Je m'appelle Nadia Spécula Hesteria. Je suis pilote pour le service Transluna Orbital et agent de sécurité pour Sécuris-Général.
Exposé: NADIA SPÉCULA HESTERIA, Shuttlecraft Pilot for TransLuna Orbital Services and Vice-Overseer for the General Security Company (Sécuris-Général)
Nadia Spécula Hesteria dressed in her Sécuris fatigues.
We here at
Ad Astra, the official magazine and newsletter of TransLuna Corporation, arranged an interview with
Nadia Specula Hesteria, a young pilot and rising star within the ever-growing Sécuris-Général.
Nadia is one of TransLuna's most celebrated pilots, with over 10,000 hours of certified flight time under her belt and 20,000 hours of simulation flight time and combat hours. Nadia was named "TransLuna Employee of the Year" in 2054 when she achieved TransLuna's first hypersonic insertion into orbit, and again in 2059 when she was promoted to Wing Commander of the Helvetian Space Wing under Sécuris-Général. As Wing Commander, the HSW grew to field two squadrons of TransLuna's state-of-the-art multi-role aerospace security-vehicle, the
Dragoon. Now the HSW is using these
Dragoons to patrol Helvetian airspace and the flight path of
Hecate I, helping to scout and clear orbital debris and coming fully-equipped with a spate of high-energy industrial equipment for space research and point defense.
A Dragoon in the maintenance bay of the Zürich Spaceport. The dragoon uses twin hybrid turbofan/ramjet engines to insert into space and a magnetoplasmic thruster to maneuver in orbit, making it a fully certified SSTO security-vehicle.
Before the
Dragoon and, indeed, before Nadia, TLOS relied on the
Bertha-class orbital insertion shuttle to move crew and cargo between the Earth and space. Although reliable and sturdy, the
Bertha were not equipped for dealing with space debris nor handling the possibility of hostile spacecrafts.
"In those days, we were sitting ducks," explains Nadia. "Of course, the world wasn't nearly as dangerous back then, but some of us - like me - knew that the world of today was just a tomorrow away."
Nadia was 39 years old when she became Wing Commander in 2059, a fact that has made her a symbol of youth among the aging TransLuna community.* She demonstrated skill as a recon pilot and passenger flight captain in the '40s, and her reputation as a skilled and resourceful pilot allowed her to be recommended for flight testing. During the first orbital shuttle flight tests, she pioneered the development of several flight techniques that remain today as essential techniques for both human and AI pilots. Her efforts allowed the
Bertha shuttle to become fully realized as an SSTO - or single-stage to orbit - vehicle during the development phase.
Berthas were the first major reusable spacecraft developed by TransLuna Orbital Services. According to Nadia: "We put NASA, ESA, SpaceX - all them to shame." "What about OKB-1?" I asked her. "Well, they did it first," she said with a chuckle.
It was all of her observations and her time as a test pilot that eventually motivated her to push for development of a new kind of spacecraft: one that was what she called "security capable."
"There is a new need for vehicles which are security-capable in the spacecraft engineering of the future," she wrote in her widely-panned 2055 report. "The political situation on Earth, far from stabilizing as the
posadistas insisted it would, is returning to the equilibrium which the Old World was known for... the most troubling sign [of which] is the promulgation of imperialist diplomacy which, throughout history, was known for nothing so well as the suppression of business. TransLuna, as a business, must adapt... or be swept aside."
Although, at the time, Nadia was criticized for her overly belligerent tone and what many readers wrote in to call her "militaristic paranoia," almost ten years later, her words seem prescient.
TransLuna now exists in a time where its investment returns are shrinking, and the struggles of powerful states like Germany, Nordica, Italy, the Sahel and the infamous Caliphate threaten to fill the skies with flame. According to Nadia: "We must not allow that to happen."
Nadia poses for a picture equipped with her Multi-Gravity Suit, also known as the Variable-Gravity Suit or "Varia" Suit. The suit is armored, flexible, EMP-shielded, and powered, and helps pilots withstand the intense g-forces of inter-orbital maneuvers.
"The Federal Republic of Germany is the only nation in the world being proactive about the collectivist threats that hound us around every corner," claims Nadia. "Instead of allying ourselves to their interests, the Board of Directors has committed to a Trade Conference and a message of peace. It is my belief that this policy of neutrality is not only cowardly, but foolish, and softens us rather than prepares us for the inevitable conflict."
I asked her if she thought that war between TransLuna and an entity like Nordica was preferable to the status quo. "Peace only lasts for so long," she said in a quiet, serious tone. "War is coming. Either we will be prepared, or we won't be. That's just the way it is."
As the flames of war threaten to engulf the world once more, it's hard to say honestly that Nadia is being paranoid.
*Readers interested in learning more about TransLuna age demographics are advised to check out Ad Astra Biology's article in last month's issue titled
"Quality of Life: Living in an Age of Unknown-Limited Life Expectancy."
