We all ate breakfast, changed into impact suits, and gathered at the dome exit. I was at fever pitch, impatiently waiting for my first view of Eden, greatest creation of the magicians of the past, while Playdon did his usual count of the class before we left the dome.
He frowned. ‘We’re missing someone.’ He tapped his lookup, and checked suited figures against his list. ‘Joth’s not here.’
Playdon vanished off down the corridor, while I groaned with frustration that Joth had to choose this morning to oversleep. Playdon was back inside a minute. ‘Joth’s lookup and his impact suit are in his room, but he isn’t. Everyone check your own room please and then gather in the hall.’
We all opened our impact suit hoods, tugged them down, and went to search for Joth. Other than our rooms and bathrooms, the dome only had a storage room, portal room, and the hall. It took less than two minutes to establish Joth wasn’t in any of them.
‘Joth was here late yesterday evening,’ said Playdon, ‘I saw him myself. If he portalled out after that, he didn’t check out.’ He turned to look at the remaining members of team 4. ‘Petra, you’re Twoing with him. What happened last night?’
Petra faced him defiantly. ‘That’s personal and not your business.’
‘I have a student missing on one of the highest hazard rated dig sites,’ said Playdon. ‘It’s my business.’
Another of team 4 spoke up. ‘They had a huge fight just after midnight. Something about Fian and Jarra coming back. Our rooms are close together, so the yelling woke us all up.’
‘Yes, if you must know, we had a fight,’ said Petra. ‘Joth yelled at me, I yelled at him, and Joth went off in a sulk. He must have portalled off somewhere, and he was so busy feeling sorry for himself that he forgot to stick his stupid hand on the check-out plate before leaving. There’s no need to make a huge fuss and nose into our private affairs like this.’
Playdon’s lookup chimed and he glanced down at it. ‘Portal Network Administration says our portal hasn’t been used since Jarra and Fian returned yesterday. Joth isn’t here, and he didn’t leave by portal, so he must be outside without a suit.’
I saw Petra’s face go pale with shock. After Playdon’s safety lectures, we all knew exactly why you didn’t set foot outside an Eden Dig Site dome without an impact suit.
‘Team 1, seal suits and come with me,’ said Playdon. ‘Everyone else, stay in the hall and don’t even think of leaving this dome.’
He turned and went out of the room. I hastily followed him, pulling up my impact suit hood and sealing the front.
‘Chaos take it,’ said Playdon as we arrived back at the dome door. ‘Joth’s turned off the safety monitors. No wonder we didn’t know he’d gone out. Jarra, Fian, Amalie, Krath, Dalmora, out you go.’
I could tell Playdon was frantic with worry by the way he actually recited our names as he sent us through the door and the sonic insect screens beyond it. He’d lost one student already, and obviously didn’t intend to lose another.
Once outside, I cast a hasty look around. The early morning rainfall must have only just finished, because the ground was sopping wet and the air was still misty with water vapour. Over to my left, stretched the glorious ruins of Eden. These weren’t just skeletal remains, blackened by ancient fires, like those in New York. Eden had been abandoned for centuries, but it still had the echoes of former greatness. The famous aerial walkways had long since fallen to the ground, but many of the buildings were virtually intact, and they shone with the inner light of the glowplas from which they were built.
Surrounding the dig site was a vast expanse of towering trees. Most of them had the distinctive silvery trunks and reddish leaves of the Griffith hybrid, a fast growing, genetically modified tree that was specially created centuries ago to help the rainforest recover from the era of deforestation. The Griffith hybrid did a great job back then, but now it’s a chaos nuisance around dig sites and settlements, as it takes the rainforest far beyond its original territory. At least two dozen settlements have been defeated by the Griffith hybrid and relocated, and Eden Dig Site Command had to fight a constant war with the trees to defend the ruins of Eden.
I could only spare that one look at our surroundings, because Playdon was already unlocking the huge doors of the sled storage dome.
‘These doors were still locked, so Joth can’t be in there.’
Playdon’s voice had the distinctive echo that meant I was within earshot but also hearing him on my suit’s team circuit. I pictured the rest of the class back in the dining hall, eavesdropping on the conversations on the team circuit to find out what was happening. Petra must be frantic with worry for Joth. If I was in her situation, with Fian missing, I’d …