Folded Up: Three

But it’s just so predictable Laughing Boy, Ghed muttered, the pods always crack and reveal some kind of monsters.

Ah, Aspirant… But which is the monster, within the pods, or without?

Again, obvious. The monster is the fear of the unknown. These H-Type humans are obviously invented. There is only the Commons. This “unknown”, “empty” space you’re making a fable of cannot exist.

Do you know this Aspirant, or do you believe?

I know this Watcher, because I have seen the Accord.

Certainly Aspirant. But who has created the Accord?

You know Watcher, this is becoming a little tedious… 

Folded Up: Two

Lessi glanced over to where his colleague Mince was tapping into a terminal, asking, “You sure the Frostbite rate will be as high as that?”

“Doubtless. We might be able to pull a few Minds out of the Biograph Stasis files, but… I’m not hopeful.”

Lessi rotated in the Network chamber to give his right hydrostat arm better purchase on a handle, and continued to catalogue the E-types into his hard memory. He looked up at the small icicles floating in the GenShip’s zero-gravity environment, the light of his torches glistening and refracting. He chanted the Deities Mantra, softly, to himself.

“What’s that?” Mince asked, “I’m getting a murmur in the audio.”

“Nothing,” he replied, “They planning on atmosphering this Shell anytime soon?”

“Probably. These Dry’s don’t quiver until you give then gravity and air, but we’ll be well out before then, Kraken be praised”

“Glory be unto his name.”

“And Glory to his name.”

Checking his heads up Lessi saw he had ample energy left in his DrySuit. He used his left hydrostat arm to push away from the console he was investigating, then bounced off the opposite wall and towards the exit to the control room he and Mince were working.

“Just going out to the pods to verify this download.”

“Check.”

The Imperial Navy had found this drifting Shellship by chance, an Ensign noting a reflection off the Solar reflectors and encouraging his report to investigate. A closer look from a drone fly-by quickly revealed the distinctive markings of a Terran ship, including the then compulsory “If found, please return to the following address” golden disk. This reward naturally belonged to the now-wealthy ensign.

A working party of H-Type humanoids including Lessi and Mince were introduced within a stellar year, and quickly set to the task of discovering who and what was in the Find. A reasonable number of the E-type humanoids had died in stasis, but the ship’s Mathematics has been lucky enough to find and orient its solar panels to a sun before the fatality rate had climbed too high. It had locked the ship into a broad and weak orbit of the star, just close enough for its panels to slowly accumulate power, but not close enough to maintain its soft memory. The H-types Marine would have to unpick the hard memory before they could uncover the details of when, and why, this asteroid had been flung so far from Terra.

Lessi powered through the narrow corridors of the Shellship, his hydrostat legs gathering, bunching and propelling him along the interior of the hull towards the stasis-hold.

“Lessi.”

“Check.”

“I’m getting some unexpected power near the aft, can you look into it?”

“Aft of the stasis chambers?”

“Check.”

“Will look into it. Out.”

“Check. Out.”

Lessi paused at the bulkhead to the first stasis hold, and bracing himself against the corridor walls with his hydrostat legs, spun the wheel to release the door. It swung wide to reveal a long row of pods, each perhaps two and a half metres high. E-Types, Lessi thought, Always so huge. He checked the viewing panels and saw the familiar E-Type facial patterns, each individual displaying the endoskeletal fragility so unsuited to space travel.

Lessi was perhaps halfway across the chamber, kicking gently left and right off the pods, when Mince’s voice appeared again. The sense of urgency was both apparent, and alarming.

“Lessi, power-surge working it’s way forward from aft. Big. Measures in megawatts. Likely entry of atmosphere being recorded in 10 of 15 holds.”

“Atmosphere!” Lessi exclaimed, “Likely trigger?”

“Unknown. Power source may be radioactive. But we’ve definitely got a shock atmosphere… AND defrosting of pods in ALL HOLDS! Brace yourself! You’ve got some Dry company coming!”

Mince had barely finished the warning before atmosphere began to vent into the hold. Lessi looked around and saw he was stuck in the middle of an awakening chamber, the pods on, above and below his current level visibly lighting up. He braced himself as the first jet of air hit him, all icicles and dust.

“Mince!” Lessi shouted, “Probability of hostiles in stasis?”

“Unknown.”

“Check.”

“You have two minutes till pods crack. Brace yourself.”

Folded Up: One

Ermine leaned out the window of his dormitory office and yelled across the floor. “AckAck! What kind of humanoids you say coming in this morning?”

“E-Type!” came the reply. AckAck skittered round into Ermine’s view and stood up on his hind legs to look into the boss’s optics. “Off some GenShip they found out near the edge of that pro-Hainish convert system in box H8E.”

Ermine scratched his rubbery head with a flipper, checked his pop-up display, looked back to AckAck, “We looking at a Shell or a HandMade? This report doesn’t say much of anything…”

“Shell boss. Sounds like it had just enough hydrocarbon for the onboard Mathematics to guide it into a wide orbit of the Hainish system’s gravity. Musta sat out in the Oort cloud for centuries before some Imperial Navy on a security sweep picked it up. Real old one they say, at least 50k sleepers, all genuine E-Type”

“50k Genuines!” Ermine exclaimed, “The Clerics will be rubbing their hands together over this one… dirty little bastards they are… Are they certain the Shell is out of the Earth System?”

“Sure is. Even got a big Firestorm logo on the side.”

“Stupid E-Types…” Ermine muttered, turning back to his pop-up, “What’s the frostbite fatality?”

“Ahhhh…” AckAck used his mandibles to tap out a series of commands on his virtual heads-up, “38% give or take.”

Ermine whistled, a series of bubbles blowing out his blowhole, “A Find that rich… they’ll be on the Commons in no time… Sure makes you wonder how many of these E-Types there actually were? Sending all these ships out in at the faintest glimmer of colonisation.”

“Over-population boss.” crunched AckAck, “Heads-Up reckons they dumped all their hairdressers and telephone cleaners in these ships and sent them starwards.”

“What’s a hairdresser?”

Chapter One

Well, I’m thinking that will be the end of Chapter one.

Go is, I’m thinking seriously to taking the content so far and consolidating it into a single piece, and possibly turning it into a series of podcasts.

This should contribute to the 2nd chapter (and make for a slightly more coherent story).

Will keep you all abreast of developments.

Twenty-Four

The Walkers sat silently on the fields at a distance from the rocky ground as the drones gathered the Startler corpses into a heap. The rocks had been pushed aside and were now being placed slowly back onto the dead. Vultures circled overhead. Near where the drones worked their riders stood in a group, supervising the burial, occasionally looking towards the Walkers, but keeping their groupmind closed.

Should we be leaving? Asked Ghed. He could sense the unease in Laughing Boy, and though he could tell that Lexus was feeling more secure than any time since they had rescued her, his trust fell squarely on the former. The Jacobite was contributing to Ghed’s unease by furiously picting repeated images of the slaughter to the Walker groupmind.

I am uncertain aspirant, eager of voice, bearer of tidings. Many coincidences have brought you and I to this place, most of which I find confusing. There is a greater hand at play, I fear.

I can still feel the bathers, Ghed stated. Should there still be so many?

It is not surprising, Lexus interjected, This many Watchers arrayed in full armour is indeed a sight to behold aspirant, keeper of secrets, unfolding puzzle. Behold! They come!

The troop of Watchers had finished their supervision of the drones, and turned as one towards the Walkers. They began to approach, gradually fanning out to a host twenty or more individuals wide. Multi-coloured armours shone in the light, fierce lances held aloft. Behind them the drones lumbered in support. When they had enveloped the Walkers a few dropped their lances to address the three, and pointed them towards Lexus. A voice entered the Walker groupmind, silky smooth, dulcet.

Is this one not a Startler? For she bears their mark Walkers, fleet of foot, friend to the lost Commons.

Laughing Boy stepped in front of Lexus, and addressed the largest of the Watchers, an individual near as tall as he. No Verrine, avenger of honour, champion of Judgement Farsighted.

The Watcher, taken aback, raised his arm in shock and the troop halted. He looked squarely to Laughing Boy, and drew a blade from his before he spoke.

You are he who was cast down from the Transcept. The Heretic, are you not? I had thought you dead.

Laughing Boy genuflected, raised his hand and touched the scars across his forehead and eyes.

It is good you should choose silence, said the Watcher, anger and venom dripping in his voice, the Nave tells us you were scarred by the Dominions, in punishment.

The Watcher advanced slowly on the Walkers, blade raised, and spoke again, A Heretic, a Startler, and a… you… what are you?

Ghed saw the blade gleaming, Laughing Boy drop to one knee, Lexus backing away slowly. The Jacobite was pulsing angrily in his sight, a cascading flurry of images – Laughing Boy slaying the Startler who killed the Lexus-Avatar, the rescue of this Lexus, the aborted trial in the copse so many days ago. He stepped forward and between the Watcher and Laughing Boy. When he spoke his voice was firm, resolute.

Watcher, I am the Aspirant, Keeper of the Commons, Guardian of the Wane, and you will stand to. Immediately.

Though Laughing Boy was behind him, Ghed could see the smile lighting the Walker’s face

Twenty-Three

As the sound of the Startlers hit the group Thievery accelerated, the Jacobite begun to pulse in grey and lichen browns, and Lexus exclaimed, By the One God! Why must these creatures hue and cry?!

Casting the two visions about, the Walkers saw a pile of boulders not too far distant, and changed their direction immediately. The ground was rocky and uneven, so the group made relatively slow progress. They were within a few metres of their desired shelter when Laughing Boy broadcast a broad-band distress signal, and stopped walking.

Look to whence the noise emanates, companions, gifted to Walkers, child of Majesty.

Lexus and Ghed climbed onto the nearest accessible rock, and looked to the distance. Laughing Boy followed, and pointed to a dust cloud blurring the line between horizon and sky. It was deceptively close. The two were nervous, but Laughing Boy reassured them. As the cloud drew closer the cries of the Startlers grew louder, but more desperate, more frightened. Thievery lowered the tempo, and the group felt strangely calmer. The Jacobite continued to pict the lichen browns, interspersed with confused oranges, images of the rocks on which they stood.

The first Startlers began to swim through the dust of the plain and into the sight of the Walker groupmind. They were running as fast as they were able, perhaps twenty or thirty in number, and bunched together. Why became quickly apparent. A single Startler attempted to break from the group, a tall, rangy creature it tried to lope to the Walker’s right. From out of the dust cloud a lance emerged, and pierced the Startler through the neck, leaving it to collapse at the feet of a huge drone. The drone continued to amble forward, its legs and stomach armoured in shining gold. It’s arms were patterned in red and silver cloth, on its back rode a figure covered in green scale and clutching the murderous lance. The pack of Startlers saw their comrade fall, and served to the Walker’s left, but a second colossal drone lumbered out, and herded them back on course. They continued to draw near to the stone outcrop on which the trio stood.

There are a great many bathing in this scene, abandoned by Highborn, most promising companion.

Indeed Lexus, replied Laughing Boy, I sense a great many indeed, and it unnerves me, considerably.

Next to them on the rock, Ghed looks to his feet, and there, partially obscured beneath the lichen, is a pattern, a circle, etched into the stone, and surrounding it, a series of thin lines, curved and random. When he looked up the slaughter had started, drones tearing tormented outcastes limb from limb.

Twenty-Two

The waystation’s external monitors had revealed no traffic for a number of days, but the trio of Walkers emerged cautiously into the light nonetheless. The scars on her arms made movement stiff but Lexus was able to walk easily enough, so she walked before Laughing Boy and vision-shifted information about their path. Ghed trailed behind, scanning the horizon for movement, the Jacobite picting happy blues and greens of contentment.

You have a communicative Lexus, said Laughing Boy as the walked the path away from the waystation, would you care to share it with us, gracious one, tonic to troubled souls?

Indeed Walker, she replied, it is called Thievery, a communicative who chose me as I resided in the Majestic Centre, protector, beacon of hope.

Thievery burbled into the groupmind, a gentle, soothing cadence. The Jacobite responded in turn, picting its colours to the rhythm and settling the three Walkers into a steady pace. The Commons rolled past them quickly, and they made their way out of the lightly wooded valley in which their waystation had sheltered them, and onto a broad plain.

After the initial distress call from Lexus the Mullah had ordered Laughing Boy and Ghed to strike out with him immediately, and they had made their way quickly to the edge of the plateau that bordered the upper and lowers Commons. Though Lexus had been rendered unconscious by the Startlers her ports had continued to issue the distress, and her rescuers had made their way through the forested plateau edge before eventually losing the signal near a small set of hills.

A days searching had afforded them the luck of observing a group of Startlers making their into a canyon in the hills, and it was there they discovered the caverns in which Lexus had been held.

Wasn’t it very, very lucky that Lexus emerged from the caverns just as we were preparing the draw out some Startlers? Asked Ghed.

Aspirant, replied Laughing Boy, you ask a great many questions for which we have no answer, most promising, gift to Walkers.

Sorry Laughing boy, Ghed stated bashfully, but there seem to be too many holes in the story so far. Why did the Mullah want to try you for the death of the Lexus-Avatar? Why was this Lexus so near us when she was grabbed? How did she escape just as we found her captors?

It was then the howling started, just in the distance, the blood-curdling screams of Startlers, many, growing closer.

Twenty-One

Despite the filter systems the air in the waystation had begun to grow stale, Ghed and Laughing Boy increasingly listless, Lexus increasingly well. Ghed had reopened the Jacobite and spent days playing with his communicative, learning the names of flora and fauna picted to him by searches at the Atrium, or learning the various castes and their names. Presently he sat and watched a rolling pict of a great war fought long ago, the images of brutality and cruelty alternately intermixed with heroic and stoic figures of note. Laughing Boy was providing comment as the movies dredged from the vaults of the Accord by the Jacobite helped the time pass.

You are becoming skilled at the Atrium aspirant. Soon your ability with the Accord will grant you access to the next level, the Nave.

Nave?

Yes aspirant. The Nave is the main body of the glory that is our Accord. If you imagine the Accord to be like this waystation, the Atrium is like the doorway. It is a place for simple tasks, the sharing of information with lesser castes, for providing glimpses of the greater mysteries. The Nave would be as where we now sit, the open space within which the truly initiated rest.

Is there spaces beyond the Nave, the way it is beyond the Atrium?

Yes aspirant, and they are glorious indeed.

The third voice joining them was weak, but clear, And I believe you cannot return to those spaces Walker who was once Watcher, can you not?

No Lexus, Laughing Boy replied, I cannot. He paused, and stood to bring her water. I am glad you have finally joined us, our nourishment would have completely expired in only another few days.

Then we are fortunate my Ports have returned my consciousness Walker, warrior, saviour.

Such is the infinite wisdom of the Accord Walker, courageous, unyielding.

Ghed looked at Lexus and her eyes were partially open. She lay on her side and although she looked weak the fever had left her. She drank the water Laughing Boy had brought her. Ghed noticed Laughing Boy break open an entire foodcube for her, when they themselves had lived on less than a cube a day since sheltering here.

I’m glad you’re awake too Lexus, Ghed stated baldly.

Lexus glanced at him, then to Laughing Boy.

He is yet an aspirant Walker, gentle of soul, fleet of foot.

She nodded, sat up slowly, the wounds to her arms obviously sore, and drank and ate what she could. Then we must take the short journey to a Lesser Centre soon must we not Walker, he who is fallen, heretic?

Indeed we must Walker, toy of demigods, injudicious. Replied Laughing Boy as he sat beside her removing the bandages from her wounds, to which Lexus blushed, and replied, Indeed we must Walker, most wise.

Twenty

Ghed sat near the wounded Walker and monitored her well-being through the Accord. He had suppressed the Jacobite to prevent distractions, and had been tending her for several days. After her escape from the Startler caverns they had anticipated further attacks from other small warbands, so made their way quickly to the protection of the nearest waystation. Upon their arrival the Mullah had announced his need to depart immediately, so there the three Walkers had remained, nervous of reprisals, anxious to leave the station lest they be set upon.

Laughing Boy, why could the Mullah not leave his Blazer as protection for us?

Such is the way of Mullah aspirant. You may have noticed that I was the diversion in our attack on the caverns.

Confinement in the waystation was beginning to irk Ghed, and he found himself pacing the small room frequently. He stopped and glanced out one of the small windows before turning to Laughing Boy.

No aspirant, I do not anticipate an attack on this station. Startlers are possessed of very rudimentary weapons, so would loose their advantage of surprise should they attempt to force entry. Further, they fear the power of the Blazer. It is more likely they will await their victim in the open, and mob them.

How long do you suppose until some help arrives for us?

I am not sure aspirant, assuming the Mullah returns with a Judgement, a short time. However, as he departed he instructed me to issue a broad-band distress, so it is likely he has departed permanently.

Lexus stirred in her sleep, Ghed quickly looked across to her, checking the read-outs of her condition issued to the Accord by subroutines within her Ports.

Her wounds are terrible Laughing Boy. Were the Startlers trying to kill her?

No aspirant. It is likely that they were torturing to induct her, as doubtless occurred to the Startler we killed in the riverside copse.

The one who killed the avatar Lexus?

Yes, replied Laughing Boy as he stood to walk to the water basin.

Do you suppose that the timing of this Lexus being grabbed by the Startlers, and your accusations from the Mullah are linked?

Laughing Boy stopped, and turned back towards Ghed.

Why do you ask this question aspirant?

Well, it just seems odd that we should discover the murder of the avatar, and you should be accused of being part of her killing just as this Lexus begins to issue a distress.

Of course aspirant, my complicity in the avatar’s murder was raised by the Mullah because of my former role as Watcher. There is an increasing suspicion within the ranks of the Mullah that the Watchers are falling in their role to protect the Commons from the Wane.

Do you think that is the case Laughing Boy?

That is a complex issue aspirant.

Why?

Laughing Boy sat on the bench once he had finished drinking

You should tend to Lexus aspirant, all these questions will be revealed in time.

Lexus had begun to moan lightly. Ghed sprang to her attention, daubing her forehead with a damp cloth, and ensuring that she remained sleeping. While he checked her wounds the Accord informed him that they were not badly infected, and would likely heal well, though scarred terrifically. He looked at her carefully, her small red mouth, her light, angular features, the smooth shape of her pate.

Indeed aspirant, she is fair to the eye.

Ghed blushed, and returned to his seat, awaiting their rescue from the waystation.

 

Nineteen

Stunned, winded, exhausted and afraid, Lexus rolled away from the tall Walker and attempted to scramble into a patch of undergrowth where she might hide from the Startlers. Their cries had begun to grow in volume as a number continued to pursue her. She turned back to look when she heard a loud thump from inside the corridor from which she had escaped. It was followed by a number of stifled laughs, and a roar of anger. A voice appeared in her consciousness, followed by a reply from whom she guessed was the Walker to her front.