‘Why aren’t you two in uniform?’ asked Dalmora.
‘We’ll be going through Earth Africa Transit,’ said Fian. ‘Playdon suggested we’d be less conspicuous in civilian clothes.’
‘It’s starting!’ Krath shouted.
Everyone went quiet and listened to the presenter on the wall vid. ‘Earth Rolling News now joins the cross-sector live link from Academy in Alpha sector for an announcement by General Marshal Renton Mai, commander-in-chief of the Military.’
The image changed to show a man in a pure white uniform, standing at a podium with the flag of humanity behind him. He began speaking in a relaxed voice. ‘The light-based communication from the alien probe clearly has a huge amount of data content. Deciphering that content and locating the alien planet of origin is likely to take a considerable period of time. Alien Contact is therefore moving from initial response phase into a longer term commitment and there will be a number of changes.’
I held my breath as the General Marshal went on.
‘Military Base 79 Zulu on Earth will be upgraded and become the permanent base for the Alien Contact programme. It will also house two research groups. One investigating the alien technology discovered in Earth Africa, and the other concentrating on the light signals from the sphere.’
I started breathing again. Alien Contact was staying on Earth!
‘The guard on the alien sphere will be maintained but downgraded in scale,’ continued the General Marshal. ‘A search for the alien planet of origin has already commenced in Alpha sector, and will be extended into other sectors.’
He paused for a moment. ‘There are corresponding adjustments to the command structure. The command of the Alien Contact programme will become a General Staff position reporting directly to me. Colonel Riak Torrek is promoted to the rank of General and will remain in overall command of Alien Contact, and in direct command of the search efforts. Commander Nia Stone is promoted to Colonel and takes command of Military Base 79 Zulu and the guard on the alien sphere. Commander Mason Leveque is promoted to Colonel and takes command of the twin research efforts as well as threat assessment. Commander Elith Shirinkin is promoted to Colonel and takes command of the five Earth solar arrays.’
The vid image panned out to include the audience, and the General Marshal started taking questions from eager newzie reporters. I was startled by the first question.
‘Delta Sector Vision here. What about Fian Eklund and Jarra Tell Morrath?’
‘Captain Fian Eklund is promoted to Major, and Major Jarra Tell Morrath to Commander,’ said the General Marshal.
I gasped, totally grazzed by my promotion. It was nardle enough being a Major, but …
‘Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund will be reporting to Colonel Leveque while continuing with their specialist pre-history training,’ continued the General Marshal.
‘The rumours that High Congress ordered their removal from the Alien Contact programme have now been confirmed by several discontented committee members,’ said the Deltan reporter. ‘What’s your opinion of this controversial interference in Military staffing?’
‘The Military Charter states the Military should remain politically neutral,’ said the General Marshal. ‘I can’t comment on the decisions of Joint Sector High Congress Committee, however a few hours ago I was sent extra clarification of that particular order for the public record.’
He glanced at the Military forearm lookup attached to his sleeve. ‘High Congress state that Commander Tell Morrath and Major Eklund were removed because they do not have the appropriate skills to assist Alien Contact at this point. This is a purely temporary measure to enable them to continue their studies. They will return to the Alien Contact programme as soon as either the sphere’s message is translated or the alien planet of origin is found.’
I sighed with relief. Fian and I would return to Alien Contact!
The General Marshal pointed to another of the forest of raised hands, and a woman spoke. ‘Beta Sector Daily. What about Commander Tell Dramis and Major Weldon?’
‘Commander Tell Dramis takes command of the search teams in Zeta sector, with Major Weldon as his deputy,’ said the General Marshal.
My frustration returned. My cousin Drago was already out in distant Zeta sector searching for the aliens, and my old friend from Next Step, Keon, was helping with the research into the light sculpture. Fian and I would return to the Alien Contact programme, but not until some unknown time in the future.
A blatantly hostile voice asked the next question. ‘Beta Veritas. Why promote Jarra Morrath, but not Drago Tell Dramis?’
‘Bigot!’ Lolmack and Lolia chorused the word before I’d worked out the significance of the man missing out the clan prefix in my name.
The tone of the General Marshal’s voice made it clear he’d also realized he was dealing with someone prejudiced against me. ‘I’ve promoted every officer who played a significant part in establishing contact with the alien sphere, including Commander Tell Morrath. Commander Tell Dramis and Major Weldon had already received their promotions, and Commander Tell Dramis was strongly opposed to the suggestion of a further promotion to Colonel. His exact words were that he’d rather be locked in a prison cell with a Zeus sewer rat.’
There was a burst of laughter from both the audience on the vid screen and my classmates. Drago had done a lot of talking on the newzies – his jet-black hair and devastatingly handsome face made him incredibly popular with their viewers – and everyone could picture him saying those words.
‘Alpha Spectrum,’ said the next questioner. ‘How long will it take to find the alien home world?’
‘That depends how far away it is,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Humanity currently has well-established inhabited worlds in Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta sectors, fledgling colony worlds in Epsilon and Kappa sectors, and has just begun Planet First assessment of possible colony worlds in Zeta sector. A complete search of that area of space will take between five months and a year, depending on how we divide manpower and resources between Alien Contact and Planet First efforts.’
‘A year!’ The Alpha Spectrum reporter’s words were echoed by Krath sitting next to me. ‘But each sector only has 200 star systems. How can it possibly take that long to search them?’
‘Each sector only has 200 inhabited star systems,’ said the General Marshal. ‘Portalling between inhabited worlds gives the illusion they’re packed closely together, when they’re actually scattered widely across space. We’re extremely selective when we choose our colony worlds. For every star system with a planet satisfying the criteria of Planet First, there are a hundred with a planet where human beings could survive with some difficulty, and many thousands with planets completely unsuitable for human life but with their own alien plant and animal life in abundance. Far more star systems exist without any sign of life at all.’
The next questioner sounded aggressive. ‘Gamma Sector News. You believe the alien home world is within humanity’s space? How could Planet First Stellar Survey have missed a planet with an advanced alien civilization?’
The General Marshal shook his head. ‘On the contrary, we believe the alien home world is probably further away than that. Tactical considerations, however, mean our first priority is to eliminate any possibility of it being within humanity’s space. Expansion was extremely rapid during Exodus century. Humanity was too impatient to spend enough time checking its colony worlds, let alone waste effort on uninhabitable star systems.’
He paused for a moment. ‘That reckless overexpansion led to the near collapse of our civilization. It may also have led to signs of an alien civilization being