Table of Contents
Title page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1 - Lights in the Darkness
Chapter 2 - New Friends
Chapter 3 - Welcome to the Garden
Chapter 4 - Harvest Chief Sato
Chapter 5 - KP Duty
Chapter 6 - A Golsidan Feast
Chapter 7 - The Marriage Stick
Chapter 8 - Children to Cherish
Chapter 9 - Winch Them In
Chapter 10 - “Call Phwolfe! Call!”
Equus Phasmatis
This book is an original publication of Equus Phasmatis and cannot be scanned, duplicated, copied digitally, or in any paperback format without the express permission of the author.
Copyright © 2003 Kimberly Sue McLaughlin
Paperback publication
ISBN 13: 978-0-692-87543-8
ISBN 10: 0692875433
Cover Design by Amygdala Design.
Inserted drawings and sketches done by Kimberly Sue McLaughlin.
Dedicated to
my mother Gloria
who nurtured my love of animals,
encouraged my creativity
with the written word,
and enlightened my soul
by raising me with
compassion and empathy.
PROLOGUE
Once this place had overflowed with the sounds of laughter and mingling voices, the scuffing of feet over the lawn, and the snapping of loose clothing caught in the breeze, but now it lay empty, hollow, and desolate. No longer the escape for thousands who searched for a moment of peace in busy schedules, it now stood as a mausoleum to the past; the gardens choked with weeds, the paths overgrown with leaves and twigs poking up through the un-trimmed matted grass.
Jao’s breaths seemed overly loud and labored like the last gasps of a dying man, when compared to the awesome silence that surrounded him. The utter lack of activity seemed to haunt this public park. But Jao’s discerning eye still saw the elegant, artful design hidden beneath the years of neglect, the careful landscaping that would take centuries to disappear.
The quiet mocked Jao with its underlying truth, his people were slowly melting away like a morning mist burned away by the rising sun. Leaving their buildings, creations, and legacies empty, to be overgrown, toppled, and lost in the tides of time.
Jao looked out at his reflection in the placid waters of Lake Gitkavebigi. For a moment, the colors mesmerized him. Near the shores edge, the lake reflected the forest’s myriad greens of thousands of leaves competing for their piece of the sunlight. The lake’s clear center of aquas, teals, and blues rippled in the breeze showing a hint of purple algae and sparkling with the golden white diamonds of captured sunrays. He tasted the air on his tongue. The evaporating mists made the air smooth and moist with water, not truly gone just transformed.
Jao refused to believe that his people were destined to die. As a man of thought, action, and hard-work, he hoped to save his people. The task loomed too big for one man, though. In this, he needed the backing of his clan: his family and his brothers by relation and occupation.
Jao nodded to himself and straightened his shoulder guards and collar ring; to him change appeared to be a much kinder fate than extinction. He felt more comfortable in a real spacesuit than this ceremonial, pared-down version. At least, the helmet tucked under his left arm happened to be the real thing. Jao had purchased this ceremonial spacesuit with his own funds. The cost equaled three annuals of labor. Now, he wore the talisman for his quest to change his people’s fate, a combination of reality and imagination, technology and hope. Today, he’d learn if that talisman represented failure. If his clan denied the help he needed, they ensured both his and ultimately the failure of their entire race. Success, though, would take annuals; decades to secure.
With a sigh, Jao turned and exited the park. Caso instantly joined him and matched his strides. Only grudgingly had Caso allowed him alone today. Their destinies intertwined, for they were a true tai’twain pair. Like all males of his species in their teen annuals, Jao had felt the biological urge to pair with a neuter partner. Neuters were infertile males with an innate healing ability that guaranteed the health of their partner and their partner’s child throughout the pregnancy. (Golsidan females only carried their child for its first month, and then the male retrieved and carried it for thirty-five months in his tail womb.)
Jao felt extremely lucky in this finding and being accepted by Caso, who shared his deepest fears and most cherished hopes. Together, they walked into Golria’s Main Hall, the central meeting place of the Elders and leaders of the original seventeen clans. Golria’s main hall stood divided into three parts; the Main Elder Assembly on the left, Golria’s Main Heroes’ Hall straight ahead, and the seventeen individual clan Elders Halls on the right.
Only nine of the clans remained active, Jerosu (agri-farmer) clan who grew and harvested seventy percent of Golsidan food products held the greatest population. Sharoki (healer) clan who willingly taught any interested person advanced healing techniques and offered their help to any injured or sick individual; no matter the person’s status, stood as the most respected clan. The Fimoste clan bloodline created and fostered highly talented constructors and maintenance personnel for anything mechanical. Isadiro (Isadi) clan hunted the elusive reptiles on Planet Isadiae for their blood, which possessed amazing thermal properties. Utilized in Isadi Suits, the blood regulated Golsidan body temperatures and prevented deaths from temperature fluctuations. Dinote (Isadi technician) manufactured, repaired, and kept Isadi Suits functioning. Kemotu (warrior) clan trained their people in protection and combat disciplines. They often got hired by other clans to guard properties or people of high status. Golru (leadership) clansmen prevailed as very valued moderators, negotiators, and judges in inter-clan disputes. Their clan-head Phgolru presided as the moderator for the Main Elder Assembly, which consisted of the fifty Eldest from each clan, all the clan heads and their tai’twains. The Main Elder Assembly debated, voted on, and passed all Golsidan laws. Mamosi (finance) clan members worked as the bankers and lawyers of the Golsidan society. No inter-clan long-term investment or loan ever got agreed upon without at least consulting a Mamosi clan member for advice. Surprisingly enough, Satorae (spacemanship) clan had become best known for their inter-clan openness. Satorae often hired knowledgeable and experienced personnel from other clans to help design, build, finance, protect, and sometimes, operate their maton-gates, space stations, and moon bases. Sixty percent of the children born to Satorae clan had an out-clanner parent. At his or her adult initiation, an inter-clan child chose which clan he or she wanted to live with.
Today, Jao and Caso’s business dealt with their own clan. So, they turned right in the direction of the Elder’s Hall and paced past the first five sets of doors. At the sixth, they pivoted to the right in perfect synchronization and stopped in front of the honor guards.
The entrance to Satorae’s Main Elder Hall didn’t look grandiose in size; it only measured eight feet square. But, it appeared awe-inspiring in its colors. All of the clan doors in this central hall brandished jewels depicting their clan badges or motifs.
The Satorae door showed Golria from space in its vibrant splendor as a jungle planet. Over two hundred colors of precious and semi-precious stones gave the planet accurate and vivid detail. The oceans, seas, and rivers sparkled with bright aquas, teals, and blues. The land colored with the vibrant oranges, reds, and yellows of fall in the temperate zones and the equatorial zone land masses glimmering with emerald hues, showing off every green that li
ving nature created, captured and showcased by millions of stones. And Golria’s sole ice continent at the South Pole sparkled with diamonds’ white fire while the North Pole’s ice sheet glowed with moonstones luminescent shine. Satorae clan, as spacemanship clan, held sole control to stones not found on the planet itself. Here on their main door, they shamelessly flaunted that fact for all to see in its full glory.
The Kemotu honor guards stood there for two reasons: they protected the doors from thievery and vandalism (a blasphemy that had as yet never occurred in an active clan) and they admitted only Satorae clansmen into their hall. Jao’s ceremonial spacesuit marked him as a high ranking clansman. The guards swung the doors open without hesitation.
Jao and Caso walked into another type of splendor. Not a hallway, but a long, weaving, damp, and captivating tunnel. Here, too, displayed more flagrantly than in a rainbow, colors dominated the scene. But no sharp lines delineated their edges. They flowed warm and luminescent. Softly glowing mosses illuminated the passageway. Planted and fostered into elaborate mosaics and panoramas that depicted precise moments in Satorae clan history, from the first rockets launched from the planet surface to the orbiting space docks and discovery of other habitable planets. The mosses painted the walls and ceiling. One never traversed this tunnel idly or with a light heart. If one entered in such a state, they surely didn’t exit it that way. The journey through the solemn Memory Tunnel only deepened Jao’s conviction: the race that created such splendor and magnificence shouldn’t just accept extinction as their fate.
Clan Satorae stood as the technological fore-runner of the Golsidan species. Their clansman used technological equipment daily while other clan members seldom saw the equipment unless Satorae hired them to work with it. If any clan held the power to change the fate of their people, it was Satorae. Jao strode bravely and fearlessly out of the tunnel and up onto the dais in front of his Clan Elders and the Phsatorae, the leader of his clan. He came to ask or beg, if necessary, for the one thing more valuable to clan Satorae than even its bejeweled door. He had no intention of asking for the moon or the stars. He planned to ask for the ship that traversed between the moon and stars: the Ladreti Khwa, the last, the only functional spaceship left in the whole Golsidan space fleet, the generation ship of clan Satorae.
Jao took a deep breath and felt Caso’s reassuring presence beside him. The Elders and Phsatorae had no warning of Jao’s ambitious plan. They thought he came here to ask for an extension of his co-captain position on the Ladreti Khwa. He needed to shock them out of their boredom and depression. Jao squared his shoulders and began to speak with the authority he used for junior clansman new to the bridge of a spaceship. “We exist as a species on the edge of doom. We possess the knowledge and the technology needed to survive, but we must find the courage to stray from the traditional.” From the gasps, avid stares, slouched forms straightening, and then, complete silence that followed his announcement, Jao knew he held everyone’s attention.
“In the past, interbreeding with alien species has increased the resultant offspring’s temperature tolerance to the point of not needing Isadi Suits. In this manner, future generations could exist. No child has been born to our species in the last seven annuals, because of the blood ban on Isadi.
“As a race, we have become totally dependent on Isadi Suits to keep our body temperatures within a functional range. As a species, this fact dooms us. The weather forecast calls for another fifty annuals of severe sandstorms on Isadi. It will take thirty additional annuals for a ship to be loaded and the blood to be transported here. Then, three years for children to be born and fitted into new Isadi Suits. Even then the numbers project only forty children an annual per clan, because rejuvenating the existing Isadi Suits will take the majority of the blood. After that, at least another forty annuals will pass before childbirth restrictions lift all together. Our species population and median age will have put us beyond recovery by then, at least as a technological space-faring race, which would lead to us losing all access to Isadi blood and means the eventual end of our species. If Golsidans are to survive in any form, we need to break free of our dependence on Isadi blood and suits.”
Jao studied all of the faces still watching him silently and intently. “I propose that we take the Ladreti Khwa to Earth, home of the human alien species. We have successfully interbred with them twice before in our past. The innate temperature tolerance of their descendants lasted for three generations before the human blood became too dilute to protect them. We stand as the only clan capable of this mission. We possess the ship, the space maps, and the needed skills. Only this choice will allow us to save our race.” Jao nodded, bowed, and took one small step back signifying the end of his speech and his availability for questioning. The silence lasted for two heartbeats and then the hall came alive with voices, waving hands, and Elders gathering into smaller discussion groups. In all the activity, only four remained unmoving Jao and Caso who stood patiently on the dais, and the Phsatorae Mosce and his tai’twain Tronio who sat on their central high couch staring at Jao and Caso.
The questioning began immediately. First, Jao’s statements about humans needed to be verified. Then, the possibility of repairing and using another ship came to the fore. Healers, mechanics, and Isadi technicians were consulted, confirming all of Jao’s statements. Doubts rose up again and again. Alternate plans got theorized and disproved. It kept coming back to one single truth: Jao’s plan, while fraught with hazards, remained as their people’s only hope.
After two weeks of discussions the trip to Earth received approval. Jao and Caso got voted in as co-captains for the journey. Jao sighed in relief and anxiously awaited his dismissal. He wanted to begin assembling a crew of volunteers to man the Ladreti Khwa for the mission. On this, the Elders, Phsatorae Mosce, and Jao, stood in complete agreement: only volunteers could undertake this duty. On a normal expedition ordering clansman to fill a necessary post for the duration of the job often occurred, but this undertakings audacity, improbability, and importance made it unique. The voyage would be announced to the whole clan and a sign-up sheet logged on to the communication venue for any wishing to volunteer. Jao planned to individually approach and speak to those he wished to go.
Mosce addressed the full assembly of five hundred Elders, Jao, and Caso. “This excursion stands as the only hope for the survival of our race. Its success is by no means guaranteed. But, if it does succeed, the Ladreti Khwa will return to Golria with humans and hopefully, a new, young generation of half-breed Golsidans who will need to be integrated into our world, society, and clan. I can think of no one better suited to this task than the person who proposed the undertaking. After all, if he succeeds, by the time he returns to Golria, Jao will have annuals of personal experience with these humans and the next generation of Golsidans.” He further shocked everyone by announcing his withdrawal as the head of clan Satorae and his nomination of Jao as his successor. Except for the fact that Mosce was young to be retiring, this wasn’t unusual. Clan heads normally nominated and promoted their chosen successor. While Elders got their positions by living long enough to be one of the five hundred oldest members of their clan, clan heads could be voted in at any age. A clan head’s vote counted the same as a single Elder’s. His tai’twain also got a single vote. Their only real power came from: mediating discussions, proposing worthy causes for debate, and the respect earned from being the only clan member voted into a political position.
It took another week of debates. But Phsatorae Mosce remained adamant in both his decision to retire and his support of Jao. The fact that Jao was leaving on a long mission carried no negative connation to it: any Satorae member could use the laser array assemblies and maton gates for communication purposes. Mosce stepped down and Jao got voted in as Phsatorae. No contenders opposed his nomination. The future remained too nebulous and the tasks faced too daunting for any to volunteer.
Jao didn’t want to be the Phsatorae, but Mosce was right: if the mission succe
eded, many new challenges would await them when the Ladreti Khwa returned to Golria. Jao would by then have the experience to face them. Caso pointed it out to Jao that his being voted Phsatorae increased the mission’s chance of success.
Jao now possessed the power to order the repair and upkeep of all the space stations, relays, and Maton gates that the mission needed. Their restoration became Jao’s first official directive as Phsatorae.
It took another month for all the volunteers to be trained in their positions for the journey. The crew roster came to a total of three hundred and fifty nine individuals; far less than Jao had hoped for. But all of Satorae realized that the ancient age of the space maps they possessed diminished their chances of reaching Earth without encountering numerous space hazards. Jao felt exceedingly surprised to have six minors join the crew. He personally interviewed every child and parent and made sure that they each had either a relative or family friend on the Ladreti Khwa to act as a guardian. Astonishingly, the children remained just as staunch in their desire to undertake the journey as the adult volunteers.
With the use of maton-gates, possibility lines, and running the Ladreti Khwa at maximum speed, they set down in the crater Gassendi on the Earth’s moon six annuals and nine months after they left Golria. They endured four deaths on the journey. Guard pod pilots Drakiu, Rasluteb, and Doradus died protecting the Ladreti Khwa from damage during a meteorite shower a day’s journey inside of Sol’s heliosphere. Spacewalker Kania bravely sacrificed himself repairing the outer hull of the Ladreti Khwa after that meteorite shower, which saved others from having to hazard the dangerous job.
Jao felt these deaths deeply and the crew’s morale hadn’t yet recovered from the losses, but they now occupied a spot on the Earth’s moon. They started repairing the inner hull in relative safety and began searching for humans with compatible DNA who would willingly join them. The computer experts amongst the crew immediately hacked into the internet and the medic/healers searched hospitals, organ transplant banks, genetic therapy centers, and fertility clinics for genetic information.
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 1