Winged: A Novella (Of Two Girls) by Joyce Chng Read Free Book Online Page B

broken, isn’t it?” Her
pale-haired friend came over, feeling her way to the table where
the cage was.
     
    “I certainly hope not,” Katherine watched
Tito hop around in a lively circle. She swore that she had seen the
little bird stretch its wings before.
     
    “Stenton should know. He is quite
knowledgeable about birds.” Alethia suggested and smiled as Tito
chirped curiously at her. “He is such a charming little goldfinch.
All white, like a candle’s glow.”
     
     
    ~*~
     
     
    Elsewhere in the Administrativa building,
Lady Judith Westmoreland was hurrying about, preparing notes for an
important meeting just announced out of the blue. She was dressed
in a fashionable blue dress and comfortable heeled boots; she was a
favorite with he first-year cadets, not only of her cheerful
disposition but of her kind heart as well. She would be
good-humoredly sarcastic, never heavy-handed in her teaching and
the younger students loved her.
     
    She readied her vox-reader and was about to
carry it, all heavy load and all, when she met Stenton coming her
way.
     
    “Have you heard about the meeting?” Stenton
began, catching his breath. He had come running from the Flying
Field at the news of the meeting.
     
    “Yes. Sounds urgent, I believe.” Lady
Westmoreland nodded and lifted the vox-reader carefully. “I hazard
a guess that it has something to do with the Golden Jubilee.”
     
    They walked briskly to the meeting chamber
where the other lecturers and teachers were already milling
about.
     
    “Some were saying,” Stenton nodded to a few
of his friends and opened the door for Lady Westmoreland, “that the
Jubilee was meant to be political.”
     
    Judith glanced at him while she set the
machine up. “It is always political, Stenton. Everything is
political.”
     
    She was a well-read suffragist and had come
across (and collected) numerous tracts, including her personal
favorite, Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman . There were new ideas and concepts coming in, thanks to
the explosion of the popularity of the printing press. With the
nations converging on London a few months’ time, she foresaw an
explosion of ideas, some of them potentially negative and
dangerous. She normally kept these thoughts to herself and
contemplated sharing them with Karlida privately over tea and warm
scones.
     
    “Talk is rife about the new flying design,”
Stenton helped to hand out notes while the group of lecturers
flowed in, taking their places and muttering in groups. “It is
supposed to be revolutionary.”
     
    “I see,” Lady Westmoreland inclined her head
politely. “But talk is talk.”
     
    Then Pilotmaster Lee appeared, stern and
cold, and the meeting began in earnest.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Three
Dynamics
     
     
    It was going to be Her Majesty’s Aerial
Fleet , a proud assembly of her finest fins and other
aerodynamic marvels. It was going to be a great display of
Britannia’s ingenuity and talent – and Paul Forrester mused as he
scrutinized the blue prints before him closely – and military
prowess as well. As much as he hated war and politics, he knew that
the Queen was keen to declare to the world that Britannia was a
strong military nation, even in the New Age of Science and
Logic.
     
    He had read many historical texts and knew
that wars, bloody and destructive as they were, were products of
dynamics. Like the cog-wheels in his machines and inventions, these
dynamics depended on each other in a deadly symbiosis of needs,
desires and interests.
     
    The blue prints were not lying. The clear
lines were there, drawn, defined. He managed to get a copy from his
colleague Smith who obtained it from the inventor designing the
ship.
     
    Are we going to be minnows in a vast
ocean? Forrester stared at the shape of the vessel. Everyone
would just end up eating one another .
     
    Mrs Pott appeared with a tray of tea and
some homemade oatmeal