worse, so …
No, I couldn’t hide this from Fian. I wanted him to let me make my own decisions and fight my own battles, and I had to let him do the same. Petra had sent a poisonous message to his father, and it was up to Fian to decide what to do about it.
Petra was still talking, a hint of apology mingled with the self-justification in her voice. ‘Everyone had forgiven you for the lies. The newzies were all talking about you. Fian was adoring you and you didn’t deserve him. It wasn’t fair! Not after …’
She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to. The raw, painful subject of Joth’s death was overshadowing this whole conversation. I could understand that every time Petra saw Fian and me together, laughing, talking, hugging, or arguing, it would rub in the fact that Joth was dead and she was alone.
‘No it wasn’t fair,’ I said. ‘I don’t deserve someone as totally zan as Fian, but he isn’t letting anyone split us up. Not you, not his father, and not the people throwing skunk juice at us.’ I paused. ‘Petra, you’ve had your revenge by setting Fian’s father against us. Let it end there.’
I turned and went back to rejoin the others. Raven’s tense face relaxed, and his right hand moved away from where it had been hovering over his gun. I grinned at him.
‘Were you expecting Petra to try and throw me off the Land Raft?’
I meant it as a joke, but he didn’t laugh. ‘I was prepared for that, as well as several other possibilities. You’ve already been hit in the face by skunk juice, Jarra. Next time, someone may try to kill you. You don’t seem to be taking that seriously, but I must. I’m your bodyguard and it’s my job to stop them.’
I was grazzed to discover Krath and an Adonis Knight shared a passion. For horror vids!
‘This has the best holo effects of any of the vids set in the Thetis chaos year.’ Krath adjusted the settings on the huge wall vid in the hall. ‘It’s a pity we have to watch it right after dinner though. Horror vid parties should be late at night.’
‘I’m not allowing late night parties when everyone has to work on the dig site next morning,’ said Playdon.
Krath sighed. ‘Can we at least dim the lights?’
Playdon went and dimmed the lights, then sat on a chair in the corner. The class settled themselves on cushions on the floor, and I saw Fian glare across at Petra.
‘I’d like to murder that girl,’ he muttered.
‘Military officers aren’t allowed to murder civilians,’ I whispered. ‘At least give her credit for confessing she sent that message to your father.’
‘I don’t know why you’re defending Petra. Steen’s told me all about how she insulted you.’
‘Steen’s blaming everything on her, but he called me a lot of names too and …’
I sighed. I couldn’t explain my muddled thoughts about how I’d started all this by lying my way into this class, and how the old me might have done the same as Petra if the situation had been reversed. If a norm had lied her way into a class of Handicapped, rubbed my nose in the fact she was better than me at history, and started Twoing with a boy I loved, I’d have been the one throwing insults around. It wouldn’t have been the exact reverse, Petra would still have been the privileged one who had a real family and could portal to other worlds, but …
‘I can understand her side of things.’
Fian shook his head. ‘Well, I can’t. The only reason I’m not making a formal complaint to Playdon is because I don’t want to worry him right now.’
The vid credits started with an image of a heroic young man wearing a Military cadet’s uniform.
‘Tellon Blaze doesn’t look much like Jarra,’ said Krath.
‘There are two good reasons for that,’ I said. ‘Firstly, there are a lot of generations between me and Tellon Blaze. Secondly, that isn’t the real Tellon Blaze, just a vid actor.’
Raven passed me a bowl of something. ‘It’s an Adonis tradition to eat popcorn at vid parties.’
I’d never heard of popcorn. I peered at it suspiciously, before munching a lump of the peculiar stuff. There were startled squeaks around me, as holos of black spiky creatures shot out from the screen and started creeping round the hall, hissing at us.
‘Dalmora, is your father going to make a history vid about Thetis?’ asked Amalie.
‘He intended to,’ said Dalmora, ‘but he’s changed his mind. He feels it would be irresponsible to remind people of the chimera of Thetis when we’re about to contact an intelligent alien species.’
Raven gave a guilty look at the holo chimera that were now retreating, snarling, to the wall vid. ‘He’s right. I really shouldn’t have … I hope everyone here understands the difference between the chimera and intelligent aliens with their own civilization. Every world we colonize has already evolved its own indigenous plant and animal life. The chimera were just a lethal animal species that were missed by the Planet First checks. Chimera had some incredible natural abilities that let them sneak through our portals and infest other worlds, but they weren’t intelligent.’
I wasn’t sure he was helping by saying that. I felt it just emphasized the point that humanity had barely coped with the chimera, an animal species that had no weapons and operated purely on instinct, and an alien civilization could be a vastly bigger threat.
‘Don’t worry, Raven,’ I said. ‘Everyone in this room must have already watched a dozen horror vids about the chimera. One more won’t make any difference.’
The credits finished and the vid itself started. There were screams when the winged form of the chimera started flying round the room, and someone dropped the popcorn bowl.
After thirty minutes, we reached the point where Tellon Blaze made his legendary call to the General Marshal on Academy in Alpha sector. ‘The Planet First team thought there were thousands of different animal species on Thetis, and they’d eliminated all the dangerous ones, sir,’ he said. ‘They were wrong. There’s only one species on Thetis. Everything is different forms of the chimera!’
My lookup chimed, I read the message, and blinked with surprise. ‘My cousin, Commander Drago Tell Dramis, is on his way to visit us.’
Fian and I stood up and headed for the door, and Raven gave a last regretful look at the wall vid before following us. We’d only just arrived in the portal room, when the portal flared to life and Drago stepped out of it.
I was about to ask why Drago was here, when I realized the answer. I’d been impatiently waiting for clan council to send me details of the rearranged presentation ceremony, but Drago had come to tell me there wasn’t going to be one. I fought to keep my voice calm. ‘We’d better go to our room.’
I led the way, and Raven took up position on guard duty in the corridor, while Fian, Drago and I went inside and closed the door.
‘I’m pleased to see you’re looking your lovely self again, Jarra,’ said Drago.
I was in no mood for his flirting. ‘I’ve seen the demonstrations on the newzies, Drago. I’d no idea making me a clan member would cause so much trouble.’
He nodded. ‘The clan knew it would be controversial, but didn’t expect things to get quite so dramatic. That’s why I’m here.’
‘If the Tell clan don’t want me as a member now, please just tell me and …’
I broke off and bit my lip. It was stupid to feel so wounded by this. I’d coped perfectly well without a family for my whole life, so why should I care if some nuking Betan clan