Earth Flight (24 page)

His lookup chimed, and he glanced down at it for a moment. ‘Legal Division advise that as clan members Jarra and Fian automatically have Betan citizenship, and there’s no possible legal argument against two Betan officers using Military regulations to register their Twoing contract in Beta sector.’

General Torrek glanced at Colonel Stone. ‘It’s the base commanding officer’s responsibility to do the registration.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Stone worked on her forearm lookup for a moment and then smiled at me and Fian. ‘Congratulations and mutual joy on …’

Her lookup interrupted her by chiming. Stone frowned at it. ‘The registration just got bounced back. It’s been rejected because Jarra isn’t listed as a Military officer.’

‘What?’ I shook my head. ‘But …’

‘I’ll ask Recruitment what the chaos is wrong.’ Stone worked on her lookup again, and then turned to look at General Torrek. ‘Sir, Recruitment say they received a court order removing Commander Tell Morrath’s Military status on the grounds she’s below the minimum Military recruitment age of 18.’

‘That’s an unfortunate development,’ said Colonel Leveque. ‘I wonder how the Deltan legal firm found out Jarra is only 17.’

‘But I’m 18,’ I said.

General Torrek groaned. ‘I’m sorry Jarra. I’d no idea you only being 17 would affect your betrothal. Hospital Earth regards you as 18, and Beta sector allows betrothal contracts for people as young as 16.’

I stared at him in disbelief. ‘For chaos sake, I was 18 last Year Day!’

‘There are several methods used to calculate age,’ said Leveque. ‘Alpha and Beta sectors measure from the individual’s actual date of birth using the interstellar standard Green Time of Earth Europe. For historic reasons, Military regulations use the same age system as Alpha sector.’

I had a hideous moment of understanding. My actual date of birth was 1 August 2771. Today was 25 June 2789, so … ‘I thought everyone just counted Year Days now. Earth does.’

‘Gamma, Delta and Epsilon sectors do as well,’ said Stone.

‘I don’t understand,’ said Fian. ‘If Jarra is 18 under the Year Day system we use in Delta sector, then she must have a personal age of 18 as well.’

‘There is one key difference between the counting of Year Days on Earth and in Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon sectors,’ said Leveque. ‘Earth counts the first Year Day.’

Fian gave me a startled look before turning back to Leveque and speaking rapidly. ‘I was born on Hercules in December 2770. The first Year Day doesn’t count, so I was a 1-year-old on 1 January 2772. That meant I became 18 on 1 January 2789.’

‘Precisely,’ said Leveque. ‘Jarra was born on 1 August 2771. Earth does count the first Year Day, so she became a 1-year-old on 1 January 2772. By Earth law, she was 18 on 1 January 2789, but according to the rules of Gamma, Delta and Epsilon sectors she won’t be 18 until next Year Day. Military regulations will regard Jarra as being 18 on 1 August of this year.’

‘Why does Earth do it that way?’ asked Fian. ‘It’s ridiculous. You’d be saying babies born just before Year Day were a year old. No, wait …’ He gave an angry shake of his head. ‘They must do it that way so they can get all the kids out of the residences and off their hands a year earlier. I know Earth has trouble finding enough staff for the residences, but … That’s really sick.’

He looked round the table. ‘When did you find out about this, and why didn’t you tell us?’

‘Jarra was recruited at high speed under the Alien Contact procedures,’ said General Torrek. ‘Those only checked she was flagged as adult. I should have known Jarra’s birth date myself, but after her grandmother died I was … absent for several years. I only discovered Jarra’s age when you two were actually inside the tunnel leading to the alien device.’

He sighed. ‘The biometrics on Jarra’s suit had been registering extremely high stress levels. Our Medical team leader checked Jarra’s records, looking for a reason for the stress. She noticed her date of birth, and contacted me with the information. I was in a difficult position. I could hardly order Jarra out of there, but I did warn you both of potential danger and offer to replace you.’

‘I was aware of the situation somewhat earlier,’ said Leveque. ‘I found both Jarra and Fian sufficiently intriguing that I studied the details of their records the day after they arrived on the base. I was unsure if Riak was deliberately ignoring the issue of Jarra’s age. I wasn’t going to raise it myself, because she’d already proved useful. Frankly, I’d have recruited a day old baby if it could assist the Alien Contact programme.’

‘I knew months ago,’ said Drago. ‘Jarra was the Honour Child for her grandmother. When she first asked for details of her parents, Military Support saw her record was flagged as 18 and adult, so they assumed it was time to hold the Honour Ceremony. The clan got the shock of their lives when they were sent the vid coverage of the ceremony a year earlier than they thought was possible. Raising objections about Jarra’s age at that point would have been shockingly disrespectful to both her and her grandmother’s memory, so clan council ruled we should regard Jarra as 18. When she was called in by the Alien Contact programme …’

Drago shrugged. ‘I thought Jarra would be furious if I told the Military she was only 17 and got her excluded from the Alien Contact programme, so I kept quiet.’

I shook my head. ‘You mean everyone knew I was only 17. Everyone except Fian and me!’

‘I didn’t know either,’ said Stone. ‘I only found out when Recruitment told me.’ She frowned at her husband and pointedly addressed him using his rank. ‘Perhaps Colonel Leveque will explain why I wasn’t informed earlier.’

‘You are in command of this base, sir,’ said Leveque. ‘However, Commander Tell Morrath is currently assigned to the research effort which is under my command.’

‘I’m also deputy commanding officer of the Alien Contact programme,’ said Stone, ‘and therefore your chain of command.’

‘It’s not customary to keep the deputy commanding officer informed of routine administrational issues, sir,’ said Leveque.

Stone abandoned Military formality and looked up at the ceiling in despair. ‘Why did I ever marry him?’

I was angry and frustrated about my personal situation, but I was also burningly aware there were much bigger issues at stake here. ‘Whatever the arguments about my age and the betrothal, we’ve succeeded in setting the precedent about Handicapped kids joining Betan clans. What about the plan to use the betrothal ceremony to generate public support for new worlds for the Handicapped?’

‘Lucius Augustus Gordianus will love the idea of having a world in Beta sector where his grandson can live,’ said Drago. ‘We can count on him talking the August alliance into supporting the change to the Planet First selection criteria. The Fabian alliance will oppose it, but faced with a split between August and Fabian, the rest of the reactionary faction will either vote with August or abstain. Even if the vote in Parliament of Planets fails, we should be able to get Beta sector to request a specialist planet.’

‘Things aren’t actually that bad then,’ I said. ‘In just over a month, I’ll be Military again, and we’ll be able to use Military regulations to register the betrothal. No one in Beta sector can blame Fian and me for just having a Twoing contract until then.’

I didn’t like the number of significant glances being exchanged. Drago broke the news to me. ‘I’m afraid the court order applies to your Twoing contract as well.’

‘What! Our Twoing contract is cancelled too?’

‘I’m tired of this,’ said General Torrek. ‘I’ll solve the whole problem by using Alien Contact powers to override the minimum Military recruitment age.’

‘With respect, sir, I strongly advise against that,’ said Leveque. ‘There is a 93 per cent probability the Isolationist Party would challenge your decision. Not only are a high proportion of their members prejudiced against the Handicapped, but they’re eager to do everything possible to disrupt the Alien Contact programme. They could accuse you of misusing the powers under your command because of your personal involvement with the Tell clan.’

The look on General Torrek’s face at that point would have frightened most officers into shutting up, but Colonel Leveque was a brave man who wore the Thetis medal so he just carried on talking.

‘We can’t claim it’s vital for Jarra to be Military at this particular moment rather than on 1 August. We’ve established the alien probe is not an immediate threat, and we haven’t found the alien home world yet. The situation could escalate into you being forced to resign your position as commanding officer of the Alien Contact programme.’

‘We can’t risk that,’ I said.

‘Agreed,’ said Stone. ‘Both the Military and the public have great confidence in General Torrek. When we find the alien home world, we’ll need every bit of that confidence, because the Isolationist Party will be doing their best to spread public panic. They don’t just want to block any contact with the alien civilization, but to stop us finding out anything about it.’

‘So we can’t even have a Twoing contract, let alone a betrothal, for several weeks.’ Fian shook his head. ‘Nuke that!’

General Torrek carefully failed to notice the swearing. ‘Legal Division will work on finding a solution.’

‘Our alliance legal team will be working on it too,’ said Drago.

‘And what do we do while we wait for them to find an answer?’ asked Fian. ‘I’m still Military, so can Jarra stay at Zulu base with me?’

‘Partners are normally only allowed in Military accommodation when there’s a Twoing, marriage, or betrothal contract, but …’ General Torrek turned to Leveque. ‘Can we waive that requirement?’

‘I’d strenuously recommend that both Fian and Jarra return to their class,’ said Leveque. ‘The Military providing a venue for the betrothal was perfectly justifiable, both for security reasons and since Military bases regularly host Betan Military clan ceremonies, but events are now escalating rapidly politically. The Military must be seen to immediately distance themselves from this to avoid compromising our political neutrality.’

General Torrek frowned. ‘But what about the safety issues?’

‘That’s an additional reason for Jarra and Fian to return to their class,’ said Leveque. ‘We still have an unknown enemy agent here at Zulu base, so they’ll be much safer at the inaccessible location of the California Rift under the protection of Captain Raven and our trusted security team.’

‘Unless we let someone wander in carrying another bomb,’ said Stone pointedly.

Leveque’s eyes flickered towards her for a second, but his voice stayed perfectly calm. ‘I’ll ensure that all portal access and deliveries have to be personally authorized by Major Rayne Tar Cameron, and any visiting maintenance staff are escorted by a Military Security officer.’

General Torrek nodded. ‘Rayne never makes mistakes. Very well, Jarra and Fian will return to their class while we work on identifying the enemy agent.’

‘On which subject,’ said Leveque, ‘I’m eager to hear the full details of Jarra’s encounter with an aircraft carrying an incendiary weapon.’

‘So am I,’ said Fian.

I groaned.

22

The group of seven of us walked towards the portal with Raven in the lead. ‘I knew it was a bad idea to let you go off on your own like that,’ said Fian, ‘and I was right. You could have been burned to death!’

The bigots hadn’t just succeeded in throwing me out of the Alien Contact programme this time, but out of the Military as well. I was in no mood to suffer one of Fian’s lectures. ‘If I hadn’t been a nardle going through that animal control barrier, I’d have had no trouble at all.’

‘You don’t know that, and the fact is …’

Fian broke off his sentence because Raven was walking through the portal, followed by Dalmora, Amalie and Krath. We hurried through after them, stepping out into the familiar drab greyness of the portal room at our California Rift dig site dome. As Playdon appeared behind us, Fian started talking again.

‘The fact is …’

‘For chaos sake, stop arguing you two!’ said Amalie.

Fian gave me a frustrated look. ‘We’ll discuss this later.’

I winced.

We headed to the dome hall, and walked straight into another argument. The rest of the class were all in there, most of them sitting in chairs lined up to face the wall vid. Steen and Petra were standing in front of the blank screen, aggressively facing each other.

‘Everyone back home is chaos impressed that I’m friends with people as famous as Fian and Jarra,’ said Steen. ‘Our local newzie channel interviewed me, and now Gamma Sector News wants to interview me as well. I’m not letting you mess this up for me.’

‘Having them back here could put us all in danger,’ said Petra. ‘I’m entitled to …’

‘I wish to consult the whole class about exactly that point,’ Playdon interrupted her.

People hastily turned to look at him, then at Fian and me. I could see them all take in the fact Fian was in uniform while I was wearing civilian clothes.

Playdon led our group up to the front of the room. ‘The bombing made it clear there is a risk in having Jarra and Fian in the class. If you’re unwilling to accept that risk, Cassandra 2 have offered to have Jarra and Fian live in their dome and work with them.’

‘If that happens,’ added Amalie, ‘Dalmora, Krath and I have decided to move with Jarra and Fian … and not because they’re famous.’ She glared at Steen.

I gave her a startled look. ‘You don’t have to …’

Krath interrupted me. ‘Team 1 stays together.’

Lolmack stood up. ‘Lolia and I want Jarra and Fian back with the class.’

‘You would!’ said Petra.

Akram got to his feet. ‘The bombing didn’t scare me. It just made me angry.’

Sudi moved to stand next to him. ‘If we’re unwilling to take risks, we shouldn’t be working on dig sites.’

Petra looked at Laik. ‘You agree with me, don’t you?’

Laik shook his head.

‘But you were furious about Jarra lying to us and pretending she was a norm.’

‘I changed my mind the second I saw that man throw skunk juice at her.’ Laik pointedly stood up. ‘Now I’ve seen the way people treat the Handicapped, I can’t blame Jarra for pretending she was a norm.’