Earth 2788

  He smiled. “You don’t need qualifications, Amalie. You just need to prove you have the ability to do this, and I’m already confident about that. I knew you were a very bright girl, flying through your Farming Studies Certificate incredibly quickly, so I got you reading a lot of different texts. You responded best to the history texts, so we’re thinking of you as a history lecturer, though literature would also be possible if you preferred that.”

  “History? But why would University Miranda want a history lecturer?”

  Lomas did laugh this time. “If University Miranda is going to be respected, and make our world a leading force in Epsilon sector, it has to be a proper university that teaches everything. Yes, the Agriculture Department, Medical Department, and Teacher Training Department will be the biggest to start with, but we will have many others, including a small History Department.”

  He stood up. “I knew this whole idea would come as a huge shock to you, Amalie, but please take a while to consider it. I’ll send some more detailed information to your lookup. If you think of any questions or issues that aren’t answered in that information, then please message me about them.”

  I watched Lomas go back into the dome, and then buried my face in my hands. I’d never travelled further than Memorial. The idea of spending years on another world in a distant sector …

  I was distracted by the odd, warm feeling of my right foot. I peered down at it, and saw a small, furry, Mirandan panda mouse was sitting on my foot, trying to find a way to get inside my shoe. I waved my foot in the air, the panda mouse fell off, and landed on the ground with a plaintive mooping sound of complaint. The minute I put my foot back down, the panda mouse went for the shoe again.

  I groaned, picked up the panda mouse, took it over to the nearest bushes, and dumped it there. Their fascination with shoes made panda mice a perishing nuisance. My eldest brother was always threatening to stamp on the next one he found sleeping inside one of his shoes, but of course he never did. Nobody ever had the heart to hurt a panda mouse. People said that their long, black and white fur, and huge soulful eyes, meant they were nearly as appealing as a human baby. Personally, I thought that panda mice were much cuter than human babies, and had the big advantage that they didn’t need their nappies changing.

  I’d just gone back to the bench again, when my lookup chimed. That must be Lomas sending me the information. I tapped the screen, was startled to discover I’d actually answered an incoming call, and even more startled to recognize the male face that appeared on the display. It was a little green, because my aging lookup’s colour was a bit erratic, but this was definitely Rodrish Jain, painter of pink hummingbirds.

  “Amalie!” He beamed at me. “It’s ready and it’s wonderful. No, it’s more than wonderful, it’s totally zan!”

  “What’s ready?”

  “My house! Well, not entirely ready, but the roof is on, and there are interior walls, so you can come and see it tomorrow.”

  Come and see it tomorrow? I had the feeling I was missing some basic facts here. I took a closer look at Rodrish’s green face. “Are you drunk again?”

  “Only a little,” he said. “A couple of glasses of Pedra’s home brewed whiskey.”

  “A couple of glasses of Pedra’s whiskey would knock out an Asgard bison.”

  “I know. I was just nervous about … Chaos, I’m not doing this very well, am I?”

  I grinned. “I’m not even sure what you’re trying to do, so no you aren’t.”

  “I thought I’d messed everything up falling off the roof like that. It had to be the worst offer of marriage ever, so I daren’t even message you afterwards, but given you’ve done what I asked and waited for me to get my house built …”

  Offer of marriage? I tried to remember exactly what had happened on the day of the pink hummingbird. I certainly hadn’t noticed Rodrish offering me marriage. He had been shouting something before he fell off the top of the dome, but it hadn’t made any sense until the final “Oh nuke!” when his foot slipped.

  “Rodrish Jain, are you offering marriage to me?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  I wasn’t sure how to react to this. Normally, I slapped down any drunken offer of marriage without even pausing to think about it, but this was Rodrish Jain, the son of one of the Founding Families of Miranda. I hesitated before saying anything.

  “Rodrish, you’re drunk. If you’re serious about this, you’ll have to ask me again when you’re sober. Preferably when we’re face to face, rather than just calling me.”

  He gave a despairing shake of his head. “But I can’t do this sober. I needed a couple of drinks before I had the nerve to say it in a call, and saying it in person is even worse. That’s why I got so drunk on my last day at school. I kept thinking another drink would help.”

  I frowned. Actually, that did explain a lot. Despite being a son of one of the Founding Families, Rodrish Jain was a quiet, shy boy, who didn’t normally drink much. One of the reasons everyone remembered the pink hummingbird episode was that it was so out of character.

  “I accept you find these things difficult,” I said, “but you wouldn’t have to actually say it again. If you call me tomorrow, I’ll take it as meaning you were serious about the offer of marriage.”

  “All right,” said Rodrish.

  “Goodbye then.”

  There was a very long pause. Eventually, I tried again. “Goodbye, Rodrish.”

  “Oh. Right.” He ended the call.

  I frowned down at my blank lookup screen. If Rodrish Jain was serious, and I was certain he was serious despite the two glasses of Pedra’s whiskey, then my future was decided. Rodrish was a nice quiet dependable boy, at least he was when he was sober, and given his parents’ status …

  I was going to marry Rodrish Jain. I let that thought sink in for a moment, picturing myself announcing this to my stunned family, and all the interfering neighbours who’d been nagging me about my duty to marry. I could tell them that Rodrish Jain had offered me marriage last year, but we’d been waiting for me to be 17 and for his house to be built before telling anyone.

  I pictured the look of shock and embarrassment on their faces. The ones who’d made pointed remarks about me not doing my duty would feel total idiots. They’d been criticizing a girl who was already betrothed to a son of one of the Founding Families!

  My lookup chimed again. I checked it and saw Lomas had sent the promised information. There was no point in me reading it now. I was staying on Miranda, and marrying Rodrish. Information about travelling to a world in another sector to study history was completely irrelevant.

  I tapped my lookup, and started reading it anyway.

  Kappa Sector 2788 - Colonel Riak Torrek

  Planet K21228, Kappa Sector, October 2788.

  Part I

  Planet K21228 was about to move from Planet First to Colony Ten stage. I stood outside our base, my back to the cluster of massive grey domes, and stared up at the sky. There was a whole list of rules for the ceremony where the Military formally handed over a new colony world to its first colonists. The first rule on the list was that it must not rain.

  I couldn’t see a single cloud overhead, but it was a windy day so the weather could change fast. I currently had sixteen fighters scattered across the skies of what would soon be the inhabited continent of Planet K21228. I tapped the curved shape of the Military lookup attached to the left sleeve of my uniform.

  “Command Support,” said the briskly efficient voice of Major Rayne Tar Cameron. “How can we assist you, Colonel?”

  “Please patch me through to Major Tell Dramis,” I said.

  “Patching you through now, sir.”

  I heard the faint crackle as I was linked to the command feed. “Major Tell Dramis, can I have a status report?”

  “Sir, my team report there are absolutely no signs of enemy clouds,” said the cheerful voice of Drago Tell Dramis. “If we sight any hostiles, we will fire immediately!”

  “This
is not an appropriate subject for humour, Major!” I snapped. “Thousands of my officers have worked for years to prepare this planet for colonization. Seven of those officers died. If we get so much as one drop of rain during the handover ceremony, then all that effort and sacrifice will be wasted, because every colonist setting foot on this world will be scared of their own shadow.”

  “Colonel Torrek, sir, I’m fully aware of the importance of this,” said Drago.

  I ignored him. “Everyone remembers what happened to the last colony world where it rained during the handover ceremony. Every horror vid set in the nightmare of the Thetis chaos year features the sudden torrential rainstorm in the middle of the handover ceremony on Thetis. I don’t want this to be the first handover ceremony in over a quarter of a millennium to …”

  I broke off. There was an awkward silence, and then I sighed. “Sorry, Drago. I shouldn’t have ranted at you like that but I’m a bit tense this morning. Handover ceremonies are always big moments, but this one … My last handover ceremony. My last command. My last day before retirement. Well, as I said, I’m a bit tense.”

  “Perfectly understandable,” said Drago, “but there’s no need to worry. There isn’t a single cloud over this continent. My team are monitoring two cloud formations offshore, but they’re both moving away from us. If the wind changes direction, then we’re ready to seed them out of existence.”

  “Thanks, Drago.”

  I tapped my lookup to end the call, went inside the nearest dome, and along the corridor to my quarters. The rooms were bare and unwelcoming now that most of my personal possessions had been packed away in my set of hover luggage. The only decorations left on the walls were my set of three holo portraits.

  I went to stand in front of the portraits and studied them for a few minutes. I was at the end of my Military career, so it had seemed fitting to set the portraits to show images from the very start. The one on the left showed me at my Military Academy graduation almost exactly sixty years ago. Chaos, I looked impossibly young and naive, not to mention hideously uncomfortable in my dress uniform.

  Both the other portraits showed images from that Military Academy graduation as well. In the centre was a laughing girl, her waist-long hair hanging loose in open defiance of the advised hair styles when wearing dress uniform. By the time we’d reached graduation, the instructors had given up arguing with her about the hair. They were just counting the seconds until she’d leave the Military Academy, and their nerves could start recovering from the strain of having her there.

  Over on the right, the third portrait showed an immaculate young officer. Perfectly at ease in his dress uniform, with a correctly serious expression on his face, and proudly holding the Military Academy Shield of Honour for the cadet with the highest overall score. He was less than two months older than me, but he’d always managed to look at least three years my senior and about a decade more sophisticated. That was only one of the reasons I’d spent most of my time at the Academy wanting to murder him.

  “Well,” I said. “This is it. Wish me luck!”

  I heard the voices in my head calling back to me. The female one was always eager and emotional. “Luck to you, Riak Torrek!” The male one had a bored, superior tone. “You can do this, farm boy!”

  I took a deep breath, and called General Kpossi at Colony Ten Command. She was waiting for the call, so her image appeared on my lookup within seconds.

  “Sir,” I said, “Planet K21228 is now moving to first stage colonization.”

  “You have clear skies, Colonel?” asked General Kpossi.

  “Sir, we have totally clear skies.”

  “Then I shall send your colonists the one hour countdown alert.”

  General Kpossi’s image froze while she sent the standard, pre-prepared message. A group of a thousand colonists were waiting at one of the Military bases in Kappa sector. They hadn’t known it, but they’d been assigned to K21228 for the last two months. Their last stage training had been specially tailored for conditions on K21228. The day and night cycle of their accommodation domes had been set to match the time zone of the prospective inhabited continent of K21228. Three days ago, they’d been moved to standby status, and since then we’d just been waiting for a sunny day to welcome them to their new home.

  Colonists were never told what planet they were going to until they got the one hour alert, in case there were last minute problems with their world and they had to be reassigned. Now a thousand people were reading General Kpossi’s message, and knew their new home was going to be planet K21228. Their bags were already packed. Their crates of equipment and stores, their vast stacks of flexiplas dome parts, their seed for crops, were already loaded on transport sleds. The colonists only had to get their livestock organized and they’d be ready to move out.

  I had a pre-prepared message ready too. The handover ceremony was when we gave a new world to humanity. That ceremony wasn’t just for the incoming civilian colonists. It was also for the Military who’d risked their lives to make that world safe.

  I tapped my lookup, sending my message out to all the officers still here under my command, as well as those who’d completed their part in opening this world years ago and moved on. Many of those people had already returned to join the handover ceremony, while others were stationed in star systems close enough that they could portal here as soon as they got my message. Others were on assignments on worlds in strict quarantine, so they couldn’t attend the handover ceremony, but they would be watching the vid coverage on live link.

  General Kpossi’s image came to life again. “Your colonists confirm they should be ready to move out on schedule. They’ve got one especially recalcitrant cow, but we can always ship that out to them later.” She smiled. “You haven’t reconsidered your position on retirement, Colonel?”

  I fought the urge to groan. Last year, I’d formally registered my decision to retire at the end of this assignment. Ever since then, people had been trying to change my mind.

  “No, sir,” I said. “I’m 80 years old. From now on, I’ll need increasingly frequent and lengthy rejuvenation treatments to keep me in good health. It’s time for me to retire from active duty.”

  “You aren’t quite 80 years old yet, Colonel.”

  “A few months make little difference, sir. The position of a Planet First commanding officer is both physically and mentally demanding. I’m no longer capable of meeting those demands. It’s time for me to step down and retire.”

  General Kpossi shook her head. “I disagree, Colonel. You’ve had a long and distinguished career, but I don’t believe that career should end yet. Your leadership skills inspire confidence and trust, your patience and people management skills mean you can deal with the most difficult of officers, and you’ve an extraordinary ability to pick the right people for any position.”

  “Thank you, General,” I said, “but many other officers are as good at all of those things, and have the advantage of being much younger. I’ve done more than I ever dreamed of in my Military career, achieved a rank and position that’s higher than I ever expected, deserved, or wanted. Now it’s time for me to retire.”

  “Riak, there’s no point in belittling yourself to me. I know exactly how good you are, because I served under your command myself twelve years ago. When I was struggling to cope with bereavement, you helped me to pick up the pieces of my life and career. You’re the reason I’m a General now.”

  “I’m perfectly confident that you would have reached your current rank without my assistance,” I said.

  “I disagree. If you feel another Planet First assignment is too much, then have you considered something entirely different, Colonel? A post at the Military Academy perhaps?”

  I was shocked, wondering how General Kpossi knew I was thinking about my days at the Military Academy, then realized the obvious. The holo portraits on the wall were in full view of my lookup.

  I glanced at the portraits, pictured myself as an instructor at the Milita
ry Academy, and cringed. My every memory of the Academy was of the three of us. Going back there alone, to a place where the ghosts of my past walked every corridor, would …

  “No, sir. A post at the Military Academy would be totally impossible.”

  General Kpossi sighed. “Well, if you think of any other type of post that might tempt you, please let me know.”

  “Thank you, sir. I’m afraid I really must go now. I have a handover ceremony to organize.”

  I was lying, my deputy was organizing the handover ceremony for me, but General Kpossi didn’t know that. “Of course, Colonel.”

  I ended the call, went into my bedroom, changed into my dress uniform, and studied myself in the mirror. I felt I didn’t just look 80, but as if I’d already reached my hundredth and was waiting to peacefully die of old age! The jacket collar was annoying me as usual. I tugged at it, which only made it worse.

  I’d been told that my problems with dress uniform were entirely psychological, a lingering legacy of my struggle to make the adjustment from being a civilian to being a Military officer. It was true that dress uniforms bothered me far more when I was under stress, but I still felt the fancy design of the collar was really to blame. I avoided wearing my dress uniform whenever I could, but today it was mandatory.

  I checked the time on my lookup. Still forty minutes before the handover ceremony was due to start, and I absolutely mustn’t turn up early. My deputy would be frantically organizing everything, and having me watching wouldn’t just distract her but make her think I didn’t trust her to get this right.

  I sighed, headed back out into the living room, and shook my head at the male portrait on the wall. “Don’t give me that smug look. I know I’m not a walking Military Recruitment poster like you, but at least I never …”

  There was a loud thump from behind me. I whirled round and discovered my apartment door was lying on the floor. A boy in a Military Cadet’s uniform was standing next to it, an appalled expression on his face.