All too soon, the travelers had to rouse themselves, since Peebo had arranged to take them by blimp to the southern continent to see the memorial and visit the research center where Klein spent his last days. Entara was delighted to learn it was the “original” Domremy blimp, the airship Klein had followed to the Middendorf Hills during his trek through the uncharted grasslands after his duel with Aleksandrov. Ayan’we tried to imagine what her mother was thinking as she stared out the window as the blimp guided along, watching the sea of reeds as though she might spot a hairy Klein and his pack thallops still trudging along. When Ayan’we herself looked out the window, she gave a yip of surprise upon spotting a group of giant grasshopper-like beings bounding along. The Locals could spring up almost as high as the blimp as they migrated through the savanna. “Look, mom! I wonder if of any of those actually linked up telepathically with Klein?”
“You know what, my dear? I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them even grew in Klein’s body when he donated himself as a host. In a way, they could claim to be his children.”
That made Ayan’we think of Amanda, who had insisted that Ayan’we was as much Klein’s adopted daughter as she was his biological offspring. When the blimp passed over a narrow strait of salt water and eventually landed on the southern continent, Peebo’s son Mel was there to greet them, as was Dr. Patak, the scientist who had supervised Klein’s experimental communications with the Locals and the genetic engineering project to restore Domremy’s original ecology as it had existed before Hyperion Corporation attempted to terraform the planet. They guided Entara and Ayan’we through all the units in the experiment station, which had developed a great deal since Klein’s funeral. The pippos that Klein had tended had bred so successfully that dozens had been released into the wild and only a few remained as test animals. Besides those pig-hippos that once roamed the plains in great numbers, the Dissenter scientists had restored six other animal species to the southern continent, as well as over fifty plant species that were thriving in many locations. They were still working on their biggest project, an attempt to revive the sheep-like creatures who had once served as hosts for the infantile Locals. Recent discoveries of new DNA in a cave north of the Middendorfs held out hope that a viable, fertile clone could soon be created. When Entara and Ayan’we were offered the chance for a telepathic communication session with Locals, they both accepted without hesitation. Soon insectoid feelers were tickling their inner ears and the session began. The Forlani gasped as they began to visualize images of Klein himself in his earliest contacts with the one he called Stumpy and later with other Locals in the research center. Their race had widely shared these memories with each other and now happily bestowed them of those Klein had loved. In return, they would bring impressions of Forlan to share with their relatives.
As the suns set, the Dissenters brought the Forlani to the stone memorial that stood some distance from the center and set out mats and blankets so that the females could lie under the stars as Ayan’we had once done with Amanda, and the daughter could point out to her mother, as she and her friends had with the human girl, the location in the sky of Amanda’s Star. With Klein’s likenesses moving in their dreams, they slept under the caresses of a warm Domremy wind. In the morning, Mel and Patak drove them hastily to the landing area where their Bountiful shuttle would alight. Ayan’we was startled to see the figure of Trevor already at the site. She had assumed he would stay on Domremy with his closest associates.
When she asked him if he would accompany them to Tau Ceti, he replied, “Sure thing, Cluster Leader! I have made a complete report of all my wanderings and discoveries to the Circle here on this world. Now I am on the way to Tomakio to share everything with them.”
Ayan’we remembered that Tomakio was the other planet chiefly inhabited by Dissenter farmers. It made perfect sense. “Where will you go after that? Off into some new corner of the Zone or even beyond?”
“Most likely not. I will rendezvous on Tomakio with a lady named Indira who is to carry on my work once she is up to date on the trail of the spiritual substrate. As for myself, I plan to stay on Tomakio and devote myself to farming and social issues. My quest is complete and I plan to ‘quit while I am ahead,’ as they used to say on Earth. Sharing the news of the ancient inhabitants of Song Pa with the present species is a pretty good crowning achievement. I doubt whether I could ever get such an opportunity again for an act that is meaningful and satisfying. What do you think?”
“You are right,” nodded Ayan’we. As she glanced at her mother, she added, “Later, when we are under way, I’d like to talk to you again about something.”
“I understand,” he winked. “I will be available.”
On the second leg to Tau Ceti, the transport ship began to seem quiet and drab to Ayan’we compared to the bustling, noisy Transfer Varess space station in the days of the conference. Other than the occasional meal in the mess area, she had little opportunity to discuss things with her fellow travelers. Even during lunch they seemed too absorbed with training and work duties, or distracted by writing messages to their mahäme friends on their tablets, to care about anything else. Ayan’we now missed the electric atmosphere of Varess – that undeniable tension of rival species attempting to understand their adversary’s political maneuvering, the feeling of openness that came from a rare place of galactic interaction with multiple life forms forced to work together, the sense of intrigue as she worked to unravel a shadowy conspiracy of humans and Garanians. After the next couple of days, she had given up on her attempts to seek stimulation with her fellow passengers and spent most of her hours in her small personal chamber, meticulously recording the events that took place on the space station. She had been calmly going about her routine until the telescreen began making a soft beeping noise.
Ayan’we swiftly pressed the small red button on the telescreen, her reflexes sharpened almost to the point where she could hit the button quicker than thought. The tension from Transfer Varess had never completely left her mind, even during the languid interlude on this transport ship, and she was still incredibly alert to the slightest sign of irregularity or danger. As the screen quickly turned on, Ayan’we eyes were confronted with a distorted, wavy image that seemed to lag and audio that was choppy. She could just make out Amanda’s face in the blurry, pixelated image.
“Sorry. Conditions – faulty here on Earth. Infrastruc – still primitive. Can’t wait to see you here in Germany,” the fuzzy image of Amanda said. The audio feed was so bad that an alien with poor knowledge of the English language would have had great difficulty interpreting what Amanda was trying to say. Luckily, Ayan’we had been extensively exposed to the language, both from her time in the Academy and her conversations with Klein, and could fill in the gaps and understand the basic sentence structure of Amanda’s conversation.
“What’s going on there?” said Ayan’we. “Why is your video feed in such bad condition? I thought Earth’s reconstruction had more advanced infrastructure by now!”
“Looters came last week. Guild unit drove …. ff. New system – set up with spare parts, low quality. Still…bugs in it. Wait, try …. is. Better?”
“Is there a war going on down there? Who are these people?”
“Call themselves – Blood Riders. They started showing up in the American Midwest at the time the national government collapsed, now they’re appearing here in Europe. Claim they’re legi… government, but they murder and steal as much as they can. I’m ur… worried about my mother back in North America. We… tell you about it all when you come.”
“I’ll try to help. I have a lot to discuss with you.”
“… conference?”
“Yes, that, but other things more important, too. At least to me. And I need to tell you about the visions I saw of Klein.”
“Visions? Oh, I want…”
The video feed abruptly cut off before Amanda finished her sentence. A sense of foreboding fell over Ayan’we, the more she thought about Aman
da and her mother menaced by these Blood Riders. She instantly missed the sense of dull ennui that had pervaded her mind only minutes earlier. She also realized that among the motivations behind the Hyperion Corporation’s conspiracy on Transfer Varess, she had neglected the most likely of them all – a last, desperate grab at extending their power beyond their deteriorating home world. She had become all too familiar with Hyperion’s executives and their methods of operation. Confronting them that human institution, if noxious and dangerous, was at least somewhat predictable. What type of human opposition would she encounter on an Earth defined not only by its tremendously powerful megacorporations, but by tumult, violence, and chaos?
Ayan’we began to type the first paragraph of her synopsis into the computer. I had no belief that the negotiations on Transfer Varess would be simple and without difficulty, but a shadowy conspiracy emerged that made the negotiations on the station more dangerous and tense than I possibly could have imagined. The following report details both the conspiracy and its likely motivations and the potential political fallout from its failure on Earth, which has already become destabilized.
Ayan’we considered the tone of her report. Perhaps it would seem a bit melodramatic at first to her superiors. They would likely see things her way, though. Some events deserved a bit of dramatic flair in the narration, recommended governmental styles be damned!
When she was done with the report, Ayan’we still felt she had something to do. Talk with Entara? No, the one she needed to see was Trevor. She found the wizened black man enjoying a cup of warm beverage in the mess area. No one else was around.
“Trevor,” she began, sliding into a seat opposite him, “It’s time I had that little talk with you.”
“Sure. What’s on your mind?”
“I’m on my way to discuss my personal life with my friend Amanda down on Earth. But with you I need to find out about something that points in a completely opposite direction. Listen, you’ve gone farther through the galaxy than almost anyone else I know, searching for traces of this thing you call the spiritual substrate. You’ve uncovered so much. But tell me this. Do you believe there’s any such thing as a soul? That is, is there anything beyond this organic life of ours?”
“Now, that’s an awfully big question. Can I ask what brings you to it? I thought you Forlani did not believe in an afterlife.”
“Not like humans. It holds no importance in our ceremonies. Our songs are as close as we get to a life after death. That’s how we perpetuate ourselves. In a way, we live on through the matriline. Yet it’s not separate from our physical lives.”
“So, why the uncertainty?”
“On Domremy, you know we visited the research center. There were Locals there. They shared telepathy with us through their touch. Trevor, the images they shared mainly featured Klein. It was a direct contact with his life. They will pass it on amongst them forever if they can. I envy that. I long so to be able to connect with him and the things that have been. Is there any chance of that? Is there any ‘me’ aside from the cells in this body of mine? I suppose if I were a conventional female like my sibs, I wouldn’t be so concerned. But you know that I’ve always considered myself a weird Forlani.”
“You are indeed special, Ayan’we. I understand how you’ve been shaken up by the telepathic experience. I’ve done it myself with different motives. To answer your original question, I do believe in soul. Not because I am a member of the Circle, for as you may know, there is no orthodoxy of beliefs in our fellowship. So I believe it based on my private mind, as your consciousness is distinct from that of your younger sisters, or even Entara’s. Hard to explain by rationalism alone. Soul, yes, I have a sense of soul. I sense you do, as well.”
“You sense it in me?”
“Yes, I do. Maybe it’s connected with the idea of fate. Almost all organisms comprehend that. I sense soul in you. I’ll tell you something else. No matter how much fate played a role in what happened on Varess, I sense that your soul will somehow grow on Earth. You must open yourself to that. Be mindful of it. Please remember that.”
Ayan’we reached into her sash and touched the jewel Fianni’s consort had bestowed on her. She could not see it, but through her fingers it somehow seemed to glow. “You’re right. I will remember.”
In the spacious transport on the way to Planet Blyn, a large chamber lit up and three worm tubes descended from the ceiling, filled with foggy gas, and soon contained the segmented bodies of the creatures recognized at the conference as Blynthian delegates. A pink light suddenly illuminated the wall facing them. It scintillated so much that the delegates could not see whatever was behind it.
“You summoned us, supervisors?” zipped the leader in their inscrutable language.
“It is time,” droned a synthesized voice they could understand. “You have performed your assignment admirably and deserve to be rewarded as planned.”
“Yes, we feel we have been successful. The treaties reflect the major conditions you specified. Moreover, no one suspects a thing.”
“We have closely monitored the state of mind of all the races involved. You are right. The security of our identity has been preserved. We will soon be able to view the deployment of Song Pai forces to the sector we seek to protect.”
“We were very careful to ensure that the humans, the Phiddians, and the Garanians did not obtain any unbalanced advantages from the agreements. The chance of them getting involved in large scale violence is very small.”
From the pink lights came a welcome assurance. “Indeed, the human raid at Tau Ceti has been foiled without loss of life.”
“What about this Garanian individual we are bringing back? What are your plans for him?”
“Bring him to the first planetfall and turn him over to Command 51. They will deal with him. We foresee a use for him and some of his kind to whom we have granted asylum.”
“So do you consider our mission completed?” asked a second worm.
“Return to your world and enjoy all that has been promised to you, with some considerable bonuses that will delight you even more. Separate and share your experiences with others that you trust. We will certainly have further chores for you in the future. You deserve the respect of our Blynthian domain and are hereby awarded honorary citizenship. Congratulations and good voyage.”
The wall darkened, the tubes slid back into the ceiling, and the ship was soon engulfed in the expanses of space beyond the Zone, far beyond the outposts that the most curious travelers, like Ayan’we and Trevor, had ever visited.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James F. Gaines and John M. Gaines have been writing science fiction together for several years as a father-son team under the collective name J. M. R. Gaines, besides publishing some pieces individually. Living in Fredericksburg, Virginia, close to the nation's capital makes them yearn for other worlds. In the Forlani Saga they have created, alien life forms are a central concern, not just for their physical appearance, but because of an interest in how separate evolutions in vastly different environments could cause widely varying psychologies, social forms, languages, and mental outlooks. In alien contact situations, these differences offer unending possibilities as sources of either cooperation or conflict.
Before there was Spy Station, there was Life Sentence, the sweeping story that introduced Klein, Entara, Ayan’we, Torghh, Trevor, and a host of other characters.
Here’s what one reviewer on Amazon say about the first novel of the Forlani Saga:
Great Oak Lover Gives Five Stars
“This is an eventful, wide-ranging, indeed universe-ranging, sci-fi novel, with a large cast of characters representing a number of different species. Klein, the complex protagonist--violent and vengeful, but also sensitive and loving--knits them all together through his often involuntary travels. By the end, he has become, in spite of himself, a movingly heroic figure. But the crowning achievement of the book is perhaps its vivid creation of aliens and their cultures. The aliens include the Loca
ls, big, bug-like creatures who use humans as hosts for their larvae (but turn out to be something quite other than Hollywood monsters); the cephalopodan and disgustingly scatological Song Pai, and the furry, tailed, and seductive Forlani. The last species, in particular, is presented in persuasive detail, from their matrilineal culture to the biological and emotional aspects of their sexuality. The authors' rich imaginations draw the reader in, but so do their considerations of such themes as moral aspiration and time's passage. All in all, a novel with something for every sci-fi fan, and for every reader who enjoys an interesting story.”
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