Once Minna was back in her office someone knocked at the door. "Come in", she called, and Olivia entered the small office with her laptop under her arm.
"I have to talk to you about something", she said in a stern voice. The two then had an extensive talk about Olivias aircraft. And that she too, would fly night routes. But not as part of the normal Patrol schedule, instead she would fly along the Belgian coast up to Karlsland and down to Hispania and back. That once or twice a week, so that the Strike Witches would have up d date radar data of part of Europe.
The next morning Lynne had prepared massive loads of blueberries. "Pfewe awe wewwy good", Olivia commented with a mouthful of delicious blueberries. "Yes, they indeed are", answered Yoshika who was just in between two bites of blueberries. "Hey Yoshika, put out your tongue", Lucchini challenged the Fuso girl to a tongue blueness contest. And blue they were, beautifully blue from delicious fruits. After Breakfast was finished Minna spoke up again: "Now that everyone is done with breakfast, the night team is dismissed. You have to go to bed now. And Olivia when will you sortie?" "I'm probably going to sortie around 3pm to 4pm. It depends on when Sanya, Eila and Yoshika sortie.", Olivia answered, then she explained her planned route to everyone present.
From the base northwards into Baltlands airspace, up to Kristiansand and back down the coast via the British channel to Hispanias northern Coast and then back. All in all, a 3200-kilometre trip that would take roughly five to six hours to complete. And all the time Olivia would have her radar turned up and listening to anything moving over the Netherlands, Belgica, western Karlsland and Gallia. With the average size of a neuroi the range of the radar was astonishingly big, almost 500 kilometres inland a Neuroi would still be detected.
Minna commented on Olivias statement: "They are going to sortie around 9pm maybe even 10pm. That said you should sortie around 6:30 to 7pm if you want to meet them in the air." "But first I'm going to take a nap, or two even perhaps. It's not like I have to sleep all day since I'll only land around 1 am", Olivia said, walking out of the dining room. Meanwhile in another room on the base three witches were lying in the darkness.
"I'm sorry that this has been done to your room Sanya", Yoshika commented on the windows in Sanyas room being shut with wooden boards. "Actually, I do like it this way since I am always on night patrol.", Sanya said falling onto the bed and signalling Eila and Yoshika to lie down as well. Eila sat up on the bed after a few minutes and turned her head to Yoshika: "You wanna do Tarot cards to pass the time?" she asked the Fuso girl. "Sure, why not", she agreed. Eila then layed out seven cards and let Yoshika pick one of them.
As Yoshika picked up the card, she also showed it to Eila. "Looks like you're going to meet up with someone who you haven't seen in a long time", she said, her face lighting up slightly. Yoshikas smile quickly fell as she answered: "The thing is, that the Person I want to meet is actually dead" The mood rapidly dropped in the small and dark room. Sensing this Yoshika switched topics and asked the other two witches a question: "Hey, where are you guys from?", she asked. "Well, I am from Suomus, a nation in the north east of Europe. Suomus is just like Brittania, on the front lines.", Eila answered the question and turned her head over to Sanya.
"Orussia, I come from Orussia. The city I lived in fell a long time ago, but my family fled east far beyond the Ural Mountains", the witch in question answered. "Well, that is at least something good." Eila wondered: "Why do you think that it's a good thing that Sanyas Parents had to flee their hometown?" "Well, even if Orussia is a big country, there is still a way to find them and unite with them.", Yoshika answered. "Yoshika, you should know that Sibiria, the part of Orussia beyond the Ural Mountains, is more than a dozen of times Bigger than Fuso", Sanya added.
If one were to walk from Sanyas room through the halls and up some stairs they would arrive at a certain room's doors. From within one could hear the sound sleeping of a certain pilot. Around four o'clock in the afternoon Olivia came out of her room and went into the kitchen where Perrine and Lynne were preparing some afternoon tea and snacks. The Witches that were not sound asleep in Sanyas Room and Olivia had some lovely Tea and some pieces of cake, afterwards Olivia began preparing herself and her aircraft for the patrol flight.
The most important Part of the preparations would be to pack a box of sandwiches to eat along the flight and a thermos of tea. Oh and of course ensuring that the radar-, missile- and autopiloting-systems worked. Around half past six in the evening Olivia and her plane were cleared for take-off into the still blue skies.
As she turned north halfway across the channel, she turned on her radar and began to watch and listen into the vast emptiness that was now Europe. As she reached around the northern part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a now uninhabited wildland, she also passed the Afsluitdjik, 20-mile-long dike 30 feet high, protecting a big part of the Netherlands from the Seas. She once again looked at the radar screen, seeing the dike, the Lake behind it the islands below and around her, nothing suspicious yet.
She continued her route north until she reached the border between Karlesland and Baltland, along which there were quite a few lights from Outposts. She turned her aircraft around and flew back, seven miles above the North Sea, which right now was a dark blue blanket, only disturbed by the small waves rolling ashore. The entire cockpit was dark, save for the status screen, the radio and the radar screen. The Radio had the BBC´s Radio frequency on listen and the main call frequency of the base on call. The status screen showed altitude speed and flying banking angle and the flying direction. The Radar screen showed a map of central Europe with small dots moving across it slowly.
It was at this point in the patrol that the sun set below the horizon. Nothing unusual had happened so far, about a dozen large neuroi were moving slowly through central Europe, somewhere in the Rhine region eastwards moving at less that 300kph. Roughly as she turned around the northwest point of Dutchia she was able to pick up Yoshika, Eila and Sanya on the radar, as they had just sortied into the night sky. Just a few minutes later she was also able to hear them over the radio. „Thank you guys, without you I wouldn't have made it above the clouds. ", Yoshika said over the radio. Olivias Radar picked up three small dots on Yoshikas position, one of them being Yoshika with the other two being Eila and Sanya. On her Screen she was able to see some of the large cloud formations very clearly while others were pretty much transparent to this Radar band. It was almost as if she knew what now happened, a singing sound was able to be heard. „Wait, what is that thing now ", Sanya said over the radio, as she flew upwards about ten or twenty meters above the other two and her antenna changed colour from green to red to purple and blue and then back to green.
About a month after the working prototype had disappeared the Company that made the plane announced to the world that it was nowhere to be found. During the weeks after the disappearance of the F-36 multiple militaries searched for any remains of the plane, even after the announcement there was not even a screw to be found. After six weeks the investigation went back to the drawing board with their strategy. Part of the investigative Team were the FTS (Flight traffic supervisor) at the time, Ben, the SIM (Satellite Intelligence Manager) and a hand full of detectives and scientists.
„We know that the plane went missing at 12:58 Japanese Standard Time, still on time and on course ", Ben mentioned at the meeting of the investigative team, while laserpointing at the end of a white slightly curved line that abruptly ended about one hundred kilometres east of the kamkatshka peninsula, near the southern tip.
He continued: „Just before it disappeared the plane was on course and struggling against winds of up to 100 knots (185kph) from the sides. Usually, you don't get side winds that fast at thirteen kilometres above the sea, especially not in that region and time of year "„At the time of disappearing the plane still had enough fuel left to make it to Nagoya, or did the storm compromise too much? ", one of the detectives, a man in his mid-forties with a strong British accent, asked.
One of the scientists promptly answered him: „We planned with a bit of reserve and even if the jet was just a quarter through the storm, it would have made it to japan, but don't forget the pilots capabilities." „You are right we should not forget what she can do with a plane, did you check all potential telemetric connections Ben?", the man with the British accent returned, to which Ben said „I have checked both the LRX and the Starlink connections, first thing tomorrow morning I'll check with all installed senders and the corresponding receivers, maybe that gives us a hint"
True to his word he started searching for all the senders that were installed on the jet and by noon Ben and his assistant had put together a list of senders that were installed. Next to the standard Radio there were the wide Frequency Radio, the LRX and Starlink senders and one more sender that was previously under the radar:
An experimental device that was being tested to work even with the worst possible kinds of interferences applied, a quantum state Telemeter. Within the device there is a synchronised particle sender/receiver, that can send signals across time space and universes without any delay.
As Ben noticed the presence of said sender, he immediately asked for the corresponding receiver from the main warehouse. "Hi Ben, this is Mark from the Warehouse, we haven't found the receiver you're looking for yet, you might wanna ask with R&D to get that one. I´ll call you if I find it though", was all that could be heard from the speaker as Ben sat behind his Desk looking at stocking lists of different parts, trying to find one labelled: F36-QTSR-01R which is, as you might guess, the receiving station of the quantum Telemeter.
About two hours before launching for her patrol flight Olivia decided to check up on all the Radio and Radar systems and opened the panel covering all the internal computing systems to check if all cables were connected as they should be.
"Shortwave Radio, all cables connected and good to go. ATR (Air Traffic Radio), all good to go. Wait, what's this receiver doing here", Olivia said and suddenly stopped as she realised that the small, 3.5inch Hard drive sized metal box she was holding was the only way to communicate with her Homebase, she quickly reconnected it and ensured that it was working properly.
Just then Minna walked into the Hangar, looking for Olivia. "Oy, Olivia. How are your preparations going?", she shouted across the empty hall. "A lot better than expected, all of my radios are up and running as planned and as a bonus I just rediscovered a way to talk with my Homebase. You know the one in the other Universe". Minna's Jaw was on the floor by now, slowly she began to speak again: "So… let me get this straight, you found a way to talk across time and space?" Olivia began explaining how the sender worked: "Inside the sender are particles that are ultimately quantum-locked to another particle, a state in which they are in one of two positions, but you can only determine which state while looking at it or setting a sensor at it. Also, the other particle is always in the other State. The speed of transmission is not amazing, it`s like writing a letter, there are only a few packets of information being sent every minute. The main reason why there senders where even conceived was, so that the position, altitude and status of every single plane with this equipped can be seen from one central point, no matter where the senders are".
A Neuroi that imitated Sanyas calling woke Olivia from her thoughts. It wasn't a threat to the three girls right now but that might change over the next days. It was probably only Olivia who noticed the Neuroi imitating Sanya's calling, but she made a mental note to tell Sanya. This was in the Night before Sanyas birthday.