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Delta pilot who was hitching a ride on an Aries jump seat.
    An operations agent came aboard, stuck her head in the cockpit and said, “Did you hear what happened? An airplane hit the World Trade Center.”
    â€œWhat kind of airplane?” Nikki asked.
    â€œA big airplane. Like a 737 or something.”
    â€œWhoa. How do you get that far off course?”
    She shrugged. “Sit tight till the airport clears us,” the agent said, and left.
    Less than a minute passed when her first officer said, “Did you hear that? They closed the airport.”
    Nikki looked outside. “Why?” It was a beautiful morning. The sky was crystal clear.
    Some other pilot at the airport keyed his mike and asked why the airport had been closed.
    â€œThe airport is closed for reasons of national security,” came the reply.
    The deafening silence that followed lasted for perhaps two full minutes. Alarm filled the air like static.
    The operations agent came back a few minutes later. Her face had bleached so white that her lips were indistinguishable from her flesh. “Another plane flew into the second tower. Another big one.”
    â€œHoly Jesus,” the copilot muttered.
    â€œThey’re saying the airplanes are U.S. passenger planes. Hijacked,” the agent said. She was visibly trembling.
    The next announcement ordered all planes back to the gates. Passengers were deplaned, pilots and cabin crews were informed there had been several hijackings from Northeast airports and flights were canceled pending investigation. The airport was swiftly evacuated.
    The unprecedented response was that every aircraft in the United States was grounded for several days. Nikki learned she had been sitting next to one of the planes that had been hijacked out of Boston.
    That morning, trying to reach the kids on her cell phone, she couldn’t get a signal. When she did get through, she found that the kids were with Buck, terrified for her safety because they couldn’t reach her.
    Her first reaction, like the rest of the world’s, was shock and horror. But she had a bigger mission—she had a plane to get out of Boston and a crew that was shaken and needed her leadership.
    They were put in a hotel where they sat glued to televisions, watching an unbelievable drama happening not very far away. Most of her crew didn’t have enough money for days of meals and incidentals, so Nikki covered them. It didn’t take long for the passengers to disappear from the airport to find alternative means of transportation. Some of them would never be back.
    â€œMama, I don’t want you to fly!” April had wailed into the phone.
    â€œApril, flying is what I do, what I’ve always done, and no madman from an angry country is going to drive me away from it. But I promise you I’ll be taking extra precautions.”
    â€œBut what if it was you?”
    â€œBut it wasn’t, April. We have to be strong now. Everyone in the U.S. has to be brave and strong now.”
    Days later Nikki and her copilot flew an empty planeback to Phoenix. He had missed the birth of his first child. One of the flight attendants was sick as a dog all the way home, and the minute they landed she quit. When the industry was flying again, Aries canceled the majority of their flights, as did every airline in the industry; they flew approximately thirty percent of their schedule, and those flights were not half-full. Even the business traveler stayed home. When companies started sending their people on business trips again, a sagging economy necessitated prudence—they bought bargain fares, purchasing cheap, nonrefundable tickets in advance.
    Nikki, her family, her friends and the rest of the country were consumed by pain and sorrow and anger that seemed to have no end.
    Aries furloughed a fourth of its workforce in the first month after 9/11, then levied ten-to thirty-percent pay cuts across the board. Most of the other