"Ah, okay."

Chris would like another meeting with Blai about transit logistics.

Of course.

"So, first of all, I have been told that there is plenty of money for you to return to New Zealand or McMurdo later if you'd like, and my attempts to propose a tourism agenda you haven't even expressed interest in on the basis that it's a limited opportunity you might regret missing later are unjustified."

"When you say 'there is' plenty of money who has this and what is their mandate in spending it?"

"The United States Government, and I suspect this is coming from a budget for making weird unexpected opportunities go smoothly."

Nod.

"Relatedly, once we get to New Zealand we won't be going on a commercial plane, we'll be going on a military plane, so we're not going to go through airport security or such."

"Does that obviate the plan to have a decoy?"

"I believe so."

"Any other changes it implies?"

"You can wear the armor and your holy symbol with the knife if you want, I'd expect."

"Oh good."

"Also, I think we should maybe go over what to expect from flying a bit more and figure out if you'll need any help packing."

"I don't have a lot of things and they all fit in my bag."

"Okay. So, very rarely, sometimes things go wrong during a plane flight. There's less than two accidents per million commercial flights. Technically, the statistics for military flights can be worse, but that's because military flights sometimes go through war zones, which we won't be doing. That said, it's still worth knowing what to do in the event of an accident."

"Airplanes tend to fly up high, where the air is too thin to give you all the things you need from air, even if you're used to somewhat thin air. Normally, the airplane operates such that the air is thicker on the inside than the outside. Sometimes this stops working, and in that case there are supposed to be masks with extra air to put on your face so you can breathe, but if you see the mask, you need to put it on right away, or else you might run out of air before you can do whatever else you want to do. With me so far?"

"...I might want to have Air Bubble prepared that day. But I understand."

"That sounds great, though I will say we have a recurring issue where flight scheduling isn't certain until the plane is actually here, so you'll probably need to prepare it for several days if you want to definitely have it on the day of your flight. Does Iomedae also grant anti-nausea spells?"

"There is Remove Sickness at first circle. It will last less than an hour."

"If you have room for it, one for takeoff and one for landing might not be amiss, those are times when flights are particularly turbulent."

Nod.

"If there is a really serious problem, the kind that's very rare, the plane may make an emergency landing in the water or a field or such. If it does this, we will need to leave the plane immediately, because once it lands in conditions like that it's likely to start burning or sinking. The usual advice for this is to not stop to grab personal possessions. We really don't want you to lose your spell page, so if you could tuck it under your shirt or such so that grabbing it won't take any time in this scenario, that would be nice. We can put it in a watertight bag or such. If we do a water landing, there will probably be time for you to put on a flotation vest – that's a vest full of air – first, and the plane will probably release inflatable rafts. If you get out of a plane after an emergency landing you should not go back in for other people. …Unless the pilot thinks it's a good idea for some reason, I suppose."

"I can prepare a Communal Water Walk... Will the vest work even if I am wearing my armor? Why should I not go back in for other people?"

"I don't know if the usual vest will work, but we can weigh you in and out of armor and tell them to have something around that will. Regarding you not going back in: a plane situation can get worse fast, and you in particular staying alive is high-priority."

"The armor weighs forty pounds. The gambeson probably picks up a lot of weight if I go underwater."