- Prologue

by Sharon Lee

  "There is less down below!"

  "There's exactly the same amount of storage space for high bunk and low," Chelly said grumpily from the doorway. He shook his head in, as Theo read it, equal parts amazement and disgust. "What's with the beach? You thinking you earned a vacation?"

  Asu turned her back on him. "I am thinking that Jondeer's picture was taken at the beach, and that he is garbed appropriately," she said icily. "Surely even the youngest student here has been to the beach."

  "If it was a picture of the beach with a guy in it, that maybe would've passed," Chelly said, and it sounded as if he really was trying to explain the problem. "This is a picture of a guy that happens to have some beach in it. Whole different perspective."

  Theo snorted, and Chelly turned his head to glare up at her.

  "You wanna finish out the course, you better lose some of that attitude, Waitley."

  This from a guy who'd been making her life miserable for the last—Theo sat up, face hot. "What's the matter with my attitude?"

  "That's what!" he yelled. "You think nobody noticed you daring Wil to come dancing, there at baggage? You think maybe you don't already have a note by your name that you got aggression problems?"

  "I've got aggression problems?" Theo shook her head and just stared down at him, absolutely unable to believe what she'd just heard.

  "I—all right." She took a breath, and another one, centering herself there on the bunk and letting the tension—well, as much of the tension as she could, flow out of her toes and fingertips.

  "Look, Chelly," she said, over Asu's slamming open storage bays. "I don't know what people saw. What I know is that Wilsmyth was trying to make trouble for me. I don't know why, but I don't need to know why to know that he was, from the very first time I saw him, on Vestrin. From my perspective, he was trying to get me to lose my temper, or maybe get me in trouble with Admin for having a stolen bag, like he said. If I was edgy, I think that's reasonable. And I think anybody who saw me drop to neutral would also have seen why I did it." She took a breath. "So, there might be a note in my file. It wouldn't be the first time. And I'm probably not alone."

  Chelly chewed his lip, and looked over his shoulder into the joint room. "Wil gets chaizy when he's not working," he muttered. "He'll buckle, now there's work." He sighed, and shook his head, looking back to Asu.

  "You'd think somebody whose family owns tradeships would know how to pack," he said.

  Head and shoulders inside the bottommost storage compartment, Asu sniffed. "We own them," she said, her voice echoing hollowly, "we do not live on them."

  "Yeah, well, you think you'll have all this stuff stowed soon? It's gotta be put away—those're regs, and if the house father does an inspect while you're at class, he can clean up anything that's not in its place." He grimaced. "He gets a real buzz outta cleaning up after newbies."

  "Thank you," Asu said, emerging carefully from the compartment, and sitting back on her heels. She ran a hand through her damp curls. Unfairly, they sprang neatly back into place, unlike Theo's hair, which had frizzed out into its most uncombable.

  "Were you in this room . . . last semester?" Theo asked Chelly, and then wondered why she cared.

  He nodded. "Yeah. I was top bunk. Panvay was senior—she challenged out. Tildenburg was low bunk—he flunked out. Finally."

  "Finally?" That final word even caught Asu, who gave Chelly an over-the-shoulder look.

  "Yeah, he should've been outta here before the end of his second semester, but his family paid the fee and convinced Ronagy he'd stick with the program. Only he just did the same thing over again, like he couldn't help himself, and flunked again, just like the first time and—that was it." He shook his head. "It wasn't like Pan didn't tell him, or like he didn't know, it—" Another head shake. "Didn't want to be a pilot, is what it came down to. His parents, they wanted it. Tildenburg, he wanted to be a poet."

  "A person may be both a poet and a pilot," Asu said soberly.

  "Not," Chelly answered, "if you only work on the poet side." He looked around again and shook his head.

  "Look," he said. "I am the senior and I'm telling you this straight—" His hands moved lightly: affirm, affirm. "You gotta get this stuff stowed and get some downtime. When you start on-mester you get a couple days' slack while you catch on to things, 'cause everybody's slow and sleepy, see? But the off-shift—you guys are gonna go into classes that are already moving and they're gonna expect you to run to keep up—and no whining. I'm telling you."

  "Thanks," Theo said. "But why are you telling us?"

  He looked up at her, strong eyebrows pulled over blue eyes. "I'm senior," he repeated. "And I'm on command track. If you two screw up, it's gonna go against me, too."

  Asu laughed.

  Chelly glared at the back of her head, then transferred his glare to Theo, who did her best to keep her face neutral.

  "I'm going to bed," he said, turning away. "Try to get sensible, right?"

  "Sleep well, Chelly Frosher," Asu caroled brightly. He didn't answer, and Theo really couldn't blame him.

  "Why'd you laugh when he said he'd get marked down if we flunked out on his watch?" Theo asked as Asu climbed to her feet.

  The taller girl put her elbows on Theo's bunk and smiled.

  "He admits to an interest," she said, around a yawn. "Therefore, we have leverage."

  "Oh," Theo said, and looked over the edge of the bunk at the wreckage below. It seemed to her that Asu had managed to get an astonishing amount of stuff stowed while seeming to be ineffective. Unfortunately, that still left a lot to put . . . somewhere.

  "Theo, I cannot help but notice that you have unused space," Asu said, and Theo sighed.

  "We've been—" she began, and blinked, remembering the dusty smell of rugs and an old woman's voice: No dickering here, I see!

  She considered the side of Asu's face, and decided the other girl looked at least as tired as she felt. The sooner the stuff got put away, the sooner they both could get some rest after what had become a really, really long day.

  "You want some of my extra storage?" she asked Asu. The other girl smiled.

  "It would be a boon."

  "No, it wouldn't," Theo corrected her, and reached out to tap two of the three empty cubbies. "Trade for them."

  Asu raised her head and stared at the mess all around, before looking seriously into Theo's face.

  "I cannot promise or incur a debt in the name of Diamon Lines," she said finally, hands giving emphasis to the point.

  "Diamon Lines isn't sleeping in the bunk below mine," Theo said. "I want an IOU, redeemable at a future time for one favor. Deal?"

  Once again, Asu glanced about her. She sighed, and held a hand out to Theo.

  "Done," she said, barely touching Theo's fingers before reaching past her to open the first empty cubby.

  Four

  Academy Flight GT S14

  Anlingdin Piloting Academy

  Slipper Fourteen felt like home today; no longer an alien environment to be overcome but a friendly, trusted place, a place without the constant sniping between Asu and Chelly, a place where her motions were simple and sufficient, a place where the instructor looked over her shoulder only by instrument, his voice brought to her by the ear bud, and that not often; she'd wondered these last five flights if he'd monitored her at all.

  The craft's cockpit was tiny, hardly more than a stiffly padded lay-back seat and some hand controls and pedals yoked electrically to the airfoils, with a tight-sealed canopy a hand's-width in front of her face that let the wind slip past. Boarding it was like slipping into her proper skin, especially with the belt-web forming itself to her so carefully after she touched the locking stud.

  The tow drone's pace was sufficient for her to test her skill at boxing the wake without being bored: she moved to the right with the tow rope taut, then down below the wake, then left to the other side of the box, up, and centered again, the whole while using her slip-string to help guide her by sight as t
he other instruments.

  Otto El, the glider instructor, insisted that each trainee bring and mount their own slip-string; just as he insisted that each trainee personally inspect the craft before each takeoff and after every landing.

  "It is good to see what you have done," he'd told the small assembled class of five on their first meeting, "and it is good to see that your vessel is able before you trust your life and the lives of others to it!"

  The slender wings were well behind Theo's position as the Slipper rose; today's preflight inspection had shown the outer left wing stained and scraped—grass stains. She'd immediately entered that into her logbook, lifted the wing to inspect it, attempted to flex it and probed at it with her hand and stylus. Pilot El had nodded as she made her verbal report and inquired about it.

  "Yes, good. There was an awkward moment for someone in a crosswind landing yesterday; we've imaged it and everything is fine. You'll find it noted in the ship's log."

  By the third class they'd lost two of their class members, one apparently to basic homesickness and the other to something Asu darkly called a "hyper-dense Code Ten Fifty-Six"—but there, Asu had been in three much larger classes with the boy. The Ten Fifties were the mental fitness codes if Theo recalled correctly, and the result was that Pilot El was pleased to go on an accelerated one-on-one with the remaining three students.

  "We can all move to the power segments much faster now," he said, "and you three, very soon, will be able to walk with wings on your shoulders."

  The wings he promised were more than metaphysical: while some of the astronautics group went without the atmospheric license, deeming it a useless artifact, there was, after all, still a living to be made in flying atmospheric and near-world craft.

  The drone's beeped report echoed what Theo'd already felt: they were comfortably topped out and had a good steady flight, and maybe a chance to ride the front wave down Kirky's Range.

  "Academy Flight GT S14," came a trainee's bored voice, "you're set for release in fifteen ticks at my mark. We've got your transponders in good order, you've got great Qs, and the designated landing zone is South, runway seven. Mark!"

  Great Qs meant the clouds favored a long flight; she was all for it since the longer she stayed up the longer she could avoid going back to Erkes. Asu busy was better than Asu with nothing to do, but still she found time to complain about how little room she had, about being stuck in with the Erkes kids whenever she used the jitney, and with a litany of Anlingdin security weaknesses . . .

  "Mark, thank you, GT S14 acknowledges."

  Theo watched the slip-string as she raised the nose a bit, allowing the tow rope just a bit of slack and then just a bit more. She touched the rudder to dip wing, pushed the stick slightly forward, and the rope went from lifeline to fluttering ribbon, bearing to the right, and away. The slip-string snapped, like it was waving good-bye, and Theo sighed with the joy of finally being free to fly.

  Slipper Fourteen gained speed for a moment until Theo leveled it out and then saw the variometer happily indicating she'd hit the thermal. Her key in the flight system jauntily blinked blue once a second, indicating her flight time was logged and mounting properly, and everything else looked good.

  Everything. From here, Anlingdin was beautiful, and even the grounds of the academy, spreading out toward the horizon, were worth seeing. Out the other side of the ship the mountain range stood stark and compelling, the blue-grey peaks casting sharp-edged shadows.

  She laughed out loud, and suppressed the urge to shout, suddenly mindful of Asu's warnings.

  "Remember, Theo, every mic is live at all times. We're all right here, in our suite, because the Checksec will warn us if we're monitored. But out there? Galosh, they can hear everything you say about everyone, and then hold everything against your record."

  Theo'd wondered who'd twisted Asu's hair that time . . . but after all, Melchiza did it, and Delgado did it; everybody was always watched by somebody, for the good of everybody else.

  She laughed again, as she looked about her, seeing nothing but blue sky and wonderfully large and billowing clouds. They hadn't outlawed happy at the academy, and flying was a happy thing.

  "Flight GT S14, Academy GT S14, acknowledge."

  Not flight control, but her instructor. He was paying attention!

  "Flight GT S14 here."

  "Waitley, this is El, on special from control; how quickly can you get down?"

  Theo's glance swept the board, gathered in the variometer and altitude; she consulted the map display and clicked the direct route . . . she'd hardly been worried about getting down fastest; in fact soaring had been working well and she'd been thinking about filing an amendment to extend her time.

  "Ship says at standard descent . . . sixteen minutes, unless I get an updraft."

  "Won't do. Want you out of the sky—everyone out of the sky quickly . . . emergency."

  Theo looked away from the instruments, across the sky, to the eminence of Kirky's Range. Local history had it that the first traveler from space had used its spine and plateau as a pointer for his rescuers . . .

  Out of the sky . . .

  "I can stuff it on the plateau in five minutes."

  Her hands and feet followed her eyes, as if she leaned toward the promontory.

  There was no reply, and she repeated, watching the slip-string on the canopy as it flowed in reply to the ship's bank and turn. Who would've thought that simple piece of yarn could be so useful?

  "GT S14 here, please ack—"

  "Can you?" The query overrode her. "El here. That's tricky, Waitley, lots of updrafts. Acknowledge."

  The ship was already gaining speed as she pushed the stick forward. The plan was . . .

  "I can," she said, absolutely sure of it. "If you want me down quickest. Acknowledge."

  Again a pause, but now she realized Instructor El was thinking hard. She was thinking hard, too—while the way was clear to the mountain, even the Doppler radar setting might not be enough for the tricky currents she'd be facing.

  "Bad spot, Waitley. Report before you set down; be prepared to abort on my command. I won't jostle your elbow otherwise. Acknowledge."

  Theo smiled. "Acknowledged."

  She'd cruised distantly along the standing wave the mountains created just once before, in the trainer, when she'd had Pilot El in the second seat. That had brought flutters to her stomach and twinges to her hands as she'd felt the strength of the up-draft.

  This time she was going to use that updraft; sideslipping the ship several times to lose altitude, and then: yes!

  There was the wave! The slip-string fluttered momentarily and the variometer showed a sudden change in the ship's motion. Even though the nose was pointed slightly downward, the whole column of air she was in was rising rapidly. Noise multiplied in the cockpit as the variometer began to sound a rising pitch, while the automaton intermittently spoke rate-change numbers. The most important thing was the rising pitch . . .

  Ahead, the mountain's dark color began to differentiate into rugged columns of weathered rock and deep shadowed crevices.

  She'd never had to read the radar so hard before; the twisting currents swept the sleek glider higher, closer to the mountain with each second. Designed for simple soaring, the great wings seemed to chuckle at this unexpected task, the sound unnerving, as they trembled in the troubled air column.

  More than three minutes had passed according to the ship's chronometer; she was sweating, listening for the call to abort, fighting to keep the nose pointed in the right direction against wind that made the plane crab and shudder. Her goal was only a minute or so higher; she knew that once she reached the top her work would really begin.

  There came a lull in the buffeting, but she wasn't comforted because the rock face loomed. She was close enough now that the fuselage might easily fit into a crevice if air willed it; the beautiful wings she loved so much now as much of a problem as an asset.

  Warnings went off: too much lift, too
close to the mountain, stall warning . . .

  Theo worked to shut out the sounds of the winds and the warnings: she could only ride this out. She would ride this out. She only—there!

  The top of the plateau appeared to her left. She sideslipped the craft in that direction, fighting a wicked crosswind that wanted to twist her wings.

  Unexpectedly, she continued to rise. She forced the nose down, arms shaking with the effort. The top of the plateau was pocked with wind-worn gullies and rippled dust, but her biggest problem wasn't finding a place to land but in forcing the Slipper into actually setting down.

  She had underestimated the winds, she thought. Or overestimated her own ability.

  "Not great, Theo," she muttered, "not great."

  Then she saw a spot and caught a lull in the wind.

  "Waitley, GT S14," she snapped at the comm. "Setting down immediately."

  She almost managed it, but her wings built their own ground effect in the jostling wind and the plane hovered as she hit spoilers and then did one more very slight sideslip to meet the ground. The Slipper stayed down, then, roiling grass and gravel, coming to rest on an incline that became a slope that ran out into the abyss below. Distantly, and far below, was a blur of green that was flat land.

  "GT S14 here. Down."

  She had an immediate acknowledgment. "Waitley, El acknowledging GT S14 down on Kirky's Range. Now, if you can pop that canopy, get out of the plane and find yourself a safe spot to sit. Give me ten minutes, then call back."

  What she said was, "Acknowledge."

  What she thought was harder: if this whole thing was some weird part of training she had an idea why pilots washed out. A more stupid way to . . .

  The canopy stopped resisting as she hurled some off-mic invective at the world, and then she was too busy keeping dust out of her face to think—

  A new sound assaulted her as she tumbled out of the plane: a chunking noise like one of Father's old auto engines gone wrong, then a whoosh and another round of chunking noises.