The Power of Gnaris (4 page)

Chapter 3 –
Two are One, and One is Two

“
The
separation of an embryo into two, without completely splitting, is
very rare. Such twins, who share a single heart, are a blessing to
the gods.”

 The Book of
Karavec (49, 86)

The following
day at noon, Forster wrapped himself in a thermal coat, and donned
a pair of thermal boots. He was not going to take any chances that
the outside temperature would drop well below zero.

He climbed the
stairs leading up from his hotel room; not the same stairs he had
descended with Barrow after he had first arrived on the planet two
days earlier, but this flight led up to a point on the planet’s
upper surface in the same vicinity. At the top of the stairs, he
found a door. He passed through, and stepped outside into the
darkness.

He looked
upwards and beheld the canopy of stars; the same stars that he had
often seen at night on Earth. He recognised the familiar
constellations that the ancestors of those on Earth had given names
to; names of animals, and heroes from ancient human history. The
only difference from the night sky he had been familiar with all
his life was what appeared to be a larger than normal star at its
zenith whose faint glow provided a dull, almost imperceptible
light. Ogien, the sun of Arion, was so remote that it was barely
visible even in the middle of the day.

A voice in the
darkness startled him. “Good morning Captain Forster.”

He recognised
the voice of Elena.

“Aren’t you
going to show me around your ship?” she reminded him.

Forster
retrieved the communication device from his pocket, flicked it
open, lightly touched its screen, and then spoke to his first
officer on duty on the bridge of the starship.

“I instructed
my deputy to dim the lights,” he said to Elena.

Moments later,
a hatch opened on the underbelly of the ship, and a staircase
lowered to the ground. Forster led the way up the stairs, followed
by the female Karavec.

Elena scanned
the lower deck. “It’s huge,” she said.

“Yes, big
enough to accommodate a crew of eight hundred. We won’t be able to
do a complete tour; so we’ll restrict ourselves to the bridge, my
private quarters and the crew’s recreation area.”

Wherever they
went, eyes turned in their direction and stared. Most of the
members of the crew had travelled widely throughout the galaxy and
had seen aliens of many different types, some much stranger looking
than the Karavec, yet there was something striking about this
Karavec woman that drew their attention; not least was the obvious
attraction between her and Forster.

“First, the
bridge,” said Forster. They climbed another staircase, this one a
spiral type, to a higher level. When Elena’s green hairless head
appeared from below, there was a shocked silence from the members
of the crew on duty. This female appeared stunningly different.

Forster had
already stepped onto the deck. He offered his hand to pull his
guest up the last stair to stand beside him. He removed his coat,
and invited Elena to do the same.

There were
just five crew members on duty. Each one stood and snapped to
attention when the commander appeared. The ship was docked for a
stay of several days on a friendly planet, so there was no need for
the ship to be battle ready, or even prepared for its next journey,
but a skeleton crew always remained on duty on the bridge.

Forster looked
around the room, and seemed satisfied that everything was in
order.

“At ease,” he
said. “This is Elena. She has spent some time on Earth and has
learned the English language. She is my assistant during my stay on
the Karavec worlds. Elena, let me introduce you to my crew members.
This is my first officer, Captain Jonas LeClerc, and this is
helmsman Sergeant Silvano Rossi.” When each one was introduced,
Elena shook their hand.

“Over there is
my communications officer, Lieutenant Avril Thom.” She waved. “And
the two gentlemen by the door are on-duty soldiers offering the
first line of defence should anything . . . er . . . untoward
happen.”

“Captain
Forster, nothing is going to happen while I’m around . . .”

“The truth is
that there are always guards on duty, whether we’re docked on a
friendly planet or under siege from an enemy craft. It is the
policy of the human race that we should always be prepared for the
unexpected.”

“I see.”

After a pause,
she asked, “Why are you here?”

“To
investigate the murders.”

“That’s not
what I mean. I mean, what is your ship doing in this solar
system?”

“We are on a
routine mission around the galaxy. Our schedule brought us to Ogien
where we are on our way to investigate a strange phenomenon on
another of its planets.”

“Where, and
what phenomenon?”

“I’m afraid
that’s classified. Now, follow me. I’ll show you around the deck
where the officers have their quarters. A sliding door opened
automatically, and they passed into a corridor that stretched in a
slight curve into the distance, with doors on either side. Forster
stopped outside the first door on the left. “This is my quarters,”
he said.

“May I take a
look?”

“Of
course.”

The captain
swiped his ID card and tapped in some numbers on the keypad outside
the door, and the door opened.

“Please.”
Forster indicated for Elena to precede him into the room.

She looked
around and whistled. “What a huge room!”

“There’s more.
This is my living space. Through there is my bedroom . . .” He
pointed to a door that led off the main room. “. . . and that is my
kitchen . . . I get to prepare my own food sometimes, when I feel
like it, and through there is the bathroom, and . . . oh . . . I
almost forgot, that door leads to my private gymnasium.”

“Wow!” she
said, plonking herself down in one of the plush green velvet
armchairs. “I could warm to this.”

“The perks of
being a star ship captain.”

“What’s
through there?” She pointed to the far side of the room where she
noticed a large window with the blinds shut.

“As you would
expect, there’s not much of a view out there at the moment. When
we’re travelling, however, it’s often a different story. I get the
best views in the house.”

“Are all the
rooms like this?”

“No. My
officers have similar quarters, but rather smaller than mine. The
rest of the crew have to share, usually four or five to a room.
This is a large ship, but also accommodates a very large crew, so
space is rather limited.”

“Can I see the
crew’s quarters?”

“That would
not be possible. It is bad protocol for the captain, or any of my
officers for that matter, to encroach on the privacy of the crew
members. But I will show you their recreation area. They have a
large entertainment room, a gym, a swimming pool and a bar where
they can let their hair down when they’re off duty. Come I’ll show
you.”

When they had
completed the inspection of the crew’s facilities, they returned to
the bridge where they retrieved their coats and climbed back down
onto the planet’s surface.

“Well, that’s
my guided tour. Now for yours,” said Forster. “You promised to show
me around the town.”

“Follow
me.”

She led him
back down the stairs to his hotel.

“We’ll exit
through the main entrance to the hotel,” she said. “This will take
us into the central business district of Arion City.”

They walked
side by side, but Forster merely followed the course that Elena led
him. When they passed through the lobby and then the main entrance,
he stared in amazement at the scene that greeted him.

The lack of
light restricted the view in all directions. A dull grey aura was
all that illuminated the town. It was impossible to see anything
beyond a few buildings in any direction. The view vertically
upwards was totally black. Yet the Karavec population of the town
went about their business just like in any town on Earth.

“The streets
are very narrow,” he said.

“Yes, they are
constructed for pedestrian traffic only. There are no land vehicles
within the confines of the town.”

“So how do
they travel from one part of the town to another when it is too far
to walk?”

“They use the
trains.” She glanced upwards.

Forster’s eyes
followed hers. “I can’t see anything.”

“It’s there
alright. Just above the rooftops of the buildings there is a system
of interconnecting railway loops with stations regularly spaced
throughout the city. It’s perfectly silent since it’s electrically
powered.”

While Forster
was craning his neck trying to see any sign of the railway above,
something struck his face. He pushed the thing away with his right
hand. It flew away, making a whirring noise as it did so.

“What was
that?”

“It was just a
whirlybird. It is an insect.”

“It was as big
as a bird from Earth.”

“They can grow
quite large, but they are completely harmless.”

“Tell me more
about the railway.”

“You can
travel anywhere you like on the trains, and it doesn’t cost a
thing. It’s the only way of getting around on Arion. Shall we try
it? It will be a good way for you to see the town from the
air.”

“That sounds
like a good plan,” said Forster, “but first of all can we walk a
little. I’ve got so many questions I want to ask.”

“Go
ahead.”

“Firstly,
explain to me how the people are able to walk about and perform
their business without forever bumping into each other, or
colliding with the buildings or even those rubbish bins over
there.”

“That’s easy.
We use our gnaris. I thought I had explained this to you. We do not
rely on our eyes to navigate our way around the place. Instead we
use gnaris. While we walk around, we can sense the objects in our
surroundings, and avoid any painful collisions. We can also sense
who we might bump into if we do not adjust the direction in which
we are walking.”

“I forgot that
you told me you use gnaris just like humans use their eyes.”

“Exactly.
Humans also use their sense of hearing, or even their sense of
smell to give them warning of any potential dangers. We also use
these senses, but gnaris is our most valuable sense.”

“Okay, here’s
my next question. Why is the sky totally black? I can’t see any
stars. When we were on the surface earlier, I saw stars, including
many familiar constellations. But here I can’t see even one
star.”

“It’s because
of the roof.”

“Roof?”

“Yes, didn’t
you realise? We have covered the entire surface of Arion with a
roof. It’s made from an opaque plastic.”

“But, why is
it necessary? Arion is a sunless planet. You would not be bothered
by the small amount of light coming from Ogien. Does it have
something to do with the atmosphere? Does Arion not have the right
quantities of oxygen and nitrogen for the Karavec lungs?”

“You are right
about Arion being sunless, but the atmosphere is perfectly
acceptable for our lungs. Earlier, before we entered your ship, we
were able to breathe normally on the surface. No, it is not because
of this. There are two reasons why we need the roof. The first is
that we are sensitive to other forms of electromagnet radiation as
well as light. The roof filters out all those harmful rays. The
second reason is that the roof helps to maintain an ambient
temperature for us to live. As I explained to you yesterday, we
have learned how to enhance the heat from the planet’s core. It is,
however, necessary that we do not waste that heat by allowing it to
dissipate into the atmosphere.”

Forster
nodded. “That explains a lot. But it does pose another question.
How did you manage to survive the harmful electromagnetic rays,
such as ultra violet, when you lived on Earth?”

“I knew you
would ask that. When I first arrived, I had to wear a special
protective suit; but after a while, just as my eyes became more
tolerant to the light, so the rest of my body became more tolerant
towards the other rays. But I still had to be very careful.”

While they
talked, they passed by a number of shops selling a variety of
goods, just like the shops Forster was familiar with on Earth. Some
sold Karavec clothes, others electronic equipment, and yet other
specialised in weapons. He saw information shops, where the latest
works of fiction and fact were available for upload to tablets, and
shops selling sports equipment, none of which he recognised. The
only real difference that he noticed was the conspicuous absence of
restaurants and delicatessens; but Forster recalled that Karavec
only ate at all for necessity, and never as a social event.

They passed
through squares with fountains, past museums and art galleries, and
the Embrycultural Centre that they had visited two days earlier.
This stood next to a huge palatial structure enclosed by a high
iron fence and closed gates. In the dim light Forster could just
make out a contingent of about twenty men guarding the periphery of
the palace.

“That’s the
Great Savant’s residence,” said Elena. “We were inside there
yesterday. When you arrived on Arion, you entered the palace from
the upper surface, but it’s not so easy to get inside from the
town. The building is well fortified, as you can see, and the Great
Savant has a guard of dozens of warriors. And, adjacent to the
palace, is the Embrycultural Centre.”

“Yes, I
noticed that. I assume there must be a direct link between the
centre and the Great Savant’s palace.”

“Naturally,
that’s how we accessed the centre.”

After walking
for a few minutes longer, they stood outside a building.