“Improbable, but evidently possible.”
“How can this be?” He turned to me. “Did you have a Vision of this?”
“No, I did not. The Mind’s porting errors were the reason I was requested to personally report to the Zlathar High Council. We have just experienced such an error.”
“This environment does not correspond to any of my saved data. Do you have this information available?”
I didn’t even try to load anything from the nanoprobes. If any images of this kind were downloaded on my knowledge base, I would have known about it. This was something I simply wouldn’t have forgotten.
“No, Stevanion, I do not have any corresponding information available.”
“We need to port back. We need to find a porting chamber.”
I lifted my forearm to look at my E-band screen.
“We have no access to a computer frame. And my battery is almost out.” I lowered my hand and looked around again.
Stevanion looked at his E-band too. “My E-band has a similar level of power. It is not usual for a battery to lose so much power during one porting procedure. Do you understand why this happened?”
“No, Stevanion, I do not.”
“If inward portation is possible on this specific location, I can assume that the outward portation is possible too, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I would argue the same, but neither of our E-bands have enough power to generate a hyperspace resonance field and connect to the porting channels.”
“This is correct. We need to find a porting chamber,” Stevanion said with finality.
“Or a strong enough source of power to load our E-bands. In both cases, we need to change our location.”
“Dana, I am in agreement with you.”
I lifted my head and looked up at the trees. The wind above moved the leaves in different directions and more of the night sky became visible. The next moment, a small black shadow soundlessly flew high above me. Then another one as well. My heartbeat picked up.
Should I be scared?
Are we in a dangerous place?
I lowered my head and exhaled slowly. We will soon find out.
“I would recommend waiting for the daylight, Dana. The light will improve our search.”
“Yes,” I said and sat on the ground. Stevanion remained standing.
I looked up to the sky again.
I didn’t know where we were, and I knew this might well be a dangerous place, but somewhere deep inside me was a thrill, a hidden joy, almost an ecstasy.
I had escaped!
I didn’t know how long it would last, but right now I was happy to be anywhere other than facing the High Zlathar Priest.
My eyes were still plastered across the sky. I’d been mapping the view, comparing it to all my saved maps. Nothing.
“Dana, what are you looking at?”
“The sky.”
He looked up. “Why?”
“The stars, Stevanion. I never saw these constellations before.”
Then he looked at me. “Dana, do you have maps saved on your nanoprobes? I do not port with high frequency and had no need for such an information file. Do you know where we are?”
“I have the maps, Stevanion, but these stars tell me nothing.”
“This is an impossibility. All the star maps of Uni worlds are recorded.”
“Perhaps we are not in Uni anymore.”
“This is another impossibility, Dana. This world needs to be in Uni. Otherwise no porting would be possible.”
“Stevanion, I understand your rational analysis, and I would argue the same, but the maps I have don’t correspond to the image projected onto my optic nerve cam. There are no overlapping star patterns on any of the files.”
A rustling sound close behind us made us both turn around, but it was so dark we couldn’t see anything.
“It is vital that we find out where we are,” Stevanion said in a lower tone, still looking at the dark shadows of the forest.
“I am in agreement. A change of location might give us more information about this world.”
I pulled my knees up to my body and hugged them with both arms.
In the dark, my sight was limited, so all my other senses stretched out, feeling the new world around me. I heard a hooting sound on my left. I turned but I couldn’t spot anything. It was too dark. After a few passes, I heard the same sound high above me on my right. I automatically turned in that direction, although I knew I wouldn’t be able to see it.
I transferred the audio data for analysis and the nanoprobes came back immediately. There was not an exact overlap, but the information given was that the sound belonged to the organism called a bird. An image of the exemplar organism was projected to my optic nerve cam.
We didn’t have anything like that on Senthia, but some Descendant worlds did have a large population of this type of flying organism.
My neck started to hurt from looking up, but I wanted to see them for real. After a few passes, I bowed my head, stretching my neck muscles.
That’s okay. I will see them, sooner or later…
It was less than two hundred passes before the daylight started breaking behind us, revealing colors and outlining contrasts to the darkness of the night. The few sounds I heard during the night paled in comparison to the orchestra I heard now. The life in the trees was enveloped in beautiful sounds, echoing from one tree to another.
“Stevanion, I think we should start walking.”
He looked down at me. “Yes. I believe we should look for higher ground. We might have a better vantage point from which to spot habitation domes.”
I got up.
“I am in agreement, Stevanion,” I said and started walking.
“There is a very high probability that a habitation area has at least two porting chambers,” Stevanion said.
I didn’t respond to him this time. I knew that all of the Uni habitats had porting chambers—but what I didn’t know was if we were in fact still in Uni. And if we were outside of it, we might not find any habitats at all.
I activated the local coordinates on my nanoprobes and set up a local track path, to make sure we didn’t walk in circles.
We walked slowly, not saying a word. I looked at the ground, my feet shifting dried leaves on dark brown soil, making soft rustling sounds. I lifted my gaze to look at the forest.
The trees on this planet were so much larger and more diverse than any of the trees I had seen in Descendant worlds. Tall; wide; thin; thick; smooth bark; rough bark; branches starting from the bottom of the soil; branches starting from the top of the tree; bright green; dark green; large leaves; small leaves; flat leaves striped into many green comb-like spikes.
The trees.
They were enchanting.
Who would have thought it possible? Why didn’t I see this before? Where is this place?
I looked up. The sky was a beautiful deep blue. The bright star rose behind us, warming the air and the rich greenery we walked through. It was getting lighter with every pass, and slowly our shadows disappeared below our feet.
Every now and then, I closed my eyes for a moment and focused on the sounds.
It is beautiful.
I gave a silent command to my nanoprobes for audio recording. The songs were now committed to my knowledge base memory, and I could bring them back whenever I wanted.
I smiled again, just slightly.
The scents of this forest dazzled me as well. The air was full, rich, and intoxicating, almost to the level of making me nauseous.
It must be the trees.
I inhaled deeply, letting all the scents leave their traces as they passed through my nose, throat, and lungs. Keeping my eyes closed for a moment, I focused on the smells. They were truly magnificent.
“Dana, are you in good state? Your breathing has changed,” Stevanion said with a typical neutral Senthien voice.
I breathed out. “I am in good state, Stevanion. Thank you for your concern,” I sai
d in the same detached tone.
We continued walking in silence.
Once again, I was distracted by the flora of this place. Everything was so green: a place where you didn’t need to close your eyes and they could still rest. Almost every tree had a soft green layer covering one side of the engraved bark, and I noticed it was always facing the same direction.
I stopped for a moment and followed the green carpet with my eyes to the top of one tree and back. Stevanion passed me by. I looked at the tree, then Stevanion, and then at the tree again.
And then—I touched it. It gave way softly beneath my palm. And it felt wonderful.
Stevanion turned around, and I quickly removed my hand from the tree.
“Is there a particular reason you were in contact with this vegetative form?”
For a moment I was startled by his question, though it was the most logical one a fellow Senthien could ask.
“I… ” I looked back at the tree again.
I wanted to know how it feels.
I looked back at Stevanion.
Only I can’t tell him that.
“I was analyzing if the vegetation is similar to anything in the saved catalog of Uni vegetation,” I said firmly as I approached him.
“That is peculiar, Dana. The analysis I do works mainly though visual comparison. Tactile sensitivity in the layers of my skin is virtually nonexistent,” he said, looking down at his open palms.
I know…
I took a quick breath and continued, “The visual comparison did not give me any data. I tried to get another information point. It failed.” I passed him and continued walking.
We had been walking for a while and I was getting tired. I could tell by the sliding of Stevanion’s feet that he was too. For an instant, there was a slight feeling of panic arising in my mind.
How far do we need to go? Where do we need to go?
I had no answers to these questions, and no Vision to help me.
“Stevanion, we have not digested anything in the last several hundred passes.” I stopped and pulled a food bar from my thigh pocket. “I suggest the intake of energy,” I said, holding out one bar for him.
“Thank you, Dana. I had not thought to bring any food with me to the port. It must be your frequent porting experience that makes you prepared for different locations,” he said, opening the foil.
I looked at him for a moment without responding. I had chosen this specific skinsuit and packed it with food bars, with no idea why I would need it at all. It was a gut feeling. And it was impossible for me to explain it to Stevanion.
“We have food to digest for another one and a half days.” I turned away from him, looking at the wild vegetation. “But then we need to find more bars. Or a porting chamber,” I said and bit into the white chewy paste.
Just as I finished the bar and folded the empty foil to put back into my pocket, a single water drop fell on the top of my head, right in the middle where my hair divided. Another drop slid from the left side of my forehead to my eyebrow, and another on the top of my nose.
I looked up. Dark gray clouds with intricate whitish patterns had closed in on the bright blue sky and sunshine to give way to a… a water-shower!
This was the only way I could describe it.
On contact, each drop was a bit cold, but then it took on the warmth of my body and spread delicately on the skin, merging with the other drops falling from the gray-patterned sky. I closed my eyes, lifted my face to the sky, and savored the feeling.
“Is this toxic for us, Dana?” Stevanion’s flat tone interrupted my thoughts.
I sighed inwardly. I did not respond right away. I wanted to take a moment more to enjoy this unique experience.
Then I turned to him and said in a bland voice, “I do not believe so, Stevanion. There is no reason for this particular concern. However, with this amount of water-shower, our clothes may get wet. We should find shelter.”
We continued walking for a while longer, unable to find proper cover. All the trees were marvelous, but none of them seemed to provide enough shelter. It was getting darker, too. Night was falling. I wondered how long the days lasted here. I was disoriented, not only in space, but in time as well.
The water drops were falling hard now, but my skinsuit protected me; every drop just slid off, finding its way to the ground. But although my skinsuit was dry, Stevanion wasn’t wearing the same suit as me, and his wet clothes started giving him chills. He was shaking.
Before nightfall, we finally found a tree with large hanging teardrop-shaped leaves, giving enough covered space for both of us, although it didn’t leave much room for IP. Neither of us mentioned it, though, and we both crumpled up with our backs to the corrugated tree trunk, its large leaves protecting us completely from the rain.
We didn’t talk.
I leaned on the bark and slowly drifted into sleep.
I woke up at the first light of morning. There were no clouds above, only deep, clear blue morning sky with a hint of bright light coming from this planet’s star.
My suit was completely dry, but I was still very cold. This, however, had not woken me up during the night. I must have been really tired.
I lifted myself to a seated position and stretched my arms. Then I turned to the still-sleeping Stevanion. He was on his back, arms holding himself in a hug to keep warm, head tilted backward a bit with his mouth slightly open.
In more than 386 years, I had never woken up so close to anyone, so I stood up and moved away from him. Fallen leaves shuffled softly under my feet.
“Barka Stevanion Narth,” I said in a neutral voice.
Stevanion didn’t stir.
“Stevanion.” My voice was louder.
He moved slowly, cleared his throat, and sat up.
“Stevanion, I believe we should continue,” I said.
He looked at me and said in a flat tone, “My body temperature is not convenient.”
I looked at his still-wet skinsuit.
“We should walk. The muscle contractions will induce the same effect as an E-shower and you will get warmer.”
“I am in agreement with you.” He stood up awkwardly, not wanting to press his hands on the soil to push himself up.
By midday, the star was high above us and the air was warm. My pace was slow, and I was tired. I touched my lips. They felt rough and dry.
I silently communicated the symptoms to my knowledge base. The answer came back quickly: it corresponded to thirst and dehydration.
It was such a natural, basic need, yet I had never felt it like this before. It was a new and novel experience. It wasn’t my nanoprobes giving me this information. It was my body advising me that the current situation was not acceptable.
How amazing is that?
This wasn’t something I could record in any way, so I tried hard to memorize the feel of it.
I then turned to Stevanion. “We need to find water.”
He blinked few times, trying to clear his eyes. “I do not think this place has any HO engines… ”
“You would not need hydro–oxy combustion here. This planet has natural water. The water-shower from yesterday must have gone somewhere.”
He nodded, then stopped walking. “My body needs a rest.” He sat down on his knees, his gaze empty on the ground.
I looked ahead. “I will try to find some water and come back.” I noted the coordinates of Stevanion’s location on my nanoprobes and continued walking.
After only few passes, an unusual plant caught my attention. It was only a little bit taller than the top of my head, and cup-shaped leaves were hanging down low from the green succulent trunk. They held water from last night’s shower.
“Ah, the Moons of Senthia!” I whispered and walked to the plant. I held a cupped leaf in my hand, lowered it to touch my lips, and tilted it sideways so the water could flow freely into my mouth. I closed my eyes and enjoyed a thrilling sensation of the cold liquid rolling down my tongue and throat and finally reaching my s
tomach.
I drank for what seemed to be a long time. Once satisfied, I let go of the leaf. It sprang up high in the air, empty of its water weight.
I took one leaf still full of water and peeled the stem off the trunk.
The nanoprobe map led me directly back to Stevanion.
“Stevanion, I found water.”
He was sitting next to a tree.
“Stevanion, I found water,” I said again.
He turned toward me, looking at the leaf and then at me. “Dana, do we have any confirmation that this water is good for intake?”
His voice sounded rough, and his lips were dry and rough like mine.
“I do not have any confirmation, but we are both dehydrated. It is necessary for our bodily functions that we drink.”
“Thank you, Dana, but I am unwilling to take the risk if there is no proper safety confirmation.”
I lowered my hands and looked down at the leaf cup.
“If there are no health consequences to my body by tomorrow, would you then consider it nontoxic?”
“Yes.”
“In this case, you would drink the water. Am I correct?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Then we have agreed. Tomorrow, you will drink the water.”
I looked at my straps and attachments, wondering if I could keep the water somewhere on my skinsuit, but there was nothing appropriate, so I brought the leaf to my mouth and took several deep gulps. The rest I poured on the ground.
“Let us press on. We only have two food bars left. They will last until tomorrow morning.”
Stevanion got up and said, “What is your plan of movement, Dana?”
“We need to find a location where our surroundings are easily observable. We have been unable to find higher ground from which we can do this. My plan now is to walk to the end of the forest.”
“Do you think this is achievable?”
I turned to him. “I do not have this information. Our best option is to try. We do not have much choice in the matter.”
“I am in agreement with you,” he said and turned forward to continue.
Magnificent and breathtaking as this flora was, I found it hard to keep my pace. I kept stepping over logs and fallen trees, brushing past branches and leaves and pushing through the undergrowth. As the day was coming to an end, I was happy for a night’s rest.
The Senthien (Descendants of Earth Book 1) Page 4
