“All right, everyone ready?” Wakumi asked, in full flight instructor mode.

Slow affirmatives came in from her crew.

“Yes,” Taylor answered, with a soft smile.

There were so many things to do once she came out of her daze after her heart to heart with Midway. But for once, Taylor didn’t feel like any of them were urgent. There were questions and problems all around her, but she just didn’t feel like dealing with them right now. So she’d taken a look at her self-assigned responsibilities and training. Gone down the list until she found one that felt like she wanted to do it.

“Now, slowly reduce your power to idle and gently lift the nose. You’re looking for that moment when the plane starts to falter and shudder.”

Taylor had the manuals. But reading dry instructions and having a teacher just wasn’t the same. And she could do that now. Just order Wakumi to teach her.

“Ask. I asked, but it might as well have been an order from God as far as Wakumi is concerned.”

Nope, Taylor wasn’t thinking about that. About the Flag, or mastering, or any of it. Wakumi was happy to be useful. Reassured that she was still a Carrier, not just an attendant. That had to be enough for now.

“Later. Don’t ruin this for yourself.”

“Now. Full rudder. You want this nice and clean. It’s much easier to get out of a controlled spin than a natural one.”

Taylor watched her pilot comply. She’d grown used to watching the world through her bugs over the years. Bug eyes had nothing on her planes. Nor did flying insects approach the thrill of actual flight. Her pilot went down, their view spinning like crazy. So much that Taylor was swaying as she ran and had to stop sewing for a moment to recover.

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“Now, as we trained. Idle power. Ailerons to neutral. Flaps up. Full opposite rudder and dive.” The instructions went, again. They’d gone through them at least ten times in the last hour.

Taylor could feel the rush of the pilot as they followed along, Wakumi’s plane keeping pace beside them. Slowly, the world stopped spinning. Gently pulling up, her plane stabilized. That took a lot more attitude than she’d expected. Like a plane flying and one falling were entirely different modes of movement. It fell so fast.

“Which, I guess they are. I can see why people would panic.”

Yeah. There were a lot of problems and Taylor still had so much to learn. Quickly too, because she needed to know enough about the world, the war. About shipsgirls and fighting and politics and Court and Abyssals and people and The True Abyss and Rituals and on and on. All of it a list that just wouldn’t end.

All that, in time to provide input, to decide on a refit that sounded more like undergoing major reconstructive surgery. Or multiple organ transplants, or something. Something important, a life changing procedure.

And four. Just, four.

But she’d get to it in time. Step by step. None of it was urgent. None had to be done right now.

Right now, on the way to some hopefully beautiful Hawaiian beaches?

Taylor wanted to fly.