‘Yes.’
The doctor dived in between us for a moment, waved a scanner over Fian’s stomach, nodded, and then retreated out of the door.
Fian watched him go and then turned back to me. ‘The last thing I remember was my sled exploding. How long ago was that?’
‘Four days. You were unconscious when Playdon and the class took us to the evac portal. We’ve both been in tanks, but they decanted me yesterday. Playdon and Candace were here yesterday, and your parents are arriving today.’ I hurried on, eager to tell him my good news. ‘Drago and Marlise came to visit yesterday too and …’
‘Drago’s been flirting with you while I was stuck in a tank! That’s positively …’
I giggled. ‘Don’t be a nardle. Colonel Torrek sent them to check we had everything we needed. Anyway, Drago’s just got married to Marlise. On Earth, in a traditional Betan wedding ceremony, and we can do it too!’
I ended on a note of triumph, but he didn’t look as thrilled as I’d expected, just confused.
‘What?’
‘We don’t have to have a Betan ceremony of course,’ I added hastily. ‘We could do, because my clan are going to make me a proper clan member, but we can get married with a Deltan ceremony if that’s what you’d prefer.’
‘Married?’ Fian stared at me for a moment, and gave a little shake of his head. ‘Jarra, we can’t get married. Earth law says a couple need a minimum of three Twoing contracts that add up to at least a year before they can get married.’
‘Yes we can!’ I grinned at him. ‘Military regulations say personnel unable to travel due to medical conditions or because they’re on active service, can get married at their current location under the laws of a sector of their choice. We’re Military now, and my Handicap is a medical condition that prevents me travelling, so all we need is Colonel Torrek’s approval and we can get married under Epsilon law right away.’
Fian looked totally grazzed. ‘You’re really suggesting we do that?’
‘Yes. I’m sure I can talk the Colonel into it.’
He ran his fingers through his hair. ‘I’m sure you could, but … Jarra, you said you didn’t want to rush into marriage. You lectured me about Maeth and Ross being grabbers.’
I smiled at him. ‘I changed my mind. You want commitment and so do I.’
‘I wanted to know you were serious about our relationship, but … even in Delta sector, we don’t get married at 18.’
I was disconcerted. ‘I’d expected more enthusiasm.’
‘It’s just a bit of a surprise.’ He paused. ‘I love the fact that you suggested it, Jarra. That means a lot to me, but I don’t want us to do anything you’ll regret later on. This is because I got hurt, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, that made me realize …’
‘If you came out of your tank a day ago, then you’ve been waiting and worrying. I know exactly how that feels. I had a whole week of it after the Solar 5 rescue. All that time, I was scared to death I’d lose you. You’ve been going through that too, so you’re in no state to make drastic decisions.’
‘Yes, I am,’ I said. ‘I’m quite sure about this. It’s not just the accident. There was what happened to Joth as well, and we’ve no idea what that sphere may do during the next solar storm. I don’t want to mess about waiting for a future we may not have.’
Fian shook his head. ‘You never do anything in moderation, do you? It’s always all or nothing. Jarra, we can’t get married.’
‘Why not? Drago and Marlise did.’
‘Drago and Marlise can use a Military regulation to get married, but we can’t. Playdon would understand, but what about everyone else? My parents. Candace. Our friends. We can’t explain why we’re in the Military. We couldn’t invite them to the wedding, or even tell them we’re married. I wouldn’t like it being that way.’
‘Well …’ I broke off because my lookup was whining at me. ‘Your parents are calling.’
I answered the call, and projected the image of Fian’s parents on the room wall.
‘Fian!’ His mother smiled with delight. ‘You’re already awake. Are you well? Are you getting proper medical care?’
‘Perfectly well,’ he said. ‘Earth has the finest doctors.’
‘We planned to be at the hospital when you woke up,’ said Fian’s father, ‘but we’ve only got as far as Alpha Sector Interchange 2. The Olympic opening ceremony is tomorrow, so half the portals are locked open to portal continuously to Olympia. We’re in the queue for a block portal to Danae in half an hour. Once we’re in Danae Off-world, we’ll be out of the Olympia traffic and it’ll be easy to portal to Earth.’
‘We’ll see you in about an hour then,’ said Fian.
His parents nodded and the call ended. Fian continued looking at the wall for a moment despite the fact the image had gone. ‘Has something happened to make the number of Military pre-empts suddenly increase again?’
‘No, it’s just the Olympic traffic. I checked the latest Military report before you woke up, and there’s no change. They’re still waiting for the next solar storm.’
Fian nodded and resumed our previous conversation. ‘I really appreciate your suggestion, Jarra, but we can’t get married until the Military go public about the sphere.’
I pulled a face. ‘But that may not happen for months. Years even. If the sphere behaves itself during the next solar storm, the Military could keep things quiet indefinitely.’
‘Well, the situation will be a lot clearer after the next solar storm. We can talk about it again then, but I don’t want us to rush headlong into things before we’re ready for them. We could spoil what we already have, and what we have is very special.’ He paused. ‘Now, what’s been happening with your clan? You said you’re going to become a clan member?’
‘Yes.’ I felt a sick churning in my stomach. If Fian was against this as well … ‘Drago said the clan want to formally welcome me. You don’t want me to do that either?’
‘Jarra, I’ve absolutely no right to stop you joining your clan, and I wouldn’t want to anyway. I know how much it would mean to you to have a family.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘When you found out about your clan, I started scanning information about Beta sector. When things fell apart after Exodus century, communication between sectors was difficult. Beta sector developed its clan system. Other sectors became far stricter about showing some body areas. Naturally the sex vid trade moved to Beta sector, which gives other sectors the wrong idea about them, but …’
Fian shrugged. ‘The history helped me understand Betans better, but what really changed my mind was Drago playing that trick on Leveque to try and dodge promotion.’
I blinked. I was deeply thankful Fian was accepting this, but I didn’t see how Drago taking his clothes off had helped. ‘Really?’
‘When I heard only Drago’s own team and Leveque were in the dining hall to see him, I knew it must have been carefully arranged. A fighter team doesn’t have time to worry about privacy when suiting up in emergencies, so Drago’s team probably wouldn’t care, and I couldn’t imagine Leveque being bothered by anything short of a nuclear explosion. I suddenly realized that Drago plays the flirting Betan to tease people, especially me, but he never actually does anything shocking.’
Fian paused for a moment. ‘At that point, it finally occurred to me that Drago couldn’t possibly be the only Betan in the base, and I started looking for clan prefixes in names. I was really surprised by who was Betan. Major Rayne Tar Cameron is so terribly …’
I giggled. ‘Pompous and stuffy?’
‘Well, yes. I can see she’s an excellent Military officer, but she’s horribly formal. Anyway, I’d still be very nervous of other Betan clans, but I’m happy about you joining a Military one. It’ll be a shock to my parents though. I’ll have to pick the right time to tell them, so can we carry on as before while they’re here?’
I sighed. ‘The same routine of pretending you’re a
respectable little Deltan. I suppose that means we can’t be together tonight.’
‘We couldn’t anyway,’ said Fian. ‘We’re in hospital and just look at you!’
I was offended. ‘What do you mean? This is my best dress!’
‘Don’t be a nardle,’ said Fian. ‘You look lovely, but your skin is faintly shiny. I remember that from when you hurt your leg. New skin needs a few days out of the tank to harden off before it stops being hypersensitive and I don’t want to hurt you. How much new skin have you got?’
‘98 per cent.’
Fian grimaced. ‘Ugh. Jarra, you got minced. If I’d only been faster …’
‘Don’t you dare to start blaming yourself! You knew perfectly well you should cut the lifeline beam and run. Playdon ordered you to. I ordered you to. Did you listen? No. You did the dumb hero routine, and went for double or quits.’
His grimace was replaced by a smug grin. ‘You know I’m stubborn.’
‘I know you’re a complete idiot. When I heard the explosion, I thought you were a dead idiot. You very nearly were. You were hit in the side by a lot of fragments of sled, and some sharp bits punctured your suit and damaged vital organs. A few minutes longer getting to casualty and …’
He held up a hand to stop me. ‘Don’t say that in front of my parents. There was an accident. We both got hurt. No need to tell them the details.’
‘I understand you not wanting to say how bad it was, I downplay dangers for Candace whenever I can, but your parents should know you’re a hero and saved my life.’
‘I’m not a hero, Jarra, and I don’t want to worry my parents.’
I kept arguing until Fian’s parents arrived, but I never stood a chance of winning. Fian can be frustratingly stubborn at times. Once we had the audience of strict Deltan parents, things got very awkward. In my current mood, I wanted lots of hugs from Fian, but with his mother and father watching us, and his concern about hurting my new skin, I wasn’t even getting my hand held.
I didn’t sleep very well that night. I’d been focusing so hard on the moment when Fian would wake up and everything would be perfect, and the reality wasn’t what I’d expected. Oh, it was zan to see Fian awake and smiling, of course it was, but I’d thought he’d leap at my suggestion of getting married. I’d pictured us dashing off to see Colonel Torrek, and getting his permission, and …
I knew Fian was right. He usually is. I hadn’t thought through the problems of us using Military regulations to get married, and he was just being sensible pointing them out. It was still a big anti-climax though. I tried to concentrate on the fact I’d be joining my clan, having a family, but I was more nervous than happy about that. I’d had the dream of a family dangled in front of me before, only to be snatched away when my parents died, and I was scared to start celebrating too soon in case Drago had made a mistake or my clan changed their minds.
The next morning, I went in to see Fian, expecting to have a few minutes alone with him before his parents arrived, but they were already there. They’d told me what time they were coming, but they were still running on Hercules time, and I’d messed up while I was converting that first to Green time, and then from Green time to Earth Africa time zone.
It’s easy to make mistakes, because the time difference between Hercules and Green time is constantly shifting. Planet First selects colony worlds with a rotational period fairly close to twenty-four hours, because the day and night cycle affects human biorhythms, but that still means every planet other than Earth has a constant gradual shift between its own local time and Green time, of seconds, minutes or hours.
So, I didn’t get even a second alone with Fian. Instead, I sat listening to hours of science babble about Fian’s parents’ research at University Hercules. Fian had told me they were experts in solar storm prediction, but they seemed to be talking about the actual processes inside stars. I gave up even trying to understand, let my mind drift, and had nearly fallen asleep by the time Fian’s dad said something comprehensible.
‘We’ll have to head back soon. You should come back with us, son, and have a few days convalescing at home. Jarra would be welcome too, if she wasn’t an …’
He suddenly broke off, and there was a moment of awkward silence. It was obvious he’d been going to say ape, and thought better of it at the last moment. I sat there, burning hot with embarrassment, and heard Fian calmly answer him.
‘I’m staying with Jarra.’
‘Of course you’d want to do that,’ said his mother. ‘It’s perfectly natural that a couple want to stay together.’
There was another uncomfortable silence. Fian’s parents exchanged glances that I didn’t understand, and Fian sighed.
‘Let’s watch the Olympic opening ceremony.’
He used his lookup to project Earth Rolling News on the room wall, and I looked at it without much interest. I watch a bit of the annual Earth inter-continental Olympics, but try to ignore the four yearly interstellar ones. Since those are always held on Olympia in Alpha sector, the Earth team has to be made up of Earthborn norm kids and I don’t feel I have much in common with them. They may have been born on Earth, but they go off world to orientation schools on Alpha sector planets, and … Basically I’m jealous, because they’ve got the stars and I haven’t.
The opening parade was already in progress, one of the Military teams was just entering the arena, and the crowd was rising to their feet and madly applauding. I was confused at first; the Military teams usually got a good round of applause but this was excessive, then I saw the banner and understood. By tradition, the Military teams compete under sector banners for the sector where they’re currently stationed. This team was tiny, only ten people, but the fact they were there at all …
‘Zeta sector.’ Fian breathed the words in awe. ‘Totally zan! The Military are out there then. Planet First teams I suppose.’
‘Planet First teams are still opening up planets for Kappa sector.’ I leaned forward, staring at the vid screen. ‘The first jobs for the Military in Zeta sector, will be setting up the portal relay network and making the initial stellar surveys.’
I grinned. ‘There won’t be enough Military out there to include any great athletes, they’ll finish last in all the races but they’re not here to win medals. The Military sent them to make the statement that humanity is entering Zeta!’
The banner of newly born Zeta sector made its way slowly around the arena, surrounded by a positive cloud of hovering, spherical vid bees, all jostling for good positions to record images of the historic moment. Humanity had existed in six sectors since before I was born, but now there were seven. It might be twenty years before any planet in Zeta sector entered stage one of Planet First, forty years before it went into Colony Ten and the first children were born on its planets, but the Military were out there now. The frontier edge was moving out from Kappa to Zeta.
Fian’s parents said their goodbyes and left after that, and Fian turned to look at me. ‘A new sector! A historic moment.’
I nodded. ‘And a declaration of faith in Beta sector too.’
‘What?’
‘The colonization of Zeta sector was delayed because of Zeta’s huge boundary with Beta sector and the aftermath of the Second Roman Empire.’ I paused and changed the subject. ‘Do you think they’ll let us out of hospital now? We’ve both had our twenty-four hours of checks and scans after coming out of a tank. You had major organ damage, so I wouldn’t want to take any risks, but …’
‘We can ask,’ said Fian, and pressed the button that brought a doctor in to see us. ‘We’re wondering if we’ll be able to leave soon.’
The doctor produced the inevitable scanner. ‘Let’s take a look.’
We both submitted to what was at least our tenth scan in twenty-four hours. The doctor gazed thoughtfully at her scanner. ‘I’m happy to discharge you at this point, but remember the newly grown skin will remain sensitive for a couple more days.’
I went to my room to collect my t
hings. Seeing the Zeta banner for the first time had been an amaz moment, but now I’d dropped from an exuberant high mood straight into depression. What had I been getting so excited about? I was Handicapped, so Zeta sector was just another place where I could never go. The marriage thing was bothering me too. I hadn’t expected Fian to turn me down and …
I shook my head. Wallowing in gloom like this was silly. I’d been through a lot of strain, and I was overreacting to things the way I always did. Fian had nearly killed himself saving me. He wasn’t rejecting me. He was just being sensible.
It was the hospital’s fault. Being here, constantly prodded and scanned by doctors, had made me stupidly nervous and insecure. As soon as Fian and I were back at Eden Dig Site, everything would go back to normal.
22
We got a noisy welcome when we rejoined the class. Playdon had just finished giving his afternoon lectures, so everyone was in the hall, shuffling furniture ready for dinner. They instantly stopped work and surrounded us, with everyone talking at once. I was struggling to cope with it, but Playdon quickly intervened.
‘Jarra and Fian have come straight from hospital, so please don’t mob them.’
The rest of the class retreated to leave us with just Dalmora, Amalie and Krath, and Dalmora gave us an apologetic smile. ‘Everyone’s just relieved that you’re both back. Lecturer Playdon kept telling us that you’d recover, but after Joth … Well, we couldn’t be sure until we actually saw you.’
I pulled a face. ‘I can understand that.’
‘Playdon hasn’t let us set foot outside the dome since the accident,’ said Amalie. ‘He said we all needed some time to calm our nerves, so we’ve just had lectures and watched some vids.’
‘Oh no,’ said Fian. ‘You haven’t had to repeat all the safety lectures again, have you?’
Amalie shook her head. ‘This wasn’t like with Joth. No one had done anything stupid. Technically, Fian should have run with the rest of us, but Playdon said Dig Site Command don’t even bother with standard reprimands in a case like this. They accept the tag support and tag leader relationship is always intense, and when people are Twoing as well you can’t expect …’
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