‘It’s not just that,’ I said. ‘We have to keep quiet about sharing a room, because Fian’s parents are from Delta sector and attitudes there are rather strict.’
‘Oh.’ Candace considered this. ‘I didn’t realize that. How does Fian feel about it? I hope you didn’t push him into anything.’
Fian slowly slid down the wall and sat on the floor, his hand over his mouth, struggling not to burst out laughing.
‘Fian makes his own decisions,’ I said.
He pulled a face at me and cowered, indicating that I terrorized him. There are times when Fian is utterly impossible.
‘It’s very late in your time zone, so I’d better go now,’ I said to Candace. ‘We can talk about Fian and his parents next week. I’ll mail you about what times I’ll be free.’
I turned off the lookup and glared at Fian. ‘Get up off the floor and stop laughing! How dare you pull faces at me when I’m talking to Candace?’
He grinned happily. ‘She approves of me. I’m dependable. I’m a nice Deltan boy who you forced into sharing a room with you.’
I sighed. Candace and my friends all think I bully poor downtrodden Fian. They have absolutely no idea. I’d have more luck trying to bully a concraz wall.
‘You’re a shockingly badly-behaved Deltan boy, who only kept pushing for a Twoing contract because he wanted to tumble me.’
He grinned. ‘That wasn’t my only reason, but it was definitely one of them. I behaved very badly while you were talking to Candace. I think you should throw me across the room and teach me my place.’
With Fian dressed up as Arrack San Domex, the thought was very tempting, but I shook my head. ‘There isn’t time to indulge you by playing Stalea of the Jungle games. We have to change into dress uniforms and go for dinner with the Colonel.’
Fian sighed and got out his dress uniform. ‘Maybe after that?’
I watched Arrack San Domex taking off his clothes. ‘Definitely.’
6
I was scared stiff when we arrived at the door of Colonel Riak Torrek’s quarters. I’d seen vid scenes of formal Military dinners, with tables large enough to land a fighter on, covered with gleaming genuine glassware and surrounded by hundreds of officers. My own dining experience was limited to the chattering chaos of eating with the other kids in Commons at our Next Step, and with my classmates in our dome hall.
Once inside the door, I was hugely relieved to find only three officers lounging in comfortable chairs. There was a table, but it was tucked away against a wall, and just held drinks, a stack of flexiplas plates, and some trays of food. I’d been a nardle to panic. The Colonel wouldn’t be holding fancy dinner parties when Alien Contact programme was active.
There might only be three other officers in the room, but Fian and I were in very select company. One Colonel and two Commanders. Colonel Riak Torrek looked extremely tired, and was wearing a rather crumpled standard uniform. As commanding officer, he could wear whatever he liked of course.
The two Commanders were in dress uniform. One of them was the woman from the briefing, Commander Nia Stone. The other was a dark man with an angular, thoughtful face.
Fian and I saluted, Colonel Torrek pointed at a couple of empty chairs, and we sat down.
‘Jarra Tell Morrath and Fian Eklund, I think you know my deputy, Nia Stone, already. This is her husband, Mason Leveque, our Threat team leader.’
We exchanged nods to acknowledge the introductions.
Colonel Torrek looked at me with amusement. ‘Jarra Tell Morrath causes as much chaos as her grandmother. Since your suggestion at the briefing, we’ve created an Ark team, and we have any number of people working on preparations to portal the civilian population into Ark if the situation worsens. You’ll notice I haven’t had time to shower or change.’
‘Sorry, sir.’
‘Don’t be. I was having nightmares because we couldn’t portal the Handicapped off world. In the event of hostilities, they wouldn’t just be vulnerable to alien attack, but there could be casualties from our own weapons’ fire. Ark has its own self-contained atmosphere and a shield of solid rock. If you have any more bright ideas, I want to hear them.’
He paused. ‘What’s your situation analysis, Jarra?’
I was grazzed by the question, and needed a moment to organize my thoughts. ‘In theory, Earth is the best defended of all our planets, because it has five solar power arrays instead of the usual one. If the sphere’s hostile and came here deliberately, it must have defences that can stand up to planetary power beams.’
He nodded.
‘It may not be hostile though,’ I continued. ‘The sphere could be a random exploration probe. Perhaps it isn’t trying to communicate because the aliens don’t expect there to be other intelligent life in the universe.’