by M.A. Harris
Transitions
Paul sat in the copilot’s seat of the MoonDream and watched the Alexis lift out, it was almost weird, and certainly felt unnatural, to be on the outside after all these flights. He’d seen recordings before but it was not the same as seeing the ship calmly lift off the ground and slide up into the sky. It was a ponderous evolution, especially with the two massive housing cells on her cargo deck, but it had the inevitability of the moonrise. For a moment it was hard to tell she was moving at all, then you could see the change in the background and then she was definitely off the ground and rising, rising. Once she was up and out of the Hollow the stealthed freighter was impossible to see except as a starless patch in the starry sky. After a minute even that was lost. The whole thing was uncanny, alien, there should have been sound and thunder and drama, instead the ship was simply gone.
“That’s my girl,” Raoul said quietly from the flight engineers station behind Paul. The young Mexican had been tapped for the shakeout flights of the MoonDream. Paul was scheduled only for tonight, the day after tomorrow he’d be lifting out with his original ship.
Paul had been asked to act as copilot for the MoonDream’s tryout and he’d let the Alexis go without him for the first time, with Patsy as copilot to Frank Johnson. Frank had been training up as the backup commander for their little fleet. Frank had told Paul before the flight that he’d let Patsy do the piloting while he did the navigating etc. That had reinforced Paul’s good opinion of Frank’s common sense and his regret that Frank hadn’t been chosen to command the MoonDream.
“Well actually Engineer that’s Frank, though your young lady has been doing excellent work as a copilot, I must admit.” Paul glanced over at the man in the command pilot’s seat, John VanDoone. Since John’s loss at the pilot selection board meeting where Paul had been given the first slot the ex-major had been trying to mend his fences, while also working like mad to improve his scores on the Moonship simulator. VanDoone had largely succeeded in both endeavors. Paul still thought the man a stuffed shirt and a conspirator, but had to admit that, when he tried, VanDoone was a useful person to have around. Since most of the others around the Hollow had never had that bad an opinion of him anyway, many considered VanDoone a rising star. That worried Paul, VanDoone had spent a lot of hours working the simulator; Paul wondered how much of VanDoone’s score was the result of rote memorization?
“MoonDream, this is Command Central, how are you doing John?” Cliff’s voice was warm. Cliff and VanDoone had become friends and Paul felt a little irritated with Cliff over the program managers lack of perception. VanDoone was not always subtle about his methods, but Cliff seemed a bit blind to human duplicity at times.
“We are all green at this time Central, I am about to command the coolant line disconnect, am I go to commence testing?” John’s voice had that odd, faintly southern accent many Air Force pilots seemed to develop, even though Paul knew he was from Michigan.
“You are free to commence the test regime.” Cliff replied. The ‘Dream’s test plan was much more complex than the one the Alexis had carried out. Cliff and VanDoone, among others, had been adamant that Paul’s bull headed tactics had been foolhardy, if effective in the end.