Janet Edwards - Earth Flight

I didn’t need to reply. Fian was already answering the question. In fact, he was having an entire angry conversation with himself.

‘I knew Petra was prejudiced against Jarra, but I’d no idea she was actively insulting her. It’s always the same. We’re on our second Twoing contract, but does Jarra tell me when she has a problem? No. Does she ask anyone for help? No. Does she even hint someone’s been persecuting her for months? No, she doesn’t. I swear, one day I’ll strangle her!’

‘Please don’t strangle Jarra today, Fian,’ said Leveque. ‘When Military Security officers are guarding two people, and one of them tries to strangle the other, they get confused about the appropriate course of action. Besides, Jarra’s clearly suffering from shock.’

‘I’m perfectly fine,’ I said.

‘I disagree,’ said General Torrek. ‘I’d ask why the doctors didn’t treat you for shock, but after my years serving with your grandmother I can guess the answer. She hated taking meds as well.’

‘Were any other class members involved in this abuse?’ asked Colonel Leveque.

Steen hesitated for a second. ‘Petra tried to drag some of the rest of us into the name calling, but we wouldn’t get involved.’

I was grazzed to hear this. My own memory of events was that Steen had spent two months calling me a throwback and pointedly holding his nose when he passed me in the corridor. I opened my mouth to speak, but Petra was ahead of me.

‘It’s not true! I called Jarra some names, but you were just as bad. You’re only crawling to her now because she’s famous.’

Steen shook his head. ‘If the rest of us ever said anything rude, it was only because you kept nagging us, just like you nagged poor Joth. You wanted to drive Jarra away so you could get your claws into Fian. When words weren’t enough to get rid of her, you tried skunk juice!’

‘What?’ Fian’s voice interrupted the pair of them. ‘What’s been going on here?’

I urgently blinked my eyes. The regen fluid must have worked because this time the world came into focus and stayed that way. Fian was on his feet now, his face and stance showing his fury.

‘This is because of me?’ He advanced on Petra. ‘You helped that man throw skunk juice at Jarra because you wanted to split us up?’

Petra scrambled to her feet and tried to back away, but only succeeded in knocking over her chair. ‘I didn’t have anything to do with the skunk juice!’

Playdon moved to stand between them. ‘Stop this, all of you!’

Fian looked past him at Petra. ‘Jarra and I are together. Nothing and nobody is coming between us.’

He turned, came back to sit next to me, and took my hand. His unblemished skin against the mottled green and purple of mine.

‘I’m arresting Petra and taking her in for questioning,’ said Leveque.

Petra’s eyes widened in shock. ‘You can’t arrest me. You aren’t a police officer.’

‘Incorrect,’ said Leveque. ‘Legally any member of the Military is also a police officer empowered to deal with interplanetary crimes.’

‘I may have called Jarra a rude name once or twice,’ said Petra. ‘That might get me warnings from Lecturer Playdon under the Gamma sector moral code governing our course, but it isn’t an interplanetary crime. I didn’t have anything to do with the attack on Jarra, but that wasn’t an interplanetary crime either.’

I admired Petra’s courage, but I knew she was making a big mistake arguing with Leveque. I watched him give one of his relaxed smiles, and held my breath waiting for him to pounce on his prey.

‘Your last point is debatable, since the attacker came to Earth from Atalanta in Beta sector specifically to harm Commander Tell Morrath,’ said Leveque, ‘but I’m happy to abandon any action against you under interplanetary law.’

Petra looked surprised to have won so easily. Steen started to protest, but Fian urgently shook his head at him.

Leveque’s smile widened. ‘I now arrest you for crimes against humanity under the powers of the Alien Contact programme.’

Petra gasped. ‘You can’t do that! I have rights.’

Leveque shook his head. ‘Contact with an alien civilization potentially threatens the survival of the human race. Everyone studies the Alien Contact programme in school, so you should know its emergency powers override everything. I’m not even restricted by the protection of humanity laws, let alone your personal human rights.’

He paused to give Petra the chance to speak, but she’d sense enough to keep quiet this time. ‘Both Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund have made multiple valuable contributions to the Alien Contact programme, and I consider it highly probable they will do so again in future. Mere suspicion you were involved in harming irreplaceable personnel is enough for me to perfectly legally pick up a gun and kill you. I can also use any methods, however extreme, to interrogate you before execution.’

He glanced at one of the guards. ‘Take the girl to Military Base 79 Zulu.’

The guard took Petra by the arm and led her off. The rest of the class watched her go with stunned faces, but Playdon moved to face Leveque.

‘I have a duty of care to my students. I’ll insist on regularly visiting Petra to satisfy myself she isn’t being mistreated.’

Leveque seemed amused. ‘I’ll authorize your visits, but I assure you I’ve no intention of torturing the girl. I just wanted to frighten her so she’d stop wasting my time with childish defiance and lies. Now let’s discuss possible new locations for your class.’

I stood on a stage, looking out at a sea of faces, and heard Petra’s hugely magnified voice speaking. ‘But the funniest thing is Jarra thought the skunk juice would wear off. She didn’t know she’d be stuck like this forever.’

There was a deafening roar of laughter, and I saw Petra standing in the middle of the audience. I jumped off the stage, intent on reaching her and murdering her, but I couldn’t get through. There was a solid wall of faces. No bodies, not even heads, just faces hovering all around me.

‘Jarra, it’s time to get ready for breakfast.’

I woke up with a gasp. In the dim light of the room glows at their lowest setting, I saw Fian looking at me.

‘Another nightmare?’ he asked. ‘The attack again?’

‘No, this one was weird. Lots of floating faces.’

‘I’m sure you’d have had less nightmares if you’d taken your meds.’

I groaned.

‘And why the chaos didn’t you tell me or Playdon about Petra calling you names? We could have dealt with her for you.’

I groaned again. ‘That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Remember after the Solar 5 rescue, when I was in a hospital regrowth tank having my leg fixed. You went and told the class I was Handicapped.’

Fian frowned. ‘Well, someone had to tell them.’

‘Yes, but that someone was me, not you. I was the one who was Handicapped. I was the one who’d lied to them.’

‘It would have been very unpleasant. The class were shocked and people said a few things that …’

‘I realize that. I should still have faced them myself.’

‘That’s a …’ He broke off. ‘No, I see what you mean. I hated standing by watching Lolmack fighting that man with the skunk juice. He was doing my job for me, fighting my battle, and I felt so …’

He shook his head. ‘Never mind that now. I understand what you’re saying. I should have waited until you were out of the tank and let you talk to the class yourself.’

‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘You meant well, but it actually made things far worse. Petra kept jeering at me for being a coward and hiding behind you, so …’