The Touchstone Trilogy

by Andrea K Höst

  Friday, September 12

  Nursery rhymes and fairy tales

  Kaoren woke me earlier than usual this morning, and held a hand to my mouth so I wouldn't say anything, murmuring: "Listen."

  So I listened, and heard singing: "Thiz li'l piggy had roass biff. An thiz li'l piggy had non. An thiz li'l piggy wen wee wee wee all the way hom!"

  Ys. And then Sen, giggling with hysterical delight, just as she'd done last night before story time when I'd been playing silly games with her. I'd sung it in English first, then translated the words, but Sen had vastly preferred the English version.

  "Did she log it?" I asked Kaoren.

  He shook his head. "They don't have that function yet. This is from memory."

  Ys moved on to 'Inzy Winzy spida', and then 'Rown an rown the gar den', her pronunciation off, but word perfect each time, for all that I'd only repeated each rhyme a couple of times the night before.

  "They were beaten for eavesdropping on the lessons of the household's heir," Kaoren told me, and when I glanced sharply at him, added: "A Sight dream. There was no reason for the ban, no law among Nurans that servants should not learn more than how to serve, though it is unusual for them to aspire. The master of the house was cruel, and saw how much they wanted, and so took pleasure in denial. That was my dream – from the master's point of view, enjoying giving the order."

  He had to squeeze me for a while, caught between revulsion and fury. It's rare that Kaoren has Sight dreams now, but when he does they're particularly strong, and all day today I could see the shadow of it on him. And he's furious, because the two of them are so very smart, and someone thought it fun to hurt them.

  When we made a noise, Ys immediately stopped singing, so we went out and pretended it was just another morning. Over breakfast our explanation for why we'd be later back today led to a discussion of time zones and planetary rotation and we spent a lot of time in a shared space showing them my log of golden plains, and looking at a gorgeous room-sized image of Muina, pointing out the locations of where we were now, where Kalasa was, where we'd been the day before yesterday and where we were going tomorrow. Kaoren showed them how to zoom in to locations, and different interactions they could do with the globe – and then gave them an exercise to locate and view the two other towns we were scheduled to visit, which made me laugh at him and call him such a captain. But the kids loved being able to make the connection between our calendars and the planet, and just looking at different places in the world – particularly the immensely detailed aerial view of Pandora and the live views from numerous scanners which have been placed around the lake and town.

  The storm had died away to another muggy morning, but our mission location was Firiana, a town on the largest of a series of small islands in the next big lake to the east. It was cold and raining there, a constant heavy downpour which didn't let up for the entire long day. It wasn't all bad – our hoods were happy to be waterproof and we adapted our uniforms to be partially Taren Setari and partially Muinan Setari and so were quite snug. Just constantly a bit damp.

  The islands were home to a lot of long, slender furry seal-things with an odd resemblance to Afghan Hounds. And bigger 'lake serpents' which appear to be the sharks of this world (and fortunately don't live in the waters Pandora borders upon). They're about ten metres long, furry, and have a touch of Luck Dragon about them. Possibly they're relatives of the seal-dogs, but much larger and toothier. All the Setari developed rather odd expressions when we found the seal-dogs, and when we stopped for lunch Glade told me old Taren-Muinan stories about benevolent creatures called 'surri' which would rescue people who'd fallen in the water, and which they'd thought were mythical. Today would be like me finding a flock of griffins roosting at Bondi.

  After a long, wet day we reached Pandora a little behind schedule – past sunset – to find Sen fretful and worked up. She'd refused to let Mara read the next chapter of the current story, though she'd been happy and cheerful up to that point. Ys was watchful and withdrawn, and Rye seemed simply relieved that we were both in one piece. Teaching the kids the clock and calendar means they know when we're late.

  My solution was to show them how to send us emails and voicemail, explaining that at least when we're on Muina, if they need to ask us a question then sending an email is a good way to ask without worrying about interrupting us with a channel request. But I should have thought to send them one, before 'late' became an issue. This Mum thing has a huge learning curve.

  After story time was over, Kaoren and I had dinner with Lohn and Mara and discussed our mutual interest in the kids. I squirmed a little because it was so clear that they'd both been aching to have children for I don't know how long, and it wasn't till Mara had spoken to me that I'd even thought about their feelings. Lohn is already completely wrapped around Sen's little finger, and proud as any Dad about how quickly Ys and Rye are progressing with their lessons. And relieved, I think, that the kids are distracting Mara from her frustration at being on sick leave.

  Despite bedtime fretting, Mara said it had been a good day. "When I checked on them at lunch it looked to be a drama because they'd been playing with the Muina map, only to be discovered by the other students. Since to those without the interface it looked like three children standing in an empty room pointing at nothing, that not surprisingly produced a little spate of mockery." She caught my eye. "And Ys and Rye reacted as you described, that self-erasing pose, not even trying to explain. Sentarestel's attempts to defend them were not entirely intelligible – she has something of a temper, you've noticed? Fortunately Squad One hadn't left yet, so I called down Diav and had her use Illusion to show the rest of the students what Ys, Rye and Sen had been seeing."

  Mara's smile took on a wicked edge. "I probably shouldn't have enjoyed their reaction so much, but one of the more opinionated students has been arguing against any suggestion that they consider the interface. What point tainting yourself, she's been saying, when the handhelds will do the same thing? That map is a wonderful counter-argument. The girl did, rather feebly, try to suggest that a bigger screen would produce much the same result. Here."

  She gave me a log of the scene, and I can't stop grinning at the image of Rye, pink-faced but determined, lifting his head to say: "It's nothing alike. It's a narf to a tarena. Using those little boxes is like crawling in the mud."

  A narf and a tarena are – were – apparently two Nuran animals, the equivalent of comparing a slug to an eagle.

  "He sounded sorry for them," Mara added. "I think that's what clinched it. We've abruptly gone from only your three here with the interface installed, to a mere six holdouts in all of the talent school – and by the afternoon the other four schools were logging a handful of requests as well. It's not so big a shift there, but it's the most progress we've had since the initial processing. Those in leadership roles recommending the change didn't have nearly as much effect as pity from what these children consider their social inferiors."

  I bet it was that Karasayen girl arguing against the interface.

  "Any overtures?" I asked, not very hopefully, and Mara shook her head. I've been bugging the people in charge of the talent school probably a little too much about the behaviour of the other children to the 'servants' in their midst. Other than to try and pry information about me out of them, they're usually leaving Ys and Rye alone. Not unexpected but the main reason why I'm not sure if the talent school is the right place for them.

  Sen they treat very differently, and she's cheerfully social in her age group for the sport sessions. Of course, Ys and Rye hardly encourage anyone to talk with them either and at this stage aren't the least bit interested in friends and to tell the truth that's probably the best thing for the moment. Eventually I'd like to see them with friends, but I want them feeling safe and secure with us first.

  Another late day tomorrow.

  Saturday, September 13

  Tiny steps forward

  Finally a new marble. Ninth found it, at the v
ery edge of their range out from the equatorial platform town called Pelamath (the old Muinans were very fond of putting 'ath' in their town names). The area is a bit like those plateaus in South America, though not quite as high I think. Very rainy. Up on top of the plateau it's scrubby, all bushes and spindly trees, while down below is jungle. The platform town is up top, and they found the marble (or, rather, another set of boastful doors) buried in a notch at the base of one of the sheer sides of a different plateau.

  We heard the news before we even left, since Ninth has been working through the time zones in the opposite direction and thus started out around midnight. The terrain at Pelamath makes it rather more challenging than Arenrhon to set up a base of operations to begin investigating and so far Ninth has only placed some drones there. But the idea is to first locate as many of the things as possible, and then start delving into them in the hopes of finding more information – preferably that elusive book Our Secret Plan and How to Foil It.

  First and Fourth were assigned to a slightly later time zone to yesterday's, but southern hemisphere and closer to the pole so we had a short, chilly outing. Mostly fir trees with a few massive yellow-leafed nut trees completely infested by squirrel-types with black fur, tufty white-tipped ears, and long curling tails. Packs of dogs, too, though not border collies, and various deer along with my old acquaintance the Mondo Elk. Not quite halfway through Autumn (we think) and already it felt like snow wasn't too far off there.

  I made a point of calling the kids when we stopped at lunch, and showed them the different animals we'd seen, and some of the prettier streams and waterfalls. Rye definitely has a Shon-level interest in the natural world, and wanted to know what all the animals would be called – which is really anyone's guess at this stage, although a lot of animals are being casually named for their resemblance to the animals of old Muinan stories. And the border collies are being called border collies, which amuses me greatly.

  A channel request to Shon was all it took to arrange a tour of the flora and fauna buildings and a personal explanation of naming conventions. The three of them (and Mara) ended up having dinner with Isten Notra after their tour – and meeting the rest of her family, all of whom arrived just two days ago as new Muinan settlers. I found out about that when Isten Notra sent me an email, warmly amused as usual, but ending up with: "Don't overlook the brittle fragility of the older girl. Even metal of her quality can shatter after years of strain."

  Ys is tying herself into knots, used to being the one who protects the others and makes the decisions, so tempted and distrustful of the life we're offering her. She hates that Sen lavishes affection on me, and Rye's deepening fascination with Kaoren must feel like a second betrayal. I spend all my time wanting to hug her and being careful to pretend not to notice when she's excited and enjoying herself.

  I'm glad she met Isten Notra.

  I'll make sure to contact them during our next mission day after tomorrow. Of the fourteen platform towns, First and Fourth are exploring four, while most of the single squads are doing three, so two more for us – and again the next time zone over, which means sleeping in, leaving in late afternoon and not getting back till after Sen, at least, should be asleep.

  It's raining at Pandora again. Inisar says the Nuran splinter group has shelter now, but I bet they're not enjoying themselves.

  Sunday, September 14

  Day-Tripping

  Pandora's day started out hot and sticky again – another storm on the way – and since everyone at the talent school is spending their energy trying to deal with dozens of kids with severe headaches, we took the kids off to our island after what was breakfast for us and taught them to float on their backs, and kicking. Rye did very well at this, Ys less so – she wasn't comfortable with me holding her up while she was floating, but we took a break and tried again and though she was far from relaxed, she did better the second time.

  We had Fourth with us instead of First, and Kaoren turned it into a mini training session, leaving Par and Glade (our toter-abouters who he didn't want to tire out) to sit with me on the bank while he took the rest for a short practice swim.

  All three kids are highly curious about Kaoren's squad, and Fourth are eternally entertained by the idea of him in a dad role. Glade had a huge amount of fun pretending Kaoren worked them to death and was a heartless taskmaster. Sen was outraged and kept saying "No-o!!" in highly doubtful tones at Glade's increasingly unlikely claims, until she was sure that he was teasing her and then she started giggling madly. Rye, who I think was for a while really furious, finally appealed to me.

  "Tough but fair," I said, since my opinion of him as a captain hasn't really changed. "Kaoren expects people to do their best, but he doesn't push them just for fun of it." I had to grin and add. "Admittedly, I train with First instead of Fourth."

  "You – is it you are to be a Setari?" Rye asked.

  "It would take years – decades – to turn me into any sort of fighter. But the basic training comes in handy because using talents strains the user's system. And, well, you never know when you need some urgent running or swimming. It was definitely embarrassing when Zan – the leader of Twelfth Squad – had to levitate me because I couldn't keep up with her squad during an emergency."

  Before we left I told Sen that she should choose a short story for Mara to read, if she wanted to save the current one for me, and Mara tells me that she was happy with this new arrangement. I'm getting better at this.

  Our platform town today was the border collie one, which on the old Muinan map is called Falazen. I asked Maze if I could bring a snack along for the dogs (partially to tease him) and ended up having a rather serious conversation with one of the fauna technicians, who wanted to know more about how dogs are used on Earth. Teasing Maze is not nearly so much fun if the end result is a meeting.

  The Kolaren farmer who is in charge of the hairy sheep was also there, allowing me to demonstrate my ignorance of sheepdogs AND sheep. To cover the gaps, I did a short projection of some collies herding as a farmer controlled them with whistles. The technician has been conducting a study of the dogs, observing them through drones, and was full of talk about their intelligence and social set-up, and wasn't very keen on the Kolaren's suggestion that we do a bit of puppy-napping. But they agreed that regularly bringing food gifts to the dogs was a usefully non-confrontational step toward redomestication.

  So we took doggy snacks with us (well, a bag of dried chips of vat-grown protein) and laid them out on one side of the amphitheatre under the watchful eye of the two collies which were guarding the place (the technician told me that there's always at least one collie keeping an eye on the place). The chips were gone when we returned at the end of the day, so I guess it was a suitable offering to Falazen's current owners.

  It was an uneventful day in terms of exploration. The land around Falazen is very like Pandora, although with a somewhat different selection of animals, and dominated by a pale-barked tree just setting out leaf-tips. Lovely displays of spring flowers below them, too. Other than the mild disorientation of getting up mid-morning and travelling about until late evening, and the fact that the Telekinetics find days like this a strain, I'm still really enjoying this stretch of missions. It was late afternoon for the kids when we stopped for lunch, and I showed them where we were, and pictures of the flowers, and the dogs.

  Flying and walking about half the day isn't doing my sex life any good, though. Kaoren usually flies himself, and the effort of that means he's very tired by the time we're ready for bed.

  Monday, September 15

  Where Now?

  Raining a lot at Pandora today, so I spent my late morning playing games with the kids while Kaoren was off at a Captains' meeting. There's an endless array of games available for them to play – some free, but a lot with a tiny purchase fee which either Kaoren or I have to approve – and we played through a heap of trials to decide which ones they wanted. I won some 'Mum-cred' by being better at random games than I am at s
pelling in Taren, and I made sure Ys and Rye picked at least one game each which catered more toward their own age group, rather than entirely to Sen's tastes. Ys picked what amounted to a junior adventure game, like the historical games I've been playing, so I showed them those games, and warned them they might be a little complicated but that I thought they were tremendously interesting because I'd learned so much about Taren history from them.

  Then it was off to the southern hemisphere again, though this time not so far south, so we found deciduous trees all shifting into Autumn – primarily a gorgeous translucent yellow, with occasional masses of orangey-red standing out like beacons. This town was quite close to the ruins of another, larger, settlement, and the whole landscape was quite spectacular – lots of whitestone ruins tucked among sharply up and down hills which had at one time been terraced for farming but now had been overtaken by trees, and also these massive (taller than me) bushes which were covered in a white-gold fruit. Tiny brown and black striped pigs kept shooting out of the undergrowth, and huge flocks of birds were feeding on the fruit and seemed completely fearless, moving away only when we were within hands reach. We brought a few samples of the fruit back for the technicians to test, but no more tangible result.

  So in all of the past week, one marble. It's not been wasted effort, of course, since our trips have basically amounted to wider surveys of the terrain about the platform towns which are almost certainly going to form the major hubs of civilisation on Muina. But we've barely scratched the surface, and further surveys will be much harder, since they will be outside the zones reliably kept clear of Ionoth by the Ddura. They're going to trial a low-flying drone to see if they can spot any of the grand doors which have marked two of the sites.

  Needle, meet haystack.

  Ninth and Sixth flew out today by ship to the site of the one marble discovered, and they're going to support the initial establishment of a research site. Until they're able to access the platform (since there is apparently a platform in there) and call the Ddura, there's going to be a fair bit of Ionoth-clearing involved. We have tomorrow as a break, and I'm looking forward to lazing about.