Dani Girl
by Ernest Edwards
from the Clan Amir Series book Falcon Chick
She was born Danielle Annette Nancy Isobelle Amiri on 16th December 1975, two days before her cousin Daniel Albert Nathan Imara. Neither set of parents knew what the other named their child, until the Imara family moved back to live with the clan in View Port. The Imara family had been living in the Dareed Region due to Mr Imara's employment. The children first meet when they're five years old and about to start school together at View Port, both are usually called Dani / Danny. This causes some confusion until a family member suggests Danielle be called Dani-girl and Daniel be called Danny-boy. That's how they're known from then on.
Dani-girl's an outgoing and vivacious person who gets on well with everybody, and is known by everybody in the area. By the time she reaches high school, many people are coming to her for help and advice. On graduation from high school she joins the Royal Guards, a tradition in her clan. Unlike most, she joins the Royal Rescue Service, the Fishers. After completing basic training she's assigned to the 1st Regiment, the Sky Hooks.
The Fishers promote people on skill and experience. However, people can be promoted while still performing the same basic tasks, as this is a brigade of specialists. In most Guards units a person can start as a basic trooper and change duties during their career due to extra training (e.g. heavy weapons training and you move from a rifle team to a mortar team) or promotion (e.g. a promotion to sergeant means a change in duties). Fishers specialise early in their career and continue in that speciality, adding new skills and duties by training and promotion; e.g. a pilot will start as private in flight training, graduate as a corporal co-pilot, be promoted to sergeant and become a pilot (they may change teams then), be promoted through to major while staying the pilot of the same team, and may get more duties as a platoon leader or a company commander. The higher ranking pilot will have extra skills, more experience, and be called upon for the harder tasks. All personnel continue training to improve and expand their skills and capabilities, thus making it possible to save more lives. Few people transfer between teams, this is usually only done when both the senior members of a team leave at once and the junior members don't have enough seniority. Most new Swords join experienced teams needing replacements for retiring personnel.
The one Fishers duty that can change a lot is the rescue helicopter deck crew. Privates leave basic camp as medics or door gunners, and are posted to rescue teams. On a team, they learn and fill other deck crew roles. Upon passing the extra courses they become a 'swimmer, ' the one dropped to prepare people for winching to safety. In a good crew, they'll switch roles around on a regular basis. The winch and the deck is run by the Deck Master, the senior deck crew member, usually the most experienced and best trained of the deck crew. In a helicopter rescue team the pilot's always in charge of the team in the air. But, it's the Deck Master who decides if a rescue is viable or not. In every crew, the two senior members will be the pilot and the Deck Master, but either can be the senior rank. The senior rank in a team is responsible for team discipline and administration, doing the ground side paper work. The pilot always has responsibility for the helicopter's airworthiness and the Deck Master always has responsibility for the flight deck's equipment.
By her twenty-third birthday, Dani-girl's a senior sergeant and Deck Master of Team Able, 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, Sky Hooks - 1st Squad, 1st Platoon, A Company, 1st Royal Rescue Service. Alpha Company operates from the Darlee Air Base in the southern part of the Dareed region, it used to be a Dareed Military Air Base. This base covers the whole of the Dareed region. Although this base is the regimental headquarters, only the first three companies operate from it. The other companies are deployed as individual companies at bases in the north, to give better coverage and response times to those areas. All major equipment servicing is done at this base, so it includes a fair sized civilian operated repair unit as well as other civilian run logistical support services. All units bring their equipment here for major services and repairs.
There are only two interests in Dani-girl's life; her work as a Fisher, and her youngest brother, Gordie. Despite sixteen years differences in age, there's a very close rapport between them that's existed since his birth. So they can spend the most time together, she times her leaves to match the times when he's also free. She lists him as her sole heir and executor of her estate when he passes his manhood tests.
Gordie takes great pride in all her achievements. Especially her promotion to Senior Lieutenant, on her twenty-sixth birthday. Such pride, he arranges a special party for her at 'The Landing's Field' Restaurant, it's very expensive and well worth the cost. She's greatly moved by the event, and the trouble he went to for it.
The Rescue
At 17.30 hours on Saturday 20 June 2002, a call comes into the Rescue Service Call Centre (Fish Comm); a boat in trouble about two kilometres South-west of the southern most point of Berant. Dani-girl's team is the duty team, so they scramble for their helicopter and head out. The location puts the boat about thirty minutes flight time away.
On route, they get an update; the boat's sinking fast, one adult dead, another badly injured, and seven children on board. Tension's high in the chopper as it races the setting sun to the boat. Arriving on site, they report the situation; no boat visible, seven children clinging to floats, no life vests, no signs of adults, failing light, and sharks moving in. The helicopter hovers low over the scene with all flood lights on as the door gunner's shooting the sharks and the swimmer jumps into the water with harness rigs for the children while Dani-girl lowers the winch. Soon, all the children have harnesses on and the swimmer's attaching the children to the winch cable. The regulations call for no more than three children at a time. Suddenly, it's quiet, too quiet. The machine gun keeping the sharks at bay, by killing those getting too close, has stopped, it's jammed. The gunner is frantic as she works on the gun. But the gun won't work, as the firing mechanism won't open or move, it's frozen solid.
Releasing her harness from the safety straps, Dani-girl draws her combat knife as she takes the medic's combat knife and orders the gunner to take over the winch. Stepping to the doorway, she leaps out into the night, in the direction of the shark pack, shouting, "For the people." She lands on the foremost shark, the impact kills it as she stabs a shark on either side, and starts killing all the sharks near her. Reaching as far as she can, and stabbing as hard as possible, she quickly kills several sharks by stabbing them in their brains. The pack's a large one with over a hundred sharks in it. She continues to stab and kill sharks with the 400 mm knives. Even when a shark pulls her under the water, she manages to kill some swimming lower down and come up under others, so she can kill more of them. The sharks are delayed by eating their dead, as she intended.
Knowing time's now extremely critical, the swimmer throws the regulations to the wind and attaches the four smallest children to the winch. It's quickly hauled up, the children unhooked, and the winch lowered again. The medic wraps the children in warm blankets as she leads them across the flight deck to strap them into seats. The swimmer has the three largest children harnessed to the winch, they're winched up, unhooked, and the medic takes care of them. All through this, the co-pilot is watching what's happening with Dani-girl. He sees her dragged under the water a few times, a clear indication a shark's attacked her. The winch is lowered to the swimmer and he hooks on. Turning himself until he's hanging upside down with a leg around the cable, he directs the pilot to move the helicopter over Dani-girl.
Once in position above Dani-girl, they lower him until he can reach out and grab her harness. Urgently, they raise the winch. The radio's filled with the sound of the swimmer crying, he can see she's lost both legs at the knees and her side's badly savaged with blood pouring out of the wounds. After getting her into the helicopter, the medic, door gunner, and swimmer are like dervishes as they apply tourniquets and bandages to stop the bleeding. The pilot turns for the coast and has the helicopter at maximum speed as he heads for the nearest hospital.
Everyone on the helicopter is crying, except Dani-girl. Reaching to the eldest child, a girl sitting near her, Dani-girl takes her hand and squeezes it, saying, "I knew the price when I made the deal, seven for one's a bargain." To the medic, "Tell Gordie I love him. It's too late for the hospital. Take me home." Sighing, she closes her eyes, and stops breathing. At 18.25 hours, after trying resuscitation, the medic declares her dead. The pilot cuts back on his speed and changes course, he's heading towards base now. Going on the radio, he informs command of the events. They agree, bring her home.
The Ball
The 28th Annual Royal Charity Débutantes' Ball is well under way. It started at 3.00 pm that afternoon with the girls being presented to King Edward and dinner served at 4.30 pm. The ball starts and finishes early, as it's a fund raising débutante's ball and all the girls being presented to the King and society have to be unmarried, with good school marks, have minimum sponsorship of $5,000, and turned fifteen years of age but not eighteen years of age. N...