Article 23

Chapter IV

"Commander Thorsson, sir?" The commander of the Academy looked up from his holo screen. At the sight of Justin, he nodded and smiled.

"Come in, cadet, and please, stand at ease." Justin moved stiffly into the room in spite of the order. Though he knew the effects of Brother Bartholomew's concoctions had worn off, he was still nervous that Thorsson might know. Before making his way up to officer's country he had taken a quick shower, brushed his teeth twice, then changed into his class C jumpsuit.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Mr. Bell?"

"Sir, Brother Bartholomew aboard Franciscan Three insisted that I personally deliver this package."

Justin placed the box on Thorsson's desk and stepped back, hoping to be dismissed.

Thorsson smiled with delight as he opened the box; Justin saw four metal flasks inside the container.

"Ah, Franciscan brandy best in the Universe if old Barry had a hand in the making of it." Thorsson looked at him. "Tastes good, doesn't it?"

"Ah, yes, sir."

Thorsson smiled. "It's OK, I told him it was all right to let some of you cadets have a taste. Guess the old slug told you we served together."

"Ah, yes, sir, he did."

"Tell you anything about me?"

"No, sir."

Thorsson smiled as if glad that some sort of secret had been kept.

"Well, Barty could rig up a still in the most unlikely places; heaven alone knows where he'd get the juice to play with. Going to the Franciscans was a natural for him," and then he fell silent, his voice trailing off.

"Lost his entire family wife, three children. Those early days on Mars were tough lose a couple of supply ships or an air distillery breaks down, and people die." Thorsson shook his head sadly.

"I don't know if you know this, but his oldest girl, Margaret she was the first child born on Mars."

Thorsson looked off, silent for a moment. "The price there's always a price with the settling of a frontier."

Justin said nothing, wondering if he should withdraw.

"Sit down for a minute, Bell." Thorsson motioned to a chair next to his desk and Justin sat down on its edge.

"How are your studies going? Keeping up on Astro-Nav and nuclear physics?"

"Well, sir, I'm hanging on."

Thorsson nodded, smiling.

"Heard you're going out for the Skyhook Diving team."

Justin gulped and nodded.

"Crazy sport, never catch me doing it," Thorsson replied.

"Sir?"

"Flinging yourself off the Skyhook Tower, falling five hundred klicks. No thank you reentry on the old rockets was tough enough on the nerves. Used to scare me to death."

Justin looked at Thorsson, not sure how to reply to the Commanders admission of fear. It was impossible to believe such a thing in Thor Thorsson.

"Back in the old days, before the Skyhook, the only way down to Earth was standard reentry. Looks exciting enough in the old vids, but believe me, son, it used to scare the pants off me. Outside temps would soar up a couple of thousand degrees When we were flying those old government shuttles, you know what I used to think?"

"What, sir?"

"That this machine was built by the lowest contract bidder. I think I told you how when I was a boy I saw one of the old first-generation shuttles lift off."

Justin nodded, slightly awed that the man before him had memories of the 20th century space program.

"Well, I remember when one of the original shuttles peeled a heat tile on reentry. The thing opened up like a zipper once that first hole was punched. They never released it but years later, while I was in training, I heard the cockpit recording of the crew. It wasn't pleasant."

Thorsson looked off for a moment.

"Anyhow, I used to dwell on that. Funny how each of us has our own special fear that we rarely admit. For some, it's getting spaced; for others it's a micro-meteor punch while out in a suit, even though the odds against that are next to nil. Others just fear being alone, meeting the Tracs, or simply 'pulling a Hansen.' For me it was burning on reentry. Liftoff was fine I loved it but once we were up I sweated out reentry even though it might be months away. Used to keep me up late at nights."

Thorsson laughed softly.

"Remember, I was one of the biggest proponents of the Skyhook. Sure, I gave all the arguments before committees about the ultimate payback on the trillion-plus investment. In just ten years we're seeing that already. But down deep, son, well down deep I wanted the darn thing so we could get rid of reentry."

Thorsson smiled and leaned back in his chair.

"So now you know my little secret. Hope you don't think less of me."

Justin was startled. "No, of course not, sir."

"When do you go for your first dive, Bell?'

"We're supposed to go this weekend, sir."

"Fine, that fits the schedule."

"Schedule, sir?"

"You and forty other plebes are getting a posting, son."

"A posting?' Justin was startled. Usually a cadet spent a year at the Academy before going out on his first assignment.

"Little change in policy. It's just a standard run out to an orbital base near Mars. Most of the ship's space was empty it's an old design run now by a skeleton crew, so I managed to convince Fleet Assignment to let me throw some plebes aboard. There won't be much shipboard duty, and thus plenty of time to keep up on your studies. You'll be gone a month. I thought it'd be a good incentive for some of our top plebes to get a shot at it, and might provide some good training as well."

"A top plebe, sir?" Justin hesitated. "You sure of that, sir?"

Thorsson laughed and shook his head. "Just like your father. Never really sure just how well you're doing. Sure, Astro — Navigation needs some polishing, but there was that lifesaving award showed quick thinking and guts, more guts than you know you have. By the way, Cadets Everett, Smith and Leonov will be going along, so you'll have some friends to keep you company."

"That's great, sir. May I tell them?"

"Sure. Mention it to Cadet Colson as well. He's your roommate, isn't he?"

Justin hesitated.

"Yes, sir."

Thorsson smiled knowingly.

"Is there a problem?"

"Oh, no, sir," Justin said quickly.

Thorsson chuckled. "Ah, yes, the Code. Never squeal to an officer or upperclassman about another cadet. Well, I think having Mr. Colson going with you and especially with Mr. Everett might be the right touch."

"Sir?"

Justin was confused. The tension in their room since the start of the semester had been as thick as an arctic freeze. Justin had noticed that Colson tended to hang with several other cadets who had stated their disdain of offworlders and especially of the freewheeling style of solar sailors. Matt had tried to remain aloof, though there had been several sharp exchanges.

"Bell, there's a lot of tension on this ship, and not just among the plebes. I just cashiered two junior-level cadets today for a fistfight over the separatist issue. Though I know it's against tradition to talk about it I think it's safe to say that even up here in officer country there are some sharp disagreements."

Justin said nothing, feeling it best not to comment.

"If this system, this dream, is to work, then we have to bridge the differences within our own community. I remember once reading about an old hero of mine, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain ever hear of him?"

"Yes, sir, I have. He was a Civil War general. My grandpa had an interest in the subject and even has his autograph."

"A good choice of heroes, Joshua Chamberlain. Chamberlain once wrote about how he had hosted a visitor shortly before the war. This man was from the South, Chamberlain from the North. Both were well educated and, given the climate of the times, the subject turned to the crisis that was about to divide your country. Chamberlain later wrote that their conversation simply broke down, with the Southerner finally announcing that Chamberlain could never understand how the South felt. Chamberlain realized at that moment that if two intelligent men could not bridge the gap, reach some sort of understanding or at least acceptance of the opposing view, then they were all doomed."

"And are we doomed, sir?"

Thorsson shook his head. "Not yet. At least I hope not. The separatists have to realize that the countries and businesses on Earth that financed this great expansion have invested trillions of dollars, and they expect a return and a certain amount of control. On the other side, those on Earth have to realize that we now have a new generation, like your friend Matt, who were not born on Earth they see their ship, or colony, or planet, as their place of allegiance. Offworlders like those have a hard time understanding how corporate administrators and political leaders millions of kilometers away can or should decide their destiny.

"If the separatists continue to move towards a radical position, people like Mr. Colson's father could lose hundreds of millions, even billions. But if Earth doesn't back off, grant more autonomy and ease taxes and restrictive trade regulations, the radicals will gain even more converts."

"So then it comes down to Matt and Wendell being ready to tear into each other," Justin said, a comment he instantly regretted, fearing that he had revealed something.

"I sort of assumed that," Thorsson replied, waving his hand to still Justin's uneasiness. "A pity. Neither Chamberlain nor his acquaintance from the old South created the divisions that divided them. That situation had taken generations to develop, but they certainly paid for it with their blood. I fear a reprise."

Justin was silent, not knowing how to respond.

"There are some in this Service who are all but ready to drum anyone out of our brotherhood if they weren't born on Earth, or willing to take an unconditional oath of allegiance. They fear that offworlders might seize a ship or some such madness and give it to the radicals on the other side. Let's just hope that calmer heads prevail."

Thorsson stirred uncomfortably, as if he had said too much.

T think your friend Mr. Everett will continue to show restraint. He's a good cadet and a worthy friend. I'd like to think that you could help him and Mr. Colson come to an understanding. That, in some small way, would most definitely prove something to us oldsters."

Justin felt as if he had just been given an order.

"I'll try, sir."

"Good. Going to Mars, especially this close to conjunction, might seem like short-haul stuff but I think all of you will find it interesting. Captain MacKenzie, who commands the ship you'll be on, is a tough man of the old school. Not to be crossed. He's not like the officers you know here on the Academy and that's part of the reason I want some of my best students to go out with him. Let's call it a dose of reality, Mr. Bell, one I hope you all learn from."

Thorssons voice trailed off.

"Make me proud of you out there, BelL Have fun on your jump this weekend, and see you in a month."

"We're going to Mars," Matt chortled. "I still can't believe it. Out of the classroom and away from Davis and his bloody Astro-Nav course, what a treat!"

Justin nodded, unable to speak as he double-checked his suit.

"All right, you guys, ready for a little fun?"

Brian stepped in front of Justin, checking the straps that secured the reentry shield and retro-pack to his back. Even at five hundred klicks out, gravity aboard the Skyhook Tower was just slightly less than on the surface of Earth, so that his suit and jump gear weighed over four hundred pounds. He wasn't even going to try and stand up from his sitting position in the support frame.

"Now, this is gonna be a cinch," Brian continued. "Remember, it's all a drogue line-run everything is on auto. No fancy high-low stuff or group maneuvers on this drop. You know the routine from the briefing, so just hang on and enjoy the ride."

"Yeah, sure," Justin replied softly.

Seay didn't bother to prompt him with a "sir." Once off the Academy ship he had slipped back into a slightly less formal routine.

"Now remember, you guys are A Company, so no screaming or hollering on the way down. If anything should malfunction, just tap into my channel. I'll be right above you all the way down."

"OK."

"Ready?"

Justin gulped hard and nodded. All the way out on the weekend shuttle from the Academy to the Skyhook he had been trying to figure out some way to get out of this mess. He half-suspected that Seay knew he wanted out, and in response was leaning on him more to go through with it. Justin felt cornered, once again cursing himself for going along with this insane suggestion to "join the team."

Until this very second he had been hoping for some convenient excuse or, better yet, the divinely inspired intervention of some real ailment. Brian had insisted upon eating before the jump and Justin had been tempted to get some sushi in the Skyhook tourist section-with luck it might have had bacteria in it. But then he realized that even if by a rare chance some bacteria did show up it'd be a while before it made him sick, whereas the taste of raw fish in his mouth just before a jump might have a more immediate consequence. He had settled for a chocolate milk shake, figuring that would not pose a problem even though it could not save him from his fate.

Brian walked over to Matt and checked him over, then sat down in a support chair and strapped his own gear on.

"Ready to depressurize," he finally announced and Justin tensed as the alarm bell sounded and then faded away into the silence of vacuum. The door into space slid open, sunlight streaming in.

"All right, who's gonna be first?"

There was a moment of silence until Matt chimed in on the headset. "Sure, I'll be the hero."

"Then let's go for it! Everett first. Bell, you follow. We're not doing any formation stuff, but I want a tight pattern, ten-second intervals."

Justin waited for Matt to stand up and hobble towards the door. Justin stood up, straining against the weight of the suit, feeling the power servos kick in. Clumsily he took a step; the servos sensed his move and activated the suit's leg, and he lurched forward like Frankenstein.

He shambled out on to the platform and looked around. Matt was already out on the gangplank extending from the walkway that encircled the tower. Justin gazed up, awed by the tower that soared straight towards the heavens. A car shot upward on tibe track behind him, disappearing from view within seconds. Another car streaked down, snapping silently past them.

He looked around the walkway at the tourists moving clumsily in their space suits, closing in around them to watch the show. None of them were tuned into his circuit but he could see their faces, mouths moving silently, several waving encouragement, a few shaking their heads as if he were crazy. Many of them were already crowding up to the side of the walkway, hands clinging to the wire fencing which prevented the overly eager from tumbling into space. Unfortunately, the platform he was on had no such safety devices.

"Hey, buddy, come on out!" Matt cried. 'The view is great." Matt made a show of jumping up and down on the gangplank as if it were a diving board.

Justin carefully stepped up to the edge of the gangplank, which looked like a diving board with handrails on the side, and then made the mistake of looking over the side.

Instinctively he clutched the handrails for dear life, his knees turning to jelly. Earth was five hundred klicks straight down. The city of Rio was directly below, and the Atlantic Ocean sparkled to the east. To the south the coastline curved away and he could clearly see the line of glittering white beaches that separated the blue of the ocean from the dark green of tropical growth. Early morning clouds were just beginning to appear over the jungle, soon to grow into towering thunderheads. Far to the west he thought he could see the peaks of the Andes catching the first light of dawn.

He knew it was beautiful he tried to focus on that but the end of the diving board was only a couple meters ahead.

"Hey, Bell, look out for this next step, it's a killer!" Matt chortled.

"All right, you two," Brian announced. "Times awasting. No fancy chute work, just let it float you down. If you can get into the target zone, great. If not, no sweat. Winds are calm, visibility unlimited, a good morning for a jump."

"Ten seconds, Everett."

Justin listened as Brian received a final jump clearance from the control room.

"Three, two, one! Jump, Everett, jump!"

Matt bent his knees, extended his hands over his head as if he were simply going to fall a few meters into a swimming pool, and vaulted off.

"Look out below!" Matt shouted.

"Ten seconds, Bell. Move it up to the edge!"

As if pulled by a force beyond his control, Justin took the final step up to the edge of the board and then looked down again. Without the support of the suit servos he knew he would have collapsed into a mound of quivering protoplasm, all resemblance to human form lost forever. He wondered as well if sixteen-year-olds could die of heart attacks, because if so, he knew he was dying his heart was out of its usual slot and was currently banging away some where up behind his mouth.

Brians words echoed, dragging out with maddening slowness as if he were talking like some demented spirit trapped in a nightmare, " Threeee twoooo "

There was still time to protest, to stop this ridiculous stunt, Justin thought All I gotta do is say no. Hell, discretion is the better part of; "One! Jump, Bell, jump!"

He tried to move, but his knees were gone flesh, muscles, tendons, bones had melted into a puddle somewhere down in the toes of his suit.

He tried to say something, anything.

A sharp nudge tapped him from behind.

The universe tipped over. First he saw the horizon of the Earth, then the morning sun, spinning up and out of view again the Earth, directly below. Weightlessness, no real sense of speed, just weightlessness. He slowly tumbled over, plummeting head down. The tower was racing past him. A car was slowing down for entry into the five-hundred- klick station; it whisked past and for an instant he saw astonished faces peering out at him. He continued his roll; now he was looking back up. Funny, the platform was far above, or was it below and he was falling up? It was a couple hundred meters away, in any case. He saw a dot separating from the platform.

It was Seay, damn him! He pushed me!

" Yeee Haaa! How we doing boys?" Seay cried.

"On my way!" Matt shouted. "What a rush!"

" Bell?"

A stream of obscenities escaped from Justin, directed at Brian, Matt, and the universe. This was simply too damn much!

His slow somersault continued. After several rotations it was clear that velocity was increasing. The side of the tower was becoming an indistinct blur. As he fell the circular ring around the tower was growing smaller, details disappearing. Directly below he could see the Earth rushing up. The rotations continued; each upward turn showed the docking station receding until it was only a barely visible bulge on the side of the tower. The horizon was contracting: the peaks of the Andes were no longer visible, and the bay of Rio was standing out sharp and clear; he could even see different shadings in the colors of the ocean.

" Everett ten seconds to stabilization, thirty to shield deployment, retros kick in at forty. Hang on and check in. Bell, ten seconds after Everett."

Justin held his breath, counting down, barely hearing Matt's shout that he had stabilized.

Justin was still somersaulting; as he looked down he caught a brief glimpse of Matt. Suddenly a stabilizer jet on his backpack fired as the suit's inertial guidance system activated. The jet neutralized the slow head-over-heels tumble. Another jet fired, this one strong, positioning Justin on his back, instantly augmented by a third jet, which held him in a flat back-down position looking up. The tower seemed to have drifted farther away. A dim thought registered that this was because of the Coriolis effect. The angular momentum of jumping from a tower five hundred klicks above the Earth's surface deflected him away from the tower relative to a straight line back to the center of Earth's gravity.

" Bell! Hey, Bell, you all right?"

"Stabilized," Justin announced grimly.

He counted off the seconds. If the shield failed to deploy, he was going to be a blazing light flashing across the morning sky. "Damn all, never again," he mumbled. "Never, ever again."

He felt a sharp jolt from behind. An instant later he felt as if he were lying face up inside an umbrella. The reentry shield packed into his suit had deployed; a dozen meters across, it would protect him from the fiery heat of reentry.

"Wow! Hey, these retros are a kick!" Matt shouted.

Justin waited, breathing hard, and suddenly it felt as if someone had punched him squarely in the back. Weightlessness was replaced by a two-gee counter-blow that caused him to grunt from the shock.

"Retro," Justin shouted.

Looking up, he could see Brians ant-like figure disappear behind the disk shaped shielding. Seconds later there was a flare of light as the senior cadets retro-pack kicked on.

"All right, kiddies, get ready for the ride of a lifetime!" Seay declared.

Hie retro continued to fire. Looking to one side, Justin noticed a glow rimming the edge of his shield. Even as he watched, it shifted from a deep bluish-red, to scarlet, and then to a brilliant orange. When he glanced up he saw a cone of light pulsing around his shield. He'd reached the atmosphere, and the friction of reentry was ionizing the thin air a hundred and twenty klicks up.

A blinking red light projecting on to his faceplate startled him for a second and then he saw that it was the retro shutting down. The gees were increasing as the friction of the air became sufficient to blunt his speed. The cone of light pulsed higher, turning bright yellow and then nearly white. He heard a distant sound. It was Matt, laughing with maniacal glee.

Buffeting blurred his vision and deceleration pushed the load up to nearly four gees. He grunted hard as he fought to take in short gasps of air. Beyond his own fireball he could see the back of Seay's shield glowing white-hot.

Strangely, it was silent. In the old movies a roar like a tornado always accompanied reentry. He was silent fire streaking through the morning sky. I'm the fire, the pillar of light coursing down from the heavens. In ancient times, he thought, I'd be seen as a god, coming on my fiery chariot. A sense of power coursed through him: he was in the center of the inferno, untouched, unscathed.

He started to laugh, not even aware of the shouts of his two companions as they streaked down from the sky. A thought danced in the back of his mind the realization that if there should be the slightest imperfection in the shield, a flaw the size of a pinhole, it'd burn through. A two thousand-degree needle of fire would slice through his suit, gulping energy from his oxygen, blow-torching him apart so fast he'd barely have time to realize he was dead before he was already on the other side of that final mystery.

But in spite of that thought he continued to laugh for here, in the fire of the heavens for at least an instant, he wondered if this was what it felt like to be totally alive, and then knew that it was.

The fire died away, and then to his surprise there was indeed sound, a distant rumbling thunder. Straight overhead, just at the center of his vision, a few stars were still visible, but all around the edge of his shield the sky was a deep, dark blue. The gee-load began to bleed off. A mild buffeting rocked him. Another jolt startled him; it was the shield retracting into its backpack. He started to fall freely once again.

Justin felt the tug of the thin atmosphere against his body. Drawing in one arm, he rolled over and faced down. As he recalled the practice session in the Academy wind tunnel he extended the arm back out, arched his back, and raised his hands up to either side of his head. He lurched back and forth, then finally stabilized. Falling through twenty-seven thousand meters, he saw Matt a thousand meters below and a bit to one side.

"Nothing fancy, you two," Brian reminded them. "Just stay steady and let the computer handle the show."

Rio was now far off to one side, the massive bulk of the Skyhook tower soaring up from the edge of the city. It was surrounded by airstrips, maglev stations and warehouses in every direction for half a dozen kilometers.

"How you doing, Bell?"

"Fine."

"To your right."

Justin looked over and saw Brian falling, head first, thirty meters away. Brian arched his back and broke his dive, coming up to float by Justin.

"Get ready for drogue," Brian announced and then drifted back and away.

Justin focused on his heads-up display and saw that he was passing through sixteen thousand meters. He was surprised to see that the curvature of the Earth was barely visible to both sides of him. Just minutes before he could see almost completely across the continent; now the universe was reduced to this limited view of the planet.

A thin layer of high cirrus clouds came rushing up, looking almost solid. He saw Matt plunge through like a drop of water falling into the sea, a rippling wake spreading out from the hole he punched. Justin snapped through the clouds; rocked by mild turbulence, he lost control for a second so that he was almost on his back. Before he could begin to compensate a thruster jet rolled him back into place.

He saw a bright orange plume eject from Matt's back, the drogue chute popping open. Seconds later a blow hit him in the back. Justin was jerked upright as his own drogue deployed, killing off his nearly five-hundred-kilometer-per-hour fall. Momentarily stunned, he dangled in the harness. He looked around and saw Seay floating a hundred meters away.

They fell together for nearly a minute, dropping through seven thousand meters, then five, and finally to four.

" Bell, Everett. See the X in the field to the south? That's our target. No fancy steering this time, but see if you can at least bring yourself in without embarrassment. Remember not to flare too soon. Your suit servos can handle a hard landing but you look like crap when you drop that badly. Remember, you're cadets, not amateurs."

"Aye, aye, sir," Matt chimed back.

"If your main chute fails to deploy or tangles, you're on manual, no computers for this part. Hit your release button and make sure you're clear, then pull the backup on your chest."

" Wowww!"

Matt's shout startled Justin. Looking down he saw that the drogue chute had snapped loose, crumpling up and twisting like a piece of gauze in the wind. Seconds later Matt's main chute blossomed.

With a stomach-lurching snap Justin's drogue chute broke free and he started to fall. He counted to three, waiting. Then his left hand reached around to his backup.

A reassuring thump slapped him in the shoulders. Looking up he saw the bright orange canopy deploy, the arc of the airfoil opening over his head. He grabbed hold of the toggle handles and tentatively pulled his left hand down. The left side of the chute dropped and he went into a slow, spi-raling circle. He eased up on the left and tried fte right, reversing his spiral.

He started to laugh again. He felt like an eagle soaring through the heavens. A bubble of warm air swirled up around him; the first thermals of the day were rising off the open field below, and he surged up on the column so that Seay dropped below him.

"Hey, nothing fancy, Bell, just follow me in," Seay said.

He ignored the senior cadet for a moment, trying to stay within the thermal, but it was already gone, climbing skyward to where, at twenty-five hundred meters, it would cool, condense, and form a bright, puffy cumulus. It would be joined by others, until by midday it would be a towering nimbus, ten thousand meters high, marching across the sky and lashing the ground below with lightning and rain.

"Light breeze stirring out of the northwest," Brian told them, "five knots. Come in downwind and turn on to your target."

A warm rich scent flooded Justin's suit and he realized that the computer had opened a vent to the outside atmosphere. The air was rich with a riot of tropical smells that were a delight after the weeks of filtered antiseptic ship oxygen.

Breaking out of his spiral, he watched as Brian swooped down to dart past Matt, who uttered a sharp protest at not being first.

"Just follow my lead, you guys, circle when I do. In competition we all touch down at the same time. Today, just try and get down on your feet."

Brian went into a circling turn, hovering slightly downwind from the target. Justin tried to swing in above and behind him, but circled out too wide. He came back around to see Brian pulling down hard on both toggles, spilling his air, dropping and picking up speed. Matt floated up beside Justin, then dropped back down as well. Justin followed suit, surprised at how fast his speed picked up when he spilled air. The ground was racing up fast. Seay let his toggles up, rising back up slightly. Matt pulled a tight circle, staying just behind Seay. Justin tried to follow, then lost sight of the two as he pulled down hard on his right toggle and eased up on his left. As he swung out into a sharp rum the ground spiraled beneath him.

Coming back out of the circle he saw that he had drifted to the northeast of the target. A pennant set up near the "X" marker fluttered and shifted to the north, then to the northeast. Now upwind of the target, Justin tried to turn. Seay shot underneath Justin's feet fifteen meters below. Seay flared up at the last second and touched down, slapping a foot directly on the center of the X.

Damn all, Justin thought. I can do it! Racing past the target he tried to judge the moment. He pulled down hard on his left toggle and went into a turn as the ground spun by beneath him. He saw the target from the corner of his eye but was momentarily distracted by Matt, swooping down and screaming like a banshee as he soared over the target by a dozen feet, flared and then came down hard fifty feet away.

Justin tightened his turn and tried to line up. He swung out like a doll on the end of a toy parachute, and then saw the target rising up in his field of vision.

" Bell! Flare!"

He realized what was happening too late. He released his deathlike grip on his left toggle and felt his chute billowing back out. An instant later he slammed into the ground on his left side. He rolled over fast, a blizzard of shroud lines wrapping over his faceplate. He tumbled like a broken toy across the field, lines ensnaring his arms and legs.

He bounced to a stop, feeling as if he had rolled down a hill inside a barrel. The thought came to him that if it had not been for his suit and the power servo units he would most likely have broken a leg with his botched landing. For that matter, he wasn't sure he hadn't broken a leg; his entire body felt numb.

He lay still for several seconds, collecting his thoughts.

" Bell? Hey, Bell, you alive in there?"

"Huh?"

He tried to roll over onto his back, feeling like a turtle. Hands grabbed him by the shoulder; looking up through his dirt-smeared helmet he saw Seay eyeing him and shaking his head.

"You idiot, here let me help you up."

Seay grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him upright.

"Darn, looks like he got sprayed by a spider," Matt commented.

Hands drifted past his faceplate, struggling with the lines, unwrapping him from his cocoon. He heard laughter, strange voices Brazilians speaking Portuguese. He caught a glimpse of a girl with a gorgeous darkly tanned face; a wisp of her perfume drifted into his suit.

"Poor boy, he's all right?" she asked.

The lilt of her voice made his heart melt, especially when he caught a better glimpse of her as the bundle of chute lines was finally pulled free from his helmet.

Someone unclasped his helmet and pulled it off. Seconds later he felt the backpack containing his retrorocket, reentry shield and chute slide off.

"All right, Bell, let's see if you can still walk."

Gingerly he stood up, flexing his legs. Seay was standing in front of him, shaking his head. The ground crew was standing behind him, shaking their heads as well and laughing.

"You all right, Bell?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Nothing broken?"

Justin moved his arms and legs.

"No, the suit took it."

"Idiot, don't do that next time. OK?"

"Sure. Hey, did I make the target?"

Brian grinned and pointed down. Justin looked down and saw the center of the X directly under his feet.

"Two-point landings, Bell, are the only ones that count. Butts and heads don't."

Seay slapped him on the shoulder, grinning.

Matt came up to Justin and gave him a good-natured punch on the shoulder.

"Hey, buddy, outrageous ain't it?"

Matt pointed at the tower which soared heavenward on the far side of Rio, sixteen kilometers away.

"We got time to do it again?' Matt asked Brian.

Seay shook his head.

"We'll do a couple atmosphere jumps the old-fashioned way from a plane, then it's back up to school. You guys got a flight to catch tomorrow."

Justin didn't know whether to feel relieved or not at Seay's announcement. Staring at the tower, he found it all but impossible to believe that less than a half-hour ago he had been five hundred kilometers up, in the vacuum of space. His memory of the jump was now a jumbled blur of impressions highlighted by the cone of fire that had engulfed him as he bit atmosphere.

"Well, fire rider, welcome to the club," the young Brazilian girl proclaimed, and she extended her hand. He went to take it and then saw that she was holding a piece of burnt toast.

"Tradition," Seay declared. "First-time fire riders have to eat a piece of burnt toast if they make it down."

Justin grinned as he took the toast and bit into it. It was more charcoal than bread; there was chilling recognition that only a few millimeters of plastishielding were all that prevented him from finishing his ride as a shower of ash, drifting on the winds of the upper atmosphere.

But at the moment he didn't care, and when he and Matt finished the toast they were delighted by the reward of a kiss on the cheek from the girl.

She laughed at their foolish grins as she turned and sauntered away.

"Hey, being a fire-riding cadet has its rewards, don't it," Matt said. "I'm in love, buddy and we got the whole day down here for me to convince her that the feeling is mutual."

"Come on, you two, let's get out of these suits," Seay suggested, motioning towards the pickup truck that was coming out to ferry them and their equipment back to the hangar.

Brian started to walk away and then turned, looking back at Justin.

"By the way, Bell, I didn't know folks from Indiana had such a command of old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon."

Justin blushed, suddenly remembering what he had called Seay after the senior cadet pushed him off the gangplank.

"Remarkable," Matt chimed in, "have to remember that last one. What was it now? You son of a drunken no-good"

Justin tried to swing at Matt but did it a little tod hard so that the suit servos kicked in. He spun around and landed on his backside; Brian and Matt, laughing even harder, had to pull him back to his feet and lead him off the field.