Doctor Who_ The Also People - Ben Aaronovitch [36]
'Yep,' said the gun.
Chris climbed over the railing and clipped a handgrip to the line.
'Are you sure this is wise?' asked Bernice.
'Bundled monofilament,' said Chris. He took a firm hold of the grip and motioned to Dep who climbed over the railing and onto his back. Roz noticed uneasily how reluctant Dep's hair was to let go of the railing.
'See you at the villa,' said Chris and pushed off.
Dep gave a little shriek and then they were nothing but shadows over the landscape.
'Pathetic,' said Roz.
'Isn't it amazing what boys will do to impress girls,' said Bernice. 'Shit, I hope they don't go bang at the bottom.'
'I think the bang is inevitable,' said Roz. 'It's the splat that's worrying me.'
Bernice sighed. 'I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. You don't think he's going to get all mature on us now?'
The two women looked at each other.
'Nah.'
His hands were humming with the friction from the grip on the line. He felt the brush of Dep's breath in his ear, the warmth of her breasts against his back and the heat of her thighs locked around his waist. For a moment only the wind of their passage betrayed their movement. All around them was the vast artificial sky, broken into segments of night and day. To his right Chris could see a vast city, its lights, like a nebula, glittering through the thick layers of atmosphere.
Beyond and above, still lit by the sun, was a vast hexagonal hole through which he could see real stars. The Spaceport, he realized, the sphere's gateway to the rest of the universe. To his left the Endless Sea was a sweep of darkness rising beyond the impossible line where the ocean became the sky. There were lights upon the water, islands as big as continents, continents as big as planets and the running lights of a ship that had to be hundreds of kilometres long.
They swept over a ridge, the tops of the evergreens a bare two metres beneath their feet. The evening air was sweet with the scent of pine needles. Dep gasped as a cloud of moths exploded from the tree tops, thousands of white wings beating the air with a sound like tearing silk.
Chris could see the villa ahead lit up by the external lamps on the roof and balcony. They were linked to that balcony by the line, the bundled monofilament visible only by the dull sheen of reflected Whynot light, the same light that reflected from the villa's windows and the rippling surface of the pool on the roof.
Caught up in the rushing wind, in the warmth of Dep's body, the immensity of the sphere itself, Chris almost forgot to break in time. Some part of him wanted to keep going as if the solid wall of the villa was merely an illusion, that if he were to merely crash through it he and Dep would travel on for eternity, suspended between heaven and earth.
Fortunately the practical side of Chris, the side that had seen a few flitter crashes in its time, took over and squeezed hard on the grip, slowing them down.
They landed stumbling on the balcony, Dep's weight on Chris's back driving him through the windowfield into the lounge. He sensed rather than saw a brief flurry of movement ahead as the coffee table slid sideways out of their path. A soft impact caught him in the shins and he pitched face forward on to the sofa. He twisted, reaching for Dep as she rolled off his back. She slithered back on top of him, her hair lashing out to catch hold of his arm, and he felt her teeth biting gently at the side of his neck. The dress retreated down her back. Chris touched her bare shoulders. Overbalanced, the sofa toppled backwards, something heavy hit the floor and Chris was surprised to realize it was them.
Chris had not led a sheltered life. He'd read his fair share of texts, seen the holovids, done his homework in biology. There