The wait for the fleet to catch up seemed agonisingly long. Eva and Dizzie positioned themselves at the rear of the Avenger to stay well out of their sight and weapon line, their sensors constantly scanning the ship for active sensors to make sure that shields and weapons stayed offline. With the main thruster disabled the Avenger was going nowhere fast.

 

Finally the fleet’s signatures came into view on Eva’s sensors, a welcomed sight of tightly clustered large signatures travelling at cruising speed heading in their direction. Nearing the jump point the fleet slowed and halted, and salvage craft were dispatched to retrieve the disabled ships, allowing Delta wing to finally break away and return to the carrier.

 

Eva had never been happier to get out of a pilot chair so much in her life. She was used to being in a ship for days and even weeks at a time, but all of those ships had room to get up and walk around to stretch the legs and back. The Hornet on the other hand was just a fighter with a cockpit chair and canopy. Eva had been forced to sit in the same spot for countless hours on this so-called milk run of a mission, and her legs were screaming at her.

 

Finally back in the carrier, she walked stiffly to the briefing room with Snowy and Dizzy where Commander Wulf was waiting for the recordings to be downloaded from their ships to the review systems. Once downloaded, the Commander skipped through the footage to the jump point incident and watched the recordings intently, three camera feeds from of each pilot’s helmet playing side by side and in sync.

 

He remained silently while he watched, his chin resting against the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, which rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. He nodded from time to time and finally turned to face the three.

 

“Good work out there Deltas. The capture of these ships and pilots is an important victory in this sector. Our engineers will strip the ships down and hack the systems to gain important data and the pilots will be interrogated thoroughly. Valkyrie,” he turned his head to face Eva directly, “good work on warning Dizzie to turn out of the Avenger’s firing line. That was quick thinking that potentially saved her ship from being damaged. Those Avenger nose canons can be deadly.”

 

“Thank you, Sir.” Eva responded, her shoulders square and her back straight with pride, “Though if it was any pilot other than Dizzie it would have been too late. If it wasn’t for her hard turn it would have been for nothing.” She turned her head and smiled at Dizzie, trying to convey how much she was in awe of the other woman’s piloting skills with that simple look.

 

Wulf nodded and turned his back on the pilots to look at the screens again, and Dizzie took the opportunity to offer Eva a quick grin and hold up her fist in her direction. Eva raised her fist and quickly bumped knuckles with Dizzie before they both resumed their stance, hands behind their back and eyes straight forwards.

 

“Whatever the case”, Wulf continued to speak while watching the video feeds, “It seems that it was the right decision to put you two together. You have proven to make a great team and I look forward to seeing how well you continue to work together. Snowy, I’d like to speak to you in private. Dizzie and Valkyrie, you are dismissed.”

 

Dizzie and Eva both saluted, turned on their heels and left the room, closing the door behind them. Alone in the hallway Eva gave Dizzie’s shoulder a friendly nudge as they headed back towards their stateroom.

 

“Damn, Diz.” Eva said to her new partner, “How the hell do you turn like that without passing out. That’s insane!”

 

Dizzie just shrugged, “I don’t know. I’ve always been able to. Back in training I once caused structural damage to an Avenger and made my instructor puke in his helmet. How did you know I had to turn anyway?”

 

It was Eva’s turn to shrug, “I saw you turn, I saw them turn. It just felt like they were trying to get a shot on you.”

 

“Fair enough. Feel free to share these feelings with me when you have them. I have the feeling they are going to come in handy.”

 

The two entered the stateroom together and headed to their bunks, unfastening their flight suits in silence and stowing them away. Dizzie didn’t bother getting dressed and climbed up onto the top bunk in her underwear and slipped under the covers, “I’m going to try to get some sleep.”

 

Eva pulled a shirt and sweatpants out of her footlocker and slipped them on, “I’m too wound up to sleep. I’m going to go let off some steam before I crash. I’ll see you later Diz.”

 

She turned to leave and caught the gaze of Blinkie who was watching her from the far end of the room. They locked eyes for a moment and Eva felt very self-conscious immediately and found herself wondering if he had been looking at her like that the whole time she was getting changed. Instead of the creepy feeling she got up her spine whenever she caught Rabbit looking at her, she was surprised to find that she quite liked the fact that she was catching Blinkie’s attention. She felt heat in her cheeks at this thought and headed out the door, hoping that she had turned away before Blinkie had noticed the blush.

 

NEXT ENTRY: The First Dance