We entered a quite crowded high-ceilinged, ornately-carved space hewn out of the rock. At the opposite end, a long table ran almost the whole width of the room, so about eight metres. There was enough of a gap at either end for people to climb a couple of steps to take their places behind the table, which seemed to be made of a plastic material, formed to look like timber. I supposed, with no wood on this ice world, they had little option but to use artificial materials.
In front of this council bench were a number of lower tables, also plastic, which gave the impression of the clerks’ area in a courtroom. Finally, fifty seats faced the bench, theatre style, rising slightly towards the rear. The ceiling above the entrance was bristling with cameras. Presumably, council meetings would be broadcast throughout the two colonies. The room was packed with Heradian adults. Eight sat behind the main bench.
Stroya and Gurd guided us farther into the room. As we progressed, everyone in the room, except the eight dignities behind the desk, stood, turned, and looked at us as we made our way down an aisle at the side of the theatre area. There was a hubbub of unintelligible Heradian chatter. Three of the front row of seats facing the bench were reserved for us. Stroya left us and took a seat beneath the main bench, facing us, with a microphone fixed to the frame.
A bang, like a shot, rang out and I saw that the Kuthrad male we’d met earlier, the most central behind the bench had brought a gavel down upon a stone tablet. He was immediately recognisable owing to a flash of yellow feathers which ran obliquely across his face from one upper side down to his neck on the other. Silence descended.
In stumbling English, the female Kuthrad sitting beside him said, ‘It is big pleasure to welcome Earth people to our council.’
She reverted into Heradian and spoke in short sentences, which Stroya translated both for our benefit and those who had been trying to learn our language.
‘Our meeting today is to get to know those who have provided an opportunity to save our civilisation and species.
‘If all goes well, our health should improve from the supplies planet Earth has given us.
‘We hope it will lead to help for us to get back into space and return to Herade.
‘Firstly, for everyone’s benefit, I ask the Earth Spirit ship’s captain, Mark Noble, to tell us about their planet and some of their adventures.’
A microphone on an automatic boom positioned itself in front of me.
‘Greetings to the people of Herade. It is a great pleasure to meet you in this wonderful complex you have hewn out of rock and ice,’ I said. Stroya translated each of my sentences.
‘My colleague, here, is Chi Wang, a female Earth person. I am male. All of us are composite people. I’ll explain what I mean by that in a moment.
‘Our world, Earth, is forty light years away from you. That’s the distance light travels in forty years. It circles a star we call Sol. Over the last two Earth years, our planet has become unified under a single government which will be elected every five years. Prior to that, our world comprised almost two hundred different countries, each ruled independently.
‘The change came about with the help of an entity we discovered on our moon. They enhanced our intelligence and have allowed us to work together much more effectively.
‘This is my entity.’ I stood facing the council and my entity left my cheek and positioned itself on my faceplate. I pointed at him as I turned very slowly so that everyone could see. ‘The entity has left my body and you can see him here on my faceplate. Every human has his or her own entity.’ Once I’d finished the circle, it retreated back into my body. Several of the Kuthrad had leaned forward to see more clearly.
‘This means each of us comprises two intelligent creatures, the Earth man or woman hosting his or her entity is therefore a composite being. The relationship is a symbiosis. The entities keep us healthy and augment our intellects. We provide them with a physical presence and the ability to use our bodies to make things and converse. It is a true symbiosis. Both benefit.
‘The entities gave our science such a boost that we were able to invent a form of travel called spolding. It works by taking us out of this universe and allowing us to travel, almost instantly, over distances of many light years. The journey from Earth to Arctur takes just ninety minutes for instance.’
There was a considerable gasp among the audience as Stroya translated the travel time into their units.
‘However, our first use of spolding was undertaken without a full understanding of the physics involved and we discovered that we had not just travelled a distance, but also had moved through parallel universes.
‘When we returned to Earth the first time, we discovered that the parallel universe we had moved into, had no humans. Earth was still Earth, but it was populated entirely by non-human animals. At first, we believed that we had marooned ourselves.
‘Fortunately, the inventor of spolding, Mary, was travelling with us and, working with her entity and a crewmate, Anna, they managed to discover the error we had made. I won’t bore you with the details, but we were able to reverse the problem and were getting ready to return to the Earth we’d originally departed from when we discovered your colony on Arctur. It stopped us in our tracks.
‘We communicated with Stroya and promised to be back. We set off for Earth, making the final correction which almost got us back to our original planet. We decided we’d live with any slight differences and, in fact, found Chi here, still alive on Earth because she’d never taken the first journey. She’d died on Haven, the world you call Keradrol. It meant that not everything had returned to normal, but in a very good way.
‘When we returned here and tried to speak to Stroya we discovered that we were again in a different universe. This one is not the same as the one we had left. Somewhere out there is another Arctur colony dying of vitamin deficiencies.
‘I mention all of this because I want you to know that we are determined to find that other Heradian colony and save them too.
‘Does all of that make sense?’ I sat down.
There was a gaggle of conversation behind the bench and much whispering in the audience.
Stroya translated the lead councillor’s reply, ‘Thank you, Mark. We think we understand the general situation.
‘We have prepared samples of the potential treatment for the weed which took over Herade. You can take that for your scientists to study.
‘We’d also like you to take Stroya and Gurd with you. Is that possible?’
‘Certainly,’ I said. ‘We have a section of the ship where they can live until we can set up something more permanent on Earth. Once our scientists have analysed your microorganisms, bacteria and viruses, we might no longer need to wear protective suits. We just need to be certain our entities can deal with any adverse reactions.’
‘They didn’t protect you from the weed on Keradrol?’ asked the councillor through Stroya.
‘No, it killed the original Chi in minutes and, again because of the spolding problem, four of the crew of the other Spirit died on the planet. It is certainly deadly to us and every precaution will be taken to stop it reaching Earth.’
‘You have two ships?’ asked Stroya.
‘Yes, identical. Tosh, Bill and I all died on Keradrol, from the second ship. There are now duplicate versions of Anna and Mary. The parallel universes cause amazing paradoxes. As I said, there are copies of all of you on another Arctur somewhere else and they have no vitamin supplies.’
There was a gaggle of conversation along the front bench. The aliens were obviously trying to come to terms with the paradoxical nature of our visit and the possibility of multiple personalities existing in the same universe.
‘I see,’ said the female Kuthrad in English. ‘We will need learn more.’
She reverted to Heradian and Stroya interpreted, ‘We are puzzled by the spolding effect and would like to know more, but not in this meeting. We also wonder whether our two communities could be brought together in the same universe to provide a larger number to repopulate Herade.’
‘That’s an interesting possibility. We’ll look into it,’ I said.
‘So, what is the plan now, Mark?’ asked Stroya.
‘As soon as the samples of the weed treatment are hermetically sealed, we’ll load them on the Rimor. Gurd and Stroya will need airtight suits for the trip into orbit.’
‘Yes. We have those,’ said Stroya.
‘Is there anything else you’d like to ask?’ I said.
‘Much indeed. We’ll set up another meeting before we depart and ask questions which will have arisen among ourselves from what you have told us,’ Stroya interpreted.