Earth Flight. Janet Edwards
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kissing him. Fian and I were happily re-enacting this scene for our personal entertainment, when an Adonis Knight heroically charged into the room to save us from being murdered.
In the interests of peace, I tried a random change of conversation. ‘Don’t the protection of humanity laws apply to implants?’
‘Implants aren’t banned like robots or clones,’ said Raven, ‘just restricted by the same rules as gene therapy. You can use them to treat medical and cosmetic problems as long as they don’t enhance someone’s abilities beyond the normal human range.’
‘You’re claiming an internal comms system is normal for humans?’ asked Fian.
‘No,’ said Raven, ‘but when Military Security agents are undercover on assignment, a visible external comms unit can get them killed. I’m claiming that’s a cosmetic problem that justifies using implants instead.’
Fian frowned. ‘You’re bending rules that exist for very good reasons. I’ve been arguing with my father for years about this, because my great-grandfather was a member of Cioni’s Apprentices. A huge amount of scientific knowledge was lost in the Earth data net crash. We’re still blindly accepting many things as facts because records state they were once proved. Cioni’s Apprentices were trying to recreate the lost science and proofs, find out what was true or not for themselves.’
He shrugged. ‘I agree with my father that’s a good thing to do, and totally support other scientists working on it, but Cioni’s Apprentices went to inhuman extremes. They didn’t just cause the Freya conflict, and the Persephone incident, but the horror of what happened on Gymir. We need the protection of humanity laws to stop that sort of thing happening again.’
Raven gave Fian a startled look. ‘Your great-grandfather was an Apprentice? Well, yes, I agree the Apprentices took things too far, but plenty of things bend the rules a little. Look at the dome cleaning system. The autovacs break the rules on both robots and artificial intelligence.’
‘No they don’t,’ said Fian. ‘They can’t create another robot, they fail the Owusu intelligence ratings, and they have no digits capable of manipulating …’
I knew the real disagreement here was still about Stalea of the Jungle and privacy, so I gave a pointed cough. ‘I’m starving to death.’
The other two abandoned their argument and we headed to the hall. Raven stopped just inside the doorway, following his regular morning routine of tensely surveying the room for a few minutes, presumably checking to see if any of the class showed signs of having turned into psychotic killers overnight. Fian and I carried on walking to the food dispensers, collected our breakfasts, and went to join Dalmora, Amalie, and Krath at our usual table.
Krath shook his head at us. ‘I still don’t understand why you’ve got an Adonis Knight as a bodyguard.’
I shrugged. ‘Colonel Leveque said he picked Raven because it would be impossible for anyone to bribe him.’
Krath sighed. ‘Yes, the families of the first Adonis colonists all got land grants in perpetuity, so Raven must be stinking rich. I wish I was. All the girls would throw themselves at me.’
Dalmora, Amalie, and I gave him matching glares. Krath hastily changed the subject.
‘Draven Fedorov Seti Raven.’ He started counting on his fingers. ‘Draven is the randomly generated gender specific. Fedorov is the historic reference. Seti …’ He broke off. ‘I’ve forgotten again.’
Dalmora had already explained the Adonis Knight naming system three times, but she patiently did it again. ‘Seti is the month of the fourteen-month-long Adonis year when he was born, and Raven is the Earth nature reference.’
‘It’s too complicated,’ said Krath, ‘and randomly generating a name is a nardle idea.’
‘The Adonis colonists were selected from every region of Earth, and created new traditions to symbolize the fresh start for humanity,’ said Dalmora.
‘Well people obviously didn’t like the new traditions,’ said Krath. ‘Nobody else randomly generates names.’
‘The colonists for other planets in Alpha sector weren’t chosen in the same way,’ said Dalmora. ‘Many of the planets were settled from specific regions of Earth and brought their old customs with them. Other sectors just had open colonization, but you still see major differences between the planets of Alpha sector even today.’
I stopped eating for a moment to join in the conversation. ‘Hospital Earth Administration staff pick what they consider appropriate names for its wards from an approved list. They gave me a different surname as a child, but they let me keep my original first name because Jarra is an old enough name to be on the approved list. They haven’t updated that list for about a century. My best friend from Next Step, Issette, is always complaining about having such an old-fashioned name.’
‘My great-grandmother was called Issette,’ said Amalie. ‘I think it’s a sweetly quaint name.’
I giggled. ‘Please, never say that to my Issette. She’d scream.’
‘Anyway,’ said Krath, ‘I’m glad Raven doesn’t make us use his title or …’
‘Shut up, Krath,’ hissed Amalie. ‘He’s coming.’
Raven put his breakfast tray on the table and sat down in his regular seat, chosen so he’d have his back to the wall and a clear view of everyone in the room. ‘Good morning.’
I heard the wall vid go on, and a presenter say my name. I turned and saw the Beta Sector Daily banner streaming across the top of the vid image.
‘… Commander Tell Morrath as a clan member. The scale of demonstrations, both in support and opposition, increased after the skunk juice attack. The situation escalated further last night, with violent clashes between rival demonstrators outside the Parthenon. We’re now getting reports of demonstrations on other Betan worlds, including Janus, Romulus, Aether and Artemis.’
The image behind the presenter showed a night-time view of the famous Beta Sector Parliament building, with its rows of statues of former First Speakers of Beta sector. The figures of fighting people were silhouetted against the floodlights.
‘The demonstrators are acting as individuals,’ continued the presenter, ‘with clans still awaiting indications from alliances of their official stance on this unprecedented move by a clan of the gentes maiores. The August clan have still made no comment, leaving their alliance and the entire reactionary faction in confusion, though there are allegations that either the August or the Fabian clan are secretly orchestrating the protests against the Tell clan ceremony.’
Lolmack made a noise of disgust and turned off the wall vid. ‘The demonstrations prove we’ve strong public support, but the alliances still don’t have the courage to declare themselves.’
I sat there, totally grazzed. I’d been huddled in my own self-absorbed little world for the last few days, carefully avoiding watching the newzies because they kept showing those two horribly contrasting images of me. I’d had no idea there was a political storm raging in Beta sector, with demonstrators fighting outside the Parthenon itself.
‘I don’t understand Betan politics,’ said Krath. ‘What’s the gentes maiores?’
‘Betan society was inspired by ancient Rome, basing its clan structure on it, and naming the Parthenon after one of its famous buildings,’ said Lolmack.
I blinked, opened my mouth to object, but shut it again because Lolmack was still talking.
‘The highest ranked Betan clans are the gentes maiores, the clans of the Founding Families of Zeus,’ he said. ‘Some official positions, like the First Speaker of Beta sector, are traditionally held by a member of those clans.’
He glanced in my direction. ‘The Tell clan is the one exception among the clans of the gentes maiores. Tellon Blaze was born into a clan of the middle