Earth Star (27 page)

I opened my mouth to make my carefully planned speech, but Playdon spoke first. ‘These are for you.’

He handed each of us a genuine, paper envelope. I stared at mine in utter confusion, and opened it up. Inside was a piece of card. I read it. Twice. Read it a third time, still grazzed.

‘Why have you given us these certificates, sir?’ asked Fian.

‘You’ve earned them,’ said Playdon. ‘We’re less than halfway through this course, but you’ve both already done more than enough work on the dig site to qualify for the highest practical grade so I’m giving you the certificates early.’ He gave us his best evil smile. ‘You still need to attend my lectures and complete the theoretical side of the course though. Don’t imagine you can escape that.’

I finally managed to speak. ‘You know! How?’

‘I saw the look on your face when I gave you back your impact suit,’ said Playdon. ‘You aren’t the first person to have this sort of problem, Jarra.’

Fian looked from me to Playdon. ‘What’s going on here?’

‘I’m your lecturer, Fian,’ said Playdon. ‘I can’t divulge information about another student to you, even if you do have a Twoing contract with her. I shouldn’t comment on your personal relationship, and it’s quite inappropriate for me to suggest that you should, for chaos sake, make Jarra talk to you.’

Fian stood there for a second, then grabbed my arm and dragged me off down the corridor. He hadn’t laid a finger on me in days, worried about hurting my new skin, but he seemed to have forgotten all about that. He towed me into our room, slammed the door, and turned to face me.

‘Talk!’

‘What about?’

He shook his head. ‘Don’t try dodging this. We’re staying in this room until you tell me what’s going on. Hours, days, weeks. I don’t care how long. We don’t set foot outside until you talk. I’m sure Playdon will send us food supplies if necessary.’

‘We’d need the bathroom before that.’

‘Jarra!’

‘I was just saying …’

‘If necessary, I will escort you down the corridor and back again, but that won’t get you out of this. I’m stubborn, remember. You’ve hardly said a word in days, you aren’t eating properly, and you jump like a Herculean reed frog every time I go near you. At first, I agreed with the others that your new skin must still be hurting you. It was typical of you not to admit you were in pain, and explained the nightmares you’ve been having and carefully not mentioning to me, but now Playdon gives me this!’

He waved his certificate under my nose, before tossing it aside. ‘I’m not going to give you a second of peace until I get an explanation. Understand?’

Yes, I understood. I sat on my bed, which was currently a short distance away from Fian’s bed. One way and another, there’d been a lot of space between us since that tag support sled blew up.

‘Well?’ Fian asked.

I forced myself to say the words. ‘Playdon gave us the certificates because he knows I’m terrified of wearing an impact suit after what happened. He’s done it to stop me failing this course.’

Fian sat down beside me and put his arm around me. I nearly made a nardle of myself by crying when I felt the warmth of him. Fian was holding me again.

‘You’re scared of impact suits.’ His tone made it somewhere between a question, a statement, and sympathy.

‘My suit tried to kill me, Fian. I know that sounds nardle, I know it was just the effect of the freak magnetic field, but my suit started crushing me and cut me to ribbons. You saved me from actually dying, but I still look at my suit and …’

‘I don’t think it’s nardle. I know I got blown up, but I was instantly knocked out and didn’t wake up until I came out of the tank. It was different for you. You must have been in agony on the way to hospital.’

He pulled his arm back, turned, and grabbed my shoulders to shake me. ‘Jarra, I understand you being scared of impact suits. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t tell me.’

‘Because I’m a dumb ape.’

‘Don’t call yourself an …’ He broke off. ‘Yes, you’re a dumb ape! Sometimes I don’t know whether to kiss you or strangle you. What is it with you? Why is it so impossible for you to just tell me when you’ve got a problem?’

Fian released me and flopped back on to the bed. ‘No, don’t answer that. I know it’s because of the way you grew up. I’m not like Candace, limited to two hours a week. I’m here for you all the time, but I can’t help when you don’t tell me the problem. We’ve had this conversation before. We went through precisely the same thing with the rings.’

‘That wasn’t the same. Being scared of a ring wasn’t going to stop me being an archaeologist. This is.’

He reached up and pulled me down to lie next to him. His arm was around my shoulders and I could feel his hair trailing down my left cheek.

‘Yes, it’s a bigger problem. All the more reason to tell me about it. What were you planning to do? Were you hoping the whole of Eden Dig Site would explode, so you wouldn’t have to put on an impact suit tomorrow?’

‘No. I was just about to tell you the problem when Playdon gave us the certificates. I’d worked out what I’d do after I had to drop out of the course.’

Fian tugged me tighter against him. ‘You should be mentioning me in that sentence. It would have been a decision for both of us.’

‘I didn’t want you to have to give up history as well.’

‘There would have been ways to …’ He shook his head. ‘Forget that. Playdon spotted you were in trouble. He’s solved the immediate problem. We can finish this course without you ever wearing an impact suit again.’

‘I’ll look a coward in front of the whole class.’

‘They all saw the accident. They’ll understand. We’ll cope with this, Jarra. We won’t have to make decisions between practical and theoretical history courses until the end of this year. I know exactly how you feel about psychologists, but if you’d really like to work on dig sites again, you might at least consider seeing if one could help you. We’re Military, remember. We can ask for their help. They must have a lot of experience with this sort of problem.’

He made everything sound so simple. For a moment, I even considered the psychologist idea. The Military had centuries of experience with everything from people shadowstruck after Thetis, to the aftermath of the Persephone incident. Impact suit fear was trivial in comparison.

‘I’ve never …’

I broke off because both our lookups were making emergency chiming noises. Fian picked his up, and gave a wail of protest.

‘No! Not Ark! Not now! I was finally getting somewhere with the nardle-brained idiot!’

There was a sudden thump on our door, and we heard Playdon yelling. ‘Ark evacuation. Move!’

More thumps, gradually receding into the distance, indicated Playdon was working his way along the corridor, banging on doors all the way. Fian stood up, grabbed the two rolled up sleep sacks that were waiting in the corner of the room, and tossed mine towards me.

‘Don’t think this is over. We still have a lot of talking to do.’ Fian took a key fob from his pocket, and pressed it to make our Ark evacuation hover bags start chasing him. He literally pushed me ahead of him into the corridor, shut the door, and hesitated for a second. ‘Your skin really doesn’t hurt?’

‘No.’

‘Good.’ He juggled his sleep sack from his right hand to under his left arm, and used his right hand to grab my arm like a jailer. I was forcibly escorted to the hall.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’

‘Making sure you don’t try anything nardle, like trying to portal to Alpha sector.’

‘I’m not totally stupid,’ I said.

‘Really? Bitter experience tells me not to count on it.’

Fian shut up at this point, because more of the class were arriving and staring at us. Ark evacuation luggage restrictions meant most people just had one bag, but the seven of us heading for Ark were clutching sleep sacks, Krath and Amalie had the extra burden of vid equipment cases, while Dalmora carried her guitar. We gathered together in a group, and Krath frowned at Fian.

‘Why have you got Jarra in an arm lock?’

‘Don’t ask,’ said Playdon, reappearing with two last stray Gamman sheep. ‘When an irresistible force collides with an immovable object, it’s safest to stay out of the way.’

He produced his lookup, and checked off names against a list. ‘Lolia, Lolmack, Dalmora, Krath, Amalie, Fian, and especially Jarra will stay here. Everyone else follows me to the portal room, goes through as a group to Africa Off-world, and heads straight to the off-world portals. They’ll be locked open to Alpha sector planets, so go through the first one you reach. You then each send me an immediate mail to confirm you’re safely in Alpha sector. Everyone understand?’

They all nodded. Playdon led them off and returned to the hall a couple of minutes later. He stood waiting, tapping a foot impatiently, until his lookup started chiming away. He checked off names and gave a heavy sigh. ‘What’s Kai playing at? Surely … Ah.’

The last chime must have been a mail from Kai, because Playdon made a call and started talking into his lookup. ‘This is Playdon, Asgard 6. I have twenty-two students confirmed in Alpha sector. Portalling to Africa Transit now with remaining seven students.’

We headed to the portal room, Playdon entered the portal code and sent us through ahead of him. We arrived in what the signs told me was Africa Transit 6. The place was crowded, but not unusually so. Thanks to Playdon’s insistence on us having our emergency bags packed in advance, we were well ahead of the main rush towards Ark.

Playdon appeared through the portal, counted rapidly to seven, and led us towards an inter-continental portal with a flashing sign saying, naturally, ‘Australia’. We stepped through to one of the temporary Australia Transits that I’d seen on Earth Rolling News. The place was deserted, but a sign told us we were in Australia Transit 91. I was grazzed. They had at least 91 functioning Australia Transits to handle the evacuation. Amaz!

Playdon wasn’t wasting time sightseeing, he’d come through last again but dashed ahead to the nearest local portal. ‘Lolia and Lolmack, you go through to your daughter’s nursery evacuation point first.’

Lolia fumbled with her lookup to check the code, then she and Lolmack vanished through the portal. Playdon instantly entered another code, and nodded at the rest of us.

‘Through you go.’

I stepped forward and found myself inside a vast granite cavern lit by overhead floodlights. Straight ahead of me, two people were sitting at a grey flexiplas table. The sign in front of them said ‘Dig Site Command’.

I blinked. Dig Site Command were disembodied, professional voices, not a man with crinkly grey hair and an infectious smile, and a red-headed woman who was obviously pregnant. Someone grabbed my arm, and I glanced sideways to find Fian urging me forward. Krath, Amalie, and Dalmora appeared from the portal, followed by Playdon, who dodged around us to get to the table.

‘Dome 21, Ellen,’ he said.

The woman checked her lookup. ‘You should still have seven students, Playdon.’

‘Two are at their daughter’s nursery evacuation point in Ark.’

‘And five here.’ Ellen nodded. ‘Dome 21 confirmed vacant.’

She gestured at the man next to her, who smiled at Playdon.

‘There are four corridors which lead up to a series of large rooms on the next level.’ The man pointed vaguely upwards. ‘Each large room has a set of twenty smaller rooms leading off them. You don’t need twenty rooms for six of you, so who would you like to share with?’

Playdon gave him one of his evil smiles. ‘I believe Rono Kipkibor and Cassandra 2 are coming.’

The man groaned. ‘Please, Playdon, don’t tell me you brought the drum kit.’

Fian and I exchanged glances. Drum kit?

‘You did, didn’t you?’ said the man. ‘I’ll put you in with Rono Kipkibor’s team then. Follow Alpha corridor over to your left, go all the way to the end and you’re in Area 6. You’ll need this.’

He handed Playdon a black tube, before giving the rest of us a pitying look. ‘My sincere sympathy.’

We were Foundation course students, too much in awe of Dig Site Command to ask what the man meant, so we meekly followed Playdon to a corridor that sloped upwards. The lights were dimmer in here, but it was still easy to find our way.

‘Drum kit?’ asked Fian, finally. ‘You play drums, sir?’

‘Rono and I were students together,’ said Playdon. ‘Four of us formed our own historical music group.’

We passed an opening in the wall. The number one was painted on the rock by the side of it.

‘What sort of music group?’ asked Krath.

‘Rono plays lead guitar, and I’m on drums,’ said Playdon. ‘Have you ever heard of rock and roll bands?’

I shook my head, but Dalmora gave a strange, choking giggle of a noise.

Playdon led us through the opening marked as number 6, and into a chamber that was bigger than our dome hall. There were doorways, covered with makeshift curtains, at regular intervals in its walls.

‘Pick some rooms,’ said Playdon. ‘I’m afraid Jarra and Fian won’t be able to move granite walls.’

The other three laughed at us, while Fian pulled aside a random curtain and stuck his head inside. ‘These are quite big caves anyway. How do we show who …?’

Playdon handed him the black tube. ‘Write on the curtain.’

Fian peered at the tube, and used it to write in large black letters. ‘FIAN AND JARRA.’ Underneath, in smaller letters, he added another line. ‘Krath keep out.’

Krath made a noise of disgust, grabbed the tube, and went to claim a room of his own. ‘Amalie, I don’t suppose you’d like to …?’

‘No, I wouldn’t,’ she said.

Fian and I carried our belongings into our room and unrolled our sleep sacks. There was plenty of space, but the air had a faint musty smell, and the dark grey stone walls were forbidding under the harsh light of the single glow above the doorway. I tried adjusting its brightness a little, but that just filled the room with ominous dark shadows. I frowned and opened my bag to take out the small cube of a light sculpture. Keon’s agent had been busy. A light art company were making licensed copies of Keon’s sculpture ‘Phoenix Rising’, and when he and Issette visited me in hospital, they’d brought me one of the first manufacturing run as a present.