Earth Flight

  ‘Petra,’ said Steen’s voice in instant accusation.

  ‘Not Petra,’ said Raven. ‘The bomb was brought here while we were working on the dig site.’

  ‘You can’t be sure of that,’ said Steen.

  ‘I am sure of it!’ snapped Raven. ‘I’m not completely incompetent. I run constant sensor checks for threats, and this dome was totally clean when we left it.’

  ‘But I …’

  Playdon interrupted the argument. ‘Rono, I’m going to Zulu base with my injured students. Can you take charge here?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Rono.

  ‘But I still think …’ Steen tried to speak again.

  Rono turned to face him. ‘Steen, if you don’t shut up, I’ll throw you in the pool to demonstrate that people wearing impact suits sink like rocks!’

  Ten minutes later, I was lying on a bed in the Medical Centre at Military Base 79 Zulu, while the Medical team leader waved a scanner at me.

  ‘I’m perfectly all right!’ I wailed at her. ‘You should be taking care of Amalie and Krath, not wasting time on me. There’s a piece of metal stuck in Krath’s arm, and Amalie’s face …’

  I broke off my sentence because the memory of Amalie’s face made me feel queasy and horribly, dreadfully guilty. I’d known that agreeing to my clan’s plan, defying the prejudiced, would make me a target. I hadn’t thought an attack could injure not just me and Fian, but my other friends as well. People could be dead right now and it would be my fault. I’d been stupid, stupid, stupid!

  ‘They’re receiving treatment, Commander,’ said the Medical team leader. ‘Your own injury is potentially far more dangerous. You were hit on the head by a metal bolt and knocked unconscious.’

  ‘I’m fine now.’

  She sighed. ‘Possible brain injury must be taken extremely seriously. Even massive injuries to the rest of the body can be successfully treated in full body regrowth tanks, but there are strict legal controls on the regrowth of brain tissue since it can result in loss of memory and personality.’

  She frowned at her scanner, turned round to reach for something, and I felt the distinctive chill of something being sprayed into my neck.

  ‘What was that?’ I asked.

  ‘Medication to prevent concussion. You can sit up now, Commander.’

  I hastily sat up, swung my legs over the side of the bed, and stood up.

  The Medical team leader sighed again. ‘Please avoid exercise for the next twenty-four hours, and report any symptoms of nausea.’

  I opened my mouth to say that my only symptoms of nausea were when I thought about Amalie’s face, but thought better of it. Any mention of feeling sick would probably get me imprisoned in the Medical Centre for days.

  I hurried out of the room into the adjoining waiting area, and nearly collided with Playdon. ‘Where are …?’

  I let the words trail off into nothing, as I saw Krath and Amalie sitting in the corner of the room. They were wearing sleeveless hospital robes over their skintights, and Krath had his right arm protectively around Amalie. He had a grey regrowth unit wrapped round his left upper arm, while Amalie had a red regrowth unit covering one side of her face, like some peculiarly lop-sided insect carapace.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said. ‘This is all my fault.’

  ‘It’s the nuking bomber’s fault, not yours,’ said Krath.

  ‘But the bomb was aimed at me. Civilians shouldn’t have to cope with things like this. Amalie’s face …’

  Amalie spoke in a slow, slurred, but determined voice. ‘My face will be perfectly healed by tomorrow. Anyway, we aren’t civilians, Jarra, we’re archaeologists!’

  I was torn between tears and laughter at her words. Before I could give way to either, three more people entered the room. Fian, Raven, and Colonel Leveque.

  ‘Jarra, how is your head?’ asked Fian.

  I ignored him, turning to Colonel Leveque instead. ‘Sir, we can’t stay with our class any longer. We’re putting their lives at risk!’

  ‘I’ve already had this conversation with Major Eklund,’ said Colonel Leveque. ‘For security reasons you will both remain at Military Base 79 Zulu until after the Tell clan ceremony is safely over.’

  I relaxed. Zulu base held the Alien Contact programme and was running on code black security protocols. No enemies could reach us here.

  12

  Fian ate his last mouthful of breakfast, and sat back in his chair to watch me stuffing myself with cheese fluffle on toasted wafer. He sighed. ‘I still can’t believe the Supplies team added cheese fluffle to this apartment food dispenser especially for Jarra.’

  Raven left the table for a moment to get himself another glass of frujit. ‘The whole base knows Jarra’s addicted to cheese fluffle, so of course Supplies added it to her food dispenser. She’s a Commander and that’s only one step down from full Colonel.’

  I paused between joyous mouthfuls. ‘How does everyone know about me and cheese fluffle?’

  ‘The Military work together and live together,’ said Raven. ‘Everyone knows everything about everybody.’

  I finished eating, checked the time, and groaned.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ asked Fian.

  ‘I have to call Rayne Tar Cameron,’ I said, ‘and she scares me to death.’

  Fian laughed. ‘Order Raven to do it.’

  ‘That would be cowardly.’

  I took a deep breath and tapped at my lookup. Major Tar Cameron’s face appeared on the screen, with an expression that was several degrees less icy than I expected. ‘Command Support. How can I help you, Commander?’

  ‘I’m afraid Major Eklund and I need some new uniforms. Military Security salvaged what they could of our belongings, but as you can see our uniforms got a bit battered in the explosion.’ I gestured at the jacket I was wearing.

  ‘We’ll send uniforms to you immediately, Commander,’ she said in a briskly efficient voice. ‘Does your bodyguard require replacement uniforms too?’

  ‘No, Raven’s things were stored in a room outside the blast area.’

  ‘If any other items need replacing, then just give us details. We can order any non-Military items from civilian sources for you.’

  I pictured the frosty Rayne ordering sleep suits and underwear for me, and held back a shudder. I’d do my own shopping.

  ‘Allow me to wish you and Major Eklund every happiness on your betrothal,’ she added.

  ‘Uh, thank you.’ I ended the call and shook my head. ‘That’s odd. Rayne Tar Cameron has always reminded me of my school science teacher, but this time she didn’t complain about anything, or even give me the disapproving look that makes me feel like an Adonis slime worm.’

  ‘Is this the first time you’ve spoken to her since your promotion, Jarra?’ asked Raven.

  ‘Yes. She’s just been sending me recorded messages, not … I suppose the promotion does make a difference. It was chaos ridiculous though, promoting me to Commander.’

  Raven grinned. ‘The whole of humanity watched you two contact the alien sphere. Even High Congress accepted the Military had to promote you after that.’

  ‘Well, I’m not complaining about Jarra’s rank, since it gets us this huge apartment,’ said Fian. ‘You could have a proper bedroom for yourself, Raven, instead of sleeping on the living room floor.’

  ‘I prefer to guard the apartment door. It’s …’ Raven broke off as his lookup chimed. He studied it anxiously for several minutes while Fian and I waited in suspense. I finally gave in and asked.

  ‘Something wrong?’

  He looked up at me. ‘No, it’s just the preliminary report on the bombing. The analysis of my hand sensor’s records confirms I scanned that area immediately before we left the dome and it was totally clear.’

  He leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair with a sigh.

  Fian frowned. ‘Why are you looking so relieved? You knew you’d done that.’

  ‘I knew it was part of my automatic rout
ine,’ said Raven, ‘but I couldn’t specifically remember doing it yesterday, any more than I could specifically remember breathing. I spent half the night worrying that I’d somehow forgotten, missed detecting that explosive device, and it was my fault people were injured.’

  I was grazzed. I’d been so busy blaming myself that I hadn’t realized poor Raven was feeling guilty too.

  ‘You did everything perfectly,’ said Fian. ‘You probably saved our lives, because if we’d carried on walking into the blast zone with our impact suit hoods down …’ He pulled a pained face.

  ‘You were right about Petra then,’ I said. ‘She couldn’t have planted the bomb. Everyone in both our class and Cassandra 2 were working on the dig site.’

  ‘Given the civilian injuries, it’s impractical to attempt to keep news of the bombing secret,’ said Raven. ‘An official statement is being released to the news channels. You are advised that any details not included in that statement should be regarded as completely confidential.’

  Fian laughed. ‘That doesn’t sound like you, Raven. You’re quoting Leveque.’

  Raven nodded. ‘This report came from him. One of the maintenance staff carried out the regular service and restock of the food dispensers yesterday morning. The explosive device was hidden in a box of food cartons that she delivered to the store room next to your rooms. Military Security believe she was completely ignorant of the contents of the box, so someone else must have tampered with it.’

  I suddenly felt a lot more cheerful. For some nardle reason, it was comforting to know that no enemy had reached our dome, or entered the room I shared with Fian. There’d just been someone innocently delivering a box to the store room.

  Raven suddenly laughed. ‘Well, this explains why Rayne Tar Cameron was so eager to please you, Jarra.’

  ‘It does?’ I frowned. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because her Command Support team were supposed to make sure everything delivered to your dome was checked by Military Security, but they somehow overlooked the items being brought by maintenance people. It was Rayne’s deputy, Captain Lorin, who made the mistake, not her, but her whole team will have had a withering lecture from Colonel Leveque. She probably thought you were calling to complain as well.’

  Only minutes later, there was a chime from the apartment door. Raven jumped up, used the door controls to check who was outside, then opened the door to show a man with a rack of uniforms.

  ‘I’m Captain Marston, sirs,’ he said. ‘Major Tar Cameron sent me with your replacement uniforms.’

  Raven used a hand sensor to check the uniforms before he allowed them inside the apartment. Two days ago, Fian and I would have been amused by his paranoia. After yesterday’s explosion, we didn’t find it funny.

  After Marston had gone, Raven closed the door, and stood there looking at it for a moment.

  ‘Something wrong?’ I asked.

  Raven blushed. ‘No. I was interested to see Qwin Marston. He’s just been transferred here after getting betrothed to Rayne Tar Cameron, so the whole base is gossiping about him.’

  ‘Rayne Tar Cameron is betrothed?’ Fian grinned. ‘I always thought she was an illegal robot, not a real human being with emotions.’

  ‘I should have asked Marston what Betan betrothals are like,’ I said.

  Fian and I took the uniform rack into our bedroom and changed clothes, then went back to the living room to call Dalmora and check how Amalie and Krath were recovering. I was hugely relieved to find all three of them together, and Amalie’s face perfectly healed.

  ‘My face looked dreadful because it was bleeding so much, but it was just a straightforward cut,’ said Amalie. ‘The bone in Krath’s arm was chipped, so he needs to keep the regrowth unit on for a few more hours.’

  Krath pulled a face that was probably supposed to look stoic and brave, but looked more like he had indigestion.

  ‘We’ll be camping in the Cassandra 2 dome hall for a couple of days, while Military Security repair our own dome,’ said Dalmora. ‘Lecturer Playdon says he’ll be sending you vids of the lectures you miss.’

  I laughed and ended the call, feeling bouncy with relief at seeing my friends looking themselves again.

  ‘If the Military are going to make a statement about the bombing, we’d better send messages to everyone telling them we’re all right,’ said Fian.

  I nodded. ‘Good idea. I don’t want Candace getting worried again.’

  Fian and I recorded brief messages and sent them out, then I turned to Raven. ‘I was wondering … You know we had to answer some tests before we could send the signal to the alien sphere?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I watched the vid coverage.’

  ‘A friend of mine from Next Step, Keon, solved the last test when no one else could.’

  Raven nodded.

  ‘The Military have called him in as a civilian adviser to help decode the light signals from the alien sphere.’

  ‘I’m aware of this.’

  There seemed something odd about Raven’s voice. He was probably puzzled by me telling him all this, so I hurried on with my explanation. ‘Keon’s Twoing with my best friend, Issette, and she’s moved to live with him at Zulu base. During the day, Keon will be working and Issette will have classes for her Medical Foundation course, but I wondered if we could go and see them this evening.’

  ‘I don’t see any reason why not,’ said Raven in that odd voice.

  We spent the morning on the painful task of sorting through the crates of our mangled possessions, watched vids of Playdon’s lectures in the afternoon, then went to visit Issette and Keon. Colonel Leveque was obviously being extra cautious after the bombing, because he sent a team of four Military Security officers to escort us.

  We went down the corridor to the nearest base internal portal, two of the Military Security officers went through the portal ahead of us, followed by Raven, then Fian and me, and finally the other two Military Security officers. I was embarrassed that a simple visit to my friends was causing so much trouble.

  Last time I’d been at Military Base 79 Zulu, it was just an array of huge domes set up at lightning speed on a suitable area of flat grassland. Now I was looking at houses in what could have been a standard Earth settlement. ‘What are the big buildings over there?’

  ‘That’s the Military school,’ said Raven, ‘with a residence next to it for children whose parents are away on assignment. Base gossip says Colonel Leveque and Colonel Stone’s children are arriving from Kappa sector tomorrow.’

  ‘I didn’t know they had children,’ said Fian.

  ‘A 14-year-old girl, and 10-year-old twin boys,’ said Raven. ‘Everyone’s placing bets on whether they keep reciting percentages like their father.’

  I laughed, not just at the joke about Colonel Leveque, but at Raven being an expert on base gossip. Presumably it was part of a bodyguard’s job to be aware of everything that was going on.

  Issette and Keon’s house was a short distance down road 6. I was startled to see it had square walls instead of being the standard dome shape. Issette had sent me a long recorded message about how wonderful their house was, but I still hadn’t expected anything quite this luxurious. I touched the doorplate, and a moment later the door opened.

  ‘Jarra, Jarra, Jarra!’ Issette beamed at me, then her expression changed to a glare as she saw Raven. ‘What’s that exo doing here?’

  ‘Raven’s our bodyguard,’ I said. ‘What’s the problem?’

  ‘He arrested Keon!’ said Issette.

  I stared at Raven. ‘You arrested Keon? When? Why?’

  Raven took a nervous step backwards. ‘Before I was assigned as your bodyguard, and because Colonel Leveque ordered me to.’

  I waved my arms in despair. ‘It made sense for Leveque to arrest Petra and my ProDad, but why arrest Keon? We’d never have contacted the sphere without him.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Raven. ‘Colonel Leveque naturally recruited Keon to assist in the research effort. Keon
said it sounded like too much effort and refused, so Leveque ordered me to arrest him.’

  I groaned. ‘Keon was always refusing to do things at school. It drove the teachers crazy.’

  ‘Surely even the legendarily lazy Keon Tanaka knew he’d never get away with that approach with the Military,’ said Fian. ‘He isn’t still locked in a cell, is he?’

  ‘Of course not.’ Keon appeared from inside the house and grinned at us. ‘Leveque proved he could make me extremely uncomfortable, I proved he couldn’t make me think up answers for him, then we started to negotiate.’

  I frowned at him. ‘How could you be so stupid?’

  Keon shook his head. ‘I helped solve a single test, and I’m now a highly paid senior grade civilian adviser, with a luxurious house, my own lab, and a team of research assistants. You and Fian actually contacted the alien sphere, but you’re not just still studying history and living in primitive accommodation on a dig site, you’ve got people throwing skunk juice at you and trying to blow you up. Consider which of us is stupid.’

  Fian laughed. ‘Keon’s got a point there.’

  I ignored him. ‘For chaos sake, Keon. Contacting an alien civilization is a pivotal point in human history that could affect the future survival of our species. You should be doing everything you can to help, not demanding fancy houses.’

  Keon’s grin grew wider. ‘I see no reason why I can’t help and have a fancy house for me and Issette. The Alien Contact programme has an unlimited budget.’

  ‘Can we please go inside before we attract attention?’ Raven waved his hand sensor at the house.

  ‘I’m not having him in our house,’ said Issette.

  ‘Fian and I would have been killed in that explosion if it wasn’t for Raven,’ I said.

  ‘Oh.’ Issette thought about that for a moment, and her glare changed to grudging acceptance. ‘Well, in that case …’

  The four Military Security officers stayed on guard outside, while the rest of us went into the house. Issette insisted on immediately giving us a tour, so we trailed round after her, dutifully making admiring noises at each room. When we arrived in a room dedicated to Issette’s old fluffy toys, including the deeply treasured, purple object called Whoopiz the Zen, I asked a question that had been worrying me.