A Beautiful Friendship-ARC (19 page)

She shrugged, and Sapristos nodded.

“Well, as you can see, we’ve added a few new faces since the last time you were here. I don’t think you’ve met Jake Simpson or Allison Dostoevskaya yet. And Toby here is another newcomer. He and his family only relocated from the Balthazar System a couple of T-months ago.”

“Hi,” Stephanie said, smiling at the newcomers and trying not to notice how everyone else’s eyes seemed to be glued to Lionheart.

The others nodded or waved or whatever, and Mr. Sapristos smiled.

“We’ve got enough warm bodies now that we can actually think about organizing into teams,” he said, addressing all of them this time, “and I’ve set up a point system based on your demonstrated skill levels. And using those points, I’ve come up with a proposed roster for a Blue Team and a Red Team that ought to be fairly evenly matched. What I’d like to do today is let you guys look at my suggestions and maybe spend a few hours in the air getting a feel for how well they might work out. Nothing’s set in stone at this point, so don’t fret if it doesn’t seem to be a perfect fit. Just take it as a suggested starting point. Once we’re comfortable with the roster for each team, we’ll be setting up competitions. We’ll be going for individual achievements, but also for group records for duration, altitude, formation flying and aerobatics, all that kind of thing. And Trudy here”—he nodded at dark-haired, blue-eyed Trudy Franchitti—“has suggested we think about relay races and team distance marathons, as well.”

Heads nodded all around, Stephanie’s among them, and she felt herself perking up. She did love hang gliding, and she knew she was stronger in the air than most—if not all—the gathered kids. On the other hand, one of the reasons she loved hang gliding as much as she did was that it was basically a solo sport. She didn’t have to put up with all the petty squabbling that seemed so much a part of other kids her age. It would be interesting to see just how well this notion of teams worked out, though. She wasn’t going to start jumping up and down with enthusiasm, but given the way it would combine team activities with solo performance, it might not be
quite
as bad as she’d expected.

Might not.

“All right,” Sapristos said. “In that case, let’s get our gliders assembled and as soon as we can complete our checklists, we’ll get into the air.”

* * *

It had been obvious to Stephanie that Lionheart had been more than a little nervous the first time she’d taken him gliding, and she hadn’t really blamed him for that, under the circumstances. He’d been brave, though. He’d watched her father constructing the new glider, with its considerably more powerful counter-grav generator, and he’d cooperated (obviously not without some misgivings) as Richard Harrington carefully installed the treecat-sized safety harness. It was anchored to the glider frame, just behind the main spar, which put Lionheart in the most crash-survivable location. That wasn’t a minor consideration, since they still hadn’t been able to figure out how to make a safety helmet that would fit a treecat. It also put Lionheart’s head just behind her own, where she could listen to his comments when they flew.

One thing she’d already discovered about treecats was that (judging by Lionheart, at least) they used an amazingly wide set of vocalizations for creatures who obviously had no spoken language. She didn’t
think
any of the sounds she’d heard him make had a specific meaning, but they certainly seemed to be an effective barometer for his emotions. In fact, she’d come to the conclusion (so far, at least) that they were basically simply a form of emphasis, like the way a human might wag an index finger at someone to underscore a point or stamp her foot if she was angry about something.

Whether Lionheart’s comments had any meaning beyond that was yet one more of the many puzzles waiting to be solved, but they’d sounded decidedly nervous on their first flight. Still, he’d gotten over it quickly. In fact, he was even more enthusiastic about it than she was now, and he leapt eagerly into place for her to buckle him up.

She laughed and made very certain he was carefully secured, then buckled her own harness, pulled on her helmet, and toggled the heads up display on the inside of its visor. She powered the counter-grav generator, although she left their weight adjusted to one Sphinxian gravity, then looked at Mayor Sapristos and raised her right hand to signal her readiness.

One or two people had completed their preflight checks before her, thanks to the need to be sure Lionheart was properly secured, but she was still ahead of most of the others. Mayor Sapristos had already finished his own checks, as well, and he nodded to acknowledge her readiness, then waited patiently for the others. Toby Mednick, the new arrival, was the last to complete his preparations, and it looked as if he was flushed with embarrassment by the time he was done. His complexion was dark enough she wasn’t certain, but she flashed him an approving thumbs-up, and he returned the gesture gratefully.

“All right,” Mayor Sapristos said over their helmet coms. “I know there’s not much wind here at ground level, but once we clear the trees at the edge of the field, it’s going to pick up pretty sharply out of the southwest. I want you guys to spread out before you bring up your counter-grav—let’s make sure there’s enough spacing we don’t get any mid-airs before we’re able to build speed-over-ground. Shoot for about seventy meters for your initial altitude.”

He waited for each glider’s individual response, then nodded.

“Let’s go!”

* * *

Stephanie put her black and orange, tiger-striped glider into a steeply diving left bank, listening to wind drum across the taut fabric and whistle around her helmet, and laughed as she heard Lionheart’s high-pitched, gleeful bleek. This was the first time she’d
really
put her glider through its aerobatic paces, and she was sure she could literally feel his delight as they soared cleanly across the heavens.

No one was trying for any personal records today, but she was actually surprised by how much she’d enjoyed jockeying to maintain formation with the others. Maybe this idea of team hang gliding actually had something to recommend it after all! And after an hour or so of that, Mayor Sapristos had cleared them for a half-hour’s free flight. Stephanie was uncomfortably aware that she’d proceeded to succumb to the opportunity to “show off” in front of the other kids, but she didn’t really care. She’d spiraled up to several times their initial altitude—more than high enough to make her grateful for her heavy jacket, despite the season—and spent almost twenty minutes dancing with the wind.

They’d drawn quite a crowd, too, she realized, looking down. In fact, for a dinky little place like Twin Forks it amounted to a
huge
crowd. There must be thirty or forty people down there, shading their eyes with their hands while they watched the hang gliders swooping and dancing above them.

Well if they’d come out to see the show, maybe she and Lionheart should go ahead and give them one!

She steepened her dive, simultaneously tightening her turn, and swooped towards the athletic field from which they’d launched like a stooping, four-winged Sphinxian mountain eagle. She was going to have to flare soon to lose the velocity she was building, but she found herself whooping in exhilaration as the ground swept dizzily around below them.

* * *

Climbs Quickly slitted his eyes against the buffeting wind as they went slicing across the sky and he heard his two-leg’s joyous mouth-sounds mingling with his own high, ringing bleek of excitement. To think he’d once been nervous about this! It was wonderful—almost as wonderful as cluster stalk! No, maybe it
was
as wonderful as cluster stalk!

He knew he’d flown much faster and higher in the metal flying thing, but this—! This must be what a bird experienced, one of the great hunting birds of the upper peaks! He felt his tail streaming behind him, felt the wind whipping through his fur and plastering back his whiskers, and understood exactly why his two-leg took such joy from moments like this.

She shifted her weight again, and Climbs Quickly could see how that adjusted the angle of their flying thing. He had little idea yet why any particular angle adjustment affected their flight, but he’d quickly figured out
how
she controlled their course, and he wasn’t surprised when their speed fell off abruptly. They slowed still further, and he saw the ground reaching up for them. Then they were scarcely moving—compared to their earlier speed, at least—and her feet dropped down and found the grass. She ran forward, laughing and breathless, until she could absorb the last of their velocity and come, at last, to a stop, and he leaned forward, patting the back of her helmet with his remaining true-hand.

* * *

Stephanie laughed again as she felt Lionheart patting her helmet. She heard a spatter of applause from the spectators who’d gathered while they were aloft, but it was that pat on her helmet and the sheer joy behind it that she truly treasured.

“Not so bad, huh?” she asked, stripping off her helmet and turning her head to smile at him as she went to one knee and rested the glider frame on the ground. “Liked that, did you?”

“Bleek! Bleek, bleek,
bleek!
” he replied, and she laughed yet again as she tucked the helmet under her left arm and reached up to stroke him with her right hand.

“Oh, he’s adorable!” another voice said.
Squealed
, really, Stephanie thought as she turned her head and saw Trudy Franchitti standing there.

Trudy and Stephanie were the two best female hang-gliders of the group. In fact, Stephanie thought they were both better than Stan Chang, who obviously thought he was
the
hotshot glider of all Sphinx. And equally obviously thought Trudy was as deeply smitten by his manly accomplishments as
he
was.

For all Stephanie knew, Trudy was, too. They spent enough time hanging around (and sneaking off) with each other. And their personalities, she thought darkly, were a perfect match for each other.

The fact that she and Trudy were both good hang-gliders and happened (for now, at least) to be assigned to the same team didn’t necessarily translate into any glowing friendship. Nor was it likely to. Despite Trudy’s undeniable proficiency in at least some areas of athleticism, Stephanie had come to the conclusion that she’d been badly shortchanged in terms of neural synapses. Hers just didn’t seem to
work
very well. Although Trudy was almost a full T-year older than Stephanie, Stephanie was three semesters ahead of her in terms of coursework. Of course, looking at the two of them side by side, Trudy looked like she was at least two (or even three, Stephanie thought glumly) T-years older, judged by her steadily—one might almost have said explosively—blossoming figure. Stephanie wasn’t prepared to admit just how much she resented that, since she figured it was a pretty silly thing to be resenting. Didn’t feel that way sometimes, though. And she
really
hated the way Trudy had taken to standing artfully posed to emphasize her new . . . attributes.

Especially when there was any even marginally attractive male of the species in the vicinity.

And double-especially when the male in question actually fell for it, she thought, glancing in Stan’s direction. The absolute mindlessness behind his eyes was almost frightening. Not that there really
was
that much mind behind them, now that she thought about it. And not that she would have wanted
Stan
—yuck!—looking at
her
that way, but still
. . .

Despite that, Stephanie thought she could probably have actually liked Trudy if she’d only had a functioning brain. Or something remotely resembling a sense of maturity. Or (little though Stephanie wanted to consider the possibility) if Trudy had been just a little less popular with the “in crowd.”

Not that Stephanie cared anything about the “in crowd’s” opinion, of course. She had more useful things to do with her time than worry about
that
.

“He’s so
cute
, Stephanie!” Trudy gushed, coming closer as Stephanie began unbuckling her harness. “Oh, I’ve
got
to get one of my own! Doesn’t he—Lionheart, I mean—doesn’t he have, you know, a friend you could introduce me to?”

She batted her eyes with a giggle. Undeniably, it was a
giggle
, Stephanie thought disgustedly. And wasn’t it amazing how all of a sudden Trudy had gotten so friendly? Or perhaps what was truly amazing was that Trudy could think for an instant that Stephanie was stupid enough not to realize why the other girl had so unexpectedly developed a desire to be her friend.

“I don’t think so,” Stephanie replied as pleasantly as she could. “I mean, I’m sure he’s got friends, but I don’t think most of them are as eager as he seems to be to ‘take up with humans,’ as my Mom puts it. Personally, I think that just shows they’ve got better sense than he does!”

She said the last sentence as humorously as she could, hoping to turn it off as a joke, but Trudy wasn’t prepared to be diverted.

“Oh, come on,” she said. “Nobody’s ever seen one of them before, and the very first one you meet decides he does want to ‘take up’ with you?” She pouted and shrugged her shoulders. “How hard can it be, really? Once you get the opportunity, I mean.”

“I’m afraid it’s not quite that simple, Trudy.” Stephanie tried—she really
tried—
to keep the exasperation out of her tone. She’d
known
how the null wits like Trudy were going to react to this, she’d just known. “Just finding them is tough enough, unless you luck into it by accident the way I did. And nobody knows exactly why Lionheart decided to hang around with me in the first place. Not yet.”

“Well, I
know
that,” Trudy said a bit tartly. “But now that we all know they’re out there, I expect we’ll be seeing more of them around town.”

“Trust me,” Stephanie laughed, “nobody’s going to see a treecat unless he
wants
them to see him!”

“Oh?” Trudy cocked her head and her smile took on a slightly fixed look as she watched Stephanie finish unbuckling.

“Oh,” Stephanie said with a nod. She shucked off her own harness and began unbuckling Lionheart, who reached out to her with his remaining true-hand and both hand-feet. He swarmed into her arms as she finished unstrapping him, then whisked around to take his proper position on her shoulder.