Read Earth Star for Free Online Page A

assignments to open up new worlds for humanity. I might only be an ape, but I was a Military Honour Child, the daughter and granddaughter of heroes, and I could face anything, even aliens.
    ‘We’d better do this.’
    Fian nodded, and we stepped through the portal, popping out in a small room. A man in Military uniform got up from his chair and used a scanner on us. I saw he wore a Captain’s insignia.
    ‘Jarra Tell Morrath and Fian Andrej Eklund,’ he said, and handed each of us a Military forearm lookup. ‘Please go next door for your medical check and then to room 7 at the end of the corridor.’
    ‘Err, where are we?’ asked Fian, giving the object in his hand a puzzled look.
    ‘Military Base 79 Zulu,’ said the Captain.
    I frowned. ‘But … there isn’t a Military base on Earth.’
    ‘There wasn’t two days ago, but there is now,’ he said. ‘There’s a map and other information on your lookups, but be advised we’re still building at high speed so the map isn’t always up to date.’
    I headed out of the door with Fian trailing after me.
    ‘Why would they build a …?’
    ‘No idea,’ I said.
    Next door was a large room containing four Military medical staff. Two of the staff pounced on us, waving scanners. I got an efficient looking young woman with short dark hair. Fian got an elderly man with a beard.
    ‘Jarra Tell Morrath,’ said the woman.
    I was tempted to say I already knew my name, but this was no time to act like a silly kid. She was checking my identity because Alien Contact was classified code black.
    I was dragged off into a cubicle and the woman checked my medical records. She scanned the leg that had suffered electrical burns during the Solar 5 rescue.
    ‘Perfect cellular regeneration,’ she said, and moved on to scanning the rest of me.
    I hate medical scans. I didn’t like the compulsory sessions with my psychologist that Hospital Earth inflicted on me when I was a kid, because I didn’t like him trying to nose around inside my head. I didn’t like people nosing around inside my body either, and it always seemed as if doctors spent twice as long scanning me as anyone else.
    ‘You only have 90 per cent function in your left little finger,’ said the woman.
    ‘I know.’ I went around this every time some officious medic got a scanner on me. ‘Dig site accident when I was 15. They grew me a new finger, but the nerve connection wasn’t totally stable because my body was still developing.’
    ‘You’re 18 now. The finger could be removed and regrown to give perfect function.’
    ‘No thank you.’ I firmly defended my finger. ‘It works quite well enough.’
    The woman put away her scanner. ‘Your annual inoculation and contraceptive shots are due for renewal in less than two months. We’d like to give you the inoculation shot early, combined with a few special ones. Do you want the contraceptive done as well to keep them in step?’
    ‘Yes please.’
    The woman sprayed a few things into my arm, then lifted my top and held a strange looking object to my stomach. ‘There will be a barely perceptible pain.’
    ‘Wait a minute! What are you doing?’
    ‘Taking a genetic tissue sample,’ she said.
    ‘I don’t want … Ow!’ I glared at her. ‘That was definitely a perceptible pain.’
    She glanced at the object and nodded. ‘All done. You’re free to go now.’
    I gave her another glare, went out into the main room, and found Fian was already there. The second he saw me, he gave me a look of urgent appeal, used his key fob to gather up his clutch of hover bags, and headed for the door. I collected my own bags and chased after him.
    ‘What’s the big hurry?’ I asked when we were outside in the corridor.
    ‘I wanted to get out of there before they decided to take any more tissue samples.’
    I giggled. ‘It didn’t hurt that much.’
    He gave me a bitter look. ‘It’s all right for you. You’re female.’
    ‘What?’ I suddenly remembered the doctor’s