Earth Star (17 page)

‘This is Medical team,’ said a voice I didn’t recognize at all. ‘We’ve been checking your suit telemetry, Major. Are you aware your left arm is broken?’

‘I was aware it wasn’t working too well,’ said Drago. ‘Something exploded when the sphere’s beam hit, my impact suit triggered and protected me from most of the debris but … Wait!’

I gasped. I’d seen it too. There was definitely a movement on the sphere. ‘Oh nuke!’

‘The sphere is closing the cover on the meteor defence beam,’ said Mason Leveque. ‘We regard that as good news. In fact, we’ve been busy recalculating now we know the sphere has significant offensive weapons that it hasn’t deliberately used against our fighters. If we get out of this without the sphere using the beam again, then threat assessment is significantly down to 61 per cent.’

‘I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t get shot then, Mason,’ said Drago. ‘Anything to help your percentages.’

I relaxed again, glanced at Fian, and gave a breathless giggle. ‘I was scared to death for a moment there.’

Fian seemed more interested in me than the screen. ‘You’re naturally worried about Drago. He’s quite a hero.’

I nodded. ‘He’s done an amaz job. Someone like Maven would never have stopped the attack. If we’d destroyed the sphere, then at best we might never communicate with the aliens, and at worst …’

I took a proper look at Fian’s face, and turned down the volume on the wall vid. ‘What the chaos are you thinking? I’m not going to throw myself into Drago’s arms just because he kept his head in a crisis, and he’s interested in Marlise not me.’ I waved my arms impatiently. ‘We’ve discussed this ten times already.’

‘I know that,’ said Fian. ‘I’m not feeling threatened by Drago any longer. I’m just thinking he’s pretty zan, just like you, and I’m not.’

I grinned. ‘You’re just as zan, and far more sensible, which is exactly what I need. Just ask Candace. Now, please don’t misinterpret this, but when Drago heads back, I’d like to go over to the Attack area and see him land.’

‘I’d like to be there too,’ said Fian. ‘The man’s far too sickeningly aware of his charms, but … He will make it back, won’t he?’

I wrinkled my nose. ‘A broken arm and recycled air. He’ll have bruises from the impact suit material triggering as well. He can’t open his suit to inject himself with meds, so he’ll be uncomfortable, but he’ll live. The air is going to be the worst. He’s in the same situation as someone buried on a dig site. I’ve never been buried long enough to really suffer from recycled air, but I’ve heard the stories about it. Drago has oxygen booster cells, so he’ll be able to flush his air supply every hour or two, but even so …’

I shrugged. ‘If Drago’s serious about sticking it out for six hours, I admire him for it, but I doubt the Colonel will let it go on that long. If Drago passes out, they’ll have problems recovering his fighter, and surely two or three hours will be enough to let the sphere calm down. It’s already closed the cover on its weapons.’

‘Well, whenever they order Drago back, we can go and welcome him,’ said Fian.

‘That’s zan,’ I said. ‘I want to see how they handle Drago coming in with no shields and no hovers.’

Fian burst out laughing. ‘Major Jarra Tell Morrath, are you telling me you want to go and welcome that poor man back simply so you can watch a crash landing?’

‘Oh, I do want to see Drago safely home, it’s just that …’

‘Amaz!’ said Fian. ‘You’ve done the impossible, Jarra. You’ve made me feel sorry for Drago Tell Dramis.’

I giggled, relieved that Fian had calmed down. It was nardle the way he had these silly spells, when he didn’t seem to believe he was good enough for me. Fian was solid and sensible and all the things I wasn’t. He looked like Arrack San Domex and had great legs. Add in the fact he was human, and I was an ape, but he wanted me anyway, well … What more could any girl want?

Fian was always complaining I didn’t talk about things enough, but now I had something important I wanted to say. ‘Fian, when I was rushing back here, I was thinking it makes no sense for you to come to Ark with me. I’d feel much happier knowing you’d gone to Adonis, or home to Delta sector, and you were safe.’

‘No,’ he said.

‘But it’s silly. It just doubles the risk of one of us getting hurt.’

‘Oh no it doesn’t. I dread to think what trouble you’d get into without me.’

‘But if you get hurt, I’ll feel …’

‘The answer is no, Jarra.’

I sighed, sent some messages, and managed to arrange for both of us to help with the foaming up. ‘We’ll need to wear impact suits for this. Apparently, it gets pretty messy.’

Fian nodded.

Our impact suits were in the bedroom storage area. I had two, because Military issue suits had been waiting in our quarters when we arrived here, and I’d also brought along my own precious personal impact suit. It had been a gift from the Cassandra 2 team, after I’d helped dig them out from under a collapsed tower on the New York Dig Site.

I got out the Military suits, and Fian and I played around with the controls, setting our names and ranks on the displays.

‘We’ll have plenty of time to suit up and get over to the Attack area when we know Drago is heading back,’ I said. ‘He’ll take half an hour to get to the portals, and the rest of shift 2 will come in ahead of him to leave their landing area clear.’

‘Will shift 3 be going in to relieve them?’

‘Yes. Threat team have worked out new guard positions outside the point where the sphere’s meteor defence triggers.’

We spent the next couple of hours listening to the command channel, while I worried about the power of the sphere’s beam, and tried to talk Fian into leaving Earth during the next solar storm. I failed miserably.

I started getting restless as 14:00 hours approached. Shift 2 would normally be landing now. Instead, they were still out there, with an injured Drago in his damaged ship. I felt it was time the Colonel got them moving back to safety. In fact, Marlise called them home.

‘Colonel, I think we should start back,’ her voice broke into the command channel. ‘Our team have been chatting to Major Tell Dramis on ship to ship, and in our opinion the strain is getting to him and he’s becoming irrational.’

‘I’m perfectly fine,’ objected Drago.

‘Captain Weldon doesn’t seem to agree with you, Major,’ said the Colonel. ‘Military Command has finally found you a deputy capable of calling a halt when you push yourself too far, and I intend to pay attention when she does it.’

‘Yes, I know all the jokes.’ Drago sounded distinctly annoyed. ‘Members of my clan are capable of getting into life and death situations while buying ice-cream, and we shouldn’t be let out alone, but in this case Captain Weldon is wrong. I’m not suffering from strain, and I’m not irrational.’

‘Captain?’ asked the Colonel.

‘He’s just proposed marriage to me, and suggested we elope to Epsilon,’ said Marlise. ‘I think that’s a bad sign.’

I giggled, looked at Fian, and found he was lying on the floor, clutching his stomach and turning purple. ‘Are you all right?’

Fian gasped for breath, and I realized he was having a fit of laughter rather than dying. ‘Military Command thinks members of your clan shouldn’t be let out alone. They’re quite right too!’

I threw a cushion at him. ‘Poor Drago. His whole team listening in and Marlise still doesn’t believe him.’

Fian threw the cushion back at me. ‘It serves him right for being the finest liar in the Military.’

The Colonel ordered shift 2 to move at minimum speed towards the portals, while shift 3 approached the new guard positions. Fian and I changed into skintights, the minimal clothing you wore under impact suits, and then started putting our suits on.

Getting into an impact suit is never easy, and either these were different from civilian ones, or more likely I was overconfident and rushing things, because I triggered the material while I was smoothing it up my arms and it went solid. I had to wait for the fabric to relax before I could move my arms again, which meant I had the suit on in ten seconds over the Military standard time of two minutes. Fian took only a few seconds longer than me. We both left our hoods down of course, since we weren’t in a hostile environment.

‘Do you think Drago’s serious about that proposal?’ Fian asked as we headed out of our quarters. ‘He hardly seems the marrying type.’

‘I think he’s serious. Marlise has been his deputy for a year or two, so …’

‘But why was he trying to make her jealous? Wouldn’t it have made far more sense to tell her he cared?’ Fian shook his head. ‘Perhaps Drago’s as bad as you at discussing emotions.’

‘If there was a cushion in this corridor, I’d throw it at you!’

We arrived at the Attack shift 2 takeoff and landing area, and watched as the four giant portals came to life and the fighters came through. I counted the fifteen of them home, noting the silver flashes marking Marlise’s ship. They usually parked in a neat formation of four by each portal, but this time they kept moving on hovers to the side of the area. Once they were out of the way, several red hover sleds moved in, and people in impact suits ran out to grab hoses. Fian and I sprinted over to join them, and were each handed the end of a hose. Several people were already spraying white foam. I pulled up my suit hood and joined in.

‘Amaz!’ I yelled to Fian, as I tested the foam with my foot. ‘It’s already going solid.’

‘How big an area do we foam?’ he called back.

‘The big red semi-circle by this portal must be the crash zone. If Drago comes through on minimum power he should land well inside that.’

We kept spraying until the foam layer was waist high, and then the red hover sleds moved back to where a medical sled was waiting. Foaming up had been fun, but now I abruptly sobered up. A whole crowd of fighter pilots had gathered, but one group was standing slightly in front of the rest, with their impact suit hoods up and sealed.

I didn’t need to read the names on their suits. I knew who they were. That was shift 2, with Marlise in the centre. A couple of them were carrying laser cutting equipment similar to the laser guns I’d used myself on dig sites. If Drago crashed hard, his team were ready to get him out of the wreck fast, before anything exploded.

Fian and I waited among the crowd, while a siren sounded and an amplified voice made a completely unnecessary announcement. ‘Stand clear. Incoming emergency landing. Stand clear.’

The portal activated, and a battered black fighter with gold flashes came through, appeared to stall in midair, and plummeted downwards on to the foam. It bounced once, the dented cockpit creaked slowly open, and a figure stepped out.

‘Perfect crash, Drago!’ yelled a male voice, and everyone applauded as the medical team hurried to capture their prisoner.

It was Day Twenty-two and our part in the Alien Contact programme was almost over. Fian and I only had to sit through one last meeting, change out of our uniforms into civilian clothes, pack our things and head for the portal and normal life.

I had mixed feelings about that. Part of me wanted to stay here at the heart of events, living the Military life of my dreams, but most of me remembered those terrifying moments when the base was at war status and was pathetically eager to return to being an insignificant history student. I could stop spending my days play-acting the competent Military officer. I could stop spending my nights trapped in nightmares, where I was running through endless corridors littered with bodies, with the sound of explosions and screams around me, unable to find Fian.

Yes, it was cowardly of me, but I was glad to be running away. I wanted to forget all about the alien sphere, and leave the real Military professionals to safeguard the future of Earth and the whole of humanity.

Nia Stone was giving the Attack team report. ‘The meteor defence system triggered again today. This time we’d tracked the incoming piece of junk, so we were ready. The sphere scored a perfect hit, and our fighters were well outside the danger area. I think we can relax now.’

Colonel Torrek nodded. ‘We’ll continue to let the sphere deal with any random debris. It adds to our data on its weapons systems and targeting abilities.’

‘Medical team has just cleared Drago as fit for duty,’ continued Nia Stone. ‘I’d like to deal with the promotions difficulty, so I’ve got Drago and Marlise waiting outside.’

Colonel Torrek tapped the table display in front of him. ‘Major Tell Dramis, Captain Weldon, please join us.’

The two of them came into the room and saluted.

‘Captain Weldon, I’m happy to say your promotion has been confirmed.’ He handed her a set of insignia. ‘Congratulations, Major.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ said Marlise, obviously delighted.

Colonel Torrek turned to look at Drago. ‘Major Tell Dramis, Commander Stone recommended you for promotion. Unfortunately, Commander Leveque has put you on report since then for conduct unbecoming an officer.’

He glanced at Leveque. ‘Do I wish to know the details on that?’

Leveque shook his head. ‘I’m confident you don’t, sir. It was quite regrettable.’

Colonel Torrek seemed to be struggling to keep a straight face, so I was sure he knew perfectly well what had happened. The entire base did. I hadn’t been in the dining hall when Drago wandered in wearing only a smile, but I’d heard all about it afterwards.

Colonel Torrek turned his attention back to Drago. ‘According to your record, this is the third time you’ve missed out on your promotion due to being on report.’

Drago nodded cheerfully. ‘I’ve been a little unlucky, sir.’

‘If I may interrupt, Colonel?’ said Mason Leveque.

‘Please do.’

‘I’ve consulted with the Medical team leader, and apparently the unfortunate behaviour of Major Tell Dramis may have been due to his injuries when his fighter was damaged by the sphere. In a small proportion of cases, when an impact suit triggers to protect the wearer, the resulting blackout can cause periods of confusion and disorientation as much as a week later. Major Tell Dramis may have believed a hazard alarm had sounded, and was quite correctly ignoring nudity issues to change into a skintight and impact suit as fast as possible. I therefore wish to withdraw my complaint.’