07:21 (Washington Time)
Monday, January 7, 1974 ‘C’
Pentagon parking lot
Arlington, Virginia
U.S.A.
The passage of the fiery red Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, along with its powerful engine’s roar, made a lot of heads turn among the military and civilian personnel arriving at the Pentagon to start their day shift. The muscle car then went to park in one of the spots reserved for the general officers belonging to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Those now staring with envy at the car then switched their attention to Ingrid when she stepped out of her Trans Am, wearing a type of uniform never seen before by them. Since the weather this morning was relatively mild for the season, she had not put on her winter coat, instead carrying it in one hand while carrying a briefcase in her other hand. That allowed the onlookers to have a better look at her dark blue uniform, composed of shiny black boots rising to her calves, close-fitting dark blue trousers molding her legs and buttocks, with black sidebands along the outer sides of the legs and with the bottoms tucked inside her boots, plus a double-breasted dark blue vest with black panels covering the upper chest and back area and a dark blue Robin Hood-style hat with white, red and gold trimmings. The cut of the vest, which contoured closely her torso and enhanced her chest, was further underlined by a large shiny black leather belt with silver buckle, from which was suspended over her left hip a large female black leather purse with silver trimming. Two Air Force enlisted women close by held their breath while saluting Ingrid, who was now walking towards one of the access points of the Pentagon. The younger one spoke in a near whisper to her friend once Ingrid was far enough away not to hear her.
‘’Did you see that uniform? It’s gorgeous! I would kill to be able to wear such an outfit at the office.’’
‘’There will be a lot of male tongues hanging out at her passage, Mary: that uniform sure enhances her body curves. It also looks like it comes straight out of some science-fiction movie. I can’t wait to hear the small talk around the Pentagon at the end of this day.’’
The military policemen manning the access control point of the huge building did their best not to stare at Ingrid as she showed her security pass and walked in while being saluted. One young corporal however couldn’t resist staring at her buttocks, well molded by her trousers made from stretchable cotton-spandex fabric, as Ingrid was walking away.
‘’Wow, what an ass!’’ he whispered to himself, making his sergeant give him a warning look.
‘’Watch what you say about a four-star general, Corporal.’’
That MP sergeant then stared himself at Ingrid’s bum.
‘‘But you are right. What an ass indeed!’’
After walking the close to 250 meters of corridors separating the access point from the offices of her command, Ingrid stopped briefly to watch three civilian workers in the process of replacing the old Military Space Command emblem fixed over the entrance to her offices with the new United States Space Corps emblem, on which figured prominently the Latin moto ‘Ad Astra’.
‘’To the stars! A fitting moto indeed for the Space Corps.’’ said Ingrid to herself before entering the section housing the offices of her command. As in the sections of the Pentagon through which she had just gone, her uniform made her own command personnel stare at her, while all work stopped on her passage. Smiling to the men and women now looking at her, Ingrid stopped and spoke out loud.
‘’IF I MAY HAVE EVERYBODY’S ATTENTION FOR A MOMENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. PLEASE GATHER AROUND ME.’’
She soon had over forty men and women forming a semi-circle around her, all of them still wearing Air Force uniforms.
‘’Ladies and gentlemen, what you see now is the female version of the new going-out uniform the personnel of our Space Corps will soon wear. The male version will be quite similar, except that the belt will not support a purse. To turn this going-out uniform into our new parade uniform, you will only need to pin your medals over their medal ribbons sewn on the left breast of the vest, plus will either suspend a parade dagger to the belt in the case of NCOs and enlisted personnel, or put on a sash supporting a ceremonial sword in the case of officers. To switch to office or relaxed dress, you will simply need to do this.’’
Ingrid then removed her hat and belt, passing both to a nearby female staff sergeant, and undid the large front flap of her double-breasted vest, which was held by hidden pressure buttons. Next, she unzipped the long vertical zipper hidden under the front panel and took off her vest, also giving it to the staff sergeant. Her personnel were now able to clearly see the light blue short-sleeved shirt with open collar that she wore under the vest, with a sky-blue bow tie covering her open collar. The top of her trousers, now visible, consisted of a wide horizontal black elastic band of Spandex tissue which closely molded her waist and hips. That elastic band, over twenty centimeters in width, in turn supported two front pouches made of flexible black tissue and closed by zippers along their top edge.
‘’This will be our customary office dress here, ladies and gentlemen. The elastic waist band precludes the need to use a hard leather belt, while the two front pouches replace the usual trouser pockets. Men will wear a sky-blue ascot instead of the bow tie reserved for women. In Winter time, the going-out uniform is supplemented with a winter coat like the one I was carrying in one arm and by gloves. Both the hat and the boots can in turn be replaced by warmer cold-weather variants. I selected the fabric used in our new uniforms so that they would be rain and wrinkle-resistant and also be comfortable to wear. For tougher, dirtier work, we will also have both a dark blue utilitarian loose two-piece coverall and a camouflaged two-piece combat uniform. Both of those two last uniforms will be worn with laced, heavy-duty boots. Do you have any questions up to now on our new uniforms?’’
Quite a few hands shot up at once, making her point a young female corporal.
‘’Yes, Corporal Singer?’’
‘’The boots you are presently wearing have only slightly elevated soles, General. Does that mean that we won’t wear high-heel shoes anymore?’’
‘’That’s correct, Corporal. High-heel shoes, like female skirts, will be a thing of the past in our new Corps.’’
That announcement brought a chorus of cheers from the female staff members, making Ingrid smile before she pointed a male sergeant who had his hand up.
‘’You’re next, Sergeant!’’
‘’Thank you, General! What about hot-climate environments, like in New Mexico and California, or Florida?’’
‘’Aaah, a judicious question indeed! On top of our going-out, utilitarian and combat uniforms, we will also have a jungle/desert uniform, made of short pants with cargo pockets, a T-shirt, a pair of soft ankle boots and a baseball cap or wide-brimmed flexible jungle hat. To return briefly to our winter uniform, the going out short-sleeved shirt I am wearing can be either supplemented or replaced by a dark blue wool turtleneck sweater over a blue undershirt.’’
‘’And when could we expect to be kitted out with those new uniforms, General?’’
‘’Well, know that I performed a private demonstration of our new uniforms, with my official driver acting as the male model, in front of both Admiral Moorer and of the Secretary of Defense last Friday night, to gain their approval for them. They both liked our new uniforms, so I will be officially firing away this morning with your help mass production contracts for them. One last point: both the ranks we presently use and the various insignias we wear, which are from the Air Force, will stay the same, so no need for you to acquire expensive new sets or to sew new ranks on your uniforms.’’
‘’General, what is the meaning of the words ‘Ad Astra’?’’
‘’Ad Astra means in Latin ‘To the Stars’ and is the moto of our new Space Corps. I am sure that you will all make our Corps proud, ladies and gentlemen. Now, let’s get back to work, so that we could order our new uniforms as quickly as possible.’’
Ingrid did not have to repeat herself, as her men and women returned at once with renewed enthusiasm to their desks.
08:06 (California Time)
Thursday, January 10, 1974 ‘C’
Lockheed ‘Skunk Works’ Advanced Development Projects complex
Eastern side of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport
Burbank, California
Clarence Leonard ‘Kelly’ Johnson had an instant smile on his face on seeing through a glass partition Ingrid approach his office inside the ‘Skunk Works’, the very special aerospace plant belonging to Lockheed and which he directed. Getting up from his desk, he quickly walked to his office door and opened it for Ingrid, shaking her hands as soon as she arrived at the door.
‘’Ingrid, it is so nice to see you again! I haven’t seen you in, what, three years?’’
‘’You can blame my two-year trip to Mars for that, Kelly. I am in fact here for another space project in which you may well be interested.’’
‘’All of the projects you presented to us proved to be interesting, Ingrid. But please, take a seat. By the way, nice new uniform: you must have made a few of my male engineers drop their coffee cups on the way to my office.’’
That brought a malicious grin on Ingrid’s face as she entered the office and went to sit in a padded chair near Kelly’s work desk.
‘’You know that I always liked to attract men’s attention, Kelly. This is the new regulation female going-out uniform for my new Space Corps.’’
‘’It is a truly nice uniform, quite futuristic too. I like it!’’
‘’Thanks! What I have in mind for Lockheed as a project is the development of a successor to our SP-10 spaceplane. The SP-10 has served us in an outstanding manner for many years and is still doing so, but its design is now nearly twenty years old and it is due for a replacement. One of the main things I will want in a new design will be the ability to take off conventionally by itself from a normal airport and climb to orbit on its own power, without having to use a transporter aircraft to bring it to a high altitude first, like the SP-10 does. As you can imagine, such a single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft, or SSTO, will push our aerospace technology to its limit, but I already have a few ideas and possible solutions in mind for this project.’’
Kelly Johnson nodded his head once at her last words, knowing that she was not simply bragging: Ingrid held a Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Boston’s M.I.T. and had already participated in the development of many cutting edge technologies and aircraft designs, including the SP-10 spaceplane used by her command and in which she had become the first person ever to fly into Space and attain Earth orbit. She was also still the American ‘Ace of aces’, with a combat air kill score, accumulated during no less than five wars, which was not about to be equaled. She was thus the ultimate combination of designer and user of advanced aircraft and spacecraft.
‘’Your ideas are always welcomed here, Ingrid. So, what will be the main job of that new spaceplane? Insertion in orbit of large loads?’’
‘’No!’’ replied Ingrid at once, surprising Kelly. ‘’What I want is a space interceptor, or more exactly a multi-mission space fighter.’’
‘’A space interceptor?’’ nearly shouted the 63-year-old chief engineer. ‘’Uh, tell me more, Ingrid.’’
‘’With pleasure, Kelly. Our new spaceplane, which I will name for the moment as the ‘SFX’, will be able to indeed carry a small compact payload into orbit, but orbiting payloads will only be a secondary mission for it. Its main mission will be as a quick-reaction space interceptor and strike craft, with a secondary mission of orbital rescue of stranded astronauts. Another mission will be strategic photo-reconnaissance, using both high-definition cameras and mapping radars. I have brought with me a number of preliminary sketches and notes I did on my spare time during my return trip from Mars. In that, I was helped greatly by the fact that half of my Mars crew was composed of highly skilled engineers and physicists. We had quite a few brain-storming sessions as a group on the subject of future space systems and you would be blown away by some of the ideas that came out of those sessions.’’
Ingrid then took out of the briefcase she had been carrying a file marked ‘Top Secret’ and passed it to Johnson, who eagerly took it and opened it. He read quickly the four pages of notes and the accompanying half-dozen sketches and technical drawings before looking back at Ingrid with glinting eyes.
‘’This looks positively fantastic, Ingrid! Your project will truly revolutionize space travel.’’
‘’Our project, Kelly.’’ corrected Ingrid. ‘’I may be providing the basic concept, but you and your engineers will be the ones in charge of turning this into a concrete reality. Do you see any problem area right away?’’
‘’No! While revolutionary, your concept uses a variety of technologies already in use by us and which we pretty well master. The only trick will be to assemble those technologies the right way and make them work together.’’
‘’And how long before you think that you could produce a first prototype for testing?’’
Johnson looked again at the sketches and specifications shown in the file before answering Ingrid.
‘’If we make this our top priority project, then I believe that we could have a first prototype ready for flight testing in two years, three at the most.’’
‘’Excellent! I am in fact asking for top priority status for this project, with a contract premium to go with it. So, what do you think?’’
‘’That Lockheed would be stupid not to sign such a contract, Ingrid. I will certainly push hard for the big bosses to accept that contract. Uh, may I ask a question?’’
‘’Anytime, Kelly! What do you want to know?’’
‘’Well, if this SFX project is not meant to place payloads in Earth orbit, then what will replace the SP-10 in that role? Or do you intend to keep the SP-10 in service for that?’’
‘’I do want to get something better and more economical to use than the SP-10 in order to place payloads in orbit, but it will not be the SFX. I have another project for that, which I have already initiated and given to the research and development division of my Space Corps, in White Sands, New Mexico. I call it a ‘mass driver’ and it will basically be a giant, twelve-kilometer-long sky-jump launch ramp, which will use sets of electro-magnets to accelerate a payload vehicle to over Mach 2 before launching it from the ground, allowing pure ramjet engines to then accelerate that payload vehicle and make it climb to altitude at very low cost. A reusable rocket booster integrated to the payload vehicle will then kick the payload into orbit. Right now, I am hoping that this method will cut the cost of launching payloads in low Earth orbit by a factor of at least five or six. That method will also allow the launching of very large or heavy payloads, since the payload will not be limited anymore by the lifting capacity of our C-2000 heavy transporters.’’
‘’Wow! You keep surprising me with your imagination, Ingrid. Be assured that we will have our arms wide open for you the day when you retire from military service.’’
That made Ingrid smile in apparent appreciation.
‘’And I may just take you on that offer in a few years, Kelly. To work here at the Skunk Works would definitely be a nice way for me to switch to a civilian career. However, don’t hold your breath in the meantime: I may still have a decade or more of service ahead of me, despite the desperate efforts of many other senior officers to get rid of me so that they themselves could rise in rank and take my place. In view of my unusual prolonged youth, President Kennedy already signed an executive order exempting me from the mandatory military retirement age limit.’’
Johnson stared at her in silence for a moment, then spoke in a soft tone.
‘’Ingrid, you know how many American women would be ready to kill to be able to stay young the way you do?’’
‘’Just American women, Kelly? Hell, half of the World population is jealous of me because of that. Actually, it could be even more than that: I didn’t count all the old male shmucks who would love to know the secret of my eternal youth.’’
‘’I know: I am one of those old male shmucks, Ingrid.’’ replied Johnson in a humble tone, making Ingrid giggle.
16:14 (Vietnam Time)
Friday, January 25, 1974 ‘C’
Imperial Palace, Hue
Republic of Vietnam
While applauding like the others standing near Secretary of State Edmund Muskie and Chairman Deng Xiaoping, who had just signed a peace accord between their two countries, Hien felt a wave of pride and joy wash over her. As Muskie’s personal choice as his translator for these peace talks, she had been able to play a role, however small, in putting an official end to a horrible war which had cost a total of more than eight million dead, plus untold millions of wounded and sick from radiations. Two decades ago, when asked by Ingrid near the radioactive ruins of Berlin what she wanted to become as an adult, she had answered that she wanted to become a diplomat, in order to help prevent or stop wars. Now, her wish had been fully realized and she couldn’t possibly be prouder.