Hover by Anne A. Wilson

face. I don’t think I would have believed it unless I’d witnessed it myself, but Emily is speechless.
    â€œCaptain Magruder invited us to stay for dinner,” Eric says, turning to me. “But I need to stop by the maintenance office first. I was hoping you could direct me there.”
    â€œOh, I’ll show you!” Emily pipes up, suddenly finding her voice.
    â€œThanks,” he says. “And Sara, I trust you’ve been told you’re flying tomorrow.”
    â€œI just found out, yeah.”
    â€œCaptain Magruder will go over the details with you when you meet.”
    â€œYou know we’re meeting?”
    â€œI am in charge of the exercise.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œI don’t want to keep you,” he says. “Emily?”
    â€œHere, come on,” she says. “The office is this way.”
    As I watch him walk away, I realize I’m bothered by our interaction. While polite, he was all business. Although, should I really expect his behavior to be any different after the way I dismissed him on the Lake Champlain ?
    But this is good. This is what I want.
    Right?
    *   *   *
    Entering the commanding officer’s quarters, I find Captain Magruder in a huddle with our three aircraft commanders. He motions for me to join them.
    â€œFor the exercise tomorrow,” Captain Magruder says, “Nick, I want you flying with Lieutenant Denning. Lieutenant Henkel, you’ll fly with Lieutenant Zemekis.”
    This is highly irregular. The captain of the ship doesn’t assign flight crews.
    â€œI want to reiterate the importance of executing clean flights with exacting scrutiny on the gauges,” Captain Magruder says. He hands Commander Claggett and Chad briefing cards that detail the headings, altitudes, and speeds required. “Five runs each. No deviation from the altitudes or speeds listed.”
    We all nod, but I wonder why he’s so keen on the details for this flight. Normally, we’d just execute our mission and be done with it.
    â€œAs you heard in the brief, this training exercise has Admiral Carlson’s full attention, mostly due to the fact that every ship in the group has some role in the tracking and simulated destruction of the low-level threats,” Captain Magruder says. “Keep to the timeline and the established holding patterns since we’ll have the Shadow Hunters and Nighthawks in the air, too.”
    The Nighthawks are a squadron of H-60 Seahawk helicopters deployed aboard the Nimitz .
    â€œThe Shadow Hunters will take the lead, acting as airborne command. Their word is final,” he says. “Following the low-level runs, you have a zero seven hundred overhead at Nimitz to pick up a squad from SEAL Team One for a fast rope to simulate hostile boarding. You’ll be given the target name then. The overhead to target is scheduled for zero seven fifteen. You need to be in, out, and gone over the target deck.”
    Captain Magruder looks directly at Commander Claggett. “Nick, that’s going to be your bird, and Lieutenant Denning will be at the controls for that.”
    What…?
    I do a quick scan of the faces of Commander Claggett, Matt, and Chad, and see that I’m not the only one surprised.
    â€œYes, sir,” Commander Claggett says.
    â€œThat’s all I have,” Captain Magruder says.
    Very odd. Exceedingly odd. No, make that unheard of. The captain of the ship dictating who will be at the controls on a flight? Never.
    What the hell is going on?

 
    12
    As we enter the wardroom for dinner, it’s far louder than normal because of our visitors from the Operation Low Level brief. Admiral Carlson is already seated with Captain Magruder and the other commanding officers. I notice that Eric sits with them.
    Captain Magruder motions Em and me over, and he and Admiral Carlson rise.
    â€œSir, this is Lieutenant Sara Denning and Lieutenant Emily Wyatt,”