Chapter 7

Once we lifted from the homestead, I brought our speed up to a comfortable level and then cut the engines. The runabout had the legs to get to Armstrong, just not at full thrust. I trimmed everything to the correct heading, locked her down, and leaned back.

Colonel Montgomery was watching me with a slight grin on his face. “Comfortable, Thad? feeling safe and happy?”

I had been around instructor pilots before and knew that something was coming. “Well, yes, sir. I believe I’ve got everything set. But I’m sure that I’ve missed something. or you wouldn’t be trying to ambush me.”

The Colonel grinned even larger. “Bit of a smart aleck, aren’t you?”

I grinned back, “Ok, boss, what did I forget?”

“Check six, boy. there’s an FN destroyer blasting hard up on your butt.”

“Not likely. First, my co-pilot, whose job it is to monitor the radars, should have let me know. Second, the proximity alarms would have gone off. And no, they haven’t malfunctioned. I checked them before and after launch.”

“Yep, a smart aleck. All alright, Thad, I guess I can trust you.”

“Well, I would hate to have you doubt my abilities, sir. watch monitor 2.”

I pulled up the record of my approach and capture of the Nome Adventurer. when it was finished, the Colonel turned and smiled. “Very well-done, kid. I couldn’t have done better myself. Be sure to burn a copy of that for your logbook. I think you’ll need it.”

The following hours were spent sometimes talking about piloting sometimes about engineering. eventually, the conversation turned to families.”

“Colonel, how about you. You got any family?”

“Son, everybody’s got family. Some close, some far. Some held close to the heart some despised. I have a family, my brother, and sisters. I don’t know where they are. The last I heard, my brother was a researcher on Luna. The girls had families of their own on mars. That is if they survived my sins. Some folks out there would have used them to get to me if they could have. My mother and father? No, they are gone. they died in the Great Satan EMP attack.”

“I heard about that one. A lot of folks blame the Americans for it. say that if they hadn’t put sanctions on them, the Iranians wouldn’t have attacked.”

“It wasn’t only the Iranians. The North Koreans were involved too. They provided the rocket using technology that the Chinese provided. Technology stolen from the Americans. The Iranians provided the material for the bomb. between the 3 of them, they forgot the first rule of the sneak attack.”

“First rule? what’s that?”

“Something that has been around for a long time. The Japanese gave the most famous example. The rule is very simple if you use a sneak attack. It must be so devastating as to rob the enemy of the ability to counter-attack. when the evidence was presented to the world, the counter-attack was already in progress.”

“You see, at that time. Civilians didn’t have EMP protections in place. And the American reliance dependence addiction to electronics puts them in a vulnerable position. Even those civilians that had prepared still failed. Without a system, the individual pieces are worthless. A cell phone is just a hunk of plastic, copper, and circuits. Without an operating system, it’s useless. the only systems that survived the EMP belonged to the government.”

“My parents were in a nursing home in Omaha, almost dead center under the blast. When the power failed, the emergency generators failed to kick in because the circuits were fried. Dad was on a respirator. He lasted a little longer than mom. Her pacemaker failed, and she was gone.