Epilog
by Stargazer MD
The Superintendent
of the
United States Air Force Academy
announces that
Andromeda Diane Whitman
of the
Class of 2032
is a candidate for the degree of
Masters of Science in Aeronautical Engineering
and a commission as a
Second Lieutenant
in the
United States Air Force
Wednesday, May twenty-sixth
United States Air Force Academy, Colorado
of the
United States Air Force Academy
announces that
Andromeda Diane Whitman
of the
Class of 2032
is a candidate for the degree of
Masters of Science in Aeronautical Engineering
and a commission as a
Second Lieutenant
in the
United States Air Force
Wednesday, May twenty-sixth
United States Air Force Academy, Colorado
Alex looked over the sea of blue, catching sight of the Air Force Chapel in the distance. ‘Oh crap,’ he thought, worried that he had landed in the middle of their enemies, but as he drank in the festive nature of the occasion outside of Falcon Stadium, his fears abated.
“Pops, are you all right?”
He turned to find Cassie standing next to him, a fully grown Cassie. “I was just thinking,” he murmured as he watched ‘Rion and his constant companion Shelly Guerin.
“I know,” Cassie teased. “You still think we betrayed you by going to school in Boston, but where else could ‘Rion go besides MIT? And although Shelly hasn’t selected a school yet, only a moron would think she would go anywhere but to Boston with him. At least we’re not all going to be there, I’m going to start my residency at John Hopkins (Hospital in Baltimore) this fall.”
“Yea, another airport for your mother to get to know like the back of her hand.”
Cassie’s face flushed as she spotted someone behind her father. She leapt up and kissed his cheek. “I’ll catch you later Pops, I just spotted a newly minted nugget and although I can’t give him his first salute, I sure as hell can get his first kiss.”
“Who?,, Kiss?,,”
Cassie turned to reassure her father, all the while moving backward towards her friend. “Eric! Andy hooked us up for the Ring Dance last year.”
“Ring Dance, what’s a Ring Dance?,, and what were you doing here last year?,, I was paying for you to be in college in Boston! Does your Aunt Liz know you skipped town?,, she was supposed to be keeping an eye on you,,, and what do you mean ‘Hooked-Up’?” Finding that the first born fruit of his loins had deserted him he turned his attention heavenward, “Why God, why did I have to be the first Whitman in three generations to have daughters?”
“I Heard That!”
‘Aw crap.’
**********
Andy roamed through the crowd looking for her family, and the first person she found was Maria. “Where’s everyone else?” she asked looking around.
“I haven’t met up with anyone yet, I got in just before the ceremony and was lucky to get a seat on the edge of the bleachers.”
“Shotgun!” Andy cried out, realizing that she was no longer the only available co-pilot for the family’s flight east.
“Sorry, I got the left seat, you’re not yet type rated for the Three-Hundred,,,” (A Challenger 300 Isabel had leased for the trip.)
“Well better you than Pops.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re unnatural,,, that’s why,,,”
Maria felt a chill run up her spine. Despite the damaging effects of secrets during their high school struggles, the Royal Four and their families had kept many secrets from the newest generation for with the end of the Antarian Civil War, the elimination of their enemies who had been stranded on earth by the loss of the Granolith, and most importantly the confirmation by Liz that the children were perfect albeit exceptionally human, they wanted their children to be able to feel free to walk openly through the world.
“I mean, have you ever watched them. Even after being married thirty years they, they,,, ewww. I just don’t want Mom thinking about dragging Pops, kicking and screaming, into the mile-high club and flying us into the side of a mountain.”
Maria struggled to keep a straight face. “There is no such thing as the mile-high club. That’s just an urban myth.”
“Oh there is seriously a mile-high club.”
Actually Maria was well acquainted with the club as friend Isabel reveled in regaling her with stories, although fortunately never any of the nauseating details. Isabel had dragged Alex, neither kicking nor screaming, into the club during a business trip long before their wedding. Since then she had quickly run out of different commercial and private aircraft types to christen, graduated to an impressive collection of anointed flight routes, and were now exploring different flight levels. (altitudes)
“Butter Bar Whitman,,,” AN: Butter Bar: A second lieutenant, from the golden color of their rank insignia, a less-than-complementary term.
“WHO SAID THAT!” Andy snapped as she turned on her heel, and in doing so made a discovery that caused her eyes, which landed on two sets of gleaming stars, to open wide in alarm. “General Whitman!,,” she squeaked as she snapped to attention and snapped off a crisp salute.
“Andy, the ceremony’s over, you can call me Uncle Harry.”
Maria stayed back while the two officers, who had not seen each other since Christmas got caught up, all the while hopping from foot to foot as she knew what Harry and Isabel had cooked up for a graduation present.
“Andy, are you going to change?” Harry asked in an off-handed voice. “G-suits are incredibly uncomfortable over class-A uniforms.
“G-suit?,,”
“You do know I flew in from Oregon, don’t you?” Maria teased. “In Stargazer?”
AN: Isabel’s Stargazer was a Northrop T-38C, which despite it’s advanced age, was still in the Air Force’s inventory in small numbers as a supersonic jet trainer. Now while it’s true that there were very few of them in civilian hands, for reasons that include that fact that it’s engines do not have self-start capabilities, (it requires a ‘huffer’ start cart to provide high volume air flow to start the engines, as well as a trained ground crew to stand inside the landing gear well to shift the starter huffer’s air flow from one engine to the other) there are two facts that allow Isabel to own one. First, Isabel gets what Isabel wants, but even more importantly, this is a work of fiction.
“Your uncle wants to show you a couple of tricks that they didn’t teach you in flight school,,,”
“We’re taking Stargazer to Martha’s Vineyard?”
“By way of Shepard,” (Air Force Base, Texas.) Harry added. “I booked us some time on one of their training ranges. It’s been a while since I’ve had some hot-shit stick time,,,”
Andy’s eyes almost popped out, “You can’t do that!”
Harry pointed to his stars, “Course I can, boss-man prerogative.”
Andy still couldn’t believe they were taking two planes to the small island. “Yea,” Maria cut in. “It might be a two week vacation for you, but we need ‘Gazer there. Your mom needs to take a quick trip to Jacksonville on Thursday, and I need to go up to Montreal next week for an overnight.”
“You’ll leave me at Shepard and solo up tomorrow,” Harry explained.
“Okay General,” Andy replied with a grin thinking of the fun that would have on an unrestricted flight range the size of Rhode Island. “Course you know Mom’s rule about her precious airplane. If you break it, you’d better not punch out. It would be a lot less painful to crash with it than to face her.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, meanwhile I’ve got to work the crowd. Be on the flight line in one hour Lieutenant. If you’re late I’ll leave without you.”
“Yes sir,” Andy bellowed, snapping to attention, but while her salute was perfect her grin almost split her face in half.
**********
In the control tower of the Air Force Academy Airfield (FAA designation AFF) the senior controller took a moment between flights to point out two aircraft to the oncoming airman. “Keep an eye on those two birds. When they’re ready to go they get priority,,,”
“Priority, why? We don’t give priority. Once the SecDef (Secretary of Defense) leaves it’s first come, first served,” the startled controller asked.
“Well, it’s up to you, but there’s three possible pilots for those two planes. The first is a newly commissioned second lieutenant, the second is her uncle, who just happens to be the two star who give the opening greeting today, and the third is a defense contractor with a security clearance so high they can come and go at will and work on projects we’ll never hear about.”
**********
“Oh Frack!,,”
“What?,,”
“Your parents,,,”
“What do you mean by ragging on my parents,,,”
“They’re not natural,” Shelly protested. “Look, your Mom’s stalking your Dad.”
“She is not,,,”
“It’s not stalking if he knows she’s there,” Andy protested, joining her sister in their parent’s defense.
“How can he know she’s there, she’s behind him and she’s not making any noise.”
“He knows,” Andy replied confidently. “Watch.”
As the four teens watched Alex’s hand slipped up his side, creating a gap between his elbow and his side. Isabel slid her hand into the gap and then Alex re-closed the space, drawing her hand possessively to his side. Without missing a beat Isabel then leaned into his side and joined in his conversation.
“See? It’s romantic,,,”
“Romantic? It’s not natural,,,”
“And your parents are? Uncle Mike’s always off building something and he only comes home every other weekend, then he and your mom frack like bunnies for the first two days then fight like cats and dogs until he either takes off or she kicks him out,,,”
“Hey! It works for them,,,”
“And what Mom and Pops have works for them.”
Suddenly the three girls noticed that ‘Rion had been strangely silent during the argument, and all eyes turned on him. “What, you don’t think I’m getting into the middle of this do you?” he protested as seeing the adults head for the plane he started leading the group there as well, “The only thing worse than pissing off my two sisters would be pissing off my girlfriend.”
**********
The senior controller was still talking. “No, I wouldn’t exactly rate Lieutenant Whitman at the least worrisome of the list, she’s made a name for herself without her family help, or her sponsor’s for that matter,,,”
“Sponsor?”
“Admiral Lippert.”
“Who?”
“Two star, former head of the DLA. (Defense Logistics Agency) He’s retired now, but he’s still connected, and although he’s on the board of directors of Lieutenant Whitman’s father’s corporation, he’s also her Godfather.”
“So she’s got two two-stars looking out for her,,,”
“Yea and you haven’t heard the best yet.”
**********
Although the controllers didn’t know it, there was no chance that Secretary Boyer’s VC-80 would be requesting departure clearance anytime soon. The Air Force was a small community, and the Secretary, a former Air Force fighter jock, was making the rounds pressing the flesh, preparing for his next career, that of a politician.
As Chief of Staff of the Air Force, then General Boyer was credited as the architect of the strategy that won the Second Korean War. This was because while a capable leader and administrator, he had never put aside his warrior ethos. Secretary Boyer instinctively knew that not every good idea could be funded, and he became known for his ability to make a decision based on priorities, not passion or politics, just the type of candidate the New Republican Party needed.
After a stunning number of heartbreaking defeats and a total blow-out during the 2016 general elections, the Republican party suffered the split that had been predicted for a long time. Conservatives (social) within the party had been saying for years that the sure way to the White House was in playing to their base never really comprehending that in a two party system their base just wasn’t big enough. This allowed the Democrats to rack up a series of victories by pointing at the most extreme (social) conservatives then painting the entire Republican party with the same broad brush, thereby drawing in the dissatisfied moderates. Unable to tolerate their loss of the White House to Nancy Pelosi the conservatives (social) split off and formed The American Family Party.
This revitalized the remaining conservatives (fiscal) who had become sick and tired of funding loosing causes. They returned to their core planks of a strong defense, lower taxes, and smaller government. Freed of the choice/life issue and facing the imminent fiscal collapse of the Social Security system, they found themselves with near universal appeal, owning a big tent that covered everyone from the former Libertarian’s on the left to the dregs of Ross Perot’s Reform Party on the right.
Finally the middle class wasn’t being forced to choose between the lesser-of-two-evils and if the polls could be trusted Secretary Boyer would be the next President of the United States. But not all contacts are business, even for a politician, and visiting with Gloria Whitman and her companion Diane Evans fell into that category.
At the end of the Kosovo war Colonel (light) Boyer came to the day where he had to hang up his G-suit for good. Although he delayed that day as long as he could, when it did come he dove right into an assignment at Dreamland, (Edwards Air Force base’s Flight Test Center – Detachment 3) assigned to the (MQ-9) Reaper project, the larger, more capable and armed follow on to the Predator RPV. (Remotely Piloted Vehicle, formerly called UAV or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) While there he became friends with Colonel (light) Charles Whitman, who had been sent out by (DLA) Director Lippert to light a fire under the asses of several civilian contractors who seemed to address every challenge with increased cost and complexity.
Their solution was to consult with a small software company who’s principal was able to create an operating system with a reduced operating instruction set that doubled encryption security while tripling data throughput. As a result the Reaper became a follow on to the Predator I (unarmed) and Predator II (lightly armed) RPV.
Secretary Boyer had immense respect for this stoic woman who had scarified so much for her country. He was the one who traveled to Roswell to give Gloria the news that her husband had been killed in a helicopter crash on the way back from the test range, and less than a year after that he was back in Roswell when Gloria buried Jesse, who had been killed by small arms fire during the opening days of the Second Gulf War.
“Well at least she’s going to JPL,” (the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a NASA facility collocated at the California Institute of Technology at Pasadena) Secretary Boyer quipped. “That should keep her out of trouble for the next couple of years.”
“You think so?” Gloria rebutted, garnering a knowing look from Diane. (Diane’s life wasn’t without loss. In 2018 Phillip paid the ultimate price for his habit of sneaking out at night for greasy Mexican food.) “You’re not going to get her out of a cockpit no matter what you do, that girl was born to fly. At least she’s got her Father’s intellect and her Mother’s reflexes.”
**********
Meanwhile just a few meters away Andy was accepting congratulations from one of her instructors. Given grudgingly, Alex nevertheless accepted faint praise from a pilot that she had soundly beaten in every encounter.
“Andy!”
The Major’s eyes practically bugged from his face as he braced and snapped off a perfect salute in direct contrast to the reaction of the young lieutenant. “Uncle Cliff!” she squealed as she turned and leapt onto her honorary uncle while reaching to kiss his cheek.
The major held his salute until he received a nod, allowing him to relax to a rigid parade rest. He didn’t know what kind of pull his former student had, well he knew that one of her uncles was a two star, but the Secretary of Defense?,, Thank God he resisted his baser emotions and didn’t ride her unfairly for being successful.
Secretary Boyer glanced at the Major. “Dismissed.” He barely noticed the man brace and salute before turning and making a hasty retreat. “Are you ready for this assignment Andy?”
“Sir,,, I,,,”
“You are concerned that I am stepping over several layers of command, correct?”
“Yes sir.”
“Noted. Andy, I need answers now, not a sanitized report six months from now. You’re in a unique position to help me, with one foot in the Air Force and the other in Aries. Right now we need you more than you need us. That’s why you’re being mentored by some of the smartest minds in the business. That’s why I personally authorized you stick time on a Raptor or a Lightning. (II)”
“I’m afraid I’d break a F-22 and I don’t trust the Mutt,” Andy answered warily.
AN: At the outbreak of the Second Korean War the Air Force found itself greatly disadvantaged. Their premier air dominance fighter, the F-22 Raptor was facing numerous problems. First proposed in 1981 the fighter was becoming long in the tooth. But a greater problem was that with it’s high cost limiting the number that could be initially procured and with it’s do-all-end-all technology causing many of them to be hanger queens, (always broken) the Air Force lacked firepower. The F-35 Mutt was little better. Like the F-111 before it, the F-35 was a plane that had been designed to perform several dissimilar tasks and as a result could perform none of them well.
AN: At the outbreak of the Second Korean War the Air Force found itself greatly disadvantaged. Their premier air dominance fighter, the F-22 Raptor was facing numerous problems. First proposed in 1981 the fighter was becoming long in the tooth. But a greater problem was that with it’s high cost limiting the number that could be initially procured and with it’s do-all-end-all technology causing many of them to be hanger queens, (always broken) the Air Force lacked firepower. The F-35 Mutt was little better. Like the F-111 before it, the F-35 was a plane that had been designed to perform several dissimilar tasks and as a result could perform none of them well.
For example the Marines purchased the F-35B STOVL (Short Take Off/Vertical Landing, fixed wings, nine hundred knot (1670 km) range version) to replace their AV-8B Harrier Jump Jets’s while the Navy chose the F-35C CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted Take Off But Arrested Recovery, folding wings, fourteen hundred knot (2520 km) range version) to replace their aging F/A18 Hornet’s, A-6’s Intruders and EA-6B Prowler’s. This allowed the Marines to operate off of smaller ships in support of their troops but it also created a rift on the larger Nimitz and Ford class carriers. Since before World War Two Navy and Marine aviators had operated similar aircraft on similar missions but now with major differences between the two service's aircraft the mission planners faced a conundrum. The Marine aircraft were at a distinct disadvantage when it came to fleet defense and over-the-horizon attack but the Navy did not have enough aircraft to equip it’s carriers on it’s own.
While these limitations were tolerated during the Oil Wars, where the nations enemies lacked capable air power, the anxiety level of those who were paid to consider such things began to skyrocket as attention turned back to the Korean Peninsula. While there was always concern about North Korea crossing the DMZ to take what they needed from the south, the watchers were alarmed at how they started to turn an envious eye towards China’s Wal-Mart and Home Depot wealth to the north, a land that was quickly becoming fed up with North Korea’s inability to solve their own problems.
One can never trust an adversary with nothing left to loose, and that’s precisely what happened when North Korea suffered simultaneous failures in it’s food and energy industries. They attacked to the south, as expected, but no one expected them to cross the Yalu River into China simultaneously. This caused a three-way furball in the air north of the 38th parallel, and with so many planes in the air it was inevitable that the unthinkable occurred. A South Korean F-15SE (certa. 2012) fired an AIM-120D missile at a North Korean MIG-29 (certa. 1983) but instead shot down a Chinese J-10 (certa. 2007) and the fight was on.
The US Air Force had long depended on a doctrine of superior equipment, pilots and training along with superior Airborne Command and Control being able to deal with numerical superiority, but this doctrine had not been severely tested since the First Korean War, or maybe in the skies over Vietnam when Soviet pilots were known to sneak into the North Vietnamese cockpits. On the other hand Chinese doctrine decreed that while they didn’t have the best of equipment, what they did have was good enough, so long as they produced a shitload of it. The People’s Liberation Army Air Force headed south with a near ten-to-one numerical superiority, and they came damned close to throwing everyone in front of them into the Sea of Japan. It quickly became a race for time where the Chinese needed to be stopped before their land forces could blow through the north and consolidate their air gains in the south.
As mentioned previously the Air Force’s hardware was widely acknowledged to be approaching the end of it’s service life, and in the most remote corners of the deserts of the American Southwest there is a secret cadre of people who looked into the future with the single minded purpose of insuring that America’s enemies died for their country so that their brothers and sisters need not die for ours.
Eleven C-5M Super Galaxy transports landed at Papoose Lake deep within Area-51 on runways that were delineated by water sprayed onto the dry lakebed. By nightfall they had been loaded with large shipping containers and several HMMWV mounted control vans. Less than a week later the Chinese had a SAAAD day when their fighters started falling from the sky, the beginning of their next lesson in numerical superiority.
The SAAAD (Small Autonomous Airborne Attack Drone) program was the next generation of Air Dominance Fighter. It wasn’t a remotely piloted vehicle, the Air Force had returned to piloted fighters, only these pilots were made of silicone. These pilots didn’t require life support in the cold thin air, nor a heavy ejection seat. There was no need for multiple redundant systems to bring a flesh and bones pilot home, and there was no need for a sophisticated interface between man and machine. As a result the SAAAD could pull fifteen G’s with no pilot stress in an airframe one sixth the size of it’s predecessor that had been manufactured at one tenth the cost. The SAAAD had no sense of self preservation and no fear. Once it’s mission profile had been executed and a hostile aircraft had been targeted the SAAAD and it’s three partners in it’s swarm didn’t quit until it’s target was either destroyed or it reached bingo fuel. (just enough fuel for a safe return to base)
The double meaning of the SAAAD’s name was intentional, for it had been designed by pilots, whose general thoughts were that it would be a ‘SAAAD day for the Air Force’ when pilots were made out of silicone instead of muscle, while one Chinese pilot who had ejected from his J-10 at the mere thought of a swarm on his tail revealed that in the north it was simply called ‘Terminator.’
“What about a T-15? The T-38 you asked for is older than I am.”
AN:Due to their substantial cost of the F-22 and F-35 (both single seat fighters) it was cost prohibitive to produce two-seat training versions. As a result new pilots received advanced training in a T-38, followed by a year or so in a F?15 before transitioning into the front line aircraft.
Later, as the fifth generation fighters began to build out, the Air Force faced another problem. The F-15 were at the end of their service life and it was politically inexpedient to spend any more money on an airframe that they had just spent more than a hundred billion dollars to replace. Luckily Boeing was still producing the F-15 for export sales and a comparatively inexpensive and unarmed T-15 was soon in the air.
“I don’t have that many hours in the T-15; besides, I shot down three SAAAD’s in that T-38,,,”
“Three? In a T-38?”
“Yes sir, in a T-38. First off I’m good in a T-38, it’s instinctive for me. Ninety percent of my stick time is in Mom’s T-38. Second, I don’t have years of fighter training and doctrine. I was trained by Mom, so when I’m in a knife fight I don’t react as an Air Force pilot would react, so I’m unpredictable. Third, I wasn’t flying a combat aircraft. The SAAAD doesn’t have a lot of information in it’s database about an old unarmed trainer. Fourth, I cheated,,,”
“Cheated!,,”
“Sure, safety interlocks were in place. At one point I played chicken with three and four and they blinked first. They had to, it’s in their programming and I knew that. In actual combat they could have chosen to ram me, but during an exercise they had turn away.”
“Still, only a couple of pilots have ever shot down two in a swarm, and they got shot down themselves. No one’s ever got three,,,”
“Actually I got all four, but the third sacrificed itself setting up a shot for the fourth leaving me no way out, but I did get time to launch. The referee ruled that my missile didn’t get four until after I was already dead.”
“No one’s ever gotten four, in fact there are complete Chinese squadrons that haven’t shot down four, and we’re letting you go to school? Maybe we should keep you in a cockpit, or at least what we have left of cockpits.”
“You are keeping me in a cockpit, at Dreamland, and when we’re done no one will ever get four ever again.”
“You think we can solve this?”
“Yea, we’ve already started. The reason I went up against a full swarm is that I had a hunch about where to start on the programming for the Block Thirty.” (the next version of SAAAD’s)
“And,,,”
“There’s a loop in their programming. The SAAAD’s actions were predictable,,,”
“A loop? How’d that get through testing and not be detected for so long?”
“Wait a minute sir, the loop wasn’t a mistake. Even with the reduced instruction set that Pops envisioned there were still millions of lines of code. Add the fact that every individual SAAAD had to be able to predict how the others in it’s swarm would respond to a given set of circumstances, they did the best with the technology that was available at the time.”
“And now?”
“Pops has been working hard with the programmers out at Dreamland, and they’ve decided to start from scratch.”
“How long’s that going to take.”
“Two years.”
“Two years? We don’t have two years. The Block Thirty is supposed,,,”
“The Block Thirty needs new engines and processors and is already a year behind schedule. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has already written the next generation of programming, and Pops is already consulting with them on how to compress and ruggedize it. I guarantee you that the software will be ready on time.”
“You’re going to be going back and forth between JPL and Dreamland a lot.”
“Yea,” Andy replied hesitantly. “My graduate work involves artificial intelligence in the cockpit. The theoretical work will be done in Pasadena while the testing will be accomplished at Groom Lake,,,”
“I’m arranging a graduation present for you to help you get around a little easier.”
“Graduation present?”
“I’m having the 309th out at Davis (the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson Arizona) recondition a F-16 for assignment to JPL. It’s going to have your name painted on it. Lets say it’s an early retention bonus,,,”
“Oh My God, Thank you!,,”
“Don’t thank me, you’re going to earn it.”
AN: In fact Andy did earn her keep. The project was completed in just nineteen months at which time she had earned her Doctorate in Aeronautical Engineering as well as a promotion to the rank of Captain.
**********
“They aren’t always like that,” Cassie said defensively. “They have fights like everyone else.”
“Really? Name one,” Shelly challenged.
Cassie bit her lower lip for a moment before looking at her brother. “He never told you about the time Pops said no to Mom?”
“What?” Shelly gasped.
“Pops has never said no to Mom,” Andy agreed in disbelief as she joined the group.
“Oh he did,” Cassie replied confidently. “You’re too young to remember it,” she added for ‘Rion’s benefit, “But Andy remembers.”
“Pops would never say no to Mom,,,”
“Do you remember the playhouse we had in the back yard?”
“The one that Pops made into a shed when we got too old for it?”
“Yea.”
“Didn’t it start out as a dog house?” Andy asked.
“Did you ever stop to ask why we had a dog house when we’ve never had a dog?”
Seeing a bunch of blank looks Cassie looked around making sure none of the adults were nearby. “When ‘Rion was old enough that Mom could start to travel again she told Pops that she had been working with Uncle Harry to buy another jet. At the time we owned a quarter share of a Learjet. Pops knew the Lear was limited in speed and range, so he assumed she was replacing it. Mom said no, there were three years left on it’s lease, and she wasn’t going to pay a penalty for replacing it early, besides the model of Citation she was looking at wasn’t yet available. She was going to buy a two seater,,,”
“Stargazer!”
“Yea. Stargazer. When Pops found out she wanted a go-fast he said no, absolutely not, over his dead body. ‘That could be arranged,’ she threatened,,,”
“I can’t believe he said no,,,”
“Why not? She was going to buy a T-38 Talon. People get killed in T-38’s, and he would never let anything happen to her.”
AN: One of the great things about growing up on Air Force Bases during the 60’s was that most of the astronauts of that era were Air Force test pilots (and a few navy squids) who made a habit of flying from base to base, often times visiting our schools. I wish there was some way to research who had visited us at Pease, McGuire and Suffolk County, because I would bet that I met heroes who later walked on the moon. Unfortunately not all of them made it. Astronauts Bassett, Freeman, See and Williams were killed in T-38 crashes, and more recently, between the spring of 2008 and 2009, three crashes killed five Air Force pilots or backseaters and severely injured the sixth.)
“What did Mom do.”
“She walked out.”
“Big deal?” Shelly stammered. “If that was my Mom and Dad there wouldn’t have an intact dish in the house,,,”
“Oh they did fight, a real ‘somebody goes to hospital, somebody goes to jail, marriage ending fight.’ Mom came home several hours later with two Mexican day laborers and a truck full of lumber. By nightfall there was a doghouse in the back yard and Pops was living in it.”
“Mom would never do that to Pops,” Andy cried.
“She would and she did,” Cassie said confidently. “You thought it was cute at the time. Every night you would bring him milk and cookies. He’d give you piggy-back rides around the yard and you’d stay with him until you fell asleep. Then he would carry you to the house and Mom would meet him at the door. She didn’t even let him in the house to put you to bed.”
“How long did he stay out there?”
“I thought he was going to be out there forever, so after a couple of days I called Gram and Meme. They came out and stayed almost a week negotiating a settlement,,,”
“Well we know who won that one, Mom has her jet,,,”
“It wasn’t that easy, Mom got to buy her jet, but Pops got to dictate terms. After she got permission to buy it and then had it modified so it could self-start, Pops’ rules started cutting in. She had to go to flight school in Santa Fe and get instructor rated on the (L-39 trainer) jet they had, she had to go to England and get instructor rated on (Martin Baker) ejector seats, and while she was there he managed to get a T-38 cockpit trainer from the Air Force in exchange for a free update of it’s software. Mom spent so much time on it that she was able to land two scenarios that the Air Force considered unrecoverable.”
“So he thought it was that dangerous and yet he let my Mom fly it?”
“Relax Shelly. Your Dad made your Aunt Maria go through the same training.”
**********
Meanwhile Maria had seen Isabel approach with the rest of the clan. While Alex had his trademark goofy grin on his face, her best friend practically glowed. She immediately knew the cause of this, and quickly pulled her tall friend to one side. “You slut,” she whispered fiercely. “Here?,, Where?,, Never mind, I don’t want to know,,,”
“No big deal, just a quickie,,,”
“I swear, the more I hang out with you the more I think I’m going to have to wash my mind out with bleach. You’re almost fifty for frack’s sake. You’re having your thirtieth anniversary next month,,,”
“Almost fifty means I’m still in my forties,” Isabel replied haughtily, a tactic which hadn’t worked on Maria in decades. “Which according to Cosmo, puts me right at my sexual peak,,,”
“And according to Cosmo, Alex peaked at eighteen, you’re going to kill him,,,”
“Haven’t yet,” Isabel giggled, “Although I’ve come close a couple of times, and as long as I have my powers he’s going to ride his peak until the day we die. Now could we get going, MVY (Martha’s Vineyard airport) closes at eight,,,”
“It does not!” Maria gasped in amazement, never knowing the tall one to make a mistake. “I checked the NOTAM. (notice to airmen) ATC’s (Air Traffic Control tower) open to twenty-two hundred local, (10:00 pm Eastern Daylight time) with MALSR DD on Ten. (Medium intensity Approach Lighting System with Runway alignment indicator lights on runway ten which were on from Dusk to Dawn.) I’ve got the ILS (Instrument Landing System) data in my PDA,,,”
“I know all that, FDC’s (Flight Data Computer) already pre-programmed,,,”
Hearing that Isabel had things under control relieved Maria. Isabel was always overly anal about flying, having never forgotten that her first flight had ended in a crash. “Then what’s the hurry?”
“The hurry,” Isabel explained as if to a small child, “Is that we’re dropping two time zones, and I have an intimate lobster dinner for two waiting, followed by a private room with a hot tub, the thought of which has me feeling a little,,, frisky,,,”
“You’re still horny? You just,,,”
“Danger sex Ria. Stirs the juices. But by it’s very nature it’s quick and not very fulfilling and it always makes me want more,,,”
“I don’t know what to do with you,” Maria sighed with disgust. “If it wasn’t for the job,,,” (Maria had her MBA (Masters in Business Administration) in Global Supply Chain Management and was an Aries Technologies Vice-President, “and the money,,,”
“And the jets,” Isabel added.
AN: In addition to Isabel’s T-38 Aries owned a one-sixth share of an Citation Mustang (Cessna) LBJ (Light Business Jet) and occasionally rented a larger ten seat Challenger 300 (Bombardier) when the four-seat Mustang wasn’t big enough. While this may sound extravagant, Aries’s location in the American Southwest means extreme travel distances no matter where one needs to go. Albuquerque’s International Sunport is a remote airport, at least as far as the schedules air carrier’s established air routes are concerned, meaning that flying commercial usually necessitates several connections and layovers per trip. As a result most business trips involve two full travel days of commercial travel while a LBJ (or Isabel’s T-38 if she or Maria were traveling especially light) has become a necessity.
This may sound extravagant, especially in these tough times, but let me explain with an example. I worked for a defense contractor with a plant in Maryland and New Hampshire, and I needed to fly back and forth at least once a month, sometimes as often as once a week. Drive from Hagerstown to BWI (Baltimore); one hour. Remote parking and shuttle; one hour. Stand in line for good boarding pass; (Southwest first-come/first-served cattle car seating) one hour. Stand in line for good seat in boarding group A; one hour. Taxi out, flight, taxi in; one and one half hours. Pick up rental; 30 min. Drive to Newfields; one hour. That’s seven hours of unproductive time, two travel days lost every trip, and yes, the wait time was necessary. Many trips I arrived at the terminal early and stood around, but as often as not there were traffic jams or other delays where I just made it. (Want to try flying out of Baltimore-Washington seven days after 9/11?) Both plants were fifteen minutes from an airport, which means I could have flown private, had a meeting and flown home in less time than one commercial flight. Now while the value of my time would never justify such an expense, Alex, Isabel’s and Maria’s value to Aries certainly does, thus business jets.
“You do know that Claudia’s graduation is already over, which means that Max’s crew, as well as Michael, are probably already at the resort waiting for us. How long has Michael been working on the Alamogordo Aqueduct project? He only gets home on every other weekend, right??”
Maria thought for a moment about how long it had been since they had quality time together, for Michael had worked through his last weekend off in order to get his team far enough ahead that he could take a two week vacation without too many interruptions.
“I didn’t get you a family suite like you wanted. You have a private room with your own hot tub,” Isabel cajoled. “Hell I even made sure none of the parentals or the kids are in the same building as us. They’re on the opposite side of the resort,,,”
Maria didn’t need to hear any more. She stuck her fingers in her mouth and whistled. “Listen up everybody, we have a four hour flight, we’re dropping two time zones, and the tower closes at Eight. We need to leave for Martha’s Vineyard NOW.”
Isabel sought out her husband who was making his good-by’s to Harry and Andy, said her own farewells, and then watched from behind as Maria shepherded her extended family towards the waiting shuttle van for the short trip to the airport. “Happy?” she asked softly.
“I’ve never been happier in my life,” Alex answered honestly.
**********
Minutes later Shelly looked out one of the windows and couldn’t help but notice her mother and aunt had stopped about twenty feet from the plane and were deep in conversation. “What are they doing?” she asked her constant companion.
‘Rion looked out the window and then looked around the front set of seats in the cabin. Finding only Cassie sharing the front four seats of he leaned close before answering. “Mom’s really anal about running a sterile cockpit,,,”
“What’s a sterile cockpit?”
“For the beginning and end of every flight they don’t talk about anything but flying. They don’t even think about anything else,,,” (Typically a sterile cockpit is maintained to flight level 100 (10,000 ft or 3050 m) on the way up, and then reestablished when descending through FL 100, but Isabel and Maria usually flew out of Albuquerque and Denver, both high altitude airports which cut in half the safety factor of an arbitrary altitude, therefore all Aries aircraft flights maintained a sterile cockpit for the first and last fifty miles (80 km) of every flight.
Seeing a blank look on Shelly’s face Cassie continued, “A lot of things can go wrong during take off and landings, so there are no distractions during those times,,,”
"Now you’re the one that told me the rules about bathing suits,,,” Maria snapped. “A full chest band for proper support,,,”
“Just a string,,,”
“The cups join at or above the nipple line to prevent under-cleavage,,,
“I had to modify the cups, deepen the darts so they wouldn’t flatten me, but it’s in a pale pink micro fiber fabric with plenty of cleavage, under cleavage and side cleavage. As a matter of fact I’ll poke when it’s dry, and it’s practically transparent when wet,,,”
“You slut,,,”
“I got you one just like it,,,”
“A slut suit?,,”
“Course I had to modify it, smaller in the bust and bigger in the ass,,,
“Michael hasn’t been home for almost four weeks,” Maria sighed dreamingly, completely missing the included dig. “He’ll rip it off me with his teeth,,,”
“You think they’ll like it?” Isabel teased, using her powers to jiggle her breasts, first alternating them and then bouncing them in unison.
“For frack’s sake, ixnay on the oobplay,” Maria gasped as she grabbed her friends shoulders and turned her to make sure she wasn’t visible from the jet. “It’s bad enough I’m going to have to console your kids when they realize you’re a slut without having to explain that you’re the slut from outer space.”
Isabel, like always, ignored her friends reaction to her teasing. “What do you say, you ready to kick the tires and light the fires?”
“Yea.”
“Okay, and Ria, no offense but I’m going to do my own pre-engine start checklist after I finish my walk-around. I think you’re going to need a moment to get your head back in the cockpit.”
Alex meanwhile sat back with his hands behind his head and a shit-eating grin on his face. He didn’t know what his wife had planned for their anniversary, but judging by the feelings she was leaking through their connection, he was going to enjoy it.
END