Earth and Air

by Janet Edwards

  I was dangerously close to crying, but I blinked back my tears. “I gave up my team 1 tag leader spot so I could get my pilot’s licence this summer. You’ve no idea how much that meant to me. I thought it was worth the sacrifice to achieve my dream of becoming a pilot, but now you’ve wrecked everything.”

  I turned my back on Gradin and the survey plane I would never fly again, and I walked away.

  Chapter Eleven

  When I arrived back at dome 14, I called into one of the bathrooms to wash my face and smooth my tangled hair back into place, before heading for the hall. Most of the rest of the history club were in there, wearing their standard dig site issue impact suits with the hoods down, ready to go on the dig site.

  As I entered the room, the other Seventeens hurried up to me in a group. This was the first time I’d seen any of them since we’d been together at breakfast the previous day. After Crozier told me the Air Safety Officer was stopping my flying lessons, I’d hidden in the store room for the rest of the day to avoid talking to anyone, and this morning I’d gone straight to see Gradin.

  There was an awkward silence before Radley spoke. “You’re alive then.”

  I was grazzed. “You know I landed the plane safely, Radley. You watched me do it. Of course I’m alive.”

  “We were starting to wonder about it,” said Owen. “Yesterday, Crozier said you were in the store room, you’d been through a shocking experience, and you were upset that you wouldn’t be able to continue your flying lessons. He told us that we should leave you in peace to recover, and we accepted that, but then you didn’t show up for breakfast either. One of the Fifteens came up with the theory that you’d ... Ow!”

  He turned to glare at Dezi. “You kicked me!”

  “I think we should all forget that stupid, lurid theory.” Dezi smiled at me. “We’re glad that you’re safe, Jarra.”

  “Yes, everyone is glad that you’re safe, Jarra,” said Milo, with a strange emphasis that confused me. “We truly are. You mustn’t worry about ...”

  Milo abruptly broke off his sentence because the conspicuous figure of Crozier was coming towards us. While everyone else was wearing standard black impact suits, Crozier had an impact suit that was his personal property, and had been carefully coloured to match the faded-green baseball cap perched on his head.

  “Jarra, have you got Gradin to update your pilot’s training licence with the work you’ve done?” Crozier asked.

  “Yes, it’s all correct now.” I did my best to speak in a normal voice. I was bitterly angry that I wouldn’t get my pilot’s licence, but it would be unfair of me to direct that anger at Crozier. I couldn’t really blame the Air Safety Officer for his decision either. This mess was entirely Gradin’s fault.

  “Then you won’t need to have any further contact with the man.” Crozier glanced at the other Seventeens. “Please give us some privacy for a moment.”

  They moved away, and Crozier lowered his voice before speaking again. “Jarra, I have two problems I need to discuss with you. Firstly, there’s the issue of the tag leader positions. You know that I gave the team 1 tag leader spot to Milo, and team 2 to Isla. Yesterday morning, I allocated the team 3 position to Taariq as well, but I’ve talked to all three of them. Now you can’t continue your flying lessons, they all agree with me that you have a right to have your team1 tag leader position back.”

  Now I understood the curiously emphatic way Milo had said everyone was glad I was safe. That was a message that he accepted losing the promised team 1 tag leader spot. I hesitated a moment before answering. I was bitterly disappointed about losing my chance to get my pilot’s licence, but I didn’t want to make Milo and the others suffer as well.

  “It would be unfair to take those positions away from them, especially Milo,” I said. “He’s a great tag leader. If he’d been going to a different school, he’d have almost certainly made team 1 tag leader by now, but he didn’t stand a chance competing with me. I’ve always had the massive advantage of having three years more experience than him.”

  “Nobody handed you that advantage as a free gift, Jarra. You earned it by sheer hard work and persistence.”

  “Yes, but I’ve been team 1 tag leader for our club for two years already. That guarantees me a tag leading spot in my University Earth Pre-history Foundation class, and will probably be enough to get me the key spot. If Milo is our team 1 tag leader this summer, it should guarantee him a tag leading spot in his Foundation class as well.”

  “You’re sure about this?” asked Crozier.

  “I’m very sure. I’ll be perfectly happy training the first-timers instead.”

  Crozier gave me a disbelieving look.

  “Well, maybe not perfectly happy, but you said that having some more teaching experience would make me look a well-rounded candidate on my application to University Earth. I think you’re right.”

  “Yes. If there’s strong competition for the key spot in your class, then the teaching experience will look better than a third year as team 1 tag leader, particularly when I include a note in my supporting statement saying that you voluntarily stepped down to allow your classmate a chance to fill the role. That clearly demonstrates you have the team spirit and consideration for others which is so vital for people working on dig sites.”

  Crozier paused. “That brings us to the second problem. Everyone was very shocked by what happened yesterday morning, so I didn’t attempt to take the history club back out on to the dig site in the afternoon.”

  I felt a stab of guilt. I’d been locked in the store room yesterday afternoon, so swamped by my own misery that I hadn’t realized the history club had lost a whole afternoon of their precious time on the dig site.

  “The new arrivals were in an especially bad state,” said Crozier. “They’ve had a very unfortunate introduction to dig sites. On their first day here, Felipe filled their heads with horror stories before they even set foot outside the dome. When I walked into this room and heard him talking about cutting people in half with lasers, I felt like strangling the boy.”

  I bit my lip. I’d been so caught up in Felipe’s story that I hadn’t stopped to think how something that scared me would affect those who were on their first trip with the history club.

  “Once we were on the dig site, they were distracted by seeing the survey plane in the sky,” Crozier continued. “I explained all about the aerial surveys to check the dig site for hazards, and they were thrilled to hear you speaking on broadcast channel and realize you were flying the plane yourself. Once they’d spent the morning watching the rest of the club excavating the ruins of a house, and the afternoon getting basic instruction on impact suits from you, they seemed to have forgotten all about Felipe’s gruesome story and be in a very positive mood.”

  Crozier sighed. “Yesterday morning started badly again, with Dezi showing off her nightmare paintings, but we had a good morning on the dig site, and the excitement of finding an ornament. It wasn’t anything rare or valuable, but Wren and Alund were ecstatic to be able to hold a historic artefact. Everything was going beautifully until the moment they saw your plane falling out of the sky.”

  I groaned.

  Crozier pulled a despairing face. “Wren came to see me yesterday evening and said she wanted to leave. I talked her into staying the night, but she’s still determined to go. If I let her do that, then I doubt she’ll ever come on another history club trip.”

  Oh nuke! Wren had come on this trip because she loved history just as much as I did. Yesterday’s events hadn’t just wrecked my dream of getting my pilot’s licence, but destroyed Wren’s dream of becoming a professional archaeologist one day.

  “I know you’re still suffering from shock and disappointment yourself, Jarra,” said Crozier, “but you could be a big help with this. Can you stay here and talk to Wren this morning, while I take the rest of the club onto the dig site to do excavation work?”

  “I’ll do anything I can to help, but if you haven’t been ab
le to talk Wren into staying, then I don’t know what I can say to change her mind.”

  “You’ve got something far more powerful than words to argue your case,” said Crozier. “Some of the Fourteens and Fifteens have been indulging in foolish speculation about why you didn’t appear for meals. I told everyone that you were just resting, but Wren was very worried. The sight of you, alive and uninjured, will make a bigger impression on Wren than everything I’ve said to her.”

  He paused for a second. “Wren is a strong-minded, determined girl. She’d probably have coped with watching a plane almost crash if that plane hadn’t had her role model inside it.”

  I blinked. “Her what?”

  “You’ve been Wren’s role model ever since she joined the junior history club. You started coming on school history trips when you were 11. You became a tag leader when you were 13. You’ve been the club team 1 tag leader since you were 15. Wren was constantly asking questions about you at the junior history club meetings. Then she came on this trip, was left in the horrible position of having to sleep in the hall, and you saved her by giving her your room.”

  Crozier waved a hand. “I think that took things well past the level of role models. Wren worships the ground you walk on, Jarra. If anyone can talk her into staying at New York Fringe, then you can.”

  “Oh.” I was totally grazzed by this. I’d spent my whole life either frustrated, angry, panicking, getting into trouble, or all four at once. I didn’t see why Wren would want to model herself on me when she could choose someone like Felipe.

  “I’ll do my very best,” I said. “I’m sorry that ...”

  I was interrupted by the sound of my lookup chiming for an incoming call. I had a bad feeling I knew who this was. I glanced at the lookup screen, and my fears were confirmed.

  “Gradin’s calling me.”

  “If you don’t want to answer his call, then you don’t have to,” said Crozier.

  I shook my head. “You don’t know what Gradin is like. If I don’t answer his call, then he’ll do something drastic like involving the police.”

  “Then answer the call and tell him you don’t want to talk to him. If he won’t accept that from you, then you can ask me to speak to him.”

  I tapped at my lookup. I must have left it on holo setting, because a miniature holo of Gradin’s head appeared floating above the screen. “I’m really sorry, Jarra.”

  “I don’t want to talk to you,” I said. “Leave me alone.”

  Gradin ignored that. “You’ve no need to worry about the flying lesson problem though. I’ve thought of a way to sort things out.”

  The man wasn’t satisfied with shattering my dreams once. He was trying to build up my hopes with stupid false claims that he could fix this, so I’d get a second devastating disappointment.

  I couldn’t cope with this any longer, so I thrust my lookup towards Crozier. “Please make him go away.”

  Crozier took my lookup, and Gradin frowned as he saw him.

  “I suppose you’re Jarra’s history teacher.”

  “I am,” said Crozier. “Jarra has told you she doesn’t want to talk to you. I’m her acting guardian while she’s on this school trip, and I’m now giving you a formal warning not to call her again. I shouldn’t need to point out that continuing to pester her with unwanted calls after a formal warning could result in Hospital Earth bringing charges against you. Have I made myself clear?”

  “Perfectly clear,” snapped Gradin.

  The holo head vanished, and Crozier handed back my lookup. I looked down at it numbly. I’d been furious with Gradin, but now I was remembering everything we’d been through in Athens. Gradin had been maddening and irresponsible, but brilliant and inspiring too. Now I’d never see his face or hear his voice ever again.

  Crozier gave the loud cough that meant he wanted everyone’s full attention, and called out to the others. “Wren will be staying at the dome with Jarra to do some basic training. The rest of us are going on the dig site. Follow me!”

  Crozier led the way out of the door, and people in black impact suits streamed after him. I waited a few minutes to let them leave the dome, then took a deep breath and headed to room 24 to talk to Wren.

  Chapter Twelve

  The door of room 24 was firmly closed. I knocked on it twice without getting any response. On my third attempt, an angry voice answered me.

  “Go away, Crozier!”

  “I’m not Crozier,” I said.

  A second later, the door was snatched open, and Wren stood there staring at me. Her face was grubby, and her clothes were so crumpled that I guessed she’d slept in them.

  “Jarra! You’re all right. One of the Fifteens said ...”

  “Was that Roland?” I asked.

  Wren rubbed the back of her hand across her eyes. “Yes.”

  “Never believe a word that Roland says. The boy has a wildly overactive imagination.”

  Wren didn’t reply to that, so there was an awkward pause. I’d no idea what to say next, so I took the coward’s way out. “Can we go to the hall? I haven’t had breakfast yet, so I need something to eat.”

  Wren hesitated before going back into her room. For a second, I thought she was going to shut me out again, but she just picked up the lookup that was lying on her bed, came back, and walked with me to the hall.

  Hugely relieved, I went over to the food dispensers, and realized the snag in my plan. I was starving hungry, but I was wearing my impact suit, and the tight-fitting, unyielding fabric made it difficult to eat. I daren’t leave Wren and go to the store room to change, so I just got a glass of Fizzup and some toasted wafers.

  I turned round, and gave a nervous jump when I discovered Wren had crept up to queue behind me. “I haven’t had breakfast either,” said Wren. “Or much dinner last night.”

  I nodded, waved an arm at the food dispensers in invitation, and sat down at the nearest table. A couple of minutes later, Wren came to join me at the table, carrying a plate piled high with what looked like a mixture of breakfast and dinner. She grabbed her fork and shovelled some food into her mouth.

  I nibbled cautiously at one of my toasted wafers, decided it wasn’t just difficult but virtually impossible to eat in an impact suit, and settled for sipping my Fizzup instead. I was still trying to work out what to say to Wren, when my stomach intervened, making a loud, grumbling sound.

  I felt myself flush hot with embarrassment. Wren tactfully pretended she hadn’t noticed anything, but put down her fork, and gave me a desperately intent stare.

  “I passed my dig site gold safety award before coming on this trip. I learnt all about the dangers of dig sites, the risk warning signs, and the six main hazards.”

  I automatically joined in as she chanted the hazard list. “Fire, electrical, chemical, water, radiation, and magnetic.”

  “I learnt the alarm sounds, and the required responses,” Wren continued solo again. “I thought I knew exactly what I’d be facing here on New York Fringe, but there was no mention on the gold safety award of crashing planes or tag leaders cutting people in half with lasers.”

  “The plane didn’t crash,” I said hastily. “There was never any risk of it crashing. My flying instructor, Gradin, set things up to look like we had engine problems, but there was never anything wrong with the plane. If I’d had trouble pulling it out of that first uncontrolled dive, or landing with only two thrusters, Gradin would have used his pilot controls to override mine and dealt with it.”

  “You thought it was real though, didn’t you?”

  I groaned. “Yes. I was a total nardle not to realize Gradin had shut down one of the thrusters.”

  “I don’t understand why he’d do something so dangerous?”

  “Gradin’s got a vast ego,” I said. “He thinks that being a brilliant pilot means he’s entitled to do anything he wants. This isn’t the first time he’s thrown me into an extreme situation to see how I’d cope with it. He thinks these experiences will make me a better p
ilot, and he could be right about that, but he took things too far this time. He didn’t just scare me to death. He scared everyone else on the dig site as well.”

  Wren kept looking at me with that penetrating stare. “You wouldn’t have minded if Gradin had just scared you?”

  If Wren decided not to be an archaeologist, she could obviously have a fine career as either a police interrogator or a Principal of a Next Step. I hated trying to put my emotions into words, but I felt pressured into saying something.

  “Of course I’d have minded. I’d have been very angry about it. I’d have yelled at Gradin, and he’d have yelled at me, but we’d have got past it the same way that we’ve got past other arguments.”

  “So you want to keep flying despite what happened yesterday?”

  “Yes. Flying is very important to me. I was counting on getting my pilot’s licence this summer, but now I can’t because the Dig Site Federation Air Safety Officer has banned Gradin from giving lessons.”

  I sighed. “Well, forget that. My point is that what happened yesterday was never dangerous. Even if it had been, there would be no reason for you to worry about that sort of thing happening to you. Nobody will ever make you get into a plane. You’re here to learn about excavation work, not go flying. I had to work hard for years, talking pilots into giving me rides in their planes, to get myself to the position where I’ve got ... where I had the chance to get a pilot’s licence myself.”

  I bit into a toasted wafer, and instantly regretted it. It was hard enough swallowing food when wearing an impact suit without getting emotional as well. I had to gulp a mouthful of Fizzup to stop myself from choking.

  When I was in a fit state to pay attention to Wren again, I found she was still giving me her interrogation look. There was a question I really didn’t want to answer. She asked it.