The C-17 banked steeply and bucked wildly in the turbulence, its engines accelerating to near full throttle to maintain the tight turn. General Highway looked a lot less confident than he should, thought Wolverine.
"What's the matter? You don't trust this thing?"
General Highway glared back at Wolverine, but did not reply. The plane was on final approach now, fully lined up, and the gear lowered. Wolverine looked out the window, and saw the supersructure pass by. "Oh shit! We're coming in too high!"
The engines dropped back to idle and the giant cargo plane continued to glide in, well past the midpoint on the deck of the Clinton. Suddenly it settled down, hard, and the engines were immediately thrown into full reverse, and the pilot leaned on the brakes hard. Wolverine looked out the window in alarm at the quickly passing runway lights, and noticed that they were slowing much faster than he would expect on a normal runway. Soon they were stopped, and the plane began to turn around. Out the window, Wolverine could see that they were still nowhere near the end of the runway - the front of the ship faded from vision into the hazy sea mist.
"Ha HA! See what I told you? IT WORKS!"
Wolverine was stunned to silence for a moment. "Well, I suppose the treadmill could make landings a little shorter" he admitted, but quickly regained his form: "But a damn arrestor cable system would work just as well and cost a fraction of what this behemoth must have run you!"
General Highway felt he had regained the upper hand in the argument. He jabbed his finger at Wolverine again: "IT WORKS!"
"Yeah, in a sense, but at what cost? I heard you had to retire six conventional nuclear carriers to pay for this thing!"
"Retire? Fudge no! We built this thing on top of them!" beamed the General.
"That's preposterous! How can something rigid like a runway be built on top of six, separately floating ships!"
"It was a challenge, alright, but we had a team of the best structural engineers in the world design the thing. IT WORKS!"
The plane had turned around now and was taxiing toward the superstructure. "If this thing works so well, why did we turn around? Why didn't they just convey us back to the tower?"
"Well, you saw what happened to those F-35s, did you want that to happen to us?"
"What's the matter? You don't trust this thing?"
General Highway glared back at Wolverine, but did not reply. The plane was on final approach now, fully lined up, and the gear lowered. Wolverine looked out the window, and saw the supersructure pass by. "Oh shit! We're coming in too high!"
The engines dropped back to idle and the giant cargo plane continued to glide in, well past the midpoint on the deck of the Clinton. Suddenly it settled down, hard, and the engines were immediately thrown into full reverse, and the pilot leaned on the brakes hard. Wolverine looked out the window in alarm at the quickly passing runway lights, and noticed that they were slowing much faster than he would expect on a normal runway. Soon they were stopped, and the plane began to turn around. Out the window, Wolverine could see that they were still nowhere near the end of the runway - the front of the ship faded from vision into the hazy sea mist.
"Ha HA! See what I told you? IT WORKS!"
Wolverine was stunned to silence for a moment. "Well, I suppose the treadmill could make landings a little shorter" he admitted, but quickly regained his form: "But a damn arrestor cable system would work just as well and cost a fraction of what this behemoth must have run you!"
General Highway felt he had regained the upper hand in the argument. He jabbed his finger at Wolverine again: "IT WORKS!"
"Yeah, in a sense, but at what cost? I heard you had to retire six conventional nuclear carriers to pay for this thing!"
"Retire? Fudge no! We built this thing on top of them!" beamed the General.
"That's preposterous! How can something rigid like a runway be built on top of six, separately floating ships!"
"It was a challenge, alright, but we had a team of the best structural engineers in the world design the thing. IT WORKS!"
The plane had turned around now and was taxiing toward the superstructure. "If this thing works so well, why did we turn around? Why didn't they just convey us back to the tower?"
"Well, you saw what happened to those F-35s, did you want that to happen to us?"
