Arthur waved as the first of the busses approached. It
slowed and then suddenly stopped about thirty feet short of where he was
standing, He began to close the gap when the door opened and Rusty practically
fell out of the bus, doubled over and started vomiting. By the time Arthur
reached the bus, Rusty was standing up right again. “Nervous?” Arthur asked,
rusty nodded and two shallow breaths and doubled over again. “Let it out now
then because once you’re on the ship there’s no easy place to pop.”
Rusty stood up and wiped his mouth. “Really?” he questioned.
Arthur laughed. “Of course there are bathrooms, it’s not
Star Trek!”
Rusty blinked “What’s Star Trek?” he asked as Arthur ushered
him onto the bus.
“What’s Star Trek!” he nearly shouted. “Did you learn
nothing in your little back water hell hole?” The bus closed its door and drove
the rest of the way to the command ships stationed in the grass just beyond the
air field.
The second bus split off and parked closer to the squadron
of fighters. The door opened and the pilots flooded off the bus and gathered in
formation to wait on Toll. He and Sharea made their way to the front of the
squad. He took a moment to look them over. They were anxious, adrenaline pumping.
He suppressed a sad smile. “I know you are excited. I know you are scared. I
know you want to prove yourselves. This is our first mission together and we
have a lot of people counting on us, so make every shot count.”
The squad answered back in a unified voice. “Hoorah!”
Sharea stepped closer to the squad. “OK people, preflight
check’s in fifteen, command escort’s with me, carrier escorts with Toll, last
one to report in buys the beers!” The formation broke as the pilots all
scrambled to their ships.
Toll and Sharea walked over to Toll’s ship. The rolling
steps had not been moved since he deplaned yesterday. “What do you think ‘raya?”
She looked over the squad as they ran their preflight checks
and joked amongst themselves. “None of them have ever been in a real combat
situation before. I want this to go well, but it could very easily fall apart.”
“Ok for the last time I promoted you for your ability to
maintain a positive ‘yes-man’ like quality and blow smoke up my ass on command.”
Toll said as he walked up his steps.
“That’s funny,
Preacher is under the impression that you promoted me because you don’t expect
to live much longer.” Toll froze, then sat on the top of his rolling steps.
“I’m not stupid, and I’m not suicidal, I just know that once
the eye of history see’s you, your life is no longer your own.” Toll glanced at
his unit.
“Pretty defeatist attitude don’t you think sir?” Sharea
asked,
