now. I didn’t usually suffer from claustrophobia, but I was suddenly very aware of the solid rock surrounding me.
‘Threat team, you still think lockdown is the critical moment?’ asked Colonel Torrek.
‘Yes sir,’ said Leveque. ‘If the sphere is hostile and actively observing us, it will detect the network shutting down, and should immediately attack to make the most of its window of opportunity. We would expect either a move into closer orbit in preparation for an attack on Earth, or a pre-emptive strike on Earth Africa solar array. Any incoming alien portal signals would be timed to coincide with that.’
‘Ark team, evacuation status?’
‘We’re at 99.3 per cent,’ said the Ark team leader. ‘Fractionally better than predicted.’
There was silence for a while.
Fian groaned. ‘If I’ve influenced the Military into not attacking the sphere, and this goes badly … Maybe Gaius Devon was right after all. A pre-emptive strike would give us the best chance of taking it out.’
‘Gaius Devon is an idiot. Attacking the sphere would have been a stupid move. It’s friendly.’ I said the words with as much conviction as I could, and hoped like chaos they were true.
A computerized voice started counting down the last few seconds of the portal lockdown sequence. I held my breath during the last ten of them, watching the image of the alien sphere for any threatening change or movement. Nothing happened. A minute passed, five minutes, and still nothing.
‘No immediate reaction then.’ Colonel Torrek’s voice was heavy with relief. ‘Threat team, when do you predict the next danger point will be?’
‘We may have an interesting moment at lockdown plus fifty-seven minutes,’ said Leveque, ‘but I emphasize this prediction is far from reliable. We assumed the sphere had recharged its power cells during the previous solar storm, tried to estimate its power usage since then, and calculate when it will regain maximum power.’
‘And what happens at that point?’ asked the Colonel.
‘There are two possibilities, sir,’ said Leveque. ‘The first is it attacks. The second is its rate of power absorption drops to match the level required to maintain the shields. The second possibility is obviously to be preferred, and would strongly indicate it does not have immediate hostile intentions.’
The command channel went silent. Fian stood up, wandered restlessly around our room, and pulled aside the curtain for a moment.
‘It looks like everyone is still down in the main hall,’ he said.
‘I expect Playdon is keeping them out of our way.’
Fian came back to sit next to me. ‘I know this sounds a bit trivial in the circumstances, but I wish I’d brought some food cartons up here. I’m hungry again.’
‘Me too.’ I sat watching the seconds tick by. ‘Leveque reminds me of Keon.’
Fian frowned, obviously thinking that over. ‘I see what you mean. They have the same lazy approach to life, but Leveque is a lot more intelligent.’
‘I’m not so sure. Keon can be scarily bright sometimes. Those laser sculptures of his, for example. He’s not really artistic. Laser sculptures are very technical, so he gets by with pure intellect.’
‘Maybe.’ Fian changed the subject. ‘If nothing is happening for a while, we could finish our earlier conversation. The one about your impact suit problem.’
I groaned. ‘We already finished it.’
‘No we didn’t. A Military psychologist would have a lot of experience with similar problems and …’
I turned and pinned him down on the sleep sacks. ‘No! I refuse to discuss psychologists at a time like this.’
‘But you …’
I kissed him to shut him up, but the second we broke off for air he was off again. I was still trying to kiss Fian into submission, when a voice spoke on command channel. ‘Fifty minutes since portal lockdown.’
Fian and I were brought back to reality. We exchanged guilty looks, sat up, and paid attention.
‘Seven minutes until Threat team’s next predicted crisis point,’ said the Colonel.
‘I re-emphasize this is of dubious reliability,’ said Leveque. ‘We could only estimate the number of times the sphere had to fire its meteor defence while out near …’
He broke off. The shield around the sphere had suddenly changed, the pulsating colours vanishing to leave a clear white light.
‘Stand by everyone,’ murmured the Colonel.
‘Evidently we over-estimated the number of asteroids,’ said Leveque. ‘Power absorption calculations are in progress.’
Tension gradually eased over the next five minutes, after which Leveque spoke again. ‘The sphere’s power absorption has dropped significantly. We therefore assume the sphere is now at maximum power. The lack of offensive action, although not definitive, is very encouraging.’
‘In which case,’ said Colonel Torrek, ‘I’m taking alert level down from 2 to 3. Attack shift 5, you can stand down. Go eat, drink and sleep. If we don’t get any more excitement, then shifts 3 and 4 will stand down in one hour. Nia, it’s up to you when you take your break.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ said Nia Stone. ‘Since we’re keeping half the fighters on launch standby throughout the emergency, I’ll opt to command the combined fighters of shifts 3, 4 and 5. Commander Tell Dramis will command shifts 1, 2 and 6.’
Nothing happened for the next couple of minutes, and Fian looked at me. ‘It seems pretty calm now. Dare we go and eat?’
‘I think so. If anything happens, alert status will go back up to level 2 and we’ll get mail to warn us.’
We headed back down to the main hall. There were fewer people around now, so presumably some teams had gone to bed. Playdon inevitably came to check what was happening.
‘It’s still going smoothly, sir,’ I said. ‘We thought we’d eat.’
He nodded, and Fian and I went into the side hall with the food tables. I got our drinks of Fizzup, while Fian sorted through the cartons.
‘This isn’t cheese fluffle, but it sounds as if it includes cheese.’
I accepted the carton of not cheese fluffle. We went back into the main hall and sat on the floor by the wall to eat. Dalmora, Amalie and Krath came to join us.
‘Where are Cassandra 2?’ I asked.
‘They all went next door,’ said Amalie.
‘Next door?’ asked Fian.
‘There’s another big hall like this just down the linkway, with a huge party going on.’ She paused. ‘Oh they’re back.’
I looked around and saw the Cassandra 2 team had met a face painter. Rono was unmistakable, his top emblazoned with the words ‘RONO AND THE REPLAYS’, but I was less sure about the rest. I thought that Stephan was the lion, who was making growling noises and mock pounces at the rest of the team. Maybe he wasn’t so quiet and retiring after all.
‘Playdon!’ Rono called. ‘We’re going to bed. We’ve got a gig in twelve hours time.’
‘Unless I manage to smash his guitar first.’ The face of the speaker was painted in complex blue spots, and his ears were delicately pointed and furry, but I recognized Keren’s voice.
‘Stop that Cassandrian leopard!’ yelled Rono.
Keren ran for Alpha corridor, with Rono and the rest of Cassandra 2 in hot pursuit. I stared after them, shaking my head in disbelief, and heard Playdon laughing.
‘Don’t look so appalled, Jarra,’ he said. ‘Cassandra 2 are letting off steam after the tense time they had working on that laboratory in the Eden ruins. It’s good for them, but I’d better go and defend my drum kit.’
I watched him sprint off after Cassandra 2 and gave a confused sigh. ‘Cassandra is in Alpha sector. I thought Alphans were supposed to be dignified!’
Dalmora shook her head. ‘There are wide cultural variations between planets in Alpha sector. Many of them were settled from specific regions of Earth in the first years of Exodus century, while planets in the newer sectors were usually open to anyone from Earth or existing colony worlds.’
‘What’s a gig?’ Fian asked.
‘I think he means the band will be playing,’ I said.
