Free Sanctuary Falling by Pamela Foland Page A

little disturbance as possible. Finally she reached Becky.
    “What’s the matter?” Annette asked, “Did you hit your head on the beam as you fell?”
    “No,” Becky gulped, “I just don’t like heights.”
      “Oh! Well!   Then look at me not at the ground,” Annette said. Becky gulped again and nodded.   “Feel for the rope with your feet and slide along.”
    Slowly they made progress across the bridge. The cargo net that greeted them was even less encouraging. Annette couldn’t think of any way Becky could climb down that without freezing. Then she glanced at the arrow. It pointed down, but it didn’t say they had to use the net.
    “Becky do you trust me?” Annette asked.
    “Sure, though why you’re ruining your own chances to help me goes beyond me,” Becky answered.
    “Then will you do something that will help us get back some of the time we lost?” Annette asked.
    “Sure, but what,” Becky asked, looking down and cringing.
    Annette thought of telling Becky the plan but decided against it. Becky might freeze costing all the time that the unorthodox plan might gain them. Instead Annette shoved Becky off the edge, and jumped. Becky began screaming immediately. Annette just waited for the suspension field to catch them, and it did, cutting off Becky’s scream. They landed on the floor a little hard, but not hard enough to hurt.
    Becky turned on Annette, “You shoved me! We could have been hurt! That was crazy!”
    “No, it wasn’t, I knew there had to be a field to catch us just in case we fell accidentally. I did ask you if you trusted me now let’s go.” Annette sprinted towards the tunnel crawl. Becky made a frightened noise and sprinted along beside her. They quickened pace and suddenly Becky tumbled forward clutching at her ankle.
    Briefly Annette thought of abandoning the other girl, they weren’t even halfway through the course and there couldn’t be too much spare time left.   Becky’s squeals of pain were too much, Annette stopped, sympathetically her own ankle throbbed. She turned back and squatted beside Becky.
    “How bad is it?” Annette asked.
    “Bad,” Becky groaned through gritted teeth, “Finish without me! I mean it!” Becky’s voice took on an unexpected tone of command.
    Annette knelt warring with herself. She had helped Becky this far; it wasn’t like she would be failing at the first pit. On the other hand, Annette knew what desperate disappointment could do. If she were in Becky’s place, she’d be saying the same thing.   On the third hand, this was just a test and Becky was hurt, if that wasn’t grounds for a retest what was? Another thought occurred to Annette, shouldn’t Angela be watching this?
    Annette stood and hollered at the ceiling, “Hey! Angela! She’s really hurt down here! Can we call a time out and get her some help?!”
    Angela’s voice boomed from speakers all over the course, “It doesn’t matter, time’s up anyway, I’ll > port her to the clinic.”
    Becky abruptly disappeared. Then Annette found herself back in the dressing room. Distressed, and depressed, Annette ran her actions over in her head, while she changed. If only she hadn’t wasted so much time helping Becky, she knew she might have managed to finish the course. Briefly Annette hoped that Angela might accept helping Becky as a mitigating factor, but the hope didn’t last. Even if Angela could be convinced, Annette doubted Sinclair could.   This wasn’t looking good. Annette felt she would have to do ten times as well on the second test to make up for this finish. Oh well, it wasn’t like she could do it again. Even if she could, she would probably do the same thing over again. Annette folded the jumpsuit and stepped into the transport pod.
    The next thing she knew she was back in the conference room with Anthony, Rupert, Niri, Sinclair, and Angela. Annette noticed that two more chairs had been added to the row, and that one of the empty chairs was next to Niri.