Earth Flight

I bit my lip, remembering the Flight day when I was 4 years old. I’d sat on the floor with the other kids in Nursery, watched the vid coverage, and asked a nurse when I could portal to Adonis. She’d shaken her head and gently explained I couldn’t do that because I’d die. It had taken me a few minutes to understand what she was saying. I already knew the people I saw in the vids had families, while my friends and I didn’t. I couldn’t believe I’d been cheated out of the stars as well.

I could still feel my shocked outrage at the monstrous unfairness of it. A feeling that was repeated again and again as I grew older. When I was 5 years old, laughing at a joke on the vids about stupid, ugly apes, and an older kid slapped my face and told me to stop laughing because the joke was about people like us. When I was 7, and there was a lesson at school about how Earth was run by the off-worlders on the main board of Hospital Earth. Other people, real people, got to vote about how their own world was run, but the Handicapped had no say in what happened on Earth.

The final insult was when I was 9, and discovered Earth was physically in the centre of Alpha sector but not legally part of it. The off-worlders hadn’t just rejected me and everyone like me, they’d rejected Earth itself because we lived there!

Fian gave me a worried look. ‘Are you all right, Jarra?’

My psychologist at Next Step kept telling me it was pointless making myself unhappy by brooding over things I couldn’t change. I didn’t have much faith in psychologists, but he was probably right about that. I forced away the old bitterness. ‘I’m fine.’

The Earth Flight vid sequence ended. Krath went over to the wall vid just as a Gamma Sector News presenter started talking. ‘Now the news headlines for today. Major Jarra Tell Morrath is to join one of the Betan Military clans.’

The entire class stopped talking and stared at me as if I’d grown an extra head.

‘Talks between the two political factions on Hestia have failed to reach an agreement,’ continued the presenter. ‘The …’

Krath turned off the wall vid and gave me a grazzed look. ‘Jarra, that story’s a nardle mistake, isn’t it? You aren’t Betan.’

This was chaos embarrassing. Like most of the class, I’d grown up with prejudices about Beta sector. Only months ago, I’d been joining in their jokes about Betan sex vids, giggling at the scanty clothes Betans wore, and saying Beta sector couldn’t be trusted because it had been on the verge of war with the rest of humanity during its Second Roman Empire period.

Then I discovered I’d been born into a Betan clan, and they actually wanted contact with me. Anyone who’d grown up in Hospital Earth’s residences would understand exactly why I’d promptly rethought my attitudes, but I was in a class of norms. They wouldn’t know how rejected kids longed to have a family, and I didn’t want to explain that sort of private emotional stuff, so I kept my response simple and matter of fact.

‘It’s perfectly true. I was raised on Earth, but my birth family were Betan. You should have realized that. The newzies have been talking for weeks about me being descended from Tellon Blaze, and he was Betan.’

‘Tellon Blaze was Betan!’ Krath waved his hands in disbelief. ‘I didn’t know that.’

‘Of course you wouldn’t,’ said Lolmack, open contempt in his voice.

Lolmack and Lolia were the only two Betans in our class. They were older than the rest of us, married, and had a Handicapped baby. At the start of this course, Krath had made some remarks about the Handicapped being subhuman apes. He’d changed his opinions now, but Lolmack still held a grudge against him.

‘The other sectors never mention Tellon Blaze, the hero who saved humanity from the chimera of Thetis, was from Beta sector,’ continued Lolmack. ‘They never admit it was Beta sector that saved civilization from total collapse after Exodus century. They never tell our side of the Second Roman Empire, or try to understand our culture, or …’

‘That doesn’t matter now,’ Lolia interrupted in an oddly tense voice. ‘Jarra, is it true what Earth Rolling News is saying? The Tell clan are making you a clan member?’

Lolmack made a horizontal, air-slicing movement with his left hand; a classic Betan gesture of rejection. ‘That’s just an outlander news channel making a mistake.’

‘It’s not a mistake,’ I said.

Lolmack stood up and hurried over to me. ‘You’re sure, Jarra?’ he demanded. ‘The Tell clan aren’t just acknowledging your birth, but offering clan membership?’

I didn’t understand the urgency in his face, but I nodded. ‘The presentation ceremony is in three days time.’

‘A presentation ceremony!’ Lolmack turned to his wife. ‘That would …’

‘One of the Handicapped being formally presented to a clan of the gentes maiores!’ Lolia put her hands to her face. ‘If that happens …’

I was shocked to see she was crying. ‘I don’t understand why this is so …?’

‘Jarra,’ she said, ‘a handful of clans have acknowledged a Handicapped birth, but none has ever offered clan membership. The Tell clan are of the gentes maiores, the aristocracy of Zeus. If they do this, it could change our lives!’

I stared at her, totally bewildered by her dramatic words.

‘There’s a lot of prejudice against the Handicapped on Betan worlds,’ said Lolmack.

‘It’s like that in all the sectors,’ I said. ‘I’ve grown up watching off-world vids, and they all use the same insults. The only difference between Handicapped and norms is a fault in our immune system, but they call us throwbacks, Neanderthals, and ugly, smelly apes.’

‘It’s a bigger problem in Beta than the other sectors though, because of the clan system,’ said Lolmack. ‘The shame of a Handicapped birth doesn’t just affect the parents, but the whole clan.’

Lolia nodded. ‘When our baby was born Handicapped, the other partner in our triad marriage instantly divorced us. Lolette wasn’t genetically his child, but …’

Lolmack went to put his arm round her. ‘By saying that, he proved himself lower than the clanless. If things had been reversed, I would still count Lolette as my daughter, and still be here with you on Earth.’

Lolia smiled up at him. ‘I know that. He was more of a loss to you than to me.’ She looked back at me. ‘Hospital Earth rules meant Lolmack and I had to choose between making our daughter their ward and never seeing her again, or moving to Earth to be with her. Clan council ordered us to give up our ape child or be disowned. To have our own clan calling our daughter an ape and threatening us …’

‘Clan council had no choice,’ said Lolmack. ‘Alliance council had ruled the alliance could not afford the loss of status of a Handicapped birth, and threatened to remove our clan from the alliance if our child’s birth became known.’

He pulled a face. ‘So we joined this course to have an excuse for being on Earth. All this time, we’ve lived with the fact that if Lolette’s existence becomes known, our clan cluster must disown us to save their position in the alliance, but if the Tell clan welcome you as a clan member …’

‘It would change everything,’ said Lolia. ‘Just seeing you on the newzies has already made a difference to the way Betans speak of the Handicapped. Every clan was watching the vid coverage when you and Fian sent the signal to the alien sphere. Every clan saw how you looked and spoke and acted like any normal human. Every clan heard you named as a descendant of the great Tellon Blaze.’

Her words tumbled out eagerly now. ‘Jarra, if a clan of the gentes maiores make you a clan member, alliance council may agree to acknowledge Lolette’s birth, perhaps even permit her to be formally presented.’

Lolmack shook his head. ‘Don’t build your hopes impossibly high, Lolia. The vital thing is to have Lolette openly acknowledged, so we can stop living in fear of being made clanless. We must contact clan council at once.’

I was startled to hear Lecturer Playdon join in the conversation. ‘I’ll excuse both Lolia and Lolmack from this morning’s dig site work so they can discuss this development with their clan. Tomorrow, we’ll still be working on the Eden ruins in the morning, but in the afternoon we’ll be packing and moving to London Main Dig Site.’

‘But the General Marshal’s making a statement about the Alien Contact programme tomorrow afternoon,’ said Krath. ‘We can’t miss seeing that.’

‘The announcement is at 17:00 hours Earth Africa time,’ said Playdon. ‘We’ll stay here to watch it, but I want everyone to be packed ready to leave directly after it finishes. Fortunately, Earth Africa is on Green Time plus two hours, while Earth Europe is on Green time, so we’ll gain two hours in the move.’

He paused and pointedly glanced towards Fian and me. ‘I’ll do a last inspection of the dome just before we leave. Students aren’t allowed to move dome walls, so I’m sure I won’t discover any of them are missing.’

Fian and I exchanged embarrassed glances, while the rest of the class laughed at us. Everyone knew we’d illegally moved the wall between our two single rooms to make a double.

‘How many days holiday do we get before starting work on London Main?’ asked Krath.

Playdon gave him one of his evil smiles that meant bad news. ‘None.’

There was a collective groan from the class. We all knew Playdon’s smile meant there was absolutely no point in arguing, but Krath tried it anyway.

‘None? We’re supposed to get at least three days break when we move dig sites!’

‘You all missed an entire week of work due to the alien probe,’ said Playdon, ‘so you’ve got some catching up to do. Clear away breakfast now.’

I started piling plates on to a tray, picked it up, and looked at Fian. ‘Do you believe me becoming a clan member will really help Lolia and Lolmack?’

‘They obviously think so. It’s much bigger than just those two and their baby though, isn’t it? 92 per cent of Handicapped babies are handed over to be wards of Hospital Earth. The older sectors have the highest populations, so at least a quarter of those babies must be being born to Betan clans. If the clan attitudes change so it’s easier for Betan parents to come to Earth with their baby, it could mean thousands of children each year have a chance to grow up with their family.’

Fian was right and my psychologist had been totally wrong. It wasn’t pointless making myself unhappy over the unfairness of things, because there was something I could do to change them for the better.

When we sent the signal to the alien probe, it had been a significant moment for humanity. When the Tell clan of Zeus welcomed me as a clan member, it would be just as significant a moment for the Handicapped children of Beta sector.

3

At exactly 16:59 hours the next day, Fian and I sprinted into the hall and found the rest of the class sitting on neat rows of chairs facing the wall vid. We collapsed on to the two empty chairs next to Krath.

‘What took you so long?’ Krath shook his head at us. ‘It was only one wall. You could have built a whole dome by now.’

‘The wall didn’t want to go back,’ said Fian. ‘We won in the end, but …’

Amalie sighed. ‘Please don’t tell me you fixed the bottom corners first.’

Fian and I exchanged glances. ‘We did …’ I said.

Amalie shook her head sadly at our incompetence. She’d been born only a few years after her world came out of Colony Ten phase and was opened up for full colonization, and had spent her childhood helping to assemble buildings from flexiplas sections. ‘It’s much easier if you start with the top.’

‘Why aren’t you two in uniform?’ asked Dalmora.

‘We’ll be going through Earth Africa Transit,’ said Fian. ‘Playdon suggested we’d be less conspicuous in civilian clothes.’

‘It’s starting!’ Krath shouted.

Everyone went quiet and listened to the presenter on the wall vid. ‘Earth Rolling News now joins the cross-sector live link from Academy in Alpha sector for an announcement by General Marshal Renton Mai, commander-in-chief of the Military.’

The image changed to show a man in a pure white uniform, standing at a podium with the flag of humanity behind him. He began speaking in a relaxed voice. ‘The light-based communication from the alien probe clearly has a huge amount of data content. Deciphering that content and locating the alien planet of origin is likely to take a considerable period of time. Alien Contact is therefore moving from initial response phase into a longer term commitment and there will be a number of changes.’

I held my breath as the General Marshal went on.

‘Military Base 79 Zulu on Earth will be upgraded and become the permanent base for the Alien Contact programme. It will also house two research groups. One investigating the alien technology discovered in Earth Africa, and the other concentrating on the light signals from the sphere.’

I started breathing again. Alien Contact was staying on Earth!

‘The guard on the alien sphere will be maintained but downgraded in scale,’ continued the General Marshal. ‘A search for the alien planet of origin has already commenced in Alpha sector, and will be extended into other sectors.’

He paused for a moment. ‘There are corresponding adjustments to the command structure. The command of the Alien Contact programme will become a General Staff position reporting directly to me. Colonel Riak Torrek is promoted to the rank of General and will remain in overall command of Alien Contact, and in direct command of the search efforts. Commander Nia Stone is promoted to Colonel and takes command of Military Base 79 Zulu and the guard on the alien sphere. Commander Mason Leveque is promoted to Colonel and takes command of the twin research efforts as well as threat assessment. Commander Elith Shirinkin is promoted to Colonel and takes command of the five Earth solar arrays.’

The vid image panned out to include the audience, and the General Marshal started taking questions from eager newzie reporters. I was startled by the first question.

‘Delta Sector Vision here. What about Fian Eklund and Jarra Tell Morrath?’

‘Captain Fian Eklund is promoted to Major, and Major Jarra Tell Morrath to Commander,’ said the General Marshal.

I gasped, totally grazzed by my promotion. It was nardle enough being a Major, but …

‘Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund will be reporting to Colonel Leveque while continuing with their specialist pre-history training,’ continued the General Marshal.

‘The rumours that High Congress ordered their removal from the Alien Contact programme have now been confirmed by several discontented committee members,’ said the Deltan reporter. ‘What’s your opinion of this controversial interference in Military staffing?’

‘The Military Charter states the Military should remain politically neutral,’ said the General Marshal. ‘I can’t comment on the decisions of Joint Sector High Congress Committee, however a few hours ago I was sent extra clarification of that particular order for the public record.’

He glanced at the Military forearm lookup attached to his sleeve. ‘High Congress state that Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund were removed because they do not have the appropriate skills to assist Alien Contact at this point. This is a purely temporary measure to enable them to continue their studies. They will return to the Alien Contact programme as soon as either the sphere’s message is translated or the alien planet of origin is found.’

I sighed with relief. Fian and I would return to Alien Contact!

The General Marshal pointed to another of the forest of raised hands, and a woman spoke. ‘Beta Sector Daily. What about Commander Tell Dramis and Major Weldon?’

‘Commander Tell Dramis takes command of the search teams in Zeta sector, with Major Weldon as his deputy,’ said the General Marshal.

My frustration returned. My cousin Drago was already out in distant Zeta sector searching for the aliens, and my old friend from Next Step, Keon, was helping with the research into the light sculpture. Fian and I would return to the Alien Contact programme, but not until some unknown time in the future.

A blatantly hostile voice asked the next question. ‘Beta Veritas. Why promote Jarra Morrath, but not Drago Tell Dramis?’

‘Bigot!’ Lolmack and Lolia chorused the word before I’d worked out the significance of the man missing out the clan prefix in my name.

The tone of the General Marshal’s voice made it clear he’d also realized he was dealing with someone prejudiced against me. ‘I’ve promoted every officer who played a significant part in establishing contact with the alien sphere, including Commander Tell Morrath. Commander Tell Dramis and Major Weldon had already received their promotions, and Commander Tell Dramis was strongly opposed to the suggestion of a further promotion to Colonel. His exact words were that he’d rather be locked in a prison cell with a Zeus sewer rat.’

There was a burst of laughter from both the audience on the vid screen and my classmates. Drago had done a lot of talking on the newzies – his jet-black hair and devastatingly handsome face made him incredibly popular with their viewers – and everyone could picture him saying those words.

‘Alpha Spectrum,’ said the next questioner. ‘How long will it take to find the alien home world?’

‘That depends how far away it is,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Humanity currently has well-established inhabited worlds in Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta sectors, fledgling colony worlds in Epsilon and Kappa sectors, and has just begun Planet First assessment of possible colony worlds in Zeta sector. A complete search of that area of space will take between five months and a year, depending on how we divide manpower and resources between Alien Contact and Planet First efforts.’

‘A year!’ The Alpha Spectrum reporter’s words were echoed by Krath sitting next to me. ‘But each sector only has 200 star systems. How can it possibly take that long to search them?’

‘Each sector only has 200 inhabited star systems,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Portalling between inhabited worlds gives the illusion they’re packed closely together, when they’re actually scattered widely across space. We’re extremely selective when we choose our colony worlds. For every star system with a planet satisfying the criteria of Planet First, there are a hundred with a planet where human beings could survive with some difficulty, and many thousands with planets completely unsuitable for human life but with their own alien plant and animal life in abundance. Far more star systems exist without any sign of life at all.’

The next questioner sounded aggressive. ‘Gamma Sector News. You believe the alien home world is within humanity’s space? How could Planet First Stellar Survey have missed a planet with an advanced alien civilization?’

The General Marshal shook his head. ‘On the contrary, we believe the alien home world is probably further away than that. Tactical considerations, however, mean our first priority is to eliminate any possibility of it being within humanity’s space. Expansion was extremely rapid during Exodus century. Humanity was too impatient to spend enough time checking its colony worlds, let alone waste effort on uninhabitable star systems.’

He paused for a moment. ‘That reckless overexpansion led to the near collapse of our civilization. It may also have led to signs of an alien civilization being missed in Alpha, Beta or Gamma sectors. After a century of colony worlds struggling to deal with issues overlooked by those first rushed Planet First checks, there was a new attempt to expand and the nightmare of Thetis. A single lethal alien animal species was overlooked, portal quarantine procedures failed, and the chimera infested other worlds, threatening the survival of the human race.’

There was a moment of grim silence before the General Marshal continued. ‘After the lesson of the Thetis chaos year, humanity finally realized it was vital to allow Planet First teams the time and budget to do a meticulous job, but financial and logistical realities mean we still can’t make an exhaustive search of uninhabitable star systems. I’d be extremely surprised if we’d missed a planet with technology sufficiently advanced to construct the alien probe in Delta, Epsilon or Kappa, but those sectors will be rechecked anyway.’

The Gamma Sector News reporter wasn’t giving way to anyone else. ‘The newly formed Isolationist Party feel searching for the alien home world is a mistake because humanity would be better off not encountering aliens.’

‘I fail to understand the logic of trying to pretend an alien civilization doesn’t exist when they’ve already got a probe orbiting our home world,’ said the General Marshal. ‘We urgently need to know if any of our inhabited worlds are dangerously near alien territory. I’ll take a question from someone else now.’

The next questioner went back to the subject of Fian and me. ‘Alpha and Omega. Our viewers want to know when Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund will be available for interviews. They’ve made no public appearances since the signal was sent.’

The General Marshal smiled. ‘I’m fully aware of the ferocious levels of public interest in Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund. Fortunately, the remote location of their class protects them from continual invasion of privacy by the vid channels of every sector. No Military officer should have to suffer merciless interrogation by the newzies.’ His smile widened. ‘Except for myself of course.’

‘But Commander Tell Dramis and Major Weldon appeared on Earth Rolling News for extensive periods,’ said the Alpha and Omega representative.

‘Only to provide public information on behalf of the Military.’ The General Marshal paused for a second. ‘That’s all for now. If you want my answers to any questions that weren’t asked, then I’m sure Gamma Sector News will be happy to invent some for you just the way they did after my last newzie conference.’

The General Marshal left the podium while everyone was still laughing at that comment, the vid coverage switched back to the Earth Rolling News studios, and Lecturer Playdon went up to the wall vid and turned it off.

‘A year!’ Krath sounded as frustrated as I felt.

‘If the alien home world is near to Earth, then it may only take a couple of months to find it.’ Playdon turned to look at me and Fian. ‘Congratulations on your promotions, Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund.’

I was startled by my classmates applauding. Not all of them of course. When they found out about my lies and my Handicap, some had accepted me, but others tried to drive me away with insults. Eventually, I’d won grudging tolerance from most of the ape haters, and now I was famous a couple of them were fawning over me in a way that made me want to vomit, but there was one person pointedly folding her arms and refusing to give even a token hand clap. Petra would never stop hating me. Not after Joth’s death.

There was the usual stab of pain as I thought of Joth. I blamed Petra for his death, because he was killed doing something stupidly dangerous after an argument with her. She blamed me, because the argument was about her making him insult me. We could both be right, or both wrong. It really didn’t matter. Nothing could bring Joth back, and Petra and I would always be enemies.

‘Put the chairs away and fetch your luggage,’ said Playdon.

A few minutes later, the hall was crowded with people and bobbing hover bags, as the class waited for Playdon to do his final tour of inspection.

‘It’s unusual for High Congress to clarify an order like that,’ said Dalmora. ‘They’re obviously very embarrassed by all the comments on the newzies.’

I sighed. ‘But not embarrassed enough to order Fian and me back to Alien Contact right away.’

She tactfully changed the subject. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing a new city. I hope we’ll spend some time at Jaipur or Chennai later in the year. It would be totally zan to be excavating one of the cities where my ancestors lived.’