The Moons of Barsk

by Lawrence M. Schoen

  “I don’t understand. You’re saying you’re building other cities inside other dead worlds?”

  “No, Jorl, I’m saying we’ve long since done so. And that’s why we cannot permit your Procy’s proposal to go any further. The fate of a single, small city existing in Ulmazh is not what hangs in the balance. We’ve been at this for centuries. You think the sum total of our people are the five and a half million Fant you saved seven years ago. But the Caudex has spread nearly that same number across six other spheres.”

  “Six?”

  “For now. More in time. They are our Hidden Worlds, the legacy of the Caudex. They are the posterity of the Fant. Everything we do, the reason this council exists, is to protect them.”

  PART 3

  REDEFINING HOME

  TWENTY-FIVE

  PERSEVERATION

  RYNE hadn’t seen much of Bernath since arriving on the nameless island. He heard from her several times each tenday, but always in the form of notes or messages conveyed by one of his assistants. Meanwhile, Lolte continued dropping by to monitor his ongoing rejuvenation. Apparently the reversal of the aging process happened differentially. His body built more muscle mass. He’d needed a tad more sleep. And thus far he’d successfully channeled a renewing libido into his work. Unlike in his old life, he no longer had office hours or classroom requirements, so when he wasn’t asleep or taking a meal he lost himself in the math. Krokel and Gari each kept to more traditional patterns and had worked out an arrangement among themselves so one of them was potentially available to him—or more likely available to try to follow along with the products of his work—at any time, day or night.

  Yesterday he’d arisen before first light, and gone immediately to work. He ate breakfast while writing at one of the slate walls, now and then forgetting whether he’d been writing with a hand or his trunk and ending up with a taste of chalk along with the leaves that went into his mouth. Gari had been shadowing him at the start and passed responsibility over to Krokel at around noon. Ryne had finally called it a day in late afternoon and tumbled onto his cot, pleased with the latest revelations of the math.

  He’d awakened at dawn—much later than he’d intended—in a state of arousal, fresh from an erotic dream involving Lolte, the luxurious bed he’d been given when he first arrived, and a playful assortment of edible pigments. Donning a loose robe, he sought out the emergency shower in his lab and thought of math while the water reduced any obvious signs of his hormone-addled body. He was toweling off when the object of his nocturnal fantasies stepped into the room accompanied by Bernath. Both had the good grace to turn their backs as he completed drying himself and pulled his robe back on.

  “I’m sorry, did I know you were coming today? I overslept again.”

  Bernath looked confused at that remark but Lolte spoke before her companion could express why.

  “Not to worry,” said Lolte. “That’s a common side effect, and it’s correlated with the slight increase in body temperature and the more pronounced increase in your appetite. Your body is repairing itself, restoring to greater efficiency systems that had succumbed to the effects of old age.”

  Ryne said nothing to that. While the doctor might welcome news of this latest symptom, talking about it to her would invariably lead to reviewing the graphic images he’d dreamed, and all too quickly he’d move from the abstract and scientific to the embarrassingly physical. She was barely half his age, he had no business having such thoughts, even if his body had a compelling argument that it—or at least portions of it—had been restored to that age.

  “No appointment,” said Bernath, providing a welcome change of subject. “But I think you’ll make time in your schedule. There’s been a change of plans and I’m here to invite you to a demonstration of the first application of your theories.”

  “Really? Now?”

  “Well,” said Bernath, “I think we can allow you time to dress in something a bit less informal.” Her laugh sang out and Ryne smiled as he had that first day he’d heard it on the beach. Bernath was much closer to his age, and as if in response to that direction of thought he stirred beneath his robe. He turned away, aiming himself out of the lab and back to the corner of the next room over where he kept his simple pallet and a dresser of clothing.

  “I’ll just be a moment then,” he said, turning his mind to thoughts of math once more.

  “While you’re at it, pack a small bag. Enough for a handful of days. This demonstration requires a bit of travel.”

  “Days?” he called over his shoulder. “Where are we going?”

  “You won’t believe me until you see it for yourself,” said Bernath. “But your physician here assures me you’re up for it.”

  * * *

  THE trio walked down several boardways and passed an assortment of other residents all going about their own business.

  “What exactly am I going to see?”

  “The tests on the prototype have all gone well. Oh, there were some minor glitches at the outset, but those were all engineering problems and nothing to do with your theories. The team quickly resolved them. This will be the first full field test of the design and the councilor who’s backing your research wants you on-site for it.”

  They walked past the spot where the council met and entered another building a bit further down and on the other side of the boardway. Bernath nodded to a man sitting behind a desk and he waved them on through to a door on the wall past him. They entered a short corridor that ended in another door.

  “You still haven’t said where that is. If not here, what island would be better suited? And why would you need Lolte to sign off on my travel? I’m in better health than when I sailed here, surely. So, why would there be a question of travel?”

  Lolte smiled. “It’s not about putting you on a boat, especially not as a passenger. And no, there’s been no discussion of running tests of your work on other islands.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Bernath opened the door. Instead of another hallway or a room, it opened onto an elevator car. She waited until they were all inside and she’d accessed the control panel before she spoke. They began to descend.

  “Congratulations, Ryne. You’ve just had your security clearance increased.”

  “I have a security clearance?”

  “To be sure. The Caudex does many things, and knowledge of the different levels is only doled out to those who need to know them.”

  “What do I need to know today that I didn’t yesterday? I’m doing the same work as I have since I arrived.”

  “What’s different is that today you’ll be doing it somewhere else. Up to this point, you’ve known only that the Caudex is here on this island.”

  Ryne interrupted. “That’s not quite true. You’d mentioned being present at one or more of my past lectures. I’ve inferred that some of the time you have people visiting other islands.”

  She laughed—ah, that laugh. “Fair enough. Today you learn that the Caudex has gone far beyond that. Beyond Barsk.”

  “Yes, yes, you have spacecraft and portals. I know that.”

  “True, but I’m not talking about a small crew of ethernauts, but rather thousands upon thousands of Fant who live and work in a city on Ulmazh.”

  “That’s where we’re going? To the moon?”

  “That’s where we’re going,” said Lolte. The elevator stopped and Bernath again accessed the panel.

  “But, how are we getting there?” asked Ryne.

  The door whooshed open onto an underground hanger. The wall opposite them appeared to be two halves of an enormous gate. Occupying the entirety of the space between them was a small spacecraft.

  “On that,” said Bernath. “Come along. We’re not the last to arrive, but the others are more experienced. We need to brief you on procedures, for your safety and ours.”

  * * *

  THE actual flight was anti-climatic. Bernath and Lolte had led him to a small passenger compartment where three you
ng and visibly excited Fant were already strapped in to flight couches. They quickly unfastened themselves and began fussing with him and his companions. One by one they were escorted to a closet-sized booth and assisted in stripping down and redressing in simple flight suits—an unlikely precaution, he was assured, but better safe than sorry, or some such. When it became clear that both of the women had traveled on such shuttles before—which was a bit of a wonder to him, but not one which he had the luxury of time to ponder—the trio left the two women to their own plans and converged on him. In the course of explaining the need for him to be properly strapped down, the discomforts he would feel during initial acceleration, the need to report immediately if he experienced any abnormal changes in heart rate or respiration, he learned they’d been training for careers as ethernauts for years and were as passionate to work in space as he was for math. It had been so long since Fant had been allowed in space that the possibility—much like the science of observational astronomy—had been beaten out of physics as he knew it. He marveled at the ideas it opened up for him, and at his own urging two of the young folk agreed to share his flight couch so he could continue to question them.

  Somewhere in the course of conversation the shuttle lifted without his notice. On the couch behind him, he heard Bernath laugh at one point, and Lolte had unstrapped to come over and check on him, giving him a beverage of some sort. Overall though, much like when he lost himself to the math, the time passed without awareness and he only knew the trip had ended because his young companions gathered around him. They expressed profuse appreciation for his time and wished him well. Then the three of them rushed out of the compartment. Ryne sat there, breathless and blinking, a smile plastered to his face. He looked up and found Lolte and Bernath staring down at him.

  “Everything all right, Ryne? You look a bit overwhelmed.”

  He considered this. Sorted it and his smile expanded. “I’ve spent the last many years thinking about particles too small to see. Maybe it’s time I begin pondering something bigger, like stars.”

  “Perhaps,” said Bernath. “But not just yet. Come on, we’ll take you to the lab we’ve set up for you.”

  * * *

  IN many ways it was like being in any other Civilized Wood of any island of Barsk. But also not. Just like the city he’d found on the unnamed island was and wasn’t like other cities, he found himself in a place that was also different, but in new ways. Up and down felt funny. His weight was … off. The air tasted odd. But the boardways were much the same as other boardways, the meta-trees that provided the walls and floors and ceilings all around him were the same. And people, well, they were still people, but somehow more focused and optimistic. There was an excitement in the air and he breathed it in and felt it flow through him.

  “But what am I going to see?” he’d said as they led him from the shuttle and through the Civilized Wood.

  “Well, that’s problematic,” said Bernath. “About all you’ll see—you and Lolte here—will be a team of young Speakers who’ve been assigned to the project. That, and some display boards that will show you the power distribution as the experiment’s containment fields take form. But to those Speakers and myself, the room should grow ever more crowded.”

  Lolte chimed in. “I’m coming along to monitor the vitals of the other two Speakers. So, don’t feel bad, I won’t see anything either.”

  They’d arrived before he could reply and he was ushered into a building, down a hallway, and at last through yet another door to their intended destination.

  Inside Ryne found a large lab with a pair of young Eleph seated at either end of a table in comfortable hammock chairs and a complex-looking device about the size of his head situated between them. Lolte stepped past him and approached first one, then the other, withdrawing diagnostic equipment from a bag worn on her hip. Ryne looked from the pair to Bernath for confirmation.

  She nodded. “Yes, those are the Speakers. Have a seat. Now that we’re here, they’ll be starting as soon as Lolte finishes recording their baseline readings.”

  He stepped into the room and noticed eight coppery discs on the floor between each of the Speakers and the machine, sixteen in total. Ryne recognized them from the notes Gari and Krokel had made as he explained a particular bit of the math to them days and days past, the fruit of his work given shape. Docking rings. If his theories held true, each ring could be used to generate and maintain a nefshon containment space. Random nefshons would pass through, but concentrations of organized particles—as might be expected following a summoning—would be unable to leave the field once being lured into it. Though of course, if the organization of nefshons was a conversant, it wouldn’t so much be lured as enter the field at the call of a Speaker.

  Lolte concluded her assessments and joined him as he settled onto a couch against one wall. Bernath had basically swapped places with her and was now talking to each of the young Speakers in turn.

  “Can you explain this to me,” Lolte asked as she sat next to him. “I know that Bernath will be able to see the conversants these Speakers summon, but how will you know if your invention works?”

  Ryne pointed at the display monitors that sat upon a table closer to the door. A pitcher of iced tea and a tray of glasses lay to one side of them. “We still don’t know how to build a device that can actually detect nefshons or measure their concentration. But we can infer their presence by their influence on the field’s resonance pattern, which we have full access to. Like seeing the presence of the wind by the leaves it’s blowing.”

  Bernath finished her instructions and crossed to the table, passed the monitors and poured two cups of tea that she then gave to the Speakers before returning and helping herself to a cup. She nodded. “That’s how you’ll see it.” She took a long drink, smacking her lips and exhaling a burst of spiralmint. “I hope to see what our Speakers here see.”

  “Which is what,” asked Lolte.

  “A room full of conversants. One per disc.”

  “There’s koph in that tea?” asked Ryne.

  “There is. Which is why I didn’t offer you any.”

  “Oh.”

  One of the Speakers called to them. “We’re ready to begin when you like.”

  “No better time than the present to reveal the future,” said Bernath.

  Lolte snorted. “Even if we can’t see it being revealed.”

  “I told you. I’ll see it. Begin!”

  From Ryne’s point of view, the beginning involved the pair of Speakers lowering chins to chests and closing their eyes, presumably as they shifted their attention to whatever illusion of place they were using to summon their respective conversants.

  “Are they just re-creating this room? That would eliminate a potential source of systematic variance. Who provided the specifics of this design? I should have been consulted.”

  Bernath patted his hand. “Relax, Ryne. Yes, the nefshon space they’re using is a replica of the same physical space. I promise you the methodology being followed is solid. I produced the design and it was vetted by a board containing the island’s best scientific minds, including an old instructor of yours. So be at ease.”

  “Old instructor?”

  “Jordover ben Ohn. He said he remembered you from an early design class. Apparently you made quite an impression.”

  Ryne sputtered. “That was seventy some years ago. He couldn’t possibly still be alive!”

  “Well, as to possibility, I’d have to defer to our systems biologist, but no, you’re right. He sailed away about fifty years ago.”

  “Then how … you summoned him?”

  “We have. He’s too valuable a resource, and he’s been happy to make himself useful. Now hush, the first conversants of each Speaker are taking form. Ahh, that’s it then. Very good.”

  “What?” Lolte peered pointlessly at first one Speaker and then another.

  Two of the monitors on the table beeped. Ryne regarded the displays. “Two of the discs are showing a sp
ike in power utilization. They’re operating at nominal levels, which suggests that a concentration of organized nefshons has moved within each and been captured.”

  “Captured?” said Lolte as she rose from the couch and stepped toward the nearer Speaker, medical instruments at the ready.

  Ryne shrugged. “Captured. Contained. If my theory is right and the discs crafted to my specifications, the only way they’ll be able to disperse is to shut down power to the disc or disrupt its battery.”

  Bernath swayed in place, eyes closed. “What I see are a pair of middle-aged Lox, man and woman. They popped into existence and their respective Speakers bade them to cross the floor and stand over the nearest disc. Time for phase two.”

  “Which is?”

  Without a word, the pair of Speakers both opened their eyes and rose from their hammocks. They circled the discs on the floor widdershins and a moment later settled into the other’s hammock and closed their eyes again.

  “Not so much as a waver in the displays,” said Ryne.

  “Good. And the two conversants are still in place, even though the Speakers are gone, as is the mindspace of this room. They were maintaining it, not me.”

  “Do you see the discs still?”

  “No, Ryne. They were also just a part of the illusion to mark where the real discs were. All I see now are a pair of Lox hovering in emptiness. No, wait, the room just came back. The Speakers have re-established it.”

  Ryne looked at the next monitor, peering expectantly.

  “Though anyone who is sensitive to koph can witness the manipulation of nefshons, Speakers can only manage one other person’s particles at a time. If you want to summon more than one decedent, you need a separate Speaker for each. Until today. Each of these Speakers has just conjured up another person. Another male Lox and a female Eleph. They’re obligingly moving to stand above the next set of discs and—”