by Bill Nolan
Robert took her hands. "You feel at home because you are home, for the first time in your life. The To’Ach’an people have lived in space, in ships, for thousands of years. It is our natural habitat, and it is the most defining difference between us and other peoples. We feel at home in the depths of space, while everybody else travels fearfully and reluctantly through on their way to someplace else, someplace better. For us, there is no better place. It's in your genes. I’m a little surprised that you’re nude."
"It just seemed so natural here, and Shanna said nobody would bother me. You said I was descended from people who didn't come from Earth. How is that possible?"
"Well, technically everybody on Earth is descended from people who come from other planets. Earth, like every other known inhabited planet, was a colony in the very distant past. Nobody knows where the human race began, and almost nothing is known about the first dispersion. From the timing, it appears that earth was colonized during the fourth dispersion. In our case, however, it's a bit different. Over the centuries, a lot of To’Ach’an have lived on Earth, passing as local people, much like I did. As a people, To’Ach’an are noted warriors, and many of their Earth dwellers have been written up in the history books. At any rate, living on Earth for many years, they had children who carried the To’Ach’an genes. In your case, and mine, those genes, floating around in the general gene pool, combined by chance. We're accidents, you and I. Let's go meet the other residents. They've been waiting for us long enough."
* * * *
Letha got done with her work early, so missus let her go visit her sister. Kamci wasn’t expecting her so early, and was crying when Letha got there.
“Don’t cry, Kamci,” Letha said. “You’ll be out soon. As soon as a ship comes by, you’ll tell the Captain your side, and he’ll find for you. Suji started it, and even if her dad does run the base, she can’t get away with that.”
“Sure she can, Letha. Her dad’s a cousin of the Empress, and no ship’s Captain will go against him. Suji came by today. She told me she’s going to have her dad send me to the brothels as soon as I’m old enough. If they send me off planet, I’ll never see you or Laurni again. What are we going to do?”
It was actually worse than Kamci knew. Suji had gotten Laurni reassigned as her personal servant, and she was treating her horribly. She yelled at her, and beat her whenever she could find an excuse. Letha knew she was trying to get Laurni mad enough to do what Kamci had done, so she could have her arrested, too. Missus was trying to keep Letha out of it, but Letha knew that sooner or later Suji would find a way to get her in trouble.
Explanations
Shanna and her small contingent of 11 people and a dog spent two days in orbit around Saturn. By then, Jane was exhausted. She spent all of her time wandering around the ship, exploring as much of it as she could. It was beginning to sink in that this was going to be her home for a long time. There were about 100 levels, or decks. These varied in height, with some being 100’ or more high, and others being 10’ or so, and the height varied from place to place on the same deck. They totaled about 25 square miles of deck area. That meant that each of the 11 people currently on the ship had almost 1500 acres of space.
The eight people who had been in the ship when they arrived were all very nice to her. She found out that Robert had recruited them over the past years, during the "business trips" when he had actually been in the ship. "Well," she reasoned, "it had certainly been a trip, and it had been concerned with his real business."
Her favorite among the staff members was Karlona, who was pretty much in charge of the household functions. She was solid. Jane immediately felt she could count on her. Whenever she was free, she went with Jane on her walks around the ship. In two days they had already become fast friends. It was on the second day that she found out none of the staff members were To'Ach’an. It took about a half hour of conversation with Shanna to make the distinction clear in her mind.
As Shanna explained it, the To’Ach’an were descendants of the people from one particular planet, which had been destroyed. They were, in some ways as yet unclear to Jane, genetically different from other people. Jane also got the impression that there weren't really very many of them, although Shanna refused to supply a number.
The others on the ship were associated with the To'Ach'an, but were not the same. Shanna used the word "Tovena" to refer to them. These people were employees, friends, allies, and a lot more, all at the same time. They were found on most inhabited planets in the Galaxy, and formed a sort of underground network. The Empire knew who many of them were, but did nothing because… well, Jane wasn't exactly clear on that. Shanna said, "Harming anyone under the protection of the To'Ach’an people would subject those responsible to the full fury of our force."
Jane guessed that wasn't good, but wasn't yet sure just how it was bad, especially since the Empire was so huge, and the To'Ach’an so few. She did find out that the To'Ach'an were "warriors," and that this term carried great significance to them. The Tovena were not warriors. There was a sharp distinction. That much at least was clear.
It was also clear that the Tovena on the ship were "honored" to be there. She was going to have to find out just what that word meant to these people. Karlona spent a lot of time with her during those first two days, because Robert was busy planning with Kysandra, and people on this ship didn't seem to work many hours. If this was a normal schedule, the workweek was about 8 or 10 hours long. At first, she had wondered how the people in the ship could be in it for years, without ever returning home, but she soon learned that the ship was their home. They got homesick when they left her.
She also found out why people were suddenly using her middle name. Kjersti is a Swedish name, and since, in Swedish, Kj is pronounced like Sh in English, it is pronounced Shersti. It had been her great grandmother’s name. The To’Ach’an don’t use family names, or what Americans call last names. Each To’Ach’an has two names, and no two To’Ach’an, living or dead, have the same two names, in the same order.
There may be other Janes, or other Kjerstis, or even someone named Kjersti Jane, but there can be only one Jane Kjersti. At first, it seemed to Jane that they would run out of names, but then she thought about it. On Earth, a single planet, there are many thousands of different names used in different places. Multiply that by the thousands of inhabited planets in the Galaxy, and there are an immense number of names available. If there were only 100,000 different names, that would provide 10 billion two-name combinations.
Jane enjoyed her discussions with Shanna. She was so patient in explaining things. Karlona and the other Tovena were also very friendly, and quick to help Jane understand her new world.
Kysandra was another issue. Jane was not comfortable with her. She knew Kysandra wanted to be her friend, but she felt threatened by her. She didn't know why, but Kysandra bothered her in some way. It was like a nagging spot she could almost see, hovering on the edge of her mind.
Jane became more and more excited as they prepared to leave. Both Robert and Shanna had spent time with her trying to explain how translations worked, but it still escaped her how a ship could go from one place to another almost instantly. Robert had finally told her she wouldn't completely understand until she had spent some real effort in studying math.
These translations seemed to have a lot of rules. You could jump a short distance from almost anywhere, except if you were too close to spatial distortions created by large objects like asteroids or bigger. To jump a longer distance, you had to travel to certain points, called junctions, and from each junction you could only jump to certain other junctions. For that reason, a long trip usually consisted of several instant jumps separated by normal movement and short jumps to another junction. Oh, and you had to have a really big ship, big enough to create a spatial distortion of its own. A small ship could be “sent” or “pushed” by a big ship or a planet, but it could not jump on its own.
Jane had learned enough to know that
it came down to dimensions. We perceive three dimensions, or four if you count time. In reality, the Universe has many more dimensions than that. Most thought it was 17 or 19, but Robert assured her that there were at least 23 dimensions, and he strongly suspected that there were 29. For reasons she didn’t understand, the actual number of dimensions had to be a prime number.
If one could move in a dimension other than the usual three, places that appeared to be far apart might turn out to be close together. Jane had been given some examples to consider. If you are in a hotel in room 870, how far away is room 770? It is directly below you, but to reach it, you would have to go to the nearest elevator or stairs, go down a floor, and then back to the destination. It might be several hundred feet. However, if you were able to move through the floor, it’s only a foot away.
Space is like that. The place you are going may be hundreds of light years away if you are only able to move in three dimensions, but it may be very close if you can move in a truly different direction. Gravity distorts dimensions, which is why a ship cannot translate if it is too close to something larger than itself.
While ships are mostly unaffected by moving in these other dimensions, people don’t react as well. Moving in a dimension other than the three the body can perceive makes a person sick.
Shanna had warned her that she was likely to become ill when they translated. She said everyone did, but that it wasn't severe, just mild nausea. She also mentioned that if you jumped again too soon, it got progressively worse – a lot worse, and that was part of the reason for waiting between jumps.
At breakfast the third day, Robert said, "Well, in a little while we will make our first jump. While we were sleeping, Shanna moved us away from Saturn. Like I told you, we have two stops to make before we get to my friend Melia's planet. First, we have to go to the To’Ach’an home system so I can speak to an old friend. I'm looking forward to your meeting him. That will involve about 5 translations, and probably two weeks total"
Jane said, "Oh yes, your mysterious friend. Why won't you tell me anything about him? And the second stop, that's to pick up more people?"
"Yes, a lot of people want to talk to us. Some are To'Ach’an, and the rest are Tovena. They’ve been waiting for me to come out of exile so they could join the ship. It isn't often a new ship forms, and it's a pretty big event. A lot of people want to join. Shanna and I will have to meet with each of them, and decide which ones will fit in. Then we'll go and settle this thing with Melia. I'm afraid I'm going to be late visiting the President."
Jane had wanted to ask about the situation with Melia. "Melia's daughter was tortured and raped by the Planetary Governor's son, right? What does she want you to do about it?"
"She wants us to heal her daughter, who was mentally damaged by the attack, but it isn't just a matter of what she wants, not really. Melia was under my protection, which meant her daughter was also entitled to my protection. Of course we'll help her daughter, but Horru, the Governor’s son, raped her, so I'm going to kill him. Some of his guards helped him, so I'll kill them, too. Since his dad is an Empire official, I’ll demand a formal apology from the Empire. If they refuse to give it, we’ll probably take out a few Empire bases and ships in retaliation."
It hadn't really dawned on Jane until that moment what his intention was. She said, "He's a criminal. Just have him arrested by the proper authorities, and they can deal with him. Are you afraid he'll get off because of being the Governor's son?"
"That isn't it, Jane. I am the proper authority, or will be when we get there. The To’Ach’an don't recognize other government's courts. We are subject to only our own law, and a person who harms somebody under our protection is also subject to our law. In this case, that law is me. Unless I get there and find out he didn't do it, he's dead."
Jane just didn't know what to say. She had never considered Robert capable of killing anyone, and to hear him say he was on his way to kill several people, including at least one VIP, was a shock. She asked, "What do you mean you're the proper authority? Is that how the To'Ach’an operate? You just take the law into your own hands?"
Robert looked at her and shook his head. "No, Jane, that's not how it works. Although the Queen's men might say differently, we are a law-abiding people. It's just that we obey only our own laws, not those of others. We are an independent people, or nation if you will. Under our law, a judge, called a Tocal, decides any dispute or criminal case. It’s a title. The To’Ach’an people on a ship award the title. Each ship's residents have the right to confer the title of Tocal upon one of their members, and the council of Tocals can confer it upon others on the same ship, but that’s uncommon. Most ships have just one."
"At our second stop, when we bring our new residents on board, one of the first things they will do is meet and confer the title upon one of our number. It will be me."
Jane couldn't help herself. "How do you know it will be you? Kysandra knows these people. Maybe they'll pick her."
"No, Jane, they won't. Most of them, although not all, are friends of Kysandra's, but their first loyalty will be to the ship, which will be their home, and to me, since I am bonded with Shanna. No, it will be me. As Tocal, I will then be the 'proper authority' that you mentioned."
Jane thought for a moment, then said, “You say you’re going to kill him. Why not put him in prison or something?”
“The To'Ach’an don’t have prisons. Lots of folks around the galaxy think it’s bad luck to say the word ‘To’Ach’an,’ so they refer to us as ‘The Free People’. They call us that partly because we are free of Empire control, but also because we would rather die than have our freedom restricted, and what we won’t put up with, we won’t inflict on others. All of our punishments are immediate, like fines, flogging, or death.”
“So why does the Empire put up with you?” Jane replied. “Why don’t they just force you to comply with their laws?”
“They’ve tried, Jane. That’s how our home world got destroyed. When our ancestors wouldn’t give homage to the Empire, they attacked, without warning. The only members of our race who survived were away, on ships. We have always been a trading people. As soon as word got out that the Empire was at war with us, we hid out, never visiting Empire planets. Our people hid out for almost 3000 years, either in space, or on remote planets. We spent that time improving our ships and developing our talents, until we were able to hold our own. Then we came back and just resumed our trade among the planets, like nothing had happened.”
“Pretty soon though, the Empire came looking for us, but this time we were ready. Our people are faster, and our ships are better than theirs, but more importantly, we are used to living in the voids between the stars. That little queasiness when we jump is violent nausea for the Empire pilots. We kicked their butts, and didn't lose a ship. They've tried twice since, with the same outcome. They’ve also tried harassing the Tovena who live on various planets, but that earned them major reprisal raids on their bases. It’s easy for a ship to take out a base. Only other ships can protect a base, and our ships are better than theirs. And remember, we have no real bases ourselves, so they can’t respond in kind. They’ve learned that it’s better to just leave us alone.”
“That’s one of the reasons we are going to avenge that rape. Every time one of our people is hurt, we respond, and in a way they consider all out of proportion. If one of our people dies, a very large number of theirs will also die. We have made the price of attacking us so high that few indeed are willing to pay it.”
“You said that our people are faster. Why is that?” Jane asked.
“Our home world, the one that was destroyed, was a planet with almost twice the gravity of Earth. Our people evolved to adapt to that high gravity. We aren’t too tall. Kysandra is 5’1”, and you’re about 5’3” tall. I’ve met a few To’Ach’an women who are 5’4” tall, but that’s about it. I’m 5’10” tall, and I don’t know of any To’Ach’an men who are taller.”
“In addition, we
are much, much stronger for our size than humans from other worlds. A typical To’Ach’an man can bench press five or six times his own weight. Most important, however, is our speed. On a high gravity planet, everything falls a lot faster. The living things on any planet evolve a reflex speed and quickness based upon how fast things fall. It’s common to think that inhabitants of high gravity planets would be massive and ponderous. In fact, they tend to be somewhat smaller, so there’s less mass to hold up. They also tend to be very fast, to counter the speed at which things fall.”
Suddenly Jane felt ill. She reached for her water glass, afraid she was going to throw up. Her hand was shaking so badly she spilled the water, and she was breaking out in a sweat. “Robert, I feel terrible.”
Robert was at her side in an instant, taking her hand, and rubbing her forehead gently. “It’s OK, honey. We just translated. Hang on, and you’ll feel better in a few minutes. You should lie down.” Robert picked her up and carried her to a sofa. “You’re now a long way from Earth, girl. How does it feel to be a Galactic Voyager?”
“It feels awful. Will it be like this every time? If it is, I’m not sure I want to travel.”
“You’ll get used to it, a bit. Next time won’t be so bad, but you’ll always get a little sick when we jump.
“So, why aren’t you sick, Robert? You’re not immune or anything, are you? That wouldn’t be fair.”
Robert laughed. “No, honey, I’m not immune, but it does affect me less than most. It’s one of my talents. You rest. In a few minutes, you’ll feel fine. I should go to the control center.”
The control center was right next to Robert’s office, just below their living area. Kysandra was sitting at a console, having just monitored the jump. As Robert entered, she said, “Everything went fine. We’re right where we should be.”
Robert replied, “I told you we would be. Shanna is the best navigator I’ve ever seen, aren’t you Shanna?”