Fledgling — Sharon Lee; Steve Miller

LEARNING TO FLY

Delgado is a Safe World. That means that the population is monitored -- for its own good -- and behavior dangerous to society is quickly corrected. On Safe Delgado, then, Theo Waitley, daughter of Professor Kamele Waitley, latest in a long line of Waitley scholars, is "physically challenged" and on a course to being declared a Danger to Society.

It's not Theo's fault she's clumsy -- it didn't matter so much when she and her mother lived out in the suburbs with her mother's onagrata, Jen Sar Kiladi. But, suddenly, Kamele leaves Jen Sar, and moves herself and Theo into faculty housing. Now, notes are piling up in Theo's file, her mentor's mad at her, and there's a hearing scheduled about that Danger to Society judgment. Just when Theo thinks nothing can possibly get any worse, Kamele and a group of senior professors must go off-world on a matter of scholarly importance.

And Kamele is going to take Theo with her.