by Sam Coulson
“Do we know why?” the other man asked.
“Why his system isn’t functioning?” Chen shifted, avoiding eye contact. “No sir. Our guess is that he was in a ship that crash landed before we arrived. Most of us believe that he may have been in some kind of stasis pod, and that the revival protocols weren’t followed properly. That would possibly explain why his organs are healthy, but dormant.”
“Scans haven’t found any signs of a wreck, or stasis pods,” the older man rubbed his thumb against the greying stubble on his chin.
“As I said, it’s our hypothesis,” Chen replied. “Medically, stasis is the only thing that seems to make sense. They could have crashed into the ocean, or the river, or somewhere deeper in the mountains.”
The older man paused, considering.
He looked down at me intently. “You, where did you come from?” he asked.
“Oh, sir,” Chen broke in. “He doesn’t speak. Though our scans show that he has high level of brain activity, we don’t think he is cognizant or cogent enough to understand what is going on around him. Whatever happened to him, it left him in a severe state of shock.”
“Not cognizant or cogent?” the old man chuckled. “Look at his eyes Chen. He may not be responding, but he’s far from catatonic. No, he’s choosing not to respond. I’ve seen men in shock. Their eyes have a glazed unfocused intensity, but not his. Oh he’s cogent alright. If I were him and had been lost, naked and confused, and found by some strangers on a newly minted Eden, I’d be playing dumb too.”
He disengaged the force field and leaned over me. His breath smelled faintly acidic.
“Enough of your silence boy. Speak. How did you get here?” He questioned me with the quiet and self-assured intensity of a man who was not used to being disobeyed.
I took a slow breath, and spoke.
“I, I don’t know how I came to be here,” I’d been working on shaping the sounds of the language quietly at night, I may have muddled the words, but the man seemed to understand.
“See there?” The old man grinned with self-satisfaction as he stood back up. “Alright lad, we’ll sort you out in time. For now, you need a name. The entire settlement is calling you ‘Twig and Berries,’ and I thought you would want something a bit more dignified.”
Name. I hadn’t asked myself what my name was. I searched my mind, and tried to sort through the shadows and fragments of my memories. One idea came, so I made it into a sound.
“Elicio,” I spoke the name like a question.
“Elicio?” The man considered a moment and shrugged. “That’s a new one, but it’s as good as any. I’m Lee McCullough.”
“You’re the chief?” I responded.
“You could call it that,” Lee answered. “Though officially I am the Governor of this colony, I prefer just Lee.”
I nodded my head up and down, a gesture I had seen the nurses use. He nodded back and patted my shoulder, the warmth of his touch lingered.
“Elicio, hmm, that’s much better than Twig and Berries. When we found you, you were confused, frightened, starving, and alone on a freshly terraformed rock a few dozen light years from the closest civilized star system. The MineWorks Corporation just cleared this place for habitation, so you couldn’t have been here long.” He paused watching me intently as he spoke, searching for signs of recognition. “I contacted the MineWorks orbital monitoring crew just before they left, they claim that there hadn’t been any anomalies, and that no other ship, aside from our own and the three other colony dropships, had been seen in system. Yet, here you are. And here I am, charged with helping the 1,934 colonists in this town to secure, build, and survive.”
My mind was absorbing his words: terraforming, corporation, colonists. All of them were unfamiliar to me.
“So, you see I have a bit of a problem,” Lee continued. “When I was in the Protectorate Fleet, I had one rule: simple is safe. If you avoid complications, anomalies, and mysteries, you avoid problems. You, you’re a mysterious complex anomaly. The trifecta of bad luck. So I’m going to ask you this question once and only once: where did you come from?”
“I...I.”
There was something dangerous in his placid calm. Lee was not a man to trifle with, but somehow, I felt there was also something in him I could trust. His words and motions were calculated. He exuded self-control. As my mind reeled in fear and uncertainty, his confidence drew me in like a moth to the flame. I couldn’t help but trust him.
“The first thing I remember is pain, horrible pain, and then I woke up and walked out of the cave. I don’t know how long I wandered, hours. Maybe more. But then I saw the fire from your ship, your colony ship. I saw it come down and land. I started to go toward it, but I was afraid and tired and hungry. So I hid watching you. Then I fell asleep and woke up to those others arguing, then you found me.”
“And that’s all? Nothing before? Your home world, your family? Nothing?”
“Nothing that makes sense,” I responded slowly. “I have memories, but they are strange and broken into bits and pieces. A valley with blue-green grass, a village on a river, and grey sunsets. But not much else.”
“Blue-green grasses, grey sunsets. Could be one of a dozen worlds across either the Earthborn Protectorate or the Domari Collective.” He considered me for a long moment. I held his gaze. I wondered if he knew I was holding back. I dared not mention that the village in my memory was on the very spot where we now sat, and that the edge of the forest where they had found me had been a field of blue-green grasses.
“Could the Draugari have had him?” The voice belonged to Kella, the nurse who had sedated me when I first arrived.
“The Draugari?” Lee repeated with a scoff. “We are a long way from Draugari raiding territory. What makes you ask that, any signs?”
“No,” she responded. “Nothing physical if that’s what you mean. No scars or cuts. I’ve just heard stories.”
“The Draugari may be half-human savages,” Lee responded. “But they fight with honor of a kind. Abduction isn’t their way.”
“Yes, well,” Chen interrupted, gesturing Kella to the side, moving in front of her so that he stood between her and Lee. “It was a theory. For now though, I can say that the boy seems normal by all measures. Aside from the non-functioning organs, that is.”
“Very well,” Lee straightened up and prepared to leave. “We can make it 1,935. Chen, do what you need to do to jumpstart his system. I know our supplies are limited, but if you need to use some of the synthetics to replace his organs, do it. He may not be telling us everything he knows, but I don’t see any harm in young Elicio here. He has a strong back and a quick enough mind, both of which are things we need. Give him a Slate and access to the archives, maybe it will help jog his memories.”
He turned back to me, “When the docs have you up and ready, we’ll put you to work. You can stay, but you will have to carry your share.”
And he was gone.
Chapter 4.
“Beyond the stars?” It was my own voice speaking through the shroud of a memory.
“No, not beyond them. To them. The stars do not just hang above us as if on a sheet. Look at them. Some are brighter, some are darker. Some rise, some fall. They do not hang above us like a tent, or dome us like a roof, they are out there, each independent, flaming as distant from each other as they are from us.”
I stopped and pondered the thought while my teacher poured another steaming cup for us to share.
“No, there is more out there beyond our own sky. There are worlds and people. Some may be sitting as we are now, looking from the other side of those stars. Who knows, Elicio, there may be creatures out there who have learned to leap beyond the mountains, bounding from star to star, and world to world. Some may be good and kind, others may be driven by a ravenous need to devour and destroy. But they are out there.”
“You really believe that?”
“Yes, yes I do. Our people have memories of it. They are tired and ancient m
emories, which some teachers are charged to carry and guard. They are the stories of our people, handed down through generations. Some of them are memories of flying through the stars.”
“Will you tell me?”
My teacher smiled and patted my hand gently, “perhaps someday Eli, those will be your stories to know, but not today. It’s not a story to be told with words. It’s a part of the Charon. The Charon is a memory legacy, which is fully formed and whole, and passed on only in death. A Charon is a story that is told all in one gulp rather than tiny sips. Perhaps someday you will be the one to take my place as teacher and carry mine on. But, that day is not today. Now we must continue your lessons—”
The Slate was a fine thing. Kella brought it to me after Lee left, and explained how I should use it. It had thin transparent screen, like glass, and fit easily into my hands. The Slate responded to the slightest touch of my finger and the sound of my voice. I could ask it anything and it would show me the answer. Learning the letters of the language came to me easily. I began to study the words and names that I’d heard since coming here.
I said Lee’s name and it showed me his picture. The photo was some time ago, Lee was a young man, uniformed and unsmiling. Enlisted in the Earthborn Protectorate in 2409. Assigned to Alpha Centauri regional garrison in 2414, decorated for bravery at the battle of Alpha Centauri in 2419, demoted to Lieutenant Commander 2426. Retired 2427. 2432, contracted to be Governor of MineWorks Corporation’s Eridani III colony.
“Eridani III colony,” I said quietly.
As I did, Lee’s picture disintegrated and reformed into the shape of a planet. There were nine large and irregularly shaped green and brown landforms surrounded by a deep blue-green ocean. I slid my finger over the screen and the planet spun on its axis. I tapped again and the image came to an abrupt halt. As I did, an additional window expanded and hovered above the image:
Eridani III: Class M planet, 23 EH/D, 432 ED/Y, gravity near Earth normal. Initial environmental scans indicated atmosphere breathable, native vegetation minimal and protein structure uncertain. Biological scan and observational protocols were bypassed by approval of MineWorks Senior Vice Presidential of Advanced Projects and Analysis group, Mr. Hoonan Growd.
Notes: Upon initial survey, Eridani III met all requirements of a Stage 3 terraformed world, and was determined to be an optimal target for terraforming at minimal cost. Technicians instituted Stage 4 terraforming procedures to ensure maximum success of colonization. Biochemical terraforming operations executed to replace native flora with Earth-standard vegetation, and seed Earth-standard fauna using an accelerated 15-year growth cycle condensed into a two week treatment.
Terraforming completed 4.3.2432 and Authorized for immediate colonization to support refugees from the sixth planet of the Lagrange system, which was deemed unsafe for continued habitation resulting from unintentional industrial pollutants being released into the atmosphere.
Terraformed. I’d heard that word before, something Lee had said. My hands shook as the realization slowly began took hold. I closed my eyes again and saw flashes of blue-green fields, the strange alien faces, the quiet city settled on the delta.
“Terraforming,” I spoke, this time my voice was barely more than a whisper.
The Slate’s screen changed again, illustrating the scientific process of terraforming:
Earthborn Terraforming is achieve through the execution of four discrete stages (Note: full four-stage terraforming is prohibitively expensive and rarely executed, most terraforming occurs on uninhabited worlds that already meet the base-environmental requirements for later terraforming stages to reduce associated costs and time delays.)
Stage 1 Magnetic Shielding: An expensive and difficult process of charging the planetary core to create a magnetic shield which protects the planet from solar winds and other interstellar phenomena. A variety of methods are used involving large scale orbital operations and intensive sonic manipulation to optimize the planetary core environment. Prohibitively expensive and rarely employed. Process may take up to ten years.
Stage 2 Atmospheric Balancing and Acclimatization: Terraformers use large-scale deployable and reusable surface factory modules to process existing gasses and generate carbon, nitrogen and oxygen to build an earth-standard breathable atmosphere. During this stage robotic workers may be used to locate and unlock (thaw when frozen, or chemically create when necessary) liquid water for the planet. In some extreme circumstances, asteroids containing vital minerals and/or frozen water are diverted to the planet to provide a rich source for liquid water. Process typically takes between four and twelve years.
Stage 3 Carbon Seeding: An Earth-Standard terraformed world requires an abundant source of carbon, often in the form of biomass. When a terraformed world lacks native vegetation and carbon deposits, large amounts of carbon is imported in the form of biological waste, and deposited throughout the planet. Depending on available shipping resources and proximity to nearby carbon sources, this process may take from two years, to several decades.
Stage 4 Environmental Optimization: Environmental Optimization (EO) process is the final stage in the terraforming process, only instituted after the magnetic field is established, an Earth-standard atmosphere is in place, and adequate liquid water and carbon exist on the surface. The EO process uses a series of high-atmosphere explosives to disperse aggressive viral nano-genes throughout the planet. The nano-genes perform restructuring of all carbon-based material, seeding the planet with earth-standard flora and fauna. By drawing upon a full genetic library of balanced earthborn genetic options, this process is able to rapidly disperse and provide an incubated growth period, aging all plant life fifteen years within the short period of the EO. After the process is complete, usually in two to three weeks for standard sized worlds, the planet will be fully vegetated.
After the flora is seeded, the terraforming ship will then seed the world with cryogenically frozen fauna, including insects, birds, fish, and small animals to populate the newly formed world.
My hands began to shake. I flipped back to re-read the article on Eridani III: “Eridani III met all requirements of a Stage 3 terraformed world, and was determined to be an optimal target for terraforming at minimal cost. Technicians instituted Stage 4 Terraforming procedures...”
I was having trouble breathing.
“Stage four terraformed,” I said it aloud to myself as a whisper. The Slate heard me, the screen changed again:
Stage 4 terraforming is a complete and absolute process. Scientists have verified conclusively that it is impossible for any biological forms, including single-celled organisms and all native surface and subterranean life up to 600 feet below the planet surface, to survive the process intact. During this process, all carbon-based matter is eradicated and replaced with Earthborn standard varieties.
Eradicated.
The slices of a life I remembered. The village. The world. The teacher. The life.
My life.
My body.
Dissected, destroyed, and rebuilt.
Replaced.
My hand went to my face and felt the soft skin. The horrifying reality overcame me. Whatever I had been—the strange purple-eyed faces in my memories—had been taken from me. I was left with only fragments of the mind I used to have. And what of the world? What of the others? The faces in my memory?
I pictured the village from my memories, and imagined the sky changing and going dark. The beautiful polished wood buildings, the men, the women, the children playing in the fields, they all turned to dust before my eyes. The dust swirled in the air and turned into shapes. It turned into seeds, and grass, and trees. What was here once was now gone.
My muscles tensed and convulsed against my will. My eyes burned. I turned on my stomach, my face into my pillow, and I wept.
Chapter 5.
“Vengeance, violence, and victories are archaic abstractions. We have the words for these things because they were prevalent in our distant past. They are
the actions of the unenlightened, those whose lives are just a brief flame in the fire. Such things are fleeting, like a name written upon still water, they will ripple and curl, but soon they will become shapeless and slip into memory.”
“But what of the stories you’ve told me?” my voice asked. “Of how Tinaeas first crossed the tundra and settled the lowland valleys. Those were victories, and there was violence, when they fought off the packs of kargs in the night.”
“Ah, Eli.” my teacher responded. “How many kargs did they fend off on the sixth night?”
“When you tell it there are eight, but when Jonar used to tell it there were sixteen.”
“My point exactly,” my teacher nodded. “Memories of words are fleeting, the number of kargs changes in the telling, as do the number of days they traveled between rains. Such tales are stories that have lost their truths. They are fun to tell around the campfire, but the real story was lost the day that Tinaeas died alone on Canter’s hill, and his Charon slipped away unmet. All we can do is guess what truly happened.
“The truth of his victories is brief and fleeting without the truth of his life that was never remembered. Do not hold tight to stories of adventure, and do not hold onto anger when you are wronged. For vengeance and violence are fleeting and weak.”
