Aynsefian

It occurs to me that they don’t know about the mini sun. I never had the chance to tell them. It takes me a moment. All four of them are watching me. “I… we… have found something extraordinary.”

No-one else responds. I look back to the front again. I wonder what Nikse thinks of all of this. Probably not much now that she’s been altered. A moment of sadness breaks through the wonder. I wish the old Nikse could have shared this moment with me. Alas, I must move on.

I want to see what else is in my field of vision, as the mini sun is not the only thing grabbing my attention.

In front of us, the river disappears over a cliff.

This is why Nikse has slowed.

As we approach the cliff, I’m glad to be on board a scout ship and not walking. There is no way down the cliff. It’s sheer, and it stretches for kilometres from wall to wall. Air travel is the only way to traverse this part of the cave. I also cannot see either the left nor right walls of the cave any more, and I don’t recall when that happened either. I crane my neck up to look for the roof and I can’t find it. Instead, there is a dark bluish colour, perhaps created by the mini sun, or by some other advanced technology.

It almost feels like we’re outside, on the surface of another planet. Almost.

Nikse glides over the edge of the cliff and hovers so that we can see everything. The water from the river drops about two hundred metres or so into a vast pool at the base of the cliff. There is a thick forest covering most of the ground at the bottom of the cliff, but inside this forest, surrounding the pool, is a wide expanse of what appears to be grass. In the middle of the grass is a small cluster of buildings.

It’s our first glimpse of an Aynsefian settlement, or what is left of it.

From here, it doesn’t look that remarkable. It’s somewhat disappointing, actually. It looks like a cluster of stone buildings and nothing more. No special monuments or high technology are readily visible.

Nikse descends down to the grass. As she was when she was mine, she anticipates what we all want, without any commands from anyone.

We touch down, and now we can see the enormity of this place from the ground level. Craning my neck upward, the roof of the cave still has that deep bluish tinge to it. The part-view we have of the mini sun hasn’t changed from here and suggests a far greater widening to come. I’m expecting this, based on Nikse’s earlier description of its dimensions.

The light here is quite bright. It’s almost at the level of an overcast day back home on Inconflencia. Nikse has landed with her back to the settlement at the base of the cliff. To explore it, we’ll have to go outside, which I’m sure all of us want to do.

I surprise myself by being the first to speak. “Shall we go have a look?”

Zarasena raises her eyebrows at me. “Seems logical, bud. Let’s do it.” She’s the first one out the door, bounding down the ramp to the surface of the cave. It’s more or less the surface of a whole region now. It doesn’t feel like a cave any more. I let Anathusa, Jinekali and Lanemu follow Zarasena before cautiously stepping out after them.

I’m actually waiting for Arlyss and Cindlyss. I want to walk out there with them. This is the next stage of seeing Aynsefian, even if it isn’t much.

We walk around the back of Nikse and head towards the buildings. They don’t look any more exciting from the ground level than they did from above. Nonetheless, it’s a proper town that we’ve found, and that makes it worth exploring.

The layout of the town is intriguing. It is in a perfectly rectangular grid shape, with uniformity everywhere. The buildings here are all empty, like the cabin was, and similarly there are no remnants of furniture or other belongings. There is just sand and leaves on the floor of each building. It’s disappointing, but I’m not surprised.

The only difference in this place is the construction. Not only do these buildings have extensive glass windows – which are still intact – they also are constructed of a reddish stone, which looks like it was culled from the cliff walls. There is nothing remarkable in any of the buildings. I’m not surprised.

On the far side of the settlement is something that appears to be intriguing to Zarasena, Anathusa and Jinekali. I’m mostly watching Zarasena. I’m still attracted to her and I can’t shake it. It’s a most curious feeling to have for the first time in my life.

They appear to have found a large mausoleum of sorts and are heading inside.

I’m not sure that’s wise.

Again, I don’t know why. I have a feeling of foreboding about going into this particular building, perhaps because it’s a burial ground from a long-dead civilisation. Or maybe just because exploring any burial grounds feels wrong. I can see through the gated entrance. There are rows and rows of stone sarcophagi. That’s enough for me.

I hang back. I’m not going in. Arlyss and Cindlyss stand with me. Even Salvation is not interested in going in. Then again, he is staying with me I set him to follow mode. I still don’t know how he knows to follow me and not someone else, but I accept his technology for what it is.

We wait patiently, for a few minutes. They emerge.

“…so it seems like this could work. I reckon we do this, eh? It’s the best option.” Zarasena is in mid-conversation with Anathusa.

“It’s the only option,” she corrects. “We really have nothing else, and no time to do it in.”

Zarasena notices us watching her. She lowers her eyes, averting her gaze from the Purlinians. Clearly she is wrestling with a moral decision she’s just made.

“Something the matter, Zarasena?” I offer boldly, helpfully.

She looks up at me again, then back down at the ground.

Anathusa answers for her, regarding me solemnly. She gestures back over her right shoulder, pointing her thumb past Jinekali at the mausoleum. “We are going to fake our deaths, using bodies from in here.”

No. They can’t. They just can’t.

Anathusa appears to have noticed the concern on my face but is disregarding it. “We have no choice. We do this, or we die.”

I have to address the issue of digging up a burial ground. I can’t let this go.

“Look,” I begin. “Surely there is another way?”

Zarasena has now turned away from me. She is facing the eastern side of this town, towards the thick forest beyond the grass that surrounds it. She’s not saying anything and I can no longer see her face.

Anathusa has noticed me watching her. “No Axin, there isn’t. There’s more to this than you know.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that we have to crash IR84U as well.”

So that’s what is upsetting Zarasena. Like me, she must have a close relationship with her ship. I haven’t met IR84U yet. Is it a her or a him? Is she, or he, nice? Regardless, I can see why this is troubling her. I want to console her. Tell her I’ve been through this too and that she’ll cope. I like that I can feel compassion for someone who more or less almost caused my death.

I ignore the need to crash IR84U for a moment. I don’t understand why they need to do that anyway. I want to continue to address the digging up of the bodies of an ancient civilisation. I try a logical approach.

“Is it really necessary to dig up dead bodies? Wouldn’t they be skeletons by now? What if they’re not even human?”

Zarasena turns abruptly and faces me. “Oh they are, Axin, they are.” In her left hand she brandishes a small device that I don’t recognise. It’s a small box with a glass screen on the top. She appears to have used this to scan the contents of some of the sarcophagi in the mausoleum.

This notion still bothers me. I get that it means their escape is made possible. I try another approach.

“I don’t like it personally, maybe because I don’t fully understand your plan. Why does IR84U have to crash?”

“They will track us, Mr. Fernea, if we take 84U into your galaxy.” Jinekali is about to give the technical rebuttal. “It is also one of the reasons why we put your ship’s AI into our scout ship. They can’t track that now either. 84U has to die, sadly.”

Zarasena looks away again. I catch a moment of sheer devastation on her features. She and I are more alike than I first thought.

“Okay, fair enough. I get that. Sacrifices, terrible sacrifices have to be made. It’s unfortunate.”

I hear a small sniff from Zarasena. I’m still watching her, shamelessly.

“Yes, Mr. Fernea, this is the truth.”

I try another approach. “Can we put it off for now? We haven’t found the main city of Aynsefian yet. Maybe they left behind some advanced technology that we could use instead?” I think of the almost certainly man-made mini sun. Surely if that is still operational, maybe some other things other. Mystical things that could serve us and provide an alternate means of escape.

“Sure. We can do that. We wouldn’t have executed this plan until we started heading back the other way anyway.”

I don’t like Anathusa’s use of the word ‘executed’. Her choice of word at this moment is not the best.

I am suddenly extraordinarily sleepy. Zarasena appears to have turned around and noticed. She speaks, apparently in an attempt to cheer herself up.

“Look, Axin, I think we’ve all been through enough for one day. You and your friends will need to catch up on some sleep. I know it’s only mid-afternoon, but we’ll park here for the night and have a bit more of a look-see around this place, while you guys get some shut-eye.” I’m pleased to hear her frivolous voice once more. I like her empathy too. She gets better and better.

I turn to look at Cindlyss and Arlyss, but they have already started heading back to Nikse. The thought of sleeping in a real bed is enticing. I follow them. Soon we are we back inside and in our allotted quarters. I can’t get changed quickly enough into my sleeping gear. It’s the same gear I had left back on the old Nikse, thoughtfully collected and placed here just for me. I get Nikse to make me a quick evening meal, and then I’m into bed much earlier than I would normally be, and instantly asleep.