Author's Notes at the end.
Chapter One: Spiking the Guns
She's a heartbeat away from being late to the briefing, but Fury is still two steps behind Hill when she reaches the conference room. Klazdeck nods her through the door, with that wry grin that implies kill me now so I don't have to sit through another brief. It's been six weeks since Loki nearly ripped the heart out of SHIELD and Manhattan in the same day, more than enough time for the endless meetings and coordination sub-sections and team huddles to regain their leech-like grasp on the day-to-day mission. Hill slides into her seat around the holo projector and has her pad and stylus out in time for Agent Jackson to say, "Good afternoon sir, agents, this briefing is for ears only." Jackson pauses long enough for a long glance around the table, and then another at the few laggards still putting away their pens.
There are more people around the table than Hill had expected – Jackson had brought nearly the entire R&D section, and three-quarters of the carrier's engineering staff. Hill leans back in her chair. This might be more interesting than the quarterly budget review…
"Director Fury, you requested a review of the helicarrier's lift capability, with emphasis on maintaining flight during malfunction of one or more of the primary lift rotors." In the holofield, the carrier extends her lift turbines, sheds seawater, and slowly rises through atmosphere. Wisps of cloud scuttle past, washed in vermillion from the holo display.
Fury, his hands clasped over his belt, nods. "I remember."
"Sir, we conducted extensive tests of the airframe, including both in-flight tests –"
"Was that what had half my bridge crew puking on their consoles three weeks ago?"
"Yes, sir, my apologies, sir, we had to be sure." When the murmur of laughter has circled the room and settled again, Jackson goes on. "…and stress tests at Pine Gap on the demonstration model, as well as in-depth and repeated computer modeling. This is the results of the testing." The holo changes to a downward scrolling stream of data-points – two of the techies seated against the wall, not at the table, point at the green equations and lean towards each other, shaking their heads and waving fingers.
"Agent Jackson. I have no idea what these numbers mean."
"Yes, sir. They mean that the carrier performs to original specifications – that she will be able to continue level, controlled flight with the loss of one primary turbine while the remainder function at full power."
"And with the loss of more than one primary?"
"She assumes the glide characteristics of a brick. As allowed in the original specifications."
"Agent Jackson, recent events have shown that the original specifications are. Not. Good. Enough."
"Yes, sir." Jackson meets Fury's eyes, and Hill is caught by another of those flashes of recall that have punctuated the last forty days. Jackson, on the bridge when Barton's first arrow struck, and bodies falling around him as he kept his station.
"I'm guessing you didn't request this briefing to tell me that we're still screwed."
"No, sir. I will now turn the briefing over to Agent Hu, lead airframe research team one. Agent Hu."
One of the two techies who had been talking – was *still* talking – blinks, and rises to his feet. Even in the standard issue SHIELD tunic, geek rolls off him in waves. When he speaks, it is in English so accented as to be nearly indecipherable. "Yes, sir, Agent Hu. To brief on solution." From her chair, Hill can see his hands clasped behind his back, shaking. One of Jackson's geek rats, I bet he's never even met Fury before…
She'd be terrified, too. Hell, she sat in this room for six months before she'd been called on to brief for the first time, and she'd still nearly wet her drawers.
Fury, who has flayed agents with his voice, says, mildly, "Agent Hu, please continue. Agent Jackson says you have something to save us all."
Hill winces. Great boss, no pressure on the guy.
"Yesh shur. Shur –" Hu takes a breath, breathes out, and the next words come out practiced, precise. "With permission, Agent Lee to translate for me. To make this fast – faster."
Fury waves a hand. Hu drops into Mandarin – it is Hill's third language, and she's rated at 3+/3+ on the DLA scale, but Hu loses her two sentences into his explanation. Lee's obviously rehearsed this brief – he's speaking as fast as he can, eyes darting from Fury to Hu and back again.
Hu scrolls through technical sketches, highlighted with a year's worth of footnotes. There are a multitude of issues, apparently, beginning with the fact that the carrier was never meant to fly, something that Hu doesn't seem terribly concerned about, and continuing through the lack of organic lift surfaces which Hu evidently takes personally. But the largest problem is the weight of the carrier, more so than the lift characteristics. As originally framed, with the secondary thrusters, as few as two of the primary lift turbines can keep the carrier in the air – slowly descending, but still under helm's control – but not at the current weight.
"Is this the post-launch up-armoring? Or the extra shielding around the reactor, you know, the stuff that keeps us from sprouting extra arms out of our heads?"
Hu is nodding furiously before Fury finishes the question, as another snicker jumps around the room. The stories of re-configuring the reactor baffling are the stuff of legend, amongst the older crew, and the remodeling required to balance the keel armor even more so. "Sir, both."
"And you're not proposing to do away with either, on a permanent basis, for this contingency issue." It isn't a question. Hu shakes his head, just as violently as he has been nodding.
"So how do you propose to make the carrier lighter? Alternative dimension portal? Transmute the bulkheads into cork?" Fury's voice is still light, but regaining its edge.
"No, sir." Jackson speaks from his seat. "The portal's still too unstable during fluxing power." He nods to Hu.
Hu takes another deep breath, stabs at the console, and they all watch as the bottom of the hull drops away. Hill thinks she can see tiny flecks of light at the jagged seam as the bottom of the carrier peels off. In the image, the shunted half drops, gains speed, and begins to roll as it slides off the field of regard.
"Agent Hu, what are you going to do with my ship?"
"Sir, reduce weight, so can fly." Another jab at the screen, and the carrier – the flight deck, at least, and some of the hanger bays, and what she imagines is the power plant, with the sea screws still attached – settles to earth, -
- the image has tiny trees and tiny branches that whip in the wind generated by the still-functioning turbines –
- the exposed underdecks crumpling as it touches down. A heartbeat, and then a brilliant flash as the reactor goes critical.
Hill realizes she has put her hand over her mouth. Fury is silent.
Jackson – and at this moment, Hill would not be Jackson for anything one could name, including peace on Earth – clears his throat, and says, diffidently, "If we could display the sea landing option…" Hu jerks into motion, pages to the next display, and they watch it again, the carrier shedding her lower decks, the long, deep sweep of her keel as it falls away, and then the flight deck, still level, descending slowly to the sea. This time, there is no flash, but a flurry of sea-foam, and the waves take the carrier down.
"Time of descent."
Hu says something fast, with numbers. Lee translates. "Sir, from a cruising altitude of ten thousand meters - eighteen to twenty two minutes."
"And the lower decks?"
Hu blinks, looks around at Jackson. Jackson stands again, and Hu retreats to his seat.
"Sir, the lower decks are a loss. Reclamation of scrap metal is a possibility over land, or in shallow waters, depending on the height at drop. The largest issue is the safeguarding of classified material – dropping the decks will remove the possibility of centralized wiping. Of course, the amount of equipment that will maintain recoverable integrity depends on the height at drop as well."
Fury grimaces, waves that away. "You've skipped straight past the part where you explain how you get the lower decks to separate." Hu rises hastily to his feet, sinks again when Fury shakes his head. "I'm assuming centralized embedded explosives?"
Jackson nods, punches through a series of images, brings up one of the carrier, stripped of her outer skin, bright red marks shimmering along the frame. "At these locations, sir."
Fury leans back again, one hand playing along his lips. "Time to implement?"
"Eighteen days in dry dock, sir, one hundred sixty days during normal operations."
Fury nods. "Go back to the ocean landing." Jackson slides images through, and they all watch again as the carrier touches ocean –
with a roar and a rocking shimmering sigh, she always settled herself back into the sea, as if into a lover's arms, after she'd been away in the grasp of the wind
- and keeps going down, down, the water cresting over the top of the deck, drinking down ship, choppers, jets, all of it.
"So, no time to launch boats once she lands."
"No, sir, personnel will be at extreme risk in either case, once the carrier has reached land or sea level."
Fury stares at the image of the carrier for a full breath, and then another. In the back of the room, someone coughs.
"For the edification of everyone in the room today, Agent Jackson, could you give me your analysis of the performance of the carrier following our recent interactions with the Asgardian known as Loki? Your condensed analysis?"
And no, Hill would not be Jackson for anything.
Jackson does not even blink. "Sir, prior to engine number three restarting, we had approximately four minutes of controlled flight time remaining, until the carrier lost heading and began to return to sea level."
"Understood, Agent Jackson." The single eye sweeps the entire room. "Initiate the required steps to bring this option to pass. We will not go into dry dock, and one hundred sixty days is far too long. Agent Jackson, I expect you to shorten that time period considerably." Jackson frowns at his folded hands, but does not look surprised.
"Agent Hu." The research agent sits upright in his chair. "Thank you for your efforts. With your guidance, we may have an alternative to the worse case solution." Hu nods and sinks back in his chair.
"Agent Hill."
"Yes, sir."
"Agent Hill, you will research, organize and execute evacuation drills for all personnel stationed in the upper decks. With a response time of less than fifteen minutes. And find me a way to wipe the classified materials on the lower decks." Fury meets her eyes, then, for a fraction of a second, and he does not mention evacuation drills for the lower decks.
Hill clenches her jaw. "Yes, sir."
"Agent Neil."
"Sir." Hill recognizes him – another of Jackson's rats.
"Agent Neil, once Agent Jackson has confirmed that the necessary steps have been taken, you will code the command for this step to my id and to that of Agent Hill, only. Do you understand?"
Her voice overlaps with Neil's. "Yes, sir."
"Agent Hill." This time, Fury does not turn from the screen before him. "Let me be clear - if you ever need to give this order, I won't be in a position to worry about it."
She swallows. "Yes, sir." Understood.
end chapter 1
Title: Contingency Operations (Part 1: Spiking the Guns)
Summary: "Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on." Three ways SHIELD keeps momentum going. Post Avengers, some spoilers.
Category: Gen, Bob. Tony/Pepper. Some Blackhawk.
Characters: Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, OFC, OMC.
Disclaimer: Not mine, and I swear, they were broken when I found them. Thanks to Flora for beta.
