Coming Down To Earth: 8-10 series

By Susan Price

Azalin's class go on a school trip to another planet.

The planet Earth.

Once on Earth, Azalin runs away.

Her dream is to be a 'tronic when she grows up: one of the special people who maintain the systems keeping the man-made planet of Newarth alive.

But just before leaving for Earth, she was told that Newarth already has all the 'tronics it needs. She will have to be a store-keeper instead. And she is to be 'sporting' about it.

Azalin doesn't want to be a store-keeper. And she doesn't want to be sporting.

So she runs away. She phones home to say that when she's allowed to be a 'tronic, she'll come back.

 

But, alone on Earth, Azalin has no idea how much danger she's in. Life on Earth isn't as safe and ordered as life on Newarth.

Especially when she wanders into the 'no-go' zone called 'The Rookery.'

Even the Earth Police won't go there...

 

Azalin comes down to Earth. But will she survive to home to Newarth?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Price
• Release date: Mar 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215386507

Book preview

ON EARTH

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EARTH.

Earth! Azalin kept watching her feet as they trod over tiles and tarmac. She was standing on, walking on Earth!

She knew now what ‘open air’ meant. It was a place where there were no walls and no ceilings. It just went on and on. Impossible, but on and on it went.

Miss Ateba had pointed into the air and told them that was ‘the sky’. It went dark and light all by itself: there were no computer-controlled time switches. By day it was blue and there was a glaring white patch that you couldn’t look at— that was the sun. It was ninety million miles away, the guide said, and they could still feel the heat from it.

At night the sky turned black and sparkled with silver stars, which Miss Ateba said were other suns; and up there, somewhere, was their home, Newarth, in its created orbit.

Standing in the damp open air and looking up into the dark sky made Azalin feel dizzy and ill. She almost felt homesick for Newarth. She was so far away from it and there was nothing between her and home but space.

Still, she was too excited for the homesickness to last more than a second. Whenever she thought about being on Earth, she wanted to dance on the spot and shriek aloud in sheer amazement. Once or twice, she had, until Miss Ateba told her to be quiet. Miss Ateba had never liked Azalin much. Be sporting, Azalin, she said.

Azalin pulled a face. She hated being sporting. And when they went back to Newarth, she would have to be sporting all the time, for the rest of her life.

But forget Miss Ateba and her sportingness. Azalin had seen the moon shining on water. She’d seen the sun setting and turning the open air— the air!— to glowing gold and pink and deep purple-blue and it hadn’t been an effect in a virch-show! It had been...

The truth was, she didn’t know what it had been. Miss Ateba and their guide could point and say, That’s the sky, that’s the moon, that dazzling glow up there, that’s the sun— But the names didn’t explain anything. They didn’t tell anybody anything.

Azalin wanted to see everything. She stared until her eyes and her head ached. She didn’t want to waste time eating. Even the people who went past in the street were worth staring at. It was so strange to see them, really see them, instead of their images in virch-shows. There were a opt of peculiar people with pale skins that had many colours. Spots of pink, touches of blue, and red noses. Most had hair that was such a pale brown, it was almost yellowish. There were crowds of these pale people everywhere— their guide was one of them. Only occasionally did you see an ordinary, normal looking person.

They passed a man in the street who had strange hair. It was purplish, reddish, orangeish— as if his hair had gone rusty. Some of the Newearthers laughed and pointed at him. The guide laughed too, but Miss Ateba was annoyed and hushed them.

Has he had his hair coloured? Azalin asked the guide.

He’s a red-head, said the guide. Some people have red hair like that. She smiled. We say they’re quick-tempered!

Azalin watched the man as he walked away and felt a little shiver. Fancy knowing what someone was like because of their hair!

Too much to see and remember. Even ordinary things, like going to bed, were strange on Earth. She was sharing a hotel room with a friend and the room was huge! It was so wastefully big that you could walk into it upright, even though it was mainly for sleeping in. You could around the beds, there was so much space! On Newarth, there was plenty of space in the Halls but private rooms had to be crawled or slid into. You couldn’t stand up or walk about.

So much to see and she’d seen nothing yet. It was an agony to think they had only two days before they had to go back to Newarth.

There were places on Earth where trees and flowers grew— grew right in the earth. Newarth had lots of trees and flowers— they had to have, for food and to keep the oxygen levels high— but even the oldest and biggest of Newarth trees grew in specially made beds, mostly filled with plastic grains impregnated with the necessary chemicals.

On Earth, trees and flowers grew right out of the planet itself, as the hairs on Azalin’s arms grew out of her flesh. When she thought of digging a hole on Earth, to plant a tree, she was confused by thoughts of digging through into the deck below. It was hard to remember that Earth was an enormous ball of rock and dirt.

Another strange thing about Earth: when you were in the ‘open air’, you felt puffs of air against your face, as if someone was blowing on you. That was the wind, said the guide. The wind wasn’t a made thing, like the moving air from a fan. It just happened. Some winds were so powerful they could blow buildings and trees down.

Even buildings like this one? Azalin asked. They were outside the glass and brick building where they’d eaten lunch. The guide said, yes, but those kinds of winds didn’t blow much in this part of the world. Azalin stared at her. Well, said the guide, in some parts of Earth, it’s much hotter than in other parts. In some parts it’s much colder. You get these very strong winds in some parts more often than in others.

Azalin felt as if her brains were fighting inside her skull, fighting to understand and finding the space too small. Why do they let the winds blow so hard? she asked.

"No one lets the wind blow, the guide told her. The wind just blows."

Why? Azalin asked.

The guide’s smiled widened and she raised her hands. I don’t know. It just does. It rains more often in some places too. Seeing Azalin look puzzled, she said, Rain. It means water just falling out of the sky.

Azalin tipped back her head to look up at the blue sky. There was no water. Out of the sky? From up there? Where does it come from? She was thinking of some kind of tank, up there in the wide blue.

I wish it would rain— just for you, said the guide. She laughed. Usually we’re wishing it would stay dry.

Azalin was still thinking about it. Does it fall, like out of a tap? Or spray about like a sprinkler? Or—?

Azalin. Said Miss Ateba. Please don’t bother the young lady with so many questions.

Oh, I don’t mind, said the guide.

I do, said Miss Ateba. Please don’t interfere. The guide stopped smiling. Miss Ateba held out her hand to Azalin. Come and walk with me, please. She continued to hold out her hand until Azalin reluctantly took it. To the guide, Miss Ateba said, Kindly give us your standard talk and nothing more, if you please. Then she led Azalin away.

It had taken a long, hard campaign to persuade the Education Committee on Newarth to allow Miss Ateba to bring a party of children to Earth. The last thing she wanted was to take back children who had picked up Earth manners. If she did, this would certainly be the last of the trips. Miss Ateba would be the first to agree that much about the way of life on Earth was abhorrent, but it was so educational for the children to see something of it first-hand. It would help them to understand and appreciate their own society more. It could only increase their respect for their ancestors who had left Earth to found Newarth.

Will it rain before we go? Azalin asked her teacher. She wanted to see rain very much.

Miss Ateba hesitated. She was a teacher and she wanted to answer Azalin’s question. But she didn’t know the answer and really, she didn’t like Earth. It offended her that Azalin was so curious about Earth and seemed to miss Newarth so little. Miss Ateba missed Newarth. We shall have to be patient and wait and see, Azalin, she said.

I want it to rain! Azalin said. Rain! Rain! She looked up into the sky as she chanted and hung back, dragging on the teacher’s arm.

Miss Ateba was annoyed and shook Azalin’s arm hard. Behave! Stop sulking! Be sporting! She dragged Azalin on.

Azalin, who hadn’t been sulking, was hurt and angered. I hate you, she thought. Another thought popped into her head: I hate Newarth. It took her by surprise and she lagged behind Miss Ateba as she considered it.

She didn’t really hate Newarth. How could she? It was home. Her mother was there, and her father, and Vashti...

But I do hate it, came the thought again. I don’t want to spend all my life on Newarth, doing something I don’t like, day after day. With people like Miss Ateba saying, ‘Be sporting!’ when you were unhappy. I can’t bear it, she thought. I’ve got to get out of it. Somehow.

Azalin! Miss Ateba was exasperated by her dragging behind. She hauled Azalin beside her. Still sulking! Can’t you ever be sporting? Can’t you?

Sporting, sporting, sporting! Azalin was no good at being sporting. She couldn’t spend her whole life struggling to be sporting, she just couldn’t.

Well, then, came another thought. Don’t go back to Newarth.

It was a startling thought. Azalin fell quiet and walked beside Miss Ateba as meekly as her teacher could wish. When Azalin pulled her hand out of her teacher’s, Miss Ateba looked back at her, but then walked on without her, thinking that Azalin had decided to behave.

She had to go back to Newarth, back to her mother and father and Vashti.

But if she went back, she’d have to spend her life as a storekeeper. She felt her muscles bunch in anger at the prospect; she seemed to swell with frustration and despair. She couldn’t. Not her whole life, not every second and minute and hour of every day, of every week and month and year...

So, don’t go back to Newarth.

Their time on Earth was quickly running out. They had one more night in the huge bedroom at the hotel and then, the next morning, they would board the shuttle again and fly home.

They were on their way to the hotel now, after having been on a little outing to buy presents to take home with them: little boxes of biscuits and chocolates, with pictures of the planet Earth on the box. She would have to make up her mind soon...

They passed a coach as they neared the hotel. People crowded around its door, showing their