“Iwould argue the same, but neither of our E-bands have enough power to generate ahyperspace resonance field and connect to the porting channels.”
“Thisis correct. We need to find a porting chamber,” Stevanion said with finality.
“Ora strong enough source of power to load our E-bands. In both cases, we need tochange our location.”
“Dana,I am in agreement with you.”
Ilifted my head and looked up at the trees. The wind above moved the leaves indifferent directions and more of the night sky became visible. The next moment,a small black shadow soundlessly flew high above me. Thenanother one as well. My heartbeat picked up.
Should I be scared?
Are we in a dangerous place?
Ilowered my head and exhaled slowly. Wewill soon find out.
“Iwould recommend waiting for the daylight, Dana. The light will improve oursearch.”
“Yes,”I said and sat on the ground. Stevanion remained standing.
Ilooked up to the sky again.
Ididn’t know where we were, and I knew this might well be a dangerous place, butsomewhere deep inside me was a thrill, a hidden joy, almost an ecstasy.
I had escaped!
Ididn’t know how long it would last, but right now I was happy to be anywhere otherthan facing the High Zlathar Priest.
Myeyes were still plastered across the sky. I’d been mapping the view, comparingit to all my saved maps. Nothing.
“Dana,what are you looking at?”
“Thesky.”
Helooked up. “Why?”
“Thestars, Stevanion. I never saw these constellations before.”
Thenhe looked at me. “Dana, do you have maps saved on your nanoprobes? I do not portwith high frequency and had no need for such an information file. Do you knowwhere we are?”
“Ihave the maps, Stevanion, but these stars tell me nothing.”
“Thisis an impossibility. All the star maps of Uni worlds are recorded.”
“Perhapswe are not in Uni anymore.”
“Thisis another impossibility, Dana. This world needs to be in Uni. Otherwise noporting would be possible.”
“Stevanion,I understand your rational analysis, and I would argue the same, but the maps Ihave don’t correspond to the image projected onto my optic nerve cam. There areno overlapping star patterns on any of the files.”
Arustling sound close behind us made us both turn around, but it was so dark we couldn’tsee anything.
“Itis vital that we find out where we are,” Stevanion said in a lower tone, stilllooking at the dark shadows of the forest.
“Iam in agreement. A change of location might give us more information about thisworld.”
Ipulled my knees up to my body and hugged them with both arms.
Inthe dark, my sight was limited, so all my other senses stretched out, feelingthe new world around me. I heard a hooting sound on my left. I turned but I couldn’tspot anything. It was too dark. After a few passes, I heard the same sound highabove me on my right. I automatically turned in that direction, although I knewI wouldn’t be able to see it.
Itransferred the audio data for analysis and the nanoprobes came back immediately.There was not an exact overlap, but the information given was that the soundbelonged to the organism called a bird. An image of the exemplar organism wasprojected to my optic nerve cam.
Wedidn’t have anything like that on Senthia, but some Descendant worlds did havea large population of this type of flying organism.
Myneck started to hurt from looking up, but I wanted to see them for real. After afew passes, I bowed my head, stretching my neck muscles.
That’s okay. I will see them, sooneror later…
Itwas less than two hundred passes before the daylight started breaking behindus, revealing colors and outlining contrasts to the darkness of the night. Thefew sounds I heard during the night paled in comparison to the orchestra Iheard now. The life in the trees was enveloped in beautiful sounds, echoingfrom one tree to another.
“Stevanion,I think we should start walking.”
Helooked down at me. “Yes. I believe we should look for higher ground. We mighthave a better vantage point from which to spot habitation domes.”
Igot up.
“Iam in agreement, Stevanion,” I said and started walking.
“Thereis a very high probability that a habitation area has at least two portingchambers,” Stevanion said.
Ididn’t respond to him this time. I knew that all of the Uni habitats had portingchambers—but what I didn’t know was if we were in fact still in Uni. Andif we were outside of it, we might not find any habitats at all.
Iactivated the local coordinates on my nanoprobes and set up a local track path,to make sure we didn’t walk in circles.
Wewalked slowly, not saying a word. I looked at the ground, my feet shifting driedleaves on dark brown soil, making soft rustling sounds. I lifted my gaze tolook at the forest.
Thetrees on this planet were so much larger and more diverse than any of the treesI had seen in Descendant worlds. Tall; wide; thin; thick; smooth bark; roughbark; branches starting from the bottom of the soil; branches starting from thetop of the tree; bright green; dark green; large leaves; small leaves; flatleaves striped into many green comb-like spikes.
Thetrees.
Theywere enchanting.
Who would have thought it possible?Why didn’t I see this before? Where is this place?
Ilooked up. The sky was a beautiful deep blue. The bright star rose behind us,warming the air and the rich greenery we walked through. It was getting lighterwith every pass, and slowly our shadows disappeared below our feet.
Everynow and then, I closed my eyes for a moment and focused on the sounds.
It is beautiful.
Igave a silent command to my nanoprobes for audio recording. The songs were nowcommitted to my knowledge base memory, and I could bring them back whenever Iwanted.
Ismiled again, just slightly.
Thescents of this forest dazzled me as well. The air was full, rich, andintoxicating, almost to the level of making me nauseous.
It must be the trees.
Iinhaled deeply, letting all the scents leave their traces as they passedthrough my nose, throat, and lungs. Keeping my eyes closed for a moment, Ifocused on the smells. They were truly magnificent.
“Dana,are you in good state? Your breathing has changed,” Stevanion said with a typicalneutral Senthien voice.
Ibreathed out. “I am in good state, Stevanion. Thank
