by Jeremy Dwyer
He knew that he would have to wait out the stars – they had lost their light before, and might do so again – but he could not predict when this would occur. Being scientifically trained, and somewhat patient, he took the opportunity to survey the planet more carefully. However, this strange world of magic oceans proved to be more formidable – and more mysterious – than even the advanced technology on board the reserve shuttle could detect. While flying at a low altitude of six thousand (6000) feet above sea level, the vessel scraped against the side of a mountain and was severely damaged, forcing him to circle around the mountain and land on its ridge before losing altitude or losing complete control of the craft.
When Captain Mendis’Kanto’Petarin stepped off of the reserve shuttle and out onto the mountain ridge to survey the damage to the vessel, he saw that the left wing was deformed by the impact. The extent of the damage was not surprising, yet the cause was: the mountain wasn’t exactly in this position according to the shuttle’s navigational sensors or according to his eyes – rather, while he had been in flight, the mountain appeared to be three (3) miles farther away. The instrument failure defied his understanding, and so he accepted the reality as a challenge to his intellect rather than cause for surrender. It became a challenge to his patience, however, as he struggled to repair the reserve shuttle.
He activated the communication device on board the reserve shuttle and called out: “Company seventeen fifty-four (1754), this is reserve shuttle two nine seven (297). Do you copy?”
No answer came that day, or the next. After this, Captain Mendis’Kanto’Petarin tried to make contact on alternate days, then every third day, then every tenth day, while he worked on the repair operation on the days in between. There was, fortunately, ample food on board the reserve shuttle, only because the shuttle’s primary purpose was the delivery of supplies to companies of two hundred fifty (250) or more personnel in combat, and so it needed to be fully stocked at all times. Being the only person on board, the supplies lasted that much longer.
The first challenge became deciding how to select the safe portions of the reserve shuttle to remove, in order to use the material to patch the wing properly and still maintain hull integrity. He had some tools on board to cut through the metal, and to weld the fragments into place on the damaged wing. By examining the hull carefully, using sonic and optical sensor equipment – ordinarily meant to locate friendly or enemy units – he could visually identify any sort of hull breach. He hoped that the readings of these instruments weren’t being distorted by the same effect – still unexplained – that caused him to misjudge the position of the mountain itself.
The second challenge was more subtle, and errors were potentially less detectable, when it came to properly balancing the wing as he repaired it. Both its geometric shape and density had to be correct, symmetric to the right wing. This required him to resort to first principles of mechanics, and those required resorting to the first principles of calculus and physics, and those required significant quantitative work as well as deriving all the equations before evaluating them. The computer on board the reserve shuttle had to be programmed to make these calculations, which he knew either directly or through derivation, but the effort took time and care.
Captain Mendis’Kanto’Petarin was determined and disciplined, intelligent and healthy, well provisioned and under no direct threat while alone on the mountain. He was truly alone, he realized, after a year of failed communication attempts. He could not be certain whether Commander Doriv’Natix of company seventeen fifty-four (1754) had been killed or captured, or if the communications channel was also being interfered with by the same unexplained phenomenon that led to his collision.
He was in no position to worry or to give them assistance. Rather, he would have to focus on the primary mission, which was to survey Thalariveth – which he did – and to acquire the waters of these unusual oceans. He wondered just what good they would truly be, and if it was worth all of the effort.
~~~
Commander Doriv’Natix knew that this unusual world put him and his troops at a disadvantage. He had not been able to make contact with cargo shuttle two nine seven (297) and supplies – including the plain water the troops and scouts carried with them – were running low. The only logical plan was to gather the waters of the oceans of this world and learn what he could of them. The strange sailing craft which they controlled – the masts of which could pivot for travel through the air – proved remarkably easy to pilot. This, at least, allowed them to collect over two thousand (2000) gallons of each of the different ocean waters into forty (40) gallon barrels. Each barrel was carefully marked with an indication of the ocean that was the source of the water it contained. The indication specified an estimate of the ocean area’s geographic coordinates, which could usually be determined from careful charting using small range finding and angle measurement instruments that the scouts carried. Navigational uncertainty was reduced by following coastlines. They avoided contact with other vessels, keeping their distance.
They traveled for over sixty seven (67) days, making repeated failed attempts to communicate with Captain Mendis’Kanto’Petarin and Second Lieutenant Vy’Jaden’Rokano. Along the way, the commander decided that there was no sense in wasting the opportunity this world presented.
While standing on the deck of the sailing craft, Commander Doriv’Natix began dividing up his company of one hundred ten (110) combat troops and twenty (20) scouts into ten (10) groups of thirteen (13) persons each.
The commander then began filling small canteens with the different waters he had collected and ordered his troops, saying: “Soldiers, we have obviously have a difficult situation. We cannot return home…yet. We cannot communicate with our cargo shuttle…yet. We cannot depend on our depleting provisions…much longer. We can, however, learn to adapt to this environment. Now, we have waters from each of the thirteen (13) surface oceans, which are what the cargo shuttle was originally required to collect. Assuming for a moment that the shuttle was lost, we need to complete its mission. To do that, we need to learn to make use of these waters, given that they were believed to be valuable enough for the admiral to send us here to begin with, so they just might give us a way to get home, or to get at least a step closer. Drink up, but remember, that’s the only kind of water you can drink for the rest of your life.” He was unaware of the so-called ‘inert’ water that had been identified during the scientific research, so he would have to discover the precise details in the field.
All one hundred ten (110) combat troops and twenty (20) scouts drank the waters from their canteens and felt energized – each in different ways, even if that way was only the quenching of their thirst.
Commander Doriv’Natix waited before drinking any of the ocean waters for himself, because he wanted to assess the advantages of each. The commander just stared at each of his scouts and troops, waiting for an obvious change, but there wasn’t any, at first.
“Have I made a mistake? Or, could it be, that you’re not trying? I’m not seeing anything. I don’t believe we came here for nothing,” the commander said. He became slightly annoyed and decided to put his personnel to the test. He took out a sharp knife and lunged at some of his troops quickly, but they were quicker by far, which was unusual. However, he smiled, thinking that some progress was being made. Next, he initiated a circle kick and lost his balance, being distracted by a bright light. When he stood up again, he saw that the hands of some of the troops and scouts were glowing, and that other troops seemed to be missing.
“Where are you hiding?” Commander Doriv’Natix asked dangerously, all the while being intrigued at the resistance he met. He was now a gleeful predator, testing the mettle of his people, hoping for a challenge from them, and hoping to either overcome it and prove himself, or to be overcome and learn the utility of these supposedly precious ocean waters.
From the darkness, fists pummeled the commander. Then, a loud chanting sound pierced his ears, and he was kicked
and punched furiously from a direction he could not see. He felt strange thoughts enter his mind, as if other minds were searching his own thoughts. Suddenly, he felt nothing below his neck, as his spine was broken by the melee.
“You win. You broke me, finally. I can no longer command you. You’re the most formidable hand-to-hand fighting unit I’ve ever been proud to command,” Commander Doriv’Natix said.
~~~
After seven hundred thirty (730) days of meticulous calculations and repair work, Captain Mendis’Kanto’Petarin believed that reserve shuttle two nine seven (297) was ready. However, the suns in the sky were still bright, and he was tired, so he was not going to be traveling anywhere soon. His arms were red and sore and tired, and he slept in the pilot’s chair.
When he awoke, his skin was more reddened, and painful, and he felt weak. He realized that he had been slowly sun poisoned, and had never stopped to consider that the altitude at which he had landed the damaged reserve shuttle would put him at risk of this, despite the smaller size of the suns. They were numerous, and some of them were quite intense in their heat. In his focus on making repairs to the craft, he had overlooked the risks to himself. It didn’t hurt at all for some time, and it was surprising to him that it took so long to manifest. Now that it did, however, he felt terribly sick. Time was not on his side, and the brightness of the suns was not favorable to opening a burnpath: the trailblazer would work, but the heat seeker would be distracted by the blazing suns, and not be able to follow the trail home. Instead, the heat seeker would go right into the suns, and he would be incinerated. He could wait for another eclipse, if he weren’t being incinerated now by this sun poisoning.
Captain Mendis’Kanto’Petarin realized that his remaining time was short. He took a chance, and considered an experiment in desperation: since his observation of the mountain had been distorted by some phenomenon – thus causing him to misjudge the flight path, leading to the collision – and the distortion took place in this ocean, he wondered if the ocean waters themselves might be responsible. Since the entire purpose of coming to Thalariveth was to acquire the waters of these various powerful oceans and gain their benefits, it seemed somewhat reasonable to believe that drinking the waters of this specific ocean might grant some power over the same phenomenon that caused the distortion. Further, if he could use that power to compensate for the distortion, he might be able to make the return voyage. It was quite a bit of speculation, but it was better than surrendering to what seemed to be a rapid decline in his health. He identified the small tank which held the water from this ocean and began to drink it, suddenly becoming energized, although his health was not thereby improved. He did notice something different, however: he could see very far, and off to the sides, at multiple angles, that were outside the ordinary cone of human vision. There was suddenly some hope growing within him.
~~~
A trickle of water poured into the mouth of Commander Doriv’Natix and he felt…more than he felt before. Sensation returned to his chest, and then his waistline. Soon, his thighs had feeling. Then, it extended down to his knees. Within an hour, he had total feeling.
The scout that stood over the commander reached down his hand to help him up, but Doriv’Natix stood on his own. “This is my water now…you’ve made the decision for me, your superior officer,” Commander Doriv’Natix said.
“It was the only choice, commander. It heals wounds, and yours were too severe,” the scout said.
“It was the correct choice, scout. I’m no worse off than before, and I’ve learned something. I feel better…even better than before this little test. These waters work…we do need them. We were right to come here, and now we have to get back. Could it be that any of you suddenly got smarter instead of stronger?” Commander Doriv’Natix asked.
“Yes, sir. In a way, sir,” another scout said.
“Explain yourself, scout,” Commander Doriv’Natix said.
“I can hear the sounds of the stars above us. I know where they’ve been, where they’re going to go, and how to use them to navigate. I can find our way back to where we arrived,” the scout said.
“Chart a course, scout, and steer this ship back to our arrival point. I’m thinking we’re going home real soon,” Commander Doriv’Natix said.
The scout drank anew of his water and was energized further. He concentrated and heard the sounds of the stars more clearly, using the knowledge to steer the sailing ship. They traveled over ocean and land by alternately positioning the sails upright to sail over the water and to the side for air travel. After five (5) days, they returned to the island in the Kazofen Ocean at which they arrived.
From there, they entered the cave and found the riverboat with tattered sails as before, breaking up into groups to be transported, along with barrels of water, down to the underground cavern and ocean. After the entire company and Doriv’Natix were able to reassemble on the rocky ledge on which they previously stood, this time with fifty (50) barrels of each of the thirteen (13) waters, they boarded a much larger ship with tattered sails. The ship moved on its own soon after they boarded it, and traveled to the central island after three (3) hours.
“We have what we came for. From here, we wait until it’s dark enough for them to open a burnpath,” Commander Doriv’Natix said.
The scout who sensed the movements of the stars and served as navigator then drank anew of his waters. He sensed the stars yet again, and said: “Commander, the stars are still bright in the sky. I can sense their intensity, as well as position and movement.”
“Then we’ll just keep waiting, scout,” Commander Doriv’Natix said.
The company of troops and the commander waited for the burnpath to open, because they had no equipment to open it from their side. And they waited day after day, and month after month.
~~~
Captain Mendis’Kanto’Petarin experimented with the alien ocean water as much as he could, while feeling his own energy level decline, and the burning and redness seemed to spread each day. Yet, he was advancing in his ability to use this new power with his vision, seeing around corners, and at great distances. He could observe the entire exterior of the reserve shuttle while standing on the left side of it, and he examined the left wing, finding it to be perfectly angled, identical to the right, which was not in direct view, all by concentrating on bending the light. Now, before the advancing sickness made him unable to concentrate, it was time to take the ultimate chance, and so he did. He boarded the reserve shuttle, retracted its boarding ramp, closed its entry way, and activated the controls to initiate the trailblazer stage of the burnpath generator.
While waiting for the burnpath generator to be ready, he piloted the reserve shuttle and ascended to fifty thousand (50000) feet of altitude. After a few minutes, eight (8) green beams of light emanated from the shuttle, going forth and burning through the fabric of space, according to the preprogrammed course. All that was left was to initiate the heat seeker – and that was the component of the burnpath generator that was sensitive to the distraction of the light of the many suns above him, and was also likely sensitive to the strange distorting phenomenon around him that led to the collision. He drank anew of the waters he drank previously, and was energized further. With these, he concentrated on the light around him, trying to direct it toward that burnpath he just blazed, and away from the overhead suns. He drank of the same waters yet again, concentrating further. Then, he took the chance, and initiated the heat seeker, and the reserve shuttle moved forward, instantly, across the intergalactic distance from Thalariveth to Votteus, his home world.
CHAPTER 3: Fortress of Crystals and Lights
Two hundred forty-eight thousand eight hundred thirty-two (248832) white diamond spires extended from floor to ceiling – each having a diameter of fourteen (14) feet and a height of over two hundred thirty (230) feet. They were distributed evenly throughout the enormous cylindrical room, which was five (5) miles in diameter. Various white diamond tubes extended between t
hem at different angles, and all of them emitted light, so that the entire room was brightly illuminated. Besides these structures, there were thousands of smaller turquoise spires, with diameters of only two (2) feet and heights of only ten (10) feet. There were also three (3) large smoky quartz domes that were each one hundred ninety two (192) feet in diameter, inside of which were sources of glowing violet light, barely shining through. Additionally, there were eight (8) ruby spires, each of which was nine feet (9) in diameter at the base and thirty-nine (39) feet in height, narrowing to three (3) feet in diameter at the top. Five (5) of the eight (8) ruby spires each had a swirling blackness within it, while the last three (3) were a deep red all the way through.
The abundant light within the room moved strangely – very slowly, very confusingly – as it passed through the many white diamond spires. The outer walls, floor and ceiling of the room were made of the blackest of crystal – a form of onyx. No light passed through those walls, ceiling or floor, however, so it remained within the room.
A figure having human form but concealed features stood in the center of the room while wearing a covering of blue diamond over every square inch of skin. The diamond-covered figure held a large jar filled with water in its left hand and a large jar filled with strange crystals in its right hand and poured these into a depression in the floor – a circular area five hundred (500) feet in diameter and three (3) feet deep. The water and crystals mixed and gave off a bright light and then a concussive blast, pushing back the diamond-covered figure, who regained balance before falling.