They looked at each other.
“We have found a Punku!” they yelled.
Sitting in the Listeners’ pose, which was second nature to them both, they sat and contacted Cunac and Sarenen to inform them of everything.
That had been the day before Cunac had entered the Listeners temple in Millham. Six days before he passed. It had been the last time Eik or David had spoken to Cunac.
Now on Pachamama, Sarenen was piecing all his father had left him together. He had a loyal discipleship, as determined as he was to see the True Listeners back to WaytaPata, their rightful home. He had a secret path to WaytaPata he could open with Black Rock and he had disciples who could be sent to start pruning away the rot in the Garden if they could get to WaytaPata.
Sarenen knew at least two of them would go as soon as possible if given the opportunity. Then he realised he needed three things. He knew how to open the Punku but not when. Eik needed to find a way to monitor the Punku in Khalil and they needed an excuse for a True Listener Disciple to be on Khalil who could go. Genet could not go. David could but why would he be on Khalil? The last thing he needed was time and patience. Sarenen would have to look to his father for inspiration. He had waited a lifetime and given his life. What better example could he have?
16.2Behind the scenes
The evening after Cunac had unexpectedly passed at the Punku, Sarenen found himself stood on a small river beach just downstream of Millham that was used for cremations. In his hand he held a flaming torch and although he knew he was physically there and could feel the weight of the torch he felt like he was watching himself from afar. Slowly he walked forward and placed the torch at the foot of the funeral pyre that his father lay upon.
Numb to emotion and feeling he stood back and watched as the flames quickly spread through the dry kindling and the base of the pyre. Soon flames were wrapping his father just as the white robes he was bound in did. Oblivious to the crowds behind him Sarenen wept.
The fire quickly consumed Cunac as the sun set behind Sarenen and the crowd that had gathered to pay their last respects. It was a brilliant sunset that mirrored the blaze of the fire. As the final light of the day faded Sarenen watched the last of the fire collapse and fall in on itself. His father lay in ash before him. Sarenen felt hollow.
Three men slowly moved forward offering condolences to Sarenen as they passed, he hardly noticed. They then began to push the remnants of the pyre into the slowly moving water of the river Ham. Some of the fire sizzled and darkened as it hit the water other clumps floated away flickering and hissing in the growing gloom.
Turning to Da’Cince and Ma’Kusi, Sarenen made his excuses and left alone retreating to the Listeners temple. He was having to come to terms with a very different reality from the one he’d known less than a day earlier, and quickly. No longer was the presence of his father looming large and dominating his life. That light and shadow had passed. Destiny now had him in her grip and he felt the pressure.
Considering himself a devout Listener and a living WaytaPatan, as his father before him had been, he knew he needed a plan and quickly to ensure that the Listeners could return to WaytaPata as was their divine right. His father’s legacy must be realised.
Sarenen found himself in the basement of the Listeners temple before he knew where he was. Turning again, Sarenen returned to the ground floor and ascended the stairs in the vestibule to the first floor and the open gallery that looked down into the central chamber. On the outside wall of the gallery there were windows that looked out in all directions over Millham. He needed a new perspective and hiding in the basement was not his way. Choosing a seat that looked out toward the Punku obelisks Sarenen sat and considered his situation.
Before his death they had gathered a small and loyal discipleship. Now he had to lead them. Sarenen quickly concluded he needed to gather his closest True Listeners to him; to let them know the truth of his father’s passing and the gifts he had left. He would then take council from them and set his father’s plan into action. He just wished his father had left a more detailed plan.
Sitting in the dark watching the starlight glint on the Obelisks rough surface Sarenen’s closest allies began to join him in conversation and eventually his daughter Eve joined him, having stayed at the river after her grandfather’s cremation.
“My friends, I am glad you can join me on this sad occasion.” He began. “Yes, I am glad but not because of my father, Cunac’s, death. But because of how he died and what he has left us. The three of you are my closest friends and allies and the ones I know my father trusted the most.”
“My Heart is broken Sarenen, yet you sound almost happy.” Answered David. He and his young son Eik were still on Khalil helping deliver the two fallen trees through the Punku. With Cunac’s guidance they had persuaded the Uma’s of both Stacha Pacha and Khalil that their continued presence on Khalil would help get the trees delivered and further firm the bonds between the two Pacha realms. For the True Listeners, the upside meant they could monitor the newly discovered Punku more closely. Khalil was now their main focus and concern, but also a problem. They needed an excuse to remain on Khalil to monitor the Golan Punku for storms as none could be predicted from the information they had and they did not know where on WaytaPata the Punku existed.
“My dear friends and daughter, my heart is broken, but before my father passed he left us new knowledge and gifts that coupled with the knowledge we now possess of the Punku at Golam gives us an opportunity the like of which we have never had.
“For you only I have added the truth of Cunac’s passing to our room. You will find all he experienced from the gathering we had only a few days ago when we learned of the Golan Punku. I ask that you now review these details before we continue.”
On Khalil, David and Eik entered the True Listeners room as did Eve as she sat next to her father. Eve had the assurance of someone who knew her destiny. Her grandfather had always favoured her and had been so proud of the name Sarenen had bestowed upon her. He secretly called her the First Ma of the new Era. To Cunac’s mind the name was another sign destiny was lighting the way back to the Garden.
“Father, I do not know where to begin.” Said Eve her grief being overtaken by pride and excitement. “Grandfather… he sacrificed himself to show us the way. We must get black rock to Khalil now and try the key, try to open the door. We could smuggle some in with the trees.”
“Eve, your grandfather would be so proud of you, yet I remind you that we must not be hasty. We cannot risk showing our hand. I hope you listened to my concerns of discovery. Remember we cannot come into the light yet. The time is not right for if we were discovered, be sure we would be cut off from the neural-net.”
“Sarenen, your caution is well placed but Eve is correct. This can be done.” Said Eik. He was only sixteen cycles but he too had the assurance and confidence that he knew his destiny. Both he and Eve were the first of a new generation of True Listeners to have been raised from birth with enlightened minds.
During the night the four allies discussed Cunac’s teachings, insights and the practicalities they now faced. It had been David who had the idea that would allow him a permanent stay on Khalil. He would persuade Genet, daughter of the Khalilian Chief Listener and a True Listener, that they should marry. He had not bargained on having to persuade his father or Sarenen that this was a good plan. As dawn rose they relented.
No one from outside Khalil had married into the realm in recorded neural-net history. It was the unlikeliest of unions. At the time David had been too young to be married but once Genet was in agreement the two would wait and be seen to court.
During the time it took to move the mighty trees to Khalil, David and Eik studied the emissions as much as possible and soon discovered that the language on the other side of this Punku was not the same as that that could be detected in Millham. If anyone did go through then the English they had learned would be useless. The True Listeners realised destiny had some twists. They
would not be going to WaytaPata anytime soon. Eik had time to wait to marry Genet.
On Khalil itself the main concern of the potential union between the two young lovers was not the time they were prepared to wait it was the issue of scale. Fully grown David was expected to reach approximately six feet. Genet was expected to reach approximately eighteen feet, small by native Khalilian standards. Biology and progeny were large questions hanging over the union. As David pointed out, however, this gave any disappearance an appearance of credibility. He would have gone into hiding due to the shame of the abandonment of his wife. Genet was not too proud to sacrifice a possible future with another Khalilian Listener to forward the True Listeners cause. So eight cycles passed after Cunac’s passing and then the two unlikely Pachans were married and made the strangest looking couple. David’s head barely reaching the top of Genet's leg. When he hugged her after the ceremony he could only hug her thigh as she bent down as if petting him. Those guests, who were not disapproving of the ceremony, were stifling childish giggles at the spectacle of the happy couple.
No one said anything but many were wondering how their union would be consummated.
Sarenen was impressed by David and Genet’s sacrifice and also by Eik’s latest device. It was modelled on an Earth device. He had made a set of two sound contraptions that had a low volume and could be worn over the head and next to the user's ears. ‘Headphones’ Eik had called them. The only person who could wear them on Khalil was David. Genet could only hold them next to one ear.
Genet and David were sharing the responsibility of listening to the Emissions at the Golan ruins. They could be picked up faintly from their home in the main city. Their babel devices had allowed them to listen to the local emissions but they were nothing like those from England. With Eik and Sarenen’s help they worked out that the emissions came from an area in WaytaPata called Israel, specifically Hebron or Golan. This came as a shock when they first heard the WaytaPatans using the name Golan. The fact that an area of WaytaPata with a Punku still had the same name as a city in DiPacha was seen by Sarenen as another sign. He knew his father would call it destiny, the Gardener guiding them down the path back to WaytaPata.
But this area of WaytaPata was obviously very different from England. For one thing, they did not send out weather reports all the time. So there was much less chance of predicting a storm that may open the Punku.
As it was, David and Genet formed a bond nobody expected, not even them. It had taken time but they found a way and a common mind. Their close relationship as True Listeners and their activities in this regard had drawn them together. Genet had commented to David that maybe this was their personal fate! Everyone was shocked when Genet fell pregnant. No one more so than Sarenen who thought that their relationship was purely plutonic and based on a devotion to the cause. Everyone was excited to find out about the baby, for many reasons.
Soon after David had announced the news of Genet’s pregnancy Sarenen had called Eik, David, Genet and his daughter together. It had been a long time since any real progress had been made, he felt lost. His father had been so sure that WaytaPata would open up to them. So far they had only listened to the Lost Garden.
Sarenen headed to the Listener Temple where Eve would be and they could commune with the other three who were in Stacha Pacha and Khalil. He headed to the basement where his father had preferred to meditate. He knew Eve would likely be there reviewing Illary’s work and preparing herself for any opportunity she may have to go through the Punku in Millham to Stonehenge. She idolised her grandfather and studied his memories and rooms as much as she studied Illary’s work. Her English was now as good as it could be, having been taught in secret. They planned that when she got through the Punku her story would be that of a refugee. The Babel device would allow her to understand anything said to her or near her. It would also allow her to manipulate those around her by providing the advantage of understanding every word said without having to either work to understand or give away the fact she could.
Sarenen and Eve had planned she would find one of the new Fanatic, groups that were springing up and appearing in the news emissions. Each group was fighting for different things in a world that was fighting to survive. Something called ‘global warming’ was swallowing up land all over their realm, destabilising whole areas and populations. Plus the political upheaval was starting to take shape following wars over something called oil.
Eve would take one or more of these groups and use the skills her father had taught her to wield them as shears to prune the rot. She had no compulsion to the idea of killing WaytaPatans, she did not even view them as people. Certainly not equals. She could not believe that those in WaytaPata had wasted the gift they had had, they were not True Listeners and needed to be removed, controlled or converted. This was the only way to save the Realm and for the Listeners to return home so all DiPacha could benefit from the Garden.
David had been following the same routine on Khalil except that he had been learning Arabic which had been identified as the language spoken the other side of the Punku at Golan.
Eve was waiting for her father full of excitement as she always was when they were discussing strategies for their eventual return. Sarenen loved his daughter but her devotion sometimes made even his blood run cold.
Sarenen had not changed anything in the basement following Cunac’s death over sixteen cycles before, it was like a shrine now and still held his father's favourite cushion that he'd used when meditating. It was half rotten now and if anyone did sit on it then it would disintegrate in a puff of dust.
It was approaching mid-afternoon on Pachamama and Sarenen had rushed through a rare shower as he’d walked from his home, his father's old home, to the Listeners Temple. At the temple he felt grounded, closer to the Gardener, his father and WaytaPata. Currently he also felt a little damp from the shower and a little frightened because of it. Since they had discovered storms on WaytaPata opened the Punku rain always made Sarenen feel uneasy.
Sitting on his own cushion Sarenen adopted his instinctual listener's position, cross-legged with his arms out over his knees palms up. Now seventy-one cycles his back was not as straight as it once had been as he stiffly sat there. Eyes closed he concentrated on Eve, Eik, David and Genet.
“Hello my loyal friends,” he said. After a brief pause, they answered.
“Thank you for talking with me today at short notice. I know you're all busy keeping up our Listener duties and our True Listener calling. By the way, how are you coming on with learning this Arabic language that is spoken through the Khalil Punku, David? I understand that there are some similarities with ancient Khalilian?”
“Very well thanks, Sarenen,” said David in Arabic, but this was lost on everyone as they were wearing their babel devices.
“I need to update you that Ralph and Kendra are introducing their families to the Guild of The Punku today. This evening I am sharing a meal with Illary and Betts. Their plan is to have new volunteers who can be trained to go to WaytaPata so if and when the Punku opens again they can go through to WaytaPata. I fear we will lose time to prune the sickness out of the garden if their plan succeeds. I have been praying that we can get one of our True Listeners to WaytaPata but our time does not seem to have arrived.” Sarenen was trying not to sound despondent, but he was. He was not expecting what happened next.
“Sarenen, you lead us well,” replied David. He was sounding excited. “Your faith in us and your prayers may be answered this day. I am, as we speak, rushing to the Punku ruins outside Golan. There is a rare storm approaching where we believe the Punku to be in WaytaPata. It's morning there and I pray I will have my next meal in the place they call Israel. We only found out about the storm just before you contacted us. It has been a little rushed here. I ask you help look after Genet and our child. I now have a strong reason to clear the dead, dying and unwanted overgrowth from our home. I will see my child to WaytaPata.”
Sarenen could not believe his inne
r ear. His mind raced and imagination fired. What did this area of WaytaPata actually look like? What were the people like? What did this mean for the True Listeners and DiPacha? Was David prepared? Was he jealous of David going? Was David really prepared to prune the rot from WaytaPata?
These and many more questions were flying through his mind.
“Sarenen, Sarenen? Are you still there?” Asked Genet
“Yes, Genet, I am. After fifty-one cycles I am just taking time to hear the information. There is a lot to understand and with no meaningful time to comprehend all the implications. We must trust in the training David has done and our faith in the Gardener to clear the path.”
Next to him he could feel Eve bristling with excitement, frustration and anger. She had devoted her life to training for this moment and David was about to experience it. She was hiding it well over telelink but within the basement Sarenen could feel the temperature rising.
“David,” said Eve, “I know how much work you have put into to this. The opportunity you have is all we have worked for and my blessings go with you. As you need I am here for you. As you can, contact me and I will do whatever is possible to assist you.”
Sarenen was impressed and a little shocked. The words did not match her body language. Sarenen thought how much she reminded him of her grandfather.
“My friend Eve, your support and encouragement over the cycles has been invaluable. I have little time so I cannot tell you all I would like to. You know now how much Genet and our child mean to me. At this time I ask you that you all support her and visit her as soon as possible. I fear that when I am gone she will need support. Our marriage has not been accepted by all and our child will need a strong family.”
“The True Listeners will be his family, Genet will have our support. Either in person when we can or over telelink,” replied Eve.
Disconnected (Connected series Book 1) Page 24
