You Need A Pilot

[Cassius Droma]

Cassius didn’t spend a lot of time on the Jedi ship Providence, but he wasn’t as opposed to living there was much as some of the others were. Formally a patrol pilot in the Outer Rim, he was used to living on a ship for weeks on end. He had just run a quick supply run from Deneba to the behemoth training vessel, and since he had a little time off, he was taking advantage of the archives housed on the Providence.

That’s where he was coming from right now, clunky datapad in hand, scrolling through a few datachips he’d picked up. After what had happened to Yutan, Deneba didn’t feel nearly as safe and secure as the praxeum ship did. For Cassius, this was a good time to rest and relax, to read up on cultures and Jedi history.

He was so absorbed in the particular passage he was perusing that he almost didn’t notice the cute Zeltron girl trying to get his attention. What had caught his attention out of the corner of his eye was the contrast in the girl’s pink skin against her tan Jedi robes. He looked up, blinking a few times in order to focus on her.

“Uh?” he asked as a reflex. She’d asked where the hangar bay was. “Oh, sure, uh…” he used the datapad to point down the hallway in the direction he’d been going. “Down that way - keep going aft, and then there would be a turbolift that’s marked ‘Hangar Bay’. Actually…” he paused for a moment. “I need to go down there anyways, if you’d like to accompany me.”

He had been planning to go back to his quarters and read, but he did actually need to go to the hangar bay to check on the status of the U-wing he’d flown here. The engine was still making a funny noise since the mission from Deneba, and he’d asked the engineers to take a look at it. He was going to go later, but there was no reason why he couldn’t go now.

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

This ship was unbelievably huge, a labyrinth of corridors like a flying city quarter, except that the corridors were less distinctive than the streets of a city. And so, like countless times in recent days, Rosario had lost her way, or at least thought she had. The random turns she took, not knowing where she was going, had an odd propensity to turn out to have been the right ones, but whenever she decided not to ask for the way and just rely on her luck, she would eventually learn that he had been going entirely in the wrong direction.

Rosario hurried up to the man who was strolling down the corridor in front of her. "Excuse me?" There was no reaction, his head inclined as if he was deep in thought. Only as she caught up with him did she see that he was engrossed in his reading while walking. She was about to address him again as he finally turned to her. A friendly smile on her lips, the asked: "Could you tell me how to get to the hangar bay from here?"

“Down that way - keep going aft, and then there would be a turbolift that’s marked ‘Hangar Bay’. Actually... I need to go down there anyways, if you’d like to accompany me.”

"Sure!" It didn't occur to her to question the veracity of his statement, and nothing was more natural than to take him up on it instead of walking in silence. "Are you travelling somewhere? Eager to get off this place?" she asked interestedly.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

She accepted the offer and they began walking down the corridor together. Cassius placed his datapad onto his belt at the right hip, a soft click indicating that it was secure. Reading could come later, as he always tried to help someone in need if they asked - it was like second nature to him.

The Zeltron asked him if he was travelling somewhere, and he shrugged his shoulders a little bit. A lot of people went stir crazy if they spent too much time on the Jedi training vessel. “Eh, I don’t really mind the Providence. I used to be a patrol pilot, so I had to spent weeks on a ship at a time. I just finished up a supply run, but I’m not scheduled to go back to Deneba for another day or two.”

They reached the turbolift, and as soon as he pressed the call button, the door opened. He stepped inside and hit the button for the hangar bay. “How about you?” he asked as the turbolift got underway. It wouldn’t take more than a minute for them to reach the hangar. “Trying to catch a flight?” She didn’t seem to be in a big hurry or anything, and for some reason, she didn’t strike Cassius as a pilot.

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

"Well, if you think about it, it's a bit like living in a city, at least on as big a ship as this one." There were differences, of course, the whole orientation problem, and the absence of wind and rain, and most of all that of day and night. But Rosario had been forced to spend most of her time indoors, so that it wasn't much of a change. More than that, her master was keeping her busy - even if that could just mean sitting on a mat and thinking of nothing at all - and there was so much to discover that the excitement with novelty coloured everything in her life.

"Oh, no, I've just got to pick something up. Do you even catch flights here? Everyone seems to always be flying their own ship. Well, at least my master does. I guess that means I'm legitimately stuck here." Rosario smiled playfully, clearly not seriously concerned by the notion. "Are you a Padawan, too?" she went on to ask after a short pause.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

Cassius nodded his head a little. “I suppose it could be... but nothing beats sitting on top of a mountain, or quiet nights in a field of grass.” Ever since he’d left Rinn, he’d grown to appreciate nature a little bit more. Commenori space had a lot of lush, beautiful worlds, and he made sure to go on some type of meditative hike when he could. He’d spent a majority of his life in a compound on a frozen hunk of rock, so getting out once in a while was nice for him. Maybe that was why he liked piloting so much.

He smiled as she said something about even being able to catch a flight. “There are shuttles, yeah, but a majority of people like to fly themselves around.” He pointed to himself. “Like me. Anything smaller than a battlecruiser, and I get a little apprehensive if I’m not at the controls, at least as a co-pilot.”

The turbolift stopped, and they stepped off into the hangar bay, the sounds of clanging metal and buzzing welders filling the filtered air. The Zeltron asked him if he was a Padawan, as well, and he nodded. “Yep – but don’t let my confidence fool you. I’m still fairly new.”

They reached the U-wing, where a stout Utai was working on the engine.

“Hey, Ooday,” Cassius raised his voice so the little guy could hear. “How’re we looking?”

“Should be good to go,” the mechanic said in an alien, high-pitched tone. “Had to replace the whole engine, but it’s linked and shouldn’t give you any more problems.”

“Appreciate it, buddy,” Cassius said, and the Utai nodded, toddling off. The young Jedi turned back to the even younger Jedi. “Well, this is the hangar bay,” he said, putting his hands out briefly to gesture around. “What did you need to pick up?”

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

The hangar was much less of a calm place than most of the rest of the ship, and more colourful. Lights signs on floors, walls and ceiling and on the ships themselves appeared and disappeared in various shades, and the occasional sparks and flames flew off instruments or machines as some craft were being repaired in the inner areas. Behind it all was the by-now-familiar star-speckled blackness of space. With wide eyes, Rosario took in the bustling atmosphere of it. On some level, it was even reminiscent of home, or what home had been, and Rosario noticed with some confusion that she felt curiously little at the thought.

A look of disappointment crept upon the Zeltron's face as they reached Cassius' apparent destination and he began to exchange words with the Utai who had been repairing what was apparently the other Padawan's ship. She was quick to replace it with a polite smile as Cassius returned his attention to her, expecting a good-bye.

Instead her vis-à-vis tried to resume the conversation. She decided to give him a second chance, to ignore his question and hope that he'd have the sense to ignore her ignoring of it. "So... you weren't a patrol pilot with the Jedi? It's what you did before?" she asked, one hand on her hip.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

Oh. The conversation wasn’t over. Cassius wasn’t entirely sure why she dodged his last question, but he figured he’d take it in stride. “Uh, yeah...” he nodded, casually placing his hands on his hips as he looked around the U-wing that had just been repaired, double-checking the Utai’s work. Not that he would know better than the little guy, but for some reason he felt that this was better than eye contact at the moment.

“I was an A-wing pilot for the local starfighter corps out in Rinn – a frozen rock of a world in the Outer Rim,” he continued on. “It’s in unclaimed territory, so we had to police ourselves – make sure our shipments weren’t attacked by pirates. I usually fly around an A-wing…” he gestured over to an empty docking area, indicating that was where his assigned nook used to be, “but I uh… had some trouble with it, recently.” By ‘trouble’, he meant that he had to eject over Altier going incredible speeds.

“So, you’ve never flown before?” he asked. “Yourself, I mean. It’s a good skill to have, especially if you’re a Jedi. You never know when you have to take the controls.”

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

"Sounds exciting!" There was something romantic about the image of folks from a cold, forlorn Outer Rim world getting together to doggedly defend what was theirs while hardly anyone else in the galaxy cared about their fate. Reality was probably muss less enchanting. With slight apprehension, she asked: "Were you ever attacked?"

"Me? No, I've never exactly been in a position where anyone would have let me touch a ship", she said with a wry smile. "I suppose it come in handy at times. Though aren't all these ships very different to fly? A-wings and U-wings and the shuttles, and who knows what they're all called. Guess I'll have to find someone to teach me one day. But then there's so much to learn!"

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

He solemnly nodded when she asked if he’d ever been attacked before. “Pirates and stuff, yeah,” his eyes got a faraway look at that. Seeing as how there were so few of them, the death rate wasn’t as high in the Rinn Starfighter Corps. He had lost two friends during his nearly three years of flying with them, though - one pretty soon after he joined, and another two years in. That second loss had been painful, but he’d managed to work through it - there were days where he didn’t think about it, which was all he needed.

The conversation turned into a more technical aspect, and Cassius brightened up a little at that. He liked to talk ships, that was for certain. “Sure, a lot of them are different, but once you get the handle of the basics, all controls start to look the same.” She mentioned needing a teacher - Cassius had actually started to act as an ersatz instructor during his last few months with the Rinn Starfighters, so he was keen to offer his help.

“You wanna hop in and shadow a little?” he asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to the U-wing behind him. “We can take her out for a little spin, maybe even let you steer for a little bit. It’s not hard, once you watch someone do it and they point everything out to you.” Cassius hit the door button on the hull of the U-wing, and it quickly hissed open - it was designed as a troop transport, after all.

Cassius stepped up into the main hold area, where the passenger seats were. “Coming?” he asked. “Co-pilot’s seat is open.”

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

Rosario hesitated for a brief second. She had, after all, been sent here by her master with a task, but then it hadn't seemed urgent. This, on the other hand, was an opportunity. For one thing, she needed to make friends in this strange and new place. For another, flying would be an experience worth having, whether or not she would get around to learning it. Surely her master would not disagree with her following a felicitous accident - or the Force - wherever it led.

"Uh, sure", agreed Rosario, suddenly smiling brightly, and visibly excited. "Thanks!" She followed into the ship, walking slower than him as she was busy looking around. In the end, however, the ship's interior didn't mean much to her. There were folding seats on both sides of its main body, so presumably it wasn't purely a cargo ship, but seeing as she had seen what looked like guns from the outside, it was hardly what one would call a shuttle, either. "Coming!" she exclaimed, laughing, as Cassius called for her to come into the cockpit. "What's this thing designed -" She broke off as she entered the cockpit, seeing an intimidatingly dense array of screens and buttons beyond the empty co-pilot's chair. "Well..." she murmured, more to herself, and sat down. The chair itself was surprisingly comfortable, and looking up at Cassius, she asked with a grin: "What comes now?"

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

Cassius couldn’t help but smile as Rosario’s voice drifted of as she reached the cockpit. He decided to answer her question anyway. “Usually it’s a troop transport, carrying up to 10 people. Coupled with its speed, it’s good for fast insertion of a commando unit. For me, though, I’ve found I’m flying it whenever I’m on a mission that has more than one person involved. It’s a good size, nice hyperdrive, and while it’s certainly not a dogfighter, it can handle itself in a fight.”

As she looked over the various buttons and switches, Cassius assured her, “I know it looks like a lot, but you’ll be surprised how much you can learn in a short amount of time.” All it took was a good teacher, and luckily for her, Cassius was a somewhat decent one.

“Now, we make sure the doors are closed and secure,” Cassius said, making a deliberate move to hit the door close button above them so that she could see where it was. True to form, the door hissed closed, and Cassius tapped at two indicator lights next to the door switches – one orange, one green. As soon as an audible clunk could be heard from the door, the orange light turned green. “That lets us know that the door is secure and airtight. Don’t want to lose pressure in space.”

“We’ll just quickly let air traffic know where we’re going…” he said casually, breezing over this part. She could learn about ship communications later – the important part was the flying. Lifting slightly off of the hangar floor, they taxied to the main runway, with various starfighters flanking them on either side in their individual bays as they eased out of the hangar bay. “And we’re out,” Cassius said.

“Now, the first things you need to learn is how the stick moves…” Cassius started to explain the various ways to pitch, roll, and the thrusters, letting her see everything he was doing by the virtue of the fact that since they had tandem controls, everything he was doing was mirrored on her side.

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

Rosario listened to Cassius' explanation of the nature of the ship. "Have you ever -" She had begun to speak on an instinct before realising that there was no need to ask a question to keep the conversation going. "Never mind", she added softly with a smile.

As Cassius explained the process of closing the doors, it became clear to Rosario that he was now in his element and at ease. She looked up at the switch and buttons, trying to memorise their location. Someone might have thought to label them with something as simple as Door, but apparently this was considered unnecessary for a switch in every-day use in a military craft - or the label had simply come off with time. Not that it would have helped all that much amidst the sea of other buttons and lights.

While Cassius dealt with the formalities, Rosario looked out of the window; and not idly. She leaned back and forth and twisted to get the widest possible view, trying and failing to catch a glimpse of the ship's wing tips or to follow one of the little carts moving around the flight deck as long as possible. When finally they took flight, however, all of her attention was fixed out the front window into open space. It had only been a few weeks ago that she had first seen space from space, but only through the viewports of a capital ship. She had since become used to the sky beginning right at the ceiling in many of the Providence's training rooms, but she had never had it right in front of her as it was doing now as they dove into it. As the ship passed the edge of the hangar, she looked out to the side instinctively and there was as feeling of the floor being pulled away under her. Her instincts told her the ship would fall off any moment when of course her consciousness was aware that it would just continue on its path, a clash she found most unsettling. She decided to look inwards at the controls instead.

When Cassius explained how the steering stick worked, she listened attentively, but looked at him instead of the object. When the one besides her suddenly moved, she was startled and retreated as far as possible into the chair. Realising what had just happened, she giggled with embarrassment. "I'm sorry", she said, turning to Cassius with an apologetic smile. "Can you explain that again? I'll pay attention, promise."

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

He stole a glance over to her as they eased out of the hangar bay. Cassius had never been around too many children in his lifetime, much less flown with them, but he could only imagine this is what they looked like on their first time out into space. A half-smile formed on his face as he faced back forward. An eager student was always good to have.

Once they were a good distance away from the Providence, the instructional part began. He mostly just droned on, saying the same spiel he said to all of the younger pilots he’d trained during his later days in the starfighter corps. Typically, he went a little fast, but the trainees were usually able to keep up. She jumped a little though when he moved his controls, and they moved for her as well, since they were on a tandem system.

Chuckling, he said, “It’s alright,” thinking that he’d never had that kind of reaction while training before. Then again, the people he’d trained before were focused, trying-to-prove-themselves cadets. She was just a Zeltron he happened to run into that day. “Here, watch on your side. You can even grip the controls if you want to see how it feels. This is roll,” Cassius turned the controls to the left, while one would in a landspeeder, and the U-wing tipped onto its side, “and pitch,” Cassius pulled up, and the ship did just that. “Pedals are for yaw, left and right,” he lightly tapped them with his feet to show what they did.

“You want try it?” Cassius asked, looking over to her. He’d be controlling the thrust the whole time, so there wouldn’t be any chance of them suddenly going full speed and smacking into something.

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

This time, Rosario did watch the controls attentively; somewhat too attentively, in fact, as it didn't occur to her immediately to compare their movements with the movements of the stars outside. The pedals, which she had not noticed, hit her feet and she withdrew them, giving a surprised squeak. She looked at Cassius and giggled embarrassedly, but this time put herself in order quickly and continued to pay attention.

"Uhum, sure." She put her feet on the pedals, timidly and pointedly simultaneously, as if she were worried that the touch of her feet might tip the ship out of balance. Carefully, she tried them out and found that her concerns had been unfounded and it actually took some effort on her part to move the pedals enough to produce an appreciable reaction.

Putting her hands on the manual controls that she had until now ignored, she expected the same. But as soon as one hand exerted any pressure, they moved and sent the ship into an abrupt rolling motion. Startled, Rosario unintentionally moved further in the same direction, accelerating the spin. It took her several seconds to finally stabilise the ship again, or at least more or less do so, only to notice that meanwhile the ship's heading had changed because the controls were very sensitive in the vertical direction, too. Presumably in order to allow rapid manoeuvres in combat; but flying this thing in a straight line seemed like quite the challenge right now.

Holding the controls rather tightly, so much, in fact, that she occasionally moved them unintentionally just because her hands were jittery, she managed to more or less stabilise the U-wing, effectively approximating a straight line with a drawn-out zig-zag. "That's bloody hard", she remarked with a puzzled glance at [member="Cassius Droma"].

 

[Cassius Droma]

Cassius sucked in a breath and gripped the console next to him as they entered the tight roll. He was trained to handle g-forces like this, but he looked over to Rosario to make sure she wasn’t being effected. She just looked nervous, more than anything. The more experienced pilot considered taking back control and putting it on the right heading, but he knew that she had to learn one way or another. Eventually the ship became stable, and Cassius lessened his grip on the console.

“Well, that’s one way to start,” he said, breathing out. The Zeltron had noted the difficulty of flying, and he nosily chuckled as he nodded. “Yeah, it’s harder than it looks, right?” He looked over to her and smiled. “Don’t worry, though. We’ll get you squared away.”

And they did. It took a few more tries, but eventually, he was able to have her fly in a straight line. He even gave her thruster control towards the end. The most important lesson he imparted to her was to keep everything smooth. No jerky motions, no over corrections. If you’re going to make a maneuver, do it slowly, and safely. Piloting a starship was no small task – it meant walking the line between life and death, sometimes.

Eventually, he took back control and flew them back towards the Providence. He made sure to keep pointing things out to her as they went along. Would she absorb everything he was telling her the first time? No, and he didn’t expect her to. It was good for her to hear it over and over again, though. As he went through the landing process, especially, he made sure to go over everything he was doing. It was, after all, possibly the most important part of flying, other than not crashing, of course.

The engines whined as they slowly touched down in the hangar bay, and the landing gear caught them and locked into place. Cassius unclipped his crash webbing, freeing his torso.

“So,” he began, turning in his chair, “how’d you like it?”

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

Rosario hadn't had much attention to spare while she was occupied with learning to operate the controls in a more or less reasonable fashion, and so when asked how she had liked it, her mind turned up blank at first. But when in doubt, it was best to assume something positive. It made the world a much nicer place. For one thing, if she paused to reflect on the matter, her helpful fellow Padawan would notice and might be disappointed. He didn't deserve that. And if she just managed to convince herself, too, that she liked it, where was the harm in that?

"It was great! If I start bugging everyone to let me practice on their ships, it'll be your fault." The young Zeltron grinned playfully at him. "You're a good teacher, you know? If you'll take it from someone who's a bad learner."

"By the way, I'm Rosario. Rosario Perlyn. What's your name?" she asked nonchalantly as they were moving to leave the ship.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

“Thanks,” he smiled at the compliment. “Don’t think I’ll make a career out of it though…” His gaze peered up as he flicked a few more switches, like the transceiver into the ‘off’ position. He ran a quick diagnostic on the new engine to see how it fared. All cleared. “Well, if I can get my hands on a trainer A-wing or X-wing, I can show you how to pilot a starfighter. If you can maneuver those, you’d be able to fly anything.”

Giving her an once-over, he could already imagine seeing her in a flight suit.

The younger girl introduced herself, and Cassius blinked for a second, looking down. It hadn’t hit him until just that moment that they’d never exchanged names. Cassius must be a true pilot – someone asks about the hangar bay and flying, and everything else just goes out the window. “Cassius, Cassius Droma,” he said as he turned in his seat and stood. He hopped down into the main cargo area and then back onto the hangar bay floor.

“Anything else you’d like to see?”

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

"I really have to go. But maybe we can do this again some time?" Rosario asked hopefully.

...

"Oh, thank you so much! I'll see you then." She put one hand on his shoulder and touched her cheeks to his by way of good-bye.* It was a cultural practice wide-spread on Zeltros, and well-adapted to its people: as a species that produced pheromones with more pronounced and wider-reaching effects than most others, it was beneficial for Zeltrons to get physically close to others as it would make them appear more likeable.

*You know, the French thing.

***​

It was twenty-five standard minutes past the time they had agreed to meet in the hangar bay when Rosario finally entered it, walking swiftly through the door, but refusing to run. She stopped and looked around somewhat anxiously to see where Cassius might be waiting. It was a relatively quiet time, there were no arrivals or departures to be seen, and only a few people were hanging about their ships, doing little repairs or modifications, or just idly checking whether everything was in order. It was no comparison to last time.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

He certainly didn’t want to disappoint her. Nodding, he smiled. “Sure. Anytime I’m on the Providence, just give me a call.” She thanked him, then got close. Really. Really close. Cassius couldn’t help but inhale sharply at the sudden physical contact. It was brief, yes, but it also felt intimate. His mind became somewhat of a blur for a second, and his eyes nearly closed. He inhaled again, a little slower.

Cassius tried to play it off as she pulled away. He gave a half-smile and his eyes lit up, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that had risen up in chest. In the back of his mind, he could hear one of his more experienced pilot friends telling him something about Zeltrons.

For the life of him, he couldn’t remember it right now.

~~

Cassius was biding his time by quadruple-checking the systems on the trainer A-wing he had managed to get a hold of. He still considered it a miracle that he had managed to find one that he could borrow. Most of the time, training happened in simulations before they put you up in the air. On Rinn, he’d trained on an old tandem X-wing, but the thing was constantly falling apart, and the labels on the buttons were pretty much completely worn out.

Looking up from the engine unit he’d been inspecting, he saw the young Zeltron come into the hangar bay. Standing, he strode up to her, taking off his thick gloves as he did so. “There you are. I was beginning to think you weren’t going to show up,” he teased her. He was wearing his normal flight gear today; suit, flak jacket and all. His scratched and worn helmet was resting on the hull of the A-wing.

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

When she spotted Cassius approaching her, Rosario quickly moved to meet him, almost falling into a run. "I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, before greeting him in the same physical manner she had parted a few days ago. "Of course I'm showing up. I'm just - sometimes! - late", she said, grinning.

She looked him over in his flight suit, and then past him towards the A-wing he had just detached himself from and where he had left his helmet. "Looks like you just arrived, too? Is that the sort of ship you used to fly at home?"

There was something surreal about starfighters. They were not built to get anyone anywhere; the A-wing was just a trapezoid filled with the maximal amount of armament the engineers could fit on it, designed, as far as Rosario could tell, with the sole purpose of blowing things up. What made it surreal was that blowing things up was something that did not happen in Rosario's world. It was something that happened in holofilms, or that you heard about from faraway systems in a way that completely failed to make you realise the realities of it. She looked at the bow canons of the A-wing with a certain kind of admiring dread. She couldn't imagine that she could survive in a world where things got blown up; but it was comforting to know there were others who could. She looked back at Cassius.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​