Birth of a Pilot

What a waste of time. Aiden comes here, expecting to learn something that might actually be useful on the off chance that he gets injured, but no. He and Jun’s weirdo friend are left to babysit the patient from earlier while the doctor’s away. Not to mention, showing up here reminded him of something: How much he hates hospitals.

“Aiden, can you test his blood pressure?” Roxie busies herself rewrapping the patient’s head dressings. Wanting to expend as little energy as possible, Aiden dangles a long arm over the counter, searching for the blood pressure monitor. He secures the velcro straps over the patient’s arm, then turns the machine on. It’s one of the few procedures Roxie and the doctor trust him with, but he’s not too bothered by that; with all the rules and regulations, he finds that playing doctor isn’t his cup of tea.

“What’s the reading?” the redhead’s curls briefly cover her face as she turns to look at Aiden.

“I see like five numbers. Which one am I supposed to be looking at?”

“Whichever one’s the biggest.” Roxie gestures with her hands, accidentally hitting the patient in the face. “Ah, sorry!”

He rubs his nose. “No prob.”

Aiden doesn’t know if Roxie means the highest number of the one that’s displayed the largest. Luckily, both are the same. “I’m getting one thirty-three.” He looks in the patient’s eyes. “What’s up with you? I ain’t gonna kill you or nothin’. Chill.”

“Yes, please chill, as Aiden said, because your blood pressure is high and we need to get it down to alleviate the swelling in your head!” Roxie’s hair bounces back and forth as she scours the room for something. “Where’d Dr. Akachi say she kept the sedative?”

Aiden takes two steps over to one of the drawers, opens it, and hands the pack of IV fluid towards Roxie.

“Thank you!” With her eyes shut, she gives him a big grin, but doesn’t take the bag right away. Instead, she washes her hands. Aiden wonders if he should’ve done the same thing before touching it, but he washed them recently enough, and Roxie didn’t make a big deal about him not doing so now, so it shouldn’t be a big deal. It won’t kill the guy! ...Probably.

After washing her hands, she takes the pack and busies herself swapping it out with the old one. She repeats the hand washing a few more times during the process, “Just to be on the safe side,” she tells Aiden. He has no reason to doubt her, but it seems really tedious. He wishes he had something to do.

“Is there something easy I can do right now? I’m bored.”

“Hmmm! I can’t think of anything else to do.” She finishes replacing the IV bag, then turns to the patient. “All done! You should be out in abouuuut…” Roxie waves her hand in front of the patient’s eyes. They’re completely glazed over. “Now!”

Aiden studies him. “Is he… awake? Or…?”

“Sorta.” Roxie shrugs, before disposing of the used IV bag. She washes her hands one final time. “He’s practically out of it, and even if he does respond to us, he probably won’t remember.

“I was planning on askin’ a couple questions. I guess it can wait.” Aiden leans against a counter near Roxie. Her bizarre antics made it hard for him to imagine her as a doctor. He’s used to stiff, uncaring medical professionals. Roxie doesn’t fit either of those qualities, but she conducts her work with a surprising level of focus, despite what her personality led him to believe. As far as doctors go, he might actually trust her.  “So… you were almost a corporal?”

“Yep!”

“Pretty lousy of the IF to pull you out of your training.” The Interstellar Forces knew good and well their crew wouldn’t have a ship doctor. Why would they mess up the only semi-qualified candidate’s training? With how she and the doctor phrases it, she had less than a month left before she got promoted.

“I’d rather be here, though!” She takes her phone out, scrolling through it.

“I meant,” Aiden pauses. “They coulda’ held us back a couple weeks and then shipped us off.”

Roxie looks up from her phone. “I guess that’s true! I wish I could stay here a couple weeks and work under Dr. Akachi some more.”

“Depending on what happens to Angelo, you might. Maybe you could get practice on him.”

“I’d hope not!” Roxie scrolls through her phone more, her face unusually expressionless. She stops. 

“What’s going on?”

“Angelo showed up at the geoprocessing plant for a little bit, and told Leon he had to go back.”

The solution seems simple to Aiden. “Just yank him out of there.”

“Oh no, he already went back a while ago.”

“Rookie let him??”

Roxie looks a little sad. “Yeah, that’s the problem. Jun just got a chance to look at the blueprints and… it’s not good. Now, some other guy showed up and the captain’s writing down his account. Oh!” She looks back at her phone. “Romero’s daughter just confessed that she’s not really a star ranger!”

Aiden shakes his head. “Wild.”

The younger ranger tilts her head at Aiden. “Do you think he’s gonna be okay?”

“Angelo?” Aiden shrugs. “Whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen.”

To his surprise, Roxie laughs a little. She looks up at him. “It might sound a little weird--”

“Please, ninety percent of what you say is weird. This is the most normal conversation I’ve had with you.”

She laughs some more. A huge grin forms on her face. Aiden can tell she’s proud of herself. He’s proud of her for owning it. “That may be true! But! What I was going to say is… I’m glad you’re honest. And the reason I asked is because I expected nothing less of you!”

Aiden chuckles. She’s being weird again, but she’s also right. What use would lying do right now?

Roxie continues. “Most people would be like ‘He will be okay, just believe it in your heart!’ but things don’t work like that. Fate doesn’t care about sparing your feelings.”

The taller ranger raises his eyebrows. “That’s the most reasonable thing you’ve said since I met you.”

“Thank you!” Roxie makes a cutesy pose before dramatically pointing at her head. “There are many pearls of wisdom in this dome the world has never seen! Heed my words and you may find knowledge where you least expect it.”

“And now you’re losing me again.” Aiden smirks. Over the months, her oddness has grown on him.

“That’s okay.” Roxie waves her hands around her face. “The greatest treasures stay hidden in plain sight. Also!” She puts his phone in his hand. “Can you take this for a while? That way you can catch up, and I can take a break from this for my own health!”

“Okay.” Normally, people don’t give their coworkers full range of their phone on a whim, but Roxie is far from normal anyway. Time to witness the drama!

Before Aiden can scroll through the group chat, Roxie gets a new message. It’s from Mia.

“Mia wants to know if you’re okay.”

At this point, Roxie is checking some monitors around the patient. “That’s debatable!” Her voice is as cheery as ever. “But I appreciate that she asked.”

“Okay.” Aiden glances back at Roxie’s phone.

He begins to text. “Debatable. Shes glad u asked tho”

“Who is this???” comes the next response.

“Aiden.”

Left with no reply, Aiden encounters a new problem. He doesn’t know how to navigate back to the group chat on Roxie’s phone.

“How do you get back to the group convo on this thing?” 

Roxie finishes marking some things on a clipboard and walks back over to Aiden. She takes back her phone. “Oh, you just--- Did you text Mia back??” She covers her mouth, laughing. “Oh my gooooooosh! Hold on for a sec, she’s probably spooked.”

Aiden shrugs halfheartedly. “Whoops.”

After she finishes texting Mia back, she hands the phone back to Aiden. It now displays the group chat.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome!” Roxie takes the clipboard. “I’m gonna take this to the doctor. Be back in a few!”

She leaves. Aiden scrolls through the backlog of information. Simultaneously, the news surprises him and doesn’t surprise him at all, though either way, it’s hilarious to see Romero’s dirt get dug up. Aiden can’t wait to see his comeuppance, but despite all the evidence against him, the ranger has doubts that’ll happen. He’d prefer if the kid doesn’t get hurt too bad, otherwise victory wouldn’t be as sweet and failure would be all the more biting.

“Mia ur in the gp plant?”

“I am.” Mia answers.

“R u able 2 keep tabs on angelo?”

“Yes.” She responds. “Sort of. I can’t contact his headset directly since Romero’s on the line, but going by the tracking on his helmet, he’s been keeping a steady speed of 53 mph.”

“It’s good that he’s still okay!” Emil responds. “If only Fitzgerald’s meeting would end soon.” There’s a sighing emoji. “I’m getting sick of this mess hall.” This message is followed by an unimpressed looking emoji. “Also, Roxie you okay?” A concerned face follows. “You’ve been typing a little weird.”

“i was about to ask the same” Jun texts

Aiden waits for Mia to blow his cover. She doesn’t. “Yeah, im fine” 

“You and  Ranger Kelly are with Ranger Harada, correct?” asks the captain. “If you could, information from him would be helpful.”

“wait! kelly is that you??” 

“He’s kinda out of it right now.” Aiden ignores Jun’s accusation.

“Bro, I think we already have enough info!” Emil replies.

“More information could do more good than harm.” For once, Aiden agrees with the captain, but mainly because he’s a little mad he missed out on all the good drama. Besides, there’s some questions he wants to ask the patient.

“Yeah cap ill talk 2 him wen he wakes up”

“it is you.” Jun continues being a killjoy. “why do you have rox’s phone”

“Aiden, is that you??” Emil asks, shocked, according to the emoji he used.

Of course the captain joins in. “Please answer them.” 

“Fine.” Aiden gives up. “She left a while ago.”

“Uhhhh dunno how ethical it is for you to impersonate Roxie, but if she’s cool with it, then okay I guess” Emil must not be able to find the proper face for that message.

“Is that even allowed?” The captain asks, as if he’s not the one with his nose in the rulebook at all times.

“1. I never said I was Roxie, 2. Shes ok with it” Granted, Aiden doesn’t know for sure of that’s the case, but he imagines she would’ve said something after he texted Mia. “Anyway, where’s rook?”

“Leon’s out on the surface.” Mia reenters the conversation. “He says things look fine.”

“Cool” Aiden exits the group chat afterwards, going through Roxie’s contacts, searching for a very special someone to bother.

“Sup”

“Aiden.” Jun replies.

“No its me roxie”

“prove it. say something only rox would say.” Aiden’s friend challenges.

Aiden thinks for a moment, but gives up because nothing he could come up with would be as off the wall as Roxie. “u got me.”

“ha!!!”

“Listen.” Aiden clarifies. “If it had been ANY1 else, u woulda never known. U guys are all so predictable.”

“oh give me a break!”

“Ill prove it. Ill copy u.” A devious smile crosses Aiden’s face as he types up a message. “hey guys. i’m too cool to capitalize anything even though the phone already does that, so i’m actually putting in more effort to uncapitalize it. im wicked cool brahs”

“O wow u rly roasted me kelly. Im crying” Aiden rolls his eyes at Jun’s attempt to copy his style. “see i can do it too”

“An imitations never good as the original.” Aiden tells him. “Anyway u rly think the bigwigs are gonna do anything? This is gonna look like a big slipup on their part and u kno how they r bout that”

“i know what you mean but one thing about the IF. If enough people find out about something they’re forced to do right.

“Tru. Hope enough people find out.”

“we’ll see.”

They both continue talking about the situation at hand until Roxie comes back, about 15 minutes later. Aiden looks up from the phone. The patient is staring at him.

“I’m back!” Roxie vaguely sings. “Sorry for being gone so long. Dr. Akachi was trying to figure out if there was some way she could have one of the instructors teach me on the ship through a screensharing thing. I wish I would’ve told you to check on the patient’s vitals, but” She examines the screens, unaware that the patient is now looking at her. “They look fine!”

Roxie washes her hands for the umpteenth time before picking up a device from the counter. 

“Of all the times I had to wake up…” whispers the patient.

“You’re up?” Roxie’s hair flings itself as she turns toward him. She glances at the device. “Did it hurt the last time I tested your brain?”

“O-oh no. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine!” 

Aiden could see right through him. “You don’t have to play the tough guy. You’re in a hospital, you might as well get comfortable.” 

“Yeah, are you sure you’re okay?” Roxie asks. “Let me know if it hurts. I will try to make it hurt less so!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” He insists with a smile. “Might as well get it over with!”

“O… Okay.” Hesitating, Roxie approaches with the small device in hand. She removes one of the bandages on the back of his head, and presses the device up against that area, pressing a button. The patient winces. Roxie lifts the device from his head and places back the bandage. “It’s still tight enough that I won’t have to rewrap it this time. Anyway, your ICP’s looking good; the swelling in your head’s gone down.”

“Great!” The patient looks a lot more alert now. Roxie goes to disinfect the device as well as her hands, and Aiden gets the opportunity to ask the question he’s been waiting to ever since they brought this guy back.

“So… Harada, right? What made you bust out of the hospital?”

Harada shakes his head. “I don’t even know anymore…”

Roxie shakes water off her hands. “Is that an it wasn’t worth it ‘I don’t even know anymore’ or a short term memory loss ‘I don’t even know anymore’? Because the second one is an emergency.”

“Nah, nah, it’s the first one.” He turns toward Aiden. “Yeah, my name’s Harada, but just call me Taji. I just… I felt like I wasn’t doing enough and wanted to make up for it.”

“Doing enough what?” Roxie asks.

“And did it have to do with a guy named Romero?” Aiden adds on.

Taji looks shocked at Aiden’s response. “You know Mr. R?” Aiden and Roxie nod. “Y-yeah, yeah, that’s who I was goin’ to meet. His robot… our robot is what put me in the hospital. I was gonna help him an’ Ash work on the rebuild today, but now that I think about it… There’s no reason for me to be there.”

“Don’t think that! I’m sure they could use an extra hand… when you’re not injured, that is.” Roxie reassures him.

“Aww no, that’s not what I meant, but thanks anyway, Doc.” He laughs sheepishly. “It’s just… My head is busted open and he lets me, he encourages me to show up? An’ me? I actually tried to do it! Ha! Here I was warning Ash about doin’ somethin’ like this, and it turns out I’m the one risking my neck.”

“Warning her about what?” Roxie places back her hands on the counter, near Aiden.

“Well. I guess I should start from the beginning.” Aiden almost objects to Taji’s statement, but there’s not much to do in the hospital room anyway. Might as well hear a story. Taji stares into space. “I just transferred from the moon base two months back ‘cause I was the best one in my old platoon, ‘least that’s what they told me.” He rubs his neck. “If someone tells me to jump, I ask ‘how high?’, stuff like that. An’ Mars? This is my dream planet! So in order to show the Martian Base some love, I wanted to continue being the best in my platoon.”

The patient turns to look at Aiden and Roxie. “And then I lucked out! I got assigned to Corporal Engel, an’ the thing about that is… I was the only one that got assigned to her. And being the only one in my platoon, to me, that meant I’d be the best no matter what I did!” He shrugs. “So I slacked off. ‘Course, I did do the bare minimum, didn’t want Ash to get too mad at me. She already thought the higher ups didn’t respect her, so I woulda felt bad if she thought I was kickin’ her while she was down. But I wasn’t applying myself like I did back on the moon.”

He looks back into space. “Then we started working on Mr. R’s project. It’s really cool! It’s a big robot that walks around an’ stuff.”

Roxie glances up. “The Starwalker…”

“Yeah, did’ja guys see it? It’s awesome! Ash came up with the name, but as soon as Mr. R told her it’d be presented to people, suddenly she thought it was the worst name in the world. Though I did tell her it was kinda dorky, so that might be on me. Anyway, it cracked my head like a walnut, but I still love it!” He laughs.

“It’s gonna do a lot more than that if things take a turn for the worse.” Aiden mutters.

“What?”

“Nothing! Nothing that would make your blood pressure rise!” Roxie softly elbows Aiden.

“O… kay…” Taji slowly glances between the two. 

“Continue your story!”

“Where was I?”

“You were talking about working on the robot.” Aiden answers.

“Oh yeah! Thanks!” His smile fades as he sighs. “I really loved working on it. Mr. R would ask for my input and take it seriously! I got to actually contribute to stuff insteada bein’ ordered around. I got caught up in the praise, got kinda cocky, and next thing we knew, me an’ Ash were going at each other’s throats.” He scratches the part of his head that isn’t covered in bandages. “Thinkin’ back on it, that shoulda at least got me written up. She is my boss ‘n’ everything. Maybe I should apologize at some point, try to make things right... And then Mr. R told us whoever worked hardest would get to pilot it. I wasn’t in a hurry to be first, so I took breaks when I could. Then I just... “

Taji looks down, shaking his head. “I felt lousy. Seeing them slavin’ away like that all day--and with Ash, sometimes all night--it made me feel bad that they were putting in all this hard work, and I was the only one takin’ a break. So I started skipping my breaks. Then one day, as I was leavin’ to go to my dorm, I told Ash it was ridiculous that she planned on stayin’ the night in the lab. It was. But y’see. Remember what I said earlier about Ash thinkin’ the higher ups didn’t like her?”

“If she piloted the Starwalker first, she thought they were gonna respect her.” Aiden shook his head.

“Yeah wow! Didja read my mind? I’d hear her and Romero talkin’ about it sometimes. Mr. R would say they’d have no choice but to give her the best and brightest for her platoon.” Taji glances away, smiling. “He said I’d still be one of them. But enough patting myself on the back! Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, why I tried breaking outta here!”

Finally. Aiden thinks.

“Ash, of course, got a chance to pilot the Starwalker first, but she was too tall, and Mr. R reeeeally wanted to test it out, so he picked me. Ash was so mad that day, and I really can’t blame her! I didn’t earn the right to pilot it, she did. And then I broke my skull!” He laughs. “But I promised them I’d be there today, cause… I dunno. I guess I wanted to feel like I earned something? It doesn’t make much sense now…But… yeah. That’s it! I’m gonna try to be a better star ranger from here on in, no matter what the circumstances, but in a reasonable way where I don’t, y’know, overwork myself or break anymore bones. That kind of thing.”

Roxie claps. “What a good moral!

“No prob, Doc!” He smiles, but then makes a confused face. “Wait, did you guys say you saw the Starwalker today? It was supposed to be demolished.”

Aiden lifts his head up. “Yeah… Romero was testing out how a new engine would fit.”

“New engine…? How come I never heard about that?” Taji shrugs. “I guess as long as no one gets in it again, I’ll be fine. Gettin’ injured made me realize...” He turns to both of them. “That thing needs a heckton more safety features.”

He laughs. Roxie laughs too, unnaturally loud for her. Aiden just shakes his head.