‘Military Base 79 Zulu on Earth will be upgraded and become the permanent base for the Alien Contact programme. It will also house two research groups. One investigating the alien technology discovered in Earth Africa, and the other concentrating on the light signals from the sphere.’
I started breathing again. Alien Contact was staying on Earth!
‘The guard on the alien sphere will be maintained but downgraded in scale,’ continued the General Marshal. ‘A search for the alien planet of origin has already commenced in Alpha sector, and will be extended into other sectors.’
He paused for a moment. ‘There are corresponding adjustments to the command structure. The command of the Alien Contact programme will become a General Staff position reporting directly to me. Colonel Riak Torrek is promoted to the rank of General and will remain in overall command of Alien Contact, and in direct command of the search efforts. Commander Nia Stone is promoted to Colonel and takes command of Military Base 79 Zulu and the guard on the alien sphere. Commander Mason Leveque is promoted to Colonel and takes command of the twin research efforts as well as threat assessment. Commander Elith Shirinkin is promoted to Colonel and takes command of the five Earth solar arrays.’
The vid image panned out to include the audience, and the General Marshal started taking questions from eager newzie reporters. I was startled by the first question.
‘Delta Sector Vision here. What about Fian Eklund and Jarra Tell Morrath?’
‘Captain Fian Eklund is promoted to Major, and Major Jarra Tell Morrath to Commander,’ said the General Marshal.
I gasped, totally grazzed by my promotion. It was nardle enough being a Major, but …
‘Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund will be reporting to Colonel Leveque while continuing with their specialist pre-history training,’ continued the General Marshal.
‘The rumours that High Congress ordered their removal from the Alien Contact programme have now been confirmed by several discontented committee members,’ said the Deltan reporter. ‘What’s your opinion of this controversial interference in Military staffing?’
‘The Military Charter states the Military should remain politically neutral,’ said the General Marshal. ‘I can’t comment on the decisions of Joint Sector High Congress Committee, however a few hours ago I was sent extra clarification of that particular order for the public record.’
He glanced at the Military forearm lookup attached to his sleeve. ‘High Congress state that Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund were removed because they do not have the appropriate skills to assist Alien Contact at this point. This is a purely temporary measure to enable them to continue their studies. They will return to the Alien Contact programme as soon as either the sphere’s message is translated or the alien planet of origin is found.’
I sighed with relief. Fian and I would return to Alien Contact!
The General Marshal pointed to another of the forest of raised hands, and a woman spoke. ‘Beta Sector Daily. What about Commander Tell Dramis and Major Weldon?’
‘Commander Tell Dramis takes command of the search teams in Zeta sector, with Major Weldon as his deputy,’ said the General Marshal.
My frustration returned. My cousin Drago was already out in distant Zeta sector searching for the aliens, and my old friend from Next Step, Keon, was helping with the research into the light sculpture. Fian and I would return to the Alien Contact programme, but not until some unknown time in the future.
A blatantly hostile voice asked the next question. ‘Beta Veritas. Why promote Jarra Morrath, but not Drago Tell Dramis?’
‘Bigot!’ Lolmack and Lolia chorused the word before I’d worked out the significance of the man missing out the clan prefix in my name.
The tone of the General Marshal’s voice made it clear he’d also realized he was dealing with someone prejudiced against me. ‘I’ve promoted every officer who played a significant part in establishing contact with the alien sphere, including Commander Tell Morrath. Commander Tell Dramis and Major Weldon had already received their promotions, and Commander Tell Dramis was strongly opposed to the suggestion of a further promotion to Colonel. His exact words were that he’d rather be locked in a prison cell with a Zeus sewer rat.’
There was a burst of laughter from both the audience on the vid screen and my classmates. Drago had done a lot of talking on the newzies – his jet-black hair and devastatingly handsome face made him incredibly popular with their viewers – and everyone could picture him saying those words.
‘Alpha Spectrum,’ said the next questioner. ‘How long will it take to find the alien home world?’
‘That depends how far away it is,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Humanity currently has well-established inhabited worlds in Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta sectors, fledgling colony worlds in Epsilon and Kappa sectors, and has just begun Planet First assessment of possible colony worlds in Zeta sector. A complete search of that area of space will take between five months and a year, depending on how we divide manpower and resources between Alien Contact and Planet First efforts.’
‘A year!’ The Alpha Spectrum reporter’s words were echoed by Krath sitting next to me. ‘But each sector only has 200 star systems. How can it possibly take that long to search them?’
‘Each sector only has 200 inhabited star systems,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Portalling between inhabited worlds gives the illusion they’re packed closely together, when they’re actually scattered widely across space. We’re extremely selective when we choose our colony worlds. For every star system with a planet satisfying the criteria of Planet First, there are a hundred with a planet where human beings could survive with some difficulty, and many thousands with planets completely unsuitable for human life but with their own alien plant and animal life in abundance. Far more star systems exist without any sign of life at all.’
The next questioner sounded aggressive. ‘Gamma Sector News. You believe the alien home world is within humanity’s space? How could Planet First Stellar Survey have missed a planet with an advanced alien civilization?’
The General Marshal shook his head. ‘On the contrary, we believe the alien home world is probably further away than that. Tactical considerations, however, mean our first priority is to eliminate any possibility of it being within humanity’s space. Expansion was extremely rapid during Exodus century. Humanity was too impatient to spend enough time checking its colony worlds, let alone waste effort on uninhabitable star systems.’
He paused for a moment. ‘That reckless overexpansion led to the near collapse of our civilization. It may also have led to signs of an alien civilization being missed in Alpha, Beta or Gamma sectors. After a century of colony worlds struggling to deal with issues overlooked by those first rushed Planet First checks, there was a new attempt to expand and the nightmare of Thetis. A single lethal alien animal species was overlooked, portal quarantine procedures failed, and the chimera infested other worlds, threatening the survival of the human race.’
There was a moment of grim silence before the General Marshal continued. ‘After the lesson of the Thetis chaos year, humanity finally realized it was vital to allow Planet First teams the time and budget to do a meticulous job, but financial and logistical realities mean we still can’t make an exhaustive search of uninhabitable star systems. I’d be extremely surprised if we’d missed a planet with technology sufficiently advanced to construct the alien probe in Delta, Epsilon or Kappa, but those sectors will be rechecked anyway.’
The Gamma Sector News reporter wasn’t giving way to anyone else. ‘The newly formed Isolationist Party feel searching for the alien home world is a mistake because humanity would be better off not encountering aliens.’
‘I fail to understand the logic of trying to pretend an alien civilization doesn’t exist when they’ve already got a probe orbiting our home world,’ said the General Marshal. ‘We urgently need to know if any of our inhabited worlds are dangerously near alien territory. I’ll take a que
stion from someone else now.’
The next questioner went back to the subject of Fian and me. ‘Alpha and Omega. Our viewers want to know when Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund will be available for interviews. They’ve made no public appearances since the signal was sent.’
The General Marshal smiled. ‘I’m fully aware of the ferocious levels of public interest in Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund. Fortunately, the remote location of their class protects them from continual invasion of privacy by the vid channels of every sector. No Military officer should have to suffer merciless interrogation by the newzies.’ His smile widened. ‘Except for myself of course.’
‘But Commander Tell Dramis and Major Weldon appeared on Earth Rolling News for extensive periods,’ said the Alpha and Omega representative.
‘Only to provide public information on behalf of the Military.’ The General Marshal paused for a second. ‘That’s all for now. If you want my answers to any questions that weren’t asked, then I’m sure Gamma Sector News will be happy to invent some for you just the way they did after my last newzie conference.’
The General Marshal left the podium while everyone was still laughing at that comment, the vid coverage switched back to the Earth Rolling News studios, and Lecturer Playdon went up to the wall vid and turned it off.
‘A year!’ Krath sounded as frustrated as I felt.
‘If the alien home world is near to Earth, then it may only take a couple of months to find it.’ Playdon turned to look at me and Fian. ‘Congratulations on your promotions, Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund.’
I was startled by my classmates applauding. Not all of them of course. When they found out about my lies and my Handicap, some had accepted me, but others tried to drive me away with insults. Eventually, I’d won grudging tolerance from most of the ape haters, and now I was famous a couple of them were fawning over me in a way that made me want to vomit, but there was one person pointedly folding her arms and refusing to give even a token hand clap. Petra would never stop hating me. Not after Joth’s death.
There was the usual stab of pain as I thought of Joth. I blamed Petra for his death, because he was killed doing something stupidly dangerous after an argument with her. She blamed me, because the argument was about her making him insult me. We could both be right, or both wrong. It really didn’t matter. Nothing could bring Joth back, and Petra and I would always be enemies.
‘Put the chairs away and fetch your luggage,’ said Playdon.
A few minutes later, the hall was crowded with people and bobbing hover bags, as the class waited for Playdon to do his final tour of inspection.
‘It’s unusual for High Congress to clarify an order like that,’ said Dalmora. ‘They’re obviously very embarrassed by all the comments on the newzies.’
I sighed. ‘But not embarrassed enough to order Fian and me back to Alien Contact right away.’
She tactfully changed the subject. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing a new city. I hope we’ll spend some time at Jaipur or Chennai later in the year. It would be totally zan to be excavating one of the cities where my ancestors lived.’
‘I’ve started working on my family tree,’ said Amalie, ‘but I’ve only got as far back as 2640. My ancestors were all on planets in Gamma sector then.’
Fian sighed. ‘I’ll never know about mine. My great-grandparents were all on Freya in Alpha sector during the conflict there, and its planetary records were deliberately destroyed. All I know is Freya was originally settled from Earth Europe. What about your ancestors, Jarra?’
I shrugged. ‘They’ll have been from everywhere. The Betan planets all had open colonization, and members of a Military clan marry people from lots of different worlds anyway.’
I was dodging the question. The truth was the Tell clan had a complete family tree on record, but I hadn’t dared to look at it. Fate had robbed me of a family twice already. Once at birth, and again when my parents were killed. If I looked at the Tell family tree before I was actually a clan member, I might tempt fate into making something go wrong a third time.
‘My aunt worked out our family tree all the way back to Exodus century,’ said Krath. ‘I’ve got ancestors from all five of Earth’s continents, so I don’t care what cities we go to. I just hope there’s no more rainforest, or sabre cats, or dire wolves. I’ve had enough of those here at Eden.’
‘I still can’t believe people deliberately genetically salvaged dangerous creatures,’ said Fian.
‘Earth isn’t civilized,’ said Krath, for about the thousandth time. ‘The ruins. The animals. The insects. The solar storms bringing down the portal network.’
Playdon returned just in time to hear him. ‘As I keep saying, the Military Planet First teams carefully select every colony world and make it safe for humans. Earth is our only world that never went through that process, and the vast abandoned areas are dangerous.’
He glanced round the class. ‘We’ll be portalling inter-continent to get to London Main. If we keep close together, with Jarra and Fian in the middle, people may not notice them going through the Transit areas. If we get split up, then I’ll stay with Jarra and Fian. You’ve all got the new dome portal code, so we’ll be able to meet up there.’
Playdon led the way to the portal room and we hurried after him, clicking our key fobs to make our hover bags chase us. Fian and I stayed in the centre of the crowd as we trooped through the portal and gathered under a location board saying ‘Africa Transit 3’. Once the whole class and their luggage had arrived, we headed on past the flashing signs about inter-continental portal charges, and joined the queue for a portal that was already active and locked open to Earth Europe. The queue had been moving rapidly forwards but suddenly stopped.
Amalie groaned. ‘The portal’s cut out. It’s flashing a congestion warning.’
I sighed. ‘Some idiot with more hover bags than brain cells must have stopped in the arrival zone on the other side of the portal to count his luggage.’
‘There’s only a few people ahead of us in the queue,’ said Amalie. ‘I hope it doesn’t … Oh chaos, you’ve been spotted!’
I turned to look behind us. Transits were usually full of purposefully hurrying figures, but now everyone was standing still, staring at Fian and me. A rhythmic sound started, I realized people were clapping, and felt myself grow hot with embarrassment.
‘If we’re stuck here for long we’ll get mobbed,’ muttered Amalie.
She was right. People were constantly arriving through portals but no one was leaving, so the watching crowd was growing larger at frightening speed. Lots of people were holding up lookups to make vids of us, and someone was bound to have called Earth Rolling News by now.
‘The portal’s open again,’ called Playdon. ‘Jarra, Fian, go first!’
The rest of the class moved aside to let us reach the portal, and the sound of applause instantly cut out as Fian and I stepped through it to Earth Europe. Playdon arrived a moment later, and we hurried on past a sign that said ‘Normal Portal Charges Now Apply’. I glanced over my shoulder and saw some of the class running to catch us up. There was a lot of hover luggage chasing us as well. I hoped some of it was mine.
We reached a local portal and Playdon rapidly dialled. ‘Warning,’ said the portal, ‘your destination is a restricted access area. If your scanned genetic code is not listed …’
I didn’t hear the rest of it, because Fian hustled me through the portal with him. We stepped out into the standard grey portal room of a dig site dome, and automatically headed out of the door to allow space for other people to arrive. I paused in the corridor to count the number of hover bags following us. ‘Zan! All the luggage is …’
‘Throwbacks have no place in a noble clan of Beta sector!’ said a strange voice.
I turned, shocked by the words, and something wet splattered across my face. I dropped the key fob I was holding, and lifted my hands to protect myself, but it was too late. My eyes and mouth were burning
and I couldn’t see or breathe.
4
I was blind and helpless, battling against pain to get air into my lungs. There were sounds of a fight somewhere very close, fists hitting flesh and agonized gasps. What was happening? Was someone attacking Fian? How could someone have been here, in what should have been an empty dome, lying in wait for us?
‘Playdon, get her to hospital!’
That harsh, angry voice was definitely Fian. Arms grabbed me from behind, half carrying me. There was the siren of a portal medical emergency alarm, which abruptly cut out to be replaced by the sound of voices. We’d portalled. We must be in a Hospital Earth Europe casualty unit now.
‘Code ten!’ Playdon’s voice yelled next to my right ear. ‘Code ten! Chemical contamination!’
I was dragged sharply sideways and liquid sprayed over me. I whimpered in panic before I realized this wasn’t another attack. I was in a decontamination shower.
‘Jarra, open your eyes and your mouth!’
I forced them open, and the pain eased as the decontamination fluid did its job. Playdon’s blurred face was inches from my own, his dripping hair a startling contrast to his usual neat appearance.
‘Does it still hurt? Can you see?’
I managed to speak. ‘Just a faint stinging now, and I can see.’
‘Good. Can you stand by yourself?’
‘Yes.’
Playdon cautiously let me go, and moved back the short distance the shower allowed. ‘It’s totally inappropriate for me to shower with my students, but in the circumstances I think we’d both better stay in here a while.’
My nose was working again now, and even the strong odour of decontaminant couldn’t drown out something more powerful. ‘Oh no! He threw skunk juice at me?’
‘Yes.’
My attacker had shouted about Beta sector, and thrown Cassandrian skunk juice in my face. This was about me joining the Tell clan. Lolia and Lolmack thought it was wonderful, but the people like Petra, the ones who hated apes …