Chapter 17: 43rd and 44th Departing

Armstrong Station, August 6, 2141
43rd and 44th Departing

The training was intense, and Alan was loving it. Hilde was an incredible instructor who taught him so much about the art of spaceflight, space fighting, and Navy operations. They flew in the old TF-28 Texan IV, named after the old twin seat airplane that was such a great trainer two hundred years ago. They flew until the trainees got the hang of flying with a wingman and flying as a wingman. Alan was loved as a flight lead. He was tough and aggressive and he shared his ‘kills’ with his wingmen, but he was hated as a wingman. He flew so close that on radar they looked like one target and if you slipped up, he was always there for the ‘kill,’ which was great for mission objectives but awful for your kill ratio.

After a great day of flying, Alan often spent the evening making love to Hilde, but after a bad day of flying, he would spend the evening studying at his desk while Hilde went out with “the boys.” (She actually spent her time in the instructor’s library preparing the next day’s lesson.) Bad days of flying became fewer and further between, and bad scholastic days never happened. Because of his advanced degrees, it took only two weeks for Alan to become the Navigation instructor.

July 28th was Alan’s worst day in training. He was leading a formation of four Texans on an easy Luna and back. Two orbits of Luna in spread formation as he lectured on navigational aids. There were several types of navigational aids set out around Luna for training and as they came around the silvery pockmarked moon, he had plenty of time to brief the students on each one. It wasn’t a tight formation, spread means that you can see each other’s formation lights. The task was to pick out navigational points as they circled the moon, and the training was being provided by Alan and Lieutenant Commander McCormick. McCormick was in the formation’s rear, monitoring the students. Each student had an instructor in the back seat, interpreting Alan’s lecture and assisting the students.

As Tango flight was nearing completion of their second orbit and getting ready to break orbit with a three second burn, Tango Three somehow got out of position. “Tango Three, this is Tango Four,” called McCormick. “Tango Three, you’re out of position ... Tango Three!”

Alan was wondering what McCormick was shouting about. He just kept saying that Tango Three was not in position. He was about to call out to Tango Four to find out what was going on when he felt a bang and a shudder go through his Texan. Alan immediately thought about the blow out at Bradbury Canal but then he heard a suit leak alarm screaming over the radio and red lights started glowing all over his cockpit. Warning lights screamed oxygen leak, reaction mass leak, engine failure, hydraulic failure, there were a hundred lights all demanding his attention. “We got leaks Commander Marks, seal your helmet.”

Alan and Hilde sealed up their helmet as their oxygen vented off into space. They both had M-18 slimline oxygen packs, and he made sure that the remaining oxygen on his dying ship was going to their oxygen packs. Finally getting the alarms silenced, he heard, “Tango One this is Tango Two! Are you all right?”

“Yeah, what hit me?”

There was a long pause, then Lieutenant Vasquez, over in Tango Two, said, “It was Tango Three.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Hilde. She sounded fine, but she was worried. If he made the wrong move now, he could kill the both of them.

“I have to be cool, calm, and collected,” said Alan as he looked through his controls to see what was left turned on. All he needed at the moment was radio and intercom. “I don’t want to try to move because my reaction mass is gone and I don’t know what shape my thrusters are in, and where would I go anyhow? I’ll save battery power and ... oh dear god.”

Alan got a look at what had hit him. The collision put them in a slow 360 degree flat spin. Now he could see Tango Three. Its canopy was smashed and driven down into the cockpit, and the remaining canopy on the forward portion of the dual canopy was covered in blood. In the rear seat, Lt. Commander Russo, Tango 3’s trainer, was trying to get out of the ship.

“Were you able to get a call out for help?” asked Alan.

“Roger,” said Hilde. They’ll probably get Tango three first.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“Are you ok sir?” asked Tango Two.

“We’re ok, thank you for asking. Keep your distance and I want you to lead. Copy?”

“Yes sir.”

“Tango Four this is Tango One,” called Alan. “Lead is now Tango two. Form up on Tango two and be ready to offer aid if needed to Tango One and Tango Three.”

“We’re past the burn point!” said a panicking LT Susan Kilrain.

“It’s ok, you’re in a good orbit. Keep a good formation and keep an eye on each other use the same Interface Burn Plan that you’ve done for months. You have Lieutenant Commanders Vanada and Stern with you to help get you home.

“I haven’t heard from Vanada all flight,” muttered Lt. Vasquez.

“I’m sure there’s a reason,” said Alan.

In a few minutes, a huge cargo hauler appeared before them and the tail of the big ship opened up like a clamshell. Two spacemen with “puff packs” emerged, leading a cable that they connected to Tango three and winched him aboard into the cargo bay. As they winched Tango Three aboard, they reached the burn point and Alan got to see Tango Two and Four accelerate into a higher orbit. Even though the Texan IV is a pipe with stub wings and an enormous canopy and is probably the ugliest thing in space, their charge to a higher orbit was very cool to watch.

Back at Armstrong station, Hilde when on a tear with her instructors. Alan could hear her shouting from down the hall, then it got silent. Then came the tromp of boots. The only one that tromps like that is the Marines. Lieutenant Commanders Russo (Tango 3) McCormick (Tango 4), and Vanada (Tango 2) were led away by the Marines to a holding cell while the charges against them were being filed (Drunk on duty). Since as instructors they were considered “lookouts” they were being charged with Article 113 of the UCMJ, operating a spacecraft while impaired.

Sadly, the pilot of Tango 3, Lt. Don Schmitt, was dead. He was watching his navigational instruments and not out his canopy window, and his instructor was passed out in the back. He drifted into the back of Tango 1, Alan’s ship. McCormick wasn’t as bad as Russo and Vanada, but if he just said something other than “you’re out of position,” he would have saved a life.

Alan went to his fellow student’s rooms, letting them cry on his shoulder. Don Schmitt was a good man, well liked, and eager to fly for Mars. Anna Vasquez and Susan Kilrain were both shattered over his death, and Alan spent a lot of time calming them down.

Hilde returned to their room late. She came in and found Alan curled up in a closet, shaking and weeping. She crawled in and sat next to him, and pulled him close. “Is this where you went when your parents died?”

Alan nodded. “I hid in the closet until Uncle Ray came for us.”

“Where was Christa?”

“She was in the closet with me.”

“Are you ok?”

“I’ll get over it,” Alan said. “I just wish ... If McCormick would have said something more than ‘you’re out of position!’ If he had said ‘Tango One, go Z plus five meters... ‘ Don would have passed under me.”

“They were all drunk...” she sighed and Alan gave her a kiss, which she gently returned. Because of his gentle and genuine concern, she’s never felt so close to a man before in her life. “Captain Schirra wants to see us at eighteen hundred. That’s in an hour.”

Alan sadly put his arms around her and held her tight. He lost a flier; she lost three instructors ... how are they going to fill the requirements that Mars set and fill out three squadrons for the Martian Space Force? She’ll never be trusted to run a training program again.

“I’m so sorry, please don’t hate me,” said Alan. “Rest your head in my lap and relax.”

“You’re going to make everything right and show me that men from Mars are better than Earthmen?”

“No. I’m feeling horrible and I want to cuddle with somebody I truly, truly admire. Maybe some of that admiration would work its way into your heart and relax you.”