Singing the Dogstar Blues (9 page)

Half an hour later, Sergeant Wolfendon and her merry men arrived to take us to PT class. I was under my bed looking for my other gym shoe. Mav was calling out helpful suggestions from the living area, but somehow I didn't think my shoe would have jumped into the air duct or crawled down the waste-disposal unit.

Wolfendon wasn't so sympathetic.

‘Get a move on, Aaronson. No one's late on my watch.'

Now there was a woman who badly needed the stick extracted from her bum. I picked up my other pair of jeans. Maybe the shoe was stuck in the leg somewhere. I had a habit of pulling everything off at once. Wolfendon's armscreen beeped and she walked back into the living area, murmuring into the voice pad. I felt along the jeans leg and pulled out a pair of undies.

‘Okay Aaronson, you can stop looking,' Wolfendon said, standing in my doorway. ‘There's been a change in plans. Instead of PT this morning, your class is touring one of the labs.'

I threw my jeans back on the floor. What a rush! We were finally going to see one of the Time-Jumpers. Maybe even
touch it. I'd seen loads of holos, of course, but not the real thing. Only Centre personnel and students got to see the real thing. I picked up my badge and traced the gold circular arrow. Well, from now on, I
was
a Centre student and in six years I'd be a qualified time-jumper. Then the fun would really start. I could go to the jazz joints of the 1930s, see Toots Thielmans record with Quincy Jones, even sneak into the famous Rogue Henry/Dada Wells jam session.

That was my plan, anyway. I'd applied to specialise in music history — Blues and Jazz — but you don't get confirmation of your main research area until second year. According to my calculations, I had a good chance of getting the go-ahead. There were only six other music specialists in the Centre: four Classical, one Eastern, and one Rock. The place needed a Blues/Jazz expert.

Wolfendon and her men surrounded us in a protective diamond and we marched out of the suite. Mav was so excited that he was trying to bounce and walk at the same time. The guard beside him nearly got pushed through the virtual wall by a high-flying ear joint.

‘Do we get to use the time mover today?' Mav asked, as we scanned out of P3. He sneezed, barely catching the double load of snot in a wad of tissues.

‘Time-Jumper,' I corrected, ‘And no, we don't even get inside one until the end of second year.'

He made an odd noise, a combination of a high A and a raspberry. My sentiments exactly.

The four labs were in the Daniel Sunawa-Harrod Building which was in the dead centre of the university. The Time Building, as it was called, had no windows and only two entrances, front and back. The security measures were supposed
to be somewhere between paranoid and homicidal. Dr Harris, our class coordinator, was waiting beside the front entrance.

‘Good morning, everyone. Sergeant, the rest of the class have already gone into the T2 lab as you asked,' he said.

Wolfendon nodded.

‘Okay. Allman and Greene,' she said to two of our guards, ‘you scan into the building first and secure the area. Report in when it's clear.'

Mav watched the guards scan through the security tube. He was jiggling up and down on the spot, his ears close to his head. I think he was a bit nervous about going through the full body scan so I smiled at him reassuringly. Wolfendon's armscreen beeped. She acknowledged the message then turned to Mav.

‘Right, you scan through first,' she said.

Mav stepped forward, still rocking on his heels as the tube door closed. He didn't have to do the retina scan of course, not having a retina, but he was bouncing so hard that the body scan rejected him three times. In the end, I had to grab him by the shoulders, push his feet flat on the scan pad and threaten dire consequences if he didn't stay still. He finally scanned through.

It was my turn. I stepped on to the scan pad and the tube slid shut. A calm computer voice said, ‘Please do not move. Level 3 scan in progress.'

I immediately wanted to scratch every part of my body. I tensed my muscles and shut my eyes as the scan light swept up and down.

‘Please position the retina scanner over your right eye. Do not blink.'

As usual, my eye started to water before the scan was accepted. I kept on thinking of that bit in
Bleeders
where the guy gets his eye sliced out by a booby-trapped scanner. Gross.

‘Please place your wrist-band against Port A for access authorisation download.'

I pressed my wrist-band against the grid and waited.

‘Cadet Joss Aaronson, you are now authorised for single entry/exit into the T2 Time Laboratory. Thank you.' The inner door slid open.

Mav touched my shoulder as I stepped off the scan pad. I think he was reassuring himself, but it didn't do me any harm either. One of the guards, a young guy who already had grey in his hair, motioned me further away from the scanner door. We all jumped when the tube door snapped shut. I had expected to step into an entrance foyer, but we were standing in a long central corridor with at least ten doors on either side. The guards had done a great job of securing the area: the corridor was completely deserted and eerily quiet. It seemed to affect us all because we waited in silence as Wolfendon, Harris and the other guard scanned through behind me. We walked up to the T2 lab door.

It was suspiciously easy to get into the actual lab. One swipe of your wrist-band across the scan pad and the door was open. There was, of course, the small matter of ten neuro needles set into the doorframe. No wishy-washy alarms for the Time Labs. It was a case of no authorisation — no movement from the neck down.

As we walked through the doorway, the rest of the class turned and stared at us. They were grouped at the far end of an elegant console that stretched across most of the front wall. Chaney whispered a comment to Jorel who burst out laughing. But I didn't have any time for those clowns. I was there to see one thing: the Jumper.

It was set back towards the far wall, surrounded by a ring
of inactive force-field stakes. I'd kind of expected it to take up most of the lab, but it was only about the size of a sports-hover and shaped like an onion that someone had squashed. In comparison to the sleek surroundings of the lab, it looked a bit of a mess. Every part of it was angled or tubed except the smooth dome of the plasglass cabin. The official holos of the Jumpers made them look really smooth and elegant. But the squat compact crouch of the real thing was far more powerful. T2 reminded me of a bulldog. Ugly as sin and all grunt.

A technician was kneeling near the Jumper, poking around inside a small hatch. Four fixer beams suddenly flickered on, securing T2 to the floor. The techo sat back on her heels, satisfied. Then someone tapped me on the shoulder.

‘Hey, how are you guys going?'

I turned to see Lisa.

‘Hi. What are you doing here?'

‘Derry and I got suckered into helping out with your tour,' she said, nodding towards her partner. Derry was standing next to the console, talking to Tonio and Sara. Tonio looked up at me and waved.

‘Quick, look at this,' Lisa said, grabbing my shoulders and turning me to face T2 again. ‘They're putting the fruz-field back on.'

The hatch technician turned and gave a thumbs up towards the console. There was a loud pop in the air and a faint purple haze crept upwards from the ring of stakes until it covered T2 in a dome that stretched from floor to ceiling.

‘Fruz-field?' Mav asked.

‘It's a security force field that totally immobilises you if you touch it,' Lisa said. ‘Literally freezes you to the spot until the security forces arrive.'

‘Does it hurt?' I asked.

Lisa smiled. ‘They reckon it doesn't, but I'm not too keen to put it to the test.' She turned to Mav. ‘So what do you think of the Jumper, Mavkel? Isn't she a beauty?'

‘Very much a beauty,' Mav sang, but his ears dropped.

‘What's wrong?' I asked.

‘T2 has a pronoun,' Mav sang. ‘T2 lives. We must make formal greeting. What are her bloodlines?'

Lisa looked at me, puzzled.

‘Mav has just discovered pronouns,' I said, pressing my lips together so I wouldn't laugh. ‘It's okay, Mav. T2 isn't alive. It's just a custom to call any kind of ship a she.'

‘Why?'

I shrugged. He had me there. ‘It's just a tradition.'

Mav nodded. ‘Yes, Mavkel understands tradition.'

He turned to Lisa.

‘According to the human tradition, I am a he because Joss is a she.'

Lisa looked at me, her eyebrows raised.

‘Let's just say Mav has chosen to be a he from now on,' I said.

‘Gotcha,' Lisa said. She smiled at Mav.

Harris, who was talking to a tall round-shouldered man, clapped his hands for attention.

‘Okay people, I'd like you all over here at the operations console. This is Mr Roan. He's Head Engineer for T2 and will be taking you through the workings of the Lab.'

‘Gotta go and do my duty,' Lisa said. She hurried over towards Derry.

Wolfendon ordered her men to take up their positions around the room and waved Mav and I towards the console.
Chaney and gang had lined up in front of Roan, taking all the good positions. I moved behind Jason, who wasn't as tall as the others, and checked out the rest of the room. Above the console was a glassed-in viewing level with a row of plush chairs. VIP territory. There were also four wall crawlers monitoring the lab and infra-red beam nodules evenly spaced at ankle level around the perimeter of the room. Heavy duty security.

‘Lisa and Derry,' Harris continued, indicating the pair standing beside him, ‘are fifth year students who have kindly volunteered to answer your questions about time-jumping after the tour. Okay, the class is all yours, Mr Roan.'

Roan smiled shyly.

‘As you may have gathered, this is the operations desk for T2. During a jump, it's always monitored by three support personnel and supervised by a senior time-jumper.'

He moved behind the console and pointed to a bank of screens and readings. Peter, Chaney and Jorel had pushed Jason along the console and moved directly in front of Mav and I, blocking our view. I stood on my toes, but still couldn't make out which display Roan was describing. Mav was even worse off. He tried to stand on his toes, but his claws stopped him mid hoist.

‘Hey,' I whispered to Chaney, ‘move over. Mav and I can't see.'

‘Tough,' Chaney said.

What a snorkwit. Roan moved on to the next section of the console. I wasn't going to see anything at this rate, so I tried to edge in between Peter and Chaney. Peter shoved me sideways, straight into a rib gouge from Chaney.

‘Yeow,' Chaney said loudly, covering my hmmph of pain. ‘You're pushing me into the console, Joss.'

‘Aaronson, stop messing around,' Harris said. ‘This isn't a game.'

Chaney was playing rough. I limped back, no ground made. Of course, I could just complain to Harris, but that was admitting defeat. And I couldn't let Chaney get away with that rib gouge. I figured that since Mav and I were stuck at the back of the class at the console, we'd automatically be at the front when we all moved towards T2. A satisfying switch that was full of pay-back promise. I looked over at Mav. If he was agreeable, I had some very interesting plans for his ears. He was bobbing about trying to see through the gap between Jason and Peter. He saw me looking at him and side-stepped across.

‘I do not see,' he sang softly. He squeezed his noses to stifle a sneeze.

I nodded, rubbing my ribcage. ‘Chaney's being a real pain, but I've got a plan. Will you help me?'

Mav's ears raised slightly.

‘I will help you in all things. You are my pair.' He flicked me his double smile.

‘I was thinking that when we go over to T2, we could stop Chaney from seeing. Maybe with your ears. Can you make them go really wide or something?'

Mav started to spread his ears up and out. It was like seeing a beach umbrella opening.

‘Put them down!' I whispered, glancing at Harris. Luckily he was busy snapping a stray thread off his jacket. ‘Just open them enough to stop Chaney seeing anything when we're looking at the Jumper.'

‘Why do we stop Chaney?'

‘To pay him back,' I said.

Mav tilted his head, puzzled.

‘Revenge,' I continued, ‘retaliation, settling the score.'

‘Ahh, it is a game,' Mav sang, nodding.

Close enough. I started to edge backwards, pulling Mav with me by the edge of his woollen wrap. When the class moved to T2, I wanted us to be there first. Roan had moved on to the security measures, pointing out the wall crawlers above the console.

‘These four crawlers are continually feeding information to the shielded monitoring room. Most of the time it's just automated security stuff. However, during a jump, a back-up crew keeps an eye on all of the systems. Just in case something happens to the personnel inside the lab.'

A low murmur went around the group. We had all seen the vis-recordings of the early experimental jumps. You've got to wonder how long it took them to scrape six people off four walls and a ceiling.

‘The viewing level is also shielded. We wouldn't want to accidentally disintegrate our VIPs, would we?' Roan said. Everyone laughed.

‘Okay, now the bit you've all been waiting for,' he said. ‘Let's take a look at T2.'

That was our cue. I swung Mav around and we moved into place. Mav gave an experimental flip of his ears. I watched as Chaney tried to bulldoze his way into his usual front position. Exactly as expected. I was also counting on the group's eagerness to see T2 and they didn't let me down. Chaney got caught right in the middle of the surge and was herded straight towards us. Not enough time or room to divert. Mav calmly stepped in front of him just as he reached the Jumper. Chaney caught my look and smirked. He wasn't worried, after all he was at least a head taller than Mav. For now.