After the Drift

Chapter Thirty: The Question

Time seemed to slow down once news of a burial at sea for all fallen pilots was announced.

I had been sitting the the cafeteria with Chuck when the P.A. System crackled on, Pentecost's voice boomed through:

Good afternoon, everyone.
Due to the unfortunate nature of our present predicament and the unfair nature of our business- we shall be having a burial at sea for those fallen rangers and crew a like this coming Friday before the next Kaiju attack.

We shall be honoring Russia's Kaidonovskys, China's Wei Tang triplets, Spain's pilot name, America's Lucie Blackwell, the crew of the recovery chopper we lost during the battle to defeat Cuegle...

The rest fuzzed out in my brain. Chuck squeezed my hand and gave me a concerned look.

The war still rages on. We must mourn and persevere all at once. I shall see you all Friday afternoon. Good day.

I swallowed hard after the crackling ceased. I think not having yet had a funeral made it less real. Like holding out on this final piece still gave me some teeny tiny hope she may still be alive somewhere. I knew it was foolish but my heart didn't care.

Newt made his way over to the table. "So, greaser. Have you seen a K-link cable around the lab? I can't find it anywhere and we had just used it last week to test the kaiju brain's electrical impulses."

I shrugged trying but still failing to not let his stupid nicknames get under my skin , "Maybe if you did your inventory once and awhile you'd know where it was. Could one of the tech crews have borrowed it?"

He grimaced. "Damn techies." He clamored off mutter.

Chuck shook his head. "He's a weird fella."

Chuck looked worse for wear lately. He had a banged up head and a little gimp from an impact with a Cat IV kaiju two weeks prior.

He took a bite of his lunch and chewed slowly, watching something.

I followed his line of sight and saw both Carlos and Emma. I smiled, I had recently tried to begin fixing those relationships as well. I had received a lot of "we were just worried about you" and "it's not a problem, we just wanted our Rubes back." It had felt really nice.

They both waved when they caught my eye, but Chuck still looked almost pissed. I hadn't realized that Carlos was speaking with the handsome blonde from a few weeks ago, Raleigh Becket.

He and I had started a misfit friendship. Bonding over lost loved ones and sharing a laugh at how ridiculous his own Jaeger's crew was.

After learning he would be asked to pilot one of the oldest models of Jaeger, Gipsy Danger, he now was in search of a copilot.

Raleigh also waved towards us and started walking that way. Chuck tensed up. He had a serious hate for Raleigh.

"Chuck, be nice." I got a grunt in return as the man stood next to us. "Afternoon, Ruby. Chuck." He ended on a flat note.

"Becket." Chuck had turned and looked as if he couldn't be more interested in his lunch. Knowing better, I could feel the anger radiate off him.

"So Ruby, I was wondering if you'd given any thought to what we talked about? Stacker is adamant we find someone sooner than later."

Chuck turned his attention back to us. I hadn't mentioned that Raleigh had asked me to try to drift with him. I knew Chuck wouldn't be thrilled by the idea. I didn't even know if I was.

"I haven't made up my mind yet. But if it's a consolation, I can look up Gipsy's specs and see if any new mods can be added to her easily. I know the GD6 can be cumbersome sometimes." He nodded.

"Let me know soon, I'm not pushing you to do it but I don't know if I can find another experienced pilot at this point."

I chewed on the side of my cheek. "What about an inexperienced one?"

"What're you askin' of her, Raleigh? To pilot with you? Drift with you? That's a load of shit. Like she hasn't been through enough already. She doesn't need your shit cloudin' up her mind too." Chuck had gotten up and into Raleigh's face.

Raleigh kept his face straight and mouth hard. "I think it's her choice how she handles her grief, Chuck. Maybe be the good little boyfriend and ask instead of assuming." They had gotten even closer until Raleigh smirked and walked away.

Chuck glared at him then turned back to me. "What's he talkin' about, Darl'? Were you going to share with the rest of us that you were thinkin' about pilotin' again?" He had started to get into my face and I felt the anger flush my face.

If I had the fire that Lucie did, I'd give Chuck a piece of my mind. Instead, I tried to listen to my mom for once.

So I stomped away after a final glare.

The stupid idiot.

Telling someone else what he through was best for me. Like it was a fact. I hadn't even had a moment to consider it!

I clomped all the way down to the K-Science lab.

Being midday, most of the techs were at lunch or in Hermann's case, a turkey and Swiss sandwich in one hand and a case study in the other while simultaneously looking at different statistics while being completely shut off to what was happening around him. Sometimes I was envious.

Except today, whereas Newt was normally off trying to flirt with someone or other or begging someone to listen to his nearing crackpot ideas, he was sitting next to the kaiju brain specimen with a bunch of wires attached to it and himself.

I stopped dead in my tracks. My mouth open from an audible gasp.

Newt looked like a junkie who'd just had a seven day binge. His eyes looked sunken and his cheeks looked hollow. I had just seen him. He didn't look like that... or did he?