Dark Firmament

by Ezra Manes

  His grandpapa! Had he really talked to him? Joqi became less sure of this the longer he thought about it. It was more likely his subconscious mind was playing tricks on him, tricks surfaced while in deep meditation while immersed in the smart plasma. But it was difficult to believe that his subconscious mind was at play when thinking about how his grandpapa lifted him out of his unbearable misery in the cage overflowing with caustic seawater.

  Regardless, the questions raised in his recent meditations were certainly stimulating him to look at issues and his environment differently. And the paramount question was—what were the knowledge biases limiting his assessment of his environment? And not just the elements that he could sense directly applying all the capabilities embodied in the Horizon Quest. What about the other 95 percent of what the universe was made of that he couldn’t directly sense?

  These ruminations brought to mind a noted Zilan mathematician and philosopher he had met and studied under. At a young age, LaSorepe Kilerah had postulated how undetectable energy and matter in the universe could interact with the small amounts of observable energy and matter. LaSorepe was the grandson of the revered High Priest Pilone Kilerah, who became Carlos Sepeda’s close friend as he walked the path to become Prophet Sepeda.

  The equations were beautiful to view, artistry on a level few ever achieved. However, very few people could fully understand the complex mathematics that incorporated octonion algebra to define extra dimensions in space-time.

  Joqi attended several lectures by Professor Kilerah regarding the structure of the universe some fifty years after the mathematician first presented his theory. The professor and several others had made concerted efforts throughout the intervening fifty years to prove elements of his theory. But to no avail.

  What if Professor Kilerah and others had accepted that his theory was basically correct? Joqi had come to believe it was when attending the professor’s lectures. He wondered now what the professor and various other teams could have achieved during that fifty years if they had focused on developing extensions to the theory instead of trying everything imaginable to prove the basic theory. But they were locked into the paradigm that had existed for centuries where physical proof of grand theories was required for them to stand the test of time.

  He began consciously challenging boundary conditions that limited his understanding of Professor Kilerah’s theory and other theories defining the space-time continuum. He felt sure that somewhere in extensions of those theories lay the answer about how to get back to Zilia. And the answer must be found while they were in the szswns’ solar system. Otherwise, it would be a very long, slow journey back to Zilia, with no assurance of survival for him, Dawn, or the Horizon Quest.

  CHAPTER 16

  Joqi looked out the shuttlecraft’s porthole and shuddered at the memory of his last trip to the world’s surface. What destiny awaited him on this second trip? He couldn’t clear the destiny thought out of his mind. Was it his intuition driving his actions now, or the guidance of some greater power?

  The shuttlecraft flight to the surface was uneventful, other than his unsettled thoughts. He recalled the effect his grandpapa had on the Zilan population as he quietly espoused his religious beliefs through exemplary actions, not words. For the first time in several years, Joqi said a quiet prayer asking for guidance during his pending meeting with the szswn leaders.

  The shuttlecraft landed at the same spaceport as before, on the outskirts of the capitol city. This time he was greeted by two delegates from the ruling council, who bowed low before escorting him to his transportation. His suit sensors detected a foul gas surrounding the delegates, which dissipated quickly. He detected a puzzling sense of awe in their posture and welcoming statements. Perhaps it was unusual for anyone to ever escape from their sacrificial cage.

  By the time they walked the short distance to a transport vehicle, Joqi regretted again his decision to come to the surface without riding in an exoskeleton robot. The 40 percent increase in gravity over that of his home planet made it very difficult to walk smoothly. But he needed to show strength during this visit without relying on mechanical support.

  The transport vehicle was the same one that was used on his first trip, with the upper half enclosed by a transparent semicircle canopy. The two delegates climbed into the top half of the vehicle with Joqi, and took up positions at the back of the compartment. The round bench had been moved to the front half of the compartment, and now sported a chair in its center that was hand carved with various swirls and other intricate features.

  The artwork on the chair was beautiful and surely had meaning to the szswns. Joqi had to smile. Placement of the regal chair and the presence of the greeting committee sent the message he was viewed quite differently this time around. He climbed up on the platform trying to hide how the exertion strained him. He sat in the ornate chair, which was appropriately sized for him while wearing a spacesuit. He was thankful for its support as the transport accelerated smoothly away from the spaceport.

  Thousands of szswns again lined the streets along the route to the council meeting, but this time they were eerily quiet. Many pressed close for a better view, slowing the vehicle and finally bringing it to a stop. Joqi felt uneasy, but remained calm, as did the two delegates in the rear of the compartment.

  They were trying to see him, he finally realized. But all they were seeing was something clad in a bulky spacesuit. On impulse, he removed his suit helmet and placed it beside the chair. The crowd stopped pressing forward and remained quiet. Joqi thought back to his final interaction with Cssyza, and raised both hands like he had when saying goodbye to the szswn.

  Those nearest to the transport raised both front legs, and the others behind started doing likewise. He heard a high pitched hum start among those close to the vehicle, and increase in volume as those farther away joined in. The humming increased in volume until the chair he was sitting in began vibrating slightly. He looked over his shoulder and saw the two delegates approaching the round bench with their two front legs raised, pointing toward him. They stopped at the edge of the bench, continuing to hold their front legs out toward Joqi.

  Thank you, Cssyza, he thought. You were one wise szswn!

  His two nostril filters did a good job of minimizing the acrid smell of the air, but the low level of oxygen was apparent immediately. Deep breaths through his nose filters helped, but he finally had to plug a small oxygen line into one nostril, tapping the suit’s supply.

  There was a commotion up ahead as several guards pushed through the crowd, clearing a path for the transport. The transport began moving ahead slowly, with guards on each side and in front to keep the crowd of citizens from pressing in too close. Joqi held his arms up periodically throughout the journey to the council building. This elicited the same response from those in the large crowd as it had the first time.

  Upon arriving at the large council building, one of the delegates climbed out of the vehicle and motioned for Joqi to follow. They walked to the bottom of the sloped stairs leading up to the council chamber, and Joqi had an uneasy moment when he was asked to stop. To his surprise, the other delegate scurried over carrying the regal chair and set it down facing the sloped stairs. At the delegate’s invitation, Joqi sat in the chair and placed his helmet in his lap.

  Three guards hurried over and picked up the chair with Joqi in it, one on each side and one behind. They scurried up the sloped stairs, keeping Joqi and his chair level with the street, and set him down on the terrace facing the large entryway.

  Joqi rose and nodded to the guards, and then walked confidently through the large entryway into the huge, round council chamber. The two delegates followed a few paces to the rear. He held his head high with eyes looking forward, not a deferential posture at all this time. He had turned his translator on at the spaceport and he remained in constant contact with Dawn via a communicator. She was concerned about him leaving his helmet off but understood his reason for doing so.

  Joqi stop
ped a few steps into the chamber to let his eyes adjust to the dim light. It was startling to see all szswns in the room in a submissive posture, the front of their bodies lowered to the floor and the back of their bodies elevated. There were three szswns positioned on each side of a slightly elevated platform toward the back of the chamber. There were two average sized szswns on the elevated platform, and both were also in the submissive posture. No weapons were visible anywhere in the chamber. This time he noticed what could be video camera pods mounted at various points around the ceiling.

  He walked slowly toward the elevated platform, the pull of the high gravity taking a toll on his posture. He stopped about three meters from the platform base, then stepped back a pace when the platform started lowering. He laid his helmet on the floor so he could use both arms when communicating. In a few seconds the platform stopped level to the floor, with the two szswns’ posture still showing deference to Joqi, which seemed more than a little odd to him.

  “Chosen One, may we address you?”

  He wasn’t sure which of the two had spoken. Why address him as the Chosen One? Why ask if they could address him?

  “Yes, please face me,” he replied evenly, surprised at this turn of events.

  The two smoothly raised their frontends and lowered their back ends, which was their normal posture for communicating. The one on the left backed away one body length, deferring to the one in front.

  The front szswn, evidently their new leader, looked intently at Joqi with its four eyestalks while its legs quivered nervously.

  “What do you mean, Chosen One,” Joqi asked, in a more conciliatory tone.

  “For generations our kind… awaited arrival of the Chosen One.”

  The szswn’s vocal glands then uttered rapid clicks and squeals that came across as noise through Joqi’s translator. The szswn behind the one speaking let out a strong series of clicks that, as best the translator could tell, meant “Enough!”

  “I am Azlor,” the front szswn said, its vocal glands settling down. “I speak for our species. The others here are members of our ruling council.” It pointed with its two front legs at the three szswns positioned on each side of the platform.

  Azlor then puffed air through its vocal glands, air that bellowed out to engulf Joqi. It was more rancid than any foul human gas he had ever smelled.

  Caution, Dawn conveyed. Remember—that is the way szswns greet one another with honor.

  “I am honored,” Joqi said, realizing the foul gas detected around the two delegates at the spaceport had meant the same thing.

  This seemed to calm the leader. “None of our species has regened on this planet in over 200 cycles—none until now.”

  This made less sense now than it had when Cssyza explained it. 200 cycles, or 200 years on this planet, was a lot longer than any Zilan had lived. The leader was implying that all those lining the streets along the ride to the council building were over 200 years old!

  This is truly remarkable, Dawn conveyed. I was unsure that Cssyza was telling the truth about this.

  It explains why no small ones have been observed, Joqi replied.

  “How does this relate to my arrival,” Joqi asked the leader.

  “You were the stimulus,” Azlor replied. “You caused our Honored Cssyza to start regen. You provided the food necessary to complete the regen cycle. My deputy, Lotsu, will explain.”

  Azlor moved backward and Lotsu moved forward. Joqi endured another blast of foul air, without flinching this time.

  “Chosen One honors our species,” Lotsu said. “I store and convey through offspring our species history. So honored we can now fulfill that destiny.”

  Joqi patiently listened to the clipped language presentation made by Lotsu. Apparently the species had a philosophy based religious culture. For thousands of years they had believed they would someday face a crisis in ability to propagate their species. A venerable leader had prophesized that a Chosen One would someday provide a solution to enable their species to propagate and fulfill their rightful place in spreading their culture among the stars.

  The szswns had always believed the Chosen One would be a szswn. To have it be an alien from some distant place was almost incomprehensible at first. They were astounded when Joqi survived his ordeal as their sacrificial offering to the sea. Their astonishment and respect over his relationship and support for Cssyza and its nine offspring made them believe he was the Chosen One.

  Dawn, why didn’t you tell me this before I came back here?

  If I had told you, would you have come back?

  “Chosen One, why did you allow us to capture you on your first visit,” Azlor asked. The leader had moved forward beside its deputy. “You have great power. You demonstrated such in the first meeting. How could we subdue you so easily when you left our Great Hall?”

  Joqi straightened up as tall as he could in the higher gravity. He extended his arms, palms outward, toward Lotsu and Azlor.

  He spoke loud and added flourishes with his arms, feet and translator panel to fully communicate with the leaders. “I allowed you to take me so that what has happened would happen.

  “I returned to show the strength of my species,” Joqi continued. “You should not want us as your enemy, nor do we want you as ours.” He hoped the translator accurately conveyed the essence of what he said.

  The two leaders and the others around the chamber wall started shuffling nervously. He had seen this reaction in Cssyza when it became unsure about something or felt threatened.

  “We have great power as individuals and as augmented with our advanced technology,” Joqi added. “I suffered so you would see what we could withstand and how strong our resolve is to survive!

  “We want to avoid conflict with your race. Both of our species can grow and prosper in our own regions of space.”

  “Chosen One, you honor us with this understanding,” said Azlor, who stopped shuffling its feet. “For over 400 years we have received and analyzed signals emitted by your civilization. The rapid advancement of your technology and your aggressive nature disturbed us greatly.”

  “That was on Earth,” Joqi replied. “I am from the planet Zilia.”

  He asked that the chair be brought in so he could sit while they conversed. The strong gravity was wearing on him and he was willing to give up some flourishes in speaking with limited feet movements.

  Azlor motioned to a szswn near the entrance, and it brought the chair in quickly. Joqi thanked the leader and sat down. It was time to get to know one another a lot better before the oppressive gravity wore him down completely.

  CHAPTER 17

  Joqi felt a moral obligation to help the szswns regain their vision of surviving and thriving. However, he did have a problem with their plan to continue expansion in space toward human colonized worlds. His condition for providing help was the commitment by the ruling council that their species would colonize no additional worlds in the direction of human occupied worlds. He had no problem with their two current colony worlds prospering; he didn’t like the idea they viewed humans as substitutes for the sea mammals.

  The ruling council readily agreed. Joqi recognized that at some point in the future, hopefully several centuries later, interaction between szswns and humans was inevitable. His resolve to help the szswns strengthened when Azlor told him candidly that their colony worlds would soon face the same procreation problem that existed on their home world. And the end game was clear if nothing changed. Very few oscyspods survived the journey to the new world colonies; too few to sustain growth in their population.

  After three hours of interaction that was grueling for Joqi in the high gravity on the surface, he told Azlor he must return to his ship. He set up and demonstrated a 3-D communications projector they could use to continue interaction. And he agreed to return to the surface for in-person meetings every few days. He advised that on the return visits he would ride in a robot exoskeleton to help maneuver around on the surface. Azlor and the council agreed wi
th this approach for continued interaction, and once again thanked Joqi sincerely for his help with Cssyza’s regen process, and for bravely returning to face the council.

  In parting, Joqi said, “Intelligent life in the universe is very precious. I believe most species die out before ever achieving the plateau of self-aware, questing consciousness that humans and szswns have. I believe other species are out there that have achieved the level of awareness we have. They remain undetected by our search efforts. However, our two species must be prepared for the challenges presented by future contact with such advanced species.”

  “I speak for humans of the planet Zilia,” Joqi continued. “On my return home, our government will inform those on other human worlds about your species. We will focus on forming an alliance among the human occupied worlds that will recognize the value of having you as allies. This will take well into the future to achieve.”

  “You are wise in our eyes, Chosen One,” Azlor said. “We agree and look forward to facing that future with humans as allies.”

  The return trip to the spaceport was made in the same transport vehicle that carried Joqi to the council meeting. He found a box next to the elevated bench containing the spacesuit he wore to the first council meeting. The suit was damaged where the guards had ripped off the helmet on his first visit.

  The translator and all other equipment he had carried to the surface were also in the box. He had to smile at finding his equipment; the szswns were making amends as best they could for what occurred on the first visit.

  Apparently no announcement was made to the general population as to when he would travel back to board the shuttlecraft. The same two council delegates that met him at the spaceport accompanied him back there.

  The delegates stayed close to the elevated bench and were eager to engage Joqi in conversation. Joqi learned that most szswns resided in compact underground dwellings. The above ground buildings were only a small part of the extended habitats.