‘My dad’s got no sense,’ said Krath. ‘It’s embarrassing to think I used to believe all the stuff he told me, and even help with his nardle vid channel.’
I pulled a sympathetic face. ‘My ProDad is awful too.’
‘I’m really lucky with both my parents,’ said Amalie. ‘When we’re out of Ark, I’ll need to ask Playdon if I can go home for a few days. I’ve just heard my oldest brother has been accepted for Colony Ten and I want to see him before he leaves.’
‘Colony Ten.’ Krath sat up, eyes wide. ‘Amaz! Where’s he going?’
Amalie laughed. ‘Kappa sector of course, but he hasn’t been assigned to a specific planet yet. He’s totally powered about being accepted, but you know the rules when Planet First clears a new planet to go into Colony Ten phase. Those first colonists can’t break quarantine for ten years unless they find something awful wrong with the planet. We’ll be able to call him, but we won’t physically see him again until after that.’
‘It’s a great chance though,’ said Krath. ‘Bonus payments for the first colonists are huge, especially if they have kids, and there’s the land grants and social status as well. It won’t be like being an Adonis Knight of course, but your brother will still be one of the Founding Families on his world, and that …’
Amalie swatted his head with the palm of her hand. ‘He’s more interested in the chance to get a wife than the money or the social rank. Colony Ten always puts 500 male and 500 female colonists on a new planet. Back home, there are ten unmarried men for every unmarried woman, so …’
‘You keep pointing that out,’ said Krath. ‘I’ve got the message. You just need to lift your finger and a dozen men will hurl themselves on their knees and beg to marry you. Couldn’t your brother just go to another sector and meet a girl there?’
‘He could,’ Amalie said, ‘but she might not want to go and live in Epsilon or Kappa, and he wouldn’t want to leave the frontier. Building a new world is special.’
‘You’re set on going back then?’ he asked.
‘When I’ve got my degree, yes.’
‘Nuke it!’ Krath threw himself back on his cushions.
I got the impression Krath and Amalie would be better off without an audience for this conversation. Dalmora was obviously thinking the same thing, because she stood up.
‘I’m playing bass guitar in the … the gig soon, so I’d better go and get ready.’
She headed off. I exchanged glances with Fian, and tried to think of a plausible reason for us to leave as well. Twin chimes from our lookups made me jump nervously and then sigh with relief.
‘Playdon’s sent us a list of subsidiary courses we could study,’ I said. ‘We’d better go and …’
‘He’s a slave-driver,’ said Krath, in tones of dark depression.
Fian and I headed back towards Area 6. ‘Why did Amalie hit Krath when he said Dalmora was on Playdon’s side, and why did you pull that face at them?’ I asked.
Fian sighed. ‘Because Dalmora’s got a crush on Playdon.’
I stopped walking, totally grazzed. Dalmora had never seemed interested in any of our classmates, but … Playdon? Surely not. Playdon wasn’t exactly ancient, he couldn’t be much older than Drago, but he was our lecturer! ‘You must be imagining things.’
He shook his head. ‘At first, I thought I might be, but since we got back from hospital it’s been pretty obvious. You were probably in no state to notice, but Amalie and Krath certainly have. Playdon’s noticed of course, he never misses anything, and he’s carefully avoiding having private conversations with Dalmora. You know how he’d feel about having a relationship with one of his students.’
‘He’d say it was completely inappropriate.’ I started walking again. ‘You should at least think about staying as team 1 tag support, you know. Playdon will be replacing me with Amalie.’
It felt odd to say those words, to picture Amalie taking my place on the dig site and Fian watching over her the way he’d watched over me, but the class needed a functioning dig team 1. If I couldn’t do my job myself, I shouldn’t complain about someone else doing it.
Fian frowned at me. ‘What makes you think he’ll pick Amalie?’
‘Because he offered you the option of running a heavy lift sled, and because he was considering her for team 2 tag leader at the start of the year. Amalie was struggling with the theory work back then, but she’s caught up now and …’ I broke off because there was a strange noise from somewhere ahead of us.
Fian frowned. ‘It sounds like the end of the world.’
‘It must be the band getting ready.’ There was a sudden random flourish of drumbeats. ‘Yes, it’s Rono and the Replays.’
Fian wrinkled his nose. ‘It’s ghastly.’
‘I think it’ll sound better when they’re all playing the same thing.’
‘Do we really have to go and listen to them play?’
‘Playdon’s been totally zan to me, so yes. We will go and listen to the band, Fian. We will smile and applaud madly, no matter how awful they are. Afterwards, we will tell Playdon what a great drum player he is. Is that clear?’
Fian saluted. ‘Yes, sir!’
‘Maybe I should start hitting you like Amalie hits Krath.’
When we arrived at Area 6, I paused to admire the musical instruments. They all looked like authentic copies of twentieth-century originals, except for Playdon’s drum kit. The set of wafer thin discs, each hovering in midair, were a blatant anachronism.
‘You look disapproving, Jarra,’ said Playdon. ‘I do have a perfect reproduction drum kit, but it’s very bulky so I couldn’t bring it to Ark.’
‘I understand the problem, sir.’
Fian and I went into our own room, and I sorted through the meagre selection of clothes I had with me. ‘I don’t really have any party clothes.’
‘I don’t think many people will dress up for this,’ said Fian. ‘Why don’t you wear the top that says you tagged me, and the trousers you’re wearing now? Underneath, you can wear that black lacy thing with the …’
‘It doesn’t matter what I wear underneath. No one will be able to tell.’
‘I’ll know what’s underneath.’ Fian grinned. ‘I can distract myself from the awful music by thinking how I’ll undress you and …’
‘I’m shocked. Deltans should be content with just holding hands.’
‘I’m a very bad Deltan.’ Fian proved this by watching me get changed before speaking again. ‘Playdon said something interesting earlier. You didn’t have a problem after being injured rescuing Solar 5, but you did this time. Any idea why?’
I led the way out into the main room. It was deserted now. The band must have gone to set up their equipment for the gig.
‘I was in a lot of pain both times,’ I said, ‘but the situation was different. This time, it was my suit hurting me, and I have to wear a suit every time I step on a dig site. Last time, the solar super storm induced an electrical current in old wiring and that interacted with the shields of Solar 5. Solar super storms only happen about once in five hundred years, so I’ll never be in that situation again.’
Fian nodded. ‘This must be the most eventful year in Earth’s history. A solar super storm, a crashing spaceship, and now aliens.’
I stopped. ‘Chaos take it!’
‘Jarra?’
I ignored him. I had to focus on my glimmer of an idea before it escaped. The solar super storm and the crashing spaceship happening at the same time wasn’t a coincidence, because one caused the other. What if the alien sphere arriving wasn’t a coincidence either? Stasis boxes somehow came into this too. People headed to other worlds in Exodus century, leaving farewell messages in stasis boxes. Eventually the power ran out, stasis fields failed, and …
I ran back into our room and groped in my bag, my fingers seeking the curved shape of my Military lookup. I’d just been sorting through my clothes, so of course it was right at the bottom. I found it at last, turned it on, and madly entered codes. Major Tar Cameron answered my call.
‘Command Support,’ she said.
I saw her expression of polite efficiency take on a frosty edge as her eyes flickered downwards. She could
