Sera Ch3

Chapter 3
An airbase somewhere in the Mojave Desert

	Since a few days before, when she had met him, Sera had noticed James eyeing her with a sort of… curiosity. She had learned from the general that he was a top-notch pilot in the simulators, but had only once or twice had experience around actual high tech aircraft such as herself. Jameson T. Stillen (his full name), looked the army type; about 6’2, not overly muscled, but obviously fit, short military brown hair copied by the 5 o clock shadow on his chin. Her mind did wander to him sometimes, wondering what else there was about him. He possessed a certain mystique, something that both troubled her and made her feel like he had a front put up. She didn’t know how she knew… maybe because behind his eyes there seemed to be a storm, a troubled cloud of past judgements and concern about future…
	She shook her head, her sensors whirring as she focused on the tarmac. Being in the air was all well and good, but the last thing she needed was to let herself drift off into philosophy land at mach 2. As she flared and steeled herself for landing, she noticed James and the general in what resolved itself to be an argument as she approached. James kept shaking his head, while the general gestured wildly out into the desert. Sera used her speed to taxi over to them, calling out as she did so. “What’s going on?”
	The general whirled to face her. “I’ll tell you! There’s one of our top programs MIA! Out in-“ He stopped, remembering something. “I can’t tell you where, it’s classified! All you should know is that it was last seen in Arujistan!”
	James stepped in at this point. “We both know that’s a hot zone, general! Why send anyone without armament to a War Zone without special training?!”
	“Because we need eyes, and there’s not many around, if you couldn’t tell!” The general was panting now, the desert heat not helping out. “We need fast eyes, and we need em soon, or we might lose this thing!”
	“Sir!” James interrupted. “If it’s true that the EMP weapons there are live, then we can’t just go flying in there at mach and expect to get away scot free. What’s so important about this MIA top program anyway?”
	The general calmed himself before replying “Two things, mainly. One, this machine is powerful, an air to ground platform with advanced weaponry that could be disastrous if it fell into the wrong hands. The other is the fact that it was hit recently by an EMP blast, and the pilot is probably suffering from Mollers…”
	Sera listened to this exchange, her eyes widening. She knew her sister was stationed out near Arujistan, and had been flying patrols out in the area. She hadn’t heard from her recently though; last thing she had gotten was an e-mail complaining about the lack of Web wherever she was, how she couldn’t play Flash games, etc… From that, Sera assumed that her sister was off rotation and safe, a theory that the general confirmed a moment later.
	“…we need more help in the search!” The general was saying. “We had to pull our other spy plane out of there for backup until the situation cleared, but those two are needed badly! I haven’t heard from the base there, and we need to get them back ASAP. I don’t care if you two are flying through gunfire at mach speed, I want them found soon!”
	Something Sera did not expect happened then. When she glanced at James, she saw a flash of fear in his eyes. Not the usual flash one would show from the prospect of flying through gunfire, but cold, paralyzing fear. It was gone in an instant though, and James started to reiterate his earlier point about the EMP weapons, but Sera interrupted him.
	“Scuse me!” she quipped, causing both the general and James to look at her in surprise. “You’re considering sending us to a war zone without even having flown together first? He might be a prodigy or something, and I might be fast, but neither of us have combat experience ALONE, much less with others. Hell, you two, we haven’t even flown practice flights, evasive maneuvers, night flights…” Sera tried to think if there was something she had missed from the simulators. Finding nothing, she went on. “I think we need to have at least the basic training flying as a pair before you go throwing us to the wolves!”
	With a slight nod to her, James gave the general a pointed look. He finally caved in. “Alright, alright. But once you finish the basic training, I’m afraid I’m going to have to send you over. I’m starting to get pressure from above, God knows why, and I’m not gonna be able to satisfy the top brass with excuses like “they wanted to stay at the base until they could do a double barrel roll at mach 3. Do you two understand?
	Sera nodded, grateful that she had intervened now. James just gave the general a curt salute, and spun on his heel, heading back to the barracks. The general, sighing, turned back to the offices, leaving Sera alone on the tarmac. She did notice, though, James looking back at her briefly, a small grin on his face. Suddenly, she was thinking about him again, and wondering what had happened in his past. She caught herself slowly rubbing her thigh with her hand, and glanced around, but nobody had seen her. She paused, then headed back to her hangar, wondering about this new turn of events. As she approached her door, the loudspeaker above announced that training flights would begin the next day.
	Sera chuckled, a few dirty thoughts running through her mind unbidden. Training flights the next day? She wondered how it would go, and if she might reward herself afterwards. Still giggling softly, she headed inside and shut the door.