Solterra

Chapter 1 – Solterra – Eir

 

Sol had started making its daily trek across the Solterran sky and bathed the landscape in its soothing warmth. It’s rays reflected like sparkling gems off the water which was now clear of the early morning mists. Lake Na’la was the largest of the Three Sisters Lakes and the favourite of Tiila who was currently peeking between the fronds of a large fern trying to contain her mirth. In her pale, slender hand she held a lemmo fruit and aimed for the back of her best friend Roon.

“You have the stealth of a human.” he said without turning from his perch atop a large boulder by the shore of the lake.

From the movement of the lean muscles of his back and arms she could tell he was fashioning a bow, something he spent much of his time doing lately. He had been spending less and less time with her and she missed his companionship. She didn’t understand his sudden need for seclusion and when she asked her mother, her mother smiled kindly and with a knowing look had said ‘it was the way of young men’ at this age especially young men like Roon. Tiila didn’t know what that meant but knew she would get no further explanation and decided to get an answer from her friend directly.

“And you have the breath of a dragon.” she responded with a grin and stepped out from behind the large plant. It was their familiar greeting since childhood and she sighed with relief that he hadn’t told her to go away.

“Is this where you have been hiding everyday?” she asked and climbed the large flat rock to take a seat beside him.

Her silky, light blue dress ended above her knees which allowed her bare legs to be caressed by the gentle breeze drifting across the clear blue waters. The rock they sat on was tall enough that she could only dip her toes into the lake. Roon sat cross-legged and with a fine bladed knife continued carving an intricate swirling pattern into the curved wood of the weapon.

“I haven’t been hiding.” he replied simply without looking up.

“But you’ve been up and gone before Sol has even woken for nearly a season.” she responded trying not to sound like a pouting child.

It was her seventeenth cycle of Sol after all and today she would receive her first mark from the Clan Father to celebrate the special day. It meant she was no longer a youngling and after the Marking she would choose her vocation with the guidance of the Wise Council of which her mother was a member.

As if reading her mind Roon bumped his shoulder into hers. “I have a vocation to attend to as you will soon. The good of the clan must come before the good of the one.” he chided good-naturedly.

“And the good of Solterra must come before the good of all.” she said finishing the tenet and rolled her eyes even though she held the belief as strongly as any of the other Eir.

Dropping her complaint for the moment she leaned back allowing the tips of her blond hair to skim the stone of their makeshift seat and closed her eyes to soak up the light of Sol. Her skin was milky pale as was the skin of all her clan and would never darken no matter how much time she bathed in Sol’s life force. Her eyes were nearly the color of her dress which cinched over one shoulder and at the waist.

The Eir were all slight of build and  shorter in stature than most of the other children of Sol. She had heard from Roon that the humans sometimes referred to them as elves because of their size and the way their ears pointed at the tip. She had no idea what elves were or whether that was a good thing or bad. She had never interacted with a human before and had only seen their emissary twice in her life and even that was from a distance.

“What do you think my vocation will be?” she queried breaking the comfortable silence that came naturally to them. Roon had been marked one cycle of Sol ago and it was no surprise that he had become a weapons maker since it was clear he was skilled even as an early youngling.

“Well it certainly won’t be a hunter since you clomp through the trees like a Grun.” he teased with a chuckle referring to the largest of Sol’s children who were almost three times as tall and wide as a marked Eir.

Tiila held up the fruit still in her hand and squeezed which sprayed the sweet juice across the side of her best friend’s head and bare shoulder and into his equally long hair. Whereas her hair was light as day his was dark as night and began clumping from the sappy substance. Before he could retaliate she hopped off the boulder landing gracefully in the shallow water before sprinting away.

She knew there was no hope of outrunning him but the look on his face was worth the dunking she knew she inevitably faced. He did not disappoint and it was only moments later before he had her slung over his shoulder with squealing protest and was sloshing deeper into the lake to exact revenge. It was once more like they were younglings, splashing water at each other and out of breath from trying to wrestle each other under the water.

Sol had climbed higher in the sky before a truce was called and they found themselves back on the rock lying on their backs to dry off. Both had been barefoot and Roon had only been wearing his leggings so it wouldn’t take long.

“So what did you get me for my Marking Day?” Tiila asked teasingly as she rolled onto her side and propped her head on her arm.

“A basket of rotting lemmo fruit.” Roon replied smirking but without opening his eyes.

“More to throw at you then.” she answered and poked him in the side which made him flinch. No matter how long he had been marked she knew he would always be as ticklish as a youngling.

She recalled his Marking Day where he had been given the mark of an arrow crossed with a knife which was the sign of a weapons maker. With his talent she had known he would either be that or a hunter so she had gone on a four day trek with her father beforehand to the mountains of the Four Fathers where they gathered fallen branches from the Tempa Trees which were rare and only found in those mountains. The wood from the branches was renowned for its strength and durability which could be made into the finest of bows or the strongest of axe handles. It had not been an easy journey especially during the season of ice but for Roon it had been worth it.

“Such, youngish behavior. Perhaps you might not be aged enough for my gift and should wait until your next Marking Ceremony.” he jested in return before sitting up to gather his scattered supplies and tools.

A glance to the sky showed Sol was almost overhead which meant it was time to head back home and get ready for the festivities. With over two hundred thousand members in the clan, Tiila was not the only Eir celebrating her Marking Day so she didn’t want to hold up the ceremony which would look especially bad with her mother on the Wise Council. Not that her mother would say an unkind word to her if she was late but the rest of the Council might not be so understanding.

“If only I was skilled at something like you then it would be clear what my mark was going to be.” she declared returning to her earlier question and ignoring his friendly barb.

“Your thoughts and dreams fly higher through the clouds than the Valreen,” he answered referring to one of the clans of Solterra that could fly and then helped her to her feet, “Perhaps you will become a Weather Sage.”

Understanding the weather and being able to foretell its moods was important for the clan but it didn’t provide much in the way of excitement, something Tiila yearned for. So much so that if she did get marked as a Weather Sage she knew she would not keep that as her craft. While it was unusual for an Eir to choose a vocation they had not been called to it certainly wasn’t unheard of. Her own father in fact had been marked as a Messenger but had chosen to be a Gardener in order to be with her mother. Messengers were often gone for cycles at a time but as he told Tiila when she begged to hear their story, he loved her mother so much he could not bear to be apart from her for so long. Although he said it was different when he was away from her on an excursion with Tiila because his daughter carried part of her mother with her.

“Perhaps I will become a Dragon.” she countered, her playful smile returning.

 

Chapter 2 – Solterra – Human Camps

 

“Azura and Dmitri are back from their trip.” Garrick advised Miranda in an accent that spoke to his southern U.S. origins. “And Devlin says the new woman, the one from Greece, is starting to settle in so he is going to have her join Davina’s group when she’s ready.”

“Is Davina okay with that?” the petite, sixty-nine year old questioned. “It’s only been a few months since we lost Leon to the virus.”

“Devlin thinks it might help Davina having someone from the Mediterranean region in her group since she was from there herself and the distraction might do her good as well.” the former high school vice-principal replied looking to his papers to see if there were any other details to share. Seeing none he waited for her direction.

“Alright, thank you, you might as well go get something to eat. If you see Azura and Dmitri please ask them to come by when they’ve eaten and had a chance to rest.

“Of course.” he responded and left through the open doorway to the stone and wood hut.

From her chair behind the wooden desk, Miranda glanced around the rustic room that served as her ‘office’ and wondered not for the first time or even the hundredth when the universe might see fit to have an architect or mechanical engineer find their way to Solterra. According to The Book the last one had been over a hundred years ago and he had not faired as well as the Greek woman.

“Well at least we have indoor plumbing, it could certainly be worse.” she said to herself and returned to her work translating passages from The Book into the Japanese Eastern dialect. Her work often reminded her of how she came to be on Solterra.

As a Japanese American she was no stranger to change and having to overcome huge barriers but nothing in her wildest imagination could have prepared for what happened the summer she finished her doctorate in Philosophy from Stanford.

It was 1972 and she had recently turned twenty five. To celebrate both her birthday and her accomplishment before she focused her career in the field of Sociology she and her friends from Stanford decided to go hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains near San Francisco.

The hike along the Skyline to the Sea Trail had been inspiring and on day three they decided to take the side trail to see two of the biggest redwood trees in the area known as the Father and Mother of the Forest. It was here that her life would truly change forever.

While the others took a break to rehydrate she decided to forge ahead a little ways to enjoy a moment alone in the immenseness of the forest which she found helped to ground her and remind her of her place in the world. No matter what her achievements and awards, she played but a miniscule part in the larger tapestry of human history. Despite that though she must do what she could to make her part matter and to do that she must help others reach their potential just as she continually reached for hers. That philosophy was the reason she had gone into the field of Sociology.

Deciding to capture that moment as a reminder to herself she pulled out her Polaroid camera from her pack and started taking pictures. As she backed up to acquire a skyward composition with afternoon sunlight filtering through trees she tripped on a root and fell backwards down the steep hillside. Tumbling backwards she used one arm to cover her head for protection and the other to try and stop her fall. One moment she was rolling over the pine needle covered earth of the forest and the next she was laid flat out on a sandy beach. Had her eyes not been squeezed shut certain that she was going to plummet to her death she might have seen the odd transition from Earth to Solterra that many others had described.

Those accounts were captured in The Book which was a history of the human population on Solterra. It contained their life stories both here and on Earth and everything they had come to learn about their new home and its inhabitants. There were also chapters dedicated to theories of how she and those before her had come to be in this place.

Even with all of that history it still wasn’t clear where ‘here’ was. Some theories suggested it was Earth in the distant past or the distant future, some proposed it was an alternate universe or maybe even a distant planet altogether.

One of the differences between Earth and Solterra was that a year lasted 343 days instead of 365 which the Solterrans broke up into 7 months of 7 weeks of 7 days although they used the terms ‘cycle’ instead of year and ‘season’ instead of month. The seasons had different names depending on where you were geographically so whereas humans might call a particular month February, the Solterrans might call it the Season of Ice in one region and Season of Ha’t’wii in another with Ha’t’wii being some type of crop that resembled purple corn growing from trees.

The Solterrans had their own language but some were also capable of speaking some of the human ones from their interactions over the millennia. Most commonly Miranda spoke to them in English which had become the predominant language of the humans. She wasn’t sure why that was but probably more English speaking humans had arrived on Solterra than any other language group.

Other differences included that some star constellations appeared different while some seemed quite similar to those seen from Earth, the next planetary neighbor resembled a smaller version of Venus but there was no Mercury like planet as far as they could tell, and one of the biggest differences that had taken getting used to was that there were two moons orbiting Solterra. One looked like a much more pock marked one than the humans knew and the second was half the size of the other with a much smoother surface.

It was the celestial differences that had most believing that Solterra was Earth of the future but personally Miranda was more in favor of the alternate universe theory. If Clyde the computer engineer were to be believed though their existence was all simply lines of code in a universal computer program and the program had simply been changed.

Whatever the case may be they were all there now and had to function as a society in order to survive and adapt. Their number was only in the tens of thousands despite their long history on the planet and that was yet another mystery. Despite better health and longer life expectancy on Solterra human pregnancies were less common which kept their numbers lower than they might have reached if history was any indicator. One of the only illnesses in fact that they fell prey to was a sickness they simply referred to as ‘the virus’.

With no computers, no lab equipment, no modern technology to speak of they had no way to determine why some people developed the virus and others didn’t or how to combat it when it happened. All that they did know was that it started with a high fever and deep chills and within three or four days the victim fell into a coma and died. So far all they had learned was that it wasn’t transmitted from person to person or by food or drink, it only afflicted a small fraction of the older population and had never been found in anyone younger than thirty. It also did not touch the Solterrans.

Were the Solterrans involved in its creation or dispersal? She didn’t think so, even with the sometimes acrimonious relationship between the humans and Solterrans.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door frame which caused her to look up from her painstaking work to see Azura and Dmitri had arrived. The pair were part of the intelligence gathering team that travelled far and wide to learn anything and everything they could about the world and eventually, hopefully, learn how to get back home to Earth.

The twenty two year old Azura Fairmont was a Metis-Canadian and former police officer with the Ontario Provincial Police and Dmitri Markov was a twenty five year old former Russian soldier. The two of them made a great team and had even become a couple since their arrival. Given their close proximity in age and mutual background in enforcement it wasn’t that surprising.

Dmitri had come to Solterra first and it had been a rough first year for him. It had taken the first half of that year to get him to learn enough English to communicate and the second half to convince him that this place wasn’t some sort of secret American prisoner camp where they were playing psychological tricks on him.

She recalled him ‘escaping’ from the encampment only to return days later pale and mildly traumatized by what he had seen and experienced. It wasn’t that they kept newcomers prisoner but they definitely kept a close eye on them for their own safety. Most of her kind who came into contact with a Solterran without prior knowledge of them reacted violently and met their end because of it. It was a sad truth that most humans tended to respond badly to things they didn’t understand.

Azura had arrived two years ago and acclimated much easier than her partner even though she missed home as much as any of them did.

“Did you both have a chance to eat?” Miranda asked in the motherly tone she was known for.

“Yes and put our kit away but we wanted to come report before catching some sleep.” Azura replied with a firm nod. Dmitri’s English was quite excellent now but Azura tended to do most of the talking which was fine with both of them.

“How many times do I have to remind you that you don’t ‘report’ to me.” Miranda chided the young, dark-haired woman in a kindly voice. “This is an equal society where we all work together for the benefit of everyone.”

Azura’s expression changed from one of formality and strict self-control to something more open and friendly. Miranda knew the woman’s former life had been filled with authority figures issuing orders and demanding respect that she sometimes forgot how different things worked in their adopted culture.

“Of course.” Azura replied and visibly relaxed before crossing the room and taking to one of the chairs across from Miranda. Wordlessly Dmitri followed suit although he didn’t seem as at ease as his companion.

“We finished our surveillance of the Aryah mothers,” she continued referring to the species of Solterrans that resembled angels except with skin and eyes that possessed a metallic hue, “but didn’t make direct contact.”

“That’s good, Fah’na still forbids it.” Miranda affirmed speaking of the leader of the Aryah which was governed by a ‘Wise Council’ of females. Fah’na was their ‘Clan Mother’; a position which was elected every seven years and served as the head of the Council.

“Still no repeat mothers but one with what appeared to be twins.” Azura recounted with excitement in her voice.

“Twins?!” Miranda repeated with equal enthusiasm. This was a new piece of information they didn’t have before.

Besides the history of humans The Book also contained everything they knew about the Solterrans which for some of the indigenous species, particularly the flying ones, wasn’t much. It was believed The Manuscript, which was the precursor to The Book, had contained much more information but it had been lost many centuries ago.

Clyde’s theory was that someone had somehow made it back to Earth with it but died before they could share their knowledge of Solterra with others and that the writings are what had become known back home as the Voynich Manuscript. The mysterious codex was hand written in a writing system that had never been deciphered and contained illustrations of flora that matched nothing on Earth at the time of its writing which had been carbon-dated to the early 1400’s. Clyde believed it had been written in one of the Solterran languages, specifically that of the Hiln.

The Hiln had the greatest ability to grow hearty and healthy plant life and were skilled at creating and applying nature based medicines. With much of the drawings pertaining to nature they were the most likely candidates if the theory were true. They were the friendliest of the clans making them more likely to share this information with humans than any of the other clans. Perhaps their friendliness was because they possessed the most similar physical attributes to humans making Miranda’s people seem less threatening.

Personally Miranda did not put too much stock in Clyde’s fantastical theories since he seemed to have a lot of them and all had very little supporting evidence. Evidence was something that was highly important to her and something she shared with the two people in front of her.

Their job was to gather observational evidence that could be added to The Book and the information about twins was something new to include regarding population levels. It was a subject of particular interest to her since it wasn’t clear if the Solterrans actively kept their number to a sustainable amount or if it was something that occurred naturally due to reproductive limitations.

“It’s not much to report, “Azura said and quickly corrected herself, “I mean share, but the air was too thin in the mountains to stay long.”

“Of course, of course.” Miranda said completely understanding. It was one of the reasons they didn’t know as much about the flying beings of the planet; when they weren’t flying or foraging they tended to stick to the mountain ranges where they lived.

“Well get some rest and we can talk tomorrow about the rest of your trip.” she added knowing that the pair must be exhausted after such a long and difficult journey.

“As long as you promise not to stay up too late with your notes for the summit.” Azura responded with equal concern.

“You know me, I just get caught up with what I’m doing and before you know it the moons are high in the sky.” Miranda replied with a laugh.

“We will ask Garrick to bring food.” Dmitri, who looked similar to a 1970s Robert Redford, spoke up in a more serious tone.

“Thank you both.” she answered warmly with a smile as they took their leave.

Azura’s comment about the summit reminded her that she needed to review her notes.

Aside from historian Miranda’s role in the human community was the ‘Voice of Earth’ whose main function was to act as liaison with those Solterrans who would have anything to do with them. It was an elected position based on leadership and communication skills with the position lasting as long as the person was effective in that role or a vote to elect a new leader passed. She had filled the role for over two decades and it did not look like that would change anytime soon.

The title seemed a little ostentatious to her but it had been given by the centuries ago leader of the Hiln clan and she wasn’t about to argue.

Of the ten clans the leadership of six were willing to meet monthly with the Voice of Earth and a few select companions which included Garrick who acted as a sort of assistant to Miranda and the ‘Soothsayer’ which was Devlin’s role. Soothsayer was another Hiln coined term and it was given to the individual ultimately responsible for acclimatizing humans to their new existence as they arrived.

The next summit was in three days and it would take a day’s hike to reach the meeting place which meant she had to ensure she had a full accounting of their activities to share with the Solterran leadership.

 

Chapter 3 – Earth

 

The sun was hot overhead but Gina Rivera was one of the lucky ones who at least had the cover of a large canvass canopy to hinder its harsh rays from blinding her completely. Most of her fellow students slaved away in the open desert to carefully dig and brush away the dirt and sand covering the white limestone belonging to the side of the structure they were excavating.

Despite the punishing climate however it was the dream of any archeology student to work on an actual dig in Egypt. The one they were taking part in was particularly exciting since they were uncovering a step pyramid which was a precursor to the much more famous smooth surfaced pyramids of the African country.

Pulling a handkerchief from the pocket of her khaki pants she wiped the sweat form her brow and the back of her neck. Replacing it she turned her attention back to the table of equipment before her.  the environment was so different than her native Puerto Rico which had a tropical climate.

 

TBCont’d