Planet Walkers

by A. V. Shackleton

  She lifted her hand to the memento against her chest, a delicately patterned driftwood twig suspended on a leather thong. She’d carried it with her since childhood. Her brother had found it in a cave on the turbulent wilderness world of Germane, its rounded ends tumbled to smoothness in an ancient watercourse. She closed her eyes to envisage the complex trails of honey brown and ashen silver on the dark wood, and remembered the grace of his hand as he’d presented it to her. They had often played at being explorers. It had been his fondest dream. Would he be have been proud of her?

  She wondered how the new atmosphere would taste. What strange life forms would she see? The world they were assigned to spent much of its cycle as a snowball … how would the cold have shaped it? She wished she could share it with him. Soon after their arrival her work would begin. As a diviner, it would be her job to search the bones of a planet for mineral ores and assess whether they could be mined. As planetary ecologist and team leader, it was for Shamkarun Huldar to decide if they should be.

  _______

  Kandät Enna summoned Huldar to his side. The navigator leaned close and said something. A palpable sense of excitement rippled from their conversation.

  Huldar raised his hand to gain the team’s attention.

  “Best get some sleep now,” he said. “The navigator tells me it will be a big day tomorrow.” His thick Lethian accent brought a covert smile to her lips.

  The Uri’madu cheered.

  “Daylight at last, and the wind on our faces!” said Casco.

  “And silence,” called Nachiel. “The chord, it never stops!” The gentle artist seemed out of place among the rest of the team; however his partner, Ronnin, looked more than rugged enough to make up the difference.

  “We’d be in trouble if it did.” Ronnin growled.

  Andel turned to the angel by her side. “To be honest, Sari,” she said, “I thought the journey might never end.”

  “Never end?” Sari replied. Her gentle manner and lilting speech always made Andel smile. “Yes, it has been a particularly lengthy translation. Is this the longest time you’ve been in the chime, Lady Andel?”

  Andel nodded.

  Around them, the discussion went on.

  “At least I’ll have something to do besides beating you at ashut.”

  “I let you win,” Ronnin grumbled. “Otherwise you’d sulk.”

  Glass clinked as a box of ale was opened.

  “Oh, yes please – and one for me brother!” … A male voice, Andel thought it was either Topper or Bush. The brothers sounded so alike that if her back was turned she found it hard to tell them apart. Then she heard the confident voice of Lind: “Breath, that’s good!”

  The festivities continued but Andel slipped away and shuffled into her bedroll. Around her, the pseudo-liquid walls of the envelope resonated softly to the noise of the party. It was fortunate they were in a quiet part of the chime. When things got wild, silence was crucial.

  “Big day tomorrow,” she repeated to herself. “Tomorrow …” She tried to imitate Huldar’s accent, but Lethian vowel sounds were hard to reproduce and before long she had given up and drifted off to sleep.

  She was woken by loud clapping, and saw the Imperial Overlord, Duvät Gok, stagger as he tried to find something to hold onto.

  Bags and boxes jostled back and forth. Andel clung to a crate, ashamed of the startled squeak that had escaped her lips. How could she have slept through the onset of this?

  “Why are the sides heaving? she cried. “Is it meant to do that?

  A surge of song pounded through her mind as Kandät Enna and his full crew fought for control.

  The Overlord clung to a sturdy wooden desk and shouted, “Stay calm! Have no fear!” but his face was white and his eyes were very wide.

  Huldar swayed in place as if the wild motion was to be expected. Casco even seemed exhilarated by it. Andel strove for similar bravado but it was a difficult façade to maintain.

  The envelope shuddered again. Its sides fluctuated like cloth in the wind.

  “I saw stars!” she gasped. “There are stars out there!”

  “This is the final approach,” Huldar said quietly. “Bound to be a little rough with an un-tried entry. The navigator needs silence right now.” He looked pointedly at Duvät Gok.

  Andel pictured her mother’s disparaging face and strove even harder to veil her fears. I am tough, she recited to herself, I am resilient. Of course she was up to the challenge. They were the Uri’madu, not tourists traveling in tameness.

  Huldar’s mind was calm and strong, his gaze steady, and suddenly Andel knew how much she wanted to be one of this team. Once they made landfall, the Uri’madu would be there for her, and she for them. If they died during the entry phase, they would taste the Breath of El together.

  Then the navigator’s chord chimed in resolution and the envelope shuddered to stillness. The spinners’ voices softened at last and Andel released a breath she had barely known she held.

  Kandät Enna strode to one end of the envelope and lifted his arms. Before him, the envelope dissolved into a doorway and the new planet was revealed at last.

  “Theatrical.” Casco sniggered.

  Huldar shook his head. “Tiamäti,” he said quietly.

  The Overlord glared as if he’d heard their disrespect.

  The landing site, or Djan’rū, was on a plateau surrounded by huge grey boulders. Fresh air caressed Andel’s face with lively fingers. She took in sights and sounds unseen by another annangi. Poised on the threshold, she waited for the signal, for the first touch that would make this reality hers.

  As she blinked in the sunlight, the Navigator pointed to the ground and sang a few phrases. Huldar echoed him as if committing the sounds to memory.

  “Come on,” said Sari. “Let’s start unloading.” She glanced across to a group of team members and called out, “Casco! Lind! Work to do!” then she leaned closer to Andel. “If we left it up to them they’d be lazing about till nightfall,” she chuckled. “And he’s no help!” she added, and tipped her head.

  Andel followed her gesture and saw the Overlord standing as if transfixed by the view.

  “Huh!” Sari pitched her voice so that only Andel could hear. “Clan Gok are famous for it! Three years we’ll be here, Tsemkarun Andel, and I’m sure that stretch will do nothing to sweeten him.”

  The Overlord lurched into action as someone lifted his desk – “Mind out! Be careful, you oaf!”

  Andel gave a dry grin. “Lord Duvät Gok is a real charmer, but I guess our navigator earned his moment.”

  “Earned his moment, that he did.” Sari’s eyes twinkled.

  The cool air seemed clean and sweet, and in the absence of the constant ringing chord, Andel could hear the chirrup and clack of small creatures in the landscape with absolute clarity.

  A light breeze moaned softly through the stones. “Brrr!” She shivered. “I thought the Djan’rū was supposed to be at a tropical latitude, but look, there’s snow in the shadows, and the ranges are cloaked in white.”

  She looked up as Huldar came toward them.

  “Don’t worry, Tsemkarun Andel,” he said. “The planet’s in its warming phase, or so we’ve been told. Soon white will turn to green and the long summer will begin!”

  Something about his smile jogged Andel’s memories of her brother, and with a quiet nod she patted the twig in her pocket.

  Here we go!

  THE TENT

  Andel shivered in the breeze. Although they must have been exhausted after the difficult entry, the navigator and his spinners stopped only long enough quick meal before departing again for the Realm. They were long gone now and would not return for three years. A short time afterwards, Huldar and the Overlord disappeared on a mission of their own.

  She looked around the barren plateau and tried not to despair. All around her, tents were going up quickly and without fuss, sprouting like a ring of pointed mushrooms; but right now hers looked more like a sack of
entrails than something she could sleep in. She poked the pile of rope and leather with her foot.

  I’ve been camping before, she said to herself. With my family … many times.

  She started on one edge and began to pull the tent into shape. The leather felt slick in her hands.

  So how did I do this then?

  Every so often, her uncle, the navigator, had whisked them away to a surprise destination, often to planets where few had been before. But when she thought about it, if they’d camped, there had always been someone else who knew how to erect a tent, and later on, as a diviner on assignment, the facilities had been set up for her, but within Huldar’s team here there were no such distinctions.

  Well, if they could do it, so can I!

  The charm to sing the rigging taut was a simple one, but of course it had to be performed with precision or it wouldn’t work. She rehearsed the sequence of notes in her head as she dragged the sides into place. With great effort she tugged the center to where she thought it should be, but it was heavy and awkward and took several attempts.

  Just a little more … she puffed. There! Now for the ropes. They … should … look … like … spokes.

  With the guy-ropes in place she pushed the central pole under the panels, then, after a quick glance to make sure no one was looking, clambered beneath to position it in its central notch.

  She gripped the pole with her mind and hoisted it vertical, then took it in her hands and paused to catch her breath. The flaccid tent hung like a translucent flower bud, filling her nostrils with the smell of leather. Then came the tricky bit … the charm to set the guy-ropes. With the tent pole gripped firmly, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and sang.

  Ropes rustled, joining, she hoped, with the ground beneath them and tightening until the tent was fixed in place, but when she looked again the leather still hung like a shroud. She heard quiet laughter and it seemed to be directed at her.

  She tried once more. This time she kept her eyes open and saw the ropes dance as if each had a different idea of what the charm meant.

  She rubbed the Mark on her forehead. Surely a gifted Tsemkarun could manage this small chore!

  Muffled footsteps drew nearer and she sensed Sari outside.

  “Let me help,” Sari offered, but Casco arrived right behind her. “Haven’t you done that yet?” He spoke as if her ineptitude had scored him a point.

  “I … I’m trying!” Andel said. She felt more than a little ridiculous beneath her leather caul. “I’ve never used this style of tent before, or the charm that tightens the rope … things.”

  “It’s no trouble,” Sari said. “Here, let me –”

  “The Tsemkarun needs help to put up a tent?” said Casco.

  “I can do it myself,” Andel found herself replying. “Thanks all the same.”

  “Of course you can,” Casco sniggered. “It’s a three-year assignment. Take all the time you need.”

  Andel tried again, but although she sang the charm as precisely as she could, the ropes twisted like a nest of snakes and only stopped after they had knotted themselves into a macramé mess.

  Casco laughed aloud and she could feel the rest of the team homing in on her dilemma. Her eyes burned as she fended off tears. It wasn’t fair.

  Outside there was heavy silence as the Uri’madu waited to see what would happen.

  She keenly remembered her first meeting, when she’d assured Huldar and Casco that she had trained for every contingency. With a conscious effort, she groomed her veil to show nothing of her feelings. They would not get the pleasure of seeing her snap. What should she do? What would she advise someone else to do?

  Be still and think it through, of course.

  She had quite enough mastery of her Tsemkar powers to hold the tent pole up and lift the leathers into place at the same time: she just needed to focus.

  Once she was calm, she pushed upward with her mind, keeping her influence light, just enough so the tent was hovering nicely above. Then she turned her mind to the ropes. This time, she noticed a faint aura around them and an almost imperceptible hum. Someone had charmed them! She almost laughed aloud. Although she was no charm-singer, this one seemed simple enough. She analyzed flow of the song until she had identified the loop, then with a single note sung at the right pitch the charm dissipated, taking its aura with it.

  The next time she tried, the stays secured themselves as they should, and with a sigh she realized she’d been singing the charm correctly all along! When she released her mental grip the leathers they stayed up – a triumphant brown roof held taut by obedient guy-ropes.

  “Yes!” she congratulated herself, but who had played the trick in the first place?

  When Casco’s reluctant approval came through, she understood. The whole thing had been a set-up. A joke. And she had played right into it! How silly she must have looked; the great Tsemkarun, the diviner, unable to erect a simple tent.

  With a quiet laugh she straightened her hair and smoothed her jacket, then emerged from her shelter with as much aplomb as the Empress Ishiquel herself.

  Her team-mates cheered.

  She inclined her head in a regal manner. “Your accolades are acceptable.”

  Casco bowed. “Tsemkarun Andel, congratulations. The last newcomer took all day to solve that puzzle. You did well!”

  “You did well,” Sari echoed. “I wanted to help, I did, but it’s a tradition!”

  “An initiation prank?”

  “Exactly,” Casco said. “Shows us what you are made of.”

  “Here, have a drink!” Tam, the cook, thrust a brimming mug into her hand. “You’re one of us now. Uri’madu!”

  “Uri’madu!” they toasted, shouting it to the skies. A sense of belonging swept Andel’s heart and she tossed her drink down like a champion, only to cough and nearly choke as the ferocious alcohol gripped her throat.

  “Come on,” Casco laughed, “we’ll tackle the marquee next. Thank goodness it’s not too windy.”

  Andel walked beside him as the group arranged themselves around another, even more intimidating pile of leather panels and poles.

  “My uncle was a navigator,” she ventured.

  “Oh, yes?” Casco replied.

  “Umm, Shamkarun Roshu of Trianog?” She visualized the sturdy planes of her uncle’s face.

  “Can’t say I’ve heard of him,” said Casco.

  This was understandable, she thought, since there were few Trianogi navigators, and her uncle had rarely taken work from other Great Houses.

  “Well, most Trianogi enjoy the unexpected,” she continued, “so long as it isn’t too far from home – but sometimes my uncle would take us somewhere truly remote. I suspect he enjoyed the surprise. Once, we even ended up on Manziat. Have you been there?”

  Casco looked to the skies. “A world of endless muck and steamy swamps.”

  “True,” Andel said, “but the sky-veils.” She paused, remembering. “The most beautiful sight I have ever seen! All day, wild colors rippling across the sky like silken fabric hung out in the wind … shawls of liquid opal.” She hesitated as a new thought came to her. It seemed so right! She hurried a little to catch up. “Like the veils of life and the veils of the mind, don’t you think?”

  “Hmm … I’m not sure.” Casco scratched the side of his neck.

  “It’s the way they move,” Andel said earnestly. She crossed her hands back and forth before her face. “Revealing then obscuring each moment with yet more life, do you see? Like the layering of psychic screens … interpretation and propriety.”

  Casco nodded uncertainly. They continued walking.

  “But we didn’t camp on Manziat – too dangerous,” she said.

  Casco nodded again. “Yes, it can be.” They stopped near the pile of awnings, watching as the first of the poles went up.

  “Will Huldar will be back soon?” Andel asked.

  “And he’ll be worn out,” Casco answered. “Always is after contact with a fresh plane
t. He’ll want all in order and dinner waiting!”

  “And Duvät Gok is with him?”

  “Yes.” Casco shook his head. “Hopefully Huldar will’ve managed to lose him in wild Qalān, but failing that, I guess we’ll have to feed him too.”

  A TOUCH OF ICE

  Duvät Gok wrapped his warmest cloak tighter and kept watch for predators while Huldar knelt and buried his hands beneath the snow. The Qalān of a planet manifested itself in a network of wormholes, and with his palms pressed against the ground Huldar felt for these channels. When the Uri’madu arrived on a new assignment his first priority was to set up a transport grid. Without tuned portals, the team could not properly traverse the planet – they wouldn’t get far on foot! – but the work was arduous and he was nearing exhaustion.

  “I’m freezing!” said Duvät Gok. “What’s taking so long?”

  “I can’t understand why you wanted to do this now,” Huldar muttered. “We’re still setting up camp, for Breath’s sake!”

  “Just hurry.”

  “We should head back – leave this till later in the thaw,” Huldar said. “If we go further north, the cold will be far worse. We’ll be risking our lives.”

  “Is that why you made me come?”

  “Someone had to.”

  I wish I’d never left the comforts of Giahn, Duvät Gok moaned.

  Then why did you? Huldar asked impatiently.

  None of your business, the Overlord snapped.

  Huldar laughed to himself. Word was that Duvät Gok had some serious marital issues. Perhaps this was the way he’d chosen to escape them.

  Before them was just the sort of strong nexus he needed. With a determined breath, he pushed back his tiredness and honed his senses to feel the flow. Through psychic touch, he followed the streams and tributaries of the planet’s network until he found a path that would take them directly to an island on the southern coast of the northern continent.