Part 4
Praise the Lord, we're on a mighty mission.
All aboard, boys, we ain't a-goin' fishin'!
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition,
And we'll all stay free!
-- Frank Loesser, 1942
When the Navy asked the engineers to design a carrier-type of spaceship, one of their more perplexing problems was how to launch numerous small craft into space. In order to launch or land a ship, they had to figure out a way to transition from the pressurized atmosphere of the Texas into the airless vacuum of space and then back again. It had already been decided that the combined hanger/flight deck would run along the entire "bottom" length of the ship. One suggestion was to depressurize the entire flight deck before launch. That was still the backup plan in case of an emergency scramble, but the final solution was to build large airlocks into the flight deck.
Toni and HD had been talking steadily since they left the ready room. While HD couldn't talk as fast as Toni (who could still rival any of the speedsters with her mouth), the things he did say made her laugh so much she stopped talking. The two of them continued to walk together toward HD's Deuce, but Dick called them back.
"Uh, Toni? I think you'd better ride with me. HD gets distracted easily enough as it is -- I don't need to add a pretty woman to the mix," he said, mostly in jest.
HD accepted the change without comment. When Toni looked at Dick in protest, he gave her a stern glance that reminded her HD wasn't the only one who needed to be free of distractions. She sighed and followed Dick to their Deuce which sat next to HD's on the flight deck. Once the pilots and passengers were in place, the flight crew manuevered the ships into position in the airlock.
There were several sets of airlocks at each end of the ship. One set handled the launches from the bow of the ship; another set was put into the stern to handle landings. Fighters were usually launched in pairs -- they would be positioned on the launch pad (the old carrier hands still called it the 'catapult'); the hatch would close on the flight deck; the atmosphere would be removed from the airlock; and the outer hatch in the hull would open. Likewise, on landings, the outer hatch would be opened; the incoming ships would enter; the hatch would close; and atmosphere would be pumped into the airlock. When the lock's air pressure had been equalized with the flight deck's, the inner hatch would open.
Takeoffs and landings were staggered so one airlock could be launching or landing while another was cycling air in or out. The Texas could get a division of twelve fighters into space in under two minutes -- the entire squadron could mobilize in less than fifteen minutes.
While they were moving their birds into launch position and waiting for the outer hatch to open, Dick went over final instructions. "I want to maintain comm silence as much as possible. I don't think we're likely to run into an enemy patrol, but I don't want to take any chances. Keep an eye on your scope, Hound Dog -- we're heading back to where Jennie bought it, and I don't want the same thing happening to either of us."
"Roger that," HD replied rather fervently.
The outer hatch opened, revealing the sparkling black velvet of space outside. After receiving clearance, the two Deuces took off . With the smooth coordination of hundreds of hours flying together, the two pilots banked away from the carrier and took up their normal patrol positions -- Dick in the lead, HD slightly below and to Dick's right. When they reached their destination, several hundred feet away from point at which their fellow pilot's fighter had exploded, the two ships stopped.
Dick broke the comm silence. "All right, Vic -- here we are. Go ahead and launch one of your probes. Toni, be ready to get your shielding in place around it."
Toni thought it was typical that even on a mission supposedly being led by Victor, Dick still took charge. She saw the other ship's airlock open, and one of Vic's small probes emerge. Time to get to work. Using her powers in space was a little different from using them back on Earth: she had more raw material, i.e. plasma, to work with, but by the same token, control became more difficult as well. Very gently, she wrapped a thin shield around the missile-shaped object. She had to make the shield strong enough so that it could resist whatever the mine did, but thin enough for Vic to communicate with the probe and for it to do its job.
Now came the tricky part. When Dick had first proposed this idea, they all knew the biggest problem was going to be for Toni to maintain a shield on the object after it left her line of sight. She and Vic had experimented at the JLA satellite for several frustrating days until they hit upon a solution. While the probe was still in her sight, Toni transferred her focus to the graphical representation of the probe on the JLA's tactical monitor. It required intense concentration (she told Vic it was like trying to write while looking in a mirror), but she was able to maintain the shield no matter where the probe went.
Once Toni felt comfortable with her shield, Dick signaled Victor to send the probe to the exact position where Jennie's fighter had exploded. When it got there, Toni's head jerked in surprise.
"Hey!"
"What's wrong?" Dick asked.
"It felt like someone shoved me!"
"That must be what got your friend," Vic said. "Do you still have the shield, Toni?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. It was just weird."
"I'm piggy-backing our sensors onto the probe's," Vic said, "and ... I think I've found our mine!"
"Really?" Dick asked.
"At least, I've found something artificial. Let's just go see what that is."
The two ships sat quietly in space for several more minutes. Vic was concentrating on piloting the distant probe, and Toni on maintaining her shield without squishing the probe. Toni suddenly felt something that made the earlier push seem like a love tap. She would have fallen from her seat had she not been strapped in.
"Whoa! That was no shove!"
Dick asked in concern, "You okay, Toni?"
"Felt like someone just kicked me in the chest!" she replied, rubbing her lower ribs. "I'm okay, though."
"Got it!" Vic called out. "That thing's our mine, all right! I'm not sure what it did, but I detected something when Toni felt that last blow."
"Great, Vic!" Dick replied. "How much longer do you need to study it?"
"I'm going to manuever the probe as close as I can, just in case it has any more surprises. Not too much longer, though."
Vic was as good as his word. When he began to bring the probe back, though, Dick had a request.
"Toni, if you were to drop the shield on the probe, would you be able to put it back up again?"
"You mean, assuming it didn't explode?" she asked in amusement. Then her expression turned thoughtful. "I don't know. I think so. It's all kind of a mental exercise anyway."
"Okay. Vic? I've got a hunch that this mine's effects aren't continuous."
"You're thinking of those two shoves Toni felt?"
"Yeah. It would make sense. You wouldn't need a solid sphere of coverage, just layers. If an enemy somehow survived the first layer, you try it again with the second."
"And in between, everything's normal," Vic said, thoughtfully. "Yeah, that might just work. So we have Toni pull the shield off until the probe gets to the point at which she got 'kicked' earlier, and then put the shield back on. Okay, let's do it."
"All right. Toni, drop the shield."
She did so, and the team waited.
"I think it's gonna work!" Vic said exultantly. "I'm still gettin' readings from the probe!"
Vic steered the probe until he was almost at the point of the "inner layer," as he thought of it.
"Okay, Toni. I'll hold the probe stationary while you put the shield back on."
Toni frowned in concentration at the scope in front of her. They had never practiced this before, but she didn't want to let the others down. Finally, she felt a sort of mental "click" that told her it was in place.
"I've got it back up. Do you still have a probe?"
"Everything's green from here. I'm bringing it home."
Toni was "kicked" again as the probed passed through the layer, so Dick decided not to ask her to drop and resume the shield any more. Soon, the probe was back aboard the Deuce with Vic, and the two ships flew back to the Texas.
Once their ships had landed, Toni unbelted her shoulder and lap restraints. When she tried to climb out of the cockpit though, she discovered just how wobbly her legs were. It took the help of Vic on the outside and Dick on the inside before she was finally able to get out of the Deuce.
"We need to get you to the infirmary, Toni," Dick insisted, as he had done the entire time he was helping her out of the small craft.
"I'm okay, Richard!" she exclaimed. "I just overdid it a little out there. I'm sure I'll be perfectly fine once I get some rest."
"Oh, all right," Dick gave in. "Umm, HD? Do you think you could 'escort' Toni back to her quarters?"
HD grinned at Toni. "I'd be honored to. Ma'am, if you'd allow me ..." He stood in front of her as she leaned against the Deuce's landing gear and formally offered her his arm. Toni shot an amused glare in Dick's direction as she grabbed on to HD's arm and tried to stand up straight. When her legs started to buckle, HD swiftly caught her and lifted her up to carry in his arms.
"It's a shame you're not wearing dress whites," Toni said flirtatiously. HD blushed.
"Behave, you two!" Dick admonished. He watched his wingman carry his former teammate off the flight deck and shook his head. "Okay, Vic. Let's get to the machine shop and see what this bird of yours has to say."
Once they had changed out of their flight gear, Dick helped Vic set up his equipment on a spare worktable in the machine shop. Soon, they had the probe hooked up to a computer to disgorge its contents.
About an hour later, Dick was studying the initial sensor readings when a tech came over to them.
"Lieutenant Grayson?"
"Yes?"
"Call for you sir. You can take it over there," he said, pointing to the nearby phone.
"Thank you." Dick walked over and picked up the phone. "Grayson."
Dick didn't say much after that, but from the expression on his face, Vic could tell whatever he was hearing wasn't good news. Dick hung up the phone with the deliberate care of someone who really wanted to rip it out of the wall. He then turned to Vic, an apologetic expression on his face.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to abandon you for a bit. Some ... business has come up that I need to attend to."
"Anything I can do to help?"
"Nah. Thanks, though. Seems two of my pilots were fighting each other over a girl, and now I have to go sort it out. Hopefully before the CAG gets official wind of it."
"Aack."
"Especially since the girl they're fighting over is also one of my pilots," Dick sighed. "Look, this is going to take an hour or two to straighten out. If you need anything, just collar one of the techs or have them page me."
Vic nodded, and Dick walked out of the machine shop muttering vile-sounding Romany imprecations under his breath. Vic smiled to himself and went back to work analyzing the probe's information.
** End Part 4 **