Stars Of Wonder - An "Of Unity" Narrative

[CBR JGWRR]

"After The Discovery, Part 1"
Tana B'Khenna
8th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
The Unity Archive, Yiri District​

The trouble of being a Second Priestess is you still have to report to a First Priest. I watch Dadi B'Turna pace around this cavernous hallway.

He stops to run a claw down one of the figures on the wall.

The turns to me, and Rivi. "Let's discuss what is undeniable about the situation here. It is undeniable that Rivi's blood opened the passage. It's also obvious that these figures were not carved by metal tools."

I look at the nearest to me. "I agree. The rock shows no sign of any kind of tool use really. Yet..." I look up.

And for the first time in all the years I've known her, I wonder if Rivi is right in her stubborn beliefs.

She however, is wide-eyed in wonder. She turns to me. She sighs, and her tension eases. "I can't lie about being thrilled. But, even from a Rukonian believer, there's much that's surprising. Nomi B'Uniti has never been depicted as anything other than the unknown shepherd beast, yet here she's some kind of upright biped in the beginning." She points at the roof. "Look - Buri B'Uniti, Rivi B'Uniti and a baby Ruki B'Uniti are depicted with her both before and after Nomi B'Uniti's transformation from the biped to the unknown beast. It must be her in both forms."

I shrug."Maybe your people just got it wrong. Maybe it's just some symbol in their myth."

She smiles. "Myths don't make blood seals." She looks at the spiral staircase that brought us here. "Blood seals have always been a part of the Rukonian beliefs, they symbolise commitment." She points at the third panel of the second tier. "You can see it in the wedding pact of Nomi and Buri here, the way the blood falls from their shared sword."

I look around. "There are lots of those bipeds, and more. Yet none of them are known to us now. That suggests to me that the whole set are allegorical."

She shrugs now. "Or that they are simply not here. Nomi B'Uniti was always described as descending from and then ascending back to the stars."

I look at her. "Except for-"

Dadi taps the wall. "Ladies, let's all be open-minded. The tenets of the Rite of Sana-Woru require us to evaluate all things in the pursuit of truth. Perhaps Rivi is right and Rukonian beliefs are right. Perhaps You are right Tana, and this is some fanciful joke we don't yet understand. Perhaps there is some third path. Regardless however, exorcism of dogmatism and pre-existing bias from the beginning of any investigation is required of our priesthood. Breathe, and focus. Each of you."

I count to ten.

Rivi begins dabbing her bandage on the wall.

I join her. "Rivi..."

She looks at me. "Tana."

I sigh. "Lets... Suppose you are right. That this is actually a B'Uniti.... Construct. What even is it?"

She stares at me a while, then softens. "I think it is a recording of history, and that this is only an entry sanctum. And I'm guessing that there are other chambers hidden behind more blood seals."

I hold out a hand. "May I help?"

She tentatively unwraps her bandage. "Just... I don't know what we are looking for exactly."

I take the soaked bandage. "Maybe the doors are aligned somehow?"

She looks at the final panel of the third tier. There's a cleft in the wall below the figure wrapped in a shroud. We look at each other. We run.

We're right.

It opens up revealing another chamber. Naturally, we press on.

This chamber...

No panels. Just seemingly endless shelves of items on a long and very gentle downwards spiral.

Eventually a second chamber follows, this time it is millions of drawings. diagrams and...

The final centrepiece is thousands and thousands of thin strands beneath a model that shows the strands arranged as a tiny mesh at the throat of an enormous nozzle composed of blade-like rings.

"What the?"

I turn back to Rivi as she cradles a strand. "These are... Heavy!"

I pick one too, it almost pulls me to the floor. I put it back. She puts hers back. She looks at me. "I... Do not understand."

"Me too. Let's keep moving."

The last blood seal leads us into another vast spherical chamber, dark as night, lit only by lights in the wall. A series of footprints on a transparent plate lead us to the centre of the sphere.

We both look at each other. "It's an orrery. This is our night sky!"

As we watch, we realise it isn't static, it uses flashing arrows to guide our attention to one particular star. Then I look at Rivi. "This is a map of our night sky. Pointing us to a star... And you said Nomi returned to the stars."

Rivi turns back to the door. "Maybe this is Nomi and Buri telling us how to find them?"

I turn back to the door. "And maybe that mesh and ring thing is a tool that takes us to them somehow."

She nods. "I have no idea..." She sits. Then smiles. "But we could look out for the star that's being pointed out by the orrery. If nothing else, it's an experiment we can try to confirm the data from down here."

I sit beside her. "You know Rivi... To the rest of us, you claiming to be descended from Nomi and Buri and Ruki is like claiming to be descended from gods and goddesses and legendary kings."

She smiles. "To us adherents of Rukonian beliefs, they were just people like us who had legends and myths made onto them."

I shrug. "Maybe. I don't know what to think right now. But what I do know is that if any of all this is true... Xenayan society will never be the same. We have to tell the Council."

She bites her lip. "You know all the... Historical unpleasantness that makes Rukonian believers like me hide our faith. I'm the most public believer I know, and even I have to notionally adhere to the Council's theocracy."

I smile. "Yeah, but equally..." I look back at the star. "What if Nomi and Buri are somehow watching this place?" I think about the panels of the third tier. "You Rukonians always claim the Rukonian era began with the overthrow of the B'Turna enslavement league. And those pictures back there showed bipeds helping Xenaya to fight the B'Turna slavers..." I take her hand. "I don't like thinking that Rukonian beliefs might have been right all along."

She laughs. "You've never approved."

I laugh. "Hey, from my religion's point of view, you are practically claiming that you have divine ancestry as you claim Noma-Hama is actually a corruption of Nomi B'Uniti. Would you approve of that?"

She smiles. "No, I wouldn't." She shakes her head. "But again I've never claimed divine descent, and Rukonian beliefs actually hold Nomi B'Uniti was never a goddess."

"The point is Rivi, millions of Xenaya faithful to the Council like me, are now going to have to face questions that strike at the very heart of our belief system. All because of what we've found here."

She looks at the star. "Then we are fortunate that this is a question that we can conduct an experiment to find out." She stands. "Let's suppose this whole place is all here just to give us the tools to investigate these questions." She points out the door. "If that is some kind of propulsion system that can take us to the stars, and we have a map to show us exactly where we have to go..."

I think it through. "Then we can experiment to prove which of us has the right beliefs."

She takes my hand. "Tana, I've been open to your beliefs long enough to attain the rank of Third Priestess." She smiles. "Despite my... Unorthodoxy."

I giggle. "Yeah."

She takes a serious expression. "You trusted me enough to tell me to come here for the blood seals. Will you be open to my beliefs enough to back me asking the Council to let us investigate this?"

I think about it. "I have an idea. Dana B'Torag, the First-Priestess of the Observatory of Sana-Woru. We tell her about the orrery and the star it points to, and if she finds it, I'll support your request in front of the Council."

She smiles. "Thank you Tana. And hey, we've always been rivals, ever since we were noviciates - if I'm wrong, don't you want to be there to say I told you so when I'm forced to publicly recant?"

I laugh. "Rivi... You know I would not miss that. Ever."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"After The Discovery, Part 2"
Tana B'Khenna
8th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
Surface Above The Unity Archive, Yiri District​

Rivi meets me out at the semaphore line. "You look worried Tana."

I pause my pacing to look down at my notes. "Yeah. I'm about to send a message that could turn our world upside down."

She runs a perusal. "We don't know that."

I look at her. "When news of this Archive gets out... Things will be different Rivi. Different in ways we can't be sure of."

She shrugs. "We're priestesses of Sana-Woru, reporting our discovery, and requesting the Observatory does a verification check on a set of coordinates."

I look back at the cave entrance. "What do you think they'll find?"

She shrugs. "I... Don't know. Evidence of alien civilisation I suppose. I mean... I don't know. Just knowing there's a star there is enough."

I shrug. "One star doesn't mean much."

"No, but look at what's in the Archive - that technology is way beyond ours. And they left it here for us to find and then gave us directions to their star. I don't think that is the action of a hostile entity."

I sit. "Rivi... I know you are trying to make light of the situation. But what happens next?"

She shrugs. "The Observatory will reply that they observed a star, and we'll get a reply either tonight or tomorrow morning. Then we send our report to Wera B'Gunda and he decides whether to take it to the rest of the Council, probably by the close of the day meeting."

"Do you think the Council will approve?"

"Well, Wera will back us. But Kari, Turi and Hora all have a vested interest in shutting it down. The rest of the pantheon wouldn't be affected."

I look at her. "I'm kinda mad at you."

She laughs. "Hey, you brought me here."

"I kinda regret opening the box." I sigh. "I'm just worried."

She smiles. "It isn't you who's neck is on the line here. If they decide it's the Rite of Sana-Woru's pet Rukonian making trouble, then..."

I frown. "You shouldn't joke like that."

She snorts. "You'd win our little competition though."

I laugh. "I want to beat you fair and square by making discoveries, not sending a message that leads to you having to justify your beliefs to the Council and then getting exiled."

She laughs. "Don't worry about that." She looks back over her shoulder. "I now have leverage to argue my case with." She taps my notes. "Get it sent, I want to hear back from the Observatory."

I roll my eyes. "Just don't make me say I told you so later."

I take a deep breath, then begin the transmit sequence.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"After The Discovery, Part 3"
Rivi B'Uniti
8th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
The Unity Archive, Yiri District​

I spend the rest of the afternoon looking at the schematics.

Kind of have to; there really aren't many people who can read the formal liturgical Rukonian script, it uses a completely different set of symbols to the rest of the Xenayan languages. Like the rest of our world, it's had a complicated history, and we aren't sure what is true these days. But these are indisputably in Liturgical Rukonian. Liturgical Rukonian is a difficult language; many of the sounds are very difficult to do with Xenayan head features, which is why it was relegated to a dead liturgical language in the first place.

But...

You can't call yourself a B'Uniti and not know the minimum of how to read it - Nomi B'Uniti introduced it, which is why so many sounds are different and difficult.

Still, I owe it my ancestors to read what they left us.

I'm stopped by a trembling tap on my shoulder.

Tana stands behind me.

I raise an eyebrow. "Have they?"

She gulps. "Total stellar occulsion."

I stand. "That's... Surely not possible..."

She holds out her transcript. "It says 'Data anomalous. Initial assessment total stellar occulsion, means unknown. Flagged for investigation, please file report. Auth. Wera B'Gurda.'"

A star? That cold? "That's not possible..."

She shivers. "But... It clearly is. They found it. They looked where we told them to look, and they found it. Rivi, don't you get that? They found something there." She sits. "Something big enough to obscure a star. Gods... What have we found..."

Dadi B'Turna runs into the room from the orrery. "Heard speech but no words. Care to repeat?"

Tana shuffles on her feet.

Then gives Dadi the transcript.

She squirms.

His face goes pale as he looks at me. He stands stiil, takes a few breaths. "Ladies, give him your initial report. Get it sent as soon as you can." He exhales deeply. "Congratulations girls, you've just made history." He stares at me. "Rivi, I've been trying to explain this outside of your beliefs. Tana has been trying too. But we've got nothing that offers as good an explanation as you do. So, in the absence of a provisional alternative explanation, you may state your hypothesis that this is related to your Rukonian beliefs."

Wow. "Dadi... That could be problematic for you."

He shrugs. Waves his arms around the place. "We are a priest and two priestesses of the Rite of Sana-Woru. Our duty is the truth, however comforting or painful that may be." He stiffens and stands straight. "Go. Back upstairs."

I look at Tana.

Offer her my hand.

She takes it.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Before The Council, Part 1"
Rivi B'Uniti
10th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
Wera B'Gurda Residence, Core District​

Tana and I jump from the airship to the landing pad.

I take a deep breath. Never been to the High Priest of Sana-Woru's residence before.

Tana leads me inside.

She paces around the reception area. "This is... Bigger than I thought."

I shrug. "Seems a normal lobby to me."

She laughs. "No, I mean, we've come straight to the High Priest. Like... I've only seen him in person once before."

I nod. "When we graduated from Apprentices to become Wardens."

Her head tilts. "Oh yeah, twice then. But yeah... This is huge."

"Relax Tana."

She fidgets. "I'm trying."

Five minutes feels like eternity, until the doors are pushed open.

A kindly eyed old man with white fur waves. "Come in. There is much to discuss."

We follow him. He sits at his table, then points us to seats.

Then he unfolds a transcript.

Places it on the table.

I look at it. "To Tori B'Qunra, High-Priest of Nori-Woru-"

He smiles. "In the habit of reading other people's mail, Rivi?"

My laugh is way too high-pitched. "I'm sorry. Curiousity got the better of me."

He laughs too. "Ah Rivi..." he stops smiling. "I shall be frank. The two of you have discovered something that has put the Council on edge, yet also willing to listen to the Rite of Sana-Woru. This Archive. Your First Priest has sent me his own report." He fixes his eyes on me. "He recommends vouching for you, publicly."

"Which you are nervous about."

"Correct. Kari B'Kundu has already demanded that I exile you for abusing your position to agitate for your Rukonian beliefs."

I scowl. "Of course he would. Stupid man has learned he can't beat Rukonians on truth so he uses force instead."

Wera splays out his fingers. "WIth respect Rivi, your Rukonian beliefs are not the subject here. No, Kari's angle is he wants to usurp the Archive and secure it for the Rite of Noma-Hama of course, but also he is trying to interfere with another Rite's appointments. Your position is safe."

Tana raises a hand. "Is the Archive safe?"

"Dadi B'Turna has been joined by Templar Knights of Zaru-Toru, who are acting on the personal authority of Dori B'Nuipa to ensure Kari does not get the Archive." He pauses to look at each of us. "Ladies, you are here because this Archive is intriguing. Dana B'Torag has already contacted me. Would you like to know what she did after she replied to you?"

"Sure."

He lays out a picture. "She drew this yesterday, after a long exposure record with the Observatory's visible light telescope."

A faint star peeks out from a swarm of red. "What the?"

"Whatever it is, is not natural. You have found something, Rivi and Tana. Now, you are here to help me decide how to play the politics of the Council. I will begin with what I think, and what I have directed into my motion for the day. Rivi B'Uniti, you are the only B'Uniti anyone else in the Council is even willing to speak to. Being a Third Priestess of Sana-Woru gives you that. But more than that, Dadi's report, taken with Dana's reports, tells me that someone or something out there knows of us and put this there, and then told us how to come find them. Which leads to one conclusion. Rivi - if you are not there when we find them, or worse, they come here to investigate the Archive presumably informing them it has been entered, we risk dealing with Nomi B'Uniti and Buri B'Uniti in the Rukonian understanding." He waves around the room. "You are a Rukonian. You know what they will think."

I nod. "Heresy."

He nods. "So, I want you on board start to finish. But, I need to know that you are worth investing my power within the Council on."

I look at Tana. "Run us as a joint venture."

Tana looks at me. "Rivi?"

I take her hand. "Look. Anyone familiar with our records knows me and you have been competing for years. You are a devout follower of Sana-Woru, and have a near-unbeaten track record that led to you being one of the youngest Second-Priestesses in recent history." I look back at him. "Between us, we are a safe bet."

He smiles. "Glad you see it my way." He shows another list. Tori B'Qunra, High-Priest of Nori-Woru. Sari B'Nuipa, High Priestess of Tira-Toru. Dori B'Nuipa, High Priest of Zaru-Toru. Godi B'Kudzi, High Appeaser of Ziru-Veka. Kuki B'Lunda, Exalted Pursuer, Wava-Wibi. Beastmaster Kari B'Kundu, Noma-Hama. Grandmaster Hora B'Worg, Boru-Hama. Eyekeeper Turi B'Polis, Tohu-Lukn. "Add myself, and we have the full Council of our Theocracy and the deities we represent." He looks each of us in the eyes. "You can do nothing to impress Kari for certain, and likewise Hora and Turi will back Kari. But, you have me and Tori one hundred percent, and Sari and Dori are inclined to support you because Kari annoys them. Godi, well... She's a nervous wreck, so... Supportive, if she thinks it through. Kuki is bonkers, but in principle should back us." He leans back in his chair. "Any questions?"

Tana raises her hand first. "What's in it for Tori?"

Wera smiles. "The prestige and influence from the crafts-priests working on the biggest engineering project in our history, of course."

I tilt my head. "You're proposing a full program? Not just bodging our facilities on the end of the rockets in the Archive?"

"Tori is adamant that we do as much as we can before consulting the Archive. He thinks it would diminish our achivement if we have help."

Tana shakes her head. "Idiot."

Wera snorts. "Yes, but a useful one." he claps. "We will meet them in a few hours. Prepare yourselves. Rivi, do not rise to Kari's insults, that is an order. Dismissed."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Before The Council, Part 2"
Rivi B'Uniti
10th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
Reception Chamber Of The Council, Core District
​

"Firstly, I motion to have this heretic arrested and removed." Kari B'Kundu points at me, his hand shaking. "She is a treacherous Rukonian. She has no place here."

Wera yawns. "Kari, be silent. She is a proven and highly regarded Third Priestess of Sana-Woru. Your attempt to interfere with another Rite's appointments has been noted. No, we are here not to discuss her, but her discovery."

"A discovery that we have to take your word for it as you won't allow independent access-"

"We are allowing independent access. But we are not going to let your thugs intimidate and harass our Priests and Priestesses as they carry out their sacred duties."

Kari roars. "Our Inquistors are acting to ensure the safety of the Xenayan people!"

Sari B'Nuipa leans fowards. "My esteemed colleagues, I feel it necessary to remind both of you that it is the place of this Council to decide our policy, and not to have Rites acting independently. We will make a decision together on how we shall deal with this situation."

Dori takes her hand. "Hear!"

Kari looks daggers at me. Not going to lie, I'd love to drag him to the bleeding place. Not that he'd go. Coward.

Turi looks at me. "The question is this. What is in this Archive?"

Tana unpacks her sketches. "The cave was discovered after a recent earthquake, and reported by local residents that it led to a chamber with carvings inside. I and Dadi B'Turna investigated. I determined there was a door, but it held firm against explosive detonations to try and force entry. That didn't work, so I tried more explosives. Still didn't work. I realised there was a bowl with drain sluices at hand height with a spring-loaded spike, and I figured it was a blood seal."

Kari jumps to his feet. "This is outrageous heresy!"

Grandmaster Hora looks up. "She speaks."

Tana flicks her eyes to him, then continues. "Based on my hypothesis that it was a blood seal, I called in the only Rukonian I know, Rivi B'Uniti. Rivi was dropped by airship later that day, and within five minutes of her arrival the seal was opened."

I wave a bandaged hand. "We can prove that."

Kari scowls. "Blood seals are impossible."

"With the entry now obtained, it brought us into this room." She hands out more sketches. "These carvings are in full colour, and sampling indicates it is was not painted and varnished but is instead some kind of heat-activated spray. They show no signs of metal toolworking to carve and look like they were carved through incredibly precise vaporisation of the rock."

"A flight of fancy."

"She speaks."

"Rivi established that these carvings are of the Late-Rukonian era and depict three sequences of events. The first set of panels depicts our ancient history, the second set depict the story of Nomi B'Uniti and her family and friends, and the third set of panels depicts events from the life of High King Ruki B'Uniti, ending with his death, and the consecration of the Archive itself."

"Myths and lies."

Hora taps him. "She speaks."

"In opening a second blood seal, Rivi led the way into a slowly spiraling hall filled with artefacts of unknown purpose, leading into a third chamber filled with technical drawings and a centrepiece composed of a model of some kind of engine, and a nozzle. Beneath it are all the components to make three of those engines - they consist of a pump, an incredibly heavy mesh of tightly packed strands that take all your strength to lift, and a series of rings that are angled to a very sharp inner blade ring that form the nozzle. From there, we entered the last chamber, which was a transparent platform out to the middle of a huge sphere that showed our night sky. It highlights a particular star. Rivi and I discussed that, and we agreed that I'd back her to ask for an investigation if that star came to something."

Wera nods. "Dana B'Torag at the Obsevatory of Sana-Woru then looked at the star in question, and discovered that the visible light it emits is near negligible, yet when viewed through our new bolometer array it shows up very clearly against the background cold. She took a long exposure record overnight, and found this." He passes round the drawing. "It appears this star is orbited by such a vast host of satellites that it is near permanently obscured."

Turi's eyes light up when the drawing passes to him. "The Eye of Tohu-Lukn! I have dreamed of this place!" He fixes on me. "And you say this rocket could... Take us there?"

Tana shrugs. "I have no idea what it would take for us to go to another star."

I smile. "I expect so though. I mean, my ancestors leaving us a rocket that couldn't wouldn't be right. They would want us to come to them. They've told us where to go, given us an assembly required set of things and some instructions-"

Kari stands. "Has this Council forgetten what heresy is? Throw them out!"

Hora punches him. "She speaks."

Tori claps his hands together. "I do however see one problem. I am inclined to agree with Rivi here. On the assumption that Nomi B'Uniti is a real person and not a myth, she is in the Rukonian understanding a mother of the Xenayan people, is she not?"

I nod. "In a way, she always maintained that we adopted her though."

"Now, her motives in wanting us to come find her are unknown at this stage, but I can envision the engine Tana describes working in principle even if the workings are beyond my understanding. Never the less, I feel that us embarking on a fantastical voyage to the stars to find the truth about our gods, without properly understanding the tools by which we travel is quite risky. I propose that we instead begin by building our own capabilities up. I propose that we first undertake a mission built on our technology to our moon."

Wera nods. "I am inclined to agree. As High Priest of Sana-Woru, I trust Rivi and Tana's work. But we must verify and experiment to test what is in the Archive."

Kari shakes his head. "This is heresy."

I look at Wera. "One sentence, spoken frankly."

He shakes his head. "Kari, stop for a moment. There is enough evidence here to warrant our investigation. If anything, you should be supportive, given your Rite has become all about social cohesion - we need to do this together."

Kari scowls at me. "Let's vote."

Wera looks around the room. "All in favour of investigating the Archive and beginning our quest for truth?"

While some are slower than others, eventually nine hands rise.

Kari scowls. "I concede the floor to the will of the Council."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Onwards To Second Home" (Revised)
Rivi B'Uniti
11th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
The Legacy Of The Crafts-Priests Of Nori-Woru, Core District​

Shadow falls at midday.

A chill runs through the air as Wera B'Gurda and Tori B'Qunra join me and Tana on the stage. I...

I avoid things like this. Lots of people looking at me is not good.

Still...

Tori steps forward. "Above us right now, is the biggest airship we have yet made, a vast machine seven hundred strides long that can carry tens of thousands of Xenaya. From here, it will travel the skies of our homeworld, delivering people and goods between the major settlements of our people, delivering raw materials across the continents. But we are the Crafts-Priests of Nori-Woru!"

Cheers from most of the crowd; the others are Priests of Sana-Woru of course.

"We do not settle for merely expanding the works of our ancestors. We will strive for even greater things!"

More cheers. Some questioning glances.

"Following recent discoveries by the Priestesses of Sana-Woru beside me-" He waves to me and Tana -"Our Council has agreed to conduct the most ambitious venture of our age." He points up, our moon barely visible in the vast blue sky. "We commit to putting Xenaya on Second Home, and returning them here safely again."

Stunned silence.

Then nervous glances from some, and wide grins from others.

I think about the Archive.

Tori pulls Wera close in to stand shoulder to shoulder. "We are Priests of Nori-Woru and Sana-Woru! And as the dance of our patron deities has always been, we step into the dance of discovery together. There is so much to learn and achieve, much prestige to be accrued, and honours to be given out. Our theorists are as yet unsure what lies above, with some proposing an infinite aether, and others nothing at all. We will settle this question decisively, and many thousands more as we reach for heights unseen by any Xenaya so far." He raises his hands. "We are history-makers! What we do today is for the good of all Xenaya-kind, for the discoveries, materials and technologies we develop will open up brand new worlds for our people. We will need new materials, new chemistry, new physics, new innovations, and above all, the indomitable spirit of the Xenaya!"

The cheers become a roar.

Wera steps forward. "From the most ancient tales of our people and the gods, our patrons have walked in the pursuit of knowledge together. Nori-Woru ever eager to explore new places, experient with new things, his sister more cautious and careful, thinking through each step. Together, they were never elluded a discovery they sought. Like our patrons, we are stood together as Priests of Sana-Woru and Nori-Woru before the greatest scientific expedition of our age."

He waits for the crowd to fall silent.

"What was, will be."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Back To The Archive, Part 1"
Rivi B'Uniti
11th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
Cloud Strider "Core's Pride", Core District Tethers​

Guess where said seven hundred stride Cloud Strider is going first?

Yeah.

I now have to justify Rukonian theology to a thousand Priests of Sana-Woru while we travel to the Archive with enough resources in tow to set up a permanent research base there.

And they are all looking at me.

Judging the heretic they now have to trust.

I open my mouth, then close it again...

Tana steps to my side. It seems crazy that my childhood rival is now shielding me.

She looks back at them. "I know you are looking at Rivi and wondering why a heretic is here leading our mission. Truthfully, she is not." She takes out a transcript. "Wera B'Gurda has appointed me as First Priestess, and I am leading this mission. Rivi is my assistant and my subject matter expert, and she is a Third Priestess of Sana-Woru in her own right even with her disadvantage. And yes, she's Rukonian. The Archive is on the Rukonian reserve, and so she is allowed to summon you to their bleeding place here. We are not the Inquisitors of Noma-Hama who evict and capture Rukonians, and while we are here we will respect their customs. We are here to learn from a Rukonian Archive that has already seen experimental confirmation of some of the known predictions. As Priests and Priestesses of Sana-Woru we are obliged to examine the evidence impartially and with an open mind."

She stares at them. Waits a few minutes.

"If that isn't acceptable, then get off this Cloud Strider now. Fail to get off now and you decide to cause problems later and you'll see Wera B'Gurda himself."

Ten minutes later, our Cloud Strider looks empty.

I look at Tana. "Thank you."

She frowns. "Please bail them out when they insult the locals."

"I'll try." I look at them. "Could you who remain come closer."

They pack into the first few rows. Quick count... we've lost a good eight hundred Xenaya.

I try to smile. "So, yes, I'm the Rukonian. I'm the one who has the trust of Wera B'Gurda, I'm the one that the Council has acknowledged as a critcal member of the team, and I'm your best hope of survival in the wild lands." I pause. "How many here have hunted and killed their own food?"

Me.

Two others.

Ok. "We will be going to the wild. Out here, you survive by hunting and killing your prey. These lands are home to nomads who track their prey in the wilds between the outer veld plains of the Council territory, through the parched rock of the badlands where we will land and establish our base, before the great dunes of the inner deserts. There are no farm beasts there. It can be days between your meals. What was a water source one day, may be gone the next. This is a harsh land where the group survives by working together and where outsiders are dangerous, even when they are other Rukonian nomads - it is all too easy to make a group too big to survive here. City folk like you are very rare, and are almost always Inquisitors of Noma-Hama who force parents into the desert and take their children from them." The other two give me the slightest nods. "Fortunately, we are here under the banner of Sana-Woru, and that means we won't be hated on sight."

Tana fetches a map. "The Archive is here. We have already set up a semaphore line for communications to a nearby Council mining outpost, while Rukonian nomads live in caves around the Archive and were the source of information that said outpost passed to us. We have seen them, but they have not trusted us enough to make contact yet. Do not try to open any doors - they are blood sealed and immune to explosives. It's why I had to bring Rivi on board." I wave a bandaged hand. "Her blood is accepted by the seals." She looks at me. "I think the rest can wait until we get there, so for now, let's introduce ourselves. I'm Tana B'Khenna, First Priestess of Sana-Woru, and the youngest First Priestess in a generation."

I smile. "I'm Rivi B'Uniti. I am a direct descendant of Ruki B'Uniti through his son Wami B'Uniti, and named for his sister Rivi B'Uniti. As a result, in the event we might Nomi B'Uniti and Buri B'Uniti in person, I get to meet my grandparents from sixty seven generations ago." I laugh. "I'm here because I was taken from my parents by Noma-Hama Inquistors and dumped on the Priests of Sana-Woru, and I did my best through my career of eleven years in the Priesthood to excel, and I've done well enough that they made me Third Priestess." I look at them. "Who's next?"

A woman shoots her hand in the air. She smiles. "I'm Liki B'Woruk. I'm a mother of two children, a third on the way, and I've always loved the idea of going to Second Home." She laughs. "I want to make it happen, and maybe be there someday."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Back To The Archive, Part 2"
Rivi B'Uniti
11th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
Cloud Strider Thing "Core's Pride", The Unity Archive
​

"Rivi." Tana stands over me.

I yawn. "Tana?"

"We're here."

I shake myself awake, then descend the tether to the Archive with her.

The others are already admiring the decorations, but Tana gathers them to us at the first blood seal. "We'll spend the rest of today setting up camp in here. Fari, Lori - you were also Rukonians?"

The other two join us. Fari - a man with rich red fur and a missing horn - nods. "Once." He shifts his eyes between us.

Lori shakes his head. "Been with the Priesthood since I was a cub."

Tana frowns. "So you can't translate?"

Both shake their heads.

Tana sighs. "Ok, go help the others." She turns to me. "We know it's all written in Old Rukonian. And you're the only native speaker we have."

I shuffle. "It will be tricky to find others who can. Harder still to convince them to come."

"Rivi... I'm thinking that I am going to need other translators. There's just so much we'd need to translate. You're Rukonian. What would it take?"

"To?"

"To get them to come here."

I look at my feet. "Supplies and safety."

"Safety from whom?"

"The Inquisitors."

She sits. "Rivi... That Council policy ensures that Xenayan children are raised in good homes to be good citizens, with plentiful food and water, guaranteed education and access to a future."

I scowl. "Ever thought about what it's like from the other side?"

She sighs. "Look, would you really prefer to have been raised by some wanderers in a dessert? You've had all the perks of life in Council territory. Ultimately it is for the best for these children."

"We'll agree to disagree. Point is, the only way they'll trust you is if you convince them they are not going to be captured by the Inquisitors. If you want more translators, you need to ensure that they are safe from having their children kidnapped and raised by the enemy."

She takes a deep breath. "So there's no other way?"

I fold my arms. "Tana, what's the point in having the Priesthood's pet Rukonian here if you aren't going to listen to her?"

She sulks for a while. "Fine. I'll talk to Wera about it." She looks through to the next room. "Meanwhile, you should get writing."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"A Question Of Tradition"
Tana B'Khenna
15th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
The Unity Archive, Yiri District​

I smile. "Welcome, Wera B'Gurda, to the Archive."

He steps down from the tether. "Well, I'm eager to see for myself."

I lead him down. He stops at the entry chamber. Looks around. "Fascinating. The detail... It looks like it was made yesterday."

"I know... We've had samples analysed." I point to chips we took off the sculptures and samples of the rock. "The lab has confirmed that the rock the sculptures are made from is the same bedrock that forms this whole region."

He runs claws along a sculpture. "So smooth."

"Yeah. That's another thing the lab picked up - they've looked at the microstructure under the biggest magnification we have, and these sculptures were definitely carved by heat strong enough to melt the rock incredibly precisely. The whole cavern is, in fact. Nothing here shows any sign of tool use. Not even paint brushes."

He looks at me. "Not... That's ridiculous. You can see the paint!"

I nod. "Yeah, you can. but the layers the paint is made from are uniformly consistent on a level unlike anything the lab's ever tested. It was not applied with a brush, somehow it's just been... It's like the paint applied itself."

Kani, a Fifth Priest, joins us. "There's more, Priestess." We follow him to the test bench. "Acid test results show the paint undergoes nearly no wearing away, even under strengths sufficient to completely destroy a sample of traditional paints."

Wera looks at him. "So this Archive... Is conclusively beyond our ability to make?"

Kani withdraws. "I couldn't say the Archive as a whole is for lack of testing. But the paint is undoubtedly both not ours, and also not fake."

Wera frowns. "And dating testing?"

Kani shuffles. "The paint's resilience is astounding; anything less than deliberate damage seems to be ignored, and it seems to have self-healing capabilities. I could not begin to estimate the age. I'd have no trouble believing it was a thousand years old, or that it was indeed made yesterday such is the material's qualities."

I stand. "There's more." I lead Wera to the blood seal. "This... Is proof."

"Proof of?"

"This is a blood seal. A working blood seal."

Wera looks at the door. "Was the door closed in order to demonstrate that fact then?"

I look in the tent covered with an introduction to Old Rukonian liguistics. "Rivi."

She comes out.

Hand still bandaged.

Strides to the seal.

Unwraps the bandage.

Squeezes her hand and lets it drip.

Door opens.

I look at Wera. "Yeah, it was."

Wera looks from the blood seal to the door, then back to Rivi. "It's true then." He takes a deep breath. "That complicates things."

Rivi steps into the Archive. "Coming?"

Wera smiles. "We are here for truth."

More Priests are working in this second chamber, studying the historical panels. "Liki!"

She looks over some scaffolding. "Yes?"

"Come here."

She leaps. "We've been analysing the images."

Wera looks up. "Who are all the bipeds? And the others?"

"We aren't sure. Well, Rivi is, but there's some surprises here for her too... " She shuffles. "Permission to speak freely?"

Wera narrows his eyes. "Granted."

Liki takes a deep breath. "Forgive me High Priest, but I feel we must bring in Rukonian theologians on this. Rivi isn't nearly as well studied in Rukonian beliefs as we require to fully piece together the story above us."

Wera rubs his forehead. "You do not know how much of a headache that will cause on the Council..." he looks at Rivi. "Would you agree?"

Rivi shrugs. "Unless my people can trust that this isn't an elaborate scheme to round them up, they won't want to come."

Wera looks at me. "Do you think they are needed?"

"It would definitely make things quicker."

Wera sits and thinks for a while.

Then lies back.

Looks at the roof.

Drums his claws. "The only way we'll truly understand this place is by bringing in Rukonians. We'll have to keep their involvement secret however, as if word reaches the Inquisitors..."

Rivi scowls. "You'll have to fight beside us against them if you ever want to have Rukonians help you again."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Rukonian Contact"
Tana B'Khenna
15th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
B'Yars Grounds, Outer Badlands​

I repack our parachutes after landing, Rivi lights a fire.

Soon, we're done. I sit next to her. "So... Who are we hoping will come?"

She sighs. "Well... This region is part of the roaming grounds of the B'Yars clan. We're roughly in the middle. They've always been friendly to the B'Uniti dynasty, going all the way back to Nomi and Buri B'Uniti. I'm hoping that we will eventually get to see the clan patriarch Hani B'Yars."

"Will he help us?"

She shrugs. "He will help me." She sighs. "I hope."

I yawn. "Could you take first watch?"

She nods.

I curl up.

---

I'm poked awake.

A man stands over me, wearing a patchwork-repaired set of goggles.

Rivi speaks. "Hani B'Yars, meet Tana B'Khenna."

He sniffs me. Then looks at Rivi. "She's Council, Rivi."

"Yes, she is. Look, I need a favour doing. The Rite of Sana-Woru has found an Archive dating back to Wami B'Uniti. I need your help to understand it."

He glares. "Where?"

"The old B'Ralrada Grounds."

He flinches. Snorts. "The kidnappers reach there. No. Not going."

I look at Rivi. She nods. "Clanfather B'Yars, I am a Second Priestess of Sana-Woru, and I answer directly to High Priest Wera B'Gurda. I know you may not know those names and titles mean, but I have the authority to impose a ban on Inquisitor action for the duration of the mission. If you can help us, I will do my very best to ensure there is no risk involved."

Rivi rests her hand on my arm as he rises. He looks at her. Then spits at me. "Why should I accept your word? For all I know, Rivi is here in distress and you are her captor."

Rivi gently pushes on me. "Hani, I vouch for her."

He recoils. Then shakes his head. "No my liege, you cannot... Council cannot be trusted."

"I already vouched for her."

He shudders. "I cannot... If she betrays, I cannot accept..."

Rivi stands. "She is vouched for. Will you join me, or not?"

He turns from her to me.

Me to her.

Her to me.

Closes his eyes.

Roars.

Throws himself at Rivi's feet,, head bowed. "Clan B'Yars answers to the Queen." He trembles. "But I beg of you not to vouch..."

Rivi rests her hand on his horns. "She is vouched for."

Hani looks at me, fearfully. "So be it." Then he stands, and returns to the other Rukonians.

I look at Rivi. "What did that mean?"

She sighs. "You betray us, and he has to kill me too."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Initial Misgivings"
Hani B'Yars
25th Ykrett, 1057 U.R.
The Unity Archive, Baralda Grounds​

These are...

The ancestors.

I cradle my googles as I look upon my forefather, Wami B'Yars, Second to Buri B'Uniti, Warchief of Nomi B'Uniti.

I look at Rivi. "The small dark one next to Buri, Ruki and Rivi... Are they?"

She nods. "Yes." She points. "See, here in the later panels - she and Buri enter the tanks of Tohu-Lukn together, and she comes out as the Shepherd Wolf we know."

Someone sighs.

Tana throws a rock. "I will say this again - we will respect Rukonian beliefs and customs while in their territory." She sighs as she joins us. "More of Wera's staff have arrived now." She looks at me. "What do you think?"

I raise my googles. "They match."

She looks up. "Hani, I want to ask... When you called Rivi Queen earlier... What exactly does that mean?"

I look at Rivi. Run my eyes down the patterned black and cold grey of her regnal blade. "Rivi is the High Queen of the Xenaya. The blood of Nomi B'Uniti runs through her veins."

"I'll rephrase - does that mean she commands you Rukonians?"

I turn to her. "You are Council. You do not understand."

She stays focused on me. "Then help me understand."

"Council leaders seek power. Seek control. Dominance. Imposition of will. Accumulation of resources. But the High Queen does not. She gives. Gives of her time, her strength, her passion, her love... The High Queen does not command from a throne far behind, but leads from the front." I shake my head. "As Council, all you know is the quest for personal gain." I look around the room. "Have any of you not weighed up the reward of betraying us against the wrath of Tana?"

I run my eyes into each of them.

Not many meet my gaze.

I look back at Tana. "Rukonians no kill Rukonians. Council..." I salivate.

Rivi stares. "Hani. No."

I swallow.

Tana looks at her. "And you Rivi?"

Rivi shifts her weight from one foot to another. "Tana... I want our mission to succeed. Truly. And I want this partnership to work. But Hani is right - we all know how much Kari B'Kundu would pay to have the Rukonians who have joined us here captured. It takes a huge amount of trust for them to stay here and not run before the inevitable comes. To stand here, knowing that everyone else would walk on by if the Inquisitors turn up. But I bring them here because I believe that this Archive, this mission, could be a true new beginning for us Xenaya. I am the bridge that makes this mission work. But if you are asking on who's side I stand if Inquisitors show up..." She runs a hand down the small blade. "Then I die with my people."

Tana stares, then nods. "I understand."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

So, a confession.

Been silent for a while, I know. Life2.0 got updates almost daily, but SOW/MOH are lagging somewhat...

The delay is for two reasons.

One, I've gotten distracted by solar-thermal stirling engine driven Cloud Striders and working out the designs as there's a part of me that's considering trying to build a blimp-variant (a blimp is an airship that relies on heating the contents of the envelope to get extra lift) for my own use.

Second is the number crunching that goes into the rockets that will take the Xenaya to their moon, and the second generation rockets that will take them across their star system.

Partially, this is because I may have actually come up with a half decent idea for a change. Ethyne, better known as acetylene is a rather dangerous (name a potential rocket fuel that isn't though) hydrocarbon that under sufficient heat or pressure exothermically decomposes into carbon and hydrogen, and you can use this process in a rocket. The hydrogen can be chucked out the nozzle with no worries, but some of the carbon deposits on the rocket walls as soot.

Ethyne rockets are big; the moon mission rocket is 30 times the mass of a Saturn-V because it's using materials used that are period appropriate (and designed around Xenaya) and that means heat tolerance is abysmal and therefore the amount of fuel combinations that don't make your nozzle melt and explode are limited, and Ethyne decomposition is the most effective one available (liquid hydrogen was figured out in 1898, which is beyond the cutoff I'm allowing for the Xenaya to have) and is available in the immense quantities required by their space program.

The size of tanks and how much has to be decomposed means that the deposition of carbon onto the nozzle wall is staggeringly high; more than a few minutes and the rockets will have nozzles gummed up full of soot.

I had the idea that while carbon has a melting/vaporisation point too high to exhaust, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide don't. So, if you open air intake slots in the nozzle during the lower atmosphere and then add injected liquid oxygen into the nozzle, you could react the carbon in the high temperatures with the oxygen very easily, leaving a hotter exhaust product and a slightly higher exhaust velocity. (in case you are wondering, LOX-Ethyne melts the test nozzle they use, which is why it isn't being used) Staging repeat afterburners like these in principle allows you to prevent soot build up.

The trouble is, this is now way beyond my level to figure out; at this point, I'm now looking at a variant of a rocket/scramjet hybrid. And well...

Life2.0's use of Nuclear Pulse Propulsion had the big advantage that it was largely figured out, and if the idiots at USAF had met Kennedy with the manned mission to Enceladus idea instead of the space-battleship idea, might well be something we'd consider normal today.

This?

Making a rocket/scramjet hybrid is state of the art aerospace science right now. It's just a bit beyond a guy who quite his engineering degree after two years because of ill health and eventually ended up in a chicken farm where one of the few advantages of the job is that I only need a fraction of my mind to do it, and that leaves the rest free to think about whatever I'd rather be thinking about than work.

And well...

Well, it is contributing to an unusually early mid-life crisis where I'm sat here thinking about my life as it is and...

For a long time, I've suffered crippling anxiety about failure.

And one of my deepest fears has always been meeting the man I could have been. And in the past...

That man was always a nebulous entity who I could envision, and not match.

But...

In facing the writing of Life2.0 over the last two years and the ongoing planning of Mandate Of Heaven's main story and the eventual outcome the protagonists of Stars Of Wonder will see, is that I have come to realise tonight a chilling realisation; that man is The Holocron.

And there's part of me thinking "Eh, stuff it, go play GTA5 and do some mindless PvEvP for a bit", another part is thinking "go talk to your wife you sad bastard", and another part is thinking about the list of books I'd like to read to check this idea against and see if I'm missing something painfully obvious that scuppers the idea but that I can't afford because of circumstances...

So...

Yeah.

But anyway, I will try to get more done on SOW and MOH this week.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Faiths And Fuels, Part 1"
Hani B'Yars
29th Ykrett, 1057 U.R.
The Unity Archive, Baralda Grounds​

I yawn. "We've been here for five days. Yet..."

My Queen sighs. "Keep going Hani."

"Rivi, it is endless technical documents for things that we Rukonians don't understand or need. This is pointless."

"The technical documents are precisely what we need." She looks at me. "I know it is tedious, but somewhere in here is the information we need to see Nomi and Buri." She comes close. "And if nothing else, the chance to make a break for freedom from the Council, permanently."

I smile. "Oh. I see now."

She nods. "Persistence. My faith tells me we will not be disappointed."

I'm mulling things over when Tana shouts. "Rivi! Come have a look at this."

We sprint.

This document is a...

It's lots of boxes arrayed into groups. I count. "I don't understand."

Rivi smiles. "It's a motelore board. A really detailed one too." She looks at Tana. "We need a chemist, now."

Tana looks at her. "These... Aren't any Xenayan words."

Rivi takes her hand. "They came from Nomi B'Uniti, when she descended..." She taps the floor. "Hani, bring Zori."

I shuffle. "Zori... Drank too much redwater."

Rivi growls. "Fine. Get Duni then, hopefully he's taught his son..."

I bring in the student Loremaster.

Rivi stares at him. "Has your father taught you much motelore?"

Duni sucks his teeth. "Not much need of motelore."

She taps the board. "There is now. Get this translated. Today."

He rubs his shoulders as his eyes go wide. "Today?"

"Yes, today!"

He stumbles back to his father.

I look at her. "Rivi... Duni is right. Motelore is not... Well known."

She nods. "I know. I recognise only a few names from those... But even so, what little I recognise tells me this might be exactly what we're looking for."

Tana sighs. "What even is motelore anyway?"

Rivi looks at her. "Atoms."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Faiths And Fuels, Part 2"
Tana B'Khenna
30th Tira-Toru, Y.C. 807
The Unity Archive, Yiri District​

Rivi joins me by the fire after another day's translating documents.

I yawn. "When's your loremaster going to get here?"

She shrugs. "He said just a few minutes."

I frown. Then point. "Doka B'Namma is here. He arrived half an hour ago.."

Rivi stares. "Wow."

I smile. "The Council's most prestigious chemist, here to listen to your loremaster."

Rivi sniggers too. Then sighs. "Zori will get here."

Zori B'Runu finally arrives with a cracked leather sheet, it's gold lettering faded away. A chill runs down my spine when I realise what the lettering is. "That's... Readable."

Rivi nods as Zori very carefully pins the table to the wall. "After looking at the document in the Archive, I remembered this hide. It belongs to Fani B'Ruugi, a Rukonian Loremaster who's family were given this leather hide by Ruki B'Uniti. This is the list of the one hundred and twenty seven motes known in Nomi B'Uniti's day, plus their varimotes, arranged in the manner of her people."

Doka stands, and unfurls his banner. before placing it below Zori's. "As part of our preparations for this meeting, I assembled our own table of the elements, as we know them to the best of our knowledge. Regrettably, ours is not as complete as this is."

Zori bows his head in deferment. "With respect, Nomi B'Uniti descended from the stars. We would expect her people to be more advanced."

Doka nods. "Precisely." he waves a hand around. "This place, this Archive... If it is truthful, has the potential to be transformative." He points to the leather piece on the wall. "Can anyone guess what we could achieve if we can utilise the elements that we don't yet know of thanks to this Archive? I am immensely interested in testing out the knowledge here, and trying to verify it."

I raise a hand. "What is a varimote?"

Zori glances back. "Motelore tells of the primote - the most common form of that mote. It also says of the varimote, who's evenspecks vary while having the same sparkspecks and numbespecks."

Doka looks at him. "So... How can we test this?"

I look at the table. "Same numbespecks... Different evenspecks..."

Rivi jumps. "Spin the sample."

"Yes! The differences in mass would mean they'd eventually split apart!"

Doka looks at us. Folds his arms. "How fast though?" Looks back at the table. "The difference must be miniscule..."

Rivi shrugs. "No idea."

Doka looks at the table. "That Calcium. Six varimotes. That sounds like a good choice to test the theory on." He runs his eyes down our table. He smiles. "Whiteflakerock, it matches... Yes... Yes! We can dissolve it in acid, and then spin samples in solution!" He claps. "Perfect!"

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Faiths And Fuels, Part 3"
Tana B'Khenna
1st Zaru-Toru, Y.C. 807
The Unity Archive, Yiri District​

I stand back a bit. "Rivi... I'm not sure this is a good idea."

She looks up from the sample testing bench to the Cloud Strider with a removed propeller. "Well... It should get it to spin up enough..."

I look at the growing pile of parts being unloaded. "We've got a prop shaft, and that's driving a set of gears that multiply the number of revolutions. So, yeah. That isn't my worry, it's that it might work too well."

She looks at me. "What makes you think so?" She taps a piece of parchment. "We've run the numbers on it already, and we don't know if we can get it fast enough here."

I look at the pulleys up to the housing of the samples. "I'm worried about that flying apart."

She shrugs. "Not our fault. We asked for the best bits the Rite of Nori-Woru had. It's on them if it breaks."

"And we are in the danger zone." I tap the parchment. "If it shatters, there's plenty of room for small objects to fling out at maybe a hundred strides or more."

She hums. "Well... Yeah. We'll have everyone behind cover when we spin it up."

"What if it hits the Cloud Strider? Lift Gas is... Volatile."

She frowns. "Yeah... Not much we can do about that, we need the Cloud Strider as the mirrors supply the sparkpower to turn the propellers."

"Maybe we should fully ground the Strider, then separate the mirror array."

She looks at Doka. "It's reasonable."

"And another day or more delayed..." He sighs. "I have Wera breathing down my neck as it is on this project." He glances at a Crafts-priest. "You know they've started testing fuels back in the Core District? They've built hundreds of pattern tubes for test firing potential fuels. We're behind schedule, just a bunch of parchments with information we don't understand yet... Wera wants results."

I stare. "We can't risk safety for slightly quicker progress."

Rivi nods. "Yeah... Look, I'm not entirely sure what an 'RPM' is for definite, but the Archive's description of isotope separation through centrifugal force says you want more than twenty thousand of them. That does sound like a lot."

He growls. "We test it. Today. At least a proof of concept test."

He storms off.

I look at the converted prop shaft that now drives a multiplication gear that drives the reinforced barrel that contains the sample spinner.

Rivi frowns. "I... I hope this works."

She nestles down to her parchment, runs the numbers over.

I leave her, and interrupt the crew. "Don't you think we should rotate the shaft so that it is perpendicular to the Cloud Strider? If the centrifuge breaks, we don't want it flinging debris at the Strider."

They argue.

They move.

By lunch, it's ready.

Apart from the pilot of the Cloud Strider, we are all at a safe distance; a few hundred strides uphill, the jagged rocks serving as cover.

Pilot selects drive.

We have movement!

Doka cheers.

Pilot applies more spark...

Gears become a blur, low rumbles become a whine, then a roar, then screeching and clanking then a ear-splitting bang...

Rivi and I get back up to see the debris scattered across the hillside below us. Pilot is waving.

I stare at Doka. "I told you so."

Doka stares at the fragments of wood and metal. He nods. "Yeah. Yeah, you did. My bad." He runs his hands over his head. "Urgh."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Faiths And Fuels, Part 4"
Tana B'Khenna
1st Zaru-Toru, Y.C. 807
Women's Dormitory, The Unity Archive​

Rivi crashes in the bunk next to me. "It's done."

"Good."

She sighs. "Hopefully they'll get to work immediately."

I turn towards her. "I've been thinking about what Doka said about the Nori-Woru guys..."

She nods. "Engine tests already."

"I went and asked. Turns out they've blown up or melted every rocket so far."

"Well... At least we aren't so far behind then."

"Zaru-Toru have also started training future pilots."

"Nothing unusual there, they were always going to be the pilots."

"They're testing pilots with blocked out canopies Rivi."

She stops. "Why?"

"Well... The Nori-Woru guys think we might have to send up a solidly welded capsule, no windows. Their pilots are learning instrument only flight..."

She gulps. "Oh. Yeah..."

I roll on my back. "Suddenly I'm feeling glad about being a theoretical researcher."

She lies on her back too. "We'll be going up there too, don't forget."

"I just hope we have better instruments by then."

She sighs. "Dare I ask why?"


"They're working off a compass, a map, a glass bowl of water with a ball in it and gauges for air pressure and change in air pressure."

"Oh."

"Yeah... Not ideal. Still, at least they are out of the wind now. Got to look on the brightside."

I shake my head. "I'd take one of those warmth suits and an open view any day over that."

She sighs. "Yeah, but the Archive says there's no air in space, so we'd have to learn to use a sealed room."

"Well... You would think that. I'm still inclined to think there's something up there for light to propagate."

She shrugs. "Archive says that light is both a wave and a particle."

I stifle a laugh. "Don't be silly Rivi, how can it be both at once? We used to think it was a particle, but we tested that theory with the diffraction grating experiment and proved light is a transverse wave, so it needs something to propagate through. Soda B'Wunmi's theory of dilatant aether covers this."

"Unless it is both a wave and a particle at the same time..."

I snort. "Ok Rivi. When we get up into space, we'll prove it one way or the other." I yawn. "Bedtime anyway."

"Yeah. Goodnight."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Faiths And Fuels, Part 5"
Tana B'Khenna
4th Zaru-Toru, Y.C. 807
Cloud Strider Fore-Deck, The Foundry​

A fuel tank explosion in the distance beneath our Cloud Strider lights up the night sky. In the fading blaze I make out thousands of tents and lean-tos surrounding the red heat of the engine development yard, the roar of engine tests making a cacophony audible a thousand strides up.

There's lots of craters.

Some of the craters have craters.

Rivi gulps. I look at her. "They have been busy."

She stares down. "Yeah. Way ahead of us..." She starts counting. "They must have hundreds of testbenches for nozzles."

I look at the debris from the tank explosion. "Do you think that's normal?"

Her eyes turn to the landing berth, where armourers are fitting Wera B'Gurda's team out as they landed first. "Yeah."

I turn to her. "I'm going to the back of the Strider."

She turns. "Good idea."

Pretty soon our Cloud Strider leaves us there, and I'm handed a suit a claw thick of leather and steel. I look at the man who gave it to me. "Is this... Really necessary?"

He flips his helmet open.

I wince. "Point taken."

Rivi sucks in air. "How... What happened?"

The Craftspriest closes his visor. "I've been here since we started. We first tried lift-gas in air. Put your armour on, it's why we have it now."

We don't need telling again. I can feel that I haven't worked out in ages, I feel more than twice my weight in this. Rivi struggles too. It's an laborious slog to get to the sand dunes being used as impact absorbers to protect the shelters.

I peer in a tent; they sleep in armour.

I look at Rivi. "No wonder this place stinks."

She nods. "Sweat, blood, metal, heat... It's foul."

We plod away, find an empty tent, and hit the floor exhausted.

We don't sleep well.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Faiths And Fuels, Part 6"
Tana B'Khenna
5th Zaru-Toru, Y.C. 807
Chamber Production, The Foundry​

A craftspriest leads us to an overlook. "Welcome ladies, to the new standard in state of the art chemistry."

This place is impressive in daylight.

In front of us a team of Xenaya set up a nozzle test. They carry a fuel tank between six men, very slowly and carefully. I look at him. "Why are they walking so slow?"

He turns to me. "Did you see an explosion last night?"

I nod. "Pretty big one."

Rivi nods too. "Lit up the foundry."

"That was a tank of..." he checks over a list. "...C2H4." He hands us a shard. "This is a chunk of the tank that exploded. And what's suprising about it to you?"

Well... I look it over. "It's charred and blackened with soot, but not melted."

Rivi nods. "Yeah." Looks around. "After all, the rest of the scrap round here is melted..."

"Precisely - every other reaction we've tried has melted the chamber. But that lump of tool metal isn't melted. So, we are going to try to make that explosion happen again and see if we can make it happen controllably."

By now, the team is back behind catch fencing.

Rivi looks at the craftspriest. "How?"

I tap her on the shoulder as one man places a thick shield in the ground. "I think we need to move."

The craftspriest shrugs. "None of the debris we found flew this far. But yeah, the explosion started after the tank was accidentally dropped, and so, he is about to throw that hammer at the tank to impact shock it, and that we hope will induce the tank to rupture along pre-prepared faults that we shaved out this morning, and they'll will hopefully mean we have a rocket and not an explosion."

Rivi and I look at each other.

And then we run.

A muffled bang is immediately drowned out by the shriek of rent metal and then hissing and roaring and...

Then we see the tank flying free from the mounting structure, blazing through the air, sending hundreds of people fleeing as the craftspriest howls manically behind us.

I look back at him. "It worked?"

He leaps. "IT WORKED!"

Rivi shakes her head as she looks at the latest crater. "Sort of."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Faiths And Fuels, Part 7"
Tana B'Khenna
5th Zaru-Toru, Y.C. 807
Research Board, The Foundry​

The jubilant craftspriest rushes away, and we sprint as fast as we can to catch him. "Where are you going?"

He jumps and spins back to facing us. "To report the success!"

I catch my breath on a post. Rivi joins me soon after.

I force my head up.

Wera B'Gurda and Tori B'Qunra are busy talking, but that doesn't stop this craftspriest. "We've done it Tori! We've done our first successful test!"

Tori leaps to his feet. "Really? Where? With what? Any casualties?"

The craftspriest points at the board. "Crater eighteen, 1st watch after dawn."

Tori spins round to face the board. Wera stands beside him. "Fascinating."

Tori runs a claw down a sabre. "The ruptured tank idea. It actually worked?"

The craftspriest shuffles. "Quite effectively."

I sigh. "It broke free of the mountings and flew into one of the forge areas."

The craftspriest nods and smiles. "Quite effectively."

Tori turns back to us. "Ok. Firstly, anyone dead or injured?"

Rivi checks. "Possibly. There's a few stretchers out."

Tori looks at the craftspriest. "Check for injured, get those engine mounts inspected, draw up plans for future tests." He looks at his eyes. "Now, son."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Faiths And Fuels, Part 8"
Tana B'Khenna
5th Zaru-Toru, Y.C. 807
Research Board, The Foundry​

He sprints away.

I corner Tori. "How many people have died?"

He stares. "Nine dead, twenty retired." He takes a deep breath. "Let's just take a step back for a moment. You know our Cloud Striders, yes?"

I snort. "Been using them all my life."

He nods. "Then you know the risks with lift gas."

I stand a little taller. "That's precisely my point. We have safety measures we've developed , and this place..." I throw my hands in the air. "There's no safety here."

He frowns. "That's not true. We have catch fencing, armour, we've shaped dunes into shields from the habitation sections. But ultimately, fast progress takes risk. And stuff blows up." He looks at Rivi. "What's the alternative, wait for her to find something in the Archive? No disrespect meant, but I stand by the decision to go for our moon on our own capacity." He looks around. "And right now, this is our capacity."

I look at a discarded nozzle. "Why are we even testing these tubes anyway."

He grabs a stylus. "I was getting to this. Consider a propeller. We've been working with propellers on our Cloud Striders for centuries, and they are well understood. But, even the fastest Cloud Strider is only capable of a hundred strides a moment in theory. Now, have you done the mathematics on how much faster we need to go?"

That... Stings. "Admittedly, no. We got focused on our research."

He draws a circle. "Zena B'Pingi determined that our world is roughly fourty million strides in circumference. He did that by measuring the known distance from Mount Guband to Mount Zaphir, and comparing the angles of sunlight and extrapolating. Subsequently, we tested that with Cloud Striders and verified he wasn't too far off. From there, we can see the radius of our world is a little over six million strides."

I shrug. "And?"

He picks up a rock, and tosses it as far as he can. It hits some sand. "Hear that plop? Any future vessel we take to the stars has to go sufficiently fast that it doesn't do what the rock did. Now, the first thing we did after that Council meeting was work out how fast something has to go so that it doesn't hit the ground again." He smiles. "Have a guess."

I shrug. "A thousand strides a moment?"

He laughs. "More like ten thousand strides a moment." He sits down. "And no existing propulsion system we have comes close. So, I sat down and thought about what we would need to achieve the speeds we need. So I thought about the only space engine we know of - I thought of Rivi's description of the model in the Archive, and I considered it as an expansion chamber. I'll grant it is of a type I don't quite understand being composed of concentric rings instead of a bell, but I realised that it must take in some sort of fuel, combust it and expand it. The energy released by burning is turned into kinetic energy in the exhaust, and expansion against the nozzle transfers kinetic energy to the vessel. The exchange of momentum tells us how much acceleration and total increase in velocity we can achieve by burning all the fuel. With me so far?"

I snort. "I am a genius Tori. Of course."

He scrawls out equations. "So I sat down with my teams, explained my rationale, and we did mathematics to tell us what kind of performance we could do with a series of putative exhaust velocities that we hope to achieve. Then we split into groups - first group would identify stuff we could burn, the second group designed a test nozzle to enable use to try out different fuels, the biggest group set up this place ready for when the first two groups would be ready to start trying things out, and a fourth group organised the logistics to get it all moving. And the initial results are challenging..." He looks over at the board. "We've had one successful test. Everything else has either melted or exploded." He pauses. "Usually both."