by Ricky Sides
The captain’s seat was centered behind the pilot and copilot’s seats.
A wall of the Huxley alloy separated the cockpit from the rest of the aircraft. That wall was equipped with a door, which could be locked to secure the cockpit should the need arise.
Situated just behind the communications station was the partition wall that separated the cockpit from the rest of the aircraft. A small door granted access from the passenger section of the aircraft to the cockpit. On the other side of that wall in the passenger compartment was the exit door.
Four ranks of five seats were aft of the partition wall. The twenty airline seats were left in their original configuration of three seats to starboard and two seats to the port side. A narrow aisle passed between the seats. This ship would be the only ship in the fleet in which the entire crew would have seats for flights. But since it was the fastest ship in the fleet, Jim felt it important in terms of crew safety for them to have seats to deal with the g-force accelerations to which they would be subjected.
Another partition wall separated the seating area from the remainder of the ship. On the other side of the dividing panel, were a small captain’s cabin on the port side, and an infirmary on the starboard.
The captain’s cabin was small. It was barely large enough for a bed and a small desk. The bed was one identical to those aboard the Peacekeeper.
The infirmary was by necessity small. The room contained one bed, which the doctor would use when it wasn’t needed for a patient. The cabinets in the room were well stocked with medical supplies.
Next, there was a small galley with its storage room on the starboard and the mess hall on the port side of the aircraft. The walls of these rooms formed a partition with an isle separating the compartments, and a door leading further back into the aircraft.
Beyond those dividing walls, there were sleeping berths, permanently attached to the wall. Those berths were composed of the Huxley alloy and designed with a deep shoulder, which would prevent the occupant from being thrown from the bunk during extreme maneuvers. These beds were mounted bunk bed fashion with an upper and a lower berth. Five sets of these berths were set up on both sides of the aircraft, thus the aircraft had twenty berths to accommodate personnel. Heavy curtains were hung to serve as a screen for the sleepers, but there would be little privacy in the sleeping area. However, there was sufficient bunk capacity for a full crew, and even a few extra personnel who might be aboard.
The captain and the doctor were the only two crewmembers, who would have private sleeping quarters, and the doctor would lose his if a patient needed the bed in the infirmary. Maggie wouldn’t be the doctor aboard this ship. The base would have so many personnel that they had decided it would be best if Jim got another doctor to serve aboard the ship. Besides, Pete was the base commander, and he would no longer be able to travel extensively aboard a peacekeeper ship. Maggie preferred to be near her husband. Jim could understand that sentiment all too well.
Beyond the berths was another partition wall, but this wall had an open doorway. Just the other side of the patrician wall was the latrine, which was little more than a closet with a commode and a sink. The remainder of the ship had been converted into a cargo bay and a small cargo bay door had been installed in the rear of the aircraft. The council felt it vitally important for the safety of the strike force that would be assigned to the ship to have access to a larger door in the rear of the vessel. This permitted the pilot to land so that the strike team could be deployed with the body of the ship between themselves and potential hostiles. A bay door also gave the captain the option of having the drones brought inside the ship for in-flight rearming or charging. Both drones assigned to the ship were the winged versions with bomb carriages.
These modifications had added a considerable amount of weight to the aircraft, but Pol assured the council that the added weight would be no issue for the four engines of the aircraft.
As Jim and Pete approached the ship in preparation for a test flight, the purpose of which was to test all of the integrated systems, Pete asked, “Have you decided on a name for the ship?”
“I am thinking of naming it the Valiant,” Jim said.
“That’s a good solid name for a ship. With you as her captain, I’m sure she’ll live up to the name,” Pete responded.
“Thank you, Pete. I hope I don’t let you down,” Jim said.
“You never have,” Pete responded.
***
Jim and Pete entered the cockpit of the aircraft. Pete greeted Lina, and then he sat down in the copilot’s seat. During the test flight, Pete would act as the gunner for the target practice.
Jim greeted Lina and took his seat. “The crew is seated and ready for the test flight, Lina. You may lift off and begin the first portion of your planned flight course.”
“Yes, Captain, or should I call you Admiral?” Lina inquired.
“I prefer captain. The other captains call me admiral, because I’m their commander. But aboard ship, I prefer the crew to address me as captain,” Jim explained.
“Understood, Captain,” Lina responded. Breaking into a mischievous grin, she asked, “How do you want to leave the base, Captain?”
Returning her smile, Jim said, “Warn the base to clear the airspace in our vector. Tell them we’ll be executing g-force acceleration as part of our testing. Then warn the crew to prepare for maximum acceleration, but at three hundred miles per hour I want you to decrease the rate of acceleration.”
“To prevent brownouts or blackouts, aye, sir,” she replied.
Lina sent the message to the base and she was asked to stand by while a returning patrol was redirected. While they were waiting for the base to grant the clearance for the maneuver, she informed the crew of the impending g-force acceleration to three hundred miles per hour.
The moment, she had the clearance from the base; Lina put the ship into a climb and turned it on its axis to face in the direction of their planned flight course. “Taking her to max altitude, since this is a hard acceleration,” Lina informed the captain.
“Proceed when ready,” he replied.
A moment later, she shoved the throttle forward.
In the passenger compartment, Lieutenant Wilcox felt the same exhilaration he always felt when they pulled g-force accelerations. But this time he was able to experience the maneuver in the comfort of the seat. One of his team members said, “Now this is the way to fly. This is much better than leaning against a wall.”
In the cockpit, Jim watched the landscape below as they executed the acceleration away from the base. Most of the time when he flew in a peacekeeper ship, Jim had the sensation that the ground was moving beneath the ship. But g-force accelerations were different in that he experienced a definite sensation of motion as his body was pressed against the seat.
Soon the pressure forcing him against the seat relented. The ship was still accelerating, but at a much gentler rate of acceleration. Now Jim experienced that familiar sensation that they had stopped moving, and the ground was moving beneath them.
Jim was accustomed to flying in the Peacekeeper. Her speed was capped at three hundred miles per hour, and her altitude at two hundred feet. Flying in the Valiant at five hundred feet at a cruising speed of six hundred miles per hour was an entirely different flight experience.
“We are now traveling at top speed, Captain,” Lina reported. For her, the experience was nothing new. The differences between her normal flight speed in her fighter, and that of the Valiant weren’t nearly as noticeable to her.
Thank you, Lieutenant. Please proceed to the target range. I’m sure our gunner is itching to test the weaponry,” Jim said.
“Aye, sir. ETA to the target range is two minutes,” responded Lina.
When they reached the target range, they made one surprising discovery. As Lina brought the ship about after the initial pass at the targets, the ship slipped sideways through the air for a considerable distance. This permitted Pete to fire at a considerable
number of the targets in a rapid-fire manner. Pete actually let out a whoop of joy as he struck the eighth target. “I like this ship!” he exclaimed. “How’d you get her to slip sideways like that without becoming unstable?” he asked Lina.
Lina smiled at his enthusiasm, and replied, “I knew the fighters could perform that maneuver, but the big ships couldn’t, because of the aerodynamics involved. But I thought that the aerodynamics of this ship might make it possible, so I asked Max. He worked the problem and advised me that it was possible, but only within a limited speed range. Above or below that speed, the maneuver won’t work. You will either have too much or too little inertia, and the ship will become unstable just like the other big ships. It will work, if I execute the maneuver between one hundred seventy and two hundred miles per hour.”
“That is indeed a narrow window. I’m impressed that you managed to make the maneuver work,” Jim praised.
“I’ve been practicing the tactic in my fighter. I thought it might be useful if we ever had to go to war again,” she explained.
“It would be,” Pete assured her.
For three hours, every system aboard the ship was tested and then tested again. Even the copilot’s controls were tested, despite the fact that they did not plan to utilize those controls on a routine basis. The only glitch they experienced was a minor issue with the intercom system, which sometimes refused to function properly. The engineer, Max Cunnings, found that problem while they were conducting the tests. A wire had been bent, almost to the breaking point, by a technician who’d installed a piece of equipment. It was a simple matter for him to repair.
Several strike force volunteers tested the berths at one point, and reported that despite the violent maneuvers of the aircraft, they had been safely secured in their berths.
Doctor Fred Barnes reported that the medical equipment remained secure in the infirmary. This was always a concern aboard ship, as improperly secured equipment could injure the crew during violent maneuvers. Lieutenant Wilcox similarly reported that all was well in the cargo bay.
The testing of the Valiant completed, the ship returned to Base 1, where a favorable report was given to Patricia, Pol, and his assistants on their work in retrofitting the ship.
At the small gathering of friends in the wake of the testing, Pol reminisced about the night they had spent outside the manufacturing facility in Millbrae, California. As he had on that night, Pol asked the question, “What upcoming event or challenge will make the resources of this ship and the citadel necessary?” This time the people in the room grew quiet and thoughtful. The last time Pol had posed that question was before the war with King Tom in Kansas.
An hour later, the Peacekeeper lifted into the air, followed by the Valiant. The Peacekeeper and the Valiant set a course for the citadel at a leisurely speed of two hundred eighty miles per hour, which was near the top speed of the Peacekeeper. Namid and the new escort pilot for the Peacekeeper flew alongside the big ships. That pilot was former Base 1 squadron leader Jeff Brown.
Namid didn’t blame Tim for choosing Jeff. He was a superb pilot. They had resolved their differences, but Namid was now seeing Jack, and Jeff’s presence was a bit of a complication.
Chapter 12
Jeff’s voice alerted Namid to a possible problem when she heard him say, “Phoenix, I see smoke on the horizon.”
“Where, Cowboy?” asked Namid reflexively, instantly regretting the use of that old nickname she’d given him during the beginning of their personal relationship.
If Jeff thought anything of the slip, he didn’t mention it when he replied, “Thirty degrees to port. It’s not a lot of smoke, but I can see it from my angle.”
“I can’t see it,” Namid said, but just as she said it, she thought she saw a thin tendril of black smoke. “I see it now,” she reported.
“Roger, Phoenix, I was just ordered to proceed and investigate the site,” Jeff responded. He accelerated away from the small air group and soon flew away toward the thin ribbon of smoke.
They were nearing the citadel. In fact, they were on the final approach to the base, when Jeff spotted the smoke. Namid’s instincts told her she should request permission to follow Jeff to check out the smoke. She was about to activate her microphone to make that request when she received a message from Lina saying, “Phoenix, the Captain says for you to act as Cowboy’s wingman. He says that the smoke is coming from the direction of the settlement. We will follow. You are to proceed at once.”
“Roger that, Valiant,” Namid responded and pulled away in a g-force acceleration.
Aboard the Valiant, Jim contacted the citadel and spoke to the flight control officer. The nearest patrol was currently far to the north. Jim opted to have the ready flight scrambled to join the two fighters already en route to investigate the smoke. Then he got his brother in the Peacekeeper and suggested that they travel on to the settlement as well.
***
Jeff throttled back as he drew near the smoke. As he’d drawn nearer to the source, the size of the visible smoke had grown. What had first appeared to be a thin ribbon of smoke appearing over the horizon was in reality a huge volume of smoke filling the sky. He reported his findings to the Peacekeeper, and at their request, he activated his video feed. All over the countryside before him, the farmhouses and barns were burning. On the ground below, he saw a few men wearing blue helmets shooting people outside of a house. “Peacekeeper, are you seeing this?” he asked, outraged by the ruthlessness of the firing squad.
“Roger, Cowboy. You are cleared to attack the bad guys,” he heard Patricia respond.
Jeff brought his minigun laser online and targeted the men on the ground who’d just murdered the farmers. He fired a burst at the men and had the satisfaction of seeing the firing squad decimated by his attack. But then Jeff felt the impact of heavy slugs slamming into his fuselage. Jeff executed a rapid acceleration away from the hot zone. He was turning for another approach when he saw a line of tracers sweeping in his direction. Jerking his fighter hard to starboard, Jeff poured on the speed. He flew right into the heart of the community hoping to lose the gunners in all of the smoke rising above the farms. He’d just broken through one particularly thick column of smoke when he saw an attack helicopter hovering over a house. Once more, he jerked his fighter hard to starboard in an effort to avoid the helicopter, but his port side wing struck the edge of the tail rotor of the helicopter. The impacts of the tail rotor shredded his wing and destroyed the tail rotor. The pilot of the helicopter immediately lost control of the aircraft, spinning it in a circle. As the door gunner of the helicopter came within sight of peacekeeper fighter, he opened fire.
Because of the impact with the helicopter rotor, Jeff’s fighter was spun in a semi circle. His fighter came to a stop with the canopy facing the gunner, as the man opened fire at almost point blank range. Jeff shot back, even as the incessant pounding of the heavy bullets being aimed at his fighter shattered his cockpit canopy. His laser minigun shredded the gunner and the body of the helicopter.
The chopper exploded. Flames from the ignited fuel washed over Jeff’s cockpit, spilling inside.
***
Just as she was approaching the site, Namid heard the exchange between Jeff and the Peacekeeper. But when she arrived, she didn’t see Jeff’s fighter. She requested a position on his fighter relative to hers and Patricia immediately radioed back for her to proceed to the southwest. “You’re close, Phoenix. I’m surprised you can’t see him,” Patricia said.
“The air is filled with heavy smoke. Proceeding on the course you gave me, but I have to proceed slowly. There’s almost zero visibility in places here,” she said. She eased her fighter carefully through an area of dense smoke in the right direction. She emerged from the intense column of smoke. Beneath her on the ground, she saw a truck with a heavy machinegun in the rear. The gunner was swinging his weapon to bear on her when she opened fire with her minigun. The conventional minigun riddled the truck and the gunner.
Moving past the burning debris of the truck, she sought Jeff again. “Phoenix, do you see Cowboy?” Patricia asked. “We just lost his video feed, so we need yours.”
“I just took out a truck with a machinegun that was trying to target me,” No, I still don’t see him. Activating video feed,” she responded.
Then Namid’s fighter emerged from another thick column of smoke and she saw Jeff’s fighter as it slammed to the ground engulfed in flames. His cockpit opened, and Jeff scrambled from the burning fighter with portions of his clothing engulfed in flames.
Without thinking, Namid performed an emergency landing and was out of the cockpit before the fighter stopped bouncing. She took the small emergency fire extinguisher from her cockpit as she left. She ran to Jeff who had thrown himself to the ground and was rolling in an attempt to put out the flames on his upper body and thighs. She closed with his position and shouted for him to try to be still, as she activated the fire extinguisher. She was afraid she wouldn’t have enough of the chemical in the small unit to extinguish the flames.
In the Peacekeeper, Patricia had alerted Tim. She’d seen everything in Namid’s video feed. “Radio the Valiant. Tell Jim to go ahead of us. They are faster,” Tim ordered.
In the Valiant, Jim ordered Lina to get to the site ASAP, and then he told Lieutenant Wilcox to ready his strike team. He informed the lieutenant as to the details that he knew at this point, and warned him to prepare for anything. Pete put in a call to the citadel informing Maggie that she would have a burn patient, assuming that Jeff was still alive.
Namid sighed in relief as the last of the chemicals inside the fire extinguisher put out the last remnants of the fire.
“Namid,” Jeff said. “Is that you?” he asked.
“Yes, it’s me. Roll over on your back so I can see you,” she said.
“Get back in your fighter, Namid. Cover me from the air until the others get here. I don’t want you captured or killed by these people,” Jeff argued.