Earth Star(109)

‘I hope this sled has sonic screens,’ said Playdon. ‘I’d hate us to let ants in there.’

I laughed. ‘It’s designed to be used on Planet First. I’m sure the screening can handle rainforest conditions.’

I went up to the door, and sonics instantly cut in, together with some strange coloured light effects. The others came to join me and we waited for the door to open.

‘What are the lights for?’ asked Fian.

‘Scans to check only human life forms are in the door area before it opens.’

‘We could be here for weeks,’ said Fian. ‘Krath won’t qualify.’

‘Shut up!’ said Krath. ‘I don’t mind being teased, but I’m not having …’

The door opened and he forgot about complaining as he bounced inside and looked around nosily. ‘Utterly zan!’ He gestured at the complex control bank at the front of the sled. ‘What does all this do?’

We followed him inside, tugged down our hoods, and piled the uniform and vid bee cases in a corner. ‘No idea,’ I said. ‘We certainly won’t need it all. There’s a chimera detector in there somewhere.’

Krath gave a dignified sniff of disbelief.

‘Truly. Thetis was over a quarter of a millennium ago, but the Military are still paranoid about it and following the standing orders set up by Tellon Blaze. Every sled, ship and dome has a sensor that gives an alarm if it detects the distinctive body chemistry of chimera. They’ve hit a couple of other species on Planet First which triggered those alarms and they rejected the planets for colonization because of it. They appeared harmless but …’

Krath started investigating the rest of the sled. ‘This is so amaz. You’ve got everything. Food, drinks, pull-out couches.’ He pulled out a couch, shut it away again, and opened a cubicle door. ‘Bathroom too. You could live in here for days.’

I nodded. ‘People often do.’

‘Krath,’ said Playdon, ‘don’t play with the shower.’

Krath reluctantly closed the door again. ‘I just wanted to see how …’

My lookup chimed, and I checked it. ‘Freight portals are operational. We can head to Zulu.’

Fian and I took our seats at the front of the sled, and examined the control panel. ‘Want to drive?’ I asked.

‘Me? Why me?’

‘I’m so tired, I’d probably drive straight into a tree. The central basic controls look the same as any hover sled, but I wouldn’t play with any of the others.’

‘I won’t.’ Fian took the sled up on its hovers and turned it smoothly to face the portal. ‘Does someone have to get out and …?’

‘There’s an autodial.’ Krath leaned over Fian’s shoulder to point at the control.

‘Thank you.’ Fian reached for the autodial and laughed. ‘Someone’s already entered the Zulu Dig Site code for us.’

I giggled. ‘The Military obviously don’t trust me to enter a portal code solo.’

Fian tapped the autodial, the freight portal ahead of us lit up, and we drove through to Zulu Dig Site and straight into a mass of broken branches.

‘It didn’t look as bad as this from the aerial view,’ said Amalie.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Oh well, Earth 2 will soon tidy up.’

Fian increased the height of the hovers, so we rose up above the worst of the litter. We could see the whole clearing now, and the four portals around the edge.

‘Where should we park?’ asked Fian.

‘Try the middle,’ I said. ‘The blast should have thrown the wreckage outwards.’

We drove across to the centre of the clearing, and found this had a thick carpet of wood chips. Two of the other freight portals were glowing now. A mobile Dig Site Command sled came through one of them and drove over to park near us. A whole procession of sleds of assorted types and sizes came through the other portal and figures in impact suits jumped off them and started work. The Earth 2 team had obviously done some planning in advance, because they instantly divided into two groups. The first used heavy lift sleds to drag branches into a pile, while the second unloaded pieces of mobile dome from a transport.

‘We should start Jarra’s site tour now,’ said Dalmora. ‘There’s a lot of action out there for viewers to watch.’

I groaned. ‘I’m bound to say something stupid.’

She collected a vid bee case. ‘Don’t worry, Jarra. The Military will edit out any mistakes before they give it to the newzies. Just imagine you’re talking to a friend who doesn’t know anything about dig sites. The way you were relaxed enough to make casual jokes to Commander Tell Dramis earlier, gave a very reassuring impression to people. You should try for the same effect again this time.’