The King Six sighed, or maybe it was Theo.  Systems counted their fingers and toes one more time, reporting in to the pilot so she could shut them down or bank them as needed; the only oddity was waiting for her passengers to finish gathering themselves together ...and that was an odd thought, because she'd never had passengers before.

    For someone who'd vowed to sleep through the return trip, her co-pilot had been awful active.  He'd watched without comment as Theo used the plane's credit to top off the tanks, heard her call in an amended flight plan to avoid a towering storm predicted for Lake Sawya, and carried on  a running hand-talk conversation with Veradantha the entire time they were on the runway and lifting to cruise. 

    For that matter, he'd periodically turn during the flight, chattering by hand for extended periods that seemed to have nothing to do with the progress of the flight. Veradantha's fingers were often active on her small keyboard, the tiny rhythmic clicks distinct in the plane's otherwise steady aural background. When the click's stopped, that was when the instructor would hold forth.

    At one point, in fact, she turned her head to pointedly look at him, since his level of discussion had gone from active to agitated, and the motion was distracting. She'd caught what might have been inadequate preparatory curriculum but, given the syntax and motion of the single hand doing the work of two, could just as well have been weakly unbaked circles.

    To his credit he signed apologies to the ship, I'll rest now, which she'd also acknowledged with a quick one-handed yes thanks, but in fact only a few moments later, after a spate of clicking from the back seat, he was again signing, albeit in a more subdued manner.

    The amended flight plan the King Six followed put it over the continent's largest lake, where the venerated and light-spangled Thirty Islands could be paralleled but not flown directly over.  The sky was clear enough that she could see lights below and stars above, and if she'd wished she could easily have flown entirely by eye, ignoring the trackline on GPS as each island's distinctive shape showed clearly. This part was fun as she threaded the needle in several places, making sure the while she was both above minimum attitude and between the noisier flight modes, and enjoying the comfortable g-forces of the banking turns.  
 
    Approaching the last of the islands, though, she found the plane gaining altitude suddenly, and a column of cloud leapt out of the darkness, enveloping them, as the sigh of air passing the plane changed timbre.

    The plane bounced about as she brought it level and began descending very gradually, the while keeping the variometer a focus.  The plane behaved itself really well when they hit a quick burst of rain and hail that clattered and startled her, and they were through, the ship on course but tending downward ...

    It was then that Veradantha spoke, gently, from her place:

    "We often forget, when we fly, that valleys and channels well below us are mirrored in the sky. You have flown through what some call 'the smoker.'  You will look it up and send me me your reaction in the morning, if you please."

    The variometer telling tales, she nodded, and increased throttle, watching the crosswind which threatened to bring the ship uncomfortably close to the no fly zone.

    Advertency won out and by then it was time to run a check of the back-up instruments, and the flight resumed the comfortable silence, enlivened until the end with the near random burst of hand-talk and the low clicks of Veradantha's fingers on pad.



    They filed through the small terminal, yos' Senchul's "Follow me if you will, Waitely" recognized as more of an order than a request.

    The instructor passed by the operations desk, pulling a swipe-key and waving them all into a brightly lit conference room with a sweeping bow after he unlocked it.

    Theo shivered, belatedly realizing that it was cool and damp outside, something she'd not noticed when leaving the plane ticking to itself. Maybe it was the hour, too, or concern.

    Theo sat, and Veradantha did beside her at a table, pulling out her ubiquitous timer.  The flight instructor paced, hand making gestures that were not quite signs, shoulders moving with a rhythm and beat – with a shock of recognition she realized with was a calming thing, a tension reliever. Jen Sar sometimes --

    "The thing is, Waitely, that you're dangerous." The words were spoken gently, which concerned her greatly.

    Theo sat forward and steeled herself, admitting "I don't understand."

    He used his hand for emphasis and said again, "You're dangerous. We, between us, have seen you tonight to be an adequate and more than adequate pilot for one of your flight-time, background, and training, At flying, you're precocious, as your flight in the sailplane showed. That's not dangerous, that's good." 

    Theo sat back a little, unmollified.

    "Precocity has pitfalls, Theo Waitely," said Veradantha from beside her, "which I know myself from myself, and which I have agreed with Orn Ald we know for you."

    The old woman tapped the table twice and went on, speaking as much to the wall as to Theo or the flight instructor. Theo watched her face, drawn to the precise way Veradantha was moving, as if she were recalling and acting out something rather than merely talking.

    "You see, when unfettered, you walk as a pilot of experience does.  With confidence. With power. With, let us say, with the air of one infinitely able to cope."

    Theo sat straighter, to marshal her thoughts and words, and began to..

    Crack!

    Theo was startled to the point of rising, twisting up and out of the chair, turning toward the danger ...

    Yos' Senchul made the noise again, slapping his hand flat on the table, all the while watching her.

    The counselor went on as if nothing had happened, or as if this was choreographed between her mentors.

    "And you react so quickly as if you are threatened. Part of this is because you are fast, and you are strong, and you are young. Part, I do not know. It may be that your genes are at work, or your hormones are balanced in such a way. Perhaps you are, pardon me, frightened. As calm as you are dealing with your flying, as alert and accurate, you are not quite so good with ordinary things."

    Her hand motion was barely perceptible, but yos' Senchul began speaking immediately.

    "This is why you are dangerous, Theo Waitely, because your presentation is often one of being prepared at all times to escalate discussion to disagreement, disagreement to confrontation."

    Now Theo stiffened, and started "But I don't mean to ..."

    He held up his hand, the wait  signed as well as intimated.

    "Yes, that is the problem. You don't mean to be fast, but you do mean to walk as if you are infinite. This problem will need to be addressed quickly, because as you learn and become even more of a pilot than you are you will be on flight-decks where people will misjudge you to be arrogant, to be pushing, to be trying to provoke. Why seem you to have this attitude... is something you will need to work on... have you an idea?"

    Theo sat back, eyes glancing here and there around the room as she searched her mind for an answer, overturning mental bookcases and tables, allowing the instructor to perhaps be right before ...

    She sighed, eventually, and settled back into the chair, letting it support her back.

    "Delgado," she said with an air of finality.   "Delgado is a bully."

    There was silence and then the small sound of Veradantha, chuckling.

    "Theo Waitely, I think perhaps you are correct.  And so if I agree, and say 'Delgado is a bully' I ask you to know that so is Terra, and so is Liad, and so is Jankalim and Theopholis. And I will posit something more: the planets in their orbits are not the source of your discontent, but nonetheless you are correct. It is culture that is the bully, which is something many of the better pilots learn. Again you are precocious."

    Yos' Senchul pulled a chair to him absently with his leg and sat down as he began something in hand-talk...and moved quickly to voice.

    Something to start now, something for next time "What we can do, now, is to make sure you do not isolate yourself so much.  Take the opportunity to be with others outside of class.  Do your dancing class, maybe join the cultural diversity club."

    Theo nodded briefly before admitting "I haven't done real well with clubs, historically.    That Delgado bully-thing again.  I mean, people thought it was strange that we lived in Jen Sar's house, instead of in the Wall. They thought it was strange that Kamele didn't...switch her onagrata at all. And, and I knew all along he was my father, but it was like it was supposed to be some special adult secret.   And then, I got put in the class for misfits... and so I didn't fit. I'm not ..."

    "Misfit?" said yos' Senchul experimentally. "Misfit. What a useful word."

    Theo looked hard into his face, but he was apparently serious, as he tried to form the word with his hand at the same time.

    Veradantha tapped the table briefly for attention.
      
    "What we would like you to consider, Theo Waitely, is this idea.  This semester is well in progress, and your schedules should not be altered yet again. Go to classes, take some time for these clubs and activities."

    Here she paused, tapping on the desk quietly, and then nodding to herself befor going on'

    "It is not that you need to be popular, but that you need to watch and learn to be less, let us say strident.  Speak with me again soon – I will send an appointment to you – and then we will craft for you a schedule allowing a less general curriculum. You will be wishing to take these courses: advanced trade language.  Cultural diversity courses, and ..."

    Theo could feel the tiredness seeping through, and hear herself talking before she meant to speak.

    "But I'm easy with other cultures! I am not ignorant. My father teaches cultural genetics, and he hosts students; I have been ....'   

    HOLD!

    The flight instructor rose, signed day of many parts, this over soon.
 
    In a very gentle voice he continued, with a casual if I may signed toward Veradantha.

    "What we seek is to make sure you will be adequately prepared for the sophonts who are not prepared for you.  Your dance will help, as will some more language training, and something – we shall discuss these points, all of us when we have day less busy around us --  something so that you do not present as quite so busy, quite so much on the verge of taking action, at all times. "

    Veradantha broke in then, with some energy.

    "We wish to also remove you from the petty local politics as much as we may.  Now some, like the excellent Mr. Frosher, they have the way of it.  He will be an adequate pilot, I am sure, but he has a path in mind, one that involves administration, one that is also likely to be local. It is not surprising he came close to the edge of things, and it is not entirely surprising that he has survived and grown from it.  Eventually he may grow to be a functionary of some merit." 

    "But you do not wish to study the tables of dead grandfathers, nor to be liable for not knowing them.  This thing with Wilsmyth is built partly of history you do not know, and assumptions he does not realize he carries.  This is what we wish to minimize for you. And for the school, to."

    "With your consent we shall construct for you an independent study option. I suggest a goal as an outworlds pilot, perhaps a courier-grade freelancer or the like. You will need to study ships, but start tomorrow and not tonight.  You will need some more languages – start tomorrow and not this night. We shall also see what we might find on-world for your off-time between semesters, unless you will wish to return to Delgado forthe break..."

    Theo saw the quirking of the mouth for what it was and managed a laugh and a quick sign abort that launch.

    Then she yawned despite herself.

    Preliminary accept  Theo signed as she started to stand. She was too tired to do more, and sonehow, something had been decided.
   
    "We have started tonight," she suggested."We will start more tomorrow."