‘Alfa, give me audio to Roger.’
Her passengers couldn’t hear Roger’s voice.
‘Roger here. We are ready when you are, Elvene.’
‘Did you provide them with sick bags, Roger?’
‘Yes, Elvene. You know we shouldn’t have had lunch.’
‘Too late now,’ she said. ‘When you’re ready Roger, can you give surrogate control to Alfa?’
‘You already have it.’
‘Thanks, I’ll cut our link to emergency only.’
‘Done.’ There was no click or other clue, but she knew Roger was no longer there.
‘Alfa, give us bubble vision.’
To everyone’s amazement the ship disappeared and they were sitting, hovering in space. The water below them was hollowed out and came up on all sides like they were sitting in an invisible bath. Next to them they could see Roger’s ship, still an opaque, black, tear-drop bubble.
Elvene spoke to them in Kiri; she knew that Roger’s ship would also have her voice. ‘Don’t be alarmed; the ship is still there, you can simply see through it.’ This wasn’t strictly true, but it described the illusion that they could see.
‘When we take off, I might seem like I’m in a trance, but I will talk to you from time to time.’ She paused a beat. ‘Okay, we’re going to start moving now.’
The two ships glided out into the lagoon in unison. They both pirouetted in a graceful slow motion dance, almost a full revolution, until everyone found themselves facing towards the beach, then they rose very slowly, the water below them sucked up slightly in a swell before breaking contact. Even though they were no more than a man’s height above the water, Myka found this floating in the air the strangest sensation of his still young life. They rose a bit higher and he now understood why they had been given the bags.
‘Okay Alfa, give us a floor.’ To everyone’s relief, they now seemed to be seated on an airborne platform so the sensation of vertigo virtually vanished altogether. Elvene had done this deliberately, knowing that the reverse would have been diabolical. ‘Now give us a skeleton.’ And they saw the outline of the ship as if they were suspended inside a giant cage. It was still a strange sensation, but it was more comfortable then the previous one. Overhead there was a broad strip that tapered to the rear like a fish’s tail. In front it branched into two curved beams that met the floor at each corner. The floor now had a lip that ran the entire perimeter of their perceived view of the ship’s interior. There were two more columns down each side that stretched like giant ribs from this perimeter to the central beam overhead. It felt for all the world like they were sitting in a giant, hollowed-out fish; a fish that could fly. Myka knew that the ship was actually larger than the apparition he was viewing, but it was easier to go along with it than try and comprehend it in its reality.
Elvene controlled the ship by movements of her hands, using individual fingers. She kept her hands on the armrests but the controls were really in her gloves. She faced forward as the orientation of her head determined largely what she saw. Elvene always got a visceral joy out of flying the ship in this mode. It was when she and Alfa were most closely connected. When they started flying she remained silent; she flew the ship almost by thought alone. It was like Alfa had become part of her; she likened it to the relationship between a musician and their instrument, as crude as that analogy seemed. Certainly, any of the musicians she knew would find it crude.
But she wasn’t thinking of that now, because as soon as they started moving she got into what she called the flow, where her mental state seemed to change and she was no longer grounded in normal reality. In fact, when she was in this state she couldn’t perceptually separate herself from the ship itself.
Both ships lifted effortlessly leaving the ground behind. They sped across the beach, now a narrow strip of sand and straight towards the cliffs that housed the Kiri caves. The two ships did all their manoeuvres in unison as if they were one unit, but when they approached the mountain ridge they moved independently as if the invisible cord between them could flex and warp. They flew over, revealing the grassland floor beyond and dipped down at frightening speed like giant birds of prey. They saw antrops running below them, scared out of their wits, even though the craft made no audible sound.
Myka felt like he was riding over a waterfall in his canoe only his body’s sense of movement did not match his eyes.
‘If you feel ill,’ he heard Elvene say in Kiri. ‘Just close your eyes until it goes away.’
But Myka had no intention of closing his eyes and instead felt the sort of thrill he sometimes got when crossing the reef. In fact he was feeling the flow that Elvene experienced, but for him it was a completely new experience. He was flying, and he had to admit he rather enjoyed it. Someone behind him did throw up but he ignored them. Elvene was now in level flight as they raced across the grassland and approached the mountains on the other side. They zoomed over, and the elation he felt was even greater. On the other side was a long waterfall that dropped below them, falling into a small lake before spilling into a narrower stream that wriggled its way through the dense jungle like a snake. Myka had never seen this side of the island and he knew it was probably more dangerous than his home side. They were now heading towards the island’s western end where it spilled into the sea as rocky fingers and small coves of sand, but nothing compared to the beach facing the lagoon on his home side.
Upon reaching the ocean they could see in the distance another outcrop, and they travelled towards it. Below in the ocean they could actually see a lone kingfish, its black body clear below the blue-green surface.
As they approached the outcrop it became another island, and behind it lay another, only it appeared larger than their home. But this was an illusion because as they crossed it they saw it was like a single ridge that had broken free of the sea, and even from the air they could see it was close to uninhabitable.
Elvene swung the ships to the left in a broad arc over the top of it so they could get a better view. She tilted the craft over and Myka had a sudden sensation that they were going to fall out of the sky. Someone else brought up their lunch or it may have been the same person, but Myka consciously blocked it out. He stayed with the flow that he was picking up from Elvene’s mind, though he would not realise it was Elvene’s mind until later.
They sped across to look at another island to their left. It was more like their home in size and shape, only there was no grassland in its centre, and it had more waterfalls on all sides. Again it had beaches but no lagoon, and Myka understood why his home was the only one that was inhabited.
There were other smaller islands and other reefs as well; they flew over them all, but they came back almost diametrically opposite from whence they had left. Elvene approached their home from the southern side where a long ridge jutted out into the sea and provided the protection for their lagoon. She leap-frogged the ridge and they descended, speeding along the beach. With the anti-gravity field she could have stopped almost as if on impact but for the sake of her passengers’ sanity she slowed gradually to a crawl. Even so the loss of speed was beyond their ken. They were back at their starting point and she dropped down slowly onto the water. Only when they were back at their berth did she gradually reassert the ship’s solidity as if night was falling, with daylight being replaced by the ship’s artificial light.
It was a quick flight and she had found it invigorating, almost wishing she had done it earlier. But she believed it had achieved its purpose, which was to give her colleagues a tour and the Elders a glimpse of their world from the air.
‘Are you there, Roger?’
‘Yes, thank you, Elvene.’
‘Did you see enough?’
‘Yes, it was a quick tour, but anything more we’ve already got from our own ships in orbit.’
Elvene knew this was true, but she could understand Roger and the others wanting to have a closer look first hand.
Elvene removed her gloves and helmet and spoke
to the Kiri. ‘I apologise for causing some of you discomfort. You may feel a bit strange when you stand up so just stay where you are for the moment.’
Elvene got out of her pilot’s seat which immediately sank into the floor. Then she walked to a wall behind them which hadn’t been there during their flight and a small table came out. She came back to them with a tray containing six glasses of a clear liquid. ‘Here, drink this before you get up. It will make you feel better.’ While she did this she took their bags and disposed of them.
To Myka’s astonishment the drink did make him feel better and he wondered what it was. It was slightly fizzy and had a strange taste, neither sweet nor sour, but he found it refreshing all the same.
When they got to their feet they did find it strange as if they’d forgotten how to walk, but once they were outside and back on the beach they started to feel normal again. They all thanked both her and Roger, smiling stoically as they did.
The Elders wandered back along the beach, occasionally one of them would weave a bit as if he was drunk and Myka couldn’t help chuckling at their plight. He knew he would be the same, but he had hung back to talk to Elvene.
‘Will I see you tonight?’
‘Yes, even before tonight. I think we should all eat together,’ she said, and she turned to Roger, Essayas and Lin, repeating what she said in Universal.
They all agreed, prompting Elvene to say to Myka, ‘Perhaps you should go and tell them. I will come and see you before then, anyway.’
‘Okay.’ He started to run along the beach but he soon had to stop. Elvene laughed at him and he looked back at her with his boyish grin. It was the way she always wanted to remember him and on impulse she waved to him. He waved back before turning his back and continuing on at a fast walk.
She turned to Roger and the others. ‘Are we really leaving tomorrow?’
‘I think it would be best, don’t you?’
‘I guess so. Well, if we are, I need to spend more time with them.’ But in contradiction to her sentiments, she turned and went back inside her ship.
Elvene really didn’t have any purpose in entering her ship except to be alone. She realised that she had a strong dislike for Essayas and Lin, possibly because of their silence which bordered on antisocial behaviour in her view. She knew she would find it impossible to share ship-time with them and wondered how Roger coped. She also knew that her feelings were completely irrational and somewhat compounded by the emotional strain of leaving Myka. She knew that once she left this planet, she would never see him again – of that she was almost certain.
She waited until she knew that they were no longer out there, and then left Alfa to walk along the beach by herself.
Myka caught up with the Elders and told them that the outworlders would eat with them that night. When they reached the village, he went and told his mother.
‘Where is Father?’ he asked.
‘He and your brother are out hunting. Were you inside one of those flying ships?’
‘Yes, did you see us?’
‘No, I saw the ships.’ She laughed at her own humour. The boy smiled at her. ‘I have never seen anything like that. No animal can fly like that.’
‘If you were inside you would find it even more strange; it was like her ship had no skin.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘I mean we could see through it.’
‘But they were black and solid.’
‘From the outside, yes. But from the inside you could see everything.’
Lenya shook her head in disbelief. ‘I do not like their magic,’ she said.
‘It’s not magic, it’s just things we can’t make.’ Then he said something, that even to his own ears, sounded very profound. ‘It’s like we are from their past and they are from our future.’
Lenya looked at him and wondered how much truth was in his statement. ‘Did the Ocean Woman tell you that?’
‘No. I just thought of it then.’ But he remembered Elvene saying they had common ancestors; he decided it was best not to elaborate. Instead he changed the subject. ‘You know she is leaving tomorrow.’
‘No, I didn’t know that.’ She looked at him. For some reason she felt that Elvene leaving was a bad omen, but she kept the thought to herself. Her son, she knew, would be upset enough. ‘We must give her a good meal tonight then.’
‘Yes, we must.’
It wasn’t long after that, that Sefta and Rafta returned with some small game. They gave it to Lenya to prepare for cooking.
‘Did you see us fly over the island?’ Myka asked.
‘Did the Elders take you?’ Rafta asked. Myka could see that his brother was jealous, so he said nothing.
‘Yes, we saw the flying ships,’ his father answered. ‘They were very fast.’
‘I’m sure they could go much faster,’ Myka said. ‘It’s a pity you couldn’t have come.’
Sefta ruffled his hair. ‘It’s all right, son. I have no desire to fly.’
Then Myka broached the subject he really wanted to discuss with him. ‘Can I show you something?’
‘Sure.’
Myka squatted on the ground. He had a pouch tied over his shoulder and from it he took some small rocks and shells. He cleared a patch of dirt with his hand and then carefully laid them out in a string-like pattern.
‘This is our home,’ he said, pointing to the one closest to him. Then he pointed to one he had placed nearby. ‘This one, here, is the sentinel we see sometimes when we go outside.’ He was referring to the outcrop they can sometimes see when they cross the reef.
Then he pointed to the others which were stretched out like a wobbly line. ‘These are much further away.’ Then he stretched past them with one leg and drew a line with his finger on the other side, perpendicular to the line of pebbles and shells. ‘This is the land on the far side of the ocean.’
His father could not hide his surprise. ‘Did you fly that far?’
‘No, no. We only flew over our islands here.’ He pointed back to his first rock.
‘Then…?’
But Myka anticipated the question. ‘Elvene showed me this in her ship. She called it a map.’
Both Lenya and Rafta had been watching with great interest. Now Lenya spoke for the first time. ‘Here comes the Ocean Woman now.’
Myka looked back over his shoulder, and when he saw her he stood up.
They all greeted her, then Myka explained what he had just told his family.
Elvene was almost as surprised as they were, but only because she had never expected him to remember it in such detail.
Without talking, she took something out of a pocket in her belt. When she unfolded it, it was not unlike the visor she had worn on her helmet. She put it over her eyes like a mask.
‘What is that?’ Myka asked. ‘What are you doing?’
‘I am sending this image back to Alfa,’ she said without explaining anything he could understand.
She took the glasses off and handed them to Myka.
What he saw was the image of the pebbles on the ground overlaid onto the map he had seen inside her ship. The fit of the two images was not precise but it was very close and certainly the pattern was exact.
He took the glasses off and handed them around to his family. They all looked at it without understanding, except Sefta.
‘Is this your “map”?’ he asked.
Myka answered for her, ‘Yes it is.’
Elvene was reminded of Kim’s game, in Rudyard Kipling’s classic tale, when Kim was asked by his teacher spy to remember an arrangement of diverse items on a tray after just one glance. Later, when she would query Alfa about this, he would tell her that the Aboriginal children of Australia on Old Earth had shown a particular aptitude for this game, because they had the ability to hold spacial relations in their head without using an external reference. But Elvene realised as soon as she had seen the match of the patterns that that was exactly what Myka had done.
‘I’ve told Myka that
on Old Earth, which is the planet from where our ancestors came, there were people who lived just like you do and they were able to navigate over oceans between islands like this.’ She pointed to the stones and shells on the ground. ‘There were people on these islands who were called navigators. They had a special gift that allowed them to find their way across the sea.’
‘You think my son has this gift?’ Sefta asked.
Elvene could see that Lenya in particular looked very worried.
‘I’m sure he has,’ Elvene answered.
‘You think we should leave the island?’ Lenya asked.
‘Yes, I think you should. If I wasn’t leaving here so soon, I would organise my own people to do it. But your son believes he has the means and perhaps he has.’
‘Why do you think we should?’ Lenya persisted.
‘Because “it feels right”.’ They all looked at her and then at each other.
Elvene felt that she had brought a mood of melancholy with her, and in a way she wished that she wasn’t eating with them that night. But on the other hand she wished she wasn’t leaving at all. That certainly “didn’t feel right”, to use the Kiri expression, but she was never going to tell them that.
Elvene and Myka walked back towards the beach together. She felt a heaviness that she’d never felt before; it was more than a sadness, almost a sense of something yet to come. The future did not look good – no, more than that, it did not feel good, and yet she would not have been able to explain it to anyone. She knew that Roger was right – they had to leave – yet at the same time she felt that it was the wrong decision entirely. It’s stupid, she told herself, but she had no logic to support her reasoning.
By the time they reached the water, the sun was drawing long shadows in front of them, and the water was dark. There was a dark cloud on the far horizon. It appeared to Elvene to be an omen. It was where the sun would rise tomorrow.
They didn’t talk at all, both lost in their thoughts. When they reached the water’s edge with it lapping at their feet, Myka took her hand, which surprised her completely. He had actually grown in height in the short time she’d known him, but he was still shorter than her by about half a head. He probably came up to her nose instead of her chin.
Elvene Page 13