Posted on 06/10/2002 6:52:09 PM PDT by joanie-f
Hi, Fellow FReepers!
Below are two excerpts from Chapter Six of FReeper Jeff Head’s upcoming book, ‘Dragon’s Fury – Trodden Under’ (the second book in his five-book series). Along with FR’s Dukie, I have worked with Jeff from the inception of this series and believe that, given the continuing momentum, it is going to be not only a very successful literary undertaking for Jeff, but also an eye-opening experience for those who read the series (although moreso for the average citizen, I suspect, than for FReepers, who tend to be well informed about the possibility of events such as those which take place between the covers of these books).
My Dad, who passed away last autumn, was, for about seventy-six of his eight-four years, an inveterate American historian – acquiring a library full of knowledge about all periods of American history – right up to a superb knowledge of current events. Whenever Jeff would send me a new chapter from the first book of the series to edit, I would also give it to my Dad to peruse. Invariably, he would say, ‘Man, this guy knows what he’s talking about! Everything in this book is based on a thorough knowledge of world history, current events, and military and political matters. Everything here is entirely possible!’
One evening when my husband and I were sitting in our yard with my Dad after dinner, and he was looking through one of the chapters I was working on at the time, Jeff happened to call. I gave the phone to my Dad, who laughingly said to Jeff, ‘If Joanie hadn’t told me you were a die-hard conservative, I’d think you didn’t like this country very much! What you are putting us through in this book is horrible!’ (It was said in a good natured, and tongue-in-cheek mode, and Jeff, equally good-naturedly, assured my Dad that that his patriotism, and conservatism, were indeed still very much intact.)
The first excerpt below embodies my Dad’s ‘What you are putting us through in this book is horrible!’ observation. America does not win every battle in this prophecy of a possible World War III scenario. Not hardly. Anyone who has read book one, and anyone who reads the first excerpt below, knows better.
The second excerpt represents the beginning of a sub-plot which illustrates literary creativity at its finest. When Jeff ran the idea (which germinates in this excerpt, and will grow to fruition in chapters and books to come) by me several weeks ago, I could hardly contain my enthusiasm. To me, the mark of a good military/political (believable) fiction writer is someone who can entertain a myriad of subplots and major/minor characters, all finding themselves expertly juggled throughout the narrative, each one serving as an integral part of a reasonable, neat, and understandable mental (ah yes!) ‘picture’ once the reader finally closes the book. This second excerpt represents the beginning of just such a subplot (seemingly unrelated to events thus far, but prepared to unfold in succeeding chapters to leave the reader, who is wise enough to stick with it, astounded at its relevance….and final impact).
I hope you’ll all take a couple of minutes to read the samples below. They are good examples of what is contained between the covers of each book of the Dragon’s Fury series. Thanks….and good reading! (Comments and suggestions always welcome from fellow FReepers….)
excerpt #1:
July 11, 2006, the next ten minutes
USS Enterprise Carrier Battle Group
The Arabian Sea
As the objects were tracked on radar (and by some of the personnel on deck of the Spruance escort closest to the aircraft), and as they impacted the water, there was a brief moment of euphoria. For just a moment the Americans thought that every one of the attacking missiles had malfunctioned and crashed into the sea. But this thought and the associated euphoria was short lived as it became apparent that this was not the case.
Very quickly sonar operators in the CIC’s of every ship in the formation recognized the sound that had been recently drilled into them, and the sound that none of them wanted or expected to hear here in the Indian Ocean. It was the sound of approaching supercavitating weapons targeting their ships. Of the sixteen LRASD weapons, thirteen of them survived impact with the ocean and activated. Seeing their targets so close, they immediately went to rocket power. Five of them targeted the Enterprise, four of them targeted the escorting Aegis cruiser, two targeted the Spruance destroyer closest to them and two targeted an escorting LA class submarine that they detected in the near vicinity….
….The Enterprise, though fatally damaged, still had operational control over two of its four Sparrow missile launchers and one of its CIWS. These defensive weapon systems worked as designed and destroyed both missiles targeting the carrier. They also destroyed one of the missiles targeting the replenishment ship. However, due to budgetary constraints imposed in 1999 by the administration in Washington at the time, all US replenishment ships had had all of their self-defense weapons systems removed and were defenseless against missile attacks themselves. Where Sparrow missile launchers, RAM missile launchers and CIWS once defended the ship very adequately against just this sort of attack, nothing was now in place to stop the last Indian missile. It came in low to the water at mach-2 and impacted the ship amidships, penetrating deep into the interior before exploding in one of the aviation fuel storage areas. The resulting explosion immediately led to instantaneous secondary explosions that blew out one side and the bottom of the ship. As more fuel, ammunition, missiles and torpedoes were set off, within two minutes, the Supply class replenishment ship was sinking with most of its crew.
Two minutes after this attack, the second wave of Indian TU-22M Backfire bombers arrived and attacked the CBG with their LRASD weapons. The four A/F-18F CAP aircraft were alerted to their presence by the AWACS aircraft, which remained on station, and it directed the fighters to close and attack. The four aircraft only had eight short-range, infrared homing Sidewinder missiles left amongst them, but they used these and their cannons to good effect. Before the Indian aircraft could launch their weapons, eight of them were destroyed. Despite this, another twelve LRASD weapons were launched and ten of those weapons survived impact with the ocean and successfully activated. Eight of them targeted the carrier and the last two targeted the Spruance destroyer that was rushing to the carrier’s aid.
The USS Enterprise was going dead in the water and already listing heavily from the initial attack. It could not maneuver to avoid the approaching weapons at all. All eight of the LRASD devices impacted against the side of the carrier within seconds of one another causing a stupendous conflagration of explosions. When the smoke, water vapor and falling debris cleared … the Enterprise was gone.
The approaching Spruance destroyer faired better. Still some four miles beyond the carrier, and over fourteen miles distant from where the LRASD devices were launched, it had more time to take evasive action. Although both weapons missed, one of them passed close enough to the turning aft portion of the ship to activate its proximity fuse. The resulting explosion just behind the ship and to starboard was close enough to buckle the rudder and warp the prop on that side.
Later in the evening, burdened with several hundred survivors that were pulled out of the ocean, a severally damaged Ticonderoga class Aegis cruiser, an undamaged Arleigh Burke class Aegis destroyer, the damaged Spruance class destroyer and an undamaged Los Angeles class submarine left the area. They departed under the heaviest air cover available originating out of Diego Garcia. They were all that was left of the nine vessel, ever-present US Navy 5th fleet CBG that had projected power and influence in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf for so many years. It would be quite some time before an American CBG did so again.
The four vessels set a course to the south for the only place of refuge left to them within thousands of miles, Diego Garcia. There, there were significant repair and re-provisioning facilities for the vessels, and hospital and recuperation facilities for the personnel requiring it. They would join two E2-C AWACS aircraft, two EA-6B Electronic warfare aircraft, four S-3B anti-submarine aircraft and sixteen A/F-18F aircraft that had been in the air when the Enterprise went down. These twenty-four aircraft were all that remained of an air-wing of over seventy aircraft that had been on the Enterprise. The rest had all either gone down with the carrier, or been destroyed in the effort to protect her. The survivors would not have to wait long for the chance to avenge their compatriots. Their enemies would be bringing that chance to them.
excerpt #2:
July 14, 2006, 8:34 PM, EDT
Along I-495
Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Joseph Trevor was a senior research scientist and director working on the Human Genome Project (HGP), a US Department of Energy (DOE) led international scientific collaboration that was researching and detailing the genetic blueprint of the human species. Such research and the understanding that it provided were expected to produce significant medical and physiological benefits for all of mankind. It was a tremendously complex and delicate project, one that was an order of magnitude more difficult and expensive than other major scientific projects upon which the United States had embarked. This included the Manhattan Project that had produced the atomic bomb and the Apollo Project that had landed men on the moon. As he drove towards home, Joe reflected on the path that had led him to his current position.
After marriage and completing his undergraduate degree in physics at Brigham Young University in Utah, Joe and Elizabeth had moved back home to Texas to work there and raise their family. While there, Joseph had completed his Masters degree in Physiology and his Doctorate in Biophysics. The completion of his formal education had occurred over a several year period while working for Talbott Laboratories in the Dallas area between 1983 and 1992.
In 1986 after several years of trying, their first child, a daughter Patricia, had been born. She was the first of what Joseph and Elizabeth hoped would be a large, natural family. But their hopes and aspirations in that regard were cut short after they tragically experienced a miscarriage and a still birth with the two following pregnancies. A genetic disorder that had led to the failed pregnancies was discovered within Elizabeth, a disorder that meant that there was only a one in ten chance that any pregnancy would be successful. In that regard, they considered Patricia their “miracle” baby. But she was a miracle baby that was afflicted with the same genetic disorder as her mother.
A natural and understandable desire to understand this disorder and hopefully correct it drove Joe into further research and the study of biophysics. This led to Joseph’s doctorate and ultimately led him to complete significant research on human DNA while working at Talbott Labs. His papers were extraordinarily well researched and insightful. They were published and became well read throughout the entire biomedical scientific community.
Joseph’s research and his publications ultimately captured the attention of leading researchers and administrators throughout the country. In 1992 this notoriety led to an offer from the Director of the National Center for Human Genome Research for Joe to lead a human genome research effort in the Boston area for the National Institute of Health. In that capacity, the envisioned research center would be an auxiliary and compliment to the three major DOE genome research facilities at Lawrence Berkley, Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories.
Professionally and personally it was an offer Joseph could not refuse. As the Director and lead research scientist at the facility, Joe would be in a position to “make the difference” that he longed for. It was also an offer Elizabeth prayed would lead Joe and his staff to discover cures for others suffering from the same types of genetic problems that had led to her failed pregnancies … and perhaps do so in time to help her and Joe. As the years passed, it became apparent that a breakthrough of that nature would not come in time for Elizabeth, but the hope naturally shifted, for both Joseph and Elizabeth, that it would come in time for their daughter Patricia and any others so afflicted.
Now, fourteen years later, as Joe neared his exit for Nashua, he once again experienced the renewal of the inner drive that had moved him over the years. It was a welcome renewal, particularly during this war-torn time when resources and personnel were in shorter supply. Joe was saddened that such efforts for good had to be impeded by the evil that had been brought upon them … but he knew it was necessary lest the entire effort he was involved with be destroyed, or hijacked and misdirected by that same evil. Such a consideration was intolerable to Joseph and he therefore supported the war effort completely, despite its impact on his own efforts....
….For the last several days, while running pilot research studies on a more detailed examination of the protein coding instructions of genes that are transmitted indirectly through intermediary RNA molecules, Joseph had been using prototype atomic force microscopies and enhanced mass spectrometric analysis. The results of the initial analysis with respect to the more detailed look at the protein coding instructions was looking very hopeful in providing a much more thorough understanding of the coding itself and a concomitant understanding of its transmission through RNA. But all of that would certainly require a lot more research, testing and analysis. In order for it to ultimately be duplicated and verified independently, it would then also require the development of more refined and procedure-oriented methodologies involving the new equipment and approaches.
As exciting and potentially productive as that analysis was, it was not the issue that he wanted to share and talk about with Elizabeth. In addition to the initial results of the analysis of the coding instructions and their concomitant transmission through RNA, Joseph had noticed the slightest hint of something more basic ... something that appeared to be underlying the whole DNA/RNA/Protein structure itself. Something in the sub-molecular or even in the atomic range that was barely perceptible to the new equipment and methods he was employing. Something with the faintest glimmer of electrical and physical characteristics that implied an even more rudimentary level to the entire basis for the coding instructions themselves, and the for entire transmission mechanism of those instructions.
“Maybe I am just focusing too hard … maybe I am making something out of nothing,” he thought. “These are some potentially fantastic conclusions drawn from the smallest shreds of evidence … and based upon totally new and unproven methodologies. But there is a “feeling” to it … there’s something there. I’ll have to review it in detail over the next few weeks and come up with much more compelling data before I consider even mentioning it to anyone at the Center. I’ll certainly have to have my ducks in a row before considering mentioning it further up the line to the National Institute of Health’s NHGRI (National Human Genome Research Institute) or the Department of Energy’s JGI (Joint Genome Institute). The people there will not want to believe it … it would be too great a leap without much more data, much more evidence and a much more documented and detailed description … and understandably so.”
As Joe exited US 3 and drove towards his subdivision in Nashua, he looked forward to dinner and the discussion with Elizabeth before they retired for the night. He particularly looked forward to sharing his initial thoughts and findings on this new data and hearing what were sure to be her “out of the box” and very creative thoughts on the matter. “We’ll just have to see where it leads,” he thought.
At the time, Joe could not comprehend where his research on this matter would “lead” or what impact it would ultimately have on his and Elizabeth’s lives … or the even greater impact it would have on world events.
It is my SINCERE HOPE that Jeff will find a way to insert the USA banishing the UN from our soil, and to withdraw from the corrupt body once and for all!
New word, Steve? :)
Thanks for the kind words.
I can't give away the story line, but I can tell you that Jeff would not disagree with you. :) (So glad you're liking Breath of Fire.)
(Who hibernates in the summer? :)
Answer to question #2: Perhaps.
:)
Thanks for the BUMP.
Thanks....
~ joanie
Good writing, Jeff.
hey fidgit...PING
ENjoyed the excerpts. Check your mail.
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