The Admiral's Affairs

9 - Your greatest enemy

"Time is your greatest enemy." Were the words that Maverick started his lecture with this morning. We were all gathered in the classroom to discuss our first flight training session to prepare for the mission.

This was my father's natural habitat, teaching, even though he always said that he didn't like it. Well, maybe his second natural habitat, besides showing off in his fighter jet. The confident stance and the stern look on his face made me almost feel proud of him. Lately, I had been thinking a lot about what Amelia had said, about how I should give Maverick another chance. I am not one to forgive easily, but he has been trying to make an effort to be in my life now. I looked up at him standing in front of me again and was instantly reminded of that one Sunday morning in April, when I was nine or ten. He was standing on the opposite side of the kitchen, making an omelette, while I was painting my nails on the kitchen counter. He had already asked me to stop painting my nails twice, because of the fumes, but I just wanted to look pretty for Alice. That afternoon I was supposed to have a big soccer game, I had been looking forward to it for weeks. Just because of her, Alice Chapman, defender for our town's rival soccer club. I was head over heels in love with her, Mav and mom probably knew, since I couldn't stop talking about her. In a strange way, I always thought my father resented me for growing up and having different interests than him. He would react so irritated if I didn't want to go with him to air shows or football games, I felt like he was disappointed that I couldn't fulfill the role of the son that he never had. Anyway that Sunday morning, I happened to accidentally knock over the bottle of nail polish and the red, stinky stuff slowly spread like a bloodstain all over the white marble countertop. I still remember it as if it happened yesterday, Mav slammed his spatula on the countertop and looked at me with disappointment and frustration, before taking a deep breath and calmly saying "no more soccer." And that was that.

"Two and a half minutes."

I was interrupted from my thoughts by my father's voice. "If you don't get out of the canyon within these two and a half minutes, the enemy's fifth generation fighters can and will shoot you down."

I looked over my shoulder and locked eyes with Phoenix, she flashed me a faint smile. I noticed the worried look in her eyes. Was she worried about her capabilities after what happened to her?

"You will fly a route in your nav system that simulates the canyon." Maverick clicked on a button on the remote on his hand which pulled up a simulation of the canyon on the screen behind him. "For today's lesson, we're gonna take it easy. Ceiling: 300 feet. Time to target: Three minutes."

Coyote, Phoenix, Bob and me took the turning and burning too literally and broke the 300-foot ceiling, due to poor communication on Coyote's part. Hangman, Payback and Fanboy flew too fast and crashed into the wall of the simulation.
Fritz, Omaha and Halo failed. And finally Rooster, Yale and Harvard. They were too slow.

***

We all gathered back in the classroom to discuss our flights, Maverick cut right to the chase. After discussing most of the team's flights he paused for a moment.

"You're dead". Maverick sighed as he turned his gaze towards Rooster.

"At least he made it though." I interjected.

"A minute late." Mav turned to me and tightly pressed his lips together in disappointment, another thing that I was way to familiar with.

"Just admit that you can't do it." Hangman sneered, "you're still stuck in the past."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Rooster said offended but calmly, and turned his whole body towards Hangman in a hostile way.

"I can't be the only one that knows that Maverick flew with his old man." Hangman exclaimed proudly with that ever present smug grin on his face. The kind of grin that you were just dying to slap off his face.

"Hey, hey," I stood up and took a step into Hangman's direction, "you shut it right now."

"Or else?" He stood up and gave me a disgusting wink.

"You son of a-" Rooster flew out of his chair, ready to take Hangman on.

"Hey, Hey." Maverick jumped in between the two and everyone else followed taking sides and shouting at the two of them. Most of the guys tried to pull Hangman away, and me, Phoenix and Bob grabbed Rooster. As Fanboy grabbed Hangman's shoulder he pulled away.

"Hey, don't touch me. I'm fine." Hangman grinned and took a step back, calming the situation down, "Rooster just knows that he's not capable of this mission."

"Asshole." Phoenix exclaimed.

"That's enough, class is dismissed." Maverick shouted and pointed towards the door, "get out of here."

Phoenix turned to Rooster, doing her best to calm him down. I looked around and saw Bob leaving the classroom, visibly upset. I sprinted towards him and grabbed his bicep,
"Bob."

"Hey Royal." he mumbled defeated.

"Are you okay?"

"No-" he stuttered, "this is getting more real now."

I squeezed his arm and pulled myself closer to him, "You're a great WSO. You and Phoenix make a great team, you'll see that in due time."

He sighed and started fidgeting with the zipper of his flight suit again, "oh I don't know Royal, I'm not as good as you are."

"Bullshit Bob! I both fly solo and be the Weapon Systems Officer, I can't even make my mind up. You are born for what you do."

We walked over to the courtyard and sat down on a bench. After a moment of silence, Bob turned his body towards me and squinted his eyes against the bright sun.

"Aren't you afraid that you won't come back home?"

That question seemed to hit me like a dagger through the heart, I clenched my teeth and slowly started shaking my head.

"You guys are all that I have, this is my life. I knew what I was getting into."

"That can't be true, what about your mom and your sister? And you must have lots of friends."

"Bob," I giggled, "you must think I'm way cooler than I actually am."

"I can't say that I don't think quite highly of you." I could see the sparkle in his eyes as he said that. Yet, I was too afraid to ask him what he thought of me. Maybe I was scared that he would confess that he liked me, and I didn't want to break the poor guy's heart.

"We'll all be fine Bob. Trust me."