Earth Girl (36 page)

‘But what would you really do?’

‘My ProMum can probably get me transferred to a University Earth course. Literature or something where I’ll be safely out of the way.’

‘But you love history,’ said Fian. ‘The look in your eyes when you talk about it … No one could fake that.’

‘I can’t go to another pre-history course,’ I said. ‘I’ve attracted far too much attention on New York Dig Site, and someone would spot me as the girl from Asgard 6.’

‘You aren’t leaving the class,’ said Fian.

I shook my head. ‘I can’t just go back and carry on lying to them all. I can’t face that again, and it would never work anyway. Even if I didn’t trip myself up with my own lies, people would still find out I’m Handicapped. It’s been pure luck that I haven’t already run into someone who knew I was Handicapped because they’d met me on New York Fringe or one of the other sites. I suppose the change of surname at the Honour Ceremony helped, but flying that plane was inviting disaster.’

‘Why was flying the plane so bad?’

‘Fian, don’t you realize how few pilots there are? When I was at New York Fringe seven months ago, there was one professional pilot covering both New York Main and the Fringe. At any time, there would probably be two or three amateur pilots on dig site teams to help him out. The professional pilot was about to retire, and he was running a final full survey of the Fringe before leaving. I got him to teach me to fly while he did it.’

I shook my head. ‘Think about the situation. Dig Site Command haven’t found a replacement professional pilot yet, and they’re going to be even more interested than usual in the amateur pilots on the dig teams. Someone is going to look at the Fringe records to check my flying history, or mention my name to people on New York Fringe. Guess what? Fringe never heard of a Military girl called Jarra Tell Morrath learning to fly there. The only person to learn to fly on Fringe in the last three years was an ape girl, and by a strange coincidence her name was Jarra as well. It’ll take them about two seconds to work out what that means.’

‘So, we have to assume people will find out you’re Handicapped,’ said Fian, thoughtfully.

‘Exactly. That means I have to leave as fast as possible. If the new pilot vanishes then perhaps no one will bother asking Fringe about her. I can’t guarantee it, but it’s the best I can do.’

‘I already told you that you aren’t leaving,’ said Fian.

I stared at him. Of course, that did me no good at all. You can’t tell much about what someone is thinking when they’re inside an impact suit. The face is just a vague blur behind the impact suit material, and because impact suits are so restrictive even body language doesn’t really work.

‘Fian, I have to leave. That’s the only fair way. I tricked you into signing up to a Twoing contract with an ape. I can’t undo that. The only thing I can do to help is leave.’

‘But I’m not sure I want you to do that,’ said Fian. ‘Of course I was angry when I found out. I’m still angry for that matter. You lied to me right from the start. Maybe later you believed what you were saying, but …’

He paused for a moment. ‘Jarra, I need time to think about this, and I need to understand exactly what happened. Tell me the whole story, right from the beginning. I’m confused about which people are real, and which were made up, and what you knew at the start and what you found out later. I need to get it sorted out in my head, so please explain.’

‘What’s the point? It won’t change anything.’

‘Jarra, a few hours ago I was incredibly happy, and now my life has fallen apart. I think you owe me a proper explanation, don’t you?’

‘It’s a long story.’

He shrugged. ‘This is a long sled ride.’

So I told Fian all of it, starting with the crazy ape kid in her room in Next Step, and he just sat there listening. By the time I finished, the broadcast channel was beginning to get busy. Teams were arriving at intersection 3, and Dig Site Command sent two of the Earth teams to take an initial look at the crash site.

‘Sounds like we have quite a few Earth teams here,’ said Fian. ‘That makes sense I suppose.’

That was it? I’d just told him my whole mad story, and he wasn’t strangling me, he wasn’t yelling at me, he wasn’t saying a word about it. He was doing the dig site equivalent of discussing the weather. What the chaos did that mean?

It took me a second before I realized it meant Fian was doing the right thing, the sensible thing. We were here to rescue people, and that meant playing our part as tag leader and tag support, not fighting with each other. When the Military trapped on Solar 5 were safe, Fian could yell at me all he wanted, but not now. I forced myself to answer him.

‘Well, obviously us apes don’t run away off world during a portal outage,’ I said.

‘Stop calling yourself an ape, or I’ll start calling myself an exo,’ said Fian. ‘Plenty of expert Earth teams is good news. How will we manage to dig in all this snow? You won’t be able to see the rocks to tag them.’

‘I think a crash landing spaceship, with hot shields from entering the atmosphere, might have melted the snow a bit,’ I said.

‘Good point,’ said Fian.

‘I’ve just reported that we’re approaching intersection 3,’ said Rono on the team circuit. ‘Dig Site Command already has enough teams assembling mobile domes, so we’re to park our sleds and take a break from the impact suits at the base camp. There should be some food there when they’ve got things organized.’

Fian and I peered round the side of the orange cover, and saw what was ahead. A line of sleds that looked like a vid scene of a pre-history traffic jam, and a bunch of domes that were either complete or half assembled.

‘That’s a lot of mobile domes,’ Fian said in awe. ‘I make it ten. We’re building our own settlement here.’

‘That’s a lot of sleds,’ I said. ‘We’d better remember where we park ours.’

Rono pulled our sled in at the side of the clearway, and the rest of Cassandra 2 parked neatly behind us. The dumper sleds from Thor 3 drove straight on. They seemed to have instructions to head somewhere specific.

We hiked along the uneven surface of the clearway, to reach the gaggle of domes. Someone was helpfully writing on the doors in large letters. Medical 1, Medical 2, Food, and three Rest Rooms were already labelled.

‘Food first,’ Rono led the way into the dome marked ‘Food’, and we lowered the hoods of our impact suits.

Inside, several people in suits labelled Achilles 1 were unloading boxes of packaged food. Upturned boxes were being used as counters holding trays of drinks and food. I noticed masses of standard food dispenser cakes among the packaged stuff. Presumably someone from Achilles 1 had had the bright idea of getting those from their food dispensers and bringing them along.

There was another team ahead of us, so we formed an orderly queue. Fortunately, there was no risk of the cake running out before we got there. There were more teams arriving in the dome and joining the queue behind us, so once we had the food we took it across to one of the domes labelled ‘Rest Room’, and joined a crowd of people who were already sitting on the floor and eating. The heat panels were on maximum and there was a stack of thin metallic emergency blankets. It was blizz to take off my impact suit and wrap myself in a blanket. You learn not to be too modest on camping trips, and none of the people in this dome were leering Betans, but the blankets were still nice for more than just warmth. It’s a bit embarrassing wearing just a skintight in front of a crowd of strangers.

Fian had come to sit next to me, and I looked nervously at his face. He seemed strained, but quite calm and a bit thoughtful. He spotted me looking at him, and his eyes flickered round the members of Cassandra 2 sitting around us. He leaned across to whisper in my ear. ‘We can’t talk here, but you aren’t leaving. We’re going to find a way to sort this out.’

That was nice, but unrealistic. I whispered back. ‘We can’t. I’m an ape.’

Fian frowned at me, and I got another whisper in my ear. ‘Shut up. The clueless exo is in charge now. You got yourself in trouble as usual, and your tag support has to rescue you.’

I suddenly wanted to giggle and cry at the same time. Things were too big a mess to sort out, but at least Fian didn’t seem to hate me anymore. I couldn’t cry in front of all these people, and important things were happening on the broadcast channel, so I tried to concentrate on that.

‘This is Dig Site Command. The crash site is five minutes east along the Loop from our base camp, and then a short distance due north across the rubble. We’re marking the safest route with glows, so stick to it. No taking short cuts in any circumstances. We’re running this rescue under the same procedures as a multi team dig, though we’ve obviously got more teams involved than any previous operation. Pereth of Earth 2 has handed over team command to his deputy and will be our Site Leader. I think most of you will know Pereth.’

I glanced across at Rono. ‘Pereth is good,’ he said simply.

‘This is Site Leader Pereth,’ said a new voice on the broadcast channel. ‘Dig Site Command are just parking their sleds at the base camp and getting properly set up, so I’ll give you a situation report while they do that. Bear with me if I go quiet occasionally, I’m running a site as well as talking to you.’

There was a short pause before he continued. ‘We can’t get a proper sensor net up yet, and naturally sensors are being badly affected by the solar storm, but we’ve located where the ship is buried. They seem to have hit a tower cluster and brought down two towers on top of them. There are two further towers making the area very hazardous, so our first step is taking those down. Earth 2 and Earth 8 are setting charges at the moment.’

‘He sounds so relaxed.’ Fian shook his head in amazement.

‘When the towers are down,’ said Pereth, ‘we can start organizing the main rescue work. We have a lot of teams with substitutes from one, or in some cases two other teams, which is potentially confusing. Since the most urgent instructions are likely to be going to the tag leaders I’ll be addressing teams by the team designation of their tag leader. Make sure you know what that is and remember it.’

Rono laughed. ‘Team 2, that means you’re designated Asgard 6 for the rescue.’

‘I’m going to have twenty-four working teams on the site,’ said Pereth, ‘and this is going to be a clock excavation. You’ll be working as double teams, and obviously I’ll keep people together where possible. As usual for the clock, positions are based on the ancient clock face. Earth 2 teams 1 and 2 are together at one o’clock. Cassandra 2 and Asgard 6 are at two o’clock.’ He ran through a whole list of team names.

‘What’s a clock excavation?’ Fian asked me in a whisper.

I shrugged. I didn’t know either.

Rono pulled a face. ‘Twenty-four tag leaders on site … I’m glad I’m not running this. We usually do a clock with six, and the previous highest ever was twelve.’

‘I think Dig Site Command are back with us now,’ said Pereth, ‘so over to them.’

‘This is Dig Site Command. Solar 5 are you on our broadcast channel yet?’

‘This is Solar 5, Colonel Riak Torrek commanding.’

Fian raised an eyebrow at me. ‘The Colonel who did your Honour Ceremony,’ he said in a low voice.

I nodded.

‘This is Dig Site Command. Is your ship still level and the shields green? We need to blow up two ruined skyscrapers near you and your area will be hit by shockwaves and rubble.’

‘This is Solar 5. We’re within five degrees of horizontal, and the shields are stable, but you shouldn’t attempt this. It’s our job to protect civilians, not put them at risk rescuing us.’

‘This is Dig Site Command. We aren’t civilians, we’re archaeologists! You’ve already breached site regulations by entering New York Main without proper clearance, so we expect you to quietly follow instructions.’

The Colonel laughed. ‘We apologize for failing to get clearance. We were far off our planned flight path, losing control, and didn’t know where settlements would be. I’d been on your dig site for an Honour Ceremony recently, and the ruins are obvious from the air. I knew no one would be in them during a solar storm, so I aimed for the middle.’

Rono gave me a startled look. ‘Solar 5 crashed here because of Jarra’s Honour Ceremony!’

I was grazzed, but Fian gave a sudden laugh. ‘Crazy things always happen around her.’

Pereth was back on the broadcast channel. ‘Earth 2 and Earth 8, status check please.’

‘This is Earth 2, charges set and withdrawing from site.’

‘This is Earth 8, final charge just set.’

‘This is Site Leader. Withdraw to Loop everyone.’

‘I’ve got to see this,’ said Rono, and he started putting his impact suit on.

Rono wasn’t the only one. Everyone in our dome started putting on suits. When we got outside there was a crowd standing there. I spared a moment to look at the bulky enclosed sleds labelled ‘Mobile Command’, and then joined the rest in staring north east at the two nearest ruined towers.

‘This is Site Leader. Solar 5, seal your suits, check shields, and report when braced for impact please.’

‘This is Solar 5. We’re ready.’

‘This is Site Leader. Earth 2, fire charges.’

One of the great ancient giants crumpled and fell in a thick cloud of dust. Even at this distance, I could feel the ground shake under my feet.

‘This is Site Leader. Solar 5 status please?’

‘This is Solar 5. We got shaken a little, but no damage. Ready for second one.’

‘This is Site Leader. Earth 8, fire charges.’

The second tower seemed to hesitate and think about it for a moment, but then it too toppled to the ground. A second dust cloud billowed up to mingle with the first.

‘This is Site Leader. Solar 5, how are you?’

‘This is Solar 5. No damage. That felt closer though.’

‘This is Site Leader. Site teams get your working sleds and head out along the Loop in clock face order, one o’clock first. I’ll guide you to your positions.’

Fian and I followed the others back to the sleds, and Rono pointed us at a tag support sled. We climbed aboard, Fian went to the controls, and we started moving with the other Cassandra 2 sleds. We were going to dig up a spaceship!