Chichester Greenway

by Alton Saunders

  Chapter 12:

  OUT INTO SPACE

  Akkri and Vonn spent a pleasant and deliberately normal week before ship launch. They continued to extend their knowledge of the origins of their City of Silver and Gold, working for several hours each day in their usual place in Library Four. Their nervous feelings about the expedition had gradually subsided. It was good to be doing ordinary things, consciously enjoying the everyday routines of Vikan life with the new perspective that their glimpse of that other world had given them. They knew that there were people there for whom life was hard, savage and dangerous, and they appreciated more fully than ever before the blessings life had bestowed on the people of Vika.

  Vonn, Karwi and Ferroll had done more work on their new composition and it was now complete. Vonn was pleased they had accomplished this before the start of the expedition. Her parents came to the girls’ house two days before ship launch to say goodbye to her. Akkri came too, and after dinner they sat in the garden with fireflies flickering around them, listening to the new piece of music and other pieces from the girls’ repertoire.

  And now launching day had come. Akkri’s parents had had breakfast with him on the balcony and waved a last goodbye. He was feeling nervous again. As the others arrived at the roof garden of Library Five he could see that they were nervous too. Vonn came over and gave his hand a little squeeze.

  A large saucer-shaped skimmer drifted in to rooftop level. They all stepped in and sat down. As it cleared the building, the under side became transparent like the top half and they could look down at the city. “There’s Library Four!” Vonn exclaimed.

  “And that’s the way to the beach,” said Akkri.

  As if in response to his wish, the skimmer headed for the coast, flying the full length of the beach just above the wave tops, before veering off towards the mountains. In a few minutes it settled in a grassy valley with grey granite walls. Quite a crowd had come to wave them off. Some of them they knew; others, from all parts of Vika, had been drawn by the historic significance of this first expedition to another world.

  For a while there was almost a party atmosphere, with people greeting friends or enjoying the pleasure of meeting someone new. Then, without any prompting, they gathered together at the foot of the cliffs to await the emergence of the ship.

  A hush fell on the crowd. The ship was beginning to appear. It was as if it was growing out of the earth, as first the towers and terraces, then the burnished golden sides and finally the curved silvery expanse of the under side took shape before their eyes. It rested on the grass, dazzling in the sunshine, its topmost structures reaching high above them.

  Toln stepped forward and faced the crowd. His hair looked ablaze with golden flames in the sunlight reflected from the side of the ship. “We had not expected a send-off,” he said in his high young voice. “We will remember this moment as we journey on our way, and I know that you will be remembering us, too. Thank you.” And he turned and walked through the silver hull into the ship. The other members of the expedition followed. Ky came last, turning to smile at the crowd. He had a lovely peaceful feeling inside him, a sort of awareness that they were doing something right and good, though they did not yet know why, or what it entailed.

  A few minutes later they reappeared, waving down to the crowd below from the balustrade of a long balcony. The crowd gave cheer after cheer, which gradually died away to nothing as the ship lifted up into the sky. Soon they were among fleecy wisps of vapour. The crowd was just a speck below them and the mountains were like tiny hills. The air was becoming cold. Vonn gave a shiver. “Let’s go in,” she said.

  Akkri followed her into one of the comfortable lounges. “We’ll be having a meal soon, I expect,” he said.

  Vonn smiled. She knew how much Akkri enjoyed his food. Yask and Sumar came in from the other end of the room and soon everyone had gathered there. Vonn had noticed how the actions and decisions of the various members of the group were becoming more and more in harmony, all co-operating with one another, just as she and Akkri co-operated in their work together. No one had called a meeting, yet here they all were with a mutual purpose that their meeting together would itself make clear.

  “Look! We’re going through the layers of ice crystals!” Eedo exclaimed. They all turned towards the long window. One, two, three brief moments when the view turned to a grey indistinctness and then they were outside the atmosphere. Vika was a huge, gleaming white globe, so huge they could only see a part of it, and so bright they could hardly look at it. The two moons, which slowly rotated around one another as they orbited the planet, looked close enough to reach out and touch, their crater-pocked surfaces etched in exquisite detail.

  And then their craft swung round in a great arc and headed away from the sun into the depths of space. With a billion stars in view, the window had become a cascade of diamonds on black velvet. They sat and gazed at the sight in awed silence.

  After several minutes they turned back from the window. Cosy lighting had come on round the walls, and with the blackness outside it felt like night-time although back on Vika it would still be early afternoon.

  “I think we should make this a fairly short day,” said Tamor. “Let’s just chat for a while and then have something to eat. And I daresay after that we may well feel ready for bed. A great deal has happened today already, and then tomorrow we can really get down to work.”

  “How long is our journey going to take?” Bavilan asked.

  “I think we’ll find that it takes as long as we need for preparing ourselves,” said Annilex.

  “You remember that city with the river running through it?” said Korriott. “I believe that is to be our destination. Let’s see what we can find out now, as a start to our preparations.”

  They relaxed in their chairs. There again was the river, now shining silver in morning sunshine. “What’s the city called?” Vill asked.

  As if in answer to her question a building came into view. Like the building with the dome it was unlike anything they had ever seen on Vika. One end of it was completely without a wall, a high wide arch on grey stone pillars. Many strange parallel lines covered the area in front of the building. They led off in various directions, between other buildings, some large, some small, as far as the eye could see. Near the arched building they merged and joined, finally becoming fifteen sets of the parallel lines. They seemed to go right into the building itself.

  Suddenly a long narrow vehicle in many sections emerged from the building and headed off along one of the sets of parallel lines. “It’s like a long skimmer on wheels!” Toln exclaimed. Wheels were little used on Vika, save for carts in the country districts and toys for children.

  And now they were seeing the arch as if from close by. A wide banner was stretched across it. Akkri felt a thrill of excitement as they looked at alien script for the very first time. As they took in the strangeness of the giant lettering they also understood its meaning: ‘Welcome to London,’ it said.

  “Lonn Donn,” said Sumar.

  “No, listen to the words!” said Yask.

  “Oh, yes … London,” said Sumar.

  “So the city is London,” said Viney, “but what do they call the planet itself?”

  The vision faded and they were once again aware of the room and the lights and the others around them. “That’s a pity!” said Yask.

  “It would have happened anyway,” said Viney. “It takes energy just like any human activity, but have you noticed that we seem to be finding what we need more easily? It’s as if we are learning to tune in to that world more efficiently.”

  “How do we see it, though?” Akkri asked. “Korriott told Vonn and me that the new things we see in our minds are based on experience that is already there in our lives.”

  “That is true,” said Korriott, “but the people there are also a part of the total pattern of life. I think we are seeing their world through their stored
memories and experiences. That is how we can understand their speech and their writing. And by the way, have you noticed anything about the colours in the various scenes we have witnessed?” She paused.

  There was a brief silence, then: “Yes, of course!” Vonn exclaimed. “The colours of the seas and mountains and forests, and the colours of the robes of those starving people in the desert – there’s no ultra or infra!”

  “And yet there is ultra and infra in their world, but their eyes cannot see those colours, so when we see a vision based on their experience we also see no ultra or infra. It will be different when we are there ourselves.”

  “That’s good,” said Ky. “It must be strange not to see the full range of colours.”

  “Now what about finding the name of their world?” Viney reminded them. They closed their eyes and waited to see if an answer would be forthcoming.

  “Earth!” said Annilex. “That’s a funny little word for that beautiful world! Well, we won’t need to call it ‘our planet’ any longer!”

  “Earth!” said Akkri. “We’re on our way to Earth! And how about having something to eat now we’ve sorted that out?”

  There was a general chuckle, but agreement, too. Although none of them had even begun to explore their craft they got up and walked confidently through the transparent double doors of the lounge. The doors had a pattern of seahorses and fronds of seaweed etched on them, Akkri noticed.

  In front of them was a wide corridor with a window the full length of one side which looked out onto the vastnesses of space. The walls and ceiling of the corridor were rosy pink and the carpet rich infra. Various doors led off from the corridor and at the far end was another set of double doors. They went through into a dining room that was far grander than any of them had in their own houses, the whole ceiling covered in a continuous expanse of chandeliers, all reflected again and again in mirrored walls. A long table was laden with a plentiful buffet and to one side stood a circular table set with thirteen places for the thirteen members of the expedition.

  “This looks all right!” said Akkri.

  As they made their selection from the table, each of them found some of their own favourite food and drink, but there were other things, too, fruit and vegetables they had never seen before.

  “Just look at those!” said Yask, pointing to a bowl of large red berries.

  “They smell delicious!” said Vill.

  “And look at this!” said Eedo, as she picked up a curved yellow fruit with a shiny skin.

  “These must be Earth fruit!” Tamor exclaimed. “I think we are being shown that there are plenty of good things to look forward to when we get there. It won’t all be dreadful!”

  Vonn felt herself relax as she listened to Tamor’s cheerful voice. She realised she had been steeling herself for what they might experience when they arrived. Her worst fear was that they might have to visit that field of mud and slaughter. Perhaps life did not require them to face anything that bad.

  As they went out after the meal, Vonn glanced back into the room. As she had expected, every sign of the banquet had already disappeared.

  To the right of the double doors a wide staircase led down to a lower level of the ship. On the wall above it was a painting of a flower-filled meadow, typical of Vika’s Northern Spring Zone. At the foot of the stairs they found another corridor, with doors on either side with name plates on them.

  “Here’s my room!” said Bavilan, and disappeared inside to have a look at it.

  “And here’s mine!” said Akkri.

  “Can I have a look?” said Vonn.

  “Yes, of course, come on in!”

  It was not just a room, but a suite of rooms. They had come into a sitting room with shiny blue metal fittings. There was a metal shelf with a row of books. Akkri noticed his much-loved volume of Vikan fossils and several other old favourites, too. There was a sofa with green and blue cushions and two matching armchairs.

  “Not quite my style,” said Vonn, sitting down in one of them. “Comfortable, though.”

  “No, not your style, my style,” said Akkri with a grin.

  A big window looked out onto the endless miles of space. It was partially clouded to cut down the glare from a nearby sun. They stood together by the window and looked at it. It did not appear to have any attendant planets.

  “Look at those swirls on the surface!” said Vonn. “They must be thousands of miles across!” She suddenly felt how alone they all were, with home many millions of miles behind them. “Let’s see the other rooms,” she said.

  A door led through into the bedroom. Akkri’s bed was very much like his bed back at home, with a blue cover and pillows. Blue and green curtains seemed to be covering another window. He pulled them back. “Are we back home again?” he gasped.

  Vonn stepped over to join him. In front of them was a wooded landscape which fell away from the window to a river in the valley below. The sunlight seemed to be coming from somewhere behind them, and the sky was the orange tone of an early evening on Vika. “But…” said Akkri, and darted back into the sitting room. There was the window with its view of the stars and the solitary sun, though the sun had diminished in size as they journeyed deeper into space. Soon it would be just a point of light like all the other stars.

  Vonn had now joined him. “I think that valley is inside our ship,” she said, “but I don’t see how it’s possible.”

  “We don’t know how the ship itself is possible, for that matter,” said Akkri, “or Library Four or our own homes or anything else. They’re there because we need them, that’s all. Let’s see if we can go down into the valley. I wonder if you can swim in the river?” He led the way back into the bedroom. One door went through into a brightly-lit bathroom. To the right of the window was another door. He opened it and they walked out onto a terrace with wooden steps leading down onto a grassy, rock-strewn slope. A cool breeze ruffled their hair and rustled the leaves of a little silver birch tree near the foot of the steps. “Come on!” said Akkri.

  It was wonderful to be out in the open air, something they had never imagined when they had taken part in the planning of the ship. It was just what they needed, though, and life had provided it for them.

  It was further to the river than they had realised and after a while they decided to turn back. “I haven’t seen my rooms yet,” said Vonn. “I wonder if they look out onto the valley, too?”

  The door to Vonn’s rooms was just down the corridor from Akkri’s. The layout was similar, but the sitting room had wall hangings in mauve and lavender tones, and colourful paper lanterns hung from the ceiling. “Not quite my style!” said Akkri with a grin.

  There was a window in the bedroom with the lilac curtains pulled back. The view was not the repeat of Akkri’s view that they had expected. The window looked out onto a tree-lined beach, a tranquil sea reflecting the red evening sky.

  “Shall we?” said Akkri.

  The bedroom door led out onto a paved patio with stone steps down onto the soft white sand. Together they raced to the sea and plunged into the warm water. “This is wonderful!” Vonn exclaimed. “I was feeling sorry we wouldn’t be able to swim while we were travelling to Earth. This is as good as our beach back home.”

  “We’re certainly being looked after,” Akkri replied. “But where has the valley gone? Your bedroom is only a few steps from mine. I don’t understand it at all.”

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