Birth of a Pilot

“Ranger Kim, I’ve run out of questions for the ‘cadet’. How much longer do you think it will take to get access to the blueprints?”

Something resembling a staring contest ensues between Lorenzo and the supposed cadet. He says nothing. She says nothing, either. The captain coughs, then refocuses his attention to his tablet, desperately hoping for the older ranger to respond to his text.

“Captain?”

Alert, Lorenzo gaze snaps back to Romero’s daughter. “Um, yes?”

“Did I do something wrong?” Rachel asks.  “With the Starwalk--” She glances toward Corporal Engel. “I mean, the robot, I mean.”

The captain wonders what kind of question this is. “Not… that we know of. Yet.”

“You say ‘yet’ as if you’re expecting her to screw up.” The corporal gives him a stern look. Her comment catches Lorenzo off guard. Though he’s skeptical of the Starwalker itself, he found no reason to doubt Rachel’s skills.

He attempts to explain himself. “I didn’t mean to come off that way, Corporal. From what I’ve seen of the staff major’s invention, Cadet Romero’s contributions are both functional and quite impressive.”

“That’s Rachel for you! She’s the best programmer Mars has to offer.” boasts Engel.

“Even still,” Lorenzo can’t help but feel something’s wrong. “With a project this big, shouldn’t there be more programmers involved? Something like a team?”

“Puh-lease!” Engel looks toward the ceiling in disgust. “What would she need a team for? To second-guess her at every turn?”

Lorenzo has no idea how she came to that conclusion, but judging by her reaction, now doesn’t seem like the best time to ask. Thankfully, Ranger Kim steps in.

“I was actually kinda wondering the same thing.” They lean their elbow on the lab table, looking back at Lorenzo and Rachel. “When I started training to become a technician, in terms of like, projects headed by a staff major, working in groups is the thing to do. Is it different for programmers?”

Rachel looks toward the ground, not answering.

“I dunno.” Engel shrugs. “But I feel like Romero knew a lot of the programmers here would underestimate her, so I’m glad he didn’t hire a team!” She smiles toward the cadet.

 Rachel doesn’t smile. She grips her arm, appearing troubled by something. Finally, she looks up at the captain.

She hesitates. “...Did my dad do something wrong?”

Lorenzo and Kim shoot each other a look of uncertainty. He almost hopes they would speak up, but then realizes that this is something he has to handle. After all, what kind of captain leaves all the dirty work to his subordinates?

He repositions himself in his chair. “We aren’t entirely certain… but there is a strong possibility that he may’ve violated some procedures.”

“Oh no…” Rachel’s eyes sink toward the floor. She shakes her head. “I--I should’ve known. Dad always wants his projects done quick and… Is someone really in danger?”

“He seems to be fine at the moment, but--”

“But you don’t trust him?”

All eyes in the room turn toward Corporal Engel. Lorenzo can’t read the expression on her face very well, but she doesn’t seem annoyed. At least, he doesn’t think so. He figures he might as well answer with the truth.

“No, I don't.”

The corporal gives a short chuckle. “Well, at least you’re honest about it! Rach, don’t take this the wrong way, but while I may have my issues with the guy--”

“I understand why.” Romero’s daughter tells no one in particular. Lorenzo remains surprised at how willing she is to side against her own father, but considering Romero’s actions, she might have more than her fair share of reasons.

“--I respect that he saw me for my talent. He believed in me. Yeah, the project was a bit of a rush job, but he knew I could handle it! He really wanted me to have the chance to prove myself.” Her smile fades as she looks away. “Only reason he let Taji near the machine is because I was too tall. Still, he tried to cheat me out of my own project!”

The captain admires how much pride Engel takes in her work. However, her and Rachel’s insistence that the staff major rushed construction on the Starwalker worries him. Lorenzo lives by the small details. He knows that with anything, it takes time and diligence to make sure everything is just right. A rush job implies oversights. With a vehicle like the Starwalker, oversights can’t be risked.

“Oh…” Ranger Kim scratches the back of their neck. “You… seem to take a lot of responsibility for the whole thing. Would you say that you worked on it more than anyone else?”

“Absolutely!” The corporal squints at them if this is an obvious fact. “Romero may’ve came up with the basic concepts, and Rachel of course handled the software stuff, but most of the nitty-gritty decisions are mine. An attack on the Starwalke--I mean! The robot!” She regains her composure. “I consider an attack on the robot’s integrity an attack on my own.” Engel gives Lorenzo a look of contempt while saying this. Her earlier defense of the Starwalker’s design makes a little more sense to him, but if she really believes in it, he can’t understand why she wouldn’t just show them the blueprints.

“Ahh, that’s understandable.” the ranger concedes. “You seem the attentive type. I can’t see you taking any careless measures, but I still would like to see the blueprints.” They fold their hands together. “Tell you what. If I find any faults in them that weren’t yours, I’ll make sure it’s known that it wasn’t you. You’ve obviously worked very hard to get where you are, and I wouldn’t want your reputation to get damaged because of someone else’s mistakes.”

The lighter-haired star ranger folds her arms together, smiling. “I can’t say no to that. But only if you’re the one looking!”

Ranger Kim turns back to Lorenzo, shrugging with a slight smile. “Sorry, captain!”

“It’s fine.” As long as one of them gets to view the blueprints, the captain doesn’t mind. Jun’s technical background makes them a better candidate, anyway. He takes a look at his messages once more.

“I should be able to ask again in 5 minutes or less.” The timestamp on Jun’s reply reads five minutes ago. How precise.

“Your dad works in the IF too, right?” Once again, Lorenzo is startled from his thoughts by the younger Romero.

“Yes. Yes he does.”

“Does he work a lot?”

The captain nods. “He has to. The whole Strategic Science branch depends on him.”

“He must not have a lot of time to do anything else. Sounds stressful.” She speaks more to the ground than Lorenzo, but he feels it’s a lot better than her staring directly at him.

“Not really, but he managed to find time to school me and my brother in a few different subjects when he could.” Lorenzo remembers his father telling him that he considered parenting a second career. He takes a lot of pride in it. “He wanted to make sure we were prepared for anything.”

“I’m surprised. My dad throws himself in his projects so much that it feels like he’s forgotten I exist. He has more time for me between them, though. I thought working on a project with him might give us more time together, but it didn’t quite work out that way.” She chuckles as quietly as she does everything else. The captain is not sure if she wanted him to laugh with her, but he doesn’t. “That might be for the better in some ways… He tends to badger me about going places and making friends.”

“That sounds... unpleasant.” Lorenzo knows he would’ve died if his father had been like that. He could at least choose to ignore Emil when he brings that up, and he doesn’t see his mother often enough for her to really do much about it, despite her concerned inquiries. 

“It is. But working on my own, it’s been nice.” A slight smile forms on the cadet imposter’s face. “I prefer the quiet.”

“Me too.” agrees the captain.

The two sit in silence, but it’s not as unpleasant as before, now that Lorenzo knows they both prefer it this way. He takes the opportunity to listen in on Kim and Engel’s conversation.

“No fuel gauge?” he hears Ranger Kim ask. “It runs on some kind of fuel, right?”

“Oh… Y-yes, it does.”

“So, how would anyone know when the fuel is gonna run out?”

“That might’ve been one of the things we were going to include on the rebuilt model…” Lorenzo can barely pick up the corporal’s hushed voice. “Actually… I don’t think any of us picked up on that.”

“Sounds like something the staff major should’ve considered, along with the windshield wipers.”

“Windshield wipers?”

“For the shield.”

At first, the captain isn’t sure if windshield wipers are a big enough deal to point out, but then he remembers where they are. Mars. The red planet generates so much dust that all windows and solar panels on the base have to come with their own built-in wipers.

“Oh shhhhoot!” Engel slaps her forehead. The sound is so loud, Lorenzo wonders if she left a mark. “That’s right, the shield was a last minute addition. Taji’s idea. I don’t even know why he added it! It’s the only thing that kept us from being able to pilot the robot!”  Maybe this is true in Taji’s case, but Lorenzo clearly remembers the corporal’s legs being too long to rest comfortably on the pedals.

With a genuine hazard like a lack of windshield wipers, this case might wrap itself up fairly quickly. The captain types down what he’s heard in his tablet so Ranger Kim won’t have to, informing them after he’s done so. Rachel works on her coding in the meantime. Up on a nearby bookshelf, a picture catches his eye. In it are Romero, a woman with short, dark hair, and an older man. 

“Excuse me, Cadet.” Lorenzo points toward the photo. “Who is that in the picture with your father?”

“That’s my mom and Mr. Kaz.” 

“Mr. Kaz…?” The captain is sure he’s heard that name before. Then it strikes him. Commander Kaz Fitzgerald, head of the Martian Base, whom he briefly met when the Celestion-5 first landed. “Your father knows the commander personally?” 

“Yeah, they’re good friends. My dad used to work under him when some of the lower levels of the base were being constructed. Mom did too, sort of, back when she was still alive.”

“O-oh. You have my condolences.” Lorenzo would’ve gotten Rachel confused with her mother if the former’s hair were any shorter, but he’s never been very good with faces. 

He gets the idea to warn Emil about Romero’s relationship to Fitzgerald. Upon checking his phone, he receives a message from Ranger Kim thanking him for transcribing the information from Corporal Engel, and telling him he could send that to Emil if he wants. He does that along with alerting his brother about the commander.

“Dad already told me they knew each other, but dang.” comes the lieutenant response, along with a frightened looking emoji. “On the other hand, this info from Jun!” A few positive emojis follow. “Send my compliments to the chef!” This message is followed by a winking emoji, a chef emoji, and an emoji of a hand in an ‘ok’ sign. “I’ll send this by the rest of the group so they know what’s up!”

“Ok.” the captain responds, emojiless, before closing out of the conversation. To Ranger Kim, he sends, “The lieutenant wanted me to send you his thanks if I understood him correctly.”

“sweet” They send back, followed by, “*That’s nice of him.”

Lorenzo closes out of his messages and tries to return to eavesdropping on the blueprints conversation, but he’s distracted by an urgent pair of footsteps echoing from the hall. They must be headed for this room. The captain is struck with the thought that it might be Romero, but his concerns are eased when a white-haired man peeks into the door.

“Corporal, may I talk to you?” he asks, worriedly.

“Karl?” Engel quickly hides the blueprints in a nearby drawer. “What are you doing here? Weren’t you banned?” 

“That depends. Romero’s not here, is he?”

“Nope.” Kim answers.

“Oh, Jun, this is Staff Major Nielson.” The corporal gestures toward the mustachioed man. She then does the same toward Jun. “Karl, this is the most important person either of us will ever meet in our lives.”  

Ranger Kim waves. “‘Sup?”

Nielson’s eyes go wide. “Goodness! Are you--?”

“Jun Kim.”

“I-It’s a pleasure to meet you!” he stammers. “I’m sorry, but I really need to talk to Corporal Engel right now.” the staff major looks at Engel. “It’s about you guys’ machine--”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Someone else is piloting it right now.”

“Oh.” Staff Major Nielson looks around awkwardly. “So you know.”

“That’s what these two are in here for.” The corporal points at Ranger Kim and Lorenzo.

“Yeah, it’s one of our guys who’s in it right now.” Kim explains. “We were worried about him, so we came here to do a little investigation.”

“I’m terribly sorry, but I’m glad that you’re worried.” Nielson steps into the room. “Cause so am I!”