6

      I stood on a stage, looking out at a sea of faces, and heard Petra’s hugely magnified voice speaking. ‘But the funniest thing is Jarra thought the skunk juice would wear off. She didn’t know she’d be stuck like this forever.’

      There was a deafening roar of laughter, and I saw Petra standing in the middle of the audience. I jumped off the stage, intent on reaching her and murdering her, but I couldn’t get through. There was a solid wall of faces. No bodies, not even heads, just faces hovering all around me.

      ‘Jarra, it’s time to get ready for breakfast.’

      I woke up with a gasp. In the dim light of the room glows at their lowest setting, I saw Fian looking at me.

      ‘Another nightmare?’ he asked. ‘The attack again?’

      ‘No, this one was weird. Lots of floating faces.’

      ‘I’m sure you’d have had less nightmares if you’d taken your meds.’

      I groaned.

      ‘And why the chaos didn’t you tell me or Playdon about Petra calling you names? We could have dealt with her for you.’

      I groaned again. ‘That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘Remember after the Solar 5 rescue, when I was in a hospital regrowth tank having my leg fixed. You went and told the class I was Handicapped.’

      Fian frowned. ‘Well, someone had to tell them.’

      ‘Yes, but that someone was me, not you. I was the one who was Handicapped. I was the one who’d lied to them.’

      ‘It would have been very unpleasant. The class were shocked and people said a few things that …’

      ‘I realize that. I should still have faced them myself.’

      ‘That’s a …’ He broke off. ‘No, I see what you mean. I hated standing by watching Lolmack fighting that man with the skunk juice. He was doing my job for me, fighting my battle, and I felt so …’

      He shook his head. ‘Never mind that now. I understand what you’re saying. I should have waited until you were out of the tank and let you talk to the class yourself.’

      ‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘You meant well, but it actually made things far worse. Petra kept jeering at me for being a coward and hiding behind you, so …’

      Fian finished the sentence for me. ‘So you couldn’t tell me or Playdon what was going on, because that would prove Petra was right.’ He paused. ‘I promise I won’t fight your battles for you again, but I’d like to fight your battles beside you. There’s a big difference.’

      I grinned with relief. ‘Fighting battles together is fine.’

      He grinned back at me. ‘You’re still a nardle for not taking your meds though.’

      ‘You’re a nardle too. Did you see the look on Playdon’s face when you insisted on moving the wall?’

      Fian laughed. ‘It didn’t take long with Amalie organizing the whole class to help.’

      ‘It wasn’t the time it took, or the fact everyone was totally exhausted by then, it was the sheer idiocy of wanting to share a room with me when I smell like this.’

      I paused to pick my words carefully. ‘Fian, it’s not just the perfume, it’s … Well, it might be sensible for you to keep a distance from me for a while. Leveque said our relationship was making you a target too.’

      ‘I’ve been waiting for you to suggest that idea, so I could tell you to forget it.’

      ‘But …’

      ‘No!’ Even in near darkness, I could recognize the determined angle of Fian’s jaw. ‘I meant what I said to Petra. I’m not letting anyone split us up. I’m definitely not allowing some exo and his skunk juice to put a physical wall between us. With three air purifiers in here the smell really isn’t a problem.’

      He’d used the ‘exo’ word; the insult the Handicapped use for off-worlders. I smiled to myself. We were fighting this battle together.

      Fian rolled away from me, turned up the glows to full brightness, and got out of bed. I’d suggested we should leave a gap between our beds until the skunk juice wore off, but he’d insisted on having them wedged against each other as usual. Fian was wonderfully, madly stubborn, and I loved him for it.

      ‘Time for me to shower and get ready for breakfast,’ he said.

      I watched enviously as Fian headed out of the door. I was desperate to wash the greasy gel out of my hair and be properly clean again, but I couldn’t. Water would make the skunk juice start burning my skin again.

      I picked up the hateful jar of gel and went across to the mirror. The regen fluid had finished healing my eyes, so the reflection of my face was a perfectly focused, lurid green and purple mess.

      I sighed and carefully rubbed gel into my skin, choking at the overwhelming scent of Osiris lilies. I’d spent my life wistfully dreaming of the hundreds of worlds I could only see on the vids, never visit in real life, but I was glad I’d never go to Osiris and see its famous fields of luminous white flowers opening at sunset, flooding the air with their fragrance. I’d smelt enough nuking Osiris lilies to last me to my hundredth.

      I’d just finished putting on my uniform, when Fian came back into the room. I giggled at the look on his face. ‘Wait outside for a few minutes while the gel dries and the air purifiers catch up with the smell.’

      ‘No, I can cope.’

      He heroically shut the door behind him and started changing from his sleep suit into his uniform. On a normal day, I’d have said something about his excellent legs, or even made him blush by using the butt word that was regarded as shocking outside Beta sector, but today I just turned away and attached my curved Military forearm lookup to my left sleeve where it clung neatly in position. The exo with the skunk juice hadn’t managed to put a physical wall between us, but certain things wouldn’t be happening for a few days.

      ‘I’ve just realized I didn’t take my gun with me to the shower,’ said Fian. ‘I mustn’t leave it lying about like that or Playdon will throw a fit.’

      ‘No one else could fire it, and all Military guns and lookups have tracking devices and can be disabled remotely if they get lost or stolen.’ I went over to the bed and reached under the pillow for my own gun.

      ‘Tell Morrath confirmed,’ said the gun. ‘Active power 3. Single target. Safety engaged.’

      I remembered the training Fian and I had been given. We were to keep the guns on power 3, which meant anyone we shot would be paralysed for hours. We were to use single target except in extreme circumstances. Scatterfire would hit multiple targets at once, so you had to be really