Earth Star (19 page)

‘We do that in Epsilon sector,’ said Amalie. ‘We get married very quickly on the frontier, so it’s hardly worth bothering with different rings.’

Krath grinned at her. ‘We could elope to Epsilon.’

She gave him a look of unenthusiastic assessment. ‘I’ve turned down twenty-three other offers, Krath, and all from men with better legs than you!’

Everyone laughed at Krath’s outraged face, even Playdon. Everyone except for one person. Petra was looking at me with an expression of pure loathing on her face, and I knew she was already planning the names she’d call me as soon as she caught me on my own.

I turned away from her, pretending to listen to Amalie explaining how the rest of team 1 had been helping Playdon train the other teams while Fian and I were away, but my mind was thinking about Petra and her ape haters. If they started their insult campaign again, I’d have to tell Fian about what was going on. I could explain to him that I wanted to fight my own battles, and he’d let me do it, but he’d also ask the obvious questions about why I hadn’t told him about this before and why I hadn’t reported Petra to Playdon.

I’d been avoiding thinking properly about that, but now I finally forced myself to do it. If I complained to Playdon, it needn’t just be my word against Petra’s, because it would be trivially easy to set my lookup to record one of our conversations. I hadn’t done that, not just because I always hated asking for help and wanted to fight my own battles, but because I hadn’t wanted Fian or Playdon to hear the things Petra and her friends were saying about me. I’d spent my life watching off-world vids where people said those things about the Handicapped, and I’d had an unconscious, nagging fear that …

Oh, this was ridiculous. Petra’s insults would have stopped on the first day if I’d complained to Playdon, or even if she’d believed I might. I’d had some teachers at school who’d taken the easy way out and ignored trouble, but Playdon wasn’t like that. He’d dealt with problems between class members several times already, always decisively and with perfect fairness to both sides. He took any conflict in the class extremely seriously because we weren’t just living together in one small dome, we also had to work together in dangerous places.

Petra had known she could do whatever she liked and get away with it, because she’d noticed my weak spot; the fact that I didn’t want Fian to hear her insults. She’d been happily taking advantage of that, and I’d been stupid enough to let her do it, but that stopped right now. Fian hadn’t changed his mind about me because of what Major Maven had said; he’d just been angry, and he’d react in exactly the same way to Petra.

I turned around and smiled at Petra. Her initial glare changed to a puzzled look and then to anxiety. This time she was the one who turned away.

That night I had dreams where images of the alien sphere mingled with ancient vid scenes of the glowing city of Eden, and woke feeling eagerly expectant. Today I’d finally see the ruins of Earth’s last city, built just before Exodus century when human technology and knowledge were at a peak that we were still struggling to regain. We’d overtaken its builders in portal and medical technology, but in everything else they were still beyond us, and we scavenged for scraps of their knowledge left behind in the ruins of their cities.

We all ate breakfast, changed into impact suits, and gathered at the dome exit. I was at fever pitch, impatiently waiting for my first view of Eden, greatest creation of the magicians of the past, while Playdon did his usual count of the class before we left the dome.

He frowned. ‘We’re missing someone.’ He tapped his lookup, and checked suited figures against his list. ‘Joth’s not here.’

Playdon vanished off down the corridor, while I groaned with frustration that Joth had to choose this morning to oversleep. Playdon was back inside a minute. ‘Joth’s lookup and his impact suit are in his room, but he isn’t. Everyone check your own room please and then gather in the hall.’

We all opened our impact suit hoods, tugged them down, and went to search for Joth. Other than our rooms and bathrooms, the dome only had a storage room, portal room, and the hall. It took less than two minutes to establish Joth wasn’t in any of them.

‘Joth was here late yesterday evening,’ said Playdon, ‘I saw him myself. If he portalled out after that, he didn’t check out.’ He turned to look at the remaining members of team 4. ‘Petra, you’re Twoing with him. What happened last night?’

Petra faced him defiantly. ‘That’s personal and not your business.’

‘I have a student missing on one of the highest hazard rated dig sites,’ said Playdon. ‘It’s my business.’

Another of team 4 spoke up. ‘They had a huge fight just after midnight. Something about Fian and Jarra coming back. Our rooms are close together, so the yelling woke us all up.’

‘Yes, if you must know, we had a fight,’ said Petra. ‘Joth yelled at me, I yelled at him, and Joth went off in a sulk. He must have portalled off somewhere, and he was so busy feeling sorry for himself that he forgot to stick his stupid hand on the check-out plate before leaving. There’s no need to make a huge fuss and nose into our private affairs like this.’

Playdon’s lookup chimed and he glanced down at it. ‘Portal Network Administration says our portal hasn’t been used since Jarra and Fian returned yesterday. Joth isn’t here, and he didn’t leave by portal, so he must be outside without a suit.’

I saw Petra’s face go pale with shock. After Playdon’s safety lectures, we all knew exactly why you didn’t set foot outside an Eden Dig Site dome without an impact suit.

‘Team 1, seal suits and come with me,’ said Playdon. ‘Everyone else, stay in the hall and don’t even think of leaving this dome.’

He turned and went out of the room. I hastily followed him, pulling up my impact suit hood and sealing the front.

‘Chaos take it,’ said Playdon as we arrived back at the dome door. ‘Joth’s turned off the safety monitors. No wonder we didn’t know he’d gone out. Jarra, Fian, Amalie, Krath, Dalmora, out you go.’

I could tell Playdon was frantic with worry by the way he actually recited our names as he sent us through the door and the sonic insect screens beyond it. He’d lost one student already, and obviously didn’t intend to lose another.

Once outside, I cast a hasty look around. The early morning rainfall must have only just finished, because the ground was sopping wet and the air was still misty with water vapour. Over to my left, stretched the glorious ruins of Eden. These weren’t just skeletal remains, blackened by ancient fires, like those in New York. Eden had been abandoned for centuries, but it still had the echoes of former greatness. The famous aerial walkways had long since fallen to the ground, but many of the buildings were virtually intact, and they shone with the inner light of the glowplas from which they were built.

Surrounding the dig site was a vast expanse of towering trees. Most of them had the distinctive silvery trunks and reddish leaves of the Griffith hybrid, a fast growing, genetically modified tree that was specially created centuries ago to help the rainforest recover from the era of deforestation. The Griffith hybrid did a great job back then, but now it’s a chaos nuisance around dig sites and settlements, as it takes the rainforest far beyond its original territory. At least two dozen settlements have been defeated by the Griffith hybrid and relocated, and Eden Dig Site Command had to fight a constant war with the trees to defend the ruins of Eden.

I could only spare that one look at our surroundings, because Playdon was already unlocking the huge doors of the sled storage dome.

‘These doors were still locked, so Joth can’t be in there.’

Playdon’s voice had the distinctive echo that meant I was within earshot but also hearing him on my suit’s team circuit. I pictured the rest of the class back in the dining hall, eavesdropping on the conversations on the team circuit to find out what was happening. Petra must be frantic with worry for Joth. If I was in her situation, with Fian missing, I’d …

‘We’ve no suit-tracking signal to show Joth’s location,’ said Playdon, ‘so I need Jarra and Fian to prepare a survey plane for an aerial search. The Eden professional pilot is currently on loan to Cairo Dig Site and getting him back would waste precious time. The rest of you check the area immediately around the domes, while I break the news to Dig Site Command.’

I helped Fian open the sled dome doors and turned on the glows inside. ‘I hope there’s a survey plane here,’ I muttered, as I looked around at the ranks of specialist hover sleds. ‘Most domes have one but …’

‘Behind the dumper sleds.’ Fian pointed out the plane.

‘Right at the back.’ I sighed, but wasn’t surprised. The Dig Site Federation employed professional pilots to fly the vital aerial surveys of the dig sites, but they all had their own planes assigned to them. The survey planes in dig site domes would only be used by the amateur pilots on dig teams, and there weren’t very many of us. I’d coaxed one of the professional pilots into helping me get my pilot’s licence when my school history club spent last summer on New York Fringe, but most people preferred to keep their feet safely on the ground.

‘You start running the diagnostics and power checks,’ said Fian. ‘I’ll shuffle the other sleds out of the way.’

I climbed into the plane and started the diagnostic sequence. A red light flashed.

‘Nuke it!’ I jumped out of the plane.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Fian.

‘Power’s below critical. This plane can’t have been used in years. You keep shuffling sleds, I can handle this.’ I pulled out a cable from the dome wall, and dragged it across to plug in the plane.

Five minutes later, I heard Playdon on the team circuit. ‘Jarra, Fian, how are you getting on?’

‘Fian’s moved the last sled out of the way,’ I replied, ‘and I’m running a power recharge on emergency boost. I’m afraid I have to run in depth diagnostics as well, because the log says this plane hasn’t launched in three years.’

‘Not your fault, Jarra. Make perfectly sure that plane is safe, because crashing won’t help anyone. Joth’s lucky you have your pilot’s licence, because a ground level search would be hopeless in rainforest.’

Fian and I put on the hover tunics that would slow our fall if we had to jump out of the plane in midair. In theory, our impact suits would then protect us when we hit the ground. I’d never had to try that out. I hoped I never would.

We sat in the plane for another frustrating five minutes before it was recharged and the diagnostics had finished. I moved the survey plane forward on its hovers, out of the dome and into position facing the edge of the ruins, then opened broadcast channel on my suit. I spoke in my best professional voice since dozens of dig teams working on Eden Dig Site would be able to hear me.

‘This is Asgard 6 survey plane, requesting launch clearance for search flight.’

‘This is Dig Site Command. Asgard 6, you are clear to launch survey plane. Good luck.’

I hit the thrusters and pulled back on the stick. There was a mad thrilling moment as acceleration slammed me back into my seat and the plane shot upwards into the sky. Usually, I yelled out in pure joy at this point, but I was too worried this time. I levelled off the plane, checked the instruments were all on green, and banked to fly across the edge of the dig site.

‘This is Asgard 6 survey plane. Starting sensor data transmission and beginning search pattern over dig site. I’m thinking there won’t be many large animals there, so it’ll be faster than checking rainforest.’

‘This is Dig Site Command. Data reception is green. Please adjust your sensor settings since they’re currently in mapping mode and excluding life signs.’

Oh chaos, I hadn’t thought of that. I was barely capable of using the survey plane sensors, let alone changing their settings. ‘Fian do you know …?’

‘I don’t know anything about plane sensors,’ said Fian.

Landing to get help would waste time, and Playdon probably didn’t know how to do this either. He was scared of heights, and had never been in a plane. I’d have to do my best and hope for Joth’s sake that I didn’t mess up. Fortunately, I’d been giving Fian some flying lessons, so …

‘This is Asgard 6 pilot, Jarra Tell Morrath, handing control to co-pilot,’ I said on broadcast channel. ‘Fian Eklund, you have control.’

I stabbed a finger towards Fian’s control panel. He hit the unlock switch for the co-pilot controls, and gave his usual embarrassed sigh as he completed the required procedure to report a change of pilot. ‘This is Asgard 6 co-pilot, Fian Eklund. I have control.’

I hit my own switch to lock off the main pilot controls, and spoke on broadcast channel again. ‘This is Jarra Tell Morrath, please talk me through the changes to survey plane sensor settings. I know nothing at all about them.’

Dig Site Command gave me a whole set of instructions. I think I was shutting down some of the usual sensor checks for lethal hazards, like radiation which could damage body cells, and high magnetic fields that could play havoc with impact suit material and lift beams, and setting those sensors to check for major life signs instead.

I finished following the instructions, and tried engaging sensors, but a warning light flashed red at me. I was starting to panic when Fian reached across and changed one of the settings. The warning light went out and the sensors engaged.

‘You said you didn’t know about plane sensors.’

‘I don’t,’ he said. ‘I just know that when Dig Site Command told you to set something to 5, you set that one to 55.’

‘I did?’ I shook my head. ‘I’m not sure if I misheard, or the impact suit gloves made …’

‘This is Dig Site Command,’ said the broadcast channel. ‘Asgard 6 survey plane, your sensors are now green. Move to survey start point.’

Whatever I’d done wrong, the sensors were obviously working now. I sat back in relief to watch Fian flying his search pattern.

‘You see what a good idea it was to let me give you flying lessons.’

‘Yes, it’s useful that I can help at a time like this,’ said Fian, ‘but I still don’t have any ambitions to learn to take off, or land, or get my own pilot’s licence.’