Coral Sea was preparing to launch fifteen aircraft on the first scheduled event of the day, a short 45-minute “cycle” that the Hornet squadrons used for their fuel-consuming air combat training. Though fuel management was always foremost in their thoughts, the pilots could breathe a little easier on a shortened cycle than they could on their typical hour and thirty minute cycle. Operating 200 miles southeast of Jamaica, with the South American landmass over 200 miles further southeast, Coral Sea was right in the middle of the Caribbean and working “Blue Water.” This meant that low-fuel aircraft would have to “plug” from an orbiting Super Hornet tanker to take on fuel in order to remain airborne and attempt a carrier landing. Varsity for sure, but even nuggets like Macho, with only 70 carrier landings under her belt, were confident and excited to get airborne in this tropical playground.
The director turned Macho left, and she crept past the parked Seahawk helicopters next to the island. She could see she was in line for one of the waist catapults as the yellow shirt stopped her. With a delay until launch time — the ship was still in a turn — she set the parking brake and waited.
Macho used the time to enter some navigational waypoints in her computer and fiddled with the brightness of her multifunction display. On the horizon, she saw a nondescript merchant ship heading north, and, in the distance, the familiar lines of a white-hulled cruise ship. She smiled when she thought that she was getting paid to be here, and that nothing on the “fun-ship” was as much fun as she was going to experience in ten minutes.
She lifted her head to the island and blinked in surprise. From the “Vultures’ Row” catwalk, Wonder Woman waved at her wildly. Next to her, on either side, were two air wing pilots from the Raiders, smiling down at Macho with smug grins. Well, it didn’t take the air wing studs long to roll in on Wonder Woman. Oblivious to their motives, Shane was waving and beaming like a schoolgirl, even more ridiculous in her “Mickey Mouse” sound attenuators. She was causing a scene.
In an effort to get her to stop, Macho lifted her hand in response. Shane blew her a kiss and shouted something to one of the men next to her and pointed at Macho. Macho gratefully found a reason to look away to the catapults on her right. How can a chick be so smokin’ hot and so uncool at the same time? she thought. Macho knew the air wings guys thought she was a girl just this side of “Peppermint Patti,” and