by Murasaki99
“Ugh. Bad,” groaned Gorseth, pushing himself up into a sitting position and squinting at the strange landscape. The air was thick with mist, which cut visibility almost to zero. He had come to his senses lying on his back on firm ground, feeling almost the same as after the bender he and his classmates had pulled after their Academy graduation. Idly he wondered if the floater was still flyable. It must have been some accident, and he worried about the damage. Now he looked about with a puzzled frown. Where in Vader’s name am I? he wondered, scratching his head. His neck felt stiff, but at least it was still attached to his shoulders. It’s not Correllia, or Coruscant. Not even lowtown Coruscant has mists like this. His inability to remember the precise sequence of events leading up to the accident was troubling. After deciding that his legs weren’t really broken after all, he staggered to his feet, rubbing at a nagging pain that ran a hot knife of discomfort through his heart. I’ll be lucky if I don’t have shattered ribs after a spill like that, he thought unhappily. Captain’s gonna kill me if I end up in sick bay after a lark.
He looked for any sign of other people, but no one came into his limited range of vision. The mist cut sound as well, making him feel as if he were wrapped in a cocoon of silence. He walked a stride or two and felt the path, if path it was, rise gently under his feet. Well, up is better than down I suppose, he decided with an internal shrug, and followed his nose up the trail. Walking helped him feel better; the myriad minor aches easing as he hiked along. After some time, he narrowed his eyes. Was the mist thinning a bit ahead? He stretched his legs, feeling the effort tug at his heart. I really must have crunched my chest, probably ought to have a medic see to it as soon as I get somewhere that looks like civilization. Where is everything? Did I fly out into the country somewhere and then have a wreck? Why don’t I remember? He slowed his pace, staring, and rushed ahead.
A man lay in the pathway, one whose familiar face triggered his memory. The man was dressed as he was, in the black duty uniform of an Imperial storm trooper. He lay sprawled in the trail as if he’d been ambushed and left by bandits. That thought was unappealing, and Gorseth strained his senses into the mists in an effort to discern if the hidden threat was still around. He heard nothing and reached the man’s side without incident. Kneeling, he checked him over. When he found no obvious wounds or bleeding, he grasped the man by his shoulders and shook him gently.
“Tef Buian ! Wake up! Are you all right?”
Tef awoke with a groan remarkably similar to the one Gorseth had uttered not fifteen minutes earlier. Lying on his back he pried his eyes open and focused on his officer.
“Lieutenant?” He sat up abruptly and grabbed Gorseth’s forearms in relief. “Lieutenant! Thank the stars! I thought they’d killed you for sure!”
“They? What they?” Gorseth checked again for danger, but all he could see was the omnipresent mist. “I thought I’d wrecked us, or something. I can’t remember anything. Do you know what happened?”
“Yes, sir! The Alliance! They took us prisoner!” The words tumbled out in a tangled rush and Tef held Gorseth’s arms in a vicelike grip as if to reassure himself the lieutenant was solid. “They said… Not human… Had us frozen… You went with us… They hurt you!” Tef’s voice shook a little at the remembered anguish. From his soldier Gorseth caught flashes of memory, images of trauma from Tef’s point of view. These helped to restore some of his own fragmented memories and he nodded.
“Take it easy, we seem to be safe enough here for the moment.” Gorseth looked at the mists. “Wherever here is.” He helped Tef to his feet. “Can you walk? I have this feeling we should keep moving.”
“Yes, sir.” Tef nodded. As they walked on together his face looked puzzled. “Strange, but I actually feel pretty good, considering those New Republic scum stunned us out of our skulls.”
“I’m not too bad myself, just a bit sore here.” Gorseth rubbed at his chest.
Tef looked at him with concern. “You may not remember, but they really hurt you, Lieutenant. If you need to rest, you rest. Ok, sir?”
“I agree. Come on, we’ve got ground to cover.”
Another five minutes of steady hiking brought them to yet another black-uniformed body lying in the trail. This one was Korion Osman. They revived him and soon the three of them were marching onward. The process was repeated until the entire platoon had been recovered. After an initially noisy reunion, Gorseth had them line up into proper marching order and continue up the trail, which now was showing signs of becoming steeper. The trail cut looked as if it were going through a gorge of some sort, being set into the side of tall hills and lined with weathered stones in soft shades of tan and gray. Now and then Gorseth could see a small plant sprouting in the powdered stone at the edges of the path. Since no obvious danger threatened, the men conversed in low voices as they hiked.
“I don’t get it. Where in the Emperor’s name are we?” asked Tir Buian, scowling impartially out at the misty world.
“Dunno. A planet on the fringe somewhere. That’s my guess,” replied Akki Rui with a snort.
“Doesn’t make sense,” said Khefret Osman, pausing to scoop up a pebble and examine it carefully. “The Alliance went through all that trouble to freeze us, hauling us down to that hospital, putting us through their little tortures, an’ now they just up and thaw us out and dump us somewhere? Why?”
“Maybe it was cheaper? Maybe the rebels didn’t pay the hospital bill?” Tenno Rui suggested with a tight smile.
“Ha! Now that I’d believe! Scurvy Alliance politicos! Not an ounce of character among ‘em!” Khefret laughed at the thought and his mood lightened.
Even Gorseth smiled at the idea of his men being freed by a New Republic bankruptcy.
Something shrouded in filthy gray and black rags crawled at the trail’s edge, gibbering, and scrabbled at his boots with yellowed, clawed hands. Gorseth gasped at the sudden intrusion and without thinking kicked out hard, hurling the thing off the hillside and into the unseen depths of the gorge. Its cries dwindled with distance and vanished, leaving the group of men startled and shaken.
“What - what was that?!” Tef stared around in horror, looking to see if any other creatures lurked nearby. Nothing presented itself. Everyone realized that they had been grabbing instinctively for weapons which they no longer possessed.
“Whatever it was, it was nasty,” said Gorseth, smoothing his tunic and trying to get his racing heart under control. When he perceived that part of his panic was coming from the othersense he shared with his troops, he took a few moments to reach out along that invisible connection and settle everyone.
Tenno huffed in disgust as he peered over the trail’s edge. “Well, it’s at the bottom of the hill now. I can’t see it. Good move, Lieutenant, but I wish I had my armor and a blaster. I just knew they wouldn’t leave us someplace really nice.”
“Come on, let’s move out. The sooner we find someplace defensible, the better.” Gorseth led them upward. “Everyone stay sharp. Be alert for ambush from either above or below.”
With part of the company scanning up and part scanning down and to the sides, the platoon continued on their way for another hour without incident. Gorseth put out his hand in a silent gesture and the company halted.
“Do you hear that?” he asked Khefret, who was next in line.
The trooper listened, his eyes intent and narrowed. “Sounds like someone ahead, not making any effort to conceal their movements.” He listened for a few moments more. “Small body, bipedal. Humanoid,” he concluded.
“Crying,” added Gorseth as the sound of weeping joined the sounds of someone walking ahead.
“I hate this!” growled Tef unhappily. “It’s like being stuck in a third-class horror tridee show!”
“Take it easy,” said Gorseth, moving forward again. “Let’s have a look.” He strode up the trail, not quite running, squinting into the mist, which still hung around them like damp gray shrouds. As Khefret had predicted, a small form loomed ahead, sobbing piteously. He caught up to it in two long strides and the figure resolved itself into a familiar shape last seen under very trying circumstances.
“It can’t be,” Khefret murmured from behind. “That girl from the hospital? The one they were freezing ahead of us?”
At the sound of their voices, the child stopped crying and stood staring at them, her fine-boned face streaked with tears. She wore a simple shift in a blue flowered print and light sandals. Her hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, but even so, they could tell she was indeed the child they had last seen in the hospital. She looked at them in confusion, her face threatening a fresh flood of tears.
“Who’re you? Where’s my Mommy? I want my Mommy!” she wailed, sucking in a deep breath in preparation for another good cry.
“I want mine, too,” said Gorseth, kneeling down in the trail to be on a level with her. She could not have been more than five years old, he decided. “Here, my name’s Anam Gorseth, what’s yours?”
She stared at him with wide green eyes, the cry momentarily forgotten, and finally answered. “Frith. Frith Eridian.”
“Frith. That’s a nice name. Do you know how you got here?”
“Uh-uh.” A negative shake of the head. “Mommy said I was sick. We flew on a ship to Cor- Cor’scant. To the hospital. I fell asleep. I woke up here.” She looked about at the rocky trail. “I’m scared. I can’t find my Mom. I can’t find anyone!” Frith looked as if she were gearing up to cry again, so Gorseth spoke quickly and lightly.
“It’s going to be ok. We found you, didn’t we? So now you’re not lost anymore.”
“I’m not?” Frith looked dubious.
“Nope. You can’t be lost because you’re with us now.” The logic would not have satisfied an adult, but Frith, after due consideration, seemed to find it adequate.
“Will you help me find my Mom?” she asked, sticking a finger in her mouth. She moved closer to the lieutenant. Gorseth nodded.
“Yes. Yes, we’ll do our best,” he said firmly. “We’re pretty good at finding things, don’t worry.” He held out his hands. “Come on, you come with us and we’ll look for your mom on the way. She can’t have meant for you to be left alone like this.” The invitation proved irresistible and Frith threw herself into his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck in a fierce hug. Gorseth stood up and arranged the girl so he could carry her comfortably. She was not heavy. A few moments later he had the platoon marching again up the trail. Now they had a new mystery to discuss.
“What gives?” asked Tenno to the group. “I can understand dumping us in the middle of nowhere, but the kid? Don’t make sense.”
“Nothing makes sense.” Khefret shook his head as if irritated by nonexistent bugs.
“Maybe they made a mistake?” Tef theorized. “Maybe when they grabbed the lot of us to transport to Sith-knows-where, they grabbed her without realizing? I mean, one frozen body probably looks a lot like another.”
“Bu, in case you hadn’t noticed, she’s no trooper. She’s lots smaller’n us. There’s no way they couldn’t see the difference.” Khefret stared ahead grimly. “I think they all went crazy.”
Frith hung her head over Gorseth’s shoulder and listened to this exchange for some time. She looked at the men intently. “You all brothers?” she asked suddenly.
“Huh?” Tenno Rui looked about at his cloned comrades. “I suppose so, yeah.” He gestured at the members of his series. “These are all my brothers. And those are brothers together, and those.” He pointed at Osman’s and Buian’s series.
Frith took this in without alarm. “Where you from? I’m from Freil.”
“Freil? That’s an Imperial world. Why’d you come to Coruscant?” Tenno asked her.
“Daddy didn’t want us to go, but Mommy said we had to, coz’ I was sick. Mommy and Daddy shouted. Mommy took me to the ship.” She sniffled at the memory.
“They do that sometimes,” said Gorseth soothingly. “I think it’s because they worry about us.”
“Um.” She perked up. “You lost your mommy, too?” she asked, looking at Tenno.
“What? I don’t have one.” Tenno looked surprised at the question. “None of us do.”
“No mom?! That’s terrible.” She considered the situation seriously. “I’ll share my mom with you when we find her,” Frith declared stoutly.
Gorseth felt an odd, tender sensation radiate out from his troops.
“That’s good of you, kid. That would be uh, nice, thanks,” said Tenno.
“Her mom might have poom kits if she brought us all home. We’d make some family!” Tef chuckled from behind.
“Hey, she meant it sincere, so I take it sincere.” Tenno glowered at his partner. “’Sides, you could use a mom to keep you in line.”
“We got the Lieutenant, he’s better’n a mom any day.” Tef couldn’t resist.
Gorseth sighed and ignored the verbal play from his men. They were feeling more normal, at least, and that was good. Frith faced forward for a time, looking up the pathway, then sagged gradually into his arms and drowsed. The troopers marched in silence, reserving their breath for the now steep trail. After an hour of hard climbing, Frith awoke with a yawn.
“Ooo, look! Pretty colors!” She pointed ahead. Gorseth followed her finger with his gaze.
“She’s right. There’s something ahead other than rocks and mist.” They scrambled up a final rough bit. The path opened out and the mist lifted, as if it had been a curtain confined only to the trail. Gorseth walked forward several paces to allow his men to join him. They hung together in a neat group, staring with wonder. The mountain trail had led them onto a vast plateau, or perhaps it was a broad alpine valley. Mountains of mind-staggering size loomed beyond the plateau, marching up and up into a sky the color of deepest indigo. Although there was plenty of light, Gorseth could see no sun. Brilliant white clouds scudded far above, in high contrast to the dome of the dark sky. Below, he felt only the slightest breeze, which while cool, was not unpleasant. Long grasses waved about his boots, interspersed with spires of knee-high blue flowers nodding gently in the wind. The grassy meadow ran on for some distance, ending in forest.
“Looks like the forests of Alderaan,” breathed all of Rui, whose original template had hailed from that world.
“But the flowers are from Yekera, I know they are,” said Tef, nudging one carefully with the toe of his boot.
“Alderaan never had mountains like that.” Gorseth looked at them with amazement. While his ancestors had hailed from the lost planet, his own family had lived on an asteroid mining colony and he found worlds with such external geographic features as mountains and canyons to be endlessly fascinating.
“And Yekera never had a sky like this, either,” said Tir Buian, craning his head backward to get a better view.
Frith squirmed in Gorseth’s arms and he placed her on the ground. She bounced forward and fell to her knees to sniff blissfully at the flowers. “Smells good!” She pronounced with a happy smile.
“Careful, don’t go too far from us, Frith,” said Gorseth. To his men he added. “You, too. I don’t see anything harmful, but it never hurts to be cautious.”
“True, Lieutenant, but those flowers are harmless. You can even eat ‘em if you want. My original did when he was a kid,” Tef said, with a strange smile at the memories of an activity he himself had never performed. On impulse, he reached down, plucked a blossom and popped it into his mouth before anyone could say anything. His comrades all watched him as if they expected him to collapse from poisoning at any instant. “Hmm, tastes like I remember,” he said, chewing thoughtfully.
“You fool, what if that had been a poisonous plant that only looked like the one you remember?” Khefret glared at him.
“What does it taste like?” asked Tenno.
“Kinda like flowers, I guess. Here.” He snapped off a second stalk and offered it to Tenno, who took it and nibbled at it gingerly while the rest of his series watched in alarm. “It does taste like flowers. Sort of sweetish,” said Koze Rui, using their resonance connection to share the sensation with his clone-brother.
“Stay sharp.” Gorseth commanded his men. “I think we’re a long way from medical aid if we get into trouble.” His men straightened up at once at the familiar order. That settled he looked around just in time to see Frith scampering away across the meadow. “Hey! Don’t go so far!” He charged after her, finally reaching her at the top of a gentle rise in the meadow. “Whoa, don’t run off like that. It may not be safe.” He caught her hand and reined her in. Frith tugged at his arm with total unconcern.
“It’s ok, Uncle Anam, it’s safe here, can’t you feel it?” She pointed excitedly at the forest. “Look, there’s a house in the woods! Can we go see it?”
There was indeed what seemed to be a good-sized house in an ancient, rustic style, set in far under the eaves of the forest and barely visible through the stand of trees. Gorseth felt his heart skip a beat at the sign of habitation. He signaled his men to come up, which they did at a run.
“People!” cried Osman collectively.
“Well, maybe. I hope so, at least.” Gorseth nodded to his troops. “Let’s go have a look. Carefully and politely. I don’t want to antagonize anyone who lives here. I think that would be bad.”
“Yes, sir,” came the obedient chorus. With Frith firmly in hand, lest she run ahead and trigger an unknown alarm or trap, Gorseth led his platoon at a careful pace toward the dwelling.
As they approached, the house became easier to see through the forest. It looked to be in good repair, if somewhat old, which gave Gorseth hope that it was tenanted by a living person. It also seemed larger than at first glance. He saw no sign of droids or the other modern conveniences he’d come to expect around a country manor house. A path edged with low-growing flowers wended its way to the main door. With his men following in a neatly dressed line behind him, he stepped out on the path and walked to the house. No alarms blared, no one shouted, the only sounds came from what might have been birds chirping in the canopy above their heads.
Frith pointed with a cry of excitement. “Look! Shika! It’s a shika!” A fine-limbed quadrupedal creature with slender legs, cloven hooves, long neck, and graceful form watched them from the forest. A bit of plant hung from its mouth. Its eyes were large and liquid and it had a generous growth of something branch-like sprouting from the top of its long head. The entire animal was barely taller than 1.5 meters. It looked at them and flicked its large ears, but did not seem alarmed. The shika ambled off, chewing the bit of vegetation it had plucked.
“What’s a shika?” asked Gorseth.
“It’s from home,” said Frith by way of explanation. “They’re pretty. Mommy feeds them when they come around.”
“An animal from Freil?” Tir Buian looked after it. The shika’s red-brown striped body made it difficult to spot in the shade of the woods.
“And trees from Alderaan and flowers from Yekera,” Gorseth added. “This gets stranger and stranger. Was this entire planet made to order?” He stopped, having arrived at the front door of the dwelling. Seeing no obvious comm device for signaling their arrival, he stepped up and knocked firmly on the door itself, trying not to feel nervous. His heart pained him a little and he rubbed at his chest in an effort to quiet it.
The door opened and Gorseth looked in, prepared to introduce himself to the household droid. The words failed to come out. A tall Lady stood in the doorway, smiling gently out at him. That she was a Lady was somehow palpably obvious to them all, despite the fact that her feet were bare where they peeked out from under the hem of her long, green gown. She must have been old, for her hair fell to her ankles in a long silver-white cascade, yet her face was ageless and her eyes were kind. It was her eyes that pulled at him the most. Without a word, Gorseth removed his uniform cap and held it over his heart.
“Oooo,” sighed Frith in wonder. Gorseth agreed with her opinion. The men crowded up from behind, pooling in a group around the doorway, staring unabashedly at the Lady. All of Osman looked at the lieutenant and doffed his cap, then elbowed all of Rui. They seemed to come back to themselves with a start. Rui snatched his cap off at once and Buian’s series complied with the unspoken order a moment later. The Lady took in the odd assembly without a sign of fear or discomfort.
“Excuse us, my lady,” Gorseth began. “But, we’re lost.”
“You can’t be lost, my dears. Since I have found you, you are not lost anymore.” Her voice was low and sweet.
Gorseth blinked at hearing the echo of his own words to Frith.
“But, but, where are we?” stammered Khefret in confusion. “What planet are we on? We were on Coruscant! Where are we now?”
“This is not Coruscant, to be certain. At least, not the Coruscant her people would recognize. As for where you are, why, you are at my house, which is a perfectly good place to be. Come in.” She stepped back from the doorway and gestured inward with her hand. “You’ve come a long way and you need something to eat and a place to rest. Come in, all of you.”
Frith stepped in happily, pulling Gorseth along with her, and his troops followed at once, their many boots making a soft tramp on the carpets. The door closed quietly behind them.
*****
“I still don’t understand where we are,” Gorseth repeated politely, passing a stack of delicate blue ceramic plates to Tef, who began to portion them out to the rest of the men. They were sitting at a very large table in what might have been a kitchen or dining room. None of them were used to any sort of dwelling outside of military accommodations and mess halls, and the idea of setting a table with plates and cutlery was strange and novel to them. Gorseth stood and helped to move items to the table as the Lady handed them to him. Frith leaned over the side of her chair, petting a small, furry animal with a slinky spine that seemed to have the run of the house. It curled around her hand affectionately.
“You are in my house, which is in the forest, which is at the edge of the mountains, which are all under the sky.” The Lady explained patiently, cutting large slices of bread and cheese and passing them around. She followed this with cups of blue liquid.
Tef tasted it and smiled. “Hey! This is like the flowers!”
“The drink is brewed from the blue lootia that bloom in the meadow,” she said with a pleased expression. “I’m glad you like it.”
“But, where…?” Gorseth tried again. He looked at the food on his plate. He could not remember feeling either hungry or thirsty since his arrival in this strange place, but he nibbled at the bread and cheese out of politeness. To his surprise, the food stimulated his appetite and he was able to finish the meal easily.
Rather than become annoyed by his persistence, the Lady smiled. “My dear Anam Gorseth, you should not be too concerned with where. You are here, are you not? How did you get here?”
“That’s what’s so strange to me. We were in a hospital on Coruscant, so was Frith. We were all to be put in cryofreeze, Frith because she was very ill, and my men and I because we were prisoners of war. Something must have happened, because we woke up and found each other on a trail that led us here.”
“Well, if you were able to come here, then you were meant to be here. People do not come to my house by accident. People arrive now and again, following the path you took. Many of them are children, like Frith. You are the largest group of adult visitors I’ve had in a long time.” She thought of something and asked. “What did you mean when you said you were… frozen?”
“It’s called cryofreeze. They - the doctors - treat your body so it can be frozen and kept in suspended animation for long periods of time. They were doing this to Frith in hopes they could cure her illness, they were going to do it to us because they were afraid of my men. We’re soldiers of the Empire, you see,” he added as if that explained the matter adequately.
“Frozen.” The Lady’s fine forehead puckered into the first frown Gorseth had seen on her face, but the frown was not directed at him, for she looked away out the window at the forest beyond. She gave a deep sigh as if considering an old trouble. “Oh, the conceit of people when they deceive themselves into thinking they hold the keys of life and death. Such a debt they are building in their ignorance.”
“Ma’am, are you a Jedi?” asked Tenno Rui, staring at her with large eyes. “I think that’s how they must talk.”
The Lady laughed merrily and her expression cleared. “My dear Rui-child, I am as far beyond your Jedi as the sky is above the meadow. Some few of them come here to visit and I am gladdened by their company, but they do not stay.”
“If Jedi come here, did the Emperor come as well?” Khefret asked.
“No, child. The one called Palpatine did not. He could not. Even now, he cannot come here in his present state. Some few of his acolytes have recovered to the point where they can begin to reach the trail, but it will be a long, long time before they can even stand upon it. The one Anam kicked into the gorge was one of those; it will do him good to climb for awhile.”
As Gorseth pondered her words, a dawning realization made his heart clench in sudden agony, as if the pain of his injury, so long ignored and put off, reasserted itself with a vengeance. He clapped a hand to his chest and breathed shallowly, trying to control the pain. The Lady moved to his side and touched him above the heart and it subsided to a dull ache. Now that he was able to speak, he had to ask the question that had brought on the attack. “Lady, are we dead?” His men listened to his question calmly.
“No, Anam. You are all quite alive. Far more alive than the people you met on Coruscant. It is difficult to explain, but if you will trust me, I will try to say it in a way that you can understand.”
“I trust you. Please do explain, if you will.”
“You and your men, and young Frith, are here, and you are also in the place you call Coruscant, frozen in the depths of their hospital.”
Gorseth stared in disbelief. “You were right, I don’t understand. How can we be in two places at once?”
“I don’t feel the least bit cold!” protested Goric Buian, waving his arms.
“Actually, you can be everywhere at once if you need to but I won’t go into that now,” she said with a smile that made him feel better in spite of his fears. “Your bodies are there, on Coruscant, and the important parts of you are here, with me, all at the same time.” She watched him rub at his chest with concern. “You have been wounded by hatred. You need to sleep so you can heal. You’ve come a very long way and you are weary. I will prepare a place for yourself and the child where you can rest without fear.” Outside the unseen sun had set and soft darkness claimed the forest.
“I am a little tired,” Gorseth conceded. After checking the feeling of his men he added. “My men can use a rest as well.”
Now that they were finished eating, she rose and held out her hand to Frith, who took it at once and jumped up to follow her. “Come along.” She led them through the house, up stairs and down hallways, and opened a door into a small bedroom. Frith leaped onto the bed without any coaxing and yanked the covers over herself with the happy enthusiasm of youth. The Lady tucked her in, dropping a kiss on her forehead and the girl was asleep before they closed the door.
“She’ll be all right?” Gorseth asked quietly as he followed the Lady onward.
“She will be fine. Your kindness has kept her spirit strong. I am more concerned for you, Anam. You have taken a deadly hurt.”
“You feel it too, do you, Ma’am?” asked Khefret. He looked at her with worried dark eyes. “A pain that won’t go away, that presses inward. We can feel it in him.”
The Lady stopped in the hallway and looked thoughtfully at the men. “Your Lieutenant needs to rest in a place that will allow his wounds to heal. I had thought that I would put you all in separate rooms, but now I will give you the choice. Do you want to stay with him, or sleep apart?”
“Please, ma’am, we’ll stay with the Lieutenant, if it isn’t too much trouble,” Tef Buian answered for the group of them.
“It is no trouble at all, my dears.” She smiled and led them onward, pausing at last before a door of wood faded by weather to a lovely pale color. “Here we are. Go through here, lie down, and rest. Fear nothing.” She turned the knob and pushed the door open, allowing the men to pass through one by one.
The entire group of Buian went first and as Gorseth followed he heard one of them say to his fellows. “So, why did she say, ’fear nothing’?… Ai, ai!” His question ended with a squeaky cry of amazement, the reason for which became apparent the moment Gorseth went after him through the doorway.
They were standing on a platform over an ocean. The door through which they had stepped had vanished. Everyone huddled in the middle of the platform and gawked. The footing was soft, and piles of blankets stacked neatly at the railed edge showed that the area was meant for sleeping. It felt stable enough, and Gorseth walked carefully to the railing and looked down and outward. A sea of deep green lapped below at the pilings that supported the platform. They were perhaps 5 meters above the water, although encrustations of silvery barnacles gave evidence the water could come much higher. A sandy beach shone in the distance behind them, while ahead stretched a limitless expanse of ocean, with waves rolling in continuously making a sound like soft thunder.
The men moved about gingerly, going to the edges to peer over the sides.
“What is this?!” asked Shoki Rui in astonishment as he craned precariously over the rail. He had never seen a sea before with his own eyes.
“It’s an ocean. Water that covers a planet’s surface.”
“No, no! I meant, how can this be in the house?”
“I don’t know. However it works, it’s one of the Lady’s bedrooms and we’re supposed to sleep here.” Khefret spoke in practical tones. “Remember, she said it would help the Lieutenant, and to do that I’d sleep in a rancor’s lair.”
“Huh, you’re right.” The entire group of Rui nodded in unison.
“Hey! There’s things in the water!” Tef’s cry brought everyone over to have a look.
“Those’re fish. They breathe water. Like the animals on Mon Calamari do. Their whole planet’s nothing but a big ocean. Everyone who lives there either breathes water or needs to be in water to live.” Khefret waved at the brightly colored creatures swimming below.
“Long as they stay down there, I’m fine,” grunted Tef. “C’mon, let’s get us and the Lieutenant to bed, that’s what we’re here for.”
After the initial excitement had passed, the lieutenant had been half-listening to his men while looking out in fascination at the expanse of the sea. The waves rolled in, spaced out in some precise way. Perhaps 200 meters away they rose up tall and their crests curled over in plumes of white foam, producing a deep, soft roar. The sound got into his head, washing sleepiness into his mind like a sweet drug. He staggered, caught himself. He could barely keep his eyes open.
“Watch him, he’s going to go down,” said Khefret. Many hands reached to steady Gorseth. They lifted him and laid him gently in the center of the platform, removing the outer layers of his uniform and boots.
“Pass me those blankets, willya?” Tenno commanded. A moment later Gorseth felt himself covered by something soft and warm.
“C’mon, we might as well all turn in,” Khefret said, kneeling on the other side of the lieutenant. “There’s plenty of room, just line up here and stretch out.” A general shuffling about ensued as the men kicked off their boots and peeled off their clothing. Blankets were passed around. Gorseth felt them lie down one by one, settling into a line on either side of him. To his right was Khefret, to his left, from the bright feel, was Tenno, then Tef. They cuddled up against him, offering welcome warmth against the cool sea air.
Tenno sat up on his elbow and pulled back the blanket from Gorseth’s chest, then gently lifted the edges of his undershirt to look beneath. “Lieutenant, you awake?” he asked.
“Un, barely.” Gorseth managed to reply with an effort.
“You’ve got a big bruise here, but you’re not bleeding or anything. How does it feel?”
“Pain’s less. Much less,” he murmured. In truth, the pain had been steadily subsiding since the moment he’d gone through the doorway into this “bedroom”. It scarcely seemed worth bothering about now.
“Cover him back up and let him sleep,” said Tef. Tenno complied, pulling the blankets up to cover them both to the chin and settling himself beside Gorseth with a sigh. Gorseth could hear the rest of them settle as well. After a minute of silence, Goric Buian, on the far end of the line, spoke.
“Well, now I’m not sleepy.”
“Oh, for pity’s sake!” groaned Osman.
“Can’t help it.” Came the unhappy reply. “It’s too weird here. I can’t relax.”
“ Now he notices it’s weird.” Korion twitched in annoyance.
“’S all right.” Gorseth slurred the words a little, but managed to find the strength to speak. He nudged Tenno. “Tell ‘im a story, then he’ll sleep.”
“A story?!” Tenno looked at his officer in surprise. Gorseth’s face looked pale but relaxed, his half-opened eyes gazing quietly up at the dark sky. A thin sliver of a crescent moon was just visible overhead, backlighting a high drift of lace-fine clouds in silver.
“Where am I to get a story?”
“From y’r memories. From y’r mom or y’r grandmom, or somebody. Y’know, the old kind.”
“Lieutenant…” Tenno began to make a protest then stopped. “Well, I do have a story in my memory. It’s from my original…”
“That’s fine, Tenno.” Gorseth could feel the other’s attention now shift from uneasiness to alert listening. “Go ahead.”
“Right. OK, here goes.” Tenno lay back and recited to the sky. “Long ago and far away, there once was a princess with no gravity.”
“No gravity! You mean she floated? Without repulsors?” asked Goric.
“Bu’, hushup and listen, you twit, or you can sleep with the fish.” Khefret said firmly.
“All right. No need to bite. So she floated, you say?”
“Yes,” Tenno continued as if the interruption had never happened. “No gravity. That’s why she was called the Light Princess…” Tenno went on with the story, his voice gaining inflection as he progressed.
Time passed, and as it did, Gorseth’s men fell asleep. One after the other, he could feel them go, like drops slowly filling a cup to brimming.
“An’ they all lived happily ever after, with gravity.” Tenno concluded his recitation with a great yawn. Almost on the instant he finished speaking he joined his fellows in sleep. That final drop overflowed the cup and Gorseth drifted off to the eternal sound of the waves. POW Part 3
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The full-text, unabridged story of The Light Princess is by George Macdonald, and can be found on the Project Gutenberg website.
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