Earth Flight

‘What?’ Fian’s voice interrupted the pair of them. ‘What’s been going on here?’

I urgently blinked my eyes. The regen fluid must have worked because this time the world came into focus and stayed that way. Fian was on his feet now, his face and stance showing his fury.

‘This is because of me?’ He advanced on Petra. ‘You helped that man throw skunk juice at Jarra because you wanted to split us up?’

Petra scrambled to her feet and tried to back away, but only succeeded in knocking over her chair. ‘I didn’t have anything to do with the skunk juice!’

Playdon moved to stand between them. ‘Stop this, all of you!’

Fian looked past him at Petra. ‘Jarra and I are together. Nothing and nobody is coming between us.’

He turned, came back to sit next to me, and took my hand. His unblemished skin against the mottled green and purple of mine.

‘I’m arresting Petra and taking her in for questioning,’ said Leveque.

Petra’s eyes widened in shock. ‘You can’t arrest me. You aren’t a police officer.’

‘Incorrect,’ said Leveque. ‘Legally any member of the Military is also a police officer empowered to deal with interplanetary crimes.’

‘I may have called Jarra a rude name once or twice,’ said Petra. ‘That might get me warnings from Lecturer Playdon under the Gamma sector moral code governing our course, but it isn’t an interplanetary crime. I didn’t have anything to do with the attack on Jarra, but that wasn’t an interplanetary crime either.’

I admired Petra’s courage, but I knew she was making a big mistake arguing with Leveque. I watched him give one of his relaxed smiles, and held my breath waiting for him to pounce on his prey.

‘Your last point is debatable, since the attacker came to Earth from Atalanta in Beta sector specifically to harm Commander Tell Morrath,’ said Leveque, ‘but I’m happy to abandon any action against you under interplanetary law.’

Petra looked surprised to have won so easily. Steen started to protest, but Fian urgently shook his head at him.

Leveque’s smile widened. ‘I now arrest you for crimes against humanity under the powers of the Alien Contact programme.’

Petra gasped. ‘You can’t do that! I have rights.’

Leveque shook his head. ‘Contact with an alien civilization potentially threatens the survival of the human race. Everyone studies the Alien Contact programme in school, so you should know its emergency powers override everything. I’m not even restricted by the protection of humanity laws, let alone your personal human rights.’

He paused to give Petra the chance to speak, but she’d sense enough to keep quiet this time. ‘Both Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund have made multiple valuable contributions to the Alien Contact programme, and I consider it highly probable they will do so again in future. Mere suspicion you were involved in harming irreplaceable personnel is enough for me to perfectly legally pick up a gun and kill you. I can also use any methods, however extreme, to interrogate you before execution.’

He glanced at one of the guards. ‘Take the girl to Military Base 79 Zulu.’

The guard took Petra by the arm and led her off. The rest of the class watched her go with stunned faces, but Playdon moved to face Leveque.

‘I have a duty of care to my students. I’ll insist on regularly visiting Petra to satisfy myself she isn’t being mistreated.’

Leveque seemed amused. ‘I’ll authorize your visits, but I assure you I’ve no intention of torturing the girl. I just wanted to frighten her so she’d stop wasting my time with childish defiance and lies. Now let’s discuss possible new locations for your class.’

6

I stood on a stage, looking out at a sea of faces, and heard Petra’s hugely magnified voice speaking. ‘But the funniest thing is Jarra thought the skunk juice would wear off. She didn’t know she’d be stuck like this forever.’

There was a deafening roar of laughter, and I saw Petra standing in the middle of the audience. I jumped off the stage, intent on reaching her and murdering her, but I couldn’t get through. There was a solid wall of faces. No bodies, not even heads, just faces hovering all around me.

‘Jarra, it’s time to get ready for breakfast.’

I woke up with a gasp. In the dim light of the room glows at their lowest setting, I saw Fian looking at me.

‘Another nightmare?’ he asked. ‘The attack again?’

‘No, this one was weird. Lots of floating faces.’

‘I’m sure you’d have had less nightmares if you’d taken your meds.’

I groaned.

‘And why the chaos didn’t you tell me or Playdon about Petra calling you names? We could have dealt with her for you.’

I groaned again. ‘That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Remember after the Solar 5 rescue, when I was in a hospital regrowth tank having my leg fixed. You went and told the class I was Handicapped.’

Fian frowned. ‘Well, someone had to tell them.’

‘Yes, but that someone was me, not you. I was the one who was Handicapped. I was the one who’d lied to them.’

‘It would have been very unpleasant. The class were shocked and people said a few things that …’

‘I realize that. I should still have faced them myself.’

‘That’s a …’ He broke off. ‘No, I see what you mean. I hated standing by watching Lolmack fighting that man with the skunk juice. He was doing my job for me, fighting my battle, and I felt so …’

He shook his head. ‘Never mind that now. I understand what you’re saying. I should have waited until you were out of the tank and let you talk to the class yourself.’

‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘You meant well, but it actually made things far worse. Petra kept jeering at me for being a coward and hiding behind you, so …’

Fian finished the sentence for me. ‘So you couldn’t tell me or Playdon what was going on, because that would prove Petra was right.’ He paused. ‘I promise I won’t fight your battles for you again, but I’d like to fight your battles beside you. There’s a big difference.’

I grinned with relief. ‘Fighting battles together is fine.’

He grinned back at me. ‘You’re still a nardle for not taking your meds though.’

‘You’re a nardle too. Did you see the look on Playdon’s face when you insisted on moving the wall?’

Fian laughed. ‘It didn’t take long with Amalie organizing the whole class to help.’

‘It wasn’t the time it took, or the fact everyone was totally exhausted by then, it was the sheer idiocy of wanting to share a room with me when I smell like this.’

I paused to pick my words carefully. ‘Fian, it’s not just the perfume, it’s … Well, it might be sensible for you to keep a distance from me for a while. Leveque said our relationship was making you a target too.’

‘I’ve been waiting for you to suggest that idea, so I could tell you to forget it.’

‘But …’

‘No!’ Even in near darkness, I could recognize the determined angle of Fian’s jaw. ‘I meant what I said to Petra. I’m not letting anyone split us up. I’m definitely not allowing some exo and his skunk juice to put a physical wall between us. With three air purifiers in here the smell really isn’t a problem.’

He’d used the ‘exo’ word; the insult the Handicapped use for off-worlders. I smiled to myself. We were fighting this battle together.

Fian rolled away from me, turned up the glows to full brightness, and got out of bed. I’d suggested we should leave a gap between our beds until the skunk juice wore off, but he’d insisted on having them wedged against each other as usual. Fian was wonderfully, madly stubborn, and I loved him for it.

‘Time for me to shower and get ready for breakfast,’ he said.

I watched enviously as Fian headed out of the door. I was desperate to wash the greasy gel out of my hair and be properly clean again, but I couldn’t. Water would make the skunk juice start burning my skin again.

I picked up the hateful jar of gel and went across to the mirror. The regen fluid had finished healing my eyes, so the reflection of my face was a perfectly focused, lurid green and purple mess.

I sighed and carefully rubbed gel into my skin, choking at the overwhelming scent of Osiris lilies. I’d spent my life wistfully dreaming of the hundreds of worlds I could only see on the vids, never visit in real life, but I was glad I’d never go to Osiris and see its famous fields of luminous white flowers opening at sunset, flooding the air with their fragrance. I’d smelt enough nuking Osiris lilies to last me to my hundredth.

I’d just finished putting on my uniform, when Fian came back into the room. I giggled at the look on his face. ‘Wait outside for a few minutes while the gel dries and the air purifiers catch up with the smell.’

‘No, I can cope.’

He heroically shut the door behind him and started changing from his sleep suit into his uniform. On a normal day, I’d have said something about his excellent legs, or even made him blush by using the butt word that was regarded as shocking outside Beta sector, but today I just turned away and attached my curved Military forearm lookup to my left sleeve where it clung neatly in position. The exo with the skunk juice hadn’t managed to put a physical wall between us, but certain things wouldn’t be happening for a few days.

‘I’ve just realized I didn’t take my gun with me to the shower,’ said Fian. ‘I mustn’t leave it lying about like that or Playdon will throw a fit.’

‘No one else could fire it, and all Military guns and lookups have tracking devices and can be disabled remotely if they get lost or stolen.’ I went over to the bed and reached under the pillow for my own gun.

‘Tell Morrath confirmed,’ said the gun. ‘Active power 3. Single target. Safety engaged.’

I remembered the training Fian and I had been given. We were to keep the guns on power 3, which meant anyone we shot would be paralysed for hours. We were to use single target except in extreme circumstances. Scatterfire would hit multiple targets at once, so you had to be really careful using it.

I stared down at my gun. Physically, it felt perfectly natural to be holding it, the grip had been moulded to fit the scanned medical records of my hand, but mentally …

Although I was Military now, I’d still never expected to hold a gun intended for use against another human being. I wasn’t living in the days of pre-history when humanity fought wars. I wasn’t a Military Security agent. I wasn’t on a hostage rescue squad.

Fian picked up his gun, and it chattered away at him. ‘Eklund confirmed. Active power 3. Single target. Safety engaged.’

‘Wearing protective impact suits all day is impossible,’ said Fian, ‘but I’m surprised Leveque hasn’t given us some sort of body armour.’

‘He doesn’t need to. All Military uniforms are made of special material that’s highly resistant to fire, acid, knife attack, and projectile weapons.’

‘That’s good. So, where do we put the guns?’

‘You’re right handed, so the holsters will be on the right hip and left side of your uniform.’

‘They are?’ Fian ran his hands over his uniform. ‘Oh, this little pocket thing. I hadn’t noticed it before.’

I was still standing there like a nardle, looking at my gun. ‘Fian, do you think you could actually shoot someone?’

He put his gun in the holster on his right hip. ‘Yesterday morning, I would have said no, but now … If someone tries to hurt you again, then yes, Jarra, I’ll shoot them.’

The lookup on my sleeve chimed with a message and I frowned. ‘Major Rayne Tar Cameron of Command Support says the Tell clan council have been notified of the attack. They’ve postponed the presentation ceremony and will contact me when they’ve made new arrangements.’

Fian nodded. ‘It’s sensible to give you time to recover.’

I was still frowning as I followed Fian out of the door and down the corridor. Delaying the ceremony might be sensible, but it meant more days of suspense for Lolia and Lolmack. For me too.

Most of the class were already in the hall, sitting at tables and watching Earth Rolling News on the wall vid. A couple of presenters were talking in angry voices about two images on the screen. One was a girl with her face radiating pure delight. The other was a beaten wreck, with slimy hair, mottled skin, and lifeless eyes. They were both me.

Playdon stood up. ‘The story is on all the sector newzies as well. The Military made a statement three hours ago. I bookmarked it for you.’

He went over to the wall vid controls. One of the Earth Rolling News presenters was cut off in mid-sentence, and the image changed to show Colonel Leveque. If this statement went out three hours ago, Leveque had probably been up all night, but he appeared as pristine and relaxed as ever.

‘The Military regret to confirm there has been an attack on Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund. The perpetrator has been arrested and charged. Three further individuals are being questioned in connection with the incident.’

He paused for a moment before continuing. ‘This attack was organized by parties with extreme personal prejudices against the Handicapped. I warn anyone contemplating further such action that although Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund are temporarily assigned elsewhere, they remain key personnel of the Alien Contact programme. The Military will not hesitate to use deadly force in their defence.’

The recording ended and the screen went blank. I stared at it for a few seconds before speaking. ‘They’re questioning three more people. Petra and …?’

‘Two people on Atalanta in Beta sector,’ said Playdon. ‘I suggest you eat now. I want to start the mandatory dig site introductory and safety lectures straight after breakfast.’

Fian and I obediently headed for the food dispensers and picked up trays. ‘I wasn’t taking much notice of things when we portalled out of London Main,’ I said. ‘I know we’re in Earth America, because Leveque wanted us in the same time zone as Military Base 79 Zulu at White Sands, but which dig site are we at?’

‘California Rift Dig Site,’ said Fian.

‘What? But … Foundation classes aren’t allowed there.’

He shrugged. ‘Playdon must have special permission from Dig Site Command California.’

We loaded up our trays and went across to join Dalmora, Amalie and Krath at their table. Fian tugged a couple of air purifiers closer to us.

‘Sorry about the smell,’ I said.

‘The flower scent is quite pleasant,’ said Dalmora.

Krath’s lookup chimed. He checked it and groaned. ‘My nuking dad wants me to tell the Military I was involved in the attack so I get arrested.’

We all stared at him in disbelief. ‘Why does your dad want you arrested?’ asked Fian. ‘I’m not totally against the idea, but …’

‘He says it would be a great exclusive story for his nardle conspiracy vid channel, Truth Against Oppression.’

‘I hadn’t thought it possible,’ said Amalie, ‘but your dad has even less sense than you, Krath.’

I had a terrible thought. ‘Oh chaos! My ProMum and my friends must have seen reports of the attack on Earth Rolling News. They’ll be worried sick, but they won’t have been able to call me because my mail is blocking everything except Military calls. Major Tar Cameron’s working on a filtering system to relay recorded messages from my personal contacts, but …’

I tapped frantically at my Military lookup, and saw Candace’s face appear.

‘One moment,’ she said, and her image froze as she put the call on hold. That meant Candace was with one of her other nine ProChildren. I felt a stab of guilt at stealing part of someone else’s precious two hours with her.

About a minute later, she was back. ‘Sorry about that, Jarra. My other ProChildren mustn’t find out I’m your ProMum. It would be very psychologically harmful for them to feel I’m comparing them to the famous Commander Tell Morrath.’

I was too grazzed to speak. Hospital Earth rules forbade Candace from discussing her own family or her other ProChildren with me, so she’d never mentioned them before, and her calling me famous felt …

‘Hospital Earth has a standing injunction preventing newzies breaching ProParent confidentiality,’ Candace continued with an anxious air, ‘so it shouldn’t get public as long as you don’t mention me in any interviews.’

I wasn’t stunned any longer, just hurt. I’d thought Candace would be worried about me, but she hadn’t even asked how I was. I fought to keep my voice maturely calm and untroubled. ‘If we ever do interviews, I’ll be careful not to mention you.’

‘Good.’ She smiled. ‘I’m relieved to see you’re already looking better. The picture on Earth Rolling News frightened me, but Colonel Leveque explained about the medical gel and said the skin discolouration would be gone within a few days.’

My selfish feeling of hurt vanished. I should have realized the Military would contact my ProMum as well as my clan council, and that was why Candace wasn’t as worried as I’d expected.

‘I’m afraid I was a little rude to him at first,’ said Candace. ‘I was angry about the Military letting someone attack you.’

I think I groaned at this point, because she looked apologetic. ‘I’m sorry. It’s been such a short time since you were getting into trouble at your Next Step. It’s hard to adjust to you being not just an adult, but a high-ranking Military officer. Fortunately, Colonel Leveque was very understanding and we had a nice long chat about you.’

My ProMum had had a nice long chat to Colonel Leveque about me! I held back a scream of embarrassment. ‘What exactly did you say?’

‘Oh, we discussed your childhood. He seemed very interested.’

I remembered all the times I’d made a total nardle of myself, imagined Candace telling Leveque about them, and held back a shudder. ‘I’m taking up someone else’s time with you, so I’d better go now.’

When I ended the call, Fian laughed. ‘I’m just picturing Candace scolding Leveque for not taking proper care of you.’

I gave a whimper of heartfelt despair. ‘And then boring him by chatting about my childhood!’

Fian shook his head. ‘Leveque’s quite capable of reassuring Candace and getting rid of her at high speed. I’m betting the conversation was his idea. He likes collecting information.’

‘But why would Leveque want information about me?’

‘No idea. I’d better call my mother. My father too I suppose.’ Fian stood up and gestured at my untouched plate. ‘Please eat something, Jarra.’

I watched with a frown as Fian backed off a discreet distance and tapped his lookup. Fian’s mother would be worried about his safety. She might join in his father’s attempts to split us up.

‘Jarra,’ said Dalmora.

I turned to look at her. ‘Yes?’

‘Eat!’ Dalmora, Amalie, and Krath chorused the word in unison.

I sighed, picked up a toasted wafer and took a bite. It tasted of Osiris lilies. ‘There’s no need to nag.’

‘You always stop eating when you get hurt or upset,’ said Dalmora. ‘It’s bad for you and it worries Fian.’

Fian’s call to his mother seemed to end amicably, so I relaxed and dutifully munched more scented breakfast, then recorded a quick message about how I was fine but hated stinking of perfume. I sent that to all my friends from Next Step, and then wrinkled my nose as I considered my ProDad. I’d always felt he cared about the money he got from Hospital Earth, not about me, but he might be worried. I’d just sent him the message too when Fian shouted a single word.

‘No!’

The background chatter of the class abruptly stopped, and everyone turned to look at him. A Major standing in a characteristically Military pose, his left arm raised in front of him as he gazed at the lookup on his left sleeve with a grim expression. I felt a stab of shock, remembering the Deltan boy I’d met at the start of this year, and realizing how the last few months had changed him, had changed both of us. My Deltan wasn’t a boy any longer.

‘I told you, the answer is no.’ Fian’s voice was only slightly quieter than before. ‘I’m not coming back to Hercules, I’m not studying science, I’m not quitting the Military, and I’m not leaving Jarra for some drearily dutiful Deltan girl. Goodbye, sir!’

Fian gave his lookup an aggressive stab to end the call, and lifted his head. All around the room, people hastily faked an intense interest in eating. Fian marched back to our table and sat down, his simmering anger obvious enough that even Krath wasn’t fool enough to say anything.

The awkward silence continued until Playdon stood up and walked to the front of the hall, indicating he wanted to start his lectures. The class automatically responded by dumping the remains of meals into the waste disposal, putting dirty dishes into the cleanser, and moving furniture. Within three minutes, the tables were stacked at the side of the hall, the chairs were lined up in rows, and we all took our seats.

‘Half of human knowledge was lost in the Earth data net crash in 2409,’ said Playdon. ‘Science, technology, history, literature, medicine, all obliterated in a mass of data corruption. There are no surviving detailed records of the history of this area between 2100 and 2250, but at some point in that period there were either one or two massive earthquakes.’

Playdon tapped his lookup, and a weird image appeared on the wall vid. ‘Records from 2250 show that several old cities had been replaced by a single new city, San Angeles. Humanity had defied nature by building this new city directly across the earthquake fault line, on the vast artificial platform we call the California Land Raft.’

He turned and gestured at the wall vid. ‘This platform consisted of four hundred independent islands, connected together by flexible bridges. You’re seeing the view from the ground of one of the eight huge, automatically adjusting legs of one of these islands. The city of San Angeles was abandoned by 2380, but even now, over four centuries later, most of these legs are still fully functional and compensating for the ground movements resulting from earthquake activity in this area.’

Playdon tapped his lookup again, and the image changed to show something with eight long spiky legs, and a flat shell-like back. ‘This is a side view of one of the islands.’

Krath summed up the reaction of the whole class, including me. ‘It looks like a weird, creepy, mechanical spider.’

Playdon changed the image again to show a whole army of spiders. ‘Here we can see a view of the full Land Raft. Virtually all of the flexible bridges between the islands have collapsed, and the few remaining ones are far too hazardous to use. Twenty-three islands nearest the fault line have exceeded the adjustment capability of their supporting legs and also collapsed. A further thirty islands are highly unstable and too hazardous for further exploration.’

His next image was a patchwork of coloured squares. ‘These are the hazard colour coded islands of the Land Raft. Black islands have fallen or been abandoned. Red islands have an estimated survival time of less than fifty years, and amber between fifty and one hundred. Green islands have experienced relatively little movement and may still be standing for many centuries. Current archaeological efforts are concentrated on salvaging what we can from the red islands. Since these sections are nearing their safety limits, any earthquake activity is very dangerous and …’

Playdon broke off his sentence, stood for a moment in silence, and then strode straight past us and out of the hall.

7

‘What the chaos?’ Krath twisted round in his seat to watch the hall door close. ‘Did Playdon get a message on his lookup?’

‘I didn’t hear it chime.’ Dalmora stood up for a moment, gave the door a worried look, then sat down again. ‘I expect he’ll be back in a minute.’

A few people got drinks, while others started checking their mail on their lookups. After five minutes, Dalmora turned to me. ‘You should go and see if Lecturer Playdon is all right, Jarra.’