Earth Star(41)

I grinned. ‘Nobody has objected to me stealing it yet.’

‘I have. Repeatedly.’

I ignored this. ‘As I was saying, I hate aliens. Why did they have to make that thing a sphere? It’s unbelievable how many old paintings have weird circular things in them. One more day of …’

I broke off, looking across at the door of the dining hall. ‘Here comes Drago!’

Fian gave a heartfelt groan.

I greeted Drago with a welcoming smile as he joined us at our table. He took my hand, and gave my palm one long and lingering kiss, before giving Fian a teasing wink. Fian grimly concentrated on eating his breakfast.

‘You’re looking even lovelier than ever this morning, Jarra,’ said Drago.

‘He says that to all the girls,’ said a female voice. Captain Marlise Weldon, Drago’s deputy, sat down next to him. She nodded to me and Fian in turn. ‘Major. Captain.’

I nodded back to her, grateful that everyone had stopped the manic saluting. It had taken me days of heartfelt pleading, but I was finally being treated like any other officer instead of a walking Artemis medal. ‘Morning, Captain.’

She looked at my plate. ‘Cheese fluffle again. Of course, you’re only 18, Jarra, you can eat anything you like. Older people, like Drago and I, have to be far more careful.’

Fian laughed, and nearly choked on his drink of frujit.

‘I’m 29, so stop talking about me as if I’m 92!’ said Drago.

‘Did I mention age again?’ asked Marlise, in a voice of startled innocence.

A whole crowd of people came into the dining hall, led by Nia Stone. She went up to the end wall and turned on a vast vid screen.

‘Oh no,’ muttered Drago. ‘They aren’t going to …’

Marlise smiled sweetly at him. ‘Everyone wants to watch your big moment of fame, Drago.’

Drago pushed his plate aside so he could bang his head on the table.

‘You want to be careful,’ said Marlise. ‘At your age, you could hurt yourself doing that.’

He looked up indignantly. ‘I’m only two years older than you.’

She shook her head sadly. ‘Yes, but the doctors did have to start your rejuvenation treatments early.’

It was obvious from Drago’s face that he’d been teased mercilessly about this in the past. ‘One cycle! They did one rejuvenation cycle last year, and it was only because I was in a tank after being injured.’

‘Well, that’s what the doctors said, but we all knew it was really because of the effect of your wild life style.’

Drago’s eyes narrowed. ‘Captain Weldon, shut up. That’s an order!’

She smiled and turned to look at the vid screen. It was set to Earth Rolling News.

‘… temporary extra Transit areas, to prepare for a possible evacuation to Ark,’ said a cheerful young man. The screen showed a single large inter-continental portal to his left, and a whole row of normal local portals on his right.

‘It looks like they’ve put up a standard Military training dome without bothering with any internal walls,’ I said

‘Exactly,’ said Drago. ‘They just need a nice big space to take the portals.’

‘You should be on soon,’ said Marlise.

Drago sighed.

I peered around the room. The people who were just here for the show were standing at the back, leaving the tables for those who were eating either breakfast, lunch, or dinner, depending on their shift.

The young man on the screen wound up his piece on the extra Transit areas. ‘… and now, a vid made yesterday by special permission of the Military.’

A close-up of a female presenter, a real glam girl with glittering makeup, filled the screen. ‘I’m thrilled to be talking to one of the heroic pilots who are defending Earth from the incoming comet debris. The devastatingly handsome Major Drago Tell Dramis.’

She turned, and the image on the screen panned out to show Drago. He gave her a relaxed, charming smile. Whatever he said at that point, was drowned out by a sudden volley of piercing whistles from around the dining hall. I jumped, startled, and guessed from the look on the real Drago’s face that the whistling was some sort of Military custom of ridicule. It died down after a moment, and we could hear the vid again. The presenter was giggling as if Drago had said something complimentary.

‘You’ve had experience of this sort of thing before in the Hera blockade, Major?’

‘That’s right,’ said the screen Drago. ‘Several veterans of Hera are helping out.’

‘Perhaps you could talk us through what you’re doing.’

‘We have several teams of fighter pilots working shifts to keep a continuous guard up in space. Our ships are at a temporary Military base on Earth. We take off, fly through portals up into space, and watch out for trouble.’