After falling for a second or so, the skyship steadied, then rose again, as if on a spring.

The crew did not seem to take much notice.

‘Jupiter. Go forward to the officer’s mess,’ said Red-Back. She motioned for a crewman to take him forward. ‘And take that sejrat’sha with you.’

‘Tamm?’ Jupiter called. But he needn’t have bothered. The naval officer shadowed Jupiter wherever he went.

Maggie and Jupiter were led down a set of stairs. The steps moved under their feet as if alive when the skyship surged about in the storm. They then worked their way forward and into a large cabin at the nose of the skyship. A wide view through windows stretched across both sides and through the forward bow. Between the regular wooden posts of the skyship’s ribs the glass panels were made of smaller panes, larger than old fashioned lead-light windows, but smaller than most windows he had seen. So the panes sectioned and quartered the storm into a mosaic. The rain wracked scene outside strobed, lit by momentary lightning, and then fell dark. The skyship rattled, lurched, and rocked, as it flew on before the tempest. Even pushed at the same speed as the storm, gusts and eddies made the skyship move like a leaf in the wind — just slower.

‘I’m not sure I much like seeing just thin glass between me and that storm,’ said Maggie.

‘You’d rather hide your head and pretend it’s not there?’

‘Perhaps. I don’t know. I’m just not really one for doing exciting things.’

‘I noticed.’ Jupiter smiled as he remembered his friend’s reaction to the Jupiter’s speeding first flight. ‘I, however, do have a need for speed.’

‘I noticed.’

The second thing that Jupiter noticed was the spread of food on the officer’s dining table. Fruit, and breads, and corn… and… lots of things he could not quite work out. A strange mixture of human and manisaur dishes.

‘That’s a lot of food. I thought manisaurs didn’t need to eat often.’

‘Yes. But when they do they like to eat well. Wouldn’t you?’

‘Sure.’ Jupiter picked up a banana and waved it at Maggie. ‘B is for…’

‘Boy.’ Maggie rolled her eyes. ‘Very funny.’

‘You?’ Tamm said interrupting the teasing. His gaze fell on Jupiter. ‘I remember…’ but his outburst died in uncertainty.

Jupiter regarded Tamm. The sejrat’sha, the turned-blade naval officer, and perhaps an enemy still. ‘Do you know what has happened?’ Jupiter stepped towards the manisaur.

‘Yes… I died… as I am reborn. Naraqhan.’ Tamm nodded in almost a bow. ‘I thank you, you have my life.’ His gaze fell on the food.

‘Go on. Help yourself.’

Jupiter gestured encouragement for him to eat. The manisaur took up a plate and spooned up something like pulled pork, but white — with a creamy sauce. Jupiter was not sure he wanted to know what it was but Tamm ate it with gusto.

‘How do you feel? I mean. What is it like… to be Naraqhan?’

Tamm had finished the bowl, and now ate a purple fruit. He crunched on the seeds with evident pleasure. ‘It is not the first time. When you enter the military you are Naraqhan. But it is not so violent, and is instead a long process of training.’

‘Bootcamp. Sergeants, and hazing… and…’ Jupiter paused when he saw Maggie’s stare. ‘What? I watch movies.’

‘My uncle talked of his training camp, before he went off to the war. Excited, thrilled even, to do something to take the fight to the Germans. But…’

‘What happened?’

‘North Africa. And General Rommel.’ Maggie paused. ‘We just heard the propaganda — New Zealand forces did well, were feared by the Germans. But they never said what it did to the soldiers. My uncle is in the Second New Zealand Division. My aunt said they did things…’

‘Wait… I heard about this. The Long Range Desert Group… Everyone knows about the SAS, but not about who did the scouting for them. A lot of that group were Kiwi farmers.’ Jupiter laughed.

Maggie frowned at that. ‘It’s not a laughing matter. They’re still fighting. Well they were… when I came here. You tell me it’s all over. But to me it’s not.’ Maggie took a deep breath. ‘I don’t know details. But when he rotated home he said… it was the hardest thing he had ever done. But the most important.’

Jupiter noticed Tamm watching them. ‘What?’

‘You are nuvra?’ Tamm said it in a manner as much a statement as a question. But of course his words sounded like a burbling brook followed by the crack of a tree branch snapping.

Jupiter thought he understood the sounds as much as the meaning, via the connexion, this strange tulanvarqa sense. ‘Yeah. I guess. But I like to think that this is a temporary posting.’

‘Yes. We have to get home! I have things I want to do. A plan.’ Maggie stared into Tamm’s face. ‘Do you know how?’

‘How to what?’ Tamm’s gaze strayed back to Jupiter.He felt uncomfortable under the stern yet entranced eyes.

‘For us to return home… to Earth.’ Maggie’s voice faltered.

‘I did not know it was possible. But you should not.’

‘And why is that?’ Jupiter said.

‘You talk of war, and dangerous things.’ Tamm’s aura flashed to emphasize his point. ‘It is safer here in the Empire.’

‘Oh, we’re not at war in my time. At least not very much.’ Jupiter smiled at Maggie. ‘Well… Not anymore.’

‘But you said…’ Tamm’s gaze flicked between the two teenagers.

‘Yes. It’s true.’ Maggie nodded. She held her hand up to forestall Jupiter’s interrupting again. ‘In my time there is a big war. The whole world is fighting.’

‘Your time? What does that mean?’

‘It means. Maggs is old enough to be my great grandmother.’

‘I am not.’ Maggie gave Jupiter a shove.

‘As old as my Grandmother? Maybe.’ Jupiter could see that this just confused Tamm even more. ‘We’re the same age, but from different times. She was born eighty five years before me. Which does mean she could be my great grandmother…’ He hastened to add — ‘But she’s not my grandmother… she’s…’

Tamm’s aura flashed confusion.

‘It doesn’t matter.’ Jupiter patted the manisaur on the shoulder. ‘We’re nuvra. From Earth. And we’re returning. To our own times. I hope.’

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‘Somehow.’

And in that last word Maggie showed how worried she felt. They were not only lost in space, they had become unstuck in time. If they ever worked out how that happened Jupiter reckoned someone would win the Nobel Prize for Physics.

‘I will come with you.’ Tamm said.

‘Tamm. You can’t.’

‘That would cause a sensation. Imagine an alien manisaur walking through Otautahi.’

Maggie laughed. ‘That would top even news of the war.’

‘Yeah. But he’d come to the twenty-first century… if he had returned to the 1940s we would have known about it.’

‘Seems so strange when you say it that way. Like my future is the past.’

Jupiter said nothing to that. ‘Unless he ended up in Roswell. Area 51.’ Jupiter laughed. But the skyship lurched then and they slid a little until they found something to hang onto.

After that things got chaotic.

Jupiter and Maggie managed to get some sleep. They were so tired that the constant gyrations of the skyship, and the booms and crashes of thunder, were no longer enough to keep them awake.

For Jupiter even the worry he felt about how far they were from home diminished when he slept. Though his dreams were of SailGP sailboats racing over a storm-wracked harbour, then chased by lava from a fiery volcano through a cave. Somehow he reached the top of a mountain where a glowing blue-white globe called to him.

Even this became a memory he had lost by morning when he awoke. By then, somehow, the skyship had sailed out of the storm. He shivered in the cold. While the thin air made his breath fog. Someone, probably Tamm, had laid a thick blanket upon him. Something warm stirred under the covers.

Maggie’s head emerged, and he smiled. But as she moved he leaned away and studied the blanket. The centimeter thick material flexed under his fingers as he studied its many-colored threads. Almost every color he could imagine and a few more besides. The fibers were thin, and soft, but short, intermixed with a longer wiry material.

He realized then it had been felted from fur-feathers to create a light and soft yet resilient blanket. And its air-filled threads made it warm. With the cold on his face Jupiter had a momentary flashback to winter in his uncle’s caravan. But instead of the bitter burning smell of the fan heater, he smelt the rich aroma of something like coffee, or cocoa.

‘Or strawberry.’ Jupiter rose.

Qhawana sat upon a pile of cushions at a low table. Next to him perched the ‘old bird’ Tharumiyo. The ancient manisaur sipped from a cup that steamed in the cold air.

‘Where are we?’

‘High above the storm, and to the south,’ said Qhawana.

Tharumiyo’s aura flashed as he intoned — ‘Witness again to the wrath of the Gods.’ Jupiter got the sense that Tharumiyo did not quite believe in the popping burbling words as he said them. That all he said was for effect.

‘Qhawanaqha Vahnaru, shagana zhavisho.’ Jupiter translated. The Thaluk words just came into his mind, but by saying it he somehow pulled the sting from them in turning attention back to himself. ‘Qhawanaqha — Qhawana.’

Qhawana harrumphed.’Jupiter. You had best leave Tharumiyo to the witticisms.’ Jupiter guessed the old manisaur’s jab at his name had hit the mark.

‘The young nuvra captain has a way with words that continues to amaze.’ Tharumiyo regarded Jupiter with a calm aura that did not seem the least amazed. A hard bird to read.

Jupiter realized then that somehow he had known that Qhawana meant witness. But was that his name? Or the description of his role as Berg’s jailor?

‘So we are out of the storm?’ Jupiter joined them at the table.

Tharumiyo’s aura flashed then.

But Qhawana raised a warning hand. ‘My old friend would like to say that depends upon perspective. We are indeed out of the rush and crash of the storm. But thrown far off course.’

‘Indeed. Thwarted in the breach.’ Tharumiyo gave a good imitation then of Qhawana’s harrumph, and Jupiter smiled. ‘But Qhawana is wrong in one regard. The rebellion has just started… and the weather analogies beg me to say that this calm may be like that found at the centre of the turbulent events surrounding us.’

‘Sometimes I prefer your aphorisms,’ Qhawana said then sighed. He directed his gaze at Jupiter. ‘I don’t blame you in wanting to flee. I feel much the same. I lived happy on my island of ignorance. But sometimes it is better to have… Qharaqa jharaqashi…’

‘A view from on high?’ said Tharumiyo. ‘Indeed.’

‘So. Can you tell me something then?’ Jupiter poured another cup of the steaming drink from a pot and smelled it. A strawberry chocolate coffee smell filled his nose and he smiled.

‘What do the rebels want? And why now?’ Jupiter sipped the hot liquid and a bitter spice flooded his mouth, and tickled his nose. It burned both hot and cooling when he breathed out — and somehow the strawberry aroma lingered.

‘Okay. That is the strangest stuff…’ Jupiter took another sip. ‘It’s not bad for me anything?’

Qhawana shook his head. ‘All things are bad unless in moderation. Drink sparingly. But it is well to take zhavaqiko when we are so high. It will ease the sickness that comes with altitude.’

‘Why? How high are we?’

‘See out the window.’

Jupiter slipped off the cushioning and peered through the narrow panes of the window. The steam from the cup fogged the cold glass. He rubbed it clear, held his breath, and looked again. The ground lay hidden in a huge expanse of swirling white cloud far below.

‘That’s a long way down.’ The sky arced overhead in the deepest darkest blue hue — a color he had only ever seen on dark nights after the sun had set. He noticed the horizon then, and could almost imagine curve of it. The limb of the planet revealed by their height.

‘It is indeed a long way down,’ Tharumiyo studied him.

‘As if we’re on the edge of space.’ Jupiter shaded his eyes as a ray of golden sunlight shot from the port side of the skyship through the windows from low on the horizon. The skyship had turned. He guessed they were heading towards the south as the eastern sun now stayed steady on their port quarter.

‘As you see, it is full day.’ Tharumiyo bobbled his head. ‘But the younger manisaurs say they can see the stars. Indeed the captain will shoot Jupiter to determine where we have been blown.’

‘I’m not sure I understand.’ Jupiter had the impression that Tharumiyo enjoyed toying with him. His head bobbling seemed now like an expression of humor.

‘Neither do I. But from the position of Upariqami… that is Jupiter… together with the Sun he can work out where we are on Eoth. You will have to ask one of the crew.’ Tharumiyo turned to Qhawana and Jupiter could not see the manisaur’s aura. He got the sense the two old people teased him. He shrugged.

‘Oh you mean the planet.’ Jupiter thought the old bird liked being a pain in the arse. Everything he said seemed to have double meanings.

‘So. The rebels,’ Jupiter said as he took a sip of the drink. ‘I’d like to know what we got involved in.’

‘I don’t.’ Maggie had woken up. She had wrapped herself in the felted blanket. Stray fur-feathers formed a fuzz around her head as they caught the golden light from the morning sun. ‘How do we get south to Qhayanpa? And if the rebels can’t take us, who can?’

‘Direct and to the point,’ Tharumiyo bobbled his head again. ‘As it happens we are heading to the south. Though as Qhayanpa is the heart of the Empire we will not be going where you are.’

‘So how do we get off?’

‘You have your own craft I believe.’

‘But we don’t know how to go.’

’Shooting Upariqami tells you where you are. But that is a necessary first step to learning the direction to travel in. For that you need a compass of sorts. You will find that at Qunaphlam.’

‘That’s right. You mentioned that, Qhawana. The university.’

‘Yes. The university of Qunaphlam,’ Qhawana replied. ‘In Naruham. But the rebellion would not go there.’

‘So all of this is a waste?’ Maggie said.

‘You will take us there.’ Jupiter was determined. ‘You must.’

Tharumiyo’s voice fell into a quiet murmuration as he replied. ‘How so?’

‘You want the gems, right? The zharaqsa.’ Jupiter grinned then.

Tharumiyo’s aura stayed subdued, as if he tried to hide his thoughts. ‘What of the catalyst gems?’ The old manisaur said with resignation.

‘We will give them to you.’ Jupiter said with a smile. ‘Or some at least.’

‘Some?’ The manisaur became angry now. ‘Why not all? You have no need of them. They are useless to you.’

‘We nuvra… are tricky creatures.’ Jupiter laughed — a mirthless sound. ‘You see, we use this stuff we call money. Perhaps you do too. We don’t have any but we do have zharaqsa. In exchange for the catalyst we will be taken to Naruham, and then whatever help we need to get home… however that works.’

Tharumiyo sighed. ‘And where is the zharaqsa?’

Jupiter smiled. ‘The catalyst is hidden somewhere safe. You wont find it.’

‘I doubt that.’ Tharumiyo said with arrogant confidence.

‘Try me.’ Jupiter's thin smile widened then.

Tharumiyo's aura flashed with resignation. ‘However, I am nothing to the rebellion,' he continued. 'I can not help you persuade them. You may as well just hand over the zharaqsa gems.’ Tharumiyo rubbed at the fur feathers on his shoulder as if some old ache bothered him.

‘If you can not.’ Jupiter glanced at Maggie. ‘Then perhaps Red-Back can. It impressed her enough when she saw them first.’

For the first time saw real hope in Maggie’s eyes. For that alone he intended to get them to where they could go home. Whatever, and wherever that might be.

‘So. What do you think?’ Jupiter stood facing away from the window. The warmth of the sun shone on his back. ‘Can you help us now?’

Qhawana laughed. ‘Qhunara jharaqashi thunavasha, qha’naru vashiso sha'vhaqara vu'qan — The crazy ones are those with the clearest vision. For they see what most can not.’

‘Crazy? Sure… we can seem a little crazy sometimes.’ Jupiter locked eyes with Maggie. ‘Even a touch insane. But let’s have more sunshine…’ He turned then held his hands to the golden light. ‘And less rain.’

Maggie laughed. ‘Seems like two can play that game Tharumiyo.’

Qhawana smiled for the first time Jupiter could recall the old man happy. Tharumiyo however remained unreadable.

Just then Tamm entered the room. ‘The captain calls you to the bridge. The navy has found us.’