Angelina entered 'X-O-F' into the printer address code and switched the receiver to 'ENABLE.'Instantly, the SATCOM printer rumbled to life.
'It worked!'
'Great,' Elliott asked. 'Read out any messages you get as soon as possible.
'Just a stream message with our call sign in it so far,' Angelina said.
'I'll get an acknowledgment message out right away. 'She unstowed the SATCOM keyboard and began to type out an acknowledgment message.
Fifteen minutes later she keyed the mike again.
'Message, General,' she announced.
'Go ahead.'
'it reads, 'Orbit at SHARK intersection for recovery at Boeing Auxiliary Eleven at zero-eight-hundred hours Zulu.
Insure weapons safe for recovery. JCS.'That's it. I got the codes for the satellite navigation system, too. I'll pass down the GPS code to the nav in a minute.'
'Well, that's it,' Elliott asked. 'We'll have this beast down on the tarmac in a few hours. 'He turned to Ormack. 'Sure was nice getting behind these controls again, John. I'm just sorry about the circumstances.'
Elliott stared out the windowscreen and watched the Old Dog's nose as it veered into the sun. The pain continued to throb in his right leg as he thought about the two Excaliburs headed toward Russia.
OVER THE ARCTIC OCEAN NORTH OF BARROW, ALASKA
'Disconnect, seven-seven.
The boom operator hit a trigger on his control stick, and the KC-10
Extender's refueling boom popped out of the nozzle of the jet fuel vapor the receptacle, a small white cloud of JP A B Excalibur below.
streaming away in the slipstream of the B The boomer pulled on the stick, and the boom moved quickly away from the black shape hovering below his panoramic window beneath his toes. He hit another switch, and the boom motored up and automatically stowed itself under the modified McDonnell-Douglas DC-10's tail.
'Clear One-Three to the wing,' the pilot aboard the B-1 requested.
The lead B-1 replied.
'Clear to the right wing, One-Three,' The B-1 that had just completed its refueling slowed, dipped its right wing, and slid out of view of the KC-10 boom operator.
Just as he cruised out of view, the boom operator got another glimpse of the pylon full of missiles slung under the Excalibur's wings.
'Refueling complete,' the boom operator radioed to the co-pilot. He swiveled his headphone microphone away from his lips and wiped sweat from his face and neck. Refueling a B-1 was always hard-even though they were steady platforms, their dark NATO camouflage made it hard to find their open receptacles, even during the daytime.
But these two B-1s were different-very different. Their dark gray coloring was gone, replaced by dull jet-black surfaces. Even with the electrofluorescent aiming grid on the D Excalibur's nose, the boomer had been very reluctant to extend the nozzle into that dark, shapeless void. He knew he had only about a six-foot margin for error before he stuck the nozzle into the bomber's radome-or, worse, through its windscreen.
Even though he had been a boom operator for fifteen years and six feet was a lot of free space to work with, there was always the possibility of error. Two planes flying twelve feet away from each other, traveling at almost three hundred and eighty miles an hour-well, it was easy to screw up.
The co-pilot was giving the off load report to the two bombers: 'Kelly One-Two flight, you received a total of one hundred and seventy thousand pounds, about equally divided.
Clear to tactical frequency Clear us for a right climbing turn. 'The lead B-1 aircraft commander, Colonel Bruce Canady, checked his left window. 'See One-Three out there, Bill?'
Canady's co-pilot checked his right window. At that moment, the second B-1 slipped into fingertip position about twenty feet from his leader's right wingtip, its position lights and anticollision beacon popping on.
'Got him. He's in fingertip.'
'Gascap flight, clear for a right climbing turn. Thanks for.
the gas.'
'Gascap flight copies. Good luck, you guys. 'Canady watched as the huge KC-10 tankers banked to the right and flew above and out of sight of the B-1s.
'Kelly flight, post-refueling checks,' Canady radioed to his wingman.
'Two,' came the reply.
'Ed, got the Post-refueling message ready?' Canadyaasked his offensive systems operator. The radar navigator had just finished composing the coded message for transmission via AFSATCOM, notifying the Joint Chiefs of Staff that they had received their last scheduled refueling before approaching the continent of Asia.
'Ready to go.'
'Send it. Did we get our hourly 'go' message?'
'Received the last one five minutes ago,' the navigator replied. 'I'm expecting the first fail-safe message any minute.
Just then his Air Force Satellite Communications printer clattered to life. The navigator transcribed the phonetically coded message into a code book, then passed it to the defensive systems operator, the DSO, across the narrow aisle from him.
Together, the officers carefully decoded the message, then rechecked it.
— We got it,' the navigator asked. 'Cleared to proceed on course to the second fail-safe point. We can expect the 'strike'
message within the hour.'
'Confirmed,' the defensive systems officer added.
Canady didn't reply. He did a quick station check of his instrument panel, then was silent.
,I'm still betting we get terminated,' the co-pilot said.
'I'm hoping so,' Canady said. He switched to interplane radio.
'One-two flight, cleared to route formation when postAR checks are complete.
Ex' Post-all checks complete, moving to route. 'The second calibur banked slightly right, moving out to approximately a half-mile beside his leader. It was much less strenuous on the pilot to move away from the leader than stay in close formation for long periods of time.
'Confirm receipt of Golf, Tango, Sierra, Oscar, Pappa,' the navigator radioed to the wingman's nav, checking to be sure the other aircraft had received and decoded the same 'go' message.
'Copied and confirmed,' from the second nav.
'Status, One-Three?'
'One-Three is in the green,' from the second Excalibur.
'One-Two is in the green too,' Canady replied- Both bombers were one hundred percent ready-no malfunctions, no abnormal readings, no fuel shortages- The mission would be canceled if either bomber had a serious malfunction.
' copy. 'To the crew Canady said: — Two good bombers, guys. So far we're a go- Nav, I'm ready to do a TFR check whenever you ARE.'He handed his checklist to the INFLIGHT 'Rog. 'The nav opened sySTEM CHECK TERRAIN-FOLLOWING RADAR S g autopilot selftest navigation, running the automatic terrain-following test.
As the two pilots and the navigator began the systems check, the defensive systems operator began another electronic countermeasures equipment check while listening to the highfrequency radio. As he flipped through transmitters and receivers, running self-tests on the mostly automatic equipment, an 'S' symbol blinked on at the top of his computer generated threat receiver scope.
The intermittent signal caught his eye, but he ignored it-the symbol did not return, and it wasn't accompanied by an audio warning tone, probably a glitch or a stray signal from the second B-1. He continued his checks.
