Earth Girl

by Janet Edwards

  The Cassandra 2 team really did move a wall. They got a special gadget from the store room, dragged furniture out of the way, and unlocked the bolts securing the flexiplas wall between two of the bedrooms. Fian and I watched them shift the wall along and attach it to a neighbouring one. We were completely grazzed.

  ‘I didn’t know you could do that,’ I said.

  Rono tapped the side of his nose and winked at us. ‘We keep it a little quiet, because we don’t want students messing about with the walls. You can never depend on them to put them back for the next poor person who has the room. However, since you two took part in a rescue, you count as fellow professionals.’

  Keren appeared carrying a tray of food and drinks, and Rono grinned at us. ‘Right, you’ve got food, drink, and a double room. There’s a single room free next door as well, so you can arrange yourselves however you like. We’ll give you a call when it gets dark outside, because they’re predicting the sky is going to be incredible with auroras from a storm this size. Until then, we’ll leave you to …’ Rono’s grin widened. ‘Unpack.’

  The Cassandra 2 team gave us a flurry of good wishes and headed off back to the dining hall. Fian shut the door behind them and looked at me.

  ‘So …’ he said, hopefully. ‘Is this where I finally find out what happens after the end credits of Stalea of the Jungle?’

  ‘That depends,’ I said. ‘Just how badly behaved are you by Deltan standards?’

  He gave me a dreadfully wicked grin.

  29

  Fian and I joined the Cassandra team as night fell. We knew it would be bitterly cold outside, and the wolves might be roaming in the darkness, so we all suited up. I was wearing my new, beautiful, odourless impact suit. The Cassandra team had their own personal suits too, in a range of colours from Keren’s sedate plain blue to Rono’s spectacular design in purple and silver, but poor Fian had to settle for one from the store room. I felt a bit guilty.

  When everyone was ready, we opened the dome door and we got our first glimpse of the sky. I’d never seen anything so amaz! It was filled with streaks of violet and crimson flame. The spectacle of the sky was reflected by the snow, turning the ground into ripples of fire. We stepped outside, wading through glowing snow. Night had been overwhelmed by the solar super storm and it was as bright as day.

  Rono spoke in a mesmerized voice. ‘It’s … incredible. Stay together and close to the dome though. This is no time for accidents.’

  We didn’t need to go far to appreciate the splendour. The Cassandra 2 dome was on the top of a low hill, and we could look across the blackened ruins of New York Main Dig Site, and see the remains of skyscrapers silhouetted against a burning sky.

  There must have been people everywhere on Earth, recording scenes like this for future vids, but seeing it on a vid could never match this. We were there, standing in a landscape more alien than any inhabited world, as dramatic as anything anyone would see on Planet First. We stood there, just looking at it, for an hour or more. Fian had his arm round me, impact suits rather reduce the romance of that, but the suits did stop us freezing to death while we were lost in the magic around us.

  The voice that came over the communication channel made us all jump. ‘This is Dig Site Command. I know a lot of you are outside admiring the view, but I think you might wish to check the Earth Rolling News channel.’

  It was a calm, measured, professional voice, but we could tell something was horribly wrong.

  We headed back inside, and Rono double checked we were all safely in before he closed the dome door. We didn’t change out of our impact suits, just opened the hoods, and hurried into the dining hall to put the vid on.

  The face of the news presenter was freckled white with interference, but his expression was clear enough to confirm he had something awful to say. ‘This is Earth Rolling News, repeating main stories to try and reach you through the Carrington event. The story in everyone’s hearts is the announcement from Military Command.’

  ‘Military Command?’ murmured Rono. ‘What?’

  The news presenter continued in a grim voice. ‘Standard safety procedures for an incoming solar storm are to disconnect the solar power arrays out in space from their transmitters, turning off the beams supplying power to the planet below. The Military crews manning the solar arrays then portal out to avoid the increased radiation levels during a solar storm.’

  I realized where this was going, and my mind went numb. ‘Oh no … Please no.’

  ‘The leading edge of the storm arrived at the Earth solar arrays six hours ahead of forecast, since this was not a normal solar storm but a Carrington event. The Military crews aboard the solar arrays had only five minutes warning before the portals were unusable. They chose to stay at their posts and complete disconnecting the arrays to avoid the power beams being overloaded during the storm, breaking free, and causing large scale loss of life on the planet surface. 352 Military personnel are now trapped aboard the solar arrays in lethal levels of solar radiation. Shields can protect them for only a few more hours.’

  ‘We’re all right down here,’ said Fian numbly. ‘We’re safe down in the atmosphere, but the radiation is killing them.’

  ‘They stayed there to save us,’ said Rono. ‘You know what that power beam did to Artemis. Think what one could do in a Carrington event …’

  That beautiful sky, I thought, that wildly stunning sky, was solar radiation killing 352 people.

  ‘Is there any chance if they portal?’ asked someone.

  Fian said what we all knew. ‘What arrived at the other end wouldn’t be …’ He shook his head. ‘They could receive signals from another system but that doesn’t help them escape. They can’t send themselves anywhere.’

  ‘We’ve now been told that the Military have been sending equipment to the trapped crews,’ continued the news presenter.

  That sounded like they were trying something. We all listened frantically.

  ‘The crews have been working against time, converting their ships. They will be attempting to enter Earth’s atmosphere in two hours from now.’

  ‘What?’ yelled Fian. ‘They’re trying to land on Earth!’

  ‘Can that possibly work?’ asked Jerez.

  ‘The solar array ships are just used to move sections of solar sail, they aren’t designed to enter an atmosphere,’ I said, totally grazzed. ‘Nothing is. Fighters and dart ships use conventional or drop portals to reach their destinations. Anything bigger has to be portalled in pieces, and assembled after arrival. We’ve nothing like the Apollo programme. We haven’t had a spacecraft land on a planet for six hundred years!’

  ‘I remember studying Apollo 13,’ said Rono. ‘They were stuck in space too and made it back. Maybe some of these will make it.’

  ‘They’ve nothing to lose,’ said Fian. ‘It’s better to try this, than just sit and wait for the shields to fail.’

  ‘They’re fighting,’ I said. ‘It’s the Military way. We don’t just give up, we go down fighting. They’ll try this even if they don’t believe anyone will make it.’

  ‘Sorry, Jarra,’ said Rono. ‘This news had driven everything out of my head, but of course it’s especially hard for you. These are your people.’

  We listened to Earth Rolling News repeat the same story several times. Finally some more details came in. The interference was worse now, but it was the same news presenter, looking overwhelmed by what he was reading.

  ‘We have more details now from Military Command. The Military personnel will be coming down in five ships, one from each solar array. These ships are only designed to operate in space. They’ve modified the screens to protect them while they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, but they will have very limited control during the descent and have no way to land other than crashing. They are hoping that the combination of ship shields and impact suits will mean some people survive the crash. Military Command states that crews will, at all costs, avoid endangering Earth settlements. They will not risk civilia
n loss of life.’

  The news presenter paused for a moment. ‘The ships will be attempting to land at White Sands, New Mexico, in Earth America. Earth Rolling News will update you with any information we receive. Our thoughts are with the Military ships in this desperate bid, and we ask all Earth America settlements in the New Mexico area to prepare to receive injured Military personnel. Military Command is receiving messages of best wishes from all sectors.’

  Everyone had been absorbed by the news reports, so the voice that came over the inter-dome communications startled us. ‘This is Dig Site Command. We expect some people will want to watch the skies as the ships try and land. New Mexico is quite a way south, and it depends on their approach path whether we’ll see anything. I’m patching Earth Rolling News commentary into the impact suit comms channel, so you can listen to news updates if you want to try watching outside.’

  ‘Jarra, will any of your relatives or friends be on those ships?’ asked Rono.

  I tried to work out where everyone was, but something strange was happening to my mind. I couldn’t remember where my brother Keon was, or my friend Issette. It was as if my head didn’t want to think about them. Was that because they were up there on those solar arrays? I tried to force myself to remember.

  ‘The Colonel who led Jarra’s Honour Ceremony will be on one of them,’ said Fian. ‘He’s the commanding officer of the solar arrays. What about your brother, Jarra?’

  I was getting muddled by panic. I had to make myself think logically. Keon was only 18, the same as Issette and me, so he must be training somewhere, but … No, that couldn’t be right. My brother and sister were a lot older than me.

  Sister, what sister? My head whirled in confusion.

  ‘Jarra, are you all right?’ Fian asked.

  My parents. I focused on thinking about them. I knew they couldn’t be on the Earth solar array, because they were safely on Planet First assignment in Kappa sector. Something seemed to thunder in my head. My parents weren’t safe. I remembered the face of a Military General breaking the news. Telling me … Telling me my parents were dead.

  ‘Jarra?’ Fian’s face was in front of me, he was staring into my eyes, but I couldn’t be distracted by him. I had to think.

  Fian was talking to Rono now, but I didn’t hear what they were saying. My real parents were dead. I still had Candace, but she wasn’t Military. I had a ProDad too, but we didn’t get on too well. Candace wasn’t just being a ProMum for the money, she really cared about me, but I didn’t think that my ProDad did and …

  I had ProParents …

  Fian had tugged me out of the hall and was guiding me into our room. ‘Jarra? Is someone important up there? Your brother, Keon? When you were talking to him and Issette at the zoo, I couldn’t see any routing lag at all, so I guessed they couldn’t be further away than Alpha sector. They weren’t wearing their uniforms though, so they surely couldn’t have been up on the Earth solar arrays.’

  I sat on the bed. Keon wasn’t my brother. He was a friend. One of the other kids from my year in Next Step. We’d been a sort of family.

  Fian sat down next to me. I was working things out now. I slowly disentangled the three sets of reality, and worked out what was true and what was false. My fake Military background. My real Military background. My Earth background.

  It took me a while to get it all sorted out, get past the pain of my parents’ death, and realize what I’d done. I was an ape. Fian was a norm. Fian and I had a Twoing contract. I should never have registered that contract, but I’d been lost in fantasy land, believing I was a norm as well. I had to tell him the truth now, but it was going to be hard to make him understand.

  ‘Fian, when I started on the pre-history course here, there were some things I didn’t tell people.’

  ‘You mean about being an Honour Child?’ he asked.

  ‘I didn’t know about that then. I found out when I asked for the information on my parents.’

  ‘What?’ Fian shook his head. ‘Jarra, just tell me, is Keon up on that solar array? Is that why you’re so …’

  ‘No,’ I said. There was no way to explain this sensibly. I gave up and just said it. ‘Keon is studying art at University Earth.’

  ‘What?’ Fian stared at me. ‘Your brother is Handicapped?’

  ‘Keon is Handicapped, but he isn’t my brother.’

  ‘You said he was adopted.’

  ‘There were nine of us at my Next Step on Earth,’ I said. ‘Keon was there, and my best friend Issette, and Cathan, and Ross and Maeth and …’

  Fian interrupted. ‘Next Step on Earth? What are you talking about? You’re Military.’

  ‘I’m Handicapped. I grew up as a ward of Hospital Earth. I pretended to be Military so the class wouldn’t find out I was from Earth and Handicapped, then I asked for information about my parents. I found out my family really were Military, and there was the Honour Ceremony, and … Then I got some really bad news, and my head just caved in. I started believing the lies myself.’

  ‘You …’ Fian stood up and stared down at me. ‘You let us register a Twoing contract, and you didn’t tell me! What in chaos will my family think when they find out I’m Twoing with an ape?’

  I winced. When someone says leg, you know which bit they mean by the way they say it. When someone says ape, the way they say it means a lot too. I’d never heard Fian use the ape word before, and now he had, and in the worst way.

  Sometimes it only takes one word to say everything. I got up and walked out of the room.

  ‘Where are you going?’ asked Fian, sharply. ‘We need to talk.’ He followed me down the corridor.

  ‘I think we finished the talking,’ I said. ‘Yes, I’m an ape, a nean, a throwback, and the garbage of the universe. You can call me all the names you like, because I know I deserve them, but you’ll just be wasting your breath. I know them all already and I’ve been hearing them all my life.’

  ‘Jarra, we have to …’

  I kept walking. Somehow the sheer extent of the disaster left me feeling weirdly calm. ‘I’m very sorry, Fian. I know I’ve done something dreadful. It was bad enough telling you and the rest of the class all those lies, but the Twoing contract … I can only apologize for the mess I’ve got you into. My parents died a few days after the Honour Ceremony, and that made me go a little crazy. I’ll do anything I can to fix things later, anything at all, but right now … right now I can’t do anything except worry about those Military ships.’

  ‘Jarra, stand still and talk to me!’

  He caught my arm, but I tugged it free. ‘No, Fian. There’s nothing I can possibly say except that I’m terribly sorry, and I’ve said that. Now, I’m going to take off this impact suit for a few minutes and have a shower. Then I’m going to put it on again, go outside to watch the sky, and pray that whatever deity runs this universe will guide those Military ships down safely. I’m only an ape girl, but they’re my people, and they’re in trouble. My parents didn’t make it back, but there’s still a chance that some of these will.’

  I went into the bathroom, locked the door behind me, and stripped off my impact suit. Fian hammered on the door and tried to talk to me, but I went under the shower, turned it on full blast, and let the sound of the water save me from hearing him. Fian and I were finished, and I couldn’t blame anyone but myself. I should never have let myself get involved with him. Fian had every reason to scream abuse at me, but I didn’t want to hear it, and I didn’t need to hear it. I was screaming enough abuse at myself. The dumb ape had set out to get revenge on the evil exos, and she’d destroyed herself instead. She deserved that, but she’d messed up Fian’s life too, and that was unforgiveable.

  I’d do anything I could to make things right for him, but how the chaos could I even start to do that? I’d buried both of us in an avalanche of my own lies, and there was no way I could dig us out from it. We couldn’t even hush up the Twoing contract, since the whole of New York Dig Site knew about it. The only thing I could do
was get out of Fian’s life as fast as possible, and I couldn’t even do that until the Carrington event was over. I couldn’t portal, I couldn’t even message anyone, but the minute I could then I’d collect my stuff from the Asgard 6 dome and leave. I had no idea where I’d go, but I’d have time to work that out before the portals were back.

  I turned off the shower. Fian was still there when I came out, but a couple of the Cassandra team were queuing for the bathroom, so he didn’t try to talk. I had my impact suit on properly now, glad to have my face safely hidden from the world. The two Cassandrans insisted on Fian taking his turn in the bathroom ahead of them, and I went off to join Rono who was already waiting by the dome door.

  30

  Dig Site Command had patched the Earth Rolling News channel into the suit broadcast circuit. Interference kept drowning out their words, but they were repeating each sentence in an attempt to help people hear.

  Fian and the rest of the Cassandra team arrived, and we went outside into the aurora that changed night into day. The sky was shades of green with a few streaks of fuchsia now, and the snow took the colours, blending and distorting them together, and reflected them back, returning the borrowed light to the sky.

  It was far too early for the ships to be landing yet, so we stood there waiting in silence for long minutes. Over in the dark ruins of New York, a chain of fire suddenly flashed.

  ‘What’s that?’ Rono asked.

  ‘Probably part of an old power net or pipe or girder,’ said Fian. ‘A bad solar storm can induce electrical currents, so a Carrington event …’

  ‘Earth Rolling News reported a few fires,’ muttered Rono.

  Fian had sounded grim but calm, while I was alternating between numb despair and panic. Most of my head was thinking about the Military ships, but the rest was trying to face up to the consequences of my own actions. Earlier today, I’d had everything I wanted. Now I’d lost not only the dream but the reality. My relationship with Fian had been based on fantasy and that was gone. My future as a historian was based on reality, but I’d lost that too. I had to be fair to Fian, get out of his life, and hide the fact that Jarra Tell Morrath, the pre-history student, was an ape. Achieving that meant vanishing from the class, from the dig sites, and from studying history.