Chapter 27

“The plane, we can fly it now,” Chuck said, “but the others, we don’t fly them in daylight. Too much chance they’ll be compromised.”

“Well—I intended to mention this at some point,” said General Fuller. “I’m afraid you’re already compromised. DOD not only knows about your devices, they’ve got photos. Satellites use infrared, you know, and one of your buggies gets really hot. Once they located that one and concentrated on it, the others showed up too. The thing is, if we have photos you can bet the Russians and Chinese have them. Plus the Israelis, the Japanese, the North Koreans, and everyone else with a half-decent intelligence net. They don’t need satellites, they can just buy the scans.”

“Shit! All of them?”

“Count on it,” Fuller said. “We watch for interesting stuff and we know the other teams do too.”

“Frenchy, you might as well send the workers home. Pick a couple of the guys who’ve flown the Bedstead and ask them to stay, they can be relief pilots in case we need them. We’re flying everything but the large craft. That’s down for repairs.” It isn’t, of course, Chuck thought, but there is no way I’m letting a government spy, which is what these brass hats really are, anywhere close to the ship, or even inside the building! By definition, they’re bright people, so they’d catch on that we have a spacecraft even if we haven’t flown it higher than a dozen yards off the ground. They probably do have satellite photos, like he said they’re easy enough to get, but that’s not the same as looking at the ship close up! From ground level, it looks like a modified space shuttle with elements from the Air Force lifting bodies, thanks to Joe’s experience. We might even be able claim it’s a cargo plane. Lifting bodies were designed for aerodynamic efficiency, and with the engines mounted internally they might actually work as cargo haulers. Or even bombers. The visitors trooped out to the small kitchen area. Microwaving MRE’s was probably good for them, Chuck thought, considering how long it had been since senior officers had to make do with Meals Rejected by Everyone!

He touched Frenchy’s arm, holding him back for a moment. “I’ll fly the Twin, Lina flies the Bedstead, both of us with one passenger, and Mel takes the other three on the King. We’ll park on the runway and load our passengers from there. That way, the only thing they’ll see is what we want to show them. I won’t get fancy. I’ll demonstrate that the plane flies, no aerobatics of course, and Lina and Mel can fly and hover but only at low altitude. If they take their passengers out on the test course, that should demonstrate how reliable the system is. They’ll need to bring the passengers back to the runway before the batteries get low. We can send them on their way from there, then do battery swaps inside the hangar. Don’t take chances, these guys are smart and we don’t want them to see anything they shouldn’t!”

“Sounds good, Chuck. I’ll watch what I tell them, you have a word with Lina and Mel.”

Lunch finished, and escorted by Frenchy, the DARPA delegation trooped out to the runway. The Bedstead and the King were waiting, parked behind the Twin, and Lina and Mel stood nearby, anonymous behind tinted helmet faceshields. Two of the factory guards stood between the DARPA group and the three craft, armed, but with pistol holstered and rifle slung. They were obviously prepared to respond if necessary.

Chuck walked over to the visitors. “Gentlemen, first a short briefing, then we’ll take you out to demonstrate that our systems do everything we’ve said. I have room for one passenger in the Twin and I intend to give whoever is flying with me a quick checkout on the controls. You might consider that when you decide who gets to fly with me. Lina is the pilot of the smaller craft, we call it the Bedstead, and Mel will pilot the King, the larger one. All three use our impeller system and have no other means of propulsion. The pilot’s controls for each craft are simple; a proprietary computer system controls the impellers and the pilot flies the computer with a joystick. It takes care of everything else. I emphasize that the pilot is in charge. We are not authorized to do more than answer simple questions about where we’re going and what altitude we’ll be flying at, things like that. If you have questions, please save them for when you get back and I’ll answer them so long as they don’t involve trade secrets.”

“I’ve got one quick question before we start, Chuck.” The speaker was the Marine, Major Hooke. “Why in the world did you name that smaller craft ‘The Bedstead’? If that’s not a secret, I mean.”

“Simple answer, because the first version had a flat deck and upright units at each corner. An observer mentioned that it looked like a flying bedstead and the name stuck. The other unit was originally named the California King because it was larger. We shortened it to King because it was more convenient.”

“I take it the impellers are pointed up, for lift? Wouldn’t it have been simpler to mount them on a plane so they pushed straight ahead? At least, do it that way at first.”

“We didn’t have a plane at the time, but we did have enough material to build the original Bedstead. We, my grandfather and I, operated on a very skinny shoestring in the beginning.”

“I see. But it doesn’t look like a bedstead now, does it?”

“No. The round objects you see are external housings. The impellers are mounted inside, and no, you don’t get to see them with the covers removed. Let’s go over and take a look.”

Chuck led the way to the King. “As you can see, this model has eight impellers, two on each of the deck’s four sides. The Bedstead has an impeller at each corner, enough for flight, but it can only carry limited amounts of cargo or a single passenger. The King can carry up to two tons, although we prefer less. The controls are more responsive that way, and we prefer not to run a crash test by overloading.” After waiting for the chuckles to die away, Chuck continued. “You’ll notice that the impeller housings are totally sealed. There’s no air inlet or exit, so no hidden propellers or jets.”

The five nodded thoughtfully. “You mentioned control problems. Have you had such problems, or crashed one of your devices?”

“No crash. You’re pilots, you all know what happens to an aircraft’s controls when you approach max-gross-weight on takeoff. They get mushy and you have to baby the plane into the air. We get some of the same effect from the impellers. I should also point out that if we increased the load, we would be nudging the computers’ limit of controllability. They operate within set parameters, and we believe it’s safer not to push those limits. But none of the craft will be overloaded today, so why don’t you decide who will fly with whom? I’d like to get started, do the demonstration flights, and hold a short debrief when we’re finished.”

The five officers sorted themselves out and four of them found seats aboard the lifters. Lina and Mel checked to make sure that seat belts were fastened, then lifted off, Mel following Lina as she headed away from the factory campus.

“I’ll fly left seat, Admiral. I won’t be doing any of the air combat maneuvers you’re accustomed to, the Twin isn’t built for that.”

“I didn’t expect you to, Chuck. You fly, I’ll watch.”

Chuck flipped the switch as soon as they were buckled in, starting the turbos. “Admiral, we use electrical power for the impellers. The engines on the wings are turbogenerators, turboprops converted to drive generators instead of propellers. Two turbogenerators gives us 100% redundancy. There’s also a battery system that’s capable of powering the plane unaided, but only for a limited time.”

“Impressive, Chuck! Speaking as a guy who often flies over blue water, I always like having power in reserve! I’ve made two water landings and that was two too many!”

“No water landings today, Admiral. I’ve been watching the gauges while you were talking, and we’ve got power from the turbogenerators. Next step in the takeoff checklist, bring up the impellers. As soon as they stabilize where I want them, I’ll take off.” Chuck operated the thumbwheel, then gently nudged the stick forward until it reached its detent. He continued as the plane began rolling. “From this point, it’s like flying any other airplane. I’ve selected takeoff power from the impellers, and as soon as I reach sixty-five knots she’ll start to fly.”