Earth Star(19)
‘The aliens came to our home world,’ said Commander Shirinkin. ‘Given the number of inhabited worlds we have, that’s quite a threatening message.’
Stone nodded. ‘That’s why the initial threat assessment was so high. If they deliberately chose to come to Earth then they know all about us. They may even know Earth has a population of ideal hostages, who can’t portal off world to escape.’
Commander Shirinkin sat down and I stuck my hand up. I was surprised when Stone looked at me and nodded. I stood up and got another surprise.
‘Captain Jarra Tell Morrath, History team,’ announced the computer voice.
I blinked. I was on a History team? I could think of a good reason the Military would want a History team, but Fian and I were only pre-history students so why …?
‘Earth is in a period of very high solar storm frequency,’ I said. ‘Not only does the interference from a solar storm bring down the portal network, but we can’t keep ships or solar arrays manned because of the radiation hazard in space.’
Stone nodded. ‘We’ll have to pull out our personnel during a major solar storm. Since Planet First selects colony worlds with low solar storm frequency, Earth is our only inhabited planet with this problem. Threat team are considering the possibility the aliens have chosen to come here for this reason, and are planning to attack during the next major solar storm when we’re at our weakest. Portals won’t be able to transmit from Sol system during a storm, but we can still portal in fighters and crew for the Earth Africa array from Alpha sector. Equipment will be affected by the solar storm, and shields will only protect our people against the radiation for a few hours, so we’ll have to deal with the sphere rapidly.’
She paused. ‘When the situation is stable, we will portal in lifeboats from Alpha to pick up our people and land them on Earth.’
‘Lifeboats?’
Stone smiled. ‘After the Solar 5 incident, we modified some spaceships to be able to enter planetary atmospheres in an emergency and land safely rather than depending on portalling to their destination.’
I sat down. The next question was from a nervous, sandy-haired lad in Lieutenant’s uniform, who gazed frantically up at the ceiling when the computer announced his name and team assignment.
‘If this base is destroyed do we have an Echo base?’
Stone nodded. ‘We are being echoed by bases on Adonis in Alpha sector, and Zeus in Beta sector. They have continuous data feeds, and Echo base Adonis is standing by to take over command, cascading to Echo base Zeus if necessary.’
I’d thought losing Earth was bad enough for a worst-case scenario, but the Military had contingency plans if we lost Alpha sector as well. Where would that leave us tactically? I frantically pictured the three concentric spheres of humanity, all centred on Earth. The innermost sphere was Alpha sector. Beta, Gamma and Delta sectors clustered around it to make up the middle sphere. Of the many sectors in the outermost frontier sphere, we’d only begun to settle Epsilon and Kappa sectors.
I grimaced. If we lost Alpha sector, the heart of humanity’s space, all three of Beta, Gamma and Delta sectors would be exposed on a warfront. What chance would we stand after that? The Military would try, but …
It wouldn’t be my problem. I’d go down with Earth, like all the rest of the Handicapped. Fian might make it out alive, and the rest of our class back at Eden Dig Site, but …
Eden! I madly stuck my hand up again. I shouldn’t have asked about how they’d cope during a solar storm. The Military would obviously have thought of that, but they wouldn’t have thought of this. How could they? Sector and Military schools focused on modern history. I might not be given a chance to ask a second question, but chaos take Military protocol. If necessary, I’d stand up unasked and yell.
Nia Stone must have noticed the frantic urgency in my face, because she gave me a puzzled look and a nod. I shot to my feet and the computer announced me again.
‘In the event of an attack,’ I said, ‘the Handicapped can’t portal off world, but have you considered using Ark?’
She frowned. ‘Can you explain what Ark is for us, Captain?’
I gabbled a hasty explanation based on the official Ark tour information. ‘In the twenty-third century, they had portal technology, but didn’t believe it could ever reach across interstellar distances. They started three ambitious projects to build new habitats for humanity on Earth itself. Eden was a super-city built from scratch in Earth Africa. Atlantis was underwater off the coast of Earth America. Ark was underground in Earth Australia.’