Heavier Than Air

by T. E. Vario (t_e_vario@yahoo. com)

  “Wow, this is serious.”

  “Deadly serious. The first priority should be to find out who is involved. We can then backtrack the message traffic, and possibly even send the Gengon misinformation if we can cleanly capture whoever is involved. Also, the sooner you have the culprits identified, the sooner they can be put out of harms way and not be a threat to you personally.”

  “OK Dad. I’ll start work on it immediately. I’m glad you trust me with this.”

  “Thanks kid. Just don’t let anything happen to you.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  * * *

  John rode back to base that evening. It was a clear night, and the Milky Way stood out like a huge banner across the sky. He wished he had brought along a warm coat, as it got increasingly chilly as the ride went on. Diablo did not seem to mind and kept breaking into a trot with the least encouragement.

  It was after 11 by the time John got back to base. He thought about going straight to bed, but he wanted to see Barbara. He woke her up knocking on the door, but she was obviously delighted to see him. They spent no time getting his clothes off and under the covers. He warmed up quickly after that.

  * * *

  Sara had trouble getting to sleep. Her mind kept racing back and forth between thinking about how to find the leak, and speculating about who the traitor was likely to be. Her imagination kept putting her fat CO, Heinrich Largos, in the role. She knew she had absolutely no evidence to implicate Largos, she just did not like the man.

  The problem with finding the leak was that she only had access to her own computer and limited access to several larger servers needed to do her job. The rest of the computers were electronically walled off from her. She did not know the passwords needed to get into the other machines, and was not likely to figure them out by trail and error. Simply trying to access them would trigger alerts in the monitoring software that they would almost certainly be running. That could get her thrown into the brig as a spy – an ironic ending she hoped she could avoid.

  As she began to drift off, her subconscious mind started working on the problem. It would not be a restful night, but she would have an inkling of an approach by the time she woke up.

  John Young awoke next to Barbara in her narrow bed. The bed forced them to lie practically on top of each other, which was fine with John. He carefully moved his left arm, which still held his watch. 05:55. Time to get up. He tried to get up without waking Barbara, but she was already starting to stir.

  “Going somewhere cowboy?”

  “I’d much rather stay in bed with you, but I’ve got some bugs to splat on my canopy today. Plus, Brad should be here soon.”

  “OK, turn me down for an airplane. See if I care.”

  John leaned over and gave Barbara the best kiss he could muster. He managed to grab her left breast through the covers while kissing her.

  “That’s more like it. OK, you are forgiven. I’ll see you in the briefing room.

  John got dressed and walked to the door. As he stepped outside Barbara snagged him and gave him one last kiss. He was enjoying it, when he caught a glimpse of someone a few doors down the hall. It was his son, Eric.

  “Uh, hi Dad. Hi there Dad’s friend.”

  John and Barbara had been caught red handed. By regulations, Eric should have been saluting John as a senior officer. Somehow catching your father in the arms of a rather nice looking woman was not the situation to start saluting. Eric had a big smile on his face.

  John untangled himself from Barbara’s arms and composed himself. He waved Eric closer.

  “Let me introduce my friend Barbara. Barbara this is my son Eric.”

  Now Barbara had a big grin on her face.

  “Great to meet you Eric. You’ll have to excuse me, I’ve got a briefing to prepare. I hope the three of us can get together this evening in the mess hall.”

  “Nice to meet you Barbara, and I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Right, tonight for dinner, see you,” said John.

  Whew, what a way to start a day. John led Eric towards the mess.

  “You just get in this morning?”

  “I made it in after you did last night. It was very late, so I thought I’d wait till morning to see you. Sorry about surprising you with your lady. By the way, she’s a looker Dad.”

  “Thanks. Barbara is a great lady. We where friends back when your mother was alive, but things have progressed a bit since then. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Not a bit Dad. We’d better start acting military when we get in the mess hall.”

  “Right you are. But it’s great to see you, and I think we will be flying together today, which should be great.”

  They joined JP in the mess and caught up a bit during breakfast. John told Eric and JP about yesterday’s great dinner with Sara and Aunt Rebecca. He had to leave out details of the new Y class planes, and everything about what he had Sara doing. It felt weird not being completely open witho his son and his best friend, but it was safer for them not to know.

  * * *

  Eric joined John in the briefing room. Major Walters explained that today’s flying would be constrained by the weather conditions, so he asked Barbara to give the weather briefing first.

  “Unusual conditions today. It should be essentially cloudless, with almost no wind. I’m forecasting blue thermals and reasonable lift to 5000 feet above ground level up to about here.” Barbara pointed to the map. “For some reason the air north of this point did not cool off as much as they did in our area, so there will be much weaker conditions starting about 100 miles north of here. I’m not expecting the Gengon to be much of a threat today, as they are not likely to be able to get away from their base. Expect a weak cold front to move through the area tonight, so tomorrow should be much stronger with more cloud. You may see winds pick up in the late afternoon as the front approaches.”

  “Thank you Barbara.” Major Walters kept the briefing short. “Given that we should have good conditions here, and little threat from the north, it should be an excellent day to get some training in. I’ve set up some new assignments so that many of the less experienced pilots can get some time flying dual with our old hands. Assignments are on the wall. Any questions?”

  There were none. Eric had been assigned to John’s aircraft, just as John had requested. The pilots left to get prepared.

  * * *

  “Take the front seat Eric. You will be doing the flying today.” Both John and Eric already had their parachutes on, and went about attaching the five-point harness that would hold them into their seats regardless of the G forces. Eric was two inches taller than his father, and had to adjust the rudder pedals out to their most extended position.

  “I’ll go through the checklist out loud Sir.” They were back in military mode. “Altimeter set, batteries on and voltage OK, weapons in safety, full range of motion of controls, spoilers locked closed, flaps set to takeoff position, winds nominal. We are set to go Sir.”

  “Roger that Lieutenant. Let’s get the canopy closed and launch.”

  The canopy was almost six feet long and covered both of them. It provided an unobstructed view everywhere except directly behind the pilots, where the fuselage butted up against the back of the canopy just behind John’s head. The ground crew attached the catapult line to the release hook under the nose, and then moved aside. Eric gave a thumbs-up sign to the man holding up the left wing. The man moved his free arm in a circular motion, giving the launch controller the signal to drop the weights.

  The acceleration was instantaneous. John kept his hands and feet near the controls as a precaution, but Eric was doing the flying. Eric eased back on the stick the moment they broke ground, and transitioned to a rapid ascent. As they reached 1200 feet he nosed the plane back over and pulled the release, sending the launch line back to earth. Eric pulled up the gear, which stopped almost all of the air noise. They were on their own.

  “Nice launch. There is usually lift over those dark hills
at our seven o’clock position this time of day. Why don’t you see if we can keep this plane up?”

  “Yes Sir.” Eric felt a bit silly calling his father “Sir” now that they were alone, but it was proper. They were military pilots flying the government’s equipment. Plus, he had a natural desire to impress his father with his own professionalism.

  John had flown with a lot of young pilots and knew immediately that Eric was a natural. Most pilots fought the airplane, constantly fiddling with the controls. Eric used a minimum of control movement, letting the plane do most of the flying. He used all of the controls in unison, keeping the plane in coordinated turns and minimizing variations in airspeed. John’s arm relaxed and his had rested to his leg. He would not need to take over the airplane.

  The house thermal was working, and they climbed to 3000 feet over the field. Even though they were not expecting company, John kept a constant eye on traffic. Four other planes from base would be doing exercises, and it was best not to collide with anyone.

  “OK, why don’t you head towards Friel Peak and see if you can get us up on top of that mountain. That is the highest ground at your eleven o’clock position.”

  “Yes Sir.” Eric leveled out of the thermal and dropped the nose to speed up. They cruised at 80 knots towards the high ground. After a few minutes Eric adjusted course eastward about 20 degrees.

  “Just curious. What made you adjust course Eric.”

  “I think I’ve spotted two hawks circling ahead of us. Something tells me they know where the lift is.”

  “You’re right if they are hawks. This time of year you sometimes see a male and a female thermalling together. I don’t think they are trying to catch anything to eat 5000 feet above the ground. My guess is that they enjoy flying as much as we do.”

  The hawks did not seem to mind the larger bird joining them. The three “aircraft” circled together until the lift began to fade at 8000 feet. The hawks pulled their wings closer to their bodies and headed west. Eric did not follow. He corrected course back to Friel Peak and started a new glide.

  John did not say anything more until Eric reached Friel Peak and climbed to over 10,000 feet. “Nicely flown Eric. I can see why you graduated early. Why don’t we do some air combat exercises, since we have all of this altitude to burn.”

  “That would be great Dad, I mean Sir.”

  John smiled to himself, but continued. “The primary rule in air combat is that everything else being equal, the plane with the energy advantage wins. Your total energy comes from two sources: how high you are and how fast you are going. You want the sum of those to energies to be higher than your opponent before engaging. If your energy is equal or lower, get out of there. Understood?”

  “Understood.”

  “OK, let’s say we have a bandit approaching us at the same altitude from the east. What would you do?”

  Eric thought a moment. “Right now I’m climbing in lift. If we are at the same altitude now, but he is gliding and I’m circling in lift, then I will have an energy advantage by the time he gets here. I guess I’d keep climbing until he got closer.”

  “Absolutely correct. If he’s smart he will break off his glide and look for his own lift outside of your firing range. Let’s say that he’s not that smart, and he keeps coming. How would you attack?”

  “I guess I would dive and attack him head on as he got closer.”

  “Possible, but why give him a shot at you? Let him come all the way to underneath you, and then dive on him from the rear or at least a rearward angle. That way his guns can never train on you.”

  “Got it. Let him come, because he does not have the altitude to attack directly.”

  “Right. Let’s practice attacks that allow you to dive and fire at him without losing a lot of energy in the pull up.”

  They continued doing these maneuvers for over an hour. Eric was doing very well, but at the end of the hour John could tell he was getting tired.

  “Let’s take a break and just fly north for a while. I’ll point out some of the other landmarks.”

  * * *

  Although there were no clouds, the lift was excellent. Eric took another few thermals along the route, allowing them to cruise at 12,000 feet. They both put their oxygen masks on, as it helped counteract the thin air’s effects of diminished alertness. John kept his eye on the other plane doing exercises to the east of them.

  “I’ve got a contact at 2:00 o’clock Sir. About 10,000 feet and heading this way.”

  John stared at the 2:00 position, but could not see anything. “Negative contact Eric.”

  “He’s just below the horizon now, and hard to see. Look just below the highest peek at 2:30.”

  “Contact. I see him. Difficult to see what type of ship it is, but I don’t think any of our ships are out here. Let me try to raise the other friendly on IR. Stay on this heading. The less we wave our wings the less likely he is to see us.”

  John aimed the IR transmitter at the lower plane doing maneuvers. “I can’t establish a link with the plane to the east. Why don’t you halve the angle between us and the bandit, which will make us less visible but still keep him in sight.”

  “Roger that. I can see the V tail now Sir. Definitely a bandit. Should I plan to dive on him?”

  “You have better eyes than I do. We won’t dive on him until we know for sure that he’s alone. I think he is focusing on our buddy below us. If I can’t raise them on IR I’ll have to use the radio to make sure that they are not surprised. It will give us away also, but we have plenty of altitude to stay out of trouble.”

  John saw the green light on his panel click on. He now had an IR link with the other plane below them. “Alpha Romeo reporting a bandit heading south at high speed, just east of Friel Peak. Abort training missions and get home fast.”

  “Roger Alpha Romeo. Delta Niner diving for home. Thanks.”

  John recognized Tamara Cole’s voice from the transmission. He saw her make a sharp dive to pick up speed. It looked like the bandit would overtake them, but not for a while. The bandit would probably break off contact before getting too close to an enemy base. The next 30 seconds would tell.

  “I think they are OK. Let’s keep going north for another five miles. Stay in lift as much as you can. I can’t believe that bandit was alone this far from base.”

  John was wondering what the hell had gone wrong. This was a practice day because the weather north of here was supposed to be bad. Not only were the bandits in home territory, they had gotten here early, meaning that they had good early morning conditions. Barbara’s forecast could not have been more wrong.

  “I see them. Three bandits at about 11,000 feet following the same path as the first one.” Eric’s eyes were giving them an advantage.

  “I have him in sight Eric. I’m glad we have 12,500 feet of altitude right now. Stay on course until they either pass us or change direction. They are likely to spot us against the blue sky, but there is not too much they can do to us from below.”

  John tried to put himself inside the head of the approaching Gengon pilots. John figured that whole scenario about the dirty bomb was just bad intel. A reconnaissance run was possible, but it would have used a single plane to minimize the chance of being seen. With four planes is probably a fighter attack. The front plane would then be bait, and the rear three would pounce on anyone attacking the bait.

  OK, assuming that is the game they were playing, they would turn around as soon as they spotted John and Eric above them, knowing that their bait and trap ploy had not worked. However, they would not want to abandon the first “bait” plane. John guessed that they would do their best to provide cover for the first aircraft, counting on their numerical advantage to counteract their altitude shortfall.

  “They don’t seem to be turning. Let them pass us and then make a diving right turn. At least we can freak them out be getting in the blind spot directly behind them.”

  “Yes Sir.” Eric waited about ten seconds and then d
id a sharp diving turn. He kept the diving until they reached 120 knots and then reduced the angle of dive. They were closing on the three planes from above and behind, right in their blind spot.

  “Target the rightmost plane. If they break formation early, pull up smoothly to maintain our energy advantage. If they don’t, put some machine gun fire into the rightmost plane and then pull up.

  “Safeties off. Sights active.” Eric was in battle mode. He’d only done this before in practice, but he had the drill down.

  “I can see the first badit heading back towards us. It looks like he is in a dogfight with Delta Niner.”

  “I see them Eric. The three planes in front of us must be so focussed on the dogfight that they’ve overlooked us. I’ll make a radio call right after you fire. They will know our location the minute you fire, so I might as well use the radio.”

  They were closing fast. The three planes altered course to the left about 10 degrees to intercept the dogfight, but showed no sign of having seen John and Eric.

  “Wait until you can read the plane’s call sign, then fire a full burst.”

  Eric waited a few seconds more. He could only see the back of the plane he was targeting, but he could make out the faces of the other two plane’s pilots from the rear. Eric focussed on his target and smoothly pulled the trigger.

  Immediately the plane in front of them turned into a cloud of fiberglass dust. The tail surfaces fell to the right and then fluttered free. Lacking a tail, the plane nosed over and headed straight for the ground. There were no parachutes.

  As they pulled up, John could see the other two planes break hard left. They spotted John and Eric for the first time as the came around their turn, but by this time Eric had turned their diving speed back into altitude. They were a good 700 feet higher.

  John started breathing again. “Nice shooting Eric. Let’s see if we can help out Delta Niner without making ourselves a target for these two.”