Address criticisms to [xazqrten@cox.net]
******************************
He sat and stared at the bulkhead. If his wife weren’t Susan Ivanova-Wayne,
he wouldn’t be here. He would most likely be dead in the driver’s seat of a
wrecked car, lost in some very deep ravine. Instead, he was on a whitestar
heading for a rendezvous with a Minbari war cruiser. His wife was doing her
level best to keep him alive. He appreciated her efforts.
His concentration was broken by a knock on the door. “Come in.”
Alyt Donivar opened the door and asked, “May I come in?”
“It’s your ship, Alyt Donivar.”
“You don’t feel welcome?”
“I was just thinking that I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my wife.”
“That is true, but it is of no importance. General Wayne informs me that you
have much to offer to the alliance.”
“In a way, I suppose I do. It’s hard to be faithful to a government that is
willing to kill you as a reward for your service.”
“Treachery knows no bounds, Mr. Wayne. It rears its ugly head anywhere at
anytime, usually with no forewarning. I came to invite you to dine with me. I
have my own reserved area in the crews’ mess area. We won’t be rendezvousing
with the war cruiser for another three days. It has been delayed.”
Charles stood up and said, “Lead on to the food, Alyt Donivar.”
******************************
Susan read the text on the monitor. It was Agent Baar’s report of what had
transpired in Atlanta after she, Susan, had departed. That was almost three
weeks ago today. The Georgia State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Earth
Alliance Bureau of Investigation (EABI) had done an extremely thorough
investigation.
They had sent an agent to Stockton to interview Susan. She had been very
cooperative with the interviewer, but did not reveal that she actually knew who
had sent the death squad, although she indicated that she had some theories.
She explained to the interviewer that she didn’t think that they were germane
to their investigation of the Atlanta police.
She had been amused that the interviewer was accompanied by a commercial
telepath. She was even more amused when it was explained that the purpose for
the telepath was to insure that the interviewer wasn’t scanned.
She thought about her schedule for the last three weeks. She had been
putting in eighteen to twenty hour days and weekends. Meetings, working in the
AFB-328B simulator, working out, reviewing personnel records, meeting her
subordinate commanders, practicing her music, and doing some rehearsing with
her band had been a gruesome grind. Today wasn’t going to be any better. The
local area House of Representatives member was demanding a meeting and Susan’s
secretary had scheduled one for 1100 hours, just before lunch.
Susan finished Agent Baar’s report. The mayor of Atlanta had decided not to
run for reelection. The police chief had resigned for personal reasons; all of
the personnel that had been hired as office support of the mayor and chief of
police had been let go. These individuals had gladly talked to investigators.
Susan was delighted, but it did nothing to bring back the murdered EA agents.
If she had her way, the moron police chief would serve time for what she
considered his extreme malfeasance.
Susan dialed the number for Doctor Steven Franklin. When he appeared on her
display, she asked, “Any news for me, Steven?”
“Yes and No. We think we know what happened, but we’re not absolutely sure.
The problem appears to have a genetic component. Hopefully, I’ll have a
complete report and briefing ready for both you and the JCS, shortly. I’ll let
you know by Thursday evening, my time.”
Steven signed off, and Susan wondered what he meant by genetic component.
That had the smell of weapon written all over it. She looked at her schedule
again and once again saw the meeting scheduled with Congresswoman Bates.
******************************
A week earlier, Susan had met with Alex Collins again. It had been a routine
lunch and she had asked a question that took Collins completely by surprise.
“Mr. Collins, how hard would it be to determine exactly what the budget for
Earthforce Intelligence is and how it’s funneled to them?”
Collins didn’t say anything for almost two minutes. Then he asked, “Why?”
“It’s information I need for something I have in mind. In this case, the
less you know the better.”
“I’ll have to inquire of our data experts. If it’s possible, how do you want
the data?”
“Bury it in the data for the commands that are being used for the funneling.
Just make sure I know how to separate it out without anyone, including my own
people knowing that it’s being done.”
“That’s a tall order. I’ll have to get back to you. It’s not going to be
easy. You don’t like them do you?”
Without hesitation andin a neutral tone, Susan replied, “No.”
Collins thought about it for a minute. “You’re going after their budget.
Kill their money supply and you make them go away. This could be very
dangerous. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
“So do I,” She replied.
******************************
Susan looked across her desk at Congresswoman Bates. “How may I be of
service, Congresswoman Bates?”
“You do know that I chair the House Intelligence Oversight Committee?”
“Among other things, yes. What does that have to do with this visit? My
various commands have nothing to do with EA Intelligence.”
“That’s not quite true, general. A portion of the EAI budget is hidden
within the budgets of some of your commands.”
“Really? I didn’t know that,” replied Susan, straight-faced.
Ignoring Susan’s obviously snide reply, Bates replied, “Their budget is
scattered out all across Earthforce commands.”
“I still don’t see what that has to do with me.”
“You are in the process of evaluating command budgets and determining which
budgets to cut and which commands to delete. That’s your primary tasking from
the JCS and the President.”
With resignation in her voice, Susan said, “So what? I don’t think any of
this is any great secret. Intelligence budgets have been hidden within myriad
government expenditures for several hundred years now.”
“If you cut the wrong budget too much, or make a budget go away, it could
adversely impact on the intelligence community.”
“Interesting idea. I never thought of it that way. It does open up
possibilities.”
“I don’t understand?”
“If someone wanted to make life miserable on the EAI, all they would have to
do is yank its purse strings. I can’t see any reason to do that. So, exactly
what is it you want?”
“My committee will have to review your planned cuts. We can’t have you
accidentally pulling part of the rug out from under the EAI.”
“Believe me, Congresswoman Bates, I would never accidentally pull the rug
out from under the EAI.” [But, I won’t hesitate to do it on purpose!]
“I’m glad to hear that, general. It makes me feel better. I’ll look forward
to working with you.”
As the congresswoman departed her office, Susan thought to herself, [I’m
very sure you will…when pigs fly. Someone is worried. I’ll bet good money it’s
General Sanchez and/or Major Brown and/or the civilian director. I wonder which
one put a bug in her ear? I wonder just how hard it’ll be to make you go away
when you come up for reelection? Something else to get the team busy working
on. Review my proposed cuts, if you want; it won’t stop them.]
******************************
Almost three weeks earlier, in Atlanta, Georgia:
Agent Baar was sitting in a chair looking across the table in an
interrogation room. On the other side of the table sat a member of the
EABI. “Just tell me what happened from the time you arrived in Atlanta, Agent
Baar,” said EABI agent Mack Lacy.
“General Wayne and I arrived in her shuttle. We got into a staff car that
had been sent to meet us. When we arrived in the courthouse underground parking
area, we exited the car and took the elevator to the ground floor. As we walked
to the courtroom, we encountered the DA and his assistants, Detective Sergeant
Hank Lewis and Detective Sergeant Victor Lane, Lewis’ partner. The detectives
were involved in arresting the thugs that were being tried for assaulting
General Wayne. I didn’t notice it at the time, but on reflection, General Wayne
had a distant look on her face as she participated in the conversation that was
taking place. I’m thinking that her preoccupation was caused by her hearing
what she later described as singing that could be heard over the mental din
that makes up the normal background noise every telepath works very hard to
ignore. She also gave the hallway the once over visually. I didn’t think
anything of it at the time. The general is extremely alert to anything that
might seem out of place.”
“I have checked. General Wayne is very vigilant. It’s kept her alive over
the years. Was there anything else?”
“Yes. An old friend of hers and his wife had come to watch part of the
trial. General Wayne made them leave the courthouse. I didn’t know what she
knew, but she must have thought it constituted danger.”
“Tell me about the phone calls, then I want you to further comment on them
as I replay them.”
Agent Baar quietly commented on various parts of the phone calls as
requested.
“Agent Baar. I want you to go to lunch. Please be back by 1300. We’ll be
questioning the police captain, his lieutenant, and possibly the chief. It
depends on how each one of them goes. I want you present at all of them, Agent
Baar. It makes it harder for them to lie. I really wish we could have General
Wayne. There’s nothing like a high-powered telepath to scare the crap out of a
liar.”
“Have you ever met General Wayne?”
“I was sent out to Stockton to interview her. She’s intimidating just
sitting on the other side of a desk. You can’t ignore the stars on her collar.
You get the feeling that there’s nothing you could do that would intimidate
her.”
Agent Baar went to lunch. After she departed, a woman entered the
interrogation room.
“Is General Wayne really that intimidating?”
“No. She is much more intimidating. I had a commercial telepath with me to
ensure that I wouldn’t be scanned. She found that to be most humorous.”
“Did she tell you anything useful?”
“Oh yes. She was very forthright with her answers and provided more detail
that I would have believed. It seems that she has an eidetic memory. She even
admitted that she had some theories about who might be responsible.”
The other agent perked up.
“She said it wasn’t germane to the investigation of the Atlanta police
department. She said she wouldn’t speculate and ruin anyone’s reputation until
she was absolutely sure of her information.”
“And you let it go at that?”
“In the first place, she is correct. It doesn’t have anything to do with our
investigation. In the second place, you don’t bully someone like her. She could
kill me in the blink of an eye, even if I had my gun stuck up her nose. In
fact, she has already done something like that in an Atlanta suburb.”
“Throw her ass in a cell for a while. She’ll change her mind.”
Looking at his friend, he said, “Did I mention that her telepathic abilities
are beyond the Psi Corps abilities to measure, if Psi Corps still existed. My
telepath informed me that General Wayne could fix us so that we would have no
idea what had been discussed during the interview. You screw with someone like
her and you won’t know who you are after she gets through with you. What you do
is ask your damned questions, record her answers, and let it go at that!”
The woman heard the anger in her friend’s voice and decided to drop the
subject. Ignorance kept her from understanding her friend’s explanation.
“Come on. Let’s go to the conference room. I’ll pull up some videos from the
public archives. Maybe then you will get a glimmer of understanding.”
******************************
Nancy Ellison was sitting at the head of the table in the main conference
room. Mack Lacy entered followed by EABI Agent Jane Dare.
Looking up from a folder that she had been perusing, Ellison asked, “What
can I do for you, Agent Lacy?”
“I didn’t know anyone was using the room. I have some videos I want to show
Agent Dare.”
“Oh boy, movies!” responded Ellison. “Go ahead. I need a break.”
“The agents that were killed. They were yours?” asked Dare.
No longer smiling, Ellison replied in a bitter tone, “Yes.”
“Mack says that General Wayne has some theories about who is responsible,
but she won’t tell him who she thinks it is,” volunteered Dare.
“You have a big mouth, Jane!” snapped Lacy.
Ellison looked at Lacy. “Tell me about it, Mack.”
“After the videos, Nancy.”
The videos were the ones from the mall robbery attempt. Lacy also had copies
of the video made at the Minbari embassy and some of the videos recorded during
Susan’s early morning workouts at the Ashley Company.
After the videos were finished, Dare said, “I still don’t see why we can’t
throw her ass into a cell until she tells us whom she suspects.”
“Whose ass do you want to throw into a cell, Agent Dare?” asked Ellison.
“General Wayne’s.”
Ellison looked at Lacy. “Does she have another job lined up or what?”
“What do you mean by that?”
Instead of answering the question, Ellison spoke into the audio pick-up of
her computer, “Computer, EA news for the last four weeks – item, General Susan
Wayne change of command audio and video, President Luchenko’s speech.”
It took almost thirty seconds for the video to come up on the big display
screen. “Play Speech.”
After the video finished, Ellison asked, “Agent Dare. What does that video
tell you?”
“Both the general and the President were born in Russia?”
“What else?”
“The President is expecting the general to overhaul part of Earthforce.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Mack?”
“She seems to think of General Wayne as a friend – one that she envies and
greatly respects.”
“Bingo. Now tell me, Agent Dare, what is throwing General Wayne’s ass into a
cell going to do for you – keeping in mind that she has done absolutely nothing
illegal?”
“She’s withholding information in the investigation of three murdered Earth
Alliance Secret Service officers.”
“Mack. You were going to tell me something after the movies were finished –
well?”
Agent Lacy told her about his interview with Susan, and Susan’s having
theories about who was responsible and her feeling that those theories weren’t
germane to the investigation.
“I see,” said Ellison.
“You can see, why we need to put the pressure on General Wayne. She knows
things that might help us in our investigation.”
“Let me see if I got this right. General Wayne has some theories about whom,
why and what of the Atlanta fiasco. She most likely got her information by
scanning one or more of the assassins. All of the aforementioned assassins are
now very dead; so, they can’t be scanned by an independent telepath. So,
there’s no way to verify anything General Wayne might have learned. Last, but
not least, any information obtained during an illegal mind scan is not useable
in court and neither is any data, leads, or information learned following those
leads. Did I miss anything?”
“No, you got it all,” replied Mack. “Except for the most important item.”
“What’s that?” asked Dare.
“If you throw the good general’s ass into a cell, you’d better have another
job lined up, because your present one will be instant history. President
Luchenko or a member of her immediate staff will have your skinny ass fired
before the cell door closes and locks,” said Ellison, disdainfully.
“That’s illegal,” retorted Dare.
“That’s reality,” said Lacy.
“If General Wayne had done something illegal that you could prove then your
idea might fly, but I even doubt that. Convicting her of something would
probably work; otherwise, forget it. There is another possible reason she
doesn’t want to discuss it.”
“And that would be?” asked Dare.
“If she suspects a government agency, she wouldn’t want anyone to get wise
before she was ready to take them down. Ask yourself, who could or would mount
an effort like this one? That idea scares me.”
“I hadn’t thought about that possibility,” replied Dare.
“Then I suggest that you do so,” said Ellison. “Mack, I liked the video
where the goon almost shoves his machine pistol up her nose. You’ve got to have
nerves of steel to do what she did.”
“I liked the one where she beats the Minbari to death with a Minbari
fighting pike,” replied Mack.
“You’re both sick,” said Dare.
“Just honestly tell me, Jane, that you don’t find General Wayne
intimidating.”
“No, I don’t.”
“The foolhardiness of youth,” observed Ellison. “If you two are finished
here, I have more work to do,” she said, dismissing the two of them.
******************************
IA Headquarters on Minbar:
Charles sat in John Sheridan’s office. “I’m sorry, Mr. President, but I
didn’t have much choice. Susan bundled me aboard the whitestar and shipped me
off to Minbar.”
“I know. She arranged it through Delenn. I believe you were involved in some
scenarios that included live Drakh. Is there anything you can tell me about
them?”
Sitting in the stuffed leather chair, Charles considered Sheridan’s
question. After almost a minute, he asked, “What do you want to know?”
“I don’t want to put you in a situation…”
“You’re not,” Charles responded, cutting Sheridan off. “For about a week or
so before Susan got me released to attend her change of command, I was drugged
to oblivion – my psi abilities were suppressed by sleeper drugs and I was kept
unconscious through the use of some other drugs. When Susan saw me the morning
they returned me, she was furious. Later that morning, she conducted a tour of
the assigned whitestar for the President and several generals. She took me
along. Now I’m here.
She told me that the EA Intelligence types were going to grab me as soon as
the ceremony was over…she never gave them a chance. They were going to murder
me, President Sheridan. Only Susan’s intervention prevented that. I also
believe her threats to take out General Sanchez and some of his minions are the
only things that kept them from killing me immediately.
I suppose they’re screaming bloody murder now that I outside their reach.
So, to put it bluntly, what do you want to know? I can work with your teeps and
hypnotists and whatever else is necessary to give you everything that is
retained somewhere in my grey matter.”
“I’ll have to speak to my intelligence types first. I’ll have them work with
you. I think I can understand your feelings for Earth. I’ve been on that side
of the creek before myself. I hope the Warrior Caste crew on the war cruiser
didn’t give you too hard a time.”
“Strangely enough, after I explained to their Alyt, they became absolutely
friendly. I figured they’d loathe someone who’d turn on his own government. It
seems they don’t consider murder a rightful reward for a lifetime of faithful
service to your people.”
******************************
Susan looked out from the cockpit of the AFB-328B, Attack Fighter Bomber, at
the ground rushing by at more than seven hundred kilometers per hour just fifty
meters below the bottom of her aircraft’s fuselage.
Captain Jerry Heigl asked, “Aren’t you flying a bit low, General Wayne?”
“I thought one of the things we try to do is remain undetected? If you’re
worried, I can take us up to a hundred meters.”
Every since he and General Wayne began these training flights, Captain Heigl
found himself just a bit unnerved at her apparent abandon when it came to
flying the aircraft. He had a feeling that she was well aware of his misgivings
and, in part, flew in a manner calculated to scare the crap out of him. So far,
she was succeeding. The woman didn’t seem to have the word fear in her
vocabulary.
“Quit sweating, captain. I’m not about to fly us into the countryside, at
least not today; maybe next week.”
“Thanks for the cheering up, general.”
Susan only laughed. “How do you want me to make this pass? I’m using live
training ammunition this time.”
“The target is a mockup of a supply column that has broken for cover
alongside a dirt road. You can make the pass however you wish; just get as many
rounds on target as possible. You only get points for effective hits.”
“Make sure your head support is engaged. We’re about to, as the old saying
goes, ‘rock and roll’.”
A minute later, Susan checked her navigation computer. In the back seat,
Captain Heigl noticed that his display screen was flashing red text ‘navigation
control computer disengaged’.
“General Wayne! You’ve disengaged the navcomp!”
Susan replied, “Thirty seconds from target. Starting heads-up pitch and
roll.”
As he heard Susan’s statement, Captain Heigl felt the aircraft pitch up
violently and at the same time execute a savage roll that almost caused him to
black out. As he recovered his vision, he felt the aircraft shaking violently
and recognized part of the vibrations as coming from the twelve-barrel thirty-
millimeter cannon that was the aircraft’s main armament. The vibration from the
two twenty-millimeter Gattling guns was lost in the jerking motions and other
vibrations that Susan was causing by the violent maneuvers through which she
was putting her plane.
It seemed to go on forever, but when Heigl looked at the time display at the
lower left hand of the display screen, he saw that less than forty seconds had
passed since the manic ride he had just experienced had started.
Susan was just putting the wheels on the tarmac when Heigl asked, “What was
that back there, General Wayne? I’ve never experienced such a beating while
riding in one of these fighters. I almost lost consciousness once.”
“Only once? I must be losing my touch. When do I learn my score?”
“As soon as we return to the classroom. You were the last student on the
range for this exercise.”
******************************
Susan sat in the back of the classroom and watched as one of the school’s
instructors walked the class through the results of their efforts.
LtCol. Mason studied the students. “As you can see, all of you did well on
the firing part of the test; First Lieutenant Jean Lang in particular did very
well. Her score was fifty-five, about ten points above what we normally expect
from a new student. Some of our refresher students score as high as sixty-five.
On the threat evasion part of the test, things didn’t go so well. This is not a
bad reflection on you. It’s the hardest part of these tests. It’s not enough to
do a good firing run; you have to survive the encounter too. Everyone starts
out with low scores in this area.”
“I didn’t see my score, LtCol. Mason,” said Susan.
“There seems to be a problem with your score, General Wayne. The analysis
team says you didn’t follow the proper protocols during the test.”
Susan looked confused. “What protocols?”
“They were covered last week in class and then again when you were in the
simulators.”
“Oh. Do I find out my scores anyway, even if they don’t count?”
“What purpose would it serve, General Wayne?”
“I’m just curious. I don’t suppose I could get someone to enlighten me about
these protocols and then retake the test, could I?”
“It still won’t count, general. You don’t get two shots at any of these
tests.”
“Could I propose a different sort of test that might be a bit more
meaningful?”
“I don’t have the authority to do that, general, sir.”
“Who does?”
“Colonel Stout, sir.”
“Please, call him in here?”
“Yes, sir.”
“LtCol. Mason, have my scores sent over. I also want to see the
reconstructions of the various flight paths of the students.” Then as an
afterthought Susan added, “That’s not a request, Mr. Mason.”
******************************
Immediately after Susan walked out of the room, First Lieutenant Jean Lang
asked, “What’s her problem? You’d think with her rank, a score on a test like
this would be meaningless.”
Another student, Acting Second Lieutenant Randy Sears, replied, “It just
goes to show you how little people can be, no matter how much they have.”
Sears’ statement elicited chuckles out of most of the class.
A third student, Second Lieutenant Conrad Wife, asked, “What’s your take on
General Wayne, Captain Heigl? After all, you’ve been working with her for a
while now.”
“In the first place, she really doesn’t care about the test scores. She has
more actual combat flying time than all of you have with all your various kinds
of flying time all added together. At the present time, she is the most senior
active pilot in Earthforce. You think you know how to fly the AFB-328B. I’m
here to tell you that you don’t. When you see what she did on the test range
today, you’ll understand.”
“She didn’t use the protocols, Captain Heigl,” stated Sears.
“No, she didn’t. She didn’t even know about them. If you’ll recall, she
missed two days of class last week. We never told her about them. Before she
made her run, I told her to take her best shot at it and she did just that.”
“That’s still no excuse for her score to count, captain,” insisted Sears.
Captain Heigl didn’t respond immediately. After a few moments, he said, “You
people still don’t seem to get it through your thick skulls, she isn’t
competing with you. If it’s you against her, there is no comparison. She could
take all of you on at the same time and kill all of you without breaking a
sweat. She’s killed more than two hundred enemy pilots in her career. If I
remember her bio correctly, she killed five raider pilots and destroyed their
mother ship in one skirmish when she was a young ltjg.”
“You really believe that, captain?” asked Sears.
“There’s nothing to believe. It’s in the official Earthforce records archive…
and they have her gun camera footage.”
“Oh,” responded Sears in a subdued tone.
******************************
Susan took a sip of her coffee and turned to see Colonel Stout approaching
the coffee mess.
“What’s on your mind, General Wayne? I hear that you are upset that your
test score won’t be counted.”
“That’s not my real problem, Colonel Stout. I’m bothered by the way the
students performance on evading enemy fire is being handled. I don’t know about
you, but training my pilots to their limits and making sure they come back
alive has always been my first priority.”
“With all due respect, general, I don’t think you have had to train beginner
pilots, before.”
“I’m not arguing that, colonel, but I was once a beginner pilot. If memory
serves me correctly, my instructors always encouraged me to find ways to
improve my performances, even when some of them weren’t in the training manual.
That’s how I ripped the right wing off of an AFB-328 when I was a student.”
Colonel Stout finished fixing himself a cup of coffee and took a sip while
he digested what Susan had just said.
“You what?”
“Look it up in the aviation accident section of the Earthforce archives.
Better yet, just put in a call to Colonel Jake Carns at Earthforce HQ. He’s
General Leftcourt’s PAO. He probably has a copy on his desk about now.”
“We’ll watch the results of your test run, then we’ll discuss student
training.”
“I want your analysis people to reconstruct the flights of all the students
using the data in their flight recorders.”
“That could take all night, general, and it’s going to cost us some serious
overtime. You’re going to kill my budget.”
“Send me the paperwork for reimbursement. You won’t be hit for indulging
me. I want to make the test run again using your protocols. I want to prove
something to you, and it has nothing to do with scores.”
“I’ll have the range set up for a run before dark. You can make the run and
be back in time for supper. Is that okay, general Wayne?”
“It’ll be just fine, colonel. I’ll want the analysis team to generate a
flight profile from the recorder data too.”
******************************
In the classroom, Colonel Stout had posted Susan’s test results. He looked
at Captain Heigl. “You told her to take her best shot. It looks like she did
just that. The range will be ready for you in less than an hour, General Wayne.
You might as well leave now.”
Susan departed the room without commenting on her test results.
“Colonel Stout. Why is she getting to make a second run on the test range?”
asked Sears.
“She wants to prove something to me that may change how we teach this
course.”
“Are you sure it’s not just a ruse to improve her score?”
“Improve her score! Surely you jest.” Colonel Stout looked at Sears the way
he would a piece of dog dung. “If you’re afraid she’ll raise the curve you can
rest easy, Lt. Sears. At no point in the testing would General Wayne’s scores
be counted in with the rest of the class. She isn’t a real student. She’s only
sitting in to familiarize herself with the AFB-328B and start flying to keep
her flight status current. In no real world, Lt. Sears, could you ever hope to
compete with General Wayne.”
First Lieutenant Jean Lang commented and asked, “Already, I feel better. Why
is General Wayne so interested in the curriculum?”
Looking thoughtful, Colonel Stout replied, “She likes to get her pilots back
alive. She doesn’t like to lose people.” Looking around, Stout rested his gaze
on Sears, “What, no comment, lt.”
Sears did not respond.
Another student commented, “She not only tore hell out of the target, she
escaped without even one of the defending missile batteries getting a lock-on,
much less being able to take a shot at her. In fact, according to her results,
they never even successfully tracked her.”
“It’s nice of you to notice that, Lt. Ray. The rest of you should take note
of that fact. A successful attack is a good thing; surviving to make another
successful attack is much better,” commented Stout.
******************************
John Sheridan sat behind his desk and Delenn had gotten comfortable on the
overstuffed sofa that was positioned along the wall to his left. Tessa Holloran
was seated so that she could face the two of them.
“You know, Mr. President, that Charles Wayne volunteered to submit to being
put on sleepers to facilitate us being able to access his memories. He felt it
would make the process easier on everyone involved.”
“What are we learning?”
“Almost more than we know what to do with. We have recovered what appears to
be the Drakh language. We have their alphabet, enough words to fill a decent
sized dictionary, context, speech patterns, symbology used in their control
systems, their history, their plans – or at least as many of them of which the
captured Drakh were cognizant. One of those captured was an intelligence
officer; another was the commanding officer of one of their carrier/cruiser
types of ships, plus an engineering officer. They weren’t all from the same
ship. He showed our teeps how to more efficiently access his memories.
Honestly, Mr. President, it’s veritable treasure trove of information and
intelligence. I seriously doubt if Earthgov and Earthforce would have shared
more than a fraction of this data. I just hope General Wayne doesn’t come after
us when she learns of this.”
“Susan holds a high-rank position in the Rangers, Tessa. She knew what she
was doing,” said Delenn. “As far as what you told us, there doesn’t appear to
be anything that compromises any of Earthforce’s secrets.”
“True enough, Entil’zha. What we have, hopefully, will help us better
understand the Drakh and the extent of the dangers they pose to both the IA and
EA. We know from your personal experience that they hold us, particularly the
Humans and Minbari, directly responsible for the quick exit of their dark
masters.”
******************************
Susan sat in the back of the classroom and studied the results from her test
flight yesterday afternoon. She had survived the enemy missile fire and escaped
unscathed, but her score was no better than the class average. She wasn’t
disappointed though; she had proven a point to herself.
“I see your point, General Wayne. Even within the constraints of our
protocols, you managed to complete the test unscathed,” said Colonel Stout.
“She didn’t do any better on the shooting part than we did, colonel,” noted
Sears.
“Very true, Mr. Sears; however, all of you were killed. So, the points you
have are all that you would ever score, if you were actually being shot at with
real bullets and/or missiles. General Wayne, on the other hand, survived to
fight another day and would keep piling up points. I do hope that all of you
understand the importance of that little item,” replied Stout.
Susan walked to the front of the class. She turned and looked at them,
seeming to study each of them individually. “If you will look at your personal
performances on this test and concentrate on your performance in the area of
surviving enemy fire, you may notice that there is a vast difference between
the top and bottom scores.
For instance, Mr. Sears scored the second highest score in shooting, but he
was hit after only two seconds of strafing. If you discount all of his hits
scored after that time, he comes up as last in the class. The first place
shooter also was destroyed early in her run. In fact, the best overall
performer, from a real world perspective, is Mr. Herns. He had the lowest
strafing score, but he almost made it out without being hit. If he’d stayed a
few meters lower on his way out, he’d never have been hit. From where I stand,
that makes him the overall winner.
Gentlemen. The name of the game is ‘kill the enemy and survive’. Sometimes,
you can’t do both. I don’t particularly like heroes per se. Usually they get
themselves killed and, in too many instances, some of the people around them.
If at all possible, I want my people to win and survive. That’s how I train my
pilots and crews, and my embarked marines when they’re embarked. In case
Colonel Stout didn’t inform you, my scores don’t count for grading purposes,
but they will be used to let you see what can be done if you push yourself hard
enough.”
Susan having finished what she had to say excused herself and left the
classroom.
“As the general said, we’re going to look at the reconstructions of your
test runs and dissect them. It’s important to know what was done incorrectly.
Whatever you did right doesn’t have to be dwelled upon,” said Stout. Looking at
the instructor, he said, “They are all yours. Don’t disappoint the general.”
******************************
Walking down the passageway, Captain Heigl asked, “Well, Colonel Stout, what
do you think.”
“I think we just passed our first test on the road to staying alive and
surviving the budget cuts.”
“Sir?”
“If we hadn’t let General Wayne do the test run she requested, we’d have as
much as told her, ‘We don’t need anymore inputs. We know exactly what we’re
doing.’ As you just saw, we don’t know exactly what we’re doing. She would have
simply smiled and moved us to the top of her hit list. You notice that she
didn’t tell us we were doing it wrong; she showed us how to do it better;
showed us where we need to modify our focus; gave us a kick in the pants, so to
speak.”
“I see, sir. This was as much of a test of us as it was of her.”
“Except that she can shut us down, but she won’t. She wants value for her
credits. We’re giving her that. From her point of view, we’re willing to give
her even more value for her credits. I’m curious to see how the other commands
respond to her. God help them if they take the ‘butt heads’ road.”
Captain Heigl didn’t respond. He had thought her flying style was bordering
on reckless. Now he knew better.
******************************
Major Lucas had just finished briefing the latest ‘Top Gun’ class on their
final practical exam. He looked over the class and asked, “Any questions?”
“You’re really serious, aren’t you, sir?”
“Yes, Captain Handbury; as serious as a heart attack. You have to kill this
pilot and prevent him from reaching his primary target. Surely a dozen of
Earthforce’s finest with the aid of an AWACS can surely stymie one lone pilot
in an AFB-328B. Hells bells, it’s only a close support aircraft. It’s not even
supersonic…except when its booster is in use, but that uses prodigious amounts
of fuel and shortens its on-station time by seventy-five percent. As I said, it
will only be armed with a thirty-millimeter cannon and two twenty-millimeter
Gattling guns; it’ll also have cluster bombs, but unless you get underneath his
plane, you don’t have to worry about them.”
“If one of us kills him right away, what’ll the remainder of us do?”
“If one of you kills him right away, all of you graduate with honors;
however, if he destroys his primary target, you all get a simple competition
certificate. If he kills you, you fail the course. Remember, this pilot has
spent the last decade or so flying non-atmospheric craft, such as starfuries
and thunderbolts. He has only been flying air-breathers for a couple of weeks.
Any more questions?”
“Yeah. Who is this hotshot?” asked Captain Holt.
“That, gentlemen, is classified. With any luck, maybe I’ll be able to
enlighten you after the exercise.”
“Maybe?” queried Holt.
“We don’t want the word getting around who our guest pilot is. We don’t want
the classes that succeed you to be forewarned.”
“Why do I get the feeling we’re being hustled?”
“Mr. Holt, you will be flying the latest and greatest fighter in the
Earthforce inventory. Surely, an over-the-hill pilot flying a dinosaur doesn’t
frighten you.”
Holt chewed on his lower lip. “Now I know we’re being hustled. I just can’t
figure out how.”
Major Lucas just laughed. “Keep it up people and you’ll psych yourselves out
before the exercise even begins. Now go get suited up. You need to fly this
scenario a few times before tomorrow morning. You’re going to have to work as
teams within a team. No hot-dogging.”
******************************
Susan and Colonel Stout had just been fastened into their seats and the
canopy had been closed. “Tower control, this is Ice Queen requesting permission
to taxi, over?”
“Ice Queen, you may taxi to runway one-whiskey, but hold short, we have
several commercials arriving, over?”
“Roger, tower control.”
Susan taxied to the runway and held short, as the first of three incoming
commercials touched down three hundred meters down the runway. “One down and
two to go, Colonel Stout. What did your instructors tell the students about
their aggressor?”
“Not much, except that he would be flying an obsolete junk-heap known as the
AFB-328B Modified; the pilot had only a couple of weeks to familiarize himself
with the aircraft – all of which is true.”
“I’m not a he, colonel.”
“The instructor was only using it as a general propose indefinite pronoun.
They have no idea who they’re going up against. He tells me that one of them
suspects they’re being had, but there is nothing they can point to that
confirms that one’s suspicions. They aren’t too happy about the possibility of
failing.”
“Believe me, colonel, it beats hell out of learning about your shortcomings
when a real enemy is about to shoot your ass out of the sky.”
“Very true, General Wayne.”
A few minutes later, Susan taxied onto the runway and held for permission to
take off. She ran her engines up to one hundred percent and held them there.
“Ice Queen, you are cleared for take-off, over?”
“Tower control, I’m starting my roll-out.” Susan dumped her brakes and the g-
forces pushed her and Colonel Stout back into their seats, as the aircraft
quickly accelerated down the runway. Less than halfway down the runway, Susan
retracted the landing gear and made a smooth climb out to five kilometers. “I
assume, colonel, that the tanker is on station.”
“It will be on station at 0800 hours, General Wayne. I still don’t
understand why you want to top-off the tanks. You’ll use only a small amount of
fuel on the flight down.”
“I want to be one-hundred percent on fuel, Colonel Stout, because I’m going
to fly this aircraft in a manner it has never been flown before. I don’t want
to crash on the way home because I ran out of fuel. It’s frowned upon in some
circles.”
Stout looked out the cockpit and wondered what in the name of whomever she
had planned could use that much fuel. In a couple of hours, he would have his
answer.
******************************
It was 0750 hours and the sensor operators onboard the AWACS were tracking
everything within five hundred kilometers from their location almost in the
exact center of the ‘Top Gun’ exercise area, where their aircraft was flying a
slow racetrack pattern that was twenty kilometers long and five kilometers wide.
“Jess. What’s it look like back there?” asked Major Gale Frank.
“The scope’s clean all the way out to four hundred klicks, except for a
tanker holding station a bit over two hundred klicks to the northwest. It looks
like he may be refueling someone. Whoever it is doesn’t register on the scope.”
In the seat next to Jess, Kile Denny was studying the various scopes on his
console. Kile was the primary communications monitor onboard the aircraft.
There were six other stations that were manned for fine-grain analysis of
intercepted communications signals.
“You’re right, Jess. He’s refueling someone call sign ‘Ice Queen’.”
Over the intercom, Major Frank said, “That’s the call sign of the intruder
guys. You all better be smart and on top of it today. We’re a target in this
exercise.”
“Why is that, major?” asked Jess Parks, the primary sensor operator.
“We’re assigned the task of integrating the effort to stop today’s
aggressor. That makes us a target. If we get hit, you all will see a flashing
red light on your consoles. If that happens, we stop communicating immediately
and I’ll switch to a previously assigned air control frequency, then we’ll take
up station at the extreme southwestern side of the exercise area. From there,
we’ll continue to monitor and record whatever’s going on inside the exercise
area.”
“This sounds interesting,” said Jess.
******************************
Susan made a smooth hook-up with the tanker and topped-off her fuel
tanks. “Thanks much, Pit Stop One. I’ll be back in a bit. I may be running on
fumes by then. Ice Queen, out.”
The boom operator onboard the tanker watched as the Heavy jet dropped back a
few hundred meters and smartly turned east. He noted that she was making a
rapid descent as she left his area.
******************************
Onboard the AWACS, Jess watched as the data indicated that the tanker had
turned to the west. It could only mean that whoever had been refueling was
finished. The call sign of the pilot who had refueled was ‘Ice Queen’. That was
the call sign of the aggressor, and the aircraft didn’t have a radar signature
at this distance. He knew the aggressor was flying an AFB-328B, an aircraft
that had almost no radar signature and even less of an infrared signature. He
would be very hard to spot. His Achilles heel was the minimum speed he needed
to stay airborne. His Doppler could be tracked better than his hard signature.
Of course, that wasn’t saying much. To help cut clutter, Jess had set his
Doppler cut-off filter to ignore anything doing less than two hundred klicks.
This was predicated on the knowledge that an AFB-328B had a stall speed of two
hundred – twenty kilometers per hour.
******************************
It was 0900 hours and the students were flying their patrol areas. On their
display screens, they could see every thing the AWACS was seeing because of the
data links they were using. They were also seeing the display of the area
covered by their own onboard search sensors. They could see everything within
two hundred kilometers from the surface to an altitude of just over thirty
kilometers. The attack would be coming from one of three directions, west,
north or east. Between their individual scans and the AWACS, they had a track
on everything in a two hundred – eighty degree arc extending out to three
hundred kilometers and covering all altitudes from zero to almost thirty one
kilometers. Nothing would be getting through today. All they had to do was wait.
******************************
“We’re going down fast, General Wayne.”
“Yes we are. You know what kind of sensor coverage we’re facing. I’m going
to show you how to defeat it.”
They had been descending steadily and were finally leveling out at altitude
of just over five hundred meters.
“At this altitude, Colonel, they shouldn’t be able to see us until we’re
within a hundred kilometers. Their sensors can’t see over the horizon nor can
they see through a mountain range.”
“I didn’t know they couldn’t see over the horizon.”
“There hasn’t been any reason for you to know, until now. Just watch and
learn, colonel.”
A few minutes later, Stout looked out of the cockpit and noticed that the
ground seemed to be a lot closer than when they had leveled off at five hundred
meters.
“What are you planning to do, General Wayne?”
“I’m going to hug the ground on this side of the mountain range and cross
using a canyon that I found on the topographical maps of the area. We’ll run
the canyons and when we arrive on the other side of the mountain range we’re
going to follow the available canyons, until I can take out the AWACS. That
won’t completely blind them, but it’ll make finding us a hell of a lot harder.”
“They’ll nail you with the Doppler function of their search radars, not to
mention their onboard infra red/optical systems.”
“How slow can this plane fly without stalling out, colonel?”
“It stalls out below two hundred and twenty klicks.”
“Then they won’t be looking for an aircraft flying along at a hundred and
fifty klicks.”
“We can’t fly that slow, general.” As soon as he said it, he regretted it.
Apparently she must have found a way to do it.
“Thanks for enlightening me, colonel. You are a fountain of useless
information. You and your people teach new pilots how to fly this aircraft and
you also conduct refresher training for the reservists, but you have no idea at
all how to exploit this aircraft to your maximum advantage. Today, you will;
just pay close attention.”
******************************
Onboard the AWACS, the pilot was querying his crew, “You guys seen anything
yet; the intruder should have been here fifteen minutes ago.”
Jess Parks responded, “I had a blip that showed up for about seven seconds,
but it was only doing a hundred and fifty klicks. I didn’t get a transponder
return. It looked like some civilian pilot out for a spin in his private plane.”
Frank replied, “There isn’t supposed to be any civilian traffic in the area
today. All the local airfields were sent notices earlier this week. Send
someone to check it out and escort them out of the area.”
“I’ll have to pull someone away from the west flank, major.”
“Do it!”
******************************
Orbiting at the western edge of the operations area, Beagle Boy, AKA First
Lieutenant Randy Evans, was dutifully watching the presentation on his screen,
looking for anything that might be a jet fighter bomber. He had missed the
small slow blip that came out of the mountain pass. His Doppler function
registered the presence of the blip, but ignored it due to its low speed.
“Beagle Boy. This is Eagle Control, over.”
“Roger, Eagle Control, over.”
“We have what appears to be a civilian private aircraft entering the area.
He is or was at bearing 272, range 90, speed 150, altitude less than 100
meters. Believe he may be canyon sightseeing. Find him and escort him out,
over.”
“Eagle Control. This is Beagle Boy, roger out.”
Evans turned his plane to the south and kicked his speed up. He didn’t want
to be off-station when the aggressor arrived. He figured five minutes to get to
the position that had been given. He just hoped it didn’t take more than a
radio message to get the civilian to leave.
******************************
Susan was flying very slow and had just dropped below the lip of a long
narrow canyon that had a right turn less than five klicks ahead of them. She
continued to descend until the aircraft was barely a hundred meters above the
bottom of the canyon. The engines were virtually screaming in Stouts ears.
He looked outside and watched the walls of the canyon slide slowly by. He
was beginning to see why Susan had insisted on topping off her tanks and why
she wanted the tanker waiting when they finished the exercise.
“How’re we going to find our targets, General Wayne? We can’t see anything.”
“Watch your display, colonel. All will be revealed.”
Stout studied the display, but it didn’t seem to give any meaningful date,
just a bunch of directional bearing lines.
“Looks like we’re about to have company, colonel.”
******************************
Five minutes later, Susan turned her aircraft and was slowly flying back the
way she came. She was watching the amplitude of the bearing line signal get
larger as the intercepting fighter closed on her position. She couldn’t believe
her luck. The local oscillators in the data receivers onboard the F-350s
radiated a small signal back out of the antenna input, which acted like a
beacon, if one had the proper receiver. Susan’s electronic countermeasures were
so equipped.
Beagle Boy had flown to the position given by the AWACS operator, and was
now turning to fly over the canyon to find the civilian. He was flying as slow
as he could without stalling out, two hundred and eighty kilometers per hour,
and keeping a close lookout into the canyon below.
Beagle boy was shocked when, without warning, during his latest situation
report transmission, “Eagle Control…” The red light indicating he had just been
shot out of the sky started flashing. At the same time, computer commands
interrupted his outgoing radio signals and automatically tuned his main
transceiver to the Exercise Area Tactical Command channel. He was told to
return to base; his exercise was over.
Beagle Boy was very pissed off. He hadn’t even seen whatever or whomever
shot him down.
******************************
Onboard the AWACS, Jess Parks heard in his headphones, “Eagle Control…” Then
the circuit went silent.
Jess said, “Skipper, we might have a problem. I was receiving a transmission
from one of the fighters when it was interrupted and went silent.”
In his mind, Frank thought, [They’re here.] “Which one?”
******************************
END PART 34
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