Free Code Black by Philip S. Donlay Page A

looked like we were shooting through a small gap in the line of thunderstorms. That’s probably what the other airplane was doing, too. But if you didn’t get a warning from Center, or a TCAS warning, I doubt you could have reacted even if you’d seen them.” He could tell the man was processing the information. “We’ve lost the entire electrical system. Shouldn’t the ship’s main batteries be providing us with at least standby power to the essential instruments? I need your help in trying to get some of this back.”
    “Who are you?” the captain asked.
    “My name is Donovan Nash. I’m a corporate pilot.” Donovan simplified the task of explaining. “I fly Gulfstream jets out of Dulles. This is Audrey.”
    “What’s your name?” Audrey asked the befuddled captain.
    “My name is John. John Thornton.”
    “We were lucky Donovan was with us, John,” Audrey added. “He saved all of us by managing to make his way up here and fly the plane.”
    John grimaced as he began to survey the wrecked remains of his cockpit, squinting from the pain. “I think I’m okay; just give me a second. How long—” his words came out muffled and strained. “How long was I out? Where are we?”
    Donovan glanced at his watch. “You were out at least twenty minutes. We’re down at 10,000 feet. We had an explosive decompression so we had to descend. My guess is we’re about 70 or 80 miles northwest of the line of thunderstorms.”
    John’s eyes widened as he assessed the situation.
    “John, we need to figure all this out.” Donovan watched as the man surveyed the cockpit. He hoped John was making sense of what he found. “Anything obvious? I don’t know anything about 737s. Like I said, I fly Gulfstreams.” Donovan’s hopes sagged as John looked at him in confusion.
    “I don’t even know where to start,” John said. “We must have been hit from above?”
    “That’s right. Can you tell if we have any power available?” Donovan urged. He started with the basics common in all aircraft. “Check the amps and the volts. Find out what we have.”
    John pulled his attention to the overhead panel. His head swayed slightly as he fought to understand. He reached up and rotated two knobs. A perplexed look clouded his face.
    “Anything?” Donovan continued flying the airplane, but kept a close eye on what John was doing, grateful that Audrey’s full attention was focused on John and not himself.
    “It just doesn’t make sense. Nothing. We’re reading nothing. No power at all.” John lowered his head and held it in both hands.
    “Are you sure you’re okay?” Audrey asked, hovering close. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
    John raised his head and smiled weakly at Audrey, then struggled to sit upright. “We need to check the circuit breaker panel. Are the people in back okay? What about the rest of my crew?” John tried to pivot all the way around toward Audrey, but wasn’t quite up to the effort. His shoulders slumped and he exhaled heavily.
    “We have some casualties. One of the flight attendants survived, but she’s injured.” Audrey hesitated for a moment. “I’ll bring you up to date on all of that later. I think you need to help Donovan get some of the instruments back.”
    “Okay, right. The panel behind me, it’s one of the electrical sub-panels. Can you see anything?”
    Audrey looked directly behind where John sat. “I see rows of what look like little buttons. A whole bunch of them seem to be popped out.”
    “Okay. Good, those are the circuit breakers. Look for the ones with larger numbers written on them; they’ll be the ones carrying the most amperage. Can you read them to me?”
    “It’s too dark to see the labels,” Audrey replied.
    “Here,” John said, his voice came across a little stronger than before. “Use this.”
    Audrey switched on the flashlight John had pulled from its bracket. “That’s better, I can see them now. I found some with 30 written on them. AC