by Laer Carroll
As soon as she settled into the cockpit Jane and Robot merged with Princess. The cyborg felt HER larger body's combined biological, esoteric physics, and electronic nervous system shake itself into smooth integration. SHE could feel no separation between the joins of HER hybrid neural system.
HER senses reached out and enfolded all the electronics of the air base, including all the smart phones and other communication devices.
HER consciousness reached out further to the metroplex around HER and far into the skies and out over the South China Sea. SHE tracked each craft in the air and on the seas. And a number of submarines hidden beneath the waves.
And into craft and satellites above the atmosphere. Everything was revealed to HER.
"Control Tower Huiyang Air Base, J-20T tail number B037Z is alive on the pad, Colonel Liu Li-Jun, pilot, Captain Jane Kuznetsov, navigator. Request permission to go light on the wheels."
"J-20 37Z, you are go for light on wheels."
"Control Tower HAB, Lifting."
The Colonel switched on the floater mechanism beneath the aircraft. Then he smoothly advanced the power to the electromagnets hidden in the body of the jet. One stop up at a time, the craft rose above its wheels an inch, then two, then three, and more. Until it reached four feet.
Jane, dropped back fully into her biological part, read aloud each item on the check list the pilot needed to do in the elaborate test regime for their first flight.
Little by little for over an hour the test aircraft maneuvered around the base, going steadily faster and farther. Toward the end of the test schedule the plane flew over the grass and dirt fields around the base.
Periodically the check list instructed the pilot to lower then retract the wheels to exercise their mechanisms.
The very last set of items was to power on and up the induced magnetism air jets to ensure there was no cross talk between them and the floater mechanism. There was none.
The Colonel lastly returned to the hangar in which the jet was housed, let down the wheels, and powered down the aircraft till it was at rest.
Jane could clearly hear the sigh as the man ended the exercise.
He cracked the canopy and the two pilots stood and left the jet. Then it was time for lunch at the now fully-functioning mess hall. In the afternoon the engineers pored over the collected data on the day's tests to see how well or poorly the floater mechanism worked.
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The next day Liu and Jane tested the ability for Princess to take off on the floater mechanism and use the air jets to travel down the runway. The test called for taking most of the 7500 feet length before letting the air flowing over the wings to lift it into the sky.
Then they flew in ovals increasingly high and fast. Finally they neared Dongguan in the west and Shanwei in the east near the coast. Part of the time they were flying low over the several mountainous areas under their flight path.
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The third day was for high-performance tests. Jane had scheduled herself to fly those, over-ruling the objections of the Colonel.
"I'm sorry, Colonel, but it is my aircraft and I should take the greatest risks of this test series. You have a wife and children and grandchildren. Your life is more valuable."
"I disagree. Yours is the mind that is freeing us ever more from the Earth. Yours is the more valuable."
"Sorry. Truly. I admire you greatly. I've seen what an immensely capable pilot you are. But this is my decision."
"Well, shit," he said and stalked off.
It was the first time Jane had ever heard him curse.
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The next morning when Jane suited up and walked out to the aircraft the Colonel was also suited up. He was sitting in the navigator's seat behind the pilot's seat.
As Jane climbed in he said to her, "If you want me out you're going to have to pull me out. And I just might break that cute nose of yours."
Jane laughed. "I hope you just took a piss. Otherwise I'm going to scare it out of you."
"That's OK," he said with a grin. "I'm lubed and inserted into the piss tube. Bring it on, Dragon."
Despite her reckless words Jane flew each of the dozens of tests in exact accordance with the test check list in HER full cyborg mode. Princess responded smoothly to all the stresses. JANE felt perfectly comfortable.
After more than two hours in the air Jane had finished all items on the test list, including the stall fail and recovery tests, the most dangerous of the tests.
Then she spoke over the intercom.
"The next tests will stress this aircraft to the very edge of the limits of its survival. If you stick with me you will be sure several times that we are about to die.
"We could land and let you off. We've completed every one of the tests."
"No, Dragon. I'm ready to die if it comes to that. But I must stay with you."
"Very well. I'll tell you what I'm going to do before each test. At any time we can land and let you off. We can say that this is what we planned."
"Go, Dragon."
"The first is stall tests. What I'm about to do would kill any other pilot. But if a robot was flying it the plane would survive." Near-self-sufficient robot pilots were slowly but surely making human pilots obsolete.
Having said that Jane became JANE, cut out the emergency robotic stall recovery program, up-ended the aircraft, and cut all power to HER engines.
The stealth fighter became an ungainly falling rock, pitching, spinning, and yawing madly. The craft fell, and fell, and fell.
Over the intercom JANE said, "We're about to come very close to crashing. Don't be alarmed, Li-Jun. You are safe."
Princess fell sideways and then upside down till a hundred feet up. The Colonel could clearly see several green treetops below coming up at them at several hundred miles an hour.
"Now we right ourselves, Li-Jun."
JANE twisted her control surfaces just right and smoothly recovered HER right-side up attitude. Still falling though bottom down, JANE tilted HER body slightly upward and cut in HER engines. The ship fell another fifty feet before arcing upward in a gradual then ever-steeper climb into the sky.
"That's the worst of the extra stress tests. But now I'm going to do some low-level running of obstacles. Again, I'll do this without the robotic aids."
The cyborg steered further east and north to a mountainous area with sharp relief. SHE made several passes over very rocky tree-covered terrain which would rarely be visited by anyone.
"Now I'm placing a mirror image of the surface below us to simulate traveling at 50 feet rather than 500. So the following is perfectly safe. But you're about to have a wild ride."
JANE returned to the beginning of a 20-mile long stretch of barren rocky surface and kicked HERself up to 350 miles per hour. The simulated landscape and tall trees came whipping at them, seemingly in their faces. JANE twisted and turned, threading HER way through the obstacle course.
Narrow escapes came rushing toward and behind them. The aircraft performed perfectly.
At the end of the stretch JANE said, "How are you doing, Li-Jun? Pissed in your bottle yet?"
"No. But I've come close to vomiting."
"Well, cheer up. We're about to have some fun."
With that JANE flipped the J-20 up on its tail and increased the power to its two engines to its greatest extent. Acceleration pushed the two of them hard back into their seats.
Up and up they went, accelerating more and more.
The air thinned. The engines swallowed less air. The jet slowed, slowed, till at 40,000 feet it could go no higher.
JANE swung HERself back level. Looked all around. HER biological eyes saw a distance-hazed horizon gently curving. The sky was bright blue in front of HER, darker blue higher till it was near black directly above. Wispy white clouds covered the checkerboard of land and smooth sea far below. Far off to the west and north high towers of cloud announced an oncoming cold front and rain.
The air outside was 40 Centigrade degrees be
low zero. Air pressure was near 10% of air at sea level. But JANE was perfectly comfortable in her warm little room. Here at the edge of space she was home.
For long minutes SHE and the Colonel were silent. Then the rewards of Earth-bound life called to HER. SHE tilted forward and headed for home.
Chapter 19 - Spaceplane
EXCERPT from Entertainment Channel 3 - All the Hot Gossip Before Anyone Else
"Angélique, you seem excited."
"I just saw a YouTube video. It shows your favorite girl getting into a fighter jet plane in China and shows it in the air. Take a look at this."
INTERSPERSED between the two hosts of the show: a photo of the Princess J-20 from above. The Cinderella image atop each wing was clear.
"I heard about that but this is a first time I've seen the plane. I was astounded that she could buy an entire jet plane and fly the thing. In CHINA!"
"I know. How can she get away with making an enemy's war plane operational?"
"Well, she is rich as fuck-- Oopsy! Naughty me! Rich people are different from us."
IN UNISON "Yes they are richer than us!"
"Well, there ARE some fiddly legal loopholes that lets a private individual own something in a foreign country, even in a country on the outs with the current administration. For a woman with her bankbook this may just be a little vacay and this her latest toy."
"Or maybe she's on the outs with hunkie movie producer Phil. Yoo-hoo, Phil, I'm on the outs again with my boyfriend. Let's get together."
INTERSPERSED between the two hosts of the show: a video of Phil Newman at a soccer game standing and yelling with enthusiasm for some game play.
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Jane called a meeting of her engineering staff for the Monday following the last flight test of Princess II. She'd let them have the last two days of the last week off in celebration of all their effort.
At 10:00 that morning they were all in a big former briefing room. Everyone had a drink or snacks or both. Jane had a cup of hot chocolate as she approached the lectern on the low dais at the side of the room opposite the opened double doors.
Looking out over the audience of some forty women and men she said, "Looks like everyone's here. I hope you all had a good long weekend. We're going to be very busy from now on."
She turned partly toward a big wall-mounted TV screen behind her. An image appeared on it, showing a strange aircraft against a blue sky tilted upward as if flying away. It was like an arrowhead painted white.
"This is a preliminary sketch of the final product of this program. I call it Princess IV. It will be a true space plane, able to visit the Space Station and travel lower space letting out satellites, picking them up, or fixing them. It can even go as high as geosynchronous satellites but that will be rare and brief. For the lower radiation belt begins at about twice the height of the Space Station. Most visits to geosats are better done with drones operated from Earth, the Station, or from vehicles like this one in a lower Earth orbit.
"It will have an airlock big enough to let several people at once to exit or enter the vehicle. And it will have much more to let it be a workhorse for the Glorious Chinese Republic. OR for clients of the Republic who've rented it. For I anticipate that your country will become a major player in near-space with this spacecraft."
She turned fully back to her audience.
"However, to get there we will build Princess III."
Behind her on the screen appeared an ordinary passenger plane. It had two "cans" on its sides near the rear which housed jet engines. Atop its rear was a third engine nacelle which merged with the tall tail of the plane.
"I found several of these Dassault Falcon 9Xs in our inventory. One of them is immediately available, an older vehicle. We will replace the two side engines with air jets and the tail engine with a space jet. This is not an ideal engineering design. However, we can manage this in four months time, or five with the usual slippages."
She surveyed her audience. The women and men had been assigned to her but she'd approved all of them. They were mostly young, even just graduated from engineering or technical school. That was fine with her; it made then eager to work and more easily charmed by her.
And most of them had been. For one thing, they'd just been part of a historic effort which would give them entrance into a new field of endeavor. And were now beginning a new effort which would do even more good for their future.
"There are several reasons for taking this phased approach to our goal. One is political. A quick success will mute disapproval of this project. The opposition comes from my own country and also--no surprise--from the Imposters."
That last word was the official Glorious term for the two other splinter Chinese countries. A number in her audience scowled at the idea of such opposition.
"There is also opposition from within your country. Some are envious of us, some want our money themselves."
There were more and fiercer scowls at that. Take away OUR money would they, those jealous bastards?
"There are practical reasons, too. We are pioneering a new way to travel. Best we find out quickly the problems we'll meet and deal with them in a cheaper more forgiving aircraft, one already proven by decades of use and progress.
"Another reason is that we can use Princess III to practice the skills we'll need to go into space and work there. We'll not take Princess as high as the Space Station. But we will orbit the Earth for longer and longer times. Each of you will have the chance to go into space if you want to. Though you will not be required to."
Some of her listeners perked up at that. They would be astronauts. Think of the fame and drinks and bed partners that might win them!
"In each of your project mailboxes there should now be a schedule of our work over the next few weeks. It will be subject to change by you and your bosses as we meet unexpected problems. And promises.
"The Falcon will arrive tomorrow. Be ready.
"Now, questions?"
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The Falcon arrived midmorning the next day, easily landing within 2000 feet on the 7500 foot runway. It was parked in the hangar that had been prepared for it. Jane immediately boarded it and merged with the craft. As SHE felt HER way into HER new body SHE found a number of problems. SHE dictated them into HER SuperSmart, then later when back in her biological part copied them into the secure project database.
The old engine in the tail was taken out and replaced with a space jet. That took some time, hindered by all the security provisions Jane had installed in the project and paper databases to keep the more crucial aspects of the technology out of the Glorious government databases.
This was a tricky and difficult balancing act. Weekly she had to fight off both official and secret attempts to get more of that information. But with Robot's help she managed it to her satisfaction.
She was also helped by her keeper and unofficial spy, Wang. She'd appointed the young man to be her executive officer. This pleased him and his bosses. It placed him in the center of all her work and so made it easier to keep track of what she was doing. Too, he proved to be diligent in enforcing security, a tricky personal balancing act between keeping her secrets and reporting on them.
Jane was amused and distantly sympathetic with his efforts. She only hoped they wouldn't drive him crazy. She liked the young man, as she liked most people.
Weeks went by as the space jet was created via rapid manufacturing, tested, and installed. Other subsystems within the Falcon (now referred as Princess by everyone) were improved or replaced. New instruments were added. A spacecraft had needs in addition to those coming from flying within the atmosphere.
Meanwhile each weekend Jane and many of her personnel took off work. Jane and Wang had to crack down on some of her more obsessive subordinates who would have worked the weekends through.
Jane had become friends with Colonel Liu and his family and often spent weekends with them. His wife turned out to have an ironic wit which Jane appreciated. She was musical. Even more
so was her youngest daughter who was going to Huizhou University. The girl played several instruments and composed music and songs and sang.
From her Jane learned that "Requiem" had become popular in the Chinas. It was dissected in schools and parodied and rewritten to suit individual artists. This amused and pleased her.
By now Jane was completely free of oversight. Officially; government spies shadowed her every movement. They were very good but not good enough to remain hidden from Robot.
Huizhou had five million inhabitants. The area nearby had several million more. It had many attractions. Among them were several multiplex theatres. Jane saw a couple of movies produced by Phil's production company. Watching them made her sad and miss him even more. Her periodic exchange of emails with him made her ache for him worse rather than made her feel better.
She also kept in email contact with her family and her staff. All those messages went through standard email. It was encrypted but the Glorious spy agencies had long ago cracked the public codes.
What they had not cracked, even if they knew of Robot's existence, was Robot's channels of communication. They were after all the product of several millennia of advancement. Jane kept her boss, Lieutenant General Allison Griffin, up to date on the progress of her spaceplane project.
What the general thought Jane did to get the reports to her Jane could not imagine. Perhaps she was frustrated that she could not contact her with orders or requests. That perfectly suited her; she had no desire to have oversight.
The project was several months along when Jane was attacked one night when she was returning to her hotel suite high above the river which looped through the center of Huizhou.
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She'd stayed late at Liu's home for wine and snacks with a small group of the family's friends after going to a traditional Chinese play. Halfway home the automatic cab she was in took a detour into a small dark industrial area. It pulled up and stopped next to a black sedan.
Jane merged with ROBOT. It had been shadowing the electronic commands someone had used to divert her autocab.
Two men were lounging against its front. A third sat in the driver's seat where he could watch Jane and the men waiting for her. He could also point a pistol at her.