Through A Window

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Book excerpt

The Far-Seer

2001

Mela thumbed through the pages of the last chronicle, seeking out the past day that correlated to this one. The square pages presented star patterns and weather changes of the past five years. Another book held the five years before that. Still other books held similar records since the people had invented a chisel to permanently mark stone. In the cave, Mela was surrounded by the records of centuries, a repetitive cycle of events.

Tonight marked the first night of the new Katak, the new five-year cycle. This day was very special, for the Great Face would appear in the sky for the first time since the last Katak. For eight days, She would shine upon them in full gold and blue glory.

Everyone in the village prepared their offerings. As the suns set, they gathered at the top of the rocky hill to witness the Emergence. From below the southern horizon She would rise, filling the darkness with Her light, so large as to seem to hide the star-littered sky behind Her. The villagers gathered to honor Her presence, to please Her and remind Her that they depended on Her to raise the seas so that the rains for the next five years would be on time. Without the rise of the seas, the rain clouds came too late and the schedule of crops was thrown askew. For over a thousand years, the people planted to this schedule, growing the moist foods in the first year, the dryer foods each year until they planted the grassy foods the final year. They looked forward to the wet foods again, the watery melons and the juicy fruits. All of the villagers endeavored to keep the Great Face happy.

Mela witnessed Her Emergence ten times before. The Face came without fail and never expressed displeasure that she could remember. Tonight would be Mela’s 55th birthday. Sharing her birth with the visit of the Great Face destined her to be the Keeper of the Chronicles. She began her training at an early age to pen the characters and sketches and to interpret them for the villagers. The last Keeper had been a wise old woman who taught her to study the past in order to forecast the future. Mela studied the patterns that affected the growing seasons. Watching the sun through a pinhole might herald drought and a spectacular evening sky show of undulating lights. Walking out along the Chasm helped her attune her body to Chasarc, the planet itself. She could sense the coming of a ground quake by the ringing in her ears. Mela learned many secrets to being a record keeper and discovered the job required more than recording the events that happened. She became responsible for events that would happen

The wooden door that helped seal the cave gave way a bit more to admit her friend Bena.

He smiled a toothy smile as he entered. “Blessed Katak and blessed birthday to you, Mela. May you live long and well.” Then he handed her a bundle of smooth cloth. “I brought a gift for you. Don’t worry. It is not something that the Great Face would want.”

Unused to receiving gifts for the occasion, Mela pondered the bundle with a slack lower jaw. Her tongue twitched pink inside her mouth as she struggled to find something to say.

“You should wait until the passing. Our energies should be focused upon Her Emergence.” Those were the right words to say, but speaking them in no way diminished her curiosity toward what the cloth concealed. She fondled the bulk of the object with her stubby fingers.

“I know, but I couldn’t wait. This day is so exciting. I have a feeling this Katak will be the best ever!” Bena rose up on his round toes as he spoke. His excitement appeared genuine.

“And what gives you that feeling, Bena?” she asked with teeth bared in a crooked smile. She unwrapped the string from the cloth and began to unroll the bundle on the writing table.

“Just a tingle in my tail, I guess.” He bounced on his toes, his hands shoved deep in his tunic pockets.

The gift felt heavy, possessed a cylindrical shape, and forged of alloy, a mixed metal of which they did not have much. Alloy was too inefficient to make in useful quantities. A piece of glass closed each end of the tube.

“What is it?” She rolled the object across the table’s surface with the delicate touch of a claw.

“I call it a far-seer. It makes things appear closer or larger than they really are,” Bena explained.

“Where did you get this?” Mela held the tube out in front of her gingerly, unsure what to do with it.

“Aha and I put it together. We invented it accidentally, really. But it’s amazing to see. Things are unbelievably huge! We can see the oil on a bird’s feather with it. You can use it for your studies. You’ll get more use out of it than I. I just wanted to make a boiler for Arva. You’ll think of all kinds of uses for it, I’m sure. Go ahead. Try it.”

Bena had to physically move her to point the device at a page of her book and look through. She squinted down the tube, then lifted her head to look at the page unaided. Looking through the glass made the paper appear as though it were right next to her eye. The ink marks were enormous. She could see the uneven texture of the paper fiber like plowed ground.

“Bena, this is astounding!” Mela sputtered. “I can see so much detail.” Her mind immediately floundered with ideas for the device’s uses. “Explain to me how this works.”

“I don’t know exactly. I intended to use the glass to focus sunlight to boil water. Aha and I discovered one day that curved glass creates bright spots when sunlight shines through. We started small fires with the heat. We thought it might save time gathering wood if we could cook with this heat. We haven’t figured out quite how to make a contraption work that way.”

Outside the bells rang. The time came to join the others in welcoming the Great Face, time for the new book to be blessed by the people to hold their history. The ceremony would begin in a few moments so that the first night of the passing could be recorded and the celebration could begin.

Mela grabbed the old book, her pen and the ink. Then she grabbed the far-seer, slipping it into her waist pouch.

The Great Face was coming.

The bells silenced and a soft rhythmic drumbeat took over. The last of the offerings were placed at the highest point of the hill, to let the Great Face feast.

The bookbinder came to the front of the crowd where Mela stood. The senior elder, the one woman who had lived through twenty-one Kataks, came forward as well, took the new chronicle and the old and, with some help for her meatless arms, held the two together at the bindings. Her voice scratchy from years of oration, the Eldest waited for just the right moment to speak, as the first sliver of the Face emerged on the horizon.

“Oh Great Face, Wanderer of the Heavens, we welcome you again into our skies. We live by your grace and die by your grace. Grant us the wisdom and virtue to please you to come again to smile upon us.

The suns finally disappeared, leaving only the fantastic glow of the golden sphere as She rose further into view.

“Great Face!” the villagers greeted in loud unison.

Mela accepted the new book with a gracious bow. She took a place near the offerings with her quill to ink in the first symbols of the new Katak. Her hand was practiced now. She remembered her first Emergence as recorder, how her hand shook, afraid she would smear the ink. She recorded the details of the first night of the passing, including a list of items offered, the positions of the stars to the landmarks on the horizon, as well as the attitudes of the people at this celebration. She noted the most favorable condition of the evening, the clouds forming to the west. The rains would come on time and the crops would flourish.

Finished, Mela took to peering into the far-seer she’d been given. She aimed the contraption toward the faint clouds, but the sky was too dark to see them clearly. She pointed it at the villagers as they began to dance around in celebration. Strummers joined the drummers. Flasks of wine circulated. She could see the drinkers and watch the wine dribble down Bena’s cheek.

She’d seen all of that close enough over the years.

She decided to point the magnifier toward the Face. What better way to observe their visitor than to see just a little closer!

The brightness blinded her eye at first look and made her eye tear. She adjusted to the intensity after a few moments.

The surface appeared different so close, so detailed. She could see mountains like the ones near the village. The blue looked more like water than anything. Mela had visited the ocean once when she was younger. This blue reminded her of those waters. Black lines etched the surface of the Face like the wrinkles on her own.

The lower portion of the Face lay in shadow, just a sliver. In all the Kataks she had witnessed, Mela did not remember a sliver being shaved. She looked toward the dark sliver with her new ability. She did not expect to see the tiny pricks of brightness, like stars. Had that part of the Face been eaten away? Were the stars behind Her?

No, she judged. Those stars did not exist. She had been keeping track of the stars most of her life. Any new lights in the sky would be recognized. Lights. She thought of how the village kept flames burning at night to keep away predators. Bonfires. Those spots looked like intense bonfires in a nighttime village.

She shook her head a bit and put down the contraption. She decided she would join the celebration, have some wine of her own and try to dispel such ludicrous thoughts from her mind.

++++

There She was. Timus. Five revs ago they had passed by the sister planet. Five revs ago they began planning for this mission. The engineers set their minds to design a ship that would carry a crew of seven to the only planet that passed close enough to cause surges in the seas, tides that drown the mountains and filled with salt water ancient craters that had been dry and miles away from shore. Over the course of two revs they combined all possible resources to putting that ship together. From the metal of the hull to the lengths of wire that could stretch halfway around the world, to the cushioned seats in the cockpit and the beds in the sleeping quarters, eager hands gave care to the construction.

For two revs the crew trained. They learned the technical skills for operating the ship’s systems, running through countless simulations. Physical conditioning prepared their bodies for the expected forces of breaking free of gravity and then reentering. Suits were designed to contain atmosphere for them individually in the event that Timus’ atmosphere proved harmful. The probes relayed information that Timus was nearly identical to their planet, but probes could malfunction.

Glace, the Leader of this crew, looked out at the horizon as the ever-smiling face of Timus began to rise. She held her flight helmet beneath her arm, prepared in the shimmering suit to board that ship to fly to Timus. The ship waited on the launch platform in the near distance, a tapered shape tilted toward the heavens.

“Are you ready?”

The voice belonged to Vantri, the only pilot capable of out-flying Glace—except this time. No hard feelings. They both were chosen to go on this mission. They were the best. They were also friends.

“I have been ready for the last year.”

“That’s the spirit!” Vantri gave a brief nod and a smile. She turned to leave. A bus waited to drive them to the platform.

Glace did not move immediately. Noticing the delay, Vantri made a step back. Softly, she asked, “Would you share your thoughts with a friend?”

“With you, Vantri. Sometimes, I can’t believe this is happening. I’ve flown many craft to many destinations. I’ve flown trick flights more dangerous than what this appears to be. So why do I tremble inside? My muscles feel like melting snow. We’re going to Timus! Instead of being proud, I’m afraid.”

“Glace, we’re the first to go to Timus. We’re allowed to be afraid.” Vantri whispered the words like a secret. “Now, put on your captain’s face. If you’re afraid, imagine how that little man must be dropping all kinds of bodily secretions.”

The image of their youngest male crewmember slipped into Glace’s mind and made her sputter a laugh. She bowed her head and rubbed the bridge of her thick nose.

“Very well. Let’s go.”

The others waited aboard the open-air bus parked outside the main complex. Two other females, flight lieutenants, were casually spread across the rear seats. Two of the males adopted similar postures without the convincing attitude. The youngest male, their little genius, was crammed into the inside corner, his nails being clipped raggedly between his sharp teeth. He was twenty, barely a graduate of his education. His naiveté was overshadowed by his engineering ability.

Glace still had difficulty accepting that any breeder was worth the time it took to educate them in characters, let alone higher level number manipulations or allowing them to develop machines responsible for safety. She had very little use for men at all. Sniveling little nose pickers.

Glace glowered at the Low Engineer until he nervously jerked his hand away from his mouth and straightened up in his seat.

The vehicle’s electric engine hummed as the driver pressed on the accelerator. The wheels rolled out through the gates and headed for the launch platform.