COUNTERPOINT
CHAPTER 2: THE PILOT
PART 1
By Mya Thevendra
"There's one thing I've learnt. No matter what you do, and however well you do it, there's always gonna be some asshole who can beat you at it. It's true; there's nothing I can do, in my whole freakin' life, that I know someone else can't do better'n me…
Except for one thing."
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The bar lamp set into the ceiling flickered, buzzing like an insect, and sending out its pale, sterile light in nervous flashes. All of the other ceiling lamps in the room worked fine; and as it was, this fizzing light was the most interesting thing in there. A man's voice sneered across the room from the front.
"Have you got an answer for us Satomi? Or can we assume your ignorance spreads to engineering, as well as flight mechanics?"
Kimiko Satomi lowered her gaze from the flickering lamp in the ceiling above her desk, and looked at the man in front. She'd been perfectly willing to sit through this lesson without getting into trouble, but this time he'd gone too far; he'd called her ignorant.
"I'll ask again," the man said, "what's the most hazardous aspect of a type three secondary burnout?"
Kimiko glowered at her tutor, her arms folded, and her knees hitched up against her desk.
"Gee, I don't know, teach. Your stupid face, maybe?"
Her twenty-odd classmates, who had previously been quietly amused by her failure to answer, were suddenly stunned into a hushed silence. The teacher stood straight, his face contorted in a look of shock.
"What…did you say? What the hell did you just say?"
Almost casually returning her attention to the ceiling lamp above, Kimiko had decided that she had learned enough about the engine systems of the 'Osprey' dropship for today.
"You heard me, asswipe." She muttered. And indeed he had. His face now almost crimson, he yelled out.
"God damn it, that is it, I've had it with you, Satomi! Get out! Go wait in my office, and don't you even think about leaving it!"
Sidling out from her desk, Kimiko walked through the astonished stares of her fellow flight cadets, and left the room.
The dim, metallic corridors of the Confederate training cruiser, the 'Guiding Hand', seemed bare and cold as Kimiko walked. She made her way through the ship's academic block, and towards the staff offices; here and there were crewmembers, and other students going to and from their classes, all dressed in the same standard issue jumpsuits as she was. Yet more budding pilots, awaiting the day when they could graduate from their training, and join up with a Confederate squadron. Few of them looked at Kimiko as they passed, and none recognised her. She was an unknown amongst the four hundred odd cadets on board the Guiding Hand; she had gained no reputation as a hotshot pilot, or as a diligent student. The only people on board the vessel who would recognise her name were her tutors, but not for any good reason. As she wandered into the staff department, the head secretary, Mrs. Green, seated behind her desk beside the wall, looked up from her computer console and frowned.
"Oh, not again?"
Fiona Green was another of the few individuals who had come to know the name of Kimiko Satomi quite well since the Guiding Hand had joined up with the 12th Confederate stellar training fleet, and set off on its two semester long voyage through the Phirriad star system. Kimiko must have come through that particular corridor at least a dozen times since the journey had begun, having been reprimanded, or thrown out of class by almost all of her tutors at one time or another.
"Who was it this time?" asked Mrs. Green.
Kimiko rolled her eyes.
"Mr. Fuckworth." She grumbled.
"You mean Mr. Duckworth, I take it." replied Mrs. Green dryly, as she tapped a command into her console, "All right, I've opened his office for you. Go on in."
Kimiko walked across into the office, and slumped into a chair, her hands in her pockets.
Fifteen minutes passed, and Kimiko was just beginning to entertain the thought of walking out, when Mr. Duckworth entered, his briefcase tucked beneath his arm. Moving silently past, and around his office desk, he settled into his chair, and stared back at Kimiko with a cold, almost spiteful glare.
"Would you care to explain what the hell that was about?"
Kimiko looked up to meet his stare, and shook her head.
"Nope."
"Satomi, you have got to be one of the foulest-mouthed girls I have ever had the misfortune of teaching. for God's sake, calling me an asshole in front of the entire class."
"Asswipe." interjected Kimiko.
"What?"
"I called you an asswipe."
Duckworth rubbed his forehead in despair.
"Christ, whatever. Look, there are academies where that'd be grounds for expulsion, straight out."
His expression hardened further, as he leant forward above his desk.
"I'm going to be up front with you. If I had my way, I'd have you dropped off at the next repair dock, and then shuttled back home. I am sick and tired of the grief I have had to put up with from you, and I know there're a lot of other tutors who feel the same way. You are this close to being kicked out of here; of the two thousand odd cadets in this fleet, I swear not one of them is doing as badly in class as you are. Not one of them has as much of an attitude problem as you do, and I'll bet there's not one of them, who'd even think about calling their tutor an asshole!"
"Asswip-"
"Shut up!" yelled Duckworth, his face beginning to return to its previous shade of red.
"Satomi," he said, his voice low and tense, "you are very lucky that Vice Principal Buxton stood up for you at the last student assessment. God knows the rest of us wanted you out, but for some reason, she thinks that you've got what it takes to be a pilot. I can't see it myself."
Kimiko peered slowly around the room, a scowl fixed across her face.
"This has been going on a little too long for my liking," said Duckworth, "the smartass remarks, the missed classes, and I've been hearing rumours that someone's been trying to hack into the flight simulators' scenario directory. I'm not saying it's you, but, well, I wouldn't be surprised if it was, so, I'm going to be a little more stringent with you, starting now. The shuttle excursion tomorrow, I'm going to remove you from the list of students going. I'm sure there's another cadet who'll be more appreciative of your place, and more deserving."
Despite what Duckworth may have thought, Kimiko had been desperate to get onto that trip. Around eighty students would be packed into four of the passenger dropships, which would then fly to the outer edge of the fleet and watch the training fighters go through their manoeuvres. Half a dozen pilots from the front line had volunteered to act as demonstrators during their recovery tour, and Kimiko had leapt at the opportunity to see how real pilots handled their craft. Almost every cadet in the fleet had signed up to watch the veterans fly; the students who would attend were chosen at random by the Adjutant, and so Kimiko had entertained little hope of going. As it turned out, her luck had been exceptionally good on the day that the students were picked, and after recovering from the shock, she had begun to look forward to what would so far be the only interesting feature of this semester. Having that taken away from her was, needless to say, a little upsetting.
"What?" screeched Kimiko, "You…cocksucker! I've got just as much right to be on that trip as any of the others, you can't just throw me off, I didn't do anything!"
"Is that right?" sneered Duckworth, shaking his head, "With that little outburst, you have just given up three weeks of simulator privileges, and earned yourself two weeks of detention, starting tomorrow. And you are still off the trip. You give me any more trouble, and I'll make sure you spend the rest of this year in the shuttle bay cleaning engine skirts. Now get out of my office."
Kimiko gave a grunt of frustration, and stood up with a jerk. Her eyes were as cold as ice as she glowered down at Duckworth, but all he did was stare back, and grin. He was just waiting for her to do something stupid, waiting for just one more insult, which would give him the excuse to put her on cleanup duty for the rest of the semester. But she said nothing. She walked out of Duckworth's office, and left the staff department.
The remainder of Kimiko's day was spent wandering about the halls and corridors of the Guiding Hand, her face frozen in a sullen scowl. Eventually, after failing to walk off her frustration, she headed back to the cadets' quarters. The girls' dormitory was similar to how its counterpart in any regular university or college might have been; a bustling hive of activity in the evenings, as the students wound down after a day's slog. Kimiko walked dejectedly into her shared quarters, and fell face down onto her bed; her two roommates, who were sitting on the floor playing cards, gave her a brief look.
Kimiko had made little attempt to make friends on this voyage, with those in her classes, her dormitory block, or even in her room. That distinct lack of friendship ran both ways, however; Kimiko's interaction with her fellow flight cadets ranged from being ignored to being ridiculed. Along with most of the tutors, those students who had met her tended not to have a very high opinion of her as a potential pilot. But she didn't care. She had never cared, not for as long as she could remember, what other people thought of her, and especially not so at this particular moment.
An hour or so passed, while Kimiko remained comatose on her bunk, when a direct message from the Adjutant buzzed through the room's com terminal.
"Cadet Satomi, you have an incoming call from Vice Principal Buxton. She has requested you take the call in student common room three for privacy. Please go there now."
Ignoring the raised eyebrows of her roommates, Kimiko rolled off her bunk, and left her room. Hushed words from behind followed her out.
"God, what do you think she did now?"
The students' common rooms were in full swing by now. Large, noisy and bright was how they struck Kimiko most of the time, but to those students more interested in socialising, they were a haven from tutors, homework and assessments. In each one, a food bar, pool table, video terminals and communication cubicles arranged along the wall gave the students plenty to occupy themselves with, and as the hour passed seven o'clock, almost three quarters of the student population were relaxing in the five common rooms aboard the ship.
Amid the babble and clamour, Kimiko passed unnoticed to the far wall, and into one of the private communications terminals. Logging on, she opened her message line, and accepted the incoming call from the Vice Principal's office. The smiling face of Carol Buxton blinked onto the screen. It had always surprised Kimiko how young Buxton was; she hadn't yet reached thirty, but her skill as a pilot, and outstanding record of class results had ensured she received the position of Vice Principal ahead of a few notably more experienced candidates.
Carol Buxton nodded, and waved her pencil.
"Hi there, Kim. How're your classes going?" She asked.
Kimiko slumped back into her chair, and screwed up her face.
"Ehh, all right." she grumbled.
"Uh-huh, you know, I just got off the com with Mr. Duckworth. He had a slightly different opinion about the matter."
Kimiko sprung forward, her face contorted with hatred.
"That asshole, d'you know what he did?" she said loudly.
"Yeah, I know full well what he did, and he told me why he did it."
"Aww come on, all I did was-"
"All you did was insult a tutor to his face, and in front of the entire class. I'm sorry, Kim, but we can't have that sort of thing." said Carol.
"All right, all right, " said Kimiko, "I'll take the detention, and I'll give up my simulator time, but come on, I got my place on that trip fair and square. He can't just take me off it like that!"
Carol leant back and nodded slowly as she thought the matter over.
"Ok, Kim," she said, "look, I'll have a word with Mr. Duckworth, and I'll see about getting your place back."
"All right!"
"But!" stressed Carol, pointing her finger, "But, you have to make more of an effort in class. Pay more attention, and try to get on with your tutors a little more. And please, try and tone down your language a little, okay? I've had more than a few complaints from your tutors."
Kimiko gave an impish grin, and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, okay, I'll try." She said.
Carol looked back across the video link, and sighed.
"You know Kim, I've got four hundred students to worry about on this ship, besides you."
"Yeah, I know." Said Kimiko, feeling somewhat guilty.
"And I can't afford to spend this amount of time with every student, looking out for them."
"Yeah…"
"But," said Carol, "not every one of them has the potential that you do."
Kimiko looked up to meet Carol's gaze.
"If you'd just try a little harder Kim, then you'd make it, you really would. I've seen what you've got. You've got talent, and all you need to do is…ah, to hell with it, never mind, I can see I'm already starting to bore you."
But Kimiko wasn't bored at all; in fact, she wanted Carol to continue, but she wasn't yet ready to actually ask a teacher to talk to her, not yet.
"Look, I'll take care of your place on the trip. Just get a good night's sleep, we're starting out early tomorrow, it's gonna be a good show."
Kimiko nodded.
"Okay Kim, that's all. Go and…go and do whatever it is that you guys do at night. I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early!"
Kimiko closed the line and logged off, and then slipped out of the cubicle. Her mood had improved considerably, and she had trouble disguising the grin that was pulling at her cheeks. Just across from her as she walked back, one of a group of boys playing at the pool table noticed her; it wasn't a common occurrence to see Kimiko Satomi with a smile on her face, and he took the opportunity to poke fun.
"Hey Satomi, what's so funny?" he scoffed, "You been looking at your grade average?"
Chuckles rose up from those students hanging around the table. Kimiko spun around, and carried on walking backwards.
"Naw, I just copped a look at that video that's been going around. The one with Principal Reed shovin' his dick up your momma's ass!"
The boy's stuttering retort was lost beneath a tide of laughter that rose up from those around, and with a triumphant grin, Kimiko strolled out of the common room.