Earth Star(47)

Candace bent her head to examine my ring. ‘I’ve never seen flowgold before. It doesn’t look exactly like a rigid ring; it seems to move with your finger. I see it’s plain. You can’t have markings on them like normal Twoing rings?’

I flushed and dodged her eyes. ‘You can, but it’s more expensive. I’ve only got the nardle thing to make Fian happy, so I thought it might as well stay plain.’

‘He’s happy with that?’

‘Happy? He’s been going around, totally powered, for days! Anyone would think we’d eloped to Epsilon the way he’s carrying on. The unmarked ring. The symbolism of open-ended commitment. Lots of nardle romantic stuff.’

‘And how do you feel about it?’

I spotted an interesting bird landing on a tree branch, and turned to look at it. ‘Well, it’s cheaper, and it makes him happy, so why not?’

Candace laughed. ‘You’re still just as bad at discussing things you care about.’

I pulled a face. Candace is a great ProMum, but sometimes she knows me too well.

‘What are your plans for the Ark evacuation, Jarra? I suppose your class will be going off world. Is Fian staying on Earth?’

I welcomed the change of subject, although I had to be careful about what I said. ‘Fian’s parents suggested he should visit them and his friends on Hercules, but he’s insisting on staying with me. I’m not sure about our exact plans. Issette’s class is planning a huge party in Ark, and she’s invited us, or we can go with Lecturer Playdon and the Eden Dig Site evacuation.’

‘Your lecturer is staying on Earth?’

I nodded. ‘He said he missed the solar super storm by going to Asgard, so he’s staying for this. It is a pretty historic occasion after all.’

Candace opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by my lookup chiming frantically. I grabbed it and stared at a flashing mail message. I’d checked out of the base to visit Candace, and set my Military mail to forward any urgent messages to my civilian lookup. This was definitely urgent. The base had gone to war status!

‘Oh nuke! Sorry. Got to go. Accident.’

‘Fian?’ Candace asked, anxiously.

‘No, he’s safe.’ That was true. Sort of. Fian was probably as safe as anyone on this planet, but I didn’t know how safe that was. ‘Must run.’

I sprinted out of the dome. What had happened to send us to war status? It must be about 11:00 hours in Earth America, which meant shift 2 would be up in orbit. Drago would be in one of the four fighters in the inner ring around the sphere, Marlise in the outer ring. They must be in combat now.

I knew my way around Zoo Europe perfectly. It took less than two minutes at a flat-out run to reach the nearest portal. I’d run it in the opposite direction several times when I was late for my meetings with Candace. With every step, I was expecting my lookup to chime again with an Ark evacuation message, but there was nothing.

I started to dial a Europe Transit, but stopped. If we were at war, any Military portal request would automatically be given pre-empt status. I dialled the base instead, feeling sick when the American code was accepted by my European local portal. It was true. Deity aid us, humanity was at war.

I stepped directly from Zoo Europe into Zulu base, and started running again. Fian would be in our quarters, and I had to use an internal portal to get to our accommodation area. Chaos, this base was too big! I sprinted down the last corridor, practically fell through our door, and was deeply thankful to see Fian. Whatever was happening, at least we’d escaped the nightmare of being separated in the middle of an alien attack.

‘Jarra!’ He looked as relieved as I felt.

I gave him a quick hug and gasped for breath. ‘What’s happening?’

‘I don’t know. The base didn’t even go to alert, just straight to war status. I’ve told our team members to go to their quarters, and stand by with their emergency bags ready to evacuate. Was that right?’

‘That was exactly right. We’re non-combatants, so we stay out of the way.’

I snatched my Military lookup from where I’d left it on the table. I was a team leader which should mean … Yes, entering my codes got me the command data feed. I selected the event summary.

‘Oh nuke! The sphere opened fire on Drago’s fighter so the Colonel took the base to war status, ordered all fighter shifts to launch, and gave the kill order.’ I skimmed down more events. ‘Drago’s alive! He overrode the Colonel and cancelled the kill order.’

‘Can Drago override the Colonel?’

‘Yes, Drago’s leader of Attack shift 2, senior officer in the combat area.’ I selected the image feed and sent it to our wall vid. ‘Look! The other fighters have already portalled in.’