DCCT was housed about as far away as it was possible to get from the rest of the campus and still be in the residential zone; that was her destination after her last scheduled  class for the school week.

    Theo walked instead of taking the shuttle, sure that some of her classmates were letting the ease of a quick ride stifle their need to move. How they could expect to keep reaction time up while being sluggards was beyond her.

    She'd had defensive dance early, which was a good thing, because she'd woken up wide awake a moment before the timer went off, dreaming  the ship-route math she'd studied the night before in prep for lab. That had been happening of late, the dreaming about classes, especially math, like she'd finally cleared some cobwebs and gotten to work. The promise of independent study was a good motivator, and she felt almost like she owed Wilsmyth thanks for that now-healed gash on the side of her head.

    Another reason she liked this particular walk, now that she'd discovered it, was that it gave a good view of the planes on final approach to the airfield.  A few days before she'd seen a really awkward turn-in and approach, while high and away between the field and the mountain a pair of soar-planes were riding brilliant in the aqua sky.  She had seen a couple of her landings on video and was really glad that none looked as nervous as that one had, which ended more in a series of bounces than a proper landing.

    That was the problem, of course – lots of people could see it – and later in the day there was talk of yet another of the locals being sent home before school end. It was eerie the way the school population seemed to be thinning out as the final grading period approached.

    Unexpectedly, she heard voices ahead of her where the path rounded a copse of lush red brambleberry, and had to stop in place to avoid being run down when a group of fast-moving DCCT members appeared, filling the walk, Kara in the lead.

    "Theo, just in time! You're going the wrong way!"

    Kara stopping halted the whole team, familiar faces and unfamiliar together.

    Theo signed blankly none there, pointing toward the dorm parapet rising above the trees in the distance.

    "Might be, but there's a ship coming in, and we're going to go down to see it."

    "There's always a ship coming in ..."  Theo pointed out, a Star King IV obligingly dropping down through the clouds toward the main landing strip with practiced efficiency.

    The hand-sign was flip – overlooked obvious.

    "I mean a spaceship."  Kara's hand said new info just in.

    "The shuttle is still parked...."

    A shake of heads, and from the back....

    "Spaceship.  You know, interstellar.  We got a call from the field, they thought we might want to see this."

    "Here? Where will it fit? What is it?"

    "Right.  That's what we want to see ... come on down with us!  DCCT is on the move!"

   

    The Seriously Official Recognized Name of the organization was the Diverse Cultures Celebration Team; like almost all the other clubs on campus they managed to do something sometime that earned points or competed with other groups or that got them all out at one time cooking and eating foods that they'd never faced at their milk-tables, so they got to call themselves a team.

    Some of the upperclassmen in the club were part of the DCCT dorm, which had odd floor names and was repainted every few weeks to celebrate this or that significant event; the club met there in a permanently assigned room which was was certainly furnished in an amalgam one could call diverse, if not strange.   The older students who hung with the club were as diverse as the furniture, it seemed, and Theo'd hadn't met many of them before her first short visit, even if she could recognize some from her classes.

    Most of the campus called the group the Culture Club, and now that she was on her way to her fourth visit she was feeling oddly comfortable there. Maybe it had to do with the feeling that no one was in charge. It might have had something to do with the tea selection, which was downright amazing. Or it might simply be that compared to the local students, she was a diverse as anyone else.

      Delgado, of course, had been a world celebrating education and, in theory, as culturally diverse as could be.  From sad experience Theo'd knew that diversity stopped just outside Delgado's Wall, and if Anlingdin academy was different, she had little way of knowing, outside her flight to Howsanda Hugglelans.

    Theo's first visit to DCCT had been the day after her flight with the mentors, and she'd been pleased then to discover the tea, and almost as pleased to find herself involved in a discussion, by agreement limited to hand-talk, of the best morning foods. Anlingdin's Musch Meal was widely regarded as the boringest breakfast food in the galaxy, and she'd been surprised to find herself both missing some foods from home as well as interested enough in those others were mentioning to get hungry.

    Theo'd seen a tall, underspoken fellow who was in her math class hand-wishing the school could make a decent Maize Button, and she burst out laughing.

    Button quick easy  she signed confidently, if time breaks clear could make some for both of us, good choice.

    For some reason that launched the group into chuckles and a flare of signs she wasn't clear on, and a few she was and couldn't see how they'd got there...

    In the midst, Bova Yenkoa, a very pretty young man with a small beard, signaled time out, and broke into trade, laughing and shaking his head.

    "Now see, that's a problem. On Finifter if an unmarried woman invites a man to breakfast at her house and doesn't mention a mother or sister or someone else female going to be there, that's an invitation for a bed-party."

    Theo waved her hand – incomplete information here query.

    "And similar on Grundig," Yenkoa went on. "And on Grundig, once you make an offer, it stands until the next house-blessing.  Got to be careful what you offer to who, there, I tell you!" 

    More laughter and some perhaps not-quite-trues about friends who had problems with such things. 

    They'd gone back to hand-talk, but the point was a good one: she really didn't know quite enough to go world-walking by herself yet.

    The second time she'd visited the ongoing argument in hand-talk was about ships, and about companies you didn't work for, and worlds that were too much trouble to visit so the pilots going there just stayed on ship for the duration.  She'd been surprised to find Kara on her way out when she arrived – but there, Kara was hardly in her pocket after all.  The third time she'd gone she'd gotten more of the names down, again apparently missing Kara by a few moments and today, feeling remarkably coherent after math lab, she'd rushed off to the club... only to be rushing off with Kara and the rest of them to the field. 



    The academy shuttle usually landed in a long, relatively flat trajectory from the north northeast, with a one hundred sixty to one eighty degree turn to do a final line-up for touchdown. Theo stared off in that direction while Kara, comfortably beside her, on com with someone who was observing from the control room.

    Rather than being right down strip-side for the landing they stood on the slight bluff overlooking the field, not wanting to crowd the operations crew and knowing that the ship coming in would take a few minutes to cool down once landed, anyway. Of ordinary traffic – there, a couple Sky Kings circled to the west among scattered clouds, and a soarplane was well to the east, bright amidst a clearing sky.

    There was movement close by, and Kara leaning into her shoulder.

    "Ops says we're all looking the wrong way.  The ship is coming straight on in – it isn't orbiting first!"

    Theo turned, hands slinging straight run, power pilot double double and the grinning Kara nodded, sharing the news with the rest of the crew.

    "Freck says we gotta watch toward south. Expect a... "

    Karroom boom! The field shook and eyes searched the sky...

    Kara laughed, and finished, "...expect that sonic boom."

    "Got em!"

    And then so did Theo, a hard glittering point with a pulsating beacon that looked larger than the craft itself. It palpably dropped, occasional contrails wisping behind it.

    "This is a courier class ship, team.  Ought to be flashy, ought to be about the size of the shuttle or a smidge smaller, they say, closer to a packet boat for those of you from outworlds."

    Theo heard the sounds from team members, "Dropping quick, pilot's got an iron stomach" and "Not a sign of drift and we've got a hefty breeze here" and Kara reading from the com... "Often run solo, the Torvin can carry a crew of three plus three passengers on need, built thirty seven Standards ago at the Korval-Mugston yards on the Yolanna platform..."

    Now the ship was taking shape as a gleaming golden stripe coming their way, a stripe with shiny wingtip stabilizers on each end and now the stripe showed a bulge above and behind the central nose, all gleaming golden, the beacon under nose still bright but now echoed by underwing green and red.

    "Still zooming!" someone said, and now Theo felt the concern in her arms and shoulder, the thing was too low too fast too short of the runway and ...

    "Ah!"

    The relief was vocal across a dozen mouths as the glitter caught the light, the ship flaring out and riding the airwave in front of itself, touching down discreetly after passing  over the blast pad and the threshold and somewhat ahead of the persistent dark marks occasioned by generations of student pilots. 

    Theo realized she was tense, still had her mouth open, as the sound of touchdown reached her, a barely distinguishable barrup  as the ship actually settled, as the golden thing gleamed by at twice the rate a Star King landed at ...

    And then a sudden hissing reached them, a brief cloud obscured the bright beacons ...

    "Retros," came knowledgeably from behind her. "Look at that thing slow down!"

    The sound of the rocket hiss reached them, almost obscuring another comment.

    "Scouts!" That was Bova Yenkoa, "You like 'em or you hate 'em, whichever, they sure can pilot!"

    Theo stared at the ship, still slowing on the runway.

    "Scouts?" she said to Kara quietly.

    "Come on, Theo, let's go down!"



    The commander went by the group, headed toward the ops room, and so did yos'Senchul, who paused to acknowledge Theo with a quick bow and excellent progress plans move forward hand message before heading in.

    "Ops must be crushed,"  Theo opined to Kara while they waited along with the rest of the team as the distant Torvin was towed to the shuttle's secondary parking area by a small fleet of the academy's tractors.
  
    Indeed, now that they spaceship was down, craft were again circling and descending, while several on the flight line were moving slowly toward the live deck for take-off.  Ops wasn't used to sightseers, and Theo wasn't in any hurry to run into Wilsmyth or even Bell.

    Kara, sticking close, was muttering about dinnertime coming right up and she'd been hoping to get a chance to --

    But Theo caught sight of yos' Senchul and the Commander, walking out toward the strip from Ops, carrying on a quick hand-talk.

    Certified routing/newest off-limits/warning zones for graduates/direct and secure was the gist of yos'Senchul's communications while the Commander's were more like Noisy obvious unscheduled bad form non-orbit show-off...

    Theo looked away, feeling a bit as if she'd eavesdropped on one of Kamele and Jen Sar's private conversations. Likely if she hadn't spent time with yos 'Senchul she wouldn't have been able to read...

    "Theo, come on, they've got it settled. Let's go look."

    Kara grabbed her by the hand enthusiastically, tugging and not letting go until Theo picked up speed and together they outran most of the team to the orange-chained stanchions.

    The ship gleamed in front and overhead, warmth still radiating into the cooling near evening, several tiny beacon lights having taken over the duty of the flight lights.  Theo could see herself in the shine of the fuselage where it bulged to become wings, she could see Kara, she could see the heads of the Commander and yos' Senchul standing by with a small group of seniors dressed with their formals and wings close behind.

    "Look at the size of this thing," a pilot used to Star Kings said, and Theo blurted out "This is so tiny! It could fit in a cruise ship ballroom!"

    That started a heated discussion, and quotes of cubes and relative engine power and "I've sat Jump on something bigger than this..."

    Theo basked in the glow of the ship. Yes, this is it. Something like this. She felt as if her pores absorbed the whole view of it.

    The Ops guy came out to the stanchions, comm in his hand, and then opened the gate for the Commander. Theo heard him, "Sorry, the tug crew forgot this is Liaden, so the ground hatch is on the other – " but yos'Senchul waved him away with a salute and hand-sign, leading the small contingent to the proper side of the ship, where there came a hiss and then a whir as the hatch must have opened.

    The crowd quieted as the gangway slid almost all the way to the ground, and then there was hand-shaking and bows, all seen on the other side of the ship.  Two of the seniors became honor guard to the ship, flanking the gangway, and the others fell in behind the Commander and yos' Senchul and the pilot with his rakish hat, as they walked back toward the stanchions.

    "Theo -- what?"

    Kara was whispering at her, and then jammed elbow into her side.

    The man moved like a pilot, after all, that must be it --

    "Theo?"

    Theo was very still, and got even stiller when the group came through the gate.

    "He looks familiar.  He kinda walks like a friend of mine," she managed.

    Kara snickered, but --

    The pilot had been scanning as well as walking and talking with his hosts, she could see that, and then he'd stopped scanning after glancing her way and slowed the group, and slowed it some more as they closed, finally doing a dance-step pause, with a suppressed and delightfully familiar half-grin twitching at the corners of his lips as he looked at her fully head on, a bow of acknowledgment or -- 
         
    "Pilot Waitely, my compliments on your sailplane technique." This spoken in a formal measure, and then the, "I'm  extremely pleased to find you here, Theo," politely following in a lower tone, still loud enough for the "I hope to be in touch" to strike the ears of the rest of the team.

    "Hi, Win Ton!" she got out, nodded and waved as the procession swept on, the grin on her face not at all subdued.

    The Commander also nodded at her, perhaps sternly, and yos' Senchul bowed an acknowledgment, his hand fluttering with a this pilot clarifies this pilot clarifies, and the honor guard looked at her perhaps in consternation as they got back into step.

    They were gone and Kara was saying "Who was that? You know him? Who? Why didn't you say something?"

    "I've never seen Win Ton in a hat before," she managed, realizing she was giggling.

    "You do know him! How?" Kara was delighted and demanding at once. "That was a bow of equals!"   

    Theo laughed. "He's a friend, Kara. He gave me my bowli ball. We beat the dance machine together."

    Some of the other DCCT people crowded in to find out what was happening, but the gate was being drawn back and more surged past, and she didn't have to answer the, "What dance machine?" question right then.

    "Rule is you can look but not touch!" yelled out the Ops guy as the official contingent moved into the building. "The pilot will give tours as time permits," he went on, "Tomorrow."