Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1) (23 page)

Jan was distracted, mesmerized by the dark hillside. “Do you see
that?” he asked the girls, as he pointed into the night at a spot offshore.
“See all of those shiny things? Those are eyes. We are going to eventually
walk off of these boats and into
that
.”
They tarried a bit longer on the upper deck. Others had gathered there
as well, and they were all talking about the trip. After it had become very
late, Jan, Rebecca and Rachel went downstairs to sleep for the night.
The fleet of boats continued in the same way for three long, relatively
quiet weeks. There was plenty of work to do for most of the travelers.
Fishing, cleaning, cooking, eating, feeding the contisses, and more
cleaning took up the days of most people.
The only real concern regarding predators was that the elas were
increasing in number in the river. Still, it held true that the elas could not
raise their heads high enough to be able to come close to getting into the
boats. The travelers did become more cautious, using the rowboats or
lifeboats less often because of a couple of ela scares. The people were
becoming weary of consuming fish, and the contisses were not eating as
they should have. They would occasionally stop and hunt, but really could
not spend the time, as they all wanted desperately to get to their destination, the Platac city further south.
Three weeks had passed, and they were getting closer to their destination.
Dr. Kalep and his supporters made a strong appeal to go on land now,
as they would be getting close to the ocean within a week. They were
becoming more concerned about the big ocean creatures that could swim
up river and wreak havoc with the boats. The group could not afford to
lose even one boatload of people and supplies.
When word got to Jan’s boat, he thought about it, and then he heard
the Guide say, “
It would be better to stay on the river for the next three
days.”
When it appeared that no elas were nearby in the water, Jan got into a
lifeboat, and rowed up to the command boat. This boat carried the leaders
of LERN. On his way over, he was gratified to see how clear the river
water had become. The stench of the NOV’s sewage and industrial
dumping had dissipated over the past couple of weeks.
When Jan boarded their boat, he found Ziba, Dr. Kalep, Winoni, and
Jasma with her son, Asa, all on deck. They were all standing there
outside, talking and planning. There were a number other people mulling
about on the deck as well.
Asa was a few years older than Jan was, and he stood lean and tall —
nine feet and six inches to be exact. Asa was dressed in tight thin ela
black leather with silver buttons and accessories. He liked to wear an
unusual headdress that was a replica of ancient ones worn by the earliest
Aletian kings. He thought it made him look knowledgeable and deep. It
had long shiny strands of well-preserved thin pale yellow nerves that had
been stripped from elas. The strands were tough, numbered in the
hundreds, and the entire thing fitted his head snugly, with the strands
falling down just past his shoulders.
When Jan came walking up to them, Ziba said, “Jan, what a nice
surprise! I believe you have already met Dr. Kalep.”
Dr. Kalep studied Jan for a moment, just as he always did with
people. “Hello, son, I’ve seen you at the meetings, and working around
the boats here. Great job with the vaccine lab!” He looked at the others
and said, “Do you see the innovation that freedom brings? They flew!”
He smiled and extended his hand, which Jan shook.
“Hello sir, thank you,” Jan replied. Still on task, Jan looked at Ziba
and said, “I heard that we are going to depart for land today. I think it’s
too soon.”
Dr. Kalep looked shocked, and Ziba got nervous. She said, “Jan, dear,
we have been debating this all night. Dr. Kalep and his advisors insist that
this is the safest way.”
Dr. Kalep, bristling at the contrary opinion, asked, “Are you an expert
in these things? What makes you think that we should stay in the river,
vulnerable to any creature big enough to tip us over for a snack?” He put
his hand on his stomach. He had stomach problems, worse than most
others with similar ailments. He had a stock of concentrated yama
enzymes, which helped with his digestion, but he was going to run out
eventually. The only two medical doctors here had not brought much in
the way of enzymes, but they did have pharmaceuticals that could give
relief. He preferred the enzymes, and they were expected to be easier to
reproduce at their destination than the pharmaceuticals.
Jan glanced at Ziba and Jasma with a look that said he knew something, but could not say it. They both appeared to understand that
something was up, but said nothing.
Jasma had been waiting to tell Jan something she felt was interesting
and perhaps important. She had found the Platac scriptures that she
mentioned to him earlier. In them was a definite reference to an important
figure that had a “white crest”, and it said something about liquid gold.
Like others, she felt that there was something quite special about Jan.
Jasma spoke up. When Jasma talked, people had to listen. She had
funded over half of the supplies for the escape, and she had many loyal
friends. “Perhaps we should wait an extra day,” she offered.
“This has already been settled!” countered Dr. Kalep. “We’ve been
over this again and again. It’s settled! We are deboarding this afternoon,
once we reach the bend in the river.”
Jasma said, “You don’t understand, Dr. Kalep, we have reason to
believe that Jan has certain — gifts.”
Now Jasma’s son chimed in. Asa was unsure of this Jan character
right from the start. Now his mother was calling Jan “gifted”. Asa did not
like that at all. He walked up to Jan and said, “You’re nobody! You don’t
belong here. Go back to your boat with the little people.”
Jasma was shocked at her son’s behavior, and barked, “Asa!”
Asa just returned a snide look to his mother, then gave Jan a sneer,
and backed off. He was not interested in LERN, however he had no
choice but to follow his mother into this blunder, as he called it. He
certainly wanted no part of the workload.
Jasma said to Jan, “I believe it has already been settled, Jan. These
people do know what they are doing, and their best advice is to get off of
the river before a tragedy befalls us.” She paused, wanting to change the
tone, and attempted to help Jan mix with the others. “Here, let me
introduce you to Commissioner Cush and his wife, Ushu,” Jasma offered.
Asa left the group and went on his way.
Commissioner Cush was not a LERN member, but his wife Ushu
was. The only reason Cush was here was because his other wife was as
treacherous as an ela, and was extorting him because of bribes she
discovered Cush had regularly been receiving for legislative favors.
He had been eavesdropping in on his LERN wife Ushu’s phone calls,
and found out about the escape. Cush kept it to himself until the night of
the escape. He had a hoard of gold coins that he brought to the wildlands,
knowing it would be useful eventually. He could not imagine Ushu
abandoning him, leaving him alone with the shrew wife. He blocked Ushu
from leaving when the call of the escape came, which he had also
intercepted. Cush confronted her with his knowledge of the LERN escape,
and insisted that she take him with her. Now, here he was — another nonLERN stowaway.
Cush was not very friendly to Jan. When he asked Jan about his
background, he discovered that Jan’s father, Griswolt, was someone he
had seen a number of times, as Cush had oversight of Griswolt’s
superiors. Cush appeared to dismiss Jan as lower class, and went on over
to another group there on board to continue his own planning.
When Jasma and Jan had a private moment, she whispered, “Jan,
dear, I want to show you something I found last night. Follow me,” and
she led him down the stairs below the upper deck. Jan followed as Jasma
went to her private room, and when they got there, she caught Asa getting
into her hard alcohol. “Asa! Get up on board, now!” she demanded.
Asa scowled, and angrily stared at Jan, demanding, “What’s
he
doing
here?”
Jan was staring right back asking himself the same thing about this
bilgat freak with the weird hat and shit attitude.
“Well, it is really none of your business, but we have studies to go
over,” replied Jasma.
The last thing Asa wanted to do was be around love-lovers talking
their nonsense. He left and went back up on the upper deck.
Jasma poured herself a drink, and asked Jan if he would like one. Jan
declined, as it was early in the day. Jasma retrieved some papers from her
beautifully sculpted cream-colored gendra bone desk. Her posture
changed, and she was now behaving very secretively and her voice turned
to a whisper — simply out of habit.
“Here, I found this Platac scripture,” she said, and handed it to Jan.
Jasma elaborated, “My great grandfather was able collect these from the
confiscated homes of Platacs purged from the NOV a hundred years ago.
It may be my imagination, but it reminds me of your crest, and of what
Ziba said about you.”
The page of metallic paper was very small, just about eight inches
long and four inches wide. The sentences were incomplete as the left side
was torn off, but the words there read:
“…will be known by the sign
…molten gold running down like
…his spotless white crest. He will bring back the
…and the white dragons. He will follow a guide, he
…and we will be reborn, free, for a generation.
…will come. All souls will sleep
...this world, to stir our sleeping souls, in preparation for…”
Jan was puzzled. “And you think this applies to me?” he asked Jasma
incredulously. “It doesn’t make any sense,” Jan said as he, by habit,
copied the words down on another piece of blank paper lying there on the
desk.
“I don’t know, but I can spot a D’otian with destiny written on him,
and I must say I see it in you my dear,” Jasma said as she once again
reached up and stroked Jan’s crest, letting her fingers run along the
outlines of the irregular vertical yellow streaks. Her eyes fell on his, and
Jan saw the same hungry look he had learned to recognize. Her hand ran
to his big shoulders, and then lightly down his arm. “You know,” she
said, purring like an emui, “I can help you out here. I can help find the
perfect place for you.”
Oh, no, not you too,
Jan thought. He wisely and gently took her hand,
holding it, and answered, “Thank you, Jasma. I don’t know about all of
this, but I think I have some similar writings of my mother’s that I want to
compare to what you’ve given me.”
His statement brought the conversation back to the intellectual side of
Jasma. The amazing possibilities did indeed intrigue her. After a bit more
conversation, Jan eventually departed. His mission to convince them to
continue on the river for a few more days had failed. He went back to his
boat, and told those there to get ready to depart the boat soon.

t was about mid-day, and those in the lead boats had all the
others stop. They had found an ideal place to deboard the boats,
and start traveling by land, south-southwest. The river
continued directly south.

“This should not happen,”
the Guide said. “
You will begin to lose
people to the wild animals tonight.”
Jan just sighed, “They wouldn’t listen to me,” he said.
“Now you know how I feel,
” said the Guide.
Jan had asked Martha for her original Platac scriptures. The reason
Martha had them at all was because her great-great grandmother’s
husband was a Platac, and writings had been handed down through the
generations. Martha’s great grandmother and child should have been
executed by the NOV along with all the Aletian half-breeds at the time
the one-hundred-year poison was released, but she looked very Aletian,
and was able to survive because of that. Some of her fellow siblings were
not so lucky, and had been rounded up in horrible ways, executed, and
discarded as cheaply as possible. When the numbers became overwhelming, the Aletians simply dumped them alive, into spent quarries and then
buried them, thousands at a time. Some of the captors had started digging
them up shortly afterwards to use their skin for lampshades and such, but
apparently, there was a limit to what some Aletians could accept, and the
practice ceased. What scriptures Jasma held was from one of the
unfortunate ones.
Jan was thumbing through his mother’s old pages. They were well
preserved because they were made of very thin agrist paper, which lasted
almost forever, as long as it was not torn or otherwise abused. Martha’s
collection had expanded, and there was a lot to go over, then he found a
similarly worded scrap of paper that looked interesting —
“of the White Dragon. His crown will be of…
thin rivulets, with no other markings on…
laws of old and the green animals…
will hear God’s Teacher…
Then the end of all who walk this world…
for ten thousand years. The White Dragon will again return to…
the end of D’ot, Judgment Day.”
Jan could not understand it, but it did look similar to Jasma’s piece of
scripture. He held his handwritten copy to the right, and then the left of
his mother’s torn paper, side by side. His face fell with astonishment. The
words seemed to make a little more sense now —
“…will be known by the sign of the White Dragon. His crown will be
of …molten gold running down like thin rivulets, with no other markings
on… his spotless white crest. He will bring back the laws of old, the green
animals… and the white dragons. He will follow a guide, a servant of
God…and we will be reborn, free, for a generation.
Then the end of all who walk this world…will come. All souls will
sleep, bound to D’ot for ten thousand years. The White Dragon will again
return to… this world, to stir our sleeping souls, in preparation for …the
end of D’ot, Judgment Day.”
“I still don’t understand anything about this! It’s all just a bunch of
symbols, and I’ve seen a lot of that in other writings. It’s all gibberish!”
Jan complained to himself, frustrated.
With sudden motivation, he put his mother’s scrap of scripture in his
pocket. “I’ve got to show this to Jasma,” he said to himself. He wanted to
catch Jasma before she had her belongings moved from her boat. Jan
found himself rowing the lifeboat back over to Jasma’s boat. He got there,
and she was on the upper deck, coordinating plans with Dr. Kalep and
others as usual. It was so nice to be out in the open, in the sun, without
fear.
“Jasma, I found something!” Jan exclaimed, as he walked hurriedly
up to the small group.
Dr. Kalep did not look happy to see the young upstart who had countered him earlier. Jasma, on the other hand, had all the time in the world
for Jan. “What did you find?” she asked, curious and surprised at Jan’s
unusually excited demeanor.
“I found this,” Jan said, and he pulled out his mother’s scripture,
along side of his copy of Jasma’s parchment.
She accepted the two pieces of paper, and held them side by side, as
Jan had handed them to her. “Well, I’ll be!” exclaimed Jasma. She studied
it some more. “This is fascinating — I’ll be right back!” She handed the
papers to Jan, rushed downstairs and in a few minutes came back with her
original piece of paper. Jasma said, “Here, give me your mother’s
scripture,” and when Jan handed it to her, she held them side-by-side. The
tear in the pages matched perfectly! Where did your mother get this?”
Jasma asked, shocked and intrigued.
“Mom said it was handed down from her great-great grandmother.
She was married to a Platac back then.” Jan answered.
“Really?” exclaimed Jasma, very interested now. She surveyed him
with this new information and said, “You know, you and your mother
do
have lighter scales than average, come to think of it. You must have
Platac blood in you.”
Jan shrugged his shoulders and said, “Probably, a little bit. My mother said some of her relatives from back then were found and killed, and
some weren’t.”
Jasma quickly copied down Jan’s piece of scripture in her notebook,
and said she would study it further. Jan had to get going to help unload his
boat, so he said, “I’ll see you all later!” and headed back.
The contisses and wagons were unloaded first, then the supplies onto
the mostly-covered wagons. They were not happy to have lost Dom’s
stagecoach, but his contisses would still be put to good use. Dr. Kalep and
company appeared to know where they were headed. When everyone was
ready, they all left in a caravan of six hundred and thirty people with just
over one hundred wagons. A small brave group volunteered to guide three
of the boats downstream to the mouth of the river as it emptied into the
ocean. They planned to anchor them at the same city that the others were
heading to by land, which was next to the ocean, according to the maps.
Boats would be a necessity there.
They had many, many supplies to bring. Winoni had brought a minismelter, which was extremely heavy. It had its own wagon to haul it, and
he added two of Dom’s contisses to the team of six he already had. They
traveled along a nice flat stretch, with few boulders or iron formations to
get in their way. The hunters spread out around the perimeter of the
caravan, sporadically shooting into the landscape at anything that looked
like trouble. They would then go out in small groups, and bring their
catch back for skinning, cleaning, and butchering on one of two wagons
and crews dedicated to the task.
When it appeared that they were reaching dusk, they set up camp by
lining up the wagons in rows and columns. This gave the hunters a
tighter, smaller perimeter to protect. Tents were dispersed in between the
wagons. With the camp almost one hundred percent armed, a predator
might get through, but it wasn’t getting out.
“What about the crantics?” Jan asked one of the hunters. Crantics had
not yet been seen, and the hunters were particularly concerned about the
crantic’s stealthy stalking abilities. Crantics were the big, big, cousins of
emuis. Their fur was very beautiful, and valuable back in the NOV. The
hunters were vigilant, though, and were hoping they could stop one before
any disaster happened.
After setting up camp, some musicians started playing, and the crowd
cooked some of the meat that had been collected throughout the day, as
well as a large amount of fish that had been caught while on the river.
With the yama bread that was constantly being baked in the fifth wagon
ahead of Jan’s, it all worked very well.
There were multiple portable hydrogen stove fires going. More and
more people were reveling in their ability to mingle and do, say, and sing
anything they pleased. Around some of the fires, there were people who
could play the hama, or the oblate, and this provided the means for all to
join in and sing the old songs around the many fires.
This is great,
Jan
thought, as he surveyed the happy gatherings.
“It won’t stay this way for long,”
the Guide said.
“The lights and
noise they are making will draw unwanted visitors to the area tonight.”
Jan realized that the Guide was right. He decided to take a quick walk
around the camp, asking the various groups gathered to keep it down,
telling them that their loudness and fires would attract the animals.
Nobody was listening but the hunters, who agreed wholeheartedly with
Jan. The people just wanted to cut loose for their first night on land
together. Everyone had waited so long for this. Jan returned to his wagon.
Rebecca and Rachel wanted to walk around the groups and fires in
the night to meet people. Rebecca was getting a little tipsy on some tuba,
which had been brought by one group of college students, and was also
being brewed by Winoni’s group now. Jan brought his rifle along, just in
case of a surprise predator attack. He wanted to really test his new
Mach3b, but it was just too heavy to haul around for no good reason.
“Just smell the air!” Rachel exclaimed, “It’s so clean out here, away
from the city.”
Rebecca was obsessing about the yama supply. “We
need
to get to the
ocean, and learn how to harvest yama. Otherwise, we’ll run out of
hydrogen and electricity — and we need it to eat.” She knew what it was
like to go without yama, as her dad Hais had not cared for it, and she had
often gone without it. The absence of yama as part of her diet had led to
the presence of more bodily sores and other digestive difficulties when
she was younger.
They eventually ran into Winoni, whom Jan had taken a liking to.
Winoni was starting to stress about what lay ahead. He had been drinking
tuba, and felt like unloading. “I am responsible for bringing technology
along for this group,” he said to them. “I need to get as many people as I
can to learn how to use the mining equipment that we’ve brought. I need
to train them to mine, refine, and I need to build a full-size smelter as
soon as we can. Things are going to break, and we need to replace those
things as soon as possible. We can’t just run down to the store for parts
you know. We need to make them all now, from start to finish.”
Winoni was actually looking forward to the challenge. He was a
credentialed expert in all aspects of production, and could reproduce just
about anything, but he needed help. He wanted to show his stuff, and have
these people realize how fortunate they were to have him there. He
wanted to make his mark, and was concerned that it may just turn out to
be a smudge.
Rebecca piped up again about the need for yama, and Winoni was
very happy to see that at least one person understood the importance of
harvesting and utilizing fresh yama as soon as possible. They had a huge
stock of the dry, dead yama. It was good for a lot of things, but it
wouldn’t produce hydrogen. Their electricity generators, as well as stoves
and heaters, depended on hydrogen, and they needed live yama for that.
They suddenly heard screams and gunfire at the back of the caravan.
Jan went running back along with some others, and when they got there,
they saw a dead yeta and one dead colonist, with his head missing.
Hunters were gathering, one of them had killed the yeta, but it was
obviously too late.
The hunters went out into the dark to find the other yetas if possible.
Jan went with them, figuring his rifle might help along with the other
firepower. There was a large group of hunters, along with helpers similar
to Jan out there. While Jan and the hunters were outside camp looking for
the yeta’s companions, they heard more screaming from the camp again,
along with gunfire coming from the same area.
Seeing nothing in the dark with their flashlights, the hunters returned
to camp to see what the shooting was all about. As it happened, while
they were out, a swarm of trachnas had attacked a tent, tearing a young
couple to shreds, along with their four-year-old child. By the time Jan and
the hunters arrived, the surrounding people killed some of the trachnas,
while others had escaped. The camp had become quieter, but for where
the killings took place.
A small crowd had gathered there, including the LERN leaders. Rebecca and Rachel had come, and when Jan got through to see what had
happened, he was horrified at the sight and said loudly, with exasperation,
“This didn’t have to happen.”
“What do you mean?” Dr. Kalep asked, in a challenging way.
“I told a lot of people here to keep the noise and lights down, we were
attracting this disaster,” Jan replied, and he took it further, “and we
shouldn’t have left the boats so early in the first place.”
Dr. Kalep bridled at Jan’s remarks. His stomach growled. He was
appalled at having his decisions questioned, particularly from an unknown
youth. “We could have just as easily been attacked by a molick!” he
countered loudly and derisively, as if Jan were a student in one of his
classes. “In any case, we can’t turn back now, and we only have five or
six days of travel to go.” Kalep paused, looking into the crowd around
them, and back at Jan. “Who are you anyway? What do you know?” He
was clearly frustrated with this young kid’s continual challenge to his
authority, now using hindsight as a challenge. The audacity was infuriating.
“I say we head back to the boats tomorrow. It will only cost us a day
or two,” insisted Jan, sabotaging any attempt for a graceful exit on the
part of Dr. Kalep.
Now Dr. Kalep was overtly outraged. “You are nobody!” he shouted,
hoping to put Jan in his place. “Why don’t you go back to your family
like a good boy?”
Ziba was there for this, and she spoke up. “Jan is not ‘nobody’! I
know Jan, and I believe he will show himself of great value out here.”
“Yes, I agree,” Rebecca offered, and then blurted out, “He can see
things before they happen.”
Jan cringed when Rebecca said that. They all looked at him as if he
were crazy, when Jasma added her opinion. “There is a lot about this new
person that I have found very impressive. I believe he has abilities that
will become more evident with time here.” Jasma could not say anything
about the scriptures because they were simply so subjective — even
threatening to some of those standing there, considering what the writings
implied. She needed to keep her credibility, and she knew that.
“The plan stays as it is!” Dr. Kalep roared.
Winoni stepped in, and said, “I go along with Dr. Kalep, he has the
team of experts with him, and they all have decided that this is the best
way to travel now.”