by David Brin
But that wasn’t the truth.
It was a planted cover story.
Actually, the Old Ones took him from that old Thennanin fighter. They probed and palped him. Over a period of days, weeks, they reamed his mind, then shoved him in a little capsule. A tube that squeezed …
Emerson moans, recalling how that passage ended in a blazing plummet down to Jijo and the horrid swamp where Sara found him.
He envisions the Old Ones. Or one faction of them. Cold eyes. Hard voices, commanding him to forget. To forget … and yet, sentenced to live.
I. know … your … lie.…
The command fights back. For a moment, the pain is greater than he ever knew.
Pain that is elemental, like the black vacuum surrounding him.
Like sleeting cosmic rays.
Like all the myriad quantum layers propping up each quark and every lepton in his shaken frame.
Through it all, his eyes can barely focus, squinting past distilled anguish, turning countless stars into slanting needles.
But then, out of those jagged motes there comes a shape. Weaving, thrashing … zigging, zagging.
Swimming, he now realizes. Pushing toward him, as if upstream, against the swell of a strong tide. A shape from memory, but instead of bringing more woe, this recollection sweeps all agony before it. Pushed by stalwart flukes, a soothing current washes over him.
A dolphin’s face swims into focus.
Captain…
… Creideiki…
It is a scarred face, deeply wounded behind the left eye. A wound too much like Emerson’s to be coincidence. The explanation encircles him in sound.
Crooks and foul liars,
Lacking imagination,
Cruelly steal ideas!
Emerson comprehends the Trinary haiku at once. The Old Ones must have read his mind somehow and learned of Creideiki’s injury. It seemed to fit their needs, so they copied it in their captive human. What better way to release him, yet be certain he would tell no tales?
But that still left open the question of why? Why release him at all, if it meant consignment to a twilight existence? What motive could they have?
All … in … good … time …
The phrase brings a smile, for he grasps it in a way he might never have before.
A simple, purified meaning.
… good … time …
Emerson looks back across the galaxies, now cleansed free of pain. Pain he now recognizes to have been illusion, all along. The product of an exaggerated sense of self-importance that his enemies used against him.
In fact, the ocean of night is too vast, too busy to be involved in his agony. An evolving universe can hardly be bothered with the problems of a single individual, a member of one of the lower orders of sapient life.
And why should it?
What a privilege it is, to exist at all! On the great balance sheet, he owes the cosmos everything, and it owes him nothing.
Emerson manages to share a final moment of communion with his captain and comrade — not caring whether the grinning dolphin is a ghost, a mirage, or some miraculous true image. Knowing only that Creideiki’s lesson is true.
There is no setback — no wound or blow of cruel fate — that cannot be turned into a song.
For an instant, Emerson can sense music in every ray of starlight.
When the winter’s
Typhoon pounds you,
Onto sand grains,
Sharp and gleaming,
And creation
All-conspiring,
Breaks you on a
Time of Changes,
At the moment
When breath falters,
And your lifeblood
Pours out streaming,
Cast around that
Bright reef, dear friend,
For a gift to
Grant another,
For some way to
Repay forward,
All the favors
You were given.
For in good time
Prospects glitter
Far along Infinity’s Shore.
THE END OF PART TWO
Cast of Sapient Species
g’Keks — first sooner race to arrive on Jijo, some two thousand years ago. Uplifted by the Drooli, the g’Kek have biomagnetically driven wheels and eyestalks instead of heads. For most of their period of sapiency, they did not live on planets. g’Kek are extinct throughout the Five Galaxies, except on Jijo.
Glavers — third sooner race to reach Jijo. Uplifted by the Tunnuctyur, who were themselves uplifted by the Buyur, glavers are partly bipedal with opalescent skin and large, bulging eyes. Roughly a meter tall, they have a prehensile forked tail to assist their inefficient hands. Since illegally settling Jijo, they devolved to a state of presapience. To some, glavers are shining examples, having shown the way down the Path of Redemption.
Hoons — fifth wave of settlers to arrive on Jijo, bipedal omnivores with pale scaly skin and woolly white leg fur. Their spines are massive, hollow structures that form part of their circulatory system. Hoons’ inflatable throat sacs, originally used for mating displays, are now used for “umbling.” Since their uplift by the Guthatsa, this race found widespread service as dour, officious bureaucrats in Galactic culture.
Humans — the youngest sooner race, arrived on Jijo less than three hundred years ago. Human “wolflings” evolved on Earth; possibly achieving technological civilization and crude interstellar travel on their own. Their greatest accomplishment: the uplifting of neo-chimpanzees and neo-dolphins.
Jophur — organisms resembling a cone of stacked doughnuts; like their traeki cousins, Jophur consist of interchangeable spongy “sap rings,” each with limited intelligence, but combining to form a sapient communal being. Specialized rings give the stack its senses, manipulative organs, and sometimes exotic chemosynthetic abilities. As traeki, this unique species was originally gentle and unaspiring when first uplifted by the Poa. The zealous Oailie later reinvented them by providing “master rings,” transforming the traeki into Jophur, willful and profoundly ambitious beings.
Qheuens — fourth sooner race on Jijo. Uplifted by the Zhosh, qheuens are radially symmetric exoskeletal beings with five legs and claws. Their brain is partly contained in a retractable central dome or “cupola.” A rebel band of qheuens settled Jijo attempting to hold on to their ancient caste system, with the gray variety providing royal matriarchs while red and blue types were servants and artisans. Conditions on Jijo — including later human intervention — provoked the breakdown of this system.
Rothen — a mysterious Galactic race. One human group (the Dakkins or Daniks) believe the Rothen to be Earth’s lost patrons. Rothen are bipeds, somewhat larger than humans but with similar proportions. Believed to be carnivores.
Traeki — second illicit settler race to arrive on Jijo. Traeki are a throwback variant of Jophur, who fled the imposition of master rings.
Tymbrimi — a humanoid species allied with the Earthclan. Known for their cleverness and devilish sense of humor.
Tytlal — a species considered impossible to uplift. Uplifted by the Tymbrimi.
Urs — sixth sooner race on Jijo. Carnivorous, centauroid plains dwellers; they have long, flexible necks, narrow heads, and shoulderless arms ending in dexterous hands. Urs start life as tiny, six-limbed grubs, turned out of their mothers’ pouches to fend for themselves. Any that survive to “childhood” may be accepted into an urrish band. Urrish females reach the size of a large deer, and possess twin brood pouches where they keep diminutive mates, smaller than a house cat. A female with prelarval young ejects one or both husbands to make room for the brood. Urs have an aversion to water in its pure form.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Anglic — a human language created in the twenty-first century, using many English words, but influenced by other pre-contact tongues and modified according to new understandings of linguistic theory.
Biblos — a fortress containing
the archive, or hall of books; a combined university/central lending library with profound influence on Jijoan culture.
Bibur — a river running past Biblos, joining the Roney at Tarek Town.
Buyur — former legal tenants of Jijo, froglike in appearance, and known for wit, foresight, and for gene crafting specialized animal tools. Departed when Jijo was declared fallow, almost half a million years ago.
Chimpanzee or “chim”—a partly uplifted variety that accompanied humans to Jijo, mute but able to communicate readily with sign language.
Client — a race still working out a period of servitude to the patrons that uplifted it from presapient animal status.
Danik — a vulgarized term for Danikenite, a cultural movement dating from soon after humanity’s first contact with Galactic civilization. Daniks believe Earthlings were uplifted by a Galactic patron race that chose to remain hidden for unknown reasons. An offshoot cult believes that the Rothen are this race of wise, enigmatic guides. (Also sometimes “Dakkin”)
Day of Judgment — in prophesy, when the Six Races of Jijo will be judged for their crimes. By that time, many hope that their descendants will be like glavers — innocents, far along the Path of Redemption.
Deconstructor — a mechanical device licensed by the Institute of Migration to demolish remnants of technological civilization on a planet declared fallow.
Dolo — a village on the Roney River, famed for papermaking.
Dooden Mesa — oldest and largest g’Kek enclave.
Dross — Any nonbiodegradable waste material, fated to be cast into the Midden, for recycling by Jijo’s tectonic fires.
Dura — Approximately one third of a minute.
Earthclan — a small, eccentric Galactic “family” of sapient races consisting of neo-chimpanzee and neo-dolphin clients and their human patrons.
Egg — see Holy Egg.
Er — a genderless pronoun, sometimes used when referring to a traeki.
Exploser — demolitions expert who mines settlements of the Six Races for quick destruction, should The Day arrive. Guild headquarters in Tarek Town.
Fen — plural of “fin”; Anglic shorthand for a neo-dolphin.
Fist of Stone — a huge shelf of stone above Biblos that has been mined by the explosers, and would serve to destroy the fortress on Judgment Day.
Fractal World or Fractal System — a place of retirement for races that have nearly transcended the Civilization of the Five Galaxies. A huge, diffuse edifice made of hydrogen snow, constructed to surround and use all the energy of a small star.
Galactic — a person, race, concept, or technology deriving from the eons-old Civilization of the Five Galaxies.
Galactic Institutes — vast, powerful academies, purportedly neutral and above interclan politics. The Institutes manage or regulate various aspects of Galactic civilization. Some Institutes are over a billion years old.
Galactic Library — a fantastically capacious collection of knowledge gathered over the course of hundreds of millions of years. Quasi-sapient “branch Libraries” are found in most Galactic starships and settlements.
Gathering Festival — annual fair that celebrates and reinforces the Great Peace among Jijo’s sooner races. Incorporates a pilgrimage to the Holy Egg.
Gentt — a river just north of Blaze Mountain.
Great Peace — a time of growing understanding among the Six Races, variously credited to the influence of Biblos, or else to the arrival of the Holy Egg and rewq symbionts.
Great Printing — the sudden introduction of paper books by the humans soon after their arrival on Jijo.
Grok — Anglic term, of obscure origin, that denotes understanding a thing or ’concept in its entirety. Similar to the Scottish “ken.”
Guenn Volcano — Location of the hidden forges of Uriel the Smith.
“Heresies”—variant views of Jijoan destiny, held by groups who disagree with the High Sages. One holds that Galactic law is just — and Jijo would be better off without “infestation” by sooner races. Others subscribe to more orthodox interpretations of the Sacred Scrolls, that each exile race should seek separate salvation down the Path of Redemption. One rare heresy is called “progress.”
Holy Egg, the — a mysterious mass of psi-active stone that emerged from a volcano a century ago, accompanied by widespread visions and dreaming.
Humicker — slang term for someone who mimics humans, because Earthling texts still dominate literate life of Jijo, long after the Great Printing.
Ifni — probably a vulgarization of “Infinity.” In spacer tradition, a name given to the goddess of luck. Personification of chance or Murphy’s law.
Illias — a matriarchal tribe of horsewomen living secretly in the Spectral Flow.
Izmunuti — a red giant star, uncomfortably close to Jijo’s sun; spews a carbon wind masking Jijo from supervision by the Institute for Migration.
Jadura — Approximately forty-three hours.
Jijo — planet in Galaxy Four. Home of seven sooner races: humans, hoons, qheuen, urs, g’Kek, devolved glavers, and “demodified” Jophur known as traeki.
Jophekka — the homeworld of the Jophur.
Kidura — approximately one half second.
Kiqui — a presapient race of amphibians native to Kithrup.
Kithrup — a water world rich in heavy metals, where the Streaker crew lost Captain Creideiki and many others in escaping a dire trap.
Loocen — largest of Jijo’s three moons.
Lorniks — a domesticated animal, bred as servants by qheuen. Lorniks are radially symmetrical, have four legs and four three-fingered hands.
Midden — a vast undersea crevasse, or subduction zone, formed by plate tectonics, that runs alongside the Slope. Dross generated by inhabitant races — from skeletal remains to hulls of sooner spacecraft — should eventually be dumped here, where natural forces will carry it below Jijo’s crust for melting.
Midura — a unit of time. Approximately seventy-one minutes.
Morgran — a transfer point where Streaker was first attacked by warships of the fanatic religious clans.
Mule spiders — a life-form engineered to destroy buildings and technological artifacts on worlds declared fallow.
Mulching ceremony — reduction of dead bodies, returning flesh to the Jijoan ecosystem. Often involves consumption of flesh by specialized traeki rings. Nondegradable leftovers are treated as dross and sent to the Midden.
Neo-chimp, neo-chimpanzee — uplifted chimpanzees; humanity’s first clients. Fully uplifted neo-chimps can speak; the “unfinished” variety that accompanied humans to Jijo are mute.
Neo-dolphin — uplifted dolphins; clients of humanity.
Nihanic — another pre-contact human language, derived from a hybrid of Japanese and Han Chinese.
Noor — bright, dexterous, but mischievous otterlike creatures. Noor cannot be tamed, but the patient and good-natured hoon are able to employ some noor beasts on their ships. Noor are considered pests by the other sooner races.
Oailie — third-stage uplift consorts and “step-patrons” of the Jophur, and fanatical members of the Obeyer Alliance. As expert gene crafters, the Oailie reworked traeki biology and psychology by the addition of master rings, transforming them into Jophur.
Oakka — a planet containing the regional headquarters of the Institute of Navigation, where Streaker barely escaped entrapment and betrayal.
Parrot ticks — a peculiar Buyur-engineered insect that can memorize and recite short phrases. The first humans on Jijo doubted their sanity when they kept “hearing voices.”
Passen — Jijo’s smallest moon.
Path of Redemption — goal of orthodox religious factions of Jijo, who believe the sooner races should devolve to presapience. Only thus can they escape punishment for colonizing a fallow world, offering a second chance at uplift. Glavers have already trod the Path.
Patron — a Galactic race that has uplifted at least one animal species to full sapience.
>
Phuvnthus — six-legged wood-eating vermin on Jijo.
Pidura — six-to-the-seventh-power duras, or approximately four days.
Polkjhy—Jophur battleship that landed on Jijo in search of the Streaker.
Poria Outpost — the Danik headquarters, where a small human population serves Rothen lords.
Primal Delphin — semilanguage used by natural, nonuplifted dolphins on Earth.
Progenitors — legendary first spacefaring race, who began the cycle of uplift two billion years ago.
Rewq — quasi-fungal symbionts that help the Six Races “read” each other’s emotions and body language.
Rift — a branch of the Midden located at the southern end of the Slope.
Rimmers — a mountain range marking the eastern boundary of the Slope.
Sacred Scrolls — texts of enigmatic origin, the only written matter on Jijo between the departure of the Buyur and human introduction of paper books. The scrolls taught the g’Kek and later colonists about the need for concealment, planetary care, and “redemption.”
Sept — a race or sapient clan of Jijo, e.g., the g’Kek, glavers, hoons, urs, traeki, qheuen, and humans.
Sooners — outlaws who attempt to colonize worlds designated fallow by the Galactic Institute of Migration. On Jijo, the term means those who try to make new illegal settlements, beyond the confines of the Slope.
Spectral Flow — a forbidding desert region in the southcentral area of the Slope, thought to be uninhabitable. Covered with sheets of luridly colored, psi-active volcanic stone and outcrops of photoactive crystal.
Streaker — a neo-dolphin-crewed Terran starship. The Streaker’s discoveries led to unprecedented pursuit by dozens of Galactic factions, each seeking advantage by possessing the dolphins’ secrets.
Stress atavism — a condition found among newly uplifted species, when individuals lose their higher cognitive functions under stress.
Tabernacle—the sneakship that brought human sooners to Jijo more than 200 years ago.
Tarek Town — the largest town on the Slope, where the Roney and Bibur merge. Headquarters of the Explosers Guild.
