Earth Flight. Janet Edwards

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СКАЧАТЬ could both be right, or both wrong. It really didn’t matter. Nothing could bring Joth back, and Petra and I would always be enemies.

      ‘Put the chairs away and fetch your luggage,’ said Playdon.

      A few minutes later, the hall was crowded with people and bobbing hover bags, as the class waited for Playdon to do his final tour of inspection.

      ‘It’s unusual for High Congress to clarify an order like that,’ said Dalmora. ‘They’re obviously very embarrassed by all the comments on the newzies.’

      I sighed. ‘But not embarrassed enough to order Fian and me back to Alien Contact right away.’

      She tactfully changed the subject. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing a new city. I hope we’ll spend some time at Jaipur or Chennai later in the year. It would be totally zan to be excavating one of the cities where my ancestors lived.’

      ‘I’ve started working on my family tree,’ said Amalie, ‘but I’ve only got as far back as 2640. My ancestors were all on planets in Gamma sector then.’

      Fian sighed. ‘I’ll never know about mine. My great-grandparents were all on Freya in Alpha sector during the conflict there, and its planetary records were deliberately destroyed. All I know is Freya was originally settled from Earth Europe. What about your ancestors, Jarra?’

      I shrugged. ‘They’ll have been from everywhere. The Betan planets all had open colonization, and members of a Military clan marry people from lots of different worlds anyway.’

      I was dodging the question. The truth was the Tell clan had a complete family tree on record, but I hadn’t dared to look at it. Fate had robbed me of a family twice already. Once at birth, and again when my parents were killed. If I looked at the Tell family tree before I was actually a clan member, I might tempt fate into making something go wrong a third time.

      ‘My aunt worked out our family tree all the way back to Exodus century,’ said Krath. ‘I’ve got ancestors from all five of Earth’s continents, so I don’t care what cities we go to. I just hope there’s no more rainforest, or sabre cats, or dire wolves. I’ve had enough of those here at Eden.’

      ‘I still can’t believe people deliberately genetically salvaged dangerous creatures,’ said Fian.

      ‘Earth isn’t civilized,’ said Krath, for about the thousandth time. ‘The ruins. The animals. The insects. The solar storms bringing down the portal network.’

      Playdon returned just in time to hear him. ‘As I keep saying, the Military Planet First teams carefully select every colony world and make it safe for humans. Earth is our only world that never went through that process, and the vast abandoned areas are dangerous.’

      He glanced round the class. ‘We’ll be portalling inter-continent to get to London Main. If we keep close together, with Jarra and Fian in the middle, people may not notice them going through the Transit areas. If we get split up, then I’ll stay with Jarra and Fian. You’ve all got the new dome portal code, so we’ll be able to meet up there.’

      Playdon led the way to the portal room and we hurried after him, clicking our key fobs to make our hover bags chase us. Fian and I stayed in the centre of the crowd as we trooped through the portal and gathered under a location board saying ‘Africa Transit 3’. Once the whole class and their luggage had arrived, we headed on past the flashing signs about inter-continental portal charges, and joined the queue for a portal that was already active and locked open to Earth Europe. The queue had been moving rapidly forwards but suddenly stopped.

      Amalie groaned. ‘The portal’s cut out. It’s flashing a congestion warning.’

      I sighed. ‘Some idiot with more hover bags than brain cells must have stopped in the arrival zone on the other side of the portal to count his luggage.’

      ‘There’s only a few people ahead of us in the queue,’ said Amalie. ‘I hope it doesn’t … Oh chaos, you’ve been spotted!’

      I turned to look behind us. Transits were usually full of purposefully hurrying figures, but now everyone was standing still, staring at Fian and me. A rhythmic sound started, I realized people were clapping, and felt myself grow hot with embarrassment.

      ‘If we’re stuck here for long we’ll get mobbed,’ muttered Amalie.

      She was right. People were constantly arriving through portals but no one was leaving, so the watching crowd was growing larger at frightening speed. Lots of people were holding up lookups to make vids of us, and someone was bound to have called Earth Rolling News by now.

      ‘The portal’s open again,’ called Playdon. ‘Jarra, Fian, go first!’

      The rest of the class moved aside to let us reach the portal, and the sound of applause instantly cut out as Fian and I stepped through it to Earth Europe. Playdon arrived a moment later, and we hurried on past a sign that said ‘Normal Portal Charges Now Apply’. I glanced over my shoulder and saw some of the class running to catch us up. There was a lot of hover luggage chasing us as well. I hoped some of it was mine.

      We reached a local portal and Playdon rapidly dialled. ‘Warning,’ said the portal, ‘your destination is a restricted access area. If your scanned genetic code is not listed …’

      I didn’t hear the rest of it, because Fian hustled me through the portal with him. We stepped out into the standard grey portal room of a dig site dome, and automatically headed out of the door to allow space for other people to arrive. I paused in the corridor to count the number of hover bags following us. ‘Zan! All the luggage is …’

      ‘Throwbacks have no place in a noble clan of Beta sector!’ said a strange voice.

      I turned, shocked by the words, and something wet splattered across my face. I dropped the key fob I was holding, and lifted my hands to protect myself, but it was too late. My eyes and mouth were burning and I couldn’t see or breathe.

       4

      I was blind and helpless, battling against pain to get air into my lungs. There were sounds of a fight somewhere very close, fists hitting flesh and agonized gasps. What was happening? Was someone attacking Fian? How could someone have been here, in what should have been an empty dome, lying in wait for us?

      ‘Playdon, get her to hospital!’

      That harsh, angry voice was definitely Fian. Arms grabbed me from behind, half carrying me. There was the siren of a portal medical emergency alarm, which abruptly cut out to be replaced by the sound of voices. We’d portalled. We must be in a Hospital Earth Europe casualty unit now.

      ‘Code ten!’ Playdon’s voice yelled next to my right ear. ‘Code ten! Chemical contamination!’

      I was dragged sharply sideways and liquid sprayed over me. I whimpered in panic before I realized this wasn’t another attack. I was in a decontamination shower.

      ‘Jarra, open your eyes and your mouth!’

      I forced them open, and the pain eased as the decontamination fluid did its job. Playdon’s blurred face was inches from my own, his dripping hair a startling contrast to his usual neat appearance.

      ‘Does СКАЧАТЬ