AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This story was written Shortly after I was discharged from the AFROTC unit at UNO, Det 470. I was entirely unsure of what I planned to do with my life in the future, and turned to my relaxation technique of writing to help me air my feelings. This story was written in three parts over the Internet through E-mail to my friends as a sort of serial. I was stuck for an ending, and everyone was asking for more, when I had an Idea strike. I'm not entirely satisfied with this story, and it doesn't really fit in with the ETF series, but it does show my feelings of the time, rather bluntly, I shall admit. BRK

by

Brian R. Kupfer

The wind ripples through the young man's shoulder-length brown hair as he stands in the hot desert sun. He strokes his goatee as he hears the first hints of a jet engine coming towards them. His blue mirrored Lennon-style sunglasses reflect the sunlight coming over the mesa before him. He waits, eyes closed, until he can feel the rhythm of the surging engines throughout his body.

"Twin Pratt and Whitney F119 turbofans." He mumbles to the woman on his left. "Can you name it?" he asks her.

She looks up to his six-foot-two height at his serenely calm face. He had been tutoring her over the mail for the past two years on military aircraft.

"No, not yet." She mumbles. As he turns to look at her, the sun glints off the yin-yang earring in his left ear. He smiles down at her.

"Sorry, it's sort of a trick question." He responds as the aircraft roars over them at about 450 miles per hour, a good two hundred feet off the hard deck. The trapezoidal wing ends just before the twin canted all-moving tailplanes begin. The aircraft had been built ten years before as part of an Air Force program to build an Advanced Tactical Fighter. This aircraft had lost the competition, but won the war, as it was flying today as part of it's re-evaluation tests for admittance into the USAF's arsenal. The strangely kite-looking aircraft is painted in a dark battleship gray.

"What is it, Crash??" the woman asks him. He smiles at the memory of the nickname he had once used when they were in high school together. Bringing himself back to the present, he looks at her over the rim of his sunglasses.

"Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23A Shadow first prototype." He responds, "The next generation of Air Superiority Fighter. Serial number AF 87 800, put into flyable storage in the end of November, 1990. Wingspan of 43.6 feet, length being 67 feet five inches with a ground to tailplane tip height of 13 feet ten inches. Rolled out on June 22, 1990."

The young first Lieutenant beside him looks amazed. She re-arranges her shoulder-length blonde hair as she wonders if she will ever be able to remember all the information he can impart.

"How do you remember all that??" She asks him.

"I've been learning this stuff since I was five, Stacy." He replies as he turns to walk back to the Club Cab Dodge Ram 4x4 V-10 3500 he had driven them out to the desert in.

She just looks at him and shakes her head as she climbs into the massive truck's passenger seat.

"You never cease to amaze me." She comments as he turns the ignition in the big truck, letting the cool breeze from the air conditioner waft over them.

"It's my job, remember??" He asks her with a double meaning as he turns the big Dodge back towards the Base Operations building on the other side of Rogers Dry Lake from them.

He had gotten the call a week earlier. He was to meet with a Lt. Sahrens when he arrived at Edwards AFB. There, he would be shown around the complex and allowed to spend time with the YF-23A Shadow's pilots, ground crew and technicians before briefing the Defense Department brass here to make a decision on the aircraft. He had been called as he was the foremost expert on Modern World Military Aviation in the United States. He had made one request of his boss before he boarded the C-5 Galaxy to Edwards. He wanted to be able to spend time with a longtime friend of his stationed at Edwards. Therefore, Lt. Anrak was released from her normal duties for the duration of his stay at Edwards. There were rewards to working for the Pentagon.

Base Operations had assigned him an escort, some pimple-faced young Airman straight out of High School. He had gone to Base Ops to request Lt. Anrak be his escort, and promptly been denied. He glared at the Captain at the front desk and told her to get her superior. His tone left her no room to argue.

Five minutes later, 1st Lt. Stacy Anrak was officially assigned as his escort. Being infamous has it's privileges Aaron had thought as the papers were being drawn up.

"Anything else we can do for you, Sir??" The Lt. Colonel in charge had asked him.

"Yeah. Never call me sir. I do have a callsign, you know." He snapped as the old wound flared up again.

"Yes Sir....ahhem, er, Mr. Fieldman...er, Valder, sir..." The Colonel had stammered.

"Valder will do." Aaron stated as he walked out of Base Ops.

"Brass." he muttered to Stacy under his breath as they got into his Ram to go find him some quarters.

"Do me a favor, will ya?" He asks her.

"What?"

"NEVER end up like that, please!!" Aaron responds as they drive across the base.

That had been five days ago. Since then, Aaron Fieldman, Callsign Valder, had been given a tour of the base and had talked with the Shadow's personnel. He had also been allowed into the ATF's hangar to take a first-hand look at the aircraft he knew so well on paper. No matter how hard he had tried, he had not been able to get permission for Stacy to go farther than the SP guard tower at the far end of the flightline.

Therefore, he had found out when the Shadow's next wringing-out flight would be. That led to the Ram and it's occupants being in the desert when the YF-23 flew over. His Ram had been flown out to Edwards on the same C-5 he had, though Aaron had sat in the Galaxy's jump seat the whole trip.

Aaron and Stacy talked in the Ram the whole half hour trip back to Edwards' Base Ops, catching up, as they had been for the past five days, on the past two years since they had seen each other. That had been the day Aaron had sat in the audience as Stacy was commissioned into the United States Air Force in a ceremony at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

A year later, Aaron himself graduated from UNO, but because of a obscure Air Force regulation, he had been told three years earlier he could never be an officer in the USAF, and therefore was a civilian with an immense knowledge of aircraft and a Bachelor's degree in English. He went and offered his services to the Department of Defense as a civilian contractor. He was accepted and rose quickly within his department, his zeal for Military Aviation and his astounding ability to memorize relevant information helping him to climb to the head of his department within six months. At about the same time he became the head of his department, he and his co-author, Wahren R. Morast, had their first book, The Elite Eagles, published. Soon after the book rocketed to the top of the bestseller's list, Aaron could not walk around Colorado Springs, where he lived most of the time, without being asked to sign an autograph.

He had eventually gotten used to it. The book had helped to put the Air Force in the spotlight also, and they liked that, and Aaron became well known at Air Force bases around the country as he and Wahren made appearances throughout the country.

His newfound fame had helped him open doors, which in turn had helped with his job, as he was able to hop rides with the Thunderbirds, Blue Angels, and many Military Aircraft of every service.

A registered owner of a civilian pilot's license, Aaron was often given simulator time at his request, and was even able to complete an old dream of his as he had wrung out an F-15E Strike Eagle in a mock dogfight during Red Flag at Nellis AFB the previous summer, albeit with a Colonel watching his every move from the back seat. He was told when they landed that he was a natural pilot, and the Colonel asked him why he didn't join the Air Force. At that, Aaron had laughed out loud, his laughter hiding the pain in his heart as he remembered all that fate had pulled from him.

As Aaron and Stacy pulled up in front of the Base Ops building, Aaron applied the brakes on the big truck and came to a stop in the nearest parking space. The two friends got out of the truck and entered base Ops. Aaron was to give his briefing to the brass tomorrow, they learned. Aaron was given permission to take some YF-23 sim time later in the afternoon. He asked Stacy to come with him as he made his way to the Simulators. Once there, he showed her the various flight controls of an F-16C sim, and weaseled permission out of the Major on duty for her to try her hand at a mock dogfight. Stacy seemed to catch on well enough as Aaron showed her how to manipulate the cannons, launch missiles, and control the aircraft, simulated as it was, through the various maneuvers of flight. Then Aaron strapped himself into the YF-23 sim to wring out the aircraft, and to help calm himself for the briefing tomorrow.

The next morning, the phones rang throughout Stacy's house. Stacy had insisted that Aaron stay at her place, instead of the BOQ on base, where they had offered to house him. Aaron picked up the extension in the guest bedroom.

"Y'ello." He mumbled into the handset.

"May I speak to callsign Valder?"

"You've got him."

"The Brass are ready for you, sir." The voice on the other end states. Aaron hung up the phone as he dressed himself in a black sportcoat and slacks over a red silk shirt, and attached his distinguished visitor's badge to his sportcoat. He then walked into the bathroom and put his hair into a ponytail before going into the kitchen.

"Party Time." He says as he sees Stacy cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

"How long do you have??" Stacy asks him.

"'Bout half an hour." Aaron responds.

"Then sit down. You're not leaving here without breakfast."

Aaron sat down on the ledge separating the kitchen from the living room. He had learned long before not to argue with Stacy.

While Aaron was eating his breakfast, Stacy went and changed into her dress blues to attend the briefing. She technically wasn't supposed to be there, but Aaron had argued for her, and, grudgingly, the brass had given way to him.

As they walked out the door of Stacy's house towards Aaron's Ram, Aaron threw Stacy the keys. He needed to re-rehearse his speech on the way in.

"....and, so, since the YF-23 Shadow proved itself years ago, and has been doing so all this month, all the evidence points to this aircraft being the better choice. The F-22 Rapier has already proven how untrustworthy it is..." Aaron said as his slides rolled by on the screen beside him, showing the crash of the YF-22 back in April of 1992, "...and, as you can see by the graphs and charts in the packets before you, the YF-23 has better range, a higher computer-loss survivability rate, costs less in maintenance, and, if you'll flip to page thirty-two dash one, you will see that the weapon's carrying ability on the Shadow is over 50% better than that on the F-22 Raptor. Not to mention the track record of the companies involved..."

Aaron continued his speech and sales pitch of the YF-23 for over an hour before finally sitting down to listen to the arguments against Air Force procurement of the aircraft. As the Major begins his counter-speech against Aaron's testimony, the hallway door bursts open, and one of the YF-23 technicians blasts into the room.

"Someone has broken through security and is attempting to destroy the YF-23!!" he yells as he is tackled by the SPs standing guard at the door.

Aaron rushes out of the briefing room and sprints down the corridor to the sliding doors to the flightline, the DOD brass struggling to keep up with the physically fit 25-year-old. Aaron had once been a track runner, and had never lost his love for speed.

As he rushes out the flightline door, he sees a shape sneaking around the edge of the nearest hangar. As Aaron goes to intercept him, the hangar next to the one housing the Shadow explodes......

The explosion momentarily blinds everyone behind Aaron as they rush out the door in his wake. Seeing the flare of light from the explosion, Aaron throws himself onto the ground as the shock wave from the blast ripples outwards. Aaron stands back up as the wave passes him, the sound of the explosion making his ears ring. Aaron rushes past the smoking crater that had once been a hangar, trying to reach the YF-23's hangar.

Aaron slows down only long enough to peer inside the hangar and assure himself the multi-million dollar aircraft is intact. He then rips around the corner of the ATF's hangar after the shadowy form he had seen.

As soon as Stacy sees Aaron rush towards the ATF's hangar, she turns and runs back through the Base Ops building to the parking lot in front. She pulls the keys to Aaron's Ram from her pocket and starts the pickup's big V-10 engine.

With a squeal of burning rubber and a trail of smoke, Stacy pulls the Dodge out of the parking lot in the direction Aaron and the intruder had taken.

Aaron chases the shadowy stranger across the base, gaining on the saboteur as the chase lengthened.

Aaron looks at the building ahead of him as he sprints after his prey, noticing a reflection of light off the building from the corner of his eye.

Flicking a glance behind him, Aaron sees the reason as his big Ram roars over the curb and cuts across the grass towards him. It had been the reflection of the Ram's running lights that had caught his attention.

Aaron signals to Stacy to keep going as the Ram pulls near.

Aaron grabs on to the Ram's tailgate as the big truck rolls by, and climbs into the back.

The figure ahead ducks around behind a building as the Ram draws near him. The Ram careens around the corner, only to find....nothing.

Stacy slows the Ram to a stop.

"Damn", Aaron comments, tapping on the roof of his truck with one hand. "Where'd he go??".

There were no doors on this side of the building, and a flat, open parade grounds was beyond it.

There was nowhere for the person to hide.

Yet, hide he had. Their prey had disappeared.

Disgruntled, Aaron leans over the side of the cab to Stacy's window.

"Let's go home....." He mutters.

Within the next two days, Aaron worked with base security to see where, how, and when their intruder had entered and exited the base. Aaron also brought in a private detective investigator of his, Matt Bendix, and a security specialist, Eric Wayne.

Eric had been trained by some of the best security forces in the country. His normal job was to break into corporations who thought their security was unbreachable. Eric delighted in showing them just how wrong they usually were. Therefore, the help and respect he received from the security forces at Edwards made him feel a little out of place. He was usually greeted with hostility. These people KNEW they had a problem, and looked to Eric as a possible solution. Eric would be working with Aaron and Matt to try and do just that. Find an answer.

Matt was the half owner of a private investigations agency based out of Colorado Springs.

He and Aaron had set up the agency a few years back, and Aaron helped out with cases over E-mail, fax, and phone whenever he could, and liked to actually handle a few cases himself when the time permitted. Matt was considered one of the best in the business, and tried to keep his edge by accepting difficult cases. Matt had called up another friend of theirs, Wahren Morast, who in turn called Matthew Hunter. The two of them would be standing by to cover any electronic leads the main team might dig up. The team set up camp in Stacy's house, with her permission, and started hunting for clues.

The team decided to start out with the hole in the shorted electric fence along the perimeter, some two miles from the main gate.

Matt walks up to the fence and sprays it with a light mist of hairspray. This would show any finger prints left there. As he had expected, he doesn't find any. As he looks closely at the fence, he discovers the team had been wrong in their supposition that the penetrator had shorted out the fence before entering.

"Looks like alligator clamps..." Matt comments as he notices little scratch marks on one side of the fence breach.

Aaron checks the other side for similar marks.

"I've got two over here..."

"Same here." Matt replies. "It appears he bypassed the system, then, when he left, knocked the wires off, which shorted out the system."

Eric stands up from beside the fence with a thin strip of copper wire in his hand.

"It appears I have support for your story." he nods towards Matt.

"Now all that's left is to search thousands of miles of open desert." one of the SPs remarks dryly.

"Not quite. Though we DO have to try and pinpoint a military HumVee." Eric comments from a few feet away, studying some tire tracks on the dirt in front of him.

The whole party groans.

"Trying to find a HumVee on a military base." Stacy mumbles. "I feel a headache coming on......."

After searching every HumVee on the base, the group finally found the one they were looking for.

On TV.

The local news station showed rescue crews dragging a HumVee out of a nearby lake. Seems their criminal hadn't gotten very far.

The group contacted the local police department, and were

unsurprised at the reply that there were no fingerprints able to be salvaged from the Hummer.

"Well, where do we go from here?" Stacy asks no one in particular.

"I have an Idea...." Aaron starts.

Stacy and Matt exchange a knowing and worried glance.

Eric groans and rolls his eyes towards Stacy's ceiling.

They'd all heard THAT phrase too many times before. Often, they had wished they hadn't.

After a long pause, Stacy sighs and looks at Aaron.

"Okay, Aaron, what's your plan....."

Aaron looks at the group with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

"Well......" he begins.

Aaron's plan was simplistic. It was so simple, in fact, it almost had to work.

"Look. This guy is obviously very determined. I figure if he's tried once, he won't stop trying until he's completed his mission. Or until WE catch him..." Aaron had said last night. Therefore, they had called Wahren and Hunter in to Edwards to help them out. Matthew and Wahren had set up unique sensors and video cameras around the hangar the YF-23 is being stored in. Unfortunately, the people monitoring the sensors had to be

within 100 yards to get accurate readings.

Therefore, the group had taken up stations inside the YF-23's hangar.

Stacy and Hunter are stationed at the rear of the hangar, by the maintenance door.

Bendix and Eric are on either side of the main hangar door at the front of the hangar.

All four are in sight of one another, and all are wearing the standard issue personal microphone/transmitter sets.

Hunter flips on his transmitter as he looks around the hangar.

"Aaron, Wahren, Y'all in position?"

Directly above the YF-23, Aaron flips on his transmitter.

"Yeah, we're ready." he responds, looking down at the aircraft below him.

Wahren looks down also, then at Aaron, and the thin girder they are perched upon.

"Great idea you came up with...." Wahren mutters to him, glancing at the forty foot drop below.

"Quit being such a big crybaby." Aaron responds.

Wahren decides to use sign language in return.

"By the way, Aaron, what makes you so sure the saboteur will try to place his charges on the inside of the hangar??" Eric asks over the radio. "He could just as easily destroy the plane, and US, from placing charges outside..."

"Sure....NOW somebody decides to bring that up!" Matt Hunter comments dryly.

"Hey, I can't be expected to think of EVERYTHING...." Aaron responds.

"Besides, the outer perimeter is what the sensors are for, right, Matt?" Stacy asks, jumping in on Aaron's behalf.

"Yeah...so far, they're all clear..." Matt replies.

"Mine too..." Wahren adds, checking his laptop.

That seems to end the argument. And all conversation.

After a while, the silence becomes heavy. Matt Bendix decides to break it.

"Anyone else feel like calling out for a pizza?" he inquires.

"For some reason, I don't think it would get past those SPs out there.." Eric points out.

"Fine, we'll order them one, too....." Matt retorts.

Stacy rolls her eyes as she listens to their debate.

"Hold up, guys....." Matt Hunter calls.

Something had just tripped one of his sensors.

"Wahren?"

"Negative, I'm still clear. What quadrant?"

"4D"

"Roge, I'm enhancing."

"5C"

"It's MOVING??"

"6B"

Stacy looks over Hunter's shoulder at his laptop monitor. She could see the red blip moving away from them.

"7A...He's cleared the range...." Matt calls out as the blip disappears.

"Video?" Aaron asks.

"I tried, but I couldn't find anything in the area..I'm gonna review it, see what I can see." Wahren responds.

Stacy, still looking over Matt's shoulder, speaks up.

"Matt, what was the first contact again?"

Matt checks his log.

"Sector 4D, why......oh, shit....."

"He was IN the hangar?" Aaron asks, catching Stacy's drift.

"Either that, or very, VERY close....." Hunter responds.

Looking over Matt's shoulder, Stacy had noticed his laptop's screen was split into 64 squares numbered 1-8 on the horizontal, and A-H on the vertical. The center four squares, 5D, 5E, 4E, and 4D, were shaded, representing the hangar.

Wahren finishes his review of the video surveillance tape.

"Damn, still nothing."

"Play it back...." Aaron comments, looking over his long-time partner's shoulder. "I've got a hunch..."

Wahren reverses the footage until the moment of Matt's original contact. As the tape plays, Aaron notices a dark dot near the hangar.

"Wahren.....can you enhance that??"

"What've you guys got?" Matt asks, neither he or Eric being near a laptop.

Suddenly Wahren and Aaron explode in a fit of laughter as the enhancement crystallizes on Wahren's screen.

"What??" Matt asks.

"I think your sensors are a little TOO sensitive, Matt..." Aaron responds.

Matt suddenly gets a sinking feeling.

"What were we tracking?" Stacy asks.

"Congratulations, Matt. You've built the world's most expensive roach detector." Wahren calls over to him between bursts of laughter.

The whole group is suddenly laughing out loud.

After they have finally regained their composure, a thought

occurs to Bendix.

"How in the hell did you two figure THAT out??" he asks.

"Aaron got a hunch, then spotted the thing on the replay. We enhanced it, and, viola!!" Wahren explains. He then thinks for a second. "Wait, I sure as hell never caught that thing on my previous run through. And I couldn't see it until Aaron pointed it out to me."

"You just have to know where to look. I always seem to be able to spot discrepancies." Aaron mutters.

"Wahren...where is that camera located??" Matt Bendix asks.

"Top of the hangar, at that corner, why?"

"You're telling me he spotted that roach on a video feedback from a camera forty feet above it??" Eric comments.

"You can't??" Aaron asks him.

"That's what I'M saying...oh, damn...." Wahren mumbles, remembering why Aaron had lost his chance for commissioning.

The hangar falls silent. It seems everyone else is thinking the same thing Wahren is.

"Talk about your beauracratic fuckup...." Matt Hunter mumbles.

"Matt...." Stacy whispers, her eyes locked on the laptop screen.

Something in the tone of her voice told Matt he'd better look.

"Aw, Shit......Here we go again. Wahren, swing to sector 6H and enhance, tell me what you've got...."

Wahren types furiously on his laptop, bringing one of his cameras on that side of the hangar to bear on Matt's contact. Aaron leans over his shoulder.

"Wahren...hold it right there..." he mutters as they hit the edge of that sector.

"What'ya got?" Wahren asks.

"Movement...." Aaron taps the screen "Enhance this area for me, would ya??"

Wahren fiddles with the image.

"Right there....see that?" Aaron comments.

Wahren looks where Aaron is pointing. A few leaves on a bush are moving.

"It was more pronounced a second ago. That's what caught my eye." Aaron comments.

Wahren is about to ask him 'So what?', then notices there are only those few leaves moving. He gets a suspicious feeling.

"Matt, what's the strength of that breeze?" Aaron calls down.

Hunter checks his sensors. "What breeze?"

Wahren and Aaron exchange glances....

"That's what I thought. Thanks." Aaron replies.

"Whaddaya think, bud??" Wahren asks him.

"It might be our foe's breathing moving those leaves."

"My thoughts exactly." Wahren agrees as he swings another camera of his around to bear on the bush. Sure enough, a shadowy human shape is crouching behind the bush.

"Can you enhance that??" Aaron mumbles.

"Nope.....whoever we're watching, he picked his place real well. I can't get any tighter a shot than this."

"Well, we've got a person behind that bush for sure." Wahren calls to the rest of the group.

"We heard. Now what do we do???" Stacy asks.

Matt looks towards her. "We wait........." he replies.

"That damn boy's been sitting there over three hours...." Wahren remarks, looking at the barely visible movement of leaves through the NightVision lens attached to another video camera near the first.

"How are you so sure our freak is male?" Aaron asks.

Wahren cocks his thumb over his shoulder, pointing down towards the back of the hangar. Aaron looks where he is pointing and sees Stacy curled up, asleep, on a cot Matt had found a couple hours ago.

"Bad example." Aaron mutters. "She's not used to being a night rat, she works days, unlike us....."

"We DO do this kind of thing a little TOO often, don't we??" Matt Bendix breaks in. "Besides, Eric is zonked out over here, too." he adds.

"Hey, where's that pizza of yours?" Matt Hunter asks him.

"I was joking...." Bendix states.

"I wasn't.......shit....Wahren, he's moving....give me a lock....he's all over the place!" Hunter warns, becoming fully alert. He starts to move over to wake Stacy.

"Might as well leave her be, Matt, he's toying with us." Wahren comments looking at another camera angle, which shows the shadowy profile tossing rocks towards the hangar, as if testing their security systems.

"Smart little bastard...." Matt mumbles.

"Shit......fucker's got good aim, too..." Wahren remarks as he watches his screen seemingly disintegrate. The camera he was watching through's lens had been shattered by a rock.

"Is ANYBODY else worried that he MIGHT be carrying grenades??" Matt queries. "I mean, with THAT kind of accuracy......"

The hangar falls silent.

A faint blip shows itself on Matt's screen for a half second between the hangar and their "freak" as Aaron had called him.

Matt also notices, once that blip fades, that their "freak" is no longer in position.

At that moment, the hangar door beside Stacy's cot opens.

Hunter lunges across the hangar towards the silhouette in the doorway, as does Bendix.

Both stop short as the lights in the hangar come up.

"Are you ALWAYS this late, Matrix??" Eric calls out as he slowly walks around the YF-23 Shadow.

Captain Doug "Matrix" Danko of the Marine Special Forces grins slightly at Aaron and Wahren.

"Long time no see." He comments to them.

"How've ya been, Cobra??" Aaron asks him, using an old nickname he had called Doug in another country, even another world, some would say.

Doug was called "Matrix" by the Marines because of his ability to figure a way through any security system ever built, as he had just proven.

"Mind explaining what you're doing here??" Matt comments as he reaches Danko.

"Sure. Oh, and, Stacy, you can get up now. I KNOW you're not sleeping." Doug comments. "And, please drop the wrench. I REALLY wouldn't like to be limping tomorrow."

There is a "clang" as Stacy drops a large wrench she had reached for as Doug came through the door. She had been holding it under her cot.

"As for that explanation....." Doug starts.

"I think we can shed some light....." Aaron comments as he and Wahren reach the rest of the group on the floor.

"First off, there never really was a saboteur. Doug has been our boy all along. You didn't REALLY believe that the saboteur was actually able to elude Stacy and I in that chase, did you?? He slipped into one of the buildings nearby as the Ram tore around the corner. Then....."

"....which brings us to the matter at hand. We had to make you THINK your prototype was at risk so that you would become more interested in the project. This whole thing was set up by the DOD. Stacy, Bendix, and Hunter had no knowledge of what we were REALLY here for." Aaron finishes before the review board.

"Thank you Mr. Fieldman. We shall deal with you later. Mr. Morast, do you have anything to add??"

"I think that y'all should look on this more as a learning experience than a humiliation. You DID learn that security on your bases isn't very tight. You NEVER knew Capt. Danko was on the premises, and you let a whole TEAM of his co-conspirators into the hangar of one of the most advanced aircraft this nation has ever built. I feel you should be the ones on trail, not our team."

"Thank you, Mr. Morast. You, Mr. Fieldman, Mr. Wayne, and Capt. Danko will be confined to base VOQ until otherwise notified. Mr. Bendix, Mr. Hunter...you are free to go, but your activities will be monitored. Lt. Anrak, you shall return to your job, but be warned, you will be watched, though both Mr. Fieldman and Mr. Morast have testified to your ignorance in the matter. That is all."

The four men were surrounded by a squad of SPs as they were marched out of the hearing. As they neared the main doors, Wahren and Aaron stop and turn to face us.

"See Y'all in the Funny papers!!!"