Earth Star

32

The vid projection on the granite wall showed an aerial view overlaid by a targeting screen. Trees rushed by at incredible speed.

‘I’m getting motion sickness just watching this,’ said Rono.

‘This is Zulu One entering final approach,’ said the voice of Commander Drago Tell Dramis. ‘Requesting strike confirmation, sir.’

I was sitting at my command desk, in my impact suit with my hood down. I didn’t know what half the fancy equipment on my desk did, my theory was that most of it was only there to look impressive for the vid bees, but I could switch on my audio link.

‘This is Zulu Field Commander,’ I said. ‘Strike is confirmed. Why the sir? Don’t you outrank me, Drago?’

The minute I asked the question, I felt like biting my tongue off. The command feed was going out live to the newzies, and I was an idiot to betray my ignorance of a Military protocol.

‘I outrank you, but you’re currently my chain of command. As,’ Drago added in a bitter voice, ‘you know perfectly well, Jarra. I do wish everyone would stop rubbing my nose in the fact I’ve just been forcibly promoted.’

Drago had covered up my mistake beautifully and I laughed in relief. This situation was weirdly similar to what had happened at the beginning of this year, when I’d joined a class of norm kids and tried to convince them I was the norm kid of Military parents. Now I was trying to convince humanity that I was their new Tellon Blaze. There was one huge difference though. I wasn’t doing it alone this time. The Military were building up my image as a brilliant Field Commander by feeding me information and covering up my mistakes.

I was bone tired, and desperately wanted to slump back in my chair and yawn, but I forced myself to stay bolt upright, and keep the calm, controlled, alert expression on my face. Some nardle on a news channel might decide to patch in live images of me instead of concentrating on the exciting stuff with the Military aircraft.

‘Committing to attack run … now!’ said Drago.

He must be diving at the ground because the trees on the vid image were coming straight at us now. There were a few nervous gasps from the watching dig team members, and I heard Krath howl in protest.

‘He’s going to crash!’

‘Fox nine!’ yelled Drago.

The image whirled sickeningly as he pulled up his aircraft and banked in a full 360-degree turn. The view stabilized, and an area of trees ahead seemed to blur and then disintegrate.

‘Missile strike confirmed,’ said Drago, as the view froze and zoomed in to show the splintered wreckage of several hundred Griffith hybrids.

‘Zan,’ breathed Fian.

Personally, I felt that was an unnecessarily dramatic way to attack a few defenceless trees. I wondered if Drago had been ordered to show off for the watching multitude, or if it had been his own idea.

‘Looking good, Zulu One,’ I said. ‘We can clear up the rest from ground level. Initiate portal deployment.’

‘Zulu One to Zulu Flight, missile is safely delivered. You are clear to enter target zone.’

‘Zulu Flight to Zulu One, we are entering target zone,’ said the calm voice of Marlise.

I watched a formation of four transport planes fly into view, each dangling a freight-sized portal by a glowing lift beam.

‘The live vid feed for the newzies is watching the portal delivery, and then moving to an update from Colonel Torrek,’ said Dalmora. ‘Relax everyone, we’re shutting down our vid bees now and packing them up ready for the move.’

There was a general sigh of relief from around the dig teams. I wasn’t the only one finding it a strain to have most of humanity watching our every move.

‘We could do with the Military demolishing the trees around Eden Dig Site like that,’ said Playdon.

‘Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be good for the ruins, sir,’ I said. ‘That was a sonic missile which takes out anything above ground level, but should, according to the experts, not harm anything that’s buried. Even so, we’ve gone for a minimal setting, and kept well clear of our actual dig location. We desperately needed a gap in the trees to set up our base camp, but we daren’t risk damaging the artefact.’

‘Jarra, you definitely shouldn’t be calling me sir at this point,’ said Playdon. ‘I don’t want anyone thinking I’m part of the chain of command for all this.’

‘Sorry. Habit.’

‘I assume that sonic missiles are something the Military use on Planet First,’ said Pereth, ‘but why was the pilot shouting about foxes?’

I’d seen the answer to this in a vid, so I giggled. ‘It’s a Military term dating back centuries. He was warning other pilots in the area he was firing a missile with a particular type of guidance control, so they could take the right sort of evasive action if it missed its target and went rogue. In theory, safety procedures should stop that ever happening, but …’

I paused to read a status report on one of my desk screens. ‘Eden Flight has put sixteen freight portals in position around Eden Dig Site. The freight portals at both Eden and Zulu should be calibrated and working within an hour.’

I stood up. ‘We’d better start moving people to Eden to pick up sleds. We’ve got a Military priority pre-empt set for portalling directly to Eden, so remember everyone, you don’t need to go via Australia and Africa transits, just enter your Eden Dig Site codes. Pereth, you’d better take Earth 2 through first, since your team will be first to go to Zulu Dig Site. Has Dig Site Command allocated you an Eden dome?’

Pereth nodded. ‘We’ve got dome 6. The Military were supposed to set up a freight portal next to it.’

‘Then you’ll find one there.’

The Earth 2 team gathered by the portal and dialled out.

‘Unfair,’ said Krath, after they’d gone. ‘It’s not enough they gatecrash our party, they’ll be the first ones at Zulu!’

I grinned. ‘Don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of trees to go around. Dig Site Command portal next, and then my team. Everyone else follow on to your Eden domes after that. We’ll need to clear up some of the mess at Zulu Dig Site before we’ve got space to bring through more teams, so Dig Site Command will contact you when we’re ready for you to portal to Zulu with your sleds.’

I collected my luggage and went across to the two figures who were quietly watching from the side of the hall. ‘Issette, Keon, will you be all right here?’

‘We’ll be fine.’ Keon appeared as relaxed as ever. ‘After you’ve all gone, we’re portalling across to visit Maeth and Ross at the other side of Ark. Some of the others from our Next Step will be there.’

I glanced doubtfully at the pathetically shaken face of Issette.

‘I’ll take care of her, Jarra,’ said Keon. ‘You go and save the world.’

There was an odd emphasis to his last sentence. I gave him a startled look, saw past his relaxed act to the strain in his eyes, and realized he’d worked out exactly what was going on here. Not just the obvious thing that aliens were a scary unknown, but that any attack on the sphere might endanger Earth, and possibly even that the Military were bluffing to buy time. I knew I could trust him to keep his mouth shut, if only because it was far less effort than talking, so I just gave him a nod and turned to look at Issette.

She forced a smile, and made a brave attempt at her usual bubbly style of speech. ‘Jarra, Jarra, Jarra, good luck!’

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Say hello to everyone for me.’

I headed towards the portal. Dig Site Command had just gone through and the rest of Asgard 6 were waiting for me.

‘What about all that?’ Krath jerked his head at the command desk and equipment.

‘Someone will pick it up later. We won’t need it because the Military are portalling a Field Command sled to our Eden dome. We’ll take that through a freight portal to Zulu Dig Site.’

‘Amaz,’ said Krath. ‘All these freight portals must be costing a fortune.’

Playdon entered the portal code for our home dome at Eden Dig Site. ‘Alien Contact programme has an unlimited budget.’

‘I was hoping to get drafted,’ said Krath wistfully. ‘I want to be a Military Captain like Fian.’

‘No chance of that, Krath,’ I said. ‘I’ve been warned you’re a potential security risk.’

‘What?’ He looked outraged. ‘Who said that?’

‘Military Security said that. It’s not surprising. Your father helps run a vid channel that’s continually making wild accusations against the Military. Since Gaius Devon caused so much trouble, Military Security are a bit edgy.’

‘It’s my nuking dad again! If he keeps me out of this, I’ll …’

‘Don’t worry about it, Krath. I’ve personally assured Military Security that you’re trustworthy.’

I missed his reply, because I stepped through the portal. The others followed me through, and I gave a deep sigh of relief. ‘Privacy at last! Dalmora, don’t you dare let a vid bee out here, or I promise I’ll kill it.’

Dalmora laughed. ‘I won’t. You’ve been doing an amaz job, Jarra. The way you’re organizing all this, and the things you talk about so casually …’

I pulled a face. ‘The organizing is being done by other people, and everyone keeps covering up my stupid mistakes.’

‘Now we’re away from the vid bees,’ said Fian, ‘you have to take your impact suit off, Jarra. You’ve been wearing it for over twenty-four hours.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Fian’s right,’ said Playdon. ‘Wearing an impact suit for long periods is a huge strain on the body. Breaks are recommended at least every six hours, and twelve hours is regarded as the absolute maximum limit for continuous wear.’

‘This is an emergency,’ I said. ‘I daren’t risk taking the suit off. If I try to put it on again, I might have another panic attack.’

Fian shook his head. ‘We understand that, Jarra, but you can’t keep this up.’

‘It’s not as if I’ve been sealed in the suit and working a dig site for twenty-four hours,’ I said. ‘I’ve had the hood down, the front open, and I’ve spent time lying down and resting.’

‘Now look me in the eyes and tell me you’ve been eating and sleeping.’

I hesitated. ‘I’ve had some soup.’

Fian sighed. ‘There’s no point in martyring yourself to inspire confidence in people if you’re going to mess it up by collapsing.’

I realized he had a point there. ‘I just need another hour or two. When we get to Zulu Dig Site, I’m supposed to lead a vid bee tour of the place. After that, Drago and Marlise will be taking over the public relations side of things, Pereth will be running the excavation itself, and I can hide away in the Field Command sled.’

‘Those are properly enclosed so you won’t need an impact suit?’ asked Playdon.

I nodded. ‘I looked up the technical specs on them. They’re similar to the mobile Dig Site Command sleds, but fancier.’

‘And once you’re in there, you promise you’ll take off the suit?’ asked Fian. ‘If you don’t, I’ll call Colonel Torrek and tell him exactly what’s going on.’

‘You wouldn’t!’

‘Watch me!’

The Cassandrian skunk meant it. I sighed. ‘I promise.’

Playdon frowned and ran his fingers through his hair. ‘Make sure you keep this vid bee tour as short as possible, Jarra.’

‘I certainly will. The sooner Drago takes over, the happier I’ll be. I’m terrified I’ll say or do something that embarrasses the whole Military.’

Fian made a choking noise. ‘And you think Drago won’t?’

‘Drago grew up in a Military family, went to Military school and the Academy. I bet he knew more when he was 2 years old than I do now.’

Fian laughed. ‘I was just remembering what he did in the dining hall.’

I giggled. ‘Colonel Torrek is sending Marlise along to make sure Drago behaves.’

The others changed into impact suits, and Fian and I carefully packed our uniforms. We could work inside the Field Command sled wearing just the skintights we normally wore under impact suits, but we couldn’t appear like that in a vid. Skintights covered the legally private areas, but, as their name implied, they were literally skin tight.

We were ready before the freight portals had completed their calibration and test sequences, so we went out of the dome and admired our svelte, black, Field Command sled.

‘Zan!’ said Krath, doing a quick lap of inspection. ‘Can I go inside, Jarra?’

‘You’re a security risk.’

‘Jarra!’

I couldn’t see his face through the fabric of his impact suit, but his wounded tone was obvious. I hastily reassured him. ‘Only teasing, Krath. Of course you can. We’ll all go inside and drive through the freight portal to Zulu Dig Site in style. The sled is designed as living accommodation for a team of four, so I’m sure we can fit in six of us for a short while.’

‘I hope this sled has sonic screens,’ said Playdon. ‘I’d hate us to let ants in there.’

I laughed. ‘It’s designed to be used on Planet First. I’m sure the screening can handle rainforest conditions.’

I went up to the door, and sonics instantly cut in, together with some strange coloured light effects. The others came to join me and we waited for the door to open.

‘What are the lights for?’ asked Fian.

‘Scans to check only human life forms are in the door area before it opens.’

‘We could be here for weeks,’ said Fian. ‘Krath won’t qualify.’

‘Shut up!’ said Krath. ‘I don’t mind being teased, but I’m not having …’

The door opened and he forgot about complaining as he bounced inside and looked around nosily. ‘Utterly zan!’ He gestured at the complex control bank at the front of the sled. ‘What does all this do?’

We followed him inside, tugged down our hoods, and piled the uniform and vid bee cases in a corner. ‘No idea,’ I said. ‘We certainly won’t need it all. There’s a chimera detector in there somewhere.’

Krath gave a dignified sniff of disbelief.

‘Truly. Thetis was over a quarter of a millennium ago, but the Military are still paranoid about it and following the standing orders set up by Tellon Blaze. Every sled, ship and dome has a sensor that gives an alarm if it detects the distinctive body chemistry of chimera. They’ve hit a couple of other species on Planet First which triggered those alarms and they rejected the planets for colonization because of it. They appeared harmless but …’

Krath started investigating the rest of the sled. ‘This is so amaz. You’ve got everything. Food, drinks, pull-out couches.’ He pulled out a couch, shut it away again, and opened a cubicle door. ‘Bathroom too. You could live in here for days.’

I nodded. ‘People often do.’

‘Krath,’ said Playdon, ‘don’t play with the shower.’

Krath reluctantly closed the door again. ‘I just wanted to see how …’

My lookup chimed, and I checked it. ‘Freight portals are operational. We can head to Zulu.’

Fian and I took our seats at the front of the sled, and examined the control panel. ‘Want to drive?’ I asked.

‘Me? Why me?’

‘I’m so tired, I’d probably drive straight into a tree. The central basic controls look the same as any hover sled, but I wouldn’t play with any of the others.’

‘I won’t.’ Fian took the sled up on its hovers and turned it smoothly to face the portal. ‘Does someone have to get out and …?’

‘There’s an autodial.’ Krath leaned over Fian’s shoulder to point at the control.

‘Thank you.’ Fian reached for the autodial and laughed. ‘Someone’s already entered the Zulu Dig Site code for us.’

I giggled. ‘The Military obviously don’t trust me to enter a portal code solo.’

Fian tapped the autodial, the freight portal ahead of us lit up, and we drove through to Zulu Dig Site and straight into a mass of broken branches.

‘It didn’t look as bad as this from the aerial view,’ said Amalie.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Oh well, Earth 2 will soon tidy up.’

Fian increased the height of the hovers, so we rose up above the worst of the litter. We could see the whole clearing now, and the four portals around the edge.

‘Where should we park?’ asked Fian.

‘Try the middle,’ I said. ‘The blast should have thrown the wreckage outwards.’

We drove across to the centre of the clearing, and found this had a thick carpet of wood chips. Two of the other freight portals were glowing now. A mobile Dig Site Command sled came through one of them and drove over to park near us. A whole procession of sleds of assorted types and sizes came through the other portal and figures in impact suits jumped off them and started work. The Earth 2 team had obviously done some planning in advance, because they instantly divided into two groups. The first used heavy lift sleds to drag branches into a pile, while the second unloaded pieces of mobile dome from a transport.

‘We should start Jarra’s site tour now,’ said Dalmora. ‘There’s a lot of action out there for viewers to watch.’

I groaned. ‘I’m bound to say something stupid.’

She collected a vid bee case. ‘Don’t worry, Jarra. The Military will edit out any mistakes before they give it to the newzies. Just imagine you’re talking to a friend who doesn’t know anything about dig sites. The way you were relaxed enough to make casual jokes to Commander Tell Dramis earlier, gave a very reassuring impression to people. You should try for the same effect again this time.’

It did? I should? That had just been a mistake, but …

Dalmora looked around. ‘We’d better start in here so people can see your face, then go outside. Is there anything secret we shouldn’t show in the vid?’

‘I doubt it. The Military would have warned us, and anyway they can edit it out.’

‘Dalmora, Krath and Amalie will be making vids, but what do you want me to do while we’re here, Jarra?’ asked Playdon.

‘You’ll be my liaison with Pereth, and stop me saying anything embarrassingly stupid to him,’ I said.

The vid team set up, and crowded with Playdon into the far end of the sled behind the vid bee view. I ached all over, I wanted to lie down and whimper, but I had to do this first. I remembered Dalmora’s words and pictured Issette. She was back in Ark, with Keon. She’d be watching this soon, so I could talk to her.

Vid bees glowed and Dalmora made technical-looking hand gestures at me. She was probably ready for me to start.

‘Welcome to … No, hold on a second.’ I turned to Fian and adjusted the controls on his Military blue impact suit.

‘What?’ He looked down suspiciously at what I was doing. ‘Why am I getting silver bars on the arms of my impact suit?’

‘My suit has command gold bars. You get silver for being deputy.’ I nodded to Dalmora. ‘Ready.’

‘That makes me feel a bit silly,’ said Fian.

‘How do you think I feel?’

Dalmora made hand signals again and I smiled at the vid bee. ‘Welcome to Zulu Dig Site. I’m Major Jarra Tell Morrath, Field Commander for this operation. This is my deputy, Captain Fian Eklund. As you can see, we’re currently inside our Field Command sled. Zulu Dig Site is located in the African rainforest, so we have to take precautions against predatory animals, insects and other hazards. We’ve not only got the normal species of Africa here, but mutated forms of those originally native to South America, and some that were genetically salvaged after becoming extinct in the past.’

Was I sounding as exhausted as I felt? I hoped not. ‘Creatures like scimitar cats and dire wolves are obviously dangerous, but the insects are an even bigger problem. Fire ants and bullet ants have extremely nasty stings, so we need to put up our hoods and seal our suits before we go outside.’

Fian and I did just that, and then I started talking again. ‘As we leave the sled, you’ll notice some sonic blurring and coloured lights which make sure insects don’t get inside.’

We headed out of the sled, with the vid bees and their controllers trailing behind us. One of the Earth 2 heavy lift sleds towed a huge tree across in front of me, and I paused to let them go by. A vid bee danced around to get both me and the tree in image. No, it wasn’t a vid bee, it was frizzy haired Issette, and I was explaining things to her.

‘You’ve probably already seen an aerial view of the trees covering this area,’ I said, ‘but now you can see the sheer size of them and begin to understand the conditions we’ll be struggling with. We don’t dare to use sonic missiles near the possible location of the alien device, so we have to cut a path through the trees the hard way.’

I gave Issette another moment to take in the size of the fallen giant being towed away, and then walked closer to the forest edge. ‘We’re looking for an alien device buried here over a thousand years ago. You may wonder why aliens chose to leave it in the middle of the rainforest, and the answer is they didn’t. There was plenty of rainforest in Africa back then, but not right here. A lot has happened since then; climate changed, humans devastated the rainforest and then decided to restore it. The forest now covers a much wider area than before, and is very different from the way it used to be.’

I could see my ghostly Issette pulling a face, and imagine exactly what she’d be saying at this point. ‘No history lectures! Bad, bad, Jarra!’ She was out of luck, because Colonel Torrek wanted me to show off my specialist knowledge.

‘Humans introduced genetically modified species of tree to help the rainforest colonize new areas. The trees you can see here are almost all Griffith hybrids, which means this area of rainforest is only about fifty years old. When the Griffith hybrids die naturally, or get cut down by us, new saplings will race to grow in their place. True rainforest species will win that race, because Griffith hybrids were designed to survive in a wide range of conditions, but be slower growing than the original rainforest species.’

Something blue caught my eye. I stooped to pick up a fragment of broken branch, and disentangle something from it. ‘This creeper, with greyish green leaves and pretty blue flowers, is another genetically modified plant, one that’s been busily reclaiming the deserts of Earth for several hundred years. It’s started living in rainforest, which it was never intended to do, but so far it’s very rare here and does no harm.’

I paused and pointed. ‘Now look up at that flock of grey and blue birds.’

Dalmora gave a frantic look at where I was pointing. There was a moment of delay before she gave me a hand signal. They’d got the birds in shot.

‘The seeds of the true rainforest species are carried here by birds and animals. What you’re seeing up there is a mixed flock of grey parrots, which are native to Earth Africa, and bright blue flying lizards which came from Danae in Alpha sector.’ I pictured Issette’s grazzed expression as she heard that. ‘No, they aren’t here because of a failure of portal quarantine. This was a deliberate introduction of an alien species. Thanks to the Earth data net crash back in Exodus century, we’ve no record of why they were brought here.’

I turned to walk back over to the centre of the clearing. ‘The sled next to me houses the team from Eden Dig Site Command. They’ll monitor suit and sled signals so they know exactly where everyone is, and can make sure one team doesn’t do something that endangers another. If there’s an accident, suit alarms will start screaming, and Dig Site Command co-ordinate rescue and portalling people to hospital. At this point, I’d like to say a special word of thanks from the Military. While most people have chosen to remain in Ark, the nearest Hospital Earth Africa Casualty unit has reopened to provide us with a full range of specialist medical support.’

I paused. ‘The people working here at the moment are from University Earth Archaeological Research Team 2. There’ll soon be a couple of dozen more teams arriving. Pereth of Earth 2 will be acting as my site leader, helping me organize things.’

I moved nearer to the mobile dome that Earth 2 were building. ‘After this, I won’t be talking directly to you, though you may see me on site and hear me talking on some of the communication channels. You can see we’ve nearly completed a dome that will house Earth Rolling News. They’ll keep you fully informed of everything that’s happening, with the help of my cousin, Commander Drago Tell Dramis, and his deputy Major Marlise Weldon.’

I hoped everyone would absorb the point that Drago was another, far more competent, descendant of the legendary Tellon Blaze. ‘Commander Tell Dramis and Major Weldon are flying in a Military survey aircraft for us, and should be arriving here any …’

I was interrupted by a voice speaking on broadcast channel, as Drago took his cue. I heard it inside my suit, but viewers would hear it too, because this was being patched into the vid bees.

‘This is Zulu Survey. Colonel Torrek sends his compliments and instructs me on no account to enter Zulu Dig Site air space without clearance from Dig Site Command. He says he’s already been told off once by a Dig Site Command team, when he crashed Solar 5 on New York Dig Site without asking permission.’

I choked back a laugh. Dig Site Command were clearly struggling to keep a professional tone as they replied.

‘This is Dig Site Command. Our thanks to Colonel Torrek. We like to warn our working teams of aerial activity, because sudden distractions from crashing spacecraft can cause accidents. Zulu Survey, you are cleared to enter Zulu Dig Site air space.’

Everyone around the site stopped work and looked up. The vid bee team adjusted their vid bees to cover the sky. I’d expected to see an aircraft coming into view above the trees, but there was nothing. The Military usually timed these things better than …

There was a sudden flash directly overhead, followed by a sound like thunder. I gasped in disbelief as I saw the dark ring appear and hang in the sky, and the black aircraft appear from it. I’d seen this on vids about Planet First, showing how the Military portalled ships into new solar systems. I’d seen it on Ventrak Rostha’s vid about Artemis, when dart ships portalled in to surround the solar array that was attacking the planet. I’d seen it on vids, but I’d never expected to see it with my own eyes.

The Military had used their most famous technology, the five second, drop portal that had given humanity interstellar travel, and they’d used it here in the skies of Earth!

‘Zulu Survey to Echo Base, Adonis,’ said Drago’s voice. ‘Portal to Zulu Dig Site, Earth completed.’

The dust ring in the sky blurred to become a patch of smoke, then faded and vanished completely, but I still stood there, grazzed, staring upwards.