Earth Flight

  I skimmed onwards, setting my hover belt to maximum height to clear a fallen tree, and frantically thinking. The people in the aircraft were using a Planet First incendiary weapon. They’d probably got it from the spy at Zulu base. I was wearing a standard dig site impact suit, which would protect me from fire, but only for a short time.

  I had to get to water. A stream wouldn’t help me; I needed a river or a lake. There was no lake nearby, but I could cut across to meet the river again. I tried to picture the map from memory. The river was somewhere to my right.

  I swerved right, and the trees ahead of me burst into flame. I dodged left to avoid them, then went right again. The sound of the aircraft faded, and then grew louder again as it circled for the next attack. How far was that nuking river? It should be close but …

  The world turned red, and I was burning, burning, burning, then the impact suit temperature controls brought things down to merely scorching hot and my feet landed on the ground. The heat had killed my hover belt, so I had to do my own running now.

  I forced my feet to start moving and stumbled on, blinded by flames and smoke. I made it out of the fire, looked up like a nardle at the aircraft directly overhead, and slipped. I tumbled over and over, falling helplessly, hands grabbing for ground that had totally vanished. I caught a glimpse of what was below me just before the fabric of my suit triggered, sending me into impact suit blackout.

  17

  When I drifted back to consciousness, I thought I’d had an accident on the dig site, and wondered why things were so strangely quiet. My suit comms should be squawking Mayday codes, Playdon and Fian should be yelling at me on team circuit, and Dig Site Command talking to me on auto distress channel, but the only sound was my own breathing.

  Then the memories came flooding back. I’d removed the comms unit from my suit so it couldn’t be used to locate me. I’d been running through fire with an aircraft chasing me. I’d found the river I was looking for, but it was deep down in a ravine and I’d slipped over the edge.

  I opened my eyes and saw only confusing bright mist. As I was falling, I’d seen a waterfall and a rocky cauldron of churning water. I must be underwater now.

  I heard myself whimper in fear. Dig site sensor sleds constantly checked for the six major hazards. Fire, electrical, chemical, water, radiation and magnetic. Underground waterways on a dig site could be lethal, sweeping someone away where no help could reach them. Their suit would keep recycling their air, but it would slowly grow more and more toxic until …

  ‘Don’t be a nardle,’ I yelled at myself. ‘You’re not going to suffocate. You aren’t in an underground river. You’re just at the bottom of a pool of water, you idiot, so get yourself out.’

  Impact suits are heavy. I couldn’t swim to the surface wearing mine, and if I tried taking it off then I’d probably drown before I could get free of the tightly fitting fabric. My only option was to get on my hands and knees and crawl along.

  I could see the hazy outlines of boulders through the mist of water and bubbles. They were slippery with algae, so it was a struggle to get over them. When I finally reached what must be the edge of the pool, I found only sheer vertical rock. I groped my way along it, panic rising as I found more and more cliff edge. I must have done a complete circuit of the pool by now. I was trapped!

  An accident a couple of months ago had left me with a fear of impact suits. I thought I’d defeated it, but now the old terror hit me again. I had to get out of my suit. I had to …

  I felt the shapes of small pebbles under my hands, and a much gentler slope. A minute later, I was sitting on a boulder at the edge of the water, yanking down my impact suit hood. After the Solar 5 rescue, the Military had awarded me the Artemis medal, their highest honour. Thank chaos there was no one here to see a holder of the Artemis medal shaking with fear about falling into a little pool of water.

  I put my hands over my face for a few minutes, until my breathing calmed and my nerves stopped jangling, then belatedly remembered the aircraft and looked hastily up. The steep sides of the ravine limited my view of the sky, and there was a lot of noise from the waterfall, but the aircraft seemed to have gone.

  Of course it had gone. The people aboard it would have been watching me on sensors, and seen my life sign suddenly vanish as I fell into the ravine and went deep underwater. They’d think I was dead, and they’d get away fast in case someone had seen them firing that weapon, reported it, and the Military came to investigate.

  Unfortunately, that wouldn’t happen. I was in one of Earth’s huge wilderness areas. I knew the archaeological research team were the only people near here, and their camp was on the other side of the hills so they wouldn’t have seen anything.

  I looked round for my hover bag, but it wasn’t in the pool. I picked my way across jumbled rocks to where the river rushed further on down the ravine, but still couldn’t see the bag. It probably hadn’t made it through the fire.

  No hover bag meant no lookup. No lookup meant I couldn’t call for help. I’d have to climb out of this ravine, either wearing the cumbersome impact suit, or barefoot in only my skintight.

  I looked up again and saw the smoke in the sky was getting thicker. A lot thicker. Trees had spread across Europe in the four hundred years since Exodus century, and there were forest fires every summer. The incendiary weapon must have started one, which was just about the last thing I needed right now.

  I had to think of a plan. No one would come to fight a forest fire out here in the wilderness. It would be left to burn itself out, and that could take days or even weeks. I couldn’t stay down here for days without food. Besides, the clan ceremony was tomorrow morning America time. I had to reach a portal by mid-afternoon tomorrow Europe time.

  Judging from what was happening to the smoke above me, the wind was driving the fire on through the forest towards the hills. I’d never make it through the burning forest to reach the archaeological research team. I had to get out of the trees by the shortest route possible, and head back towards the animal control barrier, but what would I do when I reached it?

  If I went through the animal control barrier again, my enemies would know I wasn’t dead and come straight back here. I’d have to stay between the forest and the barrier, which meant a choice between heading north or south. I tried to remember the map, think of somewhere this side of the barrier that might have a portal, but couldn’t.

  Well, I’d worry about that when I reached the barrier. I studied the rocky walls around me. The area near the waterfall was wet and slimy, climbing the ravine on the opposite side of the pool would leave me on the wrong side of the river, and there was a nasty overhang near the top of the cliff on this side.

  I started moving downstream, heading for where the side of the ravine sloped rather than being a sheer drop. When I reached the narrowest part of the ravine, I had to wade through the river itself. I stayed in the shallows, but still had to work my way from one jutting rock to another, clinging to them to stop myself from being swept away by the current.

  The ravine widened again, and I could get out of the water and stand on a miniature shingle beach. I had a much better view upwards now. This slope was definitely climbable, but there was acrid smoke and ash drifting in the air, and I could see a burning tree hanging over the edge of the ravine.

  I hesitated. Climbing back up into a forest fire was a totally crazy idea. I had no food, but there was plenty of water here. I could wait things out for a day or two at least. Fian would be worried sick, but …

  No, I couldn’t do that. The Fifty were going to be at the ceremony. If I didn’t show up, it would be disrespectful to them and offend every clan in Beta sector.

  I sealed my hood and started climbing the slope. My suit hampered my movements, but I needed its protection because I was being showered with debris from above. Mostly just fragments of soil and rock, but once a whole burning branch hit me, triggering one side of my suit so I had to wait for the impact suit material to relax before
I could move on.

  I slipped back down twice, but on the third attempt I finally reached the top and pulled myself cautiously over the edge. The ground was blackened and smouldering, and the trees around me were on fire. The suit air filters saved me from having to breathe the billows of filthy black smoke, but the heat would soon overload the cooling system.

  I started running, feeling my suit temperature rising, and hoping like chaos that I was going the right way. There was a flash of bright blue among the ash on the ground. The blue of my hover bag! I risked a swerve sideways to grab it, hugged it to my chest, and staggered on into the blessed normality of green trees and then out into dazzlingly bright sunlight. I’d made it!

  I’d made it out of the fire, but my suit temperature was still at burning point. I ripped the front open and yanked the hood down, gasping with relief as the smoke-scented breeze hit me. The air was still warm from either the sun or the fire, but far cooler than my suit.

  I slowed to a walk, felt my suit temperature drop towards a more bearable level, and was just starting to relax when there was a blur of movement to my left. Something feline with massive muscles sped past so close that I could have reached out my hand to touch it. Sabre cat!

  I gave a squeak of alarm. With my suit hood down, the cat could rip my face apart with one casual sweep of a paw. Fortunately, it was intent on putting as much distance as possible between it and the forest fire, streaking off southwards along the line of the animal control barrier.

  ‘Idiot!’ I yelled the word at myself, and pulled my hood back up with shaky fingers before sealing my suit again. I should never have opened it, but if I hadn’t then I’d have had burns, so …

  I walked closer to the barrier and knelt to examine my bag. The hovers were obviously dead, and the bag wouldn’t open, but its material had been burnt completely through at one end so it was only held together by the wire reinforcements. I started yanking my belongings out of the hole. The melted cartons of Osiris mash had welded themselves to the charred remains of the sleep sack, but they hadn’t reached my uniform and shoes.

  I put the singed but intact uniform and shoes aside, and burrowed further into the bag, hunting for one vital thing. The lookup. I was just thinking it had fallen out of the hole in the bag and been lost somewhere back in the forest, when I found it in one piece and unmelted.

  ‘Thank chaos!’

  I tapped at it, eager to call Colonel Leveque for help, but it didn’t respond. I tried again and again, but still nothing. A Military lookup would have survived the heat of the fire, but it had been too much for an elderly civilian model.

  ‘Nuke it!’

  I made one final attempt at coaxing the lookup back to life before giving up. Now what? I looked at the glittering animal control barrier in frustration. I had virtually no chance of finding a portal on this side of it, but crossing it would be suicidal.

  I’d have to head either north or south. North seemed the sensible choice, since the sabre cat had gone south. I turned back to my heap of belongings. The sleep sack was utterly disgusting, but I’d better take my uniform. It wasn’t worth burdening myself with any of the rest, or the bag with its wire reinforcements hanging …

  Wire! I glanced from the wrecked bag to the animal control barrier. I knew how to wire a settlement force fence. This barrier was much fancier but the same principles surely applied. If I could make a gap in the force field, the barrier wouldn’t detect me passing through, and wouldn’t betray me to my enemies.

  I picked up the bag and my uniform, and followed the animal control barrier until I reached the nearest giant flicker beacon. Then I sat on the ground and started the slow job of removing stubborn shreds of material from the precious wire reinforcements.

  18

  Wiring the animal control barrier had been a brilliant idea, but it would have been even more brilliant if I’d thought of it the first time I went through. Then there’d have been no enemy aircraft, no fire, no falling into the ravine. I could have simply hovered my way through the forest for an hour or so, introduced myself to the archaeological team, and used their portal to rejoin Fian.

  Instead, I had to trudge across country on foot to reach the Spirit of Man monument. I wore my impact suit for the first hour in case the enemy came back, then changed into my uniform so I could walk faster. I’d hoped to get there before sunset, but those colossal statues were much further away than they looked.

  I had to rest for the night and start moving again at dawn. When I finally reached my goal, the sun was directly overhead, which surely meant I’d made it in time. There were swarms of people gazing upwards at the statues, while a guide told them exactly how tall they were, but all I cared about was the stunningly beautiful sight of a group of portals.

  I hurried towards them, vaguely aware of the guide’s voice faltering and stopping. I reached the nearest portal, was about to dial, then saw the refreshments dispenser next to it and hesitated. I’d been able to drink all I wanted from streams, but I was starving hungry.

  There was cheese fluffle on the menu! I gave in to temptation, entered my credit code, and grabbed my carton. I ripped it open, seized the spoon, and was madly eating ecstatic mouthfuls of cheese fluffle when I realized about five hundred people were standing watching me in stunned silence.

  ‘Commander Tell Morrath, are you hurt?’ asked the guide, his eyes on my singed uniform.

  I guiltily stopped eating. ‘I’m fine. Had a bit of trouble. Got to go now.’

  When I entered my special code, the portal started talking to me. ‘Warning, your destination is a restricted access area, and …’

  I gave a farewell wave to my bewildered audience and stepped through the portal, arriving in a large hall filled with people.

  ‘Thank chaos for that,’ said a toga-clad figure.

  I blinked as I recognized him. ‘Drago, where’s …’

  I didn’t need to finish the sentence, because Fian came out of the crowd and started ranting at me. ‘Jarra, where the nuke have you been? We just got a credit alert saying you’d bought a carton of cheese fluffle at the Spirit of Man monument. I’ve been going crazy with worry, and you’re sightseeing and buying cheese fluffle!’

  I glanced down at the carton in my hand, and gave a guilty giggle. ‘Sorry, I was starving hungry.’

  Colonel Leveque and General Torrek appeared, both conventionally dressed in Military uniform. ‘We were concerned for your safety, Commander,’ said Leveque. ‘A sudden silence from the opposition indicated a significant possibility you were dead.’

  ‘They probably thought I was.’

  General Torrek frowned at my uniform. ‘You’ve been in a fire, Jarra. Are you injured?’

  ‘There was an aircraft with a Planet First incendiary weapon but that’s not important now. I’m not hurt.’ My eyes were back on Fian. He was wearing a sleeveless white tunic, leggings, and some strange boots with archaic lacings.

  ‘I would argue it’s extremely important, Commander,’ said Leveque. ‘If they had a Planet First incendiary weapon then there is a high probability it was obtained from this base. Details of this attack could assist my attempts to identify the enemy agent.’

  I was still studying Fian. There were colourful bruises on his right forehead and his left cheek. ‘I’ll tell you about the attack later. There isn’t time now.’

  ‘Very well,’ said Leveque, ‘but I’ll want a detailed report immediately after the ceremony.’

  I turned to glare at Drago. ‘You let Fian get hurt and you haven’t even got him medical treatment!’

  Drago cowered and raised his hands in surrender. ‘We did! We did! We just kept a couple of bruises for the newzies. We kept some for me and Raven too. Look!’ He pointed at a dramatic bruise on his own face.

  I finally noticed Raven standing next to Fian, and saw he had a spectacular black eye. ‘Raven, did you arrest the people who attacked Fian, or just shoot them?’

  ‘We let them off with a warning,’ said Raven.
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  ‘What?’ I stared at him in pure disbelief.

  He gave me a pleading look. ‘It was a tricky situation, Jarra. We couldn’t shoot people when Fian was the one who started the fight, but we joined in on his side.’

  Fian started the fight? My mind had an odd, blank moment. Fian wasn’t the type to start a fight.

  Colonel Leveque had been talking into his lookup in a low voice, but now he rejoined the conversation. ‘I should put all three of them on report. The Military strongly disapproves of officers brawling with civilians.’

  ‘I was the senior officer present,’ said Drago. ‘It was my responsibility. You should demote me.’

  General Torrek shook his head. ‘There’s no point in trying to dodge promotion any longer, Drago. The General Marshal has said you have great potential.’

  Drago looked horrified. ‘Oh no!’

  ‘By the way,’ added General Torrek, ‘your parents dined with me last night. I mentioned the incident when you appeared unsuitably dressed in a dining hall, and your father wants to discuss it with you immediately after the ceremony.’

  Drago turned to bang his head against the wall. ‘Please, someone have mercy and shoot me.’

  ‘That’s a very tempting offer.’ Drago’s wife, Major Marlise Weldon, arrived, dressed in a toga like her husband. ‘Welcome back, Jarra.’

  ‘Thank you.’ I frowned at Fian. ‘What were you doing on Hercules, and why were you starting fights?’

  Fian sighed. ‘My father asked me to visit him. He claimed he was having second thoughts about leaving my mother, but he actually wanted to talk me into dumping you. He’d invited a crowd of my school classmates over to help him do it. Naturally, he chose the ones he approved of, the ones who’d jeered at me all through school because I was interested in history instead of science. When they started calling you names, I lost my temper and …’