#remember when i said olivia mariner is an unreliable narrator

[vera-keller]

switchblade | masters of the air | taster pt. 2 a/n: did anyone ask for this? no lmao prepare to receive my [redacted] [redacted] anyway (lore accurate mariner quote)

It is at Thorpe Abbotts that Mariner decides coming here is functionally a grounding. Try as she reluctantly might, she simply cannot imagine herself flying a B-17. The controls are all wrong, or at least she thinks they should be. Her hand will automatically reach for the throttle that is supposed to be on her left and instead it will grasp at nothing, empty space. And when she tries to locate and operate the weapons control systems she will be immediately humbled by the reminder that she is no longer responsible for controlling the guns in this aircraft.

No, there are other people in the aircraft for that. Nine other people, in fact. Nine other people to navigate and operate the radio and fire the top turret and ball turret and so on and so forth. Her job is simply to keep the aircraft flying, the most rudimentary definition of what a pilot is.

She supposes Tillotson wasn’t spewing complete bullshit when he said that she had a particular skill set that could – the keyword being could – make her a valuable bomber pilot. And that was that she knows the vulnerabilities inherent within every bomber. If she knows these vulnerabilities, if she knows what enemy aircraft will be aiming for when they inevitably fly into an onslaught of them, then she knows how to circumvent them.

Like that’s going to happen, another voice in her head says. You can’t even do evasive manoeuvres in this toaster.

Frustrated, Mariner slams her fist down on the metal beam that she is sitting on. An officer walking in her direction flinches at the sound.

“Lieutenant Mariner?” he asks.

Mariner looks up at the insignia on his shoulders: a gold oak leaf, horizontal, stem pointing his collar. The insignia of a major. Rank has been pulled, albeit indirectly. She jumps down from the beam and salutes him.

“Sir,” she says. “Sorry for startling you.”

The major smiles politely in answer, a lopsided though somewhat guarded smile that seems to suggest tolerance. He’s young for an officer of his rank. In fact, he cannot possibly be more than a few years older than Mariner, yet he has obviously been entrusted by his superiors with a rank normally held by men who have a greater advantage of age on him. Mariner wonders what that must have taken. What buzzwords are on his resume? Strategic vision? Tactical acumen? Effective communication? Team player? Maybe, like her, he has a father who makes a habit out of overextending his influence. After all, nepotism has been here long before she was born and will continue to remain here long after she is dead. It is the beginning and the end, the first enemy and the last, et cetera.

But this officer doesn't seem to be one of those. He doesn't, for starters, wear his insignia as though it is an accessory that he knows looks better on everyone else.

“Don’t worry,” he says. “I’m not that easily startled. But it did take me a while to find you. You were supposed to report directly to me, but I had to ask around until Lemmons helpfully told me he saw someone who might have looked a little like you head straight into the hangar.”

“Just trying to get an up close and personal look at the tin can I’ll be flying, sir.”

The major nods, as though he can understand the sentiment of a pilot wanting to evaluate a new plane to which they have been assigned, though Mariner doubts he’d understand exactly how much she despises the idea of getting into one of these things that reminds her of a bee in that neither, according to all known laws of aviation, should be able to fly. But the major doesn’t seem to be reading into it at all. Instead, he looks up at a nearby B-17, and Mariner instinctively follows his gaze. The same aircraft she has spent the past ten minutes disparaging in every measurable way, shape and form in her head, and imagining herself shooting down in aerial combat, which would have been an amusing pastime were she not going to be piloting one of these planes herself. Yet he’s looking at it as though it’s an old friend.

“That’s no tin can, Mariner. That’s a B-17. She’s not as sleek or nimble as a fighter, but she’s sturdy, reliable and strong, and she can take a beating like no other. I couldn’t ask for a better plane to fly in. You just transferred from the 157th?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’ve seen your records. You’re a solid Mustang pilot. You might find it harder to get used to the B-17 than I did, but she’ll grow on you. I’m Major Gale Cleven.”

“Olivia Mariner.”

Belatedly Mariner remembers that Cleven absolutely knows who she is already. Even through the embarrassment, however, she can appreciate the fact that if he is aware of the real reason for her reassignment, he’s consciously choosing not to mention it. She looks back up at the B-17 and tries to see it the way she imagines Cleven must, a literal flying fortress, but all she can think is that it is an ugly aircraft that is much too large to the point where its largeness looks like a mistake.

“You said she can take a beating, sir?” she asks, knocking on the aluminium.

“She certainly can. She’s earned her reputation for toughness, that’s for sure.” He reaches out, swipes his hand along the nose of the aircraft, as though wiping away dust that has collected there in a familiar gesture. “She’s designed to withstand heavy enemy fire and still deliver her payload while bringing her crew home safely.”

Mariner nods sceptically, her eyes narrowing slightly as she studies the bomber. “Okay, so she can tank enemy fire. But can she evade it altogether? That’s what’s going to make all the difference when it comes to bringing the crew back.”

Cleven offers a knowing smile at Mariner’s bluntness, as though he has long figured out that she would ask that question sooner or later, and it is clear she has opted for sooner. “She’s no Mustang, Mariner, but she’s no slouch either. If you want to manoeuvre the B-17, you have to go easy on the yoke. Besides, when you’re in a formation flying together, you have the strength of numbers. Each pilot requires both practice and discipline to maintain formation, and when you’re out there in the air, everyone watches each other’s back. That’s how we fly our missions and that’s how we come back in one piece. All of us, together.”

And there it is. The inevitable cattle prod in her side. This conversation is getting a little pointed for Mariner’s liking now, considering the reason she was bumped out of her former squadron was supposedly because of her inability to adhere to a formation. She wonders if Cleven knows this already, whether Tillotson has included some kind of addendum on her report about her apparent Achilles’ heel as a fighter pilot. Excellent, Tillotson, she thinks irately to herself. You can’t get me to stay in a formation, so you put me in an aircraft where I’ll literally die if I don’t. Very well played. Have you been taking lessons from my father? Maybe the two of you should sit down together for a drink sometime and discuss all the many methods you might choose to employ for colossally fucking up my life. Dickheads. But she does not say any of this. Instead she asks, in a perfectly calm and even tone of voice that a perfectly calm and even individual might use, “Who will I be flying with?”

“We’re putting together a crew for you,” Cleven tells her. “Rest assured. You won’t be integrating into the unit alone.”

Then he pauses for a brief moment, glancing up at the B-17. “As a pilot, you’ll learn to appreciate her strengths,” he says. “She’s resilient and a force to be reckoned with. And in the end, it’s not about the plane you fly, but how you fly it. Wouldn’t you agree, Lieutenant Mariner?”

Mariner considers this. Her gaze drifts from Cleven to the B-17 obfuscating her peripheral vision that is almost certainly going to be the death of her within the next six months, but she actually thinks about Cleven’s words. Superior officers tend to attempt to get through to her in one of two ways: either through the carrot or the stick. Neither works on her: she sees through the carrot immediately – thereby also identifying a superior officer that is more interested in placating his men than leading them – and any and all stick wielders are classified as delusional self-important men throwing tiny-fisted tantrums and asserting themselves through the little power they are afforded by the chain of command, thereby immediately and permanently losing her respect. Tillotson falls in the third category of simply being annoying. Yet Cleven doesn’t seem to fall in any prescribed category. This could simply mean he’s better than others at concealment. But it could also mean he doesn’t see her as something to be managed. 

“You’re right, sir,” she says, pale blue eyes appraising the aircraft with a measuring gleam. “I think I know exactly how I’m going to fly this.”

Cleven actually cracks a smile. “That’s the spirit, but maybe you should take her out for a test flight before you get too sure of yourself. I’ve booked you in for three hours this afternoon. Come by the hangar at 1500. We’ll see if you can get her into the air.”

Mariner nods, a single dip of the chin downward. “Trust me, I can do much more than get her into the air.”

“Good,” Cleven says. “Because that’s what the Krauts are gonna be expecting. Why don’t you go get yourself set up? Irvine will show you your room and get all the admin sorted out. Report to the hangar at 1500 sharp. And Mariner?”

“Sir?”

“Try not to beat up the metal beams too much while you’re in here. The acoustics in the hangar aren’t exactly forgiving in terms of the echo. A lesser man might have pissed himself.”

The corners of Mariner’s lips lift into an almost imperceptible smile. She’s not going to tempt Cleven to thinking she’s actually warming up to him, of course, even though she appreciates that he seems to be allowing her the courtesy of a clean slate, something that should be frustrating her instead because she hasn’t done anything that has warranted the necessity of a clean slate in the first place. Being reassigned to the 100th is miserable enough without a superior officer like Tillotson trying to turn every patrol briefing into a veritable circlejerk. But Cleven isn’t Tillotson, and Mariner’s almost imperceptible smile seems to be enough for him already, because he takes the hint and smiles back – politely but not clinically – and walks away as though this interaction has been the most natural thing in the world for him.

Huh. Perhaps she now has, for the first time in her three-year career, a superior officer she can actually get along with.

Left to her own devices, Mariner looks resentfully up at the B-17s, their cumbersome-looking metallic bodies glinting with rays of sunlight that come in from the open sides of the hangar and reflect off the painted aluminium. They look back down at her, unblinking.

Whoever was responsible for designing the shape of their noses should be shot, Mariner thinks. The entire structure is an area of stress concentration. Any impact applied to it would lead to mass structural failure across the entire aircraft, not to mention that it would instantly kill the bombardier. Why is the bombardier stationed in the nose section anyway? She reaches out a hand, runs it along the nose as Cleven had done earlier, and feels no additional affection for the aircraft as she absently imagined she might have done. 

It’s the pilot. Not the plane. Mariner repeats this to herself like a mantra, as though the act of repetition might somehow will the statement into becoming reality. A part of her finds it to be a frustrating restriction: if she fails to master the controls of a B-17 then it would be entirely on her, a reflection of the limitations in her abilities as a pilot. It would give Cleven ammunition to use against her if he so wishes, and she doesn’t like the idea of giving anyone any kind of ammunition to use against her.

But another part of her challenges this assumption. It’s all in your hands, she thinks. Exactly how you want it. You alone control this aircraft. Just you. You decide whether it rolls or turns, whether it pulls up or dives, how to operate it to best meet situational needs. You decide whether its purpose is to simply tank enemy fire or if you can turn it into what you want it to be.

She might as well train herself to start thinking this way; she doesn’t have much of a choice otherwise. Fortunately for her, she’s already figured out an alarming plethora of ways she could shoot a B-17 down. Now her role is to defend it. More than defend it: her role is to evolve it. Cleven is right. The B-17 would never come close to a P-51. But while aircraft cannot change their structural components, the pilot is at perfect liberty to change their tactics, and it’s convenient that doing so is the mark of a good pilot anyway, which she is. Exactly how non-manoeuvrable is the B-17 anyway? She privately hopes that Cleven is actually right, that the aircraft is unbreakable. Because whatever doesn’t break will bend.

If I can’t find a way, then the others definitely have no chance, she thinks to herself. And then, Jesus Christ, shut the hell up, Mariner. This is no time to get cocksure. You haven’t even gotten in the aircraft yet.

Mariner pauses.

She looks up at the B-17 in front of her. At the hangar full of B-17s in front of her. Unmanned. Fuselage and bomb bay doors in plain sight. Exterior steps attached.

Unless…?

A full crew of ten is not needed to fly the B-17, surely. Any plane can get off the ground with just the pilot alone. Especially a pilot like her who is accustomed to flying single-engine single-seat fighters, where – once you’re up in the air – there’s no one to help you. Besides, how different can the controls be, anyway? They’re all the same in every aircraft. Elevator, ailerons, rudder, throttle, trim tabs. She could make her way around the controls in her sleep. A small, determined smile curves her lips.

She’s taken off and landed successfully more than a hundred times. She’s a lieutenant and an ace pilot. She’s served in both the RAF and the USAAF on a technicality, and operated multiple different fighter aircraft while she’s at it. She’s hardly a fresh-faced flight school graduate; she doesn’t have to wait for Cleven’s supervision for a simple test flight. In fact, Cleven will probably appreciate that she’s showing initiative and actually making an effort to integrate into the 100th. Maybe if he relays a glowing report of her back to Tillotson – fuck that bitch, Mariner thinks, but he’s still her superior officer – he might expedite her reassignment back to a fighter squadron. Where she belongs. Maybe she’ll even get to have her old P-51 back.

With that in mind, she steps up into the B-17 before her, mindful of the bulkheads as she ducks into the cockpit and slides deftly into the pilot seat. The flight controls and instrument panel look similar enough to that of a P-51. Engine gauges, altimeters, attitude indicators, turn coordinators, compasses, throttle quadrant, the usual assemblage. Everything needed to get this tin can, which she must now grow accustomed to as her designated aircraft for the next several months, up into the air. She can figure them out in no time.

So she sets the fuel selector valves. Checks the propeller pitch controls, like she has done countless times before.

And she cranks the engine.

–

“Sir?”

Gale Cleven looks up from the report wedged behind the cylinder of the typewriter on the desk before him at Master Sergeant Ken Lemmons, who stands in the doorway of his office, his breaths coming out in short, shallow gasps, his face overwrought with evident distress. Cleven pauses, his brows furrowing.

“What is it?”

“Lieutenant Mariner? The new pilot?” Lemmons’s face is white with panic.

“Yeah, I just spoke to her in the hangar. What happened?”

A hint of reluctance washes over Lemmons’s features, as though he is still privately hoping very much that he won't have to be the person to relay this information. But he eventually speaks.

“Sir, Lieutenant Mariner crashed a B-17 on the runway.”

And then Gale's day takes a rapid turn for the worse.