Flyboy

Nick Warner knew he was doing it again.1

He was grinning from ear to ear behind the visor of his helmet.2

He couldn't help it.3

What else could he do right now? He was about to get the go-ahead from the tower to take off for his first carrier shot...in his very own jet. The F-4 Phantom's powerful engine was humming behind him, the joystick vibrating ever so softly under his leather gloves.4

Nick had worked and trained tirelessly for this one moment. Some people would roll their eyes, but they didn't understand. The rush of full-throttle down the runway and the joy of having the chains between you and the land snapped by the freedom of flight when the world slipped out from under your feet...oh, it was a beautiful thing.5

Five red lights above the GPS turned yellow and he let off the brake to put his hand on the throttle. Each one turned green one at a time, and as soon as the last one winked at him with a bold beep, he pushed the throttle up to full power. Keeping the point of the nose on the striped white line, he watched the speed rise and felt the g-load until he was certain the plane could take off.6

As Nick pulled down on the joystick, the plane's nose turned to the sky and the ecstatic feeling of flight set in, the young pilot turned the plane to bank left. The landing gear raised, and he was flying.7

Two golden rays of sunlight were peeking through the clouds and Nick knew where he wanted to spend his thirty minutes of freedom.8

He was in a jet. The troposphere was not the limit.9

He would take this jet to its ceiling.10

The F-4 shot up in a vertical, pressing into full throttle. As it cleared the clouds, Nick's color vision began to fade. He had gone through this in training and it wasn't important until he lost his peripheral vision...which he was beginning to do. His mind was racing - what way could he go to eliminate G's? As he began to lose his center vision, he pushed the joystick up, hoping it wasn't too late.11

Unaware of the imperfections in his jet, he pulled his hand off the throttle to press a few buttons. The factories had been in a hurry to pump out the new model, and the consequences were imperfections. On this particular jet, the throttle wasn't always reliable to stay without the pilot holding it steady. With Nick's mind clouded by a headache and uneven blood flow, the fading engine went unnoticed.12

With the last of the speed and thrust the jet had, Nick was able to level it out. He shoved the throttle back to full, but it wouldn't respond.13

As the last of that speed diminished to nothing, the malfunctioning F-4 sank back, spinning violently in the winds. Its computer desperately tried to save the jet, without success. Engine screaming, it fell back through the clouds and broke the Atlantic with a sickening slam.14

"Captain, can you hear me?" Control summoned through the emergency communicator. "Captain!" She gave him a few seconds to respond while she sent out the emergency crew. "Hold on, help is on the way."15

The water around the crash didn't know what to do. It was going in a hundred different directions at once, and so was Commandant Jaesaun's stomach as the mist around the crash rained back down to the surface of the ocean. His mind was racing but his expression was blank as he watched the red and white helicopter lift off from its helipad to tend to the crash.16

"Thought I remembered you saying he was a good pilot," General Pearson chuckled. "'The best we've seen in years'...rubbish."17

Jaesaun was too absorbed in the action to hear Pearson's words. The wind drowned out everything as he watched the rescue crew work. Miraculously, the jet was still floating, its wings just wide enough to keep it up. If a wave knocked it off balance, though...18

"Get another crew out there!" Jaesaun shouted over the wind and the aircraft noise. "Get another bloody crew out there! That jet is nearly sunk!"19

The workers of the ship were still scrambling to land the one jet that had gone out after Warner, and getting another helicopter ready would be difficult due to the somewhat small crew they already had onboard. The F-4 touched down to the tarmac and caught the catch-cable, against what everyone had expected. In chaos, if one thing went wrong, just about everything else did.20

Jaesaun turned once more to the action. As much as he hated to say it, there was nothing he could do. He gave a stressful sigh and as he watched the rescue crew work, he saw a glint just below the clouds on the horizon. It was a light - no, two, a red one and a blue one - blinking repeatedly. If it was a plane, he would need to order out -21

No he wouldn't.22

Ordering out fighter planes would take up time and crew members, which would only make Warner's situation worse. Besides, they had one armed SR-71 Blackbird sitting in view that could chase a spy plane to hell and back at insane speeds, and Jaesaun was sure that, if this pilot was educated at all, he would damn sure know to keep his distance from a ship with one of these.23

"Sir, there's a -"24

"Let it pass," Jaesaun interrupted the crewman. "Let it pass and focus this entire ship's attention on the rescue."25

The deck hand nodded. "Yes, Sir," he said, and ran back to the control tower.26

Jaesaun gave a tense sigh and shifted his weight to his right leg. "Don't take him now..."27

---28

"Well, Warner," the general began as he stepped into the young pilot's room at the infirmary. "I don't know how you managed to get through that."29

Nick's crystal-green eyes glinted with spirit. "It wasn't that bad. I don't know how, but the fuel tank didn't ignite or anything."30

"That's exactly why your Commander is here. Jaesaun?"31

Jaesaun had come in behind him and was now hanging up his black cloak. "They inspected the jet, Nick. The fuel gauge was broken...you were running on fumes when you were launched."32

"So it wasn't a throttle failure?"33

"No. Either way, it involves faulty machinery."34

"Isn't that plane just off the line?"35

"It was built in a hurry, as were its sisters that were given out last week. The manufacturer sent out a warning explaining that demand was higher and their budget was tighter...they were using less work-by-hand and more machines, two of them calibrated about a millimeter or two off."36

"I can't believe it. They have to risk lives to comply to a government expenditure?"37

"No, no, no...The more they make, the more expensive it is and -"38

"Ah. Soon enough we're going to turn Learjets and Cessnas into fighters just to save money."39

"Don't talk that way, Nick," Jaesaun corrected him with a stern look.40

"I mean look at Civil Air Patrol, we have fifteen-year-olds flying homeland defense and -"41

"Nick!" Jaesaun hissed sternly.42

"S...sorry, sir..."