by Drew Wagar
Satellite links: Poor. One geostationary weather facility remains operating.
Obelisk status: Failed. Not responding, no data.
Internal integrity: Good. Minor atmospheric leakage detected.
Hangar assets: Excellent. Serviced according to schedule.
Terraforming Status summary: Warning!
Atmospheric Pressure: Good. 950 millibars.
O2 Mix: Good. 22%.
Pollution: Excellent. No harmful oxides or excess carbon detected.
Humidity: Good. Average 55%.
Magnetic field strength: Warning! 20 Microtesla and falling. Atmospheric loss due to solar wind erosion in progress, check Obelisk status.
Astrometric Condition Status summary: Critical!
Orbital eccentricity: Good. No anomalies.
Semi-major axis: Good. No anomalies.
Solar output: Critical! 935.9 W/m2. Dropping inline with previous observations.
Ultraviolet flux: Critical! Rising rapidly between 110 and 315 nm.
Flare activity: Critical! Solar cycle approaching maximum within six passes. Sun spot activity confirmed, flares predicted within three passes.
Status report ends.
Meru scanned the text, the last sentence was one of few he could comprehend.
‘Flares predicted? What do you mean?’ he asked.
‘Lacaille 9352, the star in this system, is class M2V,’ Caesar reported, matter of factly. ‘It emits high energy flares for periods of time at intervals of four nine one rounds. Flares are preceded by significant sunspot activity causing a reduction in solar output.’
‘What do these flares do?’ Mel asked, her voice slow.
‘During a flare the total output of the star is expected to double or treble within a spell,’ Caesar replied. ‘In this case, a combination of infra-red and ultra-violet radiation is emitted. Infra-red radiation results in significant temperature rises of short duration. Ultra-violet radiation results in tissue damage and, with excessive exposure, is inimical to life. All colonists should ensure they are in secure facilities whilst flares are in progress. The first sunspot has already been observed on Lacaille. Solar output will drop dramatically until the flares commence. Flares are expected to begin in three passes, in line with simulation and previous observations.’
‘Are you saying we’re going to be scorched in just three passes?’ Coran said, his voice tight.
‘That is an accurate summary,’ Caesar replied.
Coran stepped back, blinking rapidly. He made to say something, but no words came.
‘We’ve got to warn people,’ Meru said. ‘No one will know what to do!’
Coran nodded. ‘We can get to Amar in a single pass. Time enough to tell folks of what we’ve found.’
‘But what about the others?’ Mel asked. ‘The people of these cities on the map!’
‘Chances are that no one is left,’ Fitch said. ‘Coran’s right, we should head for Amar.’
‘We don’t know that for sure,’ Mel countered. ‘What if those cities are full of people?’
‘If they are they’ll just be barbarians like those we encountered back in the ruins,’ Fitch replied. ‘A waste of time reasoning with the likes of them, better to save those worth saving.’
‘Who says they’re not worth saving!’ Mel shouted at him, angrily.
‘If I might interject?’
Caesar’s voice was calm and unruffled.
‘Available satellite imagery is of low resolution, but I can confirm continued occupation of the cities of Viresia, Daine and Nireus. There is evidence of active agriculture and infrastructure usage.’
‘Nireus …’ Coran said. ‘Our ancestors are still alive! Caesar, can you show us a map?’
There was a soft chime and a huge map appeared on the table. A moment later glowing yellow circles marked the major cities. They could see their home to the far sunright, with the main continent to the shaderight. Viresia was closest to Dynesia, with Daine further shaderight. Far to the shadeward was Nireus, not far short of a constant line of whiteness, the frozen wastes.
‘We can’t warn all of them,’ Fitch said. ‘Maybe Nireus I’ll grant you, but the others are inland, there’s no way to get there.’
Meru looked out of the glass partitions across the hangar.
‘Maybe there is.’
The others looked at him.
‘Caesar,’ he asked. ‘Is that flying machine still working?’
‘All vehicles within the hangar are serviced according to schedule and remain operational.’
‘Meru …’ Mel began.
‘Are you snuttin’ crazy, boy?’ Fitch demanded. ‘You can’t be thinking …’
‘We can warn them all,’ Meru said, his eyes wide with excitement. ‘We learnt to crew the Mobilis. We can learn to fly too!’
Epilogue
Round 2306, Twelfth Pass
Zoella was standing in the palace grounds when it happened. It was early, before the first chime. Ioric had seen to her injuries and sent maids to clean and wash her. She’d been given a heady mix of herbs and spices washed down with some spirit that burned the back of her throat. It had knocked her out, making her sleep. Dreams buzzed like flits around her head, half remembered.
I’m sure it was a woman’s voice. I think I know who locked me down there. But will Ioric accept it? I need to find a way to tell him …
She’d been woken from her sleep by Raga’s barking. The carn was spinning around in a frenzy, chasing this way and that around her bed.
‘Raga, be still, what is it?’
He barked at her and then pawed at the doors that led outside. Zoella got up and unlocked the door, following the carn outside. He charged out and then cowered in the sunlight streaming across the courtyard.
‘Crazy carn,’ Zoella said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and grabbing a cup of chai from a nearby table. ‘What’s got into you? Come here.’
Raga yowled and cringed, slinking across towards her. Zoella was about to give him a cuddle to try to settle him when she saw something new and strange.
The carn’s third eye was moving.
She’d never seen that happen before. All the creatures, save folk, had three eyes, always staring upwards for some unknown reason. Now Raga’s third eye was looking around in agitation, its lid half closed.
‘What is it, Raga? What do you see?’
The only answer was a howl. Zoella reached forward and touched the carn.
Danger, Run, Hide, Deep!
The feelings were raw and instinctive.
A chill descended on her, but there had been no breeze ruffling the plants around the courtyard. She turned in surprise, wondering whether a cloud was passing across Lacaille, dimming its light.
She looked up and froze on the spot, her cup of chai falling from her grasp and smashing noisily on the flagstones.
Above her, the enormous orb of Lacaille blazed away as it ever had, but rounding its lower limb was a writhing blackness, irregular and blotched, like a canker on its surface. Streams of glowing material twisted and thrashed above the stain, wreathing it in a glowing halo of unnaturally bright light. As she watched she sensed it grow, becoming bigger, eating away at Lacaille’s otherwise smooth surface.
My dream!
Her scream of terror woke the people of Viresia from their slumber.
Far away to the sunward, the Mobilis remained moored in against the ancient quays of Dynesia. The crew stood with heads bowed on a hill top nearby, around a freshly dug grave. As Amaran tradition demanded they had committed Sandra Morino’s body to the earth. None spoke, lost in their thoughts about a woman who bravely met her death nearly two thousand rounds before.
Meru looked upwards, fearful of what he would see, but knowing that it would be there. The ancients always did their calculations without error, there could be no doubt. Caesar’s prediction was precise, down to a fraction of a spell.
Above them all a darkness grew on the edge of Lacaille, ringed wi
th glowing fire. Meru knew it was just the first and they could expect to see more and more of the dark sunspots in the next few stretches.
‘She knew this was coming then and now it’s happening again …’ Coran muttered.
Meru nodded. ‘This is just the start. If we don’t get to warn people in time, if they’re caught outside …’
‘They’ll die,’ Mel echoed, her voice soft. ‘Like all of those in the caves, witch or Amaran alike!’
‘Scorched,’ Meru said, the familiar profanity now revealed to be far more than a simple curse.
Fitch said nothing, but his face was grim.
It seemed impossible to comprehend that Lacaille, so steady and sure within living memory, could become their enemy. Yet the evidence grew before them with every passing moment.
Away to the shaderight, in the land of Drayden, Lacaille was hotter, higher in the sky than in the lands of Scallia, more imperious and commanding. Lacaille was the God of the priestesses, their all.
Nerina stood beside Kiri as she surveyed the growing blackness from the highest point of the temple. Kiri stood looking sunwards into the light. Her left hand was bandaged tight, a red stain indicating where blood still flowed from the wound she had received.
If ever there was a sign, this is it. Lacaille makes her will known!
‘The times of peace are over,’ Kiri said, her voice monotonic. ‘I have seen the evil in the land and the evil has taken away those I loved.’
‘You did everything you could.’
Kiri stared into the light of Lacaille, unblinking, immobile. She cast her mind back to a simpler time many rounds before, when she had first arrived at the temple. It seemed so long ago.
Tears came to her eyes.
Charis …
‘She taught me the elements. I remember,’ Kiri said, the tears dropping down her cheeks. She quoted from memory, her voice halting and broken.
‘Thus it was in the time before the cold days … that the sun was angered. Black marks … black marks smote its face and wrathful tempests swept our lands …’
Her voice dropped to just a whisper before recovering.
‘The sun, in righteous anger, purged our lands … with fire. The people …’ She steadied her voice, angry that it had failed, biting down on grief. ‘The people fled in vain before it, the devices they had wrought availed them not. Only the penitent were saved and then only by grace and fortune.’
Nerina bowed her head in acknowledgement.
‘Lacaille grows angry once again, our duty is clear,’ Nerina said. ‘The lands will be purged with fire once more. We must take our part in this by the will of Lacaille. We, the penitent, will see this done. It will start with Scallia.’
Kiri nodded, grinding her teeth to stop from crying.
Charis …!
Nerina continued. ‘This time evil will not survive, we will make sure it is so. We will destroy those who would stand against, those who committed crimes against us, old and new.’
I killed them, dozens of them, without mercy. Crushed their minds like Elena did in the old tales …
Remorse flickered, a brief spark flickering in the darkness of her mind. Charis’ face a faint image, receding, fading…
No. They deserved it. They deceived us, drew us in and tried to murder us. Mira, Fion … and Charis.
The spark was gone, a shadow swamping everything, a veil across her soul. She was violent, a fighter. It was time to be true to who and what she was.
Kiri turned to Nerina, struggling to keep the tremble out of her voice. ‘Command me, high priestess.’
Nerina smiled. ‘Kneel.’
Kiri abased herself before the high priestess, her head bowed. She flexed her left hand, it was still stiff, but the movement got better each day. Save for an unsightly scar the healers believed she would make a good recovery, but there were dark dreams where the pain still burnt.
‘Acolyte Kiri,’ Nerina began. ‘You have trained as a healer and have done sterling service in the name of Lacaille throughout Drayden. But our need is elsewhere. I require you to change your caste, become a warrior as your gift dictates, do you consent?’
I knew this would happen one day and now it has …
There was just the merest hint of reluctance, but Kiri’s answer came firm and resolute.
‘I do.’
Nerina’s voice rose in tempo and volume.
‘Will you act in the defence of Drayden and in the administration of the justice of Lacaille, without pause or question?’
‘I will see it done.’
‘Will you uphold the line of priestess and seek the gift wheresoever it may be found?’
‘I will see it done.’
‘Will you fight evil in the land and see the enemies of Drayden destroyed for what they have wrought?’
‘I will see it done.’
Nerina’s voice dropped to a hypnotic whisper.
‘Even if it be at the cost of your own life?’
‘I will see it done!’
Nerina stepped aside for a moment and then placed a short-bladed knife in Kiri’s right hand. It was a tool, not a weapon.
Nerina pulled up Kiri’s hair and Kiri slid the knife carefully and deliberately against it. Her long black hair fell to the floor. Kiri continued until the left side of her head was shaved down to the scalp. She looked down at the hair for a long moment
No longer the healer. No longer!
Nerina placed a necklace over her. Kiri looked down to see the familiar triangular pendant. Next Nerina handed her a thick metallic staff. A kai, light and strong, no longer a wooden training weapon, this was the weapon of those with prowess. Kiri took it gently in her left hand, ignoring the pain.
‘The will of Lacaille, the power of Lacaille and the service of Lacaille,’ Nerina said, looking down and then stretching out a hand to her.
‘Then arise, Priestess Kiri, warrior of Daine, in the land of Drayden.’
A priestess! A warrior!
Kiri stood and turned, her body silhouetted in the uncertain light of Lacaille, her face illuminated. The tears had dried, replaced by a face that bore a fierce and ruthless determination.
Behind Nerina, stood Merrin, Rihanna and Tasha all dressed in the manner of priestesses, holding their kais in their right hands. Tasha immediately bowed her head in traditional respect. Kiri looked at Rihanna, seeing her swallow before briefly nodding. Only Merrin turned her head aside and refused to make eye contact.
Kiri looked past them across the temple, past the city and across the forest to where the mountains rose up, bright in Lacaille’s light. She took a deep breath.
I thank you for all I learnt, but I say goodbye now, Charis. I loved you, but love has no place in these times. I will shed no more tears for you until this task is finished.
Kiri looked at Nerina.
I am ready.
Nerina nodded. Kiri felt the high priestess’ voice wrap itself around her. Emotions buffeted her, forceful, victorious, powerful and resolute.
Come, let us begin. There is much that needs to be done …
The Shadeward Saga continues in book two,
Shadeward: Exoneration
APPENDIX
Measuring time on Esurio is problematic. There is no night/day cycle. The only readily available visual cue is the crossing of the planet Mayura (a ‘hot Jupiter’ gas giant in an inferior orbit) across the face of the star Lacaille, which is easily visible from the surface of Esurio. The duration of this transit is known as a ‘Chime’ and the time between ‘Chimes’ as a ‘Pass’.
Spell
A short duration in the order of fifteen earth minutes. There are eight spells to a chime.
Chime
Many cultures on Esurio use sand timers to count ‘Chimes’ and they are also used for sleeping, waking and marking time for meals. A chime is the time taken for the inferior planet Mayura to cross the face of Lacaille. A chime is considered the typical length of time it takes to do a job. A chime is around
two hours long.
‘The Sleeping’
This is the gap between the eighth chime and the first chime. The time set aside for being asleep. It is four chimes in length. Analogous to ‘night’.
Stretch
A cycle of eight chimes and followed by ‘the sleeping’. Analogous to a complete day.
Pass
Length of time for the planet Mayura to return to the same point on Lacaille. It lies in on the ecliptic plane as seen from Esurio, thus transits each orbit, visible from the surface. A pass is analogous to a month. All other timings are taken from this. There are twenty stretches in a pass.
Round
A round is twenty passes, which are counted manually by timekeepers (a specialist role on Esurio). Analogous to a year, although slightly longer in duration, being 400 stretches.
Measurements are more easily understood and are based on hands and the typical length of a stride. These are not accurate terms and they will vary somewhat depending on the culture that is using them at the time.
Hand
Measurement, typically of height. The width of a grown adult’s hand with fingers outstretched. Approximately a quarter of a metre.
Span
Measurement, typically of width. The length of a grown adult’s span fingertip to fingertip with arms outstretched. A little under two metres.
Pace
Measurement, typically of distance. The length of a grown adult’s stride. Roughly a metre.
Mark
Measurement, a thousand paces. Used analogous to an earth ‘kilometre’ and of similar length.
Traipse
Measurement. A long way. Many ‘Marks’. Typically the distance one can walk comfortably without stopping to sleep. Around 40 kilometres.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Drew Wagar is a British science fiction author. He lives in Kent with his wife, two sons, a dog and a cat. His favourite colour is dark green. He doesn’t require a conservatory or any double glazing.
Drew’s Website: www.drewwagar.com
Drew on Facebook: drewwagarwriter
Drew on Twitter: @drewwagar
