There was an entireweather system up there. It was probably managed by the eternalmachinery but there were clouds and they dropped rain on crops thatnobody had needed for thousands of years.
“Anybody home?”
Gabriella leaned offthe end of the balcony to see farther down the path that tunneled itsway through the jungle to the main road. “Luna!” She waved.
Luna rounded the lastcorner. “Hey, cutie. Your mom home too?”
“She’s downstairssomewhere.”
“Thought we could doa girls’ day out.” Luna jabbed a thumb back over her shoulder.“Got the squadron cooling their heels out on the road and twospares,” she said, ending with a questioning tone.
“You know how I feelabout flying,” Adelina said, coming out of the house. She gave hersister a hug.
“You’ll feeldifferent with a little more practice,” Luna insisted. “You werehaving fun by the end of our last ride. You just need to let yourmuscles connect with the training we put in that stubborn noggin ofyours.”
Gabriella missed halfof the exchange because she was already racing to her room. Shescrambled into her underarmor suit and stepped into her footplates.By the time her mother was starting to frame her reluctantacceptance, she was already skidding to a halt next to them, fullysuited except for her helmet.
She nearly squealedwith delight when they reached the road to find, as promised, a rowof Luna’s new fighters parked on the dusty cobbles. She’d enjoyedthe unstructured time flying along with her aunt and mother but itwas way cooler to go up as part of a formation. They’d done a fewpatrols already.
The pilots weregathered in the shade of one of the closer ships, engaged in thetypical swaggering nonchalance one might expect.
They came to attention,though, when they noticed their squadron leader had returned.Gabriella thought she could tell the difference between the Earthersand the republics by the way they stood.
Some were more rigidand they’d come to attention far more rapidly. She wondered if itwas an Earth tradition her aunt had brought with her.
“Stand easy,”Luna said, after returning their salute.“You guys all know thesetwo. They’regonna come with us on anotherpatrol ofthe inner surface around this region.”
“What are weexpecting to find, anyway?”one of them asked. “You think there are still ancients living hereor something?”
“Could be,”Luna admitted, “butI doubt it.” She waved at the path she’d just emerged from.“There had to be a lot of other races living here, though. Thehouses out here are all pretty close to Human-sized. Therecould be Billions of aliens living here, even if they didn’t buildthe place.
“Either way, I wantto know if there’s anybody living near here. I don’t want somelocal war washing over us because I was too lazy to go looking.
“Remember, we’regoing to be dipping in and out of atmo, so I don’t want anybodyscaring the natives with sonic booms.”
“Yeah,” a voicedrawled at the back with a Texas accent, “we’ll just reassurethem with a formation of killer machines!”
“Now you’re withthe program!” Luna said with a grin.
She turned to Adelinaand Gabriella. “We need call-signs for you two!”
“I know that look!”Adelina insisted, holding up a hand. “Don’t you dare!”
“Hey,” the Texansaid, “it’s supposed to be embarrassing. Helps create a sense ofshared misery.”
“So what’s yoursthen?” Adelina demanded.
“HotDog.”
“And that’sembarrassing?”
“Wait till you hearthe story,” he grinned. “Not from me of course. My daddy taughtme to watch my p’s and q’s in front of a lady.”
“Ohhh,” Lunaslapped her hands together. “I’ve got it! Remember that boyyou liked in your junioryear at high school?”
Mom with a crush? Gabriellaalmost laughed.She understood her mom was more than just her mom but she’d heardalmost nothing about her life outside of motherhood. She leanedforward along with half the squadron, eager to hear the name.
Adelina’s eyes lookedlike they were trying to shoot lasers. “Not another word youtreacherous little bit…”
“Stalker!”Luna exclaimed, just in time.
The whole squadron wascheering. The ones close to her were slapping a hand on her armoredshoulder, congratulating her. She looked at her daughter, mortified.
“The one who gotaway?” Gabriella asked, giggling. “Like, from your basement?”
Adelina shook her headbut she was starting to smile.
“We’ve allbeen there, Stalker,” HotDog assured her. “You work hard, try tolive right and then, one time,you burn yourname into someone’s lawn in gasoline letters and suddenly you’rea stalker!” Heused his fingers to putquotes around the last word.
“Yeah,”Skidmark commiserated. “It’s like that guy I’ve been seeinglately, back on Earth. I mean I’d been seeing a lotof him before I came out here.” She shook her head. “Notthat heknew…”
“Alright.”Adelina held up her hands. “I’m Stalker. Let’s move on!”
“What’s my name?”Gabriella asked eagerly. Please, let it be something badass!
“Oh, I already hadyours figured out, kiddo!” Luna grinned at her sister beforelooking back at Gabriella.
“You’re gonna beRascal!”
“Oh, what the hells?I sound like a friggin’ raccoon!”
“Yeah,”Adelina said, grinning. “It’s totally adorable, which no teenagerwants to be. If I have to live with Stalker,you can be the trash-panda.”
“Alright!” Lunaclapped her hands together. “Strap in, everybody!”
“Milady?”Kinn, known in the squadronas ‘Porkay’, waved to her from a nearby fighter.
She gave anupward nod, acknowledging her flight-engineer, the guy who’dkeep small problems from turning into big ones while in flight.“Looks like you can stop calling me that, Porkay.”
“It didn’t soundlike you much liked your new call-sign,” he observed.
“Yeah but…”Shesighed, watching her aunt jog over to her machine. “I guess I’mRascal,” she said resignedly. Sheheaded for her own bird.
“You’d prefer thatto being called ‘milady’?”
“If it’s a choicebetween ‘milady’ and Rascal, then I suppose I do prefer thecall-sign.” She held up her hand, a hair’s-breadth of spacebetween thumb and forefinger. “By about this much.”
They moved toward theirfighter. “You should be able to make it yours, though; really ownit.” Kinn said. “That’s what Pounce said when she gave memine.”
Gabriellaclimbed up into the cockpit, sliding into the seat. Shefrowned up at him as he double-checked her restraints. “You ask hera lot of questions or something?”
He looked down at herin surprise, one hand still holding onto her harness. “Yeah! Shetell you?”
“You know whatyour call-sign means?” sheasked him.
He shook his head buthe looked curious.
“In Spanish, ‘why’is ‘por que’. I think she’s expressing her weird sense ofhumor. You mind if I pronounce it slightly different?”
“How?” Helooked over his shoulder as
