Chapter 347

Landfall Space Academy, January 2

Yesterday afternoon, Diana and Selina had gone for another twelve week session at Ship's space academy, then had spent much of today repeating the process. Now, well into their fifth twelve-week session, they were walking down Landfall's concourse toward the sim area.

"I confess," Selina said, her voice a bit tight, "I am not at all confident in my ability to successfully complete this mission."

"But you were my second yesterday, and you did a superb job. You will do great as primary pilot and mission commander," Diana tried to reason.

The two stopped as Selina tugged at Diana's arm. "Granted, I did perform the required responses in a timely manner, but what I did not reveal to you was that I missed a threat that you easily avoided. The weapon emplacement on that asteroid caught me by surprise, but you had already initiated the maneuver to avoid it by the time my instruments detected it."

"But you were concentrating on your job just as you should have been. My primary function was flying the ship, while you performed the support functions. That asteroid just looked suspicious, so I was expecting something there, and by the way, just as the instructor graded you, your performance was flawless in my opinion. It wasn't your fault that your instruments didn't detect the shielded weapons. I would fly with you as my second anytime. And remember what I said about Carlyle after he was my second last week. He was so busy critiquing what I was doing and helping me fly that he let one of the enemy ships sneak up on us. I saw it just in time to veer aside and duck behind that mountain before they were able to fire on us. Even so, our botched approach resulted in a null mission.

"In addition, I'm almost certain he tried to blame me for our failure, but the instructor didn't go for it. He did give a passing grade to Carlyle, but I think he had to argue to get it. I overheard him saying something to the instructor, but I was almost out of earshot and didn't get it all. Still, I did hear him say something about warning me just in time – which is total bullshit. He was too busy trying to instruct me on my duties to watch and interpret his own instruments properly in his supporting role."

"Why did you not inform the instructor of this?" Selina asked as they resumed walking.

Diana grinned down at her buddy. "We know that everything on that simulator's bridge is recorded, right?"

Selina hesitated, then agreed. "We have not been informed of that, but if you mean audio and video, it is a logical assumption that the instructor would record more than just instrument readings."

"So, I'm going to let Carlyle hang himself. I haven't been asked to evaluate him, or anyone else for that matter. If I'm asked, I will give an honest opinion. Until he blatantly disregards the rules, I'm going to keep my mouth shut."

"I agree, but should he graduate, I pity anyone who is unfortunate enough to be subordinate to him," Selina replied, her voice serious.

"But..." Diana said just before they got to the door of the sim hangar, "he is highly intelligent – just a bit too full of himself, in my opinion."

"So, you like him?"

"Of course not. I detest the way he acts, but the jury is still out on whether he'll make a competent officer," she returned, "but as far as him being a decent human being, well ... let's just say he does not positively impress me – in the least. However, his 'slip' in the shower seems to have tamed his blatant stares and sexual comments."

At their approach, the door snapped open and the two women stepped into the giant hangar where the simulators were housed. Turning toward the back, they walked past shuttles as well as various combat craft, including interceptors, until they came to the back row where ten Mark 18 stealthed surveillance craft rested side by side. For all practical purposes, the 18's were exact copies of the real surveillance craft, but these were outfitted to be simulators with all the realism that Ship presented in the simulation that Diana and Selina were involved in. In other words, a simulation within a simulation.

The two young women were waiting with the other plebes when the instructor walked up and immediately began assigning simulator craft. Diana and Selina were the sixth couple. "Matthews and Albright, Sim 6," he finally called out while waving vaguely toward the sixth craft in the row as he spoke into his comp.

"Here we go," Diana quietly said as the two hurried toward their vessel.

As they approached, the belly hatch opened and the stairs slid down, for all practical purposes, a duplicate of a real Mark 18 stealth surveillance craft. This model was a little bigger than the one Arlene and Ann had used to watch the aliens, and it had teeth. Compared to the enemy's interceptors, it was vastly underpowered in its weaponry, but when backed into a corner, it could fight.

By the hatch, Selina stopped to look at her partner. "When we step through the hatch, we will be in the world of the simulator. Everything will be real. I am uncomfortable being in command when you have better instincts than I do, particularly on this mission."

Diana raised her hand for a high five, which was quickly met by Selina's. "I've always felt the same way at the beginning of a mission; I've just kept it to myself most of the time. Just remember, win, lose or draw, we're a team. After you, Commander," she said, as she gestured for Selina to enter the hatch ahead of her.

As Selina had said, once through the hatch, there were no other thoughts of a simulator or a training mission – their world was real and they were on a mission to deliver a blow to the enemy. Survive or not, they would do their best.

After stowing their gear, they had the craft update their comps to show current conditions and the latest maintenance records, then both pilots went outside for a walk-around. Having learned the hard way that they should assume nothing, they inspected the craft, inside and out. Under the simulator's control now, the craft was real as far as they were concerned, and they treated the walk around as a serious matter. This was not a new vessel; it had seen many missions. Anything could have happened to it on its last flight. What they miss might well kill them once they left the station.

When they returned, they nestled into their seats, feeling them conform to their bodies. Should they suddenly lose atmosphere on the bridge and become unconscious, the seats would project a force field around them that contained enough support equipment to allow them to survive for several hours or until they could don their armored suits.

"Note, Commander," Diana said, "the inertialess array's command circuit of the drive pod in the starboard nacelle has recently been replaced by Maintenance. This is the second time within six months." Before Selina could ask, Diana went on, "System checks out at one hundred percent, but it seems odd that the same control circuit would need replacing so quickly."

"And the other pods?" Selina asked while going over her board.

"All have more than a year of service and show one hundred percent, but that pod should not have had problems so soon. The stats show a suggested replacement of ten thousand hours, yet the circuit on the right nacelle had to be replaced after only three hundred hours of use."

"Please run a complete diagnostic on the whole unit," Selina ordered.

"Already in progress."

A few seconds later. "One hundred percent, Commander – but I still don't like it."

"We have replacement stores on board, I presume?"

"My inventory shows two, but..." Diana said as she pushed out of her seat to go look. Five minutes later, she was back. "Confirmed, Commander. We have two command circuits for the drive units, and I tested each twice – once through my comp and then manually. If the circuit goes again, we have two good replacements."

"And our package?"

Diana slipped back into her seat as she responded, "It tells my comp it is ready and on standby. I again checked that it's firmly attached by its magnetics as well as manually." Then, after a moment of scanning her own boards, "Ship shows all systems go, Commander," she said, formally.

"My board is green, also."

Selina gave station control their Ready for Departure code, then, "Luck," she and Diana said in unison a second before their stealthed craft began to slide on magnetics along a channel toward an exit port.

They had to wait a couple of minutes before they were given final clearance. As the port in front of them irised open, the only thing now keeping their craft from space was the force field that retained the atmosphere. Undocking complete, Selina nudged her craft slowly forward, giving it just enough impetus to clear the station. As they drifted away, she gave her own boards another quick scan, and after a final confirmation from her Second, engaged her drive to continue maneuvering away from the giant space platform.

She had already laid in their course out of the system, her projections having been approved by Control. Adding power to the inertialess drive, she gained speed, keeping to the departure lane assigned to them, mindful of holding her speed down to a tenth light until well clear of the shipping lanes.

A few minutes later, "Coordinates laid in. Stand by for stealth." There was a hesitation, then, "Coming up on one hundred percent ... Stealth system now at optimal output, Commander. When we drop out of warp, there will be no delay for full stealth. Ship systems all read at optimum," Diana prompted.

Selina scanned for nearby traffic a final time, and after one last glance at her boards, brought them to warp, the outside viewscreen now showing only a swirling, gray mist that hurt the eyes and raised the hair on the back of the neck if stared at too long.

"Six hours and twelve minutes until we drop out," she said as commander of the craft. "We will go on two hour watches. I suggest that you take a nap. I will awaken you in two hours. That should allow us to be rested when we enter enemy space. After that, we will have little rest until our mission is completed."

Or else we will rest forever, Diana added mentally as negative thoughts briefly crossed her mind. They asked for volunteers, and naturally, everyone did so. But now that we were chosen, I'm wondering if this isn't a suicide mission. Get your mind off that, Girl, and sack out, she told herself. Shortly, we'll be on stimulants to retain our edge as we sneak into enemy space. After that...

The Retreat

The pilot on the big helicopter had seen the Humvees, helicopters and other military equipment a quarter mile or so from his designated landing area on the mountain. On several occasions, while waiting for his passengers to board, he had observed guards on the premises. The uniforms bore security shoulder patches, but he was a veteran of Afghanistan and wasn't fooled in the least. The guards' mannerisms gave them away. Unless he totally missed his guess, these were highly trained professional troops.

If that wasn't enough to convince him this was some type of military base, then the no-fly zone and the procedure for clearance to approach certainly would. Careful, as always, he called from ten miles out to announce his approach. He had survived one helicopter being shot out from under him in Afghanistan; he was not going to push his luck a second time.

Clearance given and confirmed, he carefully followed the approved approach path once again as he brought the second group of the tunnel boring crew in after the holidays.