As the dripping laterals flashed about his arms, Valleroy experienced a thrill of sensation, almost like the jolt of smelling salts clearing away the fog of unconsciousness. He was scarcely aware of the bruising lip contact that followed. That painful clarity of the senses grew until, through some trick of total empathy, Valleroy himself became both giver and receiver in that interchange.
Valleroy’s own guts churned with need, and somehow he knew it for what it was.
In response to that need within himself, Valleroy poured forth all the selyn stored within him. With frenzied desperation he fed the demand that seemed at once to be so bottomless and so much his own.
Slowly, the speed of that draw diminished. As the demand fell off, Valleroy knew a double satisfaction that soothed both halves of him, dragging him down with weariness into the deepest darkness he’d ever known.
It wasn’t the darkness of unconsciousness...not quite. It was a darkness of separation. The darkness of disunity. The darkness of disintegration. The darkness that follows a dangerously bright flash of light. He was alone, with only one self again, with only the ache of sore muscles, and without awareness of the glittering sustenance...selyn. The selyn nager was gone. His body no longer could sense even the strongest field-gradient. Even...and now he knew what the term meant...the selur nager was gone. He shuddered, once, sharply, severed from a higher reality that had become his norm in one brief flash.
He opened his eyes to find himself lying on the pine needles. Beside him, cross-legged, sat Klyd, gently holding his hand and frowning. The channel’s face was restored to its vigorous youthful glow, and his eyes were once more lit with rationality.
Tears stung Valleroy behind the nose. “We did it!”
“We did, but I’m not exactly certain what we did. I’ve never felt anything like that before.”
“Whatever it was, it didn’t hurt.”
“Apparently not,” said Klyd, smiling so that his sharp features softened. “Can you stand?”
Valleroy sat up, surprised that he felt not the slightest twinge of the agony that had haunted his first days and nights at Zeor. “I’m fine,” he said, climbing to his feet as Klyd did likewise.
As he reached his full height, Aisha came running, arms wide to embrace him. “Hugh!” She sobbed on his shoulder, letting her full weight fall against him. “I thought you were dead!”
“I’m glad you’re so glad I’m not dead. I love you.”
“I love you, too, you beast!”
He kissed her and she kissed back as if they’d just been married. After several moments, Klyd interrupted. “Do I take it Zeor has gained another Gen member? The Sectuib of a Householding is empowered to perform marriages, you know.”
The couple parted as if just realizing they weren’t alone. Something told Valleroy that the channel was feeling an even more intense awareness of Aisha’s femininity that he himself was. And from what he’d learned of the Householding custom, Valleroy knew that the channel’s gene was so valuable that he was allowed to take whatever woman he fancied...whenever he liked.
Strangely enough, Valleroy wasn’t jealous even when Klyd put a hand on Aisha’s cheek. But if the Sime had any ideas regarding her, he forgot them immediately. She fainted.
Before she’d half closed her eyes, Klyd had eased her to the ground and was conducting a very impersonal check on her condition. “She’s been burned slightly,” he announced. “Tell me what happened with Andle.”
Valleroy told him, ending with the condition they’d left the corpse in. The channel was horrified. “No human being should be forced to suffer that. If he’s a channel, it will take him weeks to die, and the Runzi won’t know that death is inevitable because they don’t have any channels to diagnose him. That the hand of Zeor could be involved in this! Will history ever forgive us?”
Valleroy actually saw tears start to the Sime’s eyes. “Andle was responsible for the death of your grandfather, your wife, and your heir...and Feleho. He deserved what he got.”
“No. You should have finished the job.”
“I thought it was finished. I’m sorry if I besmirched the name of Zeor. But I did what I saw had to be done.”
Across Aisha’s still form, Klyd reached out and took Valleroy’s hand. “How can you find the capacity to be angry with me...after what we’ve just done?”
Something of that deep rapport that had welded the two of them in transfer still lingered in that touch. Valleroy said, “I can’t be angry.”
“Then come, let’s take your bride home to Zeor. I have two funerals to conduct. We’ll need a marriage to remind us that existence continues. In a few years, perhaps, you’ll understand about Andle.”
“We can’t go to Zeor with you. Stacy’s waiting, and I have a small reward to collect. I think I know now what I want to do with it. Unless Aisha’s hurt....”
“No, she’ll be all right. She’s really an extraordinary person. You’re lucky.”
“Klyd, I’m sorry about Yenava. It was my fault....”
“No, not at all. No more than it’s my fault for having been born with the Farris genes. While I live, there is yet the chance there may be an heir. That chance we owe to you.”
“I still feel that I owe Zeor more than Zeor owes me. But I think I’ve hit on a way to balance the scales.”
Aisha stirred and opened her eyes. Instantly, Klyd was all physician and healer, soothing, encouraging, and concerned. But she brushed that aside impatiently, though not trying to get up. “Balance what scales?”
Valleroy took a deep breath. “Aisha, will you marry me?”
“Of course. I made up my mind about that several years ago. But you always were slow. What scales are we balancing?”
“I’m not sure. Justice maybe. How would you like to establish an underground link across the territory border and spend the rest of your days dodging the law on both sides?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Valleroy told her about the land and pension he’d been promised and about how he’d wanted to spend the rest of his life painting. “I could take those acres in border property...maybe even adjacent to Zeor....Perhaps they’d grant a few more acres because border land is so cheap. Then we could establish a Householding of our own. I haven’t chosen a name....”
“How about,” said Klyd, “Householding Rior?”
“What does that mean?” asked Aisha.
“Forepoint, lighthouse, beacon, or sometimes the prow of a ship, or the point scout of an army.”
“Yes,” said Valleroy, “I like that. We wouldn’t be able to keep any Simes, but kids who could get to us could be helped across the border. Maybe in time, we’d be able to keep them from killing in first transfer. We could help Gens escaping from in-Territory to adjust to our way of life. I don’t know...there are so many possibilities.”
“Exciting possibilities!” said Aisha. “When do we start?”
“Do you think you can ride now?” asked Valleroy.
“We can’t stay here all night. The Runzi are probably all over these hills.”
“Not for miles around. We’re free for the moment,” said Klyd. “But I still wish you’d come home.”
“I made my obligations to Stacy before I even knew about Zeor. If I break my word to him, what good is my word to Zeor?”
Klyd laughed, shaking his head ruefully. “And you complain about Sime philosophy!” He helped Aisha to her feet, and they gathered the horses.
Mounted once again, the channel said, “Hugh, I’m going to miss you. I hope...you’ll visit Zeor often.”
Valleroy grinned. “Especially when you’re in need? You couldn’t keep me away. I’ve got to see if we can do that again!”
“It was...unique.” Klyd stretched his tentacles out to touch the tips of his fingers, inspecting their steadiness. “It’s a date then. Make it thirty days to sharpen the gradient and we’ll try it again.”
Valleroy asked, “What about Denrau?”
&
nbsp; “He’ll be training Zinter.”
“And afterwards? How long can we....”
Klyd looked uncomfortable. “We’ll see. Meanwhile, Rior can purchase assistance through your service.”
Valleroy inclined his head formally. “Rior thanks Sectuib Ambrov Zeor.”
“It is Zeor that gains the honor of sponsoring a new Householding.”
“I doubt if the Tecton will ever recognize us.”
Klyd laughed, the free hearty laughter of a man who knows no limits.” Then you’ll found your own Tecton!”
Valleroy laughed, too, unaware of the torturous path to the realization of that prophecy.
Aisha cut into a masculine laughter. “Klyd, you’ll always be welcome in Householding Rior...as if it were your own.”
“Because it is his own,” corrected Valleroy. “If it weren’t for Sectuib Farris, none of us would have survived to see this day. And our grandchildren would have died unborn.”
“Zelerod’s Doom is not yet averted, merely postponed,” said Klyd. “I have much more work to do at Zeor. But I don’t know how I’m going to explain your absence.”
“Oh, just say I met a girl who didn’t want to live in-Territory. In a few months, they’ll all understand the why of it.”
Klyd nodded. “Good-bye, then. Until we meet again.”
Valleroy wheeled his horse around so he could ride knee to knee beside Aisha. “Good-bye, and good luck at Arensti.”
“I won’t require luck there. I’ve got the winning entry.”
Horses’ hooves stirring the fragrant pine needles with a swooshing tattoo, they parted, the Gens toward Hanrahan Pass and the lone Sime toward a lonely funeral walk. The future was hidden from all of them behind veils as misty as the shafts of sunlight piercing the vaulted shadows of that open-air cathedral, now hallowed for all time by what had occurred there.
AFTERWORD TO HOUSE OF ZEOR
(UPDATED 2011)
Jean Lorrah did write the direct prequel to House of Zeor titled Ambrov Keon.
House of Zeor is the first of a series of novels and stories in the Sime~Gen Universe, all to be made available in new reprint and original editions from The Borgo Press.
Some of these novels are by “Jacqueline Lichtenberg,” some by “Jean Lorrah and Jacqueline Lichtenberg,” one by “Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah,” and one by “Jean Lorrah” alone. Confused enough?
Jean and I have been confusing ourselves since 1975 when House of Zeor brought us together. We had known of each other because we both had been contributors to the first Star Trek fanzine, Spockanalia, and one of Jean’s stories from Spockanalia was discussed in Star Trek Lives! (Bantam paperback by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak and Joan Winston, 1975). Star Trek Lives! had been written between 1970 and 1974.
But shortly after the hardcover first edition of House of Zeor came out in May of 1974, followed by Star Trek Lives! in July of 1975, someone sent me a review of House of Zeor done by Jean Lorrah. At that time, there was already a fanzine devoted to Sime~Gen called Ambrov Zeor, even though there were only two Sime~Gen works in print, a short story (Operation High Time in January 1969 issue of If Magazine of Science Fiction) and the Doubleday hardcover edition of House of Zeor.
I wrote to Jean and asked if we could reprint her review in that Sime~Gen fanzine. She was bewildered because she had called the novel a “typical first novel” and then proceeded to raise all the questions that the book did not answer. She was clearly intrigued by the premise but not impressed by the writing skills. She didn’t know it was the first novel in what was planned to be a long series, and that I’d learned a lot about the craft since I’d written House of Zeor in 1970.
In the course of marketing House of Zeor, I had met Marion Zimmer Bradley and Hal Clement, both of whom taught me the craft and trade of writing and I was hard at work on my second Sime~Gen novel, Unto Zeor, Forever.
I realized immediately that Jean had much to teach me about writing craftsmanship, so I involved her in the drafting stage of that second novel. Turned out to be a great move because the novel won my first Award for me, and drew Jean into creative participation in Sime~Gen.
Sime~Gen would be entirely different today without Jean. No Tigues, no Keon, no Gulf Territory, and who knows if I’d ever have written the prequel and sequel to House of Zeor, Ambrov Keon and Zelerod’s Doom? There surely would have been no characters such as Abel Veritt, the shady skaliwag Oliver Tigue, nor the first world famous “rock musicians” Zhag and Tonyo—all of whom substantially changed the direction of Sime~Gen.
Jean told me recently: “Hugh and Klyd just grabbed me and dragged me kicking and screaming into your universe. I had to know the answers to so many questions—and the only way to get them was to write the stories.”
So many others have felt the same way that in 1999, we gave up and incorporated Sime~Gen because, though I had created and launched the Sime~Gen Universe stories alone, Jean and her fans had contributed so much of what we regard today as canon that this universe is a joint construction.
In the last 18 years, since the preface to the 1981 House of Zeor paperback edition was written, the Sime~Gen Universe has proliferated, making new fans, attracting new writers and artists, and creating six fanzines each with many issues.
In 1995 and 1996, printing prices went up, postage went up, and the distribution base for the fanzines shrank. I told Kerry Lindemann-Schaefer and Karen Litman to close down the fanzine publishing operations.
During the weeks after the announcement of the decision to close down, we heard anguished protests from fans who were working on new stories for the ’zines. “Go to the Web!” they cried. “It’s Free!”
Then we suddenly had an email Listserv created by Leigh Kimmel (editor of the Sime~Gen APA ’zine, Tecton Star which is now also posted online), and from the Listserv, websites began to be established, which we called The Virtual Tecton. Ronnie Bob Whitaker scanned and OCR’d millions of words of fiction which we posted to the web between posting the new stories, novellas and novels.
Each of the fanzine published stories chosen for posting had been edited, rewritten, and re-edited through the writing school process that Jean and I invented based on our own learning experiences with editors of Star Trek fanzines where the quality and craftsmanship standards were often higher than those of the Manhattan based publishers.
The Sime~Gen writers have created new characters, and explored times and situations not developed in the published novels. As a result, Jean and I had to keep inventing new background for them to write against.
By expanding the canon, we have provided a coherent but growing and varied background for the fan writers—resulting in a body of work which can be regarded as a cohesive whole. Some “fan” written stories (some of these writers are not amateur writers) are now on the master chronology, posted online for ready reference.
http://www.simegen.com/CHRONO1.html
With each new story a writer would present to the fanzines, we would teach that writer one or two new Worldbuilding Craftsmanship techniques that we had learned from other writers or professional editors—usually the hard way. Very quickly, we realized that not only were we fleshing out the skeleton of the Sime~Gen Universe, establishing canon not in the published novels, but we were also running a writing school that was turning out new professional writers.
Karen Litman, editor of Companion in Zeor, the third Sime~Gen Universe fanzine, volunteered to run CZ as a web-based publication. At that time, her computer was barely web-capable, and she wasn’t sure if html was a typo or a brand of hot-dogs. Thanks to Jean Lorrah’s instruction diskette of lessons in html, and later lessons by our simegen.com Webmasters including Patric Michael, Karen now makes websites and plays with the IRC gamers in addition to editing CZ and doing a thousand key management chores for simegen.com.
One of the first things we did on the Virtual Selyn Listserv was to take a vote and alter our designation from Sime~Gen to our web-based identity, Sim
e~Gen.
Robyn King-Nitschke linked our websites in a webring. Anne Phyllis Pinzow, a media professional, wrote a Sime~Gen feature film script which is being remarkably well received in Hollywood circles. Jean Lorrah leapt forth and with Jenn and Dancer Vesperman assisting, created simegen.com. A group of fans began a nightly S~G role-playing game on AOL and moved to IRC on the Undernet.
We lost access to the University Listserv—an event viewed as a major emergency by a number of fans. Cheryl Wolverton created a temporary bakup Listserv for us. Eliza Leahy, a professional website builder, made us a more robust interim home for the Listserv and orchestrated the efforts of half a dozen fans to create a very impressive temporary top page for simegen.com starting with a marvelous animation by Robyn King-Nitschke, also a professional website builder. It was based on artwork by a professional in computer graphics, Kaas Baichtal.
Meanwhile, Jenn and Dancer Vesperman, professional programmers specializing in the Internet, created us our own server upon which simegen.com could run and the Listserv migrated onto that machine—which then migrated with them when the Vespermans moved to a new job. Five months later, after Hercules (uh—Dancer Vesperman) performed at least seven Herculanean hardware and software Labors that would put any seven episodes of The New Adventures of Hercules to shame, Jenn and Dancer had the Listserv running on simegen.com and had us launched onto the web on a commercial server where Sime~Gen is just a small part of the whole—so built a new top page, again. We seem to need a new one every few months. As of 2011 I’ve lost count, but the simegen.com domain will be migrating to new hardware again—visitors shouldn’t notice that, though.
Jenn made us a java based chatroom and then made it IRC capable. Role-players play there now and we have our annual meetings on our own IRC server on New Year’s Day.
With Bek Oberin, another professional programmer, Jenn created a number of customized Tech Tools for us. Jenn is also one of the architects of a professional Sime~Gen game.
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