Taljen helped unload the wood from the boat and piled it up on the dock. When she finished, she quickly slipped under the canopy that had been erected and sat down. As she drank her ration of water she shook her head. Normally no one would be out this teclad of the Killer Bannk. It was much too hot for that. But the Golun-Patra had changed things; nothing was right since then. Now wood had to be transported from down the coast. After the fire there was little enough here, and to get wood required being partners with the sun and the murky clouds. The short shifts did little to cut the number of people who died from exposure. Taljen finished her drink and returned to work. Soon, the last log thrown in, another cart was loaded, and Taljen made a note of it on her checklist. The paper was so damp that it ripped as she wrote on it.
Let’s go, grask, and get out of the sun. It will
kill us all soon.
She whipped the animal awake and the cart began to
lumber up the road from the beach, only to get stuck in a rut. As Taljen
struggled with the wheel she heard a voice calling to her.
Let me help with that.
Taljen looked between two logs up over the far side of the cart, and saw Benjfold walking toward her. He hesitated visibly as he recognized who was on the other side of the cart, but he did not halt. Taljen had not seen him since her return. She managed a faint smile.
Hello, Benjfold, Old Nesta.
Hello, Taljen. I hear that you returned
recently.
Benjfold bent to the immobile wagon and shoved with Taljen,
arms glistening. Are you glad to be back?
Taljen shrugged. I don’t know, Benjfold. I didn’t
expect Ta-tjenen to have changed so much.
It hasn’t changed at all, as far as I can see.
The cart rocked back and forth until its momentum finally carried it out of the rut.
I suppose, Benjfold Who Collects Trees, there is
that, too.
Taljen pulled the grask gently by the hair toward the road.
The fire last Bannk has put us in more than a
precarious position,
Benjfold said, trying to make conversation. There is little enough here. Charcoal for
heating.
There is little here, that is truthful, but there is
less south, where it is hotter. We are lucky in that…But are we lucky
enough to get through the Patra?
We will get through this Patra, with the Time
Keeper’s help. After that, I don’t know—
The next is a Long Patra, is it not?
Benjfold nodded. But it is a long way away—
Only a Weird Bannk separates the two.
You are not very optimistic.
I don’t deceive myself any longer.
This is not the Taljen I once had for a nesta. You
are beginning to sound like the Alien.
There may be that, too. But he is gone, far away
with the Gostum. Very far away.
With the Gostum, you tell me? Then he is
Polkraitz, as we always suspected.
Taljen sighed and lowered her head. Her hair fell in front of her eyes,
hiding her face from view. He may be that, who
knows?
she said almost inaudibly.
After the way you mysteriously returned, is there
any doubt? Either your story of distant travels is a myth, Taljen, or the
way back is clearly a Polkraitz miracle.
Clearly. That must be true, mustn’t it?
Well, as long as that Alien Polkraitz stays far
away with his own kind, we will be safe from the likes of him.
Safe. I do not think we will be seeing Stringer
again, Fearful Benjfold. Ta-tjenen does not figure very highly in his
world.
Good…Have you thought about a new nesta?
Benjfold asked, trying to change the subject.
No. I have not thought about it at all. I still have
a Patra-Bannk yet.
You were not asked to get a replacement?
I have not been asked anything by anyone.
That strikes me as not being ordinary.
Benjfold,
Taljen finally said, I want to be alone.
Her old nesta nodded sharply. All right, if you
persist in acting this way, fine. I won’t bother you anymore. Good-bye,
Taljen.
Good-bye, Benjfold,
she replied without any
trace of a smile.
Benjfold went off to the docks, Taljen to the town. The road was bleached white, stifling white, saturated with heat. Everything seemed saturated with heat. Taljen walked quickly. After leaving the wood at a storehouse, she went to see Alhane. He usually had something interesting for her to do, and she had not seen him since the meeting upon her return. A visit was long overdue.
Unfortunately, as she was cutting across the edge of the deserted park, she met Kenken Wer. Taljen had avoided the old woman in the beclads since her return, but a close-knit town of twenty thousand is not a big place when you are trying to hide from someone. No doubt Kenken Wer was on her way to the nestrexam to see to some business.
Now Kenken Wer, with her Bannk-darkened, splotchy face and her short hair,
stood before Taljen on the shriveled fern-moss of the park. Kenken Wer had
always like Taljen, however erratic her behavior had been since the return
of the Polkraitz Alien. I’ve heard of you,
Taljen Returned.
Yes, I’m back,
Taljen said, looking away,
brushing back her cowl.
How far did you travel? No one has told me.
Very far.
Did the Alien desert you?
Taljen stammered and shook her head.
Tell me, although I am in a hurry, how you got
back.
I don’t know.
Ah, well, Taljen,
Kenken Wer sighed. I hope you learned something from your journey.
Suddenly Taljen gazed straight into Kenken Wer’s eyes. You were wrong about everything!
she screamed as
she ran away. What Kenken Wer didn’t catch was Taljen’s last sigh: And you were right about everything, too.
Taljen was surprised to find Alhane snoring loudly, slumped over his desk. It was not so much his snoring that bothered her, but the fact that he was working himself harder and harder until he now fell asleep at his desk, out of phase of his usual habits and assistants. She shook his head. He snorted. She shook it again and he wheezed and coughed.
What is it?
he squeaked. Then he jerked himself
erect and remembered his papers. He picked up a sheet of calculations,
studied it for a moment, and threw it down. Ah, it
is a straitjacket! Nothing works, only gets tied up in knots.
Still no success?
Taljen queried.
No, not anything, nor as much as a ray of sun in the
Patra, I thank you.
Alhane sighed deeply. And I
don’t even know what I’m looking for. I’m just groping in the dark for
something that makes sense, something that is pleasing to the eye. Do these
convoluted orbits look pleasing to you? Only Verlaxchi would have made the
world so ugly to look at. I don’t believe it.
Well,
Taljen said, as I
told you once before, you can always try it with the sun in the middle.
Alhane got up and shook his head at Taljen. Do you
think, Bitter Girl, that it is so simple to throw away everything that is
so obvious to the eye and to the spirit?
Why not?
Taljen asked with a raised eyebrow and
a distinct rise in pitch of her voice. You decided
the world was a ball, didn’t you? You seemed easy about that. Why is it so
different now?
It isn’t the same,
Alhane answered sadly. There at least I had something: some data to go on,
some similarities in the way the sun looked—
What was that data? It is not clear even now,
Alhane, that your data was good. The smallest tilt of the pole—
But it was something, and I still believe it. And
now that you have been south, you believe it, too, don’t you?
Reluctantly Taljen nodded. So what is the
problem?
What is the problem, indeed? My children say the
same thing.
Why do you have such trouble trying it the other way? If you
don’t, we will.
Indeed, where is the problem? Where is anything? What
do I have to go on? I have no intuition as to what things should look
like. Should the orbits be circles? That seems likely, but since I have
only recently found out what an orbit is, what prevents them from being
squares? Does the force forbid it? I have only the vaguest idea of what a
force can do. Can the orbits be overlaid? Then in two dimensions or
three?
You will have to try them all, I suppose—
And see which ones fit the observations. Yes, I
know.
Alhane began pacing the room. He paced for a long time to the
tune of his mistuned clocks. Finally he broke his stride; his forehead
glistened with perspiration that had not been there earlier. All right, I’ll try it. I have no reason to, but I will
try it.
You have the best reason to try it,
Taljen said
with a distinct sneer in her voice. Stringer said it
was that way, didn’t he?