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Peacetime in a crazy world full of gods and monsters brought it’s own challenges for Jason Grace. Namely, the question of what he was going to do with the rest of his life now it was looking like he was actually going to make it to adulthood. Most of his friends were going to University in New Rome at the start of the semester and for lack of any plan that suited him better - or any idea of what he actually wanted to do, Jason had been planning on joining them.
Looking through the prospectus for New Rome University though... There was nothing there that seemed even remotely interesting. What career options were there for a demigod son of Jupiter? Sitting on the grassy hill overlooking New Rome with his girlfriend Piper, Jason turned his gaze to the sky as if his father could give him the answer.
‘If you’re that unenthusiastic about going to Uni, why don’t you do something else?’ Piper suggested, her head resting on his thigh as she played with the beads on her necklace from Camp Half-Blood.
Jason looked down at her. ‘Like what?’
Piper dropped the beads and looked at him, considering. ‘I don’t know, that’s up to you. Hey! Why don’t you talk to Percy? His brother was a pilot before he became an astronaut. Why don’t you ask him about flying?’
Jason frowned. ‘I can already fly.’
Piper laughed. ‘I know that, but if you’re looking for something to do with your life, there are worse things.’
The application process to get into the Garrison was a nightmare. Some of it Jason had to downright forge, since he couldn’t exactly put “Son of the Sky God” in place of a high school physics grade. Still, the idea had taken root in Jason’s head. It was something he had never considered before, but once he had thought about it, there was something thrilling about having a job where he spent most of his time in the air. The sky was his home. At Reyna’s suggestion, Jason enrolled in some summer classes at NRU to catch up on what he had missed by not really going to high school. Annabeth helped him with his assignments and he even had a conversation with Percy’s brother Keith on some of the more confusing aspects of the application since Keith had already gone through the harrowing process before his older brother Shiro had been declared dead by the space program coordinator after they lost contact with the mission to Pluto.
Leo, having finally returned from his adventures with the god Apollo and his immortal girlfriend, would sit under the shade of his workshop door and listen to Jason rant about the frustration that was gravitational force or, since the Garrison was under contract with the military had a minimum fitness requirement, the dreaded beep-test. Jason was fighting fit, but no amount of fitness could make that cruel torture “easy”.
Then, came the call from Percy: you have a letter from the Garrison.
Since Jason didn’t exactly have an address for mortals to mail to, Percy had volunteered his New York address, since he could then send on any paperwork to New Rome. Jason spent the next day pacing as he listened to Piper talk about what latest craziness was happening at Camp Half-Blood now that kids had started arriving for the summer. By the evening, Jason was so nervous he could barely eat any dinner.
Then, waiting for him on his bed that night, a large brown envelope sat.
Filled with dread, Jason waited until Leo and Frank had arrived as backup before opening it.
He read the words, then read them again.
Finally, he let out a sigh. ‘I got in.’
The Garrison barracks were pleasantly familiar to Jason when he walked into his new accommodations for the school year. Really, it wasn’t all that different to Camp Jupiter. Jason thrived on the routine of it, and found comfort in the familiar chain-of-command hierarchy. The academic classes were difficult, but surprisingly manageable and the practical classes were actually enjoyable. He had made it into fighter class with his roommate Keith Jackson (Jason was convinced that Sally Jackson had talked to whoever was in charge of placements to get that to happen) and although Keith spent most of the time sullen and withdrawn, it was comforting having a somewhat familiar face around. It took him a few weeks, but he eventually found a way to iris message his friends back in New York and San Francisco without attracting too much attention or breaking too many Garrison rules.
Keith wasn’t always the best roommate, sometimes disappearing after curfew or waking Jason up in the tiny hours sneaking back into their dorm. Like Jason, he was scrupulously tidy, but his mood swings had caused Jason to return to a mess at least once. Jason understood, though. He knew the Jacksons and he knew what Shiro had meant to Keith.
Then, Keith crashed the simulator.
It was inevitable, really. Jason had already been through the simulation, a space rescue scenario, set on one of Jupiter’s moons. It hadn’t been easy for Jason, but it hadn’t been too difficult either. Then again, flying a spacecraft was a cakewalk in comparison to riding a wind spirit horse made entirely of water vapour and magic.
For Keith, though... Jason had watched him via the monitors that displayed what was going on inside the simulation with the solid weight of dread settled in his gut.
‘Approaching Europa. Last known coordinates of the missing crew indicate they will likely be just over the horizon.’ Keith’s white knuckle grip on the yoke didn’t let up. His eyes couldn’t seem to focus.
Keith’s engineer spotted something on the sensors. ‘Keith! Geyser!’
Keith spun the craft to avoid being relaunched into space by a plume of ice and gas. ‘Got it!’
‘That was close,’ the engineer to Jason’s right, a big guy with a nervous disposition, muttered under his breath.
‘He’ll be fine,’ Jason replied, hoping it was true.
‘ They’re not here,’ Keith said, the comms or something else distorting his voice, roughening it.
‘ Boards reporting no signs of life,’ said the navigator.
‘ They’re not here,’ Keith repeated.
‘Widen the search parameters,’ the engineer suggested. ‘ If they’re out there, we’ll find them.’
Keith’s gaze moved further away than Europa. ‘ Why aren’t they here? ’
‘ Keith! Snap out of it,’ the navigator hissed, quietly enough she was probably hoping the comms wouldn’t pick up on it.
‘ Guys,’ the engineer snapped. ‘We have incoming in five!’
The navigator looked up. ‘From where?’
The engineer shrugged helplessly. ‘ I don’t know! Something is interfering with the sensors!’
The simulation shook. ‘ Evasive maneuvers!’ the navigator cried, but Keith didn’t move. Sensors screamed and the simulation shook and then the monitors dissolved into static.
When the sim’s doors opened, the engineer and the navigator stepped out, shaken, but otherwise completely fine. Keith wasn’t with them.
‘Jackson, get out of there!’ the commanding officer barked. ‘Jackson!’
Jason tamped down on the desire to smite him and pushed through the watching crowd onto the simulator.
‘Grace!’ the commander called after him.
‘Keith!’ Jason called, finding him still sitting in the pilot’s chair with a death-grip on the controls. 'Hey...’ he crouched down beside Keith and considered the potential dangers of trying to pry his fingers from the console. ‘Come on, lets get you out of here.’
Keith blinked and flinched so violently away from Jason that he landed on the floor. ‘Don’t touch me!’ His voice was raw and he blinked rapidly, as if he wasn’t quite aware of where he was. He burst through the door straight into his crewmates.
‘Jackson! Explain yourself!’ the CO snapped. Jason emerged from the simulation cockpit to see Keith standing there in the middle of the room with the CO laying into him. ‘... Could have gotten yourself and your crewmates killed! You can’t afford to freeze like that out in the field! Get your head on right soldier!’
‘Get away from me!’ Keith stepped back from the man. Jason caught his eyes scanning the room, probably for an exit.
‘Insubordination!’ the CO roared. Keith flinched and clenched his fists, anger taking over from the panic of a moment previously. ‘I will have you written up for this, Jackson!’ The CO poked a finger at Keith’s chest, obviously intending to continue his tirade, but Keith grabbed his hand before he could make contact and wrenched it away in a move Jason was pretty sure Percy had taught him, supplementing the move with a punch to the gut that bent the Commanding Officer in half. Whispers and gasps spread through the gathered crowd of cadets.
Keith stood, frozen, for a second as the CO spat furiously. Then, he turned and bolted for the door.
The news had spread throughout the entire Garrison by the next morning: Keith Jackson, one of the top pilots in the fighter class, had been expelled.
The bed on the other side of Jason’s room was stripped and Keith’s few belongings packed up. Within the space of a few hours it was like Keith had just ceased to exist. That evening, after curfew, someone knocked on Jason’s door. Sally Jackson, Paul Blofis and Commander Iverson walked in.
‘Grace, we have some questions about your former roommate,’ Iverson, gruff as ever, didn’t wait for Jason to open his mouth.
‘Is Keith okay?’ he asked, sitting up and discarding the workbook he had been attempting to scan through.
Sally shook her head. ‘We... don’t know where he is.’
‘Oh, Sally, I’m sorry.’
Sally nodded, Paul wrapped an arm around her shoulders. ‘He left us a note,’ he said. ‘Keith claims he is fine, but he’s refusing to come home.’
‘Did he ever mention a place he might go to hide out?’ Iverson asked.
Jason shook his head. ‘No, sir. When we talked, it was mostly about our mutual friends back in New York.’
‘Would any of them shelter him?’ Iverson pressed.
‘No, sir. If Keith approached them, they would all know to contact Sally or Percy.’
‘We are concerned that Mr Jackson may be a danger to himself,’ Iverson frowned. ‘If you hear anything from him, you are under orders to tell me.’
Jason nodded gravely. ‘Yes sir.’
‘Dismissed.’ Iverson walked out without another word.
‘Sally...’ Jason searched for something to say. ‘Keith is more than capable of looking after himself.’
Sally tried for a smile. ‘I know... But thank you for looking after him while he was here anyway.’
‘Anytime,’ Jason replied.
Sally enveloped him in a tight hug and left, Paul trailing behind.