by Ryk Brown
Nathan looked to his left, at Admiral Dumar, Commander Telles, and President Scott. He had been through nearly as much with each of them. In fact, the people standing beside him at the moment were among the ones he trusted most. It seemed fitting that they were gathered here, to witness what was surely the result of all that they had fought and struggled for…together.
His focus joined that of his friends, on the distant gunship as it reached the top of the long hill that it had spent the last hour climbing.
“What happens if it doesn’t jump?” Jessica whispered, leaning in closer to Nathan as she spoke.
“It will jump.”
“But what happens if it doesn’t?”
“Nothing. It just rolls down the other side of the launch hill,” Nathan assured her. “Then it spends the rest of the day making its way back here to figure out what went wrong.”
“Good to know,” Jessica said.
“Don’t worry, it will jump.”
The gunship paused at the summit for a moment, then began slowly rolling down the long grade on the other side. It quickly picked up speed, continuing to accelerate until it reached the bottom of the hill and rolled out across the level ground. Seconds later, it reached the small hill at the other end of the grade, causing it to angle upward toward the distant sky. It slowed as it started upward, to the point that Nathan was unsure if it would even reach the top of the launch ramp. As it crested the next summit, the gunship became enveloped in blue-white light. In a split second, the light turned into a brilliant blue-tinged flash, then the gunship disappeared. The carriage that had carried the first gunship through all ten assembly bays, and then finally to its ultimate launch point, was left behind to roll down the opposite side, its mooring arms cleanly severed by the gunship’s jump fields.
Nathan instinctively looked skyward along the perceived track of the departing gunship, as if he expected to see another distant flash indicating that the ship had safely reached orbit. But there was nothing in sight.
The rest of the crowd—dignitaries, technicians, and spectators alike—held their breath, as they waited for confirmation. Finally, after a few agonizingly long seconds, their confirmation came.
“Control, Cobra One,” Captain Nash’s voice called triumphantly over the loudspeakers. “Jump complete. We have a good burn on the mains, and we’ll be settling into stable orbit in three minutes, thirty seconds.”
The crowd erupted into cheers.
Captain Nash smiled from ear to ear as he reached out to shake his copilot’s hand. “Nice work, Rano.”
“Was it as scary as a ride on your roller coasters, Captain?” his copilot wondered.
“Ten times worse, my friend. Ten times worse.”
* * *
“Whoa,” Josh said as he entered hangar bay zero deep in the Karuzara asteroid base. He turned to look at Deliza and Loki. “Okay, that is hands down the coolest ship I have ever seen.” He turned and continued toward the prototype Super Eagle. “You changed it a little, didn’t you?”
“Trimmed the wing roots back and thickened them up a bit to make more room for the upgraded maneuvering thrusters,” Deliza explained.
“The tail is different, too.”
“Increased the forward angle to reduce drag. Since you’ll be jumping down from orbit instead of letting atmospheric friction slow you down, we needed to increase the slope so the tail didn’t get torn off when you come out of the jump.”
“They also blended the wing and the stabilizer,” Loki pointed out.
Josh moved around the port wing root and around the back, looking over the tail. “You widened the space between the stabilizers as well.”
“The new engines have a greater range of thrust vectoring, so we had to in order to give you more maneuverability.”
“How’s that going to affect her pitch response?” Josh wondered.
“Considerably reduced at lower speeds, but the flight computers will compensate, so you won’t be able to tell.”
“I will if the flight computers fail,” Josh said.
“Not likely, as there are two backups. Besides, it’s worth it to give you better turn rates, especially in space.”
“Inertial dampeners?”
“Of course,” Deliza replied.
“But they are not fully compensating,” Loki warned.
“Why?”
“Uses too much power, and too much room.”
“How much?” Josh asked, a suspicious look on his face.
“They auto-adjust,” Deliza replied. “The greater the force, the more they compensate. You will feel it, but you’ll never pull more than a few Gs…at least under normal flight parameters.”
“Princess, there’s nothing normal about the way I fly things,” Josh reminded her. “You should know that by now.”
Deliza sighed. “The inertial dampening systems will protect you up to about fifty Gs. At fifty Gs, you’ll feel five. Every G above fifty will be directly added to what you feel, so fifty-one Gs will feel like six Gs, fifty-two will feel like seven, and so on. But the Super Eagle’s max acceleration is only thirty-two Gs, at which point you will feel about three Gs, so you should be fine.”
“Weapons?” Josh asked as he moved around the far side of the Super Eagle.
“Half-length mark two plasma cannons, one on each side, where the air intakes used to be. Effective full power range of five kilometers. They can also be angled down twenty degrees so that you can execute ground attacks while flying level. When operating in the atmosphere, you can fire at a rate of five shots per second, for as long as you want, since they are being air-cooled. In space, however, that fire rate is limited to no more than thirty seconds, after which you need to wait another thirty seconds for the plasma generators to cool down. You can also set them to fire once per second, and alternate between the cannons. That way, you can maintain fire for several minutes.”
“We can’t put more heat exchangers somewhere?” Josh asked.
“There’s no place to put them.”
Josh turned to look at Deliza and Loki as he climbed up the boarding ladder. “I guess the Eagle pilots are going to have to learn to shoot like a Ghatazhak.”
At the top of the ladder, Josh paused to look inside the cockpit. “Are you sure this thing is ready to fly?”
“That’s all just temporary,” Deliza replied defensively. “We still haven’t settled on the final cockpit layout. That’s one of the things we need your input on, after you fly her.”
“Just as long as none of the controls fall off in my lap while I’m flying her,” Josh muttered as he climbed into the Super Eagle’s cockpit.
The crew chief climbed up the ladder and made sure that Josh was securely fastened into his flight seat. “You’re good to go, Ensign. I checked her out myself,” he assured Josh as he handed him his helmet.
“It’s a little snug in here,” Josh commented.
“That’s because you’re wearing a pressure suit,” the crew chief replied.
“Of course I’m wearing a pressure suit.”
“This bird wasn’t designed to be flown with a pressure suit.”
“Then why am I wearing one?” Josh wondered.
“Because it’s a prototype, and it’s her first flight,” the crew chief explained. “And because there is no ejection system yet,” he added as he pushed Josh’s visor down, sealing him inside his suit. He gave him a thumbs-up sign and then climbed down.
“Hey, Princess, you might have told me there was no ejection system in this bird,” Josh called over the comms.
“Don’t worry, there will be one in the final cockpit design,” Deliza assured him. “In fact, the entire cockpit will eject from the airframe and act as a lifeboat.”
“I’d rather wear a pressure suit.”
“Sorry, the cockpit isn’t as roomy as a Falcon’s. However, the canopy is much stronger than the old ones on the Falcons.”
“That’s good to know,” Josh replied as he powered up his systems. “
Reactors are hot, power is coming online.” Josh looked about his consoles as his fighter came to life. “Wow, this thing fires up quickly. I’ve already got green lights across the board, here.” He looked outside as the crew chief gave him another thumbs-up, followed by a salute. Josh returned the salute and started his ship rolling forward into the open airlock. “Karuzara Control, Super Eagle, ready for departure, bay zero.”
“Super Eagle, Karuzara Control. Clear for direct departure, bay zero. On departure, fly one seven zero, four up relative for Earth orbit intercept. Speed restriction of one five zero until clear of Karuzara control zone. Be advised your test area is clear of all traffic.”
“Super Eagle, cleared for departure, bay zero, one seven zero and four up. I copy area is clear of traffic.” Josh paused a moment, smiling. “I’ll try and keep her below one five zero.”
A few minutes later, Josh found himself outside of the asteroid base and accelerating, as he put the Super Eagle through a series of basic maneuvers. “Hell, this thing is really snappy.”
“Snappy?” Deliza asked, unsure of what he meant.
“Yeah, snappy…as in, responsive,” he explained as he rolled the ship on its longitudinal axis, while yawing it around its vertical axis. He continued the maneuvering, starting and stopping the movements periodically, to get a feel for how well the ship responded to each of his control inputs.
“You should be coming up on your jump interface point in one minute,” Loki warned. “Just select the location and altitude you want to be at when you come out of the jump and then tap the auto-adjust button. The flight control computers will momentarily take control and put you on the right heading and speed. Once you’re on the numbers it will initiate a five count to the jump, and release the controls to you. If you deviate from the jump plot during the five count, the system will abort the jump automatically. You can also do a manual abort by pushing the auto-flight disengage button, which works as the jump abort when you’re in the five count.”
“Got it,” Josh replied. He tapped the map display, slid it over with a swipe of his finger, and then zoomed in with a double tap. He then placed his finger on the display where he wanted to arrive. An icon appeared, along with a number beside it indicating the selected arrival altitude of five thousand meters. Josh twisted the knob next to the navigation display, lowering the target altitude to one thousand meters, again, smiling. “You know, this all would have been easier if I could’ve spent some time in a sim before the first flight.”
“There wasn’t time,” Deliza replied. “Besides, I thought you were the best.”
“I’m just sayin’.”
“Uh, don’t you think a thousand meters is a bit on the low side for your first jump into the atmosphere,” Loki suggested, “in a prototype?”
“I’d be jumping in lower than that in combat.”
“You would, but no one else would be.”
“She’ll be fine,” Josh insisted. “Right, Princess?”
“Uh…right?”
“Remember what Prechitt said, Josh?”
“Hey, I followed the speed restriction on departure.” Josh heard a warning tone and glanced down at his console as the five-second countdown to jump began. “Jumping in three… Wings deploying… One……”
The canopy of the Super Eagle turned opaque.
“Jumping.”
The ship suddenly slowed, pushing Josh forward against his shoulder restraints as the fighter found itself in the thick atmosphere of Earth. His canopy cleared as the ride became rough, and he felt the familiar sensation of atmospheric pressures against his control surfaces being translated back to his flight control stick.
“Jump complete!” he reported as he pulled back on his flight control stick to bring his nose up and level off. “Altitude holding at six hundred meters. Speed is four thousand KPH and falling. Initiating decel burn.”
Again Josh was thrown forward into his shoulder restraints as the Super Eagle’s forward-facing deceleration thrusters fired, causing his speed to fall off quickly. “Three thousand!” he reported, struggling against the deceleration forces. “Two thousand!” Josh felt the inertial dampeners finally starting to kick, as the pressure of his restraints against his shoulders began to ease up. “One thousand! We’re subsonic. Killing decel burn and deploying speed brakes.” Josh pulled back the throttle on his left to zero, as he tapped the speed brake button on the side of his flight control stick. “Might want to program the inertial dampeners to anticipate the load better when we jump in.”
“Hopefully, most pilots will jump in a little higher, and a little slower,” Loki replied.
The Super Eagle’s nose immediately tried to rise as the panels on the top and bottom of the its wing roots, as well as the sides of the fuselage, deployed to increase the ship’s drag and help slow it further. He countered the effect with a little nose-down pitch, and then reset his thrust to be directed aft. “Speed is five hundred KPH and falling. Nav-com has a lock on Porto Santo. Four hundred.” Josh tapped the button to retract his speed brakes, and then eased his throttle back up. His engine whined as it spun back up to provide the thrust needed to maintain the Super Eagle’s airspeed in the atmosphere. “Speed brakes retracted. Powering up. Speed holding at three-fifty.” Josh activated his second radio set, adding it to his comms. “Porto Santo Control, Super Eagle. Inbound for landing from the southwest, two zero kilometers, and I have your weather link.”
“Super Eagle, Porto Santo Control. Enter left base runway zero one. The pattern is empty, and you are cleared for the option.”
“Super Eagle copies, left base for zero one, and cleared for the option.”
“No options, Josh,” Loki insisted. “Just put her down and let the techs look her over. You can have your fun later.”
“Party pooper,” Josh replied.
* * *
Captain Nash looked over the group of men assembled in the training hangar. “Today, you will start your flight training.” He gestured to the apparatus behind him. “This simulator is an exact duplicate of the interior of the Cobra gunships that you will be operating. Everything inside looks and acts the same. It even feels the same. The only difference between this and the real thing is that this never leaves the ground. It is a full-motion, gravity-assist, simulation environment. That means when you fire the simulator’s starboard thrusters, your body will feel like it wants to slide to the right. If you are not secured, you will do exactly that. There is another difference as well. You won’t die in here. This is where you want to make your mistakes. This is where you want to learn from those mistakes, not up there, where you can die. Do not be afraid to ask questions. Do not be afraid to make mistakes.”
Captain Nash looked at the faces of the men again. Some of the members of the first group of volunteers had piloting experience, and some of them even had time in space, either working for the Jung or on Tannan jump shuttles running back and forth between Earth and Tanna. But this group was the only one. The groups that would follow had neither.
“You twenty men will become the first Cobra pilots. You will work in teams of two, taking turns acting as pilot and copilot. For now, the functions of your weapons officer, systems engineer, and gunners will be performed by the simulation. We want you to concentrate on one thing, and that is flying the Cobra gunship.”
Captain Nash paused long enough to clear his throat. “Although all twenty of you will learn to pilot the Cobra gunship, only ten of you will become pilots. The other ten will become copilots. Those becoming pilots will also serve as captain in command of their gunship. Those becoming copilots will become executive officers, and will act as second in command.”
Captain Nash turned and looked at the simulator as he spoke. “This simulator, and the one in the next hangar, will be operating twenty-eight hours per day, every day. Each team will conduct two flights per day. When you are not in the simulator, you will be either reviewing your previous flight, preparing for your next flight, or eating, sleeping, or shitt
ing.” Captain Nash smiled for a moment. “And yes, we will allow you to shower on occasion.”
“While you are working your asses off in here, those men training to be your crews will be doing the same in the simulator next door. In thirty-eight days, we will have ten gunships in operation. I have to have ten crews ready for action by then. In eight days, we will have a total of four gunships in operation. At that time, we will begin flying in real gunships, in space. So you people have your work cut out for you.”
Captain Nash turned back to the podium, placing his hands on top of it. “Like I said, make your mistakes here, in the simulator. I do not want you crashing the real things.”
Captain Nash looked down at his data pad. “Annatah and Jahansir. You’re up first. Lucco and Harral will be second. The rest of you take a look at the flight schedules on the training board to see your report times. That is all.”
The men dispersed into small groups as most of them made their way to the training board on the far wall. Two men approached Captain Nash. He looked at them. “Annatah and Jahansir, right?”
“I’m Annatah,” the man on the right said. “He’s Jahansir.”
“Climb aboard, gentlemen,” Captain Nash ordered.
Lieutenant Commander Rano waited until the men had stepped through the hatch into the simulator before speaking. “Do you really think we can train them to fly the gunship in only a few weeks?”
Captain Nash shrugged. “I don’t know. It took me six months. Hopefully they’re smarter than I was.”
* * *
“Super Eagle, Porto Santo Control. Clear for takeoff and straight out departure runway zero one. Cleared to jump at ten kilometers out, and one kilometer up.”
“Porto Santo, Super Eagle, taking zero one straight out,” Josh replied as he crossed the runway boundary line and turned to line up with its centerline. “Clear to jump at ten out and one up.” He disengaged the auto-taxi system, then advanced his throttle to fifty percent, causing his fighter to lurch forward. “Super Eagle, rolling,” he added, as his ship accelerated down the runway. He glanced at his console, checking his power plant displays and flight systems status displays, ensuring that everything was in order before pulling back ever so slightly on his flight control stick. The Super Eagle’s nose lifted up a couple degrees, and the fighter took to the air, climbing slowly away from the runway below. A touch of a button and his landing gear disappeared into the ship’s underside, the gear doors closing over them. “Super Eagle, wheels up.” When all three gear lights went off, he pushed his throttle to the stops and pulled back hard on his flight control stick. The Super Eagle responded instantly, pointing straight up and accelerating toward the clear blue sky above.