turned it
ready for take-off.
“I’m already over
sixty,” said Gradin. “Do you think we can get in the air before I reach my
hundredth and die of old age?”
I tensed again,
hit the thrusters hard, and pulled back on the stick. We shot forward, and I
heard Gradin gasp as we soared steeply up into the air.
“Unnecessarily
spectacular,” he said. “You’re even more heavy-handed on the thrusters than I
remembered.”
I giggled with
relief that the take-off was over. “You wanted me to hurry up.”
I banked the
plane and circled, still gaining altitude. Most of my previous flying had been
on survey flights, where you needed to stay low so the sensors could record as
much detail as possible, but this time I could go as high as I liked. I kept
flying wide circles, joyously increasing height all the time, until we were well
above the single small cloud in the sky.
“Exactly how
high are you planning to go?” asked Gradin.
“All the way to
Adonis. Hoo eee!” I yelled.
“There’s no need
to deafen me, and I strongly suggest you pay more attention to your control
panel. Your altitude is approaching red zone, and this type of survey plane doesn’t
have its own air system. If we go any higher we’ll need to fit oxygen booster
cells to our impact suits, which seems an unnecessary amount of trouble for a
flight like this.”
I glanced at my
control panel, saw the flashing warning message about my altitude, and levelled
off the plane. “Sorry.”
“All right, I’ve
seen enough to start planning your summer training schedule. Let’s land now.”
I obediently banked
left and eased off on the thrusters, letting the plane gradually lose height as
I flew over New York Fringe Dig Site. My attention had been on the sky before,
but now I was looking down at trees and fire-blackened ruins. Over to my right,
the ruins were taller, and the trees more sparse. I could see the skeletal
outlines of the ancient skyscrapers of New York Main Dig Site in the far
distance.
I made another
turn, so New York Main was behind me, and looked for the distinctive cluster of
domes that were New York Fringe Command Centre. They should be straight ahead
of me, but I couldn’t see them. I was disconcerted, panicked for a second like
a nardle, then saw the huddle of grey domes were further to my left than I’d
expected.
I side-slipped
off a bit more height, corrected my course, and started my approach run to the
landing area. I judged that exactly right, coming in low and ideally positioned
to land, so I just had to slow to stalling point and I was ready to make the final
transition from thrusters to hovers. That transition phase is the trickiest bit
of any landing, so I held my breath as the plane gently sank down on to the
ground, then gave a long sigh of relief as I hit the control to shut down
hovers.
As I did that, the
plane tilted sideways, and I heard a sickening crunch followed by a scraping
sound. I didn’t understand what was happening. The hovers were off, they were
definitely off, but the plane was still moving. Gradin’s hand slammed down on a
switch, the plane stopped, and there was a moment of silent suspense before he
spoke.
“You nuking
idiot! You total nuking idiot! You crashed my plane!”
Chapter Eleven
I still didn’t know what had gone
wrong, but I did know I wanted to die. I wanted to sink through the floor of
the plane I’d just wrecked, and the ground below it, heading on downwards until
I hit the magma layer and died a merciful death.
Gradin was still
ranting at me. “How can anyone make a flawless landing and then crash
the plane?”
The contempt in
his voice prodded me into movement. I fumbled blindly for the cockpit release,
climbed out of the plane, yanked off my hover tunic, and threw it back inside.
I wanted to run straight for the nearest portal and get out of here, but I’d
already smashed up a plane and I couldn’t steal an impact suit as well. I
headed for the misty shape of the
ready for take-off.
“I’m already over
sixty,” said Gradin. “Do you think we can get in the air before I reach my
hundredth and die of old age?”
I tensed again,
hit the thrusters hard, and pulled back on the stick. We shot forward, and I
heard Gradin gasp as we soared steeply up into the air.
“Unnecessarily
spectacular,” he said. “You’re even more heavy-handed on the thrusters than I
remembered.”
I giggled with
relief that the take-off was over. “You wanted me to hurry up.”
I banked the
plane and circled, still gaining altitude. Most of my previous flying had been
on survey flights, where you needed to stay low so the sensors could record as
much detail as possible, but this time I could go as high as I liked. I kept
flying wide circles, joyously increasing height all the time, until we were well
above the single small cloud in the sky.
“Exactly how
high are you planning to go?” asked Gradin.
“All the way to
Adonis. Hoo eee!” I yelled.
“There’s no need
to deafen me, and I strongly suggest you pay more attention to your control
panel. Your altitude is approaching red zone, and this type of survey plane doesn’t
have its own air system. If we go any higher we’ll need to fit oxygen booster
cells to our impact suits, which seems an unnecessary amount of trouble for a
flight like this.”
I glanced at my
control panel, saw the flashing warning message about my altitude, and levelled
off the plane. “Sorry.”
“All right, I’ve
seen enough to start planning your summer training schedule. Let’s land now.”
I obediently banked
left and eased off on the thrusters, letting the plane gradually lose height as
I flew over New York Fringe Dig Site. My attention had been on the sky before,
but now I was looking down at trees and fire-blackened ruins. Over to my right,
the ruins were taller, and the trees more sparse. I could see the skeletal
outlines of the ancient skyscrapers of New York Main Dig Site in the far
distance.
I made another
turn, so New York Main was behind me, and looked for the distinctive cluster of
domes that were New York Fringe Command Centre. They should be straight ahead
of me, but I couldn’t see them. I was disconcerted, panicked for a second like
a nardle, then saw the huddle of grey domes were further to my left than I’d
expected.
I side-slipped
off a bit more height, corrected my course, and started my approach run to the
landing area. I judged that exactly right, coming in low and ideally positioned
to land, so I just had to slow to stalling point and I was ready to make the final
transition from thrusters to hovers. That transition phase is the trickiest bit
of any landing, so I held my breath as the plane gently sank down on to the
ground, then gave a long sigh of relief as I hit the control to shut down
hovers.
As I did that, the
plane tilted sideways, and I heard a sickening crunch followed by a scraping
sound. I didn’t understand what was happening. The hovers were off, they were
definitely off, but the plane was still moving. Gradin’s hand slammed down on a
switch, the plane stopped, and there was a moment of silent suspense before he
spoke.
“You nuking
idiot! You total nuking idiot! You crashed my plane!”
Chapter Eleven
I still didn’t know what had gone
wrong, but I did know I wanted to die. I wanted to sink through the floor of
the plane I’d just wrecked, and the ground below it, heading on downwards until
I hit the magma layer and died a merciful death.
Gradin was still
ranting at me. “How can anyone make a flawless landing and then crash
the plane?”
The contempt in
his voice prodded me into movement. I fumbled blindly for the cockpit release,
climbed out of the plane, yanked off my hover tunic, and threw it back inside.
I wanted to run straight for the nearest portal and get out of here, but I’d
already smashed up a plane and I couldn’t steal an impact suit as well. I
headed for the misty shape of the
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