She said with a slight emotional vibration in her voice, “Yes, that is good news, but I fear that you, my little Soya, will never be just one of many anymore.” She patted my hand. “If you reach your life’s goal, a starship captain is never one of the crew.”
I never really thought about it that way, yet both Admiral Stahl and Captain Harris told me the same thing, but then that was years in the future, and with all the detours life threw at me, it might even take longer. I asked her, “What is a Soya?”
She looked surprised and then said, “I did call you that, didn’t I? Well, it’s nothing really; just an old word. I think we should go and see the statue and take a little sight-seeing tour and after a good night’s rest, we take the next transport to Checkpoint 96.”
She got up and added, “But first, I have urgent business to attend. Something even immortals still have to do.”
She went to the bathroom door and closed it behind her.
The Sojonit leaned forward and whispered, “Soya is an old Saresii word can be translated as, ‘beloved student’.”
The woman turned to look into the direction where the Mother Superior had just gone and added, “You should be very proud of that. There are only two or three individuals she has ever called Soja, as far as I know. Considering her true age, as I think she revealed to you, this makes this very special indeed. I’m am certain you are the first male ever so honored.”
I was still thinking about that, an hour later, just why she had chosen to call me that when we left the Sojonit tent.
The paths and lanes between the tents and makeshift buildings were filled with men, women, and members of several non-humanoid species. They all wore these golden dresses like robes, girded with a tasseled rope around the hip. On the feet, they all wore simple slippers, just like we now did. Many wore additional capes with attached hoods. Not everyone wore them up, but we did and our faces were partially hidden underneath a veil that was supposed to keep the dust and local insects away. We instantly blended in, and there was a busy din of voices and the pilgrims frequented the stores, shops, and souvenir stands.
We stopped at a few and looked over the offerings. There were miniature statues in virtually any material and size. The statues all depicted a somewhat human-shaped being that stood inside a hexagonal frame with outstretched arms and legs. The figure had no feet or hands or any other details and was smooth and featureless. The head of the figure was a metal loop with five different-colored glass segments. Green, red, blue, yellow and white.
The most popular item appeared to be jewelry. Earrings, necklaces, and armbands adorned with the same symbolic figure.
Mother Superior, who asked me to call her Gamia now, and I had to listen for the name Renia, purchased a necklace and handed it to me. “Here, wear that; it will look nice on you and it will be a souvenir reminding you of this time.”
I thanked her and put the thing around my neck. She bought herself a set of earrings and I took what looked like an incense burner. “What is the meaning of this figure anyway?”
She put the earrings on and answered, “You will see the real thing in a little while. About twelve thousand years ago, after my species resumed space exploration, we found this world. At first, it was an unremarkable planet, but it had a suitable NiOx atmosphere and liquid water. A few indigenous life forms, mostly plants, and crab-like animals, were observed as well. But then they noticed that the world was in a perfectly circular orbit around a yellow star that had no flaws, no sunspots, and its spectrum showed it was much older than a yellow star should be. The system has only this one planet and the world has no axial tilt. All these are strong indications that this system was not natural but had been altered by a very advanced civilization.”
We had left the jewelry dealer and slowly walked within the stream of others, and she continued her explanation, “The Saresii expedition discovered a five-hundred-meter-tall statue standing on a platform.” She reached for my necklace and held its pendant up. “It looks like this. The material it was made of turned out to be some Neutronium alloy and virtually indestructible.”
The buildings became more solid now and were mostly made of local stone and appeared quite old. She changed our direction by walking toward a taxi stand, where we had to stand in line as there were not enough taxis. The line moved fairly quickly, as there were only maybe sixty or seventy individuals before us and the arriving flyers took eight to ten passengers along.
She lowered her voice and switched to that odd language. They must have uploaded me with the linguistics while I was at the temple since I understood it just fine. “The Saresii had no interest back then in expanding again, and this world was too far away from Sares Prime anyway, so they took notice, recorded everything and more or less forgot about it. It was re-discovered after the Third Intergalactic War and by treaty included in Free Space.
Archeology teams of the Big Four started digs and excavations, and it was generally accepted that the statue is of UNI origin. They have found ruins of a much younger and primitive civilization but determined that the ruins had nothing to do with the statue itself. Some of the ruins excavated you see here in the core of the Netlor settlement. These are all permanently occupied and serve the Pilgrims and tourists that come here outside the main religious events.”
It was our turn to board the next flyer, and we shared it with eight loudly and agitated chatting golden-robed members of that church. They paid little interest in us; all eight were human and spoke Union standard. Unable to ignore most of their conversation, I learned they all came from a Union planet called Guzzler, 763 light years away and that it was not only their first pilgrimage but also their first time off-planet. One of the female pilgrims unfastened her veil and took a long sip from a water bottle, fanned her hand before her face and complained about the dust and the heat. She then went into a long discussion of how to make mud pie for the church coffee and tea gathering.
While I was not in the least interested in just how much cocoa powder was needed to make mud pie; she obviously felt the need to include everyone in her conversation and then pointed her finger at me. “Don’t you agree, young lady?”
I was completely caught off guard by that and simply nodded. Since it was impossible for the Mother Superior to tell me more about the place I had been thinking about finally returning. It hadn’t been all that long, but it had felt like a lifetime.
She began to annoy me, especially since I had made a mistake agreeing with her; she included me in her conversation and asked me again, “You agree, don’t you?”
This time, I didn’t even know what she had talked about and said, “I think you should stuff some of that mud pie in your pie hole. Maybe that will shut you up!”
For the first time, there was silence. She acted like a fish on dry land, opening her garishly pink painted lips and gasping for air.
I nodded. “That’s the ticket. Keep breathing for a while, and we all can enjoy some peace and quiet.”
Now she turned colors underneath her hood and a chinless man with thin black hair, not wearing his hood up, patted her hand and hissed at me. “Galria is the soul of our church group! How dare you tell her to shut up? You are one rude and primitive person. You should be expelled from our community.”
After all I’d gone through the past weeks, this trivial, unimportant scene somehow annoyed me. From psych class, I realized my nerves and my own balance had suffered more than I realized and I was about to stuff my fist in his face and show him just how rude and primitive I really could be when someone said, “There it is, the statue!”
Everyone, including me, looked at the horizon. Before a rugged-looking mountain range stood a huge version of the symbolized being. It was not bad or ugly or anything, but to me, it was just some sort of huge piece of alien art. While 500 meters was quite tall, I had seen the Devastator land. I saw the Sphere of Assembly and the immense towers on Pluribus. That statue was about as unexciting to me as seeing an Ult painting. No one, not even t
he Ult, could tell you what the smear was supposed to represent and yet everyone went crazy when Master Nubb released another masterpiece.
The Mother Superior pulled me back down into the seat and whispered, “Let us keep this station in our journey a simple and short one. I don’t think we need the trouble and try to hide from the local Syndicate guards because you pounded a Pilgrim group to a pulp.”
That made me sit down and be quiet very fast. No way did I want to be in any more trouble, not so close before getting back. “Yes, ma’am.”
She leaned close. “You do have a short temper. I think you need to work on that a little.”
What seemed a lifetime ago, I’d accused my father of having a short temper. Reflecting on my actions since I left Nilfeheim, and not for the first time either, I realized how much trouble I could have avoided if I had kept a cooler head.
We were dropped off at the base of the statue, and I watched thousands gather on the platform before the statue and throw off their robes, standing completely bare, mimicking the pose of the statue. I never was much of a religious person but standing there in the buff seemed particularly silly to me.
She leaned close and said, “I assume you do not want to join them and bathe in the light, right?”
“No, not really. I told you before, I respect your religion. I even try to respect this one. But seeing adult beings wanting to bathe in light makes it quite hard. I limit my religious activities to occasionally calling on Thor or Odin and cursing Loki.”
Even though I could not see her face, as it was underneath the hood, I was certain she was amused, her voice certainly sounded that way. “Yes, you told me and I respect your decision on that. I too find this a little silly. I think there is a Kermac or Saresii telepath hiding somewhere, paid by the local syndicates to give some of them a religious experience to keep the mystery and thus the donations and the business alive.”
She then said, “But I thought since we are here anyway, we might as well see it. For one thing, traveling educates as they say and it never hurts to see something new. That is a particular problem when you get my age.”
She took my hand and pulled me out of the way of other arriving pilgrims that immediately climbed the stairs.
I thought about that for a moment and whispered back, “Do you really remember everything you have seen and done in all that time? Would you not simply die of boredom having seen everything in one form or another?”
Now she really laughed. “Thankfully not. No, I don’t remember everything, but occasionally I remember things I thought I had forgotten.”
Some sudden revelation came to my mind, and I whispered, “Can I ask you something, Mother Superior?”
“Of course.”
“Are you the goddess? I mean are you Sojo?”
There was a moment of silence, and she squeezed my hand she was still holding a little tighter. “No, not exactly, but perhaps I am something in that direction. One day, when you come into your own, I will try to explain it to you, but for now, it does not matter. I am what I am, and you have a long way ahead of you. At least I hope you do and don’t stir up trouble you can’t get out of.”
I didn’t feel like poking more, as I knew she would not answer.
She pointed to the sun that was now disappearing behind the mountain range. “Those mountains are about eight kilometers from here, and when the sun reaches a particular spot it will line up with a hole in the tallest mountain and send a beam of light right at the head of that statue and it, in turn, will bathe the platform with colored light. It will last only for a few moments, but that’s what they are waiting for.”
As the first rays of light made the hole in the mountain visible, a collective sigh was going through the crowd. Slowly, the bright sun was filling it out, and it was quite impressive to see the light hit the colored glass-like material. The pilgrims started singing and waving, and it all was not my cup of tea. However, as the sun filled the hole completely, I suddenly remembered my ring.
It became warm, and I knew there was something that belonged to me right underneath that statue!
As if veils were lifted from my mind, it became clearer, and I longed for my ax to cut down this primitive leftover of a race that conspired with my eternal enemy Lord Lumis to keep me away from what was rightfully mine! Here, right below that statue, were my gauntlets and not even the Neutronium-covered statue and the million tons of metal they had poured over them, could keep me separated! I raised my arms and thundered, “Feel my wrath!”
The sun passed the hole and the light subsided, and I knew something had happened. Something that had to do with me, but why was I standing there just like the statue, my arms raised?
I also noticed that the sky had filled with dark clouds and it was starting to rain. Lightning crackled and hit the statue, followed by thunder.
The crowds were scrambling for their clothing, pulling up hoods and coming down the stairs. Someone complained about the lack of weather control on this world, and another tried to explain that it rained here only very rarely and usually at night.
My mind reeled to remember something. Perhaps I was more stressed than I realized and needed a good night’s sleep.
Mother Superior was still standing there and had not said a word since the light started to shine through the mountain. I said to her through the torrents of rain, “I hope I did not offend you asking you that question.”
The golden hood she wore was already soaked and clung to her head, and I could see her face much better. She looked me in the eyes and then her lips formed a fine smile under the equally wet veil. “No, not at all. I am just as surprised and startled about the sudden rain storm, but then they don’t have weather control or even weather forecasting here.”
I pointed to the mountains. “I guess the clouds were too heavy to climb over them and that’s why they dump their load on us.” I stretched my arms out again. “Sorry, ma’am, but I simply love rain and water.”
We had to wait almost two hours before we found room in one of the taxi flyers to take us back. At least the rain didn’t last that long and stopped pouring about twenty minutes after it had appeared.
We went to another hotel, this one also made up of large tents, but the tent bungalows were quite comfortable, had good hygiene facilities, and appeared to be low tech but clean.
I found out that Pilgrims Gamia and Renia Herton, sisters and natives of Leno’s Colony, had already booked this tent bungalow and our luggage was already there.
Mother Superior had not said much to me the entire time, and I felt I might have done something to disappoint her or offend her after all. After we had changed into dry clothing that was basically the same, except no cloaks, I asked, “Ma’am, are you sure I didn’t do something? I apologize if I did. I assure you I am very grateful for all you did and I am very proud that you called me your Soja.”
She was sitting down, combing her long hair, and said, “No, Eric, you have done nothing to offend me. Did you hear anything or experience anything strange while the sun lit up the statue’s head?”
I touched my head and said, “Narth did something to me so telepaths can’t read me anymore. So, if there was someone doing any psionic tricks, I did not notice. Not that I am all that comfortable with psionics in the first place. Did you feel something? I found the entire spectacle quite boring, to be honest, and that sun didn’t even completely line up with the hole. There wasn’t all that much colored light.”
She put the brush down, thinking for a moment, and then shrugged. “No, I didn’t feel anything either, and I guess the rain ruined most of it. I think we should eat something and then call it a day. We are booked for the first transport, and it leaves at 0900.”
We had a light dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. The menu even offered grilled fish from New Sweden, but the cook or the Auto-Kitchen had no idea how to prepare fish right, and it was dry and completely overdone, but it still tasted like heaven to me.
After we had returned to o
ur tent bungalow, she drew a curtain cutting the room in half and wished me a good night. For the first time in a while, not counting the uncomfortable naps on the flight here, trying to find a non-cramping sleep position in the upright seats of the Poodle, I had a bed and realized how tired I was.
Just as I was drifting into sleep, I thought I heard her voice, and she was talking to someone. “I think he caused the tornado unconsciously with his rage at seeing the slaves and something happened today. For a brief moment, the Dark One stirred and was awake.”
I tried to think about what she was saying, but maybe it was just a dream. No one could create a tornado, after all, and I drifted completely into deep sleep.
The next day, I felt like a new person. She, too, appeared to be in good spirits, and we had a good but astronomically-priced breakfast. I insisted on paying for the rooms and the meals, and even though they charged us a little over 3,000 credits, it didn’t make a dent in the amount available on the credit box. We went one more time to the bungalow to get our luggage that someone had prepared for us as part of our disguise.
We were on time at the small spaceport with at least a thousand others again looking pretty much like we did. There were no customs officers, but the local authorities charged a 200-credit spaceport usage fee per person. Merchants pushed carts around, trying to make the last sale. One of them was selling little bottles of dirty water, praising them as Blessed Water from the Statue and the unusual rain event. To my surprise, he did brisk business.
On the landing field, I counted twelve old Leyland space busses, a Kermac T Cruiser, and two Kartanian armed merchants. Even the old buses were fitted with weapon turrets, and Mother Superior explained to me, “They fly in convoys, and the T Cruiser is there to fly protection. The syndicates and the temples here pay protection fees to some of the bigger pirate outfits, and these armed convoys proved to be quite effective to keep the smaller and lone wolf pirates away. In rare cases, pirate attacks do occur but usually not during the main season.”
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 67
