Fian grimaced. ‘Ugh. Jarra, you got minced. If I’d only been faster …’
‘Don’t you dare to start blaming yourself! You knew perfectly well you should cut the lifeline beam and run. Playdon ordered you to. I ordered you to. Did you listen? No. You did the dumb hero routine, and went for double or quits.’
His grimace was replaced by a smug grin. ‘You know I’m stubborn.’
‘I know you’re a complete idiot. When I heard the explosion, I thought you were a dead idiot. You very nearly were. You were hit in the side by a lot of fragments of sled, and some sharp bits punctured your suit and damaged vital organs. A few minutes longer getting to casualty and …’
He held up a hand to stop me. ‘Don’t say that in front of my parents. There was an accident. We both got hurt. No need to tell them the details.’
‘I understand you not wanting to say how bad it was, I downplay dangers for Candace whenever I can, but your parents should know you’re a hero and saved my life.’
‘I’m not a hero, Jarra, and I don’t want to worry my parents.’
I kept arguing until Fian’s parents arrived, but I never stood a chance of winning. Fian can be frustratingly stubborn at times. Once we had the audience of strict Deltan parents, things got very awkward. In my current mood, I wanted lots of hugs from Fian, but with his mother and father watching us, and his concern about hurting my new skin, I wasn’t even getting my hand held.
I didn’t sleep very well that night. I’d been focusing so hard on the moment when Fian would wake up and everything would be perfect, and the reality wasn’t what I’d expected. Oh, it was zan to see Fian awake and smiling, of course it was, but I’d thought he’d leap at my suggestion of getting married. I’d pictured us dashing off to see Colonel Torrek, and getting his permission, and …
I knew Fian was right. He usually is. I hadn’t thought through the problems of us using Military regulations to get married, and he was just being sensible pointing them out. It was still a big anti-climax though. I tried to concentrate on the fact I’d be joining my clan, having a family, but I was more nervous than happy about that. I’d had the dream of a family dangled in front of me before, only to be snatched away when my parents died, and I was scared to start celebrating too soon in case Drago had made a mistake or my clan changed their minds.
The next morning, I went in to see Fian, expecting to have a few minutes alone with him before his parents arrived, but they were already there. They’d told me what time they were coming, but they were still running on Hercules time, and I’d messed up while I was converting that first to Green time, and then from Green time to Earth Africa time zone.
It’s easy to make mistakes, because the time difference between Hercules and Green time is constantly shifting. Planet First selects colony worlds with a rotational period fairly close to twenty-four hours, because the day and night cycle affects human biorhythms, but that still means every planet other than Earth has a constant gradual shift between its own local time and Green time, of seconds, minutes or hours.
So, I didn’t get even a second alone with Fian. Instead, I sat listening to hours of science babble about Fian’s parents’ research at University Hercules. Fian had told me they were experts in solar storm prediction, but they seemed to be talking about the actual processes inside stars. I gave up even trying to understand, let my mind drift, and had nearly fallen asleep by the time Fian’s dad said something comprehensible.
‘We’ll have to head back soon. You should come back with us, son, and have a few days convalescing at home. Jarra would be welcome too, if she wasn’t an …’
He suddenly broke off, and there was a moment of awkward silence. It was obvious he’d been going to say ape, and thought better of it at the last moment. I sat there, burning hot with embarrassment, and heard Fian calmly answer him.
‘I’m staying with Jarra.’
‘Of course you’d want to do that,’ said his mother. ‘It’s perfectly natural that a couple want to stay together.’
There was another uncomfortable silence. Fian’s parents exchanged glances that I didn’t understand, and Fian sighed.
‘Let’s watch the Olympic opening ceremony.’
He used his lookup to project Earth Rolling News on the room wall, and I looked at it without much interest. I watch a bit of the annual Earth inter-continental Olympics, but try to ignore the four yearly interstellar ones. Since those are always held on Olympia in Alpha sector, the Earth team has to be made up of Earthborn norm kids and I don’t feel I have much in common with them. They may have been born on Earth, but they go off world to orientation schools on Alpha sector planets, and … Basically I’m jealous, because they’ve got the stars and I haven’t.
The opening parade was already in progress, one of the Military teams was just entering the arena, and the crowd was rising to their feet and madly applauding. I was confused at first; the Military teams usually got a good round of applause but this was excessive, then I saw the banner and understood. By tradition, the Military teams compete under sector banners for the sector where they’re currently stationed. This team was tiny, only ten people, but the fact they were there at all …
‘Zeta sector.’ Fian breathed the words in awe. ‘Totally zan! The Military are out there then. Planet First teams I suppose.’
‘Planet First teams are still opening up planets for Kappa sector.’ I leaned forward, staring at the vid screen. ‘The first jobs for the Military in Zeta sector, will be setting up the portal relay network and making the initial stellar surveys.’
I grinned. ‘There won’t be enough Military out there to include any great athletes, they’ll finish last in all the races but they’re not here to win medals. The Military sent them to make the statement that humanity is entering Zeta!’
The banner of newly born Zeta sector made its way slowly around the arena, surrounded by a positive cloud of hovering, spherical vid bees, all jostling for good positions to record images of the historic moment. Humanity had existed in six sectors since before I was born, but now there were seven. It might be twenty years before any planet in Zeta sector entered stage one of Planet First, forty years before it went into Colony Ten and the first children were born on its planets, but the Military were out there now. The frontier edge was moving out from Kappa to Zeta.
Fian’s parents said their goodbyes and left after that, and Fian turned to look at me. ‘A new sector! A historic moment.’
I nodded. ‘And a declaration of faith in Beta sector too.’
‘What?’
‘The colonization of Zeta sector was delayed because of Zeta’s huge boundary with Beta sector and the aftermath of the Second Roman Empire.’ I paused and changed the subject. ‘Do you think they’ll let us out of hospital now? We’ve both had our twenty-four hours of checks and scans after coming out of a tank. You had major organ damage, so I wouldn’t want to take any risks, but …’
‘We can ask,’ said Fian, and pressed the button that brought a doctor in to see us. ‘We’re wondering if we’ll be able to leave soon.’
The doctor produced the inevitable scanner. ‘Let’s take a look.’
We both submitted to what was at least our tenth scan in twenty-four hours. The doctor gazed thoughtfully at her scanner. ‘I’m happy to discharge you at this point, but remember the newly grown skin will remain sensitive for a couple more days.’
I went to my room to collect my things. Seeing the Zeta banner for the first time had been an amaz moment, but now I’d dropped from an exuberant high mood straight into depression. What had I been getting so excited about? I was Handicapped, so Zeta sector was just another place where I could never go. The marriage thing was bothering me too. I hadn’t expected Fian to turn me down and …
I shook my head. Wallowing in gloom like this was silly. I’d been through a lot of strain, and I was overreacting to things the way I always did. Fian had nearly killed himself saving me. He wasn’t rejecting me. He was just being sensible.
It was the hospital’s fault. Being here, constantly prodded and scanned by doctors, had made me stupidly nervous and insecure. As soon as Fian and I were back at Eden Dig Site, everything would go back to normal.
