I sighed, picked up a toasted wafer and took a bite. It tasted of Osiris lilies. ‘There’s no need to nag.’
‘You always stop eating when you get hurt or upset,’ said Dalmora. ‘It’s bad for you and it worries Fian.’
Fian’s call to his mother seemed to end amicably, so I relaxed and dutifully munched more scented breakfast, then recorded a quick message about how I was fine but hated stinking of perfume. I sent that to all my friends from Next Step, and then wrinkled my nose as I considered my ProDad. I’d always felt he cared about the money he got from Hospital Earth, not about me, but he might be worried. I’d just sent him the message too when Fian shouted a single word.
‘No!’
The background chatter of the class abruptly stopped, and everyone turned to look at him. A Major standing in a characteristically Military pose, his left arm raised in front of him as he gazed at the lookup on his left sleeve with a grim expression. I felt a stab of shock, remembering the Deltan boy I’d met at the start of this year, and realizing how the last few months had changed him, had changed both of us. My Deltan wasn’t a boy any longer.
‘I told you, the answer is no.’ Fian’s voice was only slightly quieter than before. ‘I’m not coming back to Hercules, I’m not studying science, I’m not quitting the Military, and I’m not leaving Jarra for some drearily dutiful Deltan girl. Goodbye, sir!’
Fian gave his lookup an aggressive stab to end the call, and lifted his head. All around the room, people hastily faked an intense interest in eating. Fian marched back to our table and sat down, his simmering anger obvious enough that even Krath wasn’t fool enough to say anything.
The awkward silence continued until Playdon stood up and walked to the front of the hall, indicating he wanted to start his lectures. The class automatically responded by dumping the remains of meals into the waste disposal, putting dirty dishes into the cleanser, and moving furniture. Within three minutes, the tables were stacked at the side of the hall, the chairs were lined up in rows, and we all took our seats.
‘Half of human knowledge was lost in the Earth data net crash in 2409,’ said Playdon. ‘Science, technology, history, literature, medicine, all obliterated in a mass of data corruption. There are no surviving detailed records of the history of this area between 2100 and 2250, but at some point in that period there were either one or two massive earthquakes.’
Playdon tapped his lookup, and a weird image appeared on the wall vid. ‘Records from 2250 show that several old cities had been replaced by a single new city, San Angeles. Humanity had defied nature by building this new city directly across the earthquake fault line, on the vast artificial platform we call the California Land Raft.’
He turned and gestured at the wall vid. ‘This platform consisted of four hundred independent islands, connected together by flexible bridges. You’re seeing the view from the ground of one of the eight huge, automatically adjusting legs of one of these islands. The city of San Angeles was abandoned by 2380, but even now, over four centuries later, most of these legs are still fully functional and compensating for the ground movements resulting from earthquake activity in this area.’
Playdon tapped his lookup again, and the image changed to show something with eight long spiky legs, and a flat shell-like back. ‘This is a side view of one of the islands.’
Krath summed up the reaction of the whole class, including me. ‘It looks like a weird, creepy, mechanical spider.’
Playdon changed the image again to show a whole army of spiders. ‘Here we can see a view of the full Land Raft. Virtually all of the flexible bridges between the islands have collapsed, and the few remaining ones are far too hazardous to use. Twenty-three islands nearest the fault line have exceeded the adjustment capability of their supporting legs and also collapsed. A further thirty islands are highly unstable and too hazardous for further exploration.’
His next image was a patchwork of coloured squares. ‘These are the hazard colour coded islands of the Land Raft. Black islands have fallen or been abandoned. Red islands have an estimated survival time of less than fifty years, and amber between fifty and one hundred. Green islands have experienced relatively little movement and may still be standing for many centuries. Current archaeological efforts are concentrated on salvaging what we can from the red islands. Since these sections are nearing their safety limits, any earthquake activity is very dangerous and …’
Playdon broke off his sentence, stood for a moment in silence, and then strode straight past us and out of the hall.
7
‘What the chaos?’ Krath twisted round in his seat to watch the hall door close. ‘Did Playdon get a message on his lookup?’
‘I didn’t hear it chime.’ Dalmora stood up for a moment, gave the door a worried look, then sat down again. ‘I expect he’ll be back in a minute.’
A few people got drinks, while others started checking their mail on their lookups. After five minutes, Dalmora turned to me. ‘You should go and see if Lecturer Playdon is all right, Jarra.’
I replied without thinking. ‘Me? Why not you?’
Dalmora looked embarrassed. ‘He might not like it.’
I could have slapped myself. The whole class knew Dalmora had a crush on Playdon and he was carefully avoiding being alone with her. I’d been as tactless as Krath at his worst. ‘Sorry.’
Amazingly, it was Krath who saved the awkward situation by speaking in a chattily cheerful voice. ‘The highest ranked officer present has to take command, sir.’
I giggled from pure relief. ‘We aren’t under attack, nardle brain!’
I stood up and went out of the hall to look for Playdon. He wasn’t in the corridor, but I could hear the sound of voices coming from the portal room. The rest of the class were all back in the hall, so who the chaos …?
Remembering the ambush the previous day, I drew my gun before peeking cautiously into the doorway of the portal room, but relaxed as I recognized the two men with Playdon. They were his friends, Rono and Keren of Cassandra 2 research team. Playdon and Keren had their backs to me, but Rono’s eyebrows shot up as he saw my gun. I pulled a face of silent apology and put it away.
Rono patted Playdon on the shoulder, and gave Keren a nod, before coming over to me. He touched his lips with one finger, then gave a beckoning gesture and led me back into the hall. Most of the class didn’t know Rono, so they stared at him in total bewilderment as he went to stand in front of the wall vid.
‘I’m Professor Rono Kipkibor, senior team leader of University Cassandra Archaeological Research Team 2. Some of you’ve already met me, and the rest of you will remember helping rescue my team from under a collapsed skyscraper at the New York Dig Site. I’ll be giving you the rest of your introduction to the California Rift Dig Site.’
I went back to my seat and Dalmora gave me an anxious look. I shook my head at her to show I didn’t know what was going on either.
Rono glanced at the image on the wall vid. ‘I see Lecturer Playdon’s already talked about the island structure of the Land Raft. The giant supporting legs of these islands are made out of diamene, and the island platforms are formed of connected diamene strips.’
There was some furtive whispering behind me, as a couple of the class puzzled over the scar tissue that marred Rono’s dark forehead, making him look like someone in a history vid of the days before fluid patch treatments. The scar was the result of the solemn Keren losing his temper and punching Rono on newly regrown skin, and Rono was deliberately keeping it to tease him. I didn’t understand how two such contrasting personalities had ever got into a relationship with each other.
‘The strips are designed to move independently during earthquakes, so buildings are laid out in wide blocks along each strip.’ Rono tapped his lookup to show a new image on the wall vid. ‘The islands all have identical layouts. This is an aerial view of one of them, showing the central park surrounded by regimented blocks of buildings with wide gaps between them where the strips meet. Gues
s what we call the gaps between the buildings.’
‘The gaps?’ asked Krath.
‘Correct,’ said Rono. ‘I’m glad someone’s awake out there. As you can see, there are twenty gaps running the length of each island from north to south. They’re connected by one gap running east to west through the centre of the island. Like the bridges, that gap was used for emergency access when the portal network had to be shut down during solar storms.’
He paused. ‘The buildings on the islands have structural frames bonded to the diamene platform, so they’re held firmly in place when the platform angle tilts during an earthquake. All the walls have imbedded reinforcement mesh running through them, but they’re still riddled with cracks and liable to drop lumps of concraz on your head. Every gap has twin red safety lines painted on it. Between those two lines is safe, but you never put a foot across a red line without your impact suit hoods up and sealed. Understand?’
We all nodded.
‘Understand?’ repeated Rono. ‘I want to hear you say it.’
‘We understand.’ We chorused the words like a bunch of little kids in Nursery.
‘Due to the small size of Land Raft islands, there are no emergency evac portals on the dig site,’ said Rono, ‘but there are twin accommodation domes on each island. Teams are assigned in pairs, and co-ordinate their excavation work so they can help each other in case of accidents.’
He grinned. ‘Less experienced teams are always paired with research teams. Cassandra 2 were supposed to be nursemaiding Cassandra 11 pre-history degree course, but we were fool enough to agree to them trading dig site allocations with you lot. I’m sure we’ll regret it.’
There was a nervous ripple of laughter from the class. After months of Playdon’s formal teaching style, we found Rono a bit of a shock.
He waited for everyone to quieten down before turning serious again. ‘The main danger here is earthquakes. If the quake warning sirens shriek, then you evacuate as fast as possible. We’re working on red risk islands, and even a minor quake may push one of the supporting legs past its limit or break the strip connections, so you get the chaos out of here. Understand?’
We responded in ritual chorus. ‘We understand.’
‘One final thing,’ said Rono. ‘Four years ago, Dannel Playdon’s wife was killed at the California Rift. This is the first time he’s been back here since then. You don’t mention that to him, you pretend you don’t notice if he looks upset, and you call me at once if you think he needs help. I warn you that if anybody causes him any trouble, I’ll personally take them to the edge of this island and throw them off. It’s a very, very long way down, so even if they’re wearing an impact suit they won’t repeat the mistake. Understand?’
We all stared at him in shock. I hadn’t even known Playdon had been married, let alone that his wife … No wonder Playdon was so paranoid about dig site safety.
‘Understand?’ repeated Rono.
‘We understand,’ we said.
‘Good.’ He turned off the wall vid. ‘Our domes are in the central park, and that’s perfectly safe without impact suits. Let’s go outside and escape the sickly smell of Osiris lilies.’
He led the way towards the dome exit, and everyone pulled frantic faces at each other before trailing after him. This was the first time the class had ever left a dome without wearing protective impact suits. We’d started the year in bleak winter at New York Main Dig Site, where wolves were roaming outside our dome. We’d moved to Eden, in the heart of a rainforest holding scimitar cats and a whole range of nasty insects. Now we found ourselves in bright sunshine in …
Well, this might once have been a park, but now there were no flowers, only patchy grass and a scattering of stunted trees. Next to our accommodation dome was the usual sled storage dome, and facing us were two matching domes that must belong to Cassandra 2. A pathway ran off into the trees to the right, and over to the left was a curved blue shape.
‘We’ve got a swimming pool!’ Krath shouted joyously.
Rono laughed. ‘The park swimming pools are the best thing about the Land Raft islands. They only needed re-lining with flexiplas to make them functional again. Now pay attention to three safety rules.’
He raised one finger. ‘Number one is obvious. Don’t wander out of the park into the ruins. If you aren’t wearing an impact suit, they’re utterly lethal.’
He raised a second finger. ‘Number two. Birds of prey nest on these islands. Don’t disturb them, because they’ll attack you to defend their young.’
He raised a third finger. ‘Number three. The sun here is stronger than most of you will have experienced on your home worlds. If your skin is liable to sunburn badly, there’s protective sun block in the store room.’ He glanced pointedly at a couple of the class, including Fian. ‘Don’t come crying to me if you forget to use it. Understand?’
He’d got us trained now, so we chanted the words in unison. ‘We understand.’
‘Good.’ He clapped his hands. ‘That’s it. Take a break.’
Everyone else sprinted back into the dome, but I went over to Rono. ‘I’m causing far too much trouble staying with the class. I’ll call my commanding officer and ask to go somewhere else.’
Rono looked apologetic. ‘I was joking about the Osiris lily smell, Jarra. I really wanted to get outside because I love the sunshine at the California Rift. It’s just like back home on Cassandra.’
‘I didn’t mean the joke.’ I struggled to keep my voice under control. ‘Lecturer Playdon shouldn’t be forced to come here and face painful memories to keep me safe.’
Rono shook his head. ‘Playdon wasn’t forced to do this. He had plenty of teams offering to trade dig site assignments, and he deliberately chose this one so he could try facing the past in the company of his friends.’
‘Oh.’ I felt a total nardle.
Rono grinned and patted my shoulder. ‘I’m very glad Dannel Playdon’s students appreciate him.’
The rest of the class started reappearing and heading for the pool. Most people, including Fian, were wearing the skintights they normally wore under impact suits, but a few had proper swimming costumes. Rono ran to the pool himself, pulled off his clothes to show a swimming costume that barely covered the legally private areas, and dived into the water.
Fian came over to join me, and I gave an envious sigh. ‘I can’t go in the water until the skunk juice wears off, but you enjoy a swim.’
He shook his head. ‘I’ll wait until we can both go swimming.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I said. ‘You will go swimming, Major Eklund, that’s an order.’
He shook his head again. ‘One slight problem, sir. I can’t swim.’
‘What? Everyone learns to swim at school.’
‘Not on Hercules. Deltans feel school time should be spent studying science. When you recover from the skunk juice, you can teach me to swim. Until then, we’ll just watch the others having fun.’
We walked towards the pool, and found the ten members of Cassandra 2 research team had taken over one end of it, while our class were milling round in the water at the other. I saw Krath go over to the diving area and start climbing the ladder to the highest diving board.
Fian frowned. ‘Do you think the idiot’s safe going up there?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Krath’s usually good at practical things, but …’
Krath reached the diving board, waved his arms, and yelled. ‘Look at me, Amalie!’
Our class all looked up, but Rono ignored him. I wished Playdon was here to make sure Krath didn’t break his stupid …
Krath did a perfect dive that included a forward somersault. I relaxed and laughed at Fian. ‘I’m sure Krath would teach you to swim if you ask him nicely.’
Fian made a disgusted noise, and we watched Krath climb the ladder to do an even fancier dive that started with a handstand. A dozen dives later, Playdon appeared next to me and frowned at the crowd in the pool.
‘Why are
n’t my class working?’
Rono swam to the side of the pool, and heaved himself out in one swift movement. ‘They are working. They’re acclimatizing to the sunshine.’
Playdon shook his head and shouted. ‘Asgard 6, out of the pool now!’
Rono winked at me and whispered. ‘I knew this would get him back to normal. Playdon hates seeing his classes lazing around when they should be doing something educational.’
The mob in the pool groaned but obediently climbed out and gathered round us in a dripping group. I backed away nervously to stay clear of water droplets.
‘I want to complete the introductory lectures today, so we can start work on the dig site in the morning,’ said Playdon. ‘Jarra obviously won’t be able to wear an impact suit for a couple of days, so Amalie will substitute as tag leader for our dig team 1.’
Amalie looked worried. ‘I’m not sure …’
‘You’ll do brilliantly,’ I said.
‘It will be good experience for you, Amalie,’ said Playdon. ‘While we’re working on the dig site, Jarra can stay in the dome and do that remedial work I set her on the mathematical theorems of historical analysis. I won’t accept trivial excuses like alien spheres for her delaying it any longer.’
‘Nooo!’ I wailed, while the rest of the class laughed at me.
‘Everyone get dressed now and …’ Playdon broke off as his lookup chimed to signal emergency mail. He tapped it, read the message, and looked startled.
‘Colonel Leveque informs me Jarra and Fian’s bodyguard will be arriving within the next few minutes. Apparently, the bodyguard is …’ Playdon paused to double check the mail message as if he was still having trouble believing it. ‘His Excellency Captain Draven Fedorov Seti Raven, Knight of Adonis.’
There was a moment of stunned silence, before Krath spoke. ‘It must be a joke.’
I couldn’t believe it either. The Adonis Knights were descendants of the first colonists on Adonis. Humanity learned a lot from that first colony. Mostly about all the things that could go wrong when people tried to live on an alien world with its own abundant life and intricate ecology and the portal link failed. After that, the Military Charter was written to establish what later became the cross-sector Military. Their first job was to clean up Adonis and make it safe, then their fledgling Planet First teams moved on to open up other colony worlds.