Chapter 50
They emerged from the warp in mere seconds. It was instantaneous and seamless for the crew. String expected to see a large city dead ahead but found nothing but farmland and rocky terrain. He asked, "Dom! Where are we?"
"We lost satellites," he informed. "I can't get a bearing."
Sam added, "We lost KITT and Ziggy. No comms."
Caitlin gazed over the land below, "Anyone recognize where we are?"
Dom peered ahead and noted, "Kind of looks like Korea back in the war."
Sam tapped the keys of the computer on her lap, "I got nothing on this."
String looked down below as they flew over the land. He spied a camp up ahead. He came closer and could see white painted rocks in the dirt. He read, "4077." He puckered in thought. "Sam…you did put in the right coordinates, right?"
"Yes, New York City!" she firmly nodded. "I did not screw that up. Ziggy or KITT would have caught it if I did."
Caitlin suggested, "We will just have to fly back home manually. This looks like the far East to me."
Dom stated, "Satellites are all off line. We don't have navigation. We will need to land, get a map and set up refueling."
String stated, "That camp we just flew over had an American flag. We could try there."
Caitlin agreed, "Seems to be American. We need to land and figure out where we are and make sure we can get enough fuel to get back."
Dom looked out the window. He squinted, "Boy! That looks just a MASH unit."
"It is!" String told him. He didn't tell him his suspicious as he realized the engine could bring them not just anywhere but also any time. He winced, "If this is what I think it is….Sinjin may not let us fly Airwolf again."
Caitlin asked, "Do we still have MASH units going?"
He shook his head, "No."
Sam asked, "What's a MASH unit?"
"Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. If this is a hospital it may be safe for us to land there." String told her. He decided to not land on the chopper pad. He landed just outside the camp near a tree line where Airwolf could be concealed. Upon powering down he removed the helmet and looked back at Sam, "Are you sure you put in the right coordinates?"
She showed him the laptop, "The coordinate are right here. It's New York City, just like we planned."
"We're not in New York." he stated.
Outside the chopper men and women wearing green uniforms started to emerge as Airwolf kicked up quite a commotion. The Colonel of the camp came closer and made his way through the crowd.
"Alright what is all this?" the Colonel asked. He was a short man with a balding head and white hair. His eyes landed on the futuristic bird. "What in tarnation?!" He looked to head doctor who also came to see what had happened. "What do you make of this, Pierce?"
The doctor with a dark graying hair and stubble squinted, "Is that some kind of top secret Army chopper or something?"
"I don't know." the Colonel confessed. He looked to his clerk, "Radar!"
The young man with a rounded face and eye glasses came to the Colonel's side. "Yes sir! Oh' wow!" he looked upon the slick chopper.
"Did ICOR send this?" he wondered.
"I never got any notice." he replied.
The side of the chopper opened and soon the crew emerged. Dom stepped out behind Sam and his eyes landed on the familiar faces. He took a deep breath as he realized something went very wrong.
A tall blonde nurse came to the Colonel's side next. Major Houlihann looked to the company clerk, "Radar! What is all this?"
"I don't know, Ma'am." he replied.
String had removed his helmet and emerged still in his flight suit. The nurse took one look at his handsome face and nearly melted.
Dom walked over to String, "I know who they are, String! This is the 4077th. The hospital that I was telling Sam about before we entered the warp." He looked to the nurse, "That woman is Hot Lips." He then noticed the look on the nurse's face. He rolled his eyes, "Oh' boy! String, how did we get here?"
Caitlin asked, "Where are we?"
String looked to Sam and then Dom. He replied to Caitlin, "More like when?"
"When?" she asked.
"Warp drive can move not only through space but time as well." he told her.
The Colonel approached. He called, "I'm Colonel Sherman Potter. This is the MASH 4077th. Did ICOR send you here in that…chopper?"
The four traded glances.
Dom stated quietly to his crew, "I don't think we should tell them where we are from."
String agree, "Airwolf and Sam's engine could fall into military hands."
Dom shook his head, "Oh' they won't tell the Army. They will just want information." His eyes landed on tall balding man with light brown hair and a bit of a belly. He winced, "Charles Winchester the Third."
"Who?" String asked.
"Your dad won a chess game against him. Winchester would never let it go. Accused him of cheating. He's rich and if he knew…well, we would be dealing with his family instead Wilton Knight." he warned.
Sam stated, "We need to find out what year this is. We can get back but I need to know coordinates."
Caitlin asked, "Can we navigate without Ziggy or KITT?"
"I will have to do it manually." she figured.
String figured, "That will be a hell of a risk."
Dom agreed, "We could all end up a big ball of slime."
String figured, "We need to come up with a good cover and fast."
Dom stated, "Tell them we are from military research and development and this is top secret."
String gave a nod and stepped forward. "I'm…Captain Hawke and this my crew. We're from R&D and this is a top secret chopper." He paused trying to come up with a good cover story for he knew this Airwolf had no working weapons systems and was a chopper for air shows in the future. He also figured if he lost his brother's chopper then Sinjin would be rather upset.
Colonel Potter asked, "Army R&D?"
String knew enough history to clobber together a somewhat coherent lie. "Central Intelligence Agency!" He added, "I need to get some information."
The Captain Hawkeye Pierce rolled his eyes for so far anything the CIA had to do with was a mess.
"The CIA." Potter nodded figuring the chopper was obviously a top secret project. "Why are you here?"
"Um…" String looked back to his crew. He found coming up with a cover on the fly was much harder than he assumed for the element of time travel made things complicated.
Dom stepped forward, "We're testing it and we got a little off course."
Hawkeye squinted for Dom looked very familiar but he could not place him.
"I'm Colonel Santini." Dom stated. "We need some information."
"What kind of information?" Major Winchester asked. He knew that whatever he was looking at it was far too advanced for the day.
Sam stated, "The date."
Colonel Potter asked, "The date?"
"We're a little lost." she explained.
"It's June 30th. Monday!" the Colonel stated.
She smiled, "What year?"
The men and women all traded glances a bit bewildered.
"The year of our lord 1952." the Colonel informed.
She gasped, "1952! I thought 84 was a fuck up." she threw her arms up in disgust. Her eyes then settled on a man of average height, dark hair, very hairy legs and arms and wearing a yellow dress with his heels, carrying a white purse and a rifle. She turned and looked to Dom, "That him?"
He nodded, "That's him."
"I don't need to see the picture." she stated.
String took a step back and leaned closer to Sam. He whispered, "How fast can you write a return program?"
"I need to run diagnostics, get the markers and write it out manually. That could take days." she whispered back.
He gave a nod and took a step forward once more. "My crew and I will be here for a few days. Top secret." he bluffed.
The Colonel stated, "I will set you and your Colonel in the VIP tent. The ladies can sleep in the nurses tent."
Sam grew concerned, "Why can't we all stay in the same tent?"
"You are?" Colonel Potter asked.
"Sam." she replied.
String came up with a cover, "That's Lieutenant…Beckett." He figured it would be strange if Sam had Hawke or Santini as a last name. "And this is," he motioned towards Caitlin, "…Lieutenant O'Shannessy." He figured Caitlin's name was safe.
Caitlin gave a salute trying to keep her new cover. "Colonel." She looked to Sam to do the same.
Sam shrugged oblivious. "What?"
She nudged, "Salute him."
Sam came to attention, "Colonel." She mentally kicked herself. Just when things were finally getting back on track and her engine was making progress she finds herself back in time again and this time she's military. She winced, "Oh' boy."
The young clerk asked, "Can I see inside your chopper?"
String barked, "No!"
The boy jumped a bit surprised. "Yes sir." he winced.
Hawkeye soothed, "It's okay, Radar. We all want to see inside the Captain's chopper."
Sam cocked her head and wondered allowed, "Radar?"
"Yes ma'am." the Corporal replied.
"Your name is Radar?" she asked.
He blushed, "It's a nick name, Ma'am. Corporal Walter O'Reilly."
"Why Radar?" she asked him.
"Some times I hear the chopper before it comes in. I didn't hear your chopper though. That came in out of nowhere and fast…real fast…" he explained.
Sam pondered, "Fascinating."
Radar stated, "That chopper looks so slick. The body shape is like nothing I've ever seen before."
"We're on a flight test." she explained.
Radar smiled at Sam for she was kind to him and seemed genuine. The pilot seemed to be a bear to Radar after he snapped at him. He wasn't sure what to make of the crew but found the flight suits very different. "I have never seen a uniform like that. That patch is of a wolf. That's kind of neat."
Sam looked down at the patch for a moment. "It is kind of neat." she agreed.
Dom stepped closer to String and whispered, "If we are going to be here a few days we will need a change of clothes. We need uniforms."
"I'm on it." he gave a nod. String looked to the Colonel, "We had make an emergency landing. We didn't intend to come here. We don't have any duffle bags with us. We left our uniforms back at base. Do you have any surplus we can borrow?"
Colonel Potter took a step closer to String, "Do you mean to tell me you don't have any uniforms, Captain?"
"Just the flight suits." he explained. In reality they were all wearing civilian clothing underneath and had their jackets stowed in the chopper.
Sam whispered to Caitlin, "How come we don't get to be captains?"
She whispered back in agreement, "Really!"
Colonel Potter debated what to do. He figured something top secret had landed in his backyard but really no idea what to make of it all. He replied, "I'll have my Corporal set you officers and the ladies up with something." He then addressed the camp, "Don't you have work to do?"
Hawkeye and Charles both looked at one another as the third doctor B.J. Hunnicutt had been tending to the wounded.
Hawkeye admitted, "We would really like to see inside that helicopter."
"Dismissed!" the Colonel shouted to the lingering men and women of the camp.
As the men and women broke away to return to duty String gathered his crew, "Let's push her back into the trees and apply the camouflage netting."
They each laid hands on the bird and manually pushed Airwolf into the trees. Then Dom retrieved the netting and then they carefully covered the chopper so it would not be visible in short time.
After completing the task Radar returned to the area with Major Houlihann in tow with an armload of spare uniforms. Radar called, "Colonel! Captain!" He gave a boyish smile to Cait and Sam, "Lieutenants…we brought your uniforms."
The Major handed the spare nurses uniforms to Caitlin and Sam. "These should fit. The nurses all pitched in. We don't many extra women's uniforms."
Caitlin gathered the articles, "Thank you, Major."
The Major smiled and then looked upon String. Though a captain was beneath her, she had made up for the deficit by the fact that he was a pilot and a handsome pilot to boot. She became coy, "Caption Hawke." She then asked, "Are you any relation to Major John Hawke? He's a chopper pilot I know."
String glanced at Dom who rolled his eyes for Major John Hawke was String's father. He replied, "Distant."
"Oh…" she smiled rather smoothly at him. She asked, "I'll be in the mess tent. Dinner will be served soon. You are welcome to sit at my table, Captain."
Caitlin could see how flirtatious Margaret Houlihann had become. She had heard Dom's story and muttered, "No wonder they call her 'Hot Lips'."'
String played it cool. He saw his stay as another mission. "I'll see you there, Major."
Margaret smiled brightly, "Captain." She walked by Caitlin as she left, "Lieutenant." she gave an acknowledgment much like she would to a nurse.
Caitlin started to remove the flight suit. She huffed, "Better stay away from Hot Lips, String."
Curious he asked, "Why?"
"That woman has baggage." she informed.
He cocked his head, "You are not jealous of Hot Lips are you, Cait?"
She huffed, "Why would I be jealous of her? From what Dom said she's the camp pass around girl."
"Sound jealous to me." he smirked teasing.
Sam had removed her flight suit and was in the process of changing her clothes. She mentioned, "Radar is so cute. He has such a baby face. Make ya just want to pinch his cheeks."
Dom recalled, "He was the pet of the camp. All the doctors and nurses looked out for him. Apparently, he could get just about anything from ICOR."
String asked, "The boy can get anything from supply?"
He nodded, "Kid can work magic."
"Good to know." he gave a nod.