INGRID DOWS - AN ALTERNATE STORY PART 3 - THE SPACE AGE by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 17 – PEGASUS ALOFT

08:54 (California Time)

Friday, May 09, 1952 ‘C’

Main gate of the Hughes Aircraft prototype complex

Glendale Grand Central Airport, Los Angeles

California, U.S.A.

Jeff Brooks, a local reporter affiliated with CBS, was recording a piece with his cameraman, some ten meters short of the barrier of the main gate of the Hughes prototype complex, when he noticed that his cameraman seemed to be distracted by something.

‘’Hey, Chuck, are you paying attention to me?’’

The response from his cameraman, who had a stunned look on his face, was to point a hesitant finger towards the big building housing the prototype assembly hall.

‘’Look...look at that!’’

Jeff twisted his head around to look at that direction, then became speechless for a couple of seconds before speaking excitedly to his cameraman.

‘’FILM THAT THING, CHUCK! I WILL COMMENT WHILE YOU RECORD THIS.’’

‘’Hell, I am already doing that, Jeff.’’

Both of them then followed with their eyes (and camera lens) the big, fantastic-looking aircraft now being towed out of the assembly hall by an aircraft tractor. Jeff had seen plenty of planes before as a reporter but this one was positively unique, with slender, clean lines clearly meant for speed. That plane then stopped on the tarmac for a few minutes, time to light up its two huge jet engines sitting in a pod fixed atop its tail. While it did so, Jeff hurriedly ran to the gate after telling Chuck to continue filming the plane, in order to ask a question to one of the three female security guards posted there.

‘’Sorry to disturb you, ladies, but do you know anything about this big aircraft about to take off?’’

‘’Us?’’ replied with a smile the senior guard, a big, tough-looking woman in her thirties. ‘’We only know what Miss Dows deems necessary to tell us...which is this.’’

The guard then handed to a surprised Jeff a single sheet of paper taken from atop a pile of similar sheets staked atop a counter inside the guard shack.

‘’Miss Dows has prepared this data sheet concerning her newest plane, to be handed to those with questions. Please don’t ask me more questions: I only know what is printed on that sheet.’’

Jeff’s eyes grew wider as he read the one-page document, which also included line drawings and a color picture of the plane now sitting on the tarmac.

‘’A supersonic airliner? This is going to be top news!’’

‘’You can bet your ass on that, mister.’’

Returning to the side of his cameraman, Jeff then positioned himself so that he could be filmed while not blocking the view to the fantastic aircraft.

‘’Ladies and gentlemen listeners, what you see now as it is about to take off on its first test flight is the new Hughes PEGASUS supersonic airliner. According to a fact sheet kindly given to me by Hughes personnel, it is built to fly at a cruising speed of Mach 1.9, or nearly 1,250 miles per hour, and will be able to fly across the whole Pacific while carrying 240 passengers in top comfort, and this without the need to stop on the way to refuel. If it keeps its promises, this Hughes PEGASUS is going to revolutionize long-range air travel. It has now started to roll towards one end of the single runway of Glendale Airport. We will now continue filming, so you can watch it take off.’’ The drivers using Flower Street, also taken by the sight of the sleek aircraft, quickly slowed down and stopped on the side of the road in order to watch it like Jeff and Chuck. Once at the extremity of the runway, the PEGASUS pivoted on the spot to line itself with the runway’s centerline. There was then a short pause before the noise of its engines dramatically rose in pitch and intensity. The big airliner, which was in fact the largest plane Jeff had ever seen, then accelerated down the runway at an incredible rate, its nose rotating upwards after a ground roll of less than a thousand meters, then flew off like a bat out of Hell while heading towards nearby Burbank. Jeff then spoke up as the huge airliner was disappearing in the distance.

‘’WOW! What a demonstration of power and speed, ladies and gentlemen. Ingrid Dows, who is according to the data sheet given to me piloting her PEGASUS on this first flight, is again demonstrating her genius concerning aircraft desig n...’’

At the Burbank’s Lockheed aircraft factory and administrative center, chief aircraft designer Kelly Johnson, attracted to a window of his office by the growing noise of powerful jet engines, opened his mouth wide when the PEGASUS overflew Burbank while still climbing.

‘’My God! She just fucked us in the ass big time...again!’’

09:18 (California Time)

Cockpit of Hughes PEGASUS 01

Flying towards Muroc Air Force Base

California

‘’Landing gear and flaps retracted. We are now at 20,000 feet and climbing. You are sure that you don’t want to go supersonic on this flight, Ingrid?’’

‘’Yes! This baby cost way too much to build to risk it without good reasons. Let’s make sure first that it is stable and safe to fly in the subsonic domain, then we will explore its supersonic domain during later flights. The airspace over Muroc, with its zone restricted to military flights, will be a safe one to test the PEGASUS. It also offers a huge, flat landing area for us if anything goes wrong.’’

Katharine nodded her head once at that: Ingrid may be a wild pilot when need be but she always flew responsibly, especially when testing for the first time a new plane. Looking at their radar display screen, she noticed a fast blip at its forward edge.

‘’We have two fast jets ahead of us, flying over Muroc’s restricted zone. From their sizes, I would classify them as fighter-sized aircraft. Could they be new fighter prototypes being tested out of Muroc?’’

‘’I would instead believe it to be a training flight for pilots being type-qualified on our F-9 ARROW, Kate. Muroc houses the conversion training squadrons for the pilots of our F-9s and B-12s.’’

‘’You are probably right about that, Ingrid.’’

They continued with their flight, with Katharine noting down the flight parameters, performance and behavior of their prototype as they entered the zone controlled by Muroc AFB. All was well, then Ingrid spoke up after a quick look to her left.

‘’Heads up, Kate! We got two handsome F-9s approaching from the left to sniff us up.’’

Kate chuckled at the choice of words used by Ingrid and looked to her left as two Hughes F-9 fighters slowly took positions at a safe distance from the airliner. A voice which both Ingrid and Kate recognized at once came on the radio.

‘’Hey, PEGASUS 01, you got some really nice and sexy curves.’’

‘’Thanks but don’t get your hopes up: my mother told me to take it easy on first dates.’’

‘’Well, I do am a fast guy, PEGASUS.’’

‘’A fast job is not always the best job, AF 206. I prefer some good cuddling first.’’ Chuck Yeager laughed briefly at that before replying to Ingrid.

‘’Yeah! Then you change into a man-eater, PEGASUS.’’

‘’Hey, that’s the way I like my fun, AF 206. And say hello to your wife for me.’’ The air controller in Muroc AFB then inserted himself in the exchange, trying not too successfully to sound stern.

‘’AF 206, PEGASUS, this is Muroc Control: please cut the sexy talk: you are giving us bad ideas.’’

That got everyone laughing briefly, with Ingrid then returning her full attention to her test flying.

17:11 (Washington Time)

The Oval Office, The White House

Washington, D.C.

The Air Force liaison officer assigned to the White House found President Dewey sitting behind his presidential desk and watching a newscast on the television set of the Oval Office.

‘’You wanted to see me, Mister President?’’

‘’Yes, Colonel! I want at least two of these speedy beauties for my presidential squadron. With them, I could cut in half my traveling time around the World and skip all those refueling stops along the way.’’

The colonel looked at the television set, on which the PEGASUS was seen landing back in Glendale after completing its first test flight.

‘’Mister President, the Hughes PEGASUS is indeed a most beautiful aircraft and, if its performance specifications are as advertised by Hughes Aircraft, then acquiring two or more of them for the White House certainly would make eminent sense. I will pass your request right away to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mister President.’’

21:48 (California Time)

Hughes Mansion, Beverley Hills

Los Angeles, California

As Ingrid was about to plant a last kiss on Hien’s forehead after tucking her in bed, her adopted daughter looked at her with her brown eyes.

‘’Mommy, are those bad men going to try to attack you again?’’

‘’They may try but they won’t succeed, sweetie.’’

‘’But there are so many of them, mommy.’’

Ingrid was silent for a moment as she mentally debated how to respond to that. She then smiled to her daughter and spoke in a soft, reassuring voice.

‘’They may be many but I will defeat them one after the other, like I have done before. Now, don’t worry anymore about this and go to sleep, my little angel.’’ Kissing her on the forehead, Ingrid then got up from her crouched position and walked to the door, where she switched off the room’s lights before exiting and delicately closing the door behind her.

Ingrid was thoughtful as she went downstairs to the main lounge of the mansion, where Hedy and Katharine were waiting for her to join them in order to watch a movie together. Her two friends looked at her with concern when they saw her preoccupied look.

‘’Something is wrong, Ingrid?’’ asked Hedy, who was sitting in a cushy sofa with Katharine. Ingrid took a second to answer her, only increasing her friends’ concern.

‘’In a way: Hien remarked to me that I had many enemies and was worried about my safety. Unfortunately, she was too right: I do have a ton of enemies and the big question is: how will I manage to fight them all and survive. My biggest worry right now is that some of my enemies could target Hien to get at me indirectly: that is the way jackals unfortunately do. I could of course provide Hien with a strong group of bodyguards. I have tons of money for that if I chose to do that, but what kind of life would that mean to a little girl like her? The presence of bodyguards around her would repel possible friends and could make other children think of her as some sort of entitled, snobbish or aloof girl.’’

‘’Gosh! You are too right about that, Ingrid.’’ replied Katharine. ‘’So, what are you going to do about that?’’

‘’I don’t know yet. One thing I know is that I am not going to hide away from my enemies: that’s just not my style.’’

‘’Then, fight them in a preemptive fashion, Ingrid.’’ said Hedy, her tone firm. ‘’Don’t wait for them to attack you and make them disappear before they could hurt you or Hien. Racists like the KKK are a problem for you? Then expose them for the ignorant morons they are and show to all their meanness and intolerance.’’

‘’That’s fine and dandy, Hedy, but a good quarter of the American population could be classified as being racist to a varying degree and that proportion rises to near half in southern states like Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. Like they say, you can’t heal Stupid, especially when he or she doesn’t want to be educated.’’

‘’Well, you have already started to fight off some of those racists, Ingrid. That Merrick piece of shit is now dead, along with one of his minions, and the Glendale Chief of Police has been fired by his mayor, along with four other municipal police officers found to be KKK members. Your testimony in court will further help jail or send in disgrace dozens more racists. You should have listened to a scathing speech made in Congress today by Representative Kennedy, in which he roasted the old racists populating Congress. They may rebroadcast that speech in a few minutes, during the top of the hour news on NBC.’’

‘’Hell, I will certainly want to hear it!’’

‘’And after that, what kind of movie will you pull out of your secret stash of video recordings from 2012, Ingrid?’’ asked Katharine, making Ingrid smile with malice.

‘’I think that I have the perfect movie for us tonight: it is about a mother trying to protect her son with the help of a protector from the future. Its title is ‘TERMINATOR 2’.’’

‘’Oooh, sounds interesting!’’ exclaimed Hedy excitedly.