I wasn’t surprised Rono preferred the experienced Keren to be handling the laser gun, rather than handing it to a novice when the solar storm was causing random effects on equipment. I might be a crazy ape, but I preferred things that way too.
At one point, our team reached a section of wall that had stubbornly clung to life and was still dangerously high. Rono called in the problem. Pereth took a look using the vid bees that monitored the dig, and then came round in his red Site Leader sled to take a look in person. The entire dance was halted, the teams pulled back, Solar 5 warned to brace themselves, and we blew up the wall with charges.
Then it was back to the dance, but others had their share of incidents too. There was a sudden cave-in, which briefly buried two tag leaders over near eight o’clock on the circle. A hazardous power storage unit was spotted and had to be dealt with. An old underground cellar actually had to be filled with rubble because it was dangerously deeper than we wanted at that point in our crater. An over eager dumper sled driver managed to get hit by a jagged piece of metal sufficiently hard to damage his impact suit and get him ferried off back to the base camp for medical checks. All of these things called for the attention of our Site Leader, and I wondered how Pereth could cope with it all.
I’d totally lost track of time in the weird cross between night and day, when our Site Leader stopped the dance. I know the aurora colours had shifted from green to pink, and Rono had offered stims to anyone on our team who needed them. The sensor sled operators accepted, exhausted by the strain of trying to distinguish real danger warnings from the crazy images caused by interference. The rest of us were buoyed up by the adrenaline of the situation and didn’t need meds.
‘This is Site Leader. We’re going to mark out a third, even smaller circle, and work directly over the ship for a while. Solar 5, please let us know immediately if you have any shield issues, because our tag leaders will be working directly above you. We’ll only have space for half the teams to work safely, so teams at two, four, six, eight, ten, and twelve o’clock go back to the base camp for an hour break. Leave your working sleds where they are, because I’ve got transport sleds arranged to ferry you to base camp and back. Everyone else, I’m afraid your rest break is an hour and a half away.’
A transport sled pulled up at the two o’clock marker and we piled aboard. ‘Welcome aboard the Achilles 1 ferry service,’ said the cheerful driver. ‘We deliver you to the door of your luxury dome accommodation, where you’ll find food, drinks, blankets, sleep sacks and superior individual washing facilities awaiting you.’
We were exhausted, but we managed a laugh anyway.
‘What are the superior individual washing facilities?’ asked Rono.
‘Well,’ our driver admitted, ‘they’re just bowls of water, but we did our best.’
Achilles 1 had indeed done their best. We were delivered to the door of a dome that was now labelled ‘Rest Room Two o’clock’, and staggered inside to find the heating panels on maximum, sleep sacks and blankets laid out, a makeshift table of upturned crates loaded with food and drinks, and the promised bowls of water.
‘I love Achilles 1,’ said Rono, with deep feeling.
There was a chorus of agreement.
We all stripped off our impact suits, washed, and ate and drank like the starving people we were. Then we stretched out on sleep sacks. After being confined in a heavy impact suit for hour upon hour, this was blizz, complete and utter blizz.
It was ten minutes before I realized I’d forgotten to be embarrassed about being half-naked among strangers. I was just too tired to care. Besides, Fian was lying on the sleep sack next to mine, but the Cassandra 2 team were right over the other side of the dome, ostentatiously not looking in our direction. We were a newly Twoing couple, so they were giving us as much privacy as they could.
Fian rolled on his side to look at me. ‘So,’ he said, ‘we should discuss plans.’
I whimpered. ‘I’m exhausted. I’ve been tagging rocks, while you just had to sit on a sled.’
‘True. I just had to sit on a sled, and tensely wait to yank you out of trouble, while knowing that the solar storm could mean the sensors missed major hazards, or my tag support beam failed at the crucial moment.’
‘Eleven times, thank you.’ I said, wearily.
‘What?’ he asked.
‘You yanked me out of trouble eleven times, including two major landslides and a falling girder that I hadn’t even seen coming. Thank you. Now let me scream quietly in peace.’
‘I want to discuss things now. I’m in a better physical state than you are, so this is my best chance to talk you into submission.’
I sighed. I’d been trying to blot out the personal nightmare and concentrate on doing my job, but now I forced my fuzzy brain to think. ‘The plan is I leave.’
‘Not an option. We entered into a Twoing contract. We have a commitment to try and make this relationship work.’
‘You didn’t know I was Handicapped. I’d lied to you, so you’ve no obligation to honour that commitment.’
Incredibly, the mad norm grinned at me. ‘No I don’t, but you do. I didn’t lie to you about anything, so you’ve got no excuse to walk out on me. I’ve decided to hold you to your contract. You signed up with me for three months and you’re staying with me for them.’
I sat up and stared at him. ‘You don’t want to Two with an ape. You said so. Are you planning some sort of revenge?’
Fian laughed. ‘I’m not the revenge type, and as for comments about apes … You can’t blame me for being angry after all the lies you told me. You lied, I called you an ape, and we’re both sorry. Now, let’s move on and work out how to fix things.’
‘The only thing I can do is leave.’
‘I’ve said that I refuse to let you,’ said Fian, happily, ‘and I mean it. I have legal rights here. I might have grounds to terminate our Twoing contract, but you don’t. I didn’t get you to agree to the contract under false pretences. I haven’t walked out. I haven’t been violent. I didn’t exactly force my attentions on you earlier today. I might have called you an ape once in the heat of the moment, but you can’t really claim that was unreasonable behaviour given the circumstances.’
I was grazzed. ‘You’re threatening to go legal? No one goes legal over a Twoing contract!’
‘Watch me do it,’ said Fian. ‘If you don’t already know how stubborn I can be, then you’ll soon find out. I have rights and I will enforce them. I can demand that we both attend a relationship course including psychological counselling.’
‘That’s evil! I told you I hate psychologists.’
‘At the risk of being thrown across this dome, I must say that I think recent events indicate a bit of time with a psychologist might help. However, I’ll let you off legal action and psychologists, if you agree to carry on with our relationship.’
‘You’re serious? I’m an ape girl!’
Fian frowned. ‘Don’t call yourself that! You’re as human as I am. You’re just … an Earth girl. And yes, I’m perfectly serious. I was furious that you’d lied to me, Jarra. Now I understand you didn’t let us get close to each other until you were in shock after your parents’ death and living in your dream world, and that makes a big difference. The lies you told before that … Well, I could wind myself up to be angry about those again, tell you to get the chaos out of my life, and you’d go off and martyr yourself taking some other course, but would that make either of us happy?’
He pulled a face. ‘I’ve been asking myself how I’ll feel if I do that. How will I feel tomorrow, and the next day, and in the weeks and months after that? After the anger and resentment wears off, I’m going to remember just how good we were, and I’m going to wish …’
He shook his head. ‘Jarra, I thought you were a crazily brave Honour Child from a Military family, who could throw me across the room, and take me places that were utterly zan. I thought you shared my love of history, and enjoyed my stupid jokes, and you cared
about me. Now, despite the lies, aren’t just about all of those things still true?’
‘Yes, but I’m …’
‘You’re an Earth girl,’ he said. ‘You’re Handicapped, so you can’t walk through a portal and go off world. That does change the situation. It causes some problems, and solves others. I’ve wasted a lot of time worrying what happens if you decide you want to go combat Military and join Planet First. It’s quite funny when you stop and think about it.’
‘I’m afraid I still can’t see it as a joke. What about your family?’
Fian shrugged. ‘My sister exists off in a mental universe of her own, concentrating on wave particles, so she won’t care. My parents won’t like it when they find out you’re Handicapped, but they didn’t like me going history either. They know me too well to think they can stop me when I’m determined to do something. Did I mention I was stubborn?’
‘I don’t think you’re stubborn, I think you’re insane,’ I said. ‘What about the rest of the class? Do you really think I can keep lying to them?’
‘No, I don’t think you can keep hiding your Handicap. Thinking back, you really weren’t very good at the lies, Jarra. You constantly made mistakes, and I would have guessed the truth if it hadn’t been so unbelievable. Even if you didn’t tangle yourself up in the lies, you’re probably right that someone would find out because of you being a pilot, but it doesn’t matter because I want Playdon and the class to know the truth.’
‘What? Why?’
‘Because I’m not risking you having any more fantasy spells and thinking you can walk into off-world portals. You may have faith in the alarms going off and stopping you, but I don’t want even the remotest chance of you dying.’
I frowned. ‘I’m not going to do that again, Fian. My parents’ death hit me like … Well, it was like being buried by rocks, and going into impact suit blackout, but I’m fine now.’
‘It’s still best if we tell the class.’
‘Seriously? Just stop and think what they’ll say.’
Fian shook his head. ‘It can’t be that bad. They’ve already been through something similar with Lolia and Lolmack.’
‘That’s different,’ I said. ‘Lolia and Lolmack kept things hidden, but they didn’t tell a lot of deliberate lies the way I did. I told the class all those things about being from a Military family.’
‘But as it turns out, you really are from a Military family. You’ve got a brother and sister, rather than just a brother, but I expect I’m the only one who was interested enough to remember details. Your parents really were on Planet First, and they’ve just been killed. You didn’t tell the class immediately that happened, but no one will yell at you because of that.’
I pointed out the obvious. ‘They’ll be too busy yelling at me for being an ape.’
‘They may say a few things in the initial shock, but when they calm down I expect the fear of being thrown across the room may make them watch their words. I’m pretty sure Playdon will be on our side as well, and threaten them with code warnings.’
Fian really seemed to mean it. He was sticking with me despite the lies, and despite me being an ape. If it wasn’t so hard to believe, and if I hadn’t been so exhausted, I’d have jumped up and down to celebrate. If we’d actually been alone in the dome, I might have done even more.
Fian was studying me intently. ‘You do still want us to be together? Liking me wasn’t just part of the fantasy was it? You do still care?’
I blushed. ‘I do still like you.’
‘You wouldn’t like to upgrade that statement?’ asked Fian. ‘There’s another word you could use.’
I’ve never been good at making declarations of affection. Back when Cathan and I were boy and girling, he’d try to push me into saying stuff, but he never managed it. I’m much better at expressing hostility than affection.
‘Not just now …’ I said. ‘It’s … not the right place.’
I was a bit relieved when Rono picked this moment to stand up and call across to us. ‘Time to start getting suits on.’
Fian sighed heavily, stood up, and pulled a face at me. ‘I know I’m not much to look at …’
I stood up as well, groaning at the effort, and stared at him. He really seemed to mean it. He looked like Arrack San Domex, and he didn’t think he was attractive? How nardle brained was that?
‘A lot of us on Hercules are slim and blond,’ Fian said sadly, as he struggled with his impact suit. ‘I know girls find that boring.’
It’s a mistake to giggle when you’re putting on an impact suit. I nearly fell over. ‘We do? Maybe the girls on Hercules find blond men boring, but personally I like them.’
Fian didn’t seem entirely reassured. ‘There’s the muscles issue too. Hercules is at the low end of the gravity criteria for Planet First. I know that’s only three percent less than Earth standard, but I still feel whoever chose our planet’s name was poking fun at us, and when I came here …’ He pulled a face. ‘I barely noticed the higher gravity when I was just walking round the dome, but then I put on an impact suit and …’
I felt horribly guilty. ‘I knew Planet First excluded planets with a higher gravity than Earth, but I didn’t think it through. Stupid of me. No wonder everyone was complaining about the impact suits so much. I’m sorry.’
‘Oh I’ve adjusted to wearing an impact suit now,’ said Fian, ‘but there are still times like earlier today. We were in a dome packed full of people, and it was really demoralizing seeing the men take off their impact suits and show off their muscles. Just look at Rono.’
We both managed the final tricky phase of getting our arms into our suits, then did the easy bit of sealing the front and pulling up and closing our hoods. I glanced at Rono. ‘What about him?’
Fian turned to look towards Rono, as he answered. ‘Well, he’s really good-looking, and he’s got all those amazing muscles. I could understand if you preferred someone like Rono to me.’
The echoing sound of Fian’s words in my ears, told me the hideous truth even before Rono’s amused voice spoke over the team circuit. ‘I’m deeply flattered, but would like to point out I’m not only already tagged, but also scared of Jarra and the way crashing spacecraft follow her around. It’s a terrifying thought that Solar 5 aimed for New York Dig Site because it’s where Jarra had her Honour Ceremony. By the way, Fian, you’ll find that a couple of years working on a dig site in an impact suit will do wonders for your muscles. At 18, I could barely lift a glass of Fizzup.’
Fian made a sort of strangled noise, and spoke in horror. ‘I said that over the team circuit?’
Rono laughed. ‘It’s frighteningly easy to put your suit on and forget that you’ve left it set to speak on a channel.’
Keren’s voice spoke on the team circuit. ‘Don’t worry, Fian, we’ve all done the same thing. Rono once declared undying love over the broadcast channel.’
Rono groaned. ‘It’s been seven years, you might let me live it down.’
Keren continued mercilessly. ‘“My heart is yours until the end of time itself.” Not only did the whole of London Dig Site hear him, but Ruth was duty Dig Site Command Officer that day and she said …’
There was a chorus of Cassandra 2 voices. ‘This is Dig Site Command. Tempting though the offer is, Rono, I’m afraid I’ll have to stay with my husband for the sake of our children.’
Rono sighed. ‘My only consolation is that it wasn’t as bad as what happened last time we were at the California Rift. That couple from Thor 2 …’
Keren laughed. ‘Yes, that was unforgettable. Just like a Beta vid soundtrack.’
The dome door opened. ‘Your Achilles 1 ferry service awaits,’ said a familiar, chirpy voice.
We headed outside, and rode on the transport sled back to the crash site. The centre area had been nicely flattened out while we were away.
‘This is Site Leader,’ said Pereth’s voice on the broadcast channel. ‘Welcome back to the first shift. We’re moving back to t
he middle circle to do some more work there for a while, and after that the second shift will take their rest break.’
We spent five minutes getting everyone positioned and settled, and then started work again. As I was tagging rocks, I noticed a lone snowflake, followed a moment later by two or three more. I didn’t like the look of that. It would be impossible to work if it really started to snow.
I was just wondering whether to mention it to Rono, when Pereth’s voice came over the broadcast channel.
‘This is Site Leader. Yes, thank you, I’m aware of the snow. Earth Rolling News have struggled on through the interference and organized a weather watch for us. Selected settlements across the continent have been messaging emergency priority weather reports every half an hour. I was expecting slight snowfall about now. It shouldn’t last long, and we can expect clear weather for at least six hours after that.’
I relaxed and ignored the snow. Pereth was right. The sporadic snowfall stopped within fifteen minutes, and just after that there was a call on the broadcast channel.
‘This is Earth 19. We know this isn’t our main purpose today, but we’ve accidentally found a stasis box.’
Everyone laughed.
‘This is Site Leader. If you think Solar 5 is inside then open it, otherwise a transport sled will be over shortly to collect it.’
We moved from the middle circle to work on the inner one after that. At least, those of us who’d already rested started work on the central circle, while the others went for an hour break. While we were moving sleds, I had a good look at the crater we were making. It looked as if we’d finished work on the outermost circle now, and just needed to dig deeper at the middle and centre. It was strange working at the centre, knowing somewhere beneath my feet was a spacecraft.
The other teams returned after their hour, and we worked the middle circle again. After about twenty minutes there was a call on the broadcast channel. ‘This is Earth 19. Unfortunately, not a stasis box this time. We’ve found a young mountain of what seems to be a very tough diamene compound.’