Duty Bound Read Free

co-pilot. Screens lit,
toggles glowed, maincomp beeped. The comm unit likewise beeped as
information began to flow in from Dutiful Passage. Er Thom fielded
the data, translated it, replied and received yet more data.
    "The ship wishes us gone, brother," he said,
scarcely noting that he spoke. "We are cleared to leave
immediately, if that is the pilot's pleasure."
    "Nothing more," Daav answered, and threw him
a grin. "We have a course, I see, locked to navcomp."
    Er Thom looked--a two hour run?--then his
brother's voice drew him back to his immediate duty.
    "Pray request Dutiful Passage to open the
bay door."
    Er Thom flipped the toggle that opened the
voice line. "Captain's Shuttle ready for departure. Request bay
door open."
    "Bay door open," affirmed the cool voice of
the pilot on duty at the starship's main board. "Good lift,
pilots."
    Screen One showed the bay door iris; Daav
laughed, slapped the toggle, and the shuttle rolled free.
    * * *
    "MUCH IMPROVED," Master ven'Ducci said,
nearly three hours later, as they stood once again in the bay
corridor. He bowed, very slightly. "I am encouraged, Pilot
yos'Galan."
    Er Thom returned the bow. The lift had been
a fine and bewildering thing. The simulations he had been flying
were meticulously crafted, but live flight--live flight was
different He was still a-tingle with energy, his thoughts as sharp
as fabled Clutch crystal, standing tall in an exhilaration that
persisted despite the full knowledge of having several times
bungled his board.
    "You will both attend me here tomorrow at
the same hour," the master pilot said, and with another slight bow
strode away down the hall. Er Thom stared after him, frowning.
    "Trouble, darling?" Daav was fair glittering
himself, black eyes wide in his narrow face.
    Er Thom drew a deliberate breath, trying to
quiet the exuberant pounding of his heart. "Say, rather,
puzzlement. I botched things rather badly at the phase-change and
yet he makes no mention of it. Had I made an error one-twelfth as
grievous on the practice board, he would not have held shy of
apprizing me, never fear it! Yet, today, with three ham-witted
errors to my tally, he is 'much encouraged'!"
    "Perhaps he means to see if you repeat the
errors tomorrow?"
    "Repeat them tomorrow?" Er Thom stared. "I
should never had made them today! I've been working phase equations
in my head since Master Robir showed us the forms, when we were
eight."
    "Learning curve," Daav said, linking his arm
in Er Thom's and beginning to stroll down the hall in the master
pilot's wake. "I tremble to tell you how badly I've bungled my math
at piloting. We were training on sling landings, you see, and I
transposed my vectors."
    Er Thom laughed. "Tell me you came in upside
down!"
    "But of course I came in upside down," Daav
said amiably. "And hung upside down in the sling, like seven sorts
of fool, while Master dea'Cort used my situation to lesson the rest
of the class on the need to thoroughly check one's equations." He
sighed and looked briefly mournful, then dropped Er Thom's arm with
a grin.
    "Enough telling tales out of piloting
class!" he said gaily. "It will no doubt astonish you to learn that
I am ravenous. If we hurry, I can wheedle an apple out of the cook
before reporting to the cargo master for duty. Catch me."
    He was gone, running full speed down the
hall.
    Er Thom bit back a newly acquired curse and
hurtled after.
    * * *
    IT WAS WELL into Fourth Shift and both of
them should have been long abed. Instead, they were in the control
room at the heart of the Passage. Er Thom was sitting first board.
There was no second. Daav was leaving for school on the morrow. He
sat, hands folded on his lap, in what would have been the jump-seat
in a smaller ship--a passenger on this, their last flight
together.
    Er Thom's hands moved across the board with
swift surety, no wasted motion, no false moves. His face was intent
and his shoulders just a bit rigid, but that was expectable, the
sim he was flying being