Together

Chapter 29 ★ Amy

The week was long and grueling. My team is composed of David, Aiden, Sandy, and a boy called Cricket due to his everlasting silence. I ate meals with them nearly everyday, except when all squadron leaders met to discuss how things were going.

Things went well. Since David, Aiden, Sandy, and I all were in Dragon army together we already got along rather well, and Cricket was so quiet he fit right in, tagging along cheerfully during team building excersises. We all learned each others' flying styles quite well (given we only had a week) and can quickly take down enemies who more than ten times outnumber us.

The others, however, weren't in such good shape.

"Gin close up our left flank," I hear Allie say pointedly as I enter the sim room with my squadron in tow. "No, the left side Gin," she barks.

"Uhhhhh... what's a 'left' again?" I hear from the right corner of the room. Allie has her squadron split so that they can't see each other easily. It's to work on trust. We passed these excersises three days ago, and they're still working on them?

"How can you not know left from right?!" Allie bellows. "What kinda backwards ass place did you grow up? Not teaching you left from right, hmph!"

"Sorry, miss leader lady. I think I got it now," he whispers meekly, then promptly turns right.

"NO! NO, THE OTHER-" Allie shrieks, just as Gin crashes into an asteroid, effectively ending the simulation for everyone.

A boy in the back groans and slams his comm unit onto his desk. I sigh and turn to look at my squadron. They look equally exasperated with the other groups' apparent lack of teamwork. I jerk my chin and they knowingly disperse around the room, sitting nearby, but not too close, to the other squadron members.

"Any ideas would be much appreciated," Allie mumbles, head on her desk. I sit next to her and log onto the system.

"Let's run it again," I state, fiddling with the monitor to pull up a new sim.

[] [] []

The tug reached Eros before they could see it. The captain showed them the visual scan, then superimposed the heat scan on the same screen. They were practically on top of it-only four thousand kilometers out-but Eros, only twenty-four kilometers long, was invisible if it didn't shine with reflected sunlight.¹

★★★

"Look, I know you're a squadron leader, but we've got some problems to fix without you just barging in and trying to help," sneers a boy in the back left corner.

"Then my squadron won't impose. And just think of me as a temporary addition to your squadron," I say simply. "I think I know where the problems lie, but I'm only going to point them out, not fix them for you. Allie can take care of that. I just need you guys to cooperate with me for a bit longer than you do with her."

"Whatever can fix the problems," says the boy who slammed his head on a desk earlier.

"I don't think she should get to boss us around at all. Just because her squadron is the most perfect out of all of us doesn't mean she can come in here and tell us what to do!" says the boy from earlier. He's the only one objecting to this. A discipline issue maybe? And what does he mean by my squadron being the most perfect?

"She's probably most qualified to get us figured out," says Gin.

"Yeah,"says the fourth boy in the very front row. "We can't seem to figure out how to work together. She can help."

I begin loading the sim. Off comms, I whisper, "what do they mean about my squadron being the most perfect?" to Allie.

"Have you not seen the reports? Or even noticed anyone else? Almost every other squadron is in the same boat as us. Almost every one," she whispers after turning her comms off as well. Oh.

"I've been to busy making sure our squadron functions properly to notice much else."

"No joke. How'd you even get yourselves together this fast? The instructors are no help!" The sim pops up and I hit the "Begin Training Sequence" button.

"We can talk later," I whisper finally before turning my comms back on.

[] [] []

The captain docked the ship on one of the three landing platforms that circled Eros . It could not land directly because Eros had enhanced gravity, and the tug, designed for towing cargo, could never escape the gravity well. ²

Ender was shuttled over to the facility and told to get some rest.

★★★

"Gin, you've got fighters on your tail!" I exclaim.

"Roger. Taking thirty degree turn to starboard to evade," he replies. Hold up.

"Hey Gin," I say conversationally, " did you grow up near the ocean, or around sea vessels?"

"Yeah," he replies sheepishly. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No," I say with a smile. "We can work with that."

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¹ Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, page 252
² Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, page 252