5.
A New Home
A few days after the battle with the Scinfaxi Drake was given a choice: fly with Wardog on a patrol or give an interview with their journalist. Since going on the patrol means he'd be flying an F-5, he opted for the interview. As the others were coming out of the ready room Drake walked in. Nagasei flashed him a smile as they passed. Inside Drake sat down in a seat across a table from the journalist, Gennet.
"Relax Drake," Gennet reassured. Drake hadn't thought he looked nervous. "I'm just going to ask you a few questions.
"And I'll answer as best I can," Drake replied nonchalantly. (Since the setting will not change I will just put their names before what was said to save the trouble of, 'he said then they said')
Gennet: So, how long have you been flying?
Drake: About three years now. I received my commercial flying license and piloted small business flights.
Gennet: So you like flying?
Drake: Flying is my life. I knew how to fly before I could walk.
Gennet: I'm sure that made nursing interesting.
Drake: Eh, I just kinda hovered there.
Both men laugh.
Gennet: What is the hardest part of flying in your opinion?
Drake: Quite frankly I think the hardest part of flying is actually keeping the bird in the air. But, landing might be the worst part about it.
Gennet: how so?
Drake: Because you have to hit a strip about three miles long and fifty feet across with so many factor going against you. And don't even get me started on carrier landings…
Gennet: I won't. What is you lineage?
Drake: My mom was an Osean propulsion engineer working with a company contracted with Grunder industries. My dad was a Belkan flying ace that tooled airplane motors there.
Gennet: So you lived in North Osea?
Drake: South Belka my dad called it. We moved further south when I was about ten. Mom got a job as a professor at the community college while dad took to construction. He died a year later in a work accident. But whenever I'd try to justify a rash action I did mom would always say, "That's your dad talking."
Gennet: Sounds like she loved your father.
Drake: Yes she did.
Gennet: What do you think of the war?
Drake: Not much, it gives me a reason to be in the air, and I want to be in the air.
Gennet: Well that about does it. I hear the others coming back now. Thanks for your time.
Drake: No problem.