‘It’s just …’
‘Yes?’
‘Surely everyone will expect you to wear an impact suit.’
I stared at him. ‘Oh chaos!’
28
As we headed down to the main hall, I did some urgent thinking. ‘We have two options. First option, you lead the excavation.’
‘Me? Oh no!’ Fian shook his head. ‘Me Captain, you Major.’
‘You know as much about excavations as I do.’
‘I don’t know nearly as much about the Military.’
‘I scanned a lot of texts, watched a lot of vids, that’s all. I don’t really know what I’m doing.’
‘If you don’t know what you’re doing, then you’ve been giving a chaos good impersonation of it, Jarra.’
He had that stubborn look on his face. I sighed and gave in. ‘Second option, I call the Colonel back and tell him I’ve talked him into following up my theory, but totally forgotten I couldn’t wear an impact suit.’
‘How about a third option?’ said Fian. ‘You give instructions from inside a dome. You can watch everything by using vid bees. If something needs a closer inspection, I can go and take a look.’
‘People will think it really peculiar.’
‘So explain it to them,’ said Fian. ‘Remember what Playdon said earlier. It isn’t unusual to have a problem after a serious accident.’
‘It would be horribly embarrassing, but …’ I sighed again. ‘One way or another, I’m going to look a complete nardle. I’ll watch the band and then talk to Colonel Torrek. He’ll have to decide if he’s happy with me telling people about the problem, or if he prefers to put someone else in charge.’
‘So long as it isn’t me.’
‘He could draft Playdon.’
Fian gave a choke of laughter. ‘I don’t think Playdon wants to be Military. If he did, he could have signed up himself years ago.’
We reached the main hall, and saw the band already in position, floating in midair at the far end.
‘What? How?’ Fian stared at them.
Despite my problems, I giggled. ‘They’ve borrowed a few hover belts. Much easier than setting up a stage.’
‘Dalmora looks amaz!’
I looked gloomily at Dalmora. Her black, waist-long hair hung loose, with silver flashes of light flickering in it. The classic beauty of her delicate, dark face was subtly emphasized with makeup. She was dressed in trailing lengths of deepest red material shot through with strands of silver. She was far more than just amaz, she was totally zan, and I knew I would never, ever, look that lovely.
‘Hmmm.’
Fian frowned at me. ‘Jarra! You’re surely not jealous just because I said Dalmora is looking nice.’
‘Of course not. It’s just that when Dalmora dresses up like a vid star, I feel a bit … ordinary.’
Fian grinned. ‘Jarra, trust me, you’re far from ordinary.’
‘I meant … Oh, never mind.’
Krath and Amalie waved at us from the crowd, and we went to join them. A magnified voice echoed around the hall.
‘This is Dig Site Command. Last chance to take refuge up in the corridors everyone. We’re about to go code black, with Rono and the Replays!’
‘Hit it!’ yelled Rono.
The band went wild, and the music rolled over us. I’d heard plenty of music on vids and recordings of course, and heard people playing guitars, but nothing like this. I could almost physically feel the rhythm of the drum beats.
‘Zan!’ said Krath.
‘It’s … not that bad.’ Fian stared wide-eyed at the floating band.
I was struggling with the words. I didn’t know how much sense there was in them to start with, and archaisms sometimes didn’t translate well into Language, but the music was fun. Rono did most of the singing, but Playdon and Stephan joined in for choruses. Dalmora didn’t seem to be singing. She’d probably been too busy learning her guitar part to worry about the words.
The first song finished, and the audience applauded. There were obviously some long-term fans here, because some of the people at the front had been singing along with the incomprehensible choruses. They now started yelling requests. Rono leaned forward to listen and then turned to Playdon. ‘Shall we?’
‘Why not.’ Playdon gave his evil smile. ‘Some of my class are here. Listen closely, Asgard 6. There are a lot of twentieth-century pre-history references in this. I’ll test you later on how many you recognize.’
‘A test?’ Krath said. ‘He can’t be serious.’
Fian laughed. ‘I bet he is.’
The band started playing something about how they didn’t start a fire. I caught enough of the words Rono was hammering out to realize Playdon was right about the pre-history references, but they were coming far too fast for me to follow them. By now, the front ranks of the audience were making vague dancing motions, and by song three Krath and Fian had joined in.