Green Comet

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Sage learns what she must do to get admitted to the college so she can work with the professor on the gliders.

Please let me know in the comments whether you’re enjoying this. And subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

rjb

Chapter Twenty-One – Higher Education

Sage was thinking about what to do next when she heard the front door open. She stepped out into the hallway in time to hear the Professor say, “Just take it upstairs, please. I’ll be in my laboratory.”

Two men started up the stairs and she could see that they were carrying large, bulky things on their backs. This must be the chest of drawers he was talking about, she thought. He must have ordered it right away, before going to work in his laboratory. She smiled and moved up the hall to let them in her room, then followed them in.

They were looking around for a place to put their load down as she squeezed past them. Sizing up the new piece of furniture, she quickly decided to move her panniers over to the side wall, beside the open door, so they could put it down beside the head of the bed. She helped unship the frame and put it up against the wall, then she did the same with the four drawers. Once they were fitted into the frame, the three of them stood back to look at it.

“That’s good,” she said. “And quick, too. I wasn’t expecting it to arrive so soon.”

The one who had carried the frame said, “When we get a request from Professor Tailor, we drop everything. He’s an important man around here, and he gets what he wants.” He looked at his partner and they smiled, then looked back at her.

The smiles made Sage feel uncomfortable. There was something more than simple friendliness in them. She suddenly felt very crowded in the small room, so she worked her way out the door and into the hallway. “Thank you,” she said as she showed them out. “I can manage it from here.”

“Yes miss,” he said, and led his partner toward the stairs. “I’m sure you can.” They didn’t talk all the way down and out the front door, but she saw them exchanging glances in the stairway. She moved over to the window and watched them pass underneath it. They were talking and laughing until one of them looked up and saw her, then they sobered up and walked sedately until they passed out of sight.

Sage pulled her face back from the glass. “I wonder what that was about,” she muttered. Then she spied the chest of drawers and forgot about it. She emptied her panniers and filled the drawers, then covered the top of the chest with the things she had tried to fit around the books on the shelves. When she was done she dropped her haunches onto one of the pads on the floor and looked at her room. With her back knees up around her ribs and her front legs braced straight, she crossed her arms and nodded.

Last night she had slept in a dark storeroom, and thought it was an improvement. The night before she was in the traders’ shelter, getting her first good sleep in a month. That month had been spent in constant danger to her life, and before that she had been a simple, fun-loving child. She shook her head at the changes she’d been through, and looked again at where she was now. She smiled. She thought she must be the luckiest refugee ever to turn up in this city. The smile tightened. Now it would be up to her to make the most of it.

First was the thing the movers had said about the Professor: “He’s an important man, and he gets what he wants.” Sage remembered what Digger had said about city people and how they were interested in what was in it for them. And she remembered her banishment and her month-long ordeal, where she learned that she had to take care of herself. Now she was thinking about how lucky she was to be connected to a man of such influence, and about how much good that could do her. Then she felt bad, and a flash of shame, about scheming like that. She suppressed that impulse, telling herself that it might have been appropriate in the altruistic life of her village, but not here.

Second, now that she was settled in up here, and it wasn’t even mid-afternoon yet, she decided it was time to go down to the laboratory. Now that all the running around was done, her mind came back to her glider. What was it? Where had it come from? All the questions when she found it. More when it got her banished. Yet more when people tried to steal it from her. Now here she was with a man who ought to know. Who had his own glider that he had been studying for ten years. Who knew people who had other gliders. Sage decided it was time to go to the laboratory and start asking questions. With a last look around, she went out, shut her door behind her, and went downstairs.

She went across the foyer and peeked in his office, just to be sure, before going to the laboratory door. Stopping in front of it, she hesitated. Should she knock or walk right in? Knocking is more polite, but what if he’s doing something important and it takes him away from it? Letting herself in would save him the trouble, but what if the intrusion disrupted an experiment? She dithered for a full minute before finally knocking. She decided that politeness and a show of respect would be best in the long run.

After a short pause he called out, “Please wait in my office. I’ll be with you shortly.”

Sage turned to go to his office, then stopped herself. Why would he tell her to wait in his office? Was it because he didn’t want her in his laboratory? Or maybe he didn’t know it was her. Maybe he thought it was one of his students. Either way she wasn’t going to wait. If he didn’t want her in the laboratory, then all the more reason for her to be in there. She wasn’t going to let him shut her out of this. Not when it was her own glider. And if he thought she was a student, then he would be glad of the correction. She turned back to the door and said, “It’s me, Professor. Sage.”

She heard nothing, then the sound of his footsteps approaching the door. She prepared herself for annoyance, even anger, at being disturbed at his work. She swallowed as the door opened, but it was all right. He said, “I’m sorry, Sage. I was lost in the work, and … To be honest, I’d forgotten you were here.”

She might have been miffed at being forgotten, but somehow she found it endearing. “That’s okay, Professor,” she said, peering around him into the room. “I wanted to tell you that the chest of drawers arrived, and to thank you for doing it so promptly.”

“Think nothing of it, Sage. I want you to be comfortable, and there was nothing to be gained by putting off the call.”

“Well, thank you anyway. When I saw you leaving with the glider … well, you didn’t look as if you would be thinking of anything else for a while.”

“Oh, the artifact,” he said, looking back over his shoulder. She could see it on the back workbench, next to his. “Oh, of course,” he said, backing out of the doorway. “Do come in, please. Let me show you what I’m doing.”

They walked side by side between workbenches to the back where their two gliders sat almost touching. He explained as they walked. “I’ve been testing them. After what you said about them vibrating when in proximity, I’ve been setting them at different distances and checking the amplitude and frequency of the vibrations.” Seeing her blank look, he added, “The loudness and the, uh, pitch. How loud and how high or low.”

Her face cleared. “I get it,” she said. “Amplitude is loudness and frequency is pitch.” She saw him nod, and she said, “Look at that. I just got here and already I’ve learned something.”

He laughed with her, then said, “So far there has been no change in either amplitude or frequency. I just finished recording the results at this distance when you knocked. Now the next is when they’re touching.” He let her watch him move them together and carefully ensure good, solid contact, then set up the instruments to capture the results. Then he picked up a big notebook and carefully recorded the readings, along with the date, the time and the ambient temperature. That done, he certified it with his initials.

She was impressed by the thoroughness and the care he showed. She intuitively understood that it helped to ensure consistency, so things could be compared from one experiment to the next. When he told her that it also allowed other scientists to replicate the experiments and get useful results, she got another revelation. She had always had an inquiring nature, and she had always tried to see beyond the surface of things, but now she was getting a lesson in discipline. It was not lost on her, and the lesson would serve her well.

Her mind felt clear and energized. She had a sense that this was right. That she was in the right place and doing the right thing. At that moment she was sure that it was all meant to be. The glider came to her. It got her banished. She survived her ordeal and met the Professor, and now here she was in his laboratory doing experiments. She said, “What do we do next? What’s the next experiment?”

He hesitated and looked away. When he looked back, his face was apologetic. He said, “I hope I didn’t mislead you, Sage, when I said you could observe.” She waited while he looked around his laboratory. Then he looked right into her eyes and said, “I can allow you to be here, and to observe, but I can’t allow you to take part in the experiments.”

“Why not?” She couldn’t keep the suspicion out of her voice.

“I’m afraid you’re not qualified.”

“Not qualified? What does that mean?”

He sighed. “It’s quite complicated, but what it boils down to is you have no academic standing.”

“Academic standing. Does that mean I’m uneducated?”

“No,” he said quickly. “Well, in a way. It means you don’t have the right kind of education.” Again she waited for him to clarify, frowning, with her arms crossed. “If you were a student here, in the sciences, you could be a lab assistant.”

“Well then,” she said, “I’ll be a student when you start teaching me.”

“It’s not that simple, I’m afraid. You see, you’re not qualified to attend the university.”

Her frown deepened and her feet began to move restlessly. “And what do I need to be qualified for that?”

“You need a standard education, with the correct electives and a sufficient level of success to apply for admission,” he said.

She was quiet for a moment, then said, “Is there anything else?”

“No,” he said. “If you meet the requirements and are admitted, then you can be a student here.”

She caught the qualification. “What’s that about admission? It sounds like there’s a catch there.”

“Well, there are only so many seats,” he said, “and some of them are promised.” Seeing her face, he hastened to add, “To the children of alumni, and so on.”

“So, if I get past all that, then I can assist you here in the lab.” She had picked up on his abbreviation.

“Yes, providing you have the money to pay the tuition.”

“Money,” she said. “Of course. Digger told me that.”

“The university needs money to operate,” he said. “Salaries have to be paid. Buildings must be maintained. Books must be bought.” He spread his hands to indicate his own lab. “Equipment is expensive.”

“I get it,” she said. “How much money?” When he told her, she was shocked. “How does that compare to how much you gave Digger for my glider?” When he told her, she said, “So I would have to sell ten gliders to get an education.”

“That’s just for one year,” he said quietly.

“One year? And how many years do I need before I can work here?”

“Oh, you can start in your first year. It’s just if you want any kind of diploma to show your qualifications, then you need at least four years, or for some things, six or eight.”

“Eight years,” she said. “It sounds like your university has a pretty good thing going for it.”

“Not just this one,” he said. “All universities. It’s a well-established tradition.”

“It sounds like it’s a tradition that’s meant to make sure that only certain people can get in. People whose families have money, or who went here before. The same families.”

“Yes,” he said, “it does look that way. But it’s not entirely true. You can get in on a scholarship.”

Interested, she asked, “How does that work?”

“If you do well enough at the standard education, in the top two percent or better, you can win a scholarship that will pay your tuition.” Modestly he added, “That’s how I got in.”

She brightened. “So it’s not all money and influence. Some of the smartest people can get in, too.” She had been prepared to condemn the whole system, but this changed things a little.

“That’s right,” he said. “So, do you see why I can’t let you work with me?”

“Yes,” she agreed. “Not right away, anyway. Once I get in here it will be a different matter, but for now we’ll just have to find another way.”

“You’re going to try to get admitted to the university?” He was sceptical and worried that her hopes would be crushed, but he also thought she might be able to do it. He hadn’t known her long – less than a day, he reminded himself – but he thought if anyone could do it, she might be the one.

“Yes,” she said. “In the meantime, while I’m getting educated and qualified and admitted, I need to do something to make myself useful.” She looked around the lab, at all the surfaces and nooks and crevices, and all the glassware scattered about, and said, “You could use a cleaner.”

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Sage moves into her room at the college.

Please let me know in the comments whether you’re enjoying this. And subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

rjb

Chapter Twenty – A Room for One

Sage was sick of being stared at by the time they reached the university. No one tried to rob them this trip, but they weren’t shy about looking at her. At first she didn’t mind. She was wearing and carrying the same things as on her journey from her village to this city. She survived that, against all odds and predictions, and these things were the symbols of her success. But the stares weren’t acknowledging that. They weren’t about her accomplishments at all. The people were looking at her as if she were an oddity. They were turning her into something quaint and amusing.

She was fuming by the time they got there, and she nodded curtly at Digger’s friend at the gate. She didn’t even notice when he politely didn’t stare. All she wanted to do was get inside and go up to her room, where she could take this stuff off.

Unfortunately, they were again met at the door by one of the Professor’s students, and he made the mistake of sneering while he looked her up and down. After the silliness of walking all the way around the grass, feeling the eyes staring at her through the windows, this was the last straw.

She stepped up close so she was nose to nose with him and made him look her in the eye. She said, “Do you see something you like?”

He was speechless. He couldn’t think of what he could say that wouldn’t turn out badly. He looked around nervously, and tried to sidle around them to get out of there. She didn’t let him. She stayed in front of him and began forcing him deeper into the room. “I asked you a question,” she said.

He was getting panicky when Digger intervened. He put his hand on her shoulder and said, “Let him go, Sage. He’s just a kid. He doesn’t know any better.”

The boy didn’t like being called a kid, but he wasn’t about to complain. This looked like it might be a way out. He was trying to avoid the burning eyes of this crazy female when he heard his professor.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Is there a problem?”

“Not at all,” said Digger, stepping between the two youngsters and taking the boy’s arm. Walking him toward the door, he said, “Your student was interested in Sage’s necklace and she was about to explain it to him.” He squeezed the boy’s arm hard enough to make him stiffen. “Isn’t that right?” he asked him.

The boy’s mouth was moving but he couldn’t even stammer.

“Derrick?” said the Professor. “Is that right?”

Digger stopped him at the door and squeezed a little harder. He managed to say, “Yes, Professor Tailor.”

The Professor said, “Very good. I’ll see you next week, Derrick.”

“Yes Professor,” said Derrick, as Digger moved him firmly out and shut the door behind him.

The Professor was pleased. “I try to encourage curiosity in my pupils,” he said. Then he stepped forward and looked at her necklace. “So this is what caught his eye, is it?”

Sage was self-conscious now, her pique turning to sullenness. “Yes.” she muttered.

He bent for a closer look, but he kept his hands back and didn’t touch. When he straightened up and looked at her, he said, “I imagine there is quite a story behind that. I hope you will see fit to tell it to me some day.” He looked at her panniers and the spear with more talons on it. He glanced at the glider, then said, “We have much to talk about.” Then he moved toward the stairs, ushering her along. “But first, let me show you your room, and you can put down your burden.”

Digger and the Professor looked at each other, and Digger could tell that the older man knew perfectly well what went on between Sage and Derrick. He nodded his approval and said, “Sage, it looks like I’m done here. I’m going to go now.”

Sage stopped on the landing where the stairs took a ninety degree turn to the left. “Don’t you want to see my room first?”

Digger hesitated, and the Professor said, “Do come. After all, you are responsible for her being here.”

Digger laughed, remembering their last meeting and just how much credit he deserved for Sage’s success. “Okay, fine,” he said. “I’ll have a quick look.” He followed the Professor’s voluminous robes up the stairs.

It was a nice room, with windows on the side facing the rectangle of grass. The light brought out the gleaming wood and the polished metal fittings. There was a table to stand at for eating or working, a pallet with a padded mattress for sleeping, and a couple of pads for when she and a guest might want to sit on their haunches. The Professor was apologizing for how small it was, and with the three of them in there it was hard to turn around, but Sage assured him that it was fine. Compared to the dark storeroom she slept in last night, it was fine indeed.

The Professor led them back out into the hallway. “The washroom is just down here,” he said. He opened the door and Sage stuck her head in. “As you can see, it’s quite plain, but it has everything you need. Toilet, sink and shower stall. It’s pretty basic, but it’s just here for when I can’t get home.”

“Oh,” said Sage, “you use it? I don’t want to put you out.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t use it often. And anyway, you’ll probably want to get your own place before long. It’s quite restrictive here, you know.”

“Restrictive? It’s plenty big enough for me,” said Sage, picking up one of her panniers from the landing to take into her new room. Digger picked up the other one.

While they looked for places to put them down, the Professor said from the doorway, “I meant restrictive in other ways. For instance, there’s a curfew, when the gate is locked.”

Sage decided on the back wall for the panniers, between the sleep pallet and the wall communicating with the hallway. “That’s all right,” she said. “I don’t plan to be out at night.” She reached into her pannier and pulled out her medicine bag, then looked around for a place to put it. There was very little furniture, and what little shelving there was had books on it. She put the bag back and closed the pannier. She looked down and noticed her necklace, and took it off. She spied some hooks by the door and crossed to hang up the necklace next to the shiny black blanket already hanging there.

“Oh, sorry,” said the Professor, reaching in and taking the blanket down. Looking around the room, he said, “I can see we’re going to have to make some changes here. I’ll have a chest of drawers brought up, and I’ll take those books out.”

“No,” said Sage. “I mean, please leave the books.”

“Oh,” said the Professor, “can you read?” In the silence, he saw what he’d done. “Oh my,” he said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed.” He looked miserable.

His misery helped Sage overcome her embarrassment. She put a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. I was hoping that would be one of the things you could teach me.”

Flustered, the Professor said, “Yes. Yes, of course. If I’m going to teach you, then you’ll definitely need to know how to read.”

Sage didn’t dwell on it. There had been no need to read in the village, so not learning how was nothing to be ashamed of. Now she needed to read, so now she would learn how. “Good,” she said. “So if you leave these books, I can practice on them.”

The Professor glanced at the titles on the spines. Advanced physics. Abstracts of experiments by other scientists in his field. Astronomy. “Of course,” he said. “Of course.” There didn’t appear to be anything else to say, so he said, “Well, I’ll leave you to unpack and settle in.” With a lingering glance at the glider atop her pannier, he backed out of the doorway.

Sage caught the glance, and after a brief but fierce internal struggle, she untied the glider and carried it across to him. “You might as well take this,” she said, “and get started on it.”

He took it with a wordless look of thanks and hurried downstairs with it. She called after him, “You’ll find that they vibrate when they get near each other.”

He stopped on the lower landing, looked at her, then at the artifact in his arms, and again at her before hurrying away even faster. Sage was sure she saw him grinning.

Digger broke her reverie. “I really should get going,” he said, moving past her in the doorway. “You certainly don’t need me any more.”

She grabbed his arm. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much. This is much more than I could ever have expected, and it’s all because of you.”

He grinned at her. “Not all,” he said. “You had a little something to do with it.”

She lowered her eyes. “But I would never have had the chance without you.” She looked back up. “I’ll never forget. When I get a place of my own, I’ll be able to begin to repay you.”

He patted the hand on his arm. “I know you will,” he said, and headed for the stairs. She watched him all the way down. When she heard the front door open and close, she went over to the window to watch him walk around the grass to the gate. He turned and found her in her window. They waved and he went out into the city.

Sage stood at the window for a long time.

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Sage packs up and leaves Skylight’s home. She’s got new lodgings.

Please let me know in the comments whether you’re enjoying this. And subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

rjb

Chapter Nineteen – Moving

“I don’t know how much more of that I could have stood.” Digger was walking fast, apparently unaware that Sage was having to work to keep up.

“Oh, come on,” said Sage. “How could you not be interested in that?” She trotted a few steps. “Did you know before today that there are only a few of these in the whole world?” She raised her left arm with the glider lashed to it. She wasn’t taking any more chances with it. Not only was it valuable in itself, now it was the key to her future. It meant a job, money and a place to stay, and she knew enough about this city to know what those things meant. “Hey,” she said, trotting again, “how much did you even know about these things before yesterday?”

“Not much,” he said, “and life seemed to go on anyway.” His head was moving as he scanned the street for trouble. Maybe he’d been a little bored and now he felt like he had to hurry, but that didn’t make him forget where he was.

“Yes, but …” She hurried alongside him. He was on her left, to help her protect the glider, and she was walking close to the building fronts, her right hand on the hilt of her knife. All four of her eyes were intensely taking in everything. She was getting tired of having to keep up with his long-legged gait, though. “Digger!” she said. “Could you slow down a little, please?”

He looked at her, surprised, and slowed his pace. “Sorry,” he said. “I guess all that waiting around made me impatient.”

“You didn’t have to just wait around,” she said. “You could have joined in. It was fascinating.”

“Fascinating for you, maybe. You and your professor. And your gliders.”

Years later when she was thinking about it, she would wonder if Digger might have been jealous. Then and there, though, it didn’t occur to her. It was her present and her near future that filled her mind, and she had no reason to think he might be. “But they’re not just our gliders,” she said. “They’re part of a … what did he call it?”

“A global phenomenon.”

“Yes. A global phenomenon.” She savored the words, neither of which had been in her vocabulary before today. To her the world had been the plains, until yesterday when she added the city. Now it was a whole planet. A globe spinning through space. Her mind felt expanded and alive. “The gliders are part of a global phenomenon, so they’re part of a bigger mystery. And I’m part of it.” She grinned at him.

He had to grin back. As much as he might have been bored, and whatever else he might have felt as he watched them with their heads together, he couldn’t help sharing her pleasure at her good fortune. He was a digger and helping newcomers was what he did. He was pleased that this one had so quickly landed on her feet. Tomorrow he would be finding another one to help and this one would be just another of his contacts. One day he would be using Sage just as he was using Skylight now. He said, “Yes you are. You’re part of something big and important.”

They walked quietly, thinking their thoughts. Then Sage said, “That was awfully nice of the Professor to give you the money anyway, wasn’t it?”

“Yes it was,” he said, “although he didn’t stand much of a chance, did he?”

“What do you mean? All I did was give him a chance to do the right thing, and he did.”

He laughed. “Of course he did. Anyway, thanks. This money will really help. I know two or three people who could use some help right now.”

“And how about you?” she said. “Isn’t there anything you need?”

“Like what? I don’t need anything.”

“Well, that blanket,” she said, eying a few threadbare spots.

“What’s wrong with this blanket? This is a good old blanket. I don’t need a new blanket.”

“Sure,” she said, laughing.

The buildings she was passing as they walked were different from the ones she’d seen yesterday evening when she first arrived. These ones were taller for one thing. Nearly twice as tall. And along the street here, a lot of them had windows. These were bigger than any windows she had ever seen anywhere else, and they were fully glassed in. Behind the glass, displayed to be seen by people passing by, were things for sale. Further inside she could see people moving amongst shelves and racks holding more things. Digger had told her that people came to these places to buy things with money. With all the things for sale in there, Sage imagined there must be a really big workshop out back, filled with many artisans making them. She’d forgotten what Digger said about mass production.

They were passing in front of one of the places that Digger called restaurants, and Sage was looking at the people eating when she realized that she was hearing something. Her ears were getting used to the sound of the city, and now they could pick out something that she had thought was just a background noise. Something like the susurration that was almost always there as the wind moved the grass. It was a kind of rushing sound, like an unseen river.

When she mentioned it to Digger he said, “Traffic.” Then he said, “Come on. I’ll show you.”

They took a side street and walked a few of Digger’s blocks, the sound getting louder as they went. Sage began to see big wagons crossing back and forth up the way, but there was no one pulling them. They were going faster than people could have pulled them anyway. She slowed down as they approached the intersection, and Digger had to encourage her.

“It’s okay, Sage,” he said. “It’s just cars and trucks.”

“But how are they … What’s making them go?”

“They have engines,” he said. He frowned, lips pursed, then said, “We have ways of burning fuel and turning it into motion.”

She nodded. She could work that out later. For now she said, “But how do they know where to go if no one’s pulling them?”

“They have a driver,” he said. “See the person standing near the front? They have controls to guide the vehicle.”

She did see, and now she could see that the drivers were watching closely as they went, and did have their hands on what must be the controls. Some of them were standing in the open, and some were enclosed within cabins. Some of the vehicles were smaller and seemed to be carrying only people, while others were big enough to carry a large amount of goods.

When Sage asked why people would ride in one of those things instead of walking, he laughed and said, “Riding is quicker if it’s any distance, and of course some people are too important to walk. They like to prove it by riding.”

Sage understood that. She was old enough to know about vanity. So she just asked, “If it’s quicker, then why aren’t these vehicles on all the streets?”

“It’s more efficient this way,” he said. “These main routes can get you quickly from one part of the city to another, then it’s never very far on the secondary routes to your destination. People can walk a few blocks and goods can be transferred into wagons pulled by people.” He looked down at her feet. “That’s one of those heavy jobs where you would wear iron shoes.”

She curled her nostrils. “It’s noisy,” she said, “and it smells bad.”

“That’s true,” he said, and they turned to get back to where they were going.

Skylight surprised Sage with her emotional reaction to her departure.

“I thought you’d be glad to see me gone,” she said, handing her the mended sack.

Skylight huffed, her arms crossed. “I thought it was going to be two or three days,” she said, “not just the one night. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

Star wasn’t trying to hide how he felt. He stood beside his mother looking as if he was going to burst into tears, and he did when she hugged him good-bye. Skylight didn’t cry when Sage hugged her, but her voice was husky when she said, “You take care of yourself, Sage. And watch yourself with that professor. You can never trust anyone who’s too smart.”

Sage promised to be careful, and to keep in touch, then she set out for the university, Digger at her side. She turned a few heads on the street, with her panniers on. She had her glider lashed to the right one, and Digger walked on that side to protect it. At his insistence, she wasn’t carrying her spear in her hand, so it was sticking up from its sheath on her left pannier. What attracted the most attention was her necklace, hanging around her neck and rattling as she walked.