Earth and Fire (6 page)

I opened my
mouth to say yes, before deciding it was safer to just nod again.

“The Dig Site
Federation will confirm that directly with Hospital Earth. Now send me your
pilot theory test results.”

“I will do as
soon as I’ve taken the test.”

He raised his
eyes skywards. “You haven’t taken it yet? Then why are you wasting my time? You
can’t start logging your official training hours until you’ve got your training
licence, and you can’t get that until after you’ve passed the theory test.”

“Summer break is
still three weeks away. I’ll get the theory test done well before that. I
already know all the controls.”

He seemed amused
by this. “You think the theory test is just about aircraft controls?”

I hadn’t looked
up the details on the theory test, I’d assumed it was about the controls
because there didn’t seem much else that a pilot needed to know, but the look
on Gradin’s face worried me. I tried to sound confident. “Obviously I’ll need
to learn a few other things for the test, but it won’t be a problem.”

He laughed. “All
right. I’ll give you precisely two weeks to pass your theory test. If you do
that, I’ll get your training licence processed and teach you to fly. Otherwise,
you can forget the whole thing.”

I waited for him
to turn and walk away, before grabbing my lookup and calling up information on
the pilot theory test.

“Oh chaos!”

I frowned at Keon. “Stop laughing
at me!”

“But it’s so
typical of you, Jarra. Charging blindly for your destination, without noticing there’s
a mountain in your way.”

I’d got back to
Next Step to find Issette and Keon lounging on the front lawn in the shade of a
tree. Keon was his usual dishevelled self, while Issette looked unnaturally
elegant after a visit to a hairdresser. She’d had her hair defrizzed and forced
into a sleek, head-hugging style she’d seen on the fashion vid channels. Judging
from her other attempts at changing hair style, her hair would be rebelling
again by tomorrow.

“How was I to
know there’d be so much stupid theory stuff to learn?” I sat down next to them
and waved my arms in frustration. “There’s no sense in it. If I ever needed to
know any of those things, I could look them up on the Earth data net.”

“So if the
thrusters on your plane failed, and it was falling out of the sky, you’d sit
there looking up instructions on how to make an emergency jump using a hover
tunic?” asked Keon.

“Yes, all right,
maybe some of the theory test does make sense.” I ran my fingers through my
hair. “I told Gradin I’d do this, so I’ll have to manage it somehow. I’ll need
you both to help me.”

Keon shook his
head. “That sounds like far too much effort.”

Issette was
frowning down at her lookup. “We’ll have to approach this systematically. The
theory test is made up of six separate parts, Jarra, and you need to get at
least 75 per cent in each of them. You’d better do all the tests on the last
possible day to allow yourself the maximum time to study. The first step is to
work out what you know already.”

She used her
lookup to display a vast wall of text in midair. Words and sentences started
shuffling themselves around, until they were neatly set out in six columns and
a frightening number of rows. Issette had a passion for organizing things. Her
room was so crammed full of possessions there was hardly enough space left for
her, but everything in there was carefully arranged.

“Now, Jarra,”
she said, “which bits do you already know?”

I stared
gloomily at the columns of information. “I know about aircraft systems,
diagnostics and controls. I know about dig site air traffic control and
communication procedures. I don’t know how those work outside dig sites, but
I’ll never be flying anywhere else.”

“It doesn’t
matter whether you’ll ever need it or not,” said Issette, as she busily changed
text colour to show what I knew. “You have to pass a test on it.”

“You will need
to know it, Jarra,” said Keon. “You’ll have to do some cross-country flying as
part of your mandatory training flights.”

“Oh, yes.” I realized
Keon was right, or he would be right if I ever got to do my training flights. I
had a sinking feeling that I wouldn’t.

“What else do
you know?” demanded Issette.

I listed everything
else that seemed familiar. Issette was setting the things I knew to black, and
the things I didn’t know to red. There was a chaos lot of red. She frowned at
the result.

“The General
Aircraft test should be all right. It’s the other five …”

“Four,” said
Keon.

“Five.” Issette
and I chorused the word in unison.

“Four,” repeated
Keon. “If you read the introductory notes, you’ll see Handicapped pilots aren’t
required to do the Interstellar Air Law test, or section two of the
Communications Procedures test, or section six of the Human Factors test, because
they’ll never be flying on any world but Earth.”

“That’s good.”
Issette removed one column from her table, and took out batches of text from two
others.

I wouldn’t have
described the fact I’d never be flying a plane on another planet as good, but
at least I had one less test to worry about.

“You’ll need to
do some work on the Communications test,” continued Issette, “but the real
problems are Human Factors, Flight Planning and Navigation, and Meteorology.”

I groaned. “I
don’t have the faintest idea where to start with any of those. They sound as if
they’ll involve things like science and maths.”

“Our science
teacher always said you were making a big mistake refusing to listen in science
lessons,” said Issette. “She was right.”

I scowled at her.
“You may be my best friend, but it doesn’t mean you can go round saying things
like that.”

“But our science
teacher
was
right, Jarra,” said Keon.

I was outraged.
“How can you say that? You didn’t pay any more attention in science or maths
than I did.”

He laughed. “I didn’t
need to pay attention because I already knew more than the teacher. You didn’t.
Not listening in class was a bad idea because it’s essential to have a basic
working knowledge of science and maths for lots of things, including this
theory test.”

“Stop wasting
time arguing,” said Issette. “We’ve got an awful lot of work to do. Human Factors
is mostly medical, so I’ll work with Jarra on that. Keon will help with the
Flight Planning and Navigation test.”

“No, I won’t,”
said Keon.

“Yes, you will.
It’s very mathematical, and you’ve just pointed out you’re the mathematical
expert round here. That leaves the Meteorology test.” Issette wrinkled her nose.
“Meteorology is sort of geographyish, and Cathan is studying geography as well
as art paint.”

Keon made a
choking noise. “This is going to be interesting. Exactly how far are you
willing to go to get your pilot’s licence, Jarra?”

“I’ve no idea
what you mean,” I said, in a dignified voice.

Keon promptly
gave a shameless grin and spelt out what he meant. “If Cathan teaches you
meteorology, he’s going to expect something in return, like a quick tumble or
two. What’s your negotiating position on that, Jarra? Are you sticking with
being a nice contract girl, wanting to be 18 and have a Twoing contract with a
boy before tumbling him, or are you desperate enough to offer bribes to an evil
non-contract boy like Cathan?”

“I’m not
tumbling Cathan!”

Keon’s grin
widened. “How about tumbling me then?”

Issette slapped
his face. “Keon, behave yourself!”

“Ouch!” Keon
rubbed his cheek. “I could charge you with physical assault for that.”

“I’ve got a
witness who’ll swear I never touched you,” said Issette.

“That’s right,”
I said. “I was watching very closely at the moment Issette never touched you.”

“I wish you two
would stop ganging up on me,” said Keon.

“Why have you
started behaving so strangely, Keon?” asked Issette. “First you were kissing
our hands, and now you’re making suggestive remarks.”

He sighed. “I’m
not behaving strangely. Despite the way you two treat me like a piece of
furniture, I’m potentially just as evil a non-contract boy as Cathan. I’d like
to know if there are any benefits on offer if I’m fool enough to try and teach Jarra
something mathematical.”

Issette and I
exchanged glances, unsure whether Keon was serious about this or teasing us.

“I’m not tumbling
Cathan
or
you,” I said.

“Then I see no
reason to put in a lot of work.” Keon stretched out on the grass and closed his
eyes.

“This is very
important to Jarra,” said Issette. “If you don’t help, neither of us will ever
speak to you again.”

“Peace at last,”
said Keon.

She frowned at
him. “If you don’t help, Jarra will give you a history lecture on every detail
of the Beta sector crisis, from the declaration of the Second Roman Empire to
the treaty of Artemis.”

“The Beta sector
crisis really started at least a decade before the declaration of the Second
Roman Empire in 2605,” I corrected her. “The key point was when Alpha and Gamma
sectors united in an attempt to pass legislation in Parliament of Planets. This
was intended to impose a cross-sector uniform system of relationship contracts limited
to Twoing, term marriage, or full marriage contracts between a maximum of two
people. The First Speaker of Beta sector made his historic speech, stating …”

“I surrender,”
said Keon. “For chaos sake, Issette, shut her up.”

I giggled. “But
don’t you think it’s fascinating?”

“No,” said Keon.
“Given the Handicapped don’t have the right to vote, I see no point in paying
any attention to the political events happening today, let alone listening to
you boring on for hours about things that happened centuries ago.”

“That’s settled
then,” said Issette. “I can coach Jarra at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Keon,
you can work with her for two hours after school, and Cathan can have the two
hours after dinner. It’ll only take me a few minutes to use a planner to work
out a study schedule and send it to you all.”

Keon raised a
hand. “Don’t you think Jarra should at least mention this to Cathan before you
send him a study schedule?”

I groaned and
got to my feet. “You’re right. I’d better go and talk to him right away.”

“Can I come and
watch?” asked Keon.

“No, you can’t!”

I headed off in
search of Cathan. I knew he had to be somewhere around our Next Step, because
he’d had his portalling rights taken away after the unsuitable images incident,
and was limited to travelling between Next Step E241/1089 and School E249/1217 for
the next week. He wasn’t anywhere outside or in his room. Eventually, I found
him sitting on his own in a corner of Commons, staring despondently at the blank
display of the big wall vid.

“It’s been
broken for days now,” he said. “I asked the Principal whether she’ll get it
mended or replaced this time, and she said it was staying broken because she
wasn’t going to waste any more money on it.”

I shrugged. I
didn’t care whether the big wall vid was working or not. I always had to play
my history vids on the tiny wall vid in my room anyway, because people
complained if I played them in Commons. “I can see her point. She’s bought
three new wall vids in the last two months, and they’ve all been broken in less
than a week.”

“But it’s not
fair punishing everyone like this. She should punish whoever keeps breaking it.”

I shrugged again.
“She would if she knew who it was, but she doesn’t. Whoever it is has been sabotaging
the room sensors in here as well as breaking the wall vid. I suppose they’re trying
to bypass the age content filters on the wall vid to watch the Beta sector sex
vid channels.”

“It must be Keon,”
said Cathan.

“Keon wouldn’t
keep trying and failing like this,” I said. “It’s probably one of the Fifteens
or Sixteens. Forget the wall vid. I want you to help me with something.”

Cathan gave me a
suspicious look. “If this is about your ridiculous plan to sneak into Europe
Off-world, I’m not getting involved. I’m in enough trouble already because of
my art images.”

I blinked. “How
did you find out I was planning to go to Europe Off-world?”

“I overheard you
and Issette talking about it in the school grounds,” he said. “Purely by
accident.”

I opened my
mouth to ask which bush he’d been accidentally hiding in to spy on us, but
changed my mind. I mustn’t start an argument with Cathan when I needed his help.

“It’s nothing to
do with that,” I said. “Issette and I have already been to Europe Off-world.”

“Really?” Cathan
looked deeply impressed. “How did you make it past the security checks?”

“That doesn’t
matter. All I need you to do is help me study for a test.”

“I can’t help
with a history test.”

“It’s not
history.” I explained about the pilot theory tests. “The Meteorology test
sounds like your area.”

“I’ve done a bit
in geography but …” Cathan’s face took on a calculating expression. “If I help
you with this, I’ll want you to help me with my painting in return.”

I could guess
where this was going, but I played stupid. “I’m no artist.”

“You don’t need
to know anything about art to be my model.” His voice took on an unpleasant,
lecherous edge. “All I’m asking is that you pose for a couple of hours without
clothes. Purely for artistic purposes. If I’m going to succeed as a painter, I
have to practise painting the human body. I had a set of holo images on my
lookup that I was using for models, but the Principal wiped the whole lot of
them, even the ones with clothes!”

I considered my
options. If I refused to do this, then Cathan wouldn’t help me. He might accept
me posing wearing something revealing, but that would still …

I had a better
idea. “All right, but only if I pass the test.”

“Really? You
promise?”

“I promise. If
you help me and I pass the test, I’ll pose for two hours without wearing any
clothes.”

“Zan!” Cathan
grinned at me. “We’ll have to find somewhere suitable for you to pose for me. The
room sensors will start screaming at us if we try it in one of our rooms, and parks
have patrolling vid bees recording everything.”

“I’ll think of
somewhere,” I said. “Issette will be sending you a study schedule soon.”

“Issette knows
about this?” He looked worried. “There’s no need to tell her about you posing
for me.”

I smiled at him.
“Why not? Issette will understand it’s just for artistic purposes.”

I headed back
outside to rejoin Issette and Keon. “Cathan’s going to help.”

“In exchange for
what?” asked Keon.

“In exchange for
me sneaking off with him and posing for two hours with no clothes on.”

“You can’t do
that, Jarra!” Issette’s voice squeaked with alarm. “Cathan’s bound to make a
vid of you.”

“Don’t worry,” I
said. “I know what I’m doing. I’ll …”

She shook her
head and firmly interrupted me. “You always
say
you know what you’re doing,
but half the time you don’t stop to think things through properly. It’s bad
enough suffering Cathan leering at you for two hours, but if he makes a vid then
he can use it to blackmail you.”