Chapter Text
ATTN: Lt. Col. Rose Lalonde
DEPT: Test Flight Center, Edwards ASFB Joint Testing Facility
RE: Request
IN ORDER TO PROCESS YOUR REQUEST FOR EARLY RETIREMENT, THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE FILL OUT ATTACHED FORMS AND SUBMIT TO HUMAN RESOURCES FOR REVIEW. YOUR CAREFUL ATTENTION TO DETAIL IS APPRECIATED.
NOTE: DUE TO RECENT CHANGES, PLEASE DISREGARD THE FOLLOWING FIELDS AND SUBSTITUTE FORM 1111A (ATTACHED) INSTEAD: A5.1-A5.2, U1, U2(b)…
You’ve been staring at the thick stack of papers on your desk for a good two hours when Special Civilian Director Pyrope shows up at your office door.
“Colonel! Got an assignment for you,” she exclaims, walking in and launching herself into her favorite chair without waiting to be invited in. Her ever-busy hands fiddle with the decorative head of her cane. Not for the first time, you wonder if she took the job simply because the service had a dragon for a mascot.
“You’re a bit late for that,” you say, ignoring her provocation. “You do know I’m retiring, right? I should hope so; your name is on half of these forms.”
“Forms which have been sitting untouched on your desk for hours now! You and I both know you could use the distraction. Well, I found you a distraction. A big one.”
“Now, how could you possibly know the state of my desk? For all you know I’ve been filling out paperwork all day.”
Terezi shrugs. “I can smell it.”
“I still can’t tell if you’re joking or serious when you say things like that.”
“Good. I prefer it that way. Keeps people on their toes,” she says, grinning at you. It’s a big toothy grin, the sort she usually saves for when she wants to intimidate those who don’t know her very well.
Fortunately, you do know her very well.
“So, do you want the assignment?” Terezi asks.
You sigh. “Fine, I’ll take a look.”
“Don’t act like I’m not doing you a favor,” she says, ever so sweetly, as she hands you a dossier.
You flip through it. Your eyes get wider with every page turn.
“I…wouldn’t call this a favor exactly. More like a fucking mess,” you say.
“Call it a favor for me, then,” Terezi says. Her tone is inscrutable.
You look up at her from your reading. “Are you serious?”
“I wouldn’t be bringing it to your attention if it didn’t need done.”
“Yes, but this…”
“…is right up your alley,” she says, before you can finish. “I want you to hire her. Talk her out of this self-destructive path she’s gotten herself into.”
You frown at the dossier, and then drop it on your desk, loudly, for show. “Not mine to save. She’s hopeless. Let her wash out or get court-martialed. I don’t care which.”
“Well, I do,” Terezi says, scowling at you.
“Why? What is she to you? From where I’m sitting, she’s a liability. We’ve got enough risks in this business as it is; we don’t need any more. If she keeps flying missions, she’s endangering others. The officers quoted here are right: she should be grounded, not recruited.”
“She wouldn’t be the only liability I’ve recruited over the years,” Terezi says quietly, and her words stop you cold. “Besides, we need her. When she is good, she is very, very good. She’s one of the best pilots of her graduating class.”
“That alone doesn’t justify it. Not with her record.”
“No, but I’ve got something that does. Remember the X–612?”
“The project from hell,” you mutter.
“Yes, well, it must have snowed in hell, because we’re finally getting the prototype next month, and we need someone who’s got what it takes to test it.”
“And that’s her?”
“Look at her response times. The technology they’ve incorporated into that ship is so new that they don’t even know how to automate it safely yet. It’s more manually controlled than anything else we have in the field right now, and it needs split-second accuracy. Finesse. If we’re going to test it, we need someone who’s damned near prescient.”
You look down at the dossier again. “And that someone is Lieutenant Vriska Serket.”
“In my opinion, yes.”
“God help us all.”
“I’m not asking God. I’m asking you.”
“You might have better luck with the chaplain.”
“Father Makara and I haven’t been on speaking terms since the red chalk incident,” Terezi says, a wistful look on her face. She snaps back to you. “So? Are you up for it or not?”
You sigh and rub your forehead. “When do I meet her?”
“Next week. After she gets back from temporary suspension.”
“Oh, I can tell this is going to be fun already.”