48-Valkyrie’s View: A Year Among the Stars

February 17th, 2552 Stir Crazy
Shuttle pilot/Lab Rat/mechanic’s apprentice – Katherine ‘Kat’ James Reporting

It seems that the attitude of the flight deck is following the science department’s lead – the only pilots who need to work on landing and dusting off from different surfaces are the pilots selected for the exploration missions, so all other pilots are on standby.

I understand they want Dancer, Jo-Jo, and Skip to have as much experience as possible but I joined this mission to keep from having my wings clipped. Keeping a pilot from flying is another word for slow death. You can put them on other assignments, but in the back of their mind – there’s this thing that keeps telling them – “I should be flying.”

I feel sorry for some of the pilots— that’s all they know. I still have all my other jobs to do. I mean, I still hate not flying, but at least I don’t have time to sit and dwell on it.

The other pilots – they can exercise and play with the simulator but— it’s not the same.

At least I can work on the Gumbo – but now there’s a line of pilots hoping to test fly repaired craft.

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