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The back of my head stung from where I’d knocked it into the wall, and I rubbed a still-mittened hand over it.
TeyTey leaned her face so close to mine that if her eyes hadn’t been narrowed in concern, she could’ve been mistaken for a lover about to place a kiss on my lips. “You know what Geo would say if he found you asleep with the door unlocked?”
She wasn’t wrong. Ever since Makir had come into Geo’s life, he’d gone a hundred percent alpha, and his protective instincts were in overdrive. Which might have been part of the reason I’d yet to tell him of my sickness. The shuttle to Earth would leave in six weeks. I had a hard time believing half of my vacation had already passed, but I had to tell him before then.
“TeyTey. Good to see you. The silly dogs wore me out, and I may have had a little too much hiscus wine at dinner last night.” I laughed, brushing off her worries. “I’m good to go. Promise.” I’d mastered my bullshit ‘I’m-fine’ smile last year.
A bright orange swath of fabric was wrapped around her head, highlighting the flecks of amber in her concerned eyes. The same material wound up her legs and extended past her knees like tall, loose boots hidden under a many-layered tunic. A dusting of glitter highlighted her forehead ridge—furrowed in concern at the moment. She had the same Rock Dweller gray skin as the men but stood just over a foot taller than me.
“Well, if you’re sure…” She hesitated. “Those dogs are a lot of work.”
My gut said she’d cancel at any minute, and I would lose this opportunity. Who knew if I’d ever leave Earth again? So, I blurted out the first distracting question that came to mind. “Why’s the snow blue here, anyway?”
TeyTey petted Charz’s head where he nudged her leg. “It’s normal on Yagras. What color is it on Earth?”
“White. Let me stick these guys in the backyard and grab one of Makir’s spare helmets.” I opened the sliding doors, and Charz and Pika bolted out.
TeyTey followed me into Makir’s adjoining hovery, where he repaired hoverbikes. She launched into an explanation, her shimmery forehead ridge animated. “I can’t remember the name, but the color comes from a nano-sized insect. Their blood is blue and has anti-freeze in it that allows them to thrive in low temperatures.”
“Seriously? I’ve been walking over mounds of blue bugs?” I picked up Makir’s smallest helmet, my I-got-away-with-it smile pointed at the floor as TeyTey laughed. A cold gust burst through the bay door, and I rubbed my jacket-clad arms against the chill.
The helmet clamps turned to puzzles under my swelling fingertips. The stretchy loop seemed to have shrunk, and the frozen copper knob had grown three sizes too big. Should I take more medicine? I brushed away the thought. The doctor had prescribed one pill daily, so I’d stick to that.
Makir’s smallest helmet shifted loosely around my ears, but I had no concerns, too eager to fly on my own. I linked elbows with TeyTey before walking to her hoverbike. I scooted on behind her, and when we lifted into the air, I ducked my face around her orange-swathed head so I didn’t miss a thing. We flew through Yurstille’s village center, past the yeasty scented air of D’ovey’s bakery, and landed in an open field to practice.
I stood beside TeyTey amid the piles of spare parts Makir had salvaged in the wastelands. His hovery couldn’t hold them all. TeyTey wrapped a thick wind catcher around my waist that would soften my landings if I fell and pointed to the grips at the end of the curved handle on her right.
“After pressing the ignition, you’ll place your hands here and twist forward to go.” With one leg swung over the saddle, she motioned, pressing down with her foot. “Step down with your toe to move through the gears and push up to drop back down.” She hopped back off. “For now, don’t go past second.”
She tugged once more at the knot on the wind catcher and checked the clamps on my helmet. “Ready?” she asked. Then she leaned in and hugged me. “I’ve never really had female friends before. There’s not many options on Yagras, and this is fun. I know you can do this.”
Her hug filled me with confidence. The threat of falling wouldn’t deter me, but my disease might. I massaged my useless hands to stimulate the blood flow. Seated, I ran through the instructions in my head once more. Push the ignition switch. Slowly rotate the grip. Shift up with my toe. And commit.
The engine hummed.
Yes!
Lifted.
Double yes!
Sputtered, then died.
Shit.
TeyTey’s voice guided me through a speaker in my helmet linked to her wristport. “Give it more fuel.”
I sucked in a breath. Round two. My legs vibrated as the hoverbike rose, and I leaned forward to get a better hold of the handlebars, giving them a tentative twist. I jerked forward, gripping the seat with my knees to stay on, but remained in the air. Oh my freaking God! I was flying, and so was my heart.
“Hell, yah!” I yelled into the snowy tundra.
For the tenth time, I jerked and glided over what amounted to a football field covered in blue snow, dotted with rebar poles. My cheeks weren’t sore from the cold wind biting them, but from the riotous laughter making my ribs ache.
Every time I took this corner, I fell. Not far, just a meter or so. And once more, I found myself in a heap of fluffy blue snow. So I got back up, deflated the wind catcher, dusted off my ass and tried again and again.
“You’re getting it, Ginger.” TeyTey’s excitement came through in my helmet’s speaker from where she stood in the center of the thrown-together track. “I’ll give you a passing grade,” she teased, “and make you dinner if you can make it through the entire circuit forward and in reverse without falling.”
Outside for hours now, I was as much in my element on the back of a hoverbike as behind a sewing machine. So what if my thighs screamed, and the telltale tingle of overdoing it strained the muscles in my neck? Flying, or I guess hovering, sparked a light deep inside of me. A thousand times better than driving a car or riding a bike. My teeth were so cold they knocked together, but I couldn’t get the ridiculous smile off my face. I tapped my helmet for luck. “You’re on.”
