Chapter 3

It was one in the afternoon and I was hungry. Zach had been cloistered in his room the whole morning, working on the ship data. I'd expected that he wouldn't need my time today and had taught my two scheduled classes - one theory and one sim class. I'd only started teaching the theory classes recently. Most of the students were older than me and I'd assumed that I would have problems with them. However, it seemed that my 'reputation' had preceded me and all the students appeared thrilled to be taught by me.

I thought we could go to May's Diner again and called Kel on his communicator to check his plans. I was surprised to learn that Zach and he were already there! Kel apologized for not waiting but explained that he thought my sim class only got over by 2 o'clock. He said that Zach had wanted to go to May's Diner although he had suggested another place. I told Kel I'd join them in a few minutes and asked him to order the usual for me.

When I arrived at the diner, I found Jane standing next to their table talking to Zach. She was smiling and blushing so I figured that Zach was doing things right. Kel made a face when he saw me. "I'm beginning to feel like the third wheel here," he whispered as I sat down next to him.

Jane came out of the little world where Zach and she were the only inhabitants and finally noticed me. "Hey sweetie! I'll be back with your food."

I noticed Zach was hypnotized by the swaying motion of Jane's hips as she walked away from our table. He'd got it bad!

"So Zach, how's the data analysis going?" I asked, bringing him out of his dazed state.

"You know I can't give you any details, Beth," he replied.

"I wasn't asking for details. Just wondering if you had got all the data you needed and whether you would be finished today," I said with mild irritation.

"Yes, I have got everything. I'm hoping to finish most of it today - I will have the preliminary report ready for Will in the morning."

"Dad hasn't heard anything from Mr. Darcy so I wasn't sure what arrangements to make for him to get to the office."

"Oh, he's staying at the same place as me so don't worry about that. We will come together."

I felt that Darcy could have let us know when to expect him. Or did he want to surprise us? He may not have expected Zach to inform us about his arrival. I had heard about insurance assessors who liked to make surprise visits - as if we would be busy falsifying data and an unexpected early arrival could help them catch us.

Oh well, tomorrow I would find out what he was like. I could put up with his arrogance for a few days if only he would finish quickly.

At the end of the day, Dad and I went to check if Zach had finished his preliminary report. He had finished but would not give us any indication of the nature of his findings.

Dad was rather surprised since the assessors would usually let us know how the investigation was going. However, we did not press him for details but said that we would meet Darcy and him tomorrow morning.

I told Dad later that I expected Zach was being a stickler for rules because of Darcy being involved in this investigation. Dad agreed that it could be the case, but re-iterated his faith that they would find no pilot error and the full claim would be accepted.

Before I went to sleep that night, I found myself praying that he was right.

I woke up early the next morning and spent more time than usual on getting dressed. I wanted to look professional and put on my best flight suit and all my certificate medals.

Lydia saw me just before I left the house but I dashed out before she could ask me why I was leaving early. I didn't want her to learn about Darcy's arrival. If Mom and Lydia found out that the 'Most Eligible Bachelor on Earth' was here, they were sure to get over-excited and come to the office to invite him to dinner and probably have a party in his honor. I wanted to take Darcy to the crash site today so that he would release the ship to be taken to the hangar.

Annelle was the only person in the office when I got there.

"Good morning, Annelle!"

"Oh Beth, I hope it is a good morning. I'm so worried about the insurance investigator coming today," she said.

"Annelle! Don't you have faith in me?" I teased.

She spent the next few minutes apologizing for offending me before I gave her a peck on the cheek and left. She was always so easy to rile.

I wondered if it was too early to call Zach. All the biospheres followed Earth time so Darcy should be ready to work in the morning. The shuttle would have arrived an hour ago and since he was probably an experienced traveler it was unlikely he would want a rest before he came in.

As I sat hesitating, a call from Annelle came on my communicator.

"Hey, what is it?" I asked.

"Beth, Mr. McNeely and Mr. Darcy are here. I've asked them to wait for you," she said.

"I'll be right down."

I should have expected that Darcy would come before normal business hours - he probably wanted to report that we were unprofessional and that no one was there to meet him. What did he expect when he didn't inform us about his arrival time? It was lucky that I had come in early.

As I walked into the reception area towards Darcy and Zach, I thought that it was a good thing I'd seen Darcy's pics or I might have been tongue-tied when I first saw him. I didn't have to like him to admit that he was attractive - he was tall with a square face and a roman nose. His chestnut hair was cut in the latest popular hairstyle for men and he was wearing what even I could recognize as a designer suit. He also had a large bag with him; I wondered what was in it.

"Mr. Darcy, I'm Elizabeth Bennet. I hope you had a pleasant journey?" I asked as I shook hands with him.

I thought I saw a surprised look in his blue eyes but it was gone before I could be sure.

"I was expecting to meet your father. Is Mr. Bennet not here?" he asked.

I suppressed the retort that sprang to my lips. "My father will be with you presently. However, I will be your liason with Bennet Flight School and will assist you in all matters pertaining to the claim investigation."

"Don't worry Will," said Zach with a smile, "Beth is the best person to help."

"Ms. Bennet, are you not the pilot who was flying the RS-567 when it crashed?" asked Darcy.

I didn't like his tone. Was he implying that I was an incompetent pilot who crashed the ship and was therefore also incapable of being of any assistance with the investigation?

"Yes, that is right. I will introduce you to my co-pilot Kel Konsiis later," I replied. "I'll let you get started on the review of the reports now. We have allocated a room for you to use as your office. Or would you prefer to work with Zach in the same room?"

"I will need a separate work space," he answered.

"Please follow me then."

Darcy didn't seem very happy with the room we had allocated for him - he gave a disdainful look around but didn't say anything. It's not like we had any more empty rooms so I didn't ask him if the room was satisfactory. Zach said he was going to go over his report with Darcy. I checked whether Darcy would be ready for the trip to the crash site in the afternoon. He asked me to call him around one o'clock so I left after promising Zach I would send coffee and biscuits.

I went to Dad's office to find that he had just come in. Annelle had already informed him of Darcy's arrival.

"It is a good thing that you came early. I shall take Kel and go to meet Mr. Darcy," said Dad.

I let him know that I was hoping Darcy would finish his site visit today and that I had reserved a hovercraft for our use, and then left to take my class.

I was going to call Darcy on his wristlet at one o'clock but found that his id was not listed so I called him on the room phone.

"Mr. Darcy, I wanted to check whether both of you are ready for the visit to the crash site after lunch?"

"Please come here," he replied and hung up.

I was a bit huffed at his abruptness but went there promptly. To my surprise, I found Darcy already dressed in his biosuit - so that was probably one of the things in that bag of his!

"We have suits for visitors to use when we take them outside the biosphere," I told him.

"I only wear my biosuit that has been specially designed for me," he said.

Well, oh-kaay then. I remembered that we were going to go for lunch first. "What about lunch?"

He looked disgruntled. "It's too early for lunch. I will eat after I return from the crash site."

I didn't see any biscuits left on the plate - Annelle had sent a dozen - so I understood why he wouldn't be hungry, but I hadn't even eaten breakfast since I left early and I was definitely too hungry to wait till we got back to eat. "Is Zach also ready to ea ... er .. to leave?" I asked.

"Zach has gone for lunch with your colleague, Mr. Konsiis. I don't see any need for him to make another visit to the site. He will continue to work on the presentation of his findings."

Very well, so it was going to be just Mr. Snob and little old me. Sigh. Didn't look like there was any chance of me being able to grab a quick lunch either.

"I need to get suited up and then we can leave."

"I shall wait at the reception for you," said Darcy.

I got suited as fast as I could and joined him at the reception. "The hovercraft is this way," I told Darcy as I walked towards the parking bay.

He looked shocked when I got into the driver's seat.

"Isn't there a driver?" he asked.

I laughed at the expression on his face. "Don't worry, I'm certified to drive the hovercraft outside."

He got in but turned towards me and said, "You are also a qualified pilot."

I felt my blood boil and couldn't stop myself from responding to that.

"The crash had nothing to do with my piloting ability. It was purely a technical fault."

"Well, my investigation will show the truth of that."

"Yes, it will!" I said firmly. I didn't want to argue with him any longer and started the hovercraft.

Darcy hadn't said anything in the last ten minutes. I was trying to enjoy the drive and ignore the taciturn man at my side but the silence was beginning to feel awkward.

"So Mr. Darcy, is this your first visit to Titan?" I asked finally.

"No, I have come a few times," he replied.

He didn't say anything else so I gave up and went back to driving in silence. It was calm outside right now and that worried me. I had forgotten to check the weather forecast when I left - very unlike me to omit doing that but it showed how much Darcy had managed to get under my skin. I felt the irritation rising again. There was no need for him to behave like this - I didn't expect him to be friendly like Zach but he didn't have to act like I was the enemy.

A sudden wind brought some dust around our hovercraft. I said a little prayer asking for good weather until we returned to the biosphere and accelerated to get to the site faster. I felt Darcy looking at me but he didn't say anything.

It was with relief that I saw the RS-567 up ahead. I parked at the same spot as on my last visit. Darcy got out and stood looking at the ship. I quickly went and got a couple of food bars from the emergency reserves and stuffed them in a pocket before rejoining him.

"I'll wait near the entrance while you look around," I told him and then walked up without waiting for his answer.

The lack of food was making me faint and I started on the first food bar. I had just finished the second when Darcy came up. He glanced at the used wrappers I was stuffing back in my pocket and I waited for an apology for not letting me have lunch but none came. Oh well, it would have been out of character. I entered the security code and we entered the ship.

"Take as much time as you need. I'll wait here," I told Darcy and then sat down on the passenger seat, leaned back and closed my eyes. I'd not slept properly the last few nights worrying about the claim investigation so I must have dozed off.

I came awake suddenly and opened my eyes in bewilderment. Darcy was picking up a small palm-sized device from the floor. The sound of it falling on the floor must have woken me up. I checked the time - looked like I had been dozing for more than twenty minutes! A bit embarassing to fall asleep before Darcy. I wondered if he had wanted to ask anything.

I sat up straight. "Do you need any assistance, Mr. Darcy?" I asked him. He looked at me and replied in his usual abrupt manner, "After I've finished this data download we can leave."

It took another ten minutes and then he indicated that he was ready to leave. I wanted to ask him whether the ship could be moved to the hangar but decided that it was perhaps better than Dad asked him. Darcy didn't seem to think much of me and I felt it was unlikely he would give a favourable reply to any request that I made.

We'd only gone halfway back to the biosphere when the storm started. I'd been driving in silence when suddenly I could feel the shift in the atmosphere. I knew how abruptly the climate changes here so I pressed the controls to change to storm mode.

The hovercraft did its thing. I could feel the vibration as the anchors released and secured us to the ground, the GMX metal shutters slid over the surface and the windshield guard dropped into place. The conversion was always scary the first time and Darcy was shaken enough to speak to me. "What is going on?" he asked.

"I guess you didn't get caught in a storm on any of your earlier visits?" I asked.

"It's absolutely calm. What makes you think there is going to be a storm?" he said.

"Just watch and wait. You'll see soon enough."

Darcy looked slightly annoyed but didn't ask me any more questions.

We both looked out of the window - the sky was dark blue and calm for a few more minutes. Then it began. The wind started spinning - peach and pink swirls all over. As the wind got stronger rocks started flying around. Our hovercraft shook slightly and Darcy appeared startled. Rocks started hitting us - the sound of the rocks against the metal of the hovercraft made me feel like we were being attacked by enemy missiles.

I looked at Darcy out of the corner of my eye. He was looking outside in amazement. I smiled to myself. Even the great Darcy couldn't fail to be impressed by a Titan storm.

After a few minutes, Darcy said, "It's beautiful. I'd watched a holo of a storm once but it didn't capture the magnificence of the real thing."

I couldn't help grinning at him. Anyone who thought Titan was beautiful couldn't be all bad. I remembered that he hadn't had lunch. "Would you like me to get some food bars for you? You must be pretty hungry."

"That would be great," he said.

I unbuckled myself and went behind to get the bars. I grabbed a couple of small bottles of water as well and walked back.

I was standing next to him to hand over the food and drink, when the hovercraft was hit by a large rock and quaked a bit. I stumbled and would have fallen if Darcy hadn't grabbed me by the waist.

"Thank you, that was sudden," I said. Darcy didn't remove his hands immediately but just looked at me. I found myself thinking that he had strong hands and felt silly. What was wrong with me? I looked down at him wondering why he wasn't taking his hands away. He had rather lovely blue eyes. I hadn't noticed before but they were the color of an Earth sea. I don't know how long I would have stood there gazing into his eyes if he hadn't suddenly snapped out of his trance and taken the food bars and one bottle from me.

He looked at the food bars. "Are all these for me?" he asked.

"Er .. yes, I had some earlier," I answered as I sat down, still feeling slightly flustered.

While Darcy ate, I took a few sips of water and then stared outside. I wasn't seeing the storm though - I was thinking about what had just happened. He was so arrogant that beyond the recognition of his handsomeness when I first saw him, I hadn't felt any attraction. But just now I had felt such a longing to be closer to him - my waist still tingled with the memory of his touch. I had never felt this way about anyone before. From the earliest I could remember, I had been absorbed in my dream of being a pilot to the exclusion of all else and so I had no close friends. Even though I had studied with the same group of kids until I finished high school, I wasn't in touch with a single one now. I had plenty of invitations to parties while I was at school - everyone loved pilots (and pilot wannabes who knew many pilots)! - but my dates were always older boys whom I knew from flight school and had been okayed by Dad.

Now that I had achieved my dream, I had been thinking that I would like to have more of a social life. And perhaps have a boyfriend. I had been overjoyed when Jane moved here because I knew that she would push me to meet boys and go out. I was confident in the sky but when it came to social situations, I was awkward, completely graceless. Being aware of Lydia's active social calendar didn't help me feel any better.

Darcy broke into my thoughts. "Will the storm continue much longer?"

I paid attention to what was happening outside. It was still windy but it looked like the worst was over.

"We can get going. Things have settled down - for now," I replied.

Once the hovercraft had gone back to normal mode, I set off back to the biosphere as fast as was safe. It was possible that another storm could start up at any time and I didn't want to spend any more time with Darcy.