Earth Flight (43 page)

Authors: Janet Edwards

BOOK: Earth Flight

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‘The Pallas Athena,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Commander Jarra Tell Morrath and Major Fian Eklund.’

The what? I heard a startled gasp from Fian, which confused me even more. I’d never heard of the Pallas Athena medal, so how would Fian know about it?

We stood up again and went up to the podium. I got the new medal pinned to my shoulder, squinted down at it, but couldn’t see it well enough to get any clues. I couldn’t investigate further, because it was time to salute, and then Fian headed back to the seats by himself and the General Marshal stepped down from the podium.

A sick feeling of nerves hit me, but I clenched my fists and forced myself to step up to the empty podium. There is a medal that has its own traditions. It’s always presented last at any medal ceremony, and there are some very special rules about who should present it.

I waited for the audience to quieten down, before saying two words that brought everyone in the arena to their feet. ‘The Artemis.’

I had mixed feelings at this moment. Raven would get the Artemis, but not today. Because of the classified nature of many of their assignments, Military Security officers weren’t presented with their medals until they left active duty.

I was sad that Raven wouldn’t get the Artemis today, but glad that someone else would. Around me, the arena screens showed the vid coverage from months ago that had been classified code black until this moment. I heard shocked gasps from the audience as they saw the alien sphere fire its meteor defence and accidentally catch Drago’s fighter. That was drowned out by the magnified voices of General Torrek taking the base to war status and giving the kill order, and then Drago desperately shouting.

‘Incoming fighters stay back, stay back! Remain at the portals. Do not engage! Do not engage!’

The sequence finished with Drago’s battered fighter coming through the portal to crash land back at base. I finally said the name that everyone was waiting for.

‘Commander Drago Tell Dramis.’

Drago came forward, looking oddly surprised. Only the General Marshal, General Torrek, Fian, myself, and a stray Captain in charge of the vid sequences officially knew about this in advance, but Drago should have guessed it would happen when he wasn’t called up for an individual medal earlier. The fact the chimera weren’t extinct was still a closely guarded secret, so publicly Drago was getting the Artemis for stopping us destroying the alien sphere, but he’d also gone down to Fortuna’s moon knowing the chimera might be there waiting for him.

Well, Drago should have guessed this would happen, but he obviously hadn’t. There was a dazed look in his eyes, and his air of boundless self-confidence was missing for once. I smiled as I pinned the medal to his shoulder, and whispered in his ear.

‘You deserve this far more than I did. I couldn’t have landed on that moon.’

He shook his head. ‘And I couldn’t have faced that operation. No one can say you haven’t earned the Artemis by now, Jarra.’

We both turned to salute the General Marshal and the ranks of the Military, they returned the salute, and the ceremony was over. Drago and I went back to our seats, and everyone in the arena and in the audience relaxed, but no one was leaving. The arena screens were black now, just showing the time counting down slowly to midnight.

I remembered the medal mystery, turned to Fian, and saw he was still looking as grazzed as Drago had been earlier. ‘Fian, what’s the Pallas Athena?’

He stared at me. ‘You don’t know?’

I shook my head. ‘My grandmother had a lot of medals, but not that one.’

‘Last year, there was a major discovery by two researchers at University Mextli who were working in the same area as my father. It really put his nose out of joint when they won the Nobel. One of the two researchers was Military, so he didn’t actually get the Nobel. Military officers are awarded the Pallas Athena medal instead.’

I blinked, and squinted down at the new medal on my shoulder. ‘You mean that’s the Military version of the … But … Why?’

‘The Pallas Athena is for an outstanding contribution to human knowledge. I suppose the General Marshal felt that getting an alien probe to communicate with us, and gaining access to a ruined alien civilization, counts as that. You certainly earned it. I’m not so sure about me, but I’m not complaining.’

He paused and gave a shaky laugh. ‘My father’s in the audience.’

I glanced across at the nearest bank of the audience. Somewhere among the shadowy figures were our friends, Fian’s mother, Candace, my history teacher, the man who’d taught me to fly, and the two kids from Home E161/8822. I hadn’t known Fian’s father was there too. ‘You gave him an arena ticket? You’re friends with him again?’

Fian shook his head. ‘Leveque gave him the ticket, not me. My father admitted he arranged for that Deltan law firm to get the court orders, and he only helped us later because the Apprentices wanted access to the alien world. We still disagree on just about everything, even the protection of humanity laws. I think there should be some flexibility about them, but my father still thinks they should be completely ignored.’

He paused. ‘I wonder what he thought when he saw me get the Pallas Athena. I hope he remembered all the times he told me studying history was a betrayal of our family tradition, and I was a disappointing failure who …’

He broke off because spotlights had flashed on, showing figures walking out into the arena. The members of the main board of Hospital Earth led the way, followed by Aadi Quilla Amarion, First Speaker of Alpha sector, and her honour guard of four Adonis Knights in full scarlet and gold regalia.

They took their positions in the centre of the arena, and the ground beneath them moved upwards so they stood on a raised stage. The Aadi of Alpha sector stepped forward, holding something long and slender that shone silver in the spotlights.

‘The symbolic torch of Alpha sector represents our guardianship of the flame of human civilization. Centuries have passed since it was last presented to a new world.’

She paused. ‘I am here today not to
give
that torch, but to
return
it to the world that lit the flame, to the birthplace of civilization, to the home of humanity, to Earth.’

The president of the board of Hospital Earth stepped forward to join her, and there was a hostile murmur from the crowd around the arena. He waited for the crowd to quieten down before he spoke.

‘Today the role of Hospital Earth changes, as Earth becomes part of Alpha sector and gains representation in Parliament of Planets. It is no longer appropriate for me to act on behalf of Earth. The symbol of Alpha sector should be handed to a citizen of this planet.’

He turned to face me. ‘The symbol of Alpha sector will be received by someone who is not just
an
Earth girl, but
the
Earth girl. Jarra Tell Morrath.’

Spotlights shone on me as I sat there, frozen with shock. The crowd were applauding madly, but I literally couldn’t move. Fian had to stand up, tug me to my feet, and push me towards the stage. I could see my own grazzed face looking at me from the arena screens, as one of the Adonis Knights came to meet me. It was a second before I recognized the resplendent figure with the ceremonial sword at his hip.

‘Please take off your jacket, Jarra,’ Raven whispered.

I was confused for a moment, then understood. I was representing Earth here, not the Military. I slipped off my jacket, revealing my sleeveless tunic, and Raven shepherded me up onto the stage, where I joined the Aadi of Alpha sector in a blaze of light. The arena screens were showing the countdown to midnight. There were only a few seconds to go now, and suddenly the crowd was yelling as if it was a Year Day party.

‘Ten! Nine! Eight!’

Aadi Quilla Amarion lifted her arm to hold the silver torch high above her head. The crowd were still chanting numbers as a flame leapt up from the torch. The spotlights went dark, and now the arena screens all showed giant close-ups of that flame.

‘Three! Two! One!’

The crowd shouted the last numbers, and the Aadi lowered the torch and held it towards me. I took it with nervous fingers, terrified I’d wreck the historic moment by dropping it. There were deafening cheers as I held the torch up in one hand. Earth was part of Alpha sector now!

I saw my image on the arena screens, and realized the real reason I’d been asked to do this wearing a sleeveless tunic. The screens only showed my head and upstretched arm, and in the pitch-dark arena those shone almost as brightly as the torch I was holding.

The screens held that image for a full minute, then fireworks shot upwards, filling the sky above the arena with a glorious rain of blue and silver, the colours of Earth seen from space. Fian came out of the darkness to put his arm round me, and we looked up at the sky as the fireworks above us were echoed by more displays in the distance.

For the past day, the Transits of every continent had been stretched to capacity as most of the population of Earth portalled to Earth Europe to be in the Green Time zone at midnight. There were crowds gathered in every shopping square, public place, and on the hillsides around the Spirit of Man monument. This was the biggest celebration Earth had ever known.

I felt the warmth of Fian’s laughter against my cheek. On Year Day 2790, the two of us would leave Earth to help search the ruins of the alien world, seeking the answers humanity needed. I could escape from the newzies and the people who wanted to kill me, stop acting the Military officer, and return to being what I’d always been at heart. An archaeologist.

I’d dreamed of the stars, and now I was going to them, but I would be back one day. I’d return to the glowing ruins of Eden, the dark caverns of Ark, the breathtaking views of the Roof of the World, and the mad defiance of the California Land Raft. Earth was no longer my prison, but Earth would always be my home.

My name is Jarra Tell Morrath, and you only have to look at me to know I am
the
Earth girl.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Janet Edwards lives in England. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, including a huge amount of science fiction and fantasy. She studied Maths at Oxford, and went on to suffer years of writing unbearably complicated technical documents before deciding to write something that was fun for a change. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework.

Visit Janet at her website:
www.janetedwards.com

Or on Twitter:
@janetedwardsSF

ALSO BY JANET EDWARDS

Earth Girl

Earth Star

Harper
Voyager

An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers Ltd

77–85 Fulham Palace Road

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Harper
Voyager
2014

Cover layout design © HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd 2014

Cover photographs © The Natural History Museum/Alamy (comets). Pictorial Press/Alamy (sun). Alan Graf/Alamy (mountains).

Shutterstock.com
(all other images).

Janet Edwards asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007443512

Ebook Edition © August 2014 ISBN: 9780007443543

Version: 2014-06-24

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