Earth 2788 (15 page)

I thought I’d
said enough, and if the boy did still try and quit the Military he’d get at
least three more people giving him the same lecture. I nodded at him, headed
off down the corridor to the nearest base internal portal, selected my
destination, and stepped through. I was still going to be a little early for
the handover ceremony, but I was getting nervous. If my deputy was having any
problems, I should be there to help her.

Part
II

I arrived in the centre of a large
area of grassland. Ahead of me, a vast mob of Military officers in dress
uniform were milling around, grabbing their chance to exchange news with old
friends who they hadn’t seen in months or even years. Over to my left, my
deputy, Commander Nia Stone, was deep in conversation with her husband, my
Threat team leader, Commander Mason Leveque.

“Well, tell her
she can’t,” said Commander Stone. “I can’t let everyone pick and choose where
they stand during the ceremony. I’ve put her in group 3 Alpha, and she’s
staying in group 3 Alpha!”

“The problem is
you’ve got her ex-wife in group 3 Alpha too,” said Commander Leveque.

“Ex-wife?”
Commander Stone shook her head. “When did that happen? They seemed perfectly
happy when they left here three months ago, and I didn’t get a notification
they should be kept apart.”

“Apparently the
divorce is due to be finalized today, so there are bound to be some intense
emotions on both sides,” said Commander Leveque. “I strongly advise we keep
them apart, or I estimate there’s a 3 per cent risk that this becomes the first
handover ceremony in history where a murder is committed.”

“I suppose we could
swap …”

Commander Stone
noticed me at this point, broke off her sentence, and saluted. Judging from her
expression, I was about as welcome as a Cassandrian skunk.

I gave her a
placating smile. “I see you have everything under control, Commander Stone.
I’ll leave you to it.”

I headed over to
lurk by a flag of humanity, and took a furtive look round. There was no podium
or chairs, but that was traditional for a handover ceremony. Large amounts of
furniture tended to spoil the untouched planet effect.

The flags were
in the correct position. There were strategically placed officers controlling
the small hovering spheres of vid bees. The areas of grass where the Military
formations should stand had been carefully mown to mark out the group
positions. I knew we hadn’t managed the ultimate sin of forgetting the crystal
presentation globe, because Commander Leveque was holding it.

Commander Stone
decided it was time to get the mob in order. “Places everyone!” Her highly
magnified voice boomed out across the grassland, and the mob of Military
started sorting themselves out into squares.

Oh chaos, I
hadn’t remembered to wear a microphone! I whirled round in panic, wondering
whether to run for the nearest portal or try to find someone else with a
microphone I could borrow, and nearly collided with a Military Support Captain.
He dodged sideways, pinned a microphone to my collar, and then hurried off.

I relaxed.
Commander Stone really did have everything under control, even her idiot
commanding officer.

“If you aren’t
in your designated place, get there now!” shouted Commander Stone. “We’re
opening the cross-sector live link of the ceremony in five minutes, and several
major newzie channels will be showing live scenes.”

I guiltily
hurried over to stand in the neatly mown circle of grass that marked the focal
point of the ceremony. A huge flag of humanity hovered in midair above me.
Commander Leveque came to stand to my left, and Commander Stone gave a last harassed
look around.

“Group B1, neaten
your rows up, you look like a bunch of civilian school children! The vid
coverage of this ceremony will be replayed every year on this world, so
everything has to be perfect.” She paused and checked her lookup. “Stop gossiping
now, everyone. Live link is opening in three minutes. Anthem will start playing
ten seconds later. Colony Ten Command confirm incoming colonists one minute
after that. Attention!”

I sneaked a look
over my shoulder. The square formations of Military had gone to attention.
Commander Stone moved to stand at my right hand side. I hastily straightened to
attention myself.

There was a long
pause and then the anthem started playing. I saw something moving overhead, had
a ghastly moment when I thought it was a cloud, then saw it was just a flock of
pale-pink, gossamer skimmers. Since we’d eliminated the big flying lizards that
hunted them, there were much larger flocks of the delicate, seed-eating,
gossamer skimmers now. That was going to be a potential problem for farmers
trying to grow certain crops, but having gossamer skimmers eating the farmers’
crops was a lot better than having giant lizards eating the farmers.

The three
freight portals ahead of us flashed to life in unison, and people started
flooding through. Some arrived as couples holding hands, while others came
through singly. All of them were under 30 years old, except for the older
couple at the front. Those two would have been Colony Ten founding colonists on
one world already. They’d spent ten years working out how to deal with that
world’s minor problems, and proving it was safe to be opened for full
colonization. Now they were here to repeat that experience, this time as
leaders of this Colony Ten group.

It took a while
for all the colonists to come through the portals. It wasn’t just people
arriving; there were a symbolic selection of Earth animals too. I spotted
horses, chickens, pigs, goats, and a few cows arriving. I wondered if the cow
that kept bucking its head, trying to shake off its halter, was the
recalcitrant one that General Kpossi had mentioned.

The music had
changed from anthem to hymn now. When the last few colonists had arrived
through the portals, the hymn hit the high note and ended. Military and
civilians all saluted the flag of humanity.

I gave the
traditional speech of welcome after that, the one that half of humanity could
probably recite from memory, and I saw the colonists tense as I reached the key
point. Not a single planet had reached Colony Ten stage without at least one
member of the Military dying. The colonists were waiting to hear the human cost
of giving them their world. How many names were they going to hear? The lists
were usually either very short or dreadfully long, because when things started
going wrong on a Planet First mission they could rapidly spiral out of control.

In most of those
cases, the world was abandoned, but sometimes the scientists came up with an
effective solution and it was eventually colonized. Sobek in Epsilon sector was
the most famous recent example. Reciting the names at that handover ceremony
had taken hours.

I started
reciting names, with the standard ten second pause between each, and saw the
colonists react with relief when the seventh name was followed by the
traditional words. “They died to offer new worlds to humanity.”

Then there was
the two minutes’ silence. I knew exactly what the colonists were thinking
during that silence. Every new world had its memorial to the Military who made
it safe for colonization. That listed the names of all the Military who’d
worked on that world, but the centre point of the memorial was always the names
of those who’d died. This world wouldn’t be another Sobek. This world would
have a mercifully short list of names.

After the
silence, Commander Leveque passed me the crystal globe. I lifted it up and held
it still for a full minute, so the hovering vid bees could capture the lines
carved into its surface. Those lines showed the shapes of the continents of
K21228, with the continent we stood on delicately inlaid in gold.

Finally, I
lowered the globe, the two leaders of the colonists stepped forward, and I
literally handed them their new world.

“What are you
naming this world?” I asked.

The man accepted
the globe, and the woman smiled. “This world is called Maia,” she said.

I nodded. “May
the sun shine brightly on Maia.”

On cue to the
second, a team of sixteen fighters swooped in over the hills, trailing
sparkling bands of gold dust across the sky.

The portals
flared to life again now. The Military squares started moving in turn, marching
in formation to the portals, then dividing into three columns to step through. Finally
Commander Stone, Commander Leveque, and I were the only Military left. We
saluted, marched to the central portal and stepped through.

The vid bees
would still be in position, their images showing the colonists and their
animals now. In a few minutes, the transport sleds would arrive through the
portals, and the colonists would start building the domes they’d need for
shelter tonight. The Military had all gone now. The colonists had been left on
their new world to cope alone for the next ten years.

Except, of
course, that was just a romantic myth. The Colony Ten years were a carefully
planned process, involving gradual introduction of Earth livestock and crops
into an alien world with its own ecology. A group of Military scientists and a
full Medical team had already moved into their Colony Ten Support dome, and
would be helping the colonists through any problems they faced.

And the rest of
the Military hadn’t gone at all. We’d portalled back to our base, arriving
outside the huge central dome. Nobody would leave until tomorrow, because there
was still one very important thing to happen. The handover party!

Most people were
already heading into the domes to get ready for that party, but I stood still
for a moment, letting the tension ease away. I heard a sigh from next to me.
Someone else was suffering the aftermath of tension too. I turned to smile at
Commander Stone. “The ceremony went perfectly, Commander. Well done.”

“Thank you, sir.”

I glanced from
her to Commander Leveque. “You two go and get ready for the party now, while I
call the terrifying General Hiraga.”

The two of them went
into the dome, and I tapped my lookup. The face of a young Captain appeared on
the screen. “Planet First Central Command Support,” he said.

“Colonel Torrek
calling General Hiraga,” I said.

There was a
brief pause before the image changed to show General Hiraga.

“Sir, K21228 has
left Planet First and moved to Colony Ten jurisdiction,” I said. “Requesting
permission to officially stand down our Planet First teams.”

She nodded. “Permission
granted, Colonel. Excellent handover ceremony. A little minor disruption from a
cow at one point, but I imagine the cow hadn’t had the benefit of Military
training.”

I dutifully
smiled. “No, sir.” I paused for a second before pointedly adding. “The handover
ceremony was completely organized by Commander Stone.”

I waited to see
if General Hiraga would say anything, but she didn’t. “I hope that addresses
your concerns about Commander Stone’s administrational skills, sir,” I added.

She kept me in
suspense for another thirty seconds before nodding. “I believe it does. I shall
add Commander Stone’s name to the list of approved candidates for promotion to
full Colonel.”

My smile was
genuine this time. “Thank you, sir.”

The step from
Commander to Colonel was notorious for being the hardest promotion to achieve
in the Military. You could earn that promotion in one of three ways. Some were
forced into the role of acting commanding officer by a disaster on a Planet
First mission, and proved their brilliance by getting a nightmare situation
under control. I’d had the easy route, being carried along in the wake of
someone that brilliant. Nia Stone had done it by pure hard work.

“That
information must remain strictly confidential for now though, Colonel,” said
General Hiraga. “Stone will have to wait for a suitable opening for a Planet
First command before she gets her promotion. And by suitable, I mean that it
has to be a command on a planet that’s already in a reasonably stable state.
Stone’s not had any experience as an acting commanding officer in a crisis
situation, and I’m not giving the Planet First command of a raw new world to
someone totally green.”

She paused. “Once
we’ve found Stone a post, we’ll need to arrange a position for her husband too,
but Leveque could take the role of either Threat team leader or deputy
commanding officer. It should be possible to free up one of those positions
with standard personnel transfers.”

I nodded. I had
no concerns about that side of things at all. Since few civilians considered
crossing the huge divide between civilian and Military life, it was absolutely
vital for the Military to do everything it could to help its officers to
maintain their relationships and raise the children who would mostly join the
Military themselves. Once Stone had her command, I knew Leveque would join her
there within weeks, even if a temporary position had to be created for him.

“It may be some
time before there’s an appropriate opening,” said General Hiraga. “You could
help me out with that. Delay retiring for a while, and take another Planet
First command. As soon as I agree your planet is stable, you can hand your
command to Stone.”

I was annoyed by
the blatant attempt at emotional blackmail, but I mustn’t lose my temper with
General Hiraga. It wouldn’t harm me, I was retiring within hours, but it might
damage Nia’s chances.

“Sir, getting a
new planet stable would take at least two to three years, perhaps far longer.
I’d hope a suitable post will arise for Commander Stone well before that, so
I’d rather continue with my retirement as planned.”

General Hiraga
sighed. “If you insist, Colonel. I suppose your handover party will be starting
now. Is Commander Stone organizing that too?”

“No, sir.” I
enjoyed watching Hiraga’s face as I told her the bad news. “Major Drago Tell
Dramis volunteered to organize the party.”

General Hiraga
shuddered. “I just hope there’s a planet left at the end of it.”

I ended the
call, and headed to my quarters. To my relief, I discovered they were still
intact, though the front door was sagging a bit on its hinges. I thankfully
changed back into my ordinary uniform, and went to stand in front of the three
holo portraits.