Zeta District - Julie Steimle (story reading txt) 📗

dramatic speed than she had ever had to deal with before. Despite what little freedom the velocity gave her, she managed to reach over and reset her hover rate to compensate for the distance from the ground. Immediately the scooter leveled off fifty feet above the canyon floor.

Zormna looked down below where she saw the other flight scooters gathering at the bottom of the canyon. She could also see Alea Tenngar parked at a distance from the edge. 

She sighed. It was that type of game he was playing, huh? She shook her head and proceeded to adjust her hover rates so that she could simply lower herself to the ground without getting a nosebleed. When she reached the canyon floor she quickly zipped toward the rest of the group. It was hardly any time before other flight scooters were plummeting down on top of her, not quite capable of taking the drop as she had been. Zormna dodged out of their way, zipping side to side then ahead so that they would not land on her head. She skidded to a stop on the canyon floor, watching them fall. They nearly crashed into the ground except their hover rate stopped them inches from the surface. Jostled yet floating, Avers stretched their necks. They glanced at Zormna and then at the group ahead of them.

<<Alea Tenngar is going to be ticked if we don’t hurry,>> Zormna heard one of the officers say through his helmet com.

She and the other officer nodded then started again toward the group. More flight scooters came after them, all the same way they came. They zipped out of the way toward the waiting group.

Those that waited watched each entry of the other Avers, hovering quietly near their commanding officer in dead silence, even as Zormna and the two other officers joined them. As Zormna and the pair rested onto the dusty red earth with a turn to look at the eight other officers that followed, each dropped frighteningly fast from the docking bay, landing with a jolt near the ground. It took them just as long to notice the waiting group as it had Zormna’s bunch and join the troop. Alea Tenngar, ticked to himself as each officer joined them, something Zormna only now started to notice.

When all the officers had finally gathered in, Alea Tenngar shook his head. <<What kind of flying what that?>>

They all glanced at each other and shook their heads shrugging.

<<You were supposed to be trained to fly, not fall.>> He continued his sour-toned mockery.

Zormna felt her face burn. She did fly. But he had given them no warning about the drop. Alea Arden would have at least.

Alea Tenngar said, straightening his back with a proud tone, <<I will teach you the correct way to fly on the surface, and don’t you forget this lesson.>>

Zormna clenched her teeth.

Alea Tenngar revved up his flight scooter then gave the command for the Avers to follow him. Dutifully, they all did, humbled and disheveled, though Zormna trailed after him with glares at his back. That acidic feeling was coming back to her stomach making her uncomfortable. Never before did she dislike flying, but Alea Tenngar’s ego certainly soured it.

They skimmed over the bottom of the canyon. Alea Tenngar often broke the silence with directions on navigating the narrow arroyos, garnished with brags about the roughness of the wind tunnels that no common officer could fare. While showing off, he occasionally gave orders on flight configuration, which they had to form within his time limits without any pre-organization. Holding in her grumbles, Zormna executed his orders as precisely as possible considering she hardly knew the others in the group. His last command had them flight in a W shape over the rocky terrain.

Zormna checked her gauges and scanners regularly, keeping eye on oncoming objects and wind currents though she did not need to. She could feel the currents as she flew and could even read them from the sand patterns blowing around her. Still, she watched. That uneasy feeling in her gut was just not going away.

Entering yet another narrow canyon area, they zipped in a clear wind stream, dodging boulders. Already Alea Tenngar had taken them through narrower canyons where the walls were only a few feet apart. Several times he led them through rough air currents, giving them all a knock of wind that they had to brace for. Alea Tenngar forced his way through everything. It was his flying style. Zormna found her stomach acids growing now with a bile taste emerging from her throat. It was not her flying style at all. She rarely, if ever, forced her way through any wind. She used it. For that matter, the entire flight training disturbed her, and it destroyed more and more of her respect for her commanding officer. Soon he would be ranking in her mind with cranky Alea Sholda.

Alea Tenngar zipped down again into a drop that led to a deeper canyon. Zormna headed the group this time, just behind Alea Tenngar. Ahead, she noticed on her scope dangerous crosswinds. Seeing this, she knew that she would be the first hit, and she knew her scooter would not be able to bear the blow with its system still below perfect. Her scooter would be thrown into the canyon walls if…. 

Her breathing went shallow as she looked at the gauges again. No, she would be thrown into the others behind her and the impact would thrust them harder into the canyon walls than the blow would do to her. It could possibly kill one of them if she was not careful.

Without another second, Zormna broke formation. She pulled up, flying higher into the canyon with a leap into one of the crosswinds. Her flight scooter jostled at the first gust of wind but she immediately turned with it and rode on the blow, flying over then down into the canyon right where she expected Alea Tenngar to be.

He was nowhere close to where he should have ended up. Zormna looked down the canyon, searching for his ship on her scope. She saw Alea Tenngar waiting in a safe off-shoot canyon watching the Avers take on the crosswind.

Zormna’s anger rose in her. She clenched her teeth as she rode right over to where Alea Tenngar was parked, halting her vehicle right behind him and waited silently as he watched his created spectacle. Five Avers crashed—bruised, but nothing worse than a few scrapes. Four parked along side them to help out, their own vehicles scraped up, but quite able to move on. The others had slowed down and entered the cross winds slowly, parking alongside Alea Tenngar with glances at the wounded. Zormna could hear the Alea’s testy clicking through the helmet com.

<<Where is Aver Zormna?>> He growled.

Zormna clenched her teeth and replied. <<Right here, sir.>>

Alea Tenngar turned around with a jerk, staring at the small Aver that was parked behind him with irritably folded arms.

<<Why did you break formation? I gave a strict order for you to follow me.>> Alea Tenngar rose in his seat, his voice also rising in pitch.

Zormna’s scowl was not visible, but her voice etched clearly that she was furious with him. <<And let them get killed? I saw the cross wind.>>

Alea Tenngar’s heavy breathing transmitted through their helmet coms as he seethed. All the Avers stared anxiously at Zormna Clendar.

<<You will head back to the docking bay at once,>> he said.

Zormna glared. <<I most certainly will—to report you.>>

<<Report me?>> His voice shook in anger. <<Of all the….>>

<<Yes, for endangering your officer’s lives to save your pride,>> she said.

Alea Tenngar’s voice hit a higher decibel. <<My pride? Your pride! You endangered your troop by deserting them. It is your fault that your fellow officers got hurt!>>

<<You’d like it to look that way!>> Zormna pointed down back at the swirling wind tunnel. <<That was why you placed me first in the formation. You wanted me to crash into the others. I just saved their living necks back there by getting out of the way.>>

The other officers glanced at one another.

Her superior leaned over to grab her, or intended to, but he stopped short. <<Get back to base for your court-marshal.>>

Zormna growled. <<I’ll go, but only to see your own.>>

Without another word Zormna revved up her flight scooter and lifted out of the canyon. All the Surface Patrol officers watched her go and then glanced back at Alea Tenngar. He sat rigidly, his chest heaving as he watched her fly off. He abruptly called to the others to follow him back to the docking bay.

They all followed—no hesitation.

 

Ire

Zormna furiously zipped in and out the winds back to the speck sized hole in the distant canyon wall. She fumed within her helmet to herself, failing to reasonably keep calm, letting her hands sweat as her temper heated up. Her anger boiled within her like a soup pot ready to scald anyone that dared touch her. She hardly noticed the icy winds that whipped by now. Zormna increased her speed so much that the docking bay rapidly emerged into view in the canyon wall. Abruptly throwing on the brakes, Zormna released the throttle with some difficulty. Her flight scooter zipped into the fifty-foot long room faster than she had anticipated, and straining with what angry energy she had left, she turned her flight scooter 180 degrees then landed neatly on the ground as if she just dropped there. The surface dust that came in with her scattered around the room like a whirlwind as her scooter settled completely in its place. Peevishly, she stepped off her scooter and tore off her helmet, throwing it to the floor.

“Scrapes!” she cursed. She ran her fingers through her hair, nearly pulled out a few hairs in the process.

All the officers in the docking bay emerged warily out of their workstations and cautiously walked over to her, gaping with wonder.

“Where’s Alea Tenngar?” one of the officers managed to ask.

Zormna made a face as she replied with distaste, “That roach? He’s coming.”

Without another word, Zormna moved her flight scooter off the landing pad. When she set her flight scooter down with the other Zeta issue she stood back with fold arms. Then in a fit of anger, more at herself for being so hasty in her actions toward the Alea than at Alea Tenngar, she kicked it. The other officers watched casting glances between them.

Zormna immediately slumped against the wall now giving the floor dirty looks. By then, most of the Surface Patrol officers in the hall stepped back, deciding to wait for Alea Tenngar to return, which wasn’t all that long. Alea Tenngar and the rest of the group flew in two minutes after. They all settled onto the stone and steel floor, parking their scooters with care. Alea Tenngar promptly climbed off of his scooter and called to the men in the control room. “Where is Aver Zormna?”

“I’m here,” Zormna’s voice echoed testily from the back of the hall.

Alea Tenngar’s eyes narrowed with spite, and he marched over to her. Waving his arm to the docking crew, he said, “Close the bay doors.”

Without another word he continued his march, red-faced, directly to Zormna who was still leaning against the wall. He stopped