Earth Star(91)

‘Colony Ten.’ Krath sat up, eyes wide. ‘Amaz! Where’s he going?’

Amalie laughed. ‘Kappa sector of course, but he hasn’t been assigned to a specific planet yet. He’s totally powered about being accepted, but you know the rules when Planet First clears a new planet to go into Colony Ten phase. Those first colonists can’t break quarantine for ten years unless they find something awful wrong with the planet. We’ll be able to call him, but we won’t physically see him again until after that.’

‘It’s a great chance though,’ said Krath. ‘Bonus payments for the first colonists are huge, especially if they have kids, and there’s the land grants and social status as well. It won’t be like being an Adonis Knight of course, but your brother will still be one of the Founding Families on his world, and that …’

Amalie swatted his head with the palm of her hand. ‘He’s more interested in the chance to get a wife than the money or the social rank. Colony Ten always puts 500 male and 500 female colonists on a new planet. Back home, there are ten unmarried men for every unmarried woman, so …’

‘You keep pointing that out,’ said Krath. ‘I’ve got the message. You just need to lift your finger and a dozen men will hurl themselves on their knees and beg to marry you. Couldn’t your brother just go to another sector and meet a girl there?’

‘He could,’ Amalie said, ‘but she might not want to go and live in Epsilon or Kappa, and he wouldn’t want to leave the frontier. Building a new world is special.’

‘You’re set on going back then?’ he asked.

‘When I’ve got my degree, yes.’

‘Nuke it!’ Krath threw himself back on his cushions.

I got the impression Krath and Amalie would be better off without an audience for this conversation. Dalmora was obviously thinking the same thing, because she stood up.

‘I’m playing bass guitar in the … the gig soon, so I’d better go and get ready.’

She headed off. I exchanged glances with Fian, and tried to think of a plausible reason for us to leave as well. Twin chimes from our lookups made me jump nervously and then sigh with relief.

‘Playdon’s sent us a list of subsidiary courses we could study,’ I said. ‘We’d better go and …’

‘He’s a slave-driver,’ said Krath, in tones of dark depression.

Fian and I headed back towards Area 6. ‘Why did Amalie hit Krath when he said Dalmora was on Playdon’s side, and why did you pull that face at them?’ I asked.

Fian sighed. ‘Because Dalmora’s got a crush on Playdon.’

I stopped walking, totally grazzed. Dalmora had never seemed interested in any of our classmates, but … Playdon? Surely not. Playdon wasn’t exactly ancient, he couldn’t be much older than Drago, but he was our lecturer! ‘You must be imagining things.’

He shook his head. ‘At first, I thought I might be, but since we got back from hospital it’s been pretty obvious. You were probably in no state to notice, but Amalie and Krath certainly have. Playdon’s noticed of course, he never misses anything, and he’s carefully avoiding having private conversations with Dalmora. You know how he’d feel about having a relationship with one of his students.’

‘He’d say it was completely inappropriate.’ I started walking again. ‘You should at least think about staying as team 1 tag support, you know. Playdon will be replacing me with Amalie.’

It felt odd to say those words, to picture Amalie taking my place on the dig site and Fian watching over her the way he’d watched over me, but the class needed a functioning dig team 1. If I couldn’t do my job myself, I shouldn’t complain about someone else doing it.

Fian frowned at me. ‘What makes you think he’ll pick Amalie?’

‘Because he offered you the option of running a heavy lift sled, and because he was considering her for team 2 tag leader at the start of the year. Amalie was struggling with the theory work back then, but she’s caught up now and …’ I broke off because there was a strange noise from somewhere ahead of us.

Fian frowned. ‘It sounds like the end of the world.’

‘It must be the band getting ready.’ There was a sudden random flourish of drumbeats. ‘Yes, it’s Rono and the Replays.’

Fian wrinkled his nose. ‘It’s ghastly.’

‘I think it’ll sound better when they’re all playing the same thing.’

‘Do we really have to go and listen to them play?’

‘Playdon’s been totally zan to me, so yes. We will go and listen to the band, Fian. We will smile and applaud madly, no matter how awful they are. Afterwards, we will tell Playdon what a great drum player he is. Is that clear?’