In October, I posted my most recent WEP/IWSG Challenge episode, Masked Nemesis. Below you will find the next episode, Embedded, which I wrote as the first part of my 2023 NaNoWriMo entry. For the rest of that entry, I wrote three more Freedom Flights episodes Forest Elusion, Prairie Pride, and Saskatoon Sunrise – set respectively in 1944, 1947, and 1950. These are the first of the stories linking my original WWII story Feathered Fire and my ongoing present-day episodes.

For those new to this ongoing creation, please note, that this present-day tale began with my World War II story Feathered Fire, which introduced the Chayka family from Ukraine and appeared in the 2020 IWSG Anthology (No. 5), Voyagers: The Third Ghost.

The current stories open with Episode 1, Rainbow Firebreak, for the WEP/IWSG April: Challenge: https://rolandclarke.com/2022/04/20/wep-iwsg-april-challenge-a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall/.

Episode 2, Winged Woes, for the WEP/IWSG June Challenge:     https://rolandclarke.com/2022/06/15/wep-iwsg-june-challenge-please-read-the-letter/

Episode 3, Moonbeam Magic, for the WEP/IWSG August Challenge: https://rolandclarke.com/2022/08/17/wep-iwsg-august-challenge-moonlight-sonata/

Episode 4, Winged Death, for the WEP/IWSG October Challenge: https://rolandclarke.com/2022/10/19/wep-iwsg-october-challenge-thriller/

Episode 5, Soul Seeds, for the WEP/IWSG December Challenge: https://rolandclarke.com/2022/12/01/wep-iwsg-december-challenge-first-time-ever/ 

Episode 6, Swords to Ploughshares, to conclude the WEP/IWSG December Challenge and close 2022: https://rolandclarke.com/2022/12/10/swords-to-ploughshares/

Episode 7, Winter Resolution https://rolandclarke.com/2023/01/31/wep-iwsg-challenge-resolve/  This extra post leads into this month’s Challenge entry and included a plot event I foreshadowed in Part 6.

Episode 8, Winds of Change https://rolandclarke.com/2023/02/15/wep-iwsg-february-challenge-gone-with-the-wind/

Episode 9, Precious Relations, https://rolandclarke.com/2023/04/20/wep-iwsg-april-challenge-life-is-beautiful/  

Episode 10, Inception, https://rolandclarke.com/2023/06/12/freedom-flights-part-10-inception/ .

Episode 11, Shaped Encounters, https://rolandclarke.com/2023/06/23/wep-iwsg-june-challenge-close-encounters/ .

Episode 12, Chocolate Pots, https://rolandclarke.com/2023/08/16/wep-iwsg-august-challenge-chocolate-pots/

Episode 13, Masked Nemesis, https://rolandclarke.com/2023/10/18/wep-iwsg-october-challenge-masked-nemesis/

Episode 14 – Embedded

2023

Wednesday November 1^st – Zvenigora Restaurant, Dęblin, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland

It was still dark when Mariyka and Sergei finished cleaning the dining area of the restaurant after the successful Veles celebrations.

“You must have time for breakfast,” said her sister Sabina from the doorway into the kitchen, which she and Aunt Agnieszka had been cleaning. “We’ve made enough pancakes to feed a room of cadets.”

Hearing a knock at the front door, Mariyka checked.

It was her chief mechanic, Dariya Boyko, with the journalist writing about the squadron.

“Jane Wetherby wanted to talk before you’re needed in the Engineering hangar.”

“Let’s chat over breakfast with my family.”

“Perfect. I’d hoped they were here as well.”

Once they were all seated with plates of food and everyone was introduced, Jane took out her notepad.

“Do you all feel it’s brave and necessary for a woman like Mariyka to serve in a front-line unit?’

“Of course,” said Agnieszka. “As brave and important as the men. But as her aunt, I worry every time she flies in combat… as we all do.”

“Braver than men like me,” said Sergei. “But as a Russian, I surrendered, unwilling to fight. Now I can admire my partner Mariyka instead.”

Jane let the others express their admiration, then asked another question.

“Mariyka, I believe your family is part Jewish. Do you have relations in Israel, who might be involved in the war?”

“Yes,” replied Agnieszka. “Some cousins, who left Poland in 1993 and still live there—”

“—and like me, one was a pilot… but she was killed… fighting for a cause they believed in,” added Mariyka. “Dare we believe Hamas doesn’t want the destruction of Israel. Nor Putin ours.”

Sabina nodded. “Let’s pray neither war escalates, and more innocent lives are lost.”

“Unfortunately, with thousands already dead in Gaza,” said Dariya, “fatalities in Ukraine no longer provoke concern. The world’s focus has shifted away from us.”

*

 Saturday, November 11^th – Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center, Lviv, Ukraine

“Kapitan Sobol, I wish you a steady recovery. Do you miss the squadron?” asked Jane Wetherby.

Maryna squeezed her fellow survivor Katia’s hand. “My flight sisters… who died especially. And the ground crew who tried to save them. Lives lost. So many casualties everywhere. My precious Bohdana. Why?”

“Freedom,” said Katia. “Isn’t that why we fight? Except some of our allies forget that I fear.  Are we still fighting for Ukraine and Canada? Or just our ancestral motherland?”

“How many of you Witches were born in Canada?”

Maryna closed her eyes, letting Katia answer.

“Seven… less our two late sisters, who joined along with us. Whether other Canadian-Ukrainians become Witches depends on how this war is reported.”

Dropping her head, Jane paused before saying, “I hope my article helps. Where has the West failed Ukraine?”

“Supplying key weapons too late,” said Maryna. “Like ATACMS and cluster munitions. It’s exactly a year since Kherson was liberated yet we should have progressed further since then. We needed those weapons before our counter-offensive. Our brave forces have managed a multi-prong approach. But NATO doctrine recommends combined arms, an air-land campaign… when the right weapons are available. We are fighting an enemy NATO never has.”

“Without them, shaping operations were a slow tough grind,” added Katia. “Did our allies expect a swift assault while they delayed? We need better mine clearance and electronic measures. Only now are we being allowed to train on F-16s. Can Ukraine survive until the promised jets arrive?”

*

Friday, November 17^th – Dęblin Military Air Base, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland

“F-16s alone will not ensure our victory,” said Maksym Bondarenko, “but they will be a factor. We must convince our allies of the pressing need for their unwavering support.”

“Until the F-16s arrive, our engineering team will keep rebuilding and upgrading MiG-29s,” added Anatol Krakarth.

Mariyka nodded in agreement.

Jane looked at the group gathered in the squadron’s office.

“If your allies propose a peace plan, what form must that take?”

“It can’t allow Russia to keep any Ukrainian territory,” replied Maksym. “Including Crimea.”

“So, no peace that allows them to invade again,” added Vasy. “Difficult but crucial.”

“There must be a means to include reparations,” said Kalyna. “We can’t expect the West to cover all the costs of rebuilding what the Russians have destroyed.”

Jane held up her hands. “Possibly controversial, considering the heated discussions currently over the legality of using seized Russian assets. So, how dependent is victory on the extent of Western fatigue and further delays in support?”

“Extremely,” said Mariyka. “I fear what this winter might bring. Yet I know we must keep believing and doing everything we can to press forward.”

“And hope the crisis within US politics doesn’t favor Putin,” added Vasy.

*

Tuesday, November 21^st – Dęblin, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland

The images on the screen might be ten years old, but everyone watching had vivid memories of Euromaidan on this Day of Dignity and Freedom. Even the Canadians since they all had Ukrainian ancestry, especially the cousins Kalyna and Vasy, whose grandmothers had escaped Stalin’s tyranny in 1944.

“Were your grandmothers alive to witness Putin’s invasion of Crimea the following year?” asked Jane.

“Both were,” replied Vasy. “The one I’m named after was doing great at 82, while Kalyna’s was as spry at 92. They were comparing Putin to Stalin, yet still optimistic after the Euromaidan events.”

“Were you tempted to come here and help?”

“Tempted yes,” said Kalyna. “But we were still serving in the RCAF. Although at 42, we were thinking of retiring. Four years after Crimea we did when we were unofficial guests at Clear Sky 2018 hosted by Starokostiantyniv air base.”

Jane turned her attention to the Ukrainians in the Witches’ office.

“Did any of you take part in the Euromaidan demonstrations?”

“I was on leave from the Airforce,” said Maksym. “In Kyiv, where my family lived, before we moved to Lviv. I was meant to remain loyal to the government, yet I felt torn. So, I went to Maidan Nezalezhnosti on that first day and realized from all the speeches, that our country needed to be free of the old Soviet ties.”

“How long did you remain in the central square?”

“A few hours at first. But I returned every day I was on leave, doing what I could to support the protestors. Mainly with food and first aid, although back then I didn’t join a Maidan Self-Defense unit. If I wasn’t a serving officer, I’d have joined. Unfortunately, when the Crimea invasion happened, the armed forces proved too late to respond.”

*

Saturday November 25^th – Dęblin, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland

Moonlight cast shadows beside the Witches and their colleagues as they gathered for the remembrance ceremony on the 91^st anniversary of the devastating 1932-33 famine in Ukraine.

“Why is it known as the Holodomor?” asked Jane, as they all prepared to light memorial candles.

“It means ‘death by hunger’ as an estimated 7 million Ukrainians died,” replied Vasy as her husband clutched her hand.

Marko explained. “I was privileged to know Vasy and Kalyna’s grandmothers, who escaped Ukraine after their parents died—”

“—of starvation in Stalin’s famine,” added Kalyna’s husband Leonid.

With respectful reflection, everyone lit their candles. Then in their flickering light, observed a minute of silence remembering the victims.

As they returned to the airfield, Mariyka and Agnieszka invited everyone back to the Zvenigora Restaurant for a final act of remembrance and food.

*

Inside the family lit candles on every windowsill.

Maryka explained. “The tradition of ’Candle in the Window’ was suggested by Holodomor researcher James Mace in 2003, saying ‘Even seven decades later, a candle that flickers in the window seems to me to be a worthy reply’. We do this every year.”

“Even more relevant when Putin is again using hunger as a weapon,” added her sister.

“A weapon affecting people already near starvation in other countries,” said Nadzieja Chlebek. “Like the majors, I have family who suffered during Holodomor. My great-grandfather lost his parents in 1932.”

“Although I trained to fly in Canada. my family are originally Polish-Ukrainian,” said Adriana Pavlenko. “And I grew up learning about the suffering of millions over those decades.”

Jane kept making notes, then said, “Sending drones on the eve of Holodomor to attack Kyiv adds to the affront.” She continued, asking, “Has it ever been suggested that the squadron gets sent to guard the alternative grain route to the Black Sea.”

“Not yet,” said Kalyna. “For now, it’s either ground defenses or planes stationed nearer the Danube River ports.”

“But as long as Russia threatens any sensible grain deal,” added Leonid, “this is genocide against Ukraine and others. Yet one of many war crimes they must be held accountable for.”

“And your father, Vasy,” said Marko, “is attempting to pursue some of the children Russia has kidnapped from Eastern Ukraine.”

“As we often say, unpunished evil grows like cancer,” added Agnieszka. “Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki last year said, “If we allow Putin to continue, he will become the Stalin of the 21st century,”

Slava Ukrayini

The next Freedom Flights episode will be the final WEP/IWSG Challenge of 2023, Over To You, which allows us to choose a film that inspires our post… so, I understand. I aim to have something up in the next 24 hours. The clue to the film hangs in a restaurant.

https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2023/11/wep-december-challenge-over-to-you.html