- Prologue

'Are you sleeping with anyone?'

The girl who asked that got poked in the ribs by the young man next to her. That sparked some laughter and ribaldry which gave Theo a chance to catch her breath and take a sip without looking like she wasn't paying attention.

If any of the questions surprised her more than any others she couldn't say; the good news was that a couple of the crowd were kind enough to use recognizable hand-talk, and that gave her something to concentrate on, besides trying to eat.

They'd walked her in to the lunch room like she was leader of the pack, but partly it might have been to make sure no one else joined them.

All of them were from the math lab; all had been at the school longer than she had and they all wanted to be close to her, where before they barely acknowledged her.

She managed to answer some questions.

'I wasn't scared,' she said after another sip of whatever soft drink someone brought her, 'because I was just too busy.' Here she interjected with her hands, pointing toward the could-be instrument panel and signing updown, north, wind speed, drift, drift, updown, clock.

'The order came and I had to find a way to get the ship out of the air, and the mountain was nearest . . .

'Afterwards, then I was shaky and wanted to dance!'

For some reason that prompted laughter, and she grabbed a bite as people quieted and then looked as the youngster—she recognized him as one of the Erkes local students—blurted into the silence, 'You always walk so fast and . . .'

She agreed, nodding in his direction. 'I do. I like to walk, but there's not really enough time to just take a hike, and I'm usually a little late . . .'

Again, some laughter and smiles, and the pair staring back and forth at each other with furtive hand-talk that looked like Later alone ask and an assent and . . .

'But the Slipper was great,' she said, getting back to another question, 'except I'd never landed in that kind of a head wind before. I really had to trick her down with a sideslip . . .'

Here Theo demonstrated with a hand motion and a swing of the shoulders and then a dual slide of hands toward the tabletop. Then she laughed, doubling the attention on her.

'The only time I worried about the soldiers is when I made them hold the Slipper and one didn't understand so good about paying attention. He let the starboard wing loose before I got the tiedowns set and it almost clipped his nose.'

'You made the soldiers help?'

Theo snickered.

'Did I have a choice? You think I'm going to let a school Slipper fall off a mountain if I can help it? They insisted I was going with them, and right away, but the rotor pilot, he told them I was right, the ship needed to be tied down else it might run into his machine at liftoff. So yes, the soldiers helped.'

The other hand-talkers, not the hormone addicts, were more readable: saw flight well done came her way and bowli ball after?

That sounded good, but she really wasn't going to have time. Not today, she managed and, thank you.

Normally lunch was a chance for Theo to think over math or math lab, and even to eat. Today she was having a hard time fitting the food in around fielding questions and watching the hands for words.

The quarter chime sounded, barely discernible above the conversation buzz at table; in moments the group—all carefully nodding, saying, or signing their good-bye to Theo—was off in disparate directions.

Theo heard or felt the presence of someone behind her, and turned to see—

Asu.

Her roomie sighed gently, and without asking pulled out a chair and sat heavily.

'It won't last, you know.' she said, waving at the empty chairs. 'Once people figure out that you don't want to be friends, don't need to be friends, and can't do anything for them, they'll look for some other fast line.'

Theo raised empty hands and shrugged. 'I don't know why . . .'

Asu made a sound remarkably similar to one of Lesset's triumphant I-knew-it noises.

'Have you seen the news, Theo? Do you know how many comm calls I've denied this morning? I mean—you survived!'

Theo looked to the ceiling before hoisting the last of her drink and guzzling it. She was going to need to start walking soon . . .

'I don't much follow the news, Asu. Not politics, not finance, not even sports.'

That last was a bit of a cut, and she was exaggerating, anyway.

Asu wrinkled her nose.

'Look, what's going on is the local newsies—and I mean planetary, not continental!—they've got these great long distance vids, even a satellite shot or two, of you throwing the Slipper around like it's an aerobat while the military chases public menace number one in your direction. Two expert commentators following the chase say there's no possible place for you to land and right there you calmly slot the thing in with a half wing-span to spare, just in time for the public menace to get obliterated, kabloom!'

Asu's sound effects and hand motions brought stares; Theo blushed and looked away. When she looked back,