marc said.
Everyone looked at Marc in surprise. “We are?” Blake asked.
“Yes, the containment vessels for twenty reactors are on the ship,” Marc said. “I kept it quiet, hoping word wouldn’t get out.”
“You’re lucky the Russians were greedy,” the admiral said, “otherwise they would have just sunk the ship.”
“Will they change tactics and sink it now?” Marc asked.
“We’re keeping the Foxes flying with it to prevent that,” Blake said.
“What about a submarine?” Liz asked.
“That would make it obvious that it was the Russians,” Admiral Michaels said. “I don’t think they’d want to be that obvious.”
“I agree,” Samantha said. “It would unite the UN against them, and they can’t afford that with all the instability in the oil markets. An embargo on Russian oil would not be hard to do with the Saudis pumping at the rate they are.”
“Why are the Saudis pumping so much oil?” Catie asked.
“They’re assuming the price is going to continue to go down,” Samantha said. “They’re trying to rake in as much cash as they can now, as well as push the price down to make the economics of converting less attractive.”
“Let’s move on. Assuming it was the Russians, how do we protect future shipments?” Marc asked.
“We could land them directly in China,” Liz suggested.
“We’d have to have them create a ramp for us,” Catie said. “We can’t afford to go back to thirty percent loads.”
“I’m sure they would be happy to,” Blake said. “We could ship the parts for a polysteel ramp and assemble it over there.”
“It really makes us inefficient,” Catie said. “We’d have to fly the Oryxes back here to ferry our upbound cargo to the station.”
“We could get a lot of the cargo in China,” Liz suggested.
“I don’t want to be that dependent on the Chinese,” Marc said.
“Or that much in bed with them,” the admiral added.
“We don’t want to be escorting every freighter with a couple of Foxes,” Marc said. “It’s a twelve-day trip.”
“We may have to,” Kal said. “We can post people on the ships, but if they’re going to try and sink them, we need to have air support.”
“I have an idea,” Liz said. “Why don’t you let me and Catie work on it for a couple of days; then we can go over it?”
“What idea?” Marc asked.
“I’d like to make sure it’s not completely insane before I share,” Liz said.
“Two days,” Marc said.
“Got it,” Liz said.
◆ ◆ ◆
“What’s your plan?” Catie asked as she followed Liz out of the boardroom.
“A Hover Fox,” Liz said.
“Hover?”
“Yes. You know that the F35 has a version that can do a vertical takeoff,” Liz said.
“No,” Catie replied.
“How could you miss that?”
“Didn’t look at the F35,” Catie said. “It’s not that good in a dogfight, and the Foxes are a lot more like an F18 anyway.”
“Well, it does,” Liz said. “I think we should be able to do something similar to the Fox.”
“Do you want to go to our condo to work on it?” Catie asked. Catie had moved out of her father’s condo and into one next door with Liz. It was the same arrangement they had on the space station, and Catie liked the additional freedom it gave her. Her father wasn’t so sure it was a good idea but was being a good soldier. And the friendship between Catie and Liz was good for Catie, helping her mature and be more social with others.
They made their way to the condo and cleared the dining table. After syncing their comms, Liz brought up the plans for the F35 VTO model. “See, it rotates its engines and has another big blower here behind the cockpit. Most of the weight is in the back, so it balances okay,” Liz explained.
“But it looks like it would take some time to switch from VTO to normal flying,” Catie said. “That could get you into trouble.”
“That’s why you’re here,” Liz said. “I know we can copy this, but we should be able to do better.”
“We have no shortage of power in the advanced Foxes with the fusion reactor,” Catie said. “So, we don’t have to have such a big opening for the airflow; we could just pop up another air scoop.”
“We have room behind the cockpit,” Liz said. “That’s essentially just dead space.”
“Yes, and let me check this out,” Catie said. “ADI, can a gyroscope be used to help the jet stay level?”
“Yes, Cer Catie,” ADI answered. “And if you use a pair of gyroscopes, you can minimize the precession.”
“What’s precession?” Catie asked.
“There’s a good video of it on the internet,” ADI said. She started the video playing. “You can see that the bicycle wheel is hung on a string by an extended axle. When it is held vertical and spun up very fast, you can let go of the axis, and it will stay vertical. But you’ll notice that it rotates around the vertical axis. That wandering rotation is called precession; it’s the gyroscope countering the forces that want to pull it horizontal. With two gyroscopes spinning in opposite directions, you balance out the precession.”
“I guess that explains why you can ride a bike,” Liz said.
“It does help, although you have to use your sense of balance to offset the precession since the tires rotate in the same direction,” ADI explained.
“If we put two gyroscopes, one in each of the forward sections of the Fox’s wings, would that help it make a vertical takeoff?” Catie asked.
“They would have to have sufficient mass to develop e
nough torque to do that,” ADI said, “but yes, that would help.”
Catie and Liz worked with ADI for several hours, modeling the various configurations. It was two a.m. before they came up with a design that they thought would be worth prototyping.
“Okay, we’ll use magnetic couplings to spin the gyroscopes up and to stop them,” Catie summarized. “We have a small intake behind the cockpit that raises up to pull in air and a fan pushing it down, so we get enough lift to get off the ground. Once we’re up, we can start transitioning to horizontal flight mode, and once we’re over a hundred knots, we can shut down the fan and close the air scoop.”
“Then you can hang around or blast off at full acceleration,” Liz said. “When do you have to shut the gyros off?”
“You just need to shut them down when you want to be able to maneuver fast,” Catie said. “They’ll work to keep you stable, which is nice, but not so good in a dog fight.”
“Let’s hit the sack,” Liz said. “Tomorrow, we can figure out how to actually build one.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Good morning,” Catie said as Liz walked into the kitchen at ten o’clock.
“Morning, how long have you been up?” Liz asked.
“Since six,” Catie said.
“We didn’t go to bed until after two,” Liz said.
“Four hours sleep isn’t too bad for me,” Catie said.
“I can survive on six, but I really need eight,” Liz said. “Anyway, what have you been doing?”
“Planning how to prototype the Hover Fox,” Catie said.
“And?”
“We can print all the parts we need; someone else can figure out how to manufacture them.”
“Can we afford the printer time?”
“Yes, it’s only one day,” Catie said. “We can have someone pull the nozzles of the engines while the new nozzles are printing, and they can cut the holes for the fan and gyros too. Power is easy to run, so we just put it all back together when we’re done.”
“What about electronics?” Liz asked.
“The Fox’s sensors already take care of all the feedback we need; we just let the computer manage the power to the fan and gyros, and add a control for the angle of the jet nozzles.”
“So, how many days?”
“A week,” Catie said. “Might be a bit rough, but it’ll be a great proof of concept. I think we need to manufacture them new instead of trying to convert existing Foxes. Otherwise, we’re risking the integrity of the hull.”
