“It’s not so much that as it is we haven’t defined the tolerances closely enough. At least that is the direction we are going. It could prove to be wrong but if nothing else we can eliminate that as a source of the problem.”
“Damn it, we have been eliminating sources of the problem for almost sixty years. What are we going to have to do, wait another sixty?” he asked bitterly.
“Sorry sir. We are doing everything we can to discover what the problem is. It’s like untangling a huge ball of string. We get one section unraveled and find another knot that is even bigger. Each one leads to another and another. We can only remedy the problems by taking it one step at a time.”
“Yes. Yes. I hear that every week. We’re doing the best we can. Our future sits here like a lump of clay. I’m depending on you people to mold it into something that can be used. Tell Dr. Yurris I said that.”
“Yes sir,” the scientist said.
There was nothing more to be added. Dr. Yurris was now the team leader on the anti-matter flux generator. ‘Accidents’ had happened to the two previous team leaders that he had selected. A third might have to happen if Dr. Yurris didn’t make some progress soon, he thought to himself.
Devin went up to the main level, got into his Hummer and drove back to the main facility. When he got there, people were running around in various states of anxiety.
“What’s going on?”
“Sir. The Su-11 has declared an emergency. It’s on its way in. They lost all power so they are trying to glide it back to the field.”
“How far out are they?”
“Over Phoenix.”
“Good God. What’s their altitude?
“150,000 feet.”
“I don’t think they can make it this far,” he said, mostly to himself.
“No one else does either. If that thing goes down in a populated area, all hell is going to break loose.”
“Thank you airman,” he said and hurried to the control tower. It was a beehive of activity when he walked in.
“Atten…”
“Get back to work,” he yelled, stopping the airman in mid-sentence.
He headed to the radar screen with several men and women gathered around it. A couple were making notations and doing calculations.
“How is it looking?”
“Grim sir. They are trying to slow the rate of descent but with no hydraulics it is very difficult to control the craft. Unless he can slow it down from its present rate we estimate it will go down right about here,” he said, pointing to a map.
“Rochel. It could be worse. At least it will be in Nevada,” he said, “What is your plan?”
“Well sir, we have two that we are implementing. We have dispatched a first response recovery team to be in the vicinity of Rochel and Templut. They are just a mile or so apart. Once we know where they come down, we can set up a perimeter.”
“And the other plan?”
“If they should make it back here, they will have no way of extending the landing gear. They will have to pancake in. We have all of our trucks standing by to foam the runway. As smooth as the bottom is on that thing, it will go a long way before it settles down.”
“Not good either way. Okay. You have done all you can at this point. It’s up to the pilot now.”
“General,” one of the men yelled out.
“What is it son?”
“Something is wrong. I am loosing contact with them. Look at the screen, it shows them breaking up,” he said.
“Oh dear God,” someone muttered.
“Where is the impact point?”
“Looks like it will be about thirty-two miles west of Phoenix, near Tonopah, Arizona. They didn’t make it to Nevada.”
“Get some choppers in the air and get that first response team on the site ASAP. I don’t want any civilians going near that craft if at all possible. Alert the Arizona State Police and have them head for that area as well. Someone, get me the Governor of Arizona on the line,” he said, directing the men around him.
He grabbed one of the officers and said, “Get Luke Air Force Base to send some search choppers to that area. Tell them it is an ultra-secret prototype plane and we don’t want anyone to get near it. Understand?”
“Yes sir,” he said rushing to a phone. “Have we overlooked anything?”
“I don’t think so sir. All we can do now is wait and see what happens next.”
“You wait. I want a chopper on the pad, ready to go ten minutes ago,” he said heading for the stairs.
With everything else going on, this was the last thing he needed.
The Su-11 prototype was the most revolutionary aircraft ever designed. It was using a derivative of the magnetic flux generator for propulsion. The skin was totally radar absorbing so that it was impossible to detect. The Su–11 was capable of leaving the earth’s orbit without booster rockets. They had made six test flights so far and each one had been accomplished magnificently with only minor glitches.
On this test, they had actually orbited the earth and gone undetected by every nation, including our own. All of that was about to come crashing down because of a hydraulic malfunction. He sat in the chopper, wishing he had taken the time to get a coat and go pee first.
“Sir. It’s down. First report is that it is scattered over a two to three mile area. Some of it may have come down in the city of Winterburg. It’s a little town west of Phoenix.”
“Damn it. How soon will we have assets on the ground?”
“ETA is twenty minutes.”
“Let’s not just sit here, let’s roll,” the general ordered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
When President Sampson looked out the window of Air Force One he was able to catch a glimpse of the Mississippi river. It wouldn’t be long now before he was back in Washington. He had just spent four days in various meetings around the country. One of the staff brought him a cup of coffee and the telexes from the news services. He glanced at each one briefly until he got to the one from the Phoenix New Times.
The lead article was about a military air craft that had disintegrated just to the west of Phoenix. According to the story, the craft was an experimental craft and crashed near a small town called Winterburg, Arizona. The military were on the scene now but local reporters and news teams were the first to arrive.
Several civilians were hurt on the ground and one of the pilots was dead and the other in critical condition and not expected to live. First reports were of a meteor breaking up but it was soon discovered to be a secret military aircraft. The report went on to say that the military were claiming that it was a prototype of a fighter craft; observers said it was far too big to be a fighter or bomber.
Now what, the President wondered? He was just at Area-51 and no one mentioned an experimental aircraft that was ready to fly. Why wouldn’t General Devin have mentioned that? In his talk with Devin, he had said that it would be at least a year or even longer before they would have a craft ready for controlled flight.
As he sat thinking he could remember Devin saying that they couldn’t get the fuel containment alignment exactly right yet. So what experimental aircraft did crash? Why didn’t he know about it? He placed a call to Craig Hollister, the secretary of Defense.
“Craig, I just read about one of our experimental aircraft crashing someplace in Arizona. What do you know about it?”
“Sir, not much more than you do at present. I know of no experimental craft flights scheduled. I called Luke Air Force Base and the commanding officer said he received a call from General Devin’s office telling them to get out there and seal off the area. The craft was classified as Ultra Top Secret and concerned National Security.”