Earth Star

3

Fian and I had gone through the first stages of shock and disbelief. Now the enormity of the situation was sinking in. Alien Contact programme had been in place for centuries; preparing for the day the Planet First teams didn’t just find alien animals on a new planet, or a neo-intelligent alien species that used flint tools, but technologically advanced aliens that were a potential danger to humanity. Everyone learned about it in school. Years ago, I’d sat next to Issette in a classroom full of 12-year-olds, having a lesson about it.

I could remember that day perfectly, and how furious I was. I could never portal to the stars. Even if humanity met aliens, I never would. Why did they have to rub my nose in the fact by teaching me about the Alien Contact programme?

So I was fuming, and Issette was bored and messing around with her lookup. Keon was sitting on the other side of her, she passed her lookup to him, and he passed it back again. Then there was an unforgettable moment when Issette hit the wrong button and the lookup announced in a loud voice. ‘Duckfoot Doyle is soooo boring today.’

The rest of our class thought this was hilarious, but Doyle, our teacher, didn’t see the funny side. He grabbed Issette’s lookup, and not only saw the words it had just read to the delighted class, but also found an animated picture of himself in the centre of a group of yellow ducks, all doing the funny walk that had earned him his nickname. Issette got in trouble about the words. I got in trouble about the ducks.

I complained to Keon about that later, since he was responsible for the ducks. He said it was too much effort to confess. These days, Keon has progressed from creating duck images to seriously zan laser light sculptures, but he still goes through life making as little effort as possible.

Now I remembered all the facts Doyle told us back then. When Planet First found intelligent aliens with their own technology, Alien Contact programme would activate. Military plans would swing into action, reallocating Military personnel and resources. Civilians on a constantly updated list of experts would get emergency mails calling them in for instant duty under Alien Contact emergency powers. Alien Contact had absolute authority over everything and everyone, since encountering an advanced alien species would either be the greatest opportunity in history, or the greatest ever threat to the survival of humanity.

Doyle’s monotonous voice had actually managed to make something that dramatic sound boring. Now Fian and I were hurrying across Africa Transit 3, with a trail of hover luggage chasing us, and those words kept repeating in my head. ‘The greatest ever threat to the survival of humanity.’

‘Oh … nuke it,’ I muttered, as we went past the information signs about inter-continental portal charges. ‘This is too nardle.’

‘I know.’ Fian stopped to look around. Earth is the only world with more than one inhabited continent, and he was still confused by Transits and inter-continental portalling.

‘This way,’ I said. ‘This Transit has a dedicated portal continuously open to Earth America, so we just walk through.’

The portal didn’t have time to finish reciting the words about Military traffic before we went through to Earth America, our hover bags following us a second later. I looked around at the location board. We were in America Transit 2. I grabbed Fian’s arm and towed him past the big signs saying ‘Normal Portal Charges Now Apply.’

‘Why can’t you all live on one continent?’ asked Fian. ‘It would save all this long distance portalling.’

‘After Exodus century, there weren’t enough people left to maintain the cities, so they abandoned them and gathered in nearby small communities. There seemed no point in shifting everyone to one continent later on. If humanity keeps expanding, the population of Earth will keep rising, and we’ll need more than one continent anyway.’

‘Oh, that’s true,’ said Fian. ‘One in a thousand of humanity will always need to live here.’

It was actually more than one in a thousand. A few parents of Handicapped kids came with them, and there were the norm kids of Handicapped parents as well. It was the triple ten. The risk of a Handicapped birth was one in ten with two Handicapped parents, one in a hundred with one Handicapped and one norm parent, one in a thousand with two norm parents. I was too embarrassed to discuss that with Fian. If he stuck with me, then our kids would have a one in a hundred risk.

We reached a local portal, Fian entered the code, and the portal started reciting to us. ‘Warning. Your destination is a restricted Military security zone.’ We exchanged nervous looks as it added the usual bit about Military traffic and our journey being free.

‘Could we go anywhere free?’ asked Fian. ‘Any sector?’

I nodded. ‘Military personnel get free travel to help them keep in touch with family and friends.’

‘I wish we could elope to Epsilon.’

‘I’d settle for just being able to portal to an Alpha sector world without dropping dead,’ I said, bitterly.

Fian sighed in sympathy, and counted the luggage to make sure we hadn’t lost any, while I checked the portal destination display. ‘New Mexico,’ I said. ‘I bet we’re going to White Sands. The ships from the solar arrays were trying to land there during the solar super storm.’

Fian nodded, and we both stared at the portal for a moment longer without moving. I finally pulled myself together. In Military families, the first child born into the family after someone’s death in action carries their name and honour on down through the generations. I was the Honour Child of my grandmother, Colonel Jarra Tell Morrath. Only months ago, my parents had also died on Planet First assignments to open up new worlds for humanity. I might only be an ape, but I was a Military Honour Child, the daughter and granddaughter of heroes, and I could face anything, even aliens.

‘We’d better do this.’

Fian nodded, and we stepped through the portal, popping out in a small room. A man in Military uniform got up from his chair and used a scanner on us. I saw he wore a Captain’s insignia.

‘Jarra Tell Morrath and Fian Andrej Eklund,’ he said, and handed each of us a Military forearm lookup. ‘Please go next door for your medical check and then to room 7 at the end of the corridor.’

‘Err, where are we?’ asked Fian, giving the object in his hand a puzzled look.

‘Military Base 79 Zulu,’ said the Captain.

I frowned. ‘But … there isn’t a Military base on Earth.’

‘There wasn’t two days ago, but there is now,’ he said. ‘There’s a map and other information on your lookups, but be advised we’re still building at high speed so the map isn’t always up to date.’

I headed out of the door with Fian trailing after me.

‘Why would they build a …?’

‘No idea,’ I said.

Next door was a large room containing four Military medical staff. Two of the staff pounced on us, waving scanners. I got an efficient looking young woman with short dark hair. Fian got an elderly man with a beard.

‘Jarra Tell Morrath,’ said the woman.

I was tempted to say I already knew my name, but this was no time to act like a silly kid. She was checking my identity because Alien Contact was classified code black.

I was dragged off into a cubicle and the woman checked my medical records. She scanned the leg that had suffered electrical burns during the Solar 5 rescue.

‘Perfect cellular regeneration,’ she said, and moved on to scanning the rest of me.

I hate medical scans. I didn’t like the compulsory sessions with my psychologist that Hospital Earth inflicted on me when I was a kid, because I didn’t like him trying to nose around inside my head. I didn’t like people nosing around inside my body either, and it always seemed as if doctors spent twice as long scanning me as anyone else.

‘You only have 90 per cent function in your left little finger,’ said the woman.

‘I know.’ I went around this every time some officious medic got a scanner on me. ‘Dig site accident when I was 15. They grew me a new finger, but the nerve connection wasn’t totally stable because my body was still developing.’

‘You’re 18 now. The finger could be removed and regrown to give perfect function.’

‘No thank you.’ I firmly defended my finger. ‘It works quite well enough.’

The woman put away her scanner. ‘Your annual inoculation and contraceptive shots are due for renewal in less than two months. We’d like to give you the inoculation shot early, combined with a few special ones. Do you want the contraceptive done as well to keep them in step?’

‘Yes please.’

The woman sprayed a few things into my arm, then lifted my top and held a strange looking object to my stomach. ‘There will be a barely perceptible pain.’

‘Wait a minute! What are you doing?’

‘Taking a genetic tissue sample,’ she said.

‘I don’t want … Ow!’ I glared at her. ‘That was definitely a perceptible pain.’

She glanced at the object and nodded. ‘All done. You’re free to go now.’

I gave her another glare, went out into the main room, and found Fian was already there. The second he saw me, he gave me a look of urgent appeal, used his key fob to gather up his clutch of hover bags, and headed for the door. I collected my own bags and chased after him.

‘What’s the big hurry?’ I asked when we were outside in the corridor.

‘I wanted to get out of there before they decided to take any more tissue samples.’

I giggled. ‘It didn’t hurt that much.’

He gave me a bitter look. ‘It’s all right for you. You’re female.’

‘What?’ I suddenly remembered the doctor’s words. ‘Oh. They’re taking genetic tissue samples, so …’

‘I just want to forget it ever happened,’ said Fian.

I shut up and led the way down to the end of the corridor, tapped on a door with a number 7 on it, and entered. This was a smaller room, containing only one Military Captain. He had a scanner, but only used it to check our genetic codes.

‘Jarra Tell Morrath and Fian Andrej Eklund,’ he said. ‘Jarra, please raise your right hand and repeat the words on this card.’

I took the card, read what was on it, but didn’t manage to say a single word. Aliens were really quite humdrum compared to this white plastic with neat black lettering. I stared at it, utterly grazzed. This wasn’t the Security Oath that civilian advisers and other people with access to classified information had to take. This was the Military Oath of Service. I was supposed to take the full Military Oath!

The structure of my entire universe gently crumbled around me and fell apart. I’d always known it was impossible for me to join the Military because I couldn’t leave Earth. When Alien Contact called me in, I’d assumed I’d be a civilian adviser, but if I was actually taking the full Military Oath then …

Earlier this year, I’d pretended to be a Military kid, discovered my real Military background, and even believed the fantasy myself for a while. This was no pretence and no fantasy. Taking this oath would mean I really was Military. This could not be happening.

I finally managed to speak. ‘You do realize I’m an a … I mean Handicapped. I can’t portal off world.’

‘Of course,’ said the Captain. He nodded at the card.

I took a deep breath. My grandmother had taken this oath, my parents had taken it too, and now it was my turn. Taking the Military Oath has to go on record. Somewhere in the Military archives is a recording of my voice breaking up as I struggled through the words.

‘I, Jarra Tell Morrath, do solemnly swear to uphold the honour and faith of the Military, to serve and protect humanity, to …’

I got through to the end somehow, and then I stared at a reassuringly blank incurious wall for a few minutes while thinking of my parents. My mind replayed that one incredible conversation I’d had with them, struggling with emotion and portal relay lag, while I stood among the ruins of New York and they were on a nameless planet out in distant Kappa sector. My thoughts moved on, inevitably, to the call from the General who’d told me …

No, I mustn’t think of that. I mustn’t make a nardle of myself by breaking down entirely. I concentrated on Fian’s voice as he took the oath as well. He just sounded grazzed rather than emotional. When he’d finished, I took another moment to get my face under control, and turned around cautiously. I found the Captain waiting patiently for me.

‘Jarra Tell Morrath, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Captain. Congratulations.’

He saluted, and I numbly returned the salute. Captain? He said Captain? What?

He turned to Fian. ‘Fian Andrej Eklund, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Captain. Congratulations.’

The Captain saluted, and Fian waved a bewildered hand in the general direction of his ear.

‘I apologize for the lack of ceremony,’ said the Captain, ‘but we’re a little rushed here. Please be advised that your ranks are not part of the chain of command.’

‘Understood,’ I said.

‘Uniforms are waiting for you in your quarters in Accommodation Green Zone, Dome 9, Room 18. We’ve assumed joint quarters were appropriate, if not …’ He glanced enquiringly from Fian to me, decided we weren’t objecting, and hurried on. ‘Orientation sessions are running two hourly in Orientation Hall 1. This base is operating on Earth America time, which is Green time minus five hours. You’re scheduled for Captain’s table at 19:00 hours.’

I did some frantic mental calculations. We’d gained seven hours in the move from Earth Africa time to Earth America time, so … ‘Captain’s table? Dinner?’ I checked my understanding. ‘With Colonel Torrek?’

The Captain nodded. ‘Dress uniforms. You’ll find details on your lookups.’

I was past the stage where a mere dinner invitation from a Military Colonel could leave me grazzed. ‘We’d better get to our quarters and …’

Fian and I staggered out into the corridor, and he made a strange strangled noise. ‘Why have they made me Military? Why am I a Captain? You’ll have to explain.’

‘Me?’ I asked. ‘You want me to explain? You think I have the faintest idea what’s going on?’

‘But you know all this stuff.’

Know all this stuff? I was struggling to work out which way was up and which was down! At least the genetic tissue samples made sense now. Military officers always had genetic tissue stored in case they were exposed to damaging levels of radiation. I felt Fian wouldn’t appreciate me explaining that.

‘Fian, I don’t know anything, I just watched a lot of vids. I may have fooled a class of civilians into thinking I’d been to a Military school but … This is the real thing!’

I checked my Military lookup. A map with a helpful flashing arrow told me where I was, and which way to head, so I started walking. Several members of the Military passed us, dodging around our little road block of hover bags. They didn’t seem surprised to see people in civilian clothes with masses of luggage. There was probably a constant stream of new arrivals at the base.

‘What did he mean about chain of command?’ asked Fian.

‘He meant they’ve made us Captains, but in an emergency, if for example the aliens attack and the Colonel gets killed, we don’t go around yelling orders. Even if we’re the highest rank present, we let people who know what they’re doing take command.’

‘I can do that,’ said Fian, sounding near panic. ‘If the aliens attack, I don’t want to take command. I’m a history student, not … not Tellon Blaze on Thetis!’

I gave an instinctive shudder, thinking of the chimera. I’d seen dozens of horror vids set over a quarter of a millennium ago during Thetis chaos year, all telling variations of the story of the nightmare chimera and the legendary young hero who fought them. People only ever mentioned Thetis itself, but several other populated worlds were also infested with the chimera. If it hadn’t been for the leadership of Tellon Blaze, humanity might have lost everything.

The chimera hadn’t been intelligent, but they were a savage killing species with an advanced chameleon-like ability which let them merge into any shadow. That had let them get on board our ships, sneak through the old portals that didn’t have protective bio filters, and infiltrate our worlds.

If humanity had met an alien life form as lethal as the chimera, with the added advantage of intelligence and a technology as advanced, or even more advanced, than our own …

No, I told myself firmly, I was overreacting. Whatever humanity had encountered this time, it couldn’t possibly be as bad as the chimera.

We went out of the dome and looked around. I’d seen on the map that this place was big, but …

‘Amaz!’ said Fian, gazing around in awe. ‘That’s a lot of domes.’

We were standing on a grassy plain, dotted with a positive forest of huge domes. There was a clear area ahead with three oddly bulky portals in the middle of it. Judging from the map, it was a long walk to the Accommodation area, so I headed hopefully for the portals.

‘All this in two days!’ said Fian. ‘It’s impressive, but why set up a base on Earth?’

I gave a despairing wave of my hands. ‘The orientation sessions may explain that. We should have time to attend one before Captain’s Table.’

‘What’s Captain’s Table?’ asked Fian.

‘It’s an archaic term the Military use. Dates way back into pre-history, originating from seafaring ships. It means being invited to dinner with the commanding officer, and please …’ I held up a hand to stop him before he said it. ‘Don’t ask me why we’re invited to dinner with Colonel Torrek. I’ve no idea.’

We arrived at the portals. There was no way to enter a portal code, just a list of preset destinations, so I selected Accommodation Green. The portal established, Fian and I went through, and popped out in another grassy area surrounded by domes.

‘Dome 9!’ Fian pointed at a grey dome with a huge white number nine painted on the side.

We headed inside and found a door labelled 18, which opened when I touched the palm plate. The room inside was dark, so I tried a hopeful order. ‘Room command lights.’

The glows obediently came on, proving we were somewhere far more luxurious than a basic dig site dome. We led our retinue of hover bags inside and spent a moment exploring.

‘Living area, bedroom, shower,’ said Fian. ‘Proper voice controls, and our own food dispenser too. Zan! Aliens or no aliens, I’m hungry.’

‘What’s in the food dispenser?’

Fian scrolled through the menu display. ‘The obvious drinks. Snacks. A few meal options. I expect there’s a proper dining hall somewhere as well.’

I checked the time on my lookup. ‘We’ve only got forty minutes before the next orientation session so …’

Fian was already getting us glasses of Fizzup. ‘You want the cheezit and tomato mash?’

‘Please.’

I carried the glasses over to the table and Fian followed me with two plates. We spent the next few minutes eating at high speed.

‘That wasn’t bad,’ said Fian. ‘Better than we get from our dig site dome food dispensers anyway.’

‘Dig site dispensers are old models and …’ I wrinkled my nose as I saw Fian go across to one of his bags and take out a small bottle. ‘Oh no, not again. I hate taking meds.’

‘Well, if you’d rather fall asleep in the middle of dinner with Colonel Torrek …’

I sighed and held out a hand. Fian carefully counted seven tablets into it and I gulped them down. This was the second time in two days that my body clock had been hit with biorhythm adjustment meds. It probably wondered what the chaos I was doing.

We washed the tablets down with more Fizzup and I checked the time. ‘Uniforms!’

Two impact suits and a neat line of standard and formal dress uniforms hung in the bedroom storage area, all in the blue of true combat Military. I ran my hand over the sleeve of the nearest uniform, feeling the cool smooth fabric, checking it was actually real. I saw there were medals already attached to the uniforms. Fian had the blue planet image of the Earth Star pinned to his, while I had both the Earth Star and the distinctive golden sunburst of the Artemis.

‘We’d better wear standard uniforms first, and change for dinner later,’ I said.

‘Do we have hats?’ asked Fian.

‘Hats?’ I shook my head. ‘You’ve been watching too many history vids. The Military haven’t worn hats in centuries.’

I caught sight of myself in the full-length mirror on the wall. I hadn’t given a thought to what I was wearing until now. The red and black top had been a present from Issette. It was fine for me to wear it in class, but … Why hadn’t I changed clothes before coming here? I’d taken the Military Oath while wearing a black top emblazoned in large red letters ‘I TAGGED FIAN.’ I gave a faint scream.

‘Something wrong?’ asked Fian.

‘I just realized what I was wearing.’

He grinned. ‘I like it.’

‘Yes, but … What the chaos did the Military think when they saw it?’

‘Calm down, Jarra,’ said Fian. ‘Humanity has met aliens. The Military have more to worry about than your clothes.’

That was true, but I still pulled off my civilian outfit at high speed and put on my new uniform. I adjusted the fit of the sleeves, and attached my Military lookup to the left forearm of the uniform, where it clung neatly in position.

‘Well, at least it will amuse Issette when I’m allowed to tell her.’ I turned around and came face to face with Arrack San Domex. My jaw dropped in shock.

Arrack San Domex is an actor who plays a Military hero in the vid series, Defenders. He’s slim, with long blond hair, and has seriously good legs. I’m a huge fan of his, and enjoy drooling over the sight of him in a tight-fitting Military uniform.

Fian knows all about this. He’s a fan of Stalea of the Jungle himself. His favourite bits are when Stalea has a fight with her boyfriend, loses her temper, throws him across a jungle clearing, and pins him to the ground. It isn’t a Betan sex vid, it’s made in Gamma sector, so the credits roll and the episode ends just as the situation is getting really interesting. Fian likes me to …

Well, my point is that Fian looks a lot like Arrack San Domex. Turning around and seeing Fian in Military uniform … Hoo eee! No, he didn’t look like Arrack San Domex, Fian looked even better than Arrack San Domex!

Fian was looking at my arm. ‘Oh that’s why this lookup is a strange shape. How do you attach it?’

I whimpered.

Fian gave me an odd look. ‘Jarra? Lookup? How do I attach the lookup? We need to hurry if we want to get to the orientation session.’

I whimpered again. A younger and even sexier version of Arrack San Domex was in my bedroom. His perfectly fitting uniform showed off his excellent legs. It was a dream moment, but humanity had just met aliens so I had to go and watch an orientation vid. I was a Military Captain now. I’d just taken an oath to put the needs of humanity ahead of my personal safety and my desire to undress Arrack San Domex.

I sighed. ‘Like this.’

I attached the lookup to Arrack San Domex’s forearm. He checked the time and dashed out of our quarters. I followed him, looking wistfully at his legs. I hated aliens.

We hurried out of the dome and portalled over to Orientation to find Hall 1. We passed several members of the Military on the way, and now we were in uniform they threw us impressively snappy salutes. We did our best to salute back, though at one point Fian overdid his attempt to match their lightning speed, and hit himself on his right ear.

‘Why did they do this to me?’ he asked plaintively. ‘I’m not the Military type. I can’t even salute without knocking myself out.’

I peered through the glass panel in the door in front of me, saw a crowd of people in the hall but plenty of spare seats, opened the door and went inside. I was in a fairly bouncy mood at this point. On a purely personal level things were pretty amaz. I was in the Military! I was a Captain! A benevolent fate had dressed Fian up as Arrack San Domex!

All three of those things were shocking, but in a rather zan way. It was when I saw the huge vid screen at the front of the hall, that the situation abruptly became grimly serious. It showed a perfect sphere, dark grey and featureless except for some strange curved lines on the surface. The sphere was hanging in space above a very familiar planet.

Two things instantly became clear. The Military had the best of reasons for building a base on Earth, and portalling off world wasn’t going to be a problem for me. Humanity had always expected the first alien contact to be made by the Planet First teams selecting colony worlds on the frontier. It hadn’t happened that way. The aliens had come to Earth!