Earth Girl (32 page)

‘Welcome,’ he said. ‘Just the two of you coming?’

‘The others are heading off to Asgard right away. They’re a bit nervous about the portal outage,’ I explained. ‘I’m Jarra, and this is Fian.’

He nodded. ‘Portal outages can be worrying until you get used to them. Welcome, both of you. I’m Rono Kipkibor, senior team leader, but people just call me Rono. Everyone else is in the dining hall.’

He led the way and made introductions. I’ve never been that great at remembering names, so I missed most of them. They were divided into two dig teams. A woman, Jerez, doubled as leader of team 2, or an extra heavy lift operator, whichever was needed. Their team 1 tag leader was a man called Keren.

‘As you would expect, we’re still short two people,’ said Rono. ‘Our team 2 tag leader, Stephan, is making a great recovery in Hospital Earth America. His wife, our team 2 tag support, is staying over there with him. They both send their thanks. We really thought we’d lost Stephan back there.’

‘We were glad to help,’ I said.

Fian gave a shy mumble.

‘It’s a bit embarrassing of course.’ Rono grinned. ‘People with our experience, being rescued by a team who hadn’t been on a dig site for more than two days. Normally, we have our two teams working independently near each other, so if one gets in trouble then the other can dig them out, but when a whole tower comes down and buries the lot of us …’

He broke off and pulled a graphic face of pain. ‘Well, you certainly did a great job saving us. Now, there’s a tradition that a rescued team give a thank you gift to the tag leader who took the risks to save them. We checked the size with Playdon, just shout if it isn’t quite right and we can swap it.’

He looked round, and a couple of the others came forward with a big box.

‘You didn’t need to …’ I said.

‘We must follow the tradition.’ He smiled. ‘Open it.’

I took the box and opened it, wondering what the chaos was inside. I gasped when I saw the contents and lifted it out reverently. My own brand new impact suit. Not one of the standard dome issue, but one of the proper ones the professionals buy themselves.

‘This is …’ I hugged it, completely overwhelmed. ‘This is totally zan. I’ll only ever have my own smell in there with me.’

They all laughed, including Fian.

‘You can get special sprays to customise the colour,’ said Rono. ‘That makes it easier to recognize people.’

Keren grinned. ‘You can spot Rono from a whole sector away. No one else would wear purple and silver.’

Rono aimed a mock punch at him, and shook his head sadly. ‘Ignore Keren. He has no taste at all.’

‘The suit is wonderful,’ I said. ‘Thank you so much. I’m afraid we have to go now and catch up with the rest of our class. They’ll be on Asgard by now, and …’

‘Of course.’

The whole group went back to the portal room with us. As we entered the room, all the portal lights suddenly flashed on green, then rapidly amber and red, as it ran through the lockdown sequence in less than five seconds. The red lights went out and the portal sat there, totally inert.

We all stared at the portal in disbelief.

‘We were supposed to have another six hours,’ said Rono in confusion. ‘I’ve never known the forecasts be more than an hour wrong before. Why did it go through lockdown so fast anyway? It usually takes at least five minutes so people can finish sending stuff through open portals.’

‘We’re stuck?’ asked Fian.

‘I’m afraid so,’ said Rono, ‘but don’t worry. You won’t be in trouble with Playdon. I’ll mail him myself and explain what happened. We’ve got several spare rooms, and it’ll be a pleasure to have you stay with us until the network is back. I expect your class will be back soon after that as well.’

Fian was still looking worried, but I gave him an encouraging smile. ‘We’ll be fine, Fian.’

‘The mystery is how the warning could be six hours wrong, and why lockdown was so fast …’ muttered Rono. ‘We’ll sort some rooms out for you two in a minute, but before that I must see if there’s any information on why the portals went out early.’

Everyone went back to the dining hall of the dome, and suddenly there was a chorus of lookups screaming for attention.

‘That has to be a solar storm update,’ said Rono.

We all checked our lookups. ‘A Carrington event!’ Fian yelled. ‘It’s a Carrington event!’

The rest of us were just standing there, open-mouthed.

‘Well, we’re certainly going to be right in the middle of some history,’ Rono said thoughtfully.

My head was trying to absorb what was happening. This was incredible. I’m no scientist, but everyone knows the effect that solar storms have on portals and the arrays out in space that supply power to all our planets. They’re only a real problem on Earth, because Planet First chooses worlds in systems that only suffer infrequent solar storms. This time Earth wasn’t just being hit by a solar storm, but a Carrington event, which is a massive solar super storm.

‘That’s why the leading edge of the storm hit earlier than expected and took the portal network down,’ I muttered. ‘It’s the same as the original Carrington event back in 1859, when the solar super storm came in much faster than a normal storm.’

‘How bad is this going to be?’ asked Fian.

I waved my hands to indicate ignorance. ‘According to the surviving records, Earth hasn’t had another solar super storm as bad as the one Carrington observed in 1859. It wasn’t much of a problem then, because there were no portals to be affected and very little other technology either. About all they had was a very early electronic communication system called the telegraph. It did something really primitive involving sending electrical signals down wires. The storm made those fail, some parts even caught fire, but it didn’t really matter.’

‘But now we have lots of technology,’ said Fian, grimly.

Rono had turned on the dining hall vid, and set it to show Earth Rolling News channel. A news presenter, looking a bit shocked but also thrilled to be presenting the story of the century, was in mid sentence. ‘… evidence that such a solar super storm occurred on Earth on average about every 500 years. Since then, Earth has prepared and waited for another Carrington event. It’s happening now.’

The news presenter’s eyes flickered, and he paused for a moment. He was obviously getting new information. ‘The Carrington event in 1859 was estimated at seventeen times as powerful as a moderate solar storm. Experts are expecting the current super storm to be even stronger, peaking at eighteen times more powerful than a moderate solar storm.’

He paused again. ‘We are receiving advice … The Earth portal network is already locked down. Earth Power is telling us they expect to lock down and fragment the power grid in one hour to prevent damage. Check your home’s power is fully charged now, also any vital equipment and hover sleds.’

I frowned. They’d learnt as early as the twentieth century what big solar storms could do to a power grid on a planet surface. Fragmenting the grid was standard procedure for a major solar storm, but it might not be enough to defend against a solar super storm.

Rono vanished off for a moment and then reappeared. ‘I’ve just done a triple check. We’re on full power.’

After yet another brief silence, the presenter was talking again. ‘The comms net is remaining open, but we can expect communications to be hit hard. Local data net lookup will be limited to priority system access, and we will probably lose off-world comm links entirely at some point. We’re going to be using multiple redundancy techniques to try and keep the vital links open. This means sending out a lot of simultaneous copies of each transmission, so there may be some interference but they do arrive. This is a huge extra load on the system, so Earth Entertainment is closing down all vid channels other than the Rolling News. We apologise for any interference on the Rolling News channel, which may be reduced to sound only.’

‘No vids,’ said Fian. ‘No data access from lookups. No pictures on the news channels. This is like going back to the dark ages!’

‘The messaging system is expected to go into multiple redundancy within two hours,’ said the presenter. ‘Public information and emergency messages will take priority over private messages which may not be transmitted for several days. Do not abuse the system by flagging private messages as emergencies unless they are. Abuse could delay vital messages to and from the emergency services, endangering life, and culprits will face serious charges.’

‘I’d better call Playdon before the system is out,’ I said. I took out my lookup. ‘I’ve got an error saying there are no free call slots. I’ve never seen that before.’

‘The messaging system must be swamped,’ said Rono. ‘If you can’t get through, then he’ll find out what happened soon enough. This is going to be on all the newzies in every sector.’

I stared at my lookup, waiting for a free call slot. The news presenter was talking in the background.

‘Schools followed standard procedure and closed down immediately they received the warning, so we’ve only a few reports of children stranded. Education Earth wants us to reassure parents and ProParents that all schools are prepared for this situation. Stranded children will be well cared for, and there is no cause for concern.’

My lookup flashed something new. ‘I’ve now made it into the queue for an available call slot,’ I reported. I knew that message. You often got it when you tried to call all your friends to wish them a happy Year Day.

The presenter was chatting again. ‘I’ve just had an update from Hospital Earth. They report that significant numbers of at risk patients did not make it to hospital in time.’

‘That’s bad,’ muttered Fian. ‘That’s very bad. People could die.’

‘If you are an at risk patient, who did not make it to your designated hospital area,’ said the presenter, ‘please go to any medical building in your settlement. If you need assistance to travel there, please contact your settlement services number now. Owners of hover sleds, please contact your settlement services number if you are able to assist with providing emergency transport.’

‘Pity we can’t help,’ said Keren. ‘We’ve got lots of hover sleds, but the nearest settlement is miles away.’

‘I’ve got a call slot!’ I cried.

Rono turned the volume down on the Earth Rolling News and came over to join me. There was some interference on the picture on my lookup, but I could see Playdon. He seemed to be in some sort of hall, with the rest of the class.

‘Jarra!’ said Playdon. ‘I was getting worried. We’re on Asgard and I’ve managed to get rooms for everyone. We’re just waiting for you and Fian.’

As they heard my name, the class gathered up, heads bobbing in and out of the screen view.

‘We won’t be able to make it, sir,’ I said. ‘The Earth portal network went into lockdown six hours early, and we’re still with the Cassandra team. Earth is being hit by a Carrington event, so we won’t be able to call you for several days.’

My words were being sent out from Earth, relayed through Alpha sector, and then on to Asgard in Gamma sector. There was a second of delay before Playdon reacted.

‘What!’ Playdon almost yelled the word, and there were gasps from the class.

‘What’s a Carrington event?’ asked Krath.

‘We made it out just in time,’ said Dalmora.

Playdon ignored them both. ‘Jarra, will you and Fian be safe? How bad will the situation be?’

‘We’ll take care of them,’ Rono told him. ‘Earth is trying to keep the Rolling News and emergency messages operating through the storm, but personal messages will be out, so don’t worry if you don’t hear anything for a few days.’

‘I wish there was something I could do to help,’ Playdon said.

‘We’ll be fine, sir,’ I said. ‘The call system’s overloaded, so I’d better clear this call slot now.’

‘I suppose so,’ said Playdon. ‘Good luck, Jarra, Fian, everyone.’

I could hear a vid come on in the background, and the class turned to look at it. ‘… is that a Carrington event is occurring on Earth. Scientists in every sector will be watching to see how technology designed to …’

I ended the call just as all the lookups yelled at us about priority incoming mail. It was emergency information, mostly what we’d already heard on the news. Rono studied it carefully. He was team leader, so our safety was his responsibility.

‘They recommend everyone finds out the location of their nearest available medical centre now in case of emergencies,’ he said. ‘It’s possible the messaging service fails entirely, so people may not be able to ask for advice.’

There was a strange crackling sound from overhead. Fian leapt nervously in the air, and even the Cassandra team seemed a bit worried.

‘What was that?’ Fian asked.

‘No idea,’ said Rono, looking upwards. ‘The storm shouldn’t be bad enough yet to affect the …’

‘This is Dig Site Command,’ said a disembodied voice.

‘What?’ We all looked round in bewilderment.

The voice continued speaking. ‘Due to the imminent Carrington event, we’ve brought the old inter-dome communication system on line. This is Dig Site Command. If you’re hearing this, please locate the dome communication system controls in your dining hall. They’re probably located behind the food dispensers but it depends when your dome was built. Some domes may have them in the portal room or even the store room.’

Rono was already on his knees behind the food dispensers. ‘All I can find here is dust.’

‘You’re looking for a grey control box,’ said Dig Site Command. ‘The cover is marked I.D.C. If you flip up the cover, you’ll see a control unit similar to the suit ones. If you’re really lucky one of the old handsets is in there as well.’

‘Still no box,’ said Rono. ‘Team 1 search in here. Team 2 check the store room. Jarra and Fian, take a look in the portal room.’

‘Yes, sir.’ I acknowledged the order.

Rono blinked at me. ‘Why are you calling me that?’

‘Sir, since Lecturer Playdon is on Asgard and out of contact, you’re now my commanding officer.’

Rono laughed. ‘Oh yes, you’re the Military Honour Child the dig site was talking about. That was the first Honour Ceremony they’ve ever had at New York Dig Site.’