All Colonel Torrek had to do was find a plausible excuse for the Alien Contact programme to call me and Fian in. We were studying pre-history, so he’d used the History team as a reason. It was a bit surprising, to say the least, that he’d call in a couple of Foundation course students alongside highly renowned experts. A few people would probably raise their eyebrows and comment on him playing favourites because of his feelings for my grandmother, but only Stone and Leveque were in a position to actually ask the Colonel what the chaos he thought he was doing, and they both knew exactly what was going on.
As it turned out, both Fian and I had made some useful contributions, which probably limited the speculation about us. From the point of view of the Military, calling us in had been a great success. From my own point of view, I’d been cold-bloodedly used, set up to be a target for the prejudiced, and I should be furious but …
Nia Stone was right. The stakes here were far too high for me to start whining about hurt feelings.
‘My home planet and everyone I care about are at risk here,’ I said. ‘I’ll do anything it takes to keep them safe. Anything at all.’
‘Thank you. I very much appreciate you taking this so well.’ Nia Stone turned to Drago. ‘No other signs of trouble?’
He shook his head. ‘I’ve been watching Jarra like a hawk, and not a whisper until now, but we must consider the rest of shift 6 as suspect. Even if they weren’t originally prejudiced, they may have been influenced by Maven’s views.’
Nia Stone nodded. ‘Because of their schedule, they’ve had little contact with Jarra. I’ll fix that by swapping shift 6 over with shift 3.’
Drago turned to grin at Fian. ‘Please kiss Jarra in front of them as soon as possible. We were counting on your relationship triggering revealing reactions from any bigots, but we hadn’t allowed for you being Deltan. The pair of you have been so restrained in public that I had to flirt with Jarra myself to try and stir things up.’
There was a shocked gasp from Fian.
‘Which leaves us needing a replacement team leader,’ said Nia Stone. ‘I can fill in there myself for a day or two.’
‘I’m shift 2 leader,’ said Drago. ‘If you’re moving them to shift 3, I could stay out there as leader for a double shift.’
Stone shook her head. ‘Too many tiring hours in an impact suit, Drago. We need everyone out there to be fully alert.’
I glanced at Fian and we headed back to our quarters. I broke the silence as we entered Dome 9. ‘You’re very quiet.’
‘I was thinking about … You don’t mind what they did? They set you up to be insulted.’
‘Given the reason, it would be childish to resent it. I meant what I said. I’d do anything to stop someone like Maven deliberately shooting at the sphere. A few insults don’t matter. I’ve heard plenty of them.’
I hesitated on the brink of telling Fian about Petra, but decided this wasn’t the right time. It was bad enough that Major Maven had tried to spoil Fian’s pleasure in getting our rings, without souring things further by discussing Petra.
‘Well,’ said Fian, ‘if it really doesn’t bother you … Do you believe what Drago just said about the flirting?’
I shook my head. ‘Not a word. Drago’s the finest liar in the Military.’
Fian startled me with a sudden laugh. ‘Jarra, do you realize we’ve been ordered to kiss each other in public? My parents would be horrified, but failing to obey Alien Contact programme is a crime against humanity so … I told you the Colonel recruited me because I was your boyfriend, and I was right!’
He was helpless with laughter now, and I couldn’t help joining in. Eventually, we reached our room and Fian pulled himself together enough to unwrap his small box.
‘Now, we exchange rings!’
I watched him nervously. ‘I hope you like them.’
‘I told you, I’m happy with whatever rings you want.’ He opened his box and frowned at the contents. ‘This is a ring?’
‘It’s flowgold,’ I explained. ‘It moulds to your finger when you wear it, so it’s perfectly safe under an impact suit. When it hasn’t got anything to mould to, it doesn’t look much like anything.’
Fian doubtfully picked up the lump of flowgold, and waited while I unwrapped an equally crumpled golden blob. We solemnly exchanged rings. There was no point at all in this, since they were completely identical, but Fian was keen on the idea and I didn’t want to spoil his fun.
‘So … how do we put them on?’ asked Fian.