Earth Girl (31 page)

‘This is Dig Site Command. Thank you Earth 22, but Prometheus 1 have now made it to emergency evac portal 39. They are abandoning sleds and portalling out. It appears they forgot to recharge their sleds’ power overnight before entering the dig site.’

I burst out laughing.

‘Did that mean what it sounded like?’ asked Dalmora on the team circuit.

‘Oh yes,’ said Playdon. ‘Their team leader is never going to live this down. The entire dig site knows he forgot to plug his sleds in. Even now, his team are arriving in a Hospital Earth Casualty unit, suffering from a chronic outbreak of embarrassment. I’m just thankful it wasn’t one of University Asgard’s teams …’

By the time we turned off the Grand Circle, on to the clearway that led to our base dome, snow was starting to fall. Just a few tiny flakes at first, but they gradually grew thicker and more numerous, until the landscape was lost in whirling snow. The glows marking the edge of the clearway were suddenly very welcome.

Fian and I were riding on one of our transport sleds near the front of the convoy. Peering ahead through the snow, I could just see the leading sled turn its lights on. The brightness echoed down the line, as all the other drivers turned on their own lights in turn.

‘This is incredible,’ said Fian. ‘I’ve never seen snow before. I had no idea …’

‘This is awful,’ muttered Joth. ‘I’m scared I’ll lose the clearway.’ He was driving our sled, and grimly concentrating on following the one ahead of us.

Playdon’s voice came over the team circuit. ‘Earth 3 have kindly offered to escort us all the way back to our base. I’ve invited them in for refreshments, but they say that given the rate it’s snowing they’d better not stop. They’ll carry on and circle round outside the dig site to reach their own dome. I’ve told them we’re very grateful for the escort, and I hope you all appreciate it.’

‘I don’t know about the others, sir,’ I said on the team circuit, ‘but given the visibility at the moment, I’m very pleased to have Earth 3 guiding us.’

Next morning, there was a mail on all our lookups from Playdon. Heavy snow had continued to fall overnight and New York Dig Site would be closed for at least two days.

I’d been expecting that, and hoping I could spend the morning in bed, but I couldn’t. Playdon was giving us extra lectures instead. Oh joy.

Since we didn’t have any windows in the dome, Playdon promised us a peek out of the dome door so we could admire the snow before we started lectures. ‘I normally don’t allow this without everyone wearing impact suits,’ he said, ‘just in case some fool wanders off alone, but I don’t think anyone would get far in this.’

He opened the dome door with a dramatic flourish. A wall of waist high snow blocked the doorway, and a few flakes were still falling.

‘Is it safe to touch it without an impact suit?’ asked Fian, wide eyed. ‘We’ve never had snow on Hercules. It doesn’t get cold enough for it.’

‘We’ve got Winter in Gamma sector,’ chorused several voices. ‘All of the schools have annual trips to Winter so we can play in the snow.’

‘That’s a really confusing name for a planet,’ said Krath, the perpetual critic. ‘Winter is a season not a place.’

We ignored him.

‘Why did Gamma sector get a planet that was so cold?’ asked Amalie, staying well back from the dome door. ‘Surely Planet First couldn’t have made that big a mistake.’

‘They wanted a cold planet for some special manufacturing processes,’ said one Gamman.

‘But we go there to play as well,’ said another.

‘The manufacturing story is just a cover up,’ said Krath. ‘They originally intended it to be used for experiments creating mutated forms of humanity, but the mutants turned on the humans and had to be slaughtered. My dad says that …’

‘Oh shut up, Krath,’ we all told him.

‘I’ve been to Winter and it’s wonderful,’ said Dalmora. ‘Alpha sector has requested Planet First find them one too. Several sectors have requests in for useful specialist planets, but we have to wait until they finish checking the new Kappa worlds of course.’

Thirty minutes later, I could see that Playdon was regretting ever opening the dome door. By then, the saner members of the class had gone and put extra warm clothes on. The Betans were hiding in their rooms, because they were scared of the snow, but we couldn’t get the Deltans to tear themselves away from it. They kept telling us it was white, it was magical, it was amaz! The dome corridor was all slushy from them throwing snowballs at each other, and I was having an argument with Fian.

‘Oh go on,’ whined Fian. ‘Please.’

‘No,’ I said, firmly. ‘Absolutely not.’

Finally, Playdon had had enough. ‘Time to shut the door and do some work,’ he said.

‘Just one more thing,’ pleaded Fian. ‘There’s lots of really soft snow, Jarra. Go on …’

‘Now what?’ asked Playdon.

‘He wants her to throw him across the jungle clearing,’ explained Krath.

‘What jungle clearing?’ Playdon gazed round at the lack of jungle.

Several voices explained about the vid series,
Stalea of the Jungle
. Fian was obviously not the only fan in our class.

‘Oh, you mean at the end of every episode when she …’ Playdon broke off, but he’d already given himself away. He obviously watched it too.

‘Jarra won’t throw Fian round in the dome in case she hurts him,’ Krath continued.

‘Very sensible,’ said Playdon.

‘The snow’s nice and soft though,’ said Fian, hopefully.

‘No,’ I said.

Playdon sighed. ‘Jarra, please throw him across the jungle clearing or we’ll be here all day.’

It was an order, so … ‘Yes, sir.’ I moved away from the crowd, and Fian came eagerly over. I gauged my attack, went in low, grabbed his waist, and hurled him over my shoulder.

Fian lay on his back in the snow, with a blissful expression. ‘Totally, totally zan!’

The class bounced up and down cheering.

‘You should really leap on him now,’ said Joth.

‘You should really listen to some lectures now,’ said Playdon, and he finally drove them back inside and shut the door.

It took quite a while longer for everyone to change out of snowy clothes. We also had to persuade the Betans it was safe to come out of their rooms. There was a shock when they appeared. We stared at them, totally grazzed. Instead of the usual clinging clothes with holes displaying patches of skin, they were wearing ordinary outfits like the rest of us.

Lolia looked at us bravely. ‘Our daughter’s advocate says it will be beneficial to her development if we attempt to follow Earth customs on behaviour and dress while on this planet. While we were staying at the Nursery, the advocate advised us on clothes to buy.’

‘That’s very wise,’ said Dalmora. ‘I think you look very nice.’

There was bad news awaiting the class as we finally settled down in expectant rows in the dining hall, and gazed at Playdon with our innocent, unsuspecting faces.

‘I think this is a good time to tackle Granth’s Mathematical Evaluations of Human Conflict,’ he said.

I gave a faint scream.

‘It’s not that bad really, Jarra,’ said Playdon.

Clearly my scream hadn’t been faint enough.

‘Now,’ Playdon continued, ‘as I’m sure you all know, Granth formulated a mathematical method that assesses various factors in society and calculates the likelihood of a war resulting. In fact it comes up with a set of probabilities for various scales of conflict. We are fortunate in being able to look at specific situations in pre-history and see just how well this mathematical model works out in practice.’

I thought assorted moaning thoughts, while Playdon droned on about Granth. He was interrupted after about ten minutes, when Amalie stood up. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t cope with this course any more. I’m leaving.’ She burst into tears.

‘Don’t do that!’ Krath hastily stood up too. ‘Why leave?’

‘I’m useless,’ wailed Amalie. ‘I don’t understand any of this theorem stuff, and it’s frightening, and there’s no one else from Epsilon.’

‘You’re a fine student, Amalie,’ said Playdon. ‘Epsilon is still building up its education system, so you were admitted to this course under the special access scheme, but you’re doing as well as, or better than, most of the highly qualified students.’

‘I can’t do this,’ Amalie repeated. ‘I wanted to study here and go back to teach at the university we’re building back home, but I can’t … It’s frightening … There’s snow outside!’

I felt guilty. I’d been aware of the Betans screaming noisily about the snow, but I hadn’t realized Amalie was silently terrified.

Dalmora stood up. ‘I’m sorry. I should have noticed you were … I was so occupied with my own worries. I’ve been scared too, being away from home, and the dome is so … well, basic. I’m just not used to living like this.’

‘I would really hate you to give up your plans, Amalie,’ said Playdon. ‘Epsilon needs its new teachers.’

Amalie sniffled.

It was just the wrong moment for everyone’s lookups to bleep, bing, chime, and play suggestive music.

‘Solar storm warning!’ said Dalmora.

‘Again?’ Fian checked his. ‘We’ve got an eight-hour warning this time. Portals out for … three days!’

Playdon was reading his lookup urgently. ‘There’s a bad solar storm coming. I’m afraid they seem to have some link with the weather, so it’s not entirely coincidence that it arrives at the same time as the snow. Portals will be out of operation for three days.’

‘Three days!’ All the class, Alpha down to Epsilon, were screaming it.

Hysteria was spreading round the class faster than I could say Arrack San Domex. Honestly, civilians, terrified of being away from their portal lifeline! Humanity survived for thousands of years without portals, and the prospect of three days without them reduced this bunch to total jelly.

Our Alphan clearly summed up the feelings of the whole class when she wailed. ‘Three days here, with no portal, thick snow outside, and packs of wolves!’ Dalmora completely lost it. ‘I want to go home!’

I was impressed by Playdon. He was going to have a mass walk-out unless he did something fast, and he did it. ‘Pack your bags. I’m not keeping the class stuck here in the dome for three days when we can’t work the dig site. Even if the snow melts, Dig Site Command won’t open the site while the portals are out.’

Everyone ceased panicking and looked at him with sudden hope. ‘Where are we going?’ asked Dalmora.

Playdon clearly felt this was no time for half measures. Taking them somewhere else on Earth might get rid of the snow and the wolves, but it wouldn’t give them a functioning portal. ‘We’re going to Asgard!’

They all cheered.

‘I give you fair warning,’ Playdon said, ‘it might mean camping on a lecture room floor. I’ll have to call the university and see what accommodation is free. You all go and pack. Meet up back here when you’re ready.’

They all charged off at high speed. I didn’t understand what the big hurry was. They had eight hours before the portal was due to go into lockdown. Was it really likely to take them eight hours to pack?

Playdon suddenly turned to look at me. ‘Jarra, do you have any problem with going to Asgard?’

‘No, sir,’ I said. ‘Personally, I wouldn’t be worried staying here, but I’m happy to go.’

‘That’s fine then. You really had me confused when you arrived. I’d been given the ridiculous impression …’ He broke off, and started making his call to University Asgard.

I went off to pack. The others seemed to be packing all their possessions, but I was more selective. I should only be on Asgard for four days.

I was the last to go to pack, and I was the first back to the dining hall. That’s civilians for you. I’m not including Lecturer Playdon in this criticism. He was back only five minutes after me, despite being delayed by arranging accommodation.

The room gradually began to fill up with people and vast amounts of bags. I had one. Fian had three. Dalmora had seven. It got too crowded to count soon after that. The first nervous comments about portalling before it was too late were already beginning to start, and we still had seven hours before the Earth portal network was expected to go into lockdown.

‘We have to wait for everyone and go as a group,’ said Playdon. ‘I’m not leaving people alone here.’

The Betans were the last to arrive. Lolia went up to Playdon. ‘Lolmack and I feel we should be with Lolette. We can stay in a parent room at her Nursery, as we’ve done before.’

‘Stay? During the solar storm?’ Dalmora looked really impressed. ‘That’s so brave.’

‘All right,’ Playdon said, ‘they’ll take care of you at the Nursery. I can vid any classes you miss and …’ Playdon’s lookup bleeped. He glanced at it and frowned. ‘There’s a message for us from Cassandra 2. They expect we’ll be pulling out soon for the portal outage, and if our rescue squad would like to portal over to their dome before leaving, they’d really like to say thank you. Apparently, they have a special gift for Jarra.’

‘Now?’ asked Dalmora. ‘But the network is going down.’

‘Not for nearly seven hours,’ said Playdon. ‘You can call over there and catch us up on Asgard.’

Dalmora gulped. ‘I think I’d rather go with the group.’

Amalie and Krath nodded. Fian looked uncertainly at me.

‘I’d love to meet them,’ I said.

‘Then I’ll go too,’ said Fian, bravely.

‘I have to stay with the main group,’ said Playdon. ‘I wouldn’t leave you two here alone, but you can’t get into trouble at the Cassandra 2 dome. Portal from there straight to America Off-world, and then follow us on to Asgard. I’m sending everyone the portal codes now.’

Lookups did their usual blips, bleeps, and chimes.

Playdon led us off to the portal room. ‘Fian and Jarra had better go to the Cassandra 2 dome first, then Lolia and Lomack can go to America Transit. After that, I’ll count the rest of you through to America Off-world.’

Fian and I came forward, with our hover luggage following us. Playdon put in the portal code for the Cassandra 2 dome and we stepped through. A tall man of about 30 was waiting for us. He had an engaging smile, and a face like an elegant ebony sculpture, but there was an odd patch of distorted skin on his left temple. After a moment, I realized it had to be scar tissue, but I didn’t understand why anyone would have a scar when a simple fluid patch treatment would cure it.