Earth Star (16 page)

Fian doubtfully picked up the lump of flowgold, and waited while I unwrapped an equally crumpled golden blob. We solemnly exchanged rings. There was no point at all in this, since they were completely identical, but Fian was keen on the idea and I didn’t want to spoil his fun.

‘So … how do we put them on?’ asked Fian.

‘It’s supposed to be a bit like putting on an impact suit. Roll it smoothly down the finger.’ I prodded mine. ‘Of course, first you have to find the hole.’

‘There is a hole?’ asked Fian.

‘Somewhere,’ I said. ‘Ah.’

I’d succeeded in getting my ring on the tip of my finger. It felt creepy, and the memory of my poor lost little finger came flooding back. My replacement little finger was itching madly in panic.

‘I suppose this gets easier with practice,’ said Fian, still trying to find a hole in his ring. ‘It must … Zan, I did it!’

He rubbed his ring downwards until it was on the base of his finger. It gradually smoothed itself out, turning into a convincing ring shape. He examined it closely, and looked questioningly at me.

‘Jarra, there are no markings on this. Have I got it on properly?’

I’d been staring uneasily at the gold blob at the tip of my finger, but now I looked up, hot with embarrassment.

‘Well, I thought that was better than getting specific Twoing rings. Keon and Issette can buy new ones with end-date markings for each Twoing contract, because ordinary gold and diamonds are cheap to make, but flowgold isn’t, and markings are expensive because they have to imprint them in the …’

I realized I was babbling and broke off. ‘Anyway, I thought you’d like it that way.’

‘Jarra, I love it! No end-date markings, that’s … That’s zan, Jarra.’

‘Keon and Issette are planning a full year Twoing contract next. We could do the same.’

Fian grinned at me. ‘We can do whatever you like. The rings have no end-date markings, so I know …’

I looked at his face, and knew I had to get over my nardle fear and put my ring on properly. I forced myself to smooth the evil thing down my finger, and watched it flow properly into shape. I gave it a nervous prod and saw how it flexed with my skin. It was weird. There’d never been a recorded accident involving a flowgold ring, and I couldn’t even feel I was wearing it, but I was still tensely waiting for it to bite off my finger.

‘What now?’ I asked. ‘You want to call your parents and show them?’

‘Yes, but later.’ He gave me a huge grin. ‘I have something else in mind first.’

The huge tropical bird dome of Zoo Europe is one of my favourite places. The birds flying among the trees like airborne jewels, the wildness of the plants, and the moist earth scent of the place is totally amaz. Eden Dig Site was surrounded by genuine rainforest, but I couldn’t walk among those trees without an impact suit to protect me from danger. The fabric would block me from touching the leaves, and the air system would cut me off from the smells. I’d never be able to experience it like this.

Candace was already sitting by the guppy pool waiting for me. As I walked towards her, I had a sudden feeling of nostalgia. For years, I’d met her on this same bench every week, but since Year End I’d been away working on the dig sites. We’d met up a couple of times, but never here.

I sat down next to Candace, and she smiled at me. ‘Like old times, Jarra.’

She’d been thinking the same thing as me. I had a nardle emotional moment and turned my head away, pretending to watch an iridescent blue and purple bird that was feasting on the fruit at a feeding station. I’d visited this place for years. I’d been in a lot of different sorts of trouble in that time, most of them my own fault, and Candace had stuck with me through it all.

Now I was a Major in the Military, incredible things were happening, and I couldn’t tell her anything about it. Military security forbade it and so did common sense. Lecturer Playdon was used to coping with dangerous crises on dig sites, but the news of aliens had still deeply shocked him. Gentle Candace, with her quiet, safe life, would find it far more frightening. There’d been several times in the past when I’d censored the details of my life to avoid worrying her. This was just a more extreme example.

‘Jarra!’ The astonishment in Candace’s voice startled me out of my thoughts and back into reality. ‘You’re wearing a ring!’

I turned to face her again. ‘Well, it was important to Fian.’

‘I’m impressed,’ she said. ‘You’ve overcome your phobia.’

‘Not really. I sometimes forget the ring’s there, but then I remember and start panicking it’s going to snip my finger off.’

‘I’m even more impressed. Despite feeling like that, you’re still wearing it.’

‘Well, if it came to it, Fian is worth losing a finger.’ I grinned. ‘In reality though, flowgold can’t possibly hurt me. If I keep telling myself that, maybe eventually my brain will believe me.’

Candace bent her head to examine my ring. ‘I’ve never seen flowgold before. It doesn’t look exactly like a rigid ring; it seems to move with your finger. I see it’s plain. You can’t have markings on them like normal Twoing rings?’

I flushed and dodged her eyes. ‘You can, but it’s more expensive. I’ve only got the nardle thing to make Fian happy, so I thought it might as well stay plain.’

‘He’s happy with that?’

‘Happy? He’s been going around, totally powered, for days! Anyone would think we’d eloped to Epsilon the way he’s carrying on. The unmarked ring. The symbolism of open-ended commitment. Lots of nardle romantic stuff.’

‘And how do you feel about it?’

I spotted an interesting bird landing on a tree branch, and turned to look at it. ‘Well, it’s cheaper, and it makes him happy, so why not?’

Candace laughed. ‘You’re still just as bad at discussing things you care about.’

I pulled a face. Candace is a great ProMum, but sometimes she knows me too well.

‘What are your plans for the Ark evacuation, Jarra? I suppose your class will be going off world. Is Fian staying on Earth?’

I welcomed the change of subject, although I had to be careful about what I said. ‘Fian’s parents suggested he should visit them and his friends on Hercules, but he’s insisting on staying with me. I’m not sure about our exact plans. Issette’s class is planning a huge party in Ark, and she’s invited us, or we can go with Lecturer Playdon and the Eden Dig Site evacuation.’

‘Your lecturer is staying on Earth?’

I nodded. ‘He said he missed the solar super storm by going to Asgard, so he’s staying for this. It is a pretty historic occasion after all.’

Candace opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by my lookup chiming frantically. I grabbed it and stared at a flashing mail message. I’d checked out of the base to visit Candace, and set my Military mail to forward any urgent messages to my civilian lookup. This was definitely urgent. The base had gone to war status!

‘Oh nuke! Sorry. Got to go. Accident.’

‘Fian?’ Candace asked, anxiously.

‘No, he’s safe.’ That was true. Sort of. Fian was probably as safe as anyone on this planet, but I didn’t know how safe that was. ‘Must run.’

I sprinted out of the dome. What had happened to send us to war status? It must be about 11:00 hours in Earth America, which meant shift 2 would be up in orbit. Drago would be in one of the four fighters in the inner ring around the sphere, Marlise in the outer ring. They must be in combat now.

I knew my way around Zoo Europe perfectly. It took less than two minutes at a flat-out run to reach the nearest portal. I’d run it in the opposite direction several times when I was late for my meetings with Candace. With every step, I was expecting my lookup to chime again with an Ark evacuation message, but there was nothing.

I started to dial a Europe Transit, but stopped. If we were at war, any Military portal request would automatically be given pre-empt status. I dialled the base instead, feeling sick when the American code was accepted by my European local portal. It was true. Deity aid us, humanity was at war.

I stepped directly from Zoo Europe into Zulu base, and started running again. Fian would be in our quarters, and I had to use an internal portal to get to our accommodation area. Chaos, this base was too big! I sprinted down the last corridor, practically fell through our door, and was deeply thankful to see Fian. Whatever was happening, at least we’d escaped the nightmare of being separated in the middle of an alien attack.

‘Jarra!’ He looked as relieved as I felt.

I gave him a quick hug and gasped for breath. ‘What’s happening?’

‘I don’t know. The base didn’t even go to alert, just straight to war status. I’ve told our team members to go to their quarters, and stand by with their emergency bags ready to evacuate. Was that right?’

‘That was exactly right. We’re non-combatants, so we stay out of the way.’

I snatched my Military lookup from where I’d left it on the table. I was a team leader which should mean … Yes, entering my codes got me the command data feed. I selected the event summary.

‘Oh nuke! The sphere opened fire on Drago’s fighter so the Colonel took the base to war status, ordered all fighter shifts to launch, and gave the kill order.’ I skimmed down more events. ‘Drago’s alive! He overrode the Colonel and cancelled the kill order.’

‘Can Drago override the Colonel?’

‘Yes, Drago’s leader of Attack shift 2, senior officer in the combat area.’ I selected the image feed and sent it to our wall vid. ‘Look! The other fighters have already portalled in.’

I was deeply impressed. Some of those people would have been in bed and asleep when the base went to war status. They’d still got into impact suits, reached their fighters and launched, all in less than … my eyes flickered to the time … seven minutes.

I added sound to the feed and we could hear Drago shouting orders. ‘Shift 2 hold position, don’t fire. Incoming fighters stay back, stay back! Remain at the portals. Do not engage! Do not engage!’

Colonel Torrek’s voice was calm but pointed. ‘Major Tell Dramis, the sphere attacked your fighter. Your shields are down and you are venting atmosphere.’

Drago again, quieter this time. ‘I don’t think it attacked me, sir. I think it fired at something close to me, and my fighter just got the backlash. I’m sure the last thing I saw before my suit triggered and I went into impact suit blackout was the beam hitting something else as well as me.’

‘Threat team can now confirm that.’ Even in this situation, Mason Leveque’s voice sounded as lazy as ever, and for a mad second I was reminded of my friend Keon. ‘Telemetry from the fighters shows a small piece of space junk incoming rapidly on a collision course with the sphere. It seems to have triggered an automatic meteor defence.’

‘All right.’ The tense note in Colonel Torrek’s voice eased a little. ‘Major Tell Dramis, you are Field Commander unless Commander Stone wishes to take over.’

‘Negative on that,’ cut in Nia Stone. ‘Drago is in the inner circle, I’m well out by the portals, and flying in to take a closer look might trigger another attack.’

‘You are confirmed as Field Commander, Major Tell Dramis,’ said the Colonel. ‘How do you want to handle this?’

‘I want us to do absolutely nothing, sir,’ said Drago. ‘I’d like Nia and shift 3 fighters to hold position at the portals in case we need help, and the rest to return to base. My shift should hold their positions, and not move a muscle. Our policy of carefully approaching the sphere at minimum speed on a non-intercept course has prevented the sphere from targeting us before this, but having fired at that space junk it may be a bit more jumpy. I want to give it a few hours to calm down.’

‘Shifts 1, 4, 5 and 6, you heard him, return to base,’ said Nia Stone.

I saw the four portals flare into life, and the bevy of fighters around each of them begin to fly through.

‘I’m cancelling war status, and taking the base down to alert level 2,’ said Colonel Torrek.

Our Military lookups instantly chimed with messages about the change in alert status. A moment or two later, Fian’s lookup chimed again.

‘The historians want to know what’s happening and what they should do,’ he reported.

I kept my eyes on the wall vid. ‘Tell them there’s no immediate danger, but they’d better work from their quarters for the rest of today. We don’t want them wandering around the corridors with the base only one step down from war status.’

Fian worked on his lookup for a moment. ‘Done.’

Only the fighters of shift 3, and of Nia Stone, remained at the portals now. I zoomed in the vid screen to focus on the two circles of fighters around the sphere. I could tell which belonged to Drago and Marlise, because each fighter had distinctive flashes of colour against the black. Drago’s were command gold, while Marlise had the silver of deputy.

‘What is your status, Major Tell Dramis?’ asked Colonel Torrek. ‘Your fighter is still venting atmosphere, do you wish to pull back for assistance?’

‘I’d like to, sir, but I daren’t,’ said Drago. ‘I think a direct hit from the sphere’s meteor defence would blow me out of space even if my fighter was undamaged.’

‘Threat team can confirm that,’ said the laid-back tones of Leveque. ‘Beam duration was one fifth of a second. Beam power output was approximately one tenth of the level of a planetary power supply beam.’

I gulped. A power supply beam could carve canyons of lava across a continent if it was unleashed against a planet. It had happened, unforgettably, on Artemis. I wore the medal that was first created to honour the Military who died stopping that horror. Even a tenth of that power was scary.

‘In that case,’ said Drago, ‘I definitely can’t risk moving for a while. That sphere could take out my whole team in seconds. Ship diagnostics have finished. I’ve lost all shields, and engines are damaged, but I’ll only need minimum speed. Weapons are operational but irrelevant. Hovers have gone completely, so you’d better expect me to make an undignified landing when I portal out.’

‘We’ll foam the landing area for you, Drago, but a more immediate concern is your air supply,’ said Nia’s voice.

‘My cockpit is punctured, so I can forget ship air,’ he replied. ‘Just waiting for my suit diagnostics to … Ah, just finished. Impact suit is fine. I’m down to suit-recycled air, but I’ve got the standard six oxygen booster cells on board. That means I’m good for twelve hours, but I’m thinking of moving after six.’