Earth Star (23 page)

I went out and started tagging again. We’d shifted three more layers of rubble and I was tagging the next when I heard the sensor sled alarm go off. The blocks of glowplas beneath me suddenly shifted and fell downwards. My hover belt, designed to stay a fixed distance above the ground, let me fall after them. Rubble toppled in from either side, attempting to bury me in a glittering tomb, but I was already being yanked back upwards clear of the landslide. Fian had pulled me out with the lifeline.

‘Thanks for the save,’ I said.

‘You’re welcome, Jarra.’

I swung through the air on the end of the lifeline beam, and was lowered neatly on to the clearway next to the tag support sled.

‘Stay clear of the site, Jarra,’ said Playdon. ‘Dalmora and I are still working out what happened.’

I climbed on to the tag support sled, feeling a bit shaky. The unnerving thought had occurred to me that if the ground had given way under my feet while I was using the laser gun, Playdon might have had another amputation on his hands.

After a moment, Playdon spoke. ‘There was a major collapse into some sort of deep underground storage tank. The cavity we were interested in has closed up, so definitely no stasis box down there. There aren’t any other likely spots in this grid square, and this area is highly unstable now, so team 1 should move to the square directly ahead of us.’

I collected our sensor spikes, overrode their settings with four new location codes from Playdon, and moved to our new work site. This grid square contained a glowing building, which looked almost intact. I set up the nearest two sensor spikes.

‘I’ll need to move the tag support sled closer, Jarra,’ said Fian. ‘You’re on the limit of my beam range.’

‘Make sure you keep well clear of the area that collapsed,’ said Playdon. ‘The other sleds should stay on the clearway until we’ve got the sensor net active and checked for hazards.’

Fian drove his sled slowly and cautiously towards me and parked it. ‘You can carry on now, Jarra.’

I checked my third sensor spike reading. ‘Optimal position for the third sensor point is inside the building. Can we move three metres sideways?’

‘That’s over our limit,’ said Dalmora.

I sighed. ‘The building still has the remains of one of those external spiral ramps that the Eden designers loved. I could set the sensor spike on that. That’ll only be a metre sideways, but about four metres too high.’

‘That should work,’ said Dalmora. ‘It’s always easier to compensate for height than for distorting the square.’

I moved carefully up the spiral ramp. ‘I’m in position.’

‘Activate,’ said Dalmora.

I thrust the sensor spike downwards, and it activated. As it did so, the sensor sled alarm shrieked at me in a tone that triggered instant adrenalin. I responded without thought, instinctively leaping off the ramp in the direction of the tag support sled. There were two hazard alarms that you hoped like chaos you’d never hear. Radiation was bad, but magnetic was worse. This was magnetic.

I fell downwards, but only for a second before my impact suit tightened around me, and then I was falling upwards instead. My lifeline was tugging at my back, but that was trying to take me sideways. It was something else that had me in its grip, making me fall upwards, and that meant I was dead.

Playdon shouted on the team circuit. ‘Cut beams. Run!’

My impact suit was crushing me, and my lifeline was battling against the upward force. The lifeline beam was still on! I was already dead, and there was no sense in both of us dying. I managed a strangled yell despite the pressure from the suit. ‘Fian, cut beam!’

There was a strange high-pitched sound, and I wasn’t falling upwards any more, but spinning over and over. Sky, ground, and glowing building whirled frantically around me, and there was a deafening explosion. I knew what that was. That was Fian dying. I would have screamed, but I’d already used the last of the air in my lungs to tell the idiot to cut the beam and save his stupid life. He’d been too nuking stubborn to do what he was told, and now he’d never be stubborn ever again.

The impact suit wouldn’t let me breathe any more, so I couldn’t say the swear words that would have earned me about ten red warnings under the Gamman moral code. I didn’t have time to say anything anyway, because the ground flew up and hit me in the face.

When I woke up, every inch of my skin seemed to be on fire. Impact suits are designed to protect the wearer, but high magnetic fields do terrible things to them, turning them into a torture machine. They contract, crushing the victim inside, their material distorting into a mass of jagged points.

I should have died, pulled helplessly towards whatever was generating that magnetic spike, my suit continuing to squeeze me until I was crushed into pulp. I was in agony, but still alive, because Fian hadn’t cut power to the lifeline beam.

He’d known exactly what would happen, because the safety lectures spell it out. Strong magnetic fields create a power feedback in lift and lifeline beams. That’s a very calm sentence to describe a nightmare situation. When a magnetic alarm goes off, everyone hits the beam emergency power cut off buttons and runs for their lives, praying the sleds won’t explode before they’re out of range. Fian hadn’t done that, he’d pulled me out of the grip of the magnetic field instead, and he’d paid the price for it.

I opened my eyes to see a blurred, demonic red sky swaying drunkenly above me. My eyes still worked, since the strip of special material that let me see out of my impact suit was rigidly inflexible. I could hear my comms too. There was a confusing babble of voices talking on broadcast channel.

‘This is Earth 3. We can come and meet …’

‘Negative! This is Dig Site Command, repeating negative. Sector 21 is now code black. Earth 3, acknowledge that.’

‘This is Earth 3. Acknowledging code black.’

‘This is Dig Site Command. Emergency evac portal 57 is active. Earth Africa Casualty is standing by to receive critical injuries.’

‘This is Asgard 6. Estimate four minutes from portal. Tell them to prep two tanks.’

Playdon’s words were staccato, as he panted for air between them. I must be on a hover stretcher, and Playdon would be running alongside, guiding it with one of the handles. Months ago, I’d helped transport injured members of the Cassandra 2 research team and send them through one of the small, one way, emergency portals that were linked to casualty units. Now I was strapped to a hover stretcher and headed for one myself.

My brain was stupid with pain, but it finally processed Playdon’s words. He’d said tanks. Two tanks. I forced out a single word question. ‘Fian?’

‘Jarra?’ Playdon sounded startled to hear my voice. ‘Fian jumped at the last minute. The blast caught him, and he was hit by flying debris, but his suit says he’s alive.’

I made a noise that was something between a cry of pain and relief. Dalmora spoke, the direction of her breathless voice telling me Playdon was running on one side of my stretcher and Dalmora on the other.

‘Can we give Jarra pain meds?’

‘No!’ Playdon shouted the word. ‘There’s no time and we mustn’t open her suit unless she starts drowning. Hold on, Jarra. It won’t be long now.’

Fian was alive. I concentrated on that and enduring the pain one second at a time. A fragment of my mind chased something that didn’t make sense. How could I drown in an impact suit?

The crimson sky made a sharper swing than usual and stopped moving. What was happening? I couldn’t hear properly now, my ears were full of liquid, and I just caught a murmur of words without meaning. They’d stopped running so we must be at the portal. They’d send the stretchers through first, one at a time, followed by the rest of the class and finally Playdon. I wasn’t moving, which meant they were sending Fian through first.

I waited several interminable seconds, before my stretcher started moving again. They were sending me through the portal, which meant Fian was already safely in casualty. He’d make it now, surely. He wasn’t sick like Joth, just injured. They had to get him in a tank, but …

The face of a woman appeared above me, and she opened the front of my suit hood. The liquid clogging my ears trickled out and I could hear again.

‘Jarra, you’re in Earth Africa Casualty,’ she said. ‘You’ve got whole body surface wounds and have lost a lot of blood, so we’ll sedate you, take off the suit, and get you into a tank.’ She turned her head and shouted. ‘Get the rest of those people out of our way!’

Blood, I thought, that’s how you can drown in an impact suit. I felt a nardle pride in solving the puzzle. The woman turned back towards me, smiled, and held a tube to my neck to give me a shot of sedative. The pain stopped and the world went away.

When I woke up the next time, I was in a bed, I could see Candace smiling down at me, and things didn’t hurt any more. I must have done my time in a tank, been fixed up, but where was …?

‘Fian?’ I demanded.

‘He’s in the next room, Jarra. He’s still in a tank, but he’s making good progress and they expect to decant him tomorrow. There’s absolutely no need to worry.’

I took a moment to absorb that before moving on to the next question. ‘The others?’

‘No one else was hurt,’ said Candace. ‘You’ve been in a whole body regrowth tank for three days.’

I instinctively lifted my hands and looked at them. I seemed to be back in one piece.

‘If you’ve questions about what happened, I should call in Dannel. He’s waiting outside.’

‘Dannel?’ I asked.

‘Yes. Dannel Playdon.’

Lecturer Playdon had a first name? Well, of course he did. I told myself that I was a total nardle, lifted the covers, and peered down to see what I was wearing. I was in a perfectly respectable, hospital white, sleep suit.

‘Something wrong?’ asked Candace.

‘Just checking I’m decently dressed,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to shock Playdon. He’s as conservative on sexual things as a Deltan.’

Candace gave me a funny look. ‘Dannel Playdon
is
Deltan.’

‘What? Asgard is in Gamma sector.’

She sighed. ‘Jarra, your lecturer grew up in Delta sector, but attended a University course on Asgard in Gamma sector and later joined their staff.’

‘Oh.’ Fian had joined a Gamma sector course because Delta sector didn’t do a lot of history teaching. Playdon must have done the same and …

I let the thought drop, because Playdon had arrived. Candace was sitting in one of two chairs by my bed, and Playdon took the other.

‘It’s good to see you looking well, Jarra,’ he said.

‘Thank you, sir, and thank you for getting Fian and myself out of there. It was a risk coming back for us.’

‘I’ve lost one student this year, and I’ve no intention of losing any more. When the alarm sounded, I ran down the clearway with the rest of the class. Fian’s sled exploded, but the others didn’t. I told the class to stay where they were and went back. I didn’t dare use any of the sleds of course, but I picked up two hover stretchers and a hand sensor and went out to collect you. I was watching the magnetic readings on the sensor with every step I took, and I was ready to ditch my suit if necessary.’

I nodded.

‘Fortunately, I didn’t have to try climbing over rubble while wearing just a skintight. You’d been thrown towards the clearway by the lifeline beam, and were out of the magnetic field. Fian was even closer to the clearway, because he was bright enough to jump from his sled the instant he saw the beam break you free from the magnetic pull. He was actually in midair when his sled exploded. Since he was jumping towards the clearway, the blast helpfully hurled him further on his way. He’d probably planned that.’

‘Yes, sir. Fian’s good in a crisis.’

Playdon was watching my face. ‘Don’t worry, Jarra. Fian will make a full recovery.’

‘Yes, sir,’ I repeated.

‘Well, I found you were both alive, so then it was a race to get you to the emergency evac portal. Dalmora, Amalie and Krath disobeyed my explicit orders and followed me out into the rubble to help me with the stretchers. I’m still working out whether I should give them commendations for heroism, or throw them off the course for insubordination.’

He was obviously joking, so I forced a shaky laugh.

‘Enough explanations. How are you feeling, Jarra? Skin sensitive?’

‘A bit.’ I examined the skin on my hands. It looked unnaturally smooth and slightly shiny.

‘You needed 98 per cent dermal regeneration. You know it takes a few days outside a tank for new skin to harden off properly.’

I frowned at my left little finger. I’d been in the tank three days. Had some interfering doctor decided to take the opportunity to amputate and regrow it? If they had, then I’d …

I forgot my little finger. Something more important was wrong. ‘Where’s my ring? What did they do with my ring?’

‘Calm down, Jarra,’ said Candace in her best soothing voice. ‘It’s right here.’

She handed me the crumpled golden blob of metal, and I frantically forced it back on my finger, ignoring the stinging protest from my new skin. I’d fought against wearing a ring, but now it was an important symbol that linked me to Fian.

‘They took off my ring!’ I wailed my outrage.

‘They had to do that, Jarra,’ said Playdon. ‘The skin needed to regrow on your finger and …’

I cut in before he could finish the sentence. ‘I want to see Fian.’

‘I don’t think they …’

I cut him off again. ‘I want to see Fian.’

Playdon glanced at Candace, and she stood up. ‘I’ll ask someone, Jarra, but …’

She went out of the room, and Playdon gave me a worried look. ‘Fian will be out of the tank in another day so it would be better to …’

A day? After what had happened with Joth, I was supposed to wait around, sick with terror, for a whole day? I didn’t say a word, I just glared at Playdon and he shut up.

Candace returned with a male doctor.

‘We don’t allow visitors when a patient is in a tank,’ he said. ‘It can be disturbing to see the regeneration process in action.’

I told him it one word at a time, so the most complete nardle could understand. ‘I. Want. To. See. Fian.’