Tailspin, page 24
Shay wasn’t so sure that it would happen, and the twisting knot in his stomach was ripe.
The fence lay ahead, a quick exit and home.
The screech behind them had Shay freezing in place. Shit, it was, wasn’t it? A duckat. He didn’t need to turn to see it. He felt its thunderous hooves pounding the ground. Was that seriously just one? Sounded like ten!
“Run,” Anada shouted.
Shay didn’t need the prompting. His legs ran, slipping and squelching in the remnants of the rain.
He hit the hole and slid through, with Anada right behind him.
Right?
No. Anada had stopped and turned around.
“No, no, no,” Shay whispered.
Anada pulled two blades out from somewhere and waited. The duckat bore down on her fast, the ground rumbling with its weight and eight powerfully hoofed feet. Shay could only watch as Anada dipped her stance. Only when the creature was almost on top of her did she turn. Her blades sliced deep into the creature’s massive hide, and it roared.
Everyone on the farm would hear that.
Everyone.
The duckat didn’t stop, though. It spun around, located Anada again, and pawed at the ground, bellowing out a roar of defiance. Its red eyes glowing in the darkness made it an easy-to-see target, and it probably never even knew. It pawed the ground once more, then went for another attack. Anada was ready for it again, and instead of using the same maneuver, she feinted and dodged out of the way. Again and again, they played cat and mouse.
Shay could only watch. Not only was time moving so slowly, every single minute that passed put them in more danger of being discovered.
The duckat made one final bellowing attempt to skewer Anada and failed. This time Anada dropped to her knees, held her blades up at an angle and speared its chest. The duckat stopped, bellowing over the top of her, then fell. Dead.
Anada rose, putting her blades away, then returned to the fence. “The whole place will be flooded with guards soon,” she said. “I’ll burn the body. Can you hide the hole?”
Shay shook his head.
“Well, I’m glad we got something from it.”
Shay held up the wire while she climbed through, then disconnected his gear. “Worth a lot?” he asked.
“Yes, you don’t get this metal outside the city center very often. Should fetch a nice price.”
Anada turned to the fence and, to Shay’s surprise, called forth a fireball into her hands using mana. She shot the fireball out toward the carcass, and they both watched as it started to burn, then took hold properly.
“Come on,” Anada said. “They really will be here fast now, hoping that fire doesn’t spread.”
Shay’s legs carried him, but they were heavy. So very heavy.
Anada stopped him. “Up,” she said.
“I’m way too heavy,” Shay replied.
Within a second, the burly woman had him up on her back, then she ran for it.
She was strong and fast. Shay held on tight, the fear of falling off and getting caught fueling his arms.
Soon they were approaching Natty’s hotel. Anada stopped, dropped him, and let him walk the rest of the way.
Reaching the side entrance, Shay asked, “You’ll stop by again?”
Anada dipped her head and rooted about in a pocket. “I will be here in a few days, maybe longer, with the information.” She then held out a vial. “This is for tonight and tomorrow. Thank you.”
Shay took the vial. A potion, of course, but he had no idea what it contained. The liquid inside was pink and thick. He muttered his thanks, and Anada left.
Wet, cold, and exhausted, Shay made his way back inside to his room. He stopped by the back desk, ordered a lock for his room, and paid the extra for it. It would mean he wouldn’t have next week’s rent up front, but he’d work that out. He needed a lock, especially if people started to see him with Pim outside.
Once in his room, Shay downed half the pink liquid, stripped, and put his clothes to dry. Then he went straight to bed. Pim never moved, already asleep for the night.
When Shay’s alarm went off, he woke to find Pim curled around his feet. Shay tried to slide them out without waking him, but the walrat opened its eye and lazily yawned. “Sorry,” Shay said.
“You were late.” Pim held his eyes with his.
“It was an interesting night,” he admitted.
“Hurry back to tell me all about it,” Pim said as Shay dressed.
Shay grabbed the vial, offering it to Pim. Pim shook his head. “You need it for today. Just get more.”
Shay downed the rest of the fluid, feeling its energy spread through his veins, giving him the vital energy he would need to clean today.
With a yawn, he said his goodbye to Pim and left, locking his door behind him. No one would have access now. That meant Pim was safe and knowing that made him feel better already.
This morning, the rooms that Shay was assigned to clean were on the lower level. He cursed, hating the job. One day soon, I’m getting out of here and going on a real adventure. One day very soon.
Time passed.
By the time Anada returned, it had been more than a few weeks. It was well past dinner, a meal that he’d missed today.
Shay struggled to walk outside to meet her. Every muscle hurt.
Anada frowned at him. “You weren’t kidding about your long days.”
Shay shook his head and yawned. “I’m okay,” he said. His eyes widened when Anada held out another vial. “Really?”
“Yes, take it. This one is on me. Do you have an account?”
Shay took the vial and didn’t hesitate to drink it this time. The need for healing, inside and out, was a priority.
“Details?”
Shay passed Anada the details of his fund account. Within a second, he had more money, and his rent was covered for another couple of weeks, the lock and all.
He looked up at the large woman, though. “What’s next?” he asked.
“Well, you need parts for your pet, and I sold the metal we found. Go in, sleep. When is your next day off?”
“What’s a day off?” Shay asked.
“Okay, I’ll speak with the hotel owner. You don’t get a lot of days off, but your next one is going to be a week off. You’ll be coming to Ali Bay market with me. I’ll pick you up after breakfast, 6 a.m.”
“6 a.m.?” That was later than Shay had ever gotten up and out.
“Enjoy the rest of your week, and if you can, sleep in before I come for you. You’ll need it. It’s a long way to where we’re going,” Anada said.
Shay wished he could sleep in. He glanced to the hotel. Yeah, not a chance.
28
I stretched my legs at 10:30 a.m., getting out of the pod and walking the length of the room a few times. Cursing my inability to get the hang of it. There were other pods moving about with students in the midst of their own training, whatever it may be. I envied them, I bet they never died as much as I did.
I stood at the end of the room, leaned over till I could touch the cool floor with my hands and stretched all of my back muscles out. With quite a few pops and clicks, my spine settled into a more normal position and I relaxed a little.
“You need to take breaks more often,” a voice said behind me.
I peered around the side of my legs but stayed upside down. The young woman from last night was standing beside a 3D screen staring at the inside of a simulation, hand on hip. Her uniform was not the same as mine; it was a much darker blue, with silver piping up her left leg and right arm. Had she been watching me? Nah, I shook the thought out of my head. “Yeah,” I replied. “I really do.”
“Are you here all day?” she asked.
“Yeah, I have a lot to catch up on.”
“I’m instructing till five. If you’d like some extra help, I’m willing after I’ve eaten, say five thirty?”
I lifted my hands off the floor in time to catch her walk away, reddish-brown ponytail swinging with her movement. “That would be great,” I shouted after her.
She waved a hand at me and left the room.
Instructing what? Where? Crap, what did I just agree to, and with whom?
I ate my protein bar, drank some water, and then climbed back into my pod.
“Moving through takeoffs to problems,” the AI said.
“Do you have a name?” I asked her.
“Some have asked in the past,” she replied. “I told them my assigned name, which they then ignored and called me Betty, so Betty it is.”
“Betty it is, then. Are you assigned to all simulations?”
“You are meaning in the whole of Artem, aren’t you?”
“Correct,” I replied and watched her reactions. She mimicked everything human but couldn’t mimic real emotions well at all.
“Then yes, I train and monitor all students, here and at Ocean Oil Fields, then out in the real world.”
“So you’ll be with me forever.”
“To some degree, yes. Though I get called on much less when you’re qualified for information.”
The work I was doing till lunch was more difficult. I had gotten off the ground the first time easily enough, but repeating it…well, every time I applied more torque or tilted the cyclic too much, the world came crashing down around me. I mean crashing down too. The pod literally dived and smashed me into the ground at speed.
It was my umpteenth failure, and I had to get out. “Lunch, I need a break.”
I opened the pod door, about to get out. “Rusty,” Betty said.
“What?” I retorted.
“You’re doing really well,” she said.
I rubbed my hands down my legs. “No,” I said. “No, I’m not.”
The canteen was full this time, and I wanted to keep on walking past it. But my stomach growled, and I needed to eat, so I got in line. Making my way to the front in a short time, I was soon getting a steaming plate of vegetables, carbs, and meat with gravy from Don, the man I’d met last night. There were no places to sit, so I took my tray outside and sat on the grass in the shade. There were a few others also sitting out here. Different people came and went as I ate slowly, going over and over in my mind what I was doing, and where I thought I was going wrong. It didn’t make sense. In my head, I was doing things right. But I couldn’t be because the helo crashed almost every time.
“Penny for your thoughts,” a voice said.
I looked up, shielding my eyes from the sun. “Are you following me?” I asked.
She shook her head. “You seem to like sitting in my food spots.” She sat down, put her own tray down, then helped herself to a sandwich.
“I was in your seat last night, as well?”
She nodded, chewing her food.
“Sorry,” I groaned.
“You look frustrated,” she added. “What’s going wrong?”
“I can’t get off the ground safely,” I said. “I mean, I did the first time, but I just can’t now. I don’t know why?”
“Talk me through it.”
In between eating, I did. All of it. Just spilled all my troubles to this stranger, no idea why. Guess I just needed to talk.
“You’ll get it,” she assured me. “Takes everyone a while for it to click, some much longer than others.”
“What was it like for you?”
“I was born flying.” She grinned.
Typical, of course she was.
Lunch over, she stood. “I’ll see you later, yeah?”
I sat there for just a moment longer before getting up to return my tray and get back to the training room.
All afternoon, I attempted once again to get this right. Betty tried to coax me, trying everything in her textbooks to help. Nothing did.
I really wasn’t getting it, and my last crash at 5:28 p.m. landed hard. I pushed the panel to get out and walk around again. It wouldn’t be long before she was here, whoever she even was. Total mystery gal, but a mystery I wanted to solve already. She interested me in every way—well, almost every way. I had seen her mind working, watching me, all of me. It was professional, nothing more.
I cursed. I didn’t even know her, but I wanted to have nailed this to show her. I just hadn’t.
Walking in with a smile on her face and a pep in her step, the young instructor came straight over to me. “Ready?” she asked.
I frowned. “I guess.”
“Still haven’t gotten it?”
“No.” My whole body sagged. “This sucks.”
“Come on,” she said, and her smile didn’t falter. “I’ve got a few more tricks that Betty doesn’t know for you to try.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Get in and I’ll show you.”
I complied a little reluctantly. I got in, buckled up, and checked everything off without being asked. When I looked at her, she was just watching me.
“Keep going. Without seeing what you’re doing wrong,” she said, “I’m only taking a guess that you’re doing exactly the same that every other new pilot does.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re overreacting. Listening to”—she tapped her chest—”instead of using the instruments.”
“Yeah,” I said and frowned. “More than likely. What can I do?”
“Bypass this session. We’ll need an instructor’s set of codes to do that, so guess that’s where I come in.”
She held her wrist out to the console, and my HUD blinked with info as she did as she said. “That will work?” I asked.
“There’s two choices,” she said and finished fastening her own belt. “It will or it won’t.”
“At this stage, I’m willing to try anything.”
“You’re not even ten hours in,” she said. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“I don’t think you’re ready for this,” Betty said.
“Worth a try, no?” I asked. “I don’t seem to be getting anywhere like this.”
Betty sighed, and the pod atmosphere changed in the blink of an eye.
“Ready,” Betty said. “Let’s start from the beginning.”
It really was dark. All that was lit in the cockpit this time were four dials. I could do nothing but rely on them to tell me where I was, what way I needed to tweak the engine or my drift.
“It’s totally dark,” I said. “You’re sure this is better than what I was doing?” I asked my mysterious teacher.
“Yes,” she said. “Trust me.”
“How can I trust you when I don’t even know you?”
“You can answer that after you’ve tried.”
I swallowed and started up the engine. When it came to the elevator, I was terrified, even though nothing could happen to me or my instructor. We were inside a safety pod after all.
I stared at my dials, watched and did everything I should in time, in perfect unison.
The horizon line moved, and the cyclic needed a tweak. I overcompensated. At least I thought I did.
I tried to pull it back the other way, then made even more of a mess. Within the next minute, we were nose diving and dead.
“This is too hard for you,” Betty said.
“Again,” I ordered.
My instructor never said a word; she just sat with me and observed everything.
We started off again, and I wasn’t letting up. On my third try, I was finally in the air and hovering at fifty feet.
“Nice work, airman.”
“Err, let’s see if I can do it a few more times before I try in the daylight again.”
“You have to land first,” Betty said.
Land? Seriously?
“Follow what I say,” my instructor said. “You can do this.”
I was glad she had confidence in me. Though, that seemed funny. But with her instructions I landed with only a small bump, sweat dripping down my back, and a slight shake to my hands.
We did three more, up and down, and I was ready to try in the daylight again.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Betty asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Let’s do it.”
The lights all came back up, and I let myself adjust to it before I even thought about starting the hover, to ascend again.
I did it, and I landed perfectly, too. Finally, I was feeling like I was getting somewhere.
The time, though, was 9:20 p.m.
“One more try,” I begged.
“No,” my instructor said. “I’m starving. Come on. Canteen. We can talk more when we’re there.”
Reluctantly, I put the pod into park, and the doors opened. “I could go for a walk first,” I said. “If you want to eat, that’s okay.”
Her cool eyes regarded me for a moment. “I don’t want you out there on your own,” she said.
“Excuse me?” I asked. “I don’t need a babysitter, if you think those guys are going to be waiting for me.”
“They will be, and no, you clearly don’t need a babysitter. But I’m still not leaving you alone, either.”
“Who are you?” I asked. “Seriously.”
“Fuck,” she said. “I was going to wait till you got to Ocean Oil Fields, but…” Wait for me? “You’re going to be out of your depth there still and look like a sore choice for me. Let me walk with you. I’ll explain.”
“Okay,” I said, not having a clue what she was talking about. Together, we left the simulation room to take the first main set of doors outside into the light of the cooling evening.
“Talk,” I said as soon as we were on a nice, long pathway around the grounds.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “I’m First Airman Malaki Canlas. I’m here because I’m a bit of a troublemaker.”
“First airman? Troublemaker?” I asked.
“My teaching the newbies is punishment.”
“What’s this all got to do with me?”
“Lots of rumors about the new recruit who was with Chief Kuri. Kuri never would have taken you out unless you were interesting.”
“You think I’m interesting?”
“Oh, you are interesting,” she said. “The way you stood up to Declan and his friends…that took guts. No one else here would have done that.”
“I’m not anyone else.”
“Exactly.” She grinned. “You are very interesting.”
