The Days of Peleg (49 page)

“Young Alapar spent the last several weeks training me in your tongue,” the man said suddenly frowning. “I hope I am doing satisfactorily.”

Peleg nodded encouragingly. He had noticed the unusual word order which betrayed a prior tongue (but did not affect the meaning), and an occasional mismatched verb and tense, but his case endings were flawless and his pronunciation was nearly so. The man had obviously learned very quickly.

The man suddenly began to speak quietly.

“My name is Shem, and I am the Founder of these people,” he stated as if it needed no explanation. “I had resigned myself to failure, so you must forgive my excitement. When I first heard that Eber had been found, I suspended my doubts until I could see you. Now, however, I see that you are too young, but I can’t help but feeling a new hope.”

He ended with an instant huge smile.

Peleg tried again. “Who is it that you believe me to be?”

“First I need to hear who
you
say you are,” Shem responded, as his smile vanished as instantly as it had appeared. “I can’t afford to be wrong about something this vital. You must tell me about your life, and especially about the travels that brought you here.”

Peleg nodded, realizing he would not get any answers until he had done as Shem requested. Uneasiness gripped him as he prepared to overcome his inhibitions about discussing the past—especially
his
past. Fortunately, this was a stranger, and they were alone. Besides, this was not the time to be concerned about decorum.

He began by sharing some of his faint memories in the orphanage, followed by his help in establishing the settlement with Ur-Nammu. He spoke of the thirty years they had spent building the foundations and walls of their city, and how many other settlers had come to join them when they discovered those that shared their language.

Over the next forty years he had helped build the first phase of the great
Citadel
, which his friend Reu-Nathor (along with his politically-minded mother) had desired to establish, and he told Shem of his great excitement when, at the age of seventy-six, he had matriculated into that great monument to
Knowledge
.

There was the period of resistance when Reu-Nathor announced that new students to the
Citadel
must remove all family ties to allow full immersion into their studies. But soon parents were eager for the honor of having their child accepted; and knowing that their offspring would have the best possible future while, at the same time, building a superior society was more than enough compensation.

Peleg had discovered he had a keen ear for linguistics when visitors from other settlements came to the
Citadel
. He told Shem how he had acquired his Chief status in Linguistics and Cartography, and how this had led to him being selected for the Great Discovery mission.

He paused briefly, hoping that a small amount of guilt might strike this man, as Shem must surely realize what an important undertaking
his
people had destroyed.

Shem gave no reaction, however, and motioned for him to continue.

Peleg then began telling Shem about the details of their voyage. As he spoke, he suddenly realized that he would be able to give Shem a much better account if he had his charts and maps, and asked about them.

Shem rose, and Peleg was astonished to realize that this man was not nearly as tall as one would expect of a Mentor. Although his height surpassed Peleg’s by at least a third of a meter, he was still shorter than Thaxad.

Shem approached the stone platform, and Peleg suddenly realized that the surface was not loose stones as he had previously thought, but rather a very ornate and elaborate “garden” of smooth, multi-colored pebbles arranged in very intricate, geometric patterns. Peleg had a sudden impulse to play with the pebbles and create his own designs.

Shem reached down behind the platform a retrieved a small package which Peleg instantly recognized as his chest-pack! He returned to the table, opened the drawstring, and carefully slid the contents onto the table.

Peleg’s heart leaped as he saw his maps, notes, and charts tumble out along with his protractor/cross-staff and compass! Shem spread them out silently on the tabletop, returned to his own bench, and simply said, “Continue”.

Peleg began arranging his maps and logs in some sort of chronological order and spoke—newly energized by this recovery and also now able to use them as a point of reference.

He mentioned Thaxad by name as he described the small planetarium calculator the chemist had made—and which now was most certainly at the bottom of the sea. He hoped that Shem might react to the name, but was disappointed when he received no response. He would try later. Somehow that blood-drop tattoo they shared must mean something.

He spoke of Kupé and the islanders—refugees from the settlement on the continent further east where they had escaped first from the water tower, and then later by air from the artist colony.

Recounting earthquakes and storms elicited little response from Shem, but his interest suddenly grew as Peleg described the magnetic reversal which had affected his compass—and sent them to the large, cold landmass in the south polar regions. Shem asked if they had discovered anything of interest there, but Peleg only reported the passage they found—and of course the
šeg
which had intrigued everyone.

In the last months of their voyage, Peleg had managed to adjust his maps of those regions and make them much more accurate as he backtracked his calculations. Now Shem was staring silently at the partial coastlines, apparently lost in thought, and Peleg stopped speaking and waited with him.

Finally Shem muttered something, and then quickly translated himself.

“The world
is
getting colder, much as I had feared.” He broke off with a sigh, and his choked tone-of-voice made Peleg think for one horrified second that this strange Mentor was about to break into tears.

A quick look into Shem’s face removed such concerns as he met Peleg’s eyes and simply asked him, again, to continue.

There was very little else to tell, however. The death of Serug, their near starvation, and the subsequent salvation upon finding land, food, and supplies to re-outfit the
Urbat
.

He deliberately left out the encounter with Dōgon, and spoke only briefly about the large rainbow which had welcomed them to the Great Western Sea with the promise of a speedy arrival home, only to be broken by an attack which could never have been anticipated—and was certainly not provoked.

He looked directly into Shem’s eyes as he finished, and finally received the remorse he had been looking for.

“You can not conceive how greatly we regret our attack, or how much anguish it brought us when we realized your ship was not a warship or reconnaissance vessel.”

Peleg thought,
What about our anguish?
but said nothing.

Shem continued.

“Our people did the best they could to heal and provide food and shelter for your survivors without betraying our own existence.”

He nodded as if Peleg would certainly understand.

“Of course, we had to take you in for questioning, since you were obviously a spy. It was only after we recovered you that we realized our mistake, and dispatched a rescue team.”

Shem’s sad face instantly changed, replaced by an excited, frenetic gleam.

“But here you are!” he exploded, with a big, smile, displaying an array of large, healthy teeth.

Peleg recoiled slightly at the outburst. His earlier assessment of this large man solidified as this latest mood swing struck. Shem was definitely crazy.

Peleg recovered somewhat and then risked the question he had tried earlier. He was prepared to be both fearful and skeptical of the answer when it came.

“And who is it, again, that you say I am?”

Shem’s eyes narrowed, and he spoke in hushed, conspiratorial tones; yet somehow managing to maintain his frantic energy and excitement.

“I believe, but I can’t be sure, yet, that Eber is your father.”

Peleg noticed the word
is
not
was
—probably an error in this newly learned language—but Shem hurried on, not allowing any reaction.

“Eber joined our Order, those who foresee the coming
Zeh-ra
, before the time you call the ‘Great Awakening’.”

Shem hadn’t bothered to translate the unknown word, which probably meant it was a proper noun. The word ‘foresee’, however, implied that Peleg was about to be exposed to yet another mystical belief system. Best to be tolerant once again, until such time as he could leave this place.

“After the Great Calamity, the
Creator
decreed that all humanity should explore the new world and repopulate the entire earth. But because of fear, and a refusal to believe the promise that another Great Calamity would never happen again, the people chose to stay in one place, and, in defiance, they built a great city.”

Shem focused in on Peleg’s eyes.

“That city is where you were raised. Nimrod taught that through strength of numbers, humanity could survive anything, and he set out to build the Great Tower which, when finished, would rise high above any flood—should one happen again.

“We taught and pleaded with people to renounce this disobedience, give up their fears, and go out into the world. Exploration, science, and the study of the universe were those things which would please the
Creator
, but we were soon attacked for our anti-political views. We warned that a great punishment would surely befall us soon if we ignored the
Creator
’s commission, but we were imprisoned and forced into slave labor, working on the very buildings and tower we opposed. Our children were also made to work, except the very young who were taken from us and placed in ‘orphanages’.”

The significance of ‘orphanages’ began to dawn on Peleg, and he now realized that soon he would be told that his father was still alive. He was still waiting for a description of this ‘Creator’, however. In all of the myths he had ever heard—or encountered on his travels—the creator was usually a natural phenomenon. Typically, the Sky, or the Sea, or some mystical Mud was responsible for injecting life into the world. In the land of Manco Chavin, the Sun and Great Serpent,
Apu Inti
and
Viracocha
had colluded to bring about life in its current form. So far, Shem had not mentioned any of
his
creator’s attributes.

“Eber was a man,” Shem continued, “who managed to escape from our work camp a few years before your ‘Great Awakening’. He fled with two of his three wives, who still ran the family textile business, along with their servants and a small gathering of secret believers into the eastern mountains to appease the
Creator
and demonstrate their obedience. One of Eber’s two sons, Joktan, and three of his daughters also went with them. They hoped, also, to avoid the punishment that was sure to come down on the city.”

Shem’s eyes bore down on Peleg with tense excitement.

“After their escape, conditions became much worse for us, and we expected the inevitable punishment to come at any time. But the
Creator
was patient and waited another five years before acting.”

His face moved close to Peleg as he lowered his voice to an intense whisper, his eyes unfocused.

“We had been commanded to spread out over the Earth. When the
Creator
confused our tongues, we were
forced
to spread out, just like we had been instructed! In an act of brilliant mercy,
His
desires were accomplished!”

Peleg tried to force himself to keep a straight face, but his eyes seemed to roll of their own accord. It never ceased to amaze him how people could adjust events to conform to their belief system.

But his mission was not to argue with this manic ‘Founder’, or correct and objectify his thinking. It was to leave and report home as best he could. He still needed more information. He tried to bring Shem down to a more rational tone.

“How is it, again,” Peleg asked, “That you feel I fit into all of this?”

Shem suddenly looked serious and sad.

“As a slave, Eber was sent to toil in a limestone quarry, cutting finishing stones for Nimrod’s Tower. While there, Eber met and married a slave girl.”

Shem paused.

“Of course, it was not legal for slaves to marry, but they appealed to the
Creator
, and He gave His blessing.”

Again Peleg thought how easy it was for superstitious people to rationalize their illegal actions.

“When the opportunity arose for Eber to escape,” continued Shem, “she was with child and was not able to leave with him. However, she insisted he go and try to reach the rest of his family. They thought that perhaps he could persuade them of the truth and flee the land before it was too late.

“He was successful, but his new wife was punished, interrogated, and tortured as an example to the other slaves. Just before her child was due, they forcibly removed her baby and left her to die. The premature baby boy was sent to the city for medical help, and when he stabilized, he was placed in one of their ‘orphanages’.”

Peleg saw where this was going, but he remained silent as Shem’s excitement mounted—again.

“I believe
you
are that lost son!” Shem exclaimed with a pounce, more animated and exuberant than ever. “Somehow the
Creator
has preserved you and brought you
here
, and now, when I had completely despaired of pursuing the lineage of the
Zeh-ra
, you are delivered to us!”

Peleg’s thoughts whirled in bewilderment. Even if this story were true, what significance did he have to this obsession with Eber? So, instead of his father being dead, he was an escaped ex-convict. What bearing did this have on his life now—and on his current predicament? He was now even more firmly convinced that he was trapped in the company of a complete madman.