Bellwether

17.

"Captain Mitchel is no longer your instructor. along with that, today there are new mission parameters. The time to target is now four minutes." The timer on the screen in front of them changes from two and a half minutes to four.

Kelsi furrows her eyebrows and opens her mouth to speak up, but Admiral Bates continues.

"You will be entering the course at a reduced 420 knots." Admiral Bates then pauses and looks at the group in front of him.

"So uh... are you going to be the one singing at our funerals?" Kelsi grits her teeth as all the attention lands on her, "Because there's no way in hell we're making it through the mission with bullshit instructions like that."

"Why does it even matter to you, you don't have to follow the instructions. You say 'We' like you have a chance of going on this mission. Perhaps it was your inability to fly and lack of following instructions that got you benched. You know you are not to speak to Admirals like that Lieutenant Williams." Admiral Bates glares holes into her skull.

Kelsi chuckles dryly, "What? If I speak to you like that what are you going to do? Ground me?" She crosses her arms in front of her chest and glares back. Every eye is still on her, there wasn't a single person in the room who didn't have their jaws dropped or eyes widened.

"I'll tell you wh-"

The coms picked someone up and the entire class could hear.

***

"Maverick to Range Control. Entering point Alpha. Confirming Green Range." The oh-so-familiar voice of their instructor pipes up.

The confused voice of the operator answers back, "Range Control to Maverick. Green Range is confirmed but I don't see an entry for you."

"Well, I'm going anyway."

***

Kelsi smirks at Admiral Bates's face as he slowly turns to watch the screen. There is a little dot on the map that represents Maverick.

"Nice," Phoenix mutters from behind Kelsi.

***

"Setting time to target at two minutes fifteen seconds."

***

Kelsi looks to her right and makes eye contact with Rooster. Both of their faces show how impressed they were.

 Kelsi mouths to him, 'Two fifteen!?'. Rooster nods slowly and looks back at the screen which is now showing Maverick entering the course.

***

"Maverick is inbound."

***

Everyone watches the screen not taking a second to blink. Maverick danced through the entire low-altitude course like it was for fun. As he gets to where he drops bombs Kelsi starts chewing on her lip.

She thought to herself that 'This could either make or break the mission'

***

"Bombs away."

***

Kelsi slowly stands up as she watches the bomb hit its target. All that was left was for the final hit to the target.

You can hear the baited breathes Maverick is giving out while he climbs to ten G's. It all happens without fail, Maverick lines the bomb up and drops it. The bomb hits dead center and Maverick gets over the steep climb.

Everyone in the room starts cheering. There are high-fives, fist bumps, and hugs shared all around. Kelsi makes eye contact with Admiral Bates and smirks. Said Admiral storms out of the room. Kelsi simply waves as he walks past her. Too focused on the retreating back of the Admiral she hated so much, Kelsi didn't notice the arms that looped around her midsection. Once she came back to terms and look down and smiles softly.