Slipper Fourteen felt like home today; no longer an alien environment to be worried about but a friendly 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 her by dint of the ear bud, and that not often; she'd wondered these last five flights if he monitored her at all.

The craft's cockpit was incredibly tiny, hardly more than a stiffly padded layback seat and some hand controls and pedals yoked to the airfoils, with a tight-sealed canopy a hands-width in front of her face that let the wind slip past. Boarding it was like slipping into her proper skin.

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 the other instruments.

Otto El, the glider instructor, insisted each trainee bring and mount their own slip-string; just as he insisted that each trainee personally inspect the craft before each take-off 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 during field check."

By the third class they'd lost two of their class members, one apparently to home-sickness and other to something Asu darkly called a "messed up Code Tenfiftysix" -- but there, Asu had been in three much larger classes with the boy. The result was that Pilot El was pleased to go on an accelerated one-on-one with the remaining three.

"We can all move to the power segments much faster – and you three, very soon, will be able 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 ride, and maybe a chance to ride the front wave down Kirky's Range.

"Academy Flight GT S14 ," came the bored trainee's 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 the roomie 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 Anlingdon security weaknesses....

"Mark, thank you, GT S14, acknowledges."

Theo watched the silly slip-string as she raised the nose a bit, allowing the tow rope just a bit of slack and then just a bit more and then 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 also bore to the right, and she sighed.

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, Anlingdon 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-gray 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 set here, because I can see 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 the Wall did it....

She laughed again, as she scanned the sky, 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; 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 .... 16 minutes, unless I get an updraft."

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

Eyes darting away for the screen, there was 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."

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

"GT S14 here, please acknowledge..."

"Can you?" Overrode her words and then "El here. That's tricky Waitely, lots of updrafts. Acknowledge."

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

"I can. If you want me down quickest. Acknowledge."

Again a pause, but now she realized he 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."

"Acknowledged."

*

She'd cruised distantly along the standing wave the mountains created, once before, 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; side-slipping 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 intermittently rate-change numbers were spoke by the automaton. 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, and closer to the mountain with each second. Designed for simple soaring the great wings seemed to chuckle, the sound unnerving, as they trembled in the troubled air column.

More than three minutes had passed according to the ships chronometer; she was sweating, still listening for the call to abort, still 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 the work would really begin.

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 admired so much now feeling as much 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 and momentarily ... there!

The top of the plateau appeared to her left and she side-slipped the craft in that direction, fighting a wicked cross wind that wanted to twist the wings.

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

"Not great, Theo," she said out loud, "not great."

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

"Waitley, GT S14," she said, "Setting down immediately."

She almost did that, 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, where the plane came to rest on an incline that became a slope that ran out into the abyss below. Distantly there was the blur of green that was flat land.

"GT S14 here. Down." That was out loud, and so was the reply:

"Waitley, El acknowledging GT S14 down on Kirk'ys Range. Now, if you can pop that canopy, get out of the plane and find yourself a 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 as she tumbled out of the plane: a strange chunking noise like one of Father's old auto engines gone wrong, and then whoosh and another round of the chunking noises.

A bright side-wise flash caught her eye: aircraft in the sun. Not just one, but a group of three or four. Now five. They were nearly as high as she was She wondered if they were there looking for her, but then --

The chunking noise came again and she saw bright red streams of fiery dots blast from one of the jets, and then from another; there was another bright flash then and the lead plane roared low over head, trailing smoke and debris, while the others....

Understanding rushed through her: this was the emergency!

She flung herself between two boulders as the other planes flashed by, and from the corner of her eye she caught a multiple flash, turning her head in time to see the lead plane, already well on the other side of the mountain ridge, explode in a and fall out of her line of sight.

* * * * * * * *

"Do you know what they've done? They've stolen my safety! They ransacked my security! They've..."

Theo stood stock still, closing her eyes against the noise. She'd been interviewed three times by officials. Her bonafides had been checked at least three times. She'd had very little to eat for the last half-day, was tired, and she needed to put her day bag down before she used it as a weapon.

Chelly's door was closed, and Theo strode past it, wondering what was going on now. She'd anticpated being asked questions, not being beset --

"I told you. I told you these people weren't good at security. Did you think we needed a Checksec? No. Does our senior leader think we need a Checksec? No. So what are we going to do about ..."

Theo barged on by Asu, sweeping into the bedroom and swinging her bag in one motion to the top bunk.

"I mean, here they call a campus security alert and ask everyone to stay in room and then they won't even answer a simple theft call..."

Theo turned, suddenly, and Asu stepped back.

"He's right, you know? When you do that you do look like you're looking for a fight ..."

Asu started, backed against the door.

He stood there in person suddenly, gingerly stepping in from his room, his face an uncertain mask of tight muscles under blotched skin, framing tired eyes. Uncharacteristically he wore a sleeveless workout shirt – he'd been doing his best to keep the formal edge on his attire ever since he'd been invited to join the --

Theo couldn't remember what it was called right now; it was a bunch of gonnabe commanders, all at work being official.

His hands were carefully neutral, as were his shoulders.

"I just got word that you'd been released, Waitley" he said quietly. "The rumor was that you'd been shot down, or crashed on the mountain. Is there anything we can do for you?"

In the quiet almost a snarl of rage: Asu.

"The rumor was what? Why didn't you tell me? What is going on?"

Theo moved, slowly, hands also carefully neutral, only half suppressing the sigh she felt weighing on her.

"Yes, Chelly, you can do something for me. Break out some cheese and biscuits, make some tea. I'm not gonna take this stuff they gave me, if I can help it; I got math first thing in the morning and I need to stay sharp."

"Tea. Tea." He said it like it was an alien concept.

Asu shut up and looked between the pair of them as if she just now recognized that Chelly and Theo were both distressed, and not about the Checksec.

"Yes", she said then, "I see!" She hurried out of the room, calling out, "I know your tea-setting, Theo. Chelly, you get some biscuits; if you need to you can open my cheese."

Theo sat on Asu's bunk, slowly pulling off her shoes and her socks. Who knew that the ancient wooden floor in Erkes would feel so good to bare feet?

***

Author's note:

When you're working with a modest or even immodest cold and feel fluish, you miss things. We need to get more of the force of
gravity into this at some point, and also need to add the sense of smell. Just because we can't smell anything here doesn't mean
Theo misses the scent of the cockpit, the smell of the open air, the familiarity of her room ... but rough drafts are like that.

Go on to Chapter Five after noon, February 25

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