Earth Flight (8 page)

‘The gaps?’ asked Krath.

‘Correct,’ said Rono. ‘I’m glad someone’s awake out there. As you can see, there are twenty gaps running the length of each island from north to south. They’re connected by one gap running east to west through the centre of the island. Like the bridges, that gap was used for emergency access when the portal network had to be shut down during solar storms.’

He paused. ‘The buildings on the islands have structural frames bonded to the diamene platform, so they’re held firmly in place when the platform angle tilts during an earthquake. All the walls have imbedded reinforcement mesh running through them, but they’re still riddled with cracks and liable to drop lumps of concraz on your head. Every gap has twin red safety lines painted on it. Between those two lines is safe, but you never put a foot across a red line without your impact suit hoods up and sealed. Understand?’

We all nodded.

‘Understand?’ repeated Rono. ‘I want to hear you say it.’

‘We understand.’ We chorused the words like a bunch of little kids in Nursery.

‘Due to the small size of Land Raft islands, there are no emergency evac portals on the dig site,’ said Rono, ‘but there are twin accommodation domes on each island. Teams are assigned in pairs, and co-ordinate their excavation work so they can help each other in case of accidents.’

He grinned. ‘Less experienced teams are always paired with research teams. Cassandra 2 were supposed to be nursemaiding Cassandra 11 pre-history degree course, but we were fool enough to agree to them trading dig site allocations with you lot. I’m sure we’ll regret it.’

There was a nervous ripple of laughter from the class. After months of Playdon’s formal teaching style, we found Rono a bit of a shock.

He waited for everyone to quieten down before turning serious again. ‘The main danger here is earthquakes. If the quake warning sirens shriek, then you evacuate as fast as possible. We’re working on red risk islands, and even a minor quake may push one of the supporting legs past its limit or break the strip connections, so you get the chaos out of here. Understand?’

We responded in ritual chorus. ‘We understand.’

‘One final thing,’ said Rono. ‘Four years ago, Dannel Playdon’s wife was killed at the California Rift. This is the first time he’s been back here since then. You don’t mention that to him, you pretend you don’t notice if he looks upset, and you call me at once if you think he needs help. I warn you that if anybody causes him any trouble, I’ll personally take them to the edge of this island and throw them off. It’s a very, very long way down, so even if they’re wearing an impact suit they won’t repeat the mistake. Understand?’

We all stared at him in shock. I hadn’t even known Playdon had been married, let alone that his wife … No wonder Playdon was so paranoid about dig site safety.

‘Understand?’ repeated Rono.

‘We understand,’ we said.

‘Good.’ He turned off the wall vid. ‘Our domes are in the central park, and that’s perfectly safe without impact suits. Let’s go outside and escape the sickly smell of Osiris lilies.’

He led the way towards the dome exit, and everyone pulled frantic faces at each other before trailing after him. This was the first time the class had ever left a dome without wearing protective impact suits. We’d started the year in bleak winter at New York Main Dig Site, where wolves were roaming outside our dome. We’d moved to Eden, in the heart of a rainforest holding scimitar cats and a whole range of nasty insects. Now we found ourselves in bright sunshine in …

Well, this might once have been a park, but now there were no flowers, only patchy grass and a scattering of stunted trees. Next to our accommodation dome was the usual sled storage dome, and facing us were two matching domes that must belong to Cassandra 2. A pathway ran off into the trees to the right, and over to the left was a curved blue shape.

‘We’ve got a swimming pool!’ Krath shouted joyously.

Rono laughed. ‘The park swimming pools are the best thing about the Land Raft islands. They only needed re-lining with flexiplas to make them functional again. Now pay attention to three safety rules.’

He raised one finger. ‘Number one is obvious. Don’t wander out of the park into the ruins. If you aren’t wearing an impact suit, they’re utterly lethal.’

He raised a second finger. ‘Number two. Birds of prey nest on these islands. Don’t disturb them, because they’ll attack you to defend their young.’

He raised a third finger. ‘Number three. The sun here is stronger than most of you will have experienced on your home worlds. If your skin is liable to sunburn badly, there’s protective sun block in the store room.’ He glanced pointedly at a couple of the class, including Fian. ‘Don’t come crying to me if you forget to use it. Understand?’

He’d got us trained now, so we chanted the words in unison. ‘We understand.’

‘Good.’ He clapped his hands. ‘That’s it. Take a break.’

Everyone else sprinted back into the dome, but I went over to Rono. ‘I’m causing far too much trouble staying with the class. I’ll call my commanding officer and ask to go somewhere else.’

Rono looked apologetic. ‘I was joking about the Osiris lily smell, Jarra. I really wanted to get outside because I love the sunshine at the California Rift. It’s just like back home on Cassandra.’

‘I didn’t mean the joke.’ I struggled to keep my voice under control. ‘Lecturer Playdon shouldn’t be forced to come here and face painful memories to keep me safe.’

Rono shook his head. ‘Playdon wasn’t forced to do this. He had plenty of teams offering to trade dig site assignments, and he deliberately chose this one so he could try facing the past in the company of his friends.’

‘Oh.’ I felt a total nardle.

Rono grinned and patted my shoulder. ‘I’m very glad Dannel Playdon’s students appreciate him.’

The rest of the class started reappearing and heading for the pool. Most people, including Fian, were wearing the skintights they normally wore under impact suits, but a few had proper swimming costumes. Rono ran to the pool himself, pulled off his clothes to show a swimming costume that barely covered the legally private areas, and dived into the water.

Fian came over to join me, and I gave an envious sigh. ‘I can’t go in the water until the skunk juice wears off, but you enjoy a swim.’

He shook his head. ‘I’ll wait until we can both go swimming.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I said. ‘You will go swimming, Major Eklund, that’s an order.’

He shook his head again. ‘One slight problem, sir. I can’t swim.’

‘What? Everyone learns to swim at school.’

‘Not on Hercules. Deltans feel school time should be spent studying science. When you recover from the skunk juice, you can teach me to swim. Until then, we’ll just watch the others having fun.’

We walked towards the pool, and found the ten members of Cassandra 2 research team had taken over one end of it, while our class were milling round in the water at the other. I saw Krath go over to the diving area and start climbing the ladder to the highest diving board.

Fian frowned. ‘Do you think the idiot’s safe going up there?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Krath’s usually good at practical things, but …’

Krath reached the diving board, waved his arms, and yelled. ‘Look at me, Amalie!’

Our class all looked up, but Rono ignored him. I wished Playdon was here to make sure Krath didn’t break his stupid …

Krath did a perfect dive that included a forward somersault. I relaxed and laughed at Fian. ‘I’m sure Krath would teach you to swim if you ask him nicely.’

Fian made a disgusted noise, and we watched Krath climb the ladder to do an even fancier dive that started with a handstand. A dozen dives later, Playdon appeared next to me and frowned at the crowd in the pool.

‘Why aren’t my class working?’

Rono swam to the side of the pool, and heaved himself out in one swift movement. ‘They
are
working. They’re acclimatizing to the sunshine.’

Playdon shook his head and shouted. ‘Asgard 6, out of the pool now!’

Rono winked at me and whispered. ‘I knew this would get him back to normal. Playdon hates seeing his classes lazing around when they should be doing something educational.’

The mob in the pool groaned but obediently climbed out and gathered round us in a dripping group. I backed away nervously to stay clear of water droplets.

‘I want to complete the introductory lectures today, so we can start work on the dig site in the morning,’ said Playdon. ‘Jarra obviously won’t be able to wear an impact suit for a couple of days, so Amalie will substitute as tag leader for our dig team 1.’

Amalie looked worried. ‘I’m not sure …’

‘You’ll do brilliantly,’ I said.

‘It will be good experience for you, Amalie,’ said Playdon. ‘While we’re working on the dig site, Jarra can stay in the dome and do that remedial work I set her on the mathematical theorems of historical analysis. I won’t accept trivial excuses like alien spheres for her delaying it any longer.’

‘Nooo!’ I wailed, while the rest of the class laughed at me.

‘Everyone get dressed now and …’ Playdon broke off as his lookup chimed to signal emergency mail. He tapped it, read the message, and looked startled.

‘Colonel Leveque informs me Jarra and Fian’s bodyguard will be arriving within the next few minutes. Apparently, the bodyguard is …’ Playdon paused to double check the mail message as if he was still having trouble believing it. ‘His Excellency Captain Draven Fedorov Seti Raven, Knight of Adonis.’

There was a moment of stunned silence, before Krath spoke. ‘It must be a joke.’

I couldn’t believe it either. The Adonis Knights were descendants of the first colonists on Adonis. Humanity learned a lot from that first colony. Mostly about all the things that could go wrong when people tried to live on an alien world with its own abundant life and intricate ecology and the portal link failed. After that, the Military Charter was written to establish what later became the cross-sector Military. Their first job was to clean up Adonis and make it safe, then their fledgling Planet First teams moved on to open up other colony worlds.

Playdon shook his head. ‘I can’t imagine Colonel Leveque would …’

He broke off because a man in a Captain’s uniform had just come out of our dome. The new arrival couldn’t be much more than twenty years old. He was slim, with short, dark hair, and had what would have been a very ordinary face if it wasn’t for the thin, horizontal, black and white stripes on his right cheek.

I frantically counted the stripes and made it ten. Chaos take it, I wasn’t just looking at an Adonis Knight. This man had completed the legendary set of ordeals based on the first colonists’ struggle to survive, including a desert trek, fighting predatory animals, a week without food, and two days without water.

The title of an Adonis Knight only meant you were a rich aristocrat with heroic ancestors, but completing all ten trials of Adonis … Respect!

8

I had my eyes closed and my face lifted, glorying in the sensation of warm water cascading over my skin. I ran my fingers through strands of squeaky-clean hair and inhaled the faint fragrance of shower spray. This was blizz. Utter ecstatic blizz!

Someone hammered on the bathroom door, and I heard Amalie shouting. ‘Jarra, there’s a queue out here. For chaos sake, come out of there before you dissolve!’

I groaned and reluctantly switched the shower to dry mode. Amalie must have heard the shower change note, because the hammering stopped. A couple of minutes later, I stepped out of the shower and stood gloating at the sight of my wonderfully unblemished face in the mirror. The hammering on the door started again.

‘I’m coming!’ I tugged on my robe, picked up my gun and my lookup from the shelf, opened the door, and faced a queue of three impatient people.

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I wanted to make sure I got rid of all the Osiris lily smell.’

Amalie groaned. ‘You had an hour-long shower yesterday afternoon. We all told you the smell was gone afterwards. You still insisted on having two more showers and a swim in the pool. The. Smell. Has. Gone.’

‘I could still smell it this morning.’ I sniffed. ‘I think it’s gone now. I’m not sure.’

Amalie sighed and went into the bathroom. His Excellency Captain Draven Fedorov Seti Raven had been leaning casually against the corridor wall waiting for me. Now he escorted me to my room, checking for threats with the tiny sensor in his left hand, while his right hand hovered close to his gun.

I went into the room, found Fian already dressed in his uniform, and got dressed myself. When we went back out into the corridor, we discovered our bodyguard was talking to himself.

‘… understand that but I’m not happy. She’s a potential threat!’

‘I’m afraid you’re stuck with it, Birdy,’ said a disembodied male voice.

I frowned. ‘Where’s that voice coming from, Raven? It’s not your lookup.’

‘It’s coming from the implant bonded to my skull,’ said Raven. ‘It’s SECOP talking.’

‘SECOP? Does that stand for Security Operations?’ I asked.

‘It does, Commander,’ said the voice of SECOP.

I was startled. ‘You can hear me?’

‘In emergency mode, they can see and hear everything I can,’ said Raven. ‘In normal mode, my implant selectively relays statements prefixed with SECOP. Everything else remains private, but my implant has rolling two-hour recordings of everything I see and hear. In the event of my death, or traumatic injury, that data is automatically dumped to SECOP.’

‘It is?’ Fian pulled a face. ‘Next time you stick your nose into something private, I’ll have to remember not to kill you for two hours.’

‘Sorry again,’ said Raven. ‘It sounded like an intruder was attacking you.’

I smothered a giggle. The previous night, Fian and I had celebrated my recovery from the skunk juice by watching a new episode of Fian’s favourite vid series,
Stalea of the Jungle
. It ended with Stalea throwing her boyfriend across a jungle clearing, pinning him to the ground, and forcibly kissing him. Fian and I were happily re-enacting this scene for our personal entertainment, when an Adonis Knight heroically charged into the room to save us from being murdered.