March To The Stars

'How're the civan doing?' the captain continued.

'As well as could be expected,' the Northerner said with a shrug. The ostrichlike, omnivorous cavalry mounts were actually related to the vastly larger packbeasts, so they had leathery skin and were more capable of handling desiccation than the slime coated, amphibian-derived Mardukans. But they still weren't well-suited to a lengthy sea voyage. 'They fit into these toys as well as we do, and they never had to deal with the pitching and rocking before. At least they have more head room aboard Snarleyow than we do here, and that outsized coll fish has stretched their feed supply nicely, but they aren't happy. We haven't lost any, yet, but we need to get to land soon.'

'According to our map, we should,' Julian commented. He tapped his pad, and an image of the large island or small continent they were approaching floated into view. 'This is as detailed a zoom as I can get from the world map we had. It appears there's only one main river, and that it travels in a sort of semicircle through a good part of the continent. There should be a city on or near its mouth, and that should be less than three more days sailing from where we are right now—assuming this line of islands extends from the eastern chain.'

'The spaceport is on the central plateau,' O'Casey added, 'and the continent is ... extensively mountainous. In fact, it makes Nepal look flat—the province or the planet. Travel to the spaceport may take some time, and it could be arduous.'

'Oh, no!' Roger chuckled. 'Not an arduous march!'

Pahner grinned momentarily, but then shook his head.

'It's an important point, Your Highness. Coll oil or no, we're short on dietary supplements, and there won't be any more coll fish to get oil from once we head inland. That means we're short on time, too, so traveling through that region had better be fast.'

'We have the additional problem of overhead coverage, Captain,' Kosutic pointed out. 'From here on out, we need to consider our emissions. If we're able to hear them, and we have been, then they can hear us, if they're listening. And they can also detect our heavy weapons. Plasma cannons especially.'

'Also, Sir,' Julian said diffidently, 'it's likely that the people from the ships visit more than just the starport. There are always tourists, even on planets where the local critters can't wait to eat them. We need to keep that in mind.'

'Noted and agree.' Pahner nodded. 'Anything else?'

'The Diasprans,' Despreaux commented. 'They're ... not happy.'

Pahner turned to Fain. The infantry captain was still settling in to command Yair's old company (and the transferred survivors of his own, original command), but he was continuing to demonstrate an impressive capacity for assuming additional responsibilities. He was also working out well as Roger's aide-de-camp, and he'd ended up being the regular liaison to the human command conferences, despite being junior to the other two Diaspran commanders.

'Comments, Captain?' Pahner invited, and Fain rubbed a horn gently.

'It's the water. And ... the space, I suppose.'

'It's the lack of a chaplain,' Kosutic snorted.

'Perhaps.' Fain shrugged. 'We probably should have brought a priest. But they didn't like the God in such abundance. It was troubling for them. And now, it's becoming troubling to the men, as well.'

'The Diasprans are having a spiritual crisis, Captain,' Kosutic explained.

'Not all that surprisingly,' O'Casey snorted. The prince's chief of staff was a historian's historian, with a specialization in anthropology (human and nonhuman) and political history and theory. Those interest areas had made her an ideal choice as a tutor for a member of the Imperial Family, the position from which she had segued into the then-unenviable assignment as Prince Roger the Fop's chief of staff. They'd also made her absolutely invaluable in the trek across Marduk.

For all that, though, she'd been frustrated on more than one occasion by the tyrannical time pressure which had prevented her from spending long enough with any one of the cultures they'd encountered to feel that she'd truly had time to study it on its own terms. Too much of the expertise and analyses she'd been called upon to deliver had been based on little more than hurried, off-the-cuff analogies. That was the way she saw it, at least, although every Bronze Barbarian—and Roger—recognized the fact that her 'off-the-cuff analogies' had done at least as much as the plasma cannons to get them this far alive.

This voyage, however, had finally offered her an opportunity to sit down and do some of the detailed study she loved so dearly, and Roger knew that one of the primary sources she'd spent hours with was The Book of the Water, the oldest and most sacred of the Diasprans' religious texts.

'It's not at all surprising that the Diaspran religion worked out the way it did,' she said now. It was apparent to Roger that she was choosing her words and tone carefully, no doubt out of consideration for Krindi Fain's beliefs. 'After all, they have historical—and accurate—proof that the God of Water is the only reason Diaspra exists.'

'It is?' Despreaux asked.

'Yes,' O'Casey confirmed, and nodded at Dobrescu. 'Despite the inadequacies of our database on Marduk, Mr. Dobrescu and I have managed to confirm Roger's original observation on the day we first met Cord. It may seem ridiculous, given the climate we've encountered here, but this planet actually experienced a fairly recent period of glaciation. It produced the rock formations Roger observed then ... and must also have killed off a substantial proportion of the planet's total population.'

'Hell, yes!' Roger snorted, remembering how dreadfully vulnerable Cord and his nephews had been to the mountainous climate they had encountered crossing from Marshad to the Valley of Ran Tai. What humans regarded as little more than a pleasantly cool morning had been well-nigh fatal to the cold-blooded Mardukans.

'As you know,' O'Casey continued, 'this planet has only a very slight axial tilt, which gives it a relatively narrow equatorial belt. As nearly as Chief Dobrescu and I have been able to figure out, just about everyone outside that narrow zone must have been killed by the climatic changes involved when the glaciation set in. Geologically speaking, it was extremely recent, as well, which probably explains why the planetary population is so low, despite a climate—now—which permits several crops a year.

'There were, however, some isolated enclaves of Mardukans who survived outside the equatorial zone. The only one of those on which we have any specific documentation, so far, was Diaspra.'

'The lake!' Roger said, snapping his fingers suddenly, and O'Casey nodded.

'Exactly. Remember how incredibly ancient the buildings around those volcanic springs looked?' She shrugged. 'That's because the Diaspran priesthood is entirely correct about how old their city really is. There's been a city on that site since before the glaciers; it was the heat output of the volcanic springs that made it possible for that city's population to survive. No wonder they look upon water as the preserving miracle of all life!'

'That explains a lot,' Kosutic said, tipping thoughtfully back in her chair. 'Have you loaded The Book of the Water into your toot, Eleanor?' The chief of staff nodded. 'Then can I get you to download a translation of it to mine after supper?'

'Of course,' O'Casey agreed.

'Good! I'll be looking forward to reading it, because I'm pretty sure it will flesh out what I've already picked up from talking to people like Krindi here.' She pointed at Fain with her chin. 'In the meantime, though, I think I've already got enough of the handle on their theology to see where our current problem lies.'

She turned her attention back to Roger and Pahner.

'Essentially, their cosmology calls for a piece of land floating in an eternal, endless body of water,' she said. 'It also calls for all water that hasn't been specifically contaminated to be 'good,' which means potable. So here we are, way out of sight of land, sailing over an apparently eternal body of ... bad water.'

'Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink,' Pahner said with a slight grin, then looked serious again. 'I can see where that would be a problem, Captain Fain. Do you have a suggestion for solving it?'

'As Sergeant Major Kosutic has just suggested, I've been discussing the problem with her, Sir,' the Mardukan said diffidently. 'I believe it would be useful for her to deal directly with the troops as a replacement for our usual priests. And, if possible, when the ships go back to K'Vaern's Cove, it would also be useful if, upon return, they brought a priest over with them.'

Pahner gazed at him for a second, then shook his head in resignation.