Earth Star

‘What’s Captain’s Table?’ asked Fian.

‘It’s an archaic term the Military use. Dates way back into pre-history, originating from seafaring ships. It means being invited to dinner with the commanding officer, and please …’ I held up a hand to stop him before he said it. ‘Don’t ask me why we’re invited to dinner with Colonel Torrek. I’ve no idea.’

We arrived at the portals. There was no way to enter a portal code, just a list of preset destinations, so I selected Accommodation Green. The portal established, Fian and I went through, and popped out in another grassy area surrounded by domes.

‘Dome 9!’ Fian pointed at a grey dome with a huge white number nine painted on the side.

We headed inside and found a door labelled 18, which opened when I touched the palm plate. The room inside was dark, so I tried a hopeful order. ‘Room command lights.’

The glows obediently came on, proving we were somewhere far more luxurious than a basic dig site dome. We led our retinue of hover bags inside and spent a moment exploring.

‘Living area, bedroom, shower,’ said Fian. ‘Proper voice controls, and our own food dispenser too. Zan! Aliens or no aliens, I’m hungry.’

‘What’s in the food dispenser?’

Fian scrolled through the menu display. ‘The obvious drinks. Snacks. A few meal options. I expect there’s a proper dining hall somewhere as well.’

I checked the time on my lookup. ‘We’ve only got forty minutes before the next orientation session so …’

Fian was already getting us glasses of Fizzup. ‘You want the cheezit and tomato mash?’

‘Please.’

I carried the glasses over to the table and Fian followed me with two plates. We spent the next few minutes eating at high speed.

‘That wasn’t bad,’ said Fian. ‘Better than we get from our dig site dome food dispensers anyway.’

‘Dig site dispensers are old models and …’ I wrinkled my nose as I saw Fian go across to one of his bags and take out a small bottle. ‘Oh no, not again. I hate taking meds.’

‘Well, if you’d rather fall asleep in the middle of dinner with Colonel Torrek …’

I sighed and held out a hand. Fian carefully counted seven tablets into it and I gulped them down. This was the second time in two days that my body clock had been hit with biorhythm adjustment meds. It probably wondered what the chaos I was doing.

We washed the tablets down with more Fizzup and I checked the time. ‘Uniforms!’

Two impact suits and a neat line of standard and formal dress uniforms hung in the bedroom storage area, all in the blue of true combat Military. I ran my hand over the sleeve of the nearest uniform, feeling the cool smooth fabric, checking it was actually real. I saw there were medals already attached to the uniforms. Fian had the blue planet image of the Earth Star pinned to his, while I had both the Earth Star and the distinctive golden sunburst of the Artemis.

‘We’d better wear standard uniforms first, and change for dinner later,’ I said.

‘Do we have hats?’ asked Fian.

‘Hats?’ I shook my head. ‘You’ve been watching too many history vids. The Military haven’t worn hats in centuries.’

I caught sight of myself in the full-length mirror on the wall. I hadn’t given a thought to what I was wearing until now. The red and black top had been a present from Issette. It was fine for me to wear it in class, but … Why hadn’t I changed clothes before coming here? I’d taken the Military Oath while wearing a black top emblazoned in large red letters ‘I TAGGED FIAN.’ I gave a faint scream.

‘Something wrong?’ asked Fian.

‘I just realized what I was wearing.’

He grinned. ‘I like it.’

‘Yes, but … What the chaos did the Military think when they saw it?’

‘Calm down, Jarra,’ said Fian. ‘Humanity has met aliens. The Military have more to worry about than your clothes.’

That was true, but I still pulled off my civilian outfit at high speed and put on my new uniform. I adjusted the fit of the sleeves, and attached my Military lookup to the left forearm of the uniform, where it clung neatly in position.

‘Well, at least it will amuse Issette when I’m allowed to tell her.’ I turned around and came face to face with Arrack San Domex. My jaw dropped in shock.

Arrack San Domex is an actor who plays a Military hero in the vid series, Defenders. He’s slim, with long blond hair, and has seriously good legs. I’m a huge fan of his, and enjoy drooling over the sight of him in a tight-fitting Military uniform.

Fian knows all about this. He’s a fan of Stalea of the Jungle himself. His favourite bits are when Stalea has a fight with her boyfriend, loses her temper, throws him across a jungle clearing, and pins him to the ground. It isn’t a Betan sex vid, it’s made in Gamma sector, so the credits roll and the episode ends just as the situation is getting really interesting. Fian likes me to …

Well, my point is that Fian looks a lot like Arrack San Domex. Turning around and seeing Fian in Military uniform … Hoo eee! No, he didn’t look like Arrack San Domex, Fian looked even better than Arrack San Domex!

Fian was looking at my arm. ‘Oh that’s why this lookup is a strange shape. How do you attach it?’

I whimpered.

Fian gave me an odd look. ‘Jarra? Lookup? How do I attach the lookup? We need to hurry if we want to get to the orientation session.’

I whimpered again. A younger and even sexier version of Arrack San Domex was in my bedroom. His perfectly fitting uniform showed off his excellent legs. It was a dream moment, but humanity had just met aliens so I had to go and watch an orientation vid. I was a Military Captain now. I’d just taken an oath to put the needs of humanity ahead of my personal safety and my desire to undress Arrack San Domex.

I sighed. ‘Like this.’

I attached the lookup to Arrack San Domex’s forearm. He checked the time and dashed out of our quarters. I followed him, looking wistfully at his legs. I hated aliens.

We hurried out of the dome and portalled over to Orientation to find Hall 1. We passed several members of the Military on the way, and now we were in uniform they threw us impressively snappy salutes. We did our best to salute back, though at one point Fian overdid his attempt to match their lightning speed, and hit himself on his right ear.

‘Why did they do this to me?’ he asked plaintively. ‘I’m not the Military type. I can’t even salute without knocking myself out.’

I peered through the glass panel in the door in front of me, saw a crowd of people in the hall but plenty of spare seats, opened the door and went inside. I was in a fairly bouncy mood at this point. On a purely personal level things were pretty amaz. I was in the Military! I was a Captain! A benevolent fate had dressed Fian up as Arrack San Domex!

All three of those things were shocking, but in a rather zan way. It was when I saw the huge vid screen at the front of the hall, that the situation abruptly became grimly serious. It showed a perfect sphere, dark grey and featureless except for some strange curved lines on the surface. The sphere was hanging in space above a very familiar planet.

Two things instantly became clear. The Military had the best of reasons for building a base on Earth, and portalling off world wasn’t going to be a problem for me. Humanity had always expected the first alien contact to be made by the Planet First teams selecting colony worlds on the frontier. It hadn’t happened that way. The aliens had come to Earth!

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