broke my ankle in the middle of my junior year of high school.”
“Ah, so less severe but still along those same lines. And yeah, I get it. Losing hurts, but not even having a chance to affect the outcome hurts even worse.”
“Are you feeling any of that?” she asked.
“Why, because I couldn't be here?”
“Yeah, that.”
Zach thought for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. What did he feel, exactly? Ever since he had agreed to take part in the study this had become a major part of his life, and now that was in complete upheaval. How would he feel if he was taken away from more critical battles like the one fought today?
The new project had his interest, there was no doubt about that. Zach had agonized over the decision for a long period of time, and he was sure. Project Avalon, as it was currently known, stirred the passion within him, and he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to play a major role in its development. But he could still feel a bit of pain that he wasn't alongside his comrades as they pushed on.
“I think I'm missing it,” he said, “but isn't it the same as being a commander? We've gone through this before, when we're behind the front lines running the battles and being in the thick of the fighting. Don't you sometimes miss just being a part of a small team? That's why we took the time to create Fang Squad, right?”
“OK, that I get. But you have to miss it.”
“Of course. But I'm doing other things that need my attention. It's like all the times that you've taken to practice the cello. Speaking of which, how are you doing with that?”
Nora grimaced. “Well, I'm getting there, though not as fast as I'd like. I feel like I'm not going to be prepared in time for the Philharmonic auditions.”
“Those are almost a year away,” he pointed out. “I know you're extremely particular about how you perform, but isn't that taking it a little too far?”
“Would you settle for second best when you were designing something in a game?” she asked.
“Not if I could help it.”
“And that's the way I feel. I might fail, but I'm not going to settle for second best. If I know I can do better then I'm going to make sure that I can show that, and I'll do every bit of work I need to accomplish that. No excuses.”
Zach was just about to reply when their wrist alerts went off.
“What's up?” he asked as he answered.
“Oh, you're on now?” Karen responded on the other end.
“Yeah, showed up just in time to watch the cleanup phase,” he said. “So what do you need?”
“Well, we've found some stuff sweeping the underground hangars,” she said. “Mostly spare parts and Gales.”
“Are they flyable?” Nora asked.
“That I don't know. You'd have to ask someone trained as a pilot, or an experienced engineer. I don't deal with that stuff. But they're not falling apart.”
“OK, so how many are there?” Zach asked with some interest. If nothing else they could save themselves from having to build more planes, even if they were of an inferior design.
“About a dozen. But there's a hangar that I think we need to have Hephaestus come look at.”
“What's in it?”
“See for yourself,” she said.
Zach's wrist alert went off again, and this time a photo message popped up. He opened it up to take a look, and…
“Oh, wow,” Nora said from beside him, looking at her own wrist menu. “That would be important.”
“We haven't found any schematics, but even without them this is pretty important.”
Zach agreed. The image in front of him was a plane, about the size of an average fighter with straight wings and a single tail. It looked unremarkable, save for one significant difference: the propellor was nowhere to be found. Instead, a nacelle sat under each wing.
There was no mistaking it. This was a jet aircraft. But how useful would it be? That was the real question. They'd find out soon enough.
“I'm going to message this to Anna,” he said.
“Thanks.