Earth and Air

by Janet Edwards

  Gradin ignored her and spoke on broadcast channel. “This is New York survey plane. Pilot handing control to co-pilot.”

  I hastily unlocked my co-pilot controls, and switched my comms to broadcast channel for a moment. “This is New York survey plane co-pilot, Jarra Reeath. I have control.”

  “You can start heading for our survey area now, Jarra,” said Gradin.

  I banked the plane cautiously. This larger plane was definitely less acrobatic than the two-seater that I was used to flying, but it was still totally zan to have my hands on the controls of an aircraft again.

  “I want to make one thing perfectly clear,” said Gradin. “I’m not having the two of you boring me to death during these flying lessons. There will be absolutely no discussion of history or excavation work.”

  “I promise that I won’t say a single word about either of those things, George,” said Valeska. “We’ll have plenty of other things to talk about anyway. After a lot of thought and consideration, I’ve decided to accept your offer of marriage.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Offer of marriage! I wasn’t sure whether I was more stunned by the idea of Gradin offering to marry Valeska, or her being prepared to accept him. My hands clenched on the controls in shock, and the plane gave an odd jerk. I cowered in my seat, expecting Gradin to shout at me. Instead, he hit his harness release button, unsealed the hood of his suit and yanked it down, then twisted round in his seat to stare back at Valeska.

  “What are you talking about? I asked you to marry me thirty years ago. You can’t decide to accept me now.”

  “You asked me to marry you twenty-eight years and three months ago,” Valeska corrected him. “I said at the time that I’d need to think about it for a while. I’ve now finished thinking and decided to say yes.”

  “But you married Peregrine after that.” Gradin was kneeling on his seat now, frowning ferociously back at Valeska.

  “That’s true, but my ten year term marriage to Peregrine finished a very long time ago,” said Valeska.

  I coughed nervously. “As the pilot, it’s my responsibility to ensure my passengers are strapped in and wearing sealed impact suits at all times.”

  “Shut up, Jarra!” Gradin turned his head for a moment to snap at me, then glared back at Valeska. “And after your term marriage to Peregrine ended, you married Vladimir!”

  “Again, that’s true,” said Valeska, “but my ten year term marriage to Vladimir ended two years ago, and I’ve decided to marry you now.”

  Gradin made a weird noise as if he was being strangled.

  “You did agree that I could take my time thinking about your offer,” added Valeska.

  “I meant you could think about it for a week or two, not three decades! You’ve been plotting this for weeks, haven’t you? That’s why you kept trying to talk me into going to the stupid re-enactment.”

  “Yes,” said Valeska. “I planned to get a few friends of mine to take you somewhere quiet where we could discuss the idea without interruptions.”

  “You mean that you were going to kidnap me!” Gradin shook his head. “I know you’re a hardened criminal, Valeska, but kidnapping is a bit extreme even for you.”

  “I am not a hardened criminal.” Valeska sounded wounded by his comment.

  “Really? What about that time you stole a crown?”

  I blinked. Valeska had stolen a crown?

  “You know I never stole that crown,” said Valeska. “I just borrowed it to get a replica made.”

  “I’m still not convinced you gave the right one back in the end,” said Gradin. “They looked identical to me.”

  “The idea of replicas is that they look the same as the original, but to an expert eye like mine the sheen of newly manufactured gold is very different from that of a genuine natural gold artefact. Besides, the replica had my name engraved on the bottom, so I definitely gave the right one back.”

  “And then there was that business of the ice cream. You deliberately lied to me and to Sydney Main Dig Site Command, claiming I was doing an air drop of urgently needed equipment. If I’d known it was cake and tubs of ice cream to celebrate your wedding anniversary to Vladimir, then I’d have dumped it in the sea.”

  “I admit that I misled you a little there, George, but it was only once and Vladimir was delighted.”

  “Why go to the lengths of kidnapping me to try to talk me into marrying you anyway?” demanded Gradin. “Why would anyone want to marry someone like me? I’d make a terrible husband.”

  I’d been wondering that myself. By the sound of Valeska’s voice, she’d pulled her hood down like Gradin. I wished I could see the expression on her face, but there was no chance of that when she was sitting directly behind me. I could hear her laughing though.

  “You’ve decided to retire from being a Dig Site Federation pilot because the long hours working in heavy impact suits are becoming too much of a strain. I’ve retired from leading Earth 1 for the same reason. We’ll be able to start the new phases of our lives together. I realize you’ll be a terrible husband, but I see that as an advantage. The problem with both my term marriages, George, was that my husbands were too perfect.”

  “That makes no sense at all,” said Gradin.

  “Of course it does. I was a dreadful wife, totally obsessed with my work as leader of Earth 1. Both Peregrine and Vladimir were incredibly patient with me, which meant I spent most of the time feeling guilty, apologizing, and promising I’d do better in future when I knew I never would.”

  She paused to laugh again. “I’ve decided I’m not making that mistake again. I’m certain that you’ll be just as bad a husband as I am a wife, so I won’t need to apologize or feel guilty about anything. We can argue about each other’s failings as a partner, in exactly the same way that we argue about everything else.”

  “It’s pointless even discussing this,” said Gradin. “You know we have irreconcilable differences when it comes to marriage. I believe in full marriages. You insist on sticking to those ridiculous, limited term, contract marriages.”

  “As it happens, I’ve changed my opinion on that,” said Valeska. “I now agree with you that a full marriage would be best for us. Where would you like to go for our honeymoon, George?”

  I gave a panic-stricken glance at Gradin. “If you two are going to discuss honeymoons, then I really think we should land so you can have this conversation in private.”

  “That’s a good idea,” said Gradin.

  “I forbid you to land this plane, Jarra,” said Valeska. “George is a total coward when it comes to relationships. I knew he’d run away the second I mentioned marriage. That’s why I planned to lure him to the re-enactment, and get a few friends to lock him up somewhere with me, but being in midair like this is even better.”

  “I’m not a coward about relationships, and I’m not running away from anything,” shouted Gradin. “It’s ridiculous to talk about us getting married at our age.”

  Valeska gave a disapproving sniff. “You surely aren’t expecting to use our age as an excuse to wriggle out of this. You’re barely sixty, and I’m ten years younger. That might have been considered a little old in the days before rejuvenation treatments, but now people can expect to live active, healthy lives until they reach their hundredth. We should have at least forty years of happy married life ahead of us.”

  Gradin made the strangled noise again. “Happy married life? Have you forgotten that Twoing contract we had back in 2760? Three solid months of arguing.”

  “But we were arguing about the full marriage issue,” said Valeska, in a soothing voice. “That won’t be a problem in future.”

  “The Twoing contract in 2772 was a disaster as well, we weren’t even on the same continent for most of the time, and the one in 2773 was even worse.”

  “Which Twoing contract in 2773?” asked Valeska.

  “You know I mean the first one,” snapped Gradin. “I don’t count the second one given we split up within two hours of st
arting it.”

  Valeska sighed. “I still think that things could have worked out between us back in 2773 if only you hadn’t been so irrationally jealous of Vladimir.”

  “What? You can’t claim I was being irrationally jealous of Vladimir when you dumped me to marry him.”

  “There was absolutely nothing between me and Vladimir until at least two years after you and I split up,” said Valeska.

  “Hah!” Gradin made an explosive sound of disbelief. “The fact is that all three of our Twoing contracts were complete disasters.”

  “Four Twoing contracts,” said Valeska.

  Gradin waved a hand dismissively. “I told you that I don’t count the second one in 2773.”

  “Well, I count it,” said Valeska, “and crucially so does Earth law since neither of us bothered to dissolve it. Earth law requires a minimum of three prior Twoing contracts, with durations adding up to at least a year, before you can get married. We’ve had four Twoing contracts, each of three months’ duration, so we’ve already satisfied that requirement. We could call Earth Registry right now and get married if you like.”

  Gradin’s face was turning an odd shade of purple. He gasped for air, before managing to speak. “I don’t like!”

  “I realized this situation would come as a bit of a surprise to you, George. I think you should take a few days to adjust to the idea before we discuss it again.”

  “We aren’t discussing this again,” said Gradin. “I’ve made my decision. I’m not marrying you. As soon as we land, you’re going back to Athens. If Jarra’s teacher complains about you not coming along on her flying lessons, I’ll find someone else to do it.”

  “I told you that I’m not going back to Athens,” said Valeska. “The Dig Site Federation has offered me a new position, involving touring dig sites to give training courses to research teams and rescue workers.”

  Gradin shook his head. “If you’re planning to accept this new position, then why the chaos did you suggest marrying me? It would be exactly like that Twoing contract in 2772. You were constantly moving from dig site to dig site, and barely remembering to call me once a week.”

  “I called you every single day during that Twoing contract,” said Valeska. “I kept portalling between continents to visit you as well. We wouldn’t be apart this time anyway. I’ll be spending at least four months on each dig site. My idea is that you forget retiring, become a part-time pilot for the Dig Site Federation instead, and travel around the dig sites with me.”

  “The Dig Site Federation won’t agree to me becoming a part-time pilot,” said Gradin. “I’ve requested it three times already, and been flatly refused every time.”

  Valeska laughed. “Of course they refused you, George. You’ve spent decades annoying every senior official in the Dig Site Federation. They won’t refuse the legendary Valeska Orlova of Earth 1 though. You can marry me, keep all your precious planes, and carry on doing the work you love for whatever number of hours a week suits you. I’m offering you the future of your dreams. You’re a very lucky man.”

  Gradin groaned.

  Chapter Sixteen

  A week later, the history club was driving a line of sleds through New York Fringe training ground 6. It was a perfect summer afternoon, warm without being uncomfortably hot. Since there were no hazards here on the training ground, everyone had their impact suit hoods down to let them enjoy the sunshine.

  I was driving the heavy lift sled at the end of the line, with Landon sitting next to me, while Alund and Wren were perched on the bench seat at the back of the sled. Landon jabbed a finger across at the small, red circle of an emergency evac portal next to training area 6C.

  “I don’t see why we can’t just portal over here to do our training instead of having to drive here.”

  “Can’t you see that emergency evac portal is only big enough for a person to crawl through on their hands and knees?” Wren’s voice was filled with sarcasm. “How do you think we’d get our heavy lift sleds through it? Take them apart and pass them through a piece at a time?”

  I heard Alund laugh, but felt more like whimpering myself. Wren and Landon had had an especially bitter argument four days ago. I’d no idea what it had been about, but it wasn’t just Landon starting fights now. Wren had gone on the offensive, grabbing every chance to insult Landon.

  “I wasn’t suggesting that we’d drive the sleds through the portals with us,” said Landon. “I was thinking that New York Fringe could keep some sleds here. Then people could portal in, use the sleds to do their training, and portal back to their domes.”

  “Again, people can’t use evac portals to travel around the dig site.” Wren’s voice was even more sarcastic now. “Emergency evac portals do exactly what their name suggests, Landon. They’re the cheapest possible type of portal, just used to evacuate the dig site in an emergency. You can’t choose your destination. They just dump you out of New York Fringe to somewhere like a casualty unit.”

  “That’s a stupid system,” said Landon. “They should have proper portals here.”

  “It’s not the system that’s stupid,” said Wren. “It’s you. It would cost a fortune to scatter proper portals all across an area the size of New York Fringe.”

  “I didn’t say they should have proper portals everywhere, baby Wren. I said they should have proper portals here at the training ground.”

  “You can stop calling me baby!” snapped Wren.

  “I’ll stop calling you baby when you stop calling me stupid!”

  “Calm down, both of you,” I interrupted the argument. “There’s a simple reason New York Fringe doesn’t leave expensive equipment like hover sleds here to be used in training. If someone damaged a sled, like the time one of the history club spilt Fizzup on a sensor sled’s controls, they’d sneak off without admitting it.”

  “It’s not just that Landon doesn’t know about the evac portals.” Wren gave an angry shake of her head. “He doesn’t seem to know anything about dig sites at all. I don’t understand how he managed even a minimum pass score on his gold safety award.”

  “Yes, I only scraped a pass on my gold safety award, while you were highly commended.” Landon was shouting now. “You point that out at least ten times a day. All it proves is that I’m not as obsessive as you.”

  “It’s not that I’m obsessive,” Wren yelled back at him. “It’s that you don’t pay attention. We’ve been at New York Fringe for eleven days now, and Jarra’s been training us every afternoon. Alund and I have nearly completed our heavy lift sled training exercises, but you can’t even drive a sled in a straight line yet.”

  Alund was a quiet boy, who’d been staying out of the Landon and Wren conflict. I was surprised to hear him suddenly join in on Wren’s side.

  “I’m getting tired of this too. The three of us have been spending every morning watching the others working on the dig site. Wren and I are desperately keen to start doing real excavation work ourselves, but Landon’s going to keep us stuck on this training ground all summer.”

  “We could be working on the dig site already,” said Wren, “if it wasn’t for Landon being so lazy and useless.”

  “Stop insulting me!” shouted Landon.

  Technically, my position as club captain only entitled me to intervene to stop bullying, and this wasn’t a case of Landon bullying Wren any longer. If anything, she was the one bullying him. I didn’t care whether this counted as bullying or not though. I’d just suffered a whole morning of listening to Gradin and Valeska arguing, and was in no mood to listen to my trainees screaming insults at each other.

  “Quiet, both of you!” I ordered.

  Landon shook his head. “Wren is being a ...”

  “Quiet, Landon!” I yelled at the top of my voice. “If I hear one more word from you, I’ll throw you off this sled and make you walk to our training area.”

  Landon gave a heavy sigh, but grudgingly went quiet. We drove on in silence past more training areas, until the line of sleds stop
ped next to the flat expanse that was training area 6G.

  I parked our sled, jumped down to the ground, and waved at the rest of the history club. I could see Crozier sitting on the lead transport sled, unmistakable in his green impact suit and baseball cap. He waved back to me, and I heard a background click as he joined comms channel 3 for a moment.

  “We’ll be back to collect you in two and a half hours, Jarra.”

  “Good luck with the excavation work,” I replied.

  There was another click as he left our comms channel. I watched the other sleds drive off down the track into the ruins, and then turned to where my little team of three had gathered in front of the heavy lift sled to wait for instructions.

  “Landon has been making very slow progress at using heavy lift sleds,” I said. “I know the other two of you find that very frustrating, it’s frustrating for me too, but you must be patient and polite about it. If Crozier joins our comms channel and hears you shouting insults at each other, then you’ll all be thrown out of the history club.”

  Wren gave a groan of despair.

  I ignored her and kept talking. “You don’t have to worry about being kept here on the training ground any longer. Crozier told me that as soon as you were competent using heavy lift sleds, I could take you to do some very simple excavation work alongside the rest of the history club. I’ll talk to him tonight, explain the problem, and tell him I want us to start working on the dig site tomorrow afternoon.”

  Landon scowled at me, but Wren and Alund were looking hopeful now.

  “My plan is that I’ll have Wren working a heavy lift sled to move rubble for me for the first hour,” I continued. “Alund can move rubble for the second hour. I’ll spend the remaining time working with Landon on the basics of using a heavy lift sled.”

  “Do you think Crozier will agree to that?” asked Alund.

  I nodded. “Crozier can’t let us drive sleds through the dig site alone, so the rest of the history club have to make detours on the way to and from their excavation to bring us to the training ground and collect us afterwards. Spending more time here waiting for Landon to catch up wouldn’t just be frustrating for us, but waste precious working time for the whole history club.”