Songs Of Harmony

by Andrew Elgin

  ...We got close. That's all I know. I don't know how close. But we got close. We were being drilled twice a day before it happened. Emergency pressure drop drills. Casualty drills. Wearing full armor for a full shift. We were getting amped for it. Except it never happened...

  ...The stories about what happened, or hadn't happened! The officers, even they looked dazed. It was strange. That's the only word for it. Strange. There were some people saying that the planet had vanished. I mean, like that can happen! I have no idea what it was that actually happened. I just know we were turned around and heading back...

  ...I don't know how long we've got, but it doesn't take a brain to work out that we don't have enough of anything to last. I guess we're all going to die here. It's pretty much all over. Truth? I think most of us knew that in our hearts when whatever it was that happened happened. We were just busy trying to live. Yes, I'm going to die up here. Some people here, they cry a lot. Sometimes they fight. Most times we just wait to stop breathing. I'd like to go to sleep soon. But, before I do, I'd really, really like someone to tell me what did happen. I think we've gone through everything we can think of. One of them has to be right. The one which keeps coming up the most is that the planet disappeared. And it's the weirdest one of all. But more and more people are saying it. It's the not knowing which irritates the most, but I'm even getting OK with that as well. That's not who I was. Now, I'd like to know, but I know I can't know. It's getting muddled in my head. Must be low O2. I'm going to sleep when I put this down."

  ----------

  Excerpt from the conclusion of the deputy police commissioner's 1187 report on the events surrounding the arrival of the New Lander and the subsequent actions.

  "We brought in over 500 more officers to deal with the threat to the security of the spaceport which seemed to be growing by the hour. The restrictions on broadcasting the arrivals and departures was in order to lessen the tension evident in the city as bodies were being carried out. On reflection, it would, perhaps, have been better if the bodies had been evacuated into space rather than have the lengthy spectacle of corpses arriving in a continuous stream. It merely served to heighten the protests against the invasion.

  The fact of Harmony's disappearance added to the unrest. There were even many accusations that the planet had never been there in the first place and that the whole idea of an invasion was just a way for the military to harness all of Haven's resources for their own unspecified ends. There were more than 2,000 arrests over three days and it is my firm conviction that this episode was the beginning of the massive wave of civil unrest which developed in the following months.

  My conclusion is that the failure of the invasion, for whatever reasons, the return of the New Lander with its cargo of bodies and the disappearance of Harmony (however that might be explained), were the perfect combination which, together with pre-existing organized groups antagonistic to the military government, created a new class of opposition to legitimate rule. This opposition can be seen in the present drift from the cities and the reluctance to use or interact with technology which is suspected of feeding information to the government."

  The Disappearance

  From the revised edition of the textbook, "An Introduction To Astronomy" 1215 edition.

  "The initial confusion and alarm caused by the sudden disappearance of our sister planet slowly gave way to incredulity. This period was both the zenith and, in some ways, the nadir of interest in astronomy. Everyone at first, it seemed, had a telescope and scanned the skies each night in the hope of being the person to find the missing planet. But, when the planet failed to be discovered, there was a backlash against professional astronomers for being unable to either predict or explain what had happened. The lack of consensus amongst the members of this profession did little to help and acted as another minor impetus to add to the small, relatively new movement to eschew technology in general. (A side effect of this brief but intense interest was the discovery of several novas, a supernova, five new comets and a considerable amount of new data on the outer planets.)

  In the months following the event, subsequent careful observations showed no unexpected perturbations caused by the disappearance of a large planetary body from the solar system. There has been no evidence of any kind that Harmony is still in the solar system. Neither is there any evidence to the contrary. It is as though the planet is still somewhere in the solar system, but is not able to be observed using any of the available technology. It is, in effect, a ghost in the system; it must exist in order for the remaining planets to remain stable in their orbits, but cannot be proven to exist by any means other than mathematical ones."

  Chapter Thirty-One

  The next morning was clear to start with, but clouds began gathering and there was humidity in the air which had not been present before. A breeze began to blow through the grove they were in, strengthening swiftly and making the fronds at the tops of the trees snap in response to it.

  "I'd say that this is as good a time as any to find out just what we can do," said Javin. "Are we still heading for the ocean?"

  "Yes, yes, yes!" Meldren was still as excited as yesterday at the prospect.

  "Fine. I think that sleep helped last night because I had an idea when I woke up. Here's what I think we should do. The ocean is big. That means it is bound to have a big song. That should be easy to hear. But, we want to find the bit of the song where the ocean meets the land. There has to be a difference between the two. Agreed?"

  "Definitely. Plus, we want to be near somewhere where there are people, enough people so that there is some food we can buy. I'd love to have some hot, cooked food!" Meldren closed her eyes at the thought and gave a tiny shiver in ecstasy.

  "Good idea! And, we can find out where we are then! Any ideas as to how to listen for that song?"

  "Beat me," said Meldren, trying, unsuccessfully, to suppress a giggle.

  "The phrase is 'beats me'," said Javin accenting the s. "If you're going to learn my language, then at least you can also learn to shake hands properly as well." He grinned at her. "And, to answer my own question, I would guess that we listen to this song," he patted the ground beside him, "because the river running through it will lead us to the sea. At least, I hope it will. Now, if you're quite ready...?" He gave a mock serious look and got one back in return.

  They both settled themselves more comfortably, took two or three steadying, deep breaths and closed their eyes. Before, they had strained to hear the sounds around them, and now it was so much clearer. At first, they were taken aback by how easy it was to listen and to sort through the various songs winding and moving around and through them.

  The land's song was a deep thrumming melody, repeating and repeating with occasional trills and runs of sound. They reached out to the river and heard its separate arpeggios chiming with the bass of the land. Blocking out the rest, they followed this in their heads, hearing the song speed up and slow down, swirl in small repeating pools, become slowly deeper, more sonorous and filled with other small melodies, widening and always moving. Finally, there it was. The river emptied its voice into a much larger, grander symphony. The ocean! Avoiding the stronger sounds, they sought out where the ocean's voice was weaker, muffled as it butted up against the land. They followed this strange sound of competing choirs for a long time before, in the distance, with the occasional hiccup in the rhythm and some sparkling high notes piping clearly above it all, they came upon the town.

  They felt the resonance of the buildings and were fascinated by the weaving, wandering sounds, faint but persistent, of people moving around. Other songs swelled and sank, but each of those strands of sound, each tiny song and hesitant chorus, each of them was woven together somehow so that the songs of the land and of the sea carried the whole without loss of tempo or chord change. It was a miracle of composition. You could choose to hear the ocean or the land and allow the town to sink quietly into the background, or reverse it and listen to the town's song. Either way, it wa
s beautiful, entrancing.

  The two listeners, acting as one, bound together by their shared ability, aided by the sprites they wore, focused on the town and its placement between water and earth. They were able now to find the main chords, the distinctive sequences of notes underlying the many smaller songs; the ones which kept repeating and anchoring it to the planet. When they had memorized it and stored it in their minds with a newfound ability, they simultaneously withdrew from the concentration and felt again the building breeze and the growing humidity of their resting place.

  "Everything is so much clearer!" Meldren's eyes were bright. "Harmony really did make it possible for us to hear her songs. It is amazing! Amazing!"

  Javin shared her excitement. "And we get to hear it." Then, with a little more wonderment, "And to think that Harmony keeps all that going, knows every song and manages to make it work!"

  "So now we...?"

  "I'm not sure exactly, but my guess would be that we don't just listen to the song of that place, don't just hear it, I think we have to sing it. After all, the song is the place. If we sing it, we should be there, shouldn't we?" Javin asked.

  "Either that, or we bring it here," said Meldren. "It doesn't feel quite right, though. I think we're missing something."

  "I agree. But what?"

  "Well," said Meldren carefully. "The one thing missing that I can think of is us. Our songs. Shouldn't we put ourselves into the town's song?"

  "Of course!" said Javin, impressed. "Only, what do we sound like? What are our songs and how do we sing them ourselves?"

  "That's easy. We sing each other. I sing you and you sing me."

  Javin nodded as he thought. "I can't see why not." Then another concern. "But wouldn't that mean we arrive naked and without anything, any of these things in the satchels?" He screwed his face up at the image.

  Meldren was confident, however. "No. Not at all. We'll each be holding whatever it is we want to take with us and, when I see your song, it will be the song of you as you are then. With everything, clothes and stuff included!"

  Javin inclined his head in acknowledgement of the truth of her words.

  They quickly sorted out what to leave and what to take and then sat opposite each other. They went through the same calming process and there, before them was the song they had to sing. Careful not to miss any note, any slight change in rhythm or tempo, determined to leave not one single, tiny note out of place, they each memorized the other. Then they brought out from their memory the song of their destination. Without thinking, they found the edges of the town, where it became fainter and the song of the land easily overrode it. There, just beyond the town, but within hearing distance of it, they inserted each others' songs. They sang them slowly and carefully, gradually building them into place. Their sprites added to it in their own slight voices, seemingly ensuring that everything meshed, harmonized and built up rather than tore down what was already there. As the two humans sang their songs, they were no longer listening to the land, but they were surrounded by its song, so subtly different from where they had started.

  Together, as one, they stopped their singing. Cautiously opening their eyes, they first assured themselves that the other was there and looked healthy and in one piece. Then they looked around them and both broke into the broadest of triumphant grins.

  They were sitting, facing each other, in a slight dimple of the land. Around them, moss covered rocks bulged out of the earth. The air had a wonderfully fresh smell unlike anything either had witnessed before. There was a heavy warmth to it, very different from the recent growingly oppressive nature of the atmosphere of the plains they had just left.

  They first hugged each other excitedly before carefully peering over the biggest boulder to find out what lay beyond them.

  At first, they felt a disappointment. There was little to see, beyond many tall plants of a kind they did not recognize. After looking around, Meldren pointed behind them.

  "There's a hill there. Why don't we go up and see what we can see? I'd prefer to know at least something about where we are before we arrive there."

  They walked up the hill to the top; not a huge rise, but high enough to see over the greenery that had surrounded them. And there, before them, sparkling in the warm, heavy sunlight, was the ocean. Neither of them had been this close to such a large body of water before. It took their breath away. The flickering of light and the constant shifting of the waves was as mesmerizing as the songs they had heard, and were just as intricate. They could just make out some small craft with their sails, leaving tiny trails on the water. On the horizon, they could barely discern a low blue smudge; an island just too far away to identify any details.

  They stood, hand-in-hand, with fascinated smiles on their faces. It was real and they were really here. They had done it!

  From their vantage point, they could just make out the tops of some buildings, with the inevitable small drifts of thinning smoke easing out over the water. There was too little to be seen for them to form any sort of opinion of what the place was like, but they knew that they would have to go down there sooner or later.

  "Are you sure you will be able to cope with all the colors of people down there?" Javin asked.

  "I think so. With everything else we've seen and done, that seems to be one very small thing to worry about, don't you think?"

  "Not if it's going to make you ill, it isn't," he said gently.

  Meldren gave him a swift kiss on the cheek. "Ah! But you forget! I have a wonderful healer I can turn to whenever I want. He'll sing me healthy anytime I need it." The smile she gave him was like that of a child who had all of its dreams come true at once; elation, contentment and love of the world in general all rolled into one simple expression.

  Javin grinned back at her. "How can I possibly argue with that?" And, half turning to her, he swept his free arm toward the town as an invitation. "Shall we go and introduce ourselves, then?"

  "I'm not even going to wonder what to tell anyone about us. Or our little sprites," Meldren said, stroking the creature at her throat. "I'm just going to enjoy being here."

  Javin took a deep lungful of the fresh tasting air. "Me, too," he agreed. And off they set.

  Notes From Haven

  The Return To The Land

  From "The View From The Trees: A History Of Protest" published 1260.

  The full manifesto of the 'Return To The Land' movement is tiresomely long and argumentative in tone; in short, a dreary read. However, sprinkled throughout the overblown prose and self-congratulatory phrasing, there are some few important paragraphs which are worth sharing here to highlight what can be seen, in retrospect, as the beginning of a movement which changed over time from an idealistic anti-government propaganda to a practical lifestyle which continues to attract more and more people with each year.

  "...The failure of the militaristic government to fully comprehend exactly how those to whom it was supposedly responsible felt about its intrusion into their private lives was the chief reason for its own citizens to reject it wholeheartedly and resolve to leave the cities to the despotic overlords...

  "...Severing the links to technology was by no means easy. However, the dedicated few who first trod this path were able to provide encouragement and a growing band of resources to which the government did not have access. Privately printed pamphlets distributed by hand to vetted individuals was just one of the ways this movement was able to grow.

  "The advantage of leaving the city behind was that the people became a distributed network, all dedicated to the same ideal, but, because of the distances involved, the continuing number of converts and the idealism of all concerned, the government was unable to dispatch military and civil units in sufficient numbers to halt this tidal wave of anarchy. Some few families and villages were imprisoned and destroyed, the fields poisoned and crops burned, but for each fallen member, new ones came and built and planted."

  ------------

  Found in the notes for an undeliv
ered lecture by the pre-eminent cultural historian, Prof. Esme Caldicott, probably in the year 1272:

  "Whatever really happened to Harmony is unknown and is likely never to be known. And it is, strangely, that very lack of knowledge which formed the turning point for this, our home on Haven.

  Prior to the launching of the invasion fleet - and there is, and never can be, any excuse for such an action - the spirit of this planet was aligned always with something beyond the atmosphere, beyond this solar system. We had come from a place in the galaxy, tumbling into this system. Our ancestors had supposed that they would be part of a lengthening chain of other settlements, other colonies, to always be in touch with ourselves, our history. To be left here, alone, was an unbearable punishment for no conceivable crime. It is difficult now to begin to understand the piercing awareness of isolation suffered by those first settlers.

  Therefore, there had always existed in the psyche of the people an urge to explore and leave this remote island in the vast, impersonal galaxy and join with our fellow humans. As each generation passed, so this became more deeply embedded within us. The brilliance of General Mikkan's government was to tap into this deep, unspoken yearning for space. The creation of a huge fleet by harnessing the resources of the planet to a degree never before possible, served to give the deep and hitherto suppressed idealism a reality; visible, touchable, definite, and it brought the dream into the open where it could be both acknowledged and also be in danger of being destroyed. For one cannot destroy that which refuses to be acknowledged, for it does not admit to being real.

  Nevertheless, when the New Lander returned, it effectively destroyed, at one stroke, all those centuries of unspoken dreams. And, as anyone knows who has had a broken dream of their own, the pain is real and the reaction is often unthinking.