'You've memorised all the writing on the stone tablets, haven't you.'
'Not all. I know all the stories.'
'When you find the gold tablets, you can tell me the rest of the story.'
'I don't know when I will find them.'
'Just keep believing. I think you will.'
We're quiet for a while.
'Maybe you could teach me Fa-tzi-zhi sometime.'
'I can teach you -- and I take you to to Kalodzu-Famta.'
'Yes. We could live there -- the two of us.'
'Yes -- and ...'
She's looking sad again.
'Oh, I only wish...' She's quiet again.
Suddenly she gets up.
'I'd better go now.'
She's off.
the maiden departs, followed by her young brother
night falls, morning dawns
We're on our way to Tsaphar's house now for my lessons. Heptosh goes by the main road, not through the woods. It's farther this way, but I guess the flat road is easier than some of the rocks I have to climb over. I'm dressed in some clothes Heptosh gave me. I have to wear a cloth about my middle fastened at the waste, and then, what he calls a toga over my shoulders.
Anyway, here we are. Heptosh knocks at the door. Tsaphar answers.
She still doesn't look happy, but she's sort of glad to see me.
Their courtyard is full of big tubs of something. There's some sort of contraption with a fire burning under a pot, and pipes leading out of it to another pot. There's a pile of branches with black berries over in one corner. There's a big basket next to it with just the berries. It smells like the coourzt drink, but real strong.
They have a side room on the ground floor, the same as Heptosh's house. We go in.
This one isn't a kitchen. It has tables and lots of tablets, slates and some really thin stuff with writing on it. It's so thin you can roll it up like cloth. I've seen some of that at Heptosh's house. There's also a couple of computers.
Tsaphar's mother is there. She looks like a strong woman. If she's going to teach me, I'd better stay on her good side.
'Hello, Eetoo,' she says. 'I heard how you got rid of the beehive by our lake.'
She's being nice to me now. Teachers always are at first.
'Come and sit here near Tsaphar.'
I see a slate there, and some sort of contraption with wires stretched across it, and beads strung on them.
Heptosh goes home and I'm sitting in front of the bead thing. They call it an 'abacus'.
She writes the numbers across the top of the slate, and tells me to copy them. Each time I write a number, I have to slide one bead across the wire and count how many beads there are on that side.
Tsaphar is working quietly at something on a slate. Her mother has gone out somewhere.
I'm saying, '3' as I write it; I slide a bead, and say, '1 - 2 - 3'; write '4', say '4', slide another bead and say, '1 - 2 - 3 - 4', and so on.
Sometimes we take a break.
'Didn't you use numbers in Fa-tzi-zhi?' asks Tsaphar.
'Only up to three for most things,' I say. '"Three" also means "lots" in our language.'
'Wow! Don't you need to count higher sometimes?'
'Sometimes. Then, we say 'hands' and 'fingers', but not very often -- mostly when talking about cycles around the sun, or years. I'm two hands and three fingers in age. Next birthday, I'll be three hand less one finger.'
'How about for counting your sheep?'
'I can recognise each one, so I can always know when one is missing. We also have a word that means "two hands and two fingers" when we trade for things like bread and eggs.'
'Dozen?'
'I guess.'
We get back to work.
I've gone through the numbers a few times, so I'm about half way down the slate.
Shav comes in.
'Hello, Eetoo. You come for lessons, yes?'
'Yes.'
'Good! You come every day, yes?'
'I think so.'
'Good! Go to swim after work. Tsaphar come too, ah? -- er -- if Rav not here.'
'Where's Nakham?' I ask.
'-- er -- outside, maybe.'
'Maybe with your sheep,' says Tsaphar.
'He know I come here?'
'I don't think we told him,' says Tsaphar.
'It's okay, maybe,' I say. 'They know him now.'
'I think you teach Nakham to be shepherd!' says Shav.
'That's okay,' answers Tsaphar. 'We'll teach Eetoo to be coourzt seller!'
We're talking and laughing away. Suddenly Rav comes in with another boy.
Shav and Tsaphar suddenly go all quiet. Tsaphar goes back to her work, looking as though she's concentrating on something. Shav goes off to another part of the room. He talks to them in Akkadi.
Rav sees me. 'Hello Eetoo. This, my good friend, Tsim.'
Tsim looks at me and waves. Then he looks at Tsaphar. He starts to walk towards her.
She suddenly gets up and goes around the table the other way and walks towards the door.
Rav stands in her way. They start yelling at each other in Akkadi.
Their mother comes in. She gives Rav a look. He stands aside and lets Tsaphar pass. Tsaphar stomps out into the courtyard.
Rav and Tsim are quiet after that. Shav goes off somewhere.
Their mum comes over and looks at what I've done. She seems pleased, and tells me to finish the whole slate.
Everything's quiet. I finish. Tsaphar still hasn't come back. Rav and Tsim are still hanging about. Shav is outside working with the coourzt stuff.
Mrs. b'n Shammah says that's enough for the day. Shav is finished as well, but he's not talking a lot.
I'll just go home the back way.
I'm walking through the woods towards the pasture. There's one of my sheep!
What's it doing here? It looks lost.
I call it. It comes to me.
I'm leading it back to the grass area. There's another one!
We get to the grassy place. There's Nakham running about trying to chase the sheep back to the corral. He's got a few in, but the rest of them are still all over the place.
I call the sheep, and they start coming back.
'Ma?' I say to Nakham. I think that's the word for 'What?'
He starts talking away in Akkadi. He's crying. I think he must have tried to lead them to the water, or something, because he said, '(something-something) mayim'. That means 'water'.
We lead the ones there into the corral.
I tell him, 'Let's go,' and we go to look for the rest of them. I can say that much now.
We finally get them all back again, and he's okay again. He goes home.
9
Heptosh disembarked onto the open air landing pad and greeted the representatives who stood by to greet him. Among them was Amanhep, their president.
Grogopti was a natural planet lacking the subterranean infrastructure of the man-made ones, so the parts of the city that he could see from this vantage point, summed it all up. It consisted of white ornately carved stone buildings. The biggest one with the dome, not far from the space port, was the senatorial forum.
'Welcome to Memthos,' said Amanhep. That's what the residents had named their planet, but to the sector, it retained the ancient name of 'Grogopti'.
Heptosh made all the appropriate gestures and body language and accompanied them on the walk to the forum.
There was still time to kill, as some of the delegates hadn't arrived yet. Amanhep went to greet some of the other arrivals while one of the representatives took a seat with Heptosh in the inner circle of the great hall. He introduced himself as Sheknan from the planet Raksha.
'I'm sure you are aware of the situation on Imtep,' said Sheknan.
'I understand they've broken up into smaller states. There is still a state of war between some of them and the former planetary government. Those with an ethnic Nephteshi majority have appealed to the Federation of Indigenous Nephteshis of Noo
frish. Your federation has accepted them, thereby raising the issue to the sector level; thus, my involvement. Perhaps you can fill me in on the rest.'
'Indeed. How well do you know Lord Staktekus?'
'Only by name. He was the ruler of the planetary administration, was he not?'
'"Ruler" would be the correct word. A ruler in the traditional sense, autocratic, giving no leeway. The Nephteshi populations, knowing that there is a federation in which all Nephteshi populations are treated as equals, where each has a voice in common affairs, decided to be rid of the old fashion imperial ways of Lord Staktekus.'
'So, the federation, though Nephteshi in name, differs in nature from the interstellar empire of the same name,' observed Heptosh.
'We've modelled ourselves after the galactic sector councils.,' agreed Sheknan.
They were interrupted by the arrival of Amanhep, accompanied by some of the new arrivals.
'Mr. Heptosh, I'd like you to meet Thimtep and Nekhesh, both leaders of their break-away states on Imtep.'
Heptosh stood up and greeted them.
Thimtep said, 'I must apologise for our lateness. The facilities for our spacecraft is inadequate, being that the central space port for our planet has been rendered off limits to us.'
'Extremely uncalled for!' said Nekhesh. 'The tyrant, Staktekus still considers himself emperor of the planet. We had to take off from a muddy field!'
'It is, after all, sector protocol that the planetary space port be accessible to all populations of a planet,' said Amanhep. 'That's one of the issues we must address.'
The meeting convened and Heptosh listen to more of their grievances. He agreed to assist in setting up negotiations between some of the rebel leaders and Lord Staktekus. There was a meal afterwards, during which Heptosh engaged in personal chats with various of the delegates, including Amanhep.
He gained a far different impression of Amanhep here than he had from the brief encounters at meetings of the Department of Human Affairs.
'All I want is to see the Nephteshi populations on Imtep being given a chance,' Amanhep said in his ear as Heptosh took his leave. 'I hope you can help us in that.'
10
the pupil presses the stylus into the flat clay
forming wedge upon wedge, wedge next to wedge
wedges pointing up, wedges pointing down
yet others pointing every which way
forming obscure pictures representing words
and sounds for phonetic expressions
he makes a mistake, scrapes the clay flat
and begins again
They say that Akkadis on other planets use the new Nephteshi alphabet now, but the computers were originally made for the wedge-like pictographs, so the Akkadis on Tok still use it.
How long have I been coming here now? I've been doing it every days but market days, and on their once a week rest days. I can count; now she has me adding up whole lots of numbers, and subtracting. Then it's these Akkadi pictographs and phonetic sounds. That seems to help me with speaking it too, because I'm learning new words, and I'm more sure of the sounds.
Sometimes Tsaphar's up and sometimes she's down. She usually sits with me, and we talk, but today, she's quiet. I don't know what's making her moody.
I've finished again for the day. Shav had said he'd go swimming afterwards. I might join him.
I go out through the courtyard. Rav and Tsim are standing about.
Rav calls me over .
'You know Tsim,' he said. 'He engaged to Tsaphar's now. I make promise to him. Tsaphar belong to him, so you not talk to Tsaphar again.'
Tsim says, 'If she talks to you, you just keep quiet. I'm a good fighter. I can kill you with my fingers.' He snaps his fingers close to my face.
They turn and walk out of the courtyard. I watch them until they get to the road.
Tsaphar's going to marry him? Why didn't she tell me this was going on?
I'd better go home. I'll go the back way by the lake.
I'm not feeling good. I'm shaking!
He said he made a promise to Tsim. What about Tsaphar? What did she have to say about it?
In the Fa-tzi-zhi villages, the elders usually decide who marries who, but sometimes the kids have a say themselves. If the girl doesn't get to choose, then neither does the boy. If the boy or girl feel they can't live with the way their parents choose, they don't have to go through with it. They just try again.
Was this all Rav's and Tsim's idea? Tsaphar sure hasn't been happy. She calls both of them idiots!
I'm feeling really down now. I don't know why.
Someone's running behind me. It's Shav. He takes my arm.
'Come! We go swimming.'
I'll go with him.
We take off our clothes and jump in.
I haven't said anything. He notices.
'Tsim, he do big favour for Rav. Rav, he do favour back.'
'But, Tsaphar, she not want it.'
'I know.'
'You want it?'
'I don't know. I'm her twin. She not happy -- I not happy, but I cannot stand in way of Rav.'
'Your mother want it?'
'She say she not have to marry him.'
'Then why Rav say?'
'Rav eldest son. Our father, he die. Way of our fathers: if father die, oldest son can say.'
'But your mother --'
'If Tsaphar stay with Ima, no problem. If no, Tsim take her away, like that. Akkadi community not help, because it's way of our fathers.'
'What can she do? She have to stay with mother until she die?'
'Can you fight?'
'Huh?'
'Way of fathers -- if she not love Tsim, you can fight Tsim.'
'Tsim too big.'
'He good fighter too -- but -- I think Tsaphar love you.'
She loves me.
That's why all this is making me feel so down! I love her too!
I feel like I've lost something, but I only know now what it is I've lost.
11
Heptosh wasn't sure if Eetoo was ready for this, but he'd try anyway. After they had departed from the atmosphere of Tok, he sat him down at the controls and gave him basic instructions.
The first lessons in piloting a ship were always in linear propulsion. Logical relocation was an advanced skill. He'd need his maths for that. Whether Eetoo was up to the more basic skills of linear navigation was another question again.
His first try at driving a carrier had got him into the ditch. Here, at least, there were no ditches; nothing to make him panic.
Eetoo was probably doing okay for starters -- he eventually succeeded in orbiting the planet -- but his mind seemed to be somewhere else.
That would be all for now. Heptosh took over the controls and engaged the logical relocator to get them to the planet Imtep. He would officiate at the initial meeting between Amanhep and Lord Staktekus. He had been laying the groundwork for this on previous trips.
Imtep was a man-made planet, similar to Kalodzu-Famta. Eetoo should enjoy the familiarity of the landscape.
Heptosh located the ship within the solar system, and did observations to detect the position of the planets. He got a location on Imtep, and relocated once more to within the moon's orbit. Then he began to simulate linear movement until they touched the atmosphere. They orbited until they were over the central space port. Then, he switched to linear propulsion and began the descent, while signalling the port authority.
He received the all clear signal before he reached critical elevation, so he was free to continue descent.
* * *
Heptosh was neither surprised nor offended that Lord Staktekus and Amanhep weren't among the delegation of bureaucrats that waited to receive them. Neither would want to appear over-eager about the negotiations. In fact, he expected them to arrive fashionably late.
After he introduced Eetoo, one of the attendants offered to take the boy on a tour of the city while the negotiations were on. Heptosh thought that would be good for him. He
would see, first hand, what a well maintained planetary infrastructure looked like as opposed to the city-cum-cave they had explored in Kalodzu-land.
The space port was very much like the one they took off from in Kalodzu-Famta, though better equipped. The landscape outside was similar, except it was a bustling city on the ground surface, not a wasteland.
Eetoo and his escort went in one direction while Heptosh followed the retinue to a lift, which descended into the lower subterranean areas. On leaving the lift, they boarded a carrier, which sped them along a wide passage that seemed to serve as a commercial section, then into a dark tunnel.
Heptosh calculated about ten furlongs, then the carrier came out into an open, well lit area, circular, probably three furlongs in diameter, with a high ceiling. Around the perimeter were markets, open air offices and rest areas, lush with plants and shrubs. There were more passages leading off in other directions. The area beyond the markets was occupied by slow moving carriers and scooters, all going in the same direction around the circle. Some of the light shown through an intermittent ring of skylights forming a concentric circle within the wider area. From each skylight there flowed a broad stream of water which fell into a pool in a matching formation on the floor. Each pool was rimmed with vegetation. The pools and skylights formed a ring about a round multi story structure in the middle whose top was embedded in the ceiling, like a pillar. All of the carrier traffic moved in the same direction in a circle around the ring of pools.
Their carrier took a spiral course, moving gradually towards the central ring of pools, took a turn between two of them and then went straight to the centre structure. There, they alighted and went in.
A lift took them up several stories, where they entered a round room lit by local sunlight through a crystal domed ceiling. The walls came up to shoulder level, so Heptosh could see that around the dome, outside, was a giant circular arrangement of pools, islands and covered walkways. He could detect the skylights in areas where the water level came just up to their rims. A formation of fountains shot outward from near the crystal dome towards each pool containing a skylight, probably pumping the water from the pools he saw underground, thus keeping the upper pools at just the right level to maintain the waterfalls.
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