第5节

achievements in course studies, track and match events, were the result

of endless hours of hard work and unrelenting concentration; a total

commitment to the ,task in hand.

Brickman's true talent lay in maximising his potential; making the most

of his natural assets. Which included a tall, straight-limbed body, a

well-boned honest, dependable face, and a pleasant, engagingly shrewd

manner that was used, with good effect, to conceal a brain that

functioned as precisely and dispassionately as a silicon microchip.

Although the cadets assigned to Eagle Squadron traditionally regarded

themselves as innately superior to the rest of the Academy intake (the

Eagles had been overall champions in team events for fifteen out of the

past twenty years) it figured third in the organisationai listings. As

a consequence, Brickman and his fellow cadets had a four-day wait

before being cleared to Level Ten for the final test flight.

On the fifth day, the long-awaited moment finally arrived. Armed with

their movement orders, Brickman, Avery, and the eight other cadets that

made up the first section of A-Flight presented themselves at the Level

Superintendent's Office and rode the elevator to Level Five.

From there, they took the conveyor to the second Provo checkpoint on

Six, then entered another elevator for the ascent to the subsurface:

Level Ten.

It was the first time that Brickman had gone beyond Five.

Prior to joining the Academy, his whole life had been spent within the

Quad. Levels One to Four.

The ground floor of Level One was fifteen hundred feet below the

surface of the overground. Each level was one hundred and fifty feet

high, subdivided into ten floors, or galleries. Thus, counting up from

the bottom, One-8 was the eighth floor of Level One, and Ten-10 was the

ramp access floor; the heavily defended interface between the

Federation and the overground.

For reasons of security, only a limited number of subdivisions went all

the way up to Level Ten. Most of the Federation's bases were located

between Levels One and Four and linked with each other by interstate

shuttle.

Stepping out of the elevator on Ten-10 gave Brickman a strange

feeling.

At first glance, there was little to distinguish the ramp access floor

from those below it but Brickman could 'feel' the overground. Even

though it was still, at that point, some fifty feet above his head, it

registered as an almost palpable presence.

Reporting to Overground Flight Control, Brickman found he was listed

number one to go. One of the ubiquitous Flight Adjudicators stood by

as two medics taped the sensors to his body and checked the screened

printout from a data recorder. Brickman then stepped back into his

blue flight fatigues and fed the umbilical carrying the sensor wires

through the flap provided.

In the Chart Room, a second Flight Adjudicator handed him a map, a set

of course coordinates and the latest weather data. 'You have fifteen

minutes."

Gripped by rising excitement, Brickman choked back a smile that could

have cost him valuable marks, saluted smartly, and went to work on one

of the plotting desks. He was finished in under ten minutes but spent

the extra time checking his calculations a third and then a fourth

time.

Flying one of six alternative courses, the other cadets in his section,

and the rest of the squadron, would be following him off the ramps at

quarter hourly intervals over the next two days.

From the Chart Room, Brickman was directed towards the North-West ramp;

one of four lying at right-angles to each other in the form of a giant

Maltese Cross. Reaching the ramp access area, he found a Skyhawk

parked with its nose pointing towards the huge lead-lined doors. The

delta wing was covered in a metallic blue fabric into which were woven

thousands of solar cells. Brickman carried out the usual pre-flight

checks, then donned his dark-visored bone dome, strapped himself into

the cockpit, plugged his mike lead into the VHF set, and the umbilical

into the onboard transmitter. From now until he stepped out of the

cockpit, the data from the sensors taped to his body would be displayed

on a monitor screen in Flight Control and recorded on tape providing an