by Laer Carroll
JANE said nothing, just smoothly went belly up.
As expected the lifting blades were now pulling HER down. JANE let them for a little over a minute then just as smoothly rolled to normal flight. Then SHE headed for home.
They were met by Suzie and Jane's staff.
"How'd it go, Captain?" said Suzie.
"Just fine, Suzie. I have a list of a few items that need to be upgraded. Nothing major, just a rotor, a tire, a few other things. Got your SuperSmart ready to record?"
<>
That evening Suzie Wang and Joshua Barnes stopped off at a shopping center near the suburban area in which their two families lived. They'd dated for most of a year many years ago before separating and had remained friends ever since. As happened every week or so they had dinner at the center, alternately at a Chinese restaurant and at a steakhouse. This time they ate Chinese with a chaser of a half glass of wine and a beer, no more than that since both still had to drive a few more miles.
"So what do you think of the Captain?" said Wang as they glanced over their menus and ordered.
"Contradictions and mysteries," said Barnes. "She looks 16 but she's in complete command of her staff, all of them the kind of super competent people who are going to be colonels and generals some day. She graduated from the Academy and the next day she's a captain in command of a task force. I've only heard of such a thing in wartime.
"I'll tell you one thing. She's a hell of a pilot. It's like she BECOMES the aircraft. Flies like she's been doing it for decades."
Wang smiled and nodded at the waitress who was delivering their food, picked up her chopsticks and had a mouthful of food. Barnes copied her.
She sipped from her water glass and added her own conclusions.
"I did some enquiries and found more contradictions. She's thoughtful, listens to people, seems to like them. Half my staff is already part of her fan group. But she was embedded with Marines in Venezuela a couple of years ago for a few weeks; you know the Academy has this 'breadth of experience' summer program. Her squad called her 'The Terminator' and it wasn't a joke. She has nine official kills, two with a sniper rifle, seven of them with just a knife. In the dark."
She watched him mull this over and kept silent. Despite his almost thuggish appearance he was very smart and his thoughts always valuable.
"Jesus. With a knife. That's up close and personal. She must be ice cold to do that."
"Or maybe the opposite. Really pissed off."
"The two behaviors, nice and a killer, may be related. She likes people, so is very protective of them. People like that can be Hell on wheels when someone threatens 'her' people. Like a mother turning into a tigress when her kids are threatened. I've seen the same behavior in my wife a few times."
He took a sip of his drink.
"You think she can deliver on this floater undercarriage task?"
Wang nodded. "She has a record of delivering. And everything she's done and said makes sense. Her group really can get us started, but as she said: it's up to our experienced engineers and mechanics to make the fantastic promise of this tech real."
<>
The work went well, so much so that Wang declared Friday a short day and ordered a pizza party lunch at office expense. She had her secretary take pizza and sandwich orders, half vegetarian for those who preferred that.
Sitting around as they ate and drank the conversation turned toward weekend plans. Several of the family people listed their various activities: picnics, movies, fishing trips on the ocean just a few miles to the east. Some of the younger people were going clubbing.
"What do you want to do, Captain?" said Riku.
"There are lots of Cubans on the coast and in Miami. What I want to do is go dance authentic Cuban-style salsa."
Emilia, one of the parts-configuration control staff, swung around in her chair at the word "Cuban."
"I can give you some pointers on that. Just how authentic depends on you. How's your Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?"
In that language Jane said, "I can get along pretty well. I've been going to Latino-mostly dance places in LA for years."
The woman replied in the same language. "You accent is good, like that of Mexicans. But my accent is what Cuban Spanish sounds like. You'll get along OK in Cubanista places but they'll assume you're Mexican or learned Spanish in Mexico."
"Would that be a problem?"
"No. Just something people will assume."
She switched back to English.
"Tell you what, it's been a while since I visited my grandmother. Why don't you come with me today? Since we're getting the afternoon off, I'll pack a few things and go visit her before the traffic rush. You can stay in the spare bedroom she keeps for me and her other visitors. It has two beds. We can stay tonight and tomorrow night and go clubbing. I have some cousins who'll want to go along."
"Hey, not so fast," said Nicole. "I want to go too!"
Kate chimed in, "Me too! I loved salsa dancing the few times I've been."
"OK," said Jane. "The three of us will follow you in our van, Emilia, and take a hotel room for a couple of days. We'll pay your way into these places and for dinner before them if they have dinner. That will be in exchange for you being our native guide."
"Hey!" said Riku, putting on a forlorn face. "What about me? I want to be a salsa dancer too! So does Klaus. Don't you, old buddy?"
Klaus had been deep in conversation with a couple of other Sikorsky people. He turned briefly away from them.
"Don't pull me into this. I'm going deep-sea fishing with these guys." And he turned away from Riku.
Jane laughed at Riku who was trying hard for puppy eyes.
"Sorry. This is going to be a girls-only outing."
"Oh, I'm so depressed. I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with that fish-cuisine cooking expo down in Fort Lauderdale this weekend. I'll be terribly lonely, abandoned by all my friends."
"Hah!" said Nicole who knew that the charming Japanese was rarely without instant buddies of both sexes.
<>
That settled Kate went into organizing mode. Consultation with Emilia about hotels near Little Havana led to reservations at a Hyatt on the ocean front with a sea view and a rooftop pool. Emilia and another friend would stay in contact with Kate by phone as Jane drove their van behind Emilia's car down the coast to Miami.
Soon the women said Goodbye to their friends and acquaintances at Sikorsky and headed home to quickly pack clothing and cosmetics and other necessities. They were on the road south to Miami by 2:00.
The early-Friday traffic was already getting heavier and slower the last dozen miles as Jane navigated city streets under Emilia's expert guidance. This got them to their hotel by 4:00. There they said Goodbye for Now by phone to Emilia who was just pulling into her grandmother's driveway.
They settled into their rooms quickly so they could get to the first order of business: making reservations to get their hair done in the hotel hair salon. The next was to go a few blocks away to buy party clothes. By 8:00 they arrived by Flyt service at the restaurant Con Ritmo on the western edge of Little Havana.
Inside they told the greeter that they were guests of Emelia Diaz and were led into the dining room. It was large and well-lit and already was mostly filled by tables large and small. The diners were mostly Latin and well-dressed. The large tables seemed to seat mostly families, with children from pre-teens up and adults who might be grand-parents.
Such was the table from which Emelia rose to greet Jane and her friends with hugs. Standing she turned and introduced the three of them by first name to those seated at the table, starting with a distinguished sixtyish woman whom she called Abuela Constanza.
"Come sit by me, Jane," said the woman. A teenager and her two pals moved one seat over without a break in their conversation and Jane took the emptied seat.
"I must say you are a surprise. From what Emilia told me about you I expected someone nine feet tall with muscles like footballs."
<
br /> Jane smiled at her. "My friend Kate says I should meet such comments with the observation that dynamite comes in small packages. But I'm a little doubtful of likening myself to dynamite."
Kate and Nicole were seating themselves a few seats away. Kate said, "We aren't." Then they set about making the acquaintances of those near them.
"Emilia has been talking about me? Then you must talk about yourself so that we can be even."
Constanza nodded and gave a short personal history as waiters took the newcomers' food orders and brought food.
She'd been born in America of immigrant parents so automatically had US citizenship. The family lived in Little Havana till she was sixteen while her parents learned English, became naturalized, and started the first of what became a small grocery chain. Then they'd moved out of Little Havana.
"That's what everybody does who comes to the US. Live cheap till you can afford otherwise. It used to be Habana was mostly Cubans but eventually it was Nicaraguans and then Hondurans and now other Spaniards."
She raised her voice so people at a nearby table could hear her.
"Now, Tonio, finish that drink and come dance with the pretty gringa. Show her what REAL Salsa is like, not that white-bread stuff the promoters teach."
Antonio was the first of several grandsons or nephews who were commanded to dance with Jane and her friends. Soon no one had to be forced to be good to Abuela. Jane's two friends were attractive and willing though newbie salseras. Jane was spectacularly good. And enthusiastic as Hell.
Back at their hotel well past midnight the three women repaired to Jane's room for a few minutes before separating into their own rooms.
"Captain," said Nicole, "I didn't know your were so good a Salsa dancer. That was really impressive."
"Thanks. That's what comes from a several years of doing it."
<>
Saturday the trio did some sight-seeing and shopping in Little Havana in the morning and ate lunch at an authentic-seeming Cuban restaurant. In the afternoon they did some shopping in Miami's Ocean Drive, an area as upscale as the legendary Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills.
Jane and Kate restrained themselves on their purchases but Nicole, who was a shopaholic and a clothes horse, did not. When Jane expressed concern she waved it off, saying her family would pay for her purchases and be disappointed in her for not indulging herself. This reminded Jane what she'd forgotten, that Nicole was from a super-rich family.
Duty done to unfattening their credit cards the three went to a beach and got some sun. There was when her two friends rediscovered that Jane didn't burn in the sun. Instead her skin just turned golden and her hair more platinum.
"God, Jane," said Nicole, slathered in several places with white sunburn lotion. "Are you even HUMAN?!"
Jane and Kate (her skin with its own modest sunburn lotion burden) just laughed at her.
<>
That evening they had dinner at a restaurant near their hotel, then joined Emilia and her friends in more supposedly authentic Cuban salsa dancing.
<>
Midweek mid-afternoon Jane called a meeting of her staff and the Sikorsky engineering team assigned to the floater-undercarriage project.
"I was impressed this week at how quickly everyone here has caught on to floater tech. I think by the end of the week I should declare our job here done and turn over to you all the tech info we've not yet done so and leave Friday."
"I'd feel better," Suzie said, "if you all stayed till midweek of next week from now. That's when I think we'll have the first prototype operational. The more smart minds working on this project the better."
"Very well. But if I do stick around I'll be the one to take Betsy up for her first test."
<>
Barnes argued that his years of experience as a test pilot meant that he should "fly" the helicopter. Jane replied that the vehicle's height was going to be no more than three feet above its wheels, hardly requiring the experience and quick reflexes of a test pilot. Also that the copter's speeds would never exceed twenty miles an hour under her testing regime.
Then, she said, once that was done the task force would go into Phase Two of the test: go from floating to flying as a conventional helicopter. That transition would indeed require the skills of a test pilot. Though she insisted that she be the co-pilot, as this required someone running all the instruments which would monitor the transition process.
Suzie finally decided in Jane's favor, earning her a sour look from Barnes. But she was the boss and he did what every good soldier did: shut up and follow orders.
In any event the test process went well over a Wednesday and a Thursday. Jane, merged with Robot and Betsy, found many small problem areas. There were none, however, which would require major changes to the floater undercarriage and its control. This general excellence was due to the skills of the engineering team and, unknown to anyone else, the oversight of the superbeing JANE.
Thursday evening the Sikorsky R&D group had a short party celebrating the successful conclusion of the joint JPL-Sikorsky floater engineering program. Friday, early, Jane and her crew boarded the borrowed bizjet and left for home.
Chapter 4 - Vision Jet
Just after Easter Jane got an email request that she and her staff attend a meeting with the senior engineer in the Asteroid Survey Program. Kate set up a meet for mid-morning the next day.
<>
"Thanks for coming, Captain Kuznetsov, all of you. Want some coffee or whatever? We've a pretty good snack room right down the hall."
The lead engineer of the program was a bulky older Japanese-American dressed in a suit and tie but without the suit coat. The meeting was in the top of three stories of one of the several large office and lab buildings at JPL.
"Nine-thirty is a little too early for me." She glanced at her crew. All of them shook their heads.
Kate said, "If we go past 10:00 it might be a good idea for a short break."
"OK. Let me introduce you to our lead engineers on Surveyor."
There were three of them. Most striking in appearance was a slender black woman with very short curly hair died blue, introduced as "our math guru Lilibeth."
Everyone else at the table except Jackson Makoto was dressed informally, leaning toward the tees and jeans and running shoes which Jane and her crew wore. Everyone except Makoto was in their twenties.
"Originally," he said, "our program only had budget for a single probe of the asteroid belt. It was going to take a minimum energy path to the inner edges of the belt after a gravity slingshot around the Moon. But when your space jet became available we replanned.
"First, we may be able to afford two probes, considering how much more efficient the space jet is, and how much less material is needed to construct one. This has the added benefit that if we launch them essentially simultaneously, when they arrive they can give a binocular vision of the local asteroid field. That makes computing location much easier the way binocular vision does a sighted person."
Lilibeth said, "And, best of all from a purely selfish viewpoint, we can have them in place in a dozen days or so after launch, given the ability of space jets to function continuously and really build up speed."
Jane said, "OK, first. Sounds exciting. We're on the project. But there is one matter I must bring to your attention. Space-jet tech is export limited. Only licensees in the US or in our military allies may have access to it. None of your engineers can be from outside the pool of US-allied countries."
Makoto smiled for the first time in the meeting. "We anticipated that. This isn't the first time JPL has dealt with this issue."
"Good. Second, I think there's a better design than two identical probes. I did some calculations last night based on the info in your project database.
"I believe you'll find that a more economical solution is a mother-daughter ship design."
She unclipped her foldable tablet computer from her belt, opened it, and had Makoto turn on the room's large flat-screen monitor at t
he end of the conference room opposite the door. There she duplicated the image she'd drawn on her tablet the night before.
"The mother ship has a large space jet in it. This gets the two daughter ships and it to their destination. Once there the much smaller space jets on the daughter ships move them into their observation paths.
"Meanwhile the mother ship is station keeping. It unfolds its solar-energy collectors and keeps its batteries charged. It also handles communication with you back here.
"Periodically the daughter ships rendezvous with the mother ship and recharge. They can also directly download their detailed findings to the mother ship through a high-speed direct connection for transmission back here."
She looked around the table. The three project engineers had their tablets or SuperSmarts out and were making notes on them.
Lilibeth said, "This is a much more complex design than we anticipated. JPL has expertise in single-probe missions. Not multi-probe missions."
"I'm sure--" said Jane. "--that you'll quickly catch on. For one there's a second consideration. Because you'll be getting results within this fiscal year, you'll be able to present a plan for a second mother-daughter ship probe. With proof that you can deliver data, good data, quickly. The asteroid belt is a big place. You'll need a multi-year multi-probe effort to cover it well."
Makoto had been nodding. He, at least, had been sold by Jane's arguments.
"A final consideration--" she said, "--is that by year three of your project you may be able to personally go out to the asteroid belt to closely monitor the survey and eventually the exploitation of the belt. The space jet has opened up the solar system to us. We're not going to stay Earth-bound for long."
<>
At a lunch in mid-July Kate said to Jane, "You got an email from Gallegher Air down in Long Beach. I sent it on to you just before we left. Have you read it yet?"
As Jane's exec she previewed all the non-personal emails sent to her boss.
Jane said, "Not yet. What's it about?"
"They finally got FAA approval to sell the Vision bizjet commercially. It was based on their Prototype 3, so the craft is allowed to fly in general airspace. They want to know if you'd like it, since we gave them so much tech help on the telemag parts of Vision."