Earth Star(122)

My head blurred, and I stopped moving before I hovered my way straight into a tree trunk. ‘Sir, I’d love to, but are you sure? Don’t you need someone with previous experience?’

I heard him laugh. ‘Jarra, how could there be anyone with previous experience of this job?’

I finally got my brain working. ‘Sir, I wish to volunteer to enter the tunnel.’

‘Major, you have that right, and most of humanity is expecting you to be the person who does it. I don’t have a lot of choice here, but please be careful. I’m going to blame myself if anything happens to you.’ He paused. ‘Captain Eklund has already expressed his wish to accompany you.’

My head had another spinning moment. We’d be going into the unknown. We could hit something as bad as that magnetic spike at Eden Dig Site, and if Fian got hurt again … I was hit by the memory of him in the regrowth tank, his long blond hair drifting around his face, and his side looking like an anatomy vid. I wanted him to stay out of this, to stay safe, but we were in this together, win or lose.

‘Sir,’ I said, ‘Captain Eklund has that right.’





36





‘I can’t believe you’re letting us do this, Jarra,’ said Krath.

‘I certainly can’t believe she’s letting you do this, Krath,’ said Playdon.

I laughed. ‘Who else would I choose? You’re my team and I know I can totally depend on all of you.’

We were alone here. Six people, four sleds, and at least a dozen hovering vid bees. I’d ordered everyone else to portal back to Eden Dig Site, or at least pull back to where the four freight portals circled the dome housing Earth Rolling News. My impression was no one had actually left, and they were all gathered by the freight portals watching Earth Rolling News on their lookups. Staying there was pointless, but I couldn’t blame them for refusing to portal out to tamely watch things from Eden Dig Site.

I gave a last look around. Dalmora’s sensor sled was well clear of the rest of us. Krath and Amalie’s heavy lift sleds were below the landslide and slightly to the right of it. Fian’s tag support sled was a little higher up at the side of the mass of fallen earth and rocks. Over on the access road, a small portal was locked open in case we had to evacuate fast.

‘I think that’s the best we can do,’ I said. ‘If I get in trouble, then Fian pulls me directly towards him. Krath and Amalie, you’ll be moving rocks down to below the landslide. You’re working much closer together than usual, so be very careful the beams don’t intersect. Dalmora and Lecturer Playdon are watching sensors as usual. I’ll need to be warned of any changes other than simple rock and earth movements, whether they seem dangerous or not.’

I switched my comms to speak on broadcast channel. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. There’ll be a lot of experts watching the vid coverage of us working, so I’d like to point out I’ll be deliberately breaking all the usual rules. Normally, I’d be aiming to keep a dig site nice and level to avoid causing any landslides. Today, I want to make the rocks and earth blocking the tunnel entrance fall towards us so we can keep the heavy lift beams as far away as possible from any alien technology.’

‘This is Captain Eklund. I can see this is going to be a really interesting excavation for your long suffering tag support.’

‘This is Major Tell Morrath. Don’t worry, Fian. I’m going to deliberately cause rock slides, but I’ll do my best not to be hit by them.’

I set my comms back to speak on team circuit. ‘We’d better make a start.’

I moved forward and started tagging rocks, tensely listening for any warnings from Dalmora or Playdon. I was using a hover belt. I was firing a tag gun. We were using sensors. Although none of these seemed as likely as lift beams to interact dangerously with alien technology, it was still a minor risk.

I was also terribly aware I was wearing an impact suit. Strong magnetic fields could affect my suit. It was possible some unknown alien technology, beyond our sensors’ ability to detect, could affect it too. There was a horrible crawling sensation as my skin remembered what happened back on Eden Dig Site, and tried to find somewhere to hide from the impact suit fabric in case it suddenly turned into razors.

I tagged the first batch of rocks without any problem, and went across to Fian’s tag support sled. ‘Amalie, try moving the rock nearest to you. If anything odd happens, anything at all, cut power instantly and we all run like chaos for the portal.’

We all watched, holding our breath, as she locked her beam on to the rock and moved it. Nothing disastrous happened.