Earth Star (20 page)

‘I’m not pushing you into it. I just wanted to give you the chance.’

‘I know you worked hard to get your pilot’s licence. I can just imagine you on trips with your school history club, nagging the professional pilots into giving you trips in planes, and teaching you to fly. How did your history teacher feel about it?’

‘Well, when he found out he was a bit … startled.’

Fian made an odd choking noise. ‘When he found out? You mean, he didn’t know? You didn’t ask his permission first?’

‘He’d never said we had to ask permission before going up in a plane.’

‘Jarra! You’re impossible.’

I giggled. ‘I suppose I am. My teacher always said I’d give him a nervous breakdown one day. After we dug up Solar 5, he sent me a mail saying he’d seen the coverage on the newzies and asking me to give my current lecturer his deepest sympathies. Playdon seemed to find that really funny.’ I paused. ‘I hope Joth’s all right, but if he is then I’ll strangle him for scaring us like this.’

‘You’ll have to queue in line behind Playdon,’ said Fian. ‘He’s not only worried sick, but this is embarrassing him and every other dig team from University Asgard. When this is over, the Dig Site Federation is going to want to know how the chaos a Foundation course student walked out of an Eden dome without an impact suit. Accidents are one thing, but criminal stupidity is very different.’

‘It’s not Playdon’s fault if Joth deliberately turned off the safety monitors. We’re supposed to be responsible adults.’

I gazed out of my window at the ruins below. The neat, flat, glowing line of a clearway ran beneath us, a path of crushed rubble heading from our dome straight into the heart of Eden. There was no sign of any human being on it.

Fian was looking down too. ‘The main clearways are laid out very neatly here. One clearway running into the site from each dome, and them all meeting the central Eden Ring clearway. Nothing like the mess in New York.’

‘When they made the New York clearways, they had huge problems with all the high hazard areas and waterways. That’s why the New York Grand Circle clearway isn’t a proper circle, and the Loop is like a mad tangle of string. Eden is inland with no river, no flooding issues, and …’

A voice suddenly spoke on broadcast channel. ‘This is Dig Site Command. Asgard 6 survey plane, you’ve now covered all the dig site area that could possibly have been reached on foot in the time available. Please move to search rainforest.’

‘This is Asgard 6 survey plane,’ Fian responded on the broadcast channel. ‘Moving to rainforest.’

He put the plane into a sharp turn to take it back towards our dome and the nearest edge of the rainforest. Joth wasn’t anywhere else, so he must be somewhere among those trees, and that was bad, very bad.

We were flying over the forest now, and I looked down at the thick mist hovering above the tree canopy. ‘Even if Joth was powered, he should have known going into the rainforest was suicidal. Playdon sent us the same safety vids he showed to the class. Insects, snakes, poisonous plants, dangerous predators. Was Joth trying to kill himself?’

I’d said the last sentence casually, without thinking, but Fian answered in a harsh voice. ‘That’s the obvious answer.’

I felt sick. ‘Please no. It’s hard for us Earth kids when we hit the Year Day that makes us 18. Hospital Earth does their best to prepare us for it, but it’s still frightening leaving Next Step forever and knowing we’re totally on our own. Some go a bit wild. Some panic. There’s the occasional one who can’t cope and … But why would Joth do that? He’s got a real family. If he’s not happy here, he could go home, or portal to any one of hundreds of worlds.’

Fian didn’t reply, because a voice spoke on the broadcast channel, finally telling us the news we’d been waiting for. ‘This is Dig Site Command. We’ve pinpointed a definite human life sign in the rainforest. Asgard 6 survey plane, you can return to base.’

I took over control of the plane and flew back towards our dome. On the way, I spotted a transport sled driving along the edge of the rainforest, and made the instant decision to rapidly sideslip off some height and land by it. As soon as we were on the ground, I opened the cockpit and Fian and I jumped down and chased after the sled. It stopped for a second to let us climb aboard. I saw Krath was driving, while Playdon, Amalie and Dalmora were sitting on the bench behind him.

‘Joth’s somewhere southeast of our dome,’ said Playdon. ‘We’re driving east along the rainforest edge, and then we’ll have to leave the sled and go due south into the forest on foot with Dig Site Command guiding us.’

Fian and I swapped our hover tunics for hover belts, while Playdon turned to unlock a box that was sitting on the seat next to him.

‘There are original African animals in the rainforest, as well as some deadly genetically salvaged species,’ he said. ‘We’ve got impact suits to protect us, but Joth doesn’t. I’m carrying a gun, and Jarra and Fian can have guns as well. Amalie, Dalmora and Krath, you’ll bring the hover stretcher and a cover.’

‘Guns.’ Dalmora’s voice sounded grazzed.

I wasn’t surprised that Dalmora was shocked. As a tag leader, I routinely used tag guns to fire electronic tags at rubble that needed shifting, I’d even been trusted to use the dangerous laser guns to cut ancient girders into pieces, but those were just the standard tools used in archaeological excavations. Playdon had never given any of us actual weapons before.

I was Military now, and any fighting was my job, so I took the gun Playdon handed me and attached it to my impact suit. If Playdon thought Fian and I had been trained to use weapons, he was wrong, but I’d only fire the gun if I had to, and I’d make totally sure that no one was between me and my target. I knew Fian would be equally careful.

Krath stopped the transport sled, and Playdon did some checks with a small hand sensor before leading the way into the trees. We were all using hover belts set to maximum height, floating above the tangle of undergrowth and fallen branches. I gave one quick look upwards, at the dizzyingly tall trunks of forest giants and the canopy of leaves high overhead. Where the occasional patch of sunlight found its way through the foliage, it seemed startlingly bright in contrast to the dimmer light below, and I hastily dropped my eyes to concentrate on the obstacles ahead.

‘If an extinct species was dangerous, why was anyone idiot enough to genetically salvage it, let alone let it loose in Earth Africa?’ asked Fian.

‘They did it before Exodus, as part of the Primeval project,’ I said. ‘There were zoos you could visit and see extinct species. They didn’t have enough people to keep them running at the end of Exodus century, so the keepers released the animals. I understand they didn’t want to leave the poor things to starve, but it caused a few problems.’

‘I bet it did,’ said Fian.

Progress became easier as we went deeper into the rainforest. It was darker here and I realized the thick mass of leaves above was blocking the light and starving the new growth on the forest floor. The massive silvery trunks told me these trees were almost all Griffith hybrids, but occasionally we passed a spot where one of them had fallen and true rainforest species were growing to take its place.

The forest seemed almost as safe as the tropical bird dome back in Zoo Europe, but that was an illusion. Our hover belts kept us above the occasional pools of stagnant water. Our impact suits made us immune to insect bites, stinging plants and thorns. Joth would have been blundering through here on foot, an easy target for dire wolves or scimitar cats.

A sudden swaying of leaves overhead had me looking up and reaching for my gun. There was something big up there, but it seemed to be running from us rather than planning to attack. I turned to watch the shaking branches as it moved away, and noticed a distinctive turquoise patch high up on one of the silvery tree trunks.

‘What’s a Tuan creeper doing here?’

‘That thing was a Tuan creeper?’ asked Krath. ‘Are they savage?’

‘I didn’t mean whatever was moving through the tree tops,’ I said. ‘I just noticed an unusual plant. It doesn’t matter.’

We continued through the trees in silence for a few minutes, before Playdon checked his hand sensor and spoke again. ‘We’re nearly there. I don’t know how Joth managed to make it this far from the dome, especially if he came the direct route through the forest, but it looks like he’s been perfectly still since Jarra and Fian located him.’

I didn’t like the sound of that, but I reassured myself that the sensors would have warned us if Joth was dead. A moment later, I saw a limp figure propped against the trunk of a Griffith hybrid. We dropped down to the ground beside him, and I saw he was unconscious, with an angry red rash on his hands and face, and one arm dripping blood from a long gash.

I heard Playdon report back to Dig Site Command on a private channel, before taking out a medical kit and giving Joth a couple of shots. ‘Hospital Earth Africa Casualty said we should give him some broad spectrum treatments.’

‘Why is he unconscious?’ asked Dalmora.

Playdon set up the hover stretcher next to Joth. ‘My hand sensor is showing lots of anomalies on his body readings. His temperature is too high and his pulse too fast, so I think he’s ill.’

I watched anxiously as Playdon and Fian carefully lifted Joth on to a stretcher. I couldn’t remember ever seeing anyone as ill as this. People had accidents of course, but they didn’t get ill.

Just as we fitted the cover over the hover stretcher, it started to rain, the water suddenly pouring down in torrents that forced their way through the tree canopy overhead. It was a long, slow struggle to get the hover stretcher through the trees to our sled, and then we had to drive back to the dome. I sighed with relief when we finally sent Joth through the portal to hospital. He would be all right now.

Joth died thirty-one hours after he reached Hospital Earth Africa Isolation and Disease Control. The cause of death was given as malaria variation 2789 Beta.

Lecturer Playdon came into the hall just after we’d finished eating dinner and told us what had happened. I sat there in stunned disbelief. I’d been so happy thinking I’d helped save Joth, when I hadn’t saved him at all. I’d thought he’d be back with the class in a few days time, but we’d never see him again. I felt physically sick.

‘University Asgard is sending us a grief counsellor,’ said Playdon. ‘He’ll be using my room as his office between nine in the morning and seven in the evening every day and you can talk to him whenever you wish. I am, of course, available as well.’

Given my history with psychologists, I certainly wasn’t going anywhere near a grief counsellor. There was no point anyway. Nothing was going to bring Joth back.

‘As with any sudden death,’ continued Playdon, ‘I’m afraid there has to be a formal investigation. Given our special circumstances here, a Dig Site Federation Accident Specialist is working with an Earth Investigating Officer. I’ve just been giving them details of what happened, Petra is with them now, and they may wish to talk to some of the rest of you over the next few days.’

I hadn’t noticed Petra was missing, hadn’t even thought about her until Playdon mentioned her name. Chaos, when I thought how she must be feeling …

Playdon’s voice had a tired, depressed edge to it now. ‘Work on the dig site is suspended until we receive clearance from the Dig Site Federation to continue. We’ll focus on lectures until then. I hope you’ll all do your best to support each other through this difficult time, and if I can help in any way then just let me know.’

He stood there waiting for a moment, but no one broke the shocked silence, so he went to sit on his usual chair in the corner of the hall. Only my friends from team 1 were sitting at the table with me, but I still instinctively stared down at my tray on the table, with its empty glass and plate of crumbs, trying to hide my face and emotions. Joth had only been 18. He should have married one day, had kids, lived to celebrate his hundredth, but he was dead.

‘Why did Joth do it?’ Dalmora’s voice softly mourned. ‘Why did he go out there? He surely didn’t want this to happen.’

‘He’d just had an argument with Petra,’ said Fian. ‘I’ve a bad feeling I was involved.’

I looked up at him, startled, and saw him tugging at his long hair with both hands. ‘You? Why?’

He pulled a face. ‘The argument included something about us two coming back to the class. At the start of the course, Petra tried being … friendly with me. She isn’t my type, so I said a polite no, but she didn’t want to accept it. I actually had to threaten to file an official complaint against her before she’d back off and leave me alone. Chaos embarrassing.’

I stared at him. ‘I didn’t know about this.’

He frowned. ‘You didn’t? I was chasing you at the time, but you kept pointedly ignoring me. It was only a day or two later that we got together. I assumed you’d spotted Petra kissing me, or heard Krath teasing me about it, and that was why you suddenly changed your mind about us. You’ve never mentioned it, but given the way you avoid discussing things that upset you …’

‘No.’ I waved both hands to gesture total ignorance. ‘I hadn’t seen anything.’

He pulled a face of self-mockery. ‘Now I stop to think about it, I realize you had far more important things to worry about back then. There was your grandmother’s Honour Ceremony and your parents dying. Silly of me to think you’d got jealous about Petra kissing me.’

‘I might have been jealous if I’d seen it, but …’ I shook my head and got back to the point of the conversation. ‘Joth and Petra’s argument wasn’t about you, Fian. It was about me. Petra doesn’t like the Handicapped, so she was trying to stop Joth being friends with me.’

‘I don’t want to sound as if I believe I’m the centre of the universe,’ said Fian, ‘but are you sure this was just because you’re Handicapped? Petra didn’t like being rejected, and given I paired off with you two days later then …’

‘I’m sure what happened to Joth wasn’t anything to do with either of you,’ said Dalmora. ‘He’s had several other fights with Petra in the last few weeks, and you two weren’t even here then. I was. I should have tried to …’