Thane wondered if he could manage to jar loose the restraining bolt on the CZ-I tutor droid. If so, then the droid would let him go even if he hadn't completed his stupid mathematics test.
"Your concentration is faltering," said CZ-I. "This is not conducive to optimal performance."
Thane pointed to the nearest chrono. "I'm late for flying practice."
"You must complete your lessons in order to pass the subject. How else will you gain admittance to an Imperial academy? Your parents' fondest hope is that you will follow in Dalven's footsteps."
Sometimes Thane believed CZ-1 was slier than a droid ought to be. Nothing made Thane fume like the knowledge that Dalven had, somehow, managed to get into one the academies - one of the lesser ones, but still. Thane suspected his father might have bribed the local recruiter to admit his elder son to bolster the family pride. But Oris Kyrell wouldn't exert himself like that for Thane, who would have to get into the academy on his own.
So he thought fast. "I won't gain admission to an Imperial academy if I can't fly well," Thane pointed. "And how can I fly well if I don't practice?"
"Your family has its own hangar and aircraft. Therefore you can practice at any time."
With his best smile, Thane said, "But we also have you, CZ-I. That means I can take math lessons at any time, too. I can only fly with a partner when Ciena's free, and she's coming today, so doesn't it make sense for me to prioritize flight time?"
CZ-I cocked his head, and Thane heard the faint whirring that meant the droid was thinking hard.
Very casually, Thane said, "You know, when I get back, I really ought to give you a lubrication bath. A nice long soak. It's been a while, hasn't it?
A few more moments of silence followed before CZ-I said, "Now that you mention it, my couplings have been stiff lately."
With a grin, Thane snapped off the mathematics holo and grabbed his flight jacket. "I'll be home before my parents get home from that stupid banquet. Okay?"
"And mathematics test tomorrow!" CZ-I called as Thane dashed out the door.
His family had a private hangar, but - as with most people on Jelucan - their territory ran more vertically than horizontally. Their gold-tiled home stretched almost the entire width of their property, mostly because his parents had insisted that people of their stature needed a home grander than the neighbors'. The snobbery annoyed Thane less than the fact that this meant his hangar was three hundred meters away - downhill.
At least he'd figured out a solution. With a grin, Thane slid on his flight goggles and ran for the far ridge. The handlebars were in position and ready, so all he had to do was grab them tightly, release the brake, and jump.
Immediately, he was zooming along the cable that led from his home to his hangar, dangling from the handlebars as he sped down the long ridge of stone. Cold mountain air whipped around him as looked out into the valley far below. It wasn't as good at flying, but it came close.
He reactivated the brake as he slid toward the end post, but only gradually, because he liked to have some velocity left at the end. Just before he would've crashed into the post, Thane let go and leaped to the ground, laughing out loud.
Then he heard, "You know, someday you're going to break your face on that thing."
Thane turned to see Ciena standing there next to her family's clunky old ridgecrawler. She looked even shorter and skinnier than she was in that oversize flight suit, and her face still appeared younger than her age, with its rounded cheeks and snub nose. Her arms were folded across her chest and she was trying to look stern, but he could see the smile hiding in her dark brown eyes.
He righted himself and clapped his hands together to clean his gloves. "You're just jealous because I never let you do it."
Ciena stuck her tongue out at him. I could do it, you know."
Of course she could; Thane never doubted that. But the line started at his house, and her parents hated her even more than her parents hated him. The few times they'd met, his family had treated Ciena so rudely that it made Thane almost sick with shame. Ciena was no more eager to encounter the Kyrells again than they were to see her.
However, the two of them always pretended there was no reason they shouldn't spend time together. It was easier than talking about how their families wanted them apart.
"Here I was worried about running late," Ciena continued, "and I beat you here."
"Trigonometry." Thane grimaced, and expression Ciena matched. "Come on, let's get started. Lizard-toad-snake for pilot?" They each silently counted to three and held out their hands. Thane had gone for the snake, but Ciena chose lizard, and lizard ate snake. She beamed, and gestured toward the V-171's hatch. "Pilots first."
He didn't actually mind being copilot/gunner; cadets had to be expert at flying in both positions if they wanted to get into the academy. But sitting backward in the cockpit was never quite as much fun.
Technically, the V-171 was Dalven's. When he'd left for the academy, he'd given strict instructions that nobody was to fly it while he was gone.
Yeah, right.
Thane never passed up an opportunity to fly - or to get a little revenge on his older brother.
(Dalven was always ruder about Ciena than anyone else in the Kyrell family. Not long before Dalven had left for the academy, he'd sneered and said that there was only reason to pick up some girl from the valleys - and if that was what Thane was after, he ought to get one who had breasts already. Thane had split Dalven's lip before their parents had pulled them apart.)
"Hey," Ciena said. Thane realized he was just standing on the ladder instead of climbing inside the cockpit. "Still with me?"
"Yeah." Thane slid into the ship while determinedly not looking at the front of Ciena's flight suit. "Sorry. Let's go."
They slid on their helmets, buckled their harnesses, and lowered the hatch to seal themselves in. By now the procedure was second nature, something Thane could so without conscious thought. He knew the moment Ciena would start flipping the switches to activate the motor, and even the rhythm of her fingertips as she did it. His own console lit up in response. "All systems check out."
"Confirmed we are ready for takeoff," she said. "Full thrusters. Let's grab some sky."
The old V-171 rose from the ground with a shudder, engines glowing blue on either side of them. Then they turned, banked, and soared away.
Ciena took them up higher, toward the peaks too cold and hostile for anyone to settle. A handful of mining droids dotted the landscape, gleaming darkly against snow and pale stone, but otherwise the area remained untouched. Thane felt as though he and Ciena had the world to themselves.
When they flew near one of the eastern ridge arches, Ciena's voice crackled through his helmet's speakers. "I see some icicles that need to be taught a lesson."
"Got it."
The arch came into focus on his viewscreen grid. Three icicles hung from the rock like stalactites, most of them about as thick as his arm. Big for an icicle - small for a target.
Thane took aim, fired and sent shattered ice spraying into the air. He grinned and he heard Ciena's victory whoop.
"Think you can find me a couple more targets?" he said. They never blasted indiscriminately, because a few falling rocks or icicles at this altitude could turn into an avalanche down at habitation levels. But he and Ciena had learned everyplace safe to shoot where ice could possibly hide
"Oh, yeah," she replied. "Hang on."
Thane knew exactly how she'd loop the ship downward. Even without guessing their exact destination, he could sense just from the slightest shift of their wings which way she would move next. He and Ciena had flown as a team every chance they'd had over the past five years. By now, they worked together like two hands of the same pilot.
The V-171 dived into the Stepson's Gorge, a narrow, craggy path that challenged ships at every turn. Ciena steered them down deep, no doubt intending to give Thane some practice targeting overhead. As they descended, they swooped past one of the many small waterfalls within the gorge. Despite the freezing chill, the falls still flowed, though more in a trickle than a gush. At that hour of the afternoon, the light caught the water at the perfect angle for a rainbow, and an icy outcropping nearby caught the prismatic light, reflecting it in a dozen directions at once. Every rock and line of snow seemed to glitter. It was one of those perfect moments all the more spectacular because in an instant it would be gone, never to be seen again.
Thane heard Ciena whisper, "Look through my eyes."
He'd known she would say that.
Maybe it was finally time to find out why.