A Fury Of Aces: Crystal Venom Part 12

Harry walked across and hugged her. 'Sirius! How long have you been here? Yes, we've missed you. How've you been?'

'Well, thanks, Harry. Been here a few days. Edited a nice segment of you all out shopping as well. Priceless stuff of you, Marko, trying to hide from the crowds. And Jan looks great with a few extra kilos on. Suits her. Looks excellent in lingerie, doesn't she? Really could do with bigger b.r.e.a.s.t.s, don't you think, Marko? You should encourage her into a little tank time. And that Julie: wow, what a scrumptious body. Fills out her knickers very well. Wonderful, wonderful. They have a significant following in the fas.h.i.+on scene, no less. Everyone wants to know who they wear. I have even cut a deal with the lingerie manufacturer, and yes, there will be good spinoffs for the girls as well. And then a gloriously welcome ACE rescue and payback mission. That went off the charts locally and will do very well whenever it goes to air across the Sphere. You guys are getting the hang of being media stars without me! I trained you well.'

She paused for a second, looking at them, then continued. 'Now, guys, I am inviting myself along on your holiday. I promise not to get in the way. And which of you is bonking the amazons? G.o.d, but I so want to get some delightful imagery of them. Think that I will go with them wherever they go just in case. Do you think they would be averse to a little menage a trois with me? That would be a real earner.'

Just what we needed. A holiday in the offing and the family camera arrives - typical, Marko thought to himself. And she is getting more and more into the sleazy side of things as well.

He could not remember the number of times she had sent him requests for him to act in age-restricted presentations for the Games Board. He knew of many of his colleagues who had cheerfully partic.i.p.ated in s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g some movie star or other with everything recorded and marketed. It was not that he had anything against it, but there were boundaries that he himself had no desire to cross.

Four.

Basalt looked much better. Still very utilitarian and superbly functional, but all in all much better with the new off-white pearl coating over every exterior surface of the frigate, plus the airlocks had been serviced and recoated as well.

Marko spoke to the hangar. 'Very nice outer coatings, Patrick. You pleased?'

Patrick's voice came from all around them. 'Yes, Marko. The tasks allotted to the s.h.i.+pyards are complete, on time and to specifications. Now I have high-level chameleon-ware at my disposal as well. Most satisfactory. Your craft looks very pleasing. Jake very kindly delivered three secondhand antigravity units for you to "play with", as he put it. I attempted to pay him, but he would not hear of it.'

Harry and Sirius left the hangar so Marko climbed back into Sledgehammer's c.o.c.kpit, rotated the craft and slid up against Blackjack. He directed his thoughts towards Blackjack and it reacted as he expected, folding out the deployment and lock mechanisms, taking hold of the Hanger and then tucking it up against itself. The airlocks connected and Marko willed himself inside Blackjack. The temporary seat did not move as smoothly as the Tux seat, but Blackjack compensated, lowering Marko back into the main cabin.

'Tux, when I direct a thought towards Blackjack, do you actually read that thought and transmit the request?'

'Of course, Marko. It is one of my many functions. If your thoughts are not specific, I do not on-send them.'

'Is Blackjack alive, Tux?'

'Define alive, Marko. It is an enormous parameter.'

Marko c.o.c.ked his head, looking around the interior. 'OK, is Blackjack sentient and aware of us?'

Tux sounded a little frustrated. 'Of course. I understood that you knew this.'

Marko shrugged. 'So, can it speak to me, Tux?'

'It will one day, Marko, when your rather glacial synaptic response time becomes sufficiently fast to be able to understand it. Blackjack operates on a level much higher than human thought. We are all waiting for you to speed up. My understanding of the octopoid technology now in you, is that it gradually rebuilds you by creating an entirely new brain and nervous system within your existing structure. I would suggest that you will be able to converse with Blackjack sometime within the next month or so. Until then it will continue to care for you and yours.'

Marko was still pondering about Blackjack when Nail sauntered in.

'Marko?'

'Yes, Nail.'

The cat swished his tail. 'Am I allowed to bite Sirius? Stephine really does not like her, you know.'

Marko laughed. 'Bite her? Well, if she p.i.s.ses you off that much, then a wee nip would not be out of the question. Would also allow you to a.n.a.lyse her blood, eh? Yeah, I would not object. Be interesting to see what she looks like at a base level now. Tux, give my regards to Blackjack and say that I look forward to speaking with him one day.'

Tux answered. 'She says that she finds you a most interesting sentient and also looks forward to that day.'

Marko shook his head and smiled. 'She? Why does that not surprise me?'

Nail added, astounded, 'What? You have only just worked out that Blackjack is sentient? We sometimes worry about your level of conscious intelligence, Marko.'

They found Sirius still talking with Harry when they made their way up to the main hangar deck. She had grown in height a fair amount and as soon as she turned to look at Marko he could see the hardwiring which was now part of her. Her eyes were a startling iridescent blue, her ears elegantly enlarged and subtly reshaped, with the skin on her arms now covered with the latest fas.h.i.+onable bio-wetware as well. Sirius looked human, but she was Games Board through and through, and Marko decided he did not trust her one little bit. She a.s.sessed him briefly, her eyes lingering over his crotch for a few seconds longer than necessary. Marko glanced across at Harry and saw his slight nod, acknowledging that Sirius was still very much a hunter.

Nail looked up at her appraisingly. 'So you are still Sirius. As in mostly flesh and blood. Interesting tech you have there. I note that you are broadcasting a signal continuously as well. Why are you doing that?'

Sirius turned to look at Nail. 'So you are the now-famous Nail. Well, Nail, it is my job. Just like when you first knew me, though now I am much more efficient. I have an arrangement with the Games Board. I look after you and sell everything I can about this and a number of other interesting crews and s.h.i.+ps to the Games Board, and they allow me to keep this beautiful human body of mine. The only thing that I cannot do is have children; they removed that ability from me as part of the deal. I do this work to stay alive. Do you object to that, Nail?'

Nail took a few seconds, examining his extended claws on one paw before slowly replying. 'I shall consider my response, Madam Sirius.'

Behind them, Glint virtually hissed out, 'As will I, Sirius of the Games Board.'

Marco almost gasped out loud and had to restrain himself from spinning around to look at the ACEs, as he had never heard a response like that from them before.

Sirius just laughed. 'Oh my, you are beautiful, Glint. I saw you when you were being made but I have not had the pleasure of knowing you. I have seen you in action and I consider you to be a wonderful sentient creature.'

Glint, standing tall on his rear legs, said, 'Thank you, Sirius. But believe me when I say that having observed humans for some time now I would consider their sentience overrated.'

Marko looked at Glint carefully and mused about Sirius. Certainly she was very good for Basalt and crew and had padded their monetary worth, but he could not decide what to make of her and he had often questioned why the Games Board allowed her to go back to them. He wondered if she actually had their interests at heart, but doubted that very much, because she was a player in the Games Board's manipulations. Looking at the ACEs once again, he hoped that Sirius understood they were lethal, and that they had made the decision that she would be watched very carefully. Sadly, he also realised that the mood of the whole s.h.i.+p changed when she was on board, with everyone careful of what they did and said around her.

An announcement from the major broke through his reverie. 'All crew, Basalt is back under our control. Check everything as per normal protocols so handover can be made official. Check in with me as you sort out your departments.'

'Excuse me, please, Sirius.' Marko said. 'I had better go do that then I need some fruit. Can I get anything for anyone? No. See you soon. I'm on dinner tonight, and seeing that everyone is back, I had better get moving.'

Lilly and Jasmine were tending the gardens and gleefully scolded Marko for letting a couple of things slip while they had been away. Jan was also with them, tending the potatoes, and asked what he needed for the meal. They pa.s.sed a few notes between themselves in regard to Sirius, that she needed to be watched.

A few hours after dinner the major called the s.h.i.+pyards to advise that the final checks had been made so handover could take place, and that they needed a tug to lift them away from the hangar. While that was happening the crew sat at their consoles, caught up on everyone's news and sent farewell messages to their friends below.

The major finally announced: 'Crew, we are on our own again. Harry, please take us within hailing distance of Number Five Orbital Station. Has everyone decided on and logged their intentions while planetside? Right, thanks, I now have them all here onscreen. I see that you want individual interviews with us, Sirius. You have certainly helped our bank balances, so that's a reasonable request, but it's up to individuals to accept your invitation or not.'

The Orbital was huge, discus-shaped, and had three pairs of s.p.a.ce elevators connecting it to the planet far below. Everyone was pretty much going in opposite directions to explore the planet and rest and relax in their own ways. There were also several plans afoot for avoiding Sirius.

Jan and Marko had decided to hire a house-craft and spend most of the time exploring a large chain of islands south of the planet's equator. In that area it was effectively early autumn, so they had packed in antic.i.p.ation of lots of time on the various beaches. The package they had brought included dive gear and, most importantly, fis.h.i.+ng equipment. They would also be visiting Jake's friends and hopefully flying ancient aircraft from a field halfway down the island chain, so they decided to take their s.h.i.+p suits. And, of course, Nail and Glint would be with them.

Just before they left Basalt, Jan lined everyone up and gave them bioware boosters covering the current influenza bugs, colds, et cetera, and, more importantly, gave them the necessary gut augments so that they could digest the local food types easily. As a very young soldier, Marko had once skipped that step and paid for it dearly. Being on a break with violent diarrhoea and vomiting put a damper on things.

The major would be spending time with Patrick, reviewing his astronomical research and other work for a presentation he was giving to the Haulers' Astronomical Guild in a few weeks' time, which was a big deal for him. He had gently asked them all to view it via links and everyone was quite happy to leave him to it, as he did not need them arriving at the venue and stealing his thunder. So they dropped the crew off and then took Basalt into a lower orbit above the planet, sufficiently far away from the Orbitals to be left in peace.

Marko loved the elevators. They had spent time in the Orbital after transferring directly off Basalt and had been pretty much mobbed, with every man and his dog wanting a piece of them, so he, for one, was very happy to be shown to his and Jan's cabin in the elevator, with its large panoramic window, as the two-day journey to the planet began. It was like a miniature cruise s.h.i.+p, and Marko and Jan even met one old lady at breakfast the next morning who had been riding elevators for many, many years. She said that as soon as she became totally familiar with one planet and its elevators she would move on to the next one. When Jan asked if this was her first ride on an elevator down to this planet, the old lady had replied that, no, she had already ridden on the other two, which were only hundreds of metres away. Jan mused later that it took all types to make the universe interesting.

The terminal at the elevator's base was built into an equatorial island's mountain, so it was a superb view coming down through the atmosphere. The place was so big and so full of people, equipment, cargo and shops that Jan and Marko did not see any other members of the crew leaving.

They quickly marched into the first tourist shop they could find and bought large sungla.s.ses, larger hats and voluminous s.h.i.+rts, which they were relieved to note were favoured by the locals, and hired a small carryall on which they piled their luggage - including the two suit containers - among which they hid Nail and Glint. They bought some additional local clothing, which was garish to say the least, changed into it and set about blending in with the crowd.

It was going very well as they quietly moved towards the exits when a young man, walking past the carryall, nonchalantly picked up one of the smaller carrier bags without breaking stride and started to walk away from them. He would have easily got away scot-free had it not been for Glint, who had had his head under the bag, peeking out at the pa.s.sing throngs of people. He erupted from the carryall, yelling at the thief, who looked back to see a fearsome vision of Glint with extended cooling frills for effect, accompanied by Nail, in hot pursuit. He screamed, then sprinted for the nearest exit still clutching the bag, forcing his way through the crowd as Glint and Nail slid through at knee level and easily caught up with him.

Glint leapt high into the air to pounce and knock him down while Nail clutched at the young man's head before he hit the floor. The thief pulled a short-bladed knife and slashed at Nail, but Glint, with demonic speed, seized the thief's wrist with both of his hands, plucked the knife from him then pa.s.sed it to his hind feet c.u.m hands and snapped the knife in two, dropping the parts on the floor. Glint, who appeared really angry, rolled the young man over onto his back, sitting on his chest as Nail decided that a little impromptu interrogation was in order.

'Hold him still, Glint. I want to see how far I can get a claw up his nose before I touch his brain. We really need Flint here. He is better equipped for interrogation.'

The red-faced blubbering male started shaking and calling on the rapidly gathering crowd for a.s.sistance. Several of them taunted the thief, saying that he should know who had caught him and that he was getting everything he deserved. He looked up into Nail's face, blubbering, 'Who ... who ... who is Flint?'

Nail hissed, then yawned widely centimetres away from the thief's face. 'So, you have a voice. I am Nail and my colleague here, who loves breaking c.r.a.ppy knives, is Glint. Flint is another of our family. He is a mechanical spider. Should I call him over? He enjoys forcing his arms into human's ears to see what is inside. Tell you what, you tell us about your mates here in the arrivals lounge and I won't pull out your eyes.'

The man tried bravado. 'Go f.u.c.k yourself, you creepy cat!'

Glint leant close and yelled in his ear. 'Bad, bad human!'

Nail, in spite of his size, was very strong. He pressed his paws against the thief's head and bent down to lick his tongue across the tightly closed eyes of the human. Marko was starting to feel almost sorry for the young man. Looking around, he noted that every one was recording the scene and looking over the top of the very large crowd he could see station security trying to force their way in to see what was happening for themselves. The man was screaming for Nail to stop, although Nail was not actually harming him, and started to blubber the names of the rest of his gang. The security and local police finally made it through the clapping, cheering crowd to find both Nail and Glint still sitting on the man, posing for photographs. Marko and Jan just leant against each other and laughed.

Fifty minutes later, as they were leaving the local police station, being bid a fond farewell by the station's chief, the gang's lawyer approached them to say that she was going to have Marko and Jan charged with possession of dangerous animals. Jan was about to speak with the woman when Glint told her that they would handle it. The hybridised fossa and Jesus lizard ACE lifted Nail up until he was level with the woman's face. They then took turns in telling her exactly what her lineage was, and explained that they were ranking military ent.i.ties within the Administration, and that they had the right of certified sentient citizens under local law to do what they had done. At that stage, she started rapidly backing off but not before something was quietly said to her. The pompous, obviously badly educated woman went completely white, apologised profusely, started shaking, and actually ran away.

Jan was giggling and asked, 'Hey, Nail, what did you say to her?'

Nail preened himself a little. 'Not much, but she will steer well clear of every cat she ever sees again.'

Jan looked closely at him. 'Yeah, but you have not answered my question.'

The cat shrugged. 'I told her I was going to f.u.c.k every female cat I came across and that in every kitten I fathered I would imprint her DNA and that of each of her clients as enemies of my species. I then gave her a little scratch. Think she got the message. So, when are Glint and I going to be given the ability to breed?'

Jan roared with laughter while Marko looked, and felt, shocked, wondering what kind of creatures he had let loose upon the universe. 'Not today. Right, OK, enough of this subject. Let's get the h.e.l.l out of here before you pair get us into real trouble. How about I grab us a transport to take us out to the house-craft depot?'

On the way, they gathered up a few extra food supplies because the local meats, cheeses and wines were highly recommended by their driver. At one excellent shop called Gipsy Kitchen, Marko pulled out his money card and when his name came up the whole staff arrived to see them. Before they knew it the transport had been locked down and they, along with Sam, the driver, were treated to a hilarious few hours of impromptu entertainment, together with sampling the very best of the local foods and beverages.

The produce and small goods were excellent, just as Sam had suggested, and they had their images taken with the proprietors, which were promptly printed. They were asked to sign the small poster-sized prints and were happy to do so. Nail left a set of paw prints and Glint, who as far as Marko was aware had never picked up a pen before, let alone used one, spent some time working up a flouris.h.i.+ng signature. When he had finalised his mark and signed one of the posters the owner asked him if he could keep the test signatures. Glint looked at him quizzically and said that they were rubbish so he could do whatever he liked with them. Marko smiled, knowing that such a windfall would probably put the shop owner's children through higher education and suspected that Glint knew that.

Nail was surprisingly tolerant of the children, who all wanted to touch him and pet him. Jan walked in at one stage and quietly beckoned Marko over, pointing out into the corridor. Three little girls had dressed the cat in a doll's costume, placed him in a pram and were wheeling him around the house, singing. The look they got from him as he was wheeled by said, 'Say a word and I will scratch your eyes out.' Glint was too busy sampling cheese and the local hard biscuits to notice what else was going on around him. When it came time to leave, they had a real battle trying to pay for anything.

Someone must have rung ahead of them to the housecraft depot, as it was still open by the time they eventually arrived, very late. The manager herself showed them the house-craft they had hired and, after checking their licences, she signed the craft over to them, then she and Sam helped them load everything on board. It was a fairly simple machine some eighteen metres long by fifteen wide. s.p.a.cious with a high ceiling, two high-cla.s.s lounges, a large galley and, in the centre, a beautifully appointed bedroom with an equally palatial bathroom set off it. It was perfect for a few weeks exploring, especially as it also had a marine runabout housed under the stern.

Sam also proved rather difficult to pay, but eventually accepted, and Glint signed the back of his cab ID for him as Nail again grumbled about his lack of hands.

With Jan at the controls, they lifted the house-craft on antigravity and slotted themselves into the local controller's network, heading as far east as they could go before the local sun started to set into the sea. Jan controlled the flight, so Marko, unable to help himself, popped open the inspection hatches to see what was powering the craft. He found four industrial-grade gas turbines with a big antigravity unit attached to each one. Any two could lift the house-craft and power it along at a moderate speed, but the craft was not built for speed, it was built for comfort. After they had stopped and anch.o.r.ed, Jan cooked them a simple supper of fresh salads and cold meats, which they had with a lesser known, but excellent, local Chablis. One of the perks of getting to know the locals was that you always got the good food and booze, Jan mused, swirling the last of the bottle around in her gla.s.s.

So began a very pleasant ten days of fis.h.i.+ng, walking beaches, having barbecues on the fantail-shaped stern deck, listening to music, sleeping in each morning and making love as often as they felt like; they explored the islands, went to the local markets, fis.h.i.+ng for and eating those fish that the onboard database said were safe, snorkelled in the shallows looking at the types of coral-like creatures and abundant life, used scuba and dived deep for some of the more interesting edible aquatic insects and just had fun. Nail absorbed every bit of information on every plant, insect, animal, bird and aquatic creature he could find. He sampled each, obviously building a database for Stephine.

Glint spent time eating and making ammunition and then firing it at steadily greater and greater ranges. One afternoon while watching him firing at a piece of driftwood, when the house-craft was at anchor and rolling, Marko could actually see the projectile in flight. Everything else slowed down dramatically around him, but for the first time he perceived that he could speed up or take time at its normal pace. He experimented and discovered that his movements were normal to him, but were probably blindingly fast to anyone else. Tux, when Marko spoke to him about it, commented that he would become slightly faster, but that he was approaching his physical limit. He added that Marko's thought processes would carry on getting quicker as the new neural pathways were completed. It did feel very strange though.

Once a day, as required by the major, they checked in with Basalt, orbiting overhead. The rest of the crew were apparently having as much fun as Marko and Jan were, relaxing and doing the normal tourist things, except Fritz. He was further enhancing his considerable musical fame by rebuilding ancient pieces of sound equipment for some of the major bands on the planet and in payment was treated to numerous impromptu jam sessions, which was Fritz's kind of heaven, although he said he was returning to Basalt early. Halfway through the leave period, Julie and Harry announced that they had signed a ten-year contract between them, which did not surprise anyone.

When they were relatively close to the island that Jake had told them about, and fortunately the start of the weekend, Jan made contact with the ancient aircraft group. As Jake had promised, they were expected. They quietly flew around the islands towards the field. Glint called them up onto the top of the house-craft when three flying machines slowly flew above them, making a great amount of noise. It was a wonderful moment for Marko to actually see the extraordinary machines which he realised, at one stage of their ancestry, would have been at the very cutting edge of technology. Jan sped up the house-craft to match the aeroplanes' speed and they were escorted the twelve kilometres to the aerodrome at a sedate two hundred and nine kilometres an hour ... which they later learnt was the top speed of the aircraft.

When they were five kilometres out from the aerodrome, their navigation system slaved to the local controller, who brought them onto the field and parked the house-craft beside the large buildings which made up one side of the facility. There were hundreds of aircraft of all types, all neatly stowed in the buildings, patiently waiting for their owners to fly them. Marko could not see one modern military craft among any of them, just the ancient fighters which had landed and were taxiing towards them. As they watched, the pilots gunned the engines and swung them around to face out over the ap.r.o.n towards the taxiways and the runways. They climbed down the side of the house-craft as it powered down, resting on its two main pontoons, and waited for the pilots. As the flyers strolled over, Jan and Marko could see that, like the pilot they'd seen eaten by whorls, they were wearing leather flying suits and goggles of the same vintage as the aircraft. The three introduced themselves and invited Marko, Jan and the ACEs to their clubrooms for a gin and tonic. Marko had no idea what that was, and when he looked at Jan, she just shrugged. Marko thought it an interesting concoction but graciously declined a second while Jan seemed to enjoy them.

The rest of the day was spent with the cheerful group who called themselves the Aviators. Once Marko got close enough, he was pleasantly surprised by how brilliantly simple the aircraft really were. Each one had its own flight handling characteristics complete with how easy they were to take off and land, or not, what their rates of climb were, how woefully underpowered they were with the engines measured in horsepower. He had always thought that was a deliciously archaic measurement, and of how they had no avionics, no computer, no ejection seats, let alone antigravity, and that they ran the engines on actual petrol, which was created especially for them by another local group who made and raced another equally archaic group of huge-wheeled racing cars that had originated at the same time as their flying machines, around the time of the ancient human conflict known as the First World War. For all of that, they were both hugely impressed with them. Marko shook his head in wonder, thinking about their ancestors actually using such aircraft, in battles as well.

'These are wonderful machines, truly wonderful, and so simple, but beautifully made,' Marko mused out loud, admiring the varnished plywood c.o.c.kpit, hand-formed polished aluminium cowling and canvas-covered fuselage and wings on a Sopwith Camel. 'Would be interesting to fly with the centre of gravity so far forwards.'

A slightly built man who'd introduced himself as David Cas.e.m.e.nt commented, 'Not wrong there, Sergeant Major. Only those of us who have had extensive experience flying these beauties are allowed to take that one up. h.e.l.lish manoeuvrable in many ways, but a pig for take-offs and landings. Interesting machine in that it will turn to the right faster than to the left due to the engine torque and prop size. Fact is, to go left some of us prefer just to carry on going right!'

Jan and Marko went up for a flight, separately, with one of the pilots sitting behind them at the controls in a machine called an FE2d. When Jan asked what the letters FE stood for they were told 'Farman Experimental'. The pilot was a solidly-built individual sporting a huge moustache, a great bellowing laugh and the interesting name of Rangi Hohepa. His skin tone was darker than Marko's and when asked of his ancestry, Rangi seemed to grow a few extra centimetres in height as he proudly claimed the heritage of the Maori people of New Zealand on Old Earth. Marko had known some Maori people in his home village as he was growing up. Wonderful, loyal people who adopted all the village kids as if they were their own. They fed them whenever they were in their homes, taught them, looked after them and were sufficiently caring to give a kid a kick up the b.u.m if it was required.

Marko told Rangi of them and his att.i.tude towards Marko and Jan changed completely. Until then, Rangi had just been doing a favour for his friend, Jake. Now Marko and Jan were suddenly family or, as he called it, part of his hapu, and he became considerably more engaging and entertaining.

The FE2d was termed a pusher type, with twin wings. When Marko climbed into it, he discovered to his delight that the entire fabrication of the aircraft was a mixture of wood, fabric, wire, aluminium and, in the case of the pilot's seat, some kind of woven plant material called wicker. There was no gunner's seat, just a vertical tub arrangement for the gunner to stand in. It smelt completely different from anything he had ever experienced before and he loved every minute he spent looking at the amazing array of struts and tensioned wire with hundreds of turnbuckles keeping everything in line.

That evening the rest of the club members arrived out at the field to meet them and they were made to feel even more welcome. They talked aircraft, engines and weapons and Jan was in her element as well when the club armourers arrived and let her see, and then handle, the machine guns. The club members had even gained themselves a licence to make and export the antique weapons, together with ammunition, and the resulting sales paid for them to build one or two new aircraft each year. Their intention was to have one example of every fighter aircraft from the First World War.

Marko was fascinated when shown the paper blueprints of each of the aircraft, which were displayed down one long wall of the hangar, and, looking at the sign-offs on each plan, he could see that twenty-one flying examples had been built. On the next wall was another set of blueprints detailing the aircraft that they were either building or wanted to build. In another building behind the hangar, he thought his face would start to ache because his smile was that big when shown the antique tools and equipment used in making the planes. He decided that the club members were quite mad, but in a most wonderful way ... by building such aircraft using original methods. Talking with the various members he became aware that there were almost two completely distinct groups within the club: builders and fliers. Only a very few individuals were both and they were quite an eclectic lot.

Rangi was a local doctor and other members worked in a range of professions. People from the very top of the local community's social hierarchy to the very lowest were represented, but once in the club, they were all equals. Doug Evans, the armourer, was a senior policeman, and once they got past the gruff exterior, found him to be a very likable fellow as well. They had to pay for their supper, as it were, by giving impromptu speeches on their various battles with the urchins.

Even Nail made himself useful by destroying a few nests of a nasty local rodent which, to Jan's horror, he seemed to greatly enjoy. Glint made himself equally popular by shooting down a local type of four-winged predator leatherwing, which flew high above the aerodrome and was known for attacking the slow-moving aircraft. Everyone, drinks in hand, rushed outside when another one was seen, so they could watch Glint go to work.

'Glint, just make sure that I can recover some of it for sampling, please,' Marko called.

Glint laughed in reply. 'Yeah, whatever, Marko. You are on holiday, but I will get the head for you!'

Some of the members gasped when Glint strode out in front of the club, watched the leatherwing for a few moments, then spread out his legs and rotated his head to the rear. His head distorted in order to get his eyes as far apart as possible, and the rest of his long, lithe body and tail went completely rigid as he started firing. Hundreds of metres above them, the first shot separated the creature's head from its body before the next three shots in quick succession blew the body into smaller pieces.

Before any parts had hit the ground, Glint was racing away to fetch the head to everyone's applause, which he acknowledged, gracefully bowing to them as he placed the 400-millimetre-long, streamlined and nightmarish head into Marko's hands. Seconds later Nail took it from him, saying that it should be checked for pathogens and that he also needed to a.n.a.lyse it while it was still fresh. Marko just smiled.

They left late the next morning after flights in a two-seater Bristol F.2B, which they both exclaimed was very interesting, to say the least. The rear gun was mounted as a swing-around affair which would have been fun to fire, but as they were not members of the club, or checked out by the local officials, they were strictly pa.s.sengers. Not that they really minded as it was an experience to be in the cupola anyway.

When asked, Nail had no interest in going for a flight, intent on hunting out more rodents, but Glint cheerfully squeezed in beside one of the smaller women pilots and was taken aloft in an Albatross, which he hugely enjoyed, saying that he would really like to build one for himself.

'Why would you want to build one, Glint?' Jan asked. 'Isn't going for a ride in one enough?'

The steel-grey creature rose up on his hind legs, looked at her and Marko, then back at the machines. 'I'm not sure of the desire, I just have the need to make things. Maybe it is because there is so much of Marko's own DNA and conditioning in me. I am constantly surrounded by people making or doing something. Just natural, I suppose.'

Marko found the statement most revealing, as most ACEs did not generally express a desire to step outside of themselves and take on a whole series of new experiences until they were much older. After thinking about it for a few seconds he suggested, 'How about you talk with Topaz when we get back to Basalt, Glint, so you can make a scale model of one to start with?'

Glint nodded slowly. 'That's a good idea. I like that. Now which one? I'll decide then get Nail to scan one for me.'

They eventually had to say goodbye to the Aviators, and headed south towards one of the smaller and more remote chain of islands.

For the next few days they spent a good deal of time in the water exploring a beautiful series of reefs. The aquatic life was sensational, although they had been forced to use the deterrent equipment to keep some of the predators away from them. One particular creature, which Marko's data block identified as a barracuda type of fish, except three times larger, had obviously been desensitised to the electronic signals, as it came extremely close. As they swam through the crystal-clear water, it dived under them, turned, then came up between them at speed, to see if they were possible prey or not. It flashed upwards, disappeared through the surface, then seconds later came at them horizontally. Marko saw a flash of hard silver and an awful lot of teeth, before Jan smacked it with a stunner just as it was about to close on his legs. As it rolled over onto its back and drifted downwards, other predators started to be seen, so they decided that they had had enough, and beat a watchful retreat to the surface.

Later that evening, they were lying together on top of the cabin of the house-craft, looking at the stars of the Milky Way. The weather forecast was for a decent-sized storm to come into their area late the next day, so they were making the most of the calm conditions before running for cover to one of the local harbours.

Jan snuggled closer into Marko and murmured softly, 'I could get used to this lifestyle. How about we chuck in the military, settle down somewhere, raise a family and have a normal life? I have effectively been on the move for a very long time. I'm tired of it. How about you?'