Earth Star(128)

‘Uh, Candace, I’m a little busy,’ I said.

My ProMum smiled at me from the lookup. ‘I realize that, Jarra. I’ve got a call from Keon that I need to transfer to you. He couldn’t get a call through to you himself, but he worked out I could use my ProMum authority to do it.’

I was bewildered. Earth gave ProParents huge authority where the wellbeing of their ProChildren was concerned, but … why?

‘I’m transferring Keon to you now,’ said Candace.

Her image was replaced by Keon, with Issette peering over his shoulder. ‘Hi Jarra,’ he said, in his usual lazy tones. ‘I know the answers to your problem.’

‘What? How?’

‘They’re three sequences you use in laser light sculptures. You use the patterns to combine light beams and create special effects. I’ve no idea why aliens should set us a test about it, but I’m transmitting the answers to you now.’

I checked what he’d sent, and saw he’d translated the answers into the alien symbols for me. I stared at them for a moment. Did I take this seriously? Did I believe Keon? Yes, I did. If someone as lazy as Keon had gone to this much effort to send me these symbols, he had to be very, very sure he was right.

‘Do we enter one full sequence at a time, or one answer from each?’ I asked.

‘I think you work around, entering one answer from each,’ said Keon, ‘but I’m just making a guess based on the way they’re used.’

‘Thanks, Keon. Stay with me while I work on this.’

I thought frantically for a moment. Commander Leveque was co-ordinating things, and making the decisions on the test solutions. I should send Keon’s answer to him for checking. On the other hand, Leveque wouldn’t understand it either, so his only option would be to pass it on to the Physics team, the team that had included Gaius Devon. They’d know nothing about laser light sculptures, and they’d probably laugh at this solution just because it came from some unqualified ape kid who was studying art.

I stood up and headed for the pillar. Forget consulting anyone else, I was Field Commander, this was my decision to make and I’d made it. If I was wrong to trust Keon, I’d look a bit of a nardle, but I didn’t care. I waited for the scrolling sequence nearest me to reach the right point, and started touching symbols.

‘Major Tell Morrath?’ Leveque’s voice sounded startled. ‘What are you doing? We can’t afford to guess answers, because …’

He stopped talking, because the symbols were flashing as the first answer was accepted. I moved around to the next sequence, entered the first answer for that, and it was accepted as well. I laughed as I moved on to the third sequence. Two correct answers couldn’t be coincidence.

‘An expert has given me a solution,’ I said. ‘I’ll transfer his call to you.’

There was a yelp of protest from my lookup. ‘Jarra, don’t you dare!’

‘Sorry, Keon.’ I laughed again, transferred the call, and beckoned Fian over. ‘Double-check me on this. It would be easy to get muddled about which answer belongs in which sequence, and have to start all over again.’

We entered the symbols together. Tension must have been doing odd things to my head, because this process seemed to take both hours and only a few seconds. As I reached the last one, I paused. ‘Completing sequence now.’

I entered the last set of symbols, they flashed, and then the pillar went black apart from one glowing circle.

‘I think we can assume you touch the circle, Major, and that sends the transmission to the sphere,’ said Leveque.

I took a deep breath. ‘Are we ready for this?’

‘This is Colonel Torrek. Go ahead, Major.’

In the old pictures of the first successful portal experiment, Wallam-Crane says some words he stole from the first moon landing. ‘One small step for a man, one giant leap for humanity.’ Maybe I should have said that at this point too, but it never occurred to me at the time. I was just thinking about all the people who’d helped me to get here and do this. The Military, the dig teams, my classmates, my lecturer, Keon and Candace, but particularly Fian. I turned to him, and held out a hand.

‘We’re in this together.’

He hesitated for a second, and then stepped forward. We linked hands and I counted it down in a breathless voice. ‘Three. Two. One.’

We reached out together and touched the circle. I was tense, expecting an instant response, but seconds slowly passed and nothing seemed to happen. More seconds, a minute now, and still nothing. I wondered if we’d done something wrong, or if the device was broken. I was about to ask Leveque for advice, when swirling ribbons of red, green and blue coloured light suddenly appeared above the pillar, plaiting themselves together in a column that reached up into the rock ceiling.