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.”
    The others nod in agreement.
    This is new.
    â€œLet’s get out of this weather,” Brian says. “Nick has already gone in. I think he’s calling the Kansas City to let them know what’s up.”
    Funny, I can’t bring myself to think of Commander Claggett as “Nick.” It would make him too … normal.
    As I push myself to my feet, Brian adds, “We’ll head to the wardroom. We can get you some coffee or something.”
    â€œSounds great. Let me just run by the bird first,” I say.
    I zigzag toward the aircraft on unsteady legs, removing my helmet. The wind promptly whips my hair into a frenzy, wild strands blowing across my face and sticking to my mouth.
    The only way I can wear my helmet with any degree of comfort is to have my hair down. I tuck it in my flight suit for flying and then tie it up before I leave the aircraft because it’s too long to wear loose. I’ll need to grab my hair tie from my helmet bag first thing.
    As I corral my hair with my free hand, I look back to see the group following me. Maybe they’re curious about what happened to the transmission just like I am.
    A crowd of maintenance guys from the Shadow Hunters cluster inside the aircraft, Lego and Messy in the middle of it all. I poke my head in the main cabin door and make eye contact with Lego.
    â€œMa’am, the tranny just basically shat itself! We’re gonna have to replace the whole fuckin’ thing!”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYeah, we’re gonna have to do it right here, too.”
    â€œBut how are we going—”
    â€œFive four’s gonna have to deliver it all—the parts, our maintenance guys. Good god above, it’s gonna take fuckin’ forever to get this done.”
    I turn to Brian and the rest of the pilots. “And we’re going to be clogging your deck the whole time.”
    With our helicopter taking all the space on the flight deck, there won’t be room to move their helicopters out of the hangar. This sucks for them. Oh, and I bet their captain is pissed. He won’t have his air assets available to him the entire time we’re here. Not good. That means the whole maintenance effort is going to be performed in a pressure cooker. The only concern of the Lake Champlain ’s captain is going to be how soon we can get off his deck.
    â€œYou know, it’s not like it matters,” Brian says. “There’s no way we’re running flight ops in this weather anyway. We were just about to cancel everything when you guys showed up. And the weather’s only getting worse.”
    â€œSo that means our guys won’t be able to deliver anything. Or deliver anything right away, anyway.”
    â€œI doubt it,” Brian says.
    Visions of a stranded Commander Claggett race through my head. He’s so tightly wound anyway, this is definitely going to set him off.
    â€œLego, do you need anything?” I say.
    â€œNo, ma’am. We’re just removing some panels here to get a better look-see.”
    â€œOkay. I’m going to head in for a moment.”
    â€œNo problem. It’s not like we’re goin’ anywhere soon.”
    I start to turn away, but stop. “How long do you think we’ll be here?”
    He looks at his hands, wiping them with a grease rag, as he considers it. “Let’s see.… We’ll have to pull the rotor head, the flight controls, all of it, just to get the tranny out. If we work through the night, we can probably get that done. Then if we get the parts in the mornin’, the tranny change itself is easily over ten hours of work. And then we’ll have to do the check flight, too.”
    He looks up. “I’d bet a paycheck we’re lookin’ at two nights on this ship.”

 
    5
    Two nights—as in, we’re going to be spending the night. And this is one time I’m not prepared. Normally, I keep a toothbrush, extra