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made plans for dealing with ‘tornado damage’. But the winds seemed mild, and so far Alex had encountered only human hazards. He glanced at the territory around him, now safely at a distance. He spotted two other ultralights. One was black and headed his way. “You’re right, Connie,” he said. “I should have read the manual a bit closer.”
    “That’s a roger,” replied Tsu. “I see you now, Alex, headed toward me. Are you going to pull some stunt?”
    “As soon as you get in range, Tsu,” Alex replied, trying to sound threatening.
    Approaching the central column, Alex took Merlin into a slow roll. In the lower gravity the action was almost too easy.
    Midway through the roll Alex noticed a gathering of lights on the peninsula that divided Lake Geneva. At first glance it looked like a crowd carrying torches.
    While he was squinted at the dark landscape trying to make sense of what he saw, Tsu’s plane passed a few meters below. For a moment Tsu’s flashing dark eyes were looking up at him and he clearly had the impression of an obscene hand gesture.
    For a craft driven by traditional propellers Tsu’s ultralight was fast. Alex was headed in the same direction as Tsu, so he applied full thrust and his neck creaked as his head hit the back of his seat cage. He overtook Connie in seconds, then cut back the power to match her speed. “What was that for, Tsu? Still worried about the bill?” He rolled the Merlin to see Connie in her own aerial cage.
    Connie blinked. She pulled her aircraft away from his, gaining altitude as she banked into a turn. He waited for a response, but she didn’t say more. He watched as her ultralight faded into the darkness toward the Hub hangar opening. Alex scratched his head. A group of ultralights buzzed him, lights blazing in his eyes. “Watch it, boys,” he said. “It’s dark in here.
    Are you trying to blind me?”
    The central column’s lighting was now dim as moonlight, but it was early in the Goddard’s evening and the place was full of lights. “Sorry, sir,” said a voice on his intercom. “Security OP one and two. Normal patrol check.”
    Alex watched dubiously as the two planes trained their lights on him. “Did I just say something about blinding me?” he protested.
    “A black aircraft like that should be burning more than running lights, sir,” the voice replied. “Are your floods on?”
    “I’m not landing,” Alex said tersely.
    “Yes, you are. The laser concert is beginning in half an hour. That means no airstrip and blinding lasers.”
    “Can’t hold up the show,” replied Alex, trying to sound congenial in spite of the spotlight in his eyes. “If you ... enforcers would take that floodlight off me I might be able to find my way back to hangar.”
    Without a word the lights blinked out and the two ultralights sped away, burning ramjets like the Merlin . Alex looked around the great artificial sky one last time, and then aimed his plane toward the distant hub. Pushing the throttle forward he said, “Did you catch all that, Mary?” uncertain if she was still wearing her VR helmet.
    “The darker it got the less I could see,” she said. “So I ordered a drink. Sitting in a bar wearing this silly helmet isn’t really my style. See you in the hangar.”
    It wasn’t easy for Alex to picture Mary sitting crosslegged in a bar, sporting a bubble on her head, even though others at the bar were similarly plugged in to various aviators. He counted himself lucky she’d worn it this long. “Sorry you had to wear that headgear, my love,” he added, sounding sympathetic as possible. But the only answer was an earful of empty static.
    3 Mary caught a look at herself in the mirror and sighed. Her white hair was now down to her shoulders. It looked great to Alex, but she ignored him when he said so. “Maybe I’ll just wear a hat,” she said.
    “Dingers, Mary, your hair is perfect, even in the shower.” She shot him a dangerous look and retreated to the