Part 27 (1/2)

Jonnie wheeled and began to race to the north.

In front of him the ground again erupted.

He tried to get his horse to go through the hanging curtain of dust. Windsplitter turned and tried to run away to the south.

This time the plane plunged down and settled across their path.

Terrified, Windsplitter reared. Jonnie got him under control.

Terl was sitting in the open door of the plane, laughing. He roared, moving back and forth, pounding his chest to get his breath.

With considerable trouble, Jonnie got the two pack horses together. He dismounted to straighten their packed meat.

”You looked so funny,” gasped Terl, straightening his face mask.

The horses were rolling their eyes, trembling. But Jonnie's eyes were not rolling- had they been blast guns, Terl would have been dead.

”I just wanted to show you how easy it is to stop you if you ever got out of hand,” said Terl. ”Just one of those gun blasts, aimed at you and not in front of you, would have made you a pale pink mist!”

Jonnie had tied the pack horse lead ropes to Windsplitter's neck. He stood there, soothing Windsplitter with a stroking hand.

”I'm celebrating,” said Terl. ”Send those horses back to the compound and get in.”

”I don't have an air mask,” said Jonnie, ”and that interior will be breathe-gas.”

”I brought your air mask,” said Terl, reaching inside and holding it up. ”Get in.”

Jonnie had Windsplitter calm now. He took hold of the horse's ear. ”Go to Chrissie,” he said.

Windsplitter cast a glance at the plane and then, glad enough, started off toward the compound, pulling the pack horses with him.

Yes, Terl told himself. The animal did have a language with other animals.

Jonnie put on the air mask and pulled himself up into the plane.

Chapter 4.

Badly as it had started, Jonnie could not believe the sensation of flight.

He was lost in the huge copilot seat and the belt that was supposed to keep him in would not contract enough to do so. But he braced himself with a grip on a handhold and watched the Earth race away from him.

He felt awe. Was this how it was to be an eagle? Is that how the world looked from the sky?

The panorama of the mountains to the west began to open in relief. And in a few moments he realized they were now higher than Highpeak, seen whitely in the cold clear air.

For fifteen minutes he was enthralled. They were at a height of about four miles. He had never realized there was so much world! Or that one could feel so thrilled.

Then Terl said, ”You can operate any of the mine machines, can't you, animal? Now this is no different except that it goes in three dimensions, not just two. Those controls in front of you duplicate these. Fly it!”

Terl's paws came off the controls. The plane immediately flopped over.

Jonnie was thrown against the door. The plane staggered and began a sickening dive.

Jonnie had not paid any attention to what Terl was doing with the controls before. They were a maze of levers and b.u.t.tons. He gripped the security belt and got himself into position to reach things. He started pus.h.i.+ng b.u.t.tons.

The plane went crazy. It soared, it swooped. The ground rushed up and sped away.

Terl's laughter cut above the roar. Jonnie began to realize the creature was a bit high on kerbango. Celebrating indeed.

With a steadying concentration, Jonnie looked at the controls. As on all Psychlo equipment, everything was marked. Some of the terms he didn't know. But he spotted an additional b.u.t.ton alongside every b.u.t.ton familiar in mining machinery. He grasped that the third set was for the third dimension.

The main thing, he instinctively knew, was not to get too close to that ground! He found a b.u.t.ton for alt.i.tude and punched it. Although the plane was staggering, the ground began to fall away.

This was too close to a win for Terl. ”I'll take over,” he said. ”I got high honors as a pilot at the school. Watch me land on that cloud!”

A ragged top puff of cloud was ahead of them. Terl punched some b.u.t.tons and stopped the plane on a flat place in the mist. ”Trouble is, rat brain, you didn't watch what I was doing. You were too busy gawking at the scenery. But I guess if rats had been meant to fly, they'd be birds!” He laughed at his own joke, reached behind his seat, and unstrapped a sealed container of kerbango. He took a chomp on it and put it back. ”First lesson. Don't ever leave anything adrift in a plane. It will will fly around and bat your brains out. Not,” he added with more laughter, ”that rats have brains!” fly around and bat your brains out. Not,” he added with more laughter, ”that rats have brains!”

He took off and made Jonnie repeat the operation of landing and stopping. After the third attempt, Jonnie made it without being half down in the cloud.

Jonnie took off and started to fly toward the mountains. Terl instantly- and Jonnie thought a bit fearfully- batted his hands away from the copilot controls and with his own turned the plane back.

”Not while I'm with you,” growled Terl, his mood changed.

”Why not over the mountains?” asked Jonnie.

Terl scowled. ”Whenever you fly over those mountains, just make very sure you got no breathe-gas loose anyplace. Understand?”

Jonnie understood. He suddenly understood a lot more than Terl thought he did.

”Why are you teaching me to fly?” asked Jonnie, more to distract Terl from his line of thinking than because he believed Terl would tell him. He was right.

”Any miner has to know how to fly,” said Terl. Jonnie knew that wasn't true. Ker could fly, he was sure, since Ker had said so. But Ker had also said other miners were only interested in going underground, not above it.

It was midafternoon when they landed the battle plane at the end of the row. Jonnie had been right. It was the twentieth plane. Terl inched it into precise position. He put on his breathe-mask, opened the door, and gave Jonnie a shove to get out.

”Don't get any ideas that you can start one of these things,” said Terl. ”They require a special key to unlock the computers.” He dangled a key in front of Jonnie. ”I keep the one to this plane right here beside the remote control box.” He took the box out and looked at it. ”Yep, all switches still open.” He showed Jonnie the box. ”And no dummy wires!” he laughed loudly. ”That's pretty good. No dummy wires!”

Jonnie went off to round up his horses. Windsplitter had gone to Chrissie and the three horses were standing outside the wooden barrier.

Pattie yelped to see him. He realized they had been worried by the horse showing up without him.

”Got an antelope and a deer!” Jonnie called into the cage. ”I was a little delayed looking for kinnikinnick. I found some, not very much, but it will flavor the meat.”