Judit could barely sit still, waiting for five o'clock to roll around. When she finally heard him at the door, she was up and had it open so fast that Rama looked shocked, standing in the corridor, his fist still raised to knock.

His arm dropped to his side, and he said, "Hi Judit!" amiably. "Glad to see you're looking forward to our trip. Let's go, shall we?"

Judit followed him down the corridor, cursing herself and vowing to act less keen from now on. Still, a trip out with Rama, alone, in the woods. Her stomach fluttered.

"Hey!" Rama called, waving as they exited the building onto the outdoor classrooms. "Glad you could make it!"

Whaaaaat? Oh no. Disappointment soaked through Judit like it had been poured over her from a bucket. Fat Jaddy was walking towards them, his steps shuffling, his pasty hands pulling awkwardly at the hem of his hoody.

"I thought it would be a great idea for Jadrun to join us, as our other non-Hirtian," Rama smiled. "I'm sure you've both got a lot of the same questions, and you'll have more fun together, rather than being stuck with an old bore like me."

Rama stopped walking until Jaddy caught up with them, and the three made a circle on the green lawn of the outdoor classroom. Rama patted Jaddy warmly on the shoulder. Jaddy pulled on the hem of his hoody again, and flicked his eyes to and away from Judit nervously. She scowled at him.

"So, what do you guys think about a trip to the village?" Rama said. "Don't tell the others, none of them have seen it yet. We've been saving the big reveal for moving day."

Jaddy nodded lamely, his head bent, looking at the floor. He seems even less zen about all this than I am, Judit thought. She scanned her memory for encounters with him over the past days. She barely had any. He mostly sat alone in class, not making eye contact, didn't really speak to anyone.

Rama led them through the fields, past the climbing wall, and onto a snaking path through the woods. It wasn't long until the path opened up and they were in a small gritted clearing, where there were four identical all-terrain vehicles. Rama opened the door of the nearest one and gestured Judit and Jaddy into the back, then climbed into the driver's seat.

"Off we go!" He shouted over the roar of the engine, and they juddered down a single-track road cutting through the trees.

Judit had assumed it would be a short trip, but after 45 minutes or an hour, she decided she would rather talk to Jaddy than die of boredom. He sat next to her, staring out of the window, pulling away quickly when the corners occasionally threw them together.

Judit leaned in. "So, where you from?"

He looked at her like she bit him. "Sutton," he said, almost inaudible.

Judit nodded. She'd heard of it, but it was literally nowheresville. Just totally boring, town, suburbs, chain shops, the same as everywhere else.

"Oh," she said.

"You?"

"Birchwood," Judit replied. At least her sticks were a bit more metropolitan, even if they were pretty rough. At least they had a music scene.

"Sharp," Jaddy said.

They sat in silence for a bit, Judit searching desperately for something to say. Shy people are so much hard work, she thought. Just dagging speak.

"So what do you think of... this?" Judit gestured to the interior of the car, the woods around her. "Off kilter, eh?"

Jaddy nodded, still looking down at his knees, which bounced with the car's movements.

"Do you think... Do you think we'll have to kill anyone?" He ssuddenly stammered, out of nowhere. "I'm... I don't want to hurt anyone."

"What you on about?" Judit was surprised. What an off spec thing to say.

"Well, we've done this Native stuff at school." Jaddy's eyes found Judit then darting away quickly, his fingers nervously folding the fabric of his top. "And, y'know, all the savage attacks. Heads on spikes."

Judit bit her top lip. She'd done a bit about Natives at school, but not much. It was top year stuff. But this all seemed miles from any of that. She couldn't put the two together. "Dunno," she said finally.

She moved away from Jaddy and pretended to look out of the window. She tried to remember the stuff she'd done about Natives at school. Naked. Painted blue. She swallowed, zipping up her grey hoodie.

An hour and a half in, the road stopped abruptly. Rama pulled over, and they had to take a path, on foot, through the trees. The path was tufty with grass, and Judit had to watch her feet to avoid tripping. Rama fell into step besides her.

"How are you two getting on?"

"Zen," Judit said. "Jaddy is worried you're gonna make us kill someone."

"What?" Rama sounded genuinely surprised. He stopped and turned, waiting for the stumbling, breathless Jaddy to catch up.

"Kill someone?" He repeated to Jaddy.

Jaddy nodded, looking embarrassed. "We did Natives at school," he said weakly. "The Great Conquest..."

"God!" Rama looked angry. "Are they still teaching that savage Native dag in schools? Anthrologists have been arguing against all that for decades. There's really no... The revisionist, post-Imperial school–" he paused, taking in the clueless faces of his audience, and modified his response.

"That stuff is from a different time," he said. "When the Generic administration had something to prove to the population about the Conquest. The rhetoric of the winner, y'know? But the Conquest was a war, and you can't judge a society only on its acts in battle. The Natives were broadly peaceful for many centuries before the arrival of Generics, and the project reflects that."

Judit and Jaddy continued to watch their feet, scuffling through the grass. Rama seemed annoyed, and they walked on in silence for a while.

"This is really a long way," Judit said, finally. She was hot and getting sweaty, hair sticking to her face, perspiration dripping into her eyes and making them sting. Dark circles grew under Jaddy's arms.

"Nearly there," Rama said encouragingly. "The village wouldn't work if it was right out on the edge of the forest, by the field station. You'll need a good range to work within, undisturbed. We'll lift the road when the project is underway. Just around this corner..."

He turned, and stopped short. Judit and Jaddy, still watching their feet, nearly ran into the back of him. Judit heard Jaddy exhale sharply, and looked up from her plimsoles. She could smell something strange, salty, unearthly.

"Skitting hell."

It was beautiful.

The trees had come to an abrupt stop. The woodland border, tangled briefly with tall, swaying plants and leafy brambles, led onto a soft, grassy plain, dotted prettily with small purple, white and yellow flowers, all moving gently in the wind.

This colourful meadow made a gradual slope downwards for a good distance in front of them, reaching its nadir in silvery rocks to the left and right, and arching back into an expanse of smooth white sand directly ahead of them. A small cluster of stone and thatch buildings, just like the one in the field station quad, nestled in the grass of the sheltered valley, just before the flower meadow gave way to sand.

But Judit didn't see any of that. She couldn't. All she could take in, beyond the houses, beyond the beach, the first time she'd ever seen it, grey-blue in the distance, bright, vivid turquoise up-close, glinting, shining, moving gently, bigger than the sky, bigger than anything, was the sea.

***

Rama and Judit sat on the soft grass at the cliff top, watching the sun slowly lower its lips to kiss the water. Jaddy was off being a nyaff somewhere, and this snatched moment of romantic solitude, alone together, in this beautiful place, was just blissful. Judit shifted her toe imperceptibly until her shoe was touching the side of Rama's foot. Did he notice? He didn't pull away. Her flesh buzzed with excitement where she could feel the pressure of his against it.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Rama said.

Judit nodded. It was.

"To live here. To have this as your backdrop. To stare at this view all day, rather than a screen..." Rama went on, his voice dreamy.

"Why don't you?" Judit said. "Why aren't you in the project?"

"I'm not Native," he laughed, raising his eyebrows. "But I'd dearly love to. Living out here, simple, uncomplicated, free..."

"Couldn't you just move somewhere like this anyway?" Judit asked. "Not like the project, just like... to live?"

"Not really. I've got responsibilities. A mortgage, my work... How would I support myself?"

"How are we supposed to support ourselves?" Judit asked. "When we're out here?" It still didn't seem real, somehow. Living out here with the freak brigade. She couldn't quite believe it would happen.

"You'll be self-sufficient," he said. "Live off the land. As nature intended."

Judit screwed up her face. "If that's what nature intended, how comes no one does it? How comes it's not ordinary?"

He looked at her, his expression unreadable.

"You're very smart, Judit," he said after a while. "That's a good question. Perhaps we've lost touch with what we're supposed to be."

She felt heat rise right up to her hair follicles. You're very smart.

"My sister's really smart." Judit thought of Sannah out of nowhere. "She wants to get this scholarship thing. To Sherbourne."

"Yes?" Rama looked curious. "Is she at the security school too?"

Judit nodded, looking out to sea again, trying to drink it in, imprint it on her mind.

"That's very impressive then," Rama said. "I had that scholarship, you know. When I was a student, many moons ago."

"Really?" Judit asked. "Did you go to security school too?"

"Oh no!" He almost laughed, then stopped himself. "Definitely not. An academy. A good one, too. I was still proud to get it, though. It's a big deal."

"I'll have to tell Sannah-" Judit's voice faltered. Would she even see Sannah again? A pang of sadness hit her in the chest, and she pushed it away, quickly. "I suppose not," she added, her voice low.

They sat in silence for a bit. Rama moved his foot away from Judit's, consciously or not she couldn't tell. She could see Jaddy, standing on the far cliff, looking out to sea. Rama followed her gaze and watched him too.

"How are you getting on with the other kids?" Rama asked, his eyes still on Jaddy's distant silhouette.

"Fine," Judit said, feeling embarrassed. She didn't like the way he said kids, like they were all so much younger than him, a different species.

"You seem to be quite friendly with Merle, is that right?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"And Hegri? You like him?"

"Yeah."

Rama shook back his golden hair, looking at Judit from the side of his eyes. "He's a really great guy. You should get him to tell you about Native mythology sometime. He knows so much. More than a lot of PhDs in my department, I'd guess. Really impressive."

"Yeah. How old are you?" Judit didn't want to talk about the other kids right now. She wanted to talk about Rama.

"Twenty seven."

She sucked her lip. He was older than he looked.

"Come on, let me show you something." Rama stood up, brushing down his trousers, and offered Judit his hand to help her rise.

Her heart beat faster at the skin contact, but she was also worried she had sweaty palms. They walked down the valley towards the village. Jaddy began to head towards them too.

"Wait here," Rama said. "I don't want to take you into the blackhouses yet. Save something for the unveiling, eh?"

He dropped his head to enter one of the  funny buildings. The door was wooden and thick, set back from the deep wall and heavy dried grass-like roof. It was barely as tall as Judit.

Up close, the walls looked just like a pile of stones. There was no mortar or anything holding them together. The dried grass roof was soft and rounded. A chain of stones hung around the brittle plant-matter, making it look like all the houses were wearing necklaces, dressed up for a wedding.

Rama's ducked head appeared again as he exited the house, pulling the door closed tightly behind him. He was holding two large, leather bound books, like something you might see in an antiques store. The setting sun caught his face as he moved from the shadows, making him glow golden.

"Here." He handed the books to Judit. They were heavy. "Each household gets two books. We're going to give them out in a ceremony when the training is over. You can have yours early, they'll be useful. Don't tell the other kids though—we don't want people to slack on their learning and assume they can just refer to these."

Judit leaned against the dark stone of the house, placing one of the books on top of the wall by her head. She opened the other at a random page. It showed a picture of a building identical to the one she was leaning against, surrounded by tiny writing. On the next page, the building was split into its component parts: a diagram of the roof, the walls, the stone necklace.

She flicked to another page. A selection of pictures of plants, surrounded by notations.

"My life's work, and that of a number of other people too," Rama said. "It's a collection of everything we know about Native traditional knowledge. This book contains pretty much everything you need to survive and thrive in this settlement."

Judit nodded, turning the pages. She didn't look up. The book made her feel nervous. She put it down quickly, on the floor, and picked up the other, opening it at random. Just writing this time.

"Native myth and legend," Rama said. "A full compendium."

Judit read a selection of text.

Then Beira, crone goddess of Winter, rose above the mountains, her single eye flashing with wrath in her blue face.

She closed the book and picked up the other, handing them both to Rama.

He lifted his hands in protest, and said, "Keep them. They're yours. You can take them back to the field station, study them to your heart's content. Just don't tell anyone, you'll get me in trouble."

Jaddy arrived, his lumbering steps halting beside them. Rama nodded a greeting.

"I'll just get you some books, Jadrun, and we better get back, or we'll get benighted."

Rama ducked back into the building. Judit moved across the short grass, between the buildings, to take one last look at the sea. She stood, clutching her books, until Jaddy and Rama joined her.

The sun was right on the water now, as warm and bright as fire. Its reflection on the glittering sea was long, a finger of blinding light pointing towards them.

"In Native mythology, the reflection of the setting sun on the sea, that line of light," Rama pointed, "is the path to heaven."

The three stood in silence, looking at it. The grass of the flower meadows whispered gently. A clutch of birds swooped and dived in the sky above them, their eerie high calls playful in the golden light.

"Strange really," Rama went on, his voice barely more than a murmur. "How could that be? Surely this is heaven. We're already there."