‘No,’ I admitted. ‘Pereth and Playdon know far more than me.’
‘I’ve been giving hourly progress reports to Colonel Torrek. He hasn’t asked why he’s been hearing from me instead of you. I’m pretty sure he realized the strain you’ve been under, and wanted you to rest while things were quiet.’
Fian paused. ‘Now, you must eat something. After you finished giving the site tour, you staggered in here, took off your impact suit, sat down and went out like a light. You haven’t eaten properly in days, so I’m not accepting any arguments from you.’
‘You aren’t getting any. I’m starving.’ I stood up. ‘What food do we have?’
‘There’s a whole range of cartons in the cupboard, and a mysterious stasis box.’
I stared at him. ‘A what?’
‘A stasis box. There’s a note saying it’s for you from Marlise. For chaos sake open it, because I’ve been dying of curiosity for hours, wondering what was so important it’s stored in a stasis box.’
I was already opening the cupboard. Fian wasn’t making a nardle joke, there really was a cube in there with the distinctive black fuzziness of a stasis field. ‘I hope they sent a stasis key as well, or …’
‘It’s right next to it. Playdon’s over with Pereth, checking sensor readings, should I call him back to …?’
‘Don’t be silly. We don’t need a Stasis Q to open this. It won’t have a bomb in it.’
‘True. I wouldn’t trust Drago, but Marlise is sensible.’ Fian peered over my shoulder as I used the key, the black stasis field vanished, and I opened the box inside. ‘No!’ he yelled. ‘Not cheese fluffle!’
I stared in rapture at my treasure trove, grabbed the spoon inside, and started eating.
‘Why?’ asked Fian. ‘Why use a stasis box to send you cheese fluffle?’
I swallowed a glorious mouthful. ‘Perfectly logical. It keeps it hot and fresh. Congealed cheese fluffle wouldn’t be the same.’
‘And I just said that Marlise was sensible! Have some frujit as well.’ Fian opened a carton and handed it to me.
I shovelled more cheese fluffle into my mouth, gulped my way through two cartons of frujit, and gave a huge sigh of satisfaction. ‘I must shower. Please put the rest of the cheese fluffle back into stasis.’
I went into the minuscule bathroom cubicle, experimented with the controls for a while, and came out feeling a lot fresher. I gestured back at the door behind me.
‘There’s a control setting in there for radiation mop up. Hard to believe we’ve got a shower with a setting for dealing with radiation exposure.’
Fian laughed. ‘Not as hard to believe as the fact I’ve just put leftover cheese fluffle into stasis.’
I found my Military lookup still attached to my discarded impact suit, and set it to Earth Rolling News. I wrinkled my nose as I saw the vid sequence of my leg getting fried during the Solar 5 rescue, and hastily turned it off again.
‘Haven’t they got anything better to show people than old coverage of me screaming my head off?’
‘I think they’re getting a bit desperate,’ said Fian. ‘They keep showing vid clips about Tellon Blaze too. Watching people cutting a path through trees gets a bit monotonous after a while.’
I felt guilty. ‘I should be out there, shouldn’t I?’
I sighed and picked up my impact suit. Fian instantly went to the front window, and feigned a deep interest in what was happening outside. If I couldn’t force myself back into my suit, he’d pretend I hadn’t even tried to put it on, but I couldn’t hide indefinitely inside the Field Command sled. I’d have to call Colonel Torrek, and …
Oh this was ridiculous. I’d been wearing impact suits since I was eleven. My school history club had to make special arrangements to get one small enough to fit me. It had been a running joke that I didn’t need to set the identification on my suit because it was obvious who I was from my size.
Yes, I’d had a problem after the accident, but I’d put on this impact suit in my fit of fury after Gaius Devon called me an ape, I’d stayed in it for over twenty-four hours without it biting me, and I could get back into it now. I started grimly rolling the special fabric over my feet. It felt strangely like when I first put on my flowgold ring, my skin crawled nervously as it felt the touch of the fabric, but I kept going and suffered a dizzying sensation of relief as I pulled up my hood and sealed my suit.
Fian turned and caught my arm as I swayed. ‘Jarra? Are you all right?’
‘Yes,’ I said shakily. ‘I’m in.’ I shook my head to banish the odd feeling of wetness around my eyes, and spoke again in a more controlled voice. ‘I’m fine. We’d better give Earth Rolling News a thrill by showing ourselves.’
Fian changed into his own suit, which gave me a couple more minutes to calm down. I was still very aware of the impact suit fabric enclosing me, but hopefully that would gradually fade. I went to sit by the controls and peered out of the window. I couldn’t see the working teams, but they’d left a path lined with piled-up logs behind them.
‘We might as well drive the sled closer to the action,’ I said, and started it moving. ‘How near are they to the target area?’
Fian came and sat next to me. ‘Close, but they won’t make it tonight. Progress is slow dealing with trees this size, and they keep stopping to do sensor scans. Pereth knows we aren’t sure of the exact location of the artefact, and he doesn’t want to either break it, or trigger some alien technology that could injure people. Colonel Torrek made a statement a couple of hours ago, saying we have to take our time and do this right.’
‘The alien artefact probably doesn’t even exist,’ I muttered. ‘I’m feeling like the biggest fake ever.’ The path through the trees was as wide as a dig site clearway, but bumpy to drive along because of frequent tree stumps. ‘They’re cutting the trees down, rather than pulling them up?’
‘Yes,’ said Fian. ‘Pulling them up was hard with trees this size and left a huge mess of soil and rocks.’
We reached an area of frantic activity, I parked the sled at the side of the path, and we put on hover belts and went outside. I listened to the purposeful chatter on the dig site broadcast channel, and gradually made sense of what was happening.
One group of heavy lift sleds were towing huge fallen trees towards us, and abandoning them in the middle of the path. As each new tree arrived, people moved forward with lasers to cut it up. A second group of heavy lifts were following them down the path, clearing up the mass of logs they left behind by stacking them out of the way at the sides of the path. Two more heavy lifts brought up the rear, running drag nets to remove the remaining debris of branches and twigs and leave the path clear behind them.
Fian and I hovered our way past the path sweepers, the log stackers, and the people wielding lasers. Everyone saw our Military impact suits, and stopped work to watch us go by. I felt self-conscious, and horribly aware I was probably just wasting the time of all these people. I was grateful my face was safely hidden inside my impact suit.
Ahead of us, we could now see where the trees were being felled to extend the path towards our target area. The tree-towing group of heavy lift sleds drove past us, taking the latest batch of fallen trees to be cut up. Once they were out of the way, half a dozen tag leaders moved in to fire tags at the next batch of trees.
I watched the tag leaders enviously for a moment, wishing I could trade places with one of them, then forced myself to turn away. Pereth’s red Site Leader sled was close by, I’d left the poor man to cope alone for hour after hour, and it was time I went to talk to him. I had to try to sound knowledgeable and confident of success, though I felt neither.
34
Two hours before sunset, sheets of rain started pouring down on us. Impact suits would keep us dry, but they wouldn’t stop people slipping in the mud, and I was well aware how dangerous that could be when using lasers. I called Colonel Torrek to ask if we should abandon work for the day.
‘Definitely,’ he said. ‘
If there’s an alien device here, it can wait until tomorrow. If there isn’t, we get extra time to prepare our next move.’
‘What is the next move if we find nothing here?’ I asked.
‘We’re considering several options.’
That sounded worryingly evasive. I was sure Colonel Torrek would have told me if they had a brilliant idea. ‘One other thing, sir. Everyone else can portal home for the night, but I’d like Fian and I to stay here in the Field Command sled.’
‘I’ve no objection. If you get bored, you can just drive out through a freight portal.’
Colonel Torrek ended the call, and I made my announcement over the broadcast channel. ‘We’ve made great progress today, but the rain is making conditions hazardous now, so we’ll abandon work until tomorrow. Everyone head for the portals, and remember to check out with Dig Site Command as you go. Captain Eklund and I will be staying on site overnight.’
It took a while for everyone to leave. Earth Rolling News were especially reluctant to go, but once Dalmora shut down the vid bees they admitted defeat and portalled back to Ark. Playdon called in at the Field Command sled to say goodnight.
‘You’re quite sure you want to stay here? I’m not too happy about two of my students being alone in the rainforest.’
‘We’ve cleared it with Colonel Torrek,’ I said, gently reminding Playdon that Fian and I were currently Military officers rather than pre-history students. ‘We’ve got everything we need in the sled, and it’s perfectly safe. The armour plating will stand up to anything from landslides to a charging herd of Asgard bison.’
‘I suppose so,’ said Playdon. ‘Goodnight then.’
Playdon went outside, joined Dalmora, Amalie and Krath, and led them off through the nearest portal. The nearby Dig Site Command sled drove off after them, and Fian and I were alone at Zulu Dig Site.
‘Are we staying here for any special reason?’ Fian asked.
I gazed out through the window at the rain for a moment before I replied. ‘I didn’t want to go back to our Eden Dig Site dome with the others. They’d be chatting away, with Krath babbling nardle questions the way he always does. They believe we’ll really find something out there. I can’t cope with that tonight.’
Fian joined me at the window. ‘You’ve lost faith in your idea? It’s a good theory, Jarra. It explains so much. Why the sphere showed up when it did. Why it isn’t talking.’
‘It’s probably wrong though. What happens if we find nothing tomorrow?’
‘The Colonel will have something planned.’
‘Colonel Torrek can’t create answers out of thin air,’ I said. ‘My friends are in Ark. Issette is terrified, scared to stay in Ark because it’s creepy, scared to come out because of the sphere.’
I pulled a face. ‘And it isn’t just my friends. It’s the whole population of Earth. The Military are portalling more supplies to Ark so people can stay in there, and the norm kids can stay at their integration schools on the Alpha sector worlds, but imagine what it will be like for everyone if this situation continues for months.’
‘It isn’t your fault, Jarra.’
I turned towards him. ‘It’s my responsibility. I wear the uniform, I’m running this pointless excavation, and when we find nothing …’ I paused and made myself say it. ‘Fian, we have to talk.’
He was silent for a moment before replying. ‘I thought the possibility of war with aliens was frightening, but hearing my Jarra suggest we talk … Is the universe ending?’
Normally, I’d have laughed at that, but not now. ‘You keep telling me I need to share problems with you, and you’re right. Let’s sit down.’
We sat down, turned our chairs to face each other, and I tried to find the right words to say this. ‘Tomorrow, the whole of humanity will be watching as we fail to find an alien artefact. When that happens, I have to personally take the blame, and look the biggest idiot in all of history and pre-history put together.’
Fian frowned. ‘That isn’t fair. You just suggested a possible answer. It was the Military who arranged to have the whole of humanity watching and built up their hopes.’
‘The Military had no choice. When Gaius Devon went public, they had to claim they had a real answer. If they hadn’t, they’d have been forced into attacking the sphere, and then … well, humanity might have just lost an incredible source of knowledge, or it might have started a war. You remember when Drago’s fighter was hit?’
‘Of course.’
‘When I got the message on my lookup that we’d gone to war status … It was a false alarm, but I’ll never, ever forget how I felt while I was on my way back to the base. Humanity was at war. Earth would be the first planet to be attacked. If we lost Earth, then everyone I knew and cared about would die, all the Handicapped would die, and every Handicapped baby born in the future would …’
I broke off for a second to get my voice back under control. ‘Well, Drago kept his head, we didn’t attack the sphere then, and we mustn’t do it now. If it has that strong a defence against meteors, just think what it may do against a real attack.’
Fian pulled a face in acknowledgement.
‘Threat team say this nardle excavation has worked, because it’s given people time to calm down,’ I continued. ‘It’s vital they stay calm and keep their faith in the Military even when we fail to find anything. They must blame me personally, and whether that’s fair or not doesn’t matter. I’d cheerfully die to prevent even the slightest risk of a real war. I don’t have to die, I just have to stay alive and look a complete idiot.’
‘It doesn’t have to be you that takes the blame,’ said Fian.
‘It does have to be me, Fian. I’m sure Colonel Torrek would take personal responsibility, but I can’t let him do it. People need to keep their trust in him and the Military, so it has to be blamed on me messing things up. Gaius Devon will enjoy crowing he was right about the idiot ape kid, and it’ll confirm everyone’s low opinion of the Handicapped, but that’s still better than attacking the sphere.’
I shrugged. ‘I’m going to be horribly unpopular, but I’m sure the Military will do everything they can to protect me from the newzies, find me somewhere to hide until …’
Fian interrupted me. ‘It won’t be you, Jarra. It’ll be us. I’ll be with you.’
‘That’s why we need to talk now. I have to limit the damage I do to other people.’ I took a deep breath because this bit was very hard to say. ‘I obviously can’t join the Tell clan now, because I’d be a dreadful embarrassment to them. There’s our Twoing contract too. It expires tonight, and it’s best if we delay renewing it until after …’
He interrupted again. ‘I know what you’re going to suggest, and you can forget it. I’m not going to wait and see if we find an alien device, have a Twoing contract if you’re a success or dump you if you’re a failure. We’re in this together, win or lose.’
‘But what about your parents? When I’m being ridiculed on the newzies in every sector …’
Fian pulled a face. ‘I’ve had dozens of mail messages from them. Naturally they’re shocked by me being in the Military. My mother is worried about the danger. Civilians can expect to live to celebrate their hundredth before finally dying a peaceful death in a tank when their body fails to make it through another rejuvenation cycle, but a lot of Military get killed in action.’
He sighed. ‘I understand my mother wanting to protect me, but she has to let me make my own decisions. My father … Well, he’s ranting about my great-grandfather being forcibly dumped on Hercules by the Military. He said he kept quiet about me being awarded the Earth Star, even came to the ceremony to show he accepted it wasn’t my fault, but he’s furious I’ve actually joined the enemy.’
I waved my hands in disbelief. ‘Disobeying Alien Contact programme is a crime against humanity, so you had no choice. What did your father expect you to do, refuse and go to prison? In theory, you could even be executed.’
‘From the tone of his last messa
ge, my father would have preferred me to be shot. It’s … it’s as stupid as Krath’s dad expecting him to tunnel his way out of Ark. Worrying about some ancient family grudge when humanity is making the first contact with aliens, refusing to help when something is threatening the survival of the human race, would be …’
‘So that’s why your parents’ attitude changed after the medal ceremony,’ I said. ‘All those politely stilted conversations weren’t just because of me being Handicapped. If they didn’t like you getting the Earth Star, then when they saw me being given the Artemis … I probably babbled about my grandmother being a Military Colonel as well.’
Fian shook his head. ‘My father didn’t like that, but my mother … You remember I said there was some long running family stuff that was reaching crisis point?’
‘Yes.’
He sighed. ‘Things seem pretty definite now, so I’d better tell you. My mother always wanted a full marriage, but my father insisted on the standard twenty-five year term marriage for people who plan to have children.’
My head did some frantic calculating. Fian’s sister was several years older than he was, which must mean …
‘Their marriage will end later this year,’ said Fian. ‘My mother expected them to renew the contract for another term, but just before the medal ceremony my father put the house up for sale. That was his subtle way of breaking the news to her that he’d got the two children he wanted from the relationship and he wasn’t interested in continuing it.’
Fian pulled a pained face. ‘My mother was very upset. She tried to get my father to reconsider, but he wouldn’t. He seems to expect them to keep being a couple until the very last day of the contract, and then just split up as if there were never any feelings involved. Perhaps there weren’t in his case, he’s always been pretty cold-blooded, but my mother …’
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