Earth Flight (18 page)

I didn’t understand a word of this. ‘The Fifty? Banners?’

‘It’s traditional to invite representatives of the fifty alliances headed by the clans of the
gentes maiores
to witness major events such as alliance mergers,’ said Drago. ‘They can also be invited to witness private clan ceremonies in exceptional circumstances, and clan council have decided this is exceptional. Custom dictates the Fifty can’t refuse the invitation of a fellow clan of the
gentes maiores
, so they’ll all send representatives.’

He laughed. ‘There’ll be a lot of urgent conferences about who they pick to represent them, whether to flatter us by sending a member of the head clan, or insult us by sending someone from the lowliest ranked clan in the alliance. I expect most will play safe and choose a representative from the middle ranks, but whoever they send will be bearing the banner of their alliance.’

I was still trying to understand this. ‘And that means no one will attack the ceremony?’

Drago nodded. ‘Even another attempt to delay the ceremony would show disrespect to the Fifty and make the alliances declare support for us, but an actual physical attack when the banner bearers were present … It would be an act of war against every clan in Beta sector, because they’re all either a member of one of those alliances or in one of their factions.’

I was grazzed. I’d thought joining my clan would be simple, but the situation kept spiralling further and further out of control.

‘Are we allowed to know details of your planned hiding place, Jarra?’ asked Colonel Leveque.

‘It’s best if nobody knows, sir.’ I took off my Military lookup and my gun, and handed them to him. ‘I can’t take these with me. I won’t take any supplies with me either. That way the enemy can’t possibly get any clues about my plans, or plant any tracking devices on me.’

General Torrek frowned. ‘I’m not happy about you being unarmed and out of contact.’

‘Military lookups and guns have built-in tracking devices and remote disabling as an anti-theft measure,’ I said. ‘If there’s a spy in this base, they could locate me, send people after me, and deactivate my gun remotely so I was a helpless target.’

‘Only Command Support or Military Security officers would have the necessary authorizations for that,’ said Leveque, ‘but that’s still a significant number of people.’

General Torrek sighed. ‘Very well.’

‘I want to portal out of the base to a random civilian portal,’ I said, ‘and use that to portal on to an unknown destination. I’m already flagged as having automatic Military pre-empt status, so I’ll be able to portal anywhere on Earth.’

‘What about the billing system, Jarra?’ asked Fian. ‘Civilian portals automatically send updates to Portal Network Administration for billing and traffic monitoring. If someone accesses the records for your genetic code …’

‘We can get those records deleted,’ said Colonel Leveque.

Fian shook his head. ‘If someone’s continually monitoring the system for Jarra’s genetic code, watching for her movements, they’d see them before they’re deleted.’

‘What happens when a portal stays open for multiple travellers?’ asked Drago. ‘Does it send information for each person?’

‘The more people travelling together to a destination, the cheaper the portal rate,’ said Fian, ‘so the portal sends information on everyone when it deactivates.’

Drago grinned. ‘Easy then. We set the portal for multiple travellers, Jarra goes through, and then we destroy the portal while it’s still active.’

‘Destroy a portal?’ I gulped. ‘Portals are expensive.’

‘Portal Network Administration can bill the Alien Contact programme for a new one,’ said General Torrek.

‘We’ll make a statement on Earth Rolling News when it’s safe for you to return, Jarra,’ said Leveque, ‘and I’ll set up a special portal code to bring you directly to where we’re protecting Fian. We can use the standard base portal code with some extra characters. What would you find easy to remember?’

I thought for a second. ‘Apollo.’

‘I’m surprised a planet in Alpha sector has significance for you,’ said Leveque.

I laughed. ‘I wasn’t thinking of the planet, but the ancient space programme.’

15

We stood by a civilian portal on a deserted beach. I dialled my destination code, the portal established, and I carefully locked it open for multiple traffic.

‘Be careful,’ said Fian. ‘If you get yourself killed, I’m going to strangle you!’

I laughed. I wanted to say something hopelessly soppy, but I was too aware of Drago and Raven standing next to us, holding guns set to maximum heat setting. ‘You be careful too.’

I stepped through the portal, and turned to look back at it. For thirty seconds it glimmered steadily, then abruptly flickered and cut out. Drago and Raven had turned the transmitting portal into molten metal. I was on my own now.

Over to my left was a large dome, with a faded sign that brought back an avalanche of old memories. ‘Home E161/8822.’ I’d lived here as a little kid with Issette, Keon, Maeth, Ross, and the others. Beyond it were the domes of Homes E161/8823 and E161/8824, our traditional friends and rivals.

According to the rigid Home schedule, the kids and staff should be inside for dance class, but I couldn’t risk standing around in plain sight. I ran towards the bushes growing against the dome wall, found the tunnel shaped path through them was still there, and crawled along it on my hands and knees. I’d grown since my days in Home, so it was a tight squeeze and twigs caught in my hair.

The spy at Zulu base would soon discover I was missing, and my enemies would start hunting for me. My Nursery, Home and Next Step were listed on my public record, so I had to move on quickly. I daren’t use a portal again, but there were older ways to travel.

When I reached the hollow in the middle of the rhododendrons, I found what I was looking for. Every Home had its rebels who would hide out in places like this to dodge scheduled activities. Two kids of about eight years old glared at me from the shadows, instinctively aggressive at the sight of an adult intruder, then their faces changed to be utterly grazzed.

‘Jarra Tell Morrath!’ They chorused in unison.

The boy and girl were dressed in familiar dark brown tops and trousers, almost identical to the ones I’d worn myself years ago. I’d hated the way we were all dressed alike, and poor Issette had pined for the colourful and frivolous clothes the children in vids wore, counting down the days until she’d reach Next Step and have an allowance to buy her own outfits.

I fought off the moment of nostalgia, and concentrated on the present. ‘I need your help. You know some people want to hurt me?’

‘We saw it on Earth Rolling News.’ The girl’s voice was fierce. ‘The stinking exos want to stop you joining your clan. They threw skunk juice at you and blew you up. Now they’ve arrested Fian!’

I nodded. ‘I’m hiding until Fian gets back. You mustn’t tell anyone you’ve seen me until after that, not even the other kids.’

‘You can trust us,’ said the boy. ‘Everyone knows you’re a 22. The newzies came and made vids of us, not just Earth Rolling News but Beta Sector Daily too! The 23s and 24s were so sick about it.’

I gave a startled giggle, picturing the 22s showing off in front of the vid bees. It would become part of Home E161/8822 legend, told to every new arrival, how Jarra Tell Morrath had lived here and the newzies had come to make vids.

The girl nodded eagerly. ‘We’d never give you away. We’re not just 22s, we’re Betan as well.’

There was a longing note in her voice that was painfully revealing. Kids in Home spent a lot of time daydreaming about their unknown parents, and declaring they were from one sector or another. In my day, no one ever claimed to be Betan, but this girl had been watching the reports about me on Earth Rolling News. When I was presented to my Betan clan, how many Earth kids would be watching the vid coverage and dreaming it would happen to them? For some of them at least, that dream might one day become reality.

‘True to 22,’ the two of them said in ritual unison.

‘True to 22,’ I repeated the childhood oath in a nardle emotional voice. It was a promise that I wouldn’t let them down. Nothing would stop me getting to that ceremony and changing their future for the better.

If I was going to keep that promise, I needed to be practical now. ‘What are your names?’

‘I’m Keon,’ said the boy.

‘I’m Sadia,’ said the girl.

Another Keon, I thought, his name chosen from Hospital Earth’s approved list. ‘Keon, Sadia, is flicker beacon 46 still wired?’

Sadia shook her head. ‘They found that when some nardle forgot to put the mesh back and rabbits got in. We’ve wired 48 now.’

‘Wonderful. I’ll need to get to 48 without being seen. A lookup would be useful too. Do they still have a pile of old ones in stores?’

‘Yes,’ said Sadia. ‘Follow us.’

I crawled through the bushes after the two of them, feeling like I was eight years old again myself.

‘You wait here!’ ordered Sadia as we reached the edge of the bushes. ‘Keon will check flicker beacon 48 is clear, and I’ll steal a lookup.’

I obediently waited. It seemed like fifteen minutes, but was probably only five, before the two of them arrived back. Sadia handed me a battered lookup.

‘I checked it works,’ she said.

‘Thanks, this is absolutely perfect.’

‘Flicker beacon 48 looks clear,’ said Keon, ‘and no one’s at the brook, but if someone does show up don’t frizz. Even the 23s and 24s know better than to give you away.’

Frizz was a new word to me, but the kids in Home were always lightning fast at copying the latest slang used by children in off-world vids. ‘Sadia, Keon, thanks again. When this is over, I’ll tell the newzies how you helped me.’

I stood up, sprinted across an area of open lawn, and dropped to my knees next to flicker beacon 48. The smooth metal column curved high up into the air, with the settlement force fence glittering on either side. This was a small settlement with only a few hundred houses, a shopping square, a Nursery unit, and a cluster of Home domes foolishly located right next to the force fence. Naturally, the kids had added a discreet circle of wire to create a hole in the field.

I lifted aside the sheet of wire mesh that covered the hole, wriggled through, and carefully pulled the mesh back into place again before running on into the woods ahead. Some parts of Earth, like the rainforest around Eden, were lethally dangerous, but most settlements were in special safe zones protected by animal control barriers from creatures like wolves and sabre cats. I was in Earth Europe safe zone now.

I slowed to a walk as I followed the track made by many small feet to where a brook scurried over smooth stones. This was our old playground. Issette had squealed at how cold the water was. Cathan had sulked when we pretended we were going to play hide and seek and then ran off without looking for him. Maeth and Ross had played house in the hollow of an old dead tree.

We’d been happy to share the brook with the rabbits, foxes and deer who came to drink, but we’d back away nervously, ready to run, when the wild boar came snuffling their way out of the trees. All the new kids were sternly warned to be especially careful if they had babies with them.

The other warning was never to stray into the trees beyond the brook. The year before I arrived from Nursery, one of the youngest boys had wandered into the woods and got lost. The kids from all three Homes searched desperately for hours, finding him only just before sunset. The lot of them arrived back after bedtime roll call and found all the Homes in uproar, with frantic ProParents searching the settlement.

After that, everyone kept within strict self-imposed boundaries. Everyone except me. I did what no one else seemed to have thought of doing, and looked up some maps so I wouldn’t get lost. They were ancient ones of course – maps weren’t important now every settlement was just one step away on the other side of a portal – but I could find some of the old landmarks. The brook still ran along the same route. The road had become a wide, flat, grassy path. A village was just heaps of crumbled stones.

I’d scavenged among those stones and found tarnished coins, a broken china cat, and a silver bracelet that I gave to Issette as a Year Day present. Those childish excavations had shown me the living past was all around us and started my love of history.

I crossed the brook on stepping-stones carefully placed by the massed efforts of children, and went on through the trees to the old road. That led me to another that was staggeringly wide, its route lined with jagged metal and concrete stumps. I walked along the colossal ancient highway for hours, skirting sections that had once been held up on pillars and now lay fallen and broken.

It was dusk by the time I reached a wide river. The gap in the centre of the bridge was bigger than the last time I’d walked this way, but I didn’t need to get across. I turned to my right instead, following the riverbank until I saw the glow of a settlement ahead, and the closer, brighter lights of a huddle of four very unusual houses. Ones built long before Exodus century, and painstakingly repaired by enthusiasts who’d relearned old skills of working with stone and wood.

I’d helped work on them myself, and was left wondering how people put roofs on houses in the days before lift beams and hover belts. I suppose experts did the job centuries ago, while we were a bunch of bumbling amateurs and needed all the modern help we could get.

These were real homes, not museum exhibits. The people living in them had picked houses close to a settlement, they had modern sanitation and heating, a portal, and a couple of hover sleds for emergencies.

There was a force fence surrounding the houses to keep the deer and rabbits out of the gardens. I walked up to the keypad controls and entered the security code. The date the Earth data net crashed.

The glitter of the section of fence in front of me abruptly died. I walked inside, restarted the fence behind me, and went to knock at the door of the nearest house. The metal knocker, shaped like a lion, was a genuine relic from the days of pre-history.