Now I remembered all the facts Doyle told us back then. When Planet First found intelligent aliens with their own technology, Alien Contact programme would activate. Military plans would swing into action, reallocating Military personnel and resources. Civilians on a constantly updated list of experts would get emergency mails calling them in for instant duty under Alien Contact emergency powers. Alien Contact had absolute authority over everything and everyone, since encountering an advanced alien species would either be the greatest opportunity in history, or the greatest ever threat to the survival of humanity.
Doyle’s monotonous voice had actually managed to make something that dramatic sound boring. Now Fian and I were hurrying across Africa Transit 3, with a trail of hover luggage chasing us, and those words kept repeating in my head. ‘The greatest ever threat to the survival of humanity.’
‘Oh … nuke it,’ I muttered, as we went past the information signs about inter-continental portal charges. ‘This is too nardle.’
‘I know.’ Fian stopped to look around. Earth is the only world with more than one inhabited continent, and he was still confused by Transits and inter-continental portalling.
‘This way,’ I said. ‘This Transit has a dedicated portal continuously open to Earth America, so we just walk through.’
The portal didn’t have time to finish reciting the words about Military traffic before we went through to Earth America, our hover bags following us a second later. I looked around at the location board. We were in America Transit 2. I grabbed Fian’s arm and towed him past the big signs saying ‘Normal Portal Charges Now Apply.’
‘Why can’t you all live on one continent?’ asked Fian. ‘It would save all this long distance portalling.’
‘After Exodus century, there weren’t enough people left to maintain the cities, so they abandoned them and gathered in nearby small communities. There seemed no point in shifting everyone to one continent later on. If humanity keeps expanding, the population of Earth will keep rising, and we’ll need more than one continent anyway.’
‘Oh, that’s true,’ said Fian. ‘One in a thousand of humanity will always need to live here.’
It was actually more than one in a thousand. A few parents of Handicapped kids came with them, and there were the norm kids of Handicapped parents as well. It was the triple ten. The risk of a Handicapped birth was one in ten with two Handicapped parents, one in a hundred with one Handicapped and one norm parent, one in a thousand with two norm parents. I was too embarrassed to discuss that with Fian. If he stuck with me, then our kids would have a one in a hundred risk.
We reached a local portal, Fian entered the code, and the portal started reciting to us. ‘Warning. Your destination is a restricted Military security zone.’ We exchanged nervous looks as it added the usual bit about Military traffic and our journey being free.
‘Could we go anywhere free?’ asked Fian. ‘Any sector?’
I nodded. ‘Military personnel get free travel to help them keep in touch with family and friends.’
‘I wish we could elope to Epsilon.’
‘I’d settle for just being able to portal to an Alpha sector world without dropping dead,’ I said, bitterly.
Fian sighed in sympathy, and counted the luggage to make sure we hadn’t lost any, while I checked the portal destination display. ‘New Mexico,’ I said. ‘I bet we’re going to White Sands. The ships from the solar arrays were trying to land there during the solar super storm.’
Fian nodded, and we both stared at the portal for a moment longer without moving. I finally pulled myself together. In Military families, the first child born into the family after someone’s death in action carries their name and honour on down through the generations. I was the Honour Child of my grandmother, Colonel Jarra Tell Morrath. Only months ago, my parents had also died on Planet First assignments to open up new worlds for humanity. I might only be an ape, but I was a Military Honour Child, the daughter and granddaughter of heroes, and I could face anything, even aliens.
‘We’d better do this.’
Fian nodded, and we stepped through the portal, popping out in a small room. A man in Military uniform got up from his chair and used a scanner on us. I saw he wore a Captain’s insignia.
‘Jarra Tell Morrath and Fian Andrej Eklund,’ he said, and handed each of us a Military forearm lookup. ‘Please go next door for your medical check and then to room 7 at the end of the corridor.’
‘Err, where are we?’ asked Fian, giving the object in his hand a puzzled look.