Free Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" by Ryk Brown Page B

the interceptor as it began to roll slowly forward, the canopies automatically lowering as they left the hangar. Josh looked over at Marcus, a monstrous grin stretching from ear to ear. Marcus noticed that Tug had already closed his helmet visor and Josh had not, so Marcus gestured wildly at Josh to lower his own visor as well. Josh, oblivious to the true meaning of Marcus’s gestures simply waved back at him. Marcus repeated the gesture and finally Josh got the hint and closed his own visor.
    Marcus watched the interceptor roll out onto the tarmac as it headed out to the nearest launch point, the canopies finally coming down and locking into position as it rolled away.
    “Dumb kid,” Marcus mumbled to himself as he turned and headed for the washroom.
     
     
    Tug increased the thrust levels on the main turbines used while operating in the atmosphere, causing the interceptor to lift slowly off the ground. “While unloaded, this ship can take-off vertically using only five percent thrust,” he told Josh. “Fully loaded with maximum weapons and fuel, she needs at least twenty-five percent to get off the ground.”
    “Got it,” Josh answered over the comms built into their flight helmets.
    “The ships that you have flown all used separate engines for lift and forward propulsion, did they not?”
    “Yeah, the harvester did. The shuttle had a separate engine for everything,” Josh commented.
    “This ship has four basic flight systems,” Tug explained. “There is a single turbine system used for atmospheric flight. As the body is a flying wing, once at speed it generates its own lift. You will find it a bit different than flying a ship that uses powered lift systems to maintain altitude.”
    “You use the same engine for lift as you do for forward thrust?”
    “Yes. The turbine has a series of thrust ports along either side of the ship. Each thrust port is gimbaled and can move twenty degrees in all directions from its vertical centerline. It makes the ship quite maneuverable at speeds that are insufficient to provide adequate aerodynamic lift.”
    “How do you control the amount of thrust that generates your lift?”
    “You do not,” Tug told him. “You simply indicate with your flight control stick that you wish to go up, and the system decides how much thrust to create, and how much of it needs to be diverted to the lift systems. As your forward velocity increases, so does the aerodynamic lift generated by the ship’s lifting body design. As the aerodynamic lift increases, the amount of thrust being diverted to the vertical lift thrusters decreases. By the time you reach a minimum lifting velocity, the vertical lift thrusters have disengaged.”
    “But it’s all automatic, right?” Josh asked. “I mean, you don’t have to think about all that, you just tell it to go and it goes, right?”
    “True, but you really should understand how it all works.”
    “Yeah, I understand. The thrusters point down, spit out some thrust to keep us in the air until we get up to speed and the lifting body does its thing. I got it.”
    “Very well,” Tug conceded. “Since you already know so, put your hands on the controls.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Of course.”
    Josh placed his right hand on the control stick along his right side and his left hand on the throttle along his left side. “Okay, I’m ready,” he announced.
    Tug flipped a switch on the control stick and then hovered his hands just off the controls. “The ship is yours.”
    “Thrusting forward,” Josh announced, manipulating his flight controls. The interceptor began sliding forward as it continued to slowly climb. Josh adjusted his rate of ascent until the ship stopped climbing, continuing its forward motion about thirty meters above the ground. He looked out the port side of the interceptor at the spaceport below him as they continued slowly picking up forward velocity.
    “Very good,” Tug praised. “As soon as we clear the fence line, you can