Earth Star(89)

‘Unless I manage to smash his guitar first.’ The face of the speaker was painted in complex blue spots, and his ears were delicately pointed and furry, but I recognized Keren’s voice.

‘Stop that Cassandrian leopard!’ yelled Rono.

Keren ran for Alpha corridor, with Rono and the rest of Cassandra 2 in hot pursuit. I stared after them, shaking my head in disbelief, and heard Playdon laughing.

‘Don’t look so appalled, Jarra,’ he said. ‘Cassandra 2 are letting off steam after the tense time they had working on that laboratory in the Eden ruins. It’s good for them, but I’d better go and defend my drum kit.’

I watched him sprint off after Cassandra 2 and gave a confused sigh. ‘Cassandra is in Alpha sector. I thought Alphans were supposed to be dignified!’

Dalmora shook her head. ‘There are wide cultural variations between planets in Alpha sector. Many of them were settled from specific regions of Earth in the first years of Exodus century, while planets in the newer sectors were usually open to anyone from Earth or existing colony worlds.’

‘What’s a gig?’ Fian asked.

‘I think he means the band will be playing,’ I said.

Amalie giggled. ‘Is Playdon really going to play the drums?’

‘Of course he is,’ said Dalmora. ‘Rono is lead guitar. Stephan is on keyboard. Playdon’s playing drums.’ She paused for a second. ‘And I’m playing bass guitar.’

‘No! Really?’ Krath stared at her.

‘Yes. Their regular bass guitar player is over the other side of Ark with the New Tokyo Dig Site teams, so Rono asked me to substitute.’

I scraped the last spoonful of food from the bottom of my carton and ate it. ‘I hope they calm down soon, because I want to get some sleep.’





27





I’d lost track of what time it was in Earth Africa. Judging from Earth Rolling News coverage, half of Ark seemed to be working on a newly invented time zone that counted from the moment of portal lockdown, while the rest were caught up in massive parties and were too powered to care which way was up let alone what time it was.

Fian and I were lounging on cushions and eating breakfast, when Dalmora, Amalie, and Krath, with their retinue of hovering vid bees, came to join us. Since there was still no sign of alien warfare breaking out, it was time for me to start facing up to my personal problems.

‘Can you turn off the vid bees?’ I asked. ‘I need to tell you something private.’

The vid bee team gave me an anxious look, gathered up and packed away their little friends, and settled down to listen. Fian put his arm around me in a gesture of support that I appreciated but seemed to make the audience even more worried.

It was a struggle to speak but I had to. The whole class would find out about my problem with impact suits when we were back at the dig site. Team 1 were my friends, they’d be badly affected by what was happening, and they had a right to hear it first and from me.

‘There are some after effects from the accident.’

Fian’s arm tightened around me, while the other three exchanged glances. Dalmora, naturally, was silently elected their spokesperson.

‘We noticed something was wrong. You have to go back into hospital? More tank time?’

‘No, it’s not medical. Well, it is, but …’ I shook my head and made myself say it. ‘It’s simply that I’m scared.’

The other three looked startled, and Krath spoke. ‘I don’t blame you. I saw the mess …’

Amalie prodded him in the ribs so he broke off, and Dalmora spoke with paranoid care. ‘We understand. You don’t want to go back on a dig site?’

‘The problem doesn’t seem to be the dig site. It’s wearing a suit again. You know what the magnetic field did to the suit. What it made it do to me.’

Dalmora reached out a hand. ‘If there’s anything we can do to help …’

‘Thanks, but I don’t think anyone can help.’

Amalie frowned. ‘What about your studies? I mean, do you stay or …?’

‘Of course Jarra stays.’ Krath’s voice was fierce. ‘Playdon surely can’t …’

‘Playdon has been truly zan,’ I said. ‘He’s given practical certificates to me and Fian. He says we need to finish the theory side of the course but we’ve already done enough …’

I couldn’t say any more. Somehow their sympathy made this even harder. There was a moment of silence, and I realized everyone was looking up. I twisted my head around to see what was so interesting, and found Playdon had joined us. The man must be telepathic, because he always appeared when something was going on.