by Paul Lucas
Suddenly Cloud stood between us and the human, his wings spread wide. “No. You do not understand! My shot went where I wanted it to. I only wanted to scare him. So he and his fellow humans would know our strength of will when they come for our Tower.”
“What are you talking about, Cloud?”
A look of triumph crossed his face. “You mean Lerner has not told you? That you, of all of us, do not know?”
I looked at him blankly, uncomprehending.
His laugh was short and bitter. “The humans who sold us these guns also told us of the humans’ ultimate plans for our people, for our Tower.” He turned toward the rest of the assembled people. “They are planning on coming not to visit us by helistat, but eventually to stay. They plan on building a base for their sky-ships here! They will come by the hundreds and then by the thousands, and eventually outnumber us in our own sacred home! We will be swarmed like beetles on an anthill!”
Flier turned to Lerner. “Is this true?”
Lerner opened his mouth to speak, but could only close it again and look away.
Blessed spirits, no. It could not be.
Cloud turned away to address the crowd again. Brightwind and I hurried to Lerner. Windrider, thankfully, was already tending to Lerner. Cloud’s followers saw but made no move to stop us. They had made their point. Lerner was discredited, fallen. They were in control, now.
We worked quickly to tame his bleeding. I tore off pieces of my leggings and his shirt to pack the wound. Once that was done, Windrider broke off the part of the arrow shaft still sticking out from his shoulder. Then, before the human even had a chance to think about what she was doing, she pulled the other half of the shaft out through the back of his shoulder. Lerner cried out in pain. The cloths I held at both sides of the wound quickly filled with blood. Glider chanted a minor spirit calling to slow the bleeding, then segued into a more powerful healing spell to help the wound close up. She then tended to my ankle, binding and splinting it and using magic to tamp the steadily-rising pain.
“I’m so sorry,” Lerner said. “This wasn’t how you were supposed to find out.”
“So it is true?” Brightwind asked, incredulous.
Lerner slowly nodded, head hanging low. “I’m afraid so. It’s one of the reasons I originally stayed here, to assess how the Tower would function as an advanced base, and if your people would be receptive to the idea.”
“What would our opinions matter to you?” I said, looking away. “Your people could just take whatever they wanted.”
Lerner reached up with his good hand and tilted my chin back toward him. His expression was pained, and not from his wound. “Gossamyr, no. There are many reasons why I stayed. But my original work was finished three months ago. I could have left with the Venia's Betrayal. There’s only one reason I’m staying now.” His thumb caressed my cheek in the odd but comforting human gesture.
Despite myself I purred softly at his touch. Tears brimmed my eyes. “Spirits, when that arrow hit you, I thought my life had stopped.”
“Me too,” he said. “But listen to me, all of you. You have to understand. We would have asked your people first. We aren’t conquerors. The distance between the Tower and the KN would make it totally impractical to absorb you politically, even if we wanted that.”
Windrider finished her spell on my leg. She looked directly at Lerner. “You say you would have asked. But if we said no, would you listen to us?”
“I like to think so. Some of my bosses would be upset, but to tell the truth there are plenty of other spots that would make for a good base. The Tower is simply the most desirable one, because it already has a built-in, defensible shelter and most importantly, a friendly population.”
He tentatively sat up, glaring at the huge crowd of people Cloud was ranting at. Even Flier stood quietly, listening to the chief hunter. “But it is important that the advanced base get built as soon as possible. Important for my people, for yours, for everyone. The Myotans will be well-rewarded and well-treated if you allow us to use your Tower.”
“But why?” I said. “What is so important about this base?”
He chewed his lip a bit before replying. “Gossamyr, Windrider, Brightwind, there is a secret my people have that we are absolutely forbidden to tell other peoples. More important than the Nanotech Matrix or the origin of the Shards or even the existence of the Others. It is a knowledge so potentially explosive that my people had to endure riots and rebellions for years after it was made public, civil unrest that threatened to tear apart entire nations. It is the reason that we launched our current Age of Exploration, why we so doggedly send expedition after expedition into the Outlands. It changed everything about us more profoundly than we ever dreamed possible. I want to tell you, but if I do, it may change everything here.”
Brightwind, Glider, and I exchanged glances. “Tell us,” I said.
He did.
I felt the blood draining from my cheeks as he spoke. When he finished, I shivered involuntarily, my eyes instantly seeking out the ghostly Shards in the sunny sky. Windrider and Brightwind did the same, with much the same expressions.
Could the universe truly be so cruel?
Windrider glanced at the rest of our people. “We have to tell them. Now. Before this foolishness goes any further.”
“Not just yet,” I said. “They may not listen, the way Cloud has them. But I think I know a way to add some weight to what we say, without anyone else getting hurt.”
“What?”
I glanced at Lerner, then back at Windrider. “We are going to need your help, Shaman. But do not worry. It will only take a few heartbeats, and I do not think you will find the task unpleasant at all.”
FIFTEEN
I steadfastly believe that if Thorena the Jackal really understood the long-range consequences of her actions, she would have torched the Great Library without hesitation and gone back to bullying sheep-herders.
You cannot have great knowledge without the dark truths it reveals. Personally, I think we all would be much happier if we had never discovered the secret of the Shards. I don’t think anything we ever do is going to make any difference, in the end.
--excerpted from “In Defense of Isolationism,” by columnist Morgana Stewart, published 2 January 544, op-ed page, Lyra Times-News, Borelea.
* * *
“Listen to me, everyone!” I shouted. They all turned to regard us. I leaned on Lerner’s good side, his arm wrapped in a makeshift sling to keep it immobile. Windrider and Brightwind flanked us, supporting us both figuratively and literally.
Cloud’s ongoing argument with Flier about corrupt humans stumbled to a halt in the wake of my outburst. The Chief Hunter was more than a little annoyed at the interruption, but Flier nodded in our direction, giving his assent.
“Cloud does not have all the facts! He is distorting the truth!” I added into the sudden silence. “You must listen to Lerner!”
Azure sneered, leveling his rifle. “Why should we listen to that unclean outsider? The only reason you listen to him is because of your filthy lust for him, when you should be preserving your body for a proper Mate.”
My wing membranes snapped loudly. It’s intensity startled many people. “Lerner is my proper Mate now!”
The silence plummeted to unheard of depths in the wake of my words. Cloud’s jaw slacked as the meaning of my statement registered, his eyes flitting from me to Lerner to Windrider.
Our Shaman spoke up, her mischievous smile as broad as I had ever seen. “Oh, yes, Chief Hunter. I joined their spirits while you were ranting. Your brother Brightwind served as witness. Gossamyr’s and Lerner’s spirits now fly as one. Their bond is sacred and unbreakable except in death.”
“And more than that,” I said before anyone could add anything else, “He is part of our people now. One of us. As I am one with our tribe, so too is my Mate. His body may be human, but his spirit is now Myotan.”
“It is true,” Lerner said. “I love Gossamyr, would
do anything for her. I now willingly give up any ties I may have to my fellow humans and their governments and agencies. My home is here now.”
“Lies!” Cloud yelled. “Trickery!” He snatched a gun away from one of his fellow hunters and leveled it at the human. “Before I was just trying to scare you, human. But for this, your life ends!” His finger tensed on the trigger, and I knew my new Mate was only seconds away from death. I tried to move, only to be betrayed by my wounded ankle.
Brightwind stepped in front of the weapon, wings spread wide. “Cloud, no!”
“Step aside, little brother,” Cloud snarled.
“I will not!” the nine-year-old said. “This will be murder. It is not right!”
“Step aside!” Cloud yelled, swiveling the rifle barrel up to clear Brightwind.
The youngster moved forward to intercept, tears brimming his broad eyes. “Cloud, please. Gossamyr and Lerner are my friends. They saved my life. How could they be evil and do that? I know you hurt because of what you feel for Gossamyr. But this is not you. Please. You have always told me that hunters kill only because they have to. That they must never be cruel. But look at what you have done. Wounded Lerner just to frighten him. You would not do that to an animal, but now you would do that to my friend and Gossamyr’s Mate. Is that how a Chief Hunter acts? How a Myotan acts, hurting anyone who does not agree with him?”
Cloud’s hands trembled. He looked at his brother, then long and hard at Lerner and myself. Finally he tore his eyes away, lowering the gun. “No,” he said very quietly. “No, it is not the way a Myotan acts. Forgive me, little brother.”
“Pfah!” Azure yelled, swinging his own gun up to aim at Lerner's head. “If you cannot do what is needed, then I will!”
Suddenly all his fur stood on end as every muscle in his body locked up. His teeth ground together so hard we heard enamel cracking. He spasmed for a dozen heartbeats before he slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Everyone looked at Windrider, who still had her hands in the position needed to summon a lightning-spirit. She grinned, very pleased with herself. “About time someone did that,” she said. A withering glare from her and all of Cloud and Azure's followers lowered their weapons, lost without the backbones of their leaders. Under Flier's order the other hunters took their weapons from unresisting hands.
Our Chieftain approached Lerner. “Is it really true that you have taken Gossamyr as your Mate?”
The human nodded, and clumsily pulled me closer by one arm. My wings wrapped around his waist as much as for emphasis as to hold myself up.
Flier grinned. “Then welcome, truly, to our people. We will listen to what you have to say.” He turned sternly toward Cloud and his followers. “And afterward we will determine a punishment for what all of you have done. I will convene the other elders, but unless they can convince me otherwise you and your families will not share in the communal food, or in our orchards, or be able to trade with any outside group for the next half-year; you will only be able to eat what you yourselves gather from the Wilds.” Many of them paled at his words. Such a punishment meant many exhausting days hunting or gathering far from the Tower just to subsist. “And, you, Cloud. You and Azure will be exiled.”
“No,” Lerner said. “Please, Flier. They were only doing what they thought they had to. Perhaps if the situation was reversed I would have done the same thing.”
Our Chieftain gave the human a stern glance. “You were the one who was attacked and threatened, Lerner. Do not let them or their guns frighten you into leniency. If we let this kind of transgression go unanswered, they or someone else may think they can get away with it again.”
“Please,” Lerner said. “Gossamyr and I don’t want to begin our new life together by seeing anyone suffer. I will heal, and in the end there will be no real harm done. And if they are true Myotans, as I’ve come to understand what that means, then they already have begun to really regret what they have done.” He glanced meaningfully at Cloud. Their eyes met, briefly, and to my surprise it was Cloud who looked away first, nodding shallowly.
“Very well,” Flier said. He turned to our assembled people. “As a testament to Lerner’s generous spirit, no punishment shall be handed out for what transpired today. But I warn each and every one of you that such sins will not be tolerated again. Lerner is one of us, as surely as if he had been born into our clan. You will treat him accordingly, and the next time anything like this happens his mercy will not be enough to stay my judgement.”
Many of Cloud’s followers let out gusty sighs of relief, glancing in gratitude at Lerner. Only Cloud refused to look up, but he nodded shallowly in response.
“Now, please,” I said. “Listen to Lerner. He does have something very important to tell us. It may be the most important thing we ever hear.”
They all looked at us expectantly. Lerner looked down at me, a bit apprehensively. I squeezed his hip in encouragement. I knew the next few minutes would not be easy for him, or for any of us.
Lerner turned to the assembled Myotans. “The truth is, my people--my old people, the Known Nations--have not been entirely honest with you. Please understand we did not do so out of malice or contempt. We only wished to spare you suffering and misunderstanding.
“This is especially true of a discovery we made thirty years ago. What we learned threw our entire civilization into a violent upheaval that took years to quell. There were many bloody riots, protests and even armed rebellions. Many killed themselves, and many more were driven to the brink of despair and madness. This is the reason we do not tell those we meet this secret, to spare them the chaos we had to endure from that knowledge.”
I could feel Lerner tense under my arms. “The Shards are dying," he said. "All of them. Even our own. The Great Cataclysm never truly ended. The End of the World is coming, and we do not know how to stop it.”
He paused, letting the words sink in.
“Thirty years ago,” he continued, “my people found their way into the Underworld beneath the habitable surface of the Shard, and into a spaceport that contained thirty-seven relic Builder spaceships. We learned eventually to fly these craft, and used them to explore nearby Shards. And that is when we began to learn of the horrific truth.
“I have told you how the Great Cataclysm that destroyed the Eden Sphere five thousand years ago, of the many billions--trillions--of lives that cost. But the disaster did not end there.
“Many habitats survived intact, but both the damage done by the Cataclysm and a lack of knowledgeable maintenance began exacting their toll. Vital support systems began failing without warning. Entire ecosystems collapsed. Sometimes the damage would not show up for decades or even centuries, and by then it was always too late. It was not the long-dead Shards that truly alarmed us, but the Shards that were in the process of dying. One Shard’s water-recycling system had failed, turning it into a vast, uninhabitable desert. Another was completely overrun by a Matrix Weird, where all the nanites fed voraciously on anything organic. Another’s gravity control system fluctuated wildly out of control, reducing its ecosystem--including what must have been millions of inhabitants, who must have died agonizingly--to gooey slush.
“There are about a thousand habitat Shards out there dying all around us right now, costing the lives of at least a billion sentient beings per day. A billion or more people dying per day. Horror we can't even begin to really imagine. We also estimate there are at least several thousand more habitats that are still healthy and life-supporting in the debris field from the Sphere, but sooner or later they will all suffer cascade failures and die.
“That’s when we realized that our Shard, the MegaShard, the largest surviving habitat, was not immune from these cascade failures. That it, too, will eventually succumb, and could be doing so right now. And everything we have ever known, our entire civilization, will die along with it. It could happen in a year, or in a century. Or in the next few heartbeats. And we would never know until it was too late. We are, everyone of
us, facing certain extinction. The end of us, of eerything and everyone we love. The end of every living thing.
“Many of you have asked why we humans of the Known Nations explore so fanatically. It’s because we have to. We’re searching for the knowledge we need to reverse the tide of decay and destruction among the Shards, knowledge we hope and pray has been left intact somewhere within the ruins of the Eden Sphere by the Builders. We’re the only civilization we know of doing this. And even after thirty years, we have explored only a very small fraction of our own Shard and the Shards beyond."
He paused, letting his words sink in.
"But..." I spoke into the silence, "but if the situation is so desperate, why does the Known Nations not just take what they need? Why be friendly to us at all?"
He looked down at me. "Are Myotans the only ones who can act Myotan-like? Can't humans have integrity and honor as well?"
"Of course. But is that truly the only reason?"
"No, I admit there's another, more important reason." He turned toward the rest of my assembled people. “Many of you were puzzled and looked suspiciously on the generosity human explorers have shown the Myotans. The helistats that visited always brought food and trade goods for you, and I had been ordered to teach you as much of our knowledge as you could absorb without harming yourselves. You wondered why I originally volunteered to stay with you, a people I had met only a week before and knew almost nothing about.
“It is because you can’t understand how important people like you are to us, to the Known Nations. My fellow explorers tell me how closely my progress with you is followed in the media back home, how many people enthusiastically read of you in magazine articles and books. You see, the vast majority of the peoples we meet are indifferent or unheeding or outrightly hostile to us. Even those races that are our technological peers or close to it--the Cephalopods, the Boiler Lords, the Darlani--could care less about our mission and are wrapped up in their own petty concerns. We’re completely, utterly alone in our impossible quest to save what remains of the Eden Sphere.