Claim the Stars: A Jensa story

Chapter 8

Spensa POV:

The next few days I trained on ships that felt sluggish. Distinctly inferior beside that transcendent time in M-Bot's cockpit. It didn't help that we were flying heave fighters, Largo class, which were armed to the teeth with destructors, and even some IMP missiles.

While they had their place, models like these were too bulky to out-run or out-maneuver Krell. That was why most pilots flew Poco or Fresa class fighters. Fast ships capable of going toe-to-toe with the speedy Krell interceptors.

"Spin!" FM pulled me out of my thoughts. I'd banked too close to her. Scud!

"Sorry," I said. Maybe there were setbacks to training on the simulators. I might have developed some bad habits that could bite me, now that we were flying real ships.

After a few more drills, Cobb finally called us back to base. "Spin and FM," he said. "You're both better on smaller ships."

"Aren't we all going to be better on them?" Jorgen said. "We've been training on Pocos for months."

"No," Cobb said. "You look like you might take to a Largo."

"He's saying you're slow, Jorgen," FM noted. "Right Spin?"

I grunted my reply, distracted by thoughts of M-Bot. And my father. And Hurl. And memories of those eyes, surrounding me like Cobb had warned.

"She likes it when I fly slowly," Jorgen said, forcing a laugh. "It makes it easier for her to crash into me if she wants to."

Scud. Even after all these months, he still brought up that time where I had won by crashing into him.

I cut the line, feeling ashamed. Frustrated. We started our flight back for the day, and annoyingly, the direct line from Jorgen turned on. As flight leader, he could override me turning him off.

"Spin. What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"I don't believe that. You passed up a perfectly good opportunity to make fun of me."

I smiled. "Sorry."

I wanted to talk to him about what I'd seen in that recording of the battle of Alta. I almost did, but something held me back. My own fears, maybe.

Jorgen cut the channel as we did vocal sound-offs then landed.

"Nice work today," Cobb said as we descended. "I've got permission to give you an extra half-day leave to prep for the graduation in two weeks."

Jorgen POV:

Spensa lethargically climbed out of her ship and went into the girls changing room with FM. I changed out of my flight suit, then headed towards the hangars just outside the training building. My blue hovercar was waiting for me there. I opened up the trunk, then started as I noticed someone standing outside the garage, watching me.

"Spin?" I asked. "Don't tell me you need another power matrix."

She wrapped her arms around herself. "You said once if we needed to talk to someone, we should come to you. You said it was your duty as flight leader. Did you mean it?"

Scud. "Spin... I copied that line out of my handbook."

"I know," she said. "But did you mean it?"

"Yes," I said, sitting on the front bumper. "Please. What's wrong. I can help. I can fix it."

"Don't fix." She perched on the bumper next to me. "Just listen."