The Moons of Barsk
Page 37
Druz (Brady female)—personal assistant and majordomo to Jorl.
Fisco (Lox female)—deceased Speaker of great renown. Once a resident of Belp.
Frilbo (Lox genderless)—imaginary and magical friend Jorl had as a child.
Full Council—made up of eight members, four of whom are living (Klarce, Melko, Sind, and Kissel) and four deceased members who are summoned (Genz, Nirl, Marsh, and Soosh). The living members are also known as the Quick Council, and are responsible for day-to-day governance.
Gari (Lox female)—young graduate student, assigned as an assistant to Ryne on the nameless island.
Genz (Lox male)—deceased member of the Caudex Full Council and its seniormost member.
Jorl ben Tral (Lox male)—historian and member of the Alliance senate, Margda’s chosen and the fifty-seventh Aleph, mentor to Pizlo, husband to Dabni, father to Rina.
Hearne (Lox male)—food vendor with a shop on the main dock on Keslo.
Kentl (Eleph female)—Jorl’s landlady.
Kissel (Eleph male)—member of the Caudex Quick Council as well as a surgeon.
Klarce (Eleph female)—member of the Caudex Quick Council, Adolo’s lover.
Kokab (Lox-shaped male)—Rina’s rag doll.
Kolleen (Eleph female)—mother of Klarce.
Krokel (Eleph male)—middle-aged and part-time faculty on the nameless island; an assistant assigned to Ryne.
Layne (Eleph female)—mother of Bernath.
Lin (Ailuros female)—mentioned in passing, the child of Ciochon.
Lolte (Lox female)—physician and systems biologist on the nameless island.
Marsh (Eleph male)—famous and much-beloved politician in life, he is one of the deceased members of the Caudex Full Council.
Melko (Lox male)—member of the Caudex Quick Council.
Nestwhistle (Lox female)—code name of a Caudex ethernaut assigned to monitor the far side of the Alliance’s portal into Barsk space.
Nirl (Lox female)—youngest and most brilliant of the deceased members of the Caudex Full Council. Revealed to be a liar and academic thief after her death.
Phloda (Lox male)—the provost at the university on Zlorka and friend to Jorl.
Pizlo (Lox male)—son of Arlo and Tolta, the Abomination of Keslo, protégé of Jorl, student of the Archetype of Man, best friend to Rina. A precognitivist.
Regina (Lox female)—Klarce’s secondary assistant and Adolo’s second cousin.
Rina (Lox female)— daughter of Jorl and Dabni, Pizlo’s best friend.
Ryne (Eleph male)—physicist who sailed away from the island of Taylr only to arrive at the final island and discover things are not as he believed.
Santo (Procy female)—journalist and the mother of Abenaki.
Shelby (Eleph female)—Rina’s rhetoric teacher at the gymnasium.
Sind (Eleph male)—seniormost member of the Caudex Quick Council, mentor to Klarce.
Soosh (Lox female)—deceased member of the Caudex Full Council.
Su (Ailuros female)—mentioned in passing, the child of Ciochon.
Suliv (Lox male)—proprietor of a grocery and sundry shop in Keslo of the same name.
Temmel (Eleph male)—Klarce’s primary assistant.
Walto (Eleph male)—elderly field agent of the Caudex, assigned to the island of Keslo.
Welv (Cynomy male)—senior member of the Committee of Information.
APPENDIX TWO: PLACES
BARSK’S MOONS:
The planet has seven natural moons, as well as an artificial satellite in geosynchronous orbit above the island of Zlorka. At the time of this writing, the names of only five of the moons have been revealed to the reader.
Pemma—the second smallest of Barsk’s seven moons. It was the third one Pizlo saw, and the moon which (he claims) instructed him to stow away aboard a cargo pod and travel up to the orbiting space station.
Nita—larger than Ulmazh but smaller than Telko, this moon has a connotation of being lucky, though no one seems to recall why.
Telko—the largest of the moons. This was Pizlo’s fourth moon, seen from the viewport of the orbiting station.
Ulmazh—middle-sized of all seven moons, a crater in its northern hemisphere serves as the opening to a hollowed out area in which the Caudex has built a massive city.
Wella—the smallest of the moons, it has a more oblate shape, heavier in its bottom half than its top. For reasons that are unknown to this author, Wella is always referred to as having a masculine aspect.
ISLANDS OF BARSK’S WESTERN ARCHIPELAGO:
Emmt—a popular destination for young bachelors traveling from Keslo.
Fintz—a wide but thin island east and south of Gerd where Pizlo encounters an infant abomination.
Gerd—a smallish, nearly circular island that is considered the central island of the western archipelago. Fant often refer to other islands in the chain with respect to their position relative to Gerd.
Gumti—a kidney-shaped island in the southwestern half of the western archipelago and recently famous for being the home of the newest (fifty-eighth) person to bear the aleph.
Kelpry—an island south and west of Gerd in the western archipelago.
Keslo—an island located near the northeastern portion of the western archipelago. It is home to Jorl ben Tral.
Peckl—an eastern island of the western archipelago.
Phran—an island north of Gerd but still a good ways south and west of Keslo. On an eastern beach of this island, Pizlo saw his fifth moon.
Senjo—an island on the middle southeastern edge of the western archipelago.
Telba—an island to the north of Keslo. A Speaker there published a book of imramha after interviewing various adventurers. They are also renowned for their tea.
Zlorka—a part of the western archipelago, it is considered the most cosmopolitan of islands. Zlorka is the only land mass on the planet to touch the equator. It is home to the premiere university on Barsk, as well as the anchor point for the space elevator that transports goods to an automated station in orbit.
ISLANDS OF BARSK’S EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO:
Belp—home to Fisco, a renowned sixth-century Speaker.
Maxx—a medium-sized island, once home to the wood carver Rüsul.
Morab—a popular site for higher learning in the eastern archipelago; the closest rival of Zlorka in the west.
Myer—south of Relfa, this western island is a popular meeting point for scholarly conferences.
Relfa—the westernmost island of the eastern archipelago, it is a popular destination for groups of young men crossing over from the other island chain.
Taylr—second easternmost of the islands of the eastern archipelago.
Yargo—a tiny island in the southeastern section of the eastern archipelago, it is famous as the birthplace of Margda, the Matriarch of Barsk. Her childhood dwelling, once home to nearly a hundred children, mothers, aunts, and female cousins, is now a vast museum, complete with research library and gift shop. Tours are given twice daily.
WORLDS OF THE ALLIANCE:
Caluma—a mixed world and home to Abenaki, a Procyon.
Dawn—a major world of the Alliance; home of the senate.
Dorrance—colony world where former senator Bish has been exiled.
Dramblys—a mixed world, and past home to Fant.
Gripta—a mixed world, and past home to Fant.
Haven—a major world of the Alliance.
Kitsu—presumably a mixed world, though it has never been home to any significant population of Vulp.
Marbalarma—a mixed world, and past home to Fant.
Scrothe—a mixed world, and past home to Fant.
Sleipnir—a mixed world with almost no Marmo or Myrm.
Sworrub—a mixed world with a predominantly Marmo population.
APPENDIX THREE: THINGS
boardways—major walkways within any Civilized Wood, they are characterized by broad avenues paved with wooden boards formed fro
m the living wood of the meta-trees that define the city. While not formally zoned, they tend toward commercial structures with residential buildings clustering on smaller avenues that feed into the boardway itself.
Caudex—originally, a group of Speakers contemporary to Margda who broke from her seemingly arbitrary rules for Speaking. As they discovered powerful uses of nefshons they relocated to a singular island roughly midway between the planet’s two archipelagos and began shaping Barsk culture and society in ways they believed would keep the planet safe from the Alliance as they advanced programs that would set their people free
cribble—a non-citrus fruit that has a peelable rind like an orange.
dark—the second of Barsk’s five seasons, it follows mist and precedes storm. During dark, the cloud cover is at its thickest, some days blotting out any difference between day and night.
flim—a data storage medium that may take its name from either film (which it resembles) or flimsy (which aptly describes it).
flood—the fourth of Barsk’s five seasons. Rainfall is heavy but thunder and lightning are much less common.
handscreen—a small, tablet-like computer.
mindscape—(also “mindspace” and “mental space”) the illusion of place created by a Speaker during a summoning, often drawing most of the sensory details from the Speaker’s unconscious memory.
mist—the first season of the year and also the hottest.
nahlet—a type of nut.
plel—a twenty-third-century term for “apple” that completely replaced the traditional word when English was hardwired into Earth’s raised mammals.
sartha—a decorative plant native to Barsk, popular in gardens as each morning it releases a soothing, sleep-inducing fragrance.
spiralmint—a characteristic aroma of most formulations of koph.
storm—Barsk’s third season, it comes after dark and before flood. Rainfall greatly increases, as much as eight times the downpour of the previous season. Thunder is nearly continuous and lightning is everywhere.
tenday—a common way of grouping the passage of days.
tenyear—a common way of grouping the passage of years.
wind—Barsk’s fifth and final season. Cloud cover and rainfall are at their lightest, making this season the most popular time for travel between islands.
A NOTE ABOUT ELEPHANTS
One hundred years ago, our planet held millions of African elephants and some 100,000 Asian elephants. A century later, and those numbers have dwindled: 450,000 to 700,000 African elephants and somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000 Asian elephants in the wild. It’s not too late to turn this around. You can make a difference, through education and support of one or more of the many agencies throughout the world that are fighting for elephant conservation.
Closer to home, I recommend you check out The Elephant Sanctuary (https://www.elephants.com), the largest natural habit refuge in the U.S., which provides a safe haven, individualized care, and companionship for both African and Asian elephants that have been retired from public exhibition at zoos and circuses. Located on 2,700 acres in Hohenwald, Tennessee (some eighty-five miles southwest of Nashville), The Elephant Sanctuary also operates programs to educate the public on the needs of elephants in captivity as well as the crisis experienced by elephants in the wild. Please take the time to contact them today and make a difference in the lives of these magnificent beings before they only exist in fiction.
ALSO BY LAWRENCE M. SCHOEN
Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LAWRENCE M. SCHOEN holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics. He’s also one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Klingon language, and the publisher of a speculative fiction small press, Paper Golem. His novel Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard won the Cóyotl Award for Best Novel. Schoen has been a finalist for the john W. Campbell Award, the Hugo Award, and the Nebula Award. He lives near Philadephia.
Visit him online at www.lawrencemschoen.com, or sign up for email updates here.
Twitter: @Klingonguy
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Part 1: Understanding Home
One: Nothing But Lies
Two: One Face in a Thousand
Three: Dead Speakers
Four: Combatting Entropy
Five: Bedtime Stories
Six: Hidden in Plain Sight
Seven: Knowledge, Questions, and Choice
Eight: Genies and Bottles
Nine: Ripples
Part 2: Leaving Home
Ten: Agent in Place
Eleven: Discovery
Twelve: Imaginings
Thirteen: Inscribed in Pain
Fourteen: Consequential Traffic
Fifteen: Futility All Around
Sixteen: A Committee of One
Seventeen: Collecting the Dead
Eighteen: Moon Threads
Nineteen: A Child’s View of Space
Twenty: Life and Lies Beyond Death
Twenty-One: Revisionist History
Twenty-Two: Choices
Twenty-Three: Speaking Beyond Silence
Twenty-Four: Betrayal or Redemption
Part 3: Redefining Home
Twenty-Five: Perseveration
Twenty-Six: Set Free
Twenty-Seven: Stalemate
Twenty-Eight: Refusal
Twenty-Nine: Contrition and Resolution
Thirty: Cloudless
Thirty-One: Re-Education
Thirty-Two: A Genuine Echo
Thirty-Three: Healing Rina
Thirty-Four: Departures and Retreats
Thirty-Five: Threads of Personality
Appendix One: People
Appendix Two: Places
Appendix Three: Things
A Note about Elephants
Also by Lawrence M. Schoen
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE MOONS OF BARSK
Copyright © 2018 by Lawrence M. Schoen
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Victo Ngai
Cover design by Peter Lutjen
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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First Edition: August 2018
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