Jackpot Kingdom, page 13
But it was going to make it a whole lot simpler.
And a whole lot more complicated.
And requiring some very tight time precision.
It was obvious, now, why the Jarine was such a low-range vehicle.
Easy to imagine it taking off vertically, tipping its nose skyward and shooting off into the stratosphere. Higher. Maybe fifty kilometers above the surface. Still going vertical, but running on the jets.
Then tipping back.
Falling over in a parabola. Weightless for a moment.
Then the ventral hatches would open and the jumpers could tumble out. They'd all be in suits, and they'd have Voith coil units on their waists. Miniature anti-gravity packs, really.
Switched off.
Ready to bring online as they neared the surface.
On their backs they would have emergency packs. If in the unlikely event that the Voiths failed, there would be a mechanical, fabric chute, ready to pop out on long lines. Slowing them with traditional physics. The large surface area catching the air and slowing their rate of descent.
This was a simple pleasure craft. They might speed off to distant places, of course, but a large part of its raison d'etre was for adventure sports.
So now, Flis could use that to her advantage.
They skirted around Turneith.
Still visible was the smoke and billowing dust from the fall of Jackpot Kingdom. There were some aircraft hovering around the area. Watching. Perhaps search for more survivors.
The air sleds were where they'd been when Flis, Grae and Marla had left them. Heading off to the marina to get the Sting Sprinter. To get Flis to Orel for the medical attention.
But the air sleds had people around them.
Stripping out components.
"Hover," Flis told the Jarine. "Open the access doors."
Not Advised, the display said.
"Override advisory," Flis said.
Not accepted.
"Override advisory," Marla said.
The doors creaked open.
Flis frowned at her.
"Orel gave me the code," Marla said. "Perhaps it needs my override for, you know, dangerous stuff."
"Yeah," Flis said. The aircraft would have imprinted on Marla's voice.
Flis slipped around into the cavity. There were handholds and lug points. All manner of safety netting and webbing and tubes.
The circular hatchway in the Jarine's keel was open.
The ground just a few meters below.
Flis swung around. Held the edge of the hatchway. Dropped to the grassy area.
Already the thieves were scattering.
Most of them.
One stood her ground.
Little. In a black outfit. Dark helmet with a slit showing bright eyes.
She had a tube weapon.
"You should leave," she said, her voice surprisingly deep.
"Yeah," Flis said. "These are my air sleds, so, well, I don't think I'm leaving."
"Do I have to..." the little woman looked over the canal and into the city. Looked back at Flis. "Do I have to make you?"
"No," Flis said. "But I can make you."
The woman laughed.
"You should leave," Flis said. "Before you get hurt."
The woman leveled the weapon at Flis.
Chapter Forty-Five
From across the canal came the cry of a heron. A gray, lanky one, with a frizz of red feathers on the back of its head. It stood in the shallows, right at the edge, and darted its beak into the water. Came back up with a wriggling white fish.
The heron whipped its head around and the fish vanished into its gullet.
From the city came the sound of more sirens. The stink of dust from the collapsed building filled the air.
The woman facing Flis cocked the weapon. It made a crunching sound.
Flis sidestepped.
Right away the arlchip was in play. Giving her subtle insights. Giving her muscular bursts.
It was good to feel it so functional.
The woman tracked Flis. Barrel of the weapon almost keeping up.
Flis ducked. Darted forward. Chopped the side of the woman's knee with her hand.
The woman staggered back.
Flis came up fast. Grabbed the weapon's barrel. Twisted it around. Jerked it from the woman's hands.
The woman was quick though. She let Flis have the weapon, but launched a punch.
A quick jab. Right at Flis's cheek.
Flis turned. But the blow still caught her. Glancing. Bouncing from her cheek bone.
Flis stepped toward her. Swung the weapon butt first. Caught the woman's hip. Sent her sprawling. Right to the edge of the canal.
Flis threw the weapon after her. It splashed near the middle. The heron squawked and took flight.
The weapon sank.
"Maybe leave now," Flis said.
The woman lay there panting. "Where'd you learn to fight like that? You were quick."
"Military," Flis said. "You should sign up. Learn some skills. Earn some cash."
Flis went to the air sled. Crouched to check on it.
"Do what I'm told, you mean?" The woman sat up. "Never was very good at following instructions.
They'd done a real job on the thing. Unable to start it, they'd begun stripping it for parts. Not that there was much of a market for parts anyway.
Desperate people.
The thing with the air sleds was how accessible the parts were. Right under the cowling. Simple and easy to get at.
"Easy to fix," Marla said, coming to stand by her.
Flis looked into the gap in the air sled's cowling
Parts inside. Pipes and tubes, electrical cabling, blocks of shaped metal. She should know her way around this kind of thing, but it just looked like a mess in there.
Clearly there were parts missing.
"I can't fix that," Flis said.
"Maybe not. Let's load them up and get underway."
"We just need one."
"Both," Marla said. "We might need to cannibalize parts."
"Copy that." Flis went to the air sled. Pushed it forward off its stand. The air sled floated, just above the rough canal edge ground.
"And her," Marla said, with a nod at the woman still sitting near the canal edge.
"What?" Flis said.
"She knew how to pull it apart," Marla said. "Let's see if she can help us put it back together."
"Forget it," the woman said. "I'll shoot you first."
She looked out over the canal, toward the spot where the weapon had landed. The heron had circled back around and was just landing, wing flapping almost vertically to stabilize.
"What's your name?" Marla said.
"Cherise," the woman said.
"Nice name. You know about air sleds?"
Cherise shrugged.
Flis had reached the Jarine. She pushed the air sled under. Right away the aircraft seemed to know what was going on. Wider doors opened, and cables wound from the ceiling.
It was a remarkably smart piece of machinery.
"You want to earn some money, Cherise?" Marla said. "And get a couple of complete air sleds, unlocked, to keep?"
Flis smiled. Marla was pretty good at this. Perhaps it was from being a doctor. She knew how to make people feel comfortable.
"Huh?" Cherise said. She got to her feet.
Marla glanced toward Flis, who was now putting the cables and webbing straps around the air sled. Winches inside the Jarine tightened the lines.
"We're on a tight timeline here," Marla said. "We're loading up and heading north. We need to get these repaired real fast. We'll pay you. And after, you can keep them."
"Keep them?" Cherise frowned. "Why would you let me do that?"
"We don't need them," Flis said. "We were gifted them by the owner of Jackpot Kingdom."
True enough, perhaps.
"Jackpot Kingdom? It fell down."
"Yes, it did."
"And you think I can help you fix them?"
"You broke them," Marla said.
Cherise smiled. "What if I get aboard and fix them and you just dump me somewhere."
"We won't do that."
"Really?"
"Just because you've had people in your life who would maybe do that kind of thing, doesn't mean everyone will."
"Besides," Flis said. "You got better plans for the afternoon?"
Chapter Forty-Six
In moments they were in the air again. The two air sleds didn't really fit into the jarine's lower bay. They had to leave the floor open.
They'd lost maybe ten minutes in the retrieval, which was not great.
It made them even more dependent on getting the air sleds working.
The Jarine opened another locker, right in the cockpit, filled with all kinds of tools.
Already Cherise was hard at work, trying to put one of the air sleds back into operating condition.
The aircraft hummed. It barely shook at all as it burst through the sound barrier.
"I'm logging a flight plan here," Marla said. "Passengers. Visit to Ivory Wing. I don't want us to get shot down too, right?"
"Good thinking," Flis said.
"And if something does come at us, I'm setting the aircraft to go vertical. Head for the top of the atmosphere."
"Seems like a good strategy."
"I should have been in the military."
"No," Flis said. "You should do exactly what you do. But thanks."
Marla gave her a nod and a smile. Flis returned to the open floor to work on the air sleds.
The interior became a mess. It was more open bay than floor.
"Just as well it's such an adaptable craft," Marla said. "Though Orel might get upset when he finds out that we used it as a mechanic's shop.
The floor was open in a wide oval. Just two of the seats left at the front, plus the pilot's cockpit seat. A narrow rim of floor like a ledge or a shelf left around the outside.
The air sleds lay one atop the other. Held in by the locking mechanisms of the lower fuselage bay access doors.
Angled. Their Voith coils shut down. They'd only confuse and mess with Jarine's systems.
Cherise worked fast and hard. She'd gathered up some of the pieces that had been dropped on the ground when her friends fled, and she was busily fitting them into the air sled's chassis.
Flis ran through schematics she pulled up from the databases. Full assembly systems on the particular model. She sat near Cherise half on the ledge of floor, feet against the other air sled, talking it through.
"You're lucky these things are so modular," Cherise said. "Makes it real easy to fit things back together. Some of today's vehicles are just printed in a single block. No way to repair anything."
Flis didn't say that if the air sleds weren't so modular then perhaps Cherise and her friends wouldn't have been able to do some much damage.
"We're missing a discombobulator," Cherise said. "I think Nat took it. She always grabs the first thing and takes off. Doesn't want to get caught."
"Discombobulator?" Marla said. "Really?"
"This thing." Cherise pointed into a gap with a wrench. "I don't know what it's called. Some kind of turbo whirlwind pump actuator solenoid carburetor. But electrical."
"It's just the Voith regulator," Flis said. "Stops you from smacking into the ground or launching into outer space."
"This could do that?"
"Yes. But you would die and the machine would fail."
"Oh. And you want to ride it?"
"The regulator is one of a dozen. All with multiple failsafes."
Already Flis was climbing around in the hold, looking at the other air sled. If she could find another regulator, they could remove it and put it into the first air sled.
That had been the plan from the moment they'd loaded both up. Marla's idea. Cannibalization.
The lower air sled smelled oily and bituminous. It was dripping black fluid from some broken pipes, the drips landing on the inner face of the Jarine's bay doors.
She was going to have to wipe that up. Probably not a big deal, but better to be careful.
Using the rippletalk's analytics, she examined the interior of the air sled, looking for another regulator.
A lot of the parts had been removed. Amazing that they'd been able to move it and load it up into the Jarine at all.
"You know," Cherise said, as Flis looked. "Nat does pretty well, though. Never been caught. How many of us can say that? She doesn't make us much cash as the rest of us, but she always gets to keep it. Never looking for the big score. More like the turtle when we're all rabbits. Hares? Something like that."
"Sounds like a good friend to have," Flis said.
The rippletalk located a regulator. In behind an actual turbo coolant duct. She would have to remove that to get at the regulator.
"Yeah, right?" Cherise said. "Whenever we're out of money, she'll stump up for pizza or doughgoes, and beer. Puts it on a tab, like a good businesswoman, but, you know, the money's there."
Marla handed Flis tools. A driver and a wrench. The rippletalk had told the Jarine what they were doing. Knew the rote.
"Like right now?" Flis said. "Nat's probably buying everyone beers, huh?"
"Yup." Cherise looked at her and smiled. "But look at me. I'm getting a whole air sled of my own. Could it get better?"
"It could," Flis said. "But I guess not by much."
Cherise frowned. She turned back to the work on the top air sled.
After a moment, she said, "Do you mean it could get better?"
"Sure. You don't have to scam and thieve. There are other ways to have adventures."
"Like you right now?"
Flis managed a smile. Cherise was staring straight at her.
Flis looked back at the work. Continued removing the turbo pipe to get at the Voith regulator.
"It's no adventure when you're deep in the heart of it," Flis said. "It's a peculiar kind of time, really. You're pulled in all directions. Physically challenging. Mentally. Emotionally. You just want it to be done."
"And this seems to you like a good idea for me to apply to my life?"
A magnetic screw came away and Flis was able to lift out the tube. The little Voith regulator sat right there.
"I'm not running the risk of being tossed in jail," Flis said.
"Yeah, but you do risk getting shot."
Flis flicked Cherise a glance and a half-smile.
"I think that risk is pretty low."
"I almost shot you."
"You think you almost did. You weren't even close. You need to do some real training. Get off the street."
Cherise looked back into the air sled's innards. Kept working on it. Clicks and whines came as she adjusted the parts.
Flis used the driver to remove the Voith regulator. Its seating was a different size to the one missing from the other air sled.
"You think you know me," Cherise said. "You just know some version of me you've seen some rich actress playing in the shows. You know, all dolled-up and bad as all get out, with guns and boys, and she always wins."
"Yeah," Flis said. "That's it. You got me pegged."
She handed the regulator over to Cherise.
"Wrong size," Cherise said.
"Put it in. I think the system will adapt."
Cherise did. The air sled's systems whirred. Smart enough to know what it needed, but also how to adapt to the new unit.
"We'll be over the point in eight minutes," Marla said from up in the cockpit. "How are you coming with repairs?"
"Making progress," Cherise said. She looked around at Flis.
"We can run a check on it," Flis said. "Run diagnostics. See if it will really fly."
"You must care for him a whole lot."
"Him?" Flis said. "Who?"
"The guy you're doing all this for."
"What makes you think there's a guy?"
Cherise smiled. "You might be good at getting guns off people who are about to shoot you--which I would have done, by the way--but you're pretty obvious. Let me tell you, I can read people, and you have really got the worries on for this. Got to be a guy."
"She really has got you pegged," Marla said.
"You too?" Flis said.
"I could tell the moment I saw you and Grae together. Weird kind of relationship. A tension there. Like you've both got north pole magnets and south pole magnets facing each other. Pulling each other in and pushing each other away at the same time."
Flis smiled.
It might be a clunky analogy, but it did sum things up about herself and Grae.
"Seven minutes," Marla said.
"Let me see if I understand you," Cherise said to Flis. "You have this aircraft, which is very nice by the way. But it's vertical capable. You need to get to a spot, but you're not going to set down? Instead, you're planning on falling out the bottom, riding this. Hoping that it works."
"That's kind of a coarse summation," Flis said.
"To do with refueling," Marla said. "And we have a long way farther to go. Overall, it means we won't run out of fuel. And won't lose time either."
Cherise looked at Marla for a long moment, and turned to face Flis, eyes wide.
"This is to do with Jackpot Kingdom, isn't it?" Cherise said.
"What do you know about that?" Flis said.
"Plenty."
"Six minutes," Marla said.
"Plenty as in what?" Flis said.
"Maybe with so little time left," Cherise said, "you should focus on fixing this and talk about that later."
"Good point."
They worked fast. The air sled actually cooperated, integrating the non-spec parts into its systems.
With two minutes to go, they ran a full check.
Three glitches came up.
"I can fix those real easy," Cherise said. "If I had a week and full mechanical bay."
"One minute thirty," Marla said.
"It will be fine," Flis said. Finger crossed.
With some jostling of the winches and cables, she shifted the positions of the two air sleds. Got the one that was almost ready closer to the bay doors, and the sacrificial one a little higher.
The VTOL began slowing. Cherise got into one of the two remaining forward seats and Flis sat astride the air sled.
"You're just going to drop?" Cherise said. "Hope for the best?"
And a whole lot more complicated.
And requiring some very tight time precision.
It was obvious, now, why the Jarine was such a low-range vehicle.
Easy to imagine it taking off vertically, tipping its nose skyward and shooting off into the stratosphere. Higher. Maybe fifty kilometers above the surface. Still going vertical, but running on the jets.
Then tipping back.
Falling over in a parabola. Weightless for a moment.
Then the ventral hatches would open and the jumpers could tumble out. They'd all be in suits, and they'd have Voith coil units on their waists. Miniature anti-gravity packs, really.
Switched off.
Ready to bring online as they neared the surface.
On their backs they would have emergency packs. If in the unlikely event that the Voiths failed, there would be a mechanical, fabric chute, ready to pop out on long lines. Slowing them with traditional physics. The large surface area catching the air and slowing their rate of descent.
This was a simple pleasure craft. They might speed off to distant places, of course, but a large part of its raison d'etre was for adventure sports.
So now, Flis could use that to her advantage.
They skirted around Turneith.
Still visible was the smoke and billowing dust from the fall of Jackpot Kingdom. There were some aircraft hovering around the area. Watching. Perhaps search for more survivors.
The air sleds were where they'd been when Flis, Grae and Marla had left them. Heading off to the marina to get the Sting Sprinter. To get Flis to Orel for the medical attention.
But the air sleds had people around them.
Stripping out components.
"Hover," Flis told the Jarine. "Open the access doors."
Not Advised, the display said.
"Override advisory," Flis said.
Not accepted.
"Override advisory," Marla said.
The doors creaked open.
Flis frowned at her.
"Orel gave me the code," Marla said. "Perhaps it needs my override for, you know, dangerous stuff."
"Yeah," Flis said. The aircraft would have imprinted on Marla's voice.
Flis slipped around into the cavity. There were handholds and lug points. All manner of safety netting and webbing and tubes.
The circular hatchway in the Jarine's keel was open.
The ground just a few meters below.
Flis swung around. Held the edge of the hatchway. Dropped to the grassy area.
Already the thieves were scattering.
Most of them.
One stood her ground.
Little. In a black outfit. Dark helmet with a slit showing bright eyes.
She had a tube weapon.
"You should leave," she said, her voice surprisingly deep.
"Yeah," Flis said. "These are my air sleds, so, well, I don't think I'm leaving."
"Do I have to..." the little woman looked over the canal and into the city. Looked back at Flis. "Do I have to make you?"
"No," Flis said. "But I can make you."
The woman laughed.
"You should leave," Flis said. "Before you get hurt."
The woman leveled the weapon at Flis.
Chapter Forty-Five
From across the canal came the cry of a heron. A gray, lanky one, with a frizz of red feathers on the back of its head. It stood in the shallows, right at the edge, and darted its beak into the water. Came back up with a wriggling white fish.
The heron whipped its head around and the fish vanished into its gullet.
From the city came the sound of more sirens. The stink of dust from the collapsed building filled the air.
The woman facing Flis cocked the weapon. It made a crunching sound.
Flis sidestepped.
Right away the arlchip was in play. Giving her subtle insights. Giving her muscular bursts.
It was good to feel it so functional.
The woman tracked Flis. Barrel of the weapon almost keeping up.
Flis ducked. Darted forward. Chopped the side of the woman's knee with her hand.
The woman staggered back.
Flis came up fast. Grabbed the weapon's barrel. Twisted it around. Jerked it from the woman's hands.
The woman was quick though. She let Flis have the weapon, but launched a punch.
A quick jab. Right at Flis's cheek.
Flis turned. But the blow still caught her. Glancing. Bouncing from her cheek bone.
Flis stepped toward her. Swung the weapon butt first. Caught the woman's hip. Sent her sprawling. Right to the edge of the canal.
Flis threw the weapon after her. It splashed near the middle. The heron squawked and took flight.
The weapon sank.
"Maybe leave now," Flis said.
The woman lay there panting. "Where'd you learn to fight like that? You were quick."
"Military," Flis said. "You should sign up. Learn some skills. Earn some cash."
Flis went to the air sled. Crouched to check on it.
"Do what I'm told, you mean?" The woman sat up. "Never was very good at following instructions.
They'd done a real job on the thing. Unable to start it, they'd begun stripping it for parts. Not that there was much of a market for parts anyway.
Desperate people.
The thing with the air sleds was how accessible the parts were. Right under the cowling. Simple and easy to get at.
"Easy to fix," Marla said, coming to stand by her.
Flis looked into the gap in the air sled's cowling
Parts inside. Pipes and tubes, electrical cabling, blocks of shaped metal. She should know her way around this kind of thing, but it just looked like a mess in there.
Clearly there were parts missing.
"I can't fix that," Flis said.
"Maybe not. Let's load them up and get underway."
"We just need one."
"Both," Marla said. "We might need to cannibalize parts."
"Copy that." Flis went to the air sled. Pushed it forward off its stand. The air sled floated, just above the rough canal edge ground.
"And her," Marla said, with a nod at the woman still sitting near the canal edge.
"What?" Flis said.
"She knew how to pull it apart," Marla said. "Let's see if she can help us put it back together."
"Forget it," the woman said. "I'll shoot you first."
She looked out over the canal, toward the spot where the weapon had landed. The heron had circled back around and was just landing, wing flapping almost vertically to stabilize.
"What's your name?" Marla said.
"Cherise," the woman said.
"Nice name. You know about air sleds?"
Cherise shrugged.
Flis had reached the Jarine. She pushed the air sled under. Right away the aircraft seemed to know what was going on. Wider doors opened, and cables wound from the ceiling.
It was a remarkably smart piece of machinery.
"You want to earn some money, Cherise?" Marla said. "And get a couple of complete air sleds, unlocked, to keep?"
Flis smiled. Marla was pretty good at this. Perhaps it was from being a doctor. She knew how to make people feel comfortable.
"Huh?" Cherise said. She got to her feet.
Marla glanced toward Flis, who was now putting the cables and webbing straps around the air sled. Winches inside the Jarine tightened the lines.
"We're on a tight timeline here," Marla said. "We're loading up and heading north. We need to get these repaired real fast. We'll pay you. And after, you can keep them."
"Keep them?" Cherise frowned. "Why would you let me do that?"
"We don't need them," Flis said. "We were gifted them by the owner of Jackpot Kingdom."
True enough, perhaps.
"Jackpot Kingdom? It fell down."
"Yes, it did."
"And you think I can help you fix them?"
"You broke them," Marla said.
Cherise smiled. "What if I get aboard and fix them and you just dump me somewhere."
"We won't do that."
"Really?"
"Just because you've had people in your life who would maybe do that kind of thing, doesn't mean everyone will."
"Besides," Flis said. "You got better plans for the afternoon?"
Chapter Forty-Six
In moments they were in the air again. The two air sleds didn't really fit into the jarine's lower bay. They had to leave the floor open.
They'd lost maybe ten minutes in the retrieval, which was not great.
It made them even more dependent on getting the air sleds working.
The Jarine opened another locker, right in the cockpit, filled with all kinds of tools.
Already Cherise was hard at work, trying to put one of the air sleds back into operating condition.
The aircraft hummed. It barely shook at all as it burst through the sound barrier.
"I'm logging a flight plan here," Marla said. "Passengers. Visit to Ivory Wing. I don't want us to get shot down too, right?"
"Good thinking," Flis said.
"And if something does come at us, I'm setting the aircraft to go vertical. Head for the top of the atmosphere."
"Seems like a good strategy."
"I should have been in the military."
"No," Flis said. "You should do exactly what you do. But thanks."
Marla gave her a nod and a smile. Flis returned to the open floor to work on the air sleds.
The interior became a mess. It was more open bay than floor.
"Just as well it's such an adaptable craft," Marla said. "Though Orel might get upset when he finds out that we used it as a mechanic's shop.
The floor was open in a wide oval. Just two of the seats left at the front, plus the pilot's cockpit seat. A narrow rim of floor like a ledge or a shelf left around the outside.
The air sleds lay one atop the other. Held in by the locking mechanisms of the lower fuselage bay access doors.
Angled. Their Voith coils shut down. They'd only confuse and mess with Jarine's systems.
Cherise worked fast and hard. She'd gathered up some of the pieces that had been dropped on the ground when her friends fled, and she was busily fitting them into the air sled's chassis.
Flis ran through schematics she pulled up from the databases. Full assembly systems on the particular model. She sat near Cherise half on the ledge of floor, feet against the other air sled, talking it through.
"You're lucky these things are so modular," Cherise said. "Makes it real easy to fit things back together. Some of today's vehicles are just printed in a single block. No way to repair anything."
Flis didn't say that if the air sleds weren't so modular then perhaps Cherise and her friends wouldn't have been able to do some much damage.
"We're missing a discombobulator," Cherise said. "I think Nat took it. She always grabs the first thing and takes off. Doesn't want to get caught."
"Discombobulator?" Marla said. "Really?"
"This thing." Cherise pointed into a gap with a wrench. "I don't know what it's called. Some kind of turbo whirlwind pump actuator solenoid carburetor. But electrical."
"It's just the Voith regulator," Flis said. "Stops you from smacking into the ground or launching into outer space."
"This could do that?"
"Yes. But you would die and the machine would fail."
"Oh. And you want to ride it?"
"The regulator is one of a dozen. All with multiple failsafes."
Already Flis was climbing around in the hold, looking at the other air sled. If she could find another regulator, they could remove it and put it into the first air sled.
That had been the plan from the moment they'd loaded both up. Marla's idea. Cannibalization.
The lower air sled smelled oily and bituminous. It was dripping black fluid from some broken pipes, the drips landing on the inner face of the Jarine's bay doors.
She was going to have to wipe that up. Probably not a big deal, but better to be careful.
Using the rippletalk's analytics, she examined the interior of the air sled, looking for another regulator.
A lot of the parts had been removed. Amazing that they'd been able to move it and load it up into the Jarine at all.
"You know," Cherise said, as Flis looked. "Nat does pretty well, though. Never been caught. How many of us can say that? She doesn't make us much cash as the rest of us, but she always gets to keep it. Never looking for the big score. More like the turtle when we're all rabbits. Hares? Something like that."
"Sounds like a good friend to have," Flis said.
The rippletalk located a regulator. In behind an actual turbo coolant duct. She would have to remove that to get at the regulator.
"Yeah, right?" Cherise said. "Whenever we're out of money, she'll stump up for pizza or doughgoes, and beer. Puts it on a tab, like a good businesswoman, but, you know, the money's there."
Marla handed Flis tools. A driver and a wrench. The rippletalk had told the Jarine what they were doing. Knew the rote.
"Like right now?" Flis said. "Nat's probably buying everyone beers, huh?"
"Yup." Cherise looked at her and smiled. "But look at me. I'm getting a whole air sled of my own. Could it get better?"
"It could," Flis said. "But I guess not by much."
Cherise frowned. She turned back to the work on the top air sled.
After a moment, she said, "Do you mean it could get better?"
"Sure. You don't have to scam and thieve. There are other ways to have adventures."
"Like you right now?"
Flis managed a smile. Cherise was staring straight at her.
Flis looked back at the work. Continued removing the turbo pipe to get at the Voith regulator.
"It's no adventure when you're deep in the heart of it," Flis said. "It's a peculiar kind of time, really. You're pulled in all directions. Physically challenging. Mentally. Emotionally. You just want it to be done."
"And this seems to you like a good idea for me to apply to my life?"
A magnetic screw came away and Flis was able to lift out the tube. The little Voith regulator sat right there.
"I'm not running the risk of being tossed in jail," Flis said.
"Yeah, but you do risk getting shot."
Flis flicked Cherise a glance and a half-smile.
"I think that risk is pretty low."
"I almost shot you."
"You think you almost did. You weren't even close. You need to do some real training. Get off the street."
Cherise looked back into the air sled's innards. Kept working on it. Clicks and whines came as she adjusted the parts.
Flis used the driver to remove the Voith regulator. Its seating was a different size to the one missing from the other air sled.
"You think you know me," Cherise said. "You just know some version of me you've seen some rich actress playing in the shows. You know, all dolled-up and bad as all get out, with guns and boys, and she always wins."
"Yeah," Flis said. "That's it. You got me pegged."
She handed the regulator over to Cherise.
"Wrong size," Cherise said.
"Put it in. I think the system will adapt."
Cherise did. The air sled's systems whirred. Smart enough to know what it needed, but also how to adapt to the new unit.
"We'll be over the point in eight minutes," Marla said from up in the cockpit. "How are you coming with repairs?"
"Making progress," Cherise said. She looked around at Flis.
"We can run a check on it," Flis said. "Run diagnostics. See if it will really fly."
"You must care for him a whole lot."
"Him?" Flis said. "Who?"
"The guy you're doing all this for."
"What makes you think there's a guy?"
Cherise smiled. "You might be good at getting guns off people who are about to shoot you--which I would have done, by the way--but you're pretty obvious. Let me tell you, I can read people, and you have really got the worries on for this. Got to be a guy."
"She really has got you pegged," Marla said.
"You too?" Flis said.
"I could tell the moment I saw you and Grae together. Weird kind of relationship. A tension there. Like you've both got north pole magnets and south pole magnets facing each other. Pulling each other in and pushing each other away at the same time."
Flis smiled.
It might be a clunky analogy, but it did sum things up about herself and Grae.
"Seven minutes," Marla said.
"Let me see if I understand you," Cherise said to Flis. "You have this aircraft, which is very nice by the way. But it's vertical capable. You need to get to a spot, but you're not going to set down? Instead, you're planning on falling out the bottom, riding this. Hoping that it works."
"That's kind of a coarse summation," Flis said.
"To do with refueling," Marla said. "And we have a long way farther to go. Overall, it means we won't run out of fuel. And won't lose time either."
Cherise looked at Marla for a long moment, and turned to face Flis, eyes wide.
"This is to do with Jackpot Kingdom, isn't it?" Cherise said.
"What do you know about that?" Flis said.
"Plenty."
"Six minutes," Marla said.
"Plenty as in what?" Flis said.
"Maybe with so little time left," Cherise said, "you should focus on fixing this and talk about that later."
"Good point."
They worked fast. The air sled actually cooperated, integrating the non-spec parts into its systems.
With two minutes to go, they ran a full check.
Three glitches came up.
"I can fix those real easy," Cherise said. "If I had a week and full mechanical bay."
"One minute thirty," Marla said.
"It will be fine," Flis said. Finger crossed.
With some jostling of the winches and cables, she shifted the positions of the two air sleds. Got the one that was almost ready closer to the bay doors, and the sacrificial one a little higher.
The VTOL began slowing. Cherise got into one of the two remaining forward seats and Flis sat astride the air sled.
"You're just going to drop?" Cherise said. "Hope for the best?"
