I watched them for a few minutes, and then couldn’t resist calling Playdon on the private circuit. ‘Permission to speak, sir?’
‘Yes, Jarra?’
‘I saw there was a survey plane at the back of the storage dome, sir. I wondered if there was any chance of us flying it.’
‘I’m afraid not. I haven’t got a pilot’s licence.’
‘Actually, sir,’ I said. ‘I happen to have one.’
‘You’ve got a pilot’s licence?’ Playdon sounded startled. ‘How did you manage that? I thought Military pilots started their training at the Military Academy rather than at school.’
‘I got my pilot’s licence at New York Fringe, sir. I was with a school trip there seven months ago, and Fringe was doing a complete new site survey. I’d managed to cadge rides on survey planes before, but this time I was 17 so the pilot could get me through my mandatory hours and qualified to solo.’
‘I see,’ said Playdon thoughtfully. ‘So you picked up your tag leader knowledge on the Fringe. When did you start going there?’
‘Well, Fringe and other places too, sir. I’ve had three trips to Fringe. The first was when I was 11.’
‘11! The University only works on New York Main of course. The Fringe is much safer, so I knew they didn’t insist on the minimum age of 18, but I’d no idea they let people in that young. The site rules must surely still apply to a Military school party.’
‘Fringe minimum requirement isn’t age related, but having your gold safety award. You need qualified adult team leaders of course.’
‘Amazing,’ he murmured. ‘I wish I’d known this before the Cassandra 2 rescue. I’d have felt slightly less guilty about letting you take the risks of tag leading it. You were right that it was safer for everyone if I was on sensors and watching the team, but I still nearly had a heart attack when that girder fell, not to mention when you dived down that hole to tag the failing suit.’
He paused for a moment. ‘I’ll ask Dig Site Command about the survey plane.’
There were several minutes of silence while he talked on another channel, then he was back again. ‘Dig Site Command are delighted to help a new pilot keep up their practice time, and would like you to run a few survey legs to update their dig site mosaic while you’re up there. Make sure you run full diagnostics and power checks pre launch, because the plane may have been gathering dust a while.’
‘Thank you, sir.’ I grinned joyously inside my impact suit. ‘Would you like to come along for the ride?’
‘No thank you,’ said Playdon hastily. ‘I’m sure you’re a competent pilot, but … Don’t spread this around, but I’m scared of heights. Take one of the others if you like.’
‘Thank you, sir.’ I dashed off to where Fian was standing watching team 2 work on the dome. ‘Fian, this is zan, Playdon is letting me take up the survey plane.’
‘What?’ Fian gasped.
‘Would you like a ride?’
‘Me? Go up there?’ He pointed at the sky. ‘If something goes wrong, how do you get down? Does it have portals?’
‘No,’ I admitted. ‘You have to jump out.’
‘Jump?’ He gulped.
‘You wear a special hover tunic, which would slow your fall, and the impact suit protects you when you hit the ground, but you shouldn’t have to jump. I’m a qualified pilot.’
‘I’m sure you are …’ He sounded terrified.
‘It was only an offer, and you don’t have to accept,’ I reassured him. ‘If you don’t fancy it, I can take one of the others.’
‘Oh no,’ said Fian. ‘I’m not staying on the ground worrying about Krath or Joth being up there with you.’
I laughed and headed into the sled storage dome. It took several minutes to get Fian and me into our tunics and settled into our seats in the survey plane, and then I ran two sets of in depth diagnostic and power checks. The system log said the plane hadn’t moved in nearly a year, so I was taking no chances.
Finally, I engaged hovers and started the plane moving out through the double doors. By now team 3 were building the mobile dome, but when the class saw the plane they abandoned work and came over to take a look. Planes aren’t left open like sleds, they have closed cockpits, so I could only hear what they were saying on the team circuit.
‘Is that a plane?’ asked Krath.
‘Yes,’ said Playdon. ‘Jarra has a pilot’s licence. She’s going to fly a little survey.’
‘Zan!’ said Krath. ‘Can I have a ride?’
‘Only one passenger seat,’ said Fian smugly, ‘and I’m in it!’
‘That’s unfair,’ complained Krath. ‘We should draw lots to decide who goes up.’
‘I don’t want to go up there,’ said Amalie.
‘Nor me,’ said Joth.
‘It’s pilot’s choice,’ said Playdon.
‘I need my tag support,’ I said.
‘Everyone over to one side out of the way, please,’ said Playdon. ‘Jarra, let Dig Site Command know you’re ready. Use broadcast channel. We always use that for plane launches so people aren’t taken by surprise when a plane goes over.’
I positioned the plane to have a nice clear run ahead of me, and nervously opened broadcast channel. Painfully aware that the whole of New York Main would hear me, I tried to sound calm and professional. ‘This is Asgard 6 survey plane. Requesting link up to mosaic feed, and clearance to launch.’
‘This is Dig Site Command. Opening link to mosaic data feed now. Asgard 6, you are clear to launch survey plane.’
Fian gulped and hung on to his seat.
I closed broadcast channel, hit the thrusters, and we shot forward. ‘Hoo eee!’ I shouted joyously as I pulled back on the stick. We soared upwards and then banked left to circle over the domes and our class below. I gave them a wave.
‘It’s a long way down,’ said Fian in a shaky voice. ‘A long, long way down.’
‘We’re still lower than some of the ruined towers.’ I climbed for more height and did one more circle over the domes.
‘They look like ants down there,’ said Fian.
I banked right now, flying over the dig site to the survey start location that was flashing on one of my screens, and spoke on broadcast channel again. ‘This is Asgard 6 survey plane. Approaching survey start point and opening image transmission now. Are we green?’
‘This is Dig Site Command. Image transmission is green.’
I closed broadcast channel as I went through my survey start point and started flying the first leg across the site.
‘What are we doing exactly?’ asked Fian.
‘Taking aerial images and scans. They go into Dig Site Command’s system and get patched together to make the dig site map mosaic.’
‘That’s the thing Playdon uses to project site models and decide where we should work?’
‘That’s right,’ I said. ‘They need to update it every now and then because of things like buildings collapsing or being demolished. Danger levels change when buildings come down.’
‘Amaz,’ said Fian. ‘It’s really weird being up here, and actually collecting the data for that. I’d never even seen a plane before.’
‘They had much bigger planes than this back in pre-history,’ I said happily. ‘Until they invented the portal, people used planes for long distance transport. They had planes that could carry hundreds of people at a time, and went faster than the speed of sound. Once they invented the portal, of course they didn’t need them anymore. Now we only have a few specialist aircraft for jobs like this and the emergency services.’
Fian didn’t say anything.
‘They used satellites out in space to do surveys like this back then. They used them for communications, and to monitor the weather too. Once they had portals, and created the comms network, those gradually all fell apart. Now we only have the Solar Watch satellites.’
Fian still didn’t say anything.
I turned the plane to fly the second survey leg. I hoped Fian wasn’t going
to be air sick. The pilot who taught me to fly said people can sometimes be sick, and being sick in an impact suit is nasty. The suit takes care of it enough to stop you choking but …
‘How are you feeling, Fian?’
‘I was absolutely terrified, but now I’m just incredibly scared.’
I laughed. ‘I was a bit scared the first time I got a ride in a plane. I was really relieved to be back on the ground again. The next time was much more fun.’
‘I think this trip is enough for me to cope with at the moment, without worrying about another one,’ said Fian. ‘Promise me that we stay at ground level tomorrow. We are spending tomorrow together, aren’t we? If you go off with Krath, I’ll sulk.’
I sighed. ‘Why do you keep saying things like that? You can’t seriously think I’m interested in the idiot, Krath.’
‘Of course not,’ Fian said. ‘I just keep mentioning him in the hope that you’ll say something about me being more intelligent and handsome than he is. That’s not asking for much. A Herculean marsh crawler is brighter and better looking than Krath. You could even say a few more affectionate things to me. I’m a nice contract boy from Hercules, but I promise I wouldn’t be shocked if things got a little personal.’
I giggled. ‘I’m not good at saying emotional stuff.’
‘I’d noticed that,’ said Fian. ‘Of course, you might improve with practice, and I’m perfectly willing to let you practice on me. What are we doing tomorrow?’
‘I thought we could go to the zoo.’
‘They have zoos here?’
‘They have zoos everywhere.’
‘But why?’ said Fian. ‘I mean Hercules has a zoo with Earth animals because it’s part of our cultural heritage, but why do they need one on Earth?’
‘How many Earth animals have you seen here?’
‘Some wolves and some deer. I see what you mean.’
‘We can go somewhere else if you prefer,’ I offered.
‘No, I like zoos,’ said Fian. ‘I belong to Zoolink.’
‘Me too,’ I said. ‘America is a big continent, so I thought we should go to Zoo America South. It will be a lot warmer there.’
‘I’m looking forward to it,’ said Fian. ‘Almost as much as I’m looking forward to being on the ground again.’
‘Once we’ve finished our survey we can land. Or we could stop up a bit longer and give you flying lessons.’
‘No, thank you,’ said Fian, hastily. ‘Perhaps next time.’
When we landed, he did his kissing the ground act again. It didn’t work so well when he was wearing an impact suit.
22
‘This is going to be a romantic day,’ said Fian, as we entered the dining hall next morning. ‘Just you, me, and twenty-six members of the class.’
I giggled.
‘Only Lolia and Lolmack have gone somewhere by themselves, and that’s to see Lolette.’
‘Civilians,’ I said, sadly. ‘No initiative.’
Fian pulled a face of long suffering martyrdom. ‘So I have to spend all day watching the lowlife, Krath, make advances towards you, and listening to him repeat his dad’s stupid ideas?’
I gave him a suspicious look. ‘Are you really upset, or just pretending?’
‘I’m a bit disappointed,’ he said. ‘Our first chance to spend a whole day together alone, and we have twenty-six gate crashers tagging along.’
‘Look on the bright side, with twenty-eight of us portalling together, the portal price per head is so low that they practically owe us money for travelling. Anyway, I have a plan.’ I lowered my voice to a whisper. ‘When we get to the zoo, I send them all for ice cream and we run and hide. They must be capable of portalling back on their own.’
Fian brightened up.
I clapped my hands loudly. ‘Zoo time!’ I shouted, and led the mob to the portal room. I entered the code for Zoo America South, and the portal started talking to us.
‘Warning,’ it said, ‘your destination has an admission charge that will be debited from your personal account together with the charge for this journey.’ It listed the admission charges. ‘Members of Zoolink Federation are admitted free,’ it concluded. The portal appeared and the 28 of us went through in an orderly line.’
‘Warmth,’ said Dalmora happily. ‘Utter blizz.’
There was bright sunshine here, with a gentle breeze blowing. It was a complete contrast to the icy, bleak landscape back at the dig site.
‘Oh, I like this,’ said Amalie, looking round at the lawns, flowerbeds, and huge clear domes that showed more plants inside. ‘I’ve never been to a zoo. We haven’t got one at home yet, but it’s on the planetary development plan for five years time.’
Since Amalie was from Epsilon, we were getting used to that sort of remark from her. It was just like all the jokes about Epsilon. Her first month at school had been spent helping to build it. The Epsilon planets would be really great places in about ten years time, but right now most things were still in flexiplas sections waiting to be assembled.
‘First of all,’ I said, ‘let’s get ice cream. There must be ice cream dispensers near the portals.’
Everybody looked round. ‘Over there,’ said Krath. ‘What would you like, Jarra?’
‘Chocolate, please.’
Krath’s eyes flickered towards Fian, as if he was expecting to get a protest from him. ‘Coming right up.’
He led a massed charge towards the ice cream supplies. Fian and I waited ten seconds, then ran down a path past a dome and hid behind a large bush.
‘Did we lose them?’ asked Fian.
‘I think so,’ I said. ‘Do you realize, I just made the ultimate sacrifice for you. Chocolate ice cream!’
‘I’m worth it,’ said Fian. ‘Some things can be even better than chocolate ice cream. Allow me to demonstrate.’
We shared an embrace that was interrupted by my lookup chiming for an emergency call. I hastily pulled it out, rather worried. ‘If that’s Krath messing about trying to find us, I’ll strangle him.’
‘I hope your family are all right,’ said Fian.
‘It’s a call from Issette.’ I accepted the call.
I was relieved to see Issette grinning away on the screen. ‘Jarra! Jarra! News!’ She waved her left hand, showing a ring. ‘We’re Twoing.’
‘What!’ I matched her grin. ‘You and Keon? That’s wonderful. However did you get him to make the effort?’
Keon’s head bobbed into view. ‘Issette’s much less effort if you keep her happy. They only let you have three months on the first contract. Next time, I want a year contract to save having to bother for a bit.’
Issette spotted Fian standing next to me, and her eyebrows went up. ‘Who’s the Arrack San Domex look alike?’ she whispered.
I put a finger to my lips. ‘Shhh.’
I was too late of course. Issette always did have a penetrating whisper. She used to get in trouble at school, when the teachers overheard her using their unflattering nicknames. I was usually the one she was talking to when she did it, so I got in trouble too.
‘I’m Fian,’ said Arrack San Domex’s stand in.
Issette’s eyes went from him to me, and back again, in eager speculation, then her face suddenly changed. ‘He’s not one of them, is he?’ Her hand shot to her mouth, and she gave an apologetic look at Fian. ‘Sorry.’
That was typical of Issette too. Speak first, think later.
‘I quite understand.’ Fian grinned. ‘I am indeed, as you phrase it, one of them.’
‘I didn’t mean any harm,’ said Issette. ‘It was just a shock. Jarra has always been rather critical about you … people.’
I groaned, but had to admit it was true. I can be a bit withering about civilians.
‘I know,’ said Fian. ‘On our first day on the dig site, it was quite clear that Jarra knew everything and felt the rest of us were completely incompetent. She even orders Lecturer Playdon around.’
Issette giggled. ‘Jarra knows everyt
hing about history and dig sites because she’s obsessive. She’s always trying to lecture me, and she can be really pushy. You have to be firm with her.’
‘I wouldn’t dare,’ said Fian. ‘She warned us on the first day that if anyone got out of line, she’d throw them across the room. I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near her, but I needed protecting from a Betan girl who was making comments about my legs.’
Issette had another giggling fit. ‘Jarra threw Cathan across the room on Year Day. It was totally zan! He’s still sulking about it.’
‘She hasn’t thrown me across the room yet,’ said Fian, ‘but I live in hope.’
‘You want to be thrown across rooms?’ Keon was intrigued enough to make the effort to ask a question.
‘Only gently,’ said Fian. ‘I don’t want broken bones, but I’m a Stalea of the Jungle fan. You know it?’
‘Yes,’ said Keon, ‘but Stalea’s not my type. Dominating women are too much effort for me, but if you like that kind of girl then Jarra is ideal for you.’
I sighed heavily. ‘I’m not that bad.’
‘Oh yes you are,’ chorused the other three in unison.
‘I think you two are great together, but …’ Issette hesitated. ‘You’ve talked through the potential future problems?’
We hadn’t of course. I’d briefly considered the complications if I got involved with a civilian, but I hadn’t talked about it with Fian. ‘It’s a bit early days for that,’ I said.
‘Oh no it isn’t,’ said Fian. ‘I’m a nice contract boy from Delta sector, and Jarra’s intentions had better be honourable. I expect Twoing contracts, and marriage one day, as well as being thrown gently across rooms and pinned to the floor!’
I went pink, but Issette and Keon were loving this.
‘We’re both planning to do a practical pre-history degree, but I realize I may have to make a few compromises after that,’ said Fian, cheerfully. ‘I’m sure we can work things out. My main worry at the moment is that Jarra is planning to teach me to fly.’
‘What!’ Issette shook her head. ‘Don’t tell me she got her hands on a plane again. If you don’t want to fly then just say no.’