Nate rushed to Gottlieb’s side. “Yo, Gottlieb. You okay?” he asked.
“Oh, yes, sorry,” said Gottlieb. He grinned and waved his burnt lab notes at Nate. “Almost had it.” Then Gottlieb turned and headed out of the bay.
His head sunk down to review his notes.
“He’s weird,” said Amara.
“You have no idea,” said Jules. “Welcome to the Moyulan Shatterdome, Cadet. Ranger.” Then she drove off. Jake couldn’t help but smile as he watched her go.
“Eyes front, Pentecost,” said Nate.
“What record was she talking about?” asked Amara.
Jake tried to ignore the question but Amara didn’t give up. “Come on, we were in jail together!” she urged.
“Part of the final exam, back when I was a cadet. You had to hold a drift in one of the old Mark IIIs for over twenty minutes.”
“How long’d you last?”
“Little over four hours,” said Jake.
Amara gaped. “Who was your copilot?”
Jake instinctively glanced at Nate, but Nate looked back at Amara. “Keep up, Cadet! Time to meet the rest of the family.”
Amara walked into the cadet barracks. The room was full of teens like her—boys and girls from different places who had also ended up in this intense training program. The room was loud, rowdy, and full of life. Amara had the strange feeling, deep down inside of her, that she had finally made it home.
Two of the girls worked a holographic Jaeger arm with practice drift helmet rigs. The one named Meilin shouted, “You’re outta sync,” to the other girl, Vik, who muttered in Russian. “Ugh, this piece of junk—the helmet’s acting up!” Vik threw off the helmet and shot Amara a dirty look.
Then two other cadets rushed past Amara, practicing martial arts. “Come on, not the face, Renata!” said Suresh. “Sorry, my bad,” said Renata, who then smacked him in the chops again. Amara couldn’t help but admire her lightning-fast combat skills. She would have to ask her for some pointers later! There was also a boy, named Jinhai, doing sit-ups off the edge of his upper bunk, while another kid named Ryoichi sat on his legs to help him keep balance. Two cadets named Ilya and Tahima played cards on the bunk beneath. The door behind Amara crashed open.
Nate entered with Jake. “Ranger on deck!” screamed Ryoichi. Jinhai backflipped off the top bunk and all the cadets scrambled into line formation.
“Cadets, this is Amara Namani,” said Nate. “She’ll be joining you in sim training, bright and early!” All the cadets in the bunk stared at Amara.
“And this is Ranger Pentecost.”
A murmur spread through the room. The familiar sound of people recognizing his last name. Jake gritted his teeth. “He’ll be helping me instruct you until I find a new copilot to replace Ranger Burke,” said Nate. “Anything you want to add?” he asked Jake.
“Not really,” Jake said. Nate glowered. If Jake wasn’t going to at least pretend to help, then there was no point in him being here. He looked back at the cadets in the room. “Malikova, get Namani squared away and prepped for training.”
“Yes, sir,” said Vik.
“As you were,” commanded Nate. He and Jake exited the room. Jake frowned at the cadets as he left. This was the last place in the world he thought he’d end up.
The room erupted as soon as the rangers were out of view. “Pentecost! We’re gonna be trained by a Pentecost,” exclaimed Ryoichi.
“So? It’s not like he was the one who died helping close the Breach,” said Vik. She looked back at the helmet in her hand and started taking it apart to troubleshoot it. Amara walked toward her. “Uh, hey, so where do I—”
Vik didn’t look up. She just kept working on the helmet. “Heard you built your own little Jaeger,” Vik said.
“Yeah, Scrapper. I operated her too with this solo rig that I—”
“You want to put junk together, be a mechanic. Moyulan is for pilots.” Then she moved away. Amara felt like maybe her impulse about this place was wrong. Maybe it was just one more place she didn’t belong. But then Jinhai approached her, a smile on his face. “Come on, I got you,” he said. He took her duffel bag and led her through the barracks.
“Jinhai. Ou-Yang Jinhai,” he said, giving Amara his full name.
“Ou-Yang? Like the pilots from the war, Ming-hau and Suyin?” Amara asked.
“I just call them mom and dad,” he said. “So you and Vik already buddies, huh?”
“What’s her problem?” asked Amara.
“Took her three shots to pass the entrance test,” Renata chimed in.
“Don’t think she likes how you landed here,” said Jinhai.
“Not my fault,” said Amara. “Recruiters never come around back home.” Amara thought about the war-torn streets of Santa Monica with its junkyards and hungry people.
“Heard you were from the coast,” said Jinhai. “Why didn’t your folks move inland, like everyone else? They poor or something?”
“They didn’t make it. When Santa Monica got hit.”
Jinhai looked at Amara. He saw the pain behind her eyes. For someone so young, he could tell that she had experienced a lot of pain and loss. Not so different from any of the other cadets in the room.
“Vik lost hers, too, in the Tomari attack. Hey, know any Russian?” he asked.
Amara shook her head no.
“I’ll teach you some. Calms her down. Let’s stow your gear and get you a uniform.” Amara followed him. She was grateful to have found a friend.
Jake stood in his room. He looked up at the ranger uniform that hung on the outside of his closet. It looked sharp, important, full of promise. He felt the material between his fingertips and thought about his past. He had spent so many years trying to put distance between himself and this world. Now he was back here, with Nate, because of Mako. Inside himself, he felt anger, regret, sorrow, and hope. He wondered where the uniform would lead him this time, and if he even deserved to wear it.
It was time to put their skills to the test. Amara and
