Earth Flight (16 page)

‘I think we need a further explanation,’ said Leveque.

‘Sorry, sir. I just …’ I took a deep breath. ‘Before we could signal the alien sphere, we had to answer some test sequences, but I think those were more than just tests. They were our Rosetta stone. When we separate out the messages from the alien sphere, one of them will be saying those sequences. That’s probably all it will be saying, repeating it over and over. The other messages will be packed full of different data, but we look for one that keeps repeating.’

‘Excellent,’ said Colonel Leveque. ‘That …’

He was interrupted by the distinctive sound of a lookup playing the first few notes of the latest song from Issette’s favourite singer, Zen Arrath. I looked in horror at Keon, then realized it was coming from the General Marshal’s lookup. The commander-in-chief of the Military was a Zen Arrath fan!

General Marshal Mai glanced down at his mail message and sighed. ‘The conflict between the two factions on Hestia is escalating, so Parliament of Planets has called an emergency session to authorize sending in peacekeeping forces to evacuate refugees. I’ll have to return to Academy to deal with that, so we’d better move on from the translation problem to the more urgent issue.’

I blinked. What was more urgent than communicating with an alien race?

Colonel Leveque looked pointedly at Keon. ‘Thank you for your contribution.’

Keon tucked his light sculpture cube under his arm, stood up, and ambled out of the room. Colonel Leveque waited until the door was closed behind him before speaking.

‘The Military have been approached by a group of Hospital Earth researchers working on a cure for the Handicapped immune system problem.’

For a second, I was just bewildered by the sheer unexpectedness of his words, but then I was hit by pure fury. Hospital Earth’s researchers had been claiming to be on the verge of a breakthrough for centuries. Generations of the Handicapped had been born, lived their lives hearing empty promises of a nuking cure, reached their hundredth and died. The researchers would never achieve anything other than tormenting us with false hope. I was still struggling to think of a way to say this without swearing when Fian spoke.

‘Sirs, if Hospital Earth are suggesting Commander Tell Morrath should volunteer to test some cure then I wish to protest in the strongest possible terms. Hospital Earth’s research into this problem has already killed at least six of their test subjects.’

‘I assure you, Major, I’d never consider any such suggestion,’ said General Torrek. ‘Please listen to Colonel Leveque.’

‘You two were recently involved in the discovery of an ancient research facility in the ruins of the city of Eden,’ said Leveque. ‘Its research results had been lost in the Earth data net crash, but copies were found on data chips stored in a stasis box. Some of that research involved the Handicapped immune system problem.’

I gasped. I didn’t believe Hospital Earth’s researchers would ever find a way to help the Handicapped, but the magicians who built Eden, Ark, and the California Land Raft could do anything. ‘They’d found a cure?’

Leveque shook his head. ‘Unfortunately, they’d proved a cure was effectively impossible.’

For a split second, I’d imagined myself free to travel to Adonis, to Zeus, to any of the worlds of humanity, but it would never happen. I would never leave Earth. I stared down at the table and fought to keep my face under control.

‘The only potential cure was to override the Handicapped immune system with an artificial whole body control system,’ said Leveque. ‘That isn’t a realistic option. An individually tailored control system would have to be developed for each person, and installed through major surgery with a suicidal risk of fatal consequences.’

Leveque was a specialist in threat assessment. When he said something was suicidally dangerous, I believed him. A few months ago, I might have thrown away my life in a desperate attempt to become human whatever the risks, but now I wouldn’t. Whatever the prejudiced thought, I didn’t need to
become
human. I already
was
human.

‘There is, however, a different answer,’ continued Leveque. ‘The Eden data shows the Handicapped immune system is only adversely affected by conditions on a small percentage of worlds. Unfortunately, the Planet First teams have been deliberately selecting colony worlds of this specific type, because they’re also worlds that experience low levels of solar storms.’

I stared at him, utterly stunned. The interference from solar storms messed up portal transmissions, so humanity chose colony worlds where solar storms were rare events, but that meant they’d been deliberately choosing worlds that would kill people like me. Nuke that!

‘The Military wish to request a modification to Planet First selection criteria,’ said Leveque. ‘This would allow us to select some colony worlds that would suffer regular portal outages due to solar storms, but would also be compatible with the Handicapped immune system.’

My grazzed brain fought to understand his ornate words. Humanity lived on twelve hundred worlds scattered across six sectors of space, and I could never go to any of them, but if they found new worlds for the Handicapped …

‘This issue is now my highest priority,’ said the General Marshal. ‘I’ve just suffered endless weeks of knowing there was a potentially hostile alien probe orbiting Earth and we had no way to evacuate the civilian population off world to safety. The aliens could still prove to be hostile, so I consider it strategically vital to have another planet where we could evacuate the Handicapped. Given Earth is our third highest populated world, I’d prefer several such planets, ideally at least one in each sector.’

A planet for the Handicapped in each sector! That wouldn’t just be good strategically, it could change everything for us. 92 per cent of parents abandoned their Handicapped babies rather than face the stigma and culture shock of moving to Earth, but if parents could just move to another world in their home sector …

‘Changing the Planet First selection criteria requires a vote of full Parliament of Planets,’ added the General Marshal, ‘so we’ll need public opinion on our side to achieve it.’

There was a sick feeling in my stomach. ‘Sir, the prejudiced will fight against this. They claim the Handicapped are less evolved than normal human beings because we can only survive on Earth. All the insults they use for us are based on that. Apes, Neanderthals, throwbacks. The moment one of the Handicapped steps on to another world and doesn’t die, it’ll prove they’re wrong. We just need worlds chosen to have the right conditions for us, exactly the same way that norms do.’

The General Marshal nodded. ‘After my recent interactions with certain members of Joint Sector High Congress Committee, I’m fully aware that we’ll face bitter opposition from those with entrenched prejudice. That’s why I came here today to meet you and Major Eklund.’

Fian and I exchanged startled glances.

‘The vast majority of people have never visited Earth,’ continued the General Marshal, ‘so they’ve never met one of the Handicapped in person. They’d never even seen one of the Handicapped on the vids until General Torrek and I decided to put you into the public spotlight. Now the whole of humanity has not only seen one of the Handicapped on the newzies, but is taking a personal interest in her relationship with a normal born human.’

The General Marshal paused for a moment. ‘The incident with the skunk juice was obviously deeply regrettable, but it generated a huge wave of public sympathy for what the newzies have been describing as two star-crossed lovers. Psych Division felt we could build on this situation to generate the public support needed to get the Planet First changes approved. They released a vid clip of you two kissing so they could study the public reaction.’

I gasped. ‘So that was how the newzies got that clip!’

‘You are on record as having said you’d do anything to help Earth, anything at all, Commander,’ said Colonel Stone. ‘Psych Division assumed that statement was still valid.’

‘Well, it’s valid for me, sir, but …’ I glanced at Fian.

‘It’s valid for me too, sir,’ said Fian. ‘I have a recurring nightmare where I’m forcibly dragged through a portal to safety, while Jarra is left on an Earth being attacked by aliens. We must get these new worlds for the Handicapped.’

‘Excellent,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Psych Division report the vid of you kissing heightened hostility in a small minority of people, but increased sympathy in the rest. The news of the bombing strengthened that sympathy, especially when we released vid images of the blast scene. Psych Division feel a romantic betrothal will bring public support for the Handicapped to a peak, so I’m preparing to approach Parliament of Planets immediately after your betrothal ceremony. If the vote fails, but there’s sufficient support in one particular sector, we would still have a chance of getting that sector to request a planet under the specialist world rules.’

‘The specialist world rules,’ I repeated. ‘You mean like Winter in Gamma sector, sir? They requested a planet much colder than Planet First rules normally allow, to be used for some manufacturing work.’

‘Exactly,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Any sector has the right to request specialist planets within its own territory.’

I felt there was just one flaw in this plan, and that was me. ‘Sir, I’ve never been good at being romantic, especially in public.’

I heard a smothered laugh from Fian, but the General Marshal’s expression was perfectly serious as he replied. ‘You now have the perfect opportunity to work on that, Commander. I’ve been advised that you have a childhood history of impulsive actions and emotional outbursts, beginning as a 2-year-old when you locked a nurse in a store room, so it would be unwise to allow you to give any live interviews.’

The General Marshal knew about me locking evil Nurse Cass in the linen store room! How the chaos could …? I remembered Candace innocently chatting to Leveque and cringed.

‘There is, however, no risk with pre-recorded vid statements,’ continued the General Marshal. ‘Commander Tell Dramis is returning from Zeta sector to assist in making a vid statement from your clan, where you and Major Eklund will talk about your impending betrothal and how much you love each other. I’m pleased to see that Major Eklund’s skin condition has been completely cured. Psych Division felt that spots would spoil the romantic effect.’

At another time, I would have giggled at the appalled expression on Fian’s face as the General Marshal mentioned his spots, but I was too busy with my own worries.

‘But … I won’t know what to say.’

‘That’s not a problem,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Psych Division are writing you a script.’

14

‘You’ll be pleased to hear the vid is being shown on newzie channels in every sector,’ said Drago.

I groaned. The previous day had been a ghastly ordeal, with vid bees mercilessly recording my struggles to say romantic lines about my enduring heartfelt love for Fian. To make matters worse, Fian seemed to be hugely enjoying the whole thing, and the vid technicians kept telling him he was a natural vid star.

‘I was dreadful,’ I said.

‘Psych Division felt you looked endearingly shy,’ said Drago.

I groaned again. I’m not the sort of person who wants to look endearingly shy.

‘My father’s seen it,’ said Fian happily. ‘He’s sent me three furious messages.’

‘Things aren’t getting any better between you two then?’ asked Drago.

Fian shook his head. ‘My father thinks he can just order me to do whatever he wants.’

‘My father thinks that about me too.’ Drago laughed. ‘Mind you, he’s not just on clan council, but a General as well, so most of the time he’s right.’

‘I bet your father doesn’t make the sort of remarks about Marlise that mine makes about Jarra,’ said Fian.

‘Mother would never allow father to be rude about Marlise,’ said Drago. ‘Mother thinks Marlise is a good influence on me.’

‘Your mother is a General too?’ I asked.

Drago shook his head. ‘Mother’s a civilian, so she outranks all of us.’

The three of us were standing in the middle of the base’s newly added Flight Simulation area, facing two of the bulky grey simulators. Raven was on guard duty over by the door, being unnervingly silent and respectful because Drago was here.

‘Jarra seemed to find yesterday very stressful,’ said Drago, ‘so I thought we’d take a break before the ceremony rehearsals tomorrow and have fun with some flight simulation programmes. I know you’ve only handled an aircraft in midair, Fian, so I’ll help you try some take-offs and landings.’

Fian shook his head. ‘I’d rather not. They scare the chaos out of me.’

Drago laughed. ‘I’m not surprised. I’ve seen Jarra taking off in a survey plane, and the way she hammered the thrusters terrified me.’

I blushed. ‘I know I don’t need to hit them so hard, but …’

Drago pulled a sympathetic face. ‘I understand, Jarra. You were dreaming of launching yourself to the stars, like the rockets of the ancient space programme.’

His words gave me an idea. ‘Leveque said the Handicapped need worlds that have solar storms like Earth. Maybe that means what’s important for us isn’t to do with the planet at all but the star it orbits.’

Drago shrugged. ‘Possibly.’

‘In which case, Drago, it could be perfectly safe for you to give me a ride in your fighter up into orbit.’

‘I’ve told you before that rides in my fighter are totally out of the question.’ Drago shuddered. ‘General Torrek wouldn’t just demote me if anything happened to you; he’d make me spend the rest of my life as a supply clerk.’

Drago set the controls on both flight simulators, then he and Fian vanished inside one of them. I sighed and climbed into the other. When I sat in one of the two front seats, holos immediately appeared, and I stared round in confusion. Behind me were rows of holo-generated seats filled with figures in Military impact suits. What the chaos sort of Military ship was this supposed to be? It looked huge, much bigger than the real flight simulator, and surely too big to fit through any portal.