The Power of Gnaris (9 page)

“Naturally,”
said the Great Savant.

“Who else will
travel with us?”

“There is the
issue of language. For whatever reason, these aliens on Ziemia are
using the language from Earth known as English. Those with some
knowledge of English should be chosen.”

“So, who?”

“Elena should
be one.”

“Elena?”

“She has been
acting as Forster’s assistant. She has been to Earth, and is also
an expert linguist. She has a degree in philology, and has studied
many alien languages including English, as well as possessing a
deep understanding of ancient physics. If the creatures have indeed
attained some technology, then they will have developed at least
some rudimentary knowledge of physics. She will be most
useful.”

“Very well.
Who else?”

“I would like
Doctor Leila to come with us. We will probably need a doctor, and
she may prove invaluable in the investigation of the use of Karavec
blood. She also has some knowledge of English from her
studies.”

“Go on.”

“Sirrow of the
ferry ship
Gnaris Voyager
will be our pilot. And most of his
crew, naturally.”

“Why do you
not use your own ship?”

“It’s under
repair.”

“So that’s
settled,” said Lolena. “The delegation will consist of you and me,
Forster, Elena, Captain Sirrow and his crew, and Doctor Leila; and
a platoon of soldiers will also be necessary.”

“There is only
room on the ship for thirty-five,” said Barrow.

“Thirty-five
will be ample, unless these creatures have developed
technologically even further than we are led to believe.”

“Have you
spoken of this to the gods?” asked Saivrow.

“Not yet,”
replied Barrow. “I wanted to get the support of the Council first.
I will speak with the gods this evening.”

“Then let us
meld,” said Lolena.

The five lords
moved their chairs once again to sit in a circle facing inwards.
Then Barrow removed five pairs of dark glasses from his bag, and
handed one pair to each of them. These glasses more closely
resembled goggles, for they adhered to the skin of the Karavec,
leaving no place for any ray of light to enter, and the lenses of
the glasses were completely opaque to light. The five members of
the Council placed the glasses to cover their eyes.

Then they
joined hands once again and began chanting an ancient ritual called
‘The Melding of Gnaris’. No one outside of the Council had ever
witnessed this ritual, so a description cannot be found in any
book, not even the Book of Karavec; but Elena realised that the
blending of the gnaris of the five ancient and authoritative
members of the Council into a single gnaris would result in a power
so potent that its consequences or its implications could not be
imagined. Elena did not see any flashes of light, or hear any
explosion, or the clanging of cymbals. She just felt herself
enveloped in a manifestation of sheer power. Later, when Forster
asked her to describe the ritual, she asserted that the experience
could not be portrayed in words.

At the
conclusion of the ritual, the five lords removed their glasses and
handed them back to Barrow. Then, without exchanging words, they
parted, and each went their own way.

Barrow
returned to his palace by way of the servants’ entrance, removed
his disguise and retired to his quarters. He took care to place the
bag containing the special glasses in his wall safe where it would
remain until it was time for the delegation to depart for
Ziemia.

Then he
entered his private chapel for a meeting with the gods.

He collapsed
onto one knee and began going through the usual ritual of greeting
the gods. Then he stood and raised his head, waiting for the
hologram to appear. Almost at once, he saw the old wizened figure
of Kingirow standing before him.

“Barrow, you
look troubled,” Kingirow said. “Do you have some important
news?”

“Yes, oh,
great and mighty Kingirow, leader of the gods, creator of the
Karavec and of the Council, I have very important news. The Council
has met today.”

“That is
indeed news that I did not expect, or hope for. The consequences of
this meeting do not bode well.”

Barrow went on
to describe the reasons for the meeting, and the decisions made by
the Council.

“The decisions
are the right ones,” said Kingirow. “A huge burden is placed on
your shoulders and those of Lord Lolena. The gods give their
approval for this endeavour, and will protect you and your company
as you perform this difficult task.”

The hologram
faded, and Barrow rose to his feet. He slowly made his way to his
bedroom. The day’s events, especially the ritual of ‘The Melding of
Gnaris’, had left him exhausted. It wasn’t long before he
slept.

Chapter 8 – ‘The Loop’

“
Hikon is a
planet full of wonder. ‘The Loop’ unravels that wonder, and fills
the soul with glee.”

 The Book of
Karavec (95, 89)

“What do we
know about the planet Ziemia?” The Great Savant met in his private
quarters with Forster, Elena and Lolena.

Forster typed
out some keywords on his laptop, and brought up a page of
information about the planet.

“It has a
diameter of 14,874 kilometers, surface gravity is about 1.1g,
average surface temperature is 15
^o
Celsius, and the
average pressure at sea level is 96 kilopascals.”

“Minerals?”

“Well it’s
about 67 percent covered with water in the form of oceans. There
are ice caps at both poles. The most abundant elements in the
planet’s crust are silicon and oxygen, and the core is mostly made
up of compounds of iron. The atmosphere is 71 percent nitrogen and
26 percent oxygen, with some other gases and water vapour.

“Its orbit is
an average 160 million kilometres from Ogien. It takes 307 days to
orbit the sun, and spins once on its axis every 22 hours and 36
minutes. It also has two large moons with diameters of 1,100
kilometres and 1,600 kilometres.”

“It sounds
very similar to the human planet you come from, captain.”

“I see. Yes,
you are right; it does share many of the features and qualities of
the Earth.”

Barrow looked
Forster in the eye. “Now, captain, would you care to share with the
others exactly why you are interested in the planet Ziemia, and
your real reason for coming here?”

Forster
cleared his throat. “A few months ago, we intercepted an audio
signal from a satellite orbiting Ziemia, the fourth planet of this
solar system.”

“They have
satellites?” Elena found it difficult to conceal her
excitement.

“Yes, at least
some of the inhabitants of Ziemia have developed a rudimentary
knowledge of rocketry and satellite communication; who knows, maybe
even space travel.”

“What did the
audio say?” Elena asked. “Were you able to decipher any of it?”

“Take a
listen.”

Forster
connected a recording device to his computer, and they listened
intently to the recorded message.

“I can
recognise some of the words,” said Elena. “It’s English!”

Forster’s face
broke out into a broad smile. “I think you will be able to
understand most of it if I play the recording a few times.”

“Let’s play it
right through,” said Elena.

After she had
heard it three times, Elena said, “I recognise the words
‘faithfully’, ‘president’ and ‘united’,” she said. “Can you explain
the message to me in simple English; then I can translate for the
others using the Karavec language?”

Forster read
and then simplified the following words: “‘I, Piotr Wojciech
Kowalski, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the
office of President of the United States, and will to the best of
my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the
United States.’”

“What does it
mean?” asked Elena. “What is the United States?”

“I don’t
exactly understand myself,” said Forster. “That’s why I am going to
Ziemia to find out. The United States was once a very powerful
nation on Earth. But what that has to do with Ziemia is a
mystery.”

Lolena spoke.
“Try searching the cosmoweb for Kow… what was the name.”

“Kowalski.”
Forster searched and came up with an answer. “Piotr Wojciech
Kowalski was the fifty fifth president of the United States of
America on the planet Earth. He was the first president of Polish
descent.”

“Polish?”

“From Poland.
Poland was another nation on the Earth. There were many immigrants
from Poland to the United States in the twentieth century.”

“Tell us more
about the history of the Earth,” said Elena.

“Well this is
what I know. The Earth had a healthy environment and was able to
sustain a growing human population until near the end of the
twentieth century. But things began to change with an exploding
population that became increasingly difficult to feed, and a
polluted environment due to emissions of carbon-based gases.”

“How
careless,” said Elena. “Why did they produce those gases?”

“They were
largely the waste product from the burning of fossil fuels that
were used in the generation of energy.”

“What a crude
system,” said Barrow.

“Well that’s
not all,” said Forster with a grimace. “In order to cut down on the
production of these gases, the people of Earth also developed
alternative ways of generating energy using nuclear fission.”

There was a
stunned silence.

“Did you say
fission?” Barrow could not disguise his disgust.

“Yes, I said
fission. The citizens of Earth never mastered the enhancement of
nuclear fusion for the production of energy. Well, I expect you can
guess the final outcome of experimenting with nuclear fission . .
.”

“A
meltdown?”

“A meltdown on
a colossal scale. They practically contaminated the entire planet
in just a matter of days. The result of the environmental pollution
was an increase in ultra violet radiation, and the consequence of
the nuclear meltdown was a fatal increase in gamma radiation. They
basically fried themselves. A population of eleven billion frazzled
like sausages on a barbecue; and that’s not to mention the
countless other species of animals and plants that were
annihilated.”

“So how did
the ancestors of the humans survive?” Lolena asked.

“A colony of
humans had settled on the Earth’s neighbouring planet called Mars.
The inhabitants of Mars lived in a hostile environment, so they
took precautions to protect themselves against harmful radiation.
They had water, but otherwise had to provide their own life support

air to breathe and food to eat

so they were better prepared for
survival than the people living on Earth. After nearly five
thousand years, the Earth had recovered, and people from the Mars
colony returned there. It is now a thriving planet once again, and
is much more technologically advanced. The human race didn’t make
the same mistakes again, but we had achieved the desire to travel,
and to explore, and eventually to conquer the universe. After many
centuries, we developed the technology to travel at eighty percent
of the speed of light, so we were able to travel to other solar
systems and to colonise planets. Even so, it took nearly twenty
years to travel to the nearest star with an Earth-like planet.”

“Did the
humans also colonise Ziemia?” asked Elena.

“No, that is
impossible. That is why I am baffled by these signals, and that is
the real reason why I am here. It is too much of a coincidence for
the civilization of the inhabitants of Ziemia to have developed in
a similar way to that of Earth . . .”

“And to have
done so in a matter of just a few years,” added Barrow.

Forster
shrugged and scratched his head. “Yet I cannot find any other
explanation,” he said.

“Well,” said
Barrow, “Ziemia is certainly providing us with many questions. The
sooner we get there and find some answers the better.”

* * * * *

It took three
days for them to make all the arrangements for the voyage to
Ziemia.

The Great
Savant summoned Kuthrow, his chief and most trusted commander. He
filled him in on everything that they had managed to learn about
Ziemia, and ordered him to choose the platoon of thirty-four
soldiers from his most elite and faithful warriors.

“Sergeant
Wardrow will be my deputy,” said Kuthrow.

“Why do you
choose him?”

“Apart from
his impeccable military record, he has spent some time on Earth
when he was much younger, and has some knowledge of the Earth
language known as English. Since the messages we have received are
in English, this may prove invaluable.”

“Excellent.”

The warriors
spent the next three days in isolation, training and planning for
the assault on Ziemia.

Barrow also
sent for Sirrow, the pilot of the ferry
Gnaris Voyager,
and
instructed him to prepare the ship to be fuelled and equipped for
the journey. Then he retired to the seclusion of his private chapel
where he communed with the gods, offering up prayers and libations,
and asking their blessing for a safe and successful trip.

Elena decided
on another way to pass the time. “I’ll take you on a circuit of
Hikon,” she said to Forster.