by Debra Jess
"Nothing you can do about it now." He shrugged, his uniform stretching with his shoulders. "As long as you're out and about, we may as well get started."
"Fine." Tamarja deactivated her head-up display and released her safety belt. "I'll meet you in the atrium as soon as I secure the shuttle. Have they washed the security floater yet?"
"We're not driving," he said as he slipped easily past her into the copilot seat. "We're flying."
Was he kidding? "Now?"
"You have something better to do?"
No, she didn't. She had been wondering how angry the director would be if she took the shuttle up for a quick spin. She had just decided it was worth the risk when Daeven had appeared. Now her first flight would be under Daeven's sharp-eyed gaze.
Relax. This is no different from your check ride. If you could pass that with a Manitac goon looking over your shoulder, you can do this.
She ignored Daeven as best she could as she reactivated her restraints and completed her checks. As soon as the last tether released its hold, she gently lifted the shuttle into the air.
Her heart soared as she gained altitude. Oh, how I've missed this.
Her flights on dreary Bregarlos had been joyless affairs, always under guard and supervised. So why did flying here on Dawn's Landing suddenly set her heart pounding with happiness?
The fog invaded her mind, so she quickly turned her thoughts from digging for an explanation and focused on the pure emotion. The fog broke, and her mind cleared.
"Circle around Facility Prime and head east," Daeven said, his voice breaking through the last bit of distraction.
Even Daeven's bored tone couldn't rein in her joy, though she wished he wouldn’t be such a jerk so she could share some of it with him. If he could touch just a fragment of what she felt, she could crack that control of his and make him smile.
Tamarja banked the shuttle, letting it swoop around, and headed east, still climbing.
"Don't gain too much altitude. We're not going that far today, and you won't have to avoid the air scrubbers. Also, keep an eye out for aves. Some of the species found here can fly higher than usual. You don't need an ave strike while in the director's shuttle."
She heard his voice, nodded her understanding, but didn't respond. To do so would break the thrill of escaping the restrictions of land and soaring away from all her troubles. The fog threatened to overtake her again, but the faster she accelerated the shuttle, the more she relaxed. The sweet sensation was wonderful, but focusing on the here and now pushed away the fog, and she could settle into the present and enjoy the ride.
She adjusted her head-up display. Safely above the traffic patterns set out by the floaters below, she did a quick scan.
"What are those facilities on the horizon?" Tamarja pointed with her chin in the general direction of three green-tinged towers. Even from a distance she could see them spinning around.
"Agriculture," Daeven explained. "Two of the facilities are research, and the other grows more than enough fruits & vegetables for Dawn's Landing's current population."
Tamarja dived and circled the towers. The plants inside the translucent walls created shifting patterns of color as the tower levels turned in opposite directions from one to the other. She heard Daeven's voice reeling off data and statistics. His voice, not so deep that it rumbled, like Dace, but pitched so it soothed her nerves, lulled her even deeper into a relaxed state.
She knew she should be paying more attention to him, or at least to what he was saying, but she couldn't. For now, she wanted to soak in the view while she swooped in low one last time and then pulled away.
"Where to now?" she asked.
"Did you hear anything I just told you?"
Tamarja shrugged. "Some, not all," she hedged. She'd have to look up those stats again when she returned to Habitat Prime. The broadcast ‘net should provide her with what she needed.
Daeven sighed. "Just keep heading east."
Daeven wasn't kidding. Nothing on Dawn's Landing had been given a name. After fly-bys on three habitats conveniently named Four, Sixteen, and Twenty-two, Tamarja complained about remembering which little nuggets of information Daeven dropped went with which habitat.
"What's wrong with giving the habitats proper names?"
"This is a corporate colony. It's the director's way of reminding folks that none of this"—he splayed his arms out, indicating the rolling foothills beneath them—"belongs to them. It belongs to Manitac. What Manitac gives, Manitac can take away, whenever, however it pleases."
Tamarja grumped.
"Think about it," Daeven continued. "If you name something, it makes it yours, or at least establishes an attachment. If nothing is named, it can't be yours."
A horrible thought shattered Tamarja's buoyancy. What if Tamarja Chase wasn't her real name? She had assumed Manitac kept her real name, for their own record keeping if nothing else. What if it wasn't her name, though? What if it was just her ‘pet name? Manitac did, in fact, own her for all intents and purposes. Changing her name would also make finding her past all that much harder.
"So if the director ever falls out of favor and loses AuRaKaz," Daeven continued, oblivious to her concern, "or Manitac decides to abandon the colony for lack of profits, fewer people will fight to stay here. No rebellion, no complaints, everyone gets relocated without a fight."
The word rebellion set off a memory cloud. In her vulnerable state of mind, the word sounded all the more enticing, exciting, almost like an old friend caressing her deepest desires. The fog grew stronger, but instead of backing down, Tamarja started to fight. The word rebellion repeated through her mind, springing from one side of her brain to the other like a bouncing ball.
The cloud grew, and her mind became foggy. She could no longer see the head-up display. Now was not the time to fight. She knew she should stop and back down; her first responsibility was to her passenger and the shuttle.
A sharp alarm pierced her confusion and banished the fog. She checked for a collision report, but they hadn't veered off course or hit anything, even though she very easily could have. She needed to focus. What was going on?
The alarm sounded again, and she realized it wasn't the shuttle's alarm, but Daeven's security jack. "What's wrong?"
He waved a hand to silence her while he listened to an incoming communication. After a moment, he looked up at her. "A kid tried to jump over the barriers into the lake at Habitat Twenty-Two. He's knocked out and sprawled on top of the barrier projected from one of the cones. If he slips into the lake, he could drown."
Tamarja didn't need to be told any more. They had just flown over Twenty-Two, one of the more isolated habitats located in a small canyon in the mountains. Banking the shuttle, she accelerated past normal cruising speed, heading back. In an instant, her mind cleared, and her senses went on high alert.
While she flew, Daeven tore open the emergency equipment compartment. Tamarja had already checked to make sure they were stocked with the basics, but they had nothing to match what an emergency rescue transport would have. Still, they were probably closer than any rescue vehicle, so they would have to make do.
"How close can you get me to the water without hitting the barrier?" Daeven asked.
"As close as I have to," Tamarja answered.
She saw the canyon with the lake approaching fast. The man-sized orange cones formed a double dotted line across the center of the lake. Between them a fat, powerful energy wall divided the safe swimming zone from the deeper, more dangerous area of the lake. The wall pulsed with energy, reflecting the bright orange of the cones so everyone could see the otherwise invisible barrier if they stayed on the surface of the water. That much she remembered from Daeven's tour speech.
With the flip of a few switches, she altered the rotation of the craft’s flaps and dumped acceleration as she dived into the canyon. A thin young boy hung across the barrier about a foot over a cone. The boy could easily slip over the edge on either side. A growing group of
adults crowded around the outcropping. They shouted at the shuttle, pointing toward the kid.
The kid slipped downward on the wrong side of the barrier.
"Daeven…"
"I see, I see!" He rushed back to the cockpit, shirtless, barefoot, and holding the med kit.
"If you jump, you'll have to swim him to shore. I have no tethers to pull you back up." She probably wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know.
"I'm not jumping into the water. I'm jumping onto the barrier."
"Are you crazy? You could knock him off!"
"I have to risk it. If I jump into the water, I can't help him at all. There's no way to climb onto the barrier. I'd have to wait until he regains consciousness or slides into the water unconscious. At that height, he'll do even more damage to himself if he hits the water the wrong way. The only question is—can you still hold this shuttle steady long enough for me to jump onto the barrier's edge?"
She met his gaze with more certainty than she felt. "Absolutely."
"Good. Emergency rescue is on the way. I'll catch a ride with them. You get this shuttle back to Facility Prime as soon as I hit the barrier."
Not before I know you're okay. And the kid. I need to know that the kid is okay too.
She kept those thoughts to herself as she brought the shuttle to hover close to the boy but still give Daeven enough room to jump.
Daeven left the cockpit for the passenger exit. Tamarja hit the comm system. "Dissolve the door, but don't jump until I tell you."
She didn't get an acknowledgement, so she could only assume he had heard. She hovered as close as she dared and deactivated the bulky Manitac shields. The wind powered through the canyon, and set the shuttle rocking. She stabilized it through brute force as she descended even lower. Holding the controls still, she waited three counts, proving she could manually keep the shuttle steady in the wind.
"Now!" she shouted into the comm. The shuttle rocked slightly, and she knew Daeven had jumped. Checking the external view, she saw him land on the barrier on all fours. He slipped but found his footing. Daeven made his way to the boy by crawling forward, setting off energy sprays from the barrier as he moved.
Tamarja didn't wait any longer before reactivating the shields and moving away from the barrier. Instead of leaving, however, she waited, watching as Daeven checked the boy for injuries. Satisfied, he pushed the unconscious kid along the barrier's edge. Once he reached the last cone next to the outcropping, he lifted the boy into a makeshift sling the crowd had made out of various blankets and clothing. They pulled the kid onto the ledge with Daeven following right after. Tamarja released the breath she had been holding and loosened her white-knuckled grip on the controls.
The proximity warning sounded, and she looked up to see the emergency rescue transports arriving. She lifted the shuttle out of their airspace, intending to head back to Facility Prime.
Instead, she skimmed along the mountain, hoping to catch a glimpse of Daeven. She looked for him among the civilians, but the tree cover got in the way. She was considering changing the view pane filters when a bright flash caught her attention.
Torn between seeing the action below and curiosity as to what could set off such a bright light, Tamarja gave one last hopeful look for Daeven. She couldn't see anyone except the other emergency crew, so she floated the shuttle upward.
Skimming the treetops until she hit what she thought were the coordinates of the flash, she tried several filters to scan the area for heat and other energy, but only found a low-level energy pump. Nothing more. She'd have to ask someone about it later.
For now, she needed to get the director's shuttle back home so she could ponder what Daeven meant by still hold this shuttle steady. He talked like a man who had flown with her before.
Chapter Nine
Tamarja expected trouble before the last tether latched into place. She could see Dace and his maintenance work team standing just under the lean-to. They milled around each other, six sets of eyes pinned to the shuttle as she maneuvered it into place. The second the all-clear sounded, they rushed the shuttle.
As the maintenance team swarmed over the shuttle's skin, Tamarja released her restraints but didn't leave her seat. She leaned back and closed her eyes.
I lowered the shields. I can't believe I lowered the shields while still in flight. Not even one day on the job, and I've broken one of the primary rules of flight: never lower your shields.
Emergency rescue vehicles had ports in their shields to extract personnel and other materials. The director's had nothing of the sort, only one large bulk shield that protected the shuttle from choppy weather and the debris that came with it.
The door to the cockpit dissolved, and she didn't need to open her eyes to know Dace stood there.
"How bad is it?" She heard the rumple of his uniform and imagined him shrugging.
"The wind in the canyon blew a lot of grit in your direction. Lots of dings, but no serious damage that I can see. Might need a touch of paint here and there." He sat in the copilot seat. "You got lucky."
"I didn't even think twice about it. If Daeven…Officer Blayde had said stop, turn around, or anything, I would have done it." She opened her eyes and looked at him.
Dace kept his eyes focused on a far point on the eastern horizon. "Manitac shields aren't worth spit in the first place. If they hadn't bought out, bankrupted, or run off the competition decades ago, we might have better shields."
"Or we might have nothing," Tamarja countered—any excuse to keep the conversation flowing and not have to think that she had probably just lost her job. Where would Manitac transfer her to after today's performance? "Even those companies that claimed they had a better system never proved it. Most never made it past the testing stages."
Dace drummed his fingers impatiently on his thigh. "Sometimes I wonder if nothing is better than a substandard something."
"If we had nothing," Tamarja countered, "there would be no Dawn's Landing, no slipstream, no space travel."
Dace stood up but stopped short of dissolving the cockpit door to leave. "If we had better shields, we wouldn't need a slipstream to transport us through space. If we had shields that could withstand long-term space travel, Manitac wouldn't control the space lanes. Dawn's Landing wouldn't need a Manitac overseer."
The look on his face changed, as if he'd realized he had said too much. Tamarja reached out and grabbed his hand before he could leave.
"Don't worry. You have a right to your opinion, and I'm no squealer. But…is that what got my predecessor fired? He complained about the shields?"
"Your predecessor loved living here, brought his whole family here." He paused. "Yeah, he just talked a little too much to the wrong people."
Her ear jacked beeped, and a priority message flashed: Report to Ramsey.
Tamarja groaned and released Dace's hand.
He guessed at the message. "Be polite, apologize. You were with a security officer who told you what to do. You're new here, not sure of the rules yet. You did what you thought was right. Above all, be humble. Ramsey's a hard-ass, but she can't fire you for this. There aren't enough pilots out here to replace you on such short notice, and it doesn't look good on the quarterly report to request a second replacement the same day we got the first one."
Tamarja took courage from this and stood. Dace dissolved the door and waved her through first.
Maybe she'd sneak up here afterward for another round of massage. She'd need it, and it might be worth the risk, especially if she didn’t have a job at the end of the day.
Her heart fluttered with anxiety, the same as it had that morning when she'd first entered the suite of offices that directed every aspect of AuRaKaz operations. This time the receptionist pointed her to a smaller office adjacent to the director's.
Ramsey's office.
The door dissolved before she even hit the annunciator to alert Ramsey to her presence.
Ramsey looked the same: prim, neat, and not a hair o
ut of place, sitting behind her desk, her stylus busy. Tamarja hadn't given much thought as to what she herself looked like. Nervously, she ran her hands down the front of her uniform but stopped short of running her fingers through her hair. Her hair was a hopeless cause, and she had no wish to rub her fingers against her collar nubs.
"Had a bit of an adventure today, did you?" Ramsey lowered the stylus and indicated Tamarja should take a seat.
Tamarja sat on the edge of the chair, her spine straight. She decided not to apologize. Ramsey didn't sound accusatory or even angry, but surprisingly neutral considering the situation. "It certainly showed me more of Dawn's Landing than I had thought."
Ramsey nodded. "We received word that the boy is okay. Bruised and a bit concussed. He's home now but will spend a day or two resting."
Relief overwhelmed Tamarja. She hadn't realized how much of her own concerns for Daeven and the boy she had buried—first to keep the shuttle under control, then over her own anxiety about her job. She relaxed her hands in her lap. "I'm glad to hear that. He looked worse than that when I saw him sprawled on the barrier."
Ramsey made a noncommittal sound and leaned back, studying her. Tamarja tried not to fidget under the woman's scrutiny. "What were you thinking, taking the shuttle up when the director specifically gave you today, and only today, to settle into your apartment?"
Tamarja licked her lips and told the truth. "I was thinking that I didn't have a lot to unpack, that I hadn't made any friends yet, and…and that I really wanted to fly. I love it, I missed it. I hadn't actually planned to fly today, but when Daeven…Officer Blayde offered to start his guided tour by air, I couldn't think of any better way to get to know Dawn's Landing. When the emergency signal sounded, he responded, and I followed his lead."
She stopped and waited as Ramsey again sat there considering her words. "You lowered your shields to get to the boy."
"I lowered the shields to get Officer Blayde closer to the barrier's edge, so he could jump to the barrier and not into the water. He would have been useless in the water."