Daedalus: SWIC Basejump from Fred Noonan Skyport

by Robert G. Williscroft

Using a new Gryphon-7 hard-shell wingsuit, Tiger Baily, irreverent member of the Navy SEALS Winged Insertion Command, makes a harrowing first experimental base jump from the edge of Space, the Fred Noonan Skyport 80,000 meters above Jarvis Island in the Equatorial Pacific. Tiger’s target, which he must reach to survive, is Kiritimati Island, a tiny isolated atoll 379 km northeast of Jarvis over ever-threatening and oh-so-deep ocean waters.

58 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2019

About the author

Dr. Robert G. Williscroft is a retired submarine officer, deep-sea and saturation diver, scientist, author, and a lifelong adventurer. He spent twenty-two months underwater, a year in the equatorial Pacific, three years in the Arctic ice pack, and a year at the Geographic South Pole. He holds degrees in Marine Physics and Meteorology and a doctorate for developing a system to protect scuba divers in contaminated water. A prolific author of both non-fiction, submarine technothrillers, and hard science fiction, he lives in Centennial, Colorado.

Dr. Williscroft is a member of Colorado Author’s League, Independent Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Authors, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, Libertarian Futurist Society, Los Angeles Adventurers’ Club, Mensa, Military Officer’s Association, U.S. Sub Vets, American Legion, and the NRA, and now spends most of his time writing his next book, speaking to various regional groups, and hanging out with the girl of his dreams, Jill, and her two cats.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daedalus is a novella/short story that provides the pulse-pounding narrative of one man’s experience of hurling himself off a platform 80,000 kilometers above the Earth and flying toward a target with only a hard-shell wing-suit and a low-fuel rocket booster. The read is like a simulation ride at Disney World – full of adventure and thrills, but a short ride that leaves you wanting more.

The setting for this story is inside the world that Mr. Williscroft created for his much longer novel “Slingshot,” which was in turn the kickoff to a series of books in that same universe. “Slingshot” goes into great detail about the space launch loop apparatus that is capable of hurling a ship into orbit and beyond without conventional rockets. In Daedalus, the author gives an abridged version of the explanation about the technology, which is adequate for purposes of this story, but it’s helpful if you have read (or read afterwards) the full “Slingshot,” which I recommend.

In this story, we meet “Tiger” Baily, who is a daredevil and gets recruited by an elite Navy SEAL team experimenting with rigid wing-suits that allow a paratrooper to fly into a combat situation from a great distance for a mission, then fold up and get out without ever being detected by enemy radar. Tiger and his squad go through several test sequences, culminating with the big drop from 80 Kilometers, which happens to be the top of the Launch Loop structure. The perilous and high-adventure dive at the end of the story is really what it’s all about, and the author gives us a second-by-second account based on his obvious experience and technical knowledge. It’s a quick read (less than an hour) and well written.

The problem with the novella is that it could well be an action sequence within the context of a larger story, but the author has chosen to give it to us here in a sterile package, without any context or opportunity to develop characters or provide a surrounding plot. The descriptions leading up to the final sequence are sometimes a bit clipped and the technical explanations can get a little dry (unless you’re an engineer, in which case you’ll probably love them). I would have liked to hear more about the squad and their adventures. I would have loved it if the big drop had been essential to some larger mission or crisis. I want more from this story. As it stands, it’s a fun quick read, and fans of Mr. Williscroft’s “Slingshot” world should definitely tune in for this episode.

[Bruce Perrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Death-Defying Feat Told with the Swagger of a Navy SEAL

Imagine, if you will, riding something like an extremely high-speed elevator 80 kilometers into the sky (that’s almost 50 miles or over 262,000 feet). And you’re doing this in preparation for jumping with nothing but a hard-shell, wingsuit with a steerable rocket while aiming for a small island 379 kilometers away. I can think of a lot of phrases that might describe people’s feelings as that elevator starts its ascent—paralyzed by fear, hearts pounding in their ears, stomachs in their throats. Now consider how the narrator of the novella Daedalus, Tiger Bailey a Navy SEAL, described it. “I felt a faint tug that rapidly increased to about the same pressure produced by a chick sitting on my chest.”

Throughout the novella, Bailey doesn’t show a lot of anxiety about what he’s doing. In fact, you’d hardly notice anything in his behavior except a few times he said things aloud that he thought he was only thinking. Or he’d answer a question by saying he’d talk later because he was ‘sort of busy’ at the moment. And while there may be some false bravado in his re-telling, Bailey’s tone is consistent with people well-trained and experienced in high-risk occupations. So, for the reader, there are plenty of opportunities to share in Bailey’s awe standing on that platform looking out into space, to marvel at his cool composure with what was ahead, and to shudder when thinking about how it would feel if you were doing it.

My primary concern about this work as a standalone novella is that it was too short to allow for much development of either the character (Bailey) or the plot; it’s 58 pages. Bailey remains mostly a stereotype, the feat a succinct description. However, the novella is an introduction to the man—we know he’s calm under pressure—and to a new weapon delivery system—a rigid wingsuit capable of delivering SEALs to a battle zone. And since this is the first of four, interconnected stories, according to the Author’s Note, the brevity of this novella and the limited development of story and character seems appropriate.

[Marc Weitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science history is full of inventions inspired by the science fiction of Jules Verne, HG Wells, and Star Trek. Robert Williscroft’s stories fire my imagination in the same way. I enjoyed this short story for all the reasons that I love this author’s work: full of real science described in such detail that I can picture this world, feel this world, and lose myself in it. The story follows Derek Baily, a wingsuit adrenaline junky whom you’d normally read about in Outside Magazine. He was recruited by the military to test out its military-grade wingsuit called the Gryphon-7, which is faster and more efficient. The wingsuit is described in detail: the material, the design, its performance numbers in speed, altitude, and glide ratio, all these things that engineering nerds love in their hardcore, science-based fiction. It was fascinating. The story culminates with a test jump from a space launch loop, an elevator the lifts people and material into low-earth orbit for easier launch into space and which was the subject of the author’s earlier novel Slingshot. If you’re a fan of that novel, you will enjoy this side story. The author does what he does best in building a realistic future world of real science and engineering that inspires me to think of what is possible.

[Mick Brady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daedalus is a well-crafted account of a daring flyboy's test jump from a 50-mile-high perch above Earth -- kudos to Williscroft for making the details of this future-tech so believable. This story reads more like a memoir than science fiction, which adds to its immediacy and credibility. However, it's also a bit of a problem. Despite the intensity of the action, there's virtually no tension in the story. We know from the outset that Tiger lives to tell his tale, so even his most perilous moments are oddly ho-hum. He seems like an interesting guy, but his experience doesn't change him or lead to any new insights or alter any old relationships. As an excerpt of a larger work with more character development, conflict, plotting, etc., this could work quite well. As a standalone story, it falls a little flat -- all narrative, no theme. Still, for the brilliance of the science alone, I recommend this short read.

[Jeannie Sharpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Writing

I like the way Robert wrote this book. Like all his other books I’ve read the book builds and holds your attention. Great writing. From the start until I finished I appreciated the way he laid out the book. Great Job.