Well over a month for this one too:
Morning comes early on an airbase. It comes even earlier
for those in command. Promptly at 0700, Colonel Jeff Stuart
pulled up to an improvised parking space in front of his new
squadron's headquarters.
Improvised? As in two pieces of garden hose laid out in parallel lines just
long enough and far apart to barely fit a jeep in? :)
His headlights caught on a pair of
familiar figures waiting patiently in front of the building.
It was his imaginary friends, Harvey the Rabbit and Chuck the Wombat.
"Good morning, sir," the two said together, adding sharp,
parade-ground salutes.
Jeff got out of his Land Rover and waved an informal
acknowledgment as he passed them on the steps. He had little
time for formalities. There was too much work to do. He was
still short twenty-three pilots, a whole squadron staff, vital
equipment, and, of course, Veritechs.
Luckily headquarters hadn't forgotten to provide plenty of forms for him to
fill out. Close to a thousand, to be precise. They never seemed to be short
of those.
He was in no mood for
delays.
The two females
'women' sounds better to me. You rarely refer to men as 'males' for a
comparison.
followed him inside and waited patiently for
instructions.
"Captain, you start on the Executive Officer's office," he
said while taking off his jacket. "I want it functional before
noon. Got it?"
In response, Ona threw a bunch of papers all over the desk and floor,
spilled some ink, and left a half eaten sandwich on the top of the desk.
"Perfect," Jeff said.
Yellowstone. A small shack set back from the concrete parking
area must be the Day Room for pilots, he thought.
Luckily, until he gets pilots, he won't need that one.
"There's someone here to see you, sir," she said in an
official voice.
"Pilots?" he asked anxiously.
Which means they probably aren't. :)
Cindy shrugged and tried to look contrite over her mistake
at not inquiring further from their visitors.
nice to see she is behaving professionally.
He reached for his uniform tunic and followed Cindy back out
to the main room. His pace faltered when he saw what was waiting
for him. Two females, both with the distinctive dark tanned
skin, almond-shaped eyes and almost coal-black hair that reminded
him of his wife's people,
Quakers? :)
stood expectantly just inside the front
door.
The taller of the two wore on her dress uniform the wings of
an Instructor Pilot, a position in the RDF awarded to only those
who possessed infinite patience and exceptional skills.
And who were really hated by their CO's.
She
looked like a woman totally in control of herself and her
environment. In addition to that, Jeff had to admit, she was a
most attractive woman.
Especially with her rather prominant Adam's apple. :)
Her companion was a smaller duplicate of herself. Only a
couple of inches shorter, she looked younger, more serious, and
less comfortable being in a strange squadron's headquarters.
"I'm Colonel Stuart," Jeff said trying to sound official and
friendly at the same time. These two couldn't be Veritech
pilots. Perhaps they were looking for regular piloting jobs.
"I'm Captain Katherine Fox, sir," the taller of the two said
while adding a crisp salute.
"Lieutenant Samantha Fox,"
Cool. I always liked her singing. :)
I guess we now see why it's called Fox Squadron.
He didn't really have time for this. They couldn't be the
kind of pilots he was looking for.
What? He doesn't think that when the brass told him they were getting him
pilots, he didn't translate that as 'the first warm bodies we can get to
volunteer?" I thought he had been in the military for a while too.
His reply was interrupted by Cindy clearing her throat and
holding a clipboard his direction. She continued to stare at her
screen with a bored expression.
Heh.
"Yeah, I know," Jeff said with an exasperated gesture.
"It's just I've--"
"-- never commanded female pilots in combat and don't know
how they'll respond?"
"I guess so." Jeff suddenly felt guilty at his overt
display of male ego.
Heh. It is rather blatent.
He took only two steps. "Oh, I almost forgot. I need --"
"Top drawer, file cabinet 'C', look under 'Transfers',"
Cindy finished for him.
"How do you --"
"-- know what you're going to ask?" she said without looking
his way. "It's a girl thing, sir."
hehehehe. I know women like this. Although sometimes I surprise them by
guessing what they're thinking as well.
Jeff tried to match this to his strictly male background but
got the feeling he was fitting a square peg in a round hole -- so
to speak. There simply had to be another explanation. With
narrowed eyes he leaned towards his Admin Officer. "What am I
thinking now?"
"They're pink, sir," Cindy replied in an off-hand manner,
still staring at the terminal.
"What?" Jeff's body recoiled like he'd just gotten caught
peeking in the female showers at the gym.
"My panties, sir. They're pink." Cindy regarded him with a
strange expression.
"HA!" Jeff said as he raised a finger of triumph. "I wasn't wondering what
color of panties you were wearing. I was wondering what color mine were.
You see, I wasn't paying attention when I got dressed this morning..."
"At least, that's what you were wondering."
nice link to the title, BTW.
"No sir. I never wear a bra," she said with a sigh, like it
was a question she'd been asked a thousand times. "Don't need
one."
With a tiny, choked groan of distress, he scrambled into his
office and slammed shut the door. THIS he didn't need. Either
she was the most perceptive person in the world or...
It was really his wife in disguise.
Katherine smiled. She had a smile that could melt steel.
"Then you're in luck. We're Veritech pilots."
Stunned, his eyes darted between the two women. Veritech
pilots? Female Veritech pilots?
I'd rather have a female VT pilot than a male one that needs glasses. (a la
Max Sterling. )
"Are you sure his wife said he was desperate?" Samantha
asked, her voice tinged with bitterness.
"Shut Up!" her sister hissed sharply.
Jeff rocked forward. "What? What about my wife?"
"She said you were lousy in bed and hoped an affair with one or both of us
might inspire you to do something that might excite her," Samantha sighed.
Jeff frowned at the pair as he recalled his wife's reaction
to the news of his new command. She'd made him a special dinner,
the same thing she did every time the base 'grape-vine' got the
news to her before he could.
heh.
RDF Yellowstone was the nearest base to the Black Hills and the
Pine Ridge Reservation. Their appearance now made complete
sense.
"Yes, sir. You see, your wife's step-brother was our aunt's
half-cousin.
roomate in college."
"Which makes you and my wife?" Jeff asked.
"Absolutly nothing," Samantha replied.
Jeff hesitated before shaking his head again. "Be that as
it may, it'll never work. I can't send a bunch of females into
an obvious war zone. I can't have that on my conscience."
"I'll throw some mother's son in to be killed instead." (It's amazing that
he doesn't think of it that way, neh?)
Katherine leaned forward, holding out her service record.
"Sir, I've been waiting ten years for a chance to prove myself.
I've done everything asked of me, endured countless rejections of
my transfer requests, and trained hard for this opportunity. All
I'm asking for is the chance to prove what I can do. I deserve
this." Her burning eyes confronted Jeff's with a firm resolve.
"I don't fear dying, if that's what's bothering you," she said
flatly. "You should know by now that none of our people fear the
afterlife."
Ah, but she would if she knew it was composed of nothing but Barney songs
and watching Tellytubbies on TV 24 hours a day.
A stand-off of sorts took place as the trio glared at each
other. Jeff could have dismissed them out of hand and gotten on
with the difficult job of finding enough *male* Veritech pilots.
He might have done exactly that except for something Cindy
had said earlier - before the bit about the pink underwear. RDF
women had served honorably alongside their male counterparts,
fighting, and often dying, just as bravely as the men. True,
their numbers were few, only a relative few can muster the
aggressiveness necessary to fly fighters,
well, that and the tremendous ego as well. :)
He idly fingered the two folders while trying to make up his
mind. Would he turn them down and go back to square one or
accept their eager offers and risk another nightmare.
nightmare?
A knock at the door delayed his decision. Actually, it made
the decision for him. When he called out for the person to
enter, Cindy came in with two clipboards. Attached to them were
RDF transfer requests with the names of Katherine and Samantha
neatly typed in the proper spaces.
"Just sign them both, sir. I'll take care of the details,"
she said.
Now we get an understanding of who is really going to run the show. Perhaps
your story will show she was the brains behind General Leonard's operation
as well. :)
any case, Ona Parino made it clear she had no interest in the job
and probably wouldn't do very well at it anyway.
She'd rather shoot things anyhow.
glanced at her sister. "We won't let you down, sir."
Jeff sighed and waved them out of his office. He
immediately began to wonder if he'd done the right thing.
"I just hope you live long enough to understand," he mumbled.
But it wasn't meant to be as they got run over by a runaway bus as the
exited the office.
Cindy could feel the Zentraedi's eyes on her as she started
unpacking the box.
Ona made no move to help. "Why are you doing this?" she
asked.
"For lesbian sex afterwards," Cindy said.
"Oh. Okay." Ona visibly relaxed.
"You've experienced this?" Ona's expression was more that
of a curious child than a mature woman. That could probably be
explained by her only close relationships being with other
Zentraedi females. Males were as mysterious to her as an alien
species.
Especially since most of the ones she's met probably are to her :)
"He's quite a character. Probably seen more action than any
other squadron commander in the RDF. It's a mystery why General
Hunter didn't take him on the SDF-3."
Ole' Rick caught him making goo-goo eyes at Lisa once. It was curtains from
there.
"I'm just telling you what I heard," Ona insisted. "This is
his last assignment before retirement - whatever that is."
"It's where you get old and they tell you to go away," Cindy
said absently as she tried to figure a way of keeping him in the
squadron. "Don't Zentraedi ever retire?"
"Don't know," Ona said with a shrug while dumping the
contents of another box in the same drawer. This unpacking stuff
was easy. "I never heard of a Zentraedi living that long."
Dolza was an old coot, as I recall.
"This just isn't right." Cindy shook her head. "I've got
to think of some way to keep him here."
Oh dear.
better look at her sister's face.
"It's what he said... about where this squadron is going,"
she lamented. Turning to look purposefully into her sister's
eyes. "Doesn't it bother you?"
Samantha shrugged and settled back in the comfort of the
vehicle's imitation lamb's wool seat. "I donno.
dunno (never seen it spelled your way.)
"I know, I know. We're descendants of Pony-That-Walks, a
a much more proud feat than being descended from
Pony-That-Stumbles-Around-Like-A-Near-Sighted-Drunk.
later, he'd frozen to death. She remembered how hard her father
took it. Their brother was supposed to honor the family by
living the warrior life in the newly-formed RDF. His death broke
a chain of history that stretched back beyond anyone's memory.
Neither of the girls could allow that. So, when each of them
came of age, they enlisted in his place.
"I have to earn that feather. I can't go back and hold my
head up unless I do." Samantha's voice was little more than a
hoarse whisper. "You do what you want. I'm staying."
nice getting their motivations in here.
"He only needs twelve to activate the squadron," Samantha
corrected. "But, I doubt he'll find even that many."
They sat in silence, listening to the rumble of the
approaching storm. The darkening sky mirrored their mood.
"He's going to need some help," Samantha said softly.
uh oh. I have a bad feeling about this.
"Where do you want to start?"
"The Thirty-Second Squadron," Katherine said emphatically.
"Yeah," Samantha agreed with a gleam in her eye. "I'm sure
those two would join. Then we could check with Aunt Margie over
at the mission. She knows everyone around here. I'll bet she'd
be able to scare-up a dozen pilots."
"They need to be Veritech pilots," Katherine corrected but
not too seriously. She knew that just about any flying
qualification would do if she had time to put them through a two
week, accelerated training course. "Yeah, we can do it."
Yep. This is going to be something else.
let him staff up after they rotate to the new base. Three
flights of four was the bare minimum to man a base. He'd heard
of other squadrons functioning on seventeen or eighteen fighters
due to breakdowns and combat losses.
I'm sure it was worse than that during the peak of the SDF-1's battle run
to Earth in Macross. Pilots dropped like flies back then.
Maybe he'd get away with
this yet. Then again, maybe not.
He looked out the window at the gathering storm clouds. The
sight of a older
an older
Very nice work as you introduce us to the various personalities that make
up the squadron. Cindy is my favorite so far, and nice work with her near
telepathic abilities.
D.B. Sommer