"What's all that squawking?" Divvy Massking asked from the back and Bubbles adjusted her headset to reply.

"Threats, pleadings, questions and bad language," she replied casually.

"Air control are challenging your right to be in the sky, may I suggest?" Sharshua added softly, gazing out at the many lights that flew past along the dark coast. Other lights were above and to either side of them. "This sky is crowded," she observed comfortably.

"That's the thing I'm relying on," Bubbles said, veering the flitter closer to a huge machine with tiers of portholes glowing in the night and engines so powerful their roar could be distinctly heard. "It's Foam Fullness and travel season is in full swing. Loads of folk are in the air, just like us, searching for adventure in the wild west Winkels across the sea. Only we're going partly north too as we're not tourists but adventure girls," she wound up brightly.

"Less likely to shoot us down, for fear of hitting tourists," Sunshine concluded with evident satisfaction.

"What works, works."

"Are we then to fly this machine all night?" the princess reasonably intruded a worry.

"We're across the sea. Nice and flat and low so unlikely to bump into any pesky mountains and things. Once out of the popular flight lanes I can hand over to Roger the Autopilot at a safe altitude and fly till the sun catches us up with my eyes closed. You too. We're going to need sleep to endure the dreaded deathly hazards of the Winkelless zones between lands. So exciting!"

Bubbles Bannatyne had a way of painting pictures of danger and desperation that thrilled the other girls. She was a good story teller round camp fires during hikes and enjoyed creating a sensation whenever possible.

"Our eyes are already closed," the twins insisted mournfully and everyone began to try settling down for a long trembling flight through endless darkness.

"No one following," Bubbles said, consulting the screen which having previously danced with numerous dots was now a serene blankness. "Time for some shuteye. Roger that, Roger!" and she let go the controls. Princess Rapture gasped but a reassuring voice from the automated pilot confirmed their course and altitude, advising the sun would rise an hour before they reached the storm barrier that divided Frangea's western edge from the barren zone.

The princess slept little, for she was in the front of the flitter and had a grandstand view of any potential obstacle they might collide with. As she watched out the dark windows she felt sure she glimpsed lights on the portside where she sat, hovering at some indeterminate distance, matching speed and altitude with them, before veering off into the distance and disappearing. It was as if they were being watched, studied, and then released without interference. Was it her mother? She knew she watched over her with special care. Or the Prime Mover's minions, tracking her to make sure she reached their destination safely. She sighed at the thought of his considerate care for her and her family. Just like her best friend, the pretty, auburn-haired, feisty creature sat next to her. She glanced affectionately across at Bubbles asleep in the pilot seat without a care and debated whether it would wake her if she wiped the drool from the girl's slack mouth. She thought better of it and looked through the windscreen at what might lay ahead. Her eyes widened for flickers of lightning purpled the glowing sky in silent dances of electrical rage. The sun was rising behind them and the storm barrier loomed like a wall of fury ahead.

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"Mm?" Bubbles yawned suddenly. "Roger that, Roger," she added with sleepy unconsciousness and the machine veered downwards at a dive that made everyone wake with a scream. Grabbing the controls in a quick motion the Frangea girl straightened the flitter's nose dive to a gentle swoop. "And we're here, safe and sound," she noted sheepishly.

"We're all going to die," Sunshine suggested helpfully, seeing the roiling mass of electrically-charged cloud coming rapidly closer.

"It is but another state of being," Sharshua philosophised. "Perhaps no more than stepping through a door."

"Yeah, a door with knives and grinding blades and sharp needles and all sorts of painful things," Bubbles clarified for those who might be unfamiliar with the matter. "Nope. Death's not the gentleman for me. When you die, you stop having opportunities to live. This girl's vote is for life and more life. I locked the death door back aways and threw away the key. We're young, we're beautiful and we've got everything before us." Her final words came out with exultant pride.

"We've got a wall of sudden death before us at the moment," one of the twins pointed out, no one was sure which one but it did not matter. Princess Rapture, clutching her wraps tighter around her, could only agree with the sentiment.

"Oh ye of little faith," Bubbles admonished her critics. "This is the time of Foam Fullness. The barriers are at their weakest and all it takes is a bit of canny manoeuvring and we can jump the storms with a hey-ah on our lips. Haven't you ever played this scenario on the school sim board? I have, many a time. Got through unscathed five times out of ten."

"Then our lives are worth fifty per cent," Sunshine grimly stated, gripping her seat.

"Twin, you must be the one to survive," Divvy could be heard saying at the back, "and keep the Massking legacy going. I give you my half of the worlds we plan to conquer."

"No, no," Fizzy responded sobbingly, hugging her sister. "It must be you who lives on. You're the prettiest."

"You two idiots look exactly the same," Bubbles growled, "and none of us is going to die. We're all on the same side of the coin flip no matter what. And," she added, realising what that implied, "we're all going to survive and live glorious beautiful lives following the precepts of Miss Plazenby."

"Ah, first day pep talk," Princess Rapture nodded, remembering that squirmy moment like it was only yesterday.

"Here goes nothing," Bubbles responded and tilted the flitter down and sharply to starboard where there was a shadowy mass of heavy cloud which looked anything but safe and inviting.