life, it was a call from the CAG to the Admiral. “Sir, it’s for you,” the aid said as he handed the unit to the Admiral.
“Sir, I just wanted to inform you that AF2021 which is on short final had a problem. The AC told us that one of the passengers become ill. We have no way to know if the virus has infected the airplane. I have no choice but to order the Cat Officer to drop the cable. I’ve directed the Air Boss to direct the aircraft commander to low go and return to base.”
The Admiral stopped for a moment and responded, “Do you know who it was that became ill.”
“Yes sir, it was Marsha Field, the VP’s chief of staff.”
“Harry you did the right thing, I’ll tell the President.”
They both knew the meaning of that. Dropping the cable prevented the airplane from landing and they also knew they didn’t have enough fuel to RTB. That was a death sentence for everyone onboard. This decision was necessary and it fit in with their OP Plan. Those were unusual times and they had to protect the lives of the President and everyone onboard. They had been at sea when the virus struck and the crew was clean and it had to stay that way. Letting anyone onboard with any chance of infection was too much risk to take. They had to take the prudent steps.
The Admiral met the President at his airplane ramp and saluted him. They knew each well and after the return salute they embraced. “Hagus, how are you doing? Ok, Mr. President I’m sorry about your family.” At their mention, the President’s face went white and the Admiral thought he might pass out.
“I don’t know what I’ll do without her and the kids. They got caught in all this on that damn PR trip to Europe. It hit so fast and no one knew what to do. Then it was all over. My God, I miss them,” the President said to his old friend.
“I know Sir. I can’t believe it happened, it caught us all by surprise. We were lucky that you were at Camp David and could be isolated so quickly. The last of your cabinet and leaders of the house are landing and will be on board shortly, but we had a problem with one of the airplanes. En route the VP’s chief of staff became ill. We had to assume the worst and deny them landing. They have been waved off and they are proceeding to their home base.”
“That was the VP and his family, oh my God! There wasn’t anything that could be done?”
“I’m sorry sir, but we know nothing about this virus and it has a 100% lethality rate. We couldn’t jeopardize you, the other members of your cabinet and congress. We also have almost 5,000 people on this carrier.”
“I understand, can they make it back to the land?” the Commander in Chief asked with a beaten voice.
Admiral Hagerly just moved his head from side to side. No words were necessary.
“Let me escort you to your quarters and in 2 hours we’ll brief you on fleet status.”
“Ok.”
The End
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Epilogue
Thank you for buying this Audio Book. I hope that you enjoyed it.
This book is the first in the SIMPOC series and is followed in time by SIMPOC 2 "Human Remnants". In Bk 2 you'll find out where the suspicious virus came from and some insight into the exciting future.
Later in the SIMPOC stories, I introduced the President of the United States and astronauts from the Space Station Oasis, the moon colony Desert Beach and the Mars colony Red Dirt.
In a two book series Virus "72 Hours to Live" and Virus "Earth's last Battle" I've taken those characters and filled in their back stories and covered how they dealt with the virus as it ravaged Earth. Please check out the two Virus books, which include this story but along with the much larger story of the world collapsing and the astronaut's survival.
Both the SIMPOC and Virus series will be brought together in the follow on book, which has already been started and should be out late 2015 or early 2016.
Thanks
Ray Jay Perreault
Reference Material
2005:0DB8:AC15:FE03:: – Artificial Intelligence (Designated Art)
2012:0DB8:AC13:FB03:: – Mobil Unit Software Development (Designated Mobile)
2109:0DB8:AC15:EB24:: – Data Files (Designated Files)
2012:0DB8:AA23:EB13:: – Financial Systems (Designated Fin)
2015:0DB8:AC25:FF03:: – External communications, space station (Designated Comm)
2007:0DB8:AC25:EB14:: – Communications Server
“Transmit in the blind” – Term used by pilots to update their status over the radio when no one has responded. Often used if a radio receiver was broken, or out of range for the receiver, but the ground station still might receive.
“Kick the tires, light the fires, brief on guard.” – Humorous term used by pilots to indicate taking off fast and not worrying about paperwork, prefights or radio controllers.
Books by Ray Jay Perreault
Books
Virus Bk2– Earth’s Last Battle Smashwords
Earth II Bk3 (SIMPOC & Virus)– You Have No Honor Smashwords
Gemini Smashwords
Science Fiction Anthology Vol. 1 Smashwords
Short Stories
Progeny Smashwords
The Greatest Host Smashwords
Circle is Closed Smashwords
Good Morning... Smashwords
Contact Information
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Cover Graphics
RGBSTOCK.com
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