Freefall by Craig Alanson

Author:Craig Alanson [Alanson, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B086XJQ3WG
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2020-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Fixing the Ugly Bug was not as easy as using a plasma torch to weld together the metal sleeves of the tail rotor shafts. The plasma torch was too crude for creating elegant welds, wasting much of the material which dripped down to burn the inside of the tail boom housing. Irene was not confident in the result, so Derek kludged together superglue on top of the inadequate weld. Then, because even the high-tech alien glue was not best at withstanding the twisting force of torque, the joint between rotor shafts was wrapped in duct tape.

“Duct tape?” To say Irene was skeptical was a gross understatement. “We’re using, duct tape.”

“It’s not duct tape like you’d find in any hardware store on Earth,” Derek assured her, holding up the roll he had found stuffed under a seat in the Ugly Bug’s cabin. “This is high-tech nanofiber magic.”

“It’s duct tape,” she insisted. “We are trusting our lives to that?”

“Duct tape saved the Apollo Thirteen mission,” Derek noted. “It will be fine. Come on, we’ll load test it.”

To the surprise of Irene, and, if he were telling the truth, Derek also, the welded-glued-taped shafts held together during the load test. Irene insisted on the two pilots taking the helicopter up without passengers, flying circles around the island until she was satisfied the Ugly Bug was not immediately going to fall out of the sky. The left-right yaw lag between control input and response was nearly gone, causing butterflies in Irene’s stomach. The rotor drive shafts must have been slipping since she first got the helicopter in the air. It frightened her how close they had come to death without warning. What other hidden dangers were inside the alien machine’s mechanisms?

When they set the Ugly Bug back down on the island and the platoon reboarded, Irene needed info from Perkins before she took the turbines out of idle. “Ma’am, what’s the plan? I don’t want to fly this thing any farther than we have to. We can get to shore, but, the Ugly Bug could fail without warning.”

“There’s no reason to-” Perkins began.

Derek paused the navigation display. “Hidden flaws like the tail rotor shaft are a pilot’s worst nightmare, Colonel. Striebich is right, we don’t know if this piece of junk is airworthy. If we’re going to risk the whole platoon falling out of the sky, there needs to be a reason.”

“We need to make contact with friendly forces,” Perkins knew that was a hopelessly vague objective.

“We’re flying an enemy aircraft,” Irene rapped her knuckles on the console in front of her. It made a cheap-sounding, hollow sound and wobbled on its mounting bracket. “Contact may come in the form of a missile. Our troops will shoot first and ask questions later.”

“What can I tell you, Striebich?” Perkins was annoyed with her pilot, but more annoyed with herself. “If any of the Legion landed in the correct spot on this Godforsaken rock, they are to the east of us somewhere. Bonsu, can you use

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