"Hey Yorktown, while we're out here, is it alright if I take a look at your planes too? The runway is right over there after all," The Commander said.
Yorktown looked at him with curiosity, "What for?"
The Commander shrugged, "I'm just curious is all. Haven't worked with kansen much before and I want to understand all I can."
"They function like normal aircraft for the most part, other than that they can fly themselves, and I suppose they have performance improvements," Yorktown said.
"I mean I want to understand the aircraft themselves. You're working with wildcats, dauntlesses, and devastators correct?" he asked.
"Oh, no not devastators, I did away with those a long time ago, I'm using avengers now," Yorktown said.
"And you aren't looking to upgrade your wildcats to hellcats? Or your dauntlesses to helldivers?" The Commander asked.
"The hellcat is a fine aircraft but not for me, and forgive my language Commander, but there's a reason why the helldiver is known as the 'son of a bitch second class'. I don't understand how the Essex sisters are able to wrangle them in so well."
"Hmm, I understand, as long as you are comfortable and effective with your airplanes then that's fine by me. Now, if you're willing do you care to show me them out on the runway?" The Commander said.
"Very well, as you command," Yorktown said.
The two arrived at the runway. Yorktown kept silent the whole time. The Commander's mind was focused on the planes.
"Here Commander, they take a minute to manifest their physical forms so please be patient," Yorktown said. She waved her hand and three digital wireframe aircraft appeared, a wildcat, a dauntless, and an avenger. The Commander watched in awe as the aircraft constructed in front of him.
"I've never seen this process, only heard about it, this is incredible," he said.
"Again, sorry for the slow formation, all carriers have it," Yorktown said.
"I'm going to have a look," The Commander walked up to the constructing aircraft, eyes inspecting every inch. Once they formed he laughed a bit. "This is incredible. I would even say I'm a bit jealous."
"Jealous? Why is that?" Yorktown asked.
"Because I just love planes. I learned how to fly a while back and ever since I've been hooked on aircraft. I guess it would be nice to have my own planes to fly whenever I wanted," The Commander said.
"You know how to fly? What planes have you flown?" Yorktown asked.
"Nothing much, small civilian aircraft, mainly to do sightseeing for tourists, lots of floatplanes. Oh, uncle flew a stunt plane, only rid in it though," The Commander said. He put a hand on the fuselage between the propeller and the wing of the dauntless.
Yorktown flinched. "Commander please be careful, these aircraft are quite valuable to me."
"Hmm? Oh, sorry," he took his hand off the plane.
"Commander please do be careful with a girl's airplanes," Yorktown said.
"Why is that? I promise a little touching won't damage them," The Commander said.
"Well, that is true but… I'm not sure if I can explain this well. These aircraft are sort of like… pets maybe? No that's not right, I don't know the word but they are under my care. Just like a kansen's ship is important to them, an aircraft carrier's planes are too."
"Really? I guess that makes sense," The Commander backed away from the dauntless. "My apologies Yorktown. I'm a handsy guy but I won't do that again. That being said, can you fly them for me? If they are prepared."
"Yes, I suspected you might ask that. I'll just do a quick flight demonstration ok?" Yorktown asked.
"I'd love to see that, go ahead and start them up," The Commander said.
The two watched as the planes taxied out onto the runway, revved up their engines and lurched down the runway. They all took off in close succession, getting into a small formation together. The Commander stared in silence for several long minutes.
"Exactly how aware are these things?" The Commander asked. His gaze transfixed on the three aircraft.
"Well, they know how to fly themselves and do complex attack maneuvers, dogfighting, take off and landing, from a carrier no less. Everything we can do to fly them, they can too," Yorktown said.
"Yeah that makes sense. If you had to control them all yourself that could be difficult huh?" The Commander asked.
"I can assume direct control of them if I want, but you are right, not all at once," Yorktown said.
"Fascinating. You can go ahead and land them now. I need to go back to the office. Thank you for your time Yorktown," The Commander turned on his heels and started to walk.
His sudden departure caught Yorktown off guard and she called out to him without reason. "Commander?"
He looked over his shoulder? "Yes, Yorktown?"
"Would… would you like to fly one? Not today but, since you're a pilot and you're trying to understand all you can, maybe it would be good for you to get in the cockpit?" Yorktown said. She felt her face going a little red, this was a bit more spontaneous than she intended it to be.
The Commander's face lit up. "Really? Flying one of them? I mean, absolutely. How about this saturday? Bright and early?"
"Y-yes sir, I will be here!" Yorktown said promptly.
"See you then," The Commander resumed walking.
Yorktown watched him go for a bit, then turned to watch her planes land. That was… a bit spur of the moment, and she had doubts about letting any human into her planes, but he knew how to fly, so why not?
As she stepped out of the hangar on a warm Saturday morning, she could suddenly think of many reasons why not. Sure he claimed he was a pilot, and… she didn't know what reason he would have to lie, but what if he did? What if he got in the air and started freaking out? Even if he knew how to fly, this wasn't just some casual civilian plane, this was an old hardy warbird with far more complex controls. Wait, there's no way he knew how to fly a dauntless, or a wildcat, or an avenger. That didn't make sense, where would he have learned? He just-
"Yorktown?"
"Ehh!?" Yorktown whirled around to see her commander looking at her, confused. "You good there? You were just staring out into the sky with a rather troubled expression."
"Me? I'm fine, just uhh… thinking everything through," Yorktown shook her head back to clarity.
"Forethought is good. What will you have me fly today?" The Commander asked.
"Oh, right. My apologies commander, I forgot to put them out on the runway." Yorktown waved her hand and the planes started to construct. "Any you like."
The Commander stared down the wildcat for a long time, but the second they all finished constructing he snapped his gaze to the dauntless. "You know what, I was planning on flying the wildcat, but the dauntless seems interesting. I know it's surprisingly agile without a bomb load. We're not flying these loaded, right?"
"No, these ones aren't prepared for combat, just fueled up for a casual flight," Yorktown said.
"Hmm, dauntless it is," he stepped towards the aircraft, stopping to look at Yorktown. "Are you going to join me? Or are you staying on the ground?"
"I'll… I'll tail you in the wildcat," Yorktown said. "And, I never asked because you seemed so confident, but how do you know how to fly these planes? At least, I'm assuming you do."
The Commander climbed up into the cockpit of the dauntless. "Training footage. Both Azur Lane sources and archived stuff online. It's amazing what you can learn nowadays with a quick search."
The idea of The Commander learning how to fly a dauntless just from a random video online wasn't comforting, but official Azur Lane resources sounded more convincing. "I wasn't even aware Azur Lane had those."
"They were created for rare cases such as what Akagi and Kaga went through," The Commander said.
"Oh ok." Yorktown climbed up onto the wing of the dauntless as The Commander prepared for flight.
He looked up at her. "Uhh, Yorktown? I thought you said you were taking the wildcat."
"I am, but may I watch you go through preflight checks?" Yorktown asked.
"Not confident in me?" The Commander asked casually.
"No I… no, and I only realized this morning how risky this is. Commander if you crash I won't be able to live with myself," Yorktown said.
The Commander went through his checks without ever stopping to glance at her. "Don't worry Yorktown, I go with you girls on missions all the time, this is far less dangerous for a person of my skill level."
"This isn't your uncle's stunt plane, commander," Yorktown said.
"I see that as an improvement, that thing smelled like pine wood and was never trimmed properly, crazy bastard said he liked it that way," The Commander said. "You should get in your wildcat, I'm starting up the engine."
"Be careful, Commander. Stay in radio contact," Yorktown hopped off the wing and ran to her own plane, hurrying to keep up with her commander.
They taxied out onto the runway where Yorktown waited behind him, looking for the slightest misstep. At any moment she was ready to shout through the radio for him to stop or give emergency advice even though she could take over for him at any time, it was her plane after all. But with a quick check of the control surfaces and a thumbs up out of the canopy before closing it, The Commander was off.
The second the wheels of the dauntless lifted off the ground, Yorktown put on full throttle to get in the air with him. She didn't even realize she was holding her breath until she got in the air and formed up with him.
"Very nice," The Commander said through the radio. "Let's go through a few paces…"
Yorktown's eyes widened as The Commander threw the plane into a steep climb. "Mind your stall speed commander!"
"I will, just want to get a good view," he said.
Yorktown climbed with him, more focused on his aircraft than hers. "If you're ever confused or unsure of something, just tell me and I'll take over."
"Can't you feel it from your end? Like if I do this… What's my indicated airspeed?" he asked.
"Commander you're getting dangerously close to stalling!" Yorktown said in a rushed voice.
"Alright alright," he leveled off into a less steep climb.
Yorktown was able to breathe a little sigh of relief. She got considerably more tense again as he started doing some basic maneuvers, yes basic ones. She nearly had a heart attack when she saw him nose the dauntless over.
"Commander-what-are-you-doing!?"
"Putting the dive in dive bomber," he said. However, he didn't get very far before the plane righted itself. "Wait what? Yorktown did you just-?"
"I'm sorry commander. I panicked, I didn't expect you to just do it like that," Yorktown said.
"Ahh I see. Well, let me get back to altitude again and I'll try another run. I promise I'll pull out early, ok?" he said.
"I… ok, commander," Yorktown said. Her nerves still were firing off like the cylinders of her wildcat. Now a second time, he nosed down into a dive… and the plane leveled out before he even went more than five hundred feet.
"Uhmm, Yorktown. Could you please not interrupt? You know I'm doing this to better understand you and your aircraft right? Don't get me wrong, I'm having fun but this isn't only a joy ride for me. I'd appreciate it if you could let me fly," The Commander said.
"R-right, sorry. I'll not look this time." Yorktown closed her eyes and let the wildcat fly itself. She waited… except her carrier instincts were kicking in. She very clearly felt the dauntless gaining speed, plummeting towards the Earth. Visions of it crashing right into the water or even the wings shearing off as it tried to pull out filled her mind. She forced her dauntless out of the dive, and immediately regretted it. "I'm… really sorry commander, I-"
"I think… I think we're running into a problem here…"
Yorktown and Enterprise stood just outside the hangar. Enterprise had a set of binoculars, staring out over the ocean, tracking a lone dauntless. This time, Enterprise was in control. Yorktown had no way of commanding one of Enterprise's planes, so she offered the dauntless this time.
"Alright, commander. Come in for your run," Enterprise said.
"Roger Enterprise, getting into position," The Commander responded through the radio.
"Are y-you sure? I think he's coming in at the wrong angle," Yorktown said.
"Commander, get a little bit more altitude," Enterprise said. He didn't really need it, but she said it in hope it would make Yorktown less anxious.
"Uhm, understood, making slight elevation change," The Commander said.
After a few seconds… "You're at your target! Dive dive!" Enterprise shouted.
"Bombing phase clear!" The Commander nosed his dauntless down.
Enterprise kept her gaze through the binoculars, unflinching. The plane descended and descended, making a very distinct noise the two carriers knew well.
"You're going in pretty deep, commander," Enterprise noted.
Yorktown was physically trembling. "I can't watch!" She buried her face in Enterprise's sleeve.
Less than as second later, "Bombs away!"
The dummy bomb filled with paint flew straight and true… except The Commander's aim wasn't… It landed well outside the fifty foot circle drawn out for practice. Enterprise focused on making sure The Commander got out before hitting the ground. Though she kept it in, she released all her fear with a sigh of relief as she saw the dauntless pulling away into the sky.
"Yorktown, you can look now," Enterprise shook her arm.
"Mh?" Yorktown looked up at The Commander's plane. "Oh… phew. Good work Commander. I had full confidence in you."
Enterprise could barely suppress even a small chuckle. "Accuracy could use some work, but that's not what we're here for. You did a run, how do you feel?"
"I am ready to go again!" The Commander shouted. "That was better than any rollercoaster."
"We'll think about it, return home," Enterprise smiled.
Once he landed, Enterprise directed the Commander over to the hangar. The plane's engine spun down and slowed to a halt. The Commander opened the cockpit and stepped out, climbing back down to the ground.
"So, what did you think?" Enterprise asked.
"Damn good, about what I expected. I could do ten more of those right now," The Commander said. "Except I gotta go back to the office. Thank you Enterprise."
"Not a problem Commander. I'll see you around," Enterprise said.
The Commander walked away, Enterprise walked up to her dauntless, giving it a very loose check before letting it disintegrate and return to her mental cube.
"He did very well, aside from missing, but that's to be expected," Enterprise commented.
Yorktown nodded. "And he isn't dead."
"Did you really think he was going to crash?" Enterprise raised an eyebrow.
"Well, maybe. He's only a civilian pilot," Yorktown said.
"He is, but he doesn't fly like one. I can tell he's a bold flier," Enterprise said.
"He might be too bold," Yorktown said.
"I don't think so, he knows how to handle a plane," Enterprise went silent and gazed out into the ocean, her coat flapping in the wind.
"Enterprise, what are you thinking?" Yorktown asked.
Enterprise turned to Yorktown with a determined expression. "I want to get him flying more, I think I can train him to be something outstanding."