Fire Island: Book 3 of The Chatterre Trilody (Chatterre Trilogy) (9 page)

"Why should I believe you?"

"Have I ever lied to you?"

"By omission, yes." Thunder's eyes widened. Larwin's eyes narrowed. "And I'm now wondering just how many times you didn't bother to mention things that you didn't understand or have all the facts about because you didn't want to bother me with something you consider to be obscure."

"Start with what Tem-aki told you," Nimri suggested.

Thunder reminded Larwin of what he'd already told him about his journey through the Star Bridge to the surface of the old world and how he and GEA-4 had been attacked and taken aboard Nambaba.

"Yes, you told me all that, already, what does it have to do with my sister?"

"Apparently she was doing something called a geological survey on the asteroids near Solterre and something about your magic suit made her think I was you."

"So she boarded Nambaba."

"Not right then."

Nimri watched her mate control his frustration and wondered if she could have done as well if their situations were swapped.

Eventually, Larwin let go of Thunder and listened intently to the explanation, sometimes even nodding in agreement, when Thunder said something about Tem-aki, like the fact that she seemed to lag behind and be more interested in her lumpy black box, than keep up with the others.

Larwin sighed, "So her obsession with rocks and science killed her."

"Maybe."

"What do you mean, 'maybe'?"

"We don't know for a fact that she is dead."

"You just said that she was still in the Star Bridge when the explosives went off." Thunder nodded. "But you're not sure she was killed." Thunder shook his head. "Explain."

"No body."

"Probably buried under the rubble."

"Except that there was no rubble. The Star Bridge reformed into what appears to be a solid rock wall."

"How did that happen?"

"That is one of the unknowns that I am trying to figure out."

"Any others?"

"If GEA-4 died, would she go to the spirit realm?"

Larwin blinked rapidly. "Excuse me? Are you asking if she would go to heaven?"

Thunder nodded as he chewed his lower lip.

"What makes you ask that?"

"Last night, did you see her in the skull?"

"Her image, yes. What does that have to do with my sister?"

"GEA-4 vanished the same time Tem-aki did."

"That almost makes sense."

"And Thunder didn't just see GEA-4 in his skull, he saw Tem-aki, too."

"How?"

"We don't know," Nimri said.

"So that means she's alive," Larwin said.

"No. It's another unknown," Thunder said. "That's why I asked if GEA-4 had a soul and could enter the spirit realm."

"Our parents gave us the impression that if the skulls showed messages, they were from beyond the barrier of life," Nimri said. "But we never knew for certain."

"And we've never seen them give omens, before," Thunder added.

"Well," Larwin said, "to the best of my knowledge, GEA-4 is a machine. A very smart machine, but still a machine, so I doubt that she has a soul, but I really don't know for certain, because I don't exactly know what a soul is or if it could be replicated by science." Larwin frowned. "How do those skulls work?"

Nimri and Thunder shrugged and Mica sucked his fingers.

Just then, the kitchen door opened and Bryta called them in to eat breakfast.

"This is not over," Larwin warned. "And furthermore, I intend to examine that skull."

Chapter 13

Tem-aki sat with her back to the endless expanse of water and watched Cameron direct the others to do various activities. A gentle breeze kept bugs away from the flagstone-covered patio, which was good, since many tables and chairs had been added and all thirteen – fourteen, if she counted Cameron – were industriously working on various projects, none of which made any sense. Tem-aki wondered why they were making dragons by folding paper and a huge dragon head made of soggy paper over woven reeds. While she could see there was a theme, she didn't see how it related to grinding minerals to dust in a mortar or carefully molding candles with bee's wax, much less why they acted like their projects were important.

Beyond them, she could see GEA-4 studying the creepy skull – again. Tem-aki's hands clenched and she glared at the scene in the window. What was it with the droid and that thing? Could robots be fascinated by dead things or so-called-art? How many times did she need to instruct the infernal machine to decipher the language, so they could communicate?

Getting up from the bench, which was next to the protective railing overlooking the beach, which was at least one-hundred feet below the sheer cliff, Tem-aki headed for GEA-4. Once inside, she demanded, "Why aren't you compiling a language program. We have to figure out a way to communicate with these people."

"I am," GEA-4 said.

Tem-aki's jaw clenched. "It looks more like you are obsessing over that hunk of carved quartz."

"I am capable of multi-tasking."

Tem-aki closed her eyes, counted to ten and reminded herself that a moment of patience during a moment of anger often saved her a hundred moments of regret. After the count of ten, she still wanted to throttle GEA-4, so she counted to twenty before she asked, "How soon will you have a verbal program done?"

"Unknown."

Patience. "And why is this unknown?"

"The conversations I have been able to overhear are limited in topic and verbiage."

"And this makes you unable to compile a program, because?"

"It would not be complete."

"Yet you previously told me that you were able to create a language program for my brother and presumably, you only had limited conversation to base that on. Why is this situation different?"

"That program was not built solely on the spoken word. Nimri had a collection of ancient books, which the initial language lesson was built on, then I was able to add to this by listening to conversations."

"So you are saying that you are currently trying to do this in reverse."

"Negative. I am searching for books, which will give me a better idea of the proper language."

Tem-aki blinked, and reminded herself to be patient. "Does that mean that you don't believe verbal language is proper language?"

"Affirmative." The sweet boy with freckles, began painting the huge paper and glue dragon head sulphur yellow.

Tem-aki looked at the ceiling. "Why?"

"Written language, when used in non-fiction utilizes proper grammar and words. Spoken language utilizes slang and is often spoken using improper grammar."

Tem-aki hated to admit it, but the droid had a valid point. "I appreciate that, but I would really like to be able to begin communicating with them, even if it is with improper grammar. Perhaps we could ask them if there is a library here or something."

GEA-4's attention remained on the skull, which was starting to glow. Tem-aki closed her eyes and reminded herself to be patient. "Do you think you can do that instead of stare at that thing?" When she opened her eyes, the skull was dark.

"I am trying to decipher its frequency, to determine if this is some form of data storage device." Outside, a strong gust of wind created a flurry of activity, as the yellow-robed people grabbed supplies and paper projects.

"Why would you believe that?"

"Bubble technology."

"What is that?"

"Bubble memory is a type of computer memory that uses magnetized areas, known as bubbles for storing data."

Now that GEA-4 mentioned it, she had heard about some cultures mining quartz crystals to use for some sort of data storage, so perhaps the droid was onto something. "And you think it might be possible for you to access this data, assuming this is some form of storage device?" She eyed the sinister looking thing and wondered what sort of person would keep information on such a thing. "How certain are you that it could have books?"

"Fifty-fifty."

"Have you had any luck accessing anything like data?"

"Possibly, by transmitting this frequency," GEA-4 paused and though Tem-aki couldn't hear anything, the skull began to glow. "There is a resonate reaction."

"And this indicates that your theory is correct about it being a storage device?"

"Negative, but it does corroborate that the material is compatible with use of wave-technology."

Outside, shouts of laughter broke out. Tem-aki looked and saw that someone had put the huge dragon head over their own and was running around the patio like a demented, sightless bird.

She shook her head at the antics and wondered if there was data on the skull, and how useful it could be.

Tem-aki took a deep breath and told herself that if there was information there, it would be valuable as long as GEA-4 could use it as a base for a language program.

~o~

As Nimri carried Mica into her bedroom, she noticed the skull was beginning to glow. She quickly tucked Mica into his sleeping basket for his nap, and went to study the fading light.

Why had it done that?

Did the light mean something? And if so, what?

Had the skull always done this? It was impossible to know, since her great-grandfather had always kept it in his room – an area that children were forbidden to enter. By the time she was able to talk, she knew better than to invade Rolf's personal space.

Now, Rolf was dead and she had the responsibility to protect The Chosen, as Tramontains had for over a millennium. Unfortunately, her grandfather had made this very difficult, because he had only allowed her to learn the healing powers of plants. Since his death, she had made a lot of progress, learning to manage myst-energy and using that to both heal and protect her tribe, but still, she had not learned a fraction of the knowledge Rolf had known and she still did not feel completely worthy of being her tribe's Keeper of the Peace.

She stared at the back of the skull, as it sat on its special table and its sightless eye sockets starring at Sacred Mountain's peak. Why had this been one of her great-grandfather's special things? Why hadn't he explained what it was used for? All she knew about it was that one day, her great-grandfather had been angry at Bryta for moving it from its place looking out the window.

With many apologies and tears, Bryta had promised never to touch it, again.

Nimri had been afraid to touch it, too, yet now, she might need to.

The skull might be a key to solving Tem-aki's disappearance, so she needed to figure out how it worked. She wondered if it could reveal where GEA-4 and Tem-aki were, and if they were alive and well. Nimri frowned and wondered if those terms were even valid for something like GEA-4.

Mica murmured in his sleep. Nimri went to him, knelt by his basket and stared at the beautiful miracle that was her son.

Larwin entered the chamber and briefly stood behind her, sharing the wonder of Mica, then he went to the window and took his lumpy black box out of his tunic's pocket. Soon, the skull began to glow.

Nimri scrambled to her feet and went to stand beside Larwin. "How did you do that?"

"I haven't done anything, yet."

"Then how?"

Larwin shrugged, as he punched some of the black box's lumps and pointed the thing at the skull. The light was different than it had been when she woke to see it; this time, instead of a bright light, as if someone had lit a small candle inside or perhaps like pulses of sunlight on a hazy day. Some white symbols flashed across the smooth black part of the box.

"What does that mean?" Nimri asked.

"I don't know. At least not yet," Larwin said. "It would be a lot easier to figure this thing out if GEA-4 was here to help analyze it."

"If she's alive, maybe she is somehow trying to send a message to us."

"Perhaps." Larwin tapped some more buttons, but Nimri doubted that he had actually heard her. Still, it would be nice if GEA-4 was attempting to contact them. Nimri sighed and told herself not to get her hopes up. After assuring herself that Mica was sleeping soundly, she went down to weed the garden.

~o~

GEA-4's hands clamped on either side of Tem-aki's head and the rudimentary language program began. It was quickly over.

As GEA-4's hands dropped back to her sides, Tem-aki said, "Keep compiling this program and plan for daily updates. We need to begin communicating with these people as soon as possible."

"Understood."

Tem-aki sighed, knowing that the android was simply following some cultural protocol for polite verbal discourse and could never understand how frustrating it was to need to find a loved one and not be able to ask where they were.

Now that the language transfer had been made, GEA-4 returned her attention to the skull.

What was that thing's attraction? If Tem-aki didn't know that 'droids were incapable of obsessing over things, she would think that was exactly what she was seeing. So what if GEA-4 knew of other cultures who used bubble technologies to store information? She was supposed to be a logical machine, couldn't she look around and see that this culture was so primitive that they used feathers and berry juice to write on primitive leaf-pulp paper?

Tem-aki blew out a breath and then went outside to listen to the conversation surrounding the work tables on the patio and see if she could understand anything they were saying.

As she casually moved around the tables, she understood random words like, candle, dragon and eat, but the majority was still gibberish.

And she was still lost.

Jaws clenched and eyes watering, she went to the sea-side railing and looked out over the magnificent view. "Harbor," someone said, and she knew he was talking about the water she was looking at. The blues of the water and sky seemed infinite as they receded into the distance. In fact, it was difficult to see where the water ended and the sky began.

Closer in, arms of land jutted into the water and of course, there were some large rocks in the smooth water near shore. The ship, which they had arrived on was tied to the long, thin wooden platform, which jutted into the large, roundish water, and while it was the largest boat, it wasn't the only one. Hundreds of the tiny type of boats could be seen around what the locals called the harbor, while many of them were pulled onto the beach, others were moving across the water, as if on some unidentifiable, and random mission. Farther out, four more big ships sat alone in the water, almost as this one had seemed, when she first saw it.

Tem-aki had never seen a more alien landscape or one quite so beautiful.

"But she is a woman!" an angry voice said. Tem-aki blinked in surprise at knowing a complete sentence. Unfortunately, she didn't understand the rest of the speaker's angry rant and she resisted the urge to look behind.

Cameron's soothing voice began speaking and while Tem-aki couldn't translate what he had to say, she had the distinct impression that he was talking about her to someone – probably Varlet.

Varlet was a tall, wide-shouldered man who might have been attractive, except he had shifty eyes and thin, angry lips. While she had not felt welcomed by several of the group, Varlet was the only one who had seemed outright hostile, at least toward her. Even though he seemed perfectly nice to the younger boys, and constantly seemed to smile at them, pat them on the butt or put his hand on their shoulders as he helped them with their projects. She did not like or trust the man and suspected the feeling was mutual.

Tem-aki kept her attention on the horizon, but thought of the group behind her and frowned. She had not seen a single woman since her arrival on this planet. The men, at least she thought they were all men, didn't all seem to know how to act toward her. Some, like Cameron treated her very well, but others like Varlet made her wish she had eyes in the back of her head. Perhaps they were some unisex race. It was difficult to be sure, with the tent-like clothing they wore, but if they were unisex, that could explain a lot of the strange looks and most of the stares she and GEA-4 kept getting.

Had they ever seen a woman before?

Recalling the angry voice saying 'But she is a woman!', Tem-aki concluded that they must have or have had females. Why else would they have a word for her gender?

Unfortunately, that did not explain why so many stared at her or why Varlet and a couple of others, who always seemed to be near him, acted like they hated her.

She wasn't going to figure out where she was or find her brother by gazing at the magnificent horizon. Tem-aki straightened up and went to see if she could find any new information.