Reality: The Struggle for Sternessence Read online

  26 Duncan had been raised in a suburban town close to thick woods. His father had taught him basic orientation rules, including the recognition and relative position of some summer stars. Going back to those memories, Duncan realized that it was precisely when looking at those stars during warm summer nights that he had first dreamed of someday going into space.

  27 For Veridiawa and Coelious.

  28 The term was used for Creption soldiers whose only assignment was to kill unconscious or seriously wounded enemy soldiers.

  29 A better translation would have been “she-bear-Commander”. However, in the current rendition, and in order to stay away from awkwardly long names, we chose to ignore the gender always used in Veridiawan titles, except for a few cases like “girl-Captain” or “boy-Dahncion”.

  30 Waswillbe and Willbewas are native terms that express exactly the same concept, with no distinction or differentiation in meaning. When in a conversation someone refers to God, the term Waswillbe is first used; the interlocutor or interlocutors acknowledge the reference with a sentence that contains the equivalent term Willbewas. When no exchange is used, Iswillbe is used, the neutral term for God.

  31 The meat of edible litics is similar to what we would recognize as beef. Litics’ roots are always covered with a thick skin very much akin to hide. Note that even when litics are rooted, like plants, the parts that surface from the ground move significantly during the day. These motions are generated by the muscular structure of their “bodies.” Although they are very slow, they can have a large influence in the shape of a litic. The way a litic looks in the evening can be very different from how it looked in the morning.

  32 Living entities.

  33 This statement is a rough generalization. We will leave the special cases for another occasion.

  34 Genetic phenotype with bear-like features.

  35 “The Klymbom crisis” was an early stage of the larger conflict with the Establishment.

  36 Sub Commander, instead of Lieutenant Commander, was only used by senior officers referring to a junior officer of that rank, as for example, a Commander addressing a Lieutenant Commander as Sub Commander. It was also used when referring to one’s personal rank, like here in the case of Clara.

  CHAPTER 4

  A Far-Off Clue

  19.

  The first day of shore leave back in Royal City did not seem to promise much fun. It was a working day, in difficult times, with everybody constantly busy. Duncan was in no particular mood for having fun with his comrades, much less meeting new people. He wanted his distance that morning, and the Sky Prairies seemed a very good choice for that. It was a quiet place with hills, woods, and meadows, which extended to the outskirts of the city.

  After spending a couple of hours walking through the plains, Duncan lay down in a field of wildflowers. He rested his eyes on the city, which loomed behind the foliage, crowned by its castle. Duncan had the impression of having had left his Earth many years in the past. The reasons for his unlikely trip remained obscure to him. After the initial excitement, fear, longing, and a strong sensation of worthlessness were settling in. For the first time in his life, Duncan had been exposed to war and had even watched death pass close by. He had seen suffering, bloodshed, killing—he had witnessed the crudeness and cruelty of war. His experience in Veridiawa had made him realize how real things could get to be in Reality, and how different from what he thought certain realities could actually be. Only a few weeks had passed since his arrival in this universe, but he had already been forced to adjust very rapidly, to many things.

  After half an hour in the field, Duncan resumed his walk. He eventually reached the Sky Shore, where the Sky Prairies and the sky literally met. Ten thousand feet below, a splendid continental landscape slumbered beneath the hovering island, with pine forests and hills showing no signs of civilization. Lakes and rivers, and beyond them, the endless Breezian Sea, appeared through a misty summer haze. Above, Realia—Realitas’ splendid satellite—shone with its dark blue brightness, crossed by vivid crimson bands. The satellite was truly impressive, even if that night, only a portion of its indigo, emerald, and golden triad of rings was visible, since it was in its first quarter. Its disk, the size of many moons, was starting to set off under the warm blanket of the rosy clouds below.

  Ten thousand feet below, a splendid continental landscape slumbered beneath the hovering island. The endless Breezian Sea appeared through a misty summer haze.

  Dusk was spreading quietly. The first stars began to emerge in the crystal-clear sky. Duncan gazed at the brightest star without getting much comfort. He had been thinking a lot after the battle in the Swamp Valley, and now he had doubts and questions, but not many answers. In his perception, his first actions to help the Realdom had been disappointing, to say the least. What was so special about him that many should have such great expectations for him? How was he supposed to make any difference at all? And there was still something else. The alternative of going back to Earth having not accomplished anything of value in this universe was depressing. However strong his longing for home was, he did not want to consider this possibility.

  The same sensation of worthlessness he had experienced during the past week was intensifying as the night drew in. Duncan finally started making his way back towards the city. The lonely evening had not been of any particular help to him.

  20.

  “May I talk with you for moment? It won’t take long.” Captain O’sihn was coming from headquarters, still wearing his uniform. He looked fresh and sharp, even though he had started his day very early.

  “Sure.”

  O’sihn sat down by a wall-sized window in the main lounge, which had a glimmering view of Royal City. They were at the top of the tall building where Duncan was living.

  “So, how is Realitas treating you?”

  “Very kindly.” Duncan nodded and turned to the window. “So far.”

  O’sihn looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Duncan said. “I know you all mean well, but I also know who I really am.”

  O’sihn listened with an unchanged expression.

  “Surely you don’t think, still, that I am ‘the one’ you’ve been waiting for,” Duncan added.

  “I think you’re an essential factor to win this war.”

  Duncan sighed. “I’ve been nothing but a nuisance so far.”

  “I disagree.”

  “In Althea 8, I was rendered unconscious in battle. Because of that, many had to risk their necks for me. You and Saigtin had to stay on the planet, a Veridiawan warrior broke a leg trying to save me, and I caused trouble for Major Shoshuar and Captain Clara. And all because I didn’t stay in the village as you instructed me.”

  They had already gone over the issue of Duncan’s involvement in the battle against directives, and for O’sihn, it was a closed matter. “Getting hit by a medium-sized rock on the back of one’s head can be inconvenient,” the captain commented, with a gentle smile.

  Duncan snorted. “I suppose you’re right, but this inconvenience forced you and the others to stay on the planet.”

  “We do things of the sort when any of us gets in trouble. And in real operations—particularly during external missions37—some of us get in trouble once in a while.”

  Duncan shook his head. “The purpose of my being here is not yet clear to me. Everybody seems to believe that I’m about to save the entire universe—my own Earth included as some sort of a bonus.” Duncan forced an uneasy smile. “If my performance against those Creptions—who belong to a primitive culture—was deplorable, how am I supposed to be of any help against the Establishment?”

  Duncan paused and looked at O’sihn, who glanced back calmly. It was not the first time the captain had heard such arguments from him.

  “I don’t know,” Duncan continued. “I just don’t know. The whole thing doesn’t make much sense to me. I feel I am out of place, giving false hopes to many who expect from me som
ething I just cannot give.”

  “I think I understand some of your concerns, Dahncion, although I have a very different perspective. First of all, I wouldn’t rate your performance in battle as deplorable. Your inexperience causes you to come up with such a limited evaluation. The facts are clear. Your attitude towards Antares was commendable, and you saved Clara’s life. For all her experience and professional qualifications, Captain Clara had been rendered out of combat and caught in a dead-end situation. Yet, risking your life, you saved hers.”

  “That was luck,” Duncan said. “I was trying to get her sword when that . . . alien got himself killed by falling on it accidentally.”

  “Perhaps, but before that, you ran towards Clara, placing yourself between her and the Creption. Upon discovering you were unarmed, you were caught in a dead-end situation yourself. However, you successfully found a way out by locating and reaching that sword.”

  “I didn’t realize I was unarmed until I was there.”

  “Because you didn’t think of yourself first, but of Captain Clara’s safety,” O’sihn responded.

  “My having saved her doesn’t mean I am anything,” Duncan retorted. “We’re talking about the Establishment, here, which by now holds a vast empire. And it seems like it already outmatches the combined forces of the entire Realdom.” Duncan’s evaluation was somewhat negative and premature, but still not too far from the truth.38

  “It would take a giant to defeat such power.”

  O’sihn gave Duncan a pointed look. “Perhaps, only a boy.”

  “I guess I mentioned I was going to be brief.” O’sihn reclined on his chair.

  “No . . . this is good. It’s good talk.”

  “I’d rather not take much more of your resting time tonight. Tomorrow, we’re leaving for Cerendal, a nearby asteroid in our local inner belt. We need to pick up some strategic procedures,39 and possibly give Doctor Oyhtter some feedback. His laboratory is on Cerendal, in one of SERI’s facilities. He has been looking forward to talking to you since he was rescued in Veridiawa. It’s a short trip, but we might stay there for a week or so.”

  “When would we be leaving?”

  “We should be ready by 500R.”

  “Sounds early.”

  “There is a regular red-eye shuttle at 545 we must not miss if we don’t want to spend a whole day just traveling. We would be arriving at Cerendal by 900R. Up there, they hold the same time convention as here.”

  “Is Laida coming along?”

  “Yes, and also Lieutenant Commander Clara.”

  “Clara?” Duncan said with surprise. He expected she would be back in Veritas, by then.

  “She volunteered to be assigned with us, and Veritas Headquarters approved her request. So I think we’ll have her valuable help for quite some time.”

  “It sounds good.”

  “It certainly does.”

  O’sihn put a firm hand on Duncan’s shoulder. “See you in the morning.”

  21.

  “Dahncion, Captain O’sihn, Commander Laida . . .” Doctor Danal stopped at the young human female, a quizzical expression on his face.

  “Doctor, let me introduce you to Lieutenant Commander Clara, Veritas Marine Corps,” O’sihn said.

  “We’ve heard about you, Lieutenant Commander. We are honored to have you here.”

  “Doctor.” Clara nodded, flushing slightly.

  The group was standing on the platform where the shuttle had just landed. Cerendal was a rather large asteroid, though still devoid of any atmosphere. Accordingly, all its facilities were pressurized. Life on such research centers was fairly similar. But Cerendal had a few peculiarities, including the Realdom’s highest density of scientists, ninety-one percent.

  “At this moment, Doctor Oyhtter is chairing a working session. He and his team have been devoted full time to the project that brings you here since he came back a few days ago—something we owe to all of you.” Danal bowed respectfully.

  “We don’t want to distract Doctor Oyhtter or any of his collaborators unnecessarily,” O’sihn remarked. “This team is entirely at his convenience.”

  “Oh, no, no, no, Captain. Doctor Oyhtter’s expressed desire is for all of you to get involved immediately upon arrival. He’s aware of your short stay here, so he intends to take advantage of your presence on Cerendal as much as would be convenient to you. The working session he’s chairing at the moment started a few minutes ago, and it involves a subject that concerns all of us.” Danal paused, staring at his guests. “You may be tired from the trip, though.”

  “We are here to give full cooperation,” O’sihn said. “Yet we may disturb this meeting with our late arrival.”

  “Absolutely not, Captain.”

  “In that case, let’s get to work, Doctor.”

  Danal nodded. “Your luggage is presently being carried to your quarters. We hope you’ll find them comfortable. Now, if you’d follow me, Erandie.”

  The Realitian team reached the conference room quickly. O’sihn, Laida, Clara, and Duncan slipped quietly through one of the side entrances. There were few seats left, so they scattered among the attendants and sat down wherever they could find a spot.

  The room was semicircular in shape, and sloped gently to a wide platform located in its center. Oyhtter stood in front of an adjacent wall that functioned as a large screen, along with three other scientists. Each had a c-card40 behind their ears. Doctor Oyhtter had the unpleasant habit of storming screens with several simultaneous pages. He would then switch from one to another at the speed of his mind. Despite the impression of sloppiness that could give, his thoughts would always follow a relentless, though often elusive, logic.

  But what caught Duncan’s attention in particular was not so much the procedure, or the strange notation on the screen, but the eerie conclusions the scientists were drawing from it all. In the culture in which Duncan had been raised, the possibility of conceiving such analysis would have seemed farfetched at best. Fascinated, Duncan gazed intently at the screen. The symbols written on it were grouped much like formulas or equations, although arranged in a fashion wholly unfamiliar to him. He could recognize only a few abstract words, scattered through the expressions between bracket-like symbols. Doctor Oyhtter and the other three scientists were at the center of the discussion.

  “After three years, we’re still stuck here,” Oyhtter said.

  “Well, we have isolated this HCQ system, finally,” Doctor Giriana pointed out. She was a young scientist, younger than usual for someone working on Oyhtter’s team.

  “Even if solving this system may pose some particular challenge, we should be able to produce some useful preliminary results from its present formulation,” Doctor Sealing added, trying to relieve some of Oyhtter’s tension.

  “This particular challenge is what particularly worries me, Doctor,” Oyhtter complained, his eyes boring through the screen. “Time is running short. The team from Realitas is about ready to collect the strategic mode of action for the next phase, and what is it going to get?” Doctor Oyhtter looked at Giriana, who glanced back in silence. “An unsolved system of hyper-causal logai—that’s all it’s gonna get. We ought to find something far more practical than this, some explicit procedure.”

  “Maybe . . .” Sealing added, and paused.

  “Go ahead.” Oyhtter waved a hand and squinted.

  Doctor Sealing started working on the screen through his c-card. Some characters switched from the blue color of the general text to a fluorescent scarlet. They were part of a specific set of symbols that seemed to be replicated only in a few logai.

  “In my opinion,” Sealing continued, “the key to solving this problem lies in replacing the terms in red with a fitting particular solution.”

  Oyhtter stared at the screen with a finger on his lips. “Interesting.”

  “May I, Doctor?” asked Giriana.

  “Mm.”

  “The logoid system seems to exhibit a self-determined, self-adjoined structur
e. If that’s the case, the particular solution Doctor Sealing suggests would be a unique solution.”

  “Never mind,” Oyhtter objected. “This system cannot reach a para-excelsus structure. The generalized strength is non-symmetric. We would only get degenerate solutions this way.”

  “Still,” Tigurst said, “I think Doctor Giriana may have a point. True, there is an inherent strength-truth asymmetry in the way the problem is posed. However, if we replace this term by initial condition thirty-five—” Tigurst pointed at the upper right corner of the screen—“we may still reach a para-excelsus structure, though in a Plinidas form. Thus we would have a full C.T.G.”41

  Oyhtter remained absorbed in the screen for a moment. “And since the solution to any C.T.G. is unique,” he commented, “that would constitute a general solution to the system.” He kept staring at the screen, nodding repeatedly with an optimistic gleam, as he grew more confident with Tigurst’s approach every time he looked at it.

  “Hm. So, what should we do?” Oyhtter sighed, tilting his head towards Giriana without removing his sight from the notation.

  “A candidate solution search?”

  “Precisely.” Oyhtter turned to the scientific community present. “I would appreciate everybody’s input now.” He looked from side to side. “So, who is willing to cast the first dart?”

  Professor Elefborg raised the base of his trunk, letting the rest hang in a dignified manner. “From the form of the third logoid, I would propose the {Deolibior} set.” The logum42 was related to the concept of intelligence.

  “Doctor Giriana, would you please help us out?”

  Giriana entered the corresponding logum-set into her QD, a device used to solve logum systems. “It does not satisfy the system, Doctor.”

  Oyhtter lifted his eyes to the audience. “Yes, Doctor Kahninne Dee?”

  “Based on the topology of the natural boundary conditions, I would try {Loyalty}.”43

  Oyhtter turned back to Giriana, who was already feeding her QD with the new candidate logum. “It does not satisfy.”