Earth Star(106)

Fian sat down next to me, and tugged me against him. ‘Not quite,’ he said. ‘The two of us followed you in here, trying to stop you, but when you got down to your underwear the poor man ran for it.’

He started laughing. ‘You could be in serious trouble, Jarra. I don’t know if the Gamma sector moral code gives you amber or red warnings for stripping in front of a lecturer, but given Playdon is from Delta …’

I joined in the laughter. ‘I’m currently on active Military service. Does that get me out of it?’

Fian solemnly shook his head. ‘That makes it worse. I should report you for conduct unbecoming an officer, like Leveque did with Drago.’ He paused. ‘Come to think of it, I may have to. If we find this alien artefact, I’m betting they promote you.’

I stopped laughing. ‘What scares me is what happens when we don’t find anything at all.’





32





The vid projection on the granite wall showed an aerial view overlaid by a targeting screen. Trees rushed by at incredible speed.

‘I’m getting motion sickness just watching this,’ said Rono.

‘This is Zulu One entering final approach,’ said the voice of Commander Drago Tell Dramis. ‘Requesting strike confirmation, sir.’

I was sitting at my command desk, in my impact suit with my hood down. I didn’t know what half the fancy equipment on my desk did, my theory was that most of it was only there to look impressive for the vid bees, but I could switch on my audio link.

‘This is Zulu Field Commander,’ I said. ‘Strike is confirmed. Why the sir? Don’t you outrank me, Drago?’

The minute I asked the question, I felt like biting my tongue off. The command feed was going out live to the newzies, and I was an idiot to betray my ignorance of a Military protocol.

‘I outrank you, but you’re currently my chain of command. As,’ Drago added in a bitter voice, ‘you know perfectly well, Jarra. I do wish everyone would stop rubbing my nose in the fact I’ve just been forcibly promoted.’

Drago had covered up my mistake beautifully and I laughed in relief. This situation was weirdly similar to what had happened at the beginning of this year, when I’d joined a class of norm kids and tried to convince them I was the norm kid of Military parents. Now I was trying to convince humanity that I was their new Tellon Blaze. There was one huge difference though. I wasn’t doing it alone this time. The Military were building up my image as a brilliant Field Commander by feeding me information and covering up my mistakes.

I was bone tired, and desperately wanted to slump back in my chair and yawn, but I forced myself to stay bolt upright, and keep the calm, controlled, alert expression on my face. Some nardle on a news channel might decide to patch in live images of me instead of concentrating on the exciting stuff with the Military aircraft.

‘Committing to attack run … now!’ said Drago.

He must be diving at the ground because the trees on the vid image were coming straight at us now. There were a few nervous gasps from the watching dig team members, and I heard Krath howl in protest.

‘He’s going to crash!’

‘Fox nine!’ yelled Drago.

The image whirled sickeningly as he pulled up his aircraft and banked in a full 360-degree turn. The view stabilized, and an area of trees ahead seemed to blur and then disintegrate.

‘Missile strike confirmed,’ said Drago, as the view froze and zoomed in to show the splintered wreckage of several hundred Griffith hybrids.

‘Zan,’ breathed Fian.

Personally, I felt that was an unnecessarily dramatic way to attack a few defenceless trees. I wondered if Drago had been ordered to show off for the watching multitude, or if it had been his own idea.

‘Looking good, Zulu One,’ I said. ‘We can clear up the rest from ground level. Initiate portal deployment.’

‘Zulu One to Zulu Flight, missile is safely delivered. You are clear to enter target zone.’

‘Zulu Flight to Zulu One, we are entering target zone,’ said the calm voice of Marlise.

I watched a formation of four transport planes fly into view, each dangling a freight-sized portal by a glowing lift beam.

‘The live vid feed for the newzies is watching the portal delivery, and then moving to an update from Colonel Torrek,’ said Dalmora. ‘Relax everyone, we’re shutting down our vid bees now and packing them up ready for the move.’

There was a general sigh of relief from around the dig teams. I wasn’t the only one finding it a strain to have most of humanity watching our every move.

‘We could do with the Military demolishing the trees around Eden Dig Site like that,’ said Playdon.