Earth Girl (11 page)

We went back into the dome. I took off my impact suit, did a bit of fast research on my lookup, and went into the dining hall with my head buzzing with plans. I might be able to cover part of the Stasis Q course from vids and working with Playdon, but I’d need to go on a formal course for several weeks, and then there were theory and practical exams. From what I’d hastily read, the tests were tough. Any error meant a complete failure, because opening a real stasis box with a hazard inside might kill you.

Playdon came into the dining hall, and put the stasis box on a table. We all gathered expectantly round, and he held up something to show us. ‘This is a stasis box key. It collapses the stasis field and releases the contents. They’re easy to use, but you never open a box yourselves. Boxes have to be checked and opened by qualified people, in case there’s something like a nuclear warhead inside.’

Krath gulped. ‘Have you ever found one of those?’

‘Not personally,’ said Playdon. ‘I have found radioactive materials in a stasis box, and the last aerial survey of New York Main dig site showed up two new radioactive hotspots that probably came from failed stasis boxes releasing their contents. They’re well clear of current working areas, but Dig Site Command may need to get them cleared up in the future.’

‘Fortunately,’ he continued, ‘my tests show this looks like a perfectly ordinary memorial box, so let’s see what we’ve got.’

Playdon used the key, and the black stasis field vanished. Inside was what looked like a flexiplas box covered in metallic webbing. Playdon lifted the lid, and took out something soft and white. He held it up.

‘A wedding dress,’ said Dalmora, looking grazzed. ‘An old style wedding dress. How old is that?’

‘From the design, I’d guess the box dates from about the middle of Exodus century,’ said Playdon. ‘The dress looks older than that.’

‘Perhaps it had been handed down in the family,’ said Dalmora.

The next thing was a clock made partly of real wood. ‘This is an old time piece,’ said Playdon. ‘It would have hung on the wall.’

The final object was a red and blue flexiplas toy. Playdon shook it and it rattled.

‘A baby’s rattle, for a baby from hundreds of years ago,’ said Dalmora. ‘How amaz!’

‘And most importantly, this,’ said Playdon, holding up something very small. ‘A data chip.’

‘It looks strange,’ said Fian.

‘It’s an old format,’ said Playdon, ‘but we make special converters to read and translate them.’

He produced a metal cube, inserted the data chip from the stasis box into one of its connections, and a standard data chip into another. A light flashed for a few minutes and then went out. Playdon took the standard chip, and inserted it into the big vid wall at the front of the hall.

The class waited breathless as a totally black image appeared for a few seconds, and then suddenly a man was smiling at us. I’d found stasis boxes before, and when the report came back from the experts I’d watched the images from the data chips inside. It was always special, but this one was totally zan. Before, the experts had already seen them, but this time … This time we were the first. That man had been waiting to smile at someone for four hundred years, and he was smiling at us.

‘Well,’ he said, ‘I don’t know if anyone will ever bother to watch this. Maybe not, but if you do, I’m Davide and it’s the first of June in the year 2363. Today I’m on Earth and tomorrow I’ll be on another world. I’ve been waiting years for this. My wife, my 5-year-old son, and myself are going to one of the Alpha worlds, Demeter. My brother is there already, and my parents hope to join us next year. We’ve a very limited luggage allowance, so we’re leaving the apartment fully furnished. They aren’t selling well at the moment, but the price is really low. I hope you like living here.’

His image flickered out, and was replaced by that of a red-headed woman. She was sitting on a chair, with a small boy on her lap. ‘I’m Issette and this is Rhyss.’

Another Issette, I thought. I’d better not mention this to my friend, Issette. I could just imagine her wails about being stuck with a four-hundred-year-old name.

The Issette from four hundred years ago was silent for a couple of minutes before she spoke again, and this time her words came out in a rush. ‘I don’t want to go, but we can’t stay. A third of the apartments in this block are empty. It’s getting worse every year, and we have to think of our son. He’s only 5, and there’ll be the new baby in seven months, and … The looters have taken over some areas.’

She suddenly stood up and reached forward. The image changed to a recording of some sort of newzie. We watched the news report from four hundred years ago, and then the data recording ended.

‘She didn’t want to go,’ said Amalie. ‘Her husband did, but she didn’t.’

‘They went to Demeter,’ said Dalmora. ‘She must have liked it there. It’s a beautiful world.’

‘But she didn’t want to go,’ said Amalie. ‘Poor woman. She went because she was scared to stay, and was frightened for her children. Everyone in Epsilon sector came because they wanted to build up new worlds.’

I didn’t know what to think. I’d watched several of these messages before, with people full of excitement about going to a new world. That was the first I’d seen with an exo who hadn’t wanted to leave Earth.

‘I’ll send the artefacts and the data chip off to the experts for preservation and analysis,’ said Playdon. ‘No more classes today. Our normal daily pattern will be to work the dig site in the morning, and have classes in the afternoon.’

He paused for a second before continuing. ‘Jarra, Fian, Dalmora, Amalie and Krath seemed to work effectively together today, so they’re our team 1. For the next few days, they’ll be working areas while the rest of you watch and learn. After that, we’ll gradually start building up our other dig teams.’

I instantly forgot about a long ago Issette who hadn’t wanted to leave Earth. I was tag leader for team 1! I was an ape girl, but I’d still made key spot! I contained myself while Playdon collected the artefacts and tools and went out of the dining hall, and then I looked round for the others. Fian was nearest, so I grabbed him and swung him into a jubilant victory dance.

‘What?’ Fian looked startled, then saw my grin and smiled back.

‘You heard him! We’re team 1! Hoo eee!’ I yelled.

It was our third day working New York Main. We’d found nothing on our second day, but team 1 had worked smoothly together and Playdon had given us a few words of praise at the end of it. Heading out again today, there was a feeling of excitement among the class. Working a city dig site was like a treasure hunt. You never knew if you would find a stasis box, or what might be inside it, and even the Betans seemed caught up in the mood and stopped whining about the impact suits.

We’d just reached our working position, and I was on the sensor sled with Dalmora and Playdon. I was sorting out the sensor spikes ready to set up the net when there was a faint rumbling sound. I looked up, a sensor spike still in my hand, and spotted a lump falling from the skeletal remains of the nearest skyscraper.

‘Everyone stay on the sleds.’ Playdon’s urgent voice came across the team circuit. ‘Move them back onto the clearway.’

‘What’s the problem?’ asked Lolia.

‘This is Asgard Team 6, Sector 22,’ said Playdon. I could tell from the different background note he was on the broadcast channel. ‘We’re seeing tower breakaways at nine o’clock. Either one or two Sectors out.’

A new voice came over the broadcast channel. ‘This is Dig Site Command. Thank you Asgard 6. Teams in Sectors 21 through 27 move to safe ground.’

Our six sleds had pulled back at varying speeds, and now formed a ragged line on the clearway.

‘So what’s the delay?’ It was Lolia again. The girl had the patience level of the average 2-year-old in Nursery, but a lot less brain cells.

‘Quiet,’ said Playdon on the team circuit.

I was watching the suspect skyscraper, looking for more breakaways, but it was the one next to it that folded over sideways. It seemed to happen in slow motion, as the huge mass of concrete and metal finally lost its battle with time and fell with a long drawn out dying scream. A dense cloud of dust billowed up to mark its grave.

Even before it landed, Playdon was on the broadcast channel. ‘This is Asgard 6. Tower down! Tower down!’

‘This is Dig Site Command. Status check, teams respond please. Sector 21, Earth 19.’

‘Earth 19 secure.’

‘Sector 22, Asgard 6.’

‘Asgard 6 secure.’ Playdon called it in.

‘Sector 23, Cassandra 2.’ Dig Site Command waited and tried again. ‘Sector 23, Cassandra 2, respond please.’ Still nothing. ‘Sector 25, Beowulf 4.’

Beowulf 4 responded, and then the teams in Sectors 26 and 27.

‘This is Dig Site Command. We have a team down in Sector 23. Sectors 21, 22 and 25 assist please. Sector 22, Asgard 6, you are first response.’

Dig Site Command was sounding nicely professional and calm when he said it. Me, I was close to panicking.

‘What’s that mean?’ asked Lolia.

‘Nuke it, Lolia!’ said Playdon on the team circuit.

There was a sort of collective gasp across all our six sleds. Hoo eee! Playdon had said the nuke word! I have to admit it was effective though. With one crude phrase, he shut up Lolia and communicated just how serious things were to the rest of the class.

‘Sleds move out. Stay in a close line.’ Playdon tapped Dalmora on the shoulder, and she practically leapt out of the driving seat to let him take over our sled.

Playdon started our sled moving and I saw the other sleds tagging on behind. I was anxious to ask something, but I didn’t want Playdon swearing at me next, so I had faith and held my tongue.

‘This is Asgard 6,’ said Playdon, back on the broadcast channel. ‘I have a Foundation course team, with only one experienced member. Who is in Sector 24?’

Yes, that was exactly what I’d wanted to ask.

‘Sector 24 is allocated to Earth 8, but they had a sled problem and are not on site today,’ responded Dig Site Command.

Oh nuke that! I nearly joined Playdon in the profanity club, but fortunately I thought it rather than actually saying it out loud. I knew the system. They deliberately scattered novice teams between experienced ones on sites like this, to try and avoid the situation we were now in. It should have been Earth 8 leading this rescue, not us. Earth was for the triple H, and one of those was History. University Earth had a large number of highly qualified dig teams.

‘Team Leaders Asgard 6, Earth 19, Beowulf 4, please utilize emergency channel to co-ordinate rescue,’ said Dig Site Command.

Playdon’s voice came across our team circuit. ‘My team can open emergency channel to listen in, but don’t transmit on it unless ordered to.’

I already had the channel open to eavesdrop on it. Dig Site Command were giving out the last known location of team Cassandra 2. They were a research team of ten, and they’d been working close to the tower that collapsed.

‘This is Asgard 6 team leader,’ said Playdon. ‘Our arrival estimate is twelve minutes. Novice team of thirty-one. Six sleds including two heavy lifts.’

Playdon was taking us round by the safe clearway route. I couldn’t fault that. We might save five minutes by going in a straight line across the rubble, but we couldn’t afford to take the risk.

‘This is Earth 19 team leader,’ said a woman’s voice. ‘Our arrival estimate is sixty-six minutes. Experienced team of twenty-nine. Nine sleds including three heavy lifts.’

‘This is Beowulf 4 team leader. We have a team of sixteen, and eight sleds including three heavy lifts, but we have a problem,’ said a deep voiced man. ‘We’re the wrong side of that tower group. We need to skirt the remaining two, as well as the fallen one, to reach the rescue zone.’

Dig Site Command cut in, ordering Beowulf 4 to stick to a safe route clear of the remaining towers. That seemed a good call to me. The other towers might well be unstable as well now, and we didn’t need a second team in trouble.

‘By a safe route,’ Beowulf 4 continued like it really hurt him to say it, ‘our response time is about 100 minutes. Sorry, that puts us close to the two hour deadline, but we’re coming anyway in case the rescue teams hit trouble themselves.’

‘This is Asgard 6,’ said Playdon. ‘Thanks for that Beowulf 4, we’d appreciate you covering our backs.’

Dalmora was whispering to me. ‘What’s the two hour deadline?’

Playdon heard her. ‘I’m busy. Explain things to them, Jarra.’

I spoke on the team circuit, so our class could hear me on the other sleds. ‘One of the other teams on the dig site isn’t responding. We can assume they got caught in that skyscraper collapsing. There are ten people missing from University Cassandra, probably buried in rubble. Their suits may have kept them alive, but impact suits can only take heavy pressure for about two hours. We need to dig people out by then or suits start failing.’

There was silence. I don’t think any of the others dared to say anything on circuit.

I did a few mental calculations. ‘After we get there, that gives us about an hour and forty minutes to get people out. Earth 19 will arrive nearly an hour later than us.’

‘Will apes be any use?’ muttered someone. This was followed by an oops noise, as he realized he was broadcasting to our whole team.

‘A lot more use than we are!’ said Playdon savagely on the team circuit. ‘Earth 19 are the experts, but we have to make what progress we can until they arrive.’

‘This is Dig Site Command, we’ve contacted the Cassandra 2 team. All team members are alive but buried.’

That was good news, though it upped the pressure. Cassandra 2 team were alive and it was our responsibility to reach them and keep them that way. I wondered if Playdon was feeling anything like as panicky as I was.

There were a few minutes of silence as we headed on towards the rescue site. The two remaining towers were getting closer now, and I looked at them nervously. I didn’t fancy joining the University Cassandra team under tons of rubble.

‘We’re heading off the clearway now,’ said Playdon on the team circuit. ‘Drive slow and careful. Jarra, stand by with sensor spikes. We’ll be setting up a sensor net to locate the casualties. Dig Site Command will give you the locations for the spikes.’