CHAPTER 6
The Crew We Choose
AVERY
Open Sky assigned teams by aircraft, not personality.
That was how Avery found herself sharing a hangar with Kira Mendoza, who regarded introductions as wasted time; Priya Raman, who had packed seventeen kinds of thread but forgotten a toothbrush; Sam Cade, who had already rewritten the ground route; and Nolan, who spoke to First Light more easily than to any person present.
They met around a folding table beneath the event banner.
Marisol distributed credentials. “Kira is lead mechanic and chase driver. Sam is weather strategist and ground operations co-lead. Priya is apprentice fabric technician and data assistant. Avery is systems engineer and owner representative. Nolan is pilot in command if the tether test is satisfactory.”
“If,” Nolan said.
“Your word, not mine,” Marisol replied.
Kira opened the equipment manifest. “Who packed the spare regulator?”
Avery raised a hand.
“Where?”
“Blue case three.”
Kira opened it. “That is a pressure transducer.”
Avery looked at Priya.
Priya looked at the ceiling. “I may have moved the regulator to make room for labeled cable ties.”
“Where?” Kira asked.
“Possibly blue case five.”
Kira sighed. “Before anyone flies, we unpack every case and make the manifest describe reality.”
The task took four hours.
They found duplicate batteries, missing gloves, two incompatible hose fittings, a first-aid kit that had expired before Priya finished high school, and six paper copies of the same weather protocol.
Nolan quietly reorganized landing gear. Avery rebuilt the data inventory.
Sam transferred route files into a shared system rather than his private tablet.
Kira required everyone to locate fuel shutoffs, extinguishers, satellite beacon, and trauma kit without asking.
At lunch, Priya admitted she had never traveled farther west than Arizona.
“Are you afraid?” Avery asked.
“Yes,” Priya said. “Also excited. They are not opposites.”
Nolan glanced toward Sam.
Sam noticed. “She said the line for herself. You do not need to make it about me.”
“I was not.”
“You were thinking loudly.”
Avery hid a smile.
They wrote crew agreements beyond the official waiver: paid hours for Priya, rest minimums, media consent, decision logs, personal medication privacy, and a rule that no one drove after an overnight repair without a replacement driver.
Kira added, “No one says ‘I can manage’ when the translation is ‘I have not eaten.’”
Avery objected. “That is subjective.”
Kira pointed at her unopened lunch. “Demonstration.”
By evening, the hangar floor held a complete equipment layout. First Light remained packed, but the crew had begun becoming visible to itself.
Avery had entered the Challenge believing she needed a pilot.
She realized she needed a system of people who could contradict one another and still remain on the same team.
Nolan stood beside the open basket trailer, checking a buckle Kira had already approved.
Avery walked over. “You do not trust her?”
“I trust her. I verify.”
“Those are not opposites.”
He looked at her. “No.”
For the first time, the answer sounded like something they shared.