Fast was always good.Con liked going fast.He did like that about the future.
Now he knew that it required considerable velocity to travel through time.This meant the craft needed a durable power source, and it needed to be sturdy enough to handle the turbulence of time travel.Oh, and it needed to be able to land and lift vertically when needed.
TheRaycould do all of these things and so far had done it without crashing.Hayes felt more comfortable with her now, but he still missed his Pitts.
Keeping the testing a secret was a challenge, even in their remote, desert location—with its abandoned missile silo that included a landing field, a small hut and a hangar.
They’d probably spawned more than a few alien conspiracy theories, but Jack was working on adding more stealth capability.It already resisted radar detection, but when they got down and dirty with theRay,it was going to freak out anyone who saw it.
And now that he knew how Jack’s team were currently traveling through time?He’d rather fly the weirdRaythan jump out of a plane at high altitude without a parachute.
So far they hadn’t had any trouble with the kind of snoopers that Area 51 dealt with.Nor had they had trouble with anyone from the government.Jack wasn’t as worried about them, though.
It was the rogue group from the future that had them all looking over their shoulders, watching each others’ backs, and generally trying not to be spotted in time.Or while they were out and about in the present.
He guessed he was doing okay.It wasn’t something he’d had a lot of practice at.It helped that he was technically dead.
Now, he watched the Jeep approach to tow theRaybackinto the hangar.Jack was riding shotgun and he hopped out almost before the Jeep had completely come to a stop.
“How did it go?”
“Other than my Pitts, she’s the best thing I’ve flown,” Hayes admitted.He missed his Pitts almost as much as he missed his mom, and usually tried not to think about either of them.
It was only a short walk to the hatch over the decommissioned missile silo where they all lived and worked, but when it was hot—which was most of the time—it was nice to get a lift in the Jeep.
Hayes hadn’t been too sure about living underground and cheek by jowl with a bunch of strangers with more than a few screws loose, but it was a big silo with a small population.He’d only bumped into the others when he—and they—wanted to.Or if there was a meeting.
It was strange and weird, but he was getting used to it all.Should that worry him?
“Let’s go get do your debrief,” Jack said.They headed toward the innocuous entrance to the silo.
Hayes sensed a change and was glad for it.As much a rush as it had been to bounce around in time, it was loosing its luster with all the repetition of nailing a time and a place with the precision of an aerial stunt.
He had it down and was ready for more.
“Something up?”Hayes asked.
“Let’s just say, I’d like to make a change in direction.”
Hayes frowned.Direction.Did that mean…
“The future?”
“Well, that’s where our problem is,” Jack said, as if it were the next, reasonable step.
Present Day, secret facility in an old missile bunker
Melanie “Mel” Morton Hamilton had to admit that Alice Merriweather Granger had taken to the future much better than Mel had expected, particularly when she factored in the whole 50s female issues she’d brought with her.
Idly, Mel wondered how many women might have flourished if they’d been freed from the constraints of societal expectations and been able to soar.
The conference room table was round and battered, a leftover from when the facility had been military.It was too big for their small group, so they mostly sat in a cluster at the side closest to the hatch.
Connor Hayes, the new pilot, was giving his report on his latest test flight.At first, she hadn’t been too sure about him.He had reminded her a little of Jack’s annoying friend, Rick.But it hadn’t taken her long to realize he was cut from very different cloth.
He was definitely a cocky pilot, but he had the credentials to back up the attitude.
He was still a little annoying thinking he was all that.The problem of course was he was all that.Jack claimed he was one of the best, natural-born pilots he’d been around.
