Claim the Stars: A Jensa story

Chapter 4

Spensa POV:

"I hope you enjoy being a hero when your corpse is rotting like your friends. Alone in a wasteland, forgotten and ignored." Cobb said.

"She'll be given a pilot's burial," I said. "Her name will be sung for generations."

Cobb snorted. "If they had to sing the name of every fool cadet who died on her way to pilot, we'd never have time for anything else. And Hurl's corpse isn't going to be recovered for several weeks.  So your heroic friend will be left out there. Another dead pilot buried by the slag of her own explosion. Scud. I have to go write a letter to her parents and explain why." He hobbled to the door but stopped and turned to look at Kimmalyn. She stood and saluted him, eyes teary. She dropped something on her chair. Her cadet's pin.

Cobb nodded. "Keep the pin, Quirk. You're dismissed with whatever horrors matter to you."

He turned and left. 

Dismissed.

Dismissed?

First Hurl, now Kimmalyn.

I looked toward Jorgen. Surely, he could stop this. Couldn't he?

He stood stiffly, tall, with that too-handsome face. He stared ahead, and I thought I could see something in his eyes. Guilt? Pain?

He's watching his flight break apart around him too.

"Arturo," I said, picking up my pack. "About how far out was that battle, would you say?"

"I don't know. Say... 80  klicks?"

"Great. I'll see you all in a week."

"Where are you going?" FM asked.

"I'm going to find Hurl," I said. "And give her a pilot's burial."

Jorgen POV:

I pulled up behind her about 2 hours later in my hovercar. She ignored me and kept walking. 

I lowered my car so that my head was barely a meter above hers. "Spin? Are you really planning to walk 80 klicks?"

She didn't reply.

"You realize it's dangerous out here?" Jorgen said. "I should order you back. What if you get caught in a debris fall?"

She shrugged but didn't stop walking.

"Spensa," I said. "For the North Stars' sake, get in. I'll drive you."

"Don't you have some fancy, rich person event you need to be attending?"

"My parents don't know I'm on leave yet. For a little while, I'm as free as you are."

She hesitated. 

"I want to go with you," I said. "It's a good idea. Hurl...deserves this. I brought some materials for the pyre."

She sighed. Then she climbed into the passenger seat, smearing dust all over the interior of my car. I pretended not to notice.

I pushed on the throttle and we zoomed off. Spensa tilted her face up to the sky and I thought I could just barely make out the traces of a smile on her face. 

The ground suddenly rose up in front of me. I wasn't been paying attention to where I was going. Stupid! I chided myself. Keep your eyes on the road, Jorgen.

"Sorry," I said, correcting our heading. She looked at me with a strange expression on her face, a mix of shock, and the face you make when you've just been told an entertaining secret. Her mouth slightly open, her eyes wide, wrinkling at the corners from a suppressed smile...was she happy? 

"What?" I asked.

She shook her head, settling back into her seat. "Nothing."

A couple minutes later, I glanced back at her, and she was openly smiling.