‘I hope you’re right,’ said Fian. ‘I felt I had to point out the aliens could be far more advanced now than when they made that sphere, but I was wasting my time. Leveque enjoyed making fun of me, pointing out I was only a history student and making sarcastic jokes about time travel.’
I’d seen Fian in this dark mood before, after his sister was nominated for an award. It had worried me until I worked out what was going on. Fian’s relatives were all brilliant scientific researchers. Fian had stood up for himself, chosen to study history because he loved it, but he knew his family considered him a failure. Now Leveque’s comments had stung him in a sensitive area. I tried my best to help.
‘I saw the way Leveque was watching you. He was listening to what you said and taking it seriously.’
Fian shook his head. ‘No one’s interested in anything I have to say. The Colonel only brought me here because I’m your boyfriend. Judging from what he said after the Solar 5 rescue, he was very fond of your grandmother. You’re her Honour Child, so he takes an interest in us. He knew this base would be full of Military officers, all admiring the girl wearing the Artemis, and he wanted to give me a chance to hang on to my girlfriend.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. The Military officers won’t be interested in me, and I’m certainly not interested in them. Why should I be when we’re Twoing?’
‘We’re halfway through our three-month Twoing contract, but we’re still not wearing rings,’ said Fian in a pointed voice.
I felt sick. ‘We’ve been around this before and I explained I’m not the sort of person who wears jewellery.’
‘Couldn’t you try being the sort of person who wears my Twoing ring?’
My best chance of escaping another ring discussion was by using shock tactics. I carefully gauged Fian’s position relative to the couch, went in low, and threw him over one shoulder. He made a perfect landing on the cushions, and I pinned him down. He didn’t put up any resistance at all as his startled face slowly changed to a grin.
‘Do you know why you don’t need to worry about me being interested in other men?’ I asked.
‘Why?’
‘Because you’ve got the nicest butt in the Military.’
‘Jarra!’ The poor little Deltan looked quite grazzed. ‘That’s … rude.’
‘There were times in pre-history when that word could be used in polite conversation,’ I told him, smugly. ‘Haven’t you seen the ancient vids from back before Exodus? They didn’t just use the words for the restricted body areas, they sometimes showed them too!’
‘Those vids were censored in Delta sector,’ said Fian. ‘They edited out inappropriate words and covered up the body areas.’
I gave him a suspicious look. ‘I only saw the censored versions at school too, but now we’re history students we can access the originals if we want. Didn’t you look at some when you started the course? I know Krath did, because I overheard him telling Joth about a vid he’d found with lots of swimming pool scenes.’
‘I never understood why Krath and Joth are such friends,’ said Fian. ‘Krath’s got no sense socially, but he’s quite reliable on practical things, while Joth’s exactly the opposite way around.’
I was even more suspicious now. ‘Fian Andrej Eklund, stop dodging the question!’
He sighed and spoke in a morally superior tone of voice. ‘What people said and did back in pre-history is irrelevant. Only people in Beta sector use that word now. Everywhere else people just say legs, and you can tell which bit they mean by the tone of their voice when …’ He broke off his sentence. ‘Stop giggling at me!’
‘You did! You watched the vids!’
Fian gave up pretending he was a virtuous Deltan. ‘Well, yes, I did look at a couple of vids, but it was just out of curiosity and because Krath said … You really think I have nice legs?’
‘Definitely,’ I said. ‘I’ve been waiting for hours to undress Arrack San Domex. Of course, you don’t have to do anything that’s against Deltan moral standards. Candace is worried that I push you around.’
Fian donned an expression of martyrdom. ‘Go ahead. You’re a Major. I’m a Captain. You can push me around all I like.’
I frowned. ‘Didn’t you get that last bit wrong? You said I, when you meant you.’
He laughed. ‘I said exactly what I meant, Jarra.’
7
Next morning, Fian had accepted Military Security weren’t going to arrest him and was much more cheerful, but I was having my own confidence crisis. I stood in the corridor outside the closed door of the dining hall for Accommodation Green, wishing I could turn around and run away.
‘Something wrong?’ asked Fian.
‘I’m just panicking. I have to eat breakfast in a room full of Military officers, and then go and tell eight famous pre-history experts that I’m their new team leader. I’m not sure which scares me most.’
‘Why are you worried about breakfast? You survived eating dinner with Colonel Torrek last night.’
‘I didn’t have to worry what Colonel Torrek thought about me being here. He was the one who called us in. The people in there,’ I pointed at the door, ‘belong to the Attack team. They have to sit in the fighters surrounding that sphere, not knowing if it’ll turn out to be friend or foe. They have to wait for it to fire first, knowing they may not survive that attack, knowing they’re expendable.’
Fian pulled a face. ‘It must take some special people to do that job.’
‘I feel such a fake,’ I said. ‘I’ve been given the Artemis for tagging a few rocks, I’ve been made a Major to impress a few history experts, but the people in there are true heroes.’
I forced myself to open the door, we entered the dining hall, and for a moment it was oddly similar to going into breakfast with my classmates. People were clustered around tables, eating and chattering away in eager voices.
That first impression lasted only a second before the differences hit me. The tables and chairs were fancier than the basic grey flexiplas ones in a dig site dome. There was real food laid out as well as a row of food dispensers. The people were obviously older than my classmates, and they were wearing Military uniform instead of a motley assortment of casual clothes from five different sectors. The main difference though, was that my classmates didn’t stand and salute me when I came in for breakfast.
Correction, I thought. These people weren’t saluting me; they were saluting the Artemis medal and the tradition of courage and sacrifice it represented. I was a hollow mockery of the legendary names on the Artemis role of honour, but I owned the shoulder the medal was pinned to and should respond with dignity. I saluted back and gave the nod that allowed everyone to relax and sit down.
The worst moment was over, and I felt exuberant with relief as I followed Fian over to the food. ‘Amaz, there’s cheese fluffle!’
‘You want cheese fluffle for breakfast?’ Fian looked at me incredulously. ‘You’re serious?’
‘Fian, you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted cheese fluffle on toasted wafer.’
He watched me load up a plate. ‘Didn’t you have cheese fluffle last night?’
‘Fian, I will have cheese fluffle morning, noon and night if I can get it. Dome food dispensers never have it, so whenever I get the chance … Just try a mouthful and you’ll understand. It’s utter blizz!’
He shook his head and filled us two glasses of frujit. ‘I don’t really like cheese.’
‘Deltans,’ I grumbled. ‘They’re not allowed sex or cheese.’
Fian nearly spilt the frujit as he burst out laughing. When he recovered, we went across to an empty table and sat down. A lot of people were looking at us, but I tried to ignore them and relax.
‘How will you handle the meeting with your team?’ asked Fian.
I savoured a joyous mouthful of cheese fluffle on toasted wafer. ‘Not sure. These people are famous experts in theoretical pre-history.’ I brought up the list of names on my forearm lookup. ‘Just take a look.’
r /> Fian leaned over and read them through. ‘Amaz!’
I realized someone had come over to our table, a man in his late twenties, with a tangle of jet-black hair above a strikingly handsome face. He wore a Major’s insignia like my own, and didn’t bother with the excessive saluting, just gave us a friendly smile.
‘Sorry to interrupt,’ he said. ‘I wanted to introduce myself. You’re Jarra Tell Morrath, of course.’ The Major nodded at the Artemis on my shoulder. ‘I’m Drago Tell Dramis. We share a couple of great-grandparents.’
‘We do? Totally zan!’ Since my parents died, I’d exchanged a couple of impersonal recorded messages with my older brother and sister, but I’d never expected to meet them or any other relatives. I was so grazzed that I stared at Drago for several seconds before I remembered to introduce Fian. ‘This is Fian Eklund.’
Drago nodded briefly at Fian. ‘Captain.’
Fian nodded back. ‘Major.’ He didn’t sound too friendly about it.
I gestured at a spare chair and Drago sat down. ‘My condolences on the death of your parents,’ he said. ‘I had the honour to be a banner bearer at their memorial service. They were fine officers.’
‘I didn’t have much chance to …’ My voice was shaking so I broke off in mid-sentence.
Fian reached out to take my hand, and faced Drago aggressively. ‘This is a very distressing subject for Jarra.’
‘My apologies,’ said Drago. ‘I didn’t …’
‘No,’ I interrupted. ‘There’s no way I can run away from this. I’m on a Military base, and everything keeps reminding me.’ I paused. ‘Drago, if you were at the memorial service, you’ll be able to tell me what happened to them.’
He frowned. ‘I thought you were told.’
‘A General called me, but my head was …’ I pulled a face. ‘I was suffering from shock and missed the details. All I know is they were on a Planet First assignment, things went wrong, and everyone had to abandon the planet and portal out. My parents were in the last group on the defensive perimeter and didn’t make it back to the portals.’
‘Your parents were commanding the Planet First team on K19448,’ said Drago.
‘Commanding?’ I blankly repeated the word. ‘I hadn’t realized …’
‘Does a behaviour event mean anything to you?’
I shook my head.
‘It’s when a known species has a sudden and radical change in behaviour, and sometimes its physical characteristics as well. It’s often related to a breeding cycle, and happens at intervals of anything between months and many years. Every planet has behaviour events. Some are harmless, or even spectacularly lovely, like the three-yearly firefly clouds of Danae. Some are nasty, with an apparently harmless species suddenly becoming lethally savage.’
‘That’s what happened on K19448?’
‘Yes,’ said Drago. ‘We can’t instantly abandon every planet that goes into a behaviour event, or we wouldn’t have any colony worlds. By the time you know exactly what’s happening, things can be serious. On K19448, a widespread winged herbivore suddenly turned into a carnivore soldier species and …’
‘I see,’ I said.
Drago hesitated. ‘I don’t know if it helps, but K19448 is on the salvage list. Planet First teams will be going back there.’
‘What will they do?’
‘Globally exterminate the problem species, after which there’s every chance K19448 will become a new colony world for Kappa sector. The ecologists complain about global exterminations, but they’re sometimes necessary to make the inhabited continent safe. We have to remember civilizations can run into trouble. After Exodus century, we nearly lost portal technology entirely, protective measures failed on some planets and dangerous species reached their inhabited continents. It took over a hundred years to clear up the mess, and we don’t want it happening again.’
I pictured my parents trying to retreat to the portals, and being mobbed by winged creatures with teeth and claws capable of ripping through protective impact suits. ‘I like animals, but …’
Drago nodded. ‘Tellon Blaze said it during the Thetis disaster. Any ecologist who wants to cry over the chimera being exterminated should be locked up in a room with one.’
‘I’d like K19448 to become a colony world,’ I said. ‘I know my parents served on other Planet First assignments, and some of those worlds are being colonized, but they died on this one so …’
I broke off, having a nardle emotional moment. Every world in the sectors had its memorial to the Military who made it safe for colonization. One day, people might live on K19448, hold solemn ceremonies at the memorial every Founders Day, and name their settlements after my parents.
Drago gave an understanding nod, and abruptly switched his attention to Fian. ‘You’re wearing the Earth Star, Captain Eklund, so you helped with the Solar 5 rescue as well.’
Fian nodded. ‘Jarra and I were students working on the New York Dig Site. We signed up for our Twoing contract during the solar super storm.’
‘I didn’t realize you were Twoing,’ said Drago. ‘You don’t wear rings.’
I saw the irritation on Fian’s face, and urgently forced my emotions back under control. ‘We haven’t got around to getting them yet.’
I glanced at Drago’s multitude of medals, looking for an excuse to change the subject. The first of them looked a bit like the Thetis, but it was an odd rectangular shape that was entirely wrong for any medal I knew. I skipped on to the next, which was the traditional disc shape and showed a comet image. ‘Isn’t that the Hera? You were in the comet blockade?’
Drago groaned. ‘Extremely briefly. I was fresh from training, the idiot raw recruit on your brother Jaxon’s team, and I crashed my fighter in the first wave. Incredibly embarrassing. Asteroid one, Drago nil. I knocked myself about a bit in the crash, so of course they gave me a medal. Now I can never live it down.’
‘You’re in the Attack team now, flying a fighter?’ I asked, eagerly.
He nodded. ‘I’m leading second shift. We launch at nine, and it takes us half an hour to crawl at an unthreatening pace into our positions and relieve the first shift. We’re main attack for four hours, then third shift relieve us and we dawdle back out to the portals again.’
‘Where do you launch from? Earth Africa solar array?’
‘No. We launch from here.’
I heard Fian mutter something, but I ignored him. ‘Zan! Fighters can fly in atmosphere?’
Drago laughed. ‘We’re flying ones designed for space. I wouldn’t want to do anything fancy with them in a gravity pit, but all we have to do is take them off the ground on hovers and dive straight through a portal into orbit.’
‘I’d love to see them,’ I said, wistfully. ‘I’ve only flown survey aircraft at the dig sites.’
‘You’re a pilot?’ Drago grinned. ‘I could take you over there one day and show you my fighter. You can see the pre-checks and watch us launch.’
‘Zan!’ I cried again.
‘Just stop there,’ interrupted Fian. ‘Jarra is Handicapped. She can’t portal off world, and she mustn’t take a fighter through a portal into orbit.’
‘I realize that,’ said Drago, giving him a bewildered look. ‘The whole base knows about the Artemis, and her Handicap, and I’d never suggest …’
‘You wouldn’t have to suggest anything,’ cut in Fian grimly, ‘I’ve seen it all before, and I know exactly what Jarra’s planning. The pre-checks one day, a ride as passenger the next, then she gets her hands on the controls and …’
‘Fian! I’m not completely stupid,’ I said, indignantly. ‘I know I can’t mess about near the alien sphere, so …’
‘So …’ he repeated. ‘Admit it. You wouldn’t go near the alien sphere, but you aren’t ruling out flying a fighter into orbit despite your Handicap.’
‘I know I can’t go to other worlds, but this would only be Earth orbit, and that’s really just like being on Earth.’
Fian shook his head.
‘Have any of the Handicapped ever tried it?’
‘For all we know, one of the men who went to the moon back in the twentieth century could have been Handicapped,’ I said. ‘Nobody knew this Handicap existed until the invention of the first interstellar portals, and after that only the Military went anywhere in Sol system other than Earth itself, because they do the things like running the solar arrays. I must be the first Handicapped in the Military, so …’
‘You mustn’t try it, Jarra,’ said Fian. ‘It would be utterly stupid to have your immune system fail when you’re in a fighter. You only have two minutes to get back to Earth before you die. I’ve scanned everything I could about it. Newborns have longer, because of the effect of their mother’s immune system, but you’d get a maximum of two minutes.’
I sighed. ‘I suppose you’re right.’
Fian turned to a grazzed Drago. ‘You see what I have to cope with?’
Drago nodded. ‘Well, rides in my fighter are totally out of the question. If I can help with anything else, Jarra, then just ask. You’re not just one of my clan, but Jaxon’s baby sister as well.’ He paused. ‘Time for me to go.’
He stood up and shouted loudly. ‘Attack shift 2, pre-flight is in fifteen. Time to suit up.’
A lot of figures stood up and followed Drago out of the room. I didn’t bother counting them. There were sixteen fighters guarding the alien sphere at any one time, so there would be sixteen men and women on Attack shift 2. In half an hour, they would launch their ships through portals into Earth orbit. In an hour’s time, they would be in position, facing an alien craft of unknown abilities and intentions. Me, I was stuck here on Earth.
‘What did he mean, Jarra?’ asked Fian.
I was still wistfully staring at the door. ‘What about?’
‘Drago Tell Dramis said you were one of his clan. Did he mean clan as in Betan clan?’
My head snapped around to look at Fian so quickly that I felt giddy for a second. ‘He can’t have meant …’