Earth Star

28

As we headed down to the main hall, I did some urgent thinking. ‘We have two options. First option, you lead the excavation.’

‘Me? Oh no!’ Fian shook his head. ‘Me Captain, you Major.’

‘You know as much about excavations as I do.’

‘I don’t know nearly as much about the Military.’

‘I scanned a lot of texts, watched a lot of vids, that’s all. I don’t really know what I’m doing.’

‘If you don’t know what you’re doing, then you’ve been giving a chaos good impersonation of it, Jarra.’

He had that stubborn look on his face. I sighed and gave in. ‘Second option, I call the Colonel back and tell him I’ve talked him into following up my theory, but totally forgotten I couldn’t wear an impact suit.’

‘How about a third option?’ said Fian. ‘You give instructions from inside a dome. You can watch everything by using vid bees. If something needs a closer inspection, I can go and take a look.’

‘People will think it really peculiar.’

‘So explain it to them,’ said Fian. ‘Remember what Playdon said earlier. It isn’t unusual to have a problem after a serious accident.’

‘It would be horribly embarrassing, but …’ I sighed again. ‘One way or another, I’m going to look a complete nardle. I’ll watch the band and then talk to Colonel Torrek. He’ll have to decide if he’s happy with me telling people about the problem, or if he prefers to put someone else in charge.’

‘So long as it isn’t me.’

‘He could draft Playdon.’

Fian gave a choke of laughter. ‘I don’t think Playdon wants to be Military. If he did, he could have signed up himself years ago.’

We reached the main hall, and saw the band already in position, floating in midair at the far end.

‘What? How?’ Fian stared at them.

Despite my problems, I giggled. ‘They’ve borrowed a few hover belts. Much easier than setting up a stage.’

‘Dalmora looks amaz!’

I looked gloomily at Dalmora. Her black, waist-long hair hung loose, with silver flashes of light flickering in it. The classic beauty of her delicate, dark face was subtly emphasized with makeup. She was dressed in trailing lengths of deepest red material shot through with strands of silver. She was far more than just amaz, she was totally zan, and I knew I would never, ever, look that lovely.

‘Hmmm.’

Fian frowned at me. ‘Jarra! You’re surely not jealous just because I said Dalmora is looking nice.’

‘Of course not. It’s just that when Dalmora dresses up like a vid star, I feel a bit … ordinary.’

Fian grinned. ‘Jarra, trust me, you’re far from ordinary.’

‘I meant … Oh, never mind.’

Krath and Amalie waved at us from the crowd, and we went to join them. A magnified voice echoed around the hall.

‘This is Dig Site Command. Last chance to take refuge up in the corridors everyone. We’re about to go code black, with Rono and the Replays!’

‘Hit it!’ yelled Rono.

The band went wild, and the music rolled over us. I’d heard plenty of music on vids and recordings of course, and heard people playing guitars, but nothing like this. I could almost physically feel the rhythm of the drum beats.

‘Zan!’ said Krath.

‘It’s … not that bad.’ Fian stared wide-eyed at the floating band.

I was struggling with the words. I didn’t know how much sense there was in them to start with, and archaisms sometimes didn’t translate well into Language, but the music was fun. Rono did most of the singing, but Playdon and Stephan joined in for choruses. Dalmora didn’t seem to be singing. She’d probably been too busy learning her guitar part to worry about the words.

The first song finished, and the audience applauded. There were obviously some long-term fans here, because some of the people at the front had been singing along with the incomprehensible choruses. They now started yelling requests. Rono leaned forward to listen and then turned to Playdon. ‘Shall we?’

‘Why not.’ Playdon gave his evil smile. ‘Some of my class are here. Listen closely, Asgard 6. There are a lot of twentieth-century pre-history references in this. I’ll test you later on how many you recognize.’

‘A test?’ Krath said. ‘He can’t be serious.’

Fian laughed. ‘I bet he is.’

The band started playing something about how they didn’t start a fire. I caught enough of the words Rono was hammering out to realize Playdon was right about the pre-history references, but they were coming far too fast for me to follow them. By now, the front ranks of the audience were making vague dancing motions, and by song three Krath and Fian had joined in.

Amalie watched Krath with a frown. ‘I suppose he thinks he’s dancing, but he has no sense of rhythm. Not surprising given he has no sense.’

I glanced at Krath, giggled, and turned my eyes back to the more appealing sight of Fian. ‘Are Deltans allowed to dance like that? It doesn’t look respectable to me.’

The song ended, Fian turned to me and laughed. ‘I told you, I’m a very bad Deltan, and anyway I’m just copying Rono. Come and dance too.’

I gave a theatrical sigh. ‘I’m getting corrupted by a Deltan.’

Fian took my hand, pulled me close, and whispered in my ear. ‘I’ve always wanted to corrupt a Betan.’

‘I thought you were still nervous of Betans.’

‘I was, but now I’ve got used to the idea of you being one, I think it could be quite exciting.’

The music started up again with song number four, and we danced. Krath stopped jiggling around to stare at us. ‘Amaz! Jarra can really dance.’

I laughed. ‘They teach us Earth kids to dance in Home. The idea is it wears us out without wrecking the place.’

After about an hour, the band took a break, which was followed by a set of quieter, romantic songs. My lookup picked this moment to chime and I hastily muted it. I glanced at who was calling, frowned, and disentangled myself from Fian to head to the portal end of the hall where I wouldn’t disturb anyone. Fian followed me, with an expression of frustrated disapproval.

‘Sorry, but it’s Keon,’ I said. ‘I have to answer in case …’ I broke off because two familiar figures were walking towards me.

‘Hello, Jarra,’ said Keon. ‘I thought I’d call you. Less effort than searching through the crowd.’

Issette just gave me a hazy smile. I looked at her sternly. ‘Are you powered?’

Keon sighed. ‘Medical students! They mixed up a bowl of their own special drink. I dread to think what they put in it.’

‘It doesn’t seem to have affected you.’

‘I wasn’t stupid enough to drink it.’ He gazed across the hall at the band, which had just started a louder number. ‘I brought Issette here because I thought archaeologists were more respectable than medical students. Perhaps I was wrong.’

‘You see the one going mad on the drums? That’s my lecturer.’

Keon shook his head sadly. ‘Norms.’

‘He’s got great legs,’ said Issette.

There was a moment of pure horror before I realized she wasn’t looking at Playdon but at Rono. I sagged with relief. Rono wouldn’t be embarrassed to get drunken compliments, he’d just laugh and tell Issette he was flattered but extremely happily married. I decided Rono did look a bit like Issette’s favourite singer, Zen Arrath, though Issette was right. Rono had much better legs.

Issette was dancing now, and drifting inexorably towards the crowd watching the band. Keon sighed, took her hands, and they swung into the dance routine that won them first prize in our last year at school.

‘Could we do that?’ asked Fian.

I giggled. ‘I could do that. I don’t think you could.’

‘Oh really? Just let me try!’

He tried. I was right. He couldn’t. We returned to our previous, closely entwined dance style, with Fian murmuring startlingly suggestive remarks in my ear. I swear I actually heard him use not only the butt word, but the breast word as well. Rock and roll music seemed to have a shockingly bad effect on innocent Deltans. I made a mental note to do detailed research on this later when we were somewhere more private.

The band wound up for the big finish, and did an encore before packing away their instruments and sound system. I introduced Keon and Issette to Amalie and Krath, though I doubted whether Issette was in any state to remember names. The six of us got drinks of Fizzup and went over to chat to Playdon and Dalmora.

‘That was amaz!’ said Krath. ‘You can actually play those drums.’

Playdon laughed. ‘There’s no need to sound so surprised, Krath.’

I noticed Dalmora was staring at the floor, looking depressed. Had she been trying to look as beautiful as possible, hoping to win a response from Playdon? I could have told her that would never work. Growing up as a ward of Hospital Earth, I’d learned to recognize the type of adult who’d abuse a position of trust. Playdon definitely wasn’t one of them. I hoped Dalmora would forget about him now, maybe even get interested in one of the class.

I handed a glass of Fizzup to Playdon. ‘Sir, a couple of my friends are here. They’ve brought their bags, and we have several spare rooms, so I wondered if …’

‘I remember Keon and Issette,’ said Playdon. ‘We’ve run into each other a couple of times in hospital waiting rooms. If they’d like to stay, I don’t see any problem.’

‘Thank you,’ said Keon. ‘We’re refugees from a party that started seven hours before portal lockdown and is now totally out of control. Two hundred and seventy University Earth medical students, all going wild trying out the things that were forbidden when they were living in a Next Step. I thought it best to quietly leave.’

Playdon looked at the way he was holding up a sagging Issette, and nodded. ‘Very sensible.’

A lookup chimed, and a wail from Krath attracted the attention of everyone in the area. ‘I don’t believe this!’

‘Something wrong, Krath?’ Playdon sounded amused.

‘It’s my nardle dad. He’s just mailed me with some stupid story about the Military sending us into Ark because Earth is being attacked by aliens. He really is …’

I missed what Krath said after that, because a chorus of other lookups chimed around the hall. The vid feed from Earth Rolling News appeared on the wall, showing a fancy dress party, but someone instantly changed channel. A scrolling banner told me we were now watching Gamma Sector News.

‘So far there is no comment from the Military about the truth of the allegations, or the authenticity of the vid sequences showing the alien craft. Given the academic record of …’

It was a man speaking, but you couldn’t see him. The whole screen was taken up with a familiar vid sequence of an alien sphere approaching Earth.