Peacekeepers (1988) by Ben Bova Read Free Book Online Page A

was terminated. Not by Geneva, but by the gunners who would shoot the plane to pieces once she tried to make it to the border.
    So she did not pull up. She leaned on the throttle, hurtling the plane directly into the cave's mouth and a massive stack of fuel drums. She neither heard nor felt the explosion.
    For long seconds Kelly sat in the contoured chair of the cockpit, staring at the darkened screen. Her hands were trembling too badly to even try to unlatch the canopy. A technician lifted it open and stared down at her. Usually the techs were grinning and cracking jokes after a mission.
    But this one looked solemn.
    "You okay?" she asked.
    Kelly managed a nod. Sure, she answered silently. For a pilot who's just kamikazed, I'm fine.
    Another etch, a swarthy male, appeared on the other side of the cockpit and helped Kelly to her feet. She stepped carefully over the control banks and onto the concrete floor of the Ottawa station's teleoperations chamber. Two other teleoperator cockpits were tightly closed, with teams of technicians huddled over the consoles grouped around them. The fourth cockpit was open and empty.
    The captain in charge of the station's teleoperations unit strode from his desk toward Kelly, his face grim. He was a sour-faced, stocky Asian with a vaguely menacing mustache, all formality and spit and polish.
    "We lost one RPV due to ground fire," he said in a furious whisper, "and one deliberately destroyed by its operator."
    "But I . . ."
    "There is no need for you to defend yourself. Lieutenant Kelly. A board of review will examine the tapes of your mission and make its recommendations. Dismissed."
    He turned on his polished heel and strode back to his desk.
    Anger replaced Kelly's emotional exhaustion. RPV, she fumed to herself. Operator. They're planes, dammit. And I'm a pilot!
    But she knew it was not so. They were remotely piloted vehicles, just as the captain had said. And expensive enough so that deliberately crashing one was cause for a review board to be convened. Then Kelly remembered that she had also tossed away her prescribed flight plan. The review board would not go gently, she realized.
    She dragged herself tiredly down the corridor toward the locker room, longing now for her bunk and the oblivion of sleep.
    Halfway there, Robbie popped out of the monitoring center, his smile dazzling.
    "Hi there. Angel Star! Good job!"
    Kelly forced the comers of her mouth upward a notch.
    From behind Robbie's tall, broad-shouldered form she saw most of the other monitors pushing through the doors and spilling out into the corridor. It can't be a shift change, she thought. Nobody else has gone in.
    Robbie caught the puzzlement on her face.
    "It's all over," he said brightly. "The Eritreans called it quits a few minutes ago."
    "They stopped the invasion?"
    "We beat them back. Clobbered the tanks in their first wave and demolished most of their supply dumps."
    The rest of the monitor team headed down the corridor toward the locker room, chattering like schoolkids suddenly let loose.
    "Somebody," Robbie added archly, "even knocked out their main ammo dump."
    "That was me," Kelly said weakly.
    Throwing an arm around her slim shoulders, Robbie laughed. "I know! We saw it on the screens. The explosion shook down half the mountain."
    "Must have killed a lot of men," she heard herself say.
    "Not as many as a full-fledged war would have taken."
    Kelly knew the truth of it, but it was scant comfort.
    "They started it," Robbie said more softly. "It's not your fault."
    "It's my responsibility. So was the plane."
    Robbie broke out his dazzling grin again. "Worried about a review board? Don't be. They'll end up pinning a medal on you."
    Somehow Kelly could not visualize that.
    "Come on. Angel Star," Robbie said with a one-armed hug, "don't be glum, chum. We're going out to celebrate."
    "Now?"
    "It's Christmas, isn't it? You didn't see a big sleigh pulled by reindeer while you were flinging around out there, did you?"
    Kelly