*Note: I've tried my best with putting a French accent to writing; don't think ill of me.

All belongs to Kenneth Oppel.

I was already sweating something heavy and it wasn't due to the weather. Standing at the door of Kate's apartment, I pulled at my collar. Why had Kate talked me into this?

Just about a week ago, she'd told me that her parents had agreed to have this dinner and meet some of their daughter's accomplices; or that's what they'd thought. "Now," she had said, "it'll do no good if you really stand out, so try not to. But, on the other hand, make sure they know you're there, if you know what I mean." I'd not completely known what she'd meant and figured I'd just wing it.

Now I was having second thoughts. I mean, after finding both Kate and I in jail together just before the Starclimber mission, I would think I'd stand out like a sore thumb to Mr. de Vries. Though Kate had absolutely forbidden me mentioning the incident. "I really don't think they'll bring it up in front of company," she had told me.

My watch said it was nearly six o two, and I was trying to remember the rest of the long list of things to do and not to do that Kate had instructed me on. Like, " And for goodness sakes, be humble. Only contradict them if they're really, really insulting." After she said this I'd been wondering gloomily if they would actually start insulting me when Kate cheered me up; "Sorry, if they started rampaging I would normally say something," but then my cheeriness went away, "but it's probably better if I don't. It would suggest too much to them."

That was all I could remember. I sucked up my second thoughts, gathered up my courage and rang the doorbell.

The door was opened with a kind of restrained eagerness and there was Kate.

It must have looked as if someone had swiped the polite smile from her face and put it on mine because once she saw me her expression was one of great seriousness. Though my smile was not one for manners, but a great smirk.

"Isn't getting the door what Deirdre is paid for?"

"Oh don't joke!" Kate hissed back. "You're lucky Madeline and Aimee got here before you. I told you not to come early!"

And that's what I'd forgotten.

"It's not early, it's six o three. You said to it started at six."

"Yes, it is suppose to start a six, but people just arrive late. It's an unspoken rule."

I frowned, remembering the countless times I had waited for Kate. "Yes, I've noticed."

"Is it really six o three?" Kate asked, ignoring my comment. "We better go in, no time for chit chat. Everyone's in the sitting room; Madeline's the one wearing glasses and Aimee has blue on. Don't confuse the two, please."

She smoothed out her dress and I could tell she was nervous because her hands would not be still. Through the hallway that I already was familiar with, I followed Kate and tried to stand tall. Lights glowed from the doorway to the right.

Before we went in Kate whispered, " I'll have to go back to the door; there's another guest."

"Wait, what?" I whispered back. I did not fancy the idea of being be alone in a room with two strangers and Kate's parents.

"No time."

The sitting room was not incredibly large, but it was incredibly furnished. Seated on the couch closest to me, Mr. and Mrs. de Vries seemed to fit in with the fancy room perfectly. They sunk into the cushions comfortably and had solid masks of ease set on their suave faces.

Aside from the couch the de Vries' occupied there were two chairs and one other sofa. In each of two chairs were two girls. The one I assumed to be Madeline wore glasses, and was suitably jumpy and perched tediously on the edge of her seat. Looking at her I thought that she might be a bookish sort, but then also not like Kate. Madeline's bushy hair and precise fingers made her look the part. The other girl, Aimee, was very different and looked very French. I didn't see Miss Simpkins anywhere.

All conversation stopped and four sets of eyes turned up to stare at me.

" This," Kate announced, "is Matt Cruse. Mummy, Daddy, you already know him, I believe."

"Ah, yes," said Kate's mother, though a bit sharply.

"Mr. Cruse. I hear you ended up getting a spot aboard the Starclimber, young man. Congratulations," said Mr. de Vries.

"Thank you, sir," I said.

"Well," Kate said, cutting off what would have been an awkward silence, "I better go back; Lee Ann should be here shortly."

She smiled at us all and left me alone.

"Well why don't you sit down, son," offered Mr. de Vries.

As if on command, I sat, secretly laughing at his choice of words.

But I must be humble.

I searched for something to say. "Madeline, Aimee. How do you know Miss de Vries?"

Before Madeline could answer, Aimee cut in. "Vee are practeecally ze only girls at Sorbonne," she said. "Vee naturally group togezer."

"How nice," Kate's mother said.

"And you got to go into outer space, Mr. Cruse? With our Kate?" Madeline asked.

"I did," I said, "it was extraordinary. Though the training was very extensive."

"Deed you actually 'valk' in space?" Aimee asked.

"My friend and shipmate, Tobias Blanchard was the first. But yes, I did too."

"Kate has told us about this music of the spheres. She says all the crew heard it, once immersed in space," Mrs. de Vries said.

"I heard it, like everyone else. At first I didn't notice, but the captain told me later that I'd been humming through my entire space walk, over the radio," I explained.

"It's an extremely interesting idea, but one quite impossible," Madeline said.

"Though I seem to recall," started Mr. de Vries, "that when Mr. Lunardi was announcing the names of the crew members, yours wasn't one of them."

I swallowed. "That's true too. I only got the spot because Mr. Bronfman was drunk at the celebrations after and broke his leg. He tried sliding down the grand staircase."

The girls all smiled, to my great relief. Though Mr. de Vries did not.

"I don't know about you, Daddy, but I would not have felt very safe aboard the Starclimber, and I go as far to say, with a drunkard."

We all looked up, fairly surprised, to see Kate once again standing in the doorway, but now with yet another girl. I hadn't even heard her come in.

"Ah," said Kate's father, "yes, of course."

"And," Kate continued, amazing me at her boldness, "I already knew Mr. Cruse here could handle most tight situations, from when he saved us all aboard the Aurora."

I was afraid my face had flushed. "Thank you, Miss De Vries. Though I'm sure you're over exaggerating."

"Not at all, Mr. Cruse. I very much owe you my life, as do many other people."

I pretended to cough. All her lecturing about being subtle!

"I think we best get started with dinner. It's all ready," Mrs. de Vries cut in.

"Excellent idea," said the girl standing next to Kate, who must have been Lee Ann. "I'm really sorry I'm late, it's terribly rude of me. But I'm famished."

I wanted to laugh at Lee Ann's words, about how rude it was being late, but settled for smirking at Kate before we all left for the dinning room. She ignored me and her expression didn't change a bit.

Whenever I'd been in Kate's dinning room before, the seats had never all been filled. This time, a good portion of them were. Not that it was a tight squeeze now; there was plenty of elbow space for all seven people.

The first course came out and conversation lingered, though with a few silences between chat. I could tell Kate was trying to fill in where she could and make everything as painless as possible.

It was Mr. de Vries who sat at the head of the table, with his wife at his right arm. Nobody else would have noticed, but it was only after I had sat down did Kate take a place far from me. Aimee took the seat between me and Kate's father, while Lee Ann was on my other side. I shifted uncomfortably, this really not being an ideal place to sit, though really I wasn't sure where would be a good place. Madeline was next to Kate.

"What deed you think, Mr. Cruse, of outer space?" asked Aimee.

"Outer space?" Lee Ann, asked, obviously intrigued. "You were part of the Canadian expedition? What was it like?"

I prayed that I would be able to keep from embarrassing myself. "A little under a year ago, yes. I was attending Miss de Vries' presentation on high-altitude life and Mr. Lunardi was there with Sir John, the Canadian Minister of Air. They invited me to take part in the training."

"Ah yes, Monsieur Lunardi; ze aiership tycoon, ze one who made eet before ze French."

Aimee's words warned me off making any slips on Canada's achievement. Obviously she was a little touchy on her French pride. Instead I slid the topic some. "Before the expedition, I had a summer job, piloting an air-tug that working on the Celestial Tower. Though what wasn't in the newspapers, was that one of my shipmates had been a Babelite. He brought a bomb aboard the Atlas."

"I remember reading something in the paper, but it hadn't mentioned any names," Lee Ann said.

"All they did afterward was clap us on the back and then told us to shut up about it."

"I'm sure they didn't want anyone to know their tower had just about been bowled over," Lee Ann agreed.

"Yes, but obveously eet vaus not bowled over," Aimee tartly replied, "because Mr. Cruse ees steal wiv us. I vould like to know ze rest of ze story."

"It did come down later, though," Lee Ann said, not quite willing to be beaten down. I admired her; it reminded me a lot of what Kate might have done.

Though at the same time, I did not want to be caught in-between two arguing young ladies. So I went on. "At the end of the day, we were dropping off our last cargo at the tower," I continued, getting into the story-telling mood, "and we didn't even notice anything until we heard boots pounding on the catwalk. There were three of them, dressed as construction workers, each with a gun. Two had theirs immediately trained on two of my crewmen, Andrew and Hassan. Before I could send a distress call, the third shot the transmitter and then pointed his gun at me.

"I was confused at first when Christophe, my third crew member, told me where to take the ship. But there was nobody pointing a gun a him."

"Did you ever suspect him before?" Lee Ann asked.

"He always had a bit of a temper, and was very proud, but no, I never even thought of it. But the one thing he couldn't do was fly a ship; he kept me at the helm, having me take the ship inside one of the actual piers of the tower. We tied the ship up and one of his men armed the bomb. They gave us a choice; they could shoot us, or we'd go down with the ship."

"And you chose to go down with the ship," Lee Ann said.

Aimee just batted her eyelashes.

"Yeah, so we'd at least get a chance to save ourselves. Christophe ordered his men off the ship. They used parachutes. But when Christophe clipped on his harness, alone, all three of us jumped on him. I got the gun, but Andrew tried to snatch it from me and dropped it again. Christophe dived for the hatch, but we got a hold of his parachute, and… he fell without it.

"Andrew then went for Christophe's parachute, and he had the gun, so Hassan and I didn't try to stop him. Though it was a waste; he didn't know how to work it and got himself killed, too. That only left Hassan and me. I figured our best chances were making it to the lake nearby and dropping the bomb. We made it just in time. We dumped the bomb, and it still made a colossal fountain of water and most of our windows shattered, but we survived."

"And all of that never even made the papers," Lee Ann said, laughing.

Kate must have been listening in. "That day I'd thought I'd heard a motorcar backfiring. But if the explosion was as enormous as Mr. Cruse says it was, I don't know what else it could have been."

"So you worked on ze Celesteeal Tower and den joined Mr. Lundari's crew. You must have great interest in space," Aimee commented.

"I guess I never had much interest at who's project it was. Like you said; it was only outer space that captured my imagination."

"As it did mine," said Kate.

"Was it as amazing as Miss Karr's article described it?" asked Lee Ann. "I remember some fellow before had thought it might be entirely liquid. It's an intriguing idea, isn't it?"

"Very intriguing. Though I've learned since then that it would be near impossible. With Earth's gravity, all the liquid would have been sucked down on all of us, just like the Starclimber was on reentry. And because we know that rain doesn't come from the ether, liquid wouldn't be in outer space. There's really practically nothing up there as far as liquids and gasses go."

I could tell that Kate's parents didn't think this was at all dinner conversation, but I, along with the other two girls, were interested enough for the two of them. The talk spread out from there, everything a bit more loose than it had been. Mrs. De Vries asked her daughter, though not me, about Egypt and Kate told us all about how we had knocked the nose off the great Sphinx while attempting a landing in the dessert.

"You'd have thought the dessert would have seemed a very empty place," I remarked, "but after outer space, all the flowers and sand and buildings were incredible."

"I remember the smells the most," Kate said.

I turned and smiled at her. "Me too. They were even better than all the sights."

She smiled back, but then seemed to remember where she was, as did I. She lightly cleared her throat and changed the subject.

Sometime later, when we were just finishing dinner of beef and potatoes, Mr. de Vries called me out. "Mr. Cruse, tell me, are things still going well at the Academy for you? I trust you didn't miss any of your studies while on the expedition."

"No, sir, I didn't. We had most of the summer off and so I got back in plenty of time."

"What sort of training do they give you, besides class work?" Kate's mother asked.

"About twice a year they send us all on training tours," I said. "Though my first time was unlucky; we got caught in the Devils Fist." Though of course I didn't mention what we'd seen, or what had followed.

"Devils Fist?" asked Mattie.

"A famous storm knot, I believe. Am I right, Mr. Cruse? Circling about the Indian Ocean," Mr. de Vries said.

"Yes, sir."

To my amazement, he laughed. "My god, boy, I'm surprised to see you alive today. How did you get out of it?"

"It was no easy thing, sir," I said, watching my words. "A downdraft took the ship towards the ocean, to far down, till we were but fifty feet above it. If we hit, we'd be sunk for good. The captain ordered for all our ballast to be dumped, and so we rose. But then we were too light, and got caught in an updraft and were taken above the clouds; but we lived."

"But this captain actually ordered that you take a route through the storm?" Lee Ann asked.

"Yes; but he was reckless."

To me, Mr. de Vries' face did not seem disdainful, and I took it as a good sign. But still, remembering what Kate had told me, I took the attention off of myself and asked Lee Ann where she had come from, for her way of speaking did not sound all to different from me, or Kate and her family.

"I came from America for university. I grew up in New York," she told me.

"I asked the same question," Kate said, "when I first met her."

"I have a good friend from America, who goes to the Academy as well. He has a job working at the observatory. I visited him a few times near the beginning of summer; it's a beautiful place, to look at the stars."

Throughout the rest of dinner, the conversation remained fairly light. Soon it was time for everyone to leave.

On the way out, Kate stood by the door saying goodbye. Her father came up to me and held out his hand. "It was good to see you again, Mr. Cruse. I wish you the best of luck with your flying."

"Thank you sir. Take care," I replied. His grip didn't try to overpower mine, and I was glad.

Just going through the doorway, I heard Kate breathe out, so even I could only just hear her, "Thank goodness that's over."

**********

I was sitting at a small stone table in a café near to where Kate's apartment is. An iron wrought fence separated me from the rest of the bustling street. The hooves of carriage horses clicked on the cobblestone, men in suits hurried through the crowds, and mothers herded wandering children. A peculiar shop across the way had caught my interest, selling gourmet frog legs. Soon enough, my wandering gaze caught sight of Kate, coming down the block. She caught my eye, came into the café and sat down opposite to me.

"Hello," she greeted.

"I'm surprised you're here," I said. "I thought your parents were still were still in town."

"There are, but they also believe that I'm going to spend some time at the library. They didn't even ask what I'd be reading, can you believe it?"

"Haven't you used that excuse too much already?"

She smiled and told me sternly. "You can never go wrong with good reading."

"Have they said anything about me?"

"Only what a 'nice young man' you are, but what I really think is that they can't figure you out at all," she said, but then snorted, "they thought Aimee was a complete angel."

"I thought that all you girls at the university, as she put it, naturally group together."

"Well, maybe," Kate admitted, "but that doesn't mean I like all of them. Aimee is a stuck up flirt. Even during class she finds way to talk to all the men." She seemed to stop and think. "She didn't flirt with you did she?"

A little offended, I protested, "What's that suppose to mean? I've been flirted with before, besides you."

Kate sighed impatiently, like I was the daft one. "Never mind. It's not important."

"I wasn't sure what I thought about Madeline," I said, but still annoyed, added, "but I liked Lee Ann."

"Mattie and I only connect on science, and so Mummy didn't think much of her, but Lee Ann is more of a friend. I'm glad you liked her," Kate said.

"I thought she reminded me a lot of you," I said.

"Really?"

I nodded. "Very smart, but also agreeable."

"Well that's a relief. You find me likeable," she joked.

A waiter handed the two of us menus and then left, so we could look them over.

"Absolutely," I said. I glanced over the menu. It made me think of the frog leg restaurant. "But I was wondering, what do gourmet frog legs taste like?"

"Excuse me?" Now she must really think I'm daft.

"The shop across the street, it sells frog legs. I've never seen anything else like it."

Kate read some items off the menu in front of her, translating to English. " Roast beef, steak, beef sandwich, and, oh, look, chicken," she listed. She looked up at me. "Not much, really. Do you want to go try frog legs?"

The only person I know who would suggest frog legs for lunch, would be Kate. I stood up. "Why not? Let's go."

We left the café together, probably to the great dismay of the manager. Like a great gentlemen, I guided Kate across the bustling street, around men in suits, carriages, and the children. At our new table, the waiter laughed and told us that we were the first one's of the day to order the special.

I finally got this one out; hurrah! And it was long; hurrah! And it's only been two days since I put out the last one; hurrah!

Here's some ideas I've got stewing in my head; Tobias' spacewalk, Kate revealing the etherian to the public, maybe Kate taking Matt on an ornithopter flight, and more from Airborn or Starclimber...

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and thank you for the reviews.