Andrea Höst: In Arcadia [Touchstone: Extras]

"But—" Allidi glanced at her father. "There are Teleportation shields on some rooms, and Combat Sight would reveal any intent to attack among the students. Can’t the guard detail simply stay outside, so long as they can watch the door?"

Lira brightened enormously, and turned a look of burning expectation on Gidds.

"I’m no longer on the Committee," he said. "But I can suggest the compromise to them, if you wish."

Lira wished. Lira stopped short of ordering Gidds to make the arrangements Right Away, but clearly thought it all but settled, and thanked Allidi for the idea. Laura was pleased, but also reminded that having a daughter and granddaughter who were Touchstones mixed poorly with a romance with a KOTIS officer. There was fertile ground for conflict and tension, for while Gidds had very wisely taken himself entirely out of Arcadia’s supervision chain, that did not make him any less a person of influence in such matters.

The arrival of the three Setari, Sue, and the rest of the kids provided a handy diversion from the topic, and they decided they would continue along the path until it looped near the central hill, at which point Zee would airlift them to the amphitheatre. Gidds, after a murmur to Laura, caught up with his daughters at the front of the group, clearly having serious conversations over the interface.

Sue, eyeing them thoughtfully, opened a channel to Laura.

" Our three minders took on a distinct resemblance to sheepdogs for a while there, as if I could fail to have spotted Haelin arriving, figurative cap in hand, to ask for Daddy’s forgiveness. And never has a locale leant itself more to me asking if there’s trouble in Paradise. "

" Not trouble, really. Maybe a pothole in the road to happily ever after. Sight talents really are something to get used to. "

" What’d he do?Want me to go kick him in the shins? "

Laura explained, while wondering if Gidds would let Sue kick him.

" Love at first Sight Sight, huh? And do you, now you’ve had a chance to process it, find that romantic? "

" I find that I understand Gidds—and his daughters—a little better now. The whole years and years thing just makes me feel pressured. But… " She paused, thinking about Gidds spending those years wanting to know her better. " I like his reasons for liking me. I like them a lot. "

Laura had never lived anywhere colder than Sydney, and while she was finding the advance of the Pandoran autumn fascinating, it was not nearly so amusing with the addition of pre-dawn rain.

Should have worn a heavier jacket.

But this was only a brief consideration as her patio door slid open, and then it was her turn to step up onto a strut, and settle into the curving seat of a flying machine.

"Skimmers and flitters, oh my," she murmured.

"Tsa Devlin?" the pilot said.

"I’m envying your transportation," Laura told her.

The pilot grinned. "Today, I am envying yours," she said.

Laura started to ask what that meant, but then they rose into the air, and she was too busy gazing appreciatively at the island and the lake, and the view of a sleeping Pandora as they crossed it.

Since Muinan aircraft landed more like helicopters than jets, Muinan airports did not require long runways, and so the whitestone landing zone to the south-east of Pandora was relatively compact. They settled next to a bulky-looking tanz with what seemed like a severe excess of technicians giving it a final check. The pilot helpfully pointed Laura toward Gidds, surrounded by grey-suited technicians beneath the shelter of one of the tanz' wings, and then lifted her agile craft back into the air.

Expecting to have to wait until the cluster of senior technicians had finished giving Gidds' what looked to be several peremptory sets of orders, Laura had to suppress an instinctive step back when they immediately abandoned their discussion in favour of competing to be introduced to her. Fortunately, the flight had a strict schedule, and so she was rescued by the need to board

" I hope I didn’t look too overwhelmed ," she said on a private channel to Gidds. " I can barely follow Muinan when so many people talk at once, and I never know what to say when people congratulate me on being someone’s Mum. "

" You smiled and nodded in roughly the correct places ."

Laura shot him an amused glance, then added: " Did I hear correctly that the installation we’re heading to is named after Isten Notra? "

" Yes. Its primary purpose is moonfall research, and Isten Notra is heading that team ."

" I thought she was heading the teleport network team ."

" She is. Muinan installations are so interconnected that Notra is effectively acting as Chief Technician for everything Ena-related. The naming of the base is recognition of the role she played during the crisis, for we certainly would not have come through it without her ."

The main cabin of the tanz was organised into two rows of pods divided by a central aisle, and Gidds led Laura to the pair at the very end. She settled into the one on the right with all the pleasure only memories of cattle class could produce, and wriggled a little as the cushions of the dentist’s chair style couch moulded around her and a net of safety straps snugged themselves into position. Long-distance tanz gave all passengers their own, aether-proof pods: endlessly comfortable, with bubble-like lids that slid over the top for privacy as well as protection.

" I’ll be in conference for most of the flight ," Gidds said. " And there’ll be several periods where we won’t be able to leave the pods, so only a small meal will be served after launch, and a larger one when we arrive at Sel Notra ."

Laura nodded, but then did a quick search over the interface.

" Muina would not have come through the crisis without the Setari program you pioneered . But there aren’t any bases named after you. "

He produced his flicker of a smile. " That lack is not something I object to ."

" No? Well, I reserve the right to be highly partisan ."

This time, instead of smiling, he went still. Then, with complete gravity, he said aloud: "Thank you."

Laura found herself flushing, which was silly of her, but it was impossible not to react when Gidds was at his full intensity. A safety announcement began to play in the interface, and she took the excuse to look away from him to consider the diagram of the tanz, with exits marked, but also the direction that they stay in their pods during emergencies. Flight time would be a little under two kasse—roughly four hours—which, with Muinan technology, could take them to the other side of the planet although the location of Sel Notra base was, entertainingly, not something Laura could look up. Her security classification wasn’t high enough.

Secret KOTIS bases. Laura grinned, but—mindful that this was work time for Gidds—only settled back to the vast array of entertainments available over the interface, and ended up reviewing the items she had for sale as Tiamat . She had only made two sales in the months since she’d set up her online store, and though these had been for gratifyingly high prices, it was not exactly a going concern. Still, she didn’t have a lot of stock to sell, either, for the elaborate, diorama-style pieces she had been experimenting with took days, even weeks to create. She had the luxury of time.

Laura glanced at Gidds, and then allowed herself to be distracted by a small, bland breakfast, followed by the next book in the series that Red Exchange was based upon.