Golf Echo Bravo

by part time pony

Chapter 7 | Double the Trouble Part II

The sound of a loud whistle was heard through the intercom, sailors identifying it as the Boatswain's call. Attention was paid at the coming announcement, something was up they could all tell. The whistle ended, and the Boatswain started speaking through the intercom.
'General Quarters, General Quarters, all hands man your battle stations.

A loud repeating alarm began to sound, as sailors and marines rushed from their current activities to their assigned posts. The boatswain continued his announcement with instructions. As Omar Hopkins would've said, General Quarters was the most organised chaos on board a navy vessel.

'Up and forward to starboard, down and aft to port.'

The ship was brought forward to the wind, as planes belonging to the 40th Strike Wing were brought up, a total of 17 jets, normally 18, however. Those jets were quickly launched through the catapult systems, the green shirts making sure each and one took off without any trouble. The air wing began patrolling the nearby areas, for their lost pilot.

The investigation had been full of ups and downs. Álfur who had so far felt comfortable with the pace of the investigation began now stressing over the facts that some required items still hadn't made it all the way to his headquarters. He mostly complained about the ATC recordings, as they were the best thing he could have until finding the black boxes if they'd even be ever found.

Some progress had been made with the aircraft parts that were found by the ICG, however. Most notably three different sized pieces were found belonging to the actual Golf Echo Bravo, while the rest were from other planes which had incidents over the area. Those pieces were now sent back to the ICG, who'd handle the proper procedure.

Úlrik looked over to his friend and the lead investigator.
"Álfur, one of the investigators from the French team forwarded me an email, saying he had discovered something peculiar, he asked if I could tag along."

Áflur, who had been writing an email of to the leaders of the French and British investigation teams respectively, stopped, saving the email as a draft to continue later. He switched off the laptop, and then looked at Úlrik.
"Okay, go on."

Úlrik put his coffee mug down on a table.
"Well, it may not be fully related to the search, but they discovered that several airfields in the range of Golf Echo Bravo haven't sent in any recent reports to the aviation administration."

Álfur shook his head, his eyes slightly closed.
He sighed, "You know what, go do what they wish to do, might at least give some good news who the hell knows."

He looked back at his shut off laptop, turning it back on again and logging in.
Ebba, who had been listening onto the conversation stepped in to say her remarks.
"Well, I for one think it's a bad idea since most those airfields wouldn't even be able to support a plane meant for commercial transportation purposes."

Úlrik, seeing Ebba had entered the conversation turned to face her, crossing his arms at the same time.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Though part of me thinks that they may have something involved."

Ebba rolled her eyes and went back to work. Just as Úlrik was about to leave to meet the other investigator, Björn spoke up.
"Well it's not as far-fetched, I mean, a Boeing 727 did disappear under similar circumstances... somewhat."

"Well, regardless of what happens, I'll stay in touch," Úlrik said as he went on to put his coat on and leave the building.

Álfur looked around, seeing Björn going back to work and the same with Ebba. He was proud that of his team, in the past he had found it sometimes hard to cooperate with some of the other folks, but for once he had been given a team where everyone was able to work together, although some disagreements still happened, that was only natural he felt. As long as they wouldn't evolve into feuds or similar he'd be happy.

He resumed writing his email, about organising a press conference. Since the disappearance, his emails had indeed been flooded with journalists and other curious people. He took a break from writing, and looked at all the emails he had been sent, he wasn't going to open any of them of course, he was just curious if he had received any updates from his superiors in Reykjavik.

Scrolling past hundreds of journalists and news agencies he finally found one, and it was from his friend and supervisor Laufar. The email dated to two days ago. He blinked once and moved the cursor towards it. Clicking once the email opened, and rows of text were revealed.

'Hello Álfur!

Hope you can excuse this late email, I've been in contact with the boss himself and I've got some good news, and also bad news. Since I believe your investigation has been filled with mostly bad news so far, I'll do you a favour and start with good ones.

The good news is that the ATC recordings should arrive on Tuesday, I wasn't told the exact time but the delays were due to issues in copying over the audio files since you know, those recorders have to be on 24/7. But we managed to get it done during the night, however, there will be some additional delays as I wasn't able to book a charter plane for them so they'll be transported in a van to your headquarter. Now, as for the bad news...

The first one is that unfortunately Antoine Pardieu, and Timothy Coburn (the pilots of Golf Echo Bravo), have been declared dead in absentia by their respective governments. Their families have of course already been notified.
And the last one is that I haven't been able to convince Ólafur to delay the deadline for the investigation, he still wishes to have everyone back by the annual report, though considering it's in about a month and a half time, you should still have enough to collect enough information for a proper conclusion.

I am confident you'll be able to do your best, you were always one of the most promising folks here, and I'm proud that I was the one who trained you in fact. Give me a call whenever you feel like talking, I'll try and answer.

I wish you a good day Álfur, and to your team. Good luck on the investigation!'

He closed the email. At least the recordings were coming now, though the death in absentia declaration made the Icelander shiver, he suddenly felt as if he was in the middle of a snowfield with no warm clothing. He huddled his arms up, feeling somewhat better, though his face was still grim. "Damn." He muttered loudly, with Björn and Ebba looking at Álfur in confusion.

Connor looked to his left, his hand attached to a handcuff. Looking to his right he saw the same. He found himself on a white, comfortable bed, bandages were wrapt around his head. Everything to him didn't seem real. The way he found himself in this unknown land and the creatures that call it home. It couldn't be. All was going smooth yesterday, it was supposed to be a routine flight in bad weather, which he had done in the past with no problem. Apart from one time when he missed the deck and had to go around perhaps.

Looking to his left again he barely made out a few details, his eyes were still half asleep, half-closed. He saw another bed and on it an orange pony, the same one from last night, stripped of his armour he laid there, also half awake, half asleep.
'Thank god he isn't dead' Connor told himself. The pony had bandages wrapped around his left shoulder, a little dried blood was seen on it, but Connor assumed it had stopped by now, and the wound inflicted by him was healing.

Connor looked to his right, thinking he heard a door open. A tall white door had indeed been opened, and in stepped a white-coated pony with a stethoscope around his neck, as well as a doctor's uniform. He had a horn and was carrying a clipboard using his magic. He was followed by a tall, navy blue pony who had wings and a horn. Both of them walked over to Connor.

"Greetings, mister?" The Doctor said, asking for Connor's name.

The Lieutenant Commander looked at the doctor, breathing in and out twice.
"Davis." He spoke out quietly.

"Right, them. Mr Davis, a pleasure to meet you." The doctor said, pausing and looking over his clipboard, quickly scanning over details of last night's incident, having spoken to the other guard that witnessed it all go down as well as having done his own examinations during treatment of both patients.
"Forgive me if the details are a bit gloomy, I am still learning the story, but from what I've been told currently you were knocked unconscious after falling onto paved ground head first. This was, of course after you seem to have inflicted an injury upon the Sergeant in the bed next to you." He continued.

"I-s, is, is he going to be okay?" Connor asked, struggling at first to find the words.

"Yes, thankfully whatever caused his wound didn't penetrate anything vital, though I was hoping you could tell me what happened since I've never dealt with anything like that." The doctor added.

Connor looked over to the pony to his left, he indeed had been shot by Connor, and he felt guilty for it. He looked back at the Doctor, and the dark blue alicorn, feeling the only way to help out the injured Sergeant by opening up.

"I want you to first know I am terribly sorry for what happened." He said, sighing and taking a deep breath.

"Oh that's quite alright Mr Davis, forgiveness is a key aspect of our society, I am sure you meant no harm." The doctor replied.

"Right. W-well, I used my gun on him." Connor said.

The doctor looked at Connor. His eyes motioning he was confused. The doctor flipped through the pages of his clipboard, looking for anything that could be associated with the 'gun' word. Flipping through the first page, he saw nothing, same with the second but on the third, he saw something that could've been what Connor was referencing.

"Oh, I assume you mean this, a grey metallic object that was found on you?" The Doctor had his eyes on the clipboard as he talked, then looking back at Connor.

"Wha-, oh. Yes, that." Connor said, also confused by the description.

The doctor continued, asking questions, and Connor answering them all truthfully. During the entire questioning, the blue alicorn who happened to be Princess Luna, had, for the most part, a somewhat angry look on her face. This was the exact thing she had feared from the whole start with humans appearing in Equestria. And now it had actually happened. All she could do was hope it wouldn't happen again. The Doctor remained optimistic, seeing the only way to get information was by being all friendly. While he held no grudge against the naval aviator, he still did feel some concern like most ponies in the Royal Castle after the event.

"Right then. Mr Davis, I am also here to inform you that per requests from Princess Celestia." He stopped, looking at Connor who was even more confused now.

"Oh, right, you've never heard of her." He cleared his throat. "Princess Celestia is the head of state for Equestria, this alicorn right next to me is Princess Luna, her sister, and I suppose what you can call a vice head of state." He said, pointing at Luna during the presentation of Celestia.

"As I was saying, she decided that this affair will be best kept outside from the courts, she's already signed your pardon order, however, you will be required to meet with her, and one of her trusted advisors as well as some, friends of yours I believe I can say." The doctor added to finish.

"Oh, and, my name is Doctor Artic Aid, if you ever need me just ask anyone at the castle, they should know where my office is." He added once more, this time finishing for real.

The Doctor and the alicorn then walked over to the Sergeant next to Connor, talking to him about what had happened, what's going to happen in the future and other related things. The Lieutenant Commander remained in the bed. He sure just had learnt a lot in the short span of that conversation. Though learning that he was about to meet the head of state of the country that he had practically just invaded on his own made him nervous. He sighed, looking at the Sergeant. Artic and Luna were speaking to him. Connor barely heard anything though, as his eyes slowly shut and he drifted away to sleep.

"Mr Davis?" A voice was heard.

Connor opened his eyes. He looked to the left, the Sergeant was gone. He looked to his right. And saw Doctor Artic Aid.
He looked at him. It was the early morning he could tell, as the sun was shining through the window brightly, almost blinding him.

"Splendid, you're awake." The doctor said, breathing in and out. "Right then. Do you feel capable of walking?"

Connor looked at the Doctor, then at this legs. They were covered by a white blanket, though he could still see the shape of them. He tried moving his legs, they moved slowly, but enough to walk. He looked back at the Doctor.
"Yeah. I figure I can walk, where are we going?"

"Oh, we're going to meet Princess Celestia and her trusted advisor. " Artic Aid said. "And you won't be needing these anymore." He added, then using his magic to remove the specially designed hoof cuffs. "Now come along, sir."

Connor, moved his arms around, feeling it great he was able to move them again. He looked at the Doctor, who by now had started to trot towards the large door. He got up, feeling his legs shake a bit as if he had stood up too quickly. He managed to bring them under control and walked over slowly towards the door. Connor seemed to have been partially stripped of his flight suit, with the top half hanging and swinging from side to side as he walked. His harness and vest were gone, and so was his helmet. Underneath the flight suit, Connor had only been wearing a navy blue physical training uniform, which he found to be more comfortable during flights. The shirt had a small navy crest on the front, while the back read 'AMERICA'S NAVY' in bold bright yellow letters.

Artic Aid opened the doors that led to the outside of the medical bay, stepping out slowly he made sure to wait for Connor, who approached slowly, still feeling slightly shaky. He stopped by the entrance, looking slightly down at the white unicorn pony.
"Right this way, Mr Davis," Artic said, in his usual calm voice.

The doctor began trotting away, keeping a consistent pace. Connor followed behind carefully to ensure he wouldn't get lost.
While his focus was on preventing getting lost, he still couldn't help himself at admiring the architecture of the castle. In many ways, he thought it resembled the Versailles Palace, on the outskirts of Paris. While the marble there may be a different colour and the walls and roofs decorated with hundreds of paintings, the resemblance was still striking to him.
Having visited the palace himself before enlisting into the Navy, he almost felt as if he had been teleported back in time.

Though his attention was shortly regained as Artic Aid made a turn, announcing it as well. Connor made a hard left, as the pair went down another hallway, one that had more guards than previously seen. The Doctor stopped in front of a door, which had two guards outside of it. Artic turned around, facing Connor.

"Right then, before we enter I would like for you to remember that the Princess is quite the big deal in our world. So don't make a fool of yourself, even though she may seem relaxed most of the time she can quickly snap."

"Oh, don't worry. You have no idea how much harsher the instructors at Great Lakes are." Connor said, chucking a little while referencing to his time in boot camp.

"Very funny." Artic Aid said slowly, looking unamused as he turned back towards the door.

He opened it slowly, entering with Connor right behind him.
Princess Celestia was seen sitting on a comfortable chair, with her trusted advisor, Twilight Sparkle next to her also sitting on a chair. Both of them seemed to be in the middle of drinking tea. The door closed, and attention by the Princess and her beloved student was brought upon the doctor and the pilot. Connor stood at attention.

"Your highness, may I introduce you to Mr Davis," Artic spoke. "The uh-, intruder from last night." He continued, but quietly as if trying to avoid unwanted attention from his patient.

Celestia placed the floating cup of tea down onto the tray, using her magic. She stood up, walking slowly over to the two.
"Thank you, Artic." She said, then looking over to Connor.
"Please, Mr Davis," She examined the pose of the Lieutenant Commander, noticing he stood at attention as if Celestia was his superior in the army. "You may cease the formalities, we are all friends here."

Connor, obliged. "Of course, your highness." He said as he switched from attention to at ease, while still in a taught out position, Celestia didn't seem to notice.

"Now, I intend on keeping this short, as my beloved student Twilight Sparkle will have much, much to ask you later," Celestia said, Twilight being seen with a somewhat overexaggerated smile, her eyes narrowed and ears down.

"That's quite alright, your highness," Connor answered, with a smile.

Celestia sat back down, sipping some tea slowly with her eyes closed before putting the mug back down on the tray.
She looked over to the two guests inside of her room. The table, which she and Twilight were seated had two more empty cups and two vacant seats.

"Tea?" Celestia proposed.

Artic, seemed hesitant, quickly looking over the clipboard he used magic to bring down his glasses onto his eyes. Then looking back up, with his glasses brought back up.
"I'm afraid I can't, I must tend to Sergeant Sentry, his instructors over at OCS wish to know whether he will be able to participate this intake or wait until the next, next time perhaps, Princess." Artic Aid politely denied.

"That's quite alright, Artic. Tell me, how is he doing?" Celestia inquired.

"Oh the severity of the wounds were much below my expectations, he should make a full recovery within a few weeks." The doctor stated, bowing down to the Princess and back up as he made his way out and towards his own private office where the Sergeant awaited. Connor on the other hand, naturally stayed, and accepted the invitation to tea.

While not a big fan of tea, and in fact preferring coffee he thought to himself that a nice hot beverage could do him nice, especially to relieve all the stress he's been feeling and slight pain he was still feeling in his shoulders.
Celestia, using her magic served the naval aviator tea, with Connor himself not adding anything else extra to improve the flavour.

"Pardon me for asking, Princess. But what is OCS?" Twilight Sparkle asked, looking over at the ruler of Equestria, her mentor and in many ways her second mother.

Celestia, with her eyes closed, reopened them, once again putting her cup down.
"I can't seem to remember." She looked over to Connor. "Would you perhaps know what it means, Mr Davis?"

He looked at the princess. "Oh, but I assume it means Officer Candidate School, the academy for becoming a commissioned officer. This, Sergeant Sentry is as of right now a non-commissioned officer I imagine, so if he passes he'll become a commissioned one." Davis said, smiling slightly as he enjoyed answering those sorts of questions.
"And by the way, please, call me Connor."

Celestia smiled and nodded, taking a sip. "Connor, have you been introduced to Antoine and Timothy?" Celestia asked. She looked and noticed the naval aviator's confused expression.

"I-i, uhm, can't say I have, your highness." He placed down his cup. "Who are they?"

Celestia's facial expression changed to a neutral one, as she looked over to her student. "Twilight, have you arranged the introductions?"

"Oh, but of course, Princess Celestia!" Twilight said in an energetic voice as she pulled out a thick book from her saddlebags, several coloured post-it notes being seen sticking out of the pages, plopping it down onto the table. The cups and small plates jumped slightly up, then landing again as the purple unicorn rapidly flipped through the pages towards the near end.

"Tomorrow precisely at midday at the Ponyville Cafe!" She once again said in an even higher-pitched energetic voice.

Úlrik drove through the city, in his white pick up truck, heading to the Harpa Conference Centre, where tomorrow's press conference was to be held by the lead investigators of each team. Though he wasn't going there to prepare it, but rather to pick up Arnaud Dubois, the french investigation who had forwarded the email to Úlrik. Following the speed limit on the way, he was slightly hindered by roadwork, though after a while he had made it past and turned left into a parking lot, where the French investigator was.

Stopping the car at the side the parking entrance he saw a medium height man in a grey jacket, blue jeans and dark-greyish hair. He knew it was Arnaud, having actually met him before in the past. Úlrik stepped out the car and walked over slowly.

"Arnaud, good to see you again." The Icelander said, greeting the Frenchman and offering to shake his hand.

"It is good to see you too mon amis." Arnaud smiled, shaking Úlrik's hand.

"Well then, what about these airfields?" Úlrik asked.

"I will explain on the way, it's quite far away the first one."

Úlrik nodded and opened the door for Arnaud. Then walking around to the driver side he opened his own door and got in. Starting the engine and putting the truck into reserve he carefully navigated his way out onto the street again, then putting the gear on 'D' he advanced to the edge of the speed limit and drove alongside the road. Arnaud wrote the address of the first destination in the car's GPS, and Úlrik began following the route.

The sun had just risen in the Icelandic capital, and it was a hot day. Mild clouds if none at all, would've been a good day for outdoor activities, but both men had larger things to worry about. While this small excursion would likely find nothing to help the investigation, Arnaud, the optimistic man was willing to give it a shot, as all three teams needed something at the moment.