Earth Star(33)

I was grazzed at Bergen’s reaction. When I remembered my own conversations with Petra …

‘We’ll give that palaeontologist a try,’ I said. The Nobel winner was still loitering, so I turned back to him. ‘Did you wish to recommend your own substitute, Professor Lee?’

He didn’t say anything. I guessed he was torn between his pride and his desire to remain part of one of the most dramatic events in the history of humanity, so I decided to offer a peace treaty.

‘You could make valuable contributions to this team if you chose to assist. Do you wish to reconsider your position on accepting my authority as team leader?’

He managed an ungracious nod.

‘Good. What historical periods could you cover for us?’

He muttered dates, I added them to the data in my lookup, and slung everything into a planning algorithm we’d used at school to make work plans for the history club excavations. The lookup spat results back at me, and I scanned rapidly through them.

‘We’re looking very thinly spread at the early end of pre-history, but there won’t be much data from that far back. I’ll mail a work plan to each of you, so you can make a start. If you find anything interesting, tell myself or Captain Eklund, because the Colonel says he’ll portal you all to Kappa sector if you bother him again.’

I marched into the small side room that was my office, and Fian followed me. He carefully closed the door, while I flopped down at the larger of the two desks and let out my breath in a heavy sigh.

‘You were amaz,’ said Fian. ‘I’d never even heard of Sputnik.’

I giggled. ‘Neither had I until Major Tar Cameron sent me copies of all the History team messages. The only bit of the ancient space programmes that interested me were the Apollo moon flights.’

Fian laughed. ‘You mean you’d read about Sputnik and Roswell in the team’s own messages?’

I nodded and used my lookup to send a copy of the work plan to each team member. ‘I was lucky Professor Lee didn’t realize that. I was lucky with Professor Chan too. The fact he’s from Earth made all the difference out there.’

‘He was certainly helpful.’

‘I’d better sort out that palaeontologist.’ I tapped rapidly at my lookup. ‘Done.’

Fian blinked. ‘It’s that easy?’

I nodded. ‘I just tell Recruitment a name and within minutes another victim is as grazzed as we were yesterday. We could get Ventrak Rostha himself!’

‘Dalmora’s father makes history vids about modern history. I thought the idea was the aliens might have been here back in pre-history when humanity only lived on Earth.’

‘True, but it would be fun to have Ventrak Rostha.’ I used my lookup to access my personal messages. ‘I’ve got a mail from Issette. Keon’s got an off-world agent to try and sell his light sculptures. Utterly zan!’

‘Didn’t getting an agent involve a lot of effort?’

‘I’m sure Issette did most of the work. There’s a mail from Playdon too.’ I giggled. ‘Even the Alien Contact programme can’t get us out of watching his lectures, because he’s going to send us vids of them. I’ll ask for permission to talk to him about what’s going on, because his advice would be a big help. I can’t tell Issette of course, so I’ll have to make up a reason for being back in Earth America time zone or she’ll be calling me in the middle of the night.’

‘I’d better call my parents this evening.’ Fian paused. ‘Can we talk now?’

We’d been happy, sharing jokes together, but now the sick feeling in my stomach returned. Fian had his stubborn look on his face, which meant I wasn’t going to be able to avoid this.

‘I suppose we’d better.’

‘You’d no idea about the Betan clan?’

I shook my head. ‘When I first asked for information about my parents, their place of birth was listed as Military bases. Nobody has said a word about Beta sector or clans until today, and even Drago only mentioned it in passing. I suppose everyone thought I knew. For chaos sake, no one tells you the blindingly obvious. As a child, I had a random surname given me by Hospital Earth, but at my grandmother’s Honour Ceremony I was given her surname. The clan prefix has been right there in my name ever since, but I’m not used to looking for them.’

I gave Fian a wary look. ‘I suppose you’re not very happy about it.’

‘I’m not ecstatic, no, but I can see you’ve got your wildly enthusiastic look.’

‘Well, you must admit it’s kind of zan to have Tellon Blaze for an ancestor. I’ve always had reservations about Beta sector because of the way they split off from the other sectors during the Second Roman Empire, but that ended a hundred and thirty years ago. Beta sector is still a bit … different, and they’re known for making sex vids, but how many Betans are actually involved in that?’