Chapter Ten–DEEP IN NATURE

 

 

The three were lost in a reality beyond time or space. When they surfaced again, they knew which way to go.

Their meditation made Ari introspective. "I knew we shouldn't head northwest. But somehow, I keep feeling pulled in that direction."

"I felt you drift." Yu and Face said in unison, their rhythms still one.

"It had to do with something else."

"I know." They said it together.

"What else?"

"I don't know," they said as we.

"Perhaps it has to do with what you were trying to remember before," suggested Yu.

"It's such a small clue. A foggy memory."

"Something was buried there. That's certain. You first felt it as a memory of our trip when the young whale was killed and mutilated." Face's crystal-like faceplate had regained its sheltering solidity.

"How deep in my thoughts were you two?"

"Let's just say we have gained a dear, but brotherly and respectful affection for Dromeda." Face was matter-of-fact, but Yu's domed head blushed crimson.

Face's smile was a fascinating parting of bones. "Remember, just because I'm siliceous, doesn't mean I'm not salacious!"

Although their respective embarrassment and wit had defused Ari's slight sense of violation, they knew it was time to move quickly. They hoped to reach the outer limits of the rainforest before dusk. A day's worth of weary, they emerged into the Red Planethes. Steam and falling night conspired making travel deeper into the high country risky. They camped where they stood.

It was mercifully cooler after the sun set. “A fire would be nice.” Ari said through a yawn.

Despite being the daughter of generations of pleasure lovers, Yu knew better. “The aesthetic joy and psychological warmth aren’t worth the risk of an energy signal the Ancient Ones can read.”

Although their anti-gravity suites were warm, they sat back to back for emotional comfort. Ari and Yu felt the cold snapping at their ears.

As their conversation lapsed, the night came alive. The whirring and chirring of insects, the silken rustle of flora and fauna blended with the individual rhythms of their own breaths. They felt themselves one with this great symphony.

Yu reverberated with a wistful note from nature's chorus. It was like whistling in the dark. "It's good to get out into Nature, to realize anew Her importance and Her cosmic plan."

"This isn't a pleasure trip," Ari reminded.

"Still, it's good out here. I see new things with every step we take. I feel revived, in touch with life. I feel so much a part of Nature that I amaze myself by forgetting that our days here are numbered."

Ari listened to the whirring insects. "At times like this, I think you Yu is absolutely right."

"You mean that we now work in harmony with Nature instead of . . . " she purposefully left the gap for Ari to fill with his own thought.

"... instead of manipulating Nature to work solely for our benefit. Yes!"

"Being out here helps you see that?" Her question was underscored by a crescendo in a continuously cascading cicada symphony.

"We spent the morning wading through an ancient life source. The mud itself holds secrets that go back millions of years. That simple substance is the progeny of an ancestral soup that held the stuff of which we are made. Out here I’m mired in Nature that has slipped the reigns of our technology. I can feel how our science has robbed Atlantians of simple things. We reorganized Nature's mess, but in the process life has lost some of its wild vitality."

"In the city you didn't worry about having a bone shredder devour you whole."

"It would be difficult to support unleashing dangerous prehistoric life on Atlantis, even if it is its native habitat. It's so much safer to be protected from it by the shallow seas that isolate it on its own continent. We've shoved danger off to the distant Northwest, but we have lost the edge that comes with risks."

"We did keep the Smiledon."

"Only after we genetically declawed and defanged their spirited natures. The saber-toothed tigers are DNA bred into nothing more than gently mischievous, peaceful pets."

"Our genetic engineers wanted to make them safe."

"When you take away a piece of something, you lose part of the remainder. We take out bits and pieces as it suits us, but each one is inextricably linked to the whole. The Northwest Continent’s too far away."

"Northwest," repeated Yu. "Northwest was the direction we sensed in you as the wrong way to go, yet with some significance.”

Face agreed. "I felt that too. It seemed to have something to do with the two of you that didn't include me."

Yu and Ari mentally reviewed the trips they had made. Ari unconsciously hummed a refrain from one of the melodies he had composed with a pod of whales who frequented the shores of the distant continent.

"Isn't that the piece you composed with whale frequencies as a homage to the majesty of the imprisoned beasts?"

"Yes, but the whales created that theme, not me. I thought of it as one behemoth respecting another. I'm starting to see something more."

Ari submerged in the music. He felt himself swimming through the fathomless depths of his mind. He realized the fragment of thought was tied to the other pieces he could not quite put together. He could see them, but only through turbid waters.

Yu felt him surface. "So what do we have? The whales. The Northwest. Drifting music."

"A drift of green. Green something."

They turned and looked at the shifting tracery of light covering Face in pulsing waves. What was it?

"Somehow we shared this," Ari asserted.

"So many of our experiences are one. Yet as Yutan Guardian can my mind be truly one with an Atlantian Lawgiver? Not only is our race different, but our class."

"We are sister and brother. Though our class philosophies differ, we both work for the greater good."

"Knowing how racist some Yutans are just makes me feel more united with you"

"There are certain elements in both classes always working for their own interests. Inevitably some can't see past the tips of their noses."

"That's true even of those who don't exactly have noses," added Face, with a chitinous grin.

"You have a nose for news and a level four security clearance." Ari felt the rumbling echoes of Nor's sonorous voice.

Yu supported Ari's speculation. "Some dark secret surrounds this. Something as weighty as the Dark Heart itself. Nor and the Council are keeping something from us."

Ari flipped his blond hair back. "I'm sure it has to do with our needing the Ancient Ones' ships. Obviously the illegal harvesting of DNA is key."

Yu's thought vein pulsed resignedly. "Perhaps a dream or two will provide some incendiary insight."

The night was ending on a somber note. As they stretched out to sleep, the high-pitched repeating syncope of a million insects became a cacophonous lullaby.

Yu checked his armband one last time. "It's corroded. Totally shot."

They moved instinctively closer to Face. "Good thing my bioisomer deflector is working right. You can share my feedback."

Ari swept his shoulder-length hair back and rested his head on his right arm. "We could make a run for Yutanius using our anti-gravity suits."

The resounding silence that greeted this option was a loud reply. Ari's doubts about his leadership abilities resurfaced.

He corrected his youthful impulse. "We could but we won't. It would be reckless."

Reckless. Nor often said that of him – too often. "Whatever Nor’s secrets about this mission, I know this is some kind of test for me. There’s a tangential purpose. I wonder what it would be like without the pressure of becoming the next leader of Atlantis. Sometimes I feel the call of leadership. Other times." Not wanting to confess his self-doubts even to his friends, Ari broke off.

Yu completed the thought. "Others times you want nothing to do with it."

The conversation died, a fragile ember. Face remained alert, watching his friends sleep, watching their dreams overtake them, watching night move toward day.