Earth and Air Page 9

  “Well done,” said Gradin.

  Red hover sleds were coming towards us at full speed. The second they reached us, impact suit clad figures jumped off and started unrolling hoses. I ignored them, took my shaking hands away from the controls, sagged forward in my seat, and closed my eyes, but Gradin started shouting on broadcast channel.

  “This is Gradin. No foam! It takes days to clean foam off an aircraft. It’s totally unnecessary.”

  “This is Fringe Dig Site Command. You’ve had thruster problems. Foam is a standard precaution to prevent fire.”

  “This is Gradin. Actually, we didn’t have any thruster problems. Thruster 2 is in perfect working order. I just used my pilot control override to shut it down so Jarra could do the required emergency landing for her pilot’s licence.”

  There was a deathly silence on broadcast channel that lasted for about ten seconds, and then a furious voice spoke. “This is Fringe Dig Site Command. Regulations clearly state that any emergency landing simulation must be authorized in advance by Dig Site Command, and warnings broadcast to the whole dig site to avoid creating unnecessary alarm amongst onlookers on the ground.”

  “This is Gradin. I never see the point in doing an emergency landing when everyone, but especially the pilot, knows it isn’t real. Doing it this way is far more effective.”

  I sat up again, and spoke on broadcast channel. “This is New York survey plane co-pilot. Requesting permission to kill Gradin.”

  “This is Fringe Dig Site Command. Permission refused. I’m planning to kill him myself.”

  Chapter Nine

  When I portalled into dome 14, the total absence of any background noise told me that the rest of the history club hadn’t got back from the dig site yet. It was virtually impossible to sprint at full speed in a cumbersome impact suit, but I managed something close to it for the short distance to the store room.

  Once safely inside, I unsealed my impact suit, tugged it off to reveal the skimpy skintight I wore underneath, and then pulled a robe over my head. I hesitated for a split second, reluctant to leave my sanctuary in case the history club returned, but the cold, clammy feeling of sweat on my skin drove me into risking a mad dash for the nearest shower.

  I wanted to stay under the warm jets of water for hours, trying to wash away the memory of my panic along with the sweat it had left behind, but the others could be back at any moment. I kept the shower to a bare minimum, and didn’t wait for the dry cycle at all, just pulled the robe back on over my wet skin and dripping hair.

  As I ran back to the store room, I heard the sound of voices bringing the empty deadness of the dome back to life. I entered the store room code into the lock at top speed, yanked the door open, shot inside, and closed it behind me.

  I was safe. Briefly safe. I couldn’t stay hiding in here forever. Gradin had set me up with that fake engine failure. He’d made me look a gullible fool in front of everyone working at New York Fringe Dig Site, including the whole of my school history club, and eventually I’d have to go outside and face them.

  Oh chaos. Why hadn’t I realized it was a fake emergency? I should have guessed that Gradin had furtively used his pilot controls to override mine for a moment and shut down thruster 2. I hadn’t had time to think when our plane started that mad slide across the sky. I could only desperately fight to prevent us from crashing. Once I’d regained control, it was a different situation though. I’d been thinking then, desperately trying to work out what had happened.

  That was the moment when I should have realized the lack of any red warning lights on my control panel was a clue rather than caused by equipment failure. I should have worked out that meant thruster 2 hadn’t failed but had been deliberately shut down. I hadn’t thought it through logically because I’d been blinded by my trust in Gradin.

  “Nuke the man!” I swore aloud. I’d known Gradin was unpredictable, but I’d never imagined that he’d do something so criminally dangerous as shutting down one of the thrusters, let alone lie to me about it.

  There was a knocking sound from behind me. I turned to face the door, knowing who would be out there.

  “Jarra, can I talk to you please?”

  Yes, that was Crozier’s voice, and it had the icy edge that meant he was angry. The door was locked, but he knew the code to open it. I instinctively said the words that would make sure he didn’t come in.

  “I’m getting dressed.”

  “I’ll wait here for you.”

  I groaned. Crozier was waiting outside the door for me. I shouldn’t have said that I was getting dressed. I should have said ...

  No, I couldn’t think of any words that would have made Crozier leave. There was nothing I could do to get myself out of this situation. Even if I could give a magic wave of my hand, and portal myself to a distant world, there’d still be no escape because my faulty immune system would kill me.

  I wearily found some proper clothes, dressed, and opened the door. “You don’t have to tell me I was stupid. I know I was.”

  Crozier seemed confused. “What do you mean?”

  I sighed and explained the blatantly obvious. “I should have realized that Gradin had shut down thruster 2, but I let him fool me. Everyone must think I’m really stupid.”

  “Who would think you stupid, Jarra? Fringe Dig Site Command? All the people watching from the ground? Gradin didn’t just fool you, but all the rest of us too. What he did was utterly irresponsible, not just risking your life and his own, but those of other people on the dig site as well.”

  Crozier gave a furious shake of his head. “I had most of the history club working on our excavation. The new recruits were sitting on a transport sled and watching them. When they started screaming and pointing at the sky, I looked up. I saw your aircraft falling, Jarra. We all thought it was going to crash, and ...”

  He paused for a second, as if struggling to find the right words. I urgently adjusted my view of events. I’d come back here worrying that my friends would think me a complete nardle, when I should have been worrying about the fact they’d been scared to death.

  “That was the worst moment in my teaching career,” said Crozier. “We saw your aircraft level off in the sky, but it was clearly still in trouble, and the time before you landed seemed endless.”

  He pulled a pained face. “All the history club members were having hysterics. I had to try to calm them down, when I wanted to have hysterics myself. There was no way I could stop them from watching your aircraft and listening to every word on the broadcast channel. We were on high ground, with a perfect view of the New York Fringe Command Centre landing area, so if the worst happened we’d have seen ...”

  He made a soft moaning sound. “I’ve been bringing my pupils to dig sites for two decades. It’s essential preparation for a future career in archaeology. Fringe dig sites are for amateurs, they’re much safer than the main dig sites where the professionals work, but there are inevitably still some risks involved. Members of the school history club have had some minor accidents over the years, even a few major ones, but what happened today was entirely different.”

  “I’m very sorry,” I said.

  “It wasn’t your fault, Jarra. It was mine. I should never have allowed you to have flying lessons without making full checks on the ability and character of the person who’d be teaching you to fly. I made the mistake of assuming the Dig Site Federation would only employ responsible pilots with impeccable records, but I was dreadfully wrong.”

  Alarm bells began to ring in my head. Crozier appeared to be building up to saying something drastic, and I had an ominous feeling I knew what it was going to be. “Gradin’s not that bad.”

  “Yes, he is,” said Crozier. “I’ve just called a couple of people to ask for information on Gradin, and what they said appalled me.”

  “I was never in any real danger,” I said hastily. “Gradin’s a bit ... eccentric, but he’s a brilliant pilot, and he had everything totally under control.”

 
“I’m not convinced of that,” said Crozier. “My opinion doesn’t matter though. I’ve just had a message from New York Fringe Dig Site Command. They reported the incident to the Dig Site Federation Air Safety Officer as a flagrant abuse of dig site safety regulations that potentially endangered lives. The Air Safety Officer responded by banning Gradin from giving any further flying lessons to you or anyone else.”

  “What?” I gazed at Crozier in horror. “No!”

  “I’m sorry, Jarra. I know how eager you are to get your pilot’s licence, but the Dig Site Federation has absolute authority over all Earth’s dig sites. You mustn’t even think about defying the Air Safety Officer’s ban and going flying with Gradin again. The Dig Site Federation is implacable on issues of dig site safety. You could, and would, be blocked from ever portalling to a dig site again.”

  I stared down at my feet. “I know that,” I muttered.

  “As your party leader, I’m responsible for supervising your behaviour,” added Crozier pointedly. “I could get blocked from the dig sites as well.”

  I lifted my head. “I know I’ve had my rebellious moments in the past, but you don’t need to worry about me defying the Dig Site Federation. I understand exactly what’s at stake here. You’re the only teacher at our school that’s qualified to take parties to dig sites. If you were blocked, then it would mean our whole school history club was blocked too. I might be prepared to take risks with my own future, but I’d never jeopardize your work or my friends’ history careers.”

  I tugged at my wet hair. “I’ve no choice but to obey the Dig Site Federation, but is there any way we could appeal against Gradin’s ban? Perhaps I could make some sort of witness statement.”

  “Only Gradin has the right to lodge an official appeal.” Crozier sighed. “Even if he does that, appealing against Dig Site Federation rulings takes months. The formal hearing probably wouldn’t be held until after Year End.”

  “Which is far too late to help me.”

  Crozier nodded. “I’m afraid your flying lessons are over, Jarra.”

  Chapter Ten

  The following morning, I walked across the landing area of New York Fringe Command Centre. I was wearing my impact suit with the hood down. I had no need to mask my face with the fabric of a sealed impact suit hood, when I was fully protected by my own blazing anger.

  Gradin was standing waiting for me beside the survey plane. He had his impact suit hood down too, and turned to look at me with an expression that was probably intended to be an ingratiating smile.

  “Maybe I should apologize,” he said.

  “It’s a bit late to apologize now.”

  “You don’t need to give me any lectures, Jarra. I’ve already been thoroughly shouted at by Fringe Dig Site Command. They seem really annoyed with me.”

  “They would be,” I said bitterly. “My history teacher says that what you did yesterday was criminally irresponsible, potentially endangering not just your life and mine but those of other people on the ground. He’s right.”

  “No, he isn’t,” said Gradin. “No one was in any danger. If you weren’t able to handle the situation at any point, I was ready to use my pilot controls to override yours, and either give you back all four thrusters or take control of the plane myself.”

  “That doesn’t make things any better,” I said. “I could have forgiven you for terrifying me, but you terrified everyone else on the dig site as well.”

  “Ever since that ridiculous crash, you’ve been having panic attacks during landings. That’s the sort of issue that can become a serious long-term problem for a pilot, so I wanted to overcome it as quickly as possible. On our first day here, I got you to do a lot of take-offs and landings. Yesterday, I wanted to follow that up with a simulated emergency landing.”

  Gradin sighed. “I felt that warning you about it in advance would make you so tense it was counterproductive, while successfully dealing with what you believed was a genuine emergency would restore your confidence in your ability to land a plane.”

  “The problem wasn’t that you didn’t warn me. It was that you didn’t warn Dig Site Command!”

  “I knew that if I told Dig Site Command about it, they’d use the broadcast channel to warn everyone on the dig site. I couldn’t think of any way to stop you from hearing that warning on your suit comms. I’d had a very irritating start to the day because of some pointless inventory rules, so I was feeling frustrated with rules and procedures in general, and I decided to go ahead with the simulated emergency landing without warning Dig Site Command. In retrospect, I admit that was a slight error of judgement.”

  “You call that a slight error of judgement? That’s like describing World War 2 as a minor disagreement!”

  “Oh no,” said Gradin. “You’re entitled to be a little annoyed, but there’s no need to go all historical on me.”

  I ignored that, reached for my lookup, and tapped at it. “I’m sending you a list of the pilot’s licence practical elements that I believe I’ve already successfully completed with you, either here or in Athens. I want you to update my training licence, confirming that I’ve completed those elements, particularly the emergency landing!”

  There was a bleep from Gradin’s lookup. He groaned, tapped it, and scanned the list I’d just sent him. “Yes, I’ll get your training licence updated with these as soon as we’ve finished our morning flight.”

  I didn’t believe this. Gradin thought we could just ignore the Dig Site Federation’s ruling and carry on with my flying lessons as if nothing had happened. I glared at him, too furious to say a word.

  Gradin gave me a nervous look. “Or I can do it right now if you prefer that.” He worked on his lookup for a while. “Done.”

  I used my lookup to project the current official records of my training licence in front of me, including the full details of all the practical elements. I added my own list next to it, and started methodically checking that the two matched.

  “Chaos,” said Gradin, “you really don’t trust me any longer.”

  “No, I don’t,” I said. “I used to think you were brilliantly eccentric. I even admired the way you resisted some of the more pointless rules and regulations. Now I’ve lost all confidence in your judgement. You’ve proved you don’t know the difference between trivial administrative procedures and crucial safety precautions. I don’t trust a word you say, and I don’t believe you’re fit to teach anyone.”

  “Ouch.” Gradin winced. “I know I pushed the limits a bit far yesterday, but I’ve always hated the farce of getting someone to do an emergency landing when they know it’s just a training exercise. I went through the standard training exercise myself when I was learning to fly, and then a few months later I had to do a real emergency landing and found out how different it was. No warning in advance. No idea why things had gone wrong or what might happen next. The feeling of blind panic when I thought I was going to die.”

  He waved his hands. “My training exercise had been useless. What I did with you was much better. If you ever have to make a real emergency landing, Jarra, you can feel confident because you’ve effectively done one already.”

  I finished checking my list and turned my lookup off. “The snag with that is I’ll never have to make a real emergency landing, since I’ll never be flying again.”

  “What?” Gradin gave an urgent shake of his head. “You can’t quit flying because of this, Jarra. You aren’t the type to give up just because you get a bit scared. You proved that in Athens.”

  I’d forced myself to keep my temper under control until I got my training licence updated. Now I let myself scream my fury at him.

  “I’m not giving up just because I got a bit scared. Getting my private pilot’s licence is desperately important to me. I’ve passed the theory test, and I’m halfway through the practical elements. I’ve worked hard and made sacrifices to get this far, but your infantile prank has taken my dream away from me. My teacher and everyone in my school history club were
on the ground watching when you cut that thruster, Gradin.”

  He frowned. “I hadn’t realized that ...”

  I shouted over the top of him. “My teacher and my friends saw our plane falling and thought it was going to hit the ground and explode in flames. We’ve got kids in our club as young as 12 years old. They were totally terrified. My teacher was terrified. Everyone else on the dig site was terrified too. That’s why the people at New York Fringe Dig Site Command didn’t just scream at you themselves, but reported the whole incident to the Dig Site Federation Air Safety Officer.”

  Gradin shrugged. “I know they reported me to the Air Safety Officer. I got a message from him yesterday, but I haven’t bothered reading it yet.”

  “You haven’t bothered reading it yet!” I stared at him in disbelief.

  “I can guess exactly what it says. It will tell me I’ve got a bunch of new official reprimands on my record, to add to the few hundred I had already. The Air Safety Officer won’t have done anything as drastic as firing me. Not when the Dig Site Federation is desperately short of pilots, and I’m retiring at Year End anyway.”

  “The Air Safety Officer hasn’t fired you Gradin, but he has banned you from giving flying lessons.”

  “What? He can’t do that!”

  “He can do that, and he has done that. My history teacher got a message about it yesterday.”

  “Oh nuke!” Gradin was silent for a moment. “Don’t worry, Jarra. I’ll find a way to fix this.”

  “There isn’t any way to fix this!” I yelled at him. “If I disobeyed the Dig Site Federation, and carried on having flying lessons from you, then I’d be banned from entering New York Fringe Dig Site or any other dig site ever again. You’ve already robbed me of my chance at becoming a pilot, and I’m not letting you destroy my career as an archaeologist as well.”

  “I wasn’t suggesting ...”

  I kept yelling over the top of him. “I didn’t come here wearing an impact suit to go flying with you, Gradin. I came here wearing an impact suit because I’m going to spend the morning working on the dig site with my school history club.”