Night Bird Hangar, 0800 hrs.:
As Sarah, Lucy, and Chief Jordan arrive at Night Bird’s hangar, they see a pregnant red hair woman, and several other techs, including Samantha Blake working on Night Bird. Every access panel he had was opened and cables were coming out of him and over to several different mobiles severs.

“Who are they?” Lucy was curious.

“I don’t know who the red hair woman is, but the woman standing next to her is Chief Engineer of Special Projects, Samantha Blake. The
daughter of the owner of Blake Industries.” Chief Jordan has met Samantha several times at various meetings.

“What are they doing to Night Bird?” Sarah was curious.

“I don’t know.” Chief Jordan was curious as well.

“Are you sure this is going to work, Pat?” Sam looks at Pat.

“Positive, Boeing has been working on it for a while now. I just twinked the settings to act more like a shield, then a plasma shield.” The design Boeing was experimenting with, was the bases of creating a plasma shield.

“I’m glad we managed to get our hands on it.” Samantha didn't think they would be able to get the design in time, but thanks to Pat’s ability. They not only managed to get the blueprints but build it overnight and work its design into Night Bird’s system.

“Morning, Sam?” Chief Jordan walks up to Samantha.

“Hey, Jordan. Sorry for bragging in on your territory, but we came up with a solution to protect Night Bird from microwave attacks.” Sam looks at Jordan and the two other women behind him.

Lucy looks at Samantha and was curious about what the solution was “what was your solution?”

“A basic energy shield, based on an experimental plasma shield design that Boeing has constructed.” Pat turns around to look at the young woman they had been informed about.

Lucy was surprised. She read an article while at MIT of Boeing designing and building a plasma shield. It was meant to protect vehicles and personnel from incoming explosive damage, but it was still in the development stage.

“I didn’t think a working prototype had been built yet?” Lucy had a questionable look on her face.

“They managed to build two prototypes.” Samantha couldn’t tell Lucy, how they got the design.

“So, this device will protect Night Bird, from further microwave attacks?” Chief Jordan wanted to know more about it.

“Yes, however, it uses a lot of energy. Night Bird will be going through his hydrogen fuel cells faster.” Samantha and Pat couldn’t come up with a better system.

“Could we install that device on any other helicopter?” Chief Jordan wouldn’t mind installing it on a few attack helicopters they had.

“Yes, but unfortunately, we only have one prototype right now.” Sam figured if it works, they will get permission from Boeing to build a few more.

“Do you mind if I take a look at it?” Lucy was curious.

Sam looks at Jordan to see if she could be trusted. She knew Lucy had been deceived and tricked to make her work on the other three helicopters.

Jordan notices Sam’s look and nods his head yes to her unspoken question. After working with her last night, he trusted her with Night Bird. He’s been thinking about recruiting her after all this mess was over with.

“Go right ahead.” Sam steps aside, nudging Pat to move as well.

Pat just looks at Sam when she nudges her. She was busy mentally setting up the perimeters of the field on Night Bird. She wanted to make
sure the whole aircraft was protected.

Lucy walks up to the main access and looks inside. She was looking for the new device and spots it. It had been constructed to fit in the empty spot that use to be where it was. It had a diagnostic panel and port, which currently had a cable connected to it.

The cable ran from it to a portable server unit sitting nearby. She looks at several other portable server units connected to Night Bird.

“Why are there four servers connected to Night Bird?”

“We’ve gone in and cleaned up a few problems we found. We’re also reprogramming Night Bird with a new system.” Sam and Pat rewrote all of Night Birds operating systems and wiped the old system out of him.

“I know Katey and Jessica will appreciate the upgrade.” Jordan knew how they appreciate any upgrades to Night Bird.

“They will need a slight learning curve.” Pat looks at Jordan when she says that.

“How come?” Jordan wonders why Katey and Jessica would need more training.

“The controls are slightly more responsive than before and the system is more acute than they were. Plus, Night Bird is self-learning. It will be able to predict the enemies' next move.”

“Isn’t that, kind of dangerous? Couldn’t that cause Night Bird to turn against the pilot’s?”

“No, he isn’t equipped with artificial intelligence. He’s only capable of analyzing the data he gathers and suggests possible countermeasures. It still comes down to the pilot to determine what they are going to do.”

“So, a more enhance combat computer?” Jordan figures that was what Pat was saying.

“You could say that.”

“How much longer, before everything is done?” Jordan was looking at the portable servers connected to Night Bird.

“A few more hours. We had to do a total wipe of Night Bird's old system. We’re loading the new system into his onboard computers right now.”

“What’s to keep a hacker from hacking his system?” Lucy was wondering how they could prevent that.

“They would need physical access to his onboard computers. You can’t hack his system through anything else, except a physical connection.”
Pat made sure that nothing could access Night Bird from outside. She could because of her talents and the implant in her head.

The next few hours Sarah and Lucy watched as the reprogramming on Night Bird takes place. Once the programming was done, all the access hatches on Night Bird are closed. Pat climbs into the cockpit and starts Night Bird up.

“Is she going to be able to fly in the condition she is in?” Jordan noticed how big Pat’s belly was.

“She’ll be okay. The baby won’t let her fly very fast.” Sam saw how pale Pat got on the way over to the airfield, late last night.

Pat goes through and activates Night Bird’s system and monitor them as they booted up. Some of them slowly come online as the new operating system configures itself to the hardware. Any of them that was too slow, she merges with the system and fixes the problem.

Once Night Bird is fully operational, she takes Night Bird out for a flight test. Everyone watches as Night Bird flies off. They watch as Pat does a few moves and flies back to them and land.

“How did he do?” Sam watches as Pat climbs down from Night Bird.

“He did fine. Katey and Jessica should be fine flying him and if they encounter that Eurocopter again, they will have the advantage.”

“Except their missiles won’t affect him.” Lucy didn’t know if they fixed that problem.

“We replace Night Bird’s missiles with fire and forget ones. So, when Night Bird fires at the Eurocopter, they can’t stop them.” Sam loaded
Night Bird with unguided missiles.

“So, they have to make sure they are pointing at the attack copter.” Lucy figures that the missiles Sam loaded meant they had no navigation or
targeting systems in them.

“Yep, they are a direct fire missile. Like a gun firing a bullet.”

“Man, that’s a big change from what they normally carry.” Jordan knew Night Bird carried self-guided missiles.

“That’s why Katey and Jessica are going to have a slight training curve.” Pat knew those two pilots will have to adjust to the new system.

“I’ll inform them.” Chief Jordan sends a text to their cellphones to see him.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m hungry.” Pat was having a major craving for some freshly cooked fried chicken and pickles.

“Come on, let's go and put some food in you. If you guys are hungry, you’re welcome to join us. My treat.” Sam figures since she is feeding, Pat. She would pay for everyone else.

“Thanks.”

Sam, Pat, Sarah, and Lucy walk towards the cafeteria on base. Chief Jordan watches as the techs on duty starts boxing up all the servers and cables..