The Split Skies (The Possessor Wars, Book 4): The Possessor Wars, Book 4

by Chad Spencer

  Jeff grasped his drift immediately. “So they just heat one of the mirrors, and that end drops, and because the ship is off balance it moves in that direction?”

  “Exactly. I think its maximum speed will be about eighty miles per hour. But they probably cruise at about half that.”

  “But where are they getting gravity mirrors? They don’t have the technology to make something that advanced.”

  Hugh just shrugged.

  Traveling on the primitive craft was a unique experience. The gravity mirrors were locked, so they made no noise. The floating platform drifted silently across the endless sky while Athar Eabent shouted commands to his three crewmembers. Before they departed, the platform had been unloaded with goods, presumably from another floating island. Crates, boxes, and barrels had then been brought onto the “boat” and Jeff assumed they were going to be sold elsewhere.

  “That explains why they have gravity mirrors that large for such a small ship,” Amanda pointed out. “They’re a cargo vessel.”

  The cargo was all lashed to the main deck around the captain’s platform, which was in the center of the ship. Underneath the deck was a latticework of wooden beams that supported everything and enclosed the gravity mirrors. The crew’s cabins and the galley were also down there, along with two cabins for passengers. Jeff, Joonen, and Tolool shared one and Amanda got the other.

  The trip to the island of Phiusmus was only about a day and a half for Athar Eabent’s vessel. Jeff and Amanda spent most of the first day just sitting on the pile of crates on the main deck and looking out at the scenery. Hugh called periodically to update them on the progress of the Shadow Eagle.

  “We’ve got a lot of the pods already,” Hugh informed them near the end of the day. “We’re towing them with cables we made to the group of pods near Xemusiana. A couple of the pods at Xemusiana went over to see if they could trade for some food.”

  “Look, Jeff!” interrupted Amanda. She pointed to something green in the sky. “What’s that?”

  Joonen strode over to them and looked up. “That’s just a telerent. They’re very common. You usually see one or two float by every day. That one is very small. The larger plants spread across the entire sky. We use them to make our islands.”

  Opening his backpack, Jeff extracted a telescope that Hugh made for him. It looked exactly like the small telescope that Joonen had. But Hugh had added a powerful optical zoom to it, as well as a scanner and a radio.

  As he put the telescope to his eye, he used its zoom for a close-up look at the plant. It actually resembled a giant net more than a plant. The thick, rope-like vines of the plant formed a network between clusters of balloon-like yellow bulbs. It had giant green leaves. But the large, broad leaves also resembled funnels near their bases. Each leaf ended in something that looked like a water pitcher.

  Turning on the telescope’s scanner, Jeff also activated the tiny radio embedded in his ear.

  “Hugh,” Jeff called. “Are you there? Are you seeing this? Is the scanner transmitting to you?”

  Immediately, Hugh’s voice sounded in Jeff’s ear. “Yup, I can see it. And I’m getting your scans. It’s pretty awesome.”

  “How does it stay up?”

  “See those big round things all over the plant?”

  “Yeah.”

  “The scanner in your telescope says they have gravity mirrors inside. It’s just like the whale-like creature that we saw. I can’t explain how a plant could have gravity mirrors inside it, but it does.”

  “All I can tell you is that the leaves catch water when it rains. They store it in those pitchers at the bottom of each leaf.”

  Suddenly, Jeff saw something move. “Birds!” he exclaimed. “The whole thing is full of birds!”

  “The ship’s computer is analyzing the scanner data I’m getting from you,” interjected Hugh. “It says those birds originated on Earth.”

  “What?”

  “It’s true, Jeff. I think this really supports our idea that ships from the original wormhole collapse ended up here. Those birds have evolved a lot. But the computer says there’s no doubt that they originally came from Earth.”

  “Wow,” was all Jeff could say.

  In the evening, they broke out their provisions and shared a meal. Joonen and Tolool’s meal was a roasted bird. ‘Tastes like chicken,’ Jeff observed as he tried the portion that Joonen shared with him.

  Jeff had synthesized some hamburgers, and they were pretty much as good as the real thing. He cut one in half and let Joonen and Tolool try.

  “What kind of meat is this?” Tolool inquired.

  “Beef. It comes from an animal we call a cow.”

  “When we come to your universe, you must tell us how we can get some cows.”

  Jeff smiled and nodded.

  As the evening wore on, Jeff and Amanda were able to ask questions about what life was like on Thitheus, which was the name of the gas giant. Joonen and Tolool, for their part, had no shortage of questions about the universe that Jeff and Amanda had come from.

  They briefly took cover as the constant and cool wind blew a small cloudbank over them, dumping some rain. “It’s like this every day,” Joonen told them. “We never have a shortage of water.”

  “Do you ever get storms?”

  “Sometimes, but not often. Is that unusual?”

  “I guess. But it’s hard for me to say. I spent most of my life living in a building.”

  “You never went outside?”

  “Not until I was 14.”

  “Isn’t that confining? To live your life in one single building?”

  “The building was about twenty-five times taller than Xemusiana is long. And it’s more than twice as wide as Xemusiana is. There was lots of room to move around. In fact, there’s a huge city inside.”

  Joonen shook his head in disbelief. “You can build such things, and yet you have enemies that you are afraid of.”

  Jeff thought a moment, and then replied, “Reality can be a pretty harsh place to live, Joonen. Since the aliens came, it’s been pretty dangerous. And it’s getting worse.”

  “Do you think we have a chance to make it in that universe of yours?”

  “Well, I guess it depends on you. You have to struggle to survive no matter what universe you come from. We like to say that there’s ‘no free lunch.’ You work for what you want in life. And if you’re going to be safe, it’s you that has to defend yourself.”

  “You’re very wise, Jeff Bowman.”

  Jeff laughed. “Actually not. I’m just repeating what my father says.”

  “My parents said similar things before they passed away.”

  “How did they die? Is it ok to ask?”

  Joonen glanced at Tolool sadly. But then he replied, “It’s fine. Our parents died for their beliefs. The Great Proctors of the Guild of Scientists sentenced them to death for teaching what they call Revisionism, the belief that humans originated on another world. We were all banished for a while but then the Scientists came for my parents. Tolool and I got away but our parents didn’t. They wouldn’t recant, so they were executed.”

  Shocked, Jeff asked, “Didn’t you say that your grandfather was a Great Proctor? Couldn’t he help them?”

  Joonen’s face turned to stone. “No. Our grandfather was the lead Inquisitor in their case. It was he who demanded the death sentence.”

  Conversation pretty much died off after that. Amanda decided to return to her cabin and go to sleep. Jeff figured he’d do the same.

  Joonen agreed, “Me too. Morning comes early.”

  “I’m going to sleep up on deck,” Tolool said. He promptly disappeared under a tarp that was covering a couple of piles of boxes.

  Descending a ladder to the cabin below, Jeff climbed into a hammock, which was a new experience for him, and pulled the single blanket over himself.

  31

  The island of Phiusmus dwarfed Xemusiana. It was a more or less circular landmass with a radius of about ten miles
. It was covered with trees, lakes, and grasslands. As they approached, Jeff stood on deck with Amanda and gazed out over the vista.

  Amanda pulled out her telescope. “Jeff, take a look at that big, grassy field over there. Tell me what you see.”

  Complying, Jeff zoomed in on the field. He used the telescope’s scanner to confirm what he was seeing. “Nestorian porcuhogs. I guess that proves exactly where these people came from. Lots of freighters going to the Colorado system haul Nestorian porcuhogs.”

  “We use them for food too,” agreed Joonen. “And we make glue from them that we use for nearly everything.”

  Tolool interjected, “Look, there’s the port.”

  Phiusmus’s port was crowded with skyboats and skyships moored at docks that protruded out from the side of the floating island. The stench of animals in their crates hung over the whole area. Jeff saw that the port stretched downward along the island’s side until it was out of his view. Jutting docks, towering cranes, and a maze of catwalks and walkways made the port look like it had been congealed rather than built.

  Athar Eabent and his crew guided their little craft to a cluster of small docks near the top of the port and tied it fast. An employee of the port greeted them and quickly assessed their docking fees. It wasn’t long before they concluded their business and began unloading. Tolool paid Athar Eabent for their passage. Then they gathered their belongings and disembarked his ship.

  “Phiusmus isn’t a Tuluvet city,” Tolool told them as they made their way up the catwalks and through a tunnel carved into the floating island. “But they don’t persecute us. Humph. They really don’t care one way or another about us as long as we do a profitable business with them and don’t make trouble. There’s a fair number of Tuluvets that live here. They’ve formed a Council that we can go to for help.”

  It occurred to Jeff that Hugh might want to get a look at the town as well. He might have some good insights. Jeff called Hugh and asked him about it.

  “Sure!” exclaimed Hugh. “I totally want to see the town. Just get out your telescope, set it to transmit video, and carry it in your hand. If you point it at the things you’re looking at, I’ll see them too. No one should notice because it looks just like the telescopes the locals use.”

  With his telescope held nonchalantly in his hand and his radio earpiece in his ear, Jeff followed after Joonen and Tolool with Amanda close behind. She held his hand as they wove their way into and out of the interior of the island as they made their way through the business district of the city.

  Phiusmus was amazing. The entire city was a teeming jumble of tunnels through the island, which were lit by primitive electric lightbulbs. Everywhere were shops and restaurants blaring music, glowing signs, and people, people, people.

  Unlike any human habitation Jeff had ever seen, Phiusmus had animals everywhere. People walked various kinds of pets, sold living animals for food, and used a variety of animals to pull carts and carriages, even though electric carts were common too. So Phiusmus had a distinct odor to it that took Jeff a while to get used to.

  Something else that surprised Jeff was the abundance of both plants and birds. Everywhere there was sunlight, the residents of Phiusmus grew plants. Joonen confirmed that virtually all of them were for food.

  And the birds were everywhere. They nested on the bottoms of the walkways along the outside of the island. They flew in flocks around its rocky exterior. They even inhabited the tunnels that ran through the island’s interior.

  “They help keep the island clean,” explained Joonen. “They eat animals that die. They eat the food we drop. There are some that even eat the poop that other animals leave behind.”

  ‘That’s a little more than I needed to know,’ Jeff thought, cringing.

  Joonen led them into a wide marketplace with high, vaulted ceilings. One end was open to the exterior of the island and daylight streamed in from a long balcony.

  Tolool left to attend to some business. Deciding to go to a restaurant, the rest of the group strolled along the balcony, gazing out into the blue expanse.

  Hugh called out, “Jeff, Wait! Look at that.”

  Stopping, Jeff quietly muttered, “Look at what?” He was careful no one heard him talking to someone who wasn’t present.

  “To your left. There’s a guy cutting up a gravity mirror. It looks like he’s making little marbles out of them.”

  Stopping to watch, they saw the craftsman with a gravity mirror sitting on a small fire. Jeff recalled that heating the mirror would randomize its crystal matrix. ‘He’s keeping it from floating away.’

  As the man worked, he expertly chipped pieces from the gravity mirror and passed them to a younger assistant. Given how much the two men resembled each other, Jeff concluded that they were father and son. The son ground the pieces into perfect little spheres about the size of marbles.

  A woman standing at the front of the booth the two men worked in (‘Probably his wife,’ Jeff decided.) was selling the marbles to a short line of customers. Surprisingly, each customer took a handful of marbles, walked to the edge of the balcony, and then threw them off the edge. Next, they clapped their hands three times, bowed their heads, and closed their eyes in an attitude of prayer. Jeff asked Joonen about it.

  “It’s really a superstition,” Joonen explained. “But we all do it. If you make enough offerings, the Old Gods who the legends say live in the abyss below are supposed to grant your most heartfelt wishes. We know it’s not really true. But it’s a cultural thing. It’s seen as virtuous to make daily offerings so most people do.

  Hugh muttered in Jeff’s earpiece, thinking aloud. Eventually, he said, “Jeff. I think I know what’s going on here. See those little marbles they’re throwing over the edge? Those are little gravity mirrors.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Those people who carve them up heat them so they won’t float. Then they sell them as offerings and people drop them right away into the clouds below before they cool off.”

  “It’s a tradition.”

  “It’s more than that. If I remember right, this gas giant has everything you need to make gravity mirrors down there in the lower layers of its atmosphere. They’re using those marbles as seeds. A long time ago someone started with a gravity mirror that was manufactured for a ship. They cut it into small marbles, heated it up, and it dropped down into the atmosphere below. Down there is everything you need to build a gravity mirror. The pressure from the atmosphere down there forces gases into the crystal matrix of the seed. That’s actually how we manufacture them too. We put them in a high-pressure chamber and inject the right gases. The crystal just grows from there.”

  “Once it gets big enough,” Hugh continued, “it cools off and floats back up here where people grab it from the sky. Then they use it to build the land they live on like we saw earlier. Or they use it for their ships. Or they use it as an offering to make more mirrors.”

  Amanda interjected, “But more than likely you wouldn’t find a mirror that you dropped. After it comes up, it could end up anywhere. And probably a lot of the marbles they drop get destroyed down there.”

  “Probably,” agreed Hugh. “But people make offerings here every day. If you do that enough, eventually you’ll get some mirrors back. You can use some and carve the rest up into new offerings.”

  “So this entire island in the sky …” Jeff began.

  “… started with one person dropping marble-sized gravity mirrors down into the abyss,” Hugh finished for him. “When full-sized mirrors came back up they glued them together with glue they made from Nestorian porcuhogs that they had with them. And they made more mirrors from some of the mirrors that came back up. Over the years they just kept adding on and layering on until they got their islands to live on.”

  “Not quite,” interjected Joonen, who was listening on an earpiece that Jeff had given him. “You’ve got it mostly right. Our village is on an island made that way. But that’s because we’re outcasts. We’re poor. Mos
t islands start with a large telerent plant. You remember the floating plant we saw when we were on the way here? People move into those and start packing them with dirt that they make from composting their own wastes. As they go along, they capture more telerents and add them on layer by layer. Eventually it becomes a large island like this one.”

  Joonen continued, “There are islands that are much larger than this. In fact, there are floating continents. They have mountains and rivers and lakes and everything. Most people live on the eleven continents. Legend says that thousands of years ago, there were twelve continents but one was lost. Most of us don’t believe those old tales.”

  “But Joonen,” asked Amanda, “how do the plants get gravity mirrors?”

  “They catch them when they come up from below,” Joonen answered. “Telerent seeds are attracted to gravity mirrors. Many of the life forms on this world are attracted to them. With the telerents, the seed lands on a mirror and sticks. It sprouts and starts gathering dust blowing on the wind. It uses that and the gasses and the moisture in the air to grow. It forms a net of vines that grabs another mirror, and starts the process all over again. Eventually, they can grow so large that we build islands and continents from them.”

  Jeff asked, “And this has been going on for 100,000 years?”

  “Correct.”

  Amanda broke in by asking, “The life forms here are attracted to gravity mirrors? That can’t be natural. I think the first humans in this universe genetically engineered the plants and animals to be attracted to gravity mirrors–like those whale-like creatures.” To Joonen, she explained, “We saw large animals with wings on their sides that our scanners said have gravity mirrors inside them.”

  Joonen’s eyes widened, “Naralls? You saw naralls? When?”