Chichester Greenway

by Alton Saunders

  Chapter 13:

  LAND OF THE WATERFALL

  Everyone had now discovered that they each had their own special world outside the back door of their room. There had been much excited coming and going. Vonn and Akkri had been invited into Tamor’s quarters to walk out onto a rocky plateau among snow-capped mountains bathed in late evening sunshine. Skiing and mountaineering were his favourite pastimes, he told them. A chilly wind was blowing off the snow slopes and they soon went back indoors, still very puzzled as to whether this out-of-doors was actually part of the indoors of their spacecraft. Vill called to them as they came out into the corridor and they just had time to catch a glimpse of tall trees and a wide, slow-moving river in the last fading daylight of her world.

  Night was falling on all the worlds, it seemed, and everyone was now more than ready to go to bed. “Perhaps we’ll be able to visit the other worlds tomorrow,” Akkri said, touching fingertips with Vill to say goodnight.

  Next morning, after breakfast, Vonn and Akkri came upon a wide spiral staircase that wound its way up one of the many turrets of their spacecraft. At the top there was a landing and a door that led through into a brightly-lit dome with windows all the way round and a circle of chairs facing inwards. They went over to one of the windows and found it looked out onto yet another world, just visible in the grey light of early dawn. There was a river close by that plunged into a waterfall in a flurry of white foam, and gentle grassland that seemed to stretch all the way to a distant range of mountains.

  “Another world,” said Vonn. “I just don’t understand it.”

  Nothing had been said about a meeting but now they both felt the familiar call. “It’s going to be in here,” said Vonn, and sure enough the door opened and Tamor, Yask and Viney came into the room, followed soon after by the others.

  “All here,” said Bavilan. It seemed he would be taking the meeting. Everyone went to look out of the windows before settling into their chairs.

  “I suppose we’re all wondering about that,” said Bavilan, gesturing towards the windows, “and all the other worlds that seem to be a part of our Golden Palace. Are they really there or are we just imagining it?”

  “No, not that,” said Sumar. “Annilex said yesterday that she thought our journey would take as long as we need for preparing ourselves. Perhaps these worlds that we seem to be bringing along with us are part of our preparation for what happens when we arrive on Earth.”

  “I think you’re right,” said Bavilan. “Let’s see if we can understand a bit more.”

  Nearly everyone closed their eyes. Akkri looked round the circle, noticing how well the chairs fitted their relaxed postures. He saw that Vill was also looking round the circle. Their eyes met and he grinned. Vill winked at him then closed her eyes and Akkri followed suit, relaxing into the feeling of shared purpose. Words and sentences seemed to be forming somewhere in the back of his mind. He gave an involuntary sigh. Yes, he was beginning to understand.

  As if a signal had been given – but no signal had been given – everyone opened their eyes again. Akkri found that Vill and Eedo were both looking at him as if they were expecting him to speak. He felt a little embarrassed. He did not often take the lead in a discussion.

  “We don’t have any leaders, you know,” said Korriott. “Your contribution is just as valuable as anyone else’s.”

  Akkri knew she was right. He smiled at her. “Thank you.” He paused for a moment, then went on. “All right, here’s what I think. These worlds just outside our own back doors and this world we can see from the windows here – and perhaps there’ll be other worlds, too – they’re not just for entertainment. They’re like a message to us.” He paused again. He was not finding it easy to put it into words. “I think it’s showing us that life can give us far more than we can possibly imagine. I don’t know why, but somehow I think it will be good for us to know that when we are meeting the people of Earth.”

  There was a quietness in the room. Light was beginning to fill the sky of the world outside. With one accord they went to the windows and stood in a line, looking out towards the waterfall. They could now see that in the far distance there appeared to be a city at the foot of the mountains, but it was too far off for them to make out any details.

  It was as if they were waiting for something. For a timeless moment there was that shared sensation, followed by a feeling of disappointment – whatever it would have been, it was not going to happen.

  Akkri had felt a sort of buzzing inside his brain as if it was struggling to do something but could not quite manage it. He felt he had failed somehow and had missed some wonderful opportunity and he knew the others were feeling the same. One by one they went back to their seats.

  Vonn felt exhausted, with a sad, unsatisfied longing inside her. Eventually Toln broke the silence: “If these worlds are like a message or a teaching to prepare us for when we reach Earth, what did that mean?”

  “Korriott,” said Akkri, “you told us that the new things we think of are based on previous experience, but I felt as though I was on the verge of seeing something entirely new, something no one had ever experienced before. I think we all felt that, didn’t we?”

  “It’s a puzzle, isn’t it?” said Korriott. “You know, all through our journey together – and I don’t mean just this part of it, travelling through space in The Golden Palace, but all that we have experienced from when we first met in Library Seven – and what a long time ago that seems! – all through our journey, I have felt there is more to this than simply the possibility of making contact with another form of conscious life. I am beginning to think that we are part of another great change, like that moment of change that Vonn and Akkri witnessed, back in the time of Vortinn and those others.”

  “What sort of change?” Tamor asked.

  “We know that we are each a part of life itself,” said Yask. His cousin Sumar looked at him in surprise; like Akkri, Yask usually preferred to let others take the lead. “I have always thought of this as being about our life on our own planet Vika, but we are on our way to another planet, the planet Earth,” he went on. “The people there are a part of the life of their planet, too, so I suppose we are both part of the life of the whole of the universe. Perhaps we are travelling into a new sort of understanding of our lives and what they mean.”

  “I think it must be something like that,” said Eedo. “We’re not ready for it yet, though. I think we first of all need the experience of being on Earth and then maybe we shall be ready.”

  Another period of quietness descended on the meeting, the comfortable and friendly quietness that they were all used to, waiting for life itself to show them the next step.

  “When are we going to get there? To Earth, I mean.” It was Toln’s clear young voice that broke the silence. “And what are we going to do when we get there?”

  “Yes, what exactly are we going to do? I’ve been wondering about that, too,” said Ky. “Do we land our spacecraft and walk out and say hallo to whoever’s there, or what?” There was a new energy in the room, a realisation that practical decisions would be needed.

  “They might attack us,” said Sumar. “We’ve seen some of the terrible things they do to one another.”

  “I have a feeling we will be safe however dangerous it may seem,” said Korriott. “This Golden Palace and the whole expedition itself have been given to us as a great and wonderful adventure. We have no record of life luring anyone into a trap, but many examples of people’s trust in life being amply rewarded. I think that for each one of us this expedition is a sort of test. We trust life to provide our needs in the easy and familiar conditions on Vika. Can we trust life to provide our needs in unknown and possibly much more difficult circumstances?”

  Vonn felt a shiver go through her as Korriott said this. It expressed exactly what had been at the back of her mind ever since her last visit to Akkri’s house. A challenge. An immense chal
lenge. Was she up to it? Looking round the circle she could see that she was not the only one who felt that way.

  Sumar, though, felt reassured. “Perhaps we are ready to be shown something about what we should do when we arrive,” he suggested.

  Everyone relaxed back into their chairs. All at once they found they were looking at a long, low building, ugly red in colour. There were doors all the way along it.

  “I’ve seen that before!” Vonn exclaimed. “It was in a dream I had before our expedition started. I didn’t realise it was anything to do with Earth.”

  “I’ve had a dream like that, too,” said Akkri. “It was the night you stayed at our house.”

  “That was when I dreamed it,” said Vonn. “We’ve both been dreaming about the same place on Earth.”

  “So that’s the first step!” Eedo exclaimed.

  “What do you mean?” asked Vonn.

  “You and Akkri. You’re to be the first to make contact with Earth people, and that’s where it will happen.”

  Vonn knew she was right, but she also felt alarmed at the idea. Akkri did, too. “Why us?” he said.

  “Why not?” Eedo replied. “None of us have ever done anything like this before, so you two are just as prepared or just as unprepared as the rest of us.”

  Akkri knew he would need a bit of time to get used to the idea. Like most Vikans he was not accustomed to the anxious feeling of stepping out into the unknown. And then he thought of what he and Vonn had learned of the great journey undertaken by Vortinn and the others. They had stepped out into the unknown and life had provided their needs. Perhaps the work he and Vonn had done together was part of their own preparation for the great adventure. “Well, it’s all right by me,” he said.

  Vonn smiled. Just as when they were working together she seemed to know exactly what had been going on in his mind. “Me, too,” she said, and so it was agreed that Akkri and Vonn would travel to that ugly corner of Earth to engage with whatever life presented to them there.

  “I think this has brought Earth a whole lot nearer,” said Annilex.

  “Do you mean the distance has actually become less?” Tamor asked.

  “I think we’ll find that is so,” Annilex replied. “I don’t understand it, but it seems to me that the progress of our journey from Vika to Earth depends on our readiness to arrive. As we become more ready, the distance between us and our goal diminishes.”

  The vision of that building was still in their minds. They saw one of the doors open and a man came out. He seemed to have difficulty in walking and they saw that he had a sort of stick under one arm that he was leaning on. “It’s not very nice there,” said Viney in a quiet voice.

  “Do you know,” said Vill, “I think each of the doors in that building leads into a separate home.”

  “But why are they all squashed together like that?” said Yask. “And they must be very small inside. Why do they have them so small?”

  The vision disappeared. They all felt tired from the effort of concentration. “I think it’s time for lunch,” said Bavilan.

  They got up from their chairs and moved towards the door. Vonn glanced out of the window. The sky was now bright blue and spray from the waterfall was catching the light, producing a shimmering rainbow, but she still had a sad, empty feeling inside her, as if it ought to have been different some way. She wondered if the others had realised that there was no door into that world.

  At the bottom of the stairs she turned aside from the others and made her way to one of the long terraces where they could look out onto the vastnesses of space. Ahead of them, like a tiny bracelet with a gleaming jewel in the centre, hung a ring of planets. She knew that one of those tiny specks was the planet Earth. Annilex had been right. Their work had brought them a big step closer to their destination. In a moment of utter loneliness that was strangely comforting she suddenly knew that she was ready for whatever adventures lay ahead.

  She stood there for some time, gazing out at the endless vista of stars. Was one of those far-off specks of light their own sun, shining on Vika? She heard someone coming down the stairs. It was Eedo. “Come and look at this, Eedo!” and she pointed out the tiny ring of planets. The two of them stood in silence for some time.

  “I just wanted to sit up there for a while,” said Eedo, taking Vonn’s hand. “I don’t feel ready for lunch yet. Would you like to come for a walk with me in my world? I’ve only had a little glimpse of it so far.”

  Eedo’s world was a world of wind-swept rocky crags and fast-running mountain streams. Vonn knelt down and scooped up a mouthful of clear cold water. Eedo came and sat down next to her and the two of them talked together for well over an hour, sitting in the sunshine. It was the first time they had really got to know one another.

  “Now I really do feel ready for lunch,” said Eedo.

  “Me too,” said Vonn.

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