Out of Her Element

The whole finance-clerk-dropping-dead thing was the most intense part of Rainbow's morning, but far from the only setback.

That made her a little later than expected to check in at her new unit. Of course, things kept snowballing from there, as things tended to when one got late early in the morning - just kept getting later.

The squadron VAQ-129 was the center of training for aircrew of the EA-18G Growler jet before they went off to the fleet. The squadron had their own hangar, and Rainbow eventually found it. Her sponsor, Lieutenant Carmichael Key, was waiting inside the flightline fence, and not looking pleased at the delay.

Sponsors were assigned to help new check-ins, and were generally peers. There was no human who could appreciate Rainbow's unique pony situation, but they could at least help her with the Navy.

Key, or as he'd first introduced himself via email using his callsign, Potato, was a little brusque as the two of them met face to face for the first time. "I thought you were supposed to be fast."

"Well..." Rainbow explained. She had the sinking feeling she was going to be doing that a lot today.

He took her explanation and shrugged it off, apparently more focused on other things. He led her towards the hangar.

Rainbow looked with interest at the expansive concrete flightline. It was full of Growlers. Not only from VAQ-129, the training squadron, but from the handful of fleet squadrons that would deploy around the world.

The EA-18G was visually similar to the F/A-18F Super Hornet, just with the weapons replaced by electronics. Aircrew were trained to jam enemy radars and collect signals from afar. They weren't supposed to be in frontline combat, but if that should ever happen, they would have to know how to evade and defend, and that was where a fighter pilot like Rainbow came in, training the new aircrew.

She was mostly a legacy Hornet pilot, but had been checked out in the Super at Lemoore before reporting to Whidbey Island. From there, a lightly loaded Growler flew pretty much the same as a Super.

Following Potato, she headed into the hangar. There was space for jets, as the name implied, but also offices and classrooms for the training squadron.

"You came back to the RAG after a fleet tour?" she asked.

"Yeah. The sandbox. Got an Air Medal."

"I've got two." Rainbow had learned a fair bit of professionalism since joining the Navy, but it wasn't bragging if it was true, right? Besides, he'd started it.

The commentary aside, Potato being a fleet returnee put him in pretty much the same boat as her. He'd learned to fly his type of plane, done a deployment with a different squadron, and returned to the training squadron as an instructor.

Rainbow had just finished up at TOPGUN, learning to be a better instructor. She might be the only pilot on the entire base with the patch, considering fighters weren't based here.

The Growler version of TOPGUN was called HAVOC. She'd already seen a few of their patches around.

Potato wasn't much for any other conversation today, only giving her grunting one or two word responses.

Rainbow's prize for finally making it into the building was more paperwork. Potato showed her to the admin shop and left her there. That was fine; she was getting a little tired of his company.

Fortunately, there were no further complications with this paperwork, and she was next directed to the vault for security in-briefing.

Rainbow didn't pretend to know how security clearances worked, except that there were certain special access programs for each kind of jet, and they were going to let her in on a few specific to the Growler.

An elderly and balding civilian seemed to have the vault to himself. He was the one who had buzzed her in, and he was the one who filled out yet another stack of paperwork for her.

His name was William van Otten, or so his desk nameplate indicated. It must have been his, if he was alone. He did introduce himself, though.

"How much of this is necessary?" Rainbow asked him over the paperwork. "I'm not even taking these jets into combat."

van Otten shrugged. "Procedure. I know how it can be, but I also know what happens when people in my position bend the rules."

If he was the one granting her the clearance, he himself must have been in a high position of trust in the government. Rainbow was, well, perhaps not a stickler for rules herself, but did grudgingly acknowledge that someone out there had to be doing their job to the letter.

"How are you settling in?" he asked as she finished up. "Found a place to live yet?"

"Not yet."

"All the cool kids live in Anacortes, or so I'm told."

Rainbow had scanned the map before she arrived. That town was to the north, just on the other side of the bridge that made Whidbey Island an island. She said she would consider it.

Outside the vault, she encountered Potato again. He was looking less and less pleased to be escorting her as the day went on, but dutifully escorted her to meet her new boss.

Lieutenant Commander Tim "Pfizer" Knebal was the squadron training officer, and Rainbow would report to him.

"There's already a lesson plan," he said. She wasn't the first to hold the position. "But we're always looking for refinements."

He looked at her. "You ready to fly?"

"Always."

"I've got you down for a local fam flight tomorrow. I expect the terrain around here is a lot different than Lemoore."

It sure was. She'd already seen the distant, snow-capped mountains.

Potato looked at the draft flight schedule written on the large wall dry erase board. "All of us, huh?"

"Might as well," Pfizer said. "Call it teambuilding."

Rainbow followed Potato's look, seeing that the three of them, plus someone she hadn't met yet would take two jets up for the morning flight. Pfizer was a backseater, and would be riding with Rainbow.

Pfizer said he didn't have anything else for Rainbow to do today, and said she could use the afternoon to get her business sorted with checking in. She was grateful.

However, she was only just walking out of the hangar when her cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Lieutenant Dash?"

"Yes."

"I'm Special Agent Bill Alstrom with NCIS. I understand you found a deceased body today."

"Ugh, yes I did."

"Would you mind coming by our office? I'd like to ask you a few questions."

He told her where it was, and Rainbow got on her way, though internally groaned. One more thing.

Alstrom greeted her at the door when she arrived. He took her into an interrogation room, but left the door open. "Thanks for coming. Would you mind starting from the beginning? What did you do, and what did you observe?"

Rainbow walked through her part in the story, with somewhat more detail than she had during the quick conversation with the first cops on the scene. Alstrom took notes, occasionally asking an expansion question.

When she was done, he continued writing for a few moments. Rainbow asked, "So what do you think happened to her?"

"The investigation is still ongoing."

Rainbow cocked her head. "That there is even an investigation at all tells me something happened."

Alstom smiled thinly and said, "Thank you for your time." He began to close his notebook.

Rainbow was a good fighter pilot for a lot of reasons. Ponies' eyes were larger than humans', and hers were especially acute for a pony. Her vision was such that looking in the reflection of the one way glass behind Alstrom, she caught sight of the page of his notebook.

There were four names under a header of Suspects. Hers wasn't one of them, but she realized to her surprise that she knew them all.