With morning sunshine streaming in over the swamp, Kibi, Boro, and Rini headed toward the city, figuring they knew a little more about what they were up against. There was going to be trouble — they just didn’t know exactly what or when. Their mission was to buy groceries for the ship. They had no doubt that someday their missions would be much more important — and much more difficult.
After entering the city, the trio made a bee-line for a certain unmarked door on one of the muddy streets deep in Rumble Town.
“I had a hunch I’d be seeing you folks, considering what the religious orders are up to,” Doti the healer whispered as she gestured for them to enter as quickly as possible.
Sata stood beside the navigator’s station. “It’s nice to get a break from walking into the city, but I’m looking forward to the farewell dinner with my parents tomorrow.”
“They’re good people,” Ilika said. “We’ll keep in touch with them, and our other friends in the city, as often as possible.”
Sata got comfortable in her station seat. The demonstration showed several navigation problems — on the surface of a planet, in orbit, in interplanetary space, and finally in the vast emptiness of interstellar space. In each case, the steps were shown, and the resulting flight plan displayed.
“What’s orbit?” Sata asked when the demonstration ended.
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“The only stable place in relation to a nearby planet or star. You’ll learn all about it when we finish our planet-side training.”
“Okay.”
“We’ll start with surface flight planning in two dimensions. Here’s your list of charts, organized by solar system and planet. Here’s your kingdom.” A topographic map appeared on the large display screen in front of Sata.
Ilika noticed the pilot craning her neck. “Mati, you can always see a copy of the navigator’s display on channel five.”
She tried it. “Thanks!”
Ilika turned his attention back to Sata. “See your line-drawing tools?
Straight, ellipse, parabola, and freehand. After selecting a tool, you draw by moving your finger on the small display on your console. Try following the path we took on our journey with the freehand tool.”
Sata was not one to giggle very often, but neither she nor Mati could keep straight faces as the navigator struggled to get used to her drawing tools. Ilika smiled, and only spoke when Sata was ready for another tool.
About mid-morning, Ilika gave Sata the first of five navigation problems.
Each required her to plot a course to several destinations in a certain order, taking into account land elevations, cities, bodies of water, and roads.
Sometimes he asked her to seek out certain map features, at other times avoid them. Sata quickly discovered that solutions to Ilika’s problems were not easy to find.
Mati went back and forth, working on her own simulations when Sata was silently concentrating on her assignments, switching to the navigator’s display when her friend announced a possible solution.
Ilika and Sata were discussing her solution to the last problem when they heard a sound of amazement from Mati. They both turned to see.
Mati, in three dimensions, rode the back of a dragonfly, darting among the leaves and flowers of a lush garden. “In such a beautiful place, I wonder what level eight is like . . .”
Ilika kept his mouth shut.
Mati switched to the highest difficulty level. She only saw the frog hiding among the leaves for a fraction of a second before its long tongue shot out toward her. The screen went black except for the purple symbol she had seen
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many times before.
The healer led her three young friends into the clean and tidy streets of Cobble Town, along an alley, up a stone stairway, under an arch, and along a dim passageway to the door at the end, upon which she knocked.
The old woman who opened the door seemed to converse with Doti by sheer eye contact, and no spoken words were exchanged that could be heard.
The woman turned and led them into a room, up another stairway, and out onto a small flat roof.
The two women bent low as they crept to the wall surrounding the little roof, and kept their faces hidden among the vases and pots that lined the edge. All three crew members did likewise.
From here they could look down into the grounds of one of the religious orders, currently filled with several hundred people, many carrying torches even in broad daylight.
A high priest, dressed in his most impressive robes, stood on a raised platform speaking to those assembled. The listeners on the rooftop could not hear every word, but some were emphasized, and these came floating up from below.
“. . . UNDERWORLD . . . DEMON . . . CRIMINALS . . . WITCHES . . .
SORCERERS . . . MONSTER . . . BURN THEM!”
The hidden listeners got the general idea. Although they heard things that identified Ilika, and perhaps Mati if still on donkey-back, they heard nothing that made them think two lads and a lass with rucksacks were in any danger.
After a while, the old woman crept back down the stairs and the rest followed. She made tea, and they sat at her round table discussing what they had seen.
“What do you think they’ll do?” Boro asked.
“They’ll try to make it a public event,” Doti explained, “get the whole city marching out there with bundles of wood and torches.”
“You’ll probably be questioned if you go that way,” the old woman warned.
“Have your stories ready.”
Kibi nodded. “We got some questions two days ago, but yesterday the weather was so bad, we were the only ones on the road.”
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“This is what happens when people, usually men, get the notion that they are in charge of the realm of the gods,” the woman said in disgust. “Nothing could be further from the truth!”
“We were at the aurora ritual last summer at the monastery in the mountains,” Rini mentioned. “All the priestesses were humble and kind.”
The old woman and the healer both looked at Rini with amazement. “You are a rare and lucky young man to have witnessed that ritual,” Doti said.
“We had to meditate with them for days before they trusted us,” Boro explained.
“You have seen the best, and now you are seeing the worst,” the old woman said, gesturing toward the nearby gathering. “Be careful on the roads until they do . . . whatever evil they are planning.”
Mati was having great fun with the many simulations that put her in the place of some creature, from tiny insect to majestic bird, always in a rich three-dimensional environment. She knew from experience that level eight was always deadly, and level seven not much better. She could see herself possibly surviving levels five or six someday in the future, when she was an experienced pilot. Right now, levels one and two were easy, three and four were hard.
Ilika assured her she was doing just fine, and that most piloting accidents happened in situations like level one when the pilot became careless.
“More than anything else, I want you to be completely honest about your own limitations. If I hear you say ‘This is too hard for me,’ I will smile and bake you sweet biscuits, and of course help you improve you skills when we have time.
“Also, the pilot should never be at the flight controls while sleepy, hungry, sick, emotional, or anything else distracting. I can pilot, or the mission can wait.
“But if you ever fail to be honest about your skills or your health in a real piloting situation, you will find yourself off the bridge, and possibly looking for Buna to learn how to be a shepherdess.”
Mati looked into Ilika’s eyes and saw the gentleness she had always seen before, and the firmness of a captain who was not going to let anyone harm
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his ship, his crew, or his passengers.
Ilika smiled, touched her on the shoulder, and went back to working with Sata.
For the next couple of hours, Sata learned all about adding the third dimension to her surface flight plans. The ship displayed a cross-section of the proposed path, and they discussed the obvious goal of avoiding the ground, and also the need to stay above or below certain types of weather.
They considered the issue of letting people see the ship. Finally, they discussed the native creatures of the air, who always had the right-of-way, and what altitudes they used.
When Ilika declared they had finished for the day, Sata had one more question.
“That stuff you said to Mati about reporting her skills and health . . . that applies to all of us, right?”
“In general, yes, although it’s much more critical for the pilot. One reason Mati is our pilot is that she is very even-tempered and doesn’t get flustered.”
Mati smiled with pride and went on guiding her golden eagle through a narrow mountain pass, catching an updraft on the south side where the simulated afternoon air was rising.
When Kibi, Boro, and Rini came staggering through the hatch more than an hour after dark, Ilika could tell by their wide eyes and troubled breathing that they had been tested. He knew this might happen, and he and Sata had dinner all prepared. Little was said as packs were unloaded. Everyone gathered at the table as Sata passed out trays.
“We had to fight our way back,” was all Boro said before inhaling his dinner.
After getting some nutrition into himself, Rini elaborated. “The road is being guarded by priests and farmers with pitchforks. Four times we tried to talk our way through, but they weren’t budging, and we had to put them to sleep. Luckily we got past the last ones, at the top of the hill, before it was too dark and we had to use a light.”
They ate in silence awhile.
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“Did you consider going around the hills on the grassland trails?” Ilika asked.
Kibi, who had not yet spoken a word, suddenly stopped eating and looked daggers at Ilika, but somehow she found the strength to remain silent.
Rini knew it had not been easy for Kibi to use her bracelet at the first roadblock. It had bothered her deeply, but she had made the decision and was now living with it. Rini could see that Ilika’s question had struck a nerve.
“Ilika isn’t saying we should have gone the other way. He’s just asking if we thought about it.”
“That’s right,” Ilika said. “I am happy with the decisions you made. But as your captain and teacher, I have to help you see anywhere your decisions could have been even better, and point out any options you didn’t consider. I will have to do this every time you make a big decision, and you will have to do it any time you are in command.”
Kibi started to relax. Mati reached across and touched her friend on the hand, and could feel Kibi trembling slightly.
“I . . . had to make the decision . . . very quickly . . .” Kibi began, “and didn’t have time to . . . think about the grassland trails . . . but as I think about it now
. . . I know that way would have been two or three times as long . . . and it was almost dark and we were very tired . . . and we don’t know those trails and could have gotten lost . . . and so I think I took all that into account . . . in the back of my mind . . . when I made the decision I had to make . . .”
Ilika waited a moment and then said, “Thank you. I figured you would have. You’re a strong intuitive, and so am I. Others who are less intuitive will appreciate hearing how we make decisions. One thing we have to learn to do, as a crew, is spread around our knowledge and our abilities as much as possible, every day, every decision.”
A slight smile appeared on Kibi’s face.
“Did you consider the possibility of spending the night at the inn and returning tomorrow morning?” Ilika asked.
Kibi brightened. “Yes, I did think of that! But I realized we had an advantage in the late evening. With our hoods up, they couldn’t see our faces.
If they did, it would be harder to get back to the city tomorrow.”
“Good thinking, and again, I agree.”
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Kibi took a deep breath and went back to eating her dinner.
Ilika looked around the table with pride. “Tomorrow is your last day of shopping, and I hear you’re having a special dinner.”
Kibi nodded. “And we’re visiting Pica in the morning, before we go shopping.”
“Tell her I wish I could join you,” Ilika said.
“Me too,” Mati added. But her smile showed she would not give up her first training day for anything.
Ilika was very sweet that evening when he and Kibi retired to their cabin, gently combing her hair and massaging her tight shoulders with scented oil.
Soon they both started yawning, and curled up together in tender silence.
Kibi lay awake for a long time, going over in her mind the decisions she made that day, and the feelings she experienced when she thought she was being criticized.
Eventually she smiled, and fell asleep in Ilika’s arms.
Deep Learning Notes
Working with charts is an essential part of flight training. Even if you don’t plan to become a pilot or navigator, much can be learned by purchasing the aviation chart that includes your home and seeing what is important to pilots.
For the USA, look for “VFR Sectional Charts,” and avoid “TAC” (airport) and
“WAC” (low-resolution) charts.
Another of the ship’s color icons is briefly seen when Mati “dies” while doing a simulation. What Mati sees as “purple” is actually magenta, half-way between red and blue, one of the subtractive primary colors (the others are yellow and cyan). What do you think this color means on Nebador ships?
What do you think of the idea that people, or their religious organizations, are in charge of “the realm of the gods”? Do you think that some religious leaders actually believe this? Can you think of any events in history that show this
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attitude?
Real pilots work under the same ethics Ilika imposed upon Mati. If sleepy, hungry, sick, emotional, or anything else distracting (including under the influence of drugs), the pilot seat is not available. The author does not fly in June and July because of itchy, sneezy hay fever. Also, pilots can set tighter
“personal limitations” for themselves. For example, if an airplane is rated for a 12 knot cross-wind landing, but a pilot is inexperienced with cross-wind landings, he or she will (hopefully) seek a different runway when the wind reaches 8 or 10 knots.
Birds have the right-of-way in today’s aviation because our aircraft will often not survive a collision with a large bird. Since the Manessa Kwi appears to be much stronger than our aircraft, why might Ilika have the same right-of-way rule?
The human ego (self-image) can be very protective of itself. For perhaps the first time, Ilika had to come close to stepping on Kibi’s ego. With the help of friends, she got through it. Most importantly, Rini helped her to avoid reading anything into Ilika’s questions that wasn’t actually there. How would you have handled a similar set of questions about decisions you just made?
Intuitive people have the strength of access to more information than non-intuitives, but the weakness that that information is often vague and incomplete. How are you at making decisions when you have vague or incomplete information, but are forced by circumstances to make a decision anyway?