For some reason, his mind drifted back to his dream of the pyramid flying in the sky. He thought of his mother’s words in the dream, telling him that he was ready. Zahn suspected that was his unconscious mind’s way of telling him that he had to tell his father what he’d found, but he also wondered where the pyramid fit into all of that.
With these strange thoughts still floating around in his mind, Zahn walked to the corner of his room, climbed into his hammock, and sank into a deep sleep.
CHAPTER 7
A TAPPING IN THE NIGHT
TAP, TAP, TAP was the sound that disturbed Zahn’s sleep just a few hours later. At first, he thought he might have been imagining it. After all, the boundaries between sleeping and waking had been blurred for him lately. But the sound came again, jolting Zahn up.
He turned his head to look around the room, but he saw no one. Briefly, Zahn envisioned massive Zikhara bears, tapping on the window, hungry for Avanian flesh.
TAP, TAP, TAP.
Now that he was fully alert, Zahn knew exactly where the sound was coming from and approached the round window. In the daytime, the window provided a prime view of the path that led into the forest behind the house, but tonight the view seemed almost foreign. As he approached the window, he saw the faintest outline in the shadows.
Quite the opposite from a bloodthirsty bear, the outline gradually resolved itself into the shape of a figure just outside the window, wearing a silvery uniform that was shimmering faintly. Something else was odd about this figure, too, but his mind couldn’t settle on what it was. Now that it saw Zahn, it was motioning for him to open the window. Whatever it was, why had it scaled the side of the house in the middle of the night?
In situations like this, Zahn found it crucial to listen to his instincts. In this case, his instincts were telling him to be cautious but also that this figure meant him no harm, so with some suspicion, he opened the window slightly.
“Who the heck are you?” he whispered.
As the man blinked his eyes, his skin glowed slightly, and for a fraction of a second, Zahn saw his distinguished face with eyes that seemed so dark as to be black. The man had a strong jaw and short black hair to match his eyes.
“I am Oonak of the Confederation of Unity, and I request your help in a matter of utmost importance.”
“What?”
“Are you not the one who found the fragment?”
For a moment, Zahn wondered if he should confirm the strange man’s question. What if the fragment didn’t belong to him at all? But again, his intuition told him to trust this man, despite these strange circumstances.
“Yes. I am.”
“The fragment you found is part of my ship, and regrettably this entire situation is in danger of disrupting the balance. May I please have the fragment back?”
“Perhaps. But why should I trust you?”
“If you follow me, I will show you the ship that fragment broke off from.”
Zahn considered the danger of following him, but in the end, his curiosity overcame his fear. After all, he knew these islands better than anyone, and if this man turned out to be dangerous, he could vanish into the forest within moments.
“Okay. I’ll be right there.”
Soon, Zahn had put on some pants and was behind the house. Even from a distance, Zahn could tell that the man was taller than he had first guessed, and his silvery uniform reminded him of a freighter pilot’s jumpsuit.
“Hello again,” Oonak said as Zahn walked up to him. “My ship is down by the beach. Follow me.”
In the moonlight, Zahn noticed that this man’s skin was actually light brown, and in the center of his uniform’s collar was a small round piece of metal that glinted in the moonlight. Zahn guessed it was an insignia of some kind.
Oonak led Zahn down the familiar path to the beach. After a few minutes, he stopped walking when he was still many meters from the ocean, and Zahn was confused because he saw nothing. It was the same beach he’d always known, though tonight struck him as especially lovely as a half moon slightly illuminated the silvery sands around them.
“I don’t see anything. Are you sure your ship is out here?”
Zahn squinted but still saw nothing unusual.
“You do not see it? Look closer. Do not look at these silvery sands. Look at the air behind me. Look carefully.”
Now that Zahn’s eyes had adjusted to the light, he could just make out a faint wavering shape behind Oonak. The space wavered like a mirage over desert sand, as if something imaginary were appearing out of thin air. The wavering shape was rather large, at least seven meters tall, and Oonak waved Zahn over.
“Touch it,” he said.
“Touch what?”
“Right here.” Oonak pointed to a spot and smiled, his white teeth seeming especially alive as they contrasted with the darkness of the night.
Slowly, Zahn reached out his finger to the spot. After a moment of moving his finger forward, he unexpectedly felt something where he saw nothing. It was as though he were touching solid air.
“Wow. But if this is really a ship, can I see inside? To prove it’s yours, I mean.”
“What do you think, Navika?” Oonak said, seemingly to the air itself.
At that moment, a voice came from nowhere. It was as if the air itself spoke; the voice was crisp and calm.
“That is your choice, Oonak. Spacefarer Code was already broken when the Avanian found the fragment. But if you’re going to execute the same plan that we discussed, I still recommend that you blindfold the Avanian. We both know how irrational cultures can be before they bloom.”
“Thank you for the suggestion, Navika,” Oonak said, “but I’m going to be as transparent as possible without violating the code further. I sense this one is… uniquely prepared.”
Oonak pressed three fingers against a part of the wavering air.
In a flash, the outline of a triangular door appeared, seemingly hovering in midair in front of him. Oonak tapped his fingers onto the wavering air in a sequence of finger strokes that Zahn doubted he could ever be able to memorize. He could only presume that Oonak was touching a control that was on the outside wall of the ship.
A door rolled back, revealing a bright interior.
“Look inside. That is the central node of my ship, Navika,” Oonak said.
Zahn looked within.
It was the strangest room he’d ever seen. Nearly everything was white or at least lightly colored. It was brightly lit, and the room was shaped in a fantastically odd way. Instead of four walls, a ceiling, and a floor, the room had eight surfaces. The floor and ceiling were perfect triangular shapes, and in the center of the room was a sphere with cables coming off of it that connected it to the ceiling. It was so strange that he had trouble taking it all in at once.
Zahn backed away from the ship. He was beginning to feel overwhelmed.
“Okay, so maybe this fragment does belong to you. This… this is incredible. This is the biggest discovery since—” He took a deep breath. “Okay, let me grab the fragment. It’s in a safe place. I’ll be right back. Will you still be here when I get back?”
“I would not move even a grain of sand,” Oonak said.
When Zahn returned, he discovered that Oonak had indeed not moved at all. He was still standing by the wavering shape, except that his eyes, and the ship’s door, were now closed. He appeared to be in a state of quiet concentration.
“Oonak?” Zahn whispered.
Oonak didn’t respond.
“I’ve got it.”
“Wait,” Oonak said and held up a single finger, his eyes still closed. “I just realized. I do not know your name, Avanian.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right. I apologize; I’m Zahn.” He hesitated and then thought he should probably introduce himself in a more official way, as Oonak had. “…of the Ashraya Observatory,” he added.
“There is no reason to apologize for that.”
“No, I meant, I apologize for not introducing m
yself earlier,” Zahn said.
“Are you sure that is what you meant?”
“Yes.”
“Good. It is wise to be sure of what we mean.”
“Anyway, here it is. I found it buried in the sand. I saw it when it was falling from the sky, actually.”
Finally, Oonak opened his eyes, and his gaze radiated a profound peace that Zahn hadn’t tasted in a long time.
“Intriguing. I suppose you really were in the right place at the right time. Thank you, Zahn.”
“You’re very welcome.”
Oonak took the fragment, turned around, and knelt down onto the moonlit sand. As he worked, Zahn tried to understand what he was doing, and the momentousness of what was happening began to dawn on him.
“Are you really a spacefarer like your ship said?” Zahn stopped himself and swallowed. “You’re not from Avani at all, are you? You really are an extraterrestrial.”
There was a pause while Oonak focused on reattaching the fragment to his ship. Zahn noticed that his hands glowed for a moment, and then the fragment disappeared, presumably because it was now part of the ship once more. Oonak stood up and faced him, and once again Zahn found himself wondering about his age. He guessed that he might be as old as his father, but it was difficult to be sure.
“Yes, yes, and yes. I am what you could refer to as an extraterrestrial. However, those of the Confederation never use such a term. Instead, we refer to similar life forms as merely ‘people’. Life forms such as ourselves reflect the galactic template for intelligent life. In truth, we are all merely people, so we refer to such life forms simply as people. However, this does not mean that this galaxy is harmonious. Just as on Avani, not all are aligned toward preserving life. It is important to remember this.”
Oonak stopped for a moment, as if trying to remember something, and then continued.
“And please, you may call me Oon for short.”
“Whoa…” Zahn looked deep into Oonak’s eyes. Now that he studied them, he noticed that they weren’t black like he had first thought. They were actually a shade of dark blue that reminded Zahn of a deep, calm ocean. He thought he saw something at the bottom of that ocean that he didn’t understand, as if they contained secrets he would never know.
“Zahn, I have one more request of you, but I want to be clear that you are under no obligation to accept this request. It is your choice, and believe me when I say that it involves great risk. However, I ask you now because, in the light of current circumstances, I believe that you are the most logical candidate.”
“What is it, Oon?”
“When I crashed on your planet, I had the divine fortune of crashing near your South Pole. In the process, I discovered an incredible machine: an ancient gate that lies far beneath the ice. This gate, which far exceeds the technology of your people, has the ability to transcend spacetime itself. I’m not even sure how it came to be on your world, and unfortunately, because of the damage to my ship, it is the only way to accomplish my mission.”
Zahn was held spellbound.
“But there is a problem. No matter what I tried, I could not activate the gate. However,” Oonak continued, “Navika and I have deciphered some of the writing on the gate itself, and we have deduced that only an Avanian, someone whose heritage is rooted here on Avani, can activate this gate. It is not tuned to respond to my kind, Zahn. It is tuned for yours.”
A look of shock crept over Zahn’s face. It was as though Zahn was discovering that all fish had been able to fly for centuries but that no one had ever told him about it. It wasn’t a pill he could swallow quickly, or easily.
“So you want me… to go to the South Pole… with you…”
“Yes.”
“To activate an ancient gate that only Avanians can activate.”
“Yes.”
“…so you can continue your mission?”
“Precisely. However, I should inform you that we know very little of this device. Navika and I have heard whispers of a gate network, but little else. Nevertheless, it is our best chance of successfully alerting the Confederation of what has happened. We must reach the outer core, so it is a long journey, as well.”
“But don’t you have some way to travel faster than light? Otherwise how could you have gotten here without dying of old age long before you arrived?”
“My apologies. I realize this situation may be unusual to you, so I will restate the situation. Because of the damage to my timespace drive, I am no longer able to travel between star systems—at least not within any reasonable period of time.”
“Timespace drive. I’d love to know how that works… But wait, even if this gate gets you to where you want to go, how will I get home after we use it?”
“You will be safely returned home once my ship is repaired.”
“All right. But wait, why hasn’t Avani been contacted by other ‘people’ in the galaxy before? Surely, we’re not that boring…”
Oonak paused for a moment. “Your world is significant, but not any more significant than any other hatchling world. Zahn, there is more to this situation than you are permitted to know. What I can say is that you found a fragment of my ship because I was attacked with truly exotic weaponry. In some parts of the galaxy, this would not be entirely surprising. However, this attack occurred while I was in orbit around your planet, which means your world is at great risk.”
“What risk?”
“I am not at liberty to say. Telling you would be a further violation of Spacefarer Code, just as I cannot tell you how the timespace drive works. However, I can tell you that this is a matter of urgency. Since both my comm and my timespace drive are damaged, I cannot fulfill my mission under my own power or contact the Confederation directly. Because of the damage, my messages are now limited by the speed of light which means my signal will not reach the Confederation for many years, and by then it may be too late.”
“What are you saying? That someone nasty followed you here to Avani?”
“Unknown. What I can say with informed confidence is that before I could identify the source of the attack, it vanished. Either it moved faster than any craft I have ever encountered, or it possessed a cloaking technology that is beyond anything I have ever seen.”
“So what do we do?”
“I must alert the Confederation as soon as possible. As I have said, this situation forces me to use the ancient gate on your South Pole to continue onward, which is why I need your help. Will you assist me in this quest?”
For a moment, Zahn was silent as the memory of his mother pressing the small lens into his hand flashed back to him. He thought about what it meant to truly see and how such a journey would give him insights into the galaxy that no one from Avani could imagine.
The clarity of that memory had stayed with him, and he wondered what his mother might want him to do in this situation. What if his instincts were right? What if she was somehow still alive?
“The outer core is near the center of the galaxy itself,” he said. “It would be the journey of a lifetime, maybe two. But this is a lot to process at once, Oon. I’ll need time to consider it.”
“Understandable. However, I will only be here for a short time. Due to my weakened cloaking field, I must conceal myself beneath the ocean during the day to minimize my chances of discovery. No one else on Avani should ever know that I was here. Do you understand this? Spacefarer Code has already been violated more than once, and I want to avoid any further violations to the free will of your people.”
“I understand.”
“Once again, I thank you for returning the fragment of my ship. Please meet me at this precise location exactly one hour before sunrise to tell me of your decision. Can you do that?”
“I will.”
CHAPTER 8
THE CHOICE
By the time Zahn reached the front door, he already knew what he had to do. He also knew he wouldn't be able to sleep until he told his father what had just happened, and as he knocked on his
father’s door, he felt tense with anticipation.
Groggy, his father opened the door slightly and asked Zahn what was wrong.
“Dad, something absolutely ineffable has happened. Do you remember that fragment I showed you?”
“Of course.”
“I found its owner. Well, its owner found me.”
Zahn told his father a brief version of what had happened to him. He told him about how he’d been awoken by the tapping on his window, the strange figure, his invisible ship, and the story of how Oonak was attacked. When Zahn had finished, Vivek looked hard into his eyes.
“You are telling the truth, or at the very least, you believe it to be the truth. There is no doubt in your eyes, but—”
“Come with me an hour before dawn. Oon said he will be waiting on the beach to hear my decision.”
“And have you decided? What if he’s a madman? Or worse? Zahn, do you realize how tremendously dangerous this is?”
“Yes, but I think I have to go. Dad, I saw Kavi a few days ago. He’s back, and he told me to always keep Mom’s lens with me. He said these were auspicious times. What if he knew this visitor was coming? My intuition says to go with him.”
“You saw Kavi?” Vivek processed this for a moment. “Anyway, that doesn’t change this situation. I don’t think you should go, Zahn. Not until we know who this man really is. How do you know that fragment was his?”
“It sort of melted back into his ship—”
“You just gave it to him?!”
“He crashed on Avani! What was I supposed to do? Anyway, it melted back into his ship which he sort of introduced me to. It’s pretty impressive, actually. It can speak and—”
“That doesn’t mean he has your well-being in mind.”
“Dad, this may be the only chance I ever get to find out what happened to Mom. I know she’s up there. Somehow, I just know it. Isn’t that worth some risk?”
Epic of Aravinda 1: The Truth Beyond the Sky Page 4
