‘Issette, when you moved here to join Keon, you transferred from your Medical Foundation course in Europe to one in America. Isn’t transferring courses bad for your studies?’
She shook her head. ‘Things were getting really difficult in my old class. Everyone goes a bit wild when they escape from all the rules in Next Step, but some of the class were taking things too far. You can’t expect lecturers to keep teaching when the students are throwing things at them.’
I blinked, imagining how fast Playdon would deal with students like that.
We moved on to the last room in the house. At first, I thought it was totally empty except for a black cube, but then I saw creepy, dimly glowing holo caterpillars crawling round the walls and ceiling. I backed nervously towards the doorway. ‘What the chaos?’
‘It’s a test I’m running to analyse the light signals from the alien sphere.’ Keon sighed. ‘It’s not supposed to be doing that.’
We retreated to a room with lots of cushform chairs and a huge wall vid. Issette handed round glasses of frujit, and then started telling us about the regrowth tank work she was doing on her new course. Given Fian and I had both spent time in full body regrowth tanks recently, I could have done without some of the more gruesome medical details. I was relieved when she started chattering about the house again.
Being here with Issette and Keon should have been just like the old days when we lived in Next Step, but Fian was sharing a cushform chair with me, and an Adonis Knight was sitting, quietly watchful, in the corner. I was oddly aware of the division between Military uniforms and casual civilian clothes, grouping me with the off-worlders rather than the Handicapped friends of my childhood.
Keon gave Issette an indulgent look. ‘Issette’s dreamed of a proper house of her own ever since Nursery.’
Fian grinned. ‘Jarra never seems to care about where we live.’
‘Jarra cares about family not houses,’ said Keon. ‘All through Nursery, Home and Next Step, she claimed she didn’t care that her parents had abandoned her, but it obviously bothered her more than any of us.’
I glared at him. ‘You’re talking rubbish.’
‘Really? You don’t want to have a family? Given what you’re putting yourself through to join this Betan clan …’
‘Stop playing psychologist, Keon!’
Fian laughed. ‘Why does Jarra have such a huge problem with psychologists?’
‘Because she was test group,’ said Keon. ‘All of us in test group were left hating psychologists. Issette thinks they’re wonderful, but she was in control group and they just had to do some standard behaviour and development tests.’
Fian frowned. ‘What do you mean by test group and control group?’
‘When we were 8-year-olds in Home, some off-world researchers used us in their psychology experiment,’ said Keon. ‘There were three Homes in our settlement and all the kids were split between test group and control group.’
I groaned. ‘I’d really rather forget about …’
Fian interrupted me in a sharp voice. ‘Why were they experimenting on you?’
‘Researchers always use Handicapped kids in their experiments,’ said Keon.
‘But that’s outrageous.’ Raven suddenly joined in the conversation. ‘The protection of humanity laws strictly regulate experiments on children.’
Keon shrugged. ‘Some people would argue Handicapped kids aren’t human so those laws don’t apply, but it doesn’t matter anyway because Hospital Earth has guardian authority over its wards. Researchers just have to ask them to get permission to use a group of us.’
Raven shook his head. ‘Hospital Earth are supposed to care for their wards, not let people experiment on them!’
‘They don’t let them do anything too drastic to us of course.’ Keon gave a cynical laugh. ‘If a researcher accidentally killed a whole batch of ape kids, the board members might miss out on their vast Year End performance bonuses. This particular lot of researchers were studying our reactions to insects. Maeth’s still got a phobia about them.’
I didn’t have a phobia about insects, but I had highly unpleasant memories of those tests, so I changed the subject. ‘Maeth’s last message to me was really peculiar. Is anything wrong?’
‘She’s just jealous,’ said Issette. ‘We’re all jealous about you joining your clan of course, but Maeth’s really envious of all the fuss on the newzies about your betrothal as well.’
She turned to Raven. ‘Our friends, Maeth and Ross, have been planning their wedding for years, but under Earth law they couldn’t even have a Twoing contract until they were 18 and legally adult. They still can’t get married until they’ve completed three Twoing contracts adding up to at least a year.’
‘Cathan’s sulking too, Jarra,’ said Keon. ‘He keeps sending us all whining messages about how you’re really his girlfriend, so he should be the one joining your clan, be in the Military, and have an Adonis Knight guarding him.’
I shook my head in despair. ‘I dumped Cathan over a year ago!’
‘His ego still won’t accept you really meant it.’ Keon laughed. ‘I can sympathize with him a little. I can’t help thinking that if I’d handled things differently, I could be Twoing with you myself.’
He winked at Issette. ‘When I imagine the life I could be leading now, it gives me nightmares. Wearing a hideously uncomfortable impact suit. Working on a dig site with ruins collapsing on my head. Having skunk juice thrown at me, and people trying to blow me up. Worst of all, being constantly ordered around by Jarra.’
‘I don’t order Fian around!’ I turned to Fian for support. ‘Do I?’
‘No, sir!’ said Fian, cowering theatrically.
I groaned. Sometimes Fian can be quite impossible.
Keon laughed. ‘Of course, you’re a Stalea of the Jungle fan, Fian, so presumably you like dominant women.’
Fian grinned. ‘Growing up in Delta sector was pretty frustrating. The rules on behaviour are incredibly strict, and girls won’t give clues about whether they want you to push the boundaries because they’re scared of being labelled shameless. I briefly had a girlfriend once, until I misread the situation and shocked her by trying to hold her hand. She was righteously horrified and instantly dumped me.’
He shrugged. ‘Anyway, Stalea of the Jungle is very popular with boys in Delta sector, because Stalea is a girl who … makes it extremely clear what she does and doesn’t want from her boyfriend. I like that about Jarra too.’
‘I can see your point,’ said Keon, ‘but I remember Jarra throwing Cathan across the room last Year Day. I’d be scared of a girlfriend who could do that.’
Keon was enjoying himself teasing me and Fian, and Issette was giggling, but I could see Raven had a look of frozen embarrassment on his face. I tried to move the conversation away from Stalea of the Jungle.
‘Fian’s no need to be scared of me, because he can throw people across the room too.’
‘Really?’ Keon gave Fian a disbelieving look.
Fian nodded. ‘Raven’s been giving us lessons in both armed and unarmed combat.’ He stood up. ‘Let me demonstrate by throwing you across the room.’
Keon hastily raised both hands in surrender. ‘No need for that! I believe you, but I still think Jarra must be terrible to live with.’
‘Oh she is,’ said Fian in a martyred voice. ‘Especially since Playdon forced her to start a remedial maths course …’
‘Nooo!’ shrieked Issette. ‘Not Jarra doing maths! When we were at school …’
She was interrupted by three Military lookups chiming in unison. I glanced down at the message that had just arrived and gasped.
‘Joint Sector High Congress Committee has ordered Fian and me to rejoin the Alien Contact programme!’ I turned to Raven. ‘I thought you said they’d only do that if they were desperate?’
He grinned. ‘High Congress are desperate, Jarra. They ordered the Military to send you two away from the safety of Zulu base. Even after the skun
k juice attack, they ignored repeated Military recommendations they should send you back. Now you’ve been injured in a bombing and the newzies are calling for resignations. The members aren’t just worried about losing their seats on the committee to some of the rising stars in Parliament of Planets, many of them are feeling personally guilty about what’s happened.’
‘Are they feeling guilty because Jarra was injured, or because norms were hurt?’ asked Keon in a cynical voice.
‘I can assure you that my uncle is feeling equally guilty about everyone who was injured,’ said Raven.
I blinked. ‘Your uncle is a member of Joint Sector High Congress Committee! I’d no idea. I’m sorry if I’ve been a bit … rude about them.’
‘You had good reason to resent their actions,’ said Raven. ‘I was unhappy about them myself.’
My lookup chimed again with another message. Fian and I weren’t just back in the Alien Contact programme, we’d be attending a command meeting tomorrow morning!
13
Raven and the same group of four Military Security officers escorted us to the command meeting. Raven paused outside the door to talk to himself for a second.
‘SECOP, we’re outside the meeting room. Is it clear inside?’
‘Guaranteed squeaky clean, Birdy,’ said a disembodied female voice. ‘We’ve got more than your two to worry about. The man himself is coming.’
Raven remained on guard outside the door, while Fian and I entered a small room with a round table surrounded by seven chairs. Three of them were already occupied. Colonel Mason Leveque sat between his wife, Colonel Nia Stone, and, unbelievably, Keon Tanaka.
I gave Keon a confused look, wondering what the chaos he was doing in a command meeting, before belatedly remembering to salute. I aimed the salute at Colonel Stone, since she and her husband were the same rank but she was the senior officer in the chain of command, commanding officer of the base and General Torrek’s deputy. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Fian carefully copying me.
Stone waved at the two seats next to her. ‘Welcome back, both of you.’
Fian and I sat down, and there was a moment or two of silence before the door opened again. Everyone stood up as two figures entered the room. I stared at them, totally grazzed. SECOP had said the man himself was coming. I’d assumed that meant General Torrek, but it hadn’t. One of those two figures was General Torrek, but the other wore a pure white uniform. Oh chaos! General Marshal Renton Mai, commander-in-chief of the Military, was here in person!
I stood rigidly at attention, facing the General Marshal while desperately watching Colonel Leveque out of the corner of my eye. I saw his arm move and matched his salute. Stomach churning, I held not just the salute, but my breath as well, until the General Marshal gave a nod. Everyone relaxed and waited until General Torrek and the General Marshal had sat down before sitting down themselves. I finally dared to breathe again.
The next few minutes passed in a blur. General Torrek said something that I instantly forgot, and then Colonel Leveque took over.
‘The sphere’s signal began repeating itself after a period of 493 hours and 11 minutes. We believe each light strand is a separate message, and we’re estimating the number of light strands as in the region of 20,000, but the situation may be even more complex than that.’
He turned to Keon, who put a black cube on the table in front of him and started talking in a relaxed voice. ‘The final test before the signal was sent to the sphere was about a technique used in laser light. I happen to know it really well, because I used it in a laser light sculpture called Phoenix Rising. I’ll use that to demonstrate it for you.’
Keon activated his cube and a light sculpture sprang to life, a mass of whirling colour that periodically fused together for a moment to form a bird with outstretched wings.
‘What’s happening here is the light strands are set up in groups of three,’ said Keon. ‘They’re constantly moving and at intervals the three strands in each group line up and use the technique I’m demonstrating to become a single combined light strand. Those combined strands form the bird in this sculpture.’
He turned off his light sculpture. ‘My analysis of the light strands coming from the alien probe shows it’s doing the same thing, but it’s keeping the light strands permanently in the combined state. If I did the same thing in my light sculpture, you’d only see the bird phase.’
‘You’re saying we haven’t got 20,000 messages to untangle and translate, but 60,000,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Why did the aliens combine them like that?’
‘To condense the data,’ said Keon. ‘Actually though, it’s far more than 60,000 messages. I played around with the idea of extending what I did with Phoenix Rising to another level, so the combined light strands are grouped in threes and can combine again to make another image. I couldn’t manage two successive combinations, but the aliens have.’
‘That gets us up to 180,000 messages,’ said General Torrek.
‘Exactly,’ said Keon, ‘but my latest test suggests it’s possible they combined at least one level further, taking it up to 540,000 messages.’
Colonel Stone frowned. ‘Over half a million messages, each lasting for almost 500 hours. What can they possibly be saying to us that takes that long?’
‘They must have sent us huge amounts of information on their culture, history and science,’ said Leveque. ‘Our problem is deciphering it. Just separating the data streams will be extremely complex, and then we have the translation problem.’
I thought of the obvious example from pre-history and winced. Leveque must have noticed my expression because he turned to me.
‘You have something to contribute, Commander Tell Morrath?’
Oh nuke, I was going to have to speak in front of the General Marshal! I thought for a second, trying to work out the best way to explain this to non-historians.
‘Language has been the official common tongue of humanity since 2280, but before then there were an unbelievable number of different written and spoken languages. There was a classic example way back in pre-history, when people spent hundreds of years trying to decipher a forgotten written language. They only managed it when they discovered the Rosetta stone, which had the same text in multiple languages. With the alien messages, we have no Rosetta stone, and we don’t even have the common reference points of being the same race, so we’ll …’
I broke off for a second. ‘Wait!’ I hammered my forehead with the palm of my right hand, trying to grasp a fleeting thread of thought. ‘I’m an idiot. Of course we have a Rosetta stone. The aliens must have known we’d have this problem, so they’ve given us some reference points!’
‘I think we need a further explanation,’ said Leveque.
‘Sorry, sir. I just …’ I took a deep breath. ‘Before we could signal the alien sphere, we had to answer some test sequences, but I think those were more than just tests. They were our Rosetta stone. When we separate out the messages from the alien sphere, one of them will be saying those sequences. That’s probably all it will be saying, repeating it over and over. The other messages will be packed full of different data, but we look for one that keeps repeating.’
‘Excellent,’ said Colonel Leveque. ‘That …’
He was interrupted by the distinctive sound of a lookup playing the first few notes of the latest song from Issette’s favourite singer, Zen Arrath. I looked in horror at Keon, then realized it was coming from the General Marshal’s lookup. The commander-in-chief of the Military was a Zen Arrath fan!
General Marshal Mai glanced down at his mail message and sighed. ‘The conflict between the two factions on Hestia is escalating, so Parliament of Planets has called an emergency session to authorize sending in peacekeeping forces to evacuate refugees. I’ll have to return to Academy to deal with that, so we’d better move on from the translation problem to the more urgent issue.’
I blinked. What was more urgent than communicating with an alien race?
&nbs
p; Colonel Leveque looked pointedly at Keon. ‘Thank you for your contribution.’
Keon tucked his light sculpture cube under his arm, stood up, and ambled out of the room. Colonel Leveque waited until the door was closed behind him before speaking.
‘The Military have been approached by a group of Hospital Earth researchers working on a cure for the Handicapped immune system problem.’
For a second, I was just bewildered by the sheer unexpectedness of his words, but then I was hit by pure fury. Hospital Earth’s researchers had been claiming to be on the verge of a breakthrough for centuries. Generations of the Handicapped had been born, lived their lives hearing empty promises of a nuking cure, reached their hundredth and died. The researchers would never achieve anything other than tormenting us with false hope. I was still struggling to think of a way to say this without swearing when Fian spoke.
‘Sirs, if Hospital Earth are suggesting Commander Tell Morrath should volunteer to test some cure then I wish to protest in the strongest possible terms. Hospital Earth’s research into this problem has already killed at least six of their test subjects.’
‘I assure you, Major, I’d never consider any such suggestion,’ said General Torrek. ‘Please listen to Colonel Leveque.’
‘You two were recently involved in the discovery of an ancient research facility in the ruins of the city of Eden,’ said Leveque. ‘Its research results had been lost in the Earth data net crash, but copies were found on data chips stored in a stasis box. Some of that research involved the Handicapped immune system problem.’
I gasped. I didn’t believe Hospital Earth’s researchers would ever find a way to help the Handicapped, but the magicians who built Eden, Ark, and the California Land Raft could do anything. ‘They’d found a cure?’
Leveque shook his head. ‘Unfortunately, they’d proved a cure was effectively impossible.’
For a split second, I’d imagined myself free to travel to Adonis, to Zeus, to any of the worlds of humanity, but it would never happen. I would never leave Earth. I stared down at the table and fought to keep my face under control.