Earth Star(75)
Fian shrugged. ‘The history helped me understand Betans better, but what really changed my mind was Drago playing that trick on Leveque to try and dodge promotion.’
I blinked. I was deeply thankful Fian was accepting this, but I didn’t see how Drago taking his clothes off had helped. ‘Really?’
‘When I heard only Drago’s own team and Leveque were in the dining hall to see him, I knew it must have been carefully arranged. A fighter team doesn’t have time to worry about privacy when suiting up in emergencies, so Drago’s team probably wouldn’t care, and I couldn’t imagine Leveque being bothered by anything short of a nuclear explosion. I suddenly realized that Drago plays the flirting Betan to tease people, especially me, but he never actually does anything shocking.’
Fian paused for a moment. ‘At that point, it finally occurred to me that Drago couldn’t possibly be the only Betan in the base, and I started looking for clan prefixes in names. I was really surprised by who was Betan. Major Rayne Tar Cameron is so terribly …’
I giggled. ‘Pompous and stuffy?’
‘Well, yes. I can see she’s an excellent Military officer, but she’s horribly formal. Anyway, I’d still be very nervous of other Betan clans, but I’m happy about you joining a Military one. It’ll be a shock to my parents though. I’ll have to pick the right time to tell them, so can we carry on as before while they’re here?’
I sighed. ‘The same routine of pretending you’re a respectable little Deltan. I suppose that means we can’t be together tonight.’
‘We couldn’t anyway,’ said Fian. ‘We’re in hospital and just look at you!’
I was offended. ‘What do you mean? This is my best dress!’
‘Don’t be a nardle,’ said Fian. ‘You look lovely, but your skin is faintly shiny. I remember that from when you hurt your leg. New skin needs a few days out of the tank to harden off before it stops being hypersensitive and I don’t want to hurt you. How much new skin have you got?’
‘98 per cent.’
Fian grimaced. ‘Ugh. Jarra, you got minced. If I’d only been faster …’
‘Don’t you dare to start blaming yourself! You knew perfectly well you should cut the lifeline beam and run. Playdon ordered you to. I ordered you to. Did you listen? No. You did the dumb hero routine, and went for double or quits.’
His grimace was replaced by a smug grin. ‘You know I’m stubborn.’
‘I know you’re a complete idiot. When I heard the explosion, I thought you were a dead idiot. You very nearly were. You were hit in the side by a lot of fragments of sled, and some sharp bits punctured your suit and damaged vital organs. A few minutes longer getting to casualty and …’
He held up a hand to stop me. ‘Don’t say that in front of my parents. There was an accident. We both got hurt. No need to tell them the details.’
‘I understand you not wanting to say how bad it was, I downplay dangers for Candace whenever I can, but your parents should know you’re a hero and saved my life.’
‘I’m not a hero, Jarra, and I don’t want to worry my parents.’
I kept arguing until Fian’s parents arrived, but I never stood a chance of winning. Fian can be frustratingly stubborn at times. Once we had the audience of strict Deltan parents, things got very awkward. In my current mood, I wanted lots of hugs from Fian, but with his mother and father watching us, and his concern about hurting my new skin, I wasn’t even getting my hand held.
I didn’t sleep very well that night. I’d been focusing so hard on the moment when Fian would wake up and everything would be perfect, and the reality wasn’t what I’d expected. Oh, it was zan to see Fian awake and smiling, of course it was, but I’d thought he’d leap at my suggestion of getting married. I’d pictured us dashing off to see Colonel Torrek, and getting his permission, and …
I knew Fian was right. He usually is. I hadn’t thought through the problems of us using Military regulations to get married, and he was just being sensible pointing them out. It was still a big anti-climax though. I tried to concentrate on the fact I’d be joining my clan, having a family, but I was more nervous than happy about that. I’d had the dream of a family dangled in front of me before, only to be snatched away when my parents died, and I was scared to start celebrating too soon in case Drago had made a mistake or my clan changed their minds.
The next morning, I went in to see Fian, expecting to have a few minutes alone with him before his parents arrived, but they were already there. They’d told me what time they were coming, but they were still running on Hercules time, and I’d messed up while I was converting that first to Green time, and then from Green time to Earth Africa time zone.