Free Winged: A Novella (Of Two Girls) by Joyce Chng Page A

from the leo-fins and blimp-fins around
him. Poor students. Thick in the deep of things. Now it is up to
you now, to survive as true pilots would!
     
    He swerved his leo-fin to the right and it
creaked alarmingly. Then, out of nowhere, he spied a blimp-fin,
nondescript in color, coming up to the shark ship carrying Her
Majesty. He recognized it from his own Flight Academy.
     
     
    ~*~
     
    In the resulting chaos that followed the
cannon shot, Katherine could remember running to the blimp-fin and
powering it up. Its hydraulics thrummed beneath her booted feet as
it lifted vertically. All she knew she was piloting it towards the
larger shark-shaped vessel.
     
    When she neared the ship, she could see
turmoil in the ship as people tried to protect themselves and a
matronly-looking woman dressed in state regalia, gleaming with
jewelry and medals. The door to the vessel was flung wide open –
a bad mistake , she thought – and piloted the blimp-fin
alongside the faltering vessel. The air was rushing in, stirring
everything – dresses, gowns, and coats – into frantic flapping.
     
    “Climb onboard if you want to live,” she
shouted or thought she shouted. Wind was whipping into the
blimp-fin, ripping her words away. The woman in the finery looked
at her carefully; she appeared unperturbed and unafraid by the
turmoil around her. Her bearing was haughty and she looked as if
she could never smile.
     
    “Of course, I want to live, child,” she said
with a tone of slight irritation and made her way into the
blimp-fin, surprisingly nimble-footed for her apparent physical
age. Her followers flooded in after her, looking faint and drained
of blood. They sounded like a gaggle of confused geese.
     
    The blimp-fin protested with the extra
weight and flew stoically before landing on an empty area vacated
by panicking onlookers who fled the moment they heard the cannon
and saw that the ships were in trouble.
     
    Katherine panted for air and leaned against
the controls. The adrenaline rush left her system then, leaving her
weak. Behind her was a babble of confused and worried adult voices.
She turned back and saw the older woman gazing at her intently.
     
    “What is your name, child?” The woman’s
voice was deep, patrician. Careful modulated and dry but now
hinting of humor.
     
    “Katherine. Katherine Riley from the Flight
Academy, madam.”
     
    “You showed immense courage, Katherine
Riley.” This time, the woman smiled a brief warm smile, nodded and
stepped out of the blimp-fin, surrounded by her courtly retinue. It
was then Katherine realized that the woman was Her Majesty, the
Queen.
     
    She sank to her knees, trembling and sobbing
into her hands. Her head spun. Her ankle was throbbing once more.
Was still throbbing when Lee had to lift her bodily up from the
floor and bring her back to the hotel room.
     
     
    ~*~
     
     
    “You saved Her Majesty, fancy that!” Alethia
commented cheerfully, unscathed by the ordeal. All the ships, big
and small, had managed to regain their balance and go back into
formation with some measure of fortitude. The Great Gathering was
not a failure, Her Majesty had declared proudly in a safe place. It
must go on. The perpetrators had already been caught and now
awaiting her mercy.
     
    Outside their hotel room, fire works
blossomed in the sky like giant flowers. The boom-boom-boom shook
the window-frame of the hotel room. There were the sounds of
singing and music; there was rejoicing in the streets.

    Katherine sank deeper into her bed, buried
under the blankets. She was still amazed at her own temerity. Her
ankle had ceased its throbbing after Lee had administered a cooling
ointment on it.
     
    “You did something good, Katherine!” Alethia
was saying. “But you wallowing in your bed is not good.”
     
    The hotel door opened to admit Pilotmaster
Lee in formal wear.
     
    “Get dressed in your best uniform, Pilot,”
he said briskly. “The Queen desires an audience with