West End District, Port Angeles
Clallam County, Washington State
Ingrid felt some frustration when it became evident from the televised reports she was watching that this presidential election would result in a close tie between the Democrats and the Republicans at nearly every level of government: she knew from long experience, having been a part-time presidential advisor to all the presidents between 1946 and 1999, both Democrats and Republicans, that political partisanship in a two-party system too often ended up in political paralysis and inaction. Closer to home for her, that close tie looked about to result in a split outcome in the state of Washington.
While a Democrat looked to be on his way to win the state’s gubernatorial race, the Republicans already had a comfortable advance for the congressional Sixth District of the House, which included the Clallam County, where she lived. As for the presidential election proper, it was still too tight to call. By the time that Ingrid was ready to go to bed, at around midnight, it looked like the most likely winner for the White House race was going to be the Republican nominee, George W. Bush. While she had met him a number of times in the past and had found him to be in essence a fairly decent man, she was afraid that, if elected in 2000 ‘C’, he could repeat the same mistakes and miscalculations that his timeline counterpart had made in Timeline ‘A’, Nancy Laplante’s original timeline, and this mostly thanks to bad or misguided advice he got from hard-right advisors and cabinet members.
16:41 (Eastern Standard Time)
Friday, November 10, 2000 ‘C’
The Oval Office, The White House
Washington, D.C.
‘’So, Ross, what did you want to talk about with me in such confidentiality?’
asked George W. Bush as soon as he had sat down with Ross Perot in one of the easy
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chairs in the discussion corner of the Oval Office. Perot, apparently most serious, answered him in a sober tone.
‘’George, I am going to talk to you about something your own father insisted on talking about with me in private only days after I had won the elections eight years ago. I am talking here about the Athena Files, which are still being kept under lock at the Pentagon.’
‘’The Athena Files, the ones brought from the future by Nancy Laplante in 1940?’
asked Bush, not a little surprised. ‘’But that was sixty years ago! With all that happened since, their present relevance must be minimal at best.’
‘’Most people would think so, George, but I can tell you that I still found them most useful to our country despite their age, the same way your father relied on them at the same time he relied on the advice of Ingrid Dows, Nancy Laplante’s adopted daughter. What Laplante brought to the United States in 1940 was both historical and technological information from the year 2012. In the case of the historical information of then immediate interest to the President of the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt, it gave a timeline of World events covering the period from 1940 to 2012. While F.D.R. took that information very seriously, some of his political and military top advisors didn’t prove as receptive. One of the early consequences of some of our leaders ignoring the data in the Athena Files, or of even refusing to consult them, was the disaster we suffered in Pearl Harbor on that fateful day of October 19 of 1941. Those Athena Files contained detailed information about the Japanese attack plan on Pear Harbor and on the other moves the Japanese would do that same day around the Pacific and Asia. Nancy Laplante had also personally warned Roosevelt in 1940, when she visited the White House, that the Japanese would be bound to change the date of their attack once they realized that she had given historical information from the future to the Allies as early as September of 1940. Well, the Japanese did just that but otherwise kept their attack plan as it was, while our obtuse military commanders did nothing at first, still expecting for a Japanese attack in December, the original historical date recorded in Laplante’s timeline.
As a result, we suffered disastrous losses in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked in October, losses which proved even higher than those suffered in the historical December attack. The one American military leader who acted properly with the Athena info was General Douglas MacArthur, in the Philippines, who had the good fortune of receiving a copy of the Athena Files, brought to him from England by the husband of Ingrid Dows, who had just been posted from London to Manila. By acting swiftly on that
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information mana, MacArthur was able with the collaboration of the local Navy commander, Admiral Hart, to stave off the Japanese attempts to take the Philippines and also caused them very heavy losses. That is only one example of how crucial those Athena Files were for us.’
‘’But that was still 59 years ago, Ross. From what I know, these files did help us in other crisis and other conflicts but we acted on that data, contrary to 1941, and beat back our enemies. More recently, General Dows’ military genius helped us to defeat and defang in succession the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, the Caucasus Islamic Republic and Russia, leaving the United States alone as a World superpower. Today’s history is thus completely different from the history of 2000 known to Nancy Laplante.
How could those old Athena Files still be relevant or useful, Ross?’
Perot gave Bush a cautionary look.
‘’One could think rightly so, George, but there is still information in those files which could prove most valuable to us. My advice to you about those Athena Files would be to do like I did about them: I appointed someone with a good analytical, open mind as custodian of those files, with the responsibility of studying them and preserving them and also to advise me if he found something of possible interest for the present or near future. I strongly advise you to either keep that custodian or to find a competent and dedicated person to replace him in the job.’
Bush slowly nodded his head as he thought that over, finally looking back at Perot.
‘’Alright, I will heed your advice, Ross, and will place someone I trust as custodian of those files. Uh, where are they kept exactly at the Pentagon?’
Perot smiled at that question and, getting up from his chair, when to his big presidential desk, where he retrieved a small card that he brought to Bush, who took the card and looked at it briefly before pocketing it.
‘’One last question about those files, Ross, but answer it only if you feel comfortable about it. Did those Athena Files predict your electoral victories in the presidential elections of 1992 and 1996?’
That question brought a devilish grin on Perot’s face.
‘’What they said was that I lost both of those elections and came in only as a distant fourth. For this election, the files did hit the mark: that the Reform Party would be marginalized because its political caucus ignored my advice and named Buchanan as their presidential candidate.’
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‘’Well, I’ll be!’ said Bush, smiling to himself at the irony of this. He then got up and shook hands with Perot. ‘’Thanks for the advice, Ross. By the way, any chance that I could convince General Dows to return as a presidential advisor? From all that I have heard about her, including from my father, she is pure gold.’
‘’She is indeed pure gold, George. However, she is now doing what she loves the most: designing and piloting aircraft, so I doubt that even a crowbar could pull her out of here retirement place near Seattle. I do however have an advice for you about her.’
‘’Shoot!’
‘’If you ever feel like you could use her advice, then jump in a plane and go see her in Port Angeles. I am serious about that, George: she is that precious to us.’
‘’Gee! That’s some advice you are giving me, Ross. It could rile some of my advisors and cabinet members.’
‘’Fuck them! Dows is worth more by herself than the lot of them.’ replied rather unceremoniously the lame duck President of the United States.
09:33 (Eastern Standard Time)
Thursday, November 16, 2000 ‘C’
Sub-basement #1, The Pentagon
Arlington, Virginia
Despite having been told in advance that the historical Athena Files were heavily protected and guarded, Lizzy Brown was still impressed by the number of armed Marines and identity checkpoints she had to go through before arriving at the door of a basement office in the Pentagon. That door was made of steel and was protected by both a closed-circuit security camera pointed at it and by a security card reader box fixed on the wall, along with an intercom box.
’Hell! This must be about as secure as Fort Knox.’ thought the 26-year-old political intern and analyst as she approached the steel door. Thankfully, she had been issued with a proper security access card and she was able to swipe it and unlock the door, then enter in a surprisingly small room. It was however well lit and she saw at once the man with grey hair sitting in front of a computer console in a corner of the room.
That man in turn looked at her and smiled before getting up from his chair and coming to Lizzy with a hand extended for a shake.
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‘’You must be Miss Lizzy Brown, my replacement after all those years in the Mushroom Depository. I am Brent Widmark, Official Custodian of the Athena Files.’
‘’The Mushroom Depository?’ said the pretty African-American woman, confused. Widmark, who had to be in his early sixties, smiled at her reaction.
‘’Yes, the Mushroom Depository: where you are kept in the dark and fed shit.
Mind you, that nickname given to this place by my Marine guards is quite unjust: it is well-enough lit and the salary is most decent, while the job is positively fascinating.
However, I rarely seen the light of the Sun, especially in Winter, so the nickname does have some justification to it.’
‘’I see!’ said Lizzy, smiling in amusement. ‘’So, how long have you been working here, Mister Widmark?’
‘’Please, call me simply Brent. To answer you, I have been working down here, safeguarding and studying the Athena Files, since 1981, when President Reagan asked me to fill this post after the retirement of the previous custodian, who himself had been in function since 1952.’
‘’My god! This long?’
‘’Yes, and I never regretted taking that job. It may be a solitary one but, intellectually, it is the most fascinating job I ever had. Now, I will be able to happily retire…once they will have cut my tongue off.’
Lizzy took a step back while a horrified look came on her face. However, Widmark broke into laughter nearly at once.
‘’Just a joke! Sorry if I scared you but the confidentiality and security level of those old files cannot be overstated. You are after all going to deal with Top Security, Special Access, NoForn3 Athena files. By the way, can I see your security pass, miss, plus two identity cards with photos?’
‘’Uh, of course!’
Widmark closely examined her pass and two identity cards before giving them back to Lizzy.
‘’Excellent, miss: you are now part of the Mushroom Depository. Don’t worry about me abandoning you here right away: I will still stay on the job with you until this December Second, the date I will officially retire. I will thus have plenty of time to teach 3 NoForn : Short for ‘No Foreign Nationals’, a security caveat which means that a document could be read only by American citizens.
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you the job before I go. And don’t worry about being locked in alone with a man, Lizz: I am gay.’
‘’Wow! You are of surprising frankness, Brent: few federal employees would dare disclose that kind of information to other employees.’
‘’I know! However, I assume that if you were deemed trustworthy enough for this job, then you could keep secrets. Well, shall I show you your new kingdom, Lizzy?’’
‘’Please do, Brent.’ replied Lizzy, who was quickly starting to like that man, even if he was a bit weird.
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CHAPTER 6 – A BIT OF FLYING AROUND
08:55 (West Coast Time)
Monday, December 4, 2000 ‘C’
Prototype hangar, Hiller aircraft plant
Fairchild D. International Airport, Port Angeles Washington State, U.S.A.
Ingrid, along with another Hiller test pilot, John Meredith, and a test flight engineer named Carmen Morena, contemplated for a moment the prototype of the Hiller SKYTRUCK which they were going to test fly this morning for the first time. The prototype, sitting inside the workshop cum hangar in which it had been built, followed the now classic Hiller VTOL formula designed and patented by Ingrid for her original AIRCAR some fifteen years ago. The size of a small airliner, its fuselage was basically shaped like a narrow section of wing profile with four ducted propellers mounted on pivots fore and aft and on each side of the fuselage. The six powerful turboshaft engines, each rated at more than 8,000 horsepower, turned four ducted contra-rotating propellers, which could lift vertically up to 55 metric tons, or over 65 metric tons on short takeoffs. The result may not have been exactly appealing to the eye but that formula was in Ingrid’s opinion the most efficient design possible for a VTOL aircraft using propeller propulsion, something that the commercial success of the Hiller AIRCAR, PELICAN, SUPERCAR and AIRBIKE attested to. If her SKYTRUCK performed as expected, then Hiller was going to have a VTOL aircraft of unparallel capability and flexibility of use and should then be able to sell hundreds of them around the World.
‘’Well, time to see if this beast will hold its promises, guys.’ said Ingrid to her two crewmembers before starting to walk towards the aircraft. The three of them then climbed aboard via an opened forward side airstair, a combination door and staircase often found on smaller civilian aircraft. Once inside, they went to the door separating the forward facilities section and the cockpit, entering the latter and taking place in their respective seats. The cockpit area was unusually wide compared to that of most other aircraft, simply due to the fact that the fuselage width was eight meters from nose to tail, so that it could act like a lift-providing airfoil surface. However, that wide cockpit area
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also provided the crew with a large window area, thus giving the pilots an excellent view around their aircraft. Ingrid took the pilot’s seat, while John Meredith took the copilot’s seat to her right and Carmen Morena sat at the flight engineer’s station, situated further to the right and behind, on one side of the cockpit area. The mission specialist’s seat, situated to the left and behind Ingrid’s seat, was going to be left unoccupied for this inaugural test flight.
First switching on the various systems of their SKYTRUCK, Ingrid directed her crew through the preflight checklist and, when completed to her satisfaction, signaled by hand to the hangar mechanics that they could open the hangar doors and tow their aircraft out in the open. Ingrid made a smirk as the nose of her aircraft started emerging out of the hangar and into the grey daylight of this December early morning.
‘’Watch out for Boeing spies with cameras, guys: we are going to create some curiosity around us this morning.’
‘’They will probably say something like ‘what the fuck is this thing?’ replied Carmen Morena, making John Meredith chuckle briefly.
‘’I hope that they say that, Carmen. We kept a pretty tight veil of secrecy about this prototype. The only thing that they saw come out of this plant during the last year was a succession of PELICANs destined for the Navy.’
‘’And we will keep our commercial competition guessing by only doing conventional takeoffs and landings in the next few days.’ added Ingrid. ‘’We first need to make sure that our new SKYTRUCK behaves correctly in conventional flight mode and that it doesn’t hide some instability problem. I’m going to contact the control tower now.’
In the control tower of the Fairchild International Airport, the two air controllers on duty, who were accustomed to have mostly small private planes and a few small to medium airliners, grabbed their binoculars when they saw the SKYTRUCK, now fully out of its hangar, situated some 300 meters from the control tower.
‘’What the… Look at that thing that just rolled out of the Hiller plant. It looks like a Hiller PELICAN but is much bigger.’ said one of the air controllers, Jeff Chandler. His colleague, Michael Sturgis, examined the new aircraft for a few seconds before checking his list of registered flight plans for the day.
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‘’There it is, Jeff: the new Hiller SKYTRUCK, registered as Hiller X-06, is due to make its first test flight this morning. Basically, it will take off and then fly west towards the coast before conducting some test flying for a couple of hours.’
‘’And they are now calling us.’ replied Chandler. ‘’Hiller X-06, from Fairchild Tower, you have permission to taxi to Runway 8/26 and to take off when ready: there are no other aircraft in the circuit right now… Acknowledged! Have a good flight, Hiller X-06.’
Chandler and Sturgis then watched on as the Hiller SKYTRUCK, which was about as big as any other aircraft which customarily used their airport, rolled to one end of the main runway, then stopped there for a few minutes, probably to make its final pre-takeoff checks, before starting to accelerate down the runway with a roar denoting the power of its engines. It then took off in a very short distance, something that didn’t really surprise the two air controllers: Hiller specialized in making VSTOL4 aircraft, after all.
In the cockpit of the SKYTRUCK, Ingrid felt the usual joy she experienced every time she took off in an aircraft: flying was still her life, always had been since her first experience in glider flying at the tender age of thirteen in Germany.
‘’We took off in less than 400 meters and we didn’t need to push our engines to maximum or pivot our ducted propellers a few degrees upward. This beast has some serious guts.’
‘’Still in European metric mode instead of feet and knots, Ingrid?’ said her copilot in a playful tone. That made Ingrid grin to Meredith.
‘’And why not? This outdated Imperial System is going to eventually go the way of the dinosaurs. But you are right: when talking on the radio, I will revert to Caveman speech, as per international aviation rules.’
Carmen Morena, who was watching the engine parameters carefully on her instruments panel, shook her head in amusement.
‘’Here we go again: the perennial conflict between European and American Speak.’
‘’And what’s wrong with that, Carmen? Even the British saw the light and now use the Metric System instead of their old Imperial System. The United States is now 4 VSTOL : Vertical and Short Takeoff and Landing.
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about the only country in the World which still uses the Imperial System. But I diverge!
How are the engines behaving?’
‘’Smoothly and as they should be, Ingrid. Those Allison turboshaft engines are after all known for their reliability. So, what kind of tests will we do first?’
‘’Once over the Pacific, we will first concentrate on testing the stability of our aircraft in all axis while performing basic maneuvers at medium altitude and speed. If we don’t detect any problem, then we will try some transitions to STOL mode but we will refrain from trying full VTOL mode during this flight. We have to learn to walk before trying to run with this baby.’
That made both Meredith and Morena nod their heads in approval: Ingrid may have had a long history of flying exploits but she was no unnecessary risk-taker.
Three and a half hours later, they landed back at Fairchild International Airport and rolled back inside the Hiller prototype workshop/hangar, where Ingrid shut down her four engines and did a final check before getting up from her pilot’s seat.
‘’Well, that first flight went as well as I had hoped for, guys. We will gather our flight data, then will bring them to our test flight office before going for lunch. I don’t know about you but I am getting quite hungry.’
‘’Me too!’ said Carmen. ‘’What do you have in mind for tomorrow, Ingrid?’
‘’We will continue to follow our pre-established flight test program, Carmen. I want to make sure that our baby doesn’t hide any design vice before trying more unorthodox flying. After all, Rome wasn’t built in one day.’
18:24 (West Coast Time)
Ingrid’s home, South McDonald Street
West District, Port Angeles
Ingrid was tired but happy when she parked back her Firebird TRANS AM in her garage: she had worked hard at analyzing the results and data from her first test flight of the SKYTRUCK but the results were very promising, while the prototype had behaved very well in flight. Locking her car and closing her garage door, she walked to the entrance of her house and was about to unlock it when she spotted an envelope inside her mail box. Taking out that envelope and examining it, she suddenly felt joy fill her: it was from her old friend and wingman Shirley Slade, who had been working with another
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old friend of Ingrid as a pilot for Air Philippines in Manila. Hurrying to unlock her door, Ingrid entered her house and closed and locked back the door before opening the envelope and extracting from it two folded paper pages and two small pictures. The pictures made her smile at once: they showed her friends, Shirley Slade and Elizabeth Gardner, veteran pilots from the 99th Composite Wing, nicknamed ‘The Fifinellas’, which she had personally formed as an air group in1942 and then led into combat during World War 2 and the First Korean War. In the photos, taken recently, her two friends appeared to be in their late fifties but also looked to be still fit and healthy. However, Ingrid knew very well that both of them were born in 1921, thus were presently 79-years-old. Their apparent youth was in fact due to having been rejuvenated by the Archangel Michael in 1985, at Ingrid’s request. Reading the two-page letter made Ingrid’s smile widen: they were planning to visit her during the coming holidays while taking some vacation time from their flying job in the Philippines. All ideas of making supper for herself now set aside, she hurried upstairs to her private study, in order to write back to her friends and tell them that they were most welcome to come to Port Angeles.
17:03 (West Coast Time)
Thursday, December 21, 2000 ‘C’
Passenger terminal, Fairchild International Airport Port Angeles
Elizabeth Gardner, age 21 in 1942.
Shirley Slade, age 21 in 1942.
Having been warned in advance by telephone of their arrival by plane from Seattle, Ingrid was on hand to greet Shirley Slade and Elizabeth Gardner when they
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entered the small passenger terminal of the Fairchild International Airport, walking in after disembarking from the small twin-engine prop aircraft which had brought them to Port Angeles. Since it was a domestic flight, Ingrid was able to go hug them joyfully and kiss them on the cheeks the moment they were inside the terminal.
‘’Shirley! Libby! It is so good to see you again after all these years.’
‘’And it also a joy to see you, Ingrid. You look as youthful as ever.’
Ingrid nodded at that while examining the faces of her two friends. Both looked to be around their late fifties, despite being in reality 79 years-old, something they could thank the rejuvenation done on them fifteen years ago by the Archangel Michael. There was however something that she noticed in their expression, which seemed a bit guarded.
‘’Is something bothering you, girls? You look a bit preoccupied.’
The smiles on Shirley’s and Elizabeth’s face then faded, to be replaced by sober looks.
‘’I see that you are still as perceptive as ever, Ingrid. The truth is that we didn’t tell you everything about us in our letter. However, we would prefer to talk with you about that in private.’
Her own smile fading, Ingrid stared at her friends for a moment, then pointed at the luggage carrousel of the arrival terminal.
‘’Let’s recuperate your luggage first, then I will be able to drive you to my home.
It is less than a mile from the airport.’
Keeping in her head the questions she now had about what happened to her friends, Ingrid helped them as their suitcases rolled past them on the carrousel. The sheer number of their suitcases however both surprised and worried her.
‘’Six suitcases and bags? How long is your vacation in the United States supposed to be?’
‘’We’re back in the United States for good, Ingrid: we don’t work anymore for Air Philippines. We will explain once at your house.’
Now frankly worried for her friends, Ingrid still managed to stay mum and put their luggage on two baggage carts, then led them out of the arrival terminal and to her car.
She scratched her head when she saw that the mountain of luggage brought by Shirley and Elizabeth was not going to fit in the trunk of her TRANS AM.
‘’Gee! How are we going to fit all of this in my car?’
‘’Let me sit in the back, then pile suitcases and bags over me, Ingrid.’ suggested Elizabeth. Ingrid nodded to that and stuffed what she could into her car trunk, then put the three remaining suitcases on the rear seat and over Elizabeth’s legs. Getting behind
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the wheel, she started her engine and backed out of her parking spot, then started rolling at moderate speed towards her house, situated to the North of the airport. She tried to thaw the atmosphere a bit by making an announcement to her friends while driving.
‘’You will be happy to learn that my daughter Nancy is going to visit me just after Christmas. I believe that you never saw her as a grown girl, right?’
‘’Correct! She was still a toddler when we saw her in Vandenberg.’
‘’Then, I am sure that she will be happy to see you again, Shirley.’
They then fell mostly silent during the rest of the drive. Parking her car in her garage, Ingrid helped her two friends with their suitcases and unlocked the front door for them, then led them up to the upper floor, where they were able to drop their suitcases in Ingrid’s guest bedroom.
‘’Alright! Let’s go down to the lounge, so that we could discuss at ease, girls.’
Her two friends nodded at that and followed her down to the lounge, where they sat in a sofa pointed to by Ingrid, who herself sat in an easy chair set to one side of the sofa.
‘’Okay, girls, what is happening with you?’
It was Elizabeth who answered her this time, talking in a voice tainted with discouragement.
‘’Basically, we were doing well in Manila and were greatly appreciated by the Air Philippines staff at the airport…that is until a new CEO took control of the company some three months ago. That man quickly proved to be a complete misogynist, on top of being an incompetent. Unfortunately, he had obtained his position thanks to some dirty politicking and family influence, so nobody dared put him back on the right track.
Last November, we were notified that the company would retire us ‘due to our advanced age’ and that we would be terminated before the end of the year. We tried to plea our cause but the bastard refused to listen to us. By the way, he also fired most of the women who occupied managerial positions at the company at about the same time he terminated us. We then tried to find employment with the other airlines flying out of Manila but got nowhere. With our last paycheck deposited in mid-December in our bank accounts, we then had no choice but to sell our furniture, leave our apartments and go back to the United States, with the hope of finding employment as pilots here.
Unfortunately, we faced even less sympathy than in Manila, being told that we were too old to be commercial pilots. While that is technically true, if you look at our biological age, we are still perfectly fit to fly in my opinion but nobody listened to that argument. To
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make things worse, when we returned to our native state of Illinois, we found out that our direct relatives were all dead or in old age establishments, while the few nephews and nieces we still had barely recognized us. While they stayed polite, they did not or could not offer us any help. So, here we are, with a few suitcases being the only things we still have and with nowhere to go. We still touch our old military pension but, since we retired from the service decades ago, inflation has seriously impacted our pensions, while we got only a small separation bonus from Air Philippines. It… We…’
Elizabeth then choked up as tears appeared in her eyes. Ingrid hurriedly jumped out of her chair and went to sit next to her, passing an arm around her shoulders.
‘’Don’t worry, Elizabeth. You and Shirley still have many friends, including me.
Tell me what you would like to do in the coming future and I will do my best to make it happen.’
‘’Thanks, Ingrid! You are too kind. Both me and Shirley would like to be able to continue flying for a living but all the possibilities we explored were closed to us, due to our age.’
‘’Would you prefer to fly as a civilian or as a military pilot?’
Ingrid’s question made both Elizabeth and Shirley nearly jump back in their sofa.
‘’Military pilots, us? They would be the last to accept us and you know it, Ingrid.’
‘’Why would they refuse a pair of young and highly experienced aviators with chests covered with medals?’
The two women stared in incomprehension at her for a moment before Shirley suddenly understood what she had in mind.
‘’You want to rejuvenate us again? Do you have that power yourself? Last time, it was an archangel who rejuvenated us.’
‘’I know but I do have some power of rejuvenation, girls. In fact, I used it once a few years ago, to help a trio of Russian friends who were in big trouble with their government. And if I am not powerful enough to fully rejuvenate you, then my daughter, who is a half-angel, will be able to do it. She in fact could easily return you to what you looked like when you joined the Fifinellas in 1942, when you were 21-years-old. Once that will be done, then you will be able to get the jobs you want.’
‘’But nobody will believe us if we tell them that we are 79-years-old, Ingrid!’
‘’Pooh pooh! And you think that it was always easy for me to get into some of the nightclubs I went into? I was carded more times than I could remember. You will just need to get updated identity papers once rejuvenated.’
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‘’And you think that by itself will be easy?’
‘’Shirley, I still have a lot of powerful and influential contacts around the country, including at the Pentagon and at the White House. Believe me when I say that I can arrange that fairly easily.’’
Shirley and Elizabeth looked hesitantly at each other, then looked back at Ingrid.
‘’Very well, Ingrid. If this could really work, then we would love to join back the Air Force.’
‘’What about joining the Space Corps?’ countered at once Ingrid, stunning her two friends for a moment.
‘’Us, go into Space?’
‘’Why not? The only obstacle I would see is the qualification requirements for a science or engineering diploma. You do have diplomas, I hope?’
‘’Yes, we do, from our previous service in the Air Force. Thank you for being willing to do so much for us, Ingrid.’
‘’Friends are friends!’ said Ingrid while starring at them. ‘’Ready for a little fountain of youth?’
‘’Let me do this, Ingrid.’ suddenly said a male voice from behind the sofa where Shirley and Elizabeth were sitting. Snapping their heads around, both women then saw a tall and very handsome man dressed in a white robe and who was smiling down at them.
‘’ARCHANGEL MICHAEL!’ shouted in unison the two women. The archangel nodded his head once while still smiling.
‘’Just Michael will do, my friends. Come and hug me tight.’
Shirley and Elizabeth didn’t have to be told twice and nearly jumped over the sofa in order to get to him. With both of his arms around the women, Michael then closed his eyes and started glowing progressively brighter and brighter, until Ingrid couldn’t look directly at the trio. After about thirty seconds, the glow decreased in brightness, until it was all gone. Ingrid felt intense joy at seeing that her two friends now looked in their early twenties. However, her friends in turn gasped while starring at her with big eyes.
‘’INGRID, YOU’RE NOW A TEENAGER!’
That froze Ingrid for a moment, until Michael flashed a big, malicious grin at her.
Ingrid Dows, rejuvenated…again!
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‘’You think that I would rejuvenate your two friends while not gifting you with a bit of my power, Ingrid? You are now as beautiful and tempting as you had ever been. Oh, I forgot a little detail about all three of you.’
At first, Ingrid and her two friends didn’t understand what Michael was talking about.
Then, Shirley looked down at her chest and opened her eyes wide.
‘’MY TITS! THEY ARE GROWING!’
‘’MINE TOO!’ said Elizabeth in a disbelieving tone. Ingrid, who had already had her breasts enlarged once via spiritual power, simply smiled while watching her own breasts grow rapidly in size, until she spoke up.
‘’Okay, Michael, that’s enough! I don’t want to look like Dolly Parton.’
‘’If you say so, Ingrid. Well, my job is now done here. Have fun with your new bodies, girls.’
Michael then disappeared from where he stood, leaving the three young women…or rather two young women and one teenager, alone in the lounge. Shirley, whose breasts were now bulging out of her bra, removed her shirt and unclipped her bra to relieve the pressure on her breasts, then removed her bra entirely.
‘’Oof! My bra was nearly stopping me from breathing properly. My God! With such a nice chest, I should be able to catch every man around me.’
Elizabeth, who did not wear a bra due to the original small size of her breasts, now had her chest bulging through her T-shirt. Going to a wall mirror near the entrance door and looking at herself, she held her face in her two hands, still having difficulty believing what had just happened. For good measure, she pulled up her T-shirt to better examine her enhanced chest and liked what she saw.
‘’Hell, why didn’t I have that kind of chest when I was in college?’
‘’Well, you could now visit back your old college and see how the boys there react to you, Elizabeth.’ said Ingrid jokingly before becoming serious again. ‘’How about that we go have supper together, my friends? I know a really nice restaurant where they serve a great clam chowder soup. They also have a nice smoked salmon chowder.’
‘’Clam chowder? I haven’t eaten one in years. What are we waiting for?’
13:19 (West Coast Time)
Friday, December 22, 2000 ‘C’
Head offices of the Hiller Aircraft Corporation Firebaugh, California
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Jeff Hiller had risen from his chair behind his executive desk, so that he could greet Ingrid with a handshake, but then froze while staring with incredulity at her.
‘’My God, Ingrid! What happened to you? You look so…young.’
What jeff didn’t dare add was that he had also noticed how her chest, which had been already quite attractive before, was now most prominent, making him react in an involuntary way. Ingrid, with Shirley and Elizabeth standing behind her, gave him a disarming smile.
‘’This is the new me, Jeff: younger, better and sexier than ever, thanks to some supernatural rejuvenation from an angel. However, I didn’t come to see you to parade my renewed beauty, although I suspect that you are not going to protest about having to look at me. I came to ask a favor from you, on behalf of my two friends here.’
‘’Hell, I could spend the whole day just admiring you, Ingrid. Alright, what can I do for your friends?’
‘’Let me first present them to you, Jeff: to my left is Elizabeth Gardner and to my right is Shirley Slade. Both of them fought as fighter pilots at my side in World War 2
and are 79-years-old in biological terms. They were rejuvenated at the same time as me yesterday, in my home in Port Angeles.’
Jeff looked in turn at both young women before something came to his mind.
‘’Hey, aren’t you the two Air Philippines pilots who managed to foil a hijacking plot some five years ago? That was all over the news then and you were described as veterans from the Fifinellas, a group of female military aviators I always admired.’
‘’It’s us alright, Mister Hiller.’ answered Elizabeth Gardner, reassured by the tone of voice used by Jeff Hiller to describe them. ‘’Unfortunately, Air Philippines recently got a new CEO whose main attribute is crass misogyny. That new CEO, once in place, basically fired or terminated all his senior female staff and pilots, pretending that we were not up to par by his standards. In our case, he relied on the excuse that we were too old to fly for his company, although we were then physically in our fifties. Having worked as pilots in the Philippines for nearly fifteen years, we suddenly found ourselves without a job, with only our old military pensions to sustain us, so we came to the United States to ask for Ingrid’s help. In response, her guardian archangel, Michael, apparently heard our pleas and came to Ingrid’s house, where he rejuvenated us back to how we were as young women when we enlisted in the Fifinellas in 1942. Now, we wish to continue our lives as pilots, so came to see you with Ingrid.’
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‘’Did you consider joining back the Air Force? You were considered as elite fighter pilots before, no?’
It was Shirley who answered Jeff on this.
‘’We did at first, on the advice of Ingrid. However, we then quickly realized that rejoining the Air Force after having been the beneficiaries of military pensions for nearly twenty years would entail a truly nightmarish administrative and financial circus, including the need for us to reimburse hundreds of thousands of dollars of pension money to the government before we could reenlist. So, we decided on trying for civilian pilot jobs. Unfortunately, before visiting Ingrid in Port Angeles, we had sent our resumés to dozens of airlines and aircraft companies in the United States but were turned down by all of them because of our age. We were becoming truly desperate by the time we went to see Ingrid yesterday.’
Jeff looked soberly at the two young women then, truly moved by their plight. He had truly admired the female pilots of the Fifinellas during his youth and still did, even though many of them had by now died of old age.
‘’Alright, let’s sit down on those sofas in my discussion corner, ladies.’
Encouraged by the initial reaction from Jeff, Elizabeth and Shirley went to sit in one sofa, while Ingrid and Jeff took easy chairs. Jeff, now armed with a pen and a notepad, looked first at Shirley.
‘’Alright, Miss Slade. Could you list your qualifications as a pilot, military and civilian, including the types you flew in and your total of flying hours?’
‘’With pleasure, Mister Hiller. I already had 340 hours of flying time on small private aircraft when I joined the Fifinellas in 1942. I was then trained on the Lockheed P-38N fighter before being deployed to the Pacific Theatre on P-38s. I fought in the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Papua-New Guinea Campaign and the Dutch West Indies Campaign before World War 2 came to an end. I then stayed with the Fifinellas after the war, still flying on P-38s while stationed in the Philippines. I also fought in the First Korean War, then in the Indochina War, where I flew on F-83 supersonic jet fighters.
From Indochina, I went to Palestine with my unit, still flying a F-83, and downed a number of Arab aircraft in that conflict. Afterwards, I was posted to Germany, where I took command of a F-83 squadron and fought in the East Europe War of 1955, shooting down an additional seven enemy aircraft. After Germany, I was posted to the United States and continued to fly on F-83 until I retired from the service in 1983 with the rank of colonel. That was when me and Elizabeth decided to go to the Philippines after being
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turned down as pilots by American civilian airlines. There, we were hired by Air Philippines and flew on Convair 800 for over fourteen years before being terminated. I personally have a total of 14,755 flying hours recorded and was credited with 41 air victories by the Air Force.’
‘’Impressive!’ said Jeff, meaning it, before looking at Elizabeth Gardner. ‘’And you, Miss Gardner?’
‘’I basically followed a similar path to Shirley and flew in the same aircraft types and in the same wars. I retired from the Air Force in 1983 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel and with 33 enemy aircraft credited shot down. My total of flying hours stands at 13,990 hours.’
Taking note of that on his notepad, Jeff then sat back in his easy chair and looked in silence at the two women for a moment before speaking.
‘’I may have something for you, ladies. Know that my company’s business is presently booming, thanks to the various designs invented for us by Ingrid. We are actually barely able to cope with the orders we get from our customers around the World and are building and delivering a monthly average total of over fourteen AIRCARs, AIRBIKEs, AIRBUS and PELICANs for our customers. As a result, our pilots used to deliver those machines are quite overwhelmed and could use some extra help. Know that my company uses, among other transport aircraft, a pair of Convair 800-200, which we use to carry AIRCARs and AIRBIKEs to their customers in the United States and in Europe. The Convair 800 is actually perfect for that role, as it is very economical to use, is reliable and can land at about any airport, including small general aviation airports, where many of our customers are. I can thus offer to both of you full-time positions as Convair 800 pilots. If you accept those positions, you will then operate and fly from our main production plant in Palo Alto, California, with an annual salary of 105,000 dollars.
So, what do you say, ladies?’
Elizabeth and Shirley looked at each other with big grins on their faces, then exploded into a loud cheer.
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CHAPTER 7 – TERROR ATTACK
20:29 (Afghanistan Time)
House of Osama Bin Laden, Kandahar
