Earth Star

by Janet Edwards

  I wished I could see Playdon’s face at that moment, but of course it was hidden by his impact suit. We followed the road through the trees to the target point, and then dodged our way past the people hard at work cutting a new route down the hill. Once we were safely out of view in the trees, I paused to examine my hand sensor. Turning it on was easy. It started making clicking noises.

  ‘What’s the clicking?’ I asked.

  Playdon took a look at it. ‘It’s already been set to test for something.’

  Fian turned on his own sensor. ‘Dust levels in the air.’

  ‘If we just …’ Playdon tapped at my sensor, and a faint, cone-shaped light appeared. ‘You should be able to use this to examine what’s underground, but it’s much smaller than any sensors I’ve used and I can’t see a display.’

  ‘Perhaps if I …’ I held the sensor above my forearm lookup, both chimed, and a fuzzy image appeared on the lookup. I pointed the hand sensor at the ground ahead of me, and the lookup image became sharper.

  ‘You check the ground, Jarra, I’ll check the air,’ said Fian.

  We headed downhill through the trees, managing to get over a fallen one by setting our hover belts to their maximum height. The clicking on Fian’s hand sensor was getting steadily faster.

  ‘I see what you mean about the Tuan creepers,’ said Playdon.

  I’d been concentrating on finding my way between the trees and making the odd sensor check of the ground, but now I looked up. ‘I’m not even going to try and count that lot.’

  ‘There’s over sixty,’ said Fian, happily.

  The trees thinned, and we found ourselves at the top of the landslide. I stopped and looked warily down the steep slope that ended in a jumble of fallen trees and rocks far below.

  ‘We’ll have to go around that,’ said Playdon.

  I stared at it a moment longer. ‘You two go around. I’ll go straight down and meet you at the bottom. If there’s anything for us to find, I’m betting it’ll be in the middle of that. You’d cut a tunnel into the steepest point of the hillside, just before it starts levelling out, wouldn’t you?’

  ‘You can’t possibly climb down that, Jarra,’ said Playdon. ‘It’s a mass of loose stones and soil, so you’d slide down out of control.’

  ‘Once we’ve got a tag support sled here, I could use the beam to lower Jarra down there,’ said Fian.

  I shook my head. ‘If there’s anything under there, I don’t want any beams, even tag support ones, near it.’

  ‘I know aliens wouldn’t think like us,’ said Fian, ‘but it’s silly to dig a tunnel into a landslide.’

  ‘There might not have been a landslide back then,’ I objected. ‘It looks like a whole section of hillside recently collapsed.’

  ‘Wait a few minutes, Jarra,’ said Playdon. ‘I’ll go back and get a rope.’

  Fian laughed. ‘Now that’s a really old fashioned lifeline. Will they have any on the site?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Playdon. ‘Not genuine ancient rope of course. The research teams use ones made of plas fibre compounds, virtually unbreakable, resistant to being cut, and fire proof. They’re useful in really awkward or high places.’

  It seemed a long wait before Playdon returned with a length of thin rope, a harness, and some other mysterious items. He was followed by Krath and a hovering vid bee. I tried to forget we were being shown live across all the sectors of humanity, and concentrated on putting on the harness while Playdon and Fian picked a tree and set up some sort of framework around it to allow them to let the rope out slowly. When they were ready, I clipped my end of the rope to my harness, checked I was firmly attached, and started backing down the slope.

  Progress down was slow. I had my hover belt turned off, because it would just send me skidding wildly downwards. Even on foot, small stones constantly slid away from beneath me, and I’d have followed them downwards if it wasn’t for the rope bracing me. More worrying was when a sudden shower of debris fell on me from above, and a large boulder came bouncing downwards and narrowly missed me.

  At intervals I stopped and tried to ignore my hazardous position, while checking dust levels and taking sensor images of the ground beneath me. I’d set my lookup to relay everything to Fian, so he and Playdon were watching them too, and talking to me on a safely private channel where Krath and his audience of billions couldn’t eavesdrop.

  ‘There’s an awful lot of dust here,’ said Fian.

  ‘Could just be because of the landslide,’ I said. ‘I’m reaching the steepest section now, so I’ll try and move from side to side to cover most of the slope.’

  I worked from the left side across to the right, slid down further, then moved from right to left. I couldn’t see anything on the sensor other than a mess of earth, rocks and roots. I might have missed something, but I was sure Playdon wouldn’t. I was nearly at the bottom of the slope, and giving way to despair, when I saw something flicker on the sensor image. I paused, blinked the stinging sweat out of my eyes, and looked again. It would be so easy to imagine it was showing what I desperately wanted to find.

  ‘Are you seeing what I’m seeing?’ I asked shakily.

  ‘Looks like part of a tunnel to me.’ Playdon’s voice sounded a bit odd too. ‘I’ve no idea what that bright white line is. Can you rotate image?’

  I rotated the image and the line became an equally bright rectangle. I stared at it for a second, then came to my senses and turned the hand sensor off.

  ‘Lost image,’ said Playdon.

  ‘I’ve turned it off. There’s something down there, so we have to be very, very careful now.’ I swapped to broadcast channel and took a deep breath. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. There’s a tunnel at my current location, with the entrance blocked by a landslide. My sensors show something inside, probably a door, but they aren’t recognizing the material. I’ve cut sensors for now. We must keep active sensor scans of the tunnel to a minimum, and absolutely no sleds or lift beams go near it without my direct order. We’ve no idea how our technology may interact with this.’

  I paused. ‘Pereth, we’ll have to work from below to clear the entrance to the tunnel. I’ll want to keep the sleds as far away as possible from any alien technology.’

  There’d been dead silence on broadcast channel, but now there seemed a babble of excited voices. I had a weirdly giddy moment, and then realized Playdon was talking on the private channel.

  ‘What?’ I asked.

  ‘I said we’d better get you out of there, Jarra. Should we pull you up?’

  ‘If you can.’

  It was a long struggle back up the landslide, with my arms and legs aching. Fian met me, pulling me back over the edge to safe ground. I instantly sat down and flopped backwards, heaving a sigh of utter relief.

  ‘Jarra, are you all right?’ Fian asked.

  ‘Just tired.’ A vid bee flew above me, and I waved my arm, making a swatting gesture at it. ‘Krath, keep your vid bee out of my way or I’ll kill it.’

  ‘Sorry, Jarra,’ said Krath’s voice. ‘We’re live on Earth Rolling News and everyone’s a bit excited.’

  I groaned.

  ‘This is Colonel Riak Torrek.’

  I sat up, startled to hear the Colonel speaking on broadcast channel.

  ‘I wish to thank all the civilian archaeologists for their continuing assistance,’ he said. ‘Major Tell Morrath and Captain Eklund are now taking a rest break until the access road is completed.’

  ‘We are?’ I said, fortunately not on any channels, though the vid bee was probably picking it up.

  ‘You heard him,’ said Playdon. ‘That was a thinly disguised order.’

  Fian suddenly laughed. ‘I’ve got the Colonel on private channel, telling me to get Jarra back to our Field Command sled and make her rest.’

  I couldn’t argue with the vid bee watching, so I turned on my hover belt and Fian and I headed back up through the trees. Fian still seemed to be having some sort of furtive conversation with the Colonel. I
didn’t dare ask what it was about, but after a few minutes the Colonel opened a private channel to me.

  ‘Jarra, this is Riak.’

  I was disconcerted by his use of his first name. ‘Uh, yes, sir.’

  ‘Jarra, you’re speaking to me as Riak, a fellow member of the Military family, and I hope a friend. This conversation is outside the chain of command.’

  ‘Uh, yes, … Riak.’

  ‘Jarra, I shouldn’t need to tell you how well you’ve done. You have to rest now, because we’ll need you to direct the excavation of the tunnel entrance.’

  I made a noise of understanding and agreement, rather than struggle with calling him Riak again.

  ‘After that, Jarra, someone needs to go into the tunnel, and we don’t know how dangerous it will be. I’m dreadfully aware you and Fian didn’t enlist voluntarily. I drafted you into the Military, and you must not feel under any obligation to take any risks, but I can’t deny it’s your right to enter that tunnel if you wish.’

  My head blurred, and I stopped moving before I hovered my way straight into a tree trunk. ‘Sir, I’d love to, but are you sure? Don’t you need someone with previous experience?’

  I heard him laugh. ‘Jarra, how could there be anyone with previous experience of this job?’

  I finally got my brain working. ‘Sir, I wish to volunteer to enter the tunnel.’

  ‘Major, you have that right, and most of humanity is expecting you to be the person who does it. I don’t have a lot of choice here, but please be careful. I’m going to blame myself if anything happens to you.’ He paused. ‘Captain Eklund has already expressed his wish to accompany you.’

  My head had another spinning moment. We’d be going into the unknown. We could hit something as bad as that magnetic spike at Eden Dig Site, and if Fian got hurt again … I was hit by the memory of him in the regrowth tank, his long blond hair drifting around his face, and his side looking like an anatomy vid. I wanted him to stay out of this, to stay safe, but we were in this together, win or lose.

  ‘Sir,’ I said, ‘Captain Eklund has that right.’

  36

  ‘I can’t believe you’re letting us do this, Jarra,’ said Krath.

  ‘I certainly can’t believe she’s letting you do this, Krath,’ said Playdon.

  I laughed. ‘Who else would I choose? You’re my team and I know I can totally depend on all of you.’

  We were alone here. Six people, four sleds, and at least a dozen hovering vid bees. I’d ordered everyone else to portal back to Eden Dig Site, or at least pull back to where the four freight portals circled the dome housing Earth Rolling News. My impression was no one had actually left, and they were all gathered by the freight portals watching Earth Rolling News on their lookups. Staying there was pointless, but I couldn’t blame them for refusing to portal out to tamely watch things from Eden Dig Site.

  I gave a last look around. Dalmora’s sensor sled was well clear of the rest of us. Krath and Amalie’s heavy lift sleds were below the landslide and slightly to the right of it. Fian’s tag support sled was a little higher up at the side of the mass of fallen earth and rocks. Over on the access road, a small portal was locked open in case we had to evacuate fast.

  ‘I think that’s the best we can do,’ I said. ‘If I get in trouble, then Fian pulls me directly towards him. Krath and Amalie, you’ll be moving rocks down to below the landslide. You’re working much closer together than usual, so be very careful the beams don’t intersect. Dalmora and Lecturer Playdon are watching sensors as usual. I’ll need to be warned of any changes other than simple rock and earth movements, whether they seem dangerous or not.’

  I switched my comms to speak on broadcast channel. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. There’ll be a lot of experts watching the vid coverage of us working, so I’d like to point out I’ll be deliberately breaking all the usual rules. Normally, I’d be aiming to keep a dig site nice and level to avoid causing any landslides. Today, I want to make the rocks and earth blocking the tunnel entrance fall towards us so we can keep the heavy lift beams as far away as possible from any alien technology.’

  ‘This is Captain Eklund. I can see this is going to be a really interesting excavation for your long suffering tag support.’

  ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. Don’t worry, Fian. I’m going to deliberately cause rock slides, but I’ll do my best not to be hit by them.’

  I set my comms back to speak on team circuit. ‘We’d better make a start.’

  I moved forward and started tagging rocks, tensely listening for any warnings from Dalmora or Playdon. I was using a hover belt. I was firing a tag gun. We were using sensors. Although none of these seemed as likely as lift beams to interact dangerously with alien technology, it was still a minor risk.

  I was also terribly aware I was wearing an impact suit. Strong magnetic fields could affect my suit. It was possible some unknown alien technology, beyond our sensors’ ability to detect, could affect it too. There was a horrible crawling sensation as my skin remembered what happened back on Eden Dig Site, and tried to find somewhere to hide from the impact suit fabric in case it suddenly turned into razors.

  I tagged the first batch of rocks without any problem, and went across to Fian’s tag support sled. ‘Amalie, try moving the rock nearest to you. If anything odd happens, anything at all, cut power instantly and we all run like chaos for the portal.’

  We all watched, holding our breath, as she locked her beam on to the rock and moved it. Nothing disastrous happened.

  ‘Try a couple more,’ I said, ‘and then Krath can start shifting rocks too.’

  ‘How can you be so calm, Jarra?’ asked Krath.

  ‘Calm?’ I gave a nardle giggle. ‘I’m not calm. I’m scared stiff.’

  That wasn’t entirely true. I’d got whole waves of emotions churning around inside me, and there was plenty of fear in the mix, but there was tension, disbelief, and a mad sense of exhilaration as well. The overriding effect was more like being powered than anything else. Mason Leveque might be able to stay relaxed and calm even at a time like this, but I couldn’t. I had to compensate by deliberately double and triple checking every decision and move I made.

  Amalie and Krath had shifted the tagged rocks now. I floated forward again, carefully tagging the next set, calculating how to create an unstable situation in the mass of debris littering the steep slope ahead of me. I wanted to create a landslip, but I mustn’t overdo it or I could bring down the whole hillside.

  I gave a last look, and backed off to the tag support sled again. ‘Amalie, Krath, go ahead.’

  I watched as the next rocks were lifted away, one by one, and nodded. This was working. I’d carefully left one large boulder untagged, and it was now the one thing holding up a whole bank of earth and rocks. When that was removed …

  ‘I hope you aren’t going in close to tag that, Jarra,’ said Fian.

  ‘I’m planning to distance shoot it,’ I said, ‘but you may still have to yank me out of trouble if that lot moves before we’re ready.’

  I raised my tag gun, took careful aim, held my breath and fired. Tag guns aren’t the most accurate things in the world, and I didn’t want to have to take a dozen shots and look an idiot in front of the vid bees that hovered around the sleds. Fortunately, the boulder was so large it was hard to miss.

  I retreated to safety again. ‘Amalie, shift the boulder.’

  Her lift beam moved out, locked on to the tag, changed from white to red as the power increased, and the boulder soared upwards into the air. Below it, earth and rocks cascaded downwards, and I was startled to hear applause on the broadcast channel.

  ‘This is Site Leader Pereth. Beautifully judged avalanche there, Major.’

  I felt the heat of embarrassed pleasure at such praise from a true expert, and swapped temporarily to broadcast channel to reply. ‘This is Major Tell Morrath. Thank you. I think we’ll need at least two more like that, so let’s hope they go just as well.’

  I le
t the heavy lifts do a cautious drag net next, to remove the worst of the loose earth and pebbles, then tagged the bigger stones for removal. That went smoothly, and so did the second avalanche. It was on the third and final one, that I misjudged the stability of a key boulder. It gave way early under the strain, and Fian pulled me out just in time to save me from the torrent of debris. As I dangled in midair, being smoothly swung back towards the tag support sled, I had a perfect view of the hillside. I felt a stab of excitement as I saw a dark opening.

  I spoke on broadcast channel. ‘That’s cleared part of the tunnel entrance. There’s still a mess of loose rocks below it, but I’d rather not risk using lift beams closer to the tunnel. We can climb over the rubble and get inside.’

  I glanced around for a moment. ‘It’s getting dark, but that won’t make any difference when we’re inside the tunnel. Turn the floodlights on now, please, Dalmora. Captain Eklund and I will get our equipment set up, and then the rest of my team had better pull back to join the crowd by the Earth Rolling News dome.’

  ‘Can’t we stay?’ asked Krath, on team circuit.

  ‘Sorry, but no,’ I replied. ‘There’s no point in risking more than the two of us. If we do something wrong, or even if we do something right, we’ve no idea what may happen.’

  He gave a heavy sigh, but shut up. Playdon came over and helped Fian and I with the extra equipment. We’d decided to take the minor risk of wearing impact suits and hover belts as we entered the tunnel, though we’d keep the hover belts turned off unless we needed them. Logic said the protection of the impact suits outweighed the danger of them being affected by alien technology. My skin wasn’t entirely convinced by logic, and was busily screaming away, but I promised it I’d be out of my suit in record time if there was the slightest sign of a problem.

  As well as impact suits and hover belts, we needed lights of course. We attached those to our suits, together with special small sensors, and relays for the vid bees. I’d grudgingly agreed to take two of the nosy little vid bees with us, not for the benefit of the Earth Rolling News audience, but so the Military could see exactly what was happening and advise us. Dalmora and her father, Ventrak Rostha, would be controlling the vid bees remotely via the relays.