Chapter 21: Encounters

04 August 2018 – The United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Sabrina’s two-deg year began with the event known as the Shuffle. USAFA reassigns incoming juniors to new cadet squadrons before the beginning of their third academic year to help prevent squadrons from stagnating. They reassigned Linda to Cadet Squadron Eighteen, the Nightriders, while Sabrina went to CS Thirty-Three, King Ratz, across the T-zo in Sijan Hall.

She met her new roommate when the Gallardos helped Sabrina move into her new room. Her fellow two-deg, Dina Metzger, looked less than thrilled to be rooming with a mutineer – THE mutineer – but said nothing about it. Dina did ask if they needed any help with Sabrina’s things, but like most cadets at the Academy, Sabrina had little to bring in.

“Where are you from?” Sabrina asked Dina once the Gallardos left.

“The Bronx,” the other woman answered in a disinterested tone.

Sabrina stood there with her hands on her hips for a moment, frowning. She turned to pull something from her duffle and then turned back to face her new roommate. Dina laughed out loud upon seeing Sabrina wearing a Red Sox hat.

“Well, won’t this be an interesting year?”

The mood of the room had changed in an instant. Sabrina pulled the hat off with a smile and tossed it into her closet.

“As long as you mind your place, yeah, we’ll be fine...”

“Shots fired! Shots fired!” Dina answered with renewed laughter. “When our teams meet in the playoffs – because you know they always do – I’ll do your laundry that week if the Sox manage to win. You doing my laundry that week because my Bombers won is more likely, of course.”

Sabrina blew a raspberry at her roommate.

“All right, Roomie, I have to ask ... Last year...?”

“Um, sucked?” Sabrina replied as she flopped onto her bunk. “There’s no other way to describe it. I was stuck between what I felt – and what I still feel – was the right thing to do, and the ingrained culture here. Oh, there was a tiny part of me that screamed, ’Just walk away!’ but I couldn’t do it.”

“I don’t know how you did any of it, Sabrina. I know how I reacted when you introduced yourself earlier, and I’m sorry. The thought of bucking the system as hard as you did still scares me a little. You, my dear, you have chutzpah for days!”

“Well, at least you don’t consider me a meshuggeneh any longer!”

“You do root for the Red Sox, so that remains to be seen.”

Four pairs of eyes blinked owlishly back at Sabrina after her pronouncement the following weekend.

“You want to offer us what?” Helen Gallardo gasped.

“I’m not going home for Thanksgiving this year because my folks are traveling that weekend. You’re not hosting anyone or visiting family, so I thought maybe we could all go to Breckenridge. I figure if we leave the day before Thanksgiving, after my last military duty on the twenty-first, we can spend the following three days tearing up the slopes. I rented a house out there, too.”

“Breckenridge?” Joe croaked. “As the saying goes, we can’t even afford to drive through Breckenridge, Sabrina!”

“It’s no big deal, Joe. I’ve got some money saved up, and I want to try and make up for being gone all last year.”

“Sabrina, you don’t owe us anything.”

Mia and Felicity tried not to be obvious in signaling their parents to accept the offer.

“Helen, despite whatever happened with that other cadet, you opened your home to me two years ago and made me feel welcome here. You’ve given me somewhere safe and relaxing to go when I’m out here, and you’ve helped keep the homesickness at bay.” Sabrina still saw the disbelief in her second family’s eyes. “Look, who makes the generator you’ve got out back?”

“Neptune’s Forge, why?” Joe replied.

Power outages weren’t uncommon out here at the edge of town when the house was built. Just about every home in the subdivision had some model from the Neptune’s Forge HF line, even though power was much more reliable now.

“Because I’m a trust-fund kid, Joe. My parents own a chunk of Neptune’s Forge, a rather sizable chunk, along with a big part of Poseidon Power Systems.”

The owl-like stares returned.

“Look, my folks earmarked some money for college for all of us kids. I don’t need mine because I’m at the Academy. They told me I’m free to use it as I see fit, and I’d like to do this for you to say thank you.”

Sabrina had done extensive research before deciding to make her next purchase. An email her father forwarded from Doctor Sacha told her she was right, too. She chose the make, model, color, options, and add-ons for later. Then, all that remained was to go to the dealership.

She walked into the chosen dealership with Helen by her side. Both expected the runaround, a condescending salesman, and being asked if their husbands’ names should be on the title. What they got was a pleasant surprise.

“Good morning.” A man slightly older than Helen greeted them just inside the showroom when they walked in. “How may I help you ladies today?”

“I’d like to see a Crusher with four-wheel drive and an extended cab in smoke gray, please,” Sabrina told the salesman, who focused his attention on her. “I would prefer one that has the Poseidon Power Systems KMV-222 generator.”

“Regenerative braking, rapid charge, larger water tank? Do any of those options interest you, or is there a specific option package you’re looking for?”

“Your off-road package comes close, but can I do à la carte to add options?”

“You can, yes, with the caveat that some choices might necessitate changes elsewhere. I should also mention that the -222 can be underpowered at times, in all honesty. I would recommend you spend a little more to get the PPS KMV-295 for the size pickup you mentioned, especially if you plan to use the four-wheel-drive at all.”

Sabrina smiled and held out her hand, impressed by the man’s honesty.

“Sabrina Knox.”

“Jack Spruance.” He glanced at Helen. “Your mother? A friend?”

“Sponsor. Helen Gallardo.”

Jack shook hands with Helen.

“Two-deg? Firstie?” he asked Sabrina.

“Two-deg. Do you get a lot of cadets through here?”

Jack shrugged.

“No more or less than the other dealers in town, but my nephew’s thinking about USAFA, so I’ve tried to educate myself about the Academy.”

“What do you think, Mr. Spruance? What’s the lead time on a vehicle if I ask for options that none of your vehicles here have?”

“Not too long, if we can get the right vehicle from another dealer, especially a dealer not too far away. A little bit long if we have to special order it. First, let’s see if you find the Crusher comfortable and like how it drives. If you ladies would follow me over here...?”

“That was incredibly painless,” Helen commented three hours later. Sabrina test-drove a pickup, signed the papers, and registered the truck with the Colorado DMV in those three hours. “We should tell Joe to come here when it’s time to replace his SUV.”

“We should go hang out at a restaurant for another three hours so we can tell Joe how much of a bear the whole process was,” Sabrina giggled. She held up her hands in surrender when she saw Helen’s look. “Okay, we’ll head back to the house and tell him the truth, Mrs. Stick-in-the-mud...”

“Come on, troublemaker. Let’s go let the rest of the family ooh and ah over your new truck.”

Sabrina pulled the glider through a tight loop, drawing a delighted squeal from the four-deg in the front seat. Sabrina smiled, remembering similar squeals during her F-15 rides over the summer. After another twenty minutes in the air, Sabrina brought the graceful craft in for a gentle landing. A beaming Cadet Fourth-Class Emma Pozo unbuckled and climbed out of the aircraft once it was secure.

“Pretty awesome, huh?”

“It was like aerial ballet, Ma’am!”

“It was, wasn’t it?” Sabrina replied with a smile. “Gliders are much different than the Cessna or Cirrus aircraft the Academy uses for powered flight training. I trained on those same types of planes before I came here, but gliders are just so graceful.”

“Were you a pilot before you started here, Ma’am?”

“I was. I have my private pilot’s license as well as multiengine, complex aircraft, and instrument ratings.”

“Wow,” the younger woman sighed. “I wish I could have taken lessons, especially after our flight, but my family didn’t have money to spare. I’m not planning to be a pilot in the Air Force, either.”