Béla awoke to the sun in her eyes. It was blinding bright. She was out on her balcony and into the air before she was fully awake, suddenly realizing it was still freezing outside. Nevertheless, she flew several summersaults in the brightly-lit sky before she returned to the warmth of the manor.

‘Now they can get that damned carrier out of my back yard!’ she thought, her body still excited from her short, freezing flight.

The small transport had arrived powered by the last of the infrared rays emitted by the southern sun and what was left in the carrier’s storage battery during the first week of darkness. The infrared rays weren’t powerful enough here at the equator to enable it to return to Southern. It had barely enough power to land without crashing. The pilot, a member of the old race, had spent the winter with the bard Geoffrey, teaching him about aerodynamics. Now, he could return back to the familiarity of his ship and crewmates.

‘And get some decent food and a low-gravity bed…’ Béla heard someone cheerfully rant in her head.

She looked down from her balcony and waved. The pilot was already leaving.

‘Tell my father I miss him,’ she sent lovingly into his thoughts. ‘He should come and visit. Tell him how pleasant it is…’

She knew the pilot hadn’t been comfortable in the centrifical gravity here at the equator. Having spent her life on Earth, she was used to the constant pull. But the crewmembers who preferred to stay aboard the great ship were used to gravity at a fraction of this. Her father’s people were a space faring race, after all.

Béla knew that as soon as the sun began to glow, the crewmembers of the great ship would resume the unloading that had been interrupted by the five-month-long night. Soon, her Praetor would be here for the university.

However many Praetors were in use at one time, they were all connected somewhere deep inside the central core of the great ship, where their collective data was stored. What one Praetor knew, they all knew. The entire history of civilization; the entire stored scientific information in the galaxy would be available for study in the new university.

Béla felt a wave of radiant joy flow through the room.

‘Elaine’s awake!’ Béla realized happily.

She turned and rushed back to the glass doors of her balcony, opening them to the freezing air and the noisy drone of the passenger carrier taking off.

Stepping out, she found she was in time to watch Elaine’s swan dive off her third floor balcony. Forming her wings just before she hit the ground, Elaine made a sharp recovery and skimmed along only inches above the frozen surface.

She felt Elaine’s sudden rage as she realized her mistake.