Janet Edwards - Earth Flight

Fian sighed. ‘We’ll go to the hall then.’

The four Military Security officers stayed guarding the portal, but we passed several more in the corridor. This was insane. Someone had thrown skunk juice at me, and Military Security was reacting as if they’d tried to assassinate a head of sector.

Fian took my arm and guided me round a couple of white humming shapes that must be air-purifying units. I hoped the Military would let us keep those for a few days to make life more bearable for everyone.

Yet more Military Security officers stood on guard inside the hall, while our classmates sat huddled around tables. When we walked in, the Military saluted, and there was a scraping of chairs as people turned towards us.

‘Jarra,’ said Dalmora in a shocked voice. ‘You look … You look dreadful.’

I felt that said everything. Even Dalmora, with her deeply ingrained tact and diplomacy, couldn’t think of a kinder word than dreadful to describe my appearance.

An officer came up and saluted me. ‘I’m Major Sand, sir. We’ve just completed full scans, both inside and outside the dome, and found no further threats.’

I stared at him blankly for a moment, before working out I was the senior officer present. Major Sand had given me a situation report and was awaiting orders. I wasn’t in uniform, I’d never met this man, but he knew who I was. The whole of humanity did. Even a random doctor in a Hospital Earth casualty unit recognized me and addressed me as Commander.

I ran my fingers through the greasy lank ribbons of my hair. I couldn’t cope with this now. I looked like a monster, I stank, and I was groping my way through a frighteningly hazy world. Was the regen fluid helping my eyes or making them worse?

‘Please, keep …’ I tried to think of the right Military words to use and completely failed. ‘Keep dealing with it.’

Another officer hurried into the room. ‘Sirs, Zulu base warns the General is incoming.’

The Major gave a single heartfelt groan, turned, and headed for the door. I suddenly felt shaky and dreadfully tired, so I sat down on a chair by the wall and let my head sag forward into my hands. I was vaguely aware of Fian positioning a couple of the air purifiers nearby, and then tugging another chair over to sit next to me. I couldn’t tell if the air purifiers were having any effect, because the cloying scent of Osiris lilies had overwhelmed my nose. I’d probably never be able to smell anything else ever again.

There were a couple of minutes of silence before Playdon came into the hall and said something to the class. I heard the words but couldn’t make sense of them. I really was like an ape in an off-world joke. I was ugly, I stank, and I was stupid as well.

More people arrived, a figure in a white jacket in the lead, followed by two others in standard Military uniforms. It took my sluggish brain a moment to work out the white jacket must be Riak Torrek in his new General’s uniform. I blinked my eyes, got them to focus long enough to recognize his face and those of Colonel Leveque and Major Sand behind him, struggled to my feet and saluted.

‘I shouldn’t need to say this is unacceptable,’ said General Torrek in an angry voice.

Riak Torrek had been a close friend of my grandmother. I was the first child born into the family after her death in action, so in Military tradition I was her Honour child and carried her name. I’d known Colonel Torrek took a special interest in me because of it, and felt pretty relaxed around him, but General Torrek seemed far more intimidating, a grimly disapproving stranger.

I realized I was still wearing the wreckage of my civilian clothes. I hadn’t thought to ask Dalmora where my hover bags were and change into uniform. I was a dumb, dumb ape. ‘I apologize for the state of my clothes, sir.’

The General’s voice lost the harsh note. ‘I should be the one apologizing to you, Jarra. The Military failed in our duty to protect you. Please sit down before you fall over.’

He turned to Major Sand and now his voice was icily cold. ‘Major, please explain how an intruder gained entry to this dome.’

I thought I heard a faint gulp from Major Sand, before he answered in an impressively steady voice. ‘Portal access was secure, sir, and we were monitoring all aerial traffic. Unfortunately, London Main Dig Site is in far less hostile terrain than Eden. The intruder gained entry to the nearby London Fringe Dig Site and walked here.’

‘You let him walk in!’ General Torrek gave a despairing groan, and turned to Colonel Leveque. ‘Why did this happen? We were expecting intrusive reporters, not violent attacks.’

‘When Gaius Devon tried to force us to make an unnecessary attack on the alien sphere, we used the tactic of deliberately focussing public attention on Commander Tell Morrath,’ said Leveque. ‘That succeeded in its objective of making Devon betray his uncontrolled prejudice against both the Handicapped and the aliens to the public, thereby discrediting him, but has also had unforeseen consequences.’

General Torrek frowned. ‘You mean one of my command decisions caused this?’

‘Indirectly, sir,’ said Leveque. ‘For the first time, people on all of humanity’s worlds have seen one of the Handicapped appear on their vid channels. Many of them are rethinking their old prejudices in the face of reality. The severely bigoted deeply resent this shift in the attitudes of society. The news that Commander Tell Morrath was to join an aristocratic Betan clan escalated that resentment into violence.’

He paused. ‘This particular assailant intended to intimidate Commander Tell Morrath into returning to the obscurity he considers proper for her. It’s quite possible that others will attempt to permanently eliminate what they see as a threat to the proper social order. We must assume that Major Eklund is also a potential target as a result of his relationship with Commander Tell Morrath.’

My head wasn’t working too well, and I found Colonel Leveque’s sentences confusing at the best of times, but it sounded like he was saying …

‘I’m not having my officers murdered by bigots,’ said General Torrek. ‘I’ll authorize whatever protective measures you want.’

Colonel Leveque nodded. ‘I’ll flag them both with automatic pre-empt status so they can bypass the queues at Transits, assign them a bodyguard, and issue guns for them.’

I’d been right then, I thought numbly. Colonel Leveque really was suggesting that people might try to kill Fian and me.

‘They’ve been instructed to continue their pre-history training while they’re waiting to rejoin the Alien Contact programme,’ said Leveque, ‘but if it proves impossible to adequately secure this location then …’

‘If I can interrupt you there,’ said Playdon, ‘several other dig sites are as inaccessible as Eden. I could arrange to swap dig site assignments with another team.’

‘That would be an excellent solution,’ said Leveque. ‘I’ll also be urgently investigating how this attacker knew exactly when your class would arrive here.’

‘I’ve repeatedly warned my students not to give information about Jarra or Fian to anyone,’ said Playdon.

The class had been a silent audience to all this, but now Steen stood up. ‘That scum knew we were coming here because Petra told him!’

Leveque raised his eyebrows. ‘Do you have any evidence for this accusation?’

‘I don’t need evidence,’ said Steen. ‘Petra started running a hate campaign against Jarra the minute she found out she was Handicapped, insulting her and making her life a misery. Petra was always calling Jarra a stinking ape, so I bet the skunk juice was her idea.’

There was a brief pause, followed by Fian, Playdon and General Torrek all saying almost exactly the same words. ‘Why didn’t I know about this?’