Chapter 4409

The electronic fireplace flame jumped lightly, and the surface of the leather sofa reflected a faint cold light. The red wine glass on the coffee table was empty, with only a little wine stain remaining on the cup wall, and there wasn't much left in the bottle. Hal, who was slightly drunk, leaned against one side of the sofa, recalling that exceptionally lively Christmas. The lingering charm left by the warm moment was still very warm, but it couldn't completely disperse the slight haze in his heart.

It doesn't snow in Coast City, but when typhoons pass through in winter, the rain hits the floor-to-ceiling glass, and the sky is gloomy, the clouds thick as if they were about to press down. Hal felt that it would be better to have a good snow.

Suddenly, the phone rang. Hal answered, and Carol's voice came: "Sorry, Hal, you really might not be able to return to your original position. It has little to do with the previous accident, but they aren't recruiting anymore. Even fighter pilots have been downsized. If you don't want to fly civil aviation, you can only change careers to do space work."

"I know, thank you, Carol." Hal wiped his forehead from bottom to top, brushed his hair back, and said, "My state recently is indeed not very good, and I probably can't handle such work either. I'm considering looking for a short-term job..."

"No matter what, I love you," Carol said. "Don't put too much pressure on yourself, take good care of yourself. After I finish this period of time, we can plan a trip."

"Okay, I'll wait for you. Goodbye."

Hanging up the phone, Hal fell onto the sofa again. He picked up the application form on the side, hesitated for a long time, and then dialed a phone number: "Hello? Mr. Rodriguez? I think we can talk, are you free now?"

Hanging up the phone again, Hal stood up and walked to the bathroom to wash his face. Looking at himself in the mirror, he reached out and touched the stubble on his chin, repaired it again with a razor, and then put on his coat.

Just as he was about to go out, he paused, turned back, and took the application form. Looking at the title "Flight Resumption Application" on the form, Hal remembered how ambitious he was when he got this form.

On Christmas Eve, everyone drank a lot of wine and let themselves get drunk. The next morning, Hal was the second person to wake up besides Bruce. He came to Bruce's room, knocked on the door, and said: "Bruce, I have some things I want to talk to you about."

"Come in," Bruce said very gently. He seemed to have eaten another piece of golden apple, and his appearance became young again, which made him look not so majestic, and Hal wasn't so nervous either.

"It's like this. I... I had an accident before. In the process of test flight, I didn't follow the skill group requirements, and happened to run into aerial turbulence, which led to the test flight failure. This made me lose my job. Before, I didn't think this was my fault, but now thinking about it, I was too naive and reckless. I have to take 90% of the responsibility for this accident."

Hal's eyebrows drooped, looking like he was repenting. He said: "I'm not defending myself. But everyone knows that I am the best test pilot on the West Coast. I spent decades honing myself into the sharpest aerial dagger. I don't want to ruin my life because of an accident, and I don't want to let Carol and her father down."

"So you want to resume flying?"

"Yes. But I also know that after such a big accident, through normal procedures, it is absolutely impossible for me to be reinstated. So I want to ask you to help me. I promise you, this kind of thing will absolutely not happen again."

"You don't want to go to your girlfriend and your father-in-law because you don't want to be looked down upon by them?"

Hal shook his head and said: "Not entirely. I just feel that they might not be able to help me this time."

"Why?"

"The Air Force might downsize. Or rather, it will definitely downsize. In this situation, no matter what, they won't recruit a test pilot who has had a major accident experience." Hal looked a bit painful and said, "The Ferris family isn't omnipotent either. They might give up on me."

Bruce recognized Hal's judgment. The Air Force would indeed downsize. It sounded a bit counterintuitive; after all, if they wanted to develop space work, the Air Force should expand recruitment. But in reality, NASA and the USAF were two departments that had nothing to do with each other, and the USSF belonged to a cross-department between the two.

The problem was that Air Force pilots, Space Force pilots, and NASA astronauts were actually the same batch of people. There were only so many talents in this field; if you had more, I had less.

The current overall policy had been changed back to the version of the space race, so that the funding and establishment of NASA and USSF expanded explosively. And in order to make way for space policy, the US Air Force had to downsize, give up funding, and at the same time let more pilots go to the aerospace field, instead of wasting limited resources on surface combat.

At this time, if Hal wanted to transfer to space work, then even if he had a major accident, the space agency and the Space Force might want him—because they were indeed short of people. But Hal just wanted to be a surface fighter pilot, which was very difficult, because he would face very great competition.

Excellent pilots like Hal belonged to the batch of people who lived the best in the United States. The unit would pay them very high insurance, and would also give pressure on claims matters; insurance companies didn't dare not pay them. At the same time, the salary was generous, and the treatment was excellent. When young, they could be test pilots and fighter pilots, and when they got older, they could transfer to civil aviation, and at the same time have lifetime subsidies; the days were not too cool.

At the same time, Hal belonged to the spokesperson of the Ferris family in the Air Force where Carol was. The Ferris family would try their best to support him to ensure their right to speak in the aviation field. But Hal wasn't completely controlled by them and had great freedom. Because pilots with excellent talent were rare, sometimes the Ferris family had to beg him.

This was why, even though he had such a big accident, his father-in-law was still trying his best to fish him out. It could be said that if it weren't for this Martian invasion, as long as he waited for a period of time, he could be reinstated, just like nothing had happened.

Therefore, Hal could be said to be the one living the best in the Justice League.

But likewise, because the treatment was too good, everyone wanted to live such cool days. So once downsized, everyone wanted to strive to stay, and didn't want to transfer to the space agency or the Space Force.

These two units were also not bad, but as everyone knows, space work is very hard, and you can't do it without a spirit of dedication. Not to mention anything else, staying on that space station for so many days, life is very inconvenient, and no one is willing to go even if paid.

In this situation, excellent pilots were more willing to stay on the surface. This also led to the fact that test pilots who had accidents like Hal couldn't compete with them.

The Ferris family had some power, but other families weren't bad either. With everyone exerting force, Hal's fatal shortcoming of having a major accident experience basically sentenced him to death. So, Hal didn't go to urge Carol again, but went directly to Bruce. In the current situation, only the power of Wei En's money could have a possibility.

Hal of course also thought about going to Clark. But he knew that Clark essentially didn't understand the way of the upper class; he would ask him to compete fairly, and since he had already had a major accident, he had to pay for his mistakes.

Such thinking was of course not wrong. However, Hal joined the Justice League to use the power of the gang to fight for his own interests. He hadn't opened his mouth before because he hadn't made any contribution to the team. But after this battle, he recognized that his performance was not bad, and he had made no small contribution to the completion of Bruce's plan and the team's work. Then he could naturally make demands to satisfy his own interest demands. Essentially, it had nothing to do with right or wrong, but a kind of interest exchange.

Bruce clearly understood these things better than Clark. So he nodded and said: "I will say hello to Schiller, and he will turn it around from the middle. However, judging from the current situation, it is unlikely to arrange you directly. You still have to prepare yourself."

Hal nodded and said: "I will. If there's nothing here, I'm ready to return to Earth to resume training."

Bruce nodded, and Hal left. Schiller's efficiency was very high; before Hal returned to Earth, he came up.

The two sat in front of the spaceship's porthole. Schiller brought the red wine that hadn't been finished at the Christmas Eve banquet and poured a little for each of them. Hal picked up the wine glass and took a sip. Schiller placed a few documents on the desktop and said: "Under the special instruction of the president, the Air Force and the airline canceled the prosecution against you. But this is just the first step. Your previous accident was too tragic, your license was canceled, and your identity has been blacklisted. I persuaded them to cancel your name from the blacklist, but you need to re-take the license, and you must perform extremely excellently in the job interview to have a possibility of reinstatement. Is it okay?"

"Thank God, it's a big help," Hal breathed a long sigh of relief and picked up the documents to read. Actually, what he was most worried about wasn't the prosecution—the Ferris family would help him handle it. The most troublesome thing was the cancellation of the license and the industry blacklist. Without someone with enough weight to help him, these two roadblocks were almost unshakable.

Hal didn't dare to hope for a license to be issued directly, or to have a job stuffed to him out of thin air. You have to know that the work of a pilot is not like others; the technical requirements are really too high. Even if the pilot's state is not right on the first day, something might happen. And after an accident, the consequences are too serious. The economic, reputation, and timeliness losses of the purchasing party and the manufacturing party are unimaginably large.

The direct economic loss brought by Hal's previous accident exceeded three hundred million dollars. He wasn't even test-flying the latest model of fighter jet, just an export modification. Various other losses were immeasurable. No one dared to joke with such a large sum of money, so the audit was very strict. Being able to have a chance to re-take the exam was already the power of Wei En's money.

Hal flipped to the end and saw an application form. The data on it was strange yet familiar. He put away the documents, looked at Schiller, and said: "I will return to Earth for retraining immediately. If there is no accident, I can submit the application again soon."

Schiller nodded and said: "Superpowers may not have a positive effect on training; try not to use them if you can. You don't have to be too anxious; the position is always reserved for you."

Hal stood up and shook hands with him, then said: "Thank you so much. When I resume flying, I will definitely treat you to dinner."

"You're too polite." Schiller smiled at him. Just as he was about to leave, Schiller called him and said, "This wine doesn't quite suit my taste; you'd better take it back to drink."

Hal raised his eyebrows, picked up the wine bottle and took a look, then said: "This is quite expensive."

"Wei En's collection, don't waste it."

"Then I will be disrespectful."