Raintree’s surface is dark, the sun is on the other side. Leed watches over Young Poltauramy standing with his hands pressed against the glass.
‘Can
they see us?’
Leed
leans down beside him, noting his Father’s features cast in the young boy’s
red-brown eyes and dark hair, before looking to the vast, nightshrouded planet
in the distance.
‘Long
ago, when we first came here, it was discovered how to use certain properties
of dark matter. Dorphin Isberg and Koyan Tagailog were responsible for creating
the field around us that doesn’t allow our light or energy to escape. It limits
what type of energy comes in or goes out and keeps us hidden from anyone who
might wish to detect us, find us.’
‘Like
them? Are they dangerous?’ asked Young Poltauramy, meaning the people on
Raintree.
‘No
more than ourselves,’ replies Leed, standing and checking on Poltauramy finishing
an amiable conversation with Goshe.
‘We’re
not dangerous are we?’
Leed
makes eye contact with the two Aleksi behind Poltauramy and Ronan, informing
them to hold their positions. ‘Come, your Father has finished.’
‘What
is it made of?’
‘Raintree?’
‘The…keeping
us in the dark thingy. The dark wall.’
‘The
Bergislog Field, I don’t know…particles we can’t detect, clusters of contained
black holes, dead stars, dust…there’s lots of theories.’
‘The
dust of sleeping stars?’ wondered Young Poltauramy.
Leed
hesitates, ‘Come now, walk with me.’
~
Leed
takes a seat beside Mar Poltauramy at Rechk Point. Before them Raintree glows
in the distance, behind them a group of children huddle beside a wall with
faded drawings including a replica of Ghostpatrol’s green Peace figure. They laugh
loudly amongst themselves.
‘Tauramy
is home with Nelesia. I dropped off the greens you ordered for them,’ said
Leed.
‘Thank
you,’ said Poltauramy sincerely.
The
children at the wall behind them press a palm size double blue ring symbol that
appears. They begin to use their hands on the wall, using their fingers and
palms in agile and sweeping motions to affect a net of oversized pixels.
Streaks of different colours begin to stand out and forms take shape. One boy
wearing active gateway glasses seems to be directing the others.
‘Tell
me Leed, something of your own family.’
‘Well,
we were good with stone.’
Poltauramy
smiles. ‘You built the pyramids?’
‘No.
Our most memorable monument was a palace in the mountains where we lived. Before
the ones with the great emptiness came we bonded ourselves to the mountains.
The river Sachita surrounded our city and the great mountains Paki, Abhay,
Tahir, and Sabira guarded us to the North, East, South and West respectively.
When our Emperor died we cared for him for many years but a successor was not
revealed and our people wandered away. It was thought perhaps they had sensed
the many ways our guiding spirit departed and followed those fragments in their
many directions.’
The
group behind Leed and Poltauramy put the finishing touches on their mural of
graffiti. It’s an arterial silhouette of blood flowing and dripping along
branches entwined with fish, birds, rabbits and flowers. A spider resting in a
web forms a cranium and a little lizard stands out for not being red. One boy
signs it R.I.S. Kako Ueda.
‘What
became of your city?’
‘The
vines took it into their keeping. In time a young human with an old heart would
come and restore its memory.’
‘And
how do you come to know of this?’
‘The
Emperors consult was one of the last to forsake the city and when she brought
forth a child in her new land, she gifted the story to them when they came of a
suitable age to respect it as a gift. They were responsible to pass it on
similarly and so on and so forth.’
Leed
looked at Poltauramy. Poltauramy’s head was tilted in thought as he held his
solid fingers to the glass eyelet at his chest.
‘Replicate
and repeat,’ thought Poltauramy aloud.
‘Leed…’
said Poltauramy carefully.
Leed
drew a deep breath and braced himself at the tone.
‘Nelesia
is carrying,’ revealed Poltauramy. ‘I intend to announce this at the next
Assembly.’
Leed
consciously loosens the grip he had taken to the seat. He draws his hands into
his lap and sits up.
‘Yes,’
replies Poltauramy, fear and elation mingling in his expression as he surveys
Leed’s own stunned expression.
Leed
stuttered, ‘But I thought they-’
‘She
was able to revive the link.’
‘I
thought she was working on le v’ark for Eden, hence all the specimen collecting.’
Poltauramy
raises his eyebrows in a warm exasperated expression.
‘Unbelievable,
what else has she been working on we don’t know about?’ smiled Leed.
‘Well,
I can’t say I’m looking forward to our next assembly,’ admitted Poltauramy,
‘though I thought todays’ went well.’
‘Yes,
I think the settlement announcement was well received,’ agreed Leed, tilting
his head slightly and lifting his wrist. ‘Ronan is on his way to your home Mar
Poltauramy.’
‘Thanks,’
said Poltauramy, getting to his feet.
‘Good
to have you home Mar. And might I add, it’s made us a little more relaxed about
what’s going on in the Dana Pinnacles region right now.’
Poltauarmy
turned to nod questionably.
‘Thurman’s
troupe has been offline for over half an hour now,’ explained Leed.
‘Yes,
I wouldn’t worry, said Poltauramy, looking around. ‘Magnetic interference…maybe
another super volcano pushing up ore… I’m sure that’s what Min Catar’s geo crew
will find,’ assured Poltauramy.
Leed
smiled, ‘Possibly, yes. I never thought of that. Okay, well I’ll see you in a
few hours.’
‘Yes,
take care Alæ Leed,’ said Poltauramy as he disappeared from view, leaving Alæ
Leed to gaze at Raintree alone.
After
a moment’s contemplation, an Aleksi begins to approach Leed. He stands to greet
him. After bowing, Leed looks up into familiar red-brown eyes of the Aleksi
before him, the only things visible on a formally suited Aleksi and instructs
them, ‘For his own safety, Poltauramy is not to leave Netech. Makita ito sa
aking mga kaibigan.’ Meaning ‘see to it my friend.’
~
The
city’s lights are out. Poltauramy stands on the balcony of his home, watching
the lights of people gliding over and across the dark interiorscape. A lit area
in the distance exposes some formas in darktime service growing a building.
Under the formas supervision, an architect’s lifesize holographic blueprint for
site creation is slowly materialising, drawing on the particles of an older
building nearby and carefully redistributing them.
Nelesia
appears in the dimly lit clearway behind him. ‘Ronan is here, will you come in
or shall I send him out?’
‘Send
him through,’ said Poltauramy lightly waving a broad hand.
Nelesia departs and moments later Ronan
stands beside Poltauramy.
‘Ronan,
care for a drink?’ greets Poltauramy warmly.
‘No
thank’s,’ replies Ronan taking a seat as a chair comes out of a nearby wall
upon recognising his voice. ‘I’ve been speaking with Prussia. The first
tourists to depart to Raintree and experience it without suit protection are
scheduled at the end of next year.’
‘That’s
great news!’ smiles Poltauramy.
‘Yes,’
nods Ronan, ‘Have you any?’
‘Well,
there’s Leed. Yes, Leed desires to assume his position on a more dedicated
basis.’
‘He’s
a good man,’ affirms Ronan.
‘Yes,
I see no reason to deny him this want, so he is the one you should direct your
needs to regarding in-house confidence and communication from now on.’
‘Noted,’
nods Ronan curtly. ‘Anything else?’
Poltauramy
pouts in thought. ‘Could you recommend any good films for me?’
Ronan
relaxes, ‘Well…’ and shrugs.
~
‘Master
Tauramy.’
‘You
can stop calling me ‘master’ now Leed. I’m 16 already.’
‘Tauramy,
I’m here to escort you to the Lapidary Guild within the Museum.’
‘Thank’s
Leed, Ataur will do from now on too. Does anyone know you’re here?’
Leed
shakes his head.
‘What
about tweedle dum and tweedle dee?’
‘Alæ’s
Untuk and Entrite’s precence is-’
‘Not
negotiable, okay, whatever lets go. Just please could they stay out of my sight
today, I’ve a headache already.’
During
their passage to the Guild Workshop at the Museum, Leed introduces Ataur to Dr
Pax and encourages Doctor Pax to afford Ataur a glimpse at some of the
specimens collected and preserved by the Museum’s curators.
Dr
Pax grins as he eases a conventional mechanical tray out of a wall. Thirteen
carefully labelled rows of twelve different species of butterfly strike Ataur’s
vision. He marvels at BT7s colours, wondering of its habitat.
‘Can
I touch them?’ asks Ataur.
‘No.’
‘Is
this the only one of it’s kind?’
‘I’m
sure there were similar ones once upon a time. Replied Dr Pax wistfully.
‘But…we couldn’t possibly hope to collect, let alone detect, every species
that’s existed.’
‘Don’t
you mean in existence?’
‘That too.’
