‘Fian?’ Candace asked, anxiously.
‘No, he’s safe.’ That was true. Sort of. Fian was probably as safe as anyone on this planet, but I didn’t know how safe that was. ‘Must run.’
I sprinted out of the dome. What had happened to send us to war status? It must be about 11:00 hours in Earth America, which meant shift 2 would be up in orbit. Drago would be in one of the four fighters in the inner ring around the sphere, Marlise in the outer ring. They must be in combat now.
I knew my way around Zoo Europe perfectly. It took less than two minutes at a flat-out run to reach the nearest portal. I’d run it in the opposite direction several times when I was late for my meetings with Candace. With every step, I was expecting my lookup to chime again with an Ark evacuation message, but there was nothing.
I started to dial a Europe Transit, but stopped. If we were at war, any Military portal request would automatically be given pre-empt status. I dialled the base instead, feeling sick when the American code was accepted by my European local portal. It was true. Deity aid us, humanity was at war.
I stepped directly from Zoo Europe into Zulu base, and started running again. Fian would be in our quarters, and I had to use an internal portal to get to our accommodation area. Chaos, this base was too big! I sprinted down the last corridor, practically fell through our door, and was deeply thankful to see Fian. Whatever was happening, at least we’d escaped the nightmare of being separated in the middle of an alien attack.
‘Jarra!’ He looked as relieved as I felt.
I gave him a quick hug and gasped for breath. ‘What’s happening?’
‘I don’t know. The base didn’t even go to alert, just straight to war status. I’ve told our team members to go to their quarters, and stand by with their emergency bags ready to evacuate. Was that right?’
‘That was exactly right. We’re non-combatants, so we stay out of the way.’
I snatched my Military lookup from where I’d left it on the table. I was a team leader which should mean … Yes, entering my codes got me the command data feed. I selected the event summary.
‘Oh nuke! The sphere opened fire on Drago’s fighter so the Colonel took the base to war status, ordered all fighter shifts to launch, and gave the kill order.’ I skimmed down more events. ‘Drago’s alive! He overrode the Colonel and cancelled the kill order.’
‘Can Drago override the Colonel?’
‘Yes, Drago’s leader of Attack shift 2, senior officer in the combat area.’ I selected the image feed and sent it to our wall vid. ‘Look! The other fighters have already portalled in.’
I was deeply impressed. Some of those people would have been in bed and asleep when the base went to war status. They’d still got into impact suits, reached their fighters and launched, all in less than … my eyes flickered to the time … seven minutes.
I added sound to the feed and we could hear Drago shouting orders. ‘Shift 2 hold position, don’t fire. Incoming fighters stay back, stay back! Remain at the portals. Do not engage! Do not engage!’
Colonel Torrek’s voice was calm but pointed. ‘Major Tell Dramis, the sphere attacked your fighter. Your shields are down and you are venting atmosphere.’
Drago again, quieter this time. ‘I don’t think it attacked me, sir. I think it fired at something close to me, and my fighter just got the backlash. I’m sure the last thing I saw before my suit triggered and I went into impact suit blackout was the beam hitting something else as well as me.’
‘Threat team can now confirm that.’ Even in this situation, Mason Leveque’s voice sounded as lazy as ever, and for a mad second I was reminded of my friend Keon. ‘Telemetry from the fighters shows a small piece of space junk incoming rapidly on a collision course with the sphere. It seems to have triggered an automatic meteor defence.’
‘All right.’ The tense note in Colonel Torrek’s voice eased a little. ‘Major Tell Dramis, you are Field Commander unless Commander Stone wishes to take over.’
‘Negative on that,’ cut in Nia Stone. ‘Drago is in the inner circle, I’m well out by the portals, and flying in to take a closer look might trigger another attack.’
‘You are confirmed as Field Commander, Major Tell Dramis,’ said the Colonel. ‘How do you want to handle this?’
‘I want us to do absolutely nothing, sir,’ said Drago. ‘I’d like Nia and shift 3 fighters to hold position at the portals in case we need help, and the rest to return to base. My shift should hold their positions, and not move a muscle. Our policy of carefully approaching the sphere at minimum speed on a non-intercept course has prevented the sphere from targeting us before this, but having fired at that space junk it may be a bit more jumpy. I want to give it a few hours to calm down.’
‘Shifts 1, 4, 5 and 6, you heard him, return to base,’ said Nia Stone.
I saw the four portals flare into life, and the bevy of fighters around each of them begin to fly through.
‘I’m cancelling war status, and taking the base down to alert level 2,’ said Colonel Torrek.
Our Military lookups instantly chimed with messages about the change in alert status. A moment or two later, Fian’s lookup chimed again.
‘The historians want to know what’s happening and what they should do,’ he reported.
I kept my eyes on the wall vid. ‘Tell them there’s no immediate danger, but they’d better work from their quarters for the rest of today. We don’t want them wandering around the corridors with the base only one step down from war status.’
Fian worked on his lookup for a moment. ‘Done.’
Only the fighters of shift 3, and of Nia Stone, remained at the portals now. I zoomed in the vid screen to focus on the two circles of fighters around the sphere. I could tell which belonged to Drago and Marlise, because each fighter had distinctive flashes of colour against the black. Drago’s were command gold, while Marlise had the silver of deputy.
‘What is your status, Major Tell Dramis?’ asked Colonel Torrek. ‘Your fighter is still venting atmosphere, do you wish to pull back for assistance?’
‘I’d like to, sir, but I daren’t,’ said Drago. ‘I think a direct hit from the sphere’s meteor defence would blow me out of space even if my fighter was undamaged.’
‘Threat team can confirm that,’ said the laid-back tones of Leveque. ‘Beam duration was one fifth of a second. Beam power output was approximately one tenth of the level of a planetary power supply beam.’
I gulped. A power supply beam could carve canyons of lava across a continent if it was unleashed against a planet. It had happened, unforgettably, on Artemis. I wore the medal that was first created to honour the Military who died stopping that horror. Even a tenth of that power was scary.
‘In that case,’ said Drago, ‘I definitely can’t risk moving for a while. That sphere could take out my whole team in seconds. Ship diagnostics have finished. I’ve lost all shields, and engines are damaged, but I’ll only need minimum speed. Weapons are operational but irrelevant. Hovers have gone completely, so you’d better expect me to make an undignified landing when I portal out.’
‘We’ll foam the landing area for you, Drago, but a more immediate concern is your air supply,’ said Nia’s voice.
‘My cockpit is punctured, so I can forget ship air,’ he replied. ‘Just waiting for my suit diagnostics to … Ah, just finished. Impact suit is fine. I’m down to suit-recycled air, but I’ve got the standard six oxygen booster cells on board. That means I’m good for twelve hours, but I’m thinking of moving after six.’
‘This is Medical team,’ said a voice I didn’t recognize at all. ‘We’ve been checking your suit telemetry, Major. Are you aware your left arm is broken?’
‘I was aware it wasn’t working too well,’ said Drago. ‘Something exploded when the sphere’s beam hit, my impact suit triggered and protected me from most of the debris but … Wait!’
I gasped. I’d seen it too. There was definitely a movement on the sphere. ‘Oh nuke!’
‘The sphere is closing the cover on the meteor defence beam,’ said Mason Leveque. ‘We regard that as good news. In fact, we’ve been busy recalculating now we know the sphere has significant offensive weapons that it hasn’t deliberately used against our fighters. If we get out of this without the sphere using the beam again, then threat assessment is significantly down to 61 per cent.’
‘I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t get shot then, Mason,’ said Drago. ‘Anything to help your percentages.’
I relaxed again, glanced at Fian, and gave a breathless giggle. ‘I was scared to death for a moment
