Io Deceneus: Journal of a Time Traveler (The Living Universe)

by Florian Armas

  “Do you know someone named Delena?” I turned back to him. The question was floating in my mind from the first moment I had heard his name, but the veil was lifted only after we separated.

  “She is a princess of the House of Munti. Why is a stranger from the wild asking for her name?”

  “I think there is a bond between me, you and her.”

  “Is this a riddle?” he asked reluctantly, not yet sure how to consider my statement; I was still a serious man to him, one who was asking dubious questions.

  “One that I have no answer to yet: did you ever see a white wolf on the shore of a frozen lake?”

  “It happened once.” He frowned. Surprised eh? Let’s see now. “How do you know about this? It was only me and Delena there and for some reason we kept this our secret.” It was real. My dream was no dream. Parts of it. He was not killed by Travelers. What is the meaning of this?

  “I was there with you.” Unfortunately I cannot tell you how. Sorry.

  “Nobody else was there; I searched a lot after I killed two wolves.”

  “You tried to find the source of a strange smell of roasted meat coming from nowhere.” The smell of my birthday, I smiled inside.

  Night was already covering us and everybody tried to find the best spot for sleeping. There were no watchers now that the Munti had left the area.

  “You acted in haste,” Batranu whispered to me. We were alone, separated by some bushes from the rest of the group. “Without Houston’s protection ... but from what you just told me, I begin to agree that Altamira is a political force on her own.”

  “Did she maneuver me into taking the fight in Airan's place? If yes, there is no rift between the siblings. She could have stopped me, and Airan would be dead by now.” My voice sounded very sure in Batranu’s ears, but I would never tell anyone apart from Houston, who anyway did not need me to tell her how sour the touch of death was. “I think Houston was somehow involved in this.”

  “We are not in contact with her.”

  “I am thinking more about an implanted mental pattern. The first strange dream I had, her first bait; Duras was in that dream. Duras and a princess of the House of Munti.”

  ”She needed a beautiful girl to lure you into the game.” But the tone of his voice was serious.

  ”There is a change in scenario. The Munti pair was replaced by Altamira and Airan. Is someone trying to switch our course while still keeping the main goal of the mission? Is this subtle change affecting Houston too?” The idea suddenly came to me. So suddenly, that for a long time I asked myself if it was really my own. “The Field?”

  “There must be something very big at stake for The Field to be directly involved.”

  “That Observer saving us?”

  “They rarely interfere. Factions do the job for them. The SAT-mines ... maybe you are right; the game here is played by different rules. We should be more careful.” The ‘careful’ made me uneasy and I did not know why. Maybe we should not be so careful, but I kept this inside.

  “Anyway, things are done. Royal blood shed between Baragan and Munti is the last thing we needed now. Probably an all-out war would have started.”

  “I doubt that the Baragans can afford a real war with the Munti, but you are right, and the mini SAT-mines here prove that the fight was important.” The mines ... yes. Huge sphere, small spheres, what will they use in the next attack? “Maybe youth has a path different from those of old men,” he continued, and I sensed a veiled smile in his whisper; it was not possible to see even my fingers in the darkness surrounding us, clouds completely covered the full moon. Close to the dawn, a question took shape in my mind: what if the alteration is done by the entities behind the sphere?

  *

  It was not a real cave, more a long narrow tunnel; impossible to walk in, except on all fours, and from time to time real crawling. For the Baragans I was on a short personal adventure. They found this strange, but I was a stranger of course. Batranu had stayed in the camp too; it was not his call, that dream was a personal thing, my inception dream, not shared with anyone, not even with him.

  The tunnel ended as if cut by a sharp knife. There was no room at the end of the cave; I had to wait for Houston, sitting on the cold stone. The delay was disturbing, it had never happened before. Too many shifting lines, nothing solid to cling on to when in need. Water started to wet my trousers and I cursed Houston, exactly as her ghost appeared in the cave.

  “The hero cannot put up with some cold water in his pants. Should I warm it for you? Or do you need a bed with a soft pillow?”

  “Can we change places?”

  “I can sit in that mud, but I am not sure that you can handle time tunnels or energy bubbles. Tell me what bothers you so much.”

  “My first dream.” I was not sure yet what to ask, or how to ask.

  “Must I hear again the complaint about the treacherous bait luring you in this dangerous game? Of course I had to insert a beautiful girl to make the bait more attractive, and Altamira is just such a lady.” I remembered Batranu saying the same thing about young girls, and I bit my lip to stop a bloody curse. “It seems that I am not alone in saying this.” She was visibly amused by my sudden blush.

  “It was not Altamira in my dream, it was Delena.” She said nothing; a hologram suddenly appeared with the valley, the frozen lake and of course the wolves.

  “Airan, no! Stay here.” The wind carried voices over the ridge.

  “This is not my dream, something is wrong.” Houston doesn’t know. What the hell I do now?

  “Wrong? What can be wrong in a short dream?” Then her smile disappeared. “You are right; I cannot read the dream from your memories, or from The Field. Tell me your dream.”

  “The same as in your recording, only the actors were different: Delena and Duras. Delena is a Munti princess.”

  “I know who Delena is.”

  “But you don’t know why the script changed.”

  “I cannot confirm the change but not being able to access The Field for this specific memory of yours is something new. I have no answer to give at this moment.”

  “Could there be another Saurian player in the game?” Please say no, I’ve had enough Saurians for several lives.

  “The SAT-mine players were not Saurians, but humans belonging to a Faction not yet born, in touch with some hidden rebels.” Can I take this as a no? “There is no link yet found between them and the local Factions; we suppose ... that one or more Travelers will switch Factions in an indefinite future...” Something is wrong, I muttered. Her words came in hiccups. “I have to leave now ... there is a great … instability in my structure. Contact me again several days from now.”

  “That’s good, it will be in another cave,” I tried a half joke.

  “Leave the cave. Now!” I could not believe how fast I could be on all fours.

  “We have a problem,” I whispered to Batranu.

  “All you have to say is Houston we’ve got a problem,” he smiled at me, remembering why I named the Gate Houston.

  “The problem is that we don’t have a Houston to whom to address the question anymore.”

  “I have never encountered such a thing in the past, but I’ve said that before,” he stated calmly, tugging at his beard with a deeply veined hand, as always when confronted by a difficult thing. People will be tricked by your old hands in combat, and die, I could not help thinking. “Let’s wait these few days and try a new contact in the next cave.”

  *

  The next cave on the road was empty, no sign of Houston. We went again and again, but in the end we had to concede that all contacts were cut. Alone on this alien planet, and for a long time if not until our physical end, we were Baragans now. Will Houston make a copy of me? Ha! Is Houston still alive? All night I dreamt of SAT-mines coming out from under my bed. Somehow, the fact that they appeared from under the bed calmed me, but the night was already close to its death.

  *

  The valleys were now larger,
traces of habitation changing the landscape here and there. Most of them were ruins; as the Baragan population shrank further, only the best dwelling places were kept. The atmosphere of sorrow and misery filled the senses, and I caught Altamira’s sadness as we passed between the ruins. It was almost impossible not to observe the dichotomy between the life and youth in her face – she had lifted up her hair to braid it in spirals behind her ears – and the misery of the places we were passing.

  “It is not fair.” She shook her head in dismay. “Here should be life, houses with children, people working.” I caught her eyes, large and open on her delicate oval face.

  “This is something we cannot...” my words got cut short, “overcome.” No, I don’t need this, not now, and not later; I tried to restrain myself. How can one glimpse of her leave me so breathless? The morning light was everywhere, clean and serene; my mind wandered. “I have to...” I tried to create a duty for me, to step away, but nothing came into my mind.

  “You are right, we cannot overcome nature.” She did not catch my moment of weakness, and her sadness brought me back to earth. “Looks like Mother Nature wants to get rid of us. Each time we grow and blossom she throws us back to the ground.”

  “What do you mean?” I was dragged in and forgot my moment of uneasiness.

  “It is not the first time this has happened. Have you no legends about the first Great Drought, in the south? The one that happened a long time ago, before we were Baragans?”

  “The first Great Drought? It could be a cyclical weather phenomenon, but there is no data to prove this.” I was disturbed to find no historical knowledge Houston inserted in my inner encyclopedia.

  “No historical recordings, you are right, but legends ... we have several of them. Written history was something not yet in place at that time; stories were passed on by bards and minstrels. The legends of the giants.” She sighed, and turned again toward the valley. “They saved our ancestors by taking them over the mountains to the shore. They came from the Other Side of the Mirror.” The Other Side of the Mirror. Again... A cold shiver gripped my mind, a moment of unspoken panic. “I often dream that they will come again.”

  “Who were these giants?” I reluctantly asked, my anxiety growing. I heard a short hiss, like pressure being released inside my head. It’s weird, I thought, I don’t have a balloon in my brain, at least I hope Houston never inserted one.

  “We don’t know who they were. Maybe the first Travelers coming to our planet, a long time ago when their shape was different. They made a pledge to help us when in need, a red palm painted over the Covenant Stone, the palm of their leader, and the white palms of our chieftains. The stone is now lost, but the pledge is still alive in our songs.” I could no longer concentrate ... her image started to blur. It was a cave, I silently said, not a stone. “Their leader’s palm was so... one of them... five of... we are so small ... compared to them.” Chrono-particles, many of them, suddenly ... deep inside my brain, not outside. This should not be...

  “I cannot...” I moaned, hearing now only the silent screams of my mind; something was fighting inside me, and that fight produced pain, unbearable pain, and a black mist was falling over the world.

  “Batranuuuuu!” I do not remember if it was my scream or Altamira’s. The landscape suddenly changed; I was in a cave, and I knew that cave. Then the cave disappeared, replaced by a storm over the sea. The ship was pitching and rolling in the waved water. I was lying and nausea overtook me in the darkness. There was no more wind, no sounds, only rolling. Where am I? Houston! Where am I? The light came when I opened my eyes: it was cloudy. A young lady moved closer. She asked something with barely audible words and I did not understand the language. The head of an old man emerged, his long white hair caressing my face, his fingers touching my neck. I know this man. He mumbled something. The sun came out from the clouds and sunshine dug into my eyes like a knife. Chilly ice and pain; the darkness came back … silent and calm.

  I was lying down, in a stretcher, on the shore of the river; a light wooden structure with some leather and canvas. I am alive... Are you sure? There was no pain and my mind was clear. Touching the wood recalled the rolling, and the nausea too. This must be the ship. I glanced around and could not recognize the place. They carried me on a stretcher. I did not know at that moment how much time I had been unconscious. Two days, they told me later. It was morning again.

  “In our land it is called conditioned hypnosis, an evil technique enabling the master to insert trigger words in the mind of their subjects. I suppose that the trigger was inadvertently started by your discussion.” Batranu’s deliberate slowness pushed all attention toward his words.

  “I am sorry,” Altamira said. “It is probably my fault.” It is not your fault…

  “This trigger was supposed to be used in critical situations. Now thanks to you it is a lost opportunity, for our enemies of course.”

  “A neural device was probably inserted into your brain when the SAT-mine exploded, a subtle deception, a weapon inside a weapon; our enemies have good plans. And they are advanced; this one escaped Houston’s and her allies’ technology. Nothing is sure from now on; we shall have to prepare for more tricks in future.” Batranu’s calm voice helped me overcome the bad thoughts running inside my mind. “They know about you being here in the past. I can only think that you were ‘those’ giants.” He stopped for a while.

  “I am a legend.” And for a moment I felt proud of my Primes’ journey in a way that had never happened before. It did not last long, as with everything I enjoy or like. “Bastards!” The word inadvertently escaped from my mouth.

  “Are you okay?” Both Altamira and Airan came to our fire. The word was strange to them, but the tone spoke more than the word.

  “I am fine. Thank you. Only a bad habit for defusing tension.” I forced an artificial smile.

  “They know about my first trip here and also their legend. It is worse than I thought.”

  “It is normal for them to know, that entity has connections with the Travelers going back and forth here.”

  “Only Houston knows about my previous journey here, no Faction is aware of it, not even my Faction.” Nothing else came out that evening. The only good part of this episode was that I put aside the charming moment of being alone with Altamira, at least for a while.

  I was able to ride that day, and we advanced faster. At night, the sleep was good, with no more dreams haunting me, and the next morning was filled with a bright sun. “Four more days until Dava,” Altamira smiled at me. “I did not realize, until today, how much I miss it.” Her longing made me frown. I am delaying you, and this only amplifies your desire of riding faster. She felt my inner struggling and changed the tune: “Dava is a wonderful city, you will see. Think of it as your new home.” Her voice started to fade. No, not again. Help me. But no sound left my mouth while a heavy gray mist took over, in a world of dreams, luring together old memories and desires – an alternate life.

  The island made a comeback, mixing images – her silhouette walking on the white sand. The light tracks that she made in the sand melted away moments after they were formed, leaving no trace of her passing. “Altamira, you don’t need a waitress costume on a tropical island,” I whispered. She turned her head. “You are right.” And the costume started to fall, slowly, incredibly slowly.

  A white flash cleaned everything away, and I found myself in darkness, a soundless land of darkness. My eyes were closed, and I was afraid to blink. Then I heard their voices as whispers, far away but coming closer. I remembered everything at once, chrono-particles included, and I stiffened; all the conversation was still fresh in my mind, and I moaned. “You are awake.” Batranu’s voice. Am I really awake?

  The landscape was unchanged, the same place on the bank of the river. Bad. “We did not move.”

  “A cart will arrive from a nearby village. It’s safer than the stretcher. Feel better?”

  “I am not sure. I am not even sure if I am real
ly awake. I had many dreams.”

  “Ah, that’s something we already know.” What do you mean? “You spoke while dreaming,” he smiled. “I still don’t know why you asked Altmira to undress, your whispers were not very intelligible, but I can guess some of your motives.” His smile spread larger on his lips.

  “I hope she did not hear this.”

  “Well, she stayed close to you, watching you… “

  “What did she say?”

  “Not much. She only asked how old you are.”

  The mist faded away; not the usual slow process of shades moving from here to there before vanishing; a clear cut. The fog was no longer in the cave. “Houston!” A dirty piece of cloth was over her mouth, and she was tied to a pole. Where did the pole come from? Wrong question. Who tied her? Her eyes pointed to something I could not see at first. Two Travelers attacked with black swords. The mist came again, and disappeared again. I smiled at their fallen bodies while cleaning my sword. “You should train better.”