Kamele shook her head extravagantly. "Overdrive? I must tell Ella about this!"
A woman, resplendent in a gold and red Arcade uniform, paused at Kamele's side and smiled up at the two silver-limned dancers. "They're the best we've had so far this trip," she said, sounding for all the words like a fond mother. "Even the really good dancers hardly get past level thirty." She nodded impartially at Kamele and Cho and passed on into the crowd.
Above them, the music started again, the pads lit and the dancers began to move, step-step-twist, the scores flickering on the machine's face insisting that they were evenly matched in skill.
They were so very closely matched... Kamele looked to her companion. "How old is Win Ton?"
The Liaden moved her shoulders. "A matter of some sixteen Standards, add or remove a handful of days."
"But he is – a pilot," Kamele insisted, as the dancers pirouetted above.
"Indeed, he is a very able pilot." Cho smiled. "Mind you, he has mastered Jump, and so has earned the jacket, but he has more yet to learn."
"I... see."
Her attention drifted upward again, to the pair now marching in time, knees high, elbows pumping. Kamele felt a sudden doubt, and looked 'round to her companion.
"He's not letting her match his score, is he?"
Cho laughed then.
"Kamele Waitley, as enchanting as your daughter may be, I think young Win Ton has not the 'let her win' wit in his head." She paused, apparently weighing the efforts the pair on the high platform, then looked back, smiling.
"No," she said, almost too softly to be heard under the whistles, claps and encouragement shouted by the watchers on the arcade floor. "Assuredly, he is not letting her keep up."
* * * *
"You almost missed that last, Theo Waitley!"
She laughed and stuck her tongue out – "Was I the one who almost fell on his face because of a simple waltz step?"
"A trick move! Who on Liad learns waltzes from Terra? I say again, a trick move."
She moved her hand, mimicking the motion he seemed to use for the more ironic flavors of "no."
"All right, and what was that thing that made you laugh, if you please?"
Win Ton laughed again, ruefully this time. "It is a preliminary move, taught in classes of marriage lore – and more than that, I will not say, though you pull my hair out by the roots!"
She snorted, her hand still carrying the beat of the last round. "Oh, and you've been married?"
He sent a glance to the far ceiling, his fingers snapping lightly.
"Nay, I was not, though I might have been, had the captain not accepted me as her apprentice. So, you see, I am doomed, whichever foot I stand upon."
Theo laughed again. He used that as an excuse to step up to the board, fingers hovering above the selection for the next level.
"Are you ready, Sweet Mystery?"
"I am if you are," she answered.
"Bold heart." He smacked the start plate with his toe.
"Go!"
* * * *
The music poured through her, mixing with the norbear hum, filling up her senses. She was aware of the music, the patterns, and of Win Ton, matching her step-for-step on the pad next to hers.
Together, they tore through the first section of the level, and then hit a complex series of moves seemingly a repeat of a much earlier level, as if the game-programmer was toying with them. Surely they weren't going to regress?
There! The tempo picked up again, and now the music moved into something her dancing instructor called contrapuntal dysrhythmia, with the point being that the dance moves were not in sync with the music.
Theo laughed and dared a glance at Win Ton, who saw her look and made a silly face. She laughed again, caught the next footwork and saw that, too, was being silly.
And then she...
Almost fell over.
The music – just stopped. The platform shook with a weird rumbling. Lights flashed. Buzzers went off. The Tri-D screen showed a senseless pattern, twirling wildly. Glittery streamers fell from somewhere, tangling in her hair, cluttering the dance pad, and drifting in the air from the blowers.
She spun, careful of her footing among the fallen streamers, and stared at Win Ton, who was stubbornly kicking at the start plate.
"What happened?"
He flung his hands out, eloquent of frustration. "We have beaten the machine, you and I! There are no more levels to dance."
Theo fuffed hair out of her face.
"It can't be over. I still have dance left!"
Win Ton laughed again, and suddenly pointed over the edge of the platform.
"I fear we may have danced past lessons. There stand my captain and your mother, and I very much fear it is going to go badly with us."
She fuffed her hair out of her face again, saw her mother waving at her to come down.
"Kick it again," she said to Win Ton. "Maybe it'll start if we both kick it!"
* * * *
"We scarcely had a workout at all!" Win Ton said to Cho sig'Radia across the table the four of them had claimed at Breakfast All Year.
Kamele sipped her coffee, trying to hide her amusement. That the boy had had a workout was all too obvious. Disregarding the fact that he and Theo were both still sweat-dampened and in high color, they had between them consumed a so-called "nuncheon plate" advertised to feed four, and were making short work of the follow-on sweets tray. Theo had eaten with a delicate voracity that had frankly amazed, letting the boy do the talking, except for a few early comments regarding norbears.
"Yet you advanced to the overdrive level," Cho pointed out. "It seemed from the floor, young Win Ton, that you and your partner ended the game in the top first percentile of players – "
"It does not advance to the challenge level!" Win Ton interrupted, and Theo paused with her third – or possibly fourth – petit pastry halfway to her mouth to blink at him.
"I thought we were at the challenge level!" she exclaimed.
"No, sweet dancer – a proper machine, such as the one I am accustomed to from – " a quick glance at Cho " – from school, has several levels yet above where we found ourselves, which allow for free form, and other variations."
He sounded, Kamele thought, genuinely aggrieved, and despite herself she chuckled.
Three pair of eyes came to rest on her face, which was – disconcerting, but she had brought it on herself.
"I'm sorry," she said to Win Ton, who had probably thought she was laughing at him. "I'm reminded of – of a dear friend of mine who makes similar complaints about the equipment we have at home." She sipped her coffee, marking how the boy's gaze never faltered. "His answer is usually to... correct... the poor performance into something he finds more reasonable."
Win Ton's face grew thoughtful.
"I will ask my apprentice," Cho sig'Radia said, with emphasis, "to recall that he is a guest and a passenger upon this vessel."
He turned to her. "But, Captain – "
She raised a hand. "Spare the poor device, my child; it is a game only, and never meant to withstand a full testing."
"But – "
"It wasn't a test," Theo interrupted. "We were just trying to work off the – the buzz from the norbears!" She looked at Cho seriously. "And it was just what we needed. Making lace wouldn't have done at all!"
There was a small silence during which, Kamele strongly suspected, Cho sig'Radia struggled courageously with her emotions.
"Ah," she said at last, inclining her head. "You must tell me more about this lace making, if you would, young Theo. I have, as you may understand, some interest in strategies for bleeding excess energy."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vashtara