Vale of Stars

by Sean O'Brien

  “It was a crutch, Iede. You’ll see that soon enough. Your own gods believed that. Why else sacrifice themselves? But even your religion was based on something—you made a choice to create and follow it. I might disagree with your choice, but I can accept that you were in control, at least a little. Vogel wasn’t.”

  “Vogel?”

  “The curious Vix.”

  “Leave them alone. Their gods will—”

  “We’re their gods, Iede!” Sirra seized her halfonlyaunt by her upper arms. “Everything you told me about what Groundwatcher Aywon told you is true for us. I understand what he was saying, perhaps even better than you do. I don’t want to be a god. Especially to a race with such a history as the Vix.” Sirra released Iede’s arms.

  “Then go back and fix it. Like you were before. But you may find that religion is not easy to shake.” Iede looked at her with hollow eyes. “You seem to think that religion is just an opiate to the masses. But it is real, as real as any chart or graph you scientists can create. You know my religion was based on something, and you know the Vix’s is also.”

  “It’s based on a misinterpretation and, in the case of the Vix, a genetic disposition that is not their natural makeup.”

  “Who is to say what the Vix were destined to be? You?”

  “Yes. Domeit, yes!” Sirra turned away. “It is up to me to fix it. In such a way that it will never happen again.”

  “How? How do you determine the future of a race without becoming the God you wish to deny?”

  Sirra did not face her. But she knew the answer.

  Epilogue

  Eelywhee swam toward the rock again. She knew her mother didn’t much like it when she spent so much time in the water, but Eelywhee was a strong swimmer, even by humix standards. Besides, she would not get a chance to swim like this for many months if the mission went according to plan.

  She reached the rock and glided up on its smooth surface. Night had fallen some time ago, and Eelywhee wanted to see the stars. She hoisted herself onto the rock and looked up. There was something eerie but exhilarating in simply seeing the stars. Her sonar was obviously no use, and the stars burned quietly above her like little else did on her world.

  What would it be like up there? The Iede’s Odyssey was orbiting above her, barely visible to the naked eye, and Eelywhee knew a crew was even now on board her, making final preparations for the voyage to the neighboring planet, nominally designated EE4 but affectionately known as “the Iceball” to those preparing to explore it.

  Much had been made of the voyage, and many historians compared the trip to the one four hundred and twenty years earlier, made by the simple humans. One of her shipmates told her that those who had made the crossing reckoned time differently; to them, almost seven hundred years had passed since their arrival. Eelywhee had been interested enough to investigate this oddity and was surprised to learn that one of the second colonists, a woman named Jene Halfner, (an appropriate name for a mere human, Eelywhee had thought) had been a distant ancestor of hers.

  Eelywhee knew her mother would be getting angrier and angrier as she stayed on the rock, looking up at the stars, but she was a grown fullwoman, ten years of age. Her mothher no longer had any legal sway over her. Still, she owed her respect. She reluctantly slid into the water and swam speedily back to shore, savoring the flow of water over her back.

  What must it have been like three hundred years ago, before there were any humix? Eelywhee wondered if she could have lived exclusively on land, like the humans (although she knew some of them made brief forays into the water if only for minutes at a time) or dwelled underwater and never known wind, or soil, or any of the many pleasures land offered. To be a half person—the thought was almost inconceivable, yet there were many millions who lived such a life. Their numbers were dwindling, to be sure—she had heard that only about one in ten was still simple human now, as compared to one in five not sixty years ago. They were respected, protected, and given full citizenship, of course, but Eelywhee was not the only humix to pity them.

  And what would they find on Iceball? Would it be a rock in space, inhospitable to human and humix alike? Would there be life on it? Eelywhee thrilled at the prospect of discovery, even as she felt apprehension at leaving her home, though only for a few months.

  But, she knew, it was the next step.

  The End