Earth Star (7 page)

A hand shot up in the audience.

‘Search team has found nothing in Sol system, and Monitoring team has detected no unknown portal activity,’ said Stone. ‘We’re also running checks on the star systems of our other inhabited worlds. Nothing so far.’

The hand went down again.

‘Our options are to attack or to wait. You all know Premise One of the Alien Contact programme. Conflict should be avoided if possible, since attacking an alien race of inferior technology is unnecessary, while attacking one of superior technology could result in the extinction of the human race. Premise Two tells us if the aliens find us before we find them, we should assume they do have superior technology to us. We must therefore proceed as if the sphere is friendly, while also preparing for the worst-case scenario, where the sphere turns out to be hostile, highly dangerous, and launches a surprise attack.’

There was dead silence in the room as Stone continued. ‘We have fighters in position around the sphere. An inner ring of four, and an outer ring of twelve. Pilots are relieved every four hours, since we don’t want anyone getting tired and careless out there. The inner ring positions are approached at minimum speed. We don’t want a fighter shift change to be misconstrued as an attack.’

The view zoomed out once more. Now the sphere and its surrounding fighters looked tiny, dwarfed by vast sweeping silver sails to the left of the image.

‘As you can see,’ said Stone, ‘the sphere is relatively close to the Earth Africa solar power array. Earth Africa power beam is currently off-line in maintenance mode and focused on the sphere. Power is being supplied to Earth Africa by relay from Earth Asia and Earth America.’

She paused. ‘In the event of hostile action from the sphere, fighter waves 1 and 2 get the kill order and attack. If they fail to destroy their target, we engage Earth Africa power beam. If the sphere can survive a planetary power beam at close range and has significant attack capability … well, we’re in trouble. We initiate our contingency plans for emergency evacuation of the civilian population where possible, engage all our forces, and prepare to pull back to Alpha sector if we lose Earth. Any suggestions or questions?’

My mind cringed. The Military were preparing for the worst-case scenario, where the sphere could survive being the focus of one of Earth’s continental power supply beams. They had contingency plans to evacuate the civilian population where possible.

Those two words, ‘where possible’, said it all. Most of the population of Earth were like me, Handicapped, and couldn’t portal off world to safety. If the Military lost Earth, all the Handicapped would be dead. Not just those alive now, but those born in the future as well.

When I was born on a Military base out in Kappa sector, my immune system started to fail, and I was portalled as a medical emergency pre-empt from Kappa sector to a Hospital Earth Infant Crash unit. I survived, but if future Handicapped babies couldn’t reach Earth …

Worst-case scenario, I reminded myself. It was one small grey sphere out there, not some vast alien armada, at least not yet. On the other hand, it was a small grey sphere that could contain technology at a level far beyond our own. What could the legions of ancient Rome have done to ward off an attack by nuclear missile? Absolutely nothing.

I fought back against a wave of pure terror. The Military had to look nightmare in the face and prepare for the worst, but that didn’t mean it was going to happen.

Hands were up to ask questions, and Stone pointed at someone. As he stood, a disembodied, computer-generated voice introduced him. ‘Captain Liam Granger, Medical team.’

‘We could be facing biological warfare. The bio controls in portals have been thoroughly tested in Planet First, and should prevent transfer to other worlds. Are we monitoring Earth for signs of new diseases, or …?’

‘We’re getting detailed data on every patient needing medical attention on Earth,’ said Stone. ‘We’re using Hospital Earth’s research into a cure for the Handicapped immune system problems as a cover story, claiming the massive data collection is needed by their researchers. We’re also collecting information on animal health issues.’

The Captain sat down. Stone picked another person and they stood.

‘Commander Elith Shirinkin, Search team leader,’ said the computer.

‘What is the political situation? We’re not announcing this to the general civilian population?’

Stone shook her head. ‘As laid down in the Alien Contact charter, the members of Joint Sector High Congress Committee were immediately informed. They convened and elected not to make any announcement until we have a clear indication whether the aliens are friendly or hostile. Tactical decisions remain the sole charge of the Military unless overridden by a vote of full Parliament.’

I’d never taken any interest in exo politics. It wasn’t just that Earth didn’t belong to a sector, so had no representatives in Parliament of Planets let alone Sector High Congress. The Handicapped weren’t even allowed a voice in decisions about their own world, because Earth was run by the main board of Hospital Earth. They were relatively well-intentioned and benevolent rulers, but they were all norms appointed by the sectors so it was effectively a dictatorship,

I ignored the whole sore subject of politics because it made me angry to know I’d never be allowed to vote, but this situation was easy to understand. High Congress Committee didn’t want to tell people and risk starting a panic. Full Parliament couldn’t vote on something that Sector High Congress hadn’t told them was happening. This was totally in the hands of the Military.

‘The aliens came to our home world,’ said Commander Shirinkin. ‘Given the number of inhabited worlds we have, that’s quite a threatening message.’

Stone nodded. ‘That’s why the initial threat assessment was so high. If they deliberately chose to come to Earth then they know all about us. They may even know Earth has a population of ideal hostages, who can’t portal off world to escape.’

Commander Shirinkin sat down and I stuck my hand up. I was surprised when Stone looked at me and nodded. I stood up and got another surprise.

‘Captain Jarra Tell Morrath, History team,’ announced the computer voice.

I blinked. I was on a History team? I could think of a good reason the Military would want a History team, but Fian and I were only pre-history students so why …?

‘Earth is in a period of very high solar storm frequency,’ I said. ‘Not only does the interference from a solar storm bring down the portal network, but we can’t keep ships or solar arrays manned because of the radiation hazard in space.’

Stone nodded. ‘We’ll have to pull out our personnel during a major solar storm. Since Planet First selects colony worlds with low solar storm frequency, Earth is our only inhabited planet with this problem. Threat team are considering the possibility the aliens have chosen to come here for this reason, and are planning to attack during the next major solar storm when we’re at our weakest. Portals won’t be able to transmit from Sol system during a storm, but we can still portal in fighters and crew for the Earth Africa array from Alpha sector. Equipment will be affected by the solar storm, and shields will only protect our people against the radiation for a few hours, so we’ll have to deal with the sphere rapidly.’

She paused. ‘When the situation is stable, we will portal in lifeboats from Alpha to pick up our people and land them on Earth.’

‘Lifeboats?’

Stone smiled. ‘After the Solar 5 incident, we modified some spaceships to be able to enter planetary atmospheres in an emergency and land safely rather than depending on portalling to their destination.’

I sat down. The next question was from a nervous, sandy-haired lad in Lieutenant’s uniform, who gazed frantically up at the ceiling when the computer announced his name and team assignment.

‘If this base is destroyed do we have an Echo base?’

Stone nodded. ‘We are being echoed by bases on Adonis in Alpha sector, and Zeus in Beta sector. They have continuous data feeds, and Echo base Adonis is standing by to take over command, cascading to Echo base Zeus if necessary.’

I’d thought losing Earth was bad enough for a worst-case scenario, but the Military had contingency plans if we lost Alpha sector as well. Where would that leave us tactically? I frantically pictured the three concentric spheres of humanity, all centred on Earth. The innermost sphere was Alpha sector. Beta, Gamma and Delta sectors clustered around it to make up the middle sphere. Of the many sectors in the outermost frontier sphere, we’d only begun to settle Epsilon and Kappa sectors.

I grimaced. If we lost Alpha sector, the heart of humanity’s space, all three of Beta, Gamma and Delta sectors would be exposed on a warfront. What chance would we stand after that? The Military would try, but …

It wouldn’t be my problem. I’d go down with Earth, like all the rest of the Handicapped. Fian might make it out alive, and the rest of our class back at Eden Dig Site, but …

Eden! I madly stuck my hand up again. I shouldn’t have asked about how they’d cope during a solar storm. The Military would obviously have thought of that, but they wouldn’t have thought of this. How could they? Sector and Military schools focused on modern history. I might not be given a chance to ask a second question, but chaos take Military protocol. If necessary, I’d stand up unasked and yell.

Nia Stone must have noticed the frantic urgency in my face, because she gave me a puzzled look and a nod. I shot to my feet and the computer announced me again.

‘In the event of an attack,’ I said, ‘the Handicapped can’t portal off world, but have you considered using Ark?’

She frowned. ‘Can you explain what Ark is for us, Captain?’

I gabbled a hasty explanation based on the official Ark tour information. ‘In the twenty-third century, they had portal technology, but didn’t believe it could ever reach across interstellar distances. They started three ambitious projects to build new habitats for humanity on Earth itself. Eden was a super-city built from scratch in Earth Africa. Atlantis was underwater off the coast of Earth America. Ark was underground in Earth Australia.’

‘Underground,’ Stone repeated. I could tell I had her full attention now. ‘Details, please.’

‘Both Atlantis and Ark were intended to be closed, self-sufficient habitats. Arcologies protected from pollution and climate issues. Ark would be underground, carved out of solid rock, accessible only by portal, with its own recycled air and water. It would grow its own food and manufacture everything it needed. They built Eden, they got as far as carving out the caverns for Ark and shipping the rock out by portal to form the Atlantis reef system, then we got interstellar portals so the whole thing was abandoned in 2310.’

‘That was over four and a half centuries ago,’ Stone said. ‘Ark still exists?’

I nodded. ‘I’ve been on an Ark tour myself. It’s just endless bare granitoid caverns. They built the air purification system as they went along digging the caverns because they needed to breathe, but nothing else was ever installed. Ark was intended to house over a billion people. If we were to use it as a refuge for the Handicapped, they’d have to take lights with them, but the rest … In the twentieth century, there was the Berlin airlift. For about a year, they used aircraft to fly in all the supplies for an entire city. Surely we could do something similar and portal everything in from Alpha sector worlds?’

‘Who has full information on Ark?’ asked Stone.

‘University Earth Australia maintains the air purifiers and takes people on tours.’

‘Right.’ Stone glanced around the hall. ‘If there are no other urgent suggestions, I have to get this moving.’

She was out of the door within seconds.

Fian and I headed back towards our quarters, getting what seemed to be more than our fair share of salutes on the way.

‘I’d never even heard of Ark,’ said Fian.

‘Of course not,’ I said. ‘Eden was completed, people actually lived there, and we excavate the ruins to find their stasis boxes. Atlantis is a forgotten artificial reef system. Ark is just empty caves. Why would off-world historians, even pre-history specialists, be interested in them?’

‘But you’ve actually been to Ark?’

I nodded. ‘My class went there on a school trip when I was 16. Lots of schools go to Ark. The caverns are all manmade and perfectly safe, so they just give you the introductory talk, hand out special helmets with lights, and let you go exploring in the dark. Our school was in Earth Europe, and Ark is in Earth Australia time zone, so we went there in the middle of the night.’

I grinned. ‘It was totally zan. We got to stay up all night, roaming around pitch-dark caverns. Our teacher kept yelling at us to stay together, but of course we didn’t. Issette thought it was spooky, and Cathan kept sneaking up on her and making ghostly noises to make her scream, so I stole his helmet and left him without a light. He had to sit on his own for an hour until someone came by and rescued him.’

Fian laughed. A few weeks earlier, I’d taken Fian to meet all my friends from Next Step, and Cathan kept talking about how he kissed me when we were boy and girling. I said that was a year ago, it was as pleasant as kissing a Cassandrian skunk, and Cathan should shut up about it or I’d throw him across the room. I’d actually done that to him once after I did some unarmed combat classes, but Cathan just smirked and said I couldn’t attack people in public or I’d get arrested. That was when Issette tipped a jug of frujit over his head, Fian called him a rude word that a nice Deltan boy shouldn’t even know, and we all got thrown out of Stigga’s MeetUp.

‘Maeth and Ross went off by themselves,’ I continued, ‘and made the most of being alone in the dark until the teacher caught them and sent them home early in disgrace. It was the best school trip ever.’

We went into our quarters, and I checked the time on the Military lookup attached to my forearm. ‘It’s 17:30 now. We’ll need to change into …’

I broke off as I heard a faint, sad, chiming noise. I’d abandoned my civilian lookup on the table when I changed into my Military uniform, and it was crying for attention. I went over to take a look. ‘Oh chaos!’